Paladins Forever

by LadyWordsmith

After saving all of existence, the Paladins of Voltron moved on with their lives. Growing up, following their paths, while continuing to serve the galaxy. Time passes, relationships form, science advances, but the mission, as it turns out, is never really over. A series of consecutive post-series VLD stories, heavy on the Team Punk, new missions, and a very special rescue.

9. 9: Spatial Rift 4- Problem Solving

Chapter 9: Spatial Rift Part 4 – Problem Solving
Pidge and Coran find themselves teleported to another part of the galaxy, on an unfamiliar planet, surrounded by strangers and facing imminent danger. While they've solved the mystery of the missing scientists, how will they get word home?

---

May 31st, 2332 (One Year EARLIER….)

The tumbling whirling lights left no sensation of up or down…just nauseating movement that made Katie's stomach lurch. Then suddenly, it stopped, and she felt a stab of pain in her ankle, and then her shoulder, as she twisted and slammed into very solid, very real rock.

Around her, reality re-coalesced. Sounds, smells, and feeling. The taste of blood in her mouth where she had bitten her lip. Around her, she heard gasps in voices she barely knew. When she opened her eyes, all she could see was what was visible from the head-lights they had been wearing in the caverns to see the carvings properly.

Quickly, she took stock of the situation. She was sitting in a narrow cavern of rock, still underground. She could see Coran, lying beside her, dazed but awake. Piled up beside them, the three Vidorans who had been working most closely with them: Dyn, Lowax, and Priin.

In front of her was a wall with carvings and set-stones, but not the same wall. That much was obvious. Also, as she looked up, and up, there was a large crack in the corner of this one. "We're not in the same cave."

Coran sat up, shaking himself, one hand held to his temple. "Ooh… what a nightmare. My spots are seeing spots." He looked up. "No, we definitely are not. I'm not even sure we're on the same planet. The air's drier, and it smells of… sulfur and anthracite?"

He was right, Katie realized. Looking down, she found the scanner she had dropped on arrival. She picked it up, relieved when it turned on again immediately. She was grateful she had her bag of equipment on her. It seemed to have come through intact as well. Katie turned it on, and looked at the readings, while Coran helped the others to their feet. "We are definitely someplace else. The stone composition of this cave is totally different, and you're right Coran. There are huge coal deposits here, and the air composition has a slightly higher oxygen count. The gravity is heavier by a factor of point-oh-oh-two. I think we're on another planet. Do these readings look like any of the other planets in your system?" she asked, holding it up and handing it to Priin.

Priin took the scanner and looked at it, frowning. Her slit-nostrils flared. "No. This does not match any planet in our solar system."

"Then where are we?" Dyn asked. She looked around nervously.

"We'll figure it out." Katie took the scanner back. "As soon as we get somewhere we can see the sky, I can align the stars to our charts and pinpoint our location. We just need to get out from underground. Presuming we can't get this thing to open up for us again."

Coran swallowed. "I'll try, if we're ready."

Katie nodded, as did the three Vidorans.

Coran slowly approached the wall, then reached out and placed his hand on it.

Nothing happened. After nearly a minute of trying his hand in different places and even leaning his back against it as they had fallen in… it was nothing more than a wall of stone. He sighed. "It looks like we're stuck here for the moment."

"That's not acceptable," Lowax replied, sounding as frustrated as he did a little scared. "If this thing is the opposite end of the one in the temple, then whoever built it must be around here somewhere. That means there must be some way to start it again."

"That assumes that whoever built it is still alive here," Katie pointed out with a shake of her head. Her mind was racing a mile a minute as she tried to come up with a solution to their predicament. Since no one else had come through with them, she had to assume that Hunk and the others were still on the other planet. Since the room had not been imminently collapsing from the earthquake, it was most likely that the others were all right. At least… she hoped they were. "It's possible that the team will try and open it again, though we have no way of knowing if this thing works in both directions. Our best plan of action is to rest here for a while, and see what happens. If they don't re-open it, we'll look for a way to the surface."

No one seemed inclined to disagree with her suggestion.

Coran nodded. "A well thought out plan. For now, we should tend to our wounds, and rest. Do you happen to have any medical equipment in that bag of yours?"

Katie smiled. "You know me. Prepared for everything." She pulled her bag off her back and slung it around. "I think I sprained my ankle. You'll need to help me bandage it." She pulled out a compression bandage, other bandages, disinfectant, and a medical scanner she had hijacked from the Atlas just in case it might come in useful. "We can use this to make sure everyone's injuries are only superficial."

"Excellent. Let's start with that ankle." It only took Coran a few minutes to bind her ankle, and then he moved on to the others, taking the scanner and the bag, starting with the obvious cuts and bruises, then doing deeper scans. An hour passed, then two. "We should stay here tonight," he suggested as he worked. "See what happens tomorrow. If there are natives here, we should be able to tell if they might be friendly. It's possible that they have the missing scientists."

"Or they could be hostile and have killed or enslaved them," Katie quipped, even as she nodded. At least they could agree that this was almost certainly what had happened to the other mysteriously disappearing Vidorans. "Yes, let's stay up here tonight. We have a little food and water. We'll be okay for a while." Besides, her ankle hurt enough she didn't want to do any climbing on it just yet.

As she eased herself into a less cramped position, Katie cursed under her breath. "Hunk is going to kill me."

"Somehow, I think he'll just be happy to see you again, when we get back," Coran suggested.

"After all the I told you so's about this mission being dangerous." Katie sighed, and leaned back against the wall. Her stomach turned, and with it came a small wave of nausea. When had she last eaten? "Coran, can you reach my pack? There are ration bars inside."

Coran did as she requested, though he watched her curiously as she took it, and devoured the bar in a few bites, washing it down with a drink of water. To her relief, the nausea began to recede quickly. She didn't want to think about what would happen if they didn't find a better source of food before her snacks ran out. She closed her eyes and leaned back, resting her head against the stone. "Thanks, Coran." She tried to kick her brain into action again They couldn't get back through the way they came in, not yet, but there might be a control panel somewhere in here or technology like what they had just been studying that she could use to open it, or to send a message through. On the other side, Hunk was almost certainly in high-anxiety panic mode. He hadn't wanted her on the mission at all, and now here she was, who knew where, with no idea how to get back. For all he knew, she could be dead. A couple of hours, after the days it had taken them to decipher what they had so far… that was nothing.

Katie opened her eyes and sat up. "Coran, I think we need to do a preliminary search in here for anything that looks like it belongs to the same people who made this portal, or the technology we were studying. The fact that there's no skeletons here means that our missing friends, if they ended up here, did not stay in this tunnel. We need to find them, or find out what happened to them. I still think we should hide up here tomorrow, but right now is the best time to explore the caverns we can see without interference." She looked around. "What does everyone else have on them?"

As it turned out, the other three had very little besides the scanners and tools they had been holding at the moment they were all sucked through the transporter. At least one of them looked dizzy and it occurred to her that there might have been other types of injuries. "We should check everyone for effects from being transported, too." It was as good a word as any.

"Agreed. All right, everyone gets another scan." Coran changed settings on the scanner and passed it over each of the Vidorans in turn. Katie was glad she had downloaded their physical and physiological parameters into her informational database when they first arrived.

"All right as rain, if a bit out of sorts," Coran gave his prognosis. He handed it to Katie. "If you'd do the honors."

Katie nodded, taking it back, and running it over Coran. "No strange after affects for you either." That was a relief. She felt fine, but she turned it on herself anyway. Nothing out of place. Perfectly normal heart rate, blood pressure, sugar, and hormone levels for her current state. Her current… there was one of them she had not checked.

In a moment of trying not to panic prematurely, Katie lowered the scanner, checking for that ever critical second set of vitals. Her heart rate relaxed as she found the signs of the little heartbeat churning away in her uterus. All of its other readings were perfectly fine. Relief washing through her, she set it down.

Coran was looking at her oddly, then with concern, and Katie was sure he had figured out what she was doing. "Pidge, I hate to ask a personal question, but…"

"I'm pregnant," she confirmed, without waiting for him to finish asking. "Ten weeks. Hunk and I were going to tell everyone before too much longer, but I didn't want anyone babying me on this mission, or trying to keep me from coming. Hunk really didn't want me coming. Looks like maybe he wasn't wrong to be worried." She shrugged. "But what's done is done. What we have to do now, is figure out how to get home. So, let's see what we can find out."

