Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Power Rangers, Saban and Disney do.
Thanks for staying with me, I hope those last two chapters weren't too boring.
Enjoy this next chapter, the beginning of the update for technology begins now.
Ch 3- Of Escape
The lunar drill had stopped approximately 97 meters from its objective. Only one small red light on the Expansion notified the sleeping crew of the delay. Contact with NASA was nearly five minutes away.
Then, a break-through.
The drill began to turn slowly. Enough to create a shallow divot in the energized-mineral prison's ceiling. For the five captured beings inside, it was the weakness they needed. A sudden explosion of what could only be called pure energy rocketed out from the dent and obliterating the drill bit, shaft and motor. The force of the energy as it escaped above the moon's surface caused the Exploration to fall on its side and ripped open a six foot wide hole in the lunar surface.. The beam, if it had been visible from Earth, would have made the moon look like a huge lolly-pop.
Inside the Exploration alarms, lights, and two tape players were going off, startling the sleeping astronauts, those still alive. Two of the astronauts had fallen the 25 foot width of the lander and cracked their heads against the metal siding. Another, on the now bottom of the ship, had a scalpel sticking out from his artery.
"What's going on? Report!" The commander shouted as he tried to stand at the end of his bunk.
"It appears that we are on our side," reported the lunar cartographer.
"I can see that, damn it! Why are we? Somebody open the window shields."
"Sir! We're venting oxygen!" Shouted the lander's technician.
"How much?" The commander became suddenly calm.
"Tanks 1 and 3 are gone, four's nearly empty, and two is down to five percent. I'd say we've got about an hour before we die from deprivation."
"Okay, nobody panic. Gillet and myself are going outside to see if we can find any explanation for our current situation. Perkins, you make sure the transmitter is working when the orbiter comes around. We're going to get ourselves home."
"Yes sir!" The crew responded.
Less than five minutes later Commander Tripp and Gillet made their way out of the airlock and onto the lunar surface. Once they moonwalked around the tipped lander, the pair was frozen stiff at the sight. The drill arm was gone, ripped off of the lander's body. The O2 tanks had literally imploded due to the crushing force of the lander falling on them. These things, however, went unnoticed by the astronauts. They could only watch the two creatures who stood at the top of the now six foot wide mining shaft.
One stood tall and thin against the silt house of starlight. The other seemed weighted down, even in the light gravity of the moon, by his bulky arms and massive torso. Both creatures were colored blue and had small growths over the visible parts of their bodies. They also lacked anything resembling a spacesuit in the void of atmosphere on the lunar surface. Luckily for the Commander and Gillet, the aliens did not notice their arrival. Instead the blue pair appeared focused on the shaft where they obviously climbed from. Despite this, the two astronauts were frightened stiff and nearly gave away their positions when they both leapt at the voice over their suits' comm units.
"Well Baboo, what is it? Are they coming or not?" As the humans heard this the shorter alien nudged the taller one.
"Yes," the tall one nodded, "Goldar is taking his time with all of Finster's equipment. And I'm sure Rita is weakened by the power output she had to do to break us."
"Humph! It would have only taken me a few more hits to break down that wall I'd been working on."
"Oh, so instead of having this nice tunnel to the surface, we'd have to dig our way through over two hundred meters of heavily packed soil." The tall alien threw a certain amount of frustration at his blue companion.
"Oh, yeah, well...hey! How did you know that the prison is 200 meters deep? Did you betray us?" The short alien tried to point a finger in the tall one's face but ended up several feet short.
"I'm an observer, remember? I look at things and determine their value! Why would I want to betray Rita? According to me, and I am the best of sources on this, Rita is the most powerful being in the galaxy."
"So, you betray Lord Zedd?"
"No you fool! Do you have any idea of how many millennia we were incarcerated?"
"Oh, Baboo! You know I don't do large words. They make my head hurt." The stocky alien bent over in mental pain.
"Oh, fine! Years! How many years were we down there?" Baboo pointed down the shaft they had come.
