Hello readers! First and foremost, sorry for the delay in posting this chapter - I have been a very busy bee what with AS Theatre Studies Practicals, parents' evenings and an extremely rainy camping trip (never go camping in England). I hope you have all been well in the intervening time and aren't too stressed about life in general. If you are, please, have a lovely chocolate chip cookie on me; it'll make you feel better.

Next up on the agenda is this week's shout-outs: thank you to Taboo22, Guest, Katyperry2 (x8 - thanks so much!) and Lucia123. I'm so grateful to have such keen followers for this story - really brightens up my rainy English days. :)

Quick note: this is a bit of a filler chapter, which is why it's a little on the short side, but be reassured, coming up we have the infamous trip to Cloud City where, I can confirm, Alice will be formerly introduced to - DUN DUN DUN - Darth Vader! That's right - be excited.

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


Super quick recap: Team Jedi (minus the Jedi) is stranded on an asteroid without a working hyperdrive. Hilarity, as always, ensues.


Reaching out, she grabbed hold of Leia's sleeve and stumbled away from the front screen where the grimy monster thing was still writhing around and flapping its horrible leathery wings against the glass. "Come on!" Alice said, hyperventilating. Together, they fled through the door, and went looking for Han.

"Han!" Alice yelled as they rounded the corner, "There's something out there, and we are seriously not equipped to deal with giant bat-bugs!"

"What?" He was hunkered down with Chewie amongst the sparking exposed wiring of the Falcon, and he squinted up at them through the thick goggles he was wearing.

"There's something outside the ship," Alice repeated, feeling a little hysterical. Her declaration was nicely punctuated by the sound of something hitting the ceiling of the Falcon with a loud metallic bang.

"I'm going out there," Han said, getting to his feet. He pointed at Ally and Threepio, "You, stay inside."

"Aye aye," she said, shakily. So much for feminism…women's rights activists the world over would be ashamed of me.

Leia, however, was a little gold star, and strode after Han saying, "I'm coming with you!" Chewie growled and followed them both. Alice sighed, and pressed a hand to her forehead, trying to fight back a small dip in her sense of self-worth.

"Don't fret, Miss Alice," Threepio said, coming over to stand next to her, "I'm sure they'll be alright."

"They'd better be," she said in small voice. "Because neither of us can fly this ship…" They both paused to consider the consequences if Han, Leia and Chewie were all eaten by bat-monsters. "Come on," Alice said, hurriedly, "let's go and look out the front screens."

It was difficult to see out of the windows – the lights inside and the lack of light outside turned the glass into a mirror. Alice ignored her own ghostly, nervous reflection, and pressed her face up against the cold surface of the window, her hands cupped against her eyes, but ready to jump back at a moment's notice should a mutant creature decide to smash the window.

"Look," she hissed, tapping the glass frantically with her fingernail, "there they are!"

"Miss Alice, why are you whispering?"

"Because this is a tense moment, Threepio," she answered, "it's required."

She watched as Han, Leia and Chewie wandered around, their faces somewhat disturbingly obscured by the oxygen masks they were wearing.

Suddenly there was a flurry of movement outside, followed by a burst of light, and Alice flinched back with a small cry.

Then Han's voice, warped by his oxygen mask and being transmitted directly to the cockpit, came over the speakers, "It's alright. Yeah. What I thought. A mynock. Probably chewing on the power couplings. Better make sure there're no more attached."

"And then you'll come back in, right?" Alice asked, anxious.

"Yeah, sure, we'll be right back."

A short volley of laser blasts followed, along with sounds of disgust from Leia and Han. Suddenly, though, the whole ship shook. Not in a nice little, 'we're jumping to light speed' way. In a way that suggested the ground was about to give way beneath them. Alice grabbed the console as the ground tilted and hung on, staring out of the window in confusion. "Han…? What's happening?"

"I don't know…wait a second…"

Alice heard the high pitched sound of the passage of a laser burst and had to tighten her grip as once again the Falcon gave a violent shudder.

She heard a sharp intake of breath from over the speakers, then Han started yelling, "Back on the ship, back on the ship!"

She took this as a clear indication that she should get out of his way and pressed herself back against the wall of the cockpit, preparing for when Han would come bursting through the door. "Get back, Threepio," she said, waving a hand at him.

"Yes, perhaps you're right…" The golden droid backed up as far as he could, just in time for Han and Chewie to come dashing past them with Leia in hot pursuit.

"So," Alice said with mock cheeriness, "anyone care to explain what's going on?"

"Ask him," Leia snapped, strapping herself into her seat.

"Han?"

"We're taking off," he said grimly, "we need to get out of here now." He revved the engines dramatically, and lifting them off the floor of the cave, sent the Falcon barrelling down the narrow rock passage.

In the distance, Alice could see the twinkling light of the stars through the tunnel mouth – but it was getting smaller. "Han," she burst out, grabbing the back of Chewie's seat in her anxiety, "go faster, the tunnel's collapsing!"

"It's not a tunnel."

