Chapter 3
Location: Planet Dantooine
The fighters landed first, and were followed by the Montura Class Shuttles. The hangar was indeed large enough for them to land but only just so. The Falcon barely got its landing gear down within the hangar, and the maintenance lifts were now more important to fix than ever, they couldn't operate from here if they had to rearrange every time an X-Wing or shuttle had to depart. So Zay and Rey volunteered to take the chance of climbing up the walls to fix the lifts.
The forty-eight BB units that had piloted their X-Wings home were rolling around in all directions, going from one repair and maintenance duty to another. They far outnumbered the twenty-four biological members of the Resistance who finally were taking a few moments to get rest. All had been in a constant state of work for quite a while. But Rey was feeling invigorated and had an idea of how to fix the lift. She'd gotten back into her usual clothes and was now fastening a harness around her hips and chest.
"Alright, this shouldn't take long," Zay said as she came over, tucking several tools into her belt.
"Yeah, I think it just needs some grease and to realign," Rey nodded, pursing her lips as she looked up at the bottom of the lift platform, where she saw a sliver of light on one side, signaling it was probably torqueing against the lift bars, preventing any movement.
"Let's get up there then," Zay said as she hooked up to the lines that had been thrown up and over the beams overhead that the lifts that moved heavy items around the maintenance hangar were built into.
"Race ya," Rey challenged her, and the two began climbing rapidly up the ladder as a pair of pilots below them kept the ropes tight so that they didn't take a tumble.
At this point Poe walked down the spiral staircase and saw the two girls practically flying up the metal bar ladders. He was pretty impressed at what he saw with the two of them racing up to get the lift repaired. The two got there and he watched curiously as Rey reached over and tugged a bit on the joining of the lift to the actual hydraulic column.
"Try dropping it a bit!" Rey called out, wanting to see where it stood. If it worked and but needed levelling that would be easy enough to do, but she needed to hear a few things.
The lift gears clanked and groaned, and the whining noise of mechanics not working got Zay and Rey's joint attention.
"My side's dipped a bit, it might be jammed on the column," Zay called out.
"Let's see if we can manually level it," Rey suggested, reaching over to lube up the dried up columns with fresh grease.
"How'd you learn this much about mechanics?" Zay asked as she pushed out underneath the lift, shining a flashlight into the joining point, trying to gauge the state of the mechanics of the lifting engines.
"I grew up on Jakku, scavenging the ship graveyard, you either learned what parts were usable or you starved," Rey said as she started to move into the lift's mechanics like Zay, greasing up parts as she got to them.
"Sounds like a rough childhood," Zay sighed as she continued to work on the gears and other mechanical bits, wrapping a sealing tape around a potentially cracked pipe.
"Wasn't fun," Rey agreed.
"No time for a social life?"
"Not really," Rey responded nonchalantly.
"And I assume that included interaction with the opposite sex," Zay said with a teasing smile.
"I've never had a relationship if that's what your driving at," Rey rolled her eyes, remembering Finn's question about her having a boyfriend.
"That's exactly what I'm driving at," Zay teased.
"The answer, like I said," Rey shook her head, reaching up to check to see how tight a pipe connection was, "Was, and is, no. What about you?"
"Me? Well…" Zay said as she thought about the still stinging memory of her father, "I grew up the daughter of a pair of former Imperial special operations officers. Dangerous ones. My dad was okay with dating, but my mom…oof, she wasn't all that wild about the prospect. Plus we were never in one place long enough to really develop anything of note."
"What did your parents do? After the war I mean?" Rey asked.
"Chartered cargo using the Corvus, which was home for us, at least it was until the First Order destroyed it at Vardos, nearly taking me with it. They killed my dad on that ship, left it to lure us in," Zay said quietly, remembering with great sadness that she never got to lay her father to rest herself. She remembered with great bitterness how much it had weighed on her mother.
"I'm sorry, we'll find justice for him," Rey said as she stopped working a moment.
"My mom took her own justice, she killed the man who killed my father," Zay said proudly, "And saved me. I'm here to make her sacrifice count for something."
"You've done alright by her so far," Rey smiled.
"Not personally, all I've done is search an empty base, load some crates, and get nearly sold as a slave by a gang," Zay grumbled sourly.
"I was there too, and I nearly got sent to the First Order. I'd rather not think of what Kylo Ren would do to me if he caught me again," Rey shrugged, and got back to the ladder, checking her work again, "Let's try it now."
