Author's note: This fic contains portions of "Future Shock" chapter 3.
Trip and Camille stood in the main shuttle bay, waiting for the time ships to arrive. They'd received transmissions from both Tommy's time ship and Alex', both saying they would be arriving soon.
Camille headed over to the control panel, glancing over the readings. "There's a vortex opening about a half mile from here, it could be them," she said.
"Can you open a channel?"
"No, too much interference from the vortex. Once it closes, we'll be able to hail them," she told him.
"Good."
Ever since Alex informed them of his message from the future, he'd been more than concerned about Jen. He'd learned first hand that things can change, history can (and has) been altered dozens of time, so just because an admiral from the future said something was going to happen to Jen doesn't mean it did happen. Still, he couldn't help but worry.
The doors to the main shuttle bay opened, and in the distance, the two of them could see the time ships approaching.
"Final docking will commence in 45 seconds," Camille said, then opened a channel. "Time ship one this is Lt. Summers, you're clear for landing on pad four," she said.
'Roger that Camille,' a voice said.
She recognized the voice as Tommy's, but there was something different about it, something disturbing.
"Time ship two, you're clear for landing on pad two," she said, opening a second channel.
'Thanks Camille,' another voice said.
That voice belonged to Alex, but like Tommy, there was a distressing tone in his voice. Suddenly, Camille began to share in Trip's concerns.
Both time ships touched down in the main shuttle bay, powering down their engines. Camille stepped away from the controls and down onto the main floor with Trip. The hatch on the first time ship opened as Alex stepped out. Though he had on his deeply tinted sunglasses, Camille noticed tears rolling down his face.
"Commander," she said firmly.
"At ease Lt.," she put her arms at her side. "If you'll excuse me," he sighed, simply walking away.
Before she had a chance to say anything, the second time ship landed and the hatch opened. Both Tommy and Adam stepped off the ship with somber looks on their faces.
"Tommy?" Trip sighed, noticing the look on his face.
"Contact Admiral Logan and the rest of the senior staff. Tell him to meet us in the conference room in ten minutes," he said, neglecting to even acknowledge the two of them as he and Adam continued to walk.
"But Tommy, where is Jen?" Camille asked.
"Just assemble the senior staff," he sighed, walking out the room.
(*)
Tommy walked into the conference room a little over ten minutes later, only to see that the entire senior staff had been assembled. On one side of the table was Lt. Emery, Trip, Adam and Camille. On the opposite side of the table were Nadira and Lucas and Alex. Admiral Logan stood at the head of the table with his arms folded.
"What's going on Lt. Oliver?" the Admiral asked.
He headed over to the chair next to Nadira, but neglected to sit down. "I haven't filed an official report yet, but I wanted to be the one to tell you first," he took a deep breath. "We were able to defeat Frax and General Gerrock, putting an end to the Machine Empire, but it cost Jen her life in the process," he sighed.
"What?!" Lucas snapped, standing up.
"She knew what she was doing, she gave her life to save not only us, but a group of civilians," he told them.
"Where is Captain Scott's body?" the admiral asked.
"Jen was trapped in an explosion,"
"I see,"
"So if there isn't a body, there's a chance she's still…" Lt. Emery was cut short.
"No, there is no chance. I was there, I saw the explosion. Nothing could have survived," Alex mentioned.
The admiral sat down, taking a deep breath as he tried to gather his thoughts. "In light of the situation, the slipstream project is again left without a commanding officer. Commander Collins, you are the highest ranking officer, but because you're needed in Temporal Investigations, I'm afraid I can't offer you that position," he said.
"I understand,"
"Lt. Oliver, if you're willing to accept the position, I will promote you to the rank of Commander and put you in charge of the slipstream project," he said.
"I wish it was under better circumstances sir, but I accept," he sighed.
"Very good. Until a new pink ranger can be assigned, I'll need to take the Morpher into custody," he told them.
Alex stood up. "Sir, the pink Morpher was damaged during the battle, but I believe it can be repaired," he said, remembering throwing it against the wall in the time ship.
