The sun streamed through the open port. When Rey awoke the next morning, she had a hard time figuring out where she was.
Ani had left in the night. As she sat up and looked around the interior of the walker, she saw crates stacked around her that were not there the night before.
She groaned and stretched before rising. This was the first day in five years she had nothing to do—well, unless Ani appeared and ran her through training again. Rey grabbed some of the bread and cheese left over from last night's dinner, washing it down with some water. Then she opened the crates, inventorying what Ani had brought from Unkar's cellar during the night. Two crates held ration packets and one crate her tools.
After scraping a day mark at the top of the bulkhead, Rey explored the rest of the walker. One level above her was a troop transport area with three hundred jump seats. There was also a refresher complex with eight units, all canted at a ninety-degree angle. Looks like behind the walker will have to do for now. Maybe these can be salvaged eventually.
She moved around, not finding much else that would be useful to her survival. However, there was much that could be salvaged. Yet, she would need to find a way to get them to Niima Outpost.
When Rey climbed back down to the troop staging area, Ani had returned. He had added a few more crates to the pile. "Good morning, Rey."
"Good morning, Granddad. What's in the crates?"
"Your medkit, clothing, a small gas stove, water, kitchen supplies." Ani counted them off on his fingers. "Not a lot of gas in the stove, though, so we're going to need to come up with something more permanent. But first, I want to show you something. Bring your tools and some water."
Ani led Rey two kilometers away to the downed X-wing fighter he had pointed out a few months before. It was still relatively cool when they arrived, the sun having risen only an hour before.
When Rey saw it, she ran her hand over the fuselage. "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed. Then she saw the astromech droid in the socket, fried from a laser blast. "Oh, what a shame," she cried. "Poor little guy didn't stand a chance."
Ani smiled at her. "First, we need the power converters and two of the engines. Maybe take off a sheet of the fuselage to use as a sled."
Rey took out her hydrospanner and disassembled a piece of the sheet metal. It took a few hours, but in the end she had disassembled two of the engines and the converters as Ani instructed her.
"You're also going to need the controls out of the cockpit."
The girl tried to open the canopy, but the hinge was frozen with sand. She grabbed a brush from her tools and scraped it clear. Finally, the latch opened. With a lot of grunting and positioning her body for proper leverage, she opened the canopy, opaque with dirt. When she looked inside, she screamed—what was left of a Rebel pilot greeted her, helmet still on, and orange polyester flight suit still in good condition.
Ani said, "Don't worry, Rey. There's not much left to him. He's been there for twenty years. I doubt there's more than bones left. Just grab him under the arms and pull him out."
Rey fought down all her revulsion of touching a dead person and did as her granddad had instructed. It was hard work, and the more she tugged, the more parts of him got caught.
She took off the helmet and threw it onto the sled. The skull snapped off the neck at this point, which she sent skittering down a sand dune. She wedged herself in between the raised canopy and the back of the pilot's seat, standing with both her feet on either side of the cockpit. She tugged again, and felt him loosen. One more tug, and he came with her as she fell off the X-wing into the sand.
"Good! Now, hop inside the cockpit, and I'll show you what you need."
The nine-year-old climbed up into the cockpit and sat in the seat. She was in awe of how many instruments and controls there were. She aligned her feet into the pedals and grabbed the joystick. She moved it back and forth, pretending she was flying the craft, shooting down the enemy.
"Granddad, what does this one do?" She pointed to an instrument.
"That's your targeting computer. It assists with firing torpedoes," Ani said. "You're going to need a few of these, Rey, and we can sell the rest, so start taking apart the panel. Bring the joystick and the pedals as well. I'll be back."
A few hours later, and Rey had removed every instrument as well as the controllers. She was stripping the skeleton of his flightsuit to use as a tow line when Ani returned.
He was pleased to see her ingenuity. He was afraid they would have to remove the belt from her staff, which would have been difficult to reattach. "Let's get moving, Rey."
Ani accompanied Rey as she dragged the sled the two kilometers back to her walker. In the distance, they saw a speeder heading from Niima Outpost toward the Ravager.
When they had returned to the walker, Ani said, "Bring the sled under this leg into the shade. Let the metal cool off so you can work with it after your meal."
"What am I going to do with it, Ani?"
"You'll see."
Once Rey had finished lunch, she opened the new crates Ani had most brought with him this morning. Inside were all of the parts she had been swiping from the cleaning table.
"Bring those, Rey. Time to build a speeder." Ani's eyes glowed bright as a smile broke out across his face.