A/N: What's this? Only three chapters and listed as complete? Well, long story short, B(AS)IA was getting way out of hand for me. It was only meant to be a few one-shots, but quickly developed into a huge plot... which I do not have time for. If you want a more detailed explanation and how the paladins' battle would have gone, I will have it briefly on my profile.
For those who are new, hello! This is a trio of short stories AU of my story, Distant Memories. Just some stuff that could have happened if Keith, Matt, and Olia had stuck around on Kraydah's moon. They all take place at about the same time, just focusing on different things.
Matt stood up abruptly. "Oh, Te-Osh! I need to go! We were going some more of that nano-thermite titanium boron she likes to use so much."
"More?" Olia asked. "You're taking a big risk every time you go back. How long before that Unilu tells the Galra about you for some kind of bounty?"
Matt ran a hand through his hair, making it stand on end and streaking it with grease. "I don't know. I trust Te-Osh, but I can't help but feel the same. That merchant had an odd look in his eye last time we went."
"Did you tell Te-Osh?"
"No, I… I don't want her to think I'm paranoid," Matt said ruefully.
"Better paranoid than captured," Olia said drily.
"Eh… I'll mention it to her," Matt said. He started to back toward the door. "I've got to go now. Take care of the human until I get back!"
"Of course I-" Olia blinked as Matt smirked and ran from the room. "Hey, you do know I'm leaving soon, right?"
Olia got no response, as Matt was already gone. She shook her head and turned back to the pod, wondering if Matt would take her at her thoughtless word.
Probably.
Only half an hour had passed before the door opened again, and Matt walked in. Olia looked up, startled by his return.
"I thought you were already gone," Olia said.
"I would be." Matt took a seat beside Olia. "But I told Te-Osh about my hunch. Turns out, I'm not the only one who thought there was something off with the merchant. Te-Osh decided to not risk another run."
"Oh. So, what now?"
Matt shrugged. "For now, we'll be staying here."
Olia smiled, eyeing Keith's strong vitals. "The pup will be glad to have another human around, as long as you are staying."
Two days later, Olia, Matt, and Mikkal were gathered around the H pod. Mikkal had announced earlier that morning that Keith would soon be healed enough to leave the pod.
For the last two days, Olia and Matt had alternated staying with Keith. While Olia was reluctant to leave Keith even on Matt's rotation, either Matt or Mikkal could usually convince her to leave for food or rest.
Now, Olia was barely blinked as she stared intently at Keith through the clear dome.
Matt leaned around her and commented blandly, "You'd better blink before your eyeballs dry out."
Olia automatically blinked and swung her gaze back to Matt. The boy grinned at her, then a low chime brought both of their attentions back to the pod as Keith gave a slight twitch.
"He moved! Did you see that?" Olia asked, her tail starting to wag.
Matt chuckled. "I did. He's waking up."
Mikkal tapped a few keys on the side of the pod, then the dome gave a slight hiss as it raised. A shudder ran through Keith's frame as Mikkal fully opened the pod and lowered the sides.
"Pup?"
Keith's fingers tightened on his knife. His eyelids fluttered open briefly, before scrunching shut again. Olia leaned over him, blocking out the bright ceiling lights. After a moment, his eyes opened. He stared blankly at her, then a slow smile spread across his face.
"Olia," Keith rasped.
"Hey, pup. How do you feel?"
Keith blinked drowsily. "Fine… I guess."
Olia raised an eyebrow at Mikkal. Keith was still acting a bit out of it for her taste.
"He just spent two quintants in a healing pod. It will be a few doboshes for him to be fully coherent," Mikkal explained. "Now, I have to see to my other patients. Once he is up to it, get him up and moving around. Get some food into him, too. You know where to find me if you have any other concerns."
Olia turned back to the pod to see Matt cocking his head at Keith. The dark-haired boy stared up at him, then mimicked the pose.
Matt laughed, enticing a grin from their confused companion. "Boy, is he out of it."
Olia rolled her eyes. "Well, stop acting like you've never seen a human yourself and help him to sit up. Maybe that will help."
