Chapter 4: Hard Work in Hyperspace

There was a dark, cold feeling all around him…He couldn't move…couldn't see…

"Why…"

He struggled, trying to break free with all his might. But he still felt that creeping cold strangling him even tighter…

"Why did you…"

He clenched his mouth, terrified of that dark, frigid air. He mustn't shout…mustn't…

"…why did you kill me…"

Suddenly, the cold constricted powerfully, and he gave a cry of pain and anguish. But now the cold was stealing his breath…stealing his strength…stealing his life. Just like…

No…No!...NOOO!

Harry jolted suddenly, his eyes flying open as he gasped for breath. The air felt like it drove away the cold he had felt, even if it was a little musty. He reached for his glasses, pushing them onto his face and grasping for the lamp on the table next to his four-poster. It took several seconds to notice there wasn't a lamp. Nor was there a table, or a four-poster. After realizing this, he racked his brain in a sudden panic, trying to figure out where he was.

…and then it clicked into place. Stateroom. On a spaceship.

He took a deep breath, trying hard to bring his breathing back to normal. As he did, he noticed that he seemed to be the last one to wake; all of the other beds were empty. With a sigh, he washed up before heading out to the living area in the main hold. He raised a hand, but stopped his greeting when he saw the scene before him.

Han was sitting on a shipping crate dragged up to the table. Opposite him were with Ron, Luna, and Neville on the bench seat; they all seemed to be playing some sort of card game, with several ration packs strewn around the table. Meanwhile, Chewbacca was watching Hermione as she was working with what looked like some sort of keyboard. Everybody seemed to be deep in concentration, and nobody was talking; part of him felt almost as if he'd intruded on some sort of exam. Then Han spoke, and the spell was broken.

"Now, remember. These cards can change at a moment's notice, so don't get too comfortable. You gotta have…" He noticed Harry watching their game. "Well good morning, kid. Pull up a seat; we're learning how to play sabacc." He turned back to the others. "Like I was saying, you gotta have the sense to know when to take the risk, and when to take your chips and go."

Harry shrugged, squeezing onto the seat and looking around at the others. Ron was frowning at his hand, Neville looked cautiously hopeful, and Luna was smiling serenely as she studied her cards. Since he was sitting next to Neville, he peered over his shoulder at the cards. They seemed to be an interesting mix between Exploding Snap cards and traditional Muggle playing cards; large pictures dominated the face of all the cards, but there were little symbols on the top centre which looked like numbers, and lettering he couldn't read on the bottom centre. In fact, to his surprise, the numbers looked more or less the same as the ones he was used to seeing. Neville's current hand had a coin with an "8" above it, a cup with a "7", and another cup with an "8".

Ron nudged a fruit ration pack into the center of the table to join a small pile of other rations. "I'll raise another fruit."

Han nodded impassively. "All right. That's the end of betting; now it's time for the shift."

Harry watched Neville's cards as the cup with an "8" swirled with color, becoming what looked like a military commander of some kind. He wasn't quite sure whether that was good or bad, and from the looks of it, neither did Neville.

"So, we all gonna call now?" Each of them nodded in turn, pushing another ration pack into the middle. "Okay; let's see 'em." Neville laid his cards down. Han shook his head sympathetically. "Sorry, kid. You went over twenty-three; you bombed out." Neville gave a disappointed sigh, but shrugged it off and looked at Luna expectantly.

She laid down five cards, seemingly quite pleased with herself. Harry saw that one featured a pilot of some kind, another showed an imperious-looking woman, a third displayed an evil face with a ghastly smile, a fourth showed a creature that looked almost comically foolish, and the last held the picture of a flask with a number looking like a "3" above it. "The art is simply delightful, isn't it?" she said to Neville, smiling dreamily. "I almost had another special picture, but it changed on the last round."

Han looked as if he didn't know whether she was serious or not; in that, Harry thought, they had some common ground. "That's, uh…one," the older man said, raising an eyebrow at her. "You got one point."

"Oh, did I? …That's good, yes?"

