by Ian Doescher
We’ll fly, and strike the oscillator with
Our strongest and our fiercest armaments.
Our pilots and our ships are strong and true,
Prepar’d to fly upon the moment when
Our noble general doth say the word.
ACKBAR
Let us not be o’erhasty in our plan,
But think of ev’ry consequence we may.
What of the strong defenses they have set?
Their shields, belike, may give a mighty slap.
HAN
We’ll undertake to bring their rough shields down.
[To Finn:] Thou wert employ’d thereat. What dost thou think?
FINN
[aside:] My confidence herein doth sorely lack—
To save sweet Rey, though, I must sound most firm.
[To Han:] I am most confident I’ll make it so.
HAN
This lad’s a goodly sort, I’ll warrant, ha!
FINN
Yet further: to undo the shields I must
Be thereupon, e’en on the planet’s face,
For only thence can their strong shields be dropp’d.
HAN
We shall convey thee thither in the Falcon.
LEIA
O, man both quick to move and slow to think,
Is this another unwise Solo scheme?
I prithee, how?
HAN
—Mine answer thou’dst not like—
My thinking being far too slow for thee,
My mind shall keep its private counsel, ma’am.
POE
’Tis settl’d, then: the shields shall be destroy’d,
The oscillator devastated quick,
Their weapon thereby utterly demolish’d.
Their years of hatred shall have been forgot
Within the battle of a minute. Go!
Let us arise and venture forth anon—
For the Resistance and for victory!
[Exeunt Poe, Admiral Ackbar, Admiral Statura, Major Brance, Major Ematt, Snap Wexley, C-3PO, and Resistance soldiers. Han, Chewbacca, and Finn make preparations to leave as Leia watches, aside.
HAN
Bold Chewie, check our ship’s capacitor;
We fly as soon as shall be possible.
And Finn, I bid thee take abundant care
With those metallic spheres—they do explode.
FINN
Now, after I have held them, thou so say’st?
Thou’dst fix me in a Wampa’s company,
And only later tell me it hath fangs!
[Exeunt Chewbacca and Finn.
LEIA
[approaching:] ’Twas always so: however much we fought,
To watch thee leave did fill me with remorse.
HAN
’Twas wherefore I have other places sought:
That thou wouldst miss my heart in time’s due course.
[They embrace.
LEIA
Ay, verily, it work’d: I miss’d thee so.
HAN
’Twas not all bad—our past, our history?
Full many moments e’en, methinks, did glow.
LEIA
They still do glow within my memory.
HAN
Some habits of our lives shall ne’er be chang’d.
LEIA
Indeed, thou still art troubler of my days,
The one who keeps my spirit disarrang’d.
O, Han, if on our son thou chanc’st to gaze,
I prithee, bring him home with thee again:
Then two may yet be three: thou, I, and Ben.
[Exeunt.
SCENE 4.
Inside Starkiller Base.
Enter KYLO REN and STORMTROOPERS.
TROOPER 1
Sir, sensors trigger’d—hangar 718.
Our troops do scan the area e’en now.
We shall yet find the wily, cunning girl.
KYLO
’Tis well. She doth begin to test her pow’rs,
I’ll wager that the longer she’s unfound,
The stronger and more daring she becomes.
Thus must we quickly find her where she hides.
[Exit Kylo Ren.
TROOPER 1
The man is in a frightful mood today.
TROOPER 2
Indeed—this Ren is not a happy sort,
E’er storming ’round the base with angry steps,
Destroying our equipment in his rage,
And threatening our troops with punishment.
How he reminds me of another one
I knew within the Empire long ago.
TROOPER 1
I almost had forgot that thou hast serv’d
Within the Empire many ages hence.
’Tis what, some three or four full decades now?
Say, what hath chang’d in th’intervening years?
TROOPER 2
Far more than thou imaginest, I’ll wager.
TROOPER 1
Indeed?
TROOPER 2
—Indeed. When I began my job,
I did report unto a dreadful man
All garb’d in black, his face hid ’neath a mask,
With vicious moods and lightsaber of red.
TROOPER 1
Hath Kylo Ren been all this time alive?
Methought he was far younger. Is he not?
TROOPER 2
Nay, ’twas not Kylo Ren, but one Darth Vader.
TROOPER 1
I know him not, though I have heard the name.
What of the base whereon thou wert employ’d?
TROOPER 2
A vast, forbidding base form’d in a sphere,
Which some mistook for some celestial body.
It hous’d more soldiers than most armies boast.
Its purpose was to crush a planet whole.
