Via Pacifica: Korinthios System
Royal Palace Banquet Hall, 22:00 hours

The rest of the royal palace was already in an uproar as the capital went on lockdown following news of a terrorist attack. It was difficult for authorities to tell how many enemies there were or how to get close to the wing of the palace where the banquet hall was located. Aaron and Sera watched in dismay from outside the palace as royal security forces surrounded the building which only escalated the standoff.

With so many diplomats and officials from other worlds held hostage, this was going to be a PR disaster for the Korinthian government but it was clear that the U'shan could be blamed as Kharon released a recorded statement. They along with a crowd of onlookers watched a nearby news feed that was being played by some authorities. Kharon spoke, "An agent of the royal family is currently holding vital information that poses a dire threat to the security of the U'shan Empire. We do not wish to harm anyone here. We only ask that person surrender themselves immediately. Should there be any attempt to stop us, we will activate a string of bombs here and the lives of all your officials and ambassadors will be forfeit. You have exactly one hour to comply."

Sera grimaced toward Queen Meriam, "It seems the war has finally come to your world, whether you wanted it or not."

The queen nodded grimly and glanced over toward Aaron who was already busy on his comm.-link, "It seems your Alliance friends might get that chance to prove their intentions after all."

"Commander Jakende, is there any word from the captain yet?" Aaron asked in concern over his radio link, "Are our friends okay?"

From aboard the bridge of the Odyssey, Hawa shook her head while wearing a troubled look. She was already concerned for her crewmates and her old friend Dominic down below, "I'm sorry. We still can't reach them Lieutenant. It seems the enemy has set up some kind of device that's emitting an obscure particle barrier frequency. Our comms, sensors, and transporters cannot penetrate it."

"Damn! We've got to do something!" Aaron growled as Sera came over and put a calming hand on his shoulder. "Can you at least trace the source of the emitter?"

Hawa frowned, "You aren't seriously thinking about launching a counter-strike, are you? I assume you have some kind of plan brewing?"

The Red Ranger wrinkled his features, "I do, but it will be a bit of a gamble. I plan go and disable the barrier device while the rest of you give Kharon what he wants."

"Give him what he wants? We don't negotiate with terrorists!" King Timon said indignantly.

Aaron smiled, "You misunderstand me, Your Majesty. We should exploit the enemy's own greed and overconfidence. Kharon said we have vital information that poses a threat to their empire. I say we give it to them… in the form of a corrupted data drive. Preferably one with a nasty virus embedded."

Hawa nodded to another bridge officer to set that up before radioing back, "We'll get right on that. Stand by."

He turned to the king and queen, "With your permission…"

"Do whatever you have to do," they said in solemn agreement. He then turned to Sera and she stepped up bravely.

"I will go and meet with Kharon. I'll try and stall him for as long as I can."

The Red Ranger took her by the shoulders, "Princess. I can't let you. I have a job to protect you."

"And I you," she replied with resolve, "The other Rangers are my friends too and if I didn't put myself at risk to protect the people I care about, then what kind of leader would I be?"

They exchanged a quiet smile before Aaron gave a slow nod, "All right then… let's go save your Star League."

Meanwhile inside in the banquet hall, the other Rangers and their friends waited tensely as they and the other guests were effectively held hostage. Even if they managed to morph and fight Kharon, they could probably survive a string of major explosions around the place. The problem was, everyone else there wouldn't have a chance of survival. Kharon waited patiently with his arms crossed and idly checked his chronometer on his forearm, "Time's running out people. You're really testing my patience now."

Just then, there was a knock at the main doors and one of the enemy Dragoons called out, "Commander! It's the Princess of Arcadia! She's alone!"

Kharon tilted his head curiously, "Oh? Let her in. This should be interesting."

The main doors to the hall opened and Sera entered slowly earning startled gasps of shock from the partygoers and Rangers alike. She marched forward while trying maintain a calm bearing before stopping several meters away from Kharon. The black knight smiled from under his visor, "Princess Sera. So good of your to join us. To what do we owe the pleasure."

