The Return of Ben

Chapter Ten:

FINN

"I saw him," Rey beamed.

Finn and Rose exchanged a worried glance. They'd been on planet no more than a minute and Rey was already talking about Kylo Ren, delirious with heat and hallucinations.

"The cryogenic chamber," Rose said, not for the first time. "You said we need to look at it. Where is it?"

Rey nodded then and seemed to get her wits about her. She took off toward the abandoned ship and Rose followed after her. Finn turned to walk back to the freight ship they'd arrived in. After a long flight, the heat of a desert was the last thing he felt like being in.

He was tired now, trying the entire flight to act as normal as possible around Rose, and pretending not to notice that she still liked him. Sometimes he resented the clarity that Force sensitivity gave him. It was what had made him first realize he was different, the way he could sense things from others, almost as though he could read their minds.

He stopped at the bay doors and shuddered. He never wanted to read minds, no matter what. If he suddenly discovered he had that ability, he'd do some kind of mantra or meditation to shut it off. There had to be a way to control things like that, hearing people's thoughts. That would be awful. He didn't want to know what people were thinking. He already felt what they were feeling, and that was overwhelming enough.

He continued into the freight ship to fetch the small transport vehicle the ship carried for loading heavy items. It could lift the cryogenic chamber and get it onboard so they could take it safely to their Base Headquarters, and figure out why in the world the Final Order had kidnapped a boy and frozen him. That's why they'd come here, to rescue this boy, but they'd had found Rey irrational with talk of seeing Kylo Ren, or Ben, as she called him now. It was a bit sad, that she still clung to his memory so strongly. 

Finn stretched. What was it about her that made him want to protect her at all costs, even though she was so powerful? He could never help her any more than she could help herself.  And yet, maybe that's what it was. Maybe he felt he had to protect her, from herself.

The midday Jakku heat was making Finn sweat, even under the shade of the ship's open bay. The little D-0 robot, from Ochi's ship, who'd survived its crash, came rolling towards him out of nowhere. "Hello," it said.

"Hey." Finn was not in the mood for small talk at the moment, especially with a robot. He went to the cockpit to get the keys for the transport lift vehicle, where D-0 couldn't follow him with his limited abilities on the one wheel he had. The ship was heating up fast under the sun, now that the air circulation was turned off. Finn was sweating and he just wanted to get out of there.

When he returned to the bay area, D-0 was there waiting for him.

"What do you want?" Finn said grumpily.

The robot followed him around, at his heels. He resisted the urge to shove the tiny droid aside with his boot.

"D-0 is scared," it said.

"Oh yeah?" Finn hopped up into the driver's seat of the crude transport vehicle and tried the ignition. It didn't start and he took a long breath to calm his overheated nerves.

"D-0 is scared of men."

Finn ignored D-0 and focussed on the vehicle. They'd made sure it had fuel, but Babu Frik had said it was a bit hard to start. Finn closed his eyes and set his hand on the panel in front of him, reaching through it to the engine. He knew enough about simple engines like this to go through a basic check of its starting mechanisms. He found the issue. It was the starter. It just needed a spark.