As the Finalizer was attending the Supremacy currently the shuttle trip between the two was relatively brief. For a certain value of the word 'brief.' As far as Kylo was concerned a 5 standard hour trip with General Hux was 5 standard hours too long.

They had already gone round about keeping his helmet on the whole trip. He had planned to take it off but he wasn't going to let Hux think he could order him around. Keeping it on the first half-hour was long enough to make his point.

He looked across the shuttle's passenger cabin. Yep, the man had his nose buried in his datapad again. Not that he wanted to converse with Hux. Recycled insults were tiresome. Kylo huffed quietly. He could pace the cabin, but that would guarantee that Hux would lecture him on proper decorum and how distracting his pacing was when Hux was trying to read.

Well hell, there was always meditation. As much as Kylo wanted a strong connection to the Force, meditation was a pain in the ass. Sitting still and disconnecting from his surroundings was really, really difficult. His Uncle Luke prior Master was constantly chiding him to sit still, stop jittering, sit up straight, and regulate his breathing - it was exhausting.

He shifted in his seat, trying to ignore the lingering pain in his back. He had refused bacta patches, figuring the Force would heal him faster and more thoroughly than a commonplace medical treatment. That doctor, Kelley, or whatever the hell his name was didn't know his arse from his elbow. He wasn't a Force-sensitive, so how would he know what the Force could or couldn't do. Ow. Ow. The hard seat was digging into his tailbone and lower back. Maybe a little bacta would have been acceptable.

He looked back at Hux again. Still attached to his datapad. Ok, meditation it is then. Kylo assumed the position to meditate. That is, as much as he could in the hard bucket seats that were installed in this model of shuttle. Back straight, legs crossed, knees stuck out at ridiculous angles, (bucket seats are unforgiving), eyes closed, breathing deep and regular. As he reached out with his mind to connect deeply with the Force … something slammed him right back into his body. What was that noise? That soft atonal noise? It sounded like - humming.

Kylo slammed his eyes open and glared at Hux, who was humming softly as he read. Damn Hux. He ruined everything.

"Do you mind?" he growled. "I'm trying to meditate!"

Hux put his datapad down and looked cooly at Kylo. "I don't mind. Go ahead and meditate, Ren."

Kylo closed his eyes and attempted to return to his meditations. Why did his Master insist that he work with Hux? Force, he hated that weasel. Not only was he a pretentious twit, he was as Force-sensitive as a chunk of granite.

**KS**

Hux checked the crono on his datapad. They were about an hour away from their rendezvous with the Finalizer. He looked across the cabin. Ren was sitting with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. He was either meditating or sleeping. The whistling sound coming out of his nose suggested the latter.

Hux sighed. He didn't actually hate Ren. He found the man annoying. Also, irritating, aggravating, exasperating, bothersome, troublesome, and vexatious. And infuriating when Ren's temper tantrums resulted in damage to his ship with his silly plasma sword. Or as he insists on pretentiously calling it, lightsaber.

He didn't understand why Supreme Leader Snoke installed Ren as co-commander of the Finalizer. Sure, the man was a superior fighter. Put him on a battlefield and he's practically a one-man army. His knowledge of how to run a Star Destroyer - you could put that into a thimble and have room for your thumb. That wasn't to say that Ren was stupid. He could be quite brilliant when he restrained his temper.

And although he really shouldn't Hux could not resist needling the man. Ren took the bait like a burra fish after a worm. It was a way Hux could entertain himself during slow duty shifts on the bridge. Or the long evenings when Ren insisted on accompanying him to Starkiller Base. Pity about the lightsaber damage when he inevitably lost his temper, but so far Ren has limited the destruction to nonessential equipment. Hiding the replacement costs in the budget required a bit of creative accounting, but Hux decided to consider it a challenge, if for no other reason than to head off a potential ulcer.

At least the damage from Ren's temper tantrums was relatively minor compared to the other problems plaguing Starkiller base. The project wasn't in trouble per se, but it was running severely behind schedule and horribly over budget. And who in the blue bloody hells thought it was a good idea to go with the low bid contractor? Was there even a bid for the contract, or was it awarded to the buddy of a buddy of someone on the High Command? (Probably not the Supreme Leader. Hux couldn't imagine the ancient xeno having anything resembling a buddy).

This whole Starkiller project was beginning to worry him. He had developed the core concept of a planet-based weapon more powerful than the Death Stars. He had worked with a cadre of engineers and scientists to harness the very substance of a star and send it across the galaxy with deadly results. At the rate they were going - marginal to shoddy workmanship, low quality to substandard materials, and a continual slippage of key production milestones - he was becoming more convinced that Starkiller Base would be his doom.

Starkiller Base as designed was a literal destroyer of worlds. The ultimate weapon. Starkiller Base as it was currently being built was more of an ultimate bluff. He was pretty sure they could manage a live shot and possibly take out a system. He was not sanguine of anything more than that.

Why build a superweapon that wasn't up to snuff? Why eject good credits out of an airlock? None of this makes sense if one's goal is galactic domination. So it domination Supreme Leader Snoke's ultimate goal or does he have some sort of Force-based objective that a Force Null like Hux can't see clearly?

He shifted in his seat and hissed softly at the pain in his chest. The bacta treatment should have completely healed his ribs. He shifted again and thought about Dr. Kelley's comments about the human body's limitations. Something else to keep in mind as he attempts to survive the imbroglio he's found himself in.

There is a knock on the door and a crew member pokes her head into the cabin.

"Pardon me, General, but you wanted to be notified when the shuttle was 10 minutes out from docking with the Finalizer."

"Thank you, Ensign. Dismissed," replied Hux. The ensign nodded and closed the door.

He looked over at Kylo. Still asleep. Hux resists the impulse to throw something at him.

"Wake up Ren!' he barked.

Kylo jumped in his seat. "I wasn't sleeping. I was meditating."

"We're docking in less than 10 minutes. Put your bucket back on before we land."

Author notes: Summary - Kylo is being typical Kylo. Hux has a lot to ruminate over.

I'm sorry this took a while. I went to lunch with a friend who didn't know she had been exposed to Covid and ended up with a case that lasted about a week. Just didn't feel up to writing.

I'm not sure how many chapters this will be. It was supposed to be a 3 to 6 chapter ficlet but it may have more story to it than I thought.