Chapter 2. Veros
The atmosphere of Veros was like a furnace on Rey's skin, drying her lips and eyes as each minute passed. There was something familiar about it though. Memories of Jakku flooded back to her, with its long hot days and coarse cream-coloured sand.
So much had changed in the last year of her life. It was soothing going back to those old memories. Like slipping on an old pair of shoes. They may have been uncomfortable, but she knew them, and they fit.
Red sand danced across her boots as she kicked through the broken wreckage of a small shuttle, a hot breath of wind sweeping past her.
She paused. The air pressure was changing.
Eyes blinking, she stared off into the distant shifting dunes. The line along the horizon was smudged with a brown haze as thunderheads loomed overhead like giant war hammers.
"How are you doing, Rose?" she called out.
Rose Tico was crouched down on all fours with thick black bangs falling over her eyes beneath her head wrap. She sifted through the sand, passing the time with celebratory yelps or moans depending on what she found. She wore her usual maintenance greens, a head-wrap Rey had made for her, and a pair of oversized goggles.
"I think I've found everything we can use. You?" Rose asked.
"Just about," Rey added.
Earlier that day, the Falcon had landed on Veros to bargain with the local tribe for some hyperdrive fuel. Rey and Rose spotted the broken ships as they descended. A whole line of them left to rot on a high plateau, surrounded by rocky outcrops.
Rey had been out here for the better part of the day now, sifting through the junkyard of decommissioned ships.
Scavenging again. She smiled at the thought. This was something she knew. Something she could understand. Her life in Jakku was simple in those days. Hard, but simple. All she had to do was survive-and wait.
She hadn't said goodbye to her old life. And being out here in the silent, sparse desert had given her time to reflect on how drastically everything had changed.
Now there were expectations that went far beyond putting food on the table. The Resistance had travelled from one side of the galaxy to the other, drumming up support, seeking food and supplies, weapons, funds, military support, government influence, allies, allegiances...It was a game of politics and power, and, somehow, Rey had become a key player in all of it.
So, for these treasured hours, she stepped back from being the Jedi and just became "the girl". The scavenger with no one's expectations to meet but her own.
In truth, she had hoped to come here alone. To have some space to breathe and think about things. But Rose had been so excited at the prospect of them exploring together that she couldn't say no. Not after everything they had been through. So, silently, she sidelined that desire for solitude, and they made a day of it.
Not that she minded. The 5"2' ship's mechanic had become a dear friend these past months. They spoke the same language, appreciating the working parts of a project, and not just the finished product.
She was dear to her. Her first female friend.
They were all dear to her now: Leia, Chewie, Rose, Poe and, of course, Finn. Still, there were times she'd never felt more alone. The Resistance were visionaries. They dreamt of a better galaxy with freedom and fairness and peace. But Rey's thoughts were smaller. She liked to focus on the simple way the Force moved around them, like an ocean. The way it sang to her with unity or cried in disharmony. Dark and light, whispering secrets of death and rebirth.
And so, she saw life play out around her like a stage play as she waited for instructions on what her part should be. No one know seemed to know, or at least they hadn't told her yet. They kept secrets from her, top-level classified information that only Leia and Poe discussed when they were sure the rest of the crew were sleeping.
That was okay, she had secrets too…
Rey let a handful of sand sift through her fingers, redirecting her thoughts to the task at hand.
She moved her feet along the shifting sand and dropped to examine a small piece of metal wedged into the ground.
It was half of a switchboard panel with frayed wires sticking out at odd angles against the charred metal. The wires were still good though, and, with a few adjustments, she might be able to reuse the parts.
"No!" Rose marched over to Rey. Her voice was stern but there was an unmistakable gleam in her eye. The true measure of Rose's love and exasperation.
"What is it?" Rey asked, innocently.
"No more junk! Working parts only. Remember?"
Rey turned the little piece over in her hands. She could use the metal for reconstructing her broken lightsaber, and they always needed the extra wire. Who knows? Maybe they could even repair it?
"You can't salvage that. It's completely broken," Rose said, seeming to guess her thoughts.
"It's all broken, Rose. But I bet we could use part of this for the faulty compressor and look at the wires!" she teased. "They're copper…"
Rose came closer and brushed her fingers against them, her lips pressed together.
"Hmm. I suppose we can always do with some copper wiring… But that's it now. No more little junkie pieces, okay?"
"Deal," said Rey as she slung the piece into her knapsack with a loud click.
"I don't think there's anything you couldn't salvage."
Rey turned away before Rose could see the smile fall away from her face.
There was one thing she could think of…
A hot breeze ran alongside her body, lifting the red sand to whip across her legs.
Despite the heat, Rey shivered as the surrounding air seemed to change into something sharper and focussed.
She could feel the midday heat radiating from the sand in thick invisible waves. The tiny beats of desert creatures scurrying along the sand. The giant thunderheads streaked across a pale blue sky rumbling with a distant warning.