"Wha-?" Then Alice saw how it wasn't a tunnel. Because as they got closer, the jagged bits of rock she had taken for stalactites and stalagmites began to look an awful lot like teeth; huge, ginormous teeth in a huge, ginormous mouth, which they were currently flying out of.

"We were inside a giant slug!" Alice exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth in horror, "That's disgusting! You went outside- inside…whatever!"

"Alice, we've got bigger problems," Leia said, gritting her teeth, "the Imperial ships are still out here, and they're still looking for us."

"I know," said Alice, still hyperventilating, "but…urgh!"

The ship rocked violently and Han started flicking switches crazily, "Yeah, remember those Imperial star destroyers, Alice? They heard you weren't taking them seriously, so now they're shooting at us."

"Of course I'm taking it seriously," she said, grumpily, "look, here I am panicking like the rest of you, 'Oh, no, star destroyers! …OMG and stuff…' See?"

Han rolled his eyes, "Come on, let's get out of here." He turned to Chewie, "Ready to go to light speed?"

His second in command growled, and Han leaned forward, "One, two…three!" He shoved the magical light speed lever down…and nothing happened.

Alice facepalmed.

"Oh, come on," Han said, looking tragically disappointed, "that's not fair."

Chewie groaned, and Han glared at him, "The secondary circuits are working, it's not my fault!"

"No light speed?" Leia asked, wearily.

"It's not my fault," he said, spinning round to face her.

Alice hissed as another shot hit the Millennium Falcon and they all jolted to one side in their seats, "Okay, no light speed. We have a plan B, right?"

"Sir," Threepio sounded even more worked up than the rest of them – then again, he often did. "We've just lost the main rear deflector shield. Another direct hit to the back quarter and we're done for!"

Han hesitated, then got to his feet, "Turn her around!" Chewie roared. "I said, turn her around, I'm going to put all our power into the front shield!"

"You're going to attack them?" Leia said, stunned.

"Sir, the odds of surviving a direct assault on an Imperial star destroyer-"

"Hush!" Alice said forcibly. Chewie whined in agreement and reaching one paw over the back of the pilot's seat, gave him a solid bash on the top of his head. The droid's eyes flickered out, and he went silent. "But seriously, Han, what in the name of sanity are you doing?"

"We're going to play a little trick on them," he said through gritted teeth, as they swept around to face the star destroyer head on. "See that spire? We're going to land on it."

Alice studied the huge hulking mass of the star destroyer in front of them, bristling with aerials and dishes and weapons and goodness knew what else. She raised her eyebrows, "And how exactly will that help?"

"Their scopes will only extend outwards from the hull – they won't be scanning the ship itself."

Leia drew a slow breath through her teeth, "That's…that's actually quite clever."

Alice smiled as Han glanced at Leia over his shoulder. "Thank you. Leia."

Awww!

Dragging his eyes away from the princess (apparently with some difficulty), Han brought them into land, hidden against the spire. He flicked a few switches and immediately the engines cycled down, leaving them in darkness. Alice waited tensely, but true enough, there were no more explosions – if the crew of the star destroyer could see them, they weren't shooting at them.

"So now we just sit here until…"

"Uh…" Han said, the vaguely panicked look on his face suggesting he hadn't really thought this far ahead.

Leia raised her eyebrows, "Go on. Impress us. What did you have in mind for our next move?"

"Well…uh…if they follow standard Imperial procedure, they'll dump their garbage before they go to light speed, and then we just float away."

Huh. Smart.

"With the rest of the garbage," Leia said, nodding, a small smile playing around her mouth, "then what?"

"Then we need to find a safe port nearby. Any ideas?" He sat up and leaned forward over the console, presumably pressing buttons. "Wait…this is interesting. Lando…"

"Lando system?"

"Lando's not a system, he's a man. Lando Calrissian. He's this cardplayer, gambler. Scoundrel, you'd like him."

"Thanks."

Alice grinned. Cute.

"Bespin's pretty far but I think we can make it."

"What's Bespin?" Alice asked, just to remind them that she was actually still present.

"A planet, kid," Han said, peering out the window. Something outside shifted, and suddenly he was all business once again. "Okay, standby, Chewie. And detach."

With a clunk, the Millennium Falcon came free of the spire and floated away. Alice leaned forward, holding her breath – now all they had to do was float here with no power until the star destroyer they'd been piggy-backing went into light speed. Out of the window, she caught glimpses of other huge lumps of metal, presumably the rubbish the star destroyer was now dumping – just as Han had said.

Leia smiled, "You have your moments. Not many of them, but you have them." She leaned forward and gave Han a kiss on the cheek. Alice punched the air.

Ahead of them, the star destroyer zipped off into light speed, and Han restarted the engines.

"So, it's full speed ahead, to…where exactly?" Alice said, stretching her arms and legs out simultaneously so that she looked like a drunk starfish trying to hug someone.

"Cloud City on Bespin."

"Wow. That sounds fabulous."

Han rolled his eyes, "Whatever you say, sweetheart."

