Of Spies and Sabacc (Pre-ESB/Leia, Han, Luke, Chewie) Thanks for the Noms!

Here it is...drum roll please...

Chapter Thirty-eight

The Millennium Falcon came out of hyperspace near Raazynia and Han transmitted a message to the Alerion fleet.

General Rieekan?s holograph appeared and he greeted them. ?What?s your status??

?Luke had some difficulty getting his X-wing off Cordenia, and we went down to pick him up,? Han said. ?We?re outside Raazynia now, and we?re waiting for your instructions.?

Leia?s eyes widened at Han?s understatement of their adventure on Cordenia V. ?What?s the status of the fleet??

?We were able to completely evacuate Emancipator before Imperial ships arrived,? Rieekan responded, ?but before we could make the jump into hyperspace we were engaged by Imperial ships?we, uh, lost three Mon Calamaris, twelve blockade runners and nine shuttles. Eight X-wings from Maverick Squad and ten A-wings from Salvo Squad??

Leia groaned as Rieekan remunerated the losses that the Alerion fleet had suffered, wincing as she thought of all the wonderful people she had met in the past week who had died because she hadn?t caught Daram Pi soon enough.

??then we finally made the jump to light speed to our current rendezvous point. We?re regrouping, and I?ve just received instructions from high command. Major Monnom selected the Hoth system as our next base.?

?Hoth?? Han repeated. ?Damn! And I left all my winter clothes in storage!?

Rieekan gave a tolerant smile at Han?s flippant remark and then looked at Leia. ?Are you all right, your Highness??

Leia looked up at Rieekan?s holovid image. ?I?I?m fine, General. I just wish the fleet was, too.?

Rieekan nodded, understanding. ?Look, Princess, you and Captain Solo and Commander Skywalker did your job. You found their spy and you cleared Captain Solo?s name. I?d like to say I wish it had happened sooner, but better now than after we reached base. You did excellent work. Don?t beat yourself up over this?you?ve nothing to reproach yourself with.?

Leia nodded listlessly and gave a weak smile.

?We?ll meet you at the new base, then,? Rieekan said.

?Yes, sir,? Han answered, ending the transmission. He turned back to Leia. ?You all right??

?I?m fine,? Leia said, keeping her face averted, not wanting to show weakness before Han and Luke. Mishi nuzzled in close to her and whimpered in sympathy.

?Look, Rieekan was right, you know,? Han said, gently. ?You?ve nothing to reproach yourself with. The Empire killed those people. You blame yourself for everything the Empire does and you?ll be blaming yourself into a nuthouse, and you?re too important to the Alliance for that, right??

Leia looked up and gave Han a smile, surprised by his insight and concern.

?Why don?t you two head on back and get some rest?? Han suggested. ?Chewie and I will get the coordinates set for Hoth, and then we?ll go back and get some shut-eye, too.?

?Sure,? Luke said. He put a hand on Han?s shoulder. ?Hey, guys. Thanks for coming after me.?

?Yeah, you owe me one again,? Han said, with a smile, and Chewbacca gave a friendly growl.

Leia said nothing but gave Luke a brief smile.

?Get going,? Han urged, as he turned back to the controls.

Luke and Leia left the cockpit, accompanied by the droids.

?You sure you?re all right?? Luke asked Leia as they entered the lounge.

?Yes, I?m fine,? Leia said, as she sat down. ?What about you? You haven?t told us what happened to you yesterday. The Shapitis told us you were seen with a tall, dark man wearing a black mask?is that true? Did you have a run-in with Vader??

?Yes,? Luke answered without further embellishment.

?Do you want to talk about it?? Leia asked, swaying a little bit as the Falcon made the jump into hyperspace.

Luke held out his hand to steady her, but hesitated with his answer. There were too many things about his encounter with Vader that he wanted to sort out in his mind. Despite his instinctive revulsion toward Vader, Luke also felt strangely drawn by the dark charisma that Vader projected, felt strangely tempted by the power Vader ha

 

Whew! Finally finished!

