"Hey Coran!" Hunk poked his head into the bridge where the rest of the team was milling about. "We got anything going on in the next, uhhhhh… Week?"
"Oh well let me see…" The old Altean bent almost double to squint down at the navigation console. "No, nothing much really. We're still waiting to Rendezvous with that resistance convoy. Can't very well go to the next target without some backup, can we? No telling how long they'll be though. We could be holding this orbit for 5 quintants waiting for them… In the meantime, I was thinking we could use some training. Or some janitorial work! Or janitorial training!"
"Oh, okay, sweet." Hunk nodded. "No battles or big business. That's all I needed to hear."
Pidge glanced up from her computer, and noticed the duffle bag slung over Hunk's shoulder. "What, you got plans?"
"Yeaaah, you ditching us?" Lance piped up.
"Oh! Uh… Kinda. No. Ish." Hunk shrugged. "Yeah, no, I was just thinking of maybe taking Yellow out for a ride. See the sights. I dunno. Little break."
"OH, SO YOUR DEVIOUS PLOT COMES TOGETHER!" Coran whirled on him. "Trying to skimp out of janitorial duty, ARE YA? Leaving all the dirty work to the rest of us!"
"Huh? No- I mean… Is that a big problem? Like, I can clean toilets or whatever when I get back. Right? Just an 'I owe you' type thing."
"I.O.U.?" Coran jabbed a finger at him. "Don't try to weasel your way out of this with your mysterious Earth acronyms! YOU have a sworn and sacred duty that I assigned to you just now! A duty to scrub bathrooms! And that's-"
"No, I mean, I can do all the work later. You guys can just save my portion for when I get back, and I'll do it. And besides, the bathrooms aren't that bad, right?"
"Hmmmmmmmm." Coran squinted hard at him.
"And in the meantime, I made you guys some cookies." Hunk revealed a jar.
"Oh well why didn't you say so! Have fun wherever you're going!" Coran snatched one up and spun on his heel back toward the display. "Now where was I?" He mumbled around a mouthful. "Oh yes, orbit calculations! Hm-humm-deedee-dum."
"Okay yeah, but where is it exactly that you're going?" Lance held up his hand for a cookie of his own.
"See the sights." Hunk tossed one toward him. "Planets. Moons. Space. Comets. Planets… Y'know. Space sights."
"But we see space sights like, every day." Lance failed to catch it, but ate it off the floor anyway.
"Eh. Maybe something special. I dunno. I haven't really decided." Hunk glanced at Coran's navigation display, and let his eyes surf over the millions of tiny specks of light. "What do you guys think? What makes places special? …Like, what's the most beautiful and special thing we've ever seen?"
"Like… Some place we haven't been to for a while?" Shiro frowned.
"Or someplace beautiful that you wish to return to?" Allura clarified.
"I dunno, like… Someplace that would be really good to see for the first time, you know?" Hunk scratched his chin. "Like if you hadn't seen much of the universe, and wanted to see a place for the first time?"
"Like someplace to go for a date?" Pidge raised her eyebrows.
"Huh." Hunk's face went blank. "What no. Uh."
"I see what you're doing." Pidge pointed to the navigation display with a wink. "We're only 50 light-years from the Balmera. You're going to take Shay somewhere nice."
"Uhhhh… Yeah, well." Hunk admitted.
"Good for you!" Pidge gave a thumbs-up.
"That's so sweet, Hunk!" Allura smiled.
"Go get 'em." Shiro nodded.
"That… Heh heh… Rocks." Coran winked.
"Ha ha, yeah! Rocks! Good one Coran!" Lance guffawed.
"Hmm." Keith didn't even turn around.
"Alright, thank you, thank you, you're all very supportive." Hunk sighed, and began to pass the cookies around. "But seriously though, does anybody have any ideas of where we should go? I mean… I was just thinking that… She spent her whole life underground, you know? And even now, the Balmeran surface is kind of… Barren? Just a lot of mountains and desert and crystals and rocks… I mean, maybe people who are made of rock like rocks, but it'd still be nice to see somewhere else, something cool or special, beyond her horizons… I dunno, where should I take her?"
