“Lieutenant, back to your station!”
Fully aware that in the present situation rank no longer meant anything, the tech paused only long enough to reply.
“Look, we won’t survive here. Even Hux has gone!”
He pushed past the dazed officer, who this time did not try to stop him.
In the darkness of the cavernous assembly room, Hux stood before the image of Snoke. Try as he would, it was proving increasingly difficult to maintain a semblance of control.
“Supreme Leader, the oscillator is failing. The collapse has begun.” He looked downward. “There is nothing that can be done.”
Furious as he was, Snoke knew there was nothing he could do. So many plans so carefully laid, so many intentions that must now go unfulfilled…
“You will leave Starkiller at once and come to me with Kylo Ren. Leave immediately.” He added grimly, “It appears that he may have been right about the girl.”
—
To an observer at a distance, it would have appeared as if a series of small explosions was going off in the depths of the forest. Blow after blow landed as lightsaber struck against lightsaber. Though Ren was bigger and stronger than Rey, their struggle had nothing to do with physical size. What she lacked in mass, she made up for in ferocity.
For a while she actually drove him backward, until he regained his self-assurance and in turn pressed her. The fight continued to shift back and forth; first he gained the advantage, then an enraged Rey took it back.
There was a vast rumbling, as of a continent sighing, and a gigantic chunk of forest behind Rey simply collapsed downward, leaving her fighting on the edge of a cliff so high that the newly formed surface below could not be seen through the rising cloud of dust.
Ren held his lightsaber, poised to strike. “I could kill you right now. But there is another way.”
Breathing hard, Rey looked up in disgust at the man looming above her. “You’re a monster.”
“No. You need a teacher.” He was beseeching and insistent all at once. “I can show you the ways of the Force!”
Slowly she shook her head. “The Force?” That was what this was about? Instead of moving to defend herself, Rey closed her eyes. Ren hesitated, confused by her actions. A long moment passed, in which Ren sensed a change in the air, a change in her. Then she opened her eyes and attacked, viciously, in a way she didn’t know she was capable of, striking again and again as Ren was slowly driven back. The flaring energy from the interacting lightsabers was more pronounced than ever in the flurry of her attack. And—Ren went down.
He was up again in an instant, but not in time to fully deflect a following blow from Rey’s weapon. He succeeded in blocking it, but he still took the full force of the strike against the haft of his own lightsaber. The weapon went flying into the snow. Unarmed, he raised a hand and utilized the Force to fend off one slashing blow after another, until finally her fury penetrated his remaining defenses. Taking a glancing blow to the head and chest, he went down, a prominent burn slashed across his face. Weakened, he reached out toward his lightsaber, trying to draw it to him.
One downward cut, she saw. One quick, final strike, and she could kill him. The landing lights of a shuttle appeared in the distance, coming over the trees in her direction. She had to make a decision, now.
Kill him, a voice inside her head said. It was amorphous, unidentifiable, raw. Pure vengeful emotion. So easy, she told herself. So quick.
She recoiled from it. From the dark side.
The world shook beneath her as the ground began to split. Turning away from the injured figure, she ran back to where Finn lay badly wounded. A deep gully formed, separating her from General Hux and the arriving troopers. Utilizing the tiny position sensor emplaced in Ren’s belt, Hux had tracked him to this spot. He would have taken Rey and Finn, as well, if not for the command that had been issued by the Supreme Leader. That took precedence over everything. There was simply no time left.
The two renegades were going to die here anyway, he told himself as he followed the troopers carrying Ren into the nearby shuttle. As soon as he was aboard, it lifted off, its occupants desperate to flee the dying planet.
Below them, Rey huddled beside the unconscious Finn. Turning him over, she recoiled from the wound Ren had inflicted with his lightsaber. The blow had cauterized instantly. In the dim light she couldn’t estimate its depth, nor if it had passed through any vital organs. Holding the unresponsive body in her arms, she started to cry. There were worse ways to die, she told herself as the ground continued to shake and trees began to topple around her.
No, she corrected herself bitterly. There was only one way to die. She steeled her thoughts.
The glow that enveloped her and Finn did not come from the planetary core. It was too bright, too localized. Raising a hand to shield her eyes from the approaching glare, she squinted into the brilliant light. It took a moment to resolve itself into the scanning beams of a ship. A ship she recognized.
Rising from the vicinity of the new canyon that had appeared behind Rey in the course of her battle with Kylo Ren, the Millennium Falcon came toward them. Considering the general conditions and the unstable surface, its pilot made a surprisingly smooth touchdown.
She would have thrown herself into Chewie’s arms had he not stooped immediately to pick up the limp body of Finn.
Given the chance, she would have remained in the medbay, where the Wookiee set his burden down. But despite its added modifications, the Falcon still flew better with someone in the copilot’s seat. In moments they were beyond the atmosphere of the imploding planet. The jump to lightspeed was accomplished without incident, preventing them from observing the final cataclysm. Which was just as well.
A moment after they fled, Starkiller Base system became a binary.