"I want you to release my friends and all the innocent people here Kharon. Now," she said with a level voice.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he said, "And you're in no position to negotiate terms like that either."

Sera held up a data storage device that she carried under a fold in her dress, "I think I am. This is what you want, isn't it? The data that the royal family was holding?"

"Don't do it Princess! You can't!" Rin called out but Sera maintained a solemn expression toward her enemy.

"You must be joking. You were the one they entrusted the data of the weapon to?" Kharon scoffed, "You're bluffing."

"Who better to act as the guarantor of a new Star League then the one who can activate the weapon?" Sera answered.

Kharon studied her a long moment before nodding to his troops, "Give me the data storage device and let half the guests go. Once I verify this information, we let the Rangers and their other friends off as well."

Sera handed off the device and Kharon plugged it into his suit of powered armor. He began to run the program and scan through the data. At first it seemed like everything was in order until he suddenly started reading system errors in his sensor screens. He began to move his joints but found them responding sluggishly while his sensors blinked and went haywire, "What is this? What's happening to me?"

Elsewhere, Aaron was beamed to the roof of the palace over the wing where the enemy had set up their remote control center. He peeked over the edge of some of the skylights and saw that they were being watched by a few guards below except they were more focused on searching for enemy hovercraft that approached. One of the Dragoons had a rocket launcher at the ready though he seemed to be paying less attention as the hostage crisis dragged on. The Red Ranger got into position and took a running start before leaping down into the glass below, morphing while in midair. "Stellar Shift!"

In a flash of red light, he shattered through the glass and caught all the enemy commandos by surprise. The startled troops began to raise their weapons but Aaron cut down the nearest ones with slashes from his xiphos sidearm blade. He then leapt on top of the guard standing over the jamming device and pulled his blaster pistol. He gunned down the remaining enemies from atop the Dragoon's shoulders as his foe spun around in a circle in a wild flailing panic. Aaron dismounted and punched out the last guard before rushing over to the jamming device. He hurried to tamper with some of the wiring of the main device that acted as the master control panel. To his dismay, he found he could only disable the jammer signal while the enemy had already activated a countdown clock for the bombs which were linked to the device. In desperation, he radioed his ship.

"Russo to the Odyssey. We have a little problem. The device is secure but I could only disable the jamming signal. The enemy has already activated the countdown sequence to the bombs."

"What? Can you diffuse it?" Hawa asked from the bridge.

"If these were proton torpedoes or ship based warheads then I could. But I know some people who might be able to handle this. Get ready to beam me into the banquet hall with the device!"

Within, the banquet hall, Kharon staggered drunkenly about, "A virus! You sabotaged the parcel with corrupted data! Fireteam Beta, prepare to detonate the bombs!"

Just then, Aaron beamed in nearby holding the master control device, "Not so fast Kharon! The barrier is down and you're going to go down with it!"

The black knight waved his troops on while he struggled to recover control of his suit, "No! Kill them all!"

Mass chaos erupted in the banquet hall as the U'san troops began to attack and the Rangers locked in their morphers, "Stellar Shift!"

Once she had suited up, Sage pulled her boomerang blade and pointed it toward Kharon, "All right Rangers! We're in a ballroom so let's dance!"

A fierce battle began to rage as the remaining civilians ducked under tables and furniture while the other Rangers sprung into action to protect them. In the pandemonium, Aaron grabbed Tiah and pulled her behind a pillar, "Hey T! I've got a souvenir for you here. If you can disable this device, then you can keep it and we can all live."

"What?" she shrieked in alarm.

"The bombs' detonators are linked to this device and the countdown already started. We don't have a lot of time and I need you to diffuse it!"

The engineer stared at him incredulously before reaching into a fold of her puffy dress and producing a small set of portable electrical engineering tools, "Never leave home without em. now let's do this!"

