Lucy (6, 7, 8)
Behold my mad Paint skillz.
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Title: The Adventures of Lucy Skywalker (6/10, 7/10, 8/10)
Fanverse: The Adventures of Lucy Skywalker
Blurb: Lucy begins her lightsaber training and the Death Star isn't a moon; the gang makes their way towards Leia's cell, the Skywalker twins meet and dive into the garbage compactor, accompanied by Han and Chewie; after a few near-death experiences, the four of them escape the Death Star, Han and Lucy fight off TIE fighters, and they head to Yavin IV.
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Chapter Six
Lucy sat on her bunk, legs crossed and eyes shut, trying to meditate as Obi-Wan had taught her. It wasn't working very well.
Her brows twitched. He wouldn't teach her how to fight with the lightsaber until she mastered this. So she had to figure it out, somehow.
Don't fight your thoughts, he'd said. Accept them, then let them pass, until your mind is clear and your emotions are open to you.
Fine.
She squeezed her eyes more tightly closed.
It was awkward, to depend on Obi-Wan and his advice so much, but she had no one else left. For as much as Owen had disapproved of him, he had still been part of her life at home. Owen and Beru at the farmstead. The Darklighters five miles off, their nearest neighbours - Biggs, her best friend. Only friend, she thought sometimes. And yes, Ben Kenobi in his hovel, occasionally showing up out of nowhere to rescue some kid from his misadventure.
Or her misadventure. Most often, it was Lucy, and Biggs if he happened to have gotten caught up in her latest scrape.
Biggs probably wouldn't have found the Rebels yet. But maybe she would see him again, after they delivered the droids to Alderaan. They could be Rebels together. Maybe even fly together.
Of course she'd fly. The Rebellion wouldn't be like the Empire, and flying was all she'd ever wanted. All she'd even been much good at, except languages, and much use that was. Obviously she wasn't good at this Force thing. Or was it this hard for everyone?
Well, not Obi-Wan. Not her father, she thought, and let her mind wander on, flitting from subject to subject until her closed lids grew heavy.
Lucy, suppressing a yawn, almost nodded off, and instead, felt . . . something. Something so impossibly vast and powerful and more, like the desert, that she ached, longing for it. She could tell it was dangerous, too, but as vibrant as the Tatooine sands were desolate. And where she'd regarded the desert as an enemy - not an equal one, no, it was boundless in its power, but it was also other than her, opposed to her, this was - it was different - this was within her, or part of her, or just her -
"Hey," said Han Solo, and she shrieked and tumbled off the bed.
He laughed while she struggled to her feet, dusting off her grimy, everything-stained tunic and leggings.
"What do you want now, Captain?"
"Han'll do fine," drawled the captain. "We don't exactly stand on formality here. Speaking of which, this is Chewie's cabin, so -"
Lucy's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried, briefly forgetting how much she disliked him. "I didn't mean to intrude. I'll take my things -" her things amounted to the clothes on her back and tools around her waist, but she swept on regardless - "and stay wherever you've got Ben."
"No!" Han's ever-present cocky smile vanished, his brows lowering over narrowed eyes. "You'll stay here with Chewie, got it? And don't come crying when his snores keep you up."
"I'm not cry -" She remembered what Obi-Wan had told her of Han's suspicions, and scowled. "Fine, I don't care. It's your ship."
The smirk was firmly back in place. "Damn right it's my ship."
Lucy examined her nails.
"Anyway. Sonic shower through there." He pointed. "Change your clothes in there, too."
"I don't have any other clothes," said Lucy.
"Well, I'd let you wear mine," Han said, a distinct note of laughter in his voice, "but somehow I don't think there'd be much point."
She glanced up, considering his tall, broad-shouldered frame, and blushed. Astonishingly, he managed to look even more amused than he had already.
"Never mind," she said hastily. "My droids can wash these. I assume you do have soap on this thing?" Lucy paused. "Somewhere?"
"Yeah, somewhere." He slouched off, the door slamming down behind him.
Lucy suppressed the urge to throw her lightsaber at it. With her luck, it'd ignite and - well, serve him right, but they didn't need Han adding a door to his already exorbitant fee. She crossed her arms and sulked.
After two weeks, which Han spent hopping in and out of hyperspace, trying to evade Imperial ships with little apparent success, while Lucy practiced sets of mind-numbingly dull exercises, Obi-Wan finally agreed to begin teaching her lightsaber forms.
She almost bounced as she pulled her clothes on. They hadn't been so much cleaned as decontaminated; fortunately, if inexplicably, Threepio's creator had seen fit to include household chores among his areas of expertise.
Lucy straightened her tunic, imagining herself as a great warrior, lightsaber humming in her hand. Like so - she flung out a clenched fist, swinging her arm and twirling - all right, it wouldn't really be like that, but she could pretend it'd be that easy - and her untidy long hair fell over her arms. Lucy scowled at her reflection.
Well, Obi-Wan had said that Jedi apprentices had traditionally worn braids, even if it was one of the trivial traditions that he'd also said she didn't have to bother with. She plaited her hair, ripped out a strip of her tunic and tied it around the end of the braid, and ran out to find him.
He seemed pleased, in his wry Obi-Wan way, and modelled the forms that she needed to learn. It wasn't as easy as her fantasy, of course - but nearly. For once, something besides flying seemed to come naturally to her. She copied Obi-Wan's stance without any trouble, and it only took two tries before her lightsaber arced through the air in exactly the same motion as his. She smiled, pleased - for about a minute, until he dug up a seeker drone and began playing with the controls.
Lucy lowered her lightsaber. "What's that for?"
Rather than answering, Obi-Wan tossed the drone into the air. Without warning, it shot a bright red laser beam at him - and the Jedi raised his sword, the beam rebounding off the blade. Lucy stifled a gasp.
"Can they stop anything?" she asked, staring at her own weapon.
"In conjunction with the Force? Yes," said Obi-Wan, and with a flick of his fingers, the drone fell quiescent. He stepped back. "Now I want you to practice blocking its motions with your lightsaber."
"Me? But I can't -"
At his expression, she bit her lip and walked forward. The instant she saw the red light, she swung her lightsaber up, the motion awkward but swift, and the laser bounced harmlessly away.
"I did it! Ben, did you see that? I did it!"
"You did," Obi-Wan said, smiling, then nodded at the drone. It spat another laser at her; she blocked it again.
He set her to practicing and walked a short distance away, watching her. Then he gasped, clutched his chest, and collapsed on a stool, leaning forward in pain.
"Are you all right?" Lucy said, dousing her lightsaber and rushing over to him.
"I felt . . . a great disturbance in the Force," he said, "as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." He rubbed his temple. "You . . . you'd better get on with your exercises."
Lucy hesitated - he still looked awful - then dropped her hand on his shoulder and went back to practicing, while Chewbacca and the droids played an unfamiliar game in the corner.
Han swaggered in. "Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs," he said. "I told you I'd outrun them."
She ignored him and concentrated on the beams darting in her direction. Nobody else seemed to be paying attention, either.
"Anyway, we should be at Alderaan about oh-two-hundred hours." He crossed his arms and said something about the game; Lucy, focused on the drone, didn't bother listening. Obi-Wan watched her intently.
"Remember," he said, "Jedi can feel the Force flowing through them."
Lucy felt a jolt of alarm. "You mean it controls your actions?"
"Partially. But it also obeys your commands."
She tightened her suddenly slick grip on the lightsaber, while the drone started to dart around her, as if considering its attack. She stood her ground when it lunged at her face, but stumbled when it jerked around and fired a beam at her leg.
Han laughed. "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, girl."
Lucy looked over at him. "You don't believe in the Force, do you?"
"Girl, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other," said Han. He was grinning with his usual insouciance, but for once he didn't seem wholly contemptuous - of her, anyway. "I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything." He glanced from her to Obi-Wan. "There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."
The Jedi smiled a little to himself.
"It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense," Han added.
"I suggest you try it again, Lucy," he said, picking up a large helmet. "This time, let go of your conscious self -" he placed the helmet over her head - "and act on instinct."
She laughed. "With the blast-shield down, I can't even see. How am I supposed to fight?"
"Your eyes can deceive you," said Obi-Wan. She could barely tell which direction his voice was even coming from. "Don't trust them."
She heard the seeker drone start up again, and swung blindly, then yelped as another bolt hit her.
"Stretch out with your feelings," Obi-Wan said.
Lucy tried to remember what it'd been like earlier, letting conscious thought pass away, just feeling. She stood frozen in place, trying to do something other than brace herself against the next shot, searching her emotions for anything other than apprehension, and found a faint stirring of . . . something. She narrowed all her attention on it, and for a moment she knew where everything was, each location crisp and sharp in her mind, Han turned towards the control panel, Artoo prodding a game piece, the seeker veering in from the right -
She turned towards it and raised her lightsaber against another bolt, then instinctively deflected two more from different directions.
Lucy lifted the blast shield, smiling widely. Her heart pounded in her ears, exhilaration through her veins, as if she'd just hurtled through the Needle and outflown everyone, all at once.
Obi-Wan looked pleased and proud. "You see, you can do it."
"I call it luck," snapped Han.
Lucy was too thrilled to be irritated. She just grinned.
"In my experience," said Obi-Wan, with the first trace of annoyance she'd ever seen in him, "there's no such thing as luck."
Han shrugged. "Good against remotes is one thing." He smirked at her. "Good against the living, now, that's something else."
Somebody, Lucy promised herself, she'd be a Jedi Knight. She'd show him. Even if he wasn't there to see it.
Something flashed on the control panel, and Han swung sharply around.
"Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan," he said, and he and Chewbacca hurried out. Lucy pulled the helmet off and smiled, a little tentatively, at her teacher.
"You know," she said, "I did feel something. I could almost see the remote."
"Good. You have taken your first step into a larger world," said Obi-Wan.
A few minutes later, the starship gave a violent shudder. Lucy and Obi-Wan ran into the cockpit as the Falcon lurched once more. She stared, wide-eyed, at the asteroids battering the ship.
"What's going on?" she cried.
"Our position is correct," said Han, frowning at the navicomputer, "except - no Alderaan!"
Lucy's voice rose several notches further. "What do you mean? Where is it?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, little girl. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away."
"What? How?"
Behind her, Obi-Wan said, "Destroyed. By the Empire."
Han scoffed. "The entire Starfleet couldn't destroy the whole planet. It'd take a thousand ships with more firepower than I've -"
Something else flashed, and an alarm began to hum.
"There's another ship coming in," said Han.
"Maybe they know what happened!" Lucy said brightly.
"It's an Imperial fighter," said Obi-Wan.
Lucy turned half-accusingly towards Han. "It followed us!"
"No," said Obi-Wan, "it's a short-range fighter."
"There aren't any bases around here," said Han, his voice more puzzled than panicked. "Where'd it come from?"
Lucy and Obi-Wan speculated among themselves, while Han pursued the tiny fighter, steadily gaining, even as a bright star resolved into a blob of light. A planet or moon - no, definitely a moon, she thought, and pointed.
"Look at him," she said. "He's headed for that small moon."
