Free Star Wars: Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka Page B

something to be proud of, though pride itself was a new feeling for her and she didn’t know what to do with it. It wouldn’t take much more to finish the job, to return the Ghtroc to something of its former glory. Shecould see the end in sight.
    Maybe that’s the trouble
, she thought. Maybe that was the reason for the sickening, dull feeling that started in her gut. The sensation seemed to swirl and dance as it rose to her mind, yet it stayed just out of reach. It was as if Rey was chasing images in a dream—images she couldn’t identify or name.
    Rey rolled from side to side on her blankets, struggling to getcomfortable, trying to push away thoughts that refused to leave. She didn’t trust Devi or Strunk, either of them alone and certainly not together. Yet each time she had that thought, she remembered everything they
had
done, all the times they’d kept their word. They had delivered on every promise. They had followed her instructions. They had, without question, helped bring the freighter back tolife. She
should
trust them. She
wanted
to trust them.
    But Rey couldn’t. They would betray her. Try to trick her. Try to steal the prize, cut her out of the sale. As much as she wanted to believe otherwise, she was certain that Devi and Strunk would turn on her, and soon.
    The ship was alone, unprotected, out in the desert.
    It was the dead of night and bitterly cold.
    Rey sat up and reachedfor her boots in the dark. She pulled them on, then found her goggles and her staff. She took one of the blankets and switched on a light long enough to find a knife. She cut a slit in the blanket’s center, then pulled it over her head, wearing it as a poncho. She switched off the light, shoved the door open, and stepped into the desert night. Somewhere, out beyond the dunes, Rey heard the distanthowl of a gnaw-jaw summoning its swarm.
    The world was bright. The stars were magnificent and turned the desert a luminescent gray. Rey drove, goggles over her eyes and head down, the makeshift poncho weak protection against the cold. Her hands ached on the speeder’s controls. She went faster than she should’ve but not as fast as she could, and a sickening sense of dread pushed at her from within,as if it could climb from her belly to her throat.
    She wasn’t afraid of violence. She didn’t enjoy it, but she wasn’t afraid of it. It was a necessary part of surviving on Jakku. She’d learned to defend herself early. She had been in more fights than she could remember. More wins than losses, thankfully. She was good enough that the word had spread in Niima to stay clear of her and what she coulddo with her staff. She could fight. She would fight, if necessary.
    Devi, Rey decided, would be the dangerous one. Strunk was strong, but he was slow and followed Devi’s lead. Devi was quick, and Rey had seen the vibro-knife she carried on her belt, knew that she wore a cut-down shock stick strapped to her left leg, beneath her pants. If it came to a fight, Rey would go for Devi first. Then she’ddeal with Strunk.
    She wasn’t looking forward to it.

    The ship was exactly as Rey had left it, undisturbed and silent. She slid the speeder into cover at the aft end of the ship, then stopped and listened to the silence of the desert. There was no wind. There was no sound but her own breathing. She shivered, rubbed her aching, cold hands together, heard the sand whispering beneath her feet asshe walked to the loading ramp and keyed the passcode. The ramp lowered on its hydraulics, the noise of it sudden and all the louder in the stillness of the night.
    Rey climbed aboard, then shut and locked the ramp behind her. It was dark in the main compartment, lit by only the faint glow of starlight creeping in from the cockpit corridor. She followed the light into the cockpit and lowered herselfinto the pilot’s seat. She pulled her goggles down so they hung at her neck and laid her staff across her thighs.
    She felt foolish. She’d been so certain