Interlock 3 : Circle In The Sand
by Rob Morris
ARUS, A Future Far But Near...
The wounded but recovering man smiled at his partner in espionage as she finished singing.
*...and as her spirit felt the ebb and flow, her friends asked her not to go, but Amue, saw a brother gone, and Amue saw a father done, and Amue saw her man fall down, and she could bear no more.*
Romelle's singing was enchanting all who heard it, despite the bittersweet subject matter.
*Oh, Amue, saw Daibazal undone, and Amue, saw Sincline put out, and Amue, saw Honerva dust, but was that cost too high? Two brothers, heroes both, met Amue, on the other side, and both stood, one as grooms-man, one as groom to Amue, Oh Amue, Oh Amue!*
Sven clapped, but immediately recoiled from spasms of pain.
"Blast it all, I can't even applaud. How weak am I now?"
Lance leaned over and broadly grinned at the other blonde space princess who considered him to be just a friend.
"Hey, for singing that beautiful, I'll gladly clap for both of us. Sad she had to die, though."
Hunk nodded in partial agreement.
"Old legends like that really didn't go in for happily ever after. Beowulf, Siegfried, even King Arthur? Their stories end telling us what we already know - that they'll be remembered forever. They end pretty harshly, though. Sometimes, when the old stories ended, they just reminded people that heroes buy that farm, same as other folks. But Romelle? This story seems kinda incomplete, just being how this one lady loses her fella - who has a hero brother who already died."
Allura looked surprised by this.
"Hunk, the Tragedy Of Amue is only the smallest part of The Lion Knight Epic."
Romelle nodded.
"That song, Hunk, is only the best-remembered part of it. Oh-I studied some Earth songs, after I was freed from Lotor. I needed to get my mind off of everything. One of those songs - Danny Boy - is believed by people to be sung by a father seeing his son go off to war. But when it was first sung, it was narrated by a girl the soldier left behind. That's how it is with Amue. The song is repeated often - but Amue herself was really just a minor character in the epic. In fact, she wasn't even the lead heroic woman. That was Fala The Steadfast."
Allura looked suddenly misty.
"I always thought of myself as Fala, growing up alone. When the Space Mice found me, I really began to think of that old legend. Fala had mice, too, and they were like her siblings killed in the Dark Invasion."
Pidge began to get one of his weirded-out looks.
"We've lived on Arus for a while now. How is it we never heard about this legend and epic? Sounds like they're pretty fundamental to the history of Arus and Pollux both. Or are we just dense?"
Pidge had to learn where to speak and where not to speak.
"Well, you're all a bit dense, aren't you? You live on our world, use our finest weapon, make goo-goo eyes at our Princess, but you can't even be bothered to read stories every child knows by heart?"
As Pidge winced, Lance nodded.
"Well, Nanny's recovery is coming along nicely."
The older woman rolled her eyes.
"I suppose you wish it wasn't! Hmph!"
Lance looked honestly offended.
"Hey, Lady. Cut that out. When we learned you'd been hurt by that impostor Garrett, I think we all lost a part of our souls...I..."
He started to tear up.
"I mean, you ride us, but if anything happened to you, I'd...I'd..."
Nanny shot a glare.
"Oh, don't be a big crybaby, you!"
She then instantly teared up.
"Because then I'll start bawling! I'm so proud of my boys and girls - defeating that awful Planet Doom once and for all. I'm so glad you all lived to see this day. When I am well again, I will prepare a feast so large, even Hunk couldn't eat it all!"
Hunk patted his stomach.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Nanny. I just hope Zarkon and his bunch are really beaten for good like you said. You never know."
Pidge, feeling like he got zinged by his own comment, brought the conversation back a step.
"We'll have to wait and see about Zarkon and Lotor. I wouldn't take any bets, especially with Hagar the Horrible on their side. Heh! But I still have my question. We've been on this world, worked with its people, even helped recover its lost history. We worked on monuments, done ceremonies, all that stuff. But this thing everybody seems to know, we don't know the first thing about."
Pidge almost got his lame pun about the evil sorceress' name poked, but the others avoided prolonging that agony. Allura seemed to realize something.
