"You're getting better," Poe assures Fin as they walk through the hanger.
"Sure I am," Finn answers, rolling his eyes.
"Hey, you are now at least in top the twenty percent of our fighter pilots, thats not bad at all," his friend tells him, trying to be encouraging.
"Yeah, coming from you that doesn't sound like much. I think I'll stay on ground support," the former Stormtrooper tells him.
"Even if thats so, working on your piloting can in no way be a bad thing. Also Dogfighting is all about team work, and no matter how good I am I'd still be worth much less if I didn't have good people backing me up," the Resistance's top pilot explains.
"Says the man who has so many confirmed kills he doesn't even stamp the side of his ship anymore, and just had the whole thing panted black for convenience sake," Finn points out.
Poe shrugs. "We all have different things we're good at. You for example keep the cleanest quarters of any other soldier here and you are always on time for everything," his friend tells him.
"Oh yes. One day songs will be sung of my neatness and punctuality," Finn is able to say with a straight face, before they both burst out laughing. As the two walk along they see the Millennium Falcon come in for a landing. "He's back," Finn says with delight. Then his smile falls as he starts checking all of his pockets, "Crap!" he shouts before taking off at a run to his quarters.
His fellow soldiers make sure to clear a path for him as the young man dashes down the corridor and nearly runs into his own door before slipping inside. He turns on a light and frantically looks around until he sees the little blue crystal cylinder that he was looking for resting on a book. He quickly grabs the crystal and runs back the way he came, almost instantly crashing face first into none other then Admiral Ackbar.
While Finn falls backwards, flat on his back, the strong built Mon Calamari barely moves an inch due to the impact. As soon as he can see straight the young soldier looks up in surprise, utter embarrassment, and then soon near terror when he realizes just who he ran full force into. "Admiral, sir, I am sooo very sorry," Finn tells, seemingly in fear of his life.
"I take it that Falcon has landed then?" the Admiral asks knowingly, reaching down a hand to help the young man up.
Finn takes it and is soon easily pulled back to his feet. "Again sir, I apologize..." he starts.
Ackbar waves his hand dismissively. "I've weathered far worse, boy. Be a bit more careful for your own sake, but go on your way," the weathered superior officer tells him before continuing on his way.
Shaking off that odd and embarrassing moment (that Finn doubts he will ever live down), the former stormtrooper continues back the way he came, albeit at a slightly slower pace. When he returns to the spot that the Falcon has landed he sees Poe grinning at him. "I know it may shock you, but the ship is still here," his friend tells him sarcastically.
"Shut up," Finn tells him, as the landing plank lowers and Chewbacca walks out. "Hey, Chewie!" Finn calls the Wookie.
Happy to see the young man, the large hairy scoundrel immediately embraces Finn in a suffocating bear hug as he shouts out in his own tongue.
"Never...going...to get used...to this," Fin gasps out before Chewie puts him down. After taking a moment to catch his breath, Finn hands the older man the cylinder. The Wookie pockets Finn's object and pulls another nearly identical one from another pouch on his bandolier. "Thank you," the smaller man tells him, giving his friend a more human hug. "I'll see you guys later," he tells Chewie and Poe as he hurries back to his room, with his prize in hand.
"Remember to tell her I said hi in the next one," Poe calls back.
"I always do," Finn shouts behind him.
When Finn makes it back to his room, he plugs the little cylinder into his desk, and as expected a hologram appears when he does so. Its been over a year since Finn and his friend Rey have seen each other in person. While she has been training with her Master, Luke Skywalker, Finn has been training with and working with the Resistance. During that time the two have only communicated via correspondence through Chewbacca, the only person trusted to ferry messages between the Jedi and General Leia.
The hologram shows Rey sitting on the other side of a work table, with several tools and dozens of small bits of technology and wires laid out in front of her. "Hello Finn," Rey addresses him through the recorder. "I'm happy that you've started to work on your piloting. Really Poe is the best person to teach you, and I can't wait to hear how its going. I'm feeling a lot better since the last time you saw me, it turns out I was allergic to whatever kind of spice Master Luke had Chewbacca deliver. I think its from Tatooine," she tells him, shaking her head. "I've decided, respectfully, to do my own cooking from now on. More importantly, my training has reached a new milestone, and Master Luke has decided that it is time for me...to build my own lightsaber!" she shouts out excitedly.
