The Millennium Falcon hugged the atmosphere of Galadan until they were on the other side of the planet from the Star Destroyer before Solo threw his ship at the stars, and even then he watched the sensors for anything following them.
Luke was hurriedly programming the navicomputer with a series of hyperspace jumps that would hopefully stop anyone from following them, when he noticed Solo bristle.
"What is it?" he asked, looking vainly for something outside the viewport.
"Farrouq," Solo growled.
"How'd he find us?" Luke wanted to know.
"How're those coordinates coming?" Solo snapped, reminding Luke that he needed the ship programmed before they could escape to hyperspace.
"Finished," Luke replied, punching in the last few numbers then settling into his seat.
Chewbacca growled and Solo nodded, agreeing with him, then translated for the benefit of the others, "Looks like he was hiding behind the second moon."
"Waiting for you?" Leia asked sharply.
"The joys of being popular," Solo muttered, grinning humourlessly.
The ship's sensors pinged excitedly, alerting them to the Star Destroyer that had decided they were worth investigating and was moving to intercept. Solo growled irritably, but took them safely to hyperspace before Farrouq or the Star Destroyer could close the distance between them.
"How long before we reach the fleet?" Leia asked and Solo gave her a surly look.
"Who says we're going to the fleet?" he said, climbing out of his seat. "Who says I didn't tell Luke to set a course for Coruscant?"
Leia looked sharply at Luke, who chose to avoid meeting her gaze, then said emphatically and not without some alarm, "We have to get this information back to the Alliance!"
"And I've gotta go rescue my Dad," Solo said, equally emphatically. "What say I just drop you two at the nearest port and you can find your own way back?"
"And run the risk of Inconterza and Farrouq getting their hands on Leia?" Luke suggested darkly, then added as Solo turned his baleful gaze on him, "What if they followed us?"
"You set the jumps!" Solo snapped. "You better have done a good enough job to keep them off our tail!"
He stalked out of the cockpit and Luke glanced at Leia, who was looking guilty but unrepentant, then followed the Corellian. As he reached the ring corridor, Solo growled without looking at him, "Leave me alone, kid."
"I want to come with you to Coruscant, Han," Luke said.
Solo slowed, then turned and faced him. "You've got a rebellion to fight for, kid."
"But I can-"
"Besides," Solo added, cutting him off, "I can't take Leia into Coruscant. It's too dangerous."
They were both aware of the princess as she stepped into the cockpit access and approached them, but neither of them looked at her.
"Plus, I ain't coming back," Solo added. "I've already spent too long with this outfit." He turned and headed through the main hold towards the bunkroom.
…..
Solo let the princess shower first. More to give himself a break from her than an attempt to be chivalrous. Plus he needed to do something about his hand. He suspected he'd broken one of the bones when he'd hit Inconterza and didn't want Luke or the princess fussing over him while he did something about fixing it.
The medbunk on the Falcon was old but adequate; it had a bone knitter. The biggest problem was the fact that he lacked the funds to keep it properly equipped most of the time. Fortunately, thanks to the agreement he'd made with Rieekan and Dodonna, the medbunk was currently fully stocked.
A scan of his hand confirmed he had broken a bone and the bunk proceeded to reel off the correct course of action. Wanting the procedure finished before anyone could start fussing over him, Solo skipped the pain-killers, knelt beside the appropriate section of the bunk, and moved straight to the bone knitting program.
He regretted his haste as soon as it started; the pain of the clamps holding his hand in place and straightening the affected bone forcing him to bite down on a course of swearing that would have brought Chewie and the others to investigate.
Solo took a deep breath, knowing the needles would follow, and noticed his pack nearby, just within reach. Remembering the bladder of nintwine he had secreted in it, he grabbed the pack and emptied it hastily, searching through the small pile of clothes one-handed.
He found what he wanted just as the needles started piercing his skin as well as the bone in his hand, pulled the seal off the bladder with his teeth and took a long swallow of the sweet liquid. The pain in his hand was white hot. He took another swig. And another.
And breathed a sigh of relief as a warm wave flooded his body.
