Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from the voltron series, but the plot and new characters are mine.
~Luxx
Chapter 2: Readying the Warriors
Journal Entry 0082:
I don't like to think about our lost friends. It only makes it hurt more. So far tonight I've only gotten an hour of sleep, and it's already about 4:00. The others aren't fairing much better, especially Keith. He's been up all night, fiddling away with the cockpit computer…the broken and scattered out in 5 piles cockpit computer. I don't think he even knows where we are. Whatever this planet is, it doesn't look like its very good at sustaining life. I haven't seen one living thing. Seriously. Not even a bug or something. Thank God for crashing the food pack still in tact.
I don't know what I should be doing. My hands are antsy, like I should be helping the situation somehow. Everyone else seems to be doing something, well… except Lance. Not that he has a choice though. The crash worked his injuries pretty bad; it'll be a while before he's up to his norm. Sven, being our resident medic, has been tending to his wounds. Hunk took the initiative and built up a stronger shelter from metal debris, he's asleep now though.
This mission was a terrible failure. I really cant understand how any of this all happened. I know that deep in my heart though; I feel a sting of thankfulness. After all, our ship was intended for warfare. All 20 beings on board were soldiers, getting ready to enter a bloody war and probably readying for death. I don't know if I should feel thankful that we didn't make it our not. One thing is for sure… now I just feel guilty.
Pidgemian Graltof
"Hey Pidge," Keith called from his cramped spot in the cockpit, "You any good with motherboards?" He practically begged, holding up a few pieces of wire for emphasis.
Pidge just smiled and stood, "I'm the master." He beamed. Pidge tucked his small journal away with his other sparse belongings before jumping up to help Keith.
***
First light's rays of pink and gold soon broke the desert horizon. One might have thought it an astonishing spectacle, if not for the fact that the heat it brought forth could boil your skin. Sven stood and shielded the light with his hand. "Vonderful," he murmured, "Virst a night vof viter cold, and now vis." He added as he rolled up his sleeves.
"I hear ya," Lance agreed as he himself re-arranged his flight suit. He ended up leaving the top half of the baggy suit unzipped and hanging at his sides, while keeping a light, white tank shirt on instead of the regulation turtleneck. "Much better." He sighed in relief. Glancing over Lance could see Keith and Pidge working diligently on something mechanical, Hunk still sleeping soundly, and then Sven… coming towards him with a large needle. "Oh hell no!" Lance tried as he jumped away from him, gritting his teeth to hide the pain.
"Hey," Sven began, "Vits just a veedle!" He cried. "Ve a man vabout it!" He added as he again tried to approach the edgy lieutenant.
"I'm tellin' you right now Sven", Lance warned, "If you even think of taking another step then you'd better be ready to lose an arm." Lance realized he was backed into a wall and a bit of panic crept into his eyes.
"Lance," Sven spoke to him like he was a small child, "Since you weren't piloting, you never got a healing booster. If you don't take this you'll only take longer to heal and be in even more pain," he reasoned. He watched a look of submission flash over Lances face and Sven began to approach him. Then, suddenly Keith screamed over to them.
"Yes! We got the main computer running!" Keith cried happily as he leaped up and motioned for everyone to gather around.
"Coming!" Lance practically screamed as he swiftly ducked around Sven and ran to Keith, an ear-to-ear grin splitting on his face. "What's up Cap?" He asked once he reached them, while at the same time trying to avoid looking at Sven's fumed face.
Keith took one look at Lance's edited uniform and then shook his head in dismay. 'You'd think he could follow a rule as simple as uniform…but no, not Lance,' Keith thought to himself. Lance just smiled to himself, knowing exactly why his friend was exasperated. "The computer's got a record of the last few moments before the crash, hopefully it'll help us figure out where we are and how to get out of here." Keith spoke, getting back to business.
"What about the communication system? Any luck with that?" Hunk sleepily asked as he walked over, one hand scratching the back of his head. "I mean, if we can just get a hold of GG then they'll just send out a rescue for us, right?" he added looking to Keith.
"Not a chance Hunk," Pidge answered for Keith as he emerged from a tangle of wires. The tiny boys brown hair was even wilder then usual as he emerged in his grease stained uniform. "Wherever we are, it's way out of signal reach. I've tried everything, but it's like there aren't even any satellites up there to catch the signal." He shrugged, a perplexed look on his face.
"Some genius you are." Lance poked at Pidge, a cocky expression on his face. Pidge looked as if he was going to jump at Lance, but then a smirk spread out on his face as pointed to behind Lance, just as Sven grabbed his arm and injected the needed drugs. "Ack!" Lance cried out, his eyes shooting daggers at Sven and murmuring a few choice curses under his breath.