While Tiah scrambled to disarm the detonator, Geordi and Rin fought off the enemy troops while Sage and Qua'lia engaged Kharon. Plasma bolts seared the air while Geordi tumbled past tables and chairs returning fire with snipers from the balconies using his bowgun. Meanwhile, Rin protected the remaining guests by deflecting several shots aside with her lance and bashing aside any Dragoons that got in her way with some martial arts moves. Nearby, Sera pulled Benedict to safety under a table while Skyler and Thor recovered some guns and provided covering fire. Sera looked around the battlefield and she gasped when she spotted an enemy sniper fire a shot at Dr. Farbanti and Captain Raines from the second floor balustrades.

Amira turned and surprised everyone, activating a temporary energy force shield from her mechanical arm which deflected the shot aside to protect her and Raines. Dominic quickly scooped up a fallen blaster pistol nearby and grabbed Amira by the waist to pull her clear of the line of fire. Dominic whirled around and fired back at the sniper with several blaster bolts, two of which hit the commando in the torso and dropped him.

Once Rin had cleared out the troops on the ground, she turned to help the Yellow and Pink Rangers while Aaron covered Tiah as she worked. The Red Ranger fired his pistol at a few of the remaining troops and called over, "How are we doing on that countdown T?"

"Don't rush me!" she snapped back as she frantically worked over the controls and tried hack them. There was normally a lot of noise and traffic going around the Engineering bays of the Odyssey, but she wasn't quite used to working while people were screaming, things were exploding, and laser bolts were flying everywhere. She had gotten so engrossed in her work that she failed to see an energy bolt until it was too late. The grazing shot clipped her in the upper arm and she gave a cry of pain from the energy burn. Thor gave a furious cry and took down the enemy who shot Tiah while Aaron bent down to steady his friend.

"Tiah? Oh my God! Are you okay?"

She sucked in a breath and continued working with one hand as she clutched her wounded shoulder with the other, "Looks like I'll get two souvenirs from this party. I always wanted a badass scar to show off."

She saw that time was running out and the clock was beginning to go through its final countdown. From nearby Skyler caught wind of the trouble and shook her head while looking to Sera, "Damn... we're pretty screwed. How about a kiss for luck Princess?"

"What?"

Before Sera could protest, Skyler grabbed Sera's cheeks and planted a big kiss on her lips while everyone around them stared in disbelief. As the timer ticked down to the last few seconds, Tiah gave a cheer as she shorted out the last connection and diffused the bombs. Aaron threw an arm around her in a hug as he gave a cheer as well, "All right! Way to go T!"

As Skyler broke her liplock with Sera, the princess gasped and fainted while the freighter pilot turned to a bemused looking Thor, "Huh... I can't believe that actually worked. You're welcome for saving all of us by the way."

At the other end of the banquet hall, Kharon growled as he blocked the blows from Rin and Qua'lia. He had regained control of most of his his systems, but the disadvantage allowed the girls to drive him back. What he did not expect was for the two girls to brace themselves and allow Sage to vault off their shoulders next for an aerial attack. She brought down her Cygnus Slicer in a powerful charged attack which left the air crackling with yellow colored energy. The force of the blow broke Kharon's guard and deflected off part of his visor causing him to fly backwards.

Kharon reeled and took a moment to recover, reaching for his face as his shattered visor fell away. He looked directly at Sage and the Yellow Ranger stood paralyzed as she stared at him with a mixture of shock, wonder, and horror all at once. Even after all these years, she could recognize his face. It was none other than her older brother Ash. She didn't know how that was possible but she couldn't bring herself to speak. She was unsure of how to address him, or even if she should make that known to her fellow rangers. The two siblings held each others' gaze for a long moment before Kharon turned away and fired his jump jets. "Another time Rangers."

He smashed through a large glass window and jetted away into the skies leaving the other Rangers standing in confusion over what just happened. After the Rangers powered down, Qua'lia put a hand on her friend's shoulder, "Sage? Hey… is everything okay? You look like you just saw a ghost."

