AN: Hello once again, hope everyone's week went well.
.***.***.***.***.
Sirens blared and warning lights bathed the cockpit in a glaring red glow.
Lori had just slumped into the pilot's seat of the Tolera, bag on her back jostling from the rough movement and spilling half its remaining contents onto the dusty floor. Ardis still lay in her battered hovercrib, driven to exhaustion from the ordeal she had fallen silent.
The battered machine sat in Lori's lap, and she was left to awkwardly lean over it as she reached for the toggles and switches that would take them away from the swooping TIEs and collapsing buildings, away from the massive ship that loomed over the city.
Completely blocking the sun, it hung like deaths own shadow. A colossal ship, larger than the First Order's star destroyers, that were larger than the old empires, this machine of destruction stretched far into the horizon and cast down destruction in the form of hissing green plasma beams.
Lori didn't look up to any of it.
Ignoring half of the launch checklist, she wrenched a lever to the side. Suddenly on at full power, the thrusters kicked the ship into the air. Left with only one arm to work with, she scrambled to the side to grip the yoke. With a full bodied twist, she had the ship careening over the planet's surface, rather than into the fray above.
The sight beyond the viewport turned to little more than heavy brown dust. Occasional dark streaks that could have been TIEs or smoking buildings whipped in and out of view.
Without warning, the Tolera rocked to the side.
When the commotion wasn't followed by a sudden and fiery death, Lori realized that they had been stuck be falling debris. They were too low to the ground for the altitude meter to give a reading, and too blind by soot and dust to see besides. Loath to release the yoke, Lori made a quick move to slam down the button to activate the ships shields.
The shield generators were junk. She had them set to full power, but she knew that they wouldn't hold against a direct hit. Even a glancing blow would likely punch through them and turn the ship to a pile of slag.
Something hissed and fizzled against the thin shield. Lori desperately looked to the radar read out. Crowded with swarming dots, she twisted the ship side to side, desperate to stay out of the fighters' paths.
After a frantic flight that saw her careening left and right, the Tolera finally shot passed the edge of the city turned rubble.
She had only escaped because none of the combatants had cared to waste their time on an unaffiliated freighter. She knew she might not be so lucky if she came face to face with a squadron not distracted by the battle.
Dropping the ship to skim the planet's surface, she tried to take calming breaths. Ardis squirmed in her crib, and as much as Lori would have liked to stop everything and simply hold the infant, she had other matters to focus on.
Sirens still blared, screaming about the damaged hull on the starboard side. A quick glance at the control board found a warning light: Engine on fire.
"Damn it!" she added her own voice to the cacophony.
Struggling to keep Ardis and the crib in her lap, Lori reached up with her only working arm. The ship went wide as she did, slowly drooping to the rocky surface below. Struggling back and forth between the emergency controls and the yoke, she ended up wildly flipping a series of toggles in hopes that one of them would do something.
The Tolera bled deep black smoke from its starboard engine, despite her efforts. Gripping the wheel, she pulled the ship up once again.
The day light streaming through the viewport grew brighter as they left the shadow of the massive invading ship. Even at mach two it had taken too long for comfort to flee from the destruction.
Loosing speed from the damaged engine, Lori was left with a shrinking window to make a decision. Any longer and there wouldn't be enough power to brake through the atmosphere, but if she climbed too soon she risked running into one of the many TIEs that dotted the sky.
While she frantically weighted her options, the Tolera rattled. A fresh leak sprung from somewhere deep in the engine, and brought a new chorus of alarms to the cacophony.
A coolant line had burst. Any landing how was liable to end in a fireball. Spitting swears and shouts, Lori took the Tolera into a steep climb. The artificial gravity of the ship did nothing against that of the planets, and Lori was pushed back in the pilot's seat at the vertical ascent.
The fires in the damaged engine grew tenfold. Its heat reflecting back from the inside of the shield and scorching the thermal plates of the ship. One of the many sirens cut out, its circuits burned by overuse.
Fleeing to space was a long shot. But at least there, the fires would have no oxygen to burn.
