Chapter 17

Ambush

Finn's voice roaring up through the hatch was indistinguishable from the noises the Harris wrench was making. Poe put it down and turned away from the plumbing he had just finished fixing.

"What?" he shouted back, rattling at the pipe and, satisfied with his work, got up. "What's up?"

"These crates smell funny!"

"Then close the door and come on up, I don't want to know what's in there!" He had smelled it himself a couple of hours ago, when he had entered the cargo hold to check up on the crates he had remembered the Sullustan's ominous answer to Finn's question. What they'd be transporting and who they wouldn't want to run into. Poe had instinctively applied the answer "Kanjiklub" to the latter question, but now that this weird smell had started wafting through the cargo hold, Poe was beginning to doubt his former assumption.

"What do you think is in there?" Finn asked, sticking his head through the hatch with a frown on his face.

Shaking his head, Poe put the wrench into the tool box. "I really don't want to think about it. Let's just close the hatch and hope the next twelve hours until we get to Fi-Chten pass quickly."

"Fine…" Finn muttered, pulling himself on the upper deck and slamming the hatch door shut. "I hope they really do pay us though. The cargo hold will take forever to clean."

"I hear you." Poe winked at Finn and sat down in the lounge area again, pulling up his datapad. "That place isn't big exactly, so we shouldn't linger there for too long," he said as he pulled up the entry on Fi-Chten. A minor moon in the Inner Rim. Not a big population, just a couple of almost forgotten mining outposts. In fact, it looked like a rather peaceful place, which, judging from the smell emanating from the crates below and the fact that someone actually wanted them on that planet, was probably a wrong guess.

Finn slumped down next to him, pulling up the datapad they had gotten him a couple of weeks ago. Poe had no idea what Finn was reading up on it, but since Finn didn't seem to be willing to tell him, Poe hadn't asked thus far. Still he couldn't help but feel curious over what it was that made Finn look this… happy?

"Finn?" Poe asked, turning off his own datapad and putting it on the seat next to him.

"Yeah?" Finn looked up, the smile still plastered on his face.

"What are you doing there?"

"Um…" Finn bit his lip, not quite meeting Poe's gaze for a moment.

"What?" At the sheepish look on Finn's face, Poe couldn't help but laugh. "Finn!"

"You're laughing already."

"Sorry!" Poe fought down the smile and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm serious now. Dead serious."

"Well…" Finn shrugged. "Well, it's… you know those couple of days at Kaddak we started watching a couple of holo movies?"

Poe nodded, remembering all too well those first couple of lazy days they had spent together and how afterwards he had made sure to get a few of those movies for their long trips.

"Well… I kind of like these stories," Finn said quietly. "Just… simple stuff. Happy stuff… and I- I got a couple of datacards with more stories on them from one of those dealers back on Myrkr and… well, they're fun."

Poe simply couldn't laugh at that. Recreational reading was something a lot of people in the Republic did. He had come across that phenomenon on missions for the First Order, though he had never seen the appeal in that. The fact that Finn had embraced this activity made something in his chest ache. Like someone had punched him just over his heart. "Alright," he said, not yet fully understanding what was happening here, but he couldn't deny the familiar warmth spreading through his chest. "May I ask why?"

Finn shrugged, his fingertip stroking the now darkened screen almost lovingly. Like a caress. "Well… the stories… I like them."

Poe smiled vaguely and pulled his legs to his chest. "Fine," he said quietly. "You like them, I want to know them. Read one to me."

"Oh…" Finn cleared his throat. "Might take some time… they are fairly long. I'm not even through with the third book of the series yet."

"We have time in case you haven't noticed."

"Yeah, I have…" Finn mumbled, eyes still fixed on the screen. "You won't think I'm crazy?"

"I already do. You ran off with me, remember?"

That brought a smile to Finn's lips. The one expression Poe had been looking for.

