Hey guys, so whoops I accidentally managed to lose my record of all the people who reviewed this chapter back in the day when I first posted it in the process of updating, but please know that I appreciate all your reviews! Hope you enjoy the fresh coat of paint!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, or any of its characters. Only Alice is mine.


Ben led them straight to a spaceship dealer whom he claimed to know from the 'old days', proving that what he didn't know about how Alice got sucked into a fictional parallel universe, he made up for in knowledge of Mos Eisley spaceport. A small fluttery blue buggy thing met them at the entrance of the shop, and spoke to Ben in a raspy and to Alice, incomprehensible language. The old man replied confidently, and gestured to the speeder, which he had parked a few feet away. Then they wandered off, like the bestest of pals.

"Huh." Alice frowned, "Well, now what?"

Luke answered her question by sitting down on the floor with his back up against the sandstone wall of the shop's entrance.

Hmm. Not a bad idea.

Shrugging, Alice mimicked Luke, settling herself on the other side of the doorway. Threepio and Artoo lurked inside the shop, safely out of sight of any passing Imperial patrols.

"So, Luke, what's the deal with this Alderaan place?" Cultural context is important.

"It's a planet in the Inner Core, pretty powerful and important. From what Biggs has told me – that's my friend, the one who just graduated from the Academy – its leaders have supported the Rebellion almost since the beginning, but no one in the Empire can prove it, and they're too important to execute."

"Uh-huh," Alice said, trying not to look completely clueless as she processed this extremely important information, speaking more to herself than to Luke, "got it. Rebel lady and her rebel dad live on a rebel planet. Sensible."

"Luke!" They glanced up to see Ben beckoning him over, "Come over here for a moment, would you?"

Looks like Ben's learned to keep me away from loaded situations important to the continuation of the plot. Smart move.

Alice gave Luke a salute, "See you in a minute."

He nodded, and got to his feet, hurrying over to Ben and his floating friend.

Alice huffed a sigh, "Well, this has been fun so far, eh?" She said to her two metal companions, "Met some boys, been to a bar, chased by soldiers…someone should make a movie of this. Oh, wait…"

"Your language is quite incomprehensible, Miss Alice," Threepio said primly.

"You can talk. You sound like a butler." Probably because that's what he is…awkward…

She coughed, and turned to investigating the pockets of her jumpsuit for entertainment. Although she'd noted them earlier, she hadn't actually taken the time to check what was inside. In one pocket she found a small circle of metal with a couple of buttons on it. She tried pressing them, but nothing happened. Huh. There was also a small object that looked like a Dictaphone and a thin square of floppy plastic. Wow. A literal floppy disk. Who'd have thought? She slipped them both back into their respective pouches and opened the last one, on her right hip.

"What…?" She reached inside and pulled out the sharp knife that was nestled inside the pocket, "Well, fat lot of good that is. People here have laser guns and swords! What's the point of having a knife?"

"You may wish to keep it," Threepio sniffed. It seemed he hadn't quite gotten over the butler comment yet, "you never know what we may come across."

She hesitated, then said, "You reckon?"

"It would be a sound decision."

"Well, if you say so, Threepio."

The golden droid started, and turned to her in surprise, "Do you mean, you're actually going to listen to what I say?"

"Why not?" Alice said, putting the knife away, "You've been in space before and I haven't…uh, well, I haven't recently." Lies! All lies! "If you say I'm going to need a knife at some point, I'll certainly listen."

Threepio looked delighted, "Thank you, Mistress Alice, that is most kind of you."

She grinned, and held out a hand towards him, "Truce?"

"Very well," the droid agreed, pressing his metal hand against hers. They shook, and Alice smiled, extremely satisfied.

"Alice!" She looked up and saw Ben and Luke striding towards her. Well. Ben was striding. Luke's gait would be more accurately described as a scamper.

"Hey," she scrambled to her feet and hurrying to keep up with them as Ben led them out of the shop, "Did you sell the speeder?"

"Yes, indeed," Ben said, looking pleased.

"So, how much did you get?"

"Just over two thousand, oh, and I bought you these." He rummaged in a loose bag that was hanging over his shoulder all of a sudden, and handed a short brown poncho-type garment to Luke, and a black leather jacket to Alice.

Her eyes widened as she took it; it looked a little too big for her and it smelled of engine oil, but it was still pretty darn cool. "Awesome! Thanks, Ben." She pulled it on, rolling the sleeves up over her wrists, and struck a pose, "How do I look?"

Luke glanced up sideways at her, looking adorable in his poncho, "You look good," he said, with a simplicity that made it seem like he really meant it.

Her mouth moved before her brain could even begin to protest, "That's a joke. You're prettier than I am."

"Um…thank you?"

