Disclaimer: "I think I might stick around, earthbound..." It's a Rodney Crowell song. I like it. I also like soap bubbles, puppet shows, and juggling beach balls. A black and white picture on a keychain: sisters forever! Buena Vista owns the Power Rangers.
by Starhawk
"It's weird, right?"
She glanced over at Carlos, smiling at his relaxed posture. Sprawled on his back in the prickly grass, he had his hands behind his head as he stared up into the canopy. He returned her look almost immediately, nodding as though she had answered his question. "Hearing them talk about school and work and not a single word about Eltare's latest edict or who won the interstellar races last weekend."
Funny that he could still read her so well after not having seen her for months. She was struck by the thought that--for just a moment--he reminded her of Zhane. Even the way he was lying on the ground, while she sat carefully near one of the less exotic trees... She had once thought of her Kerovan teammates as substitutes for her Earth friends, and here she was comparing them in the opposite light.
"Who did win?" Ashley asked curiously. "We've been too busy to catch the news these past few days."
"Triforia," Carlos answered with a grimace. "Of course. I had a bet with Aura on Eltare, and she hasn't stopped gloating since I lost."
Ashley smiled again. "Sometimes," she said before she could stop herself, "you guys make the rest of our relationships look happy and peaceful."
She knew it had been the wrong thing to say when Carlos turned his head toward hers. "Ash," he said seriously. "If you're having problems on KO-35, I hope you'd tell us. Tell me, at least. You can always come home. You're not committed just because you have a morpher."
"But what if--" She stopped, realizing what she'd been about to say.
"What if what?" Carlos wanted to know.
She tilted her head a little, thinking about it. "I almost said, what if home is where the problems are," she said slowly. "It's funny, but... Earth doesn't seem so much like home, now. Is that strange?"
"No," Carlos answered without hesitation. "I know what you mean. Home isn't home for me anymore either. It's just this place I go to visit. I don't really feel like I live anywhere right now, to tell you the truth. One night on campus, two nights on Aquitar, a day visiting with my family... which one is home? None of them, really."
"I guess I think of KO-35 as my home now," she mused. "Even with the hangar gone, and all of us living on the Megaship. I haven't thought about going back to Earth for... weeks, I guess."
Carlos gave her a sharp look. "What did you do to the hangar?"
"We sort of destroyed it?" Catching sight of his expression, she couldn't help but giggle. "Well, we didn't destroy it. The quantrons did. But either way it's kind of a mess right now."
"This is Ty's fault?" Carlos guessed. "You said he brought the quantrons down on you--what happened? Are you okay?"
"We're staying on the Megaship," she told him. "We're okay, we were just taken by surprise. And it wasn't really his fault. Dark Spectre basically brainwashed him."
"Excuse me," Carlos interrupted. "Dark Spectre again? I thought the dimension shifting thing was bad enough. Do we really have to hear his name in connection with brainwashing, too?"
"Sorry," Ashley said with a laugh. She felt a little guilty for laughing, but they weren't on KO-35. And she was with Carlos. The Turbos had joked about villains all the time, and it hadn't meant that they took them any less seriously.
Of course, she admitted to herself, maybe Divatox had been a little easier to make fun of than the average evil alien.
"Is it just that?" Carlos asked abruptly. He was still studying her. "Just the quantrons, and Dark Spectre, and your inexperienced teammate screwing up at inconvenient times? Cause it sounded like you might be upset about something else, earlier."
She didn't correct his assumption about Ty, and it surprised her to realize why. Ty's problems were personal, a team affair... and it was odd to think that, in some things at least, her loyalty was now to him before Carlos. It occurred to her just then that part of her reluctance to tell him about Andros and Zhane was due to that same loyalty.
No, she didn't want him to get angry about Andros and go make trouble. No, she didn't want him to look at her strangely. No, she didn't want him to go through all the stages that she'd already been through, because she'd been through them and what she wanted now was for someone to start from the same level of acceptance she was at and just give her advice from there.
But at the same time... part of her mind whispered that it was none of his business. Which was ridiculous, because he was one of her best friends, and he had been her best friend for longer than she had even known Andros--let alone Zhane. But he wasn't a teammate anymore.
Did the Power really divide the world up that way? Did it really bring people together, deepening or even creating bonds where none had existed before? It was something Zhane would have thought about, she decided with a sigh. She would rather not, since she suspected there would be something depressing about it if she looked too closely.
"Ash?" Carlos prompted.
"No," she said quickly. "There's nothing else. It's just been crazy lately, and we've all been so busy that sometimes we don't have time for each other, let alone ourselves. I guess it gets a little lonely sometimes."
"So you and Andros are okay?" he pressed. "Did you make up or whatever after Christmas? You never did tell me why he wasn't with you."
"Because he was busy," she insisted with a half-smile. "You didn't tell me what you said about Aura's boyfriend, either."
