Leia Organa stood in the open hangar of the newly designated Echo Base, watching a combination of Rebels and droids unload pallets from the back of a freighter. In a reversal of the typical scenario, the load bearing droids seemed to be struggling more than their sentient counterparts, their joints stiffening in the frigid wind that swept in through the hangar door. Leia had offered to help but had been rebuffed, so instead she stood to the side checking numbers against her datapad.

"Let's get these straight back to the crew ready rooms," she told the freighter pilot, a Twi'lek with layers of knitting wrapped around her lekku in an effort to ward off the cold. She pulled over a large hover cart and organized the crew to move the pallets. With a satisfied nod, Leia sent off a transmission to the command center and then checked her chrono, scurrying off for her next meeting.

"Hey, your worship." Her head down to mitigate the chill on her face, Leia hadn't noticed Han Solo walking into the hangar with two unfamiliar pilots. "Slow down. You're gonna hurt somebody."

"Sorry," she snapped, neatly stepping around them and heading on her way. Abruptly she stopped and turned around. "If you're not busy, Captain Pala could use some help moving those new uniforms into the ready room."

The two pilots, dressed in the casual jumpsuits that marked them part of a Y-wing squadron, sighed and then gave her a quick salute, heading over to join the assembly line of workers moving the loads across the base. Standing stock still, Solo glared at Leia.

"I'll have you know we were in fact going to be busy," he said.

"Doing what? Playing sabacc?"

Annoyed, he didn't answer, turning on his heel to stalk back towards the mess hall and find some new card players. "You could help too," she shouted after him, before realizing that she was now well and truly late to her meeting. She muttered a curse under her breath, debating the merits of running. The previous week she had wrenched her knee slipping on a patch of floor that had been polished to a sheen by the incessant parade of droids working to carve out enough space to house the thousands of Rebels that would ultimately be stationed. Uninterested in another humiliating trip to the infirmary on a stretcher, she decided to walk. Quickly.

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Leia pulled up a chair, mumbling an excuse for her tardiness as she sat down at the wobbly conference table in the small meeting room outside the command center. She gratefully accepted the coffee Colonel Firest passed her. As the hot liquid hit her stomach, she realized she'd had nothing to eat all day.

"We're just now getting started," General Rieekan reassured her. "I know you were busy with the uniform shipment. Good job on that, by the way."

Leia nodded, grateful the procurement had gone as planned. The Rebels had gotten word of a demilitarization pact on the Inner Rim planet of Kinlesa V. Ironically, it was an Imperial-brokered settlement between the two continental powers that resulted in a flood of military surplus on the planetary market. The princess had gone personally to arrange the sale of uniforms intended for use in Kinlesa's frigid mountain regions at a cut rate price.

"I've asked Colonel Firest to join us today because we are looking at a rather unusual opportunity," Rieekan continued. "Colonel, go ahead."

"Thank you, General," Colonel Firest started. "I'll try to be brief. We've begun installation of the V-150 ion cannon but we're dealing with some technical difficulties because of the ambient temperature. I've never seen this before, but the rate of reaction in the core is actually slowing because enough energy is being sapped out in spite of the insulated plating. Our techs have been working on it, and have found a solution. If we can seed the reactor core with a precise amount of the right element, we can average a reaction rate to the gun's specs and make it work."

"So what is it exactly that you need?"

"Our calculations show that terellium has the characteristics we require," Major T'tar, one of the technicians spoke up.

Leia shook her head. "I've never heard of it."

"It's naturally occurring, but the only known supply that doesn't need significant refining is found on Retacy III, in the Outer Rim," Firest continued.

"Which is what brings us to this meeting," Rieekan said. "We sent a recon team to Retacy to scope out the situation there. The good news is that there is absolutely no Imperial presence: this element is only a moderate export, and rarely has military applications."

"And the bad news?" Leia knew there was more to it.

"The shell corporation we used as a front to try to buy the terellium got rebuffed. Apparently there is significant disagreement in the planetary legislature about whether it should be stockpiled or sold, and they are freezing the supply until after the vote. Our source said it's likely to come down to party lines." He paused to sip his coffee before continuing. "The legislature is currently at a standstill because Representative…" he glanced down at his notes, "Chell recently passed away suddenly. A special election is scheduled to fill his seat in a month's time, and the winner of that election will determine whether the terellium is made available."

"So you want me to figure out a way to sneak it out before the election?" Leia asked, wondering why she'd be called in for this mission. Usually the truly cloak-and-dagger work was handled by less famous faces.

"No," Rieekan said with a smile. "One of the candidates is interested in being helpful to Alliance. She's down in the polls, but she's in the late Representative Chell's party so she has a good shot at winning. We want you to go to Retacy and help her win the election."

Leia raised her eyebrows. "I realize you said there's no Imperial presence, but I assume you mean undercover?"

