Disclaimer: I didn't credit whoever owns Sesame Street last time for that Cookie Monster reference… Is that bad? :) Thanks for making such cool characters, Saban.
Comings and Goings
by Starhawk
"Hey, Astronema!" Elgar's strident voice echoed across the Bridge of the Dark Fortress.
She turned, a glower darkening her youthful features. As usual, Elgar was oblivious to her displeasure, but that didn't stop her from glaring whenever he spoke. Soon, Astronema had vowed, she would find a way to send that incompetent buffoon back to wherever he'd come from.
Elgar's next words, however, ensured that today would not be that day. "Four of the Rangers just teleported down to the lake," he reported, loudly enough to deafen several nearby quantrons.
"Four?" Astronema repeated, momentarily distracted. She caught Ecliptor's eye, returning his speculative look with one of her own. "Is the Phantom Ranger with them?"
"Nope, he's not," Elgar said, as proudly as though he himself were responsible for this fact.
Ecliptor straightened, and she saw her bodyguard clench his fist around his broadsword. "Send down the quantrons," Astronema ordered.
***
As the sapphire glow cleared from TJ's eyes, he looked around with appreciation. Andros must have had a map on the tactical screen in front of him when he chose this location, because this spot was about as private as Angel Grove's lake got. The trees came right down to the water, hiding the Rangers from the beach on the other side.
Glancing across the water, TJ noted that the most popular beach area was empty this early. Still, there was no way to know how long that would continue, and he was thankful for the relative security their present location gave them.
*Now, as long as the Aquitians don't wait too long to put in an appearance,* he thought, looking skyward. Although no one would be able to sneak up on them here, the colored streaks of teleportation arching across the sky would be easy enough to see if someone were looking for them--and there were some people just curious enough to follow them.
"Hey," Ashley said, cutting into his musing. "Where's Cassie?"
TJ's gaze returned to the little clearing in which he and his friends stood--he and his friends, minus one. Cassie was not among them. *For that matter,* he realized, putting the pieces together in his mind, *where's Phantom?*
***
The one known as Phantom had seen a lot of hurt in his life. He had seen friends left behind and teammates lost, and he had seen the beginnings of a war that was currently shaking many of the League worlds to their very foundations. At one point in his life, he had thought he was so numb to pain that he would never feel anything again.
His first visit to Earth had changed all that, though. At the request of a friend, he had ventured across the universe to a small blue-green marble in orbit around a nondescript G-type star. He had sought out the Ranger team that defended it--this, one of the least significant of the League worlds, yet perpetually plagued with would-be conquerors. And here, on this out of the way world, he found something that most of his people spent a good part of their lives searching for.
He had known her as soon as he saw her, and had known, then, that he was not so impervious to emotion as he had thought. Her smile had kept him on Earth longer than he had intended to stay, and had made him return more often than he could justify. He had felt the bond between them, even that first time, and with that recognition he lost the impassivity that had protected him for almost two years.
Sometimes, he wanted that feeling of indifferent numbness back. More often, though, he felt he wouldn't trade the joy he felt at knowing her for anything. Even when, as now, that knowing brought him pain.
The look of betrayal on Cassie's face cut through his heart in a way nothing had for years. And it was almost worse to know that he could take that look off her face with a single sentence, and yet didn't dare.
Instead, his words were the opposite of those he wished he could say, and he hated himself for them even as he spoke. "I *must* leave… I'm sorry, Cassie."
She stared at him, still with that awful expression that made him feel as though there was nothing he could have said that would hurt her more. "I understand *that*," she said at last, "but to leave without even telling us… without telling me? Why would you do that?"
*This is why,* he thought, unable to look away from her sorrowful eyes. *I didn't think I could do it if it meant looking into your eyes and saying that I was leaving you again.*
"Phantom," she said, and he closed his eyes, knowing that every moment he lingered made it harder to justify leaving to her. But her hand rested gently on his arm and her voice fell like music on his ears, and he couldn't tear himself away.
"Phantom, please talk to me," Cassie said, and he opened his eyes to find her staring straight through his armor to his very soul.
"I…" He finally looked away, unable to bear the pleading look on her face. "I can't." Suddenly, the edges of his vision darkened, and he felt the familiar exhaustion catching up with him. He fought it off with an effort.
"Why not?" Cassie insisted, frustrated but still so gentle with him that he almost wished she would yell. It would make her distress easier to cope with.
"I have a mission to complete," he heard himself say, as though from a distance.
