Oh look, it's chapter ten, the big double digits! In this chapter, a pair of aliens call home, Keith and Pidge are promoted on the Coran height scale due to absence of taller paladins (enjoy it while it lasts), and Matt teaches the Alteans a bit about Earth culture. Fun for the whole family!

cosmic dust

chapter ten

home planet

"What the- it was on Earth the whole time!?"

"Oh no, no, it's not just on Earth." Matt interjected- and she didn't miss the way he tried to reach for glasses he no longer had. "I recognize those coordinates. Not only is the blue lion on Earth, it's also on Garrison property."

"You have got to be kidding me." Keith's tone was curt, yet somehow, endlessly exasperated.

Which honestly? Same. Of all the luck.

"What is this... Garrison?" Allura broke in, equal parts confusion and curiosity lacing her voice. "Is it a bad thing that the blue lion is there?"

"That, your highness, is a loaded question." Pidge spoke up, letting out a deep sigh. "To be it in simple terms, the Galaxy Garrison is a space exploration program funded by the American government."

"What is... American?" Allura asked.

"It's the country we come from." Matt supplied.

"Your planet still has separate countries?" Coran asked. "How quaint."

"Could we not negotiate with this Galaxy Garrison for the release of the blue lion?" Allura inquired. "If it truly is in their possession, as you say."

"Well I don't know if it's in their possession, exactly." Matt told her. "The Galaxy Garrison is located at these coordinates, sure, but they own like, a huge swath of land out in the desert in that area, most if it undeveloped. It's possible it's just hidden somewhere in that area like the green lion was."

"Not too many people go out that way."

And that was Keith. Blinking, Pidge spared him a glance, just in time to watch him flinch, realizing that he had supplied them with more back story than he'd meant to.

That Keith was familiar with the Galaxy Garrison was known to her- had been, ever since the morning after she'd first met him. He knew enough about the Garrison to know that they would have an interest in an extraterrestrial life form such as himself, and knew enough about them to know that their probe feeds were supposed to be classified.

But this... frowning, she couldn't help but note that it hinted at a deeper level of familiarity with the Galaxy Garrison than she'd first thought. And man, did she want to ask about that, but instead she bit her tongue, fighting the urge.

"Matt's right, they might not." Pidge told her. "But if the Garrison does have it... that could make things pretty complicated."

Keith let out a faint snort behind her, and she was pretty sure he rolled his eyes. "That's an understatement."

"I'm sensing there's a bit of a history here." Coran mused.

"Oh, there's history alright." Pidge told him. "Allura, you know how I told you that I came out here to find my family, right?"

"Yes, of course." Allura said, nodding her head, a look of understanding dawning across her face. "Oh, I see. Did they work for this... Galaxy Garrison?"

"Me and dad did." Matt told her. "We were on a mission that took us to the near edge of our solar system when the Galra found us."

"The Garrison covered it up." Pidge informed her. "Said it was pilot error, that the entire crew died in a crash. Guess they didn't want the general public to know about alien invaders."

"Oh yes, I see." Allura said, her brow furrowing. "I feel as if I am beginning to understand the problem. But surely if we made it clear that we are in no way connected to the ones who took your family, they would be more than willing to negotiate with us."

"We were known for being quite the diplomats, back in our day!" Coran remarked, stroking his mustache. "I'm sure Allura can still pull off the old charm."

Another snort escaped from Keith, this one almost sounding bitter. "You're a lot more likely to end up as test subjects that way."

Allura froze at those words. She must have suspected the same thing she did- that Keith's non-Galra parent was likely human, and therefore, automatically gave his words on the matter more weight than any other.

"Yes, I would... quite like to avoid that." Allura frowned. "It is easy to forget that your civilization has had no," and her frown deepened, gaze lingering on Keith for the span of a moment, "...public contact with interstellar life."

Smooth, Pidge thought, her gaze flicking back towards Keith. He hadn't missed the implication of her words, but he merely took it with an arched brow. He might not talk about it, but he'd never exactly denied his apparent connection to the human race.

"I think we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves, though. Like I said before, Matt might be right." Pidge said. "I think the first thing we need to establish is whether or not the blue lion is actually in Garrison hands, and then we can work out a plan from there."

"Yes, I agree." Allura said, nodding her head. "As this is your home world, perhaps it would be wise to leave the bulk of the planning up to the three of you. You would have cause to know it better than I."

Three, Pidge noted. Yep, she definitely suspected.

