THE Falcon’s hasty jump into hyperspace jostled Finn around the medbay, but didn’t rip him apart. The wounded Wookiee seemed eager to do that himself. Every time Finn administered an injection or tried to apply a bandage, Chewbacca bellowed and shook Finn with such force that he thought his arms might fly off.

“Chewie, you’ve got to let go of me, understand? Help me out here!”

The Wookiee grunted, only tightening his grip on Finn. Worse yet, alarms began to wail throughout the ship, making it hard for Finn to think.

He turned toward the doorway and yelled as loud as he could. “I need help with this fuzzball!”

Han popped into the medbay with a growl of his own. “You hurt Chewie, you deal with me.”

“Hurt him? He’s almost killed me six times!” Finn complained. Chewbacca grabbed his shirt and snarled. “Which is…fine,” Finn stammered.

Han rushed off to deal with the alarms, muttering something about the hyperdrive.

Yet Han’s appearance, albeit brief, did much to calm Chewbacca, and Finn managed to bandage the Wookiee’s shoulder without losing any limbs.

When the alarms fell silent, Han returned to the medbay. Finn stepped out of the way and started to toy with the holochess set. He listened as Chewbacca groaned something to Han that sounded apologetic.

“No, don’t say that. You did great.” Han checked the bandaging. “You’re gonna be fine.” He glanced at Finn. “Good job. Thanks.”

Surprised by Han’s gratitude, Finn hesitated. “You’re welcome.”

Holographic creature chess pieces materialized above the board, making noises of their species types. Embarrassed, Finn searched for the off button. Han seemed amused that Finn couldn’t find it. “So, you’re fugitives, huh?”

Finn cocked his head in the direction of BB-8. “The First Order will kill all of us for that map in the little guy’s brain.” His fingers flicked a control and the chess pieces disappeared.

Rey walked in, with a nod toward Finn and the droid. “They’re with the Resistance, and I’m with them.”

Han looked Finn and Rey over once again, then turned to BB-8. “Let’s see what you got.”

BB-8 rotated a lens on his dome and projected in the air a partial three-dimensional map of the galaxy. Finn gaped at stars, solar systems, and nebulae he’d never seen.

Han drew an invisible line through the map. “This isn’t complete. It’s just a piece.”

Finn squinted at the map. There were stellar clusters that didn’t fit next to each other and dark patches that should be populated with planets and stars.

“Ever since Luke disappeared, people have been looking for him,” Han said.

“Why’d he leave?” Rey asked.

Han hesitated, then let out a breath. “He was training a new generation of Jedi. One boy—an apprentice—turned against him and destroyed it all.” Han’s wrinkles seemed to multiply at the recollection. “Luke felt responsible. He walked away from everything.”

That wasn’t what the First Order had ever told Finn. “You know what happened to him?”

“There have been all kinds of rumors and stories,” Han said. “The people who knew him the best think he went looking for the first Jedi Temple.”

Rey looked stunned. “The Jedi were real?”

“I used to wonder that myself. A bunch of mumbo jumbo, I thought. Some magical power holding together good and evil, light and dark.” Han shook his head and smiled. “Crazy thing is, it’s all real. The Jedi, the Force, it’s…true. It’s all true.”

Finn’s brain hurt. His conception of the universe was falling apart. Did the Jedi and the Force actually exist? Had the First Order lied about them, too? Finn doubted a smuggler as seasoned as Han Solo would believe in such myths unless he had seen hard proof that they were real.

What Han said next could not be disputed. He used Finn’s own words. “The First Order will kill all of us for that map.”

Death would be the most merciful outcome, Finn feared, if Kylo Ren was the one to find them.

Kylo Ren stood with General Hux in the cavernous command room of the First Order’s hidden military outpost, Starkiller Base. At this off-duty hour, all techs and officers had vacated the chamber, allowing Ren and Hux the privacy to converse with Supreme Leader Snoke. His hologram shimmered before them on an elevated dais, giant in size though he himself was gaunt. He sat on a throne, steepling his spindly fingers. The flesh visible under his robe glowed with a pale pink translucence. Scars marked his forehead and chin, and his nose, once broken, protruded at a painful angle. But most disconcerting was the imbalance of his eyes. They peered out from his hood like two dark stars, his left eye lower than his right. Shadow veiled the rest of him, which only reinforced the commanding presence of his voice.

“The droid will soon be in the hands of the Resistance,” Snoke said. “This will give our enemy the means to locate Skywalker and bring to their cause a most powerful ally. If Skywalker returns, the new Jedi will rise.”

