Sweat was running down his back; his heart was hammering against his chest when he finally slowed down. He put the boy down and let himself fall on the ground - stars he was so hot, his greatcoat felt heavy and constricting. He shrugged it off and enjoyed the cool air on his sweat drenched uniform jacket.

The Private started fussing and Hux could see tears forming in his eyes. Oh no. Before he could even utter a word the boy started to cry, thick tears ran down his cheeks, his face scrunched up. A quick look at the girls revealed that they were also on the brink of tears, pulling up their noses. Lil was holding the hem of her dress in a tight grip as if it could give her halt. Chenia was wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

'You weak snivelling-'

"It's- it's alright," he said, still out of breath. "We are safe now." After a moment of hesitation he took the Private into his arms, holding him as the boy cried. He remembered that he had seen, on Rigel V, a mother who had patted her child's back when it was upset. He mirrored the gesture. The girls also came to hug him, sobbing and weeping. He put his other arm around them.

He was overwhelmed, would they stop on their own? His father had usually left once he had been finished with him as far as he remembered. He dimly remembered that he had wished that somebody would tell him that he wasn't weak and stupid.

The children were still crying. He gulped. "There was once a boy, a sickly, weak boy." He halted, insecure in how to continue.

Chenia sniffled. "Was he a prince?"

Hux noticed that Lil was also looking up to him, eyes red from crying. Well, it was a start. He continued: "No… no he was the son of a kitchen maid. He was a little slower and smaller than the other children in- in the castle. The king was a strong and powerful ruler, he was looking for fierce knights for his army."

He continued stroking the Private's back. He was still sobbing but it was quieter than before.

"The boy wanted to become a knight, so he worked very hard because he was skinnier and not as smart at the other boys and girls. The king held tournaments to see which child would brave enough to fight his enemi- to fight the dangerous dragons that ravaged his kingdom."

They had stopped crying, and were looking at him with unveiled curiosity, mouths hanging open.

"The first test was to make it through a hurdle race with a full glass of wine. Not one drop should be spilled. When it was the boy's turn, he went over the first few hurdles, because he had worked so hard he got through until the last hurdle. His weak arms and legs began to hurt and he fell over his own feet. He smacked on the floor, not only spilling the wine but also breaking the glass."

The children gasped.

"The second test was to go into the forest and hunt down the first animal they saw so that the king could hold a feast at the end of the day. The boy took his bow and ventured in the deep dark forest. Then he saw a womp rat, he lifted his bow but then he started to think: 'A womp rat isn't an animal a king would like to eat.' So he lowered the bow and walked on until he spotted a boar. It was a large, dangerous animal but he had heard that boar meat was a fitting meal for a king - so he took aim and shot his arrow at it."

"Did it die?" interjected Lil.

Hux smiled sadly. "No, it didn't for the boy's bow and arrow were too weak against such a large and wild animal. The boar got angry and chased him out of the wood. The boy returned empty-handed to the king whereas the other children had brought him womp rats."

"Was there a third test?" gasped Chenia, burying her fingers into his sleeve.

"There was a third test. They had to pair up and try to shove each other out of a small circle the king had drawn on the floor. The boy knew that he had to pass the third test after failing the first two, so he thought that he should fight against the largest boy - if he won the king would surely forget about the botched tests. But the boy had forgotten that he was skinny and weak, whereas the other boy was tall, strong and could use magic."

"That's unfair!" exclaimed Lil. "How is he supposed to win against a wizard?"

"The boy thought if he could take him by surprise, he could win - a truly formidable victory. But the other boy just grabbed him by his lapels and threw him out of the circle without even breaking a sweat."

Hux exhaled. "The boy had lost, he went home and cried. Suddenly there was a knock on the door - he opened it, wiping his tears off. To his surprise the king was in front of him, there was so much gold and jewels on his broad chest that it almost blinded him. The king smiled at him and put his large meaty hand on the boy's shoulder. 'Why did you leave? Don't you want to become a knight anymore?' The boy said: 'But I didn't pass any test. All I'll ever be is the son of a kitchen maid, not a noble knight.' The king smiled at him and pulled him into a hug. 'My dear boy, of course you will become a knight - you were bold and tried your best. That's everything a knight should be. You can't always win, and you don't need to.'"

The children stared at him with wide eyes, hanging on his lips. He could feel his heart shrivel and get heavy when he continued the story. "'You don't mind that I'm weaker and not so skilled like the others?' asked the boy, barely believing what the king had told him. 'Of course I don't mind,' the king said, 'I love all my children. And I will never stop loving you even if you don't always succeed.' The king took the boy to the castle and in the evening there was a grand feast where everybody could eat what they wanted."