"I think I can get him before he gets there - he's almost in range," Han muttered, hands tight on the controls.
The Jedi drew a harsh breath. "That's no moon. It's a space station."
"It's too big to be a space station -" Horror crept over Han's face.
Chewie, Han, Lucy, and Obi-Wan gaped at the sphere, far smoother than any natural satellite could be, lit up by millions of lights, bisected by a massive chasm.
"I have a very bad feeling about this," Lucy said.
Chewbacca tried to reverse the ship, without success. Lucy tightened her grip on his chair.
"Why are we still moving towards it?"
"We're caught in a tractor beam," said Han, his fingers playing over the controls. "It's pulling us in."
"But there's got to be something you can do," she said desperately.
"There's nothing I can do about it, little girl," he snarled. "I'm in full power - I'm going to have to shut down." His expression shifted to one of fierce determination. "But they're not going to get me without a fight!"
"You can't win," Obi-Wan told him, and leaned forward. "But there are alternatives to fighting."
Lucy watched as the space station grew closer and even more colossal, her lips pressed tightly together.
"You must have compartments where you store your - merchandise," Obi-Wan said. "Are they large enough for us?"
"Won't they search those?" Lucy asked.
Han gave a short laugh. "Not likely. All right, old man, it's worth a try. Here, let me give 'em something to find, first." He spent a few precious minutes tapping into the computer while Lucy fidgeted. "Come on."
Han sprang up, grabbing her arm and racing down the corridors, towards the entrance to the ship, while Lucy struggled to keep up and Chewbacca and Obi-Wan hurried after them. Then he came to an abrupt halt and released his grip on her.
"What?" she snapped, rubbing her wrist.
For answer, he knelt and pulled up the floor, revealing two storage compartments. Lucy peered suspiciously downwards.
"Hurry," Obi-Wan told them, lowering himself into one of the compartments. Han and Lucy jumped into the other one, followed by Chewbacca, who pulled the floor down after them.
Lucy crouched beside Han in the darkness, straining to hear anything other than the groan of the ship's engines. There was a brush of fabric - Han reaching for his blaster. Lucy had already unhooked her lightsaber and closed her fingers around it.
For long, slow, uncountable minutes, she felt nothing but the cold weight of her weapon and Han's breath against her cheek. She could hear her own, quicker, shallower breaths, and the occasional shift from Chewie.
With a loud clunk, the ramp opened. Lucy twitched.
"Wait for it," breathed Han. Heavy, booted footsteps clattered over their heads and then around the ship, while lightly mechanized voices talked back and forth. Lucy suppressed the urge to squeeze her eyes shut and cover her ears like the child he insisted she was.
They waited several more minutes, and then Han pushed the floor aside, followed by Obi-Wan. Han and Lucy stood up, squinting as their eyes adjusted, and hoisted themselves up to sit on the edge of their compartment.
"It's lucky you had these compartments," said Lucy.
"I use them for smuggling," Han said, brows drawn together, and added, "I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them!" He threw his hands up. "This is ridiculous. Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam."
"Leave that to me," said Obi-Wan.
Han scowled. "Damn fool," he muttered. "I knew you were going to say that!"
Obi-Wan gave one of his most serene smiles. "Who's the more foolish - the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
Chewbacca, popping up, gave a roar of agreement. Han sighed, but in an oddly affectionate, un-Han-like gesture, rubbed the Wookiee's head.
"All right," he said, and lifted his blaster. "Let's see if we can get out of here."
Chapter Seven
Han crept towards the ramp, and peered left and right. Then he darted just around the corner, motioning for Lucy, Obi-Wan, and Chewbacca to stay behind him. They flattened themselves against the wall.
"Hey, down there!" he shouted. "Could you give us a hand with this?"
Lucy and Obi-Wan dropped their hands to their lightsabers. Han only sighed and pressed one finger against his lips.
Two stormtroopers ran up the ramp and slightly past them. Without hesitation, Han lifted his blaster and shot them both in the back. Lucy flinched, then felt a moment's relief that she couldn't see their expressions as they died.
Han, however, dropped beside the bodies and pulled the helmets off their heads, revealing two startled, perfectly normal - if dead - faces. Obi-Wan dropped a reassuring hand on her shoulder, while Chewbacca helped Han take off the stormtroopers' armour.
"What are you doing?" Lucy whispered.
Han gave her an appraising look. "Lucky you're skinny," he said.
"I'm not -"
She grunted as he threw one of the helmets at her.
"Put it on. They'll be expecting two stormtroopers to come out. That's what they'll get."
"It won't work," said Lucy. "I'm too short, I can't -"
Han had already buckled himself into one of the suits of armour. "You'll figure it out," he said, settled the helmet on his head, and ran down the ramp. Chewbacca held up the other suit and howled.
"All right, I'll try! Just keep quiet," she hissed, and shoved her feet into the boots. They came halfway up her thigh. She managed one shuffling step and nearly fell over. "Look, this isn't going to work. Just - give him a minute and -"
He rushed out and Lucy gritted her teeth.
"If they didn't notice anything wrong before, they will now!"
Obi-Wan's mouth twitched, but he said nothing, only stepping forward to peer down the ramp.
"I think it's clear. Get the droids and come after me," he said, and after losing another two minutes to finding Threepio and persuading him to come out, the four of them slipped down as quietly as they could, racing towards the control center. She heard a shout, a blast, and a roar just as she followed the others through the doors.
The bodies of two officers were sprawled across the floor. Lucy stared at them for a moment, then turned an accusing look on Han and Chewbacca.
"You know, between his howling and your blasting everything in sight," she snapped, "it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here!"
"Bring them on!" Han retorted. "I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around."
Han Solo, she decided, must be the worst smuggler ever.
Obi-Wan and the droids went over to the computer, Artoo plugging himself into the terminal and then giving a sharp whistle. A series of maps flashed across the screen.
"The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations," Threepio said. "A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave."
Obi-Wan considered the maps for a moment, then glanced at Han and Lucy. "I don't think you children can help. I must go alone."
Han - as always - had no objection to not helping. Lucy gave him a disgusted look and turned back to her teacher.
"I want to go with you," she said earnestly.
"Be patient, Lucy," said Obi-Wan. "Stay and watch over the droids."
She waved her hand at Han. "But he can -"
"They must be delivered safely," Obi-Wan told her, "or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan. Your destiny lies along a different path than mine." He sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder, his eyes intent on hers. "The Force will be with you, always."
Lucy didn't trust herself to speak. She nodded and he slipped out.
Chewbacca put his hands on his hips and growled something. Han laughed.
"You said it, Chewie." He turned towards Lucy with an air of something almost like camaraderie. "Where did you dig up that old fossil?"
"Ben is a great man!"
"Yeah, great at getting us into trouble."
"I didn't hear you give any ideas," she said frostily.
"Well, anything would be better than just hanging around, waiting for him to pick us up!"
Lucy's eyes narrowed. "Who do you think you -"
Before the argument could devolve further, Artoo began shrieking, sounding as nearly frantic as a droid could. Rather grateful at the interruption, Lucy walked over to him.
"What is it?"
"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, ma'am," Threepio said. "He says I found her and keeps repeating she's here."
"Well, who has he found?"
Artoo screeched.
"Princess Leia."
"The princess?" Lucy exclaimed, unsure if she were more thrilled or panicked. "She's here?"
Han looked blank. "What princess?"
She could almost have laughed - all this, and he didn't even know about Leia! - but instead, something heavy seemed to have landed in the vicinity of her stomach.
"Where? Where is she?"
Lucy didn't care that she'd never seen Leia in person, or that she sounded mildly deranged. She had to find her.
Threepio reported the princess' location, then added falteringly, "I'm afraid she's scheduled to be terminated."
Lucy's chest clenched. "No! We've got to do something!"
"What are you talking about?"
"The droid belongs to her - she's the one in the message - we've got to help her!"
Han's expression turned both bewildered and suspicious. "Now look," he said, "don't get any funny ideas. The old man wants us to wait right here."
He threw himself into one of the recently vacated chairs.
"But he didn't know she was here!"
Han put his feet up on the control panel. "I'm not going anywhere."
"They're going to execute her!" She threw him a scornful glance. "Look, a few minutes ago, you said you didn't want to just wait here to be captured. Now all you want to do is stay?"
"Marching into the detention area is not what I had in mind!"
"But they're going to kill her!" Lucy shouted.
"Better her than me," said Han.
Lucy whirled away, desperation eating at her. For a moment, she hated him, hated his smirk and swagger and his total inability to think of anything besides himself. It didn't even make sense. Surely even he had to see that it was far better to die trying to achieve something important, than cowering like womp-rats in a tunnel, whether he got any money for it or not.
Money. The princess. Princesses had money, didn't they?
Her mouth curved into a small, sly smile and she turned around, seeing that Han had turned his chair away from her and was, to all appearances, sulking. Lucy walked over until she stood just behind him, dropped her hand on his armoured shoulder, and leaned down, her braid falling against the armour, her mouth a few inches from his ear.
"She's rich," Lucy whispered.
Chewbacca gave an interrogative growl. Han sat up, intrigued, and Lucy took a few hasty steps backwards.
"Rich?"
"Yes," said Lucy, and he turned to look at her. "Rich . . . powerful . . . listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be . . ."
"What?" he said skeptically.
Lucy's patience came to an abrupt end. "Well, more wealth than you can imagine!"
"I don't know," said Han. "I can imagine quite a bit."
"You'll get it!"
"I better!"
Lucy smiled, trying not to look too obviously victorious, and assured him, "You will."
Please be rich, she thought at the absent princess.
"What's your plan?" Han asked, lifting a brow.
Lucy glanced around the room, looking for anything -
There.
"Threepio," she said, "hand me those binders, will you?"
Chewbacca gave a puzzled growl as she tried to wrap the binders around her wrists. Han's own bemusement cleared away; he got to his feet, looking almost impressed.
"Oh, I think I know what she has in mind," he told the Wookiee, then took the binders in one hand and pulled her wrists together with the other. Lucy suppressed a shudder of revulsion as the cold metal tightened around her skin, like manacles. "What about Chewie?"
"Um - put his hands on his head? Maybe you could point your rifle at his back, like -" She tried to gesture, and the binder bit into her skin. "Well, you know."
Chewbacca muttered to himself, but complied. They told the droids to hide, then Han took a deep breath, put his helmet back on, opened the door, and prodded the girl and the Wookiee forward.
"All right," he said. "Keep moving, Rebel scum."
Han marched Lucy and Chewbacca through the detention center. Officers, stormtroopers, and robots seemed to be bustling everywhere, and none of them seemed to think the sight of a stormtrooper, a giant Wookiee, and a teenage girl merited a second glance.
For her part, Lucy had known that the Starfleet didn't accept women, but it was one thing to resent a career opportunity being barred to her, and quite another to walk alone amidst a sea of unfriendly men who likely regarded her as about as human as Chewbacca. She had no trouble plastering a look of terror over her face.
Han managed to get them into the elevator without incident, and promptly began complaining again.
"Can you take these off?" Lucy said. "It'll be less obvious that you're helping if my hands are behind my back when you release them."
