At that time LV was still being pummeled by the robeasts and was still disoriented from the invading noise.
"Alright Voltron, I have a plan to get us out of here but I need to make sure that you are going to listen to me from now on." Keith stated plainly.
"Does it look like I have a choice?" Voltron replied annoyedly.
"Can you hold up until you can get enough power to discharge another sonic roar?" Keith asked.
"As long as the data is still intact and accessible I think I can." Voltron said.
"I need a definite answer, can you or can't you?" Keith yelled in rising anger.
"I can." Voltron replied still unsure of himself.
"Alright then, we will continue with the old plan, this time I want EVERYONE to follow through!" Keith said stressing the point to Voltron.
"That will only confuse one robeast though." Pidge warned. "What will we do with the rest of them?"
"We'll figure that out later. We don't want to give someone a stack overflow!" Keith's witty remark was directed at Voltron.
"I'm going to ignore that comment, because something more important has happened." Voltron stated. "I have lost contact with Castle Control. All communication protocols have completely stopped!"
"Has it been destroyed?" Hunk asked.
"No, it is just offline." Voltron replied. "Oh, and the battery is almost charged. Yes, Keith I did multitask without a so called stack overflow!"
There was a definite feeling in Voltron's voice that told anyone that he was rather ticked off.
"Get off me you losers!" Voltron yelled as he let loose another sonic roar. After that he recalled the original tactic that had been previously loaded into memory. He was free to fly in the air, the red and green lions disconnected and formed the blazing sword.
"Come here!" Voltron said as his detached arms approached the Evil Voltron Robeast. The Evil Voltron could not see the sword coming and was split in half in the typical "Air Voltron" style. The Evil Voltron robeast exploded two seconds later. All the other robeasts looked at what had just happened.
"Alright, who's next!" Voltron shouted wielding his blazing sword slightly overcome by his disorientation but refusing to let it take over. "I
made robeast sushi more than enough times to say that I am quite experienced at it." Voltron continued. "Would anyone else like another demonstration?" The robeasts thought a while. "Well don't go busting a neural circuit over it!" Voltron yelled. The robeasts just stood there. "Well how do you like that!" Voltron thought, take away the ring leader and your stuck with minions with onions for brains,... try saying that five times fast."
The robeasts were starting to back off. "Look, I really am not the robeast destroyer you think I am." Voltron started. "I really don't mind robeasts. I'd hate to destroy you all,... again." the robeasts stopped.
"You can't expect me to just walk up and slice you with the sword, I'm too good for that." The robeasts were now listening intently.
"You guys don't have to follow the orders of Yurak or that Evil Voltron. You have your own personality, your own dreams, your own thoughts, your own brains!... Or at least I think you have your own brains." Voltron continued.
"As far as I'm concerned, you are free. Go live your lives the way you want to live them."
"Hopefully in peace." Keith thought.
The robeasts still stood there some with their heads tilted to the side as if Voltron were speaking in some foreign language.
"This is useless!" Voltron shouted.
One of the robeasts finally stepped forward. "What about Yurak? He'll kill us if we don't obey him."
"Don't worry about Yurak,... leave him to me!" Voltron said. "I was created to defend the innocent. Don't take this too hard, but you robeasts aren't smart enough to be evil."
Keith was now starting to realize what Voltron was trying to do at this time. As surprised as he was no one was more surprised then Voltron when he got the desired reaction.
"Free?" Another robeast asked. All the robeasts started to talk amongst themselves about their newly received freedom. Some scratching their heads as if they had never heard the word before. The robeasts, after a long time of thinking, were cheering as they walked away. As the robeasts walked away they seemed to vanish into thin air. Voltron and the Voltron Force, went back to the castle.
"Well that was creepy." Pidge said. They just vanished.
"I recognized a lot of those robeasts... we fought them before." Keith gave his analysis.
"You mean they are dead robeasts?" Hunk replied with a fearful gulp.
