From: JackeeC <74363.2566@CompuServe.COM>

Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative

Subject: NEW: XJEDI VOL THREE!! 13/24

Date: 23 Jan 1996 03:50:59 GMT





XJEDI 13  (vol. 3)



DISCLAIMER: It's somewhere in this rather long note, I'm afraid. 



Okay, for everyone of you who has stuck it out for this long...my deepest 

sympathy...er...thanks. Sure, I'm on the edge of my sanity by now...it's been

a long strange journey and this trip is only half over. Some of you may have 

noticed that there is a title for each volume... 

                 Vol. one was: "Leave taking" (you can surely guess why)

                 Vol. two was: "Breaking the way" (think about it)

                 Vol. three: I'm calling: "Going home" (semi-obvious?) 

                 Vol. four: will be "The Gift" (you'll see)

These vols. are rated PG, btw as are the first two, for anyone who cares.

 



In the epilogue there will be more info as well as the order listing. Once 

again, the characters of Mulder, Scully, Skinner, CM (the General), and Mr. X 

(the passenger) all belong to CC and 1013/FOX. Luke and Leia, Han, Chewie

the droids, the entire Galaxy in fact belongs to George Lucas and/or LucasArts

The CEstallians are mine but, they *are* leasing space in the Lucas Galaxy 

so...  No copyright infringement is intended, no profit is gained, this

was all for fun. So, relax. Enjoy.



Additional Note: Those lovely little translators that you all now know Mulder, 

Scully, Rae and the children wear on their lapels, are always tracking. It's a 

small thing, but I didn't want to write it every time. Except where necessary, 

of course. 



AND a word of gratitude to CallieSky for aiding and abetting and all around

urging me onward. Thanks a plenty! :)  



                                 GOING HOME

                                 ----------

                               by Jackee C.







     Ben finally reached the point of origin of the signal. He had to admit 

surprise at the location. The Imperial Palace was an excellent place for what

he needed to do. His father had taught him secrets about the palace...secrets

that allowed one to enter undetected. He smiled and began his descent along 

the secret co-ordinates of Coruscant's electronic blind spot. This was almost

going to be too easy.



*   *   *   *   *   *





     Leia Organa Solo sat bolt upright in bed. She'd gone home to sleep

only after she had been convinced that Han was going to be fine. The doctors 

had promised that he'd be back on his feet in no time. In fact, by the time

she had left he was already complaining about having to stay the night in 

the infirmary.



     But now, she looked around the room nervously. Something had awakened

her. In the next instant she felt Luke's presence in the force. He was  

speaking to her, mind to mind. <Contact the guards in the security bay,> she 

heard. <There is an intruder in the palace.>  



     Leia pushed back the covers and activated the hidden security panel 

beneath the surface of the night stand. She threw the switch that would open 

the communications feed to the chief guard on duty. 



     "Security bay, please respond..." 



*   *   *   *   *   *



     Benjamin Adams slipped into the rear of the Imperial Palace via a hidden 

entry panel. The General had implanted this information on his consciousness 

earlier. Ben now knew every secret entrance his father had known. 



     The tunnel was dark and musty from obvious years of disuse. But glow

rods still functioned along some of the walls nearer in to the central part

of the palace. Ben crept stealthily along the meter wide corridors

toward the uppermost landing bay. It was easy for Ben to understand the logic 

behind placing the Hinderer in that bay, it was simply the most easily 

secured landing bay in the palace. According to his father, it was where 

the Emperor's personal craft had been kept. 



     The tunnel Ben was in ended suddenly. 'What?' he thought confused. 

There was not supposed to be a dead end here. This stretch of tunnel

should have lead to the more elite living quarters. Perhaps the

rebel scum that had taken the palace had found this particular section and

closed it off. That was the most reasonable explanation. 



     Ben banged his fist on the side of the wall in frustration as he 

back-tracked to find another route. 



*   *   *   *   *   *





     Fox Mulder found himself in a dimly lit corridor, chasing the fleeting

form of Luke Skywalker. Tubes hung high on the walls gave off faint blue

light that reflected off his face as he ran. Always having had long legs, 

Mulder was used to slowing down for people. But, though he was a head

taller than Luke, he was having considerable difficulty keeping up. He could 

hear himself loudly in the confines of the small space. Luke though, 

barely made any sound at all as he slid quickly and gracefully through the 

corridor. 



     The corridor made a sharp 90 degree angle and Mulder lost sight of Luke 

altogether. Pushing harder, he picked up his pace. Mulder rounded the 

corner only to be greeted by another empty corridor. An eerie hum rose in the

distance. Mulder pushed ahead. The sight that greeted him around the next 

corner stopped him dead in his tracks. 



     The cylindrical object Luke had pulled from his belt was still in his 

hand, but a glowing blade now extended from one end of it. Luke quickly cut 

an arc in the wall of the corridor from as high as he could reach to the 

floor. He then cut another and a connector between the two. Mulder realized 

that he was cutting a doorway out of the wall. 



     Luke made a movement with his hand and the blade closed down; 

disappearing back into its cylindrical container. With a side kick, he 

knocked the cut piece of the wall out into the brightly lit room beyond.



     Mulder stood frozen in his tracks. When Luke stepped through the new        

'door', he followed. The room on the other side of the 'door' wasn't one 

that Mulder had been in before. It was a large room with bits of strange 

equipment stacked neatly. There was a shelf in one corner containing metal

globes. Mulder was vaguely reminded of a gym.



     "My exercise room," Luke said answering Mulder's unspoken question. 

Mulder raised his brows at Luke's back. That wasn't the first time he'd done 

that.  'And they call *me* spooky,' Mulder thought. 



     Luke ran to a storage locker and pulled out a blaster and handed it to 

Mulder. It wasn't quite F.B.I. issue, but the principle was the same; just 

point and shoot. Mulder nodded and they were up and running again.



*   *   *   *   *   *



     Dana Scully woke suddenly. She listened to the silence of the dark, 

still room. Something propelled her out of the bed and into the common area. 

The lights were still on and Mulder's door was open and his room was empty. 



     Scully stood before the door leading into the outer corridors of the 

guest wing, debating whether she should be worried. Mulder was a big boy and 

he often wandered off. But, something had woke her. She looked down at the 

long gown she wore. It brushed against her bare feet. She went back to her 

room and pulled on the knee boots. The gown was made of a heavy material and 

had long flowing sleeves. Dana felt that she could get away with

it in the corridors. They didn't seem to believe in robes on this planet. 



     Dana decided to go down to the medical bay and see how Han was. If she 

ran into Mulder along the way, then all the better. The door slid open as 

she stepped toward it. In the hallway a noise to her right caught her 

attention. She took an uncertain step in the direction of the sound, the 

medical bay was the opposite direction. Scully made up her mind, since 

trouble had a way of finding Mulder, she'd feel better if she checked it out. 



*   *   *   *   *   *



     Ben was thoroughly frustrated. Someone had systematically been cutting 

off the entry panels from the tunnel passage. The tunnel he'd entered 

originally had been dusty and heavily populated by cobwebs. The tunnels he 

now followed were clear of cobwebs and the glow rods were new. There 

was no access to the upper landing bay by means of the tunnels. He'd have to 

find another way. 



     Ben was glad he'd brought the lightsaber along. He unclipped it from his 

utility belt and cut a hole in the wall. According to his calculations, this 

wall should be near the lift in the guest wing. Ben figured that if he 

acted as if he belonged, there would be no problem. 



     Done making the hole in the wall, Ben stuffed the lightsaber into a 

compartment in his boot and moved his blaster to the holster beneath his

jacket. After straightening his clothing, Ben stepped through the hole and 

turned to inspect the damage. There was no way to conceal that. Ben felt it

more prudent to evacuate the scene.

 

     Ben hurried around the corner in the direction of the upper level bay. 

Since it was the middle of the night Capital City time, he didn't expect 

to meet anyone on this level. That was why it was a complete shock when he 

all but ran into Dana Scully dressed in her night gown. The shock was 

mutual. Ben recovered first. 



     "What are you doing here, Dana? I thought I was supposed to pick you up 

at your place," Ben asked, sounding as if genuinely curious.



     At first, Dana just gaped at the man. Then she blinked a slow blink of 

disbelief, taking in the outfit he wore. She saw the bulk in the side of one 

boot and wondered if he had a holster under that jacket. Dana opened her 

mouth as if to speak, then pointed vaguely back down the hall, taking a 

jerky step backwards. 



     "Excuse me," she said and turned to go back to her room--for her gun. 

She wished she had been paranoid enough to bring it. The folds of her gown 

would have easily hidden it. Unfortunately though, she didn't get very far. 



     Ben grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back. "Not so fast, little 

one," he said softly. "We've got work to do." 



     Dana kicked back hard with the heel of one boot. When she felt Ben's

grip loosen in surprise, she elbowed him in the belly. Ben 

stumbled back away from her as his breath went out in a whoosh. Dana spun 

to deliver another elbow blow to whatever part of his anatomy was closest. 

Before she was halfway through the spin though, Ben, in anger, delivered 

a force-blow that knocked her across the corridor into a very solid wall. 

 

*   *   *   *   *   *



     Mulder followed Luke as they ran through the brightly lit corridors 

of the palace. Luke stopped running as the entrance to the security post came 

into view. The guards stood stationed as they should have been. The chief

guard acknowledged Luke with a smart salute and gave Mulder a nod. He didn't 

seem at all surprised that Luke's saber was drawn, if not ignited, or that 

Mulder was carrying a blaster.



     "Evening, sir," the guard said. "There's been no activity all evening.

Madame Organa Solo informed us to go to level red a few minutes ago." 



     Luke nodded and peered into the bay at the ship that sat across the 

room, behind a force field. He knew it was a matter of time before the 

intruder showed up here. Why else would this Jedi be inside the palace?



     Something tickled in the back of Luke's mind. In an effort to find the 

source, he turned to the two guards and then to Mulder. The Agent stood 

against the wall, his expression still, as if he were thinking about 

something. Luke realized that this man was using the force and didn't even 

realize it. He was broadcasting all over the place. 



     Luke could feel his sudden tension and it had nothing to do with their

recent mad dash through secret passageways. Dana was in trouble. "This way,"

Luke said. They both felt it when Ben used the force on her. 



*   *   *   *   *   *



     Ben heard running footsteps approaching his position. He had wanted to 

take the girl with him; the General would have loved that. But, he didn't 

have time for that now. He needed to get on with his mission. The lift 

was his best option. While they were busy with her, he'd get on with his 

other plans. 





*   *   *   *   *   *





     Mulder saw a crumpled form lying on the floor in the distance, knowing 

instinctively who it was. He also knew there was a cross corridor up 

ahead separating him from Scully. He skidded to a stop on one side of the 

corridor, just as the soft hiss of the lift's doors being opened sounded. 

Mulder threw himself out into the corridor, blaster ready to get off a shot 

at whoever might or might not be standing there. 

     

     Ben stood in the lift with his blaster trained on the cross corridor.



     Mulder froze in shock as he recognized Scully's would-be date. His mind

vaguely registered a shadow crossing over his head. His momentary hesitation 

should have cost him his life. But, from nowhere, Luke was there in front

of him, weapon up and ready. Ben's blaster bolts deflected harmlessly off

the blade of Luke's lightsaber before the lift's doors closed. 



     Mulder's head jerked momentarily in Luke's direction as he tried to 

come to terms with what his eyes were telling him. Aside from the fact that

Luke had been behind him before, how had Luke done what he'd done with that 

sword of his? Mulder pushed the questions aside for now, Scully needed him. 

 

     "Dana...," he called her name, gently cradling her face in his hands. 

Automatically he went through the emergency medical assessment that had been 

ingrained in him at the academy and because he'd watched Dana do it so 

often. To his relief, she was still breathing, if shallowly. And her color 

was pale and her skin clammy.



     Luke looked at them and back to the lift. The intruder would have to 

take a longer route to the security deck if he took that lift. Helping Dana 

was important and it should only take a minute. He clipped his lightsaber 

back to his utility belt and stepped over. 



     Luke touched Mulder's shoulder. "Let me help her," he said softly. 

Mulder's eyes met his. Luke could feel the misery emanating from the man. 

Mulder sighed deeply and moved away to allow Luke access to his partner.



     Luke placed his hands on Dana's face and closed his eyes, reaching into 

the force. He focused on the damage and healed it. She would be fine. 

"She's sleeping now," he told Mulder. "Get her back to bed. I've got to stop 

this guy." 



     "His name is Benjamin Adams." Mulder said, lifting Scully into his arms. 

"He was supposed to be her *date* last night."  Mulder's bitterness was not 

lost on Luke.



     Luke blinked in amazement at what Mulder had just revealed. There was a 

lot more here than met the eye. Drawing his lightsaber once again, 

he ran off down the hall.





end part 13





===========================================================================



From: JackeeC <74363.2566@CompuServe.COM>

Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative

Subject: NEW: XJEDI VOL THREE 14/24

Date: 23 Jan 1996 03:52:07 GMT





XJEDI 14 (VOL. 3)

                                                                                

DISCLAIMER: Still in force from part thirteen.





     Ben emerged from the lift on the operations level. The guest wing's  

lift wasn't programmed to stop there, but the General had provided him 

with override codes for all of the lifts. Ben used the force to project an 

image that the rest of the technicians would see as a trusted work mate. 

Once in the Ops control center, it was a small thing for him to deactivate

all functional force fields in the upper landing bay. That done, he 

simply walked out the access door to the upper landing bay's catwalk.



