Chapter 37
The kiss devolved from there to groping, and then to grinding, followed shortly after by clothes flying off. They clung desperately to one another, savouring every moment they could together; both knowing that the path ahead was a treacherous one, survival not guaranteed. The thought of losing one another driving them to grasp at what intimacy they could.
They made love on the couch, eventually moving to the floor, and then bent over the desk. Their passion broiling to a fever pitch with Ben thrusting in and out of her from behind. Rey's hands gripped the opposite side of the desk, knuckles white, breath coming in gasps as they both came with an unexpected ferocity. It caused a wave of the force to pulse out from them, tossing the furniture in the room away from them, against the walls. The resulting crash attracted far more attention than they wanted. While still coming down from their high loud banging could be heard from the other side of the office door. Ben quickly helped Rey toss on whatever clothes they could find while he ducked behind the desk.
"Is everything okay in there? Mistress Rey? Master Solo? What was that sound?" their guards sounded panicked, understandable considering all that had happened in the last twenty four hours.
Rey opened the door a tiny bit, hair disheveled, wearing Ben's sweater and her cropped pants, "Everything is fine! We're fine, no need to worry. Sorry about the noise… Ben was uh… Helping me… Uh… Redecorate!"
The guard looked from her hair to her mismatched clothes to the disaster that was the room behind her and put the clues together. He smiled slyly, "I see, well, maybe you should warn us next time you.. Redecorate?"
Rey flushed deep red and bobbed her head, "Sure." Then let the door slide shut.
She could hear Ben chuckling to himself behind the desk, she gathered the rest of his clothes and handed them to him, "Hey, that has never happened so violently before, how were we supposed to know?" she said nudging him with her toes.
He rose and got dressed, trading shirts with her, "Just feel kind of bad for those guards, probably pissed themselves fearing we were being attacked when in reality we were just uh…"
"Redecorating?" she said with a laugh, stepping into his arms and going on her toes for a kiss.
He obliged her and kissed her softly before setting about fixing the furniture.
An hour later the office was back to its original state and Rey and Ben were sitting in a small Senate office awaiting a briefing from the doctor they'd spoken with earlier.
He'd explained his discovery in the simplest terms and somehow, in the short time since their first meeting, he had come up with a possible solution. The doctor held up what looked like a flash grenade.
"We have had EMP grenade technology for quite some time, however it was forgotten when the droid separatist armies adapted. This grenade should stun anyone equipped and controlled by one of these chips. This should, essentially, negate the danger we face from these young force users Parnadee has forced into fighting us without killing them. I still need to work on a procedure for safe removal of these chips but, once we are able to find and destroy the transmission origin, these children should be able to function normally."
The Senator from Naboo spoke up first, "So, if we can get close enough, we can disable these child soldiers. How does that help us get through what I suspect is an entire fleet to get to them and the Chancellor?"
The Doctor stumbled over his words, then turned a desperate look to Rey and Ben, Rey looked to Poe.
Poe's hologram flickered on the table before all of them, he looked rather more imposing in this form than he did in real life. He cleared his throat, "The key is reconnaissance, we have already set up listening posts on the edges of the Unknown Regions. Once we have coordinates it shouldn't take my people too long to get the information we need. We've got the First Order's technology now, they no longer have that leg up on us. If one of them pokes a toe out of their space we can lock on and follow them back to their source by tracking them through hyperspace."
"Every moment we sit on our hands is another moment they have to prepare for us." The Senator from Takodana pointed out.
"Exactly," Finn said, his hologram standing right next to Poe's, arms crossed over his chest, "This is why we are assembling a strike force. Small teams of talented people on our best cloaked ships. We will survey the planets we already know she is operating on."
"Once they contact us we should be able to roughly trace the signal," Poe said, looking to Rey, "And they WILL contact us."
"What do we have that they want bad enough to risk another war so soon after the last? She must know that now she stands little chance against our collective might?" The Senator from Corellia asked.
Ben cleared his throat, "We found an ancient sith artifact in the Unknown Regions. She tried to obtain it from us once already on Rakata Prime. She failed. Parnadee must believe that this relic is worth all of this trouble."
"All of this for some worthless relic from times long passed? The sith are a fairytale, a story told to frighten children." Another Senator said.
Rey stood, lifting her hand and concentrating, it took Ben's assistance but soon everyone in the room was lifted gently to float in the air just above the ground. Gasps filtered through the room before Rey let go, letting them all slowly return to their feet.
"Now, that is just a harmless use of the force. Ben and I are not Sith, we seek balance, we seek peace. The Sith do not; The Sith use these abilities to conquer, control, and destroy everything. For the Sith it is always about power and the pursuit of obtaining more. Their relics are repositories of power, of knowledge that could lead her to more power." Rey shook her head, "The relic we have could lead her to something very dangerous, that is why we have hidden it. No one will find it. We will not give it to her. There will be no deal."
"You would risk the Chancellor's life to keep this relic from her?" The Senator from Naboo asked.
"Lando would have it no other way," Ben said firmly, "We will not bargain with this woman, we will not cave, but we will rescue him. Rey and I have already volunteered for the General's strike force."
The doctor cleared his throat, "I have already disseminated the information regarding the EMP grenades to our infantry forces, I think.."
He was interrupted by Poe who was whispering with someone they couldn't see on holo. Poe's expression immediately changed and he interjected, "We've received word from Parnadee. Patching it through now."
The holograms of their friends disappeared, replaced by the image of Parnadee. She stood with her back straight, hands clasped behind her, head held high. Something was off though… Something was not right about her eyes. Rey couldn't put her finger on it, it was just a feeling.
Parnadee's voice was firm but flat, not filled with emotion like the last time she'd spoken with her. "We have your Chancellor, he is alive and well… For now. You know what we want. Bring it to Rakata Prime and I will release Calrissian. If you do not he will die, painfully, and we will bring our full might to bear upon your new Galactic Alliance. You will not catch us off guard as you did on Bracca. You have four days on Coruscanti time. Do not make me wait."
With that the image disappeared and Finn and Poe reappeared.
"Well, that makes my job easier." Poe said, "We will mobilize the fleet and prepare, with your consent."
The Senator's voted unanimously to act and Rey and Ben did not wait longer. They dashed from the room, headed for the shipyard. They couldn't get to Poe and Finn fast enough. This needed to end. Parnadee needed to be stopped.
***I apologize, I work nights all week this week and therefore my next update will take time. Sorry for the delay but the end and climax are close. I hope you stick with me for it.***