Zay got back to the ladder and the lift from below was worked by a BB unit who spliced into the controls. The droid successfully got the one side to level off, and then the lift started to descend, and Rey and Zay both jumped down onto it as it went below them.
"That'll do," Zay nodded, undoing her harness and Rey did the same.
"Nice job!" Poe said from above, "Let's get four of the shuttles and half the fighters down here and we can call it a day. There's a couple nerf roasting right now, they'll be done by the time we are, so let's get going."
"The lift is gonna get a workout," Zay said as it reached the bottom. It then started back up, and they reached the main hangar level in no time.
The pilots all got to work, guiding one of the Monturas onto the lift, and then the lift dropped slowly with the shuttle on it. The shuttle fit, seeing as it was boxy, with two stubby wings in the rear. It was hardly an agile acrobat. Its design bore more resemblance to a brick in that regard. Rey was taught how to manage one of these unwieldly beasts as they worked and worked one of them onto the lift and dropped it down. When she was making her way back up she saw Finn speaking with Poe, and the two had to leave. But she stayed on task.
"She's awake?" Finn asked Poe, the two friends walking to the medical bay after their lone medic had found Poe and informed him.
"Yeah, the first person she asked for was you," Poe responded.
"Really?" Finn asked, not really amazed, but certainly surprised.
The two got there, and Leia was already sitting next to Rose, who had a few bandages plastered on her face and had an IV in her arm with the old medical droid busying itself organizing its new medical gear along with a pair of beeping BB units working on a bacta tank in the back of the fairly large medical room. It was fortunate this facility had a large well-equipped medical facility. The metal walls and tiled floors were different than anywhere else in the facility, all freshly cleaned and scrubbed by a trio of continuously working sanitation droids with several manipulating arms buffing out the facility to make it sanitary. The constant buzzing and movement was clearly getting on Rose's nerves. But it was forgotten when Finn and Poe walked in.
"Finn!" she said with a great big smile on her face.
"Hey Rose, General," he nodded in respect to Leia who smiled and nodded back, "So, you feeling better?" Finn asked.
"Yeah, the General was just telling me what happened, you saved me," she sighed happily.
"You were the one who said that we have to save what we love to win," Finn recited back to her.
"Yeah, I did. So, what's been the story so far?"
"We uh…were saved by Luke Skywalker, then again by Rey," Finn said after trying to figure out how to phrase it.
"How many?" Rose asked, almost afraid to know.
"Eighteen, twenty-eight now," Finn said sourly.
"We're rebuilding," Poe informed her, "We found a warehouse of Republic reserve equipment and some soldiers guarding it. They're with us now."
"That few huh?" Rose asked, saddened by their extraordinarily severe losses.
"But growing," Poe assured her.
"One step at a time," Leia added, "Which reminds me," she said, leaning back in her chair, "We've got to get more recruits and I hate to say it, more money. Cash is as good a tool as an X-Wing Commander."
"Commander, I get my rank back?"
"You've learned the required lesson," Leia nodded with a smile, "Plus that's the rank the people recognize you by. It serves the bigger picture."
"I know a place full of money that deserves new owners," Finn responded, winking to Rose.
"Canto Bight?" Poe asked, "Oh I like this plan."
"Canto Bight's high on security," Leia informed them, "They protect their money jealously. The Casinos will take more than a run and gun strategy to rob successfully."
"She's right," Rose sighed, "Canto Bight's got a top-notch security system and a large police department. You saw that for yourself Finn."
"Yeah, so how do we get ourselves in and get what we're after and how many ships will we need?"
"It'll require a more delicate touch Commander Dameron," Leia smiled, "Specifically, subterfuge and cunning. No blowing stuff up."
"Where's the fun in that?"
"So, we're getting some reconnaissance before robbing them?" Finn surmised.
"You and Rose apparently are known there, Rey is perhaps too well-known for the fact she's got a hefty bounty, but Zay and you are not particularly wanted or recognizable. You two will go undercover and recon the area and get us an idea for how to accomplish our mission. Rey will also go along with you to try and rally people to our cause from the lower classes. Shriv will be her backup. Your pilots will stand by in case any of you need extraction."
"So we will get to blow up stuff?" Poe asked.
Leia rolled her eyes, and tapped Poe on the forehead with her cane, "Subterfuge and cunning first, Commander. Blowing stuff up is a distraction or means of extraction in case of emergency."
"Roger that," Poe responded sourly, nodding at his orders.
