The Stars Between -- (VLD)

[11] Oh, what a wonderful suggestion!

Lance straightened his back, sighing as the satisfying pop rang throughout the hold of the ship. Olly shuddered at the noise, but made no objections.

"I'll take over from autopilot." Lance said, ducking through to the front without waiting for a reply from either of the girls. He turned his attention to the controls, smiling as he did so and flicked it to manual, mentally psyching himself up for take-off as he allowed his thoughts to wander.

Lance tried not to grin too much. The mission had been stressful, but successful.

Behind him, Olly and Roy sat close together; Roy's hand never leaving Olly's. It was weird - Lance had picked up on Roy's unwillingness to have flesh-on-flesh contact with anyone else aboard the ship. But it was once again, none of his damn business. That seemed to be a recurring theme with those two.

Lance let a smile slip onto his face as the ship got further away from the surface.

Take off had always been one of the best parts of flying.

The jolt of static, and the rumble of the ship as it left the earth, the loss of solid ground felt in the way the ship suddenly seemed more mobile. The gentle drone as the land got further away, his problems shrinking with it.

There was just something about the way the ship shuddered as it left the planet, the atmosphere giving a natural resistance as they burst through into freedom.

He relished in the sudden jolt that occurred, moments before you found yourself gliding past millions of stars, each with their own history and story. The moment when you became small, and realised that everything else was so much bigger than you.

Lance loved this part the most.

He sighed, content for the moment, taking a second to relax. He turned in his seat to watch as Roy patched a call through to the base.

Although that relaxation came to a halt when the call timed out, prompting Roy to raise an eyebrow as she attempted to get through once more.

Worry began to set in, and Lance shifted around to get a better view.

The communicator timed out again.

Olly frowned, sending a confused look to Roy. Lance shoved the ship into autopilot once more, joining the girls in the back. So much for flying.

"Maybe we should--" Olly was interrupted as the communicator sprang to life, beeping loudly as Roy scrambled to activate the video feed.

It crackled loudly, the sound of explosions cutting through anything else and causing the footage to flicker. Roy muttered a curse, thumping the receiver to clear the image, a fluffy mass of hair coming into view.

"Matt!" Lance called, just as the young man turned to face them, a cut bleeding on his cheek.

"Lance! I'm glad you guys are okay!" Matt half-yelled over the chaos, accompanied by the worrying sounds of panicked shouting, and something Lance could have sworn was a rather inappropriate word in Ploteryin.

Vi ran past behind Matt, weapon in hand and several dents in their armour. Lance felt his heart sink.

He hoped Nea was okay.

"What's the situation?" Roy said before Lance could form the words he needed.

"The base is under attack, but we're handling it. They managed to break onto the lower levels, just sending an unending wave of sentries." Matt flinched as a laser bolt whizzed over his head, nearly singeing his hair.

"Unfortunately, there's a bigger problem that we can't deal with right now."

Another explosion rocked the ship, the feed momentarily turning to static. Matt was distracted for a moment, staring off to the side after something.

"What could be bigger than an attack at base!?" Lance said, his voice breaking just a little near the end. Matt pursed his lips, just as a smaller alien crashed into him and he flew out of sight with a yelp.

The smaller alien ran back the other way with a yell, weapon raised above her head.

Despite the current situation being rather dire, Lance found himself snorting. Olly hid a smile behind her hand, though her eyes were still bright with concern.

"We've got a distress call," Matt said, jumping up and brushing himself off, showing no indication that it had ever happened. "But the normal retrieval team is..." he paused, the silence filled with a loud crash.

"Lllllllet's go with occupied." he completed, wincing at the sound.

Lance began to wonder if attacks on base were a regular occurrence, just looking at how casually Matt was holding up this conversation while his friends were running around risking their lives.

"You want us to sort it out?" Olly asked, reaching for Roy's hand again. Roy squeezed back, though she didn't look away from the screen as she did so.

"Oh, what a wonderful suggestion!" Vi yelled from somewhere just out of view, shrieking as Muxis bowled past, leading a large group of people. Lance was glad to spot Nea amongst them, riding one of the bigger ones' shoulders as she gave a battle cry.

"Should your daughter be here?" Matt called.

"She's fine!" Vi yelled back.

"It's a war zone!"

"...Does it always get this chaotic?" Lance asked, almost to himself. Matt gave a wry grin.

"Nah, usually we're just locked in ship-to-ship combat."

"Do we have any other information?"

"... Nothing, but guys, be careful."

"I'm always careful, fluffy." Roy said, her expression dead serious.

Matt stayed silent, and Olly moved just a little closer to the screen, hand still gripping Roy's.

"Matt?" she said quietly. "You're hiding something."

Matt sighed, before raising his eyes to meet the camera.

"The signal is Galra in origin."

Lance's eyes widened in surprise. He turned to look at Roy and Olly to find they had much the same expression.

"So why are we responding?"

Olly flinched at Roy's words, and she took a deep breath, taking the edge off her voice before she spoke again.

"So why are we responding to the signal?"

"The signal is outdated, the likeliest explanation is that whoever set it off is using an old beacon."

Olly peered at Matt closely, trying to understand what he was saying.

"So whoever set it off may be a victim of the Galra?" she said. Roy still seemed sceptical.

"Exactly. And our policy is that we help everyone, no matter how much of a trap it may seem."

Muxis chose that moment to step up behind Matt, causing him to jump in surprise.

"It may be another case like mine," Muxis supplied.

"Wait, I though you defected and stole a ship." Lance pointed out, jabbing at the screen.

"Eh, depends on how you look at it." Muxis said, nodding at them as he lifted his rifle. "We await your return to base."

"I've sent through the coordinates," Matt said, tapping something on his wrist comm. A moment later a ping sounded in the cockpit, signalling the data coming through. "Good luck, and be safe."

"You as well." Lance responded. He waited for the video to cut out before returning to the pilot seat, adjusting their course accordingly.

"Guess our mission isn't over." Roy muttered, running her free hand through her curly hair

Roy and Olly checked over their supplies, repacking bags and doing quick repairs on equipment as he flew.

Roy whispered a quick apology to Olly for earlier as they worked. Instead of questioning it, Lance reverted to his new phrase of choice when it came to the two.

It was none of his damn business.