We have a New Year, folks! Thank you to the readers and reviewers for being some of the highlights of my 2014. I hope this new chapter inspires some reviews as well.

Chapter 18: There Will Be No Rubbing

Princess Leia frowned. Rindew was a valuable deep undercover operative and source of information for the Alliance. He had cultivated several reliable assets to spy for the Alliance over the last few standard years. These assets would provide information to Rindew on a more or less regular basis. In turn, he would send the information through pre-established channels where the information would be analyzed, disseminated to the pertinent Rebel cell and utilized accordingly. There was never any direct contact from him so as to preserve his cover and protect the assets. If Rindew was contacting the Rebellion headquarters directly to establish a meeting, there was a problem. A big one.

The level of secrecy of his undercover existence meant only someone very high up in the Alliance could meet with him … meaning General Rieekan or Leia would have to go. Rieekan couldn't be pulled away right now, no matter how much he might enjoy the break from his heavy workload. It was vital that he stayed here and concentrated on the transition to the Hoth base as quickly as possible. If Leia took over for him, it would take time for her to get fully up to speed, ultimately slowing down those operations. As for the Rebel's current hidden mountain base, the colonels had taken on much of the day-to-day ongoing operations, keeping Rieekan alerted to any problems. This helped, but it wasn't preferable. While it enabled Rieekan to focus on the transition, there were too many things that could slip through unintentionally.

Getting to Hoth was their foremost goal at the moment. It was imperative the Imperials didn't find them anytime soon. Their cell of the Alliance was busy trying to hide out and regroup while they looked for an opportunity to strike a severe blow to the Emperor and his Imperial minions. While destroying the Death Star well over two standard years ago had struck a significant blow, it had been more of a desperate attempt at survival than a well-planned out attack to take down the Empire.

It was then the Alliance split into different cells. As part of the secret Rebel Alliance High Command and no longer able to take part in her public role in the disbanded Senate, Leia took the lead on one of the new cells along with the more experienced Rieekan.

Leia would do what she could to ease the General's workload in the meantime, but she knew she would have to be the one to rendezvous with Rindew.

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"Aw, I'm sure she's not that mad, Chewie," Solo brushed off his partners accusation. He hadn't told the Wookiee anything that happened, but then again, it hadn't been necessary. Leia storming off the Falcon so angry that she couldn't see straight had said enough.

Chewie growled more steadily this time as Solo shifted uneasily in his seat at the base mess. As usual, they sat in a spot where they could see who was coming and going while keeping their backs to the wall. It was a habit that had helped them both stay alive more than once and Solo had no intention of dropping it just because they were on the Rebel base and 'safe.'

"I don't care what you think. I'm not apologizin'," Solo said trying to appear indifferent to the situation as he casually sipped from his mug.

Of course, Chewie was onto Solo's game and tried reminding him of a few things. For instance, Leia had sent a supply sergeant over with an armful of medical supplies for the Falcon shortly after they landed even though she was obviously angry with Solo.

"So what? Nobody asked her to do that."

To himself, Solo thought, If you only knew what she asked me to do, Buddy. Truthfully, he knew the Princess was pretty upset, but he was a little confused by it. Since when did she get bent out of shape to that degree when he said anything? Unless… had he hit closer to the mark than expected on the first volley of his 'confrontation' plan?

A rather exasperated whuff curled back Chewbacca's lips.

"That's the point?" Solo was indignant, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Chewie shook his head, grumbling something about not having time to teach Solo about being nice.

"I never said I was tryin' to get on her good side."

Chewie accused him of being incapable of such an act. The Wookiee's accusations usually seemed to have a way of getting to his Captain.

"What makes you think I couldn't if I wanted to?"

Standing up, Chewie again shook his head in frustration and barking his own intentions.

"If do you find Luke, tell him I'll catch up to him later," Solo called after him.

Once Chewbacca was gone, Solo released a deep breath of relief. If he had told Chewie that he loved Leia, the sentimental furball would have been full of questions. Most of the time, his co-pilot acted like he already took it for granted that Solo felt something for her anyhow. So, why go ahead and confirm it when he promised Leia he would keep their last mission activities quiet? Nah, it would be better to hold the status quo until he could get her to come around.

He supposed the big ball of fuzz was right, though, he could be a little nicer. He wasn't trying to make her outright hate him, after all. It wouldn't prevent him from confronting her, so maybe he would just try to be a little easier on her instead. Maybe.