Lil clapped her hands and bounced up and down. "Yay! I'm so glad that he became a knight in the end."

Hux didn't know why he had told the story like he had. It was non-sense of course - in the real world the boy would have stayed a lowly kitchen boy… or a soldier under the thumb of an irrational space wizard. Well, he just wanted to calm the children down… yes that was it. But why did he feel sad? He was probably just tired.

He pulled out the ration bar and gave three morsels to Chenia so that she could distribute it. Then he took the holo and tried to reach Tico. They were down to their last ration bar and the water was also almost out.

He was relieved when her small figure appeared. "There was an earthquake-"

"I know," she interrupted. "I'm fine. Apparently so are you. I tried to call you but you didn't pick up."

He glanced at the holo and saw that he had five missed calls. "We were busy," he said slowly. There was no sense in retelling the events within earshot of the children.

"I found the exit," she said somewhat breathlessly.

"You did?" he blurted out, unable to keep the relief out of his voice.

"I'm backtracking as I speak so that I can help you guys get out of here." Her tiny figure was walking, clearly she was energized.

He noticed that the children were getting sleepy, yawning and wiping over their eyes despite their best effort to stay awake to listen to Rose. No wonder, it was almost nap time and they must be exhausted after the climb - and everything that followed.

He stepped away, close enough to see them while hopefully far enough lest they couldn't hear him. "We are almost out of water," he said in a low voice. "How far is the exit? And did you find a water source?"

She nodded. "I did, I refilled my bottle. My best guess is… eight hours? As mentioned I got lost before I found the right way."

His breath almost faltered - eight hours! "Excellent." Then he added: "You must be close to us now."

"I think so too, but perhaps my sense of orientation is off. Just keep going, we will meet eventually."

"We will. But the children are exhausted… so am I after that climb." He lowered his voice. "The earthquake hit when we were climbing so they got scared." She didn't need to know that he had been on the verge of panic when he was about to fall into the dark shaft.

"You don't look so good yourself."

How in the galaxy could she see that through the holo? And why did she care? "I- I'm fine."

She smiled, the very sight was so surprising that he almost gaped at her. How- Why was she smiling?

"Cut the bantha-shit, Hux. The ration bars should have run out yesterday. You didn't eat any of it, did you?"

"I ate a small bite," he said defensively.

"There really is some humanity left in you, isn't there?"

"That's just sentimental drivel."

"I get it from a psychological point, I mean there is a difference to pulling a trigger to blow ships out of the sky and letting children go hungry."

He exhaled. He really shouldn't try to pretend - she saw right through him anyway. "Alright, I admit that I restrained from eating too much of the ration bars."

"Why can't you just admit it? I mean… it's a good thing."

Hux wiped over his eyes, he was exhausted. "I don't know. No, I know… it's a weakness." He scoffed. "Ren would exploit it if he knew… perhaps he even knows. One can never know with these Force-users."

"Not all of them can read minds."

"Perhaps not, but Snoke could."

She shrugged. "It didn't save him, did it - he wasn't a good mind-reader then."

The quip came so unexpected that he chuckled. There was something liberating about hearing somebody talking in disregard about the man who had thrown him against walls on a whim. "Probably not."

"Heh, didn't think you would actually laugh."

"If I weren't on duty I would even allow myself a hearty laugh but for now you have to settle for a chuckle," he quipped.

She laughed a little. "Stars, I'm hallucinating, I think you just made a joke."

He watched her continuing to walk; he was feeling energized. "You said that you are a mechanic. Where did you learn your profession?" He admitted that he was curious about her.

"Hays Minor."

"Ah." The Order had razed the planet, so that was the reason why she had joined the rebels.

She cleared her throat. "What about you? Does the Order have an Engineering corps?"

"We have, but I was taught in the academy. There are tests to determine one's skill set and I scored highest in the engineering section."

"Huh, and what was your second-highest score?"

The question took him by surprise. "I- long-range combat."

"Sniper? That means you are a good shot then."

He shrugged. "I haven't trained in a long time but I used to be a good marksman, yes."

"I'm shit with a blaster to be honest, but then again… I'm a mechanic, there is really no need to be good."

"How did you determine what profession you would learn?"

She wiped across her face. "Trial and error. When I was a little girl I wanted to become a miner just like my parents, but as I grew older I realised that it was a shit job so I wanted to become a baker - mostly because I like to eat cakes myself to be honest."

