In the farthest and most foreign corner of the galaxy, the Chimaera hovered silently in space. Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo, better known by the core name of Thrawn, sat upright and stiff, red eyes giving off a chilling glare that Lieutenant Piersol did not quite enjoy. As a matter of fact, they had been in the same position for a near ten minutes. With great bravery -or stupidity- he spoke jerkily in a very small voice.
"Ad-dmiral...s-sir...y--y-your...o-orders?"
"Yes. Lieutenant Piersol, bring me all available data from the Core Worlds, and any worlds the Rebels have positioned themselves on. Immediately."
"Y-yessir!" Piersol yelped and literally bolted from the room, just in time to get to the refresher of the vast Star Destroyer.
Once the Lieutenant departed, the Grand Admiral muttered darkly under his breath, "They will certainly pay. And as the head of this new Empire, I will charge them personally."
In the numerous Imperial sectors, high-ranking officials scrambled to find order in the chaos of the Emperor's death. The eleven other Grand Admirals spread across the galaxy had similar reactions when news reached them, but none was more intent or more capable of success than Thrawn.
Sola Naberrie was a tolerant woman, but this was going too far. The man called Solo had self-volunteered himself to move his furniture and repair the already-fine working sink in his 'fresher. She was alarmed to hear water running in the early hours of morning, and wondered what in the moons of Iego it could be. Overtly as possible, she crept out of her bed to investigate.
Sola found the source of the noise in the room of Han Solo, and still half asleep, she rapped her knuckles gently on the door. It slid open after several tries.
"Whaddaya want?" He recognized her and apologized for his blunt manner. "Oh, sorry. But, what is it?" He was groggy as well, it seemed.
"I heard water running. It's coming from your refresher, couldn't you hear it? I thought you were...taking a bath maybe. Nothing could be so loud."
"What're you talkin' about? I've been sleeping, and I don't know about you, but I'd like to be going back to bed. I haven't been running water anyway. So--" Han stopped at what was to be another sentence, when liquid began to seep from under the door of the 'fresher.
"Stang! It's leaked...musta been the wrong pipe I guess..." he mumbled to himself, and fumbled around the messy area for some shoes.
"What?! The sink was already in fine condition, there was no need to meddle with it! What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything sister, it's your sink that's gone off the handle, not me! I just fixed the pipes when it got clogged up!"
"Clogged up! How could it do that? I made sure they were in working order yesterday!"
Han opened his mouth to make a likely sarcastic rebuttal, but shut it because he thought better of it. Instead, he opened the door, which consequently drenched his shoes.
"Stang! I knew the red one and the green one weren't supposed to go together..."
"Solo, what have you done? The red is the one to the toilet and the green goes to the shower, you moron! They were perfectly fine before you fiddled with them!"
The sound of rushing water was too loud for him to hear, so she sat on one of the chairs, thinking of all the stupid--
"MINIONS OF XENDOR! THERE'S A COLONY OF WOMP RATS IN THE 'FRESHER!"
Slightly revolted, Sola rushed to her bedroom to change and grab a thick durasheet box to help the failed plumber.
"Move out of the way, amateur! Watch and learn from a professional!" She shoved him out of the way, and got to work with the compact tool kit in the refresher cabinet. While she unhooked and sealed tubes diligently, she ordered Han about, making him place the baby womp rats into the box.
Her work was finished swiftly, as well as the cleaning. The floor was mopped good as new, and all the appliances were restored to working order, to the dissatisfaction of a certain pilot. But in the end, his outburst woke all from their beds, except for Chewie, who was guffawing in the corner.
"Han? What are you doing?" A sandy blond head peered from the edge of the door.
Sola was quick to answer. "Well, flyboy here wanted to repair the bathroom and I had to give a tutorial." She turned to face Han, who was a few inches taller than she, and said, "For the record - don't get in over your head and try being plumber again."
"Way to go Han!" Leia laughed sardonically. "You have your other moments, very often, but you certainly do have them!" She mused over it all the way back to the east side of the house.
Han thought it best to return to the soft, comfy bed he had previously been resting upon. The others had gotten up to start the day, even though it was still dark out, but Han would sleep until he was needed. Besides, those cots on Endor were not comfortable in the least.
Once again, Han situated himself under the covers and pressed his head to the pillow. Sleep just began to overcome him, and then--
The sun rose, shards of light encompassed his west room and Han was obliged to get out of bed. Instead, he rolled to his side with the pillow to shield his head. His blaster lay within small proximity to his face, unfortunately reflecting the sun shine directly into his eyes. After several moments, Han groaned in displeasure and resignation, and ripped off the covers.
They were once again settled at the table in the kitchen, minus the Gungans, eating grain cereal and muja fruit. The others continued to jest about the plumbing debacle while Han, still nursing a wounded ego, shoveled mushed fruit into his mouth in a disgruntled silence. Several times, however, the thought of the Falcon ran across his mind. He was guilty that he hadn't given the old girl a moment's thought since they had picked up the parts, which were still in the cellar of the Naberrie house.