"Actually I did," Carlos replied ruefully. "When I said I didn't know why she was hanging out with lowlife scum like Cen? That was a direct quote."
She couldn't help giggling. "What did Aura say to that?"
Carlos scowled. "Can we talk about something else? I was trying to interrogate you, not the other way around."
"Why don't we just agree not to talk about Aura or Andros," Ashley suggested. "I promise," she added, "if there were any real problems, I would tell you." As much as you tell me about Aura, she added silently.
He gave her a sideways look, almost as though he had heard what she didn't say, but he nodded once. "Deal," he agreed. There was a pause. "So, about Karen."
She laughed, but he persisted. "No, I'm serious. She wants out, and I was wondering how you felt about having her visit on KO-35 for a while. This summer, maybe... she hasn't actually asked, but I thought I'd mention it to you before I suggested it to her."
Ashley considered as many different possible meanings as she could, and finally she just asked. "What do you mean, she wants out? She wants to travel? She has a Mega V. She can go anywhere she wants."
"Please don't tell her that," Carlos said with a sigh. "Because she will, and god knows what kind of trouble she'll get into. The only thing that's keeping her on Earth now is her conviction that the universe is an unpredictable and sometimes unwelcoming place. If she knew she could show up anywhere with a Ranger uniform and get whatever she wanted, she would have been gone a long time ago."
"Gone?" Ashley repeated. "You mean she wants to go places, or she wants to leave? She doesn't want to leave Earth permanently, does she?"
Carlos hesitated just long enough for Ashley to understand that yes, in fact she might. She supposed she couldn't blame her for that. She had left Earth for a person, not a place, but then... Karen obviously had a better imagination than she did. Ashley had given KO-35 up once before, and she didn't think she could do it again.
"I don't know," Carlos said at last. "She really, really likes aliens. Not even any aliens specifically, but the idea of aliens. The idea of space. The idea that Earth is just this one little speck in the cosmos. I try not to think about it, and she lies awake at night wondering what it all means."
"I thought that was more Tessa's thing," Ashley remarked, amused.
"You'd think, wouldn't you," Carlos agreed. "Karen's weird."
He didn't elaborate, didn't say anything about his feelings on the matter or how he knew or what Karen might or might not have said to anyone else. And Ashley didn't ask. She just thought about it, wondering if she could help another person find her way on a planet she was only just getting to know herself.
"Sure," she said at last. "Karen's welcome to visit any time. KO-35's not exactly the safest planet in the League right now, though... I don't know if it will be better or worse by summertime."
"You're there," Carlos reminded her.
She opened her mouth to protest, then decided that saying "I have to be" wasn't exactly what she meant. "Yeah," she said instead. Karen was a Ranger now. She had at least a vague idea of the difference between "safe" and "unsafe," and how relative those terms really were.
"You're right," she said with a sigh, suddenly aware how hypocritical that warning had sounded. "I wouldn't tell her not to come just because we could be attacked at any time."
"Just like high school," Carlos said with a grin. "Maybe she'll get a taste of what we went through."
Ashley looked over at him. "You think she'd want to fight?" she wondered. "When you say 'visit,' what do you mean, exactly?"
Carlos shrugged. "I said I didn't mention it to her. And she hasn't asked me about it. I don't know what she wants to do, or even if she wants to go. I just thought I'd run it by you first, see what you thought about it."
Ashley considered that. "I think I'd love to show her around. I think we can always use another Ranger, so if she wants to fight, she can. And... you know, if she wants to stay for a long time, like a few months or something, there are places she could go on KO-35 where she could live or work for a while or whatever. She wouldn't have to stay with us the whole time."
"Yeah?" Carlos caught her eye. "That's good to know. Aquitar has some volunteer and work-to-live programs too, but I don't think she's too excited about the whole water thing. She likes the 'aliens,' but the environment kind of throws her."
"I can't imagine why," Ashley teased. "You're lucky you're such a good swimmer."
"I think I'm the slowest person on the planet," he countered. "It's impossible to get anywhere on time without a diver."
"You think you're slow?" she said with a laugh. "At least you can use a diver. I'm still learning to drive a hover! And currency is terrible. Since we don't actually earn money, I don't have anything to compare prices to."
Carlos gave her a surprised look. "Do you have to pay for things?"
"No, but I don't like to ask for really expensive things," she confessed. "And Kerone is no help. I made Ty teach me something about prices, but he's been on agrec for months so he thinks everything's expensive. Or useless.
"He's not really a good person to shop with," she added, rolling her eyes. "He and Kerone are the shopping extremes. She comes back with everything, he comes back with nothing. Zhane is better, but he's been--" She stopped abruptly. "Busy, lately."
"Aura's selective," Carlos remarked, not seeming to notice her hesitation. "She thinks a lot of things are boring, but if there's something she wants? She wants the best one. She'll go to the other side of the planet, interrogate every person she can find, and then insist on trying all of them out. Extensively. If she wasn't so cute, it'd be embarrassing."