     The catwalk extended between sub-bays A through E. Ben 

could see a Corellian freighter docked in sub-bay B along with a sleek luxury 

craft. The Hinderer sat beyond the freighter in bay A. It was necessary for 

Ben to descend to floor level to accomplish his mission. He covered the 

distance to sub-bay A with no trouble. 



     Ben checked out the bay floor beneath him for guards. Sensing none,

he threw himself into the air, somersaulted and landed noiselessly

on the landing bay floor. When his feet touched the ground, he ran

for the Hinderer's airlock. He knew his time was growing shorter; the Jedi

Skywalker could be here any minute now. Ben didn't need to take care of 

him; his grandfather would be more than happy to take care of that 

particular piece of rebel scum...later. 



     The Hinderer's airlock opened immediately to Ben's command input. The

interior of the ship was dim, but the air smelled 'clean', as recycled air 

went. That meant life support was functioning normally. Ben quickly made his 

way toward the command center. He was happy to find the plasteel barrier still 

in place. Ben pushed at the intersection of rock and plasteel that formed a 

dimple, causing a control panel to appear. Quickly, he punched in the entry

code.



     Life pods sat against the wall of the control room. Ben reached into a 

pocket and retrieved a small pouch. He then dumped the contents onto a table 

near the pods. Several crudely made bracelets clattered to the surface of the 

table.



     The stones strung along the pieces of string were not ordinary stone. 

They were carefully selected from an artifact, at a secret site on Earth. 

These rocks were the precise geological opposites of that of the 

Gates. It would cancel out the effects of the particles that were fused into 

the genetic structure of One's people. Ben didn't have all of the 

information, but he did know they had been banned from the galaxy for 

some crime or another before the days of the Empire. The infusion of the 

particles had made it impossible for One and his people to function 

consciously in this galaxy.  



     The General had carefully hidden the secret of the rocks for a very 

long time. Ben wasn't about to share the secret with the little creatures in 

the pods, either. But, he did need their help right now. And there was no 

other way they could function consciously outside of the Infinity. Their 

knowledge would do them no good, anyway. There was no room in Ben's plan for 

them to live long enough to share the information with the rest of their 

kind. 

 

     Ben began the stasis recovery process. The indicator flashed green; all 

was well. He placed a bracelet on the arm of each Jedi. The process would 

take several minutes, after which, they'd have several more minutes of 

disorientation. Several crucial minutes. Ben thought it best to activate

the Karamac cruiser's automatic homing circuits and send it to the Milky

Way auxillary base. That way he wouldn't have to risk another trip through

the palace and back to his ship. 



     Ben input the commands into the remote controller on his wrist. The

readout indicated that the Karamac was responding and would be ready to 

make the hyperspace jump just after Hinderer. 

 

*   *   *   *   *   *



     Leia Organa Solo hurried out of her quarters. It wouldn't do to show up 

in the security bay in her night gown and bare feet, so she'd slipped into a 

white ship suit she'd pilfered from Luke at some point in the past. As it was, 

her hair hung loose down her back. 



     She drew in her breath sharply when she came face to face with CEstallia.

Leia had to bite back the undiplomatic words that bubbled forth in her mind. 

When CEstallia's expression registered shock, Leia remembered that her race 

was telepathic.



     "Stay out of my head!" Leia exclaimed. Most civilized telepaths would not

snoop on the thoughts of others. In her estimation, this only added to her 

distrust of the woman. 



     CEstallia drew herself up. "I wasn't trying to get in your head as you

put it," she said. "You felt those words so strongly, that you may as well

have screamed them at me. You *did* direct them to me." 



     Leia sighed, remembering that she had indeed directed the words to 

CEstallia in her mind. But, they hadn't been meant for her to hear. She 

apologized. "Look, CEstallia, I'm very sorry. I didn't mean for you to hear

the words. It's just that I'm feeling very stressed at the moment."



     "Yes," CEstallia nodded comfortingly. "I feel the tension in the air. I

came to ask if I could help. I thought I felt an...out of place presence

nearby."



     "Help...?" Leia asked, confused. 



     CEstallia pulled back the shawl to reveal her lightsaber. It was 

different from Luke and Leia's, which were purely utilitarian. Its handle was 

inlaid with precious stones, set in an odd geometric design. It was beautiful. 



     "You're a Jedi?" Leia whispered in astonishment. 

     

     "So they tell me," CEstallia nodded with a grin. 



     Leia smiled back at her. Luke trusted this woman and there *was* an

intruder in the palace. They could use an extra set of force sensitive eyes

in the search. Leia was about to thank her and accept her offer, when 

CEstallia's expression changed to one of surprise and then horror. 



     "What's wrong?" Leia asked, a feeling of fear wormed its way into her 

chest. 



     CEstallia refocused on Leia, she'd come to a decision. "I'm really sorry to

have to do this to you, my dear. You'll just have to forgive me later." With 

that, CEstallia waved an open hand before Leia's eyes and then closed it. 



     Leia looked at her in confused expectancy for a few moments before she

wilted to the floor in a dead faint. 



     CEstallia's attention was diverted elsewhere before Leia had even 

hit the floor. After quickly searching the area with the force, CEstallia 

closed her eyes and clapped her hands sharply together. The soft tingle

began in her hands and worked its way through her body. When she 

opened her eyes again, she was onboard the Hinderer.

     

*   *   *   *   *   *



     Luke Skywalker approached the upper level bay, where the Hinderer

was currently docked, at a run.  The security team was still in place. 

"Stay here!" Luke yelled as he passed them. 



     "Yes sir!" the chief guard answered, not unaccustomed to strange

behavior. The rest simply flattened themselves against the side of the 

guard station, out of Luke's path. 



     The Hinderer sat in the middle of the bay. Luke crossed the distance

in the blink of an eye. His memory delivered up the code Artoo had given 

them earlier. The doors slid open obediently as he punched the 

last key. Luke slipped quietly into the ship's dim confines and immediately

felt a slight rumbling; the engines were being initialized. That bit of

information did not surprise him as he could feel the presence of someone

on the ship--someone who wasn't sleeping. Wait...was that two...no six

people?



     Luke broke into a run. 

 

*   *   *   *   *   *



       When CEstallia teleported onto the Hinderer, she was happy to find 

Ben's back to her as he worked at one of the control panels.



       She only had a few moments before he'd feel her presence. She was 

determined to make the best of it. The figure in the nearest life pod was

beginning to stir. CEstallia thrust a hand out, drawing the bracelet from 

the creature's wrist with the force. She grasped it in her hand just as she 

was found out. 



     Ben blinked in amazement at the gray-haired, gray-eyed woman 

standing before him. Where had she come from? He pulled his blaster 

to him from the side table with the force. He was firing it at her almost

before she got her lightsaber up to block. 



     "A Jedi, eh?" Ben drawled in an unfriendly tone. She would make a 

nice prize. In about a minute he'd have backup from the Jedi now 

stirring in their pods. They wouldn't be at full alertness of course, but 

combined they would be more than a match for this little lady.

He was confident he could keep her busy until then.  And of course, 

there was also the fact that the ships co-ordinates were already  

set. As soon as those engines were on-line, she would be along for 

the ride. 



     CEstallia's eyes darted to the pods. Her worst fears were confirmed

and then some. These little creatures were of the exiles she and Yoda

had confined to the Infinity so many years ago. And they wore the 

Stones. How had they found them? They did not exist yet. 



      Ben shot another wave of blaster fire in her direction. CEstallia 

easily caught and deflected it. Surely, he knew she could block his 

blaster fire from here to eternity and those Jedi would not be ready 

to function for another minute or two. What he didn't know was that

the little creatures in the pods would recognize her...and panic. But

CEstallia had to do something first. She had to reverse the process

on the pod containing the Jedi who no longer wore the bracelet. It 

would mean a horrible death for the little creature if she didn't. 







*   *   *   *   *   *







     Luke heard the sound of blaster fire coming from the direction of

the plasteel barrier. The barrier was now half open.  He could see 

CEstallia standing a few feet from the door with a lightsaber up and 

blocking blaster bolts. He flattened himself against the outside wall 

and tried to think of what to do. An idea came to him. 



     The portion of the room that Luke could see contained various 

control panels and pieces of equipment all bolted to the plasteel 

floor.  Luke needed a distraction; perhaps something he could throw.

A hard edge of the rock walls jabbed at his back. His eyes brightened

with inspiration before he turned to take a closer look at the rock walls.

In one swift, easy motion, he drew back his lightsaber and cut a large 

chunk of the rock away. 



     A loud screech of mortal pain rang through the air. The rock Luke 

had severed glowed red-hot. It hung in the air glowing in time to 

the screams of agony that seemed to come from everywhere at once. 

The sound grew in intensity, blocking even thought. Luke covered his

ears with his hands, his idea forgotten. 



     CEstallia cast around the control room frantically trying to figure out

what had happened.  Ben looked around, just as confused as she. He 

didn't know what was going on. CEstallia, however, knew that the 

little Jedi in the pod was dying.  What she wasn't sure of was why. The 

process in the pod was not complete; she was sure of it. Then, she saw

Luke in the corridor along with the broken chunk of rock that was now

vibrating. She gasped.



     Luke squeezed his eyes tight, trying to block the sounds that seemed

to assault him mentally and physically.  His heart pounded and 

contracted at the sounds. Suddenly, something hit him from the side,

propelling him down the corridor. Luke wasn't conscious to find out 

his destination.



*   *   *   *   *   *   



     Ben saw the woman dash out of the door of the control room. He 

struggled to hit the button that would slam the plasteel barrier shut,

but he couldn't find the strength. The horrible sounds were robbing 

him of his power. The last thing he remembered before the darkness 

was a green three-fingered hand pushing the button he couldn't. 



*   *   *   *   *   *



     Fox Mulder stood watching his partner sleeping. She looked so 

peaceful, at ease. Her red hair stood out against the paleness of the

sheets. His eyes drifted to the door. Now that he was sure Scully 

would be okay, he wanted to be out there, helping get the guy who

had done this to her. 



     He knew that she had looked forward to her date with that man. 

Her job with the x-files allowed her little time to meet eligible men

who weren't suspects. And now, Mulder felt sure, because she 

was his partner 'they' were now interfering in her personal life. He 

had to find out who had sent Benjamin Adams to Dana.



     Mulder picked up Luke's blaster and left the room. His eidetic

memory guided him back to the Security bay.



     "Sir, you can't go in there," the guard told Mulder as he 

moved to pass. His body blocked Mulder's entry.



     "But Luke's in there," Mulder said. He didn't know how he

knew. He just did. Mulder stared back at the guard. He was 

prepared to face him down; pull his blaster if need be. The man

that had hurt his partner was here, too. 



     "I'm sorry, sir. You don't have authorization." The chief guard

was firm. He'd already sized this skinny man up. He figured he 

could take him easily without hurting him if he had to.



     The situation resolved itself, however, when the airlock 

opened to release a loud screaming. Two figures launched from 

the Hinderer at speed, landing in a heap on the floor. The airlock

slid closed, again blocking the sound. 



     Mulder pushed past the guard and dashed into the bay.

Not that Mulder hadn't been as stunned as the guard, but he'd 

half decided to dash past the guard in the first place.



     The guard was right behind him, calling for medical 

assistance. 



     Mulder ran toward Luke, who was nearer the doorway, but

CEstallia had reached a hand toward him. So he changed course

and went to her side. 



     She struggled to push a stone bracelet into his hand.  <Take 

care of it...until I ask,> a soft voice whispered directly into 

his mind. 



     Mulder nodded at the woman, allowing her to place the 

bracelet in his hand. He looked down at the coarse stones

strung along a string. 



     Suddenly, the Hinderer came to life. Her repulser lifts kicked 

in, pushing the ship gracefully into the air. Alarm klaxons went

off all over the bay. 



     Mulder saw that the guards had removed Luke from the bay 

floor and were carrying him out of the area. He turned to do the 

same with CEstallia. Only, she wasn't there. The spot that she'd

occupied was empty. All he had was a bracelet of stone.







end part fourteen.





===========================================================================



From: JackeeC <74363.2566@CompuServe.COM>

Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative

Subject: NEW: XJEDI VOL THREE 15/24

Date: 23 Jan 1996 03:54:03 GMT





XJEDI part 15 (VOL. 3)



Disclaimer: Still in force... May the disclaimer be with you...always.







     <MW> Earth, North Carolina





     Mandy's shift was ending, and she wanted to check on Big Foot before she 

left. She didn't know as yet how she would save him, but she would think of 

something. Jacket and badge in hand, she made the trip to the insanity ward. 

On a hunch, she glanced into John Doe 1's room. It was empty, the bed was 

made up as if no one had ever been there. Vanished, like so many others. 

She could not let that happen to Big Foot. She had to get him out of 

here...if he wasn't already gone. 



     Mandy ran, in a brief moment of panic, the distance to Big Foot's room. 

He was still there, gazing at the observation window before which she stood. 

He seemed to look directly at her. There was intelligence in his eyes. Mandy 

glanced sideways down the hall, suddenly mindful of the guard at the end of

the hall. She couldn't just break the window; it was Plexiglas anyway.

The locks on the doors were completely computerized. The only way in or

out was with a computerized security key card. The doctors who administered

the meds had them and always came in twos, in case the patient needed 

subduing. The guards could also enter, but only under extreme circumstances. 

Mandy's badge would only open the outer door to this corridor so that

she could deliver food. 



     Mandy wished she could talk to Big Foot. Maybe she could convince him to 

play sick or something, like they did on television. But, as things stood, she

would be lucky if she could convince him to blink. 





*   *   *   *   *   *





     "I don't think we're going to find anything here." Mr. X. said staring 

over the sooty ruins of Acme Industrials.



