Katie just finished screwing her new invention in the Green lion's den.
Emerald, the said lion, watches her from the table curiously at what the gremlin is doing until someone just entered the den.
Katie: Hey, Mom.
Colleen: It's almost dinner time. You should be there with the rest.
Katie: Just in time. I was just finishing my new invention so we could contact Earth.
Colleen: Are you sure about it?
Katie: I'm sure. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?
Emerald followed her paladin as the mother and daughter left the den for supper.
Lance: Hunk, my man, your cook makes us consume it to death.
Matt: I know, right?
Katie and Colleen just entered the dining hall where they saw the paladins, Alteans, Holts, and Kevin, sitting together in a one-course meal.
Sam: Hello, dear. It's nice to see you two join in.
Colleen: I do so too.
Katie goes to sit between Matt and Lance as Emerald joins the lions at the corner.
Matt noticed what Katie was holding.
Matt: Sis, whatcha got there?
Katie: Oh, I was making a communicator using an Altean engine so we could contact Earth from lightyears away.
Shiro, Lance, and Hunk were surprised at what they heard.
Hunk: Really?
Katie: Yeah. Although I haven't tested it out just yet, I hope it'll manage.
Kevin: You know, it would be a good idea to take a break for a while before the next move. I know that we need to be serious, but still, four of the paladins are kids.
Sam sighs.
Sam: Kevin's right, we shouldn't let the kids go to this war. But, no matter what we tried, we had no choice.
Allura seemed upset.
Allura: Is it obvious?
Lance: Yeah. No offense, Princess, but we still have families back in our home. Remember Hunk and I's families?
Allura: I guess you have a point.
Katie: Alright. After dinner, we go on to contact Earth.
Lance, Hunk, and Shiro are excited about it.
Allura: Anyways, how's everything going on with Haxus and Sendak's head?
Keith: Haxus is not gonna join us for classified reasons. As for Sendak's head, he still needs to manage to gather his memories so that we could defeat the Galra. Let's just hope that his venom won't sabotage the castle.
Matt: Wait, what?!
Keith: Each Galra from the empire has a venom of its own. If one died, the venom will extract through the system of their enemy or their own, taking control of a ship or base.
Coran: That's scary!
Keith: I know, right?
Shiro: Let's just hope that this venom does not extract through the castleship.
Matt: Let's hope not.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Rose is starting to miss Lance a little bit due to how he will occur with the others.
Just as she finished the dishes, Rachel walked into the kitchen.
Rachel: Mama, you got a video call, and it's from Lance.
Rose's ears perked up when her daughter mentioned the blue paladin.
She goes to the laptop and answers the call.
She soon finds Lance wearing his pajamas while petting Azul.
Lance: Hola, Mama. How are you tonight?
Rose smiled.
Rose: Hola, Lance. I'm fine. It's been a while.
Lance: Mama, we've only been gone for the last couple of days.
The mother chuckled.
Rose: What about you, hijo? How is your day away in space?
Lance: Well, it was a tough job, but we managed to fight together.
Lance told his mother the whole story of what happened while they were away.
Although she is concerned about his decision, she knew that she needs to be proud of him just the way he is.
Rose: That is an amazing trip. Also, did you find out what's in the box along the way?
Lance: I do.
Lance goes to show the grimoire and the medallion.
Lance: Coran told me that it was a lockbox for Altean infants who were sent away from home. He had a spare key to it. What we found inside is a medallion and a blue grimoire which belongs to Azul for future paladins. I don't know how it got there, but at least I tried.
Rose smiled weakly at his son for a moment until someone entered Lance's room.
Hunk: Lance, times up.
Lance: Oh, right. Sorry, Mama, but I gotta go. It's Hunk's turn to see his family.
Rose: Okay. Be careful out there.
Lance: I will.
And soon, the video call ended.
Rose sighed before heading towards the window to see the stars.
Rose: Please, keep him safe.
The next day, the team gathered around Katie's paladin seat on the bridge as her computer started beeping.
Allura: Somewhere inside Sendak's memories we should be able to find the inside information that gives us the key to taking down Zarkon.
Coran: I don't approve of you searching through an enemy's memories.
Allura: I know, but we have to do everything we can to defeat Zarkon.
Shiro: Anything good yet, Katie?
Katie: We were only able to salvage bits and pieces.
Keith: We need something to work with. Right now, we don't even have a decent map of the empire.
Matt: But, your pack infiltrates the empire, right? You are all supposed to have the map.
Keith: How am I supposed to get a map after I lived on a planet that has not been invaded by Galra, twice?
Shiro: If we could just find troop locations or supply routes, small targets we could hit-and-run, then we could start to free planets one by one.
Matt: Boring. I want the big kaboom.
Colleen: Matt!
Shiro: Alfor and Zarkon have been building their empires for 6,000 years. We're not going to tear it down overnight with five inexperienced pilots and one support ship. Hitting them where they live would be a huge mistake.
Katie: Okay, I've cross-referenced Sendak's memories with the info I got from the downed ship back on Arus. Most of it was a garbled mess, but one thing kept repeating, something called a "Universal Station."
Hunk: Universal Station? Like, the kind of station that controls the entire universe?
Katie: Well, we are translating it from Galra, so it could also be "Galactic Hub."
Lance: Or "Space Base"!
Everyone stared at him.
Lance: What?
Coran: I'm pulling up the location of your Universal Hub Station on our screens now.
Coran reopens the map.
Lance: So, where is it?
Coran: I don't know. Our long-range sensors are unable to find anything at those coordinates.
Sam: Maybe he remembered it wrong.
Haxus: Or maybe we just stumbled across a top-secret base in Sendak's memories.
Allura: Only one way to find out. Let's go take a look.
