Disclaimer: For Tigger, a mostly straight, PG-13 story, and for Stitch, a "First" story, because she coughed. Marci is marvelous, Adri is awesome, and Buena Vista owns the Power Rangers. "Tonight, let's close the internet early and go out for pie."
by Starhawk
"You have no idea what it's like to go shopping on a planet that won't let Rangers pay for anything." Carlos leaned over and swiped one of Karen's french fries, not bothering to ask first. "Every time you turn around someone's trying to give you something, and if you're not careful you wind up with more than you can carry, let alone wear."
"He says that like it's a bad thing," Karen remarked, in an unsubtle aside to Tessa. "Note to self: plan a field trip to Aquitar."
"Good luck," Carlos grumbled. "You have to be careful about what you end up with, because colors mean something there. It's either where you work or what you study or the kind of person you're interested in, and I still haven't figured out how to tell the difference. All I know is that orange is bad."
TJ looked up from his tray, an amused look darting from him to Aura and back again as he asked, "What's wrong with orange?"
"There is nothing wrong with the color," Aura put in. "It is only that, in certain environments, it represents a desire to procreate. That's all."
Carlos snorted. "That's all, she says. No big deal, it's just like wearing a giant sign that says 'sex' in really big letters."
Aura tilted her head, reacting exactly as she had the first time he protested. "Billy had much the same response at first, and I confess I do not understand it. To continue one's family is an admirable goal."
"No," Carlos said, pointing his fork in her direction. "You did not say 'to continue one's family' when you were explaining it to me. You said--"
"Perhaps I unintentionally misled you," Aura interrupted, the corners of her eyes narrowing as she suppressed a smile. "That was my error."
Carlos hesitated, but they were in the middle of a campus dining hall. "The only reason I'm not repeating what you said word for word," he threatened, "is because we're in a public place. Next time you won't be so lucky."
Aura gave him a curious look, but her silver eyes sparkled at his predicament. "I have no idea what you mean by that," she informed him.
"Sure you don't," he retorted. "Maybe I'll ask Cetaci why she doesn't wear orange next time I see her."
The incident that would provoke was so terrible that even Aura's eyes widened. "You would not dare!"
Carlos just shrugged, smiling to himself as TJ and Karen exchanged glances. Tessa knew better than to get involved in alien culture--or maybe she was still just a little bit in awe of it. He sometimes got the feeling that she didn't really believe Aura was from another planet. It was a credit to Aura's "immersion," he supposed, that she could act so human, but Tessa looked for, latched onto, and pursued the differences between them.
"You want that cookie?" TJ asked, nudging his girlfriend. He indicated the chocolate chip cookie on Tessa's plate, and she shook her head, leaning back.
"You know I only got it for you," she teased, and Karen snorted.
"Yeah, since when does Tessa eat something as unhealthy as a cookie?" she wanted to know. "All those vegetables probably leached all the sugar out of it by now anyway."
"If only that worked," Tessa said ruefully. "You could make chocolate healthier by putting it in salad."
Karen gave her a look of utter disgust. "Ew," she said flatly.
Carlos' cell phone rang, and he looked down at his communicator automatically. He still wore his Aquitian communicator instead of his morpher, although he knew it wouldn't take more than a single attack on Earth for that to change. The blue light on the display told him what he would see even before he extracted his phone from his pocket.
Sure enough, intergalactic flashed on the cell's little screen, and he expected to hear Cestria's voice when he answered. He had no idea how Billy had modified the phone to say things like "intergalactic," but he knew from experience that hearing the answer wouldn't leave him any more informed. Billy had either been born in the wrong time, or on the wrong planet.
"Carlos!" The voice on the other end surprised him, and he looked over at TJ as though he might know why Ashley was calling. "Do you know how many relays I need to get a comm signal from KO-35 to Earth?"
"Hi Ashley," he said, bemused. He saw TJ straighten at the name. "Not off the top of my head, no. Should I?"
"A lot," she said firmly. "It's not even supposed to be possible without a hyperboosted comm system."
"Okay," he said, not feeling any more enlightened. "How's it going?"
"DECA helped me." She sounded out of breath, and she didn't seem to be answering his question so much as she was continuing her own monologue. "She routed the signal through the Megaship, to the Mega Vs, to you. Pretty wild, huh?"
"She's telling me how she's calling," he informed everyone at the table who was looking on impatiently. "Not why. Everyone say hi to Ashley."
He heard her laugh at the muted chorus of "hi"s that must have been audible even over the phone. "Hi everyone! Guess what! Cassie's having twins!"
He glanced at Aura, wondering if she could hear Ashley's voice from where she was sitting next to him. "We know that," he said patiently. "She told us last fall, remember?"
"No, silly!" Ashley sounded on the verge of laughing again, and he tried to remember when she had stopped being this hyper. She used to be like this all the time, although it hadn't occurred to him how serious she had become until he heard her shouting in his ear just now. "She's having them now! She's in labor!"