—
Poe, having called in his teams in relief after spotting the Falcon leaving Starkiller Base, was waiting for the ship as it touched down on D’Qar, settling into a vacant space between the remaining Resistance X-wings. Even before the boarding ramp hit the ground, Chewbacca was emerging, moving fast with the still-breathing Finn in his arms. Medical personnel and officers waiting to meet them escorted the pair inside the complex.
Following in the Wookiee’s wake, an exhausted Rey found herself greeted by a cheering crowd. Leia Organa was in the forefront, accompanied by a pair of droids. Rey recognized BB-8 immediately, and wondered at the identity of the gleaming golden protocol droid at his side. Instinctively, she headed toward Leia.
No general now, Leia took the young girl’s face in her hands. Though brokenhearted at the deaths of Han and so many brave pilots, Leia was grateful for the deliverance of the Resistance. In spite of the presence of the crowd that was looking on, the two women embraced without embarrassment or hesitation. Then, with tears falling, they moved inside.
Hours passed without word from the medical center. When Dr. Kalonia finally emerged from the intensive care section, Rey nearly fainted at seeing the smile on her face. The physician’s words confirmed Rey’s hope.
“Your friend’s going to be just fine.”
“Thank you.” It was all Rey could think of to say.
Kalonia looked down at her. “I don’t get to treat many lightsaber wounds. It’s such an old weapon. People today prefer to fight with rifles and blasters, from long range.” She shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. Death is death, no matter the mechanism that is employed to beget it.” Her smile returned. “But not for your friend. Not this time.”
—
Located somewhat apart from the swirl of main activity inside the Resistance base, the conference room was perfect for a strategic gathering. Leia was there, as well as Poe, C-3PO, BB-8, a handful of chosen officers, and an assortment of equipment and gear that was considered important but was little used.
Never one to defer in the presence o
f superiors, Poe spoke first.
“Kylo Ren said that the segment held by Beebee-Ate is the last piece of the map that shows the way to Skywalker’s location. So, where’s the rest of it?”
“The First Order has it.” Rey looked over at him. “They extracted it from the Imperial archives.”
Poe stared at her. “The Empire?”
Admiral Statura nodded in agreement. “It makes sense. The Empire would have been looking for the first Jedi temples. In destroying all the Jedi sanctuaries they would have acquired a great deal of peripheral information.”
So intent were they on the current conversation and its possible ramifications that no one noticed that a light had come on atop a small R2 unit shoved back among the rest of the equipment in the room. Nor did they see that its hemispherical head had turned to look in their direction.
“We’re still at war with First Order,” Leia pointed out. “A war that won’t end until either it or the Resistance is destroyed. The next time, without Luke, we won’t stand a chance.”
The silence that ensued was broken by a flurry of beeping and whistling the likes of which the somber gathering had not heard in some time. In the case of this particular beeping and whistling, not in years.
No one was more surprised than C-3PO when R2-D2 came rolling forward to join the assembly.
“Artoo! What—what is it? I haven’t seen you this functional since—” He was interrupted by a fresh farrago of beeping that all but drowned him out. “Slow down! You’re giving me data overload!” Whether the mechanical hand that rose to the side of the golden head to indicate a headache truly reflected what the protocol droid was feeling or was simply a gesture for the benefit of watching humans, only C-3PO knew.
An excited Leia moved closer. Of all the organics in the room, no one had a more personal relationship to the little droid than she did.
“What’s he saying?” she asked.
The protocol droid explained. “If the information you are seeking was in the Imperial archives, he believes he may have catalogued that data. He’s scanning through it now.”
Rey stared at the diminutive droid. “Artoo has the rest of the map?”
“He’s certainly implying the possibility!” C-3PO told her. “I’ve never heard him beep with this much energy before.”
Emitting a long, sustained whistle, R2-D2 projected a full three-dimensional image of a huge navigational star chart. No one in the room could fail to notice that it was missing a substantial fragment. In response to the hovering image, BB-8 began beeping excitedly.
“Yeah, buddy, hold on,” Poe told him. “I have it.”
Moving to the side of the spherical droid, the pilot removed from a sealed compartment in his clothing the tiny and very old data device he had originally received from Lor San Tekka. Inserting it into an appropriate receptacle in BB-8, Poe stepped back. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a lens on the droid’s curved side came to life, projecting a large section of starfield. Shrinking it down so that its proportions matched those of the missing piece within R2’s map, BB-8 adjusted his position slightly.
The two disparate portions merged perfectly to form a completed chart.
“Oh, my stars!” Threepio’s exclamation was no less astonished than those of his organic counterparts. “That’s it!”
What caused Leia to sway slightly had nothing to do with the Force and everything to do with heartfelt emotion.
“Luke…”
“The map.” Rey could only stare in wonder as her eyes wandered over a shining, resplendent portrayal of a substantial portion of the galaxy. “It’s the whole map!”
“Artoo!” C-3PO’s tone was that of a proud relative complimenting a member of his family. “Artoo, you’ve done it!”
