The startled officer looked in her direction, still holding the child by the arm. Relief spread across the little girl's face when she saw Leia.

"What do you think you're doing?" Leia demanded of him.

"Clearing thieves off the streets, ma'am. No need to bother yourself with this vermin," he replied, not releasing the child but seeming to respond to Leia's unmistakeably authoritative voice.

"This child is no thief. I bought her that fruit. Unhand her immediately," Leia barked, separating the officer from his prize with both hands.

The other uniformed men began to move towards them. Han dropped Leia's jacket and he and Chewbacca drew their weapons, keeping them low, observing for the moment. Han didn't want to start anything more attention grabbing than Leia had already started unless it all went wrong. She could bring a whole platoon of troops to it's knees with that voice but he wasn't sure how long the stunned obedience would last with this particular group. He watched her body language and listened to her tone as she manoeuvred the little girl behind her and the officers into a group as if she were giving them a troop inspection. He shook his head and the corner of his mouth creased into a smile. A foot or more shorter than any of the men in front of her, her tone and expression demanded their full attention.

"You are a disgrace to that uniform," she continued, looking from one to the other. "Security Forces are meant to protect people not bully them. They especially don't strike defenceless children." She put one hand behind her back and motioned to the little girl to move towards Han, who beckoned silently to the child to run to him.

The child safely out of the way, Leia turned her thoughts to the enclosed vehicle. She had to make sure no more children were inside. She continued her grilling, uncertain herself as to how long these men would put up with her. Getting close enough to study them she now didn't believe they really knew whose uniform they were wearing. They looked like hired guns, not military personnel, and the only reason they were paying attention was the shock factor of her abrupt interruption and the tone of her voice.

Her blaster was tucked underneath her tunic and annoyingly inaccessible in a hurry. Her eyes flicked to the officer's weapons, noted their position and way they were attached. She had begun to draw a curious crowd so decided to gamble on the fact that the officers wouldn't fire on her in front of them.

"I don't think you know what uniform you are wearing. What's your rank and designation?" She fixed the officer last in line with her eyes as she moved closer to the vehicle, putting her back to it and signalled Han behind her back to ready his weapon. He read her warning and knew she thought she was treading on thin ice.

"Get ready, Chewie. She's about to blow it." Leia had manoeuvred herself so that the officers were now facing away from Han and wouldn't see him come up behind them.

"Lieutenant of the Alderaan Security Forces," the officer gave his false rank.

"If you are really from Alderaan, you would know who I am." Leia remained authoritative, holding them as long as she could. If she could just open the back of the vehicle before they blasted her off the face of Takodana... The men looked at each other, confused.

"Open this vehicle and let me see how many more so called thieves you have."

"Step away from the vehicle, ma'am," one of the officers demanded.

"I am the Commanding General of the Alderaanian Security Forces, Lieutenant and I order you to open the back of this vehicle." Now I've blown it. Leia thought. The officers looked at each other, then at her small frame and smirked. Non-uniformed and tunic-clad, maybe it was a little difficult to believe. Her credibility vanished.

They moved toward her, tired of the distraction. She picked a target, put the balls of both her hands on his chest and shoved hard, grabbing his blaster out of it's holster as he unbalanced. Firing twice, her bolts hit home and two officers went down. Chewbacca fired his bowcaster and took down the rest.

Leia yanked the latch of the vehicle door open to expose the frightened faces of a handful of children.

"Run." She thumbed over her shoulder for them to make their escape.

The ensuing chaos from the blaster fire not only created panic among the crowd of onlookers but also attracted the attention of more security as three more vehicles entered the square from the opposite streets at high speed. One, in particular, made Leia's heart sink. She whirled round, searching for Han in the screaming crowd and picked out Chewbacca running towards her, knowing Han was nearby.

"Stormtroopers!" she yelled. Han looked in their direction as he ran up to her, saw them unload a laser cannon tripod from the back of their vehicle. They were in serious trouble.

"Get in the truck!" he ordered, steering her towards the empty vehicle and jumping into the drivers seat. Chewbacca leapt in the back, firing wildly out of the open doors.

Han peeled away and headed down one of the narrow streets, sending people scattering to get out of his way and taking out several trade stands with the side of the vehicle.

"So much for your casual information gathering trip," he shouted at Leia. She glared back at him, hanging on to the front console of the truck.

"This is not my fault," she insisted.

"You had to march in there, didn't you?" He veered sharply to avoid a speeder full of stormtroopers, heading down an even narrower street and just managing to miss driving straight through a group of startled traders. "Get out of the way!" he yelled out of the window, waving his hand at them. Leia grabbed on to anything that stuck out to stop herself from being thrown out of the door.

"What did you want me to do? Just leave those children in the truck?" she screamed. "Somebody had to do something."

"Yeah, well you've done something alright," he agreed angrily, pointing up ahead in astonishment at another group of stormtroopers, this time on foot, who had set up a laser cannon and began firing it at the truck. He veered down another alley. "Where did these stormtroopers come from?" he exclaimed, exasperated. Chewbacca roared something from the back as he was unbalanced, hitting his head on the side of the truck.

"Oh really, Chewie? The ride's uncomfortable? Hang on, I'll slow down so you can enjoy the scenery!" he snapped sarcastically. Leia rolled her eyes angrily.

"Look out!" she shouted, pointing up ahead. At the end of the street, another truck came to a stop, completely blocking their path and Security Force officers leapt out, showering them with blaster fire. There was no where to turn the truck. Spotting a narrow alleyway just visible between the tarpaulins of two trade stands, Han came to an abrupt stop, spraying dust from the truck wheels as he did so.

"We'll have to abandon this thing and go on foot." He fired out of the door then reached in and grabbed Leia's arm, pulling her out of the truck after him. "Chewie, hurry up!" he said, laying down covering fire while they all ducked into the alley.

It was dark and cramped but they negotiated it at a run until Han ducked into an empty doorway, just large enough for the three of them, to catch his breath.

"Is this your kind of fun?" he enquired of Leia antagonistically, his eyes widening for emphasis. She narrowed her eyes at him. Pressed uncomfortably between Han and Chewbacca, she tried to think logically about the situation, get a bearing on their position in relation to a reasonable escape route. The square where she'd left her speeder was probably crawling with troopers by now. They could make their way to the far side of Al-Adreen and find a place to lay low until nightfall, then steal another transport, or perhaps hope for the troopers to leave and retrieve their own. It was all a bit vague.

Chewbacca was shifting uncomfortably, his head having to bow quite a bit to fit in the doorway. She brushed his hot fur out of her face with the back of her hand.

"If we stick to these narrow passages, we could work our way back round to the square, find a transport maybe," she suggested. Han nodded distractedly, looking furtively down the alley to make sure no one was coming. He wished that C3PO could fly the Falcon on his own. He could airlift them out of here. Some kind of remote calling device would be very useful. He would have to ask Maz if there was such a thing, have it fitted as part of his new repairs. He really had no ideas other than what Leia had suggested. Once again, they were flying by the seats of their pants.

"Let's move then," he said, skulking out of the doorway and along the alley, blaster thrust ahead of him in case he was surprised.