Disclaimer: SOTPR. "I'm not afraid of the dark. Just the things in it." It's not that I'm against flashlights, it's just that I was taught never to carry a lantern into the moonlight. Maybe politics aren't scarier than the forces of evil after all.
War Games
by Starhawk
He had time to change, which was more than he'd expected. Zhane was pulling a clean t-shirt on over his head when the knock came, and he sighed. "I'm not here!" he called, knowing it was a futile gesture.
"Neither am I!" It was Astrea's voice, and she actually sounded amused, both of which were probably good signs. "I'm coming in whether you invite me or not, so open up."
"Come in," he grumbled, and the door slid open. He watched warily as she slipped inside. "If I wanted to talk about it, I'd still be in the common room," he warned.
"Andros didn't send me," she replied. "I just wanted to make sure you were all right. Tevi promised me Ty would take care of you last night--did he?"
He frowned. "What, do you have spies everywhere? Who's Tevi?"
"Ty's twin," she answered, making herself comfortable on his unmade bed. "We worked together on the crew, but I didn't know she had a brother until last night. Is he nice?"
Zhane shrugged, unwilling to commit until he knew where this conversation was going. "I guess," he allowed. "He's pretty..."
She looked up, focusing abruptly. "He's pretty what?" she prompted.
He broke into a grin and he couldn't resist. "He's just pretty. I have good taste."
Her serious expression dissolved, and Andros' sister giggled. "I've always known that," she teased. "You chased me, after all."
"I wouldn't say I chased you," he protested, but he threw himself down on the bed next to her anyway. "I'd say you stalked me, that's what I'd say. Then," he admitted, catching her indignant look, "I chased you."
She smiled. "There was mutual chasing," she agreed. "It turned out well."
"Yeah..." He felt around for her hand, managing to find it without lifting his head. Sliding his fingers through hers, he raised their clasped hands so he could see them from where he was. "It did turn out well."
Astrea leaned back against the pillows, her head next to his as she too stared up at their hands. "So," she commented idly. "We've established that you chase pretty people." There was a pause, and her next remark caught him completely off guard. "Andros is pretty."
He glanced over at her, searching her face when she turned her head toward him. Her expression was inscrutable, and he said the only thing that he could think of to say. "What?"
"Andros is pretty," she repeated, as though he might not have heard her the first time. "It runs in the family," she added, an impish smile gracing her lips. "Don't you think?"
"No," he said quickly. "I mean, sure, but--what do you mean?"
She managed a credible impression of a shrug, despite the fact that she was almost lying down. "Nothing. I just think Ty and Andros have a lot in common, that's all."
He didn't have to feign confusion this time. "Why are you talking about? The only way they could be less alike is if one of them was a girl."
An odd look flickered across her face. "Do you remember playing Lunar Twist last night?"
He squinted up at the ceiling, letting his arm fall but keeping his hand in hers. "Maybe," he decided at last. "Sort of. With Ty?"
He felt her nod before he looked over at her. "With Ty," she agreed, the odd look still on her face. "Later I asked you what he was like, and do you know what you said?"
"Is this going somewhere?" he asked, irritated and more worried than he wanted to admit. Astrea didn't usually play games, and he didn't think she was doing this just to torture him. She had something in mind, and he suspected he wasn't going to like her conclusions.
"You said he wasn't Andros," she told him.
Zhane just looked at her, willing his face not to reveal anything.
"You were practically making out with Ty," she continued, studying him. "And all you could say about him was, 'he's not Andros.'"
He pulled his hand out of hers and sat up, staring at the opposite wall without seeing it. Nope, definitely not liking her conclusions. "I was drunk, Astrea. People say stupid things when they're drunk."
"People say things they think they shouldn't when they're drunk," she countered, not moving. "That doesn't mean they're not true."
"So? It's true; he isn't Andros. I was probably proud of myself for noticing something. It sounds like one of those things people think is really insightful when they're drunk and then are glad to forget the next day."
"Maybe." She didn't sound convinced. "To me it sounds like something else."
He ran a hand through his hair, aware of her gaze on him without even turning around. "Is this going somewhere?" he repeated, more subdued this time.
He felt the bed shift with her movement as she pulled her legs in and sat up, not too close. She might have been leaning against the wall, but he didn't dare turn and look. Even if his expression had been neutral before, he was sure it wasn't now.
"When you say you love him," she said quietly. "You don't mean like a brother, do you."
He sighed. "Could you remind me never to get drunk around you again?"
She let out a breath of amusement. "I'm not talking about last night. You've said it before; I just never really listened. Even when we were talking about being exclusive, I didn't think..."
"Neither did I," Zhane interrupted, before she could get too far along that track. "This is more recent than that. Honest."
She didn't answer, and finally he glanced back at her. The skeptical look on her face made him sigh again, and he flopped back on the bed beside her. "Okay, so maybe you're not totally wrong. But it wasn't an issue until now, anyway."
