Disclaimer: I didn't create Power Rangers. I don't own Power Rangers. I don't work for Power Rangers. I am not a Power Ranger. I think that pretty much covers it. 

Follow the Stars
by Starhawk

He had looked at her with that intense gaze of his, and she had been drawn irresistibly closer. Staring into the eyes of the one she had seen only in times of crisis and shadow, always in a hurry and no time to exchange more than a sentence of two, she had seen a familiar soul. Past lives and soulmates had never been the kind of thing she put much stock in, but at that moment, she had been sure the two of them had known each other in another time. 

Staring through the transparent canopy of his fighter, Cassie couldn't keep her mind from wandering back to Phantom. *Or--Saryn?* Gratified though she was to know his name, she wondered if she would ever dare use it. *Would he even want me to? He told me under sort of unusual circumstances…* 

To kiss him had been only natural--but as she leaned closer, her certainty had fled and she had had time to wonder what she was doing. Their mouths had met, and when he didn't move, she had been sure she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. 

Then, as though waking from a dream, he had started to respond. His touch had definitely *not* been the touch of someone innocent of such matters, but she hadn't had time to care. He had pulled her close and quite literally taken her breath away. 

Cassie sighed at the memory. *I have *never* been kissed like that before…* 

She had let herself get lost in the sensation, and a crushing disappointment had overtaken her when he pulled back. She had suddenly thought that she was the only one being swept away, and maybe he had wanted to distance himself from her feelings and expectation.

But he had been so willing to kiss her again, and the words he had uttered in the Medical bay had come back to her with startling clarity: *"Have I ever told you how much I love you?"* 

*Did he mean that?* she wondered, remembering how quickly his embrace had erased her doubts. When she considered it logically, she acknowledged how unlikely a couple they were--but all she had to do was think of him, and logic went right out the window. 

A scratching sound jolted her out of her musing, and she looked around in alarm. So far, the basic piloting skills she had learned on the Megaship, combined with the bizarre instinct that had somehow guided her understanding of the controls around her, had been enough to keep her in control of the starfighter. *But what was that?* she thought, searching for the source. 

The noise came again, fainter this time, and she looked down in sudden comprehension. She reached for the engine controls, bringing the little ship out of hyperspace and spinning it around on thruster power to backtrack along her previous course. The sound intensified once more, and she couldn't help the grin that spread across her face. 

The sound was static--and it was coming from her communicator. Not the comm system on Phantom's ship, but the morpher she wore around her wrist. The morphers could only receive transmissions over a very narrow band, and the only people who knew that specific frequency were the Astro Rangers themselves. 

She touched her communicator. "Ashley? Andros? Are you guys out there?" 

Her voice sounded strange, piercing the quiet that had surrounded her for hours. She had found the silence and the cramped quarters did not bother her a bit--until now. Now, with static the only reply to her words, she frowned. 

"Ashley?" Cassie tried again. "Andros?" 

Still no response, and she started to worry. Static usually meant the intended recipient of the transmission was out of range--yet static had been the original signal, and she could pinpoint the source on the scanners. 

Tracking the signal to its location, she found nothing. Narrowing her eyes at the scanners, she upped their sensitivity until they revealed the origin of the mysterious static: a tiny piece of free-floating metal in the vastness of space. 

It took Cassie a moment to identify it. The scanners wouldn't give her a picture, but they did give her the specs for the diminutive object. Roughly circular, less than a centimeter in diameter, and made out of--  

*One of our homing devices!* Fear stabbed at her heart and grew exponentially for a fraction of a second, which was exactly how long in took for her brain to take over again. 

The homing device *couldn't* be all that was left of her friends--it was behaving too strangely. *I didn't even know those things could be set to emit static pulses like that,* she thought, listening to the odd popping sound. *That has to have been done deliberately--but why?* 

Without thinking, she reached for the comm system. She stopped just short of signaling the Megaship, realizing as she did so that she was no longer protected by a bubble of hyperspace. Scanning the region, she could detect no sign of enemy vessels--although the scan did show occasional blips, thanks to the surface activity of a nearby star. 

*It's a good thing there are safeties built into the hyperdrive,* Cassie thought, shivering as it occurred to her for the first time how close she had come to coming out of hyperspace *in* the star rather than next to it. The stellar luminary was a relatively benign one, G-type, and it was light years away from her current position. But in hyperspace, light years passed in the blink of an eye, and *any* star's corona was an unfriendly place to end up. 

