Chapter Sixteen
Han was actually being civil.
Leia helped him clean the nooks and crannies of the Falcon's hull and outer components and put protective sheets of metal and plastisteal over them. He usually worked in silence, and Leia wondered if he was thinking or just didn't have anything to say. It was not an uncomfortable silence-in fact, it was the most comfortable silence Leia could remember. Perhaps this was how it was meant to be all along, she found herself thinking. Perhaps we were never meant to be lovers. Just friends.
But still, he was the most handsome man she'd ever known. She tried so hard not to think about last night, but when he looked at her softly with those hazel eyes, the brown on the outside and green towards the center, so beautiful, so strong, so quiet these days...she hurt. He would always attract her, always be charming, handsome, irresistible in part of her mind. But finally she felt as if she could think things over with no pressure, with a clear head, and with heed to the future.
Hanna would want her father around now, Leia knew. And she also knew that Han wasn't about to give up the bond that he was forming with his daughter. She doubted that they would ever accept one another as father and daughter, but their fondness for each other was unmistakable. If Han wanted to be part of their family when they returned to Coruscant, she would not deny him that.
She was a little unsure why she had denied him that in the first place. Over the years, it had seemed more and more apparent to Leia that her decision to refuse Han his impending fatherhood was much more about herself than about the baby. She was afraid of what a life with Han Solo would be like. She was so afraid that he would reject her or their child, or that try as he might he would not be able to settle down and lead the life of a father and husband-if he ever bothered to ask her to marry him, which she doubted he would have. She thought Luke would have ended up raising the baby more than Han anyway, and she didn't want to risk any kind of grief or falling out between any of the three of them-especially in front of Hanna. It would have been to difficult for all of them. It was better this way.
She supposed.
But when he smiled at her now, she wanted to smile back...and did. He was very charming, she gave him that. And she found the change in his character since way back when charming in a different way. The way he used to be when he was actually being sincere, the way he would meet her eyes and make her melt-he was like that all the time now. All last night, as they slowly remembered how to touch each other, how to kiss the way they used to, how to lay so they fit together perfectly, he acted that way. His eyes could be so intense when he was in that mood. They made Leia's heart skip a beat. They worked all day, pausing for food occasionally. Han didn't show any sign of being upset or angry or even longing, the way he had the whole time they'd been alone on the ride over. He was telling funny stories and making promises that he would take Hanna to Kassyyyack for Life Day with him. It was a good sign. Leia was more than satisfied.
That night as Han lay asleep on the bunk opposite her, Leia felt a strange stirring in the Force. She sat up, unable to sleep. She reached out in all directions, unable to find where the feeling was coming from. Finally, she brushed it off as just her imagination and drifted off.
*************
Hanna Organa, would-be heir to the royal house of Alderaan, almost-Jedi Knight, and adorable kid extraordinaire was having the time of her life.
Max opened the little bottle of wine she'd been eyeing an poured them each a glass, talking the whole time about how he couldn't get over how beautiful she'd become, how grown up. She looked like her mother, he said, but had kept Luke's youthful eyes. "They look better on you than him, though," Max said, winking.
Hanna could lay on the charm, too, and she did. There was nothing wrong with flirting, she kept reminding herself. However, the fact that she had to keep on reminding herself made her a little suspicious that somewhere deep down, she thought there was something wrong with it. It was probably Luke's influence. She loved Luke so much, and admired him incredibly, but she thought he was often much too uptight about things that one had no reason to be uptight about.
It was on the tip of Hanna's tongue to ask what she was doing here every time she said something, but it never came out. Max had the darkest eyes. She was lost in them. Before she knew it, she and Max had finished the small bottle and were in each other's arms, kissing passionately. It was against Hanna's better judgement, but it didn't matter. Besides, her Solo side told her she had no better judgement, and to just kiss the boy. She was not naive when it came to love. She'd had boyfriends, and even lovers, but nothing had been serious or lasting. She was not a shy virgin, and she was more than old enough to make her own decisions.
