Author's Note:
Hello everyone, and welcome to the second chapter. I probably won't get future chapters out as quickly as this one, but I'm feeling inspired at the moment, so I went with it. Thank you everyone who's followed, favourited and reviewed this story, and I hope you all enjoy the chapter.
I own nothing.
Chapter 2
Lance eyed the equipment around him warily.
After Allura's impromptu response drill (which they apparently failed), Coran and Shiro had whisked him down to the infirmary, saying they wanted to find out why he was mute.
While his limited experience with medicine wasn't bad, Lance remembered how he'd been dragged into 'The System' the one time he'd been in a hospital. This put him on edge, even though he knew that there was no way the others could do that to him here.
Regardless, all Coran did was wave some sort of tool at him and study whatever sciency stuff appeared on its screen. The Altean frowned.
"Now that's not good, no wonder you can't speak if your old voice box is like that." He frantically typed something on the screen, and his frown deepened, "I'm not sure even the cryo-pods can sort this out." He typed some more, then rushed over to another screen which flashed up a load of unreadable symbols and pictures. The man stared intently for some time, then sighed, his shoulders dropping dramatically.
Shiro, who'd been watching quietly, addressed the Altean, "Coran, what is it?"
Coran turned slowly and shook his head gently, "I'm afraid that the problems with Lance's voice are beyond even Altean medicine to fix. As far as his body is concerned, there's nothing to fix, so the cryo-pods won't be able to do anything, they won't heal what they don't think needs healing."
Shiro stared, "What do you mean?"
The older man sighed, "There's no way we can cure Lance's muteness." He looked at the boy sadly, "I'm sorry Lance."
It had been a long, hard day.
Allura pushed them mercilessly, throwing drill after drill at them, harping on and on about how they had to be able to form Voltron and constantly telling them they needed a stronger 'bond' with each other.
Well he'd like to point out that not being able to talk made bonding really difficult.
Of course, lack of speech also made pointing it out really difficult, as well as any form of communication in general. The amount of times one of the others would ask a question or give a comment expecting him to answer, only to remember that he couldn't was ridiculous, and frankly, he was fed up of having to perform some stupid pantomime, just to make a simple request or response.
Living on the streets alone meant he wasn't used to being around people, communicating with them. He wasn't used to having to give answers, ask questions or just generally socialise.
This is probably why he hadn't been that bothered when Coran said there was nothing they could do to cure his muteness. He'd survived without his voice this long, in fact, he never remembered even having it, and while it had definitely been a disadvantage, it'd never been a massive problem for him.
Until today.
Throughout all their drills, his inability to speak had been a clear issue. He couldn't let them know what was happening quickly, and hand signals were useless when he needed his hands to fly his lion or hold his weapon. His non-existent writing ability meant he couldn't communicate that way and yes-no question were too limiting for actual combat situations, especially if the others weren't in a position to see him move his head.
All of it had really brought home just what was happening to him.
Two days ago, he'd been scraping out a living on the streets, his own survival taking priority over everything else. Now, he was living in an alien castle on another planet and piloting a giant, robot lion, despite never having been near even the simplest of planes. At the moment, Blue's guidance in his head was the only way he was managing, but that would only last so long.
He also now had teammates, actual, real teammates. Not people who'd come to a brief, mutually beneficial deal, but real people who he was going to be living alongside for who knows how long. People he had to be able to talk to.
He looked around his room.
That was yet something else he couldn't grasp, he had a room, with a bed, an actual bed. He's never slept in a bed in his life (all he'd had was whatever he could find in some dingy alley) and its softness unnerved him to point he slept on the floor the night before.
The door slid open, causing him to jump (he definitely wasn't used to them), and he glanced up to see Hunk standing awkwardly in the doorway.
"Um, Lance. We need you up on the bridge, me and Pidge have something for you."
Lance tilted his head in confusion, something for him?
He stood up from where he'd been sat on the floor and followed Hunk to the bridge. Things were silent for a while, until the other boy spoke nervously, "So, what a day huh?"
Lance nodded hesitantly, not sure if his companion was expecting some form of response. It seemed to be the right thing to do, because Hunk grinned a little more easily, "But it all worked out eventually, we actually managed to form Voltron. Who'd have thought that it needed a food fight to create the greatest weapon in the universe, but it was fun though?"