"Maybe, Pidge, the legend is too fundamental, too ingrained into our cultural DNA for us to even comment on how ubiquitous it is. In fact, it is too close to our noses for us to see it."
Sven hated being laid up from injuries sustained during the literal fall of Lotor, and so tried his best to stay awake and part of the conversation.
"Vwhat do you mean, Princess? How close are vwe talking?"
Allura pointed to all six present members of the Lion Voltron force.
"This bunch right here has been all but living the epic of Lion Knight for well over a year."
Allura saw Romelle wished to tell this, and aiding her cousin's efforts to put captivity behind her was always on the native princess's mind.
"Guys, Lion Knight was the tale of a super-robot - the story doesn't reveal how it was created, or by who. But it fought evil all over the universe, till it challenged the angels themselves, and for its arrogance, it was split up into..."
Keith, staring listlessly out at the night, finally sprung to life excitedly.
"Five Lions - what my granpa would call a Go-Set. But how does Lion Knight connect to Voltron?"
Lance saw the flaw as well.
"Yeah. Voltron here was created by King Alfor, and he transmitted a second set of plans to Earth before he died, which helped scientists there create the Explorer's Vehicle Force, with Jeff and his bunch. But this legend sounds a lot older than either of those."
Hunk's engineer's mind seemed to grasp a part of this.
"Hey! I always did wonder how Voltron was this ancient legend of long-ago, but King Alfor only created him in the past half-century. Princess, did he use that legend as the basis for his work?"
Allura shook her head.
"Not just the legend, Hunk. The actual history behind that legend. This goes all the way back to the Altean civilization. My father claimed that he was using lost bits of Lion Knight technology to create our Voltron. Problem is, even as a King, no one believed that part of his story, since no one had ever found archeological proof that Lion Knight's story was a true one, and not just a retelling of heroic individuals added to fantastic elements. Fala existed, as did her eventual King, Gold Chieftain. Probably all of them : Silver Silence, Steel Mood, Molten Bronze, and Platinum Stature, were real as well, and we know they turned back an invasion from someone called Daibazal, oddly enough from what is now Drule space. But finding anything to firmly say Lion Knight was here in some form is this world's equivalent of the Grail."
Pidge seemed mostly satisfied with this answer.
"Makes sense, when you think about it. There was probably a real Hercules, a real Arthur, and maybe even a real Sherlock Holmes. Mary Shelley might have based Doctor Frankenstein on an oddball scientist of her time. But you can bet all their true stories were parsecs off from the legends."
Keith for his part, wasn't so sure of this. Something had awakened in him, and it would not easily be put aside. As he looked out the windows into the field of flowers surrounding the castle, he gasped. He and his friends were standing before a casket - and inside that casket was Sven. Lance grabbed him.
"Hey, Keith, what's up?"
As an ashen-looking Keith prepared to speak, the great pattern of their lives repeated. Each active member of the Voltron Force pulled out their sidearm.
"Blaster fire. Romelle - seal the room behind us."
"Alright, Keith."
The five went out and down the halls of the hospital, only to be greeted by a very unwelcome and inexplicable sight. Lance ducked back after confirming the dangerous oddity.
"Drule Empire Soldiers? Here?!"
Keith said the seemingly obvious, but little seemed obvious in this case.
"This isn't right. I'm going in."
Hunk spoke for one and all.
"Keith? Are you nuts? Don't go in guns blazing!"
"Not blazing Hunk. I'm not nuts either."
Keith threw up his hands and slowly revealed himself.
"Soldiers of the Drule Empire! I have no weapon in hand. I demand to know why you are here."
To the shock of all except perhaps Keith, the Drules did not open fire, but nor was their demeanor a welcoming one.
"Stay back, Human! We can see you have friends, and we won't permit you near him. We are sworn to our lives to protect his at all cost."
A voice from within the hospital room behind him confirmed Keith's unspoken guess.
"What is going on here? Why is there all this shouting?"
The man who emerged was indeed well worth protecting, and the Drules gave him looks that ranged from the heroic to the messianic.
"Commander Hazar, sir! You should be resting. Those are your sister's orders. I'm sorry, though. One of us became anxious and fired at a shadow-I think it was only a mouse-and he got away to boot."