"What mission? To find Zordon?" Cassie's fingers tightened on his arm. "We all want that. Why can't--"
He jerked his head back as he started to nod off, but he knew he had given himself away. Cassie's arm was around him, now, lifting him from the chair and helping him into the lift. Her strength astonished him--or it would have, had he been thinking coherently enough to be astonished.
The next thing he knew, she was guiding him into the Medical bay, and DECA was saying something too quietly for him to hear. Then he was lying on the patient bed, staring up at Cassie's worried face.
Suddenly, she looked away, and it took him a moment to register that the alarm was shrieking at them. He struggled to sit up, knowing the sound meant danger and that it was his duty to help. But Cassie pushed him back down with one hand, giving him a glare that pierced the fog surrounding him. "*You're* not going," he heard her say, very distinctly. She said something else, this time to DECA, and gave him one more look before she disappeared.
He tried to hold the darkness at bay, but it would not be put off. The fog moved in closer, and he finally succumbed to its embrace, taking that last image of Cassie with him into oblivion.
***
"This is starting to get *old*!" Ashley yelled, using the emphasis on the last word to focus her energy into a hurricane kick that sent a nearby quantron flying into a tree.
"I mean," she continued, "you'd think Astronema would have something *better* to do--" As before, she made the accentuated word into a kiyah, this time punching a quantron in the chest. "--than send her endless robotic minions after us!"
Carlos tried to hold back a grin. Unmorphed, the Yellow Ranger was holding quantrons off with an ease he envied, even as he recognized the driving force behind it. Ashley was really mad now, and she was letting everyone know it. *If those quantrons know what's good for them,* he thought, *they'll stay away from her this morning.*
A brief gleam of pink sparkles amid the silver of the quantrons signaled Cassie's arrival. Assuming she'd tell them if it was important, Carlos didn't comment on her absence. TJ, on the other hand, had no such compunction.
"Nice of you to join us!" he shouted across the clearing.
"I'll go back to the Megaship if you want," Cassie retorted, blocking a blow and twisting the offending arm over the quantron's shoulder, costing it both its balance and standing position as it hit the ground with a thump.
Just then, further reinforcements arrived in the form of the multicolored water molecule pattern that characterized the Aquitian teleportation system. Fully morphed, the Rangers of Aquitar appeared in the clearing. They took only seconds to assess the situation before they, too, plunged into the fray.
Within moments, Carlos found himself without an opponent. The Aquitian Rangers were keeping every single one of the quantrons occupied, while the team from the Megaship caught a breather.
He looked around in the momentary lull, counting heads, just to make sure. Andros and Ashley stood off to his right, shoulders almost touching as they recovered together. TJ was only about a meter to Carlos's left, eyes darting across the fight, ready to leap back in at a moment's notice. Cassie stood on the other side of the clearing, and by the intensity of her expression, wanted nothing more than to hit something, hard.
*She stayed behind to talk to Phantom,* Carlos realized, feeling rather silly for not figuring it out earlier. *So--why does she look so upset?*
The Yellow Aquitian Ranger fell, and Carlos abandoned his train of thought, ready to lend aid if necessary. But the Blue Ranger beat him to it, sending quantrons sprawling as he moved closer to his fallen comrade and offered a hand. Yellow shoulder rolled backward and came to her feet without assistance, but she took the hand anyway in a surprisingly affectionate gesture.
*Romance is in the air,* Carlos thought wryly, inadvertently glancing at Andros and Ashley again. They both looked away from the fight at the same moment, locking gazes for a breath, and Carlos smiled.
He'd been jealous at first, he had to admit. Returning his gaze to the fight, he watched the Aquitians decimate the quantrons' ranks, idly remembering the day they'd met Andros. He'd known Ashley for years, and he'd recognized the look she gave Andros when he demorphed the first time: complete absorption.
Andros's appearance had surprised them all. Although they hadn't been prepared to see an alien when he demorphed, they certainly hadn't expected a human. Carlos had looked over to exchange glances with Ashley--a gesture they had made often that day, one of reassurance and support in the completely foreign environment in which they'd found themselves.
Only this time, Ashley hadn't returned it. He saw her gaze fix on Andros, saw her fall into his eyes and pull back immediately, the surprise on her face easily readable to him as she realized the effect their reluctant savior had had on her.
Even then, though, she didn't look in Carlos's direction. She'd stepped instead toward Andros, circling him with a speculative look on her face and poking him the way she might an doubtful bowl of jello. Carlos had recognized it as her way of distancing herself, but her haste to introduce herself on Cassie's heels made it clear she hadn't succeeded.
