A Tok'ra's Tale (Stargate/Star Wars Crossover)

[AJW]

A Tok'ra's Tale

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement - sadly all Stargate and Star Wars characters and concepts remain the property of MGM, Amazon, Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Authors Note: This idea came to me after recently rewatching the Stargate SG-1 fifth season episodes Summit and Last Stand and seeing the fate of Lieutenant Elliot/Lantash and how the dying pair sacrificed themselves to save SG-1 and Jacob Carter/Selmac from the Goa'uld Zipacna's attack on Ravanna. It got me wondering what if they were revived and from there that plot bunny this story sprung. A quick reminder that conversation in bold represents a Goa'uld or Tok'ra speaking aloud while conversation in italics or bold italics represents a host and symbiote talking to one another. Okay not that that little reminder is out of the way, let's get cracking shall we.

---///---

Chapter One

Lieutenant Kevin Elliot gasped as life returned to his body.

Slowly he opened his eyes to find himself lying on a hard surface and surrounded by nothing but white light. Yet there was something about it that said that this light was in no way heavenly but was technological in origin. The fact that the surface underneath him felt metallic also indicated that wherever he was, whatever he was lying in was technological in origin. Where am I, he wondered, and how am I alive?

"I would think that would be obvious," a distorted voice said inside his head making him jump slightly before he realized who and what it was.

"Lantash?" he tentatively mentally asked back.

"Who else would it be?" the Tok'ra symbiote asked sounding amused. "As for where we are we're in a Goa'uld sarcophagus device."

"Huh. How did we get here? Not that I mind I kind of like being alive."

"Think for a few moments and I am sure you'll remember."

Kevin nodded to himself and did as the symbiote wrapped around his spinal cord said, focusing on what had happened to put him – or should he say them? – in here. After a few moments he remembered what had happened when, with the weapon containing the symbiote poison concealed on his person after Doctor Jackson had given it to him, he had allowed himself to be captured by the army of Jaffa that had attacked the Tok'ra base on Ravanna. The Jaffa had naturally brought him back to their encampment but must have called ahead as Zipacna had been waiting next to a tent that the Jaffa had set up to house a command post.

They had been taken inside and Goa'uld underlord had, seeing that they were both on the verge of dying from the injuries he'd sustained when part of the lab had collapsed on top of him during the Al'kesh bombing runs, had had them placed them in his sarcophagus. Before the doors had closed, he and Lantash had struck, pressing the button to activate the concealed symbiote poison weapon before with their last of their mutual strength throwing it out of the chamber. Then the doors had closed as everything had gone dark.

He had to wonder just what had happened outside while they had both been dead/asleep and being healed here in this thing. Had SG-1 managed to escape the planet? He hoped that they had though it did leave the question about what the hell he/they were going to do next. While he knew the Stargate address for Earth, he didn't have a GDO with him, and his radio had gotten wrecked during the attack on the base, so he would have no way of letting them know it was him and he had no desire to become sub molecular paste against the iris.

"We'll think of something," Lantash told him reassuringly, "if any of the landed ships are still here and still intact then we can always take one of them. I know of several probable locations of backup Tok'ra bases. We could always travel to one and contact Stargate Command from there."

"Sounds like a plan as long as there isn't an army of Jaffa between us and them."

"Good point."

It was at that moment that the white light around them dimmed and a crack appeared overhead. A crack that rapidly grew wider as with the usual stone-on-stone grinding sound that Goa'uld doors and hatches tended to produce the lid of the sarcophagus parted. Within seconds it was fully open and, bracing himself for what he might find fully expecting to see Jaffa pointing zat'nik'atel or ma'tok staffs at him, Kevin sat up.

To find he was still in the tent that the Jaffa had set up but now everything was completely quiet, all he could hear was the fabric walls rustling in the wind and the occasional cawing of birds outside. Beyond that there was no sight of sound of life. Carefully he stood up and looked around.

What he beheld in the tent was a scene of carnage. Lying next to the sarcophagus was Zipacna, features twisted into a final mask of shock, horror and the terror that must have gripped him as he succumbed to the symbiote poison. Several Jaffa lay lifeless on the floor nearby, their own expressions mirroring the Goa'uld's as they died, though there was even more pain locked on their faces as it would have taken them a bit longer to die than the Goa'uld – basically however long it took for the neural toxin from the prim'tah, dying in their abdominal pouches from the poison, to enter their nervous systems in sufficient amounts to kill.

"Sheesh now I know why chemical weapons are banned back on Earth," he muttered shivering at the sight of painful deaths. "This is horrific."

"It is," Lantash agreed, "unfortunately such things happen in wars."

"True. And I know it was either them or us but still…"

"Indeed."