Cheers and spontaneous embraces filled the room with so much joy that no one paid any attention to who was hugging what representative of whichever species. Rey and Poe were not excluded, though their sudden, tight clinch of shared excitement led to a moment of mutual awkwardness.
“Uh, hi,” the pilot mumbled. “I’m Poe.”
She nodded slowly, searching his face and finding that she liked it. “I recognize the name. So you’re Poe. Poe Dameron, the X-wing pilot. I’m Rey.”
“I know.” He smiled back, a little more at ease. “Nice to meet you.”
Amid all the shouting and spontaneous applause, few noticed a protocol droid as he bent over the now quiet astromech unit.
“My dear friend, how I’ve missed you.”
—
Within the intensive care pod in the medical center, Finn lay in a medically induced coma, his health and life still very much in the balance. Dr. Kalonia’s prognosis had been favorable, even positive, but nothing certain could be said until Finn had fully recovered. When wholly parsed, the phrase “be all right” could mean one thing to a physician and something else entirely to the patient.
Sitting beside him, a deeply concerned Rey noted the hour. It was time to go. Leaning in to him as closely as the pod would permit, she kissed him softly, her words full of determination.
“We’ll see each other again. I believe that. Thank you, my friend.”
—
Cleaned up and visibly refreshed from his long period of inactivity, R2-D2 led the way up the Millennium Falcon’s loading ramp. Nearby, Chewbacca was performing the usual last-minute checks of the ship’s external systems. Ordinarily it was a two-person job, but he insisted on doing it by himself.
Standing at the foot of the ramp, an uncertain and uneasy Leia found herself fiddling with the seals on the front of the jacket Rey was wearing. Foolish nonsense, she told herself even as she continued. Unworthy of her status and position. But it felt so right, and so natural, to be doing so.
“I’m proud of what you’re about to do,” she told the girl.
Rey replied in all seriousness. “But you’re also afraid. In sending me away, you’re—reminded.”
Leia straightened. “You won’t share the fate of our son.”
“I know what we’re doing is right. This is how it has to be. This is how it should be.”
Leia smiled gently, reassuringly. “I know it, too. May the Force be with you.”
She watched until Rey was inside the ship and the ramp had closed behind her. Then she joined Poe, BB-8, and C-3PO in moving to a safe distance.
In the cockpit, Rey headed for the copilot’s seat, only to find her way blocked by a massive, hirsute form.
“Chewie, the Falcon flies better with two people at the controls, you know that. I’ve already sat in that seat. I’m ready to do so again.”
A series of moans came from the Wookiee. Then he turned—and sat down. In the copilot’s seat.
Rey felt herself tearing up. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Chewie groaned and, to make certain she grasped his meaning, gestured to his left. Toward the pilot’s position.
Sitting down, she settled herself in. She could do this. If Chewbacca felt she could do it, then who was she to dispute him? As she hesitated, the Wookiee reached over and mussed her hair. Grinning, she made a show of trying to slap his hand away. He had no idea how much this innocent, familial gesture meant to her. Behind them, R2-D2 beeped happily.
Facing forward again, she completed a last scan of the console, assuring herself she knew where everything was. From experience, she knew that the Falcon was a forgiving ship. She intended to do right by it. Reaching out, she let her fingers play over the controls. Beside her, Chewie did likewise as he groaned his approval.
The Millennium Falcon rose.
—
The planet was mostly ocean, dotted with a sprinkling of towering islands formed of black rock: the throats of volcanoes whose slopes had long since eroded away. Greenery caped the stony flanks, falling in emerald waves toward the azure sea. Above the calm waters
, flying creatures soared on wide wings of translucent white.
A great uproar broke out among the wheeling flocks as something larger and louder than any of them descended toward the surface. The Falcon banked toward one of the bigger islands, slowing as it did so.
A wide, flat area at the base of the island’s central mountain provided just enough room for the ship to touch down while avoiding the water. It sat there for a while. Slowly, an assortment of small, furtive land animals began to peer out of the forest that cloaked the mountain, drawn by curiosity to this strange arrival.
The ramp descended and the ship’s crew emerged. Wookiee and droid looked on as Rey, her old staff strapped to her back, began working her way up the steep, jungle-clad incline before her. Occasionally she would pause to catch her breath and to look back. Each time, Chewbacca would wave. Had he been equipped to do so, R2-D2 would have done likewise.
So old were the stone steps she ascended that grooves had been worn in the front edges by the tramp of thousands of footsteps. The climb was steep, the air humid, and she felt herself tiring. But the thought of stopping never once entered her mind.
Eventually, finally, she found herself in a small clearing occupied by several modest stone structures. The prospect was unbearably primitive. Within the structures there was no movement save for the hurried retreat of small, covert creatures.
She halted abruptly. There was—something. She turned sharply.
Some distance from her, at the periphery of the forest, stood a figure shrouded in a simple cloak and robe. It did not matter that it was facing away from her. She knew instantly who it was. Yet all she could do was stare in silence.
Whether motivated by her stare or by something unknown, the figure finally turned toward her and pulled back his hood.
Luke Skywalker.