Chapter 2 – Release

No one paid Sam any attention when she stormed angrily into the shared lodgings. They were too afraid of getting attached to anyone because they knew that sooner or later, that person would die. It was just a matter of whether or not they died first.

Sam had been there the longest; most died within a few weeks of arriving, though some lasted a whole month. Very few understood technology to the level that Sam did, though. They were mostly from backwater planets, out of the way, where the ruling governments had absolutely no chance of hearing about it.

They regarded her with a mixture of respect, – for surviving and for doing her best to ensure that others didn't get caught in the machinery too often – and hatred, – because she hadn't died, and Terrell was particularly fond of her for the improvements she made to the efficiency and, indirectly, the safety of the machines. But none of them knew of her past…and she intended to keep it that way. It was because of Terrell's fondness of her that he would allow her to go out in the cantinas. He even gave her the money for it, saying that because she helped him to get it, she deserved a little every now and then, though it was given on a whim dependent on his mood.

Stalking over to her bunk on the far wall, she lay down, facing away from everyone else.

For the first time in more than three years, she allowed herself to think openly about the people she had left behind, her friends and family. A few faces rose in her mind in particular: her father, and her team.

As she thought about Daniel, Teal'c, Janet, Cassie, George…everyone, tears came unbidden and she cried silently, all the while despising herself for her weakness; she didn't cry anymore. Except when she thought of the life she had been torn from. She couldn't afford it in this harsh world.

She didn't know how long she had laid there – she must have dosed off – but all of a sudden, the lights within the small lodging blazed brightly and she heard her name – or rather her designation - called.

"164, hey 164, wake up!" She sat up and squinted into the light, her eyes just making out the figure of Terrell in the doorway. With a sigh she clambered out of the bunk and stalked over, following him out of the door. "There's a Gentleman wants to see you…privately," he said as he led her to a series of small rooms that were adjacent to the lodgings. "You better behave 'cause this one's paying big credits," he warned her as he opened the door and let her in, winking at her once before shutting the door.

Sam's heart sunk. Other women…even some of the men had been called out for 'private' meetings before but he had never called on Sam for one…until now.

When she entered the room, she was both surprised and annoyed to find Luke Skywalker standing there, calm as anything and with a slight smile on his face. A rumble behind and to her right announced the presence of Han and Chewie.

"Look, if you're into some kind of weird fetish…" She eyed them warily, annoyed at the Wookie's quiet chuckle, Han's lopsided grin, and Luke's look of suppressed amusement.

"Ah…no, it's nothing quite like that," Luke told her, indicating for Han and Chewie to shut up. "This was just the only way we could persuade Mr. Terrell to let us…well, me in here. I doubt his views of Chewie would have been quite so…accommodating."

"Look, I stand by what I said earlier: I cannot go with you."

"What about if we managed it so that we took you fairly, without any problems?"

"You mean buy me? No."

"Look lady, don't you want to get out of here?" Han asked her, pushing himself off of the wall and moving to stand by Luke.

"Sure I do. But if I go, then what about everyone else here…they don't stand a chance without me." Han snorted and Chewie growled a comment.

"What makes you so important?" he translated, and abbreviated Chewie's somewhat more polite question.

"I have the technological knowledge that makes the machines run like they do. Without it, then everything would go to hell. It would be like it was before I was selected."

"Which was?" Luke prompted curiously.

"People would survive no more than a day, two at best, and they wouldn't get the rest, food or basic needs that they should have," she told him bluntly. Luke nodded, conceding her point and stared at her in contemplation for a moment.

"Very well. Thank you," was all he said before preceding her through the doorway, a carefully blank look on his face. A stunned Chewie and Han followed, glancing at each other occasionally.

Sam sat back down on the rough bed that was in one corner of the room and waited for Terrell to return and take her back to her lodging.

She thought the matter closed, although she longed to be able to leave with them.


"Dentralla shut that sector down now!" Sam yelled as she ran towards the vibrating, steaming peace of machinery, pulling other workers out of the way as she ran. Dentralla 'urf'ed a reply and bent forwards, putting all her muscle into turning the giant mechanism that would shut off the inputs for sector 8 of what was, this week, an ore processing factory.

Sam worked frantically for over 5 hours to repair the machines and getting them working again, knowing that if she didn't, then they'd all be in for hell…particularly Dentralla and the worker that was assigned to her station.

She thought she'd finally got it working again when everything in the room suddenly shut down, giving a desperate whine of protest as it whirred to a stop.

"Sith! This can't be happening!" she cursed, giving the metal bulkhead nearest her a swift kick. Suppressing a cry of pain as her toes protested against their treatment, she turned and slumped down onto the floor, leaning against the warm bulkhead. She drew her knees up and circled her arms around them, resting her head on her arms and fervently praying that Terrell wouldn't be as hard on Dentralla and Tomas as he had been on everyone else, that he wouldn't kill them, like he had killed everyone else.

She nearly cried out again when a sharp pain tore through her body, emanating from right where her slave implant should be.

She stood swiftly, favouring her left arm as she walked towards the door. Before she reached it, however, it slid smoothly open, revealing two figures. One she immediately recognised as Luke Skywalker…the other was a fiery looking redhead.

Luke smiled at her and greeted her.

"This is Mara Jade." He introduced the red head. "A friend of mine and another Jedi."

Sam gave him a puzzled and suspicious look.

"Why are you in here…in the middle of the night?" she asked him, glancing at her wrist chrono.

"After our….discussion a few weeks ago, I contacted Mara here, and she helped me gather information to allow us to stop Terrell. By using a bit of…uh…persuasion, he gave us the codes to destroy the slave devices. The New Republic is going to return the others to their planets as best they can, and another, significantly larger task force has been sent after the slave trader that supplied Terrell." Luke explained with a grin.

"You're kidding," was all Sam could say, shortly followed by: "Why?" Luke frowned at her, not understanding. "Why did you help us?" He could sense that Sam was suspicious…she had no reason to trust anyone. To her knowledge, everyone in this galaxy was like the people of Nar Shadaa.

"The Jedi are upholders of the peace, protectors of the innocent. It's what we do." Sam finally nodded, her instincts telling her that he wasn't lying. It was all but impossible to fake that kind of innocent naivety.

"I'm going with the other workers," she told them as they headed out of the room.

"Naturally," Mara quipped, rolling her eyes. Sam was reminded forcefully of Colonel O'Neill, but she buried the feelings, pushing them away where they couldn't hurt her.

When they arrived at the small private space pad of the factory, it was to find the rest of the workers gathered at the base of a passenger shuttle, Dentralla and the other Wookies surrounding the terrified humans protectively, eyeing Han and Chewie warily.

"It's alright, Dentralla; they're here to help us." The irate Wookie roared a reply and waved at them furiously. "I know, I don't like it very much either but I think they're honest, and it's got to be better than being here." Again, Dentralla whined and gestured wildly. "They set off the self-destructs on the implants. Yes, that's what that pain was. Look, I'm coming with you and Luke Skywalker here says that they going to try to get everyone back to their home planets." Sam could see hope swell in the eyes of those gathered as they dubiously agreed to be led into the shuttle, Chewie re-assuring the Wookies, and telling them excitedly about their being able to return to Kashyyyk.

They all strapped themselves in as they prepared for take-off and the launch into hyperspace.

Sam felt a wave of excitement fly through her at the chance to fly in hyperspace once again. She wondered vaguely if it was anything like on a Goa'uld ship.

She had resigned herself to never seeing Earth, or the people that mattered to her again, but now she was faced with moving on and creating a new life for herself, without those people.