Chapter Text
Lara had been on the Finalizer for a month and was still feeling out of step on the huge star ship. She kept getting lost on the way to the canteen and then getting lost again on the way back to the flight deck. She had been reprimanded three times already for unpunctual arrival at the morning meeting and this morning she was going to avoid this embarrassment. She was going to set off ten minutes early and hopefully would not get side tracked by the vast expanse of stars at officers lounge C. She must focus. It was just so hard at the moment.
She wiped steam away from her mirror. Her worried face looked back at her and she felt like she was looking at a stranger with her grey first order uniform snug at her neck. Her one pip marking her out as fresh from the cadet academy. She smoothed her blond bob behind her ears and then reached for the blue contact lenses she favoured at the moment. Perhaps she would choose this colour permanently when they next they had leave. She was told one could do it cheaply and safely on one of the core worlds. It looked nice but it seemed a bit dull when there were so many other options to choose from. She added dark kohl around her eyes, pink rouge to her cheeks and a dusky red colour to her lips.
Her mother had always told her to be well turned out. Make the most of her appearance. She found herself repeating the words under her breath. “Always make the effort, never let it slip, make yourself perfection, it’s not a deception, what they see is what they get.” She smiled brightly at her reflection.
She added her cap and pinned it in place with the bright little pins they had given her. She added her scent. Night blossom from Askam 4. She had been to the planet once when she had been a teenager and remembered swimming in cool pools with the smell of the blossom floating over the water. She shook her head for a moment. She must focus or she would be late again.
She left her small quarters and started walking towards the command centre. She was hungry but she would wait for lunch. She had been eating too much again. She shook her head in disgust. Always thinking about food. At the academy she had been forced to exercise for hours every day now she was sitting for a lot of the day. And then there were the sweet Bascum cakes that she could get whenever she wanted them. She definitely felt slightly rounder than when she had come aboard.
She had never expected to find herself on the command vessel so early in her career. The expectation had been that she would have another year of academy training focussing on a specialty, but then at the end of the second year things had changed. Her teachers had noticed her skills as a pilot and with hand to hand combat combined with her outstanding leadership tests they had chosen to fast track her to senior management. That meant getting experience here on the ship that held the top brass of the first order.
She also suspected that the destruction of Star Killer base meant that she was having to fill the shoes of someone who had lost their life to the rebels. She didn’t know what to think of that. Was she safe here? Why couldn’t she just have ended up on one of the backwater bases? She felt like she wasn’t meant to be here. She shook her head disgusted with her own thoughts.
She walked in to the command centre and kept her eyes on the grey walkway in front of her.
“Ahh Junior Officer Lane, so glad you could join us on time this morning.” Hux was his usual observant self. She found herself going red as some of the other officers smirked. “Meeting room 77 in ten minutes please.” He looked at his data pad. “You are on sensors desk eight today.”
He turned away from her as she saluted and said the obligatory. “Yes Sir.”
Already looking for another target. That man loved pointing out other peoples inadequacies. Lara went to her allotted terminal and started checking the report that had been left by the previous shift. Nothing especially of note, although one sensor was reporting a fault. It wasn’t an external sensor so would not be of high priority but since nothing else was going on she would fill in a work order later on after the morning management meeting.
Speaking of which. She got to her feet and walked down the corridor to meeting room 77. She was only the second person to enter but didn’t go and sit at the oval grey table. That was just for the top officers. She would wait quietly by the wall. Soon the room was filling and finally Hux came and took his place at the head of the table. There was one place left unfilled next to his chair. Hux looked at it with irritation.
“Maddox, could you kindly go and enquire if Kylo Ren would be so good as to join us some time this morning.”Hux stabbed at his data pad while Maddox took a step forward looking like a man who had been given a death sentence.
“No need.” His deep modulated voice carried through the room and then he walked in like a dark storm brewing. He pulled out the chair carelessly and sat, his posture strangely irreverent in comparison to the officers of the first order. Lara looked at him with interest and awe. He didn’t come to all the meetings and she had only seen him a handful of times before. He seemed to dwarf the other people in the room in a physical and non physical way. Lara would swear she could feel waves of frustration and aggression coming from him from feet away. The little hairs on the back of her arms started to stand on end and she found herself fidgeting. One bad tempered glance from Hux stopped her at once.
Hux cleared his throat and then started. “I’ve gathered the officers together today because we have a new mission. We will be heading to an outer rim world called Yotan. Some aspects of the mission are need to know only but what I can tell you is that we will need to be gathering a type of ore from the planet. I will expect groups of officers to lead up teams to go to the planet surface. I will assign you your groups in the next few weeks.” He paused and frowned. “Kylo Ren will be in overall charge of the ore, it’s storage and movement so I expect you all to consult with him on these aspects of the mission.” He sniffed. It was obvious that he was annoyed that Kylo Ren was involved at all. He turned to the man in question “Do you have anything to add?” Kylo waited a few moments too long before he shook his head slightly.
