Program 2187

VI

Poe was running when he finally broke through the trees. His jacket was tied around his waist, and he was breathing heavily. He had heard the explosions from where he had disappeared to, and was immediately concerned. He broke into a sprint towards the base, hoping to get there and do something, anything. He debated whether finding the General, or Finn, or getting in his X-Wing, would have been the best option. However, as he swatted away the final branch and stumbled onto the dock, it was apparent it didn't matter.

Most of the X-Wings that usually sat on the cement dock were gone, and those that had remained were destroyed. Only metal skeletons and scattered debris remained of most of the ships. Poe felt his stomach drop as it occurred to him that one of the decimated ships was his. Beyond the ship graveyard was the smoldering base. Parts of it were still standing, and it didn't appear that the damage had reached the lower level. Poe stood in shock as the other pilots attempted to land their ships in the chaos around him.

Suddenly, something snapped him back into reality.

"Finn!" He yelled, before even think about what he was saying. Within seconds he was inside the ruins of the base. The occasional blank, dead face of a pilot would surface, they were mostly people Poe had known, people he had trained. He felt sick, only having enough energy to hope none of the faces would be Finn or Rey's.

"Poe!" Poe immediately recognized the voice as Rey's and relaxed considerably. The call had come from under some debris, and Poe sprinted for it.

His nails were bloody and hurt by the time he had cleared the stairs enough so that Rey could squeeze her way out. They hugged, staying in each other's arms for a short eternity, just glad to be alive and together.

"Rey," Poe's voice sounded dry and panicked, incredibly unlike his own. "Rey, where is Finn?"

Rey pulled away giving Poe a reassuring smile. "He's fine, he was downstairs with the General and me." Her smile faltered as she looked behind Poe, at the carnage, and beyond that the pilots, standing in shock next to their ships, looking out at the destroyed base, and their dead friends. "They found this place because of us, didn't they?"

Poe felt his eyes begin to sting, and didn't give an answer. He knew that she didn't really need one, they both knew there was no other way. And, at least not without lying, he could think of no way to make her feel better. She hugged him again, and they both cried.

"I'm sorry." She sobbed, not daring to look up at Poe. "So many of these people must have been your friends."

Poe still didn't say anything. He couldn't bring himself to. Instead he just gave her a half-hearted pat on the back and tried not to focus on anything.

They stood in silence until the General emerged from the stairway Poe and Rey had cleared. She was followed by several other people, including a few pilots who hadn't gone out to fight, and cleared her throat as she passed Poe and Rey.

"There will be a lot to talk about." She said, matter of factly, not looking at the ground. Poe immediately knew why, she couldn't bare to see her men and women laying on the ground, dead and defeated.

Poe, Rey, and General Organa stepped over debris until they arrived at the dock, where the dust from the rubble was easier to see through. There, a congregation of unhappy resistance fighters stood, waiting for word from their General. Poe and Rey stood behind her, catching several angry looks from the pilots.

"We'll need to move." General Organa paused after that. Poe was suddenly aware that she had no idea what to say.

"It's their fault." Someone, it didn't really matter who, said first. Then, the crowd broke out in heated accusations. Poe felt Rey shrink back, as if she might have been willing the unsettled dust to hide her. He wondered if she could make it do that with the force.

General Organa silenced the crowd soon enough. Not with any words, or even any sound, just her presence seemed to scare the crowd into quietness. "It doesn't matter whose fault it is." She said calmly. "What matters is what we do next. Setti," she kept going without falter in her speech, turning to a the Resistance's head medic. The small woman in front of them looked like she had been crying. "Can you see if there is a tracer anywhere on Finn?"

"Why should I?" She spat back. Making Poe jump slightly. He couldn't think of any time before when someone had talked back to the General. "When do we stop wasting resources on this Finn guy? If not when he gets half our people killed, then when, General?"

General Organa looked as if her face was carved out of stone. She gave Setti a disgusted look. "When you think you would give up on trying to save your wife and children." She replied coldly. "Now, can you scan for a tracker? "

"Yes'm." Setti looked ashamed. She immediately began towards the base. But, Poe could feel it, her words had struck a nerve with most of the people there. They hadn't known Finn. They couldn't know what they were fighting for.

"Now, I want the rest of you to get ready to move as much as you can onto the Millennium Falcon for transport. We will be going to the old Rebel base on Yavin 4's moon."

There was quite a bit of grumbling as the crowd broke apart. A few people questioned the fact that the Empire had known the location of that base. A few people reasoned that that was why the First Order wouldn't search there. A few people echoed Setti's words. A few were deathly silent.

Poe stayed quiet as he turned back to the base. He slept on the floor of the medical room as everyone waited for Finn to get his tracker removed. He slept on the Millennium Falcon as everyone else loaded it with essentials, such as Skywalker's old R2 droid. He found that sleeping was the easiest way to ignore the glares he was given, and the rude comments he heard when his back was turned.

He had long since lost track of Rey, and he assumed someone was making sure Finn was locked up. He just didn't have the energy to think about any part of it. He felt like he was drowning.