He muttered to himself, but gave her a minute to rub feeling back into her arms, then re-clasped the binders about her wrists. The elevator's door slid open, revealing a security station manned by an officer and two troopers.
The officer's eyes went from Lucy to Chewbacca, his demeanour all but oozing contempt.
"Where are you taking the girl and this . . . thing?"
"Uh, prisoner transfer," said Han. "From Block one-one-four . . . uh . . . two."
"I wasn't notified," the officer said doubtfully. "I'll have to clear it." He gestured for the troopers to approach Chewbacca, who roared and grabbed Han's laser rifle.
"Look out, he's loose!" Han shouted, pretending to hold Lucy in front of him as a shield. The binders fell off and he closed her fingers around a blaster. She spared a moment to wonder exactly how many he'd brought with him, then gave an obliging shriek as Chewbacca menaced them.
"Go get him!" Han told the troopers, lifting his blaster to aim at the Wookiee, then jerking it aside to shoot the officer while Chewbacca throw one of the troopers against the wall. Lucy shot the other one, the blaster only shaking a little. She looked upwards and saw a row of cameras; she lifted the blaster, steadied her grip, and blew them out, one by one.
Another trooper came running in, but Han shot him before Lucy had to. She tried not to look too pathetically grateful.
They ran up to the comlink system. Han quickly checked the readout.
"Here it is," he said. "Cell twenty-one-eight-seven. You go get her. I'll hold them here."
Lucy started down the hallway, peering at the different cells.
"Lucy!" Han screamed. "We're about to have company!"
She hurried, glancing at each number as quickly as she could. When she reached 2187, she slammed her hand down on the button, and dashed through the doors.
A slim girl in a diaphanous white gown lay curled up on a bench, her dark hair still in neat coils about her ears. She was definitely the girl in the hologram, Lucy thought, staring at her in dazed recognition, and - and - and tiny, maybe as short as Lucy, or even smaller.
The princess stirred, waking, then jolted upright, staring at Lucy.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"I'm Lucy Skywalker." It didn't seem sufficient, so Lucy added, "I'm here to rescue you."
"You're who?" said Leia.
"I'm here to rescue you," Lucy said again. "I've got your R2 unit. I'm here with Ben Kenobi."
Belatedly, it occurred to her that Leia hadn't known him by that name, but it didn't seem to make any difference.
"Ben Kenobi is here! Where is he?" she asked, and darted out the door without waiting for an answer. Lucy followed her and pointed back towards the entrance.
"Come on," she said, and they ran up the corridor, where Han was backed up and shooting stormtroopers.
"Can't get out that way," said Han.
"Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route!" Leia said, her tone acid.
Lucy immediately liked her.
Han, on the other hand, glared. "Maybe you'd like it better in your cell, your Highness!"
Lucy bit her tongue. The two girls backed into an alcove while Han continued to exchange fire with the stormtroopers.
"I can't hold them off forever!" Han shouted. "Now what?"
"This is some rescue," Leia said disgustedly. "When you came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?"
"She's the brains, sweetheart," said Han.
Lucy flushed. "Well, I didn't -"
The princess snatched her blaster out of her hands and shot up a grate next to Han's legs. He yelped.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Somebody has to save our skins!" she said, and ran over to the chute, shooting at the approaching stormtroopers all the while. "Into the chute, flyboy!"
She tossed the blaster back at Lucy and jumped inside. Lucy tried to help Han hold back the stormtroopers, shooting as well as she could while he kicked a moaning Chewbacca into the garbage chute.
"Either I'm going to kill her," Han muttered, "or I'm beginning to like her!"
Lucy's lips thinned. She felt annoyed, almost angry, without knowing quite why.
"Get in!" he shouted at her, and she ducked the laserfire long enough to jump through, landing in a filthy, smelly mixture of water and garbage. She tried blasting through, then she and Leia both ducked as the shot ricocheted around the walls.
Han fell into one of the larger piles of trash. When Chewbacca began pounding on the door, he turned on Leia.
"Oh, the garbage chute was a really wonderful idea! What an incredible smell you've discovered!"
Leia cast a fulminating look at him, but didn't deign to respond. Han eyed the door.
"Get away from there," he told Chewie, and raised his blaster.
"No, wait!" said Lucy. He ignored her and shot at the door, sending yet another shot bouncing around the walls. Both girls lifted their heads and glared at him.
"Will you forget it?" Lucy snarled. "I already tried it! It's magnetically sealed!"
"Put that thing away! You're going to get us all killed!" added Leia, in exactly the same tone.
Han slowly turned to face the latter, his eyes narrowing. "Absolutely, your Worship! I had everything under control until you led us down here!"
"What?" said Lucy.
"You know," he said, "it's not going to take them long to find out what happened to us!"
"It could be worse," snapped Leia.
As if on cue, a low roar emerged from below. Lucy froze, Han and Leia looking around wildly.
"It's worse," Han said.
Chapter Eight
"There's something alive in here!" said Lucy, her voice shrill.
Han gave her a look that, somehow, managed to mix alarm and condescension. "That's just your imagination," he said.
Something slid by her leg - not garbage, and certainly not her imagination. Lucy tried to back away.
"Something just moved past my leg!" she cried, and then she saw it, drifting through the water: something that looked disconcertingly like an enormous, dark, slimy tentacle. She pointed. "Did you see that?"
"What?" he said.
Chewie and Leia, however, had seen it as well. The former pounded even more loudly on the hatch and the latter backed up, staring in horror even after the tentacle had vanished. Lucy tried to look everywhere at once.
Again, she felt the slimy touch of a tentacle passing by her leg - and before she could do more than gasp, a half-dozen more all wrapped around her and yanked her under the water. Lucy tried to hold her breath and fight back at the same time, but the thing's grip was much stronger than she was. She could do little more than twitch her fingers. Vaguely, as if from a great distance, she heard Han and Leia screaming her name.
Another tentacle tightened around her throat. Lucy thrashed even more, briefly managing to surface.
"Lucy!" shouted Leia, holding a long pipe towards her. "Lucy - Lucy, grab a hold of this."
Lucy's arms wouldn't come free. She gasped at Han, "Blast it, will you? My gun's - jammed -"
"Where?" he said blankly.
"Anywhere!"
He fired, and thankfully didn't hit her - but seemed to have missed the creature's tentacles, as well. Or perhaps he had hit them, and it only enraged it further. In any case, she barely had time for one gulp of air before it tightened its grip and dragged her back underwater.
She kept struggling, but more weakly, and everything seemed oddly hilarious. Dying underwater! Of all the places her life could possibly end, she'd never considered that one. She rather hoped she drowned before the thing started eating her -
Even through the water, she heard the noise, like something grinding. The tentacles relaxed, and then vanished, Lucy bobbing up.
With a gasp of air, she jumped to her feet, trying to blink the filthy garbage water out of her eyes. Han sloshed towards her and grabbed her shoulders. Lucy almost giggled.
"Lucy, are you all right?"
Leia, behind him, was so pale and wide-eyed that she might have been the one who nearly got killed by a tentacle monster. "What happened?" she demanded.
"I don't know!" Lucy's amusement slid away with the next few gulps of air. "It just let go of me and disappeared."
Han's hands dropped. "I've got a very bad feeling about this," he said, just as they heard another grating sound. They all looked around - and the walls started to close in on them.
"The walls are moving!"
She and Han tried to slog their way towards Leia, who reached one hand towards them, then bent down to grab a heavy pole.
"Don't just stand there!" she screamed. "Do something!"
Chewbacca pushed back against the wall, even his strength doing nothing to stop the slow, inexorable compression. Han managed to lift Leia's pole, bracing it between the walls, while Lucy searched through the trash for anything that might keep them from being killed in this new and different way. She looked up desperately at Han and Leia - and saw the black comlink wrapped around Han's wrist.
"Han! The droids! Get the droids to stop it!"
His eyes widened and he shifted the weight of the pole to one hand, Lucy dragging herself over to help him and Leia hold it up.
"Threepio!" he shouted. "Come in, Threepio! Threepio!"
There was no reply from the comlink. All three looked at one another in horror, Chewie giving a mournful howl. The trash and water continued to rise, creeping up to Lucy's and Leia's waists. The pole bent upwards, beyond the girls' reach.
"Get to the top!" Han told them, gesturing at the nearest garbage pile.
"I can't!" said Leia. Lucy just shook her head.
"Where is he?" Han muttered. "Threepio! Threepio, come in!"
The pole completely bent between the crushing walls. Lucy and Leia pushed their backs against one wall as they tried to scramble atop the garbage. With another lurch of the room, Leia lost her balance. Lucy instinctively grabbed her wrist and they both fell back down.
"One thing's for sure," he said, grabbing their waists and half-lifting them up. "We're all going to be a lot thinner. Get on top of it!"
"We're trying!" Leia said.
The walls gave another creak and moved in. They were less than two yards apart now, Lucy's and Leia's feet pressed against the opposite wall. Then the comlink buzzed.
"Are you there, sir?" said Threepio.
"Threepio!" they shouted.
"We've had some problems," the droid began, in his usual fussy way.
"Shut up and listen to me!" said Han, then gasped as the walls shuddered even closer. "Shut down all garbage mashers on the detention level, you hear me? Shut down all garbage mashers on the detention level!"
They just heard the droid say, "No, shut them all down!" and then, with a rough scrape of metal, the walls stopped moving. They waited, half-expecting to be smashed into goop, but the room remained immobile. Chewie roared and Han and Lucy hollered with relief. Leia hugged Lucy and then Han, all of them torn between laughing and shouting and nearly crying.
"Listen to them!" wailed Threepio. "They're dying, Artoo! Curse my metal body! I wasn't fast enough. It's all my fault - my poor mistress!"
Lucy, nearly giggling and sobbing at the same time, grabbed Han's wrist. "No, we're all right! Threepio, we're all right! You did great!"
They gave him the number to the pressure maintenance hatch, which promptly opened, and crawled out into what thankfully seemed to be an unused hallway. Han stripped off his stormtrooper armor, and Lucy and Leia did their best to wring out their clothes and hair.
Han threw his blaster belt at Lucy. "Put this on. You'll probably need it," he said, and tossed her the blaster she'd lost, for good measure. "Now, if we can just avoid any more female advice -" he scowled at them both - "we ought to be able to get out of here."
Leia, tightening her coils of hair, glared. Lucy's eyes narrowed, and she pointedly turned towards the princess, her back to Han.
"Let's get moving," she said to her.
Chewbacca growled, pointed to the raised hatch, and hurried away.
"Where are you going?" Han demanded, then muttered to himself and raised his blaster.
Leia's eyes widened. "No, wait! They'll hear!" she shouted.
Han ignored her and pulled the trigger, the blast resounding through the hallway as it bounced around the compactor. Lucy's jaw twitched and she lifted her gaze to the ceiling, biting back another diatribe.
Leia had no such compunctions. "Listen," she said, her voice dangerously soft, "I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but from now on, you'll do as I tell you, okay?"
Lucy's eyes went from Leia's livid face to Han's shocked one, and she took a prudent step backwards. She suspected they'd rescued the only woman in the galaxy likely to annoy Han more than she did.
