-------------------------
Chapter 6

Keith frowned upon waking up.  He hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he could
tell something was wrong.  The mattress he was lying on was a lot softer
than any he could recall sleeping on before, and an unfamilar weight rested
on his chest.  He stretched out his senses, trying to determine if this
weight was a threat or not before finally opening his eyes and surveying the
world around him.

'Oh... it wasn't a dream,' he thought, looking down at the golden-haired
head resting on top of him.  The rest of her was obscured from view by a
blanket, but now that he was awake enough he could feel that she was
pleasantly entangled with him still.

Somehow, by a circumstance he would never have forseen, the one thing he
truly wished for in life- something he thought he would take years before it
could become possible, and still some time after that before it became a
reality, had happened in less than a day.

He was truly married to his beloved Princess.  Well, Queen, now.

Somehow, even though the situation was brought about by something he found
absolutely horrific, he couldn't be happier that it happened.  And then
Allura had insisted that they... they...

Well, despite Alfor's words of the night before, he knew he would have to
wait a while before a repeat performance.  His conscience would not allow
him to accept these particular attentions right away when they hadn't had an
appropriate courtship.  Last night was an unavoidable necessity.  An
experience he would remember for the rest of his life, and would hope to
have many MANY times more with her, but one which should not happen again
until they had more time together.

Time to learn about each other- in part, to discover more about their pasts,
their quirks, and their habits, but, almost more importantly, to find out
about the subtleties of the physical relationship they were going to share.
Keith and Allura both knew quite a bit about who the person they married
was- they'd had years to learn that- but they had only kissed twice before,
well, hopping into bed together.  Was Allura ticklish?  Did certain things
make her squeemish?  Did she appreciate having her shoulders rubbed?  How
fast did Allura like to go, really?  How did she like to kiss?  To be
kissed?

Oddly enough, Keith was starting to realize that what he was saying was that
he needed to learn appropriate levels of foreplay before he'd sleep with her
like this again.  Was he thinking things through too much again?  Or was it
too little- after all, foreplay usually lead into sex, and if he was going
to be avoiding sex while engaging in foreplay, perhaps he would just be
leading himself into a stage of self-torture....

His thoughts drifted off as he noticed the bundle on his chest starting to
shift.  Smiling lazily, he waited for his wife to open her eyes before he
said anything.  She yawned, blinked open her eyes, and smiled up at him in
surprise.  "I was afraid this was all a dream," she whispered throatily as
she stirred.

Keith chuckled.  "You and me both," he said.  He glanced around the room.
"So, how do you tell what time it is in here?  I don't see a clock
 anywhere."

Allura smirked slightly.  "You don't.  Nanny usually comes in and wakes me
in the mornings- recently, just in time to get dressed for lion practice."

Keith frowned.  "We're going to have to have an alarm clock put in here.  It
wouldn't be a good idea to have her continue that practice now that we're
married."

"Probably not," Allura agreed, finally rolling off of her husband and
sitting up, wrapping the blankets around her.  She winced slightly as she
moved.

"You okay?" Keith asked, noticing.

She nodded.  "Just a little stiff."  She gave him a sultry look.  "I think I
used muscles I never knew I had last night."

"Heh," Keith said uncomfortably.  As wonderful as it had been, he did not
want to think about that at the moment.  "Come on, let's get up and get
dressed.  I KNOW we must have slept in, and you can bet we'll hear about it
from the others."

Allura seemed to consider that for a moment, before smiling back down at him
with a hungry look on her face.  "How about you help me stretch those
muscles out again, first?"

Keith hesitated.  There was no questioning what she was asking him to do,
even though he would never have expected it out of her.  "Um, Allura, didn't
we agree that we'd hold off on things like this until we, well, learned a
bit more about each other first?"

She pouted.  "And here I thought daddy had talked you out of that last
night," she sighed.  "Any chance I can get you to reconsider?"

Keith grinned slightly.  "You can try.  You'll probably succeed eventually-
we're both rather stubborn, but I think you're just a bit more than I am.  I
really DO think it would be better for us if we waited, though."  He paused.
"But don't try right now, okay?  We really do need to get up.  I've got to
ask Pidge and maybe Hunk to work on a project, you have to look in on the
elections, and then we're both going to need to have a meeting tonight to
discuss plans for the arrival of the Explorer- we're projecting that it
could come in as early at late tonight, perhaps only hours after the polls
are closed."