Sage blinked and decided to remain quiet for now. She simply nodded her head, "I'm sorry. I was just… surprised to see Kharon's real face just now."

"Hmm, it's a shame he's a bad guy," Rin sighed off-handedly, "I actually thought he was kinda cute."

By now, the remaining civilians had come out of hiding and were gathering around the Rangers to thank them for their heroism. Amid the handshakes and shoulder pats, Rin was was greeted by the Myrmion girl Neela who she had befriended earlier. She was even more shocked when Neela took her cheeks and gave her a grateful kiss as well. Off to the edge of the crowd, Dominic called in to his ship as he kept a reassuring arm around Amira, "Commander Jakende? Report."

"Dominic? You're okay?" Hawa called back in relief before composing herself again, "Captain... it's good to hear you. All is well up here. Right now, we're running sensor scans and coordinating with the the allies of Korinthios to locate those terrorists."

Dominic nodded quietly. He knew whatever corrupted data Kharon had gotten, it was at least something for the U'shan to work on. Given his track record, the black knight would certainly be back too. For now, it was best to take what they could get in terms of a win. He could see more guards coming into the ruined banquet hall now followed by the Korinthian monarchs themselves. "Very good Commander. It looks like we'll have our work cut out for us down here."

Much later in the early hours of the morning, things had been sorted out on the planet and everyone had returned safely to the ship. Tiah was taken to the medical bay for treatment on her shoulder. As Rin and Dr. Surya used devices to repair the skin tissue and anesthetize the wound, Qua'lia waited nearby with a smile, "So how do you like being a hero today? I'm sure after this evening, you'll be able to add a couple more medals to your uniform."

"It is pretty cool, but I'll be honest. I wouldn't want to trade jobs with you Rangers on the battle line," Tiah said.

"Still, is there anything else we can do for you to help you feel better?" Geordi asked.

"Well... my shoulder still kinda hurts. Maybe hold my hand a little bit?"

Geordi smiled and did as she asked while Rin prepared some fresh bandages and antiseptic cream. He looked over and said, "Hey Rin. You're not disappointed by how the night turned out, are you? I know you seemed intent on trying to find your Prince Charming."

The Green Ranger laughed, "Maybe a little. But at least I didn't walk away completely empty handed."

"You mean that Myrmion girl Neela who kissed you after the battle?" Qua'lia teased, "I thought you don't swing that way."

"I don't," Rin chuckled, "But it felt really nice and in a strange way, it almost made me question myself a little for a moment."

"Oh, there's a perfectly scientific explanation for that," Dr. Surya said idly as he worked, "Myrmions have unique chemicals in their saliva which causes increased endorphins and dopamine production in other species like humans. That was all likely some biochemical reaction."

"Well it was still nice," Rin said causing the others to share a laugh at her expense. Sage stood off to the side smiling but remained quiet. She was still struggling with this new revelation and was unsure just how she was going to bring it up. She wondered if maybe she should speak to Captain Raines at some point in the coming days... wherever he was right now.

Meanwhile, Captain Raines walked Amira back to her quarters. Thankfully, the corridors were quiet as it was the night shift and few crewmen were up and about. Dominic gave a tired yawn and sighed, "Well… here we are."

Amira let go of his arm and gave a small snort of amusement as she held his hands, "You really didn't have to walk me to my door Captain. But I still appreciate the chivalrous gesture."

Dominic smiled gently, "I was trained to be an officer and gentleman, after all. So… I imagine after this whole debacle you're going to be sticking to your lab for a while?"

"I'm not sure I would call it a total debacle," Amira laughed lightly, "I can say this has certainly been the most memorable date I've ever been on. Part of me hopes it won't be the last."

Dominic blinked in surprise, "Sorry?"

"You said Engineering wasn't your strong suit in school, right?" Amira said thoughtfully, "Perhaps you'd willing to consult me on that and other subjects over lunch one day in the future."

