"Recognition signal confirmed," a human voice said over the comm. "Welcome to the Kerova system, Mega V4."

"Thanks," Karen answered, hoping they couldn't hear her grin. Her longest solo spaceflight, and she had managed to arrive in a reasonable amount of time and still in one piece. She was doing pretty well so far.

Now if she could just find the Rangers, she'd be doing even better.

"Requesting your approach vector, Mega V4." The voice spoke after a brief hesitation, as though it had expected her to volunteer something already. The prompt was probably a good thing, since she wouldn't have given them anything if they hadn't asked, but it was also bad, because she had no idea what they wanted.

She muted the comm and gave the starboard screen a helpless glance. "KERI? What's my approach vector?"

"Incoming planetary vector is plus seven by 45," the AI replied immediately. "Keyota approach from orbit, vector to be supplied by local traffic authorities. I have relayed the information to System Control," she added.

"Thanks," Karen said gratefully. The Mega Voyager's computer had coached her through the journey from Earth to KO-35, and KERI had promised to follow her to the planet below. As far as Karen understood, the AI could--and regularly did--split her awareness between each of the Mega V zords. That was what let her be on Earth, and hours from Earth at the same time.

It didn't make any sense, but then, that was typical of anything that involved the Power.

"System Control to Mega V4," the comm announced. "You are confirmed for planetary approach to KO-35. Orbital station 33 will authorize your descent to the surface."

"Acknowledged, System Control." She pressed her lips together, trying to stifle another grin. This was easily the most fun she'd had since visiting Elisia three months ago. Going to Aquitar just wasn't the same--everyone there knew them, and Carlos took care of anything that the Rangers there didn't arrange in advance. There was nothing to do.

Now she got to talk to system authorities, computers, orbiting platforms... she wasn't totally sure what all of it meant, but that didn't take any of the fun out of it. Most of the people who hailed her seemed to know what she was doing better than she did, and she had KERI to help her out when she was completely lost. She also had a Ranger insignia painted on the side of her zord. Carlos had told her it would cut down on a lot of the typical in-system bureaucracy.

Since she had no idea what typical in-system bureaucracy was, she couldn't say whether it was helping or not. But she had to admit that piloting a zord between galaxies was ridiculously easy. Whether that was due to KERI's assistance, her own Power-enhanced control, or the deference of traffic authorities, she guessed it didn't really matter. She was here.

The orbital station must have opened a direct datafeed to KERI, because a few minutes later the AI announced, "You're cleared for a Keyota approach. The vector provided by air traffic control is available now."

That, she knew what to do with. She could program an autonav with the best of them, especially when the route, velocity, and destination coordinates had been supplied for her. Karen watched the blue-green planet below her engulf the forward screen and then begin to glow, turning brightly orange and cherry red as the flames of re-entry surrounded her zord. By the time they faded, the screen showed only clouds, misty wisps of nearby fog and towering columns of far-off weather and blue sky in between.

The stars were gone.

She couldn't help the grin that spread across her face as she watched the clouds rise to meet her and then flash past, revealing patchy cover below. She caught glimpses of the surface as her zord descended, green and brown stretches of land that glittered with the occasional reflection of sun off of a liquid surface. She could make out structures as the ground came closer and closer, everything in sight expanding as she watched.

Only after it was gone did she realize she must have been seeing a city. The buildings here must be houses, residences scattered through the foothills with their tiny vehicles nearby and what didn't look like nearly enough roads for all of them. She was so close to the ground now that she thought she would be able to see people, if there were any outside, and she gave the instruments an uneasy glance.

Still on course. No problems that she could see. She looked down at the tactical screen, where her destination was glowing brightly at the end of her projected flight path, and she was surprised to realize she was almost on top of it. Ashley had warned her that they lived in the middle of nowhere, but--

No roads. The hangar was nestled into the ground, set high enough that it overlooked the valley without changing the outline of the hills against the sky. And it was completely isolated. It grew, stretching higher until she had to lean forward to see the entire thing as her zord approached, and there was just nothing to compare it to. It was the only thing for miles around.

It wasn't the first time she'd been nervous since leaving Earth. Mostly, the nerves were overwhelmed by excitement, but it wasn't lost on her that she was traveling to a totally foreign environment with very little idea of what to expect. She shook her head as her zord set down, eyeing the imposing zord bay half-buried in the side of a mountain. Someday, she was going to walk into something too big to handle.

The arrival indicator chimed, and she suppressed another grin as the zord settled itself more solidly on the ground outside the Kerovan hangar. Someday, maybe. But not today. Today she was here by invitation. Anything could happen... and she was going to make sure it did.

She started the APD sequence and stood up, squinting at movement from the front of the hangar as she was about to turn. Someone was coming out of a tiny door down on the right side of the metal facade, and it had to be Ashley because she was wearing Karen's color. "KERI, flash the lights at her, would you?"

"Acknowledged," the AI's voice said, with a hint of amusement. She didn't protest the request, though, and Karen shrugged into her backpack. Reaching for her duffel bag, she took a last look around the cockpit.

