Face stood at the entrance of the medbay, looking in on Luna as Tarrik tended to her. She hated how he looked at her with concern and sympathy. She deserved neither.
'Hey,' he said quietly. 'How you doing?'
'I'm fine.' said Luna stiffly.
Face smiled in understanding and stepped in, took the three steps to reach her and sat on the stool beside the sickbed. He turned to Tarrik and asked, 'can you give us a minute?'
Tarrik bowed his head. 'Let me know if she takes a turn,' he said as he left.
Face leaned in, his brows furrowed in concern. 'How are you doing?'
Luna almost broke. Tears threatened to spill and her breath came out shakily. 'It's just a sore head,' she said. 'Nothing broke.' Not her head, at least.
Face nodded. 'I'm glad to hear that,' he said. 'We have her hyperspace vector. There's only so many places she can stop at in the vicinity, and we're coming up to the first one soon. We'll get her, I promise.'
Luna nodded, the movement causing her vision to swim and her head felt woozy and light. She rested her head sideways on the bed, turned away from Face. 'How could I have been so stupid?'
'Hey, don't say that,' Face said immediately. 'You couldn't have known. And besides, it's hard to imagine someone you've fought side to side with could betray you,' Face paused. 'I know what it's like to have a teammate betray you. That pain can hit so hard - hey, it's okay. It's okay,' he said as Luna started to cry. He laid a hand on her shoulder sympathetically.
'Face, I'm sorry,' she said between sobs. He started to say something, but she cut him off. 'She wasn't just a teammate. she wasn't just another pilot.'
'What are you saying?' Face said, and even looking away, she knew he was frowning. She could almost hear it. She turned towards him, wincing as her sore head brushed against the bed padding. Even looking in his direction hurt her; she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye. 'She and I,' she stopped.
'Oh.'
'Yeah.'
Face pulled away his hand and stood up, turned away from her. She hated how much those small acts hurt.
'I can't pretend I'm not disappointed,' he said slowly, not looking at her. 'You were her superior officer. I know this kind of thing happens, but becoming...intimate with a subordinate?' he turned to look at her. She looked up into his face, then quickly looked away. He was angry. 'It doesn't matter that she was a traitor. I should strip you of your command right now. You abused your power over subordinate - I expected better from you,' and he marched out without another word, leaving her in her sorrow.
Tarrik came in and began to prod gingerly at her bandages. 'It doesn't matter if she was a traitor,' he said softly. 'The pain is still real.' Luna couldn't form the words she wanted to say around the lump in her throat, so she only nodded, hoping Tarrik understood.
Some time later, she felt the cruiser drop out of hyperspace, and she risked Tarrik's disapproving looks and Face's wrath to go out, wrapped in a blanket more for comfort than anything else, and headed up to the cockpit. She doubted that Cora would still be here, or even had come here at all, but she had to know.
Face didn't even turn to look at her as she entered. 'Lieutenant,' he said coldly.
Luna felt the pit in her stomach deepend at the greeting. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. There was so much she wanted to say, but she didn't feel up to the task of arranging her thoughts, let alone forming the words. She opted to take the empty back seat and looked out into space as Face began a sensor sweep. There was nothing. Luna didn't even know how she felt about that, her mind was jammed with too many thoughts already.
A hyperspace jump, another star system. Nothing. Occasionally, one by one, the other Nexus would come up to the cockpit, maybe just to check on their progress, though after a knowing look and gentle shoulder squeaze from Rana, Luna began to suspect that word had got out. Her discomfort at others knowing her private life wrestled with her need to be comforted. As Vix came in and wrapped her in a full body bear hug, she knew which one she was leaning towards.
It was the fourth system they checked that they saw it.
A red beam pierced through space. She didn't understand what she was seeing at first. It was as if someone had taken a red pencil and drawn on the transparisteel window. She moved her head, just to see if it was, but no. It was a beam of red light, so incomprehensively large and powerful, racing through space.
'What the-' Face uttered in shock. 'Oh no. No. It can't be.'
Together, they watched the beam stretch through space and then spread into smaller beams, like fingers stretching from a hand, and then those fingers plucked stopped and plucked something out of space. Luna didn't know what had stopped those beams of light, but she knew she had just witnessed something horrible.
Face tapped furiously at the nav computer console and within moments the Nest had swung round to face where those fingers had touched, and then the stars and the red light disappeared, replaced by the light of the hyperspace corridor.
Face punched the stand-to alarm. 'Nexus,' he called into the ship's intercomm, 'gear up and saddle up. We're going in hot.' He switched off the comm, then turned to Luna. 'Not you,' he said, his voice grim, his face haunted. 'You stay here.'
Luna itched to be in her starfighter, but knew she was definitely going to be a liability - is what her tactical brain said. Sometimes she hated her tactical brain. She nodded. 'Face,' she said, then paused.
Face looked up expectantly from the controls.
'What was it?' she asked.
Face studied her. 'I'm not sure,' he said carefully. 'But I hope I'm wrong.'
They found out when they dropped out of hyperspace.
'Oh, fierfeck,' said Face.
'Oh no,' said Luna, looking out in horror. She looked down at the computer display, making sure they had the right system. But where there should be Hosnian Prime, where there should be other planets, the entire New Republic fleet, there was nothing but debris, dust, and echoes.
