It took a few days for Captain Ocram to contact her again, time which she spent chatting to Haight and Janeek and drinking tea with Adjutant Myakka in her office, under pretext of learning about the daily routine on the ship. She'd found a room set aside for physical recreation in her quarters and she spent a lot of time running, keeping well away from the hangar bay and the memory of Kylo Ren.

She'd put it down to the fact that she was a prisoner, in the end. There was some kind of attraction that went on when people had been captive too long, where they ended up empathising with their guards for want of any other emotional outlet. She needed to escape, that was all. And in any case, he was a monster, not a man. All the other men she'd ever been attracted to had been nice, not homicidal megalomaniacs. The black did suit him though.

She'd already read the five hundred odd rebellion files twice when a flashing light alerted her to a holographic call.

'I couldn't get you to Telania,' Captain Ocram announced. 'I only got Duuk.'

'Oh.' It was a small moon, known for the quality and quantity of its markets and it had only merited a couple of lines in the files. Any resistance movement there was going to be small, and difficult to find, making it all the more likely that Rey was going to need to steal a vessel in order to get away. That was going to be far easier to accomplish if she could manage to convince Captain Ocram to take her in a fighter, or a small cruiser with hyperdrive capability would be ideal. She was sure she could overpower him without him minding too much.

'We're scheduled to arrive this afternoon. Apparently, there are some arrangements that need to be made first. I'm to meet you on the surface when The Reaper arrives. They're taking you shopping in a Star Destroyer.'

Rey's mouth hung open until he'd disconnected. She was going to be allowed off the ship, that concession had been won in the training hangar, she was sure, but the chances of her escaping from the clutches of the First Order were remote, if the Order itself was going to come with her.

She flung on her old clothes, paced around her office until Myakka called to escort her down to the hangar bay. There was a guard of honour in it - hundreds of stormtroopers lined up in ranks prepared to greet her arrival, or repulse a surprise Resistance attack, no doubt.

She was ushered into the same dual winged shuttle that had towed her towards Crait but although she was braced for another tense encounter, the pilot was simply a different man in a mask.

It was a short hop to the surface, and Menan Ocram met her on the landing pad with a mock salute and a welcoming smile. He was much taller than his hologram had led her to expect, and appeared significantly more frail in the flesh.

'Supreme Leader,' he announced with a flourish. 'Allow me to present the Chief Haggler of Duuk, his Excellency Mimrod the Third.'

The little green man beside him bobbed into a deep bow. He was wearing the most brightly coloured riot of colours she'd seen in at least a week and she liked him on sight.

'It's always a pleasure to meet the Supreme Leader,' he crooned, plausibly enough that anyone else might have thought he meant it.

'I wouldn't get too excited,' she replied, returning the bow. 'There's a few of us these days.'

His eyes widened at the sight of a genuflecting Supreme Leader, and he slid a glance towards Captain Ocram, who nodded. 'Very nice to meet you then, Miss Rey. Menan has lots to say about you.'

'I wanted to talk to you about your rebellion, your Excellency.'

'Oh. That's all in the past, there's no rebellion any more. With the help of our glorious protectors, the First Order, all the rebels have been eliminated.'

'I didn't actually want to discuss what you're doing about it, I was more interested in why it's happening in the first place. I also hear you have the best stocked textiles bazaar in the quadrant, perhaps we can talk and walk at the same time? I find myself in need of some new clothes.'

It would also be significantly easier to extract information from him in a situation with which he was familiar, and one in which it would be harder to be overheard.

She turned to face the ranks of stormtroopers who had exited the transports and were lined up on the landing pad waiting to accompany her. 'This detachment will stay with the ships, in case anyone attempts to steal one,' she announced. 'By order of the Supreme Leader.'

She spoke with his authority, after all, even if that wasn't what he would have said.

