(no subject)
Jul. 7th, 2008 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ishotfirstThe bar stays gone for the next few years. The scrap of paper gets lost in the shuffle of constant travels and the rush of swoop racing, the races, the fights, the beatings (they don't come as often, since Shrike doesn't want to risk hurting him so bad that he can't work) and the long nights staring at the black outside the ship through the window near his bunk.
Waiting for something.
What it is, he's not quite sure. But over the years the bar stays gone, Han grows into a top class racer, an expert liar, and a quick fingered and smart witted thief.
Waiting for the moment.
It comes when he catches sight of an ad for brave and skilled pilots, and plans to stowaway to Ylesia. Shrike, when he catches him trying to escape, isn't happy. He's almost caught, but Han watches Dewlanna -- his foster mother, the one who nursed him back to health after so many of the beatings -- sacrifice herself, so that he can escape.
He'll pay her back, someday. He swears it.
The trip to Ylesia isn't easy. Neither is getting the job on the Dream but the alias and the fact that he's damn good at what he does help that. A bit. And while running the droid ship and keeping them away from rebel pirates is good enough money, it's just not...enough.
What he really wants is to be the best. And not just a shipper. A fighter.
Which is why he applies to the Academy on Carida.
The Imperial Navy is the place to learn to fight and the chance to do what he's always wanted to do. Pilot fast ships and have the ability to take out the Rebels and the scum of the universe. While he sits in the chair at the helm of the Dream and stares out at the black, he imagines the look on Shrike's face when he boards his ship and confiscates all his illegal goods, and frees his band of slaves.
They called him their master, and while they were family, they were still slaves.
Slave trading meant death for the trader.
The idea of Shrike facing death made Han eager to learn all he could before he went. He travels to Coruscant to have his identification wiped clean, and undoes changes -- the most significant when Nici changes his retinas to give him a new pattern that has no trace of the old -- which cost him a good portion of his savings but it's worth it, when he's accepted.
The night of his induction ceremony, Han finds himself sitting in the dark at the top of the city, thinking and dreaming of his future. He's actually going to do it. He's going to be inducted into the Academy and then he's going to ship to Carida.
He's going to be free.
What he doesn't expect is the voice that echoes behind him.
Shrike.
Or the other voice.
One he doesn't recognize.
They both want him -- after all, he's got a damn high bounty on his head -- but the other bounty hunter is the first to pull his weapon and fire. Shrike falls and it's an oddly strange sound, the body hitting the ground, and Han is frozen to the spot for a moment, then he moves.
Memories flash back through his mind as he walks to the body, completely ignorant of the other bounty hunter watching him, blaster trained and ready.
Garris Shrike took him in off the streets.
Kidnapped.
Garris Shrike fed him and clothed him.
Starved him and watched him shiver in the cold hold of the ship.
Garris Shrike taught him most everything he knew.
Never trust a man unless he's dead.
Garris Shrike is dead.
Han kneels and picks up the blaster from the fingers and eyes the setting on it. It's set to a high power, not just stun. The other bounty hunter has to be set to stun, since he's worth more alive than he is dead. He keeps his head down.
He can't go to the Hutts. He's going to the Academy and he's going to be free. He can't get caught. The desperation creeps in, for a moment, before he makes up his mind. Before the other bounty hunter can blink, Han moves. Hand steady with the blaster, eyes focused up on the torso, one shot, one kill, a second body on the rooftop.
He eyes the blaster in his hand and then both men on the ground, and smirks a bit.
(Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembers a piece of advice and it makes him laugh under his breath, shaking his head.)
He cleans the pockets of both men out and then hides the bodies in an access hatch that he doubts anyone will check until it's time to clean the filtration system on the building -- and he laughs at that surprise some poor bastard will find -- before he heads inside to go back to the city.
He has an induction to get to.
Waiting for something.
What it is, he's not quite sure. But over the years the bar stays gone, Han grows into a top class racer, an expert liar, and a quick fingered and smart witted thief.
Waiting for the moment.
It comes when he catches sight of an ad for brave and skilled pilots, and plans to stowaway to Ylesia. Shrike, when he catches him trying to escape, isn't happy. He's almost caught, but Han watches Dewlanna -- his foster mother, the one who nursed him back to health after so many of the beatings -- sacrifice herself, so that he can escape.
He'll pay her back, someday. He swears it.
The trip to Ylesia isn't easy. Neither is getting the job on the Dream but the alias and the fact that he's damn good at what he does help that. A bit. And while running the droid ship and keeping them away from rebel pirates is good enough money, it's just not...enough.
What he really wants is to be the best. And not just a shipper. A fighter.
Which is why he applies to the Academy on Carida.
The Imperial Navy is the place to learn to fight and the chance to do what he's always wanted to do. Pilot fast ships and have the ability to take out the Rebels and the scum of the universe. While he sits in the chair at the helm of the Dream and stares out at the black, he imagines the look on Shrike's face when he boards his ship and confiscates all his illegal goods, and frees his band of slaves.
They called him their master, and while they were family, they were still slaves.
Slave trading meant death for the trader.
The idea of Shrike facing death made Han eager to learn all he could before he went. He travels to Coruscant to have his identification wiped clean, and undoes changes -- the most significant when Nici changes his retinas to give him a new pattern that has no trace of the old -- which cost him a good portion of his savings but it's worth it, when he's accepted.
The night of his induction ceremony, Han finds himself sitting in the dark at the top of the city, thinking and dreaming of his future. He's actually going to do it. He's going to be inducted into the Academy and then he's going to ship to Carida.
He's going to be free.
What he doesn't expect is the voice that echoes behind him.
Shrike.
Or the other voice.
One he doesn't recognize.
They both want him -- after all, he's got a damn high bounty on his head -- but the other bounty hunter is the first to pull his weapon and fire. Shrike falls and it's an oddly strange sound, the body hitting the ground, and Han is frozen to the spot for a moment, then he moves.
Memories flash back through his mind as he walks to the body, completely ignorant of the other bounty hunter watching him, blaster trained and ready.
Garris Shrike took him in off the streets.
Kidnapped.
Garris Shrike fed him and clothed him.
Starved him and watched him shiver in the cold hold of the ship.
Garris Shrike taught him most everything he knew.
Never trust a man unless he's dead.
Garris Shrike is dead.
Han kneels and picks up the blaster from the fingers and eyes the setting on it. It's set to a high power, not just stun. The other bounty hunter has to be set to stun, since he's worth more alive than he is dead. He keeps his head down.
He can't go to the Hutts. He's going to the Academy and he's going to be free. He can't get caught. The desperation creeps in, for a moment, before he makes up his mind. Before the other bounty hunter can blink, Han moves. Hand steady with the blaster, eyes focused up on the torso, one shot, one kill, a second body on the rooftop.
He eyes the blaster in his hand and then both men on the ground, and smirks a bit.
(Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembers a piece of advice and it makes him laugh under his breath, shaking his head.)
He cleans the pockets of both men out and then hides the bodies in an access hatch that he doubts anyone will check until it's time to clean the filtration system on the building -- and he laughs at that surprise some poor bastard will find -- before he heads inside to go back to the city.
He has an induction to get to.