Ben coughed and raised his eyebrows at the two of them chidingly, "Come along now. We shouldn't keep our famous pilot waiting." Without waiting for a response from either of them, he strode off, and they had to run to catch up with him.

"Do you really think this Han Solo guy can get us to Alderaan? What if we do meet Imperial ships?"

They were striding along down a narrow side street that powerfully reminded Alice of a school trip she'd once taken to Venice. One of the perks of studying the past: fantastic field trips. And when she said they were striding, they really were going along pretty dramatically. Alice was actually skipping a little and not really listening to Ben and Luke's conversation.

Ben shrugged, "If the ship's as fast as his boasting, we ought to do well. Ah, look. There's his first mate."

The huge fluffy figure of Chewbacca loomed up ahead. He made a high-pitched purring noise as they approached, and gestured for them to follow him. Alice leaned closer to Luke and muttered, "I'm not supposed to understand him, am I?"

Luke grinned cheerfully, "Well, I can't, so you're not the only one at least. Good thing we've got old Ben around."

"Heck, it sure is, dude."

Chewbacca led them into a small courtyard where a slightly rusty, slightly sparking, slightly smoke-stained ship was waiting for them. "Hang on…this is the ship we're taking?"

Her hopes of being wrong were thwarted as Han Solo popped out from beneath the closest wing of the ship, cleaning his hands on a filthy rag.

She turned to Ben, desperate, "Seriously? This thing doesn't look like you could push it up a road without it breaking down, let alone fly it!"

"What a piece of junk!" Luke exclaimed in agreement.

"She'll make point five past light speed," Han said, tucking the cloth into his belt with a smug little flourish. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself."

"Excuse me if that doesn't fill me with confidence," Alice said, sharing a queasy glance with Luke.

Han ignored her, and spoke to Ben with an ingratiating smile that was far from comforting, "We're a little rushed, so if you'll just get on board, we'll get out of here."

Ben nodded, and led the other two up the walkway. My first spaceship, Alice thought with a mixture of eagerness and consternation, and it had to be this one…

To be fair to the Falcon, if its exterior was underwhelming, the interior was even more so. "Oh," Alice said, looking disappointedly at the far from gleaming walls, the piles of loose wire and tools scattered around and the flickering light on the ceiling. "Well…this is…I'm going to be honest, it looks like somewhere people get murdered."

Luke snorted, while Artoo gave a dejected whistle. Ben, in comparison, looked rather cheerful, "Now, now, Alice, I'm sure our captain knows what he's-"

His words were cut off by the sudden sound of a small explosion and Han Solo yelling, "Chewie, get us out of here!"

Alice spun to see their infamous pilot dashing up the corridor towards them, weapon in hand. "Time to go – don't worry, I have everything under control!" He shouted as he streaked past.

"So, we're off to a great start," Alice said cheerfully as she and her fellow passengers made their way through the ship to what looked like its main cabin, which was luxuriously decked out with both tables and chairs. Luke and Alice sat themselves down in a corner, in a booth, of all things, while Ben claimed a swivel chair opposite them. Maybe they work as a restaurant part-time, she thought wildly.

Luke and Alice cast sideways glances at each other as another blast shook the ship. They could hear angry voices drifting from outside the door and a loud banging, like someone was trying to get in.

"Oh no," Threepio lamented from across the room, "I'd forgotten how much I hate space travel."

At that moment, the room began to shake as the engines started up with a low grumbling, which grew and grew until finally, the Falcon lumbered into the air and soared away. Once they were airborne, the ship gave one more violent shake, then levelled out, the stuttering cough of the engines smoothing into a low purr.

"Oh," Alice said, a little disappointed, "well, that was irritatingly similar to being in an airplane. When are we going to actually get into space?"

"Wait a moment," Ben said patiently, raising a hand.

Alice wriggled in her seat, forgetting her fears about the Falcon's reliability as a spaceship, as well as almost everything about why they were here and where they were going in her excitement. About thirty seconds later, a sharp ripple seemed to pass through the ship, but it didn't start shaking again. In fact, the sensation of motion disappeared almost entirely.

"There. We've left the planet's atmosphere."

Luke let out a sharp breath, and Alice's eyes lit up, "Oh my god, that's so awesome. Can I look?"

"I don't see why not," Ben said, with a little smile, "you'll see best from the cockpit."

She gave a little yelp of glee, and unbuckling her belt, hurried to the front of the ship. She found the cockpit door open; Han and Chewie were there, moving in surprisingly elegant tandem as they flicked switches and fiddled with screens. But beyond them… Alice's breath caught in her throat. Directly ahead of her was a window, filled from corner to corner with the inky blackness of space, dotted with the clear light of the stars, going on and on further than she could possibly see.

