Lieutenant Anton Hiller raced into the hanger, his team of men and women swiftly following. They’d just spent the last five minutes trying to gain entry to the hanger. The Nord scanned the bay while sending three to check on Orthone and Pennar, while the other three ran to T'cul and Raalsen. The man then stepped before the woman in the flight suit. To his surprise, it was Corporal Ann Tashar, a member of one of his security teams. "Tashar, what are you doing in a flight suit?" The tall Human demanded firmly as several medics arrived. But the woman just stared up at the night sky, smiling. "Tashar, answer me! Why are you here, kitted out for a flight?" But the brunette ignored him as she continued to stare skyward. "Who is she?" Major Kalang asked breathlessly as he ran into the hanger. "She's one of our security personnel, Ann Tashar," Hiller answered back. "But as far as I know, she's not a pilot. And all she wants to do is stare up at the sky." "Who are you?" Kalang asked the woman. "Why are you here?" "I'm Commander Jen Felding, of the Imperial Office of Naval Intelligence," She said slowly, her gaze, as well as her smile, never wavering. "And I was sent to steal the experimental stealth fighter." "Then it was one of your associates who has the fighter?" Hiller demanded as he stared at the woman. "Who is he? Where is he taking it?" "I've never met him before," Felding mumbled, almost like she was talking to herself. She then turned to the Major and grinned. "But he said he was going to leave the fighter where we can find it." "Say again?" Hiller asked as he glanced at Kalang, who was shaking his head. "He's going to leave it where we can find it?"? "He told me he was going to leave it where we can find it!" Jen said angrily as she spun about to face the Lieutenant. "And Jedi don't lie!" "He was a Jedi?" Kalang asked quickly, a confused expression on his face. "How do you know he was a Jedi? Did he tell you?" "I don't know," She said slowly. "Wait! Why would I think he was a Jedi? Maybe it was because he wore a lightsaber!" - - - - "What do you mean, you couldn't concentrate?" Colonel Merrik Doon asked the fighter pilot, Jon Aldo. The officer from Republic Intelligence had been given the assignment of recovering the stolen craft, and if possible, the arrest of the man who'd taken it. "I mean that every time one of us came close to that thing, we became confused," The Human said, uncomfortably. "Sir? We'd forgotten how to operate our weapons! Everyone but Yanzii here!" "Sir!" A humanoid woman, of a type Doon was unfamiliar with, stepped forward. The grey skinned woman stood rigidly at attention. "I am 2nd Lt Ambou Yanzii. I engaged the craft, but was unable to hit it." "So he was a better pilot?" Doon asked. "It's not so much that he was a better pilot," Yanzii continued. "I don't think he's had advanced fighter training. I just think he has super-Human reflexes. And he was able to make moves that would have caused a normal Human to blackout. Even with inertial dampers." "And just before he made the jump to hyperspace, he contacted you, correct?" The Colonel leaned back in his seat and waved for Lt Yanzii to continue. "Yes, sir. But whether you can believe him or not, I don't know," The pilot paused a moment then continued with her story. "He said sorry for the inconvenience, but he'll tell us where to find the fighter it when he's finished with it." "And Corporal Raalsen," Doon turned to the Human. "You are certain he wore a lightsaber?" "Yes, Sir," Ned nodded quickly. "It was a shoto." "Where the hell did he get his hands on a lightsaber?" Doon pondered. "Tell him what he told you, Corporal," Sergeant T'cul said as she nudged him. "Yes," Doon replied with a smile. "Tell me what he told you." "He told me I have exceptionally fast reflexes for a norm, Sir. What ever a norm is." "There's a good reason for those reflexes," A man's voice spoke up from behind the trio. "You are strong in the Force, you should consider training as a Jedi." "Thanks, but no thanks," Ned said as he turned about. "I have far more important things to do with my life!" Raalsen's jaw dropped when he saw who the man was who'd interrupted them. "Vreem Zarell?" "That's right," The Twi'lek whispered. Aenda then smiled as she reached out and gently pushed his jaw back in place with a finger. "Your favorite Jedi." “I didn’t know that I had a fan club,” Zarell said with a chuckle. “Sir!” Raalsen cut in, quickly recovering his composure. “You have more than three billion fans on my home world, Dasita. You, the late Master Colo, and the troops of the Grand Army.” “Hey, Boss!” All eyes shot to the young man who rushed through the door, a datapad in hand. It was Zell Orolie, Doon’s newest team member. “I have the surveillance video from Shield Control. And guess who was posing as an engineering student seeking a job?” With a smirk, Orolie spun the device around for the others to see. “That’s him!” Raalsen blurted out as he pointed at the man on the screen. “That’s the guy who took us out!” “Yeah, that’s who I thought it was,” Doon muttered