At any rate, he should at least go talk to the Princess and see if she had calmed down at all.

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"If he wants a face-to-face meeting, it must be serious," Rieekan added grimly as they walked out of the IntCom room. "Or a trap."

"I'll go. You can't be spared right now, General," Leia argued before he had the chance to say anything.

"Princess, I'm not positive that's a good idea," Rieekan was not about to be shut out of this decision.

"Let's call a strategy meeting as soon as possible and work this out. We can't afford too many mistakes at this juncture and it's about to get tricky," Leia said while running several issues through her head.

Turning to face the Princess, Rieekan grinned at her terminology, "Tricky? Sounds like Captain Solo rubbed off on you during your mission."

A picture of her seeing Han meet her at the bottom of the stairs before they took their vows, then another of her stroking the pilot's chin scar, and then his ensuing remark flashed rapidly through her mind.

She scowled, just when Solo hadn't invaded her thoughts for twenty entire minutes! She didn't have time for obsessing about him right now.

"More like rubbed me the wrong way," Leia answered with finality.

Watching the Princess catch herself from smiling and morph it into a final sour look, the General decided it best not to pursue it beyond that. Obviously, something had happened between them on this trip. Amused, he conjectured it wouldn't be long before the base gossip would have the latest rumors circulating on these two.

"General?"

Rieekan stepped away to talk to the Lieutenant who requested his attention, revealing in his wake a smiling Captain Solo who had only this second ambled up behind the General.

"Aha! Now this time you couldn't be talking about me 'cause - "

Instantly, Leia mind supplied several suggestive paths that Han could possibly spiral down using the idea of rubbing her the wrong way - or otherwise- knowing his deviant mind. Unwilling to further contemplate the appalling idea of him voicing even the mildest option, she knew she had to act fast.

"What brings you to the Command Center, Captain?" She cut him off brusquely, her voice cold and vibroblade sharp.

Solo frowned. She was evidently still upset about before, but he took it as a good sign that she hadn't called him by some insulting epithet. Then again, she was in the Command Center and would want to sound in control.

"I came to check in." Han held out his hand as Rieekan rejoined the Princess, "Hello, General."

"Glad to see you back, Solo." Rieekan smiled, shaking Solo's hand. "I understand you ran into a few mechanical problems on the return trip."

While that was true, Han wondered what Leia had told Rieekan, if anything, about their stay on Uluruan. He felt the urge to look over to Leia for some sort of sign, but that would be a dead giveaway and Carlist Rieekan was nobody's fool. "Uh, yeah, the navicomputer slowed us down. It'll take a few days for Chewie and me to get to the bottom of it."

"The important thing is the mission was successful and you both made it back safely. Good job." Rieekan had always made it plain that he knew the Falcon was an valuable ship to have around for the Rebellion, but that it also meant dealing with its idiosyncrasies.

"Thanks, General," Solo nodded. Not like he needed the recognition, but it felt good to be appreciated for his efforts. After all, many of his missions that involved the Princess fell into the category of 'anything except simple' and this last one had proved to be the most complicated of them all.

Leia had enough. Right now, the sight of the smuggler was enough to irk her and she had a mountain of work to do. Every moment spent in Solo's presence was time wasted when she could be doing something constructive. It was bad enough that she had to fight with herself to keep from thinking about him when he wasn't there. Being angry with him hadn't done much to keep him off of her mind either. Now, it was absolutely impossible for her thoughts not to race when he was standing in front of her with that cockeyed grin. She simply had to make an effort to distance herself from him as much as she could for as long as she could. Hopefully, it would help her move past Uluruan.

Without acknowledging Solo in the least, Leia turned to Rieekan. "I need to get caught up. Would you alert me when you've scheduled the strategy meeting, General?"

"Yes, Princess. I'll see that you're informed." Rieekan nodded to her before she turned on her heel and headed in the direction of Command Offices. Well aware of her icy snub of Solo, he leaned in towards Solo and spoke quietly, "Should I even ask?"

Solo shook his head. "Not if you want to hear a new one."

Rieekan chuckled. "Some other time then, but if you have a couple of minutes, I do have a few things I'd like to ask you."

"About what?" Solo played dumb, hoping the General meant something other than the subject of Leia and himself or Uluruan.

"Could you come to my office? I'd like to speak in private."