Jen stood in front of the green swirling vortex, awaiting the master. She didn't have to wait long as a figure stepped through the portal. As soon as they came through, Jen got a good look at him.
He was in his Time Force uniform, but it was different from the uniform she was use to. This one was all black, and he wore a red shirt underneath. His hair was black, and he wore a red-tinted glasses.
"Oh my God," she sighed in amazement.
"Jen?" he inquired, getting a good look at her.
'It looks like him, and, in a way, it probably is him, but this isn't the Lucas from your world,' she had to remind herself. Without a second thought, she reached for her morpher. "TIME FOR, TIME FORCE," she called out, transforming herself into the pink ranger.
"Jen? What are you doing?" he asked.
Without a word, she charged at him, calling for her Chrono Saber. She swung at him, but he side stepped her, only to be caught with an elbow to the ribs. He stumbled back, and she aimed a sabat kick at his face, but he caught her foot in mid air. Jen spun around, driving the back of her heel into his temple, taking him down to one knee. She cocked back with her sword, but he caught the blade between his hands.
"I don't want to fight you Jen," he insisted.
"Than stand here and take it like a man," she snapped.
Lucas kicked the blade out her hand. "I don't have time for this. The portal will close in a matter of minutes and I have to get these people and the supplies back through," he said.
Jen swung, but Lucas caught her fist. In response, she kicked him between the legs, sending him to his knees, then rammed a knee in his face, knocking him over. With Lucas flat on his back, she stood over him with her sword in hand.
"I know what you're doing Lucas and I won't let you. You're forcing these people to give you all their wealth, and on top of that you demand a sacrifice from them once a month. I don't know what kind of world you come from, but I'm not letting you hurt these people again," she told him.
Lucas grabbed her, flipping her up against a tree, then got back to his feet. "Hurt them? I'm here to help them," he said.
"Save your lies, Galen told me everything," Jen said.
"Galen? You mean 'Prime Minister of New Earth'?" he inquired.
"Yeah," she said, pausing slightly.
"You have to understand Jen, this is a primitive society. They do their best to grasp the situation, but they have no idea whats going on. I've been helping these people for the last two years," he said.
His statement was enough to get her attention. She powered down, taking a step closer. "You've got two minutes Lucas, make it good,"
"Two years ago Time Force traveled to this world only to find it in ruins. Queen Banshira and her shadow warriors had taken over almost the entire planet, and it took us six months to finally trap her back in the Shadow World and seal the entrance. During her reign, she'd done something to the planet that disrupted the core itself, and in a few years time, the planet will no longer be able to support life. Trip and Alex were able to find another world for these people, but its in an unexplored dimension, making it difficult to maintain the portal. There are crystals in the caves on this world that allow us to amplify the portal and safely travel through with these people, and in exchange for relocating them to the new world, they mine the crystals for us," he explained.
"But what about the sacrifices?"
"There are no sacrifices. That was the only way they could rationalize what was happening to them. I come here once a month to gather the crystals, and one person from their tribe comes with me through the portal," Lucas said.
"So you mean you're really helping them?" she sighed.
"At least I was," he said as they watched his portal close.
"Oh my God Lucas, I'm so sorry," Jen sighed.
"Don't worry, we'll be here a while. You have plenty of time to make it up to me," he told her.
(*)
"Okay, run one more diagnostic on the field converter. I'll check on the ionic matrix," Trip said, getting out his seat and walking over to another control panel.
"Diagnostic indicates the field converters are functioning 150% above normal. That should be enough," Camille told him, wiping her eyes as she yawned.
"The ionic matrix is on line too. I think we're ready," he said.
Camille headed back to the Slipstream portal and turned it on, but nothing happened. "Check the gauges, was there a system overload? Did we miss something?" she asked him.
"According to these readings, we didn't miss a thing," he said.
Just then, the doors opened as Tommy and Katie walked into the room. "You guys are still working on this?" Katie asked them.
"We have to find a way to get Jen back," she insisted.
"No, you don't. The two of you have been up all night, what you need is to get some sleep," Tommy pointed out.
"We can't, not yet. Not until we find a way to save Jen," Trip said.
"Jen doesn't need saving. She knew what she was going when she mad her decision and sent the two of you back. Besides, if she were in trouble, she would have tried to contact us by now," he said.