Allura hesitated.  "Promise me we can at least talk it over again, later?"

Keith nodded.  "Sure.  As long as you get an alarm clock put in here so we
don't oversleep again," he teased.

Allura grinned.  "Deal!"

* * * * *

Lisa found Jeff back in the lounge, and walked over to sit down next to him.
She was kind of nervous, as Ginger's words from their discussion of her
relationship with this man were still ringing in the back of her head.  But
they had to talk about the status of their plan to stop the invasion of
Arus, if nothing else, right now.  And maybe she should mention Ginger's
threat, as well.  Or maybe that would just make matters worse- she just wasn
't sure.

"Any luck?" she asked, her thoughts in turmoil.

Jeff shook his head.  "No.  I can't do much without alerting Captain Newley,
and there's some kind of interference.  We've got a powerful communications
system, but I'm not sure it could get through even if I was using full
power, considering how bad it is out there."

"Well, I can report moderately better results," Lisa sighed.  "Chip was
definitely in- he went almost apoplectic when I first told him, and it took
me a while to calm him down.  I'm a little worried he'll give us away with
how moody he became."

"Well, he's a smart kid.  He'll know better than to let someone else see him
that upset."

Lisa nodded.  "I hope so.  I'm still worried.  What are they going to do if
they catch us before-"

"Let's not worry about that," Jeff broke in.  "We just have to hope we DON'T
get caught.  Now, did you get anyone outside of Chip?"

Lisa nodded.  "Well, I talked to Tagor and Rocky about it, and they're both
in.  I didn't talk to anyone in Ground team, yet- I was thinking about
approaching Marvin and Hutch, but I haven't been able to get them alone so
far."  She paused.  "I did talk to Ginger, and she's in, as well."

"Well, between us, Tagor, Rocky, Chip, and Ginger, we've got more than a
third of Voltron on our side," Jeff mused.  "I think that's enough to
inspire whoever else might follow us to join us when we make our move."

"How long until we hit Arus?" Lisa asked.

"Not long," Jeff said.  "I'm expecting a call to the bridge shortly- we'll
be within eight hours of extreme sensor range then."

Lisa sighed.  "Do you think we can pull this off?"

"Well, I don't want to call this mutiny," Jeff said.  "But that's
essentially what we're doing.  And I doubt Hawkins or Newley will take it
too kindly.  I figure if we can control our Voltron, though, we should be
able to avoid battle.  I trust Keith to handle things on his end, and Arus'
independence will be assured..."

"But can we control Voltron?" Lisa asked plaintively.

"Relax," Jeff said.  "At the very least, I'm fairly certain we can shut our
Voltron down.  That should be enough to keep us from battle."  He paused,
then smiled.  "Just think- by tomorrow we'll probably be sleeping in a
castle with Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance.  Who'd have thought that would be
possible?"

At the mention of Lance's name, Lisa frowned.  "Um, there's something else I
wanted to talk to you about.  It's not as important- at least, not on the
galactic scale of things- but..."

Jeff looked at her in concern.  "What?  Is something wrong that I should
know about?"

Lisa flushed slightly.  "Not WRONG, exactly, just... something you should be
warned about."

"Uh, oh," Jeff said, noticing the color rushing to her cheeks.  "What's
going on?  Did someone catch Ginger with a guy again, or something?"  He
chuckled.  "I still remember when Keith burst in on her and Lance in his
Academy bunk.  I've never known her to be shy- and it's probably a good
thing she isn't.  Otherwise, I don't think she would have ever been able to
live it down when she ran away from Keith's surprising arrival to her own
quarters, all the way across campus, in the buff."

Lisa smiled- she hadn't been there for the incident, but she'd heard about
it later.  It was... rather amusing, she had to admit.  "Well, no, that's
not it.  But it does have something to do with Ginger."

"Oh?"

"Yeah.  Look, Jeff," Lisa sighed.  "Um, Ginger has been making... certain,
well, threats."

