'Shes right you about, you know? This isn't about how capable she is, its about how you got left out the loop,' he thought to himself as he sat behind his desk, putting on his deeply tinted sunglasses to disguise his frustration.

He'd been at the forefront of the most important division in Time Force for years. Temporal Investigations has the hub of the organization, responsible for the safely of not only the past, but also the present and the future. He was at the head of the division, making decisions that affected the lives of the entire city. 'Hell, the world,' he thought. He was given the Chrono Morphers, the most state of the art ranger technology known to mankind.

Then it was all taken away from him…….

In one brief instance, everything that made him who he was was taken away from him. Suddenly, Temporal Investigations wasn't at the forefront. Suddenly, his role in the company wasn't as highly regarded as it once was. TI had been reduced to just another branch of the department, being replaced by the Slipstream project as the single most important division. And who did they find to head the division?

Jennifer Scott.

It wasn't so much that he believed she wasn't qualified, or even deserved the position; it bothered him that no one even thought to offer him the position. The Chrono morphers were taken from him and given to Jen's team, the counsel saw fit to transfer both Trip and Katie to the Slipstream project, leaving him with a handful of rookies fresh out the academy.

'I've saved the known universe more times than I care to remember, why am I being treated like a first year cadet?' he asked himself as he sat behind his desk, trying to give the appearance of going over some papers. The truth was, he didn't know what the papers said or nor did he care.

Just then, his thoughts were broken as someone knocked on his office door. "You got a sec boss?" a voice asked.

He glanced up and saw a young man standing in the doorway wearing a Time Force uniform. "What's on your mind Patrick?" he inquired.

Ensign Patrick Harris had been assigned to his unit after the counsel transferred Trip and Katie out of TI. He'd only recently graduated from the academy and was lucky enough to get assigned to TI and had done everything he could to prove he belonged there. 'So much drive, so much determination; he reminds me a lot of Jen in her rookie year,' he thought.

"Have you heard about Katie?"

"No. What about her?" he asked.

"The counsel has sentenced her to the death penalty at 0900 hours," the ensign told him.

"What?" he leaped up, glancing over at the clock. "That's in two hours?" he mentioned.

"I thought you'd want to know,"

"Thanks Harris," he said, rushing out the office.

(*)

"Alright Cammy, run a level four diagnostic on the Slipstream and watch the field emitters for overloads," Trip instructed, never taking his eyes off the panel.

It was something about the way Trip threw himself into his work that Camille loved about him. He was like that with everything he did, and she admired that. Trip gave 100% every time, never willing to settle for anything. Her last boyfriend didn't have half the drive Trip had. 'That bastard wouldn't know commitment if I wrote it on his forehead,' she thought to herself. He never seemed to care about much of anything, much less her work. It made her smile to know that someone not only respected her for her work, but understood it.

Camille headed over to the control panel and input a sequence of commands, then turned back to Trip. "The diagnostic is underway, but the targeting censors still seemed to be misaligned," she brought up.

"Any theories?"

"Just one: when you modified the slipstream to travel through time, the overload must have fused the modifications in the slipstream's targeting array," she said.

"If that's right, that means that we won't be able to control when or where the vortex will end up," he added.

"So we'd be traveling to different times in different realities," she concluded.

"Things are confusing enough in these alternate worlds, the last thing we need is to travel back and forth through time too," Trip said.

"This could be a major breakthrough in time travel technology. If we could find a way to repair the targeting censors, the slipstream could revolutionize the way Time Force travels through time," she mentioned.

"The key word is if. Even if we got the foremost scientists in Time Force to work on it, it would take years," he said.

"Come on Trip, those losers couldn't wrap their closed minds around the concept of the Slipstream if they wanted to. As far as I'm concerned, you're the leading scientist in Time Force," she said.

He blushed. "I couldn't do it without you," he said, taking a step towards her.

"You mean that?"

"Of course I do. This place would fall apart without you,"

"No. You're the one that holds everything together," Camille said, moving closer.

"Really?"

"Yes really," she said.

Then it happened……

The two of them moved closer to one another as he wrapped his arms around her. She leaned in to kiss him when……

"Trip. Camille. Have you heard about Katie?" a voice asked.

They stepped away from one another and turned around to see Alex with a look of discontent on his face. Even through the glasses it was obvious he was upset.

"If you mean the whole 'oooh look at me, I'm an evil counterpart who wants to take over the world' thing; yeah, we know," Camille said.

"No, not that. The counsel has sentenced her to the death penalty at 0900 hours," he said.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"They're blaming her for Roger's death," he said.

"But how? They know it wasn't her," Trip said.

"Roger's wife is demanding the death penalty, even though she knows it wasn't really Katie," Alex told them.

"What can we do?"

"Can we appeal the decision?" Camille asked.

He shook his head. "I don't think so. The rules are very clear on this one: if someone is murdered, the counsel asks immediately family what they feel is appropriate punishment. Mrs. CaSteel asked for the death penalty," he said.

"There has to be something we can do to stop this," he said.

"There is," they heard a voice say.

The three of them turned around to see Tommy walk in the room with a book in his hand. From the looks of it, he'd been awake for hours.

"What do you have?"

"When I heard about Katie, I decided to read over some of the laws and guidelines for not only Time Force, but New Silver Hills. I came up with a few interesting things," he put the book down on the table, pointing to a paragraph. "It says here that immediate family is asked for what they feel is appropriate punishment, but if it is just cause to dispute that, a trial will be held," he said.

