Star Wars: I Am a Slave ✓

Chapter 37 - Twelve Parsecs

The whoosh of the main hatch opening emanated into the hold. Rey tried to slow her breathing, while still trying to undo the repair to the hose. While she tensely waited, she heard a loud voice say, "Rey, you can trust him. He's here for you." Rey quickly looked back at Finn to see if he had said it, but he obviously had not heard the voice, let alone said anything.

She was still trying to remove the housing unit to loosen the clamp when she heard a baritone voice say with joy and satisfied longing, "Chewie . . . we're home."

Rey jumped when the Wookiee growled in response. She understood him. I not only understand him, but I recognize that Wookiee's voice. I wonder if this is one of the Wookiees that used to come to Jakku years ago . . . maybe that's why they're in system. Well, one thing's certain, if he's a Wookiee, it's not the First Order.

Rey glanced up quickly, seeing the gigantic Wookiee looking over the wiring above the corridor and a spacer holding a blaster. She gasped in surprise, dropping the Pilex driver, as she felt something she had never felt before—a connection with this spacer. Although she had never met him before, she felt she knew him—there was something that pulled her to him. It was all she could do not to jump out of the hold and tell him who she was. But then what? He'd think I was crazy. Probably shoot me with that blaster, thought Rey cynically.

She pictured in her mind what he must have looked like thirty years ago—tall, dark hair, muscular, cocky, with a smirk. He must have been quite the ladies' man, Rey thought.

The man nodded and the Wookiee lifted off the compartment grate. All of a sudden, everything Rey was feeling was replaced with fear. This was not any of the Wookiees she remembered from Jakku, and this one looked like he would tear her arms out of their sockets without a second thought. Rey leaned back, scared, as the man with the blaster interrogated them.

The man asked, "Where are the others?" Neither answered. "Where's the pilot?"

Rey answered before the man could finish the question, "I'm the pilot!"

"You?" asked the man in disbelief.

The Wookiee roared, "Yeah, right."

Rey wondered, Is this man such a nerf-herder that he can't believe girls can be pilots? Really, how else do you think we got here? Finn? Not likely. "No, it's true: we're the only ones on board," declared Rey.

Finn asked Rey in disbelief, "You can understand that thing?"

The man replied, not thrilled by Finn's response, "And 'that thing' can understand you too, so watch it. Come on outta there," he commanded, gesturing with his blaster.

After climbing out of the hold, the interrogation continued. "Where'd you get this ship?"

Rey answered quickly, "Niima Outpost."

The older man replied in shock, "Jakku?! That junkyard?"

It's a wonder this guy has any friends, the way he insults my home right off the bat! Wonder who was the unlucky woman who married him, thought Rey. She barely heard what he was saying until he said,

Finn smirked and teased Rey, "Thank you! Junkyard!"

". . . Well, you tell him Han Solo just stole back the Millennium Falcon for good!" announced the man as he walked toward the cockpit.

The Millennium Falcon?! I stole the fastest ship in the galaxy?! He's Han Solo, the most notorious smuggler of all time? The guy who out-bargained Unkar multiple times. No wonder Unkar stole this ship. It was not about this ship working again. It was about revenge! thought Rey.

"This is the Millennium Falcon? You're Han Solo?" She could not help smiling at the man as he turned back to her, her eyes brimming in joy.

"I used to be," replied Han, turning back toward the cockpit while holstering his blaster.

Rey watched as he strode off to the cockpit, wanting to go with him. Something was pulling at her, pulling her to him. And she could not get that voice out of her head—she was supposed to trust him, this smuggler! But she could not avoid that pull toward him, either. The feeling overwhelmed her and drew her into an intimacy with this man that she had never felt before, except maybe with that young man in her dreams. It was like something clicked when she met both, something right, something undeniably familiar.

Finn mentioned something about this man being a Rebellion general. But that can't be true. Han Solo the smuggler was never that responsible, at least not according to Unkar and his thugs. But the Wookiee did not deny it when Finn asked him. Can they be the same man? Is that why I should trust him?

Rey yelled down the corridor, "This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs!"

Han yelled back, "Twelve!" He mumbled something Rey could not make out before returning to the main hold and complaining about the compressor on the ignition line.

Rey quickly supplied, "Unkar Plutt did. I thought it was a mistake too, puts too much—

Han finished the sentence with her in unison, "—stress on the hyperdrive."

That connection again . . . it's like we're reading each other's minds—no, maybe that our minds work in the same way? I'm not sure I like that, but somehow it feels normal, thought Rey. Then she realized he was going to dump her and Finn on a planet. No, what about BB-8? He has to get to the Resistance base.

Rey chased after him, pleading, "Wait! No— we need your help! . . . This droid has to get to the Resistance base as soon as possible!"

When Finn mentioned Luke Skywalker, Han stopped in his tracks, not turning his head, but Rey could almost read every single thought. She could feel his emotions, emotions of regret, of bitterness, of intense love for this mysterious man. He knew him. Rey could tell he knew him like most people do not know others. These two had a history together, probably the Rebellion. But it seemed like the largest emotion she felt was guilt. What would Han Solo, the most notorious smuggler in the galaxy, be guilty about? Everyone says he has no feelings, that he's ruthless and callous. But if that were true, he would have killed us already, instead of wasting a life pod to drop us on a planet. Maybe there is more to this smuggler than anyone has ever known—except maybe Skywalker. Luke Skywalker surely knows the real Solo, not this façade of a smuggler.

A dull thunk interrupted her thoughts as Han was admitting to knowing Skywalker. They all looked up at the corridor in fear.

Han said, "Don't tell me a rathtar's gotten loose—" as he ran through the corridor and off the freighter. Finn, Rey, and Chewie followed him.

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