Otherspace
She remembers holding someone's hand. It was rough like the desert rocks and often dirtier than the ship they lived in. It was warm when the heater was working, but most of the time it was cold. The sun was always harsh, so she liked the cold hand.
Until it's gone.
Eight-Seven wonders if there's a medical condition for someone about to vibrate out of their armor. He can't recall one from his medical manual, but he decides to name this condition Nines Losing His Mind or NLHM for short. Doctor Ergo would probably give a better name to this, but she's busy patching up Slip after a feral akk dog attacked him. Thankfully, Zeroes was there to kill the dog and brought Slip back to the ship.
"Inhale and exhale." Eight-Seven reminds him.
"DoyoureallythinkthattheGeneral'shere!?" Nines shoots off.
"Inhale and exhale." Eight-Seven reminds him. Nines takes a deep breath and lets it go.
"Do you really think that the General's here?"
"I suppose so if we're here."
"This could be another false lead." Nines grumbles bitterly.
He was the first one to volunteer our team in searching for the General without hesitation. It's not out just loyalty to the General; he has a massive crush on him. Well, him and half the fleet.
"Captain Cardinal seems optimistic about this one."
"It's been four months! This is the longest he's ever been kidnapped."
That we know of. I'd say he's well versed in captivity, but I doubt this will ease Nines' anxiety.
"He's General Hux, the youngest general in both Imperial and First Order history. He didn't come from an aristocratic family like the Mottis and Tagges; he got his generalship through merit and a bit of luck." Eight-Seven semi-quotes from the propaganda holos; Dr. Ergo hated them for the misinformation that most of them are composed of, but she did agree that General Hux got his position through honest means.
It also helps that he has Grand Admiral Sloane in his corner.
"Well, his luck ran out." Nines says glumly.
"So you don't believe in him anymore?" Eight-Seven asks and prepares himself for the defensive outburst.
"Of course, I believe in him! But….he's still human. He can't heal from blaster wounds. Or survive being stabbed in the heart. Or not be burnt by the sun."
"Have you been reading flimsi-comics again?" Eight-Seven's sentence barely leaves his mouth when he collides with something solid. He sees that the object in question is another human. A tan man with thick, brown hair and warm eyes. He wears a leather jacket and tight pants like a smuggler straight from the porn holos.
"Halt!" Nines orders with his blaster raised.
"I'm just looking for….my sister! She ran off, and I tried to hail her, but our comlinks don't work here." He explains without looking down at the blaster. Eight-Seven wonders if this man was just used to having blasters pointed at him.
"Uh-huh, so you and your sister decide to come to an abandon station for what? Poodoo and giggles?"
"For the treasure!" His voice goes up slightly.
"What treasure?"
"The treasure hidden by the Procurator. It's said that he hid all of his gold somewhere on the station."
He's gotta be lying. This place was abandoned for decades; odds are that some pirate crew or another smuggler would've found this so-called treasure long before now. Then again, this place isn't exactly advertised.
"What's your name, smuggler?" Eight-Seven asks in a polite tone. Nines swivels his helmet in his direction, and Eight-Seven hopes that Nines can keep his emotions in check long enough for this gambit to work.
"Poe." Poe glances down at the plaque with his designation number. "FN? I'm just gonna call you Finn."
"It's FN-2187." Nines corrects rather sharply.
"I've never been good with numbers." Poe admits sheepishly.
"Nines, it's fine. Let's help him find his sister and then we can all get off this death trap."
"Alright, but there better be no funny business!" Nines rounds on Poe.
"Who says funny business anymore? Do you watch nothing but old timey holos?" Poe laughs, and it makes Finn want to join in. But Nines would probably lose it.
"Flimsi-comics, actually." Finn earns a hiss from Nines, but another warm laugh from Poe.
Most of the time, her mother and father came home smelling like a cantina. Her eyes used to water, but she got used to it. Just like she got used to sharing her parents' sleeper after they sold her cot. Their sleeper is a fraction softer than her old cot, but the sheets made her itch. The itchiness wasn't terrible when they were here, but most nights they weren't. They left her alone most of the time.
She hates to be alone.
Cardinal wonders if Armitage is even here. It's been four months and a standard week since he last talked to Armitage. They were in his quarters. Armitage sat on his ice-blue couch, shining his boots into polished beetles.
"We're so close to change, Archex!"
"It's just a conference. It'll probably lead to a treaty, but I doubt a treaty will transform our Order."
"It's a start though! It can lead to exchanging of ideas, culture, and technologies. In a generation, the First Order will be different from now."
"Different can be bad."
"It can be good. Consequences come with everything, but this could really expand the Order's possibilities. Maybe, we'll have non-human officers and troopers. The Old Imperials will throw tantrums, but the younger ones will see how stupid it is to hate the alien. The unknown!"
He was five again and extolling the virtues of chivalry to a bunch of child-soldiers. He always had high hopes, and the universe liked to punish such optimism.
General Eclipse took over the fleet in Armitage's absence. She's been delegating her additional workload to Lieutenant Mitaka. Technically, Mitaka should've been made acting general until Armitage's return. He knew what it took to be a general and how Armitage ran the fleet, but he informed High Command that he didn't have the charisma nor the strategic knowledge to lead them. Mitaka is such a humble, simple soul.
