Chapter Seventeen

Finn sat back and watched Rose in awe. The girl was a marvel, a certifiable genius.

Of course, just a few days ago he would not have claimed that. No, he was so angry at her that he would have said that she had lost her mind.

In their frantic flight to leave the city, Rose would stop suddenly a pick up a piece of scrap or would rummage through a crashed speeder looking for a part. She didn't seem to appreciate just how much danger they were in. Fed up with her antics, Finn grabbed her and swung her over his shoulder to carry her the rest of the way.

At first, Rose was so shocked that she didn't put up a fight. But as soon as one of her precious pieces of scrap fell out of her jacket she started squirming. Her jerky movement almost caused Finn to lose his balance. Growling out his frustration Finn set her down momentarily.

"You need to stop. In case you didn't notice, we are in the middle of a war zone!" Finn tried to remain calm but every moment that they delayed, the more danger they were in. Even this momentary pause set his teeth on edge. When Rose didn't reply, just bent down to pick up the lost piece of trash he lost it.

"That's it," he ground out through gritted teeth.

Not giving her time to argue or explain. Finn picked her up again. This time holding her in a Fireman's carry which allowed him far greater control over her movements. She could protest, all she liked. Hell, once they were free of this chaos, she could scream at him until her voice gave out. But right now, they had to flee. The entire city had gone mad.

Finn had never been more thankful for the grueling training he had endured as a stormtrooper. He kept running with Rose slung across his shoulders barely missing a beat. As he ran, he kept scanning his surroundings for functioning transport.

All the while he ignored Rose. At least, he tried to ignore her. For such a short woman, Finn didn't know how she managed to kick one leg up and clock him in the side of the face. It wasn't a hard blow, but it was enough to startle him.

"I said stop dummy! The speeder back there looks like it still works."

Finn turned and saw what she meant. He missed it in his frantic dash. There, tucked back in the alleyway, was a narrow speeder. It was halfway hidden under a ragged piece of cloth. Pulling the cloth away, Finn swore he had never seen a piece of equipment as beautiful.

In actuality, the speeder was a barely functioning piece of junk. But the moment the engine kicked over, Finn thought it was every bit as fine as a new Tiggerian class speeder. It was exactly what they needed and had likely saved both their lives.

They rode due west out of the city. Finn didn't have a destination in mind. His single thought was that they needed somewhere remote. They couldn't trust anyone right now. Their safest bet was to lay low until they could get a message to the Rebels.

Hopefully, wherever they ended up had a functioning communicator. Their communicator had been blown up with their ship.

…

The abandoned mining shack did not have a communicator. It was barely more than four walls and a roof, but it was isolated which was Finn's main concern.

The shack did have running water and if they were careful with their supplies, they could last about five days before they needed to venture out for food. Dehydrated protein rations and instant bread were not the tastiest, but you could carry a lot of rations in your pockets for easy transport.

After Finn complete the initial sweep of the shack, he motioned to Rose that it was safe to enter. She still hadn't spoken to him since they got on the speeder. She gave this shoulder a solid thump as passed him to enter the building.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"Like you don't know," was her sarcastic reply.

After that, Rose went back to ignoring him. She barely gave him a grunt of acknowledgement when he placed the prepared food near her later that evening.

Instead, Rose dumped all the pieces of scrap that she collected and began tinkering with them. She was laser focused on her task. She worked until the sun went down and would have continued working through the night if Finn had not insisted that they needed to maintain lights out because any illumination might bring hostiles to them.

Rose hadn't liked that response, but she didn't argue. She just gave him a derisive glare and then laid down with her back to him.

It wasn't until the next day that she explained what she was doing.

"We need a way to contact the Rebels. I couldn't find a communicator capable of transmitting a signal off world, but I may be able to rig one with these parts."

"Oh," was Finn's inelegant response. Feeling a little sheepish about his high-handed approach earlier, Finn asked if there was anything to he could do to help.

"Do you know how to solder?"

"Not really but I am a quick study."

With that, a truce had been called. Rose showed him how to properly meld the metal conductors and once he was done with that she started issuing more instructions for him.

Days later, they had a functioning communicator.

Running through the frequencies, Rose was able to lock on to Leia's personal frequency.

Both of them held their breath as they waited for a response.

"Identify," came the imperious command of General Leia Organa.

"Oh, thank the Stars," Rose exclaimed.

"General this is Finn and Rose, identification codes Echo Bravo Omega Signa and Lambda Iota Theta Nu."

"Identification confirmed," Leia replied.

"Now that that is squared away, what is your status? Is Rey with you?"

"Rey?"

Finn and Rose looked at each other in confusion. Rose took over the conversation while Finn rose and started pacing the room in agitation.

"No, General. We have not had any contact with Rey."

Leia sighed audibly before replying. "I was afraid of this. Both Rey and Chewie landed two days ago on a mission to find you two. Chewie lost contact with Rey on the first day and is frantic that something happened to her."

"Why did you let her come in the first place!" Finn shouted.

"I didn't let her do anything. I gave a direct order that neither of them was to leave Kashyyyk but neither followed it." The tone of Leia's response stopped Finn short. It reminded him that he was mouthing off to a General.

Finn couldn't totally blame Leia. Rey was beyond headstrong. Once she got a notion into her head there was no stopping her. Besides, if their positions were reversed, he would have done the same. Rey was family and if she was in danger, he would have disobeyed any order to help her.

"Where is Chewie now?"

Finn was glad one of them was keeping a level head. He was too worried thinking about all the bad things that could have happened to Rey. What was she thinking? Force powers or not, she was just one person. This entire planet was a warzone.

"Chewie is in the Galapus ravine."

"Okay, I think Finn and I are somewhere in the Garvos mountain range. General, could you send us a map or directions for how to get to him? We don't have access to any kind of terminal right now."

"Of course. Stand by for transmission."

The map came through without issue. Examining the route, Finn could see that it would be at least two days before they could get to the Falcon. They could arrive earlier but that would mean having to go through population centers and Finn didn't think their luck would hold another time.

"We will keep a sharp eye out for Rey as we make our way back to the Falcon. After we meet up with Chewie, we can start doing planetary sweeps for her. Does she still have her locator beacon?"

There was a long pause before Leia replied. "Yes, she had the beacon in her possession when she departed from the Falcon. It was functioning up until two hours ago."

"Great," Finn exclaimed. "Send us those coordinates and we will pick her up on the way back."

"You should know that the beacon has not moved in over 36 hours."

The weight of that statement hit Finn square in the chest. Rose looked up at him with a worried expression on her face. Whatever had happened to Rey, it wasn't good.

Straightening his spine, Finn refused to consider that anything too horrible had happened. Most likely, she was pinned down due to all the fighting. Even if she had been captured, they could rescue her. Finn told himself that this was going to be alright. It had to be.