"I didn't think robeasts could become 'spirits'." Lance said. "Does that mean we just did an exorcism on Vehicle Voltron?"
"Please don't say that." Hunk replied with a slightly cowardly voice.
"What's the matter? Did the big old robeast ghosts scare you?" Lance teased.
"Cut it out you two!" Keith commanded.
"So, who are you." Voltron broke into the conversation.
Keith introduced himself first. "I am Keith, captain of the Voltron Force."
"NO!" Voltron gasped sarcastically, "I thought you were the Queen of Altair!"
"Well, you two seem to be getting off on the right foot." Lance quipped.
"Listen, I am the captain here." Keith started, "I give the orders." "All you have to do is follow them!"
"OH! YES SIR! CERTAINLY SIR!" Voltron said with as much anti-enthusiasm as he could muster.
"Oh, goodie. A robot with an attitude." Keith growled.
"I think, we should just forget about the past incident that just happened." Pidge stated.
"I agree." Hawkins started. "Just be glad you aren't under my authority, I have plenty of anti-attitude exercises that I implement for insubordinates."
"I just can't win, can I?" Voltron sighed.
Meanwhile, the castle systems were still dead Coran and the rest of the Vehicle Force team were still standing around in the dark. The control room screen still blinking

SYSTEM INCOMPLETE --- AI NOT FOUND.

Coran is pacing back and fourth in the dark. The emergency lights went on and partial power was restored to basic systems. The screen changed to

SYSTEM RESTART --- ORIGINAL CONFIGURATION.

The castle PA communications clicked.
"Coran, we were able to disengage the previous program. However, weapons and security systems are still offline."
"What about the sensors?" Coran asked to the open air.
"Were working on that right now, sir." The castle guard standing at the PA system turned to the work crew behind him. "Coran needs the sensors online."
The PA clicked again. And the sound was replaced by a buzzing and squealing radio noise with a voice underneath it. Coran walked up to the control console and tried to adjust the signal.
Outside, Voltron was approaching the castle. "This is Voltron to castle control, do you read?"
"What's going on?" Pidge asked.
"The castle's communication protocols have been reset." Voltron said, "I am querying the computer to figure out what happened, but the frequency code has been rotated. I have to contact Coran to get the code so I can access it."
"This is Castle Control,...Please repeat your message." Coran said.
"Adjusting frequency modulation,..." Voltron said. "Castle Control,... do you read."
"This is Castle Control, we can barely hear you through all the static." Coran said over the communication through a lot of static. After Coran was done speaking the static ceased.
"The static is coming from their end." Voltron said immediately.
"Coran, the castle frequency code has changed." Voltron shouted over the static. "I can't get a clear signal without it, could you send it to us?"
There was no response from the castle. For a long time the radio was silent.
"Do you think something happened?" Cliff asked. As soon as Cliff ended his sentence, the radio crackled to life.
"I'm getting the codes now." Voltron reported.
Voltron was soon accessing the control room computer. Voltron had a clear line to the castle control room and that was it. The rest of the system was blocked off.
"Coran, what's going on in there?" Voltron asked annoyedly.
"Vehicle Voltron just tried to download himself into the castle computer system. He locked everything up! The castle main computer was shut down and restarted but now most of the castle's systems are down."
"You had better believe it!" Voltron exclaimed in amazement. "There are so many crossliked files in here it is worse than a jungle!"
"Can you help us?" Coran asked.
"Isn't that what I do best?" Voltron quipped.
Allura couldn't suppress a chuckle.
"When can you get here?" Coran asked.
"I'm already at the castle now." Voltron reported. "As soon as I disassemble and land, I'll get onto fixing the data tables. I'm just glad VV is still around."
And with that, Voltron did as he said. He disassembled, landed and was soon inside the castle computers sifting through data with thewords "Oh, data processing is fun! (with sarcasm)" blinking on the control room screen like a PC screen saver. Keith and the others returned to the control room from the lions, all happy to see everything going as good as it should for the time being.