Satisfied she was alone in this part of space, she put the thought aside and touched the comm controls. The system had already been keyed to the Rangers' comm frequency when she came aboard, and she marveled, not for the first time, at how simple the setup of this ship was. It made more sense to her than the Megaship ever had, and on the Megaship she'd had Alpha and DECA to help her out. 

The little viewscreen embedded in the helm lit up, and she saw Carlos's face looking back at her. "Cassie?" he asked immediately. "Are you all right?" 

She nodded. "I'm fine, Carlos, and I've found something. The only problem is, I can't figure out what it means…" 

She trailed off as Carlos looked away, glancing at something offscreen. "TJ," he called, "message from Cassie." 

"Cassie?" she heard TJ exclaim, and a moment later he was at Carlos's side. "Oh, you morphed; good thinking." 

She glanced down inadvertently. "Well, I haven't eaten since breakfast. I don't notice as much when I'm morphed." She wished she could ask about Phantom, but she'd asked the other two times she'd contacted them as well, and she knew they'd tell her if anything was wrong. She settled for, "Is everything okay over there?" 

TJ saw through her anyway. "Phantom's fine," he promised, smiling at her. Guilt washed over her suddenly, and she was sorry she had been so obvious. Of course he was all right; TJ and Carlos were taking care of him. She wished she could see for herself, but that was no reason to make them think she doubted them. 

"In fact, I was just talking to him," TJ continued, "but I think I convinced him to go back to sleep." 

"Good. He certainly needs it," she said emphatically, wondering if he had morphed as soon as he had woken up. "Is he--" 

"Unmorphed?" TJ supplied, and she smiled a little. He knew her too well. "He should be--he was morphed while I was talking to him, but I read him the riot act, so if he didn't demorph after I left, it's not for lack of effort." 

"Thanks, Teej," she said, unable to shake the feeling of guilt. 

"Hey, someone has to keep him in line while you're gone," he teased. Her smile widened, though she knew he couldn't see it. 

Before she could repeat thanks, Carlos interrupted. "You said you found something, Cassie?" 

"Yeah," she said, dragging her mind away from Phantom. She held up her morpher, from which intermittent static was still coming. "Listen." 

"What *is* that?" TJ asked, after a few seconds. 

"I found one of the homing devices we were using," Cassie explained. "It's just floating out here, giving off random static pulses." 

The horror that flashed across Carlos's face told her that he'd taken it wrong. "No--I think it was done on purpose," she hurried to assure him. "I think one of them left it for us to find. I just can't figure out *why*." 

"A warning?" TJ suggested, listening to the noise with renewed interest. "Telling us not to follow?" 

"Not to follow the fleet, maybe," Carlos said slowly. "What if--" He snapped his fingers. "What if they managed to get off the ship they were on and started off in a different direction?" 

Cassie raised an eyebrow, glad he wouldn't see her incredulity beneath her visor. "And what if it's just to let us know they're still alive? What if it *has* no meaning, other than that?" 

TJ shook his head. "They'd figure we assumed that. I mean, if we didn't, why would we follow the fleet in the first place?" 

"Revenge," Carlos muttered darkly. 

TJ raised an eyebrow. "Well, all right. But let's think positively here, okay?" 

Cassie sighed. She couldn't help feeling this was all her fault. If she and Phantom hadn't gotten ambushed, Divatox never would have known what was happening. Andros and Ashley would still be with them, and they might even have Zordon by now. 

"Cassie?" TJ asked, concern evident in his expression no matter how far away he was. "What's wrong?" 

She shook her head. "It's just--I feel like I'm to blame for this. Phantom and I were the ones that gave all of us away…" 

"Cassie, *none* of this is your fault," Carlos interjected, and she could hear puzzlement in his voice. "Pirahnatrons could have surprised any of us. We knew how hard it was going to be before we started; no one expected this to go the way we planned." 

"Even Andros said we'd have to make it up as we went along," TJ reminded her. "You can't hold yourself responsible for something you had no control over." 

They were right, of course. "I know," she admitted, "but I can't keep from feeling guilty. I don't know why." 