He nodded. "Off you go then, Mister Finn," he said, leaning back, wondering how this whole listening-to-someone-read thing was going to work out. Should he be closing his eyes, or keep staring at Finn, who already seemed self-conscious?

Finn looked him in the eyes for a moment, then shrugged and turned his datapad on again, the simple gesture telling Poe more than he needed to know about how much Finn trusted him not to laugh at something that would have made his superiors in the Order chastise him.

After another clearing of his throat, Finn leaned back himself, licked his lips and started reading. "Mr and Mrs Raymfide of Yavin Four, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

Poe was unable to suppress a smile at this. He wasn't used to hearing stories of fiction, but this one seemed to be funny and the grin on Finn's face told him, that he too was enjoying himself. "What's normal anyway?"

"Do you want me to read or not?"

"Read… please."

Finn threw him one, stern look, then turned his attention back to the story. "They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious because they just didn't hold with such nonsense."

The longer Finn read, the more comfortable he seemed to become and Poe didn't grow tired of watching him. Of burrowing himself with Finn inside this story. Of forgetting the world outside even existed. Finn's voice was smooth, his intonation perfect. Finn was a master storyteller, Poe realized and he leaned back his head, closing his eyes the better to imagine the scene Finn was describing. Witches… wizards… what a strange idea for a story.

Poe closed his eyes, enjoying the sound of Finn's voice and stretching his legs out on the bench, his feet touching Finn's legs. He marvelled at how good Finn was at this. How much he could actually enjoy a completely made up story, which was strange and funny and full of promise.

"Okay, that's Chapter Three…" Finn said, his voice sounding croaky.

Poe's eyes flew open and he smiled at Finn. "Can we keep going once you've had something to drink?" he asked sheepishly.

Finn laughed, the sound making goose bumps appear on Poe's arms. "Might be a good idea, yeah. So, you like it?"

"Sure! Would've asked you to stop if I didn't. So… who is that guy knocking at the door?"

"Oh, you'd like to know that, wouldn't you?" Sticking out his tongue at Poe, Finn put the datapad on the table and got up. "Well, I'm not telling you now! You have to be patie-"

A shudder going through the ship made him stop mid-word. Poe's heart missed a beat and he jumped to his feet.

"What was that?" Finn stared at Poe with wide eyes.

Shaking his head, Poe stormed past him. "Nothing good…" he muttered. As he entered the cockpit, he saw that the blur of white and blue had collapsed into stars, but this hadn't been a normal drop out of hyperspace. On the contrary! They weren't scheduled to drop out for hours!

Poe swallowed hard, wondering how the hell they were going to get out of this one! Biting his lip, he flung himself into his pilot's chair and froze when he realized that none of the controls was responding.

"What?!" Finn came up behind him.

"Someone pulled us out of hyperspace," he muttered. "And we can't move… tractor beam, I expect. We can't move."

Cursing, Finn got to his station, while Poe just sat there, staring out the viewscreen, where nothing could be seen but the black vastness of space and the stars. "Well, we're not moving," Finn said, checking his consoles. "So, no tractor beam, but we're not going anywhere that's for sure."

Poe nodded. Well, that was something at least. Their engines might only temporarily be out of service. Taking one deep breath, he tried starting up the engines again and he closed his eyes for a brief moment, when they came to life, thanking the universe for the undeserved good luck.

Then, slowly, the tip of a gigantic ship came into view. A model Poe would recognize anywhere. "Well, this is just great," he muttered, as the button for the comm channel flashed bright red.

After exchanging a quick look with Poe, Finn opened the channel to the incoming message.

"Unidentified freighter, you have been pulled out of hyperspace along with the Corellian corvette with the callsign Stormhawk. Identify yourselves and state your business."

With a snort, Finn turned to look at Poe.

"Care to answer that?"

Shaking his head again, he pushed the ship to go to the side, turning it away from the Star Destroyer. His heart was racing, his palms slick with sweat. So, the First Order wasn't after them. That was something, Poe thought, but it also wouldn't be any good to be caught up in a firefight between the Order and someone else.