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading that as much I enjoyed writing the story. My original plot bunny was just to write about a single sabacc game with the whole gang, and at the end of the game, Leia would realize she was in love with Han. Then, I thought: ?What would make a nerdy person like Leia ever join a sabacc game?? Various absurd plots presented themselves, and then when I thought of the spy angle, crazy as it was, I liked the way the title ?Of Spies and Sabacc? sounded and just started writing. Even then, it was primarily going to be a Leia/Han story with Luke just on the fringes of things, but then early on in my posts, JediSenoj451 asked if Vader would realize Luke?s Force potential, and about 40 extra pages got added on with him fighting Vader and needing to be rescued. So, there you have it, my tiny, innocent little plot bunny metamorphosed into this bizarre monster.

I wanted to take a few moments now to thank my readers. It was very exciting to get som many readers and from such a wide range of countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Costa Rica as well as USA!) As you can see, I really benefited from your advice, and I certainly don?t think I could have finished this story without your posts and encouragement. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So, here goes (in order of appearance on the story thread):

Kitt327: You were my first poster! Thanks so much for starting!

JediSenoj451: Thank you for your great suggestion on Luke and Vader. I would never have added the last third of the story without your suggestion, and I really liked the way things turned out. If you?ve read this far, I hope you liked it, too.

HanSolo29: You were my earliest long term poster and a lot of times you were one of the only reasons I kept on going. Thanks for coming into my story.

TheBiggerFish: Tab, hope the story looked good from Down Under.

Kab730: Thanks for your posts! Hope you enjoyed.

RebelMom: Thank you, thank you, thank you! You were definitely my longest, most faithful poster. Especially in the first weeks when I would sometimes wonder if it was worth it to go on, your encouragement really meant a lot?and the fact that you?ve read this far means even more.

SeventhMoon: Thanks! Having you post really rocked, too.

Jedi_Warrior: Thanks for stopping in.

Obaona: * waves and jumps up and down * It was great having you post in this story. Like I said before you were definitely a ray of sunshine.

Ohmy_Dry_Martini: I?m so glad you came out of lurkdom to post. Thanks for the encouragement.

Sologal: It was great to have you onboard. Hope I wrote your favorite boy up to spec. J

Jedi_Liz: If you?ve read this far, hope you liked the bits about Luke. Thanks for coming in!

Jedi_of_Twilight: So what did you eventually name your dog? Thanks for coming into the story. It was great to have you along.

K_spooks: Thanks for stopping in.

Kirana_Ti: Oh boy, it was great to have you along! Hope the story in some way helped your semester, even if it had no real architectural significance. Now I?m breathlessly waiting to hear if you have a story forthcoming.

maramijade: Ah, winner of the spy guessing contest. (sends some more cookies your way?great job!). I really enjoyed having you along.

LovelyLea: To my 5AM Leia-loving poster: it was always a boost to see your morning posts! Thanks for coming in.

inez_the_swampgirl: Great to have you along?I loved all the effort you

 

Chilling. But Palpy, you are so WRONG.
Uppy!

 

ooooohhhh cookies. ..


Definately looking forward to Alls fair in love and war. . . .


Great ending, Let me know if you do write a sequel, and I'd be glad to beta, although I've never done it before, If you need me let me know,

but be forwarned, I'm a College student with a part time/ almost full time job so I'm willing but where I may say I'm able. . . I may be wrong. . . dang it. . .

 

I loved the ending - especially the last sentence.

Those other bunnies look good too.

 

Amy21: Thanks

maramijade: No sequel in the works, although I'm slowly working on the new fics. I can't post at the same breakneck speed I did for OSAS in future stories, so I want to have a little bit written before I start.

Rebel_Mom: I really wouldn't have known what to do without your encouragement. I read on another thread that you were an "angel in disguise"...it's so true!! Glad you liked the ending.

 

I love this story!
I know my last response did not make much sense. I missed your final post by a minute.
Hope you'll continue writing. I look forward to your (All's Fair) In Love and War. The other story sounds like a great idea too. Although I have not followed up on the New Jedi Order Series. I guess I'm too much of a stickler for the "old" characters.