They were all silent for a moment, and she felt bad all over again for interrupting the conversation. She wasn't the focus here, after all. Before she could apologize, though, TJ spoke up. 

"Cassie," he said slowly, shifting a little on the Bridge of the Megaship. "It's not your fault, and you know it. Maybe you're--" He glanced at Carlos. "Maybe someone else is influencing you." 

Carlos didn't miss the look. "What are you looking at me for? *I* didn't do anything!"

*Phantom.* She knew what he meant instantly, and she silently thanked him for his tact. She really didn't want to have to explain to Carlos, too. 

She managed to laugh. "That's not what he meant, Carlos. He's just saying I'm feeling guilty for the wrong reasons." *And he might be right…* 

Carlos shook his head. "Whatever. Let's just figure out what this beacon means so we can get our friends back." 

This time, the guilt was definitely hers, and she shot a sheepish look at TJ. He gave her a fractional shrug, but he looked a little chagrinned too. They couldn't say anything for fear of annoying Carlos further, but she reminded herself to tell him later how much she appreciated his keeping her secret. 

"It sounds like there's a pattern to that static," the Black Ranger said suddenly. Cassie had to concentrate to ignore another flash of guilt, but now that she had an idea where it was coming from, she found she could do it. 

*What is he so upset about?* she wondered, wishing she could ask TJ to go check on Phantom again. 

"Cassie, can you send us a recording of what you're hearing?" TJ asked, and she came out of her reverie. 

"Sure," she said, hoping they hadn't noticed her distraction this time. "I'm going to have to cut you off to record it, though--give me a second." 

They both nodded at her, and she ended the transmission. Still active, the comm immediately picked up the static as well, echoing the morpher on her wrist. Without thinking about it, she reached out and set the computer to record several cycles of the odd rhythm. It was something DECA did automatically on the Megaship, yet she found that her fingers knew which controls to push to make it happen. 

Cassie shook her head. *When I get back, we are going to have a *long* talk about this link thing.* 

Contacting the Megaship again, she told the others, "I'm sending the recording now." 

After a moment, TJ announced, "We've got it.' 

"DECA," Carlos requested, 'will you play that signal for us, constant replay with a pause between each cycle?" 

All three of them sat or stood, listening to the repeating static pulses, but could find no more meaning in them than they had before. 

"Maybe we're reading too much into this," TJ said at last. "What if it's just supposed to get our attention?" 

"Well, it's done that," Carlos muttered. "What were they thinking?" 

"If it *is* telling us that they're not with the fleet anymore," TJ said, going back to Carlos's earlier speculation, "then where are they?" 

"You can't isolate individual vapor trails out there, can you, Cassie?" Carlos asked.

She looked up, startled. "What?" She was embarrassed to realize that she'd been drifting again. A song had planted itself firmly in her mind, and she couldn't get rid of it no matter how she tried. "I'm sorry; I wasn't listening." 

She saw Carlos and TJ exchange glances, but neither said anything. "Can you track individual ships in the fleet's wake?" Carlos repeated patiently. "If one of them, say, headed off in a different direction, would you be able to tell?" 

She looked down at the scanners, but she already knew the answer. "No… the vapor trails are pretty intermingled. I'd have to get a fair distance away from the path of the fleet before I could pick up any individual trails at all, and a search that could cover that kind of area would take days."

"That's what I thought," Carlos said, looking disappointed nonetheless. 

"Well, we can't ignore any option," TJ pointed out. "You're right about that--so what if there *is* a message in the static?" 

"Some kind of code," Carlos agreed, leaning against a console. "Morse?" 

"Does Ashley know Morse code?" TJ asked doubtfully. 

"Andros certainly doesn't," Carlos said. 

Cassie heard their speculation, but that stupid song kept distracting her. She suspected it was because she'd been thinking about Phantom, and the chorus, in her more melancholy moments, had always reminded her of him: 

*Whenever I'm lost, I look to the stars/ I follow their path, I see where you are/ I hear your promise, you smile at me/ And we follow the stars, together and free* 

She had sung the song just recently, for her friends after dinner one night. It was a nice song, but a little unusual. It didn't have much melody; the lyrics depended almost entirely on rhythm for their musicality… 

She sat up straight in her seat, hearing the static pulses in a whole new light. "Guys," she said suddenly, cutting into their discussion. "Does that sound familiar to you?" 

