WE NEED A VACATION
Chapter 3
"We're about to make the jump to light speed," Han said to Chewie. "Leia, got everyone strapped down?"
"For the moment!" Leia called back. The kids were all fighting sleep, but once they'd hit light speed, they'd conk out. The kids slept well on the Falcon.
Han put in the coordinates, pulled back on the throttle, and...
Nothing.
"Chewie, I thought you said the hyperdrive was fixed!" Han shouted.
{I thought so, too}!
"Leia! You've got the pilot's chair!"
"No light speed?"
"Yeah, the lady's being no lady this morning," Han hissed unhappily.
"Feckin hyp'drive!" Jaina cursed, and Jacen repeated it, both giggling.
"Just because your daddy says it doesn't mean you get to!" Leia snapped at them. She'd take it up with Han later but at the moment, she was the pilot and it required her total concentration. At least we're out of the shipping lanes, she thought with some relief.
"Force, if you're real, get this bucket of bolts fixed now!" she muttered as she worked the controls. Leia remembered flying to Selonia many times; there weren't a lot of obstacles along the way, until they got to the entry lanes to land on the planet. It generally looked like the traffic jam from hell.
She put the autopilot on for a few moments to check on the kids. All three had fallen asleep, for which she was grateful. She only hoped that Han and Chewie wouldn't wake them and teach them new vocabulary words.
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"I can't believe this!" Han said angrily, attempting to fire up the power converters that drove the hyperdrive. "We went through everything yesterday!"
{She has a temper}, Chewie said, his voice resigned as he attempted to couple the electrical terminals. {She wasn't depolarized yesterday}.
"I'm well aware of her temper!" Han reminded him. "C'mon, hurry!" He swore in Corellian, Alderaanian, Shryiiwook, and a few that he'd picked up but didn't remember the source.
Chewie bit back the suggestion that Han might want a newer vessel. That was blasphemy, and Chewie was well aware of it. The two continued to work feverishly.
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58 minutes and a crying Anakin later, Han and Chewie emerged from the circuitry bay, sweating, weary and deeply annoyed. Han picked up the baby.
"Oh gods, what are we feeding this kid? He reeks!" he said as he carried the baby to the med bay. Before he could set Anakin down, the little boy vomited profusely on Han's shirt.
"Wow, we're off to a great start," Han muttered crossly as he cleaned up Anakin. The med bay was a mess, but Chewie and Leia had been able to take them to light speed. He needed to get upstairs; Leia and Chewie were good and excellent pilots, respectively, but he was going to have to do some serious footwork in order to get to the docking bay on time.
"Oh my gods, what happened?"
"Anakin just puked all over me," Han said. "Can you grab me a clean shirt?"
"Sure, no problem."
{You smell disgusting}, Chewie informed him.
"Thanks a lot, pal. Now stop going dainty on me!" Han hit the hyperdrive throttle and pushed it to max. Fortunately, Jaina and Jacen continued to happily sleep. Leia brought Han a clean shirt, which he switched the degraded one for, with Leia's assistance.
"Not exactly the most auspicious start of a trip," Leia said. "Let me go and try to get Ani back to sleep." Anakin continued to whimper below. The toddler was clearly ill, but the kids usually bounced back from their ailments rapidly.
"Strap in," Han told her. "Time to take a shortcut."
Leia hurried below, strapped Anakin and herself down, and hoped Han's shortcut was one he'd taken before.
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"We'll make it. It'll be close, but we'll get there - oh, dammit! A solar storm! That wasn't on the charts!"
{What should we do}? Chewie asked.
"If we're gonna make it, we have to fly through it. Leia! It's about to get bumpy down there!"
"Thanks for the warning." She was trying to get Anakin to drink some water, which he was refusing. Everything else seemed to be making him ill, and he was becoming a bit dehydrated. She was going to have to get some liquid into her youngest son, hope that the twins wouldn't wake up, and try to keep from feeling nauseous herself. She normally never had vertigo, but when the traveling got exceptionally rough (meaning anything worse than being chased by Imperial vessels or navigating through an asteroid field), she'd found herself queasy and shaky afterwards.