     "I think you're right," Skinner said, cutting the power to his 

flashlight. Whatever someone had wanted to destroy in this fire was indeed 

destroyed. Skinner and his passenger had been combing the ruins for more than 

two hours and had found nothing. 



     "Well, do you have any more bright ideas?" the bearded man asked, glaring 

in Skinner's direction. His once immaculate attire was now sooty.



     "Yeah, one." Skinner said, as he turned toward the car, happy he'd worn

sweats. It was a small victory. But, he took what he could get. 





*   *   *   *   *   *



     Charlotte-Douglas International Airport





     Walter Skinner pulled the green rental car into short term parking. If 

Rae had followed his directions this shouldn't be too much trouble. He 

withdrew a number from memory: CYA-1497. It was Rae's license plate number on

a green Dodge Shadow. 



     He decided to began on the top level. His sister had always liked to park

on the top level. Who knew, maybe it was a female thing. It wasn't. He'd done

the circuit twice. Skinner directed the car to the third level of the four 

level parking deck. 



     The third floor appeared to be the charm. The green Shadow sat near the 

end of the row, at a distance from the elevators. Skinner pulled the rental

car into the, now empty, space beside the Shadow. 



     Skinner's passenger had said nothing during the drive to the airport. He

had simply glared out of the windshield. But now, he looked on with interest. 

Skinner reached into his sweatshirt pocket and pulled out a handy tool. 

Statistics said that the Dodge Shadow was the easiest car on the market

to break in to. Skinner, just hoped no one saw. This *was* deviant behavior 

and could land him in jail. He didn't think he could count on his passenger

to even stick around in that event, much less back his story of lost keys up.



     "Do you mind playing look out?" Skinner asked his passenger. The bearded 

man got out of the car wordlessly and stood looking around the deserted deck 

as his companion broke into the Dodge. 



     After Skinner had gotten the door open. He briefly considered letting the 

man search his daughter's car. But, he couldn't bring himself to trust him 

that far. The interior light came on, exposing the cars shadowy interior. 

Skinner looked in the glove compartment and ashtray. Nothing unusual there. He 

ran a hand beneath both seats to see if he could find anything that might give a hint 

to where Rae and his agents had gone. His hand came across something under the 

passenger seat, two cylindrical objects. He pulled them out. One was chapstick, the 

other was...strange. It was a metallic cylinder, that looked vaguely familiar. 

He held it up and asked his companion if he knew what it was. 



     The bearded man seemed to pause for a brief instant in time before he 

answered. "No, no idea," he said and went back to his scanning of the garage. 

Skinner dropped the object in his sweat suit pocket. He was missing something 

here... He found nothing else of interest in the car. Since Rae's car was 

still here at the airport, the three of them must have taken a rental. 

The question was: Which company and in whose name had they rented? He turned 

to his bearded friend. It was time for him to be more useful.







    





     <GFFA> Coruscant, Imperial Palace. 





     Leia Organa Solo woke to find herself lying on the floor outside her 

rooms. She sat up, expecting to feel woozy or at least have a headache. 

Instead, she felt as if she'd just had a good night's sleep. 



     She pushed herself to her feet and tried to figure out how she'd ended 

up on the floor. The last thing she remembered was CEstallia's hand doing

something in front of her face. Leia's features tightened, 

she knew there was something about that woman that she didn't trust. But, 

there was no time to ponder it now. She had to get to the security bay. 



     Halfway there, alarm klaxon's began to go off. Leia broke into a full

run. The sight that greeted her both stunned and terrified her. The Hinderer 

was lifting into the night sky; headed for deep space by the looks of it. And 

the chief of security was fast approaching the guard station with a 

black-clad figure tossed over his shoulder. A figure Leia recognized as 

Luke. His lightsaber was on the floor of the bay, deactivated. As she 

rushed toward her brother, she saw Mulder pick the saber up while running 

from the chaotic bay, which now had security troops scrambling about, 

shouting orders. 



     A small squad of fighters and a troop carrier were being scrambled to 

pursue the retreating ship. Trouble was, the Hinderer, once in space, would 

become invisible to electronic scanning. And, visual tracking was iffy at 

best, even without the extensive collection of space junk that still plagued 

Coruscant's upper atmosphere. 



     The chief guard set Luke down with his back against the guard station

desk. Luke's head slumped as another of the guard supported his back, 

allowing him to be eased flat onto the floor. Someone had called for a medic. 



     Leia knelt next to her brother. She took one of his hands in hers and 

brushed her sense against his.  She got no response; almost as if his mind 

had simply shut down. Her worry deepened. 



     "What happened?" she asked looking up at the chief guard. Mulder knelt

at Luke's other side. 



     The guard shook his head, "I don't know. A few minutes ago, Skywalker 

came running by. He ordered us to stay here and we did. Then after a bit, he

showed up," the guard pointed at Mulder, "and then the airlock on that ship

opened up and out came Skywalker. I think he must have been out before he hit

the floor."



     Mulder looked sharply in the chief guard's direction. The guard glanced 

back at him curiously. Leia caught the exchange. 



     "You didn't see anything else?" Leia asked, addressing the guard. The 

guard shook his head. Leia sensed no deception from him. He'd been with the 

palace guard a very long time and she trusted him, but Mulder obviously had 

something on his mind.  



     Leia didn't get the chance to ask what it was, however, because at that 

point the medics arrived, hover bed in tow. She gently released her 

brother's hand and moved away, so that the medics could lower the hover 

bed beside him. 



     When she stood, Mulder handed Luke's lightsaber over to her. She clipped 

it to her waist, along side her blaster. Mulder then looked at the blaster he 

still held and handed that over, too. It was Luke's, anyway. Leia clipped 

that one to her waist also. Mulder wished he'd worn his own shoulder holster 

over his clothing. It seemed that no one was bothering to carry concealed.  



     "Keep your post," Leia told the guard, kindly. He gave her a small smile 

and a brief salute before returning to his post. Leia glanced briefly at 

Mulder before she started up the corridor. Mulder fell into step beside her.  



     "What was that all about?" Leia asked as they walked, a few yards behind 

the medteam with the hover bed. 



     "Madame Organa Solo," he started as he'd heard others call her. 



     "Leia," she corrected him. 



     "Leia," he began again, "CEstallia was with Luke when he came out of 

that ship. I don't understand why the guard didn't see her."



     Leia came to a full stop in the hallway and turned toward Mulder. "She 

was on the ship?" she asked in disbelief. 



     "Yes," Mulder nodded emphatically. "She went down, just like Luke."  

Mulder held onto the knowledge about the bracelet, though. He wasn't sure why

but he just felt an urge to keep quiet about it. 



     "Come with me," Leia said as she hurried, not after the hover bed 

that had turned a corner up ahead, but toward guest quarters. She came  

to a stop outside CEstallia's rooms. Leia rang the door chime. No 

one answered. 



	Knowing that diplomacy would not allow her to invade CEstallia's

personal space, Leia turned to Mulder, "You said she went down?" 



     "Yeah, I know this sounds crazy, but, she was on the floor right in 

front of me one minute and the next she was gone. She looked right at me." 



     "Not so strange as you might think," Leia murmured, running a hand over 

her forehead, thinking. If CEstallia had been conscious enough to get herself 

out of the bay, then she probably wasn't hurt. She was, after all, a Jedi. 

Besides, someday the CEstallians might want to join the New Republic. In which 

case, insulting one of their representatives by barging into her quarters 

unannounced might not be such a good idea. So she'd announce herself. Leia 

reached out with the force, feeling for the woman's mind. It wore the 

stillness of a deep sleep, not unlike Luke's complete inactivity. She 

wouldn't be able to get much out of the woman in that state. 



     "Let's just go see Luke," she sighed. She'd deal with CEstallia later. 

     

*   *   *   *   *   *      



     The chief guard's smile had faded away to grim determination as soon as 

Leia had turned away. Someone had stolen into the security bay, while he'd 

been guarding it. No one unauthorized had passed his station. That someone

must have gotten in some other way. And he meant to find out how. 



     "I need the security monitor video files for every possible access way to

this bay for the last 2 hours. And I want it like yesterday," the chief guard 

said gruffly to his younger companion. 



     The younger guard saluted smartly and went to attend to the task.

      





 CEstallia





     Arric sat silently in his sleeping chambers, gazing at the stars that 

penetrated the atmospheric haze in the upper atmosphere. He was remembering 

his life; the highs and lows. Most of all, the high point of being Chief 

Intermediary to CEstallia, the Matriarch. 



     The moons glimmered in the distance as they followed their course 

across the night sky. It was a full crossing, this night; all three moons 

were full. A full crossing occurred every 35 days, ten times a year. This 

would be Arric's last full crossing. 



     CEstallia had already chosen her successor and tonight, her successor 

had chosen her own Intermediary. No Intermediary ever lived on for long

after his Matriarch died. Arric had had a full and rich life to contemplate

as he awaited the Time. A Matriarch knew the time of her own death, if 

not the circumstances; an Intermediary simply waited for it. 



     Arric knew that he was truly no longer Intermediary. He also knew that 

CEstallia would never return home, to CEstallia. That, in itself, was a great 

sacrifice. But, until the crossing passed with the rising of the suns, he 

would remain at his post. 



     Arric got up from his lounger and stepped out onto his balcony. The night

air was cool and ruffled his robes. 



     All of Central City was sleeping. There was no artificial light to be 

seen, only the reflection of the moons on the pools of water beneath the 

falls. 



     Arric allowed his thoughts to wander to the children. Tomorrow would be 

a big day for them. They had been allowed one day to become used to their 

surroundings before the difficult task of removing the cylinders began. He 

wondered too, if Luke Skywalker knew what great honor he held to travel with 

the Matriarch on her last journey, that duty generally fell to the 

Intermediary. But Arric was not bitter. CEstallia had her reasons; good ones 

he was sure. Skywalker would become her temporary Intermediary; he would 

witness her passing in Arric's place.



     Arric's eyes drifted to the Big Fall Landing Port, where Luke Skywalker 

had docked his ship earlier that very day and where his Matriarch had last 

touched foot on CEstallia. A strange sight greeted him. A ship hovered near 

the top of the big fall; a ship that was barely visible. Arric gathered his 

staff and headed for the door. A feeling of dread settled in the pit of his 

stomach.



*   *   *   *   *   * 



     The bedroom was dim. The young woman sat up slowly in bed. Someone had 

called her. She turned her head slowly toward the window. Night light cast 

shadows over the furnishings. In the back of her mind she knew where she was

and why she was here. She also knew who was calling her--had called her 

before. 



     She got up from the bed as she was told. Moving silently through the 

room, she gathered her clothing and quickly dressed. When she reached the 

central room, the children were already there. 



     "Come along, children," she said as she reached a hand out to them. They

all drew near to her. The huddled group looked up to the ceiling as if 

listening. Then, they all walked out onto the balcony.



     The outer door to the childrens' chamber slid open. Arric rushed into the 

room, his staff raised. He saw the group on the balcony bathed in brilliant 

light. The young woman turned her head in his direction. A slight smile spread

across her lips that made no effort to touch her eyes, and then she turned 

back toward the light. 



     Arric ran out to get the children back. He wondered at how this ship had

penetrated the barrier? Nothing foreign could penetrate CEstallia's planetary 

barrier undetected. A brief thought shot through his mind: Could this ship be 

of CEstallia, truely CEstallian? Not possible. His mind rejected that thought.



     When Arric reached the edge of the light, a force more brilliant than the

light hit his mind. A painful wave of emotions and images flooded his mental 

perception, blanking his mind, his thoughts. Arric was thrown clear as though

by a physical blow. 



     He woke later, screaming. 



          



     <MW> Charlotte, North Carolina



Saturday.     



     Asst. Director Walter Skinner sat behind the wheel of his rental car. His

passenger stood outside, leaning against the passenger door of the car, making

a phone call. Skinner watched the horizon. Though it was still dark, he could 

tell that the sun would be rising soon. And his agents were still missing. 

This assignment should have been easy. But, with agent Mulder involved was 

anything ever easy? 



     Skinner turned the key to turn on the radio. Listening to the low murmur 

of his passenger's conversation wasn't getting him anywhere. 



     "...our top story this morning. The missing and feared abducted Mr. Mike

Ashton was found late last night wandering near an industrial park. Mr. Ashton

was disoriented and has at this time no memory of what happened to him over the 

past 48 hours. Ms. Theraesa Manning is still at large and wanted for 

questioning..." 



     Skinner started the car. 





















end part fifteen.





===========================================================================



From: JackeeC <74363.2566@CompuServe.COM>

Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative

Subject: NEW: XJEDI VOL THREE 16/24

Date: 23 Jan 1996 03:58:01 GMT





XJEDI 16 (VOL. 3) 



Disclaimer: Still in force. The disclaimer is out there. 







     Coruscant







     The Sun was rising over Capitol City when the chief guard finished his 

security investigation. He'd downloaded it all to a data crystal. Now, he 

sat across from the Director of the Guard, who was staring intently at the 

information his man had gathered. 



     When the holo-imager faded and the scene on the chip played itself out,

the Director sat back in his chair. 



     "You've done very well," the Director said. "Intelligence was working

from the viewpoint that some sort of slave system had been activated, 

especially in light of the fact that another ship departed into hyperspace

right after it. We still don't know why we didn't pick it up before that 

time."  



     "Could it have had stealth circuits, sir?" the guard asked. 



     "It's strange, but Intelligence doesn't believe so. The vector the ship

followed indicates that it was on the surface of Coruscant, right here in 

Capitol City." 



