Downswing
by Starhawk

*Andros…* She kept calling, desperately seeking some sort of response, but there was no response. The silence in her mind was worse than any pronouncement DECA could make.

He had always been there--she hadn't realized how constant his subtle presence was until she listened for him and heard nothing. She didn't know when that soft glow in her mind had started, but she knew now that it had never been extinguished.

Until a couple of minutes ago. He had been there, so close she could hear his thoughts and *see* what he was telling her, hear what he was feeling in his voice and know with a sinking certainty that he didn't expect to ever see her again--and then he was gone.

Gone, like he had never been there. No fading, no shifting focus, just a sudden snap that left her floundering for a moment before her own thoughts took over again. Aware of the Megaship once more, Ashley had felt the tears on her face and seen the look of utter despair on Zhane's, and she had known he felt it too.

"I am detecting the Delta Megaship's log beacon," DECA said, and Ashley closed her eyes, displacing another round of tears and trying not to whimper. There was only one reason the log beacon would be floating free in space.

"Establish a datalink with the beacon," Zhane said, his voice barely above a whisper. "And DECA--call TJ and Carlos."

"Zhane," she tried to say, but her throat was too tight with tears to get the word out. She tried to rub her face dry, but more tears just kept falling. "Zhane?"

This time he heard her, and his hands stilled on the console as he turned to her. He was crying, she realized, and she couldn't help thinking how strange it was to see tears in his normally cheerful blue eyes. "Is… is Andros…"

She knew, but she had to ask. Yet when she tried, she couldn't get past his name, and Zhane just reached out to touch her shoulder tentatively. She saw him nod, swallowing hard and making no attempt to brush away his own tears.

Trying to contain her own did no good, and she threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder. Zhane wrapped her up in a desperate hug, holding her so tightly she thought she might snap. But she was squeezing him just as hard, and they clung to each other as though they could somehow will Andros back to them.

Ashley didn't know or care how long they stood like that, but DECA didn't say anything, not even to tell them the datalink had been established. She heard the lift door slid open, and TJ's voice muttered, "I swear, if this is another one of DECA's practical jokes…"

He trailed off, and Ashley heard footsteps on the metal deck as he and Carlos left the lift. "Ashley?" Carlos asked. "Zhane? What's going on?"

Ashley felt a fresh flood of tears threatening to overwhelm her, and she clutched Zhane harder as he tried, haltingly, to answer Carlos. "Andros…" He cleared his throat, but his voice was rough as he continued. "The Delta Megaship was--shot down, on its way to Irini."

There was a stunned silence from behind them. "Andros?" TJ asked softly.

Zhane didn't answer, and Ashley couldn't.

"DECA, what's our course?" Carlos asked finally.

"We are currently following the vector taken by the Delta Megaship," DECA answered. "There is no sign of the ship at its last known location, or anywhere along its projected flight path."

There was another long pause, and then Ashley heard the beep of an accessed datafile. The viewscreen staticked, and she heard KERI's calm monotone take over the Bridge, reciting the vital stats as they had been downloaded to the log beacon.

"Access link two-three-eight point four," the Delta Megaship's computer announced. "ETA to Irini, six minutes. Enemy fighters detected by scanners; full battleship appearing from apparent EM cloak forty-two degrees to starboard. Laser bombardment underway. Heavy damage to aft shielding; overload imminent in main coolant lines. Engine core--"

"Stop," Ashley choked. "Stop it!"

She jerked away from Zhane, stumbling toward the lift. She heard Carlos call her name, but all she wanted was to get away from that terrible narration of damage to the Delta Megaship. She knew how it would end; she had been there with Andros when the ship had exploded, and she didn't want to live it again.

KERI's voice pursued her into the lift. "Engine core at critical. Enemy fighter--"

The door closed, agonizingly slowly, but finally it cut off the sound of the Delta Megaship's automated log. "Deck five," she mumbled miserably, sinking to the floor and pulling her knees up to her chest.

