Chapter 7 – Discovery
"How is she?"
"Master Skywalker," came the gravely voiced greeting, "there seems to be no physical damage. She seems to have just shut down, as if she is asleep."
"Not 'sleep," Sam croaked almost inaudibly, her eyes still closed. For a split second, she had expected Janet to reply to Luke's question, but it passed the moment she realised that she was, literally, galaxies from home. She felt a smooth, warm, and slightly clammy hand touched to her forehead, accompanied by the tentatively familiar feeling of a Force probe.
Cracking an eyelid, Sam squinted up to see the large salmon coloured head of a Mon Calamari, the bulbous eyes rolled forward to examine her patient.
"Sam, this is Cilghal, she's a Jedi Healer. How do you feel?" Luke introduced the Mon Cal quietly, intuiting that her head was pounding, feeling like she 'had a nail through her skull'.
"Like I should be dead," she grumbled at him, weakly.
"Well you were, for a while there," Luke told her, a small worried smile on his face.
"Figures," she replied bitterly, eyes drooping shut again. "What happened?" she rasped, wondering why she wasn't dead, and why she wasn't at least in pain…she remembered getting hit several times.
"I was hoping you could tell me that." Sam gave a minute shake of her head, finding that she didn't have the energy to reply with words. She heard a rustle of clothes again and felt the warm, clammy hands placed on each temple before she felt herself falling into a warm, safe, Force induced darkness.
"She should come back out of the healing trance as soon as she has healed enough," Cilghal told the Jedi master, stepping back from the pale, almost grey form of Sam.
Luke nodded and asked, "Do you have any idea what caused this?" Cilghal eyed him for a moment, deep in thought before replying.
"You say that she seemed to draw in the energy from the blaster bolts before redirecting it at the pirate?"
"Yes, the bolts burned through her clothes, but left her skin unmarked, and the pirate was all but incinerated, even with Dentralla's help," Luke replied, his worry over her actions showing on his face.
"If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that she has a similar gift to Corran Horn, but when she tried to release the energy that she had absorbed, she overdid it, sending back too much energy," Cilghal rasped.
"An instinctive reaction," Luke added, his frown deepening for a moment before he banished it from his face.
"Thank you Cilghal." He rested a hand on her shoulder for a moment, giving her a tight smile. "Let me know when she wakes?"
"Of course Master Skywalker."
Sam awoke slowly, drifting back into consciousness in a much more peaceful way, without the pain that usually accompanied it. Taking a depth breath and opening her eyes slowly, squinting against the comparative brightness, she flexed a few muscles and moved a little, experimentally. Finding no apparent problems, she sat up, levering herself with one elbow, and looked around the medical bay she was in. Her eyes settling on the form of Dentralla, who blinked and leapt from her chair, and rushing out of the room, pausing only to give Sam an affectionate Wookie head-rub and messing her hair up.
"Gee, thanks," she muttered under her breath, running her hand through her hair to settle the messed locks. Moments later Dentralla re-appeared with a diminutive, furry alien with large, radar-like ears.
"It is good to see you are awake. I am Tekli; Master Cilghal is resting at the moment," the alien Sam vaguely recognised as a Chadra-fan introduced herself.
"Sam Carter," she replied, knowing that Tekli would most likely know that already, though.
"How do you feel?" she inquired softly.
"Good, actually, which is unusual," Sam replied, smiling. "Hungry though."
"I am not surprised; it has been nearly a standard week since you last ate."
"A WEEK?" Sam spluttered, eyes widening in disbelief. Dentralla barked a comment, once more ruffling Sam's hair. "Hey! If you hadn't CHOSEN to be here, then it wouldn't be a problem!" Sam replied in mock indignance, secretly touched that the giant biped cared enough to hover like a mother hen.
Tekli's quiet laughter was added to the comment as she replied, "I must say it is quite a feat to snore whilst in a Jedi healing trance." Sam glared at the small healer.
"So what actually happened to me?"
"You do not know? Then I think that is an explanation best left to Master Skywalker," Tekli replied, carrying out a quick check with the Force.
"Great," Sam replied, her voice thick with sarcasm. "Can I go yet?"
"The company's that bad?" remarked a short-ish man with brown hair and a goatee as he walked in with Luke.
"No. I just really have to pee," she retorted easily. Luke smiled.
"Sam, this is Corran Horn, one of the other Jedi," Luke introduced him.
"Nice to meet you, but I wasn't kidding; I really don't want to be in here." Corran raised an eyebrow and she added, "Its nothing personal, I just really don't like infirmaries."
With an affirmative from Tekli, Sam was allowed to get up, dress and shower, and they headed to what had been the Mess Hall when the old temples had been in use by the rebel alliance, all those years ago.
Sitting at one of the tables, dressed once again in a spare set of clothes similar to the ones she had worn before – they had been damaged beyond repair when Sam had intercepted the blaster bolts - Sam began to pile ravenously into the simple stew, gulping down mouthfuls of hot caf to wash it down.
