Star Wars: Duel of the Fates

Chapter 26

Poe called for silence as the last of the soldiers and pilots sat in the briefing room tiered seating.

"I know that everyone is exhausted, that you've been sat by your fighters waiting for hours, but this is nowhere near done. We currently have one hyperdrive and seven ion engines functioning and...we need another of each to be able to jump to lightspeed. On top of that our deflector is still not operational. Right now we are a stationary target with nothing to stop the First Orders weaponry from breaching our hull...except us. If they get here before our repairs are complete we have to make a stand to buy our engineers the time they need."

"The repairs won't matter if they find us when they can track us through hyperspace," Snap said.

"There's a plan for that as well. We have a partial copy of the plans for their tracker and we're making a disrupter to disable it."

"How did we get these plans?" Seftin Vanik asked.

"I can't share that information right now, but once it's done it'll disrupt everything with circuitry within half a parsec. We light it up; take out their ships along with the databanks and computers they use to track at lightspeed; then we get the hell out of here."

"Half a parsec is a huge area," he said, "What about nearby planets?"

"The locals on Verig are nomadic hunters, no technology to speak of."

"And what about our ships?" Snap said.

"We'll have a countdown and then cut our engines just before the disrupter is fired and the shockwave passes. After that we can fire up and jump to hyperspace."

"So we'll have no power as this happens?" Wrobie said.

"None."

"What about droids?"

"They'll need to shut down their systems and set an automatic restart."

Seftin sat forward, "How long will this shockwave take?"

"...That's unclear, anywhere between five to fifteen seconds."

"It'll be the longest fifteen seconds of our lives," Snap said.

Poe sighed, "You're not wrong but it's what needs to be done."

"How much time before they finish the repairs?" Wrobie asked.

"I didn't feel brave enough to ask Rose that question more than once and I already asked her yesterday," Poe said earning tired laughter, "If I had to guess, I'd say at least another few hours."

"What about the disrupter?"

"Again: you go ask Rose."

More laughter followed.

"In all seriousness," Poe went on, "The disrupter has been constructed and fitted at the front of the cruiser; all they need to do is integrate and connect it to our hyperdrive."

Snap nodded, "That sounds simple enough."

"If there are no other questions, I have about four places to be at once."

They dispersed and Poe headed to the engine room.

Rose rolled her eyes, "Don't ask me how long, Poe."

Chewie grumbled behind her as he held a heavy looking support beam over the engine.

Hopping up on a large crate, Kyra bolted the beam into the pillars surrounding the base.

"Slowly let go," Rose said.

He did so, growling under his breath and rubbing his arms.

Rose pointed her fusioncutter at him, "Don't start with me, Chewie. I'm running on one hours sleep, you do not want me to start listing the parts of my body that are hurting right now."

The wookiee tipped his head to one side and burred at her.

She let a huff of air out and rubbed her temples, "...Sorry I snapped. You're doing great."

He nodded and slowly picked up another beam.

She turned back to face Poe.

"I was actually going to ask how you're doing," he said.

"Overworked and short on time," she said, circling the bulkhead, holding a set of goggles over her eyes and beginning to cut out small square sections.

Rey was nearby reconnecting a broken panel.

Poe nodded a hello to her then looked back at Rose, "So...how's the disrupter coming along?"

"We've installed it and finished the relay connections to one of the hyperdrives. In theory when we discharge it rather than the energy throwing us to lightspeed, it'll release an electromagnetic pulse."

"I sense a however coming."

"...However, we're hitting a wall with channelling the energy into it. Our first two attempts haven't worked. Even at the lowest hyperdrive discharge, the interface shorts out."

"What have you tried using in the interface?"

"Refined dedlanite and repurposed charge cores," Rose replied.

Poe didn't necessarily understand the science but cut to the point, "What do you think the problem is?"

"It's the high level of energy that it needs to transmit. Poe we've been discussing all of this for hours and we're running out of ideas."

Rey was deep in thought behind them.

"We need this, Rose," he said.

"I've been thinking it through and...what about a kyber crystal?" Rey asked standing, "They can funnel huge amounts of energy and withstand temperatures and pressures close to the core of a star."

They both turned.

"As in the kyber crystal currently powering your lightsaber?" Poe said.

"We still have the one from Luke's," Rey said.

"That could actually work," Rose said scanning the room, "Where is it?"

"In Leia's quarters," she replied, "I could get it now."

She stared at them.

"Go already," Poe said and she ran from the room, "If this actually works I will name every single one of my future children Rose Rey Dameron."

"If we survive this I'll hold you to that," Rose said.