We're brought out of our shock by the ship shaking violently. I groan "Please don't tell me that the Falcon's chosen now to fall apart."
"Nope, it hasn't." Han mutters, fiddling useless with the controls "All controls are overridden. We're caught in a tractor beam!"
I curse under my breath. Great. We're screwed. Unless...
"Smuggling compartments." I blurt out.
"What?" Han, Luke and Obi Wan say simultaneously. Even Chewie roars.
"No, seriously!" I protest "The escape pod docks are empty, so it'll look like we escaped in them. Meanwhile we can hide in the smuggling compartments until a scanning crew come onboard. Then we'll steal their uniforms, disable the tractor beam and get the hell out of here."
"You thought up that all by yourself?" Han asks, surprised.
"I studied tactics with the Alliance, Han. Trust me, I could probably escape from the Imperial Palace given half a chance." I reply.
"I'll hold you to that." Han smirks.
"Well, that sounds like as good a plan as any, so let's get to it." Obi Wan says.
Me and Han each grab a panel and pull it aside, revealing two compartments large enough to fit around four people inside. The panels were modified so that they look exactly the same as the regular steel grating of the floor, which is handy for smuggling cargo past a checkpoint.
Or people past a scanning crew, for that matter.
Me, Luke, Ben and C-3PO hide inside one of the compartments, whilst Han, Chewie and the R2 unit hide in the other. As I pull the panel over our heads, I hear a thump as the ship sets down. I shakily take a breath. No going back now. I set my blaster to silent, and point it up through the grating, where I can just see a scanning crew. I pull the trigger, and a satisfying thump meets my ears. Moments later, the sound is repeated. I smirk as Han yells out "Hey! Give us a hand with these!"
I keep my gun on silent, but set it to kill. "Kill?" Luke hisses to me "Can't we just stun them?"
"It's us or them, kid." I mutter.
"Kid?" Luke hisses "Your brother can call me that, but you, you're, like, my age!"
As another set of footsteps echo above us, me and Han pull the triggers at the same time. "Put it this way," I mutter to Luke, opening the panel "I measure age not by time, but by experience. And I dare say I've had a lot more experience than you. So keep your mouth shut."
Ending the conversation, I pull myself out of the compartment, swinging my legs over to inspect the deceased stormtroopers. God, I hate men. They're either too cocky, too whiny or too damn strict.
"It's lucky you had these compartments." Obi Wan says.
"Been using them for years," Han explains "Never thought I'd be smuggling myself in them."
"Come on." I say, impatient to get off the battle station, even though I haven't even seen inside "Let's get off this technological terror and get...away."
The full realisation that Alderaan is no more, that we do not know the location of the Alliance, hits us.
"We can head back to your base on Tatooine, Hannah." Han continues "They can beam it to the Alliance, right?"
I nod slowly, before starting to strip one of the three stormtroopers of their armour. "Han, Luke, put on the uniforms." I instruct "Obi Wan, Chewie...stay out of sight."
They all nod, and we begin Phase One of escaping.
Damn, what did this stormtrooper last eat? His armour REEKS!
YOU ARE READING
The Solo Children: Book One
FanfictionIn an alternate universe, Han Solo has a little sister, Hannah, who he hasn't see for 5 years. When he, now a smuggler meets up with her, a Rebel, on Tatooine, they encounter several new people who will change their lives forever.