Alice and Leia grinned at each other, and Alice whispered under her breath, "He knows it's fabulous."

"This is going to be a long trip without light speed," Han said from his captain's seat, "you two might want to get some rest."

"I'm feeling pretty rested," Alice said, stretching, "how about you two get some rest, and Chewie and I will fly the ship?"

Han whipped his head round to stare at her, horrified.

"Relax. I was joking. Hey, Artoo- damn."

"What?"

"I just remembered Artoo and Luke aren't here." She frowned, and put a hand to her forehead, "Do you think they got out of Hoth all right?"

"Worrying about it isn't going to help," Leia chided gently.

"I know, I know. You know what," she got to her feet and went to the door, "I'm going to go…find something to amuse myself with. See you guys later."

Feeling just a little bit on the gloomy side, even though they had just evaded an entire fleet of star destroyers, Alice paused on the main flight deck and remembered the time, really not that long ago, when she, Luke and Ben had first boarded this ship.

"The dream team's been broken up," she commented sadly to the empty room.

Chewie poked his head around the corner, and warbled at her, reminding her of his presence aboard the aforementioned spaceship.

"Oh, hey big guy," Alice said, "giving the two lovebirds some privacy, huh?"

He made another incomprehensible noise (Alice added it to the already vast list) and coming up to her gave her an unexpected but quite nice and very furry hug.

"Aww," she spluttered, trying to get huge quantities of wookiee fur out of her mouth, "thanks Chewie. You're simply the best." Her eyes widened, and she drew back slightly, staring up at her fluffy pal, "Chewie. I'm feeling the desperate urge to go into Tina Turner mode. But, for your sake, I am restraining myself. I hope you understand what a sacrifice that is."

He growled in confusion, and she tutted, "Never mind. According to Captain Solo, it'll be a while before we get to this…Cloud City place. I don't suppose you have any ideas of how to pass the time?"

Chewie gave an enthusiastic roar, and Alice gave him a thumbs up, "Well, great. Okay…so, what is it?"

He opened his mouth, closed it again, then tipped his head on one side with a whine. "You're right. This isn't going to work. Um…Threepio! One second."

Alice scooted along to the cockpit, said hello to a bemused Han and Leia, grabbed the currently inactive Threepio by the arm and dragged him back to the main deck with her.

"Here we go," she said cheerfully, "now we just need to figure out how to turn him back on…"

Chew growled and gave Threepio another vigorous bash to the head. Immediately, the lights in his eyes stuttered back to life, and he straightened up, glancing around, "Oh my…Mistress Alice! Whatever is going on?"

"We're pretty much in the clear," she said, "we're heading for a planet where Han thinks we can get the hyperdrive repaired, and Chewie had an idea to pass the time, only I…"

"I quite understand, Mistress Alice. What is your idea, Chewbacca?"

She waited while the wookiee growled for a bit, then started paying attention when Threepio turned around to face her again, "He suggests you play dejarik."

"Umm…what?"

"It is a board game – I believe Chewbacca and Artoo played it on the flight from Tatooine to Alderaan."

"Ohh. So that's what you guys were doing. Well, alright. If you're willing to try and teach me, Chewie, I'd love to play."

Three hours and forty minutes later, and Alice had just lost her first game of dejarik. "Damn," she mumbled, as Chewie's holographic m'onnock ripped her holographic houjix limb from limb.

The wookiee wailed, and Threepio translated, "He says you did very well for your first try."

"Thank you," Alice said graciously, "that's very kind of you to say."

Just then, her pocket started to beep. She frowned, then suddenly recognised it as the sound of her comlink, which she realised she'd been carrying around since the Death Star without ever really using. She pulled it from her pocket and pressed the receive button.

"Hello?"

"Kid, we're entering Bespin's atmosphere. Get up here, you're going to want to see this."

"Sure." She grinned at Chewie and Threepio, "Come on. We're all going on a summer holiday…"

The first thing Alice noticed on entering the cockpit was a big bank of fluffy pink-tinged clouds, colouring the cabin with rosy light. "So, Cloud City. Aptly named, isn't it."

"Yes, Alice," Leia said patiently.

"Well, you know what I would have called it, if I were in charge?"

"What?"

"Mount Olympus. Probably. Unless I thought of something better. Like…ooh, Pemberley!"

Two smaller speeders suddenly came whooshing up beside them, and an unfamiliar voice came out of the speakers, "Approaching vessel, identify yourself."

"Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon."

"Do you have a landing permit?"

"No, I don't have a landing permit-"

Laser blasts from their two escorts. Han backtracked, "Look, let me explain, I'm trying to reach Lando Calrissian."

More laser blasts. "You will not deviate from your present course."

"I thought you knew this person," Leia said.

Chewie growled something. Han looked worried, "Well that was a long time ago, I'm sure he's forgotten about that."

A moment later, one of the two jets spoke again, "Permission granted to land on Platform 327."

"Thank you," Han said, grumpily. "See, there's no need to worry. We go way back, Lando and me."

Leia glanced at Alice, "Who's worried?"


Thanks for reading, and please review!