"Thanks for the ride, V4. And thanks for the help, KERI."

The starboard screen lit up with KERI's youthful face, and the girl's image smiled back at her. "You're welcome, Karen."

"See you," Karen said cheerfully. She triggered the short-range teleport that would eject her from the zord, and she lifted her face the moment she felt sunlight on her skin. Kerovan sunlight. It was, quite literally, another world.

"Hi Karen!" Ashley called out to her from the direction of the hangar, and she lowered her head and opened her eyes. The other Yellow Ranger was running toward her, long hair flying behind her and no pretense at dignity in her welcome.

Karen laughed, dropping her duffel bag on the ground and flinging her arms wide. Ashley embraced her without hesitation, rocking them both with the force of her hug as she pressed her chin against Karen's shoulder. "Hi Ashley," Karen said, laughter still bubbling up in her voice. "How's it going?"

"Oh, it's been crazy," Ashley exclaimed, squeezing her harder before she let go. "You're walking into chaos! Are you ready? How was the trip? You didn't have any trouble getting down here, did you? KO-35's been kind of suspicious of outsystem ships lately, but we told them you were coming."

"That explains it," Karen said, rolling her eyes. "I thought they were awfully nice to me. Hey, I can take that--"

Ashley had picked up her duffel bag and swung it over her shoulders, and she waved away Karen's protest. "Don't be silly! I've got it, and wait till you see the stairs inside. It's a long way up."

"It looks huge," Karen declared. "Do you have a map of the inside so you don't get lost? Oh, and should I leave my zord where it is? I can move it if it's in the way."

"No, it's fine there." Ashley didn't even look over her shoulder. "Our zords stay outside a lot now that the weather's nicer, so yours'll have company. It could probably fit in the hangar, if it has to, but it's not in anyone's way. We have so much space we don't know what to do with it!"

"You weren't kidding when you said it was the middle of nowhere!" Karen agreed, glancing around. "There aren't even any roads! Do you teleport everywhere?"

Ashley laughed at that. "Kerone does! The rest of us only do it when we want to make a scene. Around the corner, there, we have our own parking lot..." She linked her arm through Karen's and tugged her off course enough that she could see the collection of vehicles.

"Andros and Zhane have their own hovers," Ashley explained. "Kerone shares mine when she actually drives, which isn't very often--I'll teach you if you want and you can use it too. Ty has a jetcycle. And Kristet parks her hover over there when she's here, which is most of the time."

"Okay, I met Ty, but I have no idea who Kristet is," Karen told her. They were heading for the same little door that Ashley had come out of, and as they got closer she realized that it really was a normal-sized door. It was just dwarfed by the exterior of the hangar.

"That won't last," Ashley predicted. "She's very present. Kristet's our media liaison. She sets up most of the press conferences, photo ops, text releases, all the public relations stuff. She used to do news and vid editing for us too, but she doesn't have much time for it anymore."

Karen didn't know whether to laugh or stare at her. "You have a full-time public relations agent?"

"Well, we let her go home at the end of the day." Ashley glanced sideways at her, and her deadpan expression dissolved into a giggle. "Yeah, isn't it crazy? Her whole job is to tell people what we're doing!"

Karen shook her head. "Think of all the trouble we go to on Earth to make sure people don't know what we're doing! No thanks to Carlos," she added as an afterthought.

"You're all friends of the guy who's dating an Aquitian, huh?" Ashley paused in front of the door and held up her digimorpher. "The door's locked all the time, but DECA knows you're here and your morpher should open the door just like ours. You want to try it to make sure?"

"Yeah, definitely." Karen eased forward, lifting her left arm and staring at the door. "What do I do?"

"Just hold it over here, in front of the scanner." Ashley pointed at a nondescript silver plate, and Karen waved her morpher at it obediently. The door slid open without hesitation.

"So DECA controls the hangar, too?" Karen guessed. "Not just the Megaship?"

"She controls it the same way she controls the Megaship," Ashley offered, swinging the duffel bag in front of her and leading the way inside. "She doesn't have to, she just can. There are manual controls for everything, but she does a lot of the programming and when she's here she tends to take over."

"She's not always here?" Karen asked curiously. "Does she stay on the Megaship sometimes?"

"Sometimes," Ashley agreed. "Or someone will take the Megaship and she'll go with them. Or sometimes she's just busy and we won't see her for hours. If you want to drop your stuff by the stairs, I'll show you around down here first?"

It came out as a question, and Karen nodded eagerly. The hangar was just as big as it looked from the outside, but less confusing since it was almost entirely open. She didn't know why she had expected that it wouldn't be--it was meant for the zords, after all.

Only two of the zords were there now, and they took up so much room that she wondered they could all fit in at once. A large, cat-like shape sprawled across the floor, gold accents marking it as Ashley's, and a second cat-shape lay beside it, red ears swiveling upright as the eyes opened to regard her. It was a disturbingly aware gaze. Since when did zords have eyes, anyway?

