***********************************************************
Wrrrrrr, click, wrrrrr. Indy was lazily spinning the magazine cartridge of his gun. The airship had been traveling all night, and would arrive in Egypt soon. The sun began to rise, and from the control room, Indy could see the landscape beneath them become illuminated in the glowing orange light.
The crew in the control room was keeping up with their duties. Having three people with guns, even without them being constantly trained on you, was enough to keep the Nazis in line. They were not the sort of soldiers who were accustomed to weapons. In fact, some of them were not soldiers at all. So they continued on with their normal duties as their three captors sat on the floor in waiting.
Indy glanced across the room to where Han was seated, with Leia asleep leaning against him. They exchanged a glance. Leia stirred slowly awake, and followed Han's gaze over to Indy. She smiled warmly at him.
"Morning Princess," Indy said with a grin, "feeling nice and rested?"
"Yes. I didn't realize how tired I was," Leia replied. "Did you two get any sleep?" she asked.
Indy shook his head, and Han said, "No, someone had to keep an eye on these guys during the night."
Leia slapped Han lightly. "Han Solo!" she said, "How intimidating do you think you'll be if you are on the brink of falling over?"
"I'll be fine. Besides, I'm sitting down," he said, "at least I don't have to worry about falling over." He shrugged.
Leia sighed. She threw up her hands and looked skyward in a gesture of pleading. "The man is impossible," she decided, and stood to stretch her legs.
Indy couldn't help but laugh at the situation. "What?" Han asked him. "What's so funny?"
Indy shook his head, "Nothing. She just reminds me of someone I know. Or used to know. I'm not really sure anymore." Han gave Indy a suspicious glance at his ambiguous statement. "What?" Indy asked.
"So," Han asked, "you gonna tell me about her or not?"
Indy sighed. "I wouldn't know where to start." He thought about it for a moment. "Her name is Marion. She's a tall, tough girl with dark eyes, dark hair, and a heck of a right hook." Indy rubbed his jaw at the memory of the punch Marion had delivered to him the last time they had been reunited. "Can't say I could have blamed her too much for hating me at the time." Indy didn't even notice when Leia sat down next to Han to listen. "See when we met, Marion was just a kid really. 17 years old, but already the most charming person I'd ever met." Indy shook his head, "I should have known right then that I was doomed."
"What happened?" Leia asked. It was only then that Indy noticed she was listening, but he decided to continue anyway.
"We got involved. And needless to say, when her father found out, he was not to happy." Indy said.
Han winced at thought. Parents could complicate things so much. The only one of his girlfriend's parents he had ever met was Bria's, and needless to say, that hadn't gone well.
Indy continued, "The real kicker was that her dad was my archaeology professor, my mentor. I was 27, and I was training under him. My own father was too entangled in his work to take much notice of me, but Abner, he took me under his wing. I was like a son to him. He cared about me, trusted me." His face turned solemn. "And I betrayed that trust. After he found out about me and Marion, he told me to leave and not to come back. That was the last time I saw him. He died shortly after that in an accident."
Han could really sympathize with Indy. It sounded like something that would happen to him. "So... did you ever see her again?" He asked.
"Yeah," Indy said, "I met up with her again 6 months ago. Needless to say, she was a little more than angry with me for basically screwing up her entire life. But we both got over it I think. But it wasn't exactly the best timing." Inside, Indy laughed. No, timing was never his specialty. "We were being chased by the Nazis, who were after this powerful religious artifact, which we were also after, and we got captured..." he trailed off. "Well, that's another story. We didn't stay together too long. I'm always on the road, and even when I'm back in the states, she lives all the way across the country. I've thought about going to see her. Sometimes you just have to commit to these things." Indy gave Han a pointed glance.
Suddenly uncomfortable with where the conversation was going, Han coughed and stood up. Leia looked up at him, but he looked away out the window. "Well, um," he began, not really knowing what to say. "I think we're almost to the Falcon."
Indy got up and strode over to Han to look out the window with him. "Yeah, I think so. Let's see, it was to the east of Cairo so..." He turned to Captain Pruss, who was overseeing the piloting of the craft. "Captain, we're looking for a large, round aircraft that should be outside the city, to the east. Take us there."
Pruss nodded wearily, then gave the necessary commands to his crewmen to turn the ship towards its destination.
