Published January 30, 2018

"Old Friends and New Teammates"

Yet speak to me! I have outwatch'd the stars,

And gazed o'er heaven in vain in search of thee.

~ Lord Byron, Manfred, Act 2, Scene 4, lines 142-143

Keith was not happy about having to share Shiro's newly-restored company and his own long-secret findings with these other kids. But they already knew a bit about that night's strange events—apparently the youngest one, Pidge, had been anticipating something based on secret research—and they were determined to talk to Shiro when he awoke. They might have information that Keith still lacked. The investigation, he now saw, was not over; it was only beginning.

Besides, now that the three cadets had run away from the Galaxy Garrison and helped to rescue (or kidnap) someone in its custody, they were technically fugitives. Keith, too, had crossed the line from recluse to outlaw, but that didn't matter to him. Having Shiro back was more than worth it.

After making Shiro comfortable, Keith scrounged up some clean clothes for him. Lance and Pidge dozed while the big guy, Hunk, helped himself to some of Keith's rations. It was a good thing he had stocked up.

Keith stayed by Shiro's bed until the sedative wore off, so the first face Shiro saw would be a familiar one. Keith knew they would both have a million questions to ask each other.

Shiro was understandably distressed when he awoke. Keith did his best to soothe him. He did not touch him, since the last people to do that when Shiro was awake had strapped him to a table. "Shiro? It's me, Keith."

Shiro rose up on his elbows. "Keith?" There was confusion in his eyes, but also recognition, which Keith found reassuring. Shiro remembered him. No matter what had happened to him over the past year, what had changed, they still had a shared past. Now Keith offered a hand, which Shiro accepted tentatively, as though unsure it was real. When he found he could touch him, he squeezed Keith's hand so hard it hurt, but Keith did not protest, merely squeezed in return. "Man, it's … it's good to see you."

"You too." Keith's voice was choked. "I'm … really glad you're okay."

Talk about understatements.

Sitting up fully, Shiro looked around the tiny room. "Is this your place?"

"Yeah."

"How did I get here?"

"I found you in a Garrison hospital. Some other kids helped me get you out. We came here on my hoverbike."

Shiro hesitated, turning a question over in his mind before daring to voice it. "How long has it been?"

Keith paused, uncertain. "Since you were unconscious? I don't know … more than half the night."

"No, I mean … since I was last on Earth?"

This was the detail that would probably be the hardest for Shiro to grapple with. "You and the Holts went missing a year ago, after spending six months in space."

Shiro was silent, contemplating this. He did not look surprised, but rather as though something bad he had suspected had been confirmed.

Keith put off his own questions so Shiro could process everything. It would be easier to catch up once Shiro wrapped his mind around the situation. Keith gave him the clothes, showed him the bathroom, and told the other kids to wait a while before talking to him.

Shiro came out looking fresher but still mystified. He went outside, where the sun was rising over the desert—the first Earth sunrise he had seen in over a year. Keith watched from the house until the sun was high enough in the sky that the more brilliant colors had faded. Then he went outside approached Shiro, and finally posed the crucial questions.

"So, what happened out there? Where were you?"

Shiro could remember little and seemed to reveal even less. Then he asked Keith how he had known to come and rescue him. It was finally time to share his findings, though his explanations seemed inadequate for describing how interconnected everything was. Shiro did not compliment him, and the younger cadets did not criticize him. They all seemed just as amazed, though not incredulous, as the elder ones. The one thing Shiro remembered that coincided with Pidge's research was a name: Voltron.

The three ex-students turned out to be useful. Pidge had data about the aliens, and Hunk, looking at it with a fresh mind, noticed patterns she had missed, and said he could figure out how to make a device like Geiger-counter to find the element that the aliens were seeking. They found the right tools to make such a machine among Pidge's belongings and Keith's hand-me-down lab equipment.

It did not take long for Hunk to assemble the tracker, and the five of them agreed to test it out immediately, since they did not know how much time they had before the aliens arrived. Not knowing how long it might be before they were able to return, Keith locked everything up as best as he could, though he knew the Galaxy Garrison could easily force their way inside if they bothered to come out this far. Keith considered bringing his research, in case they needed it, but he reasoned that most of it had come to a head last night, and Pidge and Hunk were working with his most important data. The rest could be left behind. All he really needed was his knife, since it was his best tool, his favorite weapon, and the only item of sentimental value he owned.

He was not surprised when Hunk and Pidge's Voltron-tracking device led them to the caverns with the lion carvings. He was surprised when Lance's touch caused them to glow, something they had never done in all the times Keith had touched them. In all the time Keith had been hoping to make a groundbreaking discovery, he had never expected the ground to literally break open to reveal one. Nor did he expect the stories of the Blue Lion to be pointing to an actual, blue-colored, lion-shaped machine.

Lance was proving to be the most impulsive, easygoing, cocksure person Keith had ever met. Touching the carvings, touching the forcefield, entering the Blue Lion like he was entitled to enter the freaking Cave of Wonders. He acted nonchalant and confident when he really had no idea what he was doing. He just went along with whatever idea entered his head—even when the ideas came from a sentient alien vehicle.

Being Lance's passenger in the Blue Lion was worse than any simulation Keith had participated in at the Garrison. When Lance flippantly admitted that he always wrecked the simulator, Keith seriously doubted they would survive this flight (if a haphazard ride in a mechanical lion could be called a flight).

Lance did not bother to ask the others if they were comfortable with leaving Earth. Before they knew it, they had left not only the crust but the atmosphere, and then were facing off with an alien warship. It looked completely different from the Blue Lion, even though both were equipped with flight and firepower.

Keith had never heard Shiro sound so afraid as when he whispered, "They found me." Such a reaction from the person he trusted and respected the most scared Keith just as much as the situation itself.

Somehow Lance managed to outmaneuver the alien ship and draw it away from Earth. But where could they lead it to? And what would happen if it caught up? They could not keep fleeing it indefinitely, especially when they did not know where they were going. Shiro was the only one who had been in space before, and he could not remember anything beyond Kerberos, which they quickly passed by. Apparently alien space transportation was many times faster than Earth's.

Then they faced another unexpected development: a portal, or wormhole, opened in front of them. Now Lance finally showed some hesitation and deferred to Shiro, the most senior officer among them. Shiro had not explicitly complained about Lance's risky actions, perhaps because the situation was so bizarre and unorthodox. Shiro did what Keith had always known him to do: he voiced his own opinion (in this case, that they should trust the Blue Lion), but then looked to the others for a consensus, stating they were now a team.

Keith had never been part of a team in such a serious situation. He was not sure he trusted these new "teammates," but he trusted Shiro's judgment. It seemed that these other kids did too, which was good because Shiro possessed the most knowledge and experience of the world they were entering. Lance assented, muttering darkly about how they would have to ditch school, and brought them another immeasurable step further from Earth.