To the extent that Rey had been raised, she'd been raised in a desert. However, any stranger who happened to be passing at that exact moment would not have divined this, because she was exhibiting none of the common behaviours of the desert dweller. For a start, she was walking outside, in the full glare of the sun, with no shade, carrying no water, and without transport or a link to the nearest friendly habitation. After two hours of walking she had begun to hallucinate, which was why she didn't immediately register that her transponder was receiving.

'Black Leader to White Knight. White Knight – do you copy?'

The flood of relief that ran through her at these words would have brought a tear to her eyes, had they not been so dry. 'Copy Black Leader. Is this channel secure?'

There was a pause on the line. 'It is now. Where the hell are you? What happened?'

'Can you lock onto my comm signal?' she asked. 'I'm somewhere in the middle of the desert. Where are you?'

'On a First Order assault shuttle in orbit. Where else?'

'And how did you get there?'

It was Finn's voice that replied. 'Turned out Ochi was packing a batch of contraband sniper rifles. I managed to take out the cockpit window of a TIE fighter with one of them and when it crashed it wasn't too badly damaged, so Rose fixed it up and Poe flew it back to the stormtrooper disembarkation point.'

'Where,' the pilot himself cut in. 'I exchanged it for an empty assault craft, came back to pick up the others and now we're just hanging around in space, broadcasting a cloaking signal, waiting to collect you.'

'Rey,' Finn was back on the mic again. 'Did you kill Kylo Ren?'

'About that,' said Poe, in his best menacing tone. 'You and I are going to have words.'

As it turned out, those words were mostly 'wow' and 'what' as Rey recounted the encounters she'd had with the tyrannical madman at the head of the opposition.

'Let me get this straight.' Poe was sporting his best confused look, all crinkled eyebrows, wrinkled nose and crunched up forehead. 'Kylo Ren is going to declare a truce and join the Resistance and you've learned how to move Star Destroyers with your mind. That was a busy couple of hours.'

'He doesn't really want to defect. He's either lying to me, or he's telling the truth and someone is lying to him. I trusted Master Luke. I don't believe that Darth Vader is alive and nothing his grandson has told me so far gives me any reason to change my mind. Our first objective has to be to find whoever or whatever Kylo went to meet in the Unknown Regions.'

'So – you can't move a Star Destroyer with your mind? He was lying about that?' Finn was also confused.

'He wasn't lying about that. When the two of us work together we have more power than when we're alone – but that's hardly a revelation.' She crashed her fist into her thigh for emphasis. 'We need to find Darth Vader and destroy him.'

'But first, we need to get the Falcon back.' The nods Rose and Finn gave this statement indicated they agreed with Poe.

Rey sighed. 'I'm not sure how. Kylo seemed quite determined to keep it. It may already be in pieces.'

'We could contact the mole,' Rose offered, although she didn't sound very hopeful.

'The mole only speaks, he does not listen,' intoned Finn.

'That doesn't mean we give up.' Poe bent forward. 'We're on a First Order shuttle and we know the Falcon is on a Star Destroyer. If they haven't turned off the tracker we can still work out where it is, and then all we need to do is fly this thing into the hangar bay, swap ships and fly the Falcon out.'

'Where are we going to get the clearance codes to get close enough to dock the shuttle? Without the codes they'll blast us into smithereens. And even if we sort that bit, how do we stop the First Order from shooting on the Falcon when we're trying to leave?' Finn replied.

'Details,' Poe said firmly. 'Let's just see if we can track it first.'

For many hours long range scans showed no trace of the Millennium Falcon and when it did eventually pop up, it was orbiting Coruscant, which was probably the most difficult place in the galaxy near which to arrange a daring, high profile raid.

'There.' Rose stabbed the image she'd frozen on HoloNet. 'The only First Order vessel orbiting Coruscant is the flagship. It's a mega class Star Dreadnaught, Kylo Ren's capital ship, built to replace the Supremacy. According to the news, there's some sort of parade on the planet scheduled for tomorrow – it's a celebration of thanks where the galaxy is supposed to line up to praise the First Order for conquering it. Can't imagine it'll be well attended.'

Poe's eyes shone. 'We can turn this to our advantage. All the First Order leadership will be planetside, they won't be expecting an attack. We can sneak in, blow up the Dreadnaught and escape on the Falcon. That'll give everyone something to celebrate.'

