Chapter 5

A moment later, the real Castle's alarms started blaring.

Everyone froze for a moment, before Coran freed himself and started delivering orders. "Allura, take the others to your chambers and stay there. Lock the entrance, don't leave under any circumstances without my orders and keep Pidge out of the vents!"

"What are you going to do?" Shiro asked, picking up the frightened four year old as he did so. "What's going on?"

"Just go!" Coran didn't look back as he took off for the bridge, trusting that Allura would recognize the alarm as meaning a hostile ship was approaching and explain it to the other children.

After the battle, he'd put the Castle into orbit around the moon, a decision Coran was now regretting. Really, he should have taken them to a safer stretch of space, one free of Galra and inhabited by enough other intergalactic traffic no one would pay them any mind. But nooo, he had to be distracted by caring for two teenagers and four small children!

Fussing at himself as he ran, Coran made it to the bridge just in time to see a screen pop up with security footage of a group of aliens cutting their way in through an airlock. He hastily slammed a hand onto the control console, activating the Castle's more, intimidating, security measures.

Unfortunately, they didn't want to power up.

"Oh, for Altea's sake-!" Coran ducked down and opened up a panel to see the interior of the console. The man weaseled his way in as far as he could go, checking all the circuitry and wiring, hoping to spot an easy-to-fix problem. And there, aaall the way in the back, was a switch disconnected from the rest of the electronic components.

Coran's fingertips were just about to push it back into place when there was the distinct impression of a weapon being pressed into the small of his back.

"Come out slowly," the alien being growled. "Or you won't be walking anywhere anytime soon."

Gritting his teeth, Coran backed out, leaving the switch disconnected. The last thing he needed at this point was for the ship's defenses to activate and be turned against himself or the children.

The children.

"This is a paladin of Voltron?" One of the six aliens in the room asked doubtfully. They were a motley bunch, with a ragged assortment of garments and both high- and low-tech weaponry, but each one looked like a capable warrior.

"Naw, he looks more like a butler," another one chortled.

"Still, he's gotta have somethin' t' do with 'em if he's here." A third stated, stepping forward and jabbing her gun into Coran's face. "So where are they? Th' paladins?"

"Vacation." He replied dryly.

The warriors all looked at him with disbelief.

"You think I'm joking? They've been planning for this break for months, getting ready to head out a few days ago, when that wretched pirate attack came up-"

All six aliens suddenly growled, and Coran gained a rather clearer idea of just who they were dealing with: survivors of the battle who were out for revenge. It also drove home just how important it was for him not to give away the children's true location, or else they'd all be in for it.

"When will they be back?" The pirate who'd initially ordered him out from the console asked.

"Back? Erm... Let's see, it was going to be two weeks at home, plus half a month's travel time both ways-"

"They're going to be gone that long?"

"I know, terrible isn't it? And in the meantime, I've been left to keep everything up and running, resupply, dust the furniture-"

"We can't wait that long." Another of them looked to the leader of the group, the rather large and intimidating female who still had her gun in Coran's face.

"Right. We'll take this ship and sell it to the Galra, then. That'll be revenge enough. Take him," she gestured to the suddenly tense Altean. "To whatever passes as a holding cell aboard this thing."

"Gotcha boss. Just, er, where would that be, 'xactly?"

"How the grak should I know? Just get him outta here, locked up someplace."

"'Kay. C'mon, moustache man."

Suppressing a sigh, Coran got to his feet and started walking, with one pirate in front and another behind. They passed quite a few rooms that would have held a prisoner just fine, but he never made mention of it. Then, the pair actually started checking behind different doors, and Coran held his breath as they got closer and closer to the hall where Allura's quarters were.

"'Ere, this outta do." Without any sort of ceremony, they pushed him into an empty supply closet, and shut the door. As they locked it and departed again, Coran sat himself down against wall and let loose a sigh of mingled relief and anxiety.

"Well, this day has taken a decidedly bad turn," he muttered.

"I liked makin' th' pillow fort better, too." Jumping, the man turned an incredulous eye up to the cover of the closet's entrance into the vent system. Pidge was looking down at him from the grate.

"Didn't I instruct the others to not let you into the ventilation works?" Nevertheless, Coran stood to open it up and pull her out, sitting down again with the child in his lap.

"Yeah, but they were all worried 'bout you, so I decided to go lookin'." Pidge answered in her usual matter of fact tone.

"Clearly. Well you're here now, little one. Hm..."

"Mister Coran?"

"Mm?"

"You got a thinkin' look on your face. Matt always look's like that when he's thinkin' up what Mommy calls 'mis-chee-vee-us' b'havior."

Chuckling, the man gave her a tap on the nose. "And that is because, Miss Pidge, I am thinking up mischievous ways that we can scare these pirates off of our ship and back into space where they belong."

"Can I help?"

"Of course you can! The first step, as a matter of fact, is going to completely depend on your involvement..."

A/N: A bit short today, but I promise, tomorrow's chapter will be nice and long. /departs leaving a menacing chuckle in the air

-Tri