Poe found it extremely difficult not to shove Lando from the pilot seat and take the wheel himself. He'd love to fly the Millennium Falcon. That would be a huge step up from the X-Wings he usually flew. He even told Lando, "Say, Lando, whenever you get tired, I'm open."
"Thank you, but I'm perfectly fine," Lando spoke sarcastically. "Chewie and I are the only ones meant to fly the Falcon."
"You're selfish," Poe mumbled.
Before things could get too dicey, Finn piped up. "Gentlemen, please. Now that we are in the Falcon, Lando, could you please tell us why you went to Phonolukamy in the first place?" He just wanted to prevent a war between the veteran and the younger pilot. He had never seen Poe so jealous before.
From where he sat, Lando pulled his attention away from the younger man and asked, "Oh, we are, aren't we? All right then." He and Chewie exchanged glances at one another. Lando explained, "There's this gangster, ya know? Like Jabba the Hutt? I had to meet with him about something."
"What about?" Finn was very curious now.
Unfortunately, Lando was not eager to tell the whole story. "That's between Yamo and I, kid."
The response alone told Finn the veteran pilot was hiding something. He must have smuggled something into Phonolukamy, but what? Finn had to know. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, a young voice suddenly spoke up from behind the group.
"Wow! I never noticed how big the Falcon is!"
At the same time, Rose, Poe, Finn, and Lando's eyes widened. Hold on. They recognized that voice.
Within seconds, 3PO said, "I believe we have a young stowaway on board."
The others turned to see Temiri standing in the cockpit's doorway. Rose, the only one standing, dropped her jaw and clenched her fists. She examined the boy repeatedly to ensure she was not seeing things. She wasn't. Indeed, there was Temiri.
He chuckled nervously and lifted his hand. With a slight flick of his wrist, he said, "Hello."
***
"Stop!" The desperation in Kylo's voice was real. He knew who summoned the meteoroid to disable Rey's ship. "Punish me, but not her!" he begged. "I promise I will do better!"
Rey woke up in the cockpit. Ren's voice was her alarm clock. Though slightly dazed, she was okay, but then she saw the danger she was in. Fear flashed across her face. The meteoroid's impact had knocked her entirely off course. The Proud spun wildly in space. It looked like a planet knocked off its axis. It also became slightly harder to breathe. Not only that, but the disabled ship headed straight for a tunnel in space: the Phonolukamy Wormhole itself.
Rey felt the gravity snatch her. Petrified, she slapped her palms against the cockpit's windshield and stared desperately at Ren's Silencer. Since it was so powerful, almost no disabled ships made it through the wormhole. If one was going to travel through it, the ship had to be in one piece. It also could not be too big or too small.
The broken voice of The Proud's robot spoke up. "Bzzt. Now entering... bzzt... the Phono... bzzt... lukamy Wormhole... bzzt."
"Help!" Rey shouted. "I can't travel through it in this condition!"
Ren tried to pull his Silencer beside her, but gravity tugged him back. What he and Rey were looking at was a camouflaged space tunnel in which a white light shone deep within it. Behind the two was the blockade, which consisted of numerous Star Destroyers and other ships.
In The Proud's cockpit, the console sparked. "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!" yelled the voice. "Extreme danger! Extreme danger!"
"Help!" Rey repeated as the wormhole drew closer and closer. She frantically looked around for an oxygen mask. Eventually, she found one, and she put it on.
The Proud stalled, and the mechanical voice announced, "Evacuate! Evacuate! The Proud will never make it through the wormhole!"
Rey held onto the back of her chair and flipped through the book of knowledge in her head. She tried to think of a way to escape, but nothing came. Not first, at least. She could try to jump through the hatch, but she would never survive the vacuum of space if she did. The wormhole would spaghettify her. She almost accepted her fate of death, but then she heard something. It was a voice that did not belong to Kylo or the evil voice who told her to slaughter all the TIE Fighters.
"Rey." Luke Skywalker was calm. Even in death, he was still with Rey. "'We've passed down all we know.'"
Rey took deep breaths as she listened to the wise, deceased Jedi.
"'A thousand generations live in you now.'" Luke's last few sentences were what the young Jedi considered. "'But this is your fight.' Use the Force. It will guide you."
He was right. Rey had to trust the Force. She was not strong with it for the heck of it. She pondered what Luke told her and next heard Kylo Ren.
"Rey, you've got to tell me your plan. You're running out of time."
Then it hit her. Rey had to use the escape pod. She let the Force calm her down. Relaxing, she answered Kylo Ren. "I have to escape through the escape pod."
"The escape pod? Are you sure?"
"Yes. They can survive anything. The only downside is that it will take me in the direction where gravity flows the strongest—through the wormhole. If I die, then so be it. At least I died trusting the Force."
"But, Rey, I'm nervous the wormhole will spaghettify you."
