Voltron: Legacy

Chapter 20

When we reached the base, it didn’t take long for Xaroc to have the other Blades let us in. We split back into our lions, landed, and got out to see Axca running to meet us. She was Keith’s third main lieutenant along with Ezor and Zethrid. I didn’t know her quite as well as them, but our few interactions had been friendly ones.
“Axca, can you contact Keith? The Atlas is missing, we think they’ve been captured by Sareth.”
“The one who’s controlling the Archanai?”
“Yeah.” 
Axca shook her head. “I can’t contact Keith, because he’s missing. Him, Ezor, Zethrid and a few more of our best agents.”
“What?!” Xaroc and I said at the same time.
The older woman nodded grimly.
“Their ship disappeared through some kind of wormhole, we think, and we’ve had no contact from any of them since then.”
“Sounds like Sareth might have taken them, too.” I muttered.
“She can’t use wormholes, can she?”
“We’re pretty sure she can now.”
“Damn.”
Just then, Axca’s communicator buzzed. It was Coran. He looked at us and Axca, confused.
“Where’s Keith?”
“Missing.” I said.
His eyes widened.
“So is Linnea’s family. They were gone when we woke up this morning.”
Linnea’s mouth trembled. “That quiznacking piece of crap!”
Leilah hugged her. “Darn right, but I promise we’ll get them back.”
Then we had to explain what was probably going on. Coran’s eyes narrowed.
“It sounds like she’s targeting the former paladins. I’ll contact Lance’s family and see if he’s missing too.”
A few minutes later, he popped back up onto our screen, looking shaken.
“He’s gone too, and so are Leilah’s family and Jason’s father.”
Jason and Leilah squeezed each other’s hands, eyes wide with anger and fear. I took a deep breath.
“Jason, is there any way you can trace the wormholes back to their source? If we can find where she’s taken them . . . “
“Then you’ll probably fall right into whatever trap she’s set.” Axca snapped.
“What other choice do we have? We have to save our friends and our families. I’m not asking you to come with us.”
“Well we’re coming anyway.” She said. Then, more softly, she added, “They’re my family too.”
I nodded.
“We’ll need all the help we can get. Coran, we should go.”
“Goodbye then.” He sighed. “I wish I could be out there with you all, one last time. But I guess I’m too old for that. Good luck, paladins.”
“Thank you.”
The old altean hung up, and I turned to my friends.
“Let’s get to work, guys. Time is precious right now.”
We headed for the base’s lab.

A few hours of brain-breaking math and problem-solving later, Jason gave a screeching yell that probably was audible all the way back on Earth.
“What was that for?!” Xaroc demanded, rubbing her tufted ears.
“It’s his way of announcing he’s made a breakthrough.” Leilah explained wearily. “For some reason, he thinks making velociraptor noises is the appropriate way of celebrating a scientific discovery. Jason, hun, you could just say eureka.”
“That would be boring.” He argued.
“Okay, velo-whatever noises aside, what did you find?” I asked.
“You were right! The wormholes all converge on the same planet, right at the outer limits of this quadrant here. The same planet that I’m pretty sure the messages from all the bases we took down were going to.”
“That’s their main lair, then.” Linnea said.
Jason nodded.
“Yeah. So what’s the plan? Are we gonna do any recon first, or just go in guns blazing?”
They were all looking at me, waiting for orders, just like they’d done that first day back on Earth. We had come so far since then. I couldn’t fail them now. I studied the planet.
“That little moon over there, are they using it for anything?”
“No way to tell.”
“Well, we’ll land there first, use our cloaking, and maybe get a better idea of what their defenses are like.”
“And then we form Voltron, fly in and kick some ass, am I right?” Xaroc asked.
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“And we take those quiznackers down hard.” Leilah said.
“And we get our families back.” Linnea added, eyes blazing.
Jason grinned wolfishly. “I think we ought to do that cheer right about now.”
I sighed in fond exasperation.
“Oh, okay. Three, two, one, Vol-” “TRON!!” We all shouted, fists in the air.
I smiled with pride as we walked out of the lab, heads high, to tell Axca the plan. We were the paladins of Voltron. We could do this.