"I know this. I know this! Don't try to help me! Uh..." The short alien began pounding his head, as if expecting the answer to fall out of it and onto the lunar surface.
As the alien searched for the answer to the question, Commander turned to Gillet and asked, "How can we understand them? And how are we even hearing them?"
Gillet shook his head in equal confusedness. Then his countenance turned to pure fright.
"Gillet! What's the matter?" The Commander shook his fellow astronaut.
"The reason for your friend's fright is myself."
To the Commander, the next four seconds were the shortest in human history. The alien named Baboo had snuck up on the two humans and grabbed the one with his back turned towards the shaft.
"Listening in on our conversation? Trying to figure out our first move before your goody-goody little band of worthless scum comes to recapture us? Thought you'd find out what Rita Repulsa is up to after these ten thousand years of imprisonment? Well you two, looks like none of that's going to happen." Then Baboo turned his head back to his companion, "Squat! Get over here! We've got some party crashers!"
"Huh?" Squat was still pondering how long he had been in the prison, so far he'd gotten to five. "Oh, coming Baboo." The stubby alien's face lit up when he saw the two humans in their spacesuits. "Yum, snacks! I feel like I haven't eaten in ages!" He made his way towards Gillet, who by now had fainted and fallen face first into the dark soil.
Baboo used his free hand to block Squat's hunger rumble, "No Squat! They're spies! We must question them and then turn them over to Rita." Baboo's attention returned to the Commander, "Hem...around eighty percent H2O, crude space-faring technologies, and using only ten percent of your brain-power! Why, you can't possibly be involved with our enemies, unless the galaxy truly fell into anarchy and left only the uncivilized cultures alive! What kind of being are you? What is your home planet? What system?"
"Human, Earth," was all the Commander could utter.
"Earth? Could this hu-man mean that second life-sustaining world that the pathetic Zordon was defending?" Baboo salivated over the possibility, but more questioning was needed before he could present a plan to Rita, who no doubt was just seconds from rearing her continuously talking mouth from the shaft. "Where did you come from?"
The Commander pointed at the Exploration.
"No! The planet, the planet you originated from."
The Commander tried, but it was for not. He could not keep his eyes from finding the blue jewel that was his home planet, sitting on the left shoulder of Baboo. The alien followed his gaze and, as he beheld the vibrant world, an insidious gleam leapt into his eyes.
"Excellent," he said.
"Hey bozos! You gonna help or not?" A new and snarling voice crackled in the Commander's ears.
"Oh! Fine! Squat!" The call brought the short alien to attention, "Go help Goldar. He's at the top."
Grumbling, Squat trotted over to the shaft's entrance and lugged away two large cylinder containers.
"Finally!" The voice exclaimed, "As if they couldn't have buried us any deeper!"
The Commander glimpsed what looked like a man in golden armor, except that his features appeared to have the likeness of a dog. Short black fur layered the visible parts of his body, at least, the Commander assumed it was a he; and his nose jutted out like a snout. Goldar's eyes glowed a milky orange, his tongue hung out of his mouth, a natural reaction after toiling to move all of Finster's equipment.
"Finster!" Goldar shouted back into the pitch black shaft, "Are you coming? You'd better not be holding Rita up with your old age!"
"Yes, yes! We are nearly their. Her wickedness is very tired after using so much power." The voice of Finster sounded calm and kind to the Commander. However, such contemplations were forgotten when Baboo threw the Commander over to edge of the shaft, directly next to Goldar's feet.
"What's this?" The golden warrior exclaimed. He turned to Baboo, "Is this another one of your tricks fiend?"
"No tricks! This is a human. It claims to have come from Earth, the very planet visible in our sky." Baboo pointed one long scaly finger at the blue planet.
"Oh ho! What good fortune we have that we have been returned to system of such a worthy battlefield." The golden warrior's eyes flashed a momentary red at the memory of the long ago battle.
Then came a dreaded sound from Squat, "Uh oh!" Baboo and Goldar turned to see that the short alien had spill the contents of one of the canisters. Small gadgets and random parts were scattered into the lunar soil. Squat reached down and picked up the closest gizmo that had a screen attached to it.
