Hello, there! Im back again and sticking to my new schedule! Thank you for everyone who has stuck with the story for as long as they have. I kind of feel like these few chapters are getting boring, since it's the middle and the middle of a story has a tendency to sag. If any of you are feeling like this is happening, please tell me so that I can improve it.

Thank you! Smarmysmirk out!

"Apology accepted, Captain."

With a final despairing gargle, the now-lifeless corpse of Captain Needa dropped to the floor at the feet of Darth Vader, before several stormtroopers carried it away. Looking at the body for a moment longer, the cyborg turned to be met by Admiral Piett and two other Captains.

"Lord Vader, our ships have completed their scan of the area and found nothing," Piett reported. "If the Millennium Falcon went into light-speed, it'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now."

"Alert all commands. Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory," Vader ordered.

"Yes, my lord. We'll find them," Piett promised, saluting.

"Don't fail me again, Admiral," Vader warned him, before walking away.

Touching his throat nervously, Piett looked at the stormtroopers dragging Needa out of the room before turning to his subordinates. "Alert all commands. Deploy the fleet."

As the Avenger broke off from the Dreadnought and the rest of Vader's fleet, no one noticed a strange, disc-like shape clinging onto the back of it's bridge. Hidden from Imperial scanners, the Millenium Falcon remained undetected by hiding right in the midst of the enemy.

"Captain Solo, this time you have gone too far," 3po berated Han inside of the cockpit.

In response, Chewie growled at the droid, fed up with his insubordinate attitude. 3po didn't believe that they were safe, which was understandable since they were hiding from the Star Destroyers by hiding right on a Star Destroyer. But there was nothing else that could have been done, and listening to 3po chew his friend out for saving them was just too much.

"No, I will not be quiet, Chewbacca. Why doesn't anyone listen to me?" 3po asked no one in particular.

"The fleet is beginning to break up," Han noticed, ignoring the droid. "Chewie, go back and stand by the manual release for the landing claw."

"I really don't see how that is going to help," 3po interjected as Chewie brushed past him. "Surrender is a perfectly acceptable alternative in extreme circumstances. The Empire may be gracious enough to-"

3po's eyes suddenly grew dark as Calvin jumped up to flick the power switch on the back of his head, beating Leia to the punch.

"Thank you," Han said.

"My pleasure," Calvin nodded.

"So, what did you have in mind for your next move?" Leia asked Han.

"Yeah," Calvin joined in. "I mean, we're safe right now, but if they jump to lightspeed, we'll go with them. And that seems sorta counterproductive."

"Well, if they follow standard Imperial procedure, they'll dump their garbage before they go to light-speed. Then we just float away," Han explained.

"With the rest of the garbage," Leia nodded. "Then what?"

"Then we've got to find a safe port somewhere around here. Got any ideas?"

"Nope. Where are we?" Calvin asked.

"The Anoat system," Han told him.

"The Anoat system…" Leia mused. "Well, there's not much there."

"No," Han agreed, checking the star charts, when suddenly, his expression became rather surprised. "Well, wait. This is interesting… Lando."

"What?" Calvin was confused.

"Here, guys. Take a look," he said. Several blinking lights indicated nearby systems, planets, and stars.

"What in the world's a Lando?" Calvin wondered.

"Lando system?" Leia asked.

Lando's not a system, he's a man," Han explained. "Lando Calrissian. He's a card player, gambler, scoundrel."

He looked at Leia. "You'd like him."

"Thanks," she deadpanned, while Calvin gagged nearby, reminded of the lovey-dovey kissing stuff from earlier.

"Bespin… it's pretty far, but I think we can make it," Han muttered, analyzing the charts. Leia stepped over to see for herself, and her forehead twisted in confusion.

"A mining colony?" she scoffed.

"Yeah, a Tibanna gas mine," he explained. "Lando conned somebody out of it. We go back a long way, Lando and me."

"Conned, eh?" Calvin scratched his chin. "He sounds kinda fun."

"Can you trust him?" Leia asked him.

"No, but he's got no love for the Empire, I can tell you that," Han assured her, before the ship suddenly began to tilt and Chewie's voice came over the intercom. "Raargh! Argrgh!"

Springing into action, Han prepared to detach the Falcon from the Star Destroyer. Timing was crucial; they had to seamlessly float along with the dumped garbage or they would be detected. He looked out of the window, where the garbage doors were opening.

"Here we go, Chewie, stand by…" he warned. "Detach!"

