And chapter two for this weekend. Hope you like it.
Getting Closer
Allura watched how Coran led the five men into the dining room, where the food was already set on the table. It was quite simple fare. As Coran had been busy with working through some organisational things that he wanted to have ready now that they had a new Voltron Force, she had taken care of cooking. While Coran would never have allowed her to work if the situation was different, with him busy, somebody had to take care of cooking dinner. She had made a goulash from rabbit meat, which was one of the common sources of meat they had, as breeding rabbits didn't take long or needed much space. They had a small farm in the old castle gardens, well hidden from casual fly overs of fighter ships from Doom.
With the goulash she had prepared some noodles. Their farm also had ten chicken and a rooster. That supplied them with eggs as a source of protein. And the younger roosters that grew up and weren't needed for breeding purposes were slaughtered for their meat. She had learned early on that while she might be attached to some of the animals, having food from them was important for their survival. It had been hard in the beginning with the rabbits. She would freely admit that.
The guys had showered and changed into clean clothes. Probably they had washed their previous clothes, as they would be dirty and drenched in sweat.
"Hello, I hope you could get all the rooms finished," she greeted them.
"Yes, Princess, we are done. That means, we can have a good night's rest," confirmed Keith.
"That's good to hear," she replied.
"This smells great, Princess. What is for dinner?" asked Hunk eagerly.
"Thank you, Hunk. This is rabbit goulash with noodles," she answered.
"Did you cook this?" asked Lance impressed.
"Yes. I learned how to cook while Coran and I were the only survivors here at the castle. And as he was busy, I was the only one left that could cook dinner," she nodded.
The six men took their seats at the table, with Coran sitting to Allura's left, like he always did, with Keith taking the spot to her right, the others following down the length of the table.
"What I wanted to ask, we need a room to hold a strategy meeting after dinner," started Keith, looking at Allura and Coran, "Which room would you recommend?"
"Well, one of the old conference rooms would probably suit your needs best. If you don't need any specific equipment for your meeting that is," answered Coran, understanding why they would need that.
"For the beginning, we won't need more than a place where we can sit down and talk openly without a chance to be overheard," explained Keith.
"Then the conference room would be best. Should Princess Allura and I join you?" asked Coran, clearly a bit reluctant, but also seeing the sense in suggesting this.
"I believe that for the first meeting we will just meet among the team. I don't mean any slight against either of you, but setting up routines among ourselves is basic procedure for any Alliance mission. I would like to meet with the two of you tomorrow morning for a more in-depth discussion about the situation of Arus and what kind of information you can share about common tactics of Zarkon that you observed over the past years," answered Keith.
"That suits me well," nodded Coran, "I can prepare a few files for that meeting this evening then. I would also like to go to bed early, as I didn't get much sleep last night, what with worrying about the fate of you all."
"Understandable, Coran," accepted Keith, "Would nine in the morning suit you?"
"That is a good time, Keith," accepted Coran, after getting a nod from Allura.
"I suggest we postpone further discussions until after dinner. It would be a shame if it got cold," interrupted Allura further talks of that kind.
The men nodded and soon the bowls with food were passed around and the pitchers with water were shared. Allura got several compliments for her cooking and any talk was kept light and meant to get to know each other better on a casual level.
Allura waited inside the lounge which she had told Keith to come to at half past ten. Coran had put the surveillance equipment inside the control room on autopilot for the night, as they would instruct the other five how to operate all the scanners they had left the next morning. He had retired early, like he had said he would, which suited her just fine. She had managed to find a few fruits and bottles with juice that she had brought for the meeting. To not have Coran suspect anything about her spending time in the room when she should be in her bedroom, sleeping as well, she had decided to light the room with candles to not have him notice the use of electricity. As they didn't have a steady and endless supply available, they kept a close look on energy.
Coran would notice that there had been electricity used up inside the room, which she didn't want to explain to him the next day. They could track down where it was used from the control room. It also served as a means to notice possible trespassers. They wouldn't think anything about using electric lights and the like if they explored to see if some survivors had decided to settle inside the castle. It hadn't happened for the past few years, but in the beginning, they had managed to avoid detection by keeping a close eye on these things. It had become a habit.
Then she heard steps close to the room. And they weren't Coran's steps. She could distinguish his from others. She went to the door and found Keith walking towards the room. She waved to him and he quickened his walk a little.
"Hey," she greeted him with a smile on her face.
"Hey," he replied, also showing a smile, "Any reason for the candlelight?"
"Well, Coran would notice if electricity was used in this room at night and I don't want to answer questions," explained Allura.
"I see. It's nicer with the soft light anyway," he commented.