"Is it broken?" Baboo asked with a pre-expected answer of 'yes.'
"I don't think so, the screen's got something on it." Squat said, looking curiously at the device.
"Let me see it." Baboo said. He regretted saying that as Squat crunched almost half of the other gadgets while walking over to Baboo. "Looks like this scans for energy readings," Baboo observed, "and it appears there is one close by."
"Where? I will seek it out and take it by force!" Goldar proclaimed.
"Patience Goldar! I don't think we'll have to worry about this. The scanner says the energy is emanating from Earth, and the readings indicated that the source, or should I say the being with that power, is," Baboo couldn't believe his own conclusion, "Zordon!"
"Impossible! Rita destroyed Zordon ten thousand years ago. There's no possibility for him to still exist." Goldar stated.
Baboo agreed, "The scanner must be incorrect. Even if Zordon still survives, he can be no threat to us."
"I can assure you master Baboo, that scanner is operating withing normal working condition." Finster defended his work as he stepped out of the shaft.
"And Zordon is certainly someone whom I'd like to meet, again." Said the seemingly young woman supported by Finster.
"My Queen!" Goldar bowed to the sorceress, "It is as you command. We shall find Zordon and bring him to you, Rita!"
"Very good!" Rita said with renewed vigor as the thought of revenge for her years in imprisonment rose in her mind. She glanced at the Exploration and the two suited astronauts on the surface, "Goldar, first be sure to take care of our saviors. Make sure they receive their due rewards."
"It shall be done." Goldar pick the Commander up and threw him against the hull of the Exploration, knocking him unconscious. The dog man grabbed the Commander and Gillet and dragged the two unconscious men to the other side of the Exploration.
"Finster, I'm curious. How did the humans understand us. I know they don't speak the same language as us, I could sense it as I questioned that one." Baboo probed the ancient dog man.
Finster was unlike his fellow escapees, he did not impose a sense of dread in his stance or looks. Instead, he gave a favorable impression. His fur had turned gray and grown long in the years of imprisonment. He wore his clothes loosely and sleeveless, preferring comfort while he worked to improve his gadgets. Like Goldar, his fellow dog-like man, Finster was completely loyal to his master. Rita's demands for power during the war had been his only inspiration, but his time in the solitude of his cell allowed Finster to come up work that suited his own causes. Those new idea had been stamped out by Squats unyielding feet.
"I believe the mental interface in our status field bubbles," Finster explained, "allowed the humans to pick up the mental transmissions we are using to project our thoughts, since the airless void of space doesn't allow us to communicate normally. The translation sub-program probably was translating your words into the human language. I will have to fix that before we attack Earth. We don't want Zordon to understand our communications while you are ravaging the planet."
"A wise precaution, but how are we going to get to Earth? Rita's powers are drained for the moment and unless you've got a hidden ship that even I don't know about, we're stuck here." Baboo scratched his leathery head.
"Oh, don't you worry yourself, I believe everyone will be quite stunned when they witness one of my greatest ideas come to life." Finster broadly grinned at his promise.
"It is done my Queen. The humans received their awarded quick deaths." Goldar reported.
"What, no explosions? Goldar you are going soft!" Rita said in mock criticism. "Perhaps it is time you joined Finster here in the pursuit of science."
Goldar growled at the prospect of having to end his days in the company of the dogged old fool. But he soon cheered up at the sudden explosion of the Exploration. Rita looked questioningly at her golden warrior.
"You said to give them their reward, I decided to give them a bonus." He chuckled at his own joke. Rita, Baboo, and Squat all joined their various laughing styles to the gleefulness; Finster bent down to pick up a tattered patch depicting a man in a spacesuit, pointing to the stars.
For fifteen minutes officials at NASA headquarters in Houston had stood and stared at the single automatic line sent by the Exploration: "Critical Mission Failure, Require Immediate Rescue and Evac." By the time the director called the President, the story hit the airwaves.
Next time, on Power Rangers: Becoming Mighty-
The teens find themselves together again, but this time, it isn't for cleaning.