Alone at last, Lori sank into the pilot's seat. The three rebels on board had been very busy making sure that Mitaka never needed to take a turn in the cockpit, to the point that most of them didn't even bother to be wary of Lori.
Even now, Finn was awake in the other room, keeping a distrusting eye on the lieutenant.
Lori didn't let them worry her as she settled into place.
The ship was old, and telling by the dust and generally poor condition, Finn had probably pulled it out of some forgotten scrap heap. Still, Lori didn't let a thick layer of grime dissuade her from searching the cockpit for a long range comm.
She whipped the dust from more than just the surfaces she touched, more than aware that she needed to hide her tracks. The entire cockpit had been scrubbed clean, and she had only found a short range system. It made sense, this ship had been designed to travel only from a capital ship to a planet's surface.
Not completely surprised, she leaned back in the pilot's seat, eyes flickering to the swirling blue white lights of hyperspace. She didn't let her gaze linger for long as a few old tales of madness echoed at the edge of her mind.
More than a little paranoid, Lori cast a glance over her shoulder and to the cockpit door to listen for any movement in the single room beyond it. She was relieved when she heard nothing.
Trying to move as quietly as possible, she leaned down to pry open a panel beneath the dashboard. In the tangle of wires, she found the one worn line that went to the emergency beacon.
Doing her best to avoid being shocked, she pulled the wires away from their connection to the control board before twisting their exposed ends together. Pushing deeper into the decrepit machine, she was just able to make out a dim light from the emergency beacon.
Buried so deep in the innards of the ship, it would be nearly impossible to find unless someone pulled off the panel to search for it.
Shuffling back to an upright position, Lori cast a quick look back to the top of the dash. The light that signaled the emergency beacon was off, its power also meant to come from the wires Lori had pulled from their place.
Sure that it was only a matter of time now, Lori replaced the panel. The tension wouldn't drop from her shoulders, no matter how much she willed it too.
Minutes and then hours ticked by as Lori pointedly tried to ignore the glowing display beyond the viewport.
Just as she began to doubt her plan, the swirling lights of hyperspace blinked away with a sudden, horrible jolt. Even while sitting in the pilot's seat, Lori nearly flew forward with the abrupt stop. A clatter came from the room behind, quickly followed by a series of shrieks from Ardis and a string of harsh words from the rest of the passengers.
Repressing the urge to hurry to the other room to check on her daughter, Lori stayed in her seat a moment longer. Through the newly darkened viewport Lori found a mid-sized cargo ship. Built in sharp angles and coated in a dull dark gray, any fool in the galaxy would recognize that it belonged to the First Order. Quickly drifting towards the ominous vessel, the dropship had been caught in a tractor beam and yanked from hyperspace.
Having already decided what part she would play, Lori didn't waste any time before hurrying to the door.
"We've got company!" she shouted from the doorway.
The only other real room in the ship was in disarray. The one rebel that had been asleep was sprawled across the room, rudely awakened. Finn was stepping away from a wall, having knocked his head against it in the collision. Mitaka was sitting next to Ardis' makeshift bed, the infant no worse for wear but shrieking and sobbing because of the surprise. The other rebel that had been asleep in the gunner's cradle was nowhere to be seen.
Finn was the first to move, continuing his motion away from the wall and towards Lori and the cockpit. She watched his eyes go wide at the sight of the enemy ship.
A skilled pilot might be able to break free of the tractor beam, but Lori had already stalled past the point of no return. "I already tried breaking out of the field," she lied.
Apparently Finn wasn't keen on flying ships, because he didn't even insist that they try again. "We're going to have to fight," a dread and heavy realization dragged at his words.
"That would be suicide!" Mitaka, had to shout to be heard over the shrieking infant in his arms.
"You got a better idea?" Finn challenged the other man.
The third rebel had just managed to scoop himself off of the ground, "Guys! We don't have time for-"
Another smaller jolt rocked the ship as it was drawn into a landing bay.
Deeply aware of how much danger they were in, Finn felt a pit open under his stomach as he saw a trooper commander and two others approaching the ship.
A voice crackled over the comm, distorted by the old machine, "Unidentified ship, lower your ramp and submit for inspection."
Mitaka hurried his way towards cockpit door. Intending to hand Ardis over to Lori, he couldn't help but comment as well, "Surrender is always an option."
Finn gave the lieutenant a sharp look before turning to Lori, "Keep the cockpit door shut, it's going to get messy."
She nodded, more than happy to stand in the background.
Lori looked to the infant in her arms, muttering some comforts to the fidgeting little girl as she stepped back into the cockpit.
A heavy groan and sharp clicks came from the airlock.
Finn looked nervously at the door before looking back at Mitaka, "You too, into the cockpit. I don't trust you not to shoot me in the back."