Nor did Keith protest, which confirmed a lingering suspicion of hers- that he'd likely been born on Earth.

"Wait, so... just checking here." Holding up a hand, Matt cut into the conversation. "Just to be sure, this means we're going back to Earth, right?"

Allura blinked, then slowly inclined her head. "Yes."

Letting out a loud whoop, Matt practically beamed from ear to ear. "You hear that Katie? Back home! Back to... oh man, oh man, I can see mom again, and Bae Bae, and I can... Earth, Katie- Earth!"

Unable to help herself, Katie returned his grin- she couldn't help it, there was something about it that was almost infectious. Hell, she could even make out the edge of one pulling at the corner of Keith's lips.

Even if it was tinged with the knowledge that the reason was he was so excited about it was because he'd been away from home for so long- and not by choice, either. There had probably been a time when he thought he might never be able to return home, that he was doomed to rot away inside of a Galra prison cell.

"Speaking of your mom, we should probably contact her." Keith piped up. "Princess, is there any way we can boost a long range transmission with this Castle of yours?"

Frowning, Allura turned her focus on the Altean man at her side. "Coran?"

"Yes, I believe so." Coran mused, thinking it over for a moment. "We should be able to use the Castle's spires in order to do so, but it may take some work."

"I already built a device that's capable of receiving long range transmissions from Earth." Pidge told him. "Do you think we could use that to speed things up?"

"I believe so, Number Three." Coran beamed, adding, "I've got you all ranked by height."

Twitching at that, she fought back the urge to make a smart remark. So far this Coran was proving to be a bit eccentric, and she couldn't decide if it was in a good way or not. "Great. I'll go ahead and get it from the ship."

"You need a hand?" Keith asked.

"Please." She said. "I don't know where you hide all that muscle, Keith, you're as scrawny as I am."

"It's the malnutrition." Keith joked. "Without it, I'd probably be like, seven feet tall by now."

"Ugh, I hate that's like... a real possibility with you." Scrunching her nose, she fell into step behind him. "You ever get that tall, I'm gonna kick your Galra ass."

Just at the edge of her hearing, she could hear Matt whisper smallra- and judging from the twitch of Keith's ears, not to mention the glower he shot back at her brother, he could too. Locking eyes with him, he promptly stuck out his middle finger.

Matt, for his part, gasped.

"Keith!" He said, placing a hand over his chest, mock offense in full swing. "In the presence of a princess, no less!"

To that, Keith merely lifted up his other hand, sticking out his other middle finger.

"You should be resting, princess."

Ah yes, he knew that smile. It was the one she wore whenever she was trying to deny something. "I am fine, Coran."

He'd already sent their guests away- off to get something to eat, which, judging from the sound of the small one's stomach, they all sorely needed. Calibrating the long range transmitter to reach the distant planet of Earth would take quite some time, though the receptor that the small one had brought him would save quite a bit of it.

"If you say so, princess." Coran frowned. "Still, I never thought I'd see the day we were working together with space pirates to reform Voltron." Letting out a faint chuckle, his frown flickered into a half smile. "King Alfor would be quite amused by this turn of events, I suspect."

"Yes, father likely would." Allura noted.

He sensed she wanted to say more.

"Coran," she began, "-why was I not on board the Castle?"

"Your father thought it too dangerous." Coran told her. "You are the key to Voltron's whereabouts. If Zarkon found you together with the Castle and the black lion, he could have used you to track down the rest of the lions as well."

It was a good plan- though it would seem it hadn't worked out entirely as well as King Alfor had hoped. From the sound of it, Allura's cryopod had been discovered, and by the Galra Empire, no less. He could only be grateful that the ship she was on board had been intercepted before it could reach Zarkon.

To think that he still lived... disturbing news indeed.

"You were hidden away in one of our ancient temples." Coran told her. "After that, I landed the Castle here on Arus, and put myself into cryosleep. I always did hope you would come one day, to wake me."

"Well here I am." Allura told him, her tone soft. "You do not know how happy I was to see you, Coran."

"Ah, and me you, princess." Coran told her, sparing a glance back towards her. "But space pirates, eh?"

"Yes." Allura noted, lifting her brows. "That came as a surprise to me as well- Keith especially."

Ah yes, there it was. The proverbial yalmor in the room. It hadn't been stated directly, but it was hard to miss the fact that he was some kind of Galra hybrid- likely mixed with Earthling blood, based on the companions he kept.