"Doctor Ergo, how is Slip doing?"
"He's still sedated after the minor surgery. He should have full use of his right arm in a few days, so long as he doesn't get mauled again."
"Animals really hate him. I don't know why. It's not like he kills them for fun."
"I think the problem is he's too desperate for their love."
"He never met an animal until that stray cat." When the FN-Corps were just young cadets, a stray cat followed them from a field trip planetside. The cat was smart enough to hide during barrack checks and manipulative enough to sucker the rest of the younglings into keeping quiet. Unfortunately, the cat had high tastes and decided to break into the foodstuffs storage room. He ate all of General Borrum's fish cakes; Borrum was amused by this and decided to adopt the cat, against the cook's pleas for fatal justice.
"I think I treated him for a cat bite back then."
"It's a good thing that Eight-Seven is training to be a medic."
They elapse into silence for a moment.
"So still no trace of Armitage?"
"Eight-Seven and Nines haven't reported back yet." But everyone else has and found nothing except for abandoned junk.
"I do hope there won't be anymore surprises."
"Maybe, there'll be a good one."
There's lots of yelling tonight, and it's not fueled by the Nabooian whiskey. Father's pleading with a scary lady over the comlink. He must've lost big at sabacc. Mother's weeping on the bed. Her pretty brown hair shakes with every sob.
She makes sure to lay very still and keep her eyes closed. She doesn't want to be a bother.
They've been walking for hours through the station, checking every building for the smuggler's sister. If he even has a sister. Nines will not be surprised if they're being lured into a trap, and the sister turns out be a crew of scruffy nerf-herders. But as the hours tick away, the smuggler gets more and more anxious. His perfect quaff of hair is now a nest from pulling on his curls. His bottom lip is cracked from his near-constant chewing. His hands are shaking. Either his lost sister story is true, or he's slowly accepting that his criminal buddies have left him for dead.
Nines will give him one more building and then he's radioing Captain Cardinal.
Eight-Seven, I mean Finn, is getting real cozy with the smuggler. I should've known he has a kink for lowlifes; his entire holo porn stash has a dashing yet roguish smuggler banging their way across the universe. Do I really need to tell him that real-life smugglers don't have secret hearts of gold and will turn to law-abiding citizens after sex?
The smuggler cracks an old joke about a sarlacc and a nerf, which really isn't funny, but Eight-Seven laughs like he's never heard it before.
Maker, he is trying so hard! I know porn-holos don't teach the ins and outs of flirting, but he's need to dial it back. Oh no, he's going to tell that stupid joke about the four Bilars and fish-bread. I would give anything to be mauled by akk dogs!
"What's with all the writing on this building? It's not Aurebesh." Finn mercifully stops his joke in favor of stating the obvious. The final building is a hexagonal structure with gold-colored calligraphy on it that reminds Nines of worms writhing in graveyard dirt.
"It's not Huttese, or, really, any language I've ever seen." Poe says as he touches one of the worm-shaped words; it turns out to be the right one because the door slides open.
"This is a trap." Nines sighs and knows that neither man will listen to him. They plunge in headfirst into the darkness. Nines activates his headlight and follows them after a solid minute of debating whether to leave them.
The inside is surprisingly larger than the outside. And with more dried bloodstains.
"Where are the bodies? With this much blood there should be bodies!"
"I don't see any bones, so I guess the akk dogs weren't the cause." Finn points out to Nines.
"There's a lot dust here. I don't think anyone's been here in decades." Poe then sneezes. He leads them down a corridor that has a trail of dried blood that ends in a crooked doorframe. Poe goes first, then Finn, and finally Nines.
"Oh pfassk."
They see a creature. It has no eyes, no mouth, nothing resembling facial features. Golden scales protrude from flesh as red as the pool beneath it. Right in front of the scaly blob is a golden shell almost clear like a chrysalis; there's a girl suspended in silver liquid.
"REY!" Poe screams and runs towards the chrysalis without a single thought. Immediately, the scales melt off from the creature, and slithers to the smuggler. It engulfs him in another shell, and red-gold ichor erupts from the being and splashes onto the shell. The shell thins to reveal Poe suspended in stardust-colored liquid just like the girl.
"We've gotta help Poe and his sister!" Finn declares, and Nines grabs his arm.
"You're gonna rush in like that idiot? Play the pfassking hero!? That thing had him in like seconds! We need to think this through before we wind up like them!" Nines then points his blaster at the creature.
"I kriffing doubt our blasters are going to do anything against that monster!"
"I want to go home."
Nines and Finn shut up and turn their helms back onto the creature.
"I am Waru and I am not from this galaxy." They do not know how they are hearing this when the creature lacks even the facsimile of a mouth to speak.
"We can see that." Nines manages to say with terror gripping his heart.
"Hethrir promised to help me get home, but he never did."
"Like getting you a ship?" Nines suggests uneasily.
"I need energy to go home. An opposite to mine."
"So like a positron and an electron?" Finn theorizes.
