Keith watched as the others left. He looked over to the princess. The white-with-a-slight-blue-tinge-haired, bright-pink-face-marked, very alien princess. Aliens. Princess Allura and Coran, were actual aliens. Honest-to-goodness, space-faring, aliens.
Just what the hell had his life come to?
As the ships zipped out of sight, he turned to the two Alteans. For a moment, none of them said a word. These were two people he knew absolutely nothing about, and frankly, he wasn't very good with people in the first place. They said nothing at first either. Taking in the tiniest of breaths, Keith bit the bullet.
"So… Now what?"
Allura looked up at him, a look in her eyes he recognized as sadness-laced curiosity. Coran, on the other hand, looked tired, but much more chipper.
"Well, I'll have to check to see if I can get all systems up and running," he said.
"And I'll stay here on the bridge; see if I can find the Red Lion."
"And me?"
The two looked at him, eyes wide. It seemed that they had momentarily forgotten him. Keith didn't really mind. They were far from the first to forget him, and they certainly would not be the last to do so either.
"Well, Number Four, do you know anything about Altean computers or mechanics?"
"Not really," Keith answered, ignoring the numerical comment.
"Well, then I'm afraid you won't be much help with me. You stay here with the princess and she'll think of something for you to do in the interim."
With that, he bounded off with a skip in his step. Keith turned to the Princess, eyeing her as she scoured the star-map for a trace of the Red Lion.
"How can you understand us?"
"Excuse me?" Allura said with a pause.
Inwardly, Keith began berating himself for being so blunt.
"Uhm… I mean… Well, yeah, how do you understand us? People from my planet haven't had any contact with people from other planets until today."
"Well, Coran and I are equipped with Altean Vocal Translator Technology that automatically assimilates new languages from compatible sources. Are any of your companions equipped with anything similar?"
Keith paused for a split second, thinking back to when he had put Shiro in his bed to sleep the drugs off. He had seen some sort of dot on the back of his right ear, like a piercing; but he had chalked it up to his adrenaline-addled imagination.
"Um… The only possibility is Shiro."
"Ah, well if he does have one, it's likely that the VT used that and assimilated your language into the system. Which is why you can understand us and vice-versa."
"Oh."
"Do you have any other questions?"
"Not right now, no."
With that, she turned back to searching the cosmos. In truth, Keith had hundreds of questions. He had always thought Earth's self-centered philosophy on space was a bit backwards, but he never expected that humans would physically encounter sentient, otherworldly beings in his lifetime. At the very most, he thought he would be an old man by the time they would even communicate. He never thought that strange feeling, that oddness of being drawn somewhere that he didn't understand, would lead him and others to another planet, light-years away from their home star system.
"Actually, Allura…"
"Yes?"
"Do the Lions always call their Paladins?"
Allura stopped. She turned to Keith with a sad look in her eyes.
"Keith… you and the others… are…"
"We are…?"
"You are all the second generation of Paladins to arise."
"…Oh…"
Without another word, Allura went back to her task, and Keith examined each plat with amazement. He had only ever dreamed of the vastness of the universe. To see real charted stars was nothing short of enthralling. Keith watched as she analyzed star system after star system, only to come up empty-handed each time. After several maps, she paused with a sigh.
PRINCESS ALLURA!
The two jolted at the sudden voice, Keith half-ready to jump into a brawl.
"Coran, we can hear you, there's no-need to shout!"
Sorry princess, just checking if the inter-com systems are online.
"Fair enough, have you gotten all secondary systems running?"
Most of them princess... I'm not a technician, remember?
"Well, we're all we've got right now Coran. We have to make it work."
…I know. Well, Princess I've managed to get the hitagbukuqoq-tryk back online.
Keith felt his brows knit in confusion at the peculiar word. He could only guess there was no English equivalent for it and left it at that.
"Thank goodness."
Are you able to check on it Princess?
"No, I still haven't located the Red Lion."
"I can do it."
At his suggestion, Allura turned to Keith with surprise evident on her face. There was something sharp in her eyes that told Keith he had overstepped his boundaries. Grossly surpassed them in fact.
Perfect! Keith, you check on the hitagbukuqoq-tryk, while Allura locates the Red Lion and I'll try to get the castle back up to full capacity!
