"I think we're done over here," Camille called out as she and Trip finished the last of the modifications.

The two of them had been working for hours, doing back and forth with different ideas and concepts. It was the one thing that attracted her to Trip the most: the way his mind worked, the way he came up with designs for things that no one else could even conceive. Well, except maybe for her. After years of being in Time Force academy, graduating at the top of her class and receiving awards and accolades in the temporal mechanics field, she set her sights on the honor programs the academy had to offer. She took advanced mechanics courses, attended field trips to other worlds to learn as much as she could. When she returned, Time Force deemed her one of the foremost scientific minds in the organization.

She used her knowledge to develop systems for Time Force itself, things that even now the average officer took for granted. Even the concept for the Slipstream was originally her idea, but lacked the resources to make it a reality. The Slipstream was based on her research, the same research that forced the organization to release her. She was only unemployed for about a month, but during that time several other organizations inquired about her services. A scientist of her caliber was always in high demand, but Time Force was the only one who would allow her to work on her project.

When Time Force called her back to work on the Slipstream, she was against it. She was convinced they'd stick her in a room full of cadets fresh out the academy that all thought they were experts in their fields. It wasn't until she heard she'd be working with Trip that she decided to accept their offer. Trip's reputation was well known in the scientific community, and his ability to process information and perform calculations was impressive to say the least.

She even recalled a time during her senior year at the academy that Trip gave a lecture to her class, going over the fundamentals of temporal mechanics and how, in the next decade, it would be the most important aspect of Time Force. It was Trip who inspired her to take the honors programs. She wanted nothing more than to have an intelligent debate with him, and now, she was living her dream. She was working side by side with thee most respected scientist in his field, and she loved every minute of it.

Her thoughts were broken as Jen, Tommy and Katie walked over to the control panel, looking at her work.

"What do our two geniuses have for us today?" Jen asked.

It was Trip who turned around to face them. "Watch this," he said as he put his morpher on his wrist, then pressed a button. Almost instantly, a pair of jeans, green sweater and a pair of gym shoes replaced his Time Force uniform.

"Nice sweater Trip," Katie mumbled sarcastically.

"The sweater isn't important. What is important is that Camille and I have found a way to tap into a space between dimensions and store things there," he said.

"Can you tell us again, but in English?" Tommy asked.

It was Camille who stood up. "When we morph, our uniforms are stored in a rift in subspace. When we call for our weapons, or for the Vector Cycles, our morphers open a slight rift in subspace allowing them to come through, which is why no matter where we are, they come to us instantly. Trip and I have found a way to access that layer of subspace and store things, leaving them there until we need them," she explained.

"That would come in handy on missions. Instead of trying to find a way to blend in, we can have clothes or equipment waiting for us in this subspace rift and use our morpher to activate them," Trip added.

"Excellent work you two," Jen sighed.

"How long will it take for you to modify the morphers?" Katie asked.

"That's the beauty of it, we don't have to modify them at all. All we have to do is store all things we need in subspace, then call for it when we need it," he said.

"Give it a try," Camille said.

Tommy reached for his morpher, pressing a button, and instantly, his ranger uniform was replaced by pink skirt and a black cut off shirt. "What the hell?" he mumbled.

Katie and Jen laughed at his expense as Trip turned back to the control panel. "Okay, it still has a few bugs in the system, but it won't take long to fix," he said.

Just then, the doors to the science lab opened as Captain Logan walked in, getting a good look at Tommy. "Going for a new look Tommy?" he asked.

"No sir,"

"Thank God, you don't have the legs for it," he said, giving in to the urge to laugh at him.

Trip turned back around. "Okay, try again," he said.

Tommy reached for his morpher and pressed the button again, this time replacing his clothes with a pair of black jeans and a red button up shirt. "Much better," he said.

"Impressive," Captain Logan admitted.

"And the best part is we can store almost anything in the rift. We've scanned the interior of the rift and there's more than enough room for anything; vehicles, equipment, clothes, weapons, anything," Camille said.

"That's great, but now that you're all finished playing dress up, can we get to work?" Katie asked.

Captain Logan took his position in front of the control panel for the Slipstream. "I've set the timer this time for two hours. You know the drill: get in there, find out what you can without altering the time line and get back," he told them.

"Understood sir," Jen said.

The Captain activated the portal, and the blue swirling vortex appeared.

"We'll be back in time for dinner," Tommy said as they stepped through the portal, disappearing.

(*)

He sat in a room full of scientists and military leaders, all of them with cold, emotionless expressions on their faces. It wasn't the first time he'd been to NASADA, but it was the first time he'd been asked to sit in on one of their meetings. Whatever they were planning, whatever the military were about to do, they wanted him to be a part of it.