He stared at her for a moment. "…Sure, I guess. Still, I think I've got you beat." He laid down four cards; there was another pilot one, a coin with a "2", a coin with a "1", and what looked like a staff with another "2". "That's twenty for me." He smirked at Ron. "Well, no more secrets. How'd you do?" Ron began laying his cards down. "I know, you didn't win this round, but it takes a few…to…" He trailed off, his eyebrows suddenly furrowed.

Harry looked over. Ron's four cards were a set of scales, a skull, another imperious-looking lady, and a staff with a "2". "What?" asked Harry. "What is it?"

"Minus twenty-two," Ron said, his voice suddenly becoming very smug. "You did say that twenty-three was the best score, either positive or negative, didn't you?" he asked Han.

Han rolled his eyes, flicking the rest of his ration packs into the middle. "Ah, that's beginner's luck. Enjoy it while it lasts." He stood up from his crate, stretching. "Well, we can play another round later. For now, I want you two…" At this, he pointed to Harry and Neville. "…to help me get the front holds organized. We're going to have a lot of containers from our next stop." He looked over at his copilot. "How's she coming, Chewie?"

Chewbacca rumbled something back in Wookie. Harry caught the words "fix" and "time", but the rest was beyond him. "That's fine. We've got another day before we get to Teth; keep practicing." He looked over at Ron and Luna. "Now that our game's over, you two should get started too. And put those ration packs back."

"But I won!" protested Ron. "Why do I have to clean up?"

"You'll have to clean up if you go to a casino, too; can't cash out if you don't have your credits in order. Consider it good practice," he said with a smirk. "Now let's go, you two. Once we're there I'm not planning on staying planetside for long."

Harry and Neville followed the man out of the living area and towards the front of the ship, where the crates of axes had been just the day before. "I suppose I'll give you the good news first. Most of these containers are empty or light, so we're not doin' a lot of heavy lifting. Plus, we're movin' 'em all away from the doors to fit the stuff we'll be picking up, so it's not gonna be too complicated."

"…Okay…" Harry said, frowning. Then, sighing as he felt the question hanging in the air, he asked "And the bad news?"

"You need to be very careful with them; some of the stuff we're carrying isn't exactly durable, so this is gonna take a while. And before I forget, Teth might not have its fighting on the surface, but it's not a whole lot less dangerous." He looked between them. "…You've got something to protect you, right?" Harry bit his lip, nodding. "Good. Now let's get these moved. And remember: careful."

Harry was no stranger to moving items; he would often have to carry things for Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia, but they were usually heavy or at least cumbersome. Some of these were almost feather-light. It certainly wasn't difficult work, but it was every bit as time-consuming as Han had said. After a few minutes of silence, Han spoke up. "Yeesh, this place got quiet. Let's liven things up a little, huh?"

Harry smirked. "I suppose a conversation might do that."

"There's an idea! So…tell me more about this planet of 'Earth'. Hey, careful!" he snapped, as Harry stumbled slightly.

"S-Sorry," said Harry. He hadn't meant to, but it was one of the topics he was least keen to discuss. "Well…it's got lots of land." He looked away from Han, trying desperately to think of something. "And ocean."

"Hey, not bad. You've managed to narrow it down to a good half of the civilized galaxy."

Harry sighed in frustration. "Well, there're seven continents, and one ocean. Better?"

"A little," Han said, setting down a large barrel. "But if I'm gonna get you back, I'll need more than that. What's the system?"

Harry was beginning to sweat. 'System?' What does that even mean? "Erm…I…" He set his box down, taking care to keep his back turned so Han couldn't see his face. "I'm having trouble remembering."

"Okay, fine. What about you?" he asked, looking to Neville.

"Me?" Neville said. "I-I…why would…what was the question?"

"The system," said Han slowly, enunciating every syllable. "What system is it in?"

"Erm…the…solar system?"

"Yes, the solar system," he repeated, a note of impatience in his voice. "Which one?"

