▸ Column · Star Wars Outer Rim, Empire era — cargo contracts, holo-calls, and Coruscant research postings
HAN SOLO replies.
Replied to by Han Solo, with a rebuttal from Jabba the Hutt.
The letter
Me and Sela have been doing long-distance for nearly two years. She's on Coruscant finishing some advanced research cycle at the Science Cooperative, and I'm stuck at Ord Mantell on a cargo contract I can't walk away from without losing my berth for good. I can handle the distance, mostly. What's eating at me is that the finish line keeps sliding. First it was "after my certification review," then "after my second posting," and now she's apparently thrilled about a three-year senior fellowship on Chandrila — which I only found out about when her supervisor's congratulations came through on a holo I happened to walk past. (She hadn't mentioned it.) I'm old enough to know what I want: a real life with someone. An actual couch. A stray tooka I'd call Biscuit. An ordinary Tuesday that doesn't have to be scheduled around a holo-window. But every time I ask for even a rough idea of when we close the gap, she says I'm putting pressure on her dreams. Am I being selfish for needing some kind of end date, or am I just refusing to admit there might never be one?
— Grounded at Ord Mantell
Han Solo replies
Look, I've spent years telling myself I'm only in it for the credits, the contract, the next job. Works great right up until it doesn't, and the people who proved that to me didn't do it with a speech. They showed up when showing up cost them something.
That's the test. So here's how it grades out. She found out she's got a three-year posting on the other side of the galaxy. And you found out by walking past a holo. Take a second with that.
I'm not saying she's a bad person. I'm saying that's a data point and you'd better grade it honest. "Putting pressure on her dreams" — kid, you didn't ask her to quit. You asked when you get to be in the same room. There's a difference between backing a long shot and standing at the wrong docking bay waiting for a ship that already cleared the port.
The question you're really asking isn't whether you're selfish. The real one is whether she's ever actually had to choose. Whether keeping you at this distance has cost her a single thing. Ever.
I got a bad feeling about this. I think you do too, or you wouldn't have written in.
— Han Solo
Jabba the Hutt weighs in
Hoo hoo hoo. Solo tells you to grade the behavior. Wise counsel — from a man who still owes me rather substantial freight from the Kessel run. But he names the wrong lesson. The problem, my friend, is not what she did. The problem is what you cost her. Nothing. You sit at that docking bay, available, waiting, free of charge. A three-year fellowship applied for in silence? She does not fear losing you. You are not leverage. You are convenience. Stop chasing her timeline. Become expensive to abandon. The party who needs the resolution least always sets the terms. Even Solo understands this. He simply refuses to admit I taught it to him first.
— Jabba the Hutt
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