Rey watched over Chewie's shoulder as they made their approach. Excarga provided to be bigger than she could have imagined. Hundreds, maybe thousands of ships swarming around it like sand bees around a nest. The complex of mines, labs, processing facilities, living quarters and cargo bays infected the planet, burrowing deep underground and then erupting onto the surface. It was arid here, not a sand desert- too rocky for that but dry. Dry and cool with little to break up the monotony of gray stone but what was man made.
As they passed into the atmosphere, the girl watched the line separating night from day approaching them and frowned. The comm crackled and hummed and suddenly the cabin was full of the sounds of screams, pleas for mercy, weeping.
So much pain, so much despair . . . Rey pressed her hands to her ears trying to block out the horrible noise-
"Hrrrngh?" Chewie asked her and just like that the screams were gone.
Rey ran her hands over the control panel, scanning the dash frantically but nothing. No evidence that they had received a signal of any kind.
"Nothing," She assured Chewie, "I just thought I heard something, that's all,".
Would she ever get used to the Force and it's visions?
When the comm squawked to life in reality, Rey jumped and the wookie gave her another sideways look before answering. After a brief exchange with the central dispatch, they were directed to a cargo bay where job seekers were being sorted and interviewed.
"I'll let the others know we're here," She told Chewie.
Poe hit the button and the cargo doors opened with a hiss. He glanced at Finn and Rose "We meet back here by oh-nine-hundred. Got it?"
They nodded and he grinned, "Be safe."
The couple echoed the sentiment and Rose gave Rey's hand a quick squeeze "See you soon,"
Rey smiled and nodded in return. When Rose and Finn had disappeared into the crowd, Poe turned to her, "You ready for this?"
She shrugged, "I guess I'll have to be."
"What?" His eyes searched her face, "What's bothering you? This is easy- just a little fact finding."
Rey hesitated but he waited and eventually she admitted, "I'm not-" She found herself blushing, "I'm not a very good liar."
Poe looked confused for a second and then a smile bloomed across his face, "Well, then, how about you leave the lying to me and just do what you're good at?"
"Droid repair?" She offered.
His eyes were steady on her face, "Seeing people," He answered and she felt herself blink.
Was she good at that?
He held his hand out to her and she took it reluctantly, "It'll be okay," he promised.
After hours of waiting, they were shown to seats in the corner of a room filled with tables. A mess hall, Rey guessed. There was a smell in the air, like old protein and the furniture had a greasy, worn look. Today, the room was crowded with people but no one was eating. Rey's eyes swept the crowd. All job seekers she assumed. People hungry for the chance at a better life.
A man stood to greet them when they approached. He was massive, over a hands length taller than Poe, and broad in the shoulder. His exposed arms were heavy with muscle and bigger around than her thighs. A mountain of a man, Rey thought. He was even the color of a mountain seen from a distance, a dusty and elusive blue.
The man nodded to them both in turn and gestured to himself, "Selvor Noon, Foreman," He sat and they followed suit across the table from him.
Poe gave the miner one of his winning smiles, "I'm Pell Gotra and this is my wife Rey,". The girl nodded when the big man's eyes fell on her.
"What sort o' work you looking for?" The miner asked, and Poe started in on their agreed story. He was a pilot. His wife was a mechanic. . .
Rey felt her attention wander and she studied the blue skinned foreman. The big man's face was impassive as he listened to Poe. Even the pilot seemed to wilt under his unblinking stare though he never strayed from their story. The foreman had no visible body hair, no eyebrows, no hair on his head or the backs of his hands. His ears tapered to sharp points following the curve of his skull at an angle to the corners of his eyes. Rey tried to remember what she had learned in her briefing about Excarga. The planet's original sentient species had lived underground and had been. . . conscripted to the mines hundreds of years ago. In that time, they had been bred and even altered to make the ideal underground workers.
Her eyes traced over the hard planes of Selvor Noon's face.
Rey could see under his jaw, the skin gnarled and shiny- a scar. Her eyes fell. And there just peeking over the collar of his shirt at the juncture where neck meets shoulder- another scar. It's edges disappearing in both directions under the fabric.
He noticed her gaze and the foreman cut Poe off mid-sentence "Electro-collar," He told her, pulling on his shirt to reveal more of the mark. He tilted his head back and she saw that the scar ran all along the underside of his chin.
