Chapter 1 ½
A/N: I felt the urge to rewatch Voltron in my wait for season 6 and tried to be productive… I haven't written in forever so this should be fun lmao enjoy~
A groan echoed in the small spacecraft. "Lance, can you keep this thing straight?"
"Relax, Hunk, I'm just getting a feel for the stick. It's not like I did this!" Lance proceeded to jerk the space craft forward.
"Or this!" The pilot then jerked the craft to the right.
"Um, can I suggest not jerking the spaceship too quickly because Hunk doesn't look so good." The timid medic interjected from the corner.
Hunk grumbled out, "Okay, unless you want to wipe beef stroganoff out of all the little nooks and crannies in this thing, you'd better knock it off man!" He turned his head to the other side of the spacecraft. "Thanks Eels."
"My name's Ellesse. El ee-"
"We've picked up a distress beacon!" Pidge interjected.
Ellesse huffed as she turned preparing herself and bag of supplies for the rescue mission. The ship began rumbling and a roll of bandages slipped out her hand. "Uh oh." She wanted to bring the roll to the others attention but figured controlling the spacecraft is a bit more important.
The rumbling got more aggressive and Ellesse stood up to return to her seat but instead knocked into Pidge who was calling out to the lunar vessel. "Ah, sorry!"
Lance looked over at the crew members on the floor. "What are you doing? Buckle your belt. And, Hunk, stop that shaking!"
The rest of the crew continued to argue, and the situation went from bad to worse. Lance managed to lose a wing after proclaiming he was called "The Tailor." Ellesse gripped the supply bag, closed her eyes, and turned her eyes from the front panel bracing herself for impact.
"Stimulation failed." A computerized voice said. Oh. Right. It was a stimulation.
"Let's see if we can't use this complete failure as a lesson for the rest of you students." The commander stood between them and the rest of the class. "Can anyone point out the mistakes these so-called cadets made in the simulator?"
A student raised their hand and answered, "The engineer puked in the main gearbox."
"Yes. As everyone knows," he turned to pointedly explain to Hunk, "vomit is not an approved lubricant for engine systems. What else?"
"The comm spec removed his safety harness." Another student called out.
"The medic wasn't prepared beforehand!"
"And the pilot crashed!"
The commander then continued with the lesson. "Correct. And worst of all, the whole jump, they're arguing with each other." He shifted back to the failed cadets. "Heck, if you're going to be this bad individually, you'd better at least be able to work as a team!"
He rolled into a lecture but Ellesse had no interest in listening. All she wanted to do was help people and learn about space but now she gets assigned to a dysfunctional group whom she might have to treat before they even get to space.
They were dismissed, and she spent the rest of the day working on her stitching technique.
"No. The stitching pattern is too messy." Frustrated she practiced a few more times until she gave up.
Ellesse wasn't bothered by anyone as she reviewed all her medical notes. "When a person is unconscious-" A silent knock rattled her door. She looked up and realized how late it had gotten. Her stomach moaned in the silence. Ellesse missed dinner. Again.
The knock came again but this time more panicked. She peeked her head out. "Hello?"
Lance pushed himself off from leaning on the doorway approaching Ellesse. "Hey good looking. Wanna hit the town with me and my buddies?"
The tiny girl tilted her head in confusion. "Didn't they issue the five-minute warning? We can't go out now."
"She's right Lance. Come on man, let's just sneak into the kitchen and then go back to bed. Yea? I like that plan." Hunk whispered trying to persuade.
"No no no no. This is team bonding time and Els is part of the team." He smiled and held out his hand to her. "So, what do you say?"
If Lance's plan was to get her excited, then it worked. She took his hand with a shy grin of her own and whispered, "let's live a little."
"I'm just saying this here, right now, on the record. This is a bad idea."
The lights went out and the commenced the plan to find Pidge. Ellesse was too focused on being excited about sneaking around in the dark to worry about being caught. They crawled past the higher ups' lounge and she found herself ducking between two trashcans hiding from the hall monitor.
Hunk had fallen out of his disguise and her trance broke. "Are you alright? Any broken bones, weird tingles, or cuts?" He threw up his hands in defense. "Ahh! I'm fine! I'm fine. Uh thank you."
Ellesse realized she was being a bit overbearing. "Oh, sorry training kicked in." She sheepishly explained with a smile.
Lance pulled them back as Pidge suddenly left his room and they all watched him disappear down the hall. "Where is he going?"
They followed him to the roof and Lance decided to sneak up on Pidge. "You come up here to rock out?"
