Chapter 3 - Dreams
The jump to hyper speed went without any problems whatsoever, which made a nice change from the usual feelings that Sam had long ago associated with it, as they were usually in some kind of dire situation whenever they were in hyperspace.
A few minutes later, they were joined by Han, Chewie, Mara, and Luke, who assured them that the ship was on autopilot. Chewie and Han headed over to talk to the other refugees.
"So where are we going?" Sam asked, wondering if it would be anything like the only two planets she had seen in this galaxy.
"Coruscant. It's like the central planet if you like, where the New Republic is based," Luke told her. Sam nodded…it made sense to have a 'capital planet', much like a Capital city.
"Do you think you'll be able to get everyone back to their own homes?" she asked, glancing back to the other passengers, who had been born on planets in this galaxy.
"It depends. If they can tell us where their planet is, then it's likely, and if they can't, then we have to rely on the information the Task Force gets out of the Slave Trader."
"What happens to those who can't find their home?" Sam asked, fearing the answer slightly.
"We find them a home…somewhere nice, where they'll fit in most and be comfortable…get them a job," he replied, watching her intently. "Some may be eligible to become Jedi," he added, giving her a pointed look.
"Me?" Sam stared at him, suddenly remembering his reason for all of this. "I don't think so," she told him, shaking her head.
"Why not? You have an unbelievable potential…" he told her earnestly, Mara rolling her eyes and muttering 'farm boy' under her breath.
"Potential to do what? I'm a scientist…an astrophysicist, and an Airforce Major…I don't do glowing swords," she told him skeptically.
"You have a potential to use the Force…to learn to be a Jedi and to help people," he told her patiently; he'd got this reaction far too many times already.
"The what?" she asked him, one eyebrow raised.
"The Force. The Force surrounds us, it binds everything together, it-"
"What Skywalker here is trying to say," Mara cut him off with a smirk, "is that the Force is this energy field that lets us manipulate things, that increase our potential. Look." Without warning, the holster at Sam's thigh – her being allowed to keep it had been a major plus point for their rescuers – moved, unclipping itself and allowing her blaster to slide out of it.
"Hey!" Sam cried as she grabbed the runaway weapon form the air. "You really did that?" she asked, only marginally disbelieving it; she'd seen telekinesis before. Mara nodded.
"And I'm not even that powerful." Luke snorted at her comment, obviously not believing it, but didn't comment.
"Okay, so say I agreed to this, what would I have to do." Sam asked, still not believing that she was capable of actually doing any of this, or that her rescuers were really that well-intentioned.
"You would come to the Academy on Yavin 4 and learn with the other students, how to control your abilities, how to build and wield a lightsaber."
"Glowing sword." Mara interjected, earning a glare from Sam, which she laughed off.
"But most importantly, you would learn about yourself," Luke finished, giving Mara a nudge to quiet her.
Sam remained quiet and Luke rose swiftly to his feet, Mara shortly behind him. He laid a hand on her arm reassuringly for a second.
"Think about it, you don't have to decide yet," he told her, mimicking her thoughts, before walking off to the synthesizer unit to prepare a meal for the people gathered.
Sam settled back against the back of the seat and rested her head against the wall, feeling the metal vibrate gently as the engines did their job. She stared at the bulkhead opposite her without really seeing it, her mind working over time, already tired from a full day's work and a frantic five hours to repair the machine needlessly.
I could go; it's not like I have anywhere else to go.
But I can't do any of that Jedi stuff.
She shifted her position a little to ease the dull ache in her collarbone, where the slave implant had self-destructed.
But what if I can?
What if I can't…he expects me to be able to do it but…
What about in the alley? Something happened, something made him fly backwards into Han and Chewbacca.
What are your other options…a 'normal' job on a 'normal' planet…there's no way you're still in the same Galaxy!
Sam continued to reason through it for a while longer before she drifted off to sleep, exhaustion – mental and physical – taking over.
Luke stopped mid-sentence when the large female Wookie he had been talking too suddenly barked a comment and stood swiftly, moving away.
He understood the gist of what the Wookies were saying, a result of nearly 19 years of knowing Chewie, but he would often miss things, especially if they were short comments. He turned to Han, "What did she say?" he asked his brother in law.
"She just excused herself, said she'd be right back," Han told him, gesturing over to where the Wookie was now carefully removing the holster from Sam, laying it gently at her side before easing the woman down to lie on her right side, careful not to jolt the sore left arm. Luke nodded in understanding and waited patiently for the tall alien to return.
When Dentralla had seated herself back with her companions, Luke asked her about the blonde woman. The Wookie shrugged.
"She came about a standard year ago," Han translated, "part of a group of slaves Terrell had traded for. She seemed different to the rest of them, not so primitive. She learned about the technology fast and she began to suggest modifications to improve them…especially when slaves kept dying. She'd suggest a modification that improved efficiency so that Terrell would agree to it, but put it so that the way it was done would improve safety. It was like she held herself responsible for everyone. She never really spoke to anyone, only occasionally to her," Han gestured to Dentralla, "or another of the Wookies. She made a point of learning to understand them so that they could communicate in the factory but she never spoke about personal things." Han paused for a moment and then grinned.
