Chapter 26: 'What the Cheese?' Indeed
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.
"I think we've just about got it," Eirian says after a moment, straightening up and out of her crouch.
She allows Matt to put on the finishing touches. Within seconds, the map with pins representing the Galra ships increased in size by tenfold, covering the furthest outreaches of the universe, places even the Galra had yet to conquer.
Clapping her hands together, Eirian exclaims, "All right!"
"Yes!" Matt excitedly shouts, high fiving her.
"Wow! This is unbelievable," Hunk says in quiet awe.
"We're tracking Galra fleet movements almost live." Shiro points out, walking closer to the device.
"I think I know a few tweaks we can make to extend our range," Pidge begins, reaching for her tools.
"Hold on, Pidge," Matt says suddenly, extending his arm out to stop her from messing with it.
"What's up?" she inquires, taken aback.
"It's a scrambled message," Eirian explains, moving over to the screen. "We've collected hundreds of them but we've never cracked them."
"Let me see," Pidge says, sliding into the chair. "I'm guessing this isn't just a simple number-for-letter swap."
"I've run these through every kind of decryption technology I can think of, and I've spent days with just the numbers and a Galra language log," Matt explains as Pidge clicks away.
"But even after months of trying all of our different methods, we've gotten absolutely nothing," Eirian adds disappointedly.
Closing her eyes to clear her head, Pidge suggests, "Maybe they're not words. Maybe they're just numbers. Maybe they're a frequency."
Shaking his head, Matt reminds her, "A quantum signal that broadcasts other frequencies to go to? It's too high. These are more than 3,000 gigahertz."
Already knowing what he was going to say, Pidge instructs him, "Invert it."
"What?" Matt asks, not seeing where she was going with this.
Patiently, Pidge reminds him, "For every wave we receive, there's only partial transmittance, right?"
Nodding now, Eirian replies, "Oh, right, yeah. So, we figure the transmission coefficient."
"And tune for the frequency of the reflected waves." Matt epitomizing as Pidge does so.
With bated breath, Pidge waits to see if it works. Within the next second, the static hum turns into words. "Members of the Seventh, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Fourteenth Fleet, assemble to rally point trox-lyte immediately. Engage targets at coordinates in next transmission by order of Emperor Zarkon."
"Guys, look at this," Pidge says, denoting to the Galra tracking screen.
"I've never seen troop mobilization on this level before," Eirian murmurs with a frown.
"What are they attacking?" Matt asks, turning to Pidge.
"That's just it. As far as I can tell, nothing. There are no planets, no rebel ships, no Blade of Marmora bases, nothing," Pidge says, peering at the screen.
"We need to tell the others," Hunk says.
"Agreed. They're all going to want to see this." Shiro says as they move to gather everyone else.
"Whoever they're attacking, we have to help." Allura points out as she crosses her arms defiantly. Nothing was going to change her mind about that.
Shaking his head, Shiro retorts, "I don't like it. We should be gathering intelligence, not diving into a fight without knowing why, especially now that we know Zarkon is alive."
"We could go check it out." Pidge points out.
Cocking his eyebrow, Lance says, "I think they'd probably notice us."
Airily gazing at her nails, Pidge shoots back, "Not if we're cloaked."
Spreading his arms in amazement, Matt asks, "You have cloaking? Who are you?"
Still not liking it, Shiro remarks, "I'm not sure it's safe for just the Green Lion."
"I'm pretty sure I can upgrade Voltron with cloaking. We could all go," Pidge suggests helpfully.
Lance nudges her in the ribs before asking, "Were you just waiting for your big brother to show up before you rolled that one out?"
"It's something I've been working on for a while, but I can't pilot the Green Lion and operate the cloaking at the same time. But if I had a co-pilot. . ." Pidge trails off then, looking expectantly at Matt.
"Absolutely," Matt says instantly without any hesitation.
"Let's get to the lions," Shiro orders. "Eirian," he turns to his sister, "Are you ready to ride in the Black Lion?"
If Eirian had though the Green Lion was impressive, the Black Lion was more so in its own right. Representing the leader of Voltron, it was more impressive in regards to the authority it commanded and its size. It was the largest of the five lions, not to mention the most powerful. Feeling almost giddy, Eirian was more than willing to sit back while Shiro led the team.
As they approach the source of the signal, Shiro warns them through their shared channel, "We're getting close. Everyone, get ready."
Turning to Matt, Pidge instructs him, "Go ahead. Run the cloaking subroutine."
"Got it," he replies before clicking away at the keypad, setting up the cloaking shield. "Initializing cloak. I'm not sure how long we can keep this up."
"All right, let's take a look at who the Galra are attacking," Allura says, pushing the Blue Lion to go even faster.
Upon seeing the Galra ships firing upon one another, Lance ejaculates, "What the cheese? It's Galra-on-Galra violence, again."
With a grunt, Hunk remarks, "Oh, these people just do not like each other."
"Whose ships are those anyway?" Eirian asks, peering down over Shiro's shoulder.
"It's Lotor," Allura hisses out in a steely tone, her voice gaining an ice-like tone as she says his name.
"Lotor and Zarkon must be fighting for control of the empire," Shiro speculates as Voltron hovers in the background.
"Guys, those ships are getting awfully close," Hunk warns them nervously.
"Uh-oh. The trails from Lotor's ship drives messed with our cloaking spectrum." Matt says, a bead of sweat forming on the edge of his temple as he tries to find a way to fix it.
An edge of panic in her voice, Pidge asks, "Can you find a workaround?"
Shaking his head, Shiro tells them, "It's too late. Our cover's been blown. We may have to engage. Hunk, use your bayard."
"You got it," Hunk tells him, punching his bayard into his lion. Within a matter of seconds, a massive blaster cannon materializes on Voltron's arm and it fires at the ship's attacking Lotor's.
After most of the ships are destroyed, Shiro orders them, "All right, that'll hold them. Let's get out of here."
With that, Voltron flies away, leaving Lotor and his generals to escape from the few remaining Galra cruisers and their fighters. As the Lions return to Olkarion and the Castle of Lions, a chilling message is aired.
"Attention, citizens of the Galra Empire. From this day forward, my son Lotor is to be regarded as a fugitive criminal of the empire. All citizens are authorized to use deadly force to stop him or any of his soldiers. I repeat, Prince Lotor is an enemy of the state. Engage with extreme prejudice. Kill on sight."