Chapter Seven: Threatened by the Truth

"Rrrr!" Janice growled as Luke finished another lightsaber duel victoriously.

"Ha!"

"Fine, you're the winner. But I swear you used the force twice during that round."

"Did not!" he argued playfully. They both laughed.

"Janice, Janice, there's a transmission from the bad ship!" Rosie yelled out suddenly.

Janice and Luke walked quickly over to the dash panel. Looking up at the giant screen, Janice quickly pressed a button that turned on the transmission.

"Hello, Co-brat Janice," greeted Sean with an arrogant smirk.

Janice flared. "How dare you address me—!"

"I have your sister," he interrupted. "Attack our ship now, and she'll be dead before you can say 'Asgard.'"

The screen swiveled to show Amarav contained helplessly within the standard issue of a forcefield cage.

"Daggers!" Janice muttered as the transmission ended.

"What are we supposed to do now?" asked Luke.

"Rescue her," answered Janice seriously.

"I am not going into that... thing! to save a Captain who just can't keep himself out of—"

"Excuse me?!"

Luke sighed and rolled his eyes. "Herself," he corrected, more calmly now. "Amarav can't keep herself out of trouble. Why go and fix a ship right before you crash it?"

"CoCaptain, there's another ship approaching," informed Andrea.

The screen showed the words: "The Millennium Falcon."

Han Solo had, apparently, NOT been with them after they escaped the Amrandians shooting blue energy at them. He had gone off back to find his own ship, not realizing the others hadn't followed.

"Now where did I leave that old girl?" he said under his breath, trying to backtrack his way to the Millennium Falcon. Of course, we all know Han wouldn't forget that he had piloted the ship to the planet and he would certainly not leave it behind.

He finally came across it and exclaimed, "There you are! My gleaming little jewel of the jungle!"

It looked old and rickety.

Han got inside, so enamored with the object, that he forgot completely about the others. He started tinkering here and there, then he pressed a bunch of buttons and pulled several levers until the thing powered up.

He took off toward the sky, unknowing of the task about to befall him.

"Han Solo!" exclaimed Janice. "It's him, I know it is!"

Janice immediately contacted the Falcon. "Uncle Han, we're here! But Sean has Amarav!"

Han Solo maneuvered toward the StarShip 2000. "Nice. That sister of yours seems to have a fondness for being captured, doesn't she?"

It wasn't untrue. That was pretty obvious.

Janice sighed. "Can you help us?" she asked politely.

Static.

"Look, I'm sorry for being such a troublemaker back on Delta Centauri," she said. "And running away."

"Yeah, you got me in pretty big trouble with your mother, you know that? I got ten thousand less than she promised 'cause of you."

Luke blinked. And Han never told him any of this before...

Janice smirked. "You were a pretty lousy babysitter, though."

Han smiled. "Yeah, give or take a few months."

More static.

"Alright, I'll help out. So, what was it you wanted again?"

Han did NOT want to go on another rescue mission to save some princess who probably wouldn't even compensate him for his effort. "Had to be a princess..." he muttered to himself, stepping quietly through the halls of the Starship 3000, blaster drawn and ready. Sean seemed to have a lack of security, he thought to himself. He wandered through the halls and moved from the second level to the third after finding out he was on the storage floor. "She's in the main control room," was his instructions. Brilliant. It would be as easy as cake to get her right out from under the angry glare of that Sean guy.

But it was just the guy he thought might be the death of him that would make the trip even more profitable.

Han suddenly found the control room. He was shocked to find it completely unguarded. He was even more shocked to find it so easily unlocked. Unbolted. Unsecured.

Was this a trap? He wasn't so dull as to walk right into the main control room, where there was sure to be inhabitants, grab the princess, and walk out. Was he?

Whatever he might have been thinking, he dismissed all thoughts of caution and pressed his hand against the control to open the door.

The door slid open vertically.

Sean had just gloated to CoCaptain Janice herself about Amarav's capture. He had ended the transmission abruptly, not because it would heighten the sense of alarm in their minds, but because he had been interrupted by another incoming call, although it did seem to serve both purposes. He picked up the call and was awkwardly surprised to find it was his mother. He startled backward at the shock. "M-mother!"

"Sean! Oh sweetie, we— who is that?!" she asked, horrified by the sight of Amarav's slight figure standing dejectedly within the transparent forcefield cage.

"Mother... it's um... the princess. Of Farlovelle."

"Farlovelle!" his mother pronounced with utter distaste. "Son, this is unacceptable! You must never be with this girl; just look at her! Pitiful, pitiful I tell you!"

"But mother..."

They were arguing for quite some time. Amarav soon grew tired of the insults they were casting against her and stopped listening to the conversation.

She was instead paying attention to the strange taps in the outside hallway. Something was strangely familiar over there...

The door slid open vertically. There Han Solo stood like a stone, with a look as if he'd just been caught stealing a cookie from his grandmother's cookie jar.

Sean whirled around, reflecting his stupefied expression.

Han recovered from the shock and gathered together his last shreds of confidence. "I'm here for the princess."

"''"Princess? Ha! Then you won't have her!"

"Nonsense, my darling!" cried his mother on the screen behind him. "Let him have her!"

"Mother, please! You know nothing of my evil plot!" he protested, turning back to face the screen.

"I know enough to see that the girl is not fit for a great prince like my son. There will be no alliance."

While they bickered, Solo crept up to Amarav and searched with haste for a way to unbind her.

Her eyes grew wide as he walked up and she looked as if she were about to exclaim something, but he put his finger to his lips and continued scanning the area.

Amarav kept her mouth shut.