The Force was opening up to her. Engulfing her. She drunk it in, feeling the light flowing through her. An invisible tunnel seemed to close around where she stood, silencing everything but the sound of her hurried breathing.
And then she felt it, raw as a live wire. A presence in the Force, like a raging sea, powerful and tumultuous.
Ben.
He was searching for her. She hadn't felt him this close for months, but there he was just beyond an invisible door within the Force. Her breath quickened, and she thought about letting the connection join.
"I'm done now. Do you need more time?" Rose said, her voice muffled and distant.
The connection was slipping. Untethered, it had nothing to join with. She could still save it. All she had to do was reach out…
"You're doing that thing again!"
"Huh?" Rey grunted, her eyes adjusting to the bright light of the world around her.
"Your Force stare."
"Is that what you call it?" Rey laughed as she grabbed a handful of nuts and bolts that she stuffed into her knapsack.
"What were you thinking anyway?"
She shrugged, a blush creeping over her chest and coiling up her neck. "Nothing!"
"Rose! Rey!" Leia's voice travelled up through the rocky outcrop, soft and distant.
"Oh well, I guess that's us done." Rey packed up her things and walked away.
"I guess so," Rose said, also picking up her bag and falling into step behind her.
The girls slid down the scree slope, a cascade of a tiny rocks drifting down around them. Rey moved with the grace of a crystal fox, nimbly gliding on one foot and then the other. Rose, on the other hand, was all arms and legs, flailing, stumbling, and cursing every step of the way until she reached the bottom and erupted in a fit of giggles. Rey loved her for it.
The Millennium Falcon had landed by the opening of a narrow canyon, sharp walls of fire and amber-coloured rock looming all around them. Leia and Chewie stood by the ship's open ramp as Rey and Rose approached.
"We should get going soon—there's a dust storm on the way," Rey said.
Chewie growled, and Leia exchanged a concerned glance with him. They looked back towards the dark mouth at the end of the canyon.
The entrance of the Verosian village opened into a gaping, black hole beneath one of the canyon walls. There were no doors, no guards, and no sound. A silent empty mouth of rock, luring and open like a natural trap of some carnivorous lifeform.
"Where's Poe?" Rose asked.
"He's not back yet," Leia confessed, leaning on her cane.
"That's a bit odd, isn't it?"
Leia didn't reply, but her tired brown eyes fixed on Rey, searching for some kind of answer or reassurance. "Can you feel anything, Rey?"
Rey met Leia's warm, dark gaze. Ben's eyes—the thought escaped before she even had a chance to reign it in.
Rey turned away, searching for a natural point of focus. She found a sharp obsidian rock lying in the sand, and it was enough to ground her. She reached out and felt its heat and sharpness in the Force. It awoke her mind to the energy within and around her. She focussed on the dark cave at the base of the canyon. It was cool and the air odorous. In a large open hallway, the Verosian's busied themselves, bustling around something... around someone.
Poe!
They brought him wine and food while children played about his feet. Merchants presented him with different quantities and prices of hyperdrive fuel.
Rey felt Poe's presence, like the fluttering of an excited child. She grinned, sensing his confidence and inner monologue, a mix of cocky self-affirmations. Rey rolled her eyes, but then, there was something else. The slightest hint of doubt was creeping into Poe's mind. Rey honed in on that doubt as she stumbled through more of his thoughts. The meeting had gone on for far too long. The Verosians were too pleasant—they were waiting…
Finn came down the ramp to join them. "Maybe we should check on him?"
"Hey Rey," he said with a smile. Then, he turned, his cheeks flushing slightly. "Rose."
Rey lost her train of thought, brows furrowing. The ex-storm trooper was a bundle of nervous energy. He disrupted the Force around her making it difficult to focus. She tried to block him out, but the Force darted around him like a swarm of insects.
"Finn, can you…" she began to ask him to leave when a sound from deep in the belly of the cave caught their attention.
It was a single sound, but they knew it well. A blaster shot.
Rey, Rose, Leia and Chewie snapped their heads in the direction of the cave, readying their blasters. A consuming silence followed.
A shout. Then another. And another. The commotion became louder until it sounded like a great beast roared within the belly of the cave.
"Fire up the engines, Chewie," Leia commanded.
The Wookie disappeared up the ramp as two small specks appeared at the other end of the canyon. Poe and BB-8 were coming towards them, fast. Poe waved the laser over his head and a wave of bellowing Verosians spilled out onto the sand, hot on his tail.
"Go, go, go!" he shouted.
Leia, Rey, Rose, and Finn bolted within the Falcon. Finn and Rose went to the guns while Rey and Leia waited atop the ramp, beckoning Poe to hurry.
Finally, BB-8 whizzed up the ramp, and Poe leapt up behind him as the ramp pulled to a close.
Poe collapsed onto the ground, exhausted by the effort of his run. The Falcon lurched up, causing them all to stumble.
