A/N: This is Part One of a(n if everything goes according to plan) two-part story. Neither Karé Kun or Iolo Arana are mine, they are from the book 'Before the Awakening', but they are not on the list here yet.
Two out of the three suns have already disappeared, but as the third one touched the horizon too, Poe turned off the headlight attached to his helmet then took the entire thing off with an irritated sigh. They should have been on their way home for hours; after all, it was just a simple scouting mission on an uninhabited planet.
"That's it, wrap it up!" he ordered, and his voice sounded a lot more irritated than he wanted it to. "We have wasted enough time on this sorry mess, and it won't go anywhere."
"What's next then?" asked Iolo.
"You two go back to the base and get help." As bad as it sounded, Poe saw no other option. Doing the basic repairs and recalibrations had been part of their training, but they had neither the tools nor the knowledge to tell what caused the engine failure of his X-wing, let alone do something about it.
"And leave you here, stranded?" Her light was still on, so when he looked up at Karé, kneeling on top of one of the wings between the engine and the fuselage, Poe had to squint slightly.
"Yes," he said with a nod. "It will be dark soon. I'll shut down all the systems, hide myself in the cockpit, and stay invisible like a grain of sand on Tatooine. And you'll fly as fast as you can to be back for me by morning."
"I don't like the sound of that," objected Iolo.
"Well, I can't order you to like it." Poe shrugged, then waved at Karé to come down.
She slipped off without a word, but as her feet hit the ground and she took off her helmet, she gave Poe a look that said she felt tempted to touch his forehead and check if he had a fever that could have addled his brain. "With all due respect, commander," she articulated his title and gave it a little tip of the head too, "when was the last time you left any of us behind?"
"You have a better idea, lieutenant?" asked Poe, lifting his chin slightly.
"One of us should go and get help, and the other should stay," she said. "That way you'd have at least one operating fighter at hand."
Out of the corner of his eye Poe saw Iolo nod in agreement, and it left him badly outnumbered by his own men. "What a bunch of filthy insubordinates you are," he groaned, as he realised that he didn't have a say in this matter.
"Yes, sir!" snapped Iolo with a toothy grin.
"All right," sighed Poe, then he bent and picked up a peeble from the ground, hiding it in one of his hands behind his back. "Then let's see which of you stays so that I wouldn't be afraid in the dark." He raised his arms in front of himself for them.
Since she was both the only woman in the group and the second in command, it was Karé who stepped forward. She Poe's his left withouth a moment's hesitation, almost as if she knew the peeble was in there.
"Good choice!" cheered Poe, revealing it.
"You need anything from my equipment?" offered Iolo.
The mission they were on wasn't a particularly interesting one – they came to fly over a given area and let their droids take a few readings of the surface –, and so none of them carried much worth having either. They took one of Iolo's blasters and an extra battery anyway, and he let them have some of his drinking water too before he left.
"Shall we put it back together?" asked Karé, motioning towards the fighter once the dust settled down after the take-off.
"Yes," agreed Poe with a nod, and he put his helmet back on.
Now that they didn't have to stop every now and then to examine the engine and look for what could have caused the failure, they worked considerably faster. They also worked in silence, honoring their agreement of not bitching about their equipment. It's been months since the three of them left the navy and joined the Resistance, but having to deal with older, more worn-down technology was still a sore spot.
"You mind going up again?" Poe asked once they ran out of tasks that could be done from the ground.
"I'll do it," said Karé, but she didn't move to get back on the wing. As she rubbed her hands together Poe realised his own hands felt like icicles too, and since the cold made every little bump break the skin on them, they were covered in cuts and bruises as well. It looked very much like he just had a fist fight with something big and extremely scaly.
"What can we expect from the night?" He raised his voice, stepping closer to the side of the fighter. He couldn't see much of BB-8 from where he was standing, but he could hear the droid moving in its socket.
It didn't sound too promising. They could already feel the wind picking up, but according to the database as soon as darkness fell, there would be a sudden drop of temperature too, with the added 7% chance of a dry storm.
"But nothing we can't handle, right, buddy?"
The droid was more than happy to announce that as long as they could find shelter from the cold, they had nothing to worry about.
Hearing that, Karé marched over to her own ship and droid to see how much heat they could make withouth wasting too much fuel and compromising the journey back to D'Qar. "We won't sweat ourselves silly, but we'll be fine," she reported on her return.
"I guess this is the part where I thank you for staying." Poe gave her an apologetic smile, to which she replied with a shrug that was one part told you so and three parts that's what friends are for.