"I like it as well," she said, "How about we sit down there?"
She pointed at the couch of the room. It was large enough to allow them to sit with a little space between them if they wanted to, but also would be closer than using the armchairs.
"Okay," Keith agreed, and they walked over.
"Would you like something to drink?" she asked, "I got water, cherry juice and apple juice."
"I would enjoy some cherry juice," answered Keith and she poured two glasses of juice for them both.
They clinked their glassed to another and drank a little.
"So, how would you like to start getting to know each other?" asked Keith after a while.
"Perhaps we could exchange questions for the beginning," suggested Allura.
"Like twenty questions?" asked Keith.
"I don't know that term," admitted Allura.
"Oh, it's basically a game on Earth. Everybody gets to ask the other a question interchanging until twenty questions are asked. Everybody has to answer honestly or if he or she doesn't want to answer a question, say so, but the other one is allowed to add another question to his or her list," Keith explained.
"Yes, then like that," nodded Allura.
"I think that works; do you want to start?" he offered.
She nodded and they switched questions, ranging from their favourite colours to the most embarrassing experience they had had. While talking they slowly got closer to each other on the couch, as both wanted to have contact with the other, which ended in Allura leaning against Keith's shoulder with him playing with her hair. They spent an hour together while talking until they decided to meet again the next day, as they also needed their sleep. It was close to midnight now.
"This was fun," expressed Allura, "When do you think we can meet alone again?"
"I can probably say more about that after seeing how tomorrow goes. I don't have enough of a read on Coran to know when he wouldn't watch too closely. And I think he would oppose us getting closer," pointed Keith out.
"Yes, he would. He already tried to make me keep my distance from your team, as you aren't nobles. Such an old-fashioned and overcome opinion," she sighed, "I managed to get him to realise that this wouldn't be a good idea, as your team is incredibly important for Arus. But I told him that I would try to become friends with the team, nothing more. If this goes further between us, we need to hide it from him for a while."
"Yes, he could put obstacles in our way," nodded Keith, "Which we don't need. If this goes further than us becoming friends, it should be our decision alone, nobody else's."
Allura nodded in full agreement.
"Perhaps we can schedule a time when he would think we are both busy with something else and he wouldn't look for us," pondered Keith.
"It would need to be something out of common sight and in a place that isn't observed by cameras. While there aren't many inside the castle, there are some in the most important areas," revealed Allura.
"Then we should plan for places outside the castle in general. That also limits the danger of being found accidentally. I can probably get away with claiming using Black Lion for exploration of the planet during the next weeks and perhaps even months. If you can claim being busy with something where you don't want to be disturbed, we could make it work."
"It could be possible. Best would be if Coran were busy with some of the others at the time," pointed Allura out, "He sometimes visits when I set up study periods. Even if his idea of what I should study differs greatly from my ideas, as I know that I am far ahead of what he thinks I still need to study. A side effect of not having much else to do to pass time and a great memory."
"Understandable," nodded Keith, "I can possibly arrange something with Pidge and Hunk at the beginning, as I plan to have them learn the technology we have available in depth as they are the ones best at repairing machines and working with computers."
"That should keep Coran busy enough," acknowledged Allura, "He will see the sense in explaining certain things to the ones in charge of those areas."
"Do you have any places in mind that we could go to for those meetings? It would work best if they were away from settlements of your people for the beginning. After seeing how the ones in the caves react to strangers, I don't want to get close to them until they are less likely to attack on sight," admitted Keith.
"There are several nice places on Arus that we could reach within a reasonable time frame with the lion," nodded Allura, "I will think about which ones works best for the beginning."
She didn't tell him that if things went like she hoped they would, she also had spots in mind where they could get up to activities that Coran would explode if he found her taking part in them outside of with her husband, which he would always insist had to be a prince.
"Great. How would Coran react if I voiced my intention to give you self-defence classes?" asked Keith.
"I doubt he would be happy about it, but he might see reason in that area. Though I believe it would be better to present him with a done deal in that regard. If somebody noticed that we were away at the same time regularly those lessons would also make a great alibi for us," pondered Allura.
"I see. Why would he be against those lessons? I mean, he has to know how dangerous things will become now that Voltron is back, or even would be in your previous situation," wondered Keith.
Allura sighed, this was again part of Coran being extremely unwilling to let her behave outside of traditional role-models.
"Before Arus was overrun by Zarkon, there were lots of traditions that several people, the majority of the royal court for certain, considered laws. One of them were the roles the members of the royal family were meant to uphold. A princess like me was basically doomed to only be a pretty face, to be married off to a prince that would bring a lot of benefits to Arus through the marriage. The main problem here is that while I had a younger brother, he sadly died together with my mother in childbirth," she told him sadly.
