Enter HAN SOLO and CHEWBACCA.
HAN
How goes it with thee, chuck? O verily,
Thou dost look well to me. In faith, thou seem’st
E’en strong enough, I’ll warr’nt, to pull the ears
From off a gundark.
LUKE
—Truly, thanks to thee.
HAN
Now thou dost owe me two good turns, my friend.
[To Leia:] Indeed, Your Worship, well have you conspir’d
To keep me in thy presence longer.
LEIA
—Fie!
’Twas not my doing. Gen’ral Rieekan doth
Believe that it is still too dangerous
For any ship to leave the system, aye—
E’en thy belov’d Millenn’um Falcon—till
The shield of energy is active.
HAN
—Ha!
A cloth of fiction thou dost weave, yet I
Have found the fatal error in thy stitch:
For I believe thou wouldst not let a man
So beautiful as I depart from thee.
LEIA
The only stitch I know is in my side,
From laughing at thy pride most heartily.
Thou mayst attempt to needle at my heart,
But I am sewn of stronger thread than this.
To say I would not let thee go—pish, pish!
I know not whence thy great delusions come,
Thou laser brain.
CHEWBAC.
[laughing:]—Gihut, gihut, gihut!
HAN
Aye, laugh indeed, thou fuzzball large. But thou
Hast not seen us alone i’ th’passage south,
Where she did unto me unspool, in full,
Her feelings true of fondest love for me.
LEIA
My feelings? O! Thou arrogant half-wit,
Thou oversizèd child, thou friend of slime,
Thou man of scruffy looks, thou who herd’st nerfs,
Thou fool-born wimpled roughhewn waste of flesh!
HAN
What scruffy? Scruffy, how? Whose scruffiness?
How am I all bescruff’d? [To Luke:] Belike my words
Were accurate and hit upon the mark,
Since now she hath her temper lost. True, Luke?
LEIA
Thus is it plain that till thou tam’st thy tongue,
No tongue of woman shalt thou comprehend.
[Leia kisses Luke at length, then exits.
CHEWBAC.
Egh, auugh, gihut!
OFFICER
[from speaker:]
—All personnel report
Unto the center of command at once.
HAN
[aside:] Well hath she play’d the trump.
[To Luke:] Be thou at ease.
[Exeunt Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2.
LUKE
O kiss most rare, O lips from heaven sent!
This is a moment I’ll not soon forget.
Though I can sense her heart doth turn to Han,
Still doth this kiss play tricks upon my soul.
By this fair princess I have been bewitch’d—
’Twas ever so since I saw her distress
In R2’s beam, a’pleading for our help.
But though the lass doth move my heart to joy
I ne’er would tempt her with a word too large,
For shall a Jedi’s path lead t’ward romance?
But this sweet kiss I’ll hold in mem’ry’s vault
As a reminder of my noble cause:
To serve rebellion and my princess kind.
[Exit Luke.
Enter HAN SOLO, CHEWBACCA, C-3PO, and R2-D2, crossing to GENERAL RIEEKAN, the CONTROLLER, and PRINCESS LEIA.
RIEEKAN
A visitor hath come, my princess. ’Tis
Outside the base, in sector twelve, and doth
Appear to be directed eastward.
CONTROL.
—’Tis
A thing of metal, cold and harsh and sleek—
It is not animal.
LEIA
—Well, then ’tis not
The self-same creature that did harm our Luke.
But what do ye men think that it may be?
HAN
Belike a speeder, one of ours?
CONTROL.
—Nay, wait.
A signal dim doth reach unto mine ears.
[A faint signal is heard.
PROBE
[through comlink:] Beh mena bem bem. Mena bem bem beh.
C-3PO
Good Sir, six million forms of language do
I know, and I may tell thee true that this
Strange signal is not by th’Alliance us’d.
It may, perhaps, be an Imperi’l code.
HAN
’Tis not a friendly sound, that much is sure.
Now Chewie, come with me and we’ll to it.
[Aside:] Snow creatures first, and now Imperi’l droids,
What portents of great evil may these be?
Though I am brave, forsooth these signs do make
E’en my courageous heart begin to fear.
I find myself afraid of what may come,
That my whole soul shall freeze ere this is done.
[To alclass="underline" ] Chewbacca and myself have ventur’d out
To see the probe. Now Chewie gives a shout—
It fires on him, and I respond in turn.
Be gone, thou enemy of all that’s right.
But wait, now what hath happen’d? I releas’d
A blast most simple—aye, a single blast.
Yet it appears that single blast was all
It could withstand; the blast was lethal, friends.
Now naught is left, for it hath been destroy’d.
LEIA
What was’t?
HAN
—A droid. My blast did not strike hard,
Belike the thing did self-destruct.
LEIA
—’Tis clear!
A probe droid from the Empire. This doth mean
The start of our rebellion’s flight from Hoth,
For now that we discoverèd have been
We lack security.
HAN
—Agreed. Methinks
The Empire knoweth we are here on Hoth.
[Aside:] My sense of doom and dread is not without
Its cause, for this event is grave indeed.
RIEEKAN
Good friends, dear rebels, comrades one and all,
We have no choice but to flee hastily.
Our swift evacuation shall commence,
And till ’tis done, make ready our defense.
[Exeunt.
Scene 7.
Aboard the Empire’s Super Star Destroyer.
Enter ADMIRAL OZZEL, GENERAL VEERS, and CAPTAIN PIETT.
PIETT
My admiral?
OZZEL
—Yes, Captain.
PIETT
—Here’s a thing
That thou shouldst see, good Sir. We have receiv’d
Report from a Hoth system probe, the best
That we have found so far.