Star XIng

by Lelila

A crossover with The XFiles. What do alien abductions have to do with the Force? First appeared in Delusions of Grandeur 2, May 2002.

Star X-ing

by Lelila

Disclaimer: Star Wars and it's characters and situations are property of Lucasfilm, LTD, and The X-Files and it's characters and situations are property of 1013 Productions. No money is being made off of this endeavor, so please don't sue.

Author's notes: This is my requisite post-Requiem fic. Every X-Phile that is even the tiniest bit of a 'shipper and writes fanfic had to write one. It was a law. But, being that I am an even more rabid Star Wars fan than I am an X-Files fan, I decided to take this twist on it. For those of you who are not X-Philes, I've worked very hard so that shouldn't make a difference. If you just know that Mulder and Scully chase aliens for a living, you'll be fine. For those of you who have been following the show, know that I wrote this during the summer between seasons 7 and 8; so Doggett doesn't exist, the Lone Gunmen didn't have their own show, and all the revelations about Mulder and Scully's relationship and physical states aren't taken into account. Plus, I've bent a few things in the X-Files timeline to suit my fancy. But that's the joy of fanfic, now isn't it? It does fit rather nicely into the Star Wars EU timeline right before Heir to the Empire, but that was more by coincidence than by design.

"I really wish I were going with you," Han commented as he ran his hands over the curves of his wife's back.

"The mission isn't dangerous," Leia mumbled back dreamily, totally lost under the magic of Han's massage.

"Yeah, yeah, standard diplomatic mission and all that, but still, you'll be going through some hostile territory."

Leia flipped over onto her back to face him. "We'll be in hyperspace. Besides, Luke is coming with me because the Noitazans want to meet the Jedi that saved them." She draped her arms over his shoulders. "And he's as good if not a better pilot than you are."

Han squeezed the arm he was caressing just a little too hard. "Bite your tongue."

"I'd rather bite yours," she shot back cheekily.

Han laughed, leaning over to kiss her briefly. "Well, the kid can fly, I'll give him that." He settled down next to her, taking her in his arms. "So, when do you expect to be back?"

"Well, they have nearly a week of ...mmmmmm..." She trailed off as Han began to nibble at her neck and ear. She managed to find enough conscious thought to finish her sentence. "...festivities and ceremonies. Maybe...mmmm...oh...ten days..." That was it. She lapsed into bliss as he sucked gently at just the right spot behind her ear.

"And they didn't want me to come along?" he breathed seductively into her ear as he started to undo the plaits in her hair.

Leia had to struggle to form coherent words, "They're still a pretty...mmmm...closed society...ooooo...I think they want to look us over on...uuuummmm... their own terms..."

"Well then," he mumbled around a mouthful of the soft flesh above her collarbone, "I guess I'm just going to have to get my fill of you tonight."

Leia coiled herself around his body, kissing him firmly. "I guess so."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully lay in bed unable to sleep, pondering everything that had happened to her. Not just recently, but in the past seven years. Seven years ago she had been assigned to her partner, Fox Mulder. She didn't know it then, but the moment she walked into his office, her life had irrevocably changed.

She had initially been assigned to Mulder to discredit his work; Scully was a doctor; a scientist, and a former instructor of Forensic Medicine at Quantico. Mulder, referred to as "Spooky" only half-jokingly, was an alien chaser, along with ghosts, goblins, vampires, and any other creepy-crawly that defied rational explanation.

Mulder was not what she had expected. While he was kind of strange and very intelligent, which were things she had anticipated, she had come to see him as a tragic figure, not unlike a hero in one of the many myths and legends he was so familiar with. He was haunted by the many things he had seen and experienced. This haunting had been precipitated by the disappearance of his sister when he was twelve and she was nine. He had operated for many years under the assumption that she had been abducted by aliens. That idea had very recently been put to rest by their discovery that it was in fact their own government that had taken her. And while her true fate remained a mystery, Mulder was satisfied that she was at peace. But the things they had discovered in their search for her had only caused Mulder to search for a deeper truth; of what exactly Scully wasn't sure. Life, death, God, the universe. All Scully really knew is that she had very quickly turned from adversary to searcher herself, and that Mulder's quest was now her own as well.

But Mulder wasn't here now, and the compass for her quest had suddenly started to spin. He had been abducted by the very aliens that they had more or less proven that their government had tried to hide the existence of. She had not been there when it happened, and she hated herself for it. She had come to realize in the two and a half months that he had been gone that he was the ballast in her journey; he kept her steady and pointed her in the right direction. Without him, she was incomplete.

Scully flipped onto her back, her neatly manicured hands coming to rest on her belly. And then there was this. She herself had been abducted 5 years ago. It had left her with an implant in her neck that, when removed, had given her cancer. It was only when the implant had been replaced that she had gone into remission. She had been healthy for nearly three years now, but the abduction had also left her barren. She remembered the ball of ice that had formed in her stomach when the doctor had informed her that all of her ova had been removed.

But something had changed sometime in the last two-and-a-half months. The same day she found out that Mulder had been taken, she also found out that she was pregnant. How this was possible she did not know, as along with her supposed inability to conceive, there was also the fact that she had had no sexual partner in anything resembling the recent past. Hell, Mulder had been the last man she had even kissed, and that had only been because it was New Year's Eve.

Scully had incredibly mixed feelings about the pregnancy. On the surface she was elated; while she had not thought much about being a mother before she found out she couldn't be one, when she found out that that ability had been taken from her, she had suddenly realized she wanted nothing more.

But she was also skeptical, and yes, scared. Who, or what, was the father? And was she even the biological mother? Perhaps she was just a vessel; a surrogate used by whatever had the power to impregnate her. There had been a few strange instances around the time she figured she would have conceived in which something might have happened to her. What if it was an alien hybrid?

Scully reached up and touched her throat to seek solace from the cross she normally wore there. But it wasn't there now; she had sent it with Mulder on his ill-fated trip to Oregon. She only hoped it would protect him.

She stroked her belly, which was just barely beginning to swell. While it would still be several months before she would have to think about buying maternity clothes, she could tell the slight difference. Mulder should be here for this, she thought.

She had to find him. It was more important now than ever.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, did Han want to come on this mission, too?" Luke inquired of Leia as he settled into a seat in the lounge of the personal transport Life Debt after engaging the small ship's hyperdrive. In general, Luke was discreet about the details of his sister's and best friend's marriage, but she confided in Luke occasionally, and this topic seemed to come up often. It seemed like, according to Leia, that whenever Han didn't have anything better to do, which was often, he wanted to tag along on Leia's diplomatic excursions. She took him whenever she could, but there were many instances when it simply would have been a bad idea. The reasons ranged from people knowing too much about Han's past to general xenophobia. So this had become a bit of a running joke between she and Luke: did Han want to come this time? The answer was usually yes.

As it was this time. "Of course," Leia replied with a smile. "Says he'll miss me too much."

"Can't you find him a job?" Luke asked, only half jokingly. "Something to keep him occupied when he isn't running underworld jobs for the New Republic?"

Leia rolled her eyes. "I've tried. Everything he's even remotely qualified for, short of military duty, he's either not interested in or would be a bad idea due to his high profile. And he's had his fill of being a soldier, so that option's crossed off as well." She sighed. "I don't know what to do with him some days." She smirked at her brother, "Sure he doesn't have any Force potential? Being a Jedi would keep him occupied."

Luke laughed. They'd had this conversation before as well. "Nope, sorry. I've checked a dozen times. If he's got any potential at all, it's so slight..."

Luke's sentence was cut short as the ship lurched, and a resounding BOOM echoed through the hold. Leia, no longer strapped in, was nearly thrown to the deck. "What was that?" she asked.

"I don't know," he replied, already halfway to the cockpit. The ship shuddered again and lights flickered as Leia got up to follow him.

As they emerged into the cockpit, Leia couldn't help but pause at the scene out the viewport. The normal grayish mottling of hyperspace had been replaced by a jewel-toned multicolored swirl reminiscent of the view inside the ornate kaleidoscope that had sat on her father's desk when she was a child. If she hadn't been so afraid for their safety, she would have marveled at the phenomenon's beauty.

Luke ignored the spectacle, however, and had dropped into the pilot's chair. He was now busily trying to interpret the mass of information the sensors were sending him.

Leia quickly settled into the co-pilot's chair and asked, "What's going on?"

Luke shook his head and repeated, "I don't know. I've never seen readings like this before."

The ship lurched again as the swirl gave way to starlines and then the starfield of sub-light run. "Great," Leia commented. "We've been dumped out of hyperspace. Any sign of an interdictor cruiser around here?"

Luke was still valiantly trying to make heads or tails of the sensor readings. "No. But there is this." He brought the ship around to reveal a blue and green mottled planet with two large landmasses in their field of view. And they were way too close to it.

"How did we get so close to a planet in hyperspace!" Leia exclaimed. "Where are we? We shouldn't have come anywhere near this close to a system in hyperspace!"

"I know that," Luke replied, sending a few calming thoughts toward his ever more frightened sibling. "I don't know where we are; the nav computer can't get a reading on this starfield."

"It's probably the nav computer that got us into this mess," Leia observed sourly.

"That's always a possibility," Luke conceded, fighting with the controls. "The engines are out. All I've got are thrusters."

"So we're going to crash?" Leia's eyes went wide and her heart rose to her throat as she saw the planet growing ever nearer. She knew they were being pulled in by its gravity well.

"Well, it won't be the softest landing I've ever made." Alarms started blaring, announcing the rise in hull temperature and uncontrolled decent.

Leia slapped them off. "Tell me there's something I can do, Luke."

"Monitor the thrusters. We're going to need them once we get in a little closer," Luke replied, a little too calmly for Leia's liking.

"We've lost topside," she reported after a few more tense moments.

"In a gravity well we shouldn't need that one," he said as he watched the altimeter's numbers descend. At five clicks out he hit all the underside thrusters, and for a moment, their descent slowed almost to a point of being controllable.

But then the ship listed. "Luke! The aft thruster is out, and the rest of them are going fast!" Leia pounded on her board, trying to re-engage the lost thrusters or start the sub-light engines. All of it was to no avail. One by one, the thrusters all sputtered out. "Luke!"

Leia glanced over at him to find his eyes closed. She realized he was trying to gather the Force around him to bring the ship in for a safer landing. Calming herself, Leia reached out to the Force as well and tried to lend some of her spirit to Luke, to allow him to accomplish this task more easily. She found, however, that the Force here was weak and diffuse, and she had a very hard time getting in touch with it, much less controlling it. But she tried her best, knowing that her life may well depend on it.

But it was too little, too late. Before she could open her eyes to see what was happening, sound erupted in her ears, and the darkness came...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mulder blinked his eyes open, why he didn't know. It really didn't make any sense to open his eyes as it was pitch black in the cell they were holding him in. Whoever they were.

He didn't know how long he'd been there, but he knew it had been some time. He had been poked and prodded, but they had done no real damage to him. He was fairly certain however, that they had taken at least some tissue from him.

He sighed. They had left him his clothes, at least, minus his gun. The smell they emanated added to the evidence that he had been in their capture for awhile. He reached up and touched the cross that Scully had given him before he left. He shook his head. What she must be going through now, he thought.

Scully. She had been ill when he had gone; he hoped it had been nothing serious. He hoped she was well now. He hoped...

Well, it was silly to hope that. Of course she was looking for him. Scully wouldn't rest until she found him. She would be as obsessed with him as he had been with her during her abduction, or during the time when she had been infected with the alien DNA, the "black oil," and carted off to Antarctica. He'd been a madman when that had happened. He was sure she would be equally as crazed.