"If it does, it does. At least I tried. Ben, there is a reason why these territories are called the Suicide Territories." The young woman picked up her lightsaber and clutched it tightly in her hand. She let go of her chair and headed toward The Proud's pod with a plan and a confident thought that it would succeed. She had the Force, and she had herself. It was time she put her skills to the test.
The pod Rey climbed into was small, with a single chair, a food and water compartment, and a 360-degree window, but she was lucky claustrophobia was not in her nature. She listened to the Force and found the light in it. It almost felt like the Beacerika's test back on Supher.
Rey settled herself down on the single chair in the pod and pressed the button that closed the door. Still taking deep breaths, she took the mask off her face and clutched her lightsaber close to her chest. There was enough oxygen in the pod that she did not need it. She repeated what Luke Skywalker had just told her. "'We've passed down all we know. But this is your fight.'"
"When the escape pod launches, I will come up from behind and catch you," Kylo Ren explained. He tried to feel as confident as Rey, but it wasn't easy. He definitely had compassion for her.
She heard him but was too in tune with the Force to dissect his words. Something was waiting for her in the wormhole. She just knew it. The young woman inhaled and exhaled one more time to tell herself she was ready, and then she pressed the escape pod's launch button.
***
"Temiri! What the heck are you doing here?" Rose asked Temiri.
"Isn't it obvious?" he said. "I couldn't let you guys have all the fun. Rey is my friend, too."
"How did you sneak on board?" was Rose's next question.
"I hid out in the storage compartment until you guys boarded."
"Temiri! You're impossible!"
"Aw, thank you. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. So, when are we going to gun it to the wormhole?"
"You know, I think this kid has potential," Lando chuckled. He gestured with his hand for Temiri to join him in the pilot seat. "Come here, shortstack."
"Excuse me." Temiri passed by the still-surprised Rose and stopped beside Lando's arm. "Yes, Mr. Calrissian?"
Lando took his shoulder with one hand and pointed at the Falcon's computer with his other. "Why don't you type in the coordinates to the Suicide Territories? Heck, I'll even give you a chance at the wheel."
"Whoa! Hold the phone!" Instantly, Poe was on his feet, and he stomped toward the pilot seat. "You're going to let a little kid fly the Falcon but not an ace pilot? I find this very odd."
"Kid, I think you should just stick to your X-Wings," said Lando. "Temiri and I are two peas in a pod, unlike us. Go on, Temiri. Type in the coordinates." He climbed out of the pilot seat and let Temiri sit in it.
The young slave could not believe what was happening to him. This was nothing like playing the Big Four back at the Jedi Academy. This was the real deal. Temiri himself was going to fly the Falcon.
He, too, put his trust in the Force. As he typed in the coordinates of the Suicide Territories, he seemed to stare into space. Behind him, Finn's satchel lifted into the sky, and the ancient Jedi texts floated out of it.
Gasping, he reached for them, but his hand missed the books.
Instead, they floated to Temiri and circled him from above as if they were a halo.
"Rey," he spoke in a low voice. "I feel her."
"Rey?" Finn asked. Excitement bubbled inside him. "You know where she is?"
"Yes."
"Then what are you waiting for? Jump us to lightspeed!"
"I still think it's wrong to have a kid fly the Falcon," Poe complained, but everybody ignored him. Lando, Finn, and Rose came within reach of the pilot seat and hovered behind Temiri.
Chewie smiled at him from the co-pilot seat.
He returned the smile.
Lando pointed to the lightspeed latch, also grinning, and said, "Pull this latch. It will jump us to lightspeed."
Poe scoffed and crossed his arms. He approached 3PO. "You would think they've never seen a kid before."
"Oh, lighten up," the droid replied. "This child is very Force-sensitive. At least give him a chance."
R2 and BB-8 also joined the party. For the first time, BB-8 did not stay with Poe. Like everybody else, he was very curious about Temiri.
Rey's aura was powerful. Temiri felt it. His small hand rested on the lightspeed latch. With the help of Lando, he pulled it. Right when he did, a blanket of blue surrounded the Millennium Falcon, and whoosh! Lightspeed took it away.
***
Rey held her breath when the escape pod detached from the disabled Proud. It dropped her into the mouth of the wormhole. The second it did, boom! The Proud blew up behind her.
Kylo Ren gasped when the force of the explosion knocked him back. It tossed him out of the gravity field surrounding the wormhole, and he ended up back in the Phonolukamy Blockade. A Star Destroyer jumped out of lightspeed behind him. It was The Limpton.
Yelling in frustration, the conflicted Supreme Leader punched his flying console. He was so close! He nearly had Rey. He was going to help her, but she proved she didn't need any help. He felt like the failure he was back on Crait, but he would not give up. He would capture the girl and turn her to the Dark side.
