Waving Buff over to tend bar for a minute, Leia grabbed a tray and made her way over to the corner where the two women were chatting as they sipped white wine.
"This is a little warm for my taste," one said as Leia approached the table, holding out her glass. Leia rolled her eyes inwardly, thinking that the temperature would hardly impact the taste of the low quality varietal they'd picked.
"Sorry about that," she responded with a sympathetic smile. "Can I get you anything else?"
"Just the check," the second woman said, taking out her bag.
"Actually, before you go…" Leia leaned down. "I spoke with my husband, and we are in fact interested in the position you have available."
Beaming, her customer reached into her bag and pulled out a card with an address written on it. "I'm so glad. We're quite desperate for good staff right now. Meet me here tomorrow and we'll get you set up. What's your name?"
"Kim," she said, spitting out the first name that came to mind. "Kim Pandall. My husband is Tocal."
"Morena," the woman responded, holding out a hand. "Are you from Fenion? I knew a Tocal from Fenion once."
"My husband's family is," Leia said, trying not to stammer. "We're both Cor…Imperial Center born and raised."
If Morena had caught her slip, she didn't let on that she was bothered. Instead she handed Leia a credit chip. "See you tomorrow then, Kim."
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"My new waitress getting changed?" Wa-Janar laughed as Han strode in, clutching the bottle of ruinously expensive whiskey around the neck. He turned to one of his interchangeable subordinates. "You told her to put on something less comfortable, right?"
"I'm helping you the rest of the night," Han told him, slamming the bottle down in front of the self-styled mafioso. "You want anything else?"
Immediately the two men nearest the door jumped up, pulling vibro blades out of their belts and pointing them at Han as he walked casually towards the exit.
"You owe Master Wa-Janar an apology," one of them rumbled. "Now."
"I'm sorry," Han sneered in Wa-Janar's direction. "Did I frighten you? I didn't mean to."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Wa-Janar's eyebrow twitched as he scowled at Han. Clearly he wasn't accustomed to disrespect, at least not in his own restaurant. "Get out of my place before I have the boys here rearrange your internal organs." Han made no move. "Gerlan, get that girl in her. I'm sick of waiting."
"You go anywhere near her and you'll be wiping your internal organs off the upholstery," Han said quietly. "Now why don't you boys just drink your whiskey and find someone else to clean your toilets for you?"
The one Wa-Janar called Gerlan made a move towards the door, but Han was a blink ahead of him and blocked his path, revealing a huge kitchen knife that he'd secreted away before coming back to the private lounge. "I said don't." Gerlan looked him in the eye and then stepped back, waiting for a positive order from Wa-Janar before engaging in conduct that might get him hurt. He wasn't paid well enough to be proactive.
"What do you care anyways?" Wa-Janar continued, annoyed that his men hadn't yet dispatched the strange new bartender. He'd seen staff for Jabba or Xizor take out interlopers for far less: someday, he told himself, he'd be powerful enough to find bodyguards that would kill at the wink of an eye. For now he'd have to deal with the hand he was played though. "She's just some dancer. Better dancer than a waitress, I'd say." He winked at the man beside him and chuckled. "Bet there's other stuff she's good at too."
Han consider launching himself at the man just to wipe the grin off his face, but held back. Must be getting practical in my old age, he thought to himself.
"I have a deal for you," he said instead. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that, and you can pretend you never met either of us."
"Doesn't sound like much of a deal," Wa-Janar responded nonchalantly.
"Or," Han continued, "You can make one more comment about her and I'll pick one of your appendages to cut off and shove down your throat." He looked pointedly at Wa-Janar, letting his eyes drop down to the table directly in front of the man. "I already have an idea which one I'll choose."
Gerlan took a step towards Han, holding up his own knife.
"You really want to try this?" Han asked. "I've been in knife fights to the death against groups of guys before. I ended up with this." He pointed to the scar on his chin. "I'll let you use your imagination about the other guys." He stared at Gerlan, then aimed his gaze back at Wa-Janar.
"Fine." Wa-Janar could tell that the stranger's bluffing was getting to his men, and they were more likely to leave him alone to fight than to stand up and take care of things like they were paid to do. "Get out. And don't expect any pay for tonight."