Breathing heavily, he sped up. "Get us out of here, Finn!" He was chewing on his lip, as he kept pushing the ship. They had no chance of winning a fight with a Star Destroyer.

"That's the other ship right there!" Finn shouted, pointing to Poe's left.

Poe nodded, not bothering to take in what he was seeing. A fairly big corvette, sure, but what was it to them? He kept pushing, while the comm button flashed violently.

"The nav-computer won't respond!" Finn said next to him. "Must have short-circuited when we dropped out."

"Well that's just great! See if you can fix it?"

"On it!"

Poe turned the ship around, steering right toward the corvette, hoping beyond hope that Finn could actually pull it off and get the damn nav-computer repaired. This was far from good… if the First Order caught them they were in big trouble. Poe didn't even want to pause to consider the consequences.

"Unknown freighter!"

Poe flinched. They were flying in the direction of the corvette now and on the display he could see that the Order had launched a squadron of TIEs at them. And now someone had overridden their comm controls. Poe didn't turn to look at Finn, just kept staring straight ahead. Looking at Finn now was out of the question. He didn't want to think about all the time they might have had. Not about how what they had. Not about how it had been the best time of his life and how much he didn't want it to end.

"This is the Stormhawk. We see you're running from the Order and you're having trouble with your hyperdrive apparently. Care to come aboard?"

Poe swallowed hard, then turned his head slightly to look at Finn. The barely visible nod Finn gave him, was all it took to convince him that this offer might very well be the lesser of two evils. Already the TIEs were closing in on them and without a functioning hyperdrive they had no chance whatsoever of escaping.

He let out a breath, then hit the comm switch. "Thanks for the offer. We're taking you up on that."

He flung the freighter around once more, moving all energy to their thrusts.

"Hurry up then, we're leaving in a minute."

Poe pressed his lips tightly together, as flashes of green laser fire rushed past them, one of them scraping the lower outer hull of their ship. With a curse, Poe managed to steer against the impact. The small hangar was easy enough to see. Without pausing to slow down more than absolutely necessary, Poe rushed inside, immediately igniting the reverse thrusters to stop their flight and then cut off the engines. Next moment, even before their ship had set down properly, the corvette around them shook once and Poe knew they had jumped to lightspeed.

"You sure this was a good idea?"

Poe bit his lip, then shook his head. "Probably wasn't, but there wasn't a whole lot we could have done, right?"

Outside he could see humans and aliens rushing towards them. None of them were wearing uniform as far as he could tell. That was something at least. He reached for their blasters hanging on two hooks near the hatch and passed one of them to Finn. "Just to make sure," he muttered, strapping the belt with the holster around his waist and lowering himself down the hatch.

Finn followed him into the lower part of the ship and as soon as both their feet had touched the floor, the lights came on. They exchanged a look, then approached the ramp side by side. It was weird, Poe thought, that they had been real partners from the get go. After that incident on Jakku, all difference of rank between them had vanished. They had always seen eye to eye. Always. Mostly because of Finn's courage, he knew. Finn was the brave one. The strong one and Poe almost always seemed to tag along. Or it felt that way anyway. Not that he minded, but he was glad about the fact that they were in this together. Even in this situation, when they had no idea who or what they were facing here.

Finn nodded and then, without another moment's hesitation, he pressed the button that released the loading ramp. With a soft hissing noise the ramp was lowered and Poe and Finn started walking down to face their hosts. The only calming thought going through Poe's mind was that at least these people too were on the First Order's black list. They could only hope that meant that these people didn't have any interest of buying their own bounty off by selling Poe and Finn to the Order.

A Balosar female in a dark grey tunic approached them, antennapalps moving in their direction. Poe forced himself not to stare at them, but at her face instead. "Welcome aboard," she said smilingly. "I hope you don't mind that we're going to search your ship before we do anything else?"

Poe clenched his teeth, then crossed his arms across his chest. "Actually we do mind," he said. "Seeing that it's our ship."