Leia turned on her heel and strode past, Han's mouth dropping open. Lucy grinned, and followed after them.
"Look, your Worshipfulness," he snapped, poking a finger towards her while Lucy glanced back to make sure the hall was still clear, "let's get one thing straight. I take orders from one person! Me!"
Leia didn't even look at him. "Hm. It's a wonder you're still alive," she said, and glared up at Chewbacca. "Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?"
She hurried on, leaving Han to exchange a long-suffering glance with Chewie.
"No reward is worth this," he muttered. Lucy couldn't help but frown and then smile, unsure of the reason for either.
The four of them made their way down the hall, and stopped at a window overlooking the hangar. They could clearly make out the Falcon, and easily a half-dozen stormtroopers milling around it.
"There she is," Han said, and handed his comlink to Lucy, then peered around the corner.
"Threepio? Do you copy? Are you safe?" she asked.
"For the moment, ma'am," said the droid nervously, and gave their location.
"We're right above you - stand by," said Lucy, while Leia stared at the Millennium Falcon in some awe.
"You came in that thing?" she said, touching Han's elbow and pointing at his ship. "You're braver than I thought!"
Lucy's mouth twitched. Han just shook his head.
"Nice. Come on."
They ran after him - and into a group of stormtroopers, who raised their blasters, but not before Han shot one of them.
"Get back to the ship!" he shouted at Lucy and Leia, and he and Chewie took off after the stormtroopers.
"Where are you going? Come back!" said Lucy, wondering how she, of all people, had become the resident voice of reason. He either didn't hear her or ignored her; both options seemed about equally probable.
"Well," said Leia, a little admiringly, "he certainly has courage."
"What good will it do us if he gets himself killed?" Lucy tightened her grip on her blaster. Somehow, she hadn't expected that she'd be the one protecting the princess while Han all but threw his life away. She let out a short, exasperated breath and grabbed Leia's hand. "Come on."
They took off down the hall, running right past another group of stormtroopers, who promptly chased after them. Lucy and Leia darted around a corner and through an open hatchway, almost tumbling into the abyss below.
"I think we took a wrong turn!" said Lucy.
Laser fire blasted past them. Lucy shot back while Leia fumbled at the control panel, lowering the hatch behind them. The next volley of shots bounced off the door.
"There's no lock!" cried Leia, throwing her hands up. Lucy grabbed her hand and pulled her away, shooting the control panel. She couldn't help but keep her fingers laced through Leia's.
"That ought to hold it for awhile."
The princess looked at the hatchway opposite them. "Quick, we've got to get across! Find the control that extends the bridge!"
"I think I just blasted it," said Lucy.
Leia looked back. "They're coming through!"
They looked desperately around, Lucy's eyes falling on four heavy devices hanging above them and then down to the cable at her belt - and another round of blaster fire flew right past her. A stormtrooper was shooting at them from a ledge higher up. Leia backed into the corner while Lucy shot back, trying to aim, shield the princess with her body, and duck the troopers' fire, all at the same time. Her blood was pulsing in her head.
One of the stormtroopers fell, and the others backed away. Lucy glanced at Leia. It might work; at any rate, she was convinced that Leia could shoot every bit as well as she could.
"Here, take this," she said, shoving the blaster into Leia's arms, and took out the nylon cable from her belt. There was a grappler hook attached to the end of it. Lucy tugged as fast as she could, trying to ignore another stormtrooper shooting at them, his fire passing right over her head. Leia kept shooting, and the hatch behind them started to rise.
"Here they come!" she shouted.
Lucy hoped she had long enough cable - and good enough aim. She flung it upwards, doing her best to will the hook to wrap around one of the devices above.
It did, and Lucy looked at Leia. She'd grown up on a farm; she might be small, but she was strong. She'd just better be strong enough.
Leia clearly understood her plan. She put an arm around her neck and looked at her, their faces so close that Lucy saw every fleck in Leia's dark eyes, as wide as her own. She could feel their hearts racing together.
"I've been a prisoner of the Empire for six weeks," the princess said with her usual bravado, even though her voice shook. "I'm not heavy."
Lucy nodded, took a deep breath, wrapped her right arm tightly around Leia's waist, and jumped. Their momentum swung them across the abyss, Lucy's fingers digging into Leia's side. She can't fall, she can't fall, she can't fall -
Their booted feet landed on the opposite ledge even as the hatch they'd been standing by opened, letting the stormtroopers through. Leia fired another shot and then they fled down the new corridor.
They managed to find their way this time, running into the main forward bay, where Han and Chewbacca were waiting for them.
"What kept you?" Han snapped.
Leia handed the blaster back to Lucy. "We, ah, ran into some old friends."
"Is the ship all right?" said Lucy.
"Seems okay," Han said, "if we can get to it. Just hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission."
They stared out at the ship, then gasped as the stormtroopers hurried off, towards something beyond their narrow frame of vision.
"Now's our chance," Han hissed at them. "Go!"
They darted into the hangar, glancing over to see what had drawn the stormtroopers away: Obi-Wan Kenobi, his lightsaber ignited, fighting a towering, black-armored cyborg. Lucy's eyes fell on the cyborg's crimson lightsaber, and she instantly knew who he must be: Darth Vader, traitor, murderer, and fallen Jedi.
"Ben!" Lucy stepped towards the two Jedi. She didn't care if she attracted the stormtroopers' attention, or even Vader's. Obi-Wan was all she had left now. It wasn't - he couldn't -
Obi-Wan's eyes went from her to Vader, and then, impossibly, he smiled. He dropped his guard, raising his lightsaber towards his forehead. Vader's sliced straight through his body, leaving only the old Jedi's weapon and a crumpled heap of robes.
"No!" Lucy screamed, and the stormtroopers wheeled around to start shooting them. Han and Leia, behind her, seemed to be hurrying towards the ship. She didn't care. Lucy lifted her blaster and shot at every stormtrooper she saw, satisfied, almost gleeful when any of them fell. They'd taken him, taken everyone, they should all pay -
"Come on!" said Han. Lucy hardly heard him and kept shooting.
"Lucy!" Leia shouted. "Come on! It's too late!"
Lucy glanced over her shoulder, and then back at the stormtroopers.
"Blast the door, girl!" Han said, his voice hoarse. Lucy hesitated for a moment, then altered her aim to hit the control panel. The door narrowed and closed, blocking Darth Vader from sight, and leaving only a handful of stormtroopers. Her mouth curled into a smile and she advanced towards them, lifting her blaster once more.
Then, impossibly, she heard Obi-Wan's voice in her ear. "Run, Lucy! Run!"
Lucy fired one more shot and turned back to the Falcon, ducking the remaining stormtroopers' fire as she hurried up the ramp. Han and Chewie ran into the cockpit and she stood in place, feeling dazed and somehow drained. She made her way over to the game board, where Artoo and Chewbacca had played while Obi-Wan oversaw her exercises, and sat down. She was only vaguely aware of the ship taking off.
Lucy stared at the patterns of the board, tracing them with one fingernail. Threepio watched her and Artoo gave a small, wistful whirr.
A blanket fell over her shoulders. It pulled her out of her daze, a little, and she looked up to see Leia, quite possibly the least nurturing woman she'd ever met. The princess sat beside her and absently rubbed her back.
"I can't believe he's gone," said Lucy.
Leia gave a decided shake of her head. "There wasn't anything you could have done," she told her, her voice very gentle. Almost as if she knew exactly how Lucy felt, as if she'd experienced it herself -
Alderaan. Alderaan. The girl trying to console her had lived through the destruction of her entire planet. Maybe she'd even seen it.
Stunned, Lucy lifted her eyes up. Before she could say anything - I'm sorry, I'm so sorry - or even look at Leia, Han jogged towards the doorway and leaned against it.
"Lucy. Take any after your old man?"
"What?" said Leia.
Lucy's brow furrowed. Then she realized that if her father had been the best starpilot in the galaxy, as - as Obi-Wan had told her, it was possible that people might have actually heard of him.
"Plenty," she said. "What -"
Han grinned. "Then come on, sweetheart, we're not out of this yet."
Both girls sprang up, adrenaline replacing melancholy, and hurried after him. Leia rushed to the cockpit, while Lucy climbed down the ladder, towards the gunports. She all but threw herself into one of the chairs, pulling a headset over her ears.
"You in, girl?" he asked. "Stay sharp!"
She tightened her hands on the controls. This wasn't like womp rats back home.
Except, in an odd way, it was exactly like womp rats back home. Lucy checked her controls, then watched four Imperial ships dive towards them, and swung to aim at them. Her computer couldn't seem to track them.
"They're coming in too fast!"
The ship gave a small shudder.
"We've lost lateral controls!" Leia cried.
"Don't worry, she'll hold together," said Han. There was a sound very much like sparks, and he muttered, "You hear me, baby? Hold together."
Despite everything, Lucy grinned. They kept shooting, and Han laughed as one of the Imperial fighters burst into flames. Lucy saw another dart her way, swivelled towards it, and smiled. She fired the laser cannon, and the fighter exploded. She gave a shout of glee.
"I got him!"
"Great, little girl!" Han replied, and for once she didn't mind, just grinned wider. "Don't get cocky!"
"There's still two more of them out there," Leia said.
Han and Lucy kept shooting, Lucy blasting one of them out of the sky, and a few seconds later, Han taking out the other.
"That's it! We did it," she cried, laughing at the sound of Leia and Chewbacca cheering while Han gave a clearly audible sigh of relief. Lucy yanked off her headset and made her way to the cockpit.
She could just hear Leia's voice, back to its usual low, furious tones.
"- all that you love," the princess was saying, "then that's what you'll receive!" She jumped up and nearly ran into Lucy.
"Your friend is quite a mercenary," Leia told her. "I wonder if he really cares about anything - or anybody."
Lucy blinked, unsure what to protest first. Han wasn't her friend - or was he? She felt half-inclined to defend him, and half to rail against him herself. She bit her lip, and could only say, "I care."
Leia stormed out and Lucy, climbing into the chair Leia had vacated, glanced uncertainly at Han.
He was brave, she thought, just like Leia had said. Before whatever had just happened. And for all his brash talk, he'd been . . . not nice, but . . . something. She felt fairly certain he did care about things besides money. About people, like - like - people.
"So," she said, her hands twisting together. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Um. What do you think of her, Han?"
He fiddled with some controls. "I try not to."
Lucy smiled to herself. Good, she thought, and blushed. She didn't notice Han looking at her, or the amused twitch of his mouth.
"Still," he added, "she's got a lot of spirit. I don't know, what do you think?" He shrugged. "Do you think a princess and a guy like me - "
"No!"
Han stared, then grinned at her. After a brief moment of pique, Lucy couldn't help but smile back.
"So," Han drawled, mimicking her earlier earnest expression, "What are you going to do now? You didn't get caught up in this for any reward."
She turned an even deeper shade of red. "I want to fly," she said. "My friend Biggs was going to join up and - well, it's what we've always wanted, really."
"Huh," said Han, his gaze returning back to the viewscreen. "Pity."
