~do I even have to warn you about my swears anymore~
After a long, long time slowly learning to speak and read Altean, I groaned and shut off the learner.
Streaching, cracking my back and neck, I decided to go to the bridge and see if the paladins were back.
A pit stop in the kitchen for some water, and I made my way.
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I choked, my water coming out in a spray. Allura had apparently let the mice style her hair, in a whacky assortment. It looked rediculous.
I'm the midst of my coughing fit, I felt a large hand clap my back a few times. Catching my breath, I turned to see that it belonged to Hunk, who wore an apron. Keith was close behind, as was an excited Pidge carrying a game box and Lance, who had a cow in tow.
I raised an eyebrow and he shrugged. Coran followed as well, dressed in an odd getup that seemed out of character and fitting at the same time.
"I got the lenses!" He shouted, and Allura spun around to face us.
"Excellent! Now we can get the Teladuv up and running!"
"Where's Shiro?" Keith looked around. I downed the rest of my glass as the door opened behind us.
"What did you do, take a nap?" Asks the one who let fucking mice style her hair.
"Not exactly." Shiro looks to Lance. "Is.. That a cow?"
"Mmmmmhm." Lance beams. "His name is Kaltenecker." The cow moos. Shiro raises an eyebrow.
"So, did you find a way to bond with your lion?" Keith. Shiro turns to him, disregarding the cow for the time being.
"Yes. And we need to get moving. We're heading for the blade of marmora's headquarters!"
Everyone stared for a moment. Coran gave me his bag of lenses excitedly.
"I'll plot a course!"
"While you're doing that, I'm gonna hook up the videogame Lance and I bought." Pidge grinned one of those really big grins that makes your eyes squinty. She and Lance ripped into the box, Lance excitedly grabbing a controller.
"Yeah! Let's get this baby set up!"
They both looked around before Pidge had a realization.
"Where can we.. how do we... uhh..." I saw her eye twitch and covered my ears. Shiro and hunk followed suit just in time. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
She fell and Lance followed suit. I rolled my eyes. Nerds.
I trudged toward the Teladuv with the lenses as Hunk and Shiro attempted to console the two crying messes on the floor. Coran followed after me.
He didn't want my help putting the lenses in place, but he did keep me busy by having me carry out broken shards of lens. He had also charged me with watching Kaltenecker, who occasionally moo'ed at us.
It took several minutes, but he was super excited when they were done and sprinted back up to the bridge.
For an old fart he sure has a lot of energy.
I put the cow in a room with a field that Coran had given me directions to before returning to the bridge myself.
"Coran. How soon will we get to the Blade of Marmora's base?" Shiro's voice carried to the door as I opened it.
"Based on the coordinates that Olas gave us, we should be there within a few doboshes."
"I can't wait to see it." Pidge gushed. "I mean, they were able to fold space-time and that was just at an outpost!"
"Mm. The space taco. You left us too soon." Hunk rubbed his grumbling tummy and I smiled.
"Well sure, but," Pidge jumped back into major nerd mode. " my point is, imagine how amazing their home base will be!"
"Exactly! It could take on any shape. Like a space jelly donut. Or long, like a space eclair, or a space cheese blintz with a cherry sauce on top. Maybe a little dusting of powdered sugar. That's the stars." I think Hunk is just hungry.
"Aww! Now I'm hungry for breakfast." Lance complains. Mood.
"Guys. This is a serious mission. We need to focus." Keith says, from his chair. Lance puts on a mocking face.
"We need to focus." He says, in a voice worse than his expression. Coran speaks, ignoring Lance's petty.
"The base is in range."
"Take us in slowly." Shiro says.
"That might prove the tiniest bit of a challenge."
"Is that a black hole?" Hunk stares in wonder at the sight in front of us.
"No no no no no. It's two black holes, and a giant blue star." Coran says. He seems just as amazed.
"That's not better."
"No kidding." Pidge says. " just inside a black hole, the temperature is one millionth of a degree above absolute zero. But, just outside of that, it's hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius."
Hunk lights up.
"Okay, it's like when you try to nuke a frozen burrito in the microwave, and it comes out all scorching hot on the outside but it's still frozen in the middle, right?"
Pidge is unamused, and Lance frowns at him.
"Now I'm hungry for lunch!"
"Guys, quiet!" Keith yells, which is unnecessary and loud, much like some people's personalities. "Coran, where is the base located?"
"In between those three deadly celestial objects." He says, pulling up a visual.
"The perfect defensive position." Pidge says, followed immediately by an annoyed Allura.
"Or the perfect trap."
"Yeah, I'm with Allura. Maybe we shouldn't, like, go in there at all?" Hunk questions.
"What are you talking about? We have to go in! This is the whole reason we came out here! There is no other option!" Keith is speaking in a raised voice. I back away slowly, towards the door.
"Okay, jeez. Calm down." Lance makes calming motions with his hands. Keith makes a mildly bitchy face but calms.
A screen pops up.
"Identify yourself." States a feminine robot voice. Shiro turns to Coran.
