Chapter 13: Lightspeed Research

When they landed, Kelsey immediately recognized where they were. "Mariner Bay!"

Maya nodded. "This is the same alley where my team arrived for the last battle against Trakeena. It was the only place I could think of where there probably wouldn't be anyone around."

"Smart." Kelsey turned to the others. "So, what's the plan?"

"We find the receiver for Project Venjix," said Summer.

"But we may not find it in time," said Taylor. "We need a way to stop it from sending signals."

"Then we still have to figure out where the receiver is, at least," said Z.

"Would it be at your NASADA?" Summer asked.

Katie shook her head. "I don't think so. It's too obvious, and for whatever reason, they kept everything very secret. It'll be somewhere harder to find."

"Andros is a ranger," said Kira. "And he would trust other rangers to protect something important. What if he had the receiver built somewhere where rangers would be close at hand if anything happened?"

"You mean one of our hometowns?" asked Lily.

Kira looked at Ashley. "Do you know which of our hometowns Andros has visited."

"Well, Angel Grove, of course." Ashley looked at Trini and Tanya. "And there would certainly be a lot of rangers around if something went wrong. But I can't think of where. Every secret hideout around there has been found by now."

"What about the Command Center?" Tanya asked.

Ashley turned somber. "The Command Center doesn't exist anymore."

Her two predecessors stared at her, aghast.

"I don't think it's in Angel Grove," said Z. "The S.P.D. went all over that town when it was gathering data on the previous ranger teams. It would have found any anomalies. Where else has Andros been?"

"Turtle Cove," said Taylor.

Everyone looked at her.

"We need a way to know for sure," said Summer. "We don't have time for wild goose chases." She looked down. "I wish Doctor K was here. She would know how to figure out where a transmission was received."

"Well, we don't have a Doctor K," said Kelsey, "but we do have a Dr. Rawlings, who lives not too far from here."

"And this Dr. Rawlings can figure it out?"

Kelsey smiled. "I'd be willing to bet on it."

"Alright, lead on," said Taylor.

Kelsey turned towards Joel's house, but Jun'ga, who was the only one still fully morphed, turned to Ashley. "Ashley, I have a problem."

Ashley seemed to know exactly what she was referring to. "The waters of Nitaven."

"Yes."

"Your container was left at my house."

"What's wrong?" Kira asked.

"The Ostavenians are sustained by a special power in the water of their world. Jun'ga and Gorko brought a container of it to KO-35, and kept it at my house. It's still there."

"How long can you last without it?" asked Z.

Jun'ga gestured to herself. "My armor retains the energy of Nitaven. As long as I wear it, it will sustain me."

"So you can't unmorph."

"Correct."

Kelsey privately thought that might be for the best, as the Ostavenian was more likely to startle people without her ranger armor than with it.

"Would our water be able to help?" Lily asked.

"No, I cannot touch your water. The energy of Nitaven that sustains me would seep into your water and spread, causing change."

"It would wipe out most aquatic ecosystems," said Ashley. "The Ostavenians can't go into the water on any planet other than their own."

"Oh." Lily shuddered, perhaps envisioning the repercussions.

"Come on, we should move," said Trini. Kelsey agreed, and lead them onwards.

She hadn't been to Joel's in over a year. She hadn't been to any of her teammates' houses in over a year. It always felt a little strange being back here. She still technically lived here, but it felt more like a base from which to launch her adventures.

They arrived at a brick townhouse with a green door. Climbing the stairs, Kelsey knocked. Joel opened the door, beaming at her. "Well it's about time, Winslow."

"You're one to talk about being late, Rawlings."

"You're Dr. Rawlings?" Summer asked.

Joel looked at the group behind Kelsey. "Maya? Katie?" He looked back at Kelsey and lowered his voice. "This isn't a social call, is it?"

Kelsey's face fell. "No, it isn't."

He stepped aside. "Come in." He glanced at each of the rangers in turn until his gaze fixed on Jun'ga. "You don't have to stay morphed in here."

"Actually, she does, or she can't survive on this planet." Maya placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's good to see you, Joel."

Joel looked at her blankly. "What?" He spun and stared at Jun'ga.

Once all thirteen yellow rangers were crowded in a living room with far too much green décor, Taylor turned to Joel. "We need your help, Dr. Rawlings."

"I'm not Dr. Rawlings."

Taylor frowned, and looked at Kelsey. "Then who is?"

"That would be me." The female voice came from a doorway at the other end of the room. A woman in a gray sweater entered, wiping what looked like grease off her hands with a dishrag. "Dr. Angela Rawlings. What can I help you with?"

Tanya may have only been fifteen years in the future, but she felt like she was in a sci-fi movie. She had just been in space, on a different planet, and then traveled back to Earth through a portal. Now she stood in a private laboratory surrounded by equipment that she wasn't sure could even have been dreamed of in the year she came from.

