Nebulous - Han Solo [2]

Chapter 5 : Monster

"Princess," said general Reiken as Tasha walked in. he was hunched over, facing a viewscreen, leaning on a chair occupied by one of the technicians. Her green eyes quickly scanned the screen, picking up what they were looking at. That same moment, both Han and Leia walked in, Chewie close behind them.

"We have a visitor," Tasha said, as much to herself as any of the others, and the general nodded to her.

"It's metal," said the technician, seeming slightly puzzled.

"Then it couldn't be one of those creatures," Leia surmised quickly, eager to have her opinion heard, to be involved.

"It could be a speeder, one of ours," Han added, but Tasha shook her head at it.

"I don't think so," she replied. Tasha could tell what was happening. If it wasn't what she thought they would've have called for her, for all of them.

"Wait," said the technician, one of his hands flying to his headset, "there's something very weak coming through," his fingers skidded across the control panel, and a faint buzzing, almost static sound filled the air. Tasha listened carefully, her eyebrows knotting together in concentration.

"Sir," piped up Threepio, all of them looking over at him, "I'm fluent in over three-million forms of communication. This signal is not used by the alliance. It could be an imperial code." Tasha swore under her breath.

"It's not friendly whatever it is," Tasha said after a moment, "I'm gonna go check it out." She moved to leave, turning towards the door, when a strong hand gripped her arm, forcing her to stop.

"Not without me you're not, princess," Han said, looking down on her. Tasha glared up at him before wrenching her arm out of his grip.

"If you don't mind, Captain Solo, I'm going to have to get used to doing things around here without you, so I might as well start now," she swung her head around, forcefully ignoring his protests as she began to charge out, anger bubbling through her. How dare he have the nerve to say something like that after what he just pulled, how he had just humiliated her in front of all of them?

"Princess," said the general, just as Tasha had reached the doorframe. The raven girl stopped walking, slowly turning towards him, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the doorframe, her jaw clenched. She raised her eyebrows in question to him.

"Captain Solo is going to escort you off the base," he said in a detached voice, "as usual." Tasha glared at the general, biting her tongue to stop herself from saying something scathing. Instead, her pent up anger from today slipped out, her control on it failing; only for a moment, but it was enough. Enough for the general to fly backwards a few paces, the consol exploding into sparks and the technician to fly back in his seat. Tasha realised what she was doing a second later, shutting off the flow of anger, only for it to be replaced with guilt, something far worse than any rage, an emotion that gnaws and gnaws at you until you're nothing. The raven girl's mouth opened and closed a few times as everyone looked at her, almost accusingly. Leia, who was helping up the general, looked up at her sister coldly. No, more than coldly, she looked up at Tasha with hatred in her eyes. Tasha's eyes flew around the room, at the nervous, apprehensive looks she was getting and couldn't take it anymore.

Monster.

The thought flashed through her mind again, a thousand voices crying it out like a choir, filling her head with it. And she had no resolve left to stop it.

"I'm sorry," she spluttered. All her coherent thoughts left her, replaced with that one word, making her head spin, so Tasha did the only thing she could.

She ran.

Tasha sprinted through the passages, ignoring the concerned voice that was calling after her. She couldn't stop. Her eyes darted around her, as the confused looks followed her, as well as the footsteps. She thundered through the hangar, not bothering to make sure no one was watching her as darted into her secret hiding spot, the empty chamber off a small hallway. The door sped shut behind her as she ran inside, her legs collapsing under her, crouching in the corner. Her breathing was shallow as she tried to drag the oxygen into her lungs.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" she muttered to herself, hugging her arms around herself.

"Tasha?" said a voice, and the raven girl whipped around, standing upright again, ignoring the tears glinting in her eyes. She swiped her fingers carelessly under her eyes, wiping away the salty tears that had gathered there.

"Mmm?" she said in question, trying to regain her composure, or at least make it look like she wasn't having a total breakdown. "We have to go check out that blip on the radar . . ." Tasha said, her voice trailing off as she made a move to get past the smuggler and his sympathetic gaze. He grabbed her arm as she moved to leave, and Tasha just stood there, not fighting, not doing anything except ignoring the smuggler. The voices had stopped. For now. That was what concerned Tasha about them. How the voices would stop and start suddenly. And how they knew exactly how to cut into her, to hurt her.

"You can talk to me," Han said, his voice soft, full of pity.

"Well, maybe I don't want to talk to a self-centred, arrogant person such as yourself," she said in reply, her voice calm, but with an edge like a knife.

"That's not fair-" Han began, but Tasha cut him off.

"Fair?" she spat, "there are plenty of things around here that aren't fair," Han opened his mouth to speak, but Tasha ignored it, carrying on without skipping a beat, "but at the moment the empire may be planning an assault on our doorstep." Her green eyes looked up at him in determination. "And I'm not going to let that happen."