ABOARD THE CRYSTILIUM, 40 YEARS ABE:
Outside the gray shuttle, the vibrant colors of hyperspace swirled. Within, the three passengers were dressing themselves in Imperial grey and white every bit as severe and orderly in appearance as that of their stolen ship.
"You boys suited-up yet?" Stella asked, fastening the last few buttons of her officer's uniform as she walked out of the cockpit and into the main shuttle bay.
Finn was, and was double-checking his (far-too-familiar) standard-issue Blastech E-19. Bail had all of his plastoid plates fastened and his hair twisted up into a loose bun to keep it out of the way, but was just pulling his helmet on as she walked up. "Our costumes are a little more complicated than yours," Bail reminded Stella testily, then stumbled and almost fell when he tried to turn and face her.
"How do you see in these things?" he complained, tugging at the sides of his helmet as though that would help.
Stella snorted at him and shook her head as she moved to draw a small holdout blaster from the ship's supplies and holster it at her crisp black belt.
Finn looked up at Bail and frowned, although no one could see it through his helmet. "Is your HUD not working?" he asked.
"Huh?" said Bail.
"The HUD. The Heads Up Display. Mine's running fine; is yours broken? We've got another suit of armor here you can try…"
"How do I turn on the HUD?" Bail asked.
Finn made a tsk -ing noise with his teeth, sounding oddly reminiscent of Meemaw Wessex. "Give me that," he said, plucking Bail's helmet off his head. He flipped it over, reached in, and fiddled with something. The opaque black eye sockets lit-up from within and he dropped it back over Bail's head.
"Whoah!" said Bail. His head bobbed like a nesting gorgybird's as he struggled to focus on the sudden influx of illuminated displays superimposed over his vision. "That's...wow. Um. That's a lot of data…"
Finn shrugged. "Just the basics."
"If you say so." Bail took a step and wobbled. He put his arms out to the side while Stella watched him uncertainly.
"We'll be dropping out of hyperspace in two minutes," Stella warned them. "So try and pull yourselves together. I'm heading back to the cockpit so I can dodge friendly fire." She grimaced and added plaintively, "Have I mentioned I hate this part of the plan?"
"Don't worry," Bail assured her absently, slowly feeling his way along the bench, "Kaydel wouldn't let them send anybody who couldn't aim well enough to miss us."
"Let's hope not," Stella muttered and stalked back to the cockpit, the inner hatch sliding closed again behind her.
"You know," Bail said, after an attempt to walk forward left him staggering sideways into a bulkhead, "maybe I'll just follow you and let the Force guide me." He pulled the helmet off so he could toggle the HUD's power. He shook his head gratefully as though he'd been under the helmet for days instead of minutes. "Speaking of…"
Bail reached back into the toolbag he'd been carrying and drew out-
"Two lightsabers?" Finn exclaimed, his voice sounding discordantly loud through the helmet's filters. "What do you need two lightsabers for?"
"One is Breha's," Bail explained quietly. "She and mom left their weapons at home for the treaty signing." His smile was humorless and brittle. "It was supposed to be a peace treaty, after all. Anyway, Dad grabbed their 'sabers before he and Chewie jumped in the Falcon. If there's a chance we're going to have to fight our way out, it'll be better if Rey is armed."
Behind the anonymous visage of his helmet, no one could see Finn grimace. "Two lightsabers for two Jedi. Great," he said bleakly.
"Here." Bail abruptly held one of the lightsabers out towards Finn.
"What?"
"There's not a lot of storage in this armor," Bail explained. "I can only fit one, so you'll have to carry the other."
Finn stared at the lightsaber, suddenly glad that he was wearing that too-familiar white helmet again. Nobody could see the struggle that passed across his face as he wrestled with years of propaganda and conditioning and terror to make himself reach out and take the lightsaber.
Bail twisted sideways and popped open the empty storage container at his waist. His lightsaber slipped inside almost as though the cylindrical case had been designed for that purpose all along. Finn knew it hadn't been, of course, but it was still eerie to see how neatly the nightmare weapon fit inside the armor that still felt as natural on him as a second skin.
The other slim silver shaft felt oddly heavy in Finn's hand.
It wasn't until Stella shouted, "Dropping out of hyperspace! Strap yourselves in!" that he finally jerked into motion, shoving the lightsaber away and hurrying into the cockpit after Bail.
The young Jedi had already fastened his crash-restraints when Finn lurched through the door-and promptly slammed into the doorframe as Stella jerked the shuttle sideways into a tight roll. Bright red turbolaser blasts shot past on either side of the shuttle, vanishing into the darkness of space ahead of them.
Finn staggered to his usual seat and fumbled for the straps, saying, "Is that them? Or are we being shot at by people we don't want shooting us?"
"No," Bail said, sounding entirely too calm, "these are the people who are supposed to be shooting at us."
"Great," Finn replied, raising his voice over the sudden sound of alarms as the ship reacted to the lasers grazing their shields, "that's very reassuring!"
"Trigger the distress beacon!" Stella ordered.
"On it!" Bail replied, and reached forward-then paused, tilting his head as he studied the unfamiliar Imperial controls.
"Oh for-!" Finn abandoned his tangled crash restraints and lunged forward, shoving past the Jedi to toggle the beacon.
"Thanks!" Bail said.
Finn, shaking more with the realization that he'd just come close enough to a Jedi Knight to touch him-or at least his borrowed armor-than with the rattle of the shuttle's evasive maneuvers, shook his head and focused on getting himself strapped-in before something else happened.
"This had better work," he muttered.
"It'll work," Bail said reassuringly as lasers streaked past around them. "Trust me."
As though one could trust a Jedi.