Hazar, wounded though he was, seemed to smile at this.
"Try all you want, soldier. You'll never worry over me the way she does. We are guests in this place, and it seems we have guests as well. Commander Kogane, I am pleased to meet the brave warriors of another Voltron Force. Your actions here, holding the line against Zarkon and his evil, prevented that maniac from aiding Emperor Zeppo and Throk. Since I know the price we would have paid for such aid, I am doubly thankful."
Never gladder to be so wrong, Lance asked the question raised by Hazar's words.
"What price would that have been, Commander? Knowing Zarkon, any bargain would have been a bad one."
Hazar closed his eyes and the big man appeared to shudder.
"An entire ark-full of our refugees, traded away thinking they would be going to a new world - when instead they would be given over to Witch Hagar's cruel laboratories."
All their faces drained of color, and Hunk's jaw dropped.
"Talk about a fate worse than death. Even the arenas are heaven compared to those pits. How could any ruler lose touch with his people so completely? Zarkon was always that way, but Zeppo just honestly seemed out for another world."
Hazar nodded.
"Our Emperor was always of a ruthless bent, but at one time that was aimed in the broad service of our people, even if his own comfort and power always came first. Then, when the ancient alliances between the sectors of the Drule were rekindled, Zeppo saw the cult of personality Zarkon had built around him. Barbaric, to be sure, but alluring in its own way. Whatever worth our ruler once had was drained out as an Emperor tried to emulate that wicked king."
That alone made the Humans present feel bad for the common people of Drule. The thought that anyone would regard Zarkon as a role model was itself repulsive, especially when they all realized anew how they likely didn't know a tenth of what went on inside Planet Doom.
"But Commander Hazar-while we welcome you-I don't quite understand what you're doing here. This is a long way off from the Explorer and the ark-fleet carrying your world's survivors."
An explanation was quick to follow as a familiar face entered the hospital suite.
"That was my doing, Keith. I felt I had to act quickly, even without consulting the Princess."
Allura doubted that Coran was usurping her authority, and had enough trust in him to anticipate a good explanation. But her voice contained just a hint of upset as she asked the logical question.
"I'm listening, Coran. But first, as ruler of Arus, let me officially welcome our peer, Hazar of New Drule, brother of Minister Dorma, who it will be our pleasure to treat with in the future."
Hazar nodded, and then looked at Coran to begin his explanation.
"Again, I'm sorry this was so hastily done. But please understand. Minister Dorma feared further attempts on her brother's life. He was injured in the evacuation of the Drule homeworld, and to make matters worse, Zeppo and Throk diverted assassins to take him out. No place around Explorer, even to Commander Hawkins' own cabin, seemed safe enough. These were desperate sorts, trained on Planet Doom itself."
Hunk snorted in anger.
"Like those insane-in-the-membrane Red Berets. The panic they caused here still chills me to the bone. So these assassins were like evil exchange students. Makes a sick sort of sense."
Keith, too, thought about that horrid attack, so successful until the Red Berets committed suicide trying to take out Black Lion. Ironically, if they'd kept right on sowing fear and not literally given up the ghost in yet another of Lotor's schemes to ground Voltron, they might have accomplished their larger goals.
But now Keith saw his memories pivot ; The Red Berets were suddenly no longer leaving ruined homes and crops - they were leaving carved up bodies, of men, women-children. They were no longer herding the Arusians - they were slaughtering them. He tried his best to shake this hellish sight off.
"Hunk is right-on this level, we never realized the level of interchange between Zarkon and Zeppo. We maybe thought it was restricted to the Empire having a cleaned-up version of the Ro-Beast technology. Commander Hazar, if I might-why did your people take so long to slap Zarkon off the throne, when he failed to deliver a key piece of your treaty?"
Pidge nodded.
"Yeah. You'd think Zarkon keeping all those worlds for himself would have Zeppo up in arms. Heck, Lotor conquered a whole bunch of worlds all by his lonesome, and not one of them went your way."
Hazar showed these were not questions he had failed to consider.
"I think a world was found for the Emperor and his elite, like Throk. A place they alone could go to, should all else fail, and all else did. There is much of their plans none of us outside that circle understand."