Scully had come into his life at a point when he was perhaps at his most cocky. At first, he had resented her. She had, after all, come to debunk his work. And from the moment his sister had been taken when he was twelve, he had been sure he was right. Aliens existed, and there was a huge government conspiracy to cover it up. But in the seven years he had known Scully, that cockiness had changed to questioning. That was largely due to her questioning of him and his theories, but remarkably, he didn't begrudge her for it. She had kept him honest; saved him from becoming the true flake that everyone accused him of being, and she had gained first his respect, then his admiration, and finally, his love.

He'd told her all of this, on some level or another. How much of it she believed, or even acknowledged, he did not know. Before meeting her, he had not considered himself a romantic man, despite his intense knowledge of all the romantic myths and legends. But in the moment that Scully had been abducted, he knew that he loved her. And more recently he'd realized it wasn't just simple love or animal attraction - she was his soul mate. He was incomplete without her.

As he was incomplete now. He found himself time after time wanting to ask her advice, her opinion. He knew that if she were here they'd be able to find a way out of this mess. As it was, he was stumped.

He settled back against the cold metal of the wall. Scully would come for him, he knew. In the meantime, he just had to figure out some way to help her once she did.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leia was bored out of her skull. The room they had her in had no windows, save for the small one in the door that overlooked the hall, and no communications devices of any kind. And she was alone. Luke was nearby, safe, and in relatively good health, but beyond that, she wasn't sure of very much. She had not been able to use the Force to communicate with Luke, try as she might. The same feeling of the Force being diffuse, like an over-exposed holo-image, that she had felt on their ill-fated approach, was still strongly present.

She had awoken in this room after that crash-landing. It was a spare, clean room, equipped only with the bed and several monitors. She deduced from the look of them that this was a medical facility of some sort. She had a crude bandage on her forehead and smaller ones on both her arms, along with a persistent ache in her torso which was also covered by a bandage. A nurse had been in to change the dressings, and she was aghast to find that they had put several small stitches into her flesh. The nurse had told her that it was only a minor wound, and the stitches would be out soon enough.

All of her personal effects were missing, up to and including all of her hair pins. As it was, her hair was a ragged mess. She had tried in vain to keep it in some kind of bun or braid, but it had always come unraveled. As for clothing, she had been left only some horrid shift that refused to stay closed, no matter how tightly she did up the knots.

She had spent the day-and-a-half that she'd been here first trying to communicate with Luke, and when that had proved impossible, trying to figure a way to get past the hulking guard that stood outside her door. So far, she'd come up with nothing.

The food she'd been given was nourishing, but she'd had ration bars that had tasted better. At the moment, she was trying to force some green, jiggly goo down her throat. It didn't taste unpleasant, but the texture bordered on the disgusting.

She was contemplating another spoonful of the glop when she heard the door squeak open. Pushing past the guard was a woman approximately her own age and height with flame-red hair and ice-blue eyes. She had a small, upturned nose and full, pouty lips that were painted the same deep maroon that her modest clothes were hued. But despite the fact that she looked every bit the professional bureaucrat, Leia sensed something innately deadly about this woman.

The woman reached into a pocket of her coat and produced a wallet of some sort, which she opened and produced for Leia's inspection. "I'm Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI," the woman intoned in a rich alto. "Do you...understand English?"

Leia inspected the proffered credentials. They looked official enough, though the script on them was unlike any she had ever seen. "I don't know about English," Leia replied, handing back the ID, "but you seem to speak Basic well enough."

Agent Scully blinked at her a few times, and seemed somewhat taken aback that they would be able to understand each other. She drew a breath, and inquired, "Do you know where you are?"

Leia shook her head. "Not where I'm supposed to be, obviously." I've been hanging out with Han too long, she thought as soon as the flip comment escaped her lips. She sighed. "I'm sorry. No, I don't."

"You're at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside of Washington, D.C.."

"I'm afraid that still doesn't tell me very much."

Agent Scully looked flustered again. "It's the capital of the USA." She blinked, and seemed to regain her composure, suddenly becoming all business. "Where are you from?"

Even without the Force, Leia knew an interrogation when she saw one. Oh, this one had a reasonably comfortable setting and a pretty face on it, but it was an interrogation nonetheless. She grew wary. "Before I answer that, maybe you should tell me a little bit more about who you are and where I am, first. Agent...Scully, was it? You're what, some kind of intelligence operative?"

"I'm with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I'm a law officer."

Leia's eyebrows shot up, despite her attempts to keep a neutral face. "And what crime am I accused of?"

"None yet. That's what I'm here to ascertain."

"Uh-huh. Now, you said that I'm in a hospital outside of Washington, D.C., which is the capitol of the USA. Now, I'm afraid I've never heard of these places. What planet is this?"

Agent Scully looked really flabergasted this time, but again regained her composure quickly. "Earth," came the simple reply.

Leia narrowed her eyes. She'd never heard of Earth. "What's the name of this system?" When she again only received a blank look, she amended, "What's the name of your sun?"

"The scientific name is Sol."

Leia shook her head again. "We're out on the Rim, aren't we?"

"The Rim?"

Leia took a breath to release her frustration. For a law officer, this woman seemed rather underinformed. "Of the galaxy. We're not near the Core, are we?"

"Well, it's been a little while since I've taken an astronomy class, but yes, if I remember correctly, we are out on the rim of the galaxy."

"That explains a few things," Leia muttered to herself.

Leia paused to collect her thoughts, but just as she was about to speak again, Agent Scully cut her off. "Look, I'm here to ask you about where you're from, and what that craft is that you were found in."

Leia focused on her again. "Before I answer that, let me ask one more question. Is this a space-faring people? Have you been to other planets?"

Agent Scully drew a breath. "No. But I think you've just answered one of my questions."

They regarded each other for a moment. "So, you've never heard of the Empire or the Republic?" Leia finally asked.

"No," came the short reply.

Wow, Leia thought to herself. First contact was something she had never done before, and this was far from ideal conditions, but one does the best with what one has, she figured. She drew herself up a little straighter in her seat on the bed, and extended a hand. "Let me introduce myself. I am Ambassador Leia Organa Solo, Minister of State of the New Republic. We are a confederation of planetary systems. I offer you greetings from our many worlds."

The Agent's lips twisted into a half grin. "Are you going to ask to see our leader now?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Nothing. I'm sorry." She grasped Leia's hand for a brief, but firm shake. "Welcome to Earth."

Agent Scully settled herself on the edge of Leia's bed. "Well, if you're not from this planet, that raises a lot of questions. Let's start with the one I asked before: where are you from?"

"Originally, I'm from Alderaan, but lately Coruscant has been my home. The latter is the capitol of the New Republic. Both systems are relatively near the galactic core."

The Agent was scribbling in a small notebook. "And how did you get here?"

"Well, now that's the question, isn't it? I'm not really sure myself. We weren't bound for here, if that's what you're asking. The short answer to your question is: in that craft you referred to." Suddenly realizing that that small shuttle may be their only way off-planet, she inquired, "What kind of shape is it in? It hasn't been destroyed, has it?"

"It did sustain some damage, but it is more or less in one piece."

Leia released a sigh of relief. "Oh good. Maybe Luke can fix it."

Agent Scully looked up from her notes. "Luke? Is that the man that was with you?"

"Yes. He's my pilot, my protector, and," Leia allowed herself a small smile,. "my brother. Is he being held near here?"

"He's in this building, yes."

"Have you spoken with him?"

"Not yet. I thought I'd start with you." Agent Scully smiled briefly. "You said you weren't bound for here. Where were you headed?"

"Noitaz. It's out on the Rim too, but I knew we weren't there the second I got a look at that guard out there. The Noitazians are small, hairless, and genderless."

"And you don't know how you got here?"

"No," Leia replied. "Something... I don't know what...happened during the trip. Next thing we knew we were trying to pull out of a dive into this planet's atmosphere."

"Were there others in your party?"

"No."

Agent Scully paused, jotted down a few more things into her notebook. She then slid off the bed and pulled Leia's chart from its place on the end. She flipped through it briefly. "And then there's my biggest question. You appear to be totally and completely human. And yet if you are from the galaxy's core, how is that possible? Much less, how is it possible that we speak languages that are so similar that we understand each other perfectly?"

Leia shrugged. "That is something that our historians have been puzzling over for centuries. Almost every system that I am familiar with has at least one, if not more than one, native race. Peoples that are unique to that system. But humans have existed in nearly every quarter of the known galaxy for as far back as any known records. We're talking about thousands of years. And while Basic is not the native tongue of all humans, it is the common language of the galaxy, and has been that way for as long as anyone's known." Leia regarded the Agent for a moment. "It does not surprise me to find humans here, or even to find that you speak this language. What does surprise me is the fact that you are not a spacefareing people."

"Perhaps we once were, and have forgotten."

"Perhaps."

Agent Scully flipped her book shut and shoved it back into a pocket. "I don't have any more questions at this time, although I'm sure I'll think of more. When I do, I'll be in touch."

"Am I being charged with a crime?"

"Not at this time. I'll recommend no, but it's not really up to me. In all honesty, I think you're considered more of a security risk than a criminal."

Leia nodded. "I see. Would it help if I talked to your leader?" She let a smile creep over her face.

Agent Scully returned it. "It may come to that." She turned to leave.

"Agent Scully," Leia called after her. "Tell Luke I'm all right. I'm sure he knows, but, tell him I said so."

She looked puzzled for a moment, but nodded. "I will." And with that, she was through the door and gone.

Leia looked at the door for a long moment. She couldn't be sure, but something told her that her way out of all of this was through that petite woman.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The nerve of them," Han muttered as he engaged the Falcon's hyperdrive. "Telling me I shouldn't go and rescue my own wife. I mean, it's not like I'd be using one of their ships or anything."

Chewie grumbled that the New Republic brass did have some legitimate concern about back-up and not knowing what the now-missing-for-three-days Leia and Luke had run into.

"Bantha biscuits! It makes more sense to send one small scout team, as in you and me, in a ship that won't necessarily be seen as such, so if it does turn out to be something that's gonna need a big task force, they'll know what they're up against."

Chewie just shrugged and didn't argue with him.

A few hours later, just as Han had taken the concussion grenades off-line to do some maintenance on them, the ship lurched. "What the hell was that? Chewie!" he yelled as he launched himself toward the cockpit.

Once there, Han found Chewie already flipping switches and turning dials. "What happened?"

Chewie growled something about an interdictor ship and pointed out a roughly triangular vessel off their port bow just as the ship lurched again, indicating their hold in a tractor beam.

"Shields!" Han barked, dropping into the pilot's chair. "I would have to take the grenades off-line right about now..."

Chewie roared at him.

"Well how was I supposed to know we were gonna get pulled at this exact moment! It was only gonna take ten minutes!" Han squeezed off a couple shots from the ship's underside swivel blaster, but they just splashed off the other ship's shields.

He leapt from his chair and headed for the quad cannon bay. "Lemme know when we're under their shields!" he called over his shoulder.

Han heard the Wookiee's howls before he even put his headset on. Without bothering to take aim, he fired at the rapidly approaching ship. The damage he inflicted was superficial. "Aw dammit!" he banged on the firing yoke. They were too close to escape now...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mulder threw his arm up over his face to keep the blinding light that streamed from the door from his eyes. Expecting to be carted off again for more tests, as had happened three times before, he braced himself. But instead, he heard the stumbling of feet, and a gruff man's voice say, "Hey, watch it!"