But he was a little old for her. She knew Han was ten years older than Mom, but when you're nineteen, five years makes a huge difference.
She broke away. Max kept holding her. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"We shouldn't do this."
"Why?"
"Because...am I your prisoner, Max?"
Max understood that drawing away would help his case. "No. Just Luke. And only until he calms down."
"Then what am I doing here?"
"It wasn't my idea. And you don't have to stay in your room, Hanna. Force knows you and your uncle are so used to seeing the universe suspiciously that you don't know how to enjoy things. You're our guest. You can do whatever you want. Name it. Anything you want to do, to see, to have. I'll give it to you."
She bit her lip. "Anything?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
"So that you'll see what you'll be missing if you choose to leave."
She thought about it for a moment. She was used to having nearly all of the material possessions she asked for, because of her mother's title and inheritance. But she rarely asked for anything. As long as she had nice clothes, enough food, her X-wing, and a little spending money to go out with friends, she really didn't ask for anything.
"Why don't you show me around?"
Max hesitated. "I don't know if...well, all right."
*************************
After calming himself, Luke stretched out on the bed, thinking. Always prone to long and frequent spells of daydreaming as a boy, he had never been able to stop entirely. As a boy, the daydreams had been about future events and adventure, fantastic and improbable more often than not. Now that he'd had his fantastic and improbable adventures, his daydreams consisted of nice, quiet things. He daydreamed about the past mostly. About his life as a boy, about the fun he and Leia'd had when they'd first known each other, and mostly about Laureth.
He closed his eyes and let his thoughts run by themselves.
It was spring on Courscant. It was unusually sunny, which was always good for the mood of a desert boy. It was late morning, probably getting on to noon, and he and Laureth were still in bed. Leia and Hanna were off planet, so they could really stay in bed all they wanted.
She was still asleep, her red-sand colored hair loose and spread out across the pillow. Luke kissed her cheek but didn't move-this was too perfect. He didn't want to move. She was too soft and he was too warm and comfortable. He didn't want to move.
Luke winced as his wake-up alarm went off. Laureth was up like a shot to turn it off, then sat up in bed and brushed her hair away from her face, smiling sleepily at Luke. "Why did you setthe alarm?" he groaned.
"I have to work at noon."
"You thought we wouldn't be up in time?"
"We weren't."
Luke laughed tiredly and pulled her back into the bed, kissing her. "I'm going to be late," she protested.
"You think I care?" he asked, determined to make her call in sick or something. It wasn't like him to act this way, but Laureth brought out something in him that he'd never noticed before and he loved-indifference, selfishness. When he was with Laureth the whole universe could implode and he wouldn't care in the slightest. He supposed it wasn't healthy, and even if it was, it wasn't good for his reputation. But he'd spent his entire life making others safe and cared for and free-shouldn't he get just a little of that for himself?
And shouldn't he get a family of his own?
"Laureth?"
She nuzzled her head into his chest. "Hmm?"
"Do you want kids?"
She smiled suspiciously. "With you? Or at all?"
Luke blushed. "At all."
She nodded.
Luke took a deep breath. "Okay, then...with me?"
She was taken aback, her pale gray eyes surprised-they always gave away what she was feeling, even if nothing else did. "What are you asking me?"
"If this is as serious as I hope it is."
"How serious do you hope it is?"
He tried to keep a ridiculously strait face. "Very serious."
She laughed, making him laugh. He kissed her softly, calming her. "I mean it. I want this to be it. I think it is."
She smiled softly. "So do I."
Luke refused to cry. He hadn't cried over Laureth in seven years. He would not do it now. Most of his daydreams were memory, slightly altered with gaps filled in. A week after he'd proposed to Laureth, she went home to visit her family to tell them that she and Luke were getting married soon and trying to have a baby, but she'd never made it. Her ship crashed on the way to Corrillia.
Luke hated himself for not going with her. He could have saved her, or if not, he could have at least done his best. He hadn't even been there when she died. If he hadn't felt her death in the Force, he wouldn't have known until at least a few hours later.