"Uh… Space?" Keith offered.
"No, like…" Hunk scratched his head. "Like, what kind of places do you guys like? What kind of places do you miss? Or where you wish you could live? Or see again?"
They thought about that.
"Seriously, space." Keith repeated. "Space is huge. Empty. Lonely. You can just step out the airlock, look out at the stars, turn off your comms, and just… Drift. Nobody around but you. It's relaxing."
"…The beach." Lance said. "I miss the beach."
"Maybe you could describe different kinds of places to her, and ask which one she'd like most?" Pidge shrugged.
"Somewhere exciting!" Coran offered. "If there's one thing I know about women, it's that they love excitement! Gotta do something that gets her blood pumping! Fending off bloodthirsty Flavthors! Being chased by rabid Grusoints! Anything involving mechaforms! Mortal danger in general is always a good place to start."
"Well, I think she would enjoy anywhere you'd take her." Allura said.
"Allura's right." Shiro agreed. "A trip's destination is less important than the people it's spent with. And since you'd be there with her, I think you're good."
Only one of them had given a straight answer. "The beach!" Hunk snapped his fingers, and turned to leave the bridge. "Thanks Lance!"
"Balmeran flight control? I mean, uh, come in Balmeran flight control, can anyone hear me? Is this the right—?"
"This is Balmeran flight control. Identify yourself! This is a secure channel."
"Ha ha, yeah, but it's also the only channel, am I right?"
"Identify yourself immediately! How did you get this code?"
"Oh, right, yeah! Sorry. Uh. This is Hunk Garret, Paladin of Voltron." He pressed a button to relay his lion's comm signature.
"Voltron!" The voice on the other end of the line changed tone as soon as they confirmed. "To what do we owe the honor? Is there danger? Do you require assistance?"
"Uh? Oh. No. No, we were just in the area. Wanted to land and check up on things. Just real quick. There's only one of us this time, not all 5, so I don't really want to make a buzz or anything. Would that be alright?"
"Of course! May we have an estimate of your arrival time?"
"Uh… 3 vargas, maybe?"
"We will have a landing area ready for you. Contact us for reentry vectors once you enter orbit."
"Great. Yeah. Uh…" Hunk scratched his head. "Also, kinda weird question, but… Does Shay have a phone?"
"Does who have a what?"
"Never mind. Over and out." Hunk fired up the yellow lion's thrusters, and prepared to leave the castle's bay.
Apparently word had gotten out about his arrival, because by the time he descended into the Balmera's atmosphere and pulled into a hover over the landing area, there was already a small crowd gathered to watch. Their stony little silhouettes kind of all blended together from this distance, but there was one near the front he thought he recognized, and it made him smile. He let go of the controls for just a moment to wave, knowing full well that there was no way she would be able to see the action from outside the cockpit.
She waved back anyway.
A minute or two later and they were face to face, him with his helmet under one arm, and her with her hands on her hips. How long had it been since they'd last seen each other? A year? A little less? A little more? How many years was a 'deca-phoeb?' It felt a little longer, but he wasn't really sure… Eh, who cares? At the moment, it didn't feel so long at all.
"Hey Shay."
"Hi Hunk."
"So…" He didn't really know what to say, and shrugged. "How've things been going?"
"Times have been kind." She shrugged back. "For the most part… It's nice to have food in abundance. And not have to serve the machines."
"Oh yeah, food. Food's always nice." Hunk heartily agreed. "Yeah, I'm glad…" His voice faltered, because he realized that although Shay's voice was cheerful, she wasn't smiling. He tried to change the topic toward something else that was nice, not really knowing what he was doing wrong. "Uh. Oh yeah, I was talking over the ansible with one of the elders or whoever on the way here. He said the Balmera is starting to heal?"
"Oh, it is." Shay gestured toward a huge crater not far from the landing area. "Here lies the old main shaft."
"Oh wow, it's a lot smaller!" Hunk stepped over to the rim and leaned over to look down. "Like, half as wide as it used to be…" The metal trusses and conveyor systems that used to crisscross the pit had all been cut off and disposed of, and the rocky walls seemed to have expanded and rounded out. The newer deposits had a darker color and rougher texture, so that they resembled something like tree bark. Or a scab. The scientifically-inclined half of his brain took the wheel for a moment. "…Does a healthy Balmera have any tunnels at all?"