"It'll take time to get into position to do that," Leia informed them, "We'll need access to at least some money and some of the resources of one of the rich and affluent if we're to avoid suspicion."
"Wait, so to rob a place because we need money and resources, we need money and resources?" Finn asked in confusion.
"On Chandrila I still have friends," Leia said in response, "They won't have the same access that they once had, but they will at least be able to help."
"Chandrila is also a world that is very Pro-Republic, we may even find some disgruntled ex-soldiers and maybe even some pilots," Poe added.
"Which we need, quite desperately," Leia nodded in confirmation.
"Bounty hunters won't be expecting any of us there," Finn suggested, remembering his time in the barracks during the many hours of down time prior to conflict spent reading down lists of planetary information, general information, but useful, "Chandrila's too far into the civilized section of society, not too welcoming for the likes of them."
"Finn, Rose, Poe, Shriv, Zay, Rey and Chewie will go," Leia told them, "You should be able to rally some recruits."
"Hold on, Rey?" Finn asked.
"She can handle herself," Rose reminded him.
"I'm inclined to agree with Finn, Rey's far too recognizable if we want to maintain a low profile," Poe responded.
"I may have a solution for that issue," Leia smirked, "Call Rey in, it's time for a little makeover."
"What? Oh, oh…she's not gonna like that," Finn reminded them.
"No, but she's gonna need to have it done if she wants to get out and be useful," Leia reminded everyone, and she smiled warmly, and that was a nice sight, especially after they had seen many things that would erase such expressions from her face.
"What'd you have in mind ma'am?" Rose asked, quite curious.
"Han always kept some hair dye in the Falcon and Chewie has clippers," Leia said as she got up, "So, ready to hold her down boys?"
"Wait, is she gonna fight us?" Poe asked as he followed Leia out.
"I would," Leia grunted.
"But it's your idea," Poe reminded her.
"Never underestimate a girl's attachment to her hair."
In the mess hall, which was a high-ceiling chamber with a dining area of three rows of five long tables with bench seats and what appeared to be a bar on one end and a buffet style counter for handing out food from the visible kitchen. The eating area was down a couple stairs with a rail preventing those walking around or waiting in line from tripping and falling down into the serving area. Behind the fifteen-foot bar three rows of carved out shelves where there was a notable absence of alcoholic beverages. A few levers for dispensing drinks on tap were also present, and again no alcohol was present. Despite the haste to leave the previous Rebels hadn't neglected to leave their supply of booze. There were also several screens that were meant for projecting news, sports, or whatever those in the mess hall could get, these were being worked on by a pair of technicians standing on the back of the bar, fiddling with the wires to get the screens active. A trio of BB units were busying themselves attempting to service a derelict server droid, which was supposed to be doing the job of serving plates of food that matched dietary needs and still managed to ration food as efficiently as possible. But the job that Rey and Zay saw was far from complete, more parts were outside the lanky six-armed droid than were inside. It was classic example of just another thing that they would need to fix if they wanted to make this place fully operational.
"So much for a stiff drink," Zay grumbled sourly, looking at the depressingly empty bar.
"We'll figure it out, someone left a still hidden in a storage bay, we might try brewing up some white lightning for the base," one of the technicians working on the bar's screens said proudly.
"Why am I not surprised?" Rey rolled her eyes.
"Dad's old crew used to have a still," Zay said as she walked over along with Rey to the serving line, "That stuff could blind a rancor."
Thankfully this was where a stack of sectioned trays was cleaned and they each were served with some previously powdered add-water-and-cook mashed Corellian potatoes and boiled previously freeze-dried greens and a roll of protein bread and fake butter and several slices of barbecued nerf. The animal was clearly visible rotating on a spit over an open gas fire in the kitchen, with slices being cut from the animal to order. It was the one piece of fresh real food that they had on their plates. The two girls took a square cup that fit into their trays' top right corner and got some water.
"What's that?" Rey asked, pointing to a cold pitcher of blue liquid that was familiar, but she hadn't tried any. Seeing Master Skywalker get it fresh from the source hadn't been too appetizing.
"Blue milk, probably powdered like most of the rest of the stuff we have," Zay said as Rey decided to take a tentative pour of it into a second cup, "Ever tried it?"
"Didn't have much else besides water on Jakku. Sometimes I could trade for an old energy drink salvaged from one of the wrecks, but they were nasty."
"Military energy drinks aren't supposed to be appetizing," Zay shrugged.
