Her flight suit stained with soot and grime, Ashley headed for the infirmary as her chronometer approached 09:30. She had decided to take a break from damage assessment to see how Andros was doing. Cassie was just finishing up when she arrived.
"Hey," she greeted them. "How's the patient?"
Andros sat on the end of the treatment bed with his shirt and jacket draped over a chair nearby. Cassie stood behind him, examining his shoulder and the quality of her work.
In response to her question, Andros showed Ashley his shoulder. "No scars." he said. "See?"
Indeed, the skin was almost completely healed, save for a small pale scar three inches long that would fade with a bit of time. Cassie blew imaginary smoke from the tip of the laser stitcher and gushed, "I am so good."
Noting the condition of the Yellow Ranger's flightsuit, Andros inquired "How's the assessment going? What condition are the propulsion systems in?"
Ashley gave a tired sigh. "Bad." she said. "Worse than we thought. As of an hour ago the Megaship is dead in space; no propulsion or attitude control whatsoever."
Andros gaped. "You mean the pulse thrusters were affected too?"
"The fire started in the pulse thrusters." she replied. "The heat from that blaze traveled through the internal sensor conduits, and by the time it hit the HyperCore, the thrusters were long gone. The coils are all burned to a crisp. We can forget about going anywhere until we get at least one of the assemblies completely replaced."
Her words fell like stones.
"Sitting Ducks." Cassie mumbled under her breath, and they were all silent a moment. Finally Andros straightened. "Well, that's it then. We're going to have to make a call for help and hope someone arrives in time."
"How do we know how much time we've got?" Cassie wondered.
"There's no way to tell." Andros replied. "This is the fourth major incident in a week. I'd venture we have another day or so."
The three of them took a moment to recall the events of the past week. First there had been the general systems failure in which they had lost gravity control on parts of the ship, as well as the use of the food replicators and SimuDeck. Then there had been the Jump Tube incident when TJ and Cassie had nearly been thrust out into space unmorphed. Two days later, Ashley was almost electrocuted trying to repair DECA's malfunctioning voice circuitry-- that was when they lost DECA's vocal interface completely, as well as internal sensor contact with parts of the ship. Then today, there had been the engine fire that almost turned Andros into a crispy critter. They were all thinking the same thing at that point.
"We can't deny this any longer." Andros told them solemnly. "These mishaps are beyond the realm of coincidence. Someone must be sabotaging the ship."
"Alright everybody, log on and check in."
The five Rangers were at their command posts on the bridge, one week earlier. Andros was leading them one system at a time through the final ship wide status check.
"Science." he prompted.
"Science and Sensors online and go." said Ashley.
"Tactical."
"Weapons and Tactical online and go." declared Cassie.
He swiveled his chair to look at TJ, standing at the rear control panel.
"Helm."
"Helm and Attitude Control checking in a-ok." the Blue Ranger replied.
Last was Carlos, standing next to TJ on the starboard side.
"Navigation."
"Navigation online and in the green." the Black Ranger said.
Andros swiveled back and worked his own controls. A moment later, he reported, "Computers and Engineering online and go. Ship wide status check complete; all systems nominal." The Red Ranger leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms over his head. "Good work, everybody. Let's call it a night."
Yawning, the Rangers began to shut down their stations. They had spent the entire day recalibrating, adjusting, balancing and rebalancing the Megaship's various systems, all in the name of the monthly performance check. Every month they set aside eighteen hours to get the vessel running in ship-shape. Andros said it payed off to have squeaky clean anti-matter conduits when you had to outrun Velocifighters daily.
Ready for bed, they all piled into the turbolift, except for Carlos, who lingered at his station, fiddling with some controls.
"You coming Carlos?" asked TJ.
"In a minute." the Black Ranger replied. "I want to update the star charts before I call it quits."
Andros, who wasn't nearly as tired as the rest of them, asked "Need any help?"
"Yeah, that'd be great."
So the Blue, Pink and Yellow Rangers headed off to bed while Carlos and Andros stayed up to finish the day's work.
From Ashley's panel on the forward console, Andros worked the sensors while Carlos input the data into the star chart archive. They worked in relative silence, occasionally popping in a joke or two now and then. Soon they were keeping up a steady conversation about some of the more odd-sounding star names.
"Wait a minute," Carlos laughed. "You're saying there's actually star-system called 'Butkis'?"