"That's it!" Trip and Camille said in unison.
"What?"
"Everything in the universe has it's own unique signature that makes it indigenous to it's world. That's how Captain Logan has been able to contact us; he calibrates the censors to find our unique signature and uses it to send audio messages to us," he said.
"If calibrate the censors and modified it with a high intensity neuron beam, we should be able to lock onto Jen's signal and open a portal to those coordinates," she added.
Without another word, the two of them rushed over to the control panel to begin their work.
"Did you understand any of that?" Katie asked.
Tommy shook his head. "I was going to ask you the same thing," he sighed.
(*)
Jen and Lucas were in the caves as some of the local villagers were mining the crystals. Each of them had flashlights, and there were lights strung around the cave to make it easier to see.
"So, how did you find this world?" Jen asked.
"Trip invented some machine he called the Slipstream Interdimensional Portal. For a while, we just traveled to worlds at random, trying to help as many people as we could. We eventually stumbled onto a world where their technology was much more advanced than ours, and they showed us how to control the portals, allowing us to travel to the same world as many times as we want," he told her.
"My Trip speculated that you had found a way to open the portal from this side," she mentioned.
"No, not yet. We've been working on it, but with no luck."
"So where are the rest of us? The other me, Katie, Alex, Tommy?" she inquired.
"Tommy? Tommy who?"
"Nevermind," she said.
"About six months ago, you, Katie and Alex went on a routine mission through the portal, but were attacked by a race of beings known as the Vorhsoth. You gave the order for us to open the portal before its scheduled time, and that threw the system out of whack. As far as we know, they're all alive…… somewhere. We have no way to track them and no way to bring them back," he said.
"So it's just you and Trip now?"
"Admiral Logan helps out as much as he can, and Nadira has been a great addition to the team," he said.
"Sounds like someone has a thing for Nadira," she mentioned.
"I would hope so, we've been married for about a year now," Lucas said.
"Wow. I knew you guys were dating, but I never would have thought……." She paused. "You'll probably never see her again, and its my fault," she sighed.
"Don't beat yourself up about it, we all know the risks when we signed up for dimensional investigations. Every time you step through the portal, part of you thinks you might never make it back," he said.
She paused. "So, why were you only able to take one villager through the portal with you?" she inquired, trying to change the subject.
"The distance from here to their new world was a little farther than the portal was designed for, which is why we need these crystals to get there. They give the portal extra power, but to send more than a few through at a time would destabilize the portal. Besides, traveling here through the portal actually makes the sitation worse. The radiation from the portal affects the core, speeding up the process," he explained.
"I wish there was something I could do the help you. If I had known what you were doing, I wouldn't have……"
"Like I said, don't beat yourself up. You couldn't have known. There have been plenty of times where I met up with myself and really wanted to help, but he wasn't what I thought he was. That's the thing with doubles, you never know how they really are," he said.
"It's good to see that you're still a sweetheart," Jen said.
"Thanks,"
'Jen, this is Camille. Do you read me?' a voice asked.
"Camille? Alex' wife?" Lucas inquired.
Jen reached for her morpher as she headed out the cave. "I'm here Camille. Something tells me you have good news," she said.
'Don't I always? Trip and I have found a way to lock onto your individual signature and open a portal to bring you home. Have you been able to stop the master yet?' she asked.
"Yes and no."
'Well, we're ready here whenever you are,' she said.
"Stand by," she turned to Lucas. "Where is the other world you're taking these people to?" she asked.
"An alternate reality on KO-35. The conditions are similar to this world, but there is no instability," he said.
"Do you have the coordinates?"
"Yes, but I don't see……."
"Give them to me," Jen said.
"102302.6," he said.
Jen reached for her morpher again. "Camille, can you open a portal if I gave you coordinates for the location?" she asked.
'Sure, I don't see why not,' she said.
"I need you to open a portal to coordinates 102302.6," she said.
'Coordinates set and locked, but I don't understand,' she said.
"Can you open a portal here that will take us to those coordinates?" she asked.
'I could, but the strain might be too much for the portal. Those coordinates you gave me are somewhere in the KO-35 galaxy. I'd need something to amplify the signal if you wanted me to keep the portal open for longer than thirty seconds,' she explained.