"Camille, can you and Trip see to the repairs?"
"Yes sir. Depending on the damage, we should have it operational in about 48 to 72 hours," Camille said.
"Very good. Unless there is anything else, dismissed," the admiral said.
One by one, everyone stood up, filing out the room. "Camille, Trip," Tommy called out, getting their attention. The two of them walked over to Tommy.
"Sir?" Trip asked.
"What can the two of you tell me about an ionic flux?" he asked.
"Well, it depends on what type. There are at least a dozen different types of ionic fluxes, most of them can be detected by our censors," she said.
"Before we tried to teleport Jen out of the building, the censors on the time ship picked up an ionic flux, and it was interfering with us getting a lock on Jen. I need the two of you to get on that ship and analyze the readings," he said.
"No problem, but what are we looking for?" Trip asked.
"I don't know. It could be nothing, but I won't be able to rest until I know for sure," he told them. "Make those censor readings your highest priority and report back to me as soon as you know something,"
"Yes sir,"
(*)
"Your vital signs are just about back to normal, your heart rate is down slightly, but I don't think its anything to worry about. I see no reason why you can't return to active duty," Dr. Young said, reading over the charts one final time.
Katie hopped off the examining table with a smile on her face. "Thanks doc, I've been dying to get out of here," she said.
Before she could leave, it was Adam who walked into the room. "Katie, you're doing much better," he sighed.
"Yeah, doc says I can finally get back to work. I can't wait to see Jen and the others," she said cheerfully.
"Katie, theres something you need to know," he took a deep breath. "We just came back from a mission to the 21st century. There was an incident," he started.
"What kind of incident? Is everyone okay?"
"No, they're not,"
"What happened Adam? Tell me," she insisted.
He paused. "Its Jen. She was…" he was cut short.
"Oh my God," she sighed, putting her hands over her mouth.
"She did what she had to do," he sighed.
Without another word, the two of them wrapped their arms around one another.
(*)
Tommy walked into the science lab, glancing around the room. It seemed like only yesterday that he stepped into the lab for the first time, amazed at how far technology had come. 'Only yesterday,' he chuckled inwardly. All the time traveling and visiting alternate realities had twisted his perception of time.
He recalled Jen giving him the grand tour of the building, and his new quarters:
"This is the place," Jen said as she opened the door, then stepped to the side, allowing him to walk in.
Tommy stepped in slowly, but it was dark as far as the eye could see. He instinctively reached for the wall, searching for the light switch, but with no luck. "I can't seem to…" She cut him short as she realized what he was doing.
"Sorry," she cleared her throat. "Lights," she called out, and instantly, the entire room as lit up. "The entire house is voice activated, so just ask for what you want and the computer will turn anything in the house on or off," she explained.
"This is too much," he sighed as he walked in, getting a good look at the place.
He remembered as a child growing up in foster homes, having rooms no bigger than closets. Even when he hung up his morpher for the last time, got married and settled down with his family, his house didn't compare to the living arrangements Time Force had given him. The living room itself was huge, bigger than most of the places he'd lived in, with a flat screen television mounted on the wall. There was a couch, but it was unlike any couch he'd seen before. It was almost as if it was levitating in a single spot. To be sure, he walked over to it and peeked underneath. Sure enough, nothing there to hold it up.
"I thought that pictures of your friends and family would make the place seem – you know – more comfortable, so I printed out of the pictures we had in the history logs," she mentioned, but no sooner than she finished her sentence did he notice the pictures on the wall.
He stopped at the picture of he and the other rangers. 'I must have been 16 or 17 years old in this pic,' he thought to himself, recalling when he originally moved to Angel Grove. All of the rangers, all the way down to Jason and Zach, looked so different than he remembered. Over the years, all of them changed. Some for the better, others… not so better.
Next, he came to a picture of he and his wife on their wedding day. The sight of her forced him to crack a smile. "I can't believe you went through so much trouble," he sighed, trying to hold back the tears as they formed in his eyes.
"It was no trouble at all, really," she insisted.
