The S.I.N.-less...

Chewbacca is bypassed entirely, much to his chagrin and surprise as he sees these strangers approach Han Solo directly in his booth . . .

Chiana

We had decided to bypass the walking shag carpet long before coming into this armpit of a town (feh, ain't so rough and tumble as what I'd been in before joining up with Sigin). Ya kinda seen that we're wastin' as little time as possible, knocking obstacles out of the way when we can do it with a minimum of blowback risk.

Yeah, like we'd have gone and done what we did with the barkeep over back there just for laughs? Those who'd seen the movie tell me that the droids, after being seperated from Luke, nearly got captured by roving Stormtroopers. They're already disguised a bit by magic, but still why risk needlessly.

Besides, Inquirer has something of grudge here and. . . she rather enjoyed suggesting what we did eventually here. Best way to really hurt someone, sometime is to damage them on the "bottom line".

Now, for this Han Solo guy himself? Hm, okay looking enough guy I guess (kind of looks like that one picture of that Stacy woman's grandfather). Take away the blaster and give him a bullwhip and a "Fedora" hat . . . .

Well, Inquirer sighs a little bit in disappointment and mutters something about a "Harrison Ford Solo". In her version of Star Wars the part of Han Solo had been played by some guy named Al Pachino . She rather preferred that one over Ford, but that's . . . not really important right now.

"Mr. Han Solo I presume?" the Doctor asks. "Might we have a moment of your time, please, for business?"

Han Solo

Damn, these strangers moved quickly . . . like they knew exactly just where I was. Came looking specifically for me and . . .

Who are these people and what do they want with me?

"Yeah, I'm Solo," I say slowly and cautiously, reaching for my blaster strapped to my hip which is hidden below the table (and these oddly dressed strangers). "Who wants to know?"

Chewie's coming up behind them to back me up here, but if these strangers are some kind of large group of bounty hunters then I'm pretty much in trouble here! They’re forming a screen here, blocking me from view from the rest of the bar here and . . .

Clank!

What the . . .?

That-that can’t actually be . . . .? That LARGE?!

Sigin

"Say hello to my little friend," Elrondir mugs softly as Solo’s jaw drops in surprise at the rather large ingot of precious metal we KNOW is good for trade and barter.

Got to love coming from a "fantasy motif" reality, where certain base metals which make up coinage would be considered rather modest means there, but considered ridiculously opulent in more mundane (read "non- magical") realms. Even in THIS tawdry, ramshackled place!

"We’re people in need of a fast ship," the Doctor continues, as if plunking down a huge brick of currency which would EASILY cover more than half outstanding bounty on our dashing rogue before us. "I do hope that you’re for hire, right? The Millennium Falcon is available for hire, right?"

"You can keep that if you want . . . but there is more if you’re open for business," my wife purrs almost . . .seductively from the side. "Interested?"

It does not really bother me that she is in the habit of doing such things from time to time, if only to sweeten the deal in our favor. I know her heart is mine and my heart is her’s. . . and boy did we have an INTERESTING discussion, my young dragoness over my use of charm with the Lady back on Core Earth. . .

But that’s an old story for later . . .

"Huh?" Solo blinks, breaking his gaze from the brick before him after tapping with a finger, liking the rich pinging sound it makes (confirming it’s authenticity) "Why . . .yes! Oh, yeah! Sure! Intersted, by all means!"

He then waves Chewie off a bit, forestalling any violence we may have to do due to . . . misunderstandings.

"Heh, Chewie . . .they’re okay," Solo says, regaining some of his composure with effort.

He then turns back to us, covering the ingot with a tablecloeth after allowing a now befuddled wookie a glance at the large windfall that had almost literally fallen into his lap!

"Like my compatriots were saying," Ben puts in, glancing at us briefly in askance at the money we’re throwing around here (not even TRYING to bargain). "We are looking for a fast ship. Is this Falcon of yours actually fast enough?"

"Not fast enough?" Solo asks, affronted. "You’ve heard of my Millennium Falcon and you don’t know so me if she’s fast enough?!"

"Should I have?" Ben asks, clearly not impressed.

