AN: Hello, and sorry for the missed day back there. As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
.***.***.***.***.
Mitaka tried not to fidget in the pilot's seat. His conversation with Brixie had gone further than he had intended, with the medic ultimately prying out all the details that he knew about Lori and General Hux's relationship. He'd tried to be light on specifics, but as they talked it became increasingly clear that they had both been pawns. They'd both been kept in the dark and mislead.
Mitaka had begun to realize a long time ago that the First Order wasn't the perfect bastion on law and order that he'd been raised to think it was. Now he was left with no option other than to accept that troubling fact.
Brixie had been fighting tooth and nail to find a reason to forgive Lori, but learning that she had been a spy that preyed on hopeful rebels was too much. As much as she hated it, Brixie was left to accept that her friend had probably never been her friend at all.
The only thing that kept the two of them from steering the ship back to Ajan Kloss was the uncertain state of the galaxy. They still hadn't heard anything beyond that single call to action on Exegol.
Brixie had left to cockpit an hour ago, only leaving Mitaka to continue his work in the pilot's seat at his request. As much as he would have liked to take a break and sleep in an actual bed rather than the stiff pilot's seat, Mitaka didn't want to be away from the comms array.
He still didn't dare to send a transmission out, but he was flicking through the comms frequencies in search of a follow up message to the rallying cry.
After what felt like ages, he happened upon a live channel.
"The New Republic is back!" What sounded like an over-excited news program crackled over the comm. "Palpatine is dead again, hopefully for good. Transmitting from Deysum III, we're live with-"
The end of the enthusiastic voice was cut off by the whooshing of the cockpit door.
Jumping at the sound, Mitaka instinctually turned the comm to a dead channel with the swat of a hand. At first feeling silly for hiding the news like he was a child caught doing something bad, he quickly realized that Brixie had no reason to come back to the cockpit so soon after she had just left.
Mitaka braced himself as he swiveled the pilot's seat around to find Lori stepping into the room.
having heard a muffled section of the broadcast through the door, Lori wasn't surprised by Mitaka's jumpiness. She largely ignored it as she crossed the room to sit in the copilot's seat, she asked more than said, "So, they got the emperor. That mean what I think it means?"
Mitaka was sure that Lori was asking about the New Republic. Made paranoid by the thought that she might have spoken to Brixie again to learn what he had told the medic, Mitaka was slow to respond.
"Y-yes, ma'am." He slipped into the same inoffensive tone he had often used in his old life, when briefing superior officers on unpleasant news, "It's unclear how much territory they've claimed. I have no information on the remains of the First Order."
Lori heard how on edge Mitaka was. She suspected that something had happened while she was cloistered away in the cargo bay, but she wasn't sure exactly what. What she was sure of was the fact that Mitaka probably wasn't keen on rejoining the First Order, if that was even still an option.
Waiting for him to say something that would give her something to go off of, Lori silently set to work.
Mitaka watched as Lori checked the ship's diagnostics, noting the fuel levels and shield status in the process. Squirming in his seat, he tried to ignore her as she read through the ship's navigation logs. He thought he saw a tick of annoyance cross Lori's features as she came to the end of the log and learned that they were at the edge of Hutt space. She looked up from the aged computer screens in the cockpit and out through the viewport.
Hoping to break some tension in the room he offered a small reassurance, "I haven't seen another ship in days. We're alone out here."
Lori leaned forward, as if it would do something to help her see further into the darkened space just beyond the transparasteel, "You sure about that?"
No. Not at all.
"Yes, ma'am." Mitaka answered instead.
A small but heavy sigh came from Lori. She had made an effort not to work with the Hutts, they had a reputation of being very demanding. Though she hadn't traveled through Hutt space herself, she knew many people who had. If there was one constant in all of their stories, it was that the Hutts' powers were absolute in their own territory, and no one went in or out of it without their knowledge.
Whether Mitaka had seen anyone or not, Lori was sure that they were being watched.
Noting the always nervous lieutenant, Lori slowly peeled herself away from looking out the viewport. Instead, she turned towards the ship's sensors.
