[Kaydel]

Kaydel left the forward compartment to give Finn and Rose some time alone. All three of them together had settled the issue that the long range comm system was not functioning and couldn't be coaxed into it – not for transmission, not for reception. Finn and Rose had shared a lingering look, so she'd excused herself.

She found herself alone in the main compartment with four stormtroopers, one of them being the one in charge – first sergeant, CL-something. She could have hurried on down the ramp and outside, but no. She wasn't going to be forced out of here just because she was alone in the same room with the four of them.

For their part, the stormtroopers ignored her. The first sergeant was in the process of handing a single meal bar and cup of water to another trooper, telling them, "Take this to the general." Just the one. To one of the remaining troopers, she said, "Get cups out and fill them." To the other, "Find something to carry the meal bars in." The orders were curt and direct. At least they weren't up to anything nefarious.

Kaydel moved over to where the first trooper was pulling cups out of the built-in wall cabinet next to the rear compartment. "Can I help?"

There was a chilly silence, but cooperation had to start somewhere. The trooper she was talking to looked at the first sergeant, who eventually said, "Fill cups."

Kaydel nodded and carried a pair of them into the refresher for water.

When she came out, the first sergeant and the other trooper were debating what to use to carry the meal bars. Unsurprisingly, First Order shuttles didn't come stocked with baskets. The trooper who had been sent out earlier returned. They were still carrying both meal bar and cup. "General Hux declined." A male voice, Kaydel noted.

"We don't eat?" the first sergeant asked sharply.

"He … said you were to lead mess for everyone."

The first sergeant sighed visibly and lifted off her helmet. Seeing her face didn't do anything to dispel the image of a stock villain from every holo-program Kaydel had seen growing up on Dulathia. The stormtrooper was a bull-necked, round-faced young woman with dark olive skin and short-cropped dark hair. She had a scar on the back of her scalp that made a craggy Y shape, visible through the short hair.

She took the meal bar Hux had sent back, tore it open, and took a strangely small bite of it. The three troopers nodded, then all as one reached up and took their helmets off. There was some kind of ritual to the whole thing, but Kaydel was distracted just by getting to see them helmetless.

All three troopers had short hair. The two men had no facial hair. The men looked pure human – one with skin a dark tan, the other lighter like Kaydel's own. The woman did not look pure – she had fringed, mobile ears and melanistic spots on her face. She was young like the first sergeant and Finn. That age was how Kaydel had imagined most stormtroopers, but one of the men was in his mid-30s and the other had to be in his 40s, maybe even early 50s. That was strange. That the older man was missing his smallest finger on his left hand was somehow stranger than there being a non-pure human under one of these helmets.

The two men and the first sergeant stared at the woman with fringed ears and the splotches. Her ears swept back, flattening against her skull. It was a motion that would normally be fear or anger for most species. She said nothing. They said nothing. Kaydel said nothing. But she could have sworn they were acting like they'd never seen this person before in their lives. The moment was absurdly tense.

The first sergeant finally said, "He said everyone?"

She was addressing the woman with the ears, who swallowed and squeaked, "Yes sir."

The first sergeant jerked her head toward the two men. "Then use a helmet to hold the meal bars. Those on watch are to stay at their post and eat on rotation."

"Does, um," the woman asked, her ears slipping forward somewhat, "does that mean the Resistance, too? Sir?"

"Yes. That's what 'everyone' means."

"Yes sir." The woman with the ears turned to help Kaydel with the cups. The two men began loading the stacked meal bars into an upturned helmet.

Kaydel picked up a third set of cups to fill, but the first sergeant told her, "Get the full ones. Carry them out to your aliens and anyone who won't take it from our hands. FO-1282 will fill the rest."

There was so much to unpack in that, but maybe this wasn't the time. "Yes sir," she grumbled sarcastically.

"You do not call me 'sir'," the first sergeant snapped at her. Or it sounded that way. Almost everything the woman said came out like a rebuke.

"What- Okay. Yes, then." She picked up the water and made her way down the ramp before they could have another stupid confrontation about what they were calling each other. She passed Poe heading up the ramp as she went down.

Her dissatisfaction must have shown on her face, because he asked, "Everything good?"

She paused to sigh, looking at the cups and lifting them both briefly. It wasn't lost on her that the food, water, and access to the shuttle were technically First Order resources which were being freely shared. "I think so," she admitted. "They're … kind of abrasive."

Poe smiled. "I've noticed." The two stormtroopers with meal bars started down the ramp, so Poe gave her a light pat on the shoulder and continued inside.