"Rey freely gives her energy to me, but hers is not enough."
"Is that why you have Poe?"
"He does not have the energy I seek, and it was to prevent him from doing something stupider."
"If we can get you this energy, will you let them go?"
"I will, and I only need a little more. Finn, you have the energy."
"Me? What's so special about my energy? I'm just like Poe and Nines."
"You are for the most part, but you also have energy akin to Rey's."
"You are seriously not thinking of offering yourself to that thing?" Nines tries to put some sense into Finn.
"Look, it'll free Poe and his sister, and it'll get Waru to leave. I say this is a win-win." Finn says and boldly steps forward. Nines watches as Finn goes through the same process as Poe and ends up suspended in the golden shell. The chrysalises of Finn and Rey vibrate, causing cracks to form. Waru glows a silver light and then there's a flash that knocks out Nines' helmet sensors. By the time they come back online, he sees Poe standing above the stilled forms of Finn and Rey.
"What the pfassk just happened!?" Nines exclaims.
"I think it's gone."
And the building shakes violently.
"Come on! Was Waru the being keeping this hunk of station junk together!?"
"Maybe. Let's get our friends out of here!"
"And go where? Our ship is like two hours away from here! So unless your ship is right behind this building, we're screwed."
"I can get my ship over here." Poe pulls up his sleeve to reveal a comlink. He types in a code and then there's several beeps.
"It'll be a few minutes, but we'll make it!"
"My pfassking hero." Nines mutters as he carries Finn.
Rey wakes up in the cockpit with BB-8 at her side. The droid beeps and squeaks their excitement, and then it turns into a series of very annoyed clicks for her being so reckless. She endures it for a few seconds and then looks over at the pilot chair. Poe is piloting, and he's sporting a red shiner and a split lip.
"What in the hells happened to you?" She rasps and then coughs for a moment.
"Had to subdue a trooper."
"The First Order found us!?" Her voice cracks.
"It was only two bucket heads. I told them that I was smuggler looking for my irresponsible little sister. They were kind enough to help."
"I'm guessing you met Waru."
"Yeah, and he's gone home."
"Oh, good. I promised him my Force energy if he would help me with my parents."
"And did he held up his end of the deal?"
"I remember them. They were drunks with gambling debts, but they loved me. In their own way. I think."
"Are you going to keep looking for them?"
"I don't know." She sags further in her seat.
"I'm here for you." Poe says warmly and truthfully.
"Thanks, Poe, so what happened to the trooper? You dumped him in a canyon?"
"Oh, he's in the brig."
"What." She sits right up.
"And so is Finn. He's trooper too, but he's also training to be a medic."
"So you just kidnapped two Stormtroopers and are going to bring them back to the secret base? Are you planning on killing them off!? They'll blab to the FO where I base is if you don't!"
"No!"
"There's no way they'll convert to the Resistance! You kidnapped them!"
"Finn might! Also, he might be like you."
"….As in blood related to me?"
"No. He may have the Force."
"Oh, that's just great!"
"And he's cute too boot."
Rey sighs exactly like Leia.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
Here is an image of Brixie Ergo. In Legends/EU, she was a med student that became a mercenary for Red Moons, a group that did dirty jobs for the New Republic. I decided to use her because I don't know any doctors in the FO aside from the droids: a href=" . /starwars/images/a/ae/Brixie_ /revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20070428092840"Link/a
Here is an image of Nines. He looks like a moody kind of guy: a href=" . /starwars/images/6/68/Nines_no_ /revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20160107202925"Link/a
Here is an image of Waru. He, which is the pronoun I'm using because that's what the book used, is literally described as a slab of naked flesh with golden scales that bleed ichor. The book is wildly creative with descriptions: a href=" . /revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20081229211033"Link/a
Vonda N. McIntyre's The Crystal Star was a surprisingly great SW read for me this year, which is why I mined it for this one-shot. However, my one-shot does not do it justice, so if you can find it at an affordable price or your local library, I highly recommend getting it.
I made Finn be a medic-in-training because without Kylo destroying everything and Snoke blowing credits on golden slippers there's funds for projects. One of them being introducing alternative career paths when/if a Stormtrooper retires from active duty. I was really into the MedStar duology and was hoping that maybe Finn would show a knack for medicine, so I can have more medic adventures. TRoS did not agree with me or with TLJ. But I did decide to use that hint they gave in my super hazy recollection of the ending of TRoS, which got bolstered by the Lego holiday special, where Finn may be Force-sensitive. It seriously wouldn't kill SW to explore Jedi healers and medics again.
I also decided to Wookie the FN corps; it turns out that Phasma regarded them as the best Stormtroopers, and Finn as the best out of them because of his high marks on tests. They gave each other nicknames with Finn being Eight-Seven. Also, Nines (or TR-8R) is the Stormtrooper that called Finn a traitor and tried to kill him for it; he's also a redhead, so of course by SW rules he had to die too. Anyways, this is my first time writing Finn and I'm fairly certain I'm way off in his personality. I made him more serious, but hopefully his further interactions with Poe and Rey will lighten him up. Can't say the same with Nines.
Next one-shot should have some action and more drama.