Pilot Chapter

Once again, Pidge had to hold herself back from shouting back at children and co-workers alike whenever she heard them saying that, "No, there wasn't a second girl in Voltron… Was there?"

This time, it was the new intern, looking like he was fresh out of a good-named university. Well, it was rare to receive interns here who didn't at least come from really good backgrounds. This was the Galaxy Alliance's Headquarters, after all. What more, they were the tech ops division, and that name alone demands a lot from its members.

But she was the green paladin herself, and no graduate from Harvard, Princeton, or MIT could ever make her feel intimidated. However, as the green paladin, she also knew that she couldn't go arguing with new recruits, either.

Besides, her paladin years were long over, with peace now relatively in place. Well… in the way the chaotic universe could ever be considered peaceful, that is.

"No way!" the intern shouted out confidently, his chin jutted out. "I'm pretty sure there wasn't a human girl. There was that alien princess, for sure. I saw pictures of her statue, and she looked absolutely beautiful! It's a shame she passed on."

Pidge's eyes twitched. 'So he could remember Allura, but he couldn't remember me? Didn't he see pictures?!' she thought.

The intern nodded to his colleagues. "I even went through some pictures of the team, and I'm pretty sure there was no girl. There's Keith. The Galactic Daily says he's still out there uniting the Galra. Then, there's the yellow paladin. Definitely a dude, and a damn good chef, I hear. Then, there's that other guy… I forgot his name, but he had a gun. And… That's it, right?"

'AAAArrrgghh!!!' Pidge wanted to rip her hair out in frustration. It was a real pain having to grow it out though, so she resorted to simply pulling at the ends. She then thought, 'How come he can remember everyone but me?! And why does he only know Keith's name? And what about Shiro? He's still sort of… No! He's definitely still part of Voltron!'

She was about to just leave her perch from on top of some metal scaffoldings, when a hand landed gently on her shoulder. She looked up to see an unexpected sight. Her brother, Matt, had somehow snuck up beside her. Her eyes went wide, and all the negative emotions she's been feeling suddenly went away. "Matt!"

He smiled at her excited squeal, and gave her a long hug. "Katie, I've missed you."

"Ahh-yeah!" Pidge mumbled from beneath him, but still refused to let him go. "You were gone for only two earth years or so!"

Alas, people were starting to stare, and with them so high up on the scaffoldings, they made quite a scene. The siblings laughed as they released each other from their death hugs. Matt then looked at the wires and bolts from the humongous machine, still out in the open to see. "You seem busy," he observed, and then adding under his breath, "As usual."

Pidge snorted. "Ha! More than just busy, brother. If this goes well, we can create an actual alternative to wormhole technology without the use of an Altean power source!"

She found herself feeling pride as she saw her brother's brows go up in shock and admiration. He said, "That's really something, Katie. And it looks like it might even be finished just about now."

Pidge grinned wistfully, running a hand through her hair. "Not quite. I mean…"

Her brother looked at her skeptically, a small smile forming on his face. "Don't tell me…"

Finally, under the gaze of her brother, she allowed herself to speak the truth. "Okay, so I don't actually have a power source yet… But the foundations are set. The materials are strong enough to hold, but you already know that. But, well, the structure I designed is sure to- With the things I learned from the Olkarion… I mean, didn't Dad make the Atlas even before he had the power source?! That means that I can do it too! It's just-"

"Okay, okay," Matt held his hand up to placate her. "I get it, Kate. I really do, and I'm sure it's gonna work. We're the Holts, aren't we?"

With that, Pidge immediately calmed down, and a smile came back on her lips. "So, what made you come home after so long? I thought you'd never return."

"Gah!" he flinched, a hand up on his heart like he was actually hurt, but a mischievous grin was still in place. "I guess I deserved that, but let's get home first. I think this talk is going to be… a pretty long one."

~~

'My brother… is getting married,' Pidge repeated in her mind, while she lied down in bed, hours after their family talk over dinner had ended. 'He's really getting married.'

In truth, Pidge already knew there was someone his brother was seeing over the years. It wasn't surprising, either. Matt was handsome, tall, and smart. It would've been quite weird if he still hadn't found his life-long pair. What really irked her was that he never told her about it! Sure, she asked him about it relentlessly over dinner, but he would just reply that he was embarrassed, or that he thought she wouldn't have cared. But she did care! Did she? Of course, she did!

Sure, she was more into robots, and books, and games, and the wonders of the universe, and the Killbot Phantasm Ultra, with the altered specs and the-!

'Okay,' she thought. 'I might not be so ready for these kinds of talks, after all…'

However, even Pidge now knew that a girl, no, a woman of 20 years should be more aware of herself. Five years had already passed since they had defeated Honerva and restored the universe, but she still felt like the scrambling teenager she was back then. Maybe she just stopped growing mentally after travelling through so many wormholes. She might even have aged backwards! Maybe there should be a medical diagnosis for this…

'Oh quiznaks, I'm going off track again!' she shouted inwardly, rolling around on her bed. Her head still in a jumbling mess, and deciding that sleep just wasn't going to come, she got out of the bed. Careful not to wake her parents next door, she tiptoed her way up the attic stairs, crawled through the tiny windows, and made her jolly way up on the rooftop. She discovered this spot inside their home not long after coming back to Earth after her years as a paladin of Voltron. Weirdly, she had never thought of coming up here when she was younger. Maybe her days as a paladin had made her daring enough to make decisions she would never have done before.