"Until Ty?" she prompted gently.
He stared up at the ceiling, wondering if it was as obvious to everyone else as it must be to her. "He looks like Andros, doesn't he."
"A little," she admitted. "Is that why you went home with him?"
He was silent for a moment, considering the ceiling. Why wasn't there ever anything interesting to look at on ceilings? Walls were bad enough, but at least they weren't all the same boring color. You could put things on walls. Walls were good. Until annoying girlfriends walked through them without even noticing they were there.
"I don't know," he said finally. "I really don't know."
***
Cassie was gone. He knew that even before he got out of bed, so he took his time getting up. He was tired enough that he almost tried to sleep some more, but the nightmare that had woken him was too fresh. Sleep would do him no good if it returned.
It was almost breakfast time when he finally dragged himself out of bed, and he began to wonder what had happened to Cassie. She still wasn't used to the length of Elisia's days, and it made her sleep schedule almost as odd as his. Sometimes she woke up early, sometimes late, and he could never predict when he would come home and find her napping. Still, this was obviously one of the early days, and she was nowhere to be found.
There was a message flashing on the comm when Saryn emerged from the bedroom, but it wasn't from her. Instead it bore the logo of the Astro Rangers, and he almost didn't listen to it. He considered Cassie's friends his own, but the trouble they got into made him crazy. It was a miracle they didn't wind up dead more often than they already had.
Ashley's face greeted him when he let the recorded message play, and he couldn't help narrowing his eyes at her cheery, "Good morning!"
"Maybe for you," he grumbled, as though she could somehow hear him. "Would you like to know why my morning is less than good?"
"I just wanted to update you guys on the mysterious vision thing," Ashley's image went on, oblivious to his reaction.
"I thought not," he muttered. "Please, continue."
"Justin's been doing some experiments on Eltare, and he has the Robot Rangers and the Psychos helping him. Basically he's using the Power to open doors to this other dimension, and since we use the same Power as the Psychos and we used to use the same Power as the Robot Rangers, it's affecting us too. He calls it consciousness-swapping, but it turns out the doors he's opening may actually be moving."
Saryn frowned at the comm. "This Justin of yours is far to precocious for the universe's good. You are aware of that, I assume?"
"That's the only way he can explain what happened to Cassie, anyway," Ashley continued, and suddenly he found himself listening more closely. "She shouldn't have faded unless she was traveling herself, and Justin says consciousness swapping only happens when someone else travels, like Psycho Pink or Cassie's Robot Ranger. So he thinks maybe the doors between dimensions are attracted to the Astro Power..."
"You have no idea how little that surprises me," Saryn interrupted. "If something inexplicable and vaguely threatening is going to happen anywhere in the galaxies, naturally it would happen to the Astro Rangers. And is it an enemy causing this phenomenon?
"No," he said, answering his own question and not caring that he was talking over the rest of her explanation. "It's a Ranger. One of your own, no less, a former teammate who is even now interrupting your pretense of normalcy with dangerous and apparently unbounded curiosity."
"--but he says it shouldn't happen again," Ashley was saying, and Saryn sighed.
"A guarantee he cannot make, given that he doesn't know what caused it in the first place." He turned the comm off without waiting to hear the rest of her message. The lack of concern Cassie's teammates evinced in circumstances such as these never ceased to amaze him. They shrugged it off until it blew up in their faces, and then suddenly they were surprised.
He supposed he ought to tell Cassie her friend had called. And recently, too, unless she hadn't checked the comm when she got up. That would be out of character, so he could only assume Ashley had called after she left. He hadn't heard the comm chime, but he'd gotten so used to ignoring it that he might have been awake and just not noticed.
Saryn wandered out into the courtyard, noting idly that Nen's door was the only one still closed. The community center was wide open, as usual, and Kyril was perched in one of the windows. He raised a hand in welcome, his gaze flicking back toward the sky when Saryn nodded in return. The Blue Ranger's eyes were more sun-tolerant than anyone else on the team, and he had been known to stare at the horizon for hours at a time.
The atmosphere inside the community center was far less reflective. Saryn heard Jetson growl the moment he stepped through the door, but for once the dog wasn't barking at him. Instead, the big yellow canine was on his back, pinned to the ground by a skinny toddler who was yelling louder than he was growling.
The next moment Jetson had wriggled free and pounced on her back as she shrieked with laughter, and Saryn stepped carefully around them as he made his way toward the buffet counter. Cassie was seated there, an amused look on her face as she caught his eye. Mirine was behind her, ignoring both his entrance and the commotion on the floor while she rifled through the cupboards.
"Good morning," Saryn offered, leaning on the counter beside her. "I trust you slept well?"
"Couldn't." She made a face, but she didn't seem overly upset about it. "I must have slept too long yesterday afternoon. Which means I'll probably crash by lunchtime, but I guess it'll make the fair more interesting. What about you?"
He hesitated a moment too long, and Cassie gave him a knowing look. "What did you dream about? Not the kids again?"
