Chapter 5 – Home?

Sam was on the edge of the balcony in the rooms she had been given in the Presidential Guest Suite on Coruscant when they had arrived over three weeks ago. In the old Imperial Palace, the rooms had traditional wooden, hinged doors, and superbly crafted wooden furniture that reminded her of a few of the more expensive hotels she'd stayed in on Earth, minus, of course, the advanced technology that she now took for granted.

Being the centre of the New Republic government, the Imperial Palace was one of the tallest buildings around and, though she wasn't anywhere near the top, she had a fairly unobstructed view of part of the city-world that was Coruscant. She took advantage of that regularly, often coming up here to meditate, and to practice connecting to the Force, as Luke had told her that it would become easier with practice.

She knew that Dentralla would be in the next room over, still insistent on carrying out the Life debt that she now owed Sam, on behalf of all of the Wookiees from Terrell's factory. When Sam had asked her why it was her who been chosen to represent them, Dentralla had replied that it was because she was the only one without a Mate and a Family on Kashyyyk.

She still hadn't told them about her planet - about Earth - but had told them with an unwavering certainty that they'd never find it, and that they would be incredulous at best, if she told them. She thought back to the conversation she'd had with Mara shortly before the fiery red-head had left to 'meet an old friend' or something.

Sam looked up to find Mara Jade standing in the doorway, the barest hint of a smile on her face.

"Let me guess, Luke sent you to find out about my planet?" Sam asked bitterly.

"Maybe. Maybe he asked, but I came because I thought you might like to talk to someone, or maybe I came because I want to say goodbye before I leave," Mara replied evenly. Sam sighed, knowing that there was no way to deter the head of the Smugglers' Alliance when she had her mind set on something.

"You want a drink?" she asked, her voice softening only slightly.

"Sure," Mara replied with a friendly smile that banished the last of Sam's annoyance. Sam paused for a moment,

"Well then, you're going to have to show me how to work this!" she said, gesturing the synth unit with a weak grin.

Five minutes later, they were seated on the rich red couch in the suite's sitting area.

"So which was it?" Sam finally asked.

"All three," Mara replied, looking the blonde soon-to-be Jedi in the eye. "But get this right: I didn't just do what Skywalker told me to do; I did it because I really do care. Jedi master or no, I don't take orders from Farmboy." Sam nodded and took a sip of her Hot Chocolate, which - much to her amusement - was considered an exotic, non-alcoholic cocktail out here.

"Why do you call him that?"

"Farmboy? Well, he grew up on Tatooine, as a moisture farmer, and when the Emperor sent- uh, when I finally saw him, all I could see was this naive innocence, and trust." Mara paused, watching Sam closely, knowing she had seen the slip she'd made. She decided that the best way to get Sam's trust was to show her trust first. "I was the Emperor's Hand, his personal, Force- sensitive assassin," Mara told her, waiting to see what her reaction would be, and when it came Mara was surprised, to say the least.

"What changed?" Sam asked, honestly curious and thinking of the strong Jaffa, who had been on her team.

"Luke told me the truth about the Emperor's death. I spent 5 years with the echoes of a vision the Emperor had sent me, showing Luke and Vader turning on him and murdering him running through my head. I wanted to kill him for stripping away my life.

"At least I thought I did, but it was the Emperor again, manipulating me even after death. I had to kill Luke's evil clone before the visions stopped, and I could finally let go."

"Wow, that's...wow!" Sam spluttered, eyes wide.

"And yet, you don't seem to have any problems with that?" Mara prompted. Sam looked back down at her mug, eyes shuttered to hide the pain that memories of her team brought.

"Yeah, well, I once knew someone who did a similar thing," was all she would say.

"Well, I've got to go see an old friend. Maybe I'll see you at the academy." Mara excused herself, but turned and spoke once more before she left through the door. "Whatever it is in your past that you're so reluctant to tell us about, it can't be worth the pain of keeping it all to yourself, especially when there were people you so obviously cared about. Those kinds of people are rare, trust me."

She'd been thinking about what Mara had said for a long time now and had finally reached a decision. Arriving at the projection chamber where she had been told they would search for the home planets of the ex-slaves, Sam saw Derren Smithson leave the room, an ecstatic grin on his face.

