Disclaimer 1: Most of this is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Rating and Warnings: NC-14, because the prequel was

Summary: After Saber's breakdown the team is grounded and Commander Eagle contemplates splitting it up entirely, but the individual team members, too, are as much at a crossroads as the new cadets arriving at the Star Sheriff Academy. In the end there will be a new line-up, but who will stay, who will leave ... and who will join in their place?

Notes: And the experiment is under way! Here we were supposed to reconnect with Jesse's timeline at some point during Fire or Ice. Which fic is hidden somewhere.

CROSSROADS

Epilogue

Fireball moved Ramrod into position with ease. They were going at a leisurely pace, only empty space stretched in front of them as far as the sensors could reach.

"Ready when you are Top Sword. Just say the word."

"It isn't up to me, but to Dr. Toleda and April," Saber returned with his old familiar calm. Even he seemed to be unable to refer to Toleda as Stephen, though, Fireball noted. "Have you heard from them yet, Liu?"

Saber had told Fireball that Colt had recommended Liu Chang for the gunner position, but surely the cowboy hadn't been serious. A girl as a gunner?

Besides that would have put Jason Evans on communications and the boy was hopelessly rude even when he wasn't outright rebellious and so very eager for some proper action.

Fireball and Saber had quickly come to the conclusion that it would be more suitable to do it the other way around and everybody concerned had been pleased. Well, as pleased as anyone forced to work this closely with Jason Evans could be, and April seemed to be a little uncomfortable with Liu being in the command centre with Fireball when she couldn't be there herself to make sure that there wasn't anything going on between them behind her back.

Fireball could have reassured her. He wasn't in the least taken with the girl, but he thought it served April right after the way she'd neglected him and kept him worrying over Dr. Toleda all last year and so he only smiled and told her that he thought Liu was a very charming and competent young woman whenever she brought it up.

"Still waiting for the okay from ... There it is!" Liu reported. "All systems green."

"Alright then. Fireball, initiate dimension jump!"

Fireball pulled the speed regulator forward a little even though that wasn't really necessary. They could have jumped at a standstill as well, but picking up speed and flying into the jump just felt natural.

Then he hit the button. There was a flash of colours, the whole ship bucked wildly and Fireball was very glad that they were all securely strapped into their seats.

And then everything went dark and silent.

"What the hell?" Jason's voice came from over at his station. "Liu, I need visuals! How am I supposed to shoot if I can't see the targets?"

"There probably aren't any targets, Jason," Saber reminded him calmly. "But we do need to see where we're going. All machines stop, Fireball! Liu, bring the main monitor back as quickly as you can."

Fireball felt around for the emergency stop switch blindly and hit it. Nothing happened. Either it wasn't reacting or they hadn't been moving anymore in the first place. But that was impossible! He felt for the speed regulator and pulled that back to standstill position as well. Again he felt no change, but this would have been a less abrupt deceleration than the emergency stop.

"We should be standing still, Saber," he reported. "But we should have felt the stop. I can't tell anything for sure without seeing the displays."

"I'm trying," Liu snapped almost hysterically "But I can't see what button I’m pushing and so far none of them are showing any reaction."

Jason cursed.

"Do something," Fireball urged. "We need to know what we're doing."

"Calm down, all of you," Saber said sharply, but apparently not at all distressed. "There's no immediate danger. Whatever went wrong with the jump must have knocked out the engines so we were no longer actively moving in the fist place. If we haven't jumped, which seems likely, we are drifting in empty space with nothing in our way. If we have, nothing has hit us yet, so we are probably not under attack. The only risk we are running is that we collide with a meteor or planet and that is highly improbable. Fireball and Jason, just sit back and relax. Liu, take a deep breath and think. Are you sure you didn't accidentally hit he main power button of your console in your attempts?"

"Of course not. I'm not that stupid. I only tried those in the area of the monitor button."

"Good. Then try it now. Maybe something knocked against it when the ship bucked and it's been off the whole time."

In the silence Fireball could actually hear the click as Liu did. No little lights flashed on her console, though.

"No reaction," she reported.

"Alright, then it must be off now. Switch it on again and try every switch and button on your console in turn," Saber instructed. "The monitor would be best right now, but anything would help. I'd be happy to settle for the ventilation system as a big success right now."

Oh right, if they couldn't hear anything, ventilation had to be out as well and that meant they'd run out of oxygen eventually.

Click, click, click ... It was quite an unnerving sound.

Then suddenly a blue light came on above. Fireball blinked at the sudden return of visual input, then looked around at his team-mates.

"Emergency lighting," Jason commented. "Way to go, Liu."