Harry looked over his shoulder at Neville. His fellow Gryffindor looked completely lost, and looked over to him, shrugging his shoulders. "Er…" Harry said, thinking as quickly as he could, "maybe Hermione might know."

Han let out a long sigh. "You cannot be serious…you don't even know your own system?" Harry tensed, wondering just how they'd find a way to explain this. "…Just how sheltered were you kids?"

Harry barely avoided visibly sighing with relief; the opening was so obvious he could have driven a truck through it. "A lot. We only went on the one spaceflight, and…well." He made sure his crate was set in place before turning around.

Their pilot was shaking his head in exasperation. "Well, at least you're learning quickly. Maybe by the time we get you home, you'll have picked up a few things."

The black-haired Gryffindor allowed himself a small smile. "I hope so." He walked over to pick up another crate to move. "So, what about you? Tell us about your home planet."

Han smirked. "You wanna hear about Corellia? Dunno what I can tell you that you wouldn't see on a holovid."

"Well, we've got a while. Humor us," said Harry, making a mental note to find out what on earth a "holovid" was.

"Hmm…I guess it's got about anything you might look for in a Core world. Ships, seas, savannas, handsome spacers-" At this, he mimed tipping an invisible hat, and Neville snorted. "About the only stain on it is all the Star Destroyers in orbit."

"Star Destroyers?" asked Harry, confused.

"Yeah, I'm not partial to 'em either," Han said, apparently mistaking Harry's confusion for disgust. "The Empire's part of the reason I haven't been back in a while…Well, that and trying to pull enough credits together to pay off my debts. Speaking of, let's keep moving these, yeah?"

Harry started. He'd been so wrapped up in the conversation he'd forgotten the purpose of them being there. "Right. Sorry." The rest of their time passed in silence; it seemed the pilot might have been just as reluctant to talk about his home planet as they were about theirs.

After some time (the lack of clocks was really throwing him off), they were finally finished. The three returned to the common area, where Chewie was still overseeing Hermione. "Well?" asked Han.

Chewbacca growled a response. Given that he nodded slightly and that he used the words "than before", his fellow Gryffindor must have made decent progress.

"Hey, I'll take it. We still got that Brosso Mark II somewhere around here?" Chewie responded with a ((yes)). "Good. Once she's finished with the modulator, have her start on that." Chewie asked him something else. "I'm going to look for our transfer cables while we've still got some time. You two," he said, looking between Harry and Neville, "can get lessons from Chewie now that we've got our crates in order."

"What about Ron and Luna?" asked Neville.

"I'll check back in with them once I've finished lookin' at those transfer cables." He smirked at Harry's curious look. "They're busy with their own stuff, but you'll see them by supper. Play nice, Chewie." He gave his first mate a grin, then left down the galley.

Harry wasn't quite sure what their "instructor" gave them to work on, but it sure had a lot of wires. He and Neville tried their best with it, and by the time that supper had come, he felt they'd made some good progress given how they started, and he explained it as such to the group.

Han raised an eyebrow as he toyed with his ration. "…You lit the coolant coil on fire?"

"In the beginning, but we did get better," said Neville, who looked somewhat pleased with himself.

"I think we picked up using the tools rather quickly," added Harry hurriedly at the look of utter disbelief.

"…You lit the coolant coil on fire." Han's eyebrow rose higher still.

"Only twice, and we put them out right away!" Harry insisted.

The man opened his mouth again, but Chewbacca cut him off with a forceful growl. "What?" he said defensively. "It's a legitimate-" Han broke off at a louder, more insistent growl, sighing. "Fine. We'll keep working on it."

"What about you, Ron?" Harry asked, eager to move to a different topic. "What have you and Luna been doing?"

"Han's been teaching us about the engines," said Ron around forkfuls of food. He seemed to be learning to tolerate the bland taste of normal ration packs, if the way he was devouring his current one was any indication. "Nothing hands-on like you, just studying."

"And a good thing, too," Han muttered. "Something goes wrong with a spare part and we're out a spare part. Something goes wrong with the engines while we're in hyperspace, and there'll be pieces of this ship in five different systems. If we're lucky."

