Invisible Smoke ➵ l.s. (editing)

six

Han holds up his pointer finger, gesturing for the golden droid to wait, and rushes over to the ship's cockpit. Leia is now losing her patience by the second, and moves to follow him in, and Elara follows. Last thing they needed right now was another argument.

As soon as he sets foot into the cockpit, the ship's engine dies, and all the lights on its control panels due. He delivers a gentle hit to the middle of the control board, which, for some odd reason, works. "This bucket of bolts is never going to get us past that blockade!"

"This baby's got a few surprises left in her sweetheart."

Outside the cockpit, Elara's eyes catch a glint of movement. Stormtroopers had breached the far side of the hangar, and were headed their way. She nudged Han's side, and discreetly points to the windshield. "Better get to work on those then, Solo."

"Kriff!" Han curses, and quickly straps himself into the pilot's seat.

Elara peeks her head outside the cockpit. "Chewie, Flynn, get in here now. We're leaving."

Both come rushing in, Chewie taking an immediate seat in the co pilot's chair. "Come on! Switch over. Let's hope we don't have a burn out."

Flynn motions for Elara to take the last seat in the cockpit, but she shakes her head adamantly. "Sit down, I'll just sit in your lap. It'll be fine."

The Wookiee pulls a lever at the same moment laser fire begins pummeling the ship. Over the noise, they hear the engine come to life, and Han turns to flash Leia a cheeky grin. "See?"

"Someday you're gonna be wrong and I hope I'm there to see it."

Han shifts his focus back to Chewie. "Punch it!"

•••

"I saw 'em! I saw 'em!" Han acknowledged Chewie's roar of concern.

"Saw what?!" Leia leaned forward to get an improved view outside the Falcon.

"Star destroyers! Two of them, coming right at us."

A clanging in the back of the cockpit steals Han's attention from the situation at hand. Threepio had made his way into the cockpit, and began speaking with a sense of urgency. "Sir! Sir! Might I suggest that you-"

"Shut him up or shut him down," Han shifts focus back to Chewie, "check the deflector shield!"

He reaches up to readjust a switch, and solemnly barks a reply back to the smuggler. "Oh great. Well, we can still outmaneuver them."

Han directs the Falcon down sharply to avoid Imperial fire, leading Flynn to grab onto Elara's arm to keep her balanced on his lap. Han cleverly maneuvers the ship back up, then from side to side to confuse the fighters. "Prepare to make the jump to lightspeed."

"But, sir!" Threepio cries out.

"They're getting closer."

"Oh yeah," Han responds in a cocky tone, "watch this!"

He pulls down on the hyperdrive lever, expecting to go to lightspeed, instead, the engine stalls.

"Watch what?"

Han attempts it again. And again, it doesn't work. "I think we're in trouble."

"No way, Sherlock." Elara snaps.

"If I may say so sir, I noticed earlier that the hyperdrive motivator has been damaged. It's impossible to go to lightspeed!" Threepio announces.

"We're in trouble!" Han tumbled out of the cockpit towards the back of the ship, nearly knocking Leia out of her seat to do so. Chewie rushed out behind him, more carefully than his pilot.

Elara undos the strap tying her and Flynn to the chair, and moves over to Han's backwards seat.

Leia sighs. "After he bragged about getting this thing fixed..."

"Now we're stuck out here unless he can fix it." Elara twists Han's seat towards the windshield of the Falcon, losing her eyes in the sea of stars ahead. Slowly, the stars start to dissipate, transforming into a field of asteroids. One by one, they begin to hit the Falcon's exterior, rocking the inside of the ship.

"Ow, Chewie!" Han distantly cries out.

Leia leans over to the Falcon's intercom in front of Chewie's seat. "Han! Get up here!"

Elara jumps out of Han's chair when the smuggler and his counterpart come rushing into the cockpit. Leia gestures to the obvious. "Asteroids!"

An asteroid immediately makes a path for the front of the Falcon, and Han quickly dodges the blow. "Oh no, Chewie, set two-seven-one."

Leia looks to the smuggler in horror. "What are you doing? You're not actually going into an asteroid field?"

"Solo, are you insane?!" Elara gestures her hand out at the thousands of asteroids in front of them in every possible direction.

He shrugs. "They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?"

Another one pummels the ship. Leia grabs hold of the back of Han's seat to keep herself upright. "You don't have to do this to impress me!"

Threepio pipes up from behind Leia's seat. "Sir! The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3,720 to 1!"

"Never tell me the odds!"

a/n
whew. this was a long chapter, and definitely more of another filler but it was action packed! next few chapters won't be as on script to the movie and more original and excited as it will kinda cover some more background in this story, as it did take them like a month to get to Bespin in canon (I think), so that leaves me with some time to add in a few little scenes amongst the characters on the Falcon, so stay tuned for that!

anyways I hope you all enjoyed and don't forget to vote and comment if you did!

ps to celebrate 1.8k reads, I am opening one shot requests for this book until the 24th, so be sure to check that out over in my one shot book if you're interested! <3

(unedited 11/11/20)