Ashley giggled. "Andros does that to Marsie too! He has to try out every kind of fighter in the PD, every weapon the militia might possibly use, and he just shows up whenever it's convenient for him. 'Hey, can I try that blaster?' 'Um, I'm kind of in the middle of something here.' 'This will only take a minute.' And they let him! They just hand it over, he destroys a few things, and then he's happy."
"And he goes off to try someone else's," Carlos finished for her. "Yeah, I know that attitude."
Ashley tried to picture Aura bossing soldiers around the way Andros did. It wasn't very hard. She was sure Carlos didn't have any trouble imagining Andros in the same situation. They exchanged grins.
Exclamations from the path drew her attention next, making her look up and around as she realized that everyone in the arboretum was chattering excitedly. If there was some signal she had missed, she wasn't having any better luck catching it now. She stared up toward the tinted "sky," just visible through the branches, around at the greenery and out over the other visitors--mostly natives here in this artificially created oasis.
"What--"
Even as she opened her mouth, Carlos asked, "Is it raining?"
She stared harder at the leaves around them, at the still-dry paths, at the tiny spring just visible on the other side of the hollow that their rise overlooked. No raindrops seemed to be falling on anything she could see. But people were holding out their hands, lifting their faces toward the surface dome that protected this underground cavern from the harsher elements of Elisian weather.
"It looks like it," she admitted. "But..."
"Let's go see," Carlos suggested, sitting up and getting to his feet with as much care as he had shown lying down. There was nothing to say that they weren't allowed on the grass, and indeed there were children running free between the paths, but the environment seemed so perfectly designed that she understood his caution.
Ashley followed him down to the nearest path, one that wound out from under the canopy into a place that was sunny even with the dark tint overhead. Sure enough, as soon as they were out from under the trees, she could feel a gentle mist on her bare arms and face. Not much heavier than a thick, blowing fog--albeit one that blew on a sunny, cloudless day--and it certainly wasn't what she thought of as rain. But it was wetter than anything else she'd felt here on this desert planet, and she couldn't help smiling at everyone's obvious delight.
"Does it rain often?" Carlos asked a passerby.
The man he had accosted nodded once. "Every day," he said, pointing back along one of the paths. "The gardeners post a schedule so you can plan your visit accordingly."
Carlos and Ashley exchanged glances. After he thanked the man, Ashley murmured to him, "Funny that you plan for the rain, instead of trying to avoid it."
Before Carlos could answer, Karen's voice hailed them from somewhere up ahead. "Hey guys!" she shouted, darting gleefully among the people filling the path. "Isn't this great? They make it rain on purpose, so that the humidity is more like it would be in an oasis!"
"The plants need water," a much younger voice added authoritatively. "And the people like it when it rains."
"I like it," Karen agreed cheerfully. "This is the coolest thing! You're lucky you can come here whenever you want," she told Shei.
"You can come here whenever you want too," the little girl answered. She tucked her hand into Karen's with the certainty of a child who had never been ignored. "It's for people to come and look at."
Further down the path, Ashley could see Azmuth and Nen trailing some distance behind. Azmuth was looking toward them, and she caught Ashley's eye with a slight smile. She was clearly aware of where her daughter was and what she was doing, and just as clearly satisfied with Karen's childcare ability.
"I see you have a tour guide," Carlos was telling Karen.
"Yes, she's very good," Karen said, grinning down at Shei. "She showed me the pond and one of the trail maps, and we asked someone about how the light works."
"It's light from the suns," Shei chimed in. "It comes in through the roof and when it gets too bright they shade it so the plants don't get burned."
"And so the people don't get too hot," Karen added solemnly. "It's almost evening now, so the roof is getting lighter."
Ashley looked up automatically. The tint was almost invisible now, and she wondered suddenly what kind of light they used to move through the gardens at night. "Is this place open at night?" she asked, looking at Shei first and then at Karen.
Karen, too, looked at Shei, but Shei just looked back at her and shrugged. "Don't know," she said. "We could ask someone!"
"I thought you weren't supposed to talk to people you don't know," Carlos teased.
Shei thought about that for a moment, then looked to Karen for confirmation. "I think it's okay as long as I'm with a grownup," she said. "Or if I'm alone and it's really important."
"I think you're probably right," Karen agreed. "But I'll ask instead of you, just to be safe.
"Excuse me," she said, turning toward a couple on the edge of the path. They were watching an animal play in the grass, Ashley realized. Whether it belonged to them or was just part of the environment, she couldn't tell. "Are the gardens open at night?"
One of the women nodded. "All day and night," she answered.
"Thanks," Karen said brightly. As they moved on, she asked Shei, "Does anyone ever get lost?"
Shei shook her head. "Don't know," she repeated. "But the gardeners always know where you are. Once, when my class came here? I lost my teacher so someone came to get me."
