(Genesis) Chapter 10

Pride: Genesis

Chapter 10

Test of Metal

The Firecrown was taking its exit from the Kithran system slowly, giving the breach drive time to charge. Keith had announced that he and Hunk were going to have a look at the new metal scrap, and anyone else who was interested could join them. Without much else to do in the meantime, everyone had expressed interest. Why not?

Hunk was in the cargo bay early, organizing the new inventory and sulking slightly. They'd left the planet too fast for sand castles. Not that it really would've gone well, the sand being bone-dry and all, but what kind of message would it send if he didn't sulk about it? He might accidentally look like a responsible adult.

He didn't look up when the hatch hissed open ahead of schedule. "Hey, boss."

"Not quite."

He blinked. Okay, that was worth looking up. "Oh hey, bro." Jace was standing in the doorway holding a pair of scouting binoculars. "You didn't call me dumbass, you okay? Heat get to ya?"

Snort. "I'm the medic here, I'll do the medic-ing. You're an engineer, I was hoping you could do some engineering." He tossed him the binoculars; Hunk caught them and arched an eyebrow. "Can you pull some footage from these? Might've been deleted."

That seemed like an odd request. Those were always the most fun, though this wasn't his specialty. "I can try. You'd be better off goin' to the pit boss for hacker stuff though."

"Yeah, maybe, but I don't have anything to bribe him with, and I do have a big bag of sand for you. We got a deal?"

Wait, he what? Now Hunk was really suspicious. But on the other hand, sand. Could he really pass up the opportunity to build a sand Firecrown and leave it in the conference room? Of course he couldn't. "Whatcha need pulled?"

Grin. "The boss totally faceplanted down a dune while we were scouting, and it'd just be a shame to deprive the rest of you of the footage. Don't you think?"

…Aha. Hunk grinned back. "You got a deal, bro. I'll take care of it after we
check out this metal, yeah?"

"Perfect." Before he could say anything else, the door hissed open again. Hunk stashed the binoculars in a pocket as the rest of the team arrived. First things first.

"So, metal?" Lance asked as he sauntered into the bay, just ahead of the others. They spread out around the scanner, beside a few crates.

Hunk grinned. "Totally metal, bro." Lance smirked in response, then both their grins faded as the big man pointed to one of the crates. "The metal pieces are up on that box. Someone pass me the black one first?"

Keith turned and picked up the black piece of metal. He visibly shivered as he did, feeling the same electric tingles as when he'd first touched it, turning and quickly handing it to Hunk. So weird…

As Keith retrieved the black metal, Lance looked at the other piece on the box and blinked. It was red. Bright freaking fire engine red. They'd get to that, he supposed… he turned back to the others, glancing around at them for a moment. Sven was standing towards the back of the group, watching quietly, with Jace scowling next to him; Flynn was giving Keith a curious look. Keith noticed and shrugged before returning his attention to Hunk and the scanner.

"Thanks, boss. See?" Hunk put the metal under the scanner, starting it up and motioning for the others to look at the display. "No energy signature. Like it ain't even there. That or it's absolute zero, which… Doc, just for kicks, you wanna tell us about touching stuff that's absolute zero?"

"Uh, you fucking don't," Jace snorted, and Hunk gave him a thumbs-up.

Lance looked at the metal. "The fuck…" Sven eyed him and Jace, but knew the point in giving either of them a disapproving look for the language was also absolute zero.

Flynn leaned over Lance's shoulder, eyes flickering over the readings. "That isn't possible."

"Ain't stoppin' it," Hunk said, handing him the metal. "Have a look."

Flynn took the metal and looked it over, immediately transfixed. It was like nothing he’d ever seen… he ran a finger along the sheared edge and tried to remind himself this wasn’t their job. They were only here to search. But how could they be expected to collect things like this without wondering what it all meant? He traced his fingers over every inch of the metal, taking in the feel of it and trying to grasp why it felt so alien.

"Should we leave you two alone?" Lance asked with a smirk. Not even Keith could fully hide a snicker.

"Oh sure," Flynn retorted with a mild glower. "Like you didn't do the same thing to the piloting controls."

"Yeah, you got me there." He didn't sound the least bit chastised.

Hunk chuckled, then stood up to retrieve the red piece and set it under the scanner. "Usually you'd expect to get at least slightly different readings off this one. Cuz, y'know… red. Anyone wanna make a bet?

"Absolute zero?" Lance offered.

Grin. "That's my bet too."

"Well, we did find it in that… dried bed of blood," Keith pointed out.

Jace grimaced. "You mean the creepy-ass dried up pool of giant monster blood." Beside him, Sven shivered.

"Nasty."

"This is all fucking weird." Lance shook his head and fell silent, watching the black metal gleam in Flynn's hands before looking back to the red.

Hunk started the scan, eyes narrowed in concentration. If there was blood, it should at least show up as something on the surface, even if the metal itself didn't show anything. But all he got was another sad beep of failure. "Nothin'. Again." He frowned deeper at the piece, then scratched it with a fingernail. All he felt was smooth metal. "This ain't blood."

"No?"

"It's not stained?"

"I don't think so." He shook his head. "Wish we had a composition scanner. But it oughta chip or at least feel different if it's solid blood that just got caked on, and it wouldn't be so even if it were stained. Like the floor of the conference room, yeah?"

"Oh, good." Jace snorted. "For a minute there I was afraid this would all make too fucking much sense." Keith gave him a look. Not that it accomplished anything, but someone had to do it, Sven was too busy looking surprised.

Flynn ignored Jace's outburst, which was probably the smartest option. "He's right." He set the black piece down reluctantly. "You think this is what the Galra are searching for?"

Keith nodded slowly. "I'm starting to think that, Kleid."

"If it is, they suck at it," Jace pointed out. "That red piece was just sitting by one of the holes they dug, like they threw it aside."

Flynn's eyes were locked on the red piece. No metal is like that. Mentally he was going over his old Academy overview of xenotech alloys, trying to remember anything similar, finding nothing. Next to him, Lance moved up and touched the metal; he startled immediately.