She couldn't believe the pace with which everything in her life had changed. It had only been a matter of months since she switched places with Aisha and became the yellow zeo ranger. She had suddenly gone from a quiet youth in Africa to a noisy adolescence in America while regularly having to fight off robot attacks. Fortunately, Kat had been there to act like something of a big sister to her, helping her adjust to her sudden new world. Kat herself hadn't even been in the country for a year yet at the time, but her guidance was extremely helpful.

Now, she was fifteen years in the future and everything had changed again. Humanity had spread to other planets and had big spaceships and she had just been on a different planet fighting an evil man-made computer program. And instead of Kat and the other zeo rangers she was with nine yellow rangers from the present time, two from even farther in the future, and one from even farther in the past than she was. And one of the present rangers was from an alternate Earth, and another was an alien.

Now, she was looking at a computer that was small and thin, and yet somehow still contained the necessary machinery and wiring. And on the screen was a text bar with the word "Google" above it, and a button below it telling her to search.

"Is this a search engine?"

Ronny smirked. "It's a lot faster and more advanced than the search engines you're used to."

Tanya wouldn't say that she was used to any search engines, since they were still a new thing in her time.

"What are search engines?" Trini asked.

"They're used to search for specific information on the World Wide Web. They make it a lot easier to do research for essays."

"That sounds really useful."

"It is." Tanya ignored the smirks of the rangers from the present, and turned back to the screen. There was so much that she could learn, but did she want to?

She turned to Katie. "Will you be erasing our memories when you take us back to the past?"

Katie nodded solemnly. "I have to. Returning you to the past with knowledge of the future risks changing the future. And you're already seeing firsthand how much damage changes to the timeline can cause."

Tanya and Trini exchanged glances, and both nodded understandingly. "So then nothing that we learn here can cause issues when we go back."

"What do you want to know?" Kira asked.

Tanya stared at her. It was such a simple question with no simple answer. The short answer was everything, but was that really true? What did she actually want to know? What happened to her? What happened to her teammates?

"About my teammates, I guess." That felt easier than asking about herself.

Kira smiled. "Well, one of them is a science teacher at my old high school, and another is his wife."

"Tommy and Kat get married?"

Kira nodded. "Eventually. And I met Adam a few years ago. He's still fighting the good fight, whenever he gets the chance."

Tanya smiled. It was good to know that her teammates were doing well in their futures. "And what about Rocky? And Billy?"

Kira shrugged. "Last Dr. O heard, Billy was still on Aquitar. And Rocky got injured a while ago and doesn't fight much anymore, but he teaches karate."

Tanya nodded, hesitating. She wanted to ask about herself, but she also didn't want to.

Fortunately, Dr. Rawlings drew their attention to the large computer at the far end of the laboratory.

"Okay. This should tell us if any unusual transmissions have been received on Earth recently, and where they were received. There will be a lot of data to parse through, though. She turned to the others. "You're all welcome to stay for dinner. We can order in from somewhere."

Joel smiled wryly. "I'm not sure you'll all fit in our dining room."

Tanya looked around. Lily had stayed upstairs in the living room, exhausted from projecting her spirit rangers to destroy Venjix. The rest now filled much of the laboratory.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind exploring a bit," said Ronny. "I'm just feeling a bit restless."

Trini came up beside Tanya. "Maybe we should go walk for a bit, too," she said quietly.

"Why?"

"I know we won't keep our memories, but I'm still not sure how much we should learn about our futures. The more we stay with them, the more we risk knowing things we shouldn't."

Tanya glanced at her. She didn't share the concern, knowing that they wouldn't be bringing the information they learned back to the past anyway. But maybe her predecessor had a point. "Okay."

They joined Ronny in excusing themselves and venturing out of the house. The bay was visible down the street in the distance, and they turned towards it. But the rangers from the past didn't mind when the restless speed-demon zipped off ahead of them, continuing at their own leisurely pace.

"What do you have against Kimberly?" Trini asked. The question came so quickly that Tanya wondered if she had been waiting the whole time to ask it.

"She broke Tommy's heart."

Trini looked down. "That's surprising. She seems to really like him."

"Maybe she did really like him, but then she met someone else she really liked." Tanya shrugged. "You know what teenage crushes can be like."

Maybe she was being unfair to Kimberly. She had never met Kat's predecessor, and teenage crushes could indeed be chaotic. But Tommy was hurting, and Tanya couldn't help feeling protective of him. Like Kat, he had also come to feel like something of an older sibling as she adjusted to life in Angel Grove.

"Why didn't I stay on the team?" Trini asked. "If Tommy and Billy are still there, why not me?"