***

"He was ambushed," TJ muttered, staring at the viewscreen as the log played out its last few seconds. It had been jettisoned only seconds after a suicide run by one of the fighters had ruptured the engine core, and it wasn't hard to extrapolate what had happened from there.

Zhane didn't have to extrapolate. He had heard his friend's final words as the ship blew itself apart, and he didn't want to see it play out on the monitor. But he had watched in horrified fascination until the screen went black, and TJ and Carlos had started trying to trace the vapor trail of the ships that had attacked the Delta Megaship.

Zhane turned away abruptly. He wanted to know when they found something--but only so he could tear the entire fleet to shreds. Right now, he *had* to get away from here. And he knew where he had to go.

"Zhane." Carlos's voice stopped him before he had taken more than two steps. "We could use some help here."

The Black Ranger's voice was tense with anger and worry, but Zhane resumed his course for the lift without looking back. "I can't."

"Zhane…" TJ too sounded upset, but he didn't have a chance to say anything else before Zhane cut him off.

"Look." Zhane whirled, glaring at the both of them. "I know you think you understand, but you don't. You knew him for a few months. I knew him all my life. I was *talking* to him when--"

He broke off, trying to hold onto his anger so they wouldn't see the tears that were threatening to fall again. He couldn't do it, though, and he turned away, muttering, "I'm going to find Ashley."

He could practically hear their doubt, and he knew it wasn't the wisest thing to do. Ashley had run away, and Zhane wasn't sure himself that she wanted company. But he needed it more than anything, and she was the only one he could count on…

*Sometimes people run away to be alone,* he remembered Andros's mother telling him once, back when Kerone had been kidnapped and Andros had withdrawn from everyone around him. *But sometimes they run away to see if you care enough to follow them.*

"DECA, where's Ashley right now?" he asked, once the door had shut out the Megaship's Bridge.

"Ashley is on deck five, in Andros's room," DECA answered, her words sounding slower than usual.

He touched the control panel by the door, and the lift slipped up a level to deck five. He walked down the hall, hesitating in front of his friend's door. *I have as much right to be here as her,* he thought finally, and he keyed the door open.

Ashley was crumpled on the floor by Andros's bed, her shoulders shaking and her face buried in his pillow. Zhane drew in a trembling breath and walked over to her. Kneeling awkwardly on the floor beside her, he put a hand on her shoulder.

Ashley whimpered something incomprehensible into the pillow, and he tightened his fingers on her shoulder unintentionally. "What?" he whispered, surprised to hear his own voice shaking.

Ashley lifted her head and regarded him, her eyes bright with tears. "He said he'd be careful," she mumbled, her voice just barely audible.

Zhane looked down, remembering Andros's words vividly. "It isn't dangerous; you don't have to worry… I'll see you guys in the morning."

"He didn't--" Zhane swallowed. "He didn't mean for this to happen, Ash."

He put his other hand on her shoulder, and she leaned into him wordlessly. Wrapping his arms around her as he had on the Bridge, he stopped trying to hold back his tears. Ashley sniffed, hugging him as hard as he was holding her, and they both cried for the friend and love they had lost.

***

"It is six o'clock. Time to get up, TJ."

TJ groaned, rolling over and staring at the bunk above him. Then he winced, and groaned again as memory came crashing back. "Andros…"

Everything hit him all at once. Andros wasn't coming back. The Delta Megaship had been destroyed. Cassie was evil. Aquitar could be hit at any moment by more forces than its Rangers could conceivably handle alone.

And today was the first day of TJ's senior year of high school.

"Oh, *hell*," he swore fervently. It didn't make him feel any better, but it had to be said. There was just no possible way that things could get any worse.

"Time to get up, TJ," DECA reminded him, and he glared at the camera.

"Shut *up*, DECA!"

The camera's light blinked at him, and he sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just… man, I don't even know anymore. Never mind."

DECA did not answer, and he closed his eyes. They were in orbit around Earth now, having searched the better part of an hour for any possible trace of either the Delta Megaship or the ships that had attacked it, and finally given up. It had been one of the hardest decisions TJ had ever made, but in the end Carlos had agreed with him that they were searching for ghosts.

