Rose was quiet when they walked back. She glanced from time to time at Hux, he really looked different without his black uniform, less pale and less driven somehow. He looked like a human being, with his bright hair and the stubble.
But in the end he was still General Hux of the First Order, the architect of Starkiller, the butcher of Crait. A man who freely admitted that he killed his own father. And the way he had slit the Stormtroopers throat with practiced ease…
And yet he was one of the Resistance greatest assets. The spy who had saved them from extinction, who transmitted valuable, life-saving intel and risked his own life to save them.
He was like a double-edged sword, she realised. A deadly weapon that could burn the galaxy down or save it. He seemed to notice her glances and frowned a little. But he didn't look angry, he looked... sad.
Even Poe thought that he was lonely. She realised that she had forgotten to ask him why he had thought that Hux was the spy in the first place. She got the feeling that she was missing something but she couldn't put her finger on it.
They worked in silence for the rest of the day. Only exchanging brief comments on technical issues. He really had an impressive grasp of tech, a broad knowledge about almost every system and program there was - at least in theory.
She noticed that dinner time approached. "Dinner time," she said and massaged her stiff neck. Damn it, she really shouldn't sit bent over like this.
"You go on ahead," he said in a low voice. "I'll just finish this up."
"I know that trick - and then you just keep on working, huh? Not with me - we're going together."
For a moment she almost thought that he looked relieved. Nah, that had been her imagination.
"When do you think you'll have the scrambler ready?" he asked as he grabbed his crutch.
"In an hour or so, maybe I'll continue after dinner and install the thing. Then Poe can take the fighter for a spin in the morning… although we need a target to simulate the navigational shield."
"We could rig a resistance ship with a transponder."
"Good idea, but that's something we can think about tomorrow."
He tried to keep up with her quick steps. "I- I thought that as a side project we could improve the fighter's shields. A TIE-fighter plasma bolt could be slightly deflected if we adjust the shield output to the right frequency."
He was chattier than usual and she didn't know why. Perhaps he was just excited about the possibility of designing new tech? Well, it was understandable. "Why not? We should just keep our focus on the tracker."
They entered the Cantina, it was quite crowded. They waited for a bit until some people left and sat down.
"Be right back," said Rose.
"Uh, Sergeant Tico - I can get the food myself. It's stew, right? That should be easy enough to carry."
"Suit yourself," she put a hydrospanner and an oily rag on their chairs to mark them as taken and they went to the counter.
Back at the table Rose noticed that Hux looked strained. It was quite hot in the Cantina and there was a thin film of sweat on his face.
"Hey Rose!" said Aish from behind her.
She turned on her chair to face him. "Evening! I didn't see you at the huttball match, I thought you loved that stuff."
"I do! But you know how it is - I got to finish some work first."
"Ugh, you don't have to tell me."
"Alright, I gotta go - see you!"
Aish left and Rose turned back to Hux. He looked confused. "I thought you liked working on the secondary weapon."
"I do."
"Then why did you just now-"
"It's just small-talk - everybody moans about their work-load. It would be impolite to say otherwise."
"I see." He chewed slowly, apparently processing the new piece of information. He looked as if he was solving a difficult equation in his head.
"Did you work a lot on fighters back in the Order?" she asked.
"No, we received the newest models from our manufacturers. There was no need for me to work on them. But I went through their technical specifications - as a commanding officer I needed to know their capabilities."
"Makes sense."
"How do you know so much about fighters and weapons?" he asked after a short pause.
"I was always good with tech. It's basically learning by doing for me with most systems - they all follow the same principles so it's not that hard."
He put his spoon down. "Most people don't see it that way."
She shrugged. "Most people are better shots than me, so there's that. I do what I can to help the cause. It's not particularly heroic but it doesn't need to be."
Paige had been the bold one of them, she was just- Rose. She eyed Hux, he was staring at her blankly. Why was she even going on about it to him?
He looked down on his hands. "Not everybody can be a hero."
