Sitting in the mess hall and nursing a cup of caf, Rey ran a hand through her hair, stopping just short of the braid. The dye she had used to darken it made it feel uncharacteristically slippery. It felt strange. So did the glasses, sitting heavy on her nose. Once again she was glad she had added them to her disguise however, since even Kylo Ren hadn't been able to recognize her when he had run into her earlier, and he had seen her before.
She chuckled to herself as she remembered the events of earlier. Docking the stolen escape pod back up into the ship had been quite the feat of clever flying, if she could say so herself, but she hadn't expected the alarm to trigger. Finn told me they only trigger when the pods are fired, I'm guessing he's just never seen one dock, they're not made to come back. Poe, also on board disguised as a gunner, had taken off while she stayed to fix the alarm, no use in both of them getting caught.
She had been scrambling to fix the alarm problem when Lord Jerk himself had arrived. Thankfully, her disguise had worked like a charm. Hah, she laughed to herself, so much for the dreaded 'power of the dark side.' Can't even recognize a spy right under your nose. She took another sip of caf, ignored the grey glop they were calling porridge that was sitting in front of her, and continued scrolling through the holopad.
She once again thanked Finn for his good memory. Despite it having been several months since he was last on board, he had been able to give them a pretty good working schema of the ship. She was scrolling through his sketches on her holopad now. Poor Finn, she thought. He had been so upset to see Rey and Poe go without him. He had wanted so desperately to come on the mission as well, but they had all agreed that the risk of him being recognized was just too high, even with a disguise.
The sound of metal scraping metal made her look up. A blonde, bespectacled man stood in front of her, sliding his tray slowly across the table.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked. His voice was stiff, awkward.
Rey quickly scrolled further down the holopad to a text filled page, in case he could see what she was reading. She glanced around the mess, almost every other table was empty, or mostly empty. What was this guy's deal? She gave him a once over, trying to get a good read on him. His slightly crooked nameplate read, 'Matt: Radar Technician.' He seemed oddly familiar.
Hmm, she thought, a radar technician could be useful. The main point of this undercover excursion was finding a way to get ships through the blockade, allowing supplies to finally reach the Resistance again. Knocking out the radar would definitely help with that.
She put on a bright smile and shrugged, "Sure, have a seat."
"Hi," He said, sliding awkwardly onto the bench across from her.
"Yeera," she said, extending her hand. His hand was warm and large, dwarfing her own.
"Matt…is my name," he said, "You new here?"
She shrugged, recalling the story that she and Leia had concocted before beginning the mission. "To the ship? Yeah, only been onboard a few days. Came on the last shuttle. But I was working for the First Order as a mech in the Hapes Cluster before this."
He watched her intently as she spoke. It was unnerving. She quickly stopped talking.
"Yeah, me too," he said.
"You-also worked as a mechanic in the Hapes Cluster?" Rey asked, smiling.
"Oh, uh, no!" Matt backpedaled, flushing slightly, "I meant, I'm new too. To the ship. I'm from-," he searched his mind desperately, "Corellia." Damn it Kylo, why would you say that? Saying nothing would have been better than that.
Yeera nodded and went back to pushing her porridge around, not knowing what to say. Thankfully, Kylo was spared from having to think for a moment as the holoscreens in the corner of the room flickered to life.
There was a collective groan from the assembled workers. Kylo almost groaned himself when he realized what was playing. It was an old propaganda piece, one that he had helped make. He could feel his face getting hot with embarrassment.
The holovid version of himself, masked and cloaked, battled his way across the screen, slicing resistance soldiers open with his lightsaber and pushing others back with the Force. General Hux's voiceover boomed out through the comm set, imploring the viewers to behold the strength of the First Order, to be proud of the commitment that they made to the New Empire, and not to forget to recruit others to the cause. The scene ended with a shot of Kylo, facing the camera, lightsaber glowing ominously in his hands. The words 'Join the First Order Today' blazed bright across the screen. As it faded the day's news scrolled over the screen.
How in the galaxy did Hux rope me into doing that? Kylo asked himself. He dragged his hands down his face, knocking his glasses askew, and stifled a noise of disgust.
"Ugh, I really hate that guy," said Yeera, picking at her food and trying to ignore the blare of the holoscreen. More workers were filing into the mess hall now, filling up the surrounding tables.
"You do?" asked Kylo, surprised at the vehemence in her voice. After all, their interaction yesterday hadn't been that bad. He thought he had been pretty nice actually. I could have reported her to her supervisor. He tried to keep his tone casual as he said, "He doesn't seem to bad."
"Kylo Ren?-Doesn't seem that bad?" her voice was incredulous.
