Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Han Solo sat alone, back to the wall, one hand fiddling with her blaster under the table, the other loosely gripping a glass of some kind of dark liquid. Lazily, she watched the cantina goers around her, every few moments pausing to focus her gaze on a lifeform, but quickly dismissing them.

Chewie, her first mate, sat at the bar, similarly scanning the crowd. They needed passengers, and ones who could pay well. Word was there was a price on her head. Looking down, the woman frowned for a second at the drink in her hand, then quickly returned to scanning the cantina. With a bounty on her head, it wouldn’t do to lose focus, even for a second.

Apparently, a second was all it took for the first mate to find someone. Chewie had begun talking to an old man, a young woman next to him. Leaning back in her chair, bringing the glass to her lips to take a sip, Han continued to watch the exchange between the potential passengers and the Wookie. The odd couple appeared to be together, and neither from the city. An air of backwater seemed to hang around them.

Chewie had a softer heart than she did, one sob story and the Wookiee was sold to help anyone. Normally Han would be the one to search for passengers, but with the bounty on her head, they decided it was better to keep her out of sight.

Another frown, then the captain muttered, “A curse on all Hutts!” It wasn’t her fault that the Imperials came way too close for comfort on the last job. Everyone got unlucky eventually, and her luck just happened to run out on a particularly sensitive job for a high-profile client.

Returning her gaze to the potential clients, she noticed a man approaching the young woman. The woman seemed to be unused to cantinas and the odd crowds who populated them, as evidenced by the fact that she was oblivious to the fact that the seedy character talking to her was trying to start a fight. Leaning forward, Han began to get up to intervene when a bright beam of light appeared. As the lightsaber flashed into existence in the hand of the old man, and she felt herself jerking back. That wasn't a weapon you saw every day. And it’s...effects, took some getting used to.

After the old man powered down the weapon, Chewie led them through the crowded cantina. The smuggler watched them, the patrons moving quickly out of the way of the Wookie. Gesturing to a table, the old man and young woman took a seat, the old man calm and collected, the young girl gazing around as wildly as possible without seeming rude.

Taking the long way around, Chewie made his way to Han’s table. Taking a seat across from her, Chewie moaned “I like them. The man appears to be a Jedi; the girl seems pretty shy.”

Han huffed, then replied, “You like everyone who seems nice, and there are no Jedi.”

“He acts like Jedi. I know they are good. They need our help.”

“Chewie, we’re not running a charity.” Trust her first mate to find the people in this cantina who needed the most help.

“We need money, don’t we? As far as passenger’s go, I don’t think these ones will be too difficult.”

A deep sigh, then, “Fine, as long as we get paid. We need to get the Hutts off our asses.”

The Wookie roared in agreement. Throwing back the rest of her drink, the odd pair got up and headed back to the old man and young women, an equally odd pair.

Sliding in the bench next to Chewie, Han decided to speak first, adopting a serious tone and looking at the old man, choosing to ignore the young woman at his side. “Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon.” She gestured with her head to the Wookie sitting next to her. “Chewie here tells me you’re looking for passage to the Alderaan system.”

Just as seriously, the man responded. “Yes indeed, as long as it’s a fast ship.”

“Fast ship?” Who the hell are these people? Trying not to let the disbelief show too much on her face, she continued “You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon?”

The man shook his head, a hint of a smile creeping onto his lined face. “Should I have?”

Old bastard. “It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs,” she said, pride in her voice.

The mocking look on the old man’s face began to rile her. Almost unknowingly, Han began to tell him more. “I’ve outrun Imperial Starships. Not the local bulk cruisers, mind you,” her eyes flicked to the young woman for just a moment, taking in her expression at Han’s jibe at the local crap they called ships,” I’m talking the big Corellian ships now. She’s fast enough for you, old man.” Flicking her eyes back to the young woman, it was clear to Han that the girl was out of her element hiring a smuggler in a cantina.

“What’s the cargo?”