"Lance?"

"You okay, bro?"

"Yeah, just, you didn't say anything about it being warm, I didn't…" He trailed off. Hunk and Keith were both looking sharply at him, and he didn't really like the looks.

"Warm?" Hunk repeated. It had seemed distinctly room temperature to him.

"Yeah." He touched the metal again to be sure. "Definitely warm."

Jace shrugged. It had been plenty warm when he'd picked it up. "It was buried in a desert for who the hell knows how long, why wouldn't it be warm?"

"It's been on the ship for several hours," Keith countered. "It shouldn't still be warm, should it?"

"Well we can't exactly check out its thermodynamics," Hunk muttered, frowning at the scanner. "But it didn't feel warm at all to me."

Sven reached for the metal, running his fingers along the surface. "Feels… not warm." That got enough of Jace's interest for him to touch it as well, and he shook his head. It really wasn't.

"Metal just doesn't work like that," Flynn murmured, taking the red piece and shaking his head too. He handed it back to Lance, who closed his eyes for a moment as the warmth ran through his fingertips.

"You don't feel that… wavering low heat?" The warmth seemed to almost radiate from the metal. It's almost comforting… it's so fucking weird.

Hunk stood, eyeing Keith, who was shifting uncomfortably. "You gonna tell 'em?" he whispered under his breath.

Sigh. He certainly didn't want to tell them. But at least now he might sound a little bit less insane. "The black piece feels… tingly to me. It's like static electricity when I touch it, but none of the rest of you felt it either, did you? And you saw the scan. There's no charge to it."

"Wait, what?" Lance reluctantly set the red piece down and touched the black one for the first time. "Yeah, I get nothing off the black one."

"That's odd," Sven muttered more or less to himself. He touched the black one too, and shook his head. Nothing.

Keith grimaced. "I thought maybe it was some sort of metal allergy, but if Lance is feeling heat off that one?" He shook his head too. "I don't know what to think now. I didn't feel anything from the red one back on the surface when we found it."

"I know what to think," Lance scoffed. "It's fucking weird!"

"Metal allergy isn't impossible," Jace said thoughtfully, taking the black piece and turning it over in his hands. "I mean, they're obviously not the exact same metal, since one's black and one's bright fucking red…"

"Do you have the equipment to determine if it's an allergy?"

The medic gave Keith a scornful look. "Boss, you know how an allergy test works? You expose skin to what you're testing and if you react, you're allergic." He set the metal down. "Not sure it's my bet, though. A processed substance that affects different people differently is what we'd usually call a tailored bioweapon."

"It's not dangerous," Lance said immediately, drawing several startled looks. He shook his head a little defensively. "It's not."

"How could it be that, Doc? I mean…"

"Well it's obviously not tailored for anyone here. Giant freaky desert monster might have opinions, though."

"And you found the first fragment on Terina." Flynn looked at Keith. "The ruins had clear signs of battle damage." The commander looked back at him and shivered a little.

"So… some kinda bioweapon metal? That's what we're goin' with? That ain't a lot less weird." Hunk shook his head. "Intel's gonna love this."

"For giant monsters," Lance reminded him. "They'll think we've lost our minds."

"We haven't?" Jace muttered.

Smirk. "Point."

"I haven't lost my mind," Sven protested. A slow, wry smile spread over his face as he looked around at the others. "Yet."

Jace clapped him on the shoulder. "There's still time, Viking."

Keith watched his team, amused, but the amusement faded as his attention returned to the metal. "Whatever this is, it's a hell of a puzzle. I don't like not knowing what we're up against."

"We are up against the Galra," Flynn answered. "Maybe the question is what they're up against."

That wasn't something he even wanted to think about. "They know what they're looking for. We don't. We're already at a disadvantage, and everything we find just raises more questions."

"Maybe it is the metal they're lookin' for?" Hunk suggested. "Maybe they need the black, not the red. Maybe there's other types out there too."

"We can't let them have it."

Everyone looked at Lance, and a few slow nods answered him. A moment later, a shrill alarm echoed through the bay, three staccato bursts giving way to silence.

"What's that?"

"What now?"

"Sensor alert." Flynn frowned as the alarm sounded again. "Something's just arrived in-system."

Keith grimaced and turned, heading for the bridge. "Get to battle stations," he ordered just before breaking into a run. Better not be pirates. Again.

"Fucking typical," Lance grumbled as he and Sven followed.

Hunk quickly packed up the scanner. "Is there a party around here and we missed the invitation?" Some inhabited planets didn't get this much traffic. He returned the metal to its box and raced for the bay after Flynn.

That left Jace alone in the cargo bay, and for a moment he was sorely tempted to stay there. Just on principle. But orders were orders… sighing, he trudged off to his quarters. "I fucking hate my battlestation."

It took less than a minute after the alarm for Keith to reach the bridge. He dropped into the command chair and brought up the sensors.

It wasn't pirates.

It was worse.

"Kuso…" The menacing hook shape of the Galra ship greeted him. It wasn't facing them right now, but he wasn't about to count on that. "McClain, get us the hell out of here."

Lance flung himself into his own seat and grabbed the control rods. "On it, boss." Sven strapped in next to him, checking his monitors and starting to type in calculations.

The comms crackled. "Yo, I just built those missiles, can we maybe not use 'em all up in the same system?"

Well that wasn't going to be a problem. "Kleid, what's the breach drive status?"

"No reserve charge, but we can jump in as soon as we're past those last few asteroids. I'd formally recommend we do it."

Keith grinned despite himself. It was always good to be on the same page as one's second. "Holgersson, get us some coordinates."

Sven was way ahead of that order; the coordinates were already transmitted. "Yes sir."

"Any time now, McClain."

With a smirk, Lance punched it. The Firecrown shot free of the last few asteroids, the last few small gravity wells that could disrupt the breach drive. And before the Galra ship could do any more than start to turn, they were gone.

⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

Twenty hours.

Twenty hours of engine operation was how long it took for a Kearney-Fushida BT2750 breach drive to regain a full charge.

Twenty hours in hyperspace was, apparently, how long it took everyone to relax after almost being caught by the Galra… again.

Flynn was on shift, though he wasn't necessarily being as diligent as usual. His mind kept wandering to the metal. So many questions. It was fascinating, but not exactly his specialty… still, he couldn't help the distraction. At least, not until a much bigger distraction showed up.

"Yo! Pit boss! C'mon, you're gonna watch a movie with us!"

He jumped, turning towards the hatch and raising an eyebrow. "Do I have any say in this?"

"Nope!"

"You know someone's got to mind the bay, right?"

"Dude, the rec room is literally twenty feet away, the engines'll be fine." Hunk gave a huge grin. "No ain't an option. I've gotta stay here and bother you until you give in. Lance's orders."

"…I outrank Lance!"

"Well, yeah. You gonna order me to leave?"

Flynn sighed, shaking his head with a wry smile. "Of course not." He followed a very smug-looking Hunk to the rec room, where Lance was pulling beer out of the refrigeration locker. "Couldn't come get me yourself, flyboy?"

"I had to get this ready." He turned and grinned, holding two beers out to them. "Rabblerouser?"

"…What now?"

"The beer. Rabblerouser, one of the best there is."

Hunk chuckled, pulling a bottle of his own out of the other locker before accepting the beer Lance was offering. "I brought Jack to this party, but he could always use a friend."

Smirking, Flynn took the other. This was no less than the fifth beer he'd been assured was one of the best. So far they'd all tasted like, well… beer. "I'm surprised you haven't abandoned this yet."

"Hey, I promised you a full education!"

"Yeah, you did." He looked pointedly around the room. "Am I the only one who gets the honor?"

"Yep, just you today. Maybe you're my favorite."

"Hey!" Hunk was pouring something into a large bowl, but took a moment to look over his shoulder and mock pout. "What am I, the scenery?"

"You're already educated! Or so I've been told." Flynn shrugged and dropped onto the most comfortable of the couches—not that that meant much in here. "So what're we watching?"

"One of the most important films of all time," Lance answered, sitting next to him with his own beer and the remote.

"Funny name for a movie."

"Ha ha." Lance eyed him and grinned. "Star Wars! Episode IV, to be precise."

Flynn eyed him back for a moment, then was distracted by Hunk plunking a gigantic bowl of popcorn on the center table. He flopped onto another couch and pulled his datapad and a pair of binoculars out of a pocket, seeming to not see anything odd about what Lance had just said. Resigning himself to being wrong for the first—certainly not the last—time today, he sighed and looked back at Lance himself. "I'm sure I'll regret asking this, but shouldn't we start with number one?"

"No!" Hunk yelled immediately.

"Hell no!" Lance agreed just as vehemently. "Plus it came out after the sixth one… long story but we do not discuss the first three."

That had gone about as well as he'd expected. Flynn looked between the other two and shook his head. "Okay, sure. Movie first, what the hell are you people talking about later."

Hunk smirked. "Best practices, pit boss." He turned his focus to Lance. "Let's rock this thing!"

Lance grinned, getting the movie started and sitting back with a handful of popcorn. "It's the version where he shoots first."

"There were other versions?"

"Exactly, big guy."

Once again, Flynn was sure he'd only regret asking what they were talking about, so he crossed his arms over his knees and watched curiously. The effects were primitive, to put it mildly, but there was something about it… "How old is this movie?" he asked quietly.

"This one's from 1977 Earth. Ancient history, but it's a classic."

Flynn stared at him for a moment, shocked. That really was ancient. "Damn."

"You'll see why." Grin. "Hey, you drinking that beer? What do you think?"

Truthfully he'd forgotten all about the beer—he took a quick gulp at Lance's prompting. "It tastes like beer, it's good, what do you want me to say?"

That got him a disapproving headshake. "Your taste buds need more experience."

Hunk snickered. He was busy working with the binoculars, though he was watching the movie over top of them. Not that it really mattered, he had this whole thing memorized. Really, the footage from Kithran didn't look all that much different from Tatooine, there were just Galra instead of Stormtroopers. "Dude barely even eats real food, bro." At least, not that he'd ever seen. He privately suspected the chief preferred Jace's cooking and just didn't want to admit it.

"We've got our hands full."

Flynn scowled at both of them, then took another sip of beer. "Does the cute little trash can ditch his friend soon? I hope?"

Both of the others burst into laughter. "3PO is meant to be annoying."

"Oh! Good, they did a great job."

"It's why R2 swears more than I do."

"Can't blame him."

As they talked, Hunk noticed Flynn giving him a wary look. Actually, he was used to those looks. The pit boss clearly wasn't comfortable with him, but he never seemed to want to press the issue. Good. It wasn't an issue he wanted pressed. Though right now he mostly seemed curious about the binoculars.

Not only did Flynn keep glancing at him, Lance kept glancing at Flynn. Finally Hunk rolled his eyes, set the binoculars aside, and threw a handful of popcorn at the two of them. "Eat, dudes!"

Lance picked up the popcorn that settled on his jacket and tossed it into his mouth. Flynn threw the pieces that had hit him right back. "I'm trying to watch the movie!"

Maybe he got the message, because he stopped giving Hunk those odd looks after that.

Lance was watching Flynn more than he was watching the movie, both to gauge his reaction and because it certainly wasn't a bad view. Besides, he knew the movie. They were quiet for awhile, just watching the drama unfold, until the chief hit his first stumbling block.

"Oh come on, what the fuck? If he's not smart enough to not hold the deadly weapon you just handed him pointing straight at his eyes, give it to 3PO, he's obviously the brains of this operation!"

Hunk nearly choked on his popcorn.

"So you like it?" Lance asked, once he managed to fight his own laughter down into a smirk.

"It's fascinating."

