A couple of hours later, the room was full of people Hana knew just by name: there was General Organa, of course, right in front of the workbench and right now chatting with Rey, then a long series of unfamiliar faces with lots of military insignia on their jackets.
Most of them were stealing glances to the pink elephant in the room, standing in a corner and trying to develop invisibility properties: her.
"How long does it take to have the comlinks updated and functioning?" Poe was asking, standing right beside the General, the palm of both hands firmly placed on the table.
"I can do that even for tomorrow. But organizing the attack squads..." The Jedi started, immediately interrupted by Ackbar.
"Those will not be a problem. As soon as we identify their precise location, we can send them."
"Marila?" Leia eyed a young official, standing in the back with an hand on the headpiece she was spoking softly to.
"The heat trace from the The Core is still the more probable track. The emission spectrum denotes an artificial origin and it's still emitting on the same wavelengths of the old First Order's admiral ship but... " she went silent for a long moment, apparently listening to a voice in the earpiece " no. The only electromagnetic signature present is too distorted for a vessel. It might just be some burning piece of junk."
"Have you tried reconstruct it back with an asteroid field model?" Poe asked, frowning.
Marila just shrugged. "There are no asteroid fields in The Core, commander"
The next voice to intervene caused everyone to turn. "Oh, c'mon."
Hana looked quite disconcerted, moving her eyes from an inquisitive face to another. "If you really don't have asteroid fields in The Core region, you need a map update. Like, badly."
And while an expression of mild shock found her way to almost everybody as soon as the conscience of the recent event downed on one person after another, like an oil leakage, Leia Organa just closed her eyes ad breathed deeply.
"Everything runs in circles."
"A Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, the Finalizer's exact twin." the little blonde bitch was explaining, her pretty face all scrunched up in an expression of mild disgust.
She wasn't even trying to fake sympathy for the Resistance, too busy to make everyone notice how she wasn't supposed to be there, helping them out.
He wondered, how could nobody notice that?
"Choosing to hide there... It's clever, nobody would think to search them in there. The fact they weren't able to disguise completely their signal might mean the ship wasn't completed when they moved on it -that's probably why they're hiding, it's stilla work in progress..." she kept explaining. Noisy and bitchy.
"You really thrive in our misery, don't you?" he asked a soft voice, dripping with venom.
"You really thrive in our misery, don't you?" asked a soft voice, dripping with venom. Jonah was leaning quietly against the window, arms crossed in front of his chest and features obscured against the daylight. But he was looking right to her, full lips bended in a ferocious sneer. "Why shouldn't you, after all? You were still with them when Starkiller fired, isn't it? We lost many of ours that day and still you dare to judge us just because we are trying to forget-"
"She doesn't, J", Poe intervened "She was only saying that-"
"You should stop defending her! Always treating them like she's one of our comrades – she's not. The bitch was on that fucking bridge that day, pushing the button that wiped away an entire system, and you still shut me out like I'm trying to lead a lamb to the slaughterhouse" Jonah's eyes were burning with hate, fist closed menacingly "You may think whatever you want, but I'm not going to let a goddamn aspid worm his way among people I care for!"
"Jonah!" Leia's voice boomed and it was enough to impose silence in the room again. "This is not the time to discuss such matter. She's here because I called her myself: now go take a walk and try to cool down, I won't have my Blue Leader lose his temper this way."
He obliged with an annoyed grunt, taking care of brushing against Hana's shoulder while moving towards the door. "Watch your back, bitch", was the murmured goodbye.
She paled and squirmed uncomfortably, her mouth stretched in a thin line. The people in the room, however, didn't stop stealing glances; if initially they had only been uncomfortable, some of them was now openly hostile, being remembered darker times and lost ones.
Leia sighed, leaning tiredly against the table. "There is no excuse for us, for trying to forget. It might make it easier to go on, but only the memory of what happened can help us to avoid a repeat of those tragic events", she spoke quietly, the look in her eyes showing openly what burden weighted on her thin shoulders. "What they are doing, hiding in such an unabashed matter, is a slap to all we fight for. If they count to use our shame to their advantage, we must prove them wrong. We must show that we are not afraid to confront our errors."