"Saryn's dreaming about kids?" Mirine interrupted. She was obviously paying more attention than she pretended. "What, you two don't have enough to do? Now you're going to raise a family in your spare time?"
Saryn gave her a half-hearted glare. "If you feel the need to participate in the conversation, you could at least say good morning."
"Hello to you too," she retorted. "You're grumpy this morning."
"It's the nightmares," Cassie remarked, swinging her legs idly against the counter. "They make him grouchy. Breakfast usually does the trick."
"Here." Mirine pulled out a plate before he could protest. "Raine's leftovers from last night. She says you weren't around when she made them, so you'd better have some quick before they're gone. The sugar's good for you, anyway."
He frowned at his sister. "I am not grouchy, I don't need the sugar, and I had better things to do last night. And, in case it escaped your notice, sweet puffs do not constitute breakfast."
"Hungry!" a strident voice complained, and he glanced down to see Shei pressing her fists against the base of the counter. "Want to eat now!"
Saryn reached down and picked her up, setting her on the counter beside Cassie. "This," he announced to no one in particular, "is not my fault."
"It never is," Cassie noted, handing Shei a sweet puff. "Here you go, hon. Don't tell your mom, okay?"
"Tell mom," the girl agreed, grabbing for the dessert greedily. "Sweet puff!"
"So what about these dreams?" Cassie wanted to know, holding the plate out to him. "Are they serious? Are they symbolic, or precognitive, or what? Was it exactly the same dream both times, or were they different?"
"I don't know," he said with a sigh, taking one of the sweet puffs. "They weren't the same, but the feeling they inspired was identical."
She raised her eyebrows at him as she passed the plate back to Mirine. "And that was?"
"Fear," he said simply.
"More!" Shei demanded, reaching for his sweet puff. "Hungry!"
Jetson barked once, and Cassie took two more sweet puffs from Mirine. Breaking one of them in half, she frowned as she passed part of it to Jetson and gave the other to Shei. "Fear of something in particular, or just fear?"
He peeled the outer layer of the pastry free before putting it in his mouth, contemplating the question. "Fear for our children," he said at last. "I know it doesn't make any sense, but that's how they make me feel. I am afraid for children we do not have."
"More than one?" Mirine put in, leaning against the counter across from him. "Ambitious, aren't we."
He gave her a dirty look, and she smirked back at him.
"They *make* you afraid," Cassie said slowly, ignoring the silent exchange. "You mean it's not just a feeling you have in the dream? Are you afraid now?"
"I feel obliged to point out," a new voice broke in, "that this is not a breakfast which Raine would approve of."
The three of them looked up guiltily to find Azmuth standing in the courtyard doorway. The Yellow Ranger took in the scene with an expression of amused tolerance, her lean frame propped against the wall and her arms folded across her chest. "She would, I think, comment on both the lack of nutrition and the informality of the presentation."
"Can we convinced you that it's not really breakfast?" Mirine suggested hopefully.
"That's right," Cassie chimed in. "It's more of a pre-breakfast snack. Saryn needed sugar, and we didn't want him to feel left out."
He glared at her, but her smile was so innocent that he couldn't find it in his heart to contradict her. Besides, Azmuth was already pushing away from the door and pacing across the room toward them, and she didn't look particularly upset. She even took one of the sweet puffs for herself, which delighted her daughter no end.
"More!" Shei exclaimed, reaching for the dessert.
Azmuth raised her eyebrows, her inquiring gaze going from one to another. "How many has she had?"
"One?" Mirine offered, though she didn't sound entirely certain.
"And a half," Cassie put in. "Not that many."
With a shrug, Azmuth handed her sweet puff to Shei and took another one for herself. "So long as she does not have more sugar than blood in her veins. What conversation did I interrupt? I assume it was not fear of Raine that caused you to fall silent so quickly."
"I think you underestimate her," Mirine muttered.
A smile played across Azmuth's normally serious expression. "I assure you, I do not. She is meditating this morning, however, and I do not expect her at breakfast. Thus we are safe from her parental sensibilities for the time."
"Too bad we're not safe from Saryn's," Cassie teased, and he sighed as Azmuth's curious look came to rest on him. He concentrated on his sweet puff, ignoring Cassie's explanation as best he could.
"So these dreams," Mirine began, the moment she had finished. "Are they just regular nightmares, or not? You said they scared you... how many times have you had them?"
"Twice." He reached for another sweet puff, and she gave him a look that said he was being difficult. Peeling off the outer layer of the puff again, he muttered, "Maybe three times." He felt Cassie glance sharply in his direction, but he didn't look up.
"And?" Mirine demanded.
"And what?" He tore off a corner of the sugared dough and tossed it to Jetson, who had been watching him intently throughout the whole process. "I don't know if they're regular nightmares or not, and I don't know what to do about them either way. What more can I tell you?"
