A Force to be Reckoned With

Author: Cheryl W.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dean, Sam or any rights to Supernatural, nor am I making any profit from this story.

Author's Note: WOW! Thanks so much for the awesome, generous words of encouragement. Loved every one of them!

SNSWSNSWSNSWSNSWSNSW

Chapter 3

SNSWSNSWSNSWSNSWSNSW

Body trembling in pain, Dean leaned against the wall in an empty corridor, rested his head against his ship's abused hull and sought to dampen his pain and his doubts about his brother's plan. His pain lessened in a few minutes, his doubts weren't so easily manipulated. Having opted to exchange his ship's comlink for a personal one set to Sam's personal code, he spoke candidly, knew it was just for Sam's ears. "Sam, you don't have to endanger your crew trying this. I knew the risks, every member of my crew knew the risks in joining the Rebellion. That we're outnumbered and our resources are few. That a life lost…it had to count for something. We've made our mark, took out the Cruiser in here, and paved a way for the convoy. We're ready to die for our cause."

Stepping back from overseeing the preparation for the tubing, Sam shook his head, "Well I'm not ready to let you die, Dean. This can work, can save you and your crew. Just trust me this time," he implored, needed that trust from Dean, needed his brother's faith in him and in the plan to help bolster his own besieged hope. The tubing, it was proving to be not the least pliable, would need soldering and adjustments had to be made to its internal sealing procedures. Would take time they didn't have…the Impala didn't have. Not with more of her airlocks failing, fires spreading to other sections and the onslaught of the asteroids that were doing their own insidious damage since the last of the ship's deflector shields had been obliterated. "I need you to trust me…." He repeated almost in a desperate whisper.

Never having found an immunity to that tone of Sam's, of need, of fear, of wanting his big brother to tell him everything was going to be alright, Dean rallied his strength, pushed himself off the wall and continued his trek to the escape pod hatch they had determined would be the best fit for the tubing. "Trust you?! Crap, Sam, you're the only one I've ever fully trusted. But our luck…that's what I don't trust. Course life would be boring if nothing exciting ever happened to us."

Sam smirked, was able to draw in a breath seemingly for the first time in an hour. "Course we would never want boring."

"Nope. Alright, Captain Winchester, I'm now standing at our designed escape pod hatch and my team's giving me the thumbs up that the rim is prepped for seal containment. How's the tubing look?" Dean asked, patting his crew member on the back as he watched them meticulously scan the hatch, ensure that all was as well on their side of this crazy scheme as it could be. Noting Sam's lack of reply, he ran his hand through his hair, gave his two crewmembers a reassuring smile that didn't reach his eyes and walked down into another empty corridor. "I'm alone, spill it, Sam," he gently encouraged.

Sam, having also slipped into a private room, was glad his brother was as perceptive as he was. That he didn't have to find a way to preamble the news. "The tubing, it's going to take some time to get it ready."

"Time we don't have. You don't have. The Empire's going to start looking for its Cruisers in here," Dean pointed out again, not with rebuff but concern. "Sam, I know you want this to work and it probably could work…"

"Help me make it work!" Sam nearly shouted back, grimaced at his raised voice. Dropping his head he murmured, "I'm sorry, I'm just….this can work. Maybe I'm missing something with the tubing. It's meant to be an escape slide, not a bridge. It's got this angle to it and only 10 feet of its straight."

"Ten feet…" Dean repeated, making calculations in his head, uncertain if he wanted to help Sam or tell him it was impossible, that he had to get his crew out of the field, had to survive. But the Force, it told him what his brother was feeling, left him with no doubts that… leaving him? That just wasn't something Sam would do, could do. "How good's your pilot over there?"

"I hand picked him myself. Why? What do you have in mind?" Sam shot back, felt a stir of excitement spring to his chest, of resurge of faith that they weren't outmatched, not yet.

"How about we keep our ships at say…a 10 foot distance," Dean suggested, smiled as Sam picked up his logic.

"All I have to do is cut off the angled part of the tubing, use the straight section.." there was excitement churning in Sam's tone, exhilaration at finding a solution, of working with Dean to survive.

"I'm not saying it's a brilliant plan and it's in no way safe. It doesn't matter how great either of our Navigators are or how long we can use the Force to steady the ships, chances are there's going to be some grinding going on and with our ruptures and fires…It will put your ship in danger, Sam. Especially if our internal fires spread to our reactor core, blow the Impala to the seven systems of Hellspawn…"

"Guess we better stop talking and start lining up our ships," Sam cut in, didn't want any pessimistic realism to dampen the hope he had.