Leia came over and joined Indy and Han in looking out the window, combing the sands with their eyes for the Falcon. Leia thought she saw a reflective gleam, as if off the surface of metal, shining in the distance. "There!" she said, pointing toward the ship.
The Hindenberg slowly approached the Millennium Falcon. When the spacecraft came into full view, gasps could be heard from the German crewmen. Captain Pruss' eyes widened at the site.
"That's good," Indy said. "Park her over the ship."
The Captain gave the orders, and the crewmen obediently followed. They never took their eyes off the site of the mechanical wonder below them, though. Once the Hindenberg was holding steady in place, Indy directed the Captain to drop all the lines down, and prepare a crew to go down to the surface. After making the announcement, Captain Pruss left his station to lead Han, Indy, and Leia to the exit hatch.
Normally, a crew would already be on the ground ready to anchor the blimp. But under the circumstances, men had to be lowered to the ground in order to do the work. Han decided to go down with them. He had some tweaking to do with the repulsorlifts, and someone was needed to supervise the attachment of the ropes to his beloved ship.
Han wound one of the ropes tightly around his wrist, then held on for dear life. When he was ready, Indy started lowering the rope down toward the ground. All around, crew members were being lowered in the same fashion. As soon as Han's feet hit the ground, he untangled himself from the line. Immediately, crew members started carrying out their orders to attach the lines to the strange craft. They crawled under the belly of the Falcon, and began attaching the ropes.
Satisfied, Han lowered the Falcon's ramp and went inside to begin his repairs. He grabbed a box of mismatched tools and set to work on the board that controlled the ship's repulsor lifts. He pulled the diagram he had sketched earlier out of his pocket. He had some trouble reading the plan, grabbing the right tools, and fixing the board at the same time. At the moment, he really regretted not having Chewie along to help. He finally worked out a position lying on his back, with the tools to his side, the plan laid out on his chest, and the board over his head where he could repair it semi-functionally.
Back up in the open hatch on the belly of the Hindenberg, Indy and Leia were watching all the work below. The Germans had effectively attached the strong lines to the Falcon, and now rope ladders were being lowered for the crew to be pulled back up on. Once they were all safely aboard, Leia reached into the cargo pocket of her shorts and pulled out a commlink. "Han, did you get the repulsor's repaired?" she asked. There was a moment of silence, then Han's voice came through.
"Yeah," Han said, "and I just closed the hatch. I'm gonna get into the cockpit, then we'll be ready to go."
Leia and Indy waited anxiously. Finally, the commlink crackled, "Ok, I'm firing up the repulsor lifts.... now!" Han shouted. The Falcon emitted a blue glow as it strained to lift off of the sandy ground.
"Order lift off!" Indy shouted to Captain Pruss, who immediately sent an aide to the control room with the command. In a few minutes, the Hindenberg began to slowly rise into the air. The lines attaching the Millennium Falcon to the blimp became taught. The strain of the huge yet light craft was evident as it began to creek under the stress.
In the Falcon's cockpit, Han was trying to coax every last ounce of power out of his ship. "C'mon old girl, don't give up on me now. C'mon...c'mon..." he pleaded with the freighter.
The groaning of the Hindenberg's metal shell was starting to worry Indy. He was just about to tell the Captain to stop the ship, when the Falcon's supports lifted off of the sand. Once it was clear of the ground, it began to rise swiftly, then stopped, hovering in midair where it's captain had halted it.
"Yes!" Leia yelled with joy, giving Indy a hug.
Indy was grinning from ear to ear with delight. He turned to Captain Pruss. "Now have those lines all cut," He directed. The Captain hesitated. "Now," Indy added tersely. The German commander did as he was ordered, and the lines were soon cut and fell to the dunes below.
Han maneuvered the Falcon so that it was just 50 feet below the Hindenberg's open hatch. Carefully, he set the controls so that the ship would remain stationary. Then he made his way to the top hatch, and climbed the ladder out onto the Falcon's roof. A rope ladder dropped down, and Han could see Leia just starting to climb down it.