"That's Dawn and Fire," Ashley was saying. "Fire's the one looking at you now. Dawn's a little more trusting.

"Fire," she added, apparently addressing the zord. "This is Karen, from my home planet. She's going to stay here for a while."

The zord continued to regard her for a moment. Then the eyes slid shut again, but the ears remained up. Karen got the eerie impression that not only had it understood what Ashley said, but it was also continuing to monitor their conversation.

"Those are your zords?" she asked quietly, more to express her surprise then to actually get an answer. "They act... alive."

Far from laughing, Ashley only nodded. "We treat them like they are," she said seriously. "I don't know if they actually meet any scientific standard for being alive or not, but they act on their own and they respond when we talk to them, so we treat them like they can understand us."

Karen continued to watch the zords. "I'll remember that," she said slowly. Neither zord gave any indication that it had heard her.

She heard Ashley set her duffel bag down and she turned, belatedly shrugging out of her backpack and dropping it beside her bag. "That's the catwalk," Ashley was saying, pointing up the stairs toward the far wall. "There's stairs on the other side of the hangar too, but we use these more because they're closer to the door. All our rooms are up there, along with a couple of workbays and some storage."

"You sleep upstairs?" Karen stared up at the catwalk for a long moment. "No sleepwalking, huh?"

It made Ashley giggle. "I used to be scared of getting up in the middle of the night," she confessed, following Karen's gaze. "I kept a flashlight next to my bed for weeks. But you get used to it, and now it just seems normal."

"Can I borrow your flashlight?" Karen asked with a grin.

"Remind me and it's yours," Ashley promised. "We'll go shopping later, anyway, and you can get whatever you want. Zhane and I set up a room for you, but you'll want your own stuff, I'm sure."

She had started to walk around the stairs, and as Karen followed she wondered, "Is this one of those times when Rangers don't have to pay for what they need?"

"That's pretty much all the time, here," Ashley confided. "It's just like Aquitar that way. You don't have to worry. It takes some getting used to, but everyone's really nice about it.

"This is Kristet's office," she added, sweeping an arm around the space on the other side of the stairs. "Or as close as she gets to one--we offered to set her up in one of the workbays, but she says she likes being near the door. I think she just likes to keep an eye on us, to tell the truth."

"Your public relations agent?" Karen studied the bulletin board next to the comm station. "Are those your schedules? You guys are busy."

"Well, it's not all work." Ashley peered over her shoulder. "She has all our stuff on there so she can find us if she needs to. She doesn't remember things very well. Oh, I should probably warn you that she records everything."

Karen gave her an odd look. "Everything, everything?"

"Everything," Ashley emphasized. "Everything you say or do around her gets recorded. She's really good about keeping public and private stuff separate--she actually has separate cameras for reporting, and she won't use them without asking first--but it's a little strange at first.

"She doesn't remember very well," she repeated. "So she likes to make sure she doesn't miss anything. She's nice; we'll introduce you when she comes back this afternoon."

Karen couldn't think of anything polite to say to that, so she asked instead, "Where is she?"

"She's at the Council meeting with Andros. Kinwon is a little easier to deal with when there's a camera running, so she goes whenever she can."

Ashley was already moving on, waving at the nearby bookshelves idly. "We call this part the library, but it's basically just a good place to be in the middle of things without getting in the way. We eat over here--let me show you the kitchen, too, so you can find food when you want it."

It was amazing how finished the far side of the hangar was, Karen thought, looking around. It looked almost like a regular house with no walls... and a really big garage. For giant, mechanical cats. "This is nice," she said, as Ashley led her through a sitting area with a low table in the middle.

"Thanks," Ashley tossed over her shoulder. "We had to let quantrons tear it apart before Andros agreed to let us decorate, but he finally gave in and I think it came out okay. Kristet and I did some designing, and Kerone helped us move furniture until we got it right. The guys pretty much stayed out of the way."

"Don't they always," Karen said dryly. "You did a good job. This is the kitchen?"

"Mm-hmm." Ashley leaned up against the sink and pointed things out. "Stasis, stove, dishes and silverware, refrigerator equivalent, and there are more dishes in there. Mostly cooking stuff that half of us don't use."

"Count me in that half," Karen agreed, and Ashley smiled.

"Ty cooks a lot," she offered. "And he's actually been teaching Zhane, which is sort of scary but we try not to tease him too much because we could use another person who knows what they're doing in the kitchen. Andros and I just eat whatever's easy."

"Sounds like me," Karen admitted cheerfully. "Easy food was invented for a reason!"

"See, Ty says that, and then he goes and spends half an hour on breakfast!" Ashley wrinkled her nose with an expression that was more amused than anything else. "I guess everyone's definition of 'easy' is different."

"No preparation," Karen remarked, and Ashley laughed.

"That's right! We'll have to go grocery shopping together," Ashley told her. "We know what the good stuff is."

