AN: Hello again. Glad to see I've got some of y'all nervous out there. Anyways, this is the first chapter where I've pulled dialogue directly from the script of Episode 7. The plan is to weave this fic into the events of the movie, it's been pretty fun so far, I hope it's also fun to read.

.***.***.***.***.

Kylo Ren had been away from the Finalizer for an hour. Hux almost wished that the other man was still on the ship. Not for any sense of companionship he found in Ren, but rather because he would have been a useful distraction. Every insignificant word that Kylo Ren uttered drew endless amounts of annoyance from the general. At the moment Hux would have preferred the irritation over the worries that plagued him.

He replayed the siege of Bastion in his head as he gazed down to the brown planet before him. One Executor-class dreadnaught. Two Imperial-class star destroyers. Unknown scores of TIEs. No ground-based forces. A dozen pointed questions came to mind, he would hand them off to Mitaka along with a demand for answers.

A ripple in the steady hum of the ship and crew took General Hux's thoughts away from his personal predicament.

Mitaka walked over from the communications array with a nervous trot, "Sir, we've received a transmission from Kylo Ren's transport."

Hux turned away from the viewport, but only spared a glance at the lieutenant, "What is it?"

Mitaka hesitated for a small second, then finally said, "He's to return with a prisoner, Sir. He requests that an enhanced interrogation cell be cleared."

The general didn't imagine for a moment that Ren had put in a polite request. He considered reprimanding Mitaka for modifying the other commander's message, before ultimately deciding that the lieutenant's wording was more convenient. It didn't pay to have the crew see him give in to Kylo Ren's demands.

"Very well. Clear a cell," The general ordered. When Mitaka didn't scamper off after his orders, Hux was left to speak again, "Have you some other news, lieutenant?"

Mitaka didn't wince from the acidic emphasis on his rank, but other members of the bridge crew did.

"Y-yes, sir." He squeaked out.

"Well?"

"Sir," the lieutenant fought to regain some composure, "The mission was a failure. Lor San Tekka was located and eliminated, but the map was not recovered"

General Hux bit back a bitter comment.

Of course it was. Of course we let ourselves be pulled half way across the blasted galaxy. Of course! How could we have possibly expected to succeed on a mission that we've been foolishly focusing on for well over a year now?

Mitaka shirked back. Something dark and somehow more merciless than the general's usual disposition slithered across his eyes.

"I'll be in my office." Hux said instead of unleashing the angry maelstrom that the bridge had expected.

No one tried to stop the general as he left the bridge. Only after he had gone and disappeared around a turn in the hall did a few nervous whispers bubble up from the crew. A few of the other officers even gave Mitaka a sympathetic look, sorry for the man and eternally grateful that they hadn't been assigned as the general's aid instead.

Hurrying to his office, Hux didn't mind the commotion in the halls. A contingent of troopers were headed for the hanger bay, ready to receive the newly acquired prisoner.

A moment later his office door slid open and then shut, leaving him as insulated from the rest of the ship and it's problems as he possibly could be. Finally alone, he considered letting the misery and anger run rampant, letting himself shout, or sob, or give into any other emotional impulse that suited him.

But he didn't. He took a hiss-like breath before steeping to his computer. Greeted still by empty inboxes and no real information, his mood couldn't possibly sink any lower.

He should be leading an armada into Fel territory, not hopelessly pining away at a blank screen. He especially shouldn't be concerned with dead-end hunts for information that would do the First Order more harm than good.

Despite the misery, he took solace in at least one fact.

The map was gone. It wasn't in his hands to be destroyed. But, if the presence of their prisoner was anything to go by, the Resistance hadn't secured it either. One mishap in the interrogation room would render their prisoner dead, and leave the galaxy with one less clue as to Luke Skywalker's location.

With that silly distraction out of the way, he would have plenty of time to turn his attention to the galactic north. Back to the search for Lori and Ardis.

.***.***.***.***.