"I guess," Rey replied as the two went and sat down at an empty table and Rey looked at her plate with some trepidation, this was the most varied and fresh food had ever been for her.
"Something wrong?" Zay asked as she cut up her meat into pieces.
"Just never had anything quite this fresh before, unless you count that big fish Luke caught," Rey replied as she took a bite.
The look on her face signaled a newfound appreciation for it. Zay laughed at the look on her face, but didn't press her on the subject. Growing up with as little as Rey had was not a subject that Zay wanted to prod, frankly it was depressing and they didn't need any more of that around here. Best to look forward to making a better future.
"So, you gonna change up that wardrobe?" Zay asked as they ate, Rey rather quickly and ravenously.
"Why what's wrong with it?" Rey asked though a full mouth.
"I don't know, just figured you'd might want some new clothes, I'd imagine you could use something with more pockets," Zay motioned to her current clothes, a bit warmer than her previous getup of gray shirt and pants with grey sleeves.
"Pockets would be nice," Rey agreed, looking at her clothes with a frown, noting pockets were particularly useful in general, "But I have pilot gear now. Which reminds me," she said as she drank some blue milk and her face contorted into a scowl at the funky texture, "Ugh, that's horrible."
"Told ya. Powdered isn't at all like fresh, you were saying?"
"My helmet, need to sit down and customize it, was thinking of doing a blue hand with the Resistance symbol in the palm in red. Figured then I could put the Jedi symbol on the other side," Rey continued.
"There's some spray paint around, you'll need to cut out an etching for it though," Zay said, familiar with how it was done.
"The Jedi symbol's gonna be tough, lots of stuff on it," Rey agreed.
"You're gonna be a Jedi?"
"Not like any Jedi before," Rey shrugged.
At this point Zay looked up as Poe, Finn, and finally Leia walked in. Leia held a hair trimmer and a bottle of hair dye, and she was looking at the two of them.
"Rey…" Leia called out, and Rey turned around and saw her holding the hair tools.
"What?" Rey furrowed her brow in confusion, then figured it out, "No! No, you're not cutting my hair!"
"Need to do it Rey," Leia shrugged.
"No…" Rey warned them, getting up and backing away.
Poe smirked as Leia motioned for him and Finn to go hold her.
"You either cooperate and it can look good or we can just buzz it," Leia warned her, giving the clippers a quick turn-on, buzzing them as a warning.
"No, I like my hair," Rey responded.
"I know, so do I, but if you want to be useful to the Resistance you need to make a few changes," Leia sighed, "Now sit down please."
"Don't fight us," Poe said.
"Poe be careful," Finn warned.
"I'm not going without a fight," Rey warned them all.
"Oh I was afraid of that," Finn groaned and nodded to Poe, who didn't quite know what they were in for, he then held an accusing finger pointed to Rey, "No sticks…"
"Don't need 'em," Rey said with confident grin.
"Oh boy," Zay rolled her eyes.
"Rey it's for your own good," Poe said as he walked towards her.
"Come on boys," Leia teased.
"Well I don't wanna hurt her," Poe responded over his shoulder.
"You won't," Rey said as she decided to just start it off and punched Poe in the face, across the jaw, sending the pilot stumbling back, landing on his butt a couple feet back.
"Oh come on," Finn groaned, and tried to grab for Rey.
"She punched me?!" Poe cried out, utterly stunned by the blow.
"You're lucky she doesn't have a stick!"
Rey swung another fist at him, but Poe ducked and grabbed Rey around her waist and lifted her into the air. She swung her legs wildly, and jabbed behind her with her elbows, getting pained grunts from Finn every time she hit him. He tried setting her down on a table, but faced Poe with her kicking feet, catching his friend in the chest and knocking him back into a table.
"You uh having some trouble there ace?" Zay asked as she looked down at Poe.
"You try fighting a Jedi."
"Come on Rey enough!" Finn said as she grabbed her cup of blue milk and then splashed him in the face.
"Oh, that's gross," Finn coughed.
"Huh. Guess it was a bad batch," Zay grunted, looking at her own cup.
Finn finally had Rey held by her arms and pinned to his chest. However she finally felt that she'd made her point, and stopped after grunting in annoyance.
"Alright! Fine, I'll do it," Rey growled.
"Thank you go ahead and sit down," Leia replied motioning to a table next to her.
"Jeez, you have pointy elbows," Finn grumbled as he let go, rubbing his abdomen.