"Open a hailing frequency, Coran."
"We are the Paladins of Voltron, sent here by Ulaz." Shiro states. Silence, then the bot speaks again.
"Two may enter. Come unarmed."
"Why would they insist we come unarmed? Shiro, this doesn't feel right." Allura. You racist. They're fighting a war. Chill your space titties. I wish talking wasn't so insanely difficult, I'd love to actually interact with people like a Functioning Human. Oh well. Shiro speaks, breaking my train of thought.
"We've come too far to turn back now."
"They just sent us a route to the base, but we'll have to move quickly." Coran says. " because of the solar flares it's only open for another Varga. Then it will be closed for two quintents."
"They're gonna close it for two years??" Hunk looks apalled. Pidge corrects him.
"Two days."
"Oh."
"So. Any thoughts on who's gonna join you on this little mission?" Lance asks, eyebrow quirked. He clearly wants to go. "I'm thinking things are gonna get a little hot, so you're gonna want someone who can stay cool." I snorted quietly, receiving looks from hunk and Pidge as they were the only two close enough to hear.
"You're right." Lance Smiles at Shiro's comment, only for Shiro to look at Keith. "Keith, you're coming with me."
Lance looks utterly betrayed.
"What? Keith's a hot head! He's probably going to shoot first and ask questions later! And they're not going to be able to answer his questions, because they'll be dead!" He was super close to Shiro's face now, pouting and whiny. Keith looked annoyed, and Shiro was angry.
"We haven't yet severed Zarkon's link with the black lion." He spoke in an accusatory tone, placing his hands on Lance's shoulders and moving him away. "So it has to stay here. And the red lion can withstand the heat from that sun." Lance pouted with his arms crossed. "So yes, it'll be Keith."
"The course to the base will be quite treacherous, to say the least." Coran interjected. "You're walking a Razor's Edge between the gravitational pull of the black holes and the sun. One false move and you'll either be crushed into infinity or burnt to a crisp."
Shiro and Keith left to the red lion, and soon we all watched as it flew away.
"Keith, is everything okay?" Shiro's voice asked through my comm helmet.
"I'm fine." The response came, shrugging off Shiro's worry.
"You kind of blew up at everybody back there. You'll have to learn to control your emotions if you're going to lead this group someday."
"Lead the group?" A small chuckle.
"When we were stranded, I told you, if anything ever happens to me, I want you to lead Voltron."
"I thought you were just delirious with pain. Why would you make me the leader?"
"Because I know what you're capable of, if you can learn some self discipline."
"Why are we even talking about this? Nothing is going to happen to you."
"It's just in case. I need you to get focused. When you and Allura ran off, it put us all in jeopardy. If you're going to be a leader, you've got to get your head on straight."
"I'm sorry. I've just had a lot on my mind."
"I know. We all have."
The comms cut out, and I took them off to watch with everyone else.
We all pit patted the time away, and I shuffled over to Lance after a while, who was sitting by Shiro's station. He looked at me curiously, and I shrugged.
"How long has it been?" Allura asked finally, arms crossed, as bored as the rest of us and sounding quite impatient.
"Roughly ten vargas." Coran answered her. He sounded worried.
"We cannot just wait here." Allura states. Well, what are we gonna do about it then? Lance speaks next, in a bored and nonchalant tone.
"The Pass is closed for, like, I don't know, 30 more Vargas or something?"
Hunk yawns while Coran checks.
"That's actually correct." He says, mildly surprised. Lance smiles deviously.
"Really?" Hunk asks, also genuinely surprised. Lance cracks his fingers before cracking a joke.
"Yeah, I wasn't born yesterquintant." He smiles at me proudly and rests his arms behind his head.
"I.. I have to know what's going on down there." Allura says, pulling a screen up.
"There's no way to get a read on their base." Page says, examining her own screen. "Too much interference from the solar flares and the black holes."
"If we count for the gravitational lensing, Mayne we can reduce the noise and interference and connect with red lions sensors,, right?" Hunk said, letting his nerd out and speaking to Lance and Pidge. "That.. that's right, right?" He looked both to Coran and Lance for approval on this. Coran thought for a moment. Lance looked between hunk and Coran, then to me. I shrugged. Looking back to Hunk, Lance pointed to himself.
"Are yo looking at me?"
"We can give it a try." Coran says, drawing attention. Allura dons a sure expression.
"Get on it."
Immediately, Coran and Pidge start working on screens. Hunk joins them, and I watch, silent as usual, Lance by my side. He's smart... Why wouldn't he act like it? I look at him out of the corner of my eyes, and see him with a small frown, watching the others be tech nerds.
He's really worried. I place a hand on his shoulder, and he jolts before looking over. My concern is written all over my face.
"I'm okay." He whispers, so the others won't hear. I hesitate, but remove my hand and look away.
An alert sounds on Allura's screen. She reads.
"The red lion is moving!"
"We gotta get down there!" Lance's energy is clear in his voice.
"It won't be ready for five more minutes. " Hunk says.
The red lion begins attack on the BoM base. Please hurry.