After having a good tour of the shuttle, the Astronauts went to inspect their dormitories and organize their things. Once this was through, those who had positions in the medical wing and the supplies left to start their tasks; the rest either did check lists to make sure the shuttle was up and running properly, or returned to their positions on the main deck.
"We on course, Lancer?" Danny asked as Nicholas sat down beside him at the front of the shuttle.
Lancer typed in a few commands and checked his computer screen. "Yep," he replied. He looked at a map NASA had provided them on paper. "Right on track. If we don't meet up with any trouble or space junk, we should be able to reach our destination within… I'd say three days."
"Sweet; three days there, and three days back," the man sitting next to him said with a grin. "Exactly—or nearly—a week in space!"
"And a week away from noisy relatives," another man muttered, making his partner laugh.
"On NASA's normal shuttles, it would take about that much to get to the moon," Melissa announced. "But with this baby, we can save hours of time!"
"Where exactly are we headed again, Sir?" Lancer asked Danny, looking up at his captain.
Danny fiddled with a few switches. "A dark asteroid," he replied. "The Lieutenant needs us to bring some samples back from it so that Dr Johnson can study them."
"Aaand this is supposed to be a meeting place for ghosts, right?"
"Possibly. But hardly any go out into space."
"How do you know all of this?"
Danny fell incredibly silent. He did not look up from the radar screens before him, nor did he make any other movement.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for him to answer.
Nicholas, having already known the answer, decided to break the silence and looked at his friend. "What the Captain knows is his business, Lancer," he announced. "His parents are ghost hunters, remember?"
Lancer stared at him in shock, having not expected Nicholas to reply. "Well, yeah," he said, "But I doubt his own parents would know this much about the hideouts of ghosts."
"Some things are better left unknown, Lancer," Nicholas added, remembering Danny's words while they were training. "Besides; it has nothing to do with our mission. We need to gather some samples for NASA, and we don't need to know everything Dr. Fenton knows in order to get the job done correctly. So let's just set it aside and keep doing our jobs."
Lancer raised his hands. "Okay, okay," he replied, getting back to work. "Didn't mean to get into something personal, Nick. If it's not important, I guess it's not important."
Once everyone had returned to their duties, Nicholas looked at Danny. The black-haired astronaut continued to stare silently at the controls, neither blinking nor moving.
"Sir?" Nicholas said very quietly.
Danny finally blinked and raised his head. He looked up at Nicholas for a split second before straightening his back and steering the shuttle. "That wasn't necessary," he said softly.
"I told Lieutenant Jones that I'd stand by my captain no matter what," Nicholas replied. He looked out the window. "An order's an order, whether either of us like it or not."
Danny looked at him again in silence before continuing his flying in quietly.