Corellian engineers were among the first to make hyperdrive technology practical for everyday use, and the systems residents were still inordinately proud of their contribution to the construction of the galactic village. As a notoriously competitive subrace of humans, Corellians were also among the first to innovate means of measuring relative velocities in the abstract dimensions of hyperspace, which, naturally, quickly translated into racing. A favorite challenge in modern times was an attempt to beat a massless packet of information—typically containing the announcement that the race had commenced—to a previously determined starting point. Regular updates to the efficiency of the holonet under the Empire meant that no one had successfully won one of these races in more than two decades, and previous records remained under significant suspicion of cheating, leading many philosophers to intone the now common adage: "nothing travels faster than knowledge."
While this saying was about to become exceptionally relevant to Leia Organa, at the moment it was one of the last things on her mind. The first thing on her mind was her concern for Han Solo, who was still unconscious and who was rapidly developing a monstrous looking black eye. Her second concern, which she had been successfully ignoring since their capture on Endor, was becoming more pressing by the minute.
She sized up the trooper who was sitting in front of her, not bothering to stay at attention as he took a shift guarding the prisoners. He looked as dejected as one could hidden behind the faceless mask. She opted to make her request, figuring the worst he could do at this point was shoot her, and that seemed unlikely.
"Hey," she said abruptly, noting with some amusement that the stormtrooper jerked slightly in surprise. He must have been dozing. "I have to pee."
"Can't you wait?" he responded gruffly.
"Not if we're going all the way to Coruscant," she responded, deliberately using Imperial Center's true name to see if it got a reaction. He didn't seem to notice. "Will you just take me to the 'fresher?"
"I'll have to ask," he muttered, making no move to get up.
"What do you think I'm going to do, run away?"
"Maybe."
"In hyperspace? With no weapons? Outnumbered three to one? Really?"
"Maybe."
"Wow," Leia said finally, flexing her muscles to stretch them as best as she could while strapped into the chair. "You think really highly of me. Maybe you should ask one of your buddies in the cockpit if they feel tough enough to guard me for thirty seconds while I use the 'fresher."
Logic hadn't worked, but insulting his manhood did. The trooper stood up, reaching behind the chair to detach the cuffs binding her to the chair and yanking her upright by the upper arm. He led her to the back of the ship, pushing her into the tiny 'fresher unit and closing the door behind her. "Hurry up," he barked.
A minute later he was walking her back to her seat when the door to the cockpit slid open. The pilot, the only Imperial not decked out in full trooper gear, sauntered in.
"What the hell?" he asked. "You're not supposed to release them?"
"It's fine," mumbled the trooper, shoving Leia back into the chair and snapping the cuffs back around her wrists.
"There were specific orders not to touch her," the pilot continued, "They even told me that. Twice. You are going to be in some serious deep…"
"He just took me to the 'fresher," Leia interrupted, realizing what the pilot was implying. "So don't get any ideas."
"Honey, you are flattering yourself if you think I'm interested," the pilot sneered. "I like my women full sized."
Wanting to take advantage of the fact that she had them talking, Leia turned back to the trooper. "He'd know the answer to my question," she said brightly.
"Question? What question?" the trooper asked in confusion as the pilot laughed.
"Nice try, honey," he said, leaning over her, "But everything on this ship is on a need-to-know basis." He grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "Maybe you'd be more comfortable if you took a little nap like your boyfriend there."
At that moment, Han let out a loud snore. The pilot laughed.
"I thought you needed me unharmed when you hand me over to your Imperial masters," Leia responded, whipping her head to the side to free herself from his grip. He twitched his nose.
"I'm sure they'd understand if I let them know what a pain in the ass you are." He cuffed her on the back of the head, hard enough to send her flailing forward uncomfortably as her progress was halted by the metal binders.
"What the hell is going on back there?" The other trooper opened the cockpit door and leaned back into the cabin. Giving his two companions a suspicious look, he waved them both up into the front of the shuttle. "Leave them for a minute. They aren't going anywhere." The pilot shot Leia a dirty look as he marched back up front, slapping hard on the button to close the door behind him.
"Unghhhh." Han moaned, his head flopping back as he blinked. Adjusting herself back into a better position, Leia sent a prayer of thanks that he hadn't been awake to see the pilot smack her on the head. He probably would have gotten himself killed.
"Han?" she said softly, turning as far as she could towards him. He groaned again.
"What? Where?"
"We're still on the shuttle," she told him, keeping her voice low so as not to exacerbate what she assumed was a mighty headache. "They're taking us to Coruscant."
