There were certain logistics that Jessika hadn't put thought into until she was sitting in the X-wing and realizing there was no safe place for Rey to sit. She looked out the open cockpit, seeing the other woman coming along. Rey had the lucky helmet on, the biggest grin Jess had ever seen plastered on her face. It was adorable and she closed her eyes for a moment to calm herself.
Okay, either Rey was going to sit in her lap or they needed to take out one of the trainers. Rather, the one two-seater they had. And while the first option was appealing, Jess was pretty sure she'd crash them on take-off. She climbed out and slid down the ladder. "Rey! Come with me."
"What is it?"
Jess motioned to the X-wing. "Not really enough room for two people unless you're willing to sit in my lap. But we've got a two-seater for training purposes that should do nicely."
Rey felt a little heat in her face. "We'd have to get awfully friendly wouldn't we. The two-seater is fine."
Jerking her head for Rey to follow her, Jess led her through the hangar. It was a small hangar, most of the X-wings kept outside unless they were in for maintenance or other reasons. Tucked away in a corner was a dusty red and gold X-wing. It was a little wider than standard models and it looked older than either of the women, but Rey could see two seats up in the cockpit. "Will this thing fly?"
"You get to run the preflight," Jess told her, grinning back at Rey when Rey's face split into a beaming smile.
"All by myself?"
"I trust you." She squeezed Rey's shoulder then took a step back. From here she could see if Rey missed anything, but she didn't think that would be the case. "Go ahead."
"Great." Rey rubbed her hands together, and moved under the wing. She trailed her fingers along the titanium alloy, grinning to herself. It was in remarkably good shape for being an older training model. It wasn't much different from checking her speeder or the sims back on Jakku, so she gave herself a few minutes to worry about Finn. She'd had to take him back to the infirmary but he'd told her to go on and not hover. "S-foils and fuselage look good. I'm a bit worried about the landing gear."
"We'll try not to land it too hard." Jess laughed.
Clucking her tongue, Rey checked a panel, then reached into it and secured a wire. "Stabilizer is loose. Fixed it."
"Wow." Jess sounded surprised. "You know, you're the first person to ever catch that?"
Rey peered around one landing strut. "I'm sorry?"
"The loose stabilizer." Jess flashed her a sheepish smile. "We always do that on purpose, but no one ever catches it."
"Clever, I like that. Would have made for a shakey first flight. I had a similar problem with my speeder on Jakku, wire kept coming loose." She stepped up to Jess and gave her a grin. "She's ready to fly."
"You go up front." Jess steadied Rey's foot as she climbed up to the cockpit, before following her up and settling into the cramped seat behind her. "Taxi us outside." She flipped on one of the comms. "Control, this is Blue Three. I'm taking the trainer out for a spin. I'm showing the new girl some of the ropes."
"Roger that, Blue Three, have fun."
A voice broke in, "Showing Rey the ropes, eh?" Rey didn't seem to notice, so Poe was only talking to Jess.
She kept her voice low. "I offered to take her up in an X-wing, and I thought that she might enjoy flying it."
"Just be careful with her, okay? She's capable but I don't think she has much experience with people."
Jess frowned, and cut Poe off. "Rey?"
"Yes?"
"Do you want to take us up, or should I?"
Rey turned in her seat to look at Jess. "I want to see how you fly, Testor."
No pressure, she thought. "I'm no Poe Dameron, but I've got a few moves." They'd barely cleared the hangar when she took them nearly straight up. Rey let out a surprised shout, then laughed as the X-Wing twisted through the sky. Jess took them through a tight arc, the old bird fighting her every step of the way.
The forest loomed in the cockpit and then they were skimming the tops of the trees at high speeds. Jess twisted the controls and the X-Wing screamed down a river. Rey's stomach lept into her throat as they suddenly shot straight down a waterfall before the craft rose high into the air. Rey started to breathe again as the curve of the planet became more obvious. "Wow. The Falcon is nimble but that was something else."
"Ready?"
"Really?" Rey grinned, looking over her shoulder at Jess. She hadn't quite believed that Jess would actually let her fly and even now she questioned whether or not it would happen. Rey just wasn't used to people being nice to her.
"Really."
Flexing her fingers around the joystick, Rey nodded and squeezed it tight. "Okay. I'm ready." Jess activated the controls in the front seat and set hers to emergency settings.
"All yours."
Rey's breath rang in her ears as she held the X-Wing steady. She looked out the cockpit at the ground so far below, then put her hand on the throttle. They shot forward so quickly that Jess was pressed hard against her seat. Instinctively she grabbed for the controls before stopping herself. Instead she gripped a convenient handhold some previous flight trainer had welded into place.
The first thing Rey noticed was the starboard engine. It seemed to produce about 5% more thrust than the port engine, which meant she had to continually adjust to compensate. On a short flight like this it wouldn't be a problem and she could think of a few combat scenarios where it would be useful, but on a long flight or engagement it would make the pilot fatigued. She adjusted the starboard engine until she wasn't fighting the stick anymore. She started with basic barrel rolls, then she dove, taking the X-Wing through increasingly complex maneuvers, at least two of which Jess had only ever done in simulators.
"Want to see how we evaded the First Order on Jakku?" Rey's voice was breathless as the g-forces of her turn knocked her around.
"Yeah," Jess laughed. "Holy shit you're good!"
"Back on Jakku, I built this flight sim. It eventually got so boring that I'd invent disasters and impossible situations to try to fly my way out of. I'd never actually expected to ever use some of those moves." There was a name for the maneuver, but Rey couldn't remember it right now. She'd done it a thousand times in her sim, and once for real.
She brought the nose of the X-wing up, then yanked hard on the stick while cutting the engines. The craft spun around, and then gravity took hold of them and they started to fall. But they'd done a full one-eighty and Rey brought power back to the engines and angled them towards the ground as Jess let out a woop.
"I'm starting to think we should switch seats." Jess let go of the handhold. Rey was amazing, a natural talent that she'd trust to have on her wing in just about any skirmish.
Rey rolled the X-Wing lazily, unable to wipe the grin off her face, or the blush from Jess's praise. "Can we go into space?"
"Yeah, but let me take control. I want to show you something before you play around."
It really did feel like play. No danger of being attacked, just the two of them and the galaxy at their fingertips. Rey knew the craft had a hyperdrive. That they could go anywhere they wanted. Escape.
But she had reasons to stay, and she couldn't exactly kidnap one of the Resistance's pilots.
The sky darkened quickly as they left the atmosphere. Rey started out at a blanket of stars, but her eyes were drawn to the planet's rings. She'd only seen them in passing before bringing the Falcon down to the surface.
They were approaching the rings rapidly, and then Jess turned them over as she arced the X-Wing around the rings. Rey pushed the visor of her helmet up and stared up (or rather down) at the rings. "It's beautiful…"
"I've always thought so. I kind of hoped that maybe you'd like them too." Jess chewed on her lip, watching the woman in front of her instead of the rings passing beneath them like a track.
"I do."
"Here," Jess murmured. "Controls are yours."
"If you don't mind," Rey said, her eyes still transfixed on the rings. Something, somewhere called to her, but though she tried to listen she couldn't quite hear it. "I'll just keep us on our present course."
Smile softening, Jess nodded. "Yeah. I like the sound of that."
