REY (Canto Bight)

"Are you sure we should go down there?" I ask Poe, wiping the sweat off my brow. The roof of the flat building we're on is covered in tiny grey rocks that give off heat from being under the sun. There is heat from below and heat from above. My clothes feel itchy but I'm not about to complain, when Poe is wearing a leather flight jacket and heavier boots than me.

He struggles with the round handle of a heavy lid covering an opening in the roof. I glance down over the edge of the building, at the escape ladder we climbed up on. Walking through the industrial area proved impossible, with all the barricades and fences. The only way to the other side now is through the buildings. 

I look up, shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand. If we get caught trespassing we'll never make it to the Quarren seafood restaurant on time to meet the Rebels. If only there was a way to get a message to them and let them know we are here. I look out across the glistening city in the distance and the sight fills me with hope.

Maybe what you're looking for is already with you. General Organa's words come back to me and I smile. Somehow it feels like what I've been searching for is here, not inside of me, the way I imagine the General meant, but here, on Canto Bight. The closer we get to the city, the more I sense it. Something or someone is here and I'm so close. Could it be my parents? I push the thought away. I don't want to hope too much. I'm too familiar with the disappointment that follows such hope.

With a loud grunt Poe gets the lid off and it falls onto the tiny rocks. A cloud of steam rises out of the round opening and I cover my face. Poe looks down and I move in closer to have a look. The air coming up isn't steam but cool air. I can't see to the bottom, but I do see a ladder leading down. Poe and I look at each other.

"Should we see where it leads?" Poe asks.

"We don't really have any other options," I say.

Poe rests his arm on the rim of the opening, still breathing hard from the exertion of removing the heavy lid. He squints towards the horizon. "How long do you think it will take us to get to the Quarren restaurant?"

"I think once we're past the industrial area, it will be an easier trek."

I jump into the opening and start to climb down the ladder, before Poe can offer to go first.

"Careful," he says. I nod and hold back my reply. I'm the Force sensitive one, after all.

The cool air wafting up is refreshing and I shiver with the sudden change of temperature. The cylinder passageway goes down for a while. I climb slowly, not sure what to expect when I reach the bottom. Poe's boots clatter on the rungs above me.

A light starts to fill the passageway from below as I get lower. The passage opens up to the rafters above a warehouse-like area. I drop down onto the metal rafters with a bang, rattling the entire structure. My pulse races as I look down from the height I'm at. It's hard to tell how sturdy the rafters are or how much weight they can support.

I look up to see Poe. He takes a jump down before I can tell him to wait, and the rafters rattle again, shaking me off balance.

"Whoa." Poe steadies himself. "Are these safe to walk on?"

"Let's hope so," I say.

Suddenly the dim lighting of the large warehouse building turns bright, as all the overhead lights come on. Poe puts his forefinger to his lips to indicate that we should be quiet. I nod and we both lower down slowly to crouching position.

"These are the personal sized weapons," a voice echoes into the building. Now that the lights are on I can see that the tables below are covered with various sized guns, from massive ones that look too large to even lift, to tiny hand held guns small enough to put in your pocket.

"We don't need these kinds of weapons. We need canons and missiles," someone replies. I recognize the voice right away and it sends a shiver down my spine. Hux. Poe shifts, his leather jacket making noise.

"You said you lost everything in the destruction of your ship," the other man says. He's tall and wearing a grey cloak-suit with a tie, his hands clasped behind his back. He has long white hair but a youthful face.

"The weapons weren't the only thing destroyed in that explosion," Hux hisses. "The soldiers were too. We don't have enough men for all these weapons."

I glance at Poe and he raises an eyebrow. So the First Order is also low on resources and soldiers. And now they're on Canto Bight to buy more weapons.

"Then what exactly did you have me travel all this way for?" the suited man asks.

Hux picks up a small hand held gun off one of the tables and inspects it. "We need your ship," he says.

"My ship is not for sale."

A click echoes through the warehouse and then Hux raises the gun and fires. The explosive bang makes me jump. Poe reaches over and grabs my arm to steady me.

Hux tosses the gun aside then leans down and rips a medallion off of the necklace around the man's neck. He puts it in his pocket and walks out of the warehouse. The doors close behind him and the lights dim again.

Poe doesn't move and I don't either. A minute passes and we finally get up.

"We need to get out of here," he says.

"Agreed."

Our footsteps rattle the rafters as we hurry to the ladder near the wall. We climb down in silence, neither of us addressing the dead man below.

The overhead lights come on again and I grasp the cold metal ladder tight.

"Just motion sensors," Poe says. He gets to the bottom first then picks up a storm trooper gun, nearest him. "Maybe we should get weapons for ourselves too."

"Not ones that big," I say, joining him. 

Suddenly the doors burst open, slamming against the walls and startling both of us.

"Drop your weapon!" a guard yells, others joining behind him.

Poe shoots the blaster in his hand and I scream. The shot bounces off the metal tables and makes the soldiers duck. I grab a small hand gun from a table and run. A shot zooms past my arm just as we duck behind a table.

"They think we killed that man," I say to Poe, who is still holding the big storm trooper weapon. He points up and I look to see what he's pointing at. Part of the rafters above where the guards is, is separate from the rest, hanging down like an extra working area for maintenance staff. I raise my smaller gun up towards it and Poe raises his.

"One," I whisper. "Two... three."

We shoot at the metal chains holding up the section of the racks. Poe hits each one in less than a second and the metal frame comes crashing down. I reach my hand out, flipping the large rack in the air just before it lands over the soldiers, covering them like a cage, rather than crushing them.

