Work halted whenever anyone entered the command center. The screens still blipped radar or swept a sonar wave, but all eyes lifted for a brief moment to see who it was and what kind of news they had.
It was usually bad news. It might be the snow creatures were getting braver and spotted closer to base, sniffing out the human occupation of the planet Hoth. Or someone had gotten frostbite and needed medical. Or the current modification to the T-47s had failed and the speeders still weren't working.
Today it was Han, and he had some good news (no sign of life) before delivering the bad (I'm quitting). He hadn't said it in so many words, in fact he used a lot more, but that's what it amounted to, he was quitting.
General Rieekan had taken it well, and shaken Han's hand affably. Leia had mustered her dignity, and followed Han out, and proceeded to not take it well. Now she stood outside the command center, composing herself for all those prying eyes. Death mark, she fumed at the smuggler, tugging downward on her white quilted vest. Like we all don't have one here. General Rieekan should have said, "Big deal. Get in line."
She smoothed her braids and wondered if Luke knew. Han probably told him while they were out on patrol together. She wondered when Han had made this decision. It didn't exactly come from out of the blue, but it felt like it had.
The thought of Luke calmed her a bit. He would say, "big deal" to Han's face. It wouldn't be enough to change Han's mind, and it didn't ease the hurt, but it did lift her spirits. She and Luke were going to have dinner together later. They could bash his character; maybe that would help let go her anger.
Though Luke was a lot more forgiving than he used to be. Three years ago, the first time Han was packing to go, it was Leia who soothed Luke. "He's got to follow his own path," she remembered herself saying. The truth was, back then she probably hadn't cared as much.
Luke wouldn't exactly throw those words in her face, but he would let Han go without a fight. "It's been three years," he would tell her. "I'd say we are in his path."
She should have called out "big deal" when Han reported his news. Ah, but good comebacks often came too late, she sighed to the door as it slid open. She avoided General Rieekan's questioning glance and headed back to her station.
"Has Commander Skywalker reported on that meteorite?" she asked Lt. Farr.
"No, Your Highness. Not yet."
Leia nodded. She went over to another screen and looked at the sector mapping. Sector 7 was on the eastern ridge. A positioning tracker flashed steadily, moving in an uneven line towards the northern boundary of the sector. Luke on his way, Leia told herself. The terrain was rough, she knew, and tauntauns didn't move like speeders. She had a flash of concern, and hoped the meteorite wasn't too far north of the base. Really, meteorites were common all over the planet. Without properly functioning speeders, it was impossible to check on each one.
"Have you had your break yet, Lt. Farr?" Leia asked. Her own shift was up in two hours. Leia hadn't taken hers, but she wouldn't need one.
With some chagrin, Leia realized that, technically, she probably had gone on break. Personnel could spend the time how they wanted: stand by the heater, smoke a bacca stick at the hangar entrance, chase after an excuse-making smuggler...
"Not yet, Your Highness."
"Go ahead, then. I'll take over your station," Leia offered. She put her hand on Lt. Farr's shoulder, a request between coworkers. Please don't tell everyone how I followed Captain Solo out of the command center.
"Thank you, Your Highness," and Lt. Farr got up and let Leia take her seat.
News of Han's announcement would spread rapidly through the base, faster than a meteorite landing. And how Leia had quietly left the command center, and then not as quietly snapped at him in the South Passage. Leia sighed, and resigned herself once again to being the topic of gossip.
Oh, kriff. The staff moving through the South Passage... the man who walked between her and Han. How could anyone call her Your Highness with a straight face when she behaved like that? Under the headset, Leia felt her face redden. It was undignified.
Good riddance, she decided. If words weren't enough to move Han, the next time she saw him she couldn't guarantee she wouldn't haul off and slug him, fatten that pretty lip of his-
She had not just thought pretty. Her brain had spelled it wrong. Petty. His mouth was petty.
Leia wiped the headset on her sleeve before putting the headset over her ears. It blocked out the outside noise satisfactorily, cutting out all external distractions. No wonder Leia hadn't gotten to know Lt. Farr well. She was focused on monitoring activity outside the planet's shield and couldn't hear any of the small talk.
If she called her Taryn, Leia reflected; if she had a real friend. But that wasn't fair, she chided herself. Leia was not lonely. She did have friends, Luke and Han, but perhaps it would have been healthier to have others in addition to the tolerant farm boy and the entertaining smuggler. It was hard, though, and Leia appreciated the difficulty others must face working alongside a Princess who was also acted as the General's right hand. It was hard to follow up "Your Highness" with "the gruel here makes me so bloated."
