3 「Open Sesame」

The door had opened, Lance fell forward with Hunk close in tow. Nearly crushed by the bolder of a man, Lance lets out a droning groan, before narrowing his eyes on the man ahead of them. He referred to them as children, but they both dismissed it.

Lance clacked his teeth together in irritation.

"Good to see you didn't plant your eggs in Pidge's throat," he'd retort with a snicker of his own. Seeing how the alien was amused of how they had been making moves at the door, only to fall down on top of one another. "Hey, Hunk, can you get off of me?"

Hunk's stomach growling, the big man glanced up towards Nemoi, then towards Pidge and sighed in relief. As he planted his hands on the ground and pushed himself off of Lance. He seemed to place his hands on his hips with a gleeful smile. "Glad to see you don't eat people, humans, at least! Speaking of Food! You got anything in that bag of yours Pidge?"

Pidge simply looked over at the two men and laughed to herself, shaking her head slightly. They were taking this a bit better than she had hoped. However they were all in Galaxy Garrison, and since they have just been proven they weren't alone in the universe, it seemed things became normal rather quickly.

"I have Nemoi here the last of my rations," Pidge said sarcastically, but there were no wrappers around. She actually never had any food in her pack, only a couple bottles of water.

Reading her almost immediately, Nemoi snickered a bit as his own stomach began to growl. "If only you actually had food." He winked as he placed a hand on her shoulder and then walked over to the food repository at the far corner of the room.

They watched as he opened it and pulled out packs of Altean nutrient and protein packs. Essentially, they were goo, one green and the other blue.

"They may not look appetiz–" He was cut off as Hunk snatched one of the packs from Nemoi's hands and observed it.

"I think they're fine," he said opening the pack and looking inside, sniffing it. There wasn't much of a smell, it wasn't dry yet it wasn't too wet. When he put his two fingers in and took out a bit, he played with it to learn of its consistency.

Nemoi watched as Hunk went on to scarf down what was in the bag with a deadpan expression on his face. Both Lance and Pidge also watched as he had taken the baggy and ate the food without hearing what it was.

"They're protein packs and nutrient paste. They're able to be resequenced and flavored by the machines in the galley designed by my father, but... They're offline. As are most of the systems which have a high power output."

Pidge nodded as she went and walked over to him, glancing over at the repository which had only six packs of each type of goo. Then looked over at Nemoi, who despite appearing to have a smile on his face, held different in his eyes. Sadness had taken him, she could see he was in a dark and lonely place.

She wasn't the best when it came to dealing or bonding with people. She often shrugged them off, made herself believe they were a waste of time, too stupid to be with. Yet, she had met this man here, two years older than herself. While she had her priorities set, he was a ticket to finding her parent and older sibling.

Despite the fact that she was lying about her identity to her new found friends from the Galaxy Garrison, she seemed to always hold honesty as a virtue. However she knew deception was needed to get things moving, or at least, to protect herself.

Nemoi turned his head and looked over at her as he felt her gaze and tilted his head to the side. He could see she was in thought, and it took her a few seconds to notice he was looking at her.

She immediately averted her gaze and looked away from him. She had a sheepish expression, considering she very much wanted her space to herself and denied him.

They were in a similar boat, but he wasn't going to get anyone back like she planned on doing. No one can bring back the dead, at least that is what she thought. She knew what loneliness could do to someone, but at least she still had her mom. Yet he had nothing, no one. Was that why he was so quick to try and attach to her?

Purpose, he did say he wanted to have purpose.

Nemoi, despite her not facing him, could see her in thought. He did however notice that she was looking at him from the corner of her eye, then looking away. He could only imagine she was thinking about what he had said earlier.

He'd take a pack out and toss one of them to Lance who caught a pack of goo, as he would then hand another one to Pidge. He went on to take one of his own and let out a small awkward laugh. "So... Any of you know how to initiate first contact with a species that have a number of Alien invasion movies?"

「Would you like to open your Beginner Kit? Y / N?」

Seeing the system was trying to get him to open the kit still after he had looked at it before, he shrugged to himself. Those around him could only assume he was shrugging at his own thoughts. However the system took this shrug of an answer as a yes.

「Beginner Kit Opened. You have obtained these notable items: 1,500 QP. Guns of Gamara Themed Paladin Armor and Modular Weapons Pack.」

「Involuntary Quest Complete. 250 EXP added.」

"I mean, we could bring Iverson here," Pidge suggested as she looked over at Nemoi. "Or we could bring you to Iverson."

"And here I thought it would be Lance landing me in the Principal's office again," Hunk cringed as he made his sarcastic remark about how Lance always lands him in trouble. Though he couldn't lie, things were going to get exciting around here.

"But what are you going to tell him? That we're going to be invaded by the same species that took my family?" She'd ask curiously as she frowned at Nemoi, seeing how he wanted to make contact with the Galaxy Garrison.