*She had a crush on him from the beginning,* Carlos thought, as the White Ranger tossed a quantron to the ground. *And somehow… he's come to mean more to her than that.*
*I'm glad,* Carlos decided finally. The five alien Rangers were driving the remaining quantrons back, toward the lake. *We'll never stop being friends--but her heart is his, and as long as Andros knows what a good thing he has, there's no reason for me to get involved.*
The quantrons evaporated into double pinpoints of light, vanishing into the midmorning air. The Aquitian Rangers broke out into cheers and congratulations, jolting Carlos out of his reflections. *Daydreaming during a battle,* he thought ruefully. *Ashley would laugh.*
The Aquitian Rangers were making their way back into the clearing, and Carlos, TJ, and Cassie moved over to flank Andros and Ashley. The alien Rangers positioned themselves so that the two teams faced each other at a distance of perhaps a meter and a half. There was an awkward pause while it seemed possible the Aquitians wouldn't demorph--but then, at some signal that Carlos missed, all five of them touched fingertips and thumbs together and their Ranger uniforms vanished.
He took in their black V-neck tunics, lined with purple and open far enough to reveal a shirt of their color beneath. Letting his gaze slide down the line, he quickly tried to match face with color for future reference--and stopped short when he reached the Blue Ranger.
Then Andros stepped slightly forward, and Carlos's attention returned to his team. "I am called Andros," the Kerovan Ranger introduced himself. "And these are Carlos, Ashley, Cassie, and TJ."
Each Ranger nodded as he said their name, and Ashley waved. Carlos noticed, though, when he snuck a glance at his teammates, that he wasn't the only one to take a second look at the Blue Aquitian Ranger.
"I am Cetaci," the White Aquitian Ranger declared in return. "My teammates are Aura, Delphinius, Cestria, and Billy. We greet you, Rangers of Earth." Bringing their fingertips together once more, each of the alien Rangers bowed.
Carlos gave his head a quick shake. *So it wasn't my overtired brain,* he thought, amazed. *Billy is definitely not an Aquitian name.* And the Blue Ranger was decidedly human looking.
Andros didn't seem the least bit surprised. "We welcome you, Rangers of Aquitar," he replied, imitating the bow, "and we thank you for your assistance, both past and future."
"Yeah, you have good timing," TJ put in, apparently unable to abide all this formality.
The Blue Aquitian Ranger grinned, but Cetaci merely cocked her head at TJ and said, "We came when we were called."
"Well, thanks," Cassie said, her expression cheerful even if Carlos knew her well enough to see through it. He wondered again what had transpired on the Megaship in their absence. "With Astronema's recent attacks, we wouldn't be able to risk leaving Earth to go after Zordon if you hadn't come."
"We are always willing to help our friends on Earth," the Yellow Aquitian Ranger told her. Turning her head to regard the human at her side, Cestria added, "You have always been there for us."
There was no mistaking the tender look that flashed between the two, and Carlos wished he could ask how their team had come to include someone so obviously not of Aquitar. *Then again,* he thought, looking over at the "alien" Ranger of their own team, *we've got Andros. Think of the stories we could trade with these people…*
***
As the Aquitian Rangers dissolved into topaz haze, something occurred to Ashley. When the Bridge reformed around her, she inquired of no one in particular, "Where exactly are they going to stay?"
Right on top of her, Carlos asked, "Who is *Billy*?"
They looked at each other, and Ashley saw TJ fold his arms across his chest. "As long as we're talking about unanswerable questions," the Blue Ranger said mildly, "can someone tell me how they knew to arrive morphed?"
A pervasive quiet settled over the Bridge, and Ashley glanced at Andros. He didn't appear to be paying the slightest bit of attention. Rather, his gaze roamed across the Bridge with an expression of confusion that he usually reserved for the actions of his shipmates.
Frowning, Andros wanted to know, "Where's Phantom?"
That brought Ashley up short. In the excitement of meeting the Aquitians, she had almost forgotten about their old ally. She shot a quick look around the Bridge as well, but Andros was right: Phantom was nowhere to be seen.
"Cassie?" TJ asked, and Ashley turned her attention to her friend--and found her halfway across the Bridge, heading for the lift.
Cassie barely paused. "He collapsed," she told them over her shoulder.
"What!" Ashley's startled exclamation was echoed by TJ, and Cassie halted in the doorway to look at them.
