Tumble
Haxus woke at the first loud boom. The floor of the pod shuddered with the force of the explosion, the hatches in the walls rattling in place. He sat bolt upright, squinting at the light coming through the open doors. Even in the shade of the overhang it was nearly too bright for him. Sendak was gone. There was another pod-rattling explosion, and he scrambled out of the pod, eyes slitted against the light.
The sentries were lined up against the back of the overhang, faceplates dim-shut down to preserve energy or conceal them. The ones he'd used for salvage were heaped beside them like broken puppets. And, silhouetted against the mouth of the overhang, was Sendak. The commander was crouched as close to the ground as possible, ears alert and twitching at every sound.
"What's going on?" Haxus asked quietly, crouching next to him. "Is it Voltron?"
Sendak's left ear twitched towards him. "I don't know. The Lions were flying formations earlier, but this is...something else." Well, that explained why the sentries were under cover. "Shall we investigate?"
"It could be a trap to lure us out. You know Champion does that-you saw him in the arena." Well, only once, but it had certainly made a lasting impression. A thought struck him. "Could it be one of our ships in a firefight with Voltron?"
"No. I would have seen or heard them enter the atmosphere, and the skies have been quiet aside from Voltron."
"Then maybe it is Voltron," Haxus said. The explosions certainly sounded like they were coming from the general direction of their base.
"Maybe," Sendak replied. His ears twitched. Haxus knew that look.
"Oh no. Do not go out there and investigate."
"Don't you want to know what's going on?"
"Not enough to be captured and killed for it. Commander. Sendak. You'll never be able to hide from them in this terrain. Don't even think about it."
Sendak lowered his ears. "Alright," he muttered irritably, and slunk away from the mouth of the overhang.
Haxus hurried after him. "So what did you do while I was asleep?"
"Reconnaissance of the area. There's a settlement of the locals not far from the canyons. They appear sentient but not far advanced, and are…" he held his hands apart, roughly the equivalent of the distance between the ground and his knee, "tiny. And soft-looking. They don't seem to venture much in this direction, so we should be out of sight here. A little deeper down this canyon, there is a natural spring and indigenous plants."
"You didn't eat anything, did you?" Haxus asked.
"Of course not," Sendak huffed, looking offended. "I did drink the water, though." He cut off Haxus's impending screech of 'what do you think you're doing, that could have killed you' with an "It's alright. If it were going to harm me, I would be experiencing the effects already."
"There was water in the ration packs," Haxus said dryly.
Sendak pulled a face. "No. It always tastes like the pouch."
"It's sterile and safe for Galra consumption."
"And old and disgusting. Why would I inflict that on myself when there was fresh water right there?"
"Because you don't want to die from some hostile organism in the 'fresh' water?" When Sendak didn't respond, Haxus buried his face in his hands and groaned. "Sometimes I think your stupidity will get you killed faster than combat."
"I'm not stupid, Haxus."
"Yet you do things like drink potentially-contaminated water on an alien planet."
"I was thirsty, it was there, and now we know that it isn't contaminated and won't hurt us."
"You could have taken the scanner with you and checked properly instead of endangering yourself."
"Haxus, the scanner is designed to be used with the left hand."
"...Oh." Outside, the sounds of explosions stopped abruptly, making the pause that followed much more awkward than it otherwise would have been.
"Speaking of left hands, did you look over my prosthetic after you finished with the sentries?" Sendak asked, breaking the silence.
Haxus sighed. "I did. There's some good news, and some bad news."
"Tell me."
"The main body of the prosthetic was mostly functional and the damaged parts were an easy fix. Unfortunately, the connector ports were damaged by the explosion, and I couldn't find your spare in the pieces you salvaged."
Sendak groaned. "That was the one replacement part I couldn't find."
Haxus frowned thoughtfully. "We have options, at least. I could attempt to duplicate the part with scraps from the sentries, though I don't know how well it would hold up. I could try to repair the damaged port with scraps from the sentries, but the corollary from the first still stands."
"Or you could take the port from this one-" Sendak shrugged his left shoulder- "to replace the part in the other one."