as the he stroked the fur on his cheek. “Wait!” General Odum said as he pointed at the pad. “You know who he is?” “Yes, sir,” Doon replied as he waved a hand at the video playing on the screen. “Meet Ambassador Joshua Kirk,” The Intelligence officer then dismissed the others, but not before reminding them that everything they’d seen and heard was classified. “That's the escaped war criminal you've been hunting?” Odum demanded, once the door had shut. “Yes, sir, he is.” “Who are these people anyway?” The General asked, sounding confused. “I’ve never heard of this Federation.” "The United Federation of Planets is found in a galaxy more than seventy million lightyears away," Doon told the others. "This has to do with that report of a new space tunnel being found, doesn't it?" The General asked. "Correct, sir," Doon said. "And in addition to the one Federation ship that came through, there are five ships from something called the Klingon Empire." "How can this Kirk do the things he's done?" “He is a genetically engineered super soldier,” Zarell said. “Unlike anything you’ve ever seen. They make the finest work of the Kaminoans seem like the efforts of children.” “Describe these people,” Captain Patrin Karda asked. "What makes them so special?" “Your average Soldier class Enhanced Human such as myself,” Gavin Mitchell began to explain. The others turned about, having not noticed the man standing in the corner. "Is about three times faster and stronger that a Human norm. A general's capabilities are double ours." "What about Kirk?" Doon asked the Starfleet officer. "Kirk and the others of his type are not considered a class," Gavin paused a few moments before continuing. "They are an experiment. Much of the data used in their creation came from an illegal experiment that was ended fifty eight years ago." “Meaning?” Zarell asked as he shifted about nervously, uncomforable at learning about who and what he was. "Sixty two years ago, several of the most talented norm genetic engineers went missing." Mitchell said as he walked across the room. "A few years later my people finally found them, and the lab they'd set up. It seems someone was paying them an incredible amount of money to create a super assassin class." "Assassin class?" Doon shifted forward in his seat. "When we were created," Mitchell said, placing his hands behind his back, looking at the others as though he were a teacher giving a lecture. "There were three classes. Soldiers, Commanders, what we now call Generals, and the Enforcer class, which we call Assassins. But the last of them were killed off by Ambassador Kirk's great grandfather, James Kirk." "How are these Assassins different?" Zarell asked. "They are Soldier class," Mitchell said as he turned to the Jedi, his nose twitching. "They just didn't have the safety protocols programmed into them like the rest. Their only purpose was to kill. They don't even have the reproductive programming." "Ah, reproductive programming?" Karda asked with a smile. "What good are super soldiers without having a dependable supply of said soldiers?" Gavin smiled at the woman as she stared at him. "And we are very good at making both war and babies." "So you live for war?" General Odum asked. "Oh hell no!" Gavin sadi derisively. "We hate it. We're just the best at it because it's how we were made." "You can't delete the programming, can you?" Karda asked. "No, nor would we wish to," Mitchell then shrugged. "Could you imagine what would happen if people who can do the things we are capable of engaged in criminal activity?" "Are you saying your people don't break the law?" Doon said, cleary doubting him. "Well, there is smuggling," Mitchel laughed aloud. "It is an obsession with our people!" "Sounds like our good Jedi Knight, here," Doon said as he gestured to Zarell. "You were a smuggler?" Gavin asked him. "Before the fall of the Jedi, I left the Order and returned to my birth world of Corellia and became a fighter pilot. After the war I mecame a mercenary, smuggler, bounty hunter, and finally, I found myself a Jedi once again. All occupations my illustrious father and grandfather held. Well, except for the Jedi gig." "And that's not the only thing they held," Doon said as he slapped his thigh. "Commander, those two men were saddled with the worst name I have ever heard. So bad in fact that both men called themselves Mark 2 and Mark 3, rather that use their birth name." "If the name was so bad," Mitchell said as he stared at Zarell, trying to ignore Captain Karda as she stared at him, longingly. "Then why did you grandfather pass it on to you father?" "He promised hi dying mother he would." "That is the best reason then," Gavin said as Karda smiled at him. "Their name is almost the stuff of legend here in the Republic," She said as she sighed. "Just what is their name?" Mitchell asked, very curious now. "Believe it or not," Zarell said as he smiled at the woman as she wrapped her arm around Mitchell's waist and stared up at him. "It's Harcourt Fenton Mudd." "You have got to be kidding me!" Mitchell said with a laugh.