I, SOPHIE

Okay, so I've had this story stirring in my head forb the last week. I hope you like it!

Chapter 1--The Genesis of S.O.P.H.I.E.

"Mrs. Hartford? Are you sure that this will work? I mean, yes, cyborgs have been built before and functioned properly, but we've never successfully created a Series One Processor/Hyper-Intelligent Encryptor that hasn't blown up by the first test phase," a mousy little, well, rat-like alien said to the brunette woman standing on the other side of the table from him.

"You don't know Rose, Doc," a man with curly brown hair and green eyes said to the twitchy alien as he helped moved the cyborg into position on the table.

"Mack, you're not helping," Rose told him. "Besides, your dad was the one that originally modified the circuits and core computer chip so that she would function like a normal human. And the body was based from his early designs. All I did was add a few programs to compensate for any possible malfunctions that could occur."

"Yes, yes, Mrs. Hartford. We are quite aware that you and your father-in-law changed the robot's programming. What I would like to know is how long before it is operational?" a large bird in a military uniform asked.

"Mack?" she turned back to the human man.

"Start her up!" he said as he stepped away from the table.

The others in the room followed suit as the table was moved so that the cyborg was only a few inches from the ground. "Ready?" Rose asked everyone. There were nods from the various personnel gathered before the woman in pink picked up a scanner and remote from a nearby table and, with te press of a button, activated the cyborg.

A hush fell over the room as two brown eyes opened and a feminine voice said, "Hello, who are you?"

"Hello, Sophie," Rose greeted the young woman in front of her. "I'm Rose Hartford, this is my husbannd Mack," she indicated the human man in red, "Commander Fowler, and Dr. Ratso," she finished as she pointed to the bird and rodent.

"How are you feeling Sophie?" Mack asked as he and Dr. Ratso began unstrapping the woman and helped her from the table.

"Systems are all functioning at optimal levels," she replied, glancing around the room.

"Very good. After you have finished with the testing, send her to the academy in New Tech City. I would like it to start its training as soon as possible," Fowler said before turning around and walking out of the lab.

"It was nice to see you, too, Birdie!" Mack called to the retreating back. He turned to Dr. Ratso. "You guys can go now. Rose and I will handle her transition."

"But-"

"Don't worry." He gave the scientists in the room another glance before a devilished smirk graced his features. "On second thought..." he grabbed Sophie's hand and, before anyone could say differently, he ran out the door of his wife's lab with the cyborg on his heels.

"Come on, Sophie! Your education awaits!" echoed off of the walls of the white room, followed by the childish laugh that many at SPD had come to expect from the former Operation Overdrive red ranger.

Rose just sighed before gathering some necessary equipment and following her once-robotic, now-human spouse. In their 10 years of marriage, he still hadn't lost his child-like excitement and wonder. Rose often thought that it might have had something to do with the fact that, in reality, he was only about 20 years old instead of the mid-thirties his co-workers had been led to believe.

In the quarters that had been set up for the Hartford family, Mack and Rose Hartford, former red and pink Operation Overdrive rangers, began educating the young woman called Sophie what it meant to be human.

"But you have more than one name," she questioned. "Why do I only have one?"

Mack and Rose looked at each other before turning back to Sophie and answering. "Well, you see," began Rose, nervously looking to her other half, "humans have surnames, that's the family name, to identify them as members of a family group. They could be married, be siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, children. It doesn't matter. In all cases, people don't have the same surname as some of their relatives..." before she sould contine Sophie asked, "Am I a part of a family group?"

Mack, quickly seeing distress in the cyborg, jumped in. "Of course you are! You're a part of our family!"

"I am a Hartford?"

"You're anything you want to be," Rose said.

"Then I would like to be a Hartford, but not a Hartford," Sophie chewed her bottom lip as she thought. "Does that make sense?"

"Of course it does. Why don't you choose your own last name? Then you'd be one of us, but at the same time, you'd be yourself," Mack answered.

After some very careful consideration, and a lot of researching, Sophie finally decided on a name. "I would like to be called Sophie MacKenzie. After you, Mack. Is that alright?"

"That's fine!" Mack said after a moment of silence.

"It's a beautiful name," Rose agreed. "Okay, Sophie MacKenzie, would you like to continue with your studies?"

Sophie nodded. "Yes, I would. Now that I have a proper name."

They soon went back to teaching and being taught.

Hours later, Sophie had left to go study the books that Rose had given her and the couple was relaxing on their bed.

"You know, I think she'll make a great addition to the Ranger family. Even if she only works in a Kat or Boom position," Mack said as he leaned against the headboard, Rose's head leaning on his shoulder.

"And we know that she'll be a part of the B-squad's lives. Remember what Bridge said," Rose answered, reminding him of one of the few slips about the future that the future red ranger had made during his brief time as a protector of the jewels of the Corona Aurora. That particular slip of the tongue had happened when he was explaining how his team had chage twice in his five years as a ranger at SPD.

"Yeah," Mack sighed. Craning his neck to glance at the clock on the nightstand, Mack quickly raised himself and Rose and hurried over to the video phone set up on the other side of the room. "Rose, it's time to call them," he called over to her.

Rose's face lit up and she hurried to join her husband as he dialed an Earth number. There was a moment of silence, then two rings before the graying features of one Andrew Hartford, eldest of the Hartford clan, appeared on the screen.

"Hello kids, right on time," he greeted before the screen was filled with the eager faces of three children sending hellos and miss yous to their parents. Mack and Rose spent the next several minutes talking to their family while thinking of the newest member of the ranger clan studying a few doors down.

So, what did you think? I'll try to update whenever university allows.