Chapter Fourteen: Distraction
Rakata Prime was an exhausted husk of a planet on the beginning edge of the Unknown Regions, surrounded in enough rampaging spacial phenomena to make traveling their extremely hazardous. With everything of value stripped from its surface and core, the trek would only be worthwhile to those seeking concealment, which was why Kylo took his time before maneuvering them into orbit. He didn't want to run into a nest of marauders or members of any remaining crime syndicates. Scanning for signs of life, he guided the ship into the atmosphere, relying on an astromech to copilot. The droid was subdued and focused as it interfaced with the navigation terminal and monitored descent conditions. Although the craft was much smaller than Kylo's upsilon-class command shuttle, the cockpit still wasn't designed to be flown by a lone soul. Escaping Starkiller Base without droid assistance before the planet exploded had demanded more from his piloting skills than he'd had to call forth in a long time.
Kylo concentrated on his task, willing himself to ignore the girl he could sense pacing the confines of her locked room. She was a myriad of fluctuating anxiety, trepidation, and confusion, underlaid with a resolved obstinacy he had yet to see falter.
If he didn't garner a modicum of trust from her soon, it would only be a matter of time before she escaped – severely at his expense, no doubt.
The astromech beeped a warning, and he corrected his trajectory, giving an absent nod. Despite the looming thermosphere growing before him, he reached out for Rey without realizing.
Brace yourself, he instructed. We'll be landing soon.
She didn't answer at first, and Kylo could feel her trying to wall him from her mind. He shouldered the ineffectual attempt aside and was graced with a most unkind response involving how she'd like to send him 'landing' out an airlock.
That so? He asked mildly, banking the ship into a steep dive. Its gravity stabilizers could only do so much.
Rey wailed into his temples as he sent her careening into furniture, drowning out the droid's chorus of frantic chirps. He felt the jarring impact as she collided with the floor, sprawled in a mess of bruised limbs.
I warned you, he called.
Through the pain her brain was registering blooming in her lower back, Rey ground out, You'll be seeing that airlock soon, Ren.