Corran and Luke watched her in bemusement as she tried to eat and take in the stonework of the room at the same time.
"You know, if you slow down you might actually taste it," Corran commented, receiving a half-hearted glare from Sam, who didn't pause her eating. Smiling at them, Luke took a sip of his hot chocolate before speaking.
"We think we know what may have happened." Sam didn't need to ask to know that he was referring to the pirate attack.
"So why aren't I full of blaster holes, then?" Sam asked, swallowing her mouthful.
"We think that you share a rare ability with Corran here, which allows you to absorb energy from outside sources."
"Like Blaster bolts." Sam nodded; speaking around a mouthful of the stewed gornt she was all-but-inhaling.
"You reacted on instinct, perhaps even guided by the Force." Corran continued. "The thing is, though, that when you absorbed the energy, you needed to get rid of the extra, or you most probably would have exploded through overloading your cells. When you did this, again reacting on instinct and directing the energy back at the pirate, you drained all of the energy in your cells, effectively sending yourself into a kind of coma." Sam stopped chewing and swallowed thickly, a horrified look on her face.
"So if the energy wasn't in me, and I sent it back at the pirate…" she trailed off, her face ashen.
"Because of the way that it was redirected, he got slightly...crispy," Corran replied wryly. Sam blanched, pushing her plate away disgustedly, her hands shaking minutely.
Luke and Corran shared a look that Sam, staring at the plate in front of her didn't notice.
"Because of this...ability that you share with Corran, we've decided that it would be best if you were his apprentice."
"His what?" Sam asked, slightly dazed, looking up at them in wide-eyed surprise.
"His apprentice."
"Oh." Sam blinked, realising that she was staring at him with a vacant, uncomprehending look.
"Nice to see you're so excited," Corran commented, rolling his eyes.
"Sorry," she mumbled sheepishly before snapping her head up to look at Luke. "Everyone is okay, aren't they?" she suddenly asked, realising that she hadn't seen anyone off of the ship, other than Dentralla.
"Yes. Leia, Han and the kids took off with Derren, having another go at getting him home after we came straight here with you." Sam sighed in relief.
"Thank God!" she exclaimed, receiving a surprised look form Luke and Corran.
"You're religious?"
"What? Oh, no, it's just an expression from my Ho-Planet." Neither Jedi missed her pain. Though she hid it well in her expression they could feel it resounding through the Force. She had explained what she did, in brief and Luke had related it to Corran, but she had been very impersonal, not wanting to delve too deeply into the pain that was associated with home.
"Luke says you used to fly atmospheric planes. Ever thought about flying an X-wing?" Corran suddenly asked, successfully distracting her from her brooding. Sam's eyes lit up and Luke didn't try to hide the smile that spread across her face at the mention of the fighters.
"Corran used to fly in Rogue squadron; he's one of the best pilots around." Corran snorted.
"This coming from the original Rogue Leader." Sam just stared at them, gaping for a moment.
"I can really fly an X-wing?" she finally asked, breaking into a grin at the affirming nod.
Much to her chagrin, Sam had found that she would have to wait a week, getting lots of rest before her training would start in earnest, Doctors – or rather Jedi Healer's – orders. But now, a week later, she was finally allowed to do more than sit and practice feeling things through the Force.
Slipping into soft Nerf-hide boots, pants, and a tank top, she attached her holster onto her waist, retrieving her blaster from under her pillow and sliding it into place.
Quietly slipping past the door of her obstinate Wookie guardian, who she had needed to convince that she would be fine going for a run with Corran, she quickly made her way out of the giant temple that now housed the Jedi Academy, but had once been part of a series of temple set up at the instruction of a powerful Sith lord by a since extinct race.
Crossing her arms to ward off the chilly morning air, she jumped up and down a little on the spot and waited for her Master to arrive.
Looking up at the monstrous ziggurat, she remembered coming outside for the first time and getting a look at the impressive pyramid-shaped stone temple jutting up from the verdant forest floor of Yavin 4. Redirecting her eyes to look at the lightening landscape at the horizon, she couldn't help but be awed by the effect that the light from the gas giant Yavin created as it refracted from the particles of moisture in the air, creating a dazzling rainbow of colours just visible high in the atmosphere.
"Ready?" She turned at the sound of Corran's voice, smiling her assent and following him as he started off into the forest.
She had lost her pale, slightly malnourished look and had replenished her reserves of energy. But it had been a long time since she had worried about keeping in shape and her fitness and stamina were nowhere near on par with her former state of fitness, let alone Corran's Force enhanced status, and she started to feel it after about 10 minutes.
She was breathing heavily and her muscles screamed in protest as she pounded along after Corran, yet still not willing to give in until she reached the end – it was the only way she was going to get back up to scratch – and she knew she would feel better for it. Corran sensed this and deliberately took a very short course, jogging slower than he would have normally, impressed at her resolve.