Olia and Matt put a hand under either of Keith's shoulders and sat him up. At first, Keith's head lolled loosely, but as they repositioned him so his legs hung over the edge of the pod, he was working on holding his body straight. His grip on his knife seemed to be the only constant.
"Does that feel better?" Olia asked.
Keith nodded, so Olia and Matt let go. He promptly began to fall backward, and Matt caught his arm before he could fall over.
"Honestly, it's like his concussion all over again!" Olia said.
After another minute, though, Keith was able to sit up on his own. His expression gradually cleared, and Olia finally felt like he was looking at her, as opposed to through her.
"Alright then… pup, this is Matt. He's a friend of mine. And human, as you can see," Olia said, cautious to approach the topic of Keith's amnesia.
Matt grinned and stuck out a hand. Keith, his expression still holding a hint of confusion, returned the gesture and the boys shook hands.
"I… I don't know my name, but it's nice to meet you, Matt," Keith said.
Olia slumped a little at Keith's admission, but figured there was no point in dwelling on it. She held out a paw. "Are you hungry?"
Kieth opened his mouth, but his stomach gave a grumbling reply. He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah."
"Okay, but first." Matt hurried over to the chair, and picked up the two outfits laying there. "I've got your armor here, but I don't know if you want to wear armor all the time, so I found a spare shirt and pants."
"Armor," Keith said without hesitation.
Matt wasn't much taller than Keith, but Keith was also pretty scrawny next to Matt. His clothes would be quite loose on the thinner boy.
Having expected that answer, Matt nodded and helped Keith slide on his armor over his jumpsuit. The armor fit him perfectly, as if it had been made for him. Olia couldn't help but wonder where he had gotten such armor
Once Keith was dressed, Matt and Olia helped him slide off the pod. As soon as his feet hit the ground, his knees gave out. Matt caught him under the shoulders, steadying him while Keith got his legs back under him.
After a minute of flexing his legs one at a time, Keith managed to straighten. Matt swung one of Keith's arms over his shoulder, seeing he still wouldn't be able to hold himself.
Keith took a shuffling step forward, then paused. He stared down at his feet, trying to figure out why they weren't functioning properly.
"Just take it slow," Olia advised, standing to the side with her fore-paws raised in case Keith needed help. "One paw at a time."
Keith nodded determinedly, and took a bigger step. With Matt supporting him and Olia coaching, Keith made his slow way outside.
Even when they reached outside, Keith was still unsteady on his feet so Matt stayed beside him with Keith's arm over his shoulder. Olia walked on Keith's other side, pointing out the different buildings on the base.
Keith took it all in with the vaguely confused expression that hadn't left since the introduction to Matt. He was obviously following Olia's talking -evidenced by his occasional question- but the odd expression didn't leave.
Eventually, the trio reached a huge oxygen tent covering twenty buildings and a courtyard. After stepping into the small tent separating the oxygen tent from the outdoors, Olia removed her mask and motioned for the others to do the same.
When Keith took off his mask, there were red marks where the straps had been. He looked at Olia, and he and Matt laughed. Olia gave her head a quick shake, knowing her fur would have been squashed down from the mask.
"So, we can breathe in here?" Keith asked as they moved into the larger tent.
"Yep. The tent filters out the hydrogen from the air, leaving only oxygen for us to breathe," Matt said. "Not all aliens are lucky enough to be able to breathe both hydrogen and oxygen."
"Can you?" Keith asked Olia.
"No. Caneen need oxygen."
"Hm. Too bad."
Olia led the way to one of the buildings that served as a dining hall. As there was no set eating time -the schedules of the rebels was just too chaotic to even try- there was always someone inside. The trio had arrived at a busy time, so the building was loud and slightly crowded. Olia managed to spot an empty table in the corner, and led the way there.
Olia sat down, and Matt helped Keith beside her before running off to find something safe for Keith to eat. Keith watched him go, wearing an expression of a young Caneen having an older sibling walk away. Olia shook her head, marveling at how quickly Keith had bonded with another human.
After a moment, Keith's gaze moved around the room. His mouth fell open as he took in the myriad of aliens in the room.
