Hunted

XXXVIII. The Confrontation

Statura's fist were clenched, "Does he know exactly where our base is?"

"No, but this move has forced our hand. We must be ready to act and retrieve him when he arrives. It will not be very long. An hour or two at most."

The silence stretched in the chilly room, and Serela hugged her arms over her stomach, wishing she could sink into the floor. Once again, she had caused this. On Takodana she had made poor choices which had led to all of this, but now she was responsible for leading Kylo dangerously close to their base.

Luke sensed her contrition and tried to allay her fears, "It was only a matter of time before they found us," he offered, "This doesn't change anything except it speeds up our plans by a day or two."

She nodded that she understood but the fear in Leia's and Statura's eyes did nothing to help quell her guilt. She had caused this -- she hadn't kept control, hadn't exercised sound judgement and now once again she was leading people into harms way.

Within an hour the room was full-- Finn, Rey, Snap, and all the others who would usually be present for their end-of-the-day meetings had gathered hastily-- the Mon Calamari they called Admiral Ackbar was still in his striped pyjamas.

Serela stayed close to the wall, ignoring Rey's attempts to get her attention, even when she resorted to Force-speak, but all met with the same reluctance to answer. Soon she would know. Soon they would all know what she had done and what a dangerous position she had placed them in.

The urge to flee was so strong. To escape this room and this base and get out as fast as she could, but her swollen stomach and feeble legs reminded her that she could barely waddle from this room right now, much less run.

When Leia started speaking, Serela closed her ears, trying to drown out the inevitable gasps and murmurs that would come with the announcement. Dr. Kalonia was there, and Serela weakly tried to listen to what she was saying

"The timing here is far from disastrous. In fact we've been hard at work for days and now believe we have perfected as much as we can without having tested it on a human subject."

"But you've tested it on animal subjects?" Finn asked skeptically.

"Well--no. I haven't met too many animals being injected and brainwashed by the First Order, have you?" Kalonia asked testily.

Finn threw up his hands in a gesture that indicated he was merely asking, and Leia spoke, "What are the things that could possibly happen if the serum you've developed is unsuccessful?"

"It's a mixed bag really. The treatment could work perfectly, turn Kylo Ren back to the Light and make him into a model citizen. It could also kill him with its potency after so much Dark power swimming through his system for so long," Leia could be seen noticeably swallowing a large lump in her throat at the suggestion, "Or he could wake up, be completely unaffected and lead the First Order directly to our base here, killing us all."

The room let that last option sink in as people shifted uncomfortably where they stood, fully contemplating the possibilities that had just been lain out before them.

"So what happens now?" Poe asked Kalonia, but his eyes were trained on Serela.

"Now we continue with the plan," Admiral Statura spoke, his tone sounding like a warning for Poe, "Serela will meet Kylo Ren in the place they agreed upon in her vision, flanked at a distance by our reconnaissance team. She will distract him by any means necessary and we will attempt to sedate him, then bring him back here."

Poe's eyes glinted hard under the fluorescent lighting and it occurred to Serela that she had never questioned why he was in the room with three high-ranking officials less than 12 hours after publicly butting heads with a senior official.