Leia decided to take Anakin with her into her's and Han's quarters and lie down on the bed. She hadn't slept on the ship for a while. Han had upgraded the bed to double size, not as wide or as comfortable as the one they slept in at home, but compared to the one he'd had when she first met him, it was an incredible upgrade. He'd tossed the old mattress and the threadbare sheets and blankets and purchased some of good quality. During wartime, it had been downright luxurious.
Leia began singing a lullabye, trying to get the fussy toddler to settle down. It was clear he was uncomfortable and Leia hoped that there would be no more projectile vomiting or viciously malodorous diaper changes for the rest of the trip.
The Falcon shook violently as Han pushed her though the solar storm. Leia prayed to whatever deities might be about to keep the hyperdrive and the fuselage intact. She knew of Han's skills, having spent a very long time now watching him in action, but there were moments where she knew that he was stressing the aircraft hard. He'd made a lot of military grade modifications to her over the years, but solar storms could tear certain grades of aircraft to ribbons. Like her owner, the Falcon was tough and able to withstand much that an ordinary freighter couldn't handle, but Leia instinctively felt better when she was hearing the steady hum of the ion engines and no rattling parts.
The twins continued to sleep, which was a great relief. Of course, Leia sighed, they'd be up all night, but it was vacation, and there was nothing saying they all couldn't sleep in.
It could happen, she told herself.
In some other universe.
She was certain Anakin was about to fall asleep when he let out a wail and whatever was left in his stomach.
I've got a bad feeling about this, she muttered as she went to first clean up Anakin, then change the bedding, and finally, put some clean clothes on herself, all the while trying to stand upright.
The Falcon appeared to have finally made it out of the storm and Anakin was, at long last, dozing next to her. Once the roll and pitch of the ship were not so pronounced, Han had come below.
"You okay, sweetheart?" Han asked. He sniffed the air. "This guy got sick again, didn't he?"
"I'm the one that needs the nap," Leia groaned. "I hope this isn't how our week will go."
Han smiled at her. "We'll get there on time, and I'm sure everything will be fine."
"How close are we cutting it?"
"Fifteen minutes."
She and Han had different definitions of being 'on time,' but if anyone could pull it off, Han could. And Han would simply tell her that there was no time to discuss it in committee. She put Anakin in his crash webbed seat, crawled back on the bed and was about to fall asleep...
"Mommy, are we there yet?" Jaina called out.
"Mommy, wake up!" Jacen chimed in.
So much for that plan, Leia told herself.
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At what seemed to be long last, the Falcon was requesting permission to land. It was given, with the comment from the controller that his reservation would expire seven minutes later. Of course, the controller informed everyone they would have to circle for a while while traffic was routed, but that they would not be considered late if they touched down past the seven minutes.
"How gracious of them," Leia said scornfully.
"When're we gonna be there, Mommy?" Jaina asked impatiently.
"I wanna see WaterWonderWorld!" Jacen asked. The two were squirming in their crash webbed seats, and Anakin was sound asleep.
"We'll get there, kids. Daddy and Chewie have to be able to land the ship first."
"I can' wait!" Jaina squealed.
"First we have to land, and get our luggage, and get on the shuttle," Leia explained to them. "Then we have to check into our hotel." Oh yeah, they really got that, Leia told herself.
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47 miserable minutes later, the Falcon touched down. Luggage and children were gathered.
"Are we missing anything?" Han asked Leia.
"I have no idea."
"Do we have all the kids?"
"Let's see...one, two, three. I think that's all of them."
"It'd better be."
Han looked at everyone on the shuttle platform. It was a mob of weary parents, impatient children, and more luggage than anyone should be allowed.
At least we'll blend in, he told himself.