Even knowing from the graffiti scratched into the wall of the cavern that they'd survived being swept down here, Hunk found the implications chilling. They'd been in the slot canyons during a storm. Probably the only reason they survived was the sea-otter guys. But the professor?

"That's not good," Hunk said softly.

Pidge silently selected another video with an earlier time stamp than the one in the canyon. The cadets had set the drone up to record overnight, the video was roughly eight hours of footage. Pidge skimmed, but there wasn't much to see. The cadets took turns caring for the professor, a few bathroom breaks, one of the sea-otter brothers bringing the box of donuts into the frame. In the grainy, night-vision footage, it was hard to tell which one. Both were wearing grey hooded sweatshirts with the hoods up and dark pants.

A few quick frames showing Zora helping the dark-haired brother, Maro, swept by.

"Wait! Rewind," Keith said quickly.

Pidge rewound. Zora and Maro, limping back to the seats. The others rose groggily, rushing to them.

Maro had been shot.

Zora's knuckles were bloodied and raw like she'd been fighting. Her expression was chillingly vacant as she robotically reported what happened. Someone had been in the cargo hold. They'd caught them going through the supplies.

The intruder had shot Maro before Zora managed to disarm them. Whoever it was, she'd lost them in the darkness of the cargo hold.

"How?" Kai asked incredulously. "We're the only ones aboard!"

"They had a decommissioned spook suit," Zora stated flatly.

Lance muttered, "What the heck is a spook suit?"

"Maybe they're like those suits the Blade of Marmora wears?" Hunk looked to Keith for confirmation. He'd started training with Kolivan and the Blade of Marmora. Maybe it was something they covered?

"Maybe," Keith replied. "But they don't decommission their suits as far as I know. Whatever those are, guessing that probably isn't what they're actually called."

Back on the video, they started dressing Maro's wound. Pidge wound forward as they started ripping up t-shirts for wound dressing and prepared some injection thingy. Hunk guessed a hemostatic of some kind. Maro evidently didn't enjoy it from his reaction.

Zora walked away from the others very suddenly. Pidge allowed the video to play.

"Is she okay?" Kai asked, barely audible to the drones.

"No," Xande replied pointedly as he walked to the drones. "She's going to freak out once the adrenaline wears off." He reached up and moved the drone slightly, bringing Zora back into the frame. They had wrist devices too, though theirs' looked like ruggedized wrist watches. The interface was completely different from what Hunk was used to seeing.

Pidge paused the video, "I wonder if I can grab a signal from one of those." She zoomed in to the video on his device that showed exactly what they were seeing. "The protocol should be on this drive."

"Yeah, but what would the range be on those?" Hunk asked. They didn't know a lot about Kestellians. Only that they hadn't gotten along well with Alteans… or really anyone for that matter. What they'd seen of their tech and culture managed to be simultaneously familiar and foreign.

"Assuming they're like ours?" Lance said glumly, "Probably really good until they came to this planet."

Pidge started skimming the video again. In quick succession, the scenes advanced. Kai and Xande helped Maro get comfortable on the benches. Zora left a bloody handprint on the bulkhead before sliding down the wall.

Xande crouched by Zora's side. Left, returned to wind her knuckles in gauze and taping them.

Zora eventually worked herself into a panic; crying, hugging herself and rocking. Xande brought a box of tissues to her and set them by her side.

None of the cadets really rested as the footage sped on. Xande and Kai milled around anxiously, pacing, trying to distract themselves. Once she'd calmed down a little, Zora eventually busied herself with repairing equipment. She put her suit on and went into the command area. Emerged briefly for bathroom breaks and back inside. The timestamp on the video advanced on through the night.

It was hard to see if she was accomplishing anything. The occasional flicker of lights on a piece of equipment left on the floor was all that seemed to indicate anything was happening at all.

Maro got up and sat next to the equipment. Leaned against the wall, looking pale.

Zora came back in, took off her suit, and sat on the floor next to him. The timestamp continued as she fiddled with the innards at high speed and checked the display on her wrist device.

Zora looked shocked and seemed excited about something.

Pidge rewound slightly and once again allowed the footage to play normally.

"Voltron!" Zora exclaimed, flailing her hands. "I have Voltron! On the scanners!"

Hunk exchanged looks with the others. It must have been during the battle with the Galra.

Xande and Kai looked confused. Maro was instantly alert.

They watched as Maro and Zora frantically rushed to repair the systems. Anything they could find was thrown into the effort. The foil wrappers were used as solder; epoxy putty; bubblegum; jumper cables; wiring from anything non-essential.

Together, they hunched over the piece of equipment on the floor. Maro was clutching his wound, the t-shirts stained red. The lights finally came on, remained stable.

And then, Zora lifted the headset, speaking with a quavering voice:

"Hailing the Castle of Lions! This is Zora Saito aboard the Kestellian Royal Academy of Science transport ship, Archer Zulu-Six-Two-Echo. We were sabotaged en route to Death's Head station. We crash landed on Planet Golf-Eight-Eight-One-Sierra of the Aclori system. We are in urgent need of assistance! There are hostiles aboard! I repeat, hostiles aboard! Over!"