He heard the door shut again, and slowly took his arm from his face. Surprised to see a dim light in the room, he still had to squint. On the floor lay a man roughly his own height and build, perhaps a touch older. And next to him was a large...furry...something.

The hirsute beast made some animal-like noises, to which the man replied, "No, I'm alright. Or I will be, at least." He sat up, in obvious pain. "Just once I'd like to get captured without being manhandled."

Mulder cleared his throat. It had been a long time since he'd spoken, and his voice was weak. "Hey there," he managed.

The man looked at him and nodded in greeting. "How long you been here?"

Mulder hoisted himself up the wall a little further. "Not sure. Awhile."

"Awhile what, man? Days, weeks, months?"

"Months, probably."

"Oh, great. How do they treat ya?"

"Well, other than the fact that the food is lousy, the toilet facilities consist of that hole over there," Mulder indicated the far corner, "and the fact that they've kept me in complete darkness until now, it hasn't been too bad."

"They haven't tortured you? Questioned you?"

"Nope. Ran some tests, took a little tissue, but that's all."

The man shook his head. "Tried getting out?"

Mulder croaked out a laugh. "We're on a vessel. Even if we managed to get out of the cell, where would we go?"

"Well, they might have shuttles or something."

Mulder just shook his head. The man grumbled a little to himself and slumped against the wall.

"I'm Fox Mulder, by the way," he offered after a few moments.

"Han Solo," the man replied. "This here's Chewbacca."

"Nice to meet you. Wish it were under better circumstances." Mulder paused. "If it's not too rude of me to ask, just what is Chewbacca?"

Solo looked a bit flabbergasted. "You've never seen a Wookiee before?"

"'Fraid not."

"Well, that's what he is." For emphasis, Chewbacca roared softly.

Mulder's interest was piqued, and for the first time in what felt like forever, some of his strength began to return to him. So there was more than one kind of alien in the galaxy. And this man - this Han Solo - seemed to know a bit about them. Maybe he could offer some insight into what these creatures wanted with him. "Where's he from?"

"Chewie? Kashyyk, though for the last fifteen years or so he's been my first mate. How 'bout you? Where you from?"

Mulder thought that an odd question. Solo was obviously human, and he spoke English. What did he mean, where was he from? "Earth. You mean you're not?"

Solo snorted. "No, never even heard of it. Where is it?"

"Out on the edge of one of the spiral's arms."

"The Rim, huh? How'd you get out there?"

Mulder shrugged. "Born there. How'd you get out here? I mean... where are you from?"

"Corillia, originally, though lately Coruscant's been home."

Mulder's head began to spin. "Were you born there?"

Solo threw him a "what-kind-of-an-idiot-are-you" look and snorted, "Yeah."

The pieces started falling together in Mulder's mind. "So there are humans in other parts of the galaxy?"

"This is news?"

"Yeah. On Earth, the official word is that there is no other intelligent life in the galaxy, much less humans anyplace other than Earth."

Solo shook his head. "Well, I got a newsflash for ya buddy: there are humans everywhere, and more different kinds of intelligent species than you can shake a hydrospanner at."

"So I'm learning. That brings me to my next question. Do you know anything about the people that took us?"

"Ya got me on that one. I've never seen them before."

"So you don't know why they've taken us."

Solo flashed a crooked grin at him. "I was hopin' you knew that."

Mulder licked dry lips. "Well, I have a theory, but considering the fact that I'm still here, I really don't know how sound it is."

Solo hooked an arm over a knee. "Lay it on me."

Mulder related the story of his life as an investigator of all things paranormal, specifically things having to do with aliens and alien abductions. He told of his partner's abduction, and how it had left her ill and barren. He also told of his own abduction, along with perhaps twenty others, from the crash site in Oregon that he had been investigating, and of the several rounds of examinations he had undergone.

"In short," he concluded, "I think they're performing genetic tests on us. Did they take any tissue from you?"

Solo looked a little stunned. "Yeah, they did, actually. Just a little needle stick, but I'm sure that was enough. You don't think they're cloning us, do ya?"

Mulder shook his head. "No. I think they're trying to create some kind of hybrid between us and them. Why, I don't know."

"Well, I ain't gonna be nobody's lab rodent," Solo declared, pushing himself away from the wall and going to examine the door. "Let's see if we can't find a way out of here."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scully meandered down the hall of the hospital, her head swirling with the implications of what the presence of otherworldly humans would mean. More cover-ups, that much she was sure of. And if this woman, Leia, was correct in everything she'd said, everything that scientists and philosophers had been arguing about since the beginning of time would suddenly become moot.

She came to the door she was searching for, it too being flanked by a guard. She flashed her badge and entered. Within, she found a sandy-haired man sitting cross-legged on the bed, obviously meditating. She cleared her throat.

The man opened his sky-blue eyes. Scully lost her mental footing for the instant that she met those eyes. She felt that some kind of exchange had taken place in that instant, and the energy in the room suddenly changed.

Not to be undone, Scully drew a breath and recited her introductory litany. "I'm Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI." She offered her credentials. "I'm told that your name is Luke. Is that correct?"

The man barely glanced at the credentials before handing them back. "Yes, I'm Luke Skywalker. I take it you've spoken with Leia?"

"Yes. She said to say she's fine."

Skywalker smiled briefly. "She always says that."

"Yes, speaking of her," Scully took a seat at the end of the bed. "Does she have any history of mental illness? Delusional behavior, hallucinations, those kinds of things?"

Skywalker's brow wrinkled. "No. Why would you ask that?"

Scully scratched the back of her neck with her pencil. "Well, she did seem lucid, but she told me some pretty fantastic things."

Skywalker cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? Like what?"

"Well," Scully consulted her notes, "like, she claims to be the Minister of State of the New Republic, which is a confederation of planets, mostly near the core of the galaxy, and that she lives on a planet called Coruscant, and that she's never heard of Earth."

Skywalker nodded. "Sounds about right to me."

Scully frowned. "I suppose you're going to tell me the same thing," she challenged.

He shrugged. "Approximately."

Scully exhaled noisily. "And this vessel of yours...that's how you got here?"

"The Life Debt? Yes. What kind of shape is she in?"

"She suffered very little structural damage. Beyond that, I couldn't say."

Skywalker nodded. Scully started again. "Why don't you tell me your version of how you got here."

"Well, we were heading out for a diplomatic mission to Noitaz when we were pulled out of hyperspace by some anomaly. We found ourselves inside the gravity well of this planet, and crashed. And then we found ourselves here."

Scully made a note that the stories matched, and opened her mouth to ask him more about where he came from, when he cut her off.

"Why don't you ask the question that's really pressing on your mind?"

She knitted her eyebrows and glared at him. "And what question would that be, Mr. Skywalker?"

"You want to know about that child you're carrying."

Scully dropped her pencil. "How do you know about that?"

"I'm sorry, but it's just so clear. The Force is very muted on this planet, but your child is very strong with it; he shines like a beacon to me, and by extension, so do you. I knew the moment you walked in the building. And now that you're here, in the same room, your worry for him radiates off of you. And you're hoping..."

Scully cut him off. He was way too close to the mark. "Hold it. What are you, some kind of mind reader? A telepath?"

"I'm a Jedi."

"What is that?"

"A Jedi is someone trained in the ways of the Force. And to answer your next question, the Force is an energy field created by all life. It seems very muted here, but your child is very strong."

Scully was close to losing it. She sat on the side of the bed, trying to make sense of the eddy of thoughts in her head and emotions in her belly. "What can a Jedi do?" she asked, really not sure why she was asking.

Skywalker swung his legs over the edge of the bed to sit next to her. "Many things, depending on the strengths of the particular Jedi. The Force aids in battle, gives you insight into political situations, helps you see the truth in a matter, allows you to feel other beings and sense their emotions, lets you manipulate matter..." He trailed off, and Scully was about to prompt him to continue when her pencil rose, seemingly of its own volition, from its place on the floor where it had been dropped to land gently in her hand.

She wrapped her fingers around the pencil and felt her heartbeat quicken and her breath rasp in her throat as the implications of everything that was happening swirled through her mind. There was so much she had to know, but the idea of even beginning frightened her. This was too easy. And too difficult.

Before she could gather the courage to start, however, Skywalker gently placed a hand on her abdomen. "All of your fears for your child can be laid to rest. He is none of the things you think he may be."

Scully swallowed and dared to meet his gaze. "He's mine?"

"He's yours."

"He's human? Entirely?"

"I sense no other form of life."

Scully's heart swelled. But then reality and rationality came crashing in. This man was probably just some kind of con artist. She jumped to her feet and paced over toward the wall. "I didn't come here to talk about this. I came here to ask you who you are and how you got here and about that craft you were found in..."

Skywalker cut her off. "You know all of that. Leia told you that. And it's not the only reason you came here. You think that we know something about your child and...and...something else. What is it, Agent Scully?"

Scully turned to glare at him. Once again he had peered directly into her soul. Before she knew what she was saying, the words were spilling out of her. "My partner, Fox Mulder, was abducted, we think, by aliens around 10 weeks ago. We have no idea how to find him, especially if he's been taken off-planet. It's important that we get him back..." She trailed off; dropped her voice to a whisper. "It's important to me."

"I'd like to help you if I can."

Scully looked at him, fighting back the tears in her throat. "Why? You don't even know me."

"It's what the Jedi do. We help people."

Scully gave up trying to fight her tears. "How do I know that you won't just take advantage of me? That you're not doing that right now? That you're not just some huckster that knows a few parlor tricks and how to read people?"

Skywalker shook his head. "You don't. You'll just have to trust me. But, if you'll forgive me for being presumptuous, I think I'm your last best hope."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Assistant Director Walter Skinner tossed the much-read report onto his desk. "Alien humans? How is that possible?"

Scully spread her hands. "I don't know. But according to them, there are humans all over the galaxy, along with many other types of aliens."

Skinner ran his hands over his bald head, expelling a breath. "What do you suggest we do? I can't keep this from the Pentagon forever."

Scully paused. She had been dreading making this recommendation, but she knew in her heart that it was the right one, for obvious, and not so obvious reasons. "Sir, I suggest we let them go, and not report their presence here to anyone."

Skinner leaned across his desk. "Let me get this straight. You want to be part of the cover-up that you and Mulder have been fighting against for the last seven years?"

"They mean us no harm; they didn't even intend to come here. And if we don't cover it up, the Pentagon will, and they won't let them leave."

Skinner dropped his glasses on the desk and leaned back into his chair, rubbing his eyes. "I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. Peaceful or no, human or no, they still may be a security risk."

Scully banged her fist on Skinner's desk. "She's an Ambassador, and he's some kind of peacekeeper. I know in my gut that all they want is to be on their way."

"Agent Scully..."

"They offered to help find Mulder," Scully broke in.

Skinner looked up at her. He had been with Mulder when he had been abducted, and had been very shaken up about it. He, like Scully, had spent most of his time since then trying to find out what exactly had happened. He exhaled noisily and settled his glasses back on his nose. "That does change a few things, doesn't it? Do you think they had anything to do with it?"

Scully shook her head. "No, their ship is nothing like the craft that's been described and that I have witnessed. And they're human - every test we've run has indicated that. The aliens we've come in contact with in the past may look human, but definitely have different physiology. I don't think they know anything about it, but they're willing to help. And let's face it, we haven't been able to come up with anything."

Skinner nodded slowly. "I'll see about getting them released."

"Sir, there's one more thing," Scully said, swallowing. "I'd like to go with them."

Skinner's voice dropped almost to a whisper. "Do you think that's wise? Especially considering your condition?"

