Chewbacca returned to the cockpit still carrying his best wrench, which he carefully placed back into the toolbox in the corner of the room. He was doing some last minute fixes on the sub-light engines that had been damaged in the attack. Luke walked in close behind him and sat in the rear seats.

"Are we there yet?" Luke asked Han, who was facing forward and had his head down close to a scope on the control panel.

"Yeah- good timing. We're just about to come out. I sure hope somebody is still around." Han said as he continued to scrutinize the scopes.

"Somebody will be there," Luke replied. "I know Leia, she wouldn't leave without us."

"You know her? Alright- we're about to find out how much. Go ahead Chewie," Han said to his first mate.

Chewbacca grabbed the controls and pushed the hyperspace drive levers to the off position. Instantly the sub-light engines kicked on and the Falcon shot into local space. Han raised his eyebrows and shot a sly smile back to Luke.

"Know her pretty well?" he said, but as he turned back around the smile left his face, and he stared out of the cockpit windows at the distant star field before them. They were alone.

Han leaned over and double checked their position and Chewie scanned for any ships. There was no rebel fleet, no armada, not even a transport- nothing. They had all left. Everyone remained quiet for a few moments. Chewie growled out and broke the silence and snorted some information over to Han.

"What is it? Is it a ship?" Han asked Chewie.

"Yaaarrrr!" said Chewie as he adjusted the trajectory of the ship and guided it towards something he picked up on his sensors: a small metallic object with minimal power.

They approached the object slowly and carefully. All of them were peering out of the windows to try to make out what it was. At first they suspected it might be a bomb, some sort of Imperial trick. As they pulled in closer Han turned on the forward lights. The brightness of the lights reflected off of the small object in all directions as it twinkled in bright gold. They strained to make out its shape when the unmistakable form of an arm came up to shield itself from the brightness of the lights. Luke stepped between the pilot seats and leaned close towards the glass.

"Is that, I mean- could that be," Luke was interrupted by the very loud beeps and squawks of R2-D2. He had made his way to the entrance of the cockpit and was now shaking himself back and forth about excitedly as he could.

"I think that answers your question," Han smiled as they all turned to Artoo and back to the golden droid curled up in a ball just beyond the front of the ship.

"C3-PO," Luke said softly to the glass. "Are we glad to see you."

They all went the stern of the ship and waited for the small rear decompression airlock to fill and normalize. When it opened, the golden protocol droid bent down a little and stepped into the cabin and turned his torso from side to side as he looked at everyone.

"My joints are almost frozen! R2-D2! I knew there must have been a reason they missed the rendezvous. You're lucky our master doesn't throw you out into that horrible void himself!" C3-PO said in his usual undulating tones.

"Hey- he's the one who got us out of trouble. Where's Leia?" Luke asked quickly.

"Really, sir? These astrodroids can really overstep their bounds, Master Luke. I would be more careful with this one in the future, if I may say so, sir."

"Hey, did ya hear Luke? Where's the fleet?" Han repeated to the droid who straightened up, cocked his head slightly and leaned back at Han's curt approach.

"Well, master Solo, the princess felt certain you would be arriving, so she ejected me out into space to wait for you. Then the entire fleet just blasted away from here."

Luke stepped up, "Where did they go?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, sir. At least they didn't tell me, Master Skywalker. In fact, I was hoping that you would know where they went." C3-PO was looking around at the blank faces and his programming told him clearly that something was amiss, so he searched for another answer. "R2-D2, do you know where they went?"

Artoo quickly bleeped back something to Threepio, and it was quite loud.

"Well, you don't have to be rude about it. Your tales of adventures are usually exaggerated, so how do I know what really happened." Threepio shot back.

Luke turned to Han. "They wouldn't just tell him where they were going. If the Empire showed up they would have got it out of him," he said.

"Was there anything Leia said to you, anything about where they might go?" Han asked slowly.

"No- actually, there was one thing she mentioned. She had a message for you, unrelated to your question, I'm afraid. She said to remind you of something, Master Solo. She said that you should 'remember the smell'. Quite frankly, I don't know what she was talking about, but when I asked her about it she ignored me completely."

Han walked away a few steps and stood next to Luke muttering to himself. "Smell?"

"What smell?" Luke asked Han.

"I don't know. Smell." Han looked around and his eyes fell on Chewbacca. "Smell!" he yelled out, leaning in and pointing at the face of Chewie.

"Chewbacca smells?" Luke asked which prompted Chewie to growl a dissenting response.

Threepio chimed in, "I'm afraid I have limited odor sensors, but Artoo is well equip-"

Han raised his hand and covered C3-PO's small speaker that made up his mouth, which, due to his protocol programming, instantly stopped him from speaking.

"What's the worse smell we ever ran into- all of us?" Han asked Luke.

Luke paused for a second confused and then his face lit up. "The garbage chute, the compactor!"

"Right- and where were we?" Han asked as he turned away walked quickly towards the bridge with Chewie following him. Luke and the others followed.

"The Death Star- but I don't understand, it was blown up!" Luke answered loudly, trying to keep up.

"We were in the Alderaan system. That's where she was headed, probably to say a final goodbye or something." Han said as he sat down in the pilot's seat and strapped himself in. Chewbacca did the same to his right as did Luke behind them. "Chewie, get the new nav computer online. We have to get over there, fast!"