The Rise of the Final Order - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 5

Lyra Solo

By the time Ben was conscious again, the Mantis was safely in hyperspace, en route to, according to Hondo's intel, Crimson Dawn's current location on Vandor. Greez was alone in the cockpit, while Kaia was sitting at the table, now wearing her usual travel clothes, in the kitchen area quietly letting Merrin tightly wrap up her broken wrist and clean her various cuts and scratches with a bacta-soaked cloth, BD-1 watching intently on the table.

Meanwhile, Ben and Lyra sat on the couch, where Lyra was gently pressing gauze onto his blaster wound while he held a cloth against his bloody lower lip. He had his shirt off to let her do so, and Lyra could see Kaia trying very hard not to look like she was staring at him but failing miserably.

Lyra knew Ben was aware of Kaia's eyes on him, because he kept glancing in her direction, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he waited patiently for Lyra to finish, and once she was done, he got up and went to the back of the ship, emerging a few moments later wearing a fresh shirt and his black jacket.

He stopped at the kitchen table and set Kaia's shoto down in front of her without saying a word, then made his way up to the cockpit, limping slightly.

Kaia stared after him, looking concerned, and she gave Lyra a questioning look. She just shrugged in response and went over to sit beside her friend.

"How's your wrist?" she asked, really just trying to start up a conversation to break the silence that seemed to have fallen over the Mantis.

"Hurts," Kaia responded with a frown. She looked down at her bandaged forearm and gave her fingers an experimental flex, wincing slightly. "But if I can get some bacta on it, it should be fine."

"Well, that's good," Lyra said. "The bacta part, I mean. The hurting part isn't good, obviously." She sat silently for a moment, unsure of what to talk about next, before asking, "So, what's Crimson Dawn like?"

Kaia sighed. "Well, it's a crime syndicate, for one thing." Merrin, who was now dabbing the cloth against Kaia's slightly bloodied ear, frowned at this. "So, not great. Though I'm hoping to change that.

"And they don't care what they have to do to get what they want." She gestured to her wrist and the bruises on her neck. "Which is what happened on Bracca, except they failed to kill us. They're not going to be happy about that."

"Do you think they'll let you become their leader?" Lyra asked. BD-1 scuttled over to her and nudged her arm. She lifted it, and he nestled under it, letting her rest her arm on him.

Kaia laughed at this before her face went serious again. "Not easily. They're most likely going to try to kill me again. Probably not their best idea." She grinned, and Lyra smiled as well. If Crimson Dawn wanted to kill anyone on this ship, they were going to have a hard time doing it with two Force-users and a Nightsister.

"Hey, kid!" Greez suddenly called. "We're here!"

"This should be interesting," Kaia muttered as she stood up, BD-1 dutifully jumping up onto his perch on her shoulder. Lyra followed close behind into the cockpit, with Merrin abandoning the bacta-and-blood-soaked cloth on the table and bringing up the rear.

The view outside the cockpit of the Mantis was of a snow-covered mountain range that went on as far as the eye could see. In the distance, Lyra saw a yacht floating idly among the mountains.

"Why don't we ever end up on a tropical planet?" Greez grumbled, tapping on the controls. "I could really go for a nice vacation."

"I'm sure you could," Kaia agreed wryly. "But right now we have something more important to take care of."