The Gold Paladin

Hole in Space

The Paladins all sat in their assigned seats on the Bridge, but not all were calm. Novae couldn't stop thinking about Lotor. The fact that he was out there and knew her secrets was far to terrifying for her to comprehend. Everyone could see that she was uncomfortable ever since they encountered Lotor, but they didn't want pull it out of her. 

However, Allura wanted to know. She had heard Novae sneaking out of her room and muttering to herself. Though she wanted to know more about the Gold Paladin, but she didn't want to be insensitive about her privacy. Suddenly, alarms blared throughout the Castle. A familiar sound to the Alteans.

"What's going on?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, these have never gone off before." Pidge added.

Allura clutched her hands over her chest, eyes wide in shock at the signal.

"Allura, what is it?" Allura heard Lance ask, but she kept her eyes focused on the screen.

"Looks like you guys just saw a ghost." Hunk observed.

"That's just the thing. It's an old Altean distress code. One used by King Alfor's ships." Coran explained.

"Could it be? Are we not the last Alteans alive?" Allura hoped.

"Wait." Keith said abruptly, "What if someone's cloning the signal to try and lure us in?"

"The signal is from an Altean ship, and we're going to find it." Allura said determined, the pedestals rose underneath her hands and she opened a wormhole to the coordinates. 

🦁🦁🦁~~~~🦁🦁🦁

In an instant, the Castle flew through the wormhole. The Altean ship was indeed there, but only half of it was visible. The other half was caught inside of what seemed to be a white wormhole swirling with gold as it kept the ship inside while sucking in small asteroids surrounding it.

Allura recognized the ship right away as soon as they got close enough to the wormhole.

"That looks like a Tel-Galax exploration shuttle." Allura said, "One of my father's deep space vessels."

Coran began scanning for the code to identify the ship and what it was supposed to be exploring.

"According to the ship's identification code, it's Commodore Trayling's ship." Coran informed, "But I don't seen any records of its destination or mission."

"What happened to it?" Lance asked.

"Is it stuck in a wormhole?" Hunk asked.

"That's unlike any wormhole I've ever seen." Coran said.

Novae stared at the wormhole, but got a sick feeling deep in her gut. It was as if something was trying to claw its way out of her. The feeling quickly rose to her chest, and her heart beat faster and faster, almost like it was about to burst.

"Novae, are you okay?" She heard Lance ask. She looked up and saw everyone staring at her. Novae smiled and nodded, not understanding the reason for their concern.

"I am, Lance. Why do you ask?" She asked.

"Well, you're looking really pale, and you looked like you were struggling to breathe." Pidge pointed out.

"Oh, was I?" Novae said, feigning surprise, "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. More importantly, we should scan the wormhole. Coran?"

"Oh, yes! Of course." Coran said and scanned the wormhole.

"There's a massive amount of energy emanating from it, centered right where the ship is stuck."

"We have to see if anyone is aboard. They may need our help." Allura said.