74A/N: To JM - You make a good point, but I'm writing it under the assumption that it is Star Wars, and it probably doesn't work that way. After all, I'm pretty sure that they raised her the same way in canon. Besides, it's not like normal royalty. It's the Star Wars, Alderaan equivalent that works a lot more like a constitutional monarchy composed of several different families.
"Alright. Han Solo. How old are you?"
The man peered down at him condescendingly. Keeping his cool, Han answered, "Eight and a half, sir."
"My, my. You're quite big, aren't you? Tell me, what happened the day of your accident?"
"Accident? Wha-" Han stopped short of saying something that he would regret later when he saw Bail's slight hand signal. Don't go there, just answer the question.
The boy cleared his throat. "Uh, okay. Well, we were goin' skiing and I came inside to the house 'cause... well, I came into the house and went upstairs. Bre-"
"Tell me, Han. Why is it that you stopped skiing."
Embarrassed, heat rose from Han's neck and filled his face. "I... I can't ski."
The attorney turned on his heel and continued walking the other way, as if pacing about the room in wait of the opportune moment to pounce. It was making Han more nervous than he had been before. "Ah, I see. Yes, well when you were outside, what happened?"
"Objection!" The Chief of Justice shouted, hopping up from his seat.
"Overruled, Counselor," the first judge replied.
Frowning, the Alderaanian sat back down. Han saw him whisper something into Bail's ear before he opened his mouth, finding it dry. "Well, I guess I fell a lot," he stated flatly.
Mazalki nodded, turning and walking back down the room again. "On your head?"
The eight year old scanned his brain a few short moments, thinking back to that day and finding anything but the explosion easy to remember. Really, all he knew was that it had been a rough day of falling on his sorry bum, getting blown up, and then waking up in the hospital feeling like he'd gotten run over by a star destroyer. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I hit my head a bit."
"You think? Don't you know? It was your head, after all."
Bail signaled his adoptive son again as soon as he noted the boy's irritation. Now more annoyed than nervous, Han apologized, "Sorry. I meant that I was kind of - well, I just wasn't real good at skiing. It was cold out too, so I went inside, like I said."
"Of course." When the sole of his boot landed soundly on the marble floor, Mazalki stopped pacing and looked directly at Han, a smug little smile on his face. "All right, Han. What else happened after that?"
"I went upstairs and sat with Bre- I mean, Queen Breha and Princess Leia. Queen Breha left the room after she got a comcall. I was just sittin' there with the Princess when the room blew up. I took her downstairs with Goldrenrod and into the basement," Han tried to finish as quickly as possible.
"Excuse me?"
"You're excused." A wave of suppressed laughter enveloped the audience, but Mazalki was far from amused, his mouth forming a firm line of consternation. What impertinence!
The hushed laughter died down quickly, as did the chatter that had followed. Running his plans through his head once more, he put on a saccharine smile and circled the room once more, turning on his heel to face the witness stand at the end of his lap around the room. The cunning lawyer and his young witness locked eyes, Han almost taken aback by the fire that blazed in the hazel eyes of his opponent.
The tension was palpable, chilling to the point of the entire room's silence. Not even the judges dared to move and disturb the fragile lead into the storm. And just as lightning strikes without warning, so did Mazalki, his mouth a blur to form the words:
"Tell me about yourself, Han," he began, quite obviously intending to keep on talking. "You were adopted from the streets of Corellia by the Viceroy Bail Organa nearly two years ago, were you not? Following this, you entered Alderaan under the guise of being an orphan. Yet your parents were alive?"
Although he struggled to form the words, Han's mouth merely flapped with an inaudible sort of gibberish. Bail had risen from his seat from shock and anger. Why hadn't this been discussed or revealed before? How could Mazalki have found it, or was he making it up?
The Chief of Justice was shouting, almost nonsensically, "Objection! Objection!" despite the fact that the Judges were hollering the motion back in his face. As bickering began between the head of the panel and the Chief of Justice, the members of the court and the rest of the Judges were engrossed by Mazalki's interrogation. As the insidious man continued, his voice only gained more volime and conviction. Above all, he was the loudest in the room.
Han sat completely still as Mazalki raged on. "Didn't you run away from them nearly three years ago, thinking only of how you could have more somewhere else? Isn't it true that you're just a spoiled and selfish boy who conned his way onto this planet? Isn't it true that none of these people," Mazalki waved his hand around the courtroom, "can trust a single word you say because we don't know whether it's what you made up?"
Crutches clashed to the ground as Han stood, albeit painfully. "I ain't any of the things you said, and I'm not makin' this up! I've never even seen my parents, sleemo! And I don't see what it's gotta do with anything when those guys," Han pointed to the three defendants, "tried to kill my little sister! How stupid do ya gotta be to know that there was a bomb?"
Han's eight year old voice never wavered, loud and undeterred by the court's silence. After he stopped, he found himself panting from intense anger and exhaustion. Standing on both legs was still too much, but he stood his ground, waiting for whatever Mazalki was prepared to throw at him next. The Judges were vaguely aware of the fact that they should have probably ordered some kind of recess to prevent this scene from occurring. But as the head of the panel took the gavel in his hand, Mazalki evenly countered,
"You say you've never met your parents? Then why do they say that they've met you?" His hand rose as a signal, and the guards pulled the double doors into the room.
As all heads turned towards the entrance, the lawyer said, "I call my next witnesses, Taran and Allana Solo."