Sitting on the ground in front of the tall, round artifact, Esough Dalvreth meditated with her back against a swoop sized, wheeled instrument that had an unknown purpose. She knew no one would harm her; she was hundreds of meters underground and the archeologists she was helping had assured her that no one would disturb her. She had been called in to try to figure out what the round thing was, what purpose it served. Earlier that year, a passing ship scanning the system noticed a strange metal deep underground, only a few kilometers from the deserted Imperial Kitzlym Base.
Suddenly, a bright blue flash shined out in front of the circle and quickly retreated, leaving a vertical puddle to fill the center. The Jedi took no notice; she had shut down all her senses to be completely immersed in the Force. Soon, four sentients emerged from the shimmering puddle and it disappeared behind them. Immediately, the blonde, shorthaired woman ran straight for Esough.
Checking her vitals, she yelled to the others, "Her heart rate is low, and she's barely breathing!"
"Your suggestion?" her middle-aged leader replied, looking around.
"Get her back to Earth ASAP."
He shrugged. "Dial us home, Danny boy." The younger man jogged up to the pedestal directly in front of the circle and began pushing specific buttons. The remaining team member, bald with dark skin and a strange, gold symbol on his forehead, came forward to lift the healthy Jedi.
"So, Carter, what was that middle gate for?"
Pulling a remote control from her pocket, she began directing the things Esough had been leaning against toward the metal circle. "My guess is that this planet is about as far away from Earth as the Asgard world. That gate was probably at the distance limit for ours and the same for this one and the connector, though why they didn't just give it eight digits, I have no clue."
"If you're clueless, I don't stand a chance."
After the seventh symbol was entered, the circle splashed again, the whole team keeping their distance until it retreated. Then they all stepped into it, only to go flying over half way across the galaxy and to the edge of another. Emerging from the one on the other side, Daniel began dialing the pedestal they found there and, after Carter entered a code into another remote, they all stepped through again. Several lights passed by on either side, overhead, and under them. Calmly, they appeared back on Earth, still underground.
A man leaned forward behind the window that was set in the wall above them and thumbed a microphone. "SG-1, you're days early, what happened?"
Looking up at him, Carter yelled, "Sir, this woman needs medical assistance!"
Her eyes jerked open and Esough gasped. Something was horribly wrong; for the first time in her life, she could not feel the Force. All she could see was a gray ceiling until a woman in a white uniform leaned over her.
"You're going to be all right. You're lucky we found you."
Wondering what had gone wrong at Kitzlym, Esough hurriedly asked, "Where's the ysalamiri?"
At this, her eyebrows pressed together and she stood. "The what?" He voice sounded sincere, but the Jedi could not detect for certain that it was. For now, she decided that there probably were no ysalamiri.
The doctor, if doctor she was, turned to another woman standing back a bit, the one who had come through the shimmering circle. "She seems to be human, but she has a lot of an unidentifiable substance in her blood."
"Where am I? What happened?" Esough questioned, sitting up.
"You should probably rest awhile." Then the doctor walked away to attend other patients.
The other woman came forward and pulled a chair up to sit beside Esough. "You're on a planet called Earth."
"Where is it?"
"Very far away from yours."
"I figured that. There are no inhabited planets in the Kitzlym system and no two systems are all that close."
Carter was taken aback by this. She had assumed that this was another person from another primitive planet. After all, the room they had been in was no more than a roughly dug out cave. "Well, I think the world we found you on was in another galaxy, but I can't be certain."
"I haven't been out that long; you must have a negative class hyperdrive."
Unfamiliar with classes of hyperdrives, the Tau'ri resigned to ask the Tok'ra about it later. "Actually, we got there by means of a Stargate, a big circle that generates artificial wormholes."
"So that's what the artifact was."
"Like Dr. Frasier said, you're lucky we found you. Your heart rate was dangerously low and you were barely breathing."
"I know that. The only dangerous part about it was when—" she argued, suddenly stopping. These people would probably believe her being a Jedi and using the Force less than she believed their story about a Stargate or their getting here without a hyperdrive.
