trans_9 | Meet-n-Greet

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Meet-n-Greet

After being released from stasis, having the slime removed from their bodies and clothed in the creepy, pulsing leaf-suit that everyone wore, and being taken to the Weapons & Possessions lockers to collect their belongings, the new arrivals would find themselves standing in the Observation Deck. Round windows lined the fleshy walls, revealing the bright display of lights that was inter-dimensional travel. They would also discover that there were people--members of the command staff and crew that had woken earlier--waiting for them.

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Indeed Luke caught the other man's eye, in a lull between people coming over to him, and smiled. As he did, he caught that echo of power again--the sense that, like others he'd encountered, this one had abilities beyond what apparently was considered normal for most people.

Luke smiled; the man seemed fretful about something. Hopefully it was just that he'd newly arrived too.

Andros ignored his wish to sink into the background. He'd have to hold off a little longer. Wading through the crowd and his own personal version of hell, Andros approached the other man. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Do you need help? You seem to be rather popular." Andros would have not been happy in the other man's position. But he also knew how the game was played, the man couldn't very well just ignore the starstruck people and go about his buisness. "I'm Andros."

"No, it's all right. I'm used to it." Luke smiled reassuringly; he could feel Andros' discomfiture and appreciated that he'd taken the time to come over and make sure things weren't too overwhelming despite that. "I appreciate your concern, though. I'm Luke Skywalker, it's nice to meet you Andros."

Andros nodded, not making any move to shake hands or any other form of tactile contact. People person he was not, but, he was getting better.If Luke offered, he wouldn't decline, but there was no sense making the first move. "It's nice to meet you too." Andros attempted small talk.

"Get kidnapped often?"

If Stacy was anything like DECA, his own ship's computer, he'd pay for that comment later on, probably by having the hot water turned off for a week, eating food that somehow managed to taste like rotting worm dung, or his favorite, the silent treatment. But, somehow, conversing with machines and A.I's were so much easier than people.

Luke chuckled. "No, I can't say it happens often. Even then, I think it's because of some task I have to complete rather than any malicious reason." He gestured at the people who were slowly filtering out into the rest of the ship. "A lot of these people have powers that most others don't. And from what the ship herself said when we awoke..." he trailed off, thinking.

"But by that very token it leaves our own universes, planets, unprotected." Andros supposed he shouldn't assume everyone here is space faring. And those who weren't? They'd have a big learning curve ahead of them. "Although we don't know how long we were asleep. In our times, hundreds of years could have passed. Maybe more." That was unsettling. What would the Rangers do without him? With only 4 Space Rangers?

"I'm more than happy to help. Asking would have been nice, but in my experience, most A.I.'s don't ask. If Stacy can be considered an A.I." He'd have to ask Stacy at some point, what she preferred to be thought of as.

"I think the galaxy can get on just fine without me," Luke said with a smile. "There will always be Jedi to protect it, no matter what." Andros had said something that had given him pause though. What if he had been in that stasis for hundreds of years? Ben, Leia, everyone he knew and loved could be dead. The thought saddened him.

"Jedi? I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that term. Some kind of interstellar protectors?" If that was true, they sounded a bit like Rangers. Okay, Space rangers, since Planetary Rangers were so confined to their planet.

"I hope your right and the universe can and will make it without us.That there isn't a need for us. " It would be nice, but Andros didn't believe it. He had dared to hope once, of a world without evil, where he could put away the morpher and just, be. But, it wasn't meant to happen. Good and Evil would always exist, and he was in for the long run.

"Oh, I'd say there's still a need, otherwise we wouldn't be." Luke smiled. "Don't ever think you aren't necessary if what you do is protect the good. Most people never have that calling--but the Jedi, people like me who can sense the Force and use it, do--and so do you."

"I had hoped at one point that the struggle was over. But the universe doesn't work like that. Evil keeps popping up." Like program glitches. You tried to get rid of them, but they kept cropping up at the worst possible time. "I'm sure there's some good we can do here, or we wouldn't have been brought out. What's the Force?" Andros looked puzzled, but not knowing terms was hardly knew for him. As an 'alien' on Earth, he was still constantly learning new terms, new cultures and new ways of doing things, however backwards and primitive.

Luke nodded. "Evil is a pervasive thing. It gets inside you... never really lets you go." He thought of how he'd killed Lumiya out of vengeance, maddened by grief for Mara. That had tainted him and left the horrible task of stopping Caedus to Jaina, who never should have had to bear it.

"The Force--it's energy that flows from all living things. Jedi--people like me, who can sense the Force and manipulate it--get their strength from the Force. Some are more adept at it than others, but that's the idea of it."

Andros' entire body stopped. That was not something he wanted to think about. He believed that evil was evil through and through. But, his sister, Karone. Karone was different. She had to be. Andros couldn't bear to think that his twin sister was lost to him, that there was a part of her that would never sway to the side of good. That evil was with her forever. She had been good for years now. Andros kindly ignored the times when she slipped up. They didn't count. Undoubtedly the people on the planet's she enslaved and destroyed had a different opinion. But his was clouded by idealistic hope and love. It was such a strong(and rather pigheadedly stupid) thought that not even his team had stood by him when he vouched it. Evil was pervasive. He couldn't believe that. He had to believe that it was capable of letting go. That someone(someone rather specific in particular) could triumph.

He looked down," I can't believe that. It's possible to triumph over evil, to make it let go. Completely. It has to be." The Force sounded a bit like the Morphing Grid, but, without Billy or Zordon(not that he could really ask Zordon, now could he?), Andros couldn't be certain.

"It is possible to be redeemed," Luke said, looking curiously at Andros. When he'd said that, the other's emotions had spiked with fear. "My father was; a student of mine was. But it leaves... impressions in the Force, and in a person. It becomes easy to slide back into old habits."

Slip ups. So Karone had a bad day once in a while. Every Ranger did. So some of them probably ended up in bar fights and snippy remarks. At least she hadn't killed anyone. Run them over, yes. Probably broken some bones. Killed, no. And despite everything she'd been through and her rough days, she was still somehow still better adjusted than he was.

"She is redeemed," Andros said with such conviction. "My twin sister, Karone. She was abducted by evil when we were children. I was right there. I should have done something.She spent the next decade convinced I murdered her family in cold blood." Andros started to flagellate himself at the first opportunity for angst.

"I don't think she could relapse with someone like you believing in her so strongly," Luke said kindly. "What happened to her was not your fault; there are those who wish to manipulate and use others, and tell lies to get their way. You mustn't blame yourself for it any more. Let go of your fear and self-hatred."

"I was right there, how could it not be my fault," Andros muttered, not intending for Luke to hear him. Self-hatred was a good word for it, he was responsible for so much pain, for so many people. Maybe one day he'd get it right.

He touched his hand to the locket around his neck briefly, before suppressing the urge and putting his fists by his side. It was very odd to have the locket so visible. Normally he wore it under clothing, which, in this case, wouldn't work well. The Ranger shook his head, burying his feelings deep down again until he could find a quiet cubbyhole somewhere to angst in private.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to drag you into this. It isn't your problem, but thank you for listening and your advice."

He could feel the pain, deep and abiding in Andros, and it hurt him too. But Luke knew now that he couldn't save everyone, and if change was going to come to this young man it would have to come from within. "I was called to help out those who need it," Luke said gently. "Please come to me if you need anything?"

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