Lori had drifted in and out of as much sleep as her nerves would allow. Time had become stretched and distorted, being measured in little more than the number times she had fed Ardis. Seventeen feedings at lightspeed, if she had counted correctly. Sixteen of those had gone by locked in the tomb-like cockpit.

Shivering, she didn't dare activate the computer. Knowing how much longer she had until the Tolera shuttered to a halt wouldn't be nearly as useful as the fraction of a parsec she would gain by leaving the machine dormant. Just a second longer in hyperspace could be the difference between their survival or their doom.

Seemingly in response to her grim thoughts, the Tolera rattled and shook. Heart dropping and stomach churning in time with the transport, Lori tensed in her seat.

The blinding light faded fast, leaving Lori to blink against the phantom brightness that had stained her vision.

Eyes finally adjusting to the dark, she gazed numbly out of the viewport.

Nothing.

Nothing but the void. Any of the countless stars that might show them to safety looked to be little more than pinpricks of light. Cruel little things glinting in the distance, completely unaware and uncaring of her struggle hundreds of lightyears away.

Lori lifted a tired hand. Clicking on a single read-out left her with grim news: Keeping to the same minimum settings, the life support systems would hold for another twenty hours.

She switched on the lights.

Leaving Ardis as warmly bundled as she could, Lori collected the now empty water bucket. She found thin air and a near frozen hall when she quickly stepped through the airlock into the rest of the ship.

Already lightheaded from her short journey to the fresher, Lori filled the bucket with clean water as quickly as she could. She doubted that they would run the tank dry, but she also doubted that it would stay liquid once the cold grip of space started truly seeping through the hull of the ship.

Returning to the cockpit, she took a greedy, deep breath before forcing herself back to a calm.

As soon as she had replaced the bucket, Lori began tucking Ardis and her blanket back under as many layers of her own clothing as she could manage. She only came to a stop when there was nothing but a thin shirt between them.

Ardis protested at the commotion, but quickly calmed down at the warmth. She had cried out a couple of times during their flight, mostly when she was hungry. But she had been more silent, sleeping for longer stretches and eating less in each setting.

"Hey, now. It's going to be ok." Lori looked down at Ardis through the neckline of her jacket, but she spoke for her own sake.

Ardis blinked, her wide blue eyes looking back at Lori.

Taking that as the closest thing to understanding that she was going to get, Lori picked over the control panel. A distress beacon fed of its own emergency battery pack. Its range was respectable, but it only had a twenty four hour lifespan.

Only a moment after Lori switched the beacon on, she switch the lights off. Just running the lights for those five minutes had drained enough power to pull half an hour off their maximum survival time.

"It's going to be ok." She said once again to the darkened cockpit.

In spite of her words, she wasn't sure what would come for them first: Rescue, or a cold death.

.***.***.***.***.

General Hux scowled at the hologram feed that came from the interrogation room. He'd rather be back in his office, attending to something that actually mattered, but Kylo Ren had demanded that he come to the prison ward.

Paying little mind to the image of Ren leaning in uncomfortably close to their prisoner, Hux instead focused on the previous interrogator's report.

Their prisoner had been identified as Poe Dameron. The name was mildly familiar, and Hux was struck with yet another twist of dread when he remembered where he had heard it.

Lori had gleaned the name from that group of rebels on Bastion. The very first section of the rebel pilot's file had been written by her. The document had been edited and added to, but he still saw her influence over them. Reading over the words, Hux felt that Lori was closer yet more distant than she ever had been.

He was only taken away from the lengthy file by a scream that echoed through the door. A spare glance at the holofeed found Poe writhing in agony. Kylo Ren stood above him, stance tense, and hand twisted into a claw.

When Poe suddenly went slack, Hux assumed that the display would be coming to an end. With some remorse, he powered down the terminal.

Scarcely a second after he did, the door whooshed to the side. Kylo Ren stormed out. His unresponsive mask twisted to the side, as if annoyed to find Hux in the hall.

"It's in a droid, A BB unit." He didn't offer any further explanation.

"Well then." Hux almost made a snide comment about the lack of detail in Ren's words, before deciding the he didn't care enough to draw the conversation out, "If it's on Jakku, we'll soon have it."