"Where did they all come from?" Keith asked, eyes wide.
"Everywhere," Olia said. "Many of the them were freed from slave planets by the rebels or rebellions. Most of them end up with the freedom fighters one way or another. They don't have anywhere else to go."
Keith's head swung around. "Nowhere else to go?"
"Galra have taken over the home planets of almost all the alien races here. Their homes are either still enslaved or destroyed."
Keith's eyes got wide. He dropped his knife on the table as he leaned forward. "You don't think that happened to Earth, do you?"
Matt arrived just then, balancing a tray in either hand and one across his arm. "What happened to Earth?"
"What if the Galra has already taken it over?" Keith asked, turning his gaze to Matt.
"Not a chance," Matt said. He set the trays on the table and sat across from Keith. "Earth's pretty low on the Galra priority list. No real threat there."
"Which means if they did, Earth would be easy pickings," Keith said.
"Nah. Galra always underestimate us humans," Matt said with an easy grin.
Keith relaxed a bit, and focused on the food that Matt had set in front of him. "What is this?"
"Not sure the exact name -everyone calls food by different names- but this is as close to Italian that I've eaten in space."
Olia watched in amusement as Keith took a tentative bite of the purple-colored noodles that Matt was so fond of. His eyes widened, and he dove in more enthusiastically. He had the noodles finished in minutes.
"Well, I think that meal's a keeper," Matt said with a laugh.
Keith grinned sheepishly, then picked up the roll still on the tray to nibble at it. Absently, his free hand found his knife and picked it up again.
"So, what now?"
Olia looked up from her tray of kibble. Matt was staring at her expectantly, with a smile that meant he was up to something.
"I suppose I'll head back out soon," Olia said cautiously.
"Why don't you stick around for a few quintants?" Matt suggested. "Te-Osh left this morning for a liberation run, so I'm not going anywhere until she gets back."
"If I stick around for too long, Lt. Ozar is never going to let me leave again," Olia said. "He'll find some excuse to keep me here?"
Keith blinked at her. "Why?"
Matt smirked, responding before Olia could change the subject. "You know that all the captains whose base you have stayed at have a challenge. First one to get you to stay at the base for longer than a movement, gets bragging rights."
"Oh, ha ha." Olia sniffed. "I just like to keep moving is all."
Matt only hummed and watched her, not losing the smirk. Olia dropped her head and focused on her food.
Matt shrugged and turned back to Keith. "We gave Te-Osh the coordinates for Bel-Rath, where Olia found you. They'll be passing by, and will see if they can find any clues as to where you came from."
"Clues?"
"A crashed ship, a shelter, maybe some others still there."
Keith lowered the half of the roll that remained. He squinted thoughtfully. "Did you warn them about the lion?"
"I didn't hear anything about a lion," Matt said, brow creasing.
"Well, it's not like they could miss it. It had to have been as big as a building."
Olia lifted her head. "I don't know. That robot seemed pretty protective of you at first."
Matt looked between Olia and Keith. "Are we talking about a lion or a robot?"
"Both," they both said.
Matt dropped his elbows onto the table and leaned his chin on his hands. He had an excited gleam in his eyes. "Explain."
"Like he said, he was big. Huge! It could have swallowed one of our pods in its mouth!" Olia said, gesturing excitedly. "And its paws? Wow, it could have stepped on me, and not even noticed. Its eyes glowed yellow, and it was so agile. And, it could fly!"
"It was big, red, and growled," Keith said, looking away.
Olia shook her head. "Whoever was controlling it must have been worried. I know that it was just a robot, but it just looked so worried! Those big ol' paws I mentioned? It just touched you, ever so gently, then nudged me closer to you."
"All I remember is him chasing me through the woods," Keith said.
Matt raised an eyebrow. "'Him?'"
Keith scowled. "Yeah, so?"
"I just think it's cute that you called the massive, dangerous lion-bot a 'he,'" Matt said.
"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"
"Nope! Just look at you, barely known me for an hour, and it's like we're old friends!"
