(no subject)

[imthepilot]

It happened so fast, Bodhi was barely certain of the sequence of events. He had to go over them, again and again to be sure.

He’d travelled with the crew of the large cargo hauler back to the navy dock-yards. Ignoring their jibes the whole way. After the altercation, he was careful not to rise to their jokes. And they were careful not to make the jokes too personal. But they kept joking all the same. Joking about Bodhi, and about his sojourn with the station chief.

Up until one of the haulers saw Bodhi’s back in the fresher. The scars, the burns.

Up until then, they’d thought he’d just been malingering after the crash.

None of them realised how serious his injuries had been.

After that, the jokes stopped.

At the yard, Bodhi had been presented with his new ship. Nothing special. The model up from his old one. Better stabilisers. Better cargo management systems. Updated star charts. That sort of thing. Nothing new or revolutionary.

It had taken him less than an hour to pass regs on it.

Orders were waiting for him. Order to resume his runs to Jedha.

Everything till then had been perfectly normal and as to be expected.

And then it started to go wrong.

Bodhi had touched down at the Imperial held docks on Jedha as normal. But he could feel that things weren’t right. The city felt on edge; strained. Jedha had been a war zone for a while now but… Bodhi could feel it was getting worse.

Like an electrical storm brewing.

Like the moment before a brawl.

He had leave to visit his family, just for the afternoon. The medic on Eadu had seen to that. Near death experiences provide a degree of wiggle room on leave.

As much as he wasn’t sure his mother or brothers would want to see him, he would be glad not to be around then they loaded the kyber into his ship. He don’t want to be a part of that.

He was just walking down the ramp towards the dock gate when it all started to go wrong.

And it all happened so fast.

There was a boy, of no more than ten running towards him, running towards the gate. A boy Bodhi vaguely recognised. Some friend of a friend. The boy was carrying something, waving something.

And then the storm broke.

The sentry guard, already on high alert, opened fire.

The boy’s body flew back, thrown by the pressure of the blaster fire.

Bodhi screamed. Dropped his bag. Ran to the boy.

The boy was dead. It was too late.

The troopers grabbed Bodhi, hauled him back. They were yelling. Something about bombs. Something about attacks on the base. Something about terrorists.

Nothing about a dead child.

Bodhi couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

“I know him! I know him!” That’s all Bodhi could say, over and over. As they dragged him away from the boy’s broken body.

News travels fast in Jedha. Fast as a lightning storm.

The base was under attack less than twenty minutes later. The crowd, the mob beat against the gates of the docks.

Tanks armed with pressurised sand hoses sprayed down the crowd, blinding protesters.

It was all Bodhi could do to keep from screaming. Locked in the imperial compound. Forced out of the way by the troopers.

He had no place in a riot like this.

He was just a pilot.

In the end, they told him to take off, to get his ship out of the way to make room for the incoming troop carriers. More troopers were being send down to manage the situation.

He took his ship over to the far side of the east mesa. Where he couldn’t see NiJedha. Couldn’t see the rising smoke.

He needed to talk to someone. To Galen. But how? Any direct call would be a risk, to Galen’s safety. To what Galen needed him to do. He ran his fingers over the communications board.

The medic.

She’d been kind. She’d been understanding. He’d been hurt and she’d treated him. He had a reason to call her. An excuse. Something no-one could argue with.

He opened a connection without thinking. “I need help. I need to talk to Galen. It’s urgent.”

***

“Chief Erso.” The medic’s voice sounded bored, even a little annoyed over Galen’s comm. “I need you down in medbay. This requisition paperwork hasn’t been signed off properly. And I need it sorted now if I’m going to get it to the pilot in time.”

Comments

[galen_erso]

Galen tries not to run and almost succeeds; he only runs when he thinks nobody can see him.

He arrives at the med bay only five minutes after Bodhi opened the connection.

[imthepilot]

"My office." She says without preamble. "Privacy shielded." She pushes him through and closed the door behind him without preamble.

The line is voice only, Bodhi's fast breathing crackling down the line.

