The baby- Maline or Martine, Leia forgot, and not really a baby, but that's what everyone called her, even Han- was walking quite assuredly now. She was even running and had a bit of a vocabulary. She called Leia "Pinces". Through her, Leia was learning the same lesson again and again: change was rapid, and no matter how one prepared, they were caught unaware.
The baby was an agreeable child, happy. Everyone was her family, though upon first meeting Han and Chewie she had run behind her mother's leg and peered out from the skirt. The Falcon dropped often now from orbit onto Buteral's landing shoal with open clearance just because she operated under the CTC.
"She's staff," Han had enunciated distinctly of his ship, somehow not including himself, which Leia found interesting. For a spacer, he didn't like floating in orbit, tethered to a docking station, and he came down to Buteral to be a loner, something else Leia found interesting. Maline- this was correct, Leia heard the mother use the name- liked to run up and down the freighter's ramp.
"Hey, get out of there," Han would say, and the baby would giggle and run deeper into the ship. Han would toss a dark look at the mother, who laughed indulgently at her daughter, and then he would go in after the baby.
The first time he ushered the child out by pushing gently on her back, hustling her along. The second time he had her by the hand, and deposited her at her mother. "I'm gonna charge admission," Han told her, and the woman laughed again.
The third time, Han looked at Leia while the toddler's giggle invited him to follow. "Chewie, get the kid," he ordered. Then he shut the ramp.
Leia was working on getting the Alderaani to leave. As Princess, she was cooly objective about it. The embassy at Asana was asking for extraction. The Alderaani on this world had not figured in Rieekan's original census because the situation was unstable. Fifty-eight was the new number.
One of the students, a boy of fourteen, had family in Imperial City and they agreed to take him in. The first to get a home, but he remained sullen. Han was slated to make the trip.
"Wanna come?" he leered at Leia. "I'm only asking so you don't get any ideas."
She looked at him like from out of a daze, lips parted.
"I said," Han repeated, "Don't get any ideas."
Leia realized it in a great rush. The boy, flying away from her on the Falcon, she remaining behind on Buteral. Imperial City, where she had been a Senator, where the IDIT offices were, where her lawsuit against Emperor Palpatine was filed.
"They won't let you go," Han said.
He was often right about things and she scowled at him, because she was too, and she needed to win this one.
"Where's the kid?" Han asked, searching the courtyard. "The one I'm taking."
Leia looked with him. She knew which boy it was, but how was he going to pick from an assortment of brown-haired and -eyed youth? Did he think he'd see a label? Relocating to Imperial City?
"Why?" she asked.
"Got some things to tell him."
"You're making a big deal out of this," she said, leading him over to the boy.
"Isn't it one, though?" Han said.
"Jargist, this is Captain Solo," Leia introduced.
Han took right over. He sat down on the ground, gun holster poking the ground. Not well positioned for a speed draw, Leia observed. She remained standing, a little off to the side.
"Hey, kid," Han said. "I'm the one taking you to Imperial City. You're going on my ship. You've traveled before," he assumed.
The boy nodded.
"Of course." Han nodded back. "Then you know it can take some time and it's boring. My ship isn't a passenger liner; she's a worker. I don't got much crew and we're not there to entertain you. There's not much to do, so bring something. Got it?"
The boy nodded again. Leia thought Han's approach entirely unnecessary. She wondered how he appeared to Jargist, who was keeping his face impassive. With him sitting cross-legged on the ground and she standing, she calculated she could hug Han's head to her waist. She had a different perspective on his brow, noticed his lashes and the beginnings of laugh lines around his eyes for the first time.
"One thing," Han said, "is the candle. Is yours still lit?"
Jargist glaced over to the candle fort under the bench. "Yes, sir," he nodded at Han.
"Never been called 'sir' before," Han glanced at Leia like he might need help. She took a step closer. He readied his face. "The thing is, it's got to be extinguished." Jargist looked startled. "Just a rule of flight, kid; common sense. You can't fly with an open flame."
Jargist looked at Leia and she put her hand on Han's shoulder. "How much time has it been, Jargist?" she asked.
"Twenty-three days, Your Highness."
She nodded. "Almost time. I know we've been raised with thirty days, and there are so many people we know who deserve our thoughts." She paused, giving Jargist time, "What has made this hard is no one is waiting on us, are they. No one really understands. We are not at anyone's mercy, Jargist, please know that. The Captain isn't insisting about the candle because he doesn't like it or thinks it's silly. It's because, simply put, it's a safety factor. We are the ones who have to compromise."
"The family I'm going to didn't even wait thirty days," Jargist said.
"No," Leia realized, "they didn't. They are compromising too. I'm sure they'll have a candle, though." At least, she hoped so.
Jargist stood up and made like he was going to head for the candles. Leia stopped him. Han was the only one still sitting.
"You don't have to extinguish it now," she told him. "Think about what we can do. We, the living, are the ones who are traveling to a new life. If Time, Memory and Forgiveness are with Alderaan, who do you think should accompany us?"
Jargist looked intrigued. "Come up with our own way?"
Leia smiled, and her stomach twisted in a knot. "Yes."
Han stood, and his knee cracked. He gave Jargist some final instructions about departure time, and the boy wandered off with a wave. Han seemed to be waiting for Leia to speak. When she didn't, he muttered, "Figured it might be an issue."
