𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚃𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 - 𝙺𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙺𝚘𝚐𝚊𝚗𝚎 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Chapter Twenty-Three - Comets and Doppelgängers

It had been a few days since the battle with Lotor on Thayserix, and everyone had now settled down, returning to the new normal within the castle. Now, everyone was in the control room in their regular clothes, sitting comfortably in their chairs, though Allura remained at her control station as an alarm started to blare. Because of this, you took to sitting in the blue lion's seat, Allura reassuring you that she didn't mind.

"What's going on?", Keith asked, glancing back at you, deep in thought. He watched as you bit your lip and furrowed your brows, knowing your head was already jumping to the worst of ideas. Though he was concerned for the entire group, deep down he knew that his priority was you, and he wanted to be able to protect you at all costs.

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

"Allura, what is it?", Lance glanced at her.

"Looks like you guys just saw a ghost,", Hunk commented, and it was true. Allura stood by her podium, wringing her hands together with her eyes wide as she looked ahead. Coran didn't look any better, his eyebrows raised to the point that they almost blended in with his hairline, and his mouth was ajar slightly.

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

"Could it be? Are we not the last Alteans alive?", Allura gasped, her eyes holding a glimmer of hope. While she was optimistic, Keith certainly wasn't.

"Wait. What if someone's cloning the signal and trying to lure us in?", he pointed out, now facing forward with his back to the rest of the group.

"The signal is from an Altean ship, and we're going to find it,", she persisted, raising her podiums as a barrier formed around her. All was quiet for a minute as she opened a wormhole, taking you to the area in which the signal had come from. Everyone was shocked when they noticed part of a ship sticking out of some sort of discoloured wormhole, though Allura seemed to recognise it. "That looks like a Tel-Galax exploration shuttle. One of my father's deep space vessels,"

"According to the ship's identification code,", Coran said, typing away on his screen. "it's Commodore Trayling's ship,", his eyebrows crinkled together as he glanced through the data that lay before him. "But I don't see any records of its destination or mission,"

"What happened to it?", Lance asked.

"Is it stuck in a wormhole?", Hunk suggested, looking at the scene in front of him.

"That's unlike any wormhole I've ever seen,", Coran remarked, looking at the oddly coloured phenomenon. Though wormholes typically consisted of purple and blue, this one was sheer black, with hints of warmer shades, like orange and yellow, striking both confusion and concern.

"There's a massive amount of energy emanating from it, centred right where the ship is stuck,", Pidge informed the group, having performed some basic scans as soon as they arrived, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"We have to see if anyone is on board. They may need our help,", Allura urged. With the discovery that she may not actually be the last of her kind, she felt she needed to do whatever it took to save any possible Alteans, no matter the cost. Besides, they were already there, so what was the harm in exploring a little?

"We could send a probe over to it, see if we can get some kind of idea what this thing is?", Pidge proposed, seeing no harm in checking.

"Do it,", Keith instructed, sharply. He seemed to have a short fuse today, so you thought it best to give him some space. He, however, thought differently; his stomach twisted in knots as he tried to figure out what he may have done to drive you away from sitting with him, and he snuck glances back at you every so often, reassured that you were alright by the soft smile that now graced your lips upon noticing his concern.