"You have a couple or few years before they invade," He knew that there was an inevitable invasion of Earth coming in two years. However he also knew the reason why the invasion came to Earth that soon, aws because of the humans becoming Paladins of Voltron. "In that amount of time, Earth should be able to have created some form of defense with information I provide. we just need cooperation."

Pidge nodded hearing this, but she figured they'd need more than just information. "Is there anything else you'd be willing to give?"

Raising a brow and looking over at her, he snickered a bit. A little fire was seen in his eyes which seemed to have been lit simply by hearing her speak to him. "I could supply some of the Altean Weapons, Fighters and Shuttles. While I'll be giving them the blueprints, some hands on would be good for their mechanics and engineers. On top of that, they'd be able to build their own power sources to sustain them. I don't know if that would be enough though..." He trailed off for a moment, a slight bead of sweat making its way down the side of his face.

"I think it'd be better off to bring him here for this." Pidge suggested though this put her at risk, as all the attention would be placed on her. Though she knew that he would protect her. Her eyes centered on him. He promised to be there beside her, to help her get her family back and to assist her in her future mission whatever that might be.

Lance and Hunk could see the strange connection between the two of them. They could also feel the atmosphere getting more serious as time went on. They both looked at each other and looked to the door.

Hunk wanted to go home, Lance on the other hand wanted to go out into town, it was the per usual for the two. However since there was going to be an invasion, they wanted to protect their families.

"In that case, lets wake him up." Nemoi stated and all of them stared at him for this, they were clearly thinking he was out of his wits. "No? Well, you guys have to get back in the morning, unless you want to use the commotion of returning in the morning to grab his attention."

"And how do we prove that we've come in contact with an Alien species hiding out here in the desert?" Lance spouted out, knowing that if it came out of his mouth, it'd only sound like an excuse.

Nemoi went ahead and opened a weapons repository which was right beside the food cache. He pulled out an Altean blaster pistol and held it out to Pidge to take.

He trusted Pidge the most out of everyone in the room when it came to the firearms. Why? Because he saw Lance as a manchild, a ladies man and a show off. Hunk was decent, but he was a nervous wreck who gets a gatling gun as his primary weapon, he was pretty bad at handling it.

"You... Want me to give him a gun?" Pidge asked as she stared at the weapon in her hands. It was sleek with a pearly white shell on its basic black colored material. The barrel had a blue glow to its interior.

"I mean... You could fly one of the shuttles to him, it has shields." Nemoi suggested as all three of them looked at him once more with a serious stare. "Yeah, they might shoot at you."

Hunk looked at Nemoi with his hand thoughtfully placed on his chin."Would you be coming with us?" He asked curiously, which was almost instantly met with a rapid shaking of his head.

"Oh hell no," Nemoi responded as he made an X with his arms. "I don't want to be dissected."

Pidge just looked at him for a few moments as he said that and almost burst out laughing. "Yeah, that might actually happen if he isn't in his own 'territory' so to speak."

It was true, at least that is what both Nemoi and Pidge assumed, but for two different reasons.

Nemoi knew what the Galaxy Garrison would do to Shiro once he crash landed. On the other hand, Pidge didn't trust an inkling of what Galaxy Garrison was, or what they could or even would do since they lied about her father and brother.

"Hm... So you don't mind if we stay the night?" Pidge asked as it seemed Lance and Hunk scrunched up their faces hearing her query.

Nemoi nodded slightly, "I don't mind at all. There are plenty... Plenty of Quarters. We just have... Clear out the bodies," he looked towards the door which lead to the hall and corridors littered with skeletal corpses and destroyed robots. "Hunk and Pidge, you guys can salvage the Galra Sentries. Lance..." He looked at the man who would be the future blue and later red lion Paladin. "Do whatever."

Pidge grinned and Hunk didn't seem so opposed to the task. Both he and Pidge were good with Technology. Learning more about your enemies weapons and technology, gave you insight of what you were up against. This also made it so that they could very well help their people against the Galra Empire.

Robots that could be used to make an endless army, it was perfect.

"Also, in my personal quarters," he looked towards Pidge as she was about to leave the room with Hunk. "I have some theoretical designs on advanced Third Dimensional Printers, and Demolecularization storage, if you're interested later tonight."

Pidge had turned to smile vaguely, nodding to him.

However when she went to turn around, both Hunk and Pidge locked their eyes on Keith who was standing in the center of the hall. Looking over the dead bodies before narrowing his eyes on the three people visible to him: Pidge, Hunk and Lance.

"Who're..."

"You've got to be kidding me, really, this guy!?" Lance immediately pointed at Keith who was in the middle of asking who they were. Then he paused slightly as he recalled he had never gave his name to the Altean Noble.

He slowly turned his head and looked over at Nemoi, then towards Pidge. Did their partner give their names freely to an alien? Not that it really mattered, but it seemed like an awful amount of trust to give a stranger. "Hmm..."

Keith raised a brow seeing Lance's reaction to him being there, "Who even are you?"

And so the one sided rivalry begins.