Hey dudes - everyone enjoying revision? :/ Silly exams taking up free time. But hey, we've got to Chapter 20, woo! We're also nearly at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. :O Also, also, getting closer to my review target of 100 reviews! Yay!
Shout-outs this week go to: Time-Dog, Taboo22, Katyperry22 and a guest called Me. I like your style.
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. Only Alice is mine.
As Han vanished below floor level, a huge metal clamp began to descend towards him. Alice was unfamiliar with the way that carbon freezing worked, but since having anything that looked like a garbage crusher moving towards you was probably a bad thing, this was…well, probably a bad thing.
There was a loud clunk from the floor, and a sharp hissing noise, and then slowly, the clamp began to rise again, this time pulling a large tablet of what looked like graphite with it.
Beside her, Leia gave a sharp, horrified gasp as the clamp released, and drew back to reveal Han's frozen form, protruding part way from his pencil prison. Two of the little gnomes went over to it and pushed it hard onto the floor. It toppled, and hit the ground with a loud, metallic bang. Alice winced, and squeezed Leia's hand.
Chewie whined and rested a big fluffy paw on Alice's shoulder. She leaned back against him, taking comfort from the warmth of his fur and the pounding of his heart. When she looked back, Lando was bent over Han's body, studying the blinking lights on the side of the tablet.
"Well, Calrissian?" Vader asked from the top of the stairs, "Did he survive?"
"Yes, he's alive," Lando said, sounding as if he couldn't quite believe it himself, "and in perfect hibernation."
Oh thank god and the Force, I'm sorry if I ever doubted you…
"He's all yours, bounty hunter," Vader said, to the man in the fabulous pastel ensemble, and to his little gnome minions, "reset the chamber for Skywalker."
"Skywalker has just landed, my lord."
"No!" Alice couldn't help blurting out; luckily, it came out as more of a squeak than an actual word and went unnoticed by the big bads.
Luke, please, just stay away… Could this day get any worse?
"Good," said Vader, "see to it that he finds his way in here." Lando glanced over his shoulder at Vader and moved quickly to join Alice and Leia. He reached out to take Leia's arm, but she jerked away from him, her eyes still fixed on Han.
"Calrissian. Take the women and the wookiee to my ship."
"You said they'd be left in the city under my supervision," Lando said, outraged.
Vader's black mask turned to focus on Alice, of all people. She couldn't look at him, dropping her gaze at once and clinging hard to Leia's hand. "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
Lando swore as Vader departed. Alice ignored him, and turning to Leia, pulled her into a hug that was as much for her own comfort as for Leia's. Her friend hid her face in Alice's neck, and she felt dampness against her skin – Leia was crying. She bit her lip, and rubbed Leia's back, trying to think of anything she could possibly say to hide how much this situation sucked.
"Come on," Lando said, through gritted teeth, "I need to get you to Lord Vader's ship."
"He trusted you," Alice spat at him, "Han trusted you."
He glared at her, "This isn't my fault. Vader changed the terms. What can I do when the second most powerful being in the galaxy changes the terms? Now come on."
Stubbornly refusing to move, Alice murmured to Leia, "Do we go?"
"We don't have a choice," Leia said, straightening up and wiping her eyes in a business-like fashion. "Our only hope is that Luke will escape. I think it's a little too late for us." She met Alice's eyes; and Alice felt her stomach plummet at the look of hopelessness in her friend's gaze. She had actually…given up.
"Come on," Lando repeated, impatiently.
"Fine," Alice snapped, keeping a protective arm around Leia's shoulders as he chivvied them up the stairs and out of the door, "we're coming."
She regretted that she hadn't been here long enough to know the corridors they were traversing – maybe they could have tried to get away, if they'd at least known where they were. Instead, they were forced to follow in mutinous silence, led by Lando and surrounded by guards.
They'd been walking for about five minutes when Alice heard, not too far away, the sound of a blaster being fired. She cocked her head, and glanced at Leia, who gave her a brief nod, indicating she'd heard it too.
Who'd be firing a blaster? Maybe it's…oh, come on, Ally, what are the chances of it being Luke?
But as they rounded the corner, there suddenly came the sound of running footsteps from their left, and as Alice glanced in the direction of the noise, she caught a glimpse of a shadow on the corridor wall.
