The Return of Ben

Chapter Seventeen: I Knew It Was You

POE

"Stop!" Poe barked the command sharper than he'd intended, catching the attention of everyone on board.

The trip to the next planet had been a short one, but the crew was already relaxed and not paying attention. The commanders, if you could call this random gathering of pirates and aliens commanders, were already discussing having drinks to celebrate their discovery of Pryde's foiled plan to hide D'Qar.

The Red Advocate did not run a very tight ship. He stood on the other side of the room with his hands behind his back, and now turned his attention to Poe, at his outburst.

The Command Pilot glanced at the tall leader for confirmation and the Red Advocate nodded his consent. The ship came to an abrupt stop and the pirates ceased their loud conversation finally.

"Sir, we're getting gravity pull from an unseen source. I think we've reached the moon," the Command Pilot said.

"How did you know?" the Red Advocate turned to Poe.

Poe shrugged. He'd simply been paying attention, unlike everyone else. The pilot was adjusting for gravitational pull on one side and Poe realized it was a mass in space that wasn't registering on the sensors, which didn't make sense. They'd almost passed the cloaked moon without noticing it. In fact, they had passed it already, but were still relatively nearby.

"Isolate the gravitational pull readings to give us an accurate indication of where the moon is," the Red Advocate said.

"Yes, sir."

Poe walked over to the Advocate, who tensed at his approach. To his credit, the man didn't walk away this time. For the past ten minutes he'd been pacing with his hands behind his back, with a slight limp. And each time Poe came in his direction he paced the other way. This time Poe cornered him. It was obvious the Advocate felt uneasy around him and Poe was curious as to why.

"I recommend we don't land on the moon," Poe said to him. "It could be a trap. It might be better to send in a smaller ship ahead. I can take my x-wing-"

"No," the voice from the mask interrupted.

"Why not?" Poe narrowed his eyes at him.

"Do I have any volunteers to go down to the moon's surface?"

All hands around the command table went up.

Poe felt his face flush. He didn't like being ordered around, nor passed up for a mission. And he also didn't recall pledging any allegiance to this Red Leader. He didn't need his permission. He'd go if he wanted to go.

"Sir, we have a rover that we could send in," the Chief Tactical Officer said.

The Red Advocate walked away from Poe, trying to hide his limp it seemed. Why was he always trying to distance himself from Poe? He assessed the tall man. There was something familiar in his rigid movements.

"We'll send a drone," he said.

HUX

Hux ran his hands through his hair and sank down onto his bed. It had been over 72 hours since he'd last slept. The unlikely gathering of vagabond leaders were not opposed to Hux's suggestion of taking a few hours rest before they continued their mission.

The drone had not returned. He was glad he hadn't allowed Poe to go down onto the cloaked moon. There was no indication that anything bad had happened to the drone, it had simply disappeared. But there was also no communication with it anymore, so it was not considered lost. They'd decided to try another drone soon, after sleeping hours.