Chapter 3

They all ran past the trading stalls as fast as they could, trying to dodge the blaster shots that went by them.

Elsi would have told them to head for her ship but there were already stormtroopers surrounding it.

She wanted to turn around and fight them but she did not know how many there were and the others were already running so far ahead that she needed to keep up in order to keep an eye on BB-8.

"I can run without you holding my hand. BB-8 stay close. This way." Rey ran ahead and lead the way to a tent where they rested for a moment.

"They were shooting at all of us."

"Yes, they saw you with us, now you are marked."

"Well thanks for that!" Rey retorted.

"Hey I'm not the one who chased you down with a stick."

"If you both are quite done squabbling like children then could we please move on. We can't stay here, we need to keep moving. By now they have already called in reinforcements." Elsi peeked around the corner, they had lost the stormtroopers for the moment.

"Are you okay?" Rey questioned BB-8 only to be cut off by Finn shushing her, taking her hand and running off followed by Elsi. "Stop taking my hand!"

An imperial tie fighter was coming up behind them. "LOOK OUT!" Elsi quickly force pushed each of them forward to avoid the fighter blast.

"What was that?" Rey picked herself up off the sand and looked for Finn who appeared knocked out behind her.

"That was an imperial tie fighter." Elsi knew that Rey was referring to the force push not the ship, but by now she was leaning over Finn waking him up.

"Are you okay?"

Elsi went over to quickly check on BB-8. He seemed to be fine, just a little roughed up.

Rey helped Finn up and they all took off running again. And running and running, avoiding blasts and looking for another ship.

"We can't outrun them."

"We might, in that quad jumper." Rey pointed ahead of them.

"HEY, WE NEED A PILOT!" Finn shouted.

"We've got one!" Rey pointed out.

"YOU?!"

Elsi wanted to mention that she was also a pilot, otherwise how else would she have gotten there into the middle of the desert planet. However, she was too busy making sure that BB-8 kept up alright, giving him a small force boost every now and then when he slowed down due to the bumps in the sand.

"What about that ship?" Finn pointed to his right.

If it wasn't for the blasts making her run forward Elsi would have stopped dead still at the sight to her right.

The Millennium Falcon, just sitting there. So that's where Han's ship had gone. He had it stolen from him a few years ago and he had been looking for it ever since. Here it was.

"That one's garbage." Rey argued continuing her run forward.

It most certainly was not garbage. And despite the mission there was no way that Elsi was leaving that ship here to be taken or destroyed by the empire.

Changing direction without the other two noticing, Elsi started running towards the falcon.

Hearing an explosion behind her as she almost reached the ship she turned to realise that the quad jumper had been destroyed and Finn and Rey were now running back towards the Flacon.

Elsi ran up the ramp and immediately sat in the main seat of the cockpit.

"Hey old girl, you missed me? Glad I finally get to sit in the main captain seat."

She began starting up the engines, hoping that the Falcon would still work after all this time.

Rey ran in from behind her.

"What are you doing?"

"Starting up the engines. what does it look like? But I may need a co-pilot, this girl has been through a lot and driving her requires extra care so help me out would ya?"

"You know how to fly this thing?" Rey sat in the co-pilot seat.

"Yep. Well I've only ever been in the co-pilot seat, but I know what I'm doing. Are BB-8 and Finn okay?"

Rey merely nodded.

As the engines warmed up and the system began to charge, Elsi took the moment to take off her mask and lower her cowl. Although she didn't often like people to see her face due to the danger in her profession, she knew that this was a necessary moment. So, she ignored her rule in the circumstances.

Rey stared in shock at Elsi.

"What?" Elsi used the controls to make the Falcon take off.

"Just didn't expect that is all. I assumed you were-"

"What? Human? My species is mostly human DNA but we have our obvious differences." The main differences being the Pale blue skin with dark blue markings and bright purple hair. The body figure and features were exactly the same as a human.

The ship shook as Elsi accidentally knocked it into some pieces of ship debris below.

"Sorry! My bad."

"Are you sure you know how to fly this ship?!"

"Of course I do! The Falcon and I are both just a little rusty you know."

Elsi flew the Falcon upwards.

"NO! Stay low it confuses their tracking!" Finn shouted out from the back.

"Right, staying low."

The Falcon dipped so that it was skimming the surface of Jakku.

Tie fighters swarmed them from all sides.

"What are you doing back there, are you ever going to fire back?" Rey shouted back to Finn.

"Working on it. Are the shields up?" He responded.

"Rey check the switch to your right, has it lit up green yet?" Elsi pointed to the side whilst swerving the Falcon to narrowly avoid one of the tie fighters blasts.

"No. The shields are still down Finn, working on it."

The ship swerved left to right trying to avoid the blasts from behind them.

"We need cover quick. Does anyone know how to work these guns?" Finn could not get the guns to fire.