Mirine's communicator went off at that moment, and she gave it a dismissive glance. The ID code must have caught her attention, though, for she frowned and straightened up from the counter. "I'll be right back," she said, pointing at Saryn as she retreated into the kitchen. "Don't think this is over."
"It never is," he answered, glancing away to avoid her glare. He heard Cassie chuckle, but it was the window that caught his attention. The one nearest the door was empty, and he was sure it hadn't been that way when he came in.
Jetson let out a growl. It wasn't the playful growl that the dog used when wrestling with Shei, nor was it a sound of real menace. It was more an acknowledgement than anything else, and Saryn knew what it meant before he even turned around.
"Hi, Kyril," Cassie said cheerfully, and sure enough, there was the Blue Ranger standing on the other side of the counter. His presence was more disconcerting than most, for he had no empathic echo. He was one of a very few people who could sneak up on Saryn without even trying.
"Morning," Kyril answered, greeting them all with a lazy smile. "Bet Raine wouldn't have saved the leftovers if she'd known what you were going to do with them."
"If you don't want any," Azmuth replied, leaving the sentence hanging. She pulled the plate out of his reach, taking another sweet puff for herself as she did so. "No, Shei," she added, when her daughter tried to imitate her. "Two for you, two for me. This is equitable."
"Between you and Saryn, that girl is going to have a better vocabulary than I do by the time she's five," Cassie remarked. She handed Kyril a sweet puff, and he grinned in thanks. "Do you guys write thesauruses in your spare time?"
"Thesauri," Saryn corrected automatically, and she rolled her eyes.
"Do you ever wonder," Kyril inquired, "how the Eltaran language disseminated so thoroughly throughout the universe without being corrupted beyond recognition by individual subcultures?"
Saryn put the rest of his sweet puff in his mouth, not bothering to answer. He recognized Kyril's tendency to muse aloud, and he didn't feel like thinking that much this early in the morning. He noticed with amusement that Cassie didn't want to either, but she had no qualms about admitting it.
"I can honestly say I've never wondered that," she told Kyril. "But I'll put it on my list of things to think about while I'm lying awake at night. Right after 'why is the sky white?' and 'how come only half of Elisia has winter?'"
Kyril gave her an odd look. "I could tell you that."
"That is unnecessary," Azmuth interrupted, exchanging sympathetic glances with Cassie. "Perhaps another time."
Saryn was making an effort not to smile when Mirine stuck her head out of the kitchen. "Saryn?" she said, tilting her head in obvious invitation. "Can I talk to you?"
He raised an eyebrow, but he circled the counter and followed her into the kitchen without a word. He was aware of Azmuth's gaze on them, coupled with Cassie's curiosity, but he had no sense of Kyril at all. Next to Shei's impatience and Jetson's idle content, the Blue Ranger couldn't have made less of an impression if he'd ceased to exist.
"Can you cancel your publicity op with the Defense this afternoon?" Mirine asked as soon as they were out of the main room. "There's a surveillance briefing I'd like you to be at instead."
"Done." He studied her expression, wondering what could have prompted such a question. She rarely made professional requests of him that didn't involve the rest of the team, and she had never asked him to choose between Ranger duty and Defense obligations. "Is something wrong?"
She hesitated, frowning. "I'm not sure," she said at last. "Maybe. Calijyt brought home two of their undercover agents this morning, and the extraction wasn't scheduled for another four days."
Saryn considered that. It was rare for an agent to be pulled without imminent threat, especially on the Border. On the other hand, it wasn't unheard of, and a briefing was standard in this situation. "You believe they were endangered with cause," he said, searching her gaze for confirmation.
Mirine sighed. "It's just a feeling, but yes, I do. Border scouts have been trading steady fire with velocifighters for days, and I don't think it's a coincidence that encounters are up."
"The Defense has been concerned by those same reports," he admitted, and she smiled briefly.
"I'm not surprised. I hope you can bring that perspective to this briefing."
"Where you lead," he promised, "I will follow."
She caught his eye again, an odd look flickering across her face. "You always have," she agreed soberly. "I've meant to thank you for it a hundred times. You were chosen to lead, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking a subordinate role recently."
"I can not tell you how much I appreciate the team you've built," he replied, smiling faintly. "And it is your team, not mine. I gave up the mantle of leadership a long time ago, and I am proud to see you wear it so well."
Instead of looking pleased, Mirine looked troubled, and a perceptible silence lingered before she spoke. "Saryn... if it happens that we need you to lead again--if the team needs you to take over--will you?"
"You will not need me," he said simply.
"But if we do." Mirine's gaze was intent, and suddenly he realized it wasn't herself that she doubted. It was him. "If you had to assume command of the Elisian Rangers in a battle situation, now--today--could you do it?"
She seemed to expect him to think about it, so he did. These Rangers were not the teammates he had led to their deaths five years ago, but in the heat of the moment, surrounded by their uniforms and with adrenaline distorting all sense of time, it was possible to forget. He knew that, and he knew too the emotional demands of battle, the choices that sometimes had to be made--and he made his.
