"Sorry dad.. I will next time.." he promised

"So there's going to be a next time huh?" Hank leapt on the words eagerly.She didn't have to look to know whom Tevi meant. "Yes," she said simply, relaxing again as she gazed up into the heavens. The stars twinkled and beckoned, but not as strongly as they sometimes did. Here she was free, cut off from responsibility and unencumbered by the needs of others. Why run from herself when she could run from everyone else?

"The Silver Ranger," Tevi murmured, as though talking to herself.

Kerone stiffened anyway, reacting involuntarily to any mention of the Rangers. *Everyone except Zhane,* she amended her earlier thought. She had brought him with the belief that if there was anyone who needed to get away right now, it was Zhane. In doing so, though, she had effectively erased any anonymity she might still have enjoyed on the agrec crew.

Billy laughed tiredly "If I have anything to say about it. But I need to catch up on some sleep, planes aren't the best place to spend 24 hours...Skye upstairs?"

"Yes - he came back last night after they finally announced you had an enforced stop over.Shutting the journal program, Dex bit his lip. He had the utmost faith in Trey, but he still couldn't help worrying about his friend. They hadn't seen each other in almost five years, not since Dregon's attack on Edenoi, but they had been friends for nine hundred years before that. Dex had been the Earth equivalent of seven, while Trey had been fifteen. They had met on Triforia, at one of those interminable social events that planetary monarchs always felt compelled to drag their heirs to. The two boys had both been bored out of their minds, and had relieved their boredom in the time-honored tradition of boys everywhere- by getting into trouble. Dex didn't recall exactly how it had happened, but he and Trey had wound up covered in mud, chasing an escaped aoridil through the throne room. Dex could still remember the expression on his grandfather and Lord Terrian's faces upon seeing the heirs to the Triforian and Edenite thrones covered in mud from head to toe. It had taken both kings all of their self-control to keep from laughing.
          That had been the start of a fast friendship between Dex and Trey. No one had thought it would last, since Triforians aged at half the rate of Edenites, but that had caused no problems. Instead, they had grown closer as they had matured, and Dex became closer and closer to Trey's age. The two simply had a great deal in common, both being heirs to both the kingship of their planets and of a tradition older even than that. Sometimes, Dex thought Trey was the only person he could talk to.

"I'll just say hello" Billy said already halfway up the stairs.