Lance Alone

Part 5 (Lance)

Lance started driving his pod straight, trying to go as far as he could. There was a nearby planet they recently visited, Alatoch, where the Galra presence was minimal. It was a highly metropolitan planet, one big city that controlled the flow of traffic through the galaxy. It was monitored by one of the lower-level Galra leaders, who mostly accepted bribes to allow free commerce to continue. The people that lived and worked on Alatoch were so wealthy that they could avoid most of the harsh rule the Galra inflicted, so long as they kept their heads down and their mouths shut. The rebel presence there was very limited, since most of the people living there were actually pretty comfortable with the lax rule above them. The few that did resist the Empire did it in small ways; they allowed for travel and communications between factions of the Resistance, keeping them safe from the Galra as they traveled. Much like an underground railroad. If Lance could communicate to them, they could probably help him get home. After all, his little pod wouldn't make the trip; even getting to Alatoch was slow, monotonous, and would take almost three vargas.

After a while, Lance felt himself losing interest. There was nothing to see except for the inky blackness of space all around him. A trip that started out as exciting and terrifying at the same time turned into sheer boredom. He tried playing some music, but he quickly ran out. Besides, all the songs he brought with him from Earth had long since become overplayed. He was tired of listening to the same things over and over again. He started humming his own songs, made up on top of his head. Back when he was a kid, he did this more often to entertain himself. For a while, he even wanted to be a musical artist when he grew up. That was before he discovered the beauty of space and decided to apply to the Garrison. He would walk around the house, singing songs he made up. Some of them were pretty good, at least in his mind. But they always left too quickly before he could write them down. The songs he sang now weren't nearly as entertaining; the only things he could think about singing about were the things around him, and not much rhymed with "plasma engine". He missed his guitar. He missed summer nights, sitting around the campfire with his family and friends, roasting marshmallows under the full moon.

His last night at home before leaving for the Garrison, they had a bonfire like that. The whole street came out, throwing on logs to feed the flames and singing along. Everyone hugged him, some people more than once. "We're going to miss you so much, Lance," his neighbor told him, "I guess a talented boy like you can't stick around in his little hometown forever. We have to share you with the world eventually."

"Thank you, Mrs. Hodges," he hugged her back, "I'm going to miss you all so much."

The last of the warm summer nights for the year. Everything about it was perfect. And the next morning, when he packed his bags and left for the Garrison, the street hissed with light rain as if the sky itself was crying. Faces of friends appeared in the windows, waving him goodbye for the trip. He missed that sort of rain, the kind that filled the roads with fog. He missed thunderstorms too, the kind that shook the whole house and sent his little siblings runing for cover under their bedsheets. He missed the way the wind would howl around that house, and the sunny days down by the beach, and every other sort of weather in between. He missed it more than he could bear. Well, it wouldn't be long now.

The monotony came to an abrupt halt when something started beeping on the radar. There was an incoming ship, on a collision course with him--and it was Galra. They spotted him--probably didn't know who he was, probably just thought he was a passing ship, but Lance felt naked and unarmed without his Lion. Looking over the array of controls, he started to panic. Without weapons, there was no way to attack. The only weapon he brought was his bayard, but that wouldn't work. It wasn't powerful enough against the ships, and he would have to leave the cockpit just to shoot it. They were locked onto his position, so he couldn't just steer away.

No, maybe he could--there was a small asteroid field just a short distance away, he could probably get to it before the Galra could get to him. The rocks spun, agitated and dangerous. He had never flown in something so difficult. The only thing that came close was an Asteroid Escape Drill at the Garrison, and he failed that one miserably. Besides, the point of that exercise was to escape the field. He never willingly flew into one.

"Unidentified vessel. State your name, transit code, and business," a voice came over his communications radio. Lance could see the ship now, sharp and purple and easily twice the size of his humble pod. He had faced plenty of those before, but never without the Blue Lion or his fellow paladins. he wasn't a paladin anymore.

"Ah, quiznak!" He turned sharply to the right, towards the nearest spinning asteroids. He dodged the biggest ones before the Galra cruiser started to catch on. It turned towards the field to pursue him.

"Unidentified vessel! Report your name, transit code, and business!" It continued yelling at him, and pursued him deep into the field. He dodged, let and right, and the asteroids spun around him.

No matter which way he dodged and dove, the Galra ship stayed on course following behind. Even though it was bigger, the pilot expertly dodged the meteors. A particularly large one loomed in front of him, and he ducked behind it. He deployed a grappling hook and attached himself to the dark sign of the meteor. The Galra ship sped on past, while Lance's pod clung to the side of the meteor. Lance held his breath, waiting for the ship to disappear. It fell off his radar and continued on through the field.

Since when was a low-class Galra ship a better pilot than him? That weak little ship wouldn't stand a chance against Voltron, or even the Blue Lion. He pushed a button on his dash to release the grappling hook, but it wouldn't release. He jammed the button, but it was stuck.

"This is just fantastic," he sighed, and opened the pod to get out and dislodge it himself.