Chapter Text
“Well Chewie, we really bit it this time didn’t we?”
An annoyed snarl was the only reply for Captain Han Solo. The smuggler turned to stare at his taller companion with a withering look as his nose started to curl up in a snarl of his own.
“Say that again and I’ll throw you to these clowns myself.” He threatened dryly and that’s when Chewie turned his own questioning eyebrow at his companion, expression seeming to wonder if he thought he could actually do it when in reality no one could move Chewbacca unless he wanted to be moved.
Han seemed to sense Chewie’s dark amusement at his statement and grumbled another “Shutup” before the elevator dinged and there was blaster fire.
“No way.”
“Luke we don’t have much of a choice!” Leia cried from where she stood across from Luke in his quarters. The golden farm boy himself was sitting up in his bunk, half-asleep and half-dressed as it was the middle of the night rotation and he hadn’t even been awake five seconds before the Princess started into him.
“We have plenty of choices!” He cried before frowning in confusion, “Wait… what are our choices?”
Leia let an annoyed snort escape through her nose before she reached out a hand and yanked Luke from his bunk. Luke cried as he scrambled for the thin blanket he’d been issued but it fluttered to the floor and he was left standing in his boxers and a thin tank top. Leia curled her fingers into that tank top and dragged Luke close so she could better threaten him.
“Captain Stupid and his Wookie friend decided to take an unscheduled trip out of here. Only someone with access to scheduling ships’ departures and arrivals modified the log to say they got clearance from me when I clearly didn’t clear anything!” Even when it was mostly dark she was terrifying up close this angry and Luke tried to look anywhere but in her eyes.
“I wonder who did that…” he muttered weakly, ducking his head and worming his way out of the Princess’ grip.
Leia snorted again, “Yeah, who knows Luke.”
“Okay, but have you been on the other side of Han’s strong arming? It’s quite effective.” Luke said, trying in vain to defend himself, “He and Chewie double teamed me! I had no choice!”
“What a great and powerful Jedi.” Leia rolled her eyes, “Look, we just got a report of the Falcon being picked up one system away.”
“The Imperials?” Luke felt his gut starting to clench.
“Worse,” Leia said evenly, “Gangsters.”
“What?”
Leia sighed, “Put some pants on.” With that she turned to walk out and Luke hurried to catch up. She led him towards the command center, speaking freely as barely anybody was out this late.
“We got a sighting of the Bathets loading the Falcon into one of their own ships.” She said, entering the command center and digging through a stack of reports left waiting to be touched, “Anytime the Bathet mob is involved something either gets blown up or a lot of people die, and I’d rather His Glorious Idiocy and that walking carpet not be on their casualty list just to get back at us.”
“Okay, I have two questions.” Luke said as the Princess turned to hand him the report, which he took reluctantly, “Who are the Bathets, and why would they use Han to get back at us?”
Leia gave him a withering look, like Luke should know all of this already, “Have you not been reading the reports we send out?”
Okay so he should know this already.
“Maybe I missed one or two?” Luke shrugged helplessly. Rogue Squadron had him busy most of the time.
Leia rolled her eyes for probably the millionth time that hour and launched into a heated explanation, “The Bathet mob are a group of space pirates who think they’re on the level of the Hutts, and to their people they are. The whole group is practically a cult, with them worshiping their leader and his family like they’re some sort of deity. Their leader, the Tho family, are all completely insane. When they’re not high on spice they’re drunk and crashing ships into cities or murdering entire villages. They’re not big enough to be more than a nuisance, but they’re a violent nuisance.”
“Okay, and why would they involve Han in sticking it to the Alliance?” Luke asked.
“We recently captured their current head, Jerek Tho. He only recently took over from his dad, but he’s proving to be a lot worse than that man ever was. It’s common knowledge Captain Solo and the Millenium Falcon have ties to the Alliance these days so it’s not hard to conclude the Bathets might take him for a prisoner exchange, or just kill him in revenge.”
“Ah.” Luke nodded.
“Yeah, ah.” Leia snapped, “Thus when Mon Mothma said all non-essential trips to off base where to be postponed we were trying to avoid this! Then you came along and dragged me into it!”
“Okay, I’m sorry!” Luke cried, “How are we gonna fix it?”
The smile that Leia gave him was chilling and Luke regretted everything he’d ever done to wrong whatever Deity decided this would be his punishment.
“Follow me to the holding cells.”