They looked at each other again, probably doubting her sanity, or at least her usefulness, at this point, but she ignored it. "Listen! Think last week--that cookout we had at the beach?" 

Carlos's expression said she had clearly lost it, but TJ was frowning. "Wait. She's right; there is something familiar about it." 

Cassie hummed along with the static bursts, and his frown dissolved, to be replaced first by surprise and then excitement. "Cassie--that's the song you sang!" 

"Or at least the last part of the chorus," she agreed. "It's pretty distinctive." 

"Follow the Stars," Carlos said suddenly, and she nodded. 

"But what does that mean?" TJ demanded, frustrated once more. 

Cassie gazed out the port side of the canopy, toward the star she had almost landed in when she dropped out of hyperspace to trace the static signal. "I think I know what it means," she told them. 

***

In the cold loneliness of an escape pod, making its slow way across the interstellar void, Ashley nestled against Andros's side and wished she didn't have to move. He was the only comfort she needed in their somewhat precarious situation--but he was almost too much of a comfort. She was dangerously close to falling asleep. 

"Andros?" she whispered. 

There was no answer, and she turned her head to look up at him. Andros's eyes were closed, and the expression on his face was so peaceful she hated to wake him. But she could feel the drop in temperature the moment she tilted her head away from his shoulder, and she knew it was too chilly for either of them to be dozing off. 

"Hey, Andros," she tried again, surprised and pleased that he had relaxed enough to sleep this soundly with her so close by. 

Straightening a little, she kissed his cheek. "Come on, love," she whispered, feeling a thrill at the word but knowing it would be a while before she would dare use it when he could hear. "Time to wake up." 

Andros moved a little, and she felt his arm stiffen against her back as he stretched. "I'm awake," he murmured, without opening his eyes. She watched his chest rise as he took a deep breath, and he relaxed again, his hand settling on her shoulder once more. 

"Sure you are," she teased gently, reluctant to disturb him but suspecting he wasn't much closer to consciousness than he had been a minute ago. "C'mon, Andros; you'll have to do better than that." 

She felt him sigh, but when he cracked his eyelids open, he smiled at her. "Well, the bad news is, we're still on an escape pod in the middle of nowhere. But the good news is that I'm waking up next to Ashley Hammond." 

His tone was lazy, but the words were suspiciously clear, and she wondered how deeply asleep he had actually been. *On the other hand,* she thought, *if he's going to say things like that, I don't care.* 

She pulled herself up slowly, feeling the cool air slink in as soon as she left his embrace. But it didn't last--unfolding her arm, she reached around him and tilted his head down toward her. She saw him close his eyes as she kissed him, and when she drew back again, they fluttered open, clear and untroubled. 

"We'll have to do it again sometime," she said, knowing she shouldn't tease him so but unable to let the comment about waking up next to her pass unremarked. 

To her surprise, he didn't blush. "I'd like that," Andros told her with a smile. 

Her eyes widened, and she could only stare at him. *Does he know what he just said?* she wondered, stunned. 

Taking in her startled expression, Andros leaned closer. "Ash," he whispered. "You were just kidding, right?" 

She dissolved into relieved giggles. "Mostly," she admitted, "but you almost gave me a heart attack!" 

"Sorry," he offered, the apology somewhat spoiled by the grin on his face. "I thought you knew I wasn't serious." 

She couldn't seem to stop laughing, and she buried her face in his chest. "Andros, don't do that to me," she managed to get out, between giggles.

"It's only fair," he pointed out, and the grin came through in his voice. "You've been--I don't know--teasing me I guess, for the last few days." 

"I'm a bad influence," she said, still chuckling. "Oh, Andros…" 

He still had one arm around her, and this time she noticed him tense when the closeness suddenly bothered him. She started to draw back, but his arm tightened and he patted her back reassuringly. "It's all right; just give me a second." 

She quieted, letting him rub small circles on her back while he struggled to get his emotions under control. She didn't understand exactly what upset him--why he drew away from her on the Simudeck this morning, why he couldn't seem to let go for very long--but she trusted him when he said it was all right, so she didn't move. 

She felt him draw in a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he said after a moment. "It's just taking me a while to get used to… us. Everything is so perfect, and then I'll suddenly think that this can't really be happening--like it's a dream, or something." 

"It's real," Ashley promised softly, pressing her hands against his chest and lifting her head to look up at him.  