---------------
Title: The Adventures of Lucy Skywalker (6/10, 7/10, 8/10)
Fanverse: The Adventures of Lucy Skywalker
Blurb: Lucy begins her lightsaber training and the Death Star isn't a moon; the gang makes their way towards Leia's cell, the Skywalker twins meet and dive into the garbage compactor, accompanied by Han and Chewie; after a few near-death experiences, the four of them escape the Death Star, Han and Lucy fight off TIE fighters, and they head to Yavin IV.
---------------
Chapter Six
Lucy sat on her bunk, legs crossed and eyes shut, trying to meditate as Obi-Wan had taught her. It wasn't working very well.
Her brows twitched. He wouldn't teach her how to fight with the lightsaber until she mastered this. So she had to figure it out, somehow.
Don't fight your thoughts, he'd said. Accept them, then let them pass, until your mind is clear and your emotions are open to you.
Fine.
She squeezed her eyes more tightly closed.
It was awkward, to depend on Obi-Wan and his advice so much, but she had no one else left. For as much as Owen had disapproved of him, he had still been part of her life at home. Owen and Beru at the farmstead. The Darklighters five miles off, their nearest neighbours - Biggs, her best friend. Only friend, she thought sometimes. And yes, Ben Kenobi in his hovel, occasionally showing up out of nowhere to rescue some kid from his misadventure.
Or her misadventure. Most often, it was Lucy, and Biggs if he happened to have gotten caught up in her latest scrape.
Biggs probably wouldn't have found the Rebels yet. But maybe she would see him again, after they delivered the droids to Alderaan. They could be Rebels together. Maybe even fly together.
Of course she'd fly. The Rebellion wouldn't be like the Empire, and flying was all she'd ever wanted. All she'd even been much good at, except languages, and much use that was. Obviously she wasn't good at this Force thing. Or was it this hard for everyone?
Well, not Obi-Wan. Not her father, she thought, and let her mind wander on, flitting from subject to subject until her closed lids grew heavy.
Lucy, suppressing a yawn, almost nodded off, and instead, felt . . . something. Something so impossibly vast and powerful and more, like the desert, that she ached, longing for it. She could tell it was dangerous, too, but as vibrant as the Tatooine sands were desolate. And where she'd regarded the desert as an enemy - not an equal one, no, it was boundless in its power, but it was also other than her, opposed to her, this was - it was different - this was within her, or part of her, or just her -
"Hey," said Han Solo, and she shrieked and tumbled off the bed.
He laughed while she struggled to her feet, dusting off her grimy, everything-stained tunic and leggings.
"What do you want now, Captain?"
"Han'll do fine," drawled the captain. "We don't exactly stand on formality here. Speaking of which, this is Chewie's cabin, so -"
Lucy's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried, briefly forgetting how much she disliked him. "I didn't mean to intrude. I'll take my things -" her things amounted to the clothes on her back and tools around her waist, but she swept on regardless - "and stay wherever you've got Ben."
"No!" Han's ever-present cocky smile vanished, his brows lowering over narrowed eyes. "You'll stay here with Chewie, got it? And don't come crying when his snores keep you up."
"I'm not cry -" She remembered what Obi-Wan had told her of Han's suspicions, and scowled. "Fine, I don't care. It's your ship."
The smirk was firmly back in place. "Damn right it's my ship."
Lucy examined her nails.
"Anyway. Sonic shower through there." He pointed. "Change your clothes in there, too."
"I don't have any other clothes," said Lucy.
"Well, I'd let you wear mine," Han said, a distinct note of laughter in his voice, "but somehow I don't think there'd be much point."
She glanced up, considering his tall, broad-shouldered frame, and blushed. Astonishingly, he managed to look even more amused than he had already.
"Never mind," she said hastily. "My droids can wash these. I assume you do have soap on this thing?" Lucy paused. "Somewhere?"
"Yeah, somewhere." He slouched off, the door slamming down behind him.
Lucy suppressed the urge to throw her lightsaber at it. With her luck, it'd ignite and - well, serve him right, but they didn't need Han adding a door to his already exorbitant fee. She crossed her arms and sulked.
After two weeks, which Han spent hopping in and out of hyperspace, trying to evade Imperial ships with little apparent success, while Lucy practiced sets of mind-numbingly dull exercises, Obi-Wan finally agreed to begin teaching her lightsaber forms.
She almost bounced as she pulled her clothes on. They hadn't been so much cleaned as decontaminated; fortunately, if inexplicably, Threepio's creator had seen fit to include household chores among his areas of expertise.
Lucy straightened her tunic, imagining herself as a great warrior, lightsaber humming in her hand. Like so - she flung out a clenched fist, swinging her arm and twirling - all right, it wouldn't really be like that, but she could pretend it'd be that easy - and her untidy long hair fell over her arms. Lucy scowled at her reflection.
Well, Obi-Wan had said that Jedi apprentices had traditionally worn braids, even if it was one of the trivial traditions that he'd also said she didn't have to bother with. She plaited her hair, ripped out a strip of her tunic and tied it around the end of the braid, and ran out to find him.
He seemed pleased, in his wry Obi-Wan way, and modelled the forms that she needed to learn. It wasn't as easy as her fantasy, of course - but nearly. For once, something besides flying seemed to come naturally to her. She copied Obi-Wan's stance without any trouble, and it only took two tries before her lightsaber arced through the air in exactly the same motion as his. She smiled, pleased - for about a minute, until he dug up a seeker drone and began playing with the controls.
Lucy lowered her lightsaber. "What's that for?"
Rather than answering, Obi-Wan tossed the drone into the air. Without warning, it shot a bright red laser beam at him - and the Jedi raised his sword, the beam rebounding off the blade. Lucy stifled a gasp.
"Can they stop anything?" she asked, staring at her own weapon.
"In conjunction with the Force? Yes," said Obi-Wan, and with a flick of his fingers, the drone fell quiescent. He stepped back. "Now I want you to practice blocking its motions with your lightsaber."
"Me? But I can't -"
At his expression, she bit her lip and walked forward. The instant she saw the red light, she swung her lightsaber up, the motion awkward but swift, and the laser bounced harmlessly away.
"I did it! Ben, did you see that? I did it!"
"You did," Obi-Wan said, smiling, then nodded at the drone. It spat another laser at her; she blocked it again.
He set her to practicing and walked a short distance away, watching her. Then he gasped, clutched his chest, and collapsed on a stool, leaning forward in pain.
"Are you all right?" Lucy said, dousing her lightsaber and rushing over to him.
"I felt . . . a great disturbance in the Force," he said, "as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." He rubbed his temple. "You . . . you'd better get on with your exercises."
Lucy hesitated - he still looked awful - then dropped her hand on his shoulder and went back to practicing, while Chewbacca and the droids played an unfamiliar game in the corner.
Han swaggered in. "Well, you can forget your troubles with those Imperial slugs," he said. "I told you I'd outrun them."
She ignored him and concentrated on the beams darting in her direction. Nobody else seemed to be paying attention, either.
"Anyway, we should be at Alderaan about oh-two-hundred hours." He crossed his arms and said something about the game; Lucy, focused on the drone, didn't bother listening. Obi-Wan watched her intently.
"Remember," he said, "Jedi can feel the Force flowing through them."
Lucy felt a jolt of alarm. "You mean it controls your actions?"
"Partially. But it also obeys your commands."
She tightened her suddenly slick grip on the lightsaber, while the drone started to dart around her, as if considering its attack. She stood her ground when it lunged at her face, but stumbled when it jerked around and fired a beam at her leg.
Han laughed. "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, girl."
Lucy looked over at him. "You don't believe in the Force, do you?"
"Girl, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other," said Han. He was grinning with his usual insouciance, but for once he didn't seem wholly contemptuous - of her, anyway. "I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything." He glanced from her to Obi-Wan. "There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."
The Jedi smiled a little to himself.
"It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense," Han added.
"I suggest you try it again, Lucy," he said, picking up a large helmet. "This time, let go of your conscious self -" he placed the helmet over her head - "and act on instinct."
She laughed. "With the blast-shield down, I can't even see. How am I supposed to fight?"
"Your eyes can deceive you," said Obi-Wan. She could barely tell which direction his voice was even coming from. "Don't trust them."
She heard the seeker drone start up again, and swung blindly, then yelped as another bolt hit her.
"Stretch out with your feelings," Obi-Wan said.
Lucy tried to remember what it'd been like earlier, letting conscious thought pass away, just feeling. She stood frozen in place, trying to do something other than brace herself against the next shot, searching her emotions for anything other than apprehension, and found a faint stirring of . . . something. She narrowed all her attention on it, and for a moment she knew where everything was, each location crisp and sharp in her mind, Han turned towards the control panel, Artoo prodding a game piece, the seeker veering in from the right -
She turned towards it and raised her lightsaber against another bolt, then instinctively deflected two more from different directions.
Lucy lifted the blast shield, smiling widely. Her heart pounded in her ears, exhilaration through her veins, as if she'd just hurtled through the Needle and outflown everyone, all at once.
Obi-Wan looked pleased and proud. "You see, you can do it."
"I call it luck," snapped Han.
Lucy was too thrilled to be irritated. She just grinned.
"In my experience," said Obi-Wan, with the first trace of annoyance she'd ever seen in him, "there's no such thing as luck."
Han shrugged. "Good against remotes is one thing." He smirked at her. "Good against the living, now, that's something else."
Somebody, Lucy promised herself, she'd be a Jedi Knight. She'd show him. Even if he wasn't there to see it.
Something flashed on the control panel, and Han swung sharply around.
"Looks like we're coming up on Alderaan," he said, and he and Chewbacca hurried out. Lucy pulled the helmet off and smiled, a little tentatively, at her teacher.
"You know," she said, "I did feel something. I could almost see the remote."
"Good. You have taken your first step into a larger world," said Obi-Wan.
A few minutes later, the starship gave a violent shudder. Lucy and Obi-Wan ran into the cockpit as the Falcon lurched once more. She stared, wide-eyed, at the asteroids battering the ship.
"What's going on?" she cried.
"Our position is correct," said Han, frowning at the navicomputer, "except - no Alderaan!"
Lucy's voice rose several notches further. "What do you mean? Where is it?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, little girl. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away."
"What? How?"
Behind her, Obi-Wan said, "Destroyed. By the Empire."
Han scoffed. "The entire Starfleet couldn't destroy the whole planet. It'd take a thousand ships with more firepower than I've -"
Something else flashed, and an alarm began to hum.
"There's another ship coming in," said Han.
"Maybe they know what happened!" Lucy said brightly.
"It's an Imperial fighter," said Obi-Wan.
Lucy turned half-accusingly towards Han. "It followed us!"
"No," said Obi-Wan, "it's a short-range fighter."
"There aren't any bases around here," said Han, his voice more puzzled than panicked. "Where'd it come from?"
Lucy and Obi-Wan speculated among themselves, while Han pursued the tiny fighter, steadily gaining, even as a bright star resolved into a blob of light. A planet or moon - no, definitely a moon, she thought, and pointed.
"Look at him," she said. "He's headed for that small moon."
"I think I can get him before he gets there - he's almost in range," Han muttered, hands tight on the controls.