"You're in school?" Carlos asked, just as Azmuth and Nen caught up with them.
"Yup," Shei said proudly. "We go lots of places!"
"It is an experiential group socialization program," Azmuth offered, apparently having caught the question. "The children travel to different parts of the settlement under close supervision, to better acquaint them with their surroundings and their peers."
"Hey," TJ's voice interrupted. "We're all together!" He slung an arm around Ashley's shoulders and the other around Carlos', making Ashley smile. "Anybody else hungry?"
Carlos agreed immediately, and Ashley admitted, "I'm starving. Maybe Azmuth or Nen could recommend someplace to eat?"
The two Elisian Rangers exchanged glances, and Nen replied, "We'd invite you back to the compound if there was any food there. I'm afraid we all depend on Raine to cook more than we should, and she's been busy all day."
"There are any number of alternate dining experiences in the vicinity, however," Azmuth said smoothly. "Is there any reason I should not assume that your tastes and Cassie's are comparable?"
"Other than the fact that she's been pregnant most of the time she's been here?" Karen said dryly.
Azmuth's expression lightened, and she reached down to ruffle Shei's hair. "I will endeavor to take that into consideration," she agreed gravely.
Sand suspended in water, swirling when he tilted the little sphere and settling slowly back to the bottom. He thought there were three stones inside, but it was hard to tell with the way the sand constantly shifted. Maybe four. The restaurant's name was emblazoned in small gold print on the top--or the bottom, depending on how you held it--along with the name of the settlement.
Tourist gadget, his mind informed him, but he was after all a tourist. And there was a reason that tourist gadgets sold. They were cool. Useless, maybe, but definitely cool. He thought it would amuse Aura that a desert planet was representing itself with water.
"I'd like one of these," he told the man behind the counter. He made sure his morpher was visible, not totally convinced that just having a Ranger escort would be enough to get him free stuff.
The man didn't look down at his wrist or over his shoulder at Mirine. Instead he just smiled and inclined his head. "With our compliments, Ranger Carlos. We are honored by your presence in our establishment."
He tried to hide his surprise. He just nodded in return, smiling as he rolled the little glass sphere across his hand. The colored stones made a tiny vibration against the glass when they struck it from the inside. "Thank you," he said, as politely as he could.
"May I wrap that for you?" the man inquired. "You must have a long journey ahead of you, and I'd hate to see it broken."
"Sure," Carlos said, after a moment's consideration. "That would be great, thanks."
"Ready to go?" Ashley wanted to know, coming up behind him and peering over his shoulder. Catching sight of the sphere as it was efficiently packaged, she added, "What'd you find?"
He pointed at the display, letting her draw her own conclusions about what it was. He wasn't really sure of the significance, if there was any, and he didn't want to offend the person staffing the counter by getting it wrong. "Souvenir for Aura," he said noncommittally.
She inspected them briefly before picking one up and turning it over and over as he had. "Cool," she agreed with a smile. "Since when do you pick up souvenirs?"
"I like souvenirs." He defended himself automatically, but at her amused look he realized she knew him too well for that. "Okay," he admitted with a token sigh. "Since Aura started collecting them. She's got a whole windowsill full of random stuff, and I figured, might as well have some variety."
Ashley made a sound suspiciously like "aww," linking her arm through his in that gesture he remembered so well. "That's sweet," she told him, flashing a smile at the man behind the counter as he handed over the wrapped sphere. "You guys give each other a lot of stuff."
"Thanks," he told the man again. "We're very giving," he added, for Ashley's benefit as they turned away. "Besides, we fight a lot, and giving presents is easier than saying we're sorry."
Ashley laughed. "Gee, I'll have to remember that," she teased. "Relationship advice from Carlos, the man of many women."
"I don't understand how I got this reputation for going through girls," he complained, as they joined TJ and Mirine near the door. "Aura and I have been together for more than a year!"
"Is that counting the times you broke up?" TJ wanted to know.
"Aura's your Aquitian girlfriend?" Mirine asked at the same time.
"We didn't break up, yes, and how do you know that, anyway?" Carlos demanded. "How does everyone here know my name?"
"You broke up at least twice," Ashley interjected.
"The teams that defeated Dark Spectre are pretty well known," Mirine said wryly. "Did you two really separate? I didn't hear about that."
"That's because it didn't happen," Carlos said firmly. "We didn't break up. We just... weren't talking to each other for a while, that's all."
"Oh, well." TJ caught Ashley's eye and they grinned at each other.
"That's totally different," Ashley agreed, her expression too earnest.
The sound of approaching chimes was followed by Karen's enthusiastic exclamation. "Check it out," she declared, holding out her right wrist and twisting it back and forth. The chiming intensified. "Festival bracelets!"
"What are they?" Ashley asked curiously, reaching for Karen's hand. Karen was happy to offer them for inspection, but it was Mirine who answered.
