Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Rey’s Story Page 3

  A feeling of peace overwhelmed Rey. She knew exactly what she had to do. “Get ready!” she shouted.

  “For what?” the man shouted back.

  Rey yanked the ship’s yoke to the right and flew out of the Star Destroyer into the bright sunlight. Then she cut the engines, flipping the ship around so the gunner turret was pointed right at the TIE fighter.

  The Resistance soldier took the hint. Rey saw the bright red bolts leave the blaster cannon and hit the TIE fighter right where it counted. The enemy ship exploded in a hail of sparks.

  But Rey wasn’t going to wait around for more TIE fighters to show up. She flipped the cargo ship toward the brilliant blue sky of Jakku and set a course for space.

  Beneath her, the sandy desert became smaller and smaller. The air grew thin and less turbulent. There were fewer and fewer clouds outside the cockpit window, and the first stars began to appear ahead.

  It was over. Rey had outrun a platoon of stormtroopers, piloted a cargo ship for the very first time, and taken on two TIE fighters. Not bad.

  She ran to the back of the ship to congratulate her new friend. At the same time, he was making his way forward to celebrate with her. They met in the middle in an explosion of words.

  “Nice shooting!” she began.

  “That was some flying! How did you do that?”

  “I—I’m not sure. I’ve flown smaller ships, but I’ve never left the planet.”

  “No one trained you? That was amazing!”

  “You got him in one blast! It was perfect!”

  When the words ran out, they just kept smiling at each other.

  Then a question occurred to Rey.

  “What’s your name?”

  THE MAN’S NAME, it turned out, was Finn. Rey figured he must have been on a Resistance mission connected to the First Order’s attack on Jakku. But she didn’t want to pry. His impressive combat skills surely meant he was a top-ranking soldier in the Resistance. Any further details about his mission would probably be classified.

  Instead of wondering about Finn’s mission, Rey got to work making repairs on the cargo ship. Their escape from Jakku had damaged the ship’s motivator. Until Rey fixed it, they weren’t going anywhere.

  Rey moved one of the grates from the floor and jumped down to survey the damage.

  “How bad is it?” Finn asked.

  “If we want to live? Not good.” Rey launched into a list of all the problems with that area of the ship alone, including a poisonous gas leak. She needed to fix the ship right away.

  Rey immediately went to work stripping out the fried ventilation tubing. She’d have to borrow some replacement circuitry from the ship’s secondary systems. Fortunately, she had a little experience scavenging spare parts.

  After such an intense day, it was nice to get back to something so familiar. Once she fixed the gas leak, Rey tried to strike up a conversation with Finn. “So, where’s your base?” she asked through the opening above her.

  “Tell her, Beebee-Ate,” Finn said. “Go ahead. It’s okay.”

  BB-8 beeped obligingly.

  “‘The Ileenium system’?” Rey repeated. She was thrilled that Finn was ready to share some Resistance secrets with her.

  Finn nodded. “Yeah, let’s get there as fast as we can.”

  Rey did her best to comply. In no time, she had fixed the motivator and taken inventory of all the ship’s systems. The vessel had certainly seen better days; almost every piece of equipment was in need of some repair. But at least nothing was on fire. Yet.

  Rey made her way to the cockpit, where Finn and BB-8 were chatting. It was time to set a course for the Ileenium system!

  But as Rey reached for the navigational controls, the ship shuddered around them. Then all the lights went out.

  “It’s the motivator, isn’t it?” Finn asked.

  Rey looked at the sensor readout. Her spirits sank.

  “Worse.”

  “Worse than a motivator?”

  “Someone’s locked on to us,” Rey explained. “All controls are overridden.”

  Finn ran to the window for visual confirmation.

  “See anything?” Rey asked.

  “Yes.”

  That was not the answer Rey had been hoping for.

  “It’s the First Order,” Finn continued.

  That really wasn’t the answer Rey had been hoping for. Within moments they would be pulled inside the enemy ship and taken prisoner.

  “What do we do?” she asked. “There must be something—”

  “You said poisonous gas earlier?” Finn interrupted.