"We should save that as a last resort," Haxus replied. "I don't know if the two ports are the same, and if they aren't and I've removed the port from that one, then you have two non-functional prosthetics and no arm rather than one non-functional prosthetic and an arm you hate."
"Fine." Lords of the Astral did Sendak look miffed about that. Ears down, lip curled, heavy brows furrowed. Haxus noted the way his cybernetic eye pushed at the line of his brow. Did it ever bother him? Haxus would love to get his hands on it, to take it apart and see how it worked, but then Sendak would be down an eye again and have to adjust, and he couldn't think of a single time in the last three cycles when things had been quiet enough to afford that.
Haxus reached up and grabbed at the tip of Sendak's ear, tugging gently. "I'll get started on repairing the port immediately."
"Maybe you should work on comms and navigation first," Sendak replied, grabbing Haxus's wrist and detaching him. "We should get in touch with Central Command and let them know we're alive."
"You think they'll send an extraction?"
"They have to. If I can get to Prorok, I can talk him into sending Ilvek and his fleet over. I'll even allow them the glory of capturing Voltron if it means getting out of here."
Haxus shrugged and climbed back into the pod. He pulled up a diagnostic on the communications system. What came back was only half comprehensible—the damage must have been extensive—but one thing was obvious. "The transmitter took a hit during the crash. I'm going up to work on it."
"Need a boost?"
"Please."
That, actually, was the only thing the enormous prosthetic was good for—it was big enough for Haxus to sit in if he needed a lift to somewhere higher than he could reach that he couldn't climb to. He grabbed the spare parts and tools for the transmitter and exited the pod, walking around to the back, the side closest to the transmitter hatch. Sendak followed, stopping beside him and spreading the gigantic, curled claws on the prosthetic. Haxus swung himself up into the palm, setting the toolkit down on his lap.
"Initializing gateway with limb," Haxus said, grinning.
"The limb is go," Sendak replied, winked, and hoisted him into the air.
Haxus scrambled onto the roof as soon as he could-he knew Sendak could only hold him up for so long, and he didn't feel like pushing it. He flipped open the transmitter hatch and studied the contents. The transmitter itself looked fine, but the wires around it were a twisted mess, protective coating half-melted and clumping. Groaning, he pried the whole mess from its place and set it atop the pod, being careful not to twist the cables that connected the transmitter to the control panel inside.
"How does it look?" Sendak called up.
"Messy but fixable," Haxus replied. "When I tell you, can you go back inside and test the communications system?"
"I can," Sendak said.
The bigger Galra moved mostly out of sight, slouching against the side of the pod. Haxus returned his attention to the transmitter, beginning to disentangle the wires and inspect them for structural integrity, detaching and setting aside the damaged ones and replacing them with new wire from the toolkit. Once the wiring was fixed, Haxus opened the transmitter's casing.
And swore quietly under his breath. "...This may take longer than I anticipated," he said, leaning over the side of the pod. Sendak looked up at him.
"What's the matter?"
"The transmitter is fried. It must have overheated during our free-fall. I don't know how much of it is salvageable."
Sendak groaned, and a tick later Haxus heard a thunk, presumably from the commander smacking his head on the pod in frustration. "Do you have an estimate on how long it will take you to find all the damaged parts?"
"Another varga or so, at the absolute minimum."
"Alright. I'm going to check the perimeter."
"You know, I'm beginning to think this is becoming one of your compulsions."
"I don't like the idea of something sneaking up on us, and unlike the sentries I can conceal myself if I encounter anyone. Keep working on the transmitter. I'll be back soon."
And then he was gone. Bastard.
"One of these days, that's going to get you killed," Haxus muttered.
He disassembled the transmitter carefully, one piece at a time, going over each with a careful eye and separating out anything that looked damaged, just to be safe. Some of the damages were minor enough that he could repair them easily. Others, like the main control chip, would need replaced entirely. Haxus was grateful that whoever packed the toolkits had thought to provide a replacement chip. He reminded himself to request replacement parts for the life support systems in the pods when they got back to the main fleet. No way was he ever going to be caught out unprepared like this again.
