'He gave you this voluntarily?' Poe was still unconvinced, although he'd already inserted the storage card into the comms relay in his room. 'You didn't steal it, or trick him in any way?'

Rey shook her head. 'It was voluntary. And he's accepted that he needs to stand trial as well.' She dug her toe into the carpet. 'I may have misjudged him.'

'Let's see about that, shall we? Finn, are you getting this?'

Finn's voice came out of the tiny speaker with a booming echo that filled the room. 'It contains co-ordinates plotted on a map. I'm running it through the navigational computer now to see if I can find a match. Working…..got it.' He gave a low whistle that was loud enough to deafen. 'You're not going to believe this. Putting it on screen.'

The relay generated two swirling star charts side by side, blurry blue dots making up a pattern that was recognisably the same across both maps.

'I don't recognise it,' Poe commented. 'Finn?'

'The one on the left, the one with co-ordinates, is the map Rey was given by Kylo Ren and the map on the right is the star chart from his wayfinder, the one the mole showed us. They both lead to the same place.'

'Imperial Star Destroyers,' she whispered. 'He said mothballed Imperial Star Destroyers, not First Order.'

'If he's right, then I'm guessing we're looking at the location of Darth Vader's secret base, and Darth Vader's secret army. Do you want me to send a probe? I have the directions from the new map now, it's easily done.'

'As quickly as you can, Finn. We need to know exactly what's there because if this is a new fleet…if this is a new fleet…'

'Then we're in serious trouble,' finished Rose.

A whole afternoon and evening went by without any further contact from Finn, time which was spent in anxious pacing, fractious conversation and little in the way of decision making. Rey knew that with its current level of battle ready resources and financial backing the Resistance could take out the First Order, although it would be a lengthy struggle, involving the potential loss of many lives on both sides. These calculations had been made based on intelligence, surveillance and information the mole had provided over the last year and the negotiating stance that the rebels had taken earlier that day had been based squarely on their existing knowledge of the other side. If their opponent had an entire fleet waiting in reserve then the balance of power would tip in the First Order's favour.

It was in the early hours of the morning that Finn's probe finally arrived and began sending back images of the Unknown Regions. On Dorumaa, the three members of the audience could only watch and listen.

'According to the chart,' Finn began. 'This planet is called Exogol. It's a long way from its star. It's a long way from anywhere. Temperature and oxygen content are inconsistent with sentient life.'

Dropping out of hyperspace, the footage showed a dead, blackened landscape from which every piece of natural life had been blasted. There was no sign of animal or human existence on the surface, no water, no vegetation, simply rock and more rock, all covered in an oppressive shadow cast by the towering stone formations that dominated the scene.

'The probe is picking up energy signatures,' said Finn. 'I'll get closer.'

The camera shot out of a canyon and raced over the starlit, boulder strewn ground, stopping short next to a very large, square block of a shiny material which was suspended without any obvious support above the surface. Whatever this object was, it was obviously not natural – the sides were too regular, the angles too sharp.

'Closer,' murmured Poe, but Finn was already on it.

The perspective shifted above and around the block, but it was only when the probe attempted to penetrate underneath that Rey saw it. 'Stairs.'

They were cut straight out of the ground, leading downwards into darkness.

'Shall I go in?'

'Leave it, Finn. Whatever – or whoever - is in that hole it's a fleet we're looking for today.'

The perspective shifted as the probe climbed, pulling up through the atmosphere into orbit above the planet. There was no need for commentary.

'There are thousands of them,' Poe breathed.

Ships completely filled the probe's sphere of vision. Lined up in neat rows and all facing the same direction, they resembled a phalanx of arrowheads, paused in the middle of a shot. They weren't moving and even from this distance it was apparent that the majority were uninhabited, the running lights off and engines cold, black windows reflecting the stars.

'Those aren't Imperial Star Destroyers,' Poe sounded certain. 'Look at the ventral cannon ports. Finn, can you get closer?'

The probe spent some time navigating into a better line of sight, manoeuvring its way cautiously towards the closest of the ships and then an expanded picture of the Destroyer's armaments appeared on screen as Finn zoomed in.

Poe stabbed at the screen. 'That's not standard equipment. Finn, can you match it to anything we have on file?'

The weapon Poe had indicated was a large, round gun, which looked much like every other large round gun with which Rey was familiar, except that this particular design hadn't featured on her own personal Imperial wreckage back on Jakku. A feeling of unease prickled the hair on her arms. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer to Poe's question.

'Identified it.' Finn also sounded like he didn't like the answer. 'We've encountered something similar before. On Crait. It's miniaturised Death Star tech. Those Star Destroyers have been fitted with weapons that can destroy a planet.'

'Get out of there, Finn,' Poe ordered. 'It doesn't look like they've spotted us yet and they all seem to be in hibernation. Let's not wake them up.'

'Stop.' Rey's feeling of unease intensified. 'There, up in the top left of the shot. I thought I saw…'

Finn directed the probe in the direction she'd suggested and there on the screen, apparent to everyone watching the video feed was a fully operational, modified Star Destroyer, the blue heat of its engine core at a low ebb, but brightening as the minutes passed.

