Chapter twenty-six: Uncharted Territory
Green peeled from view to blend with the space around it, becoming invisible to anything other than the scanners that registered their location on the screens of the castle.
"Moving in now." Pidge reported.
"Copy that, we see you." Shiro responded. "Now we gotta time this right. One wrong move and it's over. The base defenses, coupled with the toxic atmosphere, make them even more dangerous. We can't risk us or the lions getting hit with that stuff. We don't wanna find out what it could do to us."
"Roger that. Proceeding with caution." Pidge responded, then disconnecting.
"Is it just me.. Or did Shiro bounce back from that fall way too quickly back there?" Hunk spoke up openly to the group that surrounded him, around Pidge's pilot seat.
"What does it matter.." Pidge asked dryly, keeping her gaze focused on the screen with only a very subtle reaction to his statement. "He woke up and he's ok now,.. what more is there to worry about?"
"I'm just saying,.. it was kinda weird though right?" Hunk went on. "I mean he hasn't ever come back that fast since he got back.. And then suddenly this happens? It just doesn't add up to me, and I know math."
"Except there's no math, this is Shiro we're talking about." Lance countered, dropping his crossed arms to his sides. "The guy's had a rough break these last few weeks. Why can't we just be happy he's starting to improve?"
"Cause it doesn't make sense for such an abrupt turnaround." The Yellow Paladin mused uncertainly. "I don't know, guys.. something doesn't feel right about all this."
"No time to think on it now.." Pidge said. "We're going in." Jerking the handles forward, the team had to grab for a grip to avoid hitting the floor. The Green Lion weaved around the Galra cruiser headed into the greenish haze, diving into it like she would a wormhole and powered up the thrusters to push them forward. Warbling in greens, blues, and even pinks and purples, the oceanic feel of the nublanic field surrounded them.
"This place is nuts." Lance commented, gazing out the Green Lion's screen on his immediate right.
"It's more than that.." Pidge corrected, looking up for only a moment. "It's science fiction come to life!"
"What was that?" Lance wondered, hearing a soft, muffled whoosh and catching movement in the corner of his left eye, staring out across the cockpit out the far left side of the screen to only find the same old warble of liquid-looking color. The Blue Paladin arched an eyebrow and looked slightly harder. From this strange new atmosphere a darkened shape defined further as a mouth of sharp teeth opened from a long, rounded mouth releasing a roar from it.
"*gasp* look out!" Lance cried jerking forward to take Pidge's handle and jerk it down to nose dive the Green Lion awkwardly into a barrel roll.
"Lance, what the heck!" Pidge cried, jerking her hand up to make him release his grip over hers.
"That thing almost got you." Lance explained dryly. "We could've gotten caught by it, and unless you wanna let Shiro and the rest of us down.. You might not wanna let it."
"What are you talking about.. I didn't see anything." Pidge replied, her confusion catching his eyes briefly before focusing ahead once again.
"Oh sure, yeah, cause I just made it all up just to spite our location." Lance complained, hands lifting up then finding his hips.
"Quiet!" Keith hissed. "Look." The team drew their attention to the screen ahead, as the rippling blur cleared to reveal the crust of a deep red or purplish planet resembling features much like that of the Balmera in the sense of the enormous rocky points protruding from it and scaling it in the like, looking more metallic in appearance. Sticking out from the rocks a notably different configuration stuck out to the brainiest of Paladins.
"There it is!" Pidge gasped, zeroing in on a shape that her scanners traced and enhanced for better visibility. "That's the central conduit that Shiro told us about."
xxxx
"We're in, and we've spotted our entry point." Pidge reported when her face appeared on the screen in the castle bridge.
"Excellent work, Pidge." Shiro smiled. Unbeknownst to the rest of them, his gaze dropped to his left. A reaching out occurring inside of him that felt odd, yet he couldn't quite decipher it. The tremble at his hand returned and he gripped the arm of the chair, where it lay, tightly; looking up to ignore it once more.
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Pidge crouched next to the hatch, as the rest of the team joined her from the Green Lion. Pulling up her gauntlet screen, she finger tapped a series of numbers and unique Altean characters which she then used to bring up an all new screen.
"Ok Shiro, power up your hand so we can gain access to the building through the hatch.
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Shiro's gloved hand powered up with its trademark sound, glowing an even brighter purple than it had in the past. Or maybe it was just brighter than Matt had first thought.
"So cool." the young man breathed to himself.
Just the same, the glow advanced up Shiro's arm in veins to encompass the whole surface of the black material covering; bluish markings forming upon the white of the cuff over his palm.
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Pidge's screen lit up with the device she'd built on it and Shiro's arm to go with it, as well as the shape of a body to which only glowed at the right arm. Turning her stance toward the wall at her right side, she searched it briefly; skimming over it to find the dusted screen pad at the right-hand side of the hatch. Taking a waddling step back, she positioned her arm so that it pointed directly at the screen, which remained dark for a second longer.
"You did test this thing out to make sure it works.. right?" Lance questioned, holding his weight over one hip and crossing his arms.
"Well.. yes..and..no. We tested it out on our simulators, but we didn't have time to test it on Shiro so.."
"What?! You mean you don't even know if it'll work!?" The Blue Paladin screeched.
"Shh!" Pidge hissed. "Do you want the whole Galra base to hear you?" Then turned her attention back to her work.
"Well that's just great." Lance complained sarcastically, his statement slow and steady with a tone of blunt disgust for dramatic effect; arms crossing once more. Pidge rolled her eyes, but when light showed up the corner of her eye, she looked to the screen in front of her as a glowing purple handprint the size of Shiro's panned up across the screen. The four divides shifted away to open up the hatch, so that they could begin the zero gravity float through the conduit until gravity began to pull on their weight once again.