TROOPER 1
Starkiller Base existed even then?
TROOPER 2
Nay, ’twas the Death Star. Wholly different.
TROOPER 1
I see. And who were then thine enemies?
TROOPER 2
A group of young and naïve ingenues:
One who was rais’d upon a planet sparse,
Burnt by the sun and fill’d with sandy dunes.
TROOPER 1
Yet wait—the fugitives for whom we seek?
Thou speakest of the girl from dour Jakku?
Is’t possible we’ve search’d for them this long?
TROOPER 2
Nay, nay, a group dissimilar completely,
A set of naughty youngsters now grown old.
TROOPER 1
What was the oddest place they were pursu’d?
TROOPER 2
Ah, let me think. It must have been the bar—
A strange cantina in a lonely place,
Fill’d with such varied aliens and beasts
As thou could ne’er see in a hundred systems.
TROOPER 1
Forsooth, I know the place! We were just there,
On Takodana—Maz’s castle, ’twas—
Where we fought the Resistance th’other day.
TROOPER 2
Nay, nay, this was near forty years ago,
When one old Jedi fool’d me mightily
With Jedi mind trick nasty and unfair.
He said the droids wherewith he travel’d were
Not those same droids that I was looking for.
TROOPER 1
And yet they were?
TROOPER 2
—Alas, I do confess.
I do regret the terrible mistake,
For which I’ve fac’d more jests than I can count.
TROOPER 1
What of the droids thou sought? What were they like?
TROOPER 2
One of the droids was colorful and domed—
It spoke in beeps and squeaks most insolent.
TROOPER 1
Indeed? The BB unit we do seek?
TROOPER 2
Nay, friend—another droid from scope to wheels.
TROOPER 1
’Tis clear life long ago was different,
And not at all the same as modern times.
I envy thine experience, my comrade—
Thou hast seen so much of our galaxy.
TROOPER 2
So shalt thou, an thou work’st as long as me!
Fate ever weaveth new experience—
No thread the same, unique in ev’ry stitch,
And ev’ry episode both fresh and rich!
[Exeunt.
SCENE 5.
In the Millennium Falcon and on Starkiller Base.
Enter HAN SOLO, CHEWBACCA, and FINN inside the Millennium Falcon, flying at lightspeed toward Starkiller Base.
FINN
How shall we penetrate the planet’s surface?
I’ll warrant thou hast figur’d out the plan.
HAN
The shields of the First Order do maintain
A fractional refresh rate, which doth mean
Aught that doth travel slower than lightspeed
Shall ne’er get through. Yet that shall not be us,
If thou dost catch the message I relay.
FINN
Thou plann’st to landing make at full lightspeed?
CHEWBAC.
Egh!*18
HAN
—Chewie be prepar’d. Now, comrade, now!
Pray, disengage, or we shall run aground.
FINN
O, pull’d most suddenly from lightspeed’s thrust—
We hit the ground, the trees, the surface all,
How we are thrown about, like featherweights!
’Tis madness, what thy plan doth foist on us!
HAN
Though this be madness, yet there’s method in’t.
CHEWBAC.
Auugh!*19
HAN
—Yea, I am a’pulling up! Tut, tut!
CHEWBAC.
Egh, auugh!*20
HAN
—Nay, higher and we shall be seen!
[The Millennium Falcon crashes to a halt on the snowy surface of Starkiller Base.
Enter KYLO REN and TROOPER 1 above, on balcony.
TROOPER 1
She was not found in hangar 718,
Yet ev’ry trooper stayeth on alert.
Methinks the scheming girl shall be found soon.
KYLO
Lock down, I prithee, ev’ry hangar now.
Belike she shall attempt to steal a ship.
If she doth make escape, I am undone,
My search for Skywalker must start anew.
[Aside:] What is this newfound presence that I sense?
Han Solo, come unto Starkiller Base.
The fool—what means he by his presence here?
[Exeunt Kylo Ren and Trooper 1.
FINN
[to Han and Chewbacca:] My stomach is reliev’d to feel the ground,
Its sure and steady presence underfoot—
Far better than the rocking, hurtling ship.
Come hither, to the flooding tunnel spot:
There shall we first make entrance to the base.
HAN
Thou must, as one who was a stormtrooper,
Have knowledge vast of this enormous base.
What was thy task when thou didst work herein?
FINN
It was the pungent field of sanitation.
HAN
Thou art the grim First Order’s garbage man?
The man who took out trash for trashy men?
How then dost thou know how to stop the shields?