  Rey was confused. “I fixed that.”

  “Can you unfix it?”

  Rey stared at Finn. Then everything clicked into place. They could flood the ship with poisonous gas, taking out any First Order troops who tried to board. It wouldn’t hold them for long, but it was better than doing nothing.

  Rey and Finn grabbed a pair of gas masks from the ship’s lounge and climbed beneath the floor grating. Then they lifted BB-8 down with them.

  Finn pulled the grating panel over them while Rey worked on the console that would release the gas.

  “This’ll work on stormtroopers?” Rey asked as she pressed the release valve.

  “Their masks filter out smoke, not toxins,” Finn replied.

  Rey was impressed. “You Resistance guys really know your stuff.”

  The ship’s lights flickered back on. They must be inside the First Order ship.

  “Here they come,” Finn whispered.

  Rey panicked. She still had two systems to reroute before she could flood the ship with gas. Time was running out.

  She heard the cargo ship’s main door open, followed by the clank of boots on the metal floor. By the sound of it, there was at least one soldier, but a softer thumping followed close behind him.

  Rey worked frantically at her console. One system down. One to go.

  “Hurry!” Finn whispered in her ear.

  “I’m hurrying!”

  “Really hurry!”

  Rey was ready to punch Finn. “Does this look like I’m taking my—”

  But Rey never finished that sentence. Someone ripped away the grate above them, exposing them completely.

  They had nowhere to run.

  REY LIFTED HER HANDS above her head in surrender.

  They were trapped.

  But when Rey turned to face their captors, she didn’t see any stormtroopers. Instead, she saw an old man with silvery hair and a blaster pistol. Beside him was a tall furry creature wearing nothing but a leather bandolier. Rey had seen only a few Wookiees pass through the Jakku spaceport, but she immediately recognized that creature as one of them. His keen blue eyes narrowed as he pointed his bowcaster at her.

  “Where’s your pilot?” the old man growled.

  “I’m…the pilot,” Rey tried and failed to say with confidence.

  “You?”

  The Wookiee howled a question to his companion. Rey had picked up a few basic phrases in Shyriiwook over the years on Jakku. That knowledge was finally coming in handy.

  “No, it’s true,” Rey said. “We’re the only ones on board.”

  “You can understand that thing?” Finn asked.

  “And ‘that thing’ can understand you, so watch it,” the old man said. “Get outta there.”

  As Rey pulled herself up onto the floor of the ship, she let herself feel some hope. The odd pair didn’t seem interested in killing them. And the First Order would surely never employ a Wookiee.

  “Where’d you find this ship?” the man asked.

  “Niima Outpost,” Rey said.

  “Jakku? That junkyard?” the man snorted. “Who had it, Ducain?”

  “I stole it from Unkar Plutt,” Rey replied. “He stole it from the Irving Boys, who stole it from Ducain.”

  “Who stole it from me,” the man finished. “You tell him Han Solo just stole back the Millennium Falcon for good!” He allowed himself to take a fond look around the ship. “Chewie…we’re home.”

  Rey had to pause for a moment. “This is the Millennium Falcon? You’re Han Solo?”

  “I used to be,” the man replied.

  Rey’s head was spinning. She had read data file after data file about that famous ship and its role in the war against the Empire. Thirty years before, it had fired the shot that took out the Death Star and ended the war. And that was just one of its many heroic adventures.

  Finn looked a little starstruck. “Han Solo? The Rebellion general?”

  “No, the smuggler!” Rey said, recalling the Millennium Falcon’s most infamous claim to fame. “This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in fourteen parsecs!”

  “Twelve!” Han corrected. He was already wandering into the cockpit to check on his old chair.

  Rey heard a cry of dismay. “Hey!” Han shouted. “Some moof-milker put a compressor on the ignition line!”

  Everyone followed him into the cockpit.

  “Unkar Plutt did,” Rey said. “I thought it was a mistake, too. Puts too much stress on—”

  “—the hyperdrive,” Han finished with her. For a moment, he looked a little impressed. But then he said, “Chewie. Put them in a pod and send them to the nearest inhabited planet.”