The sound of a door made her look over her shoulder, and Ashley followed her gaze. "That's another thing," Ashley said, and it took Karen a moment to realize that it was the front door she'd heard. From all the way at the back of the hangar. "You can hear everything in here. That's probably why Kristet likes the space under the stairs. There's no privacy unless you go somewhere with a door."

"Note to self," Karen remarked, catching sight of Zhane through the door and someone in black behind him. Ty, she realized a second later. "Don't say anything you don't want everyone overhearing."

"That's good advice," Ashley agreed. She raised her voice, but she didn't have to shout to get their attention. "Hi guys!"

"Hey, it's two Yellow Rangers in one place!" Zhane bounded across the hangar, Ty trailing more sedately behind him as he imitated Ashley's welcome. "Welcome to Cat Central!"

Karen found herself on the receiving end of a hug she hadn't quite expected but didn't mind at all. "Hi Zhane," she said, hugging him back. "Don't tell me you were doing actual work this morning!"

Zhane gasped, drawing back with a look of mock-horror. "Karen!" He kept his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. "I'm shocked that you would think so little of me. People have been telling you stories!"

"Yeah, he let me do all the real work," Ty put in, coming up behind them with an amused look. "Hi, Karen. Good to see you again."

She smiled at him as Zhane let her go. "You too. You have the color I wanted, you know."

Ty looked down in surprise, but Zhane just laughed. "You should go on your own quest," he confided, stepping back and holding out his hand to Ashley. "You get to choose your color. Much better than getting the morpher passed on to you.

"Hey, Ash," he added, taking her hand and giving her a quick kiss. Karen blinked and looked again, wondering whether she had really just seen that. Had she been missing out on the gossip? Or was it just some kind of Kerovan custom no one had told her about?

"I hope you didn't make Karen think I work or anything," Zhane was saying. "She's going to expect me to do something around here."

"No one expects that," Ashley said with a laugh. "We just keep you around for your charm and good looks."

Zhane let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. "My reputation is safe!"

"If you can call it that," Ty said dryly.

"Hey!" Zhane looked indignant. "We can't all be scientific geniuses! I'm just working with my strengths, that's all."

"I'm not a genius," Ty protested, shooting a look in Karen's direction. "Don't listen to him," he advised. "He makes theater a daily production."

"And genetic manipulation is your hobby," Zhane interjected, not bothering to deny the theater accusation. "I think you can take credit for something more than our typical intelligence.

"Did you get a tour?" he added, the question clearly directed at her. "Did we interrupt?"

"I was just showing her around the hangar." Ashley sounded more amused than anything, her tone mirroring Ty's expression. Karen didn't know where the look came from--they lived with Zhane, so they must be used to him by now? She'd never known him to be anything other than overdramatic and endearing.

"Well, that's boring," Zhane commented. "Kitchen, workout area, you're done. Want us to take your stuff upstairs for you?"

Ashley rolled her eyes at Zhane's summary. "Thanks, Zhane, you really sped that up. If you take Karen's stuff upstairs, we'll be up in a few minutes."

"I can carry that stuff," Karen protested, but Zhane was already backing away.

"Nope, we got it," he said cheerfully. "We'll leave it outside your door. Carry on!"

Ty smiled as he turned to follow Zhane, and when Karen glanced back at Ashley she found her smiling too. But all she said was, "Might as well put them to work. It gives them something to do."

"Where were they this morning?" Karen wanted to know.

"Over on RS-42." Ashley must have seen her expression, because she added, "KO-35's sister planet. It was abandoned for years, but we have a military base and a KPD station over there now. There are civilians that want to go back too, and there are a lot of logistics to work out before anyone can live there permanently again. Zhane's been running the defense effort."

Karen didn't understand more than half of that, but she did come away with a totally contrary impression to the one Zhane had projected. "So, Zhane's not leaving all the work to Ty after all?" she guessed.

Ashley laughed. "No, Ty doesn't like that kind of tactical strategy stuff. And don't let Zhane fool you--he pretends he's all fluffy and harmless, but he works as hard as anyone else. He's taken over a lot of the press conferences lately, and even the media is starting to realize how serious he is."

"Lies!" Zhane's voice echoed down from above, and Karen looked up in surprise. The catwalk stretched several levels above, and she couldn't see anything but the supporting struts from here. But Zhane could clearly hear them. "It's all lies, Karen!"

Ashley pointed upward with a smile. "See? No privacy."

"Privacy is for cowards," Zhane called back. "We don't need privacy around here!"

Ashley just shook her head. "And over here," she said, ignoring him, "is the practice area. We like having it close to the kitchen because then we can snack while Andros lectures us."

From above, Karen heard Zhane laugh, and Ashley finally gave in and shouted up at him. "Go away, Zhane! This is a private tour!"

"Then you're in the wrong building!" was the reply.

Ashley sighed, turning a resigned look on Karen. "How would you like to see the upstairs now?"

Karen grinned at her expression. "Sounds great to me.

"Hey," she added, following Ashley around the practice mats to the stairs she said they didn't use. "Am I totally disrupting your day, here? You're not skipping anything to show me around, are you?"