The Balosar tutted, then stepped onto the ramp. "We got you out of a pretty tight spot there, didn't we? Don't you think you should be more cooperative?"

"I believe distracting the Order long enough for you to regain control over your systems to be able to get us all out of there should be enough," he retorted.

Taken aback, the woman raised her thin eyebrows.

"Come on, we don't have a choice anyway, do we?" Finn said, putting one hand on Poe's arm.

Gritting his teeth, Poe nodded and stepped aside. "Just don't be surprised at the smell in the cargo hold. It started, about half a day after we took off and I don't want to look in there."

"Ah, the glorious job of smuggling?"

Poe snorted, as two female aliens whose species Poe couldn't identify walked past them, green, veil-like hair almost whispering in their wake.

"Our Captain would like to talk with you." The Balosar stretched out her hand. "I'm

Kal'na by the way. Kal'na Gongalla. First Officer of the Stormhawk."

Finn and Poe exchanged a quick look, then Finn reached out to shake her hand first. "I'm Finn," he said. "My partner Kes Bey…" They had kept to introducing Poe with this name more and more often, especially as a way to show the other that they didn't trust the person they had just started talking to.

Poe shook her hand and after throwing one last look at the two women opening the door to the cargo hold in the back, followed Kal'na down the ramp. What choice did they have anyway? They could call themselves lucky not to be in the First Order's custody right now.

"So the Order dragged you out of hyperspace?", Finn asked as they moved into a narrow, white corridor and Poe noticed that only one other person came along with them, probably to guard their passengers and their First Officer.

"Yes, and as your friend pointed out, you managed to distract them long enough. It's probably none of my business, but why are they after you?"

Poe shrugged. They had now entered another corridor with several rooms alongside it, paced out at long intervals. "Yes, it's not really any of your business."

Kal'na looked at him, then shrugged. If anything, they'd have to be the first ones to talk. Not him. "I don't know you and I have to say that I know most smugglers, I've got a pretty good memory, but you…"

"Yeah, we're new," Finn interrupted her.

She scoffed. So, they were smugglers too and by the looks of it part of a fairly big organization. No wonder the Order might be interested in getting hold of them and force them into service. Outsourcing shipping had been one of the Order's number one priorities to establish in the galaxy, Poe knew. It required vast amounts of personnel the Order didn't have to spare and most importantly they had to operate in secret without the New Republic being able to track them properly. The big organizations were bound to be targets of the Order now that the Order was reaching out to the Republic's territories, trying to expand their area of control.

"Who is your boss?" Poe asked, "any chance we might have heard of him?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Seeing as you're new…" She smirked at them and stopped in front of the doors. She held her thumb over a small sensor and the door slid open, revealing a small conference room with chairs lined up around an oval table. When Poe stepped inside after Finn and Kal'na and he saw the man standing at one of the viewscreens, he stopped in his tracks. Unable to move, he stared at the familiar face framed by reddish, messy hair.

"Poe?" The man rasped, brown eyes blinking. "Poe Dameron?"

Poe blinked. Unable to move. Unable to do anything but stare at the man who had almost ruined his career in the Order. Who had meant so much to him once. The only thing he felt, as the man drew closer, signalling to Kal'na, who grabbed Finn by the arm and started pulling him outside, was his heart racing and his ears almost burning with a feeling Poe couldn't even begin to name.

His throat was dry, as Morap grabbed his face and pulled him close, lips touching. The door slid shut with a soft noise and for a moment, heart thumping wildly in his chest, it was all Poe could do to just stand there and let it happen. Let those familiar lips roam over his and allow that scent to flood his senses. But this was wrong! So wrong!

With a jerk, he pushed Morap away from him, then reached over to wipe his hand over the door lock. With a hiss, the door opened again, revealing Finn just staring at him. "Come on in, Finn," he muttered. "If you want…" He swallowed hard, trying not to look at Morap, face burning with shame, praying that Finn could forgive him.

