Rachel, Lorent, Klezmi, Silva, and a few others in minor roles are mine.
Rated PG : language; sexuality; violence; some mature concepts.
This is a story centered on Alex, the Time Force story of the series, and my continuations, from his point of view. It shares plotlines and some scenes with the series and my other stories, but is not just a rehash. Originally intended to be only a few chapters - I can honestly say it grew in the telling. It's also more thoughtful, and perhaps more romantic that my others.
Please note: It's based on my AU version of Time Force; Trip and Katie are mutants, Trip is not an alien, Alex and Jen are from 2200, not 3000, the morphers etc. were all created scientifically.
Please review, it keeps me going.
My name is Alex. Alex Drake, to be precise, although we don't use family names much anymore. Yes, the same Alex Drake who's the double of Wesley Collins, the same one who's related to him in a way I'd rather not think about. But more on him later.
Where should I start? Or maybe I should say, when should I start? All of it really started when I met her, the woman this story is really about. But at the very beginning probably would be best. I was born in the year 2170. That makes me thirty-two, now, in 2202. There's been a few times I thought I'd never live this long.
I could talk about my childhood, but it wouldn't be relevant. Suffice it to say I grew up in a reasonably nice family, a reasonably nice home, and was a reasonably happy child. My parents didn't always have much time for me, and they expected a great deal, but I'm better for that in the long run. From them I learned to work hard, to be persistent, and to demand the same from others.
Since I was just a child watching the vids I knew I wanted to be in Time Force. They protect the timestream, shield reality itself from harm, do battle with powerful enemies -- including mutants, the most awe-inspiring of opponents -- and the uniforms are completely cool. Irresistible for a twelve-year-old boy.
Once I had a goal, I of course set out to accomplish it, and what I want, I get. Most of the time. I studied law enforcement, temporal mechanics, and history in school, and prepared myself physically with martial arts. Fortunately I'm highly intelligent and quite healthy and strong. I say that not with any lack of modesty, we're all built that way, what with genetic modification keeping anything defective out of the gene pool, but even on our bell curve, I'm lucky enough to be quite a bit above average.
Naturally, I got into Time Force Academy without a problem, on the first try. Staying there was a different matter. I was used to being better than just about everyone at just about everything. TF Academy, naturally, only accepts the best, and has the smartest and most accomplished student body around. In that rarefied atmosphere, it came as a shock to realize I was no longer the best and brightest.
It was a challenge, and I love a challenge. I dived in, worked harder than ever, and managed to make an impression. At the sacrifice of anything resembling a social life, of course, but that didn't seem important at the time. Now I realize I was setting myself up for trouble, by neglecting the one area where I did not excel. Dealing with other people.
My studies came to an end at their scheduled time, and I began my career. First as a trainee, then a full-fledged agent. The work was hard, but I loved it. Doing something important, something challenging -- there's that word again -- something I'm damn good at; there's nothing more fulfilling. I began to impress my superiors, even Captain Logan, my commanding officer and one of the truly important people at Time Force. Life was good, almost perfect. But about to get better.
She was a rookie when I met her. Jen, Jennifer Scotts, if you're interested in her full name. Why I noticed her right away I really couldn't say. She's pretty, of course, everyone is, except the mutants. She's not outstandingly, glamorously beautiful, nothing like that. Maybe it was her expression. The first time I saw her was at target practice. She wasn't doing very well, and there was the most intense look of determination and concentration on her face. I knew that look, I've worn it many times myself.
On that day I was assigned to assist in training, showing the newbies around, helping them out, making sure they don't shoot someone by accident. I went up to her, just to lend a hand.
"You look like you could use a few pointers."
That was the wrong thing to say, of course, I knew it as soon as she looked up at me. There were resentment and annoyance on her face now, I could practically hear her thinking, 'Who does this condescending jerk think he is?'
"I'm doing just fine, thanks." She turned back to the target.
"No offense. I am supposed to be here to help. And, frankly, all of you could use it."
She smiled at that, and I was halfway gone. The warmth that came into those brown eyes -- it got to me. I smiled back, probably with an incredibly stupid expression on my face.
"Okay." She faced the target again, and then looked at me when I didn't move. This time she gave me a big, amused grin, her gums showing a little, and I was gone the rest of the way.