"Well, he's fighting for us, isn't he? The world is a messed up place and maybe he just needs to—rule it—you know, for the good of everyone…"
Yeera pursed her lips and made a face, "You seem to really-admire him..."
Kriff, she's right. Tone it down Kylo. You want her to trust you. "Oh, well… everyone on Corellia—they just love him. He's Corellian you know. Kind of a national hero."
"You guys talking about Lord Mask, his own high and mighty self?" Came a gruff voice from behind Kylo. He turned to see a large belly preceding an even larger man. The man dropped his tray onto the table and joined them, not bothering to ask for permission.
Kylo had to stop a sneer from creeping up onto his face. So much for an uninterrupted breakfast. I just want to get to know Yeera better…because she is suspicious, of course.
"I heard he can't even do all that magic stuff they show in the props," the man continued, "I mean, he's got the glow sword alright, we've all seen that more than we would like, but I think they just make the people move around with effects and stuff. You just can't throw people without touching them."
"He's using the Force!" said Kylo, outraged. He looked at Yeera to see whether she agreed with this imbecile, but she was wisely staring down at her gruel, keeping her mouth shut and her expression unreadable.
Kylo bristled at her silence. For some reason he had been hoping she would back him up.
"The Force," said the man, putting a surprising amount of scorn into the word, "is just another name for some ancient, hokey religion. It can't actually do anything, and who's to say that Himself could even use it, if it were real?"
"Of course its real!" said Matt angrily. "The Knights of Ren are the only reason the First Order has been as successful as it has been. Without them, we'd be nowhere!"
Yeera's eyes were shrewd as she looked at him. Kylo suddenly faltered.
"—Or at least, that's what I've heard."
Yeera made a face at that, and the older man laughed loudly. The man took a sip from his cup of caf. Kylo squeezed his hand closed under the table.
The man started to choke. Gasping he clawed at his neck, his face turned bright red and then slowly purple.
"Oh no," said Kylo, deadpan, "He is choking on food."
Yeera leapt up and starting pounding on the man's back. Kylo released the pressure. The man coughed and sputtered.
"You alright?' asked Yeera, pushing up glasses that had slipped down her nose.
"Fine, fine," said the man, waving her off, "Just got something caught in my throat." The man turned and spat onto the ground.
Ugh, the manners on this one are sorely lacking, thought Kylo.
As though he had heard Kylo's thought, the man seemed to remember his manners, if only slightly. He reached out a hand to Matt and then to Yeera, introducing himself. "I'm Korto, by the way. I run the supply store. You two look like a coupla' fresh faces. Not often we get new recruits sent straight down here, usually you spend a week with Anduro first."
To Kylo's surprise he wasn't the only one scrambling for words. Yeera's eyes looked panicked for a moment before she answered.
"Oh-well, I'm new to the ship but I'm not new to the Order, I mean, I've been working for you guys for years, uh, Hapes Cluster. The station outpost there."
Matt's mouth moved mechanically, "I, also, worked for the order before coming here. But not the same planet as her, a different planet. So no additional training necessary for me."
Korto nodded, and turned back to Yeera. "Hapes Cluster Outpost you say? You wouldn't happen to know Ungor, would you? He's a friend of mine, been working out there."
Yeera shook her head, "No, but that's not unusual. It's a big station, lots of people." For a fraction of a second Kylo thought he had seen her hand wave under the table.
"Yeah, big station, lots of people," repeated Korto, satisfied. He seemed slightly dazed, his head drifting down to look at his porridge, eyes lighting up when he saw it. "Ah, good rations today," he smiled, digging in with aplomb.
Matt made a noise of disbelief. Yeera peered down at the porridge in surprise to see if she had missed something.
"Ah, you scoff now young bloods, but when we get low on rations and all you've eaten for weeks is protein biscuits, this stuff'll look like gold."
Kylo prodded at the food in curiosity. He had never had a protein biscuit. Perhaps this would seem good by comparison. His belly growled loudly.
This whole plan was just becoming one big annoyance. He had just wanted to talk to Yeera, and here he was, trapped in conversation with this rude idiot. I'll have to talk to Hux about getting that man transferred. Or maybe he'll just have a bad run in with Kylo Ren…
He smiled at that, and without thinking, scooped a spoonful of gruel into his mouth. Mistake. He thought as his eyes grew wide in panic. He had never tasted anything so terrible. He opened his mouth instinctively and the porridge fell back out into the bowl.
As she witnessed his disaster Yeera burst out laughing. Her eyes crinkled up and her mouth went wide in a smile. She tossed her head back as she crowed at him. Looking at her, he felt like an arrow had struck him in the chest. I guess I can continue this plan a little longer, he thought. Just until I make sure she's not up to anything.