Jeff blinked.  "Threats?  What kind of threats?"

"It's... kind of embarrassing," Lisa blushed.

"Is she blackmailing you about something?" Jeff asked, fiercely protective.

Lisa smiled weakly.  "Not exactly- at least, not in the way I think you're
asking me about."

A long breath of frustration exploded from Jeff.  She was just dancing
around the issue, and SHE was the one who brought it up.  "Lisa," he finally
growled.  "Are you going to tell me what the problem is, or not?"

"Ginger and I were talking about our love lives," she said, glancing down at
her feet.  "And she said... said..."

Jeff prompted, "Ginger said?"

"Ifsomethingdoesn'thappenbetweenyouandmebyoneweekafterwearriveonArus," Lisa
said in a rush, "She'
llmakesuresomethingdoesinthemostembarrassingwaypossible."

"What did you say?" Jeff said, barely able to process words that were flying
at him that quickly.  After mentally sorting out the jumble, he said,
"Something to happen between us in what way?"

Lisa's blush almost turned her whole body purple, it was so deep.  "In... in
a romantic way."

Jeff calmly nodded.  "Ah.  Of course.  That's what I thought."

Lisa was unable to look up to meet his eyes, waiting for some sort of
reaction.  That calm acceptance was not at all what she had expected, and
was just embarrassing her more.  Did he not care?  That would be even worse
than... well, she wasn't quite sure there was anything even comparable to
the feeling of thinking that he wouldn't care at all about that.

If she HAD been looking at him, however, she would have noticed his face
getting more and more contorted as he tried to find something to say.  He
couldn't handle this- not right now.  Not when he was also trying to figure
out how to execute an appropriate method for stopping a war with the other
Voltron.  But it DID matter just as much to him, if in a much more personal
way.  And what right did Ginger have in interfering, in the first place?

And... how was Lisa taking all of it, herself?  "Lisa... do YOU want
something to happen between us?" he finally asked, figuring the direct
approach was best.

She snapped her head up at that, looking at him eye to eye.  She could
finally see all of the confusion that was running through him, the fears,
the frustrations, and even a tiny bit of anger.  Oh, she KNEW she shouldn't
have said anything to him about this- now Jeff was every bit as mixed up as
she was.  This would probably make everything between them even more
uncomfortable and uncertain, wouldn't it?  Oh, this was a HUGE mistake.

But he needed an answer.  Did she want things to happen between them or not?
After all, hadn't she just admitted that she did to Ginger, starting this
whole thing?  But... what if he DIDN'T want things to happen?  Wouldn't
admitting that she did be even more embarrassing?

"Lisa?" Jeff said hesitantly.

Lisa sniffed slightly, suddenly realizing she was crying.  She wasn't sure
why she was crying- after all, things were just confusing.  Nothing bad had
happened yet, had it?  She wasn't really sure, herself, she realized.  All
she knew was that she was crying for some reason.

"Damn Ginger," Jeff cursed under his breath, not intending for Lisa to hear
him.

However, she did hear him.  "Don't blame Ginger," she finally said, wiping
the tears from her cheeks with her hand.  "I... I'd told her that I wanted
some-"

"Will the Captain's of Air, Land, and Sea team please report to the bridge
immediately?" came a loud announcement over the P.A. system, breaking into
their conversation.

"Hell," Jeff cursed.  He looked at Lisa- what had she been about to say?

Lisa smiled at him through her tears.  "Go- don't keep them waiting.  We can
't afford to give them any reason to wonder about you before we hit Arus,
and being late to this meeting will definitely give them suspicions."

"Are you going to be okay?" Jeff asked, concern obvious in his voice.

"As okay as I can be," Lisa nodded.  "Go, already."

He waited for a few more seconds, hoping that she would finish saying what
she had started to say before they were interrupted, but it quickly became
apparent she wasn't going to mention it.  Sighing, he nodded and left.

Lisa collapsed into the nearest chair.  She knew, without a doubt, it was
over.  She'd blown it.

* * * * *

Keith found Pidge up in Castle Control, talking to Lance.  Both of his
teammates glanced at him in surprise at his approach- Lance with a knowing
smirk on his face.