"You should stay here and continue to wait," Coran suggested. "The rest of us can take a look around and see what we're dealing with."

"Ohhhh no." Katie shook her head. "What did I just say? No one is coddling me."

"I merely meant that your ankle looks pretty swollen." Coran pointed out. Then he reached down and offered her a hand up. "But if you're determined, I hardly think I can stop you."

"Thank you." Katie pulled out an extra light from her bag, and handed it to Lowax along with a small emergency communicator. "You and Dyn stay here in case they manage to contact us or re-start this thing from the other side. Also, as long as you have a light, we should be able to find our way back to you, even if these caves are deep or confusing. If you need to reach us, use the communicator. Priin, Coran, and I will do a little exploring and get an idea of where we are, and the layout of this place. If we're lucky we're near the surface." If not, she didn't want to consider the situation they would be in if they ran out of food or water for long.

Hunk will never let me live it down if I'm the one who eats all the extra rations. Though given all she had with her was what she had brought to keep her own cravings and nausea at bay, she suspected it wouldn't last nearly as long as they needed.

Splitting the supplies between the groups, Katie took her equipment, but much lightened, and led the way into the tunnels, with Coran and Priin behind her. As it turned out, they didn't have to go very far at all. Two turns later, they came to the edge of a steep precipice, and a vast cavern.

A vast cavern that wasn't entirely dark. "Well, look at that."

Below them was a complete mining operation, with machinery, and what looked like supervisory offices above, built in rooms with metal exteriors and windows. There was a winch system to pull large containers of ore to the surface, and cave entrances to their left and below that had doors. Tracks, carts, and primitive hand tools lay scattered in place, but not randomly as if they had been abandoned. The whole place smelled of freshly exposed coal, sulfur, and machine oil.

"It's a functional mining operation," Coran whispered. "Though it doesn't look like anyone's here."

"It must be off-shift," Katie suggested. "Maybe it's night here." She lifted her scanner again, looking for life-signs and anything else that might be immediately useful. "The air is safe to breathe. There are electrical currents running in those buildings. I think there's lights on in here when they have people working. They probably have computer systems running their machinery. Maybe they have a communications array." The thought spurred her on. "Is… is there a way down?" She stepped a little closer to the ledge, and looked down. Below her there was a worn set of ancient rock stairs. "I think they're stable, if we're careful."

"I'll go down first," Priin offered.

Carefully, slowly, the three of them made their way down. It would be steep coming back, but Katie was relieved to find that the way was stable, and a little wider than it had looked from the top. It was a little more than one large human wide, if just barely. Hunk might have had trouble navigating it, but Katie and the others were all narrow enough it wasn't a problem.

"We should start with the buildings," Coran suggested as they reached the bottom, and paused to breathe.

"Agreed," Katie nodded, taking out her canteen and drinking. "But we should stick together. It will take longer, but it's safer."

"I would really not like to be alone here," Priin concurred.

Together they walked up to the buildings. Katie had no problem using a quick encryption to undo the locks. Their codes, while digital, were incredibly primitive. More akin to twentieth-century Earth tech than what she had with her.

The first room they found looked like dining hall. There were long tables, and an empty buffet bar at one end. Though it looked far smaller than the number of tools out in the mines implied as far as number of workers. Clearly, they didn't all break at the same time.

Katie headed for the kitchen. There, she found sinks with running water, and felt a moment's relief. Even if they were down here for some time, she could sneak in during off hours—or someone else could—and refill their water supply. A quick sample test showed it was also safe for human, Altean, and Vidoran consumption, even if it did have a sulfuric aftertaste.

"Jackpot!"

"What did you find, Coran?" she turned and saw him grinning in front of a cabinet.

"Food," he replied. "Though it doesn't look like they feed these people very well. It's pre-packaged and not much more than ration blocks."

Katie joined him, picked one up, and did a quick analysis of its composition. "There's nothing in here that's unsafe to eat, though it might taste like dirt."

"There are worse things to taste than dirt," Priin commented.

"I'm not disagreeing." Katie nodded. "We should take some, but from the back, and not enough to be noticed. If we run out before we get out of here, we can come back for more."

"But if they realize someone's stealing, we're in trouble." Coran nodded. "Well, we can always pay them back when we're rescued, but I think we should be cautious. If this is what they're feeding their workers, and everyone's doing manual labor, this might be a mine where the workers are criminals."

"Or slaves," Priin commented with a shiver.

"Well, those are cheerful possibilities," Katie quipped as she put several packs of different flavors—she had no idea what they were until she had a chance to translate the language. She scanned the writing on the package so her system could start analyzing that too. They were going to need to learn the local languages as fast as possible. Quickly they refilled the canteens in Katie's bag as well. "All right, let's see if we can find any information on where we are. Let's look for an interface."

The next rooms they found were mining supply storage, followed by a repair bay. None of the technology there had anything useful. They moved on quickly. With no idea how long it would be until the miners and their bosses returned, they didn't want to get caught down here.

Finally, Katie found the stairs up to the top level, where she had seen the bank of windows from which anyone could over-see the whole operation. That, she was sure, was the control room.

"Now this is more like it," she grinned as they filed into the room, with a bank of panels, and multiple consoles. "You can see and control everything from here. Which means, there should be some kind of communications system."

"If there is, we'll find it," Coran agreed, and the three of them began a panel-by-panel search. Once again, the actual systems were easily hacked, but this time they did not provide what Katie was searching for.

"There's… no communications system in this computer anywhere except a short-range text system that's part of a closed system to something on the surface," Katie sat back in the chair, stunned.

"And this," Priin commented, gesturing to a box on the wall with a receiver.

"Oh great!" Katie groused. "We're stuck on a planet so out of date they're still using direct line phones. That won't let us communicate with anyone off planet. Even a radio tower would be more useful than that!"

"Shhhh. There's nothing we can do about it now," Coran said even as he made a gesture for her to quiet down. "Let's go back to the others and see if anything's happened, before we're caught."

"All right." Katie stood up, and unhooked her scanner from the system. At least she had most of their data downloaded. Maybe it would give them some insights into this strange place in which they found themselves. If nothing else, it should give her enough data to translate the local language and set her system up to translate things back to the locals.

---

Coran had seen a lot of things in his over-six-hundred years, and he knew a bad situation when he saw one. He had a definite hunch that this was one of those situations. From the moment they came through the small wormhole to the moment he realized it would not activate by touch on this side, the way it had apparently done on the other. They could only hypothesize that that had even been what set it off. The energy had certainly felt similar to energy of a teludav, but it hadn't been quite the same, and certainly there was no quintessence-based metal or Balmeran crystals to power it. Or at least, there had not been on the other side. He seriously doubted that this end was being maintained as operational. Not if whoever owned this mine had dug this deep and not marked it off. He didn't dare to hope they didn't know about it.

It was a relief that none of them had been badly injured in the fall through the portal. Even more-so, with the unexpected information that Katie was expecting. If anything happened to her and her unborn child, he would never forgive himself. If he got home without her, Hunk would never forgive him. It only steeled Coran's resolve to get all of them home safely, and as quickly as possible.

He went last back up the steps to their entry point, and insisted on carrying the bag now that it was laden down. Katie rolled her eyes at him, but didn't argue with either demand. Fortunately, they made it back up without incident.

"Any change?" Katie asked Dyn and Lowax as they returned to the end of the tunnel.

Dyn shook her head.

"Nothing," Lowax sighed. "We looked for anything that might be a control panel, or even a single button, but there doesn't seem to be anything nearby that would allow this to open."

"And there hasn't been any sign from the other side," Dyn picked up. "Not a flicker. Nothing. What did you all find?"

"Quite a bit actually," Coran spoke up, taking off the bag as they opened it and the three of them explained to the others about the mines, and their theories, and the lack of advanced technology.

"The language they're using also isn't in our database," Katie finished as she sat down a nearby rock and looked at her readings. "So where-ever we are, it's not anywhere in the universe the Galra ever invaded."