Scully drew a shaky breath, swallowing the tears that were close to the surface. "No. But I know this is something I have to do, pregnant or not."

"Scully, Mulder's been gone almost three months. Your child is due in just over six, and there's no telling how long you'll be gone."

"Sir, I know it goes against all my better judgment, but I just know that this is something I have to do. If you feel it necessary to come with me, I won't stop you, but I'm going. I'll resign if I have to, but I'm going."

Skinner regarded her quietly for a long moment. "I'm granting you an indeterminate leave of absence due to your pregnancy starting tomorrow."

Scully felt a tear run down her cheek as a surge of hope filled her. "Thank you, sir," she whispered as she got up to leave.

"Scully," Skinner called after her. She turned to see his eyes brimming with emotion. "Take care of yourself. And make sure that you, and Mulder, and your child all come back to us in one piece."

Scully smiled through her tears. "Count on it."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two days later, Luke was inspecting the underside of the Life Debt in the secluded hanger on Bethesda's Naval Air Base when Leia came up behind him, escorted by Scully. Assistant Director Skinner had escorted Luke over, and stood anxiously by the door. "Luke!" Leia cried, throwing her arms around him when he turned to greet her. He hugged her tightly. She flinched.

"What is it?" Luke asked, searching her eyes and Force sense.

Leia rubbed her side. "Just this flesh wound that they barely treated. I will be so glad to get on board and put some synthflesh on it. How is she?" She gestured at the small shuttle.

"Well, from the looks of it, most of the problems we had in landing had to do with overheating, so they should be fine now. As for the rest of her, nothing seems so bad that I won't be able to fix her, at least to the point she's useable. She may not be up to specs, but she'll get us home."

"Good." Leia glanced over at the two FBI agents whispering in the corner. "Agent Scully tells me she's coming with us."

Luke nodded. "I told her that I'd help her look for her partner."

Leia frowned. "Do you really think that's wise? I mean...she's never been off-planet before, and has no real knowledge of what's out there." Leia lowered her voice. "She carries a slug-thrower as her weapon of choice."

Luke shrugged. "Maybe they don't have anything better here."

"That's exactly my point."

"Look, Leia, this isn't about violence or vengeance, it's about finding someone important to her. Besides, I have a feeling about this...something tells me that if I help her fulfill her quest, that I will also be helping to fulfill mine."

"Which is?"

"Understanding of the Force. Becoming a more complete Jedi. You know that."

Leia was about to offer another reason why this was a bad idea when Scully and Skinner approached along with three other men. One was tall with a neat beard and a simple suit not unlike what Skinner wore, another was approximately the same height with long dirty blond hair and tousled clothing, and the third was short and squat, with thinning hair and dirty clothes.

Without preamble, Agent Scully introduced them. "Luke Skywalker, Ambassador Leia Organa Solo, this is John Byers, Ringo Langley, and Melvin Frohike.

"The Lone Gunmen," Langley interjected, launching a step forward to offer his hand to Leia. She smiled patiently and accepted it for a brief shake. "We're here to help you get your bearings."

Leia arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Before Langley could make too much of a fool of himself, Scully stepped in again. "The Lone Gunmen have extensive computer abilities, and we - I - thought that they could help you plot your way home by having them overlay whatever data they can acquire with your ship's systems."

Leia crossed her arms over her chest. "You mean they're slicers."

"We're hackers," Frohike piped up.

Scully held up her hands in an effort to stave off any potential arguments. "Whatever you want to call it, I think they'll be able to help us. And despite appearances," she cast a sidelong glace at the motley crew behind her, "they are completely trustworthy."

Skywalker, quiet through this entire exchange, finally joined in. "Okay, I'm about done out here, so why don't you come on board and we'll see if we can't arrange something."

The Gunmen gleefully followed him up the ramp, and the Ambassador, after giving Scully a good long glare, followed them.

Scully turned to Skinner. "Sir..."

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I understand. The less I know the better."

Scully drew a shaky breath. "You don't know what it means to me for you to come here today..."

"Well, remember what I said. I want you and Mulder back on the job as soon as possible."

She swallowed, nodding. "Yes sir." She wiped her eyes. "I've been crying so much here lately... I don't know if it's just hormones, or..."

Skinner pulled her to him for the briefest of moments before backing away and resuming his stoic demeanor. "Take care of yourself, Agent," he said stolidly before turning around decisively and marching toward the door.

Scully watched him go until he was out the door. Composing herself, she picked up her luggage and headed up the ramp.

She emerged into an open cabin that contained a central table, benches bolted to the floor, galley facilities, and cabinets and storage containers in every nook and cranny. To her right was a door that led to the cockpit; Skywalker and the Gunmen could be seen bustling about beyond it. On the other end of the room was another hatchway. Ambassador Organa Solo crouched near it, rummaging through one of the lower cabinets. She shut and latched it and then stretched up to open one of the overhead cupboards. Several of the items came crashing down. The Ambassador covered her head, but let out a yelp when something that looked particularly heavy landed squarely on her forearm.

"The joys of gravity," she muttered, inspecting the offended limb.

Scully grabbed her medical bag and hurried to her side. "Here, let me look at that." The Ambassador looked at her as if she were mad. "I'm a medical doctor," she explained.

The Ambassador relented and offered her arm for inspection. Scully prodded at it gently. "Well, Ambassador.."

"Leia."

"Leia...I would put some ice on this so it doesn't swell, but I think the most you'll have is a bruise."

"Well, if I can find the med kit, I'll do just that. Aha!" She produced a long white case which she put on the table and flipped open. Producing a blue cylinder, she placed it over her injured arm, tightened the clasps on it, and touched a few buttons. As she did this, she said, "So, what should I call you?"

Scully paused. There was a time when she had preferred to be called by her first name, but since Mulder, who insisted on being referred to by his last, had entered her life, the only person who called her by her first name was her mother. "Most everyone calls me Scully," she finally replied.

"Very well. Look, Scully, I'd be lying if I said that I thought that your coming with us was a good idea. But I trust Luke's judgment. So, I hope that the two of you find whatever it is you're looking for." She looked into Scully's eyes earnestly for a few seconds before peering back into the med kit.

"Thank you," Scully returned.

Leia came up with an oblong packet and what looked like a pair of scissors and started to undo the fasteners on her blouse. Before she got more than one or two open however, she paused, and glanced up at the open door to the cockpit. Frowning, she scooped up the packet and scissors and said, "Follow me."

Curiosity piqued, Scully grabbed her bag and followed Leia through the far door in the hold and into what was obviously a small crew quarters. It was outfitted with a narrow cot and a small desk and chair, as well as a few drawers and a bar to hang clothes from. A small door at the foot of the bed led to what Scully presumed to be the head.

Leia took a seat on the cot and finished undoing her blouse. Scully suddenly understood why Leia had elected to move back here; her bra was built into her blouse, and by opening it, she exposed herself.

Leia peeled the bandage back away from the wound on her abdomen. "Well, Doctor Scully, would you do me the honor of removing these stitches?"

Scully examined the wound. "That wouldn't be prudent," she replied, shaking her head. "The wound hasn't healed enough yet."

"That's what the synthflesh is for." She ripped open the packet and offered it for Scully's inspection. "It'll hold the wound together, help it heal faster, fight infection, and it won't leave a scar."

Scully peered at the thin membrane. It certainly looked like skin. "What's it made of?"

Leia shrugged. "It's biologically engineered and grown in labs. Beyond that, I don't really know."

"This is against my better judgment," Scully said, reaching into her bag for some latex gloves, "but if this does what you say it does, it's better than stitches by a long shot." She picked up the scissors and indicated for Leia to lie down and quickly snipped through the two stitches. She fished a pair of forceps out of her bag. "This might sting a little, so you might want to take a deep breath," she instructed. Leia complied, and Scully pulled the stitches. She picked up the synthflesh. "What do I do?"

"Peel it off its backing and apply it tightly over the wound."

Scully pulled the tissue from its wrapper and examined it a moment before applying it to Leia's abdomen. "I have a feeling I'm going to be amazed at every turn on this journey," she remarked as she snapped off her gloves.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Leia replied, sitting up and refastening her shirt. "Come on." She stood up and headed out the door. "Let's go see what they're up to in the cockpit."

Upon arrival, they found Skywalker and Frohike underneath a panel while Byers poked and frowned at a laptop hooked up to a cell phone. Langley sat at one of the cockpit stations.

"Now try it," Frohike's voice sounded from beneath the panel.

"Still nothing," Byers replied.

"I think there's something going on over here, though," Langley proclaimed excitedly.

All six people in the room rushed to Langley's station to see it lit up. Scully recognized what she thought were star charts that seemed to float in thin air. Leia leaned over Langley's shoulder and touched a few buttons. "Good. The Nav computer's online," she said. Scully saw Langley stiffen at her slight touch and rolled her eyes.

"Wow," Langley breathed.

Roll back your libido, Langley, Scully thought to herself.

"Look at that," Frohike chimed in.

Huh? Now Scully was confused.

"A fully-rotatable 360° holographic display," Byers said with awe.

That was it? They were getting themselves in a dither about the technology? Scully had to admit it was pretty impressive. She shook her head. Why should she have thought anything else of these three?

"Byers, go pull up the NASA data," Frohike prompted.

"Oh, right," Byers returned to the laptop.

The display changed to an overview of the galaxy at large. "Here's where you are now," Byers called as a small blip out near the tip of one of the spiral's arms lit up.

"Way out there?" Leia's eyes went wide. "It'll take us months just to get back to known space, much less to the Republic or Coruscant."

"Maybe not," Byers replied as the display changed yet again. "According to this data, a wormhole opened up extremely close to Earth at precisely the time you would have arrived here."

"A wormhole?" Leia asked.

"Yeah," Langley piped up, peering directly at Leia. "It's like a tear in space. Through one, you can travel thousands of light years in the blink of an eye. They're usually pretty random, but judging from this," he glanced briefly at the display before turning his gaze back to her, "this one seems to have a definite pattern to where it is."

"It's currently about 3 light years from here," Byers finished, indicating with another blip.

"But what about the other end?" Leia asked. "Who's to say that we won't end up farther from where we want to be than when we started?"

"Well, there are no guarantees," Frohike said, "but current theories about wormholes are that if one end is stable, so is the other."

Leia looked at her companion. "How come we've never heard of wormholes?"

"I think we have," he answered, "we just call them something else. Graviometric distortions is the term we use, I think."

"I'm uploading all the current NASA information we have into your computer," Byers said. "I hope it helps you find Mulder."

"You've already been a big help, friend," Skywalker said, going over to clap him on the shoulder. "We thank you." He looked over at Leia and Scully. "I've checked her over, and she looks about as spaceworthy as she's going to get. Are you two ready?"

"Other than the fact that the hold is a mess, yes," Leia replied.

"Let me see these three off, and then I'll be ready to go," Scully said.

As the Gunmen gathered up their things, Leia said in a most official-sounding voice, "On behalf of the New Republic, I again would like to thank you gentlemen for all your help."

Langley went over and shook Leia's hand emphatically, "Oh, believe me, ma'am, it was entirely our pleasure." He smiled goofily at her.

"Come on, Langley." Scully grabbed his arm, shot Leia an embarrassed grin and pulled him through the door.

Scully walked them down the ramp. "Good luck, Scully," Byers said.

"Make sure you bring Mulder back in one piece," Langley added.

"And yourself too," Frohike said.

Scully looked at them each in turn and then did something she thought she'd never do. Gathering them all in for a group hug, she planted a kiss on Frohike's balding head. As she stepped away she saw his coloring noticeably change. "Thank you guys for everything." She bit her lip to fight back the ever-present tears. "Now get out of here; the less you know the better."