"A-are you sure that's wise?" Mitaka hoped that she wasn't about to do a sweep of the area. If they did anything to search for other ships, then the other ships would be able to search for them as well.
Lori had just looked at the sensors to check when they had been turned on last. Having the same worry as Mitaka, she was relieved to find that the sensors had been left off since they left Ajan Kloss.
"I was just checking something. When's the last time you looked behind us?"
Doing so hadn't crossed Mitaka's mind. The space in front of the ship had been empty for so long and he'd been so focused on it, that he hadn't thought to check back the way they had come.
Lori suspected she knew what his answer was going to be from the long lack of a reply.
She had spent many a year traveling around in barely functioning scrap heaps. Thinking to manually check for things that would be caught by even a half functioning machine was second nature. Mitaka had grown up exclusively on large ships with entire staffs dedicated to observation and navigation.
Mitaka didn't look at Lori as he sheepishly turned the ship around.
For a short moment nothing but distant stars crossed the viewport.
Then, something brown and angular came into view.
The freighter drifted to a stop after turning a full one hundred and eighty degrees from where it had started. Just a mile back and slightly above them lingered another ship. Lori couldn't make out the details, but the vessel's wide and angular profile marked it as a VCX-series auxiliary ship. Commonly refitted as heavy fighters or support ships, VCXs were agile enough to guard entire convoys of less well armed freighters, but durable enough to have been used as a front-line fighter during the galactic civil war.
This VCX's brown and orange paint marked it as belonging to the Hutts.
"Hey Mitaka," Lori began, voice kept level, "how many blasters does this freighter have?"
"Two light blaster turrets, and one rear cannon." He answered with a gulp.
"How many of them work?"
"Only the starboard turret."
Not surprised but wildly disappointed, Lori hid the grimace that the news brought with it.
Fighting wasn't an option; they would be turned into slag the moment they even began to look hostile. Running might work, but the VCX would call in their location. Escaping Hutt space before more hostile ships arrived was a long shot at best.
There were plenty of supplies on the stolen freighter. Their best bet might be to pay the patrol off. She could pretend to be a merchant, or just another freighter. The Hutts were always willing to do business.
The distant VCX began to drift closer.
Seeing no other options, Lori told Mitaka, "Turn the sensors back on. They already know we're here. They're going to try and board the ship. Stall for as long as you can, but don't make them angry."
The last time they'd been boarded was by the First Order. Mitaka had thought that they'd be perfectly safe then, and they had nearly died. Now he was sure they were about to die, and his voice showed it, "Wh-what? Ar-are you sure? What do I tell them?"
Lori hated leaving Mitaka alone in the cockpit, worrying that he might tell the Hutts who was on board. Whether a calculated betrayal on his part or something nervously uttered, the result would be the same.
"We're merchants fleeing the war." She quickly told him as she left the pilots seat, "We thought Hutt space would be safe. Appeal to their ego."
Mitaka would have nervously asked for another lie to use, but Lori was steeping out the door as she uttered her instruction.
Alone again, Mitaka winced as the door shut behind her. Turning back towards the viewport, he was left to watch the Hutt ship drift ever closer.
With a lump in his throat, and a thousand panicked thoughts running through his head, he activated the freighter's comms and hailed the Hutt ship.
.***.***.***.***.
Armitage watched as Lori left the room.
They'd discussed as much as they could, mostly catching up on their year apart. There were so many unknown factors at work that coming up with some semblance of a plan had been impossible. Though Armitage didn't want to leave her side, they both agreed that Lori needed to find out what was happening on the rest of the ship, and in the galaxy at large.
That left Armitage to remain in the cargo bay with Ardis.
The child had protested slightly when Lori left to room. Only seldom being separated from her mother, she hadn't decided that she trusted Armitage enough to go towards him in search of comfort.
Watching his own daughter treat him like a stranger as she waited near the door for Lori ate at Armitage. He knew he shouldn't expect anything different; he'd missed the first year of her life. He was there now, but he wasn't sure that he could ever convince himself that he could make up for being gone.
Suppressing a groan, Armitage adjusted the way he was sitting. Though he could manage to move between lying down and sitting up on his own, doing so was tiring. After some effort, he came to a position that was slightly more comfortable than the last, his back flat against the wall and as straight as he could make it.
