“I don’t care what you
think you big furry oaf! We’ve gotta hurry if we’re going to make it on
time.”
“Hrrghhh uhhh, mrrrghh nuhh rurr!”
“Don’t take that tone with me Chewie! I’m not the one who
was thinking with his stomach again. Besides, the Princess will kill both
of us if we don’t show up.”
Reaching into the toolbox and pulling a hydrospanner from
it; Han Solo hung upside down to reach the bolt he needed to tighten.
Thinking back to simpler times when he wasn’t the husband of royalty and
could come and go as he pleased he remembered telling Luke Skywalker how
travelling through hyperspace wasn’t like dusting crops. “If I'm not
careful, I may end up dusting crops before this is all over.” he mumbled to
himself.
“Sir, the hyperdrive motivator seems to be the problem.”
C3PO said as he peered down into the void where Han and Chewbacca were hastily
doing their repairs.
“Really professor, you don’t say? Get back over
there and talk to the Falcon and find out why the hyperdrive motivator isn’t
working.”
Shuffling back to the control panel, C3PO muttered in his
metallic voice, “Impossible man. I truly do not see what the Princess
sees in him at all. I wish Artoo was here.”
Han and Chewbacca had taken the Millennium Falcon and left
Coruscant three days ago in search of some type of food only found on Kashyyyk;
Chewie’s home world. In the days which followed the two friends had
arrived on the moon of Shinnock, one of the places Han had travelled in his
smuggling days to meet with Cansoordia, an exporter/importer of special foods.
He owed Han and Chewbacca a favor from the old days, and Han figured he’d
be good for Chewie’s meal.
They left without telling anyone where they were going,
feeling they would only be gone a few hours and return before anyone even
noticed. Of course this had been three days ago, and he was pretty sure
he was in deep poodoo with Leia by now. They would surely be pushing the
Falcon to the limit in order to return on time now. Kessel run record or
not, the Millennium Falcon would be forced once again to save Han and Chewie
with speed and prowess.
“How about this Chewie,” Han hollered up from the depths
of his beloved ship, as Chewbacca made his way to the cockpit.
Chewbacca entered the brain of the Falcon and pushed a few
buttons on the control panel and waited for the green light to light up, only
to be showered with sparks from over his head instead. “Rrrugghh!” he
shouted and covered his fur to keep it from igniting into flame.
Twisting the hydrospanner in the opposite direction, Han yelled,
“Alright, alright! I’ve got it! Try it now!”
This time the light turned green without any sparks
flying, and Han was relieved to hear the steady hum of his ship’s hyperdrive as
it engaged.
“Perfect! Okay Chewie, I think we’re out of the woods now!”
“Sir? Master Solo, sir?”
“What is it 3PO?”
“Checking my internal chronometer, I’m afraid we may be
late for the party after all. The odds of us returning in time now are
four hundred thirty to one.”
“If I’ve told you once 3PO, I’ve told you a million times,
never tell me the odds!”
Hoisting himself up through the access panel in the floor,
and scooting the covering plate into place with his boot, Han hurried towards
the cockpit so he could set the coordinates for Coruscant. “Buckle up
goldenrod; we’re about to head home!”
The face studying the control panel was lit up green from
the backlight of the screen. As the man viewed the tiny blips and the
numbers surrounding them, he recognized one of the numbers from his past.
“Solo.” He said to himself, “I never expected to see you
in this part of the galaxy again.”
Pushing several buttons at once, a separate screen raised
from the control panel with the word "Open Bounties" appearing in
bold letters. Selecting a search field, the man typed in the words Han and Solo
and waited. After a few minutes, a picture of the famous rogue showed up in
the left hand corner along with a long list of running bounties which had yet
to be claimed.
“I see there are still those of us who do not care for you
Solo; some of whom are still willing to dole out a few credits for your return.
I guess it’s up to me then to return you to the highest bidder.”
Turning in her seat to set his ship
in motion, Tontha prepared once again to track the famous duo. “This
time, you won’t get away me."
“I
swear Luke it’s like living with a three year old sometimes.”
“Leia,
I’m sure Han and Chewbacca left for a good reason.”
“He
didn’t even message me, he just took off and left.”
“Well
I’m sure he had a good reason Leia. He
probably just didn’t figure he’d be able to get hold of you while you were in
meetings is all.”
