Finished my first chapter since coming back, and it's for... *ta dum* my
Voltron fanfic. Since it's been so long since I've posted ANYTHING,
however -- much less this fic -- I figured reposting might be nice
before I sent in the new chapter. I won't flood, though -- just a
chapter a day.
Minor revisions to earlier versions, including the one on my website.
Mostly grammar stuff, but one or two minor continuity errors have been
fixed in the revised chapters. Don't recall if any of those errors were
part of THIS chapter, though.
Alliance is Dead, Long Live the Alliance!
A Voltron Fanfic
by David A. Tatum
Disclaimer: Insert your favorite "I don't own it, WEP does" statement
here.
Author's Notes (revised 5/23/03): In this fanfic, I use characters and
equipment from Vehicle Voltron. I don't remember anything at all about
Vehicle Voltron- I only know a couple of the characters from other
Voltron fanfics. If I make any mistakes, let me know.
Don't expect this fic to be written very quickly. I've got MANY other
fanfics I'm already working on. For a complete (?) list of my
UNFINISHED fanfics, here you go in no particular order:
1. Return of the Sisters (Ranma)
2. Three Souls, One Heart (Ranma. Some lemony parts.)
3. Patchwork (Ranma)
4. Feudal Honeymoon (Ranma\Inu Yasha, no parts yet released. NOT a
lemon. (Postponed until IY manga is finished and possibly cancelled --
it looks like it's getting close enough to the end to bother waiting))
5. Language Lessons (Oh, My Goddess\Ranma. MAY have lemony
side-stories)
6. Patlabor: Personal Files (Patlabor)
7. Patlabor: Personal Files OAVs (a series of Oneshots related to
Patlabor: Personal Files. None yet released)
8. Noa the Submissive Seductress (Silly, title tentative, lemon (aka
NC-17), Patlabor. Originally an April Fools fanfic that I converted to
a non-April Fools fanfic. So far, just the first oneshot completed.
Now retitled "You're in Charge II")
9. Tylor's Fury (Irresponsible Captain Tylor)
10. Untitled (Princess Mononoke. May have lemony parts in the future,
undecided though)
11. Untitled Side Stories (Princess Mononoke- a series of 4 oneshots,
one completed so far)
12. Titled (Slayers)
13. Discoveries (Ushio and Tora)
14. Guide in the Wilderness (Rurouni Kenshin (a.k.a. Samurai X))
15. The Rebel Esper (Kimagure Orange Road)
16. Return of the Lovely Eyepatch (Jubei-chan, no parts yet released.
Mildly lemony part planned)
17. A Thousand Years Until Revenge (DBZ, much to my shame ^_^. Fifteen
chapters (roughly half) complete)
As you can see, well, my plate is kinda full, this being number 17 (18
now) in my ongoing fanfics list. So, even though against my better
judgment I'm starting this fic while the creative juices are still
flowing, I don't think it will be moving very quickly after I get
through this first spurt. But I'm not giving up on ANY of the fics
listed above (except possibly the IY one, now), so I won't give up on
this one, either. Just don't expect it to be finished any time in the
next, oh, 5 years or so. (That's right- I'm projecting to be finished
with everything in five years. Um... that may not be enough time, but I
'll try).(Okay, now I'm pretty sure it's not enough time. So sue me!)
-------------------------
The unusual precautions taken for this Alliance meeting were stunning,
to say the least. Each council member was sequestered into a special
room, where no-one could see who they were. When someone spoke, their
voices were distorted to prevent identification. The vote was also to
be in secret.
Anonymity was essential to this particular session.
"It's just not enough. The best we've been able to do is postpone
defeat with several holding actions," one councilmember was saying-
likely a female. "Face it, gentlemen. We're losing this war."
"There are always the Voltron teams!" one voice escaped from the
outraged cries of the other council members.
"Voltron has been a great help in delaying the inevitable," the female
snapped back, "But Voltron cannot win this war alone. Not even two
Voltrons can- we're fighting on WAY too many fronts against way too many
opponents. We simply can NOT win, fighting as we are."