Rey felt her face contort in horror and then settle into sorrow, "I'm sorry," she said, her voice thick. She touched her wrist where the slave band had once sat.
The miner's eyes flicked down and she saw the recognition in them.
"Not to worry," He assured her, "I'll never be tied again. No one on this rock will be." He promised. On the table, his hand curled into a fist, "There are no chains in the Gray Empire".
Poe shifted in his chair and she remembered their mission. "What do you mean?".
"That's what the Emperor told us," Selvor Noon's expression turned dreamy, "Just before he cut the masters down and set us free,".
"How do you know that?" Poe's voice sounded loud and heads turned toward them. He lowered his voice, "How could you know what he said? Were you in the control room-"
"Nah," Selvor waved his heavy hand, "It was broadcast on every vidscreen. It was shift change and most of the crews were either rising up from the mines or headed down. Me 'n crew Twelve-Ten were in the eastward main waiting for our lift when it came over the screen."
"But why-" Rey wondered.
He answered her question before she could even finish asking, "They use the screens to give orders. Can't use comms in the tunnels," He tapped his ear, "drillings too loud. Screens are everywhere. So, he was everywhere."
"No one's quite clear- on the outside- about what happened," Rey offered.
"And you'd like to know?"
Rey and Poe exchanged a glance, "Yes, please. If this is going to be our home. . ."
Selvor Noon's eyes fell again to her wrist and she resisted the urge to cover it, though there was no scar. She had always been small and skinny. The cuff had not fit tightly enough to scar, not like the miner's collar.
After a moment, Selvor nodded, "Alright, then. Like I said, me 'n the crew were waiting in the eastward main, and old Maldoon was mastering that day. And whenever you were under Var Maldoon you knew it would be a bad 'un. Meanest lek'ta'cho I ever saw- loved to shock the collars, loved to use the cauter-whip," His expression turned dark, "Him that was killed my granda- beat her unconscious with the whip then finished her off with a rock. Said anyone too slow to make quota was trash and he knew what to do with trash."
The room grew darker like the terrible memory had reached through time to stain the present. Rey shivered.
Poe asked gently, "What happened next?".
Selvor Noon shook his head as though to clear it, "Vidscreen popped on. We could see all these toff masters, swanking around in a bright white room- full of screens and buttons and all- Master control room it turns out. I knew Harrick Den from the fortnight addresses, president of site for Excarga and a couple of the others. But there were three I didn't know, all in black and gray they was. Toffs probably but not soft and fat and shiny looking. Hard. Hard and sharp as knife blades they looked and making the soft ones as nervous as could be. Two of 'em wore black helmets. The third was him. Tall and pale," He turned to Rey, "pale like you. With a heavy black cloak and a voice like the dark of a mineshaft."
Rey's hands slid into her lap and wrapped around each other. Her fingers were icy cold, "And then?".
"He was a talkin'- in that night smooth voice- he asked how much the mines had made in the last year. And old Harrick Den says thousands an' millions- all for the glory of the First Order. And the tall one says the First Order is dead an' he'll build something better on it's bones. Something true. Starting with this mine. He says this mine is now a part of the Gray Empire and he looks straight at us- straight at every single worker- and says, 'There are no chains in the Empire'."
Rey could hear the echo of Kylo's voice in her head, could imagine his dark eyes burning across vidscreen after vidscreen.
"You ever seen an electro-collar?" Selvor asked suddenly.
Poe shook his head but Rey nodded reluctantly.
"Makes a little humming noise, all the time, like a bloodfly buzzin'. Never stops. Becomes so much a part of the world, you can't hear it," The miner explained. " 'Cept just before the shock hits. The noise goes up- louder, higher- so you know what's coming. But he said 'no chains', just like that 'no chains in the empire' and the noise stopped. Gone. And the magnet cuffs," He held his arms up so they could see the marks on his wrists, "they fell away. And we were all staring at each other. And then we were staring at the vidscreen 'cause he was moving like a blur and the masters were falling, one after another. An' I swear the mine shook and moaned like the ones that came before were crying out- I could hear my granda's voice, just before she fell. And we looked at Var Maldoon and for the first time I saw a master afraid." He took a ragged breath, then raised his chin, "And I knew I would never wear chains again."