For The Stars

Chapter 9: Fool's Errand

"I'm fine."

"No you aren't. Just eat it, Shiro." Keith argued for the last time. If the stubborn Black Paladin didn't take a bite soon, Keith was going to tackle him and force the goo down his throat. Luckily for Shiro, he took the bowl and a few small spoonfuls as the last of their crew filed in, Pidge glared angrily above their laptop while they stalked onto the bridge, still typing away. "What's this about?" They grumbled.

Resuming his rigid stance, Shiro stood tall beside Coran. "Everyone, eyes front, we've got a plan to get Allura. We're going to jump to the heart of the enemy, unseen and undetected." Oh Quiznak! If he had known the only two adults on this ship would come up with the worst plan imaginable, he would have insisted on joining them for their discussion.

"I thought we needed Allura to open up a wormhole?" Pidge questioned, and this time it was Coran who responded.

"It's true that Allura powers the Castle's ability to travel through wormholes. However, I think we have enough of her residual essence stored in the system to make one jump."

Keith huffed out a short breath and rolled his eyes. "So basically, we can pop up at Central but we have no way of escaping unless we manage to get Allura back? Super." He clarified, garnering a scowl from Coran and a nervous groan from Hunk.

The Altean turned back to the controls, pulling up a map of Central Command's configuration. "We can hide the Castle here, -" a planet off to the left side of the map was highlighted, "- inside one of these giant gas planets in Zarkon's Command System. The gas is so dense we'll be hidden."

"From there, we'll use the Castle to scan for Allura on Zarkon's ship and attack before Zarkon knows what hit him." Shiro elaborated.

"There's only one hiccup. As Keith mentioned, we have enough energy to wormhole in, but without Allura, we won't have enough energy to wormhole out." Coran's face fell as he thought about the prospect of not succeeding, of entering straight into the Emperor's Command fleet and failing, handing over Voltron into the waiting hands of a tyrant. Keith swallowed the heavy lump in his throat; this was exactly why he had been against a rescue mission in the first place.

"It doesn't matter. We're not leaving without her." Shiro's words were meant to be a comfort but all they did was make Keith more nervous. They really did plan on risking everything for her. "Paladin's you have one hour before we create the wormhole. Get something to eat, go to the bathroom if you must, and put on your armor. We're getting our Princess back!"

Keith sat in the Red Paladin chair as the wormhole opened up. He knew the moment they exited by the gasps around him. Glancing up, he saw the Emperor's Central Command for the first time; it was breath taking. In the centre was the Command flagship, surrounded by a deactivated barrier ring, surrounded by another deactivated barrier ring, which was surrounded by yet another deactivated barrier ring, all housed within a deactivated barrier ring. Coran was right, without a wormhole there was no way they were escaping. There was also no way they should have arrived. The Emperor had to know they were coming, and since they were being met with absolutely zero resistance, this was clearly a trap. His gut sang its agreement and Keith knew this was going to be a fight unlike any they had ever attempted.

"We're here." Shiro observed and Coran immediately got to work on his station, searching for the Princess. Each of the Paladins unbuckled from their seats and made their way to the front of the bridge, staring at the images on the screens. Keith watched Coran work, reading the Altean words as the man typed on his console until at last, a match was found.

"I'm detecting Allura's energy signature. From this distance, the signal's pretty weak, but she's somewhere inside Zarkon's main ship." The Altean explained to the others.