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The following is a story of Voltron I made up based on the T.V. cartoon Voltron by World Events Productions. I did not have World Events Productions' permission to do the story and therefore it does not have World Events Productions' endorsement.
Coran called Keith to Castle Control.
“Marshal Graham wants to speak with you,” said Coran gesturing to the big screen. Then Coran nodded to Marshal Graham on the big screen and left the room so their conversation would be private.
“Captain Keith, I received your message.” (Keith had went and left a message with the Galaxy Alliance on Earth for Marshal Graham when he had the chance, the day before.) Keith wished Marshal Graham wouldn’t be so formal – after all, the conversation was of a personal nature just between the two of them. Marshal Graham continued, “Your sister won’t be present for you wedding.”
Keith looked down for a moment and closed his eyes, and then looked straight at Marshal Graham. “Thank you, sir.”
“Keith, a part of her wanted to attend your wedding. I could tell. But the travel would be too far from home for her. Also, for her, the marriage would represent that you’re never coming back to stay. It crushes the concept of the life she’s created for herself and she’s not ready for that yet.”
“Thank you, sir. I understand,” answered Keith, appreciative of the informal warmth Marshal Graham had added to the conversation.
Marshal Graham then dismissed Keith and signed off.
Keith passed by Coran as he was leaving Castle Control and Coran was coming back.
“What did Marshal Graham want, if you don’t mind me asking?” asked Coran.
“He informed me that my sister won’t be attending the wedding.”
“Your sister?” questioned Coran sounding astonished.
“Yes, my sister.”
“OK,” said Coran simply, although he was genuinely curious to know more but sensed that it wasn’t what Keith would feel comfortable discussing.
Keith walked out onto the front balcony of the castle. Princess Allura also happened to be there. Her mind was on the plans still being made for their upcoming wedding. With Keith beside her, the princess’s thoughts turned to wondering who he would want to attend their wedding.
“Keith, I guess I’ve never asked you, but I know nothing about your family. Do you have any family you’d like to come to our wedding?”
Keith looked down away from Allura, closed his eyes, and swallowed.
“Keith, I’m sorry. Is something wrong?” asked Allura as she reached forward and touched Keith’s arm to offer some comfort.
Keith looked up again and straight into Allura’s eyes. “My mother and father were lost on a space mission when I was still just a young child. I made it my mission to find them. It was Planet Arus, you, Allura, that woke me up to begin living my life again with new purpose. When my parents disappeared, my life died. I did all I could to the best of my abilities for the sole purpose of finding my parents again, reclaiming my life, and then returning back to Earth as I promised my sister.”
“Your sister?” questioned Allura.
“Yes, I have a sister. She’s younger than me. Her reaction to the loss of our parents was different from mine. She soon gave up hope of ever seeing them alive again – almost gave up hope. She has devoted her life to keeping home just as it was. At first it seemed that she was doing it as a way of keeping the memory of our parents alive in her heart. As she grew older her reasons for maintaining our parents’ house changed. She began to do it so that my parents would have a place ready for them to live in when they came back – a comfort for them to come back to the same familiar home when everything else would have changed so much. But my sister is not a natural homebody. She always loved to travel at heart. Even while I was living at the space academy I would hear of my sister enjoying going on excursions from time to time – even short trips through space.” Keith smiled at the thought of that. “I was happy that she didn’t despise space travel.”
“How could she keep your parents’ home since she was younger than you? Who raised her?”
“That’s an amazing story in itself. But the short of it is that a close friend of our parents arranged for my sister to have . . . I guess you could call them nannies . . . and they raised my sister. She often had a different nanny. I don’t think she had any one of them longer than a year.”
“Keith, that doesn’t sound healthy.”
“No. But my reasons for going through space academy weren’t healthy either. But I needed to do it and it did lead me to find my life – here with you. Here where my skills as a leader and pilot are needed. My sister needed to keep my parents’ home. Somehow doing that will lead her to finding her life and having it with a new purpose.”
“Keith, what could she have learned in that situation to prepare her for life – with no adults she could depend on to always be there and love her. Her world must be so cold.”
“She knows how to love. She’s always had a polite respect for other people. She’s somewhat introverted, but genuinely enjoys meeting other people and gets to know people quickly on her travels. She just has the pattern of never keeping in touch with the people she meets.”
