A/N: Told ya'll I wasn't done with Courtship. This covers about seven months from the end of Lost Galaxy until just before Trakheena's Revenge in Lightspeed Rescue. Since I have a few things I want to address about those two episodes, I'll probably take some time to do that in the next chapter. Much appreciation to Tatooed Librarian for the beta as always!


The people of Maya's village, Kanyo, were not the only people living on Mirinoi, which Kai found surprising. He wasn't sure why he was surprised either, because one village did not make a viable population. The other people of Mirinoi began arriving within a week of Terra Venture's crash landing, and the Galaxy Rangers were clearly the main draw.

"Uh oh," Kendrix announced, "someone's got his grumpy face on."

Kai glared at her briefly, then relaxed, "Sorry," he said, looking briefly at Leo and Damon, "I'm just getting tired of getting interrupted at work to play great defender."

"At least you have an excuse," Leo replied, "I think I've talked to someone from every village on the continent."

"Not quite," Kendrix replied, "just in this one part. Maya was telling me there was some discussion of asking us to do a bit of a tour."

Kai shook his head and headed to get a tray. With Terra Venture safely located on the planet now, it provided shelter to the numerous colonists while the work on the city they would one day inhabit continued. Kanyo had offered up a large field near the edge of their boundaries, a place where the city would not burden the needs of Kanyo with their own needs.

Tray in hand, Kai wandered back to the table, "Have the locals been giving you any specific trouble?" Damon asked.

"Not really," Kai replied, "I'm just getting tired of not being to get my work done for Stanton. Mike covers for me as best he can, but after almost eight weeks of getting called out of shift for Ranger business, the Commander's getting impatient."

"He's can't do anything about it?" Kendrix asked.

"The Council has told him to let me go," Kai replied. "Now that we're here, the Commander answers to the Council unless there's an obvious danger to the colony."

They fell silent as Kai picked up his fork and began to eat, wincing a little at how bad the food actually was. "Don't worry," Kendrix said, "I'm sure you'll have a kitchen of your own soon enough and can cook to your heart's content."

"Considering that Command has, um, volunteered to be the last to get housing," Kai muttered.

"Don't be sore," Mike said as he stepped into the tent, "you know why Commander Stanton made that decision."

"I'm not sore," Kai replied, "I'm just ready for some privacy for a change, and a chance to do my job."

Mike laughed and sat down beside Kendrix, "Well, we just had the last of the local natives come in, so hopefully you'll be back to work soon enough."

"I can hardly wait," Kai replied.

Three months later, Kai was half tempted to punch Mike. Instead, he found himself punching a group of strange looking creatures that seemed to be part of a pirate crew.

Apparently, Scorpious wasn't the only one who wanted to harness the power of the Quasar Sabers.

After routing the pirate group, the Rangers returned the swords to the stone and went back to their daily lives. At least, that's what Kai expected when he slid the saber home yet again. "Back to work," Damon said as he stepped away from his saber.

"You're telling me," Kai replied, "I've probably got paperwork avalanches around my desk."

"At least you have a desk," Kendrix retorted, "I'm lucky if I can claim two feet of space in the botany lab."

"But you work outside," Kai pointed out.

"Doesn't mean I don't occasionally need lab time," Kendrix said.

Leo draped his arm over Kai's shoulders, "Don't fight guys. Let's just get something to eat and check out the hot springs."

Kai ducked away from Leo's arm, "I need to brief Stanton, Leo; probably the council too. I'll eat later."

"Hey," Leo said, catching Kai's arm, "take care of yourself, ok? We need you."

Kai met Leo's eyes for a moment and nodded, "Don't worry about it, Leo. I'll be fine."

As he headed for the command center, which had been upgraded from a tent to a half built building, Kai reflected that Leo had been acted odd lately. The Red Ranger had taken to tracking him down at the end of his shift to present him with food, or seemed to know when Kai was heading to the training area, because he always showed up to spar. Kai secretly suspected Mike of supplying Leo with the information about his shifts at least. Although the elder Corbett roundly denied it, Kai felt that Mike thought Leo would be good for him, same as Kendrix did.

If not, then Mike just thought seeing Leo annoy Kai was amusing and just revenge for Kai's alleged role in trying to set Mike up with Maya. Kai wasn't involved in that little farce, that was Damon and Leo's show.

"Kai," Commander Stanton called as Kai stepped into the command center.

"Sir," Kai replied with a quick salute.

"Are the pirates gone?" Stanton asked.