"Hey, Sam. If we get out of this…I'm naming my first born child after you," Dean joked, was rewarded by his brother's snort and "Shut up," before the connection was closed.

SNSWSNSWSNSWSNSWSNSWSNSW

"This was a bad idea!" Dean yelled to be heard over the howl of space as its magnetic tug sought to pull everything in the empty, sealed off corridors leading up to the escape pod hatch into its greedy grasp. Including the Winchester stupid enough to don a space suit and work to get the tubing that the Stanford had extended to seal with the pod's rim along side his two crewmembers, likewise dressed.

"It was partially your idea," Sam returned matching Dean's volume, causing his own voice to boom across the quiet expansion of the Stanford's hangar bay. Hearing the roar of space from his brother's side of the transmission only made him wish more fervently that Dean had assigned someone other than himself to get the tube to seal on their side. But he hadn't even wasted his breath arguing his case, pointing out that, if there was ever a time to delegate, this was it. Knew his words, his plea, it would have fallen on deaf ears. Dean would only let his crew take risks he himself was willing to take. And when the odds were not in their favor, he would risk himself first, wouldn't have even let his two crewmembers join his efforts if he hadn't needed them. Would play the hero even when there seemed only the minuscule chance that victory was even possible. Protective instincts were coiled in Dean's DNA, Sam just knew it. But he was Dean's brother..and the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. "Please tell me you've secured yourself to something, like a bulkhead."

"No…but maybe that's good news for you. After all, I willed you my weapons collection, including Mom's lightsaber," came Dean's rejoinder, utilizing his talent to mix a smart aleck tone with some bitter truths his brother didn't want to hear, ever.

Clutching the comlink tighter in his grip, Sam shook his head, tried to keep his emotions under control even as he cursed his brother's twisted humor and even worse timing for confessions. "You know Dean, what I really want is for you to stop stalling and tell me how the sealing process is going on your side."

Holding the tubing in place, Dean turned his head as his crewmember flared the soldering equipment to life and tried once again to produce an airtight seal on the tubing and the escape pod hatch. "Craptastic. We scavenged hunks of our hull and melted them to fill in the gaps but they won't cool down quick enough, just get ripped out the hole because their too pliable. We need an inflexibly strong metal that we can melt and cool immediately. Any ideas?"

"The hull, it's the strongest metal any ship's got on board.." Sam theorized out loud. "What we need is something to get it to cool down. Nitrogen …"

"Tried it. Metal froze yeah…and then shattered into a thousand pieces," Dean said with a sigh, almost tried to run his hand through his hair before he remembered he was in a space suit with stupid helmet and all. So not the look he wanted to go out in.

"I think the science is right but it needs a few seconds for the cells of the metal to bond together again. We need a buffer between the patch work and the outside atmosphere…"

"Something on the outside of the hull…" Dean picked up his brother's train of thought. "We'll reroute all our remaining power to get some juice to revive the deflector shields and we'll pinpoint it to just this area, modify it a little so nothing gets past it, not even say the outside atmosphere."

"It could work.." Sam excitedly supported, right before his ship shook under the assault of another asteroid collision.

Righting himself against the wall, Dean cursed asteroids for the hundredth time that day. Was starting to hate them almost as much as the Empire. Almost. "Well, it's got to work or we'll both be scrap metal." Before Sam could make a reply he ended the signal and activated his internal comlimk and began putting his and Sam's plan into action.

SNSWSNSWSNSWSNSW

Standing in the escape pod hatch, sans the space suit, Dean smiled across the length of the tubing at his brother who stood leaning into the tubing from his position on the Stanford. "You know this shouldn't have worked," he called across the 10 foot expansion.

"Since when do we obey the rules…even of physics? Now get your butt moving," Sam ordered, wanting Dean to be safe as soon as possible. But true to his nature, Dean winked and stepped out of view…and the first of the Impala's crew started to make the 10 foot trek in the tubing to the Stanford. 'Like I honestly thought he wouldn't be the last one to leave his ship.' Sam chided himself. But any pride and condemnation he felt for Dean's action was interrupted by the tremor of his ship as an asteroid slipped past their deflector shields. 'Crap, concentrate, Sam. You need to hold this ship steady!'

'Good thought, Dude. I can't do all the work,' came his brother's thoughts into his head a second later. Sam wasn't surprised that Dean was privy to his thoughts as if they were uttered aloud. When they were both drowning in an upheaval of emotions, it had come to be a common side-effect, the open channels communication link that could flick on, if they allowed it to. It made them truly only a thought away from each other. But right then, that connection, it wasn't good enough. He wanted Dean really there, at his side, because he could feel his brother's pain, his weakness, the strain he was under to wield the Force to keep his ship steady when he had no engines or deflector shields to aid him in his task.