His brown eyes sparkled at her in the dim light, and he leaned closer. She closed her eyes, and felt him gently kiss her lips. In that instant, she knew exactly what he had meant when he said he felt as though he were in a dream… 

"Andros?" she murmured a moment later. "If it *isn't* real… I don't want to wake up." 

She could feel his breath, warm on her face when he exhaled. "Me neither," Andros agreed softly. 

"But that reminds me," he added, running a hand through her hair. "What I said before--I was kidding, but I don't want you to think… I mean, I wouldn't…" 

He looked at her helplessly, and she tried not to smile at his confusion. "What you said before?" she prompted, and he shrugged a little uncomfortably. 

"About waking up next to you," he clarified, and now she couldn't help smiling. 

"Oh," Ashley said, not sure what to say. "That." 

"Yeah," he agreed, his expression nervous. "I don't want you to think I don't *want* to--it's just--" 

"Too soon," she finished, relieved, and he nodded. 

"Andros--I'm not ready for sex," she told him bluntly. A faint smile crept over her face, and she added, "No matter how much I tease you." 

He sighed. "You don't know how glad I am to hear that." 

She swatted his arm playfully, and he grinned. "Well, what did you expect me to say?" 

Ashley laughed, but a familiar and long absent sound hummed into the relative quiet of the pod, causing her to fall silent. Startled, she glanced down at her wrist, then back up to meet Andros's wide-eyed gaze. 

The sound came again, a low-pitched but distinctive alert that for months had told them when another Ranger was trying to contact them. Andros stared at his morpher as though he'd never heard it before. 

Finally, Ashley gave her head a shake and reached for her own morpher. "This is Ashley," she said tentatively. 

"Ashley!" Cassie's voice came back, only slightly distorted by the communicator. "Are you and Andros all right?" 

She caught Andros's eye. "Yeah," she said, seeing him smile at her. "Yeah, we're all right." 

Suddenly remembering who she was talking to, she refocused her attention. "Cassie! Are *you* all right? What happened to you guys?" 

"Good to hear from you, too," Cassie's wry voice answered. "I'm going to transmit your coordinates back to the Megaship--hold on." 

"Wait," Andros said, leaning forward. "You're not on the Megaship?" 

"Cassie, what's going on?" Ashley demanded. 

"The Megaship's in hiding," Cassie told them. "The others are waiting in the damping field of the Sanctuary moon--I came in Phantom's ship to try and track you guys down." 

Ashley raised an eyebrow, but Andros nodded. "Of course. His ship has an EM cloak, and it's small enough that it would have to get really close before its mass would set off proximity alarms." 

"But what about Phantom?" Ashley wanted to know, feeling that they were missing a fundamental part of the story here. 

There was just enough hesitation before Cassie answered to make Ashley wonder. "He's not really up to going anywhere right now," she said at last. "We were ambushed, and he took a blaster shot that was meant for me. He wasn't conscious when I left." 

Ashley shot a worried look in Andros's direction, but he was frowning at her morpher. "Cassie, we don't have the power to teleport Phantom's ship back to the Megaship. Even if you can relay our coordinates, you'll have to fly back on your own." 

"I know," Cassie answered. "I'll be okay, though--I got out all right, and the fleet waiting by the moon won't be looking for someone going *in*." 

There was a pause, then Cassie told them, "The Megaship's got a coordinate lock." 

Ashley took a deep breath, thinking of the hundred questions she wanted to ask. But the sooner they teleported out, the sooner Cassie could start back, so she picked up her helmet and said only, "Be careful, Cassie." 

"I will be," her friend promised. "I'm glad you guys are okay--see you on the other side."

She had time to reach for Andros's hand before the world dissolved in swirls of golden light. Teleportation took longer than normal, but she could almost feel his presence beside her--and was it her imagination, or did crimson sparkles dot her vision just before the Megaship's Bridge reformed around her? 

The familiar scene was somehow alien after all those hours on the escape pod, and Ashley blinked a few times. She looked at Andros, who nodded and let go of her hand.  

"Power down," they announced simultaneously, and she felt her energy beginning to drain out of her. As the Power left her, the adrenaline that had been keeping her going started to fade as well--more slowly, but just as noticeably.  

