"We will hold a fallback line at--"

"No," Matt interrupted. "No fallback lines."

Matt, Saryn and Andros had gathered around the Power Chamber's main tactical screen, joined by the leader of the team Eltare had sent to reinforce the Turbo Rangers. Cetaci was something of an unknown quantity, for despite the flow of communication between Earth and Aquitar, the Rangers that defended Earth's nearest League neighbor had not visited since the team was led by Delphine.

"It is a matter of strategy," Saryn was telling Matt, as though he could somehow not have known that.

"I don't care," Matt replied firmly. "As soon as there's a fallback line Earth becomes expendable, and I can't allow that."

"He's right," Cetaci agreed. "The evacuation of an entire planet is not viable, thus retreat is not an option."

"The alternative option being?" Saryn inquired, giving her a measured look.

"We hold the line here," Matt said, as though it was obvious. "If four teams can't defend Earth, nothing's going to stand against this thing."

***

Looking back, Ashley had to acknowledge that they had been right. If the Rangers fell back, Earth was left undefended in the path of the forces of evil. But as she dragged herself up off the floor and fumbled her way through debris in the flickering lighting of the Astro Megaship, she wondered if the decision not to retreat had been entirely... fair.

She wanted to believe it was; she wanted to believe that her planet was important enough to warrant such a sacrifice. But it was *her* planet, not Saryn's, or Andros', or even Cetaci's. Cetaci had been ordered here by Eltare, and as neighbors it was possible that she felt the same obligation to protect Earth that Ashley felt for Aquitar.

Saryn and Andros, though... They had just been in the wrong place at the right time, and Ranger honor would not let them abandon a planet in need. Matt and Cetaci had made the decision not to retreat. What choice had the others had? What price would their teams pay for the unfortunate timing of their "personal mission"?

What price had they already paid? As she pushed her way toward the center of the Bridge, she heard someone else moving around in the darkness, and she prayed that they two were not the only ones still conscious--or alive.

"Hello?" she called softly, not sure why it was so important to keep her voice quiet. "Who's there?" The words were hoarse and uncertain even as she spoke them, and it occurred to her that speaking quietly might not really be a choice at all. It might be the only option she had.

"Kerone?" a voice croaked.

She swung around, trying to pinpoint the direction of the speaker. "No, it's Ashley. Is that..." She tried desperately to summon names to her mind, trying each one against the voice and rejecting them all. "Kaeth?" she guessed finally.

"Yeah." There was the sound of something shifting, and a brief shadow of movement drew her attention to the nav console. Or at least, the place where the nav console had been. "Rill? You okay, Sprite?"

There was the sound of a cough, and then a voice muttered, "Don't call me Sprite."

"Yeah, Sprite, whatever you say. Can you stand?"

*Um... help?*

Ashley stopped just short of bumping into the twisted hulk of metal in front of her. "What was that?" she whispered, startled.

*Me. Can't talk. Right in front of you.*

Someone was talking to her, and she couldn't hear a thing. She tried to push the weirdness aside and concentrate on moving the debris in her path, but it was too heavy. "Kaeth?" She tried to push her voice above a whisper, but it rasped painfully and she found herself coughing instead.

"Right here." There was a soothing hand on her shoulder, and then Kaeth pushed her hands farther down the metal piece. "Can you see?"

She nodded, feeling her eyes tear and the few distinguishable features of the Bridge blur before her. She heard him tell her to push, and at last she felt the debris shift, sliding away from her and producing an unbearably loud crash as it found the floor a moment later.

"Kerone?" Kaeth was asking anxiously. His voice came from somewhere much lower, as though he was now kneeling, and she heard the scrape of metal on metal as he pushed something else out of the way.

*I'm okay,* the non-voice came again. *Chair protected me...* It trailed off, as though it was somehow out of breath, and Kaeth hushed it.

"Don't try and talk," he said aloud. "You'll be fine, just don't try and move. Rill, do you have the--"

A light flared on the other side of the Bridge and swept abruptly in their direction, momentarily blinding Ashley. "Medical kit?" Kaeth's voice asked, and there was a sound almost like a sigh.

"He always wants more," Rill's voice murmured, but a moment later the light came toward them and she dropped something on the floor nearby.

"Thanks, Sprite," Kaeth said gratefully.

The light slid back toward Ashley, and she squinted her watering eyes in an effort to see. Rill must have sensed her distress, for the light turned to the side again before the girl said, "Ashley, you'll have to help me with the others."

"Sure..." Her voice was not quite as hoarse as Rill's, she decided, but the other two seemed to be seeing far better than she in the intermittent darkness. She couldn't tell if it was her or them--either something had happened to her eyes, or they just had better vision, she didn't know.

There was a groan from--somewhere else, and Rill's light swung around sharply. "Andros? Don't move; we're coming."