Pebbles skittered across the floor of the overhang, and Sendak hurtled after them a tick later. He came to a thunderous stop right in front of the back wall and leaned against it, breathing heavily. Haxus swung himself off the roof of the pod, landing on the balls of his feet and allowing his momentum to carry him down into a crouch to disperse the energy of his fall.
"Sendak? Are you alright?" Haxus asked.
Sendak took a couple more ragged gulps of air before panting, "Voltron Lions. Over the canyons. They might be headed this way."
"Did they see you?"
"I don't know. They were flying this general direction when I spotted them. I think I was out of sight, but…" He pressed his face against the wall of the cave, still gasping.
"But you don't know how much you stood out to their eyes." Hadn't there been a report that Champion saw almost half again the range of colors Galra did? His profile had mentioned a third color cone and a distinct lack of a tapetum lucidum.
"Precisely. We'll stay in here and keep low, and hope they haven't seen us."
"And if they have?"
"The Lions won't fit under here. The paladins will have to engage us on foot."
"...We have me and four damaged sentries."
"And me."
"You're injured. I don't think fighting with that arm would be in your best interest."
"If they come in here, I will fight. Triumph or death."
A dull boom sounded somewhere not far off. Dust and small rocks fell from the walls and ceiling. A second boom followed on its heels less than a tick later. Sendak pushed off the wall and hurried towards Haxus. Then, from somewhere almost directly above them, came the sound of rock being smashed to pieces. Sendak hit Haxus like a meteor, slamming the smaller Galra to the ground and arching protectively over him as chunks of stone rained from the ceiling. A much, much larger rock smashed to the ground just outside the entrance. A blast of hot, dry air rushed into the space. Through the cage of Sendak's limbs, Haxus caught a glimpse of something huge and dark rushing by outside. The Black Lion. It had to be.
And then it was gone and everything was quiet except the sound of their breathing. His face was close enough to Sendak's that, if he'd wanted, Haxus could have leaned up and pressed their brows together. Sendak's eye was squeezed shut, his ears flat against his skull. His breath stirred the fine hairs on Haxus's ear. His right arm was shaking. Haxus pushed himself most of the way out from beneath Sendak, grabbing the commander's shoulder. Sendak opened his eye and peered up at him, then shifted into a more seated position to take the weight off his arms.
"Are you alright?" Sendak rasped.
"Yes," Haxus replied. "Are they—"
"Gone, I think. I don't hear them anymore." He was shaking, Haxus noticed. Sendak's whole frame quivered.
"Sendak, are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine." Sendak was definitely shaking. Haxus grabbed his right wrist, lifted his hand off the ground and pressed the palm-pad against his cheek. The rough skin was warm, but not feverishly so. Haxus released him and stood, then reached down to pull Sendak to his feet. Sendak rose with little prompting. He was close, too close, organic eye heavy-lidded and ears lowered, almost enough to make him endearing despite his scar. Their breastplates bumped against one another. Haxus went rigid.
And then Sendak stepped back and coughed lightly, and the moment shattered.
"I should...get back to work...on the transmitter," Haxus said awkwardly. He hesitated, then added, "And maybe you should ice your shoulder."
"...I think you're right," Sendak said, just as awkward, and hurried into the pod. Haxus climbed back up top himself-much easier since he didn't have to drag the toolkit up with him-and sat staring at the disassembled transmitter for a few doboshes.
He couldn't honestly say he hadn't considered it—considered them. Sendak was an appealing Galra, tall and strong despite not being whole, but he was also Haxus's commanding officer, and fraternization between ranks was strictly forbidden by protocol. If they were of equal rank, no one would have cared-no one had cared back when they'd been foot soldiers, intimate relationships with crewmates weren't at all uncommon-but it was common knowledge that commanders in relationships with a soldier under their command tended to grant favors, and that was unacceptable. And at any rate, he still wasn't entirely sure where they stood, not after Sekir. Sendak was...well, he hated to even think it, but Sendak was still fragile after all this time, and sometimes he wondered if they would ever-
"That transmitter won't fix itself while you sit here and dither, Haxus," he mumbled to himself, and dove back into the process of replacing the damaged pieces and fitting them back together. It was soothing, almost, immersing himself in the fine details of restoring the transmitter. The parts fit together perfectly, unlike most things in the universe. All he had to do was find the right way to attach them, and they made a complete, perfect whole.