"Routed thoroughly," Kai replied. "We ended up destroying three of their five ships before they surrendered and assisted in rescuing the survivors. Captain Zurgane has sworn to leave us be and retreated with their survivors. I got the impression that they were intending on spreading the word that Mirinoi has teeth now."

"You think that will be the last we see of them?" Stanton asked.

"I make no promises," Kai said as he walked to his desk, "but we did give them something to think about."

"I'll expect the full write up on my desk tomorrow," Stanton said, "other than that, you are dismissed for the day."

"Sir?" Kai asked, pausing in the act of pulling out his chair.

"Take a few days," Stanton said, "you've been working hard and you deserve a break. Just make sure I get that report."

"I can do my job," Kai began.

"I'm not saying you can't," Stanton countered. "I'm saying that you need to take a break, long enough for your bruises to heal. Besides, I wanted to see how Fredrick does with all that paperwork you've been doing. If he can fill out the G-859 and the H-20 without mistakes, you'll be getting some help."

Kai stared at Stanton, desperate to find a way to argue without getting in any more trouble. "With all due respect," he said.

"Mister Chin, this is an order. You will have four days off after you turn in your report."

Kai sighed, "Yes sir," he sat down. "I'll get right on that."

Reports weren't difficult to do Kai knew, they were simply long and redundant. At least with the conversion to paper-free reports on the subject of Ranger Reports, Kai didn't have to fill the forms out in triplicate, for Stanton, the Council, and the archives.

As soon as the report was done, Kai headed back to the section of the city where the Rangers had staked a claim. They were all staying in tents still, allowing the Mirinoian and Colonial construction crews to focus on putting up homes for the rest of the colony first. Even with the amount of material lost in the destruction of Terra Venture's primary storage bays, the different scientists and agricultural specialists had begun the task of preparing the city for the coming winter.

Although some of the civilians, soldiers and even a few curious Mirinoians had taken housing near the Rangers, there was a sense of isolation between the five Ranger tents and the rest of the city. This was why Kai was not expecting to dodge a group of builders and find the three of his teammates standing in the center of the tents having what appeared to be an argument with several of their neighbors looking on. "This is absolutely ridiculous!" Damon shouted.

Kai broke into a run, because if Damon was shouting, then Kendrix would be close to blowing her top as well. "What's going on?" He asked as he cut through the crowd.

Leo stood before Damon and Kendrix, looking wild eyed and bruised, "Trouble," he said shortly.

"Define trouble," Kai said, "is this Andros with a special mission trouble, or pirate trouble?"

"I don't know," Leo said, "something's been making Terra Venture's security alarms go off and on. Some of the cameras appear to be working on and off, and Peyta, one of the Mirinoian recruits, swears that she saw Trakheena on one of them."

"Except nobody else can find what she saw," Damon said, "and Trakheena was destroyed."

Kai looked at Kendrix, "What do you think?" Kai asked.

"I don't know," Kendrix replied, "computers aren't my strong point. You all saw Trakheena destroyed, though, I don't think anyone but a Ranger could have destroyed the destruction of a battlizer."

"Look," Leo said, "I just think we should head over to Terra Venture and check it out. It could be a ghost in the machine, and it could be a big problem. We won't know unless we go look."

Kai nodded, "I agree."

"But," Damon began.

"Damon," Kai said, "Nothing will be hurt if we just look into it."

"When can you clear your schedule?" Leo asked.

"Four day stand down," Kai replied, "Stanton's orders. I'd appreciate a night's sleep first though."

Leo nodded, "We can go tomorrow. Damon, can you come?"

Damon shook his head, "I've got to help with the backlog, Leo. Between my Ranger duties and having a rash of injuries, I can't justify more time just when I promised I'd help."

"I can get free," Kendrix said when Leo looked at her, "I need to wrap up a project tonight though."

"Maya went back to Kanyo," Leo said, "I'll head over there tonight to ask her to join us."

"Should we take the sabers?" Kai asked.

Leo shook his head, "No, we all have our morphers. I don't think we'll need the sabers' power boosts for a scouting run. Besides, if things go that bad, Damon and Mike both can retrieve the sabers for us."

Damon nodded, "A secondary force."

"Exactly," Leo replied. He gripped Damon's shoulder, "I don't want to believe she's back either, Damon, but we said we'd protect Terra Venture, and now Mirinoi. If we didn't check out all possible threats we'd be shirking that promise."

Damon nodded a little, "You're right."

Leo smiled a little as he let go of Damon's shoulder. "I'm on my way then, it's a long walk to Kanyo."

"Be careful," Kai said.

Leo grinned, "I'm always careful."