Han & Leia | Galaxy of Us

Chapter 2

"Your friend is quite a mercenary. I wonder if he really cares about anything...or anybody." - Leia Organa, Star Wars: A New Hope

Leia found herself a small alcove where she curled up and sat, staring out into the stars. She had needed this time to be alone. Not to allow herself to feel, but to strategize. There would be time for grief later. Now it hid, coiled into a painful lump at the back of her throat. She refused to let tears surface. Her personal loss would only hinder her judgements; she could not allow for that. Not now, not when they were so close...

Having been held hostage in the Death Star had not been some mindless wait for an impending execution, she had taken calculated observations of the layout of the ship, just in case she had managed to escape. She had been trained too well to simply "give up". She may have been a Princess, but neither was she spoilt nor prone to hysterics. In fact, she had always rather secretly despised the title. "Princess" made her sound incapable, weak. Like a damsel in distress. And she was none of those things.

Although, she realized with some humour, she had definitely been rescued. Yet, she couldn't exactly call the odd trio her "knights in shining armor" either.

Chewbacca, the Wookiee, sat across from her by a table in silence, respectful of her privacy. She now felt a little remorseful for calling him a "walking carpet" earlier. Sometimes her smart mouth got the better of her. She told him so in a quiet tone. He grunted back in his own language, nodding his head in a gesture of acceptance. She knew a little Shyriiwook and so when he asked, "Wwwah rrroooaaah wha?" as a way of a peace offering, pointing to the holochess board, she realized he wanted to play a game with her.

She hesitated, "I don't really know how to play."

Chewbacca motioned for her to join him anyway, "I'll teach you."

Some ten minutes later, and she was deeply engrossed in the game, planning her next move. Chewbacca would grunt approvingly whenever she made a good move against him and she was beginning to like the Wookiee. He certainly wasn't domineering or as arrogant as his counterpart. "How did the three of you come to find me?" she questioned, as she planned her next move thoughtfully.

Chewbacca immediately launched into a detailed and lengthy explanation of the events that had transpired. She only understood about half of what he was telling her, but she got the gist of it. Luke and Obi-Wan had enlisted Han and Chewbacca to pilot them to Alderaan. Having gotten caught by the Death Star's tractor beam, they had hidden in the storage for smuggled goods - at this her eyebrows had shot up, but she said nothing - then disguised themselves as clones, with Chewbacca pretending to be their prisoner. While Obi-Wan disabled the tractor beam and later duelled with Vader, Luke, Han and Chewbacca had come to rescue her. It was Luke's plan, the Wookiee informed her, though while the boy had courage, he hadn't exactly had things all planned out.

"I can imagine," she responded dryly.

"You're going to fight the Empire, then?" Chewbacca queried with interest.

"That's the plan. I know the layout of the Death Star by memory and I'm sure there's a weakness somewhere that we can take advantage of."

"It's a big ship," Chewbacca commented skeptically.

"Everything has its own weakness," Leia pointed out. Even she did.

Her thoughts travelled back without her own accord, of being interrogated and tortured by Vader. He had probed and attempted to search through her mind until she felt sick enough to hurl. He had used the Force, thin, warped tendrils of dark power that snaked through her defenses. And yet, she had pushed back, stubbornly, closing her mind to him. He had tried everything, from creating terrible mind-delusions to wreak intense fear, to physical torture. Her arm still throbbed painfully from the sharp needles that had sunk so easily into her skin; Vader had drawn blood with some perverse pleasure, as though the sight of it, bright and crimson against her white attire and pale skin had proven some concession on her part. But she had remained stoic and silent. And finally, Tarkin had grown tired of these futile attempts to gain the whereabouts of the rebel base and instead threatened to destroy her home. Still, she had been strong, lying to him.