FINN
I shall confess to thee: I do not know.
My function here is to retrieve sweet Rey;
The rest, friend, we shall make up as we go.
HAN
Our mission doth rely on our success—
Our comrades do rely on our success—
The galaxy relies on our success!
FINN
Good Solo, all shall yet be fine, methinks.
We shall employ the Force in all its might!
HAN
Thou knowest nothing of the mighty Force
Or how it worketh, folly-laden youth.
CHEWBAC.
Egh!*21
HAN
—Thou art cold? Eh, Wookiee?
FINN
—Follow on!
Enter GENERAL HUX and a TECHNICIAN above, on balcony.
HUX
I bid thee, sirrah, make thy full report.
TECH
The weapon shall be charg’d in fifteen minutes!
Then we may strike the weak Resistance base.
HUX
Yet fifteen minutes and our work’s complete,
Yea, fifteen minutes for our rise to come,
But fifteen minutes left for the Resistance:
These fifteen minutes cannot be too swift.
[Exeunt General Hux and technician. Han, Chewbacca, and Finn enter the base.
HAN
The longer we do spend our time hereon,
The less that lady luck doth smile on us.
O, luck, if thou wert ever lady to begin,
O, luck, be thou a lady in this base.
Now, Bigness, what is thy plan for the shields?
Heav’n help us, thou still art the leader here.
FINN
No plan is fix’d, but thoughts begin to fly.
I’d find one with the right authority,
A foe with top credentials in this base.
Enter CAPTAIN PHASMA.
This is the focal point of my idea—
She is the perfect foil for my design.
[Finn motions to Han and Chewbacca, and they overtake Captain Phasma.
Dost thou remember me, phantasm foul?
PHASMA
A nickel wit: FN-2187.
FINN
Nay, nay, now I am Finn. A-ha! ’Tis Finn!
I am in charge of thee—I am in charge!
Finn is in charge, and leads the charge, and doth
Charge thee to feel the current of my charge!
HAN
Pray, Bigness, calm—charge down thy batteries.
Thou hast the upper hand, but bear it well.
FINN
Now follow, Captain Phasma. We have work.
[Finn, Han, and Chewbacca walk Captain Phasma to the control room, guarding her.
Enter REY, on balcony.
REY
I broke my bonds, but am not wholly free.
The chair, the cell, those have I left behind,
But I must find a way to steal a ship,
Remove myself from this bleak house wherein
Our foes reside, and then return unto
Our mutual friends, wherever they may be.
Rey would be free! Not part, but all of her,
I have great expectations of escape,
But have not heard the chimes of liberty.
The battle of my life doth turn and twist—
It seems ’tis a tale of two citizens—
One Rey on copper fields of drab Jakku,
One Rey who shares hard times with the Resistance.
Ah, what the dickens shall my future hold?
[Exit Rey.
FINN
Thou hast one option, else I’ll happ’ly fire
The helmet from thy pate: force down the shields.
PHASMA
Thy faults are sterling in their dreadfulness.
FINN
Pray, do it. [She deactivates the shields.] Solo, should this find success,
We’ll have but little time for filching Rey.
HAN
Fear not, lad, we shall not sans her depart.
PHASMA
It seemeth mercury doth quickly rise
If thou hast grown to be so passing ill
That thou think’st ’twill be simple. My bold troops
S
hall storm this block and kill you all anon.
Thou e’er wert weak and never shall succeed.
FINN
Nay, fiend, thou art mistaken. [To Han:] What of her?
How shall we of this enemy dispose?
HAN
Is there a trash compactor?
FINN
—Aye, my friend.
HAN
’Twill show the justice of the galaxy:
One thing is certain: she shall thinner be.
[Exeunt.
* * *
*18 Editor’s translation: For fortitude, not prudence, are we known!
*19 Editor’s translation: O, captain of insanity: pull up!
*20 Editor’s translation: Methinks at least a little higher, Han!
*21 Editor’s translation: Can we press on? My fur is getting chill’d!
SCENE 6.
At the Resistance base on D’Qar and in the air above Starkiller Base.
Enter GENERAL LEIA ORGANA, ADMIRAL STATURA, C-3PO, and an OFFICER above, on balcony. Enter POE DAMERON, SNAP WEXLEY, NIEN NUNB, YOLO ZIFF, and ELLO ASTY in their ships.
OFFICER
My general, the shields are down at last,
And we may undertake our bold offense!
C-3PO
O, thank the maker!
LEIA
—Han achiev’d the feat!
Send in the pilots to begin th’assault.
STATURA