"A few minutes after you guys left, he just couldn't stand up any more," she said, the façade of cheerfulness that she had worn on the planet now gone. Worry had replaced it, tinged with an anger that Ashley didn't understand. "Even sitting down, he couldn't seem to stay conscious. I took him down to the Medical bay…"
Here, Cassie shrugged helplessly. "He wouldn't tell me what was wrong, though, and the alarm went off before DECA could check him out."
Eyes wide, Ashley looked around at the others, catching first Carlos's eye, then TJ's. They both looked as shocked as she felt, but TJ recovered quickest.
"We're coming with you," he informed Cassie, striding across the Bridge to join her. TJ gave her shoulder an sympathetic squeeze while they waited for the others to catch up, and Ashley saw Cassie send a small smile in his direction.
As they piled into the lift, Ashley felt someone bump into her from behind. Turning, she saw Andros duck his head, an apologetic expression on his face. "Sorry," he offered, and she waved it away, moving over to give him room.
"Deck four," Cassie ordered, and the doors slid shut. The trip took only seconds, but Ashley could sense the Pink Ranger's impatience nonetheless.
They emerged at last onto Deck four, heading for the open doors of the Medical bay. Like most of the other vital areas of the ship, the doors here were locked open for easier passage during an emergency.
By some unspoken agreement, they all let Cassie enter first. Phantom lay still on the only patient bed currently set up, showing no sign that he was aware of their presence.
Behind her, Ashley heard Andros's sharp intake of breath as he caught sight of his friend for the first time. She fumbled for his hand and tangled her fingers in his, looking for support as much as lending it. She had seen Phantom like this only once before, and it had been an experience she had never thought--or wanted--to repeat.
It was a minute before anyone could find words. Even Cassie, who had been the one to bring him here, seemed unwilling or unable to speak. She simply stood beside the bed, staring down at their reluctant ally.
Carlos was the first to break the silence. "DECA?" he asked, his voice tentative in the hushed atmosphere. "What's wrong with him?"
DECA's camera had been on when they entered the room, and now it turned slightly to observe Carlos. "The Phantom Ranger is not injured in any way," she replied.
Cassie looked up at that, and Ashley was surprised to see a glimmer of tears in her eyes. "DECA, he's unconscious," she pointed out quietly.
"He is asleep," DECA corrected.
Andros reached across Ashley and grabbed the datapad that had been linked to the medical scanners. "His vital signs are low, and his adrenaline level is too high…" The Red Ranger looked up. "That's nothing that can't be explained by extreme fatigue, though."
*When *does* Phantom sleep?* Ashley wondered suddenly. She'd never thought about it before, but he couldn't possibly live on his ship. *So where does he go?*
"So… he just needs rest?" TJ asked, apparently having trouble with the concept.
Andros nodded. "I don’t know when he'll wake up, but when he does, he should be all right."
Cassie seemed somewhat reassured by this news. Looking more closely at her friend, though, Ashley saw the same hint of anger that had lingered in her expression earlier. Before she could wonder about it, though, Andros's fingers tightened on hers, distracting her.
Startled, she looked in his direction. His last comment had been directed at TJ, but he was staring at her with a look on his face that she couldn't interpret.
Ashley cocked her head, silently questioning him. He shook his head once, but Ashley just raised her eyebrows, not sure she wanted to let it go. It was more curiosity than anything else… What did he think about when he fixed that impassive gaze on something--or someone?
"I'll tell you later," Andros murmured. His tone, quiet though it was, carried clearly in the silent medical bay. Ashley saw Carlos glance at them, but TJ pretended not to hear. And Cassie… Cassie was so lost in thought that she might really *not* have heard.
"That's what you said before," Ashley whispered back, referring to his words when they'd returned to breakfast after the fight in the warehouse district. At his concerned look, she smiled to show she was only teasing.
With only a brief hesitation, Andros smiled back, and she caught her breath. He didn't often smile like that--a real smile, one that took the seriousness out of his eyes, not just a quirk of the lips--and to know it was for her made her feel warm inside.
"Hey, Andros," Carlos interrupted quietly, moving a step or two closer to them. "I know we're all worried about Phantom, but Ashley had a good point earlier. The Aquitians don't exactly have a place to stay on Earth…"
"Yeah," TJ agreed, moving away from Cassie and Phantom to join the group that now clustered against the far wall of the Medical bay. "We can't ask them to teleport back and forth from Aquitar."