Pidge screamed out in surprise but calmed down once he saw everyone. "Oh Lance, Hunk, Ellesse. No, um, just looking at the stars." He didn't sound that confident but Ellesse paid no mind and stared at the equipment.
She saw Hunk inch towards the equipment and get his hands slapped for touching. Raising her hand and waving it side to side, Ellesse gushed, "Can I touch the equipment?"
Pidge hesitated. "I'd rather you not touch it, but would you like to listen?"
"Even better!"
Pidge adjusted the settings so the volume wasn't too loud and Ellesse could still hear the conversation. The girl on the other hand was ecstatic to even be allowed to listen to the space equipment. Most of her studies were focused on health and medicine and how to problem solve in space but was never allowed to be near the equipment.
"So, I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter." Ellesse turned to look at Pidge in awe. The other two, not so much.
"Woah. What? Aliens?" Hunk jumped up.
"Okay. So, you're insane. Got it." Lance incredulously said.
Pidge went on to explain how the aliens kept repeating the word Voltron. As they continued arguing, Ellesse could faintly hear the word from the headset. Their conversation abruptly stopped as the heard Iverson in the speakers.
"Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown! Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: all students are to remain in barracks until further notice."
Hunk stood up confused. "What's going on?" He asked but immediately exclaimed, "Is that a meteor?"
"A very, very big meteor?" He continued in fear.
Pidge and Lance looked through binoculars and confirmed it was a foreign ship as it crashed. The alarms continued blaring and the academy's vehicles were rolling out to the crash site.
Pidge yelled out, "We've gotta see that ship!" and Lance grabbed Ellesse's hand as they ran towards the door. "Hunk come on!"
"Oh, this is the worst team-building exercise ever." He muttered to himself before following.
The team ended up setting up on a cliff nearby the crash. Lance had surveyed the area complaining about not being able to pass the guards. Hunk feigned being upset and tried to persuade everyone once again about going back. Ellesse was right on his tail. She appreciated being asked to follow but she didn't know what these guys could get her into.
"Wait. They set up a camera in there and I grabbed its feed. Look!" Ellesse bit her lip and turned back to Pidge's discovery. Curiosity killed the cat.
A man by the name of Shiro was being quarantined and questioned. Iverson called for putting the man under. "No. He's clearly agitated they need to calm him down first." Ellesse muttered in bewilderment.
Pidge agreed. "We have to get him out."
"I hate to be the voice of reason here, always," Hunk started as he threw his hands up, "but weren't we just watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?'
"That was before we were properly motivated." Lance pointed out.
They started throwing out plans on how to sneak in, minus Hunk's idea of turning back to the dorms, when Lance stated, "we need a distraction." And explosions just went off. Hunk and Ellesse hugged each other in fear of the aliens coming so quickly until Pidge quickly explained that the explosions were a distraction for a small figure approaching the foreign ship.
Lance grabbed the binoculars to identify said person. "No way! Oh, he is not going to beat us in there! That guy is always trying to one-up me!"
Ellesse and Hunk glanced at each other before asking, "who is it?"
"Keith!"
This time Pidge asked, "who?" looking for an explanation but Ellesse could only throw her hands up in a shrug.
The team slid down the dusty hill and ran into the quarantine. "Nope. No, you—No, no, no. No, you don't. I'm saving Shiro."
"Lance, I don't think it's important who saves him, just that he is saved." Ellesse was too quiet to be heard as the two boys exchanged snide remarks and carried Shiro out.
"Oh no they're coming back, and they do not look happy." Hunk said on look out. "We gotta go."
They all ran towards Keith's small vehicle and managed to fit themselves. Ellesse checked to make sure the unconscious man was breathing and still had a heartbeat. Her own heart was about to leap out her chest with this crazy chase.
Keith ended the chase by flying over a cliff and miraculously not crashing. He took them to a wooden house out in the middle of nowhere. Everyone moved from the vehicle to the house and Shiro was placed on the couch.
"Can I take a look at him please?" Ellesse asked waiting for the rest to back up from the couch. She checked the pulse on his neck and took note it was very relaxed. "I think he was given anesthesia, so he should be unconscious for a few hours," Shiro groaned a bit and turned his head. "He's still agitated and needs to be in a quiet environment. Please let him rest for a bit." She concluded until she looked up and flushed at the idea of giving orders. Everyone else took her analysis seriously and all sat around in the living room.
Morning didn't take long to come since they had been out all night. Shiro and Keith came back inside, and the door closing woke the rest of the cadets. Keith unveiled a board of notes and strings. Keith went on to explain an unexplainable force was telling him to search. There were markings of a blue lion around caves and how these clues led him to find Shiro.