After a long period of searching, they found it.
Allura: We should be close enough to get a good scan, but far enough away to avoid being noticed.
They soon reached a Galra base between two planets.
Shiro: There it is.
Coran: It appears the gravitation between the two planets warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the planet off the deep space scanners.
Kevin: So, you can only see it if you know where to look.
Shiro: This place must handle shipments from all over the Galra Empire.
Matt: If this is some big airport where shipments come and go, why is it hidden?
Shiro: There must be more to this than we're seeing.
Allura: Then, we'd better go down to take a look. We'll need to enter here. The central control building.
Keith: I'm sorry, Princess, did you say "we"?
Allura: I'm going with you. I traveled through the Galra transportation hubs many times with my father before the war began. I know more about them than any of you.
Coran: Princess, I'd rather you stay here.
Allura: I'm a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone. I'm going. Does anyone have a problem with that?
Coran tries to argue as he stammers until Kevin speaks.
Kevin: Princess, I'm afraid that we cannot let you go with us due to Zarkon, and you are holding the key to the lions. If you were caught by accident or mistake, then you are in serious trouble for us to rescue you.
Allura never thought of that.
She needs to find a way to argue with the father of the Galra spy, but it's no use.
Allura: Fine...
Once it's settled, the paladins and Haxus, on Emerald, who is cloaking, head straight close to the central control.
Shiro: We'll go in low, fast, and hopefully undetected. Coming around the dark side of the nearest planet should keep them from getting a visual on us. Thanks to Katie's modifications to Emerald, we'll have 30 seconds of cloaking.
Coran: I can flood their short-range sensors with a radiation burst. That should buy you a minute or so, while they assume it's cosmic interference. But, after that, it's up to you to be out of sight.
Emerald soon lands on the rock formation close to the base.
Once there, they break into the control base and knock the security out, then Katie goes to hack the codes.
Shiro: How's it look out there?
Keith: All clear.
Hunk: This shouldn't take too long.
Katie: We'll have all the information we need in a few minutes. Hunk and I have made some improvements since the last time I tried to download the Galra info. We should get a nice, clean translation immediately. Hunk had a great idea about how to do it.
Keith: Hey, guys, sorry to interrupt, but I think we got company.
Everyone crouched as a ship just landed at the base.
Keith: Think we should get out of here?
Katie: We just need a few more seconds.
Shiro: Stay low. We need this intel.
The communicator is about to open.
Keith: Get down!
The team hastily scatters, ducking under consoles.
The Galra soldier from the communicator seemed confused at the missing security.
Lance: He's still looking. I think he's waiting for a signal or something.
Hunk: I got it.
Hunk uses one of the unconscious robots to give a signal to the soldier.
The soldier seemed suspicious but he decided to call off.
Hunk: Whew.
Lance: Nice job, Hunk.
Hunk: Thanks.
Lance gave him a high five with the arm of the robot.
Katie: Okay, download complete.
Keith: What does it say?
Katie: Nothing. This place doesn't have any useful information. Just a schedule of the ships coming in and out.
Lance: Well, I guess this mission was a bust.
Shiro: Let's get back to the Castle.
Haxus: Hold on. Green Paladin, do you know where that ship is headed?
Katie: Um, it's scheduled to be here for about half an hour, then head off to Central Command.
Haxus: That's where they have the information we need, and I'm going to sneak aboard that ship and get it for us.
Keith: How are you going to get in if you're supposed to be with Sendak?
Haxus: I'm going to inform them that Sendak sends me here to gather something.
Lance: Without a ship?
Haxus: I need to find another excuse.
Keith: I'm coming with you.
Lance: Are you sure? Because the Galras are a bit bigger than you.
Haxus: The Blue Paladin has a point. They will think that I brought a kit to the base.
Hunk: Uh, you guys better hurry up if you want to get on and off before the ship leaves for Zarkon central.
Keith grunts.
Keith: Fine.
Lance: They're in.
The paladins soon watch the Galra spy enter the ship.
Shiro noticed the soldiers carrying containers filled with raw quintessence.
Shiro: What do you think they have in all those giant containers?
Keith: The material is the quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe. Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements. Whereas, it is converted into purple quintessence by druids.
Hunk: Druids?
Keith: Servants of Honerva, their enchanted mistress. See that guy in a robe?
Shiro, Lance, and Hunk spotted a druid with the soldiers.
Keith: That is called a druid.
Lance: What type of Galra are the druids?
Keith shrugged.
Katie: Should we tell the others back at the Castle about it?
Keith: Once Haxus is done, we can go back.
The job is now done, and the team returned to the Castle of Lions without a hitch.
They then reached the bridge where they met Allura.
Allura: Ah, welcome back. Did you get it?
Keith: We got it, but there is something you need to know. It's about the quintessence and the Galra fuel.
The princess stopped in her tracks when she heard those two words.
Allura: Oh... Uh, carry on.
Shiro: We should explain it with the rest.
Sam: What?!
Colleen: Oh my stars!
Kevin: Really?
Matt: So not cool!
Coran: I can't believe it! They've found a new way to acquire quintessence!
After they were gathered, Keith told the information about the quintessence.
Keith: I'm afraid so. They automatically harvest quintessence from other planets to construct fuels for their empire, and keeping their emperor alive.
Kevin: I always knew that the empire is so greedy, but this, this is way too far.
Colleen: Then, what are we gonna do?
Allura: We're gonna stop Zarkon first, otherwise he'll havest every energy from every planet.
Hunk: But, how are we gonna plan it?
Keith: Don't worry. I know someone who could help us.
Lance: Is that person a Galra?
Katie: If it is, then it's a trust issue exercise.
Keith: What? No! She's part Altean!
Everyone: HUH?!?!?!