Voltron deep within the castle computer data stream was looking all around the bits of data flying around. Most of them bouncing around with no where to go. So the data goes crashing into virtual walls. Voltron almost gets clobbered by one flying in his direction.
"Hey watch where you're going!" Voltron shouted as he jumps out of the way and shakes his fist at the flying data bit.
"This will be a load of fun!" Voltron says sarcastically as he hunts for the source of the problem while dodging flying bits.
"If VV attempted to download himself into the computer, the application should be here in its entirety." Voltron says to himself while analyzed the damage. "Now the big question is, where did the castle system route him before it crashed?"
Voltron quietly looks around. With all the misallocated data blocking his view, the search is difficult. But Voltron comes across a data block and places a hand (or lion head) on it and analyzes the data inside. "Well I'll be a robeast's uncle!" Voltron exclaimed. "The File Allocation Tables are still intact." Voltron keeps scanning the block. "If I can find the time the system incorporated VV's application I can find the location of storage, if it wasn't disrupted by the crash." Voltron scanned further. "Hmmm,... What's this?" Voltron read the data and to his surprise it was not what he expected. Voltron starts to laugh. "Allura put her journal in the castle file system?" Nanny would have a fit!"
Voltron stops looking at the personal data about Allura and returns to the task at hand, along the way he gets side tracked again by finding a picture of Allura and her father in Allura's private folder. "I'm sorry Your Highness,... I dropped the ball." Voltron solemnly said to himself. "It was a dirty trick, and I fell for it. Your father's death is my fault." Voltron saved the image into his own data banks and continued with the task at hand. "Stay on task LV." Voltron said to himself. Voltron continues to scan the data and soon he comes across the information he needs. "Here it is,... VV is located on Track 0, Cylinder 0, Sector 0, of the EESD 2?" Voltron contemplated the meaning of the abbreviation. "And it's location,... COM 51, allocation,... 3A0H-89BH." Voltron took his hand of the data block and started hunting down the location of Vehicle Voltron.

Outside the computer, all is going better than it had been in the last few hours. Everyone is exhausted from the ordeal of the attack. And while they all wait for Lion Voltron to find Vehicle Voltron. Most of the two teams gather together, talk about the past, and inform each other of current events. Lisa rejoins Jeff down in the sick bay. With her are Keith, Cliff, Chip, Allura, Pidge.
"So, How's the leg Jeff?" Lisa said almost cooingly. Keith and Allura look at each other recognizing the situation all too well.
"It's getting better, that's all I can say." Jeff almost whimpered. Lisa couldn't help giggling a little.
"What was going on out there Keith? You destroyed another robeast or something?" Jeff asked.
"Well, you could say so." Keith replied. "Were still recovering from the attack."
"How are the repairs coming along on our Voltron?" Jeff asked.
Keith and Allura looked at each other. Lisa was the first to answer. "The repairs have been postponed."
"What for?" Jeff replied with a tone of concern.
"Lion Voltron is still trying to find the Vehicle Voltron system." Lisa answered.
"Didn't they retrieve the data core?" Jeff asked.
Jeff was soon surrounded by looks of confusion. "Data core?" Allura asked. "We only found a master cylinder."
"The master cylinder is where all the log data and applications are housed. The data core is part of the master cylinder, but placed in a different area of the command shuttle. It contains the boot block." Jeff stated. Lisa just looked at him amusedly.
Keith immediately continued where Jeff left off. "Of course! That is the reason why the computer crashed when VV downloaded himself into it." Keith paused a minute. "That's dumb! Who would transfer the system but not the boot block?"
"Galaxy Garrison would." Jeff replied. "Copy protection against the Drules."
"Jeff how did you get so smart all of a sudden?" Lisa asked.
