Red Opus

Chapter 5: Intrusions

Between Kylo Ren's occasional absence as he hunted various rebels and traitors through the galaxy, and his training sessions with you, you found yourself with absolutely nothing to do.

You hadn't seen the knight stalking around or breaking anything important recently, so you assumed he was not on board. Snoke would occasionally call for you, checking on the progress of his favourite apprentices, and sometimes you would meditate. You found yourself on multiple occasions, twitchy and restless. Your frequent meditations meant you rarely slept through the artificial sleep cycle, pacing in your bed chambers until the lights returned to full strength. During those restless nights was often when you would find yourself at the bridge.

You had spent the majority of your life in isolation, with only a few human interactions not including Snoke. Most of those interactions also usually involved beheading of some kind, so you guessed they didn't really count either. In truth, the main reason you spent so much time at the bridge was because you found it fascinating to simply exist in a room full of people who you weren't there to kill.

The officers scurried around, blindly following orders all day, translators ran to and from the secondary bridge command with important notices. You found you could look at them with all the fascination of a child watching ants. During one of your early walks, you had discovered a small vent in the far corner of the bridge, high up on the wall, with a good view, and just big enough to climb inside. When you were awake in the early hours, you would head to the bridge, prise open the cover and climb up into your perch before any of the officers had begun the first shift.

From your nest, you could see all the various comms terminals, screens of transmissible data running past like firing neurons, and the lower levels where the communications staff sat. The high bridge was where Yago would patrol around, issuing orders and commanding the star craft from his console. He had no issue with you being there, as long as you didn't interfere with his business. From the vent, you could shift along the lowered ceiling and drop down almost on top of the command console. On more than one occasion, you had disturbed Yago as he stood watching the ships outside, nearly having a heart attack as the black-clad assassin dropped on him from above. You liked Yago. You were pretty sure of that because you don't think you would be happy to kill him if you were told to.

It was an impressive craft you were stationed on, you had realised. The dreadnaught housed various militia, star destroyers, and the science division alike. However, after a few weeks of snooping around, you heard that Yago was being replaced. You hoped his replacement would not take issue with your presence. And if he did, you decided, he might have a little accident.

As you sat up in your nest, absentmindedly flicking a very important switch on the command console with the force, you felt the presence of the second apprentice. Sitting upright, you heard the doors open and General Hux and Kylo Ren entered the bridge together, speaking between themselves. General Hux came to a stop at the command console, as did Ren, returning the switch you had been moving into the primed position. The knight looked even more pissed than normal, you assumed from the way his shoulders crowded, bristling no doubt from the current conversation between himself and Hux. Suddenly hyper-focused, you leaned in, breathing in the delicious darkness that oozed from him.

"Why not just accept the fact Ren, that you're not going anywhere." The general fiddled with the buttons on the console, turning his head towards the knight. "You haven't finished what Supreme Leader has asked of you yet, have you?"

"I can't understand what supreme leader is thinking, tying me to it", he snapped. You knew he was talking about you. A normal person might have been upset. As it was, you found yourself crouching closer above them, listening intently.