Deserving

Chapter twenty

"Makui's current status is unknown," Kolivan started, a white planet floating in the centre of the Bridge, "The Empire set their sights on it about sixty decafeobs ago for the very same reason we are now." A new image popped up on screen, a blue-pink ore. The projection hovered just over Pidge's head, "Auzaulite."

That was when Coran took over, "Auzaulite is a lesser-known ore only found in a few places in the universe. It produces the metal of the same name. It is known to be a great conductor of quintessence, heat and electricity, making it perfect for uses in ships and other devices. Due to the sheer size of our teludav, it is essential that we use it in our design to reduce a potentially fatal strain on the Princess."

"Although," Slav was fiddling with one of the consoles he was laid across, Shiro's eyes twitching just at the sound of him, "In sixty-eight percent of two tenths of realities where Princess Allura is the one tasked with piloting the Castle, the strain, even with the ore, is enough to send her into unconsciousness."

"Thank you for that, Slav." Shiro was looking straight up, breathing through his nose carefully.

"The Empire had been engaged in conflict with the Maki for approximately forty decafoebs." Kolivan continued, "It was in the past twenty that the fighting ceased although reports as to why vary."

Antok switched the display to a set of images of the planet surface, "Some suggest that the Empire harvested everything they wanted and abandoned the planet, some suggest they were making little to no progress and gave up. Others more frequently describe some sort of weapon of the Maki that coated the planet in ice and decimated both sides' ground troops. There has been no contact made with the Maki since and no new attempt to claim the planet by the Empire."

"A small entryway can be made in the ice by the Red lion so the Blue, Green and Black lions may enter." Allura brought up a small collage of Blue in various colder and water-based climates, most of them from Blaytz time as the Blue Paladin, "Due to the Blue lion's adaptations to water and colder temperatures, it is ideal for this mission. However, the lion alone is not enough. It does not have the capacity for all the ore needed and we do not have enough information to only send one lion. As such," A hologram of all five lions appeared with Red and Yellow greyed out, "The Yellow lion will not be going as it would not have the optimal capabilities for manoeuvring in these conditions. The Green lion is the best suited besides Blue due to her size however the Red lion cannot handle low temperatures well and so will remain on the surface, positioned in case backup is necesary.

"I will be accompanying the Paladins on this mission due to the likelihood of a diplomatic encounter with the Maki. The Yellow Paladin will also be going with Shiro in the Black lion." She looked to the others, "Will there be any issues with this arrangement?" No one objected and a faint smile appeared on Allura's lips, "Good. That will be all."

The ice glowed pink under Keith's beam. It was quite a beautiful colour actually. 

"Did any of you ever explain exactly how Blue brought here?" Lance had been puzzling over it for a few dobashes now while Pidge and Shiro chattered about rain (something Lance still wasn't sure what they meant by). "I mean it's not like any of you could pilot her."

Pidge laughed suddenly, "Oh Keith tried!"

There was a rough sigh from Keith as Shiro joined in with the laughter. Lance raised an eyebrow, even Blue seeming to liven up in amusement, "Oh really?"

"I didn't know you needed some sort of bond!" 

"I bet you got so frustrated when she didn't listen to you." Lance teased.