'We're going to blow up a Dreadnaught with an assault shuttle? I don't think so. There's no way they're going to let an unidentified ship dock. We'll be blown up before we can even get close,' Finn pointed out for the second time.

'We'll use Rey's new powers to move the cannon fire out of our way.'

'My new powers only work when I'm touching Kylo Ren and I don't particularly want to touch him ever again.'

'This story just keeps on getting better. Where were you touching him before?'

Rose tapped a fingernail loudly on her pad. 'Or we could just use the shield slicer code the mole has just sent us.'

Poe jumped off his seat. 'I could kiss that guy.'

'You realise this means 'that guy' is part of the First Order.'

'You always say that, Rey. But he could just be an altruistic code breaker. Either way, when I meet him, I'm going to kiss him.'

'Unless this is all a trap, and the First Order have been feeding us scraps of information to lure us in, until we become so gullible we fly right on board their Dreadnaught and let them capture us. In that case he'll probably kill you rather than kiss you.'

'There wouldn't be a Resistance without him. Have a little faith. And in any case, you're forgetting one important thing.' Poe stopped, wearing his most smug expression. 'That's Kylo Ren's ship we're going to break into and he won't be on board. Unless he carries that star chart everywhere he goes – and I bet he doesn't because he's already used it once – then it's going to be on that ship. We'll rescue the Falcon. You go to the Supreme Leader's quarters and find the map.'

'I don't like this plan,' Rey commented, and not for the first time.

The pilot and co-pilot – both dressed in stormtrooper outfits from the Resistance's extensive costume department – ignored her. Finn was still smarting about having to wear the outfit in the first place, and Poe was concentrating too hard for another argument.

They were the only three members of the Resistance now on board the assault shuttle. They'd hitched a ride from Pasaana in the back of a Resistance craft and the shuttle was on its final approach into the mega class Star Dreadnaught New Empire, preparing to deploy the code which would punch through the ship's shields and allow them to dock unnoticed.

The shuttle itself and its stormtrooper crew would not look out of place in the hangar and it should be an easy task to locate the Falcon, remove any First Order tech and ready it for departure, using the same slicing code on the way out.

Connix was leading a small Resistance cell on the surface of Coruscant, keeping an eye on the First Order leadership to ensure they didn't head back to the Dreadnaught before the Resistance had left. Rose stood by to patch a live feed of the Falcon escaping the Dreadnaught, pausing to fire a couple of token shots into its hull and then getting the hell away, on HoloNet. Even Poe had accepted that the chances of destroying the larger vessel were slim to none, but it was the spectacle he wanted, rather than reality.

Rey's only task was to find Kylo Ren's bedroom.

'I really don't like this plan,' she grumbled again, although she knew she was unlikely to get another opportunity to search for the map in enemy headquarters.

'Hit it, Finn.' Poe made the final adjustments to his docking trajectory.

Finn pushed a thin storage card containing the necessary sequences into a slot on the control panel and there was absolute silence as they both held their breath.

From a distance, the Dreadnaught blotted out the starlight, an impenetrable block of metal floating in space, but close up Rey could see it was riddled with holes. Smaller craft manoeuvred into its massive hangars and turbo laser exit ports pockmarked the surface. Banks of missile batteries pointed their blunt noses into space waiting for a target but the assault shuttle slipped silently between the gaps in the Dreadnaught's defences and entered the heart of the First Order ship unchallenged. There was just time to breathe once in relief, before the automatic landing sequence kicked in and the shuttle was directed towards an empty pad.

'Remember,' Finn's voice crackled through the modulator in his helmet. 'When we leave the ship don't stop walking, and if anyone asks, say you've been told to report for debriefing.'

Poe's white head nodded. 'Rey, you'll have an hour. Don't get caught.'

The two of them popped the cargo doors and marched in perfect unison off the shuttle, leaving Rey to slip quietly down the ramp and join the ranks of officers heading for the passenger decks. She too was in disguise, but calculating that access to the senior leadership's private quarters would be restricted, she was wearing a uniform of the highest rank available within the Resistance's stores, her hair tucked under a severe cap. She affected a military formality, all stiff shoulders and clicking heels, swinging her arms to hide the fact that there was a lightsaber up her sleeve.

This wasn't the first time she'd been on a Dreadnaught and the partial schematics the Resistance had been able to obtain from the wreck of the Supremacy led her to believe that the Supreme Leader's personal quarters would be located near to the throne room. She stopped the lift on the floor beneath the one on which she'd exited last time, and turned to her left to face a long, black corridor, very much like all the other long, black corridors on the ship, although this one was empty and led only to a single door at the end.