As the trash from the Imperial ship left the doors, the Falcon let go of it and joined the stream of unneeded metal, food scraps, and other garbage. For a minute, they floated along, right in the view of the imperial scanners. But, if they were lucky, they would look like nothing but more trash to them. Finally, the area in front of the Star Destroyer became slightly distorted, and the next second, the ship jumped into Hyperspace along with the rest of the fleet.

"Woo! Yeah!" Calvin pumped his fist. "We made it!"

As Calvin celebrated, Han slumped back in his seat with an exhausted exhale, tired from all of the action going on. Looking over at Leia, he gave her a snarky grin.

"You do have your moments," Leia told him. "Not many, but you have them."

Giving him a peck on the cheek, she looked out of the cockpit window, where trash was floating along, when the startled voice of 3po went, "Oh!"

Both of them spun to see that Calvin had turned the translator droid back on, who was now looking around and continuing to babble. "Why, what just happened?" he asked.

"Kid, why'd you turn him back on? Keep him off!" Han exclaimed.

"Nope!" Calvin shook his head. "With you two smoochin' all the time, GROSS needs all the help it can get."

As Han and Calvin began to argue, the Falcon began following a course towards Bespin, slipping out of the trash and zooming off into the distance. However, unbeknownst to them, their gamble wasn't without consequences. The Empire might not have realized their trick, but a certain bounty hunter had a very good idea of what had happened when they disappeared from the scanners. And as soon as they were on their way, a second ship lit its engines and raced out of the trash after them.

In that ship, Boba Fett smiled under his helmet. Soon he'd be very, very well paid.

As the Falcon made its way to the gas giant, Bespin, a new part of Luke's Jedi training had begun on Dagobah. The physical exercises were over for now, and Yoda had decided that it was time to test out just how powerful Luke really was with the force. It had taken a little while for him to recover from whatever he had seen in that cave. Hobbes didn't blame him; he probably would have run out of that cave, screaming in terror if he saw his greatest fear, whatever that was.

He still hadn't requested a Kyber crystal; he was gathering together his courage to ask. But he assured himself that do it soon. After all, Calvin was counting on him.

"Yes. Good," Yoda encouraged Luke, who was currently standing upside-down on his hands. His face showed his strenuous efforts to lift two nearby stones the size of his head. Concentrating as best as he could, Luke closed his eyes and imagined one of the stones rising into the air.

Suddenly, one began to slowly move upwards, before being lowered on top of the other. Amazed, Hobbes watched with wonder as Luke performed the incredible feat.

"Use the force. Yes," Yoda nodded, perched on Luke's legs which made his handstand all the more impressive.

Suddenly, R2 began beeping frantically nearby, but Hobbes didn't look- he was too transfixed by what he was seeing. Luke's concentration wavered, but kept his cool.

"Now the stone…" Yoda instructed him. "Feel it."

His forehead glistening with sweat, Luke attempted to lift the top rock into the air. It shook as it did so, Luke now very distracted by R2's beeping and whirring. Finally, Hobbes looked over and gasped.

That was it. The rock fell, and Yoda barely managed to hop off before Luke did the same. "Concentrate!" he told him.

Annoyed, Luke looked over at R2, who was trying to direct his attention to the X-wing in the muddy pond. Finally, Luke understood, and looked at his ride home. The X-wing had sunk by a good couple of feet, and now, only the nose and the tips of the wings were showing above the waterline. The ship was as good as gone.

"Oh, no!" Luke groaned. "We'll never get it out, now!"

"No, it's okay!" Hobbes told him. "You can take the Y-wing home! It has two seats, so I think that we can make it out of here… if the gunner's seat is still airtight."

"Hmph!" Yoda's irritated huff came from behind them. Both of them turned around.

"So certain are you," he addressed Luke, scoffing. "Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?"

"Wait, he's right!" Hobbes realized. "Luke, can't you use the force to lift the X-wing?"

"Guys, moving stones around is one thing," Luke sighed. "This is totally different!"

"No! No different!" Yoda declared, stamping his tiny foot. "Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned."

Luke looked at Yoda, then at Hobbes and R2, and sighed. "All right, all right. I'll give it a try."

Sitting down cross-legged, near the water's edge, Luke stretched out with his feelings, as Obi Wan had taught him a long time ago. Feeling the metallic frame of the submerged X-wing, he connected with it, and steadied his breathing, as Yoda had taught him.

