"C'mon, buddy. We're up!" Poe crowed over his shoulder. BB-8 followed behind him, orb skidding across the metal surface of the hangar bay for how fast he was rolling behind his friend.
Poe pulled himself up the ladder and soon found himself right at home in the cockpit of his X-Wing. BB-8 chirped happily as he was seated solidly in his little copilot's seat.
"No, no," the cocksure captain replied, laughing. "Nothin' special. Just some basic flight maneuvers for the greenhorns. Be back in time for dinner."
He flipped several switches to start his ship warming up. She hummed to life beneath his feet. Poe grinned and pat her dashboard, giving her just enough throttle to make her roar.
"Atta girl," he murmured, with sincere pride.
Black One was gone and it still pained him, but he had a new X-Wing now. She didn't always like to get running on a cold morning and the targeting computer flickered at incredibly inconvenient times but she was faster than the devil and Poe needed nothing more.
She was called Kestrel One.
"Hey, pal, what's the jam-up lookin' like?"
BB-8 just made a few concerned beeps and boops.
"Heh, no shit," he sighed, watching squadrons crowding and queuing to leave the hangar.
The new official rebel base of operations - obscured beneath the massive fungal canopy that covered much of planet Evit - didn't have quite as much space as was convenient, but it was hidden from the piercing gaze of the First Order and that was enough. Still, it made routine training exercises a nightmare. Getting everyone out of the hangar with little incident proved difficult on busy days.
"Ground Control, Kestrel One, hangar bay seven, ready for departure." He said it offhandedly into his flight headset.
Poe Dameron had been a very busy training instructor lately. The rebel forces were, once again, fledgling and struggling to survive. Still, there was hope that the rebellion might thrive. A crowded hangar and overworked staff were just the growing pains of a new generation of freedom fighters. Luckily, the crack team working the tower were becoming better and better at expediting departures and arrivals. It wasn't easy to direct air traffic, either. It required efficiency, the memorization of several tomes worth of arcane flight info, and, most importantly, a tight grasp of the vocabulary.
"Kestrel One," came the expected reply, "this is Evit Ground Control, please advise- no that's not right." Poe's brow furrowed at the egregious fumble first. Then the voice, the accent.
"Sorry, sorry. Manual's kind of...thick. Please hold, Kestrel One."
"Please hold? Wait, who let you out of sick bay?" He asked, teasing. She couldn't see his face but he reflexively smiled as roguishly as was possible. There was a long pause.
"I let myself out of sick bay, thank you very much," came Rey's tempestuous reply.
"Course you did, sunshine." And he meant that with every admiration.
When they first met, she introduced herself as if she was no one, but from the moment he looked in her eyes, he was at a loss. Rey still made him feel that way from time to time, if he were honest.
"Ah!" She exclaimed, shaking Poe loose from his musings. "Here it is! Kestrel One, this is Evit Ground Control. Please stand by for departure clearance, Kestrel One."
"Kestrel One, standing by for clearance," Poe copied. Then, he waited for Rey's signal to cut out but it didn't.
"Kestrel Two, this is Evit Ground Control."
"Nope, still me."
"Oh. How embarrassing. Let me hand it off. This is a weird headset." There was a pause.
Poe Dameron also had a very persistent crush on Rey. Moments like these absolutely exacerbated the problem.
"So I take it you must be feeling better," he said, breaking all protocol when it came to radio professionalism.
"You're the only one who believes that so far. Don't know why everyone's making such a big fuss. It's not as if something serious happened."
"You wouldn't call a broken leg serious?" She sighed at that.
"I can't fly." Clearly, she was disappointed. Her eyes were most likely downcast. Perhaps she even gently chewed on her bottom lip. It was just like her to try and be as close to the action as she could be.
"Well, you can live vicariously through me, if you like."
"It's better than staring at the sick bay ceiling." He imagined she must be smiling. "Kestrel One, Evit Ground Control, bay seven, your squadron is cleared for lift-off."
"Roger that, Ground Control." Unlike Rey, Poe was able to successfully switch signals in order to update his pilots with their orders. Twelve X-Wings that made up Poe's squadron lifted off the ground.
"Kestrel One," Rey began, as the very same ship hovered carefully above the bustling hangar, "please retract your landing gear and proceed, holding short of bay three."
"Roger; Wilco."
"Who's Wilco? This is Rey."
"Nevermind. Holding short of bay three," he said, unable to find her misunderstanding anything but completely endearing. She may be a totally natural pilot, but that didn't mean he expected her to know everything there was to know about flying. Patiently, Poe held short of bay three just as he was directed, until he and his eleven were next to go. After a time, Rey's voice returned.
"Kestrel One, Evit Ground Control, you are clear for departure."
"Roger that. Not bad for the first day on the job, sunshine." She laughed carelessly, and the sound filled him up with something wonderful and sustaining.
"Whatever you say, Commander Dameron," Rey replied. Still smilingly, he hoped.
One by one, and dutifully behind their commander, the Kestrel squadron departed from the hangar. Light only filtered through where it could in the small gaps of the canopy. Mist immediately accumulated onto the entire X-Wing exterior.
Evit's hot, rainy season lasted almost three quarters of a standard rotation. Though, rain implies water falling to earth. On Evit it mostly hung in the air - heavy and thick, even in the heat of the day - making every breath feel laborious and exhausting.
"Me again. Almost forgot something." Rey came crashing into his headset once more, sounding harried. "Let's see, weather advisories…"
"Looks clear out here," Poe casually remarked, pulling up to exit out of a sizeable gap in the canopy. His squadron followed.
"Hush. Reading."
So he complied, of course, snorting and shaking his head.
"Ah, okay, so there are no advisories," she said with only the slightest trace of sheepishness.
"Varnok'll usually let you know about conditions, so don't sweat it next time."
"You know, I don't think she likes me very much," Rey said. It was markedly quiet. Poe pictured her cupping the headset microphone like she was telling him a secret.
"Impossible. Varnok's good people."
"Specifically, I don't think she likes me up here ."
"Now, that makes sense." Varnok took her job deadly serious. She was always saying a properly functioning hangar was like a nervous system. The metaphor usually became increasingly fanatical in nature after that, of course. She took her duties very seriously, after all.
"Just tighten up your chatter. You'll have the hang of it in no time. Oh, and bring her something sweet back from lunch."
"What, like a cupcake?" Rey snorted.
"Anything, as long as it's easy to eat. She almost always skips meals and when her blood sugar drops, well, let's just say she has a hard time being her usual rosy self."
"I see," she said, slowly picking up what Poe was putting down.
"You'll win points with Varnok and everyone else in the hangar."
"I could use some points, to be sure." She must be smiling now. It was hard to tell with her. Rey could be impossibly sober and serious for someone so young. "Thanks, Poe. Safe flight."
"You too! I- I mean thanks," he bared his teeth and pressed a closed fist against his forehead.
BB-8 whistled and tittered behind him.
"Yeah, I know it was awkward, I was there. Thanks, buddy."
Poe alternated his signal, wanting to leave that moment firmly in the past. "Alright, kids, let's work on some flight formations."