"You can keep the six credits," Han said, rolling his eyes. He gave one more warning look to the rest of the men gathered around the table, and then stalked out, slamming the door behind him.
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Leia was standing behind the bar chewing her lip nervously when Han walked calmly back out. "You got the job figured out?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah." She showed him the card. "We meet them tomorrow."
"Good. Go back and grab our stuff and let's get out of here."
"What stuff?"
"After I went through all that trouble to buy you a toothbrush, you're just going to abandon it? Here, of all places?"
"Shut up, nerfherder."
She slipped back down the hall, looking carefully for any sign of Wa-Janar and his men, and hastily threw the few belongings and the small stash of cash they'd accumulated into a bag. Keeping her head down, she walked back out towards the bar, fingering the blaster in her waistband.
As she turned a corner in the hall, a pair of hands shot out, pulling her backwards into an alcove. She took a breath to scream, but was muffled as her assailant reached up to slap a hand over her mouth. He wrapped grabbed one wrist with the other arm, wrenching it behind her painfully and pulling her into his body as he tried to pin her free arm behind her back. The motion was all she needed though—in a flash, she wriggled one arm free and flipped the blaster backwards, pumping a shot into her captor's gut. He grunted and released her, collapsing backwards.
A split second glance confirmed to her that it was one of Wa-Janar's men, and she concealed the blaster as she ran full speed back to Han. Shoving her way through the crowd at the bar, she pulled him out and towards the door, ignoring the shouted protests of the waiting customers behind them.
"What happened?" he panted, following her out into the dank streets at a full sprint. She held tight to his hand and kept running, whipping around a corner and into a market area before stopping to catch her breath. "Are you okay?"
"One of Wa-Janar's guys grabbed me in the hallway. I killed him."
"I thought you said not to do anything stupid!" he snapped. "Now they're going to be after us."
"What was I supposed to do?" she hissed back. "Let him drag me off?"
Han looked up at the ceiling, trying to get his bearings as he listened for any sounds of pursuit. "No, of course not." He gave her a kiss on the forehead before pulling her close. "We'll be okay."
"Do you think we can just get off planet?" she asked quietly, snuggling into his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I have no idea how locked down things are on the surface. I hate to risk flying commercial though."
She nodded silently, then took out the card that Morena had given her. "I guess we should head for our rendezvous. I told her we were Kim and Tocal Pandall."
"So you're still willing to be my wife?" Han grinned.
"To play your wife," Leia retorted. "Let's not take things too fast here, flyboy."
"As long as there are privileges that come along with playing." He bent down to kiss her, lingering in the embrace as the market grew more crowded around them. "Shall we go then, Mrs. Pandall?"
She took his arm. "How far is it?"
"Horizontally, not far," he said, perusing the card. "Vertically, quite a ways."
"Fair enough. Where do you think we should go tonight then?"
He rubbed his chin. "We probably have enough to get a room, if you don't mind using some of the money."
Leia sighed. It had been so long since she'd gotten a decent night's sleep, and the thought of hanging around waiting for Wa-Janar to find them wasn't appealing. But they might need the money for a charter…"I don't know."
"Or we could trade this." Han reached behind him, pulling out a slim bottle that had been tucked into his pocket. Leia took it with a confused look.
"You stole this? What is it?"
"Bottle of Chandrilan gorryflower liqueur that Wa-Janar had been hoarding," he told her. "Fetches a pretty penny on the black market. I thought you might like it, but I'm starting to think you might like a night in a real bed even more."
She gave him a skeptical look, and then smiled. "All right then. You really know how to impress a girl."
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"I thought you said this was the civilian side of Kuat!" Lando leaned in close to Luke's ear, keeping his head down as two uniformed Imperial officers walked past them.
"I guess they're on leave," Luke said, glancing around with equal trepidation at another small group of soldiers that were meandering through the casino floor. "Maybe we can use this to our advantage."
"How? By getting arrested?"
Luke sighed. "Don't be such a pessimist. They have as much reason to be afraid of us as we do of them at this point."
"They're Imps, not spiders," Lando whispered. "Let's go back to the room and figure things out."
"You go ahead," Luke murmured, spotting something up ahead. "I want to go check something out."
"No. No separating, remember? Chewie said that's what got us into this whole mess in the first place."
