Chapter One. Broken.
She shot back to consciousness like an arrow to a bullseye, her chest and legs wracked with pain. Something was on top of her, something heavy… She couldn't see. Her cybernetic eye was down, something interfering with her one good eye… All she saw was darkness.
Blinking several times, she finally saw something across from her, a blinking red light. So the lights are off. That realisation didn't mean anything to her, all she wanted to do was lie here a while longer, at least until someone came to help her out. Whatever was on top of her…
What was on top of her?
Sandy glanced down in front of her, the airlock door resting atop her, its weight pinning her down. Grimacing, she reached out to push it up, her efforts barely shifting it.
"Hello!" she shouted, hoping someone was out there who could hear her. "Hello! Anyone around?"
No answer. The light continued to blink ahead of her, whatever it was. Again, she tried to push the heavy door off her, this time it gave slightly.
She'd been pinned like this before. When training to become an active cadet, she'd been in a speeder crash. The instructor had been killed, the other two trainee cadets she had presumed dead… And she'd had her body shattered by the weight of the speeder atop it. Laid there in a pool of her own blood, she'd thought then that she would die like that, crushed.
She hadn't, of course. The crash site had been found by another patrol, emergency medics had managed to save her life. Not long after that, she'd been rebuilt, anything broken replaced with cutting edge machinery. It hadn't been her choice, the top scientists involved in the process had asked for a 'test subject' to try out the process on. Did being a cyborg bother her? Since the other choice had been death, she didn't care that at least half her body was machine.
Compared to that speeder, the door was light stuff. Again, she made a move to shift it, levering both arms up beneath it. Slowly, it moved up off her, her arms on fire. One final push and she hurled it off her with a scream, hearing it crash to a rest against the back wall of the engine rooms.
No longer having it hug her, she was free to examine herself. Flexing her sore arms, the mechanics looked to be undamaged, even if the flesh above them had been scraped bloody by the sharp edges of the door. Ditto her legs… That wasn't true. She saw her foot bent at an unnatural angle, the metal inside having ripped away from where it was supposed to be. With great effort, she sat up, immediately slipping back down with a yelp as pain coursed through at least one of her ribs.
What was that blinking light? Rolling over towards it, flinching heavily as she passed over her stomach, she tried to get a better look at it. With only one eye, the cyborg one still offline, focusing in was different.
This time, she wormed across the metal grating that passed for a floor in this place, arriving next to it. Blinking, she looked at the light.
07:56
07:55
07:54
07:53
One word echoed through her mind. Bomb. Both hands came up to the device, feeling it out with a growing sense of dread.
She'd dealt with bombs before. All part of Cosmo Force training. What they could recreate was this feeling, the act of being alone, injured and worried while on a ship with one.
Every bit of knowledge she had about defusing it drained away from her. Gulping, she prised away the cover to reveal the wiring of the device.
"How… How do I do this?" she wondered, looking at the mess of wires before her. "Red wire, blue wire… green wire… Oh, a yellow wire."
Taking another deep breath, she reached down and yanked out the blue wire, more out of hope than knowledge. To her relief, the countdown stopped.
Who had planted the bomb? She didn't know. All she wanted to do was help herself before trying to do too much heavy thinking. Audibly yelping, she pulled her body up into a stand, all the weight on the undamaged foot. Gasping for breath, each inhalation a knife to her ribs, she started to hop away towards the stairs.
Every step hurt, but she needed to do it.
The Night Hawk was empty. Jerking through the corridors, she noticed that, moving to find the medical bay. She'd gone to it dozens of times before, never like this… Where was it exactly?
She almost tripped over something, having to grab the wall to stay upright. Looking down, she saw a dropped Cosmo Blaster. Idly, she wondered who had dropped it, before carrying on towards the medical bay.
It didn't take long; she found it soon after, the room empty like the rest of the ship. Walking inside, she grabbed up what she needed from a storage unit and moved to sit on one of the examination chairs, resting her mangle ankle up onto the plastic. More pain sprayed through her as she did so.
Settling back, she opened up four Poké Balls at her waist, letting out a Pikachu, a Totodile, a Sandslash and a Banette. Next, she reached for a syringe of anaesthetic, injecting it straight into her neck.