"Then what do you suggest? That we surrender? That we submit to Drule
slavery and tyranny?"
The female hesitated. "No. That is not what I'm advocating. I'm
thinking, though... we may have to dissolve the alliance. Or should I
say divide it- allow one half of it to continue to fight in a unified
manner, while the other half would have to fend for itself."
More murmurs throughout the crowd. "Abandon half of our brother and
sister planets to destruction? Are you insane!?"
"Please! Let me finish!" she cried over the uproar. After a few
moments, the assembly settled down. "Now, portions of the alliance are
indefensible, at the moment. If we were to eliminate one of our
enemies, however...."
She continued explaining her plan. When she was complete, she called
for a vote....
* * * * *
Meanwhile, on Planet Arus, Pidge relaxed into the main seat at Castle
Control. He'd just come back from the bathroom, and decided to do a
quick check to see if any messages came while he was off station.
"Hey, something from Pollux! How is Bandor? And I wonder if Sven and
Romelle are back from their latest diplomatic mission!" He opened the
recorded message, and read. As he did, his eyes widened in pleasant
shock.
"Oh, wow. Oh, WOW! I've just GOT to tell the guys about this!"
Quickly printing out the message, he burst out of the room, deciding his
duty as the officer on watch was less important than letting the guys
hear what was about to happen with their off-world friends. The alarms
would let them know if any enemies were coming in, anyway.
Only seconds after the door closed behind Pidge, a light indicating a
new message arriving started flashing, unnoticed.
* * * * *
"Pidge!" Keith snapped as the young space explorer burst into the duty
lounge. Lance, Hunk, and the Princess were all seated in various places
around the room- Lance and Hunk playing some kind of card game, Keith
reading a book on Arussian law and customs, and Allura sitting at his
side, reading a book on military tactics that Keith had suggested to
her. Occasionally, she had questions for him, and he had questions for
her, but perhaps they were sitting just a touch closer than was needed
to discuss their various studies. Not that either of them noticed.
"What are you doing here? Why aren't you on station?!"
Pidge looked apologetic. "Sorry, Keith- I was just so excited I forgot
what I was supposed to be doing. But you guys have GOT to see this
message we just got from Pollux- Prince Bandor sent it, but I wouldn't
be surprised if we got another one soon from Romelle and Sven."
Keith raised a stern eyebrow to show his disapproval at Pidge's
inattentiveness to duty, but then smirked and shook his head. His crew
might not be the most disciplined of soldiers, but they were dependable
in a fight. They were entitled to get a little carried away in their
fun every now and then, as long as no-one got hurt. "All right, Pidge-
let's hear it."
Pidge smiled, relieved that his commanding officer wasn't going to press
him on the abandoning his post thing. "You won't believe this- Prince
Bandor caught Sven and Princess Romelle in... um, a compromising
position," he said, his eyes sliding to Allura, whose attention was
caught by Romelle's name.
"What kind of 'compromising position,'" Allura asked, sensing that Pidge
was trying to avoid saying something in front of her.
"Um... the kind which could result in babies later," he replied.
Allura gasped. "Oh, my! What a naughty cousin I have."
"It gets better," Pidge said. "Bandor wasn't alone- a number of the
ruling council were with him. They all started shouting, about to
demand that Sven and Romelle get wed before the scandal left their
castle... when Sven told them all that they were already married- they'd
eloped, and were just celebrating their honeymoon!"
"Way to go, Sven!" Lance cheered his absent friend.
"Way to go, Romelle, you mean," Allura corrected. "Sven is a great
catch- any girl would love to have them. And she did the right thing in
eloping- I don't look forward to all the pomp and circumstance that
accompanies a royal wedding, myself."
Pidge laughed. "Well, I don't think she quite got away with it. Her
ministers have insisted on at least a formal celebration of her 'secret'
marriage, and Romelle had no choice but to agree. We're all going to be
invited, by the way."
Keith rubbed his chin, contemplating this revelation. "Hmm... they
haven't given Sven any trouble over his not being a prince, have they?"
"I quote Romelle's words on the subject, 'the universe is scarce of
worthy princes nowadays. Men who act princely are good enough,'" Allura
stated. "We were talking about that very subject last time she was
here."