     A chime rang at the Director's door. He'd put in a call to the Internal

Security Council as soon as his guard had told him what he'd found. He 

pressed the button on his desk to tell his assistant to allow the Security 

representative entry. 



     He hid his shock very well when Mon Mothma, herself, stepped through the 

doorway.  



*   *   *   *   *   *



     For Han Solo the first order of business after leaving the infirmary was

to get the Falcon prepped to go after Chewie. This business about not 

being able to *find* a planet made no sense to him. He'd sent the co-ordinates

in his message to Leia. He couldn't imagine what more they needed, he'd 

practically drawn them a map. 



     When Han reached the bay, there was a balding orange-haired man standing

beneath his ship. He was fiddling with the Falcon's landing pods.  



     Han strode over to the man and tapped him on a thin shoulder. "Uh, 

excuse me," Han said, injecting the maximum amount of sarcasm. "Need some 

help?" 



     The man turned distractedly toward Han. 



     Han noticed that the man was younger than he had at first thought.



     "Oh, you must be Han Solo," the man said. "I'm Gien Becter, I'm one of 

the scientists assigned to examining the data from your ship," he said, 

distractedly, before turning his attention back toward the Falcon's 

landing pods.  



     Han now found himself glaring at the man's back. "Well, stay out 

of my way," he said to the back of Becter's head, "I've got work to do." 

With that he stalked up the entry ramp and into the ship. 



     Becter barely noticed Han's words, so engrossed was he in what he'd found 

in the grooves within the landing pods. He placed another sample into the 

portable analyzer to be sure of his findings. It was true. He let out an 

uncontainable whoop of glee. 



     A second later, Han rushed down the ramp to see what had happened to the

odd little man under his ship. "What the--" he said upon reaching the 

bottom of the ramp. The man was hugging himself. 



     When Becter saw Han, he immediately trotted over to him, waving his 

portable analyzer in the air. The frazzled orange hair that curled 

around the back of his head along with pale skin, gave him the look of a 

somewhat colorless clown.  



     Han took in the man's shaking hands and glassy eyes and wondered what 

sort of interesting drug he might have gotten into in the past few minutes. 



     "Solo! Solo!" he exclaimed. "You've got to look at this," he said, 

holding the instrument before Han. 



     Han looked dubiously at the man and then down at the instrument's

readout display. It looked like a bunch of gibberish as best as he could make

out. "What? Is it broken?" Han asked, confused.



     "No, no, no," Becter said, "*look*", unable to contain a goofy grin. 

     

     Han looked back at the readout display reluctantly. It didn't make any

more sense than it had the first time around. He looked back into Becter's 

expectant face. Sarcasm mode on. 



     "Now it makes *so* much more sense. Do you mind translating into plain 

Basic? I don't have time to play guess the symbol."  



     Becter frowned, miffed at Han's attitude. He depressed a button and an 

indicator began to step through a testing mode. Then, a little chamber snapped

open. Barely discernible granules of a black substance sat within the chamber.



     "I found residue on your landing pods," Becter began, "that would have 

come from your most recent planetside landing, which had to have been the 

planet Earth, since your maintenance record shows that the pods were cleaned 

prior to your departure. I've found some...irregularities that are at odds 

with a few accepted galactic rules of physics."



     "What!?" Han asked, growing even more irritated. Was there a conspiracy 

keeping him from trying to get Chewie back? First Luke and his 'conference' 

with some woman from some planet...CEstallia or wherever, and then the 

scientists suddenly forgetting how to follow simple co-ordinates and now some 

idiot telling him that he was 'at odds' with accepted galactic rules of 

physics. They would probably want to impound his ship, the way things were 

going. 



     "I don't have *time* for this," he muttered, shaking his head as he 

headed back toward the Falcon's ramp. When he'd left everything was nice and 

normal, as far as it went. No one was having trouble following simple

co-ordinates or ranting about galactic rules being broken. Han decided that

the goal of the moment was to get back to Earth to rescue Chewie. The galaxy 

would do just fine without his help.   



     "Wait, Mr. Solo, hear me out," Becter said. His voice was steadier and  

carried a seriousness and professional demeanor that gave Han pause. He turned 

and waited for the man to say something that might convince him that what he 

had found should matter one bit in the scheme of things.



     Becter took a few steps closer before he began to speak. "Until this 

moment intergalactic travel was thought to be impractical because of the 

great distances involved, that and superstition. From the rim, it would take 

41 light years just to reach the nearest galaxy. But, what I found on your 

ship begs to differ. You see, every particle in this galaxy has a certain 

signature, a galactic...tone, if you will. Every single particle has it. And 

this tone cannot be changed. It's been tried. The residue we found on your 

ship has a different signature--much different. There is absolutely NO WAY," 

Becter pointed to the analyzer's collection tray, "this dirt is of our 

galaxy." 



     Han stood and looked at the man, measuring what he'd said.  

"Have you told anyone else about this?" he asked.



     Becter's expression changed to one of uncertainty. "Well...no. I'm a 

Jr. on the team and this was just a hunch. We don't normally run the galactic

tone scan because it didn't seem reasonable since you were only gone for 

a day. What actually led me to do the test was the trace molecular distortion

on the hull. It hasn't affected the integrity, but it was a bit strange. 

Besides, the team's results have already been transmitted to Madame Organa

Solo."  



      "And they are..." Han prompted. There was always the hope that they'd 

make more sense than what this young man had come up with. 



     Becter shrugged, "Faulty nav system. Temporary localized spacial 

disturbances. Operator error--" 



     "Okay, I get the picture," Han said, sighing. The exit ramp of the Falcon

began to rise as he activated a remote lock down switch. Turning to Becter

with a grimace of half resignation and half curiosity, Han said, "Not that 

I believe any of what you just said but if there's one thing I learned 

from Luke Skywalker it's that he can sometimes make sense of the most 

ridiculous things. Come on, I think he and Leia should hear this."

 

  

*   *   *   *   *   *





     Leia turned cool eyes on CEstallia. She was giving the woman a private 

audience only because Luke had requested it. Leia would have preferred 

bringing her before the Council. 



     That morning when Luke had awakened in the infirmary, he hadn't had any

answers for Leia on what had happened to him. He'd assured her that he felt 

fine and requested a private audience for CEstallia. 



     Now it was Leia's turn, she had a few questions of her own before she 

listened to what CEstallia had to say.



     "How are you feeling this morning?" Leia asked. "Fox Mulder tells me 

that you had some difficulty last night after you left me." 



     CEstallia returned Leia's look with a smile. "You and I," she said, "we 

should be allies. We have a common foe." 



     Leia carefully concealed the fact that she was pondering over CEstallia's

statement by taking a sip of her morning beverage. She decided not to become

side tracked by the obvious question just now. 



     "What happened to Luke last night?" Leia asked point blank. "And how did 

you get on that ship? And what did you do to me?" 



     Luke looked up in surprise. He hadn't known that something had happened 

to his sister. He turned a curious eye on CEstallia. Leia's question was now

his. 



     CEstallia sat back in her seat, watching the both of them. "The dark 

Jedi were waking and I had to prevent that." 



     Leia's eyes widened slightly. In her worry over Han and Luke and 

Chewie and the loss of the Hinderer, she'd actually forgotten that the 

Jedi were there. "And did you prevent it?" she asked, carefully concealing 

her thoughts.  



     "No," CEstallia replied, eyes down cast. "I didn't." 



     Luke knew that. He'd felt them waking as he'd entered the ship. Their  

very presences stained the force near them. Leia should have been able to feel 

them, too, not as strongly as he, but still...unless...? <What happened?> 

he asked his sister, silently. 



     Leia allowed him to see what she remembered. Since mental communication

was so much faster than verbal all this happened in the space of a second. 



     "What did you do to Leia?" he asked CEstallia. He had never seen that 

move that she'd done with her hand. And he didn't particularly care for the 

fact that she'd done it to his sister. 



     "It was for her own protection," CEstallia said, still calm, but Luke 

sensed a slight defensiveness.



     "I appreciate your concern for my well being," Leia said, diplomatically. 

"But there's still the question of why. And what you felt it necessary to 

protect me from. Not to mention how you got on the ship and what happened to 

you and Luke." 



     "We don't have time for this," CEstallia said to Luke with a pleading 

tone. Turning to Leia, she added, "Every minute we waste is more to their 

advantage. There are things you need to know, Madame, and you need to know 

them *now*."



     Leia glanced at Luke, gauging his reaction. He raised a brow at her. The

decision was hers, but, what harm would it do to hear the woman out? Leia was

concerned about CEstallia's warnings, but she couldn't give up on finding 

out what had happened so easily. 



      "If I hear you out, will you answer my questions?" Leia asked, enjoying 

the upper hand. 



     "One condition," CEstallia said. 



     Leia hesitated before answering, "What is it?"



     CEstallia wore a ghost of smile. "There is a cylinder, you found it in

the palace. When this mission is over, I want it. No questions." 



     Leia paused completely. What was so important about that cylinder? She

thought back, it had made Luke's mind strange. Whatever happened on that ship

had made his mind strange, as well, in a different way perhaps, but she felt 

sure that they were related. Her decision was which was more important, 

knowing what had happened to Luke or holding on to that cylinder in hope of 

gaining some deeper knowledge. 



     "Why don't we let you know?" Luke answered after a few silent seconds. 

His knowledge of the cylinders was admittedly slim, but this was probably the 

only one on the planet. And he meant to keep it, for now.



     Leia let it rest. "All right, then," she said. "What is it that I need 

to know?" 



     CEstallia began her story. 

 

*   *   *   *   *   *



     Dana Scully eyed herself in the full length mirror that, she discovered, 

appeared on the wall next to the closet when she pressed the knob. The house

keeper droid had been in minutes before and braided her hair in a wreath 

around her head. She hadn't been able to style it like she would have at home,

but the braids were nice. The outfit she wore, on the other hand would

not have been her choice, but it was better than the previous nights.

She wore tights again, but this time with a tunic that reached to mid-thigh. 

The black knee boots rounded out the outfit. 



     "The fashion police would have a field day in this place," she said to 

her reflection, wishing for her overcoat to cover the whole thing up. But, 

she'd left it on the ship. 



     Giving up on any hope of improving, she walked out of her room into the 

main room of the suite. Mulder was already there, dozing on the sofa. Rae

stepped out of her room, which was across from Scully's.



     "Nice outfit," Rae said, looking down at her own green tunic and tights 

outfit. 



     Scully looked over Rae's outfit. "At least they're different colors," 

she said. "We could have been twins." 



     "Good point," Rae said, stepping more fully into the room. She caught 

sight of Mulder asleep on the sofa and shook her head. "Does he have 

something against beds?" she asked. "It's not like there's a television or 

anything." 



     Scully thought of all of Mulder's paranoia's with a wry smile. "Probably." 

     

     "Do you know what the real bummer in this is?" Rae asked, continuing.



     "No, what?" Scully asked. 



     "No toons," Rae lamented, "no X-men, no Animaniacs, no Pinky and the 

Brain--" 



     "No Power Rangers?" Scully put in. 



     "Uay! Que horrible!" Rae said, faking a Spanish accent, "the fate worse 

than death..." 



     "Oh, you mean the Power Rangers movie?" Mulder asked, now pulling 

himself into a sitting position. 



     Rae laughed. "What are we going to do tomorrow, Brain," she said, out of

the blue. 



     "Same thing we always do, Pinky...Try to take over the world!" Mulder 

said, adding a deep seriousness to his voice, before falling back on the sofa

laughing. 



     Scully rolled her eyes and left them to their reminiscing to see if she

could remember how to operate the kitchen.



*   *   *   *   *   *





     Leia had listened to CEstallia's fascinating story about the children 

and the Gates. She was as amazed...and as confused as Luke had been. There 

were a lot of things that she didn't understand, but CEstallia kept saying 

that it was ancient knowledge that must stay that way. 



     "So do you think someone is building up an army of Jedi children?" Leia 

asked. 



     "That was the old motive," CEstallia said, "but now, I cannot be sure." 

     

     Leia nodded. She was just opening her mouth for the next question when 

the door chime rang. The droids had been sent down to Luke's chambers because 

CEstallia would not talk with them around. Leia had to reassure her several 

times that her personal quarters were swept electronically quite often for 

eavesdropping devices. But, since there was no one else to get the door that 

she'd sealed, she got up to do it. "Excuse me," she said. 



     "Leia and Luke, good," Mon Mothma was saying when she walked into the 

living room, a tall rather long headed man followed. She came to an abrupt 

halt when she saw CEstallia.



     "Oh, good morning," she said politely. 



     Leia introduced them. 



     Mon Mothma turned to Leia, "There is information on the incident that 

took place early this morning..." She allowed her words to trail off, so that

Leia could understand that this was an internal matter -- not for the ears of 

visiting off-worlders. 



     Luke was the one who spoke up in defense. "Mon Mothma, if you'll pardon

me, CEstallia's people are aware of ships much like the Hinderer. They used to

build them, many years ago. If anything the technology was stolen from them. I

think she should be allowed to listen in to whatever we've come up with." 



     "Very well," Mon Mothma said. She trusted Luke almost as much as Leia. 

If he'd wanted a government post he might easily have gotten one. His 

judgment was good and he was sincere. 



     "Director Mricos informed Security of this data crystal." Mon Mothma 

said, holding the device up for all to see. "I believe it speaks for itself." 

She placed the crystal into the holo-imager in the center of the table that 

sat before the sofa. An image faded into view of a man walking through 

the Operations room. The fact that he stood out and was so obviously armed 

did not matter to the operators. No one seemed to find him out of the 

ordinary, a few even smiled at him. He worked at a panel for a few moments

and then continued out of Ops. onto the security bay catwalk. 