They nodded at her as she headed back up into the ship. She turned and held up a hand to wish them good-bye before hitting the switch on the hatch.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Han grumbled as he examined the seals around the door of the cell. He'd been scrutinizing them for several hours now, to no avail. There was no access panel, and there seemed to be no way to open or short circuit the thing from in here. Spewing several Corrillian obscenities, he pounded his fist on it and slid down next to it, defeated for the moment.

"No luck?" Mulder asked from his spot in the corner.

"Nothing obvious, anyway." He exhaled noisily, running his hand through his hair.

Several moments passed in silence until Mulder finally asked, "So, what's your story?"

"My story?"

"Yeah. I told you mine. What's yours?"

Han snorted. "What part of it? The whole thing could be an epic holonovel."

"You see me going anywhere?"

Han just snorted again and looked away.

"Well," Mulder said after another few moments of silence. "Why don't you just tell me the part that got you here?"

"I was off looking for my wife. She's apparently gotten herself into trouble again."

"What's she do?"

"My wife is Princess Leia Organa."

"Who?"

Han drew a breath. "Oh yeah. I forgot; you've never heard of the Republic. I guess I better back up then. For thousands of years, the galaxy was ruled by the Old Republic. They had their problems, but basically they kept the peace and everybody had more or less the same rights under their government. Then, about 20 years ago, this guy Palpatine overthrew it and declared himself emperor. He enslaved entire races, had you killed if you sneezed at the wrong time, and with the help of his puppet Darth Vader, all but wiped out the Jedi. Basically ruled with an iron fist."

"Who are the Jedi?" Mulder asked.

"They can use the Force. Anyway, about ten years ago, Leia, who was a senator at the time, and a bunch of other big shots, started this underground Alliance to Restore the Republic. Eventually it blew up into this big civil war..."

"What's the Force?"

Han blew his breath out. "I don't even know how to answer that question. But by using the Force, Jedi can do things that normal people can't, like reading other people's minds, and moving things without touching them. I'm not the person to be asking these questions; Luke is."

"Luke?"

"My brother-in-law. I guess he's the last living Jedi."

Mulder sat up straighter. "Is your wife a Jedi too?"

"No, I just said Luke was the last one. I guess Leia's got the potential, but she hasn't been trained."

Mulder leaned forward, suddenly growing very intense. "So it runs in families, this potential to be a Jedi?"

Han threw up his hands. "I don't know! I guess so. Anyway, the war's more or less over now, and the leaders of the Alliance are in the process of trying to set up a New Republic, and Leia is Minister of State..."

"Can Jedi communicate telepathically?"

"According to Leia they can. Do you want to hear how I got here or not?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry."

"Anyway, Luke and Leia were out on this diplomatic mission when they disappeared. So, Chewie and I went looking for them. We were pulled out of hyperspace by this ship here, and...now we're here."

They sat in silence for several minutes before Mulder said. "This Leia of yours sounds like a remarkable lady."

Han smiled, more to himself than anything. "That's an understatement." He shook his head. "I'd never met my match before I met her. Oh, Chewie here stands up to me, but it's only because he thinks it's for my own good."

Chewie growled at him.

"Yeah, yeah. I told you a long time ago you don't owe me anything, pal."

"What'd he say?" Mulder asked.

"Oh, I met Chewie by freeing him from an Imperial slaver. His people believe that if you save their life, they owe you a Life Debt, meaning that they protect you until you die. He's just asserting that he's doing his job." He turned to the hulking Wookiee. "You paid any debt you owed me a long time ago. But, if you don't mind me gettin' mushy for a minute here, I will say that I'd miss you if you weren't around to cover my butt."

Chewie chuckled and grumbled again.

"I didn't say I needed you to cover my butt, I just said I'd miss you if you didn't."

Mulder stifled a laugh.

Han shot him a glare, unsure if he saw it in the dim light. "Anyway, unlike old furball here, Leia stands up to me just for the sake of doing it. She makes me second guess myself. Nobody I know has ever done that. Pretty amazing, considering the fact that she only comes up to my chin." He snorted a laugh. "And attractive... I didn't think it was possible to be that good looking and still be that intelligent and have that much passion. She really threw me for a loop. She takes my breath away, and when she's gone...part of me is missing too."

"She sounds a lot like Scully."

Han looked up from his musings and met Mulder's gaze. "That's your partner?"

Mulder nodded. "I don't know when I fell in love with her, exactly. Maybe the moment she walked into my office for the first time, on those ridiculous heels, trying to make herself look bigger and more imposing than she is. But like your Leia did for you, she totally knocked me on my ass, figuratively anyway. Literally a couple times." He grinned. "She makes me a whole person; she completes my soul. And the only thing that has kept me sane while being kept here is the hope that I will someday see her again." He grew somber. "She was ill when I left. I hope her cancer hasn't recurred."

"Does she feel the same way for you?"

"I think so. I hope so."

"Have you told her all of this?"

Mulder nodded. "Yeah. Not all at the same time, but yeah."

Han sighed. "Well, I hope it works out, man."

"Me too." Mulder glanced around the cell. "I gotta get out of here, first, though."

Han had to agree with that. "So Chewie," he said. "You got any brilliant ideas for getting out of here yet?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luke pushed the hyperdrive lever on his panel forward, and the starfield streaked into the mottling of hyperspace. "Well, ladies, now we wait and see if this wormhole is where we thought it was."

Leia unstrapped herself and rose from her seat. "I'm going to see how big a mess the hold is really in," she said, and exited the cockpit.

Agent Scully watched her go. "How come...she isn't floating?"

Luke turned his pilot's chair around to face her. "Artificial gravity in the floor. You'll notice your hair isn't floating either." He reached over and fingered her red tresses for a moment.

"So, how long do you think it will be till we get to...where we're going?"

"It'll be about thirty-six hours until we reach the wormhole," Luke replied, scrubbing his hands on his pants. "Beyond, that I don't know."

Agent Scully's eyes went wide. "A day and a half? To go three light years? How is that possible? According to Einstein's theories, once you go faster than the speed of light, you wind up going backwards in time."

"Well," Luke crossed his legs, "that's not exactly the way this works. While technically we are going faster than the speed of light, we're not doing it in realspace. We're in hyperspace, which is kind of a parallel universe in which faster-than-light travel is possible with no consequences to real time."

"How does that work?"

Luke shrugged. "I'm not a physicist. I just know it does."

She frowned. "There are so many questions I have...what kinds of places could we be going, what kinds of peoples will we be meeting, what kinds of dangers we'll be exposed to...I just don't know how I'll ever prepare for this." She shook her head.

"It is frightening. The galaxy's a big place. I'll help you as much as I can. But, you strike me as someone who knows how to take care of herself and can read a situation fairly well. I think you'll be fine." Luke shrugged. "And you'll be with me. Together I think we'll be able to figure most things out."

Agent Scully looked at him for a long moment, seemingly pondering. Finally she said, "And you...there are so many things I don't know about you, and yet for some strange reason, I trust you implicitly. Somehow I know that you only want to help, and that you will help me find Mulder." She laughed nervously. "And I don't even know what to call you."

Luke smiled. "Luke will be just fine. What shall I call you?"

She sat very still, her hands clenched in her lap, her eyes boring into his. Luke felt the internal struggle going on inside of her for the first time. It was faint, but the farther they got from Earth, the stronger Luke could feel the Force. Finally, through her swirling emotions, she decided. "Dana. You can call me Dana." Her voice was soft, as if she was unsure of the choice.

Luke nodded. "Dana, you're going to have to help me if I'm to help you find your partner. I know virtually nothing about him."

"Well, he's a white male, late 30's, about 6'2", 180 pounds, has short brown hair, hazel eyes..."

"No. I need to know him. Not just what he looks like. You're my link to that."

Dana's eyes clouded over. "I don't understand."

"Give me your hands." Tentatively, she offered them to him. They were cold. Luke held them a moment, willing calm to her. "I'm going to use the Force to probe your thoughts. That's not something I normally do, and I try never to do it when I haven't informed the person I'm doing it to, but in this case I think it's the easiest way for me to get a real sense of the person we're looking for."

She gripped his hands. "How does this work?"

"In all honesty, I don't really know. The Force reveals many things, but beyond that I can't explain it."

She looked at him skeptically for a moment, but finally said, "What do I do?"

"Close your eyes." She complied. "Now clear your mind of all thoughts except of your partner. What does he look like? How does he sound? How does he move? What do you know of his thought processes? What do you sense from him when he's near?"

Dana exhaled a breath and a calm settled over her as Luke began to get the first perceptions of the man she called Fox Mulder. Physically, he was as she described him; tall, handsome in his way, not really imposing, but powerful if he wanted to be. As they both relaxed further, other impressions of him filtered into Luke's consciousness. Images of someone extremely intelligent with a goofy grin and a sardonic sense of humor. Someone with great passion and drive, but with a sadness that underlay it all. Someone that Dana respected and cared for, all the while frustrating her and driving her to distraction.

When Luke felt he had a good sense of the man, he withdrew from Dana's thoughts, not wanting to invade her privacy further. "You can open your eyes now," he said, placing her hands into her lap. She looked at him with expectation. "He seems like an extraordinary man, this partner of yours."

Dana nodded, "He is."

Luke smiled a little. "He reminds me a bit of my brother-in-law."

"Did that help you?"

"Immensely. I know who I'm looking for now."

Dana's demeanor changed, again a bit more skeptical. "How do you plan to go about trying to find him?"

Luke leaned back in his chair. "Well, my plan for the moment is, once we get through the wormhole, to take Leia back to Coruscant, all the while keeping our eyes and ears open for anything odd. Then, we have the ship repaired, stock up on provisions, and backtrack, letting the Force be our guide. You'll also have to tell me what you can about the people you think took him."

Dana looked aghast. "You mean you plan on doing this by the seat of your pants? You're beginning to sound like Mulder."

"You trust him, don't you?" Luke asked, totally serious.

She seemed to wilt a bit. "Yes."

"Then trust me. The Force is a powerful ally, and I'm sure that it will lead us to him."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, Scully found herself in a quandary. What Luke said went against everything that made sense, but then, being out here on a spaceship God-only-knows how far from Earth and hurtling farther away by the second didn't fit into her idea of what made sense either. Yet here she was.

She wandered into the main hold after her exchange with Luke to find Leia again going through cupboards. "Are you looking for something?"

"No, just straightening up. The crash really made a mess, but luckily, there wasn't too much damage." She latched a door shut and looked at Scully. "What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Scully shook her head. "I...Luke's abilities are amazing. I shouldn't believe him, but...I can't help it."

Leia blinked at her. "You don't have Jedi on Earth, do you? That explains why the Force seemed so diffuse there."

Scully sat down. "I've never even heard of it before I talked to him. On Earth, when someone claims to have the kinds of powers Luke does, it can usually be explained away as some kind of trick or deception, or someone playing some kind of psychological game. There have been a few instances where it couldn't be easily explained away, but they have been so rare..."

Leia sat across from her. "I know what he does may seem amazing, but I will tell you that for as long as I have known him, Luke has been the most trustworthy and honest person I have ever known. He's been my best friend as well as my brother."

Scully squinted at her. "As long as you've known him? You didn't grow up together?"

Leia expelled a breath. "No, that's another long story. We've only known each other for about eight years, and have only known we were related for about five." She smiled. "In fact, I think he had a bit of a crush on me in the beginning there"

Scully raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, don't worry, nothing ever came of it. Han, that's my husband, although back then he was just a pain, kept me too distracted. Besides, now that I think about it, as wonderful as Luke is, I really don't think he's my type."