Lance smirked. "And just why were you asking her about that, Princess?"
he asked.
"I was telling the story of the near disaster from the last supposed
prince who tried to court me," Allura explained, blushing slightly.
That wasn't the whole reason, but she certainly didn't want to explain
that she was actually talking about a certain dark-haired savior from
that disaster. "When I mentioned Nanny's great visions of me being
married to a handsome prince, Romelle let me know what she thought on
the subject."
"Any 'men who act princely' around here, Princess?" Lance asked smugly.
Keith interrupted before she could answer. "I suspect Pidge is the most
princely of us all... but I think he's disqualified, since he left his
post without permission to spread some tabloid gossip," he chastised the
young man with a smile to take the sting off of it. "No punishment this
time, Pidge, but you'd better get back to Castle Control and stick to
your shift right now. And, if there are any other juicy tidbits from
Pollux- or anywhere else, for that matter- don't forget that we've all
got com units and call us instead of coming down here, got it?"
Pidge flushed, embarrassed, and quickly left the room, muttering,
"Right, chief. Sorry... I'd better go now."
Faking a look of intense thought, the Princess decided to get back at
Keith for the poor boy- the reprimand seemed a little harsh to her.
"You know, I suppose I'm not in the same situation as Romelle was. I
mean, there is at least ONE good prince out there... Bandor would have
made an excellent husband if he weren't her sister. But since he isn't
mine, maybe I should consider taking him as a suitor!"
Lance and Hunk both realized the joke she was playing, but Keith took
her all too seriously. His jaw dropped open, and he couldn't speak for
a few moments. "But... but..."
A twinkle in her eye, Allura glanced at him. "But?"
"But... he's... he's your cousin!"
"Yes, well... I understand it isn't unheard of in the royalty. Must
keep the bloodline true blue with nobility and all that. And it's not
like he's a CLOSE cousin or anything."
"But Allura!" Keith exclaimed. Lance's eyes widened, hearing his
usually unflappable commander call the Princess by her name for the
first time he could recall. Hunk, however, remained oblivious.
"Yes?" she said, also noticing that he was not referring to her by her
title.
"I thought you and I... I thought we... I..."
Allura shook her head to keep from laughing at how seriously he was
taking this. She decided to let him off the hook. "Keith, I'm just
kid-"
"I thought you said you loved me!" he exclaimed, not paying attention.
"How can you marry someone else when-"
That brought even Hunk to full attention. "She WHAT?" both he and Lance
exclaimed.
Allura brushed brightly, turning the color of Keith's jumpsuit.
"KEITH!" she shouted. "I was joking about Bandor! And I thought we
were going to keep that a secret!"
Keith blinked, realizing what he'd just blurted out to the whole room.
"I'm... sorry. But don't SCARE me like that! You know how difficult it
was for me to deal with the whole 'you're a princess, I'm just a
commoner' thing."
"Wait a minute," Lance said, nosing in. "Back up a moment here-
Princess, when DID you tell Keith that you loved him, exactly? And how
come you're hiding it from the rest of us? For that matter, HOW are you
hiding it from the rest of us?"
Keith and Allura looked at each other briefly, trying to gauge how much
the other was willing to reveal. "Um... there's no real story behind
that. We just talked about it one day when I was recovering from some
minor injuries in the medical bay," Keith explained. "She was a little
scared that if I kept getting hurt like that, she wouldn't ever get a
chance to tell me what she felt."
"And we haven't been hiding it, exactly," Allura continued for him. "We
just decided we'd hold off on... things... until the war with planet
Doom calmed some. Yes, we were keeping it a secret, but there wasn't
much TO keep secret, except... well, we sort of came to an
understanding."
Lance and Hunk both looked like they still had questions, but neither
one of them had a chance to before the beeper on Keith's com unit.
"Keith here. Go," he answered into it, cutting off everyone else.
"Keith, it's Pidge. When I got back up here I discovered there was a
message waiting for all of us from Galaxy Garrison. High priority, but
it requires a lot of clearances- I can't open it without the rest of us,
the Princess, and Coran all here for optical identification
confirmation."
