A Pilot: A Poe Dameron Story

A Leap

A series of short metallic zaps intercut the screams, and both Poe and Queen Arraii started forward. Bebe-Ate screeched and Poe yanked his own blaster pistol from his flight suit, starting towards the door to secure it –

"Commander Dameron," the queen rasped at the top of her voice, still sounding barely above a whisper, "you need to leave now."

"Your Highness," Poe returned, pushing the wooden door to her chamber closed and jamming his shoulder against it as he checked his pistol, "all due respect here, but don't be ridiculous. There's someone out there --"

"It's Ramsey," Arraii spat. "And you need to leave, for the sake of the Resistance." Her argument drew Poe's eyes back to her, and he felt his chest pang with her as she gripped the post of her bed with both hands and swayed towards him. Wheezing, she impressed upon him, "You cannot be discovered, and neither can I."

Poe looked at the door, then at Arraii. He tried to think like Leia, figure out what she would do in a situation like this. He thought she would probably agree with Arraii on protecting the Resistance. But she wasn't hearing the appeal come from the frail – but mighty – queen herself. Poe gave Arraii a long look, and read her warning frown. Then he bent down to address Bebe-Ate. "Buddy, you're going to have to take the long way around. Is that good with you?"

Bebe-Ate warbled back. Not really, but I recognize the logic of this situation. Then the droid whistled. See you in prison camp.

"You should listen to your droid," the queen told Poe. "Ramsey might not kill you, but he'll use you against Leia."

"And that's exactly why we're leaving." Poe cracked the door open, waved Bebe-Ate through, then stepped back to Queen Arraii. He found himself looking down at her fierce glare. "You're not going to help me help you leave, are you?"

Arraii didn't waver, even as her arms shook around her canopy pole. "Commander Dameron, you would do best to leave before Ramsey gets here."

"I'm not leaving," Poe told her, the words coming out softer than he meant them to. Then he realized couldn't take those words back, so he just let them settle in the air.

Another scream in the hallway – plus a series of beeps and screeches from Bebe-Ate – interrupted the tense silence between the two of them. Arraii swallowed hard, slowly allowing herself to slip down the canopy to sit on her bed. "My Handmaids. They're trained bodyguards. If Ramsey brought his guard as well..."

"Your Highness," Poe interrupted, scanning the room and spying his X-wing in the distance through the easternmost window, "we need to get going. They would want you to save yourself."

"And I would like," Arraii hissed back, enraged tears now trickling from her eyes, "to save them."

A dead silence followed her words. Poe cocked his blaster pistol and kept his back to the wall as he crept towards the door. He could hear a series of heavy footsteps clanking up the staircase, and guessed about six Storm Troopers plus one officer. Ramsey. Poe took a second look at his pistol, doubting it had the charge to take out that many targets before either he or the queen was grievously injured. His eyes flew to the easternmost window, and his starship in the distance. The Handmaids – the eerie group of female humanoids who apparently acted as Arraii's protectors – had cleverly led him to a landing pad which had been hidden from the main approach to the lake palace from Theed, so that there was still a chance Ramsey hadn't seen it yet. That meant that Poe and Arraii could still get away.

He just needed to buy them a minute. And it might have to come rather dangerously.

As the steps outside the door drew closer, Poe stepped away from the door and padded to Arraii. Leaning close to barely whisper, he asked, "Can you bring Ramsey in alone? I have a plan."

Poe was struck by the long, wary look Arraii gave him. It managed to communicate the depth of her dread at being in a room with Ramsey, and Poe's stomach churned. But she nodded. Poe moved back to his position by the door and nodded back as a signal.

"Inquisitor Ramsey," the queen said, pitching her voice towards the door with extra effort to make it audible. Poe noted in relief that she tucked the satchel of seeds into a hidden pocket of her blue shift gown – he himself had almost forgotten them. "Ramsey," Arraii said again, and Poe watched her eyes start to burn, "I know you are out there. You can slay my Handmaidens, but you will never be consort without my assistance. Come here at once, and leave your men outside." By the end of her statement, Poe heard Arraii's voice ring above her patchy breath, and he couldn't help but smile at her.

But then the door swung open and shut, and a tall triangular humanoid interrupted the feeling like a harpoon through flesh. Ramsey was huge, physically and in presence, as well. Poe had the unique sensation of being small as he took in the broad, muscular humanoid, who struck him as on the more mature end of his being's lifeline. And as all of the force of his presence rushed against Poe and shocked him, he saw it come up against Arraii, a being barely able to breathe, and her not flinch a hair. He stood behind Ramsey, almost literally in his shadow, and took aim at the being for maximum effect as the First Order officer began to speak to the queen.

"I knew you had to be close," Ramsey said sharply, as if reciting a mission report. "Wounded animals cannot crawl so very far, after all."

"You'll not find me crawling anywhere, Ramsey," Arraii rasped. "I will have justice for this."

"Your chances seem..." Ramsey advanced on the queen, and Poe stepped along behind him, dogging his movements to keep him within range, "...small." Poe's eyes danced to Arraii, and he thought she had blanched a bit at Ramsey's proximity. The closer the First Order officer came to the queen, the more a buzzing sensation intensified in Poe's chest, and the more it felt like his brain turned off in favor of instinct. He told himself to aim for Ramsey's skull, just do it quickly and then bring back the Resistance for the rest of the mess as he escaped with Arraii...

But then Ramsey reached out for Arraii and she gasped – and that was it.

Poe dashed around Ramsey and threw himself in front of Arraii, opening up with his blaster pistol and hitting the First Order officer in a sloppy scatter of shots across the face and chest. He could sense that none of them were lethal – but that didn't matter. To Arraii, Poe muttered, "Hold on," and swept her into his arms. As Ramsey roared on the floor, struggling to pull out his own weapon, and the door broke down with the force of the Storm Troopers outside, Poe fired his blaster twice at the eastern bedroom window and took a running jump with Arraii in his arms.

The last thing Poe felt before the two of them hit the lake waters below was the queen's feverish skin against his own, and how he had never felt more dangerous in his life.