"The Astro Rangers continue," DECA said abruptly, and his eyes snapped open in surprise. "You are still that which you have always been. One goal, one team--known as the Power Rangers."

She was echoing what Alpha had told them, TJ realized, startled. Back when they had lost the Turbo powers, and it had looked like Andros wasn't going to accept them, Alpha had used those same words to encourage them.

They had lost one of their team then, too. But Justin had only been left behind, not…

TJ sighed, wondering if it was even worth it to get out of bed. "Thanks, DECA," he said half-heartedly.

***

"Andros!" She jerked awake, eyes wide as she stared into the dimness. Holding absolutely still, Ashley listened as hard as she could, and the faintest whisper of thought came again.

*I've always loved you…*

*Andros?!* She concentrated all her focus on him, remembering what he had told her about thought patterns and thinking *at* him instead of *of* him. She tried to remember as much of her dream as possible, and called his name again.

Then Zhane was shaking her shoulder, pulling her attention back to the darkened room in which they'd fallen asleep. "Ash," he whispered. "Ashley, it's all right. It's just a dream."

"No," she insisted, shrugging his hand away and trying to recapture that fleeting feeling. *Andros?*

But the spark was gone, and what she had thought she had heard had faded to nothing when Zhane shook her. *Just like a dream,* she thought miserably, wondering if that had truly been all it was.

"Ashley?" Zhane whispered again, as she slumped back against Andros's bed. "Are you okay?"

"No," she replied, knowing he knew that and it wasn't what he had meant. But she could feel the peace of sleep slipping away, and the tears were threatening again. "I was dreaming about Andros and I woke up, and now he's not here and he won't ever be again…"

She bit her lip, blinking hard. She really *didn't* want to start crying again this early.

Zhane looked about the way she felt, and she tried to smile a little for his benefit. "Sorry," she murmured, then she shook her head hopelessly. "Zhane… what are we going to do?"

He hugged her suddenly, hard, and she felt the tears sliding down her cheeks no matter how much she had promised herself they wouldn't. "You're making me cry again," she whispered, trying to make it a joke and not quite succeeding.

"Sorry," he whispered back, but he didn't let go.

Then she felt it again, the briefest flicker of a dream image, and she stiffened. "Did you hear that?" she demanded quietly.

*Andros,* she called again, reaching for the presence that had never abandoned her until the Delta Megaship had vanished from DECA's scanners the day before…

Zhane loosened his grip on her, regarding her with a worried expression, but she didn't notice. "Hear what?" he asked.

"Andros," she murmured, once more trying to call her dream to mind. The beach, lying on the blanket with him, some of it memory and some purely dream--she could almost feel the way she had felt when she woke up, and she closed her eyes, concentrating harder.

*Andros?* She called again, and again, sure had almost reached him this time--

Zhane was shaking her again, and she blinked her eyes open, shooting him an irritated look. "Stop it," she said, batting at his hands childishly. "I'm trying to talk to Andros."

There was no mistaking the concern on Zhane's face this time. "Ash… Andros--isn't there." He swallowed hard, but he met her gaze without flinching. "You remember last night, right? The Delta Megaship--got ambushed?"

She nodded impatiently, trying once more to reach out for Andros. But Zhane kept trying to get her attention, trying to make her focus on the here and now, and she scowled at him. "Leave me alone, Zhane," she snapped, more harshly than she'd meant to.

Seeing his expression, she sighed. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean that… Of course I remember last night." She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, the memory of KERI's voice invading her thoughts before she could stop it. "Engine core at critical…"

She tried to take a deep breath, and found herself shivering. Zhane tugged Andros's blanket off the bunk and wrapped it around her, hugging her close to him once more. "But what if he's not dead, Zhane?" she murmured, leaning her head against his chest. "What if he survived, and he's trying to call us?"

Zhane was stroking her hair, the same way Andros always did, and she felt her eyes slid shut. Maybe, just maybe, if she could get back to sleep, she could see Andros again. Yes… he would wait for her there. He wasn't really gone at all…

Enveloped in Andros's blanket, she could almost make herself believe that he was the one holding her now. Sinking farther into Zhane's arms, she waited patiently for sleep to claim her again.

