Han exited the Falcon in the below-deck storage hold on the ferry, and found he was parked between two other ships around the same size as his own. Charon and Chewbacca stood by the doorway waiting for him. The ferry had already left the ground and they were steadily making their way to the next destination.

"So what've you been up to?" he asked as they headed up to the first level.

"Oh the same old," Charon answered, "Just taking passengers here and there, and you?"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bore you with the details," he replied with a smug grin of his own.

She laughed. "Yeah well just watch your step when we get up here, the place is a bit of a mess right now."

"That's surprising, you always did run a tight ship," Han commented.

"Oh I still do," she told him, "but without the usual passengers I've been picking up some more interesting cases. Right now I'm transporting two dozen geniuses working on a slew of new droids."

"What's so interesting about that?" he asked.

"In itself, nothing, but they're working on the droids now during the trip," Charon answered. "Lots of glitches to work out."

They reached the first level and the door slid open and Han got an eyeful of what she was talking about. In every corner of the room they were in, men were crouched down and on their knees working on droids of all shapes and sizes, some looked like garbage cans, some looked like people, some even had synthetic hair.

"So what's so interesting about this?" Han asked as he stepped over one.

"Nothing at the moment, but just wait until they get up," Charon said. "Right now they're separated into different groups." She pointed from one to the next, "These creep, these hop, and these just lie there."

"Okay, a little interesting, but nothing really mind blowing," Han commented.

"You ain't seen anything yet, you don't know what the last two days have been like," as they walked along, Charon started to laugh as she recalled, "some of them smoke, some of them have been belching fire, some of them have these mini missiles in them that have gone off inside the ship, luckily they were real duds so there was no real damage aside from a few scorch marks on the wall."

Han felt his mouth scrunching up, felt a laugh beginning in him, but he still didn't get it, "Well what's so funny about that?"

The woman laughed so hard she about lost her footing as she explained, "None of them are programmed for that, they're supposed to serve more...academical purposes."

One laugh got loose as he asked her, "What?"

Charon laughed as she tried to explain, "Those are supposed to be interpreter droids, those are supposed to be farming droids, those are supposed to be medic droids, and this is what they're doing instead." She about lost her voice completely but was still laughing as she pointed to the burn marks on the wall.

"Oh damn," Han laughed, "what the hell went wrong?"

"I don't know," she laughed even harder as she shook her head. She cleared her throat and pulled herself together and told him, "These guys have been working on them nonstop since we left port, maybe they'd like a change of pace."

"What do you-hold on," Han wasn't laughing now, "you don't mean-"

She nodded once as she bellowed to get the attention of the men in the room. Everybody looked up from their work and she commanded everyone to follow her down to the storage area, because they needed someone to work on a ship they were transporting. Han especially didn't like this idea and went back down with them, and as much as he didn't like the idea of any of these men working on the Falcon, what he liked even less was what they had to say when they saw it.

One of them told Charon, "You gotta be kidding me, this thing's beyond hope."

"I could say the same thing for those three legged flamethrowers you're tinkering with upstairs," she replied.

"They don't even make ships like this anymore," the man pointed out.

"Then you should love a challenge," she very calmly responded. In a slightly firmer tone she explained, "I can have you suspended from this ship for insubordinate behavior and I won't have to wait until we dock to do it. So I suggest you take a look at it and see what you can find."

Han blinked as he shifted uncomfortably at that little announcement. The silence in the room was thick enough that nobody dared even move. Finally after a tense minute, the man answered, "Yes, captain."

"Captain huh?" Han asked as they headed back to the first level, and added sarcastically, "I'm impressed."

Charon reached over and elbowed him and said, "Most just know me as Ferryman, either works."

"Okay, so maybe this won't be as bad as I thought," Han said, "thanks."

"Don't thank me," she shook her head, "I told you long ago you should've traded that ship in for something logical, like a can opener."

"Oh here we go again," Han said cynically.

"It's an albatross, Han."

"Not an albatross, it's a Falcon," he replied.

"It's more trouble than it's worth," she said.

"Hey, you have any idea how much time I spent modifying it from how Lando originally had it?" he asked her.

"That's my point, why not get a new one that's already modified? You have any idea how much time and money you'd save in the long run?" Charon asked.

"Not interested," he told her.

"We've been over this before-" she started to say.

"And I didn't want to discuss it then either," he replied.

"Why won't you let me help you and get a new ship?" Charon wanted to know.

"I don't need your help," he told her.

"Oh please, you can't even afford to pay Jabba the Hutt back for the load you dropped," she told him.

He stopped in his tracks with a slight squeak of his boot scraping against the floor. He turned around to face her and asked, "How'd you know about that?"

She looked him dead in the eyes and answered, "Oh honey, everybody knows about that, it's currently the worst kept secret in all the galaxy." She reached over and lightly slapped him on the cheek and chin and told him, "If I were a less scrupulous person, I could turn you over to him right now and collect a handsome reward."

"Wait a minute," gears were starting to turn in his head, "Jabba approached you?"

"He put his feelers out," Charon answered, "a couple of his goons came around trying to find out if I'd seen you lately, tried to talk me into turning you over to Jabba."

Morbid curiosity got the better of him, "What'd you tell them?"

"To go to hell," she answered. "I told them you and I had our own unfinished business and if I ever saw you again I'd gut you like an old control panel."

He laughed. "You really don't ever change."

"Neither do you," she replied, "come on, Han."

"No."

"Why not?"

"You don't get it. That is my ship, it's my home." He gestured with his hands and asked Charon, "Would you just replace Hades with something new?"

"The ferry doesn't have a regular habit of breaking down," she calmly pointed out.

"Neither does the Falcon," he replied.

Charon turned and asked, "Chewie, how many times have you guys had to repair-"

"Don't ask him that!" Han told her.

She turned back to him and said, "Well I know he'll give me an honest answer."

Chewbacca found himself being the mediator as the two of them argued, not for the first time, and he knew, not the last either. To break it up he actually got between the two humans and howled.

"Why is it every time we run into each other," Han pointed to Charon, "You always take her side?"

The wookiee's response had the smuggler's eyes bulging to their maximum capacity as he asked in an offended tone, "Now what is that supposed to mean?"

Charon laughed at his outburst.

"Oh shut up," he told her.

The ferry's captain composed herself and still with a mischievous smile on her face she told Han, "The bar's that way if you want to get a drink and cool off. And if you'll excuse me I have some business to tend to in the cockpit...if you want to join me, you know the way." And with that she turned and walked off.

Han didn't take kindly to Chewie's chattering and warned him, "Don't start."

The next sound out of the wookiee, were it coming out of any other animal life form, might sound like a persistent whining, but wookiees didn't whine. Han shook his head and calmly replied, "It's a long story, Chewie, I'm not in the mood to tell it and trust me you really don't want to hear it."

That didn't stop him from getting off a comment of a similar sound.

"There's nothing to tell," Han insisted, "We were together once, a long time ago, and now we're not. That's all there is to it."