"They won't," Andros said. He let go of Ashley's hand, whether out of self-consciousness or something else, she couldn't tell. "That's why we met them at the lake--the Aquitian team has a seaship that simulates the environment on Aquitar. They use it whenever they leave their planet for extended periods of time. It uses less power when it's submerged, so I sent them the coordinates for the lake, and the seaship teleported at the same time they did."
"Wait a minute," Carlos objected. "I admit I don't know much Earth Ranger history, and what I do know I can't keep straight, but I'm sure the Aquitians traveled to Earth at least once. And wasn't one of the major problems their difficulty surviving in our environment?" He looked at TJ and Ashley for confirmation.
Andros only shrugged. "If they visited your planet more than a year ago, it's no wonder. Their seaship is a relatively new vessel; I don't think it's even been field-tested more than a dozen times."
"And they trust it?" Ashley frowned, knowing how hypocritical she sounded but unable to help it. The Rangers had, after all, put their faith in completely untried mechanisms before, and in the middle of battle no less. But if there was one thing all those science labs had drilled into her, it was to never trust results until you'd completed as many trials as were feasible.
"It was designed by Billy Cranston," Andros replied, as though that explained it.
Ashley shot a bemused look at TJ, who just shrugged. Carlos, on the other hand, got it immediately. "Billy Cranston?" he repeated. "As in, Billy the Blue Aquitian Ranger?"
Andros nodded, and from the patient bed, a hoarse voice agreed, "One of the most brilliant minds on this side of the universe."
"Phantom?" Ashley exclaimed, following the words to their source.
They gathered around him once more, this time with an air of hope, rather than quiet fear. He managed to sit up, but was clearly too weak to maintain the position for long. Without a word, Cassie sat beside him and put her arm behind his shoulders for support. Phantom didn't object.
"Are you all right?" were the first words out of Andros's mouth.
Phantom nodded, although it seemed more of an effort than it had earlier. "I will be fine."
*Not,* Ashley noticed, *that he really answered the question…*
"Man, you had us worried there for a while," TJ said, shaking his head at Phantom.
"Yeah," Carlos agreed. "Don’t scare us like that." Ashley wondered if he too was reliving that nightmarish time in the Power Chamber a few months back, when a scene vaguely reminiscent of this had played itself out.
"It was not my intent to alarm you," Phantom assured them, although the concern still present on Cassie's face was mute testament to his lack of success in that respect.
"So who's this Billy Cranston?" TJ wanted to know, after an awkward pause.
"You do not know of him?" Phantom sounded puzzled by this news. "He was an Earth Ranger for several years."
Surprised, Ashley looked at TJ and Carlos, but neither of them showed any signs of recognition either. "Dimitria didn't talk about the other Rangers much," she offered, trying to remember what Justin had said about prior teammates. She and her friends had been given their powers by the former Turbo team, but "Billy" hadn't been a part of it, as far as she knew.
Phantom started to shake his head, but the way he aborted the gesture mid-movement made Ashley wonder how well he really was. "He was a Ranger under Zordon, not Dimitria. I believe he was a member of your two earliest teams."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Carlos shrug uncomfortably. "We were recruited rather suddenly. We barely had time to learn each others' names, let alone all the Rangers' before us."
"And it never slowed down after that," TJ added wryly.
"I understand," Phantom said with a small nod. "Billy Cranston left Earth shortly after he gave up his Ranger status, and succeeded in making his name known on both Aquitar and Triforia." He paused, but Ashley couldn't tell if he was having trouble speaking or just couldn't decide how much they wanted to know. "He returned to Earth for a short time before leaving the planet again, this time to live on Aquitar."
"And he's a genius?" Ashley asked, wishing they *had* had time to learn about their predecessors. They obviously led interesting lives, even outside their time as Power Rangers.
Phantom didn't reply right away, and Andros put in, "He's known for his mechanical and scientific knowledge."
Finally, Phantom managed to nod. "He is also a remarkable diplomat. Billy negotiated the Hydro-Aquitian peace accords several years ago, and he has been instrumental in keeping Aquitar out of the current war."
*It sounds like he knows what he's talking about,* Ashley noted. *He's either quoting some major news network, or he has some diplomatic connections himself…*
"Which reminds me," TJ began. "Would someone please explain this war to me? All I know is that Eltare's been conquered and Zordon was captured."
