Author's Note: Whee, this chapter is actually quite long(er):D Sorry for the lack of updating, heh. I really like this chappy, too. Spent, like, three hours typing it. I think.

Culf: Haha, no the ship was empty when she stole it. And I'm not tellin' if it's the Falcon or not. ;)
GreatOne: Do you really think that they'll like eachother in the beginning? Come on! Thats the fun part of the HLness!
SkywalkerChild: x.x I think I have a love affair with adverbs. And commas. I tried to cut down in this chapter.
LVB: Thanks:) Glad you're reading!
Dovasary: Chapter Four: Yeah, I think I may have amde the dude a little... too old. Oh, well. It happens. But you're right - not a lotta young-uns hang around Darth Daddy. Chapter Five: - giggles - Okay, okay. I know that Leia's a bit... different. But you're right, I think the fact of whether she grows up as an Imperial or as a Rebel has an... effect. Yeah, and for the second half of Strange Relations I was at my mom's. And she has Microsoft Word with a built-in spell check. I don't. x.x So I'm trying to look more carefully over this or go through a spell check online - but that's not going to well, because when I say 'change errors' it doesn't give the text back to me. x.x So I have to change it word by word.


CHAPTER FIVE: HEART OF THE BRIGHT JEWEL

Exhaustion put her to sleep. Frustration put up the battle to keep her awake and staring at the blue-white swirl of hyperspace; it lost in the end. Exhaustion because she's just gone through the biggest adrenaline rush she hoped she'd never have again, coupled with a long and tiresome week. Frustration because communications were down (she had forgotten to secure them), she was in a ship that was so disorganized that it made her brain go haywire, there was a weird whiny noise emitted when she had set the coordinates to Coruscant and made the jump, and her favorite watch was destroyed so she couldn't check the time.

Leia had wished to curl up in a corner and wallow in her self-pity, but then she realized that that wouldn't help the matter. Wallowing in self-pity made her feel even more out of control, thereby adding to her already overwhelming amount of vexation. So she forced herself to attempt to make little patterns out of the hyperspace whirl until her head slumped sideways onto her shoulder and she began her restless sleep.

Sometime, possibly two hours later, her dream consisting of a woman trying to tell her something while simultaneously spinning in a bubble was interrupted by an incessant, urgent beeping. Her subconscious integrated it into the dream; every time the woman opened her mouth there would be a loud beep, almost like a foghorn. Then her conscious finally pushed her half-awake, and she yawned, stretching her sore shoulders and rubbing her lower back, which ached from sleeping in a sitting position. She shook her head a little bit, blinking blearily, before she finally seemed to remember that she was in an unfamiliar ship and it was beeping at her.

She nearly fell out of her chair as the ship jerked itself out of hyperspace. Leia pushed herself away from the controls, looking at all the lights and frantically trying to figure out what they meant. A few were blinking benevolently; others were very rapid or turning red. This couldn't be good. That was affirmed when she heard the depressing sound of something mechanical dying, along with the astromech twirling his - its 'head' around in alarm.

I'll assume that was the hyperdrive, the woman thought bitterly, still a bit drowsy and clumsy as she swiveled the chair to navicomputer. She pressed a button, hoping that it was the one that displayed current coordinates. To another dose of frustration, she was wrong, and nearly screamed out loud as it blinked once and turned off.

Leia had always prided herself in thriving under stress. She had always (incorrectly) assumed that all stress was the same. Stress was stress. It was concrete. Now, as she was all but beating the navicomputer into submission, she decided that stress was something that no one can know the full meaning of lest they get crushed by the intense theoretical weight of it all.

To her relief, she apparently hit a button that turned it back on, and she inspected the device closely before gently pushing a button. Numbers popped onto the screen, and she was relieved.

She frowned, and inclined her head slightly as she read the coordinates. Bright Jewel Systems Cluster, Ordance/Regional Depots. No where near Coruscant. She could see a planet in the way distance, estimating she could reach it in a few hours at sub-light speed. It stood out; it was a pink-hued dot against a black background, sprinkled with the occasional star.

Ord Mantell, she thought, with a light, contemplative frown. Dotted with casinos; four billion people; weapons business; still relies on fossil fuels. That was, on a broad scale, what she knew about the Heart of the Bright Jewel. The people of Ord Mantell weren't particularly corrupt like they were on shady places like Kessel or Nar Shadaa or Tatooine, nor were they peaceful and sophisticated like those of Alderaan or Naboo. Leia supposed it would be safe enough to land and contact her father and then hopefully abandon the bucket of bolts she was flying and board a ship built within the last millennium. She got a strange, sudden desire to see what it would be like to ride the new Eagle/1138. Smoother than glass, compared to this, she thought disdainfully, noting the oil streaks on the walls.