Their guards spotted it too, and a moment later, the corridor was filled with gunfire. Alice flinched back against Chewie, then found herself being bundled away by one of the men in grey. She struggled back, trying to see who the person in the tunnel was, trying to see if it was- for a fraction of a second, she caught a glimpse of familiar blonde hair, and screamed as loud as her damaged throat would manage, "Luke!"
Leia heard her, and yelled his name too, taking over where Alice was too weak to shout, "Luke! Luke, don't, it's a trap! It's a trap!" Chewie added his roar to the din, before they were forced through a doorway and away from Luke.
Alice was panting and felt strangely energised. Luke…did he hear us? Could he even understand what we were trying to tell him? Oh god, I hope he's okay…
She glanced behind her and bumped into Lando's back. She blinked in confusion as they were suddenly surrounded by a strange group of people, all of them apparently friends of Lando's, who began disarming the stormtroopers (who looked as confused as Alice felt, despite the fact that she couldn't see their faces).
"Um…did I miss something?"
"Well done," Lando said, to his mysterious friends, "hold them in the security tower. And keep it quiet." And just like that, all armed people just miraculously disappeared.
"What's happening?" Alice whispered to Leia.
Lando handed one massive blaster to Alice and one to Leia and then started un-cuffing Chewie. "We're getting out of here."
Leia glared at him, "Do you think that after what you did to Han, we're going to let you-"
Turned out un-cuffing the seven foot tall wookiee with a grudge wasn't the best idea. As soon as he was free, Chewie roared, and started to throttle Lando. Alice stared in shock as he wheezed and struggled. The memory of Vader's attack rose up strong in her mind and had a physical effect on her: she could feel her own throat closing up in panic, leaving her short of breath.
"Chewie, stop," she said, grabbing the wookiee's arms and trying to get him to release Lando, "let him go."
He growled at her, but otherwise ignored her command. Lando rolled his eyes towards her, and choked something that sounded like, 'Han'. She stared at him, suddenly remembering the way he'd squeezed her hand, as if in apology, just before giving them over to Vader. One little hand squeeze wasn't enough to excuse him for everything that had happened today…but it was enough for him not to be killed this second, at least.
She tried again, redoubling her efforts to loosen Chewie's grip, "Please, Chewie! Killing him won't help anything. Think about it, we need him to help us get out of here. Let him go."
With a whine, Chewie released Lando, who fell to his knees, coughing. Trying to hide how relieved she felt to see him free, she turned to Lando and addressed him in her best Princess Leia impersonation, "Alright, what were you trying to say just now?"
He didn't answer for a moment, taking a second to get his breath back before replying, "Han…there's still a chance to save Han. Intercept the bounty hunter. We need…to go to the East Platform."
"Chewie," Leia said briskly.
"Wait," Alice called, wincing at the pain in her throat but determined to continue, "what about Luke?"
Leia stopped, and Alice felt her heart sink. Han or Luke: that was the choice she was asking Leia to make. They couldn't split up, because without Lando, neither of them would be able to find their way to the East Platform. She sighed, and seeing the resignation in her eyes, Leia stepped forwards, putting one hand firmly on her shoulder, "Alice, I promise, we'll come back for him. First we need to get to the Falcon and secure our exit. Okay?"
Alice nodded half-heartedly, "Aye, aye, ma'am."
With one last sympathetic look, Leia turned and jogged away, Chewie hard on her heels, but Alice hesitated before offering a hand to Lando.
He glanced at her, and coughed out, "Thanks."
She raised her eyebrows at him, "Thank me later, when we're safely out of here and half a galaxy away from Darth Vader."
"Fair enough."
"You'd better lead the way," she said, yanking him up, "Leia's too proud to say when she's lost. Between her and Han it's a miracle we manage to get anything done."
They caught up with the others quickly and made their way up the levels to the luxury city skyline. Now they were running along lovely soft carpeted floors, past balconies with spectacular views.
"Wish I lived here," Alice blurted as they went, feeling a tad delirious, "how much does a place like this cost?"
"Around twenty-thousand credits."
"So not in my non-existent price range then. Wow. I just realised I have no money. Or really any possessions. Exciting, isn't it?"
Suddenly, something beeped behind her. Alice gasped, "Artoo!"
"Artoo? Did someone say Artoo?" Threepio called from up ahead.
"Artoo, darling, we've missed you! Where's Luke?"
The little droid beeped, but Alice couldn't get any sense out of his response with Threepio wittering on.
