Finally, Lance's upcoming Gratuitous Shower Scene is especially for Shannon, Web Mistress extraordinaire.)


Chapter 1 - Muenster Under the Bed

"Ooof."

"Ooof."

"Ooof."

Had any strange beings been lurking in the Green Lion pilot's bedroom at 3AM, they might have been surprised at the spectacle unfolding before their eyes.

Those eyes wouldn't be focused on the young Space Explorer, soundly asleep with the covers tucked up to his chin. Rather, they'd be looking at what was transpiring under the bed. (And really, if you were lurking in someone's bedroom unbeknownst to him, wouldn't you be under the bed too?)

"Ooof!" What appeared to be a small furball contracted, expanded, and then slowly rolled over onto its tummy, revealing itself to be a tiny pearl gray hamster (a Space Hamster, to be exact) rather than an animated dustbunny.

"Whew!" Cheesy panted for a few moments to catch her breath. ~Situps are hard, especially when you don't really have a waist!~ She surveyed her plump, yet compact, body with dismay. While not rotund by any means, she certainly wasn't svelte like the rodents portrayed in her exercise book, "How to Be a PackRat in 30 Days -- Or, Just Look Like One!" She sighed, pushing her nose against the book to overcome her nearsightedness. The next series of exercises looked even worse.

~But I don't have to start those until tomorrow,~ she thought, happy at the brief reprieve. ~Perhaps I should practice my exploring now.~

"Be A Space Explorer! See the Galaxy!" the poster had advertised. At least, she was pretty sure. She'd run back and forth across it several times to see all the big letters before the human came back with thumb tacks to secure it to the bulletin board. That was back on Terra, at the Space Academy.

Her family hadn't understood. "A Space Hamster?! Are you crazy?!" Her gentleman friend hadn't understood either. Why did she want adventure and travel and possibly danger? She should want a warm nest near the library and the arboretum, a safe place to settle down and raise sixteen children. They hadn't parted on the best of terms, and Cheesy sniffled a little at the memory.

~No sense getting all homesick now,~ she chided herself. ~You've made it this far, and you're not going home in defeat!~ She had specifically chosen Arus as her destination, and her destiny. She knew she could make a difference, if they would just give her a chance. On the telecasts, Arus always looked like an Impressionist painter's rendition of paradise, even though she knew it was ravaged by war. And while the other hamsters were terrified of the Lion ships because they resembled cats, Cheesy thought they were beautiful. Blurry, but beautiful.

In the end, however, it was not the pastoral lushness of the planet, the lure of adventure offered by her romanticized notions of war, or the mechanical poetry of the Voltron Lions that clinched her decision. It was the mice.

The Space Mice, as their moniker implied, were so much more than mere, ordinary mice. Cheesy had listened to the telecasts with great excitement as the announcer described the heroic feats of the Space Mice, including their daredevil buzz-bombing of the evil Prince Lotor himself on one of Castle Doom's turrets. Surely the Voltron Force, who had made the valiant Space Mice honorary members of the team, could find something for a young, able-bodied hamster to do to assist in the fight against Doom. ~A Space Hamster,~ she reminded herself.

She turned her attention to the slumbering pilot in the bed above her, listening intently for the gentle breathing that indicated deep sleep. She paused a moment more, just to be sure that Pidge was indeed asleep, and then scampered over to the door. She strained to hear any sounds from the hallway before scurrying back and forth across the area most likely to trigger the door's automatic sensors. Thankfully, Cheesy had found that most of the castle's sensors were sensitive enough for her to activate them, thus reducing the need for her to use the various tunnels and holes in the walls created by the Space Mice.

The Castle of Lions wasn't exactly riddled with their handiwork, but the network of tunnels was still impressive if only for the fact that the holes were chewed through solid steel. The hardest substance Cheesy had ever tried to conquer was a Brazil nut, and her jaws had ached for a week afterwards. She had used some of the passageways when she first arrived over a week ago, but since the night she had encountered a rather large and hairy spider, she much preferred the regular hallways for her nocturnal ramblings. Nanny kept a clean castle.