"You're not disrupting anything," Ashley assured her. "I was just going to go to the Council meeting with Andros, and believe me, I'd much rather be here with you. We're all taking the afternoon off, so you'll get to see everyone at once. I thought we could go out to dinner tonight, if you feel like it."

"I'd like that," Karen agreed, delighted. Seeing the practice mats from above as they climbed the stairs, she suddenly realized why they looked so eclectic. "The mats are your Ranger colors, aren't they."

"Yes," Ashley said with a laugh. "We're obsessed. Wait till you see our rooms, they're just as bad. You'd think we'd get so tired of wearing the same color all the time that we'd decorate with different ones, but no... it doesn't work that way."

"I know!" Karen exclaimed. "It's the same with us! This is why I wanted Carlos' color, because most of my stuff was black before. Now I wear crazy amounts of yellow, and between me and Tessa, our dorm room on campus looks like a dollhouse. It's terrible."

"But you like it, right?" It wasn't really a question. "I never really liked yellow either until I became a Ranger. My favorite color was blue! But now, yellow just makes me feel better. I know it's a Ranger thing, but it still matters."

"Yeah," Karen admitted. "I know what you mean. At first I just had this yellow bracelet, so I could wear whatever clothes I wanted, but now I think half my shirts are yellow and I actually wear them more than anything else."

"I don't think I wear anything that isn't yellow," Ashley confessed. "I mean, some stuff, yes, but not whole outfits. It's funny," she added, with a small smile, "but all Kristet wears now is blue and green. And white. She's sort of picked up our color awareness in reverse."

"She would," Karen decided after a moment. "Have you ever noticed that Rangers who are dating other Rangers wear both their colors? Kristet probably doesn't want to look like she's too involved."

Ashley giggled at that. "No, especially since she's married."

Karen stepped up to the railing on the catwalk and looked back at the floor of the hangar. She decided it was a good thing she liked heights. "That's a lot of stairs. I don't know why you bother working out, you probably get enough exercise just getting up in the morning."

"It does wake you up," Ashley agreed. "It's harder at night, though."

Karen shook her head. "I can imagine!"

Zhane and Ty were leaning on the railing farther down, talking about something she didn't recognize. The nearest door was lit with a shimmering purple dragon, and she could see more sparkles further down. The dragon distracted her, though, and she reached out a hand towards it. "What is this?"

"That's Kerone," Ashley said with a smile. "She's our resident artist. She drew her cat zord on her door, and then all of us wanted a picture too. It's some kind of magical holographic thing she does--I don't know how it works, but it's pretty! She made the dragon a few days ago."

"It's beautiful." Karen glanced at her. "Can I touch it?"

"Mm-hmm. I do, anyway, and Kerone says it's fine. It sort of flickers when you touch it, but it goes right back to the way it was before afterward."

Karen reached out and pressed her fingers to the door, and the light brightened a little where it touched her skin. It was light, it had to be, because it made her fingers glow when she stuck her hand in it. She couldn't feel anything on the door, and the image was flat despite the appearance of depth. It rippled a little when she moved her fingers, almost like touching the surface of water, then stilled again when she drew her hand away.

"That's really cool," Karen declared. "So she just... drew this?"

"Yeah--come see Ty's, she did a whole tree for him. It has leaves that move when you walk by!" Ashley's excitement made Karen feel a little less silly about being awed, so she didn't bother to hide her amazement as she followed Ashley down the catwalk.

It was like a tree video built into the door. Like a photograph that moved and made sound and merged seamlessly with the metal around it, the tree was far more realistic than Kerone's stylized dragon. Its leaves did move, quieting when they stopped in front of it to admire them.

"Wow," Karen breathed, reaching out but not quite able to bring herself to touch it. 'That's crazy!"

"She spent a lot of time on it," Ashley said. "If you saw Ty's room, you'd recognize it. He has a tree just like that near the window."

"You can go in if you want," Ty called. He and Zhane had stopped talking to watch them, and he waved when they turned to looked at him. "The door's open."

"Thanks!" Ashley touched the silver square beside the door--one that looked an awful lot like the scanner outside, Karen thought--and the door slid open. Just like on the Megaship. Until she looked inside, and the similarities abruptly ended.

"You live in a greenhouse!" she called, peering around the doorframe at the cascade of green and mahogany and even pale colorless plants that covered nearly every surface. The tree on the door filtered about half the light from the windows, but there were artificial grow lights in the corner nearest to the door and a reading light by the bed. The whole room looked alive.

"Thank you," Ty's voice responded, and she stepped away from the door reluctantly.

"You can't see Zhane's room," Ashley added, letting Ty's door close behind them. "It's too messy for casual viewing. But he has a cool picture of the world on his door."

"It's not messy," Zhane corrected indignantly. He was leaning backwards on the railing now, a position that made Karen wince when she thought about the drop on the other side. "It's comfortable."

"Synonyms," Ashley informed her.

