Chapter Text
Keith bit his thumb, ripping off the skin on the edge of the nail, running the other hand lightly along the cold steel wall. This wasn't the first time that he had snuck out of his room to roam the silent night hallways of the Galaxy Garrison, but it was the first time that he heard footsteps. Not wanting to feel stupid if it was nothing to be worried about, he continued stalking the corridors, his ears pricked.
Almost a mile away but under the same roof, Katie Holt scurried, a laptop teetering, sometimes on one bony hip and sometimes under one cloaked arm. She wore all black, coated in huge swathes of cloth that made her appear much larger than she was, complete with a heavy hood that entirely obscured her face. Despite all of those precautions, however, she dashed from entrance camera to entrance camera, disabling them. Scuttling down the hall, she got to one with an obvious blind spot and camped behind it for a moment, her hands clicking away at the keyboard in front of her. Then she grinned, the cameras safely under her control.
“Who’s there?” Keith heard the sudden bark of dialogue and looked up from the grey steel floor in front of him, his heart stopping. Would they kick him out of the Garrison for breaking curfew? There was no answer to the gruff call, so Keith stood, motionless, in the center of the hall, far away from his assigned bunk, unsure of what to do.
Katie heard something similar: footsteps stamping fear into her heart. She slid into a crevice and shivered, her own breath rattling her whole body. Trying to look at her laptop that showed the footage for all of the halls and stay hidden and quiet became so difficult that Katie almost groaned aloud. She needed help, but the only people that came to mind were billions of miles away in space.
Keith still stood, knees bent slightly, in the middle of the hall, but the guard, or whoever had called out, seemed to have left. Creeping now, lower to the ground, his arms outstretched to keep his balance, he started back towards his room. That is, until he heard the slamming of a door and thought better of it. According to the official map of the Galaxy Garrison, he could loop around the side of the dorm block and get to his room that way. But he needed to get to the common area, a huge, circular monster of a room that connected the classrooms to the dormitory area.
Flicking frantically through the camera feeds, Katie was having a breakdown. This had seemed so much easier in her head when she was planning on sneaking in to the Garrison to find out what really happened to her brother and dad. Nothing seemed to be swaying her way. Then her eyes locked on the boy. He was slowly making his way towards the common area, and seemed the perfect candidate to help her, seeing as he was already hiding from the Garrison thugs. A plan forming, Katie found a computer lab on the cameras. She couldn't pull any Kerberos data off of them, seeing as they were student computers, but she could pull something else off. Sets of wireless headphones perched on the keyboards, just asking to be reprogrammed.
Katie made a break for it, black fabric flowing like wings behind her and her laptop tucked snugly under one arm. She dashed through the passageways, hearing the footsteps get louder and her breathing get more ragged. Katie had a vague thought that she needed to get into better shape, but she tried not to dwell on it as she reprogrammed as she ran.
The center of the Garrison building came into view, and Katie could see the black haired boy standing, stunned, in worn pajamas, in the middle of the room. Katie suddenly had second thoughts. To her, it didn’t seem like this guy had ever touched a computer in his life. His back had no hunch; his eyes looked wide and healthy. Suddenly, Katie realized that she hadn’t been looking at her feet, or where she was going. Unfortunately, she only noticed that because a scrap of black fabric had floated underneath one foot. Katie slid, her feet tangling. Katie flipped in midair, trying to preserve her laptop from the fall.
This created a human torpedo barreling towards Keith. Ever since the black mass had entered the room, Keith had stood, frozen and stunned. Being tackled, he behaved like glass, cracking down the middle and lying on the ground. “WHat the-?” He cried softly, shoving the mass off of himself.
“I need help.” The person dressed in black hissed, “Something happened to the Kerberos mission and they’re not telling us. Put this headset on, open this laptop, and hide.”
There was a thundering of footsteps and the black-clad figure shot up as if electrocuted. “I wouldn’t blame you if you bailed, but hear me out,” and the person was off, leaving Keith to the rapidly approaching guards. He dashed out of the commons, making a beeline for a dark doorway and scurried inside, into what he found was a janitor’s closet.
In the closet, Keith opened the laptop to reveal row after row of live camera feed. He could see the halls, and even… Was that his room?
He heard a muffled angry muttering and put on the headset. “Hello?” He asked, timid.