Finn smiles in kind with her recording. "Now I have everything laid out here," she says gesturing to the orderly mechanical mess on the table before her. "And I'm going to just let this record so you can watch me put it together," she explains. She then gets to it, soldering and wiring different components together, putting in a pink crystal and a focusing lens, then finally sliding the whole thing into a shiny metal casing and screwing all parts together. "And now we should have here, a new working lightsaber," she tells the recorder as she holds the weapon up and hits the button. A few seconds pass as it is clear that nothing at all has happened. She hits the button several more times before looking sheepishly at the recorder and saying, "It seems as if I am having some sort of technical malfunction. Back in a moment."
The recording changes to a new scene, and now Rey is holding a larger lightsaber hilt with more external buttons and dials. "Alright I've added a power booster, an amplifier, and a larger battery. We should now get some results," she tells Finn. Making sure the weapon is held straight up and at a safe distance, Rey hits the button. In response there is a small explosion that blows the lens at the top of the weapon off, shattering glass and debris in its wake, and causing Rey to drop the whole thing on to the table just as melted plastic and smoke seep out of the top. "I think I might have overcompensated," she says as the room's fire alarm goes off.
The recording cuts again and this time shows Rey holding a lightsaber hilt the size of her first two attempt combined. "I understand this may look a bit egregious at this point, but I am very confident that this one should work. I've added a compensator and a flow regulator to the design," she explains, wiping the sweat from her brow. "So, third try," she says, hitting the activation button. This time a bright pink light blade does emit from the top of the weapon. Unfortunately the blade continues up well past the view of the recorder and seemingly up into and through the roof of the room she's in. In panic Rey turns the nobs on the handle and soon the blade reduces in size to a more common lightsaber length. The young Jedi looks at the recorder in triumph...but then soon looks back at the weapon in confusion before shouting out in pain and dropping the now steaming hilt back on to the table. The defective weapon does not turn off as she lets go of it and instead begins to glow hot near the top before Rey hits the button again with blunt end of a nearby tool. Finn has to pause the tape to laugh at his friend's antics.
When he hits play the scene has changed to Rey, now wearing a pair of gloves, holding a slightly smaller version of the hilt. "Smaller battery, less powerful amplifier," she quickly explains before turning it on. Once again a pink energy blade appears...for about three seconds before it flickers and dies. Rey sighs.
The next scene shows Rey sitting at the table with all of the parts spread out before her again, and with Luke Skywalker sitting next to her. "One of the great strengths of a lightsaber," Master Luke explains, "is the simplicity of its design."
"So what you're saying is that I've over complicated things?" she asks.
"Essentially, yes," Luke tells her.
"Okay. So out of what I have laid out here, what would you say is unnecessary?" she asks.
In response her Jedi Master picks out the pink crystal, a medium sized battery, a small circuit board, a spool of wire, a button, two dials, a lens, and a few pieces of metal casing and puts it all in a pile in front of Rey. He then sweeps everything else into a much larger pile on the far side of the table. "I think you should start with that," he tells his student, point at the small pile in front of her. Rey nods.
The recording jumps forward again, and now shows Rey holding a more traditional sized lightsaber hilt again. The gloves are again off as she holds it at a responsible angle and distance again. "Alright Finn, here's attempt number five. Wish me luck," she says to the recorder.
"Good luck," Finn says with a smile as he watches.
Rey holds up the lightsaber and once again hits the activation button. Again a pink beam of energy of appropriate size appears out of the top of the weapon. Rey holds it there for a moment and visibly but soundlessly counts to ten. She then turns one dial forward then backwards, and watches as the energy blade lengthens and shortens in length. She then turns the other the same way and watches with cautious hope as the blade thickens then thins. The young Jedi in training then lets go of the button and watches as the blade disappears. She then closes her eyes, again breathlessly counts to ten, then hits the button again only for the blade of her lightsaber to obediently spring back to life. Then looking straight into the recorder with some happy tears in her eyes and huge smile on her face Rey says, "Look, I did it. Yesssss!"
"Yes!" Finn shouts back in pure joy and pride.
The recording continues for quite a bit longer as Rey discusses other things of importance in their lives, and Finn watches it all the way till the end, happy to have whatever connection he can to his distant friend.