shining like the stars

80

In an impressive feat of something, Shiro made it to the bridge fully dressed in his paladin armor in under five minutes. He stepped out of the lift with his helmet in hand, gaze sweeping the bridge. Illianya was standing beside Coran at the main console, schematics and a map up on the forward display while Hunk was seated on the stairs next to Princess Allura, who had a blanket over her shoulders and a cup held between her hands. "Princess," Shiro said, and both Allura and Hunk looked up.

"I'm fine," Allura said at the concerned expression on Shiro's face. "Coran made it out to be worse than it actually is-"

"You passed out!" Hunk said. "That's bad!" He looked up at Shiro. "She went down like a sack of bricks as we were coming out of the elevator, I've never seen Coran move so fast."

"What happened?" Shiro stopped behind them, and Coran glanced back at Shiro and nodded his head once, acknowledging his presence.

"Pidge and Matt are gone," Hunk said.

"What?"

"They took the Green Lion and left early this morning," Coran reported, gesturing to one of the images up on the screen, a surveillance of the Green Lion's bay showing it empty. "Without notifying anyone."

"I was attempting to locate the Green Lion," Allura said, hands tight around the steaming mug. "I'm not sure what happened after that." She took a sip of the liquid while Hunk fussed over her for a moment, and then looked Shiro up and down. "Did you take care of our ... issue?" she asked pointedly, and Shiro had the good grace to turn a little pink.

"Speaking of issues," Hunk said, effectively diverting their conversation, "the memory core is resonating."

"Resonating?" Shiro repeated, and then frowned. "Do you think it has anything to do with Pidge and Matt leaving?"

"Doubtful." Hunk shook his head, and then paused, glancing at Allura. "Unless you think otherwise?"

"The resonance didn't appear to start until well after they'd departed," Allura said. She didn't seem as concerned, and Shiro looked back to Hunk.

"Is it dangerous, what it's doing?"

Hunk shook his head again, then hesitated. "Well, I don't know," he said finally. "It's generating heat — although it's a small amount you can feel it if you get too close; and it also created a feedback loop that nearly burned out the computers that were attached before I broke all the connections."

"The memory core resonating isn't dangerous yet," Coran said. He turned to face them, as Illianya had taken over the console and was typing in something rapidly. "I rather suspect it has happened before."

"Happened before?" Hunk said, surprised. "When?"

"It's gone and done it a few times," Coran said. "I previously pulled the energy readings from the training room, it had some strange variances over the last few weeks but I didn't know what was causing it. Not sure why I didn't suspect the giant alien computer." He shrugged, then folded his arms, glancing back to Illianya as she said something quite virulent in what must have been Altean, then slammed her palm on the console. "Don't be so rough on it," Coran chided, as a somewhat static-filled communications line opened; audio only.

"Holt!" Illianya snarled, followed by a string of Altean. Allura stood up before Hunk could stop her.

"Don't speak to my paladin like that," Allura said sharply.

"I'm not speaking to your paladin like that, my lady," Illianya said without looking up from the console. "I'm speaking to a member of my squadron. I found the communications channel that we use on our flight suits." She said something else following that, and Coran snorted before he composed himself.