It was because of Laureth that things hadn't worked out with other women. They'd been so close, so ready to begin their lives together, that Luke couldn't go into other relationships without bringing a ton of emotional baggage.
He hit a pillow in frustration, but then pushed the anger completely away. He didn't need to be angry with himself. None of it was his fault.
He was just about to get up and inspect the door again when it opened.
A very pale pink Twi'lek entered, almost wearing an indigo silk skirt and top, head-tails crowned in silver set with blue stones, bare feet, carrying a silver tray with spice jars and little bottles of massage oil. She smiled politely and bowed, much more like a slave than a prostitute. Luke eyed her with suspicion. "General," she greeted him. "I am Tirha. At your service...completely."
Luke swallowed a lump in his throat that he pretended was not there. He rose, regarded her coldly. "Your services are not required. Thank you."
He turned away from her, towards the great fire that had begun to die down. He took the poker from the hearth and shifted the logs, partly because he didn't want to be cold without a fire and but mostly to distract himself. The woman was small-of a height perfect for Luke. Her skin was a tone he'd never seen before, and he was intrigued. Most of all, despite the dancer- like, longed limbed bodies of most Twi'leks, Tirha was round in all of the right places, her curves full and supple. Luke was good at controlling his urges, and always had been. But he couldn't pretend they weren't there.
But she was so young. She couldn't be any older than...by human standards...twenty-five.
Luke saw her step towards him out of the corner of his eye. She walked like a slave, as if on eggshells. He shuddered inwardly.
"If you please, General-"
"It's just Luke," he informed her, an edge to his voice.
"Forgive me," she did a little bow. "Luke. If you please, if you do not require my services of one kind, I am well versed in many arts. I can dance for you, or massage you, or just give you company if you prefer. Anything at all. I am here to please."
Luke wondered for a fleeting second if she was a droid, the kind designed to seem human and used for pleasure practices of all kinds. She did sound a little like Threepio with her list of functions. But her Force-sense was distinctly alive and actually quite intelligent. Her basic was perfect, another surprise. Luke tried not to subscribe to stereotypes, but it was his misconception that all Twi'leks spoke either Huttese or their own language, and not more than a few words of Basic. He was glad she had spoken first, otherwise he might have spoken to her in Huttese and perhaps offended her.
Frankly, he thought to himself, I could use some company. And maybe she can help me out. He turned to face her again, but only looked at her black eyes. "Tirha, right?"
She nodded once.
Luke smiled warmly. The cold, detached Jedi Master bit was just a defense mechanism, something he used when he was not completely at ease with himself and his surroundings. He could probably let his guard down with her, and perhaps get her to drop the slave-girl defense mechanism. "Come sit by the fire. You can't possibly be warm in..." Don't offend her, Luke. "It's cold in here."
Tirha smiled uncertainly, unused to hospitality form her masters. She looked for somewhere to set the tray down, and Luke took it from her hands to save her the trouble. He set in on the hearth, glancing quickly across the assortment of illegal substances it held. Han would have fun here, that was for sure.
The girl sat beside Luke on the hearth, and he could sense her relief at not having to put on any fronts.
He asked her a lot of questions about herself and how she lived. For the past five years, she said, she'd traveled with LUX across the galaxy, going on cruses and living ion the different palaces. Luke asked her if she was a slave, and she wouldn't answer. Luke decided she was. She was from Coruscant and was raised by a mostly-human society, which explained her speech and mannerisms. "Why did you grow up among humans?" he asked.
"Because my father's human. He was married to a human before my mother, and he had three children with her, so most of my family's human."
"You're only half Twi'lek? I didn't know that was possible." But it explained the shortness of her head-tails, the strange color of her skin, and her almost-human shaped body. Luke liked that. It made her unique. And besides being a Twi'lek color, her eyes seemed very human as well.
"It is, and it isn't as rare as you'd think. Many human men find Twi'lek women attractive."
You can say that again, Luke thought.
"It couldn't have been easy for you, growing up."
