Aww that makes me sad.

“. . . FOR PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA. URGENT MESSAGE. URGENT MESSAGE for Princess Leia Organa. Please respond. Urgent—”

“Hngh . . .” Han Solo woke with a tiny foot in his face and an irri*tating droid voice in his ear. “What?” The tiny foot was attached to the tiny body of Ben Solo, mercifully sleeping for what seemed like the first time in days. Han’s eyes went wide. Would the boy wake?

“I will transfer the holo from Chancellor Mon Mothma immedi*ately,” Leia’s protocol droid T-2LC droned.

“What? No!” Han sat up, still trying not to move Ben too much. He was shirtless, and his hair was almost certainly pointing in eight different directions. He probably had crust on his face. He didn’t much want to talk to Mon Mothma under regular circumstances, let alone half naked and bedheaded.

“Leia?” a voice said as the room lit up with the ghostly blue holo*projection.

Ben stirred, kicked Han once in the face.

“Oh,” Mon Mothma said, squinting at the projection that was being transmitted to wherever she was. “Excuse me, General Solo.”

“I’m not a general anymore,” Han growled, still trying to keep his voice down.

Mon Mothma nodded. “I am aware.” She already struck Han as a sort of spectral presence, all those flowy robes and that faraway look of hers. Being a see-through blue holoform only enhanced that. “It is my habit to refer to our veterans by their rank regardless of their sta*tus.”

“Right,” Han said.

“Is Leia around?”

“I could retrieve her for you,” T-2LC suggested, turning just enough so the bright hologram Mon Mothma landed on Ben’s sleep*ing face.

“Elsie!” Han snapped.

Ben’s eyes sprang open to a shining blue form dancing around him. He burst into tears. Han shook his head; couldn’t blame the kid, really—Han probably would’ve done the same thing if he’d suddenly woken to find himself enveloped in a Mon Mothma glow cloud. Which in a way he almost had, now that he thought about it. “Shh, come here, big guy.” He reached his hands under his son’s little arms and pulled him up so Ben was sobbing into Han’s chest. Han felt that tiny heartbeat pitter-pattering away as Ben snorfled and sniffed.

“Why didn’t you just do that in the first place?” Han whisperyelled.

“I am sorry, sir. My programming indicates that when an urgent message is received I am to immediately alert the nearest member of the household, which in this case—”

“All right, can it, Elsie. Go find Leia.”

“As you wish, sir.”

Thanks for posting that. How many books have there been?

LOVES OF MY LIFE I need a beer.