The whole base was bursting with activities.
It must have been the fifth time he had heard his name called, Poe thought, relishing in the small amount of privacy provided by the durasteel panels used to separate the landing field from the spare parts stock area. He was sitting carelessly on an ammunition box, already dressed up in his pilot gear, helmet discarded on one side while the hurried steps of pilots and mechanics were echoing on the other side.
Beside him, the girl dressed in a similar suite was messing with her already tousled blonde hair, silent from.. well, definitely too long.
"You won't intervene." He tried, speaking softly. " I don't know why she insisted so much, you already did your part. It's not like we really need any more support, the plan is easy enough."
"It's not that" she answered quietly, sighing while lifting her head to look at him dead in the eye. "You know, I've never had a family. You all are the closest thing to it, and if somethings happens…"
"I know" he was serious, his usual roguish smile abandoned in favor of a more somber look.
"And I don't want to see a First Order cruiser again, I don't want to go back. I'm trying so hard to forget that life", she kept talking.
"I know"
"And I'm afraid. Of what might happen to them, to you. I'm- I'm afraid of him." Her voice was slowly breaking while she tried to suffocate a sob. "I love you"
He smiled, knowingly. "I know", answered, and then chuckled at her startled expression, moving a gloved hand to tuck away a stray lock of hair from her face. "You're not half as subtle as you think you are, Hana."
Her face went hard in a moment while she recoiled from his touch. "Well, that's a pretty fucked up answer to a confession, you know?" she lamented, jumping on her feet like a charged coil and gaining a few steps of distance from him. When only silence followed, she snorted and turned her back to the pilot, hands shooting up to press the palm heels on her eyes. She wasn't going to cry – she decided, not when everybody needed to be focused on the mission.
"It's getting late and we still work to do before departure. Maybe we should go"
"Hana…"
"Just go, ok Poe? And see if you can persuade Ray to leave home that piece of junk she insist on flying with"
His voice sounded amused when he answered "I'll try tell her that, but we both know she won't listen. She ain't the sweet pie she might look like. And besides, the piece of junk made the Kessel Run in- "
"It might be quick", she interrupted him brusquely "but it still belongs to a trash compactor".
To that, he could not rebuke.
When she finally succeeded in swallowing the lump in her throat he was still there, brows knitted and watching here with worried expression.
"What!" she lamented again, rubbing the palm of the gloves on her trousers to dry away the tears never spilled.
He was gracious enough not to comment the puffiness of her eyes nor her red nose, but not enough not to stop after a few steps away, turning again towards her and starting awkwardly "Hana, about that thing you said a moment ago...".
"Don't" she replied instantly "That's a discussion for another time. If after this mission we'll all be still alive, than... than maybe I'll find the courage to listen to your refusal".
Up to that moment, the mission had been a success: the reconnaissance drones had confirmed the target position exactly were expected, and the four light cruisers -almost the complete Resistance battle force remaining had exited hyperspace at safety distance.
With the magnetic screen on to protect them from First Order scanners, the short range communication to advance behind cover had come at the expected time. "Do not let them see you until the X-Wing squadrons' leaders communicate the start of the attack. Keep your position secret for as long as possible, maintain radio silence and wait for the order of firing" had informed the slightly distorted voice of General Organa.
It can't be that easy, was Hana's painfully repetitive thought. She had been dispatched onto a support ship with all the medical personnel and the Blue Squad as backup defense, with the order of staying as far as possible within the communication range.
Somewhere, she kept thinking, somewhere Poe and Finn and Rey where preparing to secretly board the First Order cruiser, waiting for the cover provided by the attack.
Somewhere, not far enough – but the whole universe was not far enough! - he was waiting, maybe aware of some disturbance, maybe scanning the infinity of void around him with little tendrils of a power that she could not fathom.
She had felt an increasing uneasiness slowly dribble inside her bones, one drop at the time, for all the time she had spent on the seat, unwilling to remove the seatbelts in fear of being unable to stop herself from bolting out of the ship. Now the uneasiness had blown into full panic.
"Something bad will happen." she blurted.
