The Silence is Deafening: a PRiS Novel

Chapter 02: Satellite Dreams

The six space Rangers were scattered along the molten hot desert planet, scouring the harsh sands for the fallen NASADA satellite. None of their equipment was going to work in this heat, so they were left searching on foot. They had spread out, but were close enough that they could yell to each other if one of them found something.

Next to a strange alien skull Andros spotted a piece of machinery—a silvery chunk of metal, wires poking this way and that, still hissing with electricity.

"Hey guys!" Andros called out happily. "Look at this!"

Nobody seemed to hear him.

"Guys!" Andros yelled again, louder. "Hey! Over here!"

Ashley came up next to him suddenly, and pointed excitedly at the satellite chunk. "Andros, look! Hey everybody!"

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" Andros said as the other Rangers gathered. "I found this!"

"Nice job, Ashley." Tj complimented seriously, taking the metal. "This must have come from the satellite. It can't be far, come on!"

"Guys, I'm the one who found that." Andros said, his eyebrows quickly lowering down his sunburned face in annoyance. "Tell them, Ashley!"

"I'm surprised you didn't see it, Andros." Said Ashley, throwing him a disapproving glance. "Maybe pay a little more attention?"

Andros, exasperated, turned to Ashley. "But-"

His friends had already started walking away.

Their backs turned to him, it was in that moment that Andros realized something was deeply wrong. Even from behind he could feel their cold stares of distain and disapproval, he could feel the way they seemed to think he was less than them. Why?

"Wait up!" Andros cried desperately, running after them—they couldn't leave him behind. "Guys!"

Zhane turned his head to give Andros the coldest glare Andros had ever seen, a glare so harsh and hateful Andros wouldn't have thought it possible to come from Zhane's kind eyes. "Come on, man, keep up!"

Andros ran up to them. "But I didn't-"

"Where could it be?" mused Carlos, turning to Andros, that cold look in his eyes and that hateful growl in his voice. "Andros, you're the leader, where do you think we should look?"

"I think it's probably somewhere closer to where we found that piece," said Andros, gesturing to the gash of satellite Tj held. "I say we should head back over to where we found it."

Carlos glared him down. "Well? Nothing?"

Andros's jaw dropped. "But I just said-"

"You're so useless," Cassie groaned, hands on her hips. "who made you the leader, anyway?"

Andros took his friends words like punches in the stomach, his eyes softening into a shocked, saddened confusion. "Why are you-"

"Hang on," said Zhane, turning to the rest of the team. "let's be reasonable."

Andros breathed a sigh of relief. Zhane always had Andros's back, of course he came to his defense. Good ol' Zhane.

"Yes, he's a useless wretch and unfit to be a Ranger," Zhane spat, an evil grin growing on his face as he glared sharply at Andros. "but you can't just be mean to him."

Andros took a step back in his surprise. Did Zhane really call him... call him... that? But, but he wasn't useless! And how could Zhane talk about him that way, they were supposed to be best friends! And, Andros was talking, too, why couldn't they hear him? He had seen the chunk of satellite, he had an idea of where to look, he was just as functional as always!

Except... no one seemed to hear him.

Zhane took the rest of the team maybe fifty feet away from Andros, huddling out of earshot. They spoke for a long time.

Andros sat down on a large rock, sweaty, upset and confused.

He buried his head in his hands and tried to understand. His friends were all he had, he wanted so deeply to understand—why, was all he could wonder, why was this happening? Why were they so angry at him? Why couldn't they hear him?

And what had he done wrong?

Just when he was about to go and try to join the conversation he saw something large and gleaming in the brush.

It was the satellite!

Andros quickly ran up to it. Large enough it probably would have taken two or three people to move it, the hulking hunk of machinery rested awkwardly in a thorn bush. The machine itself was probably beyond repair, based on the way it whirred hopelessly and the few lights that were on it flickered, but he hoped the discs inside would be in better shape. When he removed then, all but one looked like they would play.

"Hey guys!" Andros said happily, running back to his friends and waving the discs above his head. "Look, I found the satellite! I told you I'm not useless!"

But they were gone.

"Guys?" he asked as he looked around, confused. "Zhane? Ashley? ...Anybody?"

Suddenly, there was a huge gust of wind and a blast of sand, a loud noise screamed in his ears and a shadow fell over him! When he opened his eyes, he saw that the Astro Megaship had flown over him!

"WAIT!" he screamed, reaching a feeble hand up and running after them. "DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME!"

The Megaship blasted away, up and out of sight.

"Guys!" Andros called out into the nothingness, blinking away tears as he felt panic beginning to take over. "Don't forget me!"

He slowly stopped running, and sunk to his knees.

They had abandoned him. They had really abandoned him. Even Zhane had left him, left him here to die.

All he had ever wanted was family, friends, people he could care about, people who would care back. He had thought that maybe, maybe, he had found that again, after his old team had been lost. But, but they had left him with no way off the planet, no way to survive. His family had abandoned him.

Was he really that useless? Was he really such a burden that they had to kill him to get rid of him? And, had his friends from KO-35 thought of him that way, like a burden they wanted to get rid of, like something that was so useless it needed to be cut away?

"I found the satellite, guys," he pleaded to no one. "I promise I'm not useless...!"

And so he begged and begged with nothing, pleading with people who weren't there anymore. Even he knew, deep down, there was no point to crying out. Even if they came back, he knew his words would be audible only to him. And, they wouldn't be back.

He was alone.

Again.

"Zhane..." he choked. "I thought you were my friend..."

-o-o-o-

"Satellite!"

Andros woke from the nightmare with a start in the darkness of his bedroom, cold sweat dotting his forehead and tears threatening to run down his face. He looked around, greeted by the nothingness of the quietness. Everyone must have been asleep at this hour.

He wiped sweat from his forehead and fumbled for the light by his bed. It was just a nightmare, just a nightmare. In the light, he gripped the photo of Zhane and himself he kept by his bed.

Arm in arm, smiling, holding their Ranger helmets. They were two friends who could do anything—defeat Dark Specter! Save Karone! Protect the planet!

Understand each other.

Andros opened his mouth to speak to the photo, but the words all jammed in his throat.

I'm not useless, Andros thought to himself.

He laid back down and tried to get some sleep.