He didn't have to wait long as another man in uniform walked in. Judging by the expressions on the other's faces when he walked in, it was easy to assume he must have been a high ranking officer.

"Thank you all for coming," he stood a seat at the end of the table. "I've asked that Mr. Jarvis Jr. be allowed to join us for today's briefing. After all, he was instrumental in saving the Earth from Astronema a few weeks ago," he said, motioning to him.

"Please, just call me TJ," he said as he stood up slightly, sitting back down.

"As you all know, relief efforts have been launched to salvage what was can of the city. There was heavy damage, but I'm pleased to report there were very little causalities during the battle. The rangers successfully defended our planet until the leadership of Mr. Jar… excuse me, TJ, and we are all in his debt, but the government feels its time for a new group of rangers to defend the planet," he stood up, walking over to a television monitor and cut it on. "This is a image of the Aqua Base in Mariner Bay, California. It lays approximately a half-mile under water. It is my belief that all revenue be transferred to the development of this facility, where we will design the very first man made ranger technology," he explained.

TJ stood up. "With all due respect sir, the other rangers and I still have our powers. I don't see why would you want to dedicate funding to developing new rangers. Shouldn't the money go towards the launching of Terra Venture?" he asked.

"Under normal circumstances, you would be right. Although you and the rangers saved our world, there is no guarantee that another attack won't take place. Therefore, Project: Terra Venture was created. Our plan is to take half of the world's leading scientific minds, political leaders, doctors, etc, place them on this station and search for a new, inhabitable world. Construction of Terra Venture is complete, and within the next few weeks, we will determine which civilians will be allowed to travel to the new world to help populate our new planet," he turned to TJ directly. "I'll be honest with you son; over the years the government was more than patient with Zordon, allowing him to choose his own soliders to face alien races and defeat enemies we couldn't begin to understand. He assured us that as long as he was here, the Earth would be safe from such attacks, but now Zordon is gone. If something were to happen to the morphers, cause them to malfunction, there would be no one on the planet that could even begin to repair them. That's why it is of the utmost importance that we establish our own morphers, our own rangers, that we will select and train. If anything were to happen to their morphers, they could be repaired. With that, I'd like to turn attention to Ms. Angela Fairweather," he motioned towards her as she stood up, putting her glasses on. "Ms. Fairweather is the head scientist in charge of the development of Operation: Lightspeed Rescue," he said, turning the floor over to her.

"Before his untimely demise, Zordon was gratious enough to allow our government a look at the schematics for the morphers. Since then, I've been able to find a similar power source, and preliminary tests prove that within six months time, I can be tested and approved for use," she explained.

"I'm sorry, I have to object," TJ said, standing up again.

"This isn't a courtroom son, this is a meeting. We're not asking for your permission, but telling you what our plans are. The general was kind enough to invite you to this meeting because of what you've done for the city, but we're not looking for your permission or your approval," one of the men said.

"Captain Mitchell is right Mr. Jarvis, your permission is not needed for this. However, you are the most experienced person in this room when it comes to the morphers and their technology. It was our sincerest hope that you would accept the position of head adviser to Ms. Fairweather and assist her in the development of the new morphers," the general said.

TJ stood up, glancing around the room. 'Look at all of them, it hasn't even been a month yet and they're ready to push us to the side to make room for new rangers,' he thought to himself. Ms. Fairweather, who was sitting next to him, looked at him with a warm smile. It was obvious she wasn't part of any government conspiracy to replace he and the other rangers, but he still refused to help them develop new rangers. 'They don't know what they're getting themselves into,' he thought.

"Thank you for your offer general, but I can't accept," TJ said.

"Is there anything we can do to persuade you to reconsider your position?" he asked.

"With all due respect sir, you don't know what you're doing. Ranger technology isn't to be played with, and should be left to beings that know how to control it. Man made ranger technology sounds like a good idea, but in the wrong hands could lead to the destruction of……"

He was cut short by the general. "Thank you for you time Mr. Jarvis. Dismissed," he said.

With a disgusted look on his face, TJ grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, put it on and stormed out the room. He headed down the wall, but was stopped by a guard.

"You're him, aren't you?"

"Him who?" he asked.

"One of the rangers. TJ, the blue space ranger. I was there when you and the others stopped Astronema. I was proud to be an American that day, do you think I could have your autograph?" the guard inquired.

It was something TJ had to get use to. Over the last few weeks, dozens of people had walked up to him, wanting to shake his hand or asking for an autograph. Some women even offered to marry him, or worse, wanted him to marry their daughters. It was very flattering at first, but part of him regretted letting the world know who he was.

