“What?” Leia asked. “Do you want to give me something?”
The Ewoks nodded, chattering, and held up what looked like a folded piece of cloth. It unfurled and Leia saw a woven dress in a soft brown material—simple but beautiful.
“Is that for me?” She smiled at them.
The Ewoks nodded and pushed the dress into her hands, shoving her back toward the hut she’d slept in.
Inside, Leia pulled the dress over her head and smoothed out the wrinkles. It fit perfectly. She heard the throbbing of drums. The glow of the fire grew stronger around the edges of the hide door. Strange yips and squeals came from nearby, and above it all, she heard the high, thrilling call of a horn blowing through the treetops. The party had begun—and it was time to make her appearance.
She bent down and pushed aside the door, stepping out onto the platform. The creatures surrounded her, making little oooh noises, looking up at her admiringly. Leia smiled back at them all.
“Thank you for taking care of me. And thank you for this dress—I love it.” They nodded, bobbing up and down, murmuring pleasantly.
She eyed her friend and the other Ewoks nearby. They still carried their spears slung on their backs.
“But I have just one more request,” she said. “Does the dress come with a spear?” She made a thrusting motion.
Her buddy chattered in response and stepped forward. He handed her his spear.
Leia held it up. “I think it’s perfect!”
The Ewoks broke into giggles as Leia smiled.
The sounds of the celebration traveled far through the trees. Fireworks exploded in the night sky, adding their own colors to the stardust flung across the heavens, where X-wings still soared. Leia stood on top of a boulder and gazed out through the darkening trees. The Ewoks’ celebration fires glowed like torches in the darkness. Little figures gathered around each one, jumping and dancing, yelling. Their raucous cries matched the feeling in her own heart. The Empire was defeated! She had dreamed of this day—and yet they hadn’t gotten where they were with just their dreams. They’d gotten there with wit and cunning and hard fighting.
An Ewok chattered up at her. “Wicket!” She jumped down from the rock and grabbed her friend in a hug, lifting him off his feet and twirling him around. “We’ve done it!”
Wicket chattered back at her, then embraced her with his stubby arms.
“Your tribe was amazing,” Leia said. She knelt and took both of his hands. “Thank you. We couldn’t have done it without you—I mean that.”
Wicket nodded seriously, then took her hand, tugging her toward the celebration. Music filled the air as one Ewok beat on three drums strung around his neck. Others blew through horns so big they rested on the ground. At the edges, more Ewoks danced and pounded on big skin drums strung up on low tree branches. Their wild whoops and yells thrilled her and she joined in their dance, holding Wicket’s hand and hopping and jumping with them all.
High above them, bonfires roared on the treetop platforms, as if the forest were aflame, and everyone was dancing. Leaving Wicket, wearing a crown of pine twigs one of the Ewoks had planted on her head, Leia climbed one of the rope ladders to the platforms. Han was up there, and Chewie, and—her heart leapt—Luke came walking toward her, his face resigned but triumphant. She grabbed him in a hug and he squeezed her tight.
Threepio was dancing with Chief Chirpa, and Chewie and Lando were congratulating each other. Han was slapping an Ewok on the back as another one filled his cup from a skin bag. Leia laughed as a gray Ewok turned cartwheel after cartwheel. R2-D2 beeped by her side and she looked down. “My dancing partner!” she said. “Come here, Artoo.” Patting his dome, she started swaying side to side as R2-D2 twirled in a circle. Luke laughed and the sound warmed her even further.
Han and Chewie strolled between the fires, Han sipping from a cup of something spicy that one of the Ewoks had pressed on him. It wasn’t bad, either. “Well, Chewie, we did it.” Han slapped his copilot’s hairy shoulder.
Chewie grunted.
“Oh, of course, Chewie—sorry.” Han raised his glass in salute. “By the way, stealing that scout walker was a stroke of genius.”
Chewie nodded, accepting the thanks. Then he raised a hand and gestured at a group of stormtroopers, sitting back-to-back with their hands tied behind them. They looked dirty and miserable. Chewie gestured again and growled.
