Stars In Our Hearts

Part 14

We all stood around Pidge as she tried to go through Sendak's memories. "Once we learn all his weaknesses, we can drive up to his front door and challenge him to a fight, winner gets the universe!" Lance grinned. We all just stared at him. "Anything yet Pidge?" I asked. "We were only able to salvage bits and pieces" Pidge answered. "We need something to work with, right now, we don't even have a decent map of the empire" Keith sighed. "Who needs a map? After 10,000 years of conquering, I could probably fire my bayard at any random point in space and hit a Galra ship" Lance crossed his arms. "If we just had some troop locations or some supply routes, small targets we could hit and run, we could start to free planets one by one" Shiro stated. "Boring, I want the big kaboom" Lance held his fists up. "Zarkon's been building his empire for 10,000 years, we're not gonna tear it down overnight" Shiro crossed his arms. "He's right, we only have six, mostly, inexperienced pilots and one support ship, if we go for him with the way we are now, we'd die" I crossed my arms. "Okay, I've cross-referenced Sendak's memories with the info I got from the downed ship back on Arus, most of it was a garbled mess, but one thing kept repeating, something called a 'Universal Station'" Pidge said. "Like the kind of station that controls the entire universe?" Hunk questioned. "Well, we are translating it from Galra so it could also be 'Galatic Hub'" Pidge moved Hunks head out of the way. "Or 'Space Base'" Lance held a finger out. We all once again, just stared at him. "I'm pulling up the location of your Universal Hub Station Base" Coran walked off. Three planets appeared on our screen. "So where is it?" Lance asked. "I don't know, our long range sensors are unable to find anything at those coordinates" Coran answered. "Maybe he remembered it wrong" Keith suggested. "Or maybe we just stumbled across a top secret base in Sendak's memory" Pidge looked like one of those evil geniuses you see on TV. "Only way to find out is to go look" I said. 

After some time, we were there. "There it is" Shiro stated as we spotted the base. "It appears that the gravitation of the two planets warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the planet off the deep space scanners" Coran said. "So, you can only see it if you really know where to look" Pidge put her finger on her chin. "It must handle shipments from all over the Galra Empire" I said, taking a seat. "If this is just some big airport where shipments come and go, why is it hidden?" Pidge asked. "There has to be more to it" I said. "We better go down to take a look, we'll enter here" Allura showed us on the screen. "I'm sorry, Princess, did you say 'we'?" Keith questioned. "I'm going with you, I've traveled through the Galra transportation hubs many times with my father before the war began, I know about them than any of you" Allura explained. "Princess, I'd rather you stay here" Coran walked up. "I'm a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone, I'm going" she was determined. Allura looked at us, asking if anyone had a problem with it. We all just turned our heads. "Fine, suit up" Shiro shrugged, much to Coran's dismay. "Huh?" we all looked at Shiro, clearly confused. We then suited up and got to our lions. 

