Rose had already finished the initial scan when Hux appeared in the hangar.

"There you are! It's just like we thought - the condenser is probably older than my grandmother. We just need to swap them and everything should be alright."

"Ah, good," said Hux. He looked a little distracted.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes I am. Captain Finn just wants us to fix an DL-44. Perhaps you can have a look if you can salvage it? Otherwise I'll refit a newer power cell."

He seemed tense. Perhaps they had an argument? Well, he would tell her in his own time. "Okay, will do."

"Uhm, there is something else we can discuss once we're back in the lab."

She stared at him. Something was definitely off.

"What? Finn knows?"

Hux averted his gaze. "I didn't say anything but he deducted it from the way I reacted to a stupid joke. But he assured me that he won't tell anybody."

Crap! Well, at least it was Finn and not somebody else. "Where is he now?"

Hux looked miserable. "He's in the Cantina I think."

She wiped over her face. "Okay, I need to talk to him."

"I'm sorry."

"Well, I think we can still keep it quiet."

"Rose-"

"We can talk later, I need to find him," she said and hurried out of the lab.

She found Finn in the Cantina, he was sitting alone in a corner drinking a beer. When he saw her he sighed. "Damn, that was fast."

Rose looked around, the Cantina was pretty much deserted and the other few customers were sitting rather far away. "Listen, I know what you might think but-"

"Really? Do you?" he asked with a huff.

That gave her pause. "I… at least I think so." She inhaled and ran her hand through her hair. "I kind of fell for him, he's brilliant and handsome. I mean- that's supposed to be enough, right?"

"Funny, it's almost the same way he described you: brilliant and beautiful."

"He did?"

"Yeah, he said that he knew you're too good for him. You want to know what I think? I think he's scared. You should have seen the look on his face, and please consider who we're talking about - the same guy who lied into Kylo Ren's face while supplying us with intel."

Rose blinked. "Why should he be scared?"

Finn turned the beer can in his hands and sighed. "It took me a while to get it. But you know why I didn't freak out? Why I just told him that it was your business?"

She threw her hands in the air. "I don't have the faintest idea - just tell me."

"Because I know that feeling. Back when I first joined you guys, when I realised that this was my chance to really belong somewhere. And when Poe kissed me the first time I just- it was like the first time I felt like somebody really loved me. Back in the Order I had friends, sometimes lovers, but it didn't feel the same. Here it feels more real, more like it's actually a choice." He scoffed. "Can you imagine what that feels like? There's somebody who actually wants to be with me. So who am I to deny somebody else the same thing?"

Rose let the words sink in. "You were right. I didn't know what you were thinking." She recalled the look on Hux's face when he had called out to her just before she left. Kriff. He had really been scared and she just hadn't noticed. Instead she had just left him alone. Kriff!

She took the can out of Finn's hand and took a long gulp. "I don't even know how that happened. Thanks by the way, for not judging me."

He took her free hand into his and squeezed it a little. "Knowing you, you already did all the judging by yourself."

She could feel tears sting in her eyes, she didn't even know why. She wasn't sad- she just felt desperate, happy and scared at the same time. "Of course I did. I mean, I know it's the same man who wanted to chop our heads off two years ago. But- I don't know how to say it." She took another gulp of beer. "He's the same man but also different. It sounds stupid, I know."

"Rose, this isn't just about him - it's about you too. How do you feel?"

She blinked her tears away. "I'm happy when I'm with him, I like working with him and I like spending time with him. That's why I decided to pursue this - the galaxy is a shitty place so why not enjoy the few happy moments we have?" She emptied the beer can and put it back on the table.

Finn was still holding her hand. "We'll fix the shitty galaxy, okay? I know that sometimes it's hard to keep on going but we'll win this."

She put her hand on his. "Of course we will, we are the spark that will light the fire to burn down the First Order."

Finn nodded. "Damn right we are."

Hux jerked his head up when she returned. She felt a stab in her heart when she saw him nervously stumble on his feet. Stars, she really was a klutz, she hadn't even considered his feelings.

"How did it go?" he asked.

She stepped to him and embraced him. Her head barely reached his chest. "It's fine," she said, holding him tight. "I'm sorry that I literally ran away."

He put his arms around her and held her in a light touch as if he weren't sure if he should properly hug her. "I'm sorry that I slipped up, it was stupid." He gave her a soft peck on the crown of her head. "Can we still see each other?"

She pulled him even closer to herself. "Of course we can. I- well, I really like you and I want to see you."

He exhaled and his whole body relaxed. "I like you too, Rose. Very much so."

She let go of him and they kissed, it was short and soft. She reached up and cupped his cheek. "How about I visit you tonight?"

