The Ghost sped through the blue and nebulous hyperspace. Rishi Maze, the galaxy of the Kamino system, was such a distance from Leia's galaxy that there was plenty of downtime during the trip. Being stuck in a Corellian freighter for hours was no one's idea a pleasant experience, especially with an irritated general in the personnel cabin, and a smug bounty hunter as master of her fate.

"Get out of my seat, you Bantha!" Sabine barked at Zeb, who was sitting in the co-pilot chair of the cockpit next to Boba.

"Well excuse me," he replied with a smile, settling deep into the seat and crossing his silver furred arms. "Just keeping it warm for you."

Sabine did not want to keep this conversation going, knowing that Zeb was about to get obnoxious.

"Just get out of my seat!"

"But wait, I didn't tell you how I was keeping it warm." Zeb protested.

"Not another word!" She kicked his shin hard and glared at him.

He growled in pain. "Fine, fine." He rose from his seat.

"Here," Boba said, "You can have mine. I need to go talk with the general. Hopefully, she's in a better mood."

"How's your face?" Sabine asked.

Boba felt his right swollen cheekbone. "The old lady still can throw a punch."

"Yeah, and you can still take one." Zeb quipped. "Maybe she'll give you another one and even you out."

"On second thought . . . Don't sit in my seat." Zeb's face dropped in disappointment. Sabine gleamed.

Boba left the cockpit to enter the passenger quarters. Leia was sitting down at the holographic Dejarik table. She sat comfortably, but still with an air of a royalty. Her austere semblance, giving evidence to her long-past office, grew with age; and she seemed more like a princess now than ever before. That may have intimidated some, but not Boba. He sat down across from her with his own confidence to display.

"Looks like you got into a fight with a Wookiee." Leia smiled.

"I'm pretty sure I did," he responded.

"I heard rumors of your being alive," Leia said.

"Well. Apparently, they were more than rumors since the New Republic put a reward on my head. Not that that matters anymore. Are you ready to talk?"

"Are you going to give me my transceiver back?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Then what do you think?"

Boba needed a new approach. "You know, you would have died back there. They weren't going to capture you and make a negotiation. They were going to make an example."

Leia stared past him without a word.

"Those two up in the cockpit, Sabine and Zeb. They fought for the first Rebellion. They were part of the very beginning of the Rebel Alliance, back with Cham Syndulla. And it seems to me, we are not that far from the same kind of struggle now."

Leia moved her eyes to look in his direction.

"After the Empire fell, it wasn't good. You remember. Warlords and military generals trying to grab power as quick as possible. The order that the Empire maintained with an iron fist was gone. And anyone with might could and tried to take control. Sabine and Zeb had to do what they could to stay alive."

Leia interrupted, "Are you saying they were better off under the Empire!"

"No, but the peace the New Republic brought came too late for them. By that time they were already wanted criminals with their own rewards on their heads."

"So that is what this is all about. You let me go, and you all get your criminal records erased."

"Our records are already erased. Now that the New Republic has been destroyed. We want our history to stay gone," Boba said. "If the First Order defeats you, our records are gone forever. They have no problem with bounty hunters and criminals. But that isn't a future government I'm looking forward to."

"You seemed to have done well with a government like that before," Leia interjected referring to the Empire.

"True, but I was a younger man then. Willing to do whatever it takes. I'm tired, General. Sabine and Zeb are too. It's time to stop running and retire."

"So that's it. You want to return me to the Resistance, in exchange for a clean slate."

"Yeah. Part of it. If the Resistance defeats the First Order, all our criminal past comes back. I want you to ensure that our history doesn't. Promise me that, and I will take you anywhere you tell me to."

Leia laughed mockingly, "So to erase your criminal record, you kidnap a high official! And maybe even think yourself a hero in the process for saving me. You deserve to be sent to the Stygeon System to serve time for all the things you've done. Don't think, I am just going to let you off the hook for a taxi ride! Besides, the Resistance will do just fine without me." She crossed her arms and glared at him.

Boba reached down and pulled out a data chip and held it up.

"I said that was only part of the deal," he stated.

"What's that?" Leia pursed her lips, not impressed.

"The location and time of a secret meeting between Kylo Ren, Snoke, and General Hux," he answered.

"So what?"

"With very limited protection. And in a vulnerable location."

"How limited? How vulnerable?"

"The meeting is to take place on one star destroyer and nothing else, in an uninhabited system."

Leia began to see the potential of this information. A thousand possibilities of success raced through her mind. She thought through the negotiation for a moment.

"How did you get this?" she asked.

"We've been doing this a long time, General. Do you really need me to give you the details of our operation? We got it. And it's real."

"Fine, you will have your criminal records eliminated, but first I will need my transceiver to run your transmission by intelligence to verify its authenticity," she said.

"That's not the deal, General," Boba countered. "For returning you home, I want you to clear our past. For this transmission, I want three million credits."

"What! You're crazy!" she blurted out.

"Didn't I tell you we wanted to retire." Boba smiled. "We return you home. You wipe our history. We give you a portion of the transmission for you to verify. You verify it. You give us three million credits. Then you get the whole transmission. You use it to destroy the head of the First Order, and we retire comfortably."

Leia's anger rolled over her. "A ransom."

It was Boba's turn to laugh now. "Better than a bounty, which you know I am just as happy with."

Leia realized how masterful Boba Fett was at what he did. "What if I refuse?"

"I'm sure the First Order would love to get their hands on the highest ranking general of their opposition. And we would be handsomely rewarded. If you would rather I get a bounty than a ransom, that's your choice. And of course, the Resistance would miss one of the best opportunities they have had yet." He dangled the data chip like a lure.

Leia gritted her teeth. "I wish you never crawled out of that Sarlacc pit."

Boba smiled. "Good for you that I did. Just tell me we have a deal, and I'll take you wherever you want to go."

Boba returned to the cockpit and sat down quickly in his seat not looking directly at Sabine and Zeb. Zeb was sitting in a rear passenger chair obediently.

"How'd it go?" Sabine asked.

He looked at her, his left eye now beginning to bruise, matching his right.

"That good, huh?" Zeb chimed in.

Boba started, "She agreed. Three million for the first transmission after she authenticates it. And to make us clean."

"And the second transmission?" Zeb asked.

"We will wait on that until we can decode it," Boba said. "Since the old codes we stole from the First Order only worked on the first transmission, I think it best to wait until we swipe the new codes first and find out what the second transmission is. There is not much use selling it, until we know what it is worth."

Sabine looked a little uneasy about that idea but understood the reasoning.

"So where are we going?" she asked.

"We're setting a course for Alderaan?" Boba said.

"But Alderaan is gone. The Empire destroyed it with the first death star over thirty years ago," Sabine argued.

"I'm just going where General Organa asked to be taken. That was the deal," Boba said.