He did have a picture of the world on his door. It was almost Earth, except that none of the continents were right. "Is that KO-35?" Karen blurted out. She realized how silly the question was as soon as she asked. It was "the world," after all.

"Yup," Ashley said happily. "And that's Keyota--" She leaned on Karen's shoulder and pointed toward the southern edge of one of the biggest landmasses. The light shimmered around her finger as she touched the metal underneath. "Right there."

"Cool," Karen decided. "Is that where we are?"

"We're a little bit east of the city," Ashley answered. "But still in the Keyota district. People like to say that the Rangers live in Keyota, even if we're kind of on the outside edge."

"Good thing, too," Zhane put in. "We avoid the traffic."

"It's true," Ashley agreed solemnly, and it was hard to tell whether she was joking or not. "The hover rails jam in the late afternoon, and it's not worth going anywhere unless you do the driving yourself.

"Here's the bathroom," she continued, as though that had made perfect sense. "Definitely one of the most impressive parts of our redecorating spree. We actually have separate boys and girls showers now! Before we just had a divider, and things got kind of interesting."

"You're kidding," Karen said, looking from her to Zhane and Ty uncertainly.

"Sadly, no," Zhane told her. "I liked it better the way it was before, but no one listens to me."

"Because you're crazy," Ashley said. "Girls are on the right, boys are on the left. There's a single bathroom downstairs next to the kitchen, but we made sure there was actual usable space up here. Ty got some guys that he knew to come in and install everything."

"Yeah, there was running water but it turns out that zord bays don't actually come equipped with bathrooms," Zhane commented. "I bet more people would think of living in them if they did. Can't beat the convenience."

"We were trying to get away from the reporters," Ashley explained. "Which I guess is ironic, since now we have one working here, but... It's nice to be able to walk out the door without the entire street noticing what you're wearing, who you're with, and where you're going."

"And what time it is," Ty added.

"Whether you look upset or not," Zhane continued.

"How long it's been since you last left." Ashley rolled her eyes. "I think people I didn't even know knew more about my life than I did."

"Which is still true," Ty said ruefully, "but at least we don't notice it as much."

"Actually, can I take a break and try out the bathrooms?" Karen asked. "I'll be right back."

"Sure, go ahead," Ashley said quickly.

"We'll still be here," Zhane remarked.

"Causing trouble," Ty added.

She had to giggle. They were amazingly in sync. They reminded her of her own teammates, which she supposed shouldn't be such a surprise. She thought of her team as friends first and Rangers second, but most of the current Kerovan team had known each other longer than she had known Carlos. Just because she didn't know them that well didn't mean they were strangers to each other.

"I think Kesra should get a raise for dealing with all of us," Ashley was saying as she came out of the bathroom.

"She probably has," Ty remarked. "We already asked which nights she works. I don't think there's anyone there who doesn't know we like her."

"There's nothing wrong with the other waitresses," Zhane argued. "Kesra just happened to wait on us first."

"Right, when no one knew that we were nice," Ashley told him. "Now that they know we're easy, it's totally different. Kesra should get points for being the first."

"Who's Kesra?" Karen wanted to know, leaning on the railing beside Zhane. "You don't have personal caterers too, do you?"

"She's the waitress at this cafe in town we like," Ashley said with a laugh. "She works four nights a week, and we always try to go when she's there. We were just talking about going tonight."

"Sounds cool," Karen said, squinting out at the big cat-like shapes. She wanted to ask where the other zords were, but it didn't seem topical right now. "By the way, you're right about the bathrooms." She grinned at Ashley. "Very nice."

Ashley giggled, linking her arm through Karen's and pulling her away from the railing. "Thanks! So your room is right down here... you can decorate it yourself and stay as long as you want. Or if you find someplace else you want to stay, we can help you with that, or if you go back to Earth next week we'll just tell people it's the guest room."

"You guys are really cool to let me stay here," Karen told her, reaching for her backpack. "Have I thanked you for that recently?"

"Only twelve or thirteen times," Ashley said cheerfully. "We're glad to have you! I'm so excited to have someone else from Earth around! We're going to have a good time."

She grabbed Karen's duffel bag off the catwalk and let go of her arm to open the door. "Home sweet home," Ashley announced, waving her in. "Or it will be, once you get some stuff. We can go shopping this afternoon, if you want, or tomorrow, or whenever you feel like it."

There was a bed on one side and shelves on the other, and that was about it. Karen was drawn to the windows, though, which looked out at a hillside that sloped up and away from the hangar. One of the big cat-zords was out the ridgeline, laying on the stone in a decidedly non-zord like position. It looked almost like it was... sunning itself?

"We didn't want to get furniture that you didn't like," Ashley was saying. "So we thought we'd just wait and let you pick. I hope it's not too weird, leaving your stuff in an empty room."

"No, it's not at all," Karen hurried to assure her. As she turned away from the window she added, "Well, it's a little weird, but only in a good way. I guess I'm going to need some sheets, huh?"

