Keith arrived at a desert near the Galaxy Garrison on Earth just as his patience began to wear thin. Being in a pod with no control over where it was going and nothing to keep you entertained was very boring. As soon as he entered the Earth's atmosphere, however, he became filled with interest. The clear blue sky was so bright Keith felt temporarily blinded when he first looked at it. While flying over some buildings, he found that they were very colourful, and all varied with each other. Earth was starkly different to Daibazaal, but as he noticed more differences and made more comparisons, it only seemed to make him long for home.
The barrenness of his surroundings meant Keith could apply Quintessence and shift without also having to be cautious of others potentially seeing him. He was on edge, of course, this was a foreign planet, but he was thankful he didn't have to be extra aware. This time, due to having to shift his entire body, it took a lot out of him, and it took a while. It wasn't so much the shifting that sapped his energy, the Quintessence made sure of that, but it was rather the fact that Keith had different features now. He was in a different skin, literally, and it was disorienting. He leaned against the chair in the pod as his body became accustomed to the changes. He found that the biggest differences were in his senses—he could no longer hear or smell as well, and couldn't see as far as he used to, although things close by were now a lot clearer. His sense of touch seemed to have heightened, which was probably due to the loss of fur, and had no clue about what the changes in his taste buds were, but figured he would find out sooner or later. The one good thing that seemed to have come out of changing was that after he shifted he felt a lot cooler, and when he was blasted with heat after exiting the pod, he was glad he was no longer in Galra form. When standing beside the pod he noticed that it was bigger than when he left, and then realised, with distaste, that he had shrunk in height. He was unhappy, but it was probably so that he wouldn't stand out as much with the humans. As he made his way to the Galaxy Garrison facility with his stuff, he could feel himself start to sweat, the heat still being more than what he was used to.
As he walked he took in his surroundings—the blue sky above, the hot air with a cold breeze blowing, and also the unstableness of the ground below him. When he first started walking he wanted to get to the facility as soon as possible so he tried to run, but learnt that it was not an easy task. The ground underneath was uneven and gave way when he applied a lot of pressure, so he ended up falling and sent particles flying everywhere. He got back up and brushed himself off, but continued to find sand on himself from time to time. What he found the most contrasting were the colours. On Daibazaal everything more or less followed the same scheme, yet on Earth it looked like random colours were just thrown together. Even his own outfit—a grey shirt, black pants and a red jacket with a yellow stripe—seemed uncoordinated. He only hoped that the druids weren't tricking him and others would look like this as well.
Halfway to the Galaxy Garrison Keith decided to check on the pod, and wanted to see how visible it was. Surprisingly, it seemed to have blended in with its surroundings, so no one would be able to spot it unless they knew it was there. Even Keith started to doubt himself, thinking maybe it had taken off already. However, just as he was about to face back forward he heard the familiar whirl of an engine and saw sand explode in all directions. A small tornado formed, and Keith knew that it meant he was truly stuck here now.
The Galaxy Garrison was really a magnificent piece of architecture to look at. It was massive; the main premises was rectangular shaped, but the actual facility had different sectors protruding outward and upward, and the whole thing seemed to be surrounded by some sort of barrier. At the very top there was a yellow circle surrounded by red lines and curves, which Keith assumed to be a logo of some sort. He was also excited to see that there were many roofs he could potentially climb on top of. The establishment was in the middle of nowhere, and being at a higher altitude would provide him with the clearest view of the night sky and stars.
As he approached the first entrance, he saw a signage which read "The Galaxy Garrison", and stated its establishment date. He walked forwards a bit more, and was suddenly met with a crowd of humans. Now, Keith had seen images of humans before, he knew what they looked like and how they varied, but seeing them in real life and in such a large amount made him feel somewhat overpowered. He suddenly felt like a complete outsider, even though he 'looked' like them. He became afraid that he would not be able to pass off as a human, and would be found out immediately. He doubted all his readings and the stories he had heard on his home planet, and thought that perhaps he should've fought harder against coming here. This was a big mistake, Keith thought, and as he tried to calm himself down he observed the crowd and their behaviours.