"My father grieved for both of them for a long time and with that to consider and him having to still lead the planet, I was mostly raised by Nanny, my governess. As Arus didn't have any chance for a prince to rule the planet anymore, as my father at first refused to remarry, as he had deeply loved my mother, and then the war against Zarkon started, it suddenly became clear that I would inherit the throne, which was already against all traditions."
Keith looked surprised hearing that.
"I thought general law of the Alliance planets had abolished any kind of gender bias ages ago," he commented.
"Open discrimination and disadvantaging for jobs if both candidates have the same qualifications, maybe, but subtle disadvantaging can take many forms. Like displaying a different ideal of how girls and boys should behave to be looked upon favourably. You know that it is easy to sort through the candidates that start as trainees for different kinds of jobs to sort out those the employer doesn't want to keep there. And then they can claim that a girl that didn't match the results asked for when it comes to applying for jobs that need that education simply have lesser qualifications as a boy.
"And especially nobility disliked having to change and while pretending to change things, managed to subtly set the field to keep the old status quo up. They couldn't have forced me to marry a candidate of their choice, even if they would have manipulated who was allowed to court me at all. Coran shares the same way of thinking. He thinks that I should just concentrate on finding a prince to marry and not worry about anything else but continuing the royal bloodline of Arus, so that once my first son is old enough, he can take over the throne from me," admitted Allura, "And outside of the Arusian Roses, the female and much smaller branch of our knights, there were no noble women that took up arms or learned how to fight. It certainly sealed many of their fates when Voltron fell and Zarkon conquered our planet."
Keith understood what she wasn't saying out loud. The horrible crimes that Drules were known to commit on planets they conquered. Rape, torture, murder, theft. He felt sick at the thought that she could become a victim of rape. No, no matter what Coran might think, he would teach her all he knew about fighting, so that she could deal with any possible attackers.
They agreed to have a short meeting after the official meeting with Coran, where they would discuss things that needed to be organised for the whole team in general. Normally, Coran should head to cook lunch, as it was his turn for the next day, once the meeting was over, meaning they would have a bit of time without him being able to observe Allura too closely. When they parted, Allura decided to be courageous and kissed Keith on the cheek, thanking him for the nice evening. He took her hand and kissed it in return, looking deeply into her eyes, saying it was his pleasure and that he had enjoyed their meeting a lot and was hoping for further ones very soon.
The next morning began early at six o'clock for Keith, which was the normal time he would get up on weekdays. He didn't know yet what kind of facilities he had to work with and currently he didn't want to risk running outside the castle for his morning training. Not while not knowing the terrain properly. Thus, he simply dressed in his red suit and white boots and went to explore the castle. He knew that not all parts of it were safe to go to, but he would be careful. Knowing the place where he would live for a long time from now on was necessary. And climbing the stairs all over the castle would serve as a replacement workout.
He spent one and a half hours looking around, setting up a mental map of the castle and collecting possibly useful things from several rooms. He would have to ask Allura and Coran if the team could use them for their training and work. He didn't see a problem with that though. The rooms had looked dusty enough to not be used regularly anymore. It only showed a problem that they would have to work out solutions for in the future. Keith knew that Zarkon, while he had lost the last battle, would return with more troops, set to bring Arus down again and destroying Voltron. Arus was far too close to Doom to leave the planet be. And as evil as Zarkon was, he wasn't stupid. He had conquered a huge territory consisting of hundreds of planets by now. That didn't happen while being incompetent.
When he returned to his room with his findings, he found Allura waiting there in front of the door. His face lit up seeing her. He had dreamed of her last night, even if he knew that some of the things he had imagined would only happen, if they did happen, sometime in the future, if their relationship had moved much farther. They had only known each other for a short time after all. And contrary to Lance, he wasn't a person to try and get a woman into his bed immediately. He wanted it to mean more than just having fun. Call him romantic, but he wasn't a one-night-stand kind of guy.
"Good morning, Princess," he greeted her happily, not being sure that nobody was around possibly overhearing him. And just using her first name in open places wasn't smart.
"Good morning, Keith, did you have a good night?" she asked sweetly.
"Yes, it was quite relaxing," he nodded. He wouldn't openly admit what else it had been.
"That's good to hear. Would you care to join me on the way to the dining room for breakfast?"
"It will be my pleasure," agreed Keith, "Just let me put the things I found during my exploration of the castle into my room to look through later."
"Oh, what kind of things did you look for?" she asked curiously.
"Things that might be useful for the team. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular. The main reason I was walking around and exploring was to get an idea of the setup of the castle," replied Keith.