Pushing the really quite random thoughts aside, she got to her feet, arching her back in a stretch and resolving to never fall asleep in a chair again. She frowned, uncertainly flicking a switch on a data screen, trying to gather through the mess of numbers and letters whether or not she was going to survive the few hours it would take to make its way to Ord Mantell. She had relaxed since she was first jolted out of her sleep; perhaps the sight of civilization lulled her discomfiture or she was simply taken by surprise out of her somewhat restless doze. Either way, she felt better. And hungry, she decided, pushing a strand of brown hair away from her eyes. She hadn't eaten since lunch on Kessel, which seemed thousands of years ago.

Leia swiveled the chair as she pushed past it, having to double back as she hit the open compartments and walk the long way around. She didn't feel like putting them back together at the moment; the spice would have to stay uncovered. Besides, she had no worries about getting caught either; no one would dare accuse Princess Leia Skywalker of smuggling illegal spice. The idea was laughable; indeed, she nearly let out a very un-princess-like snort as she walked into what she took to be the kitchen.

It was equipped with the bare necessities that would make a kitchen a kitchen. Instead of a table, it simply had a bar with two mismatched stools - one stool quite larger than the other. She wrinkled her nose as she brushed a few shaggy hairs off of the counter and placed some used dishes in the sink. Egh. Dirty, dirty, unorganized people. She was beginning to feel frustrated again, missing the shiny cleanliness of her suite and the battle cruisers.

Shrugging, Leia reached into a cabinet as her stomach gave a loud rumble, fingers closing around a bottle of what she hoped was water. Upon pulling it out, she saw it was - Corellian Whiskey. She frowned, putting the half-empty bottle on the counter, resuming her digging.

Corellian Whiskey. Corellian Whiskey. Corellian Whiskey. Three more times. Three more bottles. And a suspicious looking piece of... something.

Frantically, she pulled open the door to the freezer. Ice. Shot glasses. Not bothering to ponder what in the worlds shot glasses were doing in the freezer and not in a cabinet, she flung open the refrigerator.

Mustard.

And yet more whiskey.

She groaned, slamming the door shut and watching it bounce back open before she pushed her foot against it, kicking it to make sure it stayed shut. Great. Just great. Now she broke her foot on top of everything.

She hopped over to one of the stools, sitting down sulkily and glaring at her stomach as it gave another sound like thunder. Stupid kitchen. Stupid ship. Stupid Kessel. Stupid... mustard.

Leia groaned again, burying her head in her arms. This was going to be a long two hours.


Leia felt she was slightly off in her estimates. Of course, the length of the trip could have been her imagination (seeing as her watch had mysteriously broken). But she arrived, nonetheless, at the moment she was about as far from the planet as one of its moons. The atmosphere was beautiful from orbit; she had never been to Ord Mantell before, and it deserved the name Heart of the Bright Jewel. Roughly three quarters of the surface was covered with pink clouds, and the remaining quarter she could see peeks of deep midnight blue ocean and the yellows and greens and browns of the land, occasionally a strong beam of light from the city shining through the atmosphere.

She smoothly guided the ship leftwards, going for the more sparsely populated, forest area of the planet. Rather, she inferred that it was forest: it was a dark, shadowy green. It was a smooth ride, other than the jolt from entering the atmosphere.

She flew through the pink mist, and found herself correct; it was a small forest, with a few tiny towns on the way whose inhabitants looked up at the unfamiliar craft gliding through the air like a benign falcon. She was barely three hundred feet from the ground, flying parallel to it; Leia passed over the grasslands and started studying the horizon intently as she reached the treeline. She needed a small clearing, close enough to the edge but far away enough to not draw too much attention to herself. She was the Emperor's ambassador, after all; she couldn't afford attention without protection.

There! She widened her eyes, cringing lightly as she swooped around, trying not to think of hitting the trees and crashing now that she was so close to going home or completing her mission - the latter most likely. She winced, hearing the ship start to groan as it floated feet away from the ground, and she let out a breathe when it landed with a thud, and at an odd angle. Oh, well. She was alive; she can say that much. She beckoned to the astromech, which had been lulling the past few hours. It obediently started up, and went the short way as Leia walked the long way around the still-opened smuggling compartments filled with sacks of spice. She didn't know why she needed the little red droid. Possibly because she was afraid of going anywhere alone. She waited impatiently for it at the end, watching it start up its rocket launchers and begin floating its way across the spice.

Leia's eyes widened in horror. The... extremely... flammable spice.

Ahhh. Crap.