Carlos blinked, looking around the table as though they had all heard her shout. "Cassie's in labor," he repeated, in case they hadn't. "Cassie's in labor?" he added, when Karen's eyes widened.
"Since early this morning! I'm on my way to Elisia right now, even though Raine says there's nothing we can do, but I figured she could use the moral support anyway and it gets me out of the Council meeting... oh, I really shouldn't have said that." She sounded a bit deflated. "Pretend you didn't hear that."
"She's been in labor for an hour," Carlos relayed. "Ashley's on her way to--" He caught himself just before he would have said "Elisia." "To see her now," he amended.
"She's early," TJ declared, looking as worried as anyone could with a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie in their hand. He leaned forward, frowning a little, as though he could speak directly to Ashley. "Is she all right? Are the twins okay?"
"Did you hear that?" Carlos wanted to know.
"Sort of," Ashley answered, her own voice moderating a little. "She is early, you're right; she wasn't due for another month. The twins were okay last I knew, but they were already small and this can't be a good thing. Raine said not to worry, but she said it in that way that means she's worrying, so..."
"She wasn't due till next month," Carlos repeated, for TJ's benefit. "Raine's worried." He condensed Ashley's report a little, for the sake of brevity.
"Who's Raine?" Karen wanted to know.
Damned if he knew. "Who's Raine?" Carlos asked Ashley.
"She's the Green Ranger on the Elisian team," Ashley answered. "She's been helping Cassie through her pregnancy."
"She's a friend of Saryn's," Carlos told Karen. "She's been helping Cassie. Can we do anything?" he asked Ashley. "Can we come? I don't want to just sit here. Who has important stuff to do today?"
Tessa raised her hand, and, somewhat hesitantly, Aura followed suit. "Spoilsport," Carlos whispered to her, but Ashley was talking again.
"I don't think there's anything we can do," she said, sounding apologetic. "I don't think there's even anything I can do if I'm there, I just didn't want to sit around waiting for news. Of course you can come if you want, but I'm not sure it will make a difference."
Quietly, Aura offered, "I would be comforted to know that my friends were there, were I giving birth somewhere far from home."
Carlos shot her a quick look, but Tessa agreed before he could say anything. "Especially if something went wrong," she said softly.
"We're coming," he told Ashley. "It's going to be a couple of hours, though. How do we find you once we're there?"
"She's at the Sylvan Health Center," Ashley answered, as though that would mean something to him. "Are you taking the Mega Vs?"
"No, Ash." Carlos rolled his eyes. "We're taking the space bus. How do you think we're getting there?"
He could almost see her wrinkling her nose at him. "I don't know," she informed him. "I was just asking! So when you get here, set down at the Ranger compound, okay? Kyril says someone will be there, and they can tell you where to go."
Carlos put a hand over his phone, holding it away from his ear as he glanced around the table. "Kril?" he whispered.
Tessa frowned, Karen held up her hands, and TJ shook his head. Aura looked thoughtful, and when he caught her eye she offered, "One of the Elisian Rangers?"
Without taking his eyes off of her, he lowered his hand and asked Ashley, "Who's Kril?"
"Kyril," Ashley corrected. "It's two syllables. Like Saryn."
"Kyril?" he repeated.
"Yup. He's the Blue Elisian Ranger."
"How did you know that!" he demanded of Aura. She just smiled.
"Carlos, you guys are going to have to learn the Elisian Rangers' names." Ashley sounded halfway between amused and exasperated. "They know all of yours!"
"All right, all right." He had to admit that it might save them some embarrassment. "List them off for me. We'll know them by the time we get there, okay?"
"Saryn's Red," Ashley said pertly. There was a pause, and then she added, "You know, Cassie's husband? You remember Saryn, right?"
He rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, very funny, Ash."
"Mirine's the Pink Ranger," she continued, but he could hear the smirk in her voice. "She's Saryn's sister. You met her the Christmas before last."
"She's listing Cassie's 'friends' for me," he told the others, while Ashley dragged out the explanation for the sole purpose of making fun of him. "Saryn, Red, Mirine, Pink. Soon she'll tell us something we don't know. I hope," he added, for Ashley's benefit.
"Hey, you asked!" Ashley reminded him. But she relented, and, in quick succession, listed off the rest of the team. "The Blue Ranger is Kyril, Green is Raine, and Yellow is Azmuth."
"Okay, go back." He pointed at TJ. "You remember Kyril. He's Blue. Karen, Raine is Green. Remember that." His finger skipped to Tessa, and he added, "Azmuth is Yellow. Did I get them all?"
"Yes," Ashley answered. "Raine and Azmuth have a daughter, too. Zelashei."
"Excuse me," Carlos said--very politely, he thought. "Do they know my brother's name? Because if not, I'm pretty sure I don't have to know their children's names." He frowned, and before she could answer he continued, "Besides, that wasn't two syllables."