***

He felt Ashley relaxing, heard her breathing even out, and he waited a few more minutes just to be sure. Then he twitched his arm a little, seeing if it would disturb her, but she didn't move. Pushing her away gently, he wondered if he dared try to lift her onto Andros's bunk.

He decided against it, taking Andros's pillow instead and propping it up in the corner where he had been sitting. Ashley accepted the transition with only a faint murmur, sliding down to curl up on the floor. He felt a little guilty for leaving her there, but he doubted he could move her without waking her up, and he knew *he* wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.

"What if he survived, and he's trying to call us?" That thought had haunted Zhane, too, but he knew how impossible it was. The Delta Megaship, as far as the scanners could tell, had been blown into pieces too small to keep an environment *anywhere*, let alone in the one place Andros would have been at the time.

Ashley's repeated insistence that Andros was trying to contact them bothered him, though, and he resolved to study the results of DECA's scans more thoroughly. He was afraid, though, that it was nothing more than a product of her sleep-fogged mind. She would probably apologize for it later, when she was truly awake--and he almost pitied her that awakening.

He too had had a moment, just as he woke up, when he had thought that Andros might really be all right. Almost like a lingering mindtouch, someone reaching out to him while he slept--but the feeling had faded as he opened his eyes, and he knew it was wishful thinking. There was nothing he wanted more than to believe his friend was alive, but the cold reality of it kept intruding.

With a heavy sigh, Zhane managed to pull himself to his feet. His body was stiff from sleeping on the floor, and his heart felt distant and uncaring. Without Andros, what *did* matter anymore?

But he told himself that that was depression setting in, and he made himself stop in the Glider holding bay on his way to the Bridge. To his surprise, TJ and Carlos were there, eating in total silence, as though afraid of what conversation might bring up.

Zhane joined them, getting something from the Synthetron only because he knew he had to eat. They each nodded to him, but no one said anything. Finally, Zhane broke the silence, his words sounding unnaturally loud to his ears in the quiet room.

"You're going to school, then?" he asked.

They glanced at each other. "Yeah," TJ said finally. "You know if there was anything we could do for--anything we could do, we'd skip in a heartbeat. But there really isn't…"

Zhane shook his head. "No, there isn't. At least you'll have something to keep you busy," he added, a little enviously. He didn't think he could face anyone other than the Rangers right now, but he also wasn't sure he wanted to be alone.

TJ looked more sympathetic than he had expected. "How are you doing?" he asked quietly. "And Ashley?"

Zhane blanked for a moment, then shook his head. "I… I don't know." He tried to smile a little. "I'll get back to you later."

He hesitated, then added, "Ash is a little… out of it. I'm hoping it's just because she was sleepy when I talked to her." He paused. "I guess I'll get back to you about her, too."

TJ nodded, and Carlos waited a moment before saying, "I hate to even bring this up, but someone has to tell the Aquitians…"

The Aquitians had probably expected Andros back hours ago, and Zhane flinched at the thought of breaking the news to them. "I'll do it," he said, knowing there was no other choice.

Carlos was watching him. "If you want--"

Zhane shook his head. "No," he said, more roughly than he'd intended. "My teammate; my responsibility."

"Andros was everyone's teammate, Zhane," TJ said, his voice cold.

Zhane swallowed. "I--I know. I'm sorry; I didn't mean that." His throat closed up, and he couldn't continue.

It was Carlos who nodded, and they ate the rest of their meal in silence.

***

The words echoed in her mind, and she tossed restlessly. Her shoulder hit something solid and she started awake, eyes open and unseeing in the still dim room.

*Andros?* she thought, holding her breath.

*Don't let go, Ash…*

*It's not a dream; please don't let it be a dream,* she begged, her fingers clenching on the blanket she wasn't even aware she was holding. *Andros!*

There was no answer, and she started to panic. The Delta Megaship was really gone… *Andros,* she thought desperately. *Please be there. Please don't be a dream.*

She felt the tears welling up in her eyes again, and she turned her head to bury her face in the pillow. She was lying on the floor, she realized distantly--how had she fallen asleep on the floor?