"Fine. But I'm going over there." He made a beeline for a huge holoscreen near a bar.
It was surrounded by a mix of Imperial troops, civilian travelers, and even a few non-humans who steered clear of the Imperials as they sipped their wine or cocktails and watched the news. A holo of Emperor Palpatine filled the display, which then faded to black while somber music played. Finally the image changed over to an empty stage that was set up with multiple microphones. As the crowd quieted, six men made their way to the podiums. They wore the deep red robes associated with mourning on many of the core worlds, and each had wrapped a black band around his upper arm. One of them raised a hand, imitating the gesture Palpatine used so often to quiet a gathering of subjects.
" Loyal citizens of the Empire," he began, "I come before you today to assure you that the brutal murder of our beloved Emperor will not shake us from our resolve to promote peace and prosperity around the galaxy. At this moment, our finest troops are hunting down those who would dare to try to destroy those institutions that define our civil society. The Emperor's murderers will be brought to justice." He paused to allow his live audience to cheer. "And now, I am humbled and honored to announce that I have been appointed as the new leader of our great Empire. Together, we shall overcome these challenges and rise up even stronger in the face of adversity."
"Who is that?" Luke asked Lando softly as the man continued to speak.
"Sate Pestage," Lando told him, "Emperor's top dog, other than Vader. You never ran across him?"
"No," Luke responded. "I guess I was always focused on Palpatine and Vader. He's a political guy?"
Lando glanced around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. The rest of the crowd was mesmerized by Pestage's announcement, watching as the man introduced his fellow councilors. "Yeah. He's been running things on the ground for a couple years."
"Guess I should have paid more attention during the briefings," Luke admitted. "Didn't really need to know much about who's who when you're dogfighting, you know?" Lando nodded, then put a finger to his lips so he could listen to the rest of the press conference.
"Because of the ongoing emergency," Pestage went on, "Freight traffic in and out of Imperial Center will be restricted to military convoys. The existing security protocols for Core World travel will remain in place, and I will be appointing additional regional governors in the coming weeks to guard against additional incursions in our outer systems. To those who would do us harm, know this!" He looked directly at the camera. "If you do not stand down and surrender, your lives are forfeit. This Empire will not tolerate insurrection."
"Big words from someone who just got his Emperor killed." Luke looked up, trying to see who had made the comment. A human male, stretching his legs over a small ottoman at the front of the room, laughed at his own remark. A few empty beer mugs in front of him indicated that he might not have thought hard about when and where he was making his quips, especially as the few Imperial officers began to surround him.
"Want to say that a little louder?" one of them asked, unholstering his blaster. "Would be good for the folks here to know whose side you're on?"
Eyes wide at the sight of the blaster barrel pointing at his head, the man gulped and shrunk back into his seat. "Didn't mean anything by it," he stammered. "My apologies."
"Why don't you come with us and we'll have a little chat?" another officer said, grabbing the man's arms. Luke touched his lightsaber, pondering whether to intervene, when the drunken man abruptly stood and took a swing at the soldier who had grabbed his arm.
A moment later a single shot rang out, and the man slumped back into the chair. "You heard the Emperor!" the officer called out to the shocked crowd. "Insurrection will not be tolerated."
Lando grabbed Luke's arm, pulling him backwards as the crowd parted to let the officers through. One of them looked up at the young Jedi as he walked by, narrowing his eyes as he stared at Luke's face. Luke stared back, then, with a wave of his hand, sent the man on with no memory of their encounter.
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"How many nights did you get us with that bottle?" Leia asked with a wide smile as Han escorted her into the room.
"One," he admitted. "But this is the honeymoon suite. Seemed appropriate."
"Han!" She picked up one of the enormous pillows that decorated the (sole, she noticed) bed and smacked him with it. He grabbed it from her and pushed her down onto the soft mattress, pinning her shoulders as he dropped his head to kiss her.
"Only the best for my princess," he said, releasing her to catch her breath.
"Anything is pretty good compared to being cuffed to a seat on an Imperial shuttle," she teased, pulling his head down to kiss her again. "It's certainly the nicest place I've been in a while."