Half way there, a TIE cut through Lori's flight path. A second before she swerved away, sparking blaster fire strafed the side of the Tolera and crashed into the imposing black fighter. Fighting back a wave of nausea at the knowledge of how close death had come to them, Lori kept the wounded freighter on its path to the stars.
One moment went by with no other fighters blocking their path.
And then another.
And then another merciful second of empty sky.
Stomach firmly in her throat and limbs shaking with adrenaline, Lori struggled for a breath as the Tolera breached atmosphere and entered low orbit around Bastion.
The moment of relief was short lived. Beyond the edge of the planet, but inside its moons orbit were two more capital ships. Classic gray triangles, she recognized the iconic silhouette of an Imperial Star Destroyer.
Reflexes still sharpened by panic, she turned the Tolera to face away from them. Leaking lazy plumes of smoke from the smoldering engine, she took the limping ship away from the destroyers.
She had to flee the planet. A lone ship, hardly holding together as is, wouldn't even be worth reporting as a casualty from the destruction those destroyers could cause. Never mind the immense gray dagger that floated above the planet.
Lori was no tactician, but she's seen Hux plot a thousand different ways to invade a planet, and the trade routes in and out of the system were always the first things to go. Nagging worries over where he was and what had happened picked at her as she limped around the planet.
The space north of Bastion held nothing of value. The moment she was free from the planet's gravity well, she would activate a jump to light speed.
The going was slow, and only one of the warning sirens gave way as the engine fire choked out of existence. No less than three others still warbled in disjointed waves.
Finally free of the last traces of Bastions gravity, Lori had to stand to reach the lever that would activate the hyperdrive. Off balance from the fear, the pain, and the heavy weight of Ardis and her crib, Lori uncoordinatedly shoved at the lever. The sudden acceleration to lightspeed knocked her off her feet.
Laying in a heap on the floor, Lori gasped while staring at the ceiling. The hovercrib landed heavily on her chest, and made it difficult to draw a breath. Left in a stupor from the sudden drain of adrenaline, she simply wheezed and stared forlornly at the ceiling. The final alarms had cut out at their jump to lightspeed, and the red warning light had given way to the flashing white-blue of hyperspace.
Coughing against an unsteady breath, Lori finally made herself slide Ardis and her crib to the side. Careful not to disturb the child, she turned over and peered into the cradle.
Ardis breathed heavily, exhausted and covered in dust. Lori brushed some of the soot away from the infant's tiny face. The soft touch roused a cry from the baby. Lori winced against the sound. Thankful that her daughter still had the will to cry out, but disturbed by the sound, Lori scrapped herself off the ground.
It was slow going. The full agony of her dislocated shoulder coming in waves now that she wasn't in a mad scramble for her life. Lori found the struggle to be too much when she tried to lift the hovercrib one handed. Resigning herself to her second choice, she took to dragging the machine and child into the cargo bay.
Stepping into the other room, she worried that they might encounter trouble, even at light speed. Away from the pilot's seat, she knew she'd never have time to react to what might be a fatal threat.
But, she needed to fix her arm.
She'd been left with dislocated joints and grievous wounds before. She'd grown quite skilled at patching herself up, and some old skills never really faded.
Along one wall of the bay was a rotating shelf. Meant to be storage, the shelves were deep enough for her to lay on. Some miscellaneous machine parts still remained in the bay. Grabbing a piece of rope, she tied a few droid scraps together, and then tethered them to the wrist at the end of her limp arm.
She tried to hurry at the sound of Ardis' cries. The haste only lead her to fail at tying the knot properly. Her shaking fingers and distracted thoughts slowed the process even more.
The palace. There's no way anyone in there-
She gritted he teeth and refocused her efforts on the task at hand. Through sheer force of will she managed to tie the weight to her wrist. The task of carrying it to the rotating shelve went slowly as well. But, in time, she had laid on the lowest shelf with her wounded shoulder dangling over the side.
It took a few tries, but she hit the control panel with her foot. The shelf moved up a foot, and then another, and then two more until the weight dangled above the floor.
Biting down a yelp, Lori clenched her fist and forced herself not to scramble off the shelf. Slowly pulled by the ships gravity, her shoulder slid back into place. The grind of bone against bruised muscle drug on for several long minutes before ending in a meaty pop. Body suddenly going slack at the sharp release, Lori groaned and didn't move from the self.