"Of course, Princess," Rieekan reassured her. "It'll be you and a bodyguard. We already have false identities manufactured and our candidate," He glanced down at his notes again, "Carrella Starn, is awaiting the help. We told her we'd send our best."

"It's been a few years since I was in any sort of campaign," Leia warned him, "I'll do my best, but I'm not making any promises. Who's going with me?"

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As the meeting ended and the attendees filed out, Leia stayed behind, shutting the door after Firest before whirling on Rieekan.

"You were very diplomatic there, Princess," he said before she could launch into her tirade.

"Why him? Why?"

"I needed someone who could handle this job, and frankly who I trusted to take care of you," Rieekan told her bluntly.

"Why not Luke?" she argued. "And I don't need to be taken care of!"

"Luke's a commander now. He can't just leave his squadron for a month, you know that."

"I'm sure there's someone else then…"

"Leia." Rieekan sighed, and Leia felt a flash of guilt for leveling such a petty complaint at him when there was so much to do to set up the base. He'd been supportive of her need to do something tangible to support the Rebellion, giving her procurement duties that helped feed and clothe and arm the soldiers. But she still had the sense that he saw her as a child, and telling her she needed a bodyguard on an Imperial-free planet stuck in her craw.

"I'm not sure exactly how to put this. I've had a number of….well, complaints from some of the enlisted soldiers that I've assigned to your teams lately."

Leia fell silent for a moment. "What do you mean, complaints?"

"That you're hard to work with, or more often that you're hard to live with in small spaces. It's nothing you should be embarrassed about, but it does tie my hands a bit."

The princess stared at him dumbly. "I've never shirked, Carlist. You know that."

"Of course I do. That's not the issue. You're in an unusual situation, and you have make accommodations for that though. We should be grateful that there are people around who aren't intimidated."

"I can go myself," Leia insisted, annoyed at the direction the conversation was moving. "I don't need a bodyguard."

"You're going with Solo and that's an order," he said finally, standing up to leave. "I'll have the briefing materials delivered to your quarters. Why don't you go get some rest? You leave at 0400 tomorrow."

Turning on her heel, Leia stalked out of the room, heading for the mess hall. On an empty stomach, the coffee had made her slightly ill, and she grabbed a packet of crackers off the table in the entry before walking briskly back to the ready room to help sort and distribute uniforms. Rieekan watched her disappear down the hall in the opposite direction of her quarters and shook his head.

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"Sorry, these are only for enlisted soldiers," Leia said coldly as Han Solo walked into the ready room, his pockets bulging after he had relieved two non-coms of their weekly pay in a friendly game of sabacc. He made it up to them by offering them a bottle of whiskey to take back to their quarters- no need to make enemies as long as he was stuck on this ice cube.

"I wasn't coming for a uniform, sweetheart," he responded, looking disdainfully at the fleece and fur lined jackets. "You roped me into this trip, and we need some supplies. Retacy III is a good two days out."

"I roped you into this trip?" Leia said indignantly. She noticed the other supply room staff deliberately trying to move towards the other end of the room, and lowered her voice. "The first I heard of it was when General Rieekan ordered me to go with you."

"Right…" said Han skeptically. "I'm sure that's exactly how it went down."

A pair of Rebel pilots came in, and Leia busied herself fitting them with jackets, ignoring Han as he leaned casually against the doorframe, watching her. As they left, he began picking through a shelf of boxes to her right.

"Will you stop that? We just put those in order," she snapped. "What do you need?"

"Food supplies, and a first aid kit. Used up the last of my bandages on that trip to Ruuria with Luke. That kid sure is a klutz for being a Jedi or whatever."

"Here." Leia pointed towards a shelf. "Take what you need. Nothing else."

"Of course, your highnessness. I've discovered there's not much money to be had anyways in selling black market Alliance bandages." He reached up into the crates, grabbing out a few items. "How long you going to stay here? We're scheduled to head out pretty early tomorrow. I'm turning in."

"That's nice," Leia commented over her shoulder as she repacked the jackets into another crate. "See you at 0400."

"Aren't you going to get some sleep?"

"I'll be fine, thanks."

"He's right, Princess." Commander Minz, assigned to run the evening shift in the supply room, spoke up. "You've been at this for a while. Why don't you let us handle the rest?"

With a tight smile, Leia nodded to Minz and walked out, sensing that Han was trailing her down the hall.

"Can I help you with anything else, Captain?"

"Just thought I'd be polite and walk you to your quarters," he said affably, offering an arm. She rolled her eyes and hurried ahead, forcing him to jog a few steps to catch up before he was able to match her stride. They turned down the south passage and around the corner to the officer's quarters.

"Thanks," she said flatly as the door to her room slid open.

"Get some sleep, okay?" The teasing lilt had dropped out of his voice. Leia turned around and picked up a datapad that had been left for her on the small table.

"It wouldn't hurt for you to read up on Retacy too," she said, holding up the datapad as she hit the control to shut the door in his face.