Sven just smiled at his friend, a look of immense satisfaction on his face, Pidge's as well. Finally turning back to Keith, "So vets see vat movie Keit." He spoke as Keith set the cracked monitor up.
A shaky image appeared in a matter of seconds. It started off with Sven and Keith doing the usual 'pilot thing', but then a shower of lights flashed in front of the ship for only a second. After that they could see the alarms sounding off, Keith ordering everyone to the crash pods, and then came the fire. The flames were huge, so huge that it seemed that the ship should have exploded right there in space, yet no one was exactly complaining that it didn't. Then something strange happened, not that everything else in the video wasn't strange as well, but this was really bizarre. Right in front of the ship, the atmosphere itself started swirling, dragging the ship into a whirlpool of stars and rivets. Keith's video form was tossed in the chair and a quick knock on the head rendered him unconscious as the ship was pulled into nothingness. Static subsequently packed the screen.
Pidge was the first to speak, "A trapoidal!" he cried, jumping and howling in the air in excitement. Four stupefied heads turned to face him.
"Say again?" Lance prompted, halfway worrying that the kid had lost his marbles completely.
Settling himself down, Pidge took a deep breath and prepared to explain. "A trapoidal. It's an extremely rare space abnormality which brings together the masses of all surrounding things in a mile radius and warps them into oblivion." He explained, but then quickly picked back up again before anyone could get a word in. "Yet, oblivion means void, but a void we are not." The boy began to pace, speaking all his thoughts allowed. "Oblivion can also be the forgotten, but forgotten what. I remember all my past, so it must be elsewhere that things are forgotten. Perhaps all those stars that got sucked in as well have been forgotten; perhaps we are the forgotten as well. Yet that doesn't seem to add up. It isn't as if we are just masses floating around, were on an actual world. Maybe the masses created it." Pidge finally stopped burning a hole into the ground with his pacing and then snapped his fingers. "It's a reversal. We've gone backwards!" He cried finally turning to his friends, hands out and mouth open, waiting for their answers.
Lance just shook his head, held his hands up to surrender and said, "Don't look at me kid. You lost me back at the space abnormality thing." Sven and Hunk quickly seconded Lance's justification.
Only Keith proved useful. "So…" he began, a bit unsure. "Your saying we've gone back? Like, back in time?" Keith asked, one hand scratching his head.
"That's my hypothesis." Pidge admitted. "It's the only explanation I can come up with. It explains so much. Like, why cant track any satellites? Because there aren't any. Why is the sun so bright? Because there aren't any solar shields up yet. And how about…" Pidge was cut short.
"We get the point little buddy," Hunk spoke, "But how do we undo this? I mean, there's got to be a way out of here. Right?" Hunk pleaded.
"That all depends on how far we went back." Lance answered for Pidge, receiving a shocked expression for his trouble. Lance leaned up more before continuing, "Think of it this way," he began to Hunk, "If we see some cavemen runnin' around, then we're screwed. But if we were to see things that at least resemble technology, then we've got a chance."
"Oh" Hunk sighed, "Well… shouldn't we start looking for inhabitants then Captain?" He prompted to Keith.
"My thoughts exactly" Keith agreed. "Hunk, you and Sven salvage whatever medical and food supplies left from the crash and pack it up. Pidge, you and me are going to go salvage as many weapons as we can. And Lance, see if you can get anything useful from the cockpit and what we cant use I want destroyed." Keith ordered. "Everyone got it?" His question received a small chorus of grunts and then everyone was off.
It took a little over an hour for everyone to complete their tasks, but the end result was still pretty pitiful. They held in their possession something barely resembling a first aid kit, about 12 MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), one sharp shooter laser rife, one set of technologically advanced boxing gloves, 6 standard laser hand guns, 2 smoke grenades, and, as for technology wise, just 5 small direct communicators. Weapons went out to the person who excelled in them best. The large Hunk turned out, surprisingly, to be an excellent sniper, hence he received the rifle. Lance seized up the boxing gloves as soon as he saw them; after all, he was the resident street fighter. Despite their name, the gloves looked quite different from average boxer's gloves. They were thin with metal lining under strong leather, and were mechanically wired to increase a strike two-fold. If one wasn't accustomed to the ways of fighting, gloves like that could bring about that someone's doom. Being the most inferior, physically, Pidge received the grenades. The small laser hand guns were handed out as one to Lance, one to Pidge, and two to both Keith and Sven. Hunk felt content to simply hold onto his proud rifle. With the weapons now in the happy hands of new owners, the team now set off through the wasteland with the setting sun at their backs.