Fortunately I pulled myself together before I seemed like a complete fool, and moved closer, reaching around her to correct her aim and steady her hands on the blaster. "Just hold it level, like that," I said into her ear. "Line up the sights on the target -- pull the trigger smoothly, don't jerk it. That's right."
Thank goodness, she hit it almost dead center, making me look like a genius. She turned her head and grinned again. I grinned back, totally dazzled. We tried a few more shots, with me coming as close as I dared to putting my arms around her. She didn't seem to mind. She was good, all she needed was a little coaching and she did fine. Soon I had no excuse for spending more time with her.
"Looks like you don't need me anymore," I said, stepping back. "And I'd better pay some attention to the others." I nervously eyed a young man who had just managed to blast the hell out of a tree, startling several birds from the branches. Luckily the practice blasters don't do much damage.
"Thanks, again," she said. As I reluctantly started away, she called after me. "What's your name, by the way?"
Idiot should have been my name, for not asking her first. "Alex," I said. "And you?"
"Jen."
"Great to meet you. Maybe I'll see you around." Smooth, very smooth. You can tell how experienced I was with women. Anyway, that's how we met. And how my life changed forever.
I did see her around, over the next weeks. We became friends, began to meet regularly, usually for me to coach her. Jen was a true perfectionist; she got upset if she didn't do everything just right the first time. Time Force training is difficult for anyone; Jen was good, above average even for TF, but you wouldn't know it by the way she reacted. In a few areas she had trouble, and she thought it was the end of the world, even said she was considering quitting.
I talked her out of it, tried to convince her that the most important thing was to keep trying, that she didn't need to ace everything right away. Never give up, I told her, a sort of informal motto around Time Force, something that's been an inspiration to me. She started saying it, too. And she tried again, and again, and gave up on getting everything perfect, as long as it was pretty damn close to perfect.
'Graduation' day came, the day Jen and the others in her training group who had survived were made into full TF agents. I watched Captain Logan give Jen her official badge, feeling as proud as a parent would on seeing their kid sworn in as world president, not that I felt even remotely paternal towards her. She looked in my direction and sent me one of those big smiles. If there was any part of my heart that didn't already belong to her, it was hers after that.
I took Jen out to celebrate that night, asked her out to dinner, not sure if she understood I meant it as a date, not just a friendly get-together anymore. I thought she looked at me the way a woman looks at a man she likes as more than a friend, but I wasn't sure. We ate, and talked, and gazed into each other's eyes. After dinner we walked, ending up in the park between the two main TF residence halls. It's beautiful there, and private. We sat on a bench among the trees. The moon was up and full, a soft breeze was stirring the leaves, it was perfectly romantic.
I guess we were both nervous. After we ran out of things to say, I just turned to look at her. She looked back, and raised her face to me. After all the time I had spent planning how to do it, all the ways I had imagined it happening, in the end it was easy, it just felt right and natural to kiss her, putting my arms around her, feeling her kiss me back.
She told me later she had already been in love with me. I know I was with her. Things seemed perfect, both our careers were on track, we were in love. As with all perfect situations, it didn't last.
As soon as I heard about the Ranger program, I wanted in. It was quite simply the most exciting project to come along in Time Force since time travel itself. Command wanted the best available agent to be the first Ranger. I was determined to be that agent.
The Power Rangers were developed as a way of enabling ordinary mortals like us to personally go up against mutants, many of whom were extremely powerful. We needed this, it often took whole squads to defeat one mutant, and there were an unfortunate number of casualties. The Ranger suit would not only make its wearer stronger and provide weapons, it gave him or her a certain amount of protection as well.
There was some stiff competition, but I had an outstanding record, and I wanted it more than anyone else. When the time came, I was selected as the first Ranger. I can't describe the thrill, or how proud I was. Did it bother me that I was essentially a guinea pig in a pilot program? Hell no. I was first, that's how I saw it. My name would go down in history. Maybe I'd be remembered as a hero.
Jen and I celebrated that night, too, in our personal way. She was almost as excited as I was, not only for me, but because she had been accepted for the second stage of the program, she and a few others would become Rangers after I had tested the systems sufficiently. We would become a team.
We all went into training together. There were three more members of our little Ranger unit. We met for the first time in a small laboratory where we would receive our orientation. Jen and I stepped through the door and saw another young man waiting, tall and handsome even by genetically improved standards.
Jen walked up to him and held out her hand. "Hi. I'm Jen, this is Alex."
