"Did you guys know that there’s going to be a meteor shower tonight?" Pidge asked, taking a spoonful of his dessert.
Everyone had lingered over dinner with the exception of Coran, who had chosen to go to Castle Control to monitor security around and above the Castle.
"Yes, I got the reports from the meteorology department earlier," Allura said with a smile. "It’s going to look like a rain of falling stars later. I’m staying up to watch – and make some wishes."
"Coran is going to be very careful tonight," Lance remarked, taking a spoonful of his own dessert. "It’s the perfect opportunity for some nasty people to sneak past our security."
All of a sudden the alarm pealed through the dining hall, causing all of them to stand up abruptly and abandon their desserts, except for Hunk, who took his with him. Without sparing a second, they ran straight for Castle Control and found Coran frowning worriedly as he stared up at the huge screen alit with several blips showing the information the air space monitors had just transmitted.
"What’s wrong, Coran?" Keith asked, staring at the unusual number of lights on the screen. He knew that would be normal because the meteorites would be entering the vicinity of Arus’ orbit at about this hour. Coran knew that. So why was he staring so worriedly at the blipping lights on the screen?
"Look at this," Coran said. He pressed a few buttons and zoomed in on a certain blip that, if it was to follow its current path, would end up entering the atmosphere right above the Castle of Lions. "This one… it isn’t showing a random pattern of travel. It seems to be plotting a definite course for the Castle – when it’s not dodging the other meteorites."
Hunk scratched his head, troubled. "But that isn’t possible. I mean, Arus’ gravitational field doesn’t have that kind of force, does it? That allows free-falling objects to home into the Castle of Lions?"
Allura shook her head. "I don’t think there’s
such a thing as purposeful gravity, and even if there was, it would
be self-defeating to build a stronghold in a spot where everything entering
the planet’s orbit could fall on top of you," she said with a wry smile
at Hunk.
"Can we get a visual?" Keith asked, his brow
furrowed in worry.
Coran pressed another series of buttons on the console, and the air space monitors focused on the blip. "Hmmm… I think this is the highest resolution," Coran said. The others gasped. Instead of a meteorite, they had focused on a falcon-like space ship, lightweight and sleek – and piloted by someone very skillful at the art of flying.
"Whoever it is, he isn’t trying to hide himself,"
Pidge said, biting his lip. "If he was, he would have put up his cloaking
shields by now – and there are no defense shields either."
"Whoever he is, he’s an incredible pilot," Lance
said, whistling in appreciation as the ship dodged a wayward meteorite
then swiftly shifted ninety degrees in the next five seconds to pass through
a narrow gap between two large meteors. "And I don’t think he has a lot
of weapons either or he would have blasted those rocks by now instead of
dodging them."
"Castle Control, Falcon Fighter requests permission to land on Arus," a husky, muffled voice rang through the room. "Do you read me?"
"Falcon Fighter, we copy – identify yourself and state your mission," Keith barked into the microphone, watching the huge screen in front of him flicker to life with the image of a figure cloaked in white with a falcon helmet that hid his face.
"I am a Guardian from the Planet Merion, and I have come to Arus to ask for Voltron’s help," the pilot replied. Over the speakers they heard a muffled curse, then the pilot sharply turned the control of his ship to the right.
An inset of the image of the ship at the bottom of the screen showed the Falcon ship barely missing a meteorite. However, the motion of the ship threw it into the path of yet another meteorite, destroying the commlink and making the screen flicker to black, the pilot’s voice fading on a muffled shout. The ship spun around like a top, hit again by another meteor, and was hurtling out of control into the Arussian atmosphere.
"That ship’s going to crash – assuming it gets past the meteorites without being battered to pieces," Lance said through gritted teeth. "I hope to God that its heat shields hold up or that pilot is dead."
"We have to do something to at least prevent one of those things from happening," Keith said grimly. Coran nodded assent and the platform rose to reveal the portals leading to the Lions. "Lance, you come with me. The rest of you stay here, just in case this is just one of Zarkon’s ploys to get us out of the Castle."
Keith and Lance dashed into their portals, and within a few minutes, their Lions were blasting off from their respective launch pads. Lance established a commlink with Keith and the Castle.