"Negotiations went well then?" Rey asked, her eyes sparkling.
"They… said… no," he tried to get the words out between panting breaths.
"Did you stick to the script?" Leia asked.
"Not exactly."
BB-8's mechanical head spun around as an answer, and Poe nudged him aside with his boot.
"Hey! It was going well. I got this at least." He held up a canister of hyperdrive fuel.
Leia sighed, bearing down on the weight of her cane even more. "You stole from them?"
"Trust me, you won't mind when I tell you the full story."
Leia rolled her eyes.
"We will talk about this later," she said and headed to the cockpit, leaving Poe and Rey alone with BB-8. The little droid's mechanical head looked back and forth between them both.
Poe pulled himself to his feet, running his hand through his thick dark hair and straightening his jacket.
"You should have come with me. I could have used your help in there," Poe said, dusting red earth from his elbows and knees.
"And miss the look on your face when they kicked you out? No thank you!"
"You know we would have made a pretty good team…the best star pilot in the galaxy…"
"The Resistance," Rey interjected.
"The galaxy," Poe reiterated. "And the last Jedi."
He leant back slightly, nodding his head in appreciation of the image.
"Do we have someone to pilot this ship or not?" echoed a stern voice from around the corner.
They both froze at the words, and a devilish smile appeared on Poe's lips.
"You can fly," he gestured for her to go first, but Rey hesitated. The question of who should pilot the Falcon had become something of a game between them. Chewie remained a steady co-pilot but the pilot's chair was in constant contention.
"Thanks." Rey narrowed her eyes. She took one slow, watchful step past him, bracing for something to happen but nothing did.
"In your dreams." He laughed, and with a sudden yank, she was behind him. They fought their way to the cockpit until Poe slipped ahead of her and into the pilot's chair with a wink.
"Is everything alright?" Leia asked.
"Everything is just fine," Poe said with a chortle, but then the smirk from his face dropped.
Rey followed his gaze as three large war-ships materialised out of the desert ground.
"You've got to be kidding me!? They live in holes in the ground, but they have ships like that!"
"You had to go and steal from them," Leia growled from behind him.
"Well, they're going to have to catch us first!"
Poe engaged thrusters, and the Falcon shot through the magenta sky with the three Verosian warships following swiftly on its tail.
"Engage the rear deflection shield," Poe ordered Chewie.
A shuddering blast pummeled the ship as one of the Verosian ships met their target. Poe dropped the ship suddenly and circled back, the Falcon firing its own laser cannons manned in defence.
Then, what looked to be a flock of birds on the surface, shot up into the sky. Hundreds of tiny two-man fighters circled below them until the fleet banked skywards towards the Falcon, each of them firing dozens of thin lasers towards them.
Poe piloted the Falcon back towards the three war-ships until they each converged on them, flanking either side of the Falcon, forcing it higher and higher into the atmosphere.
The dusky pink sky began to fall below them as they gained altitude. The Verosian fleet moved in closer, completely surrounding them.
"You got any good ideas, Rey?"
Rey shrugged. She had been considering how she might shield them with the Force when, suddenly, their attackers fell back and the Millennium Falcon shot out into the empty black space ahead.
Poe let out a whoop, and Leia ruffled Chewie's hair as they fell into a slow orbit above Veros, calculating their next move. But Rey was quiet as she watched the swirling rust-red planet growing smaller in size.
"Why would they stop?" Rey asked, but no one answered.
She looked about, a sickening feeling rising up in her stomach. There were no signs of any other ships. Even still, a subtle dread made her feel like something was coming for them, like a slow tide trapping them unaware.
Finally, she saw it. On the dashboard before Poe, a small red light began flicking on and off, matched by a slow beep that cut through the silence.
Chewie and Rey exchanged slow and wide-eyed looks.
"What's that then?" Poe asked.
"Proximity alert," Rey breathed. "Chewie, can you see what it is?"
He didn't need to as the view of the pink sky of Veros transformed into blackness. An enemy ship, so large and close that it completely dwarfed the view of their planet. Black twisted metal laid before them, functional but streaked with glowing red lights.
"Is that…" Rey began.
"A mega-class star dreadnought," Poe muttered.
"It's the Finaliser," he added, throwing a sharp look in Leia's direction.
"Shut everything down now," Leia whispered.
"Switching to emergency power." Poe's fingers darted over some switches in front of him and the external and internal lights went black. The gentle thrumming of the Millennium Falcon's engine came to a stop. The single red proximity alert was the only sound and light in the cockpit. It splashed red shadows across their faces.
Rey's hand gripped the back of Poe's chair, the whites of her knuckles showing. The sound of her breath echoed long and slow within her chest. Silence wrapped around her, and one-by-one the hairs raised upon her forearms.
And then, she felt him.
Not across the galaxy, not through their bond, but there right in front of her in that metal shell looming above.
Waiting, watchful, and hungry for her.