“How do you stay so close with you sister?”
“I’m not. After out parents disappeared, we’ve hardly spoken to each other. She’s never understood why I went into the space academy and she’s never forgiven me for leaving home. She thinks that I’m running away from the loss of our parents – that my mission to search for them is just an excuse to run away and desert the essence of their memory.”
“How do you know all this about her?”
“Marshall Graham is her godfather. He was the one who arranged for my sister to keep my parents’ home, and while I was in the academy he regularly updated me on how she was doing. He made sure that I had the Planet Arus assignment instead of the deep space assignment with Vehicle Voltron. I saw Arus as a temporary assignment to fulfill before I would have a real opportunity to find my parents. I never imagined I’d find my life here! Somehow I think Marshal Graham sensed that would happen all along. My sister has done what she’s needed to do. She will find her life when she’s ready and let go of her dedication to our parents’ home.”
“Keith, how can she? She’s experienced no commitment when it comes to people. Has she ever even been in love?”
Keith smiled. “Funny you should ask. She’s probably been in love many times, but I only know of once. I got to talk with her after one of her excursion trips in space. It was the one time she visited me at the academy. She was so happy and excited and told me about a man about our age that she got to sit by on the ship. Strangely, he had also lost his family, but they talked mostly about other more pleasant topics. The way she spoke of him I could easily imagine her smiling, laughing, and enjoying the company with whoever he was.” Keith laughed and said, “She couldn’t even remember his name. She was in love – she even said so. But she never saw him again, or I’m sure I would have heard about it.”
“Will she make it here for the wedding?”
“No,” answered Keith simply.
Allura had an understanding why not. Her heart ached over what the girl’s loneliness must be and her sense of duty that kept her from breaking free of it all.
“Keith, what about your godparents? Are they coming?”
“My godparents died in battle before my sister was born,” answered Keith which made Allura feel really crummy for asking. “Marshal Graham knew both my parents and godparents very well. I guess he felt a need to give something back to our family, because when my sister was born, Marshal Graham wanted to be her godfather. She doesn’t have a godmother.”
Keith sensed Allura’s sadness over what he had told her. “Allura,” he said putting a comforting arm around her, “my family are my friends here on Arus and you and I will be a family. We’ll have each other.”
Allura looked at Keith, her smile showing that she felt better. “Yes, we will,” she agreed.
In silence, Keith and Allura gazed out across the countryside. They didn’t notice Hagar’s blue devil cat, Coba, behind them quietly slink away, and then he found his way safely back out of the castle. No one was aware that the whole conversation had been overheard by Hagar because of her cat (which is a direct connection to her crystal ball.)
Commentary: I remember at least two animated episodes where Keith talked of going back to Earth. (In Go-lion the episodes are different). So I figured that there must be something very important to Keith on Earth that he would leave the happiness he had found on Arus, and the companionship of the lovely Princess Allura, even if he really did believe that it was an impossibility of it ever extending beyond mere friendship. And, it came to me that a sister would be someone who could be very important to him. Then the twisted tale of why a sister would be so important to Keith that he’d leave Arus came to me. A name that automatically came to mind for her, so I stuck with that. (To find out that name, read the story To Their Surprise). In this story I tried to convey the feeling in Keith that his sister was a subject he just didn’t want to talk about. Only the importance of such a thing as a wedding would open up the subject which would explain why no one would have known about her. Marshall Graham being Keith's sister's godfather was also something I came up with, along with the tale of Keith’s godparents. I’ve always liked the Marshall Graham character and wanted to add a connection between him and Keith. It was my way of reasoning how Keith would have a tie that would help him acquire high rank and missions at such a young age, and how the whole mismatch of his subordinates as a team got together. But, that’s a whole other story I haven’t posted yet. According to the animated series and also my own fiction, Coran and Marshall Graham are close friends. The part about Keith and his sister's parents being lost on a space mission is also NOT a fact from the animated series. The cartoons don’t reveal any information about Keith’s parents, except that they must have had him on Earth because that’s his home planet. I don’t remember space excursions in the cartoons ever being pleasure trips for civilians, but I thought it’d be something that would exist, so I added it. Animated episodes have shown Hagar’s blue devil cat, Coba, to be a direct link to her crystal ball.
[Author -- Sheila Bliss, based on the previous creation of Voltron by World Events Productions]
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