'I'll help you, Dean,' he reassured, even as he leant his own Force strength to Dean's efforts. Knew that his task was the easy one, that he had a functioning ship and an uninjured body to work with.

'Darn right you will. Your Force connection has always been stronger than mine so stop holding out on me,' Dean returned, sally and truth mixing in his thoughts. Sliding down the corridor wall, closing his eyes, he trembled physically and mentally with the task of keeping the Impala immobile. Felt like he was absorbing the impacts of the asteroids against his own nerves instead of the ship's hull.

'My connection isn't stronger, Dean!' Sam protested Dean's misconception, thought it was maybe the right time, the right place to make Dean accept the truth. 'I just accept that I'm a freak. And I think about what you always told me, still tell me in your own twisted ways.'

'What do I tell you?'

'That I'm worth something, that I'm needed, that people… that you have faith in me. If you would believe the same thing about yourself, there would be no stopping you Dean. None.' Though conviction ran deeply through Sam's thoughts, he felt his brother's wave of denial.

'Ah, Sam, do we need to hold this therapy session right now. I've got just a few other things on my mind…'

But Sam cut across Dean's protests, 'You're worth my life, Dean. I need you. And I have faith in you, always have, always will.' With his admission declared, Sam's breath left him and he felt exposed down to his soul…until he felt that small sliver of response from his brother, of surprise and blossoming joy.

.Unable to truly process his brother's words, let alone allow himself to acknowledge the emotions they generated in him, Dean barricaded himself behind the emergency of the moment with a gruff whiny growl. 'Dude, stop downloading your halodrama into my head. Maybe you haven't noticed but we got bigger issues to think about than my self image problems.' As if to punctuate his statement, the ship sustained a not-so-gentle nudge from the huge asteroid that had practically dismantled her, causing the metal to scream and the soldering on the seal to start to whistle with the roar of space.

'Yeah, like saving your life. So stop short-changing yourself and use the Force like you were meant to Dean!' Sam's panicked, almost angry voice rang in his head.

With a low howl, Dean put all his essence into steadying the ship, in anchoring it to the Force, in keeping the section intact even as he felt the rear of the ship rip away. Somewhere in his mind, he sensed the line of crew still to be unloaded, knew he had to hold the ship together, steady for at least another ten minutes. Abandoning his misgivings, he surrendered himself fully to the Force, was doing it for his crew, for Sam. Would sacrifice anything for Sam, even his lifeforce. He heard Sam's cry of 'Dean!' before the Force enveloped him, lent unbelievable strength to his efforts, made even moving the large asteroid away from the Impala possible.

SNSWSNSWSNSW

When his link to his brother just…vanished, Sam internally screamed his brother's name and started to push his way through the throng of Impala crewmembers gathered on his hangar deck, desperate to get to the tubing, to traverse the passageway and enter the Impala to find his brother. Then, like a solar flare, Dean's lifeforce, seemingly reinforced ten fold, washed over him through the Force, coiled around his own lifeforce. Stumbling to a stop amid the chaos on the hangar deck, he drew in a relieved yet struggling breath. Though Dean was risking his life by giving himself over wholly to the Force, he was no longer gone from Sam's perception like he had been a moment ago.

'I didn't mean you should sacrifice yourself to the Force, Dean!! You always take things one step too far!' Delving as deep into the Force as he could and still stay conscious, Sam found his brother's lifeforce, gripped it tightly, forged it within his own, anchored his brother to him, gave them both a path out of the Force's gale after their resources were no longer needed to save the lives of their crew, to save each other. 'I'm holding onto you, big brother. I got you and I'll lead you back when it's time.'

It was disturbing that there was no answering reply from Dean, but Sam consoled himself with the very real essence of his brother that he felt in the Force. Opening his eyes, he stalked to the tubing entrance. "How's the tubing holding up?"

"Got some rips in it but we've patched them enough that they're still holding the seal together," the crewmember answered, hands pressed against the tubing even as he spoke. "Actually, sir, I never thought it would work. Sorry I doubted you."

"Don't be. I doubted me too," Sam returned with a smile and patted the man on the back. "Any idea how many more crewmembers need to come through?"

"We're down to the last hundred, figure we need another ten minutes or so."

The news wasn't the best he could have hope for but, considering the hundreds of crewmembers he had already evacuated, it was still good news. Positioning himself at the tubing, he helped usher the wounded inside and directed the uninjured to sections of the hangar bay to where Stanford crewmembers waited to lead them to quarters. It was organized chaos and Dean would laugh at him for being comforted by the order of it.

