By Purrsia Kat
Jeff woke up,
literally not knowing what hit him at first. His eyes wouldn’t focus and his
body ached fiercely. He couldn’t figure out why his arms were stuck behind him
while he was unable to lift his head up off the cold, steel floor. He stopped
struggling a moment, trying to let his eyes and mind focus.
Slowly, he began to recall. Those
ships he and Lisa saw on the horizon, then the Explorer’s warning alarm. They’d
made it to launch, but it was already too late. The attack fleet arrived so
swift and in such large numbers, there wasn’t even a chance to form Voltron.
Last thing Jeff remembered before crashing was the glow of the Explorer
lighting up his cockpit as it disintegrated into a mountainside. It was like
his worst nightmare, but only all too real. The commander and the crew, all
assumed lost. It was he and the Voltron Force all that as left in their
individual ships and they were failing fast against an enemy he’d never seen
before.
Jeff squeezed his eyes shut as if trying to vanquish
the horrid memory of their last moments from his mind. He groaned and struggled
some more but it was no use. He could only assume he’d been captured and
wondered if any of his teammates survived this long as well. All he could see
was the wall beside him, and the only thing he could hear were footfalls that
grew louder until one heavy boot rested on the side of his head, causing Jeff
to grunt.
“The captain awakes,” came the
gleeful voice of the boot’s owner. Jeff tried to get a look at the man but it
was little use. “Save any last words you may have for King Zarkon.” The man
pushed down hard for emphasis before leaving, whistling a carefree tune as he
departed.
Zarkon!
Jeff’s heart pounded at the mention of the tyrant’s name. And then he
realized it must have been the forces of Doom that had attacked them, all the
way out there. Despite efforts to monitor Zarkon’s movements, they never saw it
coming and yet he supposed, that had been the idea. They must have been just waiting
for a vulnerable moment to strike, and the support fleet out escorting in
settlers was prime time. But how – how did they move that many ships without
anyone in the Alliance knowing? It seemed like Galaxy Garrison or the forces on
Arus would have noticed something of that size moving through the galaxy. It
didn’t seem possible – and yet it somehow was.
He had to see more of his
surroundings so he could get a handle on what he was up against, Jeff decided,
his thoughts already turning to escape. With much effort and pain, he managed
to get his feet up against the wall and used them as leverage to turn his body
ninety degrees. There he was faced with another wall, but leaning upright
against it with his arms and legs in irons was Hazar. The Drule leader looked
beaten and dazed, perhaps roused by the booted visitor, but Jeff could tell
when he looked at him that Hazar recognized him. His sister, Dorma, lie nearby
but it appeared she was still unconscious – or at least that’s what he hoped.
“What happened?” Jeff asked of the
Drule.
“Doom,” came Hazar’s answer in a
weak, near-whisper. “Hundreds of them…thousands…came out of the sky…we didn’t
have a chance.” Jeff envisioned a scene on the new planet Drule unfolding much
like what he’d witnessed. He assumed the attacks were coordinated to be
simultaneous for he didn’t recall any knowledge that Hazar’s planet was in
distress. And if so, the Doom effort was even more massive than he even first
imagined. The idea put Jeff’s stomach in knots of dread.
“Same here. Who else is in here?”
Jeff wondered, for his awkward bindings and position, along with his injuries
prevented him from seeing his surroundings completely.
“Your teams. That’s it. We’re the
special prisoners – high security.”
Jeff felt some temporary relief, for
it meant Lisa was safe as well, although he hoped there would have been some of
the Explorer crew mentioned. But what he really wondered is why they had been
captured and kept alive at all.
“We’ve got to get out of here.” Jeff didn’t want to
stick around and find out what was in store for them, especially not if what
he’d always heard about Planet Doom was true.
Hazar stared blankly ahead. “I
recognized the commander that was just in here. Cossack The Terrible.”
Jeff grimaced. That didn’t sound
encouraging.
“He was coming up through the ranks
on Doom just as the crisis on the old planet Drule was reaching dire levels,”
Hazar continued. “So I don’t know too much about him. But if he’s got a title
like that, odds are it was well earned.”
Jeff wished some of the others were
awake, too. He could even use the occasional wise crack out of Cliff right now
to take his mind off the situation. Jeff’s mind swirled with ways to escape. He
knew in his heart if they reached Doom, their fate was sealed.
On Arus the Lion Team ran into the
Castle control room, nobody particularly comforted by Coran’s solemn
expression.
“Coran, what’s going on? We heard
the alarm,” Keith said.
“Is Zarkon on the attack?” Princess
Allura added, worry marring her pretty features.
Coran nodded. “Yes, but not here.”
The Lion Team exchanged puzzling
glances. “Then what gives?” prompted Pidge.