Kylo sensed an ire deep within the general, but he assumed that it was nothing more than the usual loathing that the man held for him.

Purposefully trying to anger the general, he left the hall with the ghost of a command in his wake, "I leave that to you."

Hux would have rebutted, but Kylo Ren was fast to turn the corner and escape from his view. Biting back the angry retort, he instead turned to an awaiting stormtrooper.

"Retrieve the interrogator. Once our guest awakes, have her glean all that you can from him."

"Yes, Sir." The trooper was about to turn away and trot off after his task, but he was stopped by an angry hiss from the general.

"I did not dismiss you."

The trooper nearly strained his back for how rigidly he stood at attention.

"Tell the interrogator that she's to eliminate our guest, slowly. Record the ordeal and then leak it onto the holonet. Let the galaxy see the price they pay for their defiance."

This time, the trooper didn't move. He'd known the general was a monster, but he'd always dismissed the darker rumors. Looking at the man now, he was grateful that his helmet blocked his terrified features from view. Worried that he might be the next poor fool that ended up on the general's tables, he stayed poised at attention.

Hux had meant to have the trooper scurry along that time. Realizing that the soldier had managed to learn from his mistake, he gave a stern order. "You're dismissed."

With nothing more than the two words, the trooper was gone.

Once again alone in the hall, Hux left for his office. He would check to see if any progress had been made on Lori's bounty. Captain Canady should have arrived in Fel territory as well, and a new report on the situation was due in an hour.

Upon reaching the private room he sent a short message concerning the search for the droid and the map it carried. A contention of troopers were to scour the area surrounding Lor San Tekka's village. If anyone found the droid or the map, they were to return them immediately and directly to him.

He would decide whether or not to hand the map over or have it quietly destroyed.

In the meantime, he turned his attention to personal matters.

.***.***.***.***.

Lieutenant Mitaka had just finished drafting an update on Canady's mission. Not much had happened, and he had been trying to find the most gentle way to tell that to the general.

Mitaka hit send, but he couldn't shake the sense that something was wrong. It wasn't like the general to be so insistent that he be kept up to date on an obscure front. It seemed especially out of place that he had been in frequent contact with Captain Canady, sometimes going as far as personally dictating to the older man how he should conduct his forces.

Normally, Hux would make a command and then expect for it to be perfectly executed without him spending another moment on it. He had never tasked an aid with daily reports on something that wasn't one of his personal projects. And he had certainly definitely never asked for details concerning civilian collateral damage. In fact, the general had always seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in being as cruel as possible to make an example of those who defied him.

Logging out of his work station for the day, Mitaka tried to push his concerns away.

Despite his efforts, he found that his thoughts kept straying back to General Hux's odd behavior on Bastion. Phasma had been adamant that his disappearances had been part of some ruse, but nothing ever came of them. Coupling that with his short conversation with Lieutenant Grier, Mitaka was convinced that he general had a hidden contact on the planet.

Whoever they are, they must be very important. He thought to himself as he made his way down the Finalizer's clogged halls.

The shift had just ended, and Mitaka was debating whether or not he should have a quick meal, or just go back to his suite. A third option came to mind when he caught sight of Quin at the end of a hall that branched off from the one he was walking down.

Turning down the other corridor, Mitaka found that he had to hurry his pace to catch up. Doing so left him slightly light on breath as he came to walk even with Quin. She had been deep in her own thoughts, and didn't notice Mitaka until he spoke.

"Lieutenant Grier? Pardon me, do you have a moment to talk?"

She jumped slightly before stopping all together, "Lieutenant Mitaka? Where did you come from?"

"I just finished my shift," he began, before telling himself to get on with what he wanted to know, "I'm sorry if I caught you off guard. I… I wanted to ask you about yesterday."

Knowing exactly what he was wondering about, Quin nervously scratched at her neck and looked for a convenient reason to leave, "Yesterday? What about it?"

Mitaka saw that Quin was poorly trying to play dumb. He hadn't a reason to be mean, per say, but he was very curious to know what she had meant when she mentioned that missing major.