  “Wait!” Rey said. “We need your help!”

  “Help?” Han asked. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

  “Beebee-Ate has to get to the Resistance base as soon as possible,” Rey said. “He’s carrying a map to Luke Skywalker!”

  That name stopped Han in his tracks.

  “You are the Han Solo who fought with the Rebellion,” Finn said. “You knew him.”

  Han turned slowly to face Finn. “Knew him? Yeah, I knew Luke.”

  Silence hung in the air
until it was interrupted by a loud metallic ka-chunk from outside the Falcon.

  “Don’t tell me a rathtar’s gotten loose….” Han hurried out of the Falcon and into the larger freighter’s cargo hold.

  “Wait, a what?” Finn asked frantically as they ran behind Han. “You’re not hauling rathtars.”

  “I’m hauling rathtars,” Han deadpanned. He found a control panel and quickly flipped through image feeds from around the ship. One showed a transport ship docking with the freighter.

  “It’s the Guavian Death Gang. They must’ve tracked us from Nantoon,” Han said, fear creeping into his voice. “I hate that.”

  Chewie roared questioningly.

  “When someone who wants to kill us finds us,” Han replied.

  Everything was moving so quickly, and Rey still had one very important question: “What’s a rathtar?”

  “They’re big and dangerous, and I’ve got three going to King Prana,” Han said.

  “Three?” Finn asked in disbelief. “How’d you get them on board?”

  Han sighed. “Let’s just say I used to have a bigger crew.”

  Chewie moaned in agreement.

  Han opened a hatch in the floor and gestured to Rey and Finn. “Stay below deck until I say so. No bright ideas about taking the Falcon.”

  “What about Beebee-Ate?” Rey asked.

  “He’ll stay with me,” Han said. “When I get rid of the gang, you can have him back and be on your way.”

  “The rathtars…where are you keeping them?” Finn asked.

  A terrifying THWACK from a nearby cargo container answered him. Rey tried not to take a step backward as a giant slimy tentacle slid menacingly against the container’s window.

  “Well, there’s one,” Han said.

  “What are you gonna do?” Rey asked.

  “What I always do,” Han said. “Talk my way out of it.”

  Rey wasn’t sure that was a great plan, but there was nothing she could do. She and Finn ducked through the open hatch and waited as Han, Chewie, and BB-8 went to confront the Guavians.

  REY TRIED TO BREATHE as quietly as possible, hiding beneath a ship’s floor panels for the second time that day.

  She heard the muffled voice of the Guavian Death Gang’s apparent leader.

  “Han Solo,” he said. “You’re a dead man.”

  “Bala-Tik,” Han said in a charming voice. “What’s the problem?” Han tried to convince the gang leader to let him go, but Bala-Tik didn’t seem interested in that idea.

  “Can you see them?” Rey asked Finn, trying to peek through a hole between two floor panels.

  “No,” he replied.

  Rey crawled across the space to get a view of the Guavians. From her vantage point beneath their feet, it looked like there were at least six of them. The one she assumed was their leader, Bala-Tik, wore a high-collared leather coat and carried a huge percussive cannon. Behind him stood a handful of soldiers in red armor. Their faces were completely obscured by shining red masks. Rey could spot more than a few cybernetic augmentations that melded the soldiers to their armor and weapons. Han clearly knew how to pick intimidating enemies.

  Bala-Tik demanded that Han pay back all the money he had borrowed. “Kanjiklub wants their investment back, too,” he added.

  “I never made a deal with Kanjiklub!” Han replied.

  “Let’s see if they agree with you.”

  Rey heard a portal open at the other end of the room. A group that could only be the Kanjiklub Gang stepped into the already crowded cargo bay.

  Rey heard Han address their leader. “Tasu Leech. Good to see you.”

  Curiosity got the better of Rey, and she crept back across the space to get a glimpse of the Kanjiklub Gang. There were only five of them, but they looked fearsome enough to take on enemies triple their number. They were heavily armed with different weapons, but they all wore identical expressions of fury as they glared at Han.