"Yeah, I can see the urge to throw himself into deep space increasing by the tick," Olia said drily, pretending to not hear Matt's protest as she turned her attention back to her food.
Once the three had finished eating, Olia hurried them out of the noisy hall. Sure, she was kind of a pack alien, but the dining hall was just too much for her.
Keith continued to gaze about at his surroundings as he walked. He was finally steady on his feet, but he would glance at Matt or Olia every few seconds, as if afraid of losing track of them.
"Lt. Ozar's been sending out patrols for supplies the last movement," Matt started, filling in Olia as they wandered through the courtyard. "We had a large number of newcomers a phoeb ago, and we were running out of room. Rebels were forced to move to other bases, but it's sometimes too risky to move. There are so many half-formed hideouts across the universe right now. Now that we have caught up some, we are trying to bring them back, but no one knows how many are out there or how to reach them."
"That's why I need to head out soon. I'll keep an eye out for any lost rebels," Olia said.
"It's not just supplies or missing aliens, it's defense," Matt said, reaching out to steer Keith around a tent support pole that the entranced boy had nearly walked into. "Aliens we bring in are helpless, and often have no knowledge of how to fight or fly. We need more fighters, but we're a medical base. We don't have the weapons to equip fighters, much less the time to train them."
"Is that why you stick around here between missions?" Olia asked.
Matt shrugged. "Te-Osh and her team are some of the few here that can fight. I might as well do my part."
Keith abruptly stopped and turned to face Matt. "Could you teach me? To fight?"
Olia and Matt halted, a bit surprised that Keith had actually been paying attention while he gazed around. He was still wearing that slightly confused expression, but his face was serious. Olia remembered his firm grip on his knife, and wondered how experienced he was in using it.
"Weren't you planning on rejoining your own group?" Olia asked.
"Yes?" Keith said, frowning. "I don't know. Maybe I could get them to come here, and help."
"One step at a time," Matt said with a smile. "Te-Osh will be reaching Bel-Rath in a few vargas."
"Bel-Rath is that close?"
"Well, Te-Osh left this morning and has a fast ship," Matt said. "She has to, considering the dangerous missions she goes on."
"It helps that she has such a good mechanic," Olia said off-handedly.
Matt beamed, and Olia couldn't help but chuckle at his pleased expression.
"Since Te-Osh won't be back for a few days, suppose I could borrow her mechanic?"
"Sure, I-" Matt started.
"I'm sure Eni isn't too busy right now," Olia interrupted.
Matt's mouth fell open in a cry of dismay. "Eni? He doesn't work on the ships!"
"Oh?" Olia said, knowing that perfectly well. "Do you know who else could help me?"
Keith raised a hand to point blankly at Matt. "Him?"
"Thank you! See, he knows what he's talking about!"
"I don't know…" Olia said, pretending to think.
Keith cocked his head. "Olia? I'm pretty sure he's a mechanic."
"Uh, huh. What tipped you off?" Matt kidded.
"You have wrenches in your belt, and your face has oil on it."
For a moment, Matt and Olia could only stare at Keith. He cocked his head and raised an eyebrow at them, honestly not getting that the pair had been joking with each other.
"Bud," Matt said, throwing an arm around Keith's shoulder. "While I check Olia's ship, I'm going to teach you about a little thing called sarcasm."
A few hours later, Matt was up to his elbows in the Clunker's engine, with Keith perched on the front of the ship above him. Olia was inside, sorting through her finds.
"What did that Caneen do to this ship?" Matt said in wonder. He grunted and jerked out a wire to hold it up, showing the wire to be half melted. "It's a wonder she hasn't crashed."
"Matt," Keith started, shifting from his crouched position to kneeling. His knife clanked against the Clunker. "How did you end up here at Kraydah's Moon?"
"That's a bit of a long story. You see, my dad, a friend name Shiro, and I flew out to Kerberos. I'm sure you heard the story before you left Earth. Anyway, the Galra came across us and we were captured." Matt leaned back, and said more slowly, "We were separated. My dad was sent to some camp that was supposed to be for the smarter prisoners. I didn't make the cut." Matt shot Keith a grin before going on.