“I
know I’m being silly, but it bothers me he didn’t leave a message or
anything. And why would he have taken
C3PO with him? There’s just something strange
about all of this.”
Walking
over to his sister, Luke gave her a reassuring hug and said, “Listen, I’ll go
down to the docking bay and look around if it will make you feel any better.”
“Thank
you Luke, it would.”
“I
still think you’re overreacting just a little bit.”
“I
know, but this party is just important to me that’s all.”
“I
know sis, give me a little time and I’ll sort things out for you.”
She leaned up, giving Luke a little
kiss on the cheek and said, “Thanks brother, I appreciate it.”
Looking at his sister and laughing
he said, “And to think I used to have a crush on you. We’ve had a strange life huh?”
“Yes, it has been very interesting.”
With that, Luke turned toward the
door; there was a swooshing sound as the door parted and looking back one more
time he said, “Leia, as soon as I find out anything I’ll let you know.” Reaching back he pulled his Jedi hood up over
his head and stepped out into the corridor.
Docking bays around the galaxy were
all the same. They smelled of hydraulic
oil, plasteel and a host of different body odors which came from the thousands
of sentient beings who frequented them.
Coruscant was no different than any of the smaller backwater worlds Luke
had visited in his time as a representative of the New Republic. Even on his home world of Tatooine, docking
94; where he had taken his first off planet ride aboard the Millennium Falcon
was no different.
“Some things just never change.” He thought
as he began using the Force to investigate where Han had docked his famous ship
for the past seven years. Studying the
room for even the minutest detail, he was taken back to when he had first seen
the Falcon.
“What a piece of junk!”
“She’ll make point five beyond the
speed of light. She may not look like
much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.
I’ve added some special modifications myself.”
Smiling at the pleasant memory, Luke
thought to himself, “Where have you gone Han?”
At the same exact time Luke was
wondering where Han had gotten off to, Han was doing the same thing.
“I don’t like it Chewie. How can we be off course this much?”
“Urrhgh, muhhquarrah uhh rqhh.”
“Well that doesn’t make any sense. I know where Coruscant is, I set the
coordinates myself, look.”
“Mummph, rummphan duhh.”
“Me?!? I’m not the one who’s over 200!”
Laughing his deep hearty laugh,
Chewbacca cuffed Han and ruffled his hair as he turned back to the control
panel.
“It’s not my fault!” he said as he
continued studying the read outs.
Without any warning, the Falcon
lurched to one side and Han was forced into the opposite bulkhead as he lost
his balance. Hearing metal crashing to
the ground, from the common area and a metallic voice screaming, “Oh my!” Han
knew 3PO had not been prepared for the sudden shift either.
“Fire up the engines Chewie!” Han
yelled as he stumbled back to his command chair and began calling up schematics
on his view screen. “Someone is firing
at us!”
Chewbacca’s furry fingers flew over
the controls as he prepared their ship for flight. Meanwhile Han was looking over the view
screen trying to determine just where the ship was which had fired upon
them. Suddenly, they saw a green flash through
the view port of the cockpit and realized almost without thinking he only had a
matter of seconds before the Falcon became the prey to the tractor beam which
was doing its best to attach itself to them.
Reaching for the lever which would throw them into a reverse
spin, Han pulled on them as fast as his lightening quick reflexes would allow. Having worked together for so many years,
Chewbacca had the engines online and ready as Han pulled the levers into
place. It was all the artificial gravity
could do to keep them in their seats as the Falcon entered what was referred to
as the idiot’s loop.
Performing a reverse banking maneuver from a dead stand still
is difficult at best, and only someone who is considered crazy would try it;
hence the name idiot’s loop. It was
perfected by Han during his days as a smuggler, when he was in danger of being
boarded. Waiting until the last possible
second, he would set the thrusters to full speed and then full throttle into
reverse while banking his ship. The end result
being whoever was trying to board the Falcon would be in their rear view sights
and Han could punch it forward getting away.
He had never tried it when a tractor beam was attempting to
lock on, but he figured the principle was pretty much the same. As the Falcon completed its turn, he was finally
able to see the ship which was endeavoring to capture him for the first
time.
