AN: *Hangs head in shame* I have had so many computer problems that this took forever. Also, people can e-mail me if they need. Also I never saw any of the reviews until just recently, stupid mail lol. Thank you so much for the reviews guys! I should be updating regularly from this point on! J
"And now I am going
with you to Ord Mantell," Ari sighed, finishing the story.
"You snuck aboard the Falcon?"
Han asked, as he had a number of times.
Ari didn't know if she was going to roll
her eyes or laugh so she did neither. "Yes. You almost caught
me too," she remarked, playing absentmindedly with her bracelet, which she
did often.
"I just run a tight ship. I
don't know how I could have missed you."
"The will of the Force?"
she shrugged, with a smile, which was returned with a skeptical look.
"You know I don't believe that,"
Han reminded her.
"Yeah yeah, I know..." Ari
trailed off, the feeling in the cockpit, becoming thick with unease.
"I should get back to work..."
Han told her, getting to his feet, getting the plates and empty drink containers.
"Yeah," Ari nodded
quickly. "I might use that remote again," she told him and he
nodded.
There was an awkward pause.
"Thanks for lunch..." Ari finally managed.
"Not a problem, kid," Han
answered, leaving the cockpit.
Ari sat in silence for a moment then shook
her head. Then an idea came to her. She was going to practice, but
first...
Pulling out her mother's journal, Ari
flipped to the back of the book. There was still a good third of the book
that had never been written in. Leaving a space of a few pages, Ari dug
through her bag to find something to write with.
Once she found it, she held it against the
paper, almost nervous to do anything. She bit her lip then started to
write.
My name is Arianna Sabe Narabe. My mother used to keep this
journal. her name was Katri and was married to my father Derin. I
had a younger brother, Jett and a candido, Lightsaber, who I called
Saber. I have just played a role in helping with the Rebellion. I
am still only 18...
Ari continued to write, flying through
the pages until her hand was too cramped to write. She had captured how
she had become a part of the Rebellion and the destruction of the Death
Star. She would write more later. She knew they didn't have long
until they got to Ord Mantell and wanted to loosen up a bit, feeling stiff from
sitting for so long.
Getting to her feet, she stretched, making
sure her saber was still with her, attached to her hip. Grabbing a hair
tie from her bag, she threw her hair back to keep it out of her eyes and off
her neck
As she continued to stretch, she made her
way further into the stern of the ship. Finally, she made it to where she
was almost certain not to get in the way of Han or Chewie but she wouldn't
accidently cut through anything.
Igniting the saber, Ari spun and started
to go into the offensive and defensive positions Luke had taught her.
At first she moved stiffly. Closing
her eyes, she tried to remember what Luke told her. Trust your
feelings. After moment's pause, she kept her eyes closed and
started to move, almost able to hear Luke calling out the positions.
Ari was concentrating so hard that when
she had finally run through the positions about half a dozen times and was
panting, she was surprised to see Chewie and Han watching her. She had
closed her eyes and hadn't seen them come in.
Blushing, Ari deactivated the saber.
She usually was so good at being able to tell when people where in the same
room.
"You are pretty handy with
that," Han remarked, complimenting her in his own way. Chewie roared
in agreement.
"Well, I am just starting...."
Ari remarked, but felt pride in his compliment.
Chewie gave a string of barks and
groans. The young girl just looked from Chewie to Han, waiting for the
smuggler to translate.
"He says soon you will soon be able
to take down lowlifes in cantinas like the old man did," Han remarked.
Ari smiled at the compliment, though it
was a sad smile. She didn't know Ben well, but there was so much she
wanted to ask him still. And now that chance was gone.
"Come on. We had to keep the
trip slow not to fry the engines but we are almost out of lightspeed," Han
commented. As if to prove his point, the siren went off and he sauntered
to the cockpit with Chewie. Ari followed at a fast pace, sliding into her
chair again.
Sadly, Ari was not very impressed when Han
pulled them out of lightspeed, though she was thankful they made it in one
piece. The planet was brown and gray. It looked like a big mass of
nothing, but where Tatooine was covered in nothing but sand, Ord Mantell was
covered in metal and polluted soil.
"We are going here?" Ari asked,
raising an eyebrow in question.
"You got it," Han answered, not
looking up from where he was piloting them to a place to land, making sure to
keep track of how the engines were doing.
Ari just kept her blue eyes looking out
the window as they got closer and she could see the surface of the planet
better.
"People live here?" she
asked as they got closer.
"Well..." Han was cut off as an
alarm sounded. At the same moment there was a high pitched whine and the
starboard side of the Falcon dropped. Ari screamed, trying to hold on,
the Falcon on its side.
"Hold on!" Han shouted to her as
he also braced himself, while trying to fix the problem. "Chewie cut
in sublight engines. This is going to be a rough landing!"
Chewie and Han worked quickly and the ground quickly approached.
'Force, we are going to crash' Ari
wanted to scream. She wanted to shut her eyes but was unable to force
herself to do so.
Soon they were right over the
ground. While Chewie had righted the ship again, they were coming in too
fast and too hard. Bracing herself as best she could Ari tensed.
However, when they landed, the impact was still to great and she fell onto the
floor, knocking the wind out of her.
"Hey, kid, you alright?"
Han asked her. Ari just moaned in response. "Is anything
broken?" he asked her as she sat up, rubbing her head then down her
shoulders and back to be sure she was still in one piece.
"I don't think so," she
answered. "You almost killed us," she accused, though not
harshly.
