Chapter Text
Adam sends McClain and Garrett off to get the yellow lion, sends Keith off with Katie in a small Altean craft to find the green one, and wonders if the aliens are aware that two of the so-called Paladins of Voltron have never even stepped foot in a cockpit before. Are they just supposed to magically know how to pilot an alien spaceship? Will the lion talk them through everything, like the blue one did for McClain?
Meanwhile, Colleen keeps shooting him annoyed looks for suggesting Keith and Katie go off on their own and getting roped into staying here in the first place.
But the kids made good points. The more support they can have, the better. They'll see how this one day and night goes, they'll get the other lion ships, and they'll reconsider everything in the morning.
And besides, sending all the kids off lets Adam and Colleen have a chance to grill the Alteans about this war and what might be expected of them.
They're going to get armor, at least. And space suits. Both of which are an upgrade from the mix of civvies and Garrison uniforms they came here in.
The five paladins will also get some kind of magical weapons, which Adam can't decide he's happy about or not. None of them have used any weapons before, except for Keith and his knife and the mostly perfunctory handgun training Adam went through as a Garrison officer. Accepting weapons makes the whole thing feel much more real, but he'd also be an idiot to expect anyone to fight a millenias old war without them.
"What about injuries? Health care?" Colleen asks.
"Oh, we have cryopods for that," Coran says easily. "A couple vargas in one of those and you'll be good as new."
Adam has no idea what measure of time a varga is. A minute? A month? And if the castle and everything in it is thousands of years old, how well will those so-called cryopods work after all that time?
"Food? Nutrition? We're human"—Adam notes that she leaves off that one of them is only half-human—"how do we know what's safe for us to eat and drink out here?"
"It would hardly be the first time we've had someone of unknown origin aboard the castle. We'll just scan you and use that data to determine what you can and can't eat, physiologically-speaking."
Colleen humphs. "You know these are children you're asking to save the universe, right? Children."
"It isn't ideal," Coran allows, "but it's the best situation we've got right now. And inside the lions, the Paladins will be safe from almost every danger."
Adam can't help but wonder, if the lions are also thousands of years old, how well their technology has held up over time. Who's to say that the Galra Empire hasn't come up with something bigger and stronger and faster in the intervening years? Why are Coran and the Princess so convinced that the lions and this Voltron creation will save the universe?
Colleen shares a look with him that turns into a glare, and he can imagine she's thinking along the same lines.
But Adam has already sent four children off to get two more lions - he isn't blameless in this situation either. He hopes the kids know what they're doing and come back safe.
Why is Katie piloting a giant lion ship? She gets that supposedly she has a mystical connection to the ship, but she has also not piloted once in her life. She's never even been in the simulator. And now she's going to be one-fifth of the fighting force against this empire? Seems like someone hasn't done the math on that.
Behind her, Keith keeps making aborted moves like he's trying to pilot them from two feet away, and it is not helping. She's half-tempted to just let him pilot them out, but every time she thinks about it, she can feel the lion ship get angry and frustrated around them.
It's all fine and dandy, but Katie gets the feeling she's not going to have the chance to actually learn how to fly. An evil alien empire won't just sit back and let her (and Hunk, for that matter) practice until they feel confident. And if mom and Adam get their way, they'll all be leaving tomorrow morning anyway.
"Um, watch out for the..."
"I see it, Keith," she says.
"Okay, but you're not actually moving out of the way. The ship might be part-telepathic but I'm pretty sure you're still supposed to actually steer."
"Well, how would you know?"
"Why else would there be a steering system?"
Okay, that's a fair point.
But it was hard enough for Katie to keep the lion steady enough for him to put the Altean vessel they came here with into the lion's hold. Doing any advanced movements like "avoiding asteroids on their way to the wormhole rendezvous" might be beyond her.
Why did she agree to this?
Why did he agree to this?
There are aliens shooting at him. Lots of aliens. Shooting lots of things.