"It's about fifteen hundred light years from Horath." Andros replied. "I didn't think there was anything special about it until I started spending time on Earth."
The two of them laughed together for a while, but were interrupted by DECA's voice from above.
"Warning: Incoming projectile. Estimated time till impact: One minute, 48 seconds."
The Rangers were alarmed to say the least. "Projectile?" Andros repeated. "From where?"
"That information is unavailable."
"What kind of projectile?" asked Carlos.
"Sensors indicate a Class II missile bearing zero-six-three-nine point seven. ETI: One minute, 42 seconds."
Springing into action, Andros took hold of the helm while Carlos shouted into the ship wide speaker, "Guys, get back to the bridge, we've got a problem up here!"
Shortly, the turbolift doors opened and Cassie, TJ and Ashley spilled back out onto the bridge.
"What's happening?" TJ demanded.
"We've got a torpedo of some kind approaching." said Carlos. "DECA, how long now?"
"Missile ETI: thirty-four seconds."
"We have to destroy it as soon as it comes within range!" Andros barked. "Everybody take your posts. Cassie, we'll need full power to the laser assemblies. TJ, get ready for some hot-shot flying!"
The seconds ticked away as they waited for the missile to come within their reach.
"Visual range now." said Ashley, and an image of the tiny black projectile appeared on the viewer. It's size didn't deceive Andros. He knew the two-meter long shell casing was packed with enough volatile explosive to obliterate a small moon.
"Weapons range in ten seconds..." said Cassie, her hand poised above the fire controls. "..nine...eight...seven..."
Useless at the Navigation panel, Carlos came to stand next to Ashley and watch the sensor readings. Her eyes darted from the view screen to the distance reading that was ticking rapidly towards zero.
"..six...five..."
Ashley wasn't watching the other sections of her panel. She didn't notice when the life-signs monitor began to blink a warning.
"..four...three...two..."
"Wait, Cassie! Don't fire!" Carlos cried, and dove for the Tractor Beam controls while everyone looked at him in alarm.
"Weapons Range now!" yelled Cassie, but did not make a move to fire.
"Carlos, what are you doing??" Andros shouted.
The Black Ranger didn't respond, locking the Tractor Beams onto the missile and activating them at full force.
"TJ!" he cried. "Full power to the thrusters, get us out of its way!"
TJ obliged, but argued, "It's a guided missile, it'll follow us!"
"Not if I can help it!"
Speeding towards them in the green spotlight of the Tractor Beam, the missile closed the last few kilometers of distance between itself and the Megaship. Using every available scrap of power, Carlos tried to push it off course while TJ swung the ship around. Everyone cringed, preparing to feel the bulkheads tear themselves apart around them.
But miraculously, at the last moment, the missile slipped by the Megaship harmlessly, and Carlos dragged it to a dead stop with the Tractor Beam.
For a moment, all was silent while they reassured themselves they were still alive, and then Carlos closed his eyes and sighed a grateful sigh.
Cassie turned to him with a warning look. "Boy, you had better have a good explanation for that." The others were watching him with similar expressions, and he was forced to come to his defense.
"About five seconds before it reached weapons range, sensors detected a life sign within the missile." he said. "I..I guess I just reacted. If there was someone alive inside that missile, I couldn't just them be blown to kingdom-come; and I knew we couldn't let the shell impact either, in case the sensors were wrong."
The Rangers looked at each other in surprise.
"I wasn't watching the life-forms panel." Ashley confessed. "If you hadn't seen it, we would have blasted that missile into next Tuesday without a second thought."
"Check for life-signs now." Andros suggested, and she complied, scanning the missile which now hung behind them on its leash. But she shook her head.
"No life signs detected. It may have just been a sensor ghost."
"Or maybe the person inside didn't survive the Tractor Beam." said TJ. Finally, Cassie offered, "Well the only way to find out is to crack the thing open. Bring it into the cargo bay and we'll find out just what it's made of."
Five minutes later they all stood watching as Ashley guided the missile into the cargo bay with the Tractor Beam. Standing at the controls, she set the shell down gently on the floor, and then deactivated the beam and joined her friends.
They gathered around and Andros knelt to examine it.
"It's in bad shape." he observed, running his fingers over the once smooth surface. It was now pockmarked with hundreds of little space-debris strikes, and it looked like it had even taken some weak laser fire. It had certainly come a long way to greet them.