Suddenly, Hobbes saw the nose of the ship shift, before it started to slowly rise, inch by inch, out of the water. They all stood silent, mentally goading Luke on as he did everything he could to lift the X-wing. Then, the tip of one of the lower wings emerged, and, ever so slowly, more and more rose out of the water. Breathing shallowly so as to not interrupt Luke's incredible feat, Hobbes finally saw the last part of the X-wing, the algae-covered landing gear, break the water's surface and-

Without warning, the entire ship dropped back into the murky water with a resounding splash, spraying Luke, Hobbes, and mostly R2 with water.

"I can't," Luke shook his head. "It's too big."

"What? No!" Hobbes argued. "You were almost there, just try again!"

"Hobbes, I can't," Luke shook his head. "I love my X-wing, but I can't do this! I'll just… hitch a ride with you in the gunner's seat."

"Pah!"

Hobbes and Luke looked over to see Yoda shaking his head.

"What?" Luke asked, annoyed at his teacher's attitude. "I'm sorry, but it's the fact of the matter. I can't lift this! Nobody could."

"Size matters not," Yoda told him. "Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm?"

Luke shook his head no.

"And well you should not," Yoda continued. "For my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we-"

Yoda pinched Luke's shoulder. "-not this crude matter."

He made a sweeping gesture. "You must feel the Force around you. Here, between you... me... the tree... the rock… everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that ship!" Yoda finished talking and leaned on his cane for support as he watched the Jedi-in-training ponder his words.

Luke frowned, discouraged. "You ask for the impossible."

As he began to walk away, Hobbes watched him go. He sighed and looked back at the X-wing, now completely submerged in the large, green pond. Now, even he couldn't see how anyone, no matter how powerful they were, could get that ship out on their own.

The force has its limits, I suppose.

Looking back at Yoda, he shrugged at him. And in response, Yoda smiled, gave a short cackle, and stretched out a hand towards the pond.

Almost immediately, a great churning, bubbling sound made the pond's surface choppy and uneven. Beeping in terror, R2 backed away as, miraculously, the tip of a wing appeared. With incredible control and concentration, Yoda lifted his hand, and the ship lifted along with it. It was incredible… naturally supernatural was what Hobbes would later describe it as.

Beside him, Luke walked up, dumbstruck by Yoda doing what he had just considered impossible. Finally, the landing gear left the water, and the entire ship floated majestically through the air to land right in front of Luke, touching down on the mossy ground. Its entire frame was covered with plants and mud, and it was in pretty bad condition. But there was no doubt that it could be fixed.

"I don't believe it…" Luke mumbled beside him.

Smiling, Yoda said, "That is why you fail."

Lightyears away, the Millenium Falcon rocketed through the huge, billowing clouds of Bespin, heading towards a floating metropolis called Cloud City. They had been traveling for a couple of days to get there; it wasn't easy when you could only travel at 60,000 miles per hour instead one lightyear in a day.

But finally, Bespin came into view, its tawny, orange color created by the swirling, shifting clouds of tibanna-rich gasses across its surface… if you could call it that. Since it was a gas giant, it really didn't have a surface at all.

Calvin looked out the viewscreen in awe at the clouds speeding by, illuminated with an orange haze created by the planet's star. Then, a few minutes later, he spotted something… a building?

Yes, a building, he realized. As the ship passed a rather large cloud, a huge, floating city came into view, hovering serenely on massive repulsor lifts. He could see patrolling cloud cars, gas-collecting mining ships, and even several Neutron missile launchers set up and ready to blow any threat to Cloud City out of the sky.

A beeping noise appeared on the transmission pad, and Han answered it. As he did, several of the amber-colored cloud cars came into view behind the Falcon, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"Wha- no, I don't have a landing permit- I'm trying to reach Lando Calrissian!" Han explained, arguing with a voice on the other end of the transmission.

Suddenly, shudders passed through the ship as the patrolling cloud cars opened fire, slowly whittling down the Falcon's shields.

"Han? Han, they're firing on us," Calvin nervously told him.

"Whoa! Wait a minute! Let me explain." Han quickly exclaimed. Thankfully, the flak died down, and for another half-minute, Han negotiated with the person on the other end.

"Got it," he finally said, and turned off the transmission.

"Rather touchy, aren't they?" 3po remarked.

"I thought you knew this person," Leia frowned. Chewie chipped in as well, growling worriedly and angrily at Han, expressing his concerns.

"Well, that was a long time ago. I'm sure he's forgotten about that," Han argued, and flew the ship towards one of the many landing pads around the city. "There's nothing to worry about. We go way back, Lando and me," he assured Leia.