Lance shook his head.
"Who would they rule over? Not much of an empire with that few survivors in tow."
The lead Drule soldier stood forward.
"Commander Hazar needs his rest. We promise no more false alarm gunplay, but this must be so."
Keith wanted his mind far off of dead Svens, and butchered Arusians.
"We'll keep to that, Captain. But if you Drules are gonna be protecting Hazar here, let us teach you what we know about the grounds, and the likely methods of entry. If these guys are the best of your worst cross-trained by Zarkon's bunch, they can be pretty tricky."
The Captain looked to Hazar.
"Sir? Is this a good idea?"
Hazar nodded.
"The Lion Voltron Force has offered its aid to you, just as Arus has offered me a place to recuperate with less worry. You in turn can offer them some pointers, and each force can bring those lessons back to a wider audience. It seems like a long-term win-win. Plus, they have experience with Zarkon and his tricks. I want that experience to serve our people, since our new worlds, when found, may be a tempting target for both him and Zeppo."
Hazar, when not sleeping away the wounds from his encounter with three angry young Drules who thought he was Zeppo during the frenzied planetary evacuation, passed time talking with Sven, another warrior who understood the frustrations of being laid up and unable to contribute. Nanny found some of her recovery in preparing meals for the two, and of course chastising them for their perceived ingratitude. The Voltron Force for its part showed the Drule soldiers what they knew.
Pidge stood inside Hazar's room, right by the entrance, and made a pistol-shape with his hand.
"Now see, I might think that, standing right at the entrance, I'm in the best position to blast away at any intruder. But the fact is, I can be easily blown away, bowled over or simply brushed aside. In the confusion, the assassins might get to their target."
The soldiers saw Hunk reach with his beefy hand at the hospital bed.
"I'm not really much threat to a guy in a reinforced room like this, at least without my Lion. But let's say Zarkon or Zeppo has a Ro-Beast with specialized grip, to smash right through these walls and just grab Hazar up? You're thinking, wouldn't they just kill him? Then you try to protect him from that. But an enemy's objectives can be as clear as mud."
Lance showed off one of the Space Mice, whose antics had the Drules so jumpy before.
"These guys mean no harm at all - they're just about the fun. But we've had several intruders, including evil mice, who were not about fun. I guess what I'm saying is, while you can't let fear rule you, paranoia when dealing with Zarkon-types is just common sense. Don't dismiss that noise as nothing until you know it's nothing."
Allura was the heart of the team, so she spoke from there as well.
"We all have loved ones we miss terribly. Sometimes they're far away, and sometimes they're gone forever. Witch Hagar transacts in abusing those tender memories, and she can't be the only one. If the dead or the missing walk in your sight, don't just use a grain of salt - bring a whole salt mine with you. Maybe the miracle is a true one. But maybe not."
Keith gave what he had, but his heart wasn't in it quite the way he wanted.
"Jeff told me you guys were fond of laying traps. Well, everyone does it, so no hard feelings. It's a part of war. Remember, though, the problems with traps is, they're easily exposed, and even easier to turn around on the original trap-layer. So use cunning and do what you have to, but make sure your trap has three or fourteen back-up plans, just in case."
The lead Drule soldier, called Haramos, shook his head.
"That one is valuable, but it will be hard to teach. The Drule method of defense, successful until recently, is to have one unified grand scheme - a surgeon's scalpel the size of a bludgeon. Commander Kogane, may I make a suggestion in return?"
Keith was finally beginning to get his mind off of the bizarre visions and glances into some alternate of the events he knew.
"Of course. I'd be honored, and I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't curious as all get-out."
Haramos nodded.
"Your fleets on all fronts move far too openly. We always know you are coming. Have you never considered adding stealth technology to the Voltrons?"
Keith winced inside, but kept this out of his face.
"A Stealth Voltron? I really don't see that working too well."
Haramos frowned.
"I'm not an idiot! Of course once the super-robot is formed, stealth is done with. But the individual pieces can still be masked somehow."
Keith still seemed unimpressed with the notion.
"One problem is, we didn't invent this Voltron, and King Alfor's plans have never been found. We've found that any tech that isn't improvised from the Lions themselves burns out when attached."
