Across the Universe

Part 22

[All standard disclaimers apply.]

Hunk stared at his hands as he tried to absorb Keith's news.

Pidge had already been moved. Mowkar had given her to Haggar. She was now prisoner of the witch. He didn't want to think about what Haggar and her Druids could be doing to Pidge.

Around him, Keith and the team argued about how to rescue her.

Haggar was in the Majba system. Unlikely the Colei system, there was no convenient asteroid belt to hide in. It was a dual star system with just three planets. The two inner rocky planets were in tight orbits around the two suns. The third planet was a gas giant had a large elliptical orbit far away from the other two planets. Haggar's ship was in orbit around the third planet.

If they tried to come at her from one of the inner planets, she would see them coming from a mile away. Trying to get both the Castle of Lions as well as the Blades of Mamora to the third planet would either require multiple wormholes or a giant wormhole if they went in together. Either scenario would require a lot of energy from Allura, who would still be needed to fly the Blue Lion.

"I can do it," Allura insisted.

"It's too much," Coran protested. "You've never tried to do anything on that scale before."

"It doesn't mean that we shouldn't try," she argued.

"We haven't agreed that this is the plan," Shiro interjected, stepping between Allura and her guardian.

"Yeah, what Shiro said," Lance said.

"But we haven't ruled it out either," Keith said.

"Oh, shut it, Keith," Lance snapped. "We can't ask Allura to drain herself making wormholes to get us to Majba and then immediately fly Blue in a major battle."

"I can do this!" Allura cried. "Doing multiple wormholes should be easier than doing one large wormhole. And multiple wormholes could prove distracting to our enemies."

"Princess!" Coran said.

"Coran, I know that it's a risk," Allura said. She took a breath, obviously trying to calm her temper. "But I know that I can do this."

"This is just an option," Shiro said. "We haven't decided anything."

"But it's our best option so far," Keith reminded them.

Hunk stood up. He couldn't take anymore of the bickering. "I think we should go with the multiple wormholes. If Allura thinks that she can do it, I think we should trust her."

Allura beamed at him while Lance glared. "Thank you, Hunk," she said.

"You just want to get your girlfriend back," Lance muttered.

Allura gasped. "Lance!"

"I thought we all wanted to get Pidge back," Hunk said, his voice deceptively even as he clenched his fist.

"Hunk, I'm sorry!" Lance said. "We, I do want Pidge back. I wasn't thinking. You know me. I'm always running at the mouth."

Hunk studied his friend for a moment before turning to Shiro. "I need to check on some things in the lab unless you still need me here."

"No," Shiro said, "go ahead."

"Thanks." Hunk left the bridge, ignoring Lance as he said his name.

Lance turned to Shiro. "Shiro, you know I didn't mean it."

"I think you've said enough," Shiro said.

"Right." Lance went meekly to his seat.

"We need to get back to the plan," Keith said.