"Looks like you've got two for that academy of yours, Kid." Luke gave him a puzzled look, but Mara was one step ahead of him.
"Looks like, uh…" Mara floundered for a moment, suddenly realising that they didn't know her name and substituted in the designation that Dentralla had been using. "…164 over there has got herself a Wookie life debt."
Luke grinned as he finally understood what they meant, but his grin faded as he glanced over to the sleeping form.
"If she does come," he said quietly before turning his attention back to the other refugees and quietly stretching out his mind, probing with the Force. He suspected that one of the human males might be Force-sensitive too.
Jack nodded to the village leader, giving him a brief smile before turning to Sam and calling out to her.
"Carter…the village elders have graciously granted us permission to enter the 'Sacred Land'" he gestured to where the FRED stood at the bottom of the 'gate, slap bang in the middle of the village square. "Grab what you need and catch us up," he instructed her as he headed after Daniel and Teal'c, who were ambling along the track slow enough for her to catch up easily.
"Yes, Sir, I'll be right there!" she called back, receiving a wave of recognition form her CO.
Resting one arm on her P90, she marched quickly over to FRED and began to off-load the few pieces of equipment she would need for the primarily archaeological mission. She stopped, her brows beetling when the 'Gate whirred into action. Reaching for her radio, she thumbed it on.
"Colonel O'Neill, are we expecting any 'Gate travel?" she asked uncertainly.
"No." He paused for a moment, and all she could hear was the crackle of the transmission as he made a quick decision. "We'll be right there, Carter," he finally said, just as the swash of the event horizon thrust forwards.
The bustling people of the market square all stopped and looked to the gate curiously. The only people to have come through in the last several decades were SG1 and they wondered who would be coming through so soon after them.
All of a sudden a stream of beings of all kinds of different races, human and otherwise ran through, brandishing weapons.
Sam estimated that 40 or 50 beings ran through, firing over the heads of the people from weapons that looked similar to rifles or sidearms but shot deadly-looking red energy bolts. Yelling for everyone to remain where they were, they formed a semi circle around the 'Gate with the crowd on the outside.
She watched in fascination as two humanoids stepped to the DHD and attached a device to the side of it and then quickly dialed an eight-symbol address.
Sam thought she was seeing things and decided she'd miscounted the number of buttons they'd pressed
She stood silently, near the front of the group, waiting impatiently for the rest of her team to arrive.
As the wormhole reactivated, about thirty of the beings gathered started to move among the group, picking out the youngest and healthiest of the villagers. She saw one human start to walk towards her, a sneer on his badly shaven face.
She raised her P90, preparing to fire, but the man tensed and shook his head at her.
"Do that and the rest of them die," he warned her in oddly accented English. "Pass it this way," he instructed her. Reluctantly, she unclipped her weapon and passed it to him. "And the Blaster." He gestured her sidearm and she handed it to him, fleetingly wondering why he'd called it a blaster.
Silently praying for her team to arrive, she reluctantly allowed herself to be dragged to the front.
The man still clutched her arm as he started to lead her towards the gate, following after those who had already been sent through.
All of a sudden, at the back of the group, where her team had disappeared only a few moments ago, the crowd started to part rapidly.
Sam struggled against the man and the tall reptilian humanoid that roughly grabbed her other arm.
The strangers from the 'Gate all began to run back through, grabbing the few humans that were close by and dragging them through with them.
Some never made it as they fired back at Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c, and Daniel, who were firing their own weapons at the departing aliens.
As she was dragged roughly up the steps, she could see Jack look up at her.
"CARTER!"
"SAM!"
"MAJORCARTER!" came three anguished cries. She saw Jack dart forwards, firing at the enemy with a deadly accuracy. Most of the return shots went wide as the aliens tried to run backwards and shoot at the same time.
Sam could only watch in horror as one deadly red bolt found its mark, hitting the Colonel on the top left of his body, the force of it spinning him around and dropping him neatly onto the floor.
"COLONEL!" Sam screamed as she sat up suddenly, sweat-soaked and shaking, tear tracks marking her face.
She sobbed once, trying to slow her breathing and regain her bearings.
It was just a dream.
Except it wasn't.
It had happened over three years ago, and she had been stuck in this galaxy ever since then, first in the Glitterstim processing factory, then as a slave for Terrell.
She had tried time and again to convince herself that he might not be dead, that maybe it had only hit his arm, but she never quite managed it. She had, at that moment, been dragged through the 'Gate, and she suspected he was now dead, a charred hole burned through his heart.
It was for that, and her uncaring kidnapping and enslavement of so many people that she hated Telk, with an unbridled passion and determination that was oh so similar to Teal'c's "Jaffa Revenge Thing."
She waved the concerned Dentralla away, telling her it was just a nightmare, studiously ignoring the concerned looks of the other passengers, who she had unwittingly awoken when she screamed.
Yeah, she thought miserably, a dream I haven't had in years…
