Across the Stars (Reylo fanfiction)

Fight and Flight

His heart still beat like a shuttle motor revving in hyperspeed. The air around him still vibrated with the aftershock of her presence. Holographic images of the galaxy flickered around him, though he barely saw them through the image of her newly scarred face that was burned into his corneas. He sat down in the chair that was modelled in a smaller scale after his throne room seat. She'd been here. And she could see him. He'd almost touched her. He leaned his elbow on the arm of the chair and held his chin in his palm, touching a finger to his lips. His gaze bored into the air around him as if to set it alight with sheer force of will.

He stood just as the doors whooshed open and the figures of his four attendant knights walked in.

"My lord?" Vinz asked.

"A matter of critical importance requiring utmost speed and secrecy has come to my attention." Kylo stood with his hands clasped behind his back and feet shoulder width apart as he stared at the floating blue star maps. He kept his voice even. "Gaia is in charge in my absence. Lucien, prepare my ship." He turned without looking at any of their faces. Bowing, they parted like the Red Sea for him to pass as he swept out of the room.

***

Rey hurried into the cockpit as best she could with the shaking of the ship. She was met by Quoll who also ran into the pilot space. "What is it?" she said.

"Kingdom tie fighters!" Bryt said, as she flicked buttons on the control panel.

Chewie held the controls with a grip that the jedi thought may shatter them. "We need firepower!" he called out in Shyriiwook.

Right. Rey thought. Just then a small hand grabbed hers. She looked down and saw that Heul had run up beside her. The girl's hair was messy and her olive complexion unusually pale.

"You'd better strap yourself down, Master Potioneer. Upper gun well now!" Bryt said. Quoll did not hesitate to obey her, rushing out of the cockpit again.

"Hurry, Heul," Rey said, leading the girl over to a bench behind the pilot's seats in the cockpit. A blast rocked the ship.

"Rey!" Bryt called over her shoulder.

Rey moved to pull away. Heul did not let go of her hand. "May the force be with you, Rey," the child said.

The jedi nodded and gave her smallest padawan a quick hug. Slipping out of the girl's grip, she ran down the hallways and then shimmied herself into the lower gunner's seat. She looked for the comms headset and grabbed it. Tugging at the wires, she slipped it onto the back of her skull. Flicking buttons, she powered up the ship's quad laser cannons. Swivelling the pod stuck to the underbelly of the ship like a barnacle on a whale, she got a head on view of their pursuers. She counted seven sleek Kingdom tie fighters, all shooting at them. The Falcon swerved. "Rey are you there?" came Bryt's voice crackling through the headset.

"I'm in position; we'll hold them off while you turn over the hyperdrive for light speed."

"I'm sorry, Master," Bryt said, "we can't do that."

The jedi's brows furrowed as she started shooting. "Why not? Is it damaged?"

"No," the young pilot said, "But the fastest way to Moarghulis is through an asteroid field. We can't deviate off course."

Chewie groaned in agreement.

"Have you two lost your minds?" Rey said. "We can't go into an asteroid field!"

Out of the window, she saw one of the black double winged ships burst into flames and spiral out of sight. "We can if it means saving your life, Jedi Girl," Quoll said, joining the conversation awfully calmly given the situation.

"My life won't be much worth saving if we get blown into space dust!"

Chewie roared.

"What'd the wookie say?" Quoll asked.

"He said, we'll handle this," Bryt translated, "you two just keep those space roaches away from my ship!"

Another direct hit rocked the very bones of the Falcon. Rey tried to focus her breathing and hone all of her senses on the zigzagging moth-like ships. The metal around her barrel rolled. Bang. She hit the fire button and a millisecond later another tie-fighter exploded in a cloud of smoke and flames. It rolled into one of its compatriots and the two flew in a fiery death roll out of sight. That left four. "Dammit!" Rey called over the comms. "You two get us into hyperspace right now!"

"Almost there," the padawan said, seemingly ignoring the jedi.

"Bryt! Chewie!" Rey growled. Suddenly, she saw lumpy rocks bobbing in the space outside the window.

"Hold on, Space Cowboys! For Kashyyyk and for Han," Chewie used an expletive as if it were his late friend's middle name, "Solo!"

With that the ship spiralled and ducked like some kind of frenzied interpretive dancer among the suspended lumps of impending death as the guns of the remaining enemy ships blasted clouds of dust out of them. Rey gritted her teeth and gripped the gun controls tighter. One of the enemy ships wasn't quick enough as it caught the edge of an asteroid and blasted apart. Three left. Then the Falcon lurched. She saw space rock less than a few centimetres away from the glass around her. "What are you two lunatics doing up there!?"

"Just keep shooting!" Bryt ordered.

"I am! And you might try using the bloody force to help drive this thing!" As they came out from between the two giant asteroids, Rey saw that there were only two ships chasing them. She closed her eyes. In, out, in out, she breathed. Her eyelids snapped open as she hit fire with all of her guns. Simultaneously both pursuers lit up as they exploded into the asteroids and chunks of their metal exoskeletons became fused to the flying belt of space junk.

"Whoohoo!" Quoll called.

Chewie cheered. "Nice shooting, Rebel Scum!" he said.

Rey let out a long breath. She held onto the controls several moments longer as she scanned the skies. Detecting no more threats she eased back in the chair and rested her hand on her side, which was tingling with seeming electric shocks. Sweat pooled on her skin.

Suddenly she heard Bryt's voice through the comms. It was pinched with worry. "Rey! Quoll! Hurry, get back here as fast as you can!"