When they arrived back at the temple, Sam was breathing heavily and covered in a sheen of sweat, her hand clamped over the stitch in her side. She immediately carried out a few callisthenics to warm down and stretched out her muscles.
"Out of practice?" Corran asked her as he warmed himself down and stretched.
"Don't need…to keep in…shape…when you're…a slave," she panted.
"I guess not. Go get showered, I'll meet you in the mess," he told her, slapping a hand on her clammy shoulder.
A half hour later, clean and refreshed, she slid onto a bench at the table with a cup of Caf and a bowl of a fruity oatmeal-like substance, Dentralla following shortly behind her with a raw-meat and fruit breakfast.
Corran sat down opposite her five minutes later, turning his nose up at the Wookie's choice of food and sipping at his stim tea.
"Doesn't that bother you?" he asked Sam, who was quite happily tucking into her own food.
"What?" she asked, looking up at him.
"The raw meat."
"Oh, no, I guess you get used to it, she answered with a shrug, scraping out her bowl. Corran shook his head at her in bemusement, ignoring Dentralla's indignant – and heart felt – reply, making a mental note not to let his kids learn that particular expletive.
"I want you to reach out with the Force, try and feel the life around you." Sam started to close her eyes, but Corran interrupted her. "Hey, we know you can do it with your eyes shut, but you need to be able to do it with your eyes open; it's no good if you're in a hostile situation to have half your senses closed off."
"Yes Sir," Sam replied unconsciously, not realising that she had. Corran laughed.
"You don't have to call me Sir; you don't even have to call me Master, just plain old Corran."
"Uh sorry, you just kinda remind me of half of my CO's," she explained. Corran shrugged.
"I was part of the Correllian Security Force before I joined Rogue squadron or became a Jedi. That's why I go on the runs in the morning; it's a throwback to the CorSec Academy." Sam nodded in understanding before she returned her concentration to connecting with the Force.
Score two for Master Skywalker, Corran thought, realising that their respective military backgrounds gave them a similar mindset. That could prove useful in their training, not least because it gave him an idea of how to approach it.
Concentrating on Corran's face, Sam touched the Force, sensing the familiar feeling of the life around her, the different impressions that each person in the room left on her senses.
Dentralla was a blazing point of energy and feelings, while Corran flared brighter but calmer, due to his connection to the Force. She could sense the familiar, and yet, distinctly alien presences of Cilghal and Tekli and the powerful presences of Luke and Kyp Durron, the man who had come to the academy as a young boy and had been corrupted by the ancient Sith mind of Exar Kun, tricked into succumbing to his rage and destroying an entire star system, including the Imperial training world of Carida and his long-lost brother.
"Now, I want you to try to focus in on the mug in front of you. Now, use the Force to make it float off of the table." After several attempts, Sam still could not do it and was getting frustrated.
"This isn't working!" she exclaimed in frustration.
"Hey, you just have to persevere," said Corran, "and, more importantly don't get angry. Anger-"
"Is of the dark side," Sam finished for him, taking a deep breath and letting go of her annoyance and focusing in on the mug again, interrupting Corran once more. "All of this from the man who can't float a feather." She grinned wickedly at him, teasing him about his lack of ability when it came to telekinesis. Corran simply laughed at her, knowing she was only joking and trying to instruct her again. When it still didn't work, he questioned her as to why she felt she couldn't do it.
"Corran, I'm a scientist," she replied. "My beliefs are based around facts, actions, things that can be explained, or measured, or something. It just feels like I'm not doing anything." Corran nodded thoughtfully for a moment, contemplating what she had said before he grinned.
"So use an action, a gesture, see if that helps," he suggested. Sam raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged.
"Nothing else is working," she said, focusing in on the now cold half-mug of Caf. Once she was happy with her access to the Force, she raised her hand and made an 'up' gesture. Her eyes widened when the mug jumped several inches in the air before falling back to the table with a dull 'Thunk'.
Dentralla gave an excited growl as Sam broke into a grin.
"Now try and make it smoother, and hold it up for a few moments," Corran instructed her.
Buoyed by the realisation that she could do it, Sam tried again, this time making a slower gesture, her palm facing upwards as she used it to focus her intent, making the mug rise steadily and smoothly until it was about a foot off of the table.
Again Dentralla growled excitedly, banging the table for emphasis and Sam's grin widened.
"Not bad, for 'a man who couldn't float a feather'," Corran commented, smirking at her. All of a sudden, the mug fell onto its side, still floating but pouring its contents onto Corran's head. Now it was Sam's turn to smirk.
"Teach you to take the credit for my work," she retorted to the dripping man, backed by raucous laughter from Dentralla. Sam set the mug back down on the table without the finesse she had shown when picking it up, her control of the Force was still shaky, to say the least. Corran scowled at her, trying to ignore the liquid trickling through his beard. Deciding he would get her back another time, Corran began the training that would last not just the year or three that she would be his apprentice, but would continue throughout her life as she learned more about the Force and mastered her control over it.
