Chapter 10 – Reunited

Corran jumped down off the X-wing, wiping his hands on a greasy cloth and giving his visitor a large grin.

"Luke…" His grin fell as he caught the troubled look in the Jedi Masters eyes. "What is it?"

"You'd better come; you'll have to see this." Corran nodded and grabbed his jacket before following Luke out. A short while later they arrived at the long-range holonet centre to find Mara already waiting there, an indecipherable look on her face. Walking wordlessly over to his wife, Luke slipped an arm around her waist and hit the button to play the message.

Corran was surprised when he saw a quarter-sized image of Sam appear, flickering slightly, and his eyebrows almost disappeared into his hairline.

"Whoever receives this, please make sure that this message reaches Corran Horn or Master Skywalker urgently." The figure paused for a moment before continuing. "Look, I know I didn't leave on the best of terms with you, Corran, and I know I left abruptly, but I had my reasons, and they are ones that I can't put over the holonet. You remember what I said in the message I left? Well I need your help now. This is a matter of life or death for countless people; you have to trust me. I've sent the information that you will need. Please." The image reached out and hit a control, flickering out of existence.

"Well. That was…"

"Unexpected?"

"Understatement." Mara moved over to one of the consoles and pulled up the information that had been sent with the holo message.

"It's planetary data, co-ordinates, the usual stuff that a strike force would need if the were going to take a facility…and there's the data on the facility…I didn't know that Sam knew these kind of things."

"Neither did I." Corran frowned, thinking back to the message that Sam had made before she left abruptly about 9 months ago.

"Corran. I'm sorry. This has nothing to do with any of the Jedi, or anything that has happened to me recently. This is something that I know I have to do. If this works, I will have a way to stop the people who took me from my planet, a way to stop them from taking any more people.

Please, don't try to follow me. Where I'm going is going to be dangerous enough, without a bunch of Jedi following me and I know that you could track me of you really wanted to. I'm not stupid. But if you do, you will only make things worse, not only for me, but for billions of people in this Galaxy.

I will need your help at the end, though, and I need you to trust me on this. I hope that when the time comes, I will have your full support and trust. I've lost enough friends; I don't want to lose another. I'm sorry." He looked at the frozen image, knowing that Sam never lied – well, except to tell them that she was fine when she was dying - about anything important. If she didn't want to tell you something, she would simply avoid speaking about it entirely. He sighed and wondered briefly if he had just condemned his first apprentice to the dark side by deciding not to follow her.

"So…?" Luke asked, appraising him quietly with those piecing blue eyes of his.

"So…let's go," Corran said with a shrug. Luke smiled and turned to his wife.

"What other information has she given us?"


Sam sat in the cockpit of her ship, waiting. She hoped that Corran and Luke would come, and that the information she had been able to gather had been correct. She had been at the facility for only two weeks, trying to gather information on how many people there were, where they were, what forces Telk had to defend the place with, etc. Her job would have been made easier if she'd been able to use the Force to alter people's perceptions slightly, to suggest things to the weak-minded, as Luke and Corran both could, but she couldn't do anything like that at all.

She'd been found out when she brushed off one of the other mercenaries when he'd tried to force himself on her. It had been then that they'd seen the Tattoo on her wrist, denoting her as having been brought through the 'Gate at another time.

She'd made it out just in time to reach her ship and fly out of there, making a micro-jump out of the system, sending her message to Corran before jumping back in system and landing on an asteroid to wait for the back-up, if it ever came.

Five days later and she was starting to think that Corran had either not received the message, or had disregarded it.

"No, no word yet," Sam said as Dentralla walked in, seating herself in the large Wookie-sized co-pilot's seat that they had installed for her and barking a question. Sam smiled at her next comment, but it was a tired, careworn smile. "It's alright. If they don't come, we'll just have to find another way." Dentralla whined an agreement, understanding what this meant to Sam now that the blonde Jedi had explained it to her. She'd had to after they had…appropriated their ship and flown from Yavin 4 without a word.

Sam continued to stare out of the view port for what seemed like an age, blinking in incomprehension when three ships decanted from hyperspace. One of them was a Star Destroyer. The others were a Corellian corvette and an assault cruiser. Immediately, countless little white dots streamed from the ships, buzzing around like flies.

Sam jumped into action, barking orders to Dentralla and hitting the thrusters to take off from the slow moving asteroid. Once she was free from it, she hit the comm and relayed a message to the three ships.