"Wow…" She breathed.

Look at me. Alice Miller, the girl who almost failed her Maths GCSE, in space. Suck it, NASA.

"Hey kid, if you haven't noticed, we've got a bit of a situation – this isn't the time for sight-seeing." Distracted from the beauty of the view outside the window, Alice realised that Han and Chewbacca did look a little on the tense side.

"Stay sharp," Han said, "there's two more coming in, they're going to try and cut us off."

Alice frowned, "Two more what now?" She hadn't anticipated that whatever trouble they'd had on the ground would follow them into space. "Ben, Luke!"

But the boy was already at her shoulder, with Ben right behind him – the two of them must have followed her. She squeezed further into the cramped room to make space for them, taking up a position directly behind Han's chair.

"Imperial ships," Han explained curtly to the new arrivals, "we've got two of them on our tail."

Luke peered at the screens over Han's shoulder, apparently understanding the situation a lot better than Alice did, "Why don't you try to outrun 'em, I thought you said this thing was fast!"

"Watch your mouth kid, or you're gonna find yourself floating home."

"Geez," Alice muttered, rolling her eyes, "the testosterone in this room's overwhelming."

"Hey, we'll be safe enough once we make the jump to hyperspace," Han said, "besides, I know a few manoeuvres, we'll lose them."

The ship rocked suddenly to the right, sending Alice tumbling into Luke and Luke crashing into Ben. "Are they shooting at us?" She gasped, struggling to right herself.

"Here's where the fun begins," Han said with a grin.

Alice stared at him. "New question. Do you have any sense of self-preservation?"

"How long before you can make the jump to light speed?" Ben asked quickly.

"It'll take a few moments to get the co-ordinates from the navi-computer."

"Are you kidding?" Luke said, pointing at one of the screens on the control board, "At the rate they're gaining?"

"Travelling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy," Han snapped. "Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it."

Chewie growled, and a red light suddenly started to blink urgently. "Why is that flashing?" Alice asked nervously, "Please tell me it's the 'ready to go to light speed' button?"

Han cursed, "We're losing the deflector shields – go strap yourselves in, I'm going to make the jump to light speed!"

"Gosh," Alice said, stumbling out of the cockpit and back down the corridor. "This space travel thing is harder than I thought."

"Get ready," Ben called, he and Luke hot on her heels, "it can be a shock your first time."

"Cheeky," Alice said. They slammed into the cabin at full speed, Alice made a dive for the booth, snatching at the table to steady herself. Luke crashed into the seat next to her, his face alight with excitement that was completely untouched by the danger they were in. No sooner than they'd sat down, the ship seemed to go completely still.

Alice could hear her heart pounding in her ears, could almost feel the blood pumping through her veins.

"This is it," Luke panted.

"Is it too late to stay on Tatooine and learn how to farm?"

The ship leapt forward, sending a jolt through the entire room. Alice freaked out. There was a strange feeling of pressure, and she genuinely felt rooted to her chair, unable to move under the intensity of their speed. Then, as quickly as it had come, the weird squeezing sensation disappeared, and everything was back to normal again.

Alice slumped sideways, almost toppling out of the booth before catching herself on the table, "Woah. That was really, really weird."

There was a rustling sound in the doorway, and Han sauntered into the room, looking perfectly at ease. Alice cocked her head on one side and said sardonically, "You do realise, don't you, that we were just chased and shot at by Imperial ships? As in the ultimate baddies? Does nothing faze you?"

"Hey," he said with a shrug, "it's all part of the job, sweetheart."

"Do not," she said, warningly, "call me sweetheart."

"Alright, alright." He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. Alice eyed him suspiciously, nowhere near convinced by this display.

"So what do we do now?" Luke asked the room in general.

"We wait until we come out of hyperspace at Alderaan," Han replied, flopping into a chair and putting his feet up on a hopefully unimportant row of buttons, "so you can just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride, kid."

"Excellent," Ben said, getting to his feet, "I have an idea of how we can pass the time. Luke, come here."

Luke shot a quizzical look at Alice, who shrugged. The boy got to his feet and headed over to Ben, who put his hands on his shoulders and positioned him in the middle of the room, "Alice, you may wish to move. Over there, yes, that's it. Now, Luke draw your lightsaber."

Bemused, Alice obediently got to her feet and headed over to where Han sat, near the entrance to the room.

"In here?" Luke asked, tentatively.

"Yes," the old man said firmly, "with it, we may begin your training both in the use of the Force, and in the use of this weapon."

Luke still looked a little doubtful, but pulled the lightsaber from his hip anyway, "Well, alright." At a further nod from Ben, he activated the blade, filling the room with its lyrical humming. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice saw Han straighten up a little in his chair, and cast a curious glance between Ben and Luke.