Confusion appeared on Carter's face. "When what?"
"Nevermind." Esough then realized that she had not introduced herself nor been introduced to any of the people surrounding her. "I'm Esough Dalvreth. I wish I could thank you for bringing me here, but for the moment, I have no reason to do so."
"I'm Major Samantha Carter." To her, this individual seemed to have the capability to be very polite, but she seemed mad about having been brought here.
"May I see your world?"
"No, not yet. Besides, Janet said you should rest." She stood and replaced the chair in its previous position. "Well, I've got some work to do. I'll talk to you later." At Esough's nod, she exited the infirmary.
"As far as I know, I should be just fine," the visitor muttered to no one in particular.
From Esough's point of view, Dr. Frasier seemed to just appear beside her, again checking vitals; she had no warning from the Force that anyone was approaching. Half shaking her head, she commented, "You seem to be just fine. Everything's normal except for that substance in your blood."
"It's nothing to worry about. Usually, it's quite helpful."
"What is it, exactly?"
"A symbiotic microorganism."
"Is it related to the Goa'uld?"
"The what?"
"Then probably not. Sam will explain it to you later. I think you can probably take a tour of the base in the morning."
"Okay." As the doctor left, Esough flopped back onto the pillow. If Baka ever heard that she'd been "saved" by people not Force-sensitive when she hadn't even needed saving and that she hadn't been able to do anything about it, she would never allow herself on the Gungan Vornskr again.
The lights came on and, again, Esough started, not as violently as the previous day, but enough to rattle the bed. Anxious to be up and moving, she found that she still had her tunic on and her brown robe had been laid at the foot of her bed. As she stood, she noticed a few stiff joints and would normally have done away with them. Unfortunately, she had no access to the Force.
She heard approaching voices, the doctor's and someone else's, a man's. Instinctively, she attempted to get a sense of their purpose, only to get frustrated when she found that she couldn't. To her, it was like forgetting Basic when trying to go shopping on Coruscant or Corellia.
The pair stepped into the room and was quite surprised when they saw her out of bed. "Guess you feel fine," muttered Frasier.
Merely nodding passively, the young man following her came to a stop facing Esough. "Hello, I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson."
"It's nice to meet you, Dr. Jackson. I'm Esough Dalvreth," she replied, shaking his outstretched hand.
"Well, it looks like you're good to go." Frasier shrugged then turned to check the other patients.
"I suppose you're eager to get out of here." Daniel led the Jedi out of the infirmary and into a twisting, concrete hall.
"You seem very perceptive."
"You were already up by the time we came in." She nodded. "So, tell me about your world. What's it like?"
She thought a while about how she'd answer. "I don't really have a world. I go from planet to planet."
He raised his eyebrows and glanced at her, remembering Linea, who was nicknamed "destroyer of worlds." "Why?"
"I mediate."
"Oh. Then you have space flight?"
"Absolutely."
This confused Daniel, much like it had Sam. If these people were capable of space travel, why was that cavern so primitive? Did they live in space? "I take it that wasn't your homeworld."
"Kitzlym? Of course not. It's no one's homeworld. I was born on Coruscant."
By this time, they had reached the cafeteria; Daniel thought she might like some breakfast. Actually, he was the one who was hungry. They went through the line and he helped her decide what to get. The two sat at a table already occupied by Carter and SG-1's leader, who happened to be eating Fruit Loops.
"Hey kids." Esough was immediately positive that this guy would speak his mine, not always diplomatically.
"Esough, this is Jack O'Neill," commented Daniel. In response, she nodded and Jack waved.
Carter remembered something from a previous conversation that bothered her. "Earlier you said that you couldn't thank us for bringing you here. Why is that?"
"I was meditating when you came to Kitzlym. When I do that, my breathing and heart rate slow down."
"Kind of like Kelnorim," Daniel mused.
While Daniel had managed to get some kind of insight out of the answer, it hadn't done much good for Sam. "I still don't understand. Was there something special about where you were meditating?"