Elsi knew what she needed to do. "Rey, I need you to take over."

"What?!" Rey exclaimed.

"You know this area, you can lose them in the debris. Come on, you can do this."

Rey looked at Elsi in shock but quickly nodded and they switched places.

Elsi looked around and noticed that the gun switch was jammed. She needed to manually override the system underneath the gun panel.

"Rey you have got this, the guns are jammed, I need to go help Finn. You can do this."

"I can do this. I can do this." Rey let out a long breath and set into action swerving the ship through the debris and around the ruins of the old imperial star destroyer.

Elsi rushed through the ship heading towards the ladder leading down to the gun bay.

"Finn?"

"Yeh?" Finn was still trying to manoeuvre the gun hoping that it would work. His face was still forward not looking at her.

"I'm going to reboot the system by hacking into the gun turret through the wires underneath the floor. When I shout out you need to-"

The ship jerked to the side as it took a sharp unexpected turn. Elsi's shoulder whacked roughly into the side of the ship. She gasped out in pain.

"Sorry." Rey called out.

Elsi ignored the pain and immediately removed the floor panel and began resetting the gun turret.

"Elsi?!" Finn questioned.

"I'm fine. When I say switch the gun switch down for 5 seconds then immediately switch it back up, that should reset the system. Then you let them have it. Okay?"

"Yeh, got it."

"Rey the guns are about to come back online. When I say, manoeuvre the ship so that the tie fighters are in range." Elsi switched the final switch below the panel.

"Ready? In three…Two…One…NOW!"

Both Rey and Finn did as Elsi said. Rey flew the ship around past the ruins and immediately flew upwards. The guns came back online and Finn let loose.

"Come on, come on." Finn fired the guns and it directly hit the tie fighter taking it down.

"Nice shot!" Rey shouted looking back in Finns direction as Elsi re-entered the room and sat in the co-pilot seat.

"Best to keep your eyes forward when flying Rey." Both women smirked. They were going to get out of this. Just one tie fighter left.

The ship jerked forward again as the gun turret was hit with a blast.

"Right the cannon is stuck in the forward position. I can't move it, you've gotta lose them."

Rey looked around trying to think of what to do. Seeing the star destroyer ships' remains ahead of her she raced the ship towards it.

"Get ready!"

"Okay for what."

"You'll see."

Elsi immediately grabbed on tightly to her seat. She could guess what Rey was about to do and she wanted to be sitting down this time and not crashing into walls again.

Elsi sensed with the force that the tie fighter was locking onto them. "Rey he's locking onto the ship, turn now!"

The ship turned sharply to the right before Rey turned off one of the engines flipping the ship upside down, giving Finn a clear shot in front of him. He took the shot and directly hit the tie fighter causing it to explode.

"Whoa."

"Yes." Elsi exclaimed jumping up in her seat.

Rey looked over at her and together they both smiled at each other, happy to have gotten away.

As soon as they were a safe distance away from the planet Rey put on the autopilot and went out into the middle of the ship to Finn, Elsi following slowly behind.

"Nice shooting."

"Now that was some flying." Finn and Rey said at the same time.

"Thanks."

"How did you do that?"

"I don't know. I've flown some ships, but I've never left the planet."

Elsi guessed that the connection that Rey had to the force had something to do with how she could fly the Falcon so well, but she didn't speak up. She just let them both ramble on to each other whilst she leaned casually against the wall.

"Ehem." She coughed bringing their attention to her. "You both did great back there."

"Thanks you too-" Finn turned around to where Elsi stood behind him. "Whoa!" He exclaimed at seeing her without her cowl and mask.

Elsi expecting his reaction rolled her eyes and walked towards BB-8 to check on him.

Rey elbowed Finn in the ribs giving a pointed look towards Elsi kneeling down by BB-8.

"Sorry I just wasn't expecting you without your mask and stuff. I also expected you to be human. No offence of course."

"None taken."

"So what race are you anyway? If you don't mind me asking." Finn looked at Elsi, her pale blue skin, dark blue markings and purple hair and wondered why he had never encountered or even heard of anyone like her before.

Elsi stood up to face them both. "You probably won't have heard of it anyway."

"Try me."

"I am from a race called the Cisanee from the planet Soris. It was very small and very far away. The details are not important. What is important now is making sure that we get BB-8 back where he belongs."

A loud bang alerted the group to the steam that was now bursting into the room. Another part of the ship that needed fixing.

"Oh great." Elsi sighed loudly and moved to help fix the problem.


Authors Note:

Hi everyone, thanks for reading this chapter and thank you so much to my 2 reviewers. It motivates me to write more when I know that you are enjoying my work. The race Cisanee and the planet Soris are completely made up. I have my own back story wrote out for Elsi which will be set out in future chapters. Let me know what you think so far. Thanks, ZV.