It's Not Just A Map, You Doofus
Chapter 1
"Lance, take table two!"
Lance struggles with the dishes in his arms as he grumpily acknowledges his mother.
Just another day at the McClain's restaurant.
As he stood in front of table two waiting for his customers' final decisions, Lance glanced out at the window, eyes becoming distant as he absentmindedly fiddled with a cord around his neck. A large ship with the latest aerosail technology was floating by, the thrusters lighting up in preparation for a hyper jump.
Lance looked a little too long at the ship, only turning back to the table at the polite throat clearing in front of him. A small grimace quirked at the edge of his lips, falling quickly back into an impassive expression.
Few hours of grueling work later, Lance cleared away the last of the plates from his table. He glanced out the window and saw the bright afternoon sun beckoning.
"Mama, I'm going out!"
"Out? Now? But it's almost dinner rush -"
"I'll be back in an hour!"
"Hijo, if you're going hydro-boarding -!"
Lance slammed the door, immediately heading to the garage to pull out his hydro-board and headed towards the abandoned construction site near the cliffs.
Glancing briefly around to check that no one was around, Lance stepped onto the board and looked over the edge of the tallest cliff.
Stepping back and taking a deep breath, Lance stepped forward off the edge.
The wind swept through what short hair he had, and Lance fell with his limbs spread as far as he could reach, the wind whipping away his whoops of delight. At the last moment before an imminent crash onto the ground Lance checked his fall, forcefully pulling out the hydro-sails - it caught the updraft and stopped midair for a milisecond, before the engines shot the board back up the cliff.
He went through the construction site, slipping and sliding over obstacles, performing maneuvers he had thought up during his shift.
An unfinished ramp pointing towards the sky was fast approaching; usually Lance would pass it by, but he couldn't help it - he rushed towards the ramp and flew up and up -
Lance began to climb vertically, shooting the board up into the sky as high as it could possibly go.
As he broke through the cloud cover, he caught the last rays of the sun, the dark red fading into the horizon as he watched.
He slowly pulled away from the engine's controls, and he hung in midair, eyes closed as he drank in the last rays of the sun.
Then he began to fall again - twisting and turning, using as much of his acrobatic abilities to flip as many times as he dared.
The wind howled in his ear, and Lance felt his clothes being whipped about, pulling out a shiny silver pendant to be buffeted in the air. Lance sighed happily as he eased out into a free fall. This was the best part of his day, as close to flying through space as he could get while grounded.
Veradera was a great place - he loved the people and the flourishing port city, the heart of Arus - it had everything he could possibly want, except...
Well, except space.
Right before he became splattered on the ground, Lance fired up his hydroboard and eased out into a glide, swerving the broken fences of the construction site.
He checked the time, wondering if there was time for one more free-fall - when he heard the apporaching sirens.
Lance groaned.
"Mrs. McClain, I know you are one of the most upstanding citizens of the city, but your son is to be held accountable for flying a hydro-board in a residential area -"
Lance sighed, tuning the officer out as he pulled a hand through his windswept locks. He wouldn't get into trouble, the worst he would get would be a couple of hours of community service or a fine.
"-last warning, or send him to a probationary facility in Altea!"
What? Lance quickly whipped his head back. Probationary facility? Jail?
"...I understand, officer. I am so sorry for my son," Mama said contritely. "Thank you for letting him off with only the warning."
With a sniff in Lance's direction, the policeman tipped his hat.
"Good night, ma'am."
As soon as the door closed behind the officer, Lance quelled at the disappointed gaze of his mother.
"Lance," She began softly. "What did I tell you about not going hydro-boarding?"
"...not to," Lance replied in a small voice.
"And what," she said, waving a slip of paper under his nose. His mother's anger was nearly palpable in the tense atmosphere. "is this piece of paper?"
"...a warning for hydro-boarding in a private, off-limits construction area." Lance muttered, knowing that anything else he said would make his punishment worse.
"Leonardo Alejandro McClain," Mama said, rubbing between her eyebrows. "You are grounded. From everything until further notice."
Lance began to protest, only to stop himself at the look on his mother's face. Making a face, Lance turned away.
"Lance," Mama pleaded to his back. "I just don't want you throwing away your future."
Lance gathered the stack of dishes on the empty table nearby, mumbling disgustedly.
"What future?"
Later that evening, Lance sat on the roof, staring out at the blinking lights of the stars, the occasional streaks of a passing asteroid, and the steady lights of the ships in the harbor.
He worried a silver pendant in his hand, fingers ghosting along the edges of the faded symbol in the back.
As he leaned back, voices drifted up to where he was leaning against the roof.
"- know what to do anymore, Coran," Mama's voice came through the open window. "Ever since Diego... he's been like -" She made a frustrated sound. "- Were you there tonight?"
"I did see," Coran's calm voice answered. "It's only a phase, my dear."
Lance snorted.
