Chapter 6: An unplanned detour keeps me away from you
The Falcon chased into space, leaving the atmosphere of Dantooine behind, as soon as Rey had boarded and the ramp had been pulled up. The small shuttle Poe was piloting followed them close behind.
Rey had taken her seat at the helm of the Falcon and steered the freighter directly towards the attacking Tie fighters.
„What are you doing?" she heard Poe over the comms.
„I try to give you a head start. You are not as well-armed as we are. Make the jump into hyperspace, we'll follow you as soon as these buggers are dealt with.", She answered, which earned her an approving growl from Chewbacca, who was in the co-pilots chair, as usual. He added another series of growls, which Rey answered „That's true. I'll head down to the canons."
With that, she jumped out of her seat, putting the comm set down and running to the weapon's tower.
As soon as she buckled in, she took aim at the first Tie Fighter, that was chasing after the little shuttle Rose and Poe flew in. Before actually shooting the Tie Fighter, Rey took a moment to appreciate the elegance and verve with which Poe out-maneuvered the attackers. „Come on, make the jump already.", She mumbled under her breath, when she took out one of the fighters.
Suddenly, the Falcon shook and swerved off-course. Rey tried to make out whether or not they were hit. „Chewie, what was that? I can't see any Tie's on my side." She started fishing for the comm set that was lying at the bottom of the weapon's tower. Once she reached it, she put it on her head and started connecting to the shuttle.
„Poe, what's going on with you? Get out of here. This is not the time for showing off your flight skills.", The Jedi shouted into the comm anxiuously.
„Don't worry, Rey. We're getting out of here. Thanks for clearing the path. See you back at home.", Came Poe's voice through the comm and made Rey shake her head in disbelief. „May the Force be with you." She signed off from the comm and watched the shuttle swerve and spiral between the oncoming Tie fighters, that had reappeared that instance. A moment later, the shuttle was gone - having made the jump to hyperspace.
„Okay, where did we stop? Exactly - taking out the First Order.", Rey mumbled to herself and took aim at the first enemy ship. With certain aim and a clean shot, one Tie after the other was incapacitated. Rey usually just disarmed her enemies. She was no friend of killing and only resorted to such harsh measures in self-defense. As Poe and Rose had already made it out of the danger zone, she chose to not kill her opponents.
„Chewie, let's get out of here as well. Maybe, we jump to a different system than Poe and Rose, in case they follow us."
She ran up to the bridge again, buckling herself into the pilot's seat, when the stars in front of them started to blur, as the Millenium Falcon made the jump into hyperspace.
The shuttle made the flight home to Lah'mu quicker than expected. Everything went smooth. Rose proved herself to be quite a good pilot, eventhough it was hard to bear for Poe not to be flying himself. But he knew she needed the practice and he was hoping General Organa would permantly reinstate his flight status. He was checking the controls for the signature of the Falcon. He knew that Rey and Chewie had cleared their path and took on the rest of the Tie fighters that had been still circeling them, when they had made the jump into hyperspace. His furrowed brows were a sure sign of his worries.
„I'm sure they were on our tail, Poe.", Rose tried to assure her friend and commanding officer. Poe shot her a dirty glance at her casual addressing him.
„You do know that we're on duty right now?", he reminded her - more to distract her from his worrying about Rey than from her mistake. „I know, they were right behind us. I just don't get their signal, yet. I'm setting a course for the landing approach, though.", He maneouvered the conversation back to the actual navigation of the shuttle. „Ready to hand over the control?", he asked her.
„Yes, Captain." Rose answered dilligently. She silently rolled her eyes, though. Poe never was somebody to point fingers at rule-bending. She understood him though. If it were Finn who was still in a skirmish, she would be worried, too. But then again, she and Finn were officially dating. Poe and Rey seemed to still be dancing around the issue of will they/won't they.
She glanced at the older officer. His furrowed brow and fine wrinkles around his eyes didn't only reveal his age but also the fact, that he truly was worried.
Poe focused intendly on the landing procedures clicking several switches and checked the instuments while slowly starting the decent onto the planet.
„I truly want to learn that.", Mumbled Rose admiringly while observing her commanding officer's work. „Don't worry, Rose. You'll get there sooner than you think.", Poe answered smilingly. He set the scanners to the Falcon's signature, listening in on the impending arrival of Rey and Chewbacca.
Once they had landed, the two of them were immediately summoned by General Organa. As it sounded really urgent, both Poe and Rose ran to the briefing room.