"That would put us pretty far out there in the reaches of space," Coran remarked as he considered what that might mean. "Or, we could have been thrown into another realty again."

"Did you say…again?" Lowax looked stunned.

"It's happened to us before." Katie shrugged.
"Then there was the time we were thrown three years into the future." Coran couldn't discount that possibility either. A malfunctioning wormhole, however small, could have thrown them out in any variety of places. "Pidge, can you at least tell if we're in our own reality?"

"I mean, I do have a portable version of that reality scanner we developed." Katie dug back into her bag. "You never know when you're going to run into a situation where you need to scan realities."

Priin shook her head. "This really isn't the strangest thing that has ever happened to you."

Coran laughed. "Hah! Not even close." He leaned over Katie's shoulder and looked at the readings that projected in front of them both.

After a few minutes Katie shook her head. "Well, that rules out that hypothesis. We're definitely in the right reality, even if I'm not sure exactly where we are in our reality. If I could just get a look at the sky."

"We can try and make a break for the outside tomorrow," Coran suggested. "And by tomorrow, I mean whenever we see these miners and wait for the end of their shift. We should observe them first and find out what the situation is. They might be hostile." With only five of them, three of them not trained fighters, Coran didn't want to risk and unnecessary confrontation. "Until then, we should try and get some rest." Whatever the local time was, they had explored long enough it was late evening on the Atlas.

As no one was opposed to that idea, they set about making a make-shift sleeping spot for the night. Lacking most anything to make beds out of, the Vidorans simply curled up in their clothes, leaning up against each other and the wall.

Coran pulled off his jacket and rolled it up to make a pillow. It was warm enough underground he didn't feel chilly.

Beside him, Katie lowered herself to the ground, wincing.

"Are you alright?" Coran asked quietly.

"Just tired…and sore," Katie admitted reluctantly. "My ankle's throbbing."

From the way she was moving, more than her ankle hurt.

Coran slid the neatly folded jacket her way. "Here, use this."

"I can't do that. It's yours."

"You can, and you will," he replied in a voice that did not invite arguments. "If we're going to get out of here, we need everybody at their best. Especially our resident genius."

Katie smiled. "Well, I can't argue with that logic." She took the jacket, and unfolded it once, so it was a couple of layers thick instead of several, and then laid it out so she had her bag as a pillow—however rough that might be. Now, it gave her a thin layer of padding all the way down to her hips. She settled down on to it. "Well, it's not a luxury hotel mattress, but it's much better than the ground. Thanks, Coran." The last was broken by a yawn.

"Get some sleep. I'll take the first watch."

"Sounds good. Wake me if anything happens."

"I will," he promised. Then he stood and went around, turning off lights until the only one left was a small hand-held light, he kept on for safety… and to keep away the lurking darkness.

June 1st, 2332

"Well, that answers that question," Coran commented in a whisper from beside Katie.

She nodded, not wanting to make any more noise than necessary.

Below them, lines of workers of a couple of different races, all tied together in small groups by the primitive expediency of leg chains, trudged in for their work shift. Behind them, aliens of a different race entirely followed with whips and projectile weapons of some sort slung over their shoulders. Katie would place bets on primitive slug-style ammunition.

None of the races looked immediately familiar. The guards were, for lack of a better description, sort of like fluffier, grey-blue furred Galra. Except the ears were more of a rounded bear shape. That said, there was nothing cute about them. All of these were grizzled and rough.

Coran looked thoughtful. "That door the slaves are coming out of, I bet they don't guard it at night when there's no one in here. What escaping slave would want to sneak into the mines?"

"Probably not," Katie agreed. "But it likely leads to where-ever they keep the slaves, and that is more likely to be very heavily guarded. We'll have to sneak up and check it out before we can assume it's an escape route."

There was a quiet gasp from Dyn.

"What is it?"

"That's Eloo!" the Vidoran whispered, pointing down at one of the chain gangs.

Katie looked, and sure enough, there was a Vidoran in the middle of one of the groups of six. "Then this is the answer to where the other scientists went."

As they watched all of the slaves shuffle in and get to work, they identified seven more of the missing Vidorans. That wasn't even half of them, but it was encouraging that at least some of them were still alive. The rest might be as well, just not working in this mine.

"We have to rescue them," said Lowax.

"We have to rescue us," Katie countered. "Then we'll be in a better position to rescue them. We can't hide up here forever. Eventually they'll notice we're here, or that their stuff is going missing. And we can't hide another dozen people or more up here either. For one thing…there's no bathroom." She was glad she had taken a moment in last night's investigations to use the facility she found behind the control room. At least they had passable plumbing.

Priin nodded. "She's right. If we don't have someplace to hide all of us away, then all we would do trying to rescue them now, would be to get ourselves caught in the same predicament."

"I concur," Dyn agreed.

Lowax grumbled, but did not press the matter. "So, what do we do then?"

"For now, we wait," Katie responded. She wasn't sure how she had become the de-facto leader of this little band, but as long as no one was going to fight her for it, she'd take it. "After they get off shift and shut down for the night, we do a little exploring."

---

Their first stop that night was another quick detour through the mine's control center for more food, water, and so everyone could use the real restrooms instead of a crack in the rocks. They took what little they had with them, in case they had the opportunity to make a break for it, or found a safer hideout. Though Katie left a brief message on the rocks above in case anyone else came through after they left.

The trip back down the steep stairs was no more enjoyable than it had been the first night. This time, Katie didn't try to argue when Coran insisted on carrying the bag. Much as she wanted to gripe about being treated differently, it was probably for the best. It was also better than having to admit that she was starting to really feel pregnant again. She had awoken feeling mildly nauseated, and quickly eaten. More than that, she felt a little groggy, but she would just have to muscle through tired.

Just before they left, Katie found a bunch of the overseers' uniforms in what seemed like a store room, or a mending room. "We might be less noticeable in these," she suggested. So, they passed them around, looking for ones as close to the right sizes as possible. Katie, being the smallest still, was the hardest to fit, but they managed.

When they had everything that the pack could hold, the five of them quietly made their way across the floor of the cavern towards the carved entrance where they had watched the slaves come in and out all day.

Quietly, they crept up what proved to be a long, sloping corridor. It was only about four of them wide, and there wasn't a single twist or turn. If you needed to quell a riot, they'd be bottlenecked in here, Katie thought. If they were caught, there was nowhere to hide, and running would not get them to another hiding place before they were likely shot down. It had almost certainly been designed that way.

She was beginning to wish she had packed her paladin uniform, but she had left it on the Atlas. Extra protection, and a jet pack, might have proved useful depending on the reception they got at the end of the tunnel.

Katie did have her bayard. The lions had not taken those with them either, when they left of their own accord. At the time, Katie had taken it as a sign that if they were ever needed, the lions would return to their Paladins. Right now, it would be useful if they got into a fight.

As they reached the top, the tunnel leveled out for several feet before the entrance abruptly ended. It had no door, just an opening. No guards were immediately visible. The white-blue glow of probable moonlight washed the flat empty space beyond in a clear relief. There would be no hiding out there. At least not for the first hundred meters or so.

Katie tapped on her portable scanners, looking for life signs. "No guards at the doors," she said in her quietest voice. "It looks like there are some about a hundred meters out. Probably a perimeter guard."

"What about the slaves?" Dyn asked.

"They are… there." Katie tapped a spot off to their left, which glowed starkly in contrast to the few spots elsewhere. "There must be hundreds of them. I don't see any other concentrations of life signs. The barracks must be near where they keep the workers."

Coran frowned. "That's going to make this difficult."

"And here I thought it would be easy."

"Now now, no need for sarcasm." Coran admonished. "But it does pose a problem. If we investigate and they get close, they'll know we aren't their guards from the simple expedience of none of us know the local language."

"Yet." Not that her translator would be convincing in pretending to be a local on a world they had likely never heard of, but Katie hoped it would help in communicating with anyone that didn't want to kill them or put them to work in a mine. That was not on her list of medically approved exercise regimens.

Coran sighed. "It makes me miss the Castle of Lions, with its built-in universal translators."