But, as it turned out, the chance to see his dear old YT-1300 would come soon. Sabé had planned for them to canvass the city, an idea which Luke heavily supported; if anything sketchy was going on here, they would be able to know which areas were safest. The young Jedi Knight still did not trust the woman, and suspected that there was something of vital importance that was yet to be revealed.
His danger sense tingled, a foreshadowing of events, perhaps? Still, Luke continued to be curteous and on the alert, preparing himself for whatever would have been about to blow up in his face this time. They finished quickly, and left in an inconspicuous manner. Or at least, as inconspicuous as possible.
"So where are you taking us?" Leia queried, noting that they seemed to be heading for a particular destination.
"Err..." Sabé consciously clenched her teeth. "Well, it's something of a surprise."
Surprise? Luke didn't quite like the sound of that. Even though he knew it was wrong, he attempted to probe in on the woman's thoughts. He was surprised, however, when he attempted accessing them. It seemed like she had shields up, yet he knew that she wasn't Force-sensitive, or he would have felt it. Frustrated, Luke said a little too accusing, "What does that mean?"
"You'll see, Commander Skywalker, soon enough." Was her curt reply before she darted off into a grimy alleyway.
"What are you up to, kid? Every body's been actin' all high-strung lately, what's up?" Han murmured to Luke after the other's were out of earshot.
Luke pursed his lips. "I don't know, Han. I've just got a bad feeling about this..."
"Great," Han continued sarcastically, "every time you two get a bad feeling about things, I get a bad feeling. You know why? Because your bad feelings usually turn into predictions of doom." He paused. "What am I talking about? C'mon Luke, don't get jittery. What's the worst that can happen?"
After that, Han strolled off optimistically towards Leia, and engaged in further conversation, leaving Luke to mutter darkly. "I don't wanna think about. But I can bet my left hand that there's a Hutt in Jawa's clothing around here."
Sabé came to a halt at the end of the alley, crouching down to examine a large crack in the ground which she ran a delicate finger over. They were all somewhat puzzled as she muttered inaudibly, continuing to run her hand of over the three meter line. From her sleeve she extracted a pocket vibroblade and used the edge to carve into the crack, or so they thought.
Soon, Sabé had lifted the crack to reveal a trapdoor of transparisteel. Below it was a large hole, too dark to see into, but before any of them could properly ascertain what lay beyond, Sabé leaped into it. Though they could not see her, the echo of her voice assured them safe passage through - well whatever it was.
"Come people, you don't want to run into the stormtrooper's early morning patrol. Follow me!"
With skeptical brows, they too threw themselves into the dark pit. Luke was the last to go, and found himself in a dank, damp tunnel. The figures of his friends were barely legible, with the faint light from the top of the hole; it was pitch black after someone went to close the trap door.
Luke immediately ignited his lightsaber. "Whoa! Hey kid, watch where you're pointing that thing!"
"Oh, sorry Han, couldn't see you."
"Yeah, well just be careful. I held that thing once, and it can slice a Tauntaun like flimsiplast. I don't wanna imagine what it'd do to my head."
"Come now, I brought a glow rod. It is rather dark in here. I should mention it to Jaren." She activated the glow rod, and it illuminated the room in yellow. "All right, we'll soon be able to see, just a little farther down I think."
"What is this place? Who's Jaren?" Leia said as she saw several stalactites that erupted from the ceiling.
"Oh, this? It's something of a Nubian Refugee Facility. I used to volunteer here. It is a strictly contraband organization, and Jaren is the administrator. There are a lot of stranded aliens here, mostly a lot of victims of the Empire. They're just poor souls that need food and shelter, and that's why the entrances are so interesting. There's a tight wrap on everyone that comes and goes, because we obviously don't want the word being spread to less...innocent ears."
"I see. You volunteered before joining the Rebellion, I take it?"
"Yes." The answer was oddly grim.
"Why did you leave?" Leia pressed.
"Because...I was needed for a greater good, I suppose. My abilities were needed elsewhere, and if I could put a hand into destroying the Empire, there would be no need for the secrecy of this place anymore."
"I see." Leia repeated, picking up on the other woman's tone.
The air was quiet, aside from the clattering of footsteps and water droplets that slipped from the stalactite. After about twenty minutes a dim light manifested itself in the midst of the dark at the opposite side of the tunnel. As they neared, it grew brighter and sentient noises could be heard.
Once they were in a bright enough area, Sabé turned to the others with a small smile and said, "Welcome to the Nubian Refugee Organization."
Two Rodian youngsters ran past, shouting gleefully while being chased by a female Rodian who was presumably their mother. "Peedunkeys!" she yelled at them sharply.
A young man followed the Rodian, before stopping to notice Sabé and the others. "Corrin, what are you doing here?"