The Millennium Falcon- Hapes System- late Saturday Fandom time
It was almost familiar now, waking up and immediately having to deal with possible mortal danger. Rover had limited life support systems, so Jaina and Zekk had gone into hibernation trances, leaving them in a nearly deathlike state to as to conserve oxygen and resources for everyone else aboard. When they were pulled out of it, it was because they were in the middle of a battle between the Hapans, who were working for the Alliance, and the Corellians. The crew had insisted on staying aboard, and Zekk and Jaina and Ben left Rover not long before it was destroyed.
Basically, all of that could have gone better.
They ended up aboard the conveniently-in-the-middle-of trouble Falcon, and hadn't even gotten more than the hoods of their evac suits off before the cabin pressurized and Jaina could actually see her dad. Apparently Leia was doing the flying at the moment. She started over to hug Han with her vac suit still on. "I don't know what you're doing here," she said, "but whatever it is-"
"I love you, too, kid," Han said, holding up a hand to stop her. "But the hugs will have to wait. We've got a pressure leak."
It was then that Jaina noticed that her father's arm was in a makeshift sling, and she realized how bad the situation had to be. "How bad have we been hit?"
"Don't know yet," he said, dropping into the chair and pulling up the damage report on the console. "But it can't be that bad. We've still got-"
He was stopped by the sight of Ben holding a pair of Jedi wrist-restraints in front of him. "I'm really sorry, Uncle Han," Ben said. "But you're under arrest."
Han didn't seem to know what to do with that. Because really. "Arrest? Kid, you've got one lousy sense of timing."
"It goes with the company he keeps," Jaina said, glaring at Ben. "Put those away before I-"
"It's okay, Jaina," Zekk said, gently pushing Ben's hand down. "I've got this."
She didn't usually defer to Zekk on things like this. They were partners, but she did most of the leading and she knew it. But the fact was, she was angry at Ben right now, and she didn't want to exacerbate the situation. Zekk could handle it, she could help with the ship. So she silently turned to the damage report to study it, listening to the conversation around her.
"But there's a Search and Detain Warrant out on both of them!" Ben protested. "We've got to arrest them!"
"You're training to become a Jedi, Ben," Zekk told him. "That means you're supposed to use your own best judgment in these situations."
"I am."
"I hope you don't really believe that. Put those away. We'll talk about this later."
Ben finally put the cuffs away. "Nothing personal, Uncle Han," Ben said, scowling, "but I'm still bringing you in."
"Whatever you say," said Han, turning away. "Let's just get through this first."
Jaina bit her lip, eyes still on the screen and a knot in her stomach. "I don't know, Dad. This leak might be more than we can handle."
"You're kidding, right?" he said. "Back in the Corporate Sector, Chewbacca and I used to get banged up this bad every week."
"Not this bad," Jaina told him, and pointed to the areas showing the damage. A lot of the hull was missing, and one of the turrets had been destroyed and opened right up. There was total pressure loss in one area, with the surrounding parts showing signs of caving to it, too. She really didn't believe this ship was going to pull through this time. And by the feel of it, Han hadn't realized just how bad this was.
"I owe whoever's commanding that Star Destroyer a detonite sandwich," Han grumbled.
"A Star Destroyer fired on you?" Ben asked, incredulous. "What'd you do to deserve that?"
"Saved you," Han shot back. "We can always throw you back, if you think it was a bad idea."
Ben was quickly getting on Han's Bad Side, something Jaina knew no one wanted to happen. "We'll take care of Ben later," she said, taking her dad's good arm and pulling him up. "Right now we need to get you and Mom into evac suits."
"Evac suits? No way," he said, heading aft instead. "By then the Falcon won't have any cabin pressure left."
"Dad, you took a turbolaser strike right down your access core," she said, following. "We might not be able to patch things up."
"Sure we will. This is a YT-1300. The access core isn't that important."
Except that they were going to open up from the inside out at this rate. But Han sent them on little missions to get things patched up, and by the time Zekk and Jaina had returned from the lockers to the aft engineering station with supplies, ready to get to work, they found Ben and Han arguing there.
"Our only chance of surviving is to make it for that Star Destroyer," Ben was saying.
"Are you crazy?" Han asked. "She's already firing on us!"
"Only because you're trying to escape. She'll stop firing if you surrender. That's the Anakin Solo."
Jaina had never seen Han look so shocked. She knew the feeling. She'd heard about it on Rover and thrown a fit. "The Anakin what?" Han said.