“Alright dismissed.” Hux got up and left before anybody else had moved. Kylo still sat at the table unmoving as officers gave him a wide berth on the way out of the room. Lara had heard rumours that he could read thoughts which was very alarming considering the strange ideas that sometimes floated through her mind. Which was why when she walked passed him she kept her thoughts centred on Bascum cakes. Sweet and delicious, the honey always seemed to drip down her chin and then she would have lick her sticky fingers clean. She moved out of the room and then was then annoyed that she really did want some cake. Typical.
After filling out the work order for the broken sensor she found herself moving towards the the officers mess and while she tried very hard to reach for fruit, in the end she was at her table in the corner with two sticky Bascum cakes and extra strong caff. She was starving and the cakes were amazing. She sighed happily. Moments later she was joined by Sam a slightly senior officer who worked the day shift with her.
“Hows your morning going Laney?” He was blond with dimples and seemed to get a lot of female attention and some male. Reportedly he liked it all.
“Peachy.” She smiled back. “I wasn’t late! I think I deserve some sort of prize.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “More cake?”
“Ahh no more cake. I’m getting fat.”
Sam guffawed. “You are not fat! You are getting nicely curvy. It’s the way I like my women.” His grin was very flirtatious and made her feel slightly hot. “And now I’m definitely getting you more cake.” He sauntered off to the serving machine with a wink.
While he was at the machine Toni Ardot walked up to him. She only knew him vaguely as he was generally on the second shift while she was in the first. They both came back to the table with a small plate heaped with cakes. Lara giggled.
“That is ridiculous!” She protested.
“What? It’s a big occasion when Lara Lane is not late you know.” Sam grinned again and Lara could totally see why so many had not resisted his charms. “We will be kind and help you.” With that he picked up a dripping square of cake and popped it in his mouth without getting any honey anywhere. After he had swallowed he turned to the other man. “You’ve met Toni haven’t you?”
She smiled as he reached across the table and took her hand for a moment. He was a large man with big meaty hands. He obviously worked out a great deal.
“A pleasure. Your new to the ship aren’t you?” His voice was nice and low.
“Been here three months. Just about finding my way round now. Just about.” She looked mock sad and then smiled. He smiled back.
“We are having a little gathering on viewing deck three at twenty four hundred hours. It would be great if you came along for a bit. You would meet some of the people on the other shifts.” He looked at her intently but seemed kindly enough. Lara looked at Sam.
“Are you going Sammy?”
“You betcha Laney! There is a rather interesting brunet that I would just love to know a little better on shift two.” He grinned evilly. Although nothing looked too alarming on his dimpled face.
The afternoon went without a hitch other than the sugar low that hit mid way. She found her eyes getting heavy and tried to focus on the report that had come in from one of the other ships in the vicinity. She must have dropped off for a moment because suddenly she was jumping with fright as Hux smashed a hand down on the panel beside her.
“Junior Officer Lane!”
“Yes Sir!”
"My office. Five minutes."
Lara nodded dejectedly.
“I think I should be hearing something at this point Lane.” She could tell that Hux was enjoying himself.
“Yes Sir.”
Five minutes later Lara was stood outside the centre of Hux’s domain. Not that anything distinguished it from the rest of the ship. Hux was a pretty spartan fellow all things considered.
Lara nibbled on the end of a pale pink fingernail. She idly thought she might have found him quite attractive if it wasn’t for the officiousness and the fact he took neat to all new levels of annoying. She wondered what he would look like with stubble.
“Come.” Hux’s slightly nasal voice called out of his perpetually open door.
As Lara entered she found Hux knee deep in plans and maps. He ran a hand through his hair in irritation and mussed it up slightly. Lara had to resist the temptation to smile at this small sign of humanity.
"Generally I have been pleased with you progress Lane but you need keep your focus if you are going to get ahead in the First Order.” He looked up at her and she was surprised to see that he didn’t have is usually superior look on his face. “I like you and I think you are very capable…just turn up on time and get enough sleep. I swear half the time you seem to be walking round in a daze.” He leant back in his chair and she thought she detected the ghost of a smile. “Last week I’m sure you tripped over the same floor socket three times.” He paused. She had turned bright red.
“Sorry Sir.”
"I've had it moved."
“What?” She looked at him in puzzlement.
“The floor socket.” It was his turn to look just slightly embarrassed.
“Thank you Sir.” She looked at the floor.
“I have noticed that you have raised a work order for a faulty sensor on floor nineteen quadrant A. Chase that up tomorrow. It’s not been fixed.” She nodded at him and he raised an expectant eyebrow. After a beat she got the message.
“Yes Sir.”
“Dismissed.” She started to turn away “Oh and Lane?”
“Yes Sir.”
"On time please." She smiled at him.
“Yes Sir.”