Alex shook his head again. "No good. The counsel has already made it clear that they're aware that it was Katie's double, but because there are no laws pertaining to alternate realities, they have to follow the laws here – in our world," he told them.

"There has to be something we…"

"Wait, I have something," Camille said.

"What is it?"

"It says here that if two or more members of immediate family disagree on what they feel is appropriate punishment, the case is taken to court and a judge will determine sentencing," she said.

"Still no good. Even if we could find another member of Roger's immediate family to dispute it, the courts would convict her of murder and sentence her to death," Alex said.

"So are you saying there isn't anything we can do?"

"Looks like it," Trip sighed.

"Come on guys, Katie is one of us. We can't give up on her," Tommy told them.

Alex paused. "He's right. What we need to do is get a hold of Roger's personnel file, see if there's anything in there that can help us," he said.

"I'll take care of that," Camille said, rushing out the room.

"Next we should see if there is any other immediate members of Roger's family, see if we can get them to disagree with Cynthia's decision," Trip said.

"I'll do that," Tommy said, walking out the room.

"I'll go talk to the counsel, try to make them understand that Katie is innocent," Alex said, walking out the lab as well.

(*)

It hurt Jen to see Katie locked behind a force field, knowing that she was innocent. There had been times when it was her job to arrest people that she wasn't convinced was guilty, but she had to remain impartial. In her heart she knew that Katie hadn't done a thing, but wasn't in a position to do anything about it.

It was Captain Logan's punishment for Jen; guarding Katie until her sentencing. Although Katie was stronger than most people, it was safe to assume that she wasn't going to fight her way out a force field, so guarding her was simply a way of punishing Jen.

'They want to see if I'll give in to my personal feelings, or if I'll do my job,' she thought to herself.

She stared at Katie, who hadn't moved since she was locked away. Her face was devoid of all emotion, as if Katie had shut them off the avoid dealing with her situation.

"I'm sorry Katie," she sighed.

"I know," she mumbled, remaining motionless.

"I wish I could help, but…"

"There's nothing you can do Jen. We take chances every time we go through that damn portal. We never know where we're going to end up, or what's waiting for us on the other end. It's part of the job, its something we accept because it comes with the territory. This time, my counterpart came here and made things bad for me. Time Force can't punish her, and we have to abide by the laws here. In a way, I'm responsible for what happened to Roger," she sighed.

"No you're not. You had nothing to do with it," she snapped.

"Really? If that were true, someone would step in and do something about it. The counsel would change their mind, something. Anything. But I'm still here Jen, and in about an hour, it'll all be over," Katie said.

"I refuse to let you die for something you didn't do," she said.

"I'm dying for what I believe in Jen. Before we were TI, before were assigned to the slipstream, we took an oath to uphold the principles and guidelines of Time Force. We've arrested people who thought was innocent because it was right, not because we liked it. Now I have to uphold those principles, even if I don't like the outcome," she said.

"How dare you sit there and try to come off as noble. Roger is dead, but you had nothing to do with it. If this is what Time Force stands for, if these are they're all knowing, all powerful principles, they can go to hell," she walked over to the force field, deactivating it. "I quit. Come on Katie, let's go," she said.

But Katie didn't move. "No Jen, I can't,"

"I can't watch you die either," Jen snapped.

"I'm not thrilled about it either Jen, but I'm not going to let you throw away your career for me knowing it won't change a thing. You'll be sentenced to containment for violating direct orders, and I'll still be gone. I have to do this Jen," she said.

Jen paused, wiping the tears away from her eyes. "You're right Katie, we took an oath to serve and protect, but we also took an oath to each other. We've been friends for years Katie, and there have been times when our loyalty to that friendship outweighed those principles. Now is one of those times Katie. If me being fired from Time Force and sentenced to containment will save your life, I'm prepared to live with that," she told her.

"But I'm not. The same way you're willing to sacrifice yourself to help me, I'm willing to stay in here so you don't ruin your life. I could have broken out of here a hundred times by now, but I won't. I won't let you throw your career – your life – away trying to save me. Thank you Jen, I know what you're trying to do, but I have to do this," Katie said.

With a reluctant sigh, Jen pressed the button on the control panel, reactivating the force field. "I love you Katie," she cried, unable to hold back the tears.

"I love you too,"

(*)

'Camille to Tommy, come in,' a voice said.

"I hear you Camille. What do you have for me?" he asked.

'I've gone through Roger's personnel files and I found something interesting. The good news is that Cynthia isn't Roger's wife, at least not anymore. They were officially divorced almost six months ago,' she said.

"That means she isn't immediate family and her decision is void," he said.

'Don't send me flowers yet; there's bad news. Both Roger's parents were killed in a car accident almost two years ago. There was an investigation, but nothing was found. With them gone, Cynthia is still the most immediate family Roger has,' she said.

"So we're right back where we started," he said.

'Not really. There's still one more thing I want to try, something I have to look into. Have the others meet me in the counsel's chambers in fifteen minutes,' she said.

Before he could respond, she turned her morpher off, and then knocked on the door. She could feel her heart sink as she waited for him to come to the door, but knew this was her only option. 'He's the only one that can help,' she thought.

Just then, the door opened and there he was. He couldn't have been any taller than six feet and deep brown eyes. She recalled that it was his eyes that made her fall for him in the first place.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" he inquired.

"Blake, I need your help," she sighed.

TBC……