Author's Note: This is a longish chapter. For me. There just wasn't a good place to break in the middle.
Chapter Nine
Their stay on Q'Alde seemed almost idyllic, except for the feeling that nothing was getting done. And that they were being watched all the time.
Leia and Han took walks through the garden in the mornings to discuss their plans for that day and the events of the previous one, as well as to meet with individual delegates. It seemed A'mar led the faction in favor of joining the Alliance, but there were many who still opposed the idea. Leia found it frustrating that she couldn't identify who exactly was leading the other faction, as the Q'Alde were amazingly indirect.
One morning, Leia and Han were walking alone, their normal entourage apparently taking the day off. They were both silent, lost in thought. Han was frowning at yet another perfectly sculpted mound of vegetation when Leia suddenly chuckled.
"What?"
Leia smiled. "Remember Matil?"
"Dark guy the size of a small meteor?"
"Yeah. I was just thinking about what he said. About you being my protector." She laughed. "The smuggler becomes the princess's protector. Sounds like a fairy tale."
Han said, "It's probably what they'll be writing in the history books years from now. You'll be the famous princess who saved the galaxy and I'll be a footnote—the fascinatingly obscure character everyone speculates about."
Leia laughed, then her face fell.
"What is it, Your Worship? Want me to be more than a footnote? Can't live without me?"
Leia said, "I was just thinking how all I'll be is a footnote to Alderaan. The princess who couldn't save her home."
Han couldn't think of anything to lighten the mood after that, so he just caught Leia's hand in his. She stiffened; then relaxed her fingers around his as they walked down the sunlit path.
Three weeks later, Han looked up as the doors to the suite opened with a whoosh and Leia strode in, her white skirts swirling and the ends of the colored sash fluttering from the knot at her hip.
The doors closed, and the princess collapsed into a seat opposite Han.
"I'm getting nowhere," Leia sighed, fumbling with the knot.
Han thought that a woman who looked like Leia had when she came in had to be getting somewhere, but understood the sentiment nonetheless.
"It's a waste of our time…You know what they think? They think I'm being set up as the next empress or president or whatever. They don't say it, but they hint at it, and it's their main objection to the whole deal. I can practically hear them think: another human in power."
Han put down the latest reports from the Falcon's communications and said, "Isn't the whole point of the rebellion to do away with the Emperor?"
Leia rubbed her forehead and looked up at Han. Her face was drawn, her eyes full of worry and fear.
Han pulled back slightly. "That's crazy—"
"I didn't even figure it out until I came here. The Rebellion is going to need someone to take charge—someone they know will help restore power to the individual systems, someone everyone knows, someone who will look at the whole picture. Who better than the princess without a home?" Her voice was bitter.
Han was silent. She had a point. The diplomatic missions, the lack of official rank, they all made sense if you thought about power voids and the very recognizable princess.
Leia had continued to hold his eyes. Now she dropped her head back onto the seat. "I'm going to have to do it, too. It's the last thing I want—to be stuck with all that responsibility and intrigue and debate—but I'll have to do it so we don't end up with an even bigger mess."
Han shook his head. Minutes passed in silence.
Han finally said, "What do you want to do?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes," Han said firmly. "What is the one thing you would do if it weren't for the Rebellion, the Empire, all of it? What would it be, Leia, if you could stop being the "Last Princess of Alderaan" and do anything?"
Leia laughed, still a bit bitter, but with real humor this time. "I don't know! I know nothing about piloting, or mining, or farming, or, or…entertainment. I could be a tour guide on half a dozen planets, for all that's worth, but I can't do anything useful."
Han shrugged. "I didn't ask what you could do. I asked what you wanted to do. What did you want to be when you were a child?"
Leia said, with a perfectly straight face, "I wanted to be Jexa Sune."
Han blinked, honestly surprised. Jexa Sune was the epitome of bad entertainment. She was the main character in a serial, and a woman who went around beating up spacers, bounty hunters, and anyone else that presumably had a connection to some seedy underground organization that wanted her dead. She did all this, of course, while dressed in skimpy outfits entirely impractical for space (or anywhere else, for that matter) and having myriad love affairs along the way. Not only that, but the effects were bad, the camera work was worse, and the dialogue was awful.
