Patrolling the edge of the Unknown Regions, five hundred parsecs out from Bakura, was a dull and thankless task. The most excitement the Republic Judicial Ship Koros saw was when the hyperlane survey teams commed for some much-needed socialization.

Lieutenant Cayne Tan'luth thought surveying might actually be the more thankless job: everyone used the hyperlane updates without ever considering the poor sentients who had to take the readings and make updates. But sitting on the edge of known space, the last point of contact for crazy intrepid pilots who wanted to see what was out there, was pretty damn dull.

Xie was playing digital pazaak against the computer when a light blinked on the comm console. Cayne's breath caught - they could go days without receiving any comms traffic at all - and then whooshed out, because that was not the comms diode.

It was the distress beacon receiver.

The captain was still off shift, but operational protocols applied. Head-tendrils twitching with increasing anxiety, the Nautolan officer opened the private channel - no need to wake everyone else until they knew what they were dealing with. "Sorry to disturb you, Captain Farr, we've picked up a distress signal. Range is…" Xie sighed. "A long way. We might not be able to get there in time."

There was the shuffling sound of someone flinging blankets out of the way. "I don't care, quad it and get Niko up." She closed the channel without waiting for a response, leaving Cayne to wake the senior navigator.

Within half an hour everyone on the patrol cruiser was wide awake, even officers who by rights should have been sleeping. Cayne was still on comms, bouncing high-rate signals off distant beacons the regional explorers had been paid to drop off on their way into the intractable nothingness.

It wasn't looking good. The distress beacon had been traveling for perhaps two hours before it reached them, meaning transit could take upwards of a couple Standard days. None of the explorer captains they had contact with were closer. There were no maps for this part of space, and making a straight-line jump put them at risk of meeting a black hole or other obstruction the hard way.

Niko, Raske, and Divi-Manom were the highest-paid crewmembers onboard, beyond even the Captain's pay, and worth every credit for their navigational skills. Computers could process the information faster, but there were inexplicably talented sentients who just had better judgment in using the data, and Judicial hired as many as it could for their patrol vessels. All three navigators were logged in at the main and backup stations, absorbed in astrogation calculations.

Captain Farr was poring over streams of data from the cruiser's sensor suite. The Rodian captain hadn't bothered putting her uniform on before coming to the bridge, and had a fluffy green robe wrapped over her sleep clothes. Despite the informality of her appearance, she was all business, ordering emergency retrieval crews into preparation. The distress call indicated catastrophic life support failure for a ship complement of up to fifty individuals, likely a trading vessel of some sort. Odds of them being Republic-aligned were slim - there were known governments in the impassible region which were separatist or outright hostile toward outsiders. Odds of them even understanding Basic were even lower.

But as Captain Farr had said when the Koros had been recommissioned as a patrol ship: they had a duty to help. Cayne couldn't resist a happy cheer as the comms system confirmed range and direction. Xie threw the coordinates to the Nav stations and straightened when Raske came over.

The Twi'lek navigator leaned over to speak quietly. "We have no mapping of that sector at all. Can we try something experimental with the comms relays?" When Cayne nodded, she said, "Right, we need the coordinate locations of every comms buoy between here and there - and further, if possible - in a forty-five degree spread. We're going to give you a signal to send out, at a particular frequency, and you need to tell us the delay and modulation - if any - when the signal comes back."

Cayne's dark eyes widened. "You want to use the comms buoys as a sonar net?"

Raske looked grim. "These people might not have two Standard days before they freeze to death or run out of air. If we can detect the obstacles between here and there-"

"Absolutely. I'm on it!"

Between the Nav and Comms teams, the crew were able to reduce transit time to less than two days. It was still longer than Captain Renela Farr liked, given a life support failure. If the victims were smart, they'd have moved to the escape pods, which had independent life support for up to fifteen days. Not comfortable days, but it was better than nothing.

The moment they came out of hyperspace and got a scan of the area, her heart sank. The ship, of utterly alien design, floated adrift in an asteroid field around a cold dwarf star. The spread of debris indicated an internal pressure blowout far more than just a couple days previous.

Lieutenant Tan'luth's hands were pressed to xir mouth in horror. "I thought maybe it had just happened. We must have drifted into range-"

"Keep it together, Lieutenant." Easier said than done, and it was as much a reminder to herself as her crew. Renela clenched her fists to stop her fingers shaking. "Bioscans."

Ensign Loren sighed heavily. "One. Only one. Looks like they got to the escape pod but didn't jettison."

"Rescue team ready to launch."

Renela nodded decisively. "Proceed."

Being the captain meant leaving the interesting work to others. Rescue and salvage had once been her job, before someone had decided she was too competent at salvage to be wasted as a salvage officer. Renela missed getting her hands dirty. Listening to others taking the risk wasn't anything like the same.

