Star Wars: Edge of Hope

Chapter Thirty Eight: A New Beginning...

We never know what the next page in our story will be until we turn the page. Some people rush through their stories, some skip to pages and read only the moments that comfort or restore sanity, but there are others that take their time, moving through chapter by chapter, page by page, line by line. They pause to take in the moments of pain and sorrow, they acknowledge their wrongs and mistakes, and they move forward with wisdom and hope. Rey had always thought of herself as lost. Perhaps in some ways forgotten, an empty book that no one either could decipher or even cared to open, her story had never seemed like one of real importance. But that was before everything that she had been shown, everything she had learned, and all the trials she had faced. Rey had changed so much these past few years that it was hard for her to recognize herself. Now the voices that used to call to her in her dreams were familiar voices. She could put names to them and faces, but the one that proved to be the biggest surprise had been the loudest, Ben. She could always hear his voice the clearest, the loudest, and....there had always been this sense that she'd been moving almost parrallel to him through life. She'd never thought for a moment that all of the times she'd cried out in her sleep that there had been someone on the otherside calling her name as well. It had been a long road they'd walked side by side, but miles apart and through years of time. Perhaps that's why this still felt so much akin to a dream to Rey. Perhaps that was also why she feared turning the page. Because now the story had changed. It was no longer just hers. It was also no longer only his. It was theirs. Rey slowly reached out to pull the cape like blanket over the bare skin of her right shoulder. As she shivered and opened her eye just a crack to see where Ben had wandered off to, she paused looking around her, and then shrugged pulling the blanket over her head. But then...she realized why the temperature was no longer the warm temperate sub tropical jungle breezes she had grown accustomed to on Naboo. And Rey let out a heavy sigh at the realization.
The blue blurs of the lightspeed jump were whizzing past the port windows. Rey looked around and couldn't find Ben, and then a new realization sprung to the front of her mind...who was flying?! Rey tossed the blanket away and with her hair falling loose from her tightly pinned coif she headed for the bridge of the Millenium Falcon. Her loud footfalls were only one of the clues that she was awake, Ben and Chewie had been trying to by pass as many jumps as possible in hopes that they could reach the island without her none the wiser, but no dice. Rey began in the galley and then picked her way through the crew quarters....

Ben: Hey, did we remember to pick up the...

Rey: Ow! Damn it...Oh good lord! Are you kidding me?!

The heavy thunk of metal tools being angrily shuffled back into the long tool chest and slid back in their compartment made Chewie wince.

Ben: Nevermind....

They'd had a few hiccups here and there after take off, needless to say the new improvements that Poe had made were not sitting well with the Falcon. So half way through the first jump cycle they'd found the compressor was back on the fritz and one of the sublight engines was causing a short in the hyperdrive due to the strain the compressor had put on the Zagdor couplings they'd snagged up on Pasaana. Needless to say, they were not the best quality parts, but....keeping a low profile meant staying clear of the larger part merchants and repair ports.

Rey: Ben? Ben?! Benjamin Bail Organa Solo....I swear if you've...Aww, come on! Look at this...you've misaligned the gravity regulator and the Splixian chip for the starboard deflector shield wrong...

Just as Rey halted in her tirade to begin fixing the Quad-Lenix processor for the cooling tanks main pressure valve on the negative power coupling,Chewie rounded the corner. Rey could hear a frenetic beeping as BB-8 rounded the corner his antenna bent and his front belly hatch banging against the metal floor panels. He seemed to be in a tizzy about something. Frantically, beeping he rolled straight across Chewie's foot by passing him and moving over towards where Rey was squatted working to pull the matted tangle of new leads out to be rewired. Again. Rey looked over at Chewie and then down at BB-8, when she saw his bent antenna she reached out gently pulling it free and straightening it out, then she carefully pulled the droids belly door open. She listened as BB-8 moaned and shouted behind him as he felt the servo belt slip back over his gyro sensor.