It was unlikely that she would encounter anyone at this hour of the night, Cheesy mused as she wandered down the hall. ~Probably all for the better,~ she thought, since she hadn't actually made her presence known to anyone yet. ~I'll get the lay of the land first, and then...~ She sighed. Still somewhat overwhelmed (although she wasn't sure if it was by the trip itself or the fact that she'd made it at all), she hadn't quite gotten up the nerve to approach the Space Mice and introduce herself. They seemed a lot bigger in real life than they appeared on the telecasts, and in fact they were larger than any mice she had known back on Terra. Both they and everything in the castle loomed large and strange. ~I'll bet they're not afraid of spiders,~ Cheesy thought morosely. ~I'm never going to be a Space Hamster at this rate.~

She quietly passed the quarters of the rest of the Voltron Force, eventually making her way towards the wing of the castle containing the recreation room, Castle Control, and the kitchen and dining areas. She paused as she approached the recreation room doors. Cheesy had already been in this room earlier in the week, although it was more to observe the Voltron Force from a position of safety under one of the couches than to explore the layout and contents of the room. She decided to make use of her time now to investigate it more thoroughly.

However, she hadn't been in the room for a minute before she heard a slight noise from the hallway followed by the swish of the doors opening. Quickly she scampered under one of the couches, suppressing a squeak of alarm as she stepped in something wet and cold. She remained motionless, straining her eyes to decipher the large blur that entered the room.

Judging by the size of the dark humanoid shape making its way towards one of the overstuffed chairs, Cheesy guessed it was the Yellow Lion pilot, Hunk. ~What is he doing?~ she thought to herself as the large man apparently rummaged around in the cushions of the chair. "Come on, come to Papa," Hunk muttered under his breath. "Yes!" he exclaimed triumphantly, and then looked around to make sure no one had heard. Cheesy tried not to laugh, emitting only a slight squeak of mirth. ~There's no one else awake at this hour, except maybe for the Captain if he's in Castle Control.~

Hunk then exited the room as quickly as he had entered it, leaving Cheesy to wonder what the pilot had been up to. For the moment, she put off speculation as she turned her attention to her more immediate problem, ~What am I standing in?~ She stepped back out of the cold puddle that had soaked one paw and part of her tummy fur, sniffing gingerly at the unknown substance. ~Mochachino,~ she thought. The most likely scenario was that Lance, the Red Lion pilot, had spilled it and didn't realize part of it had gotten under the couch. ~Nanny won't be happy,~ Cheesy mused as she began to groom herself diligently to rid her fur of the errant beverage.

While she made herself more presentable, Cheesy's thoughts returned to Hunk's strange behavior. ~He didn't turn on the light, so apparently he didn't want anyone to see him. He seemed to be searching for something.~ Then she remembered the scene from the last time she'd been in this room, a few days ago when she'd been observing the Voltron Force as they unwound before dinner. Hunk had been reading a book but had hastily shoved it down among the seat cushions when Lance had entered the room. The book had been left behind, still in its hiding place, after everyone had gone to dinner.

~Tonight must have been the first opportunity he's had to retrieve the book,~ Cheesy thought. She wasn't exactly sure why Hunk had hidden the book in the first place, although she had come up with a plausible explanation. Being curious (and a bit nosy), Cheesy had waited until the Voltron Force had vacated the recreation room in favor of the dining hall. Then she had crawled underneath the armchair until she could see the book partially sticking through a rent in the upholstery. Standing on the tippy-toes of her back paws, she still couldn't make out the title, but the blurry image on the cover appeared to depict a humanoid male and female. The male seemed to be dressed in some sort of military uniform, similar to that of the Galaxy Alliance, while the female's garb, of more civilian overtones, looked to be somewhat tattered. The gentleman held the woman in a supportive embrace as she was apparently unable to stand without assistance.

~Obviously an officer's training manual for strategies and techniques in search and rescue, civilian evacuation, or possibly negotiating in hostage situations,~ she thought. Probably the Captain had assigned it to the team as remedial reading, and Hunk didn't want anyone to know that he hadn't finished it yet. Cheesy sympathized -- Lance seemed the sort who could sometimes be merciless in his teasing.

Her growling tummy then made her realize that it had been hours since she'd eaten anything, and reminded her that the small stockpile of food she'd gathered a few evenings ago was nearly gone. ~I'd better go to the kitchen next and lay in some more supplies,~ she thought. Cautiously, Cheesy left the recreation room and made her way to the kitchen. Once outside the doors, she paused to weigh her options. It was indeed possible that someone could be in the kitchen at this hour, so from that standpoint it was safer to use the tunnels made by the Space Mice. After a brief internal struggle, she decided to err on the side of caution, but entered the mouse hole with a fervent prayer that she would encounter no spiders tonight.