She shook her head. "No. Especially with the Emperor's segregation policies. I couldn't go to school with my brother and sisters anymore, because they went to a human school, and I had to go to a school for 'aliens'." She spoke the word distastefully. "I hate that word. It doesn't mean anything. Humans don't even have a home world anymore-they don't even know where it was. So isn't it humans who are the aliens?"
Luke shrugged. "Like you said, it doesn't mean anything. There aren't any aliens, as far as I'm concerned. Only people."
She smiled.
Wait a minute...
Luke did the math in his head, subtracted twenty-five years from his own years to discover that if his estimation of her age was correct, that she would have been born around when he left Tatooine, therefore making her only three at the fall of the Empire. But she'd used to go to school with her brother and sisters before the Empire enforced the segregation policies on Coruscant, the first world they did it to. That would mean she was at least...
"How old are you, if you don't mind my asking?"
She obviously didn't. "Forty-one."
Luke blinked. One, two years younger than he? She couldn't be serious. "What?"
"I'm half Twi'lek. I'll look young until I'm sixty or so, then suddenly age. I'm not looking forward to it." She smiled.
Luke smiled back. She wasn't too young for him...
Find out what you need to know and get out of there, he reminded himself. Focus.
"How do the doors work?"
"I have a microchip in my skin. We all do. They open automatically for us."
Ah. So if he could convince the computer that he had one too.
"Tirha...I need your help."
She nodded.
"I have to get out of here. Is there anyway you could bring me a floor plan-"
She shook her head furiously and stood up. "Luke, don't ask me to do this, after you've been so nice. They'll kill both of us-"
"No they won't."
"Yes, they will. They have no tolerance for opposition. They'll keep you here as long as they can to try to convince you to help them but they won't hurt you unless you start fighting them. If you do, it's the end. Now, if you require my services no longer, I'll be going."
She took the tray and left.
Luke grabbed her arm gently before she stepped out the door. "Come back tomorrow," he asked softly, unsure of whether he wanted her to come again so he could convince her to help him, or just to be with her.
Han was actually being civil.
Leia helped him clean the nooks and crannies of the Falcon's hull and outer components and put protective sheets of metal and plastisteal over them. He usually worked in silence, and Leia wondered if he was thinking or just didn't have anything to say. It was not an uncomfortable silence-in fact, it was the most comfortable silence Leia could remember. Perhaps this was how it was meant to be all along, she found herself thinking. Perhaps we were never meant to be lovers. Just friends.
But still, he was the most handsome man she'd ever known. She tried so hard not to think about last night, but when he looked at her softly with those hazel eyes, the brown on the outside and green towards the center, so beautiful, so strong, so quiet these days...she hurt. He would always attract her, always be charming, handsome, irresistible in part of her mind. But finally she felt as if she could think things over with no pressure, with a clear head, and with heed to the future.
Hanna would want her father around now, Leia knew. And she also knew that Han wasn't about to give up the bond that he was forming with his daughter. She doubted that they would ever accept one another as father and daughter, but their fondness for each other was unmistakable. If Han wanted to be part of their family when they returned to Coruscant, she would not deny him that.
She was a little unsure why she had denied him that in the first place. Over the years, it had seemed more and more apparent to Leia that her decision to refuse Han his impending fatherhood was much more about herself than about the baby. She was afraid of what a life with Han Solo would be like. She was so afraid that he would reject her or their child, or that try as he might he would not be able to settle down and lead the life of a father and husband-if he ever bothered to ask her to marry him, which she doubted he would have. She thought Luke would have ended up raising the baby more than Han anyway, and she didn't want to risk any kind of grief or falling out between any of the three of them-especially in front of Hanna. It would have been to difficult for all of them. It was better this way.
She supposed.