She wove her way as quickly as possible into the deepest part of the market, followed by her guide and flanked by Captain Ocram who stayed a discrete distance behind. The market itself was immense, full of noise and bustle, a thousand traders hawking their wares and a thousand thousand buyers all attempting to get the best deal.

'You're saying it isn't about money, then?' she continued, halting the flow of the little man's words momentarily.

'No, although that doesn't help. This is a trading hub, we don't rely on the First Order's money to get by, but we're paying them an awful lot of credits to protect us from the Azaxi and they aren't doing it. The traders' guild is annoyed, and it was a couple of their most militant members who blew up that convoy of stormtroopers the other week. If the First Order were doing their job properly we could get on with ignoring them, the same way we ignore every bunch of crazed despots who tries to control the free market. My citizens are angry because we're paying for a service and we're not getting it, and nobody likes that.'

'Who are the Azaxi?'

His expression turned. 'Bunch of murdering slavers. They kidnap innocent citizens and sell them off to the entertainment worlds of Markas Three. The men become gladiators or servants, the women prostitutes and the children – sometimes they will kill the parents just to take their kids. I wouldn't darken your day by telling you what they do to those poor children.' His voice dropped. 'And the worst part is, some traders say the First Order is deliberately not controlling the Azaxi so that we'll have to pay them even more protection money. If that turns out to be true, well, this whole place will blow. The First Order will know what it's like to have a proper rebellion on their hands. No offence.'

A large woman in a voluminous dress barged past Rey on her way to the nearest stand, her head covered, a flash of dark skinned hand holding closed her cowl.

'And do you know how I can get in touch with the rebels?' She lowered her voice, glanced around.

'I'm sure I don't know,' his Excellency said. 'But I'm also sure that if you bought something from that stall right over there, you'd like it.' He waggled his considerable eyebrows at her.

The big woman attempted to shuffle past Rey again, this time on her way to the same stand that the Chief Haggler had indicated, and there was something in the way she walked that was familiar, although Rey couldn't place it. Rey picked through the merchandise on offer, noting that both Captain Ocram and Mimrod the Third were talking animatedly deliberately out of hearing distance, and causing quite a distraction. The other woman pointed at a necklace. 'Try this dear, it would look lovely on you.'

Rey caught her breath, blinked tears from her eyes, then reached out and squeezed the other woman's hand as hard as she dared.

'Finn,' she whispered. 'Finn.'

He nudged her away. 'I'm in disguise.'

'I can see that. How did you know I'd be here?'

'Friend of a friend in a different resistance, apparently. Leia got a message. I knew you weren't working for them, I knew it.'

'Why would I be? Oh. You intercepted the announcement that said I'd defected.'

'Chewbacca picked it up as we were loading, but all of us knew it wasn't true. Kylo Ren's keeping you prisoner, isn't he? Don't tell him anything.'

'I haven't told him anything. He hasn't actually asked me anything, but he wants me to be his apprentice and he's got me locked up next to his bedroom so he can watch me all night, as well as all day.'

'Kylo Ren watches you all night? Rey? Has he - you know? I'll kill him.'

'No, no. Calm down or they'll notice you.'

He fastened a hand on her wrist. 'This whole place is crawling with troops. Most of the people in the market aren't shopping, they're are all First Order spies – we've been watching them arrive all day. They've already noticed me, I'm just hoping they won't recognise me.'

'Then how are we going to escape?'

He slid his fingers down, clutched her hand. 'I can't get you out, not today, there are too many of them. I just came to give you a message – that we haven't forgotten you, and we're working on a plan.'

She squeezed back. 'How long?'

'I don't know,' he whispered. 'But be ready when we come.'

He moved on to the next stall, and then the next, pretending to shop until she lost him in the crowd. She held her head high all the way back to the shuttle, unwilling to let them see her cry. She wasn't going to escape today, but she might escape tomorrow. She still had friends, and they would come for her when they could. All she had to do was survive.

But as she docked with the Star Destroyer she still felt like a little piece of her had died.