She would have been content to stay there, but Ardis' cries spurred her on.
Her feet found the ground with a soft thud. Untying the rope was far simpler than putting it into place. Arm still weak, and shoulder still weeping partially dried blood, she carefully lifted Ardis from her crib.
The infant was hot, and heavy in her injured arms, and it took all Lori had to limp back to the pilot's seat.
"Hey now," she muttered to Ardis just before slumping into the chair, "You're ok… we're ok."
She hadn't the energy to bounce a knee. Between breathy comments she looked to her emergency supplies. Half had fallen out during her wild flight, and that which remained were scattered across the cockpit floor.
"Looky there," she patted Ardis' back, wincing at the lingering pain in her shoulder, "we held onto a change of clothes, and that's at least three days of rations."
Talking did almost as much to calm Ardis as it did Lori. What she didn't mention was the real problems that they might come to face.
Half the rations were gone. Couple that with the busted engine, and she wasn't sure what their range of travel was.
"Now do you see the data pad…?" she skimmed the ground. Heart sinking as seconds ticked by without spotting it.
"Ok. Let's calm down for a second." Ardis had stopped squirming, and Lori was under no illusion that she wasn't speaking to herself.
Standing on deeply fatigued legs, Lori nervously searched the cockpit. Seconds turned to minutes, and her unease grew alongside her realization that the datapad was gone.
After a second search found nothing among the jumbled supplies, Lori came to a stop in the center of the cockpit. "Don't panic."
Ardis hadn't let out so much as a fresh cry.
"Don't panic." She repeated to the empty room.
It took a long, silent stare to the near blinding lights of hyperspace before she was able to make herself listen to her own advice.
"That's right. Sit down. There's work to do."
She came to a stop in the chair, Ardis laying on her lap. On the dashboard was a series of read outs. She had been right to assume that the blasted engines wouldn't hold out for long. A toggle of a switch brought up a projection of a star map.
Mentally placing lines where the boarders of the Fel Empire and Pentastar Alignment laid, she considered her options.
The Fel's extended far to the west, beyond that was an unclaimed territory that eventually turned into First Order Space. A glance at the remaining range on her ship found that she wouldn't make it half way across Fel territory before running adrift in a war zone.
The Pentastar Alignment was shaped like a crescent, and ran around the southern and eastern edge of Fel territory. Having begun her journey by fleeing north, she might be able to slide east and avoid the top edge of Alignment territory all together.
Of course, that would leave her back in the New Republic. Even worse, the closest inhabited system was Dantooine. Taking the long way around to get there would leave her at the very limits of the Tolera's range.
Taking time to think about it wasn't doing her any favors either.
Grimacing against the daunting odds, she shifted the craft out of lightspeed. When they sputtered to a halt, there was nothing but the empty void of space to greet them. Lightyears way from the nearest star, they appeared as nothing more than impossibly distant pin pricks of light.
"Piece of junk doesn't even have a long range comm." She spoke at least one of her complaints aloud while clicking in what she hoped would be a safe route to Dantooine.
At the obviously distressed tone, Ardis shrieked and began to kick.
Immediately feeling guilty, Lori pushed the ship back into light speed along their new rout.
"I know, I know. Being angry doesn't fix it." She slumped back to watch the light once more, "but damn, I wish I had a way to call Armie. Just to make sure he's ok." She shook her head, "Scratch that, of course he's fine. We just need to find a way to tell him that we're ok too."
Lori's words did little to calm the infant. Haunted by regrets and fears left unsaid, Lori lifted Ardis and held her close against her wounded shoulder. She felt heavier. Lori almost made a comment, but she found nothing that could lift the moment.
Alone and almost lost in space, she simply held her daughter and hoped that things wouldn't get worse.
.***.***.***.***.
General Hux stepped into his office, each though of his dogged by a bone-deep weariness. Devoid of sleep, he had been busily shifting between his official duties and then desperately searching for his lost family.
