Hux stood on the bridge and paced back and forth. The battle drill with his fleet was going according to plan, like an intricate puzzle the gears of the war machine worked exactly as they should. Watching the fighter perform mock battles had an odd aesthetic quality to it – as if they were performing a dance.
Lieutenant Mitaka stood at the console and received updates from the individual ships, everybody was busy filling out their roles. Hux watched them with satisfaction – this was what the Order was about. Military efficiency and professionalism.
For a moment he wished that Rose was with him, witnessing the order and the perfection displayed by the soldiers of the First Order. He inhaled. Perhaps she would at some point understand the necessity of ruling the galaxy with a strong hand. Then they could work together on the important projects and- what was the matter with him? He had to focus.
He straightened his jacket and turned his attention to the mock battle.
-o-
He spent the afternoon working his way through reports and signing off budgets. From time to time he made the effort to check the numbers,sending messages to the head of the department to check on some odd spending. The work itself was a waste of his time, and frankly beneath him. But the psychological effect was important, of course – his subordinates didn't know that he only checked a fraction of the reports that came across his desk. Once they thought he was actually reading them in detail they tried everything in their power to make the spending bills and their reports perfect.
He scanned over the spending bill of the maintenance department, curious to see how Rose's department was doing. As he glanced over the budget, he noticed that they had spent more than projected on droid replacements parts. He rubbed his temple and crosschecked the other reports from the department.
Hm, there was no indication why they had used so much more money than in the previous quarters. He activated the holo on his desk and called Mitaka.
The small bluish holo figure of the Lieutenant appeared. "Sir?"
"Send Lieutenant Chitundu into my office. Tell her I have questions concerning her budget."
"Right away, sir."
Hux turned off the holo and poured himself a new cup of tea. Once again it had paid off to check the numbers. He pulled up Chitundu's file and glanced at her last evaluation. She was rather young, but she seemed to be thorough – at least according to her superior officer. No negative reports.
He tucked at his leather gloves. In his experience young officers were nervous enough when called to his office – there was no need to be harsh.
His father would have disagreed, of course. He pulled the corner of his mouth down. Brendol Hux had honestly believed that making his subordinates shake in fear, breaking their spirit, was the right way to lead them. Hux hated the blunt way he had used his archaic methods to install fear into those around him.
The door chimed and Hux opened it pushing of a button on his desk. He got up from his chair and clasped his hands behind his back.
A young dark-skinned woman with a shaved head entered and walked towards him. He took in how she clutched the pad in her hand, and the stiff way she walked. She was trying to appear unfazed.
She clicked her heels. "You called for me, sir." Her voice was a little too loud.
He came around his desk and closed in on her. She was tall, but he was still towering over her. "Indeed I did, Lieutenant. I checked the budget... why have you spent 48,000 credits more on droid parts than planned?"
"Sir- I- I-" She clutched her pad so hard that her knuckles turned white. "I need to check my numbers, sir."
"Take your time, Lieutenant."
She quickly typed on her datapad, her fingers trembling slightly. He waited patiently as she scrolled through the budget, the only sound in the room was her typing.
Finally she looked up from the pad. "Sir, it appea- there has been a mistake in accounting. Five invoices have been added to the droid part account instead of the chips account." She steadied herself. "Sir, I apologize for the mistake."
She didn't even try to deflect the blame, admirable. "Then re-submit the corrected budget report by the end of the week."
"Of course, sir."
For a brief moment he toyed with the idea to ask him how the programme with the civilian workers was playing out but no- that had nothing to do with the discussion they were having. "Dismissed, Lieutenant."
She saluted and turned on her heels, still holding her pad in a firm grip.
As soon as the doors had closed behind her he returned to his desk and drank tea. He had little doubt that Chitundu would double-check all her future budget reports.
The next report he read was the one from Internal Security. The general mood among the troops was good, nothing exceptional here. He searched for his name – like in the last reports there weren't any mentions concerning him or his appearance.
He jumped to the section about the civilians. It seemed that there had been a disciplinary action concerning one of the workers. Apparently the IS intended to crack down on defeatist speech. Hm, this was certainly something Rose had better to look out for – IS had punished the civilian workers by revoking their promotions or vacation. It would be a pity if Rose couldn't reunite with her family.
A quick search with her name didn't turn anything up; he wasn't particularly surprised. She was outspoken, but he doubted that she would actually complain about the Order in public. She only did that in private... to him.
She trusted him. She liked and trusted him.
.
-o-
.
