@crystxllinus
Neither one of them knew how this was going to go. They had discussed it, over and over, since they had woken from the sleep pods in the bay of the ship. Yet, as she stood next to him at the control panel, her hand linked with his, she could feel how Zak was trembling. No amount of discussion, after all, could prepare anyone for what awaited them. Or, rather... what could await them -- because though Zak stood at the controls, though he stared at the screens, he had yet to move. Yet to speak. Yet, she noted, to send the message that they had so painstakingly prepared. Combing through his notes to find the codes, choosing the words that would hopefully assure those who piloted the castle and Voltron that they were not spies, not Galra.... but Altean, like them. ( Or -- well. Half, in her case. But that was neither here nor there. ) They had busied themselves with the task for days while they followed what clues they could to track the location of the castle -- weeks, even. After all, it wasn’t as if they were easy to find. Zarkon wanted to get to them perhaps as badly as Zak did -- they couldn’t leave signs pointing to where they were. Yet, their ship had known when they were close, and the notification had roused them both from slumber. Zak had hardly believed it -- and perhaps, still could not, if how he looked could be believed.
“What if the frequency is too old?” She glanced up at him as he spoke, spotting the lines of worry across his face that made him - despite his ordinarily youthful appearance - seem old. “What if the codes don’t read properly? What if... what if they don’t recognize it?”
“Even the Garrison still knows what morse code is.” She suggested, trying to reassure him. “It’s not like history stops existing -- “ “The planet was destroyed, Natalie, there’s no guarantee that history survived -- “
She huffed. Narrowed her eyes. And, with a quick twitch of her fingers, pressed the button he was too scared to touch. It was his own fault that she could -- he’d calibrated the controls to obey her, too. Their ‘frequencies’ (whatever that meant) were similar enough that as her fingers danced across the displays, the crystal that powered his ship responded. The screens lit up with the bright light of her energy, and before he could stop it, the message went out. She couldn’t see it beaming through space, quite like she couldn’t yet see the castle that their ship claimed was near -- but she knew that it had.
Though he had trembled before, Zak was utterly still now, staring in silent shock at the holographic screens. Reaching down for his hand once more, Natalie threaded her fingers through his and gave a light squeeze, leaning against him -- in part, to reassure her father that the worst they could get was no response at all, and in part, to reassure herself that he was not too angry about what she had done. Slowly, though, he lifted his arm, untangling his hand from hers, and rested it around her shoulder, taking the support that she offered. They stood there in silence as they awaited someone - anyone - to respond to their hail, and did not move as they prayed to whatever god would listen that they had, finally, found the ship for which they had hunted for so long.