"Hey, this thing is almost that good." Not that any of this quibbling solved their immediate problem. Going back was still an option, if not ideal, but Katie needed to get outside, undetected, at least long enough to get a good reading on where they were, and they needed to find out of any of the buildings in this mining complex had better communication systems. There had to be something strong enough to at least reach around the planet, or that she could tap into and modify to send a signal off-world. "What we really need, is a distraction."

Off to their left, out of sight somewhere near the barracks, something exploded. Vibrant orange light filled the area in front of them, though there was no immediate debris. The ground shook.

"I think that's our distraction," Lowax commented.

They hunkered there for a several minutes, waiting, as shouting arose from multiple directions. Several of the aliens that seemed to run the place ran by, weapons drawn. An alarm went up. When they went more than a minute without seeing someone run past, they all poked their heads around the corner.

A small building next to the barracks was a raging inferno. Dozens of beings ran back and forth, shouting, and forming a bucket line from a building until a truck pulled on the scene with a huge water barrel on top, and hoses.

Katie looked at her scanners. "The walls, they're almost empty. I have no idea who started that fire, but they did us a favor. If we make a break straight for the exit, it looks like there's a forest beyond this flat area."

"Are you up for it?" Coran asked, sounding worried.

"My ankle can hold up for a quick sprint. It'll have to." Since no one was expecting anyone to escape from this direction, they had an advantage. "All right. Let's go!"

Katie took off as fast as she could manage, grateful for the tight bandage around her ankle and foot. As much as she wanted to look to the left and see what was going on, she didn't dare slow down.

She was unprepared for the sudden rush of people coming at them from the left. Katie had only a moment wondering why they were focusing on them instead of the fire, before they started streaming past them without even looking, and she realized what was going on. "It's a prison break!"

In front of her, an alien with a cloth over his face looked back at her, scowled, and then blinked, before shouting something at everyone with a hand over his arms.

In her hand, her translator crackled. "To the woods! You're almost free!"

It worked! Katie glanced at Coran, who nodded briefly, showing he had heard it.

Chances were, they would be safer with the rescuers and escapees, than the ones holding them prisoner. It was a calculated risk, but it was better than being out there all alone.

Then they were in the middle of the jostling crowd, streaming through the gates.

Behind them, the guards started shooting.

In all the years of fighting aliens, Katie had only rarely been in the position of being hunted, and she hadn't liked it then either. Running through the darkness in a crowd of strangers being shot at was definitely a new low.

Beside her, someone screamed, and fell, tripping an unknown number of people coming up behind. There were other shouts, and shots whizzed over their heads.

They all kept running.

It seemed like forever before they broke the edge of the trees and fled into the woods. There was no real path, so all she could do was follow the crowd, led by whomever their rescuers happened to be. A stitch formed in Katie's side as they brushed through bushes, and hurdled over tree limbs. Her ankle had stopped throbbing now, instead it stabbed painfully with every stride. Her lungs burned from exertion. Katie's heart pounded. Keep going. Keep going Keep going. She couldn't fall now… couldn't lose now.

She lost track of how long they ran through the dark, bouncing off others, and trees, and tripping over rocks. Until finally, it seemed like they were slowing down, and then they were walking, and she came out suddenly into a clearing and the air above their heads opened up under a circle of vast trees. The murmur of a crowd of voices picked up, though she couldn't understand what anyone else was staying.

"Pidge!" Coran made his way to her through the crowd. He looked tired as well, but he still had her bag. He pushed close until he was right beside her. "Are you alright?"

Katie leaned against the tree, gasping for breath. "I'm… I'm okay." She felt flushed, and a little dizzy.

"You don't look okay."

What could she say to that? Katie felt a bit of relief as she saw Dyn, Priin, and Lowax making their way towards them as well. Thank the ancients we all made it.

There was a sudden commotion, and someone shouted. Katie looked up to see what the commotion was about only to see someone shoving towards them.

A tall alien towered over them all, with slate-skin and yellow eyes brimming with distrust around a long, thin nose that ended in a flat block with thin nostrils. Broad-shouldered but lean through the waist, dressed in clothes that made them vanish almost into the night like a shadow. He had a weapon drawn; a long blade of some kind. He stopped, and shouted something at them.

Still in her hand, Katie's scanner crackled. "Who are you? You are not Yoan."

"I think he's thrown by the uniforms," Coran whispered.

Of course. Katie stood, and fumbled open the jacket, even as she spoke out loud into the system, hoping it could translate reasonably back into the other language. As the jacket fell off, it revealed her regular clothes. "We are lost," she spoke clearly, giving the translator a moment to do its job between sentences. "We fell through a portal while looking for some of our lost colleagues. We saw some of them in the caves. They look like these." She gestured at the Vidorans who had also quickly stripped off the enemy jackets. "They are Vidorans."

The alien stared at them, and looked hard at the Vidorans. "Them… I recognize," he said after a moment. "We have rescued several from the mines. They tell the same story of coming through the wall door. But you are not Vidoran. Nor you." He looked suspiciously at Coran.

"No, but we are friends," Katie continued, holding her voice steady. "My name is Katie Holt, and I'm a human. This is Coran, from the planet Altea."

"I have never heard of those."

"I believe they are very far from here," Katie admitted. "I have not yet had a chance to study your skies, and figure out our position in relation to our own planets. Do you have interplanetary travel?"

"We do not," the alien responded. "The Yoan are the only ones who do, and they have used it to enslave many."

So much for that idea. Though if the Yoan did have that capability, they might not be in as dire straits as she thought. Not that she was about to go making deals with slavers instead. "Where we come from, we have fought many slavers," she tried to explain as simply as she could. "The Galra were a race that once controlled much of the universe, but working with many others, we made allies and free thousands of worlds."

This got a snort. "You? You are but a small female."

Coran bristled, but Katie waved him back. "I am both of those things," she nodded. "But I am also a warrior… and an engineer. This device," she held it up, "That is allowing us to speak, is one of my inventions. We have no weapons such as yours with us, and we can do you no harm. But perhaps, we can be of help."

This gave the alien pause. He seemed to consider them for a moment longer, then put up his blade. That seemed to be a signal, as Katie heard several more pieces of metal being sheathed in the crowd. "What do you want in return?"

"We came here to find and rescue the missing Vidoran scientists. That was our mission before we got pulled here. For as long as they are enslaved with the rest of your people, our mission is the same. However, if we can find a way to send a message off world to our people, we have allies, and ships that are much more advanced than the Yoan. We can help free your people as well…all of them."

"And how do we trust that you would not enslave us as well?"

At that Coran snorted. "We don't enslave people! That's ludicrous."

"You are welcome to examine all of my technology," Katie offered. "I have detailed information about all of our races, and the worlds we come from, and our histories. We can share our knowledge with you, to improve your own technology, and your medical knowledge. Give us the opportunity to earn your trust." Her head began to swim, and her ankle was a stabbing throbbing pain. She stood firm, even as she wobbled slightly, meeting the alien's eyes with a gaze that held no fear, because she was not afraid.

The alien sighed, and his face—at least Katie thought this one was probably male—softened. His eyes no longer appeared menacing. "It is all we can do in such times. If we had not already saved several of these Vidorans from the slave camps in the last few weeks, I would believe none of it. But we have seen much, and they have been good allies. I am Golron, of the Varsen. This planet is called Taklis, and it is our ancestral home. The others you see, come from other planets in our sun system. The Yoan have taken theirs as well, and split us up to work in their mines and factories, sent to different worlds to keep us apart. But they failed to see that we can see beyond differences, and that we can unite against them. There are many groups of resistance fighters like us on all the planets, though ours is the biggest, and has the most hideouts."

"Are you the leader?" Coran asked.

"There are many leaders," Golron replied. "With many heads, the cause cannot die. I am, however, the leader here. You are welcome, for now. As long as you do not betray us to the Yoan, you are safe. Betrayal will not be met with mercy."

"Your secrets are in no danger from us," Katie promised, before her head swam, and she swayed. Fortunately, Coran was right behind her.

"You have been through much tonight, all of you." At this Golron raised his voice, and turned facing the entire group of rescued slaves. "But now you are free, and it is our hope that you will choose to join in our cause, if you have not before, and to remain if this is not your first taste of freedom. If you wish to flee on your own, we will give you food and water here, and you may make your own way with our best wishes. Know that if you stay, you will find family with us, as long as you do not betray us. For we are all one against the Yoan."