Carefully Kevin climbed out of the sarcophagus – causing it to close behind him – and looked around. He was about to walk over to one of the Jaffa, to pick up a zat, only for a silent prompt from Lantash to take him back to Zipacna's body. At another silent prompt he squatted down and carefully took the kara'kesh from the Goa'uld's lifeless right hand and put it on himself. Then he carefully searched the body, finding a portable healing device in a leather pouch on Zipacna's right hip.

Before he stood back up, he reached out and closed the eyes of Zipacna's host and muttered a prayer for the soul of the poor person who had to have endured centuries if not millennia of enslavement to the Goa'uld. He consoled himself with the knowledge that the hosts soul would be in a better place now, where Zipacna couldn't hurt him anymore while the Goa'uld burned in hell forevermore.

"You still have religion on Earth then."

"Of course, we do. Many people are raised in one faith or another, I for example was raised as a Roman Catholic."

"Interesting. Jacob never spoke about religion on Earth."

"Probably never occurred to him. Religion is not as driving a force as it used to be plus church, and state have been separated since the days of the Founding Fathers."

"Seems I have quite a bit to learn about you Tau'ri."

"Just like I do about you Lantash."

"Indeed."

Walking over to one of the downed Jaffa Kevin picked up a discarded zat gun, before walking up to the entrance to the tent. He took a few deep breaths, knowing that what he was about to see was probably going to be horrific, before pushing the flaps open and stepping out…

…to see a sea of Jaffa bodies lying on the damp, dusty ground all killed by the dense cloud of poison that had to have spread as a wave of death from the tent. Here and there he could see birds – that looked vaguely like ravens – dropping down from the clouds and feeding on the lifeless bodies of the Jaffa. As much as he wanted to chase the avians away he knew it would be a futile battle, they would just come back.

Deciding to see if there was any sign that SG-1 had left he began making his way through the killing field to where the Stargate was located. As soon as he got there, he saw fresh footprints, with the characteristic patterns of those made by US military combat boots, heading up to the gate. Clearly SG-1 had left this planet after the Jaffa all dropped dead and the wind blew the cloud of poison away.

"Okay now what," he muttered.

"Check the ships. At least one of the Al'kesh should be fully ready for flight," Lantash suggested, "once we've decided on one, we should gather as many supplies as we can from the remains of the base. We'll need them as even the nearest of the possible fallback positions is several days in hyperspace from here."

Kevin nodded and headed for the nearest Al'kesh.

---///---

The next few hours passed as a hurricane of activity. The first Al'kesh he'd come across had been fully functional – albeit its bomb bay was empty having dropped all its plasma charges during the attack – and after carefully extracting the dead crew both host and symbiote had decided it would do for there escape from this planet of ghosts.

With that determination made they had begun the process of gathering supplies ready for their journey. First, they'd raided the other Al'kesh for any emergency supplies they carried, as well as spare parts such as control crystals for various systems, and then made a hike back to the mostly collapsed remains of the Tok'ra base. From which they'd extracted quite a bit of useful stuff, such as boxes of tunnelling crystals, a few portable power generators and supplies of food and drinking water.

By the time they had done that dusk had begun to fall and Kevin now found himself sitting in the pilot's seat of the Al'kesh not at all sure how to even fly the damned thing. Everything had been carefully stowed in the other compartments on the upper level of the ship now there was just the small problem of leaving.

"I can fly this ship," Lantash told him.

"Okay maybe you should have control then. Though will you teach me how to fly this thing?"

"Of course."

"Thanks."

He got the distinct impression of a friendly smile from Lantash then felt the curious sensation of the symbiote taking over control of his body. It wasn't jarring or anything, in fact it felt like his consciousness was gently picked up and moved to one side allowing Lantash to take his place in the driving seat so to speak. Okay this feels a bit weird, he thought wondering why he didn't remember the last few times Lantash had taken over but guessing it was probably due to the shock and trauma of the injuries he had sustained at the time.

With nothing else to do he watched carefully, and listened intently to Lantash thoughts, as the Tok'ra brought the ship fully online and powered up the engines.

---///---

Lantash carefully checked all the readings as the Al'kesh computer relayed information straight into his mind through the control globe. All systems on the bomber were working properly and sublight engines were fully online though it would be another two or three minutes before the hyperdrive finished powering up. Not that he would engage it inside the atmosphere unless he had to as doing that could be somewhat dangerous, especially with such a simple hyperdrive as what was on an Al'kesh.

Bringing the antigravity wave generator online he raised the Al'kesh until it was floating several dozen meters in the air over the site of the former encampment. Quickly he accessed the weapons system and aimed the turret at the nearest Al'kesh with any plasma charges still in its bay and fired three times, punching through the hull and starting a massive fire inside the craft. In another few minutes the plasma charges within would cook off and the entire vessel would explode, triggering a fire that would completely consume the encampment and the bodies lying where they had fallen under the poisons attack.

