SotR - 5 - Another happy landing

“I’m trying!” Rey yelled back.

Rey didn’t have much time to think. A heavy canopy of trees stood not far off, and she steered the ship in that direction.

“Where are you going?” Poe asked, his gaze on the thing chasing them.

“Those trees are pretty close together, and that thing is pretty big. Let’s see how it does in the jungle.”

Poe leaned back in his chair and gave Rey a slightly panicked look. “I said I was sorry I doubted you were a great pilot. That doesn’t mean you have to prove me wrong.”

That made Rey grin. “Hold on.”

The Millennium Falcon tilted hard, BB-8 rolling this way and that as he tried to account for the rapid change in direction. The ship was slower than Rey would have liked due to multiple engines being down, but it still zigzagged through the trees, faster and easier than the creature chasing them could.

The intercom crackled to life. “Um, guys, what’s happening up there?” Rose asked, her voice a little shaky.

“We’re trying to avoid being eaten, Rose,” Poe said.

“Oh, well, good to know. But if you keep pushing the engines like this we’re going to—”

Rose was cut off as one of the remaining engines went out, and Rey gripped the yoke. “HOLD ON!” she yelled. The Falcon pitched and rolled, threatening to smash into the trees that pressed in from all directions. Rey managed to keep the ship from crashing into any of the huge green towers of the jungle. Just when she began to despair, an open space appeared.

Rey turned the ship toward the perfectly sized clearing, the Falcon landing harder than usual. The ship creaked and protested as it slid to a stop, and the restraints pulled tight against Rey’s body as she was yanked forward and then thrown back.

In the quiet that followed the hard landing, Rey took a deep breath and let it out. “Is everyone okay?” she asked.

BB-8 chirped a positive and Poe groaned. “Great crash.”

“That was not a crash,” Rey said. “It was a rough landing.”