Commander Ry commed from the salvage operation. "It's a graveyard in here, Captain."

Expected, but unwelcome. "Any indication who they were, Commander?"

"Negative. I've never seen anyone of this species before. Humanoid; red skin, dark hair, definitely not Zeltron. Nothing is written in Basic, I don't know if we can even interface with their computer."

At least they weren't elusive people would not take kindly to Republic crews tromping around their vessel. "Standard retrieval and recovery protocols, then. Team two, what's your status?"

There was a short pause before Lieutenant Amanay responded, "Opening the escape pod now, sir. Medical team standing by." The high-pitched whine of the cutter sounded like a stream of static over the comm. "One adult, appears to be standard humanoid female, unconscious- oh!"

"Lieutenant?"

"Sorry, sir! Have medical prep the postnatal equipment, there's a baby, looks less than a year old!"

At Renela's elbow, her second in command was already talking to the Medical staff. She glanced up at him. "You have the bridge, Commander Efti."

By the time she got to triage, the rescued woman had been pulled from the retrieval pod. The room was frigid, to prevent exposed patients from warming up too quickly; Renela slipped one of the thermal lab coats over her uniform and shoved her hands into the pockets. The medic on shift, Doctor b'Tee, was taping sensor dots to the woman's forehead, neck, and just below her collarbone, looking grim.

"Amanay reported that the pod was nearly out of power," he explained. "What was left was apparently connected to a heater blanket wrapped around the kid. Adult sacrificed themself to save the child."

It was a regrettably common occurrence, and didn't always save the child's life. Hopefully this time the effort hadn't been in vain.

Ry had been right about the people on the ship not being Zeltron. Despite the red tone to the unconscious woman's skin, there were subcutaneous ridges and even bone spurs on her cheekbones and jaw that matched no species Renela had ever heard of.

"Is the infant onboard yet?"

b'Tee didn't look up from his work. "Pataki has them in the main ward, kid's in much better shape."

That was a relief. With the survivors safe, they could take their time gathering data on the ship. The Koros, like most patrol ships, was equipped to manage medical emergencies of all types. b'Tee drew a quick blood sample to make sure the woman's physiology was compatible with bacta.

They were still waiting for the test results when she moaned and her eyes, deep gold with standard humanoid structure, flickered open. Doctor and Captain were at her side immediately, although being confronted by two unknown alien species might not have been the most comforting sight to wake up to.

"Ât- âtchok…" She shivered, but it was sluggish, and b'Tee gave Renela a grim look.

It was still the Captain's job to make first contact. "Do you understand Basic?"

The woman frowned at the ceiling, her eyes unfocused. "I… yes. This Basic?"

Well, that was a relief. Renela had to restrain herself from taking the woman's hand - the temperature difference was still dangerous, although the room was gradually warming. "Yes. I'm Captain Farr, this is Doctor b'Tee. You're on a Republic patrol ship."

Those glazed eyes widened. "Republic? Oh." The woman's hand flailed weakly. "My… son. Tsâkli- baby. Where-"

"He's safe," b'Tee reassured her. "He's well."

Something on the biobed was flashing, and Renela knew it was a bad sign, but she made an effort not to show it. "What were you doing out here?"

"Mining. Rock mining?" The woman drifted for a moment. "Go Republic?"

"You want us to take you to the Republic?" Renela had been about to ask who the woman wanted them to contact - both for her and the kid and for funeral rites.

"Mm. Jedi." Her fumbling fingers caught Renela's sleeve. "No- no time. Doctor knows."

b'Tee met her eyes. "She's right," the Arconan said softly. "There's organ failure we won't be able to repair in time." He stepped away to load a hypo with painkillers. If they could do nothing else, they could ease the woman's passing.

Biting down on a curse, Renela looked back at the woman. "You said Jedi. You want us to take your son to the Jedi?"

She nodded. "He needs them." Her shaking hand touched her breastbone. "My name is Kenobi. His name is Obiwan. Obiwan Kenobi."

.

So welcome to the crack that's been eating my brain for the last few months! It started with a thought experiment - how would Obi-Wan's path have changed if he was one of the last known True Sith (answer: HIS path wouldn't change much from the Jedi Apprentice novels, where he's already treated like a dangerous outcast) - and then expanded into wondering what effect that might have on everything else.

And nobody would put the effort into reminding me I already have one massive project rolling. In fact, they started cheering me on, cus they're evil enablers.

To any hardcore nerds saying "But the Sith don't have an 'eh' or 'b' sound in their language": The Sith language was created by someone who was just trying to put evil-sounding syllables together for the comics, and anyway after this long, there's been more species intermixing and this family has different naming conventions, because I said so. ;P

Uh... Happy 20th anniversary, OT?