"Well, I think it's Eltaran," Ashley said with an audible grin. "So it's okay."
Carlos just shook his head. "Yeah, sure. So we'll meet you there in a few hours?"
"I'll be there," Ashley agreed. "Call me!"
"We will." They said goodbye, and he glanced around the table again as he lowered his phone. "Okay, so who remembers their name?"
"Kyril is Blue," TJ put in good-naturedly. "So that's Saryn, Mirine, and Kyril..."
"Raine is Green," Karen added. "Which is confusing, because you'd think rain would be blue."
"Don't say things like that," Carlos told her. "It only makes it worse."
"Azmuth is Yellow," Tessa offered. "That's easy, at least. Azmuth, Ashley. Yellow."
"See," Carlos told Karen. "She's useful."
"Saryn, Mirine, Kyril, Raine, and Azmuth," Aura repeated easily. "Red, Pink, Blue, Green, and Yellow." She lifted her right hand to gesture idly as she spoke--or apparently idly. Carlos caught the movement out of the corner of his eye: You complain too much.
"I saw that," he told her. He tapped two fingers against the palm of his other hand. Brat. It wasn't an exact translation, but it was definitely an insult. She mimicked the gesture back at him.
"Did we miss something?" Karen wanted to know, looking from one to the other.
"Aura's making fun of me," Carlos complained.
"Carlos is calling me names," Aura countered, and her inflection was so close to his that he grinned. She had obviously been to one too many family dinners at his house.
Immersion. Definitely.
"So," TJ said, resting his elbows on the table as he leaned in. He managed to make it look natural, like just a part of the conversation. "Are we going now? It's a long trip, and the sooner we get started the sooner we can be there."
"I can't," Tessa said regretfully. "I'm sorry, guys, but I have an exam today and a lab I can't make up. It's not that I don't want to go..."
"We know," TJ promised. "Don't worry about it. We'll tell Cassie--we'll even call you from there as soon as we know anything."
"I can not accompany you either," Aura said with a sigh. "Delphinius and I are scheduled to perform an air show, the audience for which was invited long ago. I must attend."
"Air show" had military connotations on both Earth and Aquitar, but Carlos had seen Aura fly before and the phrase didn't do it justice. "Don't forget to record it for me," he told her, and she smiled slightly.
"Well, I'm going," Karen announced to the group at large. "I've never been to--" She caught herself just in time. "This place, before, and I'm not missing it for anything."
Trying to find a way to tease Karen about her alien obsession again, Carlos didn't realize TJ was looking at him for a long moment. When he did notice the inquiring look, he leaned forward. "I'm going," he said firmly. "My classes can do without me for a day."
"Another day," Aura corrected, and he flashed the sign for "funny" at her.
True, she gestured in return, and he didn't answer. It was true, after all. He skipped too many classes. Some professors were more lenient because of his "fame," and some were actually more demanding because of it. He tried to keep his priorities straight. He didn't usually succeed, but he tried.
"Okay then," TJ was saying. "Let's meet at my place in... say, forty minutes. One o'clock." Tapping the wrist with his morpher on it, he added, "Don't forget your passports."
It wasn't that he took space for granted. It was more that he didn't live there anymore, and his life on Earth kept taking precedence over anything that was happening offworld. It wasn't that way with Carlos, for obvious reasons. And Tessa had an insatiable curiosity about everything from extrasolar atmospheres to intergalactic politics. But for TJ, school and work took up so much of his time that his zord hadn't been out of drydock in months.
He had forgotten how impressive an alien planet could look as it filled the forward viewscreen of the V3 cockpit. He was a little fuzzy on appropriate comm procedures in someone else's airspace. And though he remembered that zords had right of way no matter what the situation, he wasn't entirely clear on where it was and was not polite to "park" them.
Fortunately, one of the Elisian Rangers responded as soon as they made their presence known, and she guided them down. Raine, he decided, since it was a distinctly female voice and he thought he would have recognized Mirine, even over the comm. But wasn't she supposed to be with Cassie?
The three zords descended on the planet together, skipping across a low orbit and following the approach vector issued by whoever was waiting for them at the Ranger compound. TJ couldn't help being surprised by the barrenness of the land as it rushed up to greet them. He had heard Cassie's descriptions of the place, and more than once, but somehow the vague image his mind had generated bore little resemblance to reality.
It was, he thought, rather like flying in across mountainous parts of the southwest. Except that there weren't any real mountains. There also weren't any signs of habitation, aside from the ever present comm traffic and the occasional blip of atmospheric travel on his scanners. The vegetation was dry and land-colored, difficult to distinguish at any kind of speed, and settlements, towns, cities... all were apparently scattered and sparse, if they existed at all.
It was like a ghost town, he thought. A planet-sized ghost town.
Their first view of the Ranger compound did little to dispel that impression. A cluster of small, hunched buildings on the edge of a town that deserved the name only by comparison, none of them looked even as big as the house he shared with Max. The Mega Vs were barely in their shadow as the zords touched down, coming to rest a short distance away.