“Only passengers. Myself, the girl, two droids,” he leaned forward, ”and no questions asked.” Han couldn’t help the smirk that creeped across her face.

Almost mocking she said, “What is it, some kind of local trouble?” What could these two have possibly done that would require them to get off planet so quickly?

“Let’s just say that we’d like to avoid any Imperial entanglements,” was the steady response. The grin faded from her face. Imperials. If they were involved, this could get messy very quickly. And after the last mishap, she had no interest in crossing the them again so soon.

“Well, that’s the real trick, isn’t it.” Mind flying, Han quickly realized she could use their eagerness to get off planet to her advantage. “And it’s going to cost you something extra. 10,000 all in advance.”

The old man seemed unsurprised, but the young woman leaned forward, her mouth open in shock. “10,000?” she asked? It was clear to Han that the girl was unused to such large sums of money. “We could almost buy our own ship for that.”

Han smirked in her head. ‘Not a very good one,’ she said thought. Out loud, however, she retorted “But who’s going to fly it, kid? You?”

“You bet I could, I’m not such a bad pilot myself. We don’t need to sit here and listen…”

The old man reached out a hand and laid it gently on the young woman’s shoulder. Immediately, she calmed down. ‘So, the old man can keep the kid in line,’ Han thought. “We could pay you two thousand now, plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan,” the old man continued.

Han paused for just a second, and it took all her self control not to squeal with glee. “Seventeen, huh?” Inside she was jumping for joy, but she managed to keep a calm demeanor for her passengers. “Ok, you guys got yourself a ship. We’ll leave as soon as you’re ready. Docking bay ninety four.”

Nodding, the old man repeated, “Ninety-four.”

A white helmet appeared in the corner of Han’s eye, one that sad experience had trained her to always notice. Looking up, she could see two stormtroopers making their way around the crowd of the cantina. “Looks like somebody’s beginning to take an interest in your handiwork.”

Like ghosts, the old man and young woman were gone, and by the time the stormtroopers reached the booth the only two creatures sitting there were the woman and a Wookie. After a quick glance over, the stormtroopers moved on.

As soon as the troopers were out of earshot, Han burst out. “Seventeen thousand! They must really be desperate! This could really save my neck. Get back to the ship and get her ready.” Chewie and Han quickly parted ways, each heading out a different entrance to the cantina. Her mind so wrapped up in her good fortune, Han missed the blaster until it was pressed against her chest.

“Going somewhere, Solo?” the Rodian asked. Han could feel the blood drain from her face, kicking herself for not paying close enough attention and parting ways with Chewie. Thinking fast, she retorted, “Yes, Greedo, in fact I was just going to see your boss.” Greedo slowly backed Han back into the booth that she and Chewie had just vacated. “Tell Jabba that I’ve got his money.”

Greedo sat down across from her. “It’s too late. You should have paid him when you had the chance. Jabba’s put a bounty on your head so large every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you. I’m lucky I found you first.”

Han sat back, looking relaxed as she crossed her legs. She knew that it was important to show a confident front to bounty hunters. “Yea, but this time I’ve got the money.”

“If you give it to me, I might forget that I found you…”

Kriff, that was the last thing that she wanted. Not only did she not have the money right now, but there wouldn’t be enough to pay off this bounty hunter and Jabba.

Still trying to appear unconcerned about the blaster pointed on her, Han fiddled with the wall behind her. She knew that she need to draw Greedo’s line of sight. If she could just keep his eyes away from her right hand... “I don’t have it with me. Tell Jabba…”

“Jabba’s through with you,” the Rodian interrupted. “He has no time for smugglers who drop their shipments at the first sign of an imperial cruiser.”

“Even I get boarded sometimes. Do you think I had a choice.” There, she had a grip on her blaster, and Greedo was at least acting as if he hadn’t noticed.

“You can tell that to Jabba. He may only take your ship.”