Jen turned to Lucas. "How long would it take to gather up all the villagers and get them through?" she asked.
"About twenty minutes,"
"Could you do it in fifteen?"
"If I had to," he said.
"Camille, I need the portal to stay open for at least fifteen minutes. Can you do it?" Jen asked.
'If I couldn't than I wouldn't be the miracle worker you expect me to be. It'll take a few minutes to configure; I'll contact you when I'm ready. Camille out,' she said.
"Get all the villagers together, we've only got one shot at this," she said.
"What are you trying to do?"
"Fulfill the prophecy," Jen said.
(*)
It took them almost ten minutes to round up all the villages in the middle of the village, all of them confused to see the Anointed One and the master working together.
"I must protest to this Anointed One. You were suppose to deliver us from the master, not aid him in his conquest," Galen mentioned.
"Relax Galen, I know what I'm doing," Jen assured him.
'Jen, this is Trip. Can you hear me?' a voice asked.
"Loud and clear Trip,"
'When the portal opens, it will be slightly bigger than the usual portal and I expect the coloration of it to be different because of the distance, but it should hold long enough to do what you have to do,' he said.
"Great. As soon as it's done, I need you to open one more portal to bring me home," she said.
'We'll be ready,' he said.
"Activate the portal," she said.
Within seconds, a vortex opened in front of them. As promised, it was much bigger than any portal she'd ever seen before, and there seemed to be a hint of red in the portal, as oppose to blue. "Listen to me everyone, you have to go through the portal. It will lead you to your new home," she said.
"What about our belongings?" a villager asked.
"Everything you need will be provided for you on the other side of the portal. This world isn't safe anymore," Lucas told them.
Some were skeptical, but reluctantly stepped into the portal. Soon, all of the villagers had gone through, except for one.
"I will not go," Galen said.
"If you stay here, you'll die," Jen said.
"This is my home, where my family was born, where I was born many risings ago. I cannot leave my home," he insisted.
Jen turned to Lucas. "Can we make him go?"
"No."
"Listen to me Galen, in a few years this world will be unable to support life and you will be killed. Besides, you're the only one on the planet left. You have to go, or die here alone," Jen said.
"Then I will die here….. in my home," he said proudly.
"Once we leave here, we won't be able to find our way back here. You'll be stuck," she said.
"I know,"
Jen reached for her morpher. "Trip, shut down the portal and open one so I can come home. There's one more thing I have to do," she said.
'Stand by,' he said.
The portal got smaller and smaller until it eventually faded away, and another one opened in it's place. "Come on Lucas, let go home," Jen said.
The two of them stepped through the portal, and it vanished.
(*)
Jen and Lucas stepped through the portal, where Tommy and the others greeted them.
"We thought we would never see you again," Tommy said as he rushed over to Jen, wrapping his arms around her.
"Oh my God, its Tommy Oliver. But how did….." Lucas was cut short.
"It would take a lot of explaining," she turned to Camille. "Can you scan Lucas' morpher and get a lock on its signature?" she asked.
"I could, but why?"
"Just do it," she said.
Lucas took off his morpher, handing it to Camille, who walked over to the control panel to examine it.
"How did you and Lucas here hook up?" Katie asked.
"Lucas is the master. It's a long story," she said.
"It's good to see you again Katie," he paused. "Hey, your hair is curly on this world," Lucas pointed out.
"We're ready over here," Trip said.
Jen, Lucas and Tommy walked over to them. "Now that you have the signature, can you run a search to similar signatures?" she asked.
"Already working on it," she paused. "I found the reality the signature originated from," she paused. "There are also three signatures, but I can't tell you too much about the world they're on. All I do know is that its not the same world they originated from. Travel there at your own risk," Camille said.
"Can I get a print out of that information?" she asked.
"I thought you might ask for it, so…." She stopped as she handed the paper to Jen.
"This is all the information you need to find your friends and bring them back and for you to get home," she told him.
"Thank you Jen, for everything," Lucas said, wrapping his arms around her.
Jen gave the nod to Camille, who opened the portal.
"Good luck Lucas, and may the power protect you," Tommy said as Lucas walked through the portal.