The heat was the first thing to hit him when he teleported out. He'd thought he was ready for it, after Saryn's warnings and Cassie's repeated complaints. But he wasn't ready for it to engulf him, heavy despite its incredible dryness, pressing in on him and making his breath come just a little harder.
"Now this is heat," Karen said, voicing his own thoughts even as a figure waved to them from the gate ahead. "This must be what the Sahara is like. In the summer. At noontime."
"I thought California was dry," Carlos grumbled under his breath. "No wonder Aura wouldn't come. The air show was just a convenient excuse."
"Guys," TJ warned, as they approached the gate. Between the two of them, he knew it wouldn't be long before he was missing Tessa's calming presence. At the very least, she was one more person to help dilute their sarcasm.
Before he could say anything else, though, the woman at the gate waved them in. She didn't step out of the shade herself, he noticed, and he was a little relieved to think that perhaps even the natives were wary of this heat. The "gate" consisted of a covered access between two buildings that appeared to let into a courtyard on the opposite side... and the temperature drop was noticeable as they joined her under the roof.
"Greetings," she offered, her face neutral but not unfriendly. "I welcome you to Elisia. My name is Azmuth. I understand that you are friends of Cassie's."
"Yes," TJ agreed. Azmuth. The Yellow Ranger? Why had he expected her to be a him? "I'm TJ Carter. This is Carlos Vargas, and Karen Carista. Carlos and I were Astro Rangers with Cassie."
"So I've heard," Azmuth said, inclining her head slightly. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. May I offer you something to eat or drink before we go on to the health center?"
TJ hesitated only long enough to glance at Carlos and Karen before shaking his head. "Thank you," he said, "but no. I think we're all set."
Azmuth smiled, just a little. "In that case, I wonder if you would indulge my daughter by greeting her in the common room before we leave? I do not wish to presume upon your time, but she is very eager to meet more humans."
TJ blinked, but before he could answer he heard Karen laugh. "Believe me, I totally understand," she assured Azmuth. "We'd love to meet her."
"You have my appreciation," Azmuth said, the smile lingering on her face as she bowed her head again.
TJ exchanged glances with Carlos as they followed Karen and Azmuth into one of the buildings that formed half the gate. Daughter? he mouthed. Carlos just shrugged.
It occurred to him once they were already inside that they should have asked Azmuth--while they still had the chance--whether there was anything they should know about greeting an alien child. Tessa would have remembered to ask. She was, in fact, the only reason he thought of it at all. But it was too late now, and he could only hope they didn't shock the kid in some unforeseeable way.
"Hello," Karen was saying cheerfully, not waiting to be introduced.
There was a man sitting at a table in the middle of the room, though he got to his feet as soon as they entered. A child--not much more than a toddler, TJ thought--was staring wide-eyed at Karen while Azmuth gestured for her to come forward. "Shei," she said, "Cassie's friends have stopped to meet you on their way to the health center."
The little girl sidled forward without taking her eyes off of Karen.
"This is Karen Carista," Azmuth said, indicating each of them in turn. "Her friends are TJ Carter and Carlos Vargas. This," she added, gaze sliding across Karen to TJ and Carlos, "is my daughter, Zelashei, and her current babysitter, Nen."
"Good afternoon," he said, sounding amused and welcoming at the same time. "I do have other responsibilities, but none quite so pressing as the care of Shei."
Azmuth smiled, but didn't reply as she watched Karen address Zelashei. "Nice to meet you," she was saying, already down on one knee as she cocked her head at the girl. "Your mom says you want to meet more humans."
The child just stared at her, her eyes so big they took up half of her face. Karen continued, unfazed by her lack of response. "That's pretty lucky, because I want to meet more people that aren't humans!"
The little girl opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked quickly at her mom. She sidled a little closer to Azmuth, then, apparently reassured, she squeaked, "Why?"
Karen grinned, clearly delighted. "Well, I'm an alien to you, right?"
Zelashei hesitated, as though it might be a trick question. After a moment, though, she nodded once. She looked at her mom again, but Azmuth just smiled.
"You're an alien to me," Karen told her. "Just like I am to you. And I want to meet more aliens, just like you."
"There aren't many aliens on our planet," Carlos added, smiling at the little girl. "Back home, all we see are people just like us. We have to go other places to see people that are different."
"You're lucky to have so many people like that here," Karen agreed solemnly.
Zelashei just stared at her. It was hard to say whether she understood what they were talking about or not. Azmuth put a hand on her head, gently, catching Nen's eye as she did so. "Thank you for watching her," she said. "We will contact you from the health center with news."
Nen inclined his head politely, but his words were considerably less formal than hers. "We'll be waiting," he answered good-naturedly.
"It was nice to meet you," TJ offered, and he saw Carlos lift a hand in acknowledgement.