Pidge's and Hunk's distorted voices came from the video.

Pidge stopped the video and hung her head. There were only a few minutes left on the recording anyway.

They'd abandoned ship to escape whoever, or whatever had stowed away on the ship. They didn't know about the fuzzy, exploding balls. They'd had to choose whether to stay and risk being murdered or leave the ship and take their chances with the storm.

It was an impossible choice.

Hunk had to admit he would have taken the storm.

Lance had been right about the water being deep.

After a short tunnel, they'd found themselves in a vast, subterranean lake.

It hadn't been apparent on Lance's sonic map that the lake could be accessed from these tunnels. The tunnel was small and tight, blending in with the overlaid tunnels above and below. It wasn't until they'd rotated the map a few times and zoomed in that they could see it was, in fact, the same lake.

It was almost like the ice planet with the mermaids, except warmer and with a lot more yuck. All they could see was the cones of their lights, shreds of roots, the skeletons of leaves, and a lot of sediment.

The map also showed a triangular shape on the far side of this underground lake; with what could be an air pocket at the top. The way through had been sealed by a cave in, but the theory was that it would be an ideal place for a Levlian to hide.

Coran seemed to think they could move extremely fast underwater. Faster than their jetpacks, that was for sure. Faster than the mermaids on the ice planet if their math was right. Under normal conditions, towing their teammates through this stretch would have been an easy task. However, with Maro injured, it was difficult to tell how far and how fast they would have traveled. Could he have gone as far as a healthy, uninjured Levlian?

"Aggressively sociable, lively, and curious apex predators," had been Coran's summary describing the Levlians' cultural attitude.

They had appreciated tactile art and music; their floating cities had been awash with color. They preferred to keep their hands busy, making things, tinkering, exploring. They were often curious to a fault, often forgetting caution in the face of something new and exciting. However, they could also be stubborn to a fault, irreverent, and quarrelsome.

Apparently, the Alteans had found them charming.

There was nothing sacred to them, either. They questioned everything. Following blindly wasn't their way. Trying to force them to do so never ended well.

And so the Galra Empire had made sure it hadn't ended well… for the Levlians.

The triangle was just ahead. Slowly, the dark form emerged from the orange gloom.

Hunk's breath caught in his throat as he realized what he was seeing.

The wings were gone, the bow was crushed, and it was half buried in rubble; but, it was still instantly recognizable as a Galran cruiser.

"No. Way." Hunk breathed.

"It wasn't a cave in that sealed this cavern…" Pidge said faintly.

The significant section of the wreak was above water and seemed to be above the rubble.

"Let's go check it out," Keith stated.

"Wait, wait, wait…" Hunk exclaimed, "And this is a good idea?"

"Even if it is a Galra ship," Pidge started to say.

"Which it is." Hunk interrupted. There was no "if" – that's precisely what it was. They'd seen a lot of Galra over their time who were too tough or too stubborn to die easily.

"One of the cadets could still be hiding inside," Pidge declared.

"Besides," Lance added. "From all the sediment on the hull, it's been down here a while."

Hunk sighed but had to agree. There were no life signs; not that that meant anything on this planet.

It took a while to find their way inside. It wound up being a small hole above the water line that put them onto the bridge.

A crumpled space suit in color blocked blue, white, and gray was the first thing to meet their lights. Keith reached it first and held it up to show them the embroidered name, "M. Jarvinen."

Hunk spun around, sweeping his light around the bridge. It was empty, aside from themselves. And not only that, it had been stripped of all computers, ship controls, data ports – all the technology – even the doors and the Galran palm scanner were missing.

Even compartments that, at least in theory, should have held Galran emergency supplies had been emptied.

"What the heck happened here?" Lance asked in confusion, looking up from a set of holes that should have held the commander's chair and controls.

"There's no sentries or drones either," Keith added. "Not even debris left over from the crash."

"Let's check the pods," Pidge suggested cheerlessly. "Maybe Maro went down to find a med kit."

The way down was as dark and empty as the bridge. Floor panels were missing, the technology, cables, and even the innards of the lighted Galran symbols had been scavenged. The stairwells were littered with unusable refuse and debris.

The escape pods were at the level where the flooding started. The walls were charred and blackened. All the escape pods were there…

And that was as far as Hunk got before it dawned on him what he was seeing. He froze, not even able to think.

The shallow water was filled with skeletons. A lot of them.

Quite a few had been burnt.

Hunk spun and darted back into the stairwell as his stomach violently rebelled. He barely got his helmet off in time.

"Does… it look like the Galra were trying to abandon ship with the prisoners to anyone else?" Lance asked over the coms as Hunk gagged again at the smell.

"I – I think so," Keith answered softly. "This one died with a prisoner in their arms. Like…"

"Like they were shielding them…" Pidge finished quietly.

Hunk got his helmet back on and sucked in greedy breaths of fresh air. He reentered the escape pod bay as Keith was checking one of the Galra skeletons.