"And if we're unlucky?" Ron promptly asked.

He smirked. "Then it's pieces of us in five systems." Ron froze in mid-bite, which Han seemed to find amusing. "Anyway, speaking of stuff you can do, we're picking up our next job when we get to Teth. I'm almost afraid to ask, but…any of you happen to be good with animals?"

Luna's face lit up. Combined with her already protuberant eyes, the effect rather reminded Harry of Hedwig for a split second. "Luna adores animals," Harry informed Han.

"What kind of animals might they be?" asked Luna, staring at Han with her usual intensity.

"Can-cells. You ever heard of 'em?"

"Only just now," she responded brightly. "Tell me all about them."

The man rolled his eyes. "Of course. They're about three meters long, bit thin; the ones we're shipping are tame, so they should be pretty friendly. Uh…four wings, glowing tails…" He thought for a moment. "Anything else…oh, yeah. They're bugs."

"Bugs?" said Hermione in disgust. "We're transporting bugs?" Harry could tell from the look on her face that she was remembering the Blast-Ended Skrewts, even if those had been more like lobsters than anything.

"It pays and we need to resupply, so yes, we are. You don't have to like it, but you'll help if you want to keep eating my food."

She folded her arms, staring at him for several seconds. He stared back, supremely unconcerned. "…And just who are we delivering them to?"

"An Aleena named Tann Duriyan on Sakiya. He used to be a pretty big racer up until a few years ago, but he's retired now. He'll do betting, but he doesn't race anymore. Oh, which reminds me: if we get our business done quick enough, we might even have enough time to put down a few bets of our own."

Neville looked at Han curiously. "Oh. I didn't think you'd be one for horse racing, actually."

"Horse races? Pfft," he said, waving a hand impatiently. "That's for moisture boys and old coots. I'm talking podracing, here."

Harry promptly lost interest in the conversation as he ate his own food. He neither knew nor cared what "podracing" was, but watching it (or indeed, gambling on it) wouldn't bring them any closer to home. As a matter of fact, they would need to get a handle on that soon if they were to have any hope of returning in one piece; he didn't much fancy being chased off another planet by murderous, axe-wielding pig-people.

Then, too, there was the matter of their magic. Thinking back to their experiences so far, none of them had been able to cast more than a handful of spells before being ready to collapse. They'd need a place to experiment, preferably far away from prying eyes. He thought longingly of the Room of Requirement and Dumbledore's Army, and memories of their sessions crept over him. How he'd enjoyed seeing them grow in their skills; Neville especially, but all of them had come so far. Perhaps, if more had come with to help find Sirius…but he couldn't think like that. They'd only have been in more danger; more of Harry's friends for the Death Eaters to threaten.

Harry felt a twinge of worry as he thought about Ginny, lost and alone in the Department of Mysteries. Even knowing that they'd taken the prophecy out of reach of the Death Eaters did little to ease his guilt for leaving her behind. All that danger he'd put them in to save Sirius had been for nothing; Sirius hadn't even been there to begin with. How could he have been so stupid to believe that vision of his? To ignore Hermione when she pointed out how little sense it made? And his prize for risking the lives of his closest friends was a little spun-glass ball that held some kind of prophecy about him; hardly a worthwhile trade.

He sighed. That was another thing to add to the list; what to do with the prophecy. His curiosity called for them to listen to it, even if he had no idea how to do that, exactly. But part of him feared what they would discover if they did. Lucius Malfoy's sneer floated through his mind. "Dumbledore never told you the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" He wanted to know so badly…but would it be better if he did? Or, perhaps, would it be better if he dashed the little orb against the hardest surface he could find? It'd keep it out of the hands of the Death Eaters, certainly; it would be hard to overcome leaving it in a thousand pieces on an alien planet. He should do just that on the next world they landed on; Teth, wasn't it? Good luck to Voldemort on fixing that one. Yes, he should do that.

"Haven't you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?"

…Or should he?

"Harry? You okay?"

Neville's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "Yeah, I'm…I'm fine. Sorry, what were we talking about?"

