Fear and Sabers | (The Push of a Button #1)

Set in Motion

"Sidolus?" I asked as I followed Rey into a nearby elevator. She nodded as the doors closed, the elevator descending with a low hum.

"Yes. We make planet fall in about, oh two days? Hopefully sooner." Rey's expression was one of concern.

"Who's atacking them?" I asked, curious.

"Well," Rey hesitated with a sigh. "Remnants of the First Order have still been causing trouble. It's not a huge issue, they're more annoying than actually being a threat, but we need to stop them. They're still hurting innocents."

"Wait," I held up my hands, trying to understand. "I thought this was First Order." I gestured around.

"Gracious no," Rey shook her head. "The First Order was defeated years ago."

I blinked. Apparently I had missed a large chunk of important knowledge in Star Wars history. Well, I couldn't be blamed. Episode IX had just started filming. But if they had just started- I looked around for a camera....or something.

"You really are from a distant planet," Rey smiled and shook her head. "I'll have to inform you of everything you missed out on."

"Yeah. We should probably start when you left Crait," I said, mostly to myself.

The elevator doors whooshed open, and we stepped out into the largest room I had ever seen. If I hadn't known better I would have thought we were outside. The walls stretched for miles. We certainly were on a huge ship, that was for sure. I gawked as Rey led me inside the hangar. She turned and smiled at my open shock and pointed towards what I recognized were-

"AT-ATs," Rey said. "They're the AT-M6's smaller cousins." Her tone turned wistful. "Ben still hasn't let me drive one. He says they're 'too dangerous' in battle. Easy to blow up." She rolled her eyes. "One of these days I'm going to sneak inside and take a few shots."

I laughed at her cheeky smile.

"See that?" She pointed towards our left, where there was a flurry of activity. Large mechanical arms drilled into sheet metal, throwing sparks. The pieces were then attached by hand to the strangest looking thing I had ever seen. It was some sort of drill, with arms....and a steering thingy coming off the side. It wasn't very big, but as I looked I noticed more were being constructed behind it.

"What is that?".

"It's a harvester. Ben's design," Rey stated proudly. "It harvests the bitter roots that come from the planet Sidolus, the one we're headed to. They're great for healing, but a pain to dig out of the ground." Rey reached for a nearby datapad and showed me the screen. After a few taps, she pulled up a hologram. I gasped at the lovely tree that sprung to life before my eyes.

"That's the Sidol tree."

"It looks huge," I breathed.

"It is. The roots are even bigger." The hologram shifted, and I peered at the maze of roots that skimmed just below the surface of the ground. "It's solid wood, but the heart of the root is soft. It takes the villagers many months to get the pulp out, and they only have a short window of time. Once the cold rains come, the tree's nutrients retreat in on itself to preserve its integrity from too much rain."

"So, Kylo designed the harvesters for them?"

"Yep." Rey pulled up a holo of the completed harvester. "This drills into the heart of the roots and gently extracts the pulp. It saves time, and money. The people of Sidolus will be much more productive, and hopefully their towns will begin to prosper. They are very poor. Most people cheat them out of their rightful earnings."

I could tell from Rey's forceful tone she felt very strongly about it. I asked another question as we began walking.

"What does the root do?"