"It does." Shay nodded. "But… Smaller. More interwoven. Not like the mineshafts and hangars the Galra implanted. Our people have much work to do now, to remove the larger components before the tunnels grow too small. There are still a few reactors in the creature's depths that we didn't take out in time; they will have to be cut into pieces and ferried by hand."
"Reactors, huh? That sounds… Kind of dangerous."
"Well, we turned them off and took all the fuel out."
"Oh. Great. Okay. Never mind."
"Yes."
Hunk heard her voice catch over something. "…Hey, are you okay?" He asked. "What's, uh… What's wrong."
"Oh." She opened her mouth. Then closed it again. When she opened it for the second time, her voice was small. "My grandmother died."
"Oh."
That was a strange moment for Hunk. He remembered her grandma fondly: a short, wrinkly Balmeran with a warm smile… Well, maybe 'wrinkly' wasn't the right word. Crusty? Yeah, crusty.
Back when he and a friend had first arrived on the Balmera, she'd made them soup. She hadn't even known that they were Voltron then; they were just fugitives, in grave danger and needing help, with nothing to their names but a tiny ship, and nothing to offer but vague ideas of salvation… And this crusty old lady had made them soup… She didn't have to, and she probably didn't have a lot of soup to give, but she did anyway.
Even offered seconds.
And that made Hunk feel really bad, because now he realized that he'd never actually known her. Never talked with her, never gave her a hug or repayment or spent time with her or shared a recipe back… Never even knew her name. Never knew a single blessed thing about her… And now he couldn't even remember the sound of her voice; now he was just hungry for soup.
And that made him feel like a huge scumbag.
"I'm… I'm really sorry." He said. "I… Uh… She was really nice."
"Yes." Shay sat down on the edge of the chasm. "Yes she was."
"How'd she die?" Hunk eased down beside her.
"Grey throat. It's an ailment cultivated by a lifetime of breathing dust."
"Oh."
"It shortens the lives of many who toiled in the mines. Hers was not so short, but… Still."
"Yeah… Was she… Close? I mean, you whole family seemed pretty tight."
"Like a parent."
"Oh."
"The Balmera was still sick when she left." Shay noted. "And now it's gotten well. It's become beautiful… And she never got to see it…" Shay ran her face through her hands with a sigh. In the moment of quiet that followed, she realized that she was heaping quite a lot of drama on an honored guest without much warning. Suddenly embarrassed, she returned her hands to her lap and gave him a polite smile. (She really was very happy to see him, after all. Why not pretend to be cheerful for his sake?) "How have you been?" She asked.
"Oh, uh… Good." Hunk racked his brain for something cool or fun to say. "Exciting, y'know? Lotta fighting recently. Laser beams and swords and robots and, uh, more spaceships than I can really even count… But at the same time, I guess there's not much to say… I mean, it would take a really long time to tell, and it kinda blurs together, and the people themselves haven't really changed so, I guess… I guess it's all the same."
"Hero business."
"I guess."
"Hero of the universe."
"Ha ha, uh. So I'm told."
"Why have you come back here?"
"Well, we were in the area, and had a couple days to spare…" He shrugged. "So I wanted to. Y'know. Check up on you guys, make sure you hadn't gotten any more trouble from the Galra. Make sure the Balmera was still healthy. That everything was still good. And stuff."
"You're very kind."
"And uh… After stopping here, I was thinking about exploring a little. Maybe find a new planet. See some new sights…"
"Cool."
"…And I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come along."
"…Me?"
"Well yeah, uh… I tried to call ahead, but there's only one ansible channel, and, so… I didn't know about your grandma, and the, uh… The reactors and work and stuff, so… I did-"
"I'd love to." She interrupted him, and when Hunk looked to her, he saw that she was smiling for real, and that she'd already stood up. "I just need to gather my things."
"Oh. Well okay! Ha ha! Uh. I mean, if you want to?"
"I do." She really did want to go somewhere else, spend time with somebody different, think about something happier and better. Think about anything at all. She really did want to leave. "I really, really do."
