The Force Awakens (Star Wars)

  “The girl,” she inquired, her voice strengthening. “What can you tell me about her that might help us locate her? What’s her name?”

  Finn struggled to contain his emotions. “Rey.”

  A strong voice, not human, rumbled behind Finn. Turning, he found himself staring back at the widely set eyes of Admiral Ackbar.

  “Come with me, young man. I wish to hear everything and anything you have to say, and myself, I have a great many questions to ask you.”

  —

  Sitting up on the scanner bed in the med center, Chewbacca was quiet as Dr. Kalonia worked on the Wookiee’s injured shoulder. Dark of hair and eyes with a kindly demeanor, the physician was far more adept than Finn had been, and the device she was employing could not be felt even while it was in use. As the lingering pain faded, Chewie growled appreciatively at the doctor.

  “You’re most welcome.”

  The Wookiee looked over and down at himself. All signs of the wound had nearly been erased, at which sight he groaned softly.

  “That sounds very scary,” Kalonia commented as she worked. Another series of gentle moans. “Yes, you’re very brave.”

  XIV

  THE SEARCH HAD taken BB-8 some time, but he finally found what he was looking for. Or rather, who. Or maybe both, since an intelligent droid technically qualified as both a who and a what. In the dark, dusty storeroom he rolled over to the R2 unit and beeped a greeting, the transmission sequence too rapid and too exhaustive for any human to follow. It didn’t matter. There was no response from the immobile R2 unit.

  BB-8 tried again, utilizing a different droid language. When that also failed, he moved forward and gave the other mechanical a forceful nudge. Like everything else, that too failed to generate a response.

  Observing the unsuccessful interaction, C-3PO came forward out of the shadows.

  “You’re wasting your time, I’m afraid. It is very doubtful that Artoo would have the rest of the map in his backup data.” When BB-8 queried the protocol droid, C-3PO responded without hesitation.

  “He’s been locked down in self-imposed low-power mode. He just hasn’t been the same since Master Luke went away.”

  A new voice, that of a human this time, called to them. “Beebee-Ate!”

  In response, the spherical droid reluctantly rolled over to the officer who had interrupted.

  “General needs you!”

  Beeping a polite farewell to C-3PO and a final thought to the silent R2-D2, BB-8 followed the officer out of the storage area. Behind them, C-3PO bent over his old friend.

  “Oh, do try and cheer up, Artoo. This enforced immobility is no good for you. Your cognitive circuits will atrophy from lack of use.”

  His affable urging proved no more effective than had BB-8’s authoritative querying. The R2 unit remained as it was: silent, unmoving, and unresponsive.

  —

  In the main conference room, C-3PO worked on BB-8’s flank while Han and several officers looked on. Complying with the protocol droid’s orders, BB-8 obediently opened a locked and sealed port on its side.

  “Ah, thank you. That’s it.”

  Reaching in, C-3PO removed a tiny device. Turning, he inserted it into a matching slot in the multi-sided table-projector that dominated the center of the room. Immediately, a three-dimensional map filled the space above the flat-topped apparatus with stars, nebulae, and other stellar phenomena. Leia studied the display intently. But though her eyes roved knowledgably through the compacted cosmos, she failed to find what she was looking for. Her dissatisfaction was unmistakable.

  While he was in his own way equally disappointed, C-3PO was not programmed to display it. Instead, he merely expressed a rational regret.

  “General, while I have already completed a preliminary analysis, I’ll inform you of my final determination only when I have finished comparing the information available in this map to that in our full database. There. I’ve finished. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that this map contains insufficient data with which to make a match to any system in our records.”

  From a corner, Han spoke up. “Told you.”

  Leia ignored him. “What a fool I was to think we could just find Luke and bring him back.”

  He moved toward her. “Leia…”

  She growled at him. “Don’t do that.”

  It stopped him cold. “Do what?”

  Her voice was flat. “Be nice to me.” Whirling, she stomped off. More than a little bewildered, he followed. Though he caught up to her easily, she didn’t stop, nor did she look in his direction.

  “Hey, I’m here to help,” he told her.

  She continued to march forward, her gaze set straight ahead. “When did that ever help? And don’t say the Death Star.”

  Frustrated, he stepped out in front of her to block her path. When he spoke again, his tone softened until he was almost pleading—as much as Han Solo was capable of pleading.

  “Will you just stop and listen to me for a minute? Please?”

  The change in tone did more to mollify her than anything else. She eyed him impatiently. “I’m listening, Han.”

  “I didn’t plan on coming here,” he explained. “I know whenever you look at me, you’re reminded of him. So I stayed away.”

  She stared at him, shaking her head slowly. “That’s what you think? That I don’t want to be reminded of him, that I want to forget him? I want him back.”

  What could he say to that? What possible response could he give to a willful denial of reason? “He’s gone, Leia. He was always drawn to the dark side. There was nothing we could’ve done to stop it, no matter how hard we tried.” His final words were the hardest to get out. “There was too much Vader in him.”