     "This is the intruder from the guest wing," Luke spoke up. "He has the 

power of the force, but I didn't sense that he was dark." 



     Mon Mothma frowned at Luke's words. She'd seen the report of the 

incident in the guest wing. But, she hadn't known that the man had used the 

force. The Earth man, Mulder, had reported that the man was also from Earth. 

She hoped that Earth was not going to be a problem. A delegation might be in

order, when they found it, of course. 



     The imager went on to show the hole in the wall near the lift that 

led to the inner passageways. A readout indicated that most likely the 

instrument used to cut into the wall had been a laser of some kind, because

of the singed edges. There was also a record of the computer glitch, 

that operations actually caught later, that allowed the guest lift to stop on the 

Ops level. 



     "This glitch," Mricos spoke for the first time, since his morning 

greeting to everyone. "was intentionally introduced into the system. We 

believe that someone used an override code to stop that lift." 



     Luke thought again of how bad an idea he thought it was to locate New 

Republic headquarters here.



     The crystal continued on, playing the footage of a much smaller ship, 

just before it jumped into hyperspace, presumably behind the now, electronically

and otherwise, invisible Hinderer. 



     This new ship was a dark triangular design and unfamiliar to all persons

present. 



     The holo-image faded away as the crystal reached the end of its run. Just

at that moment, the doors of the suite swished open to admit Han Solo followed

by a orange-haired New Republic scientist. 



     Silence fell in the room as all eyes fell on the pair.



     "All right," Han said, pushing Becter forward. "Tell 'em what you 

told me." 



     Becter cleared his throat, suddenly nervous in front of an audience. 

Especially one containing the Minister of State. "Earth is in another 

galaxy," he said simply.



     "What?!" said Luke, Leia, Mon Mothma, Director Mricos and CEstallia. 



     "My sentiments exactly," murmured Han. Then he pointed at Becter, "He 

says he found *dirt* that doesn't belong to this galaxy on the Falcon's 

landing pods." 



     All heads had turned to Han when he began speaking. Now they all turned 

back to Becter. 



     "Dirt?" said Luke and Leia. Mon Mothma simply took it all in, hoping 

that someone was going to explain this soon. Mricos' thin brows rose several 

inches. And CEstallia thought busily to herself. Something did not quite fit

here. 



     Han stood back and grinned. This wasn't even making a flicker of 

sense to Luke, either. "I'd be more than happy to bring you some more *dirt* 

from Earth, when I go get Chewie. Then you can test all you want." 



     "Actually, there is one test we can do for clarification. It'll let us

know for sure if my theory is correct," Becter said. 



     "How's that?" Luke asked. 



     "The Earth people, we need to examine them." 



*   *   *   *   *   *



     Scully was busy pondering over the completely unfamiliar menu of the 

kitchen droid and trying to explain to it what toast and coffee was when 

the door chimed. More than ready for a break, she went to see who'd arrived. 



      The door slid open to reveal Han Solo followed by the frazzle-haired 

scientist, as well as Mon Mothma and Leia, Luke and CEstallia and Director 

Mricos. They all strode single file into the suite. Scully didn't catch what

Han had said when they'd first entered the room, but she did notice the 

tension in the room. 



     "Good morning?" she said, stepping to one side of Mulder and Rae. 



      "Pardon me," Mon Mothma said, stepping forward. "My name is Mon Mothma. 

And I'd, first of all, like to welcome you to Coruscant."  



     "Thank you," Mulder, Scully and Rae all responded politely. 



     "The gentleman near the door," Mon Mothma continued, "is Director Mricos 

of the New Republic Guard. This man," she gestured toward Becter now by her 

side, "is Gien Becter. He is one of the scientists involved in finding out 

just where Earth is. Everyone else, I believe you already know. Mr. Becter

has a request to make of you, but before you make your decision, please hear 

his reasons." Mon Mothma stepped to the side allowing Becter to begin. 



      "Yes, first of all, are you all aware of the particles that make up all 

things?" He waited while the translators tracked his words. 



     "Yes," Mulder, Scully and Rae nodded. 



     "Good," Becter continued. "Well, each particle has a certain signature. 

This signature is usually in the form of a subatomicly emanating quantum 

resonance frequency." 



     The translator was having a difficult time with Becter's last sentence. 

An unusually long string of words were emitted to represent 'subatomicly 

emanating quantum resonance frequency'. 



     Han waited in growing irritation for the translator to finish its phrase. 

At Mulder, Scully and Rae's looks of growing confusion, he knew his 

suspicions were confirmed. They didn't have a clue as to what Becter was 

talking about...and possibly neither did the translator. 



     "We don't have time for this," Han interjected over the translator's

continuing attempt at deciphering Becter's sentence. "What he's trying to 

say it this: He thinks the Earth is in another galaxy. And he wants to check 

you out to see if he's right."



     The translator had no problem with Han's choice of words. But his 

listeners did. "Come again," Scully asked dazedly. Wasn't it really bad 

enough to be on another planet? Mulder stood with a blank expression for a 

half a second before a grin began to spread across his face. Rae simply sat 

down.



     Han's head was beginning to ache. "The scientist found some dirt on the

Falcon, and it ain't from around here. He wants to check you out to see if 

you're from the same place the dirt is from."



     "What kind of test is it?" Scully asked. 

     

     "It'll only take a few minutes," Becter answered. "All I need is a piece 

of hair or some sort of cellular tissue."



     "All right," Scully said, looking around the room, "I'll do it." 





*   *   *   *   *   *





     Everyone sat on the semi-circular sofa in the common room of the suite 

Scully, Mulder and Rae shared. Mricos had left to attend to the duties of the

day, since his services were no longer required. He left the data crystal 

with Mon Mothma. 



     "There's something I don't understand," Han said while they waited for 

the analyzer to complete its analysis. Living, or once living in the case 

of Scully's tissue sample, took a bit longer than simple inorganics, such as 

ordinary dirt, to process. "What was wrong with the co-ordinates I gave you? 

I used them myself and they worked just fine."



     "We tried that," Becter said. "A scout from a station not too far 

distant from your co-ordinates was dispatched. They found nothing except 

empty space. There is simply nothing there." 



     "What about Artoo? His sensors must have picked up something." 



     "The information contained in his logs are inconclusive, just like the 

Falcon's logs. According to his and the Falcon's records, when you reached 

that point there was an electronic glitch and the next coherent record is of 

your ship 1000 kilometers out from a planet, co-ordinates unknown. The fact 

that the Artoo unit's glitch and the Falcon's glitch both occurred 

simultaneously indicates that there must have been some outside phenomena." 



     "Outside phenomena...yeah," Han said thoughtfully. "There was this...

big...bright...vortex," Han finished, struggling for words to describe what

he'd seen. "It only lasted for, maybe, a second." 



     Becter's instrument beeped. He busied himself with the readout, 

continuing to speak. "I've concluded that it may have been a strange 

naturally occurring magnetic phenomena that conditions happened to be right

for. A very rare phenomena, I might add. Your description seems to affirm 

that hypothesis." 



     "So how do you explain the trip back?" Han asked, not yet done with his

questions. 



     Becter shrugged, "The phenomena was still active on some level. Perhaps,

since the Falcon had passed through it once before, it made a return trip." 



     "I don't buy that," Han said. 

     

     Becter continued to examine his results. The raised brows clearly

said that it didn't matter what Han bought. A wry smile of half triumph 

was spread across his face when he held the results up. "Positive 

match." 



     "So we *are* in another galaxy?" Mulder inquired.



     "Yes," Becter nodded. 



     Mulder glanced quickly in Scully's direction before he asked his next 

question. "And you think this phenomena or whatever got us here isn't 

going to happen again?" 



     "I'm afraid not," Becter said, packing the analyzer away in one of the 

many pockets within his lab coat. 



     "I disagree," Mulder stunned everyone by saying. From Han it was 

expected. But, no one, not even Scully, was prepared for Mulder to 

speak up with a logical reason for his conclusion. 



     "I think the phenomena will occur again. And I think it will 

soon. Remember, we are not the only one's here from Earth." Mulder thought

it best not to bring up Scully's attack before the group, he knew how she 

hated being portrayed as a victim. 

 

     Luke nodded glancing at CEstallia, she was being very quiet. 

"I think we should replay the security recording for them." He 

said to Mon Mothma. 



     The holo-imager came to life, showing Benjamin Adams walking calmly 

through the Ops center and out onto the bay catwalk. The imager then went on 

to show some of the damage he was suspected to have done. 



     Scully wrapped her arms around herself as she recognized the man. It 

chilled her that she'd actually been attracted to him. And the dream she'd

had last night...along with Mulder's words that they weren't the only one's 

there from Earth gave her an eerie feeling. Something held her back from 

asking Mulder how he knew Ben was there. 



     "I have a question," Mulder spoke up. "This man isn't dressed like 

anyone else in the room," he began, gesturing toward the holo-image. 

"Why doesn't someone ask him what he's doing there? He's obviously a 

stranger." 



     Luke answered that question, "It seems that he was using a Jedi mind 

trick. He gave off the illusion of being a trusted workmate and so no one 

questioned his presence." 



     Dana Scully's expression changed subtly as she looked intently at Mulder 

waiting for him to ask the obvious question. But he didn't. He simply nodded 

his head as if adding it to a list of acceptable possibilities. 



     Dana, however had to ask that one, "Excuse me, Jedi *mind* trick? 

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that particular type of criminal behavior."  



     Leia spoke up from her end of the sofa, carefully hiding a smile. "The 

Jedi are able to exercise extraordinary powers through the force. And not 

all Jedi are criminals. Luke is a Jedi Knight." 



     Scully's eyes went unbidden to Luke. He certainly had an aura about him. 

But, she wasn't ready to chalk it up to some extraordinary ability to use 

some 'force'. "And this is normal on this planet?" she asked.

 

     "The force is everywhere," Luke said, "in everything, in every part of 

the universe. Where there is life, there is the force." 



     "Oh," Scully said, closing her mouth. She didn't want to offend them by 

saying what was on her mind. She simply raised a brow and sat back in her 

seat. Mulder *would* be right at home here. 



     Luke didn't try to convince her further. She obviously didn't know of 

her partners potential powers, either. But, some on her world must have known 

of the force. How else would Benjamin Adams have learned to wield it so well?  



      The holo-image faded to a starfield as a small ship came into view. 

Mulder could not believe what he was seeing. "Is this one of yours?" he asked 

breathlessly, pointing to the ship that a moment later vanished into 

hyperspace, leaving only an empty starfield behind. 



     "No," Luke answered. "We've never seen anything like it. We think it was

hiding on the planet some place until the Hinderer was stolen."



     "Can you replay it?" Mulder asked. 



     "Sure," Luke said, resetting the crystal for enhanced replay.



     "What is it, Mulder?" Scully asked her partner. He had that look he got 

when he was on to something big in a case. 



     "Scully, *that* ship," he punctuated the air with a finger, "is just 

like the ships they were flying around at Ellens." 



     "What?" Scully gasped, leaning in for a better look. "Mulder are you 

sure?" 



     "Yes, eidetic memory...remember?" 



     "But, Mulder, you don't remember anything. All we have are some blurry 

photographs," Scully argued.



     "Scully, the likeness is unmistakable." 



     CEstallia looked distractedly away from the two arguing agents. "Mr.

Solo," she began, "What exactly were those co-ordinates?"



     Han shrugged. "It should be in the Falcon's computer or Artoo might 

know." 



     Leia spoke up, she remembered exactly. The force gave her an eidetic 

memory, as well. She rattled the co-ordinates off to CEstallia. 



     CEstallia gasped as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place 

for her. The two agents ended their debate and all eyes went to 

CEstallia. She focused shocked, pupil-less gray eyes on Luke. "Those are 

the co-ordinates for one of the Gates," she whispered. "That explains 

everything." 



     "Gates?" Han asked, "what Gates? And how does this explain everything? 

And come to think of it, what is everything?" 



     "Yes," said Mon Mothma, "I'd be interested in the answers to those 

questions, as well." 



     CEstallia kicked herself mentally for her slip. She schooled her 

features to remain placid against the weight of all the eyes in the 

room. Her senses fed her information regarding the emotional states 

of those around her in the half second it took her to formulate a reply. 



     "I'm very sorry, that is a matter of CEstallian internal security. 

I have already shared the information with one member of the New 

Republic as a sign of good faith. But, the information is far too 

dangerous to share with so many." 



     "But we already have the co-ordinates." Becter spoke up. "What is to stop

any one of us from going out there and having a more in-depth look around than 

that scout ship could?" Already Becter was mentally running through the 

equipment he might need to run the necessary scans of the area. 



     CEstallia turned to Becter, infusing a small amount of suggestion into 

her words. "Because, Mr. Becter, current technology is not sufficient to 

the task." 



     "Not sufficient to the task..." Becter echoed, suddenly confused as to 

what he'd been about to say. He turned a distracted gaze off in the distance

as he tried to recapture the thought. Then, shrugging he refocused on the 

conversation.



     Scully watched Becter curiously. He seemed to have disconnected from the 

conversation. Turning back to the group, she noticed scowls on the faces of 

Han and Leia. She then turned to Mulder to see if he had noticed the exchange.

He had. His eyes met hers and he shook his head ever so slightly. 



     "Sufficient or not," Han muttered. "I plan to have the Falcon prepped and 

out of here in 30 minutes. If anybody is planning on joining me, you know

where you've gotta be by then." The entire exercise with Becter hadn't 

told him anything. But, it had succeeded in delaying him. He was up and 

halfway to the door by the time Leia called out after him. 