"Why?" Han blinked as he looked over at her, fighting a wave of nausea would have threatened to empty his stomach—if there had been anything in it.
"The Imperial fleet was in chaos," she explained, a grin lighting up her face. "They couldn't raise any of the Destroyers…Han, I think we might have done it."
"Shh," he warned her. "Don't get too optimistic yet. We don't know what's going on."
"I think you are the first person to ever accuse me of being an optimist," she said. Then her smile disappeared. "They're going to hand us over to the ruling council."
"Why?" Han was perplexed. "Those guys are just a bunch of weirdos."
"Weirdos that have been running the galaxy," Leia corrected. "Weirdos to whom Imperial Intelligence reports. Weirdos that are going to be next in the chain of command if by some chance we did take out both Palpatine and Vader."
"Okay, I get it," Han interrupted. "So what do we do?"
She ducked her head down, carefully watching the door to the cockpit. "They let me up to use the 'fresher. The release for the cuffs is somewhere in the back of the chair. Maybe if you could get up, you could get me loose and we could try to take them down?"
Han thought for a minute. "What's to keep them from just shooting us?"
Leia shrugged in response. "I don't have a better plan at the moment….General."
"So now you're respecting my rank? Thanks, sweetheart."
"That's not…Han…" she sputtered, "I already apologized for getting us into this mess. What do you want me to do?"
He sighed, leaning back in his seat and trying to ignore the throbbing bruises on his face. "You don't need to apologize, princess. It's not your fault." He looked at her, noticing that she was blinking back tears. "We'll get out of this, okay?" He leaned as close her as possible. "If nothing else, they're going to have to get us up when they move us out planetside. Maybe I could stage a diversion, pretend to pass out or make a run for it, and you could get away while they're dealing with me."
She shook her head. "Han, I'm not leaving you. I just got you back."
He opened his mouth to argue, then thought better of it. "Okay. Then we'll think of something else." Before he could continue, the door slid open and a trooper came in, settling himself silently in front of the prisoners. Leia took a deep breath, closing her eyes and wondering if she'd be able to sleep. It was going to be a long trip.
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Egged on by the infamously lively Rogues, most of the snubfighter pilots who had survived the battle and landed on the Sanctuary Moon were already partly to completely drunk by the time Luke slipped into the celebration at the Ewok village. Wedge Antilles stumbled into him, wrapping Luke in a massive hug before hiccupping and returning to the crowd gathered near the scrounged supply of various intoxicants that the Rebels had donated to the cause.
He stood on tiptoes, looking for Chewbacca when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Lando!" Luke shook the man's hand heartily before pulling him into a quick embrace.
"I'm glad I found you," Lando said as a young Ewok glommed onto his tailored pants. "Where's Han? I wanted to give him back his ship…unharmed, as promised."
The look on Luke's face wiped the smile from Lando's. "He's missing. Leia too. I think they were captured," Luke said somberly.
Freeing himself from the Ewok, Lando pulled Luke aside. "What do you mean, captured?" He looked up with horror at the fiery debris marking the previous location of the Death Star. "Were they onboard that thing when it blew?"
"I don't think so," Luke said. "I think…I hope…they're still alive." He closed his eyes, reaching out and trying to find Leia among the chaotic swirl of life and death and joy and darkness. "They were taken to one of the ISDs, the Chimaera."
"How do you know?" Lando whispered, guiding Luke towards a quieter platform.
"I…just trust me," Luke told him. How was he supposed to tell Lando that the reason he knew was because Vader had told him, and the reason Vader cared was because Leia was his daughter? "Have you seen Chewie?"
He got his answer in the form of a roar, as Chewie burst out of the crowd towards Luke and Lando. Artoo and Threepio followed closely behind. He was shouting, but his words were lost in the dull roar of the celebrating crowd behind him.
"Slow down, Chewie," Luke said, putting a hand on one hairy arm and looking pleadingly at Threepio.
"He expresses his great happiness for your safety, Master Luke," the droid said obligingly, "And wants to know where General Solo and Mistress Leia are."
"Captured," Lando spat out before Luke could respond. "And the whole godsdamned Imp fleet is gone."
Chewie roared again, this time letting out a wordless cry of anguish. Luke hung his head, knowing the Wookiee was as worried and anxious as he was about the missing Rebels.
"We'll find them," Luke said, trying to sound reassuring. "We'll head up to the Alliance High Command right now and let them know we're going. We can take the Falcon."