"Well if you ever saw a panel with that sort of information on it before it clobbered you unconscious, you would remember it too." Jeff replied sarcastically.
"So much for copy protection." Lisa quipped.
"You mean that all we have to do is to find the data core and combine it with the transferred system and VV will be running again?" Keith asked.
"That's right." Jeff said.
Keith suddenly jumped at Jeff with her hands around his throat. "Why didn't you tell us this earlier!" Allura yelled.
Jeff yelped in pain as Keith's attack caused the support for Jeff's broken leg to shift violently.
Allura grabbed Keith and pulled him off of Jeff. Lisa steadied the wavering leg.
"What's your problem Keith?" Jeff asked annoyedly and in severe pain.
"I sent Pidge out there to pick up the master cylinder. If I would have known this information earlier none of this might have happened." Keith yelled.
"Gee Keith, I'm sorry, but I wasn't faced with a situation that would help me remember it until now." Jeff replied defensively.
"Jeff, you wouldn't know you had shot yourself in the foot until someone told you." Keith quipped. Lisa couldn't suppress a small giggle. Jeff glared a Lisa, "Who's side are you on, anyway."
"It's true Jeff. Sometimes you can be so daft." Lisa giggled.
"Okay, enough!" Jeff shouted. "Let's stop commenting about my swiftness or lack thereof and start talking about the repairs on Vehicle Voltron."
"Alright, we'll stop picking on you, for now." Lisa said softly.
"Now we got to go back out and find the data core." Keith sighed wearily.
"Listen will talk about physical repairs later, Jeff." Keith said as he started to leave. Allura waved and exited quietly behind him.
"Keith? Are you all right?" Allura asked as she darted in his path.
"I'm fine Princess." Keith said shrugging off the question.
"Don't give me that! I know you better than you think, you can't avoid me! I know there is something wrong, so what is it?" Allura stated clearly in a sudden fit of anger.
"Calm down, Allura." Keith said as he walked on by her. Allura stamped her foot and in a flurry was off in the opposite direction with a huff of temporary contempt.

LV still in the castle computer found EESD 1 and was now scanning the data inside. As he entered, he found himself faced with himself. His other self was lying in a corner lifeless like a marionette. LV studied his other self. He then picked up one of the arms and the dropped it. It fell to the ground lifeless. Voltron accessed his other self and found the reason why. It was a slightly outdated image file of hisdatabase that gets updated every time LV would go into power save.
"I guess you're here in case I bite the dust right?" LV said to himself. His other self did not respond.
"I figured as much." LV said and then exited EESD 1. He then looked down the data table and found EESD 2 and an EESD 3 and 4 as well as an inactive link to a non-existing EESD 5. LV stood there looking at all the links. "It seems that Alfor planned for more than two Voltrons." He briefly went to check EESD 3 and 4. Seeing that the databases were empty, he exited from them quickly. "It also seems that Alfor never got the chance to create them or use them if he did." LV thought to himself. LV entered EESD 2 and low and behold VV was sitting in the corner, much like he found his other self in EESD 1.
"Ha! Ha! I have found you!" LV shouted. VV just lay there. LV repeated is action of picking up VV's arm and letting it drop to the ground. LV then started to access VV's system. After a few minutes of searching LV found the problem. "There's no boot block!"
"You load your brain into the castle system and you forget to bring your spine?" LV shouted at the unconscious VV. "What kind of idiotwould do such a thing?" LV scanned further and found the Galaxy Garrison command protocols. "Wait a minute, what is all this extra data for?" LV looked at all the binary coding and noticed a whole bunch of ones and zeros that had no place to go when the file was finished. "I don't get it, this system seems to be all misconfigured." LV analyzed sifting through the miscellaneous data. LV also found an extensive Artificial Intelligence Operating System that was disabled in all the command protocols.