"Sure," he sighed.

The guard handed him a pen and a pad of paper. "Can you make it out to Marshall Evans?" he asked.

TJ took the pen, mumbling to himself as he wrote. "To Marshall, a true American hero. May the power protect you, TJ,"

"Thank you sir, this means a lot to me," he said.

"No problem," TJ said as he continued to walk.

~

As soon as he made it outside, he headed over to his car. The government had seen fit to buy he and the other rangers new cars, and give them homes to live in. He was thankful for all of it, but knew the world wasn't ready to deal with what they were about to create.

As he opened his car door, a vortex of some sort appeared in the air just over his car. He took a step back as the swirling vortex seemed to get bigger. Then it happened……

Jen came through the portal, falling and landing on the car. No sooner did she roll off the car, Camille, Katie and Trip came through as well. All of them rolled off the car, dusting themselves off. Finally, it was Tommy who came through, falling towards the car, but managed to do a flip and land on his feet next to the car.

"That's never happened before," Camille mentioned as they all stared up at the vortex as it began to disappear.

"Probably a problem with the targeting sensors. I'll take a look at them when we get back," Trip said.

"Guys," Jen called out as she turned around, noticing TJ standing in front of them with an amazed look on his face.

It was Tommy who recognized him. "TJ?" he inquired.

"Tommy?" he paused, getting a good look at him. "Wow, its good to see you again," he said, walking over to him and extending hand to him.

"You too man," Tommy said as they shook.

"So much for not interacting with people and altering the time line," Katie mumbled.

"What just happened? Where did you come from? How did you……" TJ was cut short.

"It's better that you not ask questions," Jen told him.

"Where are Katherine and the others?"

"That's a tough question to answer. I'll just say they're safe," he glanced over TJ's shoulder, looking at the building behind him. "NASADA? You work for NASADA now?" Tommy asked.

"No, but they wanted me to. The government is trying to establish the first ever man made ranger technology," he said.

"Yeah, Operation: Lightspeed," Camille mentioned.

"I'm trying to tell them they don't know what they're doing. The world isn't ready for homemade rangers, and we should be focusing on getting Terra Venture off the ground," he explained.

"This must be shortly after Dark Specter organized the Alliance of Evil and set out to take over the universe," Jen mumbled to the others.

"If Terra Venture hasn't even launched yet, I'd speculate that this is the year 1999, give or take a few months," Trip noted.

"Wait a sec, what's going on?" TJ demanded to know.

"Sorry man, I can't explain it. Just trust me when I say that everything will be okay," Tommy told him as the five of them hurried away.

(*)

"I still don't see why we couldn't tell TJ what was happening. I trusted him with my identity a long time ago, and he kept my secret. He would be able to keep this a secret too," Tommy insisted as they walked.

Jen stopped, turning to him. "Tommy, understand that TJ was carefully selected to replace you as red turbo ranger. We made sure that he was in the right place at the right time when Piranhatrons captured you and Katherine. Believe me, I know the kind of person that TJ is, but we can't……" she was cut short.

"Are you telling me that Time Force had something to do with TJ and Cassie saving us?" he asked.

"I'm telling you that history has to play itself out, and sometimes, its Time Force's responsibility to make sure that everything goes the way its suppose to," she said.

"So you're telling me that TJ is trustworthy enough to allow him to take my morpher and keep my identity a secret, but we can't tell him why we're here or where we're from?" he asked.

"Exactly,"

'You may have to tell him Jen,' they heard a voice say.

It was Camille who reached for her morpher. "What do you know Captain?" she asked.

'History logs state that Zordon's energy wave cleansed the galaxy of all evil, but evil, like any other energy in the universe, cannot be destroyed. All the negative energy somehow manifested in space, creating a being of pure evil. It has no soul, no conscious, no mercy, and according to the history logs, its on it's way to Earth,' he explained.

"Wait a sec, I've read about this in our history logs. You're talking about Shin Getti, aren't you?" Trip asked.

'Yes,' he said.

"If that's true, and it is Shin Getti, he isn't supposed to get to Earth until the year 2005. The Earth should be safe for another six years," Katie said.

'No. Shin Getti originally came to Earth shortly before the launch of Terra Venture. He was captured and trapped in the Shadow World by a group of rangers,' he said.

"But they aren't going to be any other rangers on Earth until the development of the Lightspeed morphers. Who is supposed to stop Shin Getti?" Tommy asked.

"I think that's where I come in," TJ said as he walked over to them.