A Pilot: A Poe Dameron Story

Get to Work

Poe burst into General Leia Organa's office in a temper, a still-bloody Bebe-Ate rolling in quickstep with him, but Leia cut him off before he even began. "Thank you for taking care of my cousin."

Suddenly, all of Poe's anger disappeared. He just couldn't be mad at the General. "She's in really bad shape, ma'am. She has requested Resistance backup to help retake her capitol city, and there's this slimeball of a First Order officer named Ramsey –"

"I monitored your communications, Poe," the General told him plainly, "I know everything that happened." She gestured to a chair opposite hers next to the window overlooking a vine-draped forest. As Poe settled himself, making a mental list of questions to follow up on that information, the General explained, "We can help Arraii, and we will. It will just take some time. You know as well as I do that we hardly have the numbers, equipment, or ships to complete a mission like that."

Poe sat forward in his chair, spreading his arms in exasperated creativity. "We could send smaller teams, take out the smaller bases. Raise troops among the civilians. We're prepared for this!" He ended his petitions in a slightly louder tone than he meant to, and a raised eyebrow from the General told him as much.

"I know we are. But we have other situations we are also dealing with at the moment. We will give aid to them all," the General emphasized, as Poe slumped back in his chair with a groan at the diplomacy behind her words, "but we need to be smart about how we allocate our resources."

"But she's your cousin!" Poe nearly yelled. "Do you know how-how sick she is? She will die if we don't get more of those seed pods to her, and soon!"

"Then why don't you take care of that," the General suggested smoothly. "And start organizing the ground troops, as you said. Once we have the air and ground support here, you will have laid the foundation for a successful coup of the First Order."

"Fine!" Poe shouted, rising from his chair and marching across the room to the door. "Tell me where to get the seed pods, and I will!" Halfway there, he realized what a big task he was taking on – and how much it was a step up from his regular duties – and he looked back at the General in amazement. In spite of himself, he asked in disbelief, "General? Really?"

Leia Organa gave Poe the same slight, mysterious smile that he had seen from Queen Arraii. "Get to work, Commander."

Poe beamed and saluted her, turning on his heel and bounding out the door. He told himself that he would do anything to succeed. This mission was his now, really his – and meant more than anything else he had ever done, for an array of reasons.