"Whoa… wait… what are you doing?" Hunk said, his voice hitching as his stomach roiled ominously.

"Checking to see if any of them are Blades," Keith answered. He moved on to a skeleton in a commander's uniform. (Oh god, please let that not be a little kid the commander's skeleton was curled around!)

"It would explain why they chose to do this," Pidge explained patiently. "Most Galra ships wouldn't have prioritized the prisoners like this."

She had a point, but he couldn't stomach looking at all those bodies anymore. Sure, there wasn't anything icky or gross anymore, but it was the knowledge that so many people had died down here and left to rot and no one would ever know and there was the smell not unlike a barbeque except it was people who had been cooked and… Hunk took a deep breath.

"Guys," Hunk had wanted to say it cooly but he belched, and the taste of his stomach rose into his mouth. "If it were me down here – alone – I would've booked it out of here."

"Okay, so…" Lance said, trying hard himself not to sound freaked out. "Maro was the engineer, right? Hunk, where would you hide?"

"Can we continue this conversation in the stairwell?" Hunk asked hoarsely as his stomach threatened to rebel again.

"If it were me, I'd try to hide where I was used to working," Hunk said, leading the way back upstairs. "But with half the ship scavenged, I don't think the usual hiding places would work."

"So, I'd probably hide where the security was the strongest, then," Keith said thoughtfully.

"Right," Hunk agreed. "That would be the bridge or the commander's quarters."

His legs were burning by the time they got to that level of the ship. At least the looters hadn't gotten that far yet. There was still a door.

Hunk pulled open the door.

Sound shattered the quiet of the wreak. It screeched, screamed, and warbled.

Even in his helmet, his head exploded in pain. It was all he could do to stand upright.

He didn't even hear Lance shoot. Through watering eyes, he just saw the shot. How Lance managed to hit whatever, he didn't know.

It took them several moments to recover.

"What was that?" Pidge asked, panting.

"Sonic grenade," Lance gasped. "I think."

Hunk could painfully feel his pulse in his temples and all the way up his scalp. His ears burned. He felt profoundly nauseated.

Keith recovered first, picked something off the floor. An ultra-thin, transparent tripwire attached to a Galran device with black tape. It looked like it had been set up to trip when the door opened.

If he weren't hurting so badly, Hunk would have appreciated the ingenuity.

They proceeded more cautiously. Someone had set up traps all through the corridor. Mostly non-lethal leftovers the scavengers didn't take. The scanners built into their suits picked up all the traps.

Keith took the lead, carefully cutting the tripwires as he went. At one point, he cut the tripwire and then startled when he saw what it was connected to. "Oh, that one would have been bad," he breathed in relief. Hunk's scanners showed it was explosives set to detonate if the tripwire pulled the pin.

Hunk didn't know Galra ordinance well enough to compare, but it was a frighteningly large bundle.

One more sonic grenade to disarm and they were at the commander's quarters.

Their scanners picked up a living person inside, one whose vitals matched Levlian physiology. There was an active drone inside too.

Hunk banged on the door, "Hey, Maro! Open up! We're the paladins of Voltron! We're here to help!"

There was no answer.

"Is he asleep or something?" Lance muttered.

Pidge looked up from her wrist device, crouched, and peered into the open panel, "I don't think he could if he wanted to. I think the mechanism's seized."

Now that she said it, it looked like someone had tried to force the door open. There were pry bar marks along the jam.

She drew her bayard and sliced across below the access panel. She rammed it with her shoulder until it gave way.

The gears in the lock were visibly out of alignment. Pidge sliced again, and the locking mechanism fell away.

"Okay, Keith… I need you to cut here," Pidge showed a scan of the door with two spots highlighted.

A few quick slices and Hunk could hear the mechanism hit the bottom of the track. It took all four of them to force the door open.

The commander's quarters were mostly intact, all things considered. The force of the crash had wrenched open compartments and strewn personal possessions across the deck.

At the far end of the quarters, a drone hovered over the bed where Maro was sleeping. Hunk hadn't seen that model before. It was a triangle, like most Galra drones, but it was bigger. Hunk felt his blood turn cold at the sight of several long, articulated, armored cables snaking ominously under the covers.

Pidge immediately started hacking into the drone's systems.

"Hey, Maro," Keith said softly as he drew back the covers. Those cables were actually going into the sleeping cadet's arms. Keith knelt beside the bed and gently shook Maro, "Mar, wake up."

Maro sighed in his sleep but didn't awaken. Keith shook him again and glanced back at them in concern.

The drone suddenly showed a medical chart in Galra gibberish, showing Maro's heartbeat, respiration, blood pressure, and more. Granted, Hunk wasn't a doctor, but nothing really leaped out to him. Maro had a mild fever and, of course, the wound, but he was stable.

"It's a medical drone," Pidge announced. "But here's the weird thing… it's explicitly set up for Levlians. All species-specific – even cloned Levlian blood…"

"I hear a 'but' in there," Hunk didn't like the way she said that.

"But, it's also programmed to sedate any Levlian it treats." Pidge continued, "It saved his life, but he's not waking up anytime soon."