May the Fourth Be With You

            “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.