Chapter Four: The Fate of Hi-Five
"Weeks." Jyn said desperately. "It has been weeks since we started out on this ship, and we are no closer to our destination. That damned map changes every day." She shouted at Cassian, who was sitting in the pilot's seat, looking at the charts, worried. "We're going to run out of fuel and crash." She paced the cockpit nervously. "We need to find a planet, deserted or not, and land. Land this piece of shit ship so that I can get out and see fucking sunshine and feel the breeze on my face!" She shouted. Cassian sighed. He understood, very well, what Jyn was going through, but he didn't know what to do to help her. He could land the ship on the nearest planet, if he could find one. So far, as far as he could tell, there were no planets around, just empty space.
"Jyn, you need to relax. Calm down and take a deep breath." Cassian spoke softly. "We are not trapped on this ship. We aren't. I'll find a place to land, and as soon as I do, we'll go outside and explore the world that we've found." He tried to reassure her but he knew it was no use. She wasn't used to being "corralled" as she called it, and was desperate for something to do.
Cassian tried to soothe her. She was distraught, it hurt him that there wasn't anything he could do for her. He stood up, leaning down to kiss her forehead before he walked away. She reached out for his hand. Looking down at Jyn, he said something softly in his native tongue and kissed the back of her hand.
As he walked away, he felt his chest tighten. He was tired of watching Jyn loose herself, a little more every day. They had been traveling for weeks, with no end in sight—he knew that, and he understood Jyn's frustration. The more time he spent on the ship with her, the more he realized that it wasn't the ship that was driving him mad. It was her. As long as he was around her, he didn't care where he was, or what he was stuck doing. While they were careful about admitting their feelings for each other, Cassian felt that that was the most frustrating part of their journey.
Maybe if they had met under different circumstances, things would be different between them, but now, stuck on the ship with a protocol droid, both of them took measured caution when expressing their feelings. Kissing her on the forehead, and the back of her hand was the closest he had come to expression of emotion since they were stuck on Scarif. Often, Cassian wondered, if dying on Scarif would have been less painful. Certainly, less complicated.
"Hi-Five," Cassian raised his voice to get the protocol droid's attention. "I need you to do me a favor?" The protocol droid was sitting at the table in the galley when Cassian found him. "Hi-Five, can you find out where the closest planet is?" He asked. "I think the map that Princess Leia gave me is defective. I think I know the name of the planet that we're supposed to be going to, but it appears that its location keeps getting further away." The droid looked at Cassian. For a second, just a brief second, Cassian thought there was something decidedly human about the droid at that moment.
"I'm sorry. I am not programmed to detect planets." Hi-Five said.
"What?" Cassian was taken aback by the response. Hi-Five knew how to detect planets. He had watched the hunk of metal do it multiple times. The droid scanned the immediate area for planets almost daily.
"I cannot do that." Hi-Five repeated. Cassian growled in frustration. "I am not programmed for that." Hi-Five continued.
"You also can't lie. What were the orders Princess Leia gave you for this trip?" Cassian demanded. "I want every detail of your orders." Cassian said.
"I cannot tell you." Hi-Five said. "That information is classified. I'll be powering down now, I need some rest." The droid immediately powered off, not giving Cassian a chance to argue.
"Yeah, you do that." Cassian snapped. He sat down at the table, across from the droid. When it was powered down, it looked like a slumped over human sitting at the table. Cassian decided it was the perfect opportunity to disassemble and re-wire Hi-Five. The idea that Hi-Five was hiding something from Cassian became very real to him.
Jyn paced the cockpit watching an asteroid float lazily by the view port. She hated flying without hyper speed. There was no point in having a ship without hyper speed! Every now and then she would check the control panels, like Cassian showed her, but there was nothing there. There never was. No planets nearby, and the planet that they thought they were supposed to go to had moved off the map once again. She was staring at the map, watching small stars move in cyclic patterns when Cassian burst through the cockpit door.
"We've been lied to!" He shouted. Jyn jumped, hissing in fright.
"What are you talking about?" She asked. She realized that being on this ship had changed her. A few months ago, if someone had scared her like that, they would have been laid out flat. Now, her initial reaction was to cringe away from the offender. Cassian held up a small metallic chip, a cocky grin spread across his face.
"I just took this out of Hi-Five." He laughed.
"You disassembled Hi-Five?" She whined. "But Cassian, I hate cleaning. Hi-Five does it so well."
"You are going to love that I disassembled him." Cassian started. He leaned over the co-pilots seat and inserted the chip into a slot on the control panel. "He's been lying to us for weeks. Every time I leave him alone in the cockpit, he resets the map. That chip holds the entire list of orders that Princess Leia gave him." Cassian touched a few buttons on the panel. Where the map would normally appear, a hologram of Princess Leia jumped to life.