     "Han!" she said, exasperated, excusing herself.



     "Can you get us back to Earth?" Mulder asked CEstallia. He wondered

if perhaps the Gate was a doorway. 



     "Yes, I might be able to," she said, softly. 

     



     

      Leia caught up to Han in the corridor. "Han, you can't go 

alone," she said, falling into step beside him. She had to almost run 

because his steps were so much longer than hers. "I want to find 

Chewie, too. But, we have to know where we're going. As much as I 

hate to admit it, we should probably bring CEstallia with us." 



     Han's jaw tightened further. "What's wrong around here?" he asked 

the air in general. Then he came to a stop and turned to his wife. "Look, I

was there, not...two days ago. The universe doesn't just up and rearrange 

itself, no matter what cockamamie story the CEstallians or the scientists or

whoever come up with. It's there and so is Chewie." Han began walking again, 

"And I don't need someone's grandma to show me how to use a navicomputer." 



     "Han," Leia called, frustrated, again forced to run to keep up with him. 

She didn't like the delay any more than he did, but if there was only half 

truth to what CEstallia suspected, they'd need to be cautious. 



     "There's more than Chewie at stake here," she said, trying to make him 

see her point of view. "From the looks of things this needs to be a two-fold 

mission." 



     "What's the other mission?" Han asked. This was the first he'd heard of 

a possible other assignment. And what could some planet in another galaxy, 

that they'd only just found out about, have to do with any mission other than

handing Chewie over?



     "I can't tell you right now," Leia said, looking around, mentally 

reviewing all the places a snooping device might be concealed. 



      "All right," Han shrugged in feigned nonchalance. "I suppose I am 

somehow included in this party?" 



     "Wouldn't be a party without you," Leia smiled at him. 



     "Remember that," Han grinned back. Then, gestured toward the dock, "I'll

get the old girl ready. You get the committee moving?"



     Leia nodded and watched him go. That was where Luke found her a few  

seconds later. 



     "What is it, Luke?" she asked, knowing immediately that something was 

wrong. 



     "I just got a message from the CEstallian system. The children are gone.

Kidnapped, by a ship that sounds a lot like the Hinderer." 





 end part sixteen





===========================================================================



From: JackeeC <74363.2566@CompuServe.COM>

Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative

Subject: NEW: XJEDI VOL THREE 17/24

Date: 23 Jan 1996 03:59:26 GMT





XJEDI 17 volume 3





Disclaimer: Many of the characters, okay, the vast majority of

the characters used herein are not mine. (well, there's a

surprise, considering this IS fan fiction) You guys know the

routine and I'm sure I'd like your disclaimer better than mine

anyway as I am fresh out of really clever ways to put those oh

so lovely words. So...<insert favorite disclaimer here> Now,

we're all happy.









    <MW> Earth, Pineville, North Carolina



     Jenine Ashton puttered around her kitchen cleaning non-existent 

spots from various surfaces. Her daughter and her family had left

hours before, leaving the kitchen spotless. But, Jenine couldn't

sit still. 



     Her husband, Mike, had been missing for three days, three days of 

fear and uncertainty and need. In all of their twenty-seven years of 

marriage, there was no time that she'd not known almost exactly  

where her husband was. Their lives had been orderly, planned. 

But all that had changed. 



     Mike had been able to offer no explanation of his 

disappearance. His memories began when some young men found 

him wandering near Gastonia. Fortunately, they'd recognized him

from a Crime stoppers Bulletin as a missing person, instead of 

mistaking him for the drunken vagrant he'd resembled. 



     Jenine had received a call in the early hours of the morning

requesting that she come to Carolinas Medical Center. There she'd 

found her frightened and disoriented husband. He now occupied 

himself in his garage office, effectively shutting her out.

 

     Jenine's hands stilled over the coffee pot that she'd begun 

to relentlessly scrub as she stared out of the bay window.  

The leaves of the big oak were falling. The colors were brilliant 

this year and the weather had grown quite brisk over the past few 

days. Her life and her husband's had changed just as quickly. 

The world was a different place than the one she'd grown up in,

than the one she'd known only three days ago. There was no more 

safety, no assurances.      



     A movement among the trees caught her eye, bringing her out of her

musings. She frowned and leaned forward for a better view. A man sat on 

little bench she kept in the back yard. He was dressed in jeans and a 

trench coat. A mop of dark hair fell over the dark rimmed glasses he 

wore as he calmly smoked a cigarette.  



      Suddenly anger rushed up into her chest. What gave this man

the right to invade her private property, her personal space? 

It was bad enough that the press was out front and that she'd 

had to take the phone off the hook. She would not have them invade

her back yard. 



     Jenine walked determinedly toward the closet shelf, where 

she'd always kept her dad's old riffle. Stumping toward the back

door, she peeked out to see if the man was still there. He was. 



     She undid the latches and poked the riffle out. 





*   *   *   *   *   *











     <GFFA> 



     The Hinderer flew through hyperspace toward its goal. Beneath the ships

living outer hull, Jedi children sat in trance. They were aware of their

training only while in this state--the leaders preferred it that way, less 

chance of an uprising. 



     Samantha sat cross-legged on the floor of her chamber. The very walls 

appeared to sing a strange mysterious song to her. She smiled as the music 

played around her; its melodies echoing across her consciousness. Space music, 

the song of time and life itself played and wafted through the larger 

consciousness of the living rock as it journeyed to meet its brethren. The 

tones became more insistent as they neared their destination. The songs 

called to her, she could do no less than to obey. She remembered her life 

before, now. But it didn't matter, the music was everything. It told her all 

she needed to know. 





     Benjamin Adams opened his eyes and looked up into steady brown ones in 

a small elfin face. There were a few lines around the small mouth and stiff 

yellow hairs grew behind pointed ears. Ben pushed himself from the floor in

shock, momentarily at a loss as to his surroundings. 



     The elfin man stood back and considered him. "Why are you here?" the 

voice creaked, louder than Ben had expected. 



     Ben stood panting against a control panel, memory returning. He 

realized where he was and what he had to do. With a quick straitening 

of his jacket, he pulled himself together and headed for an operations

panel. He ignored the elfin man's question. "What's your name?" he asked 

instead. 



     "Sarn is my name," the little man said, turning his head to 

track Ben's movements. 



     Ben punched in a few commands. No response. He wondered if 

something had been damaged during the ship's original malfunction

that had allowed it to fall, temporarily anyway, into Rebel hands. 



     "What happened here? And where are the others?" Ben asked, moving

on to an alternate station. 



     "They are here," Sarn said. 



     Ben glanced up. He hadn't seen anyone when he'd first awakened. 

Perhaps the little man was a bit senile. There was no one else there.

Ben went back to fussing with the uncooperative control panel. Wait...

Ben's eyes shot back up, they all stood in a loose semi-circle around 

him. 



     He didn't want them to know that he was rattled, so he fixed an

unconcerned gaze on Sarn. "What's wrong with this panel?" he asked. 



     Sarn gazed back, "There is nothing wrong with the panel. 

Perhaps it's your code." 



     Benjamin doubted that. The codes his father had given him worked

on everything the Emperor had touched. Save one. He allowed Sarn a bit 

of space when he joined him at the console. 



      "What order would you like implemented?" Sarn asked. 

      

      "I would like to check our heading," Ben answered. 



      "Very well," Sarn replied, placing a three finger hand over the 

panel. Then in a blur of movement he input a manual command code. It 

happened so quickly and unexpectedly that Ben didn't catch it. 



     The panel monitor came to life, displaying the Hinderer's 

programmed co-ordinates and elapsed time to reach the destination. 



     "What--," Ben started before he took a closer look at the 

co-ordinates. "This isn't our course!" he exclaimed. 



     "Do you suggest that the computer is in error?" Sarn asked,

calmly. 



     That was when Ben realized that the little man was watching

him quite intently, as were the others.





     Coruscant 





     "You can stow your things here," Leia directed the small 

group from Earth. She gestured to an overhead locker in the main

bay of the Millennium Falcon. She ducked out of the way so

Mulder could undo the overhead latch.  



     "We'll be leaving in 10 minutes," she informed them.



     "Is there anything we can do to help?" Rae asked. 



     There was a bustle of activity all around them as the ship was 

loaded with Becter's excess measuring equipment. CEstallia, surprisingly, 

hadn't objected. 



     Operators directed floating platforms along at maximum speed, 

a team of medical specialists consulted and an investigating team, 

that Scully and Mulder immediately picked out as this galaxy's 

version of the F.B.I., consulted with Luke and CEstallia. They were bound  

for the CEstallian system to investigate the children's' apparent 

abduction.



     "Everything is about done, amazingly," Leia said. "Just make 

yourselves at home." She turned and headed toward the front of the 

ship, where her husband was doing preflight checks. 



     Mulder grinned when he saw Artoo roll into the room alongside

Threepio, just as Leia was departing. He'd developed a liking for the 

little droid, even though, most of the time, he didn't have a clue 

what the thing was saying. He couldn't read Basic any more than he 

could speak it. But, he had learned to decipher a few of Artoo's 

simplest comments. Such as his greeting, which he gave as soon as 

he entered the room. 



     Scully, on the other hand, still stiffened at the sight of 

the little droid. She was, after all, the one who'd been shocked by him. 



     "Hi there, little buddy, who's your friend?" Mulder asked Artoo, 

glancing at the golden droid curiously. 



     "I am See-Threepio," the golden droid replied primly, in English.

"I am fluent in over six-million forms of communication. How may I 

be of service?" 



     "Do I get three wishes?" Mulder asked. 

     

     Threepio's backlit eyes appeared to blink and he tilted his golden

head to one side. "Three wishes? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that

particular phrase. Please clarify." 



     Mulder chuckled, "Never mind. I'm Fox Mulder and this is Dana 

Scully and Rae Manning," Mulder gestured to each woman in turn, who 

nodded at the droid. "Looks like we're all along for the ride." 



     "I am pleased to meet all of you," Threepio responded. "I found it 

fascinating the way in which you happened to meet Master Solo. Do you 

mind if I retell it in future?" 



     All three of the humans, surprised by the question, glanced at each

other. "No, not at all," Mulder answered. 



     "So, you keep history, then?" Scully asked. 



     Artoo made a warbled comment that didn't sound very complimentary. 

Scully glanced in his direction and then back to Threepio, who was by

then looking offended. Or as offended as a metal faced droid could 

possibly look. 



     "Forgive my counterpart," Threepio said apologetically. "His manners

programming is not as advanced as my own."  



     "As for my keeping history," Threepio continued. "I am not an

archival droid. But, I do have limitless storage capability. I enjoy

sharing the experiences of those around me. For example, would you like

to hear the story of how Master Solo and Mistress Leia met? It is a very

exciting tale..." 





 *   *   *   *   *   *

 



     Luke and CEstallia occupied the cockpit of the Falcon along

with Han and Leia. Luke had thought she'd want to ride with him in

the V-Eiker, but, she'd insisted they all ride in the Falcon. 



     Following the Falcon were a large carrier, a Calamarian Cruiser 

with a full complement and Gien Becter in a small science vessel, which

would fit into the carrier if need be.  



     While the larger ship's assignment centered on surveillance 

of the Earth and backup for the Falcon if it became necessary, Becter

was along to study the effects of passing through Han's co-ordinates

on a deeper level than the previous ship had. 



     Both ships were present at the request of Mon Mothma. Because,

even though CEstallia had insisted that the equipment would not 

measure anything, she *had* said she knew of a way to reach Earth.

That along with the fact that she'd been cagey on the particulars 

of just how they'd get there aside from using Han's co-ordinates, 

had given Mon Mothma cause to be extremely cautious. Mon Mothma also

hadn't forgotten that the person who'd infiltrated the heart of the 

New Republic's Capital to steal the Hinderer was from Earth as well.

So, in exchange for New Republic assistance, CEstallia had been forced

to allow the other two ships along. 



      The three ships had now been in hyperspace for an hour. It was 

time for the first inter-ship communication. 



     When Han Solo entered the main cargo bay of the Falcon, Threepio

was in the middle of one of his stories. "Put a plug in it, Goldenrod,"

he said. "Time for the first link." 



     Leia, Luke and CEstallia followed him into the bay. Han activated

a switch on the rear control panel. "All right," he began. "Is 

everyone receiving?"



     "Receiving Falcon," a voice from the Cruiser said.   

     

     "I'm here, as well," Becter spoke up. 



     "Good." Han turned to Leia. This mission was her baby. He was here 

to get Chewie. The bits of information he'd gathered hadn't been much

to go on. But the tenseness in his wife's shoulders told him that 

this wasn't going to be any ordinary mission. That and the fact that

a Calamarian Cruiser, armed to the teeth was overkill to rescue a Wookiee.  



     "As I'm sure everyone is aware, we reach our destination in 

approximately 10 hours. Until that time, I suggest everyone get some

rest. Once there, we'll have some idea of what we're up against. 

We'll have our next communication in precisely 9 hours. Falcon out." 



     Han shut off the inter-ship link and turned to his wife. "So, 

what's the plan?" he asked her. 



     Leia turned toward Mulder, Scully and Rae. "Is there anything 

you can tell us? Perhaps give us some idea of what may lie ahead?

The Falcon's data suggests there was no resistance to its entry into 

the planet's atmosphere." 



     "There's usually an electronic surveillance net," Mulder said. 

"I suspect there was a window--" 



     Scully grabbed one of his arms to silence him. "Excuse me," 

she said. Then, turning to her partner, "Mulder, do you mind if I 

talk to you privately for a minute."  