"You need rest," Coran whispered in Katie's ear.

"Soon," she replied. "This is going well. We can't appear weak here."

They stayed where they were as Golron and his people moved through the crowd, sorting people out. There were four or five who wanted to make their way back to their own homes, to try and find their families. They were given several days' worth of supplies, and headed out, three alone, and two together. That left fifteen who had not died or been caught again, plus their five. Katie did not know how many had been lost in the attempt.

She realized she had zoned out a little only when she saw that two of the recent escapees were two of the missing Vidorans: Eloo, the female they had spotted from above, and a male, Vix. They were hugging the other three with abandon that made it clear they all knew each other, and even if they had been professional colleagues before, they were so happy to see each other any decorum had gone out the window.

Finally, Golron returned to their group, and motioned them to join the others under a tree. "You all are with us. So now, we go home." He pointed upward.

Startled, Katie looked up to see large platforms descending out of the trees through the darkness. There were two, and they settled onto the leafy forest floor with a silent whump. They stepped onto them, and immediately the platforms began to ascent silently, and with more speed than she expected. Her stomach lurched, and a wave of nausea came with it. Hold it in… must not… vomit.

She was grateful for the railings, because they rose far into the air, and the ground was invisible in the dark, by the time they stopped.

Coran gasped. "It's a tree top city. Well, village maybe."

Katie opened her eyes and looked around. He was right. It was, she thought, not unlike the alternate home the Olkari had built in the forest during the Galra occupation. The giant trees were ringed around with railed walkways, and living quarters had been made out of large open bores in the trees, or built on platforms within the branches. Up this far, dim lights glowed every few feet along the walkways, and out of the doors of homes, though each seemed to have a thick fabric door to block the light.

"Welcome to our dwelling," Golron said as they stepped onto the platform, which was thankfully very solid, and not moving. "You will be shown where you may sleep. All spaces are shared, but you will find them reasonably comfortable."

Katie suspected that for those who had just been freed, anything would feel like luxury. She would be grateful for something that wasn't a rock. They did not argue as the group was led up and down several walkways. As they went, small groups were directed into various of the small houses. As they reached the end of a walkway, the five Vidorans were given one large living space, next to other rooms that held the other escaped Vidorans. Golron led her and Coran up one more set of stairs, and then stopped. "This one is also currently unoccupied. As we have no others of either of your species, you two may share it, if that is acceptable."

"That's fine," Katie agreed, not given Coran a chance to object. Besides, where else would they put them? It was much better than bunking in with complete strangers.

Inside, the space held two bunks, which meant that neither of them had to fight over sleeping space.

"Should you wish to bathe, there are rainwater showers installed on the top level," Golron explained. "Meals may be brought back here, but they are taken on the platform near the kitchens. Should you need to relieve yourself, we have a toilet system on the bottom level, which runs excretions down to an underground depository. If you cannot get there quickly enough, there is a pot under your bed you may use, but be sure to empty and clean it daily. If you need guidance, ask anyone here and they will be happy to see that you do not get lost."

"Impressive," Katie admitted. For a primitive camp in the woods, they had obviously been here a while, if they had infrastructure. It must have taken years to build all this. "Where should we wash clothes?" That was one thing she did not have extras of and what she was wearing now was pretty filthy after two days in the mines after a full day working underground, and their dart through the forest.

"There is a laundry, also on the upper level. We have a lot of rain." Golron actually smiled. At least, Katie thought it might be a smile. It looked like a human one. He even had fairly even teeth. "Though we wear clothing designed to hide us among the trees, and on the ground. Clean items will be brought to you. From now on, they will be yours unless you no longer require them. You are welcome to make alterations."

That was good, because no matter what they brought, eventually, she might need it. Though Katie hoped to not be lost on the planet that long. "Can I also see the stars from the top level?" If it was too far below the leaves, she would not be able to get a good read on their position.

"On a clear night like this one, yes. It is possible to climb all the way to the very tops, but I would not recommend it. A fall would be fatal."
"I just need to see enough to triangulate our position, and figure out where we are in relation to home."

"I am curious to see this technology of yours in action. May I escort you to the upper deck when you are refreshed, and you can explain to me how it works?"

"Sure. That sounds fine."

"Good. I will return when I have completed my reports, and checked with my seconds." With that, Golron left.

Coran looked around the room. "Well, I have to admit, this is a better situation that I thought we would land in."

"We're not sleeping in a cave, and there's food. That's all I care about." Katie sat down on the edge of one of the beds. The bunks were made of wood beams, and the beds were made of ropes woven between them, topped with thin mattresses stuffed with leaves. Still, it was much softer than where they had slept the past two nights.

"I don't like the idea of you going up there with him alone."

"We have to trust someone, Coran, and he's the leader. We promised he could see our technology, and there is nothing to benefit him in hurting me. No one else here has any hope of figuring out how it works. He'll see that very quickly. Though, by all means, if you think I can't handle him myself, then come along."

The bite in her last few words seemed to have made it clear that he was being too protective. Coran sighed. "All right, but I would feel better if you'd at least take your bayard. I saw it in your bag."

"That, I will absolutely do."

Another Varsen, this one smaller and female, who introduced herself as Tillian, brought them both changes of clean clothes in the style of the rest of the tree dwellers, though without the hole for the vestigial tails Katie had noticed the Varsen seemed to have. All of these were dyed in various grays, some greener, and others bluer, but all grays or soft browns.

She was followed by another who did not introduce himself, but brought plates of food, and a bucket of water and cloth that was apparently meant for toweling.

"For tonight, you may wash and eat here," Tillian explained. "Golron wishes to meet with you before the moon sets."

"How long is that?" Katie asked curiously.
"About an hour." Or at least, that was what the translator made it out to. Katie got the feeling it was closer to an Altean varga.

"We'll be ready."

"So… who wants to bathe first?" Coran asked, looking more than a little uncomfortable.

Katie smiled. "You go ahead. I'm going to find this bathroom, and then eat because I'm starving. We can string a blanket between the two halves of the room if you want, to give us each a little more privacy.

"That sounds like a very reasonable idea," Coran agreed.

"Good. I like to think I'm capable of those."

By the time Katie returned from finding the restroom, Coran had done just that, and had already completed what must have been a very quick bath. He was dressed in the long sleeved and nearly knee-length tunic style shirt that had been left for him, and pants, both in bluish grays. There was also a belt, with multiple felted pouches for carrying things, and an over-jacket for cold or wet, that was more of a brown. It didn't really match, but Katie supposed it didn't need to.

She sat down and drained the cold water sitting next to her plate, before opening it to reveal what was actually a serviceable meal. Curious, she pulled out her scanner and analyzed it. "This meat seems to be something avian, and the steamed plants are a mix of ground tubers and fleshy, edible leaves. The bread is well, basically bread. It's not a grain I've seen before but the chemical composition of all of these should be fully safe for us to eat."

"Excellent, because it smells delicious after days of rations." Coran sat down on the edge of his bed, which served as a chair as well, and began to eat.

Katie devoured everything on her plate, wondering if there was any way to ask for more without coming across as greedy. Instead, she went to her bag and pulled out one of her last protein snack bars. Then, she was ready to bathe.

"I'll just step next door and see how the Vidorans are doing," Coran suggested. "They might know more than we do if they've had a chance to speak with their other rescued colleagues."

"That's a good idea, Coran. You go do that."

When he was gone, Katie stripped naked and used the cloth and the pile of soft sand Tillian had assured them worked as a cleansing agent, to rub the days of grime off herself, being gentle with the various areas of her body that were sore, for a myriad of reasons. Aside from the bruises and scratches that she made sure to clean with disinfectant from her bag, the only real injury was her stabbing ankle which, upon unwrapping, was looking angry and swollen. She let it breathe, and allowed herself a small dose of anti-inflammatory she also had in her kit; this one Altean, and perfectly safe to take while pregnant, which was why she had packed that one in particular.

The worst part, stupid as it seemed, was washing her breasts, which were sore and a little swollen, and the small bulge that she was startled to find much more noticeable than it had been at the beginning of the week. Katie had heard subsequent pregnancies often started showing sooner, but she suspected that having Hunk's genetic material involved was probably at least as much a part of it.