‘Like hell he would!’ she thought. “Over my dead body.” Inwardly, she winced. That was a poor choice of words, and not an idea she wanted to put in Greedo’s head.

“That’s the idea. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”

Quickly, she bit back, “Yea, I bet you have.” Before Greedo had another moment to pull his trigger, Han pulled hers. A flash of light, then Greedo collapsed over the table, dead.

The blaster fire drew the attention of just about every other creature in the cantina. Willing herself to remain calm, she slowly stood up and walked to the bartender. Looking at him in the eyes, she tossed him a coin and said “Sorry about the mess.” Then keeping the same, steady pace, she exited the cantina.

The entire walk back to the Falcon, Han kept up her steady, even pace. She looked all passersby in the eye, as if daring them to mess with her. None did. One block, then another, then another, a corridor, and then the door to docking bay 94 where her beloved ship lay waiting.

Chewie was outside the Falcon, gassing up the ship. “What took you so long?” the Wookie asked.

“I got holed up,” Han replied, grabbing a cleaning rag as joined Chewie in preparing the ship for departure. “Greedo found me just after you left.”

“What did the slimeball want?”

Han gave a small sigh. She had hoped he wouldn’t ask. “To kill me. Apparently, Jabba put a hit out on me.” She gave a small chuckle. “According to Greedo it’s quite sizeable.”

Faintly, she could hear Chewie roaring a reply, but Han could barely hear it over the ringing in her ears. All at once she felt the insistent need to be sick, and promptly emptied her stomach in a nearby bucket. A large Wookie hand appeared on her back, rubbing it as she continued throwing up. After a few moments, she sat back on the floor, putting her head between her knees.

A low moan brought her head up to look into a pair of concerned dark brown eyes.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Han sighed

“That sure didn’t look like it,” the Wookie growled.

Han shrugged, then said. “I came real close to not making it back just now. I’m lucky that Greedo likes to hear himself talk so much. Otherwise…” she shook her head.

Thick, hairy arms pulled her into a warm, hairy hug. “Your luck hasn’t run out yet.”

“Let’s hope that it never does. Thanks, Chewie,” she said.

“Of course,” was the reply.

Another moment, then they broke apart, each returning to their pre-flight tasks. A few minutes later saw Han walking under her ship, a cleaning rag in one hand, running through some last minute preparations when her passengers stepped into the docking bay.

“What a piece of junk!” the young woman exclaimed.

Han slowly walked towards the pair, willing herself to not throttle the whiny kid. “She’ll make point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much but she’s got it where it counts, kid. I’ve made a lot of special modifications myself.” Moving out of their way, Han gestured to the loading ramp. “But, we’re a little rushed, so if you’ll just get on board we’ll get out of here.” As the passengers walked passed, a golden protocol droid greeted her with a “Hello, ma’am,” as it passed. Han gave it a long look then returned to prepping the Falcon.

Han thought to herself as she worked on her beloved ship, ‘Just a few minutes, then we’ll be out of here, a couple of days for this job, and then this whole mess will be…’

A modulated voice rang through the docking bay. “Stop that ship!”

Han looked up, then immediately grabbed her blaster. “Blast them!” the voice called out.

Blaster fire erupted around her. Firing back at the assembled troopers, as quickly as she could she ran into the MIllennium Falcon. Closing the loading ramp and outside doors, she ran through the ship, yelling “Chewie, get us out of here!”

Taking the captain’s seat, Chewie the co-pilot next to her, they took off, quickly moving the ship out the loading bay, then into the atmosphere, then open space. However, open space wasn’t exactly open.

Han looked quite intently at the scanners. It looked like there was another ship, a big ship, nearby. Turning to another instrument to her left, she heard Chewie growling, “What is the other ship?”

Returning to face front, she responded, “It looks like an imperial cruiser. Our passengers must be hotter than I thought.” Standing up, Han moved to a computing area at the back of the cockpit. “Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations to jump to lightspeed.”