“Galaxy Garrison has put out an
alert, although they want us to be especially on guard,” Coran began carefully.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to say it. Doom forces
have attacked the planet the Vehicle Team was preparing for new settlers. The
new Planet Drule has also been under heavy attack. We have lost all
communications with the Explorer, the Vehicle Team and our Drule allies.”
Coran looked at them levelly,
waiting for their shocked gasps and utterances to subside before he went on.
“The worst is feared, and you know if they have fallen Zarkon’s next stop will
be Arus. Pollux is on standby to lend reinforcements while the Alliance has
launched a support fleet for us as well as a search and rescue mission in the
near universe.”
“How could this happen right under
our noses?” Hunk demanded to nobody in particular.
Keith scratched his head. “It’s not
like Zarkon hasn’t been keeping us pretty busy. How he put together a force big
enough to take out Drule and the Vehicle Team…”
“Surprise attacks never turn out
well for the surprised,” Lance pointed out.
Nobody had noticed Pidge edging
toward the launch tower until he spoke up. “I’m not waiting. My brother is out
there. We’ve got to go!”
Pidge’s teammates regarded him with
a mix of sorrow and pity, which only seemed to anger him.
“Pidge, it’s over,” Allura said
gently, her eyes glistening with tears. “We can’t do much now but wait for word
on survivors.”
Hunk tried to comfort his friend as
well. “They’ve sent out a search party. I know it’s hard - we’ve all got friends on that team - but we
all gotta just sit tight and wait for word.”
Lance nodded. “Rushing off and
getting ourselves killed isn’t going to help anyone. We’ve got to find out more
about what we’re up against first.”
Pidge was exasperated. “You guys
don’t understand.” With that he turned on his heel and went to launch his lion
ignoring his team’s cries for him to wait.
Tears clouded his eyes on the
shuttle trip to Green Lion. Chip wasn’t gone. They were twins and had a special
connection. He’d know it if Chip was gone. What he felt was that Chip needed
him, and he was not about to sit in a Castle while practically the only family
he had left in the universe needed help.
Part of him knew it was foolhardy to jump in
headlong. But his heart didn’t care, and it surely couldn’t bear the wait for
word from the Alliance. However, once he was seated in his Lion, the reality of
the situation and his friends’ words of wisdom hit him. Just where did he think
he was going to go? And what was he going to do when he got there?
He quickly shut down his intercoms and visuals to
the Castle control so they wouldn’t see him just sitting there to hang his head
and cry.
Sitting on his throne, Zarkon leaned
in closer to better see the vision his faithful witch Haggar had conjured in
her crystal ball. First he beheld a large fleet of his own ships out in space.
Then the scene showed the cargo of captives. The King scowled.
“While it is amazing that Cossack
and that idiot son of mine managed to pull this off,” he began, “I don’t know
why you’re keeping that other Voltron Force alive.”
“Sire, if I may beg your indulgence,”
the old witch said in a particularly obsequious tone. “There is a method to our
madness. The years of planning, the slow build-up of ships and arms…the
sneaking it all bit by bit nearby to them under the Alliance’s nose – it will
all pay off in the best way soon.”
Zarkon arched a brow. “Oh? And do
you plan on letting me in on this or am I just wearing this crown as a
decoration?”
“Of
course, sire,” Haggar said hastily, bowing slightly. “Freeing what’s left of
the old Drule Council and capturing Hazar was of utmost importance. We will
restore the Drule Empire of the near universe to its former glory. But we also
scored the bonus of defeating and capturing the Vehicle Voltron Force, their
command ship reduced to a cinder.” She paused to laugh, the thought of all
they’d gained amusing to her.
“However,
the little one who pilots the Green Lion – his twin brother is part of the
Vehicle Team. I believe for now they are more valuable to us alive.”
Her eerie yellow eyes peered out
from under her dark cowl hood, looking at her master in an expectant way.
The hurt in them wasn’t masked when
Zarkon waved his clawed hand dismissively. “We stalled around and played parlor
games back when we had the Lion Force here on Doom, ready for the Arena. I
won’t make the same mistake twice. Tell Cossack to put a bullet in the back of
each one’s head.”
Haggar had plans, of which she was
not ready to give up on just yet. “Sire,” she pressed as gently as she could
without inciting his rage. “It is Lion Voltron that still guards Arus. It is he
who has prevented you from ruling the Denubian Galaxy all these years. We have
the tools to make the Voltron Force bend to our will like never before now.”
Zarkon shifted in his seat. “Then
what the hell did I spend a fortune on ships and arms if I can’t just send it
all down to Arus and obliterate it?”