"And a comforter!" Ashley explained, "I knew yellow wasn't your first favorite color, so I thought you'd want to choose your own things. We can go now if you want, or we can have something to eat first."

"Or we can leave you alone to settle in," Ty said from the door. "I don't know about you, but I overwhelm easily. You can just hang out for a while if you want."

"Actually, I'm kind of hungry," Karen admitted. "I'd like to get something to eat."

"Lunchtime," Ashley declared. "Good, I'm starving. I thought I was going to have time to eat before you got here, but I ended up chasing Kae around the hangar for most of the morning. I don't know how Kerone keeps up with him."

"Kae?" Karen repeated. "How many people live here, anyway?"

"Kae's new," Ashley said, glancing over her shoulder at Zhane and Ty. "It's kind of a long story. He's..."

"He's this kid that Astronema rescued in another dimension," Zhane interrupted. "He won't tell us his name, so I just called him 'K' for 'Kid,' but As--someone thought that was rude, so she had to spell it out. K-a-e."

"It's better than just 'K,'" Ashley informed him. "Kerone's not sure he even had a name, before. He was a slave in Dark Spectre's monarchy," she added, as though that would clear everything up. "He doesn't talk very much, and he's scared of everything, but he's a good kid."

Karen eyed them for a moment, and came to the conclusion that it was more likely they were serious than not. Nothing about the Power, she reminded herself, ever made sense on first telling. "How old is he?" she asked at last.

Ashley shrugged helplessly, but Zhane offered, "Probably three or four."

"You adopted a three-year-old from another dimension?" Karen demanded incredulously. "When? How did I miss this?"

"We haven't actually adopted him," Ashley said, just as Zhane spoke over her.

"A couple of days ago," he answered. "We're trying not to spread the word until we know more about him. He's had a pretty rough life so far, and we don't want to make it worse."

Zhane was serious, she realized all of a sudden. When had that happened? She had totally missed the transition from Zhane the Clown to Zhane the Parental Figure. The latter was kind of a spooky thought, but he had gone from gleeful flirt to responsible adult in a matter of minutes. Suddenly he seemed older than she was.

"Okay," she said slowly, glancing from Zhane to Ashley. "So... how did he get here, again? Is he staying with you, or are you just helping take care of him? Where is he now?" And would she have to babysit? She could see it happening already.

"Remember how I said it was a long story?" Ashley's smile was apologetic and amused at the same time. "It really is. Want to get some lunch while we talk about it?"

Karen was perfectly willing to be persuaded, and Zhane and Ty seemed just as willing to follow them. Was she that interesting, she wondered? Or were they just waiting on lunch too? Had they really been on another planet all morning? This was a totally different world, and not just in the literal sense.

She loved it.

"That's my room," Ashley said, pointing to it as they passed. "Andros' is at the top of the stairs. They're not soundproofed, by the way, so if you hear someone with their music all the way up, just knock and we'll turn it down."

Karen nodded absently, distracted by the holographic designs on the last two doors. Ashley's was a colored line drawing of sunrise over the hills, while Andros' showed the red cat-zord's head: ears back, teeth bared in a defiant roar. "Is that a warning?" she wondered aloud.

It was Zhane who laughed. "Friendly, isn't it?"

"Leave it to Andros," Ty added. "But is that who he is, or who he wants us to see?"

"Hmm," Zhane drawled, and he and Ty exchanged mock-thoughtful looks.

"I hope sandwiches are okay with you," Ashley said, ignoring them as she started down the stairs. "I know we have fruit and eggs, and probably some leftovers from last night, but we all tend to eat the same things over and over. We're kind of used to sandwiches for lunch, but like I said, we can go find you anything you want this afternoon."

"Sandwiches sound great," Karen promised. "They're my staple food. Well, that and ice cream. I'm going to be really disappointed if you don't have ice cream here."

"We do have ice cream," Ashley said with a laugh. "Believe me, we have plenty of ice cream! It's not exactly the same, but it's pretty close. Cassie's so jealous... I bring her some every time I visit."

"I'm set," Karen declared. "You have everything I could ever want... spaceships and ice cream. I may never leave!"

"Wait till tomorrow," Ashley said, wrinkling her nose. "When Kae wakes us up at two in the morning with a nightmare, and the zords get up and roll the doors open, and then Andros decides that really, anyone who's up should be sparring with him--"

"Get up late," Zhane advised. "Really late. In face, just skip breakfast altogether. It's safer."

"So Kae does live here," Karen surmised, focusing on the story she still hadn't gotten. "But you haven't adopted him? Are you going to?" Are you crazy, she added in the privacy of her own mind?

"Okay," Ashley said, skipping down the last steps and turning to face her at the bottom. She started walking backwards as Karen joined her. "Remember JT's dimension? With the war and the Free Systems and the switching of us and them?"

"Where I was married to Carlos?" Karen added. "Yeah, I haven't forgotten. I don't think Aura has either."

"Aura's not really a forgetter," Zhane remarked idly. "More of a grudge-to-grave kind of person."

