"Do you have family, Han?" Luke's voice wafted through the pipes down to where Leia was searching for equipment. The Captain had given her a data pad containing a list of items, he assured her, she'd find down there in the bays.
"I was born, wasn't I?" she heard Han answer and she shook her head in mild amusement as she pawed through a box of transponders, seeking a number 7. The Captain's stylus writing was surprisingly neat.
She cocked her head, waiting, thinking she heard Luke's amusement as well.
"That's not what I meant," he said dryly and she smiled openly.
They were on their way to Yavin, safely in hyperspace, with several more hours of travel ahead of them. All had showered the stench of the garbage masher out of their clothes and hair, Captain Solo had provided food, and now he had assigned them each a task in helping repair damages sustained in the getaway flight from the Death Star against Tie Fighters.
Ostensibly, he was concerned for his ship. He was a good captain, Leia decided, whatever else he was, placing the number 7 in the tray and moving on to the next on the list. She was concerned for the ship as well, fearing that more than the loss of the communications array was going to derail their arrival. She'd believe it only when they got there. The hours past, the hours ahead, prevented her from being able to think beyond what she was doing at the moment.
But sidelong glances towards Luke and Leia showed her a man unused to human companionship, a man not unused to tragedy, and a man with a knack for channeling focus into coping.
His partner and copilot, the Wookie Chewbacca, was gentler with them, but it tended to bring both Luke and Leia to emotional collapse. As soon as Captain Solo noticed, he'd be off and running to hold things together. The med scan for Leia had prompted a cathartic screaming match; the flight sims gave Luke a sense of empowerment.
Now all the ship's occupants, Captain Solo; Luke Skywalker; Leia, the Princess; Chewie and two droids; were scattered in different tech and engineering stations. Their work pace lacked the urgency that lay heavily in Leia's stomach, forbidding sleep, forbidding food. She knew it was the same with Luke, why he was peppering the captain with questions.
"I meant -" Luke continued.
"I know what you meant," the Captain groused. From down in the storage bays Luke's voice was soft and melancholy; Han's deep and slow. He had a habit of taking a deep breath in the middle of a sentence, which Leia found quite compelling. He could be quite tactless, so it was interesting that he sometimes stopped himself, as if double checking his own thoughts.
There was a clang of metal, perhaps a tool dropping. "Oops," Luke said.
"Allow me, Master Luke," a third voice chimed. C-3PO, Leia recognized. The protocol droid that had served her family for years, only to be sent away by her in an escape pod, and to wind up in the possession of Luke Skywalker. The coincidence, the randomness, of life, struck her. This droid and the little astromech she sent with it, the schematics in its data storage so vital, had brought her together with Luke, with this Captain. A random sequence of events had cost her her life on Alderaan, had lost Luke's on Tatooine. She grieved for him as much as she grieved for herself. One billion or two people. There was no difference in size.
"Thanks, 3PO," Luke said. There was a warbling from Chewbacca.
"No, we are not," Solo countered grumpily. "Her Royalness needs to send a message."
Leia cringed, wishing she couldn't hear. Leia. I'm Leia, she thought. Her Royalness. Why had he said that? Tears stung her eyes. So much was in that statement, so much he probably hadn't meant. Royal Princess of Alderaan. No more. Tears blurred his neat writing. Focus, she told herself. 30 bit circuit board. To hell with him. His Captainness.
"Then replace it," she heard the captain snap at Chewbacca.
"I can't make out any words," Luke commented. "How did you learn Wookie?"
"Shiriywook." Han's voice was distant and concentrated, as if he were staring at connections and only half listening. "Been around Wookies most of my life."
"What doe he call you?"
"Call me?"
"Yeah. Does he say 'Han'?"
"Uh. I guess he doesn't." There was a sense of wonder in Han's voice. "He calls me, uh, Vine Climber. Funny. Never really thought about it before."
"Vine Climber?" Luke's voice came down to Leia with surprise and humor. "What's that mean? Do you climb vines?"
Leia found the light gauge wire as she waited for the captain's answer. Only two more things on her list.
"No." Han still sounded perplexed. "Not unless I have to. It's" he took a deep breath "… cultural. Wookies are arboreal – they live in a forest canopy. They travel between tree tops. A vine climber is one who, well," and he paused again, and Leia waited for his melodic tone to resume after a long exhale, "who... uses the vines instead of branches. And they aren't predictable – they snap, or break. So a vine climber doesn't plan, or he takes chances."
"Reckless," Luke commented mildly. "Sounds a lot like you, Han."
"What do you know about me?" Solo said. "Nothing."
"I know you go hollering outnumbered after stormtroopers. That was kind of reckless, I'd say."
"Well. What about you?" Han's voice became a high mimic. "'Let's go rescue a princess'".
The last relay loaded on her tray, Leia headed for the lift to carry her back to where the men were making repairs.
"Does Chewbacca have a name for Princess Leia?"
"Chief." Solo's answer was immediate.
"Chief, 'cause she's a princess, or chief because she took charge?" Leia wondered if she should react in some way, be flattered or annoyed, but Luke was only making observations, and Leia was curious what the captain would have to say.
"I'd say she kinda took charge, wouldn't you?" There was no bitterness in his voice, she noted. Maybe, even, a little admiration. She felt her cheeks color with pride and she entered the lift.
"What about" was all she heard of Luke's last question as the lift doors closed on her and their voices fell away.