Derren was the other Jedi Academy candidate that Luke had found amongst the slaves and had, so far, shown a much greater aptitude for it than Sam had.

Taking a deep breath, she walked into the room to find Luke, his twin sister Leia, Han, and their three children: the 9 or 10 year old twins, Jacen and Jaina, and younger, 7 or 8 year old Anakin, the golden protocol droid C-3PO and the small astromech R2-D2.

It seemed that the often-separated family was making the most of the time together, judging by the squeals of delight coming from the kids, and the grins on the faces of the adults.

"Sam, what can we do for you?" Leia asked, seeing her enter.

"I, uh, spoke to Mara," she started, giving Luke a pointed glare. "And I was wondering if you could look for my planet."

"Sure!" Luke exclaimed, looking both surprised and delighted. He gestured for her to try the search herself first, giving her a chance to get to grips with the technology, much to her delight.

"Solar system with 9 planets, one sun." she instructed the computer, which displayed the information in holographic form by the wall nearest her. "Its on one of the spiral arms of the galaxy." Many of the images blinked out immediately. "Asteroid belt between the fourth and fifth planets out from the Sun. Fifth planet is a Gas Giant with 16 moons, seventh planet is ringed by rock and ice debris." By this time, the number of solar systems had dwindled to three, but Luke cut in and the numbers grew again.

"Include all results omitted because of incomplete data, with partial matches." He instructed, explaining that some of the scans were only partial. Sam nodded and began again with the fifteen closest that she had so far, trying to dredge up every fact she could about her home planet.

"Looking at the third planet out from the Sun. One Moon." Two blinked out. "Able to support life in most regions, barring the poles, where there are polar caps." Three more blinked out. Sam struggled against the hope that started to grow at the sight of so many possible matches. She moved onto the designations that had been given to the planets, and started to pull up holos of them. The first nine failed to match and Sam felt her trepidation grow as she pulled up the tenth. To her surprise it was a medium sized planet, about two-thirds water, with several distinct continents and two polar ice caps. She stared in wonder at the large, cloud covered blue and green orb that floated in front of her.

"Show areas populated by human life," Luke instructed, stepping in for Sam, who simply stood with her mouth open. The planet suddenly flickered with red dots, showing areas of distribution over much of the land. Without thinking about it, Sam reached out and touched an area on the globe that, though much of the land was hidden by clouds she guessed to be roughly somewhere in America.

With a rush, the globe expanded, and she found herself standing on the street of a largely metropolitan area.

The three children squealed with delight and immediately began a game of hide-and-seek, with their father running off after them.

Sam frowned.

The buildings were large, curving, natural-looking structures, and hover probes flew about above their heads, advertising things in a foreign language.

Her hopes crushed, Sam shook her head, tears threatening to fill her eyes. She spun on her heel and stalked out, marching right into the solid body of Dentralla, who growled a question at her.

"Nothing!" Sam growled, trying to push past the large tree-dweller. Even as Luke rushed out of the room after her, Dentralla grasped her by her upper arms and gently picked her up, setting her back down where she couldn't get away so easily.

"I'm sorry," Luke said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not your fault," Sam said quietly, her last hopes completely vanished. She didn't need to look up to know that Leia, Han, the kids, and the droids had reappeared, but she was surprised at what Leia said next.

"Come on, let's leave Han and Luke with the Kids and go find you a dress."

"What?" Sam exclaimed, eyes wide.

"For the Dinner tonight. All the other women have one, and the men have smart suits," she told her, raising an eyebrow at Han.

"Now I know why Mara left in such a hurry," Sam groaned as she followed the petite brunette down the corridor.


"It's a wonder that your planet isn't on any of the charts then," Leia commented as Sam finished her story. The Farewell dinner had gone smoothly, and Sam had been pleased to find that she could wear a comfortable dress, with a small hold-out blaster hidden in the folds, much to Leia's amusement. She had found Leia to be a wonderful companion, successfully managing to distract her from her lost hopes of returning home.

They had not long ago re-boarded the shuttle that Han and Chewie were now flying to Derren's planet, having dropped off all of the other ex-slaves already.

In the company of only the Solo family, Luke, Derren and the two workers that had not been able to find the homes and would now have jobs at the Academy, helping out and being taught about the technology - Narintha and B'yan - Sam had finally told them a somewhat…adapted version of her story.