He looked both of us over, in a friendly enough way. "I'm Lucas," he said. "Alex. You're the guy they picked to be first, aren't you? The one getting a morpher right away?"
"Yes, well, someone has to be first."
He looked both eager and curious. "Have you done it yet? Morphed?"
"No. But Logan said I'd do it today."
"Wow. Think we'll get to watch?"
"I don't see why not. But it's not up to me."
We all turned as the last two people walked in. They were a tall woman and a very young man with green hair, obviously a case of gen-imp gone a little too far. Later I would find out that she was also, that both of them had genetically improved abilities.
Around this point you may be wondering exactly what the difference is between human and mutant in these gen-imp times, when almost everyone's genes have been tampered with in some way. It's a good question, one that everyone with more than half a brain wonders about at some time. I don't have a good answer, and I doubt anyone does. Some people would say if a person looks human, he or she is human. Others might get into the details of what had been changed, calling anyone a mutant who has abilities outside the extremes of the human range. Still others would simply say they know one when they see one.
Anyway, our two new teammates looked human enough except for his green hair, and it's none of my business anyway.
"Hi, I'm Katie," the tall woman said.
"And I'm Trip," said the green-haired man. They both smiled and we went through a round of handshakes.
Before we could start a conversation, none other than Captain Logan himself walked through the door, accompanied by one of the Time Force scientists. I recognized her; Rachel was part of the team that had developed the morphers. We would be getting our orientation straight from the source. At Logan's signal, we all took our seats.
Logan stood to address us. "This is an historic occasion," he started. Just as I was mentally rolling my eyes, he smiled. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but it happens to be true. This is our first complete trial of a revolutionary new personal weapons and defense system. If successful, it will change the nature of combat for Time Force. These morphers could save many lives."
He held up the device itself for us to admire. I had seen it before, but I have to admit it was still a thrill. It was oval, perhaps eight centimeters long by six wide, with a strap attached. Not very imposing to look at, really, but we all made suitable noises of admiration and awe. We all knew what it could do.
Logan introduced Rachel and turned the meeting over to her. To my surprise, the first thing she did was hand me the morpher. "I think the best way to start would be a demonstration," she said.
"Are you sure it's safe?" I blurted out, realizing how foolish I sounded as she smiled.
"Of course it's safe. We don't take risks with our best agents' lives."
"Sorry. What do I do?"
"Just put it on. The first thing it'll do is analyze your DNA and lock onto it. You'll see a red flash."
More hesitantly than I like to admit, I did what she said, placing the morpher on my left wrist. The strap seemed to move of its own will, firmly closing around my wrist. I felt a slight tingle. I was expecting the display to flash red, but a sudden shimmer of red light ran over my entire body. All of us gave a nervous start.
"That was the DNA lock becoming active," Rachel went on. "Now, Alex is the only one who can use the morpher. All of the morphers are programmed to lock on to the first person who uses them, as a security precaution. We're also experimenting with other locking methods, such as voice. Can't take the chance of one of these getting into the wrong hands."
I had been only half listening, while staring at the display on the morpher. It had a slightly domed face, with several buttons. "What now?" I asked, looking up.
"Now -- anytime you're ready, activate it by pushing the button nearest your hand." She grinned. "But be ready. It's going to be a little -- startling."
Being of course a big strong Time Force agent, I couldn't let any of them see that I was scared. I smiled and said something heroically nonchalant like, "Here goes nothing!" and pressed the button.
I've morphed since then, many times, but that memory still stands out as one of the most exciting events of my life. There was another, much brighter flash of light all around my body, and the most exhilarating sensation went through me, of energy and power, leaving me feeling like I could leap over tall buildings or bend steel with my bare hands. The light was gone after a second and we all just stood there, the others staring at me, me staring down at myself. I had become the Red Ranger, my body completely covered by a red and white form-fitting outfit, my head in a helmet. Everyone's familiar with the suits, now, so I won't bore you with a detailed description. Suffice it to say we were all -- impressed.
I don't think I really came back to Earth and started paying attention to what was going on around me until after the orientation was over and all five of us had gone out to dinner, to get to know each other, and just to talk. The first thing we did was to tell each other a little about ourselves. I went first, quickly skipping over family and personal history and giving a brief description of my Time Force career.
Jen was next. I listened with as much interest as the others. She rarely talked about herself, even to me. "There's nothing much to tell," she started. "I grew up in the Midwest, went to school, the usual things." Her eyes fell. "My parents died in an accident when I was fourteen."