"What..." The word dissolved into a cough, and Ashley frowned. She took a deep breath experimentally, and a coughing fit of her own immediately overtook her. There had to be something in the air--

"Don't *talk*, either," Rill said firmly. "Life support is malfunctioning; just hold still and let us come to you."

"The others?" Andros rasped, ignoring her from somewhere to their right.

"Kaeth is all right," Rill answered, sidestepping something and grabbing Ashley's shoulder to keep her from bumping into a console. "Kerone *says* she's all right. We don't know about Zhane or Leigh." Her voice caught on the last word and she coughed forcefully, though whether from talking or something else Ashley couldn't tell.

The light fell sharply, and Ashley blinked as hard as she could, trying to follow Rill's movements. It was then that she realized Rill was kneeling beside her leader, shining the light across him as she checked him over for injuries. He had already pushed himself into a sitting position, eyes squeezed shut as Rill shone the light in his face, and Ashley saw him wince as his teammate turned his head to one side.

"That's quite the cut you have there," Rill said, as though she was announcing the time of day. The other Ranger set the flashlight down and tugged her jacket off, in the process shifting enough that Ashley could see, and she couldn't help gasping at the blood that trickled down the side of Andros' face.

"That bad, huh?" Kaeth asked wryly from the darkness. "He has an affinity for head wounds; we don't know why."

"Instinctive self defense," Rill suggested, using the sleeve of her jacket to try and clean the cut. "The hardest part of your body attracts the greatest number of blows. Kaeth, toss me some of that antiseptic."

Andros hissed as she applied it to his forehead, batting her hand away irritably. "I can do it. Just find the others."

"I'll do it," Ashley offered, when Rill hesitated.

"Are you sure you can see well enough?" the other girl asked.

She realized that Rill, of course, meant to take the flashlight with her when she left. "Sure," Ashley lied. "No problem."

"It doesn't matter," Andros protested, as Rill got to her feet and left them in darkness again. "I can do it myself."

"Right," Rill agreed, her breathy voice further muffled as she turned away from them. "Just tell me if Zhane's all right."

Andros sighed, then drew his breath in sharply as Ashley dabbed at his forehead. She had to use her fingers to find the edge of the cut, for Rill was right: in the dimness it was impossible to see more than vague outlines. "I don't know," he said, clearly forcing the words out through clenched teeth. "He's unconscious; I can't talk to him."

Ashley wondered about that, but she didn't dare ask. She heard movement from behind her, but Andros' hand on her wrist distracted her. "I can do it," he informed her, shoving her hand away. "Give me that."

"Don't be a baby," she said, more sharply than she had intended. "I'm almost done. Just hold still."

"Shut up, Kerone," he growled.

She blinked. "That's the second time someone's called me Kerone," she remarked, puzzled.

"I wasn't talking to *you*," he said, as though she were exceptionally slow. "I was talking to Kerone."

She felt her face heat at his tone, and she was glad he couldn't see it in the darkness. "But she didn't say anything," she protested, a little more humbly.

*I told him most people would be happy to have a beautiful girl treating their wounds,* a voice said, and there was a distinct note of humor in it. It was the same non-voice she had heard before, the one that spoke but made no sound, and her eyes widened.

"That's Kerone?" she blurted, unable to keep the realization to herself. "How is she doing that?"

"You don't have telepaths on your world?" Kaeth asked, sounding incredulous.

"Leigh?" Rill's whispered voice cut through the relative quiet of the Bridge, and they all heard the faint rattle as someone else tried and failed to draw a clean breath in the dusty air.

"T'look s'upset, Sprite," the voice breathed, only barely audible. "T'pid g-force... s'wrong wit'air?"

"Stop trying to talk," Rill admonished, her stern tone lost in the sob that threatened to overwhelm her words. "Life support's malfunctioning. The g-forces made us all black out, and Andros took a blow to the head. Kerone too, I think."

There was the briefest of pauses, and then the girl half-giggled through the sniffles that were growing more pronounced. "She says it must run in the family," she whispered, and Kaeth chuckled appreciatively.

"Uh..." Ashley tried to keep the nervousness out of her voice. "You're--are you... *all* telepaths?"

"No," Andros said curtly, fumbling for her hand again. This time he succeeded in tugging the antiseptic wipe free, and he applied it to his forehead again. "Only Kerone. The rest of us can only do it with family. Rill, is Zhane with Leigh?"

"Yeah," Rill answered, sniffing again and clearly trying to steady herself. "He's right here. He's still unconscious, but he looks okay."

Ashley remembered vaguely that Zhane had been standing beside Leigh's station when the shields went down. She couldn't recall exactly what had happened next, but obviously it had been bad. Then she felt Andros move, the shadow that was him rising to its knees and possibly preparing to stand.

"Hey," she said, concerned. "Should you be moving so soon?"

"I'm all right," he said, not bothering to look at her. "Kaeth, what kind of power do we have?"

