Authors note: Here is my attempt at an alternate possibility to KJA's
Jedi Academy. I liked the trilogy, but know it is not
officially from the mind of George Lucas. Therefore, it is probably
different than George's views of Luke Skywalkers future. In this
piece I am opening a way for the future of Luke to be different. Oh...one
last thing. This was written before I read Dark Empire II, so there might
be some minor discrepancies between this story and that.
Distribute as you wish, with disclaimer intact, but please contact me
before posting it on another web page. OK? I welcome any, and all comments
to me at: swbriatharen@yahoo.com :~)
Quantum Leap:
The GFFA Experience
by Bria
Friday, March 13, 1998
Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime Dr.
Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap excellerator and vanished. He
awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were
not his own, and driven by an unknown Force to change history for the better.
His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time who
appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so
Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right
what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the
leap home.....
The blue light that Sam Beckett had grown used to surrounded him once again. He leaped across space and time and into a new body, at one for a moment with the world. When the feeling had passed, he opened his eyes.
Sam was in a building that had a lot of light streaming in through the windows. As he looked about, he realized that this wasn't just a building, it was a palace! A beautiful women was staring at him, as if waiting for his to say something.
Sam turned and looked the women in the eyes. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I spaced out for a moment. What were you saying?"
The women looked at him quizzically, then answered. "I asked you if you were ready to appear before the Senate."
Sam was clueless as to were he could be. This wasn't America, and didn't seem like any other place on Earth to him. He needed to wait for Al to appear, to assess the situation. "I'm sorry," he said once again. "I am not feeling well. Could you direct me to where I can rest?" he asked the woman.
She opened her mouth to speak when sudden a tall man burst into the room. "Hi Luke," he addressed Sam. Then the man went over and kissed the woman. "Leia, the Senate is ready for you."
"I'm coming, Han. Luke isn't feeling well. He is going to go to his room," Leia told her husband.
The three of them exited the room. Sam was embarrassed, if he lived here, he should know where his room was. But he wasn't Luke, so he had to ask. "Han, Leia, could you help me to my room, I'm feeling kind of weak," Sam told the couple whom he assumed to be husband and wife.
For some reason, beyond Sam's understanding, this leap had been hard on him. He felt weak and disorientated. He needed to go someplace to wait for Al.
Leia and Han looked at each other. Luke had been acting strange ever since he had returned from the Dark Side. In the past weeks his eyes had looked haunted, now they just looked bewildered. "Han, you go ahead and tell the Senate I'll be right there," she told her husband as she lead Luke to his room.
As they moved through the palace to Luke's room, Sam took in his surroundings. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The _people_ looked so strange. They could only be aliens. Where in the world could he be?
Finally Leia and Sam turned a corner and walked towards a door. "Here you are Luke. Are you sure you're going to be okay?
"I just need to take a nap...Leia," he said, remembering to use her name.
"Okay Luke, whatever you say." Leia said to Sam. "I'll wait to tell the Senate your proposal until you can be with me." With that Leia left the room, puzzled.
As Leia left the room, a strange feeling came over Sam. He felt like he could see into her mind, know what she was thinking. 'What is wrong with Luke, he has been so distant since returning to the Alliance.' Leia was thinking to herself.
Sam sat down on the bed, bewildered. Now he was sure he was not on Earth. He had traveled a few hundred years in the past before, but never to another planet. And the strange thing was that these people he had met felt familiar. Something told him that he somehow knew of them, even if he had never met them before.
Traveling in time, and now it appears space, did have its drawbacks. Sam could remember some things about his life, but for the most past his memory was like a piece of Swiss cheese. Hopefully, Al would have some answers. He decided he might as well sleep until Al arrived.
Just as Sam was about to nod off Al appeared. "Sam, boy did we have a hard time finding you. You were there and then you just vanished-puff. Ziggy finally was able to pinpoint you and I came as fast as I could. You will not believe where you are," Al finished out of breath.
"Al, these people I have met seem familiar, yet I know I have never met them. And this planet, these beings, this can't be Earth," Sam told Al.
"Sam, let me explain. I know your memory is incomplete, but do you remember a movie that came out in 1977? You went to it many times and it help decide that you wanted to dedicate your life to science and space/time traveling. The movie was called Star Wars. It told the story of the past in a galaxy far, far away," Al explained to Sam.
"Yeah, that sounds kinda familiar. Go on." Sam encouraged Al.
"Well, what the closest Ziggy and I can figure out is that Star Wars wasn't just a movie. It must've told the story of a war in a parallel dimension, where it is thousands of years in the past. Your DNA is close enough to that of Luke Skywalkers and you are now him. I need to go talk to Luke in the waiting room and see if we can figure out why you are here," Al told Sam."