"Guys, you have to hurry… that ship just lost its tail and the pilot can’t bring it under control," Pidge said tensely. "At the rate it’s going, you’ll be too late if you don’t get to it within the next two minutes."
"Geez, Pidge, give us a little more credit," Lance quipped, speaking with a confidence he was far from feeling. According to his radar, the ship was hurtling in at a rate of 150 miles per hour, occasionally colliding with meteorites at least 6 feet in diameter moving at roughly just a slightly slower velocity. "What’s the plan Keith?"
Keith was studying the screen, gauging their distance from the ship and the density of the meteors around it. "Since we can’t slow it down, all we can really do is clear the way for it and hope its shields are functional. If it catches fire, we can always fire our smallest freeze bombs on it and keep it from exploding. We’ll approach it at warp 1 speed. Ready, Lance?"
"Are you kidding? I was ready years ago," Lance said, reaching behind him for the protective bar restraints that automatically rose from behind his seat while he set his Lion to prepare for warp 1speed.
"On my mark, warp NOW."
A burst of speed threw Lance against the back of his seat, then the sudden stop threw him forward against the bar. "Feels like I left my heart down there," he joked dryly. Without wasting another second, he began firing missiles at the meteorites surrounding the spinning ship while he dodged the fragments of rock and debris flying at him. His radar showed that Keith was employing the same approach, clearing a path for the ship to keep it from being battered as much as they could.
"It’s going to pass us in ten seconds, Lance…"
The ten seconds seemed an eternity to Lance as he watched the blip move on his monitor, the console’s beeping sound becoming louder and more shrill with each second. Three… two…one…
"NOW!"
The tremendous force of the hurtling ship as it passed between the two Lions dragged several stray meteors in its wake, speeding even more as the gravity of Arus acted upon it. Both Lions dove after the ship, Lance slightly ahead of Keith. "Whoever you are in there, you have to fire your engines and activate your heat shields or you’ll never make it," he ground out, trying to catch up, Keith not that far behind.
"I… the heat shields are in place, but the engines
aren’t res… AHHH!" the husky voice led into a loud, high-pitched scream
as the ship caught fire. Lance fired a freeze bomb as soon as he
saw the flame, engulfing the battered ship in ice. It fell into the lake,
creating an enormous splash that blurred Lance’s vision for a moment.
"That thing is going to sink – I’m going after
it," Lance shouted, and with a burst of speed, he reached the lake first,
flying low as he melted the ice with a blast of fire with his Lion Torch,
caught one of the ship’s battered wings through the cloud of steam that
rose from the lake and dragged it towards the more shallow end. When the
ship ran aground, Lance landed his Lion on the lake and lowered himself
towards the ship, gaining precarious footing on one of the dented wings
as he tried futilely to get the cockpit open with his laser.
Black Lion landed beside Red Lion and slashed the roof off the cockpit with a razor blade. Lance reached in and unstrapped the unconscious pilot from his seat, then took him in his arms – and was surprised by how light the pilot was, how small. He didn’t seem much bigger than Pidge – only about a head and a half taller.
"Lance, get off that ship and back into your Lion," snapped Keith. The ship shifted beneath Lance’s feet and he hopped back onto the lift just in time before the wing gave way, the unconscious pilot still in his arms.
"Is he still unconscious?" Nanny took the pilot from Lance as soon as he emerged from the portal leading from his Lion, the rest of team looking on. She gently laid him flat on the cold metal floor and loosened the white cloak, using it as a blanket, wanting to check on the extent of the pilot’s injuries before sending him to the infirmary.
"Yes. By the way, ‘he’ happens to be a she," Lance said dryly, crossing his arms across his chest as he watched Nanny trying to take of the white falcon helmet off. "I realized that as I was carrying her here." He grinned wearily at the others. "And a damn incredible pilot she is, too."
Allura had knelt down on the pilot’s other side and helped Nanny take the helmet off. Between the two of them, they succeeded in the task, revealing a delicately featured face with thick dark lashes and a cascade of silken chestnut hair spilling from the confines of the helmet.
Lance paled upon seeing the pilot’s face, and Keith, who had also recognized her, laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Samantha," Lance whispered in dazed shock. "Keith, it’s Sam."
A Second Chance -- Explanation