"Who's worried?" Leia crossed her arms.

Calvin was wondering what Chewie and Han were hoping Lando had forgotten about by now, but at that very moment, the ship touched the ground. Seeing a small procession of important looking people walking towards the Falcon, along with armed guards, he decided to bring his blaster.

The loading ramp lowered, and Han was the first one out, followed by Leia, Chewie, Calvin, and 3po. The two parties walked toward each other, before stopping a few yards away from each other. All but one.

"Why you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler!" an enraged voice rang out from the leader of the Cloud City group. "You've got a lot of guts coming here, after what you pulled!"

He angrily strode toward Han, his stylish blue-gold cape fluttering behind him, along with a crown of black hair on his head. A well-kept mustache sat just above his upper lip, aligning with the frown on his face, and a bronzed hand brushed against an X-8 sniper blaster partially hidden by his shirt and jacket.

Wow, Calvin thought, resting a hand on his own blaster. This guy has style!

In response to the fiery outburst of language, Han pointed innocently at himself, mouthing, 'Me?' The man, probably Lando Calrissian, stopped a few feet short of him, before suddenly grabbing him by the shoulders. Everyone jumped, and Calvin's blaster barrel was on the verge of leaving its holster.

Then, in a complete 180, Lando threw his arms around the smuggler, and laughed. Han grinned, relaxing, and returned the favor, and the two of them laughed like they had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"How you doing, you old pirate? So good to see you!" Lando grinned. "I never thought I'd catch up with you again. Where have you been?"

"Well, he seems very friendly," 3po remarked.

"Looks like it," Calvin grinned, and holstered his blaster.

"Yes…" Leia muttered, suspicion apparent in her tone. "Very friendly."

"So, what are you doing here?" Lando asked as the three of them walked towards him and Han.

"Ahh... repairs," Han gestured towards the Falcon. "I thought you could help me out."

Looking past Han, Lando put on a face of horror. "What have you done to my ship?"

"Your ship?" Han scoffed as Calvin, Chewie, 3po and Leia stood beside him. "Hey, remember, you lost her to me fair and square."

Noticing the rest of the group, Lando disregarded the disagreement over the ownership of the ship and went to greet them. He suddenly stopped when Leia caught his eye.

"Hello. What have we here?" he asked. "Welcome. I'm Lando Calrissian. I'm the administrator of this facility. And who might you be?"

"Leia," she told him, putting on a polite smile .

"Welcome, Leia," he greeted her with a roguish grin and formally kissed her hand.

"Blegh!" Calvin exclaimed.

"And who might you be?" Lando asked him, amused by the boy's disgust.

"Calvin the bold!" Calvin shook his hand. It was firm, strong, and he attempted to imitate the feeling. "Certified Genius and Innovative Inventor! Nice to meet'cha!"

Lando chuckled. "Well, Calvin the Bold, my name is Lando Calrissian. Heard of me?"

"Yeah," Calvin nodded slightly, putting on an expression of faint recognition. "Say, aren't you the guy who won first place in the intergalactic competition for 'Most Stylish Cape?'"

Lando burst into laughter. "I like this kid!" he remarked, to which Calvin beamed. Walking back to Han, he said, "Well, I'll tell you what, my crew will fix up your ship, and I'll show you a room you all can stay in."

"We'd appreciate that," Han nodded, and began to follow Lando's men. Not one to be left behind, Calvin caught up with them, grinning as he entered the hallways of the city.

Yep, things were definitely looking up!

A sudden jolt ran through him, however, when he realized that he hadn't thought about Hobbes in days. Of course, a lot of stuff had been happening, with them stuck in an asteroid field and escaping the Empire, but he felt a bit disappointed with himself for not even thinking about his best friend for days. Especially when the Emperor of the Galactic Empire and Darth Vader might know that he knew about the DART.

But the more he thought about the problem, the less bad it seemed. Yes, the Empire might know about the DART and that Hobbes knew about it, too. And yes, there might be a trap set for them sometime in the future. But the plan still remained mostly unchanged. Get the Kyber crystal, join up with the Rebel fleet, Upgrade the DART and head home.

The only other problem was the broken Hyperdrive, but even that was now being worked on by Lando's men. And, after a few very stressful weeks, he was thankful for the possibility to enjoy some of Cloud City's luxuries.

Things were going to work out. He was… pretty sure about that.

Oh, and also, I just realized that I described Darth Vader's ship twice in separate chapters. lol. Sorry about that.

:D