AN:There will be a lot occurring simultaneously over the next few chapters. I'll try to make the distinction if it's imperative to the story line. Our Voltron day commenced around midnight when Doom attacked with the Griffin. Chapters 8-10 occurred during that time. It is now between 0500 and 0600.
Chapter 12: Consequences
"There is nothing more I can do," Dr Gorma shook his head. Disappointment filled his eyes as he looked on the pale patient. "Commander Keith is lucky. The barb missed every major blood vessel but has punctured his right lung. I have surgically removed the metal shard and patched him up. The bleeding is minor but if it continues, I may need to give him a transfusion. Unfortunately, this young man has a very unusual set of HLA markers and antibodies, meaning Arusian blood is not compatible. I am testing Hunk, Pidge and Lance for a cross match."
"If they aren't," pain lanced through Allura's crystal blue eyes. She understood what the doctor tried to say. Wanting to reach out and touch him, the Princess knew it to be improper in the present company.
I have to wait until I can be alone with him, she fumed. Always propriety takes precedence over what I want. Well no more. Last night at evening meal something happened between us. Something I want to explore. The connection, the volt of electricity reminds me of the stories my Mother told me about Father's effect on her. I want to know how Keith managed to control my Lion, because I'm convinced he did. I know Coran suspects from what I didn't say. The appearance of the Alfor Eagle, even if it were one of Haggar's robeasts, it is significant, I know it is. They only appear when a King is imminent, that is why my Father took his name from the bird. Keith, Allura looked longingly at the young man, hoping beyond hope he'd achieved a mental fusion with the Voltron Lion pride. It will be enough, my love, to make you my consort above the cries of Nanny and Coran. Then I will not have to hide my emotions behind this façade of indifference. I love you and cannot lose you now I'm willing to admit my feelings. Especially as I know you feel the same way.
"We will have to send to Earth," shrugged the doctor, breaking into Allura's private thoughts. "Even then, I am unsure of any treatment that will work. We do not have the medicines to heal a massive and ongoing infection. Besides, there is no reason for Commander Keith to remain unconscious. The blood loss is not critical and I my staff are not keeping him sedated. On a positive note, he is breathing on his own, so he is stable at the moment."
A concerned glance passed between Coran and the Princess. Arus needed so many items, medical supplies and food among the most urgent. They relied on the relief efforts of the Alliance worlds to keep their population alive.
The closest Earth colony had been devastated by Zarkon in the weeks before Voltron's re-emergence. Bryce, the nearest undamaged star system inhabited by Terran's couldn't be reached with Arus's aging space fleet in under a week. They'd come to rely on Voltron's capacity to reach the nearest habitable planets.
"What about the metal feather," Coran asked, a shiver passing along his spine.
"We discovered a substance coating the shard," the doctor replied. A knowing look passed between Gorma and Coran. "It is being analysed as we speak."
"I do not know how it managed to pierce Black Lion's armour," Coran shook his head with disbelief.
He'd discussed the entire attack with the team while Dr Gorma took the Commander to surgery. Taking Keith's place, the Royal Advisor lead the debrief, forcing the pilots to repeat their stories several times. So many facts didn't add up for the astute man. Remaining quiet, he'd formed a theory. Many would call it preposterous. Coran needed time to analyse this event and add it to the mounting evidence that Commander Keith Kogane was not what he represented. Expecting more than a medical issue keeping Keith unconscious, the Advisor waited and wondered. He assumed Haggar's magic caused the Commanders unnatural sleep. Yet her choice of the Alfor Eagle as a delivery method unnerved the man.
"We all know it to be one of Haggar's magic potions," Allura stated with venom, "and that it was meant for me. The question is what will it do? How will this affect The Commander and more importantly, Voltron? We need the team at full strength if Zarkon attacks."
"Truly, I do not know," Dr Gorma stated with a sad smile. "I'm afraid all we can do now is watch and wait. It is up to Commander Keith and his ability to survive. He must be strong enough to fight Haggar's potion and whatever it is inflicting upon him. I fear we have not seen the worst yet."
"I shall stay with the Commander," Nanny offered, understanding the others were needed elsewhere in the castle. Defences needed to be fortified, plans made for the protection of Arus's people and a way found to unite Voltron. Chodina Malory would escape to the quiet of her office later in the morning and play her part then.
"Thank you," Allura took one, long, last look at the restless man. Beads of sweat peppered his brow. Cheeks flushed with heat trying to escape his body, Keith wrestled with the sheet now tucked securely around his waist to preserve his dignity. "Please inform me immediately if the situation changes, Nanny."
Nodding her acceptance, Chodina waited until the party left. She'd noticed Allura's wistful expression. Last night proved a revelation to the older woman. Not only did the Crown Princess have strong feelings for Commander Keith Kogane, the young man refused to acknowledge or return them, even though he felt every bit as much as Allura.
Eyeing the young man once the others had left, she began to talk in a soft whisper. "You really are a conundrum, Commander. I have looked for your early years on every planet within the Alliance worlds and their closest allies. This lack of information makes me look to those star systems associated but not aligned with Terra, as Coran suggested. So far, I have come up empty handed but the search continues. Which begs the question, who are you really and what are you doing on Arus?"
Glaring at the comatose man, Dina inspected the medical equipment surrounding the bed. A soft, rhythmic beating of the heart monitor drew her attention. Arus couldn't lose him now and the sound reassured the older woman. Below the cardiac trace, another line tracked the Commander's blood pressure. Both seemed low for a Terran. Then again, the Chief of Security suspected Black Lion's pilot had at least one non-Earth parent. She just needed to prove it.
"I know your birth name cannot be Keith Kogane," Dina sighed heavily as she slumped into the chair. She'd been up throughout the attack, fortifying the Castle's defences from her office. Unable to help herself, the woman checked on her search for the Commander's history. "No child born in the last fifty years has been registered with anything resembling it. So how and why are you in the service of the Crown Princess?" Sitting back on her chair placed at his bedside, Dina observed every minuscule detail as the minutes ticked by.
As expected, Keith's fever increased. The Security Chief hoped he'd begin to mumble incoherently in his primary language. She'd seen it before, in people on the edge of death. It took hours before she was finally rewarded. A few words escaped, sounding like "máthair, athair, logh dom". Dina's hand-held translator, linked to her sophisticated computer detected the origin. Irish Gaelic. Even in his stupor, the Commander would not give away his heritage, so she prepared to use her back up plan.
"Tell me about yourself," Dina finally asked. Repeating the sentence several times in Nehhwuan, the best match for his physical appearance and the world with the closest ties to Earth, it didn't elicit a response.
"I have six other language groups," Chodina sighed regretful that she'd had to stoop to this level of deceit, "that may explain your lack of history, Commander. Let's hope I have time to try them all."
"Tell me about yourself," she repeated in Andarian.
Her final hope and most unlikely origin, Dina almost dismissed the world. The people of that planet seemed incompatible with Terran biology. Blue skinned to protect them from the harsh ultraviolet light of the three suns of their home system, breathing an atmosphere almost noxious to Earthmen, gravity higher than Terra or Arus due to a shorter day and year, it proved to be the key. Commander Keith Kogane reacted to the words immediately. Thrashing about, he began to remember a horrendous childhood on world he shouldn't have been able to survive.