"I take it that's good then? Not like when people say 'interesting' and it means they don't like it?"

Flynn laughed too. "Easy, flyboy. I like it. I'm not the one who's not even watching!" He glanced over at Hunk again.

Lance really wished he'd stop doing that. "He's seen it."

"Dude! I'm doin' very important mission st—"

"—Oh! Oh!" Lance grabbed Flynn and pushed him closer to the screen, drawing a startled yelp of protest. "It's him! Han! WATCH."

Well, if he hadn't already been watching, there wouldn't have been much arguing with that… Flynn arched an eyebrow and watched. It didn't take long to figure out why the flyboy had nearly shoved him off the couch. "Oh, I see. He's your role model."

"Fuck yeah."

"Well his bragging rights are terrible. Parsecs aren't a measure of—"

"—Everyone knows," they both interrupted in unison, and he decided to just stay quiet for a bit.

'A bit' lasted until they got to the ship, and Lance sighed affectionately. "And there she is… the Millennium Falcon. First ship I ever wanted to fly."

Flynn studied the ship with interest. It was aerodynamically ridiculous, but he was getting used to the movie's aesthetic. "Why are they calling her a piece of junk? She's beautiful."

"Finest hunk of junk in the galaxy."

Silence took over the rec room for awhile, except for the audio from the screen. Flynn was still fascinated, though perhaps not by what he was supposed to be fascinated by—he kept trying to imagine how remarkable this all must have seemed over four hundred years ago, and he had a pretty good idea of the answer. He'd completely forgotten about his beer, which didn't stop Lance from standing up to get them each another.

Then came Alderaan, and he suddenly wasn't sure he wanted to watch what was obviously on its way.

"Here it comes," Lance muttered grimly.

"Must it?"

The pilot glanced over at him. "You okay?"

Well he certainly wasn't going to admit some ancient movie was making his skin crawl. "Yeah, I'm—" He was cut off by the Death Star firing, and…

…well, he hadn't expected the entire planet to go up…

"…Faex."

Lance couldn't help a grin. It was fun to see the wonder. He knew it. Growing up in a quiet farming colony, far from 'modern' culture, the relics of ancient Earth-bound humanity had felt so much more familiar… so much more awe-inspiring. "Yeah, big huh?"

"That's a word for it." Flynn was still on edge, but also a bit relieved. Which seemed like a horrible reaction to watching a planet blown up, truthfully. He tried to take a sip of beer, grabbed the unopened bottle, and blushed bright before setting it back down and hoping Lance hadn't noticed.

He noticed. "What?"

"I was expecting it to be something more like…" What the hell? What gift did Lance have that made him want to answer questions like that so easily? He fought it off. "Nothing."

It was obvious Lance wasn't buying it, but Hunk bursting into hysterical laughter interrupted them.

"Hunk."

"Uh, Hunk?"

He just kept laughing.

"Hunk."

"Alderaan just blew up, dude."

"It wasn't funny."

"Carrie Fisher will haunt your ass."

Flynn threw a handful of popcorn at him for good measure. That seemed to do it; he caught the popcorn and blinked, biting down a few last giggles. "Oh, uh… sorry, not that. Pause it for a sec, would ya bro?" He held up the binoculars.

Reluctantly, Lance dug the remote out from under some popcorn crumbs and paused the movie. Turning to Hunk, he blinked in confusion. "Why do you have binoculars?" Has he had them this whole time?

"Cuz the Doc gave 'em to me. Wanted me to pull some footage. Check this…" He walked up to one of the room's smaller screens, hooking up the binoculars and putting the recovered feed on the screen.

Lance frowned and sat back. He was really a bit miffed about movie night being interrupted… until he saw what came on the screen. Keith Kogane falling on his fine ass and tumbling down a hill, in all its jolting haphazard glory. He doubled over laughing. "That is… that is fucking gold!"

Flynn bit his lip hard to keep from laughing. He was an officer, damn it, he had to at least retain some mild semblance of propriety. That effort lasted for a solid ten seconds, but when Hunk replayed the footage he lost it. On the next pass, it only got worse; the big man reversed the footage, and they all got to watch Keith tumble up the hill instead. Which led to him very nearly choking on his beer.

Lance slapped his back. "Breathe, dude."

"I was breathing!" he protested, smacking him back with a mild glare. Though Keith tumbling up the hill again nearly changed that status.

"I need… hahaha… I need a copy!"

Snickering, Hunk unhooked the binoculars, then cleared his throat and dialed for his most businesslike tone. "Copies will be available for distribution by… ah, hell with it. I'm sendin' it to everyone's datapads." Frown. "Except the boss, I guess."

"I'm surprised Jace didn't die choking on sand like Flynn nearly did on his beer."

"More's the pity," the engineer in question muttered. Which was definitely not professional but they were way past that.

"Hey, be nice to the Doc." Hunk finished sending the footage and stashed the binoculars in a pocket. "He brought me sand!"

Lance arched an eyebrow. "He did?"

"Yep. Supposedly." Shrug. "Not sure why he thought he had to bribe me, I'd have done it for the lulz, but…"

"Did you really just say 'for the lulz' out loud?" Flynn demanded, grabbing a handful of popcorn and waving it threateningly.

Not that it was much of a threat. "I sure did! For. The. Lulz."

Lance snickered, watching Flynn pelt the big man with popcorn. Hunk is awesome. "Can I unpause? We're getting to the good part."

"Go for it." Hunk paused as his datapad beeped. "You got the educatin', bro? I'm gonna go get my sand."

Awesome… but weird. "Uh, sure. Enjoy, dude." He watched Hunk go… or more to the point, watched Flynn watching Hunk go eyes narrowed intently. What is it with him and Hunk?

Flynn wasn't really too upset to see the other engineer leave. If only he could make… any slim fragment of sense of the man whatever… he shook his head and turned back to Lance with a grin. "Back to watching, then?"

"Hell yeah." They settled back into comfortable silence, getting involved in it again.

"This all must have seemed so insane at the time," Flynn murmured in a brief lull.

