"I can't believe you called me a pretty boy," Lucas said as he and Trip walked down the hall on their way back to the briefing room.
"I told you, good cop/bad cop works every time," he said with a grin.
The two of them walked into the briefing room where Jen and the others were preparing for their mission. Trip took his seat across from Jen as Lucas sat down across from them.
"What did you find out?"
"Captain Logan told us when and where the very first infraction takes place. It was in 2002 when the Wild Force rangers helped us capture the mutorgs," he said.
"But how is that possible?"
"The energy blast that took Ransik's and the mutorg's mutant halves had a nuclear/chemical reaction to the reactor core in the plant we were fighting in. The radiation was enough to open a small rift in the space/time continuum and their mutant halves were sucked into an alternate reality. Those mutant halves merged, becoming Ransorg," Trip told them.
"Logan was sent here by Ransorg to trick us into weakening the barriers so that they would be able to invade our world," Lucas continued.
"But don't they know that will destroy both worlds?" Jen brought up.
"Apparently not. The only way to stop this is to prevent the reactor from having a nuclear/chemical reaction to the energy blast, and then capture the mutant halves before they have a chance to merge with Ransik's mutant half. If we don't, we'll have our own Ransorg to deal with," he explained.
Jen glanced around the room. "Any theories?"
"There were twelve rangers at the reactor plant, there's no way we'll be able to sneak in there undetected, stop that reactor from exploding and capture three mutant halves without being seen," Katie pointed out.
"We have to find a way to get both sets of rangers out of there as quickly as possible so we can do our work."
"If I remember it correctly, most of the battle took place outside the plant. If we were wait until after the reactor is destroyed and concentrate on repairing the rift, we might have a better chance of going unseen by the rangers," Ransik mentioned.
Jen turned to Trip. "Can we repair a rift?"
"In theory, yes. From what Captain Logan told me, it was a small rift, just enough to let the mutant halves get through. A high intensity burst of ion radiation should be enough to seal the rift, but we still have to stop the mutant halves from merging. Standard containment should work, but there's still the question of how do we capture them in spirit form?" he replied.
"We can't. You're talking about mixing science and technology with magic and spells, it can't be done," Alex told them.
"He's right, there would have to be……." He was cut short.
"There is a way," Ransik said, getting the group's attention. "When I originally found the orgs in the lost temple, I was given org powers in exchange for freeing them and allowing them to combine with my mutant DNA. Before I freed them, their spirits were trapped in stone statues. All we have to do is find out how they were imprisoned there and maybe we can duplicate it," he suggested.
"Do you still know where that temple is?"
"Yes."
"Trip, Alex, the two of you go with him to the temple and see what you can find out. Katie & Tommy, the two of you need to get up to level 13 and get the prototype time ship ready for launch. Lucas, we have to work on a way to emit an ion burst to close the rift," Jen instructed.
Everyone nodded, getting up from the table and walking out the room.
(*)
Katie and Tommy walked down a long, slender hallway on level 13, eventually coming to the end of the hall. There was a door of sorts, and a small panel on the left hand side. "Recognize K1 Alpha 725, enable," she said, putting her hand on the panel.
There was a glow, as if the panel was scanning her hand, and moments later, the door opened. 'Code accepted, welcome Katie,' the computer replied.
They walked inside, where, in the distance, they could see the prototype time ship. This one had a much slimmer design than the regular ships. It was a metallic color, as oppose to yellow, and had more of a jet-like build.
"It's beautiful," Tommy sighed.
Katie walked over to the control panel in the hanger bay. "It's only been tested once, so there's no way to be sure if it will be able to get us there and back in one piece," she said.
"That's encouraging."
They headed down to the time ship itself, climbing inside and taking a seat at the main control station. "It shouldn't take long to run a system's diagnostic," she said.
"So," he paused. "How did you and Ransik end up together?" Tommy inquired.
She sighed. "It was a little after we came back from our mission to 2002 with the Wild Force rangers. Since he didn't have his mutant half anymore, Time Force felt as if they had no right to hold him. I was assigned to help he and Nadira adjust to live in the 31st century, helping them find a place to stay and getting them situated. You know, that kinda thing. One night Lucas and Nadira were out, and I went to check on Ransik. I don't know, one thing led to another and……" she paused, blushing slightly. "….. I guess the rest is history," she explained.
"All that matters is that you're happy," he said.
She smiled. "You're interested in Jen, aren't you?" she asked him.
Tommy blushed slightly, hoping Katie didn't notice. "What makes you say that?" he replied.
