Author's Note

The Galaxy Rangers belong to

Gaylord Enterprises, Inc., KOCH Entertainment LP and Red Sky Entertainment, Inc.

I don't own them; I'm just borrowing them for a little while.

So please don't sue.

Rangers Ride

By

jediryu ©

Preface

In a safe and secure observation post underneath the lunar regolith on the Earth-side face of the moon, the Andorian scientist Waldo looked on at his good friend Zozo of Kirwin, and heaved a heavy sigh before speaking, "Are you absolutely certain that the Humans are the allies we seek? Look at them. Take a good look at them Zozo. The Andorian Science Bureau, among others of the League of Planets, has been monitoring their broadcasts since the humans discovered RF radiation for themselves, which at the time, on their primitive calendar, was the early twentieth century, through their technological evolution to two dimensional moving pictures, what the humans call movies and television, into their computer age and their world wide web as they call it."

Zozo's cultured voice answered back, "Your point being Waldo?"

Waldo continued, "By all that is sentient, how can you possibly think that they are worth our time? Their broadcasts are full of reckless procreative activities, senseless aggression and ridiculously large combustive conflagrations. If they survive much past the new millennium, as they measure it, I for one will be too surprised for words."

Zozo smiled at Waldo and said, "The Humans can be a great people Waldo . . . they wish to be. They only need the proper guidance to help them find their greater potential that lies just below the surface, or put simply Waldo, I have faith."

Waldo chuckled explosively, "Fortunately for us Zozo, both of our respective species are very long-lived. I grant you that we may see this great potential you speak of, but I don't believe it's there. If it is, it will take many, many years of observations to find it."

Zozo smiled again, "That's why, even with our respective life spans, while we're here on their moon during this long term observation, we'll go into stasis for ten years at a time, leaving our instruments on passive scan. We'll spend a year or so going over the observations we've collected to that point, and then go back into stasis until the humans are ready. Then we'll make contact."

Preface Part 2

In the Earth year 2020, the final breakthroughs in fusion energy were made. By the year 2025, fusion energy was fine-tuned and made practical for all the people of Earth. By 2035, industrial and economic parity of all the nations of Earth had been achieved, fossil fuels ceased all production and there were no longer any third world nations. Those individuals who chose to reject this parity were left largely alone. These few groups were comprised of religious extremists, anti-government separatists and general luddites. By 2040, these few groups themselves became extinct but for a few isolated communities who found a way to coexist with the rest of the world and were left to their own devices.

In 2041, a boy was born to an average family in the Midwestern United States. His name was Quentin Ball. It soon became clear that he would become one of the great geniuses of his time, like Mozart and Einstein in theirs. Due to an accident with a home chemistry set, Quentin became the youngest bald person in his school. Soon the nickname Q-ball started to make the rounds but instead of anger or denial, Quentin embraced it and began to answer to it as his everyday name and his detractors, with no target to lock on to, soon stopped. That and the fact that Q-ball was the youngest black belt in the history of his Aikido school, was usually persuasion enough.

In 2056, at the age of 15, for his Master's Thesis, Q-ball finished building the world's first universal translator matrix, allowing all people to communicate with each other in real-time without the aid of a human interpreter. The first units were hand-held, the size of a pocket calculator but soon, as with all things, they were refined and became smaller. Soon the translators were the size of an ear-bud like one would use with a digital music device, then a microdot that would adhere to the ear painlessly and finally at its most refined, a subcutaneous implant in the ear. The technology branched out to a myriad of applications, particularly in the medical field. For victims of severe head traumas, an implant was used that could help bridge the damaged sections of the brain and allow these people to return to society, fully functional. This matrix alone made Q-ball a very rich man. Money, in and of itself, held little meaning for him, but with the money he made from his matrix, he channeled it into his research, made more breakthroughs large and small. Among other things, the first of the medical discoveries that enabled the doubling or even tripling of the average human life expectancy. Soon, various governments sought him out for help in addressing their own scientific issues.

Eventually, Q-ball went on to build his own research and development facility called Longshot. Named thus due to Q-ball's penchant for taking on projects that were considered 'longshots'. There he brought together the best and brightest minds humanity had to offer. Together, these researchers at Longshot developed practical and dependable suspended animation for use in sleeper ships capable of speeds a significant fraction of light and the artificial intelligences needed to watch over the sleeping colonists. Also among the discoveries made, were safe, reliable medical prosthetics, bionic limbs for accident victims, artificial gravity and anti-gravity.

By 2070, with the help of the colony sleeper ships that had been leaving semi-regularly since 2060, all wars on Earth ended. The basic premise for this, put simply, 'If you don't like the way things are on Earth, leave. Find some other planet to live on and do as you wish'. Due to this exodus, population density the world over stabilized and eventually reached equilibrium. The planetary environment began recovering from use, misuse and abuse, both accidental and intentional. Clean air and water became more and more commonplace and an overall maturing of the human condition could be observed.

Finally, in 2086, two peaceful aliens journeyed to Earth, seeking our help. In return, they gave us the plans for our first hyperdrive, allowing mankind to open the doors to the stars . . .

There has been assembled a team of unique individuals to protect Earth and its allies. Courageous pioneers committed to the highest ideals of justice and dedicated to preserving law and order across the new frontier . . .

This is just one of the continuing adventures of the Galaxy Rangers. . .