Able to think clearly again, Solo resealed the bladder and congratulated himself for appropriating the nintwine, and wondered if it would get more potent with age. While the small arms of the medbunk continued to work on his hand, he found a suitable drawer under the bunk and secured the bladder inside it.
The medbunk finished its work and Solo made a fist, testing his hand. Pain speared up his arm and was swiftly replaced with a warm wave of pleasure that had him wondering how the princess' was feeling and whether she would care to join him in a little pain-relief.
The fantasy disturbed him and he got to his feet, forcing himself to think about his father. Solo had no idea how he was going to get his father out of Imperial custody, but he had rescued Leia from the biggest battle station ever constructed, so he guessed he would manage it somehow.
It was as he was picking up the clothes he had strewn about in his haste to find the nintwine that Solo found the small information cartridge. It fell out of one of the pockets in his vest and onto the deck. He picked it up, frowning as he recognised his father's handwriting on one side of it. His frown deepened as he came to the conclusion that he was looking at his father's notes about his discoveries on Galadan. Notes Perron Solo had obviously secreted into his son's vest because he thought they should go to the Rebellion.
Scowling, Solo dropped it onto the bunk and stalked into the 'fresher. A moment later he returned, picked up the cartridge and stalked around to the small starboard hold that was Chewie's cabin. The Wookiee had been planning to rest, and Solo hoped he wasn't already asleep. He certainly wouldn't appreciate being woken up.
He opened the hatch to find the Wookiee in his hammock.
[What?] Chewbacca growled without opening his eyes.
"I need to copy this," Solo said, moving to the haphazard bank of electronic hardware the Wookiee had set up.
Chewbacca opened his eyes. [What's this?] he wanted to know. Solo held up the small cartridge and the Wookiee narrowed his eyes. [Lowmon's?]
"Dad's," Solo replied sourly.
Chewbacca sat up. [Is it encrypted?]
Solo slid the cartridge into place and muttered, "Let's find out."
The small screen came to life a moment later and Solo groaned, "Password." He shook his head irritably. "Pathetic, Dad…"
It only took them a minute to break the password, and then information started scrolling down the screen. A lot of it consisted of mathematical formulas, but there were notes in Basic as well as several visuals.
[Have you shown the princess?] Chewie asked quietly and Solo shook his head.
"It just fell out of my pocket." He ran a hand over his face. "Damn it, Chewie, what was he thinking?"
[Perhaps he wanted to help?]
"If he wanted to give this to her, why didn't he? Why give it to me? And why not tell me? Why be so secretive?"
[Maybe because, like you, he didn't want to be seen being helpful?]
Solo glared at his friend then said hotly, "Copy that, would you? I need a shower." And stormed from the cabin.
….
Freshly washed and dressed, Leia was sitting on the acceleration couch, with the reader Solo had provided, trying to make sense of Lowmon and Perron Solo's notes. Most of it was too technical for her; dealing with high level genetics. What she could understand seemed benign enough, but Perron's previous mention of his discoveries being applied to stormtroopers scared her. She just hoped there was someone in the Rebel Alliance who would be able to understand the research well enough for them to be able to do something about it, and found herself wishing Solo's father was with them. His help would have been invaluable.
She felt a wave of irritation as she considered the poor timing that had resulted in Perron Solo's capture, then looked at the freshly washed Corellian who was hunched over a readout at the technical station nearby. Solo's body language was tense and intractable, and told her quite clearly that he didn't want to discuss his decision with her or the discovery of his father's notes in his vest. But Leia had to admit that she was worried about him going to Coruscant. The Falcon and its crew had been on the Empire's 'wanted' list even before the Death Star. To fly into the heart of the Empire seemed suicidal. And now it seemed the bounty Jabba the Hutt had placed on Solo would have him being hunted by every low-life imaginable.
Leia sighed, then hastily switched her attention back to the reader in her hand as Solo turned to look at her. She felt him studying her and hoped he hadn't realised she'd just been watching him.
"Make any sense?" he asked.
Leia shook her head. "No." She looked at him and admitted, "We need your father."
