Chapter Thirty:
"Durmeer?" Allura questioned as they left Shay and Rax's Balmera. "Coran, are you sure?"
"Very sure," Coran said. "A very reliable source has led me to believe that we'll find some more information about who has put out a bounty for you, Princess, and why."
"I feel like this may be trivial in the grand scheme of things," Allura said, tapping her fingertips against her console.
"All it takes is one betrayal from someone pretending to be our ally in order to get a cut of this bounty to greatly impact the whole war." Shiro pointed out, frowning. "I agree with Coran; the sooner we address the problem, the better off—and the safer—we all are."
"Alright, so, Durmeer, what exactly are we looking at?" Lance asked.
"Durmeer is a small, sparsely populated moon that acts as a universal waypoint and watering hole." Coran said. "There are quite a few mechanics here, as well as fueling stations, food sellers and various other establishments such as hotels and markets. Many, many dining establishments."
"Okay, so, it's a space truck stop." Pidge said. "Cool."
"Space truck stop means we can load up on space road trip snacks, right?" Hunk said. "I want to know what the space version of Cheetos are like."
"I've been wondering what the space candy selection is." Tali said.
"I bet space slushies would be cool!" Pidge said, grinning. "I'm imagining them coming in neon colors with enough sugar in them to choke a unicorn."
"I'm more interested in the space roadside diners with space pancakes," Lance said.
"Ooh, what's the space version of McDonald's?" Lani asked. "Please tell me there's a space version of McDonald's. But I feel like if there is one it is kind of Galra themed?"
"Well, it'd be a corporation, so it would probably have some connection to the empire…" Pidge said.
"Guys, can we focus?" Shiro said, arms folded over his chest. "Besides, I don't think I need to remind anyone that the last time we wanted to see if space versions of earth snacks matched up, it didn't go well."
"Ooh, the Space Potato Chip Incident…." Hunk said.
"Never forget!" Lance said, dramatically staring forward while putting his hand over his heart.
"You mentioned a tavern?" Keith said, studying the real-time images of the moon Coran had displayed. There were lots of streets displayed with strolling beings, mostly laden with shopping bags or luggage. "Where is it?"
Coran spun the hologram and zeroed in on the tavern.
"Oh." Was the general reaction to the images that Coran displayed.
"Well, um, it looks… Quaint…" Allura said politely.
"It has, er, rustic chic?" Lani suggested.
"I'm sure the atmosphere is… uh, it matches that of the rest of the moon?" Hunk said, reaching up to scratch behind his ear nervously.
"Is that guy in the alleyway passed out drunk or dead?" Lance asked.
This was clearly the seedier side of the planet.
And Shiro did not like that.
"Coran, this looks shady as quiznak." Shiro said.
"It is exactly that, both figuratively and literally, as due to the tilt there is permanent low light here." Coran said. "So we need to approach this operation carefully."
"Well, it would certainly look suspicious to walk in talking about a bounty on an Altean Princess while wearing Altean armor." Hunk pointed out.
"You're not walking in there, Hunk," Shiro said. "Coran said you need a full week of rest, and it's only been five days."
"It's not like we're doing this today or necessarily tomorrow." Hunk said. "If we wait until the day after tomorrow, we're thoroughly prepared and it's been a week."
"Shiro's right, though," Tali said. "Magic pods or no, you don't just bounce back into action after losing that much blood."
"Maybe not, but I think I've got an idea that will work for everyone." Lance said, clapping his hand on Hunk's shoulder before stepping forward and pointing to an area on the map, across from the tavern. "Coran, can we get an aerial and ground view on this building?"
Coran provided the requested images and Lance studied them for a moment, hands in his pockets. Then, he nodded.
"I'll need to see it in person, but this roof looks great for a sniper's nest." Lance said, pointing to a building across from the tavern.
"And have Hunk go with you?" Shiro asked. Lance nodded. Shiro visibly relaxed and said, "Good call. Neither of your weapons are going to be good if there's a bar fight anyway."
"How about we avoid that," Allura said. "But Hunk is also correct. We cannot go in armor. We will need disguises."
"I'll arrange them, been looking for an excuse to raid the old costume wing." Coran said. "Princess, just tell me what you'll need for yours."
Allura nodded.
"How long until we get there?" Shiro asked.
"Not too much longer now," Coran said.
"Alright then. Lance, Pidge, Keith, when we get there I want you three to come with me to do recon and a security sweep of the area. Hunk, you help Coran and Allura however you can here."
The Paladins nodded and dispersed to prepare for their tasks.
"Ooh, I think Pidge would look great in this." Lani said, holding up a pair of pants and a shirt.