"Zhane," Ashley said, turning a too-sweet smile on him. "Why don't you go make us some sandwiches?"

Zhane tossed a salute in her direction, pacing easily around her as Ty accompanied him. Not that interesting after all, Karen decided. That was sort of a relief. And judging by the expression on Zhane's face, she wasn't going to count on a sandwich from him.

"Anyway, the Astronema from JT's dimension came to visit us a couple of days ago." Ashley glanced at her as though expecting her to protest. "She had a little boy with her, and she couldn't take him back."

"Okay--" Now Karen had to stop her. "Even assuming it's normal for villains from other dimensions to just drop by for tea, why couldn't she take the kid back? Why did she bring him in the first place?"

"She didn't mean to. He was on the ship that she crashed--she snuck off of the Dark Fortress in her dimension, got on a ship that brought her here, and when it was about to crash she realized she wasn't the only person on it. Kae had been abandoned by the crew, so she teleported him out with her and brought him here. He couldn't go back because she didn't think she'd be able to protect him on the Dark Fortress."

Karen considered that for a moment, watching Ashley back around one of the stools in the kitchen and turn to avoid it smoothly. "Does that make any sense?" she asked over her shoulder.

Karen shook her head, even though she knew Ashley wasn't watching. "I have this theory about the Power," she announced. "Nothing about it makes sense. So far I haven't found anything to disprove that."

"It's a good theory," Ty commented. "I'm going to start promoting it."

"I'm going to start promoting lunch," Zhane told them. "Karen, anything you won't eat?"

"You don't have to--" She hadn't expected him to even take Ashley seriously, let alone start making her something to eat.

"Enjoy it," he advised. "I usually devote most of my energy to making Astrea eat. I'm taking the day off."

"Well, as long as you're just staying in practice," Karen told him, leaning up against the counter. "No, I'll eat pretty much anything. Although I'd rather it didn't move," she added after a moment.

"No moving," Zhane agreed. "Got it."

"You're easy," Ty said, assembling sandwich ingredients at the other end of the counter. "Especially compared to Zhane. He'll eat almost anything in front of an audience, but leave him alone and he's the most picky eater you'll ever meet."

"I don't know," Karen said, glancing back at Zhane. "Even I've heard stories about Zhane's adventures in cooking."

Ty wagged a finger at her. "Audience," he reminded her.

"Pay no attention to him," Zhane told her. "I'm very adventurous when it comes to food, as to all other things."

"And you'll never prove otherwise," Ty added. "Unless you catch him down here in the middle of the night, snacking on cereal and baby food."

Zhane lifted a butter knife and pointed it in his direction. "You," he declared, "are bad for my reputation."

Without pause Ty added, "But he's very good in bed."

Ashley's muffled laughter convinced Karen that it was safe to giggle. Zhane looked somewhat mollified, but the look he threw in Ty's direction made her wonder if it wasn't just a joke. She couldn't have missed out on that much gossip... could she?

"Pass the leafy things," Ashley demanded, and Zhane smirked at her.

"How much are they worth to you?" he wanted to know.

"Not as much as you'd think!"

"Greens for you," Zhane said, handing them over, "And a sandwich for you." He presented it to Karen with a flourish, setting the plate down in front of her with the reminder, "My feelings will not be hurt if my culinary standards do not match those of your tastebuds."

"Yeah, just because Kerone eats anything he makes doesn't mean you have to," Ty agreed.

Zhane pointed the knife in his direction again. Ty assumed a mock-earnest expression as he told her gravely, "Very good in bed."

"Where is Kerone?" Karen asked, hoping to divert attention as she took her first bite. She might be able to eat anything, but after Aquitar she had learned to be careful about who was watching her while she did it.

"She took Kae outside to see Magic." Ashley leaned around her to raid Ty's sandwich assembly line, and caught her eye as she did so. "Kerone's zord. Hers is Magic, Zhane named his Zip, and Ty's is Fauna."

It took her a minute, but when she got it she smiled around her sandwich. Swallowing, she offered, "Animal life? I like it." Ty looked up long enough to grin at her.

"So?" Zhane prodded. "Edible?"

"So," she assured him. "Very good, thanks."

Zhane beamed. "You're welcome! Sandwiches: my new specialty."

"He's moving up in the culinary world," Ty remarked. "We started with vegetables and dip. Next on the list is soups."

"I'm really good at cutting vegetables," Zhane confided to her.

"And pouring the dip that Ty makes into a bowl," Ashley added.

"Hey!" Zhane exclaimed.

"No, he can make dip," Ty corrected. "It was the lemonade that he cheated on."

"I didn't cheat," Zhane said with dignity. "I took advantage of the fact that there happened to be some available."

Ashley rolled her eyes at that, but Ty reached out and picked up an empty glass. He raised it in a salute, saying, "Use the resources you have available."

"Here, here." Zhane grabbed another glass and clinked it against his.

Ashley caught Karen's eye above her sandwich. With a shrug and a smile she offered, "Welcome to life in the hangar."