“What are the Ewoks doing?” Han looked more closely at the group surrounding the prisoners. They were chanting rhythmically, keeping time with the big drums the shamans were beating, some of them chopping up roots and vegetables on a wide wooden table. As Han watched, three Ewoks drew knives from their belts and began sharpening them on stones while the others looked on approvingly. They kept testing the blades with their fingers, and when they were satisfied, they raised the knives high in the air and shouted something to the others. One Ewok stood right in front of a captive stormtrooper and sliced up an orange vegetable, pelting the trooper with bits of it.
Chewie nudged Han again and grunted.
“Wait…wait—the stormtroopers?” Han considered. “Well…you think we should let them? It’s not like the Imperials are our favorite people.”
Chewie shrugged.
“Let them what?” Leia asked, coming up behind Han and Chewie.
Han whirled around. “L-Leia! We were just…” He looked to Chewie for help.
Leia smiled in a way that said she knew exactly what was going on. “You were just…letting the Ewoks cook the enemy?” She shook her head, her smile widening into a grin.
Chewie grunted a defense.
“Don’t even try it, Chewie,” Leia mock scolded, her hands on her hips.
“We just got here!” Han protested, raising his hands. “How were we to know what they were planning?”
Leia glanced over at the Ewoks happily chopping up vegetables and waving their knives at the stormtroopers. The troopers kept trying to edge away from the Ewoks, sliding centimeter by centimeter across the dirt. “Well, were you going to stop them?”
“Of course!” Han pasted on a look of innocence. Leia narrowed her eyes at him. “Er…maybe. Look, who am I to interfere?” He elbowed Chewie, who gave a roar of agreement.
Leia rolled her eyes, but Han could see the grin she was trying to hide. “I’ll take care of this,” she said, raising one eyebrow at them.
She turned on her heel and approached the group nearest the stormtroopers. The Ewoks looked up, knives poised. They were almost through the pile of vegetables. The troopers would be next, most likely. She pointed at the prisoners. “Please, let them go.” She raised her voice over the music and shouting of the celebration all around them. Overhead, a burst of orange fireworks exploded. “We must treat the enemy fairly.” She clasped her hands together pleadingly.
For a long moment, the Ewoks regarded her, knives stilled, and she thought she’d won. One leaned over and jabbered to the others. Leia looked around the group. Then they all started chopping again. Leia sighed.
She made her way back over to Han and Chewie. Through the trees she could see Wicket dancing with R2-D2, and C-3PO explaining something to Chief Chirpa with big gestures. “Clearly, the Ewoks are hungry,” she said to Han. “Go to General Syndulla’s camp and find a crate of ration sticks we can offer them. I’ll make sure the stormtroopers stay safe.” She gave Han a knowing smile. “Hera will be glad to see you.”
“Oh, great. I know what that’s gonna cost me,” Han muttered. He sighed. “Come on, Chewie. I think I’m going to need some backup here. We better take Artoo, as well.”
Chewie grunted.
“Hey, I know, I know. But Leia’s right. I guess we have to show the troopers some mercy. Not like they deserve it.” He pointed at Leia. “This better be worth it. I’m doing it for you, you know.”
Leia rewarded him with a dazzling smile, the kind she knew he couldn’t resist. “I know. Thank you.”
Hera Syndulla was the captain of the Ghost. Han had
known her for years; Hera had been with the rebels long before he’d joined. Now she was high up in the Alliance High Command. She was tough, smart, and a talented pilot, he couldn’t deny that. The Ghost was a modified VCX-100 light freighter, and Corellian like Han’s Millennium Falcon. Han had seen the Ghost in action. The 360-degree dorsal laser cannon turret had taken out plenty of TIE fighters. It was admittedly impressive. But his old ship had done just fine on its most recent mission! Han walked a little faster as he thought of how Lando had flown the Falcon into the tunnels leading to the Death Star’s reactor core during the battle. The ship had lost its sensor dish, but it still managed to outrun the explosion there at the end. Han could hardly stand that he hadn’t been flying it himself, during its greatest moment.
Han strode over to the clearing where the Ghost and Falcon were parked side by side, followed by Chewie and R2-D2. Fires burned there, as well, and joyous shouts echoed among the trees. A knot of rebel soldiers were playing dice in a circle while another group passed a jug from hand to hand, filling and refilling their cups and laughing loudly.