"The Anakin Solo," Ben said proudly. "Jacen's ship."
"Jacen's ship? They named a GAG Star Destroyer for my dead boy?"
Ben looked just as confused as he had when Jaina had reacted badly to it. "Well, yeah. Anakin was a really great Jedi." He was young, and he didn't see that Jacen was doing anything wrong, and therefore he couldn't understand what an insult it was that Jacen was firing on his parents from a ship named after their dead son. Jaina kept telling herself that.
"I can't believe it!" Han said, and turned and kicked the wall. "The kriffing rodders!"
"It's an honor," Ben said, backing away. "Jacen said-"
"Forget what Jacen said," Jaina interrupted, not wanting this to get off track. They could yell about Jacen's choice of ship names if they lived, and they could do it with more oxygen. "He's living in his own galaxy these days."
"But Admiral Niathal thought it was a good idea, too."
"Then Admiral Niathal is one dumb fish," said Han, taking the supplies from Zekk before sending him to try and stop a pinched fuel feed.
"Uncle Han, surrendering is our best chance of surviving," Ben insisted, following Han as he began patching. "All I have to do is comm Jacen and tell him I'm bringing you in."
"So he can torture his parents like his other Corellian prisoners?" Jaina snapped, dropping to her knees to help Han patch what seemed to be the worst of the leaks at the moment. "They're better off taking their chances in the Falcon."
"But we're not," Ben said. "We're not traitors to the Alliance- at least I'm not."
"I'll forget you said that," Jaina said, not looking at him. Instead she pulled the backing off one of the patch strips and held it up for him. "Because if I don't, we're both going to regret it. Here. Be careful how you apply this, or you'll just create more suction. Dad will show you."
"No," Ben said stubbornly, "not until Uncle Han promises to-"
Ignoring her then was the worst thing he could have done. The strip fluttered past Ben and plastered itself into the middle of the perforations, causing the whistle of escaping atmosphere to become even louder and more urgent as another crack appeared. "Uh, Jaina," Han said.
"Oh, kriff!" Jaina said, jumping to her feet and pulling the back off another strip to try and fix it. "Ben, what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I'm just doing my duty," Ben said, unhooking his lightsaber. "If we help make repairs, they're just going to escape."
"And if we don't, we're all going to be sucking vacuum in about thirty seconds," she said, holding the strip up and stepping towards the wall-
And she stopped when Ben ignited his lightsaber.
For a second she just stared at him with her jaw dropped, unable to really comprehend what she was seeing. "Please tell me you didn't just pull your lightsaber on me."
"I'm sorry, Jaina," he said. "But you don't have any discipline- like Jacen says, you're always making up your own orders instead of following the ones you're given."
That was rich, considering Jacen had started a war because he'd given himself his own orders. But since he'd been in charge, it was fine to do that. Nothing Jaina had ever done had been that bad. What she needed to do was disarm Ben and get him out the way. Put him in an escape pod, something. He was too big a problem at the moment, and the air was getting thinner, and they didn't have time for this. She handed Han the reinforcement strip. "Here, hold this."
Ben retreated a step, bringing his blade up behind his rear shoulder, like he was actually prepared to take a swing at her. "Jaina, don't make me-"
He was stopped by Zekk slipping around the corner at the right time and grabbing his hands, forcing the lightsaber down towards the deck. That was when the shock of nearby fire slammed into the Falcon, knocking Han to the ground and forcing Jaina to hold onto the wall to stay standing.
"How's that feed line repair coming?" Leia's voice came over the intercom from the cockpit. "If I can't accelerate, the flight is only going to get bumpier."
Jaina ignored it. Zekk was laying on the deck, clutching at a blackened slash in the side of his evac suit, Ben kneeling next to him and looking horrified with his lightsaber still in hand. He'd stabbed Zekk. Accident or not, it didn't really matter because it didn't make anyone unstabbed.
"You shouldn't have grabbed me," Ben said, shaking his head like that would undo it. "Why'd you have to grab me, Zekk?"
"Because you were acting like a Jedi wannabe," Jaina said, coming up behind him and snatching his lightsaber before he could do anything else.
He looked up at her, looking very thirteen. "It wasn't my fault."
And Jaina had to remind herself that thirteen or not, he was trying to act much older, and this was what happened. "Then whose fault was it?" she snapped, switching the lightsaber off. "I just hope you haven't killed us all. Now grow up, go help your uncle, and I'll-"
"No, Jaina," Han said, turning away from the scene to look at the damage to the ship again. "You've got to get Zekk and Ben out of here."