"Hey the engine went out..." he
paused. "The engine!" he stepped around Ari and went running
for the back.
Chewie held out a large furry paw to Ari
and pulled her up, one of his paws covering her hand, wrist and half her
forearm. "Thanks," she smiled at the Wookie who answered in
what she assumed was a thank you. While she had been a bit fearful of
Chewie before, she realized he was kind to those he liked and trusted.
She would hate to see him upset though.
They both glanced down the corridor as
they heard a large clang then a string of curses. "Chewie!!"
Han shouted.
Chewie gave what sounded like a laugh and made his way to the back of the ship where Han's voice had come from.
Ari dusted herself off then recollected her bag that
had somehow ended up on the other side of the cockpit. She pulled it onto her
shoulder and started for the back where there was some smoke coming from the
starboard side.
Coughing,
Ari covered her mouth and nose. "Han?" she called, following
the trail of smoke.
"Stay
back, kid. The engine is totally fried. The fire's out
though," Han answered, coming to her through the smoke.
"What
are we going to do then?" Ari asked.
"We're
going to do what we came here to do. Get new engines."
"You
make it sound so easy..." Ari remarked as Chewie came up and said a few
things to Han.
"It
does? Good, that will make it easier," Han told him.
"What
did he say?" Ari asked, wishing she could understand Wookie.
"He
said they hyperdrive is still in tact. So all we have to do is replace
the sublight engines and then reattached the hyperdrive to them."
"Is
that easy?" Ari asked.
"No,
but Chewie and I can handle it," he assured her.
"Nice
to know..." Ari remarked. She paused and looked at Han as he looked
her over carefully. "What?" she asked.
"Do
you have something else you can wear?" he asked.
"What's
wrong with this?" she asked, motioning to her cream-colored tunic and
pants that she had grown accustomed to.
"You
stand out too much. Like you just got off the farm. Do you have anything
else?"
"Well...that
robe and pajamas....The dress I gave back to the Princess and the pilot uniform
I left with the others," she blushed slightly. "Most of my
things were destroyed back on Tatooine," she answered, not meeting his
eyes.
Chewie
and Han looked at each other, seeing that they had hit a nerve.
"Sorry, Kid," Han apologized, a rare thing for
Han.
"It's
alright," she tried to assure herself as much as she was trying to assure
Han.
Han
paused then his face lit up. "I have an idea. Wait
here." With that he sauntered off to the crew quarters."
"Where
is he going?" Ari asked Chewie, who was just as confused as she was,
giving her a shrug.
A
few minutes later, Han emerged with a black flightsuit.
Chewie
immediately started to 'talk' motioning from the outfit to Ari then back
at Han.
"Settle
Chewie. She isn't coming back for it," Han answered crossly.
He shook his head with a sigh and handed it to Ari. "This should
fit, go try it on," he motioned to the 'fresher just around the corner.
Confused,
Ari took it and nodded, wondering what was going on between the two partners.
Stepping
into the 'fresher and closing the door behind her, she quickly slid out of her
comfortable tunic and pants, and then pulled on the flightsuit. It was a
bit loose on her, which she was thankful for. She pulled her boots back
on and let the pant legs over the white of the boots, making a mental note to
look for black ones later. She almost laughed at herself. They were
in a war and she was thinking about buying boots? Maybe the universe
really was ending.
Glancing
in the mirror, Ari could almost not believe she was the same girl who left
Tatooine just a few days ago. She looked older. Taking her hair out of
the hair tie, she ran her fingers through it to comb it.
She
looked older. Sometimes she had felt she looked younger than she
was. But something had changed. She wasn't sure what, but something
had. Luckily her belt was a dark brown almost black in color and looked good on
the flight suit. She tied it on, which helped make the suit seem to fit
better. After being sure her lightsaber was in place, she stepped out of
the 'fresher and into the hall.
Han
and Chewie both stopped their low murmering and turned to her. "You
look good Ari. You look good..." Han nodded, apparently a bit
surprised about something. She ignored it for the moment. "Do
the boots look too bad?" she asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
Han
looked and shook his head. "Nah." He paused then motioned
to her lightsaber. "You might want to hide that or something.
You want to be unnoticed here."
"I
have that all figured out," Ari assured him, pulling the cloak out of her
bag and fastening it around her neck. The dark blue looked stunning
around the black and hid the lightsaber easily.
"You
are sure you have never done this before?" Han asked, a small smile
reappearing.
"I'm sure," she smiled. "Ready?"
Han nodded the paused. "Do you have a blaster at all?"
Ari's hand went to her belt, but the clip that had been used to hold the blaster was empty. "I must have lost it somehow," Ari frowned.
Han pulled a blaster out of the hidden holster under his vest and handed it to her. "You should be able to handle this one. And it is set on stun."
"Hey I do know how to shoot. I did very well at survival school back on Tatooine," the blond haired girl remarked proudly.
Han just shook his head with a slight laugh. She definitely was a breath of fresh air. Especially after the heckling he had received from Luke and the Princess.
"Just don't lose it," he told her, patting her shoulder as he lowered the ramp.
"I will protect it with my life," Ari joked.
"Oh, and Ari?" Han started as the ramp lowered with a low, rumbling groan. "I wouldn't mention Tatooine or survival school here. When you are here, you are just Ari. From Corellia."
"I don't know how to do that," she told him, quieter since the ramp had fully descended and was not making any more noise.
"Just follow my lead," Han told her, then confidently strolled down the ramp, Chewie and Ari following closely.
AN: Please R&R if this is still being read!