Lance looked over at him. Okay, he'd already been looking at him. "Yeah, I suppose it did. Pure fiction then, no spaceships or anything."

"I know what that's like."

"Yeah?" Flynn didn't respond, and Lance gave him a sharp look. "You keep doing that."

"What? I'm watching the movie!"

He seemed entirely sincere about the question, but with Hunk gone Lance wasn't going to let him off that easily. Maybe he was still remembering what he'd let slip before… maybe it was something else. "What was it about Alderaan?"

Flynn startled at the question, then gave him a long, searching look. "It never bothered you?"

What? He stared blankly for a moment, then it hit him like a punch to the gut. Oh. "First time I saw it, after… yeah. It hit me harder. Felt like maybe I got what Obi-wan felt. But uh… my dad played this movie for us, from when I was real little. It was a family thing, so it was always a good memory, you know? That made it okay." Frown. They'd been talking about Flynn, not him, and he'd bit on the deflection hard. "Why?"

The engineer blushed slightly. "It's nothing."

"No it's…" Oh, fuck. It all suddenly came together. "Your home planet, right? Thought it'd be more like that rather than big boom?"

"…Yeah." He seemed almost relieved not to have to say it himself. Lance understood that. "Sorry. It's just a movie."

Lance shook his head. "No, I get it, I think. Good movies always hit on something close to the truth, right?"

"That's true." Flynn gave a small, grim smirk. "And we sure as hell don't have anything that mocks the laws of aerodynamics like the Millennium Falcon, so I guess we have to get our truth elsewhere."

"Shit, yeah." Lance sipped his beer. "Why haven't we created her yet? Man, I used to have dreams about flying her, always got pissed when I woke up."

"We've put together some pretty nice ships, flyboy."

"Yeah, but not the Falcon, come on!"

"She's much too small to spacedock, how would you get her off the ground?"

Lance waved that off. "That's the engineer's fucking problem. I'd just fly her."

His companion, being after all an engineer, did the proper engineer thing and elbowed him. Not hard, but not exactly lightly either. "Not that not understanding what you're flying has ever bitten a pilot in the ass before," he pointed out with a smirk.

"I'm all about defying physics." He smirked right back.

"Defying physics is my job. Taking advantage of my work is yours." Flynn winked, then returned to watching the movie. Just in time, too, as Lance looked up and nearly shoved him off the couch again.

"Oh oh garbage chute best part!"

Garbage chute? Really? He made a face as he watched. "Well that's fairly disgusting."

"It's gross but it's great, watch."

It didn't seem worth pointing out he was already watching, so he sat back and complied. And contemplated the nature of blasters and magnetic sealing, because how could he not? Though there was one immediate improvement he could think of for the scene. "Can we toss 3PO in instead?"

Lance laughed. "He has uses."

"Scrap metal is very useful!"

Snort. "Not sure he'd amount to much. Besides, wouldn't be near as interesting as the metal we were just looking at, now would it?" As soon as the words left his lips he frowned; he'd been hoping movie night would keep his mind from drifting back to that, but there it was. Weird fucking warm metal… "It's weird," he muttered as Flynn gave him a curious look.

"It is," the other man agreed, slight irritation creeping into his tone. "And you know intel won't tell us a damn thing once they start analyzing it."

"Yeah…" Lance grimaced. "We won't be told a thing, will we? Send us on this crazy mission and not even tell us if the metal's important. I mean, why me and Kogane? You sure you didn't feel anything?"

"Not a thing." Flynn wasn't sure whether he was relieved or disappointed by that fact. "And even the two of you didn't have the same reaction."

"Fucking weird."

"Maybe we'll find a piece on Sorthal that's bright orange, or purple with blue spots, or something." Smirk. "And it can poison the doctor when he touches it."

Lance spit out his beer, coughing a bit before he recovered. "We can always hope." But even as he said it, it didn't feel right. "But I mean… I didn't get a bad feeling from it." You didn't get a bad feeling from touching the weird warm metal. "I sound crazy."

"Your favorite part of this movie is a literal pile of garbage, and you think it's your reaction to the metal that makes you sound crazy?"

For the second time, the pilot doubled over laughing. "It's their first big obstacle, not getting compacted! Weird is metal that feels warm and…" He shook his head. "Oddly comforting."

Flynn considered that for a moment. He wanted to say something about metal… its strength and familiarity, the way every alloy was perfected for its task and yet flexible and variable. The gratification of cutting and welding, the inherent poetry of turning something raw into something functional and beautiful. He wanted to say all of that was comforting.

He thought better of it. "I don't think that's weird at all."

"…Really?"

"Really."

They stared at each other, searching. Both seemed to reach the same conclusion at once, though neither of them could have articulated it. And with an exchange of small grins, they returned to the movie.

⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

Jace was waiting for Hunk in the galley. "That was fast."

"I was motivated!" Hunk handed the binoculars back. "Sneakin' these back to the boss is your problem, though."

"Yeah, lots of sneaking involved. They were in the cargo bay with everything else."  He smirked. "I left your sand on your bed."

"Awesome. Thanks, bro."

"Pleasure working with you. Valeu." Jace flipped his usual casual half-salute and disappeared. Whether the sudden politeness was a good or bad sign was hard to say… no, it wasn't. It was definitely bad.

Well, for the moment, he had the galley all to himself. May as well get some cooking in now before going to find out what the catch was.

There would be a catch. He had no doubt.

⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

Keith was in the gym. He'd been there for awhile, going through some basic exercises with his katana. And waiting. He was expecting company sooner rather than later.

He'd been there for about half an hour when Sven entered. Right on time—his shift should have just ended. He went to one side of the central mat and started stretching, watching Keith's katas with interest.

Neither of them said anything until Keith finished what he was doing. He bowed to the mat and gave the new arrival a sidelong glance. "Do you really use battle axes?" Nickname aside, their unassuming navigator really didn't seem like the type.

But Sven just smiled. "Yes."