The Jedi drew a harsh breath. "That's no moon. It's a space station."
"It's too big to be a space station -" Horror crept over Han's face.
Chewie, Han, Lucy, and Obi-Wan gaped at the sphere, far smoother than any natural satellite could be, lit up by millions of lights, bisected by a massive chasm.
"I have a very bad feeling about this," Lucy said.
Chewbacca tried to reverse the ship, without success. Lucy tightened her grip on his chair.
"Why are we still moving towards it?"
"We're caught in a tractor beam," said Han, his fingers playing over the controls. "It's pulling us in."
"But there's got to be something you can do," she said desperately.
"There's nothing I can do about it, little girl," he snarled. "I'm in full power - I'm going to have to shut down." His expression shifted to one of fierce determination. "But they're not going to get me without a fight!"
"You can't win," Obi-Wan told him, and leaned forward. "But there are alternatives to fighting."
Lucy watched as the space station grew closer and even more colossal, her lips pressed tightly together.
"You must have compartments where you store your - merchandise," Obi-Wan said. "Are they large enough for us?"
"Won't they search those?" Lucy asked.
Han gave a short laugh. "Not likely. All right, old man, it's worth a try. Here, let me give 'em something to find, first." He spent a few precious minutes tapping into the computer while Lucy fidgeted. "Come on."
Han sprang up, grabbing her arm and racing down the corridors, towards the entrance to the ship, while Lucy struggled to keep up and Chewbacca and Obi-Wan hurried after them. Then he came to an abrupt halt and released his grip on her.
"What?" she snapped, rubbing her wrist.
For answer, he knelt and pulled up the floor, revealing two storage compartments. Lucy peered suspiciously downwards.
"Hurry," Obi-Wan told them, lowering himself into one of the compartments. Han and Lucy jumped into the other one, followed by Chewbacca, who pulled the floor down after them.
Lucy crouched beside Han in the darkness, straining to hear anything other than the groan of the ship's engines. There was a brush of fabric - Han reaching for his blaster. Lucy had already unhooked her lightsaber and closed her fingers around it.
For long, slow, uncountable minutes, she felt nothing but the cold weight of her weapon and Han's breath against her cheek. She could hear her own, quicker, shallower breaths, and the occasional shift from Chewie.
With a loud clunk, the ramp opened. Lucy twitched.
"Wait for it," breathed Han. Heavy, booted footsteps clattered over their heads and then around the ship, while lightly mechanized voices talked back and forth. Lucy suppressed the urge to squeeze her eyes shut and cover her ears like the child he insisted she was.
They waited several more minutes, and then Han pushed the floor aside, followed by Obi-Wan. Han and Lucy stood up, squinting as their eyes adjusted, and hoisted themselves up to sit on the edge of their compartment.
"It's lucky you had these compartments," said Lucy.
"I use them for smuggling," Han said, brows drawn together, and added, "I never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them!" He threw his hands up. "This is ridiculous. Even if I could take off, I'd never get past the tractor beam."
"Leave that to me," said Obi-Wan.
Han scowled. "Damn fool," he muttered. "I knew you were going to say that!"
Obi-Wan gave one of his most serene smiles. "Who's the more foolish - the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
Chewbacca, popping up, gave a roar of agreement. Han sighed, but in an oddly affectionate, un-Han-like gesture, rubbed the Wookiee's head.
"All right," he said, and lifted his blaster. "Let's see if we can get out of here."
Chapter Seven
Han crept towards the ramp, and peered left and right. Then he darted just around the corner, motioning for Lucy, Obi-Wan, and Chewbacca to stay behind him. They flattened themselves against the wall.
"Hey, down there!" he shouted. "Could you give us a hand with this?"
Lucy and Obi-Wan dropped their hands to their lightsabers. Han only sighed and pressed one finger against his lips.
Two stormtroopers ran up the ramp and slightly past them. Without hesitation, Han lifted his blaster and shot them both in the back. Lucy flinched, then felt a moment's relief that she couldn't see their expressions as they died.
Han, however, dropped beside the bodies and pulled the helmets off their heads, revealing two startled, perfectly normal - if dead - faces. Obi-Wan dropped a reassuring hand on her shoulder, while Chewbacca helped Han take off the stormtroopers' armour.
"What are you doing?" Lucy whispered.
Han gave her an appraising look. "Lucky you're skinny," he said.
"I'm not -"
She grunted as he threw one of the helmets at her.
"Put it on. They'll be expecting two stormtroopers to come out. That's what they'll get."
"It won't work," said Lucy. "I'm too short, I can't -"
Han had already buckled himself into one of the suits of armour. "You'll figure it out," he said, settled the helmet on his head, and ran down the ramp. Chewbacca held up the other suit and howled.
"All right, I'll try! Just keep quiet," she hissed, and shoved her feet into the boots. They came halfway up her thigh. She managed one shuffling step and nearly fell over. "Look, this isn't going to work. Just - give him a minute and -"
He rushed out and Lucy gritted her teeth.
"If they didn't notice anything wrong before, they will now!"
Obi-Wan's mouth twitched, but he said nothing, only stepping forward to peer down the ramp.
"I think it's clear. Get the droids and come after me," he said, and after losing another two minutes to finding Threepio and persuading him to come out, the four of them slipped down as quietly as they could, racing towards the control center. She heard a shout, a blast, and a roar just as she followed the others through the doors.
The bodies of two officers were sprawled across the floor. Lucy stared at them for a moment, then turned an accusing look on Han and Chewbacca.
"You know, between his howling and your blasting everything in sight," she snapped, "it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here!"
"Bring them on!" Han retorted. "I prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around."
Han Solo, she decided, must be the worst smuggler ever.
Obi-Wan and the droids went over to the computer, Artoo plugging himself into the terminal and then giving a sharp whistle. A series of maps flashed across the screen.
"The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations," Threepio said. "A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave."
Obi-Wan considered the maps for a moment, then glanced at Han and Lucy. "I don't think you children can help. I must go alone."
Han - as always - had no objection to not helping. Lucy gave him a disgusted look and turned back to her teacher.
"I want to go with you," she said earnestly.
"Be patient, Lucy," said Obi-Wan. "Stay and watch over the droids."
She waved her hand at Han. "But he can -"
"They must be delivered safely," Obi-Wan told her, "or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan. Your destiny lies along a different path than mine." He sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder, his eyes intent on hers. "The Force will be with you, always."
Lucy didn't trust herself to speak. She nodded and he slipped out.
Chewbacca put his hands on his hips and growled something. Han laughed.
"You said it, Chewie." He turned towards Lucy with an air of something almost like camaraderie. "Where did you dig up that old fossil?"
"Ben is a great man!"
"Yeah, great at getting us into trouble."
"I didn't hear you give any ideas," she said frostily.
"Well, anything would be better than just hanging around, waiting for him to pick us up!"
Lucy's eyes narrowed. "Who do you think you -"
Before the argument could devolve further, Artoo began shrieking, sounding as nearly frantic as a droid could. Rather grateful at the interruption, Lucy walked over to him.
"What is it?"
"I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, ma'am," Threepio said. "He says I found her and keeps repeating she's here."
"Well, who has he found?"
Artoo screeched.
"Princess Leia."
"The princess?" Lucy exclaimed, unsure if she were more thrilled or panicked. "She's here?"
Han looked blank. "What princess?"
She could almost have laughed - all this, and he didn't even know about Leia! - but instead, something heavy seemed to have landed in the vicinity of her stomach.
"Where? Where is she?"
Lucy didn't care that she'd never seen Leia in person, or that she sounded mildly deranged. She had to find her.
Threepio reported the princess' location, then added falteringly, "I'm afraid she's scheduled to be terminated."
Lucy's chest clenched. "No! We've got to do something!"
"What are you talking about?"
"The droid belongs to her - she's the one in the message - we've got to help her!"
Han's expression turned both bewildered and suspicious. "Now look," he said, "don't get any funny ideas. The old man wants us to wait right here."
He threw himself into one of the recently vacated chairs.
"But he didn't know she was here!"
Han put his feet up on the control panel. "I'm not going anywhere."
"They're going to execute her!" She threw him a scornful glance. "Look, a few minutes ago, you said you didn't want to just wait here to be captured. Now all you want to do is stay?"
"Marching into the detention area is not what I had in mind!"
"But they're going to kill her!" Lucy shouted.
"Better her than me," said Han.
Lucy whirled away, desperation eating at her. For a moment, she hated him, hated his smirk and swagger and his total inability to think of anything besides himself. It didn't even make sense. Surely even he had to see that it was far better to die trying to achieve something important, than cowering like womp-rats in a tunnel, whether he got any money for it or not.
Money. The princess. Princesses had money, didn't they?
Her mouth curved into a small, sly smile and she turned around, seeing that Han had turned his chair away from her and was, to all appearances, sulking. Lucy walked over until she stood just behind him, dropped her hand on his armoured shoulder, and leaned down, her braid falling against the armour, her mouth a few inches from his ear.
"She's rich," Lucy whispered.
Chewbacca gave an interrogative growl. Han sat up, intrigued, and Lucy took a few hasty steps backwards.
"Rich?"
"Yes," said Lucy, and he turned to look at her. "Rich . . . powerful . . . listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be . . ."
"What?" he said skeptically.
Lucy's patience came to an abrupt end. "Well, more wealth than you can imagine!"
"I don't know," said Han. "I can imagine quite a bit."
"You'll get it!"
"I better!"
Lucy smiled, trying not to look too obviously victorious, and assured him, "You will."
Please be rich, she thought at the absent princess.
"What's your plan?" Han asked, lifting a brow.
Lucy glanced around the room, looking for anything -
There.
"Threepio," she said, "hand me those binders, will you?"
Chewbacca gave a puzzled growl as she tried to wrap the binders around her wrists. Han's own bemusement cleared away; he got to his feet, looking almost impressed.
"Oh, I think I know what she has in mind," he told the Wookiee, then took the binders in one hand and pulled her wrists together with the other. Lucy suppressed a shudder of revulsion as the cold metal tightened around her skin, like manacles. "What about Chewie?"
"Um - put his hands on his head? Maybe you could point your rifle at his back, like -" She tried to gesture, and the binder bit into her skin. "Well, you know."
Chewbacca muttered to himself, but complied. They told the droids to hide, then Han took a deep breath, put his helmet back on, opened the door, and prodded the girl and the Wookiee forward.
"All right," he said. "Keep moving, Rebel scum."
Han marched Lucy and Chewbacca through the detention center. Officers, stormtroopers, and robots seemed to be bustling everywhere, and none of them seemed to think the sight of a stormtrooper, a giant Wookiee, and a teenage girl merited a second glance.
For her part, Lucy had known that the Starfleet didn't accept women, but it was one thing to resent a career opportunity being barred to her, and quite another to walk alone amidst a sea of unfriendly men who likely regarded her as about as human as Chewbacca. She had no trouble plastering a look of terror over her face.
Han managed to get them into the elevator without incident, and promptly began complaining again.
"Can you take these off?" Lucy said. "It'll be less obvious that you're helping if my hands are behind my back when you release them."