Offended, and speaking in spite of the circumstance Mitaka began, "No hold on-"
He was interrupted by Lori sharply jerking at the collar of his coat. Stumbling back, Mitaka hadn't even gained his footing by the time the cockpit door was sliding shut between him and Finn.
The lieutenant turned to face her, talking as silently as he possibly could, "A firefight isn't part of the plan."
"You're going to have to learn how to improvise," Lori whispered, "That door should be able to take a hit. All we have to do is stay out of the way, and then surrender. If Finn want's to die in a shootout, that's his problem."
Mitaka uneasily shifted his weight back and forth, nervously looking between the door, the hangar bay beyond the viewport, and Lori.
"Just go with it," she urged him.
The stubborn concerns that still clung to the lieutenant didn't have time to be voiced before a creak came from the airlock.
The rush of sound was immediate and deafening. Boots trampled into the room and shouting soon followed. No one had the chance to fire in the scuffle that broke out. Mitaka jumped at each heavy thud that came from beyond the door.
While he was no friend of the Resistance, he didn't wish the men in the other room dead. Never mind that it would be such a waste if any of the troopers were killed on what should have been a quiet shift.
The scuffle eventually died down, and no reinforcements had rushed to the drop ship. Lori felt some stress drop from her shoulders for the first time in months. Though it was quick to return as she began deciding what she would say to the troopers.
Well trained or not, she didn't expect them to take her at her word.
Muffled voices came from the main room, one of them deadly calm and the others barely contained shouts.
They might have gone on for quite some while if Ardis hadn't slipped back into her temper tantrum. Lori quickly held the infant against her shoulder, muttering calming words and rubbing a hand against the baby's back.
Though Ardis' cries were quickly stifled, it was impossible not to feel a dangerous silence settle over the ship.
A second ticked by. Then boot steps grew closer to the door. Mitaka took a half step back, wide and worried eye fixed on the cockpit door. Lori shifted her position to stand directly behind the lieutenant, on the off chance that the trooper opening the door might shoot before looking.
When the door whipped to the side, it revealed a white clad trooper, his black shoulder piece marking him as a company commander.
Mitaka jolted at the moment, whereas the commander stood perfectly still. Beyond the commander, Finn and one of the other rebels were on their knees, their hands held behind their heads as two troopers had their blasters trained on them.
Looking beyond the stormtroopers, Lori's gaze drifted to the third rebel crawling his way out of the gunner's cradle. After hitting his head in the initial yank out of hyperspace, he had been stirred to action by the sounds of a struggle in the main room.
Time seemed to stretch into slow motion as Lori watched one of the troopers notice the man. With a robotic motion, the trooper fired at the potential threat.
The echo of the blaster bolt was deafening and deathly silent beneath the sound of a dead body slumping down into the gunners cradle.
The commander hardly flinched at the commotion, his expressionless helmet smoothly gliding from the cockpit to the main room.
"Crawling out from holes in the ground like vermin." He casually remarked, "They should be exterminated like vermin as well. Open Fire."
Almost before the commander said his last two words, Finn ducked to the side and then struck out from his place on the floor. A blaster bolt zipped through the air where his head had been only a split second ago.
Unharmed, Finn hooked a hand around the trooper's ankle, pulling the armored man to the ground. The trooper that had just shot the rebel in the gunner's cradle spun round at the sound and fired before he took in the scene.
A crackling green bolt flashed through the room before searing a hole into the felled trooper's pristine armor. Snarling at the sudden chaos of what should have been a simple order, the commander went for the blaster pistol at his side.
The other rebel rose and charged at the trooper that reeled from having shot his comrade. Finn began to push the lifeless soldier off of him, before seeing the commander preparing to fire and hiding back behind the body.
One plasma bolt after another cut into the dead trooper, his limp body giving a horrible jolt with each blow.
Realizing that his plan was faulty, the commander abandoned his grounded target, and instead turned into the cockpit.
The commander's blaster pistol came level to Mitaka, who had his hands raised in surrender. Lori tensed at the imminent threat. Ardis felt the fear rolling off her mother, and began crying with a fresh fervor.
The commotion in the room came to a stop. The other rebel had won his struggle with the trooper, and now held the soldier's own blaster against his side. Finn scampered to standing, eyes locked on the commander who stood perfectly still.
For a horrible second, the only sound in the ship was Ardis' echoing cries.
A dozen fervent thoughts cut through Lori, each of them twisted and brought to ruin with a storm of emotions. She could get out of this. She had to get out of this. Blaster leveled in her direction or no, she had to find whatever words this commander needed to hear.
"Stand down trooper," she began in an admonishing voice that she was sure would confuse the aggressive commander, "There's been a misunderstanding."
Mitaka nervously glanced over his shoulder, only to quickly look back down the barrel of the blaster that was scarcely a foot away from his face.