"Out of here?" she repeated, though she knew what he meant.
"Get into the escape pods," he said, sticking another piece on the perforation. "Zekk needs medical help, and I really don't want you sticking us with the brat."
"But what about-"
"The Falcon's only carrying a four-person pod capacity right now. And even if we had more, Leia and I are not surrendering," Han said with a pointed look at Ben. "Not to Jacen- or anyone else."
Jaina he couldn't argue it. There wasn't time, there wasn't room for all of them, and it wasn't like Han or Leia would leave the other behind. She had to worry about Zekk, and even if Han was in the mood to deal with Ben, Ben obviously couldn't be trusted in this situation. She had to suck it up, shut up, and do as she was told.
How was that for following orders, Ben?
That didn't mean she liked doing this. She knelt on the deck, taking Zekk's pulse to make sure he would even be able to make it out of here, and found that it was still strong enough to lead her to believe he'd survive time in the most uncomfortable escape pod trip ever. And in the time it took for her to do that, she had to try to come to grips with the fact that she might very well be leaving her parents to die. In Fandom's Ben's time, she knew Han and Leia made it through the end of the war, but she'd never heard about this. She didn't know if it was an event that was only happening here. She couldn't be sure, so excuse her if she couldn't exactly hold the tears back, even if she could do the job anyway.
She nodded and stood. "Don't worry about your mother and me," Han told her. "Until we get the Falcon patched up, it'll be good not to have so many noses breathing the air, but we'll be okay. We've been in a lot of fixes tougher than this one."
Jaina managed a smile. "I know, Dad. I've seen the holovids."
She motioned Ben towards the rear hatch and if he argued so help her, and used the Force to lift Zekk off the deck. Then she stepped to Han's side and gave him a kiss on the cheek. It struck her that if this was it, she wouldn't even get a chance to say goodbye to Leia. She couldn't just stroll up to the cockpit and give her mom a hug and head on out. She'd have to comm up to clear the escape pods for launch and that'd be it. This was the way it had to be and all she could do was hope. "Let me know how it goes... and may the Force be with you."
"Yeah," he said, and from the way he wasn't looking at her, Jaina got the feeling he didn't want her to see that he was upset about this too. "You, too, kid."
[Warning for accidental violence on in here. NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue taken from Tempest by Troy Denning. WHY BEN WHY. GOD.]
Basically, all of that could have gone better.
They ended up aboard the conveniently-in-the-middle-of trouble Falcon, and hadn't even gotten more than the hoods of their evac suits off before the cabin pressurized and Jaina could actually see her dad. Apparently Leia was doing the flying at the moment. She started over to hug Han with her vac suit still on. "I don't know what you're doing here," she said, "but whatever it is-"
"I love you, too, kid," Han said, holding up a hand to stop her. "But the hugs will have to wait. We've got a pressure leak."
It was then that Jaina noticed that her father's arm was in a makeshift sling, and she realized how bad the situation had to be. "How bad have we been hit?"
"Don't know yet," he said, dropping into the chair and pulling up the damage report on the console. "But it can't be that bad. We've still got-"
He was stopped by the sight of Ben holding a pair of Jedi wrist-restraints in front of him. "I'm really sorry, Uncle Han," Ben said. "But you're under arrest."
Han didn't seem to know what to do with that. Because really. "Arrest? Kid, you've got one lousy sense of timing."
"It goes with the company he keeps," Jaina said, glaring at Ben. "Put those away before I-"
"It's okay, Jaina," Zekk said, gently pushing Ben's hand down. "I've got this."
She didn't usually defer to Zekk on things like this. They were partners, but she did most of the leading and she knew it. But the fact was, she was angry at Ben right now, and she didn't want to exacerbate the situation. Zekk could handle it, she could help with the ship. So she silently turned to the damage report to study it, listening to the conversation around her.
"But there's a Search and Detain Warrant out on both of them!" Ben protested. "We've got to arrest them!"
"You're training to become a Jedi, Ben," Zekk told him. "That means you're supposed to use your own best judgment in these situations."
"I am."
"I hope you don't really believe that. Put those away. We'll talk about this later."
Ben finally put the cuffs away. "Nothing personal, Uncle Han," Ben said, scowling, "but I'm still bringing you in."
"Whatever you say," said Han, turning away. "Let's just get through this first."