"…Yeah, they were pretty nice back on the world I'm from." Hunk was explaining to her as they walked back to the landing site. "I grew up on an island, so we were around them pretty much all the time. I've seen some other planets that have them, and some are—WOAH HEY!" Hunk noticed a few children standing around the lion's feet, tugging on one of its claws. "Hey, what do you think you're doing over there?"
"We're stealing it!" The youngest one boasted.
"We're ferocious pirates!" The older one added.
"Bloodthirsty!" The middle one yelled. "Yaaargh!"
"OOOOOUUUUGHHHHHH" Hunk gasped. "Pirates! You know what happens to pirates where I'm from?"
They didn't.
"They get chased down!" Hunk announced, taking a step forward. "And captured! And then banished to the island of perpetual tickling! YAAAARGH!" He charged full-bore, arms flailing, while the kids screeched in joy and ran for cover.
Shay laughed as he went, and folded her arms to watch.
She was interrupted by a rough hand on her shoulder. She turned to see her brother, who quickly guided her out of Hunk's earshot, and spoke in a low voice. "I don't like it." He hissed.
"What? The trip?"
"Yes!"
"I think it will be fun. What don't you like?"
"He's taking you away! To space or who-knows-where! You won't have any friends or family, or anybody at all who knows you to protect you! What if something goes wrong?"
"We won't be gone long, Rax. And besides, he's a paladin of Voltron! He's a great hero! He can take care of everything… And besides, we aren't going into battle; just to a planet. We're going to see an ocean."
"A what?"
"An ocean! He says it's a very large lot of water but it smells good and there's wind… I don't know, but he says it's very nice."
"Okay, uh… But…" Rax glanced over his shoulder to make sure the human wasn't listening. "But what about him? You barely know him! This is only the third time you have ever seen each other! What if his intentions are dishonest?"
"They aren't!" She was indignant. "He's a good man. He's kind. And sweet."
Rax looked back again, and saw the human lumbering after the pirates making dramatic, monstrous noises. The children ran circles around him, laughing their heads off. One of them grabbed hold of his leg, and he made a great show of being unable to move.
Well… There definitely didn't seem to be anything suspicious about the human; Rax knew Shay was probably right. Probably. "But still…" He sighed. "I could stowaway, if you wanted? I would stay hidden, I wouldn't do anything or interrupt unless there was trouble… You wouldn't even know I was there."
"No, no. It's fine. You don't need to do that."
"Alright. But… Only promise me you'll look after yourself? Stay safe."
"Of course I will."
"And if he tries to hurt you, or threaten you, or if you feel endangered, crush his skull." Rax made a clamping motion with his hands. "You're strong enough, and he's only made of bone. You just need to be brave."
"RAX!" She punched him in the shoulder. "That's a wrong thing to say! And to think!"
"Well…! Well even if it's not him. Even if it's somebody else. If you ever run into anyone or anything that wishes you harm… Just remember you're not defenseless."
"Rax…"
"Hey, alright, I think I took care of our little problem!" Hunk came walking back toward them now, with one kid on his shoulders, another one being tickled in his arms, and another one still hanging onto his leg. "Showed these scallywags who's boss, eh? We should make our escape now, while they're subdued… Oh hey, hi there Rax! How's it going?"
"Hmm. Fine." Rax nodded, and made to leave. "Just wishing my sister well… Making sure she packed her scrubbing paste. You two have fun out there."
"Oh. Alright. Nice to see ya!" Hunk waved at his retreating back. "See ya 'round, I guess… Uh… Huh… Wow, he doesn't like me much, does he?"
"He doesn't like many people." Shay shrugged. "Is the machine ready?"
"Oh yeah." Hunk untangled himself from the kids, ushered them off to a safe distance, and led the way over toward the lion's crouching form. "He was born ready."
Shay was leaning over Hunk's shoulder as he throttled up the engines and rose them into the air. Beyond the viewing window, Rax was still standing at the perimeter of the landing pad. He made another clamping motion. "Not defenseless." He mouthed up at her.
Her eyes turned away from him, to fix on the sky.