'They're coming,' Rose said.

No one panicked. There wasn't enough time for panic.

'We have to stop that fleet. Now. Today. If all those ships come out of stasis in support of the First Order we've lost, and the galaxy is lost. Nothing will be able to stand up to that kind of firepower. They'll just blast us out of the sky and when they've finished with the Resistance they'll start on all the planets who've supported us. Our allies will be destroyed, completely wiped out because we've just told the First Order exactly who they are. Rey said the Order is sending probes to confirm the location of all our bases and our armada, which was fine when we were in a position of power and we wanted them to know how strong we were, but now that information is going to destroy us. We've just given the First Order a list of targets. The alliance will be hunted down to the last man or woman unless we stop that fleet right here, right now.'

Rose said, 'How?'

Poe flicked a glance at Rey. 'We know where it is and as long as it stays there, in hibernation, it's less of a threat. It doesn't look like there are a lot of crew assigned yet. We can get some bombers to the Unknown Regions and blow up every one of those Destroyers if they stay exactly where they are. We just need a few days to get ready. But that fleet has to stay where it is.'

Rose said again, 'How?'

Rey was already shaking her head. 'He won't do it.'

'He's our only hope. And believe me, I never thought I'd be saying that,' Poe replied.

'He still won't do it. He thinks I tricked him into arranging a truce so we could get enough backing to destroy the Order.'

'I thought he wanted to destroy it. He gave us the co-ordinates of the Imperial fleet.'

'Yes, but he doesn't trust me anymore. He won't stop the fleet just because I ask him to. And we told him he had to go on trial – we threatened him with execution – why should he do anything to help the Resistance now? He arranged a truce and we threw it back in his face.'

'If he doesn't order that fleet to stand down, we're all dead,' Poe said baldly. 'It's as simple as that. You need to find a way to persuade him. Appeal to his conscience.'

'He doesn't have a conscience,' Rose muttered.

'Then appeal to his better judgement. Flatter him. Tell him you love him, I don't care. Just get him to order the fleet to stand down.'

Rey swallowed. 'Will you be coming with me?'

'Do you think that would help?'

'That won't help,' Rose sounded certain. 'You're going to have to go to his room in the middle of the night and ask for a favour. Having Poe with you will not help, trust me. I saw the way that man was looking at you this morning, he couldn't take his eyes off you. You can be persuasive in a way that Poe can't, pretty as he is.'

Rey just stared at her. 'I'm sure it won't come to that,' she stammered.

'It will come to that, trust me.'

Rose's words haunted her back down the corridor and by the time she reached her suite she'd made a decision. She had no weapon with which to beat him into submission, after their last conversation he would be too suspicious for her to be able to talk him into anything and he wasn't going to stop that fleet just because she asked him to. She had to find another way – the fate of the galaxy was in her hands. She would just have to be, as Rose had suggested, more persuasive. Luckily, he'd already demonstrated that he was vulnerable to a specific type of persuasion twice in the last few days so it probably wasn't too much of a stretch to think that she'd be able to convince him to issue one small, insignificant order if she approached him in the right way.

Her heart thumped hard in her chest as if in warning, but the excitement that lurked in her veins overrode the fear. There were lives at stake and whatever price she had to pay would be worth it. It might not even be that bad. She would just let him kiss her, and when he was sufficiently distracted, she'd ask him to speak to his generals and that would be that. She told herself not to be nervous, to think of the rebellion and all that it stood for, but her hands still shook as she took her hair down, and her legs felt wobbly when she changed out of her day clothes and donned the plain vest and shorts she wore to bed.

When reception connected her call to his rooms and the line opened with a grunt of acknowledgement her mouth went dry.

'I need you,' she stuttered, and let the call drop out.

He arrived in her bedroom a minute or so later, shirtless and bleary eyed, his hair hanging untidily over his face in a skein of black.

'What?'

Think of the Resistance, she reminded herself sternly, taking a few strides on shaking legs and flinging her arms clumsily around his neck. For the first time she felt her skin make contact with his naked flesh and she wasn't sure if the jolt that coursed through her as their bodies connected was due to the Force link between them, or something much more physical. She had learned a little about how he liked to be kissed over the last week and she led with a mouth that was soft, half open, pressing into the centre of his firmly sealed lips before releasing and coming back for more. Then she was supposed to spend slightly longer in full contact with his mouth before pulling away and the third time she went in she should try to focus on his lower lip, giving this a slight tug when dragging back, which would coax his mouth to open.

He pulled his head up, out of reach and she popped open her eyelids in surprise.

'What are you doing?' His tone was hostile, and his black eyes narrowed with suspicion.

'Apologising.' She stretched up on her tiptoes and slid a trembling hand back over the side of his neck, up his cheek to cup his face.

He didn't react, but the tension in his shoulders and the abrupt clench of his jaw told her that this was an effort. The heel of her palm grazed rough stubble, while her fingertips smoothed the line of his cheekbone tentatively.