"You could say that. So, will I be going back through the Stargate soon?"
"General Hammond would like us to try to contact your government to see if we have anything to trade."
"Is there anything specific you're looking for? I'm familiar with most of our technology."
Jack looked up from his Fruit Loops. "Big honkin' space guns!"
Esough frowned. She knew that the New Republic wouldn't really have much of a problem providing turbolasers and such for the right price, but what would these people want with them? As a Jedi, she knew she could not be the tool to deal death to any innocent people who might find themselves on the wrong side of the weapons. Again, she felt the loss of her abilities as she failed to sense his intent. So I'll try the normal way, she thought. "What are you going to use them for?"
"I think Janet mentioned the Goa'uld to you earlier. They want to enslave the galaxy, and we need a way to defend our planet," Sam explained.
"What are these Goa'uld? They're not among any of the alien species I've heard of."
"Bad guys," Jack answered.
Daniel rolled his eyes. "They're snake-like symbiotic creatures that enslave humans."
Now there's a novel concept, Esough thought, you don't often hear about humans being slaves. "So you want turbolasers to fight these Goa'uld?"
"Turbolasers?" Jack repeated. "Honkin' space guns, right?" Esough nodded.
"Yes," Sam replied to the Jedi's question. "We have no way of protecting ourselves, and our allies have their own problems."
"From what I've seen so far," Esough said, "I'm not sure that you have anything to offer us. If you became part of the New Republic, we would certainly make sure that your planet is protected."
Jack and Daniel glanced at each other. Sam looked at the floor. "That's a generous offer, I'm sure," Daniel said, "but I'm not sure our government leaders would agree to that."
"Your planet would remain somewhat independent," Esough assured. "Depending on how advanced these Goa'uld are, only one Star Destroyer or less might be needed. Maybe only two squadrons of fighters." Not that she'd be overly willing to help destroy these aliens. Perhaps a negotiation might be in order.
"See, it's that 'somewhat independent.' And the whole changing of governments, you know, doing away with the United States. It's not gonna go over real well," Jack pointed out.
"If my theories are correct and you're from another galaxy," the scientist added, "it'd take your ship years to get here unless you could disassemble it and send it through the Stargate."
"Even then," Daniel pointed out, "the other governments of this world would notice any large ships orbiting."
"Other governments?" Esough questioned. How outdated! "This planet has multiple countries?"
"Oh, yeah," Jack replied. "And they don't know a thing about this."
"Strange." The Jedi glanced at the food before her and back up at the strange people. "Of course, this whole conversation is completely hypothetical."
"Why is that?" the archeologist questioned.
"I am not personally acquainted with anyone involved in the New Republic. It would take weeks, maybe months, for anything to come of our meeting."
"But something could come of it," Jack affirmed. "Right?" Esough nodded. "Then we might finally have fulfilled our standing orders."
"Standing orders?" the Jedi repeated. "What are they?"
"To acquire technology that could be used in our defense against the Goa'uld," Daniel answered.
"It is quite probable that someone would be willing to trade. If we return to Kitzlym, I could help you find them."
Jack nodded. "I'll talk to Hammond."
SG-1 and Esough stepped out of the second gate into chaos as New Republic archeologists rushed about every which way, apparently in a panic. The Jedi didn't bother with marveling at the Stargate; she had done so after the first one and didn't feel the need to do so again. Instead, she quickly found the archeologist that had invited her to Kitzlym in the first place.
"Balceb!" she called, grabbing the arm of one of the hurrying scholars. "What's wrong?"
He stared at her, taking a few seconds to catch his breath. "You're okay! When I came down to ask if you wanted to break for dinner, you weren't here. Dremar and Ithen said they hadn't seen you come up. Then when we came down here today, that thing," he nodded to the gate, "started moving. We thought it was a trap set by the Imps."
"It's all right. I doubt the Imperials even knew about it," she assured him. "Now, did Captain Cadyue return?"
Balceb glanced back at the gate and the four people watching them from beside the stone pedestal. "Yeah, she arrived about an hour ago."