The first medic -a handsome man close to the fifties and sitting right beside her, had opted for the kind of reassuringly smile it's usually reserved to fearful kids or anxious mothers. "You're just afraid, it's normal. Why don't we try this exercise: breath with me, deeeeeeply".
She was just about to explain him very graphically what he could do instead of bother her, when the anatomically impossible suggestion was cut out by a bright explosion on the zoomed screen.
"Wha- the attack already started?"
The first pilot quickly zoomed back, tracking system clearly showing the moving X-Wing shooting towards the enemy cruiser.
"Why was there not communication? Zora?"
The second pilot went rigid in his seat, clutching with the free hand at the headpiece.
"I don't understand, communications are down but there's no anomaly on the devices. It's almost as somebody is disturbing the signal by purpose, but that would mean…", he started. And never ended the sentence.
All lights went off suddenly, bathing the bridge in the total blackness of outer space. For almost ten second only an eerie silence enveloped them, then, somewhere in the bowels of the ship, a small generator went on and blueish emergency lamps took life.
It was – terror. Nothing but pure horror was painted on the faces of the crew, while the truth slowly downed on them. They had been baited.
"We've… freaking Ackbar was right!" the pilot shouted, trying hopelessly to restore power to the ship while the rest of the crew busted in action. "General! General Organa, can you hear me?" "No way, all lines are off – not even the radar system works anymore. It's an attack on all sides"
"Navigation system is down"
"Life system thirty percent!"
Hana was the only one staying still at that point, a full body shiver finding its way towards her backbone.
He knew . She had been right. There was no other answer to that – a wave of nausea threated to overwhelm her, while all her will was focused on keeping her mind in check. He knew, and everybody she cared for – Poe, that little jedi girl – was driving light speed inside the mouth of the beast.
She wasn't even fully aware of the situation when she unbuckled the belts and started to run, leather boots thumping heavily on the floor on her way towards the armory: nobody tried to stop her, not even when she marched to the weapon stand and retrieved a blaster, checking it briefly, with expert hands, before heading to the barracks.
A shot was all it took for the selected door to open up: Jonah was flattened against a wall, his eyes gleaming with hatred and fear when she walked through the threshold.
"I KNEW it was coming – you bitch, did you.."
"SHUT UP" she hissed, ferociously, her face deformed in the flashing red light. "I don't care if I have to turn one of your legs into a bloody pulp, I fucking will if you don't keep quiet and listen. Am-I-Clear?"
There was something in her eyes that made her look feral, a mixture of terror and harshness that had usually no place in the quiet, demurred girl he used to know . It took only a glance to her face to make him gulp down whatever insult was about to spurt out. "Crystal, ma'am."
Hana only nodded, pointing the door with the rifle "Well then, hands up Blue Leader, and move. We need your Y-Wing right now."
She didn't had to repeat herself – the man followed her indications immediately, surprisingly docile.
"You will bring me on their cruiser-don't you dare to stop", she commanded, pushing the blaster barrel between his shoulder blades "If they really cut off all communications, then they also anticipated whatever move I can make here. We need to go down to the source of the problem."
Jonah, on the other side of the long barrel, was fuming. "Wha…Are you trying to make us killed? If they really know we're here, boarding the Executioner is a suicide!"
"And what do you think, that staying on a dead ship that is drifting through space, waiting to be boarded, will safe you miserable life?", she snarled. At the same moment, a security office who shouted the alt was targeted with a very well-directed warning shot that had him jump quickly behind a blast-proof door.
Jonah didn't try to rebel when he was pushed in the elevator, choosing to just set on deadly staring while pushing the hangar button without even being asked to.
"What do you think you'll do if I bring you there?"
She swallowed anxiously, forcing her heartbeat to slow down.
"Rey doesn't know they're waiting for them – we must communicate or they will all be killed. Or worse."
"And you think you can accomplish that all alone?" he sneered.
She raised her blaster enough to have him take a good look down the barrel; her mouth was set on a straight line that resembled a couple of very different general she had been very close to.
"No, I think I need a partner. But believe me, I can devise a plan even with just cannon fodder." her smile, at that moment, would have made any First Order instructor very proud, even if her hands were shaking slightly. "That's your choice which one to be."