"Add in these and its perfect." Hunk said, tossing a pair of goggles at Lani.
"Oh, man, can I wear this?" Tali asked Coran, holding up a red crop-top with sheer red fabric over it.
"You may keep it if you wish, but I do not recommend it if you are planning on going on this assignment." Coran said.
"Wait, we can go too!" Lani asked excitedly, looking at Hunk for confirmation. He grinned.
"Don't see why not. You two and Shinji were awesome on our last mission." He said. "And the more eyes and ears the better, right?"
"Alright, so, what's good undercover mission gear?" Lani said out loud, already restarting her search through the clothes.
"Hey, Hunk, Coran," Tali said as she held up a black shirt against herself. "Aren't snipers usually known for being, well, alone when they do their sniping?"
"Yeah, usually." Hunk said as he looked at a pair of boots. "Why?"
"Just… Well, if Lance is going to make a snipers nest, doesn't bringing someone with him defeat the purpose of having a nest?" Tali asked.
Hunk and Coran exchanged an almost dark look with each other.
"In the field, we have a lot of rules to keep ourselves and each other safe," Hunk said. "And in the top ten is that Lance always has someone with him when he snipes."
"Okay… Why is that a rule?" Lani asked.
"These rules are not just procedures and protocol." Coran said. "They almost always have a story behind them. And, typically, a very close call."
"Lance used to be able to go sniping by himself. Got into a sniper battle once and freaked us all out because he started taking off his armor—in the field, one handed, no back-up, his comms cut off—so that the other sniper couldn't find him from the white parts of the armor." Hunk said. "It was really scary, because without the armor, he was pretty defenseless."
"And since he had taken the armor off, we had no clue where he was without the main sensors. He won, but just barely. When he got back he basically slept for a whole day." Coran said.
"So that's why there's the rule? In case Lance gets into another sniper battle?" Tali asked.
"No, but it greatly contributed to the reasoning behind the rule." Coran said.
"See, when Lance is sniping, he goes into hyper-focus." Hunk explained. "Every time. Obviously not intentionally, but it happens. But when Lance goes into hyper-focus, his brain doesn't let him think about anything else or notice anything else. He kind of just shuts out the surrounding world. Like, you could scream in his ear and he might not even blink."
"A couple of Galra soldiers discovered this during a battle." Coran picked up. "They found Lance's nest and knocked him out. We were very fortunate that Hunk and the others were able to rescue Lance before the Galra got too far with him. Poor boy was out of sorts when finally woke up. Had no memory of what had happened, obviously. He said he heard nothing from behind him, and obviously saw nothing."
"Geez." Lani said, shuddering slightly.
"It was terrifying, and obviously we're trying to keep it from happening again." Hunk said.
"Hence the rule." Tali said.
"Hence the rule." Hunk said in agreement.
"What are other rules?" Lani asked. "For future reference."
"Send Keith and Hunk off alone together as infrequently as possible." Coran said.
"Oh, come on, Coran, we're not that bad together." Hunk said.
"The last time you two were partnered together, Keith's hair was on fire and your left hand was in the mouth of a Gorber fish." Coran said. "You were both underwater."
"That doesn't count." Hunk said.
"We put it to a vote. It counts. Especially since the time before that we had to conduct a rescue mission to extract you two from the cult you accidentally joined." Allura said, entering the room. She clasped her hands in front of her and said, "I have decided what form I shall take for this mission."
"Form?" Lani repeated.
"Oh yeah, you haven't seen the shape-shifting yet." Hunk said.
"Shape shifting!" Tali said, eyes widening.
Before their eyes, Allura's skin began to change color, turning a burnt orange with dark brown markings similar to a cheetah's on her arms, but her face remaining clear. She also grew an inch and her posture changed so that it seemed as if she was standing more on the balls of her feet. Her eyes and hair stayed the same color.
"Ah, a Feelan." Coran said, nodding. "Good choice. Excellent, I happen to have just the thing for a traditional Feelan head-covering for your hair."
Coran found the dark brown patterned cloth and held it up for Allura to see.
"It is perfect!" Allura said. "I will wear my hair in a bun underneath."
"I'll track down some extra pins to keep it in place," Coran said. He pointed to a pile of clothes and said, "There should be some other Feelan clothing in there that should pair nicely, but I think Ryla was the last one who wore them, and she was a good deal shorter than you, Princess. Fortunately, they were all hemmed, so if you'll pick out what you want I'll un-hem them."
Allura nodded and joined Hunk, Lani and Tali on the floor to sort through the clothes.
"So, Allura, what should we call you during the mission?" Hunk asked.