„Good to have you back." They were greeted by General Organa, who was musing over a giant star chart. „I got a transmission from Rey and Chewbacca. They had to take another detour to shake off the scattered Tie fighters. They will be back shortly."
The older woman sighed deeply. „But I'm afraid I can't let you wait for their return." She turned towards Rose Tico and continued „You will officially receive a promotion at the end of the week. You're a team lead in the engineering crew from then on. Your work is really important and we value you a lot. But it also means, your flight training will have to be postponed for a little longer."
A smile crept over Rose's face and she fought hard not to giggle in delight. A leading position and a promotion. It felt like a really great day to her.
„Captain Dameron - I need you on a special mission right away." Poe raised an eyebrow and wanted to retort something, when General Organa raised her hand. „I know - your flight status has been reinstated, still temporarily. But I need you out there." She pointed at the star chart. „Take your squadron to the Dantooine system. These Ties have to come from somewhere. It's only a recon mission, Captain. Do not engage as long as you're not provoked. Try to get as much information as possible. Understood?"
„Yes, Ma'am." Poe aswered dutifully. Quietly he added „Could you please let me know, when the Falcon lands?"
General Organa smirked. „I'll tell her you asked about them. But I'll have to take our Jedi to another mission as well, soon as she gets home." She motioned for the two resistance fighters to leave. „You're both dismissed. Check in with your teams and start immediately."
Rose smilingly went into the direction of the tarmac, seeking her team. Meanwhile, Poe Dameron couldn't shake the worry from his mind. Was it really neccessary to deploy both himself and Rey on different missions so quickly?
The Falcon touched down on the flightdeck about a minute after Black Squadron had gotten clearance for their mission. Rey looked at the comm, when she switched off the engine. She had received a private message. She looked over to Chewbacca, who growled impatiently. „Okay, okay. I'll just play this message and then we're home."
Em"Hi Rey. Could you do me a favor and find us a nice restaurant off-base? I don't want to miss my chance of getting you away from the crowd. We were speaking of hanging out, just the two of us. Traditionally it should be me to find us a place to go for our … date. But the General sent me on a mission - again. And I really don't want us to drop this idea. We just have to wait for a little longer. See you around, Sunshine."/Em
Rey blushed softly and couldn't hide a wide and infectious smile. So, he had called it a date, too. Another growl from Chewbacca drew her out of the small daydream she ventured on. She saw Poe's soft smile and his small but prominent wrinkles around his eyes practically in front of her when she had heard his voice on the recording. She resisted the urge to replay the message.
„Don't be jealous, Chewie. It's just a friendly dinner with a friend." She tried to hide her excitement. Chewie raised his hairy arms above his head and growled resignedly. „What do you mean - you heard this excuse before? And where is Bespin?"
They deboarded the Falcon and went to the briefing room, as well.
General Organa turned around as soon as she heard the Jedi and the Wookie approaching. She smiled friendly and greeted them with „Good to have you two back. Captain Dameron already debriefed upon the situation in the Dantooine system. Good job of you to bail out the shuttle."
Rey nodded and asked „Where are Captain Dameron and Rose Tico? You said they debriefed already. I got a message from the Captain sying he was sent on another mission already."
„I'm afraid that is true. I've dispatched Black Squadron to the Dantooine system to find the base of the Tie fighters. It's a recon mission." The general explained.
Rey knew that she was in no way entitled to so much information and that the general only shared the information with her, because she knew that she was friends with Poe. And of course, Leia Organa treated te younger woman as a friend as well.
„Who else is on this mission?" Rey asked and put down her bag and light sabre.
„Poe took Commander Wexley and Commander Pava with him. Commander Kun volunteered for maintenance work a few days ago. Maybe we'll have another fully operational X-Wing in a few days."
Rey smiled, picking up on the this information. „Do you mean, that I could join the squadron?", she asked eagerly.
„That still is upon Captain Dameron. But if he thinks you're fit to fly on his squadron, then you may have the next cockpit that gets equipped."
Rey thought of the argument that would come up, as soon as Poe would have to decide on her fututre as a resistance pilot. She had some doubts, whether or not he would agree to have her on his squadron. She frowned at the thought, earning a knowing smile from General Organa.
„Don't worry about it. He'll realize that it would be stupid not letting you fly." The older woman said and looked at her encouragingly. „And before you can start as a pilot, I'd like you to join me on a mission to Naboo. We would have to leave immediately. It's an important political mission and I want your input as a Jedi on it."
„We have to leave in an hour. Please find your gear and your mission biefing in your quarters and join me on the tarmac in thirty minutes." Leia ordered the Jedi and added smilingly „Welcome home."