He muttered to himself, but gave her a minute to rub feeling back into her arms, then re-clasped the binders about her wrists. The elevator's door slid open, revealing a security station manned by an officer and two troopers.
The officer's eyes went from Lucy to Chewbacca, his demeanour all but oozing contempt.
"Where are you taking the girl and this . . . thing?"
"Uh, prisoner transfer," said Han. "From Block one-one-four . . . uh . . . two."
"I wasn't notified," the officer said doubtfully. "I'll have to clear it." He gestured for the troopers to approach Chewbacca, who roared and grabbed Han's laser rifle.
"Look out, he's loose!" Han shouted, pretending to hold Lucy in front of him as a shield. The binders fell off and he closed her fingers around a blaster. She spared a moment to wonder exactly how many he'd brought with him, then gave an obliging shriek as Chewbacca menaced them.
"Go get him!" Han told the troopers, lifting his blaster to aim at the Wookiee, then jerking it aside to shoot the officer while Chewbacca throw one of the troopers against the wall. Lucy shot the other one, the blaster only shaking a little. She looked upwards and saw a row of cameras; she lifted the blaster, steadied her grip, and blew them out, one by one.
Another trooper came running in, but Han shot him before Lucy had to. She tried not to look too pathetically grateful.
They ran up to the comlink system. Han quickly checked the readout.
"Here it is," he said. "Cell twenty-one-eight-seven. You go get her. I'll hold them here."
Lucy started down the hallway, peering at the different cells.
"Lucy!" Han screamed. "We're about to have company!"
She hurried, glancing at each number as quickly as she could. When she reached 2187, she slammed her hand down on the button, and dashed through the doors.
A slim girl in a diaphanous white gown lay curled up on a bench, her dark hair still in neat coils about her ears. She was definitely the girl in the hologram, Lucy thought, staring at her in dazed recognition, and - and - and tiny, maybe as short as Lucy, or even smaller.
The princess stirred, waking, then jolted upright, staring at Lucy.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"I'm Lucy Skywalker." It didn't seem sufficient, so Lucy added, "I'm here to rescue you."
"You're who?" said Leia.
"I'm here to rescue you," Lucy said again. "I've got your R2 unit. I'm here with Ben Kenobi."
Belatedly, it occurred to her that Leia hadn't known him by that name, but it didn't seem to make any difference.
"Ben Kenobi is here! Where is he?" she asked, and darted out the door without waiting for an answer. Lucy followed her and pointed back towards the entrance.
"Come on," she said, and they ran up the corridor, where Han was backed up and shooting stormtroopers.
"Can't get out that way," said Han.
"Looks like you managed to cut off our only escape route!" Leia said, her tone acid.
Lucy immediately liked her.
Han, on the other hand, glared. "Maybe you'd like it better in your cell, your Highness!"
Lucy bit her tongue. The two girls backed into an alcove while Han continued to exchange fire with the stormtroopers.
"I can't hold them off forever!" Han shouted. "Now what?"
"This is some rescue," Leia said disgustedly. "When you came in here, didn't you have a plan for getting out?"
"She's the brains, sweetheart," said Han.
Lucy flushed. "Well, I didn't -"
The princess snatched her blaster out of her hands and shot up a grate next to Han's legs. He yelped.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Somebody has to save our skins!" she said, and ran over to the chute, shooting at the approaching stormtroopers all the while. "Into the chute, flyboy!"
She tossed the blaster back at Lucy and jumped inside. Lucy tried to help Han hold back the stormtroopers, shooting as well as she could while he kicked a moaning Chewbacca into the garbage chute.
"Either I'm going to kill her," Han muttered, "or I'm beginning to like her!"
Lucy's lips thinned. She felt annoyed, almost angry, without knowing quite why.
"Get in!" he shouted at her, and she ducked the laserfire long enough to jump through, landing in a filthy, smelly mixture of water and garbage. She tried blasting through, then she and Leia both ducked as the shot ricocheted around the walls.
Han fell into one of the larger piles of trash. When Chewbacca began pounding on the door, he turned on Leia.
"Oh, the garbage chute was a really wonderful idea! What an incredible smell you've discovered!"
Leia cast a fulminating look at him, but didn't deign to respond. Han eyed the door.
"Get away from there," he told Chewie, and raised his blaster.
"No, wait!" said Lucy. He ignored her and shot at the door, sending yet another shot bouncing around the walls. Both girls lifted their heads and glared at him.
"Will you forget it?" Lucy snarled. "I already tried it! It's magnetically sealed!"
"Put that thing away! You're going to get us all killed!" added Leia, in exactly the same tone.
Han slowly turned to face the latter, his eyes narrowing. "Absolutely, your Worship! I had everything under control until you led us down here!"
"What?" said Lucy.
"You know," he said, "it's not going to take them long to find out what happened to us!"
"It could be worse," snapped Leia.
As if on cue, a low roar emerged from below. Lucy froze, Han and Leia looking around wildly.
"It's worse," Han said.
Chapter Eight
"There's something alive in here!" said Lucy, her voice shrill.
Han gave her a look that, somehow, managed to mix alarm and condescension. "That's just your imagination," he said.
Something slid by her leg - not garbage, and certainly not her imagination. Lucy tried to back away.
"Something just moved past my leg!" she cried, and then she saw it, drifting through the water: something that looked disconcertingly like an enormous, dark, slimy tentacle. She pointed. "Did you see that?"
"What?" he said.
Chewie and Leia, however, had seen it as well. The former pounded even more loudly on the hatch and the latter backed up, staring in horror even after the tentacle had vanished. Lucy tried to look everywhere at once.
Again, she felt the slimy touch of a tentacle passing by her leg - and before she could do more than gasp, a half-dozen more all wrapped around her and yanked her under the water. Lucy tried to hold her breath and fight back at the same time, but the thing's grip was much stronger than she was. She could do little more than twitch her fingers. Vaguely, as if from a great distance, she heard Han and Leia screaming her name.
Another tentacle tightened around her throat. Lucy thrashed even more, briefly managing to surface.
"Lucy!" shouted Leia, holding a long pipe towards her. "Lucy - Lucy, grab a hold of this."
Lucy's arms wouldn't come free. She gasped at Han, "Blast it, will you? My gun's - jammed -"
"Where?" he said blankly.
"Anywhere!"
He fired, and thankfully didn't hit her - but seemed to have missed the creature's tentacles, as well. Or perhaps he had hit them, and it only enraged it further. In any case, she barely had time for one gulp of air before it tightened its grip and dragged her back underwater.
She kept struggling, but more weakly, and everything seemed oddly hilarious. Dying underwater! Of all the places her life could possibly end, she'd never considered that one. She rather hoped she drowned before the thing started eating her -
Even through the water, she heard the noise, like something grinding. The tentacles relaxed, and then vanished, Lucy bobbing up.
With a gasp of air, she jumped to her feet, trying to blink the filthy garbage water out of her eyes. Han sloshed towards her and grabbed her shoulders. Lucy almost giggled.
"Lucy, are you all right?"
Leia, behind him, was so pale and wide-eyed that she might have been the one who nearly got killed by a tentacle monster. "What happened?" she demanded.
"I don't know!" Lucy's amusement slid away with the next few gulps of air. "It just let go of me and disappeared."
Han's hands dropped. "I've got a very bad feeling about this," he said, just as they heard another grating sound. They all looked around - and the walls started to close in on them.
"The walls are moving!"
She and Han tried to slog their way towards Leia, who reached one hand towards them, then bent down to grab a heavy pole.
"Don't just stand there!" she screamed. "Do something!"
Chewbacca pushed back against the wall, even his strength doing nothing to stop the slow, inexorable compression. Han managed to lift Leia's pole, bracing it between the walls, while Lucy searched through the trash for anything that might keep them from being killed in this new and different way. She looked up desperately at Han and Leia - and saw the black comlink wrapped around Han's wrist.
"Han! The droids! Get the droids to stop it!"
His eyes widened and he shifted the weight of the pole to one hand, Lucy dragging herself over to help him and Leia hold it up.
"Threepio!" he shouted. "Come in, Threepio! Threepio!"
There was no reply from the comlink. All three looked at one another in horror, Chewie giving a mournful howl. The trash and water continued to rise, creeping up to Lucy's and Leia's waists. The pole bent upwards, beyond the girls' reach.
"Get to the top!" Han told them, gesturing at the nearest garbage pile.
"I can't!" said Leia. Lucy just shook her head.
"Where is he?" Han muttered. "Threepio! Threepio, come in!"
The pole completely bent between the crushing walls. Lucy and Leia pushed their backs against one wall as they tried to scramble atop the garbage. With another lurch of the room, Leia lost her balance. Lucy instinctively grabbed her wrist and they both fell back down.
"One thing's for sure," he said, grabbing their waists and half-lifting them up. "We're all going to be a lot thinner. Get on top of it!"
"We're trying!" Leia said.
The walls gave another creak and moved in. They were less than two yards apart now, Lucy's and Leia's feet pressed against the opposite wall. Then the comlink buzzed.
"Are you there, sir?" said Threepio.
"Threepio!" they shouted.
"We've had some problems," the droid began, in his usual fussy way.
"Shut up and listen to me!" said Han, then gasped as the walls shuddered even closer. "Shut down all garbage mashers on the detention level, you hear me? Shut down all garbage mashers on the detention level!"
They just heard the droid say, "No, shut them all down!" and then, with a rough scrape of metal, the walls stopped moving. They waited, half-expecting to be smashed into goop, but the room remained immobile. Chewie roared and Han and Lucy hollered with relief. Leia hugged Lucy and then Han, all of them torn between laughing and shouting and nearly crying.
"Listen to them!" wailed Threepio. "They're dying, Artoo! Curse my metal body! I wasn't fast enough. It's all my fault - my poor mistress!"
Lucy, nearly giggling and sobbing at the same time, grabbed Han's wrist. "No, we're all right! Threepio, we're all right! You did great!"
They gave him the number to the pressure maintenance hatch, which promptly opened, and crawled out into what thankfully seemed to be an unused hallway. Han stripped off his stormtrooper armor, and Lucy and Leia did their best to wring out their clothes and hair.
Han threw his blaster belt at Lucy. "Put this on. You'll probably need it," he said, and tossed her the blaster she'd lost, for good measure. "Now, if we can just avoid any more female advice -" he scowled at them both - "we ought to be able to get out of here."
Leia, tightening her coils of hair, glared. Lucy's eyes narrowed, and she pointedly turned towards the princess, her back to Han.
"Let's get moving," she said to her.
Chewbacca growled, pointed to the raised hatch, and hurried away.
"Where are you going?" Han demanded, then muttered to himself and raised his blaster.
Leia's eyes widened. "No, wait! They'll hear!" she shouted.
Han ignored her and pulled the trigger, the blast resounding through the hallway as it bounced around the compactor. Lucy's jaw twitched and she lifted her gaze to the ceiling, biting back another diatribe.
Leia had no such compunctions. "Listen," she said, her voice dangerously soft, "I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but from now on, you'll do as I tell you, okay?"
Lucy's eyes went from Leia's livid face to Han's shocked one, and she took a prudent step backwards. She suspected they'd rescued the only woman in the galaxy likely to annoy Han more than she did.