"And you," Nen answered with a smile
Karen smiled at Nen, but her words were clearly directed at Zelashei. "See you later," she told the girl. She received a silent, wide-eyed stare in return.
When they were outside again, Azmuth lead the way across the gate and into the next building. Over her shoulder, she offered, "She is actually quite communicative with people she knows, a category in which I am sure you will be included the next time she encounters you. It might be wise to be prepared."
Karen just laughed. "I look forward to it," she assured Azmuth.
They were ushered into a vehicle that didn't, as far as TJ could see, touch the ground. Carlos was unfazed, but Karen exclaimed over it as they settled into the circular interior compartment, and TJ tried not to look too closely. Azmuth showed Karen how to operate it, but claimed the trip wasn't long enough for her to try the controls herself.
Though they seemed to be slowing down even as she said it, Carlos smirked at Karen. "No trip is long enough for me to trust your driving in this heat. The last thing I want is to have to get out and walk."
"Which is precisely why we took the hover," Azmuth interjected smoothly. "In the early morning or evening, it would be typical to walk. The subter access is not far enough from the compound to be an inconvenience."
"Sutter access?" TJ repeated, looking around to see if the others had gotten it.
"Subterranean access," Azmuth elaborated. She paused a moment, then added, "Cassie says you call them... subroads? Subways?"
"Subways," Carlos agreed. "So we'll take the subway to the hospital?"
"Indeed," Azmuth said, as the hover settled into what looked like a covered parking lot. "It is not far."
TJ saw Karen poke Carlos as they piled out of the hover. "Health center," she reminded him, and he nudged her right back.
"Same thing," he muttered--maybe too quiet for Azmuth to hear, maybe not.
The "subway" impression lasted up until the moment they actually made their way down the stairs and the underground world opened up around them. It was as colorful and noisy as the land above wasn't, full of activity and the people that had seemed all but absent during their zord flyby. There were lights running in all directions, the rumble of conversation overlapping conversation, and pedestrians hurrying, sauntering, or just dawdling past the stairs that didn't seem to lead anywhere but here.
There was no subway, he realized, as Azmuth simply began walking and apparently expected them to follow. It really was a "subterranean access," in the sense that it led underground and where you went from there was up to you. How far did these tunnels go? Was the word "tunnel" really appropriate when there seemed to be storefronts, gathering places, and possibly even residences everywhere he turned?
The lights were dimmed but still present when the first skylights appeared overhead, and TJ saw Karen and Carlos conferring hastily as they all hurried after Azmuth. He didn't fall back to join them, sensitive to the "us" and "them" image they might convey, but he agreed silently with their frantic whispers. This wasn't just an easy way to get places when the surface was unbearably hot. This was an underground city.
It took longer than he had expected to reach the health center. It might have been because they were walking, or it might have been because everyone seemed to look up and stare as they passed--he wasn't sure whether passersby were reacting to Azmuth's presence or their own, but he was pretty sure everyone didn't rate a second look. Maybe he had just gotten too used to the anonymity of being a Ranger on Earth.
The health center, too, was underground. Or at least, the entrance was underground. By the time they were inside, and Azmuth had talked her way past several checkpoints--whether they were there for security purposes or just a way of getting directions, TJ couldn't tell--they had climbed several flights of stairs. And they hadn't been that far down to begin with. He was just waiting for a close look out one of the windows.
Before he got one, they rounded a corner and found themselves in the middle of an open but surprisingly quiet gathering place. It couldn't really be called a waiting room, since there weren't any walls, but the furniture was arranged in a vaguely circular pattern and it seemed to face inward rather than out. Multiple hallways and a couple of secure-looking doors seemed to feed into the area. Despite its apparently central location, they were the only visitors save one--
"Ashley!" Carlos exclaimed, followed quickly by Karen's squeal of surprise.
Blonde-streaked curls swirled around yellow-clad shoulders as the room's lone occupant spun around. "Hey!" She was on her feet faster than he could follow, throwing her arms around Carlos with the same speed and enthusiasm he remembered from high school.
"How long have you been here?" Carlos asked, hugging her back and not letting her go while he fired question after question at her. "How are you? Where are the others? How's Cassie? What did you do to your hair?"
Karen laughed, patting Ashley's shoulder while she accused, "Carlos, you sound just like a girl!"
That made Ashley laugh too, and she let go of Carlos abruptly to hug Karen. "I'm so glad to see you guys!" Karen's hug ended much more quickly than Carlos', and it was TJ's turn.
"We missed you," he told her, squeezing her hard before letting go. "How's KO-35? Have things settled down at all since Christmas?"
Ashley wrinkled her nose, and the expression was so familiar that he could almost ignore what she was wearing. She had been dressed in regular clothes when she came to visit over the holidays, but now she was clearly wearing a uniform of some sort. Her yellow shirt had a multi-colored pawprint that might have been her team logo and her digimorpher was clipped prominently at her waist.