Sam looked at Al in amazement. He was now his favorite fictional, wait, make that non-fictional hero. "Hurry back," Sam said to Al, just before his vanished.
**************************************
In the waiting room, the real Luke Skywalker was waiting for Al to return. He knew the Force worked in mysterious ways, but this way beyond even his comprehension. Could it be that someone else was now in his body, free to do whatever they wanted?
Suddenly Luke remembered the Holocron. Leia had taken it from the Emperor when she and Han had come to rescue him from the Dark Side. He wondered what the Gatekeeper, Boda-Baas, would have to say about this.
Luke activated the Holocron and the image of Boda-Baas appeared. ***"Jedi! May the Force be with you! I am Bodo-Baas. At your service. Bodo-Baas knows all probable futures, from his time until a time lost in the mists and shadows... I can help you,"*** the Jedi Master told Luke.
"Yes, I believe you can, Master Baas. Your prophecy helped my sister free me from the iron grip of the Dark Side. But now I am trapped in a different dimension, and I do not know why. A man has taken my place, for a while, to change something that was about to happen. I need to know what he is to do, if I am going to get back to where I belong.
The image of Boda-Baas pondered this and said, "Let me speak a prophecy that is 1000 years old.
"After the Galactic war,
a lone Jedi Master seeks
out more Jedi to teach.
A school he will build on
the planet Yavin 4.
But foolhardy is his plan,
by doing so he will be damned.
Only one by one can he teach
the way of the Jedi.
His first pupil is in his reach,"
Boda-Baas looked at Luke as he finishes the prophecy. "The Force guides and gives insight, but in the end, you must choose for yourself," the Gatekeeper told him before vanishing.
Luke thought about this, and decided to mediate in the Force until Al returned.
**************************************
Back on Coruscant, Sam Beckett was watching a holo-vid, trying to find out as much as he could about the planet he was on. It seems that there had been recent battles, 5 years after the throw of the Empire. A new commanded, an alien by the name of Grand Admiral Thrawn, had regrouped the Imperial troops and attacked the fledging New Republic. At the same time, a mad Jedi clone, C'boath had arisen and tried to subvert him and a woman named Mara Jade to the Dark Side of the Force. In the end, the New Republic had won.
The man Sam now was, Luke Skywalker, had gone with Lando Calrissian to reclaim the capital world of Coruscant. He had encountered tremors in the Force, and followed them to remains of the Imperial Palace. There Luke had found tapes of the late Emperor's teachings and listened, at first with apprehension, and then awe.
Han and Leia, who were his twin sister and brother in law, had come to rescue Luke and Lando, but Luke had refused to go. He finally ended up in the Galactic Core, on the Dark Side world of Byss.
The newly resurrected Emperor had taken Luke under his wing and agreed to take him on as an apprentice, as his father before him. Luke had become an agent of evil until Leia had come to Byss to rescue him. When they were forced to fight one another, Leia had refused, saying she would never hurt her brother. Her love broke through Luke's wall of isolation in the Dark Side. Together they had faced the Emperor and he had lost, destroyed by the fire of his own Force storm.
Luke had only just returned to Coruscant. Upon arriving he tried to find a place for himself. He needed some time to decide what he wanted to do with his life, now that the war was over.
Sam turned the holo-vid off and sighed. Okay, he thought, Luke had made some mistakes, but he seemed to be back on the right track. What could I possibly be here to do? Sam asked himself. He hoped Al would return soon, and with a plan of action.
**************************************
Luke Skywalker was still meditating in the waiting room when Al appeared. He opened his eyes when Al walked in. He then started to speak, "Let me guess," he said. "You and this Ziggy have no idea why I am here, am I right," Luke asked Al.
Al nodded. "We haven't got the slightest idea to why you are here and Sam is in your body."
Luke smiled at that. "It's okay," he said. I consulted the Holocron and I believe I know why Sam was sent. You see, I recently came back from serving the Emperor. Having lost the grip the Dark Side had on me, I believe that I am now ready to teach other Jedi. I had thought of starting a praxuem, a Jedi training school, where I could teach future Jedi. However, the Holocron seemed to think that teaching more than one Jedi at a time could be dangerous, both for the pupil and I.
I was about to address the New Republic Senate on this proposal, when I vanished. Sam must have been sent to stop that from happening. Now that I know, I would like to return and fix this myself," Luke told Al.
"I'm sorry Luke, but that is not the way this works. But I will take this information directly to Sam, so that we can get you back home as soon as possible," Al told Luke as he vanished.
**************************************
Sam was staring out the window when Al returned. He looked up at Al and asked, "Do you have any good news for me? Do you know what I need to do?"
