Across the galaxy…
He didn't bother to check the time, he didn't care what time it was. He dressed quickly then finger combed his hair as he hurried to the bridge of the Vader's Vengeance. "General Hux," he barked as he entered the bridge. "Assemble my fleet."
The ginger General jumped to his feet and snapped a crisp salute. "How many ships would you like, Supreme Leader?"
"All of them!" He ordered. "Every ship within 4 hours of here with a hyperdrive."
General Hux sneered at him. "My Lord, it's the middle of the night…" the man's words ended in a gagging sound as his throat constricted from Kylo Ren's Force Choke.
"Do I look like I care what time it is?" He squeezed a little tighter then released his grasp. "Get my ships here, General. Right now."
General Hux choked and retched for a moment before croaking out an order to the coms officer, a small balding man named Perez.
With his ships in motion he returned to his quarters to come up with an actual plan for what he wanted to do. It would be four hours before the bulk of his fleet was assembled, that was all the time he had to come up with something. He sat down at his desk and tapped away on the screen of his datapad for two solid hours before he was happy with his work.
He pushed a tiny datadisc into the port on the side of the little device that had inadequately replaced the tech in his long destroyed helmet and copied a file over, then tucked that disc away in his pocket and replaced it with a fresh one. He put a second file onto the fresh disc and left it in the machine.
Satisfied with his plan and preparations he was surprized to realize that he had over an hour left to kill. He'd go insane if he didn't get rid of this nervous energy. His jangled nerves needed the soothing scratch of pen on paper, he decided, and pulled a small square of creamy vellum out of his desk drawer to pass the time with.
Her portrait flowed from his pen as if by magic. The image was of her as he'd seen her tonight, in that ridiculously alluring nighty. Her eyes as soft as they'd been when she'd described how she'd thought of him, just before he'd derailed everything, stared up at him from the page in record time. He searched those eyes for the ever present pain but didn't detect a trace of it.
He sat back with a satisfied smile.
He'd always been critical of his own drawings, but this one was so real he could almost smell the warmth of her skin. He stared at it and promised himself he'd see her like that again, even if it killed him. 'And it just might,' he thought ruefully.
That was a risk he was willing to take.
A buzzing sound broke into his reverie. He glanced at the panel near the door and saw a blinking red light. It was time to return to the bridge. He tucked the portrait he'd just drawn inside his overshirt, over his heart, and tapped the button with the Force.
"All of the ships in the area are assembled, My Lord." Came Hux's disgruntled voice through the tiny speaker built into the panel. Without answering he tapped the button again severing the connection to the bridge, grabbed his datapad and set off to take command of his mission.
"General," He said tearsly once he'd clear the doorway onto the bridge. "I am taking command of this ship and this fleet, you are dismissed."
"My Lord?" General Hux made that normally respectful title sound like a sneer.
The man annoyed him to no end, which is why he'd relegated him to night duty shortly after the attack on Crayt. "Leave my bridge." He growled pointing at the door.
Hux bowed stiffly and walked away even more stiffly.
He caught the coms officer's eye and said, "Open a channel to the fleet."
"Yes, My Lord." Officer Perez hit a few buttons then looked at him and nodded.
"This is Supreme Leader Kylo Ren." He said, projecting as much authority into his voice as possible. "Until further notice this fleet is to be considered a nonviolent diplomatic convoy. Under no circumstances is any ship in this fleet to fire a shot without my personal authorization. " He paused a second to gather his thoughts. "I am aware that diplomacy isn't something we do and that many of you might be unhappy about this mission so I am ordering all First Order personnel to be on guard against any possible mutiny. The reward for preventing or quelling an insurrection is immediate promotion to the rank of General." He felt it prudent to remind them, "No matter what happens when we reach our destination, do not fire a weapon without a direct order from me. Stand by for rendevous coordinates." He nodded to Perez, who immediately closed the channel.
"Set a course," He ordered, stepping closer to the plasteel viewing panel at the front of the bridge. He closed his eyes, rubbed his chest, and reached out searching the cosmos for a trace of her. "Thirty parsecs in that direction." He pointed toward a distant star. "Once you have the coordinates, send them to the rest of the fleet." He could hear the rapid tapping of fingers on the navcomputer panel.
He turned to face the Bridge Captain, an older gentleman with a kind, square face, named Glissando . "How many ships do we have?"
"Two hundred, seven ships, My Lord." Glissando replied promptly.
He turned back to the viewscreen and automatically supressed a smile. "Excellent." He said dismissively.
"Coordinates sent, Supreme Leader." Perez called from the coms station.
"Take us there." He said, taking his seat.
When the ship snapped back into real space several hours later he jumped out of his seat and pointed out a new direction. "Thirty parsecs." He ordered then sat back down to tap away on the screen of his datapad. He'd had this idea in mind for quite some time, and he used the time between hops to hammer out the details and refine his proposal.
It took the better part of three days, hopping through space, but he could feel that she was close by. He rubbed his chest absently for the hundredth time in the past three days. "Hold here." He ordered, too tired to make the final jump. "Order a stand down, ten hours." He'd give her that much time to come to him before he went in after her. "Call any ships in that range to join us. I'll be in my quarters." He left without waiting for confirmation.
In his room he took the drawing out, laid it gingerly on his desk next to his datapad, gazed at it briefly then laid down, boots and all, and fell into an immediate and deep, dreamless sleep.
He awoke several hours later, confused by the lack of dreams. He hadn't slept like that in so long that it worried him to have done it now. He showered and shaved quickly, dressed even more quickly then scarfed down a quick and tasteless meal from his in-chamber replicater. He preferred fresh food, but he had too much to do to waste the time waiting for it. Throwing the empty cartons away he went back into his personal refresher and cleaned his teeth, it wouldn't do to confront Rey with bed-breath, before heading for the bridge
"How many more ships have shown up?" He asked, as soon as he entered onto the bridge.
Captain Glissando snapped a salute and answered promptly. "One hundred, twenty additional ships have joined the fleet, My Lord."
Three hundred, twenty seven ships. 'That should do it,' he thought to himself. "Bring up a holo of this quadrant." He ordered. As the map appeared he walked over to where a tiny dot blinked out the location of the fleet. He studied the various nearby systems, reaching out to each one, searching for her. After an hour he felt her, she was less than a quarter parsec away, in the Hadron system. "Hadron!" He barked, startling the crew. "Isolate it." The Hadron system enlarged to cover the entire map area. He probed each planet and moon until he was sure he'd found her. "There! That moon! Magnify and enhance!" He could hardly contain his excitement.
The holo changed it's shape, magnifying until the moon in question was the size of his head. "Send the coordinants of this moon to the fleet, remind them of what I said about mutiny." He swapped the discs from his pocket and datapad, tapped on the screen for a moment then ejected the disc. "Sub this into the message." He flicked the disc toward the coms station and used the Force to bring it to a hover in front of Perez's face.
He rubbed his chest, comforted by the drawing tucked away there. He really, really hoped that this worked out as he planned.