"It's worse," she told him, with a smile but no laugh. Serious, then. "Much worse. KO-35's been attacked several times, we think quantrons are after one of us in particular but we're not sure which one, Ty brought Dark Spectre down on our doorstep, and on top of it all we have a reporter following us around all day, every day.
"How are things with you?" she added brightly. It was hard to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not, but knowing Ashley, she probably wasn't.
"Better," Carlos said, imitating her tone. "Much better!"
Ashley laughed, hugging him again. Even for Ashley, TJ thought, that was excessive hugging. She must be more stressed than she was letting on... of course, who wouldn't be with everything she had just thrown at them? His brain hadn't actually processed all of that yet.
"And what did you do to your hair?" Carlos was repeating. "It wasn't that light at Christmas!"
"Yes, it was," Ashley informed him. "You just didn't notice. I don't know; it just happens on KO-35. I think it's something about the sun. The more I'm outside, the more I get the streaky native look."
"Hello, important things," Karen interrupted. "KO-35 was attacked? Quantrons are after you? I thought Dark Spectre was after all of the Turbo Rangers. How's Cassie?" she added belatedly.
"I will investigate," Azmuth offered. "May I assume that Saryn and Raine are still with her?" she asked Ashley.
Ashley nodded. "Raine came out a little while ago, but she said she was going to call you...?"
"She did," Azmuth assured her. "If you have not seen her since, I will attempt to obtain a more current update. I will return shortly."
"Thanks, Azmuth," Ashley said warmly. "Tell Cassie that Carlos and TJ are here, okay? And Karen? Just so she knows."
Azmuth inclined her head. "I will, of course."
As she left, TJ asked quietly, "How's Cassie doing, last you knew? The twins?"
"Good," Ashley said, and the response was gratifyingly quick. But her clarification made him worry. "Cassie's doing well. I guess it's not so strange for her to be in preterm labor with twins. She and Raine have been tracking the weeks in Earth time, and she's only about four weeks early."
"Isn't a month kind of a lot?" Karen asked bluntly. "I mean, I'm glad Cassie's okay, but what about the babies?"
"Raine's not so worried about them being early." Ashley was calm, not fidgety even when there was concern in her eyes. She was more self-possessed than she had looked when she threw herself at Carlos, TJ realized. "I guess one of them's upside-down--breech?--and she's not sure Cassie will be able to deliver them both normally."
"But they're all right otherwise?" TJ wanted to know. "She was worried that the dimensional shifting might have hurt them somehow."
"I know, but I don't know." Ashley gave a small smile for the contradiction. "I don't think anyone knows if JT's dimension did something to them or not. Right now I think she and Saryn just want to see them so much... it almost doesn't matter."
Almost. Just the word made them all pause. Because it did matter. He knew it, Ashley knew it... they all knew it, but no one would say it aloud.
"Her labor is progressing well," Azmuth was telling the holographic comm screen in the middle of the room. "Dara feels that her condition is within that of human norms, and Raine agrees that she and the twins seem as well as can be expected."
"And Saryn?" Nen asked, with a quirk of his lips. Shei was standing on a chair beside him, clinging to his arm as she studied the screen intently.
Ashley glanced back at Azmuth, saw her smile. "Saryn is emotionally unstable, as one might expect in such a situation. But he has managed to retain enough control that Dara has allowed him to stay with Cassie, and he is dulling her pain levels considerably."
"She'll thank him later," Nen remarked blithely. It wasn't entirely clear whether he meant Dara or Cassie. Ashley knew that Cassie's midwife had originally told Saryn that, because of his empathy, he couldn't be there during the delivery. She must have changed her mind--or had it changed for her.
"I will contact you if anything changes," Azmuth was saying. "Visitors to the health center are being carefully screened, so I probably will not leave unless it is necessary."
Ashley had wondered about that. She had been asked for her Ranger ID before being admitted, but she had thought maybe it was just because she looked alien. Why was a hospital screening people as they came in?
As soon as the link was terminated, though, Karen jumped in and Ashley didn't get a chance to ask. "We promised Tessa we'd call her when we got here," she told Azmuth. "Can we do that from here?"
"Of course. All visitor comms at Sylvan are hyperboosted," Azmuth told her. "As long as the relays around Earth are working properly, there should be no difficulty."
Karen didn't look like that meant anything to her, but she took her place in front of the comm screen anyway. "So," she said, looking from it to them. "What do I do?"
Azmuth gave her an odd look, but Carlos leaned over her shoulder and ran his finger through the screen. The display brought up a "code connect" message. He traced the signal as far as the relays would go, and then he repeated the Hammonds comm code from memory. Ashley smiled a little at TJ's surprised expression.
Karen just watched curiously, then nodded in satisfaction when a yellow Astro symbol appeared on the screen. "You'll have to teach me how to do that," she remarked.
"And we should change that ID screen," Ashley murmured. "That's your symbol, now."
