Shattered Magnolias

Prologue

"Matt Holt, Sam Holt, and Takashi Shirogane, the crew of the Kerberos mission, are presumed dead after a pilot error caused the Galaxy Garrison to lose contact with the spaceship."

Keith Kogane, a student at the Garrison, scowled as he looked at the television that the news was on. There was no way that this was a pilot error, he thought. Shiro is one of the best pilots I have ever met. He looked around at some of the other students and tried to figure out if they were thinking the same thing, but he couldn't tell just by looking at their faces.

The staff in the room looked just as stoic as the students, and Keith actually felt angry because of that. The three members of the Kerberos mission had been staff and students there, and they acted like they had never met the three men in their life. What would happen next? Would they pretend that they had never disappeared?

The reporter once again mentioned that the crew was presumed dead, making Keith look back at the TV. Would the Garrison pilots even search for them? The idea that they might just leave them out to die in space (assuming they were still alive), made Keith terrified for the life of the three people on that mission.

***

"Why did you call it a pilot error? Why is the crew said to be dead?" Keith screamed at Commander Iverson. "Have you even investigated what happened? Have you even sent someone out to look for them?"

The commander grabbed his shoulders and tried shoving the boy out. Keith had been bugging him about the mission for weeks, ever since it had been reported on the news in the commons, and it was getting on the older man's nerves. Keith continued to ask him questions until they made it to his dorms.

"Keith, you need to stop bugging me about the mission," Iverson eventually hissed at him, seizing his arm a bit harder. "We're assuming their dead, for there is nothing that could have happened except a pilot error."

"I don't believe you," Keith scowled.

"Fine," Iverson snapped back. "You need to pack your things and leave then."

***

"Katie," a deep voice said over the young girl's phone. "Have you been back to the Garrison anytime recently?"

"I was just there," she sighed. "I got caught. Iverson kicked me out. I can't even come back as a student when I'm old enough."

"I'm sorry, Katie," Keith apologized quickly. "That was not my intention at all. I wasn't trying to get you kicked out of there."

"Keith, I would have done this on my own if you hadn't asked me," she said softly, trying to reassure the boy on the other line. "It's pretty much inevitable that I got kicked out that way."

It took a little more persuading from Katie, but Keith finally let the younger girl convince him he wasn't at fault. Katie had a plan to get into the Garrison again in the future, and the only thing that could possibly ruin it would be teachers that were too smart for their own good.

The two of them working together to find the members of the Kerberos mission was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and a very rocky path. Once Pidge (Katie) had joined the Garrison, they discovered the words Voltron, and Keith started the board on the wall of his shack. They were going to find Matt, Shiro, and Sam, even if it was the last thing they ever did.

11/13/17