When she was clean, Katie looked at the garments left for her. She was pleased, and a bit relieved, to find herself on a planet that believed in underwear. They also seemed to have done a decent job of approximating her current size, and the clothing was all loose, drapey things that were belted on. Wise if you were outfitting a lot of people. Fantastic if she didn't want to advertise her condition to everyone here, or have to trade out clothes every couple of weeks. There were soft stockings, and the pants left for her—appropriately in a soft green—provided their best discovery yet. The pants were snug in the legs on purpose, but cut loose in the waist, and gathered by drawstrings. Katie sighed with relief as she pulled them on, and tied them off so that the waist sat just under her belly, instead of pressing on the tender area. They didn't seem to believe in bras, but then Katie hadn't noticed how many of the species on this planet even had breasts. It was possible that those were just not a thing. Well, she could make do with cloth wrapping or her own for now. Or nothing… nothing might be more comfortable, except in combat situations, or if they had to do more long-distance running.

Her back, hips, and ankle throbbed at the very thought.

The tunic brought for her also fell to just above the knee, and was a softer, yellower green than the pants, and a lighter fabric. She wondered what the fabrics were made of. They must have something like sheep on this planet or, it was also possible that these were plant fibers like spun flax. They felt much like linen.

She was still holding it up to inspect when she heard the curtain move behind her.

"Are you prepared for our meeting?"

Katie had not expected Golron. She spun around, startled, thinking after only a moment to yank the shirt up to cover her top half. "Don't your people believe in knocking?!"

Golron did not blush red, but his slate skin turned slightly darker blue, and Katie wondered if that might mean the same thing. "My apologies." He turned his back. "I did not mean to intrude."

"Well give me a minute to finish getting dressed then." Katie turned her back on him deliberately, and quickly pulled the tunic on over her head. It slid smoothly down her body. Once she had it on, she picked up the belt, and debated for a moment whether to belt it high, or low. She opted for low since it was easier for it to sit on her hips. Then she pulled the computer out of her bag, and the scanner she had used earlier since it was also their only translator, and slipped them into a smaller pack so she didn't have to drag the entire thing. "I am prepared."

Golron nodded, and held open the door drape to permit her to exit first. "It is this way," he said simply, and led the way.

Katie followed him up several walkways and flights of wooden hanging stairs. She was grateful they didn't seem to go in for a lot of ladders. The subtle movements of some of the footings were enough to make her feel nauseated.

After a few minutes, Golron spoke. "You are a life bearer?"

Katie blinked, taking a moment to figure out what the translation meant. Then she realized that he would have seen her belly. Apparently even on this planet it was clear what that meant. She nodded. "That's right."

"Your first?"

"Second," Katie said, breathing as they took a particular steep staircase up and around the curve of one of the giant trees. "My daughter is on the other side of that portal… with her father."

"You have been separated from your mate."

Katie nodded. "Yes. He was not pulled through with us. I… I hope he's all right. There was an earthquake in the cave we were investigating."

"He was there with you?"

"He's an engineer, and explorer, like me," Katie explained. "He's also famous on hundreds of planets for his cooking," she added, thinking fondly not just of Hunk, but his food. Oh, how she could have gone for just about anything he made right now.

"Hundreds? Surely you exaggerate."

"No, not a bit. Have you ever heard of Voltron?" It was highly unlikely, given they had never heard of the Galra, so she was not surprised when Golron shook his head. "When we get to the top, I'll show you."

"Good, because we are here."

They had arrived on a platform Katie suspected of being a watch-tower, as it was even above the showers. While it did not stick out above the very tops of the trees, there was a wide-open space above her, sprinkled across with billions of stars, just the way she might expect on a low-tech planet with almost no light pollution. Up here it was just the platform, and what she realized were cleverly disguised solar panels. That explained the power down below, and its limited use.

"This is perfect," Katie told him, even as her heart sank. She didn't recognize the stars in this configuration at all. Without any chairs, she simply sat down cross-legged on the wood of the platform, and opened her computer, then attached the scanner to it. She held it up, so the camera could get a good view of the sky above them.

"May I?" Golron motioned towards the ground beside her.

"Sure. You can't see how it works if you can't look at it." Katie shrugged. When he was seated, though he maintained a respectful distance. His height worked to his advantage there. "All right. So, these are start charts of the entire known universe," Katie explained as she pulled them up. They turned slowly on screen, moving based on calculations, but planets were never still, just as stars were not, and that was reflected in her models, always. "What I'm doing now is having the system scan the stars and look for matches. Once it identifies at least two or three for sure, it can tell me our position in relation to them, and plot us on the map."

"This is incredible," Golron gasped. "We do have maps like this of our own sun system, but nothing outside it. I have seen a Yoan map, which shows one other sun system. The system they came from, I believe, but no more. You have thousands."

"Millions, actually," Katie shrugged. "But the only ones that matter are the ones we need to get back to." She waited, watching the system run numbers, and finally it positively IDed one star, then another, then a third. It began to run the calculations. "Now it's triangulating our position."

The system beeped, and the map whirled, all the way around, and a small blip of purple started throbbing. Katie zoomed in on it even as her heart sank. They were thousands of years from home without hyperspace or wormhole capabilities. The system was on her maps, but the star was only identified as Kryptar 739. An ancient designation from old Earth astronomers. The system was so remote, and apparently unremarkable, that the Galra had even left it alone. Their records included only the number of planets and type of star, and a designation of lacking in enough resources to be worth their time. Katie found that ironic, given the Yoan seemed to be extracting plenty. But then, the Galra had wanted quintessence, not coal.

"So, that is us," Golron commented.
"Yes. It is. And now that I know the name of this planet, I can add it to the database." Quickly she re-labelled the small sphere. "You can tell me the names of the rest of the planets, and your star, and the moons." Golron was happy to comply, and quickly, Katie had an updated map of the six-planet system, four of which existed at the right distance to support life.

Taklis, not unlike Earth, was the third planet from its sun.

"Where is your planet?" Golron asked.

"Earth is…. Here." Katie tapped the commands into the keyboard, and immediately the map whirled away from their position, drawing a thin white line that connected it with Earth, which was almost directly opposite them, and lifetimes away. How she would ever get them a signal, she did not know. Though the edges of former Galra space were not as far from here as that. Maybe, she should aim a signal at the old Galra communication hubs, or the nearest Coalition planet instead.

For a while she answered Golron's questions. She showed him Altea, and then the planet they were on when they were brought here from the Vidor system. Golron asked about the Galra Empire, and of course Katie had tera quads of data on that subject! She showed Golron video recordings, news reports, and old maps of the Empire, as well as their history. She explained the background of Voltron, and—in very brief—how she and her friends had ended up as the second set of pilots for the lions, and how it had all ended.

"Incredible," Golron said when she finished. He sat back, and looked up at the stars. "So much going on in the universe that we never knew about. You were not exaggerating. Though it makes me wish you had known about us. If you were able to destroy the Galra, you would have made short work of the Yoan with your Voltron."

"We know now," Katie pointed out. "Or at least, Coran and I do. Our people still have great knowledge, and a fleet of ships that could defeat the Yoan. If I can get a message to them, they will come to get us, and they could help you. Your peoples, all of you, could join the Galactic Coalition as well."

"And join the rest of the universe. That is far more than I have dreamed off," Golron admitted. "For now, for most of my life, my focus has been on the here and now, and rescuing those enslaved by the Yoan. They have torn too many families apart."

There was something in his tone… "Even your family?" Katie guessed.

Golron nodded. "It is the way of things, here. The Yoan kidnap people from their villages, and bring them to the camps. They claim they only take criminals, but it is not true. We save them, and many escape, only to be re-captured. The cycle is one that repeats often. It is why we are now hiding in the trees. My parents both died fighting the Yoan. My mate and offspring were taken by them. My mate… she was killed in a raid. My offspring… since they are often taken off-world, I do not even know where all of them are, or if they live."

"That's terrible." Katie could imagine, all too well, how she would feel if someone took Caitlin. At least, right now, she could feel certain her daughter was still safe on the Atlas. The second, whichever it turned out to be, was at least as safe as Katie was, while it developed inside her. "How many children?"

