The technician plugged Artoo into the consol, the little droid giving a little squeak. Tasha would normally have laughed, but she was concentrating on the information that sprung up onto the screen. She knew how to read technical read outs, her eyes scanned the black and white lines, her eyes tracing the outlines of the battle station she had just escaped. She let out a low whistle. It certainly was impressive, and she felt almost privileged to be one of the only rebels to be able to see it. As her eyes followed the movements of the lines, the image zooming in, she concentrated harder than she would usually, and she knew why. That goddamn smuggler, Han Solo. Yes, he knew he was self-centred. Yes, she knew he didn't care about anything but his money, but she had been almost certain he would stay with her, for her.
Well, once again she was wrong; just as she usually was about caring about her. Everyone in her past had hurt her, or left her, or tried to kill her. Except for Ben, but now even he was gone too, destroyed by someone who Tasha used to think of as the most important person in the whole galaxy. Now, he was nothing to her; or at least she hoped so. She hadn't yet had a chance to test that, the opportunity had never presented itself. Tasha only hoped that she would be strong enough once the time came.
"There!" said the voice of one of the technicians, watching the images of another section zoom past his eyes. Tasha's head shot up, looking over at the other screen, glad to be distracted again. He paused the image, zooming in on a section.
"What?" Tasha said impatiently, "what is it?" the technician shook his head.
"Oh, no, it's nothing." He said, frowning again. Tasha patted his shoulder.
"Keep at it," she said, placing herself back less than delicately into her seat, "it must have a weakness somewhere."
The screen flashed in front of her, but Tasha was only half watching it. Someone touched her shoulder, and Tasha spun around, swinging her fist in the direction of whomever it was that had touched her.
Han ducked, lifting his hands up in mock surrender.
"Calm down princess," he said, "it's me." Tasha's hard look didn't change, except for maybe a touch more frostiness and a tad of recognition.
"I don't want to talk to you," she said, sitting down in her chair again, making a point of ignoring his existence.
"Please, Tash." He said. She scowled at her screen; the only acknowledgement that she had even heard him was that her jaw tightened slightly.
"Look, lover boy-"
"Captain Ryann, report to the command centre." The intercom binged out to the whole base, and Tasha smirked. She bashed into him with her shoulder as she walked past him and out the door.
"For God's sake, can you stop doing that?!" he called angrily after her. She just smiled sarcastically to herself and kept walking. All the technicians were watching the exchange in some sort of awe or amazement, it was impossible to tell which. Nothing that interesting ever happened in their section, it was reserved for the quiet nerds and old commanders who could no longer work in the mechanics workshops. Han glared savagely around them as they all scrambled back to their work.
Tasha walked into the control room, and was greeted by a group of grim faced officers, whose eyes all followed her as she walked in.
"Ah, Tasha," said general Dodonna, walking over to her and her confused, uncertain expression.
"You sent for me, general?" she asked, her voice conveying as much uncertainty as her face.
"Yes, Tasha. Well, obviously we all know that you are truly a princess, as does Leia, but," he sighed, "do you're, um, travelling companions?" Tasha cocked her head to the side, frowning slightly.
"Yes, of course they do," she watched their now increasingly troubled expressions with interest.
"Tasha, what have we told you about doing that?" said Dodonna with concern.
"I trust them," she said plainly, crossing her arms, "I trust them with my life," she almost couldn't believe she'd said that. Why had she said that? She hadn't trusted anyone fully in years, and yet she was prepared to trust three strangers she'd barely just met. By the looks on the others faces they understood it about as much as she did.
"Tasha, I'm not sure you understand what that means-"
"Oh, I do." She cut off, "I've put my life in their hands, and I would do so again very easily."
"Yes," said Dodonna, looking as though he was trying to calm the increasingly hostile atmosphere that seemed to have surfaced, "well, Tasha, we asked you in here because we think that now, after this instance, we reveal your true title to the rest of the base."
Tasha's eyes widened in horror.
"No," she said, frantically shaking her head, "no. Dodonna, we agreed."
"I know we did Tasha, but I, uh, we believe that if you take back your title, you can be a symbol for the rebellion. If we don't tell them, they'll find it out for themselves soon enough anyway, especially if that smuggler knows who you are."
"Han wouldn't tell anyone," she said emphatically, going against everything her brain was thinking about Han. Why the hell was she defending him? Dodonna sighed, and a though popped into Tasha's head.