Before long, all pain left her system, allowing her to start supervising the repairs needed to her system.
"Sandslash," she said thickly, before gesturing to her mangled foot. "Cut!"
The ground type Pokémon nodded, before raking out his claws to cut away the boot covering her damaged ankle. As it fell away, the Pokémon continued onto the main task, moving to cut open the skin, not a lot of effort really needed. She didn't feel it thanks to the drugs. Before long, the ankle had been opened up and she could see the damage.
It didn't look too bad, she thought. Thankfully.
"Totodile," she ordered. "Move it back into place."
The water type moved to pick up her foot in his jaws, gently moving it back into place against the damaged ankle, holding it in place.
"Now, Banette," she said, looking at the ghost type. "Will O'Wisp."
Three balls of fire shot out, searing across the damage to weld it back into place. When the task was finished, she tried to flex the ankle, only to realise it wasn't moving yet. That she had expected, she knew how to deal with it from experience.
"Yui," she said, the Pikachu pricking up her ears. "Reset!"
Yui turned, resting her tail against the repaired limb, squeaking at the heat. Sparks crackled from her cheeks, the electricity coursing through her tail and into the ankle. With relief, Sandy saw that she could move it again.
Recalling her mechanical aides, she looked around and found another syringe. This one contained a semi-sentient gel good for fixing up wounds and injuries. Some of it, she sprayed liberally across the wound on her ankle, watching it slowly seal up the skin.
The next application she put to her side, pulling off her uniform jacket and undershirt to search out the broken ribs. Tracing them out with her fingers, Sandy picked up a scalpel and gently opened up the skin. Blood rushed out, she quickly went to rub more of the gel in, letting it enter her bloodstream. Only one of her ribs had shattered by the feel of it, using one of her fingers she reached into the cut… She was sure she'd been more squeamish before she became a cyborg… and gently twisted it into place. She didn't want it to heal crooked.
It didn't take long for the cut to heal up on her stomach. Pulling her uniform jacket back on, she gave the seat a wipe with the already bloody undershirt and tossed it towards the trash.
Her ankle had healed nicely; she could walk without any trouble. That medical gel really was good stuff. Shame they couldn't have used it on her after the speeder accident, rather than authorising her as a test subject for the cybernetics project.
Looking to the computer in the lab, she saw it wasn't working, a click of the activation switch confirming that to her.
"Techno 9?" she asked. "You there?"
No answer.
Sighing, she stepped outside the medical bay and found one of the outlets for the AI. Opening up the cabinet-like box, she flicked a switch into an off position and then on again. It clicked on, the lights switching on. She pulled aside a cover to reveal a keypad, some words appearing across the screen.
ENTER AUTHORISATION AND PASSWORD. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN DISCIPLINARY ACTION AND SEVERE PENALTIES.
What was her authorisation name again? She tapped it out on the keyboard.
SanGarcia2.
Her password?
22085088
The screen changed.
LOADING. LOADING. LOADING… AI REGULATING…
Techno 9's voice rang out from the unit.
"Thank you, Miss Garcia," she said. "I didn't like being switched off like that."
"What happened?" Sandy asked. "You see?"
"We fell under attack from the Featureless Soldiers," Techno 9 said. "A very expensive group of soldiers for hire, based largely in the star system Capita. They took us completely by surprise, blocked our comms and hit us before we could react. I believe they also took the crew. And your fellow rangers."
"Mrek," said Sandy. "Now what? Can we follow them?"
"Before anything else, I suggest you take care of the bombs," the AI said sagely. "They're all set to…"
"I already took care of one," Sandy replied.
"Then you've got two more to get," Techno 9 said. "Another one in the engine room and one in the mess hall."
"The mess hall?" Sandy asked, surprised. "Why there?"
"The mess hall runs directly above a fuel converter," Techno 9 said. "There's a little bleedoff there which lets the ovens work there. I'd suggest you take care of that one first."
Sandy had already turned to run.
She'd found it fairly easily, the bomb in question resting behind the counter. Squatting down, she prised it open as she had done the previous one and looked at the same mess of wires.
"Hmmm," she said. "Let me see…"
"Probability suggests that the red wire is not the one you want to cut," Techno 9 offered. "Nor the green or the yellow. However…"
Sandy yanked the blue wire out. The timer stopped at 03:42.