"Yes," he said at last. "Yes, I could."
"Good," Mirine answered, an honest smile lighting her face. "That's all I wanted to hear."
***
"Still haven't met Steve," Carlos remarked, stopping to pick up a soda can someone had tossed outside the door. "Taj is all right, though."
"By 'all right', I assume you mean that he has not spoken to you?" Aura guessed. Her accent was all but lost in the comm distortion between galaxies, something Billy hadn't been able to compensate for in a device as unsophisticated as Carlos' cell phone.
He grinned as he yanked the dorm door open and headed for the main lounge. "He doesn't bother me and I don't bother him. What else could I ask for in a roommate?"
"So he is not curious about your frequent phone conversations with another planet?"
The TV was going in the first floor lounge and there were people sprawled across the cushioned furniture, watching with varying degrees of interest. At the other end of the lounge there were a couple of students chatting with open textbooks in front of them, and someone playing idly on the piano. Carlos headed over to the communal recycling bins, watching to make sure Voyager was a rerun before turning his attention back to Aura.
"I think phone conversations are the least of my worries," he told her, popping the lid of the bin open and tossing the can in. "If anything's going to bother him, it'll be the teleporting in the middle of the night. Not only is it loud, but it probably lights up the entire room."
"Perhaps we should do some research," she suggested, her tone a little too innocent to be what it seemed.
He narrowed his eyes, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't see him. "Do you have me on an open comm link?"
"Of course," Aura answered. "I am the only one in the control room, and it is the easiest way to communicate."
He wasn't immune to the stares that followed him out of the lounge, but he wasn't going to worry about them either. After three months of turning heads wherever he went, he found that he was getting used to it. There were days when it got to be too much and he would just stay on Aquitar until he felt normal again, but those days were becoming less and less frequent.
"In that case," he said, pushing the fire doors open on his way to the stairs, "I won't say anything inappropriate about teleporting in the dark with you. I think Billy has that whole room bugged."
"Of course he does," Aura replied with perfect equanimity. "The entire dome is under constant surveillance as a security measure. If, however, you are suggesting that any of the Rangers access those logs without due cause--"
"Which you all do, every time someone ticks you off," Carlos interrupted. "Especially Delphinius. Don't expect me to believe it was coincidence he knew exactly when that genealogy chart would be arriving."
"I find it interesting that you accuse him and not Cetaci," Aura remarked. She didn't contradict him, though. "The White Ranger is the only one who could be forgiven such subterfuge in the name of team relations."
"Which is why I don't blame her," he pointed out, stepping around someone at the top of the stairs and pausing by the water fountain. He leaned over to get a drink before he added, "I'd spy too if I was going out with someone as devious as Delphinius."
"You think I am less devious than Delphinius?" she demanded.
He grinned at her indignation. "All right--I'd spy if I was *living* with someone as devious as the two of you; how's that?"
"I accept your apology." There was a pause, and then she added, "Your opinion of Cetaci has changed significantly in recent months, has it not?"
Carlos tried the doorknob before punching his code into the lock, and to his surprise, it turned. Pushing the door open, he saw Taj sitting at his computer next to the windows. Steve was absent, as usual. Except for the laundry that had accumulated on the lofted bunk since he moved in, Carlos would have wondered whether his second roommate actually existed.
Grabbing the end of the bunk beds to swing himself up, he considered her question. "Not really," he said at last, flopping down on top of his bunk. "I think it's my opinion of Delphinius that's changed. I used to feel sorry for him, but he's a lot sneakier than I gave him credit for."
"He would probably appreciate that observation," she answered, and he could hear her smiling. Funny that facial expression came through the link when her accent was so muted.
"And I'm sure you'll tell him I said so, too," he commented. She and her teammates were as close as the Astro Rangers used to be, and he had learned not to say anything to her that he didn't want repeated.
"As I said," she replied smugly. "He will appreciate it."
"Yeah, whatever," he muttered. It didn't bother him anymore, but he still teased her. "Do you have a time for the synchronized flight tests yet?"
"And you think I read *your* mind." He could almost see her quizzical look. "I have just received clearance for upper atmospheric testing at eleven and a quarter. Billy and Delphinius will join us, and Cetaci has agreed to pilot the fourth fighter if you can not be present."
"Are you kidding?" He glanced down at his clock out of habit, but he could do the conversion in his head. It would be almost midnight here before the tests began, and they would probably last the rest of the night. "There's no way I'm missing this. Is Darren going to be there?"
"He will observe," Aura agreed. "Along with the majority of the fighter wing and the graduating pilot class. Some of the new ground-based defense force will also be present."
Carlos whistled. "What, you couldn't think of anyone else to invite?" he inquired. "Is this a test run, or an air show?"
"Perhaps both," she said, taking him more seriously than he'd intended. "We are recruiting as well as refitting, after all."