Lance frowned, he'd never really considered how fun it was. He wasn't used to having fun, survival had always taken priority in his life, but that food fight hadn't had anything to do with survival. In fact, it'd been entirely pointless at the time, but he'd joined in anyway, maybe because of the others or simply because he was fed up of Allura and Coran at the time and he'd taken the chance to vent his frustrations. Either way, he'd found himself feeling happy as he did so, and though he couldn't laugh, he felt like he was.
After a short pause, he gave a small smile and nodded, causing Hunk to grin, "Knew it, you looked like you were having a great time."
He blinked, Hunk had focused on him at some point during the food fight? He'd have thought the other boy would've been too focused on what was happening to notice his feelings at all.
They reached the bridge and Lance wasn't surprised to see everyone present, what did surprise him was how most of them were smiling at him and Pidge was practically bursting with excitement.
The smallest paladin began speaking the moment he entered, "Lance, you're going to love what me, Hunk and Coran came up with!"
Beside Pidge, Coran twirled his moustache with pride, "Indeed Number 3, its really a genius idea Number 5 came up with, though it was a joint effort to get it working this quickly."
Pidge began to explain rapidly, "You see, since we can't cure your muteness, I began trying to think of a way to help you communicate with us. Of course, it had to be quick since we really don't have much time in the middle of a battle, and it had to work even if we couldn't see you. This cuts out voice replication technology because the human voice is far too complicated to replicate in a machine and takes too long to relay a simple sentence, even with Altean tech, plus it's far too easy to mimic, making it a security risk. Then the headsets from our mind meld exercise gave me an idea, so me, Hunk and Coran fiddled about with one and TA DA!"
He thrust one of the mind headset things towards Lance, and the boy took it in confusion, holding it awkwardly in his hands. Pidge stared at him expectantly, "Put it on."
Slightly bewildered, the boy did as he was told and then held his hands in a 'now what?' gesture.
Hunk rubbed his hands together in anticipation, "Now, answer this question in your head only. What is your name?"
Lance raised an eyebrow, but complied, mentally answering the question.
"Yes, it worked!"
Hunk and Pidge high-fived while Coran twirled his moustache smugly and the others stared in surprise. Lance was baffled, and he tilted his head in confusion.
This only caused Hunk and Pidge to celebrate once again while the rest smiled, confusing him even more. Allura approached him and gave him a mirror.
"Here Lance, look into this and think of something you want to tell us. That'll explain what's going on."
Taking the mirror, Lance looked into it and did as asked, deciding on telling them how confused he was.
Immediately, a curved line running to a dot was seemingly beamed out of the headset in his reflection, telling him it was happening with the real thing. He nearly dropped the mirror in surprise and the symbol instantly switched to a straight vertical line, also running to a dot.
His eyes shot up to the others and Hunk beamed, "You see, we configured the headset to project symbols based on what you're trying to communicate. Since its designed to read your mind, we programmed it to only focus on thoughts you want to communicate to others and then do so via the symbols."
Coran took up the explanation, "Normally, the headset would work with the projectors in the training room, but we installed a small projector in this one and upgraded its internal power source to last longer."
Pidge continued, "We went with symbols because they'll likely be easier for others to understand, especially since Allura and Coran can't read English, so you should be able to communicate to some extent with anyone." He tweaked his glasses, "And now we know that it works, we can upgrade your helmet to have a similar function and get it to flash up what you're trying to tell us on our visor displays. It'll take some time, but I think we can get it linked in to work as well as our comms."
Hunk finished, "Meaning that you don't have to worry about communicating with us anymore!"
Shiro stepped forward and smiled at the three of them, "Good work guys, and impressive considering that you haven't been working on it that long."
Allura nodded, "Agreed, and I'm certain you'll only improve it over time."
Keith finally spoke up, "Well Lance, what do you think?"
Lance grinned, and although he couldn't see for himself, he was certain that the headset was projecting a thumbs-up.
PS- So, Lance can now communicate via a headset that projects symbols, allowing him to communicate without hand signals or mimes. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.