"Yes Sam, I do. I spoke to Luke in the waiting room and he had figured out what you need to do. He had consulted this device called a Holocron and it had given him a prophecy. Luke had been planning to set up an academy to teach Jedi, but the Holocron advised against it. He has decided to teach the force-sensitive people he has met by himself, one at a time. This way, it will hopefully give the student the attention they need, and won't make them so susceptible to the Dark Side."
"Okay, that's great, but what am I supposed to do? I can't possibly teach Jedi; I am not a Jedi, even if I do have Luke's Force powers." Sam said to Al.
"When you arrived, Luke had been about to address the Senate. He had planned on getting the New Republic's blessing for him to start an academy and teach new Jedi. You need to speak to the Senate about his idea, and his new plan to train Jedi one at a time."
"Oh boy," Sam commented. "This isn't going to be easy. How will I know what to say?" Sam asked Al.
"Luke suggested that you talk to Leia and tell her what is going on.
Her Force sense is strong enough, that she will know you are not lying.
Now, I must get back, Ziggy has encountered some problems that need fixing."
Do well, Sam. The Force will be with you!" Al said as he vanished.
Once Al was gone, Sam left Luke's room. He back tracked his way to the Senate chambers and waited until the meeting was adjourned. Han came by to wait for Leia, shortly after Sam arrived. He looked at Sam with a curious eye.
Sam laughed. "I'm fine Han. I just needed some time to rest and rethink my plan." Sam told the older man.
"Whatever you say kid." Han said and then smiled. "After all, you are the one with the Force, not me. How would I know if something was wrong?"
As Han finished speaking, the chamber doors opened and the senators emerged. Sam and Han waited for Leia, who was one of the last to leave.
Leia smiled when she saw her husband and her brother. 'Are you feeling better?,' Leia's voiced asked in Sam's head. 'Yes,' he answered her non-verbal question.
The three of them made their way to the Solo residence in the Imperial Palace. "Han, if you don't mind, I would like to speak to Leia privately." Sam asked Luke's brother-in-law, as they neared the apartment.
"Sure kid. I'll be working on the Falcon if you need me," Han said as he walked towards the hanger bays.
Sam and Leia went inside the apartment. They sat down on chairs facing each other. Leia spoke first. "What in the world was that all about?" She asked. One minute you're ready to speak before the Senate, the next minute, you don't feel well. You have been acting strange since you returned and I want it to stop. You are forgiven, so now DO something with your life." Leia said, out of breath.
"Leia I am sorry. I have something to tell you. You must know the truth. I am not Luke. Use the Force and you will see I speak the truth," Sam told Leia.
Suddenly there was a tingling in Sam's mind, and he felt Leia probing him. She gasped as she withdrew. "Who are you?" She asked, bewilderment the prominent feature on her face.
"My name is Sam Beckett. I am a scientist from another galaxy. About 10 years ago, in my time, I developed a project called Quantum Leap. My hope was that I could travel back in time, within my own lifetime. I traveled back in time, and have been working to right past wrongs ever since. For some unknown reason, the last time I time traveled, I ended up here. Now don't worry, Luke is fine. He is now in my galaxy and he has spoken to the Quantum Leap observer, a guy by the name of Al. Luke consulted the Holocron, and figured out why I am here and what I need to do so that I can return to my time and Luke can return home," Sam told an amazed Leia. "Al is the only one from my home that I can communicate with, and he relayed the information to me.
"I don't know quite what to say. I have never heard of anything like this." Leia said.
"Luke hadn't heard of anything like this either. The nearest we can figure is that the Force somehow ordained this moment, to keep your twin from making a horrible mistake," Sam said.
"What kind of mistake?" Leia asked Sam.
"As you know, Luke wanted to start a Jedi Academy." Leia nodded her head. "Well, that is why I am here. According to the Holocron, it would be a disaster. Luke should teach Jedi, but only one at a time. It is serious work and a student must have their Masters complete attention at all times. This would lessen the chance of a student falling to the Dark Side. I need to speak to the Senate and ask for their blessing. I will present the idea of teaching Jedi individually, and hopefully the Senate will approve." Sam explained to Leia.
"Okay, I can arrange for you to speak to the Senate tomorrow, but I do have one question for you. How will you know what to say?" Leia asked Sam.
"Luke will tell Al what he wants to say, and then when I am speaking to the Senate, Al will tell me word for word what to say. And don't worry, Al is invisible to everyone except me and little children, so everything will be just fine. He will not be seen.
"Okay then Sam," Leia said. "I'll have my assistant Winter obtain official permission to speak tomorrow," Leia told Sam as she led him to the door.
"Thanks Leia, I appreciate this. I need to go back to Luke's room and see if Al has gotten back yet. I'll see you in the morning."
