Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Minutes from High Command Committee Meeting, Redacted
3 ABY, Day 102
Committee Members Present: Admiral Gial Ackbar, General Jan Dodonna, General Crix Madine, Princes Leia Organa, General Carlist Rieekan.
Reason for Meeting: Covert Mission 2-, to commence today at 20:00 hours with the take off of Captain S- from Hangar Bay -.
19:00 h: Meeting called to order.
19:01 h: Committee members summarize plans related to the mission and begin to debate, for the third time, the risks inherent in allowing Captain S- to undertake this mission alone.
19:13 h: Committee members appear to reach a standstill on this topic, with Leia Organa noting for the record her continued opposition to Captain S- going alone.
19:14 h: Formal vote held.
19:15 h: It is affirmed that Captain S- is cleared to go on the mission alone.
19:16 h: The committee members begin to discuss, for the sixth time, the possibility of making Captain S- a General, and the feasibility of doing so against his own express wishes.
19:19 h: General Rieekan notes for the record that Captain S- has not in fact made his express wishes known on the specific topic of being given the commission of General.
19:20 h: Leia Organa notes for the record that, despite saying he would be at this meeting which ostensibly was held solely to determine whether he would be given clearance to proceed on Covert Mission 2- alone, Captain S- is still not here.
19:22 h: Committee members vote to revisit the issue of whether Captain S- will be authorized to undertake mission 2- alone given his absence at this meeting, over Leia Organa's stated objection that her intention in mentioning this was not to debate the topic again.
19:26 h: Amid continued debate, Wedge Antilles enters the room.
19:27 h: Wedge Antilles is ordered to leave the room.
19:28 h: Wedge Antilles informs the committee that Captain S- asked him to inform the committee that he's 'decided not to come to the meeting', but that he's 'set to take off as planned' and that the committee should 'give a shout if that's a problem.'
19:29 h: Wedge Antilles leaves the room.
19:30 h: Without actually calling for a revote on the issue of mission 2-, the Committee begins to discuss who else might be suited to the role of General, given the critical shortage of Generals currently on base.
19:44 h: Leia Organa leaves the meeting.
19:46 h: Given Princess Leia's parting words, the Committee begins frantic attempts to reach Captain S- using com links.
19:52 h: The committee abandons use of com links and begins attempts to hail Captain S- through his ship's main communication system.
19:58 h: The committee abandons attempts to hail Captain S- via the main communications system and instead attempts to contact Captain S-'s copilot, C-.
19:59 h: Attempts to hail C- are successful. However, due to the absence of any translation or protocol droids, coupled with the departure of Leia Organa, who is currently studying the language of the copilot, the committee is unable to understand the copilot. The committee requests that copilot C- inform Captain S- that they are attempting to hail him via the ship's main communications system. The committee is unsure as to whether copilot C- has agreed.
20:01 h: The committee succeeds in hailing Captain S-.
Aboard the Millennium Falcon
3 ABY, Day 102, 19:48 hours
Han finished his standard check of the hyperdrive and engines with a satisfied smile, confident that, for once, everything on his ship was in top shape, and just at the right time. When he'd been told he was going on a solo mission to Ord Mantell he hadn't believed his luck. The Alliance was big on teams and pairs, but evidently this mission was delicate enough that the fewer people who were involved the better-- or maybe, his cynical side admitted, dangerous enough that they didn't care to risk more lives than his. Their reasons didn't matter much to him, though, especially when they were offering him 10% of the cargo he'd be returning with as payment. While he couldn't deny that he'd come to enjoy living on base with the other Alliance members more than he would have thought possible, he also couldn't deny that it would be nice to get away from it from a few days-- and especially away from a certain princess.
He frowned as he thought of her. If he had actively tried, he didn't think he could have imagined someone more annoying than Leia Organa. Just dealing with her would have been bad enough, but recently he had to put up with Chewie's constant and unwelcome insights about the situation, most of which centered on the absurd theory that Han was in love with her. Despite Chewie's generally keen insights, this particular idea was ridiculous on too many levels to count. To begin with, Han doubted he was capable of being in love with anyone, but even if he was, Leia was the last person in the galaxy he could ever imagine falling in love with, no matter how spirited she might be.
He paused on his way to the cockpit, his thoughts lingering on her spirit for just a minute, his annoyance abating as he remembered the way she'd smirked at him that morning, leaning toward him over breakfast and lowering her voice to tell him a joke, the punchline not making him nearly as happy as her laugh as she told it. She'd blushed ever-so-slightly then, and the flush had made her look even more stunning than usual--
Of course, that was before they'd had their most recent fight, the one that had made him decide it wasn't worth coming to her little committee meeting even if his absence might mean his clearance to go on this mission was suddenly revoked. After all, he could leave at any time if he really wanted to- he didn't need the committee's permission for that.
He was jarred from his thoughts by the sound of his personal com link ringing, and he started toward where he'd left it when he'd begun his final checks of the Falcon's systems. Before he reached it, though, he was distracted by a loud banging in the vicinity of the Falcon's entrance. "Chewie! Everything alright?" he shouted, expecting to see the Wookie emerge from that general area, but to his surprise Chewbacca roared a reply from behind him.
"Odd," he mused, heading toward the cockpit in the hopes of getting a visual on whatever was making the noise. The noise stopped abruptly as he entered the cockpit, though, replaced with the persistent buzz of Command attempting to hail him through the Falcon's main communication system. He ignored that, too, as he craned his neck, trying to determine what outside was causing the disturbance. After a moment he could see Leia, who had evidently abandoned banging on the door in favor of trying to catch his attention by jumping up and down in full view of the cockpit, waving her arms wildly.
He thought about leaving her out there, unable to quash his annoyance at how they'd parted earlier, but just as he thought it he saw her shiver as snow blew through the open hangar, and on instinct, against any rational thoughts he might have had on the subject, he opened the door to the ship.
Leia was in the cockpit before he could even brace himself for her presence, and he cringed as she took a deep breath, anticipating that she was either there to continue their argument from earlier about his continued failure to formally enlist, an argument which had ended less conclusively than he would have liked, or else to personally tell him the committee's verdict about whether he was 'allowed' to go to Ord Mantell alone. He braced himself, preparing for a tirade, or at a minimum for some snippy remark, but to his astonishment she looked at him a little wildly before blurting desperately,
"Take me with you."