The time ship landed in the docking area, and as soon as Tommy and Jen stepped off the ship, Katie was there to greet them.
"I take it the mission went well," she said with her usual, cheerful voice.
"It was a little rocky there was a second, but we pulled it off. Have you had any luck with the Time Force personnel records?" Jen inquired.
The three of them headed inside the building. Katie led them down the hall, making their way to the briefing room. "It occurred to me that no one on the active roster would be able to pull off what's going on here, so I decided to look through the inactive files of people who were recently terminated from Time Force. Take a look," she said, handing Jen a folder.
"Camille Summers. I remember her, we trained with her in the academy," she mentioned, skimming through the files.
"Yes, but she was released from Time Force when she was caught going through the history files without authorization. She believed that parallel realities can and do exist on a different plane of existence. Once she was released from Time Force, she dedicated her time to proving that," Katie explained.
"But these parallel worlds have to exist. When the time line is changed and future history is altered, that in itself should be considered an alternate universe," Tommy brought up.
"Not bad for a 21st century ranger."
"The existence of these other realities have been confirmed, but Camille's intention was to merge these realities into one realm. By definition, to merge realities like that would destroy both worlds," she said.
"How would you even go about destroying the barriers that separate different realities?" he inquired.
"There are no known methods, but in theory, a temporal displacement wave large enough would be able to break through, but only if the barriers were already weakened somehow. Then there's the task of generating a big enough explosion," Jen explained.
"We should check Camille out, see what her involvement is in all this," he said.
"Already on it. Trip and Lucas are on the way to her place now," the three of them walked into the conference room, where Captain Logan was sitting on the end of the table. "Captain," Katie acknowledged, then walked out the room, leaving Jen and Tommy behind.
"I see your mission was a success," the Captain said.
"Yes, and we think we may have conclusive proof as to who the saboteur is," she said.
"Well let's have it."
Tommy pulled a tape out his pocket, sliding it across the table to the Captain. "All we need now is a VCR," he said.
(*)
"This is the place," Lucas said as they pulled up in front of the house.
Trip glanced down at the paper he'd written the address on, confirming the location as the two of them stepped out the car and headed for the door.
"What are we expecting to find here? If she in involved with the shifts in time, it's not like we can bring it up in casual conversation and she'll tell us everything we need to know," he brought up.
"We're here to gather information. No more, no less," he said, knocking on the door.
As he knocked, the door itself crept open. "Looks like someone else has been here," Lucas said, reaching for his weapon.
The two of them headed inside, where there had obviously been a struggle of some kind. The furniture had been knocked over, lamps broken, holes in the walls. Trip hurried over to the wall.
"Disrupter fire. There was a battle here, and recently, the wall is still warm," he said, gently touching the burn mark on the wall.
In the distance, they heard something move. With a nod, they remained silent as they headed for the back rooms. It was Trip who kicked in the door as Lucas covered him, and then headed inside. As soon as they walked in the room, they saw a body motionless on the bed, face down in a pillow. Next to the bed was…..
"Ransik?" Lucas said in shock, aiming his disrupter at him.
"No, this isn't what you think," he said in his defense.
Trip walked over to the woman, rolling her over to get a good look at her. Next, he placed his fingers on the side of her neck. "This is Camille all right, she's dead," he sighed.
"Ransik, you're under arrest for the murder of Camille Summers and conspiracy to alter the time line," he said, putting Ransik's hands behind his back and cuffing him.
"Lucas, you don't know what you're doing. This is a mistake," Ransik insisted.
"The only mistake I made was ever trusting you," he said, pulling him out the room.
(*)
"So where is the next infraction going to take place?" Tommy asked as the four of them sat at the table in the briefing room.
"We've tracked it down to Angel Grove, 1998. For whatever reason, the pink space ranger will be at a nuclear power plant. There will be an implosion, and the entire building will go," the Captain said.
"An implosion?"
"Yes, we've been able to determine that the first bomb was an implosion device as well, its only function to interact with the nuclear energy in the plant and do damage to the space/time continuum," he told them.
"Holds up with the theory that Camille is trying to merge the realities," Jen said.
'Jen, this is Trip. Come in,'Jen reached for her morpher, and a holographic image of Trip appeared. "What is it Trip?" she asked.
'Lucas and I are on our way back to headquarters. Camille Summers is dead and we have her killer in custody,'
"Oh by God. Who is it?"
'It's Ransik,'
Katie stood up. "That's impossible," she screamed.