As the other Al'kesh began burning fiercely he engaged the main sublight drives and the ship shot towards the heavens. The surface receding behind them at hypersonic speeds as they quickly passed this planet escape velocity. Outside the viewport the sky rapidly darkened before giving way to the star-studded blackness of space…

…and the sight of four Goa'uld motherships in orbit.

Two of the motherships bore the markings of Zipacna but the other two had no markings whatsoever. Matter streams kept travelling between the unmarked ships and Zipacna's transporting replacement Jaffa crews onto the vessels. Deciding to err on the side of caution he reached for the crystal that would engage the Al'kesh cloaking device.

However, before he could press it the threat board came alive with warnings. Both new motherships had seen him and were powering up their weapons systems. A swarm of gliders and Al'kesh was also converging on his position. Knowing the cloak would do no good – not against these numbers as the Goa'uld and Jaffa could afford to fire blind and have a very good chance of hitting him even if cloaked – he instead diverted the power to the shields and hyperdrive.

Then he began to fly for both their lives.

And not a moment too soon as a bolt of golden plasma energy was fired his way by one of the motherships. He evaded it with relative ease and set the turret to automatic target and firing while taking evasive action as all four motherships began firing streams of plasmatic death at him, the Jaffa crews aboard determined to avenge Zipacna and the Jaffa who had died on the planet below. The gliders and Al'kesh joining in turning space around into a storm of crisscrossing energy blasts. A storm that it was impossible to fully evade as almost immediately a bolt hit the shields making the ship shake fiercely.

Another bolt followed, and another, no matter which way he turned and banked. No matter what move he attempted the enemy Jaffa boxed him in with their seemingly endless deluge of plasma fire. Within moments shield corrosion warnings began to appear on the HUD reporting that the shields were down to thirty percent capacity and would soon fail.

Thankfully the hyperdrive choose that moment to come online.

Without hesitation he stabilized his course for hyperspace entry and engaged the drive. A hyperspace rift opening immediately ahead of him, its glowing maw offering the promise of safety and sanctuary from the Goa'uld attack. He immediately directed the Al'kesh towards the subspace rift…

… only the attacking Jaffa were not content to let him/them get away from them so easily. All four motherships and the small craft unleashed another devastating barrage of plasma…

…that caught the Al'kesh just as it entered the influence of the hyperspace window.

Instead of immediately obliterating what was left of the vessels shields and turning the entire craft into a fireball the plasma bolts broke apart as they encountered the powerful subspace field begin generated by the hyperdrive. Instantly they transformed into a crackling blizzard of energy that massively overloaded both the hyperdrive on the Al'kesh and the vortex into hyperspace it was generating.

The effect on the Al'kesh was dramatic as it was suddenly accelerated to speeds that were beyond even those attainable by Asgard vessels. Speeds that in an instant catapulted it, and the unconscious Tok'ra aboard, clear of the galaxy that they had always known. Catapulted it even far beyond the borders of known space…

…deep into the unknown.

---///---

Goa'uld Mothership
Ravanna Orbit

"Lord Thoth the Tok'ra vessel has escaped."

Sitting on his pel'tac throne Thoth scowled at the report from his First Prime. He had not appreciated being called away from his work on the new warriors on Tartarus to come here to the site of a now-former Tok'ra Base to clean up Zipacna's mess. Unfortunately, he had had no choice but to do so as Lord Anubis was not someone that you could say no to, not if valued both your life and your very sanity.

"So, I see," he replied, incensed that someone – almost certainly a Tok'ra survivor – had managed to steal an Al'kesh and escape Ravanna. "Have you been able to track its course?"

"I am afraid not my lord. The Al'kesh was moving many thousands of times faster than it should have been capable of, my guess is our weapons fire somehow supercharged the hyperspace window. It was going far too fast for us to extrapolate any sort of course beyond heading out into intergalactic space."

"I see well that takes care of whichever Tok'ra stole the craft," Thoth commented before looking intrigued wondering if this event could yield some clues for how to increase the speed of their own hyperdrives. Lord Anubis would certainly reward him quite handsomely if it did. "Have all our sensor data of the event from the moment the plasma blasts impacted the hyperspace window to the Al'kesh leaving our sensor range to my personal laboratory."

"Yes, my lord," the Jaffa acknowledged a moment before the sensors chirped a warning. "My lord sensors just detected a large plasma detonation on the surface."

"Source?"

"One of the Al'kesh in the staging area near the Stargate my lord. From the size of the blast the computer estimates that at least three plasma charges exploded simultaneously. The whole area around the gate is now burning. Sensors are now detecting class three seismic disturbances near the remains of the Tok'ra base, it is likely that the shockwave from the blast has caused the already compromised crystal tunnels to begin collapsing in upon themselves."