"It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!" the smuggler states proudly, only to frown a bit when Ben fails to reacts in a way appropriate to that boast.

Meanwhile, I and the others manage to keep a straight face and not point out that parsecs are units of distance, not time. Thing is that the bragging is more about Han than his ship . . .

Actually, when you get the background information it is a bit more impressive. Solo took his ship through a shortcut in an area of space known to be swarming with black holes (a BIG navigation hazard in this universe). Almost foolishly rash, that move from what I’d read, but still the fact that he managed it (successfully) speaks more of his skills . . . than the speed of his ship.

Well, I and the others from Terra Prime know from story and such how fast Solo’s ship is. Oh, the USS Enterprise (with her warp engine) is faster in "normal" space, what with the Falcon being stuck with only sublight engines when in normal space That said . . .Inquirer had pretty much stated (strongly) that the hyperlight drives in this reality beat the old fashion (and now somewhat obsolete) Star Trek warp engines . . .but that is hardly important right now.

As it is right now for Solo and Ben Kenobi, we seem to have been forgotten for the moment. Oh well, best to keep up the screening action to keep prying eyes away from the cash we’d just flashed Solo (and Chewie) here. Best to keep these poor sinners from temptation by . . . not tempting them.

All that said, I recognize a lot of what Ben and Solo are to say next. It is from the movie, but that’s how things work sometimes in this multi-verse business, eh?

"I've outrun Imperial starships," Han blustered, annoyed. "Not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?"

"Only passengers," Ben says, letting the matters of bragging smugglers and ships rest (thank Heaven). Like we need to antagonize the man OUT of this deal we’d been enticing him into until now? "Myself, my friends here, two droids, and no questions asked."

"What is it?" Solo asks, sudden survival instincts kicking in (albeit a bit belated). The blinding flash of our money could bespell him for only so long, I guess. Bound to be asking awkward questions. "Some kind of local trouble?"

"Oh, no problems . . . at least not yet at least," Chiana says softly.

"We don’t exist as far as the Empire is concerned," Inquirer puts in. "Nothing in the records . . . no system identification number. S.I.N.-less and we wish to remain that way as long as possible. Problem with that?"

"No . . . can’t blame you on that," Solo says after looking at Inquirer and Chiana a bit oddly, then sighing. "Wish I could be . . . but that’s by the by."

Oh yes, by now our adventurous smuggler here has to have SOME kind of "rap sheet" with the law enforcers in this galaxy (and by extension the Empire). It’s the nature of the business, success eventually leads to unwanted attention.

We wish to keep the Empire’s attention OFF us until it is too late if we must . . .

We’d rather not be involved in such affairs, this Rebellion. Extra- reality wars are not something we’d signed up for, you must understand.

We are no cowards, but a dragon’s got to know his limitations, you might say. I believe we’ve already gone over sufficiently why we must, now.

"Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements" the Doctor smiles, stealing that line from Ben (who'd just been about to say that very thing).

The Jedi blinks, and then shakes his head slightly. By now you’d think he’d get used to things like that from us.

"Well, that's the trick isn't it?," Solo says, giving the Doctor something of a fishy stare for a second.

The Timelord is rather enjoying this too much, in my opinion.

"And it's going to cost you something extra," the Doctor nods sagely, as if having figured that out beforehand (and not having seen this scene beforehand on the silver screen). "Ten thousand in advance, I am sure?"

"That was just to get your attention," Inquirer puts in, pointing to the ingot that Solo has now pocketed in a pouch on his belt (to keep it out of sight from others). "Ten thousand now for having listened. Two thousand more if you take the job to . . . get the ball rolling and fifteen more when we are OFF this frellin' rock and on our way to Alderaan. Can we call it a deal? We got a lot to do here and a short time to do it, so . . .What’s your answer, sir?"

Solo is . . . conflicted. Okay, this seems too good to be true in a way, but we’d . . kind of hinted that what we want to do is kind of . . .not something we’d like the Empire to hear of, yet at least. What exactly he doesn’t know yet and I can see he is wondering if he should agree to this, bounty on his head or not. It must seem very ODD that we’d hired a smuggler to take us to a planet when we could BUY a ship for a cheaper price.