"I see the way you look at her. You've got the hots for her, don't you?"
"I do not. Even if I did, she's with Wes and I'm married," he pointed out.
"Tommy, Jen and Wes can never be together again. Jen has come to accept that, and even when all this is over, you won't be able to go back to your own time. The two of you might as well give it a shot," she said.
"No, I couldn't,"
"I see the way she looks at you, too."
"She does?" he asked, trying not to sound too excited.
"Come on, it's a girl thing. I've seen her a few times checking you out. There's nothing wrong with feeling the way you're feeling. You shouldn't feel like you're cheating on your wife, or that you're trying to take Jen away from Wes. You should concentrate on your feelings right here and right now," Katie said.
"I can't. For you, it's been a thousand years, but for me, it's only been a few days. Even while I was reviewing the history logs, I couldn't help but think about how Kimberly got along without me all those years," he sighed.
"I understand, but all I'm saying is prepare for your life here in 3000, but dwell on the life you can never go back to," she said.
'Systems diagnostic complete. All systems functioning within specified parameters,' the computer announced.
"We're in business now. All we have to do is wait for the others," she said.
(*)
The three of them arrived at the ruins of the temple, only to find that most of it was destroyed. For as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but the remains of destroyed buildings.
"We're not going to find anything here that can help us," Alex said, searching through the rubble.
Trip and Ransik stood in front of a pillar, dusting it off slightly. "Do you see that?" Trip asked.
"It looks like some sort of sign."
"Or a symbol."
"But a symbol of what?" he inquired.
The symbol itself was a long staff of some kind, with a ball at the end. Inside the ball appeared to be lightening.
"It looks like a staff. The lightening inside could represent an org spirit," Trip speculated.
"But if that's true, how did they get trapped in the stone statues?"
He paused. "Maybe they used this staff to contain them, then transferred those spirits into statues," he dusted off the symbol a little more. "From what I've read about orgs, their spirits once traveled the world looking for something to use so they could take physical form. Without something for it to manifest itself, the spirit would continue to travel. It looks to me that the staff trapped the spirits and allows the holder of the staff to transfer the spirit to whatever they chose," he explained.
"If we had this staff, we could trap the spirits before they entered the rift, then use the standard Time Force containment procedure to lock them away in Cyro status," Alex said, injecting himself into the conversation.
"I recognize the staff, it was Master Org's," he paused. "I know where we have to go to get the staff," he said.
"Where?"
"The Nexus," Ransik told him.
(*)
"How's it coming?" Jen asked as she sat across from Lucas.
She didn't want to admit it, but she wasn't having the best time working on the ion charges. It simply wasn't her specialty. 'I should have had Trip stay here and work on these,' she thought to herself.
The truth was, her mind wasn't really on her work. She wasn't even thinking about the mission, she found herself thinking of him. In a way, she felt as though she was betraying Wes for having feelings for someone else, but it was beyond her control. 'Hell, even Wes got married a few years after I left, what does it matter if I'm attracted to someone else?' she asked herself, trying to justify her feelings. Once she realized she would never be able to go back to the 21st century to be with Wes, she decided to keep tabs on him. Sure enough, in 2006, only five years after they separated, Wes was married, settled down and had a child.
Without her.
Part of her felt betrayed, but she knew it would have made no sense for Wes to be faithful to their feelings for one another knowing that they could never be together. 'So why not be attracted to someone else? I deserve it. After all, I'm not talking about getting married. I just a good old fashioned……'
"Jen," Lucas called out, breaking her train of thought.
"What is it?"
"The ion charges are set and fully charged. All we have to do is set these up around the reactor, and once all the other rangers are out the building and the rift begins to open, detonate the charges and seal the rift once and for all," he told her.
"Good, very good."
"Are you okay Jen?" he asked.
"Yeah, just fine."
"You're thinking about Tommy, aren't you?"
"What makes you say that?"
"Oh come on Jen, I see the way you two look at each other," Lucas said.
"I don't look at him any kind of way. We work together, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he's done as a ranger in the past. That's all," she said.
"Just admit it Jen, you like the guy."
"I don't……. I couldn't…… I still love……"
"Wes? I know you do. We all know you'll always love Wes, but even he moved on with his life. If you have feelings for someone else, don't be afraid to……"
"Can we keep our mind on the mission? We have to close the rift and stop the entire universe from being destroyed, remember?" she reminded him.
"Yeah Jen, sure. But once this mission is over, you're going to have to ask yourself to tough questions," Lucas said, going back to his work.
She sighed.