Well, not entirely perfect. The replacement parts were a slightly different shade of chrome, brighter from lack of use against the duller original pieces, and their fit was slightly different from the now-broken parts they replaced. But it looked like it would work. He settled the machine back into its casing and put the case and attached wires back into the hull.
"Sendak?" he yelled down. "The transmitter should work now."
"Powering up the interface," Sendak called from inside the pod.
A tick passed. Two. Haxus's innards clenched tight with dread. If it wasn't working…
"Transmitter is operational. Navigation is back online. Searching for a satellite to connect with the Intergalactic Communications Network now."
Haxus sighed with relief and shut the hatch. "I'm on my way down."
Sendak and Haxus laid low the whole afternoon-the light outside was too bright for either of them, the heat too intense. Even beneath the overhang, it reached the point where the pair had to strip out of their armor and undersuits to keep from overheating. Sendak rarely envied his lieutenant's thinner coat, but he reconsidered his stance when mid-afternoon found him spread-eagle on the floor of the pod, completely nude, while Haxus fixed the thermoregulators. If it had been less abysmally hot he would have been tempted to take a nap, but the air caught in the back of his throat like shed fur, and the close brush with Voltron had left a nagging sense that the Lions could swoop in and find them at any moment. The Black Lion had come close enough that he could have reached out and touched it, had he been standing in the mouth of the cave. It was nerve-wracking.
Haxus fumbled a tool by the hatch in the wall containing the thermoregulator's control settings. Sendak's ears twitched towards him, catching the clatter of metal and a bitten-off curse. The heat was getting even Haxus down, it seemed, and he had a much higher tolerance for it than Sendak. After all, his undersuit was stripped only to the waist, and he wasn't panting to try and disperse his body heat yet.
There was another muffled curse, a thunk, and then the thermoregulator hummed to life. "There we go," Haxus muttered.
A blast of cold air hit Sendak directly in the face. He all but moaned with relief, shifting to find the center of the vent's outflow and cool as much of himself as he could manage. Haxus chuffed, and Sendak didn't even need to look at him to know he was being laughed at.
"Shut up," he grumbled, rolling over to expose his back to the vent. Haxus sat down next to him a tick later, not blocking the airflow, and began disentangling the knots in his fur behind his right shoulder. Sendak went limp, a purr rumbling in the back of his throat, and Haxus chuffed again.
"Imagine if the other commanders saw you like this," Haxus said, amusement coloring his tone.
"Prorok would proposition me on the spot," Sendak said.
"Filthy," Haxus retorted. "I was picturing Throk's reaction."
"Throk would laugh. I doubt the heat would even faze him." He paused, thoughtful. "Where's he from, again?"
"Ba-Tet, if I recall correctly."
"He wouldn't have noticed the heat, then." They fell quiet for a few ticks. Then Sendak said, "Three places you'd rather be than here?"
"On our cruiser, taking Voltron back to Central Command," Haxus said. "Visiting home on leave. And…" he hummed thoughtfully. "...Somewhere comfortable, with a bed. You?"
"At this point, I might take Sekir over Arus. It was at least cooler there."
"I didn't think you might want to go back to the place that cost you your arm."
"You'd be surprised." Haxus had stopped grooming and was kneading Sendak's upper back like he planned to take a nap on it, claws just barely digging into his skin.
"You're tense," he said.
Sendak hummed distractedly. "Haven't stretched properly since before the crash."
"And that's how long you've had that prosthetic on, isn't it?"
Sendak nodded into the floor. Then he froze, realizing what he'd just admitted. "Haxus, no. You can't take that off. If Voltron-"
"Voltron is not coming-"
"They were here less than three vargas ago, Haxus, and they missed us by a very small margin. They could return at any moment-"
"Ah, yes, and you're going to fend them off unclothed."