Indy was standing at the top of the ladder, waiting to climb down it himself. He wasn't paying attention to the German's around him. He didn't realize the guard next to him had a gun until he heard two gunshots and saw Han drop to the deck of his ship. Indy spun around, aiming his gun at the guard. As he fired though, his gun was knocked out of his hand sending the shot harmlessly out the open hatch. The guard was tall, 6'5" and he was built. He delivered a left hook to Indy's jaw before the professor could act. The impact sent Indy helplessly tumbling out of the open hatch in the floor. He grasped at the rope with his right hand, and somehow managed to pull himself onto the dangling ladder.
Why does this suddenly seem familiar? Indy thought to himself. But instead of a river full of crocodiles below, the hard metal surface of the Falcon loomed below him. And the Nazis at the top were cutting the rope. Why always me? Indy barely had time to finish his thought before he was scrambling helplessly down the ladder, with bullets still whizzing past him. When he was still 15 feet above the ship, the ropes snapped, and he fell the rest of the way.
Indy hit the metal deck with a thud. He wasted no time pulling himself up and sprinting for the open hatch. Leia was waving him forward from inside. She had managed to get Han inside the ship and secured. Indy jumped the last couple of feet, straight down the hatch. He grabbed the open door, and slammed it shut. Just as he did, a bullet zoomed in through the closing hatch, and struck the metal next to Indy's head, creating sparks. "Woah!" Indy exclaimed, jumping back. "That," he muttered to himself, "was way too close."
"Get ready back there!" Leia's voice shouted from the cockpit.
Indy didn't have time to object or even to ask what she was doing. It was all he could do to brace himself as the Falcon's sublight engines kicked in, suddenly rocketing the ship out of Earth's atmosphere and into space.
Captain Max Pruss stood with mouth agape. The entire crew in the control room was just staring out the window. Only a second ago, the strange large metal aircraft containing their high-jackers was right beneath them. Then suddenly, without warning it had accelerated up, into the sky, past the clouds, and apparently through the atmosphere of Earth. In a split second, it was nothing but a trail of sand and a memory.
Captain Pruss managed to wet his dry mouth, and tear his eyes away from the window. All eyes on deck turned toward him. All the faces were wide-eyed and shocked. The Captain put a stern look on his face and said in a deep, serious tone, "Not a word of zis getz out."
***********************************************************
Wrrrrrr, click, wrrrrr. Indy was lazily spinning the magazine cartridge of his gun. The airship had been traveling all night, and would arrive in Egypt soon. The sun began to rise, and from the control room, Indy could see the landscape beneath them become illuminated in the glowing orange light.
The crew in the control room was keeping up with their duties. Having three people with guns, even without them being constantly trained on you, was enough to keep the Nazis in line. They were not the sort of soldiers who were accustomed to weapons. In fact, some of them were not soldiers at all. So they continued on with their normal duties as their three captors sat on the floor in waiting.
Indy glanced across the room to where Han was seated, with Leia asleep leaning against him. They exchanged a glance. Leia stirred slowly awake, and followed Han's gaze over to Indy. She smiled warmly at him.
"Morning Princess," Indy said with a grin, "feeling nice and rested?"
"Yes. I didn't realize how tired I was," Leia replied. "Did you two get any sleep?" she asked.
Indy shook his head, and Han said, "No, someone had to keep an eye on these guys during the night."
Leia slapped Han lightly. "Han Solo!" she said, "How intimidating do you think you'll be if you are on the brink of falling over?"
"I'll be fine. Besides, I'm sitting down," he said, "at least I don't have to worry about falling over." He shrugged.
Leia sighed. She threw up her hands and looked skyward in a gesture of pleading. "The man is impossible," she decided, and stood to stretch her legs.
Indy couldn't help but laugh at the situation. "What?" Han asked him. "What's so funny?"
Indy shook his head, "Nothing. She just reminds me of someone I know. Or used to know. I'm not really sure anymore." Han gave Indy a suspicious glance at his ambiguous statement. "What?" Indy asked.
"So," Han asked, "you gonna tell me about her or not?"
Indy sighed. "I wouldn't know where to start." He thought about it for a moment. "Her name is Marion. She's a tall, tough girl with dark eyes, dark hair, and a heck of a right hook." Indy rubbed his jaw at the memory of the punch Marion had delivered to him the last time they had been reunited. "Can't say I could have blamed her too much for hating me at the time." Indy didn't even notice when Leia sat down next to Han to listen. "See when we met, Marion was just a kid really. 17 years old, but already the most charming person I'd ever met." Indy shook his head, "I should have known right then that I was doomed."