 

Wonderful Story-I hate to see it end and being a huge H/L fan I can't for Alls Fair.

 

Ah... that was so wonderful. And what a perfect ending! It requires a lot of skill to write these fics between the OT movies. And so very, very well done.
Well I have ANH in the VCR right now so I do hope that story will be forthcoming.
All's Fair In Love and War seems to be off to a good start also! Can't wait for more!
Thanks for the good times, the amazing story... and here's hoping for more!

Kirana Ti

 

Ah, how quickly we're forgotten...down to page three in the blink of an eye...

Amy21: Yeah, I realized that we crossed posts. I'm glad you saw the end.

Kab730: Hey, great to see you back!
Glad you read all the way to the end!

Kirana_Ti: Again, it was great to have you along. I was actually very thrilled that you were so proprietary about the story! [And I just sat through ANH again 2 days ago while doing my X-mas present wrapping].

Hmm...looks like the Han/Leia fic is the one most people are interested in...I guess I shouldn't be surprised since you guys are all reading an H/L story here. But, the Jaina story is actually a Jaina/Jag and Jaina/Kyp (not all at once) messy love triangle (I'll probably end up alienating J/J-ers and J/K-ers alike.

 

LadyPamde..
WOW I really enjoyed Of Spies and Sabac...
now... I really look forward for (All?s Fair) In Love and War... sounds really interesting...
Keep it up!

 

Thanks DarthMasan!

All right, all right, I'm working on the next one...it's going to be a while, though. Hope to see you then.

 

Great ending, LadyPadme. I love how Leia comes to the slow realization that she's in love with Han. I've looked forward to reading the next installment of this story every day and am sorry to see it end. As for your other plot bunnies, I don't think it'll come to any surprise to you that my vote goes to "All Fair in Love and War".

 

Hmm, just upping this.

 

Lady Padme, DONT DOUBT IT! I'LL BE HERE!

 

Sologal: Why thank you so much! I'm so flattered to hear that people were waiting to read my posts. Well, that's definitely a spur to get me cracking on the next story. I have the first 14 pages written, but I want leisure to post, so I'm going to hold off starting for a while.

Amy21 Thanks for the up!

DarthMasan: Thanks. Looking forward to it.

 

Putting my 500th post here.

Can't bear to let my little baby story die just yet...

 

500 POSTS! YIKES! WOW! CONGRATS!

 

Thanks DarthMasan -- yes, more than 500 now and in under 3 months. Can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Just upping again. Barely a week gone by and already sinking to obscurity...

* sigh *

 

UP!
hey! im leaving for the beach today and im comming back the 2nd, do you think y'ud post by then?
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
See you all the 2nd!

 

Have a good time at the beach, DarthMasan.

I'm working on bringing my plot bunnies to fruition, but I highly doubt I'll be putting anything out before the end of January.

Thanks for asking.

 

You ended this while I was away????

Well, I loved the last three posts. Except for the Mara scene where Palpy tells her about Vader and Luke, I think this is definitely a 'canon' piece. I'm sorry it is over, but it was great while it lasted, LP.

I like the H/L bunny. I saw another story like it at another site, but I have a feeling yours will be more interesting. Probably updated more quickly too. Can't wait for more.

Cookies!!! How did you know they are my favorite? Thanks! Thanks for all the compliments, too.

inez

 

inez: Sorry for ending this while you were away, but hopefully you had an enjoyable ending to read when you returned. Hope you had a good time, as well.

The H/L bunny seems to be the popular one around here, but it's hard to gauge since you are all reading an H/L story to begin with. Anyway, I'm working on it. I have the first 11 posts done, but my goal is not to start posting until I have about 20 posts done because I want to give myself more breathing room than I had for OSAS where I just wrote like crazy.

Just sittin' back now waiting for updates on "I'll Do It All Again"...

 

Thanxs LP! I indeed had a great time at the beach. Good Luck with the writing! I cant wait for it to be posted!

 

Thanks, DarthMasan.

The new fic will probably be out sometime before the end of January.