The human race, Keith realised, really was diverse. They could be range anywhere between being tall or short, small or large, muscular or lanky, dark-skinned or light-skinned, and wore all kinds of different clothing in various colours. He noticed that he would not have been the tallest if he stayed the same height, and started to wonder why he even became shorter. There seemed to be so many of them altogether because they were families, sending their children or siblings off. From the ones Keith discerned to be students, he found that some looked extremely excited while others looked anxious and scared. Either way, they all had relatives to hype them up or help them feel better, which made Keith miss his mum. He wondered whether she would be sleeping right now; seeing as he left at night on Daibazaal and arrived on Earth during the day, there must be quite a big time difference—something he would have to calculate and sort out later. Keith was extremely close to his mum, she was the only family member he had around, but even then they couldn't spend all their time together because she had royal duties to attend to which ended up taking most of her time. Now, being here on this foreign planet, Keith hoped that she wouldn't bury herself in work because Keith wasn't there to stop her or keep her company. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he looked around a bit harder and found that he wasn't the only one alone. There seemed to be other members of the crowd standing off on the side, majority of them looking nervous. He also saw that some of them banded together, keeping each other company. As nice as it would be to start interacting and blending in with everyone, Keith decided to remain by himself and stay away from where the crowds were most concentrated. If Keith hadn't been told beforehand, he still would've been able to realise that today was the first day. This relaxed him a bit; even if some people did already know each other, at least he wouldn't be the only one entirely new.
Finally, the doors opened and staff members came out to address the crowd. They wore light grey coats with one visible button on the right side, black belts, dark grey pants, black boots, and a dark-coloured hat with a golden insignia. The uniform was devoid of colour save for the orange that showed because all the officers had their sleeves folded over. Additionally, they had three golden bars on the shoulders of their coats, and wore an orange-coloured insignia over their hearts. One of them, whom Keith assumed to be the one in charge, had a very authorial vibe and looked like he had the scowl that was currently on his face permanently plastered there.
"May I have your attention please," the man's voice boomed and the crowd went silent. "My name is Commander Iverson, and I will be in charge of training the students. Firstly, I would like to welcome you all to our facility, and to welcome all students to their orientation day. We understand that the journey may not have been easy, however we are very thankful for your efforts and interests in joining our program. Secondly, I must address some of the rules we have surrounding those enrolled in our program. From the moment you set foot through this door, you are cadets. Cadets will stay in dormitories and have a curfew they must adhere to; they will not be allowed to traverse the Garrison halls after certain hours; teacher and staff areas are always off limits. There are basic disciplinary rules set in place to ensure that all students will receive an equal education and come across as many opportunities as possible. Anyone found not adhering by the rules will be punished, and a repeat offender may be expelled without warning. Furthermore, after the program commences there will be scheduled periods of time where students are allowed to leave the premises to visit family or go elsewhere. We would like to remind them that when they are going outside, they are representatives of our facility and should not cause any damage to our reputation. If cadets are unable to, or do not wish to leave during the scheduled times, they will be taken care of here, although they are not allowed to request to leave at a different time. Visitors are generally not permitted on site, unless special circumstances are present. They are, however, allowed to make their way to the entrance gate and request for whomever they would like to see. This concludes my introduction. Now, if all cadets could please proceed to the main entrance for registration, where we will then be providing an overview of the program and put you through some tests. Afterwards, you will have the rest of the day to explore the facility if you wish. Once again, thank you all for coming." With that, the man turned around and started towards the main structure. Many students ran after him, while others stayed behind to say one final goodbye to their family.
