- - - - - Turos Noth on the Planet Teyr - - - - -
Tess Naberrie shrunk back up the Falcon's ramp as Han began to overdo the personification of his alias by barking orders at the hangar workers.
"Three hundred percent premium?!" he fumed. "Are you kidding me?! Do you know who I am?!"
"Sir, you could have landed at the orbital facility and taken a ferry down to—"
"My wife is sick with gods knows what—I don't have time for a kriffing ferry!" Tess watched Han root through his pockets for credits and shoveled them into the worker's hand. "Five hundred credits. I want this planet's best two hovercabs—one for my wife and I to get to the nearest medical facility and the other for my niece and her caregiver to get to a hotel."
Tess plucked at the white gloves she borrowed from Leia's footlocker, seriously hoping that her caregiver was going to be Chewbacca and not Threepio. The gloves would have been big on her if her hands weren't bandaged up so thickly. She looked down at her red jumpsuit and teal translucent vest that cascaded down to the height of her ankles, reminded of a similar outfit that she wore to Cloud City on Bespin. It had been quite a while since the group used aliases, but they always dressed as higher-class to get more respect and fewer questions.
Han eventually returned to the ship.
"He bought it," the Corellian announced. "We're going with the same married couple and adopted niece story that we used on the ore miners on Dorvalla. Now, your favorite part. What code names have you got up your sleeve, kid?"
"I wish I could just be Tess right now…" she confessed softly, avoiding Han's eyes as she continued to pick at her gloves. The couldn't feel the touch on her left hand. Not one bit.
"Hey," Han said gently, putting a hand on each of Tess' shoulders. "I know you're scared…but I need you to focus right now, okay?" Tess nodded slightly. "A hovercab is going to take you and Chewie to—"
"I want to stay with Leia," Tess interrupted, her already unbearable anxiety heightened at the thought of leaving her sister.
"Now, don't go all electric on me," Han warned. "This will be hard to pull off if someone sees your lightening rod side. I promise I'll send for you and Chewie as soon as I can." The former smuggler brought a hand to Tess' cheek, making sure she was looking at him and listening. "You got it?"
Tess hesitated. Han gave her a look and she finally offered him a nod. Chewbacca came around the corner moments later with a barely-awake princess in his hairy arms.
"General Mulx," called a voice from the hangar. "Your hovercabs, sir." Tess raised her eyebrows.
"Mulx?"
"Yeah… no idea where that one came from," Had admitted. "Still need first names, though. Got any?"
As if she had rehearsed, Tess pointed out each of their aliases. Han and Leia were Karth and Raima Mulx, and Tess was their adopted niece Dania. Han grinned.
"I don't know how you do it, kid."
"I don't either," Tess admitted with a shrug of her shoulders.
Chewbacca asked if it was time to go, and suddenly even Han did not entirely want to. Tess plowed forward and wrapped him in a hug.
"Promise you'll take care of her?" Tess whispered, choking back tears.
"If you promise to take care of yourself."
They finally broke the embrace after another call from the hangar. Han relieved Chewbacca of the princess.
"You know what to do, buddy," he told the Wookie. Leia stirred in Han's arms, but at this point she didn't even have the energy to talk. Tess stood on her toes to give Leia a kiss on the cheek.
"I love you," she whispered. The princess' eyes opened just for a moment in response.
Finally, the group parted ways, aliases memorized and objectives clear. Still, Tess could not shake Luke's warnings from her mind.
Tess and Chewbacca remained silent for most of the hovercab ride to Skyrail Inn.
"The Rift Skyrail monorail train flies right through the lobby," the white-haired hovercab driver had told them. "Ain't no better sight than the Teyr Rift from the Rail."
He was talking about the 4,000 kilometer long canyon that made Teyr such a tourist attraction. Tess had read about it in her studies around the time the Echo Base was placed on Hoth. Though Teyr was gorgeous, Tess still had to place Alderaan first on the list of the most beautiful places she had ever seen. And so far the hovercab ride was a nice way to see the city.
Chewie didn't say anything about it, but Tess imagined he would disagree. The seven-foot Wookie was too large for the cab, so he was forced to sit slumped over with his knees pressed hard against the empty front passengers' seat.
As they neared a city called Turos Noth, the traffic grew heavier. Chewie spoke to the driver in Shriiwook and Tess spoke for him.
"He's wondering if today is a holiday here," she translated. The driver let out a deep laugh.
"On what planet do they not know about the victory at Endor? We blew up the Empire's space station! We might as well have killed them all!"
Chewie and Tess exchanged grins of pride.
The traffic around the cab became less of other cabs and more of a huge, human crowd. They were cheering and smiling and they all faced the Rift Skyrail to the east. Under it, there was a large stage. The hovercab driver caught Tess looking at it.
"Now that, girl, is a show you need to see before you leave here."
Han Solo—or Karth Mulx, as far as anyone else was concerned—paced around the medical room assigned to his fake wife. The medics had moved her from the bed to a bacta tank and Han was more than tempted to take advantage of a place to rest. But he couldn't.
A knock on the door stopped Han's pacing.
"General Mulx?" a male medic asked. Han nodded and shook the man's hand. He couldn't help but notice a possible Corellian accent from the medic. If Han weren't Karth Mulx at the moment, he probably would have asked about it. He asked about Leia instead.