"Ah now, he doesn't seem like a bad lad." Coran told her. "A bit crass, perhaps. We will not be repeating that rude Earth gesture he made any time soon."

That earned him a faint laugh- ah yes, there it was. She'd always had the most wonderful laugh- just hearing it had been able to brighten his day. It had all but disappeared when the war first began, with Zarkon's betrayal running so deep.

A shame it didn't last, the contemplative look returning to her features. "Still, he is half Galra, and however likely it is that he was raised by his Earthling parent, I cannot simply forget that fact. And to think he possess father's lion, no less."

"Do you think that the red lion could have made a mistake?" Coran asked, not believing it himself.

"I-" Her gaze downcast, she shook her head. "No. It is just... difficult to accept. But he does seem to loathe the Galra Empire near as much as I do, so perhaps I can use that as something of a common ground."

"I'm not sure your father would approve of using mutual hatred as a starting ground for a relationship." Coran observed.

"I suppose not." Allura told him, her head once more lifting, giving him a weak smile. "But his bond with the red lion is true, so I do not wish to risk driving him away."

"I'm sure you'll manage." Giving her a smile, Coran paused in his work. "Now you really should get some rest, Allura. I know you're just as anxious as anyone to reform Voltron, but you look exhausted."

For a moment, it looked as if she was going to protest again- before she instead let out a faint sigh. "Very well, Coran. Perhaps I do need a bit of sleep."

"Good." Nodding his head, Coran sounded pleased. She could be an awfully stubborn one, Allura could. She got that from her mother, bless her soul. "Goodnight, princess."

"Goodnight Coran."

"I cannot believe you left me to explain the intricacies of flipping people off to a pair of aliens."

"I can't believe there's nothing to eat on this castle-ship other than food goo." Pidge observed, taking a spoonful of the said goo, making a small grimace at it.

"Still better than what they serve you in Galra prison." Keith said, taking a bite of his own without so much as blinking. "I can't believe we're eating ten thousand year old food."

"...wow Keith, I was actually enjoying this meal before you said that." Matt told him, shooting him a glare.

"You're welcome." Keith told him, taking another bite of his food goo. "So how long did Coran say it'll take to rig up the long range transmitter?"

Absently swirling her spoon in her food goo, Pidge frowned. She had wanted to stick around the bridge and help- she'd been the one to build that long range receptor, but Coran had shooed her off of it the moment her stomach growled. "A few vargas, at least. And then we'll have to wait a few more for it not to be a totally obscene hour on Earth."

"Yeah, I can't really recommend waking mom up at like, three in the morning." Matt said, his expression speaking to his personal experience in the matter. "Not a good life choice."

"Excited to finally talk to her again?" Pidge asked.

"You know it." Matt told her, letting out an almost dreamy sigh. "You know, Te-Osh actually offered to take me back to Earth when she first freed me. But without dad..."

Trailing off, he shook his head, giving his sister a rueful smile. "Couldn't do it without dad."

"I wish we could be bringing dad home too." Pidge told him. "But who knows? Maybe this whole paladin thing will help us find him."

"Hope so." Matt said. "That's so cool though, Pidge. I mean, you, a paladin? A defender of the universe? I always knew you were destined for great things, sis."

"Aw, you're just trying to butter me up." Unable to help herself, Pidge grinned. "Who knows? Maybe one of the other lions will respond to you."

"Oh man, I wish." Contemplating his ten thousand year old food goo for a moment, Matt shrugged his shoulders, shoving his spoon in and taking another bite. "I'd love to form a giant robot together with the two of you."

"How do you think the giant robot thing works anyways?" Keith asked, arching a brow. "Do we just like... stack on top of each other or something?"

"No clue." Pidge admitted. "Do you think we could like, form a pair of arms right now and start punching Galra cruisers out of the sky?"

"Oh man, that'd be so cool." Matt said. "Do you think the two of you will like, become space famous?"

"Well we're already space infamous, so," Keith shrugged, "...space famous would probably be an improvement."

"Mm." Arching her brows, Pidge leaned forward. "On that note, I checked our bounties while I was helping Coran, and holy shit, Keith- you seriously need to take a look at yours."

"Nope." Holding up a hand, Keith shook his head. "I'm better off not knowing how much I'm worth at this point."

"Suit yourself." Pidge said. "Matt, you'll be pleased to know that you are now listed as being among our crew, so welcome to the life of a space pirate slash paladin of Voltron."

Letting out a snort, Keith raised a brow. "Somehow I don't think the princess would be all that hot on your choice of phrasing, Pidge."

