The Best Engineer in the Galaxy

Or, Finn Gets Back On His Feet

"Hey, I left before I got to meet you." Rey said to Chas. "Can you tell me about how you got Finn back on his feet?"

"I'd love to! It all began with a phone call…"

The mechanic bolted upright out of bed, glaring murderously at what had woken her up. Her communicator. Who the hell was calling at this time of night? She picked up. "Who is it? Why are you waking me up before noon?"

"Wow. Grumpy much?"

Chas grinned as she recognized the voice. "Poe Dameron! How are you? How long has it been? Three years?"

Poe laughed. "Two and half, and I'm fine! You?"

"Fantastic, I just upgraded my leg, and dude, it is fabulous, you have no idea. Anyway, why are you calling?"

"You know that favor you owe me?"

"Yeah."

"I'm calling to cash it in."

Chas caught a ride to the Resistance Base in a cargo ship. Poe greeted her with an enthusiastic hug and a gush of information.

"…So we blew up the Starkiller Base, but Finn was injured—"

"Hold up, wait." Chas interrupted, waving her hands around. "This Starkiller Base, it didn't happen to be a wonder of technology made out of an ENTIRE PLANET, by any chance, did it?"

"Uh, yeah, how did you know that?"

Chas flipped out, flailing her arms. "MOTHER-FUCKERS! SO THAT'S WHAT THEY MEANT BY A WEAPON CAPABLE OF CHANGING THE GALAXY!"

"Uh, I have a feeling you know more than your saying." Poe said.

"Uuuuuhhhh…" Chas gave him a deer-in-the-headlights look. "I can't say."

"WHY NOT?!"

"Hey, is that BB8? Hey, buddy!" She crouched down to greet the orange-and-white droid. "How is Poe taking care of you? He hasn't done anything especially stupid, has he?"

The droid proceeded to tell the mechanic the story of Poe's capture by the First Order. Chas slowly rotated around to glare at the pilot. "So you neglected to mention that YOU ALMOST DIED!"

"I'm sorry?"

"THAT DOESN'T CUT IT!"

After Chas had finished loudly worrying about Poe, and kicking him in the shins few times, they finally began to talk about Finn's condition.

"So his spine's messed up?"

"Yeah. I don't really know any details. Just that it's doubtful that he'll ever walk again."

"Yay! I enjoy doing the impossible!"

Chas squinted at the x-rays. "Okay… Okay…" The doctors stared at her.

"Uh, who are you?" One of them asked.

Chas fished a wallet out of the pocket of her jumpsuit. "My credentials should be in there somewhere." She mumbled absent mindedly, writing furiously on a note pad. "I think I can actually do something about this."

"Uh, so you're an engineer?" One of the nurses asked.

"Yeah. I prefer to work in the medical field, but I'm good with other things, too."

"And a doctor?"

"Hence fascination with medical engineering."

"And… a mechanic…"

"I dabble."

"She has an I.Q. of over 200." Poe said, snatching his friend's wallet.

"You flatter me. And please don't go through my wallet."

"I'm not. I just remembered that you owe me 50 credits."

Chas threw her pencil at the pilot. "I do not." She slammed her notebook shut with a grin. "Guys, I have an idea!"

The head doctor gave her an interested look. "Really?"

The doctor/engineer/mechanic nodded. "Who's you're best guy on the nervous system?"

One of the doctors, a Twi'lek, raised his hand. "That would be me."

"Cool. What's your name?"

"Bongiwo."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Chas."

"Can I ask what your idea is?"

"First, I'm going to need some things."

The head doctor shrugged. "Sure. I'll do what I can."

"I need a quiet place to work, several med droids, a detailed diagram of Finn's nervous system, Dr. Bongiwo here (if you don't mind?), lots of scans of Finn's spinal cord, and a roast beef sandwich."

"A… roast beef sandwich…"

"Yes, please. With mayonnaise and cheese and pickles, but no mustard. If you can. I'm very hungry."

"Uh, sure."

Poe burst into Chas's workroom. The engineer and Doctor Bongiwo (who was a stern and studious individual who found Chas's energy and genius fascinating and quickly bonded with the woman) were chattering about a 3D hologram of the human nervous system.

"It won't be too hard to connect the wires to the bigger nerve bundles." Bongiwo was saying, spinning around the diagram. "The trouble is with the finer nerves."

"So, returning full feeling is doubtful?"

"Probably…"

"Damn."

"Hello!" Poe waved vigorously.

Chas turned to grin at him. "Hey! What's up? Did you bring lunch?"

The pilot frowned. "I am the Resistance's best pilot, I don't have time to bring you lunch."

Chas scowled for a moment, then laughed. "Good thing we've already had lunch! Now, what are you doing here?"

"Finn wanted to meet you!" The pilot flung the door open and Finn rolled in in a wheel chair.

Chas's face brightened in a grin. "Hey!"

The engineer and former Stormtrooper bonded quickly, before he and Poe were kicked out.

Three months later, Chas burst in on the guys playing dejarik, grinning widely, before stopping short on Finn's side of the board. "Dude, no. Don't do it." She told him, knocking his hands out of the way. "Try this."

"You really think you a beat me?" Poe chuckled. "Finn has like, eight pieces left."

"Challenge accepted. Finn, may I whoop his ass for you?"

"Yeah, sure. I've been losing all day."

"Don't worry, pal, I am a champ at this game!" The mechanic moved her pieces. Poe watched in shock as she 'whooped his ass', grinning all the while.

"Anyway." She said. "The real reason I came here is to tell Finn that we think we're done."

"Wait, really?!"

"Really. Are you up for a 6 hour surgery?"

"Uh… I guess?"

Chas watched with pride as Finn carefully made his way around the room, walking slowly, but walking nonetheless. The former Stormtrooper's spine was covered by a carefully made casing of hard plastic.

"You never explained how it works." Poe said, coming to stand next to her.

"It's complicated. I'm not sure you'd understand."

Poe gave her an offended look. "WOW. Okay."

"I didn't mean it like that!" She yelled. "Okay, I'll try to explain without using too much medical lingo. Let me think…" She paused for a while, before saying, "Well, Kylo Ren's attack messed up Finn's nerves, yeah, paralyzing him from the waist-down. Usually, that wouldn't be too hard to remedy, but his surviving nerves were so damaged, it was impossible. So, with Bongiwo's help, I was able to repair his nerves with these nearly microscopic nanofiber wires. The problem was making sure that the wires would still carry impulses. Like, whether or not the wires would connect and function with the dendrites and axioms of the real neurons, so there was a lot of tinkering in that aspect. We discovered that the electrical impulses fire them best if the nanofiber wires are magnetized. So, the casing on Finn's back is magnetizing the wires, ensuring that he can walk, and feel and stuff! It's really cool!"

Poe frowned. "You lost me at Kylo Ren."

"I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WOULDN'T GET IT!"

Note: The science and medical info used in this story is completely theoretical. It wouldn't really work. Probably. I'm not sure.