As Sam walked towards Luke's room, he sent words of encouragement to Leia. 'Don't worry Leia. Luke will be with you by the end of the day tomorrow.'
Sam awoke the next morning to bright light streaming in through the window of the bedroom. He remembered where he was so he used the 'fresher, got dressed and ate so that he would be ready when Leia came for him.
Leia and Han appeared at Luke's door at 9 'o clock. 'I didn't tell him," Leia silently told Sam. Sam smiled and nodded.
"Ready kid?" Han asked Sam. "Nice clothes," Han told Sam. "Maybe I should get a pair.
"Ha ha, very funny. What else would a Jedi wear? You bet I'm ready. I have been waiting for you."
"Lets go you two," Leia said, smiling as she noticed that the two of the had returned to their pre- Dark Side act of bantering each other. Even if it wasn't Luke who was speaking, Han's jokes showed that he had forgiven his brother-in-law for what he had done. For a while there, her husband's and brothers friendship had been troubled. Before Luke had left he had been trying to fix their friendship. It felt good to know that once Luke returned, they would be friends again.
The three of them took their seat, Leia in the spot for the Alderaanian Senator, and Sam and Han in seats reserved for special guests. The Senate meeting began as it normally did. When roll had been called and old business discussed, Mon Mothma asked if there was any new business.
Sam stood up just as Al appeared. *** "I would address the assembly, Mon Mothma. If I may?"
He walked down the steps with a gliding stride, quick enough that the others would not loose patience, but with enough grace to implore Luke's strength of character.
As Sam desended the long ramp, Sam felt all eyes turn towards him. A hush fell over the assembly. Luke Skywalker, the lone remaining Jedi Master, almost never took part in governmental proceedings.
"I have an important matter to address," he said.
Mon Mothma gave him a soft, mysterious smile and gestured for him to take a central position. "The words of a Jedi Knight are always welcome to the New Republic," she said.
Sam's/Luke's face remained neutral as he looked to Al. Al began to recite to Sam what he was to say.
"In the Old Republic," he repeated Al, "Jedi Knights were the protectors and guardians of all. For a thousand generations the Jedi used the powers of the Force to guide, defend, and provide support for the rightful government of the worlds- before the dark days of the Empire came, and the Jedi Knights were killed."
Sam took a deep breath and continued. "Now we have a New Republic. The Empire appears to have be defeated. We have founded a new government based on the old, but let us hope we have learned from these mistakes. Before, an entire order of Jedi watched over the Republic, offering strength. Now I am the only Jedi Master that remains.
"Without that order of protectors to provide a backbone of strength for the New Republic, can we survive? Will we be able to weather the storms and the difficulties of forging a new union. Until now we have suffered severe struggles-but in the future they will be seen as nothing more than birth pangs."
Before the other senators could disagree with that, Sam continued. "Our people had a common foe in the Empire, and we must not let our defenses lapse just because we have internal problems. More to the point, what will happen when we begin squabbling among ourselves over petty matters? The old Jedi helped to meditate many types of disputes. What if there are no Jedi Knights to protect us in the difficult times ahead?"***
Sam paused a moment before continueing. "And that is why I have come
to you today. I would like to receive your blessing on my search for more
people with Jedi potential. I will train them myself, one by one. The threat
of losing a student to the Dark
Side will always be present, but by teaching them individually, I could
lower the chances of that happening. Finally, I must say to those of you
that are wondering if this is a good idea, that I am aware of the risk.
***But I cannot believe that the New Republic would be safer without a
new force of Jedi."
A murmur went through the chamber. Admiral Ackbar got to his feet and applauded with his flipperlike hands. "I agree that the Jedi's request is in the best intrest of the New Republic," he said.
Jan Dadonna also stood. After narrowly surviving the Battle of Yavin, Dadonna had treated Luke with complete trust. "I agree as well!"
Soon all the senators were standing. Sam saw a broad grin on Leia's face as she also stood.
Mon Mothma sat, nodding gravely. She was the last to stand up, and she raised her hands for silence. "I give you my hopes for the rebirth of the Jedi Knights. We will offer whatever help we can. May the Force be with you."***
With that said, Sam felt the familiar tingling that signaled his exit. The blue light surrounded him and he vanished across space and time.
At the same moment Luke Skywalker returned. He looked at Leia, and she
knew he was back. The applause of the audeince grew even louder as he made
his way to his sister. He hugged he and repeated the words he had said
to her after the resurrected Emperor's death. ***"This is the beginning,
Leia...you, your children, the Holocron...I feel it, great things are coming.
The Jedi Knights will rise again."***
the end...or the beginning :)
*********************************************************
"It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning,
and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of dawn. It is possible
to believe that all the human mind has ever acomplished is but the dream
before the awakening."
--H.G. Wells