It was too quiet. The halls rang with it, a silence that grew louder the longer she listened. The Megaship was deserted save for herself, and no matter where she went she was greeted by empty rooms.

Most of the Rangers were on Earth now, attending "school". It was an activity she had observed on occasion from the Dark Fortress, but one she had little memory of herself. She had barely begun her own lessons when she had been… removed, from KO-35, and nearly everything she learned after that had been taught to her by Ecliptor.

She had sometimes mused, watching the students of Angel Grove High, that their "school" was more of a social event than an educational one. She knew somehow that it had not been that way on KO-35, at least not to this degree, and it had certainly never occurred to Ecliptor that his young pupil might want friends.

It had not occurred to her, for that matter. The separation from her family had been traumatic, to say the least, and Ecliptor had taught her that by not caring about anyone else the way she had cared for them, she might avoid hurting that way again.

She had not known it then, but caring was not something one could turn on and off. She had not sought companionship, but it had found her anyway. First through Ecliptor, and then, years later, through Zhane.

She felt annoyance welling up in her at the thought of Zhane, and she tried to ignore it. He was the first to make her realize that she was not who she thought she was--that she hadn't managed to turn off the part of her that cared all those years ago, and that it was resurfacing with a vengeance as she grew up.

He had made her care about her past, about the truth of who she had been and who she had become, and about the meaning of her own feelings. That she could care about truth, and about the people around her, had proven to her that she wasn't what she was pretending to be.

And she did care about the people around her. She cared about Ecliptor, and she cared about her brother… and heaven help her, she cared about Zhane. So she had left the Dark Fortress, knowing that those feelings would be her undoing if she stayed, and she tried to adapt as best she could to the incredibly different life aboard the Megaship.

It wasn't easy. And the quiet was only part of the problem. The Rangers had been surprisingly quick to welcome her, even if the Phantom still avoided her as diligently as Zhane sought her out.

Suppressing another flash of irritation, she turned away from the window she had been staring out and headed for the lift. She missed her windowseat on the Dark Fortress, but there was one place on the Megaship that afforded an acceptably wide view of the stars. Zhane had shown it to her, the night after--

She gave her head a sharp shake as she stepped into the lift. *Must every thought lead back to him?*

"Deck one," she said aloud.

Unnecessarily, the computer replied, "Megalift destination: observation deck."

She smiled a little as she leaned back against the wall. "Thank you, DECA," she said, just to hear the computer reply.

As she had expected, DECA responded, "You're welcome, Kerone."

There was something terribly familiar about the voice of the Megaship's onboard computer, but she hadn't yet been able to figure out what it was. And DECA was always exceedingly polite to her, to the point where she almost wondered if the computer treated her better than she treated even the Rangers.

She told herself that was silly; DECA had no reason to care about her above the others--in fact, she had every reason to treat the newest resident of the Megaship with cold disdain. And yet she did not. She answered promptly when questioned, and there was more warmth in her tone than existed when the computer was dealing with anyone--except maybe Andros.

That could be it, she decided. The computer was partial to Andros, as he had been aboard the longest, and DECA must be transferring some of that favoritism to Andros' sister.

After all, it seemed to work that way with Zhane. Despite numerous pranks, including some that he had openly admitted to, the computer refused to punish him. There had been stories of the war between DECA and the Blue Ranger, TJ, but Zhane seemed to remain in her good graces no matter what he did. Apparently, Andros' best friend was also beyond DECA's reproach.

Tossing her head, she felt her fingers twitch at her side. *Zhane again.*

The lift slowed to a gentle halt and the doors slid open. She found herself standing just outside the observatory door, and she reached out to key it open.

Her hand hesitated halfway to the control pad as she remembered Zhane doing the same thing two weeks before. He had been telling her how beautiful the sight of the stars through the observation dome was, as though she had not seen the same view a thousand times before, and she had impatiently reached for the keypad just as he went to open the door himself.

She sighed without meaning to as she walked through the door. Things had been awkward between them for some time now… or maybe they had never *stopped* being awkward. From the moment they met, the two of them had been on opposite sides of the same fight. Perhaps that awkwardness had not disappeared, but simply changed, so subtly that she hadn't been aware of it.

In retrospect, she could point almost to the moment it had happened. The campfire, when she had kissed him… or maybe even before that, when she had taken a bite of the marshmallow he held out to her.