*Andros's room…* She remembered, now, running here after the scanners downloaded the Delta Megaship's log into DECA's databanks. She remembered Zhane finding her, and the two of them crying themselves to sleep. And she remembered waking up once before, with the same eerie echo of Andros in her mind…

Zhane hadn't believed her. But Zhane wasn't here now, and she closed her eyes, reaching for Andros again. She tried to recapture the fragments of dream that slipped and drifted away as she chased them, teasing her like leaves on a breeze--

*Leaves.* The forest snapped back into focus in startling detail, and she remembered the soft sound of the wind through the trees as she waited for Andros. He had come from behind her, running up and hugging her hard…

She tried to remember exactly what they had said, knowing that, if he was able, he would be doing the same thing in an attempt to get back that fleeting mindtouch… If he wasn't dead, gone beyond all hope, lost to her for--

She squeezed her eyes shut tighter, trying to forcibly erase those thoughts. Andros had said for her not to leave him, not to let go, and she'd held on as though she could keep him from fading just by keeping her arms around him.

*Don't let go…*

Ashley caught her breath, holding onto the memory of his embrace as firmly as she could. *I won't,* she promised, wondering if those words had only been a product of her memory--or imagination.

*I need your help, Ashley,* Andros's voice repeated, and she let her breath out in a gasp.

*Pleasetellmeyou'renotadream!* She pulled his blanket to her chest, clutching it with whitened knuckles and waiting breathlessly for the reply.

*I'm not if you're not,* Andros's voice said after a moment, and she felt tears stinging her eyes. It was something she might say, and she felt that nagging doubt again. Was she just imagining this because she needed to hear it?

*Ash, don't leave me,* he repeated, sounding suddenly panicked. She blinked, realizing her focus had been slipping.

*Andros?*

*I'm on one of Irini's moons,* he said quickly. *I can't call for help and I'm too far from the settlements to walk to any of them.*

His words were getting quieter the more he spoke, and she strained to hear him. *I need your help, Ashley…*

She hadn't even noticed when she opened her eyes, but now she shut them, trying to keep him there with her. *Don't go!*

There was no answer.

***

She was staring out the window, trying to explain the sudden ache in her soul, when Elgar's strident voice interrupted her. "Astronema, we're, uh, receiving a transmission!"

His tone was startled, as though he hadn't expected Dark Spectre to contact the Dark Fortress within hours of the attack on Aquitar. Frankly, she was surprised it had taken him this long.

*Of course,* she thought disgustedly, *Elgar has a perpetually startled tone. He could look out a window and say, as though it were the first time he'd ever noticed, "Hey, there are *stars* out there!"*

The thought brought a slight smile to her lips, but she banished it before turning away from the view of Aquitar's moon. "Well, let's hear it," she snapped impatiently.

"Uh--right!"

Ecliptor came to stand in the doorway of the tactical area, gazing toward the viewscreen with no expression in his stance. None, that is, until the viewscreen remained dark and a jumbled transmission emanated from the speakers.

She frowned. "Elgar, clear that up," she ordered, but he shook his head.

"That's how it arrived, boss! I dunno; maybe it's supposed to sound like that?"

She was about to give him a piece of her mind when a distorted voice started to speak over the background static. She froze, her eyes widening as she listened.

"Astrea," the garbled voice said. "I need to see you."

Then the static took over again, and Elgar scratched his head as the speakers went silent. "That's it; that's all there is. Whoa, can't even pronounce your name right…"

For once, she ignored Elgar. The sender's voice had been unrecognizable, but there were only three people who knew her by that name. Two of them were Rangers, and she was almost positive they wouldn't pull a stunt like this. Which left that boy she'd met on Earth…

But how had he gotten access to comm equipment? Earth could barely broadcast to its own moon, let alone one in the next galaxy over. And how had he been able to find her? And why could he possibly want to see her?