The girl now sat down grumbling a couple of profanities. Rey crossed her arms and Leia walked over, and the clippers started buzzing.
"Now, we're gonna go for a shorter cut, and then we'll see how you look as a blonde."
"Great," Rey rolled her eyes and winced when she felt her hair starting to get cut, but it wasn't as though she was getting a buzz or even a pixie cut. Just trimming. But locks of hair fell to the ground, and she felt the difference, and didn't really like having to get rid of some of her hair.
"That'll be fine, pull it into a ponytail and you'll look good," Zay mentioned.
Rey frowned at her, and then Leia pulled out the blonde hair dye. She started to run the brush with the liquid in it through Rey's hair. It didn't take long before she felt the cooling effect of the concoction in her scalp. The blonde color soon stained her hair, and she went to a bathroom faucet and washed the remaining dye out of her hair. After drying it she looked in the mirror, and didn't quite like it but when she pulled the shortened hair behind her head she saw that it was indeed enough to change her appearance.
"Now we've got that done we can let you all in our course of action," Leia said to them all, sitting down.
"What're we doing now?" Zay asked.
"We need to reconnect with whatever allies we have left," Leia began.
"Ma'am, our allies abandoned us when we needed them most," one of the soldiers pointed out.
"So we go to them, make them choose," Poe declared.
"There are still soldiers pilots and officers of the Republic that are out there, waiting for someone to start the new Rebellion. Those who didn't die in the fall of the Republic may still be willing to join a cause," Finn added, "We'll find them, and give them that cause."
"We are the spark, they are the tinder," Leia said proudly, "Those of us who stay will have a place to make sure that those who join this fight will have what is needed. We'll send some of you to recruit new soldiers, scrounge for supplies, and above all spread word that there is still a fight to be had. The rest of you, we still have work to do here, this base is old, but it's also small, any more than a hundred people and we'll need to dig further into the rock for new facilities to house more people until we have enough to go for gaining new ships."
"How do we intend on getting new ships? The First Order's already taken the main shipyards," Lieutenant Ko-Connix reminded her.
"The Republic Defense Fleet had a contingency plan for insuring the safety of reserve starships," Temmin Wexley responded.
"Snap's right," Poe added, "There were several fleets of retired ships kept in a state of mobile mothball reserve. It was intended to be a way to keep pirates and scrappers from getting their hands on old but still potentially useful Republic ships."
"During the time we spent with the fleet remnants they never found and activated their reserve warships before the First Order found and destroyed the Republic stragglers. The reserve fleets were rigged to a main computer that could only be reached from Hosnian Prime. When it was destroyed the fleets lost their way to communicate," Temmin said again, "By now they're just drifting."
"Which means that the First Order has no way of knowing it exists and therefore where it is. Only Republic senior intelligence officers would know their coordinates cycle," Poe said with a smile, "There's a fleet out there, just waiting for us to find it."
"That's a good start, my old government contacts on Chandrila may know where we can begin looking for someone from Republic Intelligence who would know that," Leia said calmly, agreeing with that idea.
"Trouble with spymasters is that they tend to be hard to find," Shriv reminded Leia.
"Indeed, I'll send word to whatever agents of ours that are left to put out feelers to let Republic Intelligence remnants know we're still fighting," Leia nodded thoughtfully.
"If we're going to prove we're still fighting don't you think we need to do something to prove that we're still fighting?"
"Commander the time will come, but we can't rush half-cocked into a fight we're obviously not ready for," Leia said quickly and firmly, "And we have an immediate mission, everyone get some rest. Those of you going will leave at daybreak."
That'll due, another chapter done, and some character development done. I think Rey and Zay, in the context of this story, have the ability to become pretty close friends. This'll kinda be a series of arks, realistic ones. In the case of this one the Resistance knows that the First Order is still in the process of solidifying control over planet after planet, and that it is still possible to find allies during these fragile and uncertain early days. Gotta strike the iron while it's still hot. The ships in mobile reserve will be a long-running effort, because a fleet is the key to a long-term war. Without it there's no fight against the First Order.
As for the next chapter it'll be a nice change of pace, in Leia's words subterfuge and cunning. And perhaps we can have some hints at some ships, personally I think Poe ships Poe/Rey, I mean did you see that look on his face when he first met her? But I can see Poe/Zay forming as well, with Shriv acting as his usual smartass observer (Love his character, lots of potential).
Next Chapter Preview: Two separate missions, two new challenges to our heroes.