Keith, with nothing else to wait for and no one to farewell, began heading in with majority of the crowd. It wasn't a short walk to the registration site, but it allowed Keith to still any remaining nerves and once again take in the establishment. As he came to terms with just how big it was, he started to feel anticipation for all the places he could explore. Finally, he made it to the registration tables and saw many more officers in their grey uniforms sitting behind them. He stood in a line and slowly made his way to the front as more and more people got approved. He soon came face-to-face with a young-looking woman in glasses who asked for his name, and he froze. He realised he had no clue whether he was even registered, and what name it would be under if he was. He decided his best shot was trying his real name, but could barely mutter out 'Kei' before the woman interjected saying "Keith? Born October 23rd?" Keith of course had no idea when he birthday was in Earth time so just went with it and nodded. The woman then smiled and marked his name out on the sheet in front of her. "Please head to your right to have your photo taken for ID. Welcome to the Garrison!"
Keith then joined another line, and watched as those before him stood in front of a camera and waited for a flash to go off. Keith had had photos taken before, but only a few times, and never with a bright light shining at him. When it was his turn, he couldn't help but blink when the light went off, annoying the photographer a bit more every time, until he could finally keep his eyes open. Just as he stepped away, the photographer motioned him over and showed him his photo. Keith saw nothing wrong with it, until the photographer told him "I don't know what happened, but for some reason the pupils of your eyes have shown up as yellow. We can fix it post-processing though, so don't you worry." Keith only then noticed that his eyes were in fact giving off a yellow colour. He made a mental note to stay away from photos with flash, and photos in general, just in case it was capable of exposing his true form.
After the whole registration process was done, Keith walked through the main entrance and made his way over to where all the other students were waiting—in the middle of a square enclosed by sections of the main structure. Here, even more of them were talking to each other, already forming groups and friendships. Once again, Keith stayed on the outskirts, not wanting to get involved.
"Alright cadets!" This time it was a woman who addressed them, and she seemed a lot more cheerful than the other guy. "I'm one of the other instructors here, you may call me Professor Hendrick. I'm sure many of you already know about our program and its values, but I will be going into a bit more detail as to how it actually works. As you were told, you are staying in dormitories and will be given a curfew. Dorms are sorted into groups of four, by gender, and they will be your team for the rest of your time here. I'll talk about that a bit more soon, but firstly, the classes. You are all in this program to become astro explorers, so as expected you will be taking physics, maths, and flying classes—even if you are not a pilot. This is because those classes are designed to give you a feel for the various machines, and to teach you how they operate. Those are the three main classes, however you all must also choose elective classes to take. Some of the elective classes include history, self-defence, international relations and English.
"There will be exams at the end of the semester to test your knowledge, however nothing really bad will happen if you do not pass—which is not to say you should not study, getting top scores will be beneficial for you. What you should worry about is the flight simulation exam. If you do not pass that, you may be expelled or put into a lower class. You will partake in flight simulations with the members of your dorm, or in other words, your team. This means that every dorm will have an engineer, a communications specialist, and two pilots—one from the cargo class and the other from the fighter class. Everyone will be taking different flying classes depending on who they are, but will all be in the same simulator. It may seem odd that there are two pilots, but it has been done this way so they will know how to perform both roles, and may be swapped around if they turn out to be better suited for the other role. The other reason is for safety purposes, in the case of an emergency and one of them becomes unable to fly, the other will take over. While the cargo pilot may not always fly or be in charge during simulations, they are responsible for providing second opinions on piloting decisions, keeping pilot error to a minimum—so neither job is more important than the other. Your role will be determined by the tests you are about to take, however you are welcome to put in a special request, so long as you understand that your wishes may not be granted." As soon as the woman stopped speaking the crowd began murmuring, guessing which roles they were going to get and what electives they wanted to pick. They turned silent again when a staff member began splitting everyone off into groups for testing.