"And Han is?"

"Han is...Han. He's exasperating, infuriating...and incredible. He's also very funny, very intelligent...and just wonderful." Leia smiled. "He's my equal in everything except social status, and that's never really mattered to me anyway."

"Being an ambassador, is that a liability?" Scully asked.

Leia shrugged. "On rare occasion. Han has a bit of a checkered past, and there was some grumbling when we announced our engagement, but he was a General in the war, and was instrumental in winning several key battles, so nobody really says too much about it." She looked up. "And this partner of yours...is he just your partner, or is he something more?"

Scully stiffened. Deep inside, she knew Mulder meant much more to her than the word partner could ever encompass. But to speak the words aloud; admit it to someone else, much less to herself...she wasn't sure she could do that. It was a truth that for so long had simply been understood between herself and Mulder, and perhaps a few others, Skinner, the Gunmen; that the idea of speaking it aloud seemed almost absurd. But Leia had asked the question, point blank, and she obviously didn't know. Scully swallowed, and opened her mouth, not sure what she was going to say.

"He is...I hate to say this, but...he is my world. When I found out he was gone, I...I felt like something in me had died. Like it wasn't worth getting out of bed the next morning if I knew I wasn't going to see him."

Leia cocked an eyebrow. "So you two are a couple?"

"Not officially."

"Does he know you feel this way about him?"

"I don't know. I know he feels similarly about me."

Leia looked away, and Scully could tell she was trying not to laugh. "What's so funny?"

Leia shook her head. "You sound like Han and me. Everybody knew about us before we did." She leaned across the table. "Take some advice from someone who's been there: when you find him, make sure you tell him you feel that way."

Scully set her jaw and sat up straighter. "I intend to."

Leia shook a nod in her direction. "Good."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, after all of the passengers on the Life Debt had had a few hours sleep, they reached their destination. They had gathered in the cockpit and strapped in for the reversion from hyperspace. As soon as the starlines had faded to a starfield, however, Leia gasped. The Force suddenly filled her senses so completely, it was almost more than she could bear. She could hear the thoughts of her companions, as well as the beating of her own heart. Her skin tingled with the sensation of the air in the cabin brushing by it. She could see the inner workings of the ship. "Luke..."

"I know. I feel it too. It's...it's incredible."

"What is it?" Scully asked.

"The Force," Luke replied. "It's so strong here. I've never felt anything like it, not even on a planet teeming with life, much less in the middle of space."

Without even making any gestures, Leia pulled a magnetic warning sign from one of the bulkheads using the Force and danced it around the hold. She laughed euphorically. "This is wonderful!"

Luke tugged playfully on the sign, laughing himself. "Hey!" Leia protested.

Suddenly, Scully gasped.

"What is it?" Leia asked as the sign fell to the floor.

"That's the ship...it's the alien ship that abducted me, and it's what was described by Skinner as abducting Mulder."

Leia looked out the viewport to see a roughly triangular ship dead ahead. "Luke, do you recognize it?"

He shook his head. "No...I've never seen anything like it."

Scully gripped Luke's shoulders. "You said you could sense people. Is he on that ship?"

Luke's eyes were already shut. "I can't tell... there are so many people on board...that's where this strong sense of the Force is coming from...it's almost too much...I can't sort it out." He shook his head.

Scully opened her mouth as if to say something again, but before she could, she slapped her hand over her lips and ran from the cockpit.

Leia called after her, "Scully? Are you okay? Is she okay?" She turned to Luke.

"It's her child. It's very strong in the Force, and is obviously reacting in some way to the strong presence of it here."

Leia felt her anger flare up strongly. "She's pregnant? And you let her come?"

"Leia, calm down. You can't afford to get angry in a state like this."

Leia took a moment to squelch her outrage, but continued on, "Are you out of your mind? You have no idea how long it will take to find her partner..."

Before she could continue, however, the ship lurched. "Now what?"

Luke didn't even glance at the sensors. "Tractor beam."

Leia pushed aside her growing negative emotions and, without even consulting Luke, swung around in her chair and slammed the engines into reverse. The ship bumped and whined, but their advance wasn't even slowed. Leia set about trying to feed more power to the engines by shutting down some unnecessary systems, but only got so far as cutting back to emergency lighting when a flash of white light filled the hold, and then she was aware of nothing...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The dim cell that held Han, Chewie and Mulder was quiet. Mulder dozed in a corner while Chewie held Han around his legs, lifting him to the ceiling.

"I dunno pal," Han said, feeling around the seam between the wall and the ceiling. "I still don't know where the light is coming from, much less if there is a seam at all here. The light's just not bright enough for me to tell."

Chewie was growling his reply when Mulder suddenly sat bolt upright. Startled by his unanticipated movement, Chewie inadvertently dropped Han to the floor, where he landed squarely on his behind. "OW! Will you watch what you're doing!"

Chewie barked back that it wasn't his fault; he'd been surprised. Han tuned the Wookiee out however, when he noticed Mulder's wide eyes and stiff posture. "What is it?"

"She's here," he replied in a hushed voice.

"Who is?"

"Scully."

"Your partner? How do you know?"

Mulder shook his head. "I don't know. I just know. I can feel her. They've done something to her..."

Han rolled his eyes. "Oh great. He's turning into Luke."

Mulder bolted from his seat on the floor and began banging on the door. "Let us out of here!" he screamed. "You have no right to hold us! You have no right to hold her or do anything to her!"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" Han jumped to his feet and grabbed Mulder, shaking him hard. "Do you really think they're gonna listen to you and just let you out because you don't think it's fair? If that was the case, we'd all have been out a long time ago. We will find a way out of here, and if she is here, we'll find her too, but losing our heads over it isn't going to work."

Mulder's shoulders sagged. "You're right. So what do you suggest we do next?"

Han chewed the inside of his cheek. "Well..."

Before Han could finish his sentence, the door swooshed open, and another being was tossed inside. Han and Mulder both made mad dashes for the door, but found themselves face-to-face with cold metal when they got there. "Dammit!" Mulder slammed his fist on the door.

Chewie grunted something. Han turned to find him kneeling by their new cellmate, cradling him in his arms. "Luke? Luke!" He rushed to their sides, Mulder two steps behind.

It was indeed his intrepid brother-in-law, out like a light. Han shook him. "C'mon, kid, give us a sign here."

Chewie snarled at Han, who cast a glare at the Wookiee but said nothing. Chewie commenced a deep growling tone that reverberated around the room. Within a few seconds, Luke's eyes fluttered open. "Chewie?" he gasped.

Overjoyed to see his friend all right, Han forgot to ask Chewie about his little trick. "Luke? Are you okay? How did you get here?"

Chewie helped him into a sitting position. "I'll live. My head hurts." He scrubbed the back of his neck.

"How did you get here?" Han repeated. "Where's Leia?"

Luke related their adventures of being pulled through a wormhole, winding up on an unknown planet, meeting up with an FBI agent who had a personal agenda to her investigation, their journey to the wormhole and capture.

"Scully's here?" Mulder demanded.

"And Leia?" Han asked.

"I assume so."

"What do you mean, you assume so? Can't you tell, man?" Han pleaded.

"Han, the Force is so strong here...it's overpowering. I open myself up to it a crack, and it all comes rushing in. I can't sort it out...it's so loud." Luke sounded frightened.

Han felt bile creep into his throat. He hated doing this; hated asking his friend to cause himself pain, hated asking for help. But he had to know. "Luke, I'm begging you, please. Just try. I need to know if she's okay."

Luke regarded him quietly for a moment, and then turned to look at Mulder. "You're Fox Mulder. You're the one she was looking for."

Mulder nodded. "Please. If you can tell me anything about her...I haven't seen her in so long."

Luke finally nodded slowly and shut his eyes. After a moment, he gasped and shuddered. "Leia's all right. Dana's...here. I can't tell any more about her, I'm sorry."

Han looked slowly from Luke to Mulder to Chewie and then finally back to Mulder. "Let's find a way out of here."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing Leia noticed was how bright it was. And then she noticed that her eyes were closed. Even so, she could still "see" everything in the room. The Force was so strong...it permeated her senses. It was almost as if she didn't need eyes.

She was lying on a platform of some kind some kind of silver metal. There were several instruments surrounding her, but nothing touched her. A number of other humans, all women, lay on similar platforms elsewhere in the room. Scully was among them. Their clothing had been removed and replaced with crisp white shifts. None of them were restrained by any physical means. After a bit of self-examination, Leia discovered that she had been drugged.

But the drug was so easy to follow in her bloodstream; it was a crude, large molecular depressant/paralyizer. She simply found each droplet of the drug and guided it down to her kidneys to be washed out of her body. It took a little time, but she could feel the effects of her efforts.

She lay there, fairly certain of her ability to move, trying to decide what to do next. Certainly, the moment she did move, someone would be alerted to it. Through the Force, she examined the instruments that surrounded her. They were highly sensitive and very complex, but their programming seemed rather simple. She was fairly certain that she could re-program them to keep sending the exact same signals they were sending now, no matter what she did.

She hatched her plan, stretching out to see who else was on the ship. Luke was right; it was very noisy here and hard to discern one person from another. But she found Luke with little effort.

She reprogrammed her instruments, then did the same to the ones monitoring Scully. Putting her into a Force-induced trance, Leia set about removing the drug from her system as well.

When she was satisfied that Scully was free of the drug, Leia hazarded opening her eyes. The light was blinding. She squeezed them shut again. I don't need to anyway, she thought.

Slowly, she eased from the platform to the floor, her bare feet connecting with the cold metal. She paused a moment to take in the other women in the room, feeling a pang that she couldn't help them all now. She resolved that one way or the other, she would find a way to help them. Cloaking herself with the Force, she padded over to Scully's bed. Into her mind, Leia projected, Scully. Don't open your eyes, but wake up.

"Leia?" came Scully's whisper.

"Yes." She took Scully's hand. "Don't open your eyes; the lights are very bright. Roll to your right and on to the floor. We're going to go find Luke and get out of here."

"But what about Mulder? What if he's on this ship?"

"We'll deal with that when we find Luke. Come on."

Scully rolled to the floor and, hand in hand, Leia led them from the room, cloaking them both with the Force. After a few moments, Scully whispered, "Can I open my eyes now?"

"No. The lights are still very bright. Can't you tell?"

"Yes. But how are you leading us?"

"I'm using the Force."

"I thought you weren't a Jedi."

"I'm in training to be one," Leia replied. "But the Force is so strong here, all I really have to do is think something and it happens."

They meandered through spiraling corridors, Leia following the beacon that was Luke. After she felt like they must have walked every single passageway, they came to the one she was sure was correct. "Come on, it's not much farther," she told Scully.

Trying not to run, she pulled Scully to what she was sure was the right door. Pausing in front of it, she finally placed her hand over the access panel and over-rode the lock.

The door hissed open, and to Leia's surprise, they found not one, but four people in the cell. She recognized all but one of them. Shouts of "Leia!" and "Scully!" filled her ears.

In her heightened state, Leia flinched. Before she could fully recover, Han had her wrapped in a tight embrace. She chanced opening her eyes and glanced up to see her husband. "Han, what are you doing here?"

"We went looking for you, and wound up here. How did you find us? How did you get the door open?"

"I overrode the lock using the Force."

Han glanced back over his shoulder at Luke. "Why didn't you do that?"

"Mostly because I thought they'd detect us."