"About that." Han sat up, stroking her back as she cuddled down into the pillows. "Leia, what happened at Jabba's? When we were headed to Sullust you told me…"
"I know. It's not a big deal." She hadn't told him much, just implying that she'd been imprisoned as he had been and held on the sail barge during their escape. She hadn't lied, per se, but also hadn't felt the need to be specific when he was still so weak from being trapped in the carbonite.
"It's a big deal to me," he said.
"Why?" Leia flipped over and sat up to look at him, eyes narrow. "You worried I've been tainted or something?"
"No!" Han put his arms around her. "That's not it at all. I just don't want you feeling like you have to hide everything from me."
She was silent. They'd had versions of this conversation many times over the years, usually concluding with Han accusing her of being out of touch with her own feelings. She had no stomach for another fight about her emotional wellbeing.
"This isn't just about you anymore," Han told her, as though he could read her thoughts. "Believe it or not, I care about what happens to you."
"And I care about what happens to you," she said. "But that doesn't mean we change what's already happened by talking about it."
Han sighed, kicking himself for getting her back up just when they were starting to relax a little. "Think of it this way then. Maybe I'm imagining things were worse than they really were. If you tell me what happened, I won't have to imagine anymore."
Leia raised her eyebrows, trying to judge whether he was being forthright or whether this was just a ploy to get her to try his strategy of talking things out.
"Sweetheart, I'm serious here."
"All right." Leia took a deep breath. Of all the things he might ask her to relive, at least this wasn't the worst. "After they took you away, Jabba had me dragged up to his throne…or whatever it was…and told me that I owed him for the trouble I caused and that he was going to let me pay it off by dancing for him. When I told him to go to hell—I used a little saltier language than that—he had…." She stopped for a moment, tears forming in her eyes at the memory of her fury and humiliation. "He had his guards rip my clothes off in front of everyone. Then they took me back to this room with a bunch of other women and said that if I didn't put on a dancer's outfit they were going to…."
"What?" he asked quietly, pulling her close.
"They were going to bring you out and feed you to the rancor in front of me," she concluded, regaining her composure. "I couldn't let that happen. Then they took me back to Jabba and put this chain around my neck. That's what happened."
He held her silently, listening to her ragged breathing as he squeezed her tightly against him. "I'm sorry," he finally murmured. "I'm sorry, Leia."
She pulled away, swiping at her tears and pasting a smile back on her face. "It's over now. I imagine Jabba is regretting that chain now, where ever he is."
"Why is that?"
"I used it to strangle him," she told him. "I honestly don't know how I did it—he must have been twenty times my weight, but I did."
Han laughed gently at her proud expression, then kissed her again. "Let's get some rest," he said finally. "Unless you're interested in anything else at the moment?"
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The next morning, Han gingerly poked Leia awake. "Time to get to the new job, sweetheart," he whispered as she groaned a request for five more minutes. Grudgingly she dragged herself out of bed, luxuriated in a hot shower, and was finishing fixing her hair when Han knocked urgently on the 'fresher door.
"C'mon, we're going to be late," he said.
They walked to a nearby lift, bracing themselves for a return to the surface. It had been several days since they'd arrived on Coruscant to riots and indiscriminate slaughter by legions of stormtroopers, but Leia clung tightly to her blaster nonetheless. They were pleasantly surprised to find a sunny day with a few weary souls scurrying from place to place but little violence marring the quiet streets.
"Let's get a cab," Han suggested, hailing one of the droid-operated liveries before Leia could object. He gave the driver the coordinates and settled in to watch the streets pass by. "Wonder where this gig is?"
The sky outside began to darken, and Leia peeked out the window to see that the sun was being obscured by buildings. A concerned look suddenly crossed her face as the cab slowed to a stop.
"Your destination, gentles," the droid said, popping open the locks on the doors. With no small amount of trepidation, Han stepped out, leading Leia to the doorway marked with the address on their card. It was a non-descript door marked "Employment Office IV," built into the side of a dark monolith that dominated the nearby skyline.
Han leaned over to Leia. "Seriously?" he whispered. She didn't answer, but then spotted Morena through one of the transparisteel windows and made an attempt at a friendly wave. She nudged Han to get him to step inside, but he ignored her.
"Han!" she hissed finally. "Let's go."
"Sorry, sweetheart," he hissed back. "Never been in the Imperial Palace before."