"Likely," Thoth agreed, "how long until the other two Ha'tak are ready to depart?"

"They are ready now my lord."

"Very well. Recall all gliders and Al'kesh then have all ships set a course for Tartarus and engage their hyperdrives."

"Yes, my lord."

---///---

Elsewhere
A Few Hours Later

Space at the outer edge of a binary system – just outside the systems Oort Cloud which marked the end of any star's system and the beginning of interstellar space – shivered as the barrier between normal space-time and the infinite realms of subspace came under sudden, massive attack from within. The quantum folds of space-time parted and a vortex of energy unlike anything ever seen in this galaxy opened with a silent scream of unfathomable power. The rift pulsed once and a small object, travelling at a considerable percentage of the speed of light, shot forth like a shell fired from some gigantic celestial cannon.

Behind the vessel the hyperspace window folded closed, leaving no sign that it had never been present at all leaving the Al'kesh streaking deeper into the system at dangerously high speed. But not for long as the crafts navigational computer automatically engaged the sublight engines and began fighting the massively amplified hyperspace inertial forces. For several minutes the Al'kesh continued flying into the system at a dangerously high rate of speed before finally beginning to slow and coming to a stop.

Now stationary the vessel hung silent, seemingly dead in space.

---///---

Kevin Elliot groaned as consciousness returned and he found himself lying flat on the deck. Ugh what the hell happened, he thought as he opened his eyes to find the cockpit filled with a faint haze of smoke. Smoke that stunk of overheated and burned-out control crystals. Awkwardly he stood up, swaying drunkenly before staggering back to the pilot's seat and sitting down.

"Lantash are you there," he asked.

"Yes, I am. What in Egeria's name just happened?"

"No idea. Last thing I remember was something hitting us as we entered the hyperspace window, we were knocked flying and then nothing 'till we woke up here."

"Goa'uld weapons fire must have caught us just as we transitioned into hyperspace. Access the flight data records it should tell us."

"How do I do that?" Kevin asked a moment before the information suddenly came into his awareness being pushed his way so to speak by Lantash. Trusting the symbiote he reached out and touched a couple of different coloured crystalline controls in a very specific pattern. The holographic HUD appeared, flickering fitfully for a few moments before stabilizing bringing up the requested flight records. When he saw the speed with which they had been travelling he blinked in astonishment. Simultaneously he felt an odd sensation at the back of his neck and realized that Lantash had just shivered, his own astonishment coming through to him seconds later. The reason was obvious they had been travelling over a billion times faster than the hyperdrive was capable of.

"How the hell weren't we torn apart by the inertial forces," he wondered.

"I don't know," Lantash admitted, "press the red crystal next to the two blue crystals. That will bring up a damage assessment."

Kevin did as he was instructed pressing the indicated crystal. Immediately the HUD changed bringing in a report on the state of the ship. It was bad but it could have been worse. The shields were down, the matrix completely depleted though it was repairable, sublight was working but the hyperdrive was completely offline – diagnostics indicating that both the primary and secondary control circuits were fused. The hull was thankfully intact though life support was barely functioning due to the primary control circuits being fused.

"Could be worse," Lantash replied, "we've got enough spare control crystals to repair all the damaged systems. Though the question also becomes where are we? Let me have control a minute please."

"Sure."

Again, Kevin felt the odd sensation of his consciousness being lifted out of the way and replaced by Lantash. He watched with interest as Lantash accessed the sensors and began running a scan of the system and the region of space immediately around them. Within seconds the navigational computer gave a devastating report, none of the star patterns around them were familiar wherever they were it was so far of the beaten interstellar track that it wasn't even funny.

Thankfully there was a habitable planet deeper within the system. Its environmental conditions were hot, very similar to Abydos was back home, but it at least had an oxy-nitrogen atmosphere. There was a small number of ships of unfamiliar design and construction in orbit though the power signatures were, at least at this range, lower than those of naquada powered ships. Certainly, there were no sign of any warships. While a not particularly habitable world it would be a good place to land and make repairs.

"If we go there, we should cloak before we head in system," he advised the symbiote, "we have no idea where we are, or going on how fast we were travelling if we're even in our own galaxy anymore."

"Good idea," Lantash agreed before giving the command to the computer to engage the cloaking device. After a moment a light lit up on the console indicated that the cloaking device was active and functioning normally pushing the ship slightly out of sync with normal space-time. Satisfied that everything was working properly he engaged the sublight engines and began heading in system towards the unknown desert world, where they would hopefully be able to land, do their needed repairs and then figure out just what the hell they were going to do next.

