Chapter Five: The Groups Meet Again
Rosie was pacing again and Han was trying to think of a million terrible plans while he stood in thought.
Suddenly, Amarav flew past them. Luke yelled in protest.
"Wait, Amarav! Han and Rosalee are back there!"
"Well, why didn't you say so?" asked Amarav, as if he should have thought of that before. She retraced her path more carefully and found the two standing by two droids and a Wookiee.
"What are you all doing here, anyway?" inquired Amarav quizzically. "Rosie, didn't I tell you to stay on the ship?"
"Sorry, Amarav," she replied sullenly. "I was looking for you."
"Rosie, if I was in trouble, there'd be nothing you could do. You understand that, right?"
Rosie nodded.
"CoCapJanice!"
All eyes were immediately fixed on the taller of the droids. Rosie rolled hers.
Luke fell from Amarav's grasp and brushed himself off.
"She was put to sleep by a device that controls her nervous system through her spinal cord. We tried to disable it, but we couldn't read... anything on this remote," Luke explained, producing the remote from his pocket. "See Threepio, are you programmed to also READ other languages?"
"Why, yes, certainly. Almost six million, to be exact," he replied.
Luke handed him the remote. "Not 'over six million' like the spoken languages you can understand, right?"
"Well, not all languages have written form," replied the droid absentmindedly as he studied the device he held.
"Look for something that says 'off' or 'turn brain system back on' or 'turn sleep off' or something," said Amarav, as if the button had one of those three labels.
C-3PO didn't seem to notice this comment as he was absorbed with the remote.
"The way the buttons on this remote work, it seems it would take several buttons to give the device a full command. For example:" —he started to say foreign words they did not understand— "would tell the device to 'turn itself off.'"
"Then press it!" Luke and Amarav shouted at the same moment. The droid quickly pressed the sequence of buttons, and the CoCaptain came to. She opened her eyes and immediately noticed two things: one was that she was no longer in the dark hallway; and the other, that the remote with which Sean had put her to sleep was in the hand of C-3PO. With her first movement she fell right out of her sister's clutches. Not seeming to notice at all, she picked herself up and smiled at 3PO.
"High five!"
Apparently droids aren't used to friendly attention. He just stood there as if he wasn't sure how to respond.
The CoCaptain grabbed his arm and slapped her hand to his, knocking the poor droid over.
Captain Amarav stared quizzically at her CoCaptain.
Without prior notice, they were being shot at with great blue blasts of energy. Amarav scooped them all up without a second thought and flew to her ship, tossing them all in and re-airlocking the door.
The next few moments were spent in groans as each person picked themselves up and brushed themselves off.
"How did you do that?" asked Luke in awe.
"Superstrength," replied CapAmarav.
Suddenly, it hit them.
"Where's Uncle Han?" asked Janice.
The spaceship pilot was not among them.
Chewie noticed this immediately and started to cry out and bang on things.
Amarav took charge, as was the normal procedures on that StarShip. She turned to her CoCaptain. "Janice, I'm going to go look for Uncle Han. Stay here and take care of things. If I'm still capable, I'll update you periodically. Hopefully this will be quick. Here's your lightsaber."
Amarav flung the renowned weapon casually to her second in command. Janice jumped to grab it and nodded to her Captain.
Amarav turned to open the hatch, then paused. "Janice."
Janice looked up from her lightsaber.
"See to it that Rosalee doesn't leave the ship."
"Yes, Amarav." Janice grinned and Rosie looked sheepish.
Amarav turned open the airlock and zipped to the planet they hovered over as it shut automatically.
Janice was still smiling and staring absentmindedly at her lightsaber.
"How did you get one of those?" asked Luke, breaking the relative silence. "You can't be a Jedi. I sense very little of the force with you."
Janice turned to face him a moment. "I found it."
She hardly seemed to notice that all eyes were on her.
"I found it. It's— it's mine," she stammered.
"Let me see it," said Luke. She hardly had a choice as he used the force to pull it from her hands.
As Luke examined it, turned it on and slashed it around, and studied it again, his eyes grew wider. "This looks a lot like the one I lost."
"M-my favorite color's green," managed Janice.
Luke glanced back at her. "Are you suggesting that we trade?"
Janice nodded.
Luke sighed. "Alrighty," he said with uncertainty, swinging his green saber to Janice.
Janice grabbed the object and handled it fondly, as if it was something she had known from long ago.
Luke turned the blue saber back on. "Can you fight?"
Janice smiled. "Pretty well. I can't use the force or anything, so you'd have to take it easy on me."
Luke smiled back. "I won't kill you."
Janice laughed and turned her green lightsaber on, swinging it against Luke's. They started to clash them together, Luke always taking the lead and coming close to slicing his opponent several times.
Both the droids stayed to watch their battle ensue. Rosalee stayed for a little while, but then she returned to the cockpit to oversee the ship.
Chewie was still clearly upset about the disappearance of Han Solo.