[galen_erso]

"I'm here," Galen says. "I'm here, and the transmission is secure."

As secure as anything ever is in the Empire. Privacy means you're not being listened to in realtime, you're just being encrypted and dropped off on long-term storage at the archives at Scarif right away. What with the unmitigated archival disaster which the whole installation represents, this probably is as secure and private as anything long-range gets in this galaxy these days.

"Bodhi," he adds softly.

[imthepilot]

"Galen!" He's never sounded so distraught. Or relieved. "It has to be now. Jedha is a reactor about to go critical. If I'm going to find him, I have to go now."

[galen_erso]

"What happened?" Galen asks. "Can you tell me?"

A horrible feeling of ice water is washing through his veins. He might never see Bodhi again. Far too soon -- they were supposed to have more time!

But no, now or never. So, now.

[imthepilot]

"The troopers, at the dock. They shot a boy. I think-" his voice breaks. "I think he was a friend of my mother's. They shot him dead. Because he was running towards me. The city, people are rioting. It won't last but-" he tries and fails to suppress a sob.

[galen_erso]

"A boy," Galen echoes, grimly. He doesn't ask how old -- it was a child. He thinks of Jyn. Jyn will be older now, in her twenties.

"You can't afford to wait," he says. "Yes. I can see that.."

[imthepilot]

"I'll hide the ship in the east mesa. No-one will find it there. They won't miss me, not yet. Not with this chaos here. As soon as I get the message to-" he cuts himself off, hesitant to say the name, even in a secure line. "I'll come back for you."

[galen_erso]

"I'll be ready," Galen says.

So now, it has really started. This is where they jump off the cliff.

"Bodhi?"

[imthepilot]

"I'm here. Galen, I love you. No matter what happens, it will be worth it. To be free and with you."

[galen_erso]

'It will be," Galen says. "No matter what. I love you."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi cherishes those words, holding them to his heart. "I don't know how long it will be, till I can reach you. Once I abandon the ship, I won't be able to call. Just... I won't give up. I'll come. Be ready."

[galen_erso]

"At every moment," Galen says, the words catching on his voice.

[imthepilot]

"I have to go. Before they notice I've gone." Bodhi's voice is no less shaky. "Thank the medic for me. I'm sorry. I... stars, Galen. I love you."

[galen_erso]

"I love you, Bodhi," Galen says. "May the Force of Others be with you."

Rarely was that phrase said with more feeling.

[imthepilot]

Bodhi bites back a sob. "The only one I need with me is you." He breaks the connection before he can say anything more. Before he breaks down. He needs to pack what little he has a go. He has a rebel leader to find.

[galen_erso]

Galen slumps at the desk and hides his face in his hands. After a while, he gets up, wipes his face, and then leaves the little office, thanking the medic on the way out -- from both of them. "It meant a lot to be able to hear his voice," he says.

He's crap at lying, so he always tells part of the truth.

[imthepilot]

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks, nodding back towards her office.

[galen_erso]

"I love him, and Jedha is a dangerous place," Galen says, sighing as he follows her back. "He saw a kid shot today."

[imthepilot]

"Is he okay?" She asks, pouring them both a cup of caf and adding a dash of something stronger to Galen's. "Here, this might help. You both seem.... shaken."

[galen_erso]

"He is," Galen says, still standing nervously and worried. "It's not every day you see a child die right before you. Seems the kid was running to Bodhi with a message from a relative. That was too much even for Jedha."

[imthepilot]

"Ah." She clears her throat. "Yeah, fair enough." She takes a long sip of her caf. "How soon till he gets back? I can look into a program of counselling for him."

[galen_erso]

"I'd have thought that the Empire sneers at that sort of thing," Galen says. "You're really so helpful to us, Dr. ---"

He realises that he has only ever called her by her title, not an actual name.

[imthepilot]

"As a rule. Not a rule I have much time for, generally." She shrugs.

"Rochin." She shrugs. "My name is Rochin." She offers him her hand.

[galen_erso]

"Call me Galen," Galen says, shaking her hand.

Then, he finally picks up his caf.