"Three. Two males, one female. They are all grown now. I have searched for them for over a decade."

"I hope you find them."

For several minutes, quiet fell between them, but it was not a strained silence.

Something Golron had said, struck her. If they had known before, when they had the lions. Could she summon her lion? In the past, there had been no reason to try, but without help, there was no getting home. If she tried… what could it hurt? For a moment she simply closed her eyes, and concentrated, reaching out. Could she reach anything through that connection? If not her Lion, what about the Atlas, or Hunk himself? She opened herself up to the universe, and tried to reach out, not so much in words, but feelings. Are you there, Green? Can you hear me? I could really use your help right now. Atlas? Hunk? Anybody? The Atlas had connected with her that one time, but either she was too far, or her connection with it not remotely strong enough. She felt nothing.

When she opened her eyes, Golron was watching her intently.

"Sorry," she flushed. "I was just… thinking."

"It is late, and you have been through much. It is I who should apologize for keeping you awake to assuage my own fears and curiosities." Golron stood, then offered her a hand. Katie closed her computer, bagged it, and then accepted the offer up. She tried not to wince as she put weight on her ankle once more. That was going to get old fast. "I will show you back down, so you may rest. Morning nourishment comes when the sun rises." As they started down, he paused. "A question, do you wish your condition to remain unknown, or shall I inform the cooks?"

There was a question. "Why?" Katie asked. As far away as they were, she suspected they would be here long enough that it would become more than self-evident fairly quickly.

"Life bearers are permitted additional food."

More food. "By all means then, tell them."

June 14th, 2332

"There, that's the last one." Katie handed Golron and his weapons engineer the last of the Yoan rifles they had previously taken to them for inspection. Over the past two weeks, she had converted all of them from slug-rounds to energy weapons. The planet was not completely primitive. They had photovoltaic cells, and solar power, so she had rigged these to be rechargeable the same way, but they would last long enough for a couple of raids at a time. The best part was, they could change the settings for how much energy to discharge at a time, meaning they also now had the ability to stun without killing. Or, they could dial it up and use the full lethal amount in necessary situations.

"What do you think?" Golron asked his engineer, a member of a serpentine species from another planet, known as the Thaal. This one's name was Ssisp.

"I think it is excellent," Ssisp commented. "Presuming it works."

"Go ahead and try it out," Katie replied with a confident grin. "I think you'll find they're far more accurate this way. I upgraded the sighting mechanisms as well."

Ssisp turned and aimed out across the glade in the direction signified as 'the range.' Several quick blasts issued from the rifle. Across the way, several leaves had tiny holes in them. "It will do," he laughed. "Nice work."

"Good. Give these out to tonight's retrieval team." Golron patted Ssisp on the shoulder. Then he turned to Katie. "Come with me. I wish to discuss strategy with you."

"With me?" In two weeks, that was not a request Golron had made of her, or any of the off-worlders. She followed as he simply nodded.

Golron led her to the space Katie now thought of as the briefing room, since it was used much as the room had been on the Atlas. The walls were lined with maps, and there was a table for meetings between Golron and his officers. Katie tried hard not to think of them as Golron's merry men. Though she had found that the general mood of the people who lived up here in the tree camp—known locally by the vague but appropriate name of Leaftown—were a general cheerful bunch when they weren't blowing up buildings and making raids. This was their life, and not everyone here was a fighter. While everyone was expected to do their part, many of those rescued who stayed did everyday jobs: they cooked, they cleaned, they helped maintain the structures. There were families in the trees, though the idea of keeping an eye on a toddler up here terrified Katie. Not that she expected to be here that long. But others did it.

Golron stopped in front of the map of the mining compound, and the mines themselves. Courtesy of Katie's group's explorations, they had been able to add details to the interiors of the buildings down below. There were still plenty of places on the map however, where a building might be marked, but did not have floor maps, because no one had ever been inside it.

"Tonight's rescue is going to follow a new plan," he explained. "We have to change it up regularly, or they anticipate us, and we suffer more casualties. The goal is always to minimize risk." He gestured to a point on the map with no details besides the outlines of buildings and notes that said what they were. Her grasp of the local alphabet was still iffy, so she waited for explanation. "This is the main building of the entire facility. Supplies are taken in and out here. Communications are also focused here. It is the only location from which one can send transmissions to other parts of the planet from inside the compound."

"How did you figure that out?" Katie asked.

"It is the only place from which we have ever been able to interrupt a transmission," Golron admitted. "They have radio-wave transmissions to communicate with each other. The physical lines, we have not yet been able to tap for information. That said, it is also a building we have not attacked before, as there was no need. Our focus has always been on freeing slaves, and causing distractions."

"Well, that would be a huge distraction." Katie agreed. "But you're not going to blow it up, are you?" She hoped not. If there was communications equipment inside, she might be able to use it.

Golron shook his head. "No. We were thinking that, if we are causing another distraction, while they will be looking for us at the slave pens, our primary target should be something a bit more useful in the long term. That is, if we can come up with a strategy that allows us to tap their lines, and still monitor them from safely outside the compound."

Now that was a tricky one. Katie looked the map over carefully. There was only the one entrance they had rushed out of to go in or out. The walls, which were about thirty feet high, were not something easily scaled, and there were the guards at the top to consider. "Have any of your men tried sneaking in with the supply shipments? Can you ride in under their vehicles?"

Golron considered it. "We have a couple who might be able to, but to what end?"

"I have this." Katie fished into the felt pockets on the belt, which she had filled with all sorts of useful items from her backpack, and pulled out a small signal transmitter. "If one of your men can find where their wires go into the building, all they have to do is clip this on and make sure it's in contact with their wires. Then, it will send all of their communications data right to my computer."

Golron stared at her for several seconds. "And you simply walk around with one in your pocket?"

"I've had to hack a lot of systems over the years." Katie shrugged. "This is normal for me."

"One astounding surprise after another."

"I can show your person how to connect it," Katie continued, though she was feeling pretty good at the moment. Certainly, they were proving their worth to the team. "And if you'll allow me to update your own system, I can get it to receive those signals as well. Your technology will handle it. It just needs some… upgrades."

"That can be arranged. Let us see how this works, first."

---

Katie was grateful that all they wanted from her so far was her technical expertise. There was no way she would have been running through the woods again on her ankle. While it was feeling much better, the constant climbing to get anywhere meant it was taking a little longer to heal. Though they did have two doctors in the resistance, and she had been assured it was healing just fine.

The female doctor, Iffina, a member of a furry species called the Chicid— that reminded her of what Bae Bae might have looked like as a humanoid, but fluffier—had been fascinated by Katie's medical scanner. While she couldn't recreate all of its components, Katie hoped that they could salvage enough of the local technology for her to build them something that was compatible.

With Ifinna's help, Katie had also started programming all the information the physician knew about the various races she treated into the existing scanner so it could be used for more than humans, Alteans, and Vidorans.

Tonight, Katie's job was to sit in Golron's briefing room with Golron while the other team made their rescue raid. Tonight's plan was riskier—to hit during the dinner hours while the slaves were being fed. It was earlier, and not quite dark out, but it would be unexpected. No one would anticipate that it was also a partial diversion for the other part of their mission. The part she was tracking. Her job was to talk Balfi—another Chicid—through the installation of the transmitter that would convert the signals so they could be sent to her computer, and confirm when they were able to receive them.

This was much more her type of assignment. Sitting in a chair, with her leg propped up on another chair—with a leaf-stuffed cushion for it. Her computer propped on her legs, headphones on, and her plate of dinner on the table next to her, it felt almost like old times.

Almost. It all felt wrong without Hunk. And not just because he would have been spoiling her rotten, making anything she craved, giving her back massages…. His insights would have made this plan even better.

Where were he and Caitlin now? Was the Atlas still parked in the Vidor system, or had they given up the immediate search? Five more missing persons were not something they could afford to tie up the Galactic Coalition's flagship for indefinitely. Caitlin must be desperately missing her. Certainly, as much as Katie was missing her daughter. Any time she wasn't focused on a task, her brain fell right back to thoughts of Caitlin and Hunk, and her family. Her parents had thought her dead once. She had to let them know she was alive. Hunk… must be devastated.