The Force was an efficient lock pick and she stepped into the apartment with alacrity, sealing the entrance behind her so that no one else could get in. Then she turned around.

The rooms were large, but sparsely furnished, impersonal, and it was only when Rey finally spotted an empty lightsaber rack on a table that she was certain she was in the right place. A beat of excitement thrilled across her nerves, sending tremors though her heart at the thought of being alone in his secret space before she quashed it sternly. There was no room for excitement here, no illicit pleasure to be gained at seeing her reflection in the same mirror in which he shaved in the morning, or feeling the softness of the pillow on which he laid his head at night.

She shook her head to clear it, yanked down the hem of the uncomfortable uniform and made for the large desk in the far corner of the living room. She soon decided that she had no time for order. Instead of carefully rifling through the assorted pads and data cubes which littered the surface and spilled out of the drawers, she simply tipped everything out of the desk onto the floor and pawed through it by hand. The rest of the room contained a dining table and chairs, a hard-looking sofa and a full size comms relay, none of which concealed the pyramid she was looking for. The walls were flat, bare of storage so she headed for the bedroom and opened a wardrobe hidden behind a shiny, black panel.

Another quick rill of excitement trickled through her veins at the sight of his clothes, neatly ordered, hanging in rows and almost all identical, before she systematically yanked them out of the closet one by one, patting them down for hidden pockets. Spare boots were upended, cloaks shaken and an entire underwear drawer tipped out on the floor and kicked through and still the map eluded her. The bed was next, the tight press of the black sheets across the mattress ruined as she stripped them away, the mattress itself levitated off the frame and tossed onto the floor. On either side of the bed were cupboards built into the wall and she'd just pulled open the first of them when the quiet seclusion of his apartment stilled into the dead calm of the Force bond.

'This is a really, really bad time.' She attempted to sound casual as she fingered through a stash of smaller holopads, an actual book, a spare chronometer, an empty glass, a portable glow panel.

'Did you find it?' the owner of the room asked from behind her, far too calm to be aware of her location. 'Whatever it is you're looking for.'

'Not yet,' she replied grimly. 'But I will.'

Keeping her back to him she hopped through the empty frame to loot the cabinet on the other side of the bed. There were even slimmer pickings in this one. A hairbrush, a box, a bottle of perfume. She sniffed it curiously. Familiar, but not his. Standing, she put her hands on her hips, surveying the footprint of the room, wondering if there might be storage hidden in the floor.

'Where are you?' His voice was slightly closer now, and there was an edge to it that hadn't been there before.

'On the Resistance base,' she lied. 'I've lost a book.'

'Then why are you wearing a First Order uniform?' His tone was hard now, suspicious.

She glanced down, cursing the fact that while he couldn't see her surroundings he could still see enough to spot what she was wearing. 'I've decided to defect,' she snapped. 'I'm on my way to enlist at the nearest recruiting station.'

It was time to leave. The map she sought wasn't here, he must have it safe on his shuttle, maybe stashed in the same drawer as that stupid helmet – she'd been an idiot to think he might not be carrying it around with him. She stalked in the direction of the doors, tripping over discarded clothes and brushing past his insubstantial form.

Which reached out to grab her arm.

It took her a moment to realise that he had, in fact, grabbed her arm and was gripping it hard enough to hurt. Uncomprehending, she extended a finger, raised it slowly and stabbed it at the middle of his chest. Her finger met flesh and bone and did not pass through.

'You're really here,' she breathed, searching his darkening face for meaning. 'You can travel through the Force.'

He glanced around the room, taking in the significant amount of mess she'd caused and his expression tightened even more. 'And you're really here. On my ship. In my room.' He shook her, hard. 'How did you get on board? Who helped you? Who else are you with?'

Her mind went white. She had a split second to give him an answer before he triggered a shipwide alarm. Finn and Poe would be captured, imprisoned and tortured and would reveal the existence of the mole, who would be similarly vulnerable. Rey herself was probably looking at a short lightsaber battle following by a lengthy incarceration, since he wouldn't be able to kill her without severely injuring himself in the process. She had only one option.

She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him.