Hunk is down there in the tunnels somewhere, looking for his lion, so Lance has to balance drawing the enemy's fire away from the vulnerable human on the surface and not getting blown to bits from taking too many shots to the lion's face.
This ship had seemed so high tech compared to anything the Earth had come up with, but Lance doesn't know how it's going to hold up against almost constant fire from those Galra fighters. They're smaller than him, sure, but their weapons still pack a punch.
It doesn't help that Lance is still so unfamiliar with the lion's systems. He's dodging too sluggishly, not aiming the few weapons he's discovered very accurately, and he's sure those Galra are just laughing at him.
Just a little more. Hunk just needs to find that lion and then they can blow this popsicle stand. If only Hunk could hurry up a bit...
The four children come back in one piece, at least. And they've found the other two lions, so there's that.
But all four of them look like they've just been through the wringer.
Lance and Hunk both look like they've seen some kind of battle, despite the fact that Coran promised them that the planet they were being sent to was a peaceful one. Keith looks more impatient than she has ever seen him, and Katie looks like someone just heavily criticized her favorite programming language.
This was a horrible idea and it just reinforces Colleen's belief that they should leave immediately.
She gives Adam a glare, and he has the decency to look slightly chagrinned, at least. The glare she gives the Alteans seems to be lost on them, since they're just mostly excited about finding the other two lions in the first place.
"Wonderful!" the princess says. "Now we only need to find the red lion and we'll be ready to take on the Galra Empire!"
Colleen glares again. No one pays attention to it, this time.
She has a very bad feeling about this.
And then Coran reveals that he's discovered the red lion's location.
The red lion is on a hostile warship headed straight for them.
On the one hand, that's great, because they don't need to spend time finding it.
On the other hand, hostile warship headed straight for them.
"Nope," Adam says. "Nope, we're done. We're not doing 'hostile warship' on the first day. Pack it up, let's go."
"But the red lion," Keith says. That's his lion out on that ship. Everyone else got a lion; he wants his turn.
"We have four lions," Adam says.
"Only three of them are working," Hunk points out.
"We have three lions," Adam says. "That's good enough. We don't need all five."
"But without all five, you can't form Voltron!" the princess says.
Keith gets the feeling Adam has never cared about anything less.
At the console, Coran finishes up some kind of scan, projecting it into the open air in front of them. "It seems like there are other life forms beside the Galra on board this vessel, down in these small rooms. This might serve as a prison ship."
Keith and the others turn at once to look at Adam. If Shiro or the Holts are on that ship, then they have to go investigate. And even if they're not, they need to free those prisoners. It's the right thing to do.
"Don't look at me like that," Adam says. "I am not about to let four untested children fight a warship."
"But Shiro..."
Adam groans, head in his hands, and turns to Colleen. "What do you think?"
"You know exactly what I think," she says dryly.
"If Sam or Matt are on board..." he says.
"The likelihood of that is incredibly slim."
"I'll go with you," the princess says. "I've had experience on Galra vessels before, and I was trained in combat as part of my studies. Coran and Colleen can stay here and provide support from the castle."
"Great, so we'll have five children on the warship instead of four," Colleen says.
"Technically the princess is thousands of years old," Katie mutters. Keith would laugh if they weren't getting so far off-track, away from the prisoners on board the ship with the red lion.
"We knew that rescuing them would be hard, and what if waiting means we're too late?" Keith says. "We need to go." They could already be too late. He's not wasting any more time.
"Keith..." Adam says, in that voice that still makes him bristle even after everything.
"Adam."
There's an intense staring contest, but it's Adam that turns away first.
"Fine."
"Fine?!" Colleen says. She sounds scandalized, and Keith inwardly smiles, knowing he's won.
"What can I say, I've become a pushover in my old age when it comes to this kid. Besides, if Takashi is on that ship, I need to be there, too. But we're not going in without a plan. And the three of you that have extra special lion ships working, you're not leaving the cockpits."
Keith feels a little bad, because clearly Colleen isn't happy about this situation, but he'll deal with that later.
They're one step closer to rescuing Shiro.