"What happened?" Leia asked. It was only then that Indy noticed she was listening, but he decided to continue anyway.
"We got involved. And needless to say, when her father found out, he was not to happy." Indy said.
Han winced at thought. Parents could complicate things so much. The only one of his girlfriend's parents he had ever met was Bria's, and needless to say, that hadn't gone well.
Indy continued, "The real kicker was that her dad was my archaeology professor, my mentor. I was 27, and I was training under him. My own father was too entangled in his work to take much notice of me, but Abner, he took me under his wing. I was like a son to him. He cared about me, trusted me." His face turned solemn. "And I betrayed that trust. After he found out about me and Marion, he told me to leave and not to come back. That was the last time I saw him. He died shortly after that in an accident."
Han could really sympathize with Indy. It sounded like something that would happen to him. "So... did you ever see her again?" He asked.
"Yeah," Indy said, "I met up with her again 6 months ago. Needless to say, she was a little more than angry with me for basically screwing up her entire life. But we both got over it I think. But it wasn't exactly the best timing." Inside, Indy laughed. No, timing was never his specialty. "We were being chased by the Nazis, who were after this powerful religious artifact, which we were also after, and we got captured..." he trailed off. "Well, that's another story. We didn't stay together too long. I'm always on the road, and even when I'm back in the states, she lives all the way across the country. I've thought about going to see her. Sometimes you just have to commit to these things." Indy gave Han a pointed glance.
Suddenly uncomfortable with where the conversation was going, Han coughed and stood up. Leia looked up at him, but he looked away out the window. "Well, um," he began, not really knowing what to say. "I think we're almost to the Falcon."
Indy got up and strode over to Han to look out the window with him. "Yeah, I think so. Let's see, it was to the east of Cairo so..." He turned to Captain Pruss, who was overseeing the piloting of the craft. "Captain, we're looking for a large, round aircraft that should be outside the city, to the east. Take us there."
Pruss nodded wearily, then gave the necessary commands to his crewmen to turn the ship towards its destination.
Leia came over and joined Indy and Han in looking out the window, combing the sands with their eyes for the Falcon. Leia thought she saw a reflective gleam, as if off the surface of metal, shining in the distance. "There!" she said, pointing toward the ship.
The Hindenberg slowly approached the Millennium Falcon. When the spacecraft came into full view, gasps could be heard from the German crewmen. Captain Pruss' eyes widened at the site.
"That's good," Indy said. "Park her over the ship."
The Captain gave the orders, and the crewmen obediently followed. They never took their eyes off the site of the mechanical wonder below them, though. Once the Hindenberg was holding steady in place, Indy directed the Captain to drop all the lines down, and prepare a crew to go down to the surface. After making the announcement, Captain Pruss left his station to lead Han, Indy, and Leia to the exit hatch.
Normally, a crew would already be on the ground ready to anchor the blimp. But under the circumstances, men had to be lowered to the ground in order to do the work. Han decided to go down with them. He had some tweaking to do with the repulsorlifts, and someone was needed to supervise the attachment of the ropes to his beloved ship.
Han wound one of the ropes tightly around his wrist, then held on for dear life. When he was ready, Indy started lowering the rope down toward the ground. All around, crew members were being lowered in the same fashion. As soon as Han's feet hit the ground, he untangled himself from the line. Immediately, crew members started carrying out their orders to attach the lines to the strange craft. They crawled under the belly of the Falcon, and began attaching the ropes.
Satisfied, Han lowered the Falcon's ramp and went inside to begin his repairs. He grabbed a box of mismatched tools and set to work on the board that controlled the ship's repulsor lifts. He pulled the diagram he had sketched earlier out of his pocket. He had some trouble reading the plan, grabbing the right tools, and fixing the board at the same time. At the moment, he really regretted not having Chewie along to help. He finally worked out a position lying on his back, with the tools to his side, the plan laid out on his chest, and the board over his head where he could repair it semi-functionally.