“Tontha? Chewie, that’s
Tontha out there! I’d recognize her ship
anywhere.”
Grunting his agreement about the ship, Chewbacca made several
disturbing sounds and bared his fangs in Han’s direction.
“Woah, don’t blame me!
I’m not the one who turned her in to the Empire. She did that all on her own.”
“Mrruhavveua, schrallup grunnnn.”
“Yeah, but that’s not the way I remember it. But you’re probably right, she would think of
it differently. After all, she was the
one lead away in handcuffs wasn’t she?”
Punching a button on the console, Han keyed up the comm
system and clearing his throat addressed the woman trying to capture his ship
in his smoothest voice.
“Tontha? Tontha is
that you honey?”
There was a crackle of static, quickly replaced by the voice
of a very irritated female, “Solo! I swore the last time I saw you if I ever
had the chance I’d kill you, and that Wookie pet of yours!”
“Tontha, when did you get out? Did you get the care packages we sent to
Rigeliian?”
“Becoming even more irritated by the second, Tontha
continued, “Have you figured out where you are yet Solo?”
“I was just about to, when you tried to lock onto my ship
with your tractor beam. What’ve you got
over there, a midspace transient receiver?”
“So you have been keeping up with the tech since becoming the
consort of the Princess. I was kind of
afraid maybe you were only a pretty face now.”
“Tontha, you always say the nicest things. But after seeing the males in your species; a
Barabel would be pretty to you.”
“Prepare to be boarded Solo, there’s a nice sized bounty on you
still, and I aim to collect it.”
“Honey, better bounty hunters than you have tried to collect
on me, and you know where that’s gotten them.”
“This time it’ll be different Solo, you’ll see!”
Chewbacca made a small purring sound and Han turned to see
what he was pointing out. The Falcon had
completed the turn, and was now heading in the proper direction to flee. Shaking his head, Han made a sign with his
hands explaining his plan to his friend.
Grinning and trying to muffle the laugh, Chewbacca snorted instead and
nodded his head yes.
“Tontha, maybe you should come aboard, we could talk about
old times. You could tell us all about
your experience on that prison planet.
How long after the Empire fell did it take before you got out? I can’t remember.”
“Arrgh! That’s it Solo, I’m going to finish what I started
years ago!”
Muting the feed between ships, Han winked at Chewbacca and
said, “She’s nothing if not still predictable Chewie.”
Checking the ship’s systems once more, Han said, “Punch it
Chewie!”
Getting the ship to accelerate was Chewbacca’s job, making
her corkscrew spin was Han’s. “Yee haw!”
he hollered as he was pushed back into his seat further and further. The Falcon began to pull away from Tontha’s
ship the Marauder as she was caught unaware by the duo’s quick actions.
Shutting off the tractor beam Tontha cursed in her native
language and began her pursuit. She was
mad at herself for allowing Han to get her talking instead of continuing to
capture them in her beam. Han and
Chewbacca had a small lead on her, but she was confident in her ship’s ability
to catch up. Solo always bragged about
making special modifications to his ship, but she had done the same. It would only be a matter of minutes before
she would be in range to use the tractor beam again, and this time there would be
no escape.
Leia placed center pieces on each table, turning
them in the proper direction, and then turning them again and again until she
felt they were in the exact location each needed to be in order to be seen from
the perfect angle. Each table was
adorned with an Alderaanian sculpture which had been on loan to a museum here on
Coruscant at the time of her planet’s destruction. Placing them on the tables made her feel
homesick and happy at the same time.
The party was to be held this time tomorrow and still she had
not heard from Han or Luke. “Where could
they be?” she thought as she continued to see to each and every decoration
personally. As if in answer to her
thought, her comlink buzzed at her waist.
Reaching down and looking at the display screen she saw the familiar
face of her brother Luke. Thumbing the
switch, she said, “Luke, have you found them?”
“Not yet, but I've discovered something interesting and was
wondering if you could get away for a bit and come down to the docking bay?”
Without batting an eye, she told him she would and thumbed
off the comlink. Excusing herself from
the workers, she left the rest of the decorating to them. Pulling on the robe she used when walking
among the people, she pulled the hood up over hair head so as to not be notice,
stopping off at her apartment only long enough to retrieve her light saber,
then she was off to the docking bay to meet Luke.