"This is Captain Sam Carter of The Peacemaker. Identify yourselves." As she did this, she reached out with the Force, searching for…

"Is that anyway to greet your Master?" Corran! Sam broke into a grin at the sound of Corran's voice, just as she connected to him through the Force.

"Corran, good to hear you." She yelled into the headset.

"You too. Look, if we're going to have the element of surprise, then we need to get out of the shadow of this moon, and dirt side as soon as."

"Right, see you down there." With that, Sam signed off, immediately going into her efficient, no nonsense mode.

Corran, stood on the bridge of the Errant Venture, raised his eyebrows in surprise as he turned and jogged towards the troop transport to catch a lift down to the planet.

"I didn't know The Peacemaker could get up to speed that fast." He commented to Luke, who gave him a grin.

"She couldn't."

"Oh."

They jogged into the docking bay of the Errant Venture, glad that Mirax had been able to persuade her father, Booster to help out with the mission. He suspected that she'd used a combination of guilt and threats to persuade the disreputable man to take a break from being a pleasure ship.

When they arrived on the planet's surface, Mara, Luke, and Corran followed the troops out, meeting up with Sam and Dentralla as the New Republic teams lined up, waiting for their orders.

After a brief discussion, Luke and Mara took one team to find and release all of the slaves left on the planet while Sam and Corran took another team of around 20 off to search the rest of the facility.

Corran followed Sam silently, watching her quietly as she jogged along, leading the team with a military experience that Corran had previously seen only on a minor scale compared to the way that she was now behaving.

They kept to the sides of the corridor, moving almost silently on, all commands relayed through the comlink headsets. They met only a few people along the way, who fell to the blasters of the team, or surrendered easily, with almost no fuss.

After about half an hour of searching through the corridors, they finally came to a large room with a huge circle stood towards the back, on a raised stone dais. A little way in front of it was a mushroom-shaped device. The troops moved in, spreading out and lining the room, forming a long rank along the back of the room, about a quarter of the way in at Sam's command. Corran joined them, standing ready with a rifle, and his Lightsaber. They all jumped in surprise as the inner rim of the circle began to move, rumbling around, while triangles on the outside slid into positions and glowed. Corran could feel Sam's emotions radiating, a roiling sea of emotions that he was unable to tell apart.


Jack waved good-bye to General Hammond and turned, stepping through the Gate with the newest member of his team. The minute his feet touched the ground on the other side and his eyes snapped open, he knew that something was off. There was something strangely familiar about the room.

Acting on instinct, he reached out and grabbed Sorrell's tactical vest, stopping the kid from falling down the steps, simultaneously raising his P90 to cover the array of people standing in front of him, sensing more than seeing Teal'c and Daniel do the same.

Standing a short way away was a tall, blonde figure that was oddly familiar, arms raised and holding a sidearm of some sort directly at them. He felt like he should have recognised her, but in the dark, it was hard to see the facial features of the woman.

The troops lined behind her had snapped their weapons up, too, and stood with an unwavering accuracy that showed practice, training, and experience.

"Daniel," he muttered, prompting the archaeologist to do his 'we come in peace' speech.

The room had been empty when they had sent the MALP through, using an adaptation of the device that had been left on the planet by the people who had taken Sam. It had taken them several years to figure it out, but now there was a 'long distance' trips made through the 'gate by one team each week. This week was SG1's turn. Figures.

Before Daniel could even begin his speech, someone right at the back of the lines of troops shot an energy weapon. A streak of red light went whirring through the air, hitting Sorrell directly in the face and dropping him to the floor lifelessly.

Jack cursed and opened fire on the people, barely registering an anguished scream of "no!" that preceded the blast by a microsecond.


Sam stared in shock and trepidation as the Stargate whirred into action. She could feel the surprise and curiosity of the troops behind her, including Corran's watchful and Dentralla's determined, presences.

She watched as four people stepped through the event horizon, immediately recognising the familiar forms of Daniel and Teal'c, shortly followed by Jack, and then an unknown person. She snapped her blaster up, aiming it at them and watching them closely. There was no way that this could be real. The chances of her arriving just then, and it being them that came through just then were several billion to 1. It was the dark side messing with her head again.

She'd had people messing with her mind too much over the last few years. It must be a dream or something.

Reality came crashing down on her when her danger sense tingled, telling her that something was going to happen.