Coran's voice was gone just as suddenly as it had appeared and the two were left to their thoughts once more. Keith was beginning to regret volunteering, but he simply could not stand around doing nothing while the others were out risking their necks to retrieve the other Lions. And then these two — Allura and Coran; had lost everything and were accepting complete strangers into their midst to try to save the rest of the universe from a similar fate. Even if it was something small, he wanted to help any way he possibly could.
He looked over at Allura pleading with his eyes. After some moments of deliberation, she relented. She instructed him where to find the hitagbukuqoq-tryk and told him what to look for to make sure it hadn't been damaged. Then she clarified that if he got lost or confused to look for a rectangular panel on a corridor wall and press the teal-blue icon and ask for help. Thankfully, he didn't need it. He didn't want to interrupt Allura's search and found the room he was looking for in approximately ten minutes. He pressed the access panel as he'd been instructed and found that it was locked.
He would need the help after all.
Backtracking a few steps, he found the communications panel and pressed the right icon.
"Yes Keith? Are you lost?"
"No, I found the right door, but I can't get in."
"Oh, right. I forgot that it was locked… Well, never mind that now. Give me tick."
After a few minutes of explanation, and then an excessively detailed explanation, Keith understood how to open the door. He thanked the princess and returned to his task. With a few taps on the access panel, the door finally opened. However, the room was completely dark. Keith took a tentative step inside and the room instantaneously lit so brilliantly that he had to shield his eyes for a moment. After a few seconds, he found that the room was filled with floating spheres. He hardly dared to breathe as he wandered through the room, looking at the several thousands, if not millions of bubbles that floated around and above him; almost touching the acutely lofty ceiling, each one levitating steadily upon its own axis.
What exactly is this? Keith thought.
He looked around and found exactly what Allura had sent him to find. Nearer to the center, there was a separately colored set of bubbles. Whereas every bubble was colored a silvery-tinted cyan, these were soft pink with the faintest hint of white almost glowing from them. They all spiraled from the ceiling nearer to the floor and the last ones were level with his face. He tapped the second-to-last one at the very bottom and stepped back. A visage of a woman who looked remarkably like Allura, in a hot pink dress. He couldn't understand what the text that popped up next to her was saying, but he was familiar enough with the markings of text made a tad more significant by a dash between them.
Those were birth and death dates.
He tapped the bubble again and the projection disappeared. Driven by a morbid curiosity, he then turned to one of the blue ones and touched it. Another projection appeared. This one of an older man with dark blue hair. He also had birth and death dates. He tapped it again and moved onto another one. This time a boy seemingly around his age popped up. He also had birth and death dates. He closed the bubble and turned to another. He tapped it and froze when the projection popped up. Standing before him, was a small child, a little girl with brown skin and dark purple hair pulled into twin braids. She couldn't have been any older than nine in Earth years. He fearfully glanced to the side and saw that she had birth and death dates as well. He quickly closed the file and turned to another bubble.
He opened it and instantly wished that he hadn't.
A baby. A tiny baby still swaddled in a soft cloth floated near the excerpt. It was unfairly short, and while Keith couldn't truly read the dates, they looked sickeningly similar. He closed the bubble and left the room, not realizing that he had been running until his back pressed against the shut door. He felt himself take a few shaky breaths trying to steady himself. The whole room… This hitagbukuqoq-tryk was…
It was some kind of cenotaph.
A shrine dedicated to every single Altean who had ever lived, if his guess was right. There were probably millions – maybe even billions of bubbles in that room. Keith felt himself slide down, his legs giving away as he cracked under the realization. The utter horror… He understood when Allura said that their entire solar system was destroyed, but now it seemed more real. Tangible. How many people had died in Altea's destruction? How many families? How many children?
He choked on a sob and began crying, holding himself and shaking.
He recovered after some time wanting to get back to the bridge as soon as possible. He felt like stone as he stumbled back to the bridge. Keith paused outside the door and took a few breaths, wanting to look presentable if nothing else. He finally felt himself stop shaking and let the door to the bridge slide open. He cleared his throat before speaking
"The… hitagbukuqoq-tryk is online…"
"Good, I've located the Red Lion and I'll be recalling the others shortly."
Allura turned to the station to open the wormholes and they shared a glance. Her eyes were filled with grim determination, and Keith began to understand. Whatever war they were about to wage, they had no choice but to win. If they lost, countless worlds could end up lost like Altea.
And they might not have any one or thing to remember them by.