ABOARD THE MALACHOR, 40 YEARS ABE:

Between one step and the next, the ship's artificial gravity evaporated. Finn and Bail found themselves tumbling through the air, the momentum of their sprint now sending them flailing. The clattering sounds of people, ships, and supplies colliding in the air was punctuated by shouts and shrieks of surprise or distress. The noise echoed discordantly around the wide hangar, adding to the sense of confusion caused by the sudden cessation of gravity.

Bail wasted only a few seconds thrashing at the air before he reached out with the Force to stop his tumble. He hung in midair, still moving forward slowly but now in a controlled float rather than a chaotic spin, and Force-pushed himself around to face Finn.

Finn had wasted even fewer seconds flailing - part of the training he had received from the Empire before defecting had included conditioning to adapt quickly to environmental changes - but his attempt to stabilize himself had been just as quickly stymied. His instinctive grab for the grapple-hook in his supply belt had been met with empty pouches. Of course - Booster. Finn had forgotten that their borrowed ("borrowed") armor had been stripped of its armaments and equipment by the shrewd (and greedy) merchant-lord.

Bail stretched his hands towards Finn, then hesitated. "I can help," he said instead of acting. "If you want me to."

Finn started, then turned - the motion making his already erratic flight wobble further - and while the fact that he was tumbling head-over-heels through the air made it hard to establish eye contact, he nonetheless stared at the young Jedi every time he found himself facing in a direction from which he could.

Finally Finn said, "Okay."

The word emerged as though it had been wrenched from Finn's mouth by force - or by Force. But it hadn't been, and Bail had clearly taken pains to avoid that. So Finn gritted his teeth and tried as best he could to brace himself - not an easy task for a man spiraling helplessly through the air. Then he slowed as he felt an invisible grip settle around his body. It wasn't the painful, crushing sensation that Finn had been expecting; Bail's mental grasp was firm, but gentle.

Slowly, Finn spun to a stop and rotated upright. He turned towards Bail and saw that the young Jedi had his hands out and his eyes closed, an expression of calm concentration on his bruised features. Bail's eyes opened and met Finn's and a tentative smile spread across his bloodied lips.

"Better?" Bail asked.

Finn could hear the anxiety in the Jedi's voice; Bail knew that Finn didn't like the Force, didn't trust it, and was worried how he would react to being manhandled by it, however gently. The fact that Bail cared enough to care went a long way towards easing Finn's anxieties. He wouldn't have expected a Jedi to have much patience for people being discomfited by their precious Force, so Bail's concern was as surprising as it was heartening.

"Better," Finn confirmed. If his voice wobbled a little, neither man mentioned it. He was floating in zero-gee in an Imperial hangar, after all. Any wobbliness could have been ascribed to a dozen different causes; it didn't have to be due to his fear of the Force.

Bail's smile firmed, lighting up his battered features. "Great," he said. "Now let's - "

And the lights went out.

Finn wasn't the only one in the hangar to shout in surprised dismay. The sudden darkness was blinding after the bright, steady illumination of the hangar's lights. He blinked furiously, trying to will his eyes to adjust, and silently cursed himself for his hubris in casting aside his helmet. With the built-in vision filters and scanners, even a lighting shift that intense would have left him sightless for a second or two at best. Without it, he was stuck relying on human biology.

It wasn't enough. Even after a good minute had passed, he still couldn't see anything.

On the far side of the hangar, somebody started shooting again, but while the sharp lines of blasterfire criss-crossed his vision like streaks of fire, their sporadic illumination didn't stretch far enough to relieve the darkness surrounding Finn and Bail.

Finn flailed a bit and managed to turn to face the hangar entrance. The dim lights of the magcon shield made him squint (as well as breathe a sigh of relief; Finn had known that the shield had to still be functioning because if it hadn't been, he would have already been sucked out into the vacuum of space to die, but there was a difference between knowing and seeing) but its illumination didn't reach more than half-a-meter from the bulkhead edges. The few lights glowing around the room from control surfaces, door panels, and dormant ships were even less helpful, providing a confusing glitter that might as well have been odd-colored stars in distant space.

If he'd had a blaster, he might have used that to at least catch a quick glimpse of his surroundings and perhaps even act as a sort of crude propulsion; there were only a few things in here he would have been upset about shooting, and all of them were on the other side of the hangar. Unfortunately he had given his blaster to Poe. He was empty-handed - except he wasn't.

Finn realized suddenly that he did have a light source: the lightsaber.

Careful not to drop the unfamiliar weapon, he felt around the hilt for the ignition switch and toggled it on. With a sharp snap-hiss, the brilliant purple beam shot out and cast its glow in a narrow circle around him.

He still couldn't see much - a small patch of the hangar floor, a few vague edges of floating crates and starships, and Bail hovering a meter to his left - but anything was better than that overwhelming nothing.

At least until Bail snapped, "Turn it off!"

Finn flinched at the sudden command, fumbled for the switch, and powered-down the borrowed blade. "Sorry - "

"The light will make us a target," Bail explained, and Finn felt a sharp tug that yanked him backwards several meters seconds before eye-searing laser bolts peppered the air where they had just been floating.

Finn swallowed. "Right," he said. He blinked the spots from his eyes and stared into the darkness and the myriad unseen threats it held. "Only without light, how are we supposed to find our way out of here?"

"Breha," Bail answered calmly. "I can find her anywhere. Give me your hand."

Finn hesitated. "Trust me," Bail said, and Finn grimaced but stretched out his hand. A few seconds later he felt the Jedi's gloved palm close around his own and then they were moving again, pulled gently onwards by the power of the Force and Bail's connection to his sister.

"She's coming to get us," Bail said softly. This close Finn could see enough of Bail's features to notice that the Jedi's eyes were closed, the expression on his face serene. "Don't worry."

"Who's worried?" Finn muttered as they flew forward into the dark.