Leia grinned.
Han laughed, but then thought about Leia's outfit on Tatooine, her actions on any of the planets where they had gotten in trouble over the last two years, and her aim with a blaster.
"Princess, I think you have Jexa Sune beat. Now all you need is long-lost relatives showing up out of nowhere."
"Well," Leia deadpanned, "I was adopted."
They both grinned at that. A comfortable silence stretched until Leia realized it was comfortable.
Leia stood up, finishing undoing the knot. "Seriously, though. I'm not sure what else I can do to convince the Q'Aldei that the Rebellion isn't just for the humans being oppressed. If nothing changes in another week, I think we should leave."
Han nodded, looking forward to being back on the Falcon and in space.
"I'm going to change and rest for a bit. I'll see you at dinner." She kept her voice light and casual as she left Han. Han spent the next hour and a half mulling over the last few minutes' revelations, alternately alarmed, outraged, and blasé about the whole thing. Who was Han Solo to judge politics? On the other hand, who were they to use Leia as their pawn? And why did he care?
Dinner, as it had been for the past three weeks since they had arrived on Q'Alde, was a quiet affair, with only Han, Leia, and the top four officials present. For the last three weeks Han had stayed virtually silent, letting Leia handle the discussions and contributing only when asked about his role in the Rebellion and/or the Falcon.
Tonight the conversation, Han noted dully, was centering on the importance of landscaping in establish governmental offices. It seemed this was of vital importance to the Q'Aldei, and helped explain why their offices looked more like parks than Coruscanti skyscrapers. Han would have kept his mouth shut tonight as well, settling into his chair to wait out what he considered interminable boredom, but they had gone over the same subject at least once every week, and Han was tired of hearing the same thing.
"The pha'sha of the area is the most important aspect of—"
"Your pardon, eminences." He saw Leia turn with that slightly outraged, slightly horrified face she seemed to reserve for him when she knew he was going to purposely make some social gaff. Han ignored her and leaned forward.
"I know the pha'sha is very important and that you would probably like to discuss this until all our feet have fallen asleep, but I have to say that, as a representative of the Rebellion, I find what you are doing here intolerable. If you can't see that we're here in good faith, then you should have told us to get our backsides out of your system the moment you decided you weren't going to accept our offer. We've spent enough time bending over backwards to your whims and discussing gardens and the proper balance of flora and fauna," Leia winced, "and now it's time to decide."
Silence.
Han watched as Leia's expression changed from one of horrified disbelief to murderous rage (he could see her debate all the best ways to kill him) to something that surprised the hell out of him.
She was relieved.
She stood. "Captain Solo is right."
Han gaped; then hurried to stand as well.
"While I was prepared to give you another week, we have been kept in limbo too long. Time is slipping away from us, and if you and your people are not prepared to support us and join our fight, I am afraid that we must leave at once."
Her eyes flashed. "Together I am sure that we could do much good, but there seems to be something keeping you from deciding in our favor. Our cause is worth the risk; I suggest you make your choice, and quickly. We will leave within the hour."
And with that, Leia swept out of the chamber, Han close behind her.
A few seconds later Leia said, "If you ever do that again…"
Han cocked a smile. "That presumes I'm ever in a position to do that again."
Leia made a small shrugging gesture with her hands. "You can't know how many times I've wished to do just that. It was a very bad idea, but it was worth every minute of explaining I'll have to spend on Mon Mothma." She smiled her own self-satisfied smile until she reached their suite.
"How quickly can you pack?" she asked him as she opened her own room's door and found the suitcase she had emptied when they had arrived.
Han headed for his own room. "Two minutes, tops."
They finished at about the same time and started immediately for the Falcon.
They were stopped just a few hallways from their suites by A'mar.
"My apologies, but you must follow me," he said. "There has been a problem, and now I and others feel obligated to correct it."
Han and Leia looked at each other.
"What kind of problem?" Leia asked.
A'mar bobbed his head. "You were followed here, Princess, by an emissary of the Empire. We have been debating whether or not to make a deal with him. Your speech tonight settled most in favor of joining your Rebellion," the two humans again exchanged a look—this time of surprise—"but one disagreed. He has gone to the Empire's emissary, to reveal our plans and your presence here. I must get you to your ship secretly and quickly. That way we can deny you ever were here."