     Leia nodded, understanding. She'd known it was a fine line she

had been walking. She was asking questions that could possibly be viewed

as a threat to their home world. "You can talk in here," she gestured 

through a doorway. 



     Once in the little room, Scully immediately recognized it as 

the closet from their initial visit to the Falcon. Had it only been 2

days ago?                                           



     Pushing those thoughts aside, she turned on her partner. "Mulder

what do you think you're doing?" she questioned. 



     Mulder looked slightly baffled. "What do you mean? I'm trying to

get you and Rae home and help Han get Chewie back." 



     "Mulder don't you realize that you could be jeopardizing

national security--hell, planetary security, by giving them any

information concerning Earth's alert status. There's no way you

can know whose hands any information you turn over will end up 

in," Scully answered, hands on hips.  



     "Do you think that if some hostile enemy intent on flying across

the galaxy to attack Earth would just stay home because he doesn't 

know that we have a surveillance net? Earth in essence has zero 

resistance to invaders. The best we could do is see them coming," 

Mulder replied, staring down at his partner. He liked the braids. 

This would be his memory of her. 



     "Mulder, on principle alone, this is wrong." 



     Mulder sighed, "Scully, think about it. There had to be an 

open window for whoever flew in just before Han. And I suspect that

the window just happened to still be open when Han flew in."



     Scully frowned. "But, that would imply government co-operation

with whoever took Benjamin Adams from Earth and possibly even with 

the theft of the ship and the kidnapping of the children." She began

to realize where this was heading. "Mulder, surely you don't think..." 



     Mulder looked steadily back at her, finishing her statement, 

"That Sam may be here? Yes, I think I'm going to find her here in 

this galaxy. But, first I have to make sure you and Rae get home." 



      "But Mulder, you have no access in this galaxy. No home. What if

you're wrong?" Scully argued, softly now. 



     As Mulder looked down at her, a calmness spread over him. He 

suddenly felt absolutely sure. "I know she's here, Scully. I can 

feel it." 



     Scully resignedly let her hands drop to her sides. This was 

an argument she couldn't win. If Mulder thought Samantha was here, 

there was no way she could get him to go home with her. But, as long

as he was still a federal agent she couldn't let him violate his 

sworn oath. 



     "Mulder, you still can't tell them about Earth security," she 

said. "You made a sworn oath." 



     Mulder sighed, "Scully, this is one ship. The military actually 

has a chance of shooting us down. Now, I don't want that to happen." 

His eyes held hers for a moment. "Do you?" 



     Scully held his gaze for a few seconds and then looked away

with a wry twist of her lips. "You're forgetting something, Mulder," 

she said. "There are three ships. And unless I miss my guess, one of 

them is armed to the teeth." 



     Mulder grinned slightly. But, it was not a grin of humor. "Yeah, 

well, call me paranoid, but, somehow I don't think either of the other 

ships are going to make it to Earth." 



 

*   *   *   *   *   *





     <MW> Earth, Pineville, North Carolina



     Walter Skinner felt like himself again. He'd purchased attire

more suited for the Assistant Director of the F.B.I. Then he'd 

checked into a hotel and showered and changed. 



     He glanced at his watch before straightening his tie in the 

mirror. Eleven A.M. The press would probably be dying down about now,

or at least going for lunch. He hadn't been able to get through to 

the Ashton's by phone, since their line was constantly busy. Which meant

it was probably off the hook.  



     At least the hotel wasn't far from the Ashton home. He'd try Agents

Scully and Mulder's cellular once more and then he'd gather his 

mysterious passenger and be on his way.  



*   *   *   *   *   *



     Jenine stepped out into the chill air of mid morning, keeping 

her eyes, and the gun, trained on the man on the bench. Her soft-soled 

shoes made little crunching sounds on the leaves, but the man didn't 

seem to notice. 



     She paused. He seemed so far away. The cigarette hung suspended 

halfway to his lips. He seemed to come to himself as he brought the 

cigarette fully to his lips and drew on it. There was something 

vaguely familiar to his movements. She lowered the gun. "Geoff...?" 

she called softly. "Geoff Reenes, is that you?"



     The man turned dark half-focused eyes on her. "Jenine," he 

said, as if suddenly remembering her name. "He's back, isn't he?" 



     Jenine nodded, letting the gun fall completely to her side. 

It didn't appear to matter to Geoff, he hadn't noticed it. On 

closer inspection, she saw that his hands were shaking. 



     She reached a hand toward him and touched an arm, "Why don't

you come into the house with me. It's cold out here." She was 

beginning to worry. Geoff and Mike had worked together at Acme, 

but then Geoff had been transferred to another department. She had 

met both he and Judith at the company picnic years earlier, but they

had never been close. 



     Geoff turned and continued to stare off into the distance as he

had been when she'd come out. "No," he shook his head. "It's safer 

out here. No listening ears." He drew on the cigarette again. 



     "All right," Jenine said. "Would you like me to get Mike, he's 

in his office." She was beginning to feel uncomfortable. And Geoff 

was acting so strange. 



     "No," Geoff said. "I've been waiting for you. I need to talk

to someone and you're the only one who'll understand." 



     Jenine raised delicate eyebrows. "Understand what, Geoff?" 

she asked. "You know I don't know anything about you and Mike's 

work. He doesn't talk to me about it, you know." 



     "I quit Acme. A month ago. But, that wasn't good enough for

them." Geoff's expression never changed. His voice remained 

toneless. 



     Jenine had no idea what Geoff was talking about. And she was 

getting chilly. "Geoff, just let me go back inside for a moment, I'll 

be right back." 



     Geoff's reaction was immediate and violent. "No!" he exclaimed

vehemently, grabbing her arm. "Sit down and talk to me!" 



     Jenine's eyes widened in surprise. No one talked to her that

way, ever. Her eyes began to tear up. But she sat on the matching

stone chair that sat to one side of the bench. The rifle lay 

forgotten across her lap.



     "Have you been watching the news lately, Jenine?" Geoff asked,

again calmly smoking his, now, nearly gone cigarette. 



     Jenine shook her head uncertainly, "No, I never watch the news, 

it depresses me. Mike doesn't watch, either, he has his work,

you know." 



     Geoff didn't seem to really hear her answer, he just continued

on with his story as if her responses didn't matter, anyway. 

"My Judy, they took her. She was gone for three days, just like your

Mike. When she came back...she was different. They changed her. So, I 

decided to burn the place." Geoff actually grinned as he looked at 

the glowing tip of the cigarette. Then his mouth twisted disdainfully,

"But, someone beat me to it." 



     Jenine sat stunned. She hadn't known about Judy. No one had 

told her. But then, no one would. She was too fragile, they would

say. As she sat and looked at Geoffrey Reenes' private purgatory, 

she wondered if perhaps Geoff was the fragile one of the two. 



     Her heart went out to the man, she ached at the pain 

she knew he must have felt while his Judy was missing. 



     She remembered her own anger, vividly now. She'd wanted to 

strike out at someone. When Mike retreated to his work for solace, 

she'd felt the bitter ache of rejection. She wondered if Judy had 

done that, too. "Did she shut you out?" she asked. 



     Geoff blinked in surprise and looked at her. "Yes," he said. 

"How did--," Then he nodded, realization sinking in. "Of course,"

he said. "Of course." 



     In an unusually precise manner, Geoff stubbed out his 

cigarette against the stone bench. Normally, Jenine would have 

cringed at that, but today she didn't. She just waited. 



     "I can talk to you. I knew, you'd be a good choice. You'll 

understand the things that I have to tell someone. The things I 

saw at Acme." 



     Jenine nodded and listened. She didn't know what to expect.

But, for once, she wanted the straight, undiluted truth. 



*   *   *   *   *   *     



     Skinner pulled the car onto Pineville-Matthews Drive. The neighborhood

was made up of large homes on equally large tracts of land. Each home was 

given a measure of privacy by the extensive wooded area that paralleled 

the street to the rear. 



     He found the Ashton home easily. One news vehicle was parked at 

the corner. No other vehicles were present. His passenger scanned the 

street just as he had, and apparently came to the same conclusion.



     "I'll make sure this doesn't turn into a photo-op," the bearded

man said, as he got out of the car and headed toward the van. Skinner

almost smiled at the remark. He wasn't sure he wanted to know how that 

feat was going to be accomplished. 



     When the bearded man signaled him from the van, Skinner got out

of the car and headed toward the front door. He was careful not to 

look in the direction of the van. When no one answered the door, he 

wandered around the side of the house. A five foot, white wooded fence

separated the front and back yards. 



     Skinner peeped over the top of the fence, scanning the back yard. 

A movement among the trees caught his eye. A woman and a man sat on 

a bench. Skinner squinted, readjusting his glasses to be sure of what 

he was seeing. The woman had a rifle on her lap. 



     The adrenaline immediately kicked in as he pulled his gun

surreptitiously from the waistband of his trousers. The fence barely

creaked as he undid the latch and pushed it open. The woman seemed 

to be intent on what the man was saying. 



     Skinner flattened himself to the side of the house, slowly 

inching forward. The large backyard would not make it easy for him

to get much closer as there was easily fifteen yards between him 

and his target. 



     He silently counted down to three. 





*   *   *   *   *   *





     Mandy sat in front of her monitor staring at the email she 

was about to send. She was hoping that when the enormity of what she

was contemplating hit home, she'd be either in jail or freaking cause

she actually pulled it off. Without allowing herself any further 

thought she clicked on the 'send' button. The monitor flickered 

briefly before 'message sent' flashed across her screen.  



      The plan was in motion. She didn't know if it was going to

work. But at least she'd have told someone her plan in case worse      

came to worse. 



     Her eyes went to the clock over her computer table. It was

getting pretty close to lunch time at the clinic. For some odd 

reason, people tended to visit their not-quite-there relatives 

on weekends around lunch time, making these the busiest times of the 

week. 



     Mandy pushed that fact aside as a puzzle to ponder another day. 

Rescuing Big Foot was urgent. A feeling in Mandy's gut told her that 

if she didn't get Big Foot out now, she wouldn't have another chance. 

Quickly placing her uniform in a carry on, she set out for the clinic.  







     Alpha Point Station





     One sat at the crude table in the building at the city's

center. There was only one city in this ball they had been given to 

survive on, so there had been no point in naming it. 



     The table sat at the front of a very long room. Others gathered 

at the table with One. He raised his dark eyes to encompass the 

group that sat there. 



     "There is no turning back from the course we are now on," he 

began. "We must strike a deal with our new friends from the Earth 

galaxy. I've called to them. The evacuation will began as soon as 

they arrive. Is this understood? 



     Omak, one of the elder members, spoke up, "One, I have always

trusted your insight, but you read too much into this situation 

with the Hinderer. We have all felt that she is on her way back

to us, with the merchandise intact. There is no more danger. Our

mission can continue as planned."



     "Omak, you are short-sighted and over-anxious. I tell you there

will be trouble. Trouble that our small army is not prepared for. The last 

time we struck too soon, I will not repeat that mistake." 



     One stared evenly at Omak as he spoke. Omak had challenged his

leadership more and more frequently of late. It would soon be time to 

put a stop to it. One was true leader, hence his title. 



     "Domar," Omak said, deliberately using One's name rather than his

title. "Our objective is to have what is ours. Going willingly into the

galaxy of the others may lead to a trap, one we may not be able to 

escape so easily." 



     One did not flinch at Omak's deliberate slight. "Someday Omak, your

arrogance will be your downfall," he said softly. "You must take care to 

be careful in future." 



     Omak bowed his head slightly in mocking tribute to the 

warning. A thin smile spread his mouth, but he said nothing. An outright 

threat to One would not be prudent, especially now. But later...



     "Who is with me?" One called out before the group. 



     The men looked among themselves considering this step. The plans  

they had so carefully laid were now on the line. The children were their

key. Going with those 'others' from the Earth galaxy would mean new 

masters, not just one as in the case of the son of Palpatine. 



     One calmly looked on. He knew they would side with him regardless

of their personal feelings, they had no choice. His resolutions were 

always unanimous. Eventually.

 





     <MW> Earth, Somewhere on the East Coast. 





     "Knock Knock...uh, you've got new mail," followed by the laughter

of Beavis and Butthead erupted from the previously silent computer in the 

corner of a dim room. 



     A male figure crossed the room and sat before the monitor. He 

clicked on the 'new mail' icon. The screen blossomed to show the 

contents of the electronic message. 



     He quickly scanned the contents excitedly, then turned to his

companions working in other parts of the dim room. "Hey, remember 

'Spy chic without bounds'," he called, using her signature. 



     Frohike raised his head from a schematic that looked suspiciously

like the blue prints for the pentagon. "Yeah," he said. "What's she up

to these days? Any more HAIRY patients?" 



     "Same hairy patient. And you're just upset that she likes me 

better," Langly said. 



     "Why would I be upset? I have the woman of my dreams AND she 

has a license to kill," Frohike returned, going back to tracing lines on his

blueprint. 



     Byers turned from his own monitor, "What did she say this time?" 

he asked. Something had gotten his buddy excited. 



     Langly grinned. "She says that today's the day she's gonna 

break Big Foot out of confinement. There's just a little something she 

wants me to do to help her plan along." 



     That got the complete attention of both men. 

















 



end part seventeen.





===========================================================================



From: JackeeC <74363.2566@CompuServe.COM>

Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative

Subject: NEW: XJEDI VOL THREE 18/24

Date: 23 Jan 1996 04:01:04 GMT





Disclaimer: Still in force. Just pick one. Pick a disclaimer...any  

disclaimer...