"Han was telling us about Teth," Luna said. "It's purple."

The pilot eyed her. "Really? Two minutes we've been talking about this and that's what you got out of it?"

She smiled serenely at him. "Oh, not at all. But it being purple is the most important bit. A place that's purple might be home to the Screaming Jumblibinx."

He blinked. "…The what?"

"The Screaming Jumblibinx. It's a creature that collects trophies from those it hunts, but it only shows up in the presence of purple light."

"…Uh-huh. And what does this…Jumbli-whatever look like?"

"Oh, it's incredible," she said, oblivious to Ron's knowing smirk or Neville's forehead coming to rest in an open hand. "It's a giant, two-headed creature that walks on three legs. You can tell it apart from a normal Jumblibinx because they've got these mouths that come apart like spider's legs-"

"Ah, Luna?" Harry cut in, seeing the now nauseous look on Ron's face. "Maybe we'd best wait until another time for that?"

"Why?" she asked, looking confused. "I only said what their mouths looked like, I didn't even talk about how when they eat their prey, they distend their-"

Harry quickly cleared his throat as Ron went slightly green.

Han got up from the table. "As fun as this is, I've got some work to do before we arrive. When you're done, Chewie's got another language lesson for you." He chuckled to himself, grabbing the remains of his meal and leaving the room.

They had a fun time trying to learn more of Chewbacca's language. Harry didn't actually feel that he knew any more than before, but it was enjoyable trying to guess the right phrases all the same. Hermione, perhaps irritated by Luna's earlier talk of strange creatures, seemed to be trying her very hardest to outdo her; Luna herself acted unconcerned, and she was the first one to correctly translate a full sentence among them. The sentence wasn't too complex, truthfully ("Bring me the hydrospanner", whatever a hydrospanner was), but Chewbacca seemed quite pleased, ruffling the blonde girl's hair fondly before motioning for them to call it a night.

As soon as they were all safely in their cabin ("stateroom", Harry reminded himself, "stateroom"), Hermione motioned for them to gather close. "We need to talk," she said quietly.

"Can't this wait until morning?" asked Ron, yawning widely.

"No, I'm afraid it can't."

He sighed. "Oh, all right." He turned to Luna. "Don't worry about dinner. I forgive you."

She smiled. "Thank you, Ron. I accept your forgiveness. Oh, wait, I suppose I should apologize first. …What am I apologizing for, again?"

Ron grinned. "See, Hermione? It's fine. Now I'm going to bed."

"It's about getting home," said Hermione.

He paused on his way to the bed, sighed, and returned to the rest of them. "Okay, let's hear it."

"Chewbacca has had me working on a device for displaying a map of the galaxy," she informed them. "If I can get that working-"

"You could find Earth," said Neville, his eyes wide. "Can you do it?"

She nodded. "I'll need a bit more time; a few days, maybe a week. I might also need Chewbacca's help to make sure it works properly. But this ship has all of the components, and once it's finished I can plug it in and put all of the navigational data on the device."

"…I understood about half of that," admitted Ron, "but this map will have our current location, right? And you can figure out where to go from there?"

"Naturally. I may not know much about distances on a galactic scale, but our pilot and copilot do, and, well…" She turned very slightly pink. "You know how much of a fast learner I am."

Harry grinned, feeling hope blooming within him. Finally, they had some direction. "Sounds like we'll be home in no time. Let's drop off Han's bugs and fly home before he convinces us to…I dunno, steal diamonds or something." He yawned, suddenly feeling very tired; probably from all the excitement. "…But we should get some sleep first. See you in the morning, everyone." They all nodded, making their way to their beds. Harry had barely laid his head down when he felt sleep overtake him, his last thoughts being a sudden vision of having Han land the ship on top of all the Death Eaters…

CHAPTER END

Well, maybe not 10,000 words this time, but it's always tough to determine where a chapter should and shouldn't end for me. Hope it's entertaining, at least! And if not...well, the next chapter should be a little more exciting. It's got a Star Wars staple, after all...;-)