Solo snorted and turned back to what he'd been doing, and Leia wondered how he'd react if she suggested they go straight to Coruscant. She was feeling guilty about Perron's capture and, while it was nothing like the loss of her own father, Leia did not want to feel responsible for the death of Han's father. The risk of capture on Coruscant was extraordinarily high, but she felt she owed it to Perron Solo to try and rescue him. He had saved her life. And his help and expertise would be invaluable to the Rebellion.
But Leia knew that if she returned to base, there was no way Rieekan would let her go on any mission to Coruscant. She hadn't been in Imperial City since before the destruction of Alderaan and the prospect of returning terrified her. In the light of her Death Star trauma, it was a mission General Rieekan or any of the other Alliance leaders would have made sure she didn't get.
And then there was the wild card that was David Taylor. Commander David Taylor who was now running with Bel Iblis's rebellion. She'd seen him maybe once since leaving Alderaan for her senatorial tenure on Coruscant. He certainly hadn't been wearing a beard then, and she was shocked that she hadn't immediately recognised him.
Solo had intimated that Taylor was an 'old flame' and there was some truth to his suggestion, but nothing Leia would ever admit to. Certainly not to Solo. Taylor had been a good friend despite being five years her senior, or maybe because of it. But she had also spent the small part of her youth that wasn't caught up in politics fantasising about the dark-haired young man. And the first time he had kissed her had left her unable to wait for the next time. Then he had kissed her passionately, just before she had left for Coruscant and, while she'd said nothing to Taylor at the time, Leia had swiftly come to the conclusion that she couldn't understand what people saw in it. In her opinion, that sort of kissing was much too messy and undignified.
And now Taylor was back, with five thousand Alderaanian refugees. For a moment Leia wondered if Mon Mothma and the Generals knew of their existence, then swiftly decided that of course they did. Then wondered why they hadn't told her. Was Mon Mothma still so ticked off with Garm that she couldn't tell Leia about the survival of five thousand Alderaanians?
Righteous anger blossomed in the princess and she put the reader down, unable to concentrate on it. Rieekan would have told her, she decided, but she could easily see Dodonna, Madine and Mon Mothma choosing to hide something so colossal from her. Afraid she would rush to join the rest of the Alderaanians. Afraid they would no longer have their sad little princess to trot out to boost the morale of the troops or to impress prospective financiers.
Leia hung her head in her hands, hating the political strings that seemed to bind her at every turn, and wishing life didn't have to be so complicated. She considered the nearby Corellian and decided that he was complication personified, and yet there was an unsullied cleanness about him. A lack of political subterfuge. Despite the fact that she knew so little about him, Leia knew she could trust Han. Implicitly.
Han thinks I abandoned him when he was fourteen.
She couldn't help wondering what Perron had meant by his statement and once again found herself wondering what had happened between Han and his father. The fact that they hadn't spoken for over ten years, yet Perron kept an Academy holo of his son, suggested a reluctant fondness despite the hostility they displayed toward each other.
Luke announced himself with a pleasant hello and broke her train of thought as he walked into the main hold, fresh out of the sonic shower. Leia raised her eyes to look at him, but not her head, and wondered where the boy from Tatooine found his energy and why she felt so much older than him. He always managed to seem bright and eager, although even that had been tempered by his experiences over the last four months. Comes from having a childhood, a part of her thought enviously.
She forced herself to smile at him as he sat beside her and realised that a lack of childhood was something she and the Corellian had in common, but at opposite ends of the spectrum. For some reason Solo's father had left him when he was fourteen, forcing Han to survive alone, and yet she had been well entrenched in galactic politics by the time she was the same age. And, while Leia knew Luke had worked on his uncle's farm, she suspected that, at fourteen, he'd spent a lot of his time with his friends.
Looking at Luke as he leaned over to read the information on the reader she was holding, Leia realised she envied Luke his childhood but not his naivety.
"Do you understand any of that?" he asked guilelessly, and Solo made an amused sound through his nose.
Luke frowned at the Corellian and Leia shook her head and said, "No."
Looking at her, Luke asked, "Have we got anyone in the Alliance who will?"