Back up in the open hatch on the belly of the Hindenberg, Indy and Leia were watching all the work below. The Germans had effectively attached the strong lines to the Falcon, and now rope ladders were being lowered for the crew to be pulled back up on. Once they were all safely aboard, Leia reached into the cargo pocket of her shorts and pulled out a commlink. "Han, did you get the repulsor's repaired?" she asked. There was a moment of silence, then Han's voice came through.
"Yeah," Han said, "and I just closed the hatch. I'm gonna get into the cockpit, then we'll be ready to go."
Leia and Indy waited anxiously. Finally, the commlink crackled, "Ok, I'm firing up the repulsor lifts.... now!" Han shouted. The Falcon emitted a blue glow as it strained to lift off of the sandy ground.
"Order lift off!" Indy shouted to Captain Pruss, who immediately sent an aide to the control room with the command. In a few minutes, the Hindenberg began to slowly rise into the air. The lines attaching the Millennium Falcon to the blimp became taught. The strain of the huge yet light craft was evident as it began to creek under the stress.
In the Falcon's cockpit, Han was trying to coax every last ounce of power out of his ship. "C'mon old girl, don't give up on me now. C'mon...c'mon..." he pleaded with the freighter.
The groaning of the Hindenberg's metal shell was starting to worry Indy. He was just about to tell the Captain to stop the ship, when the Falcon's supports lifted off of the sand. Once it was clear of the ground, it began to rise swiftly, then stopped, hovering in midair where it's captain had halted it.
"Yes!" Leia yelled with joy, giving Indy a hug.
Indy was grinning from ear to ear with delight. He turned to Captain Pruss. "Now have those lines all cut," He directed. The Captain hesitated. "Now," Indy added tersely. The German commander did as he was ordered, and the lines were soon cut and fell to the dunes below.
Han maneuvered the Falcon so that it was just 50 feet below the Hindenberg's open hatch. Carefully, he set the controls so that the ship would remain stationary. Then he made his way to the top hatch, and climbed the ladder out onto the Falcon's roof. A rope ladder dropped down, and Han could see Leia just starting to climb down it.
Indy was standing at the top of the ladder, waiting to climb down it himself. He wasn't paying attention to the German's around him. He didn't realize the guard next to him had a gun until he heard two gunshots and saw Han drop to the deck of his ship. Indy spun around, aiming his gun at the guard. As he fired though, his gun was knocked out of his hand sending the shot harmlessly out the open hatch. The guard was tall, 6'5" and he was built. He delivered a left hook to Indy's jaw before the professor could act. The impact sent Indy helplessly tumbling out of the open hatch in the floor. He grasped at the rope with his right hand, and somehow managed to pull himself onto the dangling ladder.
Why does this suddenly seem familiar? Indy thought to himself. But instead of a river full of crocodiles below, the hard metal surface of the Falcon loomed below him. And the Nazis at the top were cutting the rope. Why always me? Indy barely had time to finish his thought before he was scrambling helplessly down the ladder, with bullets still whizzing past him. When he was still 15 feet above the ship, the ropes snapped, and he fell the rest of the way.
Indy hit the metal deck with a thud. He wasted no time pulling himself up and sprinting for the open hatch. Leia was waving him forward from inside. She had managed to get Han inside the ship and secured. Indy jumped the last couple of feet, straight down the hatch. He grabbed the open door, and slammed it shut. Just as he did, a bullet zoomed in through the closing hatch, and struck the metal next to Indy's head, creating sparks. "Woah!" Indy exclaimed, jumping back. "That," he muttered to himself, "was way too close."
"Get ready back there!" Leia's voice shouted from the cockpit.
Indy didn't have time to object or even to ask what she was doing. It was all he could do to brace himself as the Falcon's sublight engines kicked in, suddenly rocketing the ship out of Earth's atmosphere and into space.
Captain Max Pruss stood with mouth agape. The entire crew in the control room was just staring out the window. Only a second ago, the strange large metal aircraft containing their high-jackers was right beneath them. Then suddenly, without warning it had accelerated up, into the sky, past the clouds, and apparently through the atmosphere of Earth. In a split second, it was nothing but a trail of sand and a memory.
Captain Pruss managed to wet his dry mouth, and tear his eyes away from the window. All eyes on deck turned toward him. All the faces were wide-eyed and shocked. The Captain put a stern look on his face and said in a deep, serious tone, "Not a word of zis getz out."
***********************************************************