But when he smiled at her now, she wanted to smile back...and did. He was very charming, she gave him that. And she found the change in his character since way back when charming in a different way. The way he used to be when he was actually being sincere, the way he would meet her eyes and make her melt-he was like that all the time now. All last night, as they slowly remembered how to touch each other, how to kiss the way they used to, how to lay so they fit together perfectly, he acted that way. His eyes could be so intense when he was in that mood. They made Leia's heart skip a beat. They worked all day, pausing for food occasionally. Han didn't show any sign of being upset or angry or even longing, the way he had the whole time they'd been alone on the ride over. He was telling funny stories and making promises that he would take Hanna to Kassyyyack for Life Day with him. It was a good sign. Leia was more than satisfied.
That night as Han lay asleep on the bunk opposite her, Leia felt a strange stirring in the Force. She sat up, unable to sleep. She reached out in all directions, unable to find where the feeling was coming from. Finally, she brushed it off as just her imagination and drifted off.
*************
Hanna Organa, would-be heir to the royal house of Alderaan, almost-Jedi Knight, and adorable kid extraordinaire was having the time of her life.
Max opened the little bottle of wine she'd been eyeing an poured them each a glass, talking the whole time about how he couldn't get over how beautiful she'd become, how grown up. She looked like her mother, he said, but had kept Luke's youthful eyes. "They look better on you than him, though," Max said, winking.
Hanna could lay on the charm, too, and she did. There was nothing wrong with flirting, she kept reminding herself. However, the fact that she had to keep on reminding herself made her a little suspicious that somewhere deep down, she thought there was something wrong with it. It was probably Luke's influence. She loved Luke so much, and admired him incredibly, but she thought he was often much too uptight about things that one had no reason to be uptight about.
It was on the tip of Hanna's tongue to ask what she was doing here every time she said something, but it never came out. Max had the darkest eyes. She was lost in them. Before she knew it, she and Max had finished the small bottle and were in each other's arms, kissing passionately. It was against Hanna's better judgement, but it didn't matter. Besides, her Solo side told her she had no better judgement, and to just kiss the boy. She was not naive when it came to love. She'd had boyfriends, and even lovers, but nothing had been serious or lasting. She was not a shy virgin, and she was more than old enough to make her own decisions.
But he was a little old for her. She knew Han was ten years older than Mom, but when you're nineteen, five years makes a huge difference.
She broke away. Max kept holding her. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"We shouldn't do this."
"Why?"
"Because...am I your prisoner, Max?"
Max understood that drawing away would help his case. "No. Just Luke. And only until he calms down."
"Then what am I doing here?"
"It wasn't my idea. And you don't have to stay in your room, Hanna. Force knows you and your uncle are so used to seeing the universe suspiciously that you don't know how to enjoy things. You're our guest. You can do whatever you want. Name it. Anything you want to do, to see, to have. I'll give it to you."
She bit her lip. "Anything?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
"So that you'll see what you'll be missing if you choose to leave."
She thought about it for a moment. She was used to having nearly all of the material possessions she asked for, because of her mother's title and inheritance. But she rarely asked for anything. As long as she had nice clothes, enough food, her X-wing, and a little spending money to go out with friends, she really didn't ask for anything.
"Why don't you show me around?"
Max hesitated. "I don't know if...well, all right."
*************************
After calming himself, Luke stretched out on the bed, thinking. Always prone to long and frequent spells of daydreaming as a boy, he had never been able to stop entirely. As a boy, the daydreams had been about future events and adventure, fantastic and improbable more often than not. Now that he'd had his fantastic and improbable adventures, his daydreams consisted of nice, quiet things. He daydreamed about the past mostly. About his life as a boy, about the fun he and Leia'd had when they'd first known each other, and mostly about Laureth.
He closed his eyes and let his thoughts run by themselves.
It was spring on Courscant. It was unusually sunny, which was always good for the mood of a desert boy. It was late morning, probably getting on to noon, and he and Laureth were still in bed. Leia and Hanna were off planet, so they could really stay in bed all they wanted.
She was still asleep, her red-sand colored hair loose and spread out across the pillow. Luke kissed her cheek but didn't move-this was too perfect. He didn't want to move. She was too soft and he was too warm and comfortable. He didn't want to move.
