Leia slowly opened her eyes. She had once again tried meditating and reaching out with the Force hoping to catch some clue to Luke's whereabouts or at least how he was feeling. And something felt different now. She didn't feel the constant unease anymore, which had been her companion for weeks now, and instead she felt ... safe. It was the only way she could really describe it. It felt like she was safe.
"Your highness?" Winter looked at her from the doorway, not wanting to intrude if Leia was not done with her exercises.
"Come on in, Winter," Leia replied, as she unfolded herself from her cross-legged position. "I was just done."
"I brought some afternoon snacks for you," she said as she positioned her tray on the low table. Without comment she set two cups on it and started pouring tea into them.
Leia smiled gratefully and stood up. Winter always knew exactly when she would need something and made sure she didn't forget to feed herself while she worked. "Thank you."
She sat down on the couch and thoughtfully started munching on a biscuit. As usual Winter did not miss any change in mood.
"Is something wrong, your highness? You look thoughtful."
Leia shook her head. "No ... actually it feels like the opposite. It feels like something is right."
Winter looked at her inquisitively. "How so?"
Leia frowned in thought. "It's hard to describe ... it just feels like things have changed and – it feels safe."
"Safe?"
Leia nodded. "Yes."
Winter looked thoughtful for a moment as she digested that. "Do you think it has something to do with Luke?"
Her stomach automatically started knotting up at the mention of him, but it didn't feel as bad as usual. Actually, it quickly settled back down again. "Yes ... yes, I do think it has something to do with him. But I can't figure out what might have happened to cause such a change."
"Hopefully it is a good sign," Winter said with a smile. "Perhaps one of the raids where more successful than expected and he has been found."
Leia felt her hopes rise with those words, but didn't dare believe her; she knew how dangerous false hope could be. Instead she nodded slowly. "It could be ... at least that is an explanation that makes sense."
"And in which case we should hear about it soon," Winter said.
Leia nodded and sipped her cup. "Yes. Of course, if they haven't found him then I still don't know what might have caused this."
Winter shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe all that matters is that you feel that things are right again."
Leia nodded. She did want to believe that Luke was all right and safe, but she couldn't let herself believe that until he was safely back with her on Coruscant. She suppressed a sigh as she realized she would once again have to wait for more information and she was sick and tired of waiting. But there was nothing she could do about it. She silently swore that she would take her jedi training much more serious once Luke returned so something like this could never happen again. And with that thought she realized she suddenly felt sure that Luke would return.
She settled back into the cushions, feeling more optimistic than she had in weeks.
§
"You wanted to see me, General?" Iella Wessiri stood at ease in General Cracken's doorway and he waved her into his office.
"We just got the preliminary data dumps from our raids," he said without preamble.
Iella stood a little straighter at those words. She knew both Corran and Wedge had been part of one of the battles and she hoped they had made it through it all right. "The battles went well then?"
Cracken nodded. "Very well. Despite our short time to prepare, we actually didn't suffer too great loses. Your friends in Rogue Squadron also all made it back, in case you were curious," he added.
Iella smiled gratefully. "Thank you, General. I'm happy to hear that. I guess this means we are back to crunching data."
Cracken nodded. "That's exactly what this means. I've already put the droids on the task and called in our other people working on this, but I'm counting on you and Winter to lead this."
"Yes, sir," Iella answered. "Have you spoken to Winter yet?"
General Cracken shook his head. "I have only sent out the call to her to come in and told her to go directly to you. That's all. I count on the two of you to give us some more specific targets." His eyes bored into hers. "I want results, Wessiri. You managed to narrow things down, but we need to do better. This time we need definite targets we can send intelligence and commando teams to. Time is running out."
Iella nodded, her face serious. "I understand, General. I'll get right on it." She threw him a salute and he returned it.
"May the Force be with you."
"May the Force be with all of us," she replied before turning around and heading back to her own office. She needed a pot of the strong caf and then there were a lot of data to be sorted through. Good thing she would have Winter helping her.