In space outside of Crait

The weapons of the Supremacy were far too strong for the lightly shielded U-55 orbital loadlifters. One by one, the ships fleeing the Resistance flagship Raddus were destroyed. Was there any hope at all for the few brave individuals fighting against the pervading Darkness of the First Order?

Admiral Holdo, horrified at the loss of her fleet, turned the Raddus in space and, with one last determined look, pushed the required button.

The Raddus went into hyperspace, cleaving the Supremacy in two ...

/

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Luke groggily punched the offending med droid with the Force and it flew into a nearby wall, before sparking, falling to the ground, and falling blessedly silent.

"Uncle Luke!" Rey said indignantly. "Can you please stop wrecking the med droids?"

He opened his eyes blearily, his brain still struggling to make sense of reality.

"I ... uh ...," he began, before his eyes lit on the purple haired, middle aged woman sitting on a chair nearby who was staring at him curiously.

"Admiral Holdo," he ground out, sitting up slightly.

Her mouth moved in bewilderment, but he didn't take time to try to read her lips.

"You are a terrible military commander, Admiral," he snapped. "Like, the worst. What was that about? Why would you stalk around the Raddus with your nose in the air and refuse to give anyone any kind of information about your plan? Like, any information? It was a horrible, stupid plan anyway. Abysmal. Did you really think the First Order would blindly follow you into lightspeed and not even check out Crait, even if they hadn't somehow managed to notice your obviously poorly shielded transports? But your refusal to even indicate you had a plan caused that mutiny. You knew that Poe was something of a hot head and you were so rude, and mean, and porgy to him. What did you think was going to happen? You were an embarrassment to the Resistance leadership. I mean, pardon my Rodian, but you were a complete moron. I can't believe Leia had you next in the line of command when ..."

His voice trailed off as a chuckle broke into his mind, and he turned to Rey, whose initial amusement morphed into an open hysterical breakdown.

"Oh no," the Jedi Master groaned, "or rather, oh yes. It was just a nightmare. It didn't really happen."

"No, it didn't," Rey said, trying to control her laughing

Luke turned toward Admiral Holdo, his face sagging with contrition (and wrinkles).

"I am so sorry, Admiral," he said apologetically. "I haven't been myself, as I'm sure you know, but that's no excuse."

"It's 'Senator', Master Jedi. I'm a politician, and have no clue how to run a military campaign," the woman replied with a gracious smile. "A major head injury is a perfect excuse. I assure you I'm not insulted."

Luke groaned and ran his hands over his face, "I ... when I fall asleep, I go back to that horrible, peculiar nightmare and it seems so real ..."

He sat up now, frowning, "It is weird how this nightmare does seem very real, because none of it makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. For one thing, your move on the Raddus defied hyperspace physics."

"So what was my move?" the Senator asked with a curious smile.

"Er, the First Order, which was the name of the bad guy group – like the Empire – they were firing on the transport ships that you ordered filled with people to go off to Crait in the hopes that they could hide there safely while the First Order chased you into hyperspace. Not that Crait was a great place to hide at all, but whatever. Well, the plan leaked to the enemy and most of the Resistance ships were being blown up. So you heroically sacrificed your life by putting the Raddus, your flagship, into hyperdrive and you cut the enemy flagship, the Supremacy, in half, and of course you martyred yourself in the process. But that's not how hyperspace works."

"I am sure you are correct, Master Jedi," Holdo said courteously, "though I admit I don't understand hyperspace well enough to know why."

"Well, even the most brilliant minds don't entirely understand hyperspace," Luke replied, leaning back with his eyes fixed on a far wall. "But it's a different ... a different dimension. If it was just like going through real space at a very fast speed, any time a bit of space dust hit you'd be toast. I mean, there are complications and gravity wells that can pull a ship from hyperspace into real space, but a ship won't smash through another ship when it goes into hyperspace. I don't think so, anyway."

He frowned, "Would it?"

Rey sat up more and shook her head, "I'm sure it wouldn't work, Uncle Luke. If it did, someone would have weaponized it. Just think how easy it would be to have a remote drone with a hyperspace engine. We could send out a bunch of such drones toward an enemy ship and send them into hyperdrive, smashing the ship. No, it wouldn't work."

"Oh, and here's another thing," Luke said, smiling a little. "Earlier, in my dream, Han – and this is crazy too – Han was trying to get past a shield around Starkiller Base ..."

"Starkiller Base?" Holdo asked.

He waved a hand, "Not important. The important thing is that Han dropped out of hyperspace inside a planetary defense shield. That is impossible because it would require impossible timing. But even so, the general idea was that in hyperspace, the Falcon would not impact on the shield."

"I wonder if you could actually do that," Rey replied thoughtfully. "I mean, maybe with the Force guiding you ...?"

"Absolutely not," her uncle responded firmly. "I was the most brilliant pilot of my generation and I wouldn't dare try such a thing. The timing would have to be perfect beyond the realms of possibility. If you attempted such a thing, you would either come out of lightspeed nowhere near the planet in question, or would smash yourself into the planetary shield or the planet itself. If you try such a thing based on my foolish ramblings, Ben really will thrust a lightsaber through me."

Rey's eyes opened, "Ben killed you in your dream? I didn't know that."

Luke shook his head, "No, I was projecting my image across the galaxy, don't ask me why or how, so his lightsaber just passed through me though ..."

He trailed off, and for a moment he saw, in his mind's eye, Han Solo murdered at the hands of his own son.

"It was just a dream," Rey pointed out again, her eyes focused on him in concern.

Luke nodded, and rose carefully to his feet, "Yes, and it is logical for a dream to be illogical. Honestly, I just wish I could forget it all. It's like a terrible song stuck in my head. I just can't un-see it, you know?"

There was a sudden surge in the Force, and Luke took a couple of rapid steps toward the door. An instant later, the door was open, and his adored twin was stepping through and he was in her arms.

His precious Leia.

Author Note: There is a scene in Rogue One, when the protagonists are escaping Jedhu, when they go into hyperspace and they are still within the planetary atmosphere, and there are rocks and dust impinging on their escape path. If ships just go faster when they enter hyperspace, I would think they should have been destroyed at that moment by friction and hitting random dust and rocks. But no, they jumped into some kind of other dimension where the air and rocks and dust couldn't affect them. On the other hand, it is true the Millennium Falcon had to get clear of the asteroid field in ESB before they could try to jump to lightspeed. So OK, I'm not brilliant enough to entirely understand a pretend dimension in the galaxy far, far away!