That had been easy. Surrounded by his friends and feeling truly free for the first time in a long while, she had been anxious to prove she wasn't their enemy. Zhane had been the logical person to reach out to, since he was the one she knew best.

He had seemed startled by her sudden playfulness, but she had seen Andros' amusement out of the corner of her eye. That he approved of her friendship with Zhane made her feel better, safer in the midst of people who were almost strangers to her. To her own surprise, she found that she wanted Andros' approval, and so she had stayed close to Zhane for the rest of the evening.

The next day, though, Andros had caught her after "breakfast". The idea of eating as soon as one woke up was new to her--on the Dark Fortress there were few creatures who ate food, and fewer who dared to wake her up in the morning. Thus it was usually some time after she got up that she remembered to order someone to bring her food.

But on the Megaship, it seemed to be a morning ritual before the Rangers went their separate ways. So on her first morning of participation, Andros took her aside afterwards to talk to her. They had ended up talking for quite some time, as she found that she remembered more of him and their childhood the longer they spoke.

She had felt strangely flattered by his attention--she knew she shouldn't need someone else to justify her own existence, but some long-buried voice inside said that he was her brother, and his love and respect was the one thing in the universe she *did* need. She wasn't quite sure about that, but she did know that she listened more attentively to him than she had to Ecliptor at first.

When the conversation turned to Zhane, she found herself telling him everything that had happened the night before, after he and Ashley had left. She had never been one to volunteer information, on the Dark Fortress, but she instinctively trusted Andros.

Everyone on the Dark Fortress had been her subordinate, and often a potential enemy, yet Andros was neither. If anything, he was her superior--though he had told her every one of the Rangers was equal, the others called him their leader. She might not be one of the Rangers, but he was her older brother, and that brought back memories she had thought lost forever.

So when he warned her about Zhane, she had not laughed. She remembered frowning, and she had asked what he meant.

*The Yellow Ranger,* she thought now. *The color I should have had.*

She examined the thought briefly, as she had several times before, but it still brought no feelings of regret or jealousy. Her magic was a part of her, even as the Yellow Astro powers were a part of Ashley now, and she could not imagine living without it.

It helped, too, that she found that she liked Ashley. From the Dark Fortress' point of view, the Yellow Ranger had always been the most annoying, for anywhere the Red Ranger went, she went too. It was nearly impossible to catch the Astro team leader alone, for his Yellow Ranger bodyguard seemed to follow him constantly.

From the Megaship, though, it was clear that the association was one of affection, not necessity. Ashley was far from her leader's "bodyguard"--instead, she stuck by his side out of a genuine desire to be there with him, in any circumstance.

Perhaps it was her loyalty to Andros that had made her reach out to his sister. Ashley was by far the friendliest of the Astro Rangers, and she had gone out of her way to befriend the former princess of evil. When Andros and Zhane weren't around, she was the one who always remembered to include their new ally, and more than once Ashley had simply listened when she needed to talk.

The others were nice too, of course. She supposed she should have expected no less--Zhane had told her that what was important to one Ranger was important to all of them, so she shouldn't have anticipated that her presence would divide them when nothing else had been able to. But it was still a little overwhelming to go from enemy to accepted in a matter of days.

Putting her hands behind her, she leaned back on them and stared up at the dome. The Megaship was just ducking out of the planet's sun side, flying over the terminator into darkness, but there was no twilight in space. As soon as the sun was gone from view, the stars shone as brightly as they would when the Rangers' ship crossed "midnight" on the Earth below.

And somewhere out there, among those stars, Zhane and Andros were fighting for other people's lives. Would they call the Megaship when the convoy arrived safely? Or would they simply expect their friends not to worry, and return without warning?

Would she know if something happened to them? Would she be able to feel it, or would she have to wait for the news to be relayed to their teammates?

Zhane hadn't even said goodbye. Her irritation flared again, but this time she recognized it as barely disguised concern for his safety. He could have at least told her when he was leaving--she felt sure that Ashley had known exactly when the two Rangers took off for Rysia.

*But I'm not Ashley,* she thought. And he wasn't Andros. Whatever relationship she and Zhane had, and lately she wasn't sure exactly what to call it--not really just friends, but not quite anything more either--apparently it wasn't enough for him to tell her when he was about to put his life in serious danger.

