shining like the stars

14

When Lance settled into the pilot's chair of the blue lion and opened the communications channel, there was already a lively stream of chatter between the other members. "Hey, guys," Lance said as he joined the group.

"Glad to see you finally joined us, Lance," Shiro's voice said. Lance momentarily caught his breath and swallowed the hesitation down; Shiro's voice had been normal; warm and welcoming and not ... that.

"Yeah," Keith's voice from the red lion. "You'll never guess where I found him."

"Keith!" Lance said.

"He was fighting with the mice for the breakfast scraps," Keith continued, as if Lance hadn't said a work.

"You promised you wouldn't tell," Lance whined, exhaling in relief as the others laughed. "I was hungry."

"Oh!" Hunk said. "I know you missed breakfast, Lance, I brought some snacks for you!"

"Hunk," Lance said with a sigh. "How, exactly, are you going to get those snacks to me?"

"Oh. I didn't think about that."

"Guys," Shiro said, as Lance's blue lion joined the others outside the castle ship. "Bring it in. We're going to do one quick sweep of the wreckage and see what we turn up." Affirmations came through the line from the others, as the five lions crossed to the ancient, silent ship.

"Whoa," Lance said as the dark ship grew large in his front display. The Galra ships they'd already encountered had been massive; some in fact bigger than this. But those had been active ships, glowing with lights and activity and brimming with danger. This was just a mass of darkness and silence, a foreign object that didn't belong, locked in eternal orbit with the planet below. It was eerie, and he was beginning to think that Hunk was right to call it a 'space-tomb.'

"Still no activity," Pidge said. "No life-signs, no systems activity."

"What about short-burst transmissions?" Keith asked.

"Haven't seen any of those since we launched," Pidge said. "We were too far to get a proper fix on them before, and without any new transmissions I can't determine what part of the ship they came from." The green lion landed on the outside of the ship, along a swath of undamaged hull near the huge, gaping wound shot through its side.

"She's going to say 'the only way to find it is to board the ship,'" Hunk said.

There was a pause, and then Pidge said, "since Hunk said it, I guess I don't have to."

"I knew it."

"I don't like this," Keith said. The red lion went under the ship, dodging gracefully through the minefield of debris. "Something feels off about the entire situation."

"I agree," Shiro said. "Hunk, you and Keith stay out here, keep an eye on things. Lance, you and I will accompany Pidge."

Lance swallowed hard as he watched the black lion land not far from the green lion. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather take Keith? After all I have a long-range weapon-"

"So do I," Hunk said cheerfully, oblivious to Lance's discomfort.

"Thank you, Hunk," Lance muttered. There was a soft click on the radio channel, and a private feed was pushed through to Lance's helmet, not the open channel of communication between all the paladins, or even the video chat.

"Go," Keith's voice in his ear, and Lance felt his stomach flutter. He turned pink under his visor, thankful that at least at that moment, no one could see him. "I trust Shiro. You did, too."