"...I really hope so," Mama said with a sigh. There was a sound of a chair being scraped back, and the soft sound of pacing. "He wasn't like this before! Lance is so obsessed over the legend of that Pirate Captain's treasure."
"Every boy wants a little bit of adventure, a little bit of excitement in their lives," Coran said sympathetically. "He'll get it out of his system once he experiences real space."
Lance sighed and stopped listening. As of his Mama would ever let him out to space. Not after what happened to his Papa.
Lance stared up at the starry sky, staring at the lights of the fishing boats just out of sight on the edges of the space port.
How I wish I was there, he thought.
Lance looked down at the silver pendant, fingering every detail again as he remembered how the pendant came to him.
Every year, there was an old space-sailor that came to their inn around Lance's birthday, sitting in the exact same booth, ordering the exact same meal - a surly, crazy drunkard with wrinkles and scars - and Lance remembered him every year, poking the man for some of his stories.
And every year the sailor would get drunk on fermented nunvil, drunkenly telling anyone who would listen about how he had been cabin boy to the Pirate King Zarkon for a few months before he escaped. How Zarkon had hidden his treasures on a hidden planet that no one could enter without his permission - especially not the cabin boy who just joined!
During his stories, Lance listened quietly off to the side. Later in the evening when most of the guests were gone, Lance was usually tasked to take the drunk space-sailor up to his room. And in the privacy of the room, Lance would whisper a soft I believe you to the half-conscious drunkard before he left, quietly leaving him to more of his drink.
The next year - his fourteenth birthday - the man came around again, but did something different - he didn't tell any tales of the Treasure Planet thiz time, quietly nursing his drink until he asked to be helped up to his room. As usual, Lance took him upstairs. When Lance turned to leave, the space-sailor stopped him with a grunt, pulling out a tiny grubby package from the depths of his ragged coat.
"M'lad," he croaked. "I wanted to thank you. All these years, none believed me or me stories of Zarkon," He said wistfully, looking mournfully down at the small parcel in his hand. "But you... you believe me, don't you?"
Lance hesitated, then gave a small nod.
"Yes... you believe me. Tha' is enough," the old drunk muttered to himself. "...tha' must be enough."
Lance stood awkwardly, unsure if he was dismissed - but before he could turn to leave, the old man pushed the little package to Lance, clenching Lance's fingers around leather.
"M'lad, t'is the only thing tha's been keeping me sane - only proof that I'm no crazy drunk sailor sproutin tales!" He pushed the package towards Lance and gave him a nudge. "Open it, lad! Open it."
Surprised, Lance glanced down at the leather-wrapped thing warily, but slowly took away the leather to reveal a silver pendant of a lion. Its eyes looked to be sapphires set into the metal.
Lance gaped, glancing from the pendant to the sailor, who was looking on with amusement.
"But... this looks... definitely not cheap!" Lance protested, questioning the sailor. "...Why are you giving this to me?"
"...Because yer the only one who I trust to do wha' I couldn'." the drunkard said with a sigh.
When Lance made no movement to take the pendant, the drunkard turned the pendant over to show a faded sigil.
"Reco'nize the symbol, lad?"
And Lance did. It was a well known fact that the Pirate King Zarkon had a personalized symbol, an elaborately designed X; even years after the pirate's rumored death, the symbol was associated with the dastardly pirate, who left his symbol in every place he raided.
"...Captain Zarkon's symbol?"
"Yes, lad, yes! Some tell me I'm just an old crackpot telling tales with a fake, but this... I stole this when I escaped his ship that night," The sailor stopped to take a swig of his drink. "Stole 'em right under their noses. Ha, take tha' Sendeck ya foolish yellow-bellied sap-sucker!"
"But still! Why are you giving this to me?"
The sailor suddenly stilled, eyes glittering sharply under his unkempt hair. Slowly, the agitated glitter faded, replaced by weariness.
"I'm being chased, lad," The sailor said with a sigh. "They're chasing me, all for tha' little thing. But no one's going t'know I gave it to ya, the li'l scrappy innkeeper's boy."
"No, no one will know it's here, and I'll die knowing tha' the last key's in the hands o' someone who's not those scurvy-infested one-armed scum."
Wide-eyed, Lance accepted the proffered pendant.
The sailor stared a bit, then broke into a wide grin, ruffling Lance's hair. "'Atta boy. The name's Ulaz, but don't you go blabbering it to everyone."
Lance slid a finger over the symbol again.
Ulaz continued to come by every year, taking Lance aside to tell tidbits of leads that he'd found on the treasure.
It was nearing Lance's birthday, and Ulaz was coming anybday now.
He'd drop by in a small old aeroship that made a strange clicking noise every time it entered the atmosphere -
Lance jerked up to the sky. Just like that.
Lance immediately searched the evening sky for the familiar ship. It was entering the atmosphere right then, but something was wrong.
One side of the sail was tilted to the side, barely hanging onto the main mast; smoke was pouring out of the ends of the ship, and the ship was coming in too fast to make a safe landing on the ship port at the inn.