"What do you mean?" Allura asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Well, we can't just call you Allura, AKA the exact same name as the princess whose bounty we're trying to get information on." Hunk pointed out.
"Oh, that is true…" Allura said. She frowned. "What do you suggest?"
"Leia." Hunk said.
"Oh, that's perfect!" Tali said.
"Oh, is that not the Princess from that Star Wars movie? Yes, I like her." Allura said, smiling.
She felt a distinct connection to the young princess who took charge of her own rescue. The last of her people, but also with so much responsibility… And she'd like to think they had the same amount of spark and sass.
She only hoped that the fictional princess would not mind Allura borrowing her name.
"Lance, Hunk, are you in position?" Shiro asked into the earpiece.
"We're ready. Got an eye on the place. It's not too packed yet." Lance reported.
"Perfect, we'll be there in a few ticks." Shiro said. He turned to look at Shinji, who was currently sitting in the Black Paladin's chair on the bridge, focused on the book that was on his knees. "You going to be okay on your own for a while?"
"I'm starting to see why the others call you Space Dad." Shinji said. "Yes, I'll be fine. Someone's got to look after the Castle. Just try to have everyone come back in one piece for once."
"Will do." Shiro said before heading down to the launch bay, where the rest of the team was waiting, disguises on.
"It's weird to see your hair a different color other than black or white," Tali commented, reaching up to flick Shiro's dyed forelock as he got on board the small ship.
"It's only temporary, it'll wash out when I get a shower," Shiro reminded her, reaching up to smooth the dyed yellow hair back into place. When the suggestion was made to temporary dye the white hair, Shiro somehow let himself get convinced to not do black. Instead, each of the other Paladins tried to sway him towards their particular color. Finally, to appease them ("like the Space Dad he is" Lance commented, earning him a smack on the back of the head courtesy of Pidge), they put each color on a piece of paper that Shiro drew randomly from a hat Coran had pulled out. Hunk was in no way, shape, or form hiding his smugness when yellow got drawn.
Shiro glanced at Pidge across from him. They seemed to be pointedly not looking at him or Tali. He resisted the urge to sigh.
Keith had come to his bedroom the night before and told him that—for some reason he couldn't figure out—Pidge had somehow gotten into their head that he was now dating Tali.
And, according to Keith, it was Shiro's job to convince them otherwise.
He just wasn't sure how.
He'd have to figure it out after this recon mission. He could figure out his personal life better when there wasn't a bounty on his commanding officer and friend's head.
The descent to the planet and the journey to the tavern was uneventful. Shiro almost wished there was a door to be opened in a sort of symbolic "no going back" gesture. But part of what made this tavern perfect for Lance having a sniper's nest was that there was no door or windows. As Lani let out a squeak as an alien was thrown out the window, Shiro could see why.
Their entrance wasn't even noticed, only a few eyes near the door turning before going back to their pale brown liquor.
"Divide and conquer?" Shiro whispered to Coran and Allura, who both nodded. Coran and Allura went to one corner where there seemed to be a table for some sort of gambling. Keith, Tali and Lani went to find a table in a strategic location. Shiro glanced down at Pidge.
"The bar?" He suggested. Pidge nodded, reaching up to adjust the cumbersome goggles on their head.
The two approached and Pidge hopped up onto a barstool while Shiro remained standing.
"Wha' dya wan'?" The bartender—a six-armed green being with an elephant-like trunk for a nose—asked with a sneer.
"We're the designated pilots of the evening, so whatever you've got that will keep us sober." Shiro said.
The bartender snorted, sending snot flying on the table towards Pidge, who quickly moved their folded arms off of the surface, looking incredibly grossed out.
"Ain't got any o' that here," He said.
"Is the water here potable?" Pidge asked.
"Yeah, it's 'potable. 'Potable from the sink to your glass." The bartender said.
"Um, never mind then." Shiro said. "Um, got any food? We'll take the house special."
The bartender nodded and then disappeared into what looked like a kitchen, returning a moment later with a plate full of something purple and wriggly.
"Thank you," Shiro forced himself to say.
"Sure I can't get ya anythin' ta drink?" The man said. "A fella gets mighty thirsty with one of these."
"Actually," Shiro said, gently nudging the plate towards Pidge, who gave the food a small poke, recoiling when the food poked back. "We were wondering if you might be able to point us in the right information of some information."
The bartender snorted again.
"Depends on what you want ta know 'bout." He said.
"Rumor has it that there's a bounty out for some princess, an Altean." Pidge said. "But we don't have a clue what one looks like or where to begin to get information on how to hunt her down."
The bartender's eyes narrowed.
"You're fools, askin' for help like that. You're not the usual types for bounty huntin'." He said.