The Pink Ranger shifted slightly, and Ashley thought at first that she would speak. Then she realized that Cassie had turned a little to the side, bracing Phantom with her shoulder rather than just her arm. *He's leaning a lot heavier on her than he was a minute ago,* Ashley thought, glancing at Andros to see if he'd noticed.
The frown on his face said he had. "I'll tell you what I know," Andros told them. "But if we go to the Bridge, I can show you how to access Interstellar News. That way you can keep up on your own if you want."
TJ nodded. Ashley saw the look he sent in Cassie's direction, and the flash of understanding when he, too, realized that she was no longer just supporting Phantom--she was holding him up.
"Come on, man," TJ said, clapping Carlos on the back. "Let's go learn something."
"On summer vacation?" Carlos complained, his expression one of mock-horror. However, he too had caught the reason for Andros's suggestion, and he allowed himself to be led out of the room.
Ashley glanced at Phantom one more time before following. He had slumped against Cassie as soon as the four of them turned to leave, and Ashley suspected that being morphed was the only thing keeping him from going catatonic.
*Take care of him, Cassie,* she thought, preceding Andros out of the Medical bay. From the look on Cassie's face, the Pink Ranger wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon, and with a little luck, her presence alone would be enough to convince Phantom to stay put--*at least until he can stand without help,* Ashley thought.
***
It didn't take Andros long to tell what he knew of the war. "Phantom is the one you should be asking," he said at last. "He was based on Eltare for several years, up to until a few months ago, when Dark Spectre started gathering and coordinating the forces of evil into a cohesive enough unit that they could start causing serious trouble."
"But he said earlier that he'd been out of touch," TJ objected.
Andros dismissed the remark with a shake of his head and a touch of sarcasm. "For Phantom, that just means he hasn't attended any interstellar strategy sessions lately. I've never known him to be more than a week behind current events, at the most."
"So why didn't he know what our official designation was?" Carlos demanded.
Andros looked at him. "Did *you* know?" he asked pointedly.
Carlos shrugged, exchanging glances with Ashley. For some inexplicable reason, she covered her mouth and tilted her head down so she was staring at the floor. When Andros looked over at her, he saw repressed laughter on her face, and he wondered what he'd missed this time.
Shooting a covert glance in TJ's direction, Andros noted the Blue Ranger's puzzlement with relief. TJ apparently hadn't caught the joke either.
"No, I didn't know," Carlos admitted after a moment, once Ashley had managed to compose herself. He returned his attention to Andros, who decided to ignore the incident entirely.
"DECA, are communications still being jammed?" he asked, counting on the onboard computer system having overheard their earlier conversation with Phantom on the Bridge.
"No, Andros," DECA replied. "Shortly after their arrival, the Aquitians Rangers deactivated the jamming field."
Unsurprised, Andros said only, "Send our thanks." He made a mental note to speak with the Blue Aquitian Ranger later, when they weren't so pressed for time. Now, though, he was already busy at the station Ashley usually supervised. Odd how he had started to associate places with certain members of the team, despite their relatively short time on the Megaship.
"This is how you access IN," he said over his shoulder, and the others gathered around the station as well to peer at the console in front of him. Andros took them through the basic steps of logging onto the news network, then stepped back and let them try it on their own. It wasn't difficult; it had simply never occurred to him that they wouldn't know how to do it, and none of the Rangers had ever asked.
"DECA," he said, watching Ashley play with the settings on the screen. "Set the scanners still calibrated for long range to start scanning for interdimensional energy signatures." Zordon, and others who were not entirely of this dimension, were easily detectable through the distortion their presence caused in the space-time continuum. The distortion was maskable, of course--but if Zordon was in transit, whatever shielding Dark Spectre had around him would be temporary and possibly incomplete.
"Yes, Andros," DECA acknowledged.
Andros crossed to the auxiliary scanner controls, intending to add to the preprogrammed search parameters. Zordon's dimensional distortion was the most obvious thing to scan for, but Phantom had mentioned that the Eltaran had been under Divatox's guard when he was taken from Hercuron. He augmented the scanners' search with instructions to flag any indication of Divatox's army and alert the Rangers to it, as DECA would alert them if any trace of Zordon was detected.
Suddenly aware of someone's presence at his shoulder, he looked up. *I must be getting used to them,* Andros thought, *if I didn't even hear her come up behind me.*
He turned toward Ashley, who was staring curiously at the console. "You're adjusting the scanners," she observed. "Why? I heard you tell DECA to scan for Zordon already."
