Kylo's Story, Part 4

"You can't just stick the memory drive into the ship's system," Finn says, coming out of nowhere. I liked it better when he wore a Stormtrooper's uniform, which clicked and was noisy when he walked and I could hear him coming from a mile away. I continue hooking up the memory drive to the ship's main computer on the bridge, ignoring Finn.

"It's a BB-Unit," Finn continues, taking a seat in the co-pilot's chair beside me. I give him a look that silences him. But likely not for long.

When I finally have the memory card connected I go through the information that comes up on the screen. It's all in code.

"It needs to be installed into a BB-Unit," Finn starts up again. "Then she can talk to us and-"

"I don't need her to talk." I scroll through the data some more. There must be some program in the ship's computer data base that could decode it.

"It's encrypted," Finn says, his voice grating on my nerves.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because there's sensitive..." He trails off and doesn't finish his sentence. I glance over at him to see what's happened, but all I can decipher from the look on his face is that his brain just stopped working for no reason. I look back at the code. He's right, it's encrypted and I can't seem to make sense of it.

"We can take it back to the Resistance Base and..." He trails off again. I slam my fist down on the console, making him jump. I'm just barely holding myself back from choke grabbing him and just reading his mind so we can get through this conversation a lot faster.

He looks scared so I relax back into my seat, rubbing at my eyes. I have no other leads in finding Rey. I'd hoped the memory card would help. Maybe I could take it back to the First Order Base and have them analyze it, but then Snoke would have it and I'm quite sure there's information on it that the Resistance doesn't want Snoke to see. I sigh. When did I start caring about the Resistance?

"You'll take the X-Wing to the Resistance Base and get them to put this card into a new BB-Unit, then bring it back to me," I say to Finn.

He gets up immediately, then stops. "The X-Wing I came in on only had enough power for a one way trip here," he says.

What was this for him, a suicide mission? I hold back another sigh. "Then we'll use my ship's charge to re-charge it-"

"And," Finn interrupts. "I sort of wrecked the wings in a crash landing into the trees."

I close my eyes for a second. "Then you'll tell me the location of the Resistance Base."

"What?" Finn looks frightened again. "No, I can't-"

"You'll tell me the location of your Resistance Base," I repeat, a little slower this time, because he's got the intelligence of a Stormtrooper and because I didn't use my Force influence the first time.

"It's on Ahch-To," Finn says.

Interesting. I search the ship's computer for information on the planet. Nothing comes up. I could be spelling it wrong or Finn's pronunciation could be off, which is more likely. I get up to give him the pilot's seat.

"Then take us there."

* * *

"I just don't think it's fair that you can read my mind, but I can't read yours," Finn says. It's the third time he's attempted to start a conversation, a different topic each time. I cross my arms and sit back in the co-pilot's seat. We're in warp drive and should reach Ahch-To soon. But not soon enough. "Exactly how we're going to fly an First Order Upsilon-class Command Shuttle right onto the Resistance Base without being blown out of the sky?" Finn asks.

"Prepare the shields," I say to Finn as we drop out of warp speed.

"Why?... Oh." Finn looks down at the control console. I wait.

"There," I point.

Still, he can't figure it out. I Force lift him out of his chair so we can trade places.

"Hey!" he cries out. I exchange places with him and then slow the ship down before it ends up flying straight into Ahch-To at full speed.

"You could have just asked," Finn mumbles, shifting in his seat. He's wearing that jacket again, the one I hate, and it's covering up his bandages around his ribs, which made me forget momentarily that he's still hurt.

"Turn on the cloaking shields..." I begin to say, then decide to do it myself. I start to get up.

"No, wait. I can do it." Finn holds out his hand towards me. He turns on the cloaking shields and I look out at the planet in front of us. Now that I can see it more clearly I notice that it's covered in water... entirely covered in water. Did Finn lie to me? Is this the wrong place?

"We should send a message to the General to let her know who we are, before they discover we're here," Finn says.

My throat catches. The General... my mother. How could I have forgotten that she was the General of the Resistance now? I slow the ship to a halt and set a new course.

"Where are we going?" Finn asks.

"Somewhere else."

"But what about BB-8?"

"We can find Rey some other way-" Did I just say ? No. That's not going to happen. Maybe there's a way I can drop off the Stormtrooper and keep on going without him. Or better yet, I should take him to the First Order and have him pay for treason.

A voice comes over the comm unit. Either the Resistance's sensors have become more advanced, or my cloaking shields are outdated. Finn reaches in front of me to press the comm button, like the true insubordinate that he is. I get up out of the chair, with him now being too close for comfort.

"General? This is Finn. Don't fire, I'm with-"

I yank his hand off the comm button.

My mother's voice comes over the speakers. It's strange to hear her, after so long. She wasn't a General when I left, but I'd heard she'd become one while I was away.

she continues.

"It's..." Finn looks over at me. He releases the comm button. "Do you want to explain this to her?" he asks me. I glare at him. He turns back to the comm system. "Um... requesting permission to land a... First Order Command Shuttle."

"The um... Requesting permission to land an Upsilon-Class Command Shut-"

Finn glances over at me again.

"Yes Ma'am," he says.

"No Ma'am."

I can hear her exasperated sigh over the speakers.

Finn clears his throat. "I've got BB-8's memory card. We're..." he moves away from me as far as he can while still holding the comm button then quickly adds, "...Kylo Ren is with me."

I frown. This whole thing was a very bad idea. I can't do this.

"You alright?" Finn whispers to me.

When I don't respond he pushes the comm button again. "I'm not under duress General. Your son wants to find Rey as much as we do and we think the memory card might help us do that. But we haven't been able to decode it."

There is a moment of silence.

"Yes Ma'am."

Finn turns to me and I step back.

"Um... we're low on power, General," Finn says. "Comm systems are shutting down. I can't hear you any more General... I can't-" Finn turns off the communication.

I rub my face with my hands. "Turn off the cloaking shields," I say to Finn. We'd lose power to the cloaking shields way before the comm unit would quit, or anything else for that matter, other than life-support.

Finn's hands hover over the controls. He's turned stupid again. I reach across and turn off the cloaking shields myself.

"You're not going to kill your mother too are you?" Finn asks me before I put him into a temporary sleep to shut him up.