"Geez, skipper," Lance teased.  "Were things so hot and heavy between you
and the Princess- excuse me, Queen- that Alfor intervened or something?  He
sure seemed upset when I was trying to get the report on the elections to
you this morning."

"Lance," Keith growled a warning.

"You know, Keith, I think this is the first time you've overslept while I've
been here," Pidge commented.

"Not you, TOO, Pidge," he groaned.  "I thought at least YOU would be
discrete about all of this."

"What?" Pidge asked innocently.  "What did I say?"

"Never mind," Keith snapped.  "I need to talk to you for a bit- I've got a
project for you."

"Sure thing, Keith," Pidge said.  "Lance was just relieving me for this
watch."

Together, the two Space Explorers disappeared into the same briefing room
where Keith and the then-Princess decided to get married.  "Okay, Keith,
what is it?" Pidge asked.

"Pidge... what would it take to get that robot you built for the mice
spaceworthy?" he asked.

Pidge thought about it for a moment.  "Well, let's see.  I would need to
make it completely airtight.  I'd need to devise some sort of oxygen
replenishment\recycling system.  It would need thrusters capable of reaching
escape velocity, and I'd have to modify some of the internal equipment to
handle the g-forces from such a trip...."

Keith nodded.  "How long would it take you to do that, if you had Hunk's
help and all of the equipment you might be able to find on Arus?"

Pidge shrugged.  "Well, my initial plans were going to make it spaceworthy
in the first place, but Hunk said that it wasn't likely to ever need to go
into space and so we should save the parts I was going to use for that for
more important projects.  To make the necessary modifications now, I don't
think it would take more than two or three days."

"Good.  I doubt it would be able to reach that long a distance on its own,
though- what would it take to send it to, say, Pollux?"

Pidge shrugged.  "A booster and an extra oxygen pack.  It's really small for
a spacecraft, so it doesn't require much fuel or anything like that.  We've
got equipment like that in stock- we'd only need an hour or so to adapt it
for the Mouse-bot."

Keith sighed.  "Okay, Pidge- this is what I want you to do.  Modify the
Mouse Robot for spaceflight.  Equip it with what it would need... to travel
to Planet Doom and back, combined with its crew and a ten-pound cargo."

Pidge's eyes boggled.  "You're sending the Space Mice to DOOM?!" he cried,
startled.

Keith grimmaced.  "I don't want to do it, but think about it.  How does
Haggar keep such good surveilance of us?  She has her blue cat, of course.
Well, the only thing we have to counter the cat is the mice."

"But-"

"It won't be for long.  The ten-pound cargo I'm talking about is a number of
espionage devices I intend for them to spread across the major rooms in the
Castle of Doom- Lotor's quarters, the throne room, Haggar's lab, and places
like that.  Then I want them back here, and patrolling for the blue cat to
hopefully nuetralize that threat."

Pidge shook his head, unable to believe Keith was suggesting this.  "Have
you told the Prin- uh, Queen?"

Keith flushed slightly.  "Not... yet.  I don't want her to know about this-
it would just upset her, even though it has to be done."

"Well," Pidge considered.  "I guess I'll do it.  But I won't let you send
the mice out until you talk to both them AND the Princess about it!"

"Queen," Keith corrected absently.  "And, if those are your terms, I'll...
agree," he swallowed.

Pidge nodded.  "Well, okay then.  I'd better get started."

He left Keith alone in the room to try and sort things out for himself.
"Okay," he said to himself.  "Now... how, exactly, am I going to talk Allura
into this one?"

* * * * *

Space Marshal Graham frowned, inspecting the room he had been locked up in.
"Hmph," he muttered absently.  "If the Academy is encouraging this kind of
incompetency in imprisoning people, then serious reforms in our training
techniques are badly needed."  He pried open a panel by the door and started
fussing with the wires.  "Or perhaps they think that, since I'm an old man
and way past my prime, I'm not worth a more secure facility.  In which case
these young whippersnappers need to learn not to underestimate us old vets.
Either way, this is disgraceful."

Finally completed with his circuitry modifications, he pressed a button and
the door in front of him opened.  A lone guard stood, shocked, as the
elderly Space Marshal charged out the door and cold-cocked him with a
massive fist.