"Minimal life support," Kaeth replied promptly, his voice coming from the second row of stations this time. She didn't remember hearing him move from Kerone's side, but right now she was more worried about Andros. He wasn't at all steady on his feet, and she could just see him clinging to the pilot console as he staggered in Rill's direction.

"Emergency thruster power too," Kaeth added a moment later. "And maybe DECA--I think her backup connector grid was destroyed in that last explosion, but I should be able to reroute. Hang on."

"Our orbit..." Kerone's voice was sketchy and almost too low to hear, and after one try she switched back to her non-voice. *Our orbit's degrading fast. If we don't make some kind of change soon, we're going to be the brightest fireball Earth's atmosphere has ever seen.*

"Kerone, get off your feet," Andros ordered. His voice came from somewhere on the floor by the weapons' console. "Kaeth, any luck with DECA?"

"I am here, Andros," a new voice said calmly, and Ashley recognized the ship's computer. Its voice was slower and a little deeper than she remembered, like a tape in a walkman with rundown batteries, but it was more normal than any of theirs. "Emergency thruster power is sufficient to make the necessary corrections."

"Kaeth," Andros began, not moving.

"I'm on it," Kaeth interrupted, swinging easily around the consoles to the pilot's chair. He bumped nothing in the process, and Ashley blinked as she realized her eyes were finally growing accustomed to the dimness. She could see Kaeth's form lower itself into the chair, and, beside him, she could make out Kerone sitting insolently on the side of the scanner console. She had obeyed Andros' command after all, it seemed.

Ashley turned, almost afraid of what she would see in the other direction. But Andros was still crouched at Zhane's side, helping Rill with Leigh while keeping one hand possessively on his friend's shoulder. "What about the comm?" he asked, somehow managing to keep track of everyone at once. "Kerone, can you raise any of the other Rangers?"

*I already tried,* she answered. *The comm's dead. Really dead. We can't even send out a distress signal.*

There was a moment of silence at that, and Ashley felt those words settling heavily around them. Not only could they not get help themselves, they didn't even know if the others were still out there to help them. She had been assigned to the Astro Megaship to help "coordinate" the defense, but with the comm down she was just as useless. Home team dispersal was another ridiculous League policy that she would have to remember to mock later with Carlos--if there was a later.

"Our orbit's stabilized," Kaeth put in, breaking the solemn silence. "But what we really need is to set down somewhere out of the line of fire and let the self-repair systems get to work."

"Leigh says there may not *be* anywhere out of the line of fire," Rill said, voicing the thought that was on everyone's mind. "But if there is, it's probably on Earth."

"In the desert near the Power Chamber," Ashley agreed, glad to have something to contribute. "I have the coordinates memorized if you want them."

"They won't do us much good in your head," Andros said dryly, and she tried not to frown. She knew she shouldn't let it trouble her, but she did wonder when she had fallen from goddess to nuisance in his eyes.

Kaeth swiveled out of her way at the pilot's station, allowing her to input the coordinates before he took control of the helm again. "It's going to be a bumpy ride without the shields," he warned. "Everyone ready?"

"Wait," Andros said, and Ashley saw him shift position on the floor. Beside him Rill had her arm around Leigh, bracing the two of them against the second row of stations. He followed suit, pulling Zhane's head gently into his lap and resting his hand on his friend's hair.

*Friend?* she wondered suddenly, trying to turn her perceptions around. *Or--brother?* He had said telepathy was a family thing, yet he had specifically introduced Kerone as his sister and Zhane only as his friend... And Rill and Leigh were clearly not sisters. She didn't dare ask him now, but maybe she could ask them?

"Rill," she asked carefully, while Andros settled the unconscious boy more securely. "You and Leigh aren't... family, are you?"

Rill's answer startled her. "All loved ones are family. Isn't that the way it is on Earth?"

"Well..." She hesitated, wondering exactly what that meant. "Sometimes, I guess." It hadn't answered the question she really wanted to ask. She looked up as Kerone took Leigh's chair next to Kaeth, and she saw Andros' sister gesture for her to sit as well.

Trying not to blush in the dimness, Ashley scrambled to take a seat on the floor near Andros and Zhane. "So," she dared quietly. *Nothing ventured, nothing gained.* "Are you and Zhane brothers?"

"No," Andros said shortly. "Kaeth, go."

She sighed, feeling her cheeks heat as Kerone glanced over her shoulder again. The other girl didn't say anything, but she couldn't help feeling totally transparent. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Andros stroke his friend's hair gently, and she bit her lip. She couldn't help wondering when it had become so important to her to find out exactly what he and Zhane were to each other.

Then the Megaship rocked as the first substantial wisp of atmosphere buffeted its unshielded hull, and she was given a brief respite from her thoughts as she concentrated on holding on. They had no idea what they would find when they tried to set down, but now all they could do was wait out the rocky descent.