Then a black blur engulfed her in a hug, and all she could worry about was suffocating. "Carlos," she gasped, hugging back and wondering if she should have stayed morphed. "What are you doing up? It must be almost midnight!" 

"With you two out there alone?" he asked indignantly. "And it's half past, by the way." 

"Half past *midnight*?" Ashley squeaked. 

"Cassie's been sending us reports every few hours or so," TJ told them, clasping Andros's hand. "It's good to have you back." 

Carlos finally let her go, and she took a moment to rub her eyes. The Megaship's lighting was substantially brighter than what her eyes were accustomed to. "It's good to *be* back," she told them fervently. "I can't believe you guys found us!" 

"Well, that song was a little obscure," Carlos said, slapping Andros on the back even as he gave the Red Ranger an evil look. "You're lucky Cassie recognized it." 

"And figured out what it meant," TJ added, drawing a confused Ashley into a second hug.

"It was the only thing I could think of," Andros mumbled, clearly overwhelmed by the attention. 

"Wait," Ashley said, slipping away from TJ to stand beside Andros again. "What song is this?" 

Andros shrugged. "I modified my homing device to emit a static pattern if it detected the presence of an astromorpher nearby. I left it behind a little while after we jettisoned, so that if anyone came looking for us, they'd have some warning that we weren't on the fleet ships anymore."

"Thanks for telling me," she said, indignant. She punched Andros lightly in the shoulder. 

"You didn't know?" TJ asked, raising an eyebrow at her. 

Andros shrugged uncomfortably. "We were busy." 

Ashley realized how that must have sounded to the others, and she shot a covert look at Carlos and TJ. She didn't help matters any by blushing, and she saw the two of them exchange startled glances. 

"Busy?" she asked Andros archly, trying to rectify the situation. "You fell asleep!" 

"You fell asleep first," he retorted. 

The other two were regarding them oddly, and Ashley was torn between blushing harder and bursting into laughter. "It's not what you think," she tried to tell them, looking to Andros for help. 

Andros only looked puzzled, and she fell for it--until she saw him turn slightly and wink at her. Startled, she tried not to give him away by grinning. "It was cold, and we were trying not to doze off…" 

Seeing that this was not helping their case, she gave up. "I'll explain in the morning," Ashley said with a sigh, ignoring TJ's obvious amusement. 

"Right," Carlos agreed knowingly. "In the morning." 

She glared at him, and he held up his hands to ward her off, grinning. "Sorry--you have to admit, it sounds pretty compromising, Ash." 

Ashley just shook her head. "Boys!" she exclaimed, exasperated. 

"Aw, come on," TJ said, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. "We were just kidding. And what would you do without us, anyway?" 

"Have some peace and quiet?" she suggested, seeing Andros bite his lip to keep from smiling. She was tempted to stick her tongue out at him, but she didn't want to draw attention to him now, after he had so carefully avoided the argument. 

"I hate to remind you, Ash, but you're a Power Ranger," Carlos said. "Peace and quiet isn't part of the job description." 

"Maybe not," Andros said, joining the conversation at last. He came over and put his hand on her shoulder. "But sleep is, and it's something we all need right now." 

"That kind of 'sleep' won't help," Carlos cracked, and Ashley made a face at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Andros roll his eyes and give the Black Ranger The Look, and she cheered mentally. 

"I'll wait up for Cassie," TJ volunteered, apparently deciding it was in his best interests to ignore the exchange. "You guys get some rest." 

Torn, Ashley hesitated. She was *tired*--but so must Cassie be, and the Pink Ranger had devoted much of the day to searching for her and Andros. It was thanks to her that they *could* sleep right now. 

"Come on," Andros said, tugging gently on her shoulder. "She'll understand, and you really do need some sleep." 

"Me?" Ashley exclaimed, but she let him draw her toward the lift. "What about you?" 

"I'm coming with you, aren't I?" he asked, guiding her through the lift doors and stepping in behind her. She didn't even want to know what the others read into that, and she was almost too tired to care. 

As the doors closed, she heard TJ say, "You too, Carlos. I don't mind, really." 

Then there was only the hum of the lift, and she leaned back against the wall. She didn't remember closing her eyes, but they flew open at the slight jolt that signaled the lift's arrival. 

She pushed away from the wall with an effort, and followed Andros wordlessly down the hall. He didn't stop at his door; instead, he walked with her to her room and waited while she keyed the door open. 