*I knew he was leaving,* she argued with herself. *I could have said goodbye just as easily.*

Or maybe she was making too much of this. Goodbyes weren't required. The Pink Ranger and the Phantom had been around for a couple days after she arrived on the Megaship, and then both had seemed to simply vanish. It had been days before she found out that Cassie was teleporting to Aquitar every evening after school, to join the Phantom and her Aquitian friends.

Carlos and TJ seemed to disappear nearly as often, spending more of their free time on Earth than they did on the Megaship. DECA seemed to keep track of everyone efficiently, and she would supply their locations on request, but the freedom with which they moved about was amazing to someone whose every step had been under careful scrutiny for years.

So perhaps it had simply not occurred to Zhane to announce his departure. Andros had said they would not be long, and the Rangers had been off on several brief missions in the short time that she'd been aboard. This was probably not as uncommon as she had thought.

"Incoming transmission," DECA remarked quietly, her camera light blinking on.

She started despite the computer's soft tone, her rationalizations scattering. "From who, DECA?"

"The signal is being relayed from Station MW-37J," the computer replied, as though the designation should mean something to her.

In a way, she supposed, it did--the sheer randomness of the source meant the sender was trying to keep anyone from tracing the signal. And she knew who it would be.

"Route it through the Bridge comm console," she said quickly, rising to her feet. She hurried to the lift and stepped inside, waiting impatiently for it to let her out five decks down.

When she stepped up to the console a moment later, Ecliptor was waiting for her.

"My princess," he greeted her, bowing his head as he had always done. She had told him, once, that she had relinquished her former title by leaving the Dark Fortress, and he no longer needed to use it. But only once.

"It is who you are to me," he had told her. "And who you will always be, no matter what others call you."

She knew him too well to think that he would permit argument on the subject. And… it was comforting in a way that she couldn't explain, to hear him address her as he always had.

Sometimes, growing up, she had dared to hope "princess" might be a term of affection as much as a title of respect. She had never asked, knowing it was not something she should care about. But now, hearing him say it even when her "rank" was gone, forsaken in search of something new, she thought her old dream might be closer to the truth than she had believed.

"Ecliptor," she replied, careful to repress her smile.

Wordlessly, he held up a data disc.

The unspoken agreement between them was that the less said during these illicit comm conversations, the better. The routing of the signal made it harder to track, but it could still be intercepted. And if the person doing the intercepting could decode the signal itself and recognize the participants, they would know both source and destination without the trouble of tracking it.

While she was relatively safe, Ecliptor's position would be unquestionably compromised by the discovery that he was still in contact with the former princess of evil. Should such a situation occur, she fully intended to declare herself a plant, a spy within the Astro team itself. The less evidence they gave to the contrary during their brief conversations, the more likely the story would be enough to protect Ecliptor.

Knowing that, she did not ask what was on the disc he held. She could tell from his manner that it was intended for her. "Something I should know?"

"It awaits only your convenience," he said, inclining his head slightly. He did not take his eyes off of her, though, and the "only" before "your convenience" tipped her off. Whatever information he had, it was more urgent than it sounded. It must be something too sensitive for him to transmit directly to her, and important enough that he didn't want to be caught with it.

"The Dark Fortress is at Rysia," she said, and he inclined his head again.

She thought quickly. She had assumed Dark Spectre's flagship would be at the forefront of his latest invasion, but she was not entirely pleased to have that thought confirmed. The fleet at Rysia would be on alert, probably on the lookout for guerillas, and it would be nearly impossible to sneak in undetected.

"I'll be there," she told him. She wasn't a sorceress for nothing.

"I will expect you, my princess."

She reached out and cut the transmission, watching absently as the screen flickered back to darkness. It would be tricky, but she had come and gone from the Dark Fortress more often than anyone--even Ecliptor--had known. Even in the middle of an invasion force, she had little doubt that she could do it again.

More of a problem was transportation. She could fly the Mega V zords, thanks in large part to her velocifighter training and in some small part to Zhane's eagerness to teach her. But the zords were not hers to command, and there was no member of the Astro team currently available to request permission from.

A small smile flitted across her features. *No available Earth or Kerovan Rangers, anyway.* There was one member of the Astro team who was not in the middle of fighting or out of touch due to security concerns. He would probably not be best pleased to hear from her, but there was no other choice.

"DECA, open a comm link to Aquitar," she said, somewhat amused by the thought of startling him this way.

"Comm link open," DECA replied promptly.