While Lori talked, Finn weighed his options. Reinforcements couldn't be more than a few seconds away. They had already lost one person in the scuffle, and he couldn't just stand by and watch that commander fire on another.
"Lower your blaster," Lori payed no mind to the rebels behind the commander as she spoke for them, "We're surrendering. You win."
A hint of static came from the commander's helmet. Before he got the chance to speak, a renewed struggle came from the far end of the main hold. The trooper being held by the rebel was twisted to the side as far as he could in effort to free himself.
In the second it took for the commander's head to snap to the side in response to the sound Finn crashed into his side, sending both of them sprawling to the ground. On his way down, the commander's hand squeezed in reflex, sending a wide and wild shot of burning plasma flying through the cockpit.
Lori and Mitaka had both jumped at the first sign of Finn's rush, leaving the shot to do nothing more than graze Lori's shoulder.
Yelping at the searing pain in her arm, Lori didn't even notice as the other rebel fell dead to the ground in the hold.
Reeling from his near brush with death, the previously apprehended trooper turned around just in time to see his commander fall to the ground.
Finn stumbled a few steps before rushing into the cockpit. Lori pressed herself against the wall, carefully clutching Ardis close to her. Mitaka didn't move so quickly, and toppled over as Finn clipped his shoulder. As the both of them tumbled over the pilot's seat, Finn slammed a hand down over the door controls.
The cockpit door hissed shut, cutting off the death and disarray of the main hold.
A quick rash of movement came from the hanger bay beyond the viewport as reinforcements poured forward.
Half fallen down, Finn threw the switch that would activate the engines. With the main airlock still open, the transport wobbled into the air.
"What are we doing!?" Mitaka shouted from his halfway upside-down position.
"We're still in the hangar!" Lori shouted over Ardis' cries as she saw Finn activating the hyperdrive.
Finn didn't slow, despite having to crawl over the downed lieutenant, "Don't worry, I've done this before."
"Done what!?" Mitaka asked just before wiggling to the ground and smacking against the floor with a thud.
Lori didn't have time to explain before a sliver of dark space flashed in front of the dropship. Seeing the tiniest window of escape, Finn made the jump to lightspeed.
The hangar bay distorted and warped out of view, a troopers blaster bolt seemingly stopping midair as the ship rocketed away. A heavy thud came from the cockpit door as the air was sucked out of the other room.
A sharp whistle of rapidly escaping air curled around the only thing separating them from the hungry void, and it seemed an eternity until Lori was able to find the lever that would shut the airlock. It seemed even longer until the thing shut and they weren't in danger of being pulled into the unknowable reaches of hyperspace.
Crammed into the one person room that was the cockpit, Mitaka struggled to get his footing. By the time he made it to his feet, the ships systems were fully online and the entire vessel was safe once again.
The lieutenant, however, was deeply disturbed by the events of the day, "Th-that… they… That was an unlawful order." He finally settled on what to say.
Finn had settled fully into the pilot's seat. He didn't need to say anything to show that he thought Mitaka was an idiot for only just noticing that the First Order was filled with war criminals, his body language showed it clear as day. Instead he settled on a skeptical, "Yeah."
"They opened fire without warning. I-I don't… We said we surrendered. And they attacked after that."
Lori saw this going in all the wrong directions. "We are with the Resistance," she tried to subtly nudge Mitaka away from his worries.
"They didn't know that," Finn scoffed.
"And there's protocol for boarding a ship," Mitaka added, mostly for his own sake, before addressing the other two, "Those troopers should have disobeyed their commander. That was an unlawful order, and-"
Finn cut him off, "and they would have gotten themselves thrown into a reconditioning program. Are you sure you were an officer? The First Order does war crimes all the time, and you're surprised now? Were you just looking the other way then they blew up Hosnian Prime?"
Mitaka's mouth gaped as he searched for something to say.
Lori didn't see this ending well, and stepped in, "Either way, we need to get back to the rest of the group. Mitaka, go see what supplies we still have. I think most of them got pulled out of the airlock, but we still need to check. Finn, I think it was your turn to pilot anyways."
"We didn't just lose supplies back there," Finn was quick to point out his murdered friends. Lori's attempt to seem like a calm collected leader after their brush with death felt especially galling. Finn didn't care for any of her plans or ideas as he angrily sat in the pilots seat, "It's also pretty cramped in here, so why don't you go back to the main hold? I'll keep the cockpit door open. That way we can all see danger the second it shows up."
Lori caught the accusation that she had stalled the first time, but she didn't let it show. She also saw exactly how irritated Finn was with the situation in general, and her in particular. Before turning to leave for the other room, she knew she had to at least try and smooth over the situation.
"One more thing, Finn. We were in a pretty tight spot back there, and you saved us."
She had told countless lies to countless people. She's promised men safety when she would only lead them to their doom, she's sworn her loyalty with hallow words, but these words were the most bitter to ever cross her lips.
"Thank you."