"We're almost in position," Balfi's voice came across her headset in little more than a whisper.

Katie adjusted her microphone. "I read you. Following." Time to focus.

A couple of minutes later, Balfi again. "In position. The connection box is on the outside right where you thought it would be. Opening it now… and open."

"Okay. Tell me what you see."

"A board with multiple wires running in and out of it, and the main line running into the building." Behind him, they heard an explosion of noise. That, was there real distraction in action.

"Perfect. Attach the first one at the connection point of the incoming wire."

She waited. After a minute, Balfi said "The light is green."

"Good. Let's see what we get." Katie looked at the window on her system that would show when they started receiving transmissions. She had the volume up enough that Golron would be able to hear anything that came through from the phones. If they were in any kind of panic there should be an outgoing call sometime soon.

They didn't have long to wait. Within seconds they got a stream of conversation in the Yoan language. Katie didn't immediately understand it, though her computer began to translate it into written text. Golron did not need a translator.

-another attempt to steal slaves. Shooting our men with some kind of laser weapons.

Where did they get lasers?

How should I know?! We don't even have lasers. But a dozen guards are down and they've taken nearly twice that many slaves.

Hunt them down!

We're on it, but we need back up.

If you can't handle this yourself, maybe we need to reassign your position to someone who can.

I… I'll handle it, Ma'am.

Good.

Golron was grinning as the call ended. "That is excellent."

Katie nodded. "Balfi, still there?"

"Affirmative," he replied. "Do you want me to attach the second one?"

"Yes. There should be a wire arching across the top, larger than the others. Tapping into that one should give us their internal communications between buildings as well." Which would give them invaluable information.

"Okay, it's in."

Moments later, a dozen new data streams flooded her screen, all with audio data, all transcribing and translating as it went. Katie did not have all of those on audio, but Golron leaned over her shoulder to look at them. Orders for the soldiers to put out fires, first aid to get to the downed men, and gathering forces to go after the escapees.

"Time to pull them out," Golron said.
Katie nodded. "Balfi. You're good. Pull out now. Everyone needs to get out. They're mounting an offense."

Then she switched channels, reaching Golron's second who was in charge of tonight's raid. "Urrol, this is base. Thirty armed soldiers coming in the next thirty seconds. Pull out now and put plan C into operations."

"Understood base. Confirmed, following instructions," Urrol replied. Plan C was to have the teams leading escapees split in the forest taking two different routes, neither leading directly toward Leaftown, until they shook their pursuit. The first route led towards steep hills in the woods, and a waterfall, where more armed resistance fighters waited with more of Katie's modified stun-guns. The second route was similar, though it led into a tree-shaded ravine where it would be easy to pick off pursuit much the same way. Only then would they circle back around to the Leaftown base.

"And now, we wait." Katie leaned back, sliding the system off her legs and putting in on the table. She sat up to get a better angle on the food left on her plate, and picked up the thick dark piece of bread slathered with a vegetable with a texture somewhere between ripe avocado and actual butter. Whatever it was, it was delicious.

"This is going very smoothly," Golron commented. "If it goes the way you have planned, it may be our most successful raid yet."

"That's a big if," Katie pointed out. Her plans were good, but that didn't mean the enemy wouldn't do something unexpected.

Katie changed the incoming communication channels on her system to include their snipers set up at both locations. It should take ten or fifteen minutes before they heard from either of them. She finished the bread, and then reached for the pickled strips of some crunchy, purple vegetable. Hunk would love these. She made a mental note to add them to the list of dishes she kept writing down to share with him, including the names of the various fruits and vegetables and meat animals on the planet, and their properties. It helped her feel connected to home, and hopefully that they would get there. A couple of weeks felt like forever, but that was nothing compared to how lost some of the Paladins had been before.

As they waited, Coran joined them, tools still in hand. "The lifts are done being reinforced and repaired. They're ready for the larger group."

"Good." Golron nodded, his eyes still focused on the data streaming across the screens.

Coran came to join them, looking over Katie's other shoulder. "What's the news?"

News from the mines showed that they had once again handled the fires, and their guards were in hot pursuit of the escapees, or so they thought. They were furious because this time, despite the daylight attack, they hadn't killed or caught a single resistance fighter, and they had lost nearly thirty slaves. There was nothing about Balfi, so for now at least they were clueless that they had been effectively tapped, and Balfi was probably well on his way back, untracked.

"Rescue incoming at Falls," one of the sniper's voices came over the communicator. "We have visual on the team. Yoan following about fifty yards behind."

"Time to see how well the modifications worked," Coran commented.

Katie nodded. "We'll know in a minute." Could two snipers with stunning weapons take out fifteen or more enemy in the dark? The odds were good as long as no one got a shot back at them. Since Golron's team had never tried this particular tactic, they would have the element of surprise at least once.

"Rescue team clear. Firing."

They didn't hear shooting over her headset, but they did see the response from the Yoan a few seconds later as they got reports of their guards going down without warning. The first lines dropped, and the next tripped over them. They were being shot at but they hadn't heard any firing. A few shot in the direction of where they thought the enemy was, but didn't hit.

"Team One here. The rest are in retreat. Should we let them?"

"Let them go, this time," Golron spoke up. "We want messengers."

"What should we do with the unconscious Yoan?"

"Tie them up, and leave them. When they come to retrieve the bodies they will find live guards, and they will know we are better than they are."

It would have been so easy to kill them, but that wasn't the goal of the resistance. Given the option to kill, they were choosing not to. Katie felt a small surge of relief. There had always been the possibility that giving them the upgrades had been a mistake. So many 'Robin Hood' types in history were really no better than actual thieves, or the scum they were fighting. They just saw themselves as freedom fighters. Despite generations of fighting, Golron, at least, seemed determined to end the cycle of bloodshed if he could.

Katie had an idea. "Team Two. Can you let the Yoan get just past you, and hit them from behind first with one, and the other from the front after?"

"Team two here. We can position for that."

"Good. They'll be reaching you in about five minutes."

"Ah, I see what you're going for," Coran nodded in approval. "They'll have the report that the other team was ambushed by the time they get there. So, they'll be expecting the shots from the front."

"Right. If we start from behind, they won't be prepared for it. Then, when they get hit from the front, they'll know they're trapped. Golron, how many hostages do you want?" Katie asked. "We should have at least one or two, otherwise we'll miss a golden opportunity to get some more intel on the layout of the buildings, the slave pens, and find out more about their equipment."

"Two will be enough," Golron commented. "The higher ranking the better, though I doubt they've sent more than the lowest guards after them."

"Team One, Team Two. New order: choose the highest-ranking captive and take them hostage, one from each group."

"Understood."

"Got it."

Then another few minutes of waiting, then more firing. This time the Yoan expected it, though being sandwiched between the two snipers surrounding them, meant that they fired in all directions. Then the leadership at the mines lost contact with them completely.

They're incredibly lucky they aren't all dead.

"Team two here. They didn't hit us, though they tried. Tying them up and choosing our captive. Returning to base."

Team one was already on their way back. So was Balfi.

Katie leaned back in the chair. "Well, that's that."

"Good. I will go now to meet the rest." With that Golron exited the room.

Coran took the other chair. "Thank goodness. I'm glad to see they took advantage of the ability to stun the enemy, instead of killing them."

"I was just thinking that," Katie admitted. "I want to trust them, and everything we've seen so far tells me we can, but there's always that bit of doubt. We've been double crossed by supposed allies so many times before."

"It is a bit early to give them our unreserved trust, but it's a good start." Coran reached for a wooden cup and the wooden pitcher of water sitting on the table, and poured some, before drinking it down. "Priin tells me the other Vidorans have only seem this same pattern of behavior in the movements they've been here as well. They haven't asked of anyone more than they've been able to do in work either."

"That's good to know." Katie stifled a yawn. It wasn't even late yet, and she still had work to do. Now was not the time to be drowsy. She looked at the primitive computer system in the corner that the resistance had been using to this point. It was going to take a little while to upgrade it to get these readings, but she could do it. They had enough parts, and she had the knowhow.

"You should get some rest," Coran suggested.

Katie stretched, then stood. Well, there was no time like the present. "No, Coran. I'll rest when we've gotten a message home."