---///---

Authors Note: Well, this first chapter bites the dust I hope you all enjoyed it. I think its pretty obvious which planet that Elliot and Lantash are approaching is Tatooine, though when are they in the Star Wars timeline you will have to wait and see. Updates for this particular story are going to be few and far between but this idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to write it out. Until next time.

 

[AJW]

Chapter Two

The moment that Lantash brought their commandeered Al'kesh out of hyperspace near the planet that was to be their temporary home – while they repaired the ship – Elliot found himself gripped by a profound sense of déjà vu. The planet below was eerily familiar, like he had definitely seen it somewhere before especially given it had two moons and orbited twin suns. Yet he couldn't place where exactly he had seen this place before.

"You may have seen it in some of the SGC's mission reports," Lantash commented sensing his hosts confusion and immediately realizing the reason for it. "There are quite a few planets like this in our own galaxy after all. For some reason they tend to be where the largest deposits of high grade naquada ore can be found."

"Perhaps," Elliot agreed, "during the training and familiarisation lectures for Stargate Command we were shown a lot of the mission reports. Still, I wish I knew where exactly I've seen this place before, it's like its there in my mind but I cannot quite place it."

"It can be quite vexing when its like that," Lantash agreed knowing from experience what that was like, it especially happened when something bubbled up from his genetic memories inherited from Queen Egeria and the others in her genetic lineage and not something he had experienced himself.

"To quote a certain Jaffa we both know indeed."

Lantash chuckled slightly especially as Elliot perfectly mimicked the deadpan voice that Teal'c used whenever he said that word. Then he turned his attention to the sensors and ran a scan of the dustbowl of a planet below searching for somewhere, anywhere, suitable for them to land where they wouldn't attract attention from anyone. After all they had quite a bit of work to do to repair the Al'kesh after they'd gotten hurled into this galaxy, once that was done, they would have to start figuring out just what they were going to do now as the Al'kesh certainly wouldn't be capable of getting either of them back to their own galaxy in any reasonable timeframe.

The first scan results came back almost immediately confirming that the planet below was indeed a fully desert world with no surface water anywhere to be found beyond small amounts of vapour in the atmosphere. Though strangely sensors were confirming sizeable bodies of fresh water beneath the surface – and not just in aquafers but actual lakes and oceans of both fresh and saline water. With the shallowest being only about a hundred and fifty meters beneath the surface of the planet not far from a large settlement that seemed to be primarily a spaceport. Yet there was no sign of anyone drilling down to the water to extract it.

"That's weird," Elliot commented, "even on Earth in the desert regions we drill down to the aquafers at the very least in order to get at the water. Yeah, it's often hot and contaminated with elements leached from the surrounding rock but both those problems are relatively easily fixed."

"It is strange."

A sudden proximity warning from the sensors caught his attention. He glanced at them to see a small object; a spacecraft of some type was coming out of deep space trailing streams of particle exhaust similar to those produced by Serrakin ion engines. It was also on a course that would see it collide with them in less than two minutes unless he adjusted course. Which he quickly did taking the ship straight up by ten thousand metres giving the incoming vessel plenty of clearance to pass beneath their still cloaked vessel.

A few moments later the vessel passed beneath them. It was a very sleek and elegant looking ship, plated with something similar to chrome that made it gleam like a mirror. It was being propelled by two cylindrical engines that glowed with soft blue light that were located on the edges of its sleek wing shape. From the wave of shock and incredulity that suddenly came from his host it was clear that it was also a ship that Elliot somehow recognised.

"That's impossible!!" Elliot exclaimed, "how can that be real!"

"You recognise it?" Lantash asked as confused as his host seemed to be by the fact that Elliot actually seemed to recognise the vessel. Especially given that to the best of his knowledge the Tau'ri had never been outside their own galaxy especially since they were limited to using the Stargates for interstellar travel.

"Yeah, it's the royal starship of the elected queen of a planet called Naboo," Elliot explained, "it's fictional from The Phantom Menace. The first of a new trilogy of Star Wars films that George Lucas is making now."

"How can Star Wars be real?" Lantash questioned as he was quite familiar with the concept of Star Wars given all the times that Martouf and he had interacted with the Tau'ri in the past. Plus, Jacob, after being blended with Selmac, had been kind enough to fill them in on the idea behind science fiction shows and movies like Star Trek, Star Wars and so on. It had given the High Council quite a few intriguing insights into the culture and mindset of the Tau'ri nation state that had control over their planets Stargate.

"I don't know… unless."

"What?"

"Unless George Lucas is Force sensitive and saw all this in a vision of some type," Elliot speculated though he sounded uncertain, "well its either that or we were hurled into another universe as well as being catapulted clear into another galaxy by the Goa'uld weapons fire hitting our hyperspace window."