He as much as he didn't want to be pushy, he couldn't afford to be indirect, "You told me about a missing major. Why would they be on Bastion?"

"I don't know, that's why I was asking you." Quin looked back to the main hall. The crowd had thinned, and she didn't have the convenient excuse of seeing someone she knew to run off after.

He felt like he might be giving away too much simply by asking, but his curiosity got the better of him, "Would this major be a personal acquaintance to the general?"

Quin said nothing. She didn't have to, because the sudden drain of color from her face told Mitaka all he needed to know.

He was about to ask another question Quin recovered.

"Ok, fine. Maybe they are," she looked around the hall, this time checking that no one was near enough to overhear them, "But I can't talk about it."

"Why not?" He could imagine several reasons, but he asked in spite of them.

Quin answered in a hushed tone, "I promised I wouldn't say anything."

"To General Hux?" He assumed with a heavy layer of confusion.

"No, to the major." She corrected him almost indignantly, before adding, "Hux is terrifying, I don't talk to him."

Mitaka did nod along slightly at the comment, "Fair point. Can you at least tell me anything about this major?"

Quin was tempted to tell Mitaka, if only so that she would have one other person to share the secret with, but she had promised Lori that she would keep her relationship quiet, "Why are you so hung up on this?"

"I-" Mitaka tried to find a deflecting answer, but he found that he was too focused on what had happened on Bastion, "I… well you can obviously keep one secret, could you keep another?"

She saw something nervous in the other lieutenant, and she meant it when she said, "Of course I can."

Mitaka wasn't sure he believed that anyone would be that genuine that quickly, but his concerns had been eating at him. It wouldn't have been safe to speak of them to Captain Phasma, and confronting General Hux directly would be nothing short of suicidal.

"Thank you," he began, "Th-the general has been acting strangely lately, I'm sure you've noticed it on the bridge. He… he spent some time away from Phasma and I during our mission, he snuck away from us actually. Came back one morning dressed in civilian clothes."

"He was-!" she cut herself off when a contingent of storm troopers turned down the hall to continue their patrol.

Quin poorly faked a cough in attempt to hide the fact that she had just been talking. She tried to think of any reason -besides visiting Lori- that would have Hux sneak away from his aid and guard on a high-profile mission. When she came up with nothing, she nervously waited for the last of the stormtroopers to turn the corner and disappear from the hall.

As soon as she was sure they were out of earshot, she turned back towards Mitaka, "He snuck out? Are you sure?"

"Yes?" he wondered if he had somehow been unclear about that.

Mind racing from the surprise, Quin thought over the dates. It had been months since Lori disappeared, and the timeline was perfect for their child to have been born.

"Wait a second," she thought out loud, "You came back injured. Bastion got attacked."

"That's also correct, yes." Mitaka nearly continued speaking, but part of him wondered if he might learn more by simply listening to Quin as she rambled on.

"…and now it's a war zone. And Hux is asking for daily reports?"

"Yes, I just drafted a new one."

The confirmation brought reality crashing down over Quin. The general might have gone off to be with Lori for the birth of their child. But he had left the planet without her, and as a war zone. Moreover, he had somehow become an even larger tyrant on the bridge.

What if… the rest of the thought was too terrible to consider.

"I-I have to go!" Quin breathed out the words, already having broken into a nervous trot down the hall.

"Wait!" Mitaka called out, "Lieutenant Grier, come back!"

He would have gone after her, but she was gone from the hall and his comm had begun to vibrate and chime.

"What now?" he annoyedly muttered to himself as he answered the machine.

A panicked and static laden voice cracked over the comm, "Urgent communique for General Hux."

Mitaka let out a tired sigh, "Well ping him directly, because I'm off duty."

A heavy explosion made a garbled noise through the device, with the voice just barely cutting through the blast's echo, "Go find him! The resistance prisoner is escaping from bay two! He's got a- is that a stormtrooper?"

Spurred on by the sounds of mayhem, Mitaka ran off down the twisting halls of the Finalizer.