'Meet us in the containment area. We should be there in five minutes,'
"We'll be there Trip," Jen said.
"These has to be a mistake, Ransik couldn't have done this," Katie insisted.
"Lucas and Trip found him at the murder scene, what more proof do you need?" Tommy asked her.
"It was a set up, it has to be. Ransik is innocent,"
"Why are you so passionate about this? We knew Ransik was a criminal to begin with. It's not like the two of you are…." She paused as she noticed the look on Katie's face. "Oh my God, you and Ransik?" she inquired.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Captain Logan replied.
"We knew that none of you would accept it. Even without his mutant half, even after he helped us defeat the mutorgs, we knew you wouldn't trust him," she said.
"Looks like you were manipulated Katie. Ransik knew what he was planning and used your feelings for him to help cover up his plans. Unfortunately, that makes you an accessory to conspiracy against Time Force," he motioned to Jen. "Take her into custody with Ransik," he said.
Reluctantly, Jen walked over to Katie, putting her hands behind her back. "I'm sorry Katie, you're under arrest," she sighed.
"Take her morpher from her, and once she's locked away, you can focus on getting to the nuclear power plant," he said.
Without a word, Tommy followed Jen as she escorted Katie out the room.
"Jen, you know me better than this. You know this isn't right," Katie insisted.
"I thought I knew you Katie, I really did."
"Think about it, if Ransik was behind the conspiracy to alter time, when the time line shifted, so would his memories. He doesn't have his mutant half anymore; his memories would change just like everyone else. It can't be him," she said.
That was enough to force Jen to pause. "Without a morpher, our memories would change like everyone else," she mumbled to herself.
Tommy noticed something was wrong. "What is it Jen?" he asked.
"That's it. Without a morpher, when the time line was altered, everything would change. Our memories would change and we would have no knowledge of the former reality," she said.
"We know that Jen, that's why we….." he paused. "Captain Logan," he sighed.
"He's never had a morpher, yet he has knowledge of where and when the next infraction is going to take place. The only way he could be unaffected by the shifts was if….."
"….. he was doing it himself," Katie sighed.
"It all makes sense now. He sends us on these missions that we complete with ease, meanwhile he's off on a different mission trying to sabotage the time line. Camille would have known that, so he fired her from Time Force," Jen said.
"Even after she was fired, she continued her research and discovered that Captain Logan himself was responsible for the changes, so he had her killed," he added.
"But how does Ransik play into all of this?"
"He was set up Jen, can't you see that? Captain Logan needed someone to take the fall for Camille's death, and he knew that you guys still didn't completely trust Ransik, so he sent him," Katie said.
"What do we do?"
"First things first, we have to stop that implosion at the nuclear power plant. Next, we have to stop Captain Logan was going back in time and stopping another incursion," she said.
"Leave Ransik and I in a holding cell, that way the captain won't suspect anything. You guys go and stop the implosion. We'll deal with Logan," she said.
By the time they made it to the containment center, Lucas and Trip were already there with Ransik.
"Katie," Ransik called out, trying to snatch away from Lucas, but with no luck.
"Ransik," she sighed.
"I was set up, all I did was go to the Summer's woman's house like Captain Logan asked me to, and then….."
"Its okay Ransik, we know," she turned to Lucas. "Let him go, we'll explain it later," she told him.
"But Jen, he……"
"Do it," she said in a firmer tone.
Without another word, Lucas let Ransik out of the cuffs. "Katie, you know what to do. Fill Ransik in. Trip, Lucas, we have work to do," she said.
Ransik and Katie walked into the holding cell, closing the door behind themselves. "Don't worry, we'll take care of it," Katie told them.
"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" Trip asked.
"It's a long story my friend," Tommy sighed.
(*)
Captain Logan walked into the main shuttle bay, glancing at the launch pad to discover that the time ship was still docked. He walked over to the controls, pushing a button.
"Jen, this is Captain Logan. Do you read me?" he asked.
'Loud and clear captain,'
"Why haven't you left for the 21st century yet?"
'We had some problems getting Katie and Ransik into custody, but the situation in under control and we're in the time ship as we speak,'
"All of you?"
'Yes, sir. Myself, Tommy, Lucas and Trip are all here. We'll stop the saboteur, save the pink space ranger, protect the nuclear power plant and be back before you know it,'
"Excellent work, Logan out," he said, watching as the time ship lifted off. The temporal vortex was beginning to open, but the captain input another set of instructions into the time ship. The vortex opened, and the ship was inches away from heading inside……
…… then it exploded.