Ashley turned around to face him, and he smiled at her. "You're pretty when you're tired," he told her softly, and she looked down, brushing hair out of her face self-consciously. 

His touch surprised her, and she let him tilt her head upward. Then he kissed her, and she leaned against him, suddenly wishing he wasn't leaving. They'd been together almost nonstop since they'd woken up that morning, and she wondered what it would be like to be alone again. 

They clung to each other for a little longer, until Andros finally stepped away. "'Night, Ash," he whispered. 

"Good night," she answered quietly, watching him turn and head for his own room.

"Andros?" she asked, and he stopped, looking over his shoulder questioningly. "I'm glad we talked." 

"About what?" he asked, after a moment's reflection. 

"Everything," she said simply, and he nodded. 

"Me, too," he told her, the corner of his mouth quirking up. 

She raised her hand and curled her fingers in a half-wave, and he nodded. "Good night…" 

"'Night," she replied, stifling a yawn. She watched until he disappeared into his room. 

Hitting the control pad by her own door, she turned the lights up to half-strength and let the door close behind her. Almost automatically, she pulled her boots off and tossed her jacket on the chair.  

As she brushed her teeth, it occurred to her that she hadn't eaten in far too long--but she couldn't face the thought of the long walk to the Glider holding bay. Even the process of eating itself sounded like too much work right now, so she simply collapsed onto her bunk --in tank top and uniform pants--and promised her stomach a large breakfast when she woke up. 

Ashley felt sleep overtake her almost immediately. Just as she started to doze off, though, she was jolted awake by some internal alarm. She tried to calm her heart, knowing the adrenaline surge was only a side effect of those hours on the escape pod when she *couldn't* let herself sleep. 

Inhaling deeply, she reminded herself of where she was. *It's okay,* she told herself. *It's safe here. No enemy about to blow you to pieces; no icy cold waiting to sneak in while you rest your eyes.* 

She relaxed slowly, and sleep waited just around the corner… 

This time, she was sure she actually fell asleep. It was several minutes later that she awoke, heart pounding and certain her fingers were about to freeze.

*I don't believe this,* Ashley thought, staring at the bunk above her. *I didn't have this much trouble sleeping on the escape pod, for Heaven's sake.* 

There was a quiet knock on her door, and she groaned. Pushing her blanket off of her, she rolled clumsily to her feet, hampered by stiffness from sheer fatigue and remembered cold.

Keying the door open, she squinted into the too-bright light of the hallway. "Andros?" she whispered, too tired to be surprised. 

He nodded miserably, and she touched his arm in sympathy. "Can't sleep?" she murmured.

"I tried," he said quietly. "I keep waking up. It was easier to sleep on that pod than it is to sleep here, *remembering* the pod." 

It was her turn to nod. "I know. Believe me, I understand." She hesitated, but she was too tired to care what he thought at this point. "Do you want to come in?" 

"Can I?" he asked, lifting his gaze at last to search her expression. 

Without a word, she stepped aside to let him enter. The door closed as soon as he stepped through, and they stood there in darkness for several seconds before it occurred to her to turn the lights up. 

They looked at each other, exhausted and yet unable to sleep, and the words wouldn't come. Finally, Ashley walked over to her bunk, took the pillow from the top bunk and placed it with her own against the wall. Climbing onto the bunk, she leaned against the makeshift backrest and cocked her head at him. "Sit down?" she asked quietly. 

He joined her without hesitation, crawling over the mattress and propping himself up on the pillows. He let his head lean back against the wall, and she saw his eyes slide closed. She sat forward, rearranging her legs, and she felt Andros's arm go around her bare shoulders. 

With a contented smile, Ashley leaned back and snuggled closer to him. Seconds later, she was fast asleep.

***

The ride back had been less than eventful, and Cassie had been hard-pressed to keep herself focused. As it grew later, even the Power couldn't keep the stresses of the day from catching up with her, and she found herself yawning deeply and often. 

By the time she had the Sanctuary moon on her scanners, she could only offer thanks that Divatox's ships were all concentrated on keeping them in, rather than keeping visitors out. She had been able to maneuver past their tight guard earlier, but now she just let the ship's cloak carry her through, figuring that refuge was only seconds away if they turned on her. 