"Festival noisemakers," she offered, when Karen treated Ashley's question as rhetorical. "Usually you get them at the spring festival, and they're supposed to bring rain and good luck for the rest of the year."
"Their weather-altering ability is questionable," Nen remarked lightly. "But they certainly make a pleasant sound. Mine hangs in the window to catch the breeze."
"I wear mine whenever I go offplanet," Mirine confessed. "Just for the good luck, I guess."
"Given your family connections, one would think you make your own luck," Nen responded. It was hard to tell whether he was joking or not.
"My family has issues," Mirine said. She said it was a certain amount of vehemence, and there was so much of Cassie in the statement that Carlos had to grin. TJ laughed, apparently hearing the same thing.
"Those are our teammates you're talking about there," he reminded her good-naturedly.
"Yeah, we know all about their issues," Carlos countered with a smirk.
"Are we in the way here?" Ashley wondered aloud. She sounded distracted and genuinely concerned, which set off little warning bells in Carlos' mind. Ashley was never distracted during a conversation with friends--she could gossip for hours and not even be aware that time had passed.
"We're good for business," Nen was telling her. "The staff is probably just as happy to have all of you cluttering up the place. But it's cool enough outside to walk if you want to leave."
"We do have to get back tonight," TJ commented. "It's almost morning in California by now. I have classes to go to, and Carlos has classes to skip."
He said it so nonchalantly that it almost slipped by before Carlos caught it. "Hey," he insisted. "I go to class! You try traveling between galaxies every day and see how much spare time you have!"
"Since when do classes count as spare time?" Ashley wanted to know.
He pointed at her. "Don't talk to me about school, Ms. All I Have To Do Is Be A Ranger. Come on back to college and see how easy it is then."
She just laughed, as he had intended. "At least we don't get graded on our fighting," she allowed. "Although I think Marsie's keeping mental track of how well we do. She probably has a little tally system somewhere: number of mistakes per week, or something like that."
"Who's Marsie?" TJ asked, leaning over to hold the door open for them. Ashley took the hint, talking over her shoulder as she headed out of the restaurant.
"She's the primary wing commander for the Kerovan Planetary Defense. We've been seeing a lot of her lately. Actually," she added, as they filed out after her, "she probably wishes it was only because we're screwing up her drills again."
"Lot of fighting lately?" Mirine asked sympathetically. "I've been keeping an eye on KPD deployments, and you took a pretty bad hit the other day."
"Yeah." Ashley was uncharacteristically sober. "More stealth velocifighters. Just what we need."
Mirine gave her an odd look. "Sorry, what?"
Ashley smiled, and it was a deliberately insincere smile. It looked out of place in her expression. "Yeah, the Frontier Defense hasn't actually released that information, has it. Funny, after the report we sent them, that they wouldn't remind the other Border planets about velocifighters that can avoid sentries."
Mirine had stopped where she was, forcing them all to gather loosely near the side of the street. It was cool enough that there were people on the streets as sunset approached, and the air actually felt kind of nice. The hills were outlined against the sky, and transportation other than feet and the occasional jetcycle was almost nonexistent. The contrast between rustic surface town and underground city was sharp.
"This is the second time you were attacked by velocifighters that weren't detected by your system sentries." Mirine's statement was flat, not questioning, but definitely looking for confirmation. "The first you knew of them was when they made planetfall?"
Ashley nodded wordlessly.
"Sabotage?" Mirine demanded.
This time Ashley shook her head. "Not of the sentries. They detected the second round of attacks just as we were cleaning up from the stealth fighters. We think they were two separate groups, two attacks that just happened to come at almost the same time."
Mirine stared at her for a moment, and then her lips quirked slightly. "I hope you won't take this the wrong way," she said with a sigh. "I don't mean to offend you, but your planet has the worst luck."
It actually made Ashley smile. "I've noticed that," she said, her tone decidedly lighter. "It's just one thing after another on KO-35. I think maybe it's been cursed."
"Well," Mirine said ruefully, "I guess it's possible that it's really good luck, since KO-35 always comes back. But still. I think you might be on to something with that curse idea."
"The Frontier Defense should have issued an alert the moment it received your report," Nen put in more seriously. "The reports themselves are public domain, but no one has time to read them."
"It's their job to call our attention to security risks," Mirine agreed. "And that certainly qualifies. Any idea how they got in this time? Cloaking? Sensor disruption?"
For some reason, Ashley glanced at him and TJ before answering. "We don't know for sure," she said reluctantly. "But we think they may be coming from another dimension. ID portals would let them bypass the sentries altogether and be in the atmosphere almost before we knew they were there. Which is pretty much what happened--and we know of at least two dimensions with stable interdimensional travel."
"Ours and JT's," TJ put in, and Ashley made a face.
"It's not like JT doesn't have quantrons to spare," she said with a sigh. "And a monarch of evil with a personal grudge against... well, all of us. Justin proved that Dark Spectre can find us if he wants to. I think these attacks mean that he does."