"Artoo, Artoo, where have you been? Chewbacca, really, turn around!"
Chewie roared. "Hurry, hurry," the protocol droid urged them all along, which Alice thought was a bit much coming from someone with no legs. "We're trying to save Han from the bounty hunter!"
Artoo beeped loudly, and Threepio replied, "Well, at least you're still in one piece – look what happened to me!"
"Threepio," Alice shouted, desperately, "you need to ask Artoo what happened to Luke!"
But Chewie had run off ahead of her, carrying the golden droid with him. They burst out on to the East Platform, only to see the only ship there – presumably Boba Fett's – already taking off.
Chewie put a few desperate shots into the side of the ship, but they simply glanced off, and before long, it was out of range.
"Damn it," Alice said, staring desperately into the distance as Han was carried away from them, taken to whatever fate awaited him back on Tatooine.
"Chewie, behind you!"
She turned at the sound of Leia's shout, and groaned. "Oh, great."
Stormtroopers were firing at them through the open door, blocking their only exit, unless they wanted to take a dive off the side of this huge skyscraper. She took a deep breath and, trying to recall everything Captain Starn had told her in the midst of one of the most emotionally and physically hectic days of her entire life, she raised the blaster she'd just remembered she was carrying and started to shoot.
And to her very great and everlasting surprise when she looked back on this memory, one of the stormtroopers crumpled at once as her first shot struck him in the shoulder. In fact, she was so surprised that she forgot to continue shooting and nearly got hit by the downed stormtrooper's chum when he shot back in retaliation.
"Did you see that?" Alice babbled, as Leia pulled her away down the corridor, "I shot him!" She paused, and her eyes widened, "Oh my god, I shot someone!"
"Yes, yes, it was very impressive," Leia said, "now, run!"
"Where are we going?"
"The Falcon," she said grimly, "it's our best hope of getting out of here."
Great, more running.
She wasn't wrong. They sprinted along a corridor, then up some stairs, then took yet another awkward lift ride, then ran along another corridor, all the while being pursued by grumpy stormtroopers.
Finally they reached a large bronze door that looked quite out of place against the white walls all around. "Thank the lord," Alice said, leaning against the door and trying to get her breath back.
Lando started tapping away on the keypad to the right. Nothing happened.
"So," said Alice, feeling the sarcasm strong within her, "this is working out well."
"Alice," Leia snapped, clearly not in the mood for snarky comments. "Lando, what's the problem."
"The security code has been changed," Lando explained, through gritted teeth.
"Artoo!" Threepio said from his cute little sling on Chewie's back, "You can tell the computer to override the security systems!"
Artoo beeped excitedly and rolled over to the door frame. Leia and Alice gazed twitchily about them while the little droid hacked into Cloud City's main computer terminal. Lando meanwhile, hurried across the hall and plucked a small microphone-esque device from a socket on the wall, "Attention, this is Lando Calrissian. The Empire's taking control of the city – I advise that everyone leave before more Imperial troops arrive."
"Wow," Alice said, as he replaced the microphone, "that was almost noble. Well done."
Suddenly there was a crackling, sparking sound, and a shriek from Artoo. The three humans spun to see smoke issuing from the panel where Artoo was working.
"You okay, buddy?"
"The terminal's fried," Lando said quickly, "we'll never get out this way. Come on."
He grabbed Alice by the hand (she made a face at Leia) and dragged her away down the corridor to the left. They waded through hordes of frantic citizens, all scrambling in response to Lando's alert. Alice detached herself from Lando as quickly as possible and jogged at Leia's side, her blaster an awkward, heavy weight in her hands.
"There!" Lando pointed to a bronze door almost identical to the one they had just left. Artoo and Chewie headed for it at once, but Leia ran off to the left down a corridor.
"Leia!" Alice half whispered, half shouted, "Come back!"
"I'll go with her," Lando said, "stay with Chewie."
"Fine. Be careful!"
Alice and Chewie crouched at the corner of the alcove to fend off the seemingly never-ending wave of stormtroopers, while Artoo tried to open the door and Threepio shouted at Artoo. "We're not interested in the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon, it's fixed!"
Artoo shrieked, and Threepio shrieked back, "Just open the door, you stupid lump of metal!"
"Hey!" Alice said, sitting up and pointing at Threepio, "he's doing his best, you know."
Artoo gave a cheerful whistle, and the door sprang open, "See? Leia! Lando! Get down here now!"