To mock his ego, the ship jarred viciously as his attention on the Force became too thin. Cursing himself, he fell back against the wall and shut his eyes tightly, bracing the ship as it was bombarded….not with asteroids but cannon fire. The Empire had found them.

Gritting his teeth, Sam snarled into the Force, 'No! We haven't come this far to lose! Dean, snap out of it and get your butt through the tubing. Now!' Aloud he barked orders into his internal comlink to his bridge command, "Reroute deflectors to the port side and return fire with torpedoes but keep us steady! We only need a few more minutes!"

But the Stanford took a direct hit right then, causing it to do a small roll, was only a 10% change in its altitude..but it was enough to rip a hole in the tubing. The hangar bay's klaxon blared and the synthetic ship system's voice warned, "Breach in airlock control in Hangar Bay. Breach in airlock control in Hangar Bay," but neither was any competition for the howl of space that screamed through the tubing and into the Stanford's hangar bay.

Leaping forward, Sam ran for the tubing, was going to get to Dean before it was too late. Wasn't prepared to be blocked by his own officers, by men he trusted. Even as he called upon the Force to fling them free of him, the Stanford was struck again. And though he put all of his Force power into steadying the ship, he couldn't stop the asteroid particle that got sucked into the tubing's hole and mercilessly ripped through the other side of the tubing, creating a ravenous cross current.

At the breach in its integrity, the tubing seemingly disintegrated, was blown away in the winds of space.

SNSWSNSWSNSWSNSW

Jerked from his emersion in the Force by Sam's swell of terror as much as from a rough shake, Dean opened his eyes, saw his second in command leaning down over him.

"Sir, you have to go through now," the officer insisted, helping his Captain to his feet. He felt worry spike in him at how much of his Captain's weight he was carrying. Knowing, through personal experience, just how incredibly strong and stoic his Captain usually was, even in the face of the most severe pain, only heightened his fear for his commander's health.

"Everyone else through?" Dean asked, knew his words were slurred, shook his head to try and clear the Force cobwebs from it.

"Almost," the officer answered only because he knew he couldn't get away with a full lie, not with a Jedi. "It's your turn, Captain."

"No, not until every last crewmember is through," Dean protested, pulling himself out of his officer's hold and pushing the man forward. "I'll bring up the rear. You go now, tell my brother how many are left to go through." Seeing the man's protest, he growled, "That's an order, officer. Do it!"

For a moment, his loyal second in command looked ready to rebel but then, he simply nodded, gave a salute which earned him a smirk from his laid back Captain and headed off to do as he was bid. Left alone again, Dean walked forward, hand trailing the wall to ensure he didn't embarrass himself by falling on his can. He halted as he saw the line of people left to be ushered into the Stanford. It was down to a handful. Sam had done it, had saved his crew, had saved him. 'Crap, Sammy. Maybe I will name my first born after you,' he smirked and then the Force yelled out a warning to him.

Not one to second guess his instincts or the Force's, he yelled, "Brace yourselves!" even as he took his own advice, wrapped his hand around a handhold, anchored himself to a bulkhead like Sam had wanted him to do earlier. The ship rocked viciously under his feet, slammed him brutally against the wall. But the worst, he discovered a moment later, was yet to come. The breaking of the airlock seal was like an explosion, popped his ears. And then the ravenous gravity of space swept through the Impala's corridors and ruthlessly stole its new treasures into its cold, dead realm.

SNSWSNSWSNSWSNSW

Within seconds of the tube's failure, the Stanford's emergency systems did what they were supposed to do: They sealed off any dangerous airlock breaches. Released from the cruel whims of gravity, Sam and his two officers, who were moments away from being dragged into the cold nothingness of space, tumbled to the ground, found themselves only inches away from the now sealed airlock.

"Sir, are you alright?"

Sam heard the words, even registered the concern but he couldn't react. His eyes were on the sealed airlock, on the place where the tubing had been, at the spot he had stood an hour ago and saw his brother standing on the Impala, smirking. "Dean?!" he choked out, verbally and through the Force, his voice raw, his thoughts tattered.

But no answer came to his call.

SNSWSNSWSNSW

TBC

SNSWSNSWSNSW

I just had to do a cliffie! You can't write an adventure story without one, right? If it helps, the final chapter is almost ready for posting.

Again, thanks so much for the support you've shown me by the reviews and by just reading this story!!! It's made this scary risk of posting this story into a really good time for me!

Hope you're having a great day! Cheryl W.