Haggar tried her best to keep her
cool, straining to smile at Zarkon. It always frustrated her deeply when he was
so dismissive – so unwilling to see the bigger picture. “We considered that,
but Arus has many allies in this galaxy, plus the Alliance has supply bases
close enough to supply them with reinforcements – enough to make such a
confrontation messy and costly on our side. Never mind that their Voltron is
the original, and has far more mysterious components the Alliance could not
replicate with the version we have now defeated. But with these hostages that
we were lucky enough to acquire, I think we should seize the opportunity to
make Voltron surrender without firing a shot.” Zarkon
paused to ponder Haggar’s case. “Well, we might fire a shot or two – at the
Vehicle Team members each time the Lion Force stalls,” he finally said with a
laugh, and Haggar knew he’d bought into her plan.
Something in the crystal ball’s
vision caught Zarkon’s eye just then and he did a double take. Haggar shrunk
back a little as the King’s eyes narrowed to slits. “That better not be what I
think it is in that cargo hold, witch.”
“I can explain,” she offered meekly.
“Yes, those are the ships that comprise the Vehicle Voltron – we salvaged
them.”
Zarkon sighed. “And what are we
supposed to do with that? Make a Voltron copy ourselves?”
A knowing smile crossed Haggar’s
lips. “Close. I thought if the Voltron Force on Arus needs a little nudge, we
could send a messenger.”
“Didn’t we try that before? And it
failed miserably?”
“It is more correct to say we didn’t
bother to try given what we know about Lion Voltron’s make-up. And while this
other Voltron is based on the Arusian model, it’s more science than anything as
I mentioned before. And computers can always be hacked and overridden. In the
slight chance I’m wrong, I promise to destroy it, sire.”
Zarkon rose to his feet, and to her
disappointment, he didn’t look all that impressed. “Whatever this scheme is of
yours, it better work. I’ll have your, Cossack’s and Lotor’s hide if those
prisoners escape and especially if
we have to then deal with TWO Voltrons because of some half-baked failed plot.
It’s in your best interest to guard them well.”
Haggar nodded and bowed, grateful
that he was at least letting her proceed though she tried not to let the fact
that he used ‘half-baked’ to describe the plan get under her warty skin. She
was confident that scenario wouldn’t play out, for the prisoners were not even
aware their ships were salvaged. And she didn’t plan on having them find out
until it was far too late.
She decided to add parting words she knew would put
the King in good spirits. “I believe we have done well to keep Hazar in one
piece. I’m sure you would like the pleasure of dealing with that traitor
personally.”
A grin split Zarkon’s face. “Oh yes.
Yes I will.”
This was the day Throk had waited
for. He knew that pompous Hazar would eat his words, and as he walked out into
the fresh air on the new Drule for the first time in years, he felt
invigorated. Doom soldiers marched through the streets keeping martial law.
There would be no blasted URF to subvert authority this time. And there’d be no
elections either. Throk had been informed upon his release that Zarkon himself
appointed him in charge of Drule. He found it curious there was no mention of
Keezor, but then, Throk thought it best not to bring it up either. The less
high-ranking cronies from the old days there were left, the less he’d have to
worry about the old backstabbers and manipulators rearing their ugly heads to
challenge his position.
No, this was perfect. And now that
he and Durak were free, they needed to find suitable quarters and organize. He
didn’t mind Durak, for he was what Throk would consider harmless and
subservient. The type that was content to just ride one’s coattails rather than
murder you to steal them.
The people would soon know there was a new order.
Throk only regretted that he wasn’t afforded the chance to smite Hazar himself.
It would have been a wonderful way to begin his reign. Every time he looked
down at his gnarled and useless hand – which Hazar had shot before taking him
into custody – he was reminded of the mark that man put on him. As for Dorma,
he’d like to get her alone and backed into a corner…
He smiled in a sort of lopsided leer
at the thought and entertained the idea of asking Zarkon if he could have her
as his personal servant. Perhaps, if she survived the Pits long enough for him
to impress Zarkon with his rule on Drule, he’d put in the request. By then, her
spirit would be broken—
“Throk, sir,” Durak pleaded, tugging
at his arm.
Throk hadn’t realized how into his reverie he was
until that moment. “What is it?”
“Look,” Durak replied, pointing just up the street.
The walk was deserted other than a slender blonde female heading their way with
purpose and weight to her steps.
At first, Throk thought Durak was doing a little
window shopping of his own until he peered closer and thought he recognized
her. “No…it can’t be---“
The woman neared until she stopped just in front of
a slack-jawed Throk and Durak. She looked older and scarred, but there was no
mistaking it. What was amazing about her standing before them was Throk thought
for certain she was lost in that last battle with the Alliance over old Drule.
“Honey, I’m home,” she quipped, her glossy pink lips
curling into a snide smile.
“Twila!”
TO BE CONTINUED…
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