He opened his mouth to answer, then thought better of it. He wasn't much given to nostalgia, but there was something just a little bit sad about seeing military expansion on such a peaceful planet. Dark Spectre's war had left its mark on all of them.
***
Mechanical beings without the ability to reason or improvise, quantrons were an efficient if somewhat limited fighting force. Their loyalty was unquestionable, as they did only what they were programmed to do, and their robotic capability to withstand what humanoids could not was a tremendous advantage in the harsh environment of space. Still, as pilots against a sentient enemy they suffered from a distinct inability to learn.
Wave after wave of velocifighters washed through the Border and broke against the wall of the Calijyt Planetary Defense. The Border world's fighter wings were fast, ruthless, and committed, and their tenacity gave the Frontier patrol plenty of time to catch up. Trapped between the Calijyt PD and a well-armed patrol that had reinforcements on the way, the velocifighters stood no chance at all.
Kerone watched impassively as the little ships began to wink out, dozens of them flaring at a time before vanishing into nothingness. The simulation was not one the library had on file, naturally, but she had been able to modify some of the battle scenarios to suit her purposes. She needed something more sophisticated than the hostel terminals to run a program with so many variables.
"Whatcha doing?" Zhane's voice asked, interrupting her concentration once again. She had left him more than an hour ago, heading for the vid tanks when his research became more boring than she could tolerate without fidgeting. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't much more exciting on his end, and he didn't have the option of running off and letting the computer work without him.
"War games," she answered absently, watching the Frontier reinforcements arrive in time to scatter the remaining velocifighters and meld seamlessly into the patrol wing. "Just trying to stay on top of the news."
"News?" Zhane asked suspiciously. "What news?"
"The news that isn't news," she answered. "The fact that the Defense hasn't established any kind of base in this system, even though KO-35 is the most distant Border world in the League and patrols come through here every other day. What are they waiting for?"
"That's just bureaucracy for you," he opined. "They have to get seven different kinds of approval for expansion, not to mention authorization and contracts for building in Kerovan space. They've been working on it for months."
"So they say," Kerone agreed noncommittally. She reset the program, sending the velocifighters after Elisia this time. It was more vulnerable than Calijyt, and it had a history that the forces of evil could use to their advantage if it fell.
Zhane didn't answer, and she found herself lost in the new simulation. Unlike its neighbor, Elisia's Rangers swarmed out ahead of the fighter wings and engaged the velocifighters first, leading the planetary defense in much the same way Aquitar's Rangers did. The unified front strengthened the fighter wing but restricted the Rangers, and she narrowed her eyes as she considered the tradeoff involved.
Elisia, too, beat back the velocifighters with enviable ease, though when she compared numbers she found there was little appreciable difference in their losses. Interesting. Tactically speaking, she had expected Elisia to suffer fewer losses up until the threshold of defeat, which should have been reached faster than that of Calijyt's independent Rangers. She ran the simulation again, this time with more velocifighters.
The comm chimed, but since it wasn't Zhane she ignored it. Her login code enabled other network users to trace her anywhere on the planet, and contacts were automatically routed to her location. That didn't mean she had any obligation to acknowledge them.
"Astrea?" Zhane's voice intruded a few minutes later, and she lifted her head instantly. He sounded odd. Something had happened. She didn't know what it was, but she knew that tone of voice.
"What's wrong?" she asked, glancing over at the screen linked to his computer camera. "Did you find something?"
"No. At least, not in the records," he amended. His expression was as strange as his tone. "Andros just sent us a message."
She frowned. "That was him? I didn't bother to check."
"It's wasn't live." Zhane was silent a moment, and just when she was about to ask he added, "You should listen to it. I can't--I don't know what to think about it."
"Did he send the same thing to both of us?" she asked, reaching for the comm. Her login prompt appeared beneath Zhane's video feed, and she entered her password again. The message source and time appeared and froze while she waited for Zhane's answer.
He only nodded, his expression unreadable.
She halted the battle sim where Elisia was once again decimating the velocifighters and turned her full attention to the comm. Andros' image appeared in place of Zhane, and she blinked in surprise. He was wearing a tawny vest over an undyed tunic, and she knew with a sudden sinking sensation what he was going to say even before he opened his mouth. He hadn't worn anything but red for longer than she could remember.
"Hello, Zhane. Hi Kerone. I'm sending this to both of you because I owe you both the same apology. I know I haven't been a very good friend recently, and I'm sorry it happened without me even noticing. Somehow I got so caught up in what I thought I should be that I forgot what's really important, and that's you.
"You never forgot," Andros continued, and she found herself hearing his message twice. Once aloud, the way he had sent it, and then again in her head as she tried to imagine the way it sounded to Zhane. "You stood by me through everything, and I want you to know that means more to me than anything else. You reminded me... well, you made me remember what's worth fighting for."
Zhane had told him to choose his battles. She wished suddenly that she had been there to overhear that conversation. Were they closer behind closed doors, or did they joke and fight just as stridently as they did in front of her? For the first time, she wondered if she had taken her brother and his best friend for granted all these months.
