[Rey]

"When I cut the trunk," Rey explained, "the ground shook and I heard a groan from underground. Like we're on some kind of enormous creature and I … cut it."

Chewbacca grunted. Kylo squatted next to the stump, examining it. "This doesn't look like wood." The center of it was a white porous material that was drying out fast in the air, but it had been tough and resilient from the beginning.

"I know," she said. "I think. But I don't know anything about trees. Except that they're pretty. And they're plants. And they require more water than …" She trailed off.

"Than is available on Jakku," Kylo finished. He touched the sap. It was sticky and had a gummy consistency. When she'd cut it, it had flowed easily. Now it had congealed. Chewbacca moved next to him and rumble-growled something more complicated.

"A fungus? So it's not a tree?" she asked. Yip-yep bark from the Wookiee. Rey said, "Okay then. Not even a plant." She looked around at the things, which grew as far as could be seen in every direction. "They all look the same. How did it move, though?"

"Why did it move?" Kylo asked. "Was it a warning? Or an attempted attack? Did any of the other trees move?"

She shook her head. "Nothing moved except the ground and this one." She pointed to the heavily-scarred trunk that had removed itself from under the ship. "As soon as the ship's weight shifted off, this one sort of slithered out from under it and straightened, much faster than those other ones after we crashed. General Hux saw it. And the two troopers with him."

Kylo put his hand on the one she'd indicated. "Without the Force, I can't tell. Let's not damage anymore of them until we know what we're dealing with."

C'ai came up to them, effectively ending the conversation as far as Rey was concerned. He asked in the deep, careful voice he used for Basic, "If we recovered the wing, could we use your lightsabers as welding tools to reattach it? They can melt durasteel, correct?"

"They can melt it," Rey said, "but they're not very good at being used as a tool." She doubted the ship's repair kit contained what she'd need to modify a lightsaber to a welding torch. But maybe?

He said, "Even if we could not attach the wing to allow flight, we could prop it close and run wiring to it, perhaps re-establishing the communications system or the scanners."

Chewbacca whuffed a noise of agreement. Rey nodded, seeing the sense of this. "Yes, yes, that would work." She turned to Kylo. "How far back did we lose the wing?" The other two turned for his answer as well.

"As soon as we hit." He looked off in the direction they'd crashed. "It was a long way. It's a big wing. The, this 'forest' isn't dense, but how will we get it back with all these trees in the way?"

"You could cut them down," C'ai said, gesturing at the one Rey had cut earlier.

"Ah, no," she said. "We don't think that's a good idea."

The Abednedo conveniently moved on without questioning why. "Well, is there a repulsor skid in the shuttle?" C'ai asked.

Kylo answered. "There should be a small one for moving cargo or a … an injured person. But it won't be able to carry the wing. It could carry supplies for those trying to move it."

"Does the shuttle have cabling to winch it here?"

"That far? No," he said. "It has a winch in the nose for manual tethering in low gravity environments."

C'ai asked, "Could we take it out?"

"The winch?" he asked.

"Yes," C'ai said. "If we could anchor it somehow, we could use it to help pull. Attach it, play out the cable, anchor the winch, reel in the wing. Repeat." Chewbacca whuffed again and gestured at the trunk under the ship, adding another growled comment.

"Yes," Rey agreed with him. "We could use that as a cross-member between two other trees and attach the winch to it, bracing it against the trees as we pull."

Kylo pursed his lips. "We'd still have to keep the wing from catching on the trees. We'd have to tilt it upright."

"Can the Force help us?" C'ai asked.

Rey shook her head. "Not for this. At least, not right now."

The Abednedo nodded agreeably, again, not questioning it. "It will be getting dark soon. Maybe the others will have ideas."

"Oh," Rey said quickly, adopting her forced persona of cheerful support. "this is a good idea. Thank you for coming forward with it. We'll just have to figure out how to do it." C'ai nodded and walked away to look at the nose area of the ship, probably looking for the winch Kylo had mentioned. Her face relaxed and posture slumped as he left. It was tiring to keep that up for too long.

"Ah," Kylo said softly. "The mask drops."

She blinked at him. "What?"

"Your mask. How many of them do you have fooled with that?"

She snorted inelegantly and rolled her eyes. He said nothing. Neither did Chewie. She finally sighed. "There was no one else with me in the desert. Not usually. When I went into Niima Outpost, they all knew me. I didn't need it there. Not usually."

"But now," Kylo said, "'not usually' has nearly turned into 'always'."

She looked around, lips pressing together. He was right, but she didn't want to admit that. "Tell me about this repulsor skid he mentioned."

"Of course," Kylo said with less of a smirk than she expected. "It should be in the cargo hold – under the shuttle deck. We could use it to move the trunk and winch into position. Chewbacca, can you help me move this out where we can get a look at it?" The planet's sun was setting, with shadows creeping over the land. The two moved under the ship and rolled the trunk out somewhat. It was mostly straight now.

"Should I cut off the end?" Rey asked, moving down to where blue-green fronds emerged from the tip.

"Yes, go ahead. They'll just be in the way and we don't need the extra length." She sheared it off with the lightsaber. This time, nothing quaked in the world around them. Kylo asked Chewbacca, "You know the most about … trees and construction. Do you think this will be strong enough? It's not wood."

Chewbacca gave his professional opinion that it might be and was their best option at the moment, so they decided to go with that.