Hoth was the coldest, most inhospitable planet Leia had ever visited. It was small, only slightly larger than Yavin IV. It was beautiful, shimmering, clothed in white and standing out against space's blue-black vacuum. And it was cold. Every breath burned your throat and lungs and seemed to freeze your blood.
Inside Echo Base wasn't much warmer than outside. The base was still under construction, and even the completed passageways were designed to be temporary; able to be abandoned at a moment's notice.
Still… the place had an odd appeal to it. There was something about the simplicity of the white snow and grey wall panels; the cold, dull steel lining the walls and support beams reaching, overarching, and curving down to the other side of the tunnel. The roof itself was hidden by a thick, grey tarpaulin, there to stop any ice falling and injuring someone walking by.
The soft snow on the floor crunched under Leia's boots as she walked along the newly dug tunnels. The sound was echoed behind her by another set of footsteps. Han's footsteps.
Construction on the base had stopped for the day, in this section anyway, and the tunnels were empty. Perfect. Leia turned to face Han. "What do you want, Solo?" She knew what he wanted.
"I want the money you promised me—I've been stuck on this ice-cube for weeks."
"Why should we pay you? When did we even promise you money?"
"Don't play dumb, your Holiness. It's been more than a year since I even 'joined' your rebellion," he said, making air quotes "And you promised me money right at the start."
Leia silently cursed Luke for even bringing Han to rescue her. Then she took it back—she'd be dead without them and everyone seemed to know it.
"Please stop calling this 'my' rebellion, it undermines everyone else's authority and isn't true, anyway." She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "There's no reason you should be paid when no-one else is." Why does he have to be so selfish, Leia thought. He was just starting to seem likeable… even a little more than that… and then he does this. Command had been thinking that Han might come looking for money— But why did they have to leave me to deal with it? Leia's lifetime of politics and undercover work meant they thought she was the most qualified person for this, but her complicated feelings for Han meant she was likely not.
"Yeah, cause for all of them, fighting is its own reward or whatever. And they can't leave. I can, and I will. Don't doubt it." She didn't doubt him for a second and told him so.
"But I don't understand why you're so desperate to leave. The Alliance can give you protection if you need it, even if you're in debt."
"But I don't understand why you can't just pay me," he said, imitating her first words almost childishly. "I know you don't have a lot of money, but you must have enough for my reward."
"Fine. How much do you want?" asked Leia. She sounded as if she were going to start counting out credicoins. Han smirked.
"Five grand."
"We can't give you that much money. Do you think all of this was cheap?" She waved vaguely at the metal support beams and rough cladding on the walls around them. "The Alliance has little to no funds left, and I'm taking a risk just telling you this."
"Look, your worship, I don't know how you think you can fool me—"
"I'm not trying to fool you!" She wasn't. The rebels needed money and almost certainly couldn't pay Han. "We can't afford it."
"Alright, alright. What if we make a deal. You guys give me one of the new comm sets, and I stop asking for money." For a while at least. Han's services didn't come cheaply, and Leia knew he'd be asking for money again soon enough. Maybe it was better to reimburse him bit by bit than in large, expensive payments.
"Well, all of the comm sets have been installed on the base, but I have an idea."
"I'm listening."
"We have a couple of older sets that aren't in use right now. They're not as good as the Caster models, but they're certainly better than whatever you've got on—" Ice rumbled above their heads. It happened all the time on Echo Base, the rumbling, creaking and cracking of the ice providing ambient noise, but this was louder than anything either of them had heard.
A lump of snow dropped from the ceiling, landing at Han's feet. He studied the walls—bare and icy with metal support beams running up to the roof at regular intervals. Nothing out of the ordinary there. The roof, he knew, was the same. If you could see past the support beams and through the thick tarpaulin covering the places under construction, you'd see a whole lot of snow, a whole lot of ice, and not much else. Why had that snow fallen, then? The tarpaulin should have kept it out.
Leia looked up at him, half-frowning and almost imperceptibly biting the corner of her lip. Han was suddenly very aware of how alone they were, of how close they were standing. He felt the back of his neck heat up and shook his head. Don't get distracted.
Leia pretended not to notice and tried to continue the conversation. "I think they've started drilling in the next site over. Anyway—"
"Princess!" The two of them started, jumping back from each other as if caught discussing something other than money.
"3P0!" Leia said as a tall golden droid shuffled down the corridor towards them.
"Princess, I've been searching for you everywhere."
"I needed to talk to Han privately."
"General Rieekan wants to speak to you about—" The droid broke off as the ice rumbled again. It was louder this time, closer. She frowned uneasily.
"That sounds awfully close," C-3P0 said.
"Ssh!" Silence.
After a couple of seconds, Leia relaxed. "3P0, tell the General I'll be there in a minute, will you?"
"I'm sorry, Princess, but he asked for you to come straight away."
She sighed and pulled off her gloves, balling them up in one hand. "Han, we'll finish this later." She turned to leave, and the cave screamed. There was no other way to describe it—a long, drawn-out screech of shifting ice.
A clump of ice dropped from the ceiling. "Look up there—there's a tear in the tarpaulin." Han pointed and the three of them glanced up.
"Sir, I think that this cavern might not be entirely stable.
"Might not—" he began angrily.
"Shut up," Leia hissed. "He's right, and we need to be careful or we'll bring this whole tunnel down. Get out, now!" Another lump of snow fell, followed by a piece of ice, then another.
And another.
"Oh, holy—" His words were cut off as something crunched in the ice above them. Han and Leia threw themselves forward, trying desperately to get out of the danger zone. Then the ceiling cracked, rumbled, and caved in with the thunderous roar of falling ice.