"I turned my morpher over to the Council," Andros was saying, and her eyes widened involuntarily. For all that she had been expecting that, the words that had seemed so innocuous this afternoon were more alarming after the fact. "I think they were still kind of shocked when I left, but they'll be looking for a new Red Ranger soon. I thought you guys should know before--I thought you should know first.
"I'll be at the hostel tonight," he added. "Zhane, I'm sorry for the things I've said lately, and I hope you'll let me apologize in person. I'll do anything to make it up to you, and I mean that. When I said being your best friend was more important than being a Ranger... it's--it's so much more important that I don't even know how to tell you. I'm sorry I was so rude this afternoon."
Andros paused for a moment, frustration flickering in his eyes. It was clear to her that he wasn't sure exactly what he was apologizing for, and she hoped it wasn't as obvious to Zhane. Her brother was trying so hard... she had never seen him quite so earnest. But then, she'd never seen Zhane walk out on him like that either.
"Kerone--" There was a wry smile on Andros' face now, hiding his uncertainty. "I won't promise to do anything for you, but only because you're a sorceress and I know your sense of humor. So I'll settle for saying I'm sorry, and I hope you believe me because it's true."
She nodded once, glad he couldn't see her smile as he signed off. Funny that he would be more confident of where he stood with her than with Zhane--should she read anything into that? What about his offer to do "anything" to make it up to his best friend? She'd give a great deal to know what had gone through Zhane's mind when he heard that.
She began reprogramming the battle sim, waiting for Zhane to realize she'd had plenty of time to listen to Andros' message and reopen their private comm link. The vid tank was perfectly capable of initiating the signal, but she found herself in the same situation Zhane had been moments before. She had no more idea what to say than he had.
She did know that she hadn't thought Andros would truly resign without them. When she agreed to accompany Zhane to the library, she had assumed her brother would put his plans on hold until he could talk them into participating. Clearly, he was more serious than she had expected, and for some reason his actions troubled her now in a way they had not when they were just words.
"Weird, huh?" Zhane didn't bother with preamble as the link flared to life again.
She frowned, inputting the final variables before answering. "Weird," she said, as velocifighters flooded into the Kerovan system, "isn't quite the word I would have picked. Maybe... surreal."
"Same thing," Zhane said dismissively. "Who'd have thought he'd actually go through with it? Andros giving up his morpher is like... like--"
"Astronema turning good?" she suggested, watching the Kerovan PD intercept the velocifighters at the asteroid belt. Only two zords flanked them as they engaged the enemy.
She heard Zhane laugh, and she smiled to herself. That was a sound she hadn't heard often enough lately. Glancing up at the comm screen, she was reassured to see the strange look gone from his face and a grin in its place. He could be teased again, so the initial shock of Andros' message must have worn off.
"Yeah, about as weird as that," Zhane agreed. "Are you still running those games?"
She glanced away from the screen in time to see velocifighters breaking through the planetary defense and being chased down by zords. She frowned, surprised the fighter wings had been overcome so quickly. The zords couldn't pick up their slack, but they were being expected to even as the PD fell back. "Did you and Andros fight with the planetary wings?" she asked abruptly.
"I'll take that as a yes." Zhane sounded more amused by her preoccupation than anything. "No, we didn't--neither of us were trained for that sort of thing back then."
She halted the simulation before it could reach its inevitable conclusion, reprogramming it to take independent maneuvering into account. Naturally, she and Zhane would fight differently than Zhane and Andros, but it was the best she could do with just a computer program. No one could recreate reality.
"Blown up any important planets yet?" Zhane inquired after a moment of silence.
"Not yet," she answered absently, watching the simulation reset itself. "I'm still working on it."
"Take a break," he told her, and she looked up in surprise.
"Why?"
"I need to ask you something." He looked serious all of a sudden, and she studied him as best she could over the comm link. Possibilities flitted through her mind, but the chime of the comm interrupted before she could prompt him.
Zhane glanced away, and she saw him frown. "The Council," he said, eyes scanning something she couldn't see. "Did you just get--they sent us a summons!" He broke off indignantly, staring at the screen.
She had to enter her password again to view the static text that had caught Zhane's attention. It was indeed a summons from the Kerovan Council, complete with formal address and a deadline. Confused, she let the message disappear and gave Zhane a questioning look. "What was that about?"
"It's probably about Andros." Zhane looked torn between laughter and outright anger. "I can't believe they did that! Since when do they summon Rangers?"
"Did they tell you why?" she asked. "All I got was where and when."
"That's all they sent me too, and if they think I'm going to show up they're sadly mistaken. You don't summon a Ranger! And you certainly don't do it without an explanation!"