She nodded and a moment later Keith had placed the bag with the things he had found into his room. He offered Allura his arm to escort her to the dining room and she happily took it. On the way, they talked about innocent things, which could be expected of Allura to try and find out about the new Voltron Force. When they arrived at the dining room, the rest of the team and Coran were already present.
"Good morning, everybody," greeted Allura, with Keith soon following her greeting.
"Good morning, Princess, Keith. How come you arrived together?" asked Coran, keeping his tone normal, even if the question was loaded.
"Oh, I met Keith on my way to the dining room. He was coming back from exploring the castle early in the morning. He wanted to get a better idea of how it was set up," answered Allura easily, "When he spotted me, like a proper gentleman, he offered to escort me here."
"I see," nodded Coran, showing approval for that behaviour on his face, "Well, sit down you two, then we can begin. There is a lot of work to do today."
They nodded, and Keith held out the chair for Allura, making everything seem as if he was just following proper manners in company of a lady. He took the remaining seat at the table and then the group served themselves food and drinks. Once they were done, Hunk offered to take care of doing the dishes, as he had been shown by Coran where the kitchen was located and he knew that Coran, Allura and Keith had their meeting set up for after breakfast. Keith thanked Hunk for the offer and then set Lance, Sven and Pidge to look for more clothes for them to train in, as they didn't have many sets available right now. The three confirmed that and Keith followed the two Arusians to the meeting room.
Allura waited for Keith to arrive at their meeting point. It had been much easier to work around Coran than she had expected. Due to not having kept an exact inventory of what they had to work with inside the castle, next to needing a lot more supplies now that there were five more mouths to feed, Keith had asked Coran to coordinate with Sven, who was Keith's second in command, and Hunk, who was great at organising all kinds of supplies, what they would need to organise, where they could collect food, what could be done for sources of protein and so on. As there was a lot to be discussed, Coran was busy the whole day outside of meals.
Lance was put on kitchen duty for dinner to free Coran and Pidge was going to work through some old blueprints of the computer systems present in the control room. Keith had told the rest of the team that he would take Black Lion to patrol, as they needed to find out immediately if any enemy activity took place. And while the scanners at the castle were important and highly useful, they didn't cover the whole planet. In fact, they only gave them information about what was going on inside the kingdom of Altair, which was where the Castle of Lions was located. None of the others commented on it, as it was reasonable that Keith would want to both know more about planet Arus and not overlook any hostile activity that could come to bite them.
They didn't have anything outside of Voltron to oppose an enemy after all. Coran had only asked if it was safe enough for Keith to do the patrol on his own, but Lance had laughed and said that outside of a robeast attacking, for which Keith would call the rest of the team immediately to fight it, no fighter ship and its pilot were a match for him. Sven had confirmed that statement by telling Coran that Keith was the best pilot to come out of the Space Academy in fifty years. It satisfied Coran and Allura had told him that she would look through some of her books to see if she could locate places where they could safely start fields with things like potatoes and corn, with low risk of them being shot apart by Doom fighters. That was always a problem.
Finally, she noticed Black Lion rising over the forest where she stood. It was just one kilometre outside the lake and thus close enough to serve as a meeting point. She had got here through a secret passage that Coran didn't know about. It was one secret she had kept from him, as she didn't want him to block her excursions outside the castle. He had locked up most of the secret passages he knew about, supposedly for security reasons, to not have intruders use them to sneak inside. But she knew it was also to have more control where she went. Part of it was to protect her, the last living member of the Arusian royal family. But another part was to prevent that she could meet other people and take on habits he didn't approve of. Habits that he felt weren't appropriate for a princess to have.
From the mouth of Black Lion, a rope ladder was lowered, and she caught the lowest part in her hand. Thanks to keeping in shape, she managed to climb up the ladder, even if it swung a bit in the air, as Keith couldn't hold the lion complete still. She reached the mouth of the lion, from where the door to the cockpit of the lion was open for her. She quickly went there, as she knew that Black Lion couldn't be seen hovering there for too long. And when she closed the door, she felt the lion moving forward at a speed that still allowed her to get to the second seat inside the lion.
"Seems like it worked like we planned," stated Keith.
"Yes, I could get away easily. I doubt Coran will come looking for me before dinner," confirmed Allura.
They had decided to meet an hour after lunch, when Coran would already be busy with Sven and Hunk. And during the morning Keith had done training with the team in flying the lions to get used to their abilities more than they had managed during their first battle.
"So, what location do you recommend?" asked Keith.