Then again I feel he can figure out that buying a ship involves a lot of hassles and paperwork, if we go the "legit" route. And when the seller should ask for our identity paperwork or whatever?

Yeah, he can figure that one out...

"Seventeen above and beyond this, huh!" Han mutters, tapping the ingot through his belt pouch. Han ponders this for a few moments.

In the end the color of our money decides it . . .a combination of not only greed but . . .a wish to really KEEP his head, what with all those headhunters after him now, what with after having dumped all that cargo when an Imperial ship intercepted his ship. That had rather put his customer, Jaba the Hutt, in a foul mood . . .and now the trouble he was in . . .

Bet you that he’s thinking that this could really save his neck! And he’d be right! We’d overheard some rather heated discussions from what I saw was a bounty hunter (Greedo) over whether or not to jump Solo now or after Chewie left had left US with no doubts about what Solo was facing here.

"Okay!" Solo sighs. "You guys got yourself a ship. We'll leave as soon as you're ready."

"We’re ready now," Mina says softly. "We’re traveling light, you could say."

Sigh, at least we had the foresight to have emergency gear along with us (stuffed in magically spacious "Bags of Holding"), but still . . .

Oh, nevermind.

"Docking bay Ninety-four then," . Han smiles, then frowns as he sees something behind us through a gap. "Looks like somebody's beginning to take an interest in your . . . handiwork?!. What the . . .?"

Han, in surprise, moves a bit past the Champions to get a slightly better look, not bothering to ask what they are muttering in an alien tongue he has never heard before. As being that there are a lot of other bar patrons staring and gawking at the standing sleeper (quiet a sight), he knows he’s not sticking out like a sore thumb, so he goes and gets a better gawking position.

Han had failed to notice it before (angle was wrong), but now he sees the sleeping barkeep (who keeps on snoring despite increasingly angry shakings from the rather miffed owner of this place). He then points towards Solo’s booth, only to pause and blink in confusion.

The bustling crowd of barflies who’d been swarming the bar to get free drinks have been . . . shooed away (roughly) by Stormtroopers who’d answered a complaint so now have a clear view . . . of just Solo and Chewie looking at the oddity of the slumbering barkeeper (who snorts and look around confused . . . the sleep spell lifting finally).

"There’s nobody there . . .lets go," the lead Stormtrooper grumbles, annoyed at having been called down here while searching for missing teammates. "We’ll keep an eye out for your mysterious patrons but we’ve got things to do here!"

The last is said to the befuddled barkeeper and owner, who are just staring at where the Champions had been (but no longer stand).

Appearing casual, Han hides what he’d seen out of the corner of his eye.

This can’t be happening, he says to himself, and then brushes his hand against the pouch . . .

"I’m getting a bad feeling about this," he mutters, not sure of what he’d just agreed to here. Not that he had much choice, bust still . . .

How had those people just up and disappear into thin air?

Chewie, who’d been out of sight of the barkeep and Stormtroopers, is STILL staring and gawking at the spot that the Champions had been.

"The-they just vanished," he growls, looking at the spot the Champions had been. "Like magic . . . they just vanished! Like they'd never been here and weren't real!"

"Well . . . . their money is real enough and we’ve got a job to do," after giving his long time companion and friend an odd look.

Hey, they’d been to one side of the galaxy to the other and seen a LOT of strange things in their time. This . . this just was one more thing to add to the list, that’s all. Right?

. . .

But much more of this stuff and Han fears he’ll have to start believing in that Force nonsense!

Stuff like this . . .!

"Get moving and meet you at the hanger," a voice that Han will come to know as belonging to Inquirer says softly into his ear from thin air. "But be careful! Greedo and other headhunters or looking to cash in on you so HURRY up for Creator's sake, Han!"

One particular patron, meanwhile, finally stops staring at the spot he’d just saw and voices the thoughts of a lot of those who’d witnessed it (and were NOT going to tell out of fear of being thought insane).

People just don’t vanish into thin air!!

1. "Shit!" he curses. "They spiked the liquor in this place with something and I’m NOT coming back after THIS if they do THAT to paying customers, d*mnit!"

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