"Their species has a nudity taboo, remember? The surprise should stop them long enough to give me an advantage."
Haxus sighed. "You'll need to take it off soon, Sendak, or you'll risk losing the remnant limb."
"I know. I'll do it when it's safe." He could feel Haxus glaring a hole in his back.
"If you go to sleep here on the floor, I'm going to remove it whether you like it or not."
Sendak pushed himself upright immediately, popping his back as he did, and looked over his shoulder at Haxus. The smaller Galra flattened his ears and shot Sendak the dirtiest look in his repertoire.
"Oh, don't look at me like that, Hax-"
"Don't injure yourself because you're paranoid, Commander."
Sendak's ears lowered immediately, confused by the sudden distance stressing his rank brought on. Haxus was glaring, his ears flattened to his skull and his whole body tense, and somehow the look radiated worry instead of anger. Sendak was rarely cowed by anything-Zarkon had been forced to beat him into submission several times during his time under the emperor-but the look on Haxus's face made him want to roll over and submit, to just give in and let Haxus-no. No way. Haxus was his subordinate, not his commander, and Sendak didn't cave to just anything. Certainly not to his lieutenant. Even with exhaustion dragging at his limbs and dull aches over much of his body, he could overpower Haxus like he was nothing. He was in charge, and he wasn't about to give in and let Haxus handle things.
They didn't leave the shelter of the overhang until well after nightfall. It was too hot until shortly before sunset, and then Voltron made another pass over the canyons, in combined form this time, keeping them under cover for another couple vargas. Haxus had kept himself busy with repairing the air recycling system and replacing the warped filters. Sendak did...something, Haxus wasn't sure what, but it kept him busy and out of the pod, which was a good thing. If they spent any more time in the same space, Haxus was either going to murder him or pin him to the ground and have it out with him, and at this point in time they could afford neither.
He'd been tinkering with one of the chemical filters for half a varga and was coated to the elbows with grease and other unmentionable gunk when Sendak poked his head back into the pod and said, "I'm going to the spring if you'd care to join me."
Haxus slid out of the open panel, carefully avoiding smacking his head on it on the way out. "What for?"
"To get out of this cave," Sendak replied, flicking his ear.
Well, that made sense. None of Sendak's abilities were of any use in their current situation, and he had to be overflowing with restless energy.
"Give me a tick, and I'll come along," Haxus said. He grabbed his grease rag and almost ran it over his forearms to get the worst of the gunk off, but hesitated. The piece of cloth was nearly as gross as he was, and wiping off on that wouldn't do him any favors. He dropped it back on the floor and headed out.
Sendak was waiting by the mouth of the cave, staring out into the night. His ears tipped towards Haxus. "Ready?"
"Yes," Haxus replied.
It was a relatively short trek, maybe half a klik. The spring was down a side-canyon, a narrow cleft in the rock just wide enough to accommodate Sendak's broad shoulders and bulky prosthetic. They had to walk single-file, and Haxus stared at Sendak's back and wondered just how much 'reconnaissance' the commander had done. Haxus would have overlooked this crack in the rock in favor of scoping out the wider canyons, or only explored it after he'd mapped out every possible large canyon that led to their hideout.
And then suddenly they were descending from bare rock into a sea of plants, and Haxus's ears caught the sound of running water. Sendak pulled aside a broad-leafed plant, revealing a broad waterway emerging from a cleft in the rocks. Trees arched overhead, dappling moonlight over moss-covered rocks and fine-bladed plants on the ground. Haxus slipped past him and padded to the water's edge.
"Go ahead," Sendak said behind him. "I'll keep watch."
Haxus glanced over his shoulder and eyed him suspiciously. "You're being awfully nice," he said, stripping out of his undersuit.
"If we're getting out of here, we can't fight with each other."
"So you're trying to placate me with the opportunity for a swim."
"It isn't trying if it works."