"Well, we can check that," Lantash commented instructing the sensors to scan the local space-time strata and determine what its quantum resonance frequency was. Somehow neither of them was surprised when it came back as being exactly the same as their own resonance frequency. They were not in another universe; this was still their own reality.

Which meant that for the two of them the world had just been turned completely upside down. As if Star Wars was real, if the events depicted in the movies were destined to take place in this galaxy at some point in the future, then that meant that things like the Force was real as well. Something that was beyond shocking to both host and symbiote as it meant that reality was stranger than anyone had ever believed to be possible.

Though it also presented them both with something of a dilemma. Thanks to the works of Mr Lucas, which had certainly been influenced by the Force assuming it existed in their native galaxy which they could not rule out, they knew what was going to happen to this galaxy in a few decades at the most. How an Empire, ruled by a being, as one could not really call Palpatine a man, so cruel and evil that he would give the likes of Anubis and Sokar a run for their money in the general evil and vindictive cruelty departments, would rise to dominate the galaxy. How said Empire would commit crimes so heinous that even the vilest and most ruthless of Goa'uld System Lords would be horrified. How entire worlds would be destroyed, and countless billions killed or displaced before the Empire would be defeated at the Battle of Endor and the Sith Lord behind it all killed.

"What do we do?" Elliot asked, "do we just sit on the sidelines so to speak and let Darth Sidious destroy the Galactic Republic and build his Empire? Or do we take some action to try and stop him."

"I have no idea," Lantash answered, "this is a quite unprecedented situation, certainly nothing I've heard about or experienced over the last three thousand years has been anything like this. It is obvious that Darth Sidious or Sheev Palpatine are evil in a way that few Goa'uld ever are and have to be stopped. But how we go about doing that. I don't know."

"Telling the Jedi straight out is out. They'd never believe us especially since at the moment they believe that the Sith were destroyed a thousand years ago when the Brotherhood of Darkness was defeated after a thousand-year long war," Elliot agreed, instantly sensing a burst of shock from Lantash at the length of time the galaxy had been in active warfare so long ago. "However, before we do anything we should land and fix the ship."

"Good point."

With the discussion firmly settled, for now at least as they had more immediate concerns like fixing their damaged ship, Lantash turned his attention to finding a suitable landing site on the planet below. A planet that information pushed his way by Elliot he now knew to be called Tatooine. He noted that the Naboo vessel had landed on a vast salt pan that long ago would have been a lakebed some distance from the outskirts of one of the main settlements.

Not that far away, inside a vast cliff he spotted a perfect location for them. A large cave in a granite outcrop that was sheltered from the prevailing direction of the wind. The entrance was just big enough for the Al'kesh to enter and high enough off the floor of the desert that they were most unlikely to get any unexpected, unwelcome visitors.

"What do you think?" he asked knowing that from the movies – as hard as it was to realize that Star Wars was actually real – that his host would have a much better idea of where was safe on this planet and where wasn't than he himself had.

"Looks good. Quite secluded and hard to get to should let us do our repairs without any unexpected visitors, like the Tusken Raiders or one of the minions of Jabba the Hutt – a giant slug-like crime lord who runs this dustbowl of a planet - dropping in. While I don't doubt that we could deal with them they are a complication that we could well do without."

Mentally projecting his agreement Lantash turned his attention to taking the Al'kesh down into the atmosphere, choosing the correct angle to enter the atmosphere without unduly stressing the cloaking device and potentially leading to someone detecting them from the atmospheric disturbance if nothing else. The bomber began shaking slightly with turbulence as it headed down but a few taps of different crystals, diverting some spare power to the inertial dampeners and flight stabilization systems quickly eliminated that particular problem giving them a smooth ride down.

They were soon gliding over the sand dunes, stone mesas and salt pans that covered the whole surface of Tatooine. After a few minutes of flying, they passed over the landed Naboo vessel, its hull gleaming brilliantly under the dual rain of photons from the systems suns, and both noted three individuals leaving the ship and beginning to walk across the desert surface towards a settlement about half a kilometre to the west of them. The flash of recognition that came from Elliot didn't surprise Lantash.

"Who are they?" he asked curious.

"Well, if this is anything like the movie that trio will be Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, an extremely annoying alien called Jar-Jar Binks who has to be one of the clumsiest people in creation and Queen Amidala pretending to be one of her own handmaidens and using her given name of Padme. They'll be on their way to a settlement called Mos Espa to acquire replacement parts for their version of a hyperdrive that was damaged by weapons fire from Trade Federation battleships during their escape from Naboo. In the process will meet both the future saviour and scourge of the galaxy in a nine-year-old boy called Anakin Skywalker. Who is currently a slave owned by an alien called Watto."

"It would be interesting to see how much matches up to the movie."

