Chapter 4- Contact


ON BOARD THE ASTROMEGASHIP

            After discussing and going over everything they know about Wasvat, the yellow, black, and red rangers went off to their quarters to clean up and get changed.  The uniforms they were presently wearing were soiled and torn, and most likely unsalvageable.  The silver ranger went to the bridge to get as much information possible from D.E.C.A's surveillance of the battle.

            Before heading off to his own quarters to change his clothes, Andros followed Carlos with the intention of questioning him.  Andros had noticed that he had seemed more upset than usual by the days events.  When he reached the door to Carlos' quarters, he was surprised to find the door wide open.  Instead of changing into a fresh uniform, the black ranger was sitting stock still on his bed, staring into space.  Andros stood in the doorway and gave a slight cough to bring Carlos out of his reverie.  Carlos sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  He shook his head, as if to shake off the last traces of his daze and then looked up at Andros, finally realizing he was waiting for a response.

            "Oh, hi.  Uh, how long have you been standing there?", Carlos asked.

            "Long enough to see that you're not yourself.  Are you alright?"  Andros hesitated walking in he didn't want to intrude.  However, he felt that Carlos needed to talk.

            Carlos sighed again and stood up, stretching.  He started to say something, then stopped and took a long look at Andros.  The scrutiny unnerved Andros and he was happy when the black ranger turned his head and made way towards the window looking out to the cosmos.  "I'm beginning to think that we're a bunch of failures – not meant, not WORTHY, to be rangers."  He gave a hollow, cynical laugh.  "We lost our command center, we lost Zordon," he said, ticking his list off on his fingers, "we lost Cassie…" he trailed off.  "This is REALLY bad, Andros.  This guy has succeeded before in killing rangers, this isn't an amateur we're dealing with." He paused.  "Tommy and Cat and Adam and the others would have NEVER let this happen.  If they were still here, if we hadn't taken their powers, maybe everything would have been different."

            Andros had heard these names mentioned before, among others, by his comrades.  They seemed be held in a kind of reverence by them, nearing god and goddess stature. And there was nothing that bothered him as much as someone being placed on so high a pedestal, because 99 out 100 times, that person was only elevated because no one knew the entire story of that, so called, "God".  He stormed over to Carlos so fast, he caught him by surprise and Carlos almost fell off of the chair he was sitting on.  "Now, you listen to me.  I have seen you all fight and I have never been more proud to fight beside anyone else.  What happened would have happened no matter who was there!," he backed off slightly.  "And, come on," he said, in an amused voice, "look at who they were fighting.  Rita, Zedd, Mondo, Divatox… they're pathetic!!!  We could squash them one hundred times over right now!"  This got a chuckle out of Carlos.  "Put this Tommy or Cat or Adam that you all speak of so fondly against Astronema and they'd come crawling back in bandages.  They had it easy.  And they had Zordon."  Andros bowed his head when he mentioned their mentor.  He walked over to Carlos and placed his hand on his shoulder.  "You didn't lose him.  Zordon wasn't even on Earth when your command center was attacked.  If he was, maybe then things would've turned out different.  Or, maybe they wouldn't have.  Carlos, you can't dwell on these things, they'll tear you apart."

            Carlos was a bit shocked by Andros' outburst, to say the least.  After all, it was well known that no one on board the ship seemed to carry more of guilty conscience than the red ranger.  He stood up to thank his friend and as he did, he knocked his book bag over, which was leaning against the corner of the bed.  A few of the contents spilled out, and Carlos nearly whooped with joy when he looked down and saw the answer to one of their most pressing problems.  He bent over and scooped up the silver metallic cell phone.  When he straightened himself, Andros thought his face must surely be hurting from the huge smile spreading over Carlos' face.

            "I didn't realize my little speech would have such a profound effect on you," Andros said, raising an eyebrow.

            "Do you know what this is?"

            "Ya know, Carlos, I may still be bit shady on a few of Earth's customs, but I learned what a cell phone was quite a while ago…"

            "Andros, this is how we can contact TJ and Cassie!  We can let them know what's going on!"

            Andros shook his head and said, "we can't. If there are quantrons patrolling the caves, they'll hear the ring tone-…"

            "Not if we send text messages back and forth!  His text message is set to silent because he sends them during class all the time! Granted it may take longer- Wait! I can text him and tell him to turn off his ringer!"

            Andros still looked hesitant.  "What if he doesn't have his cell phone on him?"

            "Then we're back to square one, but I can almost guarantee you, he will."

            Despite his better judgment, Andros couldn't help catching on to Carlos' enthusiasm.  "Okay," he said, "I'll go get Ashley and Zhane.  Meet us on the bridge in 5 minutes."

            Andros turned and started towards the door, when Carlos stopped him.  "Andros, I want to thank you for saying what you did.  I guess I just kinda got into a funk there.  Um, I know that at the moment I'm the somewhat unstable one here, but perhaps you could listen to a bit of advice I have for you?"

            "Sure, what?"

            "You should listen to what you say sometimes. Ya know, follow your own advice."

            Andros just gave Carlos a slight smile and walked away.  He could handle helping others with their own problems, but when it came to his own, he blocked out any reasonable advice he may have for himself.  To be honest, considering his mental state sometimes, he really wasn't sure he should play shrink for anyone else.  Despite that, he decided to follow Carlos' advice and filed away his own little motivational speech in his head to ponder over during one of his ever-frequent sleepless nights.  Of course, he would only try to solve his own problems when he was certain everyone was back where they should be, safe and secure onboard the Astromegaship.

ON BOARD THE ASTROMEGASHIP – THE BRIDGE

            The others were already gathered on the bridge when Carlos walked in.  Andros had filled them in, and the entire group was apprehensive over whether this would work, or if they would be alerting the masses of quantrons that  were about to storm the caves as to TJ and Cassie's location and end up condemning their friends to death.

A/N: the next chapter will pick up AFTER the conversation between TJ and Carlos.  I think a chapter devoted to a conversation would be boring, so I'll skip it.  So next chapter, when I say, "the conversation went good, it was delightful" don't go "wha?"  ALSO, some of you are all like, "what about Ashley/Andros relationship?".  All I have to say is… be patient. * wink wink * I'm writing these chapters so they're one chap in one group's POV and another chap in another group's POV and going back and forth. I'm getting there… * evil grin * You must remember, Andros is damaged. LoL. Next chapter will be about Cassie and TJ.  THEN, I'll get to Ashley and Andros… * thinks * yes, I think that's the way the chapters will fall. If not I'll just torture you all an extra chapter.  Bwahahahahaha!