With a large crash, the ship landed hard into port. Lance stood a few seconds in horrified silence, until coming back to attention at the explosion that broke the ship's hull.
"Mama!" Lance shouted, jumping off the roof. "It's Ulaz's ship!"
"What?" He vaguely heard his Mama yell back, but he ignored it to make his way to the broken ship. At the broken ship, Lance hesitated to go into the ship. Something was wrong, and Ulaz wasn't coming out of his ship. It had caught on fire, and he didn't know whether to call for the fire department or try to get Ulaz out himself.
Suddenly, the door of the ship cabin crashed open, and Ulaz himself stumbled out.
Lance was only close enough to catch the ragtag sailor as he fell off the side of his ship.
"Ulaz!" Lance tried to look over the space sailor, trying to find what was wrong.
He was pressing down into his side, where a large gash was bleeding green.
"M'lad..." Ulaz muttered, a hand grasping Lance's face. "He's coming."
"What? Who? By the Pirate King, Ulaz!" Lance gaped at the bleeding wound and placed a hand to put more pressure on the injury. "You're bleeding!"
"I... this -" Ulaz coughed harshly, and Lance felt a splurt of liquid under his hands.
"Ulaz, stop talking! There's a doctor -"
"No."
"But -"
"It's too late for me, m'lad," Ulaz muttered, clumsily rummaging through his coat with a bloody hand. "Here -"
Ulaz thrust a sphere into Lance's hands, a metal sphere with many little indentations and little markings all over.
"M'lad..." Ulaz coughed again. "He's after it - the map -"
"Ulaz, I don't understand," Lance stuttered, feeling more blood pour out through his fingers as Ulaz coughed. "I - Ulaz-"
Suddenly, with hidden strength, Ulaz pulled the boy in by the collar. "Beware the cyborg..."
With a harsh sigh, Ulaz shuddered, then fell into Lance's arms.
"Lance!" His mother and the doctor came up to him, and the doctor immediately took over caring for Ulaz.
"Mama." Lance hugged his mother, shocked at the death of his friend.
"Oh, Lance," Mama pulled him close into a tight hug. "Are you okay?"
"...Yeah." Lance put away the metal sphere in his pocket, looking down at himself to see his bloody hand and front. "Ulaz... I think he's dead..."
"Lance is correct," Coran said soberly. "He has just succumbed to a heart attack exacerbated by blood loss. Ms. McClain, the police, if you would?"
"According to the police, this Ulaz fellow was retracing the last steps of the Pirate Captain Zarkon," Coran said with interest, handing his mother a cup of tea. "He was really close, too."
While his mother and Coran spoke in low tones of the sailor, Lance had taken out the metal sphere, fiddling with the mysterious object.
The police had come by to take the information on the ship explosion, but no one knew much - Lance only knew his name.
Pulling out the sphere, Lance began to juggle it, wondering what was so important about it. What could it be? Ulaz had given it to him with the warning of 'beware the cyborg', but there were millions of cyborgs just in the city. Who was the warning against?
Lance fiddled with the sphere, playing around with the indentations when the sphere suddenly clicked open, extending four more finger-holds.
Wide-eyed, Lance looked back at the two adults in the room, discussing the death of Ulaz.
Touching the extensions gingerly, Lance waited for something to happen.
When nothing else happened, Lance fiddled with the extensions, coming to a realization.
"It's a puzzle," Lance mumbled. "Heh, let's see why they call me the tailor -"
The extensions pulled back in with a click, releasing a rotating mechanism.
"Bingo," Lance smirked in triumph, rotating the two halves until the indented shapes matched up.
There was a small whirr, then the entire room was plunged into darkness.
"Wha-?"
A blue glow filled the room, the darkness lighting up with the stars and planets that stretched across the darkness.
"This is..." Lance gaped, touching a planet that drifted close. "This is amazing."
The stars were glowing a soft neutral white, the intensity of the color showing the size; the softly glowing blue were the planets that orbited the star, with blue lines to show each orbit. Lance noticed some faint red to point to black holes and asteroid fields.
"This technology is incredible," Coran agreed, peering at the galaxy drifting towards him. "Ah, it's the Krakroff galaxy, centered around the star Alpha-8. The rotations seem to be mostly accurate... maybe some orbits off by a few decafeebs..."
"But what is it?" Mama asked, bemused, looking around the planets.
"Hmm," Coran wondered aloud. "It seems to be based off of ancient Altean technology - perhaps an astro-"
Before Coran had a chance to finish, Lance found their planet Arus, and going with his gut, tapped the planet with his pendant.
Everything lit up, the map twisting and zooming in towards the planet, a green line forming and shifting the entire hologram along as it connected different planets together.
"Why, it's... a map!" Coran exclaimed as the stars ang galaxies whipped past. "That's the Corral galaxy! Montressor Abyss! And... no. It can't be!"
"...It's Treasure Planet," Lance breathed, when he caught sight of the planet X. "It's a map to Treasure Planet!"