Luke had said that to her yesterday. And he hadn't used her title or even her name. Just said, "You?"
A soft smile crossed Leia's face. Friendly, open Luke. Leia had met him, and Han, at a time when her title wasn't going to help them get off the Death Star unless they put their heads together and worked as a team.
Down to Luke now. Leia closed her eyes over her resentment, and tried to look forward to dinner later. She glanced over her shoulder and attempted to glimpse the position tracking screen, but General Rieekan kept walking past it. Luke should report as soon as he came in, but knowing him, he would probably bring his findings- just a meteor, probably- when he came to meet her.
Luke's rank was commander, but he could be lax about protocol. And Han lacked it entirely-
New policy, Leia decided. Friends weren't paired for duty, especially two friends who couldn't be counted on to follow procedure-
And she found a new reason to be angry with Han, a good, true one; one the base would appreciate. Han should have ridden with Luke. The buddy system.
Some friend he was, Leia thought. A good friend would stick with his buddy. And never publicly taunt a friend for following them. A real friend wouldn't tease a goodbye kiss. They would just offer one.
Wait.
Leia blinked at the screen. That had veered off the tirade.
Afraid I was going to leave?
She put the heel of her palm against the bridge of her nose. In truth she was afraid of the answer.
"Princess," General Rieekan snapped her away from her thoughts gently. He was trying to salvage her dignity. Now, there was a real friend. You see, Captain- "Are you feeling alright?"
Leia shot him a grateful look, though her tight-lipped smile was upside down. "Just cold," she said.
He agreed with a nod. "Cold isn't a good feeling," he said. "Hard to concentrate. Take a heater break."
She shook her head. "I'm fine."
Lt. Farr came to resume her post, and General Rieekan asked to consult with Leia about some new intel. More bad news: the Empire was conducting systematic sweeps of each system, launching probe droids for information on worlds with heightened weapons and shielding. She finished her shift with the added weight of their likely failure to protect the base, and walked to Luke's quarters. He was probably changing out of his snow gear.
"I haven't seen him, Your Highness," Wedge Antilles said. He and Wes Janson stood up in the ice corridor from where they were squatting, playing a dice game, to talk to her.
Leia frowned, both at their knowing smirks and the whereabouts of Luke. She left the two pilots to their game, figuring now she'd gotten Luke mixed up in the gossip. Then she comm'd Luke when she got to her own quarters. Were we meeting in the mess? Sorry- be there in a few.
She changed into her dark tan snow vest, the one that signified off duty and walked the icy passages again. Through the hangar, and even over the clatter of tools and motors, the group of techs and the useless speeders, she heard Han's voice, stubborn and denying as usual. "But it should work," he was saying.
Then why didn't it, Leia answered him silently. The tragedy of the sentence stopped her in her tracks and she forgot what she had come for.
Han wasn't talking to her. Or even about her. No, most definitely something was wrong with his ship. He'd flipped a switch and sparks flew-
Oh my goodness, Leia gasped.
And he had to flip the switch again, and turn it off, and try a new approach-
She might as well be describing her own relationship with him.
She felt sad all of a sudden, and she turned to look for him. She wouldn't say goodbye when he got his clearance to leave; he probably wouldn't either. The South Passage had been their farewells, then.
He'd grown cold evidently; he had the great coat back on and was moving about the topside of his ship. She bid his figure goodbye to herself, where no one could hear it and make it part of the gossip.
Over by the hangar door where a few were hunched up for the last bacca break before the doors closed for the night, Leia caught sight of the darkening sky and snow whirling in the wind. She spied a tauntaun and rider- someone finished with patrol- and followed it to the stalls.
Leia couldn't help it; she still wasn't used to the smell. She put a gloved hand up to her nose and nodded at the commander in charge, her eyes searching. Half a dozen animals, twice as many humans, and it was hard to distinguish who was who because of the identical protective head gear. But she determined it in a few minutes: none of the men was Luke.
It was getting annoying, how they kept missing each other. Leia decided to stop trying and just wait in the mess.
Luke wasn't there, either. She stared around, her stomach sinking. Was she uneasy, or just upset Han was leaving. Fine, Luke, she thought. Have it your way. I admit it: I don't want him to leave.