"Probably not," Solo muttered churlishly to himself.
"We should go to Coruscant," Luke said emphatically, and Leia found herself looking at Solo to see what his reaction to the suggestion would be.
Solo turned his chair slowly to face them, regarded them both while he judged how seriously to take Luke's proposition, and then shook his head emphatically. "No."
"But we can help-" Luke started, but Solo cut him off.
"No."
"You're being unreasonable," Luke grouched.
"I'm the Captain," Solo replied, grinning humourlessly. "I'm allowed."
Leia traded a look of exasperation with Luke then said, "He has a point, Han."
Solo glared at her and snapped, "You want to go to Coruscant? After what Vader did to you on the Death Star?" Leia stiffened and was about to reply when Solo said, "If Dodonna and Rieekan found out that I'd taken you to Coruscant, they'd kill me!" He ran a hand through his hair and muttered, "That's assuming we even make it out of Coruscant alive!"
"Do you know where Shenegar is?" Luke asked.
"What if I do?"
Leia aimlessly shifted the reader on the table. "Do you have any idea how you're going to get your father out?"
"I got you out of the Death Star," he growled. "I'll think of something."
Leia's concern for the smuggler's survival rose dramatically and she wracked her brain trying to remember Shenegar's location herself.
"Isn't he on the other side of the planet from the Emperor?" she asked. "In one of the equatorial hot zones?"
"Southern Hemisphere," Solo corrected. "Hot, but not tropical."
"I think we should go now," Leia said reluctantly. "We'll have a better chance of getting your father out before they reactivate his micro-chip."
"Micro-chip?" Luke shuddered, appalled.
"All Imperial employees are micro-chipped," Leia said.
"Were you?" Luke asked.
Leia nodded and looked at Solo, who nodded as well. Luke's mouth fell ajar. "I've never heard of this!" he stammered. "Did you get them out?"
Solo shook his head and said, "They can't be removed."
"But they can be re-tasked," Leia said.
"For a lot of credits," Solo argued.
"You and I could be registered as employees," Leia told him. "That would get us in easily."
Solo shook his head at her incredulously. "You know where to go for 're-tasking', Princess?"
"No," Leia admitted, "but I'm sure you do."
"And the credits for this will magically appear from…?"
"You," Leia said.
"Me?!"
"The reward you got on Yavin should more than cover it," Leia reasoned, and Solo was momentarily rendered speechless. "You do still have at least some of it left, don't you?"
"I need that to pay back Jabba!" Solo said hotly.
"I'm sure the Rebellion will replace it once we return with your father," she assured him.
"What about me and Chewie?" Luke asked.
"We could use you to get into the Detention Centre," Leia suggested, then added grimly, "Prospective experimental subjects."
"Why does this sound familiar?" Solo growled.
"It did get us in," Luke admitted. "Although getting out was a little hit and miss…"
"A day, maybe two to get our chips re-tasked," Leia said, concentrating on her plan. "Then in and out of Shenegar's in an afternoon. Probably during the shift change."
She looked at Solo, waiting for his approval, and Luke nodded. "Sound's good to me," he said. "I say we go."
Solo regarded the princess for a long moment then asked, "You sure you're ready for this?"
Leia nodded sharply then said, "Your father saved my life, Han."
"What if he refuses to go back to the Rebellion with you? He could, you know."
"That will be his choice. I hope he helps us, but whether he does or not, I still feel obliged to get him away from Shenegar. He was safely hidden on Galadan before he got involved with us. And the knowledge he has…" Leia paused, choosing her words carefully. "I don't want to see it in the wrong hands."
Solo nodded and wagged a finger at her. "If you hadn't admitted you were doing this as much for the Rebellion as for some guilt complex you have, I wouldn't have believed you." A smile touched Leia's lips and Solo got to his feet. "Let me run it past Chewie," he said, and headed down the ring corridor towards the Wookiee's cabin.
Watching him go, Leia prayed they were doing the right thing, then Luke said, "Okay, what do I need to know about Coruscant?"
To be continued in Under Coruscant.