The cloak did its job, however, and by skill or sheer luck she avoided triggering any kind of hostile reaction. Coasting into the damping field, she winced as the nav computer went dark, followed quickly by scanners and short-range communications. 

She hyperboosted a signal to DECA, and the hangar bay doors at the back of the Megaship started to open for her. *This is where I cross my fingers,* she thought, suiting actions to thoughts. 

Firing the forward thrusters, Cassie slowed the ship to little more than a crawl. She inched forward on residual momentum, depending entirely on her eyes to line Phantom's ship up with the gap in the doors. 

The doors crept closer, and closer, finally surrounding the clearsteel canopy and swallowing the little fighter whole. She breathed a sigh of relief as the engines cleared the doors, which slid shut behind her with a thunderous roar that didn't reach her ears through the intervening vacuum. 

The antigravs came on automatically when the scanners, online again after the doors closed out the effects of the damping field, detected the deck's proximity. She felt the ship balance out, and it settled slowly to the ground amid a fog of coolant. 

The warning bright orange warning lights on the canopy seals flickered to green once the bay had repressurized, and she popped them open. The canopy lifted to allow her departure, and she clambered out of the cockpit and slid stiffly to the deck below. 

Just then, the doors connecting the hangar to the rest of the ship flew open, and a figure in gray stepped through them. "TJ!" Cassie exclaimed, waving. 

He strode toward her, and she crossed her wrists in front of her chest. Flinging her arms to the side, she was too tired to do anything but use the focus words. "Power down!" 

Her Ranger uniform disappeared, and she had time for a single breath before TJ reached her and wrapped her in a fierce hug. "Good job, Cass," he whispered, and she smiled. 

"I couldn't have done it without all of you," she assured him, hugging back. "Thanks for backing me up out there." 

"That's what teams are for," he said, letting her go and clapping her shoulder affectionately. "So, are you ready for some serious shut-eye, or what?" 

Cassie shook her head. "There's someone I want to check on first." 

Something flashed across TJ's face, an inexplicable sadness that she'd never seen before. "I thought you might," he said. The look was gone as quickly as it had come, and she dismissed it as her imagination. 

"Just remember to go to bed afterwards," he added, smiling, and she nodded. 

"Good night, TJ," she said, her mind racing ahead to Phantom. 

"Oh--" About to leave, he paused. "I almost forgot." TJ held something up, and she caught the glint of metal when he flipped it through the air in her direction. 

She caught it instinctively, and stared at the little data disk in fascination. "What is it?" 

"Listen and find out," he suggested over his shoulder, as he sauntered off. "See you in the morning, Cassie." 

"See you then," she agreed, still puzzled by the disk. 

Finally, she headed for the Medical bay, wondering what TJ could have given her. The lift deposited her at the end of Deck four, and she wandered down the corridor, turning the disk over in her fingers. 

She came to an abrupt halt in front of the bay, only noticing then that the doors were closed. And they had not slid open at her approach, which was almost as unusual. 

"DECA?" she asked. "Why are the Medical bay doors closed?" 

"The Medical bay has been locked from the inside," DECA replied. 

"Locked?" Cassie repeated incredulously. "By whom?" 

"The Phantom Ranger set a privacy lock on the doors two point five hours ago," DECA told her. 

Taken aback, she considered that. Remembering TJ's confidence that Phantom had demorphed, she assumed he had locked the doors so as to retain some measure of anonymity--but why he still wanted it, she could not fathom. 

Slowly, she turned away. She could override the lock, but she couldn't bring herself to disregard his wishes to such an extent. He was here, and he was recovering. That would have to be enough for now. 

Back in her room, she paused in her preparations for bed to regard the disk still clutched in her hand. Going over to her terminal, she touched the control panel beneath the computer's diskreader. It popped open, and she placed the object TJ had given her inside. The reader closed automatically, and she waited to see what would happen. 

The disk was audio only, and the strains of a carelessly strummed guitar emerged from the speakers. *The cookout at the beach,* she thought, smiling as she recognized the tune--and the background noise. *He must have had a recorder going that whole time.* 

Her own voice emanated from the speakers, strong and true, singing to embrace the camaraderie that had surrounded them that night and to chase away the campfire shadows. The deepening twilight had closed in, but their laughter and friendship kept it at bay.  

*And we follow the stars, together and free…*