The map on the holo-display flickered slightly as it hovered over the table in the center of the war room. "We've got a direct line on Haggar," Matt Holt said, his voice distorted but recognizable by the static in the comm line. He was clear on the other side of the galaxy by now, with the rest of the remnants of the Voltron Coalition forces he commanded. "Targan traced the energy signature of the robot all the way to the Wosu system before it disappeared."

"The Wosu system has three habitable planets," Sam Holt said, staring at the star map with a look of concern. "And it's not all that far from Olkarion." There was a note of worry in his voice that Matt picked up on even through the distortion of a comm signal beamed across immeasurable amounts of space.

"The Olkari are safe, Dad," he said, and Sam nodded absently, clearly forgetting it was an audio-only conversation.

"It's the first lead on Haggar we have," Shiro spoke up finally, left hand settled on his waist as he looked at the information scrolling on the monitors behind the table. "Thank you, Matt."

"Things are getting wild out here," Matt said. "Wosu is in Coalition territory, or at least it is for now. Our defenses are thin along that side of the border, we're being harried by a self-proclaimed Galra warlord named Grozak looking to expand his reach. I wouldn't waste any more time."

"Copy that," Shiro responded, as Matt signed off. This was legitimately the first lead they'd had in the origin of the Altean-fueled Robeast, and they needed to get Voltron on it as quickly as possible. "How is the work on the Atlas progressing?"

Allura stood beside Keith along the length of the table, a translucent Altean data pad held before her in one hand. "The repairs from the battle are complete, and Coran is nearly done making her spaceworthy once more. The teludav is installed and operational, but he's having trouble integrating the Altean and Earth command systems as the source code is, simply put, barbaric."

"Barbaric? That technology is top of the line!" Commander Iverson drew himself up and scowled at Allura, whose ears twitched a little in irritation.

"My apologies," she said. "Commander Holt did an excellent job with what he had at hand, and that's nothing to take lightly. Coran's modifications should do nothing but augment his initial design."

"Not modified too much, I hope," Iverson's voice was gruff still. "Otherwise your crew won't have any idea how to pilot it."

"Altean technology is intuitive," Shiro said. "I have faith in our people, Commander." He looked over at the line of four pilots standing at parade rest along the wall behind Allura and Keith. "Speaking of which, Commander Holt, what's the schedule look like on the next iteration of the MFEs? Will they be ready by the time the Atlas launches?"

Sam nodded his head. "A half dozen of the MFE-Ares Mark 2s have been completed with the help of our new technicians, and depending on the timeline we should have at least two, if not three, rolled off production before launch." He looked pleased. "We've been able to streamline the design further and drop several hundred kilos off the ship's weight, and equip the new MFEs with faster-than-light engines, thanks to the undiluted crystals the Balmerians provided.

"That's more ships than we have pilots for." Keith had been silent thus far, standing beside Allura with his arms folded.

"Not for long," Shiro said, and looked to Iverson.

"Ah, yes." Iverson coughed into his hand for a moment, then stepped forward. "It seems that some reassignments are in order. Flight Officer Rizavi, Flight Officer Griffin, please step forward." Both pilots snapped to attention and, after a moment, stepped out of line with the others. "Congratulations on your promotions to Lieutenant. There's usually a ceremony for the honor, but you understand our constraints on time. Captain Shirogane has your assignments."

"Thank you, sir!" both newly-minted Lieutenants said, saluting.

"Lieutenant Rizavi," Shiro said, and Rizavi saluted again, being addressed directly. "You and Flight Officer Kinkade will report directly to Commander Holt from here on out. With your help he is going to build the foundation of a fleet of new pilots to defend the Earth."

"It's an honor, sir," Rizavi said, and stepped back into parade rest.

"Lieutenant Griffin, Flight Officer Leifsdottir, you both will be assigned to the Atlas, under my direct command." Shiro looked down at the star map, still rotating slowly on the holo-display. "Any questions?"

"No, sir," Griffin said, and saluted.

"Good. Then you're all dismissed."

