Mother ~ The Sequel to Breeder

18

"Come on, Poe!" I heard Greyson groan as I entered a secluded lunchroom where a nearby soldier told me my husband was taking his meal. "You have to let me go!"

"No, chance," the commander said. "If we're gonna do this, it has to be a stealth mission."

"But that's my kid, my son!"

"I understand, but-"

"Sweetie," I said, turning the corner, bouncing Ben on my hip. "Is everything okay?"

"As a matter of fact, it is not, considering the First Order captured my son, and now Poe won't let me go and save him."

"I'm sorry, I know, I know, but we'll get Farrow back." I wrapped my arms around his waist, sandwiching Ben between us, squeezing him tight, hoping to press the anxiety and rage out of us both. Glancing over at the commander, I gave him a single nod, thanking him for protecting Greyson from getting himself killed on this mission.

Poe nodded back, touching my arm. "Can we discuss a few things briefly?"

"Of course." I placed Ben in my husband's arms, hoping that looking after the four-year-old would keep his spirits up, if only slightly. Following Commander Dameron out of earshot of my family, I asked him, "What is it?"

"Do you remember anything about your time on Starkiller Base?"

I folder my arms, shivering slightly. "Yes, some things."

"Including a rough layout of the facility?"

"Um, I didn't exactly have free reign of the place... but I do recall a thing or two."

Poe's dark eyes lit up, sweat collecting on his lower lip. "Come with me; we need to tell the rest of the crew."

Somehow, despite my better judgment, I found myself speaking to a room of people I didn't know, all wearing either brown or red uniforms, badges signifying their rank. They looked at me with a reverence I didn't deserve, as though I were about to pass on valuable information to them and not merely the few bits of memory that might be relevant to their mission. But I had to try; Farrow's life depended on it. 

"So, this ship, it's more like a planet- in fact, we referred to it as 'the planet' quite a bit- and it gains its power from draining nearby stars. That's why they call it 'Starkiller', I suppose."

"And what do they do with that power?" a white-haired man asked. His voice was calm, but his blue eyes were wide with terror. He was old enough to remember the horrors of wars past, and that trauma never faded from his deeply-lined features.

"They- they used it to destroy Evigilo."

I'd explained this all to Commander D'acy at the previous base, and I'm sure that she'd informed General Organa, but it was clear that most of the Resistance didn't know about my revelations, everyone too busy fleeing their previous headquarters and staving off the First Order's onslaught. Besides, all these people had spent years consuming skillfully disseminated propaganda, believing it was Evigilo's nuclear core that caused the planet's destruction. Finding out the demise of the Vigilax was actually an extermination made many of the officers go green in the face, the truth too disturbing to accept.

The soldier gasped. "It's another Death Star."

I nodded, recalling Anika saying the same thing when Lynx delivered that chilling speech to the galactic press, but Poe cut in, contradicting the other man. "I wish that were the case, sir, but, according to both our reconnaissance and Astrid's information, Starkiller Base is no less than fifty times larger in diameter than the Death Star."