"I'll tell you what," she said, a slight smirk curling her lip, "I'll let you use me for your propaganda, but on one condition. I get to take a proper role in the action. Not as a spy but as a true soldier." A murmur of outrage simmered around the group, "and, I get to go up and fight in the attack on the Death Star. Oh, and you drop any and all charges that you may or may not have against Han." Dodonna's eyes widened, but she could see him weighing up her proposal in his brain. After a moment, he sighed, a resigned expression on his face.
"Alright, yes." He said, and Tasha's smirk widened. She nodded at him, trying to hide her happiness.
"Good day, gentlemen." She said breezily, saluting slightly before moving off.
Tasha took her time walking back to the engineering section, trying to avoid Han, not knowing if he would still be there or not. She winded through the passages in the base, and somehow found herself in the medical wing. She hadn't been there in years, and she hoped she wouldn't have to for a few more years to come.
"Tasha! Tasha Ryann" called an only slightly enthusiastic voice from the other end of the ward. Tasha's head shot up and her eyes followed the sound until she found a smirking young woman with brown hair pulled back into a knot at the back of her head, her fringe hanging into her eyes and framing her face. She was wearing a brown padded vest and a khaki shirt, her blaster holster swinging at her side.
"Jyn Erso." Tasha replied, also smirking. She sauntered over to the brunette, and both of them struggled to keep the smile off of their faces. Both of them looked like they were both failing. Tasha was the first one to crack. As she reached the young woman the smile broke onto her face, wide and radiant. They hugged each other, true relief in their embrace.
"I'm so glad you're alright." Tasha said, a slight sigh escaping into her voice as Jyn released her, "I take it you got out alive." She nodded.
"I was the only one." Tasha's smile dropped slightly as Jyn's face hardened again.
"Jyn, I'm so sorry." The brunette shrugged slightly, looking at the ground and shuffling her booted feet slightly.
"It happens." She replied in a monotonous voice. A harsh laugh erupted from her mouth at Tasha's sad and concerned expression. Black hair falling into her face, Tasha looked at her quizzically.
"What?" Jyn laughed again.
"Tasha, this is war." She said far too enthusiastically, waving her arms around "you need to accept that. You can't go getting all sad about every single soldier or spy that gets killed, it won't work." Now it was Tasha's turn to look at the ground, the black boots on her feet shuffling in the same way as Jyn's had before. The other girl looked at her sympathetically, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Look Tash, if you keep acting like this you'll tear yourself apart. This war wasn't your fault-"
"No," said Tasha, cutting Jyn off, "it was. That's the problem." Jyn gave her another confused look as Tasha collected herself. The brunette opened her mouth but Tasha cut her off before she even got out the first word.
"No, Jyn. I don't wanna talk about it." she said, smiling slightly.
"Tasha!" came a voice that Tasha had come to recognise far too quickly. Jyn saw her tense at the sound, her eyes searching Tasha's face. Tasha rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly in return. Han walked over to them when it became obvious that she wasn't coming over to him. Thinking it was better to face him head on, Tasha turned, looking exceedingly bored, even though the anger and frustration were burning inside her, clawing at her.
"What do you want, Solo?" she snapped at him. His face hardened, she could see his usual persona being snapped back into place.
"Some manners would be nice for a start, sweetheart." He replied bitterly. Han nodded to Jyn. "Who's your friend?" Tasha sighed in resignation.
"Han solo, Jyn Erso. Jyn, this is Han solo, the man responsible for making sure those plans you stole made it here." She said, smirking. Jyn looked Han over, her lip curling.
"Nice to meet you, handsome." She said, smirking at him. Her eyes suddenly flashed with realisation. "You intercepted the pans? I thought the princess was supposed to." Tasha tossed her head back laughing.
"Don't worry, she did, and she's getting al the credit for it. We rescued her though."
"No wonder you're as banged up as you are." She joked, and Tasha smiled.
Han watched the two of them in intrigue. He hadn't imagined Tasha to be the one with close friends; he saw her as more of a lone ranger, travelling from assignment to assignment, trying to learn as much as she could, then coming back and sitting, quietly fixing something or training. The more he found out about this girl, the more he wanted to find out more.
But that would have to wait until after he settled his debt with Jabba. And even then he may not come back. He didn't want to tell anyone, but he thought anyone even thinking of trying to get the technology that they had here to attack that monstrous space station they had only just escaped, well, quite frankly, he thought it was a suicide mission. Tasha raised her eyebrows at the staring smuggler, her irritation resurfacing.
"What was it that you wanted, lover boy?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"There's a briefing in ten minutes in the technical room you were working in. apparently they've found some way to attack that thing." Tasha's eyes brightened and she walked off, leaving the two of them stood in the medical bay.