The muttering stopped, making way for a voice. “Kay, so for the longest time, and by that I mean for, like, as long as people have been saying that the Kerberos mission failed because of something that the crew did, I’ve been way way suspicious about it, you know?”
There was a moment of heavy breathing and Keith nodded. “I get that. I feel the same. So how do you plan on finding out what actually happened?”
Katie ran and ran, hearing her heavy footsteps slam against the hard Garrison ground. She grinned underneath her cloak. “That’s where you come in. I need to get to clear the way to the computer room. Do you see me on the screen?”
Keith did: A tiny dot dashing down the halls, pursued by larger dots that were just a few cameras behind. “Yeah.”
“Well, get me to the control room. Direct me, and warn me when people are coming.” Katie turned a sharp corner, nearly hitting the wall.
“Wrong way, wrong way!” Keith cried. “Sorry, I didn’t know what we were doing quite yet.” The sigh nearly deafened him.
“Okay, dude, where to now?” Katie skidded to a stop and turned, only to see a flock of gun-slinging Galaxy thugs, dashing after her.
“Not that way?” The voice over her headpiece said and her mouth flatlined.
“Thanks, muppet.”
“Dodge left and go back the way you came, they’ve left a weird opening.” Keith held his breath as the figure did as he said. The black cloth just grazed one of the sentries.
As Katie dashed away, the voice in her ear spoke up again. “Did you call me muppet?”
Katie grinned, her breath hitching as she talked. “What else am I supposed to call you?”
“I don’t know, what do I call you?”
Katie thought for just a second. “Pidge.”
“Like pidgeon? Why would you want to be named after a bird?”
Pidge sighed. “No. Like- Pidge. What do I call you?”
Keith smiled. “What about Cat?” Pidge almost skidded to a stop in the middle of the hall.
“What are you- some kind of 'rawr means I love you’ scene kid?”
“What?” Keith sputtered, “No! I just mean that I'm right behind you and you're Pidge, like pidgeon, and cats are right behind pigeons, like, chasing them.”
“Whatever, Kittyboy.” Pidge said, and the voice in her headset started to sigh.
But shouts interrupted the exhalation. “Kitty? Kitty?! What's going on?”
“Be right back.” Pidge heard, then cringed so hard that she stumbled at a loud metallic clattering that blasted into her ears. She threw the headphones off of her head and onto her shoulders, hoping beyond hope that this boy, whoever he was, was okay.
Keith, across the compound, had been found out. Shouts had gathered around the broom closet until he could no longer hear anything else. “Be right back?” He cringed at his own words. But the pounding on the door made him freeze.
Pidge ran blindly, technically. She had no idea where she was going. She just ran. And she was running out of steam. She turned a corner, only to find a swarm of people, guns prickling. She screamed, turned back, and kept running. “Kitty! Kitty!” She gasped for air, “Where are you?! I need some help here!”
Keith, in the broom closet, looked up. There was a rafter, stretching across the short length of the room. Trying to make as little sound as possible for the guards pounding on the locked door, he scaled a shelf along one wall, the laptop under one arm and the headphones slung around his neck.
He shimmied onto the rafter, gasping for breath. He had a vague thought that he needed to get in better shape. But the thought passed as the door slammed open, rattling the shelves. “Who's in here?”
Keith held his breath. “There's no one here sir.” A voice said gruffly. There was a loud, distorted bark from outside that Keith couldn't quite understand, and the person left, shutting the door behind them.
Pidge was dashing down yet another corridor, and at this point she was positive that her former partner was dead, or worse, had abandoned her. She tried to think back to the directions that Kitty had given her, but nothing was surfacing.
Keith's mind raced, and he opened the laptop, balancing it on the beam. He put the headphones on, only to be greeted by muttered curses. “Pidge?” He hissed, trying not to alert the thugs outside, “Pidge?!”
Pidge, flattened against a door frame while she waited for guards to pass, sighed in relief. “Thank goodness you're back. What happened?”
Keith shrugged subconsciously, nearly sending himself tumbling to the floor below. “I almost got caught but I hid in the rafters of a janitor closet.”
“Frickin sweet, Kitty.”
Keith grinned. “I thought so. Now, from where you're at, you're going to head right and then make a beeline for the door at the end of that hall. It doesn't look important, but that's the one.”
“Thanks, Kitty. I don't know what I would do without you.”
“Probably die.” Pidge laughed at Keith's deadpan voice, but he had hardly taken a breath before continuing. “So what are you?”
