Nebulous - Han Solo [2]

Chapter 9: This Bucket Of Bolts

"this bucket of bolts is never gonna get us past that blockade!" Leia yelled angrily. Tasha glared at her, the pressure from her head gone.

"Leia, do yourself a favour and shut up!" she shouted, grabbing one of the gun controls as Han moved the ship into a tight turn, TIE fighters on their tail. Leia began shouting at Tasha, but the girl tried to block her out. She really couldn't deal with it right now. Tasha punched in calculations for the ship to make the jump to lightspeed, out to the rendezvous point. the ship made a fancy spin turn in between two star destroyers, the sides of them scraping the hull as they attempted to avoid each other. The trio of TIEs slid by them, their lasers firing past them.

"the co-ordinates are set," Tasha reported, her green eyes still slightly troubled, her voice shaking slightly.

"they're gaining on us," Leia reported, her voice sounding exceedingly unimpressed.

"oh yeah? Watch this" Han said, much too arrogantly. The hyperdrive spluttered, choking slightly before conking out. Tasha threw her hands up in exasperation.

"great!" she said loudly, "great!"

"I think we're in trouble," Han said quietly, muttering to himself.

"pardon me sir, but I noticed the hyperdrive motivator is damaged. It's impossible for us to go to lightspeed." Tasha cursed loudly, her loose black hair flying around her face.

"Threepio, you better hope we can fix or your motivator will be damaged." Tasha snarled as Han leap around his chair, running after Chewie out into the bowels of the ship. The raven girl jumped into the pilot seat, Leia taking the Wookiee's spot as co-pilot.

"you better hope your boyfriend can get us out of this," said Leia, and Tasha snarled at her, taking the ship into a tight turn to avoid a passing asteroid.

"he's not my boyfriend!" the raven girl said through gritted teeth. Asteroids! Tasha had been focusing so hard on piloting she hadn't noticed the new abundance of the large space rocks that had begun to swirl around them. Tasha sent out a laser bolt, blowing one into smaller pieces, but it didn't really help, the smaller pieces ricocheting off the hull and shaking the cockpit. Tasha might have been the best pilot they had, but it was Han's ship.

"Han, get up here!" Tasha barked into the internal comm system, a no nonsense tone to her voice. the smuggler quickly appeared at her side as Tasha vacated his seat.

"asteroids," she said simply, and an almost comical frown creased his face.

"oh no," he muttered.

"Han," said Tasha on a sudden wave of inspiration, "you know that manoeuvre we pulled off in Geonosis?" Han grinned slightly as the ship veered off towards the bulk of the asteroids and Tasha leant over his chair, a grim look on her face.

"what are you doing?" Leia said, her voice impossibly high and filled with anxiety, "you're not actually going into an asteroid field?"

"they'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?" Tasha commented, making Leia scowl at her.

"one day you two are going to make a mistake a mistake and I just hope I'm here to see it," she snapped, and for some ridiculous reason Han smirked.

"I like that phrase, you two, don't you princess?" Han said, chuckling slightly. Tasha's jaw tensed and she glared at Han.

"eyes on the road, Solo," she snapped back, her seat rattling and making her fall back, Threepio crashing into the floor of the falcon.

"sir," piped up Threepio nervously, "the odds of successfully negotiating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720 to one,"

"never tell me the odds," Han replied through gritted teeth, his knuckles turning white as he gripped onto the controls for dear life. The ship seemed to bounce through space rather than fly, the asteroids that sprung off of the hull causing the falcon to rattle.

"you said you wanted to be around when we made a mistake," said Tasha, "this could be it, sis."

"I take it back," Leia said hurriedly, her eyes wide in fear.

"we're gonna get pulverised if we're out here much longer," Leia said to the smuggler and the raven princess, whom both had the same determined expression on their face: jaws clenched, teeth ground together, eyes with the look of cold steel.

"I'm not gonna argue with that," Han said, not taking his eyes off the viewscreen. Tasha acted as though she hadn't heard her. the TIEs were still on their tale.

"they're hanging in there," Tasha said, checking her screen.

"not for long," Han said, executing a perfect flip turn. "I'm going in closer to one of the big ones." Tasha's eyes flew wide.

"closer!?" both her and Leia shrieked at the same time in the same tone of voice. a giant asteroid the size of a small moon loomed in front of them, and Tasha swallowed nervously, her mouth suddenly dry.

"you don't have to do this to impress me," she said quietly to him, her eyes still glued on the asteroid.

The ship almost skimmed the surface of the space rock, laser bolts from the last remaining TIE cutting up the rock on either side of them. The rock in front of them turned into a canyon, high, sheer walls so close to them that the falcon had to fly on her side to fit, some of the looser parts of the hull scraping off slightly. The only difference between the falcon and the TIE was that the falcon had one of the galaxy's best pilots at her helm, not just a random buckethead. The final TIE disappeared in a ball of flame and a flash of sparks, and Tasha let a relieved grin pass over her face.

"there," Han said after a moment, "that looks pretty good," Tasha looked over his shoulder, her expression a mix of anxiety and apprehension.

"what looks pretty good?" she said. Then she spotted it, a large cave-like opening in the ground of the asteroid.

"yeah, that'll do nicely."

"excuse me ma'am, but what is he talking about?" Threepio said nervously. Tasha just looked at him.