Lucas rushed into the cockpit as Han navigated the Millennium Falcon through the asteroid field. Lumina glanced up at him as he entered, biting her lip anxiously. Giant hunks of rock littered the view before them, drifting aimlessly as the Falcon dashed between them.

A glance at the monitors showed four TIE fighters chasing them, and then one of the dots flashed and vanished. One down. Three to go.

Another dot vanished just as a flash of orange caught Lucas' eye out of the side of the cockpit viewport. Only two left.

"Han?" Lucas began, but the pilot cut him off.

"Sit down and hold on before you land on me again!" Han snapped the words as he banked to the right, narrowly avoiding a large asteroid drifting past.

"Captain Solo," Lucas said, more forcefully this time as he steadied himself. "The coolant system just blew."

Han spun around in the chair, his face thunderous. "What?"

"The coolant system blew," Lucas repeated staunchly. "Captain Solo, I'm telling you. You need to look at this. It's bigger than I can deal with."

For a moment, Han just stared at him. The silence in the cockpit stretched out tensely, everyone seeming to hold their breath as they waited for Han's response.

Han hit the switch for autopilot and stood up, striding out of the cockpit. As soon as he left, he broke into a run, yelling over his shoulder, "Chewie!"

The Wookiee got to his feet and took off after Han. Lucas scooted forward and took the empty copilot seat, his eyes resting on the controls longingly. Oh, how he wished he could fly this great ship.

Then the ship shuddered from the impact of lasers striking the rear shields and Lucas snapped back to reality. They were traveling through an asteroid field with no pilot and there were still TIE fighters on their tail. Autopilot just wasn't going to cut it.

Instinctively, Lucas slid into the pilot's seat, flicking autopilot off. Wrapping his hands around the controls, he glanced down at the monitors and then up through the viewport at the asteroid field in front of them.

Time to fly this classic piece of junk.

"Lucas, what are you doing?" Lumina asked, a note of fear in her voice.

"I'm flying the Falcon," Lucas responded. "What does it look like?"

An asteroid came flying at them and Lucas jerked the controls to the right, angling the yoke down. The Falcon responded to his direction, banking into a dive that took them under and around the asteroid.

"You shouldn't do that," Leia advised almost nervously. "Han will probably kill you if he finds you handling the controls."

"These asteroids will kill us if I don't!" Lucas snapped back, his gaze riveted on the viewport. "We'll deal with Han later."

Tilting the controls forward, Lucas dove under another asteroid and then banked hard left to avoid another wandering mass. A quick turn right slipped them under yet another asteroid and then a short stretch of empty space loomed before them. Lucas appreciated the moment of calm before he remembered the remaining TIEs and the fact that they were still in the damn asteroid field. As if to further cement that fact in his mind, the asteroids began to drift across his path again.

Lucas wasn't sure how much of his reactions were instinct or sheer luck. But he did know that they both managed to avoid the asteroids and the TIE fighters...for now.

"Fixed it," he heard Han say, two sets of hurried footsteps approaching the cockpit. "I just had to – what the hell, kid?"

"Someone had to fly us through this asteroid field," Lucas shot back, not daring to look over his shoulder and risk a deadly collision. "You were occupied, so that someone had to be me."

"Move," Han demanded. "This is my ship; no one flies it but me."

Lucas went to move out of the pilot's seat when his eyes caught the drift of an asteroid. It'll be in our way before Han can take the controls. Without any further thought, he yanked the yoke back.

The Falcon rocketed upward, soaring over the asteroid momentarily threatening it. Han staggered back into Chewbacca, who had grabbed hold of the back of Leia's and Lumina's chairs, as Lucas cleared the asteroid, leveling out once beyond it.

"Okay, you can take it back," he said, standing up and releasing the controls. Han grabbed his shoulder and thrust him out of the way, sending Lucas crashing into the copilot's seat as the smuggler swung into the pilot's spot.

Chewbacca barked and Lucas staggered to his feet, dodging out of the way of the Wookiee. Han's first mate slid into the copilot's seat, checking the monitors as Lucas took up his station behind Lumina's chair, firmly gripping the back of it and bracing his feet.

"You said you wanted to be around when I made a mistake, sweetheart," Han said over his shoulder to Leia, who paled slightly.

"I take it back," she said.

"I'm going to get closer to one of those big ones," Han resolved, glancing down at the monitors and whipping around another asteroid.

"Closer?" Leia repeated, her expression a bit incredulous.

"Don't worry," Lucas muttered. "This maneuver will actually work. You know, for a bit." Gripping the edge of her seat tightly, Lumina nodded.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Han said sarcastically. "Watch and learn!"

