Edges of the World

Chapter 20

Leia did not like sitting in one of the ship's smuggling compartments, unable to see or hear what was going on. She reached out with the Force to monitor everyone on the ship and outside it, as she just could not sit there with nothing to do or see or know. She was riding into battle. Her first ever battle.

That flare of nervousness came to her again, and she refocused away from everything around her to just her internal turmoil. She acknowledged her nerves, acknowledged the all too real fear that something would go wrong. The Imperials would break through their blockade and overwhelm them on the ground. That Luke, Luke, could die in aerial combat far away where she could do nothing to help. As she acknowledged her fears she accepted them, and let them go. Yes. These were real concerns and worries, and yes, she had never been in combat before.

But she would not let these fears destroy her trust. She trusted that the Rebel forces knew what they were doing, that the other members of Alliance High Command would not send troops off to die senselessly, that this mission was important. She trusted that Han would land them safely and get them out of there after, that the good they could do was worth the risk of loss. Above all, she trusted Luke. She trusted him to keep the Imperials away from the planet, to live to fight another day.

She let her trust push out her fear, releasing it back into the Force. She breathed in deep, and basked in her total faith in the Force. There was only peace.

The engine was quiet.

They had landed.

No one was to leave their hiding spots until the signal.

She heard footsteps overhead. Muffled voices.

Then nothing.

She started to go over the plan again in her head.

Get the signal.

Leave the ship.

Rendezvous with their contacts at the set location – an old abandoned building next to a stream five klicks west of where they had planned to set down. Han would tell her if they had to land somewhere else.

Give the small vital supply drop to the people who wanted to stay, and return to the ship with those who wanted to leave.

Along the way they'd transmit signals to a handful of Rebel transports, and if they timed things right the other ships would only be on the planet's surface long enough to dump more, less vital, supplies then load up with refugees and go.

Real nice and simple.

There were going to be slavers everywhere.

Slavers who had cleaned up the reality of what they were with names like "prison guards" and "police officers" and "soldiers".

In order for the mission to be successful, those slavers were going to have to be eliminated.

Leia had never killed before.

She shut her eyes again and began to meditate.

Then after a span of time that was both too short and far too long a wait, she heard it.

A series of knocks in just the right pattern.

The signal.

She climbed out of the compartment, while all around the ship soldiers shoved out from similar spots, and turned to where Han and Chewie stood.

"Everything's going good. We're right where we wanted to be, and the intel that the Imp in charge of this damn place was a Spice addict was good." Han turned his head, watching the soldiers climb out of their hiding places and gather around them. "You think you can make it back to the ship in under four standard hours? I can make up a believable excuse for us not leaving 'till then." He was so relaxed, like he did these sorts of terrifying acts every day. For all Leia knew, he did.