"He's a loon, is what he is." A hushed voice just barely drifted into the hallway before disappearing completely in the open space.
General Hux only heard the nearly silent technician complaining because he had stopped less than a meter away from the open laboratory doors. Before Kylo Ren's reign, Hux would have been quick to silence any complaints he heard in the lower ranks. Now, he found a thin and joyless pleasure in hearing that they thought Ren was just as mad as he did.
"The trooper that dropped the beads off said that he was talking to himself, again." The same voice as before spoke, "Well, he said that Kylo Ren thought that he was telling Rey that Palpatine wanted her dead. But he was just yelling into an empty room."
A heavy sigh came from a second person, "I don't care what the supreme leader thought he was doing, lets just get these analyzed and be done with it."
"But don't you think this is weird?" the first voice wasted no time in asking, "How did he even get these things? And why are we trying to figure out where they're coming from? Shouldn't he know?"
A third voice chimed in, this one sounding a few years older than the first two, "It's better to not ask questions. Especially when they sound like doubts."
"I'm not saying that the supreme leader is incompetent. I'm just saying that this is weird."
A muffled pinging of a machine began and then suddenly came to an end.
"The results are in," the second voice commented on the noise, "and it sounds to me like you just volunteered to give them to the supreme leader. If you're that interested in answers, then you can ask him yourself."
"Whoa, now. I didn't say-"
Hux had listened long enough. Wanting to know for himself what was happening with these strange beads that Ren had collected from who-knows-where, the general nonchalantly stepped into the laboratory.
"General Hux." The elder technician was the first to react, having been the only one to see Hux enter the room.
The other two were quick to turn and face him. One held a string necklace, apparently hand carved beads barely hanging onto it. The other was in the center of the room. Leaning against a table, his back was originally to the door.
The others said nothing to Hux. Their surprised and more than a little worried expressions betraying the fact that they hoped that Hux hadn't heard any part of their conversation.
Hux didn't mind the two younger technicians. Their caution around him could have been a reassuring reminder that some on the ship were still weary of him, but it seemed hollow and token.
The general didn't spare any time on pleasantries. He never did but now especially, he wasn't concerned with them. Instead, he looked to the beads that he already knew about, "What have you got there?'
Upon seeing the second technician hesitate, the oldest technician spoke for her, "We're lacking all of the details, sir, but these beads are affiliated with the Resistance in some way. We've been instructed to identify them for tracking purposes."
His answer was dry and devoid of any real information. For a second Hux let himself be paranoid that they suspected him of leaking information. That someone higher up the chain had warned the crew not to tell him anything.
That would be just like them, undermining me on my own ship. A bitter thought rolled through Hux's head.
The rest of the supreme council were still on the Finalizer. With their meeting only having ended a couple of hours ago. Worse still was the fact that it looked like they would remain on his ship until this supposed mystical fleet of magically appearing star destroyers came online.
Ignoring the more irritating aspects of reality, Hux tried to focus on the situation at hand, "Is that so? Tell me then, what have you discovered."
A small uncomfortable shuffle came from the technicians. Hux debated whether or not to take that as a sign that they knew.
Finally, the technician in the back, holding onto the necklace answered, "It comes from the Middian system planet Pasaana. Specifically as part of some ancestral celebration in the Forbidden Valley region."
Hux tucked away the information for later use. He was unaware of any information linking the rebels to Pasaana, but it seemed so rare for people to tell him anything of value these days.
"Ah." He only half feigned disinterest, "as you were then."
The tension in the room dropped just as suddenly as it had risen as General Hux left. He was sure that the technicians would gossip and tell their friends about his odd intrusion into their space. He even considered that they might begin to suspect that his strange behavior was a hint of something more sinister.
As the general walked through the silent halls of the Finalizer, he wondered when he had started being so blasé. When he had started acting so carelessly while collecting information to be sent out. He still feared death, but it seemed distant, even when he knew that a single misplaced comment in front of Ren could be his last.
The halls began to grow a little more crowded as Hux neared his office.
Not seeing any knights, Hux let himself linger on a morbid thought, I suppose it is just a matter of time until I get caught. What will happen then?
.***.***.***.***.
Lori was more and less sure of herself with each passing minute.
The Falcon had made a crash landing mere hours ago. After a rushed repair job, the old rust bucket had been sent off on another wild mission. Lori wasn't at all concerned for it's crew, in a small stroke of luck Poe, Finn, and Rey had been among those that left.
With Poe and Finn gone, one of her biggest obstacles to leaving the planet was out of the way.
What was far more troubling, was the fact that she had grown more sure of the spy's identity. When the Falcon returned, it brought with it a new report from the First Order. This one claimed that Kylo Ren was now serving the emperor, and that the old ruler would be launching an armada of star destroyers in twenty-four hours.
That news by itself was troubling enough, but the way it was written was what really set Lori on edge. She hoped that the details contained in the message were well known, but she doubted it. Sure that only a senior officer would have access to all of this information, she couldn't help but think that the letter sent along with the information sounded like Armitage wrote it.
Don't be ridiculous, standing to the side of the command area, Lori tried to silence her worries as she listened in on the resistance leaders, Armie wouldn't turn traitor. Right? Not unless something major happened. Would the First Order falling into Paplatine's hands be enough?
A small commotion came from a huddle of higher ups. Lori watched as a man did a quick double take at a screen before beckoning over Leia and Rose.
Ah, it might be. She admitted to herself just as the group began speaking.