Well, that was a fair assessment, and it was working. Few Galra learned to swim unless they were born on wetter planets, and Haxus had never actually dropped the habit after joining the military. Not that he got to do it often, so, now that he was thinking about it, manipulating him with an opportunity worked better than anything else Sendak could have bribed him with. He finished peeling off the undersuit, tossed it over the rocks, and waded in. The water was cold, shocking him back to full awareness as it crept higher up his body. The center of the stream, the deepest point, came only to his waist. Haxus took a deep breath and submerged.
And immediately resurfaced, gasping. The water was much colder than he'd expected. Sendak laughed, and Haxus splashed in his general direction without opening his eyes, wiping the lids clear of water with the back of his hand. A yelp from shore confirmed he'd hit his mark.
"What the quiznak, Haxus?" Sendak demanded. Haxus turned to look at him and snickered. He'd managed to get Sendak right in the face. Water dripped from his flattened ears and rolled down the finer fur on his brows and nose.
"Sorry, Sen," Haxus said, still snickering.
"Lies," Sendak groused, shaking his head. He raked his claws through his ruff, shaking water droplets away and scowling.
Haxus did feel a little guilty-if he'd splashed anywhere else, Sendak's thick double-coat would have retained the water instead of shedding it and caused them both problems, not the least of which being Sendak's fur growing mold when it failed to dry. He'd seen it happen before-not to Sendak, who was fastidious about keeping dry, but to other soldiers with similar coats-and it usually led to everyone in the barracks getting sick. They couldn't afford something like that happening here. Haxus sank back down until only his head was exposed and raked his claws through the fur on his forearms, sending plumes of oil and gunk swirling away downstream. That was better. Well, probably not better for whatever was downstream, but better for him, and that was what counted.
He spent half of the next varga in the water, then clambered out onto the rocks next to Sendak. The rocks were still warm from the sun, a pleasant contrast with the chill of the water. He closed his eyes a tick and tilted his head back, enjoying the night air on his face. Despite the circumstances, being planetside was almost nice. The air lacked the bitter, metallic tang of repeated recycling, and natural gravity was always...interesting, compared to the standardized tug of the ship's artificial gravity. Arus's gravity was lighter than the cruiser's had been, but not by much. His fur was drying in short, soft spikes-he'd need to groom himself later to get it to lay flat again. He could do that back at the pod, though. Being away from it this long was beginning to make Haxus nervous that something had gotten in. He almost kicked himself at that. Sendak's Voltron-induced paranoia had to be rubbing off.
"Are you ready to head back?" Haxus asked.
Sendak hummed in response, a quiet rumble of assent, and stood slowly. Haxus stood as well and eyed Sendak, trying to be unobtrusive. His ears were lowered, face tensed in solid impassivity and betraying nothing. The rest of his body was just as controlled, muscles wound tight as coiled springs, his steps careful and precise. That last part might have just been because of the rough terrain, but Haxus had a feeling that wasn't it. A flicker of memory tugged at his mind, the particular cadence of Sendak's steps calling up an image of the last day of the Sekir campaign, of mud-splattered uniforms and faces bright and hard with triumph and Sendak collapsing as he stepped onto the cruiser's boarding ramp. Haxus shook his head to clear it. This wasn't Sekir, and Sendak was fine.
That is, right up until they hit the slight slope at the entrance to the overhang. Sendak's boots skidded on a patch of loose gravel, and instead of catching himself, the commander went down hard and stayed down, stifling a low groan. Haxus crouched next to him, grabbing at the back of Sendak's armor to help pull him to his feet. Sendak leaned against him for a tick or two, breathing harshly, and straightened.
"Are you alright?" Haxus asked.
"...I'm alright," Sendak replied. He clearly wasn't, though, and he proved it when he went to take another step and buckled immediately. Haxus had kept his grip on Sendak's armor, fortunately. He lowered the commander back to the ground and knelt beside him. Sendak tipped his head back and met Haxus's gaze. His eyelid drooped with obvious exhaustion, the rim reddened from exposure. Haxus ran a hand over one lowered ear.
"You should sleep," he said quietly.