A minute, then Han was returning to her pilot’s chair. Just in enough time to see two more star destroyers. “Stay sharp,” she told Chewie, “there are two more coming in. They’re going to try to cut us off.”

An annoyingly high voice from behind her commented, “Why don’t you outrun them? I thought you said this thing was fast?”

Han’s self control had run out with the added stress of Imperial vessels. Whipping around, she snapped at the whiny girl, “Watch your mouth kid or you’re going to find yourself floating home.” Turning back to the controls, she forced herself to calm down enough to calmly finish saying “We’ll be safe enough once we make the jump to hyperspace. Besides, I know a few maneuvers, we’ll lose them.”

‘Don’t lose your temper on passengers,’ she chided herself. ‘You need them to pay you.’

Not unexpectedly, the nearest star destroyer began firing on the Falcon. With a grin, Han muttered “Here’s where the fun begins.”

The old man, a bit more concerned, asked “How long before you can make the jump to lightspeed?”

Reaching behind her, Han flipped a few switches, replying “It’ll take a few moments to get the coordinates from the navi-computer.”

Again, the whiny kid opened her mouth, pointing at the sensors. “Are you kidding, at the rate they’re gaining?”

Again, Han lost her temper. Whipping around, she raised her voice at the brat, saying “Travelling through hyperspace isn’t like dusting crops, girl. Without precise measurements we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that’d end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it?”

A red light began flashing on the dashboard. Raising her arm, the girl pointed at the light, asking in that whiny voice, “What’s that flashing?”

Hitting the kid’s hand away, Han reached up and flipped a few more switches. She was going to kill this kid before they reached Alderaan if she didn’t shut up. “We’re losing our deflector shield.” An idea popped into her head on how to get rid of the brat. “Go strap yourselves in, I’m going to make the jump to lightspeed.”

Without another word, the old man and kid left, and Han gave a sigh of relief. A moment later, Han reached forward and pulled the lever to bring them into lightspeed. Before her eyes, the stars blurred, drawing them forward into the galaxy, leaving Tatooine and the Star Destroyers behind.

Chapter Text

Han adjusted a few, then leaned back in her seat, her first mate following suit a moment later.

“That was way too close for comfort,” the Wookie growled.

“I know, I know,” the smuggler sighed. “I’ve got a bad feeling that those passengers we’ve picked up have a lot more baggage than they’re letting on.” Standing up, Han moved to the back of the cockpit, where she began taking readings on some other instruments. “It doesn’t look like we were followed, but it’ll be a while until we can know for sure.”

Both fell into silence as they moved around the cockpit, taking readings and running maintenance as the ship continued its hyperspace trajectory. Every once in awhile Han let out a mumbled curse at a minor malfunction. As old and patched together as the Millennium Falcon was, she really shouldn’t be surprised at the constant state of disrepair. But even with it’s need for constant maintenance, to Han the ship was perfect.

As Han worked methodically on her ship, she found that she was completely wrapped in her thoughts, thinking over her the odd day she had. Jabba’s bounty, Greedo, and the odd passengers Chewie had found.

Which reminded her of something.

“Hey, Chewie?”

The Wookie, engrossed in his own repairs, growled over his shoulder at her. “What?”

“Never mind, clearly I’m interrupting something extremely important,” she muttered

“Oh, out with it!”

“Well, I was just thinking…” Han trailed off for a second, suddenly not sure if she should ask her first mate.

“Are you sure you were thinking? You seem pretty clueless to me,” the Wookie shot back, turning back to face whatever he was working on.

Now she really didn’t want to ask her question. But, there was nothing for it now though. She took a deep breath, then asked, “Did you happen to catch our passenger’s names?”

Chewie paused, then turned slowly in his chair, a smug look on his face. “You brought passengers on your ship and didn’t bother to learn their names?”

Han turned pink, staring decidedly out the window at the star lines. “Just tell me their names already!” she snapped.

Chewie turned back around before barking out, “No.”

“What do you mean, no?” Han asked.