"So, let me get this right. You're a scientist - astrophysicist - for the Airforce of your government, which is only one of many on your planet and you were on a mission with your team - four people - in a remote area when a bunch of guys with blasters landed, took you and some others, shot your team leader, stunned you and took off, keeping you sedated until you arrived at some desolate planet where they made you process Glitterstim for three years before selling you to Terrell, along with some others, who died," Han said, just to re-iterate.

"Yes," Sam told him, determined that she shouldn't tell them about the Stargate, because even though she trusted them, she knew that any government had its corruptions, and she didn't want to risk that, even if they could find the 'gate. It was bad enough with the Goa'uld out there, never mind if the Imperials got a hold of it.

Before anyone else could comment, the ship suddenly jolted violently, and Dentralla roared in anger as she recognised the feeling of a ship being interdicted from Hyperspace. The metal of the hull squealed in protest as Han and Chewie stumbled toward the cockpit.

"So for a break from all the excitement," she heard Han mutter as Leia comforted the surprisingly calm children. They had only recently recovered from the debacle at Center-point station and had decided to take a break and have a little family holiday.

"We're doomed!" C-3PO yelled as Sam strapped herself in and asked Luke what was going on.

"We've been interdicted, pulled out of hyperspace by a gravatic anomaly." He gestured to the bulky, cumbersome ship that was outside, accompanied by a large cruiser that bristled with weapons. They felt another jolt and heard the engines protesting as Han cursed and yelled out to them.

"We've been caught in the tractor beam, looks like Pirates."

Dentralla howled at this, jumping out of her seat and running to the back to get the bowcaster that she had acquired on Kashyyyk.

"Dentralla!" Luke called out to the enraged Wookie. "Look, we can't get out of this that way; our best bet is to stay calm.

Luke and Sam coaxed the Wookie into remaining calm as they heard the dull clunk of the umbilical connecting to the shuttle's pressure hatch.

Sam's fingers were itching to reach for her gun as she heard booted feet marching into the ship. In no time at all, ten scruffy-looking pirates marched in, high powered rifles aimed at the passengers.

"A nice, big, expensive looking shuttle like this and only 9 passengers?" the leader of the group commented, leering at Sam, Narintha and Leia, apparently not recognising the new-republic leader without the senatorial robes, and more elaborate hair.

"11," Han growled from behind him, emerging from the cockpit with Chewie, both of them shaking with anger.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the notorious Han Solo, and his sidekick Chewbacca. I reckon we could get pretty price for you, there's not much else worth taking on this floating bucket."

Luke stood, from behind Dentralla, where he had been hoping to go unnoticed for as long as possible.

"You don't need to take him," he said, concentrating on the man.

"I don't need to take him," the man said after a while.

"You need to leave now."

"Come on, you lot, let's go." The large man started to turn but then stopped, and turned back to him. "Wait a minute, I know you! You're that Skywalker guy." He raised his rifle and pointed it directly at Luke. "Well you won't be able to use those Jedi mind tricks if you're dead!" The man pulled the trigger and fired, but Luke had moved into an open space and ignited his Lightsaber, deftly deflecting the bolts back at the man. Sam pulled her own blaster, along with Han and Leia. Chewie and Dentralla pulled out their bowcasters.

Firing simultaneously, they had all but one of the men down before they could return fire, but that one man managed to get his weapon out and fired blindly.

As they had been firing, they had moved to try to protect the six unarmed workers and children, but horror filled their faces and several screams were let out - both human and Wookie - as the last man fired off several shots, all of them heading towards the unarmed and unprotected group.

Seeing this, Sam reacted on instinct - or perhaps it was the Force that guided her - and she threw herself in front of Anakin, Jaina and B'yal, drawing the Force into her as much as she could.

She caught three of the shots in the chest, one in the stomach and one in the leg.

Everything seemed to slow down as she saw the final shot heading sideways, past her and she tried to draw the Force into her, connecting with it effortlessly as she reached a hand out and reached for the blast, catching it in her hand as if it were a baseball.

Feeling an unknown need to release some energy, she reached out a hand - the one that had been blasted - and sent a wave of energy at the man, faintly hearing Dentralla's enraged Wookie yell, and the sound of her bowcaster firing before time sped back up again and she gave in to the darkness, falling to the floor heavily.