Josh's suggestion of traveling through space was very tempting to Margaret.
But when she thought of the children and their business, she didn't immediately agree—although Josh didn't see those as real problems. Even if he left Earth, he could still give orders through hyperspace communication, and his team could handle things for him.
This hyperspace communication came from the Star Wars universe.
The person who provided it was, of course, Anakin Skywalker.
Five years had passed. The once 9-year-old boy Anakin had grown into a handsome teenager. He had officially become a Jedi Padawan under Qui-Gon Jinn.
Yes, Qui-Gon Jinn—not Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Because when Qui-Gon took Anakin away and joined the battle on Naboo, Darth Maul—the Sith Lord who was supposed to show up and kill Qui-Gon—never showed up. He hadn't been seen again in the years that followed either.
This made Josh strongly suspect that the elite warriors he had sent, built by Yuri, might have defeated Darth Maul back at the interception station on Tatooine. Maul was either killed or badly injured.
If this is true, then the power of the Jedi and Sith may not be as strong as Josh had imagined.
Just like in the Marvel universe, the power levels shown in Star Wars movies and comics are very different.
In the movies, Jedi could cut through ship decks with lightsabers, fight droids alone, and use the Force to lift people or shoot lightning.
But in the comics, Jedi pulling spaceships with the Force is just normal.
Even more unbelievable is Anakin's son Luke, who was said to be so powerful that even black holes couldn't move him...
Now compare that with Thor or Thanos in the MCU—how many of them could handle a black hole?
Wait, weren't Star Wars comics also made by Marvel...?
Anyway, with Qui-Gon still alive, things had turned out better for both Anakin and Josh. In the original story, the Jedi Council didn't agree to accept Anakin as a Jedi apprentice at first.
Even Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon's student, didn't fully support him at the time.
Although the Council eventually allowed Obi-Wan to train Anakin, that was only because of Qui-Gon's dying wish.
Obi-Wan did his best to teach Anakin, but he had just graduated as a Jedi Knight himself and was clearly not ready to be a teacher.
Also, during Anakin's growth, the Jedi Council's prejudice caused him a lot of emotional stress.
Especially a certain bald guy who was always giving Anakin a hard time and pushing him straight to the dark path.
But now that Qui-Gon was alive, things were different.
He had always been considered a rebel within the Jedi Council, but he deeply believed that Anakin was the Chosen One.
He protected Anakin and took him in as a student, even under pressure from the Council.
At the same time, Qui-Gon Jinn had a very high status in the Old Republic. Because of this, Anakin had easy access to all kinds of resources on Coruscant and bought many technologies that Josh needed.
These included hyperspace communication, blaster guns, faster-than-light engines, and various military tech like the Trade Federation's battle droids.
There was even tech for the Acclamator-class assault ship—the early version of the Imperial Star Destroyer.
Sadly, this wasn't the right time period, so the Imperial Star Destroyer didn't exist yet—and the Death Star was still far off.
In terms of technology, the Star Wars universe was far more advanced than any of the other worlds Josh had connected with.
For example, Josh also got a faster-than-light engine from Starscream in the Transformers universe.
But compared to the Star Wars universe's hyperspace drives, which could travel 1.2 million times the speed of light on average, the Transformers' engine was like a toy.
(A/N: Star Wars ships use a class system for speed—the lower the number, the faster it is. Imperial Star Destroyers are class 2, around 2 million times the speed of light. X-Wings are Class 1, 4.5 million times the speed of light. The Millennium Falcon is class 0.5, at 9 million times the speed of light.)
Of course, Star Wars hyperspace drives had weaknesses too.
Strong gravitational fields could shut them down, and overmodification could make them unstable—like the Millennium Falcon, whose engine often failed at the worst possible moment because it had been overmodified.
In comparison, Imperial Star Destroyers were a bit slower, but their engines were incredibly reliable.
So, having a high-class hyperspace engine wasn't always a good thing.
Still, even class 2 speed was terrifying in the Marvel universe.
It meant you could cross the entire Milky Way in just 18 days.
Of course, if you look at the universe as a whole, that speed wasn't that special, because just like in Star Wars, the Milky Way in the Marvel Universe was just a small part of a much larger cosmos.
After Josh explained the faster-than-light engines and hyperspace communication to Margaret, her hesitation started to fade—though she still didn't fully agree.
But then something happened that made the trip into space official.
Mar-Vell had returned to Earth.
That afternoon, Josh was having tea with his family in the garden when Vito quickly walked in and leaned over to whisper something in Josh's ear.
"What happened now?" Margaret frowned and put down her teacup.
"Hmm... Carter's old friend is back on Earth. Mar-Vell—she was at our wedding. You probably remember her, right?" Josh answered with a strange look on his face, especially emphasizing the words "old friend."
As soon as Margaret heard that name, she remembered. Wasn't that the women who was related to Carter?
When they first met on the cruise, she had noticed something off between Mar-Vell and Carter.
But not long after the wedding, Mar-Vell suddenly disappeared.
When she asked Carter about it, Carter wouldn't say anything.
Josh would only say that she had gone home.
It wasn't until Josh took over Attilan—now called Silvermoon City—that she learned Mar-Vell was actually an alien.
She was the first alien she had ever met.
How could she forget him?
So… she came back for Carter?
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