"We'll go in low, fast and hopefully undetected" Shiro said. It didn't take long for us to board. We all had our bayards ready as Shiro knocked the first sentry out. I then hit one of them with my staff while Lance shot the other one. I helped Lance move them while Pidge was getting into the system. "Sorry to interrupt, but I think have company" Keith said, interrupting Hunk. Then a screen appeared with a Galra soldier on it. We all immediately got down. The Galra soldier was confused at the fact that no one was there. "I think he's waiting for a signal" Lance whispered. "I got it" Hunk crawled over to one of the sentries and picked him up, making hand motions with its arm. Then the other Galra sentry closed the transmission. "Nice job, Hunk" I praised as we all got up. Pidge continued to download the data but nothing useful came out of it. "Let's get back to the castle" Shiro instructed. "Hold on, Pidge, do you know where that ship is headed?" Allura asked. "It's scheduled to be here for about half an hour and then head off to Central Command" Pidge answered. "That's where they have the information we need and I'm going to sneak aboard that ship and get it for us" Allura stood up. "I'm sorry, you wanna repeat that last part?" I got up. "What? No way!" Lance objected. "How are you going to get in?" Keith asked. "I'm going to walk right through the front" Allura took her helmet off. I crossed my arms and blinked a few times. Then she suddenly got taller and her skin turned purple. "How did you do that?" Hunk asked. All of our jaws were dropped. "Alteans are chameleon like people who can blend in with the local populations, it's the ability that's made us great explorers and diplomats throughout our history" Allura explained. "So, can you turn into, like, a balloon?" Lance asked. "How many different colors can you be at once?" Pidge questioned. "Aren't you afraid you'll rip your pants?" Hunk came in. "No, just one at a time, and I will need a change of costume" Allura answered all of their questions. She then turned to one of the sentries on the ground. "I can use his uniform as a disguise" Allura stated. "I can't let you go in there alone" Shiro stated. "Excuse me? I do not need your permission" Allura responded. We all looked at Shiro. "It's too dangerous" Shiro stated. "I'll go" I volunteered. "Absolutely not" Keith protested. "Why not? Out of all of us, besides maybe Shiro, I'm the only one capable of getting in there and not be detected, I'll be fine, besides, I've had spy training my entire life, if anyone can do it, it's me" I crossed my arms. "You'll stick out" Allura looked at me. "Because I'm short and I don't have purple skin? Problem solved" I pressed a button on the screen that came from the arm of my armor. A bright blue light swirled around me and suddenly I was taller and had purple skin. They all stared at me in shock. "How did you?" Allura questioned. "I had Pidge put all of my mother's spy tech into my suit which includes the disguise index, I can make and modify any disguise" I answered. "What about the Galra tech?" Keith asked. "Shiro, let me see your hand" I reached out. I then scanned his hand and fused the Galra tech into my own armor that now looked like the sentry's uniform. "This should now allow us access until I get out of the disguise" I turned to Allura. "That's amazing" Allura complimented. "Thank you, now let's get to it" I smiled. We then made our way to the ship, faking having some cargo. We were stopped for a moment while some others brought something off of the ship. Then we were told we could go. It was quite nerve-wracking. We then made it onto the ship. Once I was in the ship, getting around and avoiding all of the sentries, was somehow, very easy. I felt like I knew the ins and outs of the ship. "How do you know how to get around everything?" Allura whispered. "Instinct" I answered. Soon, we made it to the room we needed to be in. I quickly took the two sentries out. "Watch the door" I instructed. I then placed my hand down and Pidge began to get to work. Then a small problem arose. Then a sentry came by and asked what was going on. Allura blocked his view as I began to worry. "He's in here, say hello Plyrox" Allura stated. I quickly used a voice changer before speaking. "It's Plytox" I corrected in response. Then the sentry went away and I let out a sigh. Suddenly an alarm went off saying that a fugitive was detected. It was probably the fact that I was using Shiro's Galra tech. The sentry that Allura was talking to earlier raised his weapon at us and Allura quickly closed the door. I scanned my surroundings. Then Allura busted down the door and knocked the sentry out by running into him with the broken door. I stared at her in surprise. "What?" she questioned. Footsteps could be heard coming towards us. We began running away while being shot at. "Pidge, I need you to start the Green Lion, we're comin' in hot" I said. We were then blocked by sentries from in front of and behind us. I quickly swung my leg into the heads of the two sentries in front of us. I then took the gun from Allura that she had picked up when she busted the door down. I flipped it around and gave it back to her. "How do you not know how to hold this properly?" I asked. She grabbed my arm and we began running again. "I'm tense, this is a tense situation" Allura answered. Allura and I ran as she shot at the sentries. We were sprinting to the escape pods. Once there, I closed the door, but the sentries began opening the door with force. Allura was trying to close it with her strength. I ran up and using the Galra tech infused hand, I began to weld the door shut. "The pod's taking off! You have to get in it!" Allura shouted at me. "I'm not leaving you!" I yelled back. "You have to!" she then grabbed the back of the armor and threw me into the pod. I let out a yelp as I went flying and hit the floor of the pod. I stood up but I was too late as the door of the pod closed. I watched as Allura was captured and I was sent flying off into space and into the Green Lion. I walked into the pit. My head hung low as tears threatened to fall. Everyone turned to look at me. I broke down and fell on my knees, a wail escaping my throat. Keith came over and put his hand on my back as I got rid of the disguise. "Where's Allura?" he asked. This only made it worse. I began bawling. "Sh-she sacrificed herself to save m-me" I wailed. "She's still on that ship?" Pidge questioned. "The ship that's going to Zarkon's central command?" Hunk questioned. "The place that's way too dangerous for us to attack?" Keith asked. My body began shaking as I couldn't stop crying. Shiro came to my side. I was expecting to be yelled at by everyone, I mean, why wouldn't they yell at me? I just got the princess captured by our worst enemy. Shiro knelt down and embraced me. I couldn't stop crying, even if it did take me by surprise. "Melody, calm down" Shiro placed his hand on my head. "Calm down?! I can't calm down! How am I supposed to save everyone in the universe if I can't even save one person?!" I questioned. "We'll get her back, I promise, but you have to keep it together if we're gonna do that, okay?" Shiro pushed me back a bit so I could look up at him. I nodded. "Good, now let's get back to the castle" Shiro ordered.