"Master Luke, are you sure you have appropriate authorities to do that?" Threepio said, ignoring Artoo's scolding as he spoke. "The Millennium Falcon is the private property of General Solo, and as a commissioned officer in the Alliance, his ship is subject to be commandeered as necessary…"
"They must not have told him that," Luke broke in. "He never would have accepted the position."
Lando chuckled. "You can say that again. But Luke, we need to slow down here. We have no idea where they might have gone."
Chewie let loose with a string of invectives that Threepio diligently tried to translate until his anti-profanity program stopped him from sharing anything other than a few words here and there. Lando stepped back, unsure whether the Wookiee had given up on his promise not to rip his head off. He looked to Luke for support, but the typically staid young Jedi looked almost as agitated as Chewbacca.
"High command will know how to track the Chimaera," Luke insisted. "We can't just leave them."
Growling in agreement, Chewie followed Luke off the platform and down to the forest floor, Lando and the droids in close pursuit. Luke wound his way past the various Rebels who were streaming in from the ad-hoc landing platform to join the party, ignoring efforts to shake his hand in congratulations as he searched for the Falcon.
The ship was crammed in next to a pair of X-wings and another light freighter, barely leaving enough room to open the boarding ramp. With a Force-aided shove, Luke nudged the snub fighters out of the way and stepped aside to allow Chewbacca to begin the warm up sequence.
"High command gave Leia enough trouble trying to get official permission to go rescue Han last time," Lando continued to grumble as he followed the Wookiee on board. "What's to say they're not just going to put their foot down this time?"
"You don't have to come," Luke snapped back. Lando raised his hands.
"That's not what I mean. I just wonder if it might be better to beg forgiveness than ask permission."
With a loud sigh, Luke dropped into the pilot's seat, watching Chewie begin the startup procedure. "I just don't know how we'll be able to track a single Star Destroyer in time without their help. And it's Leia…of course they'll want us to go after her."
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"Commander Skywalker, I understand—and share—your deep concern, but this is a delicate time for us." Mon Mothma looked out of the viewport of the small conference room of Home One. "We need all of our assets available so we can take advantage of this opportunity. And as the last of the Jedi, you are a critical part of those assets."
Luke took a deep breath, trying to let the Force calm him. Lando had been right about High Command pushing back on his request to activate their spy network to find the Star Destroyer.
"And sadly, we have no idea if the Princess and Capt…General Solo are still alive," Mothma continued. "The Emperor may have been bluffing when he threatened to harm them."
Desperate for an edge, Luke had told Mothma about his confrontation with Palpatine and the Emperor's attempt to use his friends as pawns in his attempt to turn Luke to the Dark Side. He held back on revealing his relationship to Palpatine's apprentice, only saying that he'd been able to escape in the chaos of the Rebel attack. But while Mothma was intrigued by the evidence that Han and Leia were still alive when the Rebel fleet arrived over Endor, she wasn't convinced. He tried again.
"I can feel them through the Force when they're near," he said to her. "I would know if they died."
She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Luke, I'm sorry. But they wouldn't have wanted to risk the future of the Alliance in any event. Or the future of the Jedi."
"One Jedi is hardly a future," Luke said sullenly. He turned to leave. "I hope you'll reconsider. Leia would never leave you to rot in Imperial custody." She looked at the floor as he walked out, holding the door open for the next meeting to come in after him.
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"Now my head hurts."
"I'm sorry. I thought it would work."
"It didn't."
"It's not my fault."
"I think I'm going to throw up."
"Go ahead. We could do with a little color around the place."
"Han!"
Lacking a better option, Han had tried Leia's trick for getting out of his chair. Instead of waiting patiently to be freed, however, he had gotten one arm loose from his binders and reached around to smack the button on the back of Leia's chair. As she leapt up, the trooper quickly closed the binders on Han's seat, keeping him attached by one arm. She rushed the trooper only to be met with a blaster butt to the head that sent her crumpling to the floor. She woke up a while later to another pounding headache. The only silver lining seemed to be their abandonment by the troops, who she hoped intended to leave them alone until they reached their destination.
"How much longer until we reach Coruscant?" she asked wearily.
"I don't know how fast they're pushing this thing," Han admitted. "We were pretty far out—could be a while yet…..or…" he added, as the ship thumped and shook in the familiar sensation of reverting to realspace, "Maybe we're here."
The cockpit door remained closed tightly as they slowed and then gently curved around, presumably heading for one of the many military spaceports that dotted the capital planet.
"Does my head look bad?" Leia asked as they dropped suddenly, sending her already tender stomach into a tailspin. "I feel like crap."