Authors note: In case everyone is wondering how Skinner got his gun to 

Charlotte since he flew: He did it the same way Scully and Mulder do it. 

It's classified and if I tell you....  That is to say, I have no idea. 

Good old F.B.I. magic. I mean, they stopped me cause of my buttons...



Now on with the story...



XJEDI part 18 volume 3





     The Clinic





     Mandy sat in the driver's seat of her father's 

custom Dodge van waiting for her turn at the entry gate. 

The van was her father's favorite show piece, containing 

every conceivable and unnecessary convenience imaginable. 

Mandy hated the thing. But, the chances that Big Foot would

fit into her Accord were slim to none. 



     The line edged forward. Mandy watched as a Ford Taurus

ahead of her pulled up to the gate. And then it was her 

turn. 



     Don Goodman was at the gate today. Expecting that, Mandy 

gave him a brilliant smile. "Hi, Don," she said sweetly after 

she'd let the electric window down. "Busy day, I see." 



     "Yeah," Don grinned, setting his hat back on his graying

head. "What you doing here so early, gal?" he asked, his native 

Carolinian accent coming out. His eyes wandered to the two 

cars behind the van, then dismissed them. They could wait. 



     "Oh, I just had to get something I left the other night, 

is all. Besides, I need to talk to Jimmy."



     Don made an Ohh with his mouth and nodded his head. 

"He hasn't been bothering you has he?" he asked, cocking an 

eye as if the idea had suddenly occurred to him. Mandy knew 

different. Don didn't like Jimmy's 'type', as he called it. 



     Mandy shook her head, "No Don, nothing like that. I 

told you, we're still friends." She glanced behind the van, 

"listen, I'll talk to you later, okay?" 



     Don grinned and nodded, waving her on. 



     Mandy waved and pulled the van into the lot proper. She heaved

a sigh of relief. The easy part was over.







     Pineville, North Carolina





     "F.B.I. Drop your weapon!" Walter Skinner shouted, gun 

at the ready. His gaze didn't waver as the petite woman looked 

up in shock, allowing the weapon to slip to the ground. When 

she saw Skinner's gun her hands shot skyward. 



     Skinner's eyes flicked to the man who sat looking 

calmly in his direction. He quickly dismissed the woman as a 

threat, the man was the one to worry about. 



     Keeping his eyes on the man, Skinner directed the woman to 

slowly pick up the weapon. 



     She complied, bending over to carefully pick up the rifle. 

Skinner's eyes flickered to her to track her movements. In that 

moment while Jenine was looking down at the rifle, Geoff made his 

move. In a quick movement, he kicked the rifle away and 

grabbed Jenine roughly to him. 



     Skinner cursed himself for not seeing this coming. He 

reaimed the gun at the unsteady man, now, with hostage. He 

could see he had one arm around the woman's neck, but the 

other was behind the woman's back. He couldn't be sure what 

type of weapon he held there. 



     "I'm not afraid of you or your kind," the man whispered. 

"I've got nothing to lose." 



     Skinner looked at the man's eyes. He didn't seem 

exactly all there. "You don't have any reason to be afraid 

of me as long as you don't hurt anyone," Skinner said. 

"Why don't you let her go and then you and I can talk about 

it." 



     The man shook his head. "I trusted your kind once and 

look where it got me." 



     Skinner fought a grimaced, aiming at careful neutrality. 

"Why don't you tell me about it?" he asked. 



     The man eyed Skinner a moment before speaking again. 

"Not until you tell *me* what *you're* doing here. If I like 

your answer, then maybe I'll answer your question." 



     "I wanted to have a word with Mr. Ashton or perhaps 

his wife," Skinner answered.   



     Geoff laughed at that. "And here I thought you wanted 

to talk to me," he said. "Go ahead, try again, I'll give you 

a second chance." 



     Skinner sighed. What difference did it make? "I'm looking 

for some people. They've been missing for a couple of days, a 

man and two women." 



     Geoff's face clouded for a second. "Really?" he asked, 

loosening his hold on Jenine. 



     Skinner couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Yes, 

really," he replied, not one to give up on a good thing. 



     "Was the guy tall, dark hair and one of the women 

red-headed and the other one black with long hair?" 



     "Have you seen them?" Skinner asked. 



     The man looked down at the woman he had held. "I'm 

sorry I had to that to you, Jenine," he said. "I didn't 

know what he was about." He released his grip, revealing 

no weapon in the now, obviously empty hand. 



     Jenine stepped cautiously away from him, but not 

sure whether she should go toward the man with the gun, 

either. She hovered somewhere in between looking warily 

one to the other.



     "The rifle," Skinner gestured to the weapon. 



     "I--it's not loaded," Jenine assured him, nervously. 

"And it wouldn't shoot if it was." But she did go and 

pick the gun up and offer it to him. 



     Skinner took it just the same. He had enough problems.



     "I'm Geoff Reenes," Geoff introduced himself to 

Skinner. "I used to work at Acme. I knew Rae, and I know 

she couldn't have done anything. I was frankly surprised 

when I saw her with those two." 



     "Do you have any idea where they are now?" Skinner 

asked. 



     "Man, that's a long story," Geoff said. "Can we go 

somewhere and talk? I could *really* go for a cappuccino."





     The Clinic



     Mandy had parked the van in the side lot reserved 

for the executive staff. Since they didn't work weekends, 

the spaces were now open to visitors. 



     She slipped in behind a family of four that she 

didn't remember ever seeing before. Hopefully, they 

wouldn't remember seeing her, either. 



     The family strolled ahead of her along the carpeted 

halls of the 'family wing', where the more stable clients 

could visit with their families without the hindrance or 

recognition of others. 



     Most of the patients were family of ambassadors and 

government officials wishing to bury knowledge of an 

'unflattering' relation. Thus, most of them officially 

bore blazingly unrealistic names. There were an awful lot 

of Smiths. 



     Mandy used her computerized I.D./entry card to exit 

the wing into the 'employees only area'. In the medical wing, 

she spoke to the people she knew who worked days and in 

general acted as if nothing were up. While, in reality she 

was taking the lay of the land. 



     Her next objective was to find Jimmy, but not yet, she

had some time to kill till lunch was over. Good thing she'd 

brought her laptop....

  







     <GFFA> Deep space





     The Falcon was quiet except for the humming and ticking 

of the ships automated systems, now that the humans were all in 

separate areas resting. 



     Fox Mulder was sacked out in the main cargo bay on a 

bunk near a corner of the room, and Rae was in the opposite 

corner, napping as well. Han and Leia had made themselves 

scarce in some other area of the ship and the droids were 

off recharging and otherwise doing droid things. 



     Dana Scully sat alone awake on her bunk. Her gaze 

wandered over her partner, who'd fallen asleep almost 

immediately, stretched out fifteen feet away. She was still 

furious with him for telling Earth's secrets, but she did 

understand his reasons. She'd forgive him tomorrow...maybe. 



     She felt remarkably well rested, not having slept 

as well as she had the night before in recent memory. Thus, 

now she couldn't fall asleep as everyone seemed to have 

done. Thoughts of sleep brought back to mind some of what 

had occurred the previous night. 



     She'd remembered seeing Benjamin Adams in the hallway, 

but the thought had been somewhat disconnected and she hadn't 

had time to contemplate it till now. A vivid memory of 

being tossed into a wall rushed into her mind. Dana shook 

her head to clear it. From where had that come? It wasn't so 

much that it had been buried, just that she hadn't thought 

about it.



     The next thing she'd remembered was waking up in her 

bed, feeling good. Had she simply dreamed that Benjamin 

had attacked her? She knew he'd stolen the ship. Had she 

simply dreamed of him due to some strange anomaly before 

she gained that information?



     Dana gradually became aware that someone other than 

her companions from Earth were in the room. She looked up and 

saw Luke standing in the doorway. She thought again of his 

charisma, but she couldn't believe it was due to some strange 

force. 



     Luke's face spread into a smile, as he caught her 

looking at him. "Hello," he whispered. "I didn't want to 

disturb you, since you seemed so deep in thought."



     Dana returned his smile with one of her own. "You're 

not disturbing me," she said. "It was getting pretty quiet 

with everyone asleep, anyway. And for some reason, I don't 

feel the least bit sleepy." 



     A slight frown crossed Luke's face as he reached 

out and touched the right side of her head. "How's your head 

feeling?" he asked. His fingers sifted through her hair gently 

to the place where her head had hit the wall. Her hair flowed 

in a gentle wave from the braids that she'd taken out for lack 

of anything better to do. 



     Scully had been shocked when he'd put his fingers in 

her hair. If he had been anyone else, she might have caught 

him with a judo cut to the solar plexus. But, she restrained 

herself. She was curious about Luke. Curious as to what he 

would do. She completely missed his question. 



     "Excuse me?" she said, hiding her embarrassment. 

     

     Luke smiled slightly, "I said: How's your head feeling?" 



     "Oh," she grinned, "fine. How else should it feel?" 



     Luke let his hand drop almost reluctantly from the red waves. He 

had to maintain his focus here. "I thought your memory would be intact. 

Don't you remember what happened last night?" It was worrisome if she 

didn't, because his probe of her injuries might have caused some damage

that he hadn't been aware of at the time.



     Dana looked at him in dread. "Uh...I'm not sure," she said 

sheepishly, dropping her gaze. She wondered at what she could possibly 

have done with this man last night that would prompt him to ask how her

head was feeling?



     Luke sensed her embarrassment, but not the reason behind it. "Dana,

it's really important to me." he said, catching her eyes. "Do you 

remember anything at all about what happened with Benjamin Adams?" 



     Dana closed her eyes and sighed as realization dawned. She didn't 

know whether to be relieved or disappointed. "I think I had a dream," 

she said.



     "Tell me about it." 



     Dana's eyes went unfocused as she went back in her mind's eye to the 

night before. She began to speak softly, telling Luke what she remembered.

"I remember waking up suddenly, but I didn't know why. I thought," she 

grinned wryly, "that Mulder was in trouble again. I went out into the 

corridor and that's when I ran into Benjamin Adams." A frown creased her

brow. "We struggled and then I remember he got really angry..." her voice

trailed off. "I thought it was just a dream." 



     "It wasn't a dream," Luke said, watching her intently. He noticed 

that she hadn't addressed the fact that Benjamin Adams had used the 

force on her, throwing her against that wall. She'd as good as said 

she didn't believe in it, but he needed to know if she remembered 

everything. 



     "Do you remember anything else?" he asked. 



     "Not much more, no," Dana replied, no longer meeting his gaze. 



     Luke decided to let her off the hook. "Well, I'm glad you're 

feeling better." He touched one of her hands as he prepared to leave. 



     "Wait," Dana said. "There is something I'm curious about." 

     

     "What's that?" Luke asked. 



     "How did I end up back in my room? in bed?" That was as close 

as Dana would come to admitting anything out of the ordinary had 

happened. 



     Luke looked thoughtfully toward Mulder's still form before answering.

"He carried you there," he said and then he was gone. 



     Dana Scully watched as he walked out the door. She twisted a lip 

as she pondered what Luke had said earlier. The force *was* an extreme 

possibility. But, was it possible for such a thing to exist--everywhere?



     "He healed you, you know," Mulder said from his bunk, eyes closed. 



     "What?" Scully turned toward her partner, wide-eyed. She wondered 

how much of her conversation with Luke he'd heard.



     "Luke healed you," Mulder repeated as he opened his eyes and rolled 

over to face her. "You had a concussion or worse from what Benjamin Adams

did to you. But, Luke did something and then you were okay. Just sleeping.

I put you to bed while he went off to tangle with our friend Adams."



     Dana felt herself blushing and fought it furiously. In the end she 

simply ducked her head down. 



     "Well, obviously he didn't catch him," she said. 



     "I think he likes you," Mulder surprised her by saying. 



     Her eyes rose to meet his. It was all there for him to see, 

no matter how she tried to hide it. He decided it was best not to add 

that he already knew how she felt. He wasn't sure her ego could take 

it just then. 



     "What's not to like?" Scully managed after a few seconds. 

     

     "What, indeed," Mulder chuckled. "Now let me get some sleep, woman." 





     <MW> Carolina Place Mall





     Walter Skinner sat across the table from Geoff Reenes. The two of 

them had taken a taxi to a local mall and now sat in the Cupa Cabana, a 

gourmet coffee shop. The mall was decorated in an excessive amount of 

pale green and pink, which studies had suggested had a calming affect on

humans. But this fact only seemed to add to Skinner's irritation. 



     "This is good stuff," Geoff said as he bit into another sticky bun. 



     "Yeah, good stuff," Skinner replied, heavy on the sarcasm. He leveled

Geoff one of his patented I-can-freeze-you-with-my-eyes looks. But, Geoff

was completely unaffected. 



     Skinner glanced at his watch, it was nearing two and he had yet to 

get anything useful out of this man. 



     "Mr. Reenes," Skinner began through clenched teeth. "My time might 

be better spent--" 



     Geoff raised a hand to halt his words. "No, no," he said, taking a 

final gulp from his mug of Double Cinnamon Caravan with X-tra sugar. 

"I'm ready to talk. I just couldn't do it on an empty stomach." 



     Skinner sighed heavily, pinched the bridge of nose. A remembered 

phrase from a commercial he'd once seen came to mind. 'I've got a headache 

*this* big and it's got Exedrin written all over it'. Except Skinner

substituted a colorful metaphor or two and the name of Geoff Reenes. 

Who, for his part, sat back, made a few contented groans and began 

his story. 

 



     The Clinic