Karen waved it off. "How do I leave a message?" she wanted to know. "Can I just--?" She pointed at the little "connect" in the bottom right corner, and Ashley nodded at the same time Carlos did.
"My parents won't even hear it unless they're in the room," she offered. "Just push that and treat it like voice mail. They'll get it later and call Tessa."
"Just don't--" Carlos paused, catching Ashley's eye with a grin. "Don't say anything you wouldn't want them overhearing, obviously."
She bit her lip, trying not to smile. "Yeah. That's what the dojo comm is for."
"Or Tommy," Carlos added. They traded knowing glances, the only two here who were regularly off planet. "If it's really important."
"I thought we just called you if it was really important," Ashley teased. She had gotten his cell's comm code from DECA, and now that she had it, she was going to make him regret it.
"Wouldn't do much good this time," Carlos said wryly.
"Hi," Karen told the screen, clearly delighted by the entire situation. "It's Karen, and guess where I'm calling from! Elisia! This is very cool," she confided, to a screen that still displayed Ashley's old Ranger logo.
"Can they see me?" she added, twisting to look over her shoulder. Carlos nodded, and Karen just kept grinning. "Sweet," she declared, turning back to the screen.
"So yeah, here I am, in an Elisian hospital, with Carlos and TJ and Ashley. We're here because Cassie's in labor, and we wanted to let you know that everything's going all right so far. And also, could you call Tessa and tell her?" Karen rattled off Tessa's university phone number, and Ashley's smile faded thoughtfully.
Karen knew phone numbers the way she and Carlos knew comm codes. It wasn't that they knew more--although, Carlos probably did--just that they knew differently. She was surprised and maybe a little saddened to realize how quickly she had become an "offworlder"... and without even noticing when it had happened.
"Also," Karen continued, "tell her that she doesn't know what she's missing! Wow! This place is like... I don't know. It's like an old west town, sitting on top of an underground Mall of America. It's crazy. I'm not letting her skip out on the next field trip just for some exam!"
She clapped her hand over her mouth, then said sheepishly, "Um, don't tell my parents I said that, okay? Or hers. In fact, pretend I didn't say it at all!" Karen smiled brightly at the screen, then added, "Thanks for calling her. We'll keep you up to date!"
There was a pause, and then she asked, "How do I stop it? Oh, 'finish'?" She touched the "finish" part of the screen, and the logo winked out. "Cool!"
"How does it know to label the buttons in English?" TJ asked.
"The comm at the other end has a database of Earth languages," Ashley offered. She had helped set it up so that she could explain it to her parents. "It recognizes where it is, so if you moved it, say to another planet, its default database would be different. I think."
"We programmed it that way," Carlos told Karen.
"Right," Ashley agreed, wrinkling her nose at him. "That's what I meant."
"If there is nothing else I can assist you with at the moment," Azmuth remarked, "I will excuse myself to locate lunch for Raine. She has not eaten since this morning, and she requested something energizing and unhealthy."
"Can I come?" Karen asked eagerly. "I'd like to see more of this place! Unless I'd be in your way," she added.
"Not at all," Azmuth replied. "You are all welcome, should you so choose."
Ashley looked at Carlos, caught his eye, and they both looked at TJ. She shook her head just as TJ said, "I think we'll stay here and catch up."
Ashley smiled to herself. Once a team leader, always a team leader... and TJ had always read their minds just as easily as Andros. More easily, sometimes, since Andros' own issues often kept him from being in tune with the rest of the team--not that they weren't all guilty of that, lately.
She sighed without meaning to. When she caught Karen looking at her she added, "Bring me back some coffee if you find any, okay?" She was only half-joking, but it was hard to tell whether Karen could tell or not.
"Sure thing!" Karen agreed, practically bouncing out of the room after Azmuth.
Bouncing? Ashley's smile returned. Wasn't that her job? Maybe there really was something to the idea that Ranger colors were associated with personality. Funny, though, she'd never thought of Karen as particularly cheery or playful. It must have something to do with being surrounded by aliens.
"She loves this," Carlos muttered, echoing her thoughts as Karen and Azmuth disappeared. "That woman is obsessed with aliens."
TJ gave him a neutral look. "You should talk," he pointed out, a hint of amusement in his voice.
Carlos' mouth opened, but he couldn't seem to find a reply to that. "Okay," he said after a moment, a grin tugging at his lips. "Maybe I deserved that. But," and he stressed the word, "I'd still be dating Aura if she was human! Karen would talk to piranhatron if she understood their language, just because they're 'aliens'."
"How is Aura?" Ashley wanted to know. It had been one thing after another on KO-35, and she hadn't talked to anyone but her parents since... well, since she had left after New Years, actually.
"Aura's great," Carlos told her. He was perfectly willing to be diverted but not about to give up the floor. "Cetaci, on the other hand, is making my life hell."
"He's been saying that for weeks," TJ put in.
"That's because she's been doing it for weeks!" Carlos retorted. "What, did she take a class in how to drive everyone around her crazy?"