  “That’s why I wanted him to train with Luke,” Leia said. “I just never should have sent him away. That’s when I lost him. When I lost you both.”

  Han dipped his head. “We both had to deal with it in our own way.” He shrugged. “I went back to the only thing I was ever good at.”

  “We both did,” Leia admitted.

  He met her eyes steadily. “We’ve lost our son, forever.”

  Leia bit her lower lip, refusing to concede. “No. It was Snoke.”

  Han drew back slightly. “Snoke?”

  She nodded. “He knew our child would be strong with the Force. That he was born with equal potential for good or evil.”

  “You knew this from the beginning? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She sighed. “Many reasons. I was hoping that I was wrong, that it wasn’t true. I hoped I could sway him, turn him away from the dark side, without having to involve you.” A small smile appeared. “You had—you have—wonderful qualities, Han, but patience and understanding were never among them. I was afraid that your reactions would only drive him farther to the dark side. I thought I could shield him from Snoke’s influence and you from what was happening.” Her voice dropped. “It’s clear now that I was wrong. Whether your involvement would have made a difference, we’ll never know.”

  He had trouble believing what he was hearing. “So Snoke was watching our son.”

  “Always,” she told him. “From the shadows, in the beginning, even before I realized what was happening, he was manipulating everything, pulling our son toward the dark side.

  “But nothing’s impossible, Han. Not even now, at this late time. I have this feeling that if anyone can save him—it’s you.”

  He wanted to laugh derisively. If he did, he knew she might never speak to him again. “Me? No. If Luke couldn’t reach him, with all his skills and training, how can I?”

  She was nodding slowly. “Luke is a Jedi. But you’re his father. There’s still light in him. I know it.”

  —

  The complex restraining apparatus held Rey upright against an angled platform in the cell. She woke sl
owly. Disoriented, at first she thought she was alone. Her oversight was understandable, since the other person in the holding area did not move, did not make a sound, and at times scarcely seemed to breathe.

  Though startled by his unsettlingly silent presence, she took a moment to take stock of her surroundings. They were as different as could be imagined from her previous ones. The last thing she remembered was the confrontation in the forest on Takodana, the sounds of battle, and sending away the droid BB-8. That, and then the mind probe. The pain. Her efforts to shut it out, and the contemptuous ease with which her mental defenses had been brushed aside. Even now, there was a lingering ache at the back of her eyes.

  The forest was gone. So was Maz’s castle. Bereft of a point of reference, she had no choice but to ask.

  “Where am I?”

  “Does the physical location really matter so much?” In Kylo Ren’s voice there was unexpected gentleness. Not quite sympathy, but something less than the hostility with which he had confronted her in the forest. “You’re my guest.”

  With an ease that was more frightening than any physical approach, he waved casually in her direction. A couple of clicks, and the restraints fell away from her arms. She tried to take the demonstration in stride as she rubbed her wrists. The last thing she wanted was for him to think he could intimidate her any more than he already had. Looking around the room, she confirmed that they were alone.

  “Where are the others? The ones who were fighting with me?”

  He sniffed disdainfully. “You mean the traitors, murderers, and thieves you call friends? Consider carefully now: I could easily tell you they were all killed, righteously slain in battle. But I would prefer to be honest with you from the beginning. You will be relieved to hear that as far as their current status and well-being is concerned—I have no idea.”

  She stared at him. Though at the moment he was calm, she could not escape the feeling that a wrong word, an unsatisfactory response, might set him off. Be very careful with this person, she told herself.

  He looked at her as if she had just spoken aloud. For all the chance she had of hiding her emotions from him, she realized, she might as well have voiced her thoughts.

  “You still want to kill me,” he murmured.

  Her true self got the better of her and she replied tactlessly, despite the danger. “That happens when you’re being hunted by a creature in a mask.”

  She had a moment to ponder his possible reaction and to fear it. But he did not do what she expected. Instead, he reached up, unlatched and removed his mask. She just stared at him in silence.

  In itself the narrow face that looked back at her was not remarkable. It was almost sensitive. If not for the intensity of his gaze, Ren could have passed for someone she might have met on the dusty streets of Niima Outpost. But there was—that gaze. That, and what lay simmering behind it.

  “Is it true?” he finally asked. “You’re just a scavenger?” She didn’t respond, and, perhaps sensing her embarrassment, he changed the subject. “Tell me about the droid.”

  She swallowed. “It’s a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator, internal self-correcting gyroscopic propulsion system, optics corrected to—”

  “I am familiar with general droid technical specifications. I don’t need to acquire one: What I want is located in its memory. It’s carrying a section of a transgalactic navigational chart. We have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire. We need the last piece. Somehow, you convinced the droid to show it to you. You. A simple, solitary scavenger. How is that?”

  She looked away. How did he know that? By the same means he had used to learn everything else?

  “I know you’ve seen the map,” he repeated. “It’s what I need. At the moment, it is all that I need.” When she maintained her silence, he almost sighed. “I can take whatever I want.”