"Shiro and I were sent for the gladiator ring. I, uh… wasn't as skilled at fighting as I am now. I wouldn't have survived, but Shiro pretended to go crazy! He injured me, so I was sent away to a slave camp for weaker prisoners." Matt slowly lowered his pliers. "I don't even know if Shiro survived."
"I was at the camp for months, before Te-Osh's team broke in to free the prisoners. I was brought here to heal, and started work as a mechanic. I guess Te-Osh took a liking to me, because she invited me to join her crew. They're the ones who taught me to fight. And, well, here I am."
"Have you ever thought about going back? To Earth?" Keith asked.
"Every day," Matt said honestly with a wistful smile. "But, as long as there are Galra, I don't suppose I could be happy with myself for running home. I've got family on Earth, and I'm doing my part to make sure they don't suffer in the hands of the Galra."
"How do you know Earth is still safe?" Keith asked.
Matt set down his tools and stood. "I've been working on a Galra tracking technology. It's pretty rough right now, but with patrol reports and info I gain when I am close enough to hack Galra files, I'm tracking Galra movements. All indications show them to be far from Earth. My capture was part of a scout patrol, and that section of space has apparently been forgotten, pushed aside because the Galra think that humans are weak."
"But we're not," Keith said, sounding slightly uncertain.
"Right." Matt grinned. "And as long as the Galra underestimate us, we're always going to surprise them."
"Olia!"
Matt and Keith turned at the shout. Eni was barreling toward them. Olia bounded out of the Clunker as Eni arrived and stopped.
"Te-Osh's crew," Eni said before anyone could ask. "They are approaching Bel-Rath."
Matt, Olia, and Keith followed Eni to the base's radio room.
The room was a twenty-by-twenty room packed with tables and radios at various stages of breaking down. A dozen aliens hunched over the tables, fiddling with dials and speaking urgently into microphones. Maps were tacked to the walls, with colored pins indicating rebel locations, Galra movements, and supply routes.
Eni led the group to a corner table, and sat in front of the radio. Voices murmured over the speakers, running off coordinates and orders.
"Te-Osh's radio runs on a special frequency separate from the others," Matt explained. "With the dangerous work she does, it's especially important that the Galra can't intercept her transmissions."
Keith walked around the the side of the table. He was doing that funny head cocking thing again as he studied the radio, and Olia wondered if it was an old habit or a new one.
A loud exclamation came from the radio, startling Keith so that he leaped back. Eni immediately leaned forward and picked up the microphone.
"What is it? Galra?"
"No… not Galra…" said Nov, Te-Osh's radio operator. "Are you sure you gave us the right coordinates?"
Matt looked at Olia, who nodded.
"I'm sure. Why? What do you see?" Olia asked.
"If this is Bel-Rath… there isn't anyone here. I don't see how there could have been," Nov said. "The whole planet… it's just fallen apart."
"It was the Galra," Te-Osh intercepted. "I've seen it before. They drained the planet's quintessence."
"Drained the…" Olia trailed off, swallowing hard. Matt gave her a concerned look, so Olia shook her head. "Are there any ships nearby?"
"Radars are showing nothing," Nov said.
"If the Galra have been here so recently, we can't risk sticking around," Te-Osh said regretfully. "We can check again on our way back."
"They must have bailed when the Galra showed up," Matt said. He looked at Keith, whose only response had been to frown. "Sorry, bud."
"They'll show up." Keith stared into space before smiling at Matt. "Right? They wouldn't just leave me."
"Right. And until then, you can hang out here with me," Matt said.
Olia knew what Matt was thinking behind those cheery words. Whoever had been with Keith -if anyone had, there was still a chance that Keith had ended up on Bel-Rath alone- would probably be long gone. Any clues as to Keith's whereabouts was as lacking as any clues as to where his friends could be.
At least Matt was there for Keith, Olia figured. Both boys obviously were glad for the human companionship, and Olia knew Matt well enough that she doubted he would leave Keith to go on a mission.
And, watching Keith perk up when Matt said that, Olia knew that she just couldn't leave the boy that so reminded her of her own brother.
