I touched darkness

Chapter thirty-four

It was the day of the appointed meeting, around seven rotations had gone by since the meeting. Rey walked in the hallway, nearing the room where it would take place. She couldn't put her finger on the emotion she was feeling. Nervous? Excited? It was probably a mixture of both. Nervous, for, this meeting could determine the fate of the First Order. Excited, to see her friend she hadn't seen in months.

The previous rotation before the meeting, The analysis of the droid's head, Ben had acquired on his trip, had just come back, but it didn't give any new information for this investigation. It hadn't been programmed yet, only built.

Turning the corner, she could see the entrance of the hangar. She was put in charge of escorting Finn the moment he stepped foot out of his ship. She turned right as she entered and climbed the stairs, which would lead to the office in charge of all arrivals and departs, and waited for her friend to arrive.

Several minutes later, a signal came through. She immediately recognized the voice.

"This is General Finn requesting permission to land for the appointed meeting with the Empress." She didn't like when people called her "empress", especially not a friend like Finn.

An officer pressed a button and responded. "You have permission to land, General."

A ship soon came into view and Rey left the room, walking back down the stairs she had just come from, but this time, she went straight towards the ship's landing platform. Finn's ship could be seen in the distance, as its image gradually became larger.

The ship's doors just started opening, as she reached it. She looked up and caught the eye of her friend.

"Rey," he said, putting his hand out.

"Finn," she acknowledged back, shaking his hand in return. "Let's begin the meeting."

The two walked side by side in the corridor. She knew Finn had a large amount of history with this organization and she could feel his uneasiness through the Force.

"So," Finn began, trying to rid of the awkward silence, "how have you been in these past few months?"

She smiled. "I have a family now." She had never had a family, or at least none she could remember.

"If you're happy, I'm happy for you," he told her.

"What's it like back at The Resistance?"

"Since the Peace Treaty has been signed, it's been mostly quiet. Most of the members have gone back to their home planets. Only a few stayed in case of trouble."

She nodded. The room they had been given for this meeting was just around the corner, 1527. The First Order gave every door a certain number, and although she had been here for practically a year, she wasn't even close to knowing what each number signified.

Rey put her hand on a keypad next to the door. After a few seconds, the keypad turned green and the door slid open and a swoosh noise ran through their ears. The room was quite plain, the ceiling, walls and floor were all black. It also held a table with two chairs, on opposite sides, which were all a dark shade of gray.

They both sat down and waited a few moments before speaking.

"What information do you have about these disappearances?" Rey asked, finally breaking the silence, looking at Finn.

"We intercepted a transmission. At first, we thought it was just the First Order communicating with one of their allies, but the algorithm we withhold didn't match. It was severely encrypted. After some time and many, many tech units working on it, we finally were able to crack it and get its location." He took a break. "We weren't able to get where it would be sent too, but this information is another reason why I couldn't send it by transmission. If the organization would have gotten their hands on the supposed transmission I would've sent you, we could all be in danger. Transmissions aren't always the safest and this incident proves that.

"It's message said something about finally finishing the weapon and it's first test run, which we can only assume is the system you are talking about. Lastly, it was signed by some leader, whose name starts with the letter 'O'. That is all the information I know."

"Where was this transmission sent?" Rey asked.

"It was sent on a ship, near the Bonadan system. An industrial system, whose wildlife has been destroyed."

She pressed a button on the table and a map appeared. After locating the system Finn had mentioned, she spoke again.

"That's right near the system that disappeared. The weapon must be incorporated into the ship. The question is, where are they now?"

After several moments, an idea popped into Rey's head. "Do you still have the recorded transmission?"

"Yes, we do."

They walked back to his ship and he retrieved a disk. They walked back to the room and plugged it into a port. The transmission didn't have anyone speaking, only symbols popped up with a blue colour. They had re-encrypted the message as a precaution. The algorithm Finn had given her was simple, almost too simple, yet they had somehow crafted a machine that could destroy an entire system.

After she had decrypted the message, she read it once again. It was exactly what Finn had told her. After much more decrypting, she found the original source and some more details, such as the ship's tracking system.

"There we go," Rey said once she had finished.

"What did you find?" Finn asked, moving to her side of the table.

"The ship's tracking system."

Rey had one more thing on her mind. She looked down, thinking once again over her thoughts. She looked back up and found two security cameras. She brought her hand up, Finn watching her, intrigued, and closed the cameras off with the Force. So far, all the cameras the First Order had made contained microphones inside, so she closed those off as well, since she wasn't sure whether someone was listening to their conversation. She then sealed the door off, preventing anyone from entering.

She abruptly turned towards her friend. "Finn, I need your help."