"No!" she screamed, turning so that she was sideways on to both groups. She raised her arms, hands up and palms facing outwards to either side of her in the universal gesture to stop. Reacting as quickly as she could, relying on the promptings of the Force she erected two Force barriers, one to either side of her.

She wasn't in time to stop the first bolt, which screamed out from behind her troops and hit the unknown member of the team in the head, his presence in the Force blinking out abruptly. She dimly sensed Dentralla and Corran try to push their way forwards to his side, but held them back with the Force.

All hell broke loose on either side of her as the humans from Earth – SG1 – started to fire in retaliation, prompting the New Republic forces to return fire. Sam drew in the energy from the blaster bolts to her right, vaguely aware that the fiery red bolts seemed to fizzle into nothing as she absorbed the energy through the Force, using it to sustain the telekinetic wall that she had slammed up to stop the armour piercing bullets of the P90's, absorbing the energy from the staff weapon that Teal'c was firing.

Sensing his realisation that it wasn't working, she felt the tall Jaffa cast the staff aside and pull out his zat. At the same time, she felt Jack drop his P90, leaving it dangling from his vest as he pulled out a knife and threw it. As they had done this, Daniel had grabbed the now dead fourth member of the team, dragging him back to the little cover that they could find behind the gate.

Both sides finally stopped firing, though Sam wasn't sure if it was because they had realised that they were having no effect, or because of the powerful suggestion that Corran sent through the Force, using his skill for affecting people's minds to persuade them to drop everything and stop.

As soon as they had stopped, Sam made an executive decision, deciding that for this to work, she had to treat both sides the same for now. Using some of the excess energy from the fire fight, she reached out, pulling weapons from the hands of everyone except Dentralla and Corran, redirecting the energy from the Force to melt clips that fastened weapon to wielder where she needed to.

Gathering all the weapons, she used the Force to fling them against the farthest wall, along with all of the spent ammo. They clattered into the wall, skidding across the floor to crash rest in a heap of glinting metal.

Reaching out again, she found the presence of two beings trying to sneak out of the room.

Knowing that it was them that had killed the SG member and had tried to bring around the slaughter of the majority of the people in the room, she felt the familiar rush of her anger, still wild and uncontrolled after the time that she had spent tracking down this planet.

She used the anger, controlling it as she created a fierce wind that swept around from behind her, rushing around without affecting anyone but the two beings, which it swept up, pinning their arms to their sides and rushing around in a wide arc to bring them in to face her.

As soon as she saw their faces, she recognised them.

Human Shivral Telk, and his second Mo'chin, a tall Barabel.

The two came to rest in front of her, still floating inches off of the ground, and Sam felt her anger well up almost uncontrollably.

"Shivral Telk," she snarled at the man in front of her. The man's eyes were fearful as he faced her, unable to move. "Remember me? No. I don't suppose you do. Shame." Telk could apparently see her seething anger in her eyes as he gulped noisily and his eyes darted around in his head.

Sam could feel the Dark side calling, telling her that she could stop him if she gave in, she could feel the power pulsing in her veins raw, and unstoppable.

She suddenly frowned a little more and reached out, using the Force to pull something from around the man's neck. She grinned maliciously at him as she grasped the two discs on a chain. Understanding dawned on the man's face as she looked at him and growled, "Remember me now?"

Feeling her anger swell, she clenched her dog tags in her left hand, reaching out with her right and holding it just in front of the two slave traders.

Clenching her fingers as if she was trying to squeeze his heart from without, she drew on the Force, and began to draw his life energy from him.

She could not hear the screams of Corran or the roars of Dentralla as they tried to reach through the darkness to her.

What she did hear though, was the almost silent mutter of one Colonel Jack O'Neill.

"Oh my god, Sam!"

She faltered, eyes widening as she realised what she was going to do and a single tear threaded its way down her cheek.

Sobbing once,she letthe two fall to the ground, Telk clutching at his chest and breathing heavily.

She backed away from them, shaking her head and muttering "no, I'm sorry" repeatedly.

She was surprised when she was suddenly engulfed in a powerful hug, another thud followed shortly, announcing the presence of another hugging her from behind.

The two comforting presences were suddenly gone, and she looked up, wondering where they had gone, to find an angry Dentralla glowering at Jack and Daniel, Teal'c rushing over to defend them. She felt Corran's hand on her shoulder and turned to look at him. What she saw there surprised her.

"You beat it. You didn't fall," he told her quietly, knowing what she was thinking.

"But, I almost-"

"But you didn't," he told her, staring deep into her eyes, showing her what he meant through the Force too.