"H5F1, I have enlisted you to help the rebels. You will be joined by Cassian Andor, and Jyn Erso. They are rebel alliance members, who stole the plans for the Death Star. Darth Vader and General Tarkin will be looking for them. It is in their best interest, and the alliance's best interest that they disappear. They think that they are being sent to a deserted planet. The map that I gave them is a piece of a map that I acquired from an artifact exhibition. I have no idea where the map leads. H5F1, it is up to you to make sure that Erso and Andor do not return." The Princess' voice cut through the cockpit, and suddenly Jyn wished that they had both died on Scarif.
"I knew it!" She hissed. "We save the alliance and then we're exiled!" She was hurt, but mostly frustrated.
"Disable that damn map and find us somewhere to land." She demanded. She slammed her fist down on a button and the chip popped out of the panel. Throwing it to the floor, she stomped on it, shattering the small components beyond repair. "I'll scrap that droid, if it's the last thing I do!" Jyn stormed out of the cockpit. Cassian smiled at her sudden fire. For the first time in weeks, Jyn was excited about something. He didn't bother asking where she went, but he was sure that he had seen the last of Hi-Five. While she was away, he set a landing course for the nearest planet. It was six parsecs away, according to the more accurate, built in map. It would only take them a few more days to get there.
For what Cassian assumed was the rest of the afternoon, he didn't see or hear from Jyn. His excitement grew, however, as the nearest planet grew closer and closer on the navigation panel. He couldn't wait to tell Jyn that he found a planet to land on. For the first time since their journey started, he set the auto-pilot and left the cockpit to find Jyn. Normally, he would just call Hi-Five in to take over, but he now saw the error in doing that.
"Jyn," Cassian wandered down the corridor toward the galley, saying her name intermittently, hoping for an answer. As he passed the library, he said her name again. This time she responded.
"Cassian, I'm in here." Her voice didn't come from the library, but it sounded like it came from one of the repair terminals.
"What are you doing?" He asked standing outside the door. "Did something break?"
"Just my patients." She chuckled lightly. He heard a surge of electricity and a slight crackle. The smell of burning rubber floated out to him. "I'm using some parts from Hi-Five to try to fix the hyper drive." She explained. Cassian couldn't help but laugh at her. Standing outside the repair terminal looking in at her, he saw a petite woman, with disheveled hair and crazy eyes. He sighed as he watched her hands move meticulously through the wiring. He realized as she jumped back, cursing at a wire that gave her an electric shock, that he loved Jyn Erso. She could be crazy, and a little unorthodox, but he did love her.
"Jyn, I found a planet that is only six parsecs away!" He said excitedly. "If you fix that hyper drive we'll be there in no time." He said. Jyn dropped a tool she was holding in her hand.
"We're idiots!" She declared, almost joyfully. "It was taking us forever to travel to this new planet because we can't travel faster than the speed of light, Cassian. It didn't matter if Princess Leia was just trying to get rid of us, we never would have made it to the planet, because our hyper drive was disabled."
"Was?" Cassian asked. He wasn't sure if Jyn meant to use a past tense, but she did.
"Was. I fixed it. I scrapped that annoying little etiquette droid, and I fixed it!" Jyn growled. She was a mix of manic and ecstatic. She reached out of the repair terminal and pulled Cassian into a passionate kiss. Her grease covered hands left prints on either side of his face.
At first Cassian was shocked. Then, he deepened the kiss, pulling her out of the terminal. Jyn slammed him against the wall across from the terminal. Her greasy hands left stains on his shirt as she worked to unbutton the standard issue work shirt. His hands feverishly tried to brush Jyn's hair out of the way. He kissed down her neck on one side, and then the other. Her hands wandered, feeling every inch of Cassian that was visible. Cassian pulled away long enough to discard Jyn's shirt, and his own. He rotated positions, pinning her against the wall.
Cassian left a trail of kisses from her collar bone, to her naval. He hooked each thumb into the waist of Jyn's cargo pants and pulled them off her. Her panties soon followed. It was a long time coming. Both of them needed the release. It eased the tension that had been growing between them for weeks and allowed them to get past the distraction of attraction.
"The hyper drive is fixed." Jyn panted, pleased with herself, when they finally broke their embrace. They had moved from the wall to the floor of the hallway. She was curled into the crook of Cassian's arm. His eyes were closed, but they were both wide awake. Enjoying each other's company, for the first time. Cassian smiled to himself as he felt Jyn relax into his curled arm. He had imagined sex with her multiple times, but this was nothing like he imagined. Sex with Jyn was lustful, and passionate and absolutely perfect.
"We're going home." He laughed, he maneuvered his head and kissed Jyn on the forehead. "We're going to find a new home." He corrected himself. He resisted the urge to tell her that he loved it. Now wasn't the time for that.