Technical Error

Chapter Twenty-Two

Knights: They're On Their Way

Half of the technicians and mechanics charged with ensuring the TIE Silencer functioned at full capacity had no orders to board the Limo. They did not question Mage Yor nor the select few who were to leave the Supremacy , which had you wondering if the entire team was privy to Kylo Ren's plans. Or, another possibility, they had been told half-truths. It did not realistically make sense to you for the entire team to leave unless the Silencer was placed on the Finalizer or elsewhere. They could join you later. But the one truth, the thing you hated to think, was that Kylo Ren was willing to risk their lives. He had ensured that the people he wanted kept safe from any possible destruction of the Supremacy should Skywalker board would be away.

It took much of your concentration to stamp down any micro-expressions that may have otherwise escaped. You could not cause any questions to form. This had to seem like a more routine order.

The ramp to the Command Shuttle was lowered, which allowed for you to head up it without having to wait. Squeakers remained alongside Andel, the droid chirping rather cheerfully at your fellow technician. She had already agreed to assist you in the future modifications you had planned for Squeakers. There was not time for it yet, although you hoped that when you arrived on the Finalizer , that would change. In the meantime, Andel had offered to observe the droid so as to create her own assessment as to what Squeakers might need when the time came for those upgrades and modifications. You watched the pair settle on the Limo. Mage Yor took his seat across from them.

You would have taken the position beside Andel had Officer Vonil not walked up to you. Your eyes widened; you had forgotten that she was assigned to the Command Shuttle as one of the main crew rather than an alternate. There had been so much more to keep you busy, to keep your mind distracted from more mundane things such as who was assigned to where. She gave a quick nod of greeting, pressed a small package into your hands, and gently shoved you down onto one of the closer seats. Officer Vonil sat beside you, her hand ready to reach for her blaster at a moment's notice. A chill ran down your spine. That you needed personal protection, or that Kylo Ren felt it was necessary at all, had you ill at ease. Snoke was not opposed to exploiting his apprentice's weaknesses. Should Kylo anger the Supreme Leader by further protesting this current attack on the Resistance, who knew what would happen as a result? No one would question your death should it be ordered.

The package in your hands was not overly large. It would fit easily within your toolbag without displacing any of your belongings. You opened it slowly, all the while feeling a strange sort of buzzing sensation at the base of your neck. Receiving something like this did not fit with what was going on. And yet it did. War was a strange thing that did not depend solely on carnage and constant fighting though others believed it to. You had once thought that was what war would be like, and it had terrified you.

Inside the package was a small bottle of...hand sanitizer along with a slip of paper that read for the future . Your eyebrows knit towards one another as you attempted to decipher what that meant. That things would get messy? That you were going to be dirty? Was this a joke about sex? Or did it have to do with the Snoke situation?

You puckered your lips forward, wrinkled your nose, and pulled the bottle out of the box. Officer Vonil eyed it without altering how she sat. She did not appear surprised by the nature of the item. Given that the message wasn't handwritten, you wondered if it was something that Kylo Ren had ordered her to arrange. She had been present when Supreme Leader Snoke had used the Force to violate you. To assault you, you admitted to yourself. Officer Vonil was also aware, on some level, of your volatile past with Kylo Ren. You could read the hints of worry in her expression.