The Aquitian swirl logo appeared on small comm screen, followed almost immediately by one of the Rangers. "This is Delphinius, Black Ranger of Aquitar," he introduced himself. "How may I be of assistance, Astro Rangers?"

She lifted her head, startled, but determined not to show it. She had not encountered the Aquitian Rangers since she had left the Dark Fortress, and for a moment she was at a loss to explain his reaction to her.

*The logo,* she realized then. Of course. The transmission would have been flagged as a priority signal from the Megaship, and the Astro Rangers' logo would have appeared on the Aquitians' screen even as their logo appeared on hers. They might not recognize her face, but they knew where she was calling from.

"I wish to speak to the Phantom Ranger," she said, wondering how far the authority of the Megaship would get her.

Apparently, far enough. "One moment, please," Delphinius said, and he turned away from the console.

To her surprise, it really was only a moment later that the Phantom took Delphinius' place in front of the small comm screen. He did not greet her, but neither could she detect any hesitation in his tone when he asked, "You wished to speak with me?"

"I need to borrow one of the Mega V zords."

He seemed to consider that. "Why should you tell me this?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Because they're team zords. If Andros was here, I would ask his permission to take one, but he isn't. So I'm asking you."

He was silent a moment longer. "So far as it is mine to give," he said at last, "you have my permission."

Surprised, she only just remembered to say "thank you" before she ended the comm transmission. *He didn't even ask why.*

"DECA, would you summon Mega V4?" Though the team had allowed her to fly with them, without the Power she was unable to call the zords herself.

Her mind was already far ahead of her, wondering what Ecliptor could have that was so important he dared not transmit it even over an encoded channel. Preoccupied as she was, she didn't notice right away that DECA had not answered.

"DECA?" she asked, frowning curiously.

"You plan to take the zord to Rysia to rendezvous with the Dark Fortress." It wasn't really a question, but when the computer said nothing more, she nodded.

"I do. You disapprove?"

Most of the Rangers insisted that DECA was only programmed to speak the way she did, and that she had no real feelings of her own. But she had noticed that didn't stop any of them from treating her like a person, albeit a disembodied one, and the behavior was contagious.

"What Ecliptor calls 'information' could just as easily be a trap," DECA answered.

She considered that for a brief moment, then shook her head. "No. Ecliptor is loyal above all others."

"Loyal to the princess of evil," DECA said. "Not to you, Kerone."

Stung, she glared at DECA's camera. "I am not used to having my decisions questioned by a *computer*. Summon Mega V4, or I will find someone who can!"

"Teleporting." DECA's tone was curt, but she barely had time to recognize that before the world sparkled white around her. The next thing she knew, the Megaship's teleportation stream had released her and she was firmly ensconced in the V4 zord cockpit.

She threw a glare in the direction of the Megaship. It was undeniably rude to teleport someone without warning, and though DECA had given her one, it had been almost too brief to be considered a "warning" at all. The computer was clearly upset with her.

She frowned, looking down at the instrument panels. Her destination and recommended vector had not been uploaded from the Megaship, although DECA could do it faster than the zord's computer. *She must have learned how to sulk from Andros,* she thought, unbidden.

The zord offered up the vector she requested a moment later, and she threw it into hyperrush without a backward glance. The stars smeared across the forward window even as it darkened to black, protecting her eyes from the disconcerting--to human vision, at least--"view" of faster than light travel.

"My least favorite part of space travel," she remembered Zhane saying the first time they'd gone to hyperrush in the new zords.

They'd been in Mega V6 then, him standing behind the pilot's seat as she pushed her knowledge of small spacecraft to its limits in an effort to keep up with the others. The others, of course, had the Power to guide them--Andros had told her beforehand that another of the Power's benefits was instinctive understanding of Power-enabled devices, from weapons to spacecraft.

She had not realized what he meant until later, when, on the Megaship, she caught Zhane and Andros staring across the table at each other. Something clearly passed between them, but she heard nothing.

Her presence was apparently forcing them to learn better focus. They could send thoughts better now, directing them so they couldn't be picked up by just any telepath. Since that day, she had heard them in her mind less and less, until finally their voices vanished altogether except when one of them spoke specifically to her.

Though she had appreciated the effort for the sake of her own peace and quiet, she found she missed them sometimes. She knew they had a bond with each other that she would never have with either of them, and she couldn't help but wonder how different things might have been if she had grown up on KO-35.