Kerone just looked at him, not sure how to respond to that. He sounded almost like Ecliptor for a moment, objecting to some perceived slight on her behalf. She knew the Rangers were, in theory, autonomous, and their military might made them a force to be reckoned with whether it was an enemy or an ally doing the reckoning. But she didn't see why this warranted such outrage on his part. They had ignored the Council before, after all.
"You'd think Andros leaving would have shocked some sense into them by now," Zhane was muttering. "I'm not playing their game anymore. If they want to summon me, they can summon away. I'm not listening."
"I am," Kerone pointed out. "And I don't know what you're so upset about. It's not like you and Andros do what the Council wants anyway."
"But they still expect us to!" Zhane exclaimed. "Why? Why does a planetary government think it can order Rangers around? We're not bureaucrats; we're warriors! We're supposed to fight, not sit in on endless and totally pointless meetings!"
With that, she realized what was fueling his anger. She'd thought he had taken Andros' message too calmly. He wasn't calm at all; he was furious inside and it was leaking out despite his best efforts. Zhane, ever the fun-loving and carefree clown, had no way to contain negative emotions when his almost preternatural perspective failed him. The Council was a convenient target, but it was Andros he was upset with.
Andros had made them attend those meetings. Andros had let the Council dictate their actions. Andros had left them to force a vote amongst themselves when it came down to the wire, and now, when things were spiraling out of control, Andros had quit.
She frowned at the miniature velocifighters in front of her, finally understanding what this looked like to Zhane: apology or no, Andros had abandoned them again. Andros had abandoned him again. But that's not what he meant! Her mind protested, and she couldn't let the revelation pass without trying to impart some of it to Zhane.
"He did it for you," she said, looking back at the comm. "He wasn't trying to abandon you--he gave up his morpher because of you."
"Well, you could have fooled me!" Zhane shot back, confirming her suspicions. "He didn't even tell me what was going on!"
"I don't think he knew," she told him. "I think he decided on the way back from Earth. This afternoon was the first I heard about it."
Mentioning Earth had been a mistake. Zhane's eyes narrowed, and belatedly it occurred to her that the only thing taking more of Andros' time than the Council these last few days had been Ashley's home planet. "So he doesn't consult the rest of the team at all anymore? The fact that we could wind up with a new leader isn't important enough to discuss?"
"He said he was taking your advice," she said quietly. She knew it might not be the right thing to say, but she didn't know what else to tell him. "He said you told him to stop fighting the little battles and concentrate on the bigger ones, so that's what he was going to do. He said he knew you were tired of fighting the Council, and he wanted to make it so none of us had to anymore."
Zhane was staring at her. "He told you all of that and all he said to me is 'let's resign'? No offense, but since when do I rate lower on the 'pour your heart out' list than you?"
"I was there," she offered awkwardly, more uncomfortable with the way his words echoed her own than with his bluntness. She found herself searching for a defense to the argument she herself had made. "He just--"
"You were *there*!" Zhane didn't even wait for her to finish, and she bit her lip. Definitely not the right thing to say. "I was gone for one lousy night, and suddenly it's my fault that Andros doesn't talk to me? It's my fault that he gave up his morpher?"
He made a visible effort to contain himself, but his gaze burned into hers even through the comm screen. "Why do I bother?" he demanded. "Tell me that, Astrea! Why the hell do I bother?"
The answer to that was glaringly obvious now that she knew what to look for, and she wondered that she had never seen it before. "Because you love him," she said softly.
Zhane snorted, picking something up and stuffing it into his backpack as she watched. "Yeah, and a lot of good it does. I have to get out of here," he said, closing the bag and slipping it over his shoulder. "I'm taking Ty on a tour of Keyota tonight. Want to come with?"
It was only a token offer, but it filled her with guilty relief. No matter how angry he was at Andros, he wasn't upset with her. She was surprised by how much that meant to her, and she smiled at the screen. "Thanks, but no. I'm going to try to get somewhere with the sims."
"Yeah, well, remember to put the Border back together when you're done with it," he cracked, offering a half-hearted smirk in return. "We need some of those planets, you know."
"I'll try," she said solemnly. "Tell Ty to treat you right or I'll turn him into a frog."
He actually chuckled at that, shaking his head in mock reproach. "I'm sure that's just what he needs, the former princess of evil stalking him. That will help him sleep at night."
There was a pause, and then Zhane added more seriously, "Thanks for caring."
"You know I do," she replied softly.
A smile brightened his face, and some of his usual cheer slipped back into his expression. "Have a good night, Astrea."
"Same to you," she said, blowing him a kiss. He made a grabbing motion with his right hand, touching his fingers to his lips with a wink. She laughed, watching his image fade from the screen as he stood up to leave.
She did turn back to the sim then, and the mess that had once been a decent representation of the Kerovan system confronted her. The motion had stopped once the program ran its course, but the aftermath of the battle was all too clear. The Kerovan PD was nonexistent, both zords were gone, and the colony itself had been completely overrun.
Kerone frowned, considering the widespread devastation laid out before her. "This can't be good," she murmured to no one in particular.
fin