They stood like that for a few minutes before Sam nodded, realising that, although she had to deal with it, she had beaten it this time, she had passed the test and it would make her stronger. But they had a situation to deal with right now. Temporarily locking away her problems in that way was a skill she had learned since coming to this galaxy, knowing that if she dwelled on it right now, she'd die.

She heard Dentralla's threatening growl and glanced briefly at her three old friends before looking back at Corran and impulsively giving him a rib-cracking hug.

"Thanks for trusting me," she whispered in his ear. Corran gaped in shock as she released him and walked over to Dentralla.

Sam had never hugged anyone, let alone him before.

As Sam reached Dentralla, the Wookie half turned, keeping her bowcaster trained on the three strangers and delivered an intense diatribe to Sam, telling her exactly why she shouldn't do stupid things like that.

Sam rolled her eyes, her fears and doubts locked safely away for the time being.

"You're just worried that if I die, half the population of Kashyyyk will kick your ass." Dentralla, seeing that Corran had recovered and now stood beside Sam, finally let enough of her attention drop to catch Sam in a one-armed hug, ruffling her hair when she finally let go. The two were used to each others teasing and knew that neither really meant anything by it.

Turning back to the three men – well, two men and a Jaffa – Sam gave them a bright, heartfelt but nervous grin.

"Uh, hi guys." She watched all three of them stare for a moment, before Jack pointedly shifted his eyes to the weapons aimed at them. Sam's smile faded. "Uh, yeah…" reaching out with the Force she felt them all, seeing if they were human – which they were – and real – which they were – before looking at Corran, who gave her a nod, telling her that they were real. "It's alright, 'Tralla, they're friends." Dentralla growled a question at her and Sam rolled her eyes. "No, not like that 'friend' on Nar Shadaa, these are real friends." She took a deep breath. "From my home Planet." Corran and Dentralla both looked at her sharply, their faces screaming 'What!'

"Long story, now's not the time," Sam explained, suddenly frowning and turning, calling her blaster to her with the Force and slipping it into the holster, having dropped it when she put up the Force barriers only a short while ago. Dentralla lowered her weapon, though she didn't lower her guard just yet.

Sam took a hesitant step forwards and was immediately enfolded in a hug again, with even Teal'c breaking his usually stoic bearing to join in as they muttered their greetings to her. It was as if they had to feel her to make sure she was actually there.

"Uh, guys, nice as it is to see you again, I kind of need to breathe."

"God, Sam, we're sorry. We never thought we'd see you again an-"

"Sorry." She cut Daniel off, giving his hand a quick squeeze in apology. "Corran, you getting this?"

"Yes." Whatever he had been going to say was suddenly cut off as a stream of beings suddenly burst in through a back door, behind the gate. Sam reacted instantly, pulling all the weapons back from the corner and sending them skittering to their respective groups as Corran stepped in with his Lightsaber to deflect the bolts being directed at the group. The Troops wasted no time either, immediately returning fire at the people that were making their way in through the small door. If the door had been any larger, they would have been swamped and unable to hold their own.

Hearing the recall given by the leader of the New Rep forces from the bridge of the Errant Venture, Corran shouted to her to get them back to the transport and out of there; he would take the rear. Nodding once, she turned to SG1, only to find them running towards the 'Gate. Immediately seeing what they were up to, she cursed and used the Force to retrieve the lifeless body of their fourth member.

"You three, on me. Teal'c." She left the body in the care of the strongest of the group, ordering him to leave the cumbersome staff behind. When he protested, she gave him a push and told him, "No. Take this, we'll do the shooting, but you'll only fall behind with that." She handed him her blaster and yelled out to the strike team. "Red team, on me. Keep up, and if anyone falls behind, help them. We don't have much time. Corran, we're heading out!" Teal'c tried to protest that she would be unarmed but she just shook her head, and grinned wickedly, telling them that they would see.

Ordering the Earth Humans to the front of the group, Sam led the way, accompanied by Dentralla, using the Force to determine that yes; Corran was there at the back, defending their rear.

Following the route that she had mapped in her brain, she lead them at a fast jog towards the docking bay where they ships were.

"Corran, Sam, come in." She heard Luke's voice over her the comlink and used the Force to hit the button to reply.

"We read you. Go ahead."

"We're back at the ship; do you need help?"

"No. We're on our way; get out of here." Sam could almost see the nod that Luke would have given to that.

"May the Force be with you."