"Pfeh!" Graham snorted.  "Just one guard?  What are they DOING at the
Academy, anyway?"  Then he winced, shaking his hand in pain.  "Ow... that
hurts a lot more than it used to.  Oh, well- time to go."

Orienting himself rapidly, he dashed through corridors and down ladders that
were little used.  Actually, he was starting to wonder about how few people
he saw while he was moving.  'Not even one security person,' he thought to
himself suspiciously.  'Maybe they're actually TRYING to let me escape.  But
why would they?  This just doesn't make any sense.'

Deciding to just escape and not worry about it, figuring it would be better
for him to be free to move than for him to just rot away in quarters,
regardless of what they were planning.

He considered his options.  There was no way to retake the ship- he would
need a crew to handle it.  He was fairly sure that everyone in the crew was
on Captain Seiroku's side, so he wouldn't be able to pick up a skeleton
crew.  Perhaps that was why security was so lax- there was nothing they felt
he could do.

Well, he'd teach them to underestimate the Galaxy Alliance's top-ranking
officer.  Perhaps they didn't realize that he was both a pilot and an
engineer before he was promoted into desk duty.  Perhaps they didn't think
he was skilled enough in either field.  But he'd take one of their fighters,
modify it for long range, and use that to escape, heading for Pollux at full
speed.  Maybe there was still time.

He reached the fighter bay, and was almost surprised to see that Captain
Seiroku and a platoon of security officers were there waiting for him.

"My dear Space Marshal Graham," he sneered.  "Surely you didn't think we'd
let you go that easily?"

"Of course not.  In fact, I'm glad to see you here- it means you AREN'T just
trying to let me go," Graham shot back.  "I couldn't figure out why your
security was so lax.  Remind me to never let you teach at the Academy."

Seiroku laughed.  "My, my," he said.  "You've got quite a bit of spirit
left, don't you?  Isn't it obvious, Mr. Graham?  There's no point in sending
security all over the ship when the only thing I have to worry about is you
taking over one of these fighters.  You have no other options, after all."

"You're right," Graham nodded.  "I don't have any other options outside of
these fighters.  But if you think you're going to stop me from taking one of
them, you'll be quite mistaken."

"Oh?  And how will you stop me?" Seiroku snorted.

"Well, see," Graham said, "I took advantage of the lack of security around
here."  He pulled a wrist communicator out of his pocket.  "So I made plans,
just in case."

He pressed the button, and immediately the floor of the fighter bay started
electrocuting everyone on the floor- except for Graham, who had lined his
standard electomagnetic boots (to simulate a gravity environment in
non-artificial gravity ships, like the Atropos), with rubber.  As they were
all stunned to a shock, Graham rushed to one of the long-range fighters.
Knowing he didn't have time to make any major modifications before the
security forces and Seiroku recovered, he quickly ducked into the cockpit
and prepped it for launch.

Seiroku was the first person to reawaken.  "Give it up, Space Marshal," he
said through his communicator.  "The doors are sealed shut.  You won't get
out of here."

Graham ignored his warning and issued one of his own.  "You'd better get
your men out of here.  I'm going to blast open your doors, and I don't think
any of you want to be caught in the decompression that will occur."

Seiroku's eyes widened- Graham had called his bluff.  "Don't do that!" he
cried.  The stress of the decompression would likely cripple the Atropos for
days.  "Hold on... we will be opening the bay doors for you in five
 minutes."  Gesturing to his security force to clear out, he continued.  "Go
ahead and fly away, Space Marshal- it's too late, now, anyway.  Our mission
is complete, and you aren't our real enemy, anyway.  But when the Drules are
gone, know that I will have my revenge."

"You've got one minute to open these doors," Graham snapped back.  "I
suggest you do that before I lose my patience."

Seiroku left the room quickly, and soon the fighter bay doors opened and
Graham was out.  He quickly set course to planet Pollux at maximum speed.

The Atropos, meanwhile, changed course- since Graham was gone, there was no
more reason to continue to Arus.  It was time to head to the rendezvous- the
fight would be on, soon.


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