"Did she need to?" TJ countered with a grin.
Carlos rolled his eyes, muttering, "She could teach that class." He caught Ashley's eye and added, "Cetaci has decided that I need to know better Aquitian."
Ashley blinked. "What?"
"The language," Carlos said with a sigh. "She thinks my language skills suck, which they do, and that she's the best person to fix them, which she isn't. Even close."
"I thought humans couldn't speak Aquitian," Ashley said, looking to TJ for support. He just shrugged, but Carlos raised an eyebrow at her.
"Which one?" he said pointedly. "Some of them, no. Some of them yes. I can't talk underwater. And my accent will never be anything but human, as Cetaci is so fond of reminding me. But some of the spoken languages aren't impossible. Aura's been trying to teach me hers... unfortunately for me, all of the other Rangers know it too."
"So he and Aura started signing instead, which means the rest of us never have any idea what they're talking about," TJ continued. "But at least it's quieter."
"Believe me, I don't practice Aquitian on campus anymore," Carlos said dryly. "I learned my lesson after that whole 'spy' incident at the restaurant. People don't notice the signing as much."
"Plus Cetaci doesn't know it," TJ told Ashley with a grin. "So she can't correct him when he uses it."
"It's my only revenge," Carlos complained. "Everyone on the team signs, at least a little--except for Cetaci. It drives her nuts that I can understand things she can't."
"Which probably makes her correct you even more when you talk," Ashley guessed, giggling when Carlos sighed. "Maybe she wouldn't be so horrible to you if you didn't egg her on."
"She started it," Carlos declared. "I didn't just wake up one morning and ask myself, 'how can I annoy Cetaci today?'"
"He didn't used to," TJ amended. "Now he does."
Carlos shrugged, but he didn't contradict TJ. "I'm just doing Delphinius a favor," he said instead. "It gives Cetaci someone else to infuriate in her spare time. We spread her wrath around."
"You wouldn't think a team could function with a leader that moody," TJ offered with a grin.
"Or you would if you'd never worked with Andros," Ashley pointed out with a laugh.
"Ah, but Andros was just sullen." TJ waved one finger at her. "He wasn't angry."
"Wasn't he?" Ashley tried to remember. Before the attacks, before the Council... before Zhane, and Ty, and the quest that had just been the last straw for their already frayed relationship. Lately Andros seemed to swing between morose and volatile, and unfortunately the mood of the team changed with him.
"Ash..." TJ was frowning at her, a worried look that reminded her of the way he used to protect all of the Turbo Rangers. "What's going on with you two?"
She hesitated, tempted--just for a moment--to tell him everything and turn over all responsibility to her friends. To tell him that Andros wasn't who she'd thought he was, that one of her teammates had almost destroyed everything she knew, that she didn't know what she could count on anymore. That she missed the days when evil alien invasions were all she had to worry about.
It was what she would have done in high school. Gone to her friends, to her teammates, expecting sympathy and support and knowing she wouldn't be disappointed. But now... there was no way to explain the entire situation, from the Council to Kristet to Ty and everything he had or did represent on the team. And that wasn't even the worst part.
The worst part was that even if she could explain it all, she wasn't at all sure what their reaction would be. Cassie was sympathetic... but she had been startled first, and Ashley couldn't blame her. Jeff was sympathetic, but only because she was his sister. And because he lived with people he affectionately termed "freaks."
Was that what she was now? A freak? No one on the Kerovan team seemed to think so. But she was pretty sure they were biased, since they were pretty much all involved in the same issue.
"Ash?" Carlos prompted. He was starting to look worried, too, and she smiled quickly. "You all right? Is there anything we can do? Someone we can beat up, at least?"
She laughed aloud at that. "I have a whole team of big brothers," she mused, looking from one to the other from under her eyelashes. "I don't think I should tell any of you a single thing about my love life. It might make me an accomplice."
"Aha!" Carlos pounced. "So there is someone who needs straightening out. Come on, just tell us who. We promise no one will be able to trace it back to you."
"Andros?" TJ guessed. "Want us to have a little talk with him about the way we expect him to treat Earth girls?"
"I think Jeff's already done that," Ashley said, rolling her eyes. "Two or three times. But thanks for the offer."
"That's what we're here for," Carlos said darkly. "You just say the word."
"In the meantime," TJ added, mercifully changing the subject, "tell us about these attacks. You said you think Dark Spectre's behind them? What's he doing now?"
"What isn't he doing," Ashley said with a sigh. She was both relieved and disappointed to get back to a subject as mundane as... well, evil alien invasion. Again. Just like in high school.
Except that, between Kristet and the Council, she was pretty sure she got up earlier now than she had in high school. And all her closest friends were dating each other. Note-taking was done in front of cameras... gossip these days involved more aliens than humans... and "playing hooky" meant taking a zord and going to another planet.
She really hoped Karen found that coffee.
fin