"A sky full of stars and he was staring at her."
~Atticus

Lilly

"You're joking, right?" I asked, my wide-eyed gaze flicking between Caleb and the ship.

"No, that's his serious face," Shane said, appearing out of nowhere next to Caleb, leaning forward to glimpse my friend's expression. His sudden appearance sent us into near-cardiac arrest.

"Holy shit!" Caleb exclaimed, jumping away from the elder Calhoun. "What the hell are you doing here, man? Where are your guards?"

Shane shrugged. "I talked Esmeralda into letting me have free reign of the apartment complex and its grounds without guards. It's only when I go out in public I need them. There are enough cameras around to keep track of my every move," he said, waving at a camera in the corner of the hangar. "As for what I'm doing, I'm following you two onto this ship. I want to watch Lilly learn how to fly it."

"You mean, you want to watch me humiliate myself learning how to fly it?" I said.

"Give yourself some credit. I have a feeling you're going to be wonderful at it." Shane motioned to the craft. "After you."

Rolling his eyes, Caleb walked onto the spaceship. I followed with Shane on my heels. We entered the cockpit and strapped ourselves in. Caleb took the captain's seat, saying, "We'll work on taking off and landing another day. For now, I'll get us into space, and you can practice steering up there. There's not much you can hit up there, so it's the perfect place to start your training."

"You underestimate my abilities," I muttered.

"I think you underestimate your talents," Shane said.

Caleb sighed. "If you're done flirting, I'd like to at least show Lilly the buttons to push before taking off."

"Show away." Shane leaned back in his seat, watching with amusement as a bristling Caleb began to explain the controls to me.

"All right, this big green button is to start the engines. Notice it says 'start,' so it'll be extremely difficult to miss," Caleb said, pressing the button. The ship hummed to life, its powerful engines deceptively quiet. "See? Easy. Now, Skywalker has two forms of take-off. It can either lift off like a plane where it goes down a runway or lift vertically into the air. Each requires a different procedure, and we're only going to learn how to take off vertically since we don't have a runway. I mean, if you wanted to drive it through the basement of the apartment tower, you could, but I don't recommend it."

"Do it," Shane said.

"Shut up, Shane," Caleb and I said simultaneously, which only caused him to grin. Ignoring him, Caleb proceeded to show me the myriad of buttons and handles to do a vertical liftoff. He had me push or pull each one in the correct sequence while he steered the ship. Skywalker glided smoothly upward, rising above the buildings and a sickening height. Why this bothered me and planes didn't was a mystery to me. Then again, planes didn't go into space. Maybe that was it...

Clutching the arm of my chair, I watched as the scenery outside shifted from the night sky to the blackness of space. Caleb, noticing my apprehension out of the corner of his eye, gently rested his hand on my arm and said, "You've got this. If you get too nervous, I'll take over. You ready?"

I nodded shakily, unbuckling my seatbelt and switching places with Caleb. I set my hands on the joystick and turned to Caleb, saying, "All right, what's first?"

For the next hour, he taught me the basic maneuvers: turning left, turning right, lifting up, going down, and yawing. Once I mastered those and had flown around for a bit obeying his every instruction, he moved me onto more intermediate maneuvers, like barrel-rolling and loops. Those were fun but made me dizzy if I did them too much.

The more I flew, the more comfortable I became. My shaking stopped, my anxiety disappeared, and relaxation set in. Suddenly, being in the vast openness of space no longer terrified me. In fact, it almost gave me a sense of peace.

"You're a natural," Caleb praised. "Feeling better about space and flying?"

"Yeah, surprisingly. I guess being in control of the situation helped."

"You do like control, don't you?" Shane remarked.

"Says the guy who tried to enter my mind the first time I met him."

Shane held up his hands. "Merely to get to know you right off the bat, so I could flirt successfully with you."

"You mean to manipulate her?" Caleb countered.

"Good insult attempt. It's a shame your opinion doesn't affect me."

"Boys," I said, "that's enough. I'm here to learn how to fly, not boss you two around."

"You can boss me around anytime you want," Shane replied, "and not just because you are my boss, and I'm your guard."

"How did you know that?" I demanded, whirling around.

"I was eavesdropping."

"Seriously?! That was a private conversation!"

"I was coming to find you. I must agree with you on the fact no one will want to vote for you when you're associating with me, although I must admit, never saw you being so cunning and devious."

I buried my face in my hands to hide my flushed face. "Oh god, I can't believe you overheard that. I'm so sorry!"

"You were right about the fact I'd do the same if I were put in the position, so no harm done. It takes quite a bit to offend me."

"That's how you knew where we were," Caleb said. "You were following us."

"I see you're putting those super-genius powers to work."

"All right, you know what-"

"Caleb," I interrupted, grasping his arm. Reluctantly, he shifted his attention to me. "Please tell me I'm seeing a Vasileian ship."

Caleb glanced out the windshield at the monstrous, looming ship approaching us. He blanched and ordered, "Switch places with me."

I did so without hesitation, not wanting to be in the pilot's seat if we engaged them. Buckling in, I watched Caleb press numerous buttons, switching Skywalker from travel mode to combat mode. Simultaneously, he radioed Vasileia, informing them of the Malkan ship on the horizon. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shane grab a pair of binoculars and zero in on the incoming enemy.

"It's an MMAX Destroyer," Shane informed. "Long-range missile capabilities, can catch up to almost any ship in hyperspace and can withstand normal bombardment for up to seven days. The best way to attack it is from within."

"How exactly can we do that when the moment we approach them, they'll blow us to smithereens? I'm a good pilot, but not that good," Caleb said, flipping more switches.

Shane lowered the binoculars and smirked. "Are you forgetting what I can do?"

While Caleb appeared perplexed, Shane's idiotic idea hit me immediately. "Don't you dare!"

"I'm expendable. You two are not. I've got this."

"Shane!" I grabbed onto him desperately, and my world turned black.