Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. Just writing fan fiction for fun.
Chapter Twenty-One: Fumes
Threepio had joined them not a moment later to check on the general. It was the same time that Rose and Finn explained their plans and wild ideas to Poe about how to help the Resistance Fleet. But, it was a little bit too fast for Poe to keep up. Elle could guess his mind was running on a tangent as he sat down, letting it process. She was leaning by her aunt's med table, watching over her while she listened to Finn's rapid explanation of how they were going to get themselves out of this. She didn't really understand it either.
"Okay," Poe said finally. "Just give it to me one more time but simpler."
"So the First Order's only tracking from one Destroyer, the lead one," Finn began.
"So we blow that one up?" Poe asked hopefully.
Finn glanced at him. "I like where your head's at but no. They'd only start tracking us from another Destroyer. But if we can sneak on board the lead destroyer, and disable the tracker without them realizing it-"
"They won't release it once it's off after one system cycle," Rose chimed in. Poe's eyes drifted towards her now. "About six minutes."
"Sneak on board," Poe said, as he pulled up the map of the main destroyer through a hologram. "Disable the tracker. Our fleet escapes before they realize it."
Elle could feel Poe thinking. His head was weighing the options of a possible escape, and a possible way to save the Resistance from falling apart.
"This sounds really risky," Elle cringed slightly, unsure her self.
Poe lifted his head up from the ground, and looked over at her uncertainty creasing lines in her round face. "Your dad would do it," he said softly.
Elle bit her lower lip at that thought. Luke. Luke would do it. It's how he rescued her Aunt Leia. He snuck on board as a stormtrooper and rescued her.
"Hmm," Poe hummed lightly and got up from his seat. He ran a hand behind his head and then turned and pointed between them. "How'd you two meet?"
Finn and Rose cast a glance with one another.
"Just luck?" Rose said. Finn gave her a surprised look. He half expected her to tell the truth to them. And, he was thankful that she didn't.
"Yeah? Good luck?" Poe asked as he looked at Elle's aunt's still form on the bed. God, she hasn't even moved. At least she was still breathing, that was evidentially clear.
"Not sure yet," Rose replied.
Poe grasped Leia's hand in his, gently running his fingers over her fragile hand.
"We've got to do this," Finn added desperately. "It'll save the fleet, and it'll save Rey."
Elle looked away from her aunt's still form to Finn's desperate eyes.
"You really care about her don't you?" she asked, unable to help but notice.
"She would do the same for me," Finn nodded.
Elle smiled lightly at that.
"If I must be the sole voice of reason, Admiral Holdo would never agree to this plan," Threepio interjected. Everyone looked at the golden droid.
Poe sighed, "Yeah, you're right, Threepio. "It's a need-to-know plan, and she doesn't."
"Um…are we sure about this?" Elle asked, tilting her head to the side at him.
"Do you trust me?" Poe asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Well, I trust him."
Elle rolled her eyes. "That hasn't been the problem, Poe. He hasn't trusted me since I broke off from my spell."
"Is that what you're calling it these days?" Finn scoffed at her.
"Finn?" Poe gave him a strained and pleading look. "Please? I know things haven't been the easiest between you guys as of late, but can we agree to disagree here?" Poe asked. "For me?" he looked to Finn, and then Elle. "For the fleet?"
Finn and Elle looked at each other, hesitantly, but nodded their heads.
"Fine," they murmured in sync.
"All right, you two shut down the tracker," Poe said to Rose and Finn. "We'll be right here to jump us to light speed. The question is how do we sneak you two onto Snoke's Destroyer?"
"We steal the clearance codes!" Rose said excitedly. Elle smiled, liking her enthusiasm. It was a nice change in the atmosphere.
"No," Finn shook his head. "They are bio-hexicripped."
"Of course they are," Elle muttered.
"They're descrambled every hour," Finn continued. "We can't get through their shields undetected. Nobody can."
Poe looked up with a brilliant thought in mind. "I know someone."
Finn, Rose, Elle, and Threepio looked at the pilot curiously.
~*TLJ*~
"Could I do it? Of course, I can do it! But I can't do it, I'm a little bit tied up right now!" Maz cried over the fighting noise behind her. There seemed to be something going on around her on Takadona.
"Maz, what's happening?" Finn asked, as they watched her scene unfolding before their eyes, around the main console table.
"Union dispute, you do not want to hear about it," she said pretty clearly that they didn't. She ducked from another blast that barely made it over her head. "But, lucky for you, there's exactly one guy I trust that can crash that kind of security!"
Another set of blasters were heard in the background as she ran away from them, taking out her own blaster to fight back.
"He's a master code breaker, an ace pilot, a poet with a blaster," Maz said, and then shot another few blasts, almost out of breath. She narrowed her goggles on them.
"Oh my," Threepio said in awe. "It sounds like this code breaker can do anything."
"Oh, yes he can," Maz replied gravely.
Elle pressed her lips together in pure thought and shared a worried look with Poe. Poe shrugged his shoulders at her.
"You'll find him with a red pondblume on his lapel, rolling at a high stakes table," she paused to shoot at another creature that was firing back at her once more. Elle wrinkled her nose at the civil war Maz had suddenly found herself in. "In the casino on Canto Bite."