Rose's heart hammered against her chest as she strode down the corridor to her quarters. She felt ill, everybody seemed to stare at her. She played her conversation with Tarc over and over in her mind. Had she slipped up somewhere? Had there been a contradiction somewhere?
Once the doors closed behind her she opened the topmost button on her uniform and took a deep breath. She let herself fall on her bed. Kriff.
Finally she had made progress and gathered real intel – and at the same time she had exposed herself. Worse was the stupid lie she had told Tarc. No, she had to calm down, to think.
She sat up and exhaled.
Tarc was her friend, a noisy, annoying friend but still... perhaps she would keep it to herself. On the other hand she loved gossip and it was highly improbable that she wouldn't tell anyone. But even if the rumour spread; what could really happen?
People would snicker behind her back – Peavey was about 15 years older than her after all. After a few weeks they would stop talking about it because neither she nor Peavey were interesting enough as gossip material.
Worst case was that somehow Tarc would realise that she had lied to her. She would keep digging until she had found the truth, satisfied her curiosity. If that happened she would either back off as soon as she realised that, well, she was seeing General Hux himself. Or the whole thing would explode in Rose's face – making Hux transfer her away and ending her mission.
Kriff, it was now beyond her control. She felt a headache coming on and she felt a little sick to her stomach. For the first time she truly felt alone. If only she could contact Paige or Poe – talk to them for a bit.
She sniffled. All she could do was follow through – do her best to gather more intel. She couldn't worry about things beyond her control, she should focus on what she could control.
-o-
She still felt queasy when she decided to head to the lab. It didn't help that she had skipped dinner. She wasn't particularly hungry, but she still regretted her decision to avoid the mess hall.
She was met with a delicious smell as soon as she stepped over the doorway. She stopped in her tracks and saw a box sitting on her workbench.
Hux looked up from his work and gave her a smile. "You seemed to enjoy the dumplings last time, so I brought some more."
She gaped at him, and looked from the box with the dumplings and back to him. She could feel a big smile spread across her lips. Without thinking she rushed over to him and hugged him.
He was startled, but after a short moment of hesitation he returned the hug. She closed her eyes and pressed her ear against his chest, she could hear his steady heartbeat, feel his warmth, and she relaxed. For a moment everything was alright. The depressing feeling of loneliness disappeared.
About a minute passed as they stood in silence, Hux rubbing her back.
"I'm sorry. I just had a shit day," she mumbled in his chest.
"Then it's a good thing that I got the dumplings."
She let go of him and quickly wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "You have no idea."
He smiled again his little, barely noticeable smile. "I prepared cool tea too."
She looked at him, he wasn't supposed to look so soft, and he certainly wasn't supposed to be so nice and considerate. Scenes from his speech came to her mind, Hux screaming and shouting about the Order's superiority. She gulped. Just tonight she would allow herself a break, just this once.
"Care to join me for dinner?" she asked.
He hesitated for a split second before he nodded. "I would love to."
They went over to the workbench and she opened the box; steam rose up in the air and she noticed that there were different dumplings in the box as well as three different sauces.
"The chef recommended shrimp and poultry dumplings in addition to the veggie ones," Hux said. He poured her a glass of cool tea.
She took the fork lying beside the box and shoved the first dumpling into her mouth, the shrimp tasted heavenly. She chewed and couldn't stop grinning. "You're the best!" she said with a full mouth.
A shadow passed over his face and his small smile faded. He looked oddly unhappy compared to moments before. Just the way his mood had darkened after she had complimented him the last time.
He didn't believe her. She felt a small stab in her heart.
She swallowed and put her hand on his. She caressed the back of his hand with her thumb. "Hey, I mean it. This is really nice of you."
The tips of his ears turned pink. "It's nothing."
She impaled another shrimp dumpling and handed him the fork. "Try this, it literally melts on your tongue."
He dunked it in the reddish sauce and took a small bite. Then another small bite. She waited for him to finish. She had noticed before that he was eating very slowly, always small cautious bites as if he expected the food to turn bad.
"So, do you want to talk about your shit day?" he asked between bites.
For a moment she was tempted. She could tell him bits and pieces... not enough that he could piece it together, but enough to let her blow off some steam. No, no, it was too risky.
"Just the usual, but today I felt kind of... I don't know. Sometimes it just feels like I'm not catching any break, like I'm never going forward."
He ate the dumpling and handed her the fork. "Hm, I know that feeling. It's like going around and around in circles. I think I can see the goal but every time I reach it, it turned out to be just a stopover. And I keep going on, waiting to reach the endpoint."