Dominic smiled quietly, "Thanks. I'd like that. Good night Amira."

"Good night… Dominic," she answered before he surprised her, taking her good hand and giving it a small gentlemanly kiss. She graced him with a lingering smile before walking back inside her quarters and closing the door. Raines gave a small grin to himself and nodded as he headed off to his own quarters for bed. He'd have a lot to do tomorrow with logging all the recent events and debriefing the Rangers, but he'd have to add another item on his list. He'd start by brushing up on his knowledge of astrophysics and warp drive mechanics.

Elsewhere in the ship, Aaron was leading his own date back to her quarters before retiring for the evening. Both he and Sera looked a bit dirty and disheveled from the battle with Kharon but it didn't seem to matter anymore. They were just glad to be back in the relative safety of the ship and the company of familiar friends. Sera gave a sigh, "Well... we may look like disasters, but I think things turned out okay for us. Korinthios will surely take up arms against the Empire now and encourage others to join our movement."

"Not to mention we now have a lead on a super weapon that can help us turn the tide of this struggle," Aaron added hopefully.

Sera nodded quietly, "Before we left, Benedict told me he would be in contact with us again and take it upon himself to help on that front."

"It seems you've made quite an impression on him," Aaron said offhandedly, "Even at the ball he seemed to hang off your every word."

"Why Lieutenant Russo, you aren't jealous or anything now, are you?" Sera replied with a hint of a playful smirk.

"I don't know. Should I be?"

Sera stopped at her door and shifted slightly on her feet, "You know, about that... there's something I wanted to bring up with you before. I may have heard from the other girls that you were really looking forward to coming with me to this gala... maybe even looking at it as a sort of date?"

"The thought did cross my mind a little," he admitted, "I mean, who wouldn't be excited to be going with a princess who's smart, and brave, and beautiful, right?"

She smiled and took his hands, "Aaron, that's very sweet of you. I consider you a good friend and I think very highly of you too. It's just..."

There was a long pause and he offered to fill in the blank, "It's just now would not be a good time to even think about that kind of thing, right? You do have a million other things to worry about and a mission to stay focused on."

"Something like that," she admitted sheepishly, "Though part of me still wishes that things were different and not so complicated either."

The Red Ranger maintained his bearing and gave her hands a squeeze, "Then it's best we keep things as simple as possible. You have your people to worry about I have to focus on looking out for my Ranger team. Besides... even if things were different, what would a sailor like me have to offer a princess anyway?"

"Thank you for understanding," she said with an apologetic look and a hint of relief in her voice, "For what it's worth, I still enjoyed the little bit of time we got to spend together tonight... to dance, and to just be normal."

He nodded, "Good night Princess."

Sera reached up and gently kissed his cheek before giving him a long hug. When she reluctantly let go, she turned and gave one more faint smile before closing the door to her guest quarters. Aaron gave a long sigh and headed back down the corridor nodding his head. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little disappointed, but he knew that this was the right thing to do. He stopped when he saw Skyler with her arms crossed casually leaning against a bulkhead dressed back down to her normal clothes.

"Skyler? What are you doing here?"

She got off the bulkhead and shrugged, "Sorry. I was just coming by to apologize to the princess for something I did and I might have overheard the tail end of your little talk with her. I admire what you did, but still... tough luck there."

"Thanks. I guess I never should have gotten my hopes up to begin with, huh?" he shrugged in agreement.

"Aw, don't look so down luv. The evening doesn't have to be a complete bust," she said, "What say we head over to the ship's hanger and just have a friendly chat? You can vent and get things off your chest and I'll even share a bottle of whiskey from my stash. I'm sure a big cup of Old Caldwell's will cheer you right up."

He gave a small laugh as he slung a friendly arm around her shoulders and walked down the hall with her, "Thanks Skyler. You know what? Right now, that doesn't seem like a bad idea after all."