##

"This still feels weird," Keith said, leaned against the desk in the small room that Shiro had commandeered for an office. Shiro was seated behind the desk, eyes darting from the data pad propped in his prosthetic hand and the computer terminal's screen. "This whole, military chain of command thing." Keith wobbled his hand in the air as if that illustrated his point, although Shiro wasn't paying attention. "It's hard enough to get a chance to see you as it is, when was the last time you slept?"

"I'm fine, Keith," Shiro said, distracted.

"You're not fine. You haven't slept, you're not eating - and I know you're not eating, so don't even try to lie to me about it. I will go get Hunk. Do you want me to do that?" Keith tilted his head to the side, and when Shiro didn't acknowledge him or his concern, said sharply, "Shiro."

Shiro sighed and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "We've lost a lot of good men and women, Keith. Mostly officers and commanders. It's very busy."

"And the Garrison has been promotion people to fill those roles, Shiro, you don't have to take the burden of everything on yourself." Keith's features softened. "We need you, and you need to rest."

"Allura thinks that they'll be done with the upgrades to the Atlas in less than a week," Shiro said, side-stepping Keith's concerns. "We don't have a lot of time left to crew the ship, and asking people to leave Earth when there is a good chance they might not make it home again isn't a task I'm taking lightly." Shiro focused on the terminal again. "Between Commander Holt, Commander Iverson and I, we've got to come up with something that works."

"Yeah, like the fact that we're taking two pilots and eight MFEs? How is that supposed to work, exactly?"

"The goal is a full squadron to fly support; we'll just have to make do with two flights until the final four are done." Shiro glanced back at his data pad. "I need a favor."

"Only if you promise to eat and sleep for at least five consecutive hours," Keith said.

Shiro frowned. "Keith."

"I mean it. I'll time you."

"I know you mean it, Keith." Shiro smiled, and passed the data pad to Keith. "I had Veronica put out an open call that we're looking for more fighter pilots, and between her, Rizavi, and Kinkade they've been cycling applicants through the simulators for the past few weeks to get a feel for what we're looking at. I need you and James Griffin to narrow this list down to a potential roster for a support squadron for the Atlas. The remainder of the candidates will remain on Earth for additional training and to fill out the defense force that Commander Holt is putting together."

Keith looked over the candidate list. "There's only thirty or so names on this list. That's not a lot of interest."

"Not a lot of people passed Krolia's flight test."

Keith let out a low whistle. "Mom programmed a flight test that could be passed? That doesn't sound right." He looked down the list, scrolling with his finger as he familiarized himself with the names. "Half of these don't have commission, civilians? Guess we're not turning down anyone at this point."

"It's a waste to turn anyone down who wants to fight. Will you get with Griffin today?"

"Sure thing." Keith pushed off the table and pointed the data pad at Shiro like a weapon. "Sleep, Shiro. I mean it."

Shiro smiled at Keith, the exhaustion of the past few weeks pulling at his features. "I will, Keith. I promise."

"You better. You know how I feel about Griffin." Keith didn't salute Shiro and Shiro didn't expect it, the Paladins had well established they were no longer a part of the Garrison's regular chain of command, no matter how much Iverson wasn't on board with that. Shiro watched Keith leave his makeshift office and then he yawned, covering his mouth with the back of his left hand before returning his attention to the computer terminal, and to work.

##

"James," Keith called, cutting through the breezeway that led between parts of the base. James Griffin stopped in place and half-turned, looking to see who had called his name and frowning when he saw Keith hurrying to catch up with him. He'd been walking alone, coming from the direction of the commissary, and it was strange to catch him without the other members of his flight. "Congratulations on your promotion."

"Thanks," James said, eyes flickering over Keith's rank insignia. "Isn't that supposed to come with a salute, cadet?"

"Funny," Keith said dryly. "I don't know if you recall, but I was kicked out of the Garrison." He held up the data pad Shiro had given him. "Shiro - Captain Shirogane - needs you to narrow down ten candidates from this list to fill out the Ares support squadron that will be assigned to the Atlas. He asked me to help you out since we're on a time crunch. And," Keith added with a glint in his eye. "Since I'm the better pilot and all, I thought I'd oblige."