The escape pod whizzed through the wormhole like the speeders on Supher. Rey waited for her arms and legs to stretch out for spaghettification, but they never did. She continued to hug her lightsaber to her chest, but then she froze. Something moved outside the pod in the wormhole itself. She knew something was in it. The Force told her so. She did not blink but gulped when the face of a creature appeared beside her. What she was looking at was a monster from the deep.
Unlike the Beacerika before, the creature looked more amphibian and fishlike than alien. A long fin stretched down its neck to the length of its exceptionally long tail. Its front pair of legs were longer than its back pair. It had webbed toes, white eyes with no pupils, and two antennas sticking up from its nostrils. Its body shimmered white, and its teeth were thin and sharp.
The gravity was insane. Rey felt it hit the back of the pod, but it did not affect the creature at all. Instead, it roared and disappeared into the walls of the wormhole.
Rey got up from her seat. She banged her head but had to get a better look at it.
"Unknown creature," spoke the pod's own mechanical voice.
Unknown? Did that mean the creature was not a local in the Phonolukamy Wormhole? A long, scaly tail emerged from the shadows, heading for a strike on the pod.
Rey sensed it, so she hurried to the primary control method of the pod—buttons that told it to move left or right. She pressed one button and drifted left. The tail missed her. Rey moved to the right when it approached her from the opposite direction. She sensed something else. Scraps of The Proud appeared behind her, so she ordered them to her command with the Force.
The creature showed itself and hovered before her. Its white eyes shimmered, and it flapped its finned toes like wings, waving its tail behind it.
Rey held out her hand and clenched her teeth. When she did, The Proud's scraps stopped, and they changed their course. Now, blankets of scraps flew past either side of the escape pod, and they bombarded the creature.
Roaring in what Rey didn't know was pain or anger, it keeled over, allowing the pod to slip by it.
That was when things turned even crazier. Rey was nearing the end of the Phonolukamy Wormhole, where the gravity was strongest. She could see the end, but the creature did not want to lose her that easily. Therefore, it went after her again.
"Come on! Come on!" Rey begged as she moved closer to the wormhole's edge. "Just a little more, baby! I'm going to make it!"
Half the escape pod left the wormhole, but suddenly, it started to drift back into it.
"Huh?" questioned the Force-sensitive young woman. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"
The creature refused to give up. It appeared behind the pod and opened its mouth. Right when it did, an air vacuum escaped it and started pulling Rey toward it.
She peered over her shoulder to the gaping mouth and shouted, "Accelerator! Accelerator!" Her eyes were knocked together as the pod stalled. She started to lose engine life because the creature sucked it all away. She had to do something fast, or she would be the blue plate special. Then Rey saw it. A button for the emergency accelerator. She checked her fuel tank and saw that she had enough for just one jump, so she had to make it count.
Rey waited until the creature sucked her in. The second she was in its saliva-filled mouth and heading for its throat, she shouted, "Here goes!" She punched the accelerator.
Silence. Nothing happened. Did the creature eat Rey? Nope, it did not. A bright flash of light came from within its mouth, and whoosh! Out shot the escape pod.
"Whoo!" Rey cheered. She had escaped both the creature and the Phonolukamy Wormhole. She knew she could do it! However, she had to admit that was one of the craziest flights she had ever had, and it was all thanks to an escape pod.
She now headed toward a small planet with very little light. It was primarily brown with very little blue. Phonolukamy. Seeing it, Rey hopped back in her seat. She strapped herself in and prepared for landing. Once again, the pod's engine started to die, but by then, it had just entered the planet's atmosphere. It headed for a brown-tinged lake. Surrounding the lake was a desolate landscape that had no life on it.
The escape pod soon reached the planet's surface. It landed on the lake and skimmed it like a skipping stone. Finally, it stopped, and the pod rested on the water's surface.
Rey unstrapped herself and pushed open the hatch as quickly as possible. She felt the pod sinking. With lightsaber in hand, she crawled out of the hatch and climbed on her ride. Her eyes wandered as she examined the desolate, dystopian planet, and then they landed on the water.
Legs slightly shaking, Rey put her lightsaber on her belt and dove off the escape pod. She swam in the direction of land and asked herself how she managed to make it through the Phonolukamy Wormhole by herself. If Luke did not help her, she most likely would have never succeeded. At the end of the day, Luke was the true hero.
***
Kylo Ren knew The Limpton was behind him. That just made his day a whole lot worse. He gave Hux strict orders to wait until he returned from his mission to travel to the Phonolukamy Blockade, and guess what? He disobeyed him. Kylo was not in the mood for such a pansy. He needed someone to take his anger and frustration out on. He would not hesitate when The Limpton picked him up.
Further away from the blockade, another ship just bounced out of light speed—the Millennium Falcon.
Lando pointed at the blockade before it. "There it is. The Phonolukamy Blockade."
Everybody grew antsy, even the veteran pilot. They knew they had an arduous task ahead of them. The mission would determine the fate of the Resistance, Rey, and the whole galaxy.
ns 15.158.61.5da2
