Survival of the Innocent (A Voltron fanfic) (Book 1 of Fates Entwined)

Extraction Part 2

Keith is in the training deck fighting the Gladiator robot. He destroys it.

"Start training level four."

A new Gladiator robot dispenses from the ceiling and Keith battles it. The fight is too intense, even for a trained Galran gladiator.

"End training sequence."

The system does not respond and the Gladiator robot turns rogue and rushes Keith.

"End training sequence! End training sequence now!"

Keith is knocked aside by the Gladiator robot and loses his Bayard. He dodges the robot's attacks to recover his Bayard and flee into the hallway for safety. The Gladiator robot forces its way into the hall to follow Keith. Elsewhere, Shiro remains unaware of the chaos as he stands before Sendak's pod in the detainment room.

"I know you're in there, Sendak. I know you have all the answers. Give them to me," he says and nothing happens, so Shiro slams his fist on Sendak's pod, "You're a broken soldier! You can't hold out forever!" a memory finally enters the storage system, making Shiro smile, "So, you can hear me."

Meanwhile, Coran is cleaning pods in the sleep chamber. He yells when he sees Lance trapped in the next pod he intends to clean. Coran releases Lance from the pod. Lance is stiff with cold.

"Ah, ah... This pod just shut on me and locked me in, while you were rambling on about boot camp!"

"You sure you didn't just trip and fall in? No judgment. It happens. Besides, why would the pod automatically lock and start the cryogenic freezing process?"

Lance puts on his coat for warmth, yelling, "To kill me!"

"Don't get your boots in a bunch. My guess is they're malfunctioning."

"Okay, I'm gonna float this out there. I think this Castle is haunted."

"The ship might seem like a fantastical, magical creature to you, but it's really just a big embodiment of advanced supernatural technology that cannot be explained by science alone."

Lance simply looks at Coran in disbelief.

"Well, that does make it seem a bit haunted, doesn't it? Ah, but it's not. Trust me, nothing out of the ordinary is happening here," Coran leaves.

Lance hears rumbling and begins whimpering, "I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay..." the pod that trapped Lance descends into the floor, startling Lance and making him scream in fear, making Lance run out of the sleep chamber.

Meanwhile, Allura is asleep in her room next to the Altean Mice.

King Alfor's voice is heard calling out to her, "Allura... Allura?" his holographic AI appears, waking Allura, "Allura, dear daughter..."

"Father, what are you doing here?"

Elsewhere, Lance has left the sleep chamber and is walking through the Castleship's halls. The lights in front of him begin turning off, terrifying him, "Okay, okay... Oh... Ah—!" Lance sees a flickering image of King Alfor, "Coran, is that you? Okay, stop messing with me, guys. This isn't funny."

Lance hears Coran's voice yell out, "Help! Help!"

"Hello? Coran?" Lance rushes down the dark hall.

"Help! Somebody!" the voice becomes slightly distorted, "I'm trapped in the airlock."

"I'm coming!" Lance enters the airlock and sees no one, but the door closes behind him, "Huh? Okay, ha-ha. Good joke. You guys got me. Nice."

Alarms start blaring.

"Airlock opening in 30 ticks."

"Okay, joke's over! You got me!"

"...29, 28, 27..."

Lance bangs on the airlock door, screaming, "Guys? Guys! Eugh! Help!" but no one is around to hear Lance.

Shiro is in the detainment room interrogating Sendak, who is still asleep in his pod, "What was the first rank you held in Zarkon's army? Where did you find the Red Lion? What is Zarkon's greatest weakness?"

Shiro hears Sendak's voice, becoming startled, "What makes you think you can possibly defeat him?" but Sendak's mouth is not moving and he remains asleep.

"If you were to attack Zarkon, where would you strike?" Shiro continues to ask.

"Why strike at all when you can join him?" Shiro sees an image of Sendak awake, but the commander is still asleep.

"I bet if we can modulate the dynamics of this crystal, we'll be able to reverse engineer a lot of Galra tech. Don't you think, Hunk? Hunk, are you paying attention?" Pidge growls at her companion at the moment.

"What? No, I'm sorry. That whole food goo ambush really set me on edge, Pidge. If we can't trust food, we are lost as a culture."

"Relax. I'm sure the Castle's just glitchy. It's 10,000 years old."

"Yeah, it does seem like the ship is not currently trying to kill us. Okay, so, all the sensors are on the crystal. Hit the switch."

"Hunk, did you accidentally hit the anti-gravity switch?" Pidge asks as they start to float.

"Uh, no. There's no anti-gravity switch. Uh, is there?" Hunk checks.

"Curse my short arms!" Pidge curses, the crystal just out of arms reach.

"Oh, I hate those little things! All right, forget it, Pidge. I'm going to swim toward you. Just hang on!" Hunk attempts breaststroke but doesn't move and gives up, "That's it. I'm all out of moves," but his stomach rumbles, "Oh, I'm hungry again. I hope some food goo comes oozing out of these walls."

"Help! Help! Help!" Lance continues screaming his lungs out, in desperation.

"...twelve, eleven, ten... nine, eight, seven..."

"Keith!" Lance screams, as Keith passes by, attempting to outrun the training dummy, guided by the Lions.

"...six, five..."

"What are you doing in there?" Keith almost sighs.

"I need help! Because if you don't get me out of here right now, I'm going to be sucked out into space!"

"Doors opening."

"I'm getting sucked out into space!" Lance screams as Keith destroys the robot, "Keith! Keith, come on!"

"What were you doing out there?" Keith scolds.

"Who was that guy?" Lance changes the subject.

"He was trying to kill me!"

"Well, is he the Castle? Because that's who's trying to kill me!"

"Wait a minute... if the Castle is trying to kill you... and me... then is it also trying to kill the others?"

"Oh shhhugar honey iced tea. Let's move!"

"Sugar honey iced tea? What's that?"

"Not the time, Keith!"