"Canto Bite?" Poe asked, unsure of what kind of place that was. He shook his head, as it didn't seem to ring any bells. "I don't know that place," he sighed, and leant forward on the console table. "Maz, is there any way we can take care of this ourselves?"
"Sorry, kiddo. Unless our dear Elle here has decryptifying knowledge of such things, he's the only one I know with that type of expertize," she looked at Elle through her goggles, making Elle wince. She already felt bad about her past. She only had knowledge of the Force. Disabling shields and stuff like that was definitely not her forte.
"This is rarefying cracking. If you want to get on that destroyer, I'll leave you with one option: find the master code breaker."
Maz disappeared into the dispute and away from communications, leaving everyone to wonder if this really was a good idea. But Finn seemed determined as he unhooked the device from his wrist and handed it to Poe.
"I'll walk you guys to your ship before you get noticed. You can take BB-8 with you," Poe said, taking the device from Finn into hand.
"And Holdo?" Rose asked worriedly.
Elle cringed. "I'll distract her somehow. She is my godmother."
Rose and Finn arched their eyebrows and Elle blushed almost guiltily.
"Yeah, I know, I was shocked too," she added sympathetically. Elle looked to Poe. "So, we meet back here in ten?"
~*TLJ*~
It seemed like Elle didn't need to distract Vice Admiral Holdo because she was already distracted on the bridge by the time she walked inside. D'Arcy let her through on the account that Elle needed help with something. But, Elle stopped short at Connix's dispatch station. A weird feeling overcame her, and the intensity on the bridge was high.
"How's the count of that vessel?"
"All of the crew is off, and heading to way. Receiving transmission from the pilot," she replied. Even Elle could see that the poor girl was stressed, like she had to keep it to herself from the rest of the crewmembers on board that were worried.
Elle felt everyone's emotions, and she was trying to combat that and hers.
"Bring it ahead," Holdo ordered, not noticing Elle was in the room.
"The rest of the crew has been evacuated and is heading your way. It's been an honor, Admiral," the voice said over communications.
"Admiral, fuel is now at six hours," someone reported, making Elle's stomach feel sick.
"Maintain our current course," Connix said like a robot. "Steady on."
Watching all of this unfold was breaking Elle's heart. Holdo finally took notice to Elle's presence. Elle gave her a saddened look, and Holdo pleaded with her silently trying to get her to understand what she was doing, but Elle couldn't at that moment. At that moment it seemed it was clear what was going on.
They were loosing more people, and she wasn't doing anything about it.
"Hello, Elle, is there something I can help you with?" she asked fondly at her, and Elle was about to reply until she suddenly heard Poe's voice outside the bridge.
"Is she in there?"
"The Admiral's stationed on the bridge," she heard D'Arcy reply back to him, trying to get through to him. "Let's not have a scene."
"No, let's," Poe said angrily.
Elle winced as he came storming inside.
"Holdo?"
"Flyboy," she remarked, tilting the side of her head. Elle watched nervously as he came face to face with her.
"Cut it lady. We had a fleet and now we're down to one ship and you've told us nothing!" Poe yelled at her. Elle had never seen Poe this upset before.
"Tell us we have a plan!" he motioned towards the crew behind him with nervous looks on their faces.
Now all eyes were on them.
"When I served under Leia," she began, trying to be as gentle as possible. She cast a sideways glance over to Elle. "She would say, 'Hope is like the sun. You could only believe in it if you see it."
"We'll never make it through the night," he stressed.
Elle's heart went out to him, understanding him. God, this tore at her heartstrings like there was no tomorrow.
"Yes," she agreed somberly.
Elle inhaled sharply, holding in a deep breath.
"You're fueling up the transports?" Poe asked suddenly, his eyes dancing and swimming with a heated rush of emotions in his head as he spotted the screens behind her.
"You are. All of them! We're abandoning ship?! Is that…is that what you've got? That's what you've brought us to? Coward!" Poe yelled at her, making Elle jump slightly at the biting sound of his voice as it raised a notch higher. He kicked the chair in one angry swoop across the room.
Elle looked around the room, noticing a couple crewmembers had taken a step back. Holdo looked irate, but she was still calm.
"Those transport ships are unarmed and unshielded," he explained angrily. "We abandon this Cruiser we're done. We don't stand a chance! No, you are not just a coward, you are a traitor!"
Anger creased within her face, "Get this man off my bridge!" she ordered.
A couple of officers pulled Poe away from the bridge reluctantly. He looked back at Elle and she looked back at him while he was taken away. Elle licked her lips softly and gave Holdo a grave look.
"I take it you didn't tell him?" she asked.
Elle swallowed hard, her eyes wide and child-like. "Not exactly."
"Next time, heed my warning, Miss Skywalker. You're on the next transport ship. You have five minutes with him," she said.
Elle gawked at her. "You're not serious?"
"I am. That's an order," she said.
Elle grimaced when she called her by that name. That was something she was going to have to get used to especially with the looks she received on the bridge.
~*TLJ*~
A/n: Cat's slightly out of the bag now! Ah, angry Poe's always fun to write. Poor guy. Hope ya'll liked the chapter. Follows, favorites, and reviews are awesome and loved and welcomed! Thank you all so much, and the recents! More updates soon!