The night air was cool on her face, and dawn was actually just a few hours away. She could already hear the few stray cicadas whispering in the wind. Looking back, her family was lucky to have a house so far out from the cities. It meant that it hadn't gotten destroyed during the Galran invasion years ago. Now, she could enjoy at least this small part of their past life. Not that much had changed. She still had both her parents and Matt. They still loved each other, but…

There were definitely changes. Matt going away for marriage was one thing.

For a forward thinker like her, Pidge was weirdly scared of change. I mean, sure, Matt was almost always away, but this time was different. He was really going away for good, to have a family, and in the future, to have children. And Pidge won't be the only one he'll look after anymore…

She sighed, already getting annoyed at her thought processes. She herself knew she wasn't being fair.

But she was the green paladin. If there's a problem, she can solve it. And this time, maybe the problem was within herself.

~~

The next morning, Pidge had just hopped off of her Galaxy Garrison-issued (now personal) armored car, when she encountered the new intern again. It seemed to her like her day could only get better.

"Good morning!" the intern greeted her as he passed by, his eyes on her wheels. "The Alliance seems generous in issuing their shuttle cars."

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him. "What? You think I don't deserve this privilege?"

'And what did he just say? Did he actually call my baby a mere shuttle car?'

He blinked down at her. "Sorry, I thought you were an intern like me."

She was simply appalled at his audacity. "Are you simply basing my skills simply on my looks? Or is it because I'm a girl?!"

He backed away, his face blanched out. "N-No! I meant-!"

"What?" Pidge came forward until she was right below him, looking straight up with an intense glare.

The intern could only look troubled, already glancing around nervously as they started to attract attention from the other soldiers and workers. He finally sighed. "Well, it's true that it's because of your looks, b-but not because you're a girl or anything! It-It's your age. I apologize, but you look even younger than me, so I assumed…"

Seeing him look so apologetic, Pidge couldn't keep her anger up in flames. Before long, she had already forgiven him. She had always been like that. She was easy to appease, but if enemies were relentless in their ways, then she could only return in kind.

But, this boy… Well, aside from not knowing about her as the paladin, Pidge decided that she could let him go without a scratch.

"It's fine," she said, backing away from him accordingly. "But it would do you well not to have these assumptions too easily, especially here in the Alliance Headquarters. Not everyone is as they look. You might even be surprised to know that people who look like humans are actually aliens, so…"

Immediately, the boy perked up. "Understood, senior! I won't assume you're younger than me again!"

Pidge's eyes twitched. "That wasn't what I meant. I mean, I'm not actually old…"

"Of course, senior! I won't mention your age again!" the boy replied with a little salute, although it was a little crooked. He was obviously not here from the Garrison.

"Uh, so, what's your name?" Pidge asked.

"Oliver Spen, 22 years old, right at your service, ma'am!" he replied, still in his version of a soldier in attention. "I'm an intern slash recruit on probation sent from the New York branch!"

This surprised Pidge. It seemed like he already had prior experience working with the Galaxy Alliance. However, the Headquarters worked way more different than the other branches. After all, it also served as the ground zero for alien interaction and immigration.

Regardless, Pidge was fond of the boy's earnest introduction. So, she decided to reply in honest kind. "I am Technical Officer Katie Holt from the tech ops division, graduated from the Galaxy Garrison as high-ranking cadet. I do am pushing my luck here, but I do believe I'm a great asset to the Alliance, what with all my achievements and contributions in the past ten deca-phoebs. Well, but it wasn't that long from my relative perspective, since I was out of commission for three Earth years.

"And also, you might know me as Pidge, Voltron's green paladin."

She tried not to smile too much when his mouth dropped open in shock.

"Also," she added. "I'm twenty."

His eyes could only bulge out so much before she thought they might pop out.

So, she added, "And in case you weren't sure: Yes, I am Voltron's one and only human girl."

~~

Oliver, it turned out for Pidge, was actually a pretty nice guy. He was quick enough to follow her thought processes, and was initiative enough to give her what she wanted even before she had asked for it. It was weird, but the higher ups seemed to want Pidge to become the soldier-in-charge of the new intern.

She was hesitant, at first, thinking that he would only slow her down. Instead, he turned out to be good company. In fact, he did just more than provide company.

"So, I was thinking," Oliver said, tapping an Altean screwdriver on his chin. "I know you're really adamant about this non-Altean power source thing…"

"Uh-huh," Pidge said absentmindedly, fixing up the order of the wires until they were pristine. "Yeah, that's the whole point of this machine."

"Well, I've been thinking about that," he repeated. He then looked down at the busy paladin with a shy and anxious gaze, like the one a student would have in front of his teacher. "What about a… mixture of Altean and Earth?"

That made Pidge stop in her very important endeavor. She looked up with intense eyes. "Elaborate," she ordered.

Oliver gulped. "Hear me out. It doesn't seem plausible to immediately jump into non-Altean power sources, when this machine was made with Altean materials and an Earthly engineering."

"Well, in perfect truth, it's actually mixed up with some Balmeran crystals and the engineering was fused with Olkarion elements," Pidge muttered.

"But that isn't my point." Oliver sighed, struggling to explain. "… How about using an Altean object as a catalyst instead? Will that work well with Earth… and Olkarion engineering?"

It took a long time of thinking from Pidge's end, but at the end of the day, and after a hellish time of formulating calculations with her Dad, she finally decided that it was worth a try. In fact, if her hypothesis was correct, it might just work even better than she had thought. And all she needed was a flower.

And to do that, she'd have to visit a fellow paladin. A friend she hadn't seen in a long, long time.

It was time to see Lance.