"It was thoughtful of you not to hit him with it upon boarding," Leia said. "Your method was a bit blunt, perhaps, but just the fact that you acknowledged it meant something."
"I didn't go to princess school," Han said.
She smiled up at him, found the lashes and the laugh lines. "I'm rather glad you didn't."
"I hope you appreciate how differently I've undertaken this," Leia said to Dr. Renzatl. "I'm not disappearing on my own volition this time. I am going through the proper channels."
"Oh, yes, I do appreciate it," Dr. Renzatl was not smiling.
"I've surprised you," Leia said.
"Yes." Dr. Renzatl blinked, her brows up. "Yes, you have. Which surprises me again. It makes me feel like getting up and pacing the room."
Leia couldn't help a slight laugh. "Go ahead, then."
"The thing is, I am hit with so many thoughts, ones that don't belong here. My first instinct is to feel it's not a good idea."
Leia frowned. "Why?"
"Your safety, primarily. That was my initial reaction. Imperial City! The heart of the Empire."
"You lived there," Leia pointed out. "It's not all stormtroopers and the Imperial Palace."
"No, it isn't."
"I lived there, too. During the season, when the Senate was in session."
"Of course you did. I am remembering, Your Highness, the day you came in and wanted to demand that the Alliance plot the Emperor's assassination."
"I am not irrational," Leia said.
Dr. Renzatl nodded. "I see you are not. But you are no longer just a Senator. You're a known agent of civil war."
"The Emperor hasn't named me."
"Surely he knows." Dr. Renzatl kept a steady eye on Leia. "I don't know what his strategy is. Darth Vader survived the Death Star, and he is second in command. He has without question briefed the Emperor."
"Darth Vader is focused on Luke right now."
"Is he?"
Leia nodded. "That's what Luke tells me. He's not sure why. He thinks because he- of General Kenobi. A Jedi who should have died twenty years ago, by Palpatine's order. So maybe Palpatine wants to clean that mess up before he does anything else."
Dr. Renzatl sighed heavily. "There's a war going on! Surely there are other pots to boil."
"I'll be safe," Leia said with self-assurance. "Right now I'm a participant in the Empire. I'm navigating through the lower levels of civil service: the court and financial institutions."
Dr. Renzatl did not look convinced. "General Rieekan is the one to give you permission, not I. He is the one to argue for your physical safety. I am concerned with your emotional safety." The doctor pressed the air downward with her palms, like shutting a drawer on clutter, and she heaved a great sigh. "Alright. Let's talk."
Leia wasn't ready to just yet. "General Rieekan will ask for your input."
"He will," Dr. Renzatl agreed. "And I won't have much to contribute. I can't forbid it. In some ways it's even a natural progression. You were here to greet the first arrivals and it's fitting you want to send off the first departures. I see you as the goddess-Princess, marking everyone so you can find them again. You won't be able to do it for every single person," the doctor warned.
"I know that," Leia said. "I've greeted the most recent arrivals, but we no longer hold the pomp."
"I hope you accomplish what you aim to." The doctor smiled sadly. "Even if you had a plan for you and Captain Solo to infiltrate the palace as secret martial artists and kill the Emperor, you wouldn't tell me."
Leia smiled that the doctor had included Han in the imaginary scenario. She relaxed a little that Dr. Renzatl just wanted to hear her train of thought. "It's innocent, I assure you."
"I was completely taken aback," General Rieekan admitted, pacing from the window to the desk. As Albrina had expected, he summoned her not long after Princess Leia left her office. "I had no idea the Princess was so... restless."
"She has been," Dr. Renzatl affirmed. "She hasn't walked the shoal in a while. Perhaps that helped her not internalize it. And Captain Solo manages to spark her somehow, with motion or activity. Or envy," she added as an afterthought. "He makes her realize that not only does she need a more attainable goal, but how personal this is."
"Should I reassign her then? Or get another pilot for the CTC trip?" General Rieekan asked.
"No. We need to trust her. And trust in him that he can help her."
The general paced a few steps. "I don't really know him. By his dossier, he's a bit alarming to put in the company of a princess."
Dr. Renzatl smiled. "That's Alderaan talking," she reminded him gently.
"Perhaps."
"I haven't seen his file, but she has described him some to me. When Alderaan talks to her she is just as surprised to find him in her life." Dr. Renzatl turned thoughtful. "I know this is a professional visit, General, but you see how intricate this is, your lives on Alderaan and your lives now without."
General Rieekan nodded. "Even now that some time has passed and I should be getting used to it, but I often have the same feeling I first did. One of total shock and surprise, like the ground opened up and I find myself in new territory and I don't know how to live in it."
Dr. Renzatl nodded understandingly. "Well, she has found someone to help her, and it happens to be a Corellian smuggler."
General Rieekan smiled. "Good for her, then."
Dr. Renzatl smiled back. "Yes. Commander Skywalker too is another. He is going through something very similar."
Rieekan sat back down at his desk and rubbed a thumb thoughtfully.
"She has your permission?" Dr. Renzatl asked.
"I don't like it," General Rieekan said. "But she had a noble speech prepared." Dr. Renzatl smiled. "About the boy meeting family." He looked up at the doctor and gave her a hapless grin. "She has assured me she will keep a low profile. The Princess of Alderaan in Imperial City!" He put a hand to his hair. "The galaxy's gone mad, do you know that?"