"I mean... she's not wrong." Matt pointed out. "Cause right now we've only got the two of you, and you're both wanted space pirates, so... yeah."

"Hm." Tilting his head, Keith frowned. "Fair point."

"Anyways, I don't know about the two of you," Matt told them, getting to his feet, "...but I'm going to try and get a bit of shut eye. Want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed when I talk to mom."

"Don't say that around the Alteans, they'll think you actually have one." Pidge warned him, only half joking. "But ugh, you're probably right. I could use a nap... and a shower, maybe."

Now that she'd gotten some food in her, she couldn't help but feel more than a little exhausted. Come to think of it, she hadn't slept since they first arrived at the way station, and that felt like... god, that probably was over a day ago now.

Time in space was weird.

"Shower sounds good." Keith observed.

"What, no nap?" Matt asked.

"Not tired." Keith told him, barely so much as sparing him a glance. If she noticed the way she looked at him, he didn't acknowledge it. "Want me to wake you when Coran is done?"

Narrowing her eyes, Pidge cast a suspicious glance at him. "Better not be with the alarm system."

"Not even my ship." Keith told her, not even having the decency to pretend to look like he was offended at the insinuation he would do such a thing. "Don't think they'll let me play with the alarms."

Somehow, she didn't feel all that convinced.

'"Number Two offered to help me test out the alarm system!" Coran had told her, after she practically sprinted to the bridge, blaring alarms startling her awake.

Keith, for his part, merely lifted his hand in greeting, not looking the least bit guilty over his actions. He was slouched back in a chair that had most definitely not been there before, illuminated on the side by glowing red panels.

She'd get him for this someday.

"So, that said, I got that long range transmitter up and running for you, Number Three!" Coran all but chirped. "With this, you should be able to send a transmission to your Earth."

"Great, thanks Coran." Pidge told him, her gaze flickering back towards Matt, who was still making the shift from not a real emergency to I can't believe Keith just did the thing he said he wouldn't do.

Ah, he had much to learn.

"I imagine this will be a rather personal call, so if you would like, Coran and I can leave the bridge until you are done." Allura offered. "I am sure you have much that you wish to say to your mother."

"Thanks, Allura." Casting a faint smile towards her, vaguely grateful for her consideration, she caught Keith's eye again. "And you. Stop slouching and come over here. Mom'll want to talk to you too."

Lifting his brows, Keith merely shrugged his shoulders, getting to his feet. Folding his arms in front of his chest, his face was a noncommittal mask.

"Right, so you touch this to start the transmission," Coran told her, indicating which button on the screen to press, "...and this one to end it. It's already set up to go to the corresponding device, so you don't need to worry about any of that."

"Got it, thanks Coran." Pidge told him.

Watching as the pair of Alteans left, Pidge turned back to the screen, drawing in a long breath. Her gaze flickering over towards Matt, she paused for a moment, standing up on her toes and grabbing him by the shoulders.

"Hide." She told him, trying to push him down.

To his credit, Matt only blinked for the span of a second- before giving her a sage nod. "What's my cue?"

"Two fingers." She told him, watching as her brother sunk down, until he was hidden by the control panel. "Then you'll spring out and give mom a real surprise. Keith, try not to telegraph Matt's location."

He let out a faint snort at that, catching the joke. Like he could telegraph anything with his eyes.

Drawing in her breath, her hand hovered for a moment over the button, before she let it out, giving it a press. It took a moment, the old castle-ship needing to warm itself up, but before long, it came through for her, leaving a very startled image of her mother on the other side of the screen.

"Katie!" Colleen seemed to blink. "I didn't think you could call me!"

"We got a bit of help with that." Pidge told her, giving her a small grin. "Nice to see you, mom."

"Nice to see you too, Katie." Her mother said, a fond smile on her face. "And you as well, Keith. Are you... are the two of you in a different ship?"

"Oh, we're definitely in a different ship." Pidge told her, the small grin giving way to an impish one. "And we've got like, so much to tell you mom."

So much, Keith mouthed.

"Well I'm all ears." Colleen told her.

"Great. Then let me start off," shifting a bit to the side, she showed two fingers behind her back, Matt taking that as his cue to spring up, "...with this!"

"Ta-da!" Spreading out his hands, Matt beamed from ear to ear. "Hey there, mom!"

"Oh-!" Her hands flying to her mouth, for a moment, their mother's eyes were overwhelmed with tears- happy ones, she didn't miss. "Matt, honey, it's you!"