Leia turned on her heel and strode past, Han's mouth dropping open. Lucy grinned, and followed after them.
"Look, your Worshipfulness," he snapped, poking a finger towards her while Lucy glanced back to make sure the hall was still clear, "let's get one thing straight. I take orders from one person! Me!"
Leia didn't even look at him. "Hm. It's a wonder you're still alive," she said, and glared up at Chewbacca. "Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?"
She hurried on, leaving Han to exchange a long-suffering glance with Chewie.
"No reward is worth this," he muttered. Lucy couldn't help but frown and then smile, unsure of the reason for either.
The four of them made their way down the hall, and stopped at a window overlooking the hangar. They could clearly make out the Falcon, and easily a half-dozen stormtroopers milling around it.
"There she is," Han said, and handed his comlink to Lucy, then peered around the corner.
"Threepio? Do you copy? Are you safe?" she asked.
"For the moment, ma'am," said the droid nervously, and gave their location.
"We're right above you - stand by," said Lucy, while Leia stared at the Millennium Falcon in some awe.
"You came in that thing?" she said, touching Han's elbow and pointing at his ship. "You're braver than I thought!"
Lucy's mouth twitched. Han just shook his head.
"Nice. Come on."
They ran after him - and into a group of stormtroopers, who raised their blasters, but not before Han shot one of them.
"Get back to the ship!" he shouted at Lucy and Leia, and he and Chewie took off after the stormtroopers.
"Where are you going? Come back!" said Lucy, wondering how she, of all people, had become the resident voice of reason. He either didn't hear her or ignored her; both options seemed about equally probable.
"Well," said Leia, a little admiringly, "he certainly has courage."
"What good will it do us if he gets himself killed?" Lucy tightened her grip on her blaster. Somehow, she hadn't expected that she'd be the one protecting the princess while Han all but threw his life away. She let out a short, exasperated breath and grabbed Leia's hand. "Come on."
They took off down the hall, running right past another group of stormtroopers, who promptly chased after them. Lucy and Leia darted around a corner and through an open hatchway, almost tumbling into the abyss below.
"I think we took a wrong turn!" said Lucy.
Laser fire blasted past them. Lucy shot back while Leia fumbled at the control panel, lowering the hatch behind them. The next volley of shots bounced off the door.
"There's no lock!" cried Leia, throwing her hands up. Lucy grabbed her hand and pulled her away, shooting the control panel. She couldn't help but keep her fingers laced through Leia's.
"That ought to hold it for awhile."
The princess looked at the hatchway opposite them. "Quick, we've got to get across! Find the control that extends the bridge!"
"I think I just blasted it," said Lucy.
Leia looked back. "They're coming through!"
They looked desperately around, Lucy's eyes falling on four heavy devices hanging above them and then down to the cable at her belt - and another round of blaster fire flew right past her. A stormtrooper was shooting at them from a ledge higher up. Leia backed into the corner while Lucy shot back, trying to aim, shield the princess with her body, and duck the troopers' fire, all at the same time. Her blood was pulsing in her head.
One of the stormtroopers fell, and the others backed away. Lucy glanced at Leia. It might work; at any rate, she was convinced that Leia could shoot every bit as well as she could.
"Here, take this," she said, shoving the blaster into Leia's arms, and took out the nylon cable from her belt. There was a grappler hook attached to the end of it. Lucy tugged as fast as she could, trying to ignore another stormtrooper shooting at them, his fire passing right over her head. Leia kept shooting, and the hatch behind them started to rise.
"Here they come!" she shouted.
Lucy hoped she had long enough cable - and good enough aim. She flung it upwards, doing her best to will the hook to wrap around one of the devices above.
It did, and Lucy looked at Leia. She'd grown up on a farm; she might be small, but she was strong. She'd just better be strong enough.
Leia clearly understood her plan. She put an arm around her neck and looked at her, their faces so close that Lucy saw every fleck in Leia's dark eyes, as wide as her own. She could feel their hearts racing together.
"I've been a prisoner of the Empire for six weeks," the princess said with her usual bravado, even though her voice shook. "I'm not heavy."
Lucy nodded, took a deep breath, wrapped her right arm tightly around Leia's waist, and jumped. Their momentum swung them across the abyss, Lucy's fingers digging into Leia's side. She can't fall, she can't fall, she can't fall -
Their booted feet landed on the opposite ledge even as the hatch they'd been standing by opened, letting the stormtroopers through. Leia fired another shot and then they fled down the new corridor.
They managed to find their way this time, running into the main forward bay, where Han and Chewbacca were waiting for them.
"What kept you?" Han snapped.
Leia handed the blaster back to Lucy. "We, ah, ran into some old friends."
"Is the ship all right?" said Lucy.
"Seems okay," Han said, "if we can get to it. Just hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission."
They stared out at the ship, then gasped as the stormtroopers hurried off, towards something beyond their narrow frame of vision.
"Now's our chance," Han hissed at them. "Go!"
They darted into the hangar, glancing over to see what had drawn the stormtroopers away: Obi-Wan Kenobi, his lightsaber ignited, fighting a towering, black-armored cyborg. Lucy's eyes fell on the cyborg's crimson lightsaber, and she instantly knew who he must be: Darth Vader, traitor, murderer, and fallen Jedi.
"Ben!" Lucy stepped towards the two Jedi. She didn't care if she attracted the stormtroopers' attention, or even Vader's. Obi-Wan was all she had left now. It wasn't - he couldn't -
Obi-Wan's eyes went from her to Vader, and then, impossibly, he smiled. He dropped his guard, raising his lightsaber towards his forehead. Vader's sliced straight through his body, leaving only the old Jedi's weapon and a crumpled heap of robes.
"No!" Lucy screamed, and the stormtroopers wheeled around to start shooting them. Han and Leia, behind her, seemed to be hurrying towards the ship. She didn't care. Lucy lifted her blaster and shot at every stormtrooper she saw, satisfied, almost gleeful when any of them fell. They'd taken him, taken everyone, they should all pay -
"Come on!" said Han. Lucy hardly heard him and kept shooting.
"Lucy!" Leia shouted. "Come on! It's too late!"
Lucy glanced over her shoulder, and then back at the stormtroopers.
"Blast the door, girl!" Han said, his voice hoarse. Lucy hesitated for a moment, then altered her aim to hit the control panel. The door narrowed and closed, blocking Darth Vader from sight, and leaving only a handful of stormtroopers. Her mouth curled into a smile and she advanced towards them, lifting her blaster once more.
Then, impossibly, she heard Obi-Wan's voice in her ear. "Run, Lucy! Run!"
Lucy fired one more shot and turned back to the Falcon, ducking the remaining stormtroopers' fire as she hurried up the ramp. Han and Chewie ran into the cockpit and she stood in place, feeling dazed and somehow drained. She made her way over to the game board, where Artoo and Chewbacca had played while Obi-Wan oversaw her exercises, and sat down. She was only vaguely aware of the ship taking off.
Lucy stared at the patterns of the board, tracing them with one fingernail. Threepio watched her and Artoo gave a small, wistful whirr.
A blanket fell over her shoulders. It pulled her out of her daze, a little, and she looked up to see Leia, quite possibly the least nurturing woman she'd ever met. The princess sat beside her and absently rubbed her back.
"I can't believe he's gone," said Lucy.
Leia gave a decided shake of her head. "There wasn't anything you could have done," she told her, her voice very gentle. Almost as if she knew exactly how Lucy felt, as if she'd experienced it herself -
Alderaan. Alderaan. The girl trying to console her had lived through the destruction of her entire planet. Maybe she'd even seen it.
Stunned, Lucy lifted her eyes up. Before she could say anything - I'm sorry, I'm so sorry - or even look at Leia, Han jogged towards the doorway and leaned against it.
"Lucy. Take any after your old man?"
"What?" said Leia.
Lucy's brow furrowed. Then she realized that if her father had been the best starpilot in the galaxy, as - as Obi-Wan had told her, it was possible that people might have actually heard of him.
"Plenty," she said. "What -"
Han grinned. "Then come on, sweetheart, we're not out of this yet."
Both girls sprang up, adrenaline replacing melancholy, and hurried after him. Leia rushed to the cockpit, while Lucy climbed down the ladder, towards the gunports. She all but threw herself into one of the chairs, pulling a headset over her ears.
"You in, girl?" he asked. "Stay sharp!"
She tightened her hands on the controls. This wasn't like womp rats back home.
Except, in an odd way, it was exactly like womp rats back home. Lucy checked her controls, then watched four Imperial ships dive towards them, and swung to aim at them. Her computer couldn't seem to track them.
"They're coming in too fast!"
The ship gave a small shudder.
"We've lost lateral controls!" Leia cried.
"Don't worry, she'll hold together," said Han. There was a sound very much like sparks, and he muttered, "You hear me, baby? Hold together."
Despite everything, Lucy grinned. They kept shooting, and Han laughed as one of the Imperial fighters burst into flames. Lucy saw another dart her way, swivelled towards it, and smiled. She fired the laser cannon, and the fighter exploded. She gave a shout of glee.
"I got him!"
"Great, little girl!" Han replied, and for once she didn't mind, just grinned wider. "Don't get cocky!"
"There's still two more of them out there," Leia said.
Han and Lucy kept shooting, Lucy blasting one of them out of the sky, and a few seconds later, Han taking out the other.
"That's it! We did it," she cried, laughing at the sound of Leia and Chewbacca cheering while Han gave a clearly audible sigh of relief. Lucy yanked off her headset and made her way to the cockpit.
She could just hear Leia's voice, back to its usual low, furious tones.
"- all that you love," the princess was saying, "then that's what you'll receive!" She jumped up and nearly ran into Lucy.
"Your friend is quite a mercenary," Leia told her. "I wonder if he really cares about anything - or anybody."
Lucy blinked, unsure what to protest first. Han wasn't her friend - or was he? She felt half-inclined to defend him, and half to rail against him herself. She bit her lip, and could only say, "I care."
Leia stormed out and Lucy, climbing into the chair Leia had vacated, glanced uncertainly at Han.
He was brave, she thought, just like Leia had said. Before whatever had just happened. And for all his brash talk, he'd been . . . not nice, but . . . something. She felt fairly certain he did care about things besides money. About people, like - like - people.
"So," she said, her hands twisting together. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Um. What do you think of her, Han?"
He fiddled with some controls. "I try not to."
Lucy smiled to herself. Good, she thought, and blushed. She didn't notice Han looking at her, or the amused twitch of his mouth.
"Still," he added, "she's got a lot of spirit. I don't know, what do you think?" He shrugged. "Do you think a princess and a guy like me - "
"No!"
Han stared, then grinned at her. After a brief moment of pique, Lucy couldn't help but smile back.
"So," Han drawled, mimicking her earlier earnest expression, "What are you going to do now? You didn't get caught up in this for any reward."
She turned an even deeper shade of red. "I want to fly," she said. "My friend Biggs was going to join up and - well, it's what we've always wanted, really."
"Huh," said Han, his gaze returning back to the viewscreen. "Pity."