"I can't-"
"No." Haxus cut him off. "You've slept maybe two vargas in the last two quintants, you've pushed yourself to exhaustion. I know you kept yourself awake to fight off Voltron if they come for us, but right now I doubt you could fight a cub, much less a paladin."
He could pinpoint the exact moment Sendak caved in. His shoulders slumped, ears lowering further in submission, eye fluttering closed. He leaned his head against Haxus's hand. "...Alright. Haxus, you...I can't stand. I…"
"I'll help you," Haxus replied, sliding his arm under Sendak's shoulders and pushing them both upright. He stumbled a little under their combined weight, and then Sendak got his feet under him and helped support them back to the pod.
They crumpled almost immediately as Sendak's knees gave out, spilling across the floor. Haxus rolled back upright immediately. Sendak stayed down, face pressed uncomfortably against the floor. Haxus flipped him over and set to work stripping him of his armor. The prosthetic was next. He cautiously deactivated it and shoved the forearm piece off to the side, then fiddled with the hatches on the shoulder piece. It came away in two parts, just like it should have, the connectors hissing as they detached from the port in Sendak's stump. The remnant limb was swollen and warm to the touch, but that wasn't at all unusual even after shorter periods of time, and the area around the ports showed no sign of infection, so Haxus wasn't overly worried. He prodded Sendak back to alertness.
"Do you have a compression sleeve with you?"
Sendak nodded. "Inside pocket of my breastplate."
Haxus pulled the smooth, stretchy piece of black fabric and held it up, amused. "So that's where this one went."
"I knew where it was," Sendak mumbled, shifting so Haxus could pull the sleeve up over his stump and settle the band in place. His face tightened ever so slightly with distress, and Haxus sighed.
"I'm giving you something for the pain," Haxus said, standing. Sendak made a soft sound of protest. "No. You didn't rest last time because you were hurting, so this time you're taking something so you'll sleep."
"Hax…"
"Don't fight with me."
There were pills in the first aid kit, and as much as Haxus doubted Sendak could manage oral medication, he didn't want to use the stronger stuff in the three-pack of sterile syringes at the bottom of the kit just yet, not when he'd seen it put soldiers Sendak's size down for a quintant. He grabbed the pill bottle and a water pouch from the rations and knelt beside Sendak, propping his head up. Sendak submitted to his ministrations, which was both worrying and oddly endearing. A soft sigh passed the commander's lips. Then he was out.
Haxus sat still for several doboshes, Sendak's head cradled in his lap, just listening. Wind whispered outside the pod. Inside, the thermoregulators cycled with a hum and clicked back off. That, and Sendak's breathing, and his own heartbeat, were the only sounds. The world was quiet.
Then Haxus stood, resettling Sendak on the floor of the pod, and headed out to reactivate the sentries. If the commander was going to be out for the next several vargas, Haxus wanted what little extra protection the sentries would provide. He knew he wasn't a fighter, not like most soldiers of his rank-Haxus stood where he did not from his own physical prowess but from his connections to Sendak, and he would never forget that. In the military, strength equaled authority and technology would only get you so far, but he had an ally. He and Sendak had always covered each other's weaknesses. They were a pair. But with half the pair out of commission, Haxus had to compensate some other way.
He reactivated the four functional sentries and set them to keep watch by the mouth of the overhang. Then he took Sendak's usual prosthetic and the remnants of the damaged sentries and got to work, detaching the burnt-out wires from the port and looking through the parts for similarly-sized wires. There weren't any, though, just like last time, and he was worried about using larger wires or paring them down to fit-if the shoulder port got damaged, neither prosthetic would connect, and that would put them at a serious disadvantage.
Light flashed in the corner of his eye, and Haxus turned towards the control panel. There was a notification up-the comms had finally located a satellite to connect with the ICN. He set the arm aside and went to the controls, opening the communications dialogue and set up a connection to Central Command. The screen stayed blank for an unnervingly long time, long enough that Haxus was afraid the call hadn't gone through after all. And then the feed opened on the familiar striped face of Commander Throk, who looked simultaneously startled and delighted.