He smiled. "I would love that."

"Alright," she cleared her throat. "Want to show me Finn's blaster?"

He gestured towards the blaster laying on this workbench. "Of course - it's an interesting case. DL-44s are usually heavily modified, but one isn't. It has almost all original parts."

Her eyes went wide. "Ohh, look at that scope - a real KV-31. This is really a collector's item."

"It is! Wait until you see the power pack!" he said with enthusiasm.

She looked at him, he looked so handsome when his green eyes lit up like that. Stars, he really was one of the smartest men she had ever met. And that bright ginger hair, these soft lips… She almost wished it was already evening.

As it turned out, she couldn't fix the power pack without guaranteeing that the blaster wouldn't explode in Finn's hand after a couple of years. For the rest of the afternoon Hux was absorbed by refitting a new power cell while she was still mulling over ways to ensure that they would be ready to fight the First Order.

A spark to light the fire to… Come to think about it, it wasn't necessary to match the Order in firepower, that wouldn't be possible anyway. What they needed was a surgical strike that would incapacite them. A bit like a lightsaber, something small but powerful enough to do real damage.

"What is the blade of a lightsaber made of?" she asked.

Hux didn't look up. "Kyber crystals."

Rose went over to the holo table and activated it, pulling up a picture of a star destroyer. Hm, the thing was huge. Where to begin? "What would you say is the most vulnerable part of a destroyer?"

"It depends," he said and got up. He stepped next to her and enlarged the hangar bay. "This is certainly the most vulnerable part for infiltration, with the right codes it's possible to access the hangar." He then enlarged another section of the ship. "For sabotage it's the power core in the port section, but it's heavily guarded and surrounded by shields."

"Okay, but imagine you had one shot to take out the whole thing, what would you go for? The secondary power core? I assume it's less guarded."

"One shot? Then I would go for the bridge." He enlarged the upper part of the ship where the bridge was. "There are no critical systems but the Order follows a strict, steep hierarchy. People are used to getting their orders from the bridge. If the commanding officers are dead there will be confusion and perhaps even infighting."

She thought about it, it made sense but of course the bridge was heavily fortified too. "How many centimetres of durasteel?"

"Sixty."

"Lightsabers can cut durasteel, right?"

"Well, Ren certainly did his part of damage to durasteel walls when he had his tantrums. But I imagine cutting through 60 cm of durasteel will take a while." He smiled at her. "Do you want to use a lightsaber to take out the bridge? I know that Master Rey is powerful but even she might struggle with this one."

She chuckled. "No, of course not. I thought that perhaps we could use fully automated boarding capsules with lasers. A small hole and a few plasma grenades should work, right?" She rubbed her chin. "But all the lightsabers I have seen are only about 50 cm long." She sighed. "Uh, I need to think on this a little further. I thought I was onto something."

Hux chewed on his lip. "Lightsabers are nothing but contained laser beams, without the containment field the beam would continue until the electromagnetic waves dissolve. They-" he broke off.

Rose looked at him expectantly. "Yeah? Do go on."

He looked at her, for a moment she thought he looked paler than before. "It's basically what we did with Starkiller."

She stared at him. "Oh."

.

-o-

.

Her idea was of course brilliant. Instead of using brute force she could use precision strikes. Elegant and deadly. But the look on her face… the way her smile crumbled.

"I- I didn't realise," she said in a low voice.

"But it wouldn't be like Starkiller," he said quickly. "It's just the same technology."

He chewed on her lower lip. "I guess that's true," she had a pensive look on her face. "The same technology, huh? That means that you would know exactly how to build the laser, right?"

"Yes," he said, somewhat taken aback by her quick recovery.

"So, theoretically, what would you need to build the laser?"

He thought about it, most of the components were rather ordinary, at least for a smaller laser. "The most critical component is the kyber crystal. It's very hard to find, especially after Starkiller. The planet itself had a rich deposit but I don't know if there are any left after the collapse." He had to recalibrate the power output, hm. An interesting problem. "Perhaps we could acquire just one crystal and split it up - with a modulator its energy output would be enough to drill a hole big enough for grenades."

"I see, we could try to modify the grenades too - if we remove the timer she should be able to shrink them in size so that the hole itself can be smaller."

He nodded. "We should start working on this right away!"

They were busy drawing up plans and modifying old droids for the next couple of days. Rose had decided that they should first check if the plan was workable before they presented it to General Organa.

In the evenings she visited him and they worked late into the night.

Rose got up from the bed and yawned. He admired her naked back and traced her curves with his hands. "Are you leaving already?"

She glanced over her shoulder. "It's already late and I need to shower."