“You didn’t bother to learn their names, figure it out yourself,” the co-pilot responded.

Han turned around her chair to glare at the back of her first mate’s head. “Chewie, just tell me their names.”

Chewie flipped one last switch, then got up. “No, I want to see you figure it out.” His huge form walked towards the door pausing before exiting to throw one last word in Han’s face. “I’m going to go spend some time with our passengers. Have fun moping in here!” Then Chewie, with the same smug grin on his face, turned and left his captain behind with an impressively large scowl on her face.

“Jerk!” she called after him. Turning back to the control panel she began running diagnostics, muttering to herself, “I do not mope.”

******

It took a several hours, but Han managed to run out of things she could do in the cockpit. She had run every calculation possible on their trajectory, fixed every minor bug currently known in the cockpit, and even cleaned. She then proceeded to sit in the pilot’s seat, aimlessly watching the star lines as she pretended to contemplate the meaning of life.

Now she was picking at her nails, continuing to avoid the inevitable. How bad could the passengers be, anyway? Han thought back to that annoying kid reaching across the panels to point at the flashing light. Frowning, Han looked at the offending light.

However annoying the kid was, at least the old man was there. And Chewie.

She narrowed her eyes at the thought of her first mate refusing to let her know the names of the passengers. She knew that Chewie was just waiting for her to mess it up, and the thought of his smug face when she did was part of what kept her holed up.

But it had already been almost a full standard day, she was hungry, and had to use the refresher.

Mind made up, Han jumped up and strode into the lounge. One to make an entrance, she announced “Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs. I told you I’d outrun them.”

Taking a seat next to the old man, she looked around. No one had even looked up from their various activities. “Don’t everyone thank me at once,” she muttered. Han added “Anyway, we should be at Alderaan about oh-two-hundred hours.”

The old man was observing the girl play around with the lightsaber. Han watched for a moment as the blue light swung through the air, remembering the same blue light slicing through an arm just a day earlier. ‘The old man must really trust the kid,’ she thought, ‘but I certainly don’t.’

Looking over to her first mate, Chewie was playing a game of Dejarik with the astromech droid. Han smiled inwardly. Chewie wasn’t doing so good, which was to be expected playing against a droid. Really, he should have known better. When the droid took another one of Chewie’s pieces, the Wookie began to howl in frustration.

The gold droid turned to Han’s first mate and began to reprimand him. “He made a fair move. Screaming about it won’t help you.”

Han, glanced over at the old man and young women, both of whom were completely engaged in the lightsaber practice. They really should be keeping a better watch on their droids. Turning back to the game, she called to the astromech, “Let him have it. It’s not wise to upset a Wookie.”

The pretentious droid retorted, “But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.”

The captain laughed, then leaned forward, the smile still on her lips. “That’s because a droid doesn’t pull your arms off when they lose.” The droid lost all it’s pretense of snobbery, quickly looking back at Chewie. “Wookies are known to do that,” she continued. Smugly, her first mate leaned back, putting his hands behind his head.

Quickly, the droid turned back to Han. “I see your point sir.” The gold droid looked down at it’s white and blue counterpart. “I suggest a new strategy, Artoo. Let the Wookie win.”

“Thanks, but I’m still not telling you their names,” the Wookie moaned.

Han gave him a stern glare, then glanced over to the two passengers, both of which were still very much invested in the lightsaber. Either they weren’t paying attention, or they didn’t speak Wookie. She hoped it was the second one.

Turning to the control panel she had sat next to, she began to take some readings. One could never be too careful with the Falcon, it had the nasty habit of having troubles at exactly the wrong time.

She was only half paying attention to the old man instructing the girl in the use of a lightsaber. Odd, that the old man had such a detailed understanding of how to use the old weapon. Almost as if…

Han shook her head. No questions. She focused again on her readings. She didn’t turn back until the small droid floating in the air that was shooting out lasers shot the poor kid.