“Excuse me?” Pidge panted,her breathing ragged from the running.
“I mean, do I know you, Pidge?”
Pidge snorted, smiling, “No. And if all goes to plan you never will.”
“Rude.” Keith said, but he was also smiling.
“Just saying. I want my information and to blast.” Pidge stopped dead, her feet and legs tingling, as a guard rushed around a corner a few intersections down.
“So you're going to leave the Garrison for good? Wouldn't that be suspicious if you just stop coming to class?” Keith's eyes scanned the laptop, his legs clutching the beam as hard as he could.
“Kitty, I'm not-”
Keith didn’t listen, barreling on. “Are you a fighter pilot? You'd be in my classes then.”
“No, I'm not-” Pidge’s breath came in ragged jumps as she started jogging again.
“Okay, cargo pilot? I don't know any of them; that would make sense.”
“Kitty, I'm not-”
“Ooh! You're an engineer!” that would explain how you dismantled the cameras!”
“Kitty that's not what engineers do…”
“So you are an engineer!” Keith grinned, triumphant. “I swear I'll find you.”
Pidge was dumbfounded, and still not an engineer. If she were anywhere near the voice in her ears, she would have slapped him.
“Pidge!” Kitty suddenly cried, making Pidge stop in her tracks.
“What?”
“You passed the door, go two doors back. And hurry, there's two Garrison dudes coming your way.”
“Thanks, Kitty.” Pidge reeled around and dashed towards the door, a narrow opening in the Garrison walls.
“You're in. Have at it, pigeon.”
Pidge chose to ignore the crack, slipping into the huge office chair that sat in front of the computer.
Keith could hear the clacking of the keyboard through the microphone, and he had a inane idea that somehow, so could everyone else in the building.
After what seemed like literal years,Pidge sighed in relief. “Kitty, we were right. Something did happen to the Kerberos mission. It wasn't a crew failure.”
Keith didn't know whether to cheer or cry. On one hand, Shiro was not at fault for the loss of the crew. On the other, what had been?
He was about to ask that very question to Pidge, but he was interrupted by an ungodly scream.
“Pidge?” Keith said, eyes wide. What had just happened? “Pidge?!” There was radio silence. No cursing, no muttering, no keyboard clacking. “Pidge!” He screamed.
There was an answering scream, but it didn't come from the headset.
Keith jumped from the rafter, sending the laptop and keyboard crashing to the ground.
“Kitty!!” The rasping cry came from far across the compound, but it ripped into Keith's heart as if Pidge were standing right next to him.
He thought about screaming back, but thought better when he heard pounding footsteps. Instead he took a shuddering breath, standing in the middle of the hall, and listened to the strangled cries of his new friend.
“I have to find where they went! Why won't you tell me the truth?”
Then Pidge got louder, calling to him. “Kitty! Something intercepted the ship! Something is out there! They could be still alive! Help me find them!”
Keith's blood boiled.
“Pidge, I swear I'll find the truth for you. I won't stop until I do,” he hissed.
And for a long moment, he was torn between running to help Pidge, and going back to his dorm.
But all too soon, the cries faded, and he no longer had a choice.
Keith, still watching for guards, drug himself back to his bed, knowing that he would not catch a wink of sleep.
*
*
*
Somehow, hours later, Keith awoke, his mind having reduced the events of the last night to a fever dream.
He was groggy only for a moment, when he suddenly remembered two things: The night before had really happened; and he had left the laptop and headset in the janitor's closet.
He cursed, jumping out of bed. He glanced at the clock, realizing that it was halfway through his first class. And then he ran. Desperation drove him to the center of compound in minutes, and he threw open the closet door, hoping beyond hope that he somehow didn't mess this part up.
The laptop and headset were nowhere to be found. Frantically, figuring that the situation couldn't get any worse, he flagged down a worker.
“I left a laptop in this area last night and I can't find it anywhere, do you know where it went?”
The man, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, nodded. Keith grinned, his mood soaring. “But someone did take it.”
Keith's heart dropped.
“Let me think, I believe he was part of the engineer class. Big fellow, full of smiles. He didn't say anything, just took it and left.”
Pidge. Keith thought. It had to have been Pidge. That meant that Pidge was still at the Galaxy Garrison.
Keith grinned, and couldn't stop grinning. “Thank you, sir.” Then Keith sauntered off, sure that he was about to meet his first friend since Shiro.
*
To be continued.