Keith grinned too, sheathing his katana and shaking his head. "So, what do you want to do first?"

"You're the ranking officer. You decide."

He couldn't help a laugh. There was that indomitable Viking spirit, clearly. "Well, let's just measure each other up then." He crossed over and set the katana on an empty equipment rack. "Some hand to hand sparring?"

Sven nodded, a sly smirk on his lips. "Sounds fun." It had been awhile since he'd had a good sparring match.

Keith nodded and bowed to the mat again. Then he moved to the center, the navigator following. "Let's do this."

"Whenever you're ready."

He bowed first; tradition had to be observed. Then he dropped into a low defensive stance. Sven matched him, dropping into a stance that wasn't quite so low. Keith threw the first feint, which was read easily, and they traded a few wary strikes. Feeling each other out, seeing what they were made of.

Maybe he saw…

After fading away from another testing jab, Keith dropped and flashed one leg out, trying to bring his opponent to the floor. But Sven jumped over his leg and retreated, going into a blocking stance, still watching for an opening.

He's good.

Sven watched Keith with narrowed eyes, though the corner of his lips twitched. This was going to be fun. No, this was already fun.

"Impressive…" The commander reoriented and tried another strike.

"You're giving me a workout."

Keith pushed him a little harder, and he gave ground. Waiting for his shot. "Thought that was the idea."

Sven chuckled. "Wasn't sure if you would," he taunted with a playful grin.

That got his opponent to step back for a moment, glaring. "Are you calling me old?"

Old? Sven raised an eyebrow. He was quite certain that word hadn't left his lips. "I never said such a thing."

"Sounds like protesting too much to me, boss."

Keith blinked, turning back to the door. Jace was standing there, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. How long had he been there? "Dammit, Doc…"

Smirk. "I play winner."

The fact that Keith had just turned his back on him did not remove him from the competition, Sven was pretty sure. So he took advantage of his distraction and darted forward, landing a solid elbow to his commander's ribs and twisting him to the floor. Keith went down with almost no resistance, coughing as the wind was knocked out of him.

"Well that was underhanded, my dude." Jace wiped away an imaginary tear. "You're growing up so fast."

Keith shook his head, sitting up and taking a moment to catch his breath. "Whatever advantage you can get, huh? Vikings are evil."

"Vikings aren't evil," Sven protested. "They're opportunists."

"Right." Keith rolled to his feet, smirking. "Bring it… Viking."

"Don't beat him too fast, Viking. I've gotta stretch." Jace walked past them to one of the other mats, picking the best spot to watch the fight as he warmed up.

In the momentary lull, Keith rushed forward, and this time he caught Sven wholly by surprise. He dropped him easily to the floor, then grinned and offered him a hand up.

Still pretty certain nobody had actually tapped out, Sven accepted his hand… then rose up in a smooth motion, planting a foot in his stomach and flipping him right back to the floor.

"Whoa!" Keith had the wind knocked out of him for the second time in really much too short a timeframe. "Oh, no. Vikings are evil."

"Opportunists."

"Evil opportunists."

"He's got a point," Jace agreed.

Sven considered that for a moment. "I'll settle for slightly immoral."

Not even Keith could help laughing at that; it had been a long time since he'd had this much fun. He moved in again, ducking under Sven's guard and giving a sharp poke to his ribs.

The bruises from Terina were mostly gone… mostly. Sven retreated with a wince. "And I'm the evil one?"

"I could have landed a full blow." Grin. "See, I'm a nice guy."

With a chuckle, Sven rushed him and grabbed him around the midsection, taking him to the ground fully on his own terms. He wasn't about to let his opponent recover this time. Letting this fight go too long wouldn't be in his best interests… Keith managed to roll over beneath him, but he kept his position and pinned him down.

"Kuso…" Keith knew when he was caught, and tapped out. "Damn… sneaky, evil Viking."

"Slightly immoral," Sven corrected, smiling as he let him up.

"No. Evil." Still, he was grinning broadly. Even ignominious defeat wasn't so bad.

Jace applauded. "Hey, you went down on your ass very gracefully, boss. Several times."

Glare. "Yeah, I can't wait to see the two of you do this." We'll see who gets the last laugh.

Jace just grinned. "Sure, I'll show you how it's done." He stepped onto the mat as Keith grabbed his towel and retreated, then turned his smug grin on Sven. "Not tired, are you Viking?"

Sven snorted. "Not a chance, Doctor."

"Good." He dropped into a defensive stance. "Prove it."

Keith crossed his arms and leaned back against a wall, watching. Jace's stance looked fairly loose, as stances went, but he could immediately see it offered no opening. Still, that damn smirk of his… he really couldn't help but want Sven to win.

Whether goaded by the smirk or judging the stance, Sven rushed forward almost immediately. Jace made no effort to dodge, instead ducking and grabbing his opponent's legs to take him to the ground. Sven immediately twisted to get on top of him, ending up sitting on his chest, but Jace wasn't really trying to avoid that, either. He only moved a little, just enough to force Sven off his chest, but wrapped his legs around his back so he couldn't fully retreat.

Maybe, Keith mused, this fight was going to be more interesting than he'd expected. The Doc wasn't half bad either.

He was still grinning as he switched to an open guard and torqued Sven's wrist… carefully, of course. "Not bad."

Sven was having none of that. The instant the medic relaxed his guard he wrenched his wrist around, forcing Jace to let go or have his own arm locked. Then he threw himself back with all his strength, breaking the guard and vaulting back to his feet in a bit of a flip. "Not bad yourself," he admitted through heavy breaths.

Jace stayed crouched, watching his opponent warily. He'd made that look way too easy. But it certainly hadn't really been that easy, and he was looking a little worn out now. "You look tired." Grin. "Need a nap?"

He'd hoped for a lunge, something he could take advantage of. What he got instead was Sven's gray eyes narrowing. "I'm telling the Commander what you did."