"It's me!" Matt said. "Pidge found me! Or well, we kind of found each other actually, it's a funny story, not like funny ha-ha, but you know... we broke into the same ship together without knowing it so yeah, maybe it is actually kind of funny, in a way?"

"Oh this is such wonderful news." Colleen said- and she could have sworn that in that instant, her mother looked happier than she had seen her in a long time. "I'm so glad... so glad to see you, Matt, I thought..."

"Aw mom, don't cry." Matt said. "I'm alright. I didn't even spend that long in Galra jail."

"Some rebels broke him out, apparently." Pidge supplied. "He's been working with them ever since."

"Are they around?" Colleen asked, almost seeming to search behind them, trying to see if there was anyone else lurking just off screen. "They saved my son, I really have to thank them."

"No, we kind of split ways. It's a long story." Matt told her. "But maybe someday I'll get the chance to introduce Te-Osh to you. You'd like her, mom, she's cool."

"We still haven't found dad yet, though." Pidge told her, and though she tried not to, she couldn't keep her expression from faltering. "But we'll keep looking."

"I'm sure you'll find him." Colleen was quick to assure her. "If anyone can do it, it's you, Katie."

Giving her mother a smile, she tried to assure herself of that. "There's actually something else we need to talk to you about."

"We're coming back to Earth." Keith cut in.

"Wow Keith, way to steal the good part." Matt observed, shooting him a look- to which the half Galra merely shrugged.

"Well that is wonderful news." Colleen remarked. "When?"

"I'm not sure on the details yet." Pidge told her, shaking her head. "We'll have to work some things out with Allura and Coran. They're the ones who own this ship. That's a long story too, but we'll save it for when we see you in person."

"Of course." Colleen told them, nodding her head. "What can I do to help?"

"You remember the lake house?" Pidge asked. "We'll need to land in someplace secluded, because you know, alien spaceship and all that."

Nodding her head in understanding, Colleen let out a faint hum. "Let me check what flights are available."

Moving away from the monitor for a moment, her mother reached for her phone, taking a few minutes to check for flights. "It looks like there's one in about two hours that I can catch if I hurry. How many people will I need to prepare it for?"

"At least five." Keith told her. "Probably. Do you think Allura and Coran plan on coming down with us?"

"You know, we really should have asked." Matt noted. "Probably the princess?"

"Princess?" Colleen blinked. "I- are you planning on bringing royalty to the lake house?"

"Well, alien royalty, but yeah, I guess." Pidge said, giving her a shrug of her shoulders.

"In that case, you'll need to give me a whole day, at least, to clean." Colleen told her. "I can't have royalty come to a house that's covered in dust! Oh, and I'll need to get out the fine china that my grandmother gave me on my wedding day, oh and the silver-!"

"Mom, it'll be fine." Pidge reassured her. "I don't think Allura's that much of a stickler for formalities."

"She may not be, but I am, young lady!" Colleen told her. "So you give me that day, unless your business is so urgent that it can't possibly wait."

"Well I guess... it's not?" Pidge frowned, exchanging a glance with Keith and Matt.

Keith shrugged. "S'not like the Garrison could even get into the blue lion if they tried."

He had a point. Turning back to her mom, who had merely inclined a brow at that exchange, Pidge gave her a nod of her head. "Alright, we'll meet you at the lake house. We'll contact you when we're in the neighborhood so we can refine our exact landing plans."

"And by neighborhood, she means the same solar system." Matt supplied. "Space travel is like, a whole 'nother scale out here."

"I suppose I'll have to put the transmitter with my checked luggage, then." Colleen noted. "I don't think airport security would be all that wild about me lugging it on the flight with me."

"Plans thwarted by the TSA." Keith seemed to mutter underneath his breath.

"Sounds like something they would do." Matt agreed.

Pidge merely let out a snort, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "Then, we'll work things out on our end, mom. We'll call again later."

"Alright, sweetie." Colleen told her. "It will be so good to see you again. All of you."

The last part, she sensed, was directed at Keith, who let his gaze flicker away.

"It'll be good to see you too, mom." Pidge told her. "I love you."

"I love you too, Katie." She said. "Look after your brother for me. Keep Keith out of trouble."

"One of those two is like, physically impossible, but I'll do my best." Pidge promised, ignoring the marked glower Keith shot her way. "We'll see you soon, mom."

"Love you, mom!" Matt added.