"Sadly, no - not everybody is cut out to be a hero." She pushed her plate away. "Not everybody is brave." She couldn't help but sound bitter. If only she had done more… somehow, made some effort to reinforce the bombers- increase their speed… anything. If only.
After dinner she bid Hux good night and returned to the lab. She was feeling down, memories of Paige haunted her - beautiful, smart Paige. The way she had laughed, the way she swore that even space pirates would blush, the way she teased Rose… all gone.
She worked slowly but steadily and after she had finished she went to the hangar to install the updated version of the secondary weapon.
She wiped her hands on her overalls and stepped out of the hangar. Above her she could see the moons and the stars, cicadas were chirping in the woods. She sat down on a patch of grass right outside the hangar and looked to the nightly sky.
She used to do that with Paige when they were still on Hays Minor.
'Look at that, Ro,' her sister used to say. 'A galaxy full of planets and stars and we are stuck on the most boring one.'
Everything was boring to Paige. Everything except flying. Her eyes started to gleam, her smile became wider. She lived for that moment when she took off, that moment of absolute freedom.
Rose could hear rustling and in the dim light she could see a small feline stalking through the grass, sniffing at her boots. It was a loth-cat, probably smelling the scent of the porgs from the Millenium Falcon.
She sniffled. "Hey little guy."
The loth-cat, a dark-furred animal with a bright orange belly craned its neck before it ran back into the underwood. Rose let herself fall on her back, feeling the cool grass against her neck. Paige also loved all kinds of animals, but her greatest love had been flying.
'It's the best feeling, you just lack the imagination to get it.'
'It's just acceleration, Pei-Pei.'
'No, when you jump to hyperspace everything becomes possible, every adventure is out there, waiting for us.'
Rose sniffled again and blinked tears away. If only she had come up with some miraculous shield that would have saved Paige. She grabbed her medallion so hard that her knuckles turned white. If only.
.
-o-
.
Hux was on his way to the lab in the morning when a klaxon started to whail. In a matter of seconds the hallway was full of pilots scrambling to their fighters, almost running over Hux who barely managed to get out of the way.
He stood in a corner and watched the rebels scurry to their posts. From a distance he saw Captain Finn rushing towards the command center. Something major was going on, after a short moment Hux started to hobble towards the command center - he needed to know what was happening.
The first thing he noticed was General Organa standing in front of a large holo table, watching a transmission. Hux squinted. It was the Force user - Rey.
"...I tried to shake them off but they followed us through the erratic hyper jumps," she said. Her holo picture flickered.
"Jump to the coordinates we've sent you, Rey," said Organa in a commanding voice. "Our fighters will be ready to take your pursuers on."
Hux stayed in the back, he wasn't sure if he was allowed in here but considering that he wasn't exactly hiding and nobody shooed him away he assumed that it wasn't forbidden.
General Organa turned to a blonde, light-skinned human officer. "ETA?"
"Eight minutes, 34 seconds, General."
Captain Finn was staring at the holo. "Rey - Poe is coming for you. Just stay alive, okay?"
"That's the plan, Finn," replied Rey with a quick smile.
Hux frowned. This was hardly the time for sentimentality. Why were they-
Sergeant Tico burst into the room, panting. She stepped to the holo and put her hand on Captain Finn's arm and squeezed it lightly. Then she saw Hux and frowned, General Organa seemed to notice and followed her gaze. Hux gulped when he caught her eye.
"General Hux, step over here please," said Organa calmly. Despite her politeness there was no doubt that it was an order. Hux straightened his back and joined the others at the holo table.
"Lieutenant Connix?" asked Organa and turned to the blonde officer.
"ETA four minutes, 12 seconds."
"How many TIE fighters are on your tail, Rey?"
"-ink, abou- -ty." The holo flickered stronger.
"Rey, you are breaking up," said Captain Finn. "Please repeat."
"-abou- - twenty."
Organa turned to Finn. "Call Poe, tell him that he is to expect a heavy fight." Captain Finn nodded and stepped to a smaller comm console.