Hera spotted Han immediately. “General Solo!” The green-skinned Twi’lek rose and crossed to Han, standing straight and tall with her shoulders back, as she always did. She put out her hand. “Excellent work today, Solo.” The orange-and-white astromech droid Chopper, battered and dirty from the fight, stood next to her, his metal gleaming dully in the firelight.
Han shook her hand. Her grip was firm. “You weren’t bad yourself. I heard the Ghost outdid herself up there.” He paused and allowed himself a tiny grin. “Still, you just can’t beat experience—like the Falcon.” Beside him, Chewie barked a laugh.
Hera raised her eyebrows. “Did you want something, Solo, or were you just coming to pay a courtesy call?”
Han wiped off the smile and cleared his throat. “Oh. Yeah. Look, the Ewoks are getting hungry. They’re trying to cook up an…er…alternative dinner. And we’re hoping to stop them.” Hera looked confused. R2-D2 beeped. “Okay, Artoo, I’ll get to the point,” Han told him. “I know how this sounds, but I need some snacks for the little furballs. They’re eyeing the captured stormtroopers, and Leia thinks we should show them some mercy. So we need the ration sticks to trade.”
Off to one side, R2-D2 and Chopper were busy with a lively conversation about something, beeping and flashing their lights. A smile spread across Hera’s face. She turned and walked toward a pile of food crates at the edge of the campsite. She turned back toward Han. “I’m glad to give you the ration sticks…if you say it.”
Han fell back a step. There it was. He knew it! She’d never let it go. He shook his head. All that time—all those years with the Rebellion—all the firefights—and there they were, the Empire defeated and the Rebellion still standing.
Han folded his arms. “I’m not gonna say it.”
Hera narrowed her eyes, but the smile was still there, lurking at the corners of her mouth. She shrugged. “Okay, give my regards to General Organa,” she said, and started to leave.
Chewie grunted and nudged Han, almost knocking him off his feet. Han sighed. “All right. Fine!” He raised his voice. “Okay!”
Hera stopped and faced Han. She leveled her gaze at him and put her hands on her hips, tapping her foot. Han cleared his throat. He adjusted his holster belt. He ran his hands through his hair. Then he took a deep breath. “The Ghost is superior to the Falcon.” What were those words that had just come from his mouth? Had he actually said what he’d said?
Hera straightened up. “Well, we finally agree on something.” She grinned. “And you can have the rations. Use them in good health.”
“Thanks,” Han grumbled. Chewie picked up the biggest crate while Hera and Chopper strolled away laughing.
“Please, just wait a little longer,” Leia pleaded with the Ewoks surrounding the tied-up group of stormtroopers. The Ewoks chattered and raised their arms. “Food is coming!” Leia told them. “Other food, I mean.”
They jabbered at her some more, waving their stone knives. The troopers thrashed in their ropes. “You should be thanking me,” Leia said to them over her shoulder. Then Chewie appeared in the light from the fire, and with relief, Leia saw that he and Han were hauling large metal crates. “Finally!” She hurried over to them. “You did it! How was it?”
“Er, okay,” Han said. He glanced at Chewie, who growled softly and patted Han on the shoulder.
Leia looked from one to the other. There was something there she wasn’t quite getting. But they had the food; that was what mattered. “Everyone! Here!” she called out to the Ewoks, who tottered over. They climbed all over the crates, sniffing them, scrabbling at them, trying to get in. “Hang on, hang on,” Leia said soothingly. She pried off one end of a crate, and Chewie picked it up and dumped out the contents. A bunch of ration sticks fell in a pile on the ground.
The Ewoks picked them up, holding them to the light, turning them over in their hands. Leia knelt in the midst of the Ewoks. She picked up two ration sticks and took a bite of one. “It’s food! See, everyone? Food!” She chewed and held out a stick to the nearest Ewok. “Try it.” R2-D2 even offered a sniffing Ewok one of the sticks with his metal arm.
Chewie growled as the Ewok regarded the stick in Leia’s hand suspiciously. “Oh, she’ll convince them,” Han replied. “It’s hard to resist her. I should know.”