"DECA knows what to look for when I ask her to scan for Zordon," Andros explained, leaning back against the console to give himself a little extra space. Ashley had a tendency to stand too close, and now that he didn't have to imagine what it would feel like to hold her, it was more distracting than ever. "After what Phantom told us, though, I figured the scanners should look for Divatox's ships as well."
Ashley nodded slowly. "Yeah…" She looked over her shoulder before asking softly, "Do you really think we're going to find him?"
"Zordon?" Andros looked at her in surprise. He'd never seen Ashley doubtful--she was one of the most relentlessly cheery people he knew.
She nodded again, folding her arms. The gesture made her look suddenly smaller, and at first Andros didn't know what to say. "I don’t know," he told her after a moment of studying her. "But I have to believe we will--maybe not this time, but soon."
Ashley stared back at him, considering his words. Disconcerted once again, this time by her direct gaze, he had to force himself not to look away. At last, she started to smile--the same bright smile she had used on him at breakfast that had nearly made him drop his glass.
"Thanks, Andros," she said quietly. "You're right, of course--sometimes it just makes me feel better to hear it, you know?"
He managed a quick smile in response, but her innocent comment evoked thoughts of his own private search, begun long before the war had started. He hadn't had anyone to tell him he would succeed, to urge him on when he felt like giving up. *I didn't have anyone at all,* Andros remembered, not sure how to feel about the memory.
He *did* know that he could no longer imagine going back to that life, without the other Rangers--without Ashley. It scared him to think that once he had been strong enough to live like that, when he knew he would miss their companionship now if he had to do it again.
Ashley's hand on his shoulder startled him out of his reverie. He looked up, and fought the instinct to distrust the kindness in her eyes. *She cares,* he thought, as amazed now as he had been the day before when her lips had touched his.
"What is it?" Ashley whispered.
For once, he answered without thinking. "When did I start liking you so much?" Andros wondered aloud, and saw her brown eyes soften.
"I like you too," she murmured, sliding her arm through his and leaning into him. "Very much."
TJ's voice intruded on the moment. "Hey, guys! Check this out!"
Andros glanced over his shoulder to see Carlos and TJ peering intently at the screen. Ashley sighed, and as he turned back to her, he saw her roll her eyes in TJ's direction. Uncertain, he caught her gaze and shrugged.
Her annoyance melted into a smile, and she tugged on his arm. Glad he didn't have to let go just yet, Andros let her pull him across the Bridge to where TJ and Carlos stood.
"Someone was more observant than we thought," Carlos said, eyes still on the screen.
"Or just lucky," TJ commented.
Arm still linked through Ashley's, Andros noted with bemusement the logo in the corner of the screen. Nothing he was familiar with--*an Earth program,* he thought as understanding dawned. *Forty-two interstellar news channels, and they watch a national program from Earth.*
The reporter seemed to be announcing, of all things, a Power Ranger sighting. "--this footage was caught on home video at Angel Grove lake this morning."
Her image was replaced by a sky shot, probably intended to catch the hawk soaring past overhead. Then the camera skewed suddenly, and a technicolored smear darted past the lens. A half-second later, the colors were back as the operator managed to focus and follow the motion as it arced across the sky. Five individual blurs were distinguishable, and if one knew what to look for, it wasn't hard to pick out the stylized water molecule pattern of each color.
They were gone in seconds, rendered invisible among the trees on the north side of the lake. The camera operator attempted to zoom in on their location, but got nothing except the fading glow of rematerialization as it shone briefly through the vegetation.
"It's a good thing they came morphed," Carlos remarked, turning the volume down as the reporter replaced the lake view on the screen.
"Standard procedure now," Andros said absently, watching the news program flash what must be old footage of the Aquitian Rangers. "The Rangers are the ones on the front lines in the war, so teleportation to any involved planet, even one so far on the fringes as this one, is done morphed."
TJ gave him a look, possibly for the "fringes" comment, but said only, "Well, it's a good thing. If we'd been a little closer to the water…"
Suddenly aware of the concern coming from both TJ and Carlos, Andros looked away from the news program. "What do you mean?"
"Well, they're pretty recognizable," Ashley tried to explain. "If that camera had seen them seen them unmorphed, there wouldn't be much doubt about who the new Rangers are."
Remembering the rule of secret identities that seemed so prevalent on Earth, Andros began to understand their fear. "The Aquitian Rangers don't hide their identities. They won’t mind your people knowing who they are."
"Our people?" Ashley murmured, turning to look at him.
At the same time, TJ said, "I thought one of the conditions of being a Power Ranger was that no one know who you are."