"Ready yourself," Ben warned, before drawing a small, metal sphere from inside his robe and tossing it into the air. Instead of hurtling through the air to hit Luke in the head, it floated gently about three feet off the ground, the lights on its side flashing on and off.

"What's that for?" Alice asked, curious despite herself.

Without warning, the sphere shot a red laser from its side, straight towards Luke's face. He ducked, and the laser hit the wall of the ship with a crackle.

"Hey, watch it!" Han said, angrily, bolting upright in his chair.

"Oh no," Alice said, with mock horror, while Luke hid a chuckle behind a cough, "what a terrible thing to have happened."

"Focus, Luke," Ben instructed, while Han glared daggers at Alice in the background, "you must try and deflect the laser bursts with your lightsaber."

"Hey," Alice said, to the room in general, "is it okay if I take a nap? We did kinda wake up super early this morning."

Ben glanced over his shoulder, smiling indulgently, "By all means, young Alice, try and get some rest. You will need your strength, I don't doubt."

"Sweet," Alice replied as she leaned back against the wall near Han's chair, wriggling around a bit to make herself as comfortable as it was possible to be when sitting on a hard metal floor. "Try not to get into trouble while I'm asleep…"

BREAK

She was rudely awoken what felt like five minutes later when a stray laser burst from Ben's floating death ball hit the wall just above her head. At some point during her nap, she'd slid down from her sitting position and ended up curled on the floor with her jacket underneath her head – and it was lucky she had, because if she'd still been sitting up, the laser would have hit her head. She jolted upright, swearing loudly in surprise. Amidst Han's enthusiastic laughter, Luke hurried over to her, his expression mortified, "I'm so sorry, Alice, that was an accident."

"I should bloody well hope it was an accident," she said fervently, eyeing the smoking dent in the wall above her head, "I thought we were friends."

"I'm really sorry."

Alice studied him for a moment, saw that he was sincere, and relented. "Don't worry about it," she said, "more effective than an alarm." She straightened up and felt a twinge of pain in her neck. And her legs. And her arms, and her back… "I feel terrible."

"You look it too," Han said, his laughter finally fading away enough for him to speak normally.

"Shouldn't you be flying the ship instead of lounging about here?" Alice said, grumpily. Across the room, Luke raised his lightsaber and went back to deflecting laser blasts.

Han ignored her question and went ahead with one of his own, "So. Alice, was it? You never did say what your part in this little jaunt was."

"I thought part of the deal was that you didn't ask any questions."

"Come on," he said, lounging back in his chair and putting his hands behind his head, "I'm risking my life to get you safely to Alderaan, you can trust me."

Alice struggled to find some kind of rebuttal to that, but couldn't. Folding her arms, she mumbled, "Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. I just got swept up in this whole thing. And I would say that I am rolling with it surprisingly well."

"And what about these two," Han said, jerking his head at Luke and Obi-Wan, "known them long?"

She gave a short laugh as she thought about it, "Only since yesterday morning."

The smuggler's eyebrows shot up, "Kid must be something special, huh?"

Alice blushed, and shot a sideways glance at Luke to make sure he wasn't listening to any of this, "I couldn't say. I'm just a friend. Well, maybe closer to an acquaintance, actually…or well…tagalong, if you really want to get down to it."

"Huh," Han said, enigmatically, his eyes flicking over Alice's face briefly.

Raising her eyebrows, Alice hurried to change to change the subject, "What about you, flyboy? How did you end up working with the Cookie Monster over there? Tagging along?"

"Please, kid, if anyone's tagging along, it's him."

Chewie, who was sitting on the other side of the room with Threepio and Artoo, looked up and growled loudly, as though he knew they were talking about him.

"I think he disagrees," Alice said, amused.

Han grinned at her, and called at Chewbacca, "Stop whining, fur-ball." Something suddenly started to beep nearby, capturing his attention, "Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan." He got out of his seat, and headed for the cockpit, followed by Chewbacca.

Alice yawned, and took the time to retie her hair before getting to her feet; who knew how much running they'd have to do from this point onwards? There'd already been more than she'd expected. Ben and Luke seemed to be done with their training– at any rate, the little robot laser shooter had disappeared. "Did I miss anything interesting?"

"Just training," Ben said, sounding amused, "but I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that Luke made some real progress."

"Marvellous," she said, smiling brightly at Luke and giving him a double thumbs up, "well done."

"Thanks," he grinned.

"So it's just plain sailing now until we land on Alderaan, right?" Alice asked. Famous last words. The Falcon suddenly gave a violent shake, nearly upsetting the three of them. Artoo whistled, and Alice was pretty sure Threepio groaned.

"Well, that can't be good."


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