He couldn't help but smile at that statement. "That doesn't sound like you could make a living out of it."

"Nah, I would have been fine - I even worked for a couple of years at a bakery. But I always had this fascination for engines. And when old Jke had an opening in his repair shop I went for it."

Fascinating! He had never thought about how the rest of the galaxy did decide what they would work. The thought had never even crossed his mind. "What kind of repair shop was it?"

She laughed. "Stars, are you really interested? I mean… it was just a regular repair shop - you know, where people bring their everyday items to get them fixed. Mostly droids, from time to time, their pads, rarely complex repair jobs. That's why I changed jobs after two years. It was a bit boring after a while."

It was odd, talking to her like this. But it- it was nice. It was nice hearing her laugh. He didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he was exhausted.

"Did you ever work on propulsion systems?" he asked.

"Nope, not really. It's too boring."

"I agree, propulsion is fairly simple compared to other challenges. I personally like shielding, the intricacies of adjusting the right frequency is interesting to calculate."

"That's true. I once had to fix a multi-layered UB-shield for one of our x-wings-" she broke off, slowing down her step.

He realised that they had been talking for about ten minutes as if- as if they weren't enemies. She must have registered it too.

"I think I should conserve the energy of my holocom," she said. "See you, Hux."

"Good bye, Sergeant Tico."

Her tiny figure disappeared and without the blue light the darkness surrounded Hux again. He was tired but at the same time he regretted that they didn't talk anymore. What an interesting woman, he would never have thought that someone like this could be among the Rebel scum.

She was nice and it was interesting talking to her. Sergeant Tico was so unlike anyone he had talked with in the past few years: candid, funny and- He pressed his lips together. No, she was scum, he would do good to remember that.

He should get some sleep, that should get rid of this silly notion that she was interesting.

-o-

When his chrono beeped to wake him up from the nap he felt completely drained, his arms also seemed to hurt more than before. He took a small gulp of water and woke the children up.

They were readying themselves to march on, the girls were yawning and rubbing their eyes, the Private on the other hand was alert, he was focused on the ground, collecting pebbles. Hux crouched down next to him. He should keep the stimulus up.

"Collecting more samples, Private?"

The boy handed him one of the pebbles, he stared at Hux with big eyes, mouth hanging slightly open.

"Thank you for this… gneis, Private."

The boy squatted down, grabbed a handful of pebbles and poured them onto Hux's open palm.

"Ah, more material - I salute your enthusiasm, Private. This will certainly help to do a proper empirical study of the geology of Crait."

The boy beamed at him and Hux gulped. The Private was making good progress, if only he could get him to behave like that during the initial testing at the academy. He made an effort to smile back. He shouldn't worry, the boy had a robust constitution. Yes, it was no question that he would make the cut - like the girls would.

Hux groaned a little when he lifted the Private up, his arms ached. The boy mumbled something, it sounded like "up".

"What was that Private?"

"Tup."

Was he trying to say his name? Or was it more that he said "up" because he was lifted up? Well, either way they had to go on.

-o-

As they walked, Hux noticed that Chenia and Lil were unusually quiet. They liked telling him about their lives and their parents but now they were silently walking beside him.

"Are you tired, Captain?"

"No… I just miss my dad."

Well, she certainly would forget him soon enough once she was in the programme. "You have your squad right here."

"I know, but I still miss him." Then a lot quieter. "I hope he is okay."

"Was he on the Raddus?"

"Yes, we were evacuated from D'Qar. He was supposed to fix the propulsion on the ship. They sent me down on the planet we're on with the Nautolans." She looked at him with a frown. "Rose said that he was safe but I don't know how she could know. If he were on the planet he would have found me by now, wouldn't he?"

Hux didn't know what to say. There was a high possibility that he had been taken captive or that had been killed.

Chenia sniffled, she wiped her eyes with her hands. "He is alright, isn't he?" she asked while trying in vain to hide that she was crying.

"Of course he is," he lied smoothly. There was an odd feeling in his stomach. He hadn't lied because he wanted her to keep quiet, he discovered. He just wanted her to be her chipper, bold self.

Stars, he really was growing weak. Even forming attachments with these cadets. That's what they were after all - future cadets.

Just as he was about to inquire about Lil, he saw a flashing light in the distance of the dark tunnel.

"Tup," said the toddler in a very, very quiet voice.

Hux glanced at him, tears were running down his cheeks and he was completely still. "..ut up."

Hux's eyes went wide. The boy hadn't commented on being lifted up, he was saying 'shut up', over and over again.