LV was soon busy analyzing the data he collected for use in a jumpstarter program to replace the boot block. The only problem was that VV would be accessing LV's boot block to start up on. In just a few minutes LV had the program debugged and compiled. LV initialized the jumpstarter program. A window opened next to him with all the fields that he needed to place the data in. Once he got the necessary system info and location within the computer, LV crossed his fingers and started the program. Instantly VV made one violent convulsion and his yellow robotic eyes lit up.
"VV?" LV asked hoping to get an answer. VV did nothing except stare into space. LV accessed VV's system again and was able to find the log files of past missions, but it was harder to access the AIOS. It was at the time that LV started to access the AIOS that he saw a spark and then a window opened up with an AVI movie-like picture playing in it. The window was playing a mission log file, the last mission before VV ended up here. VV then turned his head to face LV. VV said nothing before deactivating again only a flash of light appeared above him. "Wait a minute, VV." LV said trying to get VV back. LV tried again using more power, this time the VV's eyes lit up a little brighter and then another flash above his head but the flash revealed a window with a red blotch in the middle it was only there for an instant. Within a few seconds VV faded back into unconsciousness. "Come on, come back!" All of LV's efforts weren't working. "I don't understand, it is like VV is speaking some unknown computer code." LV scanned VV's system again but the system told him nothing. LV soon found Professor Page listed in the Explorer manifest. LV soon exited the EESD 2 and was now on his way out of the system.

Exiting the system, he was transformed into his holographic image in which he could interact with those in the castle and on the castle grounds. Walking through a winding maze of corridors he entered the control room. Coran was at the controls.
"Coran, I need you to contact the Explorer, and tell them to send Professor Page here." Voltron commanded.
"Voltron, did you find anything?" Coran asked getting up from his seat.
"I found out a lot, but I don't understand it all." Voltron started. "VV showed me something, and then crashed." A small pause silenced the room.
"I will contact Professor Page." Coran said as he went back to the control console slowly.
"Is something wrong Coran?" Voltron asked looking at Coran with some concern.
"No, Voltron. I am fine." Coran paused. "It's been so long since you have been in your holographic form."
"Please don't remind me, just get Page here now. I have a question for him." Voltron stated very gruffly then retreated into the computer system again.
Keith walked through the corridors to find Pidge and Hunk. Both were in their room playing a game of chess. Pidge had just finished a odd move and Hunk just sat there looking at the board and then looking back at Pidge over and over again. "I can't believe you made that move Pidge, you just put yourself in check." Hunk stated flatly. "I did not." Pidge argued. "Look at the board, Pidge. Tell me what you see?"
Hunk asked rhetorically. Pidge scanned the board quickly. It took him a while to see his mistake. "I don't see anything,... oh." Pidge meekly retreated in his argument. Keith interrupted the issue. "Pidge, Hunk, get to your lions, we have to go find another piece of equipment from the Vehicle Voltron wreckage."
"I thought we had what we needed already." Pidge replied somewhat irked.
"We have to find a 'boot block' for the Vehicle Voltron system." Keith answered also somewhat irked. "You mean that there wasn't one in the original programming?" Pidge asked now somewhat astonished at the stupidity of it all.
"Nope." Keith answered simply then motioned the both of them to get going. Both Pidge and Hunk got up from their game of chess and followed Keith to the control room.
When all three of them approached the control room they noticed Coran talking to Capt. Newly on the damaged Explorer.
"Voltron requested that you have Professor Page come to the castle." Coran stated bluntly.
"Voltron?" Newly replied in a vague surprise. "May I ask why?" Newley asked.
"I don't know, all he told me was that he spoke to Vehicle Voltron, and then V. Voltron crashed." Coran started. "Our Voltron had no idea what caused it, he didn't seem to happy either."
"Did you just say he spoke to Vehicle Voltron?" Newley blurted.
"Yes, and Vehicle Voltron only showed Voltron a grouping of symbols." Coran finished.
"I'll send him there immediately." Newley said and then the communicator shut off.