Keith's group was up for physical testing first, which he was grateful for because he was starting to feel a little drowsy. It wasn't enough to affect his physical capabilities, but being active would help freshen him up and keep him awake. They did basic skill tests including sprinting, push-ups, vertical and horizontal jumps, and the sit and reach test. Keith found them all quite simple, and was surprised to see that not everyone was doing so well. He guessed that it meant not all humans went through training on a regular basis. When they started academic testing, however, Keith struggled. He wasn't a bad learner, per se, but it was difficult for him to retain knowledge on things he had absolutely no interest in. The tests he took were designed so that no background knowledge was needed to complete them, but he still had a hard time. The fact that he also had to read and answer almost everything in English did not help and did a number on his brain, so by the end of it all he wanted was to be allocated a dorm room so he could go to sleep. He felt guilty for not trying his hardest and guessing answers towards the end, but justified it by telling himself he did his best in the physical tests, which was his forte.
At last, all the tests were concluded and everyone gathered back together at the center of the square. They were commended on their efforts and told that they would soon find out their teams. Keith expected that they would have to wait a while, considering the fact they had to calculate individual results, sort them into suitable groups and then allocate them into dorms. Surprisingly, it didn't actually take very long at all. They must have been inputting the academic tests to be marked and submitting the physical test scores as soon as they were completed, and had a really powerful algorithm because before Keith knew it holograms popped up everywhere with a list of everyone's names, along with their teams and dorm rooms. It reminded Keith of the technology at home, except not as powerful and having a different colour scheme—orange and blue, which didn't look as horrible as he would've imagined. Keith made his way over to one of the many projections and tried to find his name on the very long list. They had conveniently sorted every team into a table, with the names of everyone in the title, and then listed the names again in the actual box with their specific role, so they didn't have to waste their time going through every single line. Keith found his team and saw that he was listed first, with "fighter pilot" written next to his name. It wasn't unexpected, he knew that he would be a pilot, and he really didn't care which so long as he could fly.
He read the names of the other people in his team and wondered how he was supposed to find them and group up, when he heard a very loud "where's Keith?" yelled out from the crowd. He, along with everyone else, turned to the direction where the sound came from and saw that it came from someone lean in a green jacket and jeans. Beside him stood someone in a yellow shirt and green vest, who wore a headband and looked mortified at the sudden attention. There was silence for a moment, and when no one responded chatter filled the atmosphere again. Keith assumed they were referring to him, and made his way through the crowd to them, a bit annoyed at a spotlight was shone on him, even if it was indirectly. As he got closer, he saw that there was a third member with them wearing glasses, whom Keith didn't see earlier because he was pretty short. He also saw that the other two were taller than him and that only seemed to feed his annoyance more. When he finally got within earshot, he let himself be known.
"I'm Keith."
Before anyone could respond, they were silenced, and Professor Hendrick addressed them once more.
"Cadets, once again congratulations on your efforts, we are very excited to be training all of you. I hope that by now you have figured out your role, and who you are in a team with. If you have not found them yet, please do so before heading to the dorms. In your dorms you will find four personal devices that will be yours to use while you are here. After settling in, please set up the devices using the instructions provided and sign up for elective classes. I hope you are all aware that classes only formally begin in two days, so you will have ample time to get to know your team and explore the facilities. Welcome to the start of your Galaxy Garrison career, you are all dismissed."
As soon as those words left the professor's mouth, glasses guy walked off without a word and left everyone staring. The other two began conversing immediately after, wondering why he had gone off so quickly. Keith continued to stare after the glasses guy and only acknowledged the other two when they introduced themselves to him. "Hi!" the skinny dude said, "I'm Lance!" The headband guy greeted him as well and said his name was Hunk. Keith didn't say anything in response and just nodded, so Lance asked him whether he was excited to be here. Keith looked at the projections which now showed maps of the facility to find their dorm, and offhandedly murmured a "yeah" in response to the question. He then picked up his bags and walked away, seeing a brief flash of hurt cross the faces of the two boys.