"Poe?" Morap asked, but Poe held up a trembling hand without looking at him, anger flaring up inside of him.

"This is the guy I told you about" Poe said quietly, as Kal'na let go of the blaster strapped to her leg. "I'm sorry."

The tension didn't leave Finn's face for a single moment, but he stepped inside anyway. For a second Poe thought Finn was going to put his arm possessively around Poe, but the fact that he didn't told him more than Poe needed to know.

"The… guy?" Morap asked and only when he closed the door again, shutting the three of them inside this small conference chamber, did Poe look at him again. "Is that all? I-"

"You know very well what you did to me, pal. What else would you be to me now?" He had raised his voice without meaning to. Face still hot, he wanted to reach for something and throw it into that face he had been so familiar with once.

"Poe…" Morap sighed and wiped his hand across his face. "I-"

"What the kriff is even going on here?" Finn hissed. "I thought you were with the Resistance now?"

Morap seemed startled at this and stared at Finn, eyes studying the face in front of him. "I- what?"

"You heard him," Poe snorted, crossing his arms across his chest to stop his hands from shaking or reaching out for Finn. To apologize. To make it all go away. He had been so overwhelmed by seeing Morap. So stunned by his sudden appearance in this unlikely place. How could he have been so stupid and even let him near him?! "You have a lot of explaining to do."

Morap narrowed his eyes, then brushed one of his hands through his hair. Only now did Poe see the cybernetic finger. "You're still with the Order?"

Poe bit his lip, when Finn spoke up again, rage barely contained in his voice. "Of course he isn't. We were running from them same as you, weren't we?"

Morap slumped down in one of the chairs. He had lost weight, Poe realized with a twinge. "You…" Morap cleared his throat, then pointed at Finn. "You were in the Order too?"

"Yes, I was, actually." Finn's hands were balled into fists and he was shaking all over. "What do you care?"

Morap smiled slightly, his eyes glinting mishieviously, making his face look almost like it had back when Poe had still considered himself in love with this man who had betrayed him. "Please sit down," Morap said, pointing to the chairs. "We're not dropping out of hyperspace again for at least a day, so you might as well relax."

Poe pressed his lips tightly together, but pulled up one of the chairs anyway. "Fine." He said. "What did you do to piss of the Order like that? Do they know who you are?"

"No, they don't." Morap shook his head and for a moment it looked as if he was going to reach over and touch Poe's hand. But he didn't.

As if to prove a point Finn sat down on Poe's other side, hands folded over the table top. "You know we need to make a delivery."

Morap nodded slowly, eyes roaming over Finn, then at Poe. "Where are you headed?"

"Fi-Chten." Poe closed his eyes for a moment, trying very hard to slow down is heartrate and failing utterly.

"We can drop you off there. What happened to your hyperdrive?"

"We don't know exactly. Haven't had time to check it over to be honest." Poe looked over to see Finn stare at Morap with his jaw clenched and his heart plummeted at the sight of him.

"I can let a technician-"

"We'll let you know if we need help." Finn interrupted him, his hands so tightly clasped Poe, could almost hear the joints cracking.

"Morap, where the hell have you been?" Poe asked, putting a hand on Finn's arm, even if the other man didn't even bother to look at him. Finn was angry with him. He had every right to be.

"Here and there…" Morap muttered, eyes flashing from Poe to Finn and back again. "I'm sorry…" he gulped. "I just thought…" Their eyes met and Poe could see the regret in Morap's eyes. "I apologize." He got up, then moved to the door. "I should give you some time, I expect. I can have a cabin prepared for you or-"

With a jerk, Finn pulled himself free from Poe and jumped to his feet. "I'll be on our ship," he declared and before Poe had even gotten to his feet, he had stormed out the door. Poe saw Morap gesturing for Kal'na to let him go.

"Poe, can we-"

"Not right now," Poe muttered, storming after Finn, not entirely sure he even wanted to talk to Morap anymore.