The data chip did not hold much. A short holo-message, scrambled by a code Raey could not decipher, and the set of coordinates everyone had been talking so much about. He listened to the nonsense message again while he dug around underneath the consoles, trying to find a pattern to the gibberish while pulling out wires.

The door to the cockpit was closed and locked from within, just for safety. LN had agreed to his terms almost without discussion, though he hadn't exactly mentioned his intention to double-check her work on deactivating the standard tracking system. It did seem to be deactivated, but he wasn't taking any chances. The main unit had been easy to find and now sat on the floor nearby, waiting to be dismantled, but he wasn't finished looking for secret secondary trackers. This was the First Order he was dealing with – they were tricky.

Brgririggshbrshishh...

The holo itself was as scrambled as the words coming out of it, the figure glitching so violently that Raey couldn't even figure out what species it was. Vaguely humanoid wouldn't help the First Order out much even if they did catch him sometime.

"Maybe it's better this way," he said to himself, more or less. His teeth were clenched around the handle of a First Order wrench he had found in the supplies, and it made it hard to talk.

He finally finished his inspection and shoved himself back out from under the console. He sat up, intending to brush off the inevitable dirt-accumulation from crawling around underneath stuff, but then realized there wasn't any. Even the undersides of consoles hadn't been missed in the First Order's quest against filth.

"Freaks," he muttered, glancing down at the newly-developed creases standing out starkly in his stolen uniform. His own robes looked dirtier and more wrinkly then ever against the pressed black clothes, but that just made him annoyed at the uniform.

He grabbed the edge of the center console and rose, flicking a switch to turn off the hologram. After pocketing the data chip again and thoroughly tearing apart the tracking system (neatly organizing parts for later use), he sat down in LN's chair.

The controls blinked at him, a little intimidating from the sheer number of buttons, levers, and dials he did not quite know how to use yet. He did know the basics, though, and that was all LN said he needed for what he was about to do.

"First, input coordinates."

His lower lip curled in slightly to meet his teeth as he carefully input the now-memorized coordinates; a habit born (he told himself) of getting dry, cracked lips in the desert and had nothing at all to do with being anxious. The navigation computer asked if he wanted to save the location; he replied with a firm no. Then, according to LN, he just had to wait. If they could make the jump to hyperspace, the computer would let him know. If something went wrong, if the coordinates turned out to be invalid, the computer would, again, let him know.

Nothing to do now but wait.

He pushed off the wall and let the chair spin, smooth and silently on a well-oiled swivel. "These are nice chairs," he admitted reluctantly, testing the swivel in the other direction. That experiment thoroughly concluded with positive results, Raey eagerly checked the nav-computer.

Not done yet. Apparently it took longer to process new coordinates then ones gotten from a starmap or another nav-computer.

He restlessly stood up and began to pace.

I wonder what LN is doing...

.

The scavenger didn't want her in the cockpit, so she finally let herself set aside time to catch up on sleep. The lights in the crew-quarters switched off and LN, lying on her back on her new bunk (still stubbornly in uniform), switched off with them. Her thoughts stilled, her breathing slowed, and within moments the former stormtrooper was fast asleep, the humming of the ship beneath her only helping lure her into darkness.

.

The computer finally locked the new coordinates in, giving Raey the go-ahead. He took a deep breath, excitement overwhelming the mild anxiety he felt at the possibility of instant death, and pushed the shuttle into hyperdrive.

The ship's hum grew in intensity. For a moment, Raey had to wonder if he had done everything correctly, and then the shuttle flashed into that now-familiar corridor of black and blue.

"We're on auto for this part," he reminded himself, his fingers almost shaking from exhilaration. "The computer will let me know when it's time to leave hyperspace, and I just have to follow the directions."

LN had been firm on that point. "Either I drive, or you use the hyperdrive-assist," she had demanded, and for now Raey was content to let her win on that point. One day, he would conquer space-flight himself, but today... today they just had to get away from the First Order. Priorities.

Possibilities flashed through his mind as the stars went by. He had the bridge (tiny though it was), he had the hyperdrive at his command, and they were speeding towards some mysterious point in space that everyone in the galaxy seemed to want. Nothing seemed too grand to fit into the new reality Raey found himself so abruptly forced into.

He glanced over at the pilot's chair, his chair.

LN.

His excitement wavered.