Jen was always like that, going out of her way to make other people happy. He blamed himself for not doing more, for getting injured in the battle so early and having to go back to the time ship. He wanted to protect her, to keep her safe, but she knew she was doing. 'Even if I had been there, she would have done the same thing all over again,' he thought to himself.
He wanted nothing more than to go back in time and save her life, to teleport in, pull her out of there and blow the building up again, but he knew that would alter the time line. The cobolt device, not to mention that mysterious ionic flux, was disrupting the teleportation system. Even if he did go back, the results would be the same.
Tommy sat down at the control panel, taking a long, deep breath as he put his head against the panel. "There has to be something I can do," he said, not even realizing he'd said it outloud.
"I'm afraid there wasn't," a voice said.
He turned around only to see her standing behind him. She was obviously a Time Force officer, but her uniform was different. It was predominately black with white trim, and a blue collar underneath.
"Who are you?"
"I am Admiral Summers, I'm from what you would consider the future," she told him.
He remembered Alex mentioning something about being contacted by someone from the future, but he never went into detail. However, it was logical to assume that she was the same person who informed Alex of certain events.
"Come to warn us about something else we have no control over?" he snapped.
Her facial expression didn't change. "I understand your feelings Lt., but…" she was cut short.
"Actually, its Commander now," he corrected.
"Ah yes, after Captain Scott's dead, you were promoted," she recalled.
"So what do you want?"
"To ensure that everything is going as history intends for it to go. It is imperative that history be allowed to flow smoothly," she said.
"Smoothly for who? For you?" he stood up, standing nose to nose with her. "Listen lady, I don't give a damn about your interoperation of the future and how you think things should go. We lost our captain a few days ago, and all you can worry about is your timeline and your peace of mind. Now if you'll excuse me, I…" he was cut short.
"Are you done commander?"
"Yeah, I'm done," he said, turning to walk away.
"I take it you've already found the ionic flux," she mentioned.
That was enough to get his attention. "What about the flux? What do you know?" he snapped.
"A great deal more than you do,"
He paused. "You know what? Keep your information, I don't want it. I've already got Trip and Camille going over the censor readings in the time ship. Sooner or later I'll find out what that flux was, without your help," Tommy told her.
"As you wish commander," she sighed.
Tommy turned around, but she was gone.
(*)
Trip and Camille sat at the helm of the time ship, going over the censor logs in the main computer. "There is it again, an ionic flux," Trip said.
"Its so small that I can't get any other readings on it," she added.
"But it was big enough for the censors to pick it up. That doesn't seem right, a reading so big we can detect it, but so small we can't analyze it," he mentioned.
She paused. "Think about it, what would cause as ionic flux to be this small?" she inquired.
"Hundreds of things. Maybe the radiation from the cobolt device interfered with the censors, maybe the generator itself let off some high particle radiation that the censors couldn't pick up, maybe there was a temporal disruption. It could be anything," he said.
"Actually sweetie, its all three," she said.
"What?"
"Think about it: radiation from the cobolt device is virtually immeasurable by our censors, but enough for us to pick them up and know its there. The generator itself also emitted low-level radiation of some kind. Imagine what would happen if those radiation particles were to combine on a bio-chemical level," she said.
He paused. "If the levels were high enough, it would be enough to rip the fabric of the space/time continuum, but not enough to do anything significant," he said.
"Now imagine trying to focus a teleportation beam in the same location," she added.
"The ionic matrix that controls the teleportation system would act as an energy boost, making the rip even bigger. It would seriously interfere with the teleportation signal," he paused. "And if would leave a hole in the space/time continuum just big enough for…"
"… for someone to go through," Camille told him.
"Jen escaped through a time hole," he said.
"But we have no way of knowing where or when the time hole led," she said.
"Wait a sec," he glanced over the readings on the control panel again. "Jen's Morpher has a unique signature, just like all humans do. It's almost like a fingerprint for each universe," he said.
"Yeah? So?"
"Do you remember when we traveled to that world where the planet itself was unstable and we have to get all the people out of