Leia nodded reluctantly. Han said, "If you're lying to us…"
A'mar shrugged. "If I lie, we are already dead."
Leia knew this was true. The Empire would not allow rebels, especially not non-human ones, to live if they knew the whole truth. It followed that the Empire merely suspected their presence.
They followed A'mar through more and more corridors, in a direction that seemed downhill, walking for what seemed like hours. Leia began to wish she had taken another two minutes to change her shoes. Just as she thought it, A'mar stopped in front of her.
"Here," he said. "Your ship is above us."
Leia looked up and saw a grate sketched against the twilight sky above. There was a ladder in the side of a long shaft leading up to the grate. Han gave her a boost up and followed her as soon as she was far enough up.
"Thank you," Leia called down to A'mar.
"We will send someone to your base soon. You behaved honorably with us tonight, and we will return the favor."
And with those words, the being turned and was gone.
Leia reach the grate. She saw the Falcon not more than a few hundred yards away, sitting in the middle of a quiet shipyard.
"We'll have to run for it," she called down to Han. "You ready?"
"As ever," came the reply.
A loud scraping as Leia pushed the grate up and away from the top of the hole. Leia jumped out and scrambled for the only cover she could see, which was some crates over to her left. Han once again found himself following the princess. They leaned against the crates.
"There isn't any more cover between here and there," Leia whispered.
"I don't see anyone." Han frowned. "I don't like this. It's too easy."
Leia said, "You think the patrol was sent to give word that we were coming?"
Han pulled out his blaster. "Yeah. But why…?" He sighed. Neither he nor Leia could think of a good reason why the had escaped Sunara, or why the patrol had just let them go. He shook his head quickly and said, "Might as well get this over with. On the count of three. One, two," and the two took off as fast as they could straight toward the Falcon, Han putting a little distance between himself and Leia.
Han paused at the bottom of the Falcon's ramp to wait for Leia.
"Someone's on the ship," he hissed as she neared.
"How can you possibly know that?" she asked.
"I just know."
Leia sighed, but remembered how Han had followed her lead on Tatooine, even though neither could see. If Han said someone was on his ship, someone was on his ship. She wished she had a blaster.
Leia realized there were only two or three people on the Falcon right away. For once thing, there was not enough space to hide too many—at least not if you discounted the smuggling compartments, which were great for hiding and not so much for fighting. For another, the fire Han and Leia found themselves under was comparatively light, indicating that the beings on the ship had spread out.
Leia smelled burning material—probably her skirts—as she dashed across the open corridor to the comparative safety of an alcove just out of reach of their enemies' blaster bolts. She tucked herself in just behind Han and waited for him to move. When he did, (running straight toward the blasters, which Leia acknowledged as both crazy and necessary this time) she took off in the opposite direction, using the regularly spaced bulkhead supports for cover. There were no blaster bolts coming from this direction, but Leia knew better than to suppose she was off the hook. She reached a corner and glanced cautiously around it, jerking her head back when blaster fire erupted suddenly and lanced into the bulkhead just beyond where her head had been.
She heard Han shouting on the other side of the ship, and was struck by a moment of concern. She shook it off, ignored whatever Han was yelling, and whirled around the corner.
She somehow miraculously managed to avoid getting shot and kicked her assailant (tall, human) in the knee. He staggered back but stayed standing. Leia didn't even blink, but punched him as hard as she could. He fell back against the bulkhead, and Leia disarmed him, shooting him before he had a chance to overpower her. She crouched, listening for any more intruders, but did not hear any. She became aware that she was shaking, and that Han was still yelling.
She ignored the shaking, trusting her feet to work properly as she ran down the corridor again, stolen blaster ready. As she came to the other side of the ship, she saw two bodies, one of which she recognized as the bounty hunter from Sunara.
Han had stopped yelling and was now just cursing under his breath. As she saw what he was looking at, she heard her own cry of dismay.
Pieces of the Falcon lay strewn about, components Leia recognized from the hyperdrive