"You've got a good goose egg," Han told her. "How about me?"
"An impressive shiner. We're going to be quite the pair."
The ship settled in on the ground, the engines humming to a stop. Quickly the two troopers came into the cabin, unfastening their prisoners from the chairs and slapping binders on them.
"Quickly now," the lead trooper said, holding tightly to Han as the boarding ramp opened. His partner was practically dragging Leia as she struggled to keep on her feet.
"What the hell?" The hangar was deserted, but Han could a dull roar outside that he couldn't quite place, punctuated by the distinct booms of small explosions. "Where are your buddies? Shouldn't they be here to meet us?"
"Move it!" the trooper shouted, shoving his blaster in Han's back.
The pilot leaned out after them, shouting through the open cabin door. "I'm going to take the shuttle around to the south platform on the palace."
"Stay here! That's an order." The trooper holding Han turned around and bellowed, but the pilot had already disappeared into the shuttle and was preparing to launch. Shaking his head, he turned to his companion. "Call ahead to the palace security forces and have them send a vehicle immediately."
The junior trooper looped an arm around Leia's elbow, holding onto her as he activated his comlink. "Palace security, this is A4219, come in. Palace security, requesting back up."
"Maybe they're on a lunch break," Han suggested as the two troopers waited for a response. Glancing at his black eye, Leia gave him a warning look to shut up.
"A4219, come in!" The comm crackled to life.
"This is A4219. We need an armored vehicle for a prisoner transfer at the north hangar ASAP. A4219, over."
"Negative," the voice responded. "You'll need to contact the south side armory. We can't spare a vehicle right now."
Another rumble outside the hangar caught the attention of all four, and the trooper cut off the link in disgust. "What is going on out there?" Without waiting for orders, he walked briskly over to the pedestrian exit, dragging Leia along with him.
"No, wait!" The other trooper let go of Han as he sprinted forward to stop his partner. But it was too late. He pulled open the door, blaster drawn in readiness to deal with any rowdy crowds outside, and fell as the trampling feet of hundreds of rioting, celebrating Coruscantis poured through the door and over the hapless trooper.
Leia yanked free as he fell, trying to pull herself up with her wrists still tightly bound in front of her. She yelped as a heavy boot landed on the side of her calf, pushing her downwards. Men and women, mostly human but speckled with other species, were streaming in, heading straight for the shuttle. In a panic, the pilot lifted off, spraying the room with hot air from the engines, but the crowd was undaunted. They peppered the shuttle with rocks and debris, a few brave souls even trying to cling to the side as it rose higher into the air.
As it made its way out of the hangar, attention turned to the two troopers, who found themselves in the center of an inexplicably hostile crowd. The lead trooper stood, looking for Han, who had yanked himself away in the chaos and was wending his way through the press of bodies to find Leia. In a last desperate attempt to restore order, he fired his blaster into the air. "In the name of the Emperor, stand down!" he hollered. Those were his last words.
"Leia!" Han screamed, holding his bound hands in front of his face to protect himself as the crowd surged forward, swallowing the two troopers in a blitz of pounding fists and cudgels. "Leia!"
Across the room, Leia grabbed onto the leg fur of a passing Wookiee, trying to pull herself upright before she was trampled by the crowd. The Wookiee roared in pain as Leia yanked, flipping the Princess backwards into the wall of the hangar. Ignoring the sudden pain in her ribs, she used her legs to push herself to standing, then clambered on top of a pile of crates to try to find Han.
The crowd compressed further and further into the middle of the room, leaving Leia with breathing space but no closer to finding Han. Suddenly he burst out from between a pair of young women who were swinging clubs that looked to be made from landspeeder fenders, spotting Leia with a look of relief. She hopped down beside him, wincing.
"See, I told you I'd think of something," he said with a cocky grin, grabbing her lower arm with one of his hands. "Let's get out of here."
"Nerfherder," she muttered in response as she sprinted along side him, leaning in for support as she stumbled over discarded rubble from the crowd.
They dashed out of the door, fleeing around the outside platform that formed the circumference of the landing area. It was windy, and Han took a minute to enjoy the feeling of fresh air after being shipboard for so long. Ever practical, Leia looked around, trying to determine their exact location. They were near the government core, to the north of the massive plaza that led into Palpatine's Imperial palace. As they rounded a corner, Leia stopped suddenly, looking below.
"Oh my…." As they stood silently, watching the pulsing sea of beings drawing in the plaza begin shooting fireworks into the air, Leia turned to Han. "I think we killed the Emperor."