"And you. Out."

They were almost free when they ran into the enemy troops. Skidding around the corner to turn back away from them, Sam took a deep breath and, seeing Corran heading her way, she called out to them once again.

"Alright, keep it together; we've got one last bit then we're free. Follow behind me, and get straight to the ship. As soon as the last of Red Team is aboard, get out. Ready? Lets go."

Pulling out her Lightsaber, she clutched the metal hilt in her still gloved hand, thumb over the activation switch. Holding up fingers to count, she signalled: 1, 2, 3…and ran out, igniting the shining violet blade and sprinting ahead, deflecting the bolts before they could reach the rest of the team.

Showing the depth of their experience, the SG-oners barely even hesitated at the sight of the blade, shooting down the enemy with accurate shots as Sam bounced the bolts back at them.

Reaching the alcoves where they were trying to hide, Sam jumped and rolled in the air, coming down with her second blade ignited and spinning in the small corridor, deftly taking out the last of the attackers in a flurry of acrobatic, yet efficient movements.

Without even pausing, she led them into the now empty docking bay, leaving Red Team to stream towards their ship as she led Jack, Daniel and Teal'c towards the Peacemaker, Corran heading towards the Troop Transport he had come down on, checking that Luke and Mara had left on the second one.

Running up the ramp right behind Dentralla, she skidded into the cockpit, leaving Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c to the four passenger seats.

Hands flying deftly over the controls, barking commands at Dentralla, she brought the engines online, out of the 'ready' status that it had been in.

"No, we just need to make it to the Errant Venture, leave the navi-comp." Kicking in the sub-light thrusters, Sam took them up and headed out of the atmosphere.

Before they had even reached it, though, she had readings from the tactical computer.

"Sithspit," she cursed. "Dentralla, we're gonna need the quad lasers going. Take Jack and Teal'c and show them where."

"Hey, what about me?"

"No offence, Daniel, but they're more likely to know what they're doing. They're trained soldiers. You're not." Daniel frowned slightly but nodded, understanding her point, glad that her attention was on the controls and not him so she couldn't see it.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

"I am here, O'Neill." The disembodied voices came over the comms, and Sam quickly slipped the headset over her head, speaking into it.

"You two okay there?"

"Peachy."

"I am."

"Controls okay?" She asked distractedly as she manoeuvred through the last layers of the atmosphere.

"Nice and simple."

"Indeed." As if to prove it, they both shot out a few shots just as they broke out into space, just as Dentralla re-appeared.

Adjusting their vector, Sam swung them around to point them at the fierce space battle that was raging only a short way off. She heard the awed gasps from the three men as she did so.

Pulling more power out of the engines, Sam took them to the edge of the fight, contacting the Errant Venture to recall all fighters and make ready to pull the lever as soon as the last were aboard.

"Okay, guys, this is gonna be tricky. Just remember green are friendly, red aren't." With that, she threw herself into the fight, juking and jinking, twisting and turning, manoeuvring through the ships, most of which were enemy as all the friendlies were heading back.

There were large numbers of Uglies – snub fighters jumbled together from different fighters – as well as several large Corvettes and Assault cruisers, and a Dreadnaught that looked suspiciously like a stolen piece of the Katana Fleet, no doubt stolen from the Imperials after Thrawn had been defeated.

Explosions to their port side were punctuated by whoops from Jack and the ship shuddered from hits to the strengthened shield, Teal'c remaining silent as he wiped out ships trying to break through their shields.

"Power to the aft shields!" Sam ordered suddenly, killing forward thrust and rolling to the starboard, watching a proton torpedo go shooting past to detonate on the shields of the Errant Venture a few kilometres ahead of them. Pulling an extra little burst of power from the engines, they finally made it past the shields, and into the safety of the Star Destroyer – at the sight of which, Jack had let out an awed whistle – and she killed the engines, switching to repulsors as she passed through the magnetic shield of the docking bay entrance.

The huge blast doors of the ship rumbled closed as soon as they were through and Sam coasted in, bringing the ship down to a rest, the dull cluck of the docking web was abbreviated by the sudden jump to hyperspace.

Sam wiped the sweat off of her face and onto her sleeve, slumping back into her chair.

Glancing across at Dentralla, she sighed.

"Let's go face the music, then," she said, unconsciously slipping back into the 'lingo' of her home. Dentralla growled a question and Sam waved her off. "Oh, never mind."

"What?" Daniel asked, missing half the conversation.