Across the Stars

Chapter 14: Getting Ready

"What do you mean he's still on the First Order base?" The general yells at me.

"I mean exactly what I said. He's still on the base."

"Why did you just leave him there? He told me to keep running. General, can we please go somewhere else to talk about this? Like my old room?"

"Yes. Yes of course." I need somewhere comforting. Somewhere where I feel like Kylo Ren, or even the First Order itself can't get to me. We go down to the rooms underground and make our way to the door that had my name on it. It's gone now. They must have all thought I was dead. We make our way through the door into the empty room. We sit down on my old bed. The sheets have collected much dust over the course of the last few days.  More than I'd expect, but we are underground. "So what's going on? Why is Commander Dameron still in captivity?"

"There are quite a few matters that we need to address. Poe being one of them. The other being the spies that have made their way into he resistance. I don't know who or even how many. But we need to get that information soon. We need to get them out of here."

"I agree, but we now have to set out priorities." The general doesn't look very distraught about this information. She seems to be handling it rather well. "So what do we do first?"

"I think we have to rescue Poe first. We don't even know how we are going to find out who is actually part of the resistance and who is not. We can devise a plan to get Poe out a lot faster than we can figure out who is part of the resistance and who is a spy."

"I agree. How many fighters do you need?"

"Including me?" She nods "5."

"Only 5? Which pilots do you want?"

"Jess, Nicomorri, Elias, and Knoll."

"Done." We both stand up of my bed. "When will you leave?"

"As soon as possible."

"We will devise a way to separate the spies from our fighters." She wraps her arms around me and I return to her the same way. "Good luck, Dayae."

"Same to you, General."

We walk side by side out of the protective shell of the underground dorms. We open the hatch to go back outside. We make our way back into the room where I used to work. I see my station as the only one without someone working there. I missed this place while I was being held captive. "You give the orders, commander." The general directs at me.

"Commander?"

"I figured I might as well give you a promotion with all the things you've done for us here."

"Thank you, general. But I don't have a last name to be called by."

"Then we'll call you commander Lorain. You will always have a piece of Falk with you now." I feel my throat close and my eyes water. "Commander Lorain, give the orders."