"It would but first we should fix the ship. Qui-Gon and co won't be going anywhere for a while as Watto won't accept Republic credits and Jedi telepathic tricks don't work on his species, the Toydarians. So, Qui-Gon won't be able to just use the Force to ensure his compliance with what he wants."

Lantash sensed some disapproval from his host as he said about Qui-Gons use of telepathic tricks to get his way, and some delight that he wouldn't be able to do that here. He had to wonder why that was but decided that that was a conversation for another time. "They're going to be in for some difficulties then?"

"Yes. Qui-Gon seems to have the same knack for finding and getting into trouble that SG-1 does. Thus, we have plenty of time to do our repairs before we have to decide what to do next."

"Martouf and I both noticed that they have what do you call it a trouble magnet attached to them. But you are right we'll do our repairs before we decide what to do about Qui-Gon and co if we do anything."

A crystalline chirp from the console brought an end to their discussion. Lantash looked to see what had caused the alert and noted that it was from the navigational computer. They were coming up on their chosen destination. As a result, he reduced his airspeed down to virtually zero and began carefully searching for the mouth of the cave chosen to be their temporary sanctuary.

After a couple of moments, he found it and carefully began guiding the Al'kesh inside. There was a fairly short tunnel leading to the cave, a tunnel that from the looks of it had been carved out of a softer seam of rock by a long since vanished river, leaving just the impermeable and extremely hard wearing – in the way it was – granite walls and floor. Eventually the tunnel gave way to a vast stone cavern that was in complete darkness, not that that was hardship for either of them. The Al'kesh had external lifts if they needed them, not to mention it would be very easy to deploy some self-powering light crystals should the need arise.

Lantash set the bomber down in the centre of the vast cavern and powered down all but essential systems, including deactivating the cloaking device to reduce the requirement on the naquada reactor to minimal levels. Though he left the sensors powered up just in case someone or something nasty decided to try sneaking up on them. Then he stood up and headed back and down a level to where the engineering bay, and with it all the ships vital control crystal circuits, were located.

It was time to get to work.

---///---

Naboo Royal Starship
A Few Minutes Earlier

Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn was puzzled as, accompanied by Jar-Jar Binks who was insisting he had to come with him to properly honour his life-debt and Padme, he slowly made his way across the desert floor towards the closest settlement. They had just left the ship when he had sensed something unusual pass nearby, in fact pass directly over their heads, yet they had not seen or heard anything. But he knew something had happened, that something had been there he could feel it in the Force.

It was the second time he had felt the odd presence, a presence that felt like two beings and yet one at the same time, nearby. The first had been just after they'd come out of hyperspace and began cruising at maximum sublight towards this desert world. As they'd been cruising, he had sensed the presence near them, as had Obi-Wan in point of fact. Both himself and his padawan exchanging a few seconds of confused telepathic chatter especially as nobody else on the ship had seen anything. Nor had the ships sensors, which could mean a number of different things. Though to his mind the most likely scenario was that someone out there was using a cloaking device of some type, a very advanced one if it could work properly inside the atmosphere as most cloaks couldn't even when using the best cloaking crystals, but the question was who and why were they interested in them as the overflight clearly indicated that they were.

Something that was deeply concerning.

"Are you alright Master Jedi," Padme asked seeing a concerned look momentarily pass across Qui-Gons face.

"I am fine," Qui-Gon replied even as he looked slightly shrewdly at the 'handmaiden'. He knew that she was no handmaid but was in fact Queen Amidala herself just having devested herself of the elaborate robes and makeup of her office – revealing the very beautiful young woman underneath. Though he had not said that he knew, he would spring that surprise on her sometime in the future when it was advantageous to let the young, elected Nubian queen know that it took far more than a simple change of appearance to fool a Jedi's Force senses. For some reason non-Force sensitives always forgot that Jedi, and indeed any Force user as despite what the High Council liked to preach the Jedi weren't the only Force users in the galaxy far from it in point of fact, could see with far more than just their eyes.

"You don't look fine," Padme pointed out.

Qui-Gon mentally sighed, guessing quite correctly that Padme would not stop asking questions until he told her what was bothering him. "It's just a disturbance in the Force," he answered before explaining exactly what he meant and what he and Obi-Wan had both sensed when they'd first been making their approach to this dust ball of a planet and what he had just sensed as the same odd dual presence appeared again overflying them a few moments ago without any sign that there was anything there.

When he was done Padme was frowning, so was their Gungan companion. "Could it be a cloaking device of some type," she asked.

"Possibly though it would have to be an extremely advanced, and thus very expensive, one to not produce any visible disturbance in the air when inside a planetary atmosphere," he pointed out, "I could probably count on one hand how many such cloaking devices there are in the galaxy as the crystals you need to power a cloak that advanced are extremely hard to find in sufficient quantities in modern times. Certainly, none of them would be anywhere near a planet like this."