"Well, I have already chosen several options to give Coran something to work with, which will hide what I have actually done this afternoon," grinned Allura, which was matched by Keith, "We can fly over the spots to see if anything will stop us from setting the spots up as fields for the most necessary plants. Once we have done that, we can investigate if the lake on Mount Riverstool has taken any damage during battles. The lake is connected to a hot spring, which made it an immensely popular tourist spot in the past."
"Sounds like a plan to me," agreed Keith.
Allura proceeded to give him the coordinates for both the fields and the mountain and they continued talking while Keith flew the lion towards the places she had named. He had told the others that he would be out for about three hours and be back for dinner. Thus, they had a lot of time to themselves. They talked about their lives, including Keith's rapid rise through the ranks of the Alliance. It was uncommon for a young man like him to already be commander.
Allura found out that Keith had been trained from the time he was five in all kinds of subjects that his family considered important. Be it science, martial arts, weapons or languages. He told her how he came from one of the leading families in Japan and expectations for him, the second born son of the family heir, had been extremely high. His older brother was eight years older than him and Keith had always been held to his achievements, even if it was unfair. While the expectations in him were lower than in his brother, his family had planned to gain great influence by marrying him into one of the other leading families. He had been educated at his family's home, getting full schedules and little time to actually be a child. He also didn't have friends, being forced to concentrate on his studies all day.
Things changed though when he was ten. He had already passed the exams for all primary school classes and was close to taking the exams for junior high school. It should be mentioned that all other children in his country normally sat those exams when they were fifteen. His brother's marriage to a noble woman was announced two months before Keith turned ten and soon after the wedding, she could tell the family the incredibly news that she was pregnant. At first, nothing much changed for Keith, he was signed up for the junior high school exams with the Ministry of Education and then had sat them over the course of one week.
But when his results came back, he had aced the exams, only getting top marks all across the field, which was basically what his family had demanded of him since he could remember, his sister-in-law felt threatened by his development. While her child, should it be a boy, would take his spot in the line of succession of the family, with him standing out so much among all children of the country, even the media brought a report about his incredible results, it would make her child look much less impressive. She manipulated things to get him out of the way. As he had only been the spare heir anyway, his grandfather, the family head, didn't give too much opposition to her suggestion to let him develop the talents he had shown so clearly in a place where he could bring the family more useful connection.
That place had been the Space Academy.
"Honestly, the bitch did me a favour by basically sending me into exile. Even if it was difficult at the beginning," Keith told Allura, "Her intention might have been to not let me overshadow her unborn child, but it freed me of the constant pressure and control that I was placed under. The academy, even if I was by far the youngest student in my class, the next older one was fourteen, offered me the chance to find out who I was. For the first time in my life, I could find friends and use some time to relax and play. I didn't have to surpass everybody anymore. I had realised why I was sent away quickly, but after getting used to the academy, I decided to not voice any complaints."
"They only saw you as an asset for the family's development and power. Never as a person," understood Allura, having experienced something similar.
"Yes. While the instructors at the academy were strict and many of my classmates complained about the workload, I felt it was like a vacation. I had been forced to study from eight in the morning until eight in the evening at home. I was woken up at six and then had to do morning exercises to train my body to a similar level as my mind was trained. Then a balanced breakfast, designed by professional dieticians, then morning classes until twelve, half an hour break for lunch, then again four hours of classes until four thirty, a break for tea for fifteen minutes and then more classes until eight, when dinner was served. I had the evenings after dinner to myself, but my body mostly fell asleep soon after dinner. I desperately needed the rest," sighed Keith, "At the academy, we also had to get up at six for morning training, but only on five days the week. The weekends contrary to my previous schedule were free for all cadets.
"We got to eat breakfast at half past eight. Theory classes were from nine to one, lunch break for an hour followed, and then mostly practical classes followed from two to five. Then we were done for the day. During our third and my last year there we got a few duties added next to classes, most included guard duty to train for that part of our future jobs. One needs to be prepared for the inevitable boredom that is included. The smarter ones brought some study materials with them. I normally had headphones on to listen to some lecture while keeping an eye on whatever I was tasked to guard."
"That would be an immensely reduced workload. If I understand correctly, you were thirteen when you graduated the academy then," commented Allura.
"Yes. As I was still a minor and far away from the age of majority, the leading officers of the Alliance got creative with how to follow the rules. They hadn't expected that I could cut the normal time at the academy short by two years. While they had known that I had graduated extremely early, they hadn't expected me to be that far ahead in classes that aren't taught at normal schools. I was a strong martial artist and could defeat eighteen-year-olds after getting used to my new situation. I could outfence the teacher of the class in my second year there and was one of the best shooters with all types of guns and rifles. They had expected that while the theory parts wouldn't take me too long to learn, the other parts would keep me in the normal school classes until the normal five years were up.
