Across the Stars (Reylo fanfiction)

Ships and Storms

At the tone pinching the young pilot's words, Rey didn't stop to question why she was suddenly taking so many orders from one of her students. Instead, she clamoured out of the gunner's seat and raced back to the control room, trying to ignore her wound. As she re-entered the control room, her fellow gunner was already there. "What's up, Captains?" Quoll said, rubbing sweat from his forehead with a piece of rag.

"The main engine is overheating quickly! Something must have ruptured in the crossfire," Bryt's usual melodic pacing of speech had hurried sevenfold.

"The Pirates!" Heul called, unbuckling herself from her bench. "C'mon Rey! I think I know what's wrong." She grabbed her teacher's hand and pulled her towards the door.

"Rey!" Bryt called, throwing a round black object at her master.

The jedi caught it and stuck it in her pocket as she hurried after the girl who was already jogging down the hallway. "When we saved Prince Aryel," Huel said over her shoulder, "we got into a dogfight with The Deathdealer and the main cooling pump cracked. I tried to patch it up as best I could. We weren't at base long enough for it to get replaced and I fogot about it because I was so worried about you. It must have burst again under the strain." The girl hung her head as she led them both to a hatch in the floor.

Rey put her hand on her padawan's shoulder, "You must have done a good job for it to hold out this long."

Heul smiled, and then together they opened the hatch and climbed down a ladder into the belly of the ship's hull. Steam rose around them in white puffs of foreboding. "Over there," the child pointed. When they got to where she was indicating, Rey sucked in a breath. Where there should have been a cylinder stretching halfway across the room between two long pipes there was now just air and pieces of shattered metal scattered around the floor. An iridescent blue liquid leaked from both pipe ends. The room smelled like burnt bread. Heul gasped.

"Hurry!" Rey said. She ran to one of the pipes and turned a round, cog-like handle. Its rusted edged resisted her pressure. "Shut off the other one," she grunted.

Heul obeyed and leapt to the other side of the pipes. Calling on the force the two women closed the valves. Fluid ceased accumulating in the large puddles sliding across the floor.

"How's it looking down there?" Bryt's voice crackled from Rey's pocket. The jedi master pulled out the black ball. "The main cooling pump's totally shattered." Sweat dripped down her back. "We'll try diverting power to the auxiliary system. But you've got to find us somewhere to land, and fast!"

Chewbacca roared. The comm-link clicked.

"What did Uncle Chewie say?"

Rey was already squeezing between pipes and circuit boards. "They need us to buy them some time while they try to land her somewhere. Grab that tool kit."

The padawan did as she was bid and carried the box of space tools in pursuit of her master. Steam shot out from various joins in the metal beast. Rey removed her outer robe. The two worked and weaved through the mess of machine. Heul force-floated tools to Rey and scampered where the older woman told her to as the ship began to shake and lurch.

"Coming in hard for a landing! You two hurry out of the engine!"

Rey stood up, dirt and grease staining her face and clothes. "Let's go!" she put her arm around Heul who also bore such marks. The jedi virtually shoved her student up the ladder through the hatch. As they ran down the hallway the ship jumped to the right.

"Oof." Heul landed on top of her teacher who had taken the impact with her shoulder. Rey gritted her teeth and pulled them both to their feet. Finally, they made it back to the cockpit and strapped themselves in to a bench. Quoll looked slightly green beside them. Out of the front windscreen, Rey could see that they were hurtling through dark purple clouds with lightning spiking between them.

"Hold on!" Bryt called.

Dark spires of mountains came into view shooting straight up out of inky water. Night shadowed the spindling trunks of trees, which lined the roots of the frosted crags, giving them the illusion of shifting form. All of this passed through Rey's vision within seconds as the ship sped down to meet the planet floor. She wrapped her arms tighter around her youngest apprentice. The girl's breathing came in quick gasps. And then, in a crashing and crunching, and a shower of sparks out the window, the Millennium Falcon skidded into the dirt of the mysterious planet. Silence engulfed the cockpit. Then Heul started giggling. Soon everyone was cackling. Bryt got out of her seat and stretched. Chewie grabbed her in a wookie hug. Rey still held on to Heul, but she had relaxed her grip. Quoll put down the paper bag that he had been clutching to his chest. He still looked off-colour, but he swallowed and said, "Crikey, I swear, when I get out of this thing, I'm gonna kiss the bloody ground of this blessed place."

When the laughter died down, Rey stood. "We'd all better get some rest. We've got a lot to figure out in the morning." The others agreed and soon they were all bunking down in one of the cargo holds. In a separate antechamber, Rey lay and Quoll unwrapped her bandages. As the fabric came away, it revealed a black gash in her side. Grey tendrils spiralled out from it, staining the skin around them with a pale glow. Quoll's brow furrowed, but he remained quiet as he reapplied a salve and clean wrappings.

She grabbed his forearm. "How bad is it? Tell me the truth."

He shook his head. "Hard to say. You seem to be putting up a good fight," he lowered his voice, "still, if we don't get you the antidote before the poison gets to your heart, we're gonna lose you." He gripped her hand, "It's tricksy stuff. Preys on despair as well as gnawing away at you physically. So fight it kid, you hear me?"

"I will," she said.

"I know you will. Now go on, get some shut eye with the others. Doctor's orders."

She got to her feet slowly. The burning sensation from the salve eased. Soon she had cacooned herself in blankets and was drifting to sleep. Though a thought lingered: they were crash landed on an unknown planet in a ship with a fried engine. Would she really be able to hold out long enough to get the antidote in time?

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