Of course she had to leave at some point. He himself wasn't sure why he even asked night after night. No, he knew why he asked. Because he loved the small moments when they just lay next to each other, feeling each other's warmth.

She stood up and began to dress herself. "I think we should be more careful," she said. "The last few nights I was always here. Somebody's bound to catch up."

"We could just say that we're working late. It's true, isn't it?"

"We can use that excuse once." She zipped her overalls up. "Come on, I know it's hard - but we really have to be careful."

He pressed his lips together. He knew that too of course, she was right. But the more she visited him, the more he was allowed to touch her, the more he wanted to spend time with her. He knew that he was getting greedy but he couldn't help himself.

Rose took her pad and checked her messages. "Ugh, 20 messages. Can you believe that? And here I thought we took care of that damn heater." She deactivated it and leaned down to kiss him good-bye. "See you."

As soon as she was gone he checked his own pad. There was but one message - it was from Dr. Kalonia. She wanted to see him for a check-up. He quickly wrote back and confirmed that he would visit her the next day.

Then he dressed himself and headed for the shower.

Dr. Kalonia smiled at him when he entered the med bay. "Finally somebody who actually shows up!"

"Good morning, doctor."

She took a scanner. "Everybody claims that they're too busy for their inoculations, unbelievable!"

He lowered his pants and showed her his leg.

"Ah, very good. The scar tissue is barely visible anymore. Do you feel the injury sometimes?"

"No, it's just as it was before."

"Excellent," she put the scanner away and grabbed a hypospray. "This is against the Kaasian flu."

She injected it into his leg and he pulled the pants back up. From the back of the med bay he could hear quiet groaning.

Kalonia's smile vanished. "If you'll excuse me."

She disappeared behind a curtain and Hux could hear her whisper something, a groan was the only answer. The soft hiss of the hypostray could be heard and the groaning stopped.

Dr. Kalonia joined him. "One of the pilots got hit during a recon mission. I had to amputate his right arm."

"Ah, I hope you have the appropriate cybernetics to replace his hand?"

She nodded. "We still have a shipment of prosthetics, but like everything it's a bit dated."

He frowned. "How old?"

"It's from the PY-100 line. Durable, good tech but not with the best sensory modules."

It really was a pity that they didn't have access to newer tech, sensory modules were not the most important things, but if he remembered correctly the feeling in the prosthetics limbs felt off if they weren't properly calibrated. He imagined that would be disadvantageous for a pilot.

"Well, I could try to run an update on them," he said. "I'm not familiar with med tech but I assume it's not much different from updating a droids' sensory module."

Dr. Kalonia put her hands in her white lab coat pockets. "You'd really take a look? Well, that would be great of course! I didn't report it because I thought with everything going on it was a bit of luxury."

"I'm certain it will increase efficiency. Where can I find the cybernetics?"

"Right here," she led him to two crates in a room.

He took one right arm out of the box. "I'll start with this one and see if I can make it work."

Suddenly the alarm went off and a voice over PA said, "Senior staff to the command center, senior staff please report to the command centre!"

Hux crammed the arm into his bag and hurried out.

When he arrived at the command center it was busy with overlapping voices and with one glance at General Organa who stood in the middle of the room he realised that they were excited, not worried about whatever was happening right now.

Commander Dameron spotted him and came over. "It's Rey and Chewie, they found Ren's shuttle. They'll arrive soon, and from what I could gather they were able to tag his shuttle with the tracker as planned."

Dameron slapped him hard on the back. "Don't look so grumpy, Hugs! We did it - well, Rey and Chewie did it - but finally things are looking up!"

"There is still a low probability that the tracker won't work, Commander. We should wait until Master Rey and Captain Chewbacca deliver their report."

Dameron grinned. "Of course it will work out! After all Rose and you made that thing, there will be a huge party tonight!"

"I still think it's premature-"

Dameron patted his shoulder again. "Come on, Hugs. We need a morale boost, so there will be a party tonight."

Hux realised that once again he had misread Commander Damerons cheerful nature. He wasn't simply enthusiastic, he knew how to lead people and he also knew that every army needed moments of triumph. "Of course." He cleared his throat. "When will they arrive?"

"Now."

Hux heard Girodyne SRB42 sublight engines roar over the base with their characteristic howling of the sub-light dampeners. Dameron grabbed him literally by his jacket and dragged him more or less into the hangar.

Rose was already there, together with a couple of pilots and other senior officers. They cheered when the ramp was lowered and Chewbacca and Rey exited the Millennium Falcon. Rose clapped and jumped up and down, Rey beamed and ran towards Rose, hugging her.

Hux couldn't help but smile too, their energy was… infectious.