She should check with Han. He was the last to see Luke. Leia looked at her chrono. But that was a while ago, before patrol ended. He probably couldn't tell her anything. She really didn't want to talk to him, not after the way he treated her, but she gathered her resolve and opened her comm. She was all over the place when she thought of Han, but when it came to Luke she was plain worried.
Her comm buzzed back Han's contact as 'no response'. Figured. She tested Luke's number and got the same answer. Was it her unit?
Leia returned to the command center. "Can someone test my comm?" she asked. "I'm not able to reach anyone."
"Certainly, Your Highness," General Rieekan was affable again. He pulled his own comm out and in a moment Leia's was chiming in her hand, "CG, respond."
"Seems fine now," the general said. "Who did you want to reach?" he asked.
"I tried both Commander Skywalker and Captain Solo. He's in the hangar; I saw him, but my comm says no response."
"Hmm. When you see Skywalker, tell him we're still waiting on that meteorite report. As for Captain Solo, I suppose you could just walk up to him."
It was a sly dig. Even Rieekan was unable to resist. Leia would show everyone she was a princess and a leader. "C-3PO," she called her protocol droid over. "Please find Captain Solo in the hangar and remind him that comms are to remain on at all times. And ask him if he's seen Commander Skywalker."
Rieekan smiled at her and the droid shuffled off with an obidient, "Certainly, Princess Leia."
Rieekan strolled over to the position tracking screen. The screen showed its white background; no green blips moved about the landscape.
"Everyone appears to be in," he said. "Each patrol signs in and out at their assigned entrance," he told her. "It gets filed here." He gestured to a computer where Leia could access the patrol logs.
Patrols couldn't happen during the overnight hours. The temperatures fell drastically and it was too dangerous to make a visual inspection. Leia knew there were twelve sectors, and four patrols in each sector per shift.
The base generated a lot of forms, she thought as she read the first two. Were they all necessary? Should the Empire defeat them what kind of intel were they leaving behind? A form listed name of rider, name of mount, sector patrol, time in and time out, and had a field for notes. Leia started to scroll through rapidly to the afternoon hours. What hour would Luke's have been?
"What is taking 3PO so long?" she mused aloud. Then, "Sector 7 uses what entrance?" she posed to General Rieekan.
"I believe north," he replied. Her worry was making him concerned. "Is there a chance Skywalker went out of sector?"
Leia shrugged at him.
"I'll check with north entrance." He pulled up the visual intercom, and Leia left the forms and went to stand next to him. There was some activity. She could see C-3PO, stiff torso rotating upraised arms. What was he doing in there?
The North Entrance responded to the intercom call. "Come in, command center."
"We've got a possible man out," Rieekan said gruffly.
"Yes, sir," the commander responded. "Captain Solo raised the alert. We're checking."
Rieekan nodded. "I know as soon as you do," he ordered.
"Yes, sir."
Leia was peering past the commander's face in the video feed. She figured Han's voice should drift out to her like it had in the hangar, but she didn't hear anything that sounded like him.
"Commander," she announced herself, "This is Princess Leia. Please put on the protocol droid."
"Yes, Mistress Leia?" C-3PO's head loomed large in the video feed, blocking out the background.
"3PO, were you able to give Captain Solo my message?"
"Yes, Mistress, I successfully located him in the-"
"And?" Leia interrupted. The eyes of those in the command center on her, but she didn't care.
"He reported he had turned his comm off," the droid said. "It is my belief he was feeling a bit anti-social, although he expressed it differently. Perhaps it is due in some part to his recent decision to l-"
"Is he there? Put him on, please."
"No, Your Highness, he has departed."
"Did he go back to the Falcon? Follow him and tell him to comm. And if Commander Skywalker is there too, tell him I kick him off." Leia turned to General Rieekan. "General, new policy. Droids without built-in comms are to be issued one. We could be wasting valuable time."
The general nodded agreement. His eyes showed genuine concern.
"Commader Skywalker is definitely not on the Falcon," C-3PO reported. "I am sure Captain Solo would have indicated that, despite his general rudeness to me. I believe Captain Solo believes Master Luke to be outside."
"What?" Leia exclaimed and stood up. "What's happened. What did he say?"
"As is his nature, Captain Solo did not heed the caution of the commander, and mounted a tauntaun. He said, Your Highness,- and you may be certain this is an exact quote- 'I'll see you in hell.'"
No.