Ardis had paid the motion no mind, instead still focusing on the door to the rest of the ship.
Armitage tried to keep his expectations low as he called out to her, "Ardis?"
The little girl obviously recognized her name, twisting around at the sound of it but not leaving her spot near the door.
Armitage had no idea what Ardis should and shouldn't be capable of at a year old. Though he was still chronically short on breath, he called out again, "Come here, Ardis. Come on."
The infant blinked in confusion at him.
Still fighting chronic fatigue, Armitage patted a clear section of the bed next to him, "Right here, come one."
Recognizing the gesture, Ardis hesitated for a second. Eventually she decided to take a quick look at the door one more time before crawling over the ground and to the edge of the stretcher.
When she got to the edge of the bed, Armitage worried that she might need some help climbing over the low guard rail at the side of the mattress. He had only just admitted to himself that he wouldn't be able to help her when she quickly lifted herself up and unsteadily rolled herself over the low bar.
"You're quite the climber, aren't you?" he said, partially for his own sake.
Ardis looked up at Armitage, not completely sure of what he was saying, but sure enough that it was something positive.
Armitage didn't know how much she understood, and he hadn't thought ahead to what he would do now that she had actually come to his side. Hoping for any way to interact with her he asked, "Can you speak?"
"No!" she answered with a slightly too loud word.
He hadn't been expecting much. Though the response didn't make sense for the question, Armitage decided that it was progress, "Can you understand me?"
There was a slight hesitation, then, "No."
Armitage felt a look of confusion cross over his own features.
Before he came to the realization that Ardis only knew the one word and just enough to recognize when a question was being asked, he saw her poorly mimic his expression.
"You're not old enough to know how to mock someone." He thought out loud before getting an idea.
She didn't know how to say much, but she could clearly think intelligently about her surroundings. She seemed more than ready to copy whatever she saw happening around her.
Taking a chance, Armitage lifted a hand to point at himself before carefully enunciating, "Father."
It felt very strange to call himself that, especially after a year of having such a thought be too painful to bear. He didn't fell like a parent. He was sure that he hadn't earned the right to call himself that, and at the same time he hadn't the slightest clue about what a father was meant to do.
He'd only had the one terrible example. From what he had heard, his own father had been absent for the first year or so of his life as well. Though it was a surface similarity at most, it made his stomach churn. Armitage knew that Brendol had been a monster. From the second Ardis was born, Armitage couldn't imagine doing to her what Brendol had done to him. He couldn't be anything like that, even if it was by accident.
Armitage didn't know what he was meant to do at all now. Not only was he unsure of what it meant to be a father. He was unsure of who he was. Having lost the First Order, having lost every trace of his old life, he wasn't even sure who he was anymore. Besides Lori, he had been Hux to everyone. He'd been General Hux for most of his adult life, and now even acknowledging that was out of the question.
He had to decide who he was going to be now.
And this seemed like a good place to start.
Trying again, Armitage slowly said, "Father."
Ardis made a small noise as she thought before muttering, "Flower?"
Armitage wasn't sure where that particular mix up was coming from, but he decided that a simpler word might be better.
"Dad." He said this time.
Hearing something simple, Ardis was able to easily repeat back, "Da!"
It wasn't perfect, but it was progress. Armitage felt something like a smile tugging at the edge of his lips. It had been such a long time since he'd let himself be happy or accomplished that the feeling was foreign.
Giving into himself, he let a comfortable smile slide into place. Ardis saw it and mirrored the look. Riding a wave of satisfaction, and wondering exactly how much the little girl would copy him Armitage made a slightly more exaggerated face.
He felt overwhelmingly silly, but Ardis' face lit up with a wide smile and bubbly laughter. Nearly a shriek, Armitage was sure that he would have found the sound terrible and grating if it had come from anywhere else. But coming from his own daughter, it was something joyful and almost music like.
It only came to an end when the door to the rest of the ship slid open.
Armitage and Ardis both looked up to find Lori standing in the doorway. She seemed flushed, and clearly had something urgent to say.
Armitage didn't have to ask to know that something had gone wrong.