Mirine was frowning. "We need to find a way to get you guys some help." She didn't say it as though there was any room for argument. "I'm not saying you can't handle anything Dark Spectre throws at you, but this is ridiculous. You're part of the Frontier Defense and it's not doing a thing to help you."
Ashley shook her head. "I can't tell you how sick I am of politics," she murmured.
"Well, here's the problem." Mirine said with a frown. "The five Border worlds are with you three to two. It's all those other voting planets that are causing trouble."
That made Ashley smile, just a little. "I knew equal representation was overrated."
"You're telling me," Mirine agreed. She hesitated for a moment, apparently considering. The exchange was entirely tongue in cheek--at least, as far as Carlos could tell. What did he know about the Frontier Defense?
"Look," Mirine was saying. "I'll probably get in trouble for saying this in public, but if you guys send a distress call our team will answer. And Calijyt will be right behind us. No matter what our governments say."
Ashley's smile looked genuine this time. "Kyril said the same thing," she confessed. "It's good to hear."
"It's the truth," Mirine said darkly. "We'll declare martial law if we have to. The Defense was formed by Border planets, and the Border systems are going to stick together."
"Okay, wait," TJ interrupted, glancing from the girls to Carlos and back again. "I'm a little unclear on how serious the situation is. Ash, you would have told us if you needed help, right?"
The question echoed the one Carlos had asked of her earlier, but she was as evasive with TJ as she had been with him. "You guys are hours away," she reminded them gently. Maybe a little bit uncomfortably. "If there was anything you could do, we'd let you know. So far there hasn't been."
"If you guys are being buried by velocifighters you can't see coming, then it sounds like you could use all the help you can get." For a moment, TJ sounded just like Mirine had when she told Ashley they needed help. "You know you can call us any time, right?"
"No, TJ, we can't." Ashley's reply was just as firm. "You have your own lives, just like we do. We can't ask you to leave them anymore than we could leave ours. You defend Earth. We defend KO-35."
"Hey, we defend each other too," Carlos put in. He didn't like the line she'd drawn, no matter how calm she was about it. "Since when are planets more important than friends?"
She relaxed a little, smiling at him. "Of course I'm not saying that planets are more important than friends. I'm just saying that you'd never be there in time to make a difference unless you were living on KO-35 yourself. And you can't do that."
He opened his mouth to argue, but it was a reflex, not a rational response. She was right. He wasn't used to the kind of distance that separated them now: they couldn't just teleport in whenever they felt like it.
"KO-35 isn't defenseless," Nen reminded them all. "It has Rangers, militia, and an extraordinarily well-trained Planetary Defense. It may be the only Border planet where soldiers still outnumber civilians, and believe me when I say that no one wants to see it fall. Politics aside, if a planet like that can't stand on its own, then the Border has a serious problem. And we all know it."
Ashley seemed willing to allow his pointed summation, but Mirine refused to be placated. "Let's just hope," she said, "that if there is a serious problem, we won't use KO-35's survival as an excuse to deny its existence."
A yawn echoed over the zord network as the Kuiper belt flickered past, leaving a ghostly impression on the scanners. TJ watched it go, remembering the day Andros had embarrassed him into learning the names of every major Sol system object identifiable from Earth. Tessa hadn't had to be taught, of course--she already knew them by heart, and she laughed at his protestations of ignorance.
"So, English, or sleeping." Karen's voice interrupted his recollection, and she didn't sound as though she thought it was much of a choice. "I'm trying to decide whether my professor will be more upset by me missing class, or by me falling asleep in the middle of it."
TJ considered that. "Probably falling asleep in the middle of it," he told the comm. "You could just e-mail her and tell her you can't make it."
"I think I might have done that last week," Karen's voice replied. "And possibly the week before that. I should come up with some new excuses."
TJ raised an eyebrow at the comm. "Any excuse, you mean?"
"That too," she agreed, sounding suspiciously chipper for someone who was claiming fatigue as her reason for missing class. He couldn't really blame her, though. Something about spaceflight was invigorating, stimulating enough to keep him awake even when he knew it wouldn't last past Jupiter.
"I don't know how Carlos does it," she said a moment later. "This whole planet-hopping thing must really mess with your internal clock."
"I don't think he has an internal clock anymore," TJ said dryly. He totally agreed. While they were on Elisia, his watch had told him he should be tired while the sunlight told him just the opposite. Now the darkness of space told him it was nighttime while his watch said it was time to get up. His body didn't know what to believe.
"I can't believe he went directly to Aquitar from Elisia," she continued. "It's not like he slept last night, and obviously none of us slept tonight. What does he do, nap with his eyes open?"
"He does nap during the day," TJ offered. "Taj sleeps in the afternoon too, and Steve is never there. And I think he sleeps on Aquitar sometimes."
"He must!" Karen exclaimed. "This is crazy!"