"I never doubted you for a second," exclaimed Threepio joyously, "Wonderful!"
"Sure," Alice said, rolling her eyes and dragging Chewie out of the door and onto the platform. The wind whipped all around them, making Alice's jacket snap loudly and Chewie's fur ripple. The golden glow of the rising sun that had lit the clouds when they first arrived had shifted to a shadowed crimson that indicated night was on its way in.
Ahead of them sat the Falcon, looking exactly the same as ever, i.e., like an absolute mess. Alice turned to say something witty to Han…then she remembered.
They reached the ship running at full speed, and as Chewie hit the switch to open the ramp, Alice turned to see Leia and Lando pelting along behind them, chased by a whole contingency of soldiers. Frustrated, she yelled, "You guys are just extras! Doing this movie won't even help your acting careers!"
Chewie growled at her as if to say, 'Crazy girl,' and picking her up by the scruff of her neck, plonked her inside the Falcon.
"Leia!" Alice called as loudly as she could, from where Chewie had placed her on the floor, the legless Threepio by her side, "Get your arse in here right now!"
A moment later, Leia appeared, her hair swirling about her face and her eyes gleaming, "Alice, stay calm; I'm going to get us out of here."
"Never doubted you," Alice said, struggling to drag the legless Threepio down to the corridor towards the cockpit and ignoring his loud protests.
Chewie was already in position, buckled in and raring to go, if the little yips coming from his mouth were anything to go by. Leia slid into Han's seat and together, she and the wookiee lifted the craft off the ground and into the air, away from the storm troopers at last.
"Thank goodness," Alice said, flopping into her seat with a sigh as they swept away, "right, now that's over: Threepio, where in the name of sanity is Luke?"
"Mistress Alice, I'm afraid I have no idea where-"
"Ask Artoo!" Alice cut him off, surprising herself (and the others, if the look Chewie and Leia shared was anything to go by) with the ferocity of her tone, "We've got to get him out of there!"
Displaying once again that he had no sense of good timing, Lando poked his head around the door, and squeezing past Alice, promptly flung himself into the only unoccupied seat in the room, "Well, that was close."
Leia stiffened immediately, "Don't think we've forgiven you just because-"
"Leia," Alice said, quietly, "he did just help save our lives. And you know, rescued us from the Empire. Thanks to him, we have a chance to get Han back."
The princess paused, considering Alice with a thoughtful expression. In this stillness, Chewie whined. Then she nodded, and said grudgingly to Lando, "Thank you."
Right, one problem down. Alice let out a sigh of relief and flinched as the rush of air burned down her windpipe. Miserable, she cupped her hands gently around her throat, hoping fervently that these horrible reminders of her time with Vader would go away quickly, so she could forget all about their encounter as soon as possible.
Lando saw her wincing and leaning over, tilted her chin up like Leia had. She clenched her jaw at his touch, but allowed him to look, taking some small satisfaction in the obvious guilt in his eyes.
Leia glanced around, and frowned anxiously, seemingly caught between wanting to berate Lando and comfort Alice, "You won't notice it in a couple of days."
"That must mean it looks atrocious now, right?" Alice said, raising her eyebrows at Leia. Her friend looked away, clearly too uncomfortable to either confirm or deny the question.
"I'm sorry, Alice," Lando said, in a hushed voice, "I didn't think he would want to hurt you-"
"But it's alright that Han got frozen in a lump of carbonite?" Leia said, fiercely, "I don't believe you. You're-"
She stopped abruptly, her eyes fixed on something outside of the window.
"Leia?" Alice said, leaning forward, "What's the matter?"
"Alice, I know where Luke is!"
"You do?" Alice demanded.
Threepio called up from the floor, "You do?"
"Great! Let's go pick him up!"
"Wait a minute," Lando objected, "what about those fighters?"
"I don't think you quite understand," Alice said threateningly, turning to face him, "he is one of our best friends. We haven't seen him in days, and for that entire time, we had no idea where he was or what was happening to him. He just threw himself into a trap that you helped to engineer, by the way, to save us. And on top of all that, he is the best chance we've got of taking down the Empire. So we're going to pick him up. Get it?"
Lando shifted uncomfortably in his seat and said nothing.
"Right," she said, satisfied, "Leia, Chewie? Take us back."
"Yes, ma'am," Leia said, sounding delighted.
Thank you for reading and please review!