"My princess?" Ecliptor asked quietly, and she looked up in surprise. She hadn't even noticed him join her. "Does this message mean something to you?"

"Perhaps," she said evasively. "Can we track the signal, and find out where it originated?"

"Yeah, no problem," Elgar interrupted loudly. "I already did. It came from the Megaship; maybe those Rangers are prank calling us or something--"

"Quiet!" she snapped, irritated with his incessant commentary.

"Right, got it." Elgar saluted. "As quiet as those ninjas, that's me! You don't have to worry--"

"QUIET!" she shouted, and he shut up.

Turning her attention back to Ecliptor, she frowned a little. Playing with the beads in her hair, she repeated thoughtfully, "From the Megaship…"

***

Zhane looked up as Ashley burst onto the Bridge, hair tousled and uniform rumpled. She had obviously not changed since waking up, and the wild look in her eyes said she hadn't been awake long enough to even think of it.

"Zhane!" she exclaimed breathlessly, darting over to him. "We have to go back! We have to go to Irini!"

Zhane grabbed her shoulders, a sinking sensation in his stomach. Ashley wasn't any better for the extra sleep--if anything, she seemed worse now, and he had no idea what to do. "Ash, calm down," he said, trying to follow his own advice.

"I can't," she gasped. "It's Andros…"

He gave her a wary look. "What's Andros?"

"I had another dream," she told him seriously. "I heard him again--Zhane he's not dead; he's still out there!"

Zhane felt a brief flicker of hope, and he hated it because he knew it was ridiculous. Ashley was obviously unstable, but he *wanted* to believe her so much that he found himself listening.

"He says he on one of Irini's moons," she added. "We have to go back and pick him up!"

Zhane sighed, gripping her shoulders more tightly. "Ash, think about what you're saying. Andros told you, in a dream, that he was on a moon?"

"It wasn't a dream," she insisted, shaking her head vehemently. "I heard Andros, Zhane! I know how this sounds, but it's true!"

"Then why didn't Andros call me, too?" he asked, trying to reason with her. "He should be able to talk to me just as easily, right? How come I haven't heard him?"

"I couldn't either, not at first," she told him earnestly. "I kept waking up, thinking he was talking to me--but finally I heard him! I just had to concentrate really hard on the dream I was having!"

Zhane had to sigh again. "Ash, the Delta Megaship exploded," he told her. He managed to keep his voice from shaking as he said the words, and he saw her lip tremble. "How could Andros have survived? And why would he be on one of Irini's moons?"

"Maybe he crash-landed," Ashley said, her tone a little more subdued. He hated to do this to her, but she couldn't keep thinking Andros was alive and waiting for them somewhere. "Maybe all of the ship didn't explode, and part of it crashed on the moon…"

There was some doubt in her voice, now, and he pressed his advantage. "That's not what happens when the core explodes, and you know it," he said gently. "Even if some part of the ship did survive, and it somehow made it to a place with an atmosphere, there wouldn't be any way to control the reentry angle. It would burn up before it ever reached the surface…"

He felt terrible for the tears he saw in her eyes. "Ash, I'm sorry," he whispered, looking down. "I want him to be alive, too; I really do. I just don't want to keep denying the truth…"

"The truth sucks," Ashley muttered, her voice choked. "I hate the truth, Zhane."

"I know," he agreed softly, reaching out to hug her. "I hate the truth, too."

They held each other for several minutes, neither wanting to face the grim reality that confronted them every time they turned around. Finally, though, the comm system beeped and Zhane pulled away, thinking Carlos or TJ was calling.

*No,* he thought, trying to pull his thoughts together. *They would have used their morphers.* Walking over to the comm console, he figured, *Aquitar, then…*

But the comm system was indicating receipt of an automated transmission, not a live video link. Zhane frowned, calling up the transmission and blinking as static came over the speakers. It was audio only, and his eyes widened as a very familiar voice overlaid the static.

Not even slightly distorted, Astrea's voice told him, "Meet me in the park on Earth, at sunset." The static lingered a moment longer, and then the transmission ended.