Keith raised an eyebrow at that. "That's odd. We'll be right up
there." He turned to the others. "You heard him, guys- let's go."
Allura stopped him from rushing out the door with a gentle hand on his
elbow. "Wait, all of you," she began. "Can we... can you two please
promise me that you won't let Nanny or Coran know what we just talked
about in here? I... I don't want to have to deal with the objections I
know they'll have just yet."
"I promise, Princess- my lips are sealed," Hunk announced.
"I won't say anything in front of them," Lance said, a smirk forming on
his face. "But I reserve the right to tease you guys when we're alone."
"Lance," Keith said, a warning tone in his voice.
Allura, however, had no objections to that deal. "Sure thing, Lance. I
wouldn't expect otherwise."
Keith sighed. "Well, enough gabbing. Let's head to Castle Control. It
might be something important."
* * * * *
Lisa watched as Jeff left the conference room where he and several of
the other senior officers aboard the Explorer had disappeared to moments
ago. It was a strange communiqu� they had received- requiring several
people to give optical identity confirmation- but the meeting to read
that message had just broken up and Jeff, apparently quite shaken, was
the first to leave.
"What was that all about?" she asked, concerned. She'd never seen him
so pale, before.
"Uh, a situation report and new orders," he said, not quite
comprehending what he'd just heard. "The meeting is still going on, but
the Captain wanted me to start us towards are new destination."
"Where to?" Lisa asked, still unsure of why he seemed to be in such
shock.
"Arus."
"Arus? Why there?" she asked, surprised. They hadn't been to Arus in a
while, but last she'd heard the Lion Voltron was doing a very good job
of bottling up the Doom Empire.
Jeff shook his head. "I can't tell you- orders- but trust me: you don't
want to know."
* * * * *
"Paul Drege, Pilot: Green Lion. Granted rank of Lieutenant Commander
under 45021-pre:2-C. Confirmed."
Pidge cheered. "All right! A promotion!"
"Henry Firestone, Pilot: Yellow Lion. Granted rank of Lieutenant
Commander under 45021-pre:2-C. Confirmed."
"Sounds like we all got promotions, little buddy," Hunk said, ruffling
the young man's hair.
"Lancelot Aragorn, Pilot: Red Lion. Granted rank of Commander under
45021-pre:2-C. Confirmed."
"I'm catching up to ya, chief," Lance said, smirking at Keith. "There's
no WAY they promoted you to flag rank already."
"Keith Lockhart, Pilot: Black Lion. Command of Lion Voltron Forces.
Granted rank of Vice Admiral under 45021-pre:2-C. Confirmed."
Pidge whistled. "I think you were wrong, Lance- seems to me Keith is
pulling away from you."
"Not only did you get promoted to flag rank," Lance said, aghast. "You
got JUMPED to a three-star Admiral. How the hell did you DO that?"
"Allura, Princess of the Royal House of Arus, Pilot: Blue Lion. Granted
rank of Captain under 45021-pre:3-A, Special Order of Space Marshal's
Office. Confirmed," the computer said in monotone. The entire room was
startled at that statement- as far as they knew, Galaxy Garrison had
never formally recognized the Princess as the pilot of the Blue Lion,
much less given her a rank and official position.
"Keith, when-" she started to ask.
"I have no idea, Princess," he said. "Maybe that's what this is all
about."
"Coran d'Orick. Prime Minister, Arus. Command and Control, Arus.
Granted rank of General, Planetary Forces, under 45021-pre:3-B, Special
Order of the Space Marshal's Office. Confirmed."
"Why did they make ME an officer?" Coran cried, startled.
The message cued up. "All identities required, confirmed. Play message
now?"
"Yes," Keith said. Coran keyed in the final code, and the message
started playing. Space Marshal Graham's stern face appeared on the
screen, and his recorded message started playing.
"Attention, Voltron force. I'm contacting you now to inform you of a
number of things. Most of them, you will not like- I doubt anyone but
the Drule will like most of them, but this is very important.
