The next couple of weeks were quite hectic, not only did the BB droid manage to escape Jakku, it even did so with the traitorous FN-2187 and the resistance pilot. Hux was busy doing damage control by bowing and scraping to Snoke, assuring him that Project Starkiller was going to be ready as planned.

Hux knew that it was dangerous to make his life depended on one single project. He knew enough about engineering to be worried. There was always some hiccup nobody had anticipated.

During late-night shifts with tea and stims he reactivated an old Empire project that had been in his drawer for months - Project Kolmogorow. It was a programme that would be able to track ships through hyperlane jumps.

He had syphoned off money from other projects and had assigned the best slicers the Order had to complete it. If everything else failed he still had a trump card and if everything went to plan he had already his next big project ready to cement his importance.

"One day you'll work yourself to death," said Ren and yawned as Hux sat up in bed and grabbed his pad.

"I'm afraid that not having a plan is way more hazardous to my health than a few nights without sleep," retorted Hux with a thin smile.

"Want me to get you a strong caf?" said Ren and hugged him around the waist.

Hux chuckled. "You really can read my mind."

Ren was stark naked when he got up and went into the small kitchen. Hux watched him leave, he liked having him around - it was comfortable. His sight fell on his black robe hanging in his dresser. It had been quite a while since he bothered to put it on.

Since when didn't it bother him anymore that Ren saw his slim frame? He couldn't remember.

Moments later Ren appeared and put a steaming cup of caf on his nightstand before giving Hux a kiss on the crown of his head.

"Ugh, you're horrible, Ren," said Hux in faked indignation.

"Might helps you think."

Hux took the caf. "Thanks."

"So, did Pryde bother you again?" asked Ren and stretched until his joints clicked.

Hux scoffed. "Of course he did, asked for specifics of the Starkiller timetable just to annoy me. Waste of my bloody time."

"Why does he hate you so much? I mean, I get the whole power-play stuff but the way he's trying to undermine someone who isn't a direct threat-"

"He was a friend of my father's," said Hux curtly. He mused for a moment if he should tell Ren about Prydes cool grey eyes watching him as his father disciplined him. In a way he wanted to tell Ren about it, but what was he supposed to say? How was he supposed to say what he had endured? "My father was quite disappointed in me, Pryde agrees."

Ren fell silent, he always did when something made him think of his parents. He didn't even need to tell Hux that he was thinking about them, there was a certain pensive expression in his eyes, every time somebody mentioned family.

He caught himself wanting to say something to cheer up Ren but he didn't know what. In the end he just turned his attention to his pad and work.

Just as he was about to review a report he received a high alert message. At the same time Ren's holo started to beep in the pile of clothes on a chair next to the bed. They both exchanged glances before checked their messages.

Hux's eyes went wide: Informats had spotted the BB droid and a couple of Rebels on a planet in the Tashtor sector, on a planet named Takodana.

Hux quickly forwarded the message to the bridge crew and advised them to immediately plot a course to Takodana. He turned to Ren. "We're on the way to Takodana."

Just got up and started to dress, his usually expressive face a stony mask.

"What is it? I thought you would be relieved that we finally had a lead."

"I am, it's just that I have got a bad feeling about it." He grabbed his mask and left.

Hux pulled the sheet back and started to dress himself into a fresh uniform. Then he gulped the caf down before he went to the bridge to oversee the coming operation.

-o-

A couple of hours later everything was over - Ren returned to the Finalizer with a prisoner. Hux waited in the hangar bay to greet Ren, he had to admit that he was curious who the prisoner was, Ren hadn't mentioned their identity in his initial report.

The shuttle landed - less elegant than when Ren had flown it, Hux noticed - and as soon as the ramp was down Ren appeared and behind him a light-skinned, brown-haired human woman on a floating stretcher. She was unconscious.

"Who is the prisoner?" asked Hux.

Ren stopped in front of him. "A Force-sensitive scavenger from Jakku. She helped the traitor and the BB-8 unit to flee."

"What about the droid?"

"The droid is not important anymore. This woman has all the knowledge we need."

Hux frowned. "We should look for the droid, just in case-"

"That won't be necessary." With these words Ren stormed away, the floating stretcher behind him.

Hux didn't like it. It wasn't exactly news that Ren's occasional overconfidence was just a probably to deliver results as that it would fail - he should know better. Especially after the holocron.

Why was he so sometimes so damn pig-headed?

Hux waited for the Stormtrooper commander in charge of the operation to arrive. She spotted him right away when she exited to transport and saluted. "Sir!"

"Was FN-2187 killed?"

"Negative, sir. We confronted him and the rebel scum on the battlefield but before we could finish him off, the rebels arrived with their fighters and we retreated on Lord Ren's orders."

Hux pressed his lips together. A pity, but then again at least Ren hadn't used his soldiers as cannon fodder.

"Dismissed," he said. The commander saluted and followed her troops out of the hangar.

Hux returned to the bridge and paced back and forth in front of the viewport, from time to time he received reports about rebel sightings but his intelligence officers couldn't piece together where the rebels had fled.

If only Project Kolmogorow was already active! He could have crushed these resistance gnats in their hideout. Well, at least there was a good chance that Ren was making head-way with the scavenger woman.

He stopped his pacing. Why had nobody informed him about a Force-sensitive rebel? The way Ren had said it suggested that it wasn't that much of a revelation.

Perhaps he should go down to the interrogation chamber and have a look himself. He hesitated, no, there would be no point. What was he supposed to do? Lurk behind Ren as he tortured the woman to reveal her secrets?

He was of more use where he was now.