"Good." She smiled diplomatically at the archeologist, prompting him to rush off to begin settling the others, and waved SG-1 over. "There's a ship waiting for me a few levels up. The owner might be willing to sell or trade you some things, but I doubt they will go far in defending your world."
"Every little bit helps," Jack said with a large grin.
She then led them to the turbolifts and up to a docking bay. As the turbolift rose higher, Esough could feel her connection with the Force strengthen. She breathed a sigh of relief, which earned her a curious glance from Daniel. Then she felt something peculiar: another stronger presence in the Force. Before she could attempt to figure who had arrived, the turbolift doors slid open. Carter's eyes widened as SG-1 took in the small collection of ships, including two old Taylander shuttles, a modified Corellian YT-1300 freighter, and a single X-wing. It all clicked into place when the Jedi saw a tall form speaking with a Gungan at the bottom of the Gungan Vornskr's ramp.
Her first instinct was to turn tail and head back to the Stargate, but she couldn't bring herself to do so with the Earth people present. She had never really been able to explain her trepidation around Master Skywalker, but nonetheless, it never failed to settle upon her at the thought of meeting the Jedi.
So Esough ventured up to the pair, SG-1 stopping behind her. Most of the team directed their attention to the single visible alien, though Carter couldn't stop studying the spacecraft around them. "Hello again, Captain Cadyue. Thank you for arriving on time."
"It was no trouble," the Gungan replied. "I hope you don't mind, but Master Skywalker here wanted to meet you."
Dalvreth forced a smile onto her face, momentarily forgetting that Luke could sense her insincerity. "It's an honor."
"Skywalker?" O'Neill questioned, a memory surfacing in his mind of when he told the major in 1969 that he was Luke Skywalker.
"He does appear to be Luke Skywalker," Teal'c confirmed, no doubt drawing upon the knowledge instilled in him by the Star Wars movies he so dearly loved.
Sam studied the man's face. "He looks just like Mark Hamill at the premier of The Phantom Menace." Then they noticed the stares of the Gungan and two Jedi. "Not that you are him or anything," she added.
The tall alien, with a glance from Luke, led them into the nearby ship. Carter reluctantly followed behind everyone else, a bit disappointed that she hadn't gotten a chance to look over the smaller, quadruple-winged ship.
Carter heard the door slide shut behind her, locking SG-1 in a small room with the tall alien. A comfortable room, it had off-white walls and thin, tan carpeting, the centerpiece of the room being a long, rectangular table of some sort. She barely noticed the door to her left.
"Welcome to the Gungan Vornskr," the alien greeted with just the hint of a strange accent. She had to stand over six feet tall, the speckled eyes on thick eyestalks adding another two to four inches to her height. She wore a bright pink jumpsuit with a plain, black shirt under it, the short sleeves of which couldn't hide the red lines scribbled on her arm.
"Is that the name of…" Daniel began.
"That's this ship, yes," she replied. "I'm Jess Jess Cadyue, captain of the Vornskr."
Esough and Luke stayed outside the room while SG-1 entered with the captain.
"You're a very hard person to find," he said, smiling warmly and thinking of the many places he'd been, trying to find this one person.
She smiled slightly. "I suppose it doesn't help that I wasn't here when you arrived on the right planet." She stretched out a bit with the Force, almost sighing in relief that she was connected again. Then she felt it: the presence of her Gungan friend's not-so-harmless pet approaching. "Uh—"
"I've been trying to find you to ask if you'd join the Jedi Academy on Yavin—"
"Master Skywalker…" she breathed, just a tad too softly for him to hear.
"Four. There's plenty of others there—"
"Master Skywalker!" she repeated a bit louder.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice full of concern, which she felt emanating from him.
She glanced off in the direction she could sense Clipper coming from. "Uh, maybe we should go in now?"
Then the dog-like face of the vornskr rounded the bend, charging up to full speed as he passed Jess Jess's nearby cabin. Both Jedi's eyes widened, and though they both briefly considered using the Force for their protection, they ducked into the dining room/office that the others had entered shortly before.