…Oh surely not. "Fuck, you are underhanded." For a split second Sven looked very satisfied by that response, and that was when Jace charged. The navigator made an ill-fated attempt to dodge, but he grabbed one leg and spun him around, dragging him down and grabbing him from behind.

Before Sven could recover his wits, he had Jace's arm across his throat.

"You're not really gonna make me knock you out here to prove a point, right?"

Oh, that's no good. Sven knew a blood choke when he felt one, and there was no way he was getting out of this one from such an indefensible position. He was briefly tempted to hold out, just to prove a point of his own. But as dark spots started swimming before his eyes it occurred to him that he couldn't tell on the brat who was holding him if he was unconscious.

He tapped the mat.

Immediately the pressure let up. Jace let go of him and watched him stand, glowering slightly… then he laughed. "Slightly immoral doesn't always do it, Viking."

Very true. Sven rubbed his neck, glowering right back, then smirked and turned to their thoroughly bewildered commander. "Hey, Keith."

"Yeah?"

"…You bastard." Jace stood and glared daggers at him. "I'm so proud. And so gonna fucking kill you."

Sven just smirked more, his attention still on Keith. "Do you remember that video footage you deleted of you falling down that dune?"

Oh, did he. "Yeah…"

"Jace recovered it."

"…Did he now?" Keith turned and gave the medic a dark look.

All it got was an unapologetic shrug. "You can't just delete it, boss. It's part of the official record!" He paused, then grinned. "And funny as fuck."

"Hmm." Keith just kept staring. It didn't take long for the message to get across.

"…We're gonna fight now, huh?"

"Yeah." Keith tossed the towel aside, striding back up to the mat and bowing before taking up a stance. "You're going to have to earn that footage."

"Retroactively?" Jace smirked and stood, taking a couple of steps back. "I'll accept it."

Sven decided this was an excellent time to get out of the blast radius, and took up a position along the wall to watch.

For a few very long seconds they just stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Jace was looking relaxed again, but Keith knew that to be a lie. He faked a kick, testing.

The medic didn't bite. "You can't still be tired."

Keith couldn't help a smirk of his own at that, his eyes glinting darkly. Then he rushed and feigned another kick, then threw a couple of quick strikes before retreating. Jace went to the ground immediately, ducking the strikes but failing to get a grip to bring his opponent down too. He remained crouched, watching sharply.

What was going on here was becoming rapidly clear to Keith. He went in for a few more fakes, forcing the medic to react.

He wasn't the only one figuring things out. "I see what you're doing…"

"And what's that?"

"You're trying to fake me out until I drop my—" He lunged mid-word, undercutting Keith and flipping him to the mat. "—guard."

Admittedly, Keith hadn't seen that coming, but he rolled with the momentum. Jace tried to get into a more serviceable guard and was rewarded with a fist to the gut; he tumbled off to the side and coughed as his commander regained his feet.

"…Not terrible."

Keith watched quietly. Once again Jace wasn't standing. "You alright, Doc?"

"Not sure. You gonna help me up?"

Hmm. "You're not going to pull a Viking on me, are you?"

"Would I do that?"

Keith glanced over at Sven, who was watching with narrowed eyes. "…Yeah, you would."

"I totally would," Jace agreed, then lunged again.

It was all too clear he wanted this fight on the ground, which was reason enough for Keith not to want it there. It did make sense—ground fighting would largely negate what was a significant range and strength advantage. But he didn't have to cooperate. He jumped up and kicked as the medic darted at him, catching him solidly in the shoulder. To his surprise, Jace did little to dodge it. Instead he took the hit to get in position, grabbing Keith's other leg and making another attempt to get him to the ground.

It worked… kind of.

Keith tried to break his grip, but all he really accomplished was punching him in the same shoulder he'd kicked. No doubt that would be interesting colors tomorrow. As a last ditch effort he grabbed Jace's collar and yanked him off the floor.

"…Hey!" Jace glared, grabbing that arm and torquing it. But he wasn't in a good position at all, and he knew it.

Obviously Keith knew it too—in a single smooth motion he'd bent Jace's other arm behind his back, seeming completely unconcerned about the haphazard lock his other wrist was in. And why shouldn't he be? He had all the leverage, and his captive opponent barely dared move.

Jace glared, on principle, and Keith bent his arm just a little further. Possibly also on principle. "You done?"

Shit, he's good. "Yeah," he admitted through gritted teeth. "I'm done." He let go of Keith's wrist, not quite able to fully keep up his scowl. It wasn't bad at all to have a challenge.

"That was fun."

"Definitely fun to watch."

"We should do that more often." Jace flipped them both a casual salute. "Minus the part where I lose."

"We should," Sven agreed.

Keith laughed, bowing to them both. "It's certainly a good way to kick off some stress." He closed his eyes, relaxing a little as his muscles burned nicely.

"The others still saw the footage," Jace whispered. Keith opened his eyes and glared. "What? Information wants to be free!"

"Don't worry, Commander." Sven shook his head. "It's not near as funny as watching it in person, I assure you."

Shaking his head, Keith looked back at Jace. "Well, he let me win, so I suppose he earned his laugh." Was that a challenge? Oh yes, that was a challenge. And from the way the medic's dark eyes narrowed, he caught it. But any avenging himself would have to wait. "I'm going to go hit the showers and then have a drink." He bowed again to the mat. "Gentlemen, it's been fun."

The other two watched him go, then Jace shrugged. "I'm gonna do those in the opposite order. You in, Viking?" He paused as his mind caught up with his mouth. "…For the drink."

"…But I wanted a shower."

Of course he did. "You can have a shower. Just not with me." Sven made a disgusted face that was maybe a bit too much so. "Oh now that's uncalled for."

Sven sighed. But if he were honest, a bit of pre-shower refreshment didn't sound all so unattractive. "Let's go drink, I guess. Lance still hasn't taught me about beer, he was supposed to when we got finished on Terina, until I got beat up by boar-tahs. He said something about a class."