'I should have trusted you before. There was an Imperial fleet exactly where you said it would be.'

She reached up to kiss him again, running her other hand down and over his collarbone, spanning it flat over his heart. His pectoral muscle jumped in response, an instinctive reaction he couldn't control. She still felt like she was kissing a stone though, all hard lines and edges and he'd gone long past the time when she'd expected him to start kissing her back. She began a line of chaste kisses stretching from one side of his lips to the other but her confidence failed and she faltered halfway through.

'Am I doing it wrong?' she whispered.

He moved then, reaching up with both hands to grasp her upper arms and placing her, gently but firmly, half a pace away.

'You don't have to apologise like this,' he said, with a volume that shattered the silence of her bedroom.

Her heart thumped powerfully enough to shake her chest and she felt its reverberations at the back of her throat. Her stomach twisted into knots. She had to do better than this. People would die if she didn't. She thrust down the nerves, took a deep breath, then seized the edges of her vest top and pulled it off over her head.

'I want to,' she said.

He stood perfectly still for an instant, and the only part of him that moved was his eyes. She felt acutely self-conscious, just watching him look at her but this was as far as she was willing to go and if he didn't respond now she was out of ideas. He opened his mouth, and then the Force stepped in and did his talking for him. She'd felt the same kind of energy from him when his mother died, but this was an equal and opposite reaction – instead of falling apart, it felt like coming together, like the broken parts of him, the conflict, the doubt, were rebuilding themselves into a new structure, the shattered lines re-forged, the pieces becoming whole.

He came for her without a word, replacing her arms around his neck with a kind of reverence, his hands spreading up and across her back, pulling her tight. He buried his head in her neck and she felt his shudder in the core of her being.

'Such a long time,' he murmured. 'I've waited such a long time for you to come to me.'

A hot pressure was his mouth against her throat, sucking a pattern of ownership into her skin. She barely noticed him, because her senses were overloading with too much sensation. Her breasts were flattened against his chest, and the texture of someone else's skin against her nipples, so unfamiliar, so exotic, woke something inside her she hadn't felt before. The power of the bond roared away in the background but for once it didn't overwhelm her. She was conscious only of his body, the solid physical bulk of him surrounding her, protective and secure. She felt safe, here in the circle of his arms, and she didn't want to leave. A creeping warmth radiated from the brand he was marking into her skin and she welcomed it – for just a fraction of time, she wanted to be his.

The memory of her mission intruded like a poke in the gut and she blurted the words she was supposed to say in an untidy rush. 'Order the fleet to stand down.'

He froze, and the pressure on her neck fell away. 'The fleet?'

'The fleet of Star Destroyers. You need to tell them to stand down. Most of them are still in hibernation but if they all wake up the Resistance is lost. We will be destroyed. I need you to tell the fleet to stand down for a couple of days so we can get our bombers there to blow it up.'

He straightened slowly, removing himself from her embrace and taking a step back. The expression on his face shifted as different emotions came to the fore, none of them good – shock, horror, disgust.

'Is that what this little display is all about?' His eyes flicked down just far enough to encompass her chin and no lower but it was the acid in his words that had her scrambling for her discarded top and yanking it back on. 'You're hoping to seduce me into saving your precious Resistance?'

She crossed her arms over her chest reflexively. 'No. I want you to save the Resistance but I'm not trying to seduce you.'

He raised a finger. 'You're right,' he snapped, and she didn't think she'd ever seen him quite so angry. 'This isn't a seduction. You're prostituting yourself to me for the sake of your friends. You're offering me sex in return for services rendered. That's your plan – isn't it? Isn't it?'

She stepped back from the force of his shout. 'I'm giving you what you want.'

'What I want?' he yelled, flicking a contemptuous hand at her. 'How is this what I want?'

Rey's temper began to fray. 'I've seen it,' she hissed. 'You showed me, remember? You want me docile and pregnant, hanging on your every word. Your obedient little wife, ready to drop your children at a moment's notice.'

The concussion in the Force that was his reaction to these words rocked her backwards.

'That is not what I see,' he shouted, face black with rage, hands fisting at his side. 'That is not what the vision showed. I see you, at my side and you're happy to be there. That's what I want. That's all I want.'

'That's not all you want,' she spat. 'You're a liar and a hypocrite and you're not an innocent either. You kiss me every chance you get, and you're far too good at it for me to be the only one you've kissed. How many women have you slept with? They've left their stuff all over your room. I couldn't seduce you if I tried.'

He took a deep breath and when he replied his words were cold. 'I will stand the fleet down. Not because you want me to, but because it's the right thing to do. For once in my life, I'm trying to do the right thing and you're not helping, you're making it harder. Maybe what happened to you with the Sith blade changed you, or maybe you've always been like this, but I'm not sure what side of the Force you're supposed to be on any more. I thought you were better than this.'

He was gone before she had a chance to retort.

She stomped over to the comms relay and called Poe, who was still dressed and had obviously been waiting. 'It's done,' she reported, tersely. 'He will stand the fleet down.'

Poe tilted his head to one side, squinting. 'What's that on your neck?'