"Thus, I was sent into the space explorer program, which normally runs for three years. It would keep me at the academy for a few more years and the Alliance could justify sending older teenagers on missions. Pidge is a good example for that. At thirteen, he got special permission to join the space academy due to his talents, similar to how it was done for me, even if in my case my sister-in-law and my grandfather also paid some officers to look the other way concerning my age. He is descended from a family of ninjas on Balto, and they trained him in all kinds of fighting arts. He wasn't pushed as much as I was though. But Balto had its own school system and it had him two years ahead of normal junior high school students on Earth when he joined the Academy," Keith told her.
"How old is he? I mean, if the academy runs for five years normally, he would at least be eighteen now. Plus the program of three years. But he looks younger," asked Allura.
"Pidge, despite his looks, is twenty. Balto is a planet that requires special treatment for the children to grow up healthy and not die early on. The atmosphere is damaging for humans but the ones leading the settlement movement there were aware of the situation. If a child is vaccinated with a certain drug four times during its childhood, Pidge told me it happened at the age of four months, then three years, six years, and twelve years, nothing bad will happen. This vaccination slowed down the outside aging of the children. That changes when the Baltoans turn twenty-one. From that point on, their aging process becomes faster and by the time they are twenty-five, they will look their actual age," answered Keith.
"Wow, I would never have suspected that. Pidge looks as if he's fifteen at most," she admitted.
"I was surprised as well when I met him," laughed Keith.
"That means you are the youngest member of the team," she realised.
"Yes."
"So, you were a fully qualified space explorer when you were sixteen, or did you cut off a year again?" asked Allura.
"No, they actually kept me in the program for the full three years but added additional classes to my schedule to achieve that. The Alliance military leaders had realised that I would rise through the ranks fast once they allowed me out of school. But they would have a horribly hard time to explain to civilians why a sixteen-years-old teenager was leading teams on dangerous missions. Therefore, I was put through leadership training for a full year while still being in the program. I already had all the qualifications needed for promotion to captain. But none of the older soldiers would take it well to follow the command of a teenager.
"Thus, when I graduated the basic program after two years, I was promoted to lieutenant straight away. I was placed under Commander Hawkins for a year, gaining practical experience. Once the rest of my class graduated, I was promoted to captain. I participated in some missions for the next two years, regularly being added to the staff of higher-ranking officers to not force the Alliance to give me command over important missions while I was still too young for their liking. When I was seventeen, I was promoted to lieutenant commander and got to lead my own team for a mission that lasted six months. It was a resounding success. I was then chosen as a trainer for the current class of the space explorer program. That was the class that Lance, Sven, Hunk, Pidge and the members of the Vehicle Voltron team were part of.
"I had heard about that project during the year I served under Commander Hawkins, who is now the leader of the mission to find new settlements for the Alliance planets," explained Keith.
"So, you trained the others for this mission? Didn't they have problems following an officer that was younger than them?" asked Allura.
"At first, they didn't know who I was and how old I was. I was mainly involved in battle simulations in flight simulators. My job was to train them to deal with all kinds of surprising turns during air battles. The trainees normally didn't know who their opponents were, just that they were higher officers and experienced pilots of the Alliance. I was found out when Pidge at a dare from Lance and Jeff hacked the data of the flight simulator trainers. They got in a lot of trouble for that stunt, but thankfully, while Lance was extremely annoyed that somebody four years younger than him could beat him regularly, he didn't act out. Instead, he worked harder and tried to beat me at least once," answered Keith.
"Did he manage?" asked Allura grinning.
"No. But he improved greatly thanks to that drive," answered Keith chuckling.
Allura laughed.
"So, what happened when they graduated?"
"Fifteen of the best pilots were made into the Vehicle Voltron team, as the Alliance realised that with the Drule Empire also searching for planets suited for settlement and ones to further their military expansion, the exploration team needed some serious fire power. It was also the reason why I was involved in the training. I was the best pilot to come out of the academy in decades and if they could survive me, they could survive most other situations. I certainly trained the recklessness out of all those that became part of either Voltron Force. Then my team was formed, to see if the Arusian Lion Voltron could be reactivated to create a second protector against the aggressive invaders in the universe. I was named leader, as I had by then been promoted to commander. My promotion also allowed the Alliance to work around the normal requirement that a young team like ours needs a higher-ranked officer to lead them," explained Keith.
"How did your family take your mission?" asked Allura.