The Ewok leaned forward and sniffed the stick. Leia held her breath as he slowly stretched out a hand. He took the stick and carefully bit off the end. No one moved. All eyes were locked on him.
Then he shouted something to the others and, grabbing two handfuls of sticks, thrust his arms in the air. The Ewoks broke into a storm of chattering and swarmed the food pile, shoving the ration sticks into their mouths.
Leia relaxed and heaved a sigh of relief. Han sidled up, looking expectant. Leia patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll have to thank Hera for this,” Leia said with a grin.
“Hera? What about me?” Han demanded indignantly.
Leia considered him, then smiled. “By the way, nobody believes the Ghost is superior to the Falcon.”
Han exhaled with relief. “Yeah, well, you don’t have to tell me.” He squeezed Leia’s shoulder while her laugh echoed through the trees like a bell.
Alone in her quarters on the Ghost, Sabine Wren pulled on her jumpsuit and armor. Her stomach felt light and fluttery, the way it always did before a big mission. And that day’s mission was big: find Princess Leia Organa in the Garel City spaceport, extract her from her escorts, and obtain the datatape she’d agreed to pass to the Rebellion in her role as a spy.
Sabine sat at the end of her bunk and pulled on her boots as she considered Leia. Sabine didn’t know her very well at all. And she was about to put her life in the princess’s hands. If Leia flubbed the mission, if the troopers escorting her got suspicious—well, they’d terminate Sabine faster than she could say “Empire.” It was true Leia had basically saved their mission on Lothal with some genuinely quick thinking. It was Leia who’d rallied them when they’d thought extracting their ships from the gravity locks was impossible.
Sabine hung on to that thought as she stood up and took her helmet from the wall. Her hands were sweating. She had to trust Leia. She really had no other choice. The mission timer was ticking, whether she was ready or not.
Princess Leia Organa stared out the window as the Imperial shuttle neared Garel City. The skyscrapers reared their gray heads into the sky. The spaceport was at the center of the city. She drew her hood up around her face and looked carefully at the stormtrooper sitting beside her. Stormtrooper in the front, stormtrooper in the back, two at the controls. They were all supposed to ferry her through the Garel spaceport en route to Coruscant. Except that there would be a little detour along the way, courtesy of Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, and Leia. Leia thought of the datatape she’d stashed in the wall terminal in the spaceport. Sabine would intercept their entourage somewhere in the spaceport, and Leia would lead t
he rebel fighter to the tape. Then Sabine would retreat to the Ghost and Leia would continue on to the meeting to discuss the refugee housing situation on Wobani. Leia sighed. Her whole being itched to be out there on the ground, blaster in hand, fighting with the Rebellion. Instead she was skulking around on the inside, pretending to be loyal to the Empire, making nice with the commanders. Still, she was working for the Rebellion. She just had to be content working undercover.
The comm crackled to life in the cockpit. “Garel City spaceport approaching, sir.”
The pilot commed back, “High-level personage aboard. Secure the area. We will have seven minutes for the mission.”
“Sir, will that be enough time?” Leia heard the copilot ask. She could also hear the tension in his voice. They were switching ships to throw off bounty hunters who might have picked up her trail.
The pilot glanced back at her and she met his gaze levelly. He cleared his throat and faced forward again. “The bounty is high on her. We may encounter trouble, so be ready.”
The copilot, young and sweaty, nodded. Leia saw his hands white-knuckled on the steering yoke. She smiled to herself. The ship switch was going to give her the perfect opportunity to smuggle the tape to Sabine—bounty hunters or not. Leia looked out the window again. The spaceport was just ahead. She gathered her robes around her. She was ready.
Sabine crept along the wall of the vast Garel City spaceport hangar. Her booted feet slid soundlessly between the crates and boxes that shielded her from the stormtroopers not three meters away. She squinted, blaster cradled in one arm. There she was. Leia wore heavy robes, her face concealed in the hood’s deep folds. This was going to be a challenge—and Sabine liked a good challenge.
Her comlink crackled on. “Make sure you get the datatape before any real trouble shows up, Spectre-5,” Hera said. The Ghost was standing ready to extract her as soon as the mission was over.
Star Wars Forces of Destiny, Volume 3 Page 2