"Why would anyone fire a missile into space and just hope it would eventually hit something?" asked Cassie.
Andros shrugged. "This missile could have come from anywhere. It might be a stray from a past space battle near here. Perhaps its guidance system malfunctioned upon launch, and didn't activate until we passed by."
"But why would it have life signs?" Carlos argued.
"We still don't know they were real." said Ashley. "It might have just been a sensor illusion."
TJ cut in. "How about we stop arguing and find out?"
On cue, Andros ran a hand-held sensor device over the surface of the tube. "Nothing." he reported. "No life signs detected."
"What about biological trace elements?" suggested Carlos. "In case TJ was right about the tractor beam."
Andros scanned some more, but came up empty-handed. "The casing is too well-shielded. I can't detect anything about the materials inside."
There was nothing else to do then except open it up. Andros took another tool and began to cut open the seam along the torpedo's edge.
Looking down at the missile in person, Carlos began to wonder how a human being could possibly fit inside. True it was six feet long but it was only as wide as perhaps an ironing board. Whoever was inside would have to be a child in order to squeeze in without dislocating limbs.
At long last, the seam was cut and the seals broken. Hot, stale air hissed out of the crack and Andros slowly lifted the lid.
Inside, lay the tiny crumpled body of a young alien woman.
It took a few moment for their shock to pass. The woman wasn't really much bigger than a child, but it had obviously taken some doing to squeeze her into the tube. Her arms were packed in at her sides and looked broken; her neck scrunched down at a cramped angle. However, her close-fitting jumpsuit revealed her to be mature in growth. She was not a little girl.
Shaking off his surprise, Andros reached out with the sensor and scanned the woman's body. Then he physically felt for a pulse on the side of her throat. He looked up at Carlos.
"She's dead." he said quietly.
Carlos' jaw tightened. "How long?"
Andros looked down again. "Within the hour."
That clinched it. Carlos knew it must have been the tractor beam that had killed her. As he looked mournfully down at the pale, sleeping face framed by silken black hair, he silently asked forgiveness for what he had done.
"What's this?" TJ asked then. He knelt next to Andros and gingerly opened the woman's hand. She was holding a small silver mini-disk.
"Come on," said Andros. "Maybe that will tell us who she is." He and TJ went to the nearest computer panel and inserted the disk in the slot. "DECA, read this disk and translate the information into Standard for us."
"Working." said DECA. "Translation complete. Playing message."
On the screen, a man's face appeared. He had dark hair like the woman inside the missile, but his was shot with streaks of grey. He was dressed in decorative military garb and looked exhausted sitting behind an ornate desk. Behind him, a window looked out on a wild, desert-like landscape.
"To anyone playing this message:" he said. "I am Joachim Tamlyn of the planet Saskat. We are in the midst of a great civil war, and in desperation, I am sending away the one thing I am unwilling to risk in this fight-- my daughter, the Princess Vatoya. I will place her in a torpedo casing along with this data disk, and send her into space disguised as an inactive, stray missile. It is my hope that she will find friendly allies who will keep her safe as long as necessary, but I am still willing to pay a hefty ransom for her, if that is the way it must be. Please care for Vatoya and protect her from harm until we can send for her. She is the last hope our family has for peace."
As a last note, Tamlyn added that Vatoya's picture and health information were also contained on the disk, but DECA could not find such files. Andros theorized that they had been lost when the Tractor Beam took hold of the missile. At this point, Carlos was looking positively stricken with guilt, but Ashley took him aside to put a stop to it. While she pep-talked him, Cassie, Andros and TJ gathered around Vatoya's body once more.
"What can we do with her?" TJ wondered.
"Store her cryogenically I suppose." Cassie suggested. "We can do that, can't we Andros?"
"Uh, yeah." he said. "We've got the facilities."
"Then we can keep her just as we found her until her father and his people can be contacted." Cassie shrugged. "We'll keep her safe, just like they asked us to do."
No one could think of a better plan, so they spent the first portion of the night setting up a cryogenic storage chamber to keep the Princess' body in. They would put her away to freeze slowly all night, and in the morning they would start looking for her people. Meanwhile, Ashley and Carlos took on the sad task of sending a message back to Saskat to inform them of their Princess' fate.
Two days later, the Rangers awoke to find the food slots and SimuDeck useless, half their major components destroyed by power surge. It was only the first of their troubles.