"Yes, but that doesn't affect the Vehicle Force."
"You're right, Haramos. But Human nature does. First of all, stealth-tech is always a bit of a game. You make a cloak, the other guy figures it out, and so on so forth on both ends. But even more fundamentally, Humans don't respect or like those of us who sneak around. You have a conflict with me? You tell me to my face. You make your demands, and you make them clear, and you better understand I'll oppose you. Historically, my father's people still take a hit for an old-old sneak attack, that, while very arguable, really didn't go well in the long-run. In fact, the weapon that ended that war nearly destroyed the Earth in 1999, when a Zarkon-like leader in a small nation near Japan got some big ideas, and attacked their sponsor when some sanctions came down."
Haramos sighed.
"Maybe your people are a little too straightforward, then. Yet since we had our own rogue state, in Zarkon himself, I can understand how it might have happened. Yet I'd also argue this, Keith - you're not dealing with just yourselves anymore. Most of Zarkon's former thralls are happy merely to be free. But some few of them are Zarkon in miniature, and some of those might not have the vanity and ego problems that gave you your openings."
Keith was of course forbidden to tell Haramos that Garrison Intelligence was in fact dealing harshly but quietly with some of Zarkon's former subjects known to have committed the greatest atrocities or to have been in the process of building one of his lethal boondoggle super-weapons.
"Tell you what, Captain. You have your best talk to Hunk - he's pretty much our engineer, and Pidge is a flat super-genius. If anyone can make use of your suggestion-and it is a really good one-its them. And Haramos? Thank You."
But if the week was going well on the basis of this new alliance, very bad news arrived with Coran and a longtime ally. The Minister shook his head.
"Were I Raible The Wise, that wizard advisor of legend, I might have the words to make this all seem right. Ever since my son was duplicated and used against us, I fear that I am not so wise. I also doubt I ever had the words to change what Prince Bandor has to tell us."
The three planetary leaders, Allura, Romelle, and Hazar, were in attendance, as this news potentially affected the balance of power among the worlds.
"My older brother, Prince Avok, has succumbed to the wounds he received when he was used and betrayed by Planet Doom and its evil rulers. Our father, King Coba of Pollux, has regained consciousness, but he frankly doesn't have much longer. His doctors say it's a miracle he's survived as long as he has. Sister, there's some matters to be settled, as to the succession. But for right now, he's requested that you, I and Allura be by his side as he...as he..."
Pidge had a tissue ready.
"Take it, pal. I spend whole months wondering if I'm gonna get some bad news about my brother Chip."
But the little Prince turned it away.
"I'll have time enough for tears later, Pidge. If I'm not strong now when I can be, I'll be worthless to my people, and to my sister."
Romelle now felt two levels of grief ; not only for her dead and dying family members, but for the lately-realized realization of how bravely her little brother had carried on in her absence, and how much this must have cost him at times.
"You're never worthless to me, Bandor. You'll make a great king."
But Bandor shook his head.
"I don't care what the old laws say, Romelle. You're the older of us two. Our people love you. You should be Queen!"
Lance realized what they were saying.
"You mean to say, Pollux still keeps to that 'boys inherit first' nonsense? Geez, they call me a chauvinist, but even I can say that, if we guys on Earth tried to bring that back, we'd be walking around funny - if you know what I mean."
Allura was in full agreement.
"Here, too. But Pollux is inherently a warrior-based society, and that means some old-fashioned thinking."
Bandor pointed at his sister.
"Well, it won't be with us for any longer. My sister will be Queen Romelle. It's only right."
Romelle smiled, and leaned down by Bandor.
"I couldn't love you more for that, Brother. But this is not a regular succession. It is in a time of war and struggle. The people need no questions about the succession, nothing for anyone to oppose. Besides, if you're not king, how can you repeal those silly old laws for the sake of your daughters and granddaughters?"
Bandor blushed.
"You just want to get with Sven, and no questions about a Queen being able to marry a commoner. But I thank you, Romelle. I will try and live up to your expectations for me. Consider that law repealed, just as soon as I become..."
