Ashley Hammond leaned back in her chair and sighed. Closing her eyes on the laptop's tiny screen, she rubbed her fingers against her temples and wished for some distraction.

It came, in the form of a knock on her door, only seconds later. "Come in," she called automatically, opening her eyes and glancing toward the door.

Andros stuck his head in. "Hey," he said, noting the tiredness in her expression and the text on the computer screen in front of her. "How's the paper going?"

"Horribly," she groaned. Then she smiled at her own pessimism and amended, "Well, not too badly. But I'm still one page short of the requirements, and I don't know how to work anything else into the flow of the paper."

"What are you writing about?" he asked curiously, wandering into the room.

"Mars," she said. "I picked Mars."

Andros frowned. "What's Mars?"

Giving him an odd look, she had to stop and think. Of course he wouldn't know the Earth names for all the planets in their solar system. "Mars is the fourth planet out from the sun," she said at last. "The last terrestrial planet before you start seeing gas giants."

"Ah," he said. "Have you ever been there?"

"Of course not," Ashley said, startled. "When would I have gone to Mars?"

"How can you write about a place you've never been?" he countered. "Come on; let's go."

She blinked. "Just--like that?"

"Why not?"

"Well..." Ashley shrugged a little. "I guess because Dimitria had these rules... She was our mentor before we joined you, and one of her rules was that we couldn't use the Power for personal gain. Nothing but Ranger business."

Andros shook his head impatiently. "The Megaship has nothing to do with the Power. It's my ship. And if you say you want to go to Mars, we can go to Mars."

Ashley glanced at her computer screen, then back at her stripe-haired boyfriend. Slamming shut the textbook in her lap, she clicked her 'net browser off and jumped to her feet. "I want to go to Mars," she declared, and he gave her one of his rare smiles.

***

With the Megaship in orbit around Mars, the two of them entered the jump chutes and Glided down to the planet's surface. Fully morphed, their Ranger uniforms protected them from the temperature and supplied their own breathable atmosphere.

They landed on the edge of the night side, in twilight just lightening to dawn as the sun peered over the horizon. It brightened the sky around it to a deep crimson, darker than any seen on Earth, and cast its cold rays across the haze-red sky.

"Wow," Ashley breathed, staring around at the unending plains in wonder. "You can see forever here..."

"About two or three kilometers, it looks like," Andros corrected, gazing off toward the horizon.

"Spoilsport," she muttered, giving him a shove. The fine dust kicked up by their boots lingered in the air, and the only breaks in the open, rust-colored fields were the boulders strewn haphazardly across the landscape. Their steps were lighter here than on the Megaship, kept at Earth normal gravity, and she couldn't resist jumping a few times.

Andros's visor turned toward her, and she knew he was watching with amusement. "This is beautiful," she said, holding her arms out and turning around.

"If you say so," he answered neutrally, and she made a face at him even though she knew he couldn't see it.

"Look, Mr-I've-visited-hundreds-of-worlds-and-not-one-of-them-was-as-good-as-KO-35--" She stopped to take a breath. "Just because it's different doesn't mean it isn't beautiful!"

He glanced upward, and she followed his gaze without conscious thought. "You want beautiful?" he said softly. "That's beautiful."

The last of the stars had been long obscured by the rising sun, but Mars' two moons were barely visible outlines against the dust-shrouded sky. The captured asteroids almost seemed to touch as the one caught up to the other in their celestial dance, and the atmosphere surrounded them with a gentle glow.

"That is beautiful," she agreed in a whisper. Searching the rest of the sky, she asked, "Where's Earth?"

He pointed sunward. "Over there. You wouldn't be able to see it; we came almost straight out from the sun to get here."

*A new Earth,* she thought, amused by the idea no matter how far away it was. From here, it would show phases only through a telescope, but she liked the feeling of knowing it was there.

They stood there in silence for a few moments more, until Andros asked, "What are you writing about Mars?"

"The possibility of life," she said dreamily, still caught up in the marvel of a new world.

"Oh, there's no life here," he said, with such certainty that she blinked.

Cocking her head at him, she asked, "How do you know?"

"Who in their right mind would evolve next door to you guys?"