"Listen, Han, we got a couple more days before we reach Monolo," Charon told him after dinner, "our choices are either we find some place to dock for the night, which I can't afford, or we keep going all night and just hope we don't hit an asteroid field while we're on auto-pilot. Either way I'd suggest you turn in, we're equipped for it."
"No thanks," he replied.
"Well don't decide just yet, you haven't had the grand tour yet to see the improvements I made to the place," she said. "We got 10 sleeping quarters, mine, the crew's, and eight for the passengers...we got six freshers, and 12 bacta tanks."
"Sounds like business has been very well," Han noted.
"In season yes," Charon answered, "it's getting harder to pick up passengers right now. Only part of it's thanks to the Imperials."
"Have you been having any trouble with them?" he asked.
"Oh we crossed paths once, but you know, we got to talking," Charon said lightly, "and by the time I got finished they couldn't even remember why the hell they boarded me."
Han chuckled and commented, "If the Rebel Alliance could clone you-"
"That'd be a dark day for the whole galaxy," she replied. "There'd be mass suicides on both sides. Now come on, I can put you and Chewie up in the top level quarters."
"No thanks," he repeated firmly. "I'll be sleeping in the Falcon."
"You always were a weird one," Charon told him.
"Thanks for noticing," he remarked. "Where's Chewie?"
"He's staying up here," Charon answered.
"What?" Han looked at her.
The ferryman merely shrugged and responded, "It was his choice."
Han was taken aback for a couple seconds by this announcement, but shook it off and replied dismissively, "Fine."
Traveling in space, night was permanent, until you got within the actual vicinity of a planet with a sun, or two, or three, you had no real concept of when day ended and night began, or vice versa, and it was especially hard to maintain a regular sleep schedule. You went to sleep in the dark, you got up in the dark. Han gave up on trying to sleep, knowing he was only halfway through a 'normal' sleep cycle, and left the Falcon and headed up to the cockpit.
The room was dimly lit in red from the control boards, but he could see only one seat was occupied. It was Charon, and she was talking to someone on a comm unit. He hung back by the doorway and saw Charon was looking at a monitor as she talked, and Han realized it was a two dimensional game board. Then he realized that somebody was talking to Charon through the comm unit, and even though it was low, he recognized that voice.
"Is that Lando?" he asked.
Charon turned in her seat and looked mildly surprised by his presence, "I thought you were sleeping in your ship."
Han tiredly grumbled as he made his way over to the navigator's seat and sat down, "I kept dreaming I left the auto-pilot on. What's going on?"
"Is that Han Solo?" the voice on the other end of the comm unit asked.
Charon pressed a button and the monitor changed from a Dejarik board to the image of Lando Calrissian. Han made a nauseated sound and grunted, "Just what I didn't need to see in the middle of the night."
"Hey Solo, I heard you were dead, you don't look bad considering," Lando commented as he got an eyeful of the smuggler.
"As you can see he's still a little sore about you scamming him out of his tin can you call a Falcon. You want to talk to him?" Charon asked.
"No," Han rubbed his eyes, "Just tell him I said to drop dead."
Charon turned back to the monitor and said, "The thieving bastard sends his love."
"I'll just bet," Lando remarked with an amused smirk on his face. His eyes moved towards the side and addressed the smuggler, "Hey Solo, when am I getting my ship back?"
"How about after I'm dead?" Han responded.
"Alright," Charon reached for the controls and told the man on the screen, "I'm locking my pieces in place, we'll pick this up again another time."
"I look forward to it, Charon," Lando said with a hint of sarcasm, then added, "Exactly when are you going to get over here so I can show you my place?"
"Oh sorry, I'd love to, but I have a previous engagement," Charon said, "I have to stay home and clip my toenails."
"I'm sure," he responded smugly.
"Goodnight, Lando," Charon said as she reached to shut off the monitor.
"Why the hell did you start talking to him?" Han wanted to know.
"Well for one thing," Charon answered, "there aren't a lot of people this side of the galaxy that have a compatible comm unit to maintain visuals in an entirely separate solar system. Hell, the only game that can correspond between the two points is that archaic version of Dejarik. For another," she shrugged, "he's a connection to the old days. I buzz him up when I'm missing you and we start talking about the times the three of us used to go out drinking together."
Han tiredly smirked and said, "They were some good times, weren't they?"
"Some were better than others," Charon said.
Han looked at her and asked, "Don't you have a night crew to help run this thing?"