"I doubt that they care. My sister-in-law has by now given birth to three sons and one daughter. My family has basically written me off, outside of bragging with my success as a soldier for the Alliance. I don't think they will try to utilise me before I even reach the rank of general. And that won't happen before I turn thirty, no matter what I do and achieve. That is set in the laws of the Alliance. Thirty is the lowest age anybody can be promoted to general. It also has something to do with me finally having learned to stand up for myself. They tried to place me into an arranged marriage when I was seventeen, but I completely refused.
"Thankfully, being captain in the Alliance Military at that time, there are clauses among military law that no officer can be forced into any marriage to protect us from not being neutral to different political positions anymore. They were furious, but on the outside they couldn't argue about it. Only if I had agreed to the marriage, they would have had any influence. But seven years free of their control and oppression made me eager to never return there."
"Did they take action in other ways?"
"They couldn't. I hadn't done anything forbidden after all. And their reputation would have been damaged had they cut me off from anything that was my right as a son of the family. And I was smart enough to arrange for a transfer of my accounts as soon as I was promoted to lieutenant. That way their access to my account was cut off and a permanent transfer of the monthly allowance they sent to the new account took care of not giving them anything they could take away from me. While they didn't add any more money to the accounts after my refusal, the transfers had already been limited when I was a cadet. They only sent the bare minimum to appear as if they still fully cared about me. I knew they didn't, being more focused on my older brother and his children. I was far away and out of the sight of the public after all. I only returned there during the break if something important took place, like my grandfather passing on the position of head of the family to my father for instance," answered Keith.
Allura nodded. She could understand why Keith didn't have a great connection to his family with that background.
They reached the first spot and flew over the area slowly to look out for obstacles to making this a field for potatoes, like Allura wanted to do. It was too open to become a corn field, as the fighter jets from Doom would recognise those, but potatoes didn't look distinct compared to other plants that grew in open spaces normally. They didn't find any obstacles that they could readily determine and noted the place as a future farming spot.
The next part of their trip Allura told Keith more about the way she grew up, the people she had been closest to and how the fall of Arus had influenced her. How she had always felt lonely with mostly Nanny as company, who had mostly been a strict governess instead of a warm, motherly role model. She told him about the grief she had to deal with mainly alone after her mother had died together with her little brother. How the looks of the nobles had become worse over time. How she had wanted to hide most of the time. How her father tried to spend some time with her but was forced to put the wellbeing of the planet before her happiness. How that still hadn't been enough to prevent that Zarkon overran Arus and kidnapped countless Arusians as slaves and killed hundreds of thousands during the attacks on the cities.
Then how she had been hidden by Coran and how, after the general situation outside the tunnels under the castle had calmed down, they could return while being careful of further patrols. How most of her days were spent studying, both to distract herself from her grief and to not be forced to listen to Coran's repetitive propaganda of how a princess like her should behave. How that constant studying to be left alone by him had put her years ahead of other children her age in the normal schools, had they still been running that was.
She also told Keith how she managed to sneak into some of the caves to talk to the people there while being disguised, as she knew that Coran wouldn't give her honest answers to certain questions that simply came with growing up. And how one of the women there had taught her the basics of self-defence. He listened attentively and asked a few questions occasionally, but mostly let her talk about it, which he realised she had never really been able to do, as Coran wouldn't just listen to her and tried to pacify her with empty promises.
They only did a short fly-over with the second spot, which was surrounded by large cliffs. There didn't seem to be anything that would hinder them using the spot and it was remote enough to serve as a corn field location. While it wouldn't get as much sun as open spaces, it would be better protected. They would simply have to consider the lesser light in the selection of plants to grow there. After having inspected the third spot, Allura directed them towards the lake on Mount Riverstool. Keith landed the lion and they exited through a hatch at the side of the head, which had a lift function inbuilt. It was helpful, as Allura wasn't as well trained as Keith and jumping down from the lion would have been difficult for her, not to mention getting back after they were done.
"This place is beautiful," commented Keith after they had walked to the shore of the lake.
He dipped his fingers into the water and was surprised how warm it was. Not too hot to swim in, but very pleasant. Looking around, the lake had to stretch about one kilometre to the other shore and was a bit wider than that. There were a few sandy beach parts around, next to some huts, probably left over from the past use as a tourist location.
"It is. My parents used to come here once a year for a vacation. I remember the one time we were here when I was five. Not too much of it, but how we swam in the lake together, and then the resting on the lays at the shore afterwards," Allura told him with a wishful smile.
"I am actually surprised that such a large lake can have water that is this warm. I would have expected it to cool down more, especially as we are about three quarters up on the mountain," commented Keith.
"From what I know from my studies, Mount Riverstool was once an active volcano. There is still some volcanic activity deeper inside where the spring that fuels the lake originates. If one were to bathe in the original water, one would get burned immediately. But thanks to the water fuelling this large lake, it is nice for swimming in it," explained Allura.