Jaina bit her lip, eyes still on the screen and a knot in her stomach. "I don't know, Dad. This leak might be more than we can handle."
"You're kidding, right?" he said. "Back in the Corporate Sector, Chewbacca and I used to get banged up this bad every week."
"Not this bad," Jaina told him, and pointed to the areas showing the damage. A lot of the hull was missing, and one of the turrets had been destroyed and opened right up. There was total pressure loss in one area, with the surrounding parts showing signs of caving to it, too. She really didn't believe this ship was going to pull through this time. And by the feel of it, Han hadn't realized just how bad this was.
"I owe whoever's commanding that Star Destroyer a detonite sandwich," Han grumbled.
"A Star Destroyer fired on you?" Ben asked, incredulous. "What'd you do to deserve that?"
"Saved you," Han shot back. "We can always throw you back, if you think it was a bad idea."
Ben was quickly getting on Han's Bad Side, something Jaina knew no one wanted to happen. "We'll take care of Ben later," she said, taking her dad's good arm and pulling him up. "Right now we need to get you and Mom into evac suits."
"Evac suits? No way," he said, heading aft instead. "By then the Falcon won't have any cabin pressure left."
"Dad, you took a turbolaser strike right down your access core," she said, following. "We might not be able to patch things up."
"Sure we will. This is a YT-1300. The access core isn't that important."
Except that they were going to open up from the inside out at this rate. But Han sent them on little missions to get things patched up, and by the time Zekk and Jaina had returned from the lockers to the aft engineering station with supplies, ready to get to work, they found Ben and Han arguing there.
"Our only chance of surviving is to make it for that Star Destroyer," Ben was saying.
"Are you crazy?" Han asked. "She's already firing on us!"
"Only because you're trying to escape. She'll stop firing if you surrender. That's the Anakin Solo."
Jaina had never seen Han look so shocked. She knew the feeling. She'd heard about it on Rover and thrown a fit. "The Anakin what?" Han said.
"The Anakin Solo," Ben said proudly. "Jacen's ship."
"Jacen's ship? They named a GAG Star Destroyer for my dead boy?"
Ben looked just as confused as he had when Jaina had reacted badly to it. "Well, yeah. Anakin was a really great Jedi." He was young, and he didn't see that Jacen was doing anything wrong, and therefore he couldn't understand what an insult it was that Jacen was firing on his parents from a ship named after their dead son. Jaina kept telling herself that.
"I can't believe it!" Han said, and turned and kicked the wall. "The kriffing rodders!"
"It's an honor," Ben said, backing away. "Jacen said-"
"Forget what Jacen said," Jaina interrupted, not wanting this to get off track. They could yell about Jacen's choice of ship names if they lived, and they could do it with more oxygen. "He's living in his own galaxy these days."
"But Admiral Niathal thought it was a good idea, too."
"Then Admiral Niathal is one dumb fish," said Han, taking the supplies from Zekk before sending him to try and stop a pinched fuel feed.
"Uncle Han, surrendering is our best chance of surviving," Ben insisted, following Han as he began patching. "All I have to do is comm Jacen and tell him I'm bringing you in."
"So he can torture his parents like his other Corellian prisoners?" Jaina snapped, dropping to her knees to help Han patch what seemed to be the worst of the leaks at the moment. "They're better off taking their chances in the Falcon."
"But we're not," Ben said. "We're not traitors to the Alliance- at least I'm not."
"I'll forget you said that," Jaina said, not looking at him. Instead she pulled the backing off one of the patch strips and held it up for him. "Because if I don't, we're both going to regret it. Here. Be careful how you apply this, or you'll just create more suction. Dad will show you."
"No," Ben said stubbornly, "not until Uncle Han promises to-"
Ignoring her then was the worst thing he could have done. The strip fluttered past Ben and plastered itself into the middle of the perforations, causing the whistle of escaping atmosphere to become even louder and more urgent as another crack appeared. "Uh, Jaina," Han said.
"Oh, kriff!" Jaina said, jumping to her feet and pulling the back off another strip to try and fix it. "Ben, what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing. I'm just doing my duty," Ben said, unhooking his lightsaber. "If we help make repairs, they're just going to escape."
"And if we don't, we're all going to be sucking vacuum in about thirty seconds," she said, holding the strip up and stepping towards the wall-
And she stopped when Ben ignited his lightsaber.
For a second she just stared at him with her jaw dropped, unable to really comprehend what she was seeing. "Please tell me you didn't just pull your lightsaber on me."