"Why, if it isn't Lieutenant Haxus. I heard your cruiser went down on Arus," he said.
"Commander Throk," Haxus said, saluting.
"And whatever happened to Commander Sendak?" Throk's brows lowered, his huge ears tilting forwards. "Surely he didn't go...down with the ship?"
"He's alive," Haxus replied. "We're alright, but the cruiser is destroyed and the pod we used for escape isn't space-worthy. We need an extraction."
"Hold on a tick and I'll put you through to Prorok. That's his jurisdiction."
"Thank you-" Haxus started. Throk winked at him, and then the screen switched over to High Commander Prorok. Haxus immediately snapped off a salute.
"Lieutenant Haxus," Prorok said, scowling at the screen. He looked rumpled and irritated, like he'd been woken up to take the call. "So you survived. Where is Commander Sendak?"
"Asleep," Haxus replied. "I would have preferred to contact you while he was awake, but we just got the communications system back online, and I was under orders to contact Central Command as soon as possible."
Prorok harrumphed. "And what was the purpose of this call?"
"We're requesting an extraction," Haxus said. "Our cruiser was destroyed, our escape pod is no longer space-worthy, and Commander Sendak is injured. We cannot complete our mission. Commander Sendak suggested that I ask you to have Subcommander Ilvek send a stealth cruiser to retrieve us without alerting Voltron to our continued presence."
"You'll have to wait for tomorrow for an answer," Prorok said. "Under ordinary circumstances, the moment you called I would have sent word to Ilvek to retrieve you, but you two were assigned this mission by Emperor Zarkon himself so your extraction will require his permission. The Emperor will not have time to grant that permission for another ten vargas. Can you hold out that long?"
"Yes, sir," Haxus said.
"Good. I will do my utmost to get you two off Arus. Until then, stay safe."
"Vrepit sa, Commander," Haxus said, saluting.
"Vrepit sa," Prorok replied. The screen went dark.
Haxus sighed and leaned against the control panel, burying his face in his hands. Tomorrow. And then if the extraction went through, another ten vargas for Ilvek's team to receive their orders, prepare for the mission, and get to Arus and pick them up. That was a full quintant, at the earliest, until help arrived. Another day stuck on Arus, and no way to know if they would make it off safely.
A thought struck him like a punch to the gut. What if the paladins knew they were around and hadn't attacked because they were planning to use him and Sendak as bait? What if the extraction team that came for them was playing directly into Voltron's hands, to be killed or captured and interrogated for information? It would be just like Champion to play things that way. Haxus had seen his arena fights. Champion was clever, fast-thinking, and utterly ruthless. He employed devastating strategies against much larger, stronger opponents, coming out on top against impossible odds. If he was using those same strategies in Voltron against the Empire, it might take more than anyone expected to bring the paladins down.
Pain spiked at his temple, and Haxus pulled his hands away from his head. He'd cut through the thin skin with his claws, apparently. It wasn't bleeding yet, though, and Haxus had to resist the urge to prod at the cuts. He sighed, lowered his hands, and turned around, leaning the small of his back against the control panel and staring across the pod at the open doors. He was tired. The swim and ensuing stress had left him as drained of energy as a planet visited by the druids. Well, if he had the sentries on guard duty anyway…
Haxus stripped out of his armor and lay down at Sendak's left side, tucking himself against the commander's bulk. Sendak stirred, and for a tick Haxus was afraid he was going to wake up, but he just rolled so his back was pressed against Haxus's front. Haxus settled his face between Sendak's shoulders, shut his eyes, and dozed off.
A/N: Well, this got more of an interest than I expected here. Hello, all *checks traffic graph* seventeen(?) of you! Nice to see someone's interested! If you guys want to come talk to me, I've set up a Tumblr under the username shadow-djinni and there's always the reviews section-I'm open to critiques, commentary, anything else, though they aren't necessary-I'm posting this because I feel a lack of content for these two assholes and I'm looking for people to scream with.
Additionally:I'm working on cover art for this, and I'll be posting progress pics on my Tumblr! Come take a look!
See you next Sunday!