He'd just returned from an audience with the supreme leader. Snoke had been largely indifferent to the failure on Bastion; it was no consequence to him what fate held for the hermit kingdom. Kylo Ren had taken it as an opportunity to lord over the general. Hux would have focused on the barb and taken to plotting his revenge, but his mind was elsewhere.
The day spent traveling across the galaxy had left him with no real clues as to Lori and Ardis' fate. Nervously checking his computer once again, he found that Lori was still logged as missing in action. His bounty had been accepted by multiple hunters through the galaxy, but none had completed the job.
He'd sent an official communication to Captain Canady. He'd received a reply that was nothing more than an acknowledgement and a terse reminder that the task force was still a day's travel from Fel territory.
Finding that he could do nothing besides funnel more resources to Canady's task force, he nervously turned to writing another short message.
"I'm coming. Stay safe, and if you can go west."
Scarcely a second after he hit send, a knock came from the door.
Quickly closing any incriminating holograms, he called out, "Enter."
At his command, Mitaka quickly stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.
"What?" any weariness that might have clung to the generals voice was covered by a thick layer of contempt.
"Sir." The lieutenants back stiffened to attention, "You're presence is requested on this bridge. Kylo Ren's shuttle has begun its prelaunch procedures."
Hux checked the time upon hearing the lieutenant. They had arrived to Jakku exactly when the navigators had estimated. Loath to leave his desk, and his potential source of news concerning Lori and Ardis, he huffed as the stood. "Very well. Come along."
Mitaka followed in Hux's wake as he left the office.
The general hadn't the mind for mindless small talk as they went to the bridge.
A comment did spring to mind as they passed Captain Phasma in the hall. She was bound for the hanger bay, much to Hux's chagrin. Visiting some no name village on Jakku rankled him, and he thought that well trained personnel would better spent elsewhere.
But he said nothing, and it was only a moment later that he was left standing in the bridge.
The dusty planet where the empire had met its end sat below him. It hung as a pale brown ball against the black void of space, no more assuming than any of the other millions of backwater planets that clogged the galaxy.
General Hux thought that it was a pathetic sight. A waste of time and space, made all the more insulting for being the thing to pull him away from his search for Lori and Ardis.
He looked to a chrono, and then back out the view port. A squadron of transports tore through space and raced for the planet's surface. It wasn't long at all before they blinked out of view, distant dark dots swallowed by the nighttime side of the planet.
Ren could go on his absurd mission to retrieve the map to Luke Skywalker. He could do whatever he pleased to on Jakku's surface. But he had better make it quick.
.***.***.***.***.
The Tolera was low on fuel.
A day at lightspeed had taken its toll on the already limping engine. Lori had done everything she could possibly think of to stretch their effective range.
Shutting the airlock between the cockpit and the rest of the ship meant that she could turn off all but the barest amount of life support systems.
No more water recycling; she had filled a bucket and brought it to the cockpit. The oxygen scrubbers were set to minimum; just enough to keep the one room breathable. No more heating anywhere other than her little habitual bubble, even then the heat was set to low; she had put on all the cloths that remained on the ship and sat with Ardis in her lap, beneath a layer of jacket and bundled in blanket. The lights were off as well; Hyperspace gave plenty to see by.
Not that she needed it.
There wasn't a thing to do, hurtling along in her tiny metal shell. Not a thing to do besides keep the lingering fears at bay.
What if he didn't make it out?
She shook her head away from that one.
What if we don't make it?
She grimaced, before shuffling slightly. The movement of rough cloth over the raw patch on her upper arm had become her most persistent distraction from the intrusive thoughts.
She'd had a small med-pack in her go-bag, but it had been one of the many things lost. Left alone with an open wound, the threat of infection hadn't escaped her.
If I even live that long.
Biting her tongue this time, she willed the thought away.
They were going to be fine. She couldn't let herself believe otherwise.
They would reach Dantooine, she would find a way to contact Hux, she would get Ardis out of harm's way, and she would be damned if anything were going to convince her otherwise.
Especially herself.
Setting a level gaze on the flashing blue-white lights beyond the cockpit, Lori made a silent vow.
They were going to live.
And she would never be in a situation like this again.