Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Regency AU)

IV

Han Solo, Smuggler

A familiar outline appeared over the horizon.

Chewie grunted to me and gestured. A man of almost no words, I'd learned to interpret his grunts.

I pulled out a spy glass and peered through. Could it be?

The Millennium Falcon.

"We'll pull up and board. Get ready for a fight."

Chewbacca grunted again and pulled on the wheel. I would have had a different navigator so that he could be with me as we approach, but the crew had been much larger before we'd wrestled the three massive Grizzlies onto the ship.

Well, two. One had escaped. Hopefully, King Prana would be fine with only two.

Chewie let out a louder grunt, and I grabbed a pistol and his crossbow.

The ships bumped slightly and I threw a hawser onto the Falcon.

It landed with an audible thump.

We swung over onto the deck and landed, weapons ready.

No one came to fight. Perhaps it had been left adrift by some careless fool.

I straightened, and, without turning, said to my companion, "Chewie, we're home."

I climbed the narrow stairs to the poop and ran my hands over the wheel gently.

Rougher than how I'd kept it, but not in disrepair, like I'd expected.

I heard clanks from one of the lifeboats and sped over.

A boy and a girl looked up at me, guiltily, from where they were crouched in the boat.  An orange cat meowed casually and licked his back.

I hauled the girl out, and the boy followed, the tom gracefully leaping up onto a railing.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Rey," the girl said. "This is Finn, he's from the Resistance."

I raised my eyebrows. Leia sent someone after the Falcon?

"What were you doing on my ship?"

Rey's eyes widened. "You're Han Solo?"

"I used to be," I said, walking into the boiler room.  Chewbacca grunted and followed.

There was a leak, which I repaired quickly.  There was something attached to one of the tubes, something I hadn't put there.

"What's this?"

Rey looked slightly embarrassed.  "It's a compressor.  I told Unkar not to put it on there."

"It compromises the gears," I said with her.

She looked amazed, and I felt the same.  This girl knew her things.

"Where did you say you got her?" I said, walking up onto the deck again.

She and Finn followed me onto the deck of the other ship. I turned to them and was about to speak when there was a lurch.

Chewbacca grunted as the cat streaked across onto the ship from the Falcon.

"Yeah, I know," I whispered, getting my pistol ready.

I shoved the two kids down the hall towards the cells.  They dropped down into a smuggling hall beneath the real one, and peered up through the cracks.

I turned to see who was there.

Kanjiklub's death gang.

"You owe Kanjiklub!" the only one who wasn't hiding behind a mask yelled.

"I payed Kanjiklub," I protested.

"You still owe him," he insisted.

I turned towards him. "I'm hauling Grizzlies right now, I'll give him the money once I have it."

"He wants it now."

Another door opened on the other side.  I turned to look.

Oh, this'll be good.