Now that Karé worked alone, and Poe could only hand her the tools or whatever particle came next, it slowed them down a little, but they were still making a good time. Mainly because they were careful enough to place everything they took out of the fighter in the right order on the ground, and because BB-8 provided a holographic blueprint for her to follow. It even projected it over the engine, indicating the correct place of whatever step came next with a bright yellow light for her, so it was a child's game.
Poe briefly wondered if the droid was in fact capable of feeling ashamed for not being able to help them properly when they tried to locate and repair whatever caused the engine failure, and if that was why it felt compelled to guide Karé whether she needed it or not.
"How about another system check?" suggested Poe once they put everything back to its place, and he stepped up on the ladder leading to the cockpit to see better. "Maybe all it needed was a little attention..." he added hopefully, because after spending a lifetime amongst pilots and mechanics, he knew machines could act like that; demanding to be taken apart and put back together with care just for the fun of it.
"Fingers crossed." Karé nodded, then climbed over the other side of the engine.
"Light it up, buddy!" Poe gave the order, and BB-8 swivelled around its socket with a chirp.
As the droid took control over the ship, Poe felt his heart beating faster. Looking into the cockpit, he could see some of the lights coming back, and he had to bite down hard at his lower lip to keep from cheering too early. When BB-8 started listing the sub-systems that where in good working condition, he grabbed the side of the cockpit harder and pulled himself further up.
From the corner of his eye he saw Karé mouthing the names silently with the droid. Navigation. Communication. Sensory systems. Targeting systems...
As they were getting close, it ran through Poe's mind that what they were doing was against every safety regulation. He was practically dangling on the ship, with one hand holding on to the cockpit's side and one foot on the ladder, and Karé was crouching on the wing like a pittin, protected only from the neck down, because she wanted to watch what was going on. Should anything go wrong with the engine, they were both to be in danger.
But he was too excited to care.
"Come on!" he cried out when he couldn't keep it in any longer. He saw that the droid was working hard on it, but it's been several long moments since it cleared another system. "Come on, buddy, good news! Tell me some good news!"
"Please..." whispered Karé too, clawing at the covers of the engine.
Seeing how desperate the humans were becoming, BB-8 failed to make another sound. It ran the last of the test dutifully and put it into the log that apart from the engine, the X-wing was in perfect condition, then started shutting the systems back down. They still needed to wait for help.
"Say it, buddy," demanded Poe, giving the droid a stern look.
It couldn't go against an order, so BB-8 hung it's head and sent the message directly to the monitor inside the cockpit.
Poe felt too disappointed to swear properly, so the curse he hissed between clenched teeth was easily blocked out by the dull thud that Karé's helmet made when she let her head drop against the engine cover with a defeated groan.
"Right," he snapped, letting go of the side of the cockpit and jumping on the ground. "We did everything we could," he stated in an even voice, making both Karé and the droid look towards him. "We lock this piece of junk up, we get BB-8 down, and we get inside before we freeze to death."
As always, an order floating around their heads, waiting to be followed had quite an invigorating effect on all of them.
Poe marched under the astromech socket and kicked a few rocks and peebles away to get a perfectly smooth footing. Karé climbed back over the engine and on top of the fighter, where she sat down right behind the cockpit. BB-8 turned into an upright position, opened two compartments and let ot a few cables to attach itself to the ship, then did the droid equivalent of holding its breath.
"Don't fret. We'll be careful," she said softly, giving BB-8 a pet before she slipped her hands between its body and the socket to look for the handles.
The droid had been given to Poe when he became commander, and the Navy would have surely kept it when the three of them left, like they kept their fighters, if not for General Organa's helping hand in the matter. Karé and Iolo got to bring their droids over to the Resistance as well, but it was of little consequence. She had a BB unit too, but from the second series, and he a bright, but ancient R5, so they both cherished BB-8, new and clever little BB-8 almost as much as Poe did, and treated it as the squadron's mascot and good luck charm.
"Ready when you are!" she yelled when she found a good grip.
"I'm opening it," Poe yelled back, reminding himself that if something went wrong, he had to jump aside and let BB-8 take the short fall. He didn't want to do that, but he knew he had to. Even if they broke the droid, it was still a better option than breaking his head.
But since it was high time they got lucky, nothing happened.
Together with Karé they could lower the the socket from around BB-8 well enough, if not easily, and from there the droid could take care of itself, coming down on its own wires.
"Good," exhaled Poe, dusting off his hands as Karé joined them on the ground too. "Now let's get inside."
Like I said above; it was Part One. Part Two is on its way.
Thanks for reading, and please review!