"We're merchants who are a bit low on funds. We thought that this would be a good way to bolster them." Shiro said.
The bartender suddenly smirked.
"Oh, is tha' so?" He said. "Merchants, eh? Well, I've heard some rumors, too, and these ones say that the Champion is not a traveling merchant."
Shiro felt his blood run cold and Pidge's stool crashed to the ground as they got to their feet, bayard already in their hand.
"I think we should be going now," Shiro said calmly, taking a step backwards, one hand on Pidge's shoulder, pulling them back as well.
"Leaving so soon, Champion?"
The voice behind Shiro made him stiffen, turning to see a large alien standing there, hitting his fist into the palm of his hand. Several other just as large beings also stood there menacingly.
"The bounty on tha Altean princess is nice, yes." The bartender said. "But it is nothing compared to the one Zarkon has for the Champion. Or do you prefer Prisoner one-one-seven, nine-eight-seven-five?"
"I prefer not shedding any blood here," Shiro said, activating his arm. Which, usually was a pretty good threat.
"The blood that will be shed is yours," One of the large beings said.
"I really think you're wrong about that." Pidge said. "And I can prove it, too."
One of the large beings suddenly screamed and hit the floor, clutching his shoulder, burnt from a laser bolt. Screaming and yelling suddenly started filling the tavern as Lance released another shot from his nest, this one shattering glasses behind the bar. Many started to flee for cover. But others saw what the fuss was about, and started making their way toward Shiro.
It was mayhem.
"SEE! I TOLD YOU SO!" Pidge yelled over the noise, even as one of the beings started to make a grab for Shiro in the chaos.
Keith was instantly at Shiro and Pidge's side, his own bayard out.
"Come on, we've got to get out of here!" Keith yelled, kicking a would-be bounty hunter as he tried to surge forward. Unfortunately, this started a chain reaction: Keith kicked the bounty hunter, who tumbled into a table, which knocked it over, which knocked over the candle that was on it that set the tavern floor on fire, quickly mixing with the alcohol from spilled drinks.
Which wouldn't have been bad, except that the three Paladins heard a shriek and Coran shout: "AL—LEIA!"
The flames had cut off Coran and Allura from each other, and it was getting too dangerous to try and get past them.
"GO!" Allura yelled at Coran. "I will find another way out! I will meet you out front!"
With that, she turned, running towards the back, hoping to find an exit. She gasped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning to see a tall humanoid being with blue skin and fair hair standing there.
"This way!" He said, leading her towards the wall. He approached it, pressed something to it, then grabbed Allura, pulling her away, shielding her. She was about to ask what was happening when there was an explosion and a great shudder went through the building. The being then led her through the opening in the wall.
Then, to her surprise, he pulled her in the opposite direction of the entrance.
"Stop! Please, I need to go the other way!" Allura shouted. "My friends, they will be so worried!"
"I will take you to them, but we need to go this way!" The being said.
"Tell me why, right now!" Allura demanded, digging her heels in.
"You are with the Champion, correct? You came in with him, I saw you," The being said, stopping to look at her. "If we go right back there, one might grab you as leverage. I do not think your friend wants that. I am only going to take you to where I parked my bike, then we will wait a few ticks, and I will take you back, I promise."
Allura scowled but continued to follow. She knew by now Hunk was probably on the ground, as was Lance. The two would be protecting Lani and Tali; the others could take care of themselves. So could Allura, but she did not want to give any of those bounty hunters an opening. Especially if they learned what they really had was just as valuable as the Champion.
They got where the being had his bike parked, and Allura put her hands on her knees.
"Are you alright?" He asked, also sounding out of breath.
"Smoke inhalation and dust, followed by running." Allura said. "I need to sit for a moment."
"That sounds good." The being said. The two slumped against the wall. Allura reached up and removed her head covering, using it to dab sweat off her face, taking deep breaths.
"What the quiznak?"
She turned with wide eyes towards her… What was he? Savior? Friend? Good Samaritan, whatever that was?
Then she glanced down at her hands…
She gasped.
No… Her shift had dropped. How had her shift dropped?
"You are… Altean…" The being whispered.
Allura's eyes widened, and she scrambled for her feet.
"No! No, wait!" The being said, grabbing her wrist.
"Unhand me!" Allura yelled at him.
"No, wait, it is okay, I am not going to hurt you!" He said. His blue eyes met hers, and she watched as his blue skin changed color, turning a dark, rich brown, his hair turning a pale blue, his ears shifting from being rounded like a human's to pointed like her own.
And…
She gasped again.
There were blue markings under his eyes.
"I am Altean, too." He whispered.