James looked like he'd swallowed something sour. "Flying something that can fly itself and flying an MFE are two entirely different things," he said, tone dangerous.

"I can outfly you in anything," Keith said, and tapped the data pad to James's chest. "Name the ship and I'll leave you in my dust." James snatched the data pad and directed his attention to it, looking over the list.

"I'm surprised that Captain Shirogane is leaving this to me, but I know he's busy. Do we have a launch date yet?"

"Next week, probably." Keith folded his arms. "You're a Lieutenant now, anyway. This is your squadron we're putting together here, not Shiro's. Not in the way that counts." James looked shaken for a moment at that, but his expression smoothed quickly back to normal.

"If it were truly my squadron, Rizavi and Kinkade would be part of it too," he said, a hint of bitterness in his tone. "But let's get to work."

##

Shiro flipped through the records for each one of the names on the roster James had handed him. "That didn't take you as long as I'd expected," he said, eyes darting up to regard James, standing stiffly on the other side of Shiro's desk. Keith leaned against the wall by the door and yawned; they'd worked the roster down to ten before the sun had set, but it had been a long day.

They were all long days, anymore.

"We only had disagreements over a few of the pilots," James said, and then almost tripped over himself when he realized he'd forgotten, "sir." Shiro waved his hand idly in the air, attempting to dismiss Jame's concern about holding tight to protocol as he read over the list of names. Keith had hit almost all the ones he'd marked on his private copy as potential candidates, Grayson, Carson, Alvarez, Hazama ... his eyes alighted on the last name on the list and he looked up.

"Is this a member of the Blade?" he said, tapping the clearly Galran name with a finger. Keith nodded his head. "Someone you know?"

"Kind of. He approached us about flying with the Atlas, said it would be his honor to crew with the squadron. I think Kolivan wants to keep an eye on us and he thinks that this the best way he can build bridges with the Garrison."

"Is he any good?"

"Not as good as me," Keith said without shame. "Any problems with him being on the crew?"

Shiro lifted his eyes from the report and recognized the tense silence that had filled the room. Keith hadn't exactly kept his parentage a secret, especially now that Krolia had visited him on Earth, but that had hardly been an issue just yet. "Griffin?"

"No problems," Griffin said, stiff as ever. "Sir," he added on again, as an afterthought.

"All right," Shiro said. "Keith, if you'll deliver the news to our prospective pilots? There's a handful that need commissions, go to Commander Holt for that - he'll get the paperwork." Keith met Shiro's eye for a long moment, glittering dangerously, and Shiro smiled at him, hoping to defuse whatever it was he'd very nearly walked into between Keith and James. Keith pushed off the wall, and left the room.

"Okay," Shiro said. "He's gone. Do you have a problem with having a Galra on your squadron?"

"No, sir." Griffin said, at attention, eyes on the wall far above Shiro's head.

Shiro sat back and waited, regarding Griffin silently. He said nothing and stared straight ahead at that fixed point over Shiro's head, but it didn't take long for the silence to weigh too heavy on him. "Permission to speak frankly, sir."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I need to be able to trust my team, and for my team to be able to trust each other implicitly. They're not going to be able to do that staring at the face of one of the people who murdered their families."

"A valid concern," Shiro said.

Griffin risked a glance directly at him. "Sir?"

"For thousands of years, humans have been killing each other despite sharing the same face. The enmity of the Galra goes back even further than that. Keith thought he was good enough to include in the roster over your objections. Did you object to any of the other aliens that were included in the assessment, or was it just the Galra?"

"Does it matter, sir?"

"No, I suppose it doesn't." Shiro tapped the data pad with his fingers. "I'm finalizing the roster, you have a good team here. Congratulations, Lieutenant Griffin, at your command. Get your team assembled and I expect to see them all in the launch bay tomorrow at 0600."

Griffin saluted, and held the salute until Shiro dismissed him.