TJ gave the comm a knowing grin. She sounded just like Cassie used to. "Jealous?" he suggested, and she laughed.
"You know me too well," she admitted. "Yeah, I guess I am. I wouldn't sleep if I got to bounce around between planets every day either."
"You should visit," he told her. "I bet Cass and Ash would love to show you around. Or go to Aquitar with Carlos again. I hear even Cetaci invited you back last time."
"I don't know why no one likes her," Karen remarked. "I thought she was funny. But I feel like I'm in the way when I go with Carlos. I mean, he's always doing something--and Cassie's busy with her family. Ashley's in the middle of crazy political stuff I don't understand... I don't know. It's not like I haven't thought about it."
TJ shrugged. "Can't hurt to ask. They might like the chance to take a break, right? Ash especially. She sounds like she needs it."
"Yeah..." Karen's pensive tone seemed to focus suddenly. "She did seem kind of out of it, didn't she? I thought maybe she was just tired. But all that stuff about quantron attacks--is that normal?"
"Here?" TJ said, remembering Astronema. "Not anymore. But there? It sounds like it. I didn't know it was as bad as Ashley made it sound today."
There was silence from the comm, long enough for them to coast into the inner solar system and lose themselves in planetfall. The Mega V hangar welcomed them back, as always, KERI's voice still somewhat unexpected even after all this time without DECA. The Delta Megaship's former AI had found a new home in Earth's zords, but TJ's interaction with her was minimal. Carlos apparently talked with her quite a bit.
They met outside the zords by unspoken consent, and TJ glanced toward the maintenance wall. Though the hangar was dark and quiet, it somehow reminded him of another hangar on Eltare--one with an informal pilot's lounge decorated in all their Ranger colors. One of the last private refuges for one team among many on a besieged planet in an alternate dimension.
How were they doing, he wondered? Had they made any progress at all in their war? What about Aquitar, the planet that Aura still insisted Carlos had "stolen"? Were the Astro Rangers still together? Had his counterpart found out about Cassie and Saryn?
Was his counterpart even alive?
It was a hard dimension to think about. He tried not to, as a general rule, but sometimes it snuck into his nightmares and he couldn't help but wonder. Did Ashley think about it more often, fighting quantrons again and trying to defend an entire planet from an enemy they couldn't even track?
"I'd go," Karen said suddenly.
He looked at her in surprise. "Where?"
She smiled a little. "KO-35. Ashley said we couldn't do anything unless we lived there. I know she was just kidding, but I'd go. If I could help."
TJ considered that for a moment. "What about school? Your family?"
Karen shrugged. "I didn't say I'd go forever. But if I could help... I'd go." She actually looked a little wistful--just enough to convince him that she was serious. She really would go.
"Maybe you should tell her." The words were out before he'd had a chance to think about them, which was probably good because if he'd thought about it he would have realized that he was encouraging one of his own teammates to not only leave Earth but to go live in another galaxy. "She might--I don't know what she might say, but maybe you should find out."
The pensive expression was back, and this time it was turned on him. "Maybe I will," she said noncommittally. "After I sleep through my English class."
He shook his head, grinning. "You're getting to be as bad as Carlos," he teased. "Some classes have attendance requirements, you know."
"Yeah," she agreed ruefully. "I don't take those classes."
They had a designated teleportation spot out behind one of the satellite parking lots, and their timing was good because the campus shuttle was just pulling in as they made their way toward the entrance. They rode back to Ladd Hall in silence, except when TJ poked Karen and pointed out the balloons outside the library. "What's going on there?" he asked quietly.
She leaned around him to peer out the window. "I dunno," she said with a shrug. "Something that starts way too early?"
He smiled a little. The shuttle dropped them off in the courtyard between her dorm and the surrounding cluster of residential buildings, and they filed off with an idle "thanks" for the driver. Karen slid her ID into the reader at the front door, waving to the hall director as the TJ followed her inside. The dorm was quiet but not still, the early risers being more respectful of silence than their late-night counterparts.
Karen knocked once before punching her code into the lock. It was a courtesy that she and Tessa had gotten into the habit of using, and TJ had adopted it without question. Girls liked their privacy. He wouldn't have walked into Max's room without announcing himself first either, and he assumed it wouldn't be any different if he had a roommate.
Tessa looked up from her backpack as the door opened, a welcoming smile on her face. "Hi!" she exclaimed, dropping a book on her bed as she turned toward them. TJ swept her up in a hug, and she squeezed him back. "I was starting to think you'd gotten lost!"
"Would have if we could have," Karen said flippantly. "Darn artificial intelligence."
"How was it?" Tessa wanted to know. "How's Cassie? Did Carlos come back with you? What was Elisia like? The Hammonds want a full report, by the way, and if you don't call Ashley's mom this afternoon she's going to call you."