Hux lowered his head in deference. “Supreme Leader, I take full responsibility for the—”

“Your apologies are not a strategy, General. We are here, now. It’s what happens next that matters.”

Ren kept quiet, allowing Hux to do the speaking. “I do have a proposition. The weapon. We have it. It is ready. I believe the time has come to use it.”

“Against?” the Supreme Leader asked.

“The Republic. Their center of government, its entire system,” Hux said. “In the chaos that follows, the Resistance will no doubt investigate an attack of such a devastating scale, and in the process—”

“Reveal themselves,” Snoke interjected.

Hux nodded. “And if they don’t, we’ve destroyed them.”

“Yes…audacious…Good. Go,” the Supreme Leader ordered Hux. “Oversee preparations.”

Hux bowed before the hologram. “Yes, Supreme Leader.” He walked out of the chamber, leaving Ren alone with the image.

Snoke’s voice assumed a fatherly tone. “I never had a student with such promise…before you.”

“It’s your teachings that make me strong, Supreme Leader,” Ren said.

“It is far more than that. It is where you are from. What you are made of. The dark side,” the Supreme Leader said, hesitating before saying the next words, “and the light.”

Ren felt the Supreme Leader’s eyes, incorporeal though they were, probing him. “Kylo Ren,” he went on, “I watched the Galactic Empire rise and fall. The historians have it wrong. It was neither poor strategy nor arrogance that brought down the Empire. You know, too well, what did.”

Ren spit out the answer as if it were poison. “Sentiment.”

“Yes. Sentiment,” the Supreme Leader said. “Had Lord Vader not succumbed to emotion at that critical moment—had the father killed the son—there would be no threat of Skywalker’s return today.”

Ren understood that the Supreme Leader had brought up Vader to test him. “I am immune to the light,” Ren said, standing tall and firm. “By the grace of your training, I will not be seduced.”

“There has been an awakening in the Force. Have you felt it?”

“Yes,” Ren said.

“The elements align, Kylo Ren. You alone are caught in the winds of a powerful storm. Your bond is not just to Vader, but to Skywalker himself. Leia—”

“There is no need for concern. Together we will destroy the Resistance,” Ren assured his master, “and the last Jedi.”

“Perhaps. The droid we seek is aboard the Millennium Falcon, once again piloted by your father, Han Solo. Even you, a master of the Knights of Ren, have not faced such a test.”

Ren did his best to hide his surprise. “It does not matter. He means nothing to me. By the grace of your training, I will not be seduced.”

Ren bowed and turned to leave, feeling the Supreme Leader’s gaze weighing on him well after he had exited the chamber.

Rey stared out the cockpit canopy of the Millennium Falcon. The streaks of lightspeed had coalesced into their destination, a single spectacular planet. Beneath a cloud layer sparkled a world of greens and blues. A tangle of lakes and rivers surrounded verdant landforms lush with vegetation. If Jakku had an opposite, Takodana was it.

“I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy,” she said.

Her awe only grew when the Falcon landed and she disembarked, taking in an unfiltered view of the environment. An ancient fortress built of stone lay between a glass-clear lake and a dense, vibrant forest.

Han walked down the boarding ramp toward her. He held out a blaster pistol. She glanced at it. “I’ve been in tough situations. I can handle myself.”

“That’s why I’m giving it to you,” Han said.

She took the blaster. It was an antiquated model, much like the Falcon. “It’s heavy.”

“You know how to fire that?”

She smirked at him. “You aim it and pull the trigger.”

“A bit more to this model. Put a little effort in, get more result out,” Han said. “You got a name?”

She lifted the weapon and pointed it at her surroundings, practicing her aim. “Rey.”

“Rey,” he said, as if trying it out. “Rey, I’ve been thinking about taking on some more crew. A second mate. Someone who can keep up with Chewie and me and who’s smart enough to know when to keep out of the way.” His voice lost some of its bite. “Someone who appreciates the Falcon.”

“Are you giving me a job?” she asked.

“It doesn’t pay right away. And I’m not going to be nice to you—”

“You’re offering me a job.”

“I’m just thinking about it,” Han said.

Rey chose her next words carefully. “Well…if you did, I’d be flattered. But there’s somewhere I need to be.”

“Jakku?”

“I’ve already been away too long,” Rey said.

Han nodded. “Let me know if you change your mind.” He leaned toward the Falcon’s hatch. “Chewie! Check her out the best you can. We won’t be here long.” He pivoted back. “You smile too much, Rey.”

Rey didn’t stop smiling as he walked away.