"General," man began, "we're getting reports of a raid at the Festival of Ancestors, on Pasaana."
"This mission is everything, we cannot fail. Have we heard anything from Rey?"
The same man typed away at the same transmitter he had been fidgeting with before the two women arrived, "The Falcon's not responding."
Hearing the grave edge on the man's words grated on Rose, "Do you have to say it like that?"
"Like what?"
"Do me a personal favor?" Leia interjected into the quickly deteriorating conversation, "Be optimistic?"
Past that comment, the conversation grew slightly too hushed for Lori to make out. Rose's reaction of a heavy eye roll and obvious sigh made it clear enough that she didn't agree with whatever brand of optimism the man chose to reply with. As Rose stepped away from the conversation all together, she looked rattled. Enough so that Lori decided that she might be able to turn the situation to her advantage.
As Rose drew closer, Lori picked up a slightly too large box before stepping out of her partially hidden alcove and intentionally into Roses path.
"Whoa!" Rose tried to stop short, but still collided with the oversized crate that Lori was struggling to hold.
"Wha- agh!" upon impact, Lori made a show of dropping the crate while apparently barely managing to stay upright herself.
"I'm so sorry!" Rose was quick to apologize, "are you okay?"
Lori cast a dejected look at the crate, its contents now spilled over the forest floor, "yeah, I'm fine. I didn't see you there, sorry."
"It's okay, I should have been looking where I was going." While Rose was trying to be nice, Lori could still see that the conversation from the command area was still eating at her, "Here, I'll help you clean up."
"Thank you," Lori knelt down to collect the machine components along with Rose. With the first bit of her plan set in motion, Lori tried to keep the conversation going, "And, uh. I don't think I've had the chance to mention this, but I also wanted to thank you for before, too."
Rose gave Lori a slightly confused look before suddenly being hit with a realization, "That's right. The Supremacy. Thank you, but you don't have to thank me."
"But I insist," the small lie felt bitter, but Lori didn't show it, "My daughter and I are alive because of you. We owe you our lives."
"I wouldn't go that far," Rose set an armful of components back in the box before reaching for more on the ground.
"I would," Lori mirrored the motion before stalling a bit, "is something wrong? You look a bit upset."
Rose wavered before speaking, "Kind of. It's my own fault, but I'm starting to think that I should have gone with Rey. It sounds like they're in trouble."
Lori abandoned the remaining components, and tried to settle into a longer conversation, "What do you mean by that."
"It's… So they're trying to find this wayfinder, right? And that should show us where Exagol is, and then we can go there and fight the emperor. But it sounds like the First Order is tracking the Falcon, somehow, and… I just wish there was something we could do about it besides sit here and watch."
While that was slightly more informative than what Lori had overheard, it still wasn't why she had decided to talk to Rose in the first place, "Yeah, that does sound like a lot. Do we know how they're tracking the Falcon? Maybe it's bugged."
"I don't think so," so engrossed in the conversation, Rose had also given up on cleaning the remaining components, "We got another report from the spy. He said that Kylo Ren found some beads, and that they were able to trace them back to Pasaana. I don't know how he would have gotten them, this whole thing doesn't make sense if you ask me."
Lori tried to ignore mention of the spy, but she couldn't help but comment on them, "It is strange. Do you think the spy's information is good?"
She shook her head, "I don't trust them, but we just got a report of a raid on Pasaana. They must know what we're doing there, the Finalizer just showed up. They wouldn't send that ship out for anything less."
Hearing the name of her old home and Hux's flagship only served to convince Lori that he was somehow behind this.
"You're right," she didn't speak on her suspicions, "are we planning anything? How are we supposed to get to Exagol? Last I checked, we didn't have any ships."
Rose didn't suspect that Loris' innocuous comment was her fishing for information, "That might change. In about two hours we're supposed to get a supply drop. Leia has an old friend at a shipyard, and we're pretty sure he's sending some freighters that he pulled out of the scrap heap."
Lori blinked at the opportunity she'd just found. Sure that she misunderstood something, she said "Wait, we don't know who's coming to this planet, how many of there are, or what they're carrying."
A heavy shrug pulled at Rose's shoulders, "We take what we can get."
Oh, I'll be taking whatever I can. She managed a tentatively hopeful thought.
"Can't argue with that logic," Lori said instead, before scooping up the last component that had fallen to the ground, "I hate to take up any more of your time. I got to get these over to Klaud, and it sounds like we're about to be busy."
"Hopefully we're busy in a good way." Rose replied before taking a step back as Lori lifted the over large box once again.
Lori didn't want to stall for long, but she did need to keep true to her persona, "Oh, and again. Thank you."
Rose gave a slight gesture that served as a good-natured dismissal, "Don't mention it."
Nodding along before heading towards Klaud's workshop, Lori was quickly putting a plan together. First, she would need to gather a bundle of supplies, no more than what she could carry in a backpack. She would have to avoid Brixie while she found an excuse to be near the landing pads. Once the ships landed, she would wait until their crews began unloading. Then she would slip onto whichever one looked the most convenient.
No one would be expecting a theft, and they didn't have any blaster powerful enough to take down a ship. Even if they did, she doubted they would fire on her.
It wasn't an elegant plan. It wasn't deftly talking her way off planet. It wasn't anything that would leave her any sympathy among the rebels. But she didn't care. She needed off this planet, and she needed to get Armitage out of whatever trouble he had made for himself.