Finn had finally broken down and confessed to Rey, just after she had returned from her spiritual sojourn on Tatooine, that he had discovered that he could feel and sometimes use the Force. With her frequent trips all over the galaxy in search of clues to the mystery behind Palpatine's return, Rey didn't have much time to teach Finn anything more than the basics. Thankfully he turned out to be a fast learner and an eager student who was perfectly capable of learning things on his own in the infrequent bits of spare time he managed while still actively co-leading the Resistance with Poe. Though she barely considered herself to be a Jedi knight Rey did her best to teach Finn everything she knew and every new thing she learned... every chance she got.
Rey spied Finn's new protege as she approached him and Poe. Guyan had come to the Resistance three years ago after stealing a ship from one of the various parking areas near the Canto Bight racetrack where he'd spent his life caring for the fathiers that brought his and their owners big creds every time they left the starting gate. She gave the boy a quick smile and then turned her attention to Finn.
"You look well!" she said, hugging her friend.
"You look..." Finn paused, his brow knitting. "Disheveled. I take it your mission was a success?"
"We'll see! I have to wait to find out, I need a full translation of the Sith journal I found on this trip." She replied with a voice full of optimism.
"Good to hear," Poe cut in as he stepped up for a brief hug. "Now, about this Bressacca character... it turns out she's a Silliphis, will that be a problem?"
"A what now?" Rey asked, unfamiliar with that species.
"A Silliphis... they're like... if you mixed an Ewok and a Trandoshan." Poe said, guiding her over to a computer display. "From all accounts they're usually very peaceful but occasionally an Alpha Queen comes along and well... Bressacca."
A strange looking fur tufted lizard creature appeared on the display and Rey made a face like someone seeing something both weird and fascinating for the first time. "I don't know if I'll be able to influence her or not..." Rey mused as she read the information that accompanied the image on the display screen. "I've never heard of Silliphis before. Maybe I should take Lando with me - he seems to have a silvered tongue for negotiations."
Poe nodded, "Good idea, he could use some time off this base, he's acting... like... not Lando."
"We'll leave as soon as he's ready." She promised as she headed off to her own quarters to get cleaned up and changed on her way to finding Lando.
"Threepio," Rey said, finding the golden droid partially blocking the hallway near Lando's quarters - complaining to his shorter and rounder counterpart, R2D2, about his upcoming memory wipe. "Is Lando in his room?"
"I haven't the foggiest, he's been a rare one to spot for a few days now." C3PO responded promptly.
"Ok, thanks. Have you translated that journal yet?"
Coolly and a little too stiffly, he replied, "I have completed the translation, but I'm afraid Babu Frik isn't here to extract it."
Rey frowned. "He's not here? Where is he?"
"He and Zorii Bliss have gone on an excursion within Hutt controlled space." C3PO replied. "As I understand it Chula the Hutt has declared himself Huutnach of the entire outer rim between Corosa Minor and Nal Fassa Major."
Rey frowned. "When did that happen? How long have they been gone?"
R2 beeped and whirred a response.
Rey sighed heavily, "Just get him to extract it as soon as he gets back, please, I need to know what's in that journal."
Lando, it turned out, was indeed in his quarters - sipping on a tumbler of iced whiskey and staring off into a corner. When he finally looked at her the old scoundrel gave her a thin smile and said, "Hey, kid."
"General," Rey said as she pulled the glass from his hand and sat it down on a table next to his chair. "We have a mission. You need to get ready to go save a few hundred billion sentients from oppression or worse!"
"A mission?" Lando repeated as if he'd never heard of such a thing.
Nodding, she said firmly, "You and I are going to go talk to Bressacca and see if we can persuade her to rethink her hostile take over of the Omnisa System."
"What do you need me for? You're a Skywalker now, just do your Jedi thing." Lando said, picking his glass up from the table where Rey had set it and draining it's contents.
"Well..." Rey drawled, "The thing is - I don't know if my 'Jedi thing' will work on her - she's a type of sentient I've never heard of before.."
Showing a bit of his old self finally, Lando's eyes brightened. "What species is she?"
"A Silliphis."
"Really?" He sounded downright intrigued now. "I've never met one of those, but I've heard some things about 'em."
"She's apparently something called an 'Alpha Queen' - I don't know what that means but it seems to set her apart from most of her kind."
"An Alpha Queen? That sounds interesting." Lando grinned his most roguish grin and jumped up from his seat. "Give me twenty minutes!"
Two hours later Lando swept into the Millennium Falcon looking almost more impressive than an Ouishi bird with it's prismatic feathers pulsating strobes of brilliant colors in nearly every spectrum of light. He wore a pair of shiny knee high boots in deepest black, the shiniest pair of royal blue trousers she had never imagined might actually exist in the entire galaxy, a shirt made of some shimmery golden material that reflected light in an almost glitter like fashion, a formal jacket in scarlet with white trim and a knee length cape that was black shimmer-silk lined in the most purple purple that has ever purpled.
With all the confidence of a man in his prime Lando strode confidently into the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's seat. As he brushed past her, Rey was so overwhelmed by his cologne that for a moment all she could do was stare after him with her mouth agape and her eyes as wide open as they could possibly be.
When she finally recovered herself she plopped down in the co-pilots chair and asked sourly, "Did you dig those clothes out of the south end of a rotting corpse?"
Lando laughed briefly before his smile melted away as he ran a preflight check. "You got a lot to learn, kid." He told her soberly while he lifted the Falcon off the ground.
"If that smell gets stuck in that seat - you're replacing it." She shot back.
"Always dress to impress your hosts and your guests," he said in melodic fashion - as if reciting poetry. "Silliphis love bright shiny things the way I love beautiful cityscapes and fast ships."
She wrinkled her nose at him. "Let me guess, they also like stinky things?"
"To the Alpha Queen, the smell of Yeekitashi musk is as alluring as the aroma of a sumptuous banquet combined with the pheromones of a yeekibull during mating season. I'll have her eating out of the palm of my hand in no time." He winked salaciously and jumped to light-speed.