  Her muscles tightened. “Then you don’t need me to tell you anything.”

  “True.” He rose, resigned. “I would have preferred to avoid this. Despite what you may believe, it gives me no pleasure. I will go as easily as possible—but I will take what I need.”

  She knew that trying to resist him physically would not only be useless but would likely result in unpleasantness of a kind she preferred not to imagine. So she remained motionless and silent, her arms at her sides, as his hand rose toward her face. He touched her again, as he had in the forest on Takodana.

  And hesitated. What was that? Something there. Something unexpected.

  As she strained to resist the probe, he pushed into her, brushing aside her awkward attempts to keep him out. While he investigated her mind, he spoke softly.

  “You’ve been so lonely,” he murmured as he searched for what he needed. “So afraid to leave.” A thin smile crossed his face. “At night, desperate to sleep, you’d imagine an ocean. I can see it…I can see the island.”

  Tears were streaming down her face from the effort she was making to withstand him. Increasingly desperate, she did try to strike out. But just as on Takodana, her body refused to respond.

  “And Han Solo,” Ren continued relentlessly. “He feels like the father you never had. A dead end, that vision. Let it go. I can tell you for a fact he would have disappointed you.”

  All the rage and terror bottled up inside her came out as she turned to meet his stare.

  “Get—out—of—my—head.”

  It only made him lean in closer, enhancing her feeling of complete helplessness. “Rey—you’ve seen the map. It’s in there. And I am going to take it. Don’t be afraid.”

  Where the strength to defy him came from she did not know, but if anything, her voice grew a little stronger. “I’m not giving you anything.”

  His response reflected his unconcern. “We’ll see.”

  Narrowing his gaze and his focus, he locked eyes with her. She met his stare without trying to look away. She should have looked away. It would have been the rational thing to do. The sane thing to do. Instead, she just glared, trying not to flinch, not to blink.

  Ah, he thought to himself. Something there, of interest. Not the image of the map. That would take another moment. But definitely something worth investigating. He shifted his perception toward it, seeking to identify, to analyze, to—

  The barrier he encountered stopped him cold. And it was he, Kylo Ren, who blinked. It made no sense. He pushed, hard, with his mind—and the probe went nowhere.

  A look of amazement replaced the fear on Rey’s face as she discovered herself inside his mind. Stunned at the realization, she found herself inexorably drawn to—to…

  “You,” she heard herself saying clearly, “you’re afraid. That you will never be as strong as—Darth Vader!”

  His hand pulled sharply away from her cheek as if her skin had suddenly turned white-hot. Confused, rattled, he stumbled back from her. Her gaze followed him. Her eyes were the same, but something else had changed—something behind them, in her stare and in her posture. He moved to leave and, at the last moment, gestured powerfully in her direction. The restraints that had held her wrists snapped back into place, once again securing her to the inclined platform. Then he once again donned his mask and was gone.

  In the corridor, a stunned Ren found that he was breathing hard. That in itself was unsettling. He did not know what had just transpired in the holding cell and, not knowing, was left uncertain how to proceed. He was spared further bewilderment when a trooper appeared, coming toward him. Straightening, Ren gathered himself.

  The trooper halted. His evident discomfort at having to speak to Ren bolstered his superior’s shaken persona.

  “Sir! The Supreme Leader has requested your presence.”

  Ren nodded and headed off in the necessary direction, accompanied by the trooper. The latter did not pay any attention when the tall figure he was escorting looked back over his shoulder. br />
  In the holding cell, Rey relaxed against the platform. That she could relax at all was significant in itself. Something of great consequence had just taken place. How and what, she did not know. Even in her present situation she felt encouraged, though why that should be she was still uncertain. One thing was clear.

  She was going to be given time to contemplate it.

  —

  In the main conference room of the base on D’Qar, an ongoing strategy session had brought together the leaders of the Resistance. Leia, Poe, C-3PO, Han, and an assortment of senior officers including Statura and Ackbar were assembled around a three-dimensional map of an isolated, frozen planet that up until now had not been worth a hopeful visit from a minor trading ship. Finn was present, too, since it was his information about the world in question that had prompted the gathering.

  “The scan data from Captain Snap Wexley’s reconnaissance flight confirms everything Finn has told us,” Poe announced to the group.

  Wexley spoke up. “They’ve built a new kind of hyperspace weapon within the planet itself. Something that can fire across interstellar distances in the equivalent of real time.” His expression showed his incredulity. “I’ve had my share of technical training, but I can’t even imagine how that’s possible.”

  This time Finn responded. “I can’t, either, but those of us assigned to the base heard rumors that it doesn’t operate in what we’d call normal hyperspace. It fires through a hole in the continuum that it makes itself. Everybody was calling it ‘sub’-hyperspace. That’s how it can arrive in moments across a distance like that between the base and the Hosnian system. The amount of energy required to do that is…” His voice dropped. “Well, we’ve seen how much energy is involved. All I know is that it involves a lot of zeros following the primary number.”