As a diversion, it was ineffective, because he simply stood there, unyielding in her embrace, eyes wide, while she slammed hers closed and scrabbled for the ribbons of power that bound them together. She felt him move, prepare to step away but she latched onto the flighty, fluttering sensation that represented her power and forcibly joined it to the raw strength of the body in front of her. The connection was instantly made, and much more powerful than last time, the sudden rush of it blowing her backwards until his hand settled on her waist, holding her in place.

She had no illusions about her abilities as a seductress – she had never kissed anyone before in her life – if this was going to work he'd have to want to be distracted. She grappled blindly for his hand, laced his fingers through hers and brought the power of the Force to bear. The link between them surged in response, a tornado of waiting energy but it wasn't the blunt hammer that would move a starship that she wanted, but enough control over that power to move something small. Power was nothing without control. If he was interested enough in learning what else their joined power could do, he'd forget about having her captured long enough for her to levitate something heavy into the back of his head and knock him out.

She couldn't speak to him because the close physical contact she'd initiated had to be maintained, but when she raised their hands he seemed to get the message. As she concentrated, attempting to focus the tornado into a sharp point of accuracy his lips moved under hers, becoming softer, losing the angry set they'd had before. The power fell away as she relaxed the hard purse of her own mouth in reply, moulding herself against him.

It was possible she might be able to shift the desk into the bedroom to throw at him but as she reached for it there was another movement of his lips, which felt a bit like a smile and it distracted her momentarily. The Force blasted out of control, the desk smashing against the ceiling.

Frowning, she stretched their hands out, tried again. He did something. It was a little push against the seam of her mouth, right in the centre, and the chair she was attempting to hurl thudded against the back wall. She gathered herself, preparing for an assault on the sofa but he refused to keep still, pressing into her with just enough force to throw her off.

She paused, unsure quite what to make of it and he shook off her hand abruptly and stepped back. Before she could panic at the loss of contact, or so much as open her eyes he'd slid his hand up to her face, his thumb brushed her cheekbone and when his mouth touched hers again it was open.

The Force roared within her and with it came that excitement that lived in the pit of her stomach, that little illicit thrill that wouldn't stay under control. There was something going on here that didn't involve lifting furniture. He had clearly decided to be distracted, but not with cosmic energy or mystical forces, but with hands, and bodies and tongues.

His mouth moved against hers, encouraging and without being sure of the wisdom of what she was doing, she unclenched her jaw, allowed her face to match the movements of his. After a couple of iterations, she abandoned all attempts at doing anything else, forgot the danger she and her friends were in, forgot distractions and diversions and escape.

This was kissing, she was being kissed and she liked it.

The way his lips drove against her with increasingly fervent strokes, the natural ease with which she dropped into the rhythm he set, the sensation of his breath on her cheek, the tilt of his head when he deepened the kiss – she liked all of it. Without thinking, she moved the arm hanging redundant at her side, brought it up and around his neck and sank her fingers into his hair, twisting. A shudder ran through him and inside her, something rejoiced. His hand splayed out across the base of her spine, pulling their bodies into closer contact and she trembled to feel him pressed so tight. His tongue slid into her mouth, the sensation of it wrenching some kind of groan from the back of her throat. She lost herself in it, widening her mouth and reciprocating in kind, all tongue and lips and teeth, taking what she wanted and never letting go.

He stopped first, his head rearing back and breaking the embrace so suddenly she bit his lip, the taste of blood smashing whatever spell had been cast. Neither of them had their feet on the ground, although he was closer. She had a leg flung over his hip, his hand supporting her thigh and everything else in the room was floating. He lost his grip and she crashed to the floor, which had tilted at an alarming angle, the blare of sirens hurting her ears, warning lights in the ceiling flashing red.

She met his gaze; he blinked once, and then vanished.

She scrambled to her feet, staggering into the corridor in an attempt to compensate for the severe list of the ship. From the angle of descent, it was apparent that the Dreadnaught was falling towards the planet. Rey ran, riding the lift back to the hanger bay and fighting her way through the milling crowd of stormtroopers flooding the vast space as they attempted to evacuate.

'Great work!' Poe yelled without any sarcasm whatsoever, his hands flying over the controls. 'Rose, get ready with that broadcast. Finn, punch it.'

The Falcon shot into space. From the cockpit window it looked like the captain of the New Empire was desperately attempting to pull his ship out of a catastrophic dive into the centre of Coruscant, the angle so steep Rey wasn't sure he was going to make it. She felt a spasm of guilt, the Falcon performed one victory roll and Poe promptly engaged the hyperdrive.