He was getting very used to Jace's judgmental looks. "A class? I'm afraid to even think about it." Snort. "Come on, I'll teach you about beer. Lesson one: it gets you drunk."

"I've never had one." The hours when he ought to have been bar crawling at the Academy, he'd spent studying. Or, maybe more analogous, being dragged to fancy events and drinking fancy wine and liquor with his parents. "Does it taste bad? I've heard it tastes bad."

"It tastes horrible. You'll love it. Come on."

Sven blinked. "If it tastes horrible why do people drink it?"

That got him a very long judgmental look. Finally Jace sighed. "Viking?"

I said something stupid again, didn't I? "Yes?"

The medic punched his shoulder playfully… though not lightly. "Shut up and come find out."

Rubbing his shoulder and shaking his head, Sven followed.

⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

He might have gotten a little carried away with the cooking. Just a little. Getting carried away was Hunk's specialty, of course. But now that the galley was stocked with enough maple bacon muffins to last them all the way to Sorthal, it was time to finally go get his well-earned sand.

It wasn't that he expected Jace to have outright lied—though as he'd told Lance and Flynn, the footage alone had been totally worth the effort. It was just that Jace was, well… Jace.

As it happened, he'd been true to his word. There was a large quantity of sand waiting on Hunk's bed.

Problem was, it wasn't in a container.

For a minute, Hunk just stared at his sandy sheets and blanket, trying to remember if the Firecrown's laundry system could even deal with abrasive particulate matter. Then a slow smile started to creep over his face. "Well played, bro. Well played."

Their medic wanted to play things that way? Totally fine. Hunk was game.

⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒

Taking a deep breath, Tanner looked across the desk at the stack of books waiting for him. Each one was filled with history, equations, and bits of general information he'd rather not fill his head with. Not that any of the books were boring, just… he didn’t want to be doing his schoolwork right now. Usually Nanny would be hovering over him, but she wasn't there right now, so Tanner quickly moved from his seat and down the hall to his father's study.

There he found the High King writing in a small book while checking various notes. Slowly Tanner walked up to him in hope to surprise him, only to hear his father surprise him instead…

"I can hardly believe that you are finished with your lessons, Tanner. Is there something that may be more important at this moment?" Alfor asked without lifting his head from his task.

"Well…" Not wanting to do his schoolwork was important. Thinking as fast as he could, he suggested, "I was hoping for a bit of a break. Perhaps if I could do something else for awhile, I could focus more on my work."

Alfor looked down at his son. He didn’t like the idea that Tanner was attempting to skip out on his lessons for the hundredth time. Yet as he was thinking of how the young prince should not be relaxing in his duties, an idea formed. There was something he himself wanted to do with his son. Perhaps a break from lessons could yield some knowledge after all.

"How about this? I have a small task to perform with the Black Lion, would you like to join me?" Tanner’s eyes lit up at the suggestion, and Alfor smiled.

It was a quick trip through the hidden tunnels to the den. Quick, but never thoughtless. The path demanded contemplation. The secrets hidden here were kept by the Crown alone. It couldn't be otherwise; the dens were sacred, and what slept within them all the more so. And so it went that Alfor's quest for answers had to be his alone… mostly.

The den was dark. Flickers of lightning from outside, the storms of Thunder Ridge, occasionally lit the interior, but most of the light came from a few artificial torches at the end of the tunnel. It was still more than enough to see what lay within. An enormous robotic lion forged of black metal, great silver paws stretched out as it slept, crimson wings folded on its back. Though its eyes were dim, the expression on its face was one of fierce nobility.

Tanner froze in the entryway, momentarily stunned. Then he cried out in delight and ran forward.

It seemed not that long ago, Alfor mused, that he had brought Allura for her first trip to see the Black Lion. Though his children were such different personalities, he could see the similarities, in their excitement at seeing what was considered a mere fairy tale with their own eyes. The awestruck face, the hands eager to touch the great Lion… it was good. In time, his children would have the duty to protect this place. To unlock its secrets, if their father could not. For now, Alfor just smiled, letting Tanner explore around Black as he checked sensors he had hidden in the den.

Tanner was amazed by Black’s size. Listening to the stories, he had believed that the Lions were the size of a normal lion, or just a bit larger. The realization of Black being so huge was incredible. Looking over the sleeping robot’s form, he found a way to at least climb up the front paw. Fussing a bit as he made his way to the top of the paw, he rested with his legs dangling between the claws.

Gazing over the sleek lion, Tanner sighed happily. After all the stories he'd heard… "Oh, if only I could tell others about you! I bet if you were flying across the sky, everyone would forget what they were doing to watch you…"

Letting his feet rest gently against the cool metal, Tanner imagined Black awake and sitting proudly in the den. Then he remembered the purpose of the Lions, and it caused him to worry. As long as the lions slept, there was a promise of protection from them, if his memory was correct. But while he wasn’t too sure about that, he was sure that if the lions woke up, they would be called to protect anywhere in the universe.

"Black… if you woke up, would you leave us forever?"

Immediately he wanted to bite his tongue, feeling silly for asking questions of that which could not answer back, but it was a valid fear. All the tales stated the Lions were made to help defend those who needed it. What if they were to leave? Would they come back when the task they left Arus for was done? Was Arus home to the Lions, that they would always come back to rest between missions?

The young prince frowned at the silence, knowing that Black couldn't do anything to help ease his worry. Yet, as he sat there, he noticed the metal paw no longer had a cool feeling to it. Instead there was a warmth in it, not just where he sat but throughout. A feeling almost like a hug filled him, and in his heart, he somehow knew he was heard… maybe not the answer he was expecting or hoping for, but being heard did help ease his mind.

Alfor noted the sensor readings as they abruptly came alive and danced about. They were not as strong as when Allura first came… but it was more than he'd ever gotten when he had come to the den alone. Looking over to Black, he shook his head in bemusement. "Why does this happen only with my children?" Sighing, he printed a few readouts from the instruments, then looked back into the lion's dim golden eyes. "Sooner or later… I’ll figure you out."