"General Hux," said Organa with a stern glare, "your analysis?"
Everybody at the table jerked their heads around, glaring disbelievingly at her and then at him.
Hux lifted his chin. "Standard procedure is to corner the enemy then call for back-up. I expect at least one destroyer to jump to the coordinates once the battle starts."
General Organa nodded and turned to Rey. "We can't engage, we need to distract them and continue with the erratic jumps."
"Hux, the prototype - it's installed," said Sergeant Tico.
"But it's not tested yet," he replied.
"When push comes to shove we'll need it, how many seconds before the jump?"
"Three seconds, or the system may reboot."
"Rose?" asked Organa in a sharp voice. "What is this about?"
"A prototype weapon we have designed, it's not yet tested but-"
"General! ETA 30 seconds!"
Finn returned to the table. "Poe is ready."
Hux noticed the tension in the room, he had never seen anything like it. On the Finalizer there had been a calm, controlled environment. Professional and cold. Not, here - everybody seemed worried. Everybody except Organa seemed on edge, but of course a veteran commander like her has seen her share of battles.
The holo switched to the radar of Dameron's fighter and in a matter of seconds they saw small dots emerging from hyperspace - it was the freighter with the Force-user trailed by a squadron of TIE-fighters.
The freighter made evasive manoeuvres, but its sluggish movement suggested that there had been some damage to the thrusters. The Rebels engaged and a wild dog-fight started, one fighter chasing another, covering the damaged freighter.
"Poe, you need to get out of there," said Organa, "a destroyer is on it's way. You won't stand a chance against its ventral cannons."
"Roger, but we need a little more time. Rey and Chewie need to reroute power for the next jump."
Hux noticed that Captain Finn was clenching his fists while staring at the holo. He turned his attention again on the fight, the destroyer would appear in a matter of seconds. As soon as he had finished his thought a destroyer appeared out of hyperspace, almost crushing two Rebel fighters with its massive hull.
"Poe! Come on!" said Finn in a low voice.
"I'm ready to jump," said Rey suddenly. "I don't know how many I'll manage before the power converter melts."
Tico grabbed the edge of the holo table with her hands. "Poe! Fire the secondary weapon, jump exactly - I repeat - exactly three seconds later."
"What the-"
"Just do it!" she practically yelled.
Hux grabbed his crutch firmer and pressed his lips together. He had recognized the TIE fighters - they were from the 31th Delta squadron. They had served more than once under his command.
They saw a single blast from Poe's fighter, it hit one of the TIE-fighters and Poe screamed "Jump!"
The freighter jumped and about 15 TIE-fighters exploded. One was shot down by Dameron before he jumped too.
Hux's throat laced up, it worked - it worked and with one fell swoop he killed 15 good soldiers. He averted his gaze and heard gasps.
"What- what was that?" asked the blonde officer.
"A prototype weapon Hux invented, it disables the navigational shields. They were destroyed by space debris as soon as they jumped to hyperspace," replied Tico.
Hux closed his eyes. It was war - people die, simple as that. He steadied himself and looked back up. General Organa was looking him straight in the eye, he made an effort to hold her gaze.
The rest of the battle was quickly over - the Rebels destroyed the remaining fighters before they made their last jump back to the base. Nobody seemed to mind him and Hux hobbled out of the command center. He felt hot and the air seemed stuffy. He decided that he needed fresh air.
The sun was warm, the scent of the forest greeted him the moment he left the base. He went to the same place he had been with Sergeant Tico and sat down on the tree trunk. He took a deep breath and wiped over his face.
Kriff. They had been his soldiers for years and now-
"Are you alright?"
The question derailed his thoughts and he realised that Sergeant Tico was standing next to him; he hadn't heard her approach.
He ran his hand through his hair. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You looked miserable in there."
He had always prided himself in excellent self-control, it seemed that he was losing his edge. He had done what was right, he was following through with his decision… but then why did it feel like he had a mistake? Why did he feel guilty?