Allegiance | Kylo Ren

LXXXV

Ben left after lunch that day to examine the Resistance's tracking technology. He still hadn't divulged exactly how he planned on using it to find Snoke, but I knew I probably wouldn't be able to understand most of it anyway, so I didn't press the matter.

Instead of hovering over his shoulder while he tried to focus, I decided to hunt down Poe. I found him exactly where I predicted—by his jet. He had just finished polishing the front window when he heard me approach.

"Hey, Callie." He flashed me a grin over his shoulder, climbing down from the nose of the jet.

"Hi." I eyed the newly shined glass. "I think you missed a spot."

Poe gave an exasperated sigh, leaning close to me so he could follow my gaze to find the smudge in the top left corner. Muttering under his breath, he climbed back onto the jet, pulling the rag back out of his pocket.

"Sorry about earlier." I glanced across the tarmac, my eyes scanning the familiar scene. "With Ben. He was rude to you."

The pilot made a noncommittal sound as he rubbed the glass, the rag making a quiet squeaking noise as it traveled over the window. When he was satisfied with his work, he jumped back down to join me at ground level.

"It's not a big deal." He slung the rag over his shoulder. "He probably feels a little defensive still, which is understandable. Plus," Poe gave me a sideways glance. "You're his girl now. All other men are threats."

I chuckled softly, nudging his shoulder. "Even friendly pilots?"

"Especially friendly pilots." He grinned. He slung his arm around me and gave me a quick sideways squeeze. "It's good to have you back. Even more so that you aren't leaving us for the enemy this time."

I made a face and looked down at my shoes. "Yeah, I guess that changes things."

We were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. I turned in time to see Rey appear at my side, breathing heavily from her hurry.

"Your presence has been requested by General Organa."

I glanced at Poe. "Me?"

"Both of you."

Poe's eyebrows rose but he didn't question the order as we followed Rey back into the main building and to the conference room we had been in yesterday. Leia and Luke were already there, and Finn joined us as we entered. I glanced around, but there was no sign of Ben.

"General." Poe gave Leia a polite nod, and I copied him, wordlessly taking a seat at the conference table.

Leia remained standing, her expression focused. "Ben has examined our tracking devices and has found them to be acceptable."

I looked around, but he still wasn't present.

Leia seemed to sense my confusion. "At the moment, he is making a few adjustments with the assistance of our technicians to make the equipment suitable for his task. However, there seems to be an issue with reaching the First Order servers. There appear to be extra firewalls set in place intended solely to keep us from making any kind of contact."

"We can't hack past them?" Poe raised an eyebrow.

"We have tried already, and made no progress."

"So what are we going to do? We can't find Snoke without access to their servers." Rey's face was creased with concern.

"That is what I have called you here to talk about." Leia seemed to be hesitant to speak. "It has become apparent that we need someone on the inside. We need to send an undercover agent into the First Order base to manually give our computers access."

"I'll go." Poe volunteered immediately.

"No, I should go." Finn countered. "I was a trooper. I know how they act, what they do. Plus, I'd know my way around—it would be faster for me to find the control panel."

"You knew your way around the Starkiller base, not the new base." I pointed out. He deflated visibly as he realized I was right.

All eyes in the room were on me. I let out a soft sigh. "I'll do it. I'm the obvious choice here."

"No." I turned to see Ben standing in the doorway. "It's too dangerous. You could be recognized."

"Not if I keep my armor on." I argued, turning slightly so that I faced him. "Well, not my armor, but some armor. I'd be in and out, no problem—nobody would even question it."

"I agree, I think she is the right choice." Luke spoke now, his blue gaze intense.

Ben flashed him a glare. "I'll go. I know the base. I'm just as qualified as Cal, if not more so."

"You're more likely to be recognized." Rey mused. "I think Cal is the best option."

I flashed her a surprised glance, and she returned my gaze evenly. Ben glowered.

"It's too dangerous." He muttered again.

"I can do it." I gave him a reassuring nod.

Leia looked between us before speaking. "It's decided, then. We will send Calia back to the base first thing tomorrow morning. You are all dismissed, except for Poe and Calia—you need to stay for mission briefing."

The others shuffled out and Ben stubbornly took the chair on my other side, refusing to leave. Leia gave him a knowing look.

"Poe, you will be in charge of getting Calia to the base. We don't have Ben on the inside this time to disable the radars, so you will take a jet with a delivery pod. You'll need to land her somewhere within the borders of the base, but nowhere that she'll be seen."

Poe gave a quick nod. "I can do that."

"There's a place on the roof with a door." I remembered suddenly. "No one is ever up there—it could be a safe landing site."

Leia looked to Poe. "Can you get her there?"

Poe flashed me a grin, and Ben tensed beside me. "Definitely."

"Good." Leia continued. "Calia, once you're inside, you'll need to stay out of sight until you can get ahold of some armor. It'll be up to you to locate some as soon as you can. Once you have it on, you'll go to the control room and wait for instructions."

I frowned. "Instructions?"

"You'll be equipped with a transmitter that stays in your ear. Poe will relay messages to you from the ship, so you'll be getting real-time updates. Once you have disabled the firewalls, you will need to get out of there as quickly as possible. Get back to the delivery pod, and Poe will pick you up and get you as far away as he can as soon as he can."

I chewed my lip, mentally reviewing the plan. "Sounds easy enough."

Leia gave me a wry smile. "If all goes according to plan, it should be."