Luke winced as his wake-up alarm went off. Laureth was up like a shot to turn it off, then sat up in bed and brushed her hair away from her face, smiling sleepily at Luke. "Why did you setthe alarm?" he groaned.
"I have to work at noon."
"You thought we wouldn't be up in time?"
"We weren't."
Luke laughed tiredly and pulled her back into the bed, kissing her. "I'm going to be late," she protested.
"You think I care?" he asked, determined to make her call in sick or something. It wasn't like him to act this way, but Laureth brought out something in him that he'd never noticed before and he loved-indifference, selfishness. When he was with Laureth the whole universe could implode and he wouldn't care in the slightest. He supposed it wasn't healthy, and even if it was, it wasn't good for his reputation. But he'd spent his entire life making others safe and cared for and free-shouldn't he get just a little of that for himself?
And shouldn't he get a family of his own?
"Laureth?"
She nuzzled her head into his chest. "Hmm?"
"Do you want kids?"
She smiled suspiciously. "With you? Or at all?"
Luke blushed. "At all."
She nodded.
Luke took a deep breath. "Okay, then...with me?"
She was taken aback, her pale gray eyes surprised-they always gave away what she was feeling, even if nothing else did. "What are you asking me?"
"If this is as serious as I hope it is."
"How serious do you hope it is?"
He tried to keep a ridiculously strait face. "Very serious."
She laughed, making him laugh. He kissed her softly, calming her. "I mean it. I want this to be it. I think it is."
She smiled softly. "So do I."
Luke refused to cry. He hadn't cried over Laureth in seven years. He would not do it now. Most of his daydreams were memory, slightly altered with gaps filled in. A week after he'd proposed to Laureth, she went home to visit her family to tell them that she and Luke were getting married soon and trying to have a baby, but she'd never made it. Her ship crashed on the way to Corrillia.
Luke hated himself for not going with her. He could have saved her, or if not, he could have at least done his best. He hadn't even been there when she died. If he hadn't felt her death in the Force, he wouldn't have known until at least a few hours later.
It was because of Laureth that things hadn't worked out with other women. They'd been so close, so ready to begin their lives together, that Luke couldn't go into other relationships without bringing a ton of emotional baggage.
He hit a pillow in frustration, but then pushed the anger completely away. He didn't need to be angry with himself. None of it was his fault.
He was just about to get up and inspect the door again when it opened.
A very pale pink Twi'lek entered, almost wearing an indigo silk skirt and top, head-tails crowned in silver set with blue stones, bare feet, carrying a silver tray with spice jars and little bottles of massage oil. She smiled politely and bowed, much more like a slave than a prostitute. Luke eyed her with suspicion. "General," she greeted him. "I am Tirha. At your service...completely."
Luke swallowed a lump in his throat that he pretended was not there. He rose, regarded her coldly. "Your services are not required. Thank you."
He turned away from her, towards the great fire that had begun to die down. He took the poker from the hearth and shifted the logs, partly because he didn't want to be cold without a fire and but mostly to distract himself. The woman was small-of a height perfect for Luke. Her skin was a tone he'd never seen before, and he was intrigued. Most of all, despite the dancer- like, longed limbed bodies of most Twi'leks, Tirha was round in all of the right places, her curves full and supple. Luke was good at controlling his urges, and always had been. But he couldn't pretend they weren't there.
But she was so young. She couldn't be any older than...by human standards...twenty-five.
Luke saw her step towards him out of the corner of his eye. She walked like a slave, as if on eggshells. He shuddered inwardly.
"If you please, General-"
"It's just Luke," he informed her, an edge to his voice.
"Forgive me," she did a little bow. "Luke. If you please, if you do not require my services of one kind, I am well versed in many arts. I can dance for you, or massage you, or just give you company if you prefer. Anything at all. I am here to please."