She laughed, then said. “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”

The girl looked down at the weapon in her hand, then up at the captain. “You don’t believe in the force, do you?” she asked, but it was more of a statement than a question. The emotion in the girl’s blue eyes seemed to be conflicted, as if she wanted to be sure, but just couldn’t.

Han decided to be blunt. “Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other,” she explained. “I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.”

Han looked over at the old man, who was gently smiling, then back at the kid. “It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.”

“I suggest you try it again Leia,” the old man said. Han glanced up quickly, then over at her first mate, giving him a quick triumphant smile. Chewie indicated his head at the old man, but Han just shrugged. Halfway there already, maybe she’ll get lucky and the kid would drop the old man’s name.”.

The old man continued, “But this time let go your conscious self and act on instinct.” Gently, he placed a helmet with a blast shield covering the face over the girl’s head.

The girl gave a nervous laugh. “But with the blast shield down, I can’t even see. How am I supposed to fight?”

The old man stepped away before answering. “Your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them.”

The kid, ‘Leia,’ Han corrected, raised the lightsaber. It only took a few seconds until the kid got shocked with electricity. Han turned back to the console. She had better things to do than watch some kid pretend to be able to use the force.

“Stretch out with your feelings.”

Han glanced over, just in time to see Leia swing her lightsaber three times quickly, blocking three bolts from the small droid.

“You see, you can do it,” the old man said, giving the girl a wide smile.

Han huffed, turning back to the console. “I call it luck.”

The old man turned to her, a reproachful look on his face. “In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.”

“Look, good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living? That’s something else.”

An insistent beeping quickly drew her attention. “Looks like we’re coming up on Alderaan,” she announced, standing up and heading back to the cockpit, followed by Chewie.
After making sure they were out of earshot, Han exclaimed, “Can you believe that load of crap that old guy was feeding the kid? He’s filling her head with fantasies, gonna be a real bummer one day when she realizes that he’s completely wrong.”

“Just because you’re jaded and cynical doesn’t mean you need to beat down everyone else,” the Wookie retorted.

“I’m just trying to make sure she doesn’t get her hopes up for nothing!” Han replied.

“You only think you’ve seen everything the galaxy has to offer,” Chewie growled.

Han frowned. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she demanded, but Chewie had turned, focusing on his side of the cockpit.

Han shot a glare at her first mate’s back, but then began her own preparations to come out of lightspeed, letting the issue drop. The two pilots worked in sync, quickly preparing the ship, their movements around the cockpit effortless with long years of practice.

Glancing back to see if her first mate was listening, Han called over, “Stand by, Chewie, here we go. Cut in the sublight engines.” The captain used both hands to flick a row of switches, and promptly the streaks of light began to slow down until individual stars could be seen. Han was barely back in her chair when the Falcon began to shake, being pelted by small asteroids.

“What the…” she began.

“What’s going on?” Chewie asked.

“Aw, we’ve come out of hyperspace in a meteor shower, some kind of asteroid collision. It’s not on any of the charts.” Han began checking the scanners. Something had to wrong with her readings, what she was seeing couldn’t be true. How could a planet just disappear?

Leia suddenly appeared at the Captain’s shoulder. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Our position is correct...except no Alderaan.”

“What do you mean? Where is it?”

Did this girl ever run out of questions? “That’s what I’m trying to tell you kid. It’s not there. It’s totally blown away.”

Han’s own mind swirled with questions. She had never even heard of something like this before. Was it even possible? Who could have done it? What had Alderaan done to deserve this fate?

“What! How?” Leia exclaimed. Again with the questions.

This time it was the old man who replied. “Destroyed. By the Empire.”

Han turned for a second to look at the old man. “The entire starfleet couldn’t destroy the whole planet. It would take a thousand ships with more firepower than I’ve ever…”

The beeping of the proximity sensor drew her immediate attention. “There’s another ship coming in,” she explained, beginning to adjust sensors and controls on her ship. Alderaan in pieces around them, it was a good bet that this ship wouldn’t be friendly.