"I missed you too," TJ said with a grin. "Cass is good, and Saryn's as snippy as ever--I hope the twins inherit more of Cassie's personality. I'll try to call the Hammonds right after class this morning."
"Carlos went back to Aquitar," Karen put in. "He's probably sleeping, which is what I intend to do. All morning."
"Oh, we'll go then," Tessa said quickly. "Want me to bring you back some breakfast? Did you guys sleep at all on Elisia?"
"No," TJ answered ruefully. "And we probably should have. It was kind of a long night."
Tessa squeezed his arm sympathetically. "Are you going to sleep too? I can get food for both of you, if you want it."
"Nah, I'll come with you," he assured her. "I have to go to class this morning, and breakfast will wake me up. Did you go to the gym without me?"
"I slept in," she admitted, looking a little sheepish. "I'm going this evening instead. Want to hit the basketball court, if you're awake?"
"I'll take a nap this afternoon." Tessa with a basketball definitely ranked high on his "best things about living" list. "We'd better go if we're going to get breakfast before your class, right? Eight-thirty?"
"Eight-thirty," she agreed. "Karen, do you want food?"
Karen had already kicked her shoes off and flopped down on her bed, one arm across her face as though it would help block out their conversation. "I'm all set," she answered. "I'll go to lunch when I wake up, but thanks."
"Sure." Tessa stuffed the book she had dropped into her backpack and swung it over her shoulder. "Have a nice nap!"
Karen waved half-heartedly, not bothering to lift her head. TJ didn't worry. Karen crashed as hard as she played, and when she woke up she would be putting them all to shame with her loud and apparently boundless energy. Tessa closed the door quietly behind them as they left, but she probably didn't need to bother. As far as TJ could tell, Karen could fall asleep during anything.
"So are you exhausted?" Tessa asked, keeping her voice down as they made their way out of the dorm. "It was a long trip, too, right?"
"Yeah, a couple of hours." TJ let her go through the fire door first, but the stairs were deserted and they went down them side by side. "While we were there it didn't feel late, though. I wasn't tired till we left."
"So tell me about it," Tessa said eagerly. "Was it what you expected? What were the people like? Karen said most of the city was underground? I should have given you my camera!"
"You know, we could just go." TJ glanced sideways at her as they pushed their way out into the sun, wondering why he'd never thought of it before. She'd been to Aquitar a couple of times, the same as Karen, but otherwise her space experience was mostly limited to fighting. "Let's just pick a weekend and go visit. Cassie's probably going to be kind of busy, but we could entertain ourselves."
Tessa was smiling. "We've tried this before, haven't we," she said with a sigh. "There never seems to be a good time. But I guess if there hasn't been a time yet, there probably never will be unless we make one."
TJ gave her a quizzical look. "Was that a yes?" he wondered.
"Yes!" She laughed at his expression, her sunlit face just as bright when they turned around the corner of the building and walked into shadow. "When do you want to go? Midterms are in a few weeks, so we'd better go soon or wait till right after."
"Let's go soon," TJ suggested. "See if you can get a weekend off from the lab, and I'll just tell the Athletic Office that I can't work events then."
"Oh, Ned won't care. He's already convinced I have a life, unlike him." She said it with an affectionate smile that said she didn't hold it against him.
Only among scientists, computer programmers, and engineers was it considered the anti-cool to have priorities outside of the major. He and Tessa tried to compromise: for every sporting event she attended with him, he visited her in the lab and hung out while she washed glassware or took microscopic pictures. He didn't know exactly why she worked for the life sciences college when she was in the physics department, but apparently it had something to do with experience.
"Hey, Tess," he said suddenly. "You don't want to leave Earth, do you?"
It was her turn to give him an odd look. "What--you mean ever?"
He realized how that had sounded. "I don't mean visiting, I mean really leaving. Like Cassie. She's not planning to come back. And now Karen's saying she'd go stay on KO-35 if they wanted her, so... I was just wondering."
"Karen wants to go to KO-35," Tessa repeated thoughtfully, not seeming very surprised. "We talk about living on other planets, sometimes. I thought she'd probably try it if she got the chance." She looked over at him and smiled. "I wouldn't, though. This is my home. I can't imagine not coming back to it."
"Me neither," TJ agreed. "But I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one."
Tessa laughed, lifting her hand to gesture at the surrounding campus. It was just beginning to come alive with morning joggers and gym-goers, athletes returning from practice, individuals headed for breakfast, and a few students actually on the way to class. "Look around you, TJ. I think you're comparing yourself to the wrong people!"
He grinned at the reminder, but he shook his head nonetheless. "Nah," he said, catching her hand as she let it fall. "Just to the people who matter."
She smiled up at him, squeezing his hand in return as they made their way across the sun-soaked sidewalk. The morning was cool and dry, a slight breeze the only indication that the temperature was climbing again. With Tessa beside him, no quantrons lurking in the sky above, and the promise of another decent day in Angel Grove, he couldn't imagine a better place to be.
fin