I grab Poe's arm and we run for the door as the soldiers fumble to get back up.

***

FINN (Outer Rim Territories, headed for Nal Hutta)

FN 2187, better known as Finn, ex-storm trooper to the First Order and now a Resistance fighter; an inspiration to many for being the first ever storm trooper to leave the First Order and join its opposition. A hero in stories told by children, where the truth is embellished into grand battles in which Finn defeats an entire army of storm troopers to escape. The part about facing Kylo Ren in the dark, snowy forest was true. The single most terrifying moment of Finn's life.

Now he sat blinking at the indicator lights of the Millennium Falcon, the ship most hated by the First Order. He smiled. This beauty had taken Han Solo on many adventures and had saved the last of the Resistance from being wiped out. Now they were heading to Nal Hutta where they'd received a response to their distress signal, when the Resistance base was under attack, a response many days too late, but still. They'd almost lost this last war, but Rey had saved them, in this very ship.

Finn glanced over at Rose, who had fallen asleep in the co-pilot seat next to him. They'd stayed up late playing cards on planet and talking about what it was like to be a behind-the-scenes kind of person in a space army; Rose in ship maintenance for the Resistance and Finn a once storm-trooper, although he didn't consider himself a behind-the-scenes kind of guy during his time with the First Order, but he understood what it was like to have no decision making status in a fight that put his life in danger every day. Neither him nor Rose were part of the command crew, until now. Now General Organa had entrusted them with the important mission of meeting with a group of Resistance allies on Nal Hutta.

The ship jerked suddenly, startling Rose awake.

"Where am I?" she asked, frantically looking around. "Did I fall asleep at my post?"

"We're on the Falcon, headed for Nal Hutta."

"Oh." She relaxed back down into her seat. "I had a bad dream that the docking ports were opening on their own and the crew was getting sucked out into space."

Before Finn could respond the ship jostled again, sending Rose into the dash.

"You should put on your seat belt," Finn said, checking the sensors for what might have hit them.

"Asteroid field?" Rose asked.

"No." Finn looked out the windows, since nothing was coming up on the sensors except for a planet made of alloys, which they were passing by.

"Good thing the shields were up," Rose said. She looked at Finn suddenly. 

"Oh no!" they both said at the same time.

"You left the shields on, this whole time?" Rose said.

"I thought you turned them off."

"Me? The button is on your side!"

"Look, it doesn't matter, we're out of power."

"It matters if we can't get to Canto Bight to meet with the others."

The ship came to an abrupt stop and the lights dimmed. Finn held onto the dash in front of him, resisting the forward force of the sudden drop out of light speed.

"Life support?" Rose asked once the ship was steady again.

"We've got life support for another couple of hour-"

The ship shook once more and this time Finn heard the loud clank of something attaching to the ship's hull. "Did you hear that?"

"Maybe we're attracting something magnetic?" Rose asked.

"I don't know, but we need to land somewhere, soon." Finn turned the ship around, back towards the planet they'd passed seconds ago. They were now running on auxiliary power and it would take a while to get back to the planet. He wiped the sweat from his face. This was his fault and now they'd have to ask for assistance from the General. And they would miss the meeting on Cantonica.

"I still don't see how we could have used up all of our fuel and power this fast, even if you left the shields up this whole time," Rose said.

"You're right." Finn check the gauges again but they all said low fuel and power.

Rose grabbed her helmet and put it on quickly. She threw Finn his.

"Hurry, put it on," she said.

He did. A voice was being transmitted into the speakers.

"... of the Ruling Order. We are here to help you. If you require any assistance please land on the space station at the docking ports."

Finn removed the helmet. "That was a space station? It's the size of a planet!" He looked at Rose. "Did you send a distress signal?" She shook her head. "They must have seen us fly by with this magnetic debris hitting the hall, or whatever it was. At least we ran out of fuel near an inhabited space station."

"It's not inhabited," Rose said, looking at one of the screens in front of her. She removed her helmet too.

"What? Then where is this communication coming from?"

"It might be a prerecorded message. It looks like the entire station is run by machines."

Finn frowned. The voice had sounded unnatural, now that he thought about it, like an artificial intelligence attempting English. The last time he was on a space station the size of a dwarf planet, like this one, was when he was on the Death Star.

"Something doesn't feel right about this," he said.

"We don't have a lot of options." Rose took off her seat belt and got up. "We should at least see if there's fuel there, that we could possibly use. I'll check the back to see what we have to trade for some... if we can trade with machines." She left and the door hissed closed behind her.

A sudden squeal had Finn jumping up in his seat, digging his seat belt painfully into his shoulders. A little Porg landed on the dash. The cute creatures now lived in the Millennium Falcon, having invaded the ship when Rey had visited Ahch-To. The animal's webbed feet hit the comm button and Finn pushed it aside.

They kept out of the bridge area mostly, but there were still many aboard the ship. He didn't know what they ate but he felt bad for them, being so far away from home. He picked up the little guy in two hands, cradling it in his palm and taking it carefully back to the bridge doors.

"Sorry buddy." He opened the doors and set the Porg down. "I've got no food for you. Go back to your friends."

The little creature looked up at him with sad eyes. Finn's hand hovered over the close button for the door.

He dropped his arm and sighed heavily. "Fine. Come and hang out with me."

The little creature flapped its way back into the bridge area and Finn quickly closed the door before any of the Porg's friends heard and came onto the bridge too.

----

Author's note: Happy New Year's everyone!