Not certain how to respond to Ashley's questioning glance, Andros looked at TJ instead. "Only on worlds where the inhabitants are…" Not sure how to avoid offending them, he paused. "Sheltered," he said at last.
He could practically hear Ashley raise her eyebrow, but she said nothing. Carlos, on the other hand, repeated, "Sheltered?"
"Or where the Rangers are particularly young," he added quickly, but that didn't seem to help.
"Young?" TJ echoed.
"Did people on KO-35 know you were a Ranger?" Ashley wanted to know, and this time he was grateful for her diversion.
With a quick shrug, Andros replied, "It's hard to hide something like that in a colony of only about three thousand people."
Distracted, Carlos muttered, "Try Angel Grove. You never notice how curious people are until you have something you don't want them to know…"
"Most Rangers' identities are known to the people they protect," Andros told them. "Even if they're not active, every League world has a team to call upon if they're needed, and usually everyone knows who they are."
"Earth didn't," Carlos pointed out. "The Power Rangers never appeared until Rita Repulsa attacked."
Andros tried not to sigh. "Earth *did*," he insisted. "Just because they had never morphed before doesn't mean they weren't Power Rangers. They didn't even have to know it themselves--they had the right skills, honor, and discipline, and they came when they were called. They would have been Rangers even if Earth had never had need of them."
"Anomaly detected," DECA announced, effectively ending the conversation. "One of Divatox's ships has been located in sector 439."
Andros moved over to the scanner controls, shutting off the news channel and switching to long-range scanner display. "Any sign of space-time distortion?" he asked, as a magnified and slightly fuzzy image of the ship in question appeared on the main screen.
Computer enhancement sharpened the image, and DECA replied, "No, Andros. Effects of interdimensional existence are negative."
*Masked,* Andros thought immediately, even though he knew it wasn't the mostly likely explanation. If Zordon were being moved, he would have a considerable escort. Even if Dark Spectre were going for subtly over strength--which he had never been known to do before--he wouldn't leave a single ship to make the transfer without a much better armament and shielding capacity than this one displayed.
"DECA. Set a course for sector 439." Andros ignored the skeptical looks of the others, instead concentrating on the engine preflight sequence.
"Andros," Ashley began. "If Zordon is on that ship, wouldn't it have some kind of guard around it?"
He nodded without looking up. "I doubt we'll find Zordon there. But Divatox keeps her people under tight control--if one of her ships is in sector 439 alone, it's probably on a reconnaissance mission. The others won't be far away."
The silence said that she hadn't thought of that. *Someone needs to teach them something about space,* Andros thought for the hundredth time. But when they weren't fighting, it didn't seem important, and when they were fighting, there wasn't time.
"I'll go tell Cassie," TJ volunteered.
DECA's camera blinked. "I have already informed Cassie of the situation."
Andros only shook his head. *I shouldn't have let Phantom near the computer last time he was onboard,* he thought wryly.
The automated preflight flashed an OK signal at him, and he moved up to the pilot's console. Keying the thruster controls, he accelerated the Megaship slowly out of its Earth orbit and into the interplanetary space beyond. As they headed past the moon, he pushed the thrusters to full, feeling them strain against the sun's gravity.
He sensed Ashley at his shoulder again, and tried to remember when they had stepped apart. He hadn't noticed, although now that she was back, he didn't know how that prior emptiness had gone unremarked.
Andros smiled at the enthralled expression on her face as she stared at the forward screen, now showing a realtime image of the stars. It was a sight he had seen many times before--indeed, so had she--but watching through her eyes, he felt a new wonder flood through him.
Jupiter turned peacefully in the upper lefthand corner, growing larger with every second. Four distinguishable moons hung silently still about the red-gold bauble, caught midrevolution as they climbed or fell around the ringed gas giant. Beyond, Saturn had become a recognizable point of light against the otherwise static background of stars.
"DECA," Andros said at last, reluctant to spoil her view but aware of the time passing as they stood and stared. "Hyperush three."
"Hyperush three," DECA acknowledged, and Andros moved away from the controls.
Gesturing Ashley into his place, he asked, "Will you take us out?"
She shot a surprised look in his direction. He saw the surprise fade as she realized what he was asking, and delight took its place. Stepping forward, Ashley put both hands on the engine controls and drew them back simultaneously. The exterior cameras failed as the Megaship reached, then passed, lightspeed, and a computer-generated simulation of starlines took the place of realtime images. They were on their way.