"First off, I have made Princess Allura's status in the Galaxy Garrison
official, with the rank of Captain. I'm also making you second in
command of the Lion Voltron Force, as Keith's reports seem to indicate
your skills have improved to allow you to fulfill this duty. I also
gave promotions to everyone in the Force- especially Keith. You may all
think this is a good thing, but you won't when you hear why I had to do
it."
"It has to be something drastic to promote me to Vice Admiral," Keith
said, concerned. "I REALLY don't like this, guys."
"As of 1800, our time," Graham continued, "The Alliance Council has
declared Earth indefensible from Drule invasion, and half of the
Alliance has dissolved. We have loaded up a massive refugee fleet, and
will be abandoning the planet as soon as possible. All forces still
under Galaxy Garrison control will be rendezvousing here, at Earth
command, within 24 hours. We will be immediately heading to your sector
of the galaxy. From there, we will move to utterly wipe out the Doom
Empire, so as to allow for us to withdraw our forces from that sector
and then return to recover Earth.
"Your promotions are designed to give you official status when our
forces arrive. Keith, we're sending a complete list of our warships and
their capabilities along with this message. It will be your job to have
a plan ready when we get there- you know the situation in that sector
better than we do. Princess... this may mean you will have to leave
Arus once Zarkon is defeated. I... hope this will not be a permanent
situation, but I doubt you'll be willing to give up piloting Voltron,
and that is the only other option we know of. Further details,
schematics, and additional orders follow."
"Hell," Lance said, summing up what everyone else was thinking.
Keith looked at the frozen image of the Galaxy Garrison seal that
appeared on the screen when the message ended, thinking fast. He had a
lot to plan, and not all of it had to do with fleet tactics. "Allura...
can I talk to you privately for a moment?"
The Princess, still a little startled herself upon hearing her planet
was about to become the refuge for the capital of the Alliance, blinked.
He'd slipped and called her Allura again, but she could understand why.
And she decided she needed to talk to him, as well. "Of course, Keith."
The two of them disappeared into a nearby briefing room, closing the
door behind them. Hunk was the first to break the silence that
remained. "If Earth is gone... then we can't go home again."
Pidge shook his head. "I already lost my home, and made a new one here.
But EARTH... I mean, no-one on any planet has ever really thought Earth
would fall, even if the Alliance did. What happened?"
The com link beeped. "Coran, could you come in here for a minute? We
need you to be present for this," the Princess' voice erupted. "And see
if you can get Nanny up here, too."
"I'll be right there," Coran proclaimed, rushing into the briefing room
with as much dignity as he could muster after their shared shock. A few
moments later, Nanny came up to Castle Control and was directed to the
briefing room by Pidge.
"What do you think they're doing in there?" Pidge asked.
"Maybe they're thinking about how to feed all the refugees when they
arrive," Hunk suggested.
"Must you always think about food, Hunk?" Lance snapped, irritated.
"Hey! It's a valid concern!" the bulky pilot snapped back. "Besides,
why ELSE would they ask for Nanny to be there for discussions on these
refugees we're getting?"
A muffled feminine shout of "No way! I won't support this!" with Nanny'
s distinctive trill echoed through the closed door.
"Whatever they're talking about, Nanny doesn't seem happy," Pidge
commented.
"Earth has over seven billion people, Pidge," Hunk said. "Would you be
happy trying to decide on a meal for 7 billion?"
Nanny stormed back through the briefing room, causing all to stop and
stare at her. She had a look of unpleasant determination on her face,
and disappeared before they could ask her anything. A moment later, she
returned carrying a small box, and scurried back into the room with the
Princess, Coran, and Keith.
"You know, I think I've seen that box before," Hunk said, scratching his
chin in thought. "Down in the funeral shrine to the late Queen."
"Really?" Lance said, surprised. "I wonder what that means...."
Nanny returned a split second later, sighed, and motioned for the three
to come in. "We need witnesses for all of this," she said.
"All of what?" Lance asked, though he had his suspicions.
"The marriage of the Princess to... to that ruffian!"
-------------------------
David A. Tatum
http://davecon.anifics.com
desaix@anifics.com
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