The interior of the Galaxy Garrison resembled exterior, and it didn't seem very homely nor welcome even as Keith made his way through the corridors and found his dorm room. It looked very plain from the outside, there was only a door the same colour as the walls and an orange door plate with the room number. The design and atmosphere didn't change on the inside, either. It had a basic, minimalistic layout with two sets of bunk beds located in either side of the wall, a large rectangular window with a view of the outside, and another room which Keith didn't know the contents to because the door was closed. He would've gone and checked it out, if he had not suddenly been stuck in the middle of the room facing the window.
He was still frozen in place even when Hunk and Lance came in excitedly, however long after he first entered the room. He watched as they took in everything, immediately swinging open the closed door to reveal a bathroom and exclaiming "we have our own bathroom and shower!" They also turned on all the lights, some of which glowed blue, which only made them even more ecstatic.
"Hunk! Can you believe we're really here? God, we're in the Galaxy Garrison right now. This is our room!" Keith noticed that Lance was extremely sociable and open; despite only meeting Hunk today, he was able to make it seem like they had known each other for years and create a comfortable atmosphere. Hunk, who was the more timid of the two, just nodded.
The last thing the duo seemed notice were the beds. They had taken one look at them, then at each other, and slowly turned their heads to Keith—acknowledging him for the first time since entering the room. Keith didn't understand why or what they were expecting from him, so he remained silent, which in turn meant that for a moment no one spoke and they were all just looking at each other.
"Uh," Lance was the one who broke the silence, "so which bed do you want, Keith?"
Keith could only stare back at him, still stuck in whatever trance it was that kept him glued in the one spot. Then, as if on autopilot, he picked up one of his bags and threw it on the top bunk to his left. He didn't do anything more than that, but Lance and Hunk got the point. They looked back at each other and shrugged, then took the top and bottom right bunks respectively.
As Hunk and Lance fell back into natural conversation and began unpacking, Keith was finally able to gain control over his body and move again. He too began unloading his stuff and organised them into the closet that was in the wall next to his bunk bed. As he did this, he found himself subconsciously listening in on Lance and Hunk's conversation, and learned about all the little hidden details of the dorm room they were finding. Once he caught himself he would then try his best to make himself stop. He valued his privacy, and believed that he should allow it for others so that they would in turn do the same for him.
After settling in, Lance and Hunk headed out to explore the facility, opting to sign up for electives later. They extended an invitation to Keith, but he declined, saying he needed to get some rest. It wasn't a lie, he was really tired, but the main reason was also so that he could be alone for a while. He realised that sharing a room with three others meant he wouldn't always get alone time when he needed anymore, unlike at the castle where he was barely around anyone else but his mum, so he wanted to make use of all the time he could get. He also wanted to be by himself so he could reflect on a few things without distractions, especially on what happened earlier when he felt like he couldn't move.
Keith climbed atop his new bed and found that it was actually quite comfortable. He tried going to sleep but found that he could barely drift off, so instead he just lay there, put his hands under his head and stared up at the ceiling. He could hear chattering outside the room in the halls and the sounds of machines outside. It was starkly different to the quietness of the castle on Daibazaal, and it made him a bit uneasy. "You better get used to this", he told himself, "this is your life now."
A/N: sooooo, now that you guys have gotten a rough idea of what the fic is gonna be like I have a question to ask. would you prefer if I wrote a bunch of chapters so I could release them at regular intervals, or release as I write? I always try to be one or two chapters ahead, and I have a schedule I want to follow, but school and others things could get in the way so I don't know how things will turn out. please be aware that if it's decided I update at regular intervals, it may mean waiting a while before a next update (so I can catch up etc)
shoutout to Seeker of Stars for reviewing the previous chapter, thankyou! I hope you enjoy what's to come. (I always wish I can respond to reviews without PMing, so I might do this from now on?) also shoutout to everyone else who favourited or followed, those notifications make my day tbh.
lastly, next chapter (unless things change) will be up in two weeks. my tumblr is fandomtravellers if you want to ask about it, or talk, or anything :)