Zhane looked automatically for Ashley, and found her staring at him in shock. "Was that--Astronema?" she breathed, and he nodded, a little dazed himself. He hadn't known whether to expect an answer at all, let alone one so prompt and affirmative.

"I contacted her right after I called Aquitar," he said after a moment. "I--didn't think she'd reply so fast."

"I didn't think she'd answer at all," Ashley murmured. "Or I wouldn't have, if I'd known… Zhane--how well do you *know* her?"

He shook his head, half a negative and half an attempt to clear his mind. "I don't, not really. I've just talked to her a few times. That's all."

"I guess that's enough," Ashley said softly, looking bewildered.

"I guess," Zhane said, feeling pretty much the way she looked. *Sunset…* "We're going to have to get Cassie; bring her back to Earth."

"But you don't even know if she'll help us!" Ashley whispered, looking at him with a look of childlike confusion.

"Better to be ready if she will," Zhane said firmly, glad to have something to focus on other than the events of the night before. "DECA, set a course for Aquitar."

"Course set," DECA confirmed a moment later, and Zhane walked around the second row of consoles.

"Hyperrush nine," he said, and DECA acknowledged. Shifting the engine controls back, he pushed them forward with a determined shove and watched the screen turn to myriad lines of light.

"Should we tell Carlos and TJ?" Ashley asked uncertainly, looking as though she couldn't even decide whether to stand or sit, let alone whether to alert their fellow Rangers.

"We'll be back in a little while," he promised. "They won't even know we're gone." Then he winced, hearing the similarity to the words Andros had uttered the night before. "After all, they're on Earth," he said, trying to make up for his slip. "What trouble can they get into?"

"Oh, don't ask that," Ashley murmured softly, apparently making a decision and dropping into Cassie's seat. "If things can get worse, I really don't want to know."

Zhane nodded mutely, moving back to the comm console. *That* was certainly a sentiment he could empathize with…

Pushing the ever-present thoughts of Andros from his mind, he set the comm system to signal Aquitar. The Aquitian swirl logo appeared on the screen almost immediately, fading into view over the starlines. Someone must have been in the control room, because the logo was there only a few seconds before Cetaci's face replaced it.

"Astro Rangers," she greeted them, in the toneless way of all Aquitians. "How can we be of assistance?"

"We're coming back for Cassie," Zhane told her, saving Astrea's transmission for future reference. "We may have found a way to help her."

Cetaci hesitated, and he wondered if that was surprise he saw on her face. "She is your teammate, of course," the White Aquitian Ranger said. "We will release her to your custody--but I would personally advise that she be kept in a secure facility until and unless she can be cured, through whatever method you have found."

*We were there,* Zhane thought impatiently. *We know what she's like.* "That's probably smart," he said out loud. "Thank you; we'll do that."

Cetaci nodded, and turned to someone just out of range of the narrow comm pickup. "Contact Phantom," she told them, and Zhane tried not to sigh. Of course *he* would have to know…

There was a pause, and he tried not to fidget. Glancing over at Ashley, he saw her staring blankly at Andros's chair. He suddenly realized that she was inside the view being projected to Cetaci, and the Aquitian Ranger had not said a word. He wondered whether it was more appropriate to be grateful for Cetaci's silence, or annoyed by her lack of concern.

"Bring up a visual of the containment area," Cetaci said, her voice muted as she continued to speak to someone offscreen.

Zhane leaned forward a little, puzzled by the delay. "What's going on?"

Cetaci glanced in the direction of the comm again, appearing to look back at him. "Phantom is not responding to our attempts to contact him," she said, her tone neutral. "Please wait one moment."

*In other words, "mind your own business and let us mind ours",* he thought wryly. What could possibly make Saryn ignore their calls? *Asleep,* Zhane decided. The armored Ranger had to sleep sometime, after all.

"Are you certain?" Cetaci demanded, and Zhane tried not to smile. She was starting to show signs of annoyance. *Maybe Saryn's yelling at her again…*

Cetaci turned back to the viewscreen, and this time her irked expression was unmistakable. "Cassie has escaped from containment. We are unable to locate her anywhere inside the command center dome."