There was something about her... he wanted to trust her, but every time he looked at her he saw how comfortable she was in that stern black uniform. Her shoulders always seemed to be perfectly straight, her chin always held just a little too high, and her eyes seemed so... cold, yet so focused at the same time. She was intense in a way that Raey could not disconnect from what he knew to be her past, the life of the footsoldiers for the First Order.

He didn't trust her, he couldn't trust her. Not yet.

But she had left her stun baton in the cockpit before she'd left.

He looked at it, leaning there against the wall. It wasn't much of a weapon, but he did appreciate having something to defend himself with. He leaned back as far as the bolted-into-place chair would go to grab it, then began examining it curiously.

The grip was all metal, cold and uncomfortable. It wasn't very long, unfortunately, but at least it seemed easy to operate. There was a button and a switch... activation and intensity? He experimented for a bit, moving the switch to the three different positions it was capable of before testing the shock on air, but it was difficult to glean any useful information out of sight alone. The top position seemed like the most powerful, but how much more powerful would have to remain a mystery. Raey wasn't about to test it on himself, no matter how curious he was.

"If only I still had my staff," he muttered. The idea appealed to him, but after a moment he realized there was no lengthening the reach of this thing without doing some intense re-wiring, at the very least. The handle was just too short to be practical on a staff-weapon.

He zapped the air one last time, then reluctantly stopped fiddling to avoid running down the battery. He briefly considered the dismantled tracker and the stun baton together, but nothing clicked. The tracker ran on ship power, so he couldn't even try to super-charge the stunner with an extra energy source.

"There's got to be something around here I can use to improve it," he muttered, his sharp eyes scanning the cockpit. Then, to counter that, "Come on, Raey, it's probably fine as it is."

.

.

LN awoke with a gasp, the sound and impact of fighter-fire jerking her from her sleep. She rolled out of bed to her feet, grabbing her blaster from beside her pillow as she did; a practiced movement she had done a thousand times before.

A self-briefing ran through her head as she slapped the door controls, bringing her still-waking mind back up to speed on everything that had happened over the past day. Her blaster suddenly seemed wholly inadequate, but she took it with her, anyway. Blasters brought a measure of comfort that defied understanding.

Something has gone wrong. Raey will need by help.

What was that dream?

She shook her head, forcing that wayward thought back where it belonged. Dreams were useless, distracting. Usually she didn't remember them, but sometimes they did and it made her nervous. They were weird, and the First Order did not approve of weird. How do you maintain a serious demeanor all day when you awoke to a dream about stormtrooper helmets flying around the halls on little white wings, and then you can't look at anyone without picturing their helmets zooming around their oblivious heads?

The cockpit was unlocked, thank the emperor, and LN ran right in. Raey was sitting on his side of the central console – another thank the emperor – and LN slid into her chair in a heartbeat.

"What's the situation?" she demanded, her eyes darting between the scanner and the view out the window. Planet. Enemy fighter. Understood.

"I don't know!" cried Raey, yanking at the steering as a small, black, unnervingly familiar fighter screamed past them. Red laser bolts narrowly missed their right shuttle wing. "We came out of hyperspace just beyond the moon of this planet and I figured the planet with green on it was a better place to go then a grey moon so I steered towards that," a quick breath, "but then this son-of-a-lugga came out of hyperspace right frizzin' behind me and started shooting! Where are the weapons on this thing, LN?"

"It's a shuttle, it doesn't have any," replied LN, keeping her tone calm. "Relax your hands a little, Raey, you're losing control of your turns by gripping the sticks so tightly."

"I KNOW!"

The black fighter turned, a tight and controlled 180, and barreled towards them, guns lighting up in red. Raey veered off and dove, swooping below the oncoming craft in an effective but significantly less elegant manner.

"Our shields are operational," LN reported, her fingers flying over the console as she checked every system. "Engines are operational. Hyperdrive is operational. We are holding together."

"But we can't fight back, so what's the plan?" asked Raey through gritted teeth. "I can't lose this guy."

"We could jump to hyperspace again... this could be a native of the planet, defending against intruders."

"He followed me, LN, and look at that design! If that's not old Imperial tech, then I haven't spent a decade studying the stuff." The shuttle wobbled violent as he dodged another run by their attacker. "Which, by the way, I definitely have."

He wasn't wrong. The small black fighter was a relic straight out of the old Imperial fleet – modified, but still recognizable. The First Order didn't use them, but LN had heard there was still one organization who favored the classics...