"Love you too, sweetheart." Colleen told him.

"Then, we're going to go." Pidge told her, her hand hovering over the end transmission button. In truth, she wanted to talk with her longer- she always did. Even knowing that they would see each other soon, in person, at that, the feeling didn't change.

"Take care."

Nodding her head, she drew in a breath, hitting the button to end the transmission. As the screen flickered away, she let it out, letting her shoulders slump.

"You want me to give you two a moment?" Keith asked, glancing between them.

"No, I'm- we're fine." She told him, shaking her head. "Let's get Allura and Coran. We've got a ton to discuss."

"So this... lake house of yours is isolated enough for us to land at without drawing attention?"

After calling Allura and Coran back into the room, they had directed them to the lounge, noting that it would be a far more comfortable location in which to converse than the bridge. They had all settled in a circle on the couches- the Alteans on one side, and the humans- and half human- on the other.

Keith hadn't denied Earth being his home planet, so she was going to take that as an indication that her long held theory was in fact, correct. He was human- at least, partly.

"Maybe not the Castle, but one of the lions, sure." Pidge told her. "Keith crash landed Red on Earth the first time we met, and as far as I know, the Garrison didn't come looking for it, so we should be able to use them to breech the atmosphere undetected."

"You crashed." Allura noted, arching her brows, gaze fixing pointedly on Keith. "The red lion."

"I didn't-" Keith began, making a slight face, before shooting Pidge a dirty look to the tune of how dare you mention that. "Look, Earth was the first place I could think of going after I escaped. I wasn't exactly in my best condition."

"Well, it's understandable, wanting to go back home, after so long away from it." Coran observed. "...this Earth is your home, correct?"

Keith seemed to flinch, before letting out a long sigh, clearly having given up on denying it when asked that directly. "Yeah."

"That explains like, so much." Matt whispered.

Allura blinked, the realization dawning on her. "Did... were you unaware Keith was of Earth?"

"Can we talk about something other than my non-Galra heritage, please." Keith interjected, clearly fighting the urge to twitch and failing at it. "It's not... it's not important."

"Keith's right." Pidge cut in, sensing that he was uncomfortable with this line of questioning- and as curious as she might be, she didn't want that. "We should be able to hide the castle in the dense gases of Jupiter. We don't want to risk bringing it any closer if we want to get in undetected."

"We have small research colonies on our planet's moon, and on Mars." Matt supplied. "They might be able to detect the Castle if we brought it too close."

Letting out a faint hum, Allura brought up a holoscreen, looking over the data on their solar system that they had provided her with. "Yes, I think that would be the best course of action. I am hesitant to leave the Castle alone, however, even if the Galra have no real presence in your system. It is imperative that Zarkon not be allowed to get his hands on the black lion."

"I can stay with the ship, princess." Coran volunteered. "Might be a bit of a tight squeeze, all five of us packed into one lion."

"Thank you, Coran." Allura told him, giving him a soft smile. "Well then, it would seem that we have made our course of action. Coran and I will prepare the ship as best we can. With the coordinates that you have provided us, we should be able to wormhole straight to this Jupiter of yours."

"How long do you think it'll take to get the Castle into working order?" Pidge asked. "I mean, not to knock Altean engineering, but it has kind of has been ten thousand years since it last went anywhere."

"Oh, probably a dobosh or two." Coran told her. "But don't you worry, Number Three. My grandfather was the one who built this ship, so I know it like the back of my hand!"

"Guess mom's going to get her cleaning day after all." Matt remarked.

"Looks like it." Pidge said. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

If she had to be honest, she mostly just wanted to have the chance to tinker with Altean tech. To think that their people were so advanced ten thousand years ago... she couldn't wait to get a closer look at what it was that made this castle-ship tick.

"Pidge is pretty good at fixing things." Keith said, finally choosing to rejoin the conversation. "She's the one that overrode the bio locks on our ship, and installed the hyperdrive."

"Not to mention fixed the engine with nothing but spare parts the one time you flew too close to the sun." Pidge pointed out.

"That was-!" Sputtering, Keith narrowed his eyes. "That was our only option! I didn't hear you offering any suggestions as how to get away from that Galra warship!"

Narrowing her eyes, she frowned. He had her there, dammit.

"Then don't mind if I take you up on that offer!" Coran beamed, more or less oblivious to their bout of bickering. "Looking forward to working with you, Number Three."

Returning his grin, she nearly brimmed with excitement. "Looking forward to working with you too, Coran."