"Not these days," she answered, "besides, I've been at this so long I could do it blindfolded."
"I've seen you fly, I'll believe it," Han sarcastically remarked.
"You're one to talk," Charon replied.
"Exactly when do you sleep?" he asked.
"Who sleeps?" Charon said in a deadpan tone as she checked the monitors for anything out of the ordinary.
Han thought about it for a minute, and quietly responded, "Right, sure."
A short yelp escaped from Han as he was suddenly thrust from asleep to awake, and rolled over and fell out of the bunk and onto the floor.
A familiar wookiee howl got his attention as he tried to remember where the hell he was.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he insisted as he slowly got to his feet, "what's going on? Where are we?"
Chewie answered, and Han did a double take, "Sleeping quarters? Who...I don't remember..."
Chewbacca had an answer for that too.
"Okay, that makes sense," Han conceded, "how long have I been asleep?"
The wookiee answered, and Han's eyes bulged when he heard.
"What? I never sleep that long." Han groaned as he said, "I gotta get down to the hold and see what those morons are doing to my ship, after what that droid did yesterday, I don't trust them." He left the sleeping quarters with the wookiee following right behind him, and hardly even looked to see where he was going. He came to a door and was having trouble getting it to open, only half paying attention to the fact it was the fresher, and asked, "Who's in here?" The door opened and he was instantly met with a cloud of steam from the shower.
"HEY!"
Han was wide awake now as he turned around and called back as he closed the door, "Sorry, didn't see anything." He turned to Chewbacca and punched the wookiee in the arm and asked him, "Why didn't you warn me she was in there?"
There are few sounds in the galaxy as unsettling as a wookiee laughing, Han felt his eyes widen and his blood chill at the unnerving sound of his friend's amusement at the situation.
"I was trying to get down to the storage hold," Han explained as he followed Charon down to the lower levels. She was still in the process of pulling on her black gloves to complete dressing.
"Well that wasn't it," she said smugly.
"Obviously," he remarked, "After what happened yesterday, I don't trust those people you're transporting to fix the Falcon."
"Neither do I," she told him.
"What?" Han blinked.
"I told them to get back to work on those droids and finish working out the bugs in them before they kill us all," she answered, "I've got my people working on it instead."
"Are you kidding? They don't know anything about-"
"Shut up," Charon said bluntly, and added, "and reserve your judgment until you get there."
It never exactly paid for him to argue with Charon, but most times that never stopped him, but there were some times he knew up front it wouldn't do any good, and he knew this was one of those times, so for the ride down to the bottom level, he just stood there with his arms at his sides and his lips pursed together, and stared at the wall straight ahead of them.
The doors opened and they entered the storage hold. He saw the Falcon right away and saw somebody standing beside it, that kid Kroob. It never dawned on Han to wonder what he was working on the other day when he was hiding down there from Jabba's guys.
"Well?" Charon inquired.
The kid gathered up the tools he was using and said simply, "We won't know for sure until we can dock somewhere, but I had to replace a lot of circuits and I think it should work."
"He'll want to check the whole ship," Charon told Kroob.
"That's right I-" Han stopped and looked at her and remarked, "Smart aleck."
"I know you, Han," she replied, "And I know your feelings for this piece of scrap."
"Yeah well tell him not to go anywhere," Han said as he walked up to his ship, "If I find anything out of place I'm gonna feed him to Chewie."
The ferryman told her young navigator, "This will take a while, we might as well get comfortable."
Han went over every square inch of the inside of the Falcon, and as much as the outside as was possible, and came to the conclusion that it was in the same overall condition as when he flew it in the other day. Relieved that some stupid kid hadn't torn anything vital to bits trying to repair it, he walked back around to the front where Charon and Kroob were leaning against the wall and said, "So far it looks alright. When do you dock?"
"With any luck, tomorrow," Charon said, "I can drop off my passengers and you can see if the Falcon will stay in the air this time." She looked at him and asked bluntly, "Do you have something to say?"
"I'll hold off on that until I know if it's working right," he answered. The look he got from Charon told him otherwise, he sighed and grumbled, "I appreciate you working on it, kid...thanks," he about choked on the last word.
The bright eyed kid merely nodded and said, "You're welcome, sir."
Burning curiosity was eating at Han and he had to ask, "How'd you know how to fix it?"
Kroob smiled and answered, "My grandfather had one, sir."
Han scowled at the kid and Charon doubled over laughing. Han turned to her and told her, "You shut up!" which just made her laugh even harder.