Coran sat back in the chair and the turned to see the three Lion Force members waking toward the control center.
"Coran, we need to go find the boot block for Vehicle Voltron." Keith stated plainly as he went to push the button that raised the control center for access to the lion ships.
"I think that is a good idea, but you will need to stay out there for a while to maintain scans. With our scanners down we have no way of knowing what is coming our way." Coran added.
"Ok." Keith said as the button was pushed and the control center rose to reveal the elevators to the lion ships. Keith, Pidge and Hunk entered the elevators. Within the next five minutes they were in their lions ready to go except for,... Voltron. Inside the castle computer Voltron was in power save until he heard a small beep enter his head.
"Huh?..." Voltron woke up from his sleep and saw a translucent window appear before him sectioned into three parts. Three lions were activating, but they couldn't until Voltron was in them.
"Oh! I'm needed." Voltron rushed through several links and conduits before reaching the destination.
"I'm here! I'm here!" Voltron said as he rushed to access the lion systems.
"Well it's about time!" Keith quipped. "What took you so long?"
"I was in power save until Prof. Page could get to the castle. I didn't have any other things on my task list." Voltron explained.
"So you were sleeping on the job, weren't you?" Keith accused harshly.
"Yeah, so, that's what computers do when they don't have anything better to do." Voltron said in an aggravated tone. "What do you do when you are bored, Complain about it?" Voltron asked.
"Now listen here!" Keith started. "I'm the captain and I can write you up for insubordination!"
Voltron laughed, "Insubordination? I'd show you insubordination but now isn't the time for it."
"Will you two shut up?" Pidge yelled over the intercom. "It's evident that you two are having social problems, but could you please keep the abuse on the ears to a minimum?" Both Voltron and Keith were silent for a few minutes.
"Let's go." Keith said as the Black Lion charged up for flight.
"Keith, systems check out. You are ready for launch,... at your leisure, sir." Voltron annunciated clearly.
"Now isn't the time to restart this Voltron." Keith replied. "Alright team launch lions!"
Green Lion launches from its giant tree hiding place at the same time that the Yellow Lion launches from the sand lion statue in the desert.
Black Lion launches from the pedestal in front of the castle bridge.
"Keith,..." Voltron said now trying to get his attention.
"Now what?" Keith said with some fatigue.
"I'm detecting a few ships in the long range scanners." Voltron replied in a serious tone placing his data in a window on Keith's monitor.
"Did you identify them yet?" Keith asked.
"No, not yet, I'm still scanning them for their signal." Voltron replied.
"Do you think they could be from Planet Doom?" Pidge asked.
"They could be, but that is why Voltron is making sure. Right Voltron?" Keith asked.
"Affirmative." Voltron replied.
"So the sooner we find Vehicle Voltron's boot block, the better." Hunk stated.
"Unfortunately, that may not be the case." Voltron said. "We may find the boot block but it may be damaged beyond repair, or we may not find it at all."
"And even if we do find it, Vehicle Voltron would not be able to help us at all." Keith continued, "VV is still strewn all over the crash landing site in less than good condition."
"If Haggar were still alive we could get Vehicle Voltron back in action." Hunk said depressed.
"There's still the young Haggar left." Pidge said. "There might still be hope."
"Keith,... I have even worse news." Voltron solemnly said.
"Uh Oh, Doom ships?" Keith asked.
"Affirmative, only four but they have robeasts in the cargo bays." Voltron replied.
"Not more robeasts!" Pidge said.
"Voltron, the situation does not look good." Keith said. "Are you up to this? You took quite a beating last time."
"I don't think we have a choice in this matter." Voltron said looking to the sky.

TO BE CONTINUED...

VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE and the title GALAXY GARRISON are the property of World Events Productions (copyright 1984,1997-2000 All rights reserved.) and Toei Animation. If any information is wrong or missing please let me know and I will correct the problem as soon as I can. More details in Acknoledgements section.