Luke wondered for a fleeting second if she was a droid, the kind designed to seem human and used for pleasure practices of all kinds. She did sound a little like Threepio with her list of functions. But her Force-sense was distinctly alive and actually quite intelligent. Her basic was perfect, another surprise. Luke tried not to subscribe to stereotypes, but it was his misconception that all Twi'leks spoke either Huttese or their own language, and not more than a few words of Basic. He was glad she had spoken first, otherwise he might have spoken to her in Huttese and perhaps offended her.
Frankly, he thought to himself, I could use some company. And maybe she can help me out. He turned to face her again, but only looked at her black eyes. "Tirha, right?"
She nodded once.
Luke smiled warmly. The cold, detached Jedi Master bit was just a defense mechanism, something he used when he was not completely at ease with himself and his surroundings. He could probably let his guard down with her, and perhaps get her to drop the slave-girl defense mechanism. "Come sit by the fire. You can't possibly be warm in..." Don't offend her, Luke. "It's cold in here."
Tirha smiled uncertainly, unused to hospitality form her masters. She looked for somewhere to set the tray down, and Luke took it from her hands to save her the trouble. He set in on the hearth, glancing quickly across the assortment of illegal substances it held. Han would have fun here, that was for sure.
The girl sat beside Luke on the hearth, and he could sense her relief at not having to put on any fronts.
He asked her a lot of questions about herself and how she lived. For the past five years, she said, she'd traveled with LUX across the galaxy, going on cruses and living ion the different palaces. Luke asked her if she was a slave, and she wouldn't answer. Luke decided she was. She was from Coruscant and was raised by a mostly-human society, which explained her speech and mannerisms. "Why did you grow up among humans?" he asked.
"Because my father's human. He was married to a human before my mother, and he had three children with her, so most of my family's human."
"You're only half Twi'lek? I didn't know that was possible." But it explained the shortness of her head-tails, the strange color of her skin, and her almost-human shaped body. Luke liked that. It made her unique. And besides being a Twi'lek color, her eyes seemed very human as well.
"It is, and it isn't as rare as you'd think. Many human men find Twi'lek women attractive."
You can say that again, Luke thought.
"It couldn't have been easy for you, growing up."
She shook her head. "No. Especially with the Emperor's segregation policies. I couldn't go to school with my brother and sisters anymore, because they went to a human school, and I had to go to a school for 'aliens'." She spoke the word distastefully. "I hate that word. It doesn't mean anything. Humans don't even have a home world anymore-they don't even know where it was. So isn't it humans who are the aliens?"
Luke shrugged. "Like you said, it doesn't mean anything. There aren't any aliens, as far as I'm concerned. Only people."
She smiled.
Wait a minute...
Luke did the math in his head, subtracted twenty-five years from his own years to discover that if his estimation of her age was correct, that she would have been born around when he left Tatooine, therefore making her only three at the fall of the Empire. But she'd used to go to school with her brother and sisters before the Empire enforced the segregation policies on Coruscant, the first world they did it to. That would mean she was at least...
"How old are you, if you don't mind my asking?"
She obviously didn't. "Forty-one."
Luke blinked. One, two years younger than he? She couldn't be serious. "What?"
"I'm half Twi'lek. I'll look young until I'm sixty or so, then suddenly age. I'm not looking forward to it." She smiled.
Luke smiled back. She wasn't too young for him...
Find out what you need to know and get out of there, he reminded himself. Focus.
"How do the doors work?"
"I have a microchip in my skin. We all do. They open automatically for us."
Ah. So if he could convince the computer that he had one too.
"Tirha...I need your help."
She nodded.
"I have to get out of here. Is there anyway you could bring me a floor plan-"
She shook her head furiously and stood up. "Luke, don't ask me to do this, after you've been so nice. They'll kill both of us-"
"No they won't."
"Yes, they will. They have no tolerance for opposition. They'll keep you here as long as they can to try to convince you to help them but they won't hurt you unless you start fighting them. If you do, it's the end. Now, if you require my services no longer, I'll be going."
She took the tray and left.
Luke grabbed her arm gently before she stepped out the door. "Come back tomorrow," he asked softly, unsure of whether he wanted her to come again so he could convince her to help him, or just to be with her.