  Tasu spat at Han in a language Rey couldn’t identify. The meaning was clear enough.

  “Guys, you’re going to get what I promised,” Han said. “Have I ever not delivered before?”

  “Your game is old,” Bala-Tik said, unconvinced. “There’s no one in the galaxy left for you to swindle.”

  Rey heard BB-8 beep in fear. Things were not going well for Han Solo.

  “That BB unit,” Bala-Tik said thoughtfully. “I heard the First Order is looking for one just like it. And two fugitives.”

  At those words, Rey and Finn froze beneath the floor. Han had better talk his way out of that fast.

  “First I’ve heard of it,” Han said.

  Below the grating Rey looked at Finn in panic. Quickly, she pushed herself back down the corridor, toward the hatch. But as she crept forward, the brace beneath her hand gave way. A loud CLANG echoed through the room above them.

  It would be only a matter of time before the gangs started searching the freighter. Rey had to do something. Scanning the panels around her, she saw a junction box ahead. She crawled to the controls and began resetting the fuses.

  “What are you doing?” Finn whispered.

  “If we close the blast doors in that corridor, we can trap both gangs!” Rey whispered back. Sparks shot from the fuse box, but Rey ignored their tingle on her skin. Just another second and…

  One by one, the lights in the freighter died, until everyone was standing in darkness.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Han muttered from the middle of his standoff.

  Suddenly, all the lights blinked back on at once. As Rey reviewed her work, she realized she had made a mistake.

  A big mistake.

  “Oh, no. Wrong fuses.”

  In the cargo bay, three containers housing hungry rathtars opened.

  “New plan!” Bala-Tik shouted. “Kill them and take the droid!”

  A firefight erupted above Rey and Finn. They had to get back to the Falcon before they were discovered—or worse, eaten by a rathtar.

  Rey pushed open the floor hatch and crept outside.

  “The Falcon’s this way,” Finn said.

  “You sure?” Rey asked, looking around for anything recognizable.

  “No.”

  Rey followed Finn down a long corridor. Anything had to be better than waiting around to be eaten by a rathtar.

  “What do they look like?” Rey asked.

  “Horrible!” Finn replied.

  They turned a corner and stumbled upon a scene of utter chaos. One of the gang members was tightly wrapped in the slimy tentacles of what could only be a rathtar.

  The creature’s flesh was covered in angry red scales that ran all the way from its round body to the tips of its eleven tentacles. On top of its—head?—were pulsing orange pustules that Rey guessed must be sensitive to movement or light; the rathtar had no eyes or any other apparent way of seeing the world. Most ferocious of all were the rows of razor-sharp teeth the beast exposed every time it howled.

  “They look like that,” Finn said as he pulled Rey away from the gruesome battle. But when they turned the next corner, another rathtar was waiting for them. Finn tried to run, but the beast had already grabbed his leg.

  “FINN!” Rey shouted as the creature pulled him down the hallway.

  Rey ran after the beast as fast as she was able, but she couldn’t keep up. Soon the rathtar had disappeared, and Finn along with it.

  REY GAVE HERSELF EXACTLY TEN seconds to panic. Finn was gone, and the ship was crawling with thugs who wanted to capture her and rathtars that wanted to eat her. But she had to keep her cool. Finn needed her.

  Rey scanned the hallway and spotted the control panel that Han had used to access holomonitors throughout the ship. She looked through the monitors until she saw the rathtar dragging Finn toward an open blast door—a blast door that Rey could control from that station!

  Rey took a deep breath and prepared to time her move perfectly. Just as the rathtar began to slither over the threshold, Rey dropped the heavy door right behind it. It was trapped on the other side, away from Finn!

  Rey ran to help the traumatized Finn to his feet.

  “It had me!” Finn said. “But there was a door!”

  “That’s lucky,” Rey said with a smile. She guided him back to the Falcon, where Han, Chewie, and BB-8 were waiting for them. It looked like Chewie had hurt his arm in the fight, but otherwise everyone was in one piece.