He spiraled the Millennium Falcon toward a good-sized asteroid, much bigger than most of the rocks floating around. Lumina clapped her hands over her eyes as Lucas watched anxiously, digging his fingers into the back of her chair.

Han pulled the Falcon out of its dive seconds before crashing into the asteroid, leveling out and whipping along its surface. The last remaining TIE fighters chased after them, careening over the asteroid's grey and pitted terrain.

"Just...." Lucas forced through gritted teeth, sinking down slightly as he leaned back, bracing himself against Lumina's chair while still being able to see out the viewport. He did not like what he saw, even though he'd seen this scene a million times and knew it ended up pretty okay for them. "Just don't go into any strange holes, okay?"

Han didn't answer, which was probably just as well since he had to focus on the ravine that had appeared in front of them, the cliff walls rising high and steep on either side of the narrow gap.

The Falcon raced into the ravine, the TIEs still on their tail. Lumina tentatively uncovered her eyes, which were wide and frightened. Lucas understood her fear, although he also felt elation soaring through his bloodstream. He was in a high speed chase on the Millennium Falcon. Life didn't get much better than this.

Well, okay, it did. If the Falcon had a functioning hyperdrive, life would have been perfect.

And if Leana and Ben had been there to join them.

Up ahead, the gaps between the cliff walls dwindled significantly, as if life was telling Lucas to suck it up and enjoy what it was giving him while he had it. It could be much worse, the walls seemed to be screaming as they closed in around the Falcon.

Lucas agreed. It could be much worse. He could not know how this ends, like Leia, who looked a lot more worried about all this than he did.

Han flipped the Falcon on its side, slipping through the narrow space between the jagged cliff walls. The TIEs behind them crashed into the rocks, just like in the film. Lucas couldn't help the grin from slipping over his lips as they soared out of the ravine and Han righted the ship. There was something so satisfying about it all.

Han tapped the scope. "Chewie, what you think?"

The Wookiee looked at the scope and barked in assent. "That's what I thought," Han said, and began to guide the Falcon down toward the ground of the canyon they had entered, the shadow that had appeared on his scope their destination.

Oh, please, no, Lucas thought, knowing exactly what was in that tunnel. "Hey, Han, uh, Captain Solo, you may not want to go in there. I heard space slugs like to hide out on asteroids."

Han laughed. "Kid, you've watched way too many late night horror holovids. We'll be fine. It's a tunnel."

"Captain Solo," Lumina attempted, her voice shaking a little. Lucas frowned down at her. What has gotten into her? I know this is all a little unreal, but it's cool, too! "Lucas is right. Space slugs are nothing to mess around with."

"What do you want me to do?" Han shot back. "Look, I'm the pilot, not this scrawny kid. We've got a busted hyperdrive, a coolant system that needs a bit more attention that I had time to give it back there, and an Imperial fleet we're running from. We need to set down and do some repairs before jetting out again. Unless you want to be caught by the Empire?"

"No, that will happen later," Lucas said, but he saw Han's point. What other options did they have? Flying away just meant navigating further through the asteroid belt with no hope of escaping into lightspeed. And if they were to avoid the Cloud City fiasco, repairs needed to be assessed now.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing," Leia remarked quietly as Han directed the Falcon down the throat of the space slug, the floodlights illuminating the area.

"Yeah, me too," Han said with a sigh.

****

Ben's first thought was Where am I? He didn't remember his bed being so hard and cold. He opened his eyes, blinking in the dim light. He also didn't remember his room having harsh metal walls, absent of all his Star Wars posters.

I'm not in my room, am I?

Sitting up, Ben groaned as he gazed around the room. It looked like he was in a small cell, the door solid metal except for a small barred slit in the upper half. He had been lying on a metal bench that jutted out from the wall, one of the reasons he was so sore.

Okay, so all that Star Wars stuff was not a dream. I really was on Hoth, I flew in the Battle of Hoth, and I...crashed.

So where am I now?

He glanced down at his arms, still encased in the bulky orange flightsuit. From his belt hung the lightsaber hilt he had found earlier, which he found quite odd. It looked like he was in a prison cell; if he was, then why hadn't they disarmed him?

Maybe I'm not in a prison cell. Maybe the Rebels picked me up. Leana and Lucas were out there; they might have seen me go down and made sure I was taken out with the fleet.

Ben seriously hoped that was the case. He didn't want to ponder the consequences of getting captured by the Imperials.

But if I had been captured, why would I still have the lightsaber?

The door of the cell opened and Ben started, swinging his legs off the bench and standing up in anticipation of whatever was about to walk through that door. He felt the blood drain from his face when he saw who it was.

At least I know where I am now, he reflected bitterly.

Darth Vader had arrived.