Kylo Ren

XX

The assessments were coming up for the newest pilot positions, and everyone was preparing, even the leaders, since now Black Leader was open.

Poe Dameron was sulking the entire week before, but Afren was a jitter of nerves.  It had been just over a year since his mother had died.

She and Marc, who were still barely tolerating each other, practiced maneuvers. Afren had finally assembled her droid, an R2 unit similar to R2-D2, but green, called R2-74. She called it Foursy affectionately.

On the day of assessments, the base was a hub of excitement. They only came once every other year, since there was such a small number of pilots being trained, and they were often followed up by a feast.

One by one, the hopeful pilots would go up with the assessor, and the list would be projected the next day.

Afren had already chewed her nail beds raw when it was her turn. She adjusted her seat.

Geo, who was assessing her, spoke through the radio, typing something on the tablet he was writing her scores on.  "Ready to fly?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Afren responded.  She lifted a shaky hand to the controls and flipped a lever.

They took off, maneuvering around the set course.

It flew by faster than she could think.

After landing, she hopped down and went to her barracks. The new positions would be posted that night, just after dinner.

Somebody rapped on the door. She heaved to her feet and went to open it.

It was Jasper, another trainee who had been assessed that day.

He smiled, showing his blinding white teeth against his dark skin. "What are you doing cooped up in here?"

Afren shrugged. "Didn't feel like doing anything else."

"Let's practice shooting."

She sighed, and followed the boy.

Both were great shots, and the lasers hit their holographic targets each time, slamming into the energy field behind the targets and dissipating.

"Let's do a contest. The scoring system is still set up, so let's use it to see who can get to, say, four hundred first," Jasper proposed.

"Five hundred," replied Afren, pulling an elastic band from her wrist and sticking it between her teeth as she deftly pulled her hair up.  "Winner gets the other's dessert rations for a month."

"It's getting serious now," Jasper said, brown eyes twinkling as he typed in a code.

She finished tying off her ponytail and picked up her blaster again.  "Go."

They shot, their scores adding up on the assessment screens above the targets.

Afren hit five hundred first, and Jasper was only nine points behind.

She pumped her fist in the air triumphantly.

Jasper smiled and held out his hand.  "You win, let's shake on it."

They did.

Afren hadn't noticed the time pass, and it was already time for dinner.  She and Jasper went into the mess hall and parted ways.

Jasper sat with Marc and the other trainees, and Afren joined Poe and Jess at their table, with the other pilots.

One, a chubby pilot who was known for his ability to tinker with droids, was catching tiny round fruits that Jess threw.

He turned to greet Afren, and the next fruit hit him in the eye.  "Testor!"

"Sorry, Snap," Jess said, laughing.

Snap was one of the few people she tolerated calling her Testor.

Afren smiled at Poe, who was scowling at his food.  He looked up and his scowl melted slightly.  "You looked good out there."

"Thanks, I'll bet you did too, but I went inside once I was done.  Sorry."  Afren shoveled a lump of boiled root in her mouth.

He shrugged.  "I doubt they'll give me my position back."

She didn't know how to respond, so she just took another bite of food.

General Organa came out of the council room, which was attached to the dining room, and put up the list.

Afren glanced at Poe and gave him a lopsided, hopeful smile.  Then she ran through the room and stopped at the list.  Her eyes scanned the list.

Red Four!

But that was Poe's position.  She looked up to see where he was.  At the top of the list, between the two columns,

Black Leader
Captain Poe Dameron

She grinned and turned around, almost running into somebody.

Afren looked up and saw that it was Jasper, who was scanning the list for his own name.

She ducked around him and ran back to tell Jess and Poe.

"What'd you get?" Jess asked eagerly.

"Red Four!"

Poe drooped slightly, thinking he'd been dropped from the air forces.

"Poe, look at the list."

He walked over.  When he turned back around, he shared the same smile Afren did.