“Maybe they’ll know what happened,” said the girl. Han bit back a sarcastic reply, remembering what Chewie had said earlier.

“It’s an Imperial fighter,” the old man responded. A fighter, and Imperial? This just wasn’t Han’s lucky day, and it just kept getting weirder and weirder.

The girl’s high voice cut through all the other noise in the cockpit. “It followed us!”

“No, it’s a short range fighter.”

Han interjected while keeping a steady eye on the controls in front of him, “There aren’t any bases around here, where did it come from?” There were too many questions, and just not enough answers.

“It sure is leaving in a big hurry,” the kid pointed out. “If they identify us we’re in big trouble.”

‘Not as much trouble as I’ll be in,’ Han thought. “Not if I can help it. Chewie, jam it’s transmissions.”

The old man’s voice cut through everything. “It’s be as well to let it go. It’s too far out of range.”

Han’s eyes narrowed, grabbing a lever and pulling it towards her. She was not going to let this fighter get away to bring bigger friends. “Not for long…” she murmured.

The cockpit fell quiet, all the inhabitants watching with baited breath as they drew closer to the fighter. It seemed to take forever, though it was only a few minutes, before it was apparent that the Millennium Falcon was getting closer to overtaking the smaller vessel. Still, all waited.

The old man was the first one to break the silence. He leaned forward slightly, gaze intent on the fighter. “A fighter that size couldn’t get that deep into space on it’s own,” he remarked.

“He must have gotten lost, been part of a convoy or something,” the kid contributed.

Han kept her gaze on the dashboard, zeroing in on the problem ahead of her. “Well, he ain’t going to be around long enough to tell anybody about us,” was her automatic reply.

Again, the kid spoke. “Look at him, he’s heading for that small moon.”

Absentmindedly Han replied, “I think I can get him before he reaches there. I’m almost in range.”
Every second they gained on the fighter. Every second a second closer from a clean get away.

“That’s no moon,” the old man said. “It’s a space station.”

Han scoffed, swinging around briefly to glance at the old man. “ It’s too big to be a space station,” she replied.

However, a moment later a feeling of dread began to settle in the bottom of the captain’s stomach. An ominous cloud passed over the inhabitants of the cockpit.

The kid was the first one to break the heavy silence as they continued to approach the moon. “I’ve a very bad feeling about this,” she murmured.

“Turn the ship around,” the old man ordered.

Normally, Han would have bristled at a passenger giving her orders, but something just wasn’t quite right. And whatever it was, she did not want to meet it. “Yeah, I think you’re right. Full reverse. Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power.”

Almost immediately, the Falcon began to shake. Han’s voice was urgent as she repeated, “Chewie, lock in the auxiliary power!”

“I did, we’re caught in a tractor beam. There’s nothing that I can do!” the Wookie replied.

“Why are we still moving towards it!” the kid screeched.

Han snapped, “We’re caught in a tractor beam. It’s pulling us in.” Both captain and first mate were doing everything they could to pull away from the tractor beam, flipping switches, moving handles, turning the steering, but it was all for no use. They were decidedly heading towards what Han grudgingly admitted to herself was probably a space station.

The kid demanded, “There’s got to be something that you can do!”

“There’s nothing I can do about it kid, I’m in full power. I’m going to have to shut down.” Her face tightened slightly. “But they’re not going to get me without a fight.”

As they got nearer and nearer, the space station began to fill the viewport. Han took a calming breath, then began to run through scenarios, ways that they could possibly survive. While it would kill her to do so, they could maybe trade the Falcon for an Imperial ship. Or she could use the ordnance she had stashed away to blow up the hangar. If they were lucky the tractor beam was located there and they could take it out. Perhaps the ordinance would be enough of a distraction that they could get away. If they could just make enough of a distraction..

The old man leaned forward, and whispered in her ear, “You can’t win. But there are alternatives to fighting.”