-------------------------

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 a 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 in the room- 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 by the 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.



-------------------------
David A. Tatum
http://davecon.anifics.com
desaix@anifics.com



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