aimedforthemoon | (no subject)

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Esfir leads Cal into to her room and shuts the door behind them. Her room has changed from the last time he was here - she's been building bookcases, and even though one is incomplete with tools and pieces of wood on the floor, the room looks more homey.

On the wall is pin-up board, complete with both black-and-white and colour photographs of her old life, but the model aircraft are gone from her desk.

"Um, mind the mess."

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"I thought there was Emperor...Vader goes around him?"

"Oh, yeah." Cal looks sheepish. "Uh. It's been a while since I watched the movies, and I only watched them high. If I say something that sounds wrong, it probably is."

"I only know what Han told me, and what I pick up from listening to other pilots. You know more than me overall, I think."

"Well, what do you know?" Cal asks. It'll be easier to try to fill in the holes. Probably.

"There is a large spacestation called the Death Star. The one we will be attacking will be the second - the first was destroyed four years ago, after it blew up Alderaan. That act was what drove a lot of people towards the rebellion. Planets are risky as bases, as we have to keep moving. Space is the same. The Empire have the numbers and the training, but their pilots are not...they think as being in a team, as part of a machine, and that means they are ultimately not very good pilots."

She thinks.

"Han was caught before, and placed into....hibernation. It made him blind, but he is better now. And people generally don't ask where you are from or why you are there.

And I know that the Empire sounds like a mix of the Nazis and my own Soviet Union in their...attitude towards people and places, and I have no idea how I feel about that." Beat. "If I concentrate on the Nazi side, it is easier."

Edited 2008-11-09 06:58 (UTC)

"Probably more like Nazis, yeah," Cal agrees quickly. "Blowing up an entire planet definitely sounds like genocide to me. Yeah, that was Leia's planet." He thinks for a moment, then nods. "That all sounds pretty much like the outline for the trilogy. I'm not sure how many details I can really fill in. I mean, there's a bunch of stuff with the Jedi and the Force, they basically got wiped out but they're coming back, the Jedi I mean, and shit how much of this should I even be telling you?" He knows what happens in these scifi worlds when you fuck with the timeline.

The issue regarding the Imperial pilots made her think of her own country, but if Cal agrees Nazis, then she isn't going to think about it any more.

"Not who wins battle - I don't want to have those lives on my soul. But, Leia? I have heard the name, but...." She spreads her fingers. "Her and Luke, I can't ask anyway except Han, and with him, I'm asking other questions."

"Yeah, Leia and Luke, uh." Cal hesitates, but Esfir isn't stupid. She knows what's best kept to herself. "They're twins, but they might not know it yet. I, uh, can't remember when they find out. Second movie? At least the second one, because the first one had a thing with them that turned out to be kind of incestuous. But then Leia hooked up with Han, and Luke - I dunno, I always figured he was a virgin. He's kinda whiny."

"Leia ends up with Han?"

There's something about her response, as careful and even as it is, that makes Cal pause warily.

"Yes," he answers cautiously.

"Men are bastards."

. . . oh.

Well, of course. Even straight men go for Han Solo.

"He probably doesn't know yet, then," Cal assures her. "I mean, he's not a dick."

"Yes, he is. He is a pilot. An arrogant, charming flyboy, and I know the type. Girl in each port, you know?

So I shouldn't be surprised."

Yeah, there isn't a single part of that that Cal, who regularly indulged himself with political groupies with a wife at home and a mistress in an apartment he paid for, can argue with. He knows the behavior well.

He tries another angle.

"Well, you're much prettier than she is." It has the benefit of being the honest truth, as far as Cal is concerned.

That gets a choked laugh.

"Thank you."

Cal puts an arm around her shoulders and gives her a gentle squeeze.

"You're welcome."

It's not even a come-on.

She sighs and presses a hand to her eye.

"Well, at least I know. I have time to come up with something witty to say."

Cal grins. "That's right. Now you get to come up with just the right thing to say to knock him on his ass. Not a lot of people get to do that." He is glad he could help.

"Brilliant! Except I am...so bad at that."

"You'll figure something out," Cal says. "You've got a way with words when you want to."

"Comforting."

Beat.

"There are also aliens that are like wlaking fish."

Cal nods. "Yeah, they've got some interesting ones," he says. Especially when you're high.

"Yes. I...managed to keep a straight face until I got here."

She is very much not joking, either.

Cal laughs. "It must have been a hell of a surprise. That's a lot better than I would have managed."

"I'm from Soviet Union. If you can't cope with odd things, you don't last very long."

She's smiling as she says it, though.