"Now, I suggest you get downstairs and take care of the last one," the AI said. "Or we'll both be toast. Meanwhile, I'll see if I can find anyone left onboard."
The third bomb had been harder to find. By the time she'd gotten to it, the timer atop it read 01:22.
Just as with the two before, she prised open the case…
… To find it a completely different type of bomb to the one she'd seen previously. No wires lay before her, just a featureless keypad with nine white buttons in a square shape.
"Mrek," she said. "Ah, Techno 9. You there?"
"I am," she replied. "Trouble?"
01:13.
"Just a bit," Sandy said. "I don't know how to start with this."
"Oh."
The robotic female voice sounded shocked.
"Me neither."
"Terrific," the Blue Cosmo Ranger said. "You know anything about it?"
"Affirmative," she said. "I am working on an alternate plan for a controlled detonation."
"Maybe can throw it out of the airlock," Sandy said. "But what if lifting it up sets it off?"
00:48.
"Letting it run down to zero will set it off," Techno 9 pointed out. "Try pressing one of the buttons."
She did, hitting the one in the upper right corner. It lit up, turned red and then faded back to white.
"What do you think?" she asked, pressing another button, the most central one. It flashed green and stayed that colour.
00:40.
"I cannot say," Techno 9 replied. "Nothing for certain anyway."
00:38.
"Can you give me damage estimation?"
"It will destroy the Night Hawk completely and irrevocably."
Sandy hit another button, the one directly above the central one that was still lit. It flashed red and both buttons turned white again.
"Don't have the time to try and work it out," she muttered. "Don't know about any of the fail safes on it… Techno 9, can you open the airlock if I get it over there?"
00:27.
"I can," she confirmed. "Is that what you wish?"
She hit the centre button again, watching it turn green. She hit the one directly left of it and watched it hold green as well.
"One second," she said, going for the uppermost right button, the one she'd hit first earlier. "I think I'm spotting a pattern."
Sandy hit the lowermost right button. Four out of nine buttons remained lit.
00:19.
She hit the uppermost left button. All the previous four went clear again.
"No!"
Same combination again. Four of them lit up. She hit the lowermost left button. They went clear.
00:14.
Same combination a third time. She hit the middlemost right button. Five buttons stayed green. She hit the middle button across the bottom. It also turned green.
"I've got it!" she shouted, hitting the uppermost left button. Like the other six buttons, it turned green.
The green buttons started to flash. And the timer stopped. Letting herself fall back, Sandy breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"It wasn't a combination," she said. "It was an image pad. Sort it into the right shape and all that."
"That would appear to be the case," Techno 9 said. "Well done."
"Can't help but wonder why this one was different to the other two," Sandy said. "I mean, others were wired, this had that."
"Oh dear," the AI suddenly said. "It would appear that we've been bluffed."
"What do you mean?"
From somewhere else in the engine room, the powerful roar of an explosion boomed out, the shockwave throwing her off her feet. As smoke started to billow out from the blast zone, she picked herself up, blood running from a fresh cut on her forehead and looked for a fire extinguisher.
"Damage report!" she gasped. "Now!"
"It doesn't look good," Techno 9 said. "Hyper thrusters have been damaged; rear engines have been reduced to an inoperable level. The Megazord system has been completely destroyed and… That's not good. That blast cut your morphing grid!"
"Can any of them be repaired?" Sandy asked, already happening across the flames. Spraying them with the extinguisher, she watched them die out. "I mean, when they're not on fire."
"Anything that can't be repaired can be replaced," Techno 9 said. "I've also found Mr. Featherclaw in the cockpit. He's fine and unharmed. There's also another life form in that engine room with you."
The last of the flames died down, the blue ranger tossing aside the spent extinguisher as they did.
"Show me," Sandy said. "Where are they?"
"I will tell you."
"Good."
Author's Notes.
Another one down. Would have had it up earlier but stuff happened. Been a bank holiday and all.
It will start to pick up the action shortly.
Thank you so much for the reviews. All appreciated.
It might be the future, but they still have Pokémon. For one reason or another. Heh.
Okay, thanks for reading.
Don't forget to review! Please!