Now, the tears flowed, and Pidge's tissue offer was not turned down, as Bandor realized he was now waiting on his father's death. The Prince Of The Blood and Heir To The Throne was still, after all, a young boy, no matter what he had seen and done. Hazar made a slight bow to the burdened heirs.
"In this, the time of your grief, the people of Drule stand with you. We too once treated with evil rulers, thinking it was either to our ultimate benefit or a harsh necessity. It proved neither, for either of us. May we all be wiser, going forward, and our losses lessened as a result."
Bandor seemed to regain himself.
"Thank You, Commander. Wow! I'm so overwrought, I completely forgot something very important. Keith, I have a coded message for you from Galaxy Garrison. They said it was urgent!"
Keith found a comm-station and loaded the message in private after providing his codes. His face when he returned showed that it was not good news, despite his best efforts.
"Everyone - this has to not be discussed with any news organizations, and I'll request the same of Commander Hazar. Because of the engagement of the Fleet in transporting the Drule people to their new world and all the logistics involved in that-umm-Galaxy Garrison feels it cannot send us any aid in placing a quarantine over Planet Doom. We are on our own in keeping Zarkon and his bunch from reclaiming the world and rebuilding there."
Allura showed the shock Keith was surely feeling inside.
"How can they do that? After all our sacrifices? Surely just a few capital ships sent our way wouldn't hurt the relocation effort."
Hunk folded his arms and closed his eyes.
"There's just no way we can cover all of Planet Doom, and that's not even counting on Zarkon pulling a few tricks here and there."
Pidge grabbed at his own head.
"Yahhh! Before too long, Hagar and Lotor will have reconciled all their differences, looking for revenge on us. With that crafty trio, Planet Doom could be back up and running within months, like it was never down to start with."
Bandor tried to stand firm, but the news looked like he'd taken yet another body blow.
"By my fallen family members, I will see to it that Pollux lends you all the aid you need! Except-we really lost some ships, between the Omega Comet and the last battle on Doom. Also, I nearly faced a mutiny when we tried to rescue Voltron from the comet. I-I hate this! All of these restrictions are probably all part of Lotor's plan, with the old witch scrying all possibilities in that dark crystal ball of hers!"
Hazar weighed in, with a surprising opinion.
"It seems penny-wise and pound-foolish for them to go this route. Though I want my people to be aided fully and quickly, a universe without Zarkon is one in which we may all feel safer. Essentially letting him start over again is a slap in the face and a decision I think we will all regret. Even worse for my people, Zarkon could serve to re-arm Zeppo and Throk, placing them further in his debt."
Keith had found out from the other Drules that it was Hazar who made sure his people's Ro-Beasts really were Robot Constructs, and not living beings deformed by Hagar's mix of cold science and evil magic. He was about to speak of this to praise Hazar, when hotheaded Lance cut in.
"Didn't those fools in top echelon learn their lesson from Throk's invasion? Do they need to see the Earth in flames? Because mark my words, a resurgent Zarkon will eventually get the same notion as Throk, and Earth may end up wishing it had been wiped out in 1999!"
Keith's vision was once again seized by things he could not explain. Once more, he saw the Force on Pidge's ruined homeworld - yet this was not some colonial city, but Tokyo itself. Life on Earth was no more, and the planet had been rendered unstable as well. In his rear-view, Keith saw Earth die the final death, his team the last of their kind. He looked at the irascible but loving matron who had raised Allura as she came out to hear the news.
"Nanny-you were right about us-just a bunch of drifters from Earth."
The older woman was horrified.
"What! Why would I say such a thing? You bunch may be rough around the edges, but I love you boys! Keith, I would never say anything so cruel-besides, you were sent here. You're hardly drifters, after all."
But Nanny's protests fell on deaf ears, for Keith fainted dead away, bad news plus ominous visions proving too much. Pidge stared with the others before helping Keith up.
"Well-at least he was already in a hospital!"
From a corner, the Space Mice watched, and chatted to each other. Cheddar and Edam nodded in apparent agreement about something. Allura helped with Keith, but caught part of the mice's speech.
"Hmm? Why would mice be talking about...reincarnation?"
Assuming she had just heard wrong, the Princess of Arus tended to someone she cared about on several levels.
Yet she had not heard wrong.