"NO!" she shouted, but it was too late. The heat from the rocket launchers scorched its way through the thick sacks, hitting the contents which burst into flame within moments. Squealing in surprise, the droid shot its way across, crashing into the wall as Leia dived out of the way.

Oh, this was not good. She cared very little about the ship, but she wasn't about to start a forest fire because of a stupid shipment of spice that caught fire. She was such an idiot.

With speed she didn't know she contained, she tore into the kitchen, looking for the fire hose that all kitchens were supposed to have. The sooner the fire went out, the better. She wasn't about to die of a spice overdose because a few hundred pounds was burning feet away from her. As it was, an acrid, rich smell started settling, and she began to feel light-headed.

She bolted through the cabinet under the sink, pushing aside cleaning supplies that probably have never been used, and she found it. A long, deflated hose that she jerked out, almost tripping over various bottles and plastics. Reaching back down into the cabinet and turning the water in.

Leia was almost thrown backwards from the force of the water as it sprayed the refrigerator, then heaved it around the door frame and pointed it in the general direction of the spice fire, coughing in the heavy fumes, trying to clear her eyes. She was definitely dizzy now.

Steam and hissing sounds filled the area, and that was when Leia knew that she had to get out of the ship. The fire was put out enough by now. She almost blindly hit the pad next to the ramp, and practically fell out, her lungs and head screaming in protest at the fumes. She crawled the rest of the way down the ramp, an annoyed and scorched astromech tailing her. Once she hit grass and hard dirt, she collapsed, gasping. That was heavy spice, and she could smell the fumes still, although they carried no effect. She sincerely hoped that she didn't inhale enough to get an addiction; after all, she didn't experience any sort of high. At least, she thought she didn't. She's never been high before, but she was sure that what she felt wasn't it.

She clearly remembered everything, and sharply - wasn't spice supposed to daze your memory? Very few spices let you keep consciousness, and she prayed for all she was worth that that wasn't one of the very few spices.

She lay on the ground several more moments, letting her headache calm and taking numerous breathes of clean, crisp, dusk air. Minutes passed. Then she picked herself up, looking over her shoulder at the ship. She seemed to have gotten the fire in time, especially since she left the hose running in her haste to get out. Trickles of gritty water fell from the ship and onto the clearing floor.

She looked ahead, the sun's last rays struggling their way over the dark canopy. She stepped forward, heading for the town.


The stroll through the forest was a pleasant one, and the grasslands were flat and airy. From all she's heard of Ord Mantell, the nature aspect was definitely not included. Within half an hour of walking, the droid floating alongside her in silence, she reached a small town.

It was a standard town. There were small restaurants, stores, parks. It wasn't big, and people were walking pleasantly with one another, commenting on trivial things such as the weather or the trees. It dumbfounded Leia for a moment. Her life was full of high-powered, stiff, formal, busy people, and the sheer leisure of this place came as a shock. Not realizing she had stopped, she started walking again, making sure to keep her chin high and her back straight and her eyes set in a sort of glare.

One of the biggest things that hit her was that no one seemed to care. It was backwards. Unlike in the Palace on Coruscant or on the ships, she received no bows or respectful nods of acknowledgment. People subconsciously parted as she walked her way through, looking for a public communications device.

There were some, of course, but it there were only two as far as she could see, and one was occupied by a harassed-looking mother yelling into the receiver and a happily gossiping teenager. She considered ordering them to let her speak after she checked her malfunctioning watch, but decided against it. She wasn't that stuck up. With a sigh, she glanced around, slumping lightly. There was no one around here to impress, she might as well act... normal. Ordinary.

Rubbing her arms, Leia ducked into a corner store. If she was going to wait, she may as well get something to eat. She felt as if she were on the brink of starvation. She went immediatley to the banking device, successfully withdrawing a credit chip. These people weren't too backwards, she supposed.

A few minutes later, clutching a bag of bagels and some kaffe. She was about to loose all of her dignity and just champ her way through the bagels where she was standing, but, fortunately for Leia, she had an extraordinary amount of self-control. She kept her head high and her eyes quiet. The tall, Corellian-looking man in front of her finished purchasing his bottle of alcohol (Drunken Corellian, she thought with spite, accompanied with a glare at his back as he made his way slowly out of the store. She seemed to have placed a special enmity aside for Corellians), she bought her food, practically ran out of the store and grabbed a bite of her first buttery, warm, fluffy bagel.

Oh, bliss.

Much happier now, Leia made her way down the almost barren street and back to the vacated comm devices. She set the bag and kaffe down by her feet, holding the bagel between her teeth as she put a handkerchief in her hand and picked up the comm.

She certainly wasn't expecting to feel the unmistakable sensation of a heavy blaster pressed into her back.


:D