"Oh, I'm so sorry..." Katie murmured.
"Thanks, but it was a long time ago. Anyway, my uncle and aunt raised me after that. They were okay, but we weren't close. I came to Silver City for college, and went into Time Force when I graduated."
The rest of us were silent for a moment until Katie spoke up again. "How long have the two of you known each other?"
"It's been a little over a year now. We met while I was still a trainee."
"That's great." Katie gave us a big smile. "I was born in New York, and grew up there. Applied to Time Force right out of college, like you. This is the first time I've been away from home." Her face clouded slightly. "It's been a year, and I still miss my family."
"You can see them anytime, by vidphone. And you can visit on weekends," Lucas said.
"It's not the same as living with them. I don't get all the day-to-day stuff. I guess I just don't like living alone," she answered.
"I miss my family too," Trip said. "My parents are really great. They always did the best they could for me." He smiled at Katie. "Katie's been great, too. She and I were in the same training class, and we've been friends ever since. We -- have a lot in common."
"Yeah, we're both gen-imp," Katie said, lifting her chin a little. "My strength is enhanced."
"And I'm mildly psychic and enhanced for intelligence and mechanical ability." Trip looked at us, a little defiantly. "I don't mind being called a mutant."
Jen, Lucas, and I exchanged a glance. We could all sympathize with Trip and to some extent with Katie. There was a good deal of prejudice against mutants, and with that green hair he undoubtedly had grown up being called 'mutie' and other charming names. His remark about his parents was significant, too, many kids in his situation would have blamed his parents for going too far in the gen-imp department.
Lucas apparently decided his turn had come. "I was born and grew up right here," he said. "Never felt the urge to leave. My parents are split, so I used to move back and forth between the south side and the north side, to spend time with both of them. Went to college, joined Time Force. I've always loved racing -- anything fast, but mostly racecars --- and I'm interesting in becoming a pilot."
"Piloting timeships?" I asked.
"Yeah, to fly one of those things, actually going through time -- what a thrill!"
"Seeing other times, how people lived, yeah. That's what I joined up for," Katie said dreamily.
"I don't want to actually live in the past," Lucas said with a grimace. "All that primitive technology..."
"It's not likely that any of us will ever time travel," I said. "Too dangerous to the timestream." It was true, Time Force's main, most important mission was to prevent anyone from traveling into the past and changing history.
After a brief silence Trip changed the subject. "I still can't get over seeing you morph, Alex. I knew what was going to happen, of course. I'd seen pictures of the suit. But to actually see it happen -- wow!" He grinned enthusiastically. "This is such a step forward in hyperspace technology!"
"Incredible that they can get all of that equipment into that little morpher," Lucas said.
"It's not in the morpher," Trip said. "The suit and weapons are in hyperspace, where there's no real location or dimensions, not the way we understand them. All the morpher does is translate them from hyperspace to here, and put them back when you're done with them."
"What happens to our clothes when we morph?" Katie asked.
"They go into hyperspace, and get replaced by the suit."
Jen grinned. "Let's hope the morpher doesn't get confused, and forget to bring your clothes back when you demorph."
Trip was almost indignant. "They're designed better than that. Besides, it takes energy to hold regular objects like your clothing in hyperspace. Even if the morpher fails and there's a forcible demorph, your clothes will come back, because that's the natural state of the matter that they're made of..." He trailed off as he realized Jen had been joking, and we were all laughing at him. He's a good sport, he started to laugh, too.
"So, Alex, how did it feel?" Katie asked.
I shrugged. "It felt -- great. You'll find out for yourselves soon enough. I don't want to spoil it."
Jen took my arm. "Oh, come on. Tell us."
"Very energizing." I smiled, a little uncomfortably. "It's hard to describe. But -- I can't wait to do it again. And to use the suit in action."
"You may get your chance soon," Lucas said. "I'll bet they want you to use it against Ransik."
All of us sobered quickly at the thought. Ransik was the mutant all of us dreamed of capturing, the self-proclaimed archenemy of humanity. He and his group of militant mutants were dangerous and vicious, and he had proved hard to track down and harder to defeat. If I could get him -- it would be a triumph for Time Force, for the Ranger program, and for me. I felt Jen squeeze my arm tightly and looked down into her concerned face. Going up against Ransik could make me a hero. It could also make me dead.
TBC...