Bonded

Chapter 31: Hero

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Rey catches up with a friend before her mission to Kaddak.

"I don't know, Rey." Poe shakes his head. "I think we're gonna have to replace the whole turbine." He leans forward on the grimy basement floor, pointing to the inner workings of the generator. "The armature's damaged, the rectifier's shot, and even if we could reroute the power through the MT control, we'd still have problems with the field coil."

Rey sighs. "No. Poe, I told you, there's no need to replace the turbine when we can shunt the field coil with a part from an old deactivator." She gestures to the machine in pieces behind her.

At this, BB-8 perks up. It starts rolling towards the deactivator.

"What?" Poe jerks back. "That won't work."

BB8 halts.

"That'll just cause a bunch of problems with start-up."

The droid's head droops. It turns, rolling back to Poe.

"No, it won't," Rey insists. "Trust me, I've patched up plenty of generators with parts from a deactivator and they work just fine."

Poe grunts. "Except for this one." He points to the machine in front of them. "And two over there." He waves down a long line of generators. "And one on the west side."

Rey rolls her eyes. "I wasn't the one who repaired those. If I had, we wouldn't be down here."

"Regardless, not everything can be fixed by patching it up with an old part." Poe waves a hand dismissively. "At some point, you gotta call it a day and just gut it— pull out the turbine, maybe even the DC reverter."

Rey groans, covering her eyes with a palm. "You never learn, do you?" She wipes her hand over her face. "This just like Clava's Palace, always going for the most extreme solution when there's a simpler one right in front of you."

Poe lets out a sigh, sitting back on his calves.

"I wanted to slip in through the docks, completely unnoticed, but nooo, that wasn't good enough for you, was it? Instead, we had to dress up as pleasure slaves, infiltrate the court, make a big scene in front Clava and everyone. And how did that turn out again?" She cocks her head.

"You're never gonna let that go, are you?" Poe grumbles.

"No, I am not," Rey answers succinctly, leaning in to inspect the generator. A few seconds pass as she examines the field coil.

"It was worth it."

Rey glances at Poe, brows knitted.

He gives a sly look. "To see you in that outfit."

"What!?" Rey gives him a hard shove, and he topples over, right into BB8.

The droid squeals, rolling back to regain its balance.

Poe rises to his knees, snickering and clearly pleased with himself.

Rey shakes her head. "I wasn't the one who was propositioned five times in ten minutes." She points at him.

He just shrugs. "Can't help that I'm handsome." He winks at her.

Rey looks away, fighting back a smile. "So, what are we going to do about this." She gestures to the generator.

Poe straightens, refocusing on their work. "I think..." He clicks his tongue. "We need a tie breaker." He looks to BB8. "What do you think, buddy? Should we replace the turbine or throw in an old part, try to patch things up?"