"I'm sorry, Jaina," he said. "But you don't have any discipline- like Jacen says, you're always making up your own orders instead of following the ones you're given."
That was rich, considering Jacen had started a war because he'd given himself his own orders. But since he'd been in charge, it was fine to do that. Nothing Jaina had ever done had been that bad. What she needed to do was disarm Ben and get him out the way. Put him in an escape pod, something. He was too big a problem at the moment, and the air was getting thinner, and they didn't have time for this. She handed Han the reinforcement strip. "Here, hold this."
Ben retreated a step, bringing his blade up behind his rear shoulder, like he was actually prepared to take a swing at her. "Jaina, don't make me-"
He was stopped by Zekk slipping around the corner at the right time and grabbing his hands, forcing the lightsaber down towards the deck. That was when the shock of nearby fire slammed into the Falcon, knocking Han to the ground and forcing Jaina to hold onto the wall to stay standing.
"How's that feed line repair coming?" Leia's voice came over the intercom from the cockpit. "If I can't accelerate, the flight is only going to get bumpier."
Jaina ignored it. Zekk was laying on the deck, clutching at a blackened slash in the side of his evac suit, Ben kneeling next to him and looking horrified with his lightsaber still in hand. He'd stabbed Zekk. Accident or not, it didn't really matter because it didn't make anyone unstabbed.
"You shouldn't have grabbed me," Ben said, shaking his head like that would undo it. "Why'd you have to grab me, Zekk?"
"Because you were acting like a Jedi wannabe," Jaina said, coming up behind him and snatching his lightsaber before he could do anything else.
He looked up at her, looking very thirteen. "It wasn't my fault."
And Jaina had to remind herself that thirteen or not, he was trying to act much older, and this was what happened. "Then whose fault was it?" she snapped, switching the lightsaber off. "I just hope you haven't killed us all. Now grow up, go help your uncle, and I'll-"
"No, Jaina," Han said, turning away from the scene to look at the damage to the ship again. "You've got to get Zekk and Ben out of here."
"Out of here?" she repeated, though she knew what he meant.
"Get into the escape pods," he said, sticking another piece on the perforation. "Zekk needs medical help, and I really don't want you sticking us with the brat."
"But what about-"
"The Falcon's only carrying a four-person pod capacity right now. And even if we had more, Leia and I are not surrendering," Han said with a pointed look at Ben. "Not to Jacen- or anyone else."
Jaina he couldn't argue it. There wasn't time, there wasn't room for all of them, and it wasn't like Han or Leia would leave the other behind. She had to worry about Zekk, and even if Han was in the mood to deal with Ben, Ben obviously couldn't be trusted in this situation. She had to suck it up, shut up, and do as she was told.
How was that for following orders, Ben?
That didn't mean she liked doing this. She knelt on the deck, taking Zekk's pulse to make sure he would even be able to make it out of here, and found that it was still strong enough to lead her to believe he'd survive time in the most uncomfortable escape pod trip ever. And in the time it took for her to do that, she had to try to come to grips with the fact that she might very well be leaving her parents to die. In Fandom's Ben's time, she knew Han and Leia made it through the end of the war, but she'd never heard about this. She didn't know if it was an event that was only happening here. She couldn't be sure, so excuse her if she couldn't exactly hold the tears back, even if she could do the job anyway.
She nodded and stood. "Don't worry about your mother and me," Han told her. "Until we get the Falcon patched up, it'll be good not to have so many noses breathing the air, but we'll be okay. We've been in a lot of fixes tougher than this one."
Jaina managed a smile. "I know, Dad. I've seen the holovids."
She motioned Ben towards the rear hatch and if he argued so help her, and used the Force to lift Zekk off the deck. Then she stepped to Han's side and gave him a kiss on the cheek. It struck her that if this was it, she wouldn't even get a chance to say goodbye to Leia. She couldn't just stroll up to the cockpit and give her mom a hug and head on out. She'd have to comm up to clear the escape pods for launch and that'd be it. This was the way it had to be and all she could do was hope. "Let me know how it goes... and may the Force be with you."
"Yeah," he said, and from the way he wasn't looking at her, Jaina got the feeling he didn't want her to see that he was upset about this too. "You, too, kid."
[Warning for accidental violence on in here. NFB, NFI, OOC okay. Dialogue taken from Tempest by Troy Denning. WHY BEN WHY. GOD.]