"They probably have," the man Leia didn't recognize put in from his place by Scully, where he had his arms wrapped around her. "We should go now, if you've got a way off the ship, that is."

"As long as they haven't done anything to the Falcon, you bet we do," Han said.

The group took two steps out of the cell, only to be met by the blinding light of the hallway. "Everyone shut your eyes and join hands," Leia commanded. "I'll lead us to the ship."

Leia felt Han's strong fingers interlace with those of her right hand, and Chewie's furry paw encircle her left. "Everyone ready?" she asked.

Before she got an affirmative from everyone, however, a flash of light blinded her even through her closed lids...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing that entered Leia's consciousness was the dull but insistent headache. Instinctively, she tried to raise her hand to her head. When her arm refused to move, however, her suspicions were confirmed: they'd been stunned.

Managing a feeble groan, Leia dragged her eyes open. Or rather, one eye. The other was held shut due to the fact that her face, indeed, much of her body, was pressed against someone. Being that she couldn't move her head and she didn't have the presence of mind to tap into her Force abilities, even with it being so strong here, she wasn't sure who it was. Her first thought is that it was Han; it was certainly a masculine human she was lying on, and he had about the right build: broad shoulders, defined pectorals. With great effort, she lifted her head to get a glance at her pillow's face.

It wasn't Han. The person she glimpsed was unfamiliar; he had a head full of tousled brown hair, a pronounced brow line, a somewhat bulbous nose, thick lips, and an unremarkable chin. Still, he wasn't unattractive. And since there was only one person in their party that she had not been formally introduced to, she was able to deduce his identity.

"Agent Mulder?" she was able to rasp out. She coughed a little, but managed to give him a little shove. "Agent Mulder? Are you all right?" Different people reacted to stuns in different ways, and Leia, now certain that she would recover, set about worrying about everyone else. First and foremost was the being she was using as a bed at the moment.

After another minute of rather feeble poking and prodding, Mulder groaned. Leia, now able to raise her head a bit, repositioned herself so that her chin was resting on his chest, and she could more or less look at him. "Agent Fox Mulder, I presume?"

Mulder blinked a few times, as if trying to focus. Finally, he drew a long, labored breath, and managed to get out, "Her Royal Highness, Minister of State, Princess Leia Organa-Solo, I presume?"

Leia coughed again. "Too many titles. Call me Leia."

"Mulder," the man replied. "What the hell happened to us?"

"We were stunned. Basically it short-circuits your nervous system and it takes a while for your body to reset itself. You should be fine, though."

"Is that why I have such a horrible headache?"

"Uh-huh. And that's one of the last things to go away."

"Oh, joy," Mulder groaned.

"That's also why I'm laying on you," Leia went on. "I can't get my body to move just yet. I hope you'll forgive me."

"Apology accepted. It's not that often I get to hold a beautiful woman in my arms, even if she is somebody else's wife. I just hope your husband forgives us."

"I think under the circumstances he'll be fine with it." With great effort, Leia pushed herself off of Mulder and onto her back. She lay there panting a moment.

"Are we all here?" Mulder asked. "I still can't move."

Managing to wrangle enough of her Force abilities again, Leia made out Han, Chewie, and Luke laying on her other side, and told Mulder as much. "Scully's on your other side."

Mulder's brow furrowed. "Were you held together? Did they...do...anything to you?"

Before Leia could answer, however, Han's loud groan interrupted them. Han was on his side, so his first sight was of Leia. He grunted her name.

"Shhhh...it's okay," she told Han. "We're all here, and, as far as I can tell, we're all safe."

He reached for her, obviously struggling. "Are you all right? What did they do to you? Did they torture you?"

She stroked his hair. "No. I'm fine. They're doing some strange things here, but nothing I think I'll have any nightmares about." She smiled, but then grew sober. "We need to get out of here and free these people. There's dozens of them, all of them being held against their will."

Han groaned, rolling on to his back and throwing his arm over his eyes. "What?" Leia asked.

"You're right, you're right," Han said resignedly. "We'll have to do what we can to help. Just once though, I wish somebody else could save the galaxy."

She leaned over him and smiled. "It's our lot in life, dear. When the galaxy stops needing to be saved, we can stop doing it."

Meanwhile, Mulder had managed to creep over to where Scully lay. He peered at her. She wore no make-up that he could attest to, her hair was matted and askew, there were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked generally worn out and beat up. Even so, Mulder was so overjoyed to see her after so long that she took his breath away. With great effort, he reached out and stroked her cheek, as much to reassure himself that she was truly there as to rouse her. He was rewarded by the flutter of her long eyelashes and, after a moment, the gaze of her clear blue eyes.

"Mulder?" she rasped, barely above a whisper.

He made no attempt to hide the grin that crept over his face. "Yeah, it's me. I can't believe you found me."

Scully returned his smile, tears welling up in her eyes. "Mulder, there's so much to tell you..." She trailed off as her smile faded. "Why can't I move my arms?"

He shook his head. "Something about what they did to us. It should wear off soon." With much effort, he managed to get his knees under him and sit up. "See?" He smiled at her, and before she could protest, he hitched his arms around her and pulled her to him so she was more or less sitting as well. Her head lolled. He tried to support her, but, being as he still only had limited use of his own muscles, he settled for leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Mulder," Scully started again. Her voice was stronger now, though still laced with emotion. "So much has happened. I don't know where to start..."

Before she could, a blinding light filled the once dimly-lit room. Its occupants, all now in some state of recovery, released a collective groan as they struggled to cover their eyes.

"I see you have all awoken," a decidedly female voice spoke from somewhere. Had it not been for its alto timbre, it could have been described as childlike.

"Who are you?" Mulder demanded, squinting into the light. "Why have you brought us here?"

"And can you turn the lights down a notch?" Han piped up.

The lights dimmed enough for the captives to risk opening their eyes and looking around and at each other. Mulder sat supporting Scully, Leia knelt next to Han, who had managed to get up to his elbows, and Luke, nearly totally recovered, sat next to Chewie, who still couldn't really do much more than blink.

"The answer to your question," the disembodied voice replied, "is both simple and complicated. You see, you, most of you anyway, the Wookiee was simply a lucky catch, are the chosen ones. You and the rest of the humans on this ship."

"Chosen ones for what?" Han asked sardonically.

"To spread the Force. You are the seeds that will allow it to grow and fill the galaxy with the Force of life."

"You mean re-establishing the Jedi order," Luke said.

"Among other things," the voice said. "Let me tell you our task. When the galaxy was largely in its infancy, we had already been in existence for millennia. We discovered the means for spaceflight and for the manipulation of life early on. We explored these blossoming new worlds, and were aghast by what we found. The creatures that might have become intelligent were most often prey for stronger, less intelligent creatures. We discovered after some time that it was because the Force did not exist on these worlds. This energy field that binds all life together, that creates order from chaos, was missing.

"So, we devised a plan. After some searching, we found a species, humans, that had the potential for Force creation and usage. It was so simple; all we had to do was switch on a few dormant genes. We seeded the galaxy with this species, and gave them a common language. We then set about, planet by planet, switching on the genes that were necessary in selected individuals. In the core, this went very quickly, and our job there was over nearly four millennia ago. The Jedi order arose, and allowed the Republic to form. A thousand generations of peace ruled in that part of the galaxy. It was only when the Jedi Order was destroyed that chaos rose again."

"But what of Jedi of other species?" Luke asked.

"Due to the stability that was brought by this approach, other species were able to evolve Force ability. This would not have happened had the Force not been in place to begin with."

The voice paused, and then went on. "We are just now getting to the outer rim of the planets we seeded with humanity. For fifty of Earth's years we have been doing procedures, but it has been slow going because this planet is still somewhat technologically and ideologically impaired. We have done many procedures and experiments, but we think we have finally found a way to make this work on Earth. It is a two-pronged approach, and you, Dana Katherine Scully, and you, Fox William Mulder, are representatives of that approach.

"The first way, represented by you Fox William Mulder, is to switch on the genes of potential parents. We do this by exposing them to a virus that will partially re-write their DNA."

"You mean the black oil," Mulder said accusingly.

"We have heard it referred to in this way."

"When were you exposed to the black oil?" Scully whispered in his ear.

"During your abduction. I didn't suffer any ill effects, so I didn't say anything."

"And the other way is represented by you, Dana Katherine Scully," the voice went on. "You carry the fetus of a child that was conceived with the genetic material of such a person. In your case, that of Fox William Mulder."

"What...? What are you saying?" Mulder spluttered.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Scully said, tears springing to her eyes. "I'm pregnant. Before now I didn't know who the father was. You can't know how happy I am that it's you..."

"Oh Scully..." Mulder cradled her face in his hands, wiping away her tears.

"But," Scully struggled through her tears, "what about my implant? And why remove all my ova?"

"This has been our standard procedure," the voice replied. "We would remove the genetic material of a female, re-sequence its DNA, and then when the time was right, restore it and let nature take its course. We worked with your own government to store the material to reduce the chance of degradation. We have found that ova survive longer when housed in their own atmosphere. As for the implant, it was simply a way to track you."

"Then why did it make her sick when it was removed?" Mulder charged.

"We are unaware of any such side-effect. The implant was not meant to be removed."

Leia climbed to her feet now. "How dare you experiment on these people? What gives you the right? Your motives may be in the right place, but your execution is way off the mark."

"And what of the Dark Side?" Luke said, rising to his feet as well. "You said it yourself: it was only after the Jedi Order was destroyed that chaos arose again. How are you to know that such a thing can't happen again?"

The voice paused. "There will always be Dark Jedi as long as there is darkness in the heart of man. But the Jedi holocaust was the result of an experiment that fell into the wrong hands. You see, certain Force abilities are controlled by certain genes. In no human had all the genes been turned on before, only some of them. That's why some Jedi are more powerful than others. We tried an experiment; we created a child that had all of the Force genes turned on: Anakin Skywalker. Had he remained in the Light, he would have been the most powerful Jedi the galaxy had ever seen. But Palpatine twisted him to his own devices, and thus created the most evil thing the galaxy had ever seen. If Palpatine had not had Darth Vader at his disposal, the Jedi holocaust would not have happened. That is why it is so important that you, Luke Skywalker, and you Leia Organa Solo raise the children that you carry in the way of the Light. They will be very powerful Jedi. And you, Han Solo, your burden will be no less important as the children's father."

"What do you mean?" Han said, struggling to his feet.

"Your children are due in just over eight months."

Han and Leia looked at each other. "I didn't know," Leia said, shaking her head. "I didn't know."

"It's okay," he said, wrapping his arms around her. "Are they right?" he asked, searching her face. "I mean...can they be right?"

"It's...it's possible." She shut her eyes and buried herself in his embrace, unable to say anything more.

"We'll figure it out," he whispered into her hair. "We'll figure it out."

"But why keep us this long?" Mulder demanded, finally on his feet.

"We needed to monitor you. You are among the first we have done this procedure on. Besides, we took a great number of people on this last journey; there were many procedures to do. But we have finished now, and you will all be returned to your homes. And those of you from the Core will be taken to a place where your vessels can get you there safely."

"But how can we be sure you won't be doing this to anyone else?" Leia demanded.

"Our experiments are finished. We have a few procedures left to perform, but our work is drawing to a close."

Leia wasn't sure how to respond to that, and before she could, the voice concluded: "We will be nearing Earth shortly. We will be transporting you within the hour. Make ready."

The light in the cell dimmed again, and its occupants just stood looking at each other, in awe of all that they had learned.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why would they tell us all of that?" Scully asked. "It doesn't make sense...why now?"