"How is she?"
"Your wife is stable," the medic reassured Han. "We've diagnosed her with blastonecrosis, which sounds scary, but you got here just in time. It causes fatigue and loss of appetite, and it almost always fatal if left untreated." Han stopped breathing. "But its nothing that time in the bacta tank won't cure."
"Kriff, say that first next time!" Han exclaimed. He pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting a stress-induced headache. "How long will she be in there?"
"It's hard to tell," the medic admitted. "But I would guess about two or three days in the tank and a week of in-patient recovery."
Han frowned. Mon Mothma wouldn't take kindly to that. They were supposed to be in Coruscant before the week was out. Regardless, Han knew Mon Mothma would eventually understand that Leia's life was at stake and she would be greatful that the princess got back in one piece.
Chewbacca went from corner to corner of their hotel room, feeling every wall and examining every light.
"Chewie, the place is not bugged," Tess assured her Wookie friend. "No one knows we're here." Chewbacca ignored her.
Tess collapsed on the large bed, feeling herself melt into the covers.
"We need one of these on the Falcon," she decided aloud.
Done with inspecting that room, Chewbacca scooped Tess up into his large arms.
"Chewie!" she squealed. "What are you doing?"
"We have to check our other room," Chewie explained in Shriiwook. He pushed open the front door to the first hotel room and crossed to open the second.
"Excuse me, vermin!" shouted an angry man's voice from down the hall. "What are you doing to that child?!"
Tess' glance shot up to a man with purple hair, a black tunic, and matching black pants. His eyebrows looked painted on purple to match his head. Chewbacca growled at the stranger, his height towering above the human.
"I'm sorry to bother you, sir," Tess answered quickly, glaring at Chewie. "Actually, this Wookie is Gorlbakkurr, my bodyguard."
"So you're alright then?"
Tess nodded. Chewbacca accommodatingly stopped looking so menacing and put the young rebel down. The man still seemed to be looking at them oddly.
"Is there something else?"
"What's your name, child?" inquired the man. "I can't help but think you look familiar."
"Dani," Tess replied quickly. "Dania Mulx. I'm visiting with my aunt and uncle."
"Hmph," the man grunted. "Well, I'm off." At that, he spun on a heel and sauntered over to the elevator. Tess watched him walk off, then turned to Chewie.
"Let's go easy on the Wookie escort service in public from now on."
Han plowed through the crowd outside the Rift Skyrail. Hovercabs would take him to the south side of Turos Noth, but there were none on that side to get him back. He would have to make it through the crowd if he wanted transportation to the Skyrail Inn.
Han still didn't feel right about having no one back at the hospital with Leia. Even if she was in the bacta tank the entire time, he just had an unshakable bad feeling. Luke was probably the one to put it in his head with his grave Jedi warnings.
Suddenly, the crowd intensified. They started cheering a chanting a word, or maybe a name. Scab? Han looked up for the source of the excitement. About the Falcon's length across the crowd, a man with bright purple hair and a black tunic and pant ascended the stage.
"Citizens of Turos Noth," he projected through a microphone. "This. Is. Zkab!" The crowd screamed with enthusiasm. Zkab. This man had to be some kind of Teyr celebrity with the reaction he was provoking. "Guess who we found today?"
Han craned his neck to see. Coming up the left side of the stage was a man in Imperial uniform lead by two others dressed like Zkab. To Han's surprise, as the train passed over the Skyrail, a holoprojector screen began to descent from its edge. It showed close-ups of Zkab and the Imperial on the stage. Zkab grabbed the officer—who didn't look a day older than thirty years old—by the back of the neck.
"Meet Admiral Arka," Zkab said, shaking the young Imperial around a bit. "He piloted a ship trying to get some of the torture devices held by the second Death Star before it blew up. And he thought he could hide them out on our planet!"
The mob of people and Zkab alike broke into laughter, and the holoprojection changed. Now it showed three labels at the bottom of the screen—'BLASTER', 'TRAIN', and 'CROWD'. Han watched curiously as the show continued.
"So, what do you guys want?" Zkab suddenly pulled a blaster out of his tunic and shoved it to the admiral's temple. "How many of you want to see Admiral Arka get his head blown off?"
The crowd was mostly quiet. Only a few groups in the far back shared their applause. Han watched wide-eyed. What the hell was this?
Up on the screen, a small bar rose above the 'BLASTER' label. Zkab continued.
"Alright, never a favorite. How about we toss this guy up on the Skyrail track and watch the train crush every Imperial bone in his body?!"
In contrast to the first reaction, for this one at least half of the crowd jumped up and cheered. A bar went halfway up above the 'TRAIN' label on the screen.
"Okay, Turos Noth, last one," Zkab warned. "How many of you would rather deal with this son of a bitch yourselves?!"
The crowd suddenly went wild. Han felt himself getting pushed back and forth. As expected, the bar above 'CROWD' on the holoprojector screen towered above the other two.
"Well then," Zkab concluded. "Looks like the results are clear." Admiral Arka gave the local celebrity a pleading look. Zkab just pushed the man off he stage, into the crowd. "Have at him!"
Han watched in horror as the bloodcurdling screams of the unseen admiral rung in his ears. He was somewhere in the front of the crowd, being savagely beaten and ripped to pieces by the people of Turos Noth.