"Are we in danger," Padme asked instantly wondering if the cloaked ship, if that's what it was, and its pilot were some kind of scout for the Trade Federation as she knew that the Neimoidians would have their minions out looking for them as a matter of urgency. Looking to find them, find her, and bring her back to Naboo before she could testify before the Senate on the invasion and force her to sign a treaty legitimising their military occupation of her planet. "Should we leave and find another planet?"

"I do not believe so," Qui-Gon admitted as he had sensed no malice in the presence, for the brief time he had been aware of it. Surprise and confusion yes but no malice. "Even if whoever or whatever it is meant us harm, we would not be able to leave this planet until we get the new parts since the hyperdrive core is completely non-functional."

Padme grimaced slightly but nodded in understanding. While she had been getting changed Captain Panaka had told her of the extent of the damage that their hyperdrive had sustained during the quite harrowing escape from Naboo. Thus, she knew that the hyperdrive core was not just non-functional but was in fact completely fried as the result of a coolant leak that had not been able to be fully locked down resulting in the core getting dangerously hot. Eventually critical components had gotten too hot and melted rendering the core inoperable and thus they were very much trapped here until they could acquire a new core. As unlike most other starships travelling the galaxies space lanes her royal starship lacked a backup hyperdrive. An oversight that she would have to get corrected at some point.

"We will have to be on our guard," she said at last.

"And we will be," Qui-Gon replied with a smile of reassurance. He fully intended to be completely on his guard here on Tatooine as like many worlds that were either in, or were like this planet, on the border of Hutt space could be wretched hives of scum and villainy. Which also made it a perfect hiding place for them while they got the parts and repaired their ship as the Trade Federation would never expect them to bring someone like Queen Amidala here. Though even if they did the Neimoidians would hesitate to do anything about it as the very last thing they would want would be trouble with the Hutts.

"Tell me about this planet Master Jedi," Padme said changing the subject as they continued walking, "Captain Panaka told the Queen that it is controlled by the Hutts."

"It is," Qui-Gon confirmed, "technically Tatooine is in Republic space, but the Hutt Cartel has controlled this planet for millennia with the current ruling Jabba the Hutt having reigned here for centuries."

"I cannot believe that the Senate would allow the Hutts to control a planet in Republic space."

"They allow it because it is not worth getting into a fight with the Hutts over," Qui-Gon explained, "while they are mostly gangsters in this day and age the Hutt Empire is very old and remains potentially extremely powerful. Contesting control of Tatooine with them is thus potentially far more trouble than it is worth, I don't agree with it and neither does most the Jedi High Council but unfortunately there is very little we can do about it. The most we can do is keep an eye on things and ensure that the criminal activity doesn't get too out of hand.

"Though do not assume that everyone on this planet is involved in one or other of the Hutts criminal enterprises," he continued as they continued across the desert. The settlement of Mos Espa was visible in the distance, shimmering and rippling in the heat haze. "Most of the people here are not."

"I understand," Padme acknowledged, it was good advice never to make assumptions about the population of an entire planet. "What do most of the people here do might I ask?"

"Moisture farmers mostly," Qui-Gon answered pointing off to the right where they could see a line of white mechanical devices. Devices that they all recognised as moisture vaporators as they were used in some of the more arid regions of Naboo as while it was a temperate planet it did have some desert and scrubland regions, most planets did. "And a few isolated settlements and spaceports like the one we are heading for. Most of the people here either don't want to be bothered, or don't want to be found by anyone."

"Like we don't want to be found?"

"Indeed."

Padme lapsed into silence as they continued walking across the scorching desert. Eventually the endless sea of sand and rock gave way to small, squat white buildings as they reached the outskirts of Mos Espa. There wasn't much activity out here but as they moved deeper into the city, they began to see more activity, with sentient beings of all manner as well as droids and lizard-like beasts of burden all going about their daily business. For such a harsh planet it was a deceptively normal scene, one that you could see repeated all over the galaxy.

Following the direction of the Force Qui-Gon led them towards a slightly more industrial sector of the settlement next to the spaceport. Here there were numerous shops all advertising for everything that starship crews could need from food supplies to spare parts.

"Now what," Padme asked looking at all the shops and wondering just where the hell they were going to start.

"We will try one of the smaller dealers. Less chance of someone untoward causing us problems there." Padme nodded in agreement, and they began walking towards a somewhat shabby looking shop…

… a shop called Watto's space supplies.

---///---

Authors Notes: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. Well both sets of protagonists are now on Tatooine and what happens next should be quite interesting, especially as when Maul shows up and sets off after the Jedi Elliot and Lantash will have a very interesting opportunity to gain something that could let them seriously derail the plans of the Sith – if they could get it into the right hands. Until next time.