XXXX
"This is it." Keith whispered, crawling over to a vent that showed the center of a hall intersection through the many slits.
"Shiro, we made it." Pidge whispered into her com.
"Ok.. wait five ticks.. then drop down into the hall, you should find six halls with doors at the center of them, leading away from your current position." Shiro instructed. A patrol of two sentries and a drone paced by, and by the time they hit five.. the sound was gone.
When all the feet hit the floor, they all stood shoulder to shoulder facing out, the room shaped up to be something like that of a snowflake in design; each dissolving into darkness everywhere they looked. Glancing around from where they stood, they waited in silence.
"Keith, the hall nearest to you is the one you all must take." Shiro finally said. "But proceed with caution.. patrols will be coming by as you go, so you can only move forward. If you take a wrong turn, I can try to guide you back around to where you need to be but be on alert."
"Copy that, Shiro, I trust you." Keith responded, as Pidge shot Shiro's wireless handprint into the lock to open the door they needed.
xxxx
"What's next?" He asked, as the dots that resembled each of them began to move down the correct corridor on the screen.
"Make a left at the fork, then pause for three seconds." Shiro instructed, his hand trembled more and he gripped tighter to stop it; paying it no mind. "Now move on straight ahead for three intersections before taking the right hall. You'll come to another six-hall stop."
xxxx
As expected, when the doors parted, the team entered into an intersection much like the one they'd entered just previously, coming out of the hall they'd left behind.
"Ok,.. where to from here?" Keith wondered.
"Quick! Hide!" Shiro hissed, the team catching movement and ducking into the nearest and darkest hallway, flattening themselves against the wall. Everyone seemed to hold their breath at the same time, as the sentry patrol stomped by; the group watching them tentatively until they vanished from view.
"Their patterns don't all look the same as I'm used to.." Shiro thought aloud over the com system. "Perhaps we need to rethink this plan."
"We can't worry about that now, you're doing just fine." Keith told him, coming out from their hiding place once again. "Just keep going,... and keep your eyes open for anything that comes up differently. We'll follow you wherever you take us. Just get us where we're going, and we'll do the rest."
"Understood." Shiro gave in. "Take the far hall to your right."
Glancing in the direction indicated, Keith took off leading the team down the hallway, halting in time to flattened against the wall; the others copying him instantly. Frozen in place they waited for the patrol to go by, until their footsteps faded into silence.
"Shiro, that was close." Keith mentioned.
"Ih.. sorry." His friend replied over the com. "Must've.. missed that one."
"What's wrong, are you ok?" The Red Paladin wondered, catching onto the strange tone of his voice.
xxxx
Shiro's thumb and forefinger rubbed his eyes, and when he attempted to see straight; the lines and defining features before him blurred into threes.
"-.. I'll be fine." Shiro replied lightly. "You should be getting close now. Just one more thing before you're through."
"Ok we're ready."
xxxx
"Lay it on us, quick.." Hunk spoke up anxiously, gazing back down the way they'd come as the team filed through the next door behind him. "Or we're about to get caught."
xxxx
Shiro sat in thought with his fingers to his chin.
"You'll have to do this in pairs." He said looking up at the screens above him. "The brig is just beyond that corridor up ahead. You'll need to open that last set of doors on the other side, but patrols are within minutes of each other; so that no one can get through unless they know the intervals."
xxxx
"Do you know it?" Keith asked.
"No,.. but I have an idea of it." Shiro replied. "And I can see the patrols coming from here. It'll be tricky,.. but I think we can do it."
"I trust you." Keith decided. "Just give us the 'when'." Slowing as he approached, he then turned his back to the wall and felt his way to the edge of where the hall dropped into the one that intersected theirs; pausing to hear footsteps approaching.
"Ok, get ready.. only destroy sentries if they spot you." Came Shiro's low voice in his com.
"Pidge." Keith whispered, the Green Paladin seemed to read his mind, as she slid closer to his side. Crouching at just the same time, the two waited to see the robotic legs that strode by them. And diving across the hallway behind them landing into smooth, clean somersaults to return to their feet easily, facing one another in a mirror image type of low lunge position supported by their hand.
"Lance, watch your six." Shiro advised. "I'm not sure whether it'll reach you, before the last patrol does."
"Roger that,.. I'm ready." Lance replied, turning around with his blaster in hand; aimed at the ready.
"Hunk, Allura, ready.." the next patrol strode by and the Yellow Paladin stepped about with blaster pointed every which way to the other side, while the new White Paladin acrobatically flipped her way over. The remaining Paladin paced backwards toward where he needed to go, while still facing the way they'd already been. Luck of the draw, he turned round just in time to catch the indistinctly red gaze of a sentry; which he immediately leapt at shooting down then the one beside it. Scrambling across the way, while avoiding tripping over the damaged sentries, then tearing after his team down the stretch of hall through the door that led them onward.
Keith held his position at the front of the pack when suddenly a rising light gave him a perception to stop as the ground dropped out from them just ahead.
"Woah.." the team breathed, peering around Keith. Cylindrical in nature the room rose up and dropped down into the vastness of land and sky. Viewing the numerous floors divided by the layered spaces and the odd pattern of cells.. they gazed about in awe and dumbfoundment.
Hey guys! I'm back! Another chapter ready and out there. Chapter twenty-seven is on the way and I can't wait to see what you guys think of it! Enjoy! Thx!