"You went to Europe for a peace conference, and decided to stay there for college. I can't say I blame you. It certainly sounds like a more fun adventure than constantly fighting off attacks from aliens and robots."

Trini gave a small smile. "I guess."

They arrived at the boardwalk overlooking the bay. Ronny was standing at the railing, gazing out at the water, and they joined her. Tanya was stunned to see what looked like a large, underwater complex. "What is that?"

"That's the Lightspeed Aquabase," said Ronny. "It's where Kelsey and Joel's Lightspeed Rescue team was based. Well, the rebuilt version of it."

"Wow."

"Yeah." Ronny looked around. "It must be a little weird for Kelsey being back here. I get the feeling she's like me, and doesn't like staying in one place for too long."

"Do you ever go back home?"

Ronny shrugged. "Home for me is wherever the races are." She glanced at the two rangers from the past. "My team wasn't like yours. We weren't still in high school. We weren't even from the same area. We were just brought together because of our specialties." Her gaze returned to the water. "And we were facing a bunch of different big bads, rather than just one. I guess with all of the chaos, we never really..." She shrugged again.

"It never felt like a family?"

"There were times when it did, but that was mostly thanks to Spencer and Mr. Hartford. If we ever felt like siblings to each other, we were the most dysfunctional group of siblings ever." Her gaze lowered. "I guess it's telling that we all went back to our old lives afterwards, as though nothing had happened. I still talk to Dax from time to time, but..." She gave another shrug, but her show of ambivalence was clearly forced.

Tanya gave her a sympathetic look. "Maybe you should get back in touch with the others. You might feel differently."

"Maybe." There was no indication on Ronny's face that she had any intention of following through on Tanya's advice.

Kelsey grinned as little Gregory Rawlings smiled at her. The elder Rawlings child was athletic and competitive, she could relate to him easily.

"I'm a better roller skater than you are now," he told her confidently.

"Is that so? Well, you'll have to show me."

"You're not better than she is," his little sister, Carmen, refuted. "She's an adult." The little six-year-old was wise beyond her years, much like her mom.

"I am!" Greg insisted.

"Inside voice," said Angela, not otherwise getting involved in the nascent argument between her children.

Kelsey looked around at the group, her gaze settling on Lily. The cheetah ranger had fallen asleep on one of Joel's couches while the others were down in the lab. She had awoken for dinner, but still looked drained. Kelsey was concerned about the younger ranger. She had played a critical role today, of course, but Kelsey hoped that she hadn't strained her abilities too much.

She was drawn from her thoughts as Joel sat down beside her. "So, I don't suppose you'll be coming back home after this Venjix business is dealt with?"

Kelsey fixated on the term 'home' for just a moment. "I don't know."

"You should, Kels. We miss you."

"I stop by from time to time. Whenever I'm in town."

"But that's not very often, is it?" He gave her a look. "Sooner or later, you'll have to settle down somewhere. We're not as young as we used to be. And you can't keep moving at lightspeed forever."

She grinned wryly at his phrasing, and shrugged. "I'm going to for as long as I can."

"I know. I know you, Kels. I just want to make sure you'll still be happy once you're forced to slow down."

She looked down, considering his words. Would she? Once her body could no longer tolerate her constant pursuit of her hobbies, what would she do? How would she continue to stay content?

She didn't know the answer.

"Thanks," was all she said in response.

He nodded.

A light blinked on Angela's watch. "We've got something," she announced. She led the way back down to her lab, where a red light was blinking on a map on the screen. "Turtle Cove."

Everyone turned to Taylor. "You were right," said Summer.

Taylor stared at the blinking light, looking grim.

"So now we know where Venjix is. How do we contain it?" Kira asked.

Lily looked at Summer. "You said that your zords were infused with animal DNA to protect them from being taken over by Venjix. Would that work?"

Summer shrugged. "If it worked once, it should work again. But how do we infuse machines with animal DNA? I don't know how Doctor K did it."

Everyone looked at Angela, who shook her head. "I don't know."

"I think I know," said Taylor. "We just need to get to Turtle Cove."

"Not a problem." Joel grinned. "I can get you there in no time."

"Joel is a stunt pilot," Kelsey explained.

Taylor quirked an eyebrow. "A stunt pilot? Well, it's a good thing we don't need a pilot, just a plane."

Joel's face fell. "What?"

"I can fly us to Turtle Cove."

"No one flies my plane but me."

"That changes today. After all, the Venjix signal can take control of men. I'm not about to risk that signal taking over a pilot in the air."

Joel looked at Kelsey, who shrugged.

Angela came up behind him, placing a hand on his arm. "She's got a point," she said softly. "And I feel better with you staying out of this. Our kids need you here."

"Alright, fine. But if anything happens to my plane..." He pointed a finger at Taylor threateningly.

"Nothing will happen," Taylor assured him.