"I see, that makes sense. Too bad that we didn't pack bathing clothes. It would be nice to swim a bit," mentioned Keith.
"Well, perhaps we can plan that for another trip in the future," smiled Allura.
Keith returned the smile. He was excited at the idea of seeing her in nothing but a bathing suit. He suspected it was the same for her. Both of them were good-looking after all and there was no denying the attraction between them. And simply going swimming was perfectly alright and no reason to worry about impropriety. Even if he knew that Coran would be opposed to it, should he ever find out.
"I would like that. We would just need another opportunity like today, when we can keep Coran busy for some hours, next to the other members of the team," said Keith.
Allura nodded. She didn't want that anybody prevented that they could enjoy time together.
"What do you think about walking around for a bit?" suggested Keith.
"I'd like that," agreed Allura.
Keith held out his hand and she happily took it. They walked along the promenade above the beach parts and Allura told him some things she knew about this place and other tourist locations from the past. It only underlined that Arus had once been a beautiful and prosperous place. Keith decided he would do all he could to bring back that beauty. If only to see Allura smile like this more often. After a while, their conversation turned to the training of the team and Allura.
"The main question for us is where we could train safely. The castle, while large, has too many spots that are in danger of crumbling down. And we can't initiate any repairs. We simply don't have the means for them," pointed Keith out.
"I know. The finances of Arus are in horrible state. I know that my father set up a few accounts outside of Arus, next to storing valuables in secret places, which only he could access. But to gain access to the accounts to use the money that was secured there for Arus' rebuilding, I would need to personally travel to a distant planet to prove that I have a legitimate claim to them. And with the way Zarkon is blocking any travel towards Arus, it would be a waste of money to order anything currently. He would shoot down the ships or steal them. We will have to wait with that until the situation is better and normal trade and transport can be done without danger of the ships being lost," sighed Allura.
"Well, we can see what kind of resources we have available on Arus itself. It's not as if anybody could protest if we mined for ore, cut down trees to build houses or things like that. It will take a lot of work, but that isn't the problem. The problem we need to deal with before we can start is having ways to prevent that Doom shoots the buildings we can set up apart again. If only to break the hope that the people here might regain," analysed Keith.
"True. Zarkon would do that and enjoy it," agreed Allura, "Concerning training spots, there are two large rooms down the corridor of the royal crypt. They are structurally sound and would only need some cleaning and a check of the electricity to be used by you. Though if you need any kind of apparatuses and equipment, you will need to build it yourself."
"That would work. And nobody could spy on us if we used underground rooms," approved Keith, "How large are those rooms?"
"Well, one of them is twenty times thirty metres, as it was once a storage room. The other one is fifteen times fifteen metres and was used as a workshop." answered Allura.
"A bit smaller than a handball field then for the storage room. We can easily work with that, thank you," nodded Keith, "The other room is also perfect to set up something like a new workshop. We will need it to build training equipment after all."
"When do you think we could work on self-defence training for me?" asked Allura, "I would like to get started on that soon."
"Hm, when does Coran normally get up?" asked Keith.
"Around six when he has to prepare breakfast. Otherwise, he sleeps until seven, as breakfast is at eight," answered Allura.
"We could put in some time for training at six fifteen normally. He wouldn't come down to the rooms in either case. I can plan the main training sessions for the team after breakfast. The guys will be happy to not have to get up too early. I will leave it to them to go jogging early in the morning, but for that, they wouldn't use the room that I plan to turn into a basic gym. They won't suspect anything, as I plan to have them work hard from nine to twelve. The afternoons can be used for projects and patrols," pondered Keith, "And we should be good using about forty-five minutes for your training in the beginning. We can take showers afterwards and be ready for breakfast without any of the others suspecting anything."
"That sounds like a good solution," accepted Allura.
"I will take the guys down to the rooms to see what we need to do to get the rooms useable. I can tell them that I have found the rooms during my explorations and asked you if we could remodel them for our needs. They won't find that suspicious. I have told them about the things I collected while exploring already after all," commented Keith.
Allura nodded. They finished the one round around the lake and then went back into the lion, as they didn't want to risk that anybody at the castle missed them for too long. Keith would send a routine status report about his patrol once they were in the air again to keep up the ruse of him being alone on patrol. She hid crouching down behind the pilot seat to not have anybody have a chance to see her inside Black Lion. She would have stayed outside, but it was better if Keith sent his report while flying, as the scanners at the castle would report that part. It would be great if they didn't have to sneak around to just have time to get to know each other. But with things being the way they were, they needed to do it.
That was the second part, next chapter will come next Sunday.