With a sudden flash of insight, she wondered if Ashley ever felt the same way.

The nav computer chimed, drawing her thoughts away from her brother and his best friend. She transferred her focus instead to the magic that would cloak her vessel when she reentered realspace, and she dropped the zord out of hyperrush.

Purple sparkles swirled around her fingers as the magic came to life within her, and she drew in a sharp breath as its strength enhanced her every sense. She wouldn't trade this feeling for all the Power in the universe.

The zords' intership comm channel lit up even as she soared through the system's perimeter guard unchallenged, and she stared at it. No one should know--

*The network,* she thought, dismayed. Of course--each of the zords was linked to all the others; Andros and Zhane would have known the instant she entered the system. But she had not expected them to still be here…

She accepted the transmission hesitantly, not sure what she was going to hear.

"Ashley!" The distress in Andros' voice got her attention like nothing else, despite the fact she wasn't who he thought she was. "One of the Cai zords was damaged--can you take their place?"

Glancing across her tactical map, she could see the situation clearly. One of the convoy ships lingered in realspace on the edge of the system, its hyperrush engines apparently disabled or destroyed. There was no sign of either the other convoy ships or the Rysian fighters, and she assumed they had fled into the safety of hyperspace.

Only three of the Cai zords remained, and she hoped their fellows had gone with the convoy. One of them was just sitting there, though, nearly on top of the transport and firing at anything that got too close, and she surmised that it was the one Andros referred to.

She really didn't want to give her position away with a comm transmission, but she couldn't ignore him. *I'm not Ashley,* she thought at him, scanning for the other Astro zords.

Her heart clenched as she realized only Mega V1 was showing on her tactical map.

*Kerone?* Even his mental voice sounded strained. *What are you doing here? And why aren't you showing on my scanners?*

*Magic,* she answered, ignoring the first question. *Andros, where's Zhane?*

She felt his concentration waver, and on the tactical map she saw his zord diving after a velocifighter that had gotten too close to the convoy. Then, for just an instant, she saw his memory superimposed over her own vision, saw stars swirl before her eyes as his zord spiraled out of control.

She blinked as the vision let go, startled to find tears in her eyes. Andros' own emotion had caught her up until she thought she might be reliving the moment instead of witnessing it secondhand.

*His zord survived reentry,* Andros told her. *He spoke to me right after he crashed--I can still feel him, but I can't hear him anymore. I have to--*

*I'll go,* she interrupted. Whatever information Ecliptor had, it couldn't be as important as Zhane's life. *I can't fly formation; you can. Join the Cai, Andros.*

Her own proximity alert abruptly began to shriek, and she jerked her zord to the side, wondering what could possibly have gotten so close without her noticing. For a half-second, there was nothing on the scanners.

Then, directly behind her a transport erupted from hyperspace, flanked on either side by Cai zords and close enough that it blotted out half her scans. *The problem with being invisible to scanners,* she thought, as she pushed her zord's thrusters as hard as they would go in an effort to clear the area, *is that no one knows to avoid you.*

*The cavalry's here,* she heard Andros say. *I'm going after Zhane.*

She didn't understand his first sentence, but she had to keep him from acting on the second. *Andros, you can't! Listen to me--if you go after Zhane, you'll lead the velocifighters right to him *and* you. Neither of you will get off that planet alive. But they can't see me. Let me go and *I'll* bring him back.*

His silence was all the answer she needed. He didn't like it, but her words had gotten to him. *You know I'm right. I swear--* she swallowed, but it was the only way to get him to voluntarily leave Zhane. *I swear as your sister, Andros; I'll bring Zhane back.*

On her tactical map, she saw his zord arc off in the direction of the returning and presumably empty transport. They would need all the teleporting ability they had to make the transfer work before even the new zords were worn down.

*Be *careful*, Kerone,* she heard in her mind, even as the Rysian fighter wing burst into realspace around the transports. *I can't lose either of you again.*

The comm link flared to life once more, and a data burst dumped all of his scans from the previous battle into her zord's computer. His words, and his trust, meant more to her than he probably knew.

Correlating the position data from Andros' zord with her own location and vector, she left the fighting, her guardian on the Dark Fortress, and the Rangers and refugees behind. Mega V4 slipped past scanners and weapons' tracking systems alike on its determined course for the planet below.