Chapter 16:

Discretion

Kline doesn't talk like a spy.

He doesn't look like one.

And he certainly doesn't look like one right now: Keith has never seen anyone go that particular shade of absolute sheet white before. It is a sobering reminder of his alienness and that, Feyulja's man or not, Kline is a survivor and has seen and experienced things that they don't even have the slightest clue about.

"No, absolutely not," Kline says, shaking his head. "We can't go there. We can't."

Coran's mustache twitches and he stands up a little straighter. "It's a swap moon. It's risky, but certainly within our ability to handle if we disguise ourselves properly."

"Mother of Lions," Kline responds, somehow managing to look even more horrified. "You don't know. You don't… Mother of Lions."

Kline draws back, drawing in a deep breath as he steps away from them, and brings a hand to his face as he leans against the wall with his other hand.

Uhwaz doesn't touch him but she stays close, whispering lowly in a dialect that doesn't quite sound right, and gives a worried glance to the other survivors gathered in the common room before turning her gaze to Keith, as if to ask him for something.

Keith stares, a bit put off, and turns his head a little, trying to hide the burning in his cheeks. He doesn't even know why she'd look to him at all. Maybe it's a Paladin thing. Or maybe it's something he'd said earlier, when they were in the Archives, because practically the whole team is here and every one of them except Coran is a Paladin, but Uhwaz is only looking at him.

Come to think of it, so are the other survivors, which is super weird.

"Coran, when's the last time you were there?" Pidge asks, pushing up her glasses on her nose as she destroys the awkward silence, "Out of curiosity."

Coran goes absolutely still as it hits him and nearby, Shiro draws in a deep breath, rolling his eyes.

"I thought so," Pidge says, sighing as she also rolls her eyes.

Hunk frowns a little, rubbing his chin. "A lot can change in ten thousand years – orbital paths, system composition, gravitational drift…"

"Baltarus Hyperlane Moon Center," Kline manages, shakily. He raises his head, tracing a circle with one hand. "That's… It's one of a chain of super shopping centers that sprung up as the Empire expanded the universal hyperlanes."

Lance's jaw drops as he exchanges a look with Hunk, Pidge and Keith.

"A shopping mall," Shiro states, blinking slowly, as if he's not quite sure how to process that. "In space. Okay."

"I'm honestly not sure why I'm surprised anymore," Pidge admits. "Why wouldn't there be space malls?"

"Space malls or Spaceballs?" Lance quips slyly, nudging Hunk with an elbow.

Hunk tries to hide his laugh, he really does. He also fails miserably.

Shiro gives them an exhausted look, one of his infamous silent knock it off looks.

"It's not funny," Kline states, glaring at them. "There's only one way a ship this big can get access and that's through the cargo lanes. We go through the cargo lanes, we go through quarantine; we go through quarantine, we get caught. That's how they got me and quiznaki no way I'm doing that again! Not with my people on board!"

Kline then sharply nods his head, making a disgusted half-snort noise and baring his teeth. They look a lot sharper than they had earlier, or maybe Keith just hadn't noticed. It's not like Kline or any of the survivors preferred to show them unless it was strictly necessary.

Coran, who had been about to say something, closes his mouth instead and nods, quietly and carefully raising his hands in a gesture that is meant to be calming. "You don't have to go with us," he explains gently. "The Paladins are more than capable of taking a few shuttles and sneaking in there. I trust them."

Kline's lip curls in a sneer and his eyes dart to Keith for a moment. "No. There are safer places to get what we need. I will take you."

Lance tilts his head, blinking, and looks at Pidge. "Is it just me or did that sound weird?" he whispers.

"Dialect, maybe?" Pidge offers under her breath.

"Okay, safer is good. I'm all for safer," Shiro announces, crossing his arms, "Considering we probably have our mug shots plastered all over the known universe by now. So, you obviously seem to have an idea of where to look. Care to share with us? Because I'm not taking my team anywhere I don't think is safe, either."

Kline and Shiro glare at each other for a moment and Keith can feel his heart beating in his throat as everything goes dead silent.

No one moves.

Then, Kline nods, doing one of those weird smiles and offers his hand to Shiro, palm up and open.

Shiro pauses, uncertain of what to do, and Coran discreetly nudges him in the ribs, silently indicating that he should do the same. He does and the tension seems to bleed out of the room as everyone relaxes a bit.

It doesn't escape Keith's notice that all the survivors follow Kline's lead and, judging from the way everyone else discreetly shifts on their feet, none of his fellow Paladins missed it either. Honestly, he is still amazed they never saw it earlier, but, then again, they were not looking for it.

"When they converted the old swap moons for the hyperlanes, a lot of business shifted elsewhere," Kline explains, "Out to the frontier or uncharted systems."

"You're talking about smuggling," Coran states, dryly. Clearly, he does not approve.

"I call it surviving," Kline fires back, just as dryly. "Our best shot is Beswu. It's a trading post just on the frontier border and it's a little more…"

Kline pauses, tilting his head side to side as he searches for the right words. "Let's just say, there's no one there that'd turn us in, if we're discreet about it and you don't go walking around, showing off that armor."

"You're sure about that?" Hunk asks, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning. "Cause we've had some bad luck with unsavory sorts before and you're talking about walking into a whole den of them."

Kline gives him an evaluating look and then smirks: "You, I like you."

"Thanks, I think," Hunk replies, raising an eyebrow in uncertainty.

"Well, it can't be any worse than Mos Eisley," Pidge quips.

Kline, Coran, and the survivors all give her a questioning look, while Shiro merely looks like he's trying so hard to pretend Pidge hadn't just said that.

"I don't think I've ever heard of a place by that name," Kline says. He looks about as lost as Keith feels, since this is clearly one of those jokes he just doesn't get. "Where – what is it?"

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy," Lance says, sagely. "We must be cautious."

"Can you not?" Shiro asks, giving them both a tired look. "For five minutes, please?"

"I believe you will find that I cannot just not," Lance replies, grinning ear to ear as he raises a finger and points at Shiro. "Let's be real, Shiro. When am I ever going to have an opportunity like this again? The answer is never."

Keith covers his face with a hand and tries not to die of secondhand embarrassment.

Pidge, however, merely shrugs. "Well, he's not wrong."

Coran's mustache twitches, although if it is in amusement or bewilderment it's hard to say, and he straightens up into that all-too-familiar stuffy-brass pose he's so fond of. "Well, Beswu it is, then. Paladins, if you wouldn't mind, inform the Princess of our change in destination. She's in the training room. I'll be escorting our guests to Command to input the new coordinates."

For a moment, no one present seems to know quite what to make of that, but then Shiro nods, smiling a little as he agrees to do so aloud, and Kline relaxes minutely, every one of the survivors following suit. Then, Kline, as if noticing Keith was watching, nods at him and smiles that odd smile again.

As they part, Keith looks back over his shoulder.

What exactly was that about?

Notes:

Kline was smuggling a kaltenecker through quarantine when he got nicked.

True story.

Meanwhile, Lance... Lance who cannot resist. Lance who realized there was a Spaceballs joke lurking. He saw it, he went for it. Lance. Oh Lance. You are the realest.

In other news, the translators are still a bit wonky.