Published January 15, 2017

I have some unusual news: a short story I wrote was accepted for the Shallura (Shiro/Allura) fan magazine Stars Aligned! Search "shallurazine" on Tumblr to find purchasing information. Contributors receive a portion of the profits. As a bonus, if you order a physical copy before Season 2 comes out on Friday, you will also receive a free digital copy. Please spread this news to anyone who would be interested! You can also find Stars Aligned on Twitter. Thanks!

"Blackbird"


Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing.
~ Isaiah 40:26


Pidge had known that she had an ongoing problem with her teammates, which was negatively impacting their schoolwork; but she did not trouble herself about it too much, because she had more important problems to handle. She reminded herself that she was attending the Galaxy Garrison to save the people she already shared close relationships with, not to form new relationships with people she didn't know or care much about. Besides, the more time she spent with any individual, the more likely it was that she might give away her secret. No potential friendship was worth that risk.

She had not expected her neglect to come to a head on the night when she finally got some leads. Nor had she realized how obvious she had been about her sensitivity to the topic of the Kerberos mission.

When Lance and Hunk cornered her, she decided to tell them about her research, while censoring the details about her personal motives and illegal methods. There was no point in keeping her discoveries secret, when the world was about to change so drastically anyway. They would find out about the aliens eventually, one way or another. The least she could do was let them know they should be prepared.

As it turned out, there was no time to prepare in any way. As soon as she told them about the radio chatter, a lockdown was announced over the intercom—and then something entered the atmosphere, rapidly approaching Earth.

As soon as Pidge saw that it was a ship, she wondered if her father or brother could be on board. She gathered all her tech into her backpack and had it on her back before the ship crashed.

"We gotta see that ship!" She said "we" knowing it would be harder for Lance and Hunk to sneak back to their dorms than to sneak out of the base. It might be safer to have company anyway. There was no telling what they might find.

The desert was dark outside the Garrison's lights, but they could see and feel the ground well enough to follow the tracks of their teachers' vehicles to the site of the crash. At one point Hunk offered to carry Pidge's backpack, but she refused, and picked up her pace to show she could handle it.

As their antics that night got crazier, with the inclusion of abducting a pilot and accepting help from a drop-out, Pidge wasn't sure whether having other people involved in her search would be a blessing or a curse. Lance, Hunk, and especially Keith helped her get Shiro out of the Galaxy Garrison's hands, but she feared they would also be in the way.

Keith was a wild card for which Pidge was completely unprepared. His arrival seemed providential, as he was able to extract Shiro and provide them a getaway ride; but his driving was insane, and somehow impressed on them the insanity of what they were doing.

Under different circumstances, Pidge might have laughed at Garrison teachers crashing their vehicles into each other, proving once again their ineptness. But now she was too busy keeping her cursedly short arms around Shiro and her skinny legs around Keith's vehicle, trying not to lose her hold on either one. It was hard to say which was more precious right now, considering Shiro might be the key to finding her family.

Now that they were this deep in trouble, it was nice to have a place like Keith's cabin to rest and regroup. Keith brought Shiro into the tiny bedroom while the three classmates waited in what seemed to be a messy living room. When she peeked in on them, Pidge felt tempted to examine Shiro's strange mechanical arm. She was always fascinated by new technology, and this was the first piece of alien technology she had ever seen up close. But she did not want to stoop to the level of the Garrison medics who had ignored Shiro's words, strapped him down and knocked him out. He had obviously gone through a lot. The least they could do was respect his bodily autonomy. She went back to the living room to wait for him to wake up.

She tried dozing, knowing she would need top mental and physical energy to deal with whatever happened next, but the other two kept her awake with their chattering.

Lance's voice was thoughtful. "You know, I always wanted to meet Shiro, and I even sometimes thought about being the one to find him, but I never thought it would happen this way."

Pidge was pretty sure she had met Shiro, at some point in her childhood, though she barely remembered it. "Why did you guys follow me, anyway?" she asked.

"It was Lance's idea," Hunk said, evidently trying to wash his hands of guilt.

"After what Iverson said, I thought we should do what I suggested at the start of the semester—you know, team bonding."

Pidge almost smiled. They had certainly done that, more in this one night than in the rest of the school term. "Well, I guess you succeeded, but it's not gonna make a difference to our education or careers."

"Why not?"

"Well, we can't really go back now."

"What do you mean?"

Pidge sighed at having to spell it out. "If we go back, we'll be expelled, and maybe arrested. Aside from breaking curfew, ignoring the lockdown, and leaving the school grounds without permission, we took Shiro from their custody—I don't know if they'd consider that kidnapping or theft, but it was definitely illegal—and we engaged them in a vehicular chase that resulted in several of our teachers crashing. They could probably sue us for damages and injuries." Pidge herself would face even greater ramifications: the Garrison would probably find out her secret, and she would face charges of fraud.

As he heard to this list of charges, Lance's frown became deeper and his eyes became wider. Pidge could not tell if he was genuinely surprised or merely calculating.

Hunk was agitated as usual, and even slightly outraged at this point. "See, this is why I didn't want any part of this! We might be forfeiting everything we've worked for, over something that never involved us in the first place!"

"You could have stayed behind," Lance pointed out.

"So why did you guys come?" Pidge asked.

"This is way more exciting and important than anything the Garrison would let us do," Lance answered.

"I just didn't want to be alone when aliens had just landed," Hunk confessed. "That's scary stuff. When the Garrison trucks went out, it was like a war zone.

"They haven't actually caught us, though," Lance said finally.

"By now they've probably checked all the dorms in the Garrison. They know we're not there."

"Yeah, but we may not have been the only ones trying to go out on the town," Lance said slyly. "We can talk our way through it."

Pidge gave him a dubious look. She had done a lot of tricky maneuvering to get around the Garrison's security, but their actions tonight had been so bold, she knew it was the end of one journey and the beginning of another.

"Well, if we can't graduate together, at least we can flunk out together," Hunk remarked. It was difficult to tell if he was being cynical or optimistic.

At least they did not blame Pidge for leading them into this mess. She only hoped they would feel the same way when they finally faced the consequences of their actions.


Music: "Blackbird" by The Beatles