Mulder shrugged. "Like she said, they're about finished. Maybe they wanted to explain to somebody what they've been doing all this time."

"I don't see what difference it will make. You know this is just going to get covered up like everything else."

"We've just got to keep doing what we've been doing then," Mulder replied, picking up Scully's hand and caressing it with his thumb. "Fighting the conspiracy."

Just then the food slot opened, and Scully's and Leia's clothing appeared, along with the weapons and other small articles that had been taken from the cell's occupants.

"Well, they did say make ready," Mulder cracked with a crooked smile.

After dressing, Scully, finally back in control of her muscles, went over and took Luke and Leia by the hand. "I want to thank you both for all your help. I don't know what I would have done had you not come along when you did."

"It was our pleasure," Luke replied.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Leia cast a sidelong glance at her brother. "But it was a pleasure getting to know you, Scully. Good luck with your child...and with him." She indicated Mulder with a point of her chin.

Scully let a small smile cross her lips. "Thank you. Good luck with your children, as well."

Leia laughed nervously. "Yeah. Thanks."

Mulder came to Scully's side, and Luke reached out to shake his hand. "The Force will be with you." He shifted his gaze to Scully. "Both of you."

Suddenly, Leia sank to the floor with a gasp, holding her head in her hands. "What is it, sweetheart?" Han asked, kneeling beside her.

"The Force...it suddenly came rushing back in. It's so loud... everyone's awake...AHHH!" She screamed, digging her fingers into her hair as the door opened and Mulder and Scully, without even a backward glance, walked through it.

Chewie, still somewhat under the effects of the stun, made a lunge for the door but didn't get there fast enough. Han and Luke were on the floor next to Leia. Han just sat supporting her, unsure of what else to do, but Luke gripped her hand. "Block it out," he told her. "Shut it off. You can do that."

"It's so loud," she repeated.

"I know. But you can block it out. You're strong enough."

Leia scrunched her face up, squeezing her eyes shut. She panted for several moments, and finally slumped against Han. Her face relaxed, and she opened her eyes, not looking at anything in particular. "They're gone," she said simply.

"Who is?" Han asked.

"Scully, Mulder, all of them. I think that was some kind of Force command to get them to go where the aliens needed them to." She swallowed. "They've been transported back to their homes. It's much quieter now."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mulder found himself back in the clearing in the Oregon woods that he'd been taken from some three months ago. There were differences; he noticed the change from spring to fall. But the biggest difference is that now Scully was with him. He gripped her hand and turned to smile at her. She returned it.

It was then that he became aware of the other people with them. Some were milling about, some were talking, all seemed disoriented and confused. He glanced at Scully, who shrugged. "All right, everybody," he called, actually somewhat surprised when they all turned to listen to him and feeling somewhat like a idiot. "In case you didn't know, we've all been abducted by aliens." Mumblings of "Impossible!" and "You're crazy!" rose up. Mulder held up a hand to silence them. "The point is, we're back on Earth now, and I'm sure all you want to do is go home. I know that's all I want." He smiled at Scully again. "If I'm not mistaken, the highway is..." He paused to get his bearings. "That way," he finally decided. "I suggest we walk back to the road, flag down a motorist, and get them to call the police."

There was very little argument, and the group started off in the direction Mulder had indicated. He and Scully walked hand in hand, silent the entire way, just happy to be back together in an environment that made sense again. The road was precisely where Mulder thought it would be. There were no cars to be found. Night was falling, so he headed off toward town, the rest of the group in tow.

A mile or so down the road, Scully began to limp. "Hey, are you okay?" Mulder asked.

"I've got a stitch in my side. I'm fine." Scully recited the familiar litany.

He put an arm around her to support her. "We can go a little slower if you like."

"I'm..." Unable to finish her sentence, her knees buckled under her as she wailed in pain. Mulder caught her before she fell all the way to the ground. He eased her down, where she curled up into a ball. "Scully, what is it?" he implored.

Her eyes reflected physical and emotional agony. "The baby..." was all she managed.

Mulder suddenly found himself on automatic pilot. He barked orders to people to find some way to call an ambulance. The minutes seemed like hours as he cradled her in his arms, whispering to her that it would be all right, that everything would be all right.

The ambulance finally arrived, along with several squad cars. And suddenly everything shifted into fast-forward. They were taking her vitals, talking to her, loading her on a gurney, putting her into the back of the ambulance...He pleaded to go with her. They told him sorry, he couldn't; he could meet them at the hospital. He called after her, reassuring her, her name a mantra as the doors shut and the ambulance started to pull away.

As he watched the lights disappear around the bend, Mulder felt his heart turn to a ball of ice.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week later, they arrived at Mulder's apartment. Scully hadn't wanted to go back to hers. She'd been very quiet since she'd lost the baby, and try as he might, Mulder just couldn't engage her in any kind of real conversation.

"My fish are probably dead," Mulder commented as he fit his key into the lock. He flashed a grin at her, but only received a slight nod in return.

They entered the apartment, and Mulder's suspicions were confirmed. "Phew! These suckers have been dead for a while!" Disconnecting the filter, he picked up the entire tank and headed off for the bathroom with it.

After dumping the lot down the toilet and leaving the tank in the tub, he returned to find her perched on the couch, her jacket still on and her arms wrapped around herself.

"Are you cold? I can get you a blanket."

"No."

"Scully..." Swallowing the lump that was forming in his throat, Mulder sat down next to her and, after a moment's hesitation, put his arms around her.

It was as if his touch broke through the outer membrane that was holding her together. She exploded into sobs. He found himself crying as well even as he held her to him and tried to comfort her.

"Why us?" she demanded of his chest. "Of all the people in the world...in the galaxy...to pick on, why us? We've both been left with nothing...nothing! We've lost our families, some measures of our health...why? Why, why, why?" She pounded her fist against him.

For the millionth time he berated himself for getting her into this mess, but didn't voice those concerns, knowing she would only respond by saying that she had chosen this path. So, he answered the only way he could. "I don't know," he said as much to himself as to her. "I don't know."

They cried for a few minutes longer before Scully, still tearful, pushed herself away. "I'll never be a mother now. There was a time when that didn't matter, but now..." She buried herself against his chest again.

He pressed his lips to her brow, pondering whether to tell her what he had done. He had kept it from her for so long, he was afraid she would hate him now. But, he'd done what he'd done out of love; he'd just have to pray he could make her see that.

"There may be a way," he whispered to the top of her head.

She looked up at him. "What are you talking about?"

He brushed the hair from her face with his fingertips, searching her features for signs that it would be all right. He turned from her before beginning, unwilling to face the rejection he thought he might find there as he told his story.

"After you were abducted, I did a lot of investigating on your case, even after you returned. Eventually, I found a facility attached to the DOD that housed the extracted ova of abducted women, including you."

He felt her fingers curl around his bicep. "Mulder..."

"I pocketed a vial of yours," he went on. "But when I went to have them stored at a hospital..." He paused. "Now, remember, this was five years ago, I'm sure the technology is better now..." He swallowed, willing himself to go on. "Anyway, they told me that ova don't store well over long periods of time, and since I didn't know when or if you ever wanted to use them, I didn't know what to do." The words started to spill from him in a rush now. "They told me, however, that embryos do store well, and if I wanted to fertilize the eggs, they'd be happy to store them..."

"What are you saying, Mulder?"

He expelled a breath. "I'm saying there are approximately twenty embryos that are the result of a combination of your ova and my sperm being housed at Bethesda Naval Hospital." He sighed, scrubbing his hands through his hair. "I didn't tell you before now because I didn't know how you'd react. I'll get you all the information on it out of my safety deposit box on Monday."

He hazarded a look at her. He found her features to be open, unreadable. "If you ever decide to use any of them, I won't try to be a part of the child's life, unless of course you want me to. I'd like to be...I..." He looked into her eyes, searching for acceptance. "I did it for you, Scully, because...because I loved you even then."

Without warning, she threw her arms around him. "Oh, Mulder, I think that's the most wonderful, selfless thing anyone has ever done for me." She looked up at him, her lip starting to tremble. "And if I...if we... ever decide to use any of them, of course I want you to be a part of the child's life. I want you to be a part of my life, because..." She swallowed a sob. "Because I love you too."

Mulder thought his heart would burst with joy upon the sound of hearing her say that. He pulled her close, holding her tightly, laughing even as tears rolled down his cheeks. They disengaged at exactly the same moment, and he found himself looking into her beautiful blue eyes once again. He brushed her hair from her face as he had so many times before and cradled it in his hands. Without even realizing what he was doing, he reached down to touch his lips to hers in their first true kiss. It was a chaste, closed-mouth kiss, almost tentative, but it ignited more passion and emotion in Mulder than he thought he was capable of feeling. They separated, and Mulder was rewarded with a rare, full, genuine Dana Scully smile. And as he hugged her to him again, he was sure that they could get through anything, just so long as they were together.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leia sat staring at a small glass object d'art, trying to get it to rise off of her desk. She wasn't having any luck. "You can use a gesture, you know," Luke prompted from behind her.

She frowned, and extended her hand toward it. It rattled a little, but never lost total contact with the desktop. Leia dropped her hand into her lap and scowled. "Maybe I'm not cut out for telekinesis," she commented. "Maybe I don't have the genes for it."

"Possible, but I've seen you do it." He put his hands on her shoulders and leaned over to look at her. "I think you just need more practice."

"Gee, thanks," she grumbled.

"I think that's enough practice for today, though," Luke said, going over to the small kitchenette in Leia's office to pour them both some tea.

"Does it ever get that easy? I mean, the way it was for me on that alien ship; just thinking something and having it happen?"

Luke set the tea down and settled into the chair across from her. "There are some things I can do like that. Most things though, require at least some kind of concentration. It all has to do with a person's strengths and weaknesses. You, for instance, read people much better than I ever could, or will. Yes, I'm sure diplomatic training helps, but the Force speaks to you about it. It's your strength."

"Then why am I trying to pick up knick-knacks with it?"

"For the discipline," Luke replied. "For the practice in using the Force in general."

Leia nodded, unsure how to respond to that. She sipped her tea. "Oh, I heard from the doctor today. Congratulations. You're going to be an uncle in about eight months."

"Really? That's great!"

Leia nodded absently. "Yep. Twins. A boy and a girl."

"Wow. What does Han think?"

"He's both really excited and nervous as hell, which about describes my feelings on the matter. That, and a little scared. I'm not sure I'm prepared to be the mother of the new Jedi Order."

"You won't be," Luke said. "I'm sure you'll provide a few very important members, but there are others out there with Jedi potential. They just need to be trained. I guess that's my job."

"And when are you going to start?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. When I feel I've learned enough. Soon, I hope."

Leia settled back into her chair, taking another sip of her tea. Just as an experiment, she reached out with the Force again, just to explore, and found, this time, two embryonic presences reaching back for her. She gasped, almost spilling her tea.

"What is it?" Luke asked.

"The babies. I felt them. They're...wow...I don't know how to describe it."

Luke reached across the desk. "Here, take my hands, let me try."

Leia took her brother's hands and watched him as he closed his eyes. After a moment, she saw a broad grin spread across his face, followed by an astonished laughter. "That's amazing."

"They're going to be very powerful, aren't they?"

Luke nodded, suddenly sober. "I think so."

She sighed. "And so the debate begins: can we keep them from evil?"

"Evil is a chosen path, Leia. All we can do is show them the Light and hope they choose wisely."

"I hope I'm prepared to do that."

Luke squeezed her hands. "If anybody can do it, Leia, you can."

THE END!