Rey devoured her bread as she moved quietly down the hall, trying to keep her attention on the connecting corridors to hear footsteps. She turned down several hallways, soon getting lost in the labyrinth of the ship. Or perhaps her head wound was just making her confused. She could tell it was fairly small ship, by First Order standards, anyway. Guessing by the doors she passed, Rey supposed two Millennium Falcons would fit comfortably inside. A couple glimpses in some empty rooms led her to conclude the ship was a medic ship. It must have been the largest ship still functional during their evacuation of the Starkiller Base. And, of course, a First Order medic ship would have a holding cell or two. What else was she expecting?
After a few minutes, she heard two sets of footsteps approaching and immediately hid inside of a doorway, trying to pry it open with her still-bound hands. The door remained firmly closed. Spotting a keypad nearby, she frantically pressed a bunch of buttons, trying to force the door open. Still nothing. "Idiot!" she scolded herself. She knew machines, and mindless pressing would never work, but her thoughts were still jumbled with the wound. The footsteps were getting closer.
"Come on, you can do this," she pep talked to herself, her heart pounding as she examined the keypad. The dim light on her cuffs glowed as she ran her bound hands over the machine. She could hear voices now from the owners of the footsteps. She could not fight without a weapon, and even with one, she doubted she would stay on her feet for long with the blasted wound messing up her vision. Thinking of vision, the light on the stupid cuffs were starting to irritate her.
"Why does everything the First Order have need to be so dramatic? Regular cuffs would do the same job, but no, they have to glow ominously," Rey grumbled to herself. No, she could not think about the cuffs now; she needed to get the blasted door open to hide! The damned head wound was getting her easily distract – The cuffs!
Rey raised her arms above her head and brought down the cuffs as hard as she could against the keypad. It shattered under the heavy weight of the glowing contraption, and as an added bonus, the glowing light flickered off. Rey hit the pad again with the cuffs, and to her relief, the door slid open. She darted inside and hid against the wall of the room just as two Stormtroopers marched past.
"Did you hear he already ruined two living quarters?"
"He's wrecked the second already? I might win the pool if he keeps this rate up before we get to the base!"
The laughter of the troopers faded as they turned a corner and headed on their way. Rey let out the breath she had been holding and glanced around the room she had invaded. White Stormtrooper armor met her gaze, and after a moment's jump, she realized it was just that - armor. Black under armor suits hung along one wall, parts of their white armor were piled in different boxes according to pieces, and helmets were stacked in a corner. Apparently a First Order medic ship also included a storage room for troops. She could work with that.
Rey slid the door shut behind her and turned to find several blasters hanging on the wall along with the with what looked like miniature lightsaber hilt roughly the size of her index finger. Curiosity overruled caution, and she picked one up, pressing a small button on the metal contraption. A short red blade slid from the metal, exactly like a small lightsaber knife. Perfect. Silently thanking whatever deities that might exist, Rey put the metal hilt into her mouth and brought her cuffs up to the glowing blade. She shut her eyes while sparks flew from the cuffs as the blade cut through the piece holding her wrists together, and she then took the little knife and slowly cut her way through each cuff until they fell to the floor. Rubbing her wrists, she picked up the metal and glanced around the room for a place to stash the broken pieces. She settled for shoving the pieces at the bottom of one of the armor boxes. Now for a disguise.
Rey grabbed a black under suit and slipped it on, before looking at her discarded clothing on the floor. She could not just leave it here; those clothes were the only things she had left of her life on Jakku. Deciding to figure out how to sneak the clothes with her later, she slowly put on the pieces of the Stormtrooper armor, having to take a while to figure out which pieces went where. Most of the pieces were a little too big – apparently she had stumbled into the men's storage room, not the women's – but she did manage to stuff pieces of her old clothes under the armor to fill it out a bit. She had just fitted a helmet over her face when a trooper ran inside, grabbing a blaster from the wall.
"What are you doing in here, soldier? General Hux has ordered us to search the ship. That prisoner girl escaped!"
Rey hesitated for a moment and nodded, lowering her voice as she spoke, "Er – yes, sir." Her attempt at a voice disguise came through the helmet as if she had a cold.
The Stormtrooper beckoned her out the door and ran down the hall. Rey watched him go and took a blaster of her own from the room before heading in the opposite direction. She took a couple of turns to get away from the room with the broken keypad and then slowed as a medic droid glided smoothly out of a nearby room. Rey took a quick glance into the room, took a step, and did a double take before stopping as she recognized who was in the room.
Kylo Ren lay on a sterile white table, his eyes closed as a second medic droid hovered over him. He was stripped down to his pants, the dark cloth covering his legs and contrasting with the paleness of his skin. The wound on his side from Chewie's blaster was bleeding lightly, and a dark bruise had formed around it. The droid was placing a bandage over the wound while another droid worked on the angry red scar on his face by spraying something over it. Rey assumed it was a liquid bandage of some sort; she had even heard of spray-on skin. Both were extremely expensive, and she had never used either before. She vaguely recalled someone at the Jakku market saying spray-on skin was not worth it as it was rather painful, so perhaps that was why Kylo appeared to be unconscious. Whatever the reason, she was glad the former Jedi was not currently part of the hunt for her.
Rey looked away and shook her head, casting away the pity that had crept into her mind. She had spent too long lingering by the door, and she quickly moved down another hall, trying to find indicators that she was heading toward a ship bay. Two troopers jogged past her as she walked, yelling to her, "The general has ordered we lock down all the ships!"
Rey nodded and followed the two, figuring they would be her quickest ticket to find a working speeder. The three entered a small ship bay, and Rey was dismayed to see only one speeder and two TIE fighters, which were already being chained down by other troopers. She was not stupid enough to try to fly one of those out, not alone and not with a possible concussion. Back tracking her steps, Rey searched the far halls of the ship until she stumbled across what she was hoping for: an escape pod. She again smashed the keypad, this time with the blaster, and hurried inside. She closed the door and hit several switches as she collapsed into the pilot's seat, glancing through the door's window to make sure no one had seen her.
Just as she pulled off the hot Stormtrooper helmet, General Hux, flanked by two officers, pounded on the door before lifting a blaster and shooting at the door. "You little bitch! More trouble than you're worth!"
The door dented under the fire, and Rey slammed the button to disengage the pod from the ship. Alarms rang as the pod detached, and Hux dropped the blaster to grab onto the wall as the doors to space closed gently.
Rey quickly engaged the engines, getting as much distance between her and the First Order medical ship as possible, hoping the ship did not have laser canons.
AN: I don't think some of the tech in this chapter is actually canon in the movies, but dream with me a bit here. Also, I figure the First Order would be trying to one-up the Resistance in tech to hopefully defeat them. Thanks for reading!