Raey didn't need to hear that, now. He probably suspected, but LN wasn't going to confirm his fears. He was right, though. If this planet, or the moon or anything else in this system, held the secret the Knights of Ren had been after for so long, then leading one of their number to the location and then fleeing through hyperspace could be disastrous.

But they could not fight back...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a jolt and a curse (another she had never heard) from Raey. The enemy fighter screamed past them, racking the guns across the side of their shuttle. Raey dove again, down towards the atmosphere of the planet, but the damage was already done. Alarms began blaring along both consoles, but Raey wisely ignored them and concentrated on his increasingly erratic steering.

"Our wing is damaged badly," LN reported, her forced calm beginning to feel strained. "The left thruster isn't getting steady power... you're going to experience some drag on the steering."

"No. Kidding." Raey's jaw was so tense LN could practically hear his teeth cracking against each other. "Plan, LN. We need a plan."

"Get to the surface alive," she replied sternly, giving the left engine a fuel boost to compensate for the damage. "Then... we will fill that breach when we reach it."

Raey nodded, though he didn't look happy about it. The shuttle shook as it barreled downward, unevenly propelled and with a half torn-off wing, through the upper atmosphere, but at least (when LN checked the scanner) it seemed the enemy fighter had abandoned the chase.

That wasn't encouraging. Whoever had followed them here suddenly didn't think it worth chasing them to the planet's surface? Whichever way LN looked at it, that didn't bode well.

Their trajectory wasn't straight down but diagonal, so the green surface LN had seen from space passed below them as they drew closer to the ground. They streaked over a narrow sea, leaving the one landmass behind, but up ahead LN saw another, darker and shaded by a mountain of grey-black clouds.

"Aim for land," she advised. Raey didn't even bother replying.

LN's emergency measures were beginning to fail, whatever damage their attacker had caused getting worse as they shook through the air. The left thruster was beginning to sputter in earnest, spending long heartbeats completely dead before kicking back in. Raey wrestled with the shuttle now as if trying to tame some bucking beast, but he hadn't allowed the shuttle to go into a deathspin yet and that, in LN's mind, was as much a victory as they could hope for.

They entered the storm clouds, and all view out the window vanished. LN braced, fear finally flooding into her chest. There would be no warning, no chance. If a mountain broke through the clouds, if this planet had floating islands or some such, they could slam into one at any moment and that would be the end. Instant death.

"I am not going to die..."

Raey's tense mutter mirrored LN's thoughts so perfectly, she almost thought it had been her own voice speaking. She looked over at him, surprised, but he didn't seem to notice. He was in his own world now, just him and the shuttle, and he was talking to himself.

"I finally get off Jakku and you are already trying to kill me? Not going to happen, you rusted heap of junk..."

Somehow, the scavenger's stubborn refusal to admit how doomed they were made LN smile. Inside, at least; outward smiles did not come easily to her. She looked down at her controls, trying to find any possible way of helping bring the shuttle down more smoothly.

Then, the clouds parted. LN rose in her seat, peering over the nose of the shuttle toward the quickly approaching ground.

A forest of trees, either giants or more mundane trees with unusually large leaves, became visible. They were packed so densely together that LN couldn't see the ground, or the trunks, or anything below the canopy of huge, dark green leaves. Something flitted about among the treetops, but they were too small to see clearly through the misted cockpit glass and the constant movement of the shuttle. More alarming was their angle of descent. During their time in the clouds, Raey had unknowingly let the shuttle slip into a steeper dive.

He noticed it and recognized the danger almost as quickly as LN. The shuttle thrusters strained as he tried to correct, but the left reverse-thruster just couldn't slow them down fast enough. They began to turn in midair, Raey finally losing control without the experience needed to know how to compensate for such extensive damage.

LN took over.

"Hands off," she ordered, grabbing the secondary steering sticks. Raey resisted for a moment, so absorbed in trying to control the ship that he didn't want to give in, then he glanced over at her and realized what she was doing. He let out a frustrated huff, then released his controls.

LN was not a dedicated pilot, but she had put in the necessary training hours. The shuttle was a monster intent on killing itself and everyone on board, but she dragged at the controls and slowly began to correct their descent. I should have done this from the beginning, she realized with a start, but it hadn't crossed her mind to take control from Raey. Why didn't I do this from the beginning?

"Brace yourself," she ordered, the treetops now far too close. Raey grabbed the console, but LN knew it wouldn't be enough. They were going too fast, too steep. They just didn't have enough control.

The nose of their shuttle clipped the trees. The world turned upside down.