"That wasn't me," Liu said. "My console's still dead."

"It's probably April's doing," Saber concluded. "She knows Ramrod's systems better than any of us. The blue lamps are powered by the emergency generator, if I remember correctly, so maybe the problem is in the main generator. Try switching your consoles to emergency power as well."

Fireball did. The lights and displays still didn't return, though.

"Nothing," he reported.

"Don't be too rash, Fireball," Saber said calmly. "The emergency generator is weaker than the main one. Your console is probably in power saving mode. Liu, try the main monitor again."

"It still isn't reacting."

"Other monitors?" Saber asked. "Try them all in turn."

A moment passed and then one of the small reserve monitors flickered on.

"Yay!" Jason cheered.

"Visuals at last!" Fireball triumphed.

And then some more spare monitors followed suit.

"All the ones that weren't active when we attempted to jump," Saber stated calmly. "Maybe the light show burned the active ones out. Ventilation?"

"Jumped," Jason corrected. "That isn't the empty stretch of space we were in before. We're heading into a solar system."

"Ventilation still isn't responding," Liu reported.

Fireball hit the emergency stop again, then pulled the speed regulator back and forth. They weren't doing anything at all!

"Emergency life support, Liu," Saber ordered. "Fireball, stop us!"

"I'm trying," Fireball yelled in despair as the fans started whirring again. "Nothing's reacting!"

"Then counter-steer," even Saber's voice was showing a hint of tension now. "The engines have to be out. This can only be residual propulsion."

But of course the vacuum of space offered no resistance that could slow them down.

Fireball tried to pull up, then down, then left, right. No reaction and they'd entered the system now, the gravitational pull of the bright central star was reaching out for them and there was nothing Fireball could do.

"Unidentified space vessels sighted at ... Those are Outrider ships!" Jason exclaimed.

"We jumped dimensions after all," Liu gasped.

"I don't have enough power for the big guns, but the smaller lasers are reporting ready just fine," Jason said.

Fireball felt a surge of irrational jealousy. Why were Jason's systems working when his own were so unaccountably unresponsive?

With a sound of metal scraping over metal a hatch opened in the floor and April climbed into the command centre oil-stained and panting and wearing a smear of soot on her right cheek.

"Emergency systems. Everything that was under power during the jump seems to be shot," she said. "Probably a power-surge." Then she caught sight of the monitors. "Landing thrusters, Fireball!"

And he obeyed her automatically, turning all landing thrusters forward and firing them. Finally, finally Ramrod began to slow down, but of course the thrusters weren't powerful enough to stop them. They weren't intended for use outside a planet's atmosphere at all, but only to give additional bursts of propulsion for fine steering during landing manoeuvres.

They were able to slow Ramrod down and alter its course a little, but would never get them out of the gravitational pull of the sun.

Luckily Saber knew that, too.

"Aim for the fifth planet," he said calmly. "It should have the most life-friendly temperatures at least. We can land and make repairs there."

On landing thrusters only they could make a controlled crash-landing at best, but clearly it was the only chance they had.

Fireball slowly reduced the thrust of the left side thrusters to turn them towards the planet.

Unfortunately the Outriders didn't seem to like that. They drew closer forming a vague circle around Ramrod, hovering just out of firing range.

"Damn it, why won't they come just a little closer," Jason cursed.

"Stay calm," Saber said. "They aren't attacking. "Maybe they are just observers. Do we have communications, Liu?"

They were all relatively small ships, not the heavy-hitters that they had usually fought during the war, but then the Outriders probably hadn't been expecting Ramrod here. Perhaps, hopefully, these were the only battle units they had in or near this system.

"I don't know. We weren't sending when we jumped, though."

"Try hailing them then. Maybe we can neg..."

Another ship suddenly rose up from the planet under them, apparently straight out of an ocean. It seemed to intend to rush right past them Fireball realised in the split second before Jason fired all their lasers at once and a bright explosion lit their monitors where the unknown ship had been moments ago.

"No Jason, don't fire!" Saber's scream came too late. "You didn't even know whose ship that was! What if ..."

Whose ever it had been, the Outriders seemed to have only been waiting for them to take the first shot. They dove in from every side making it impossible for Jason to hit them all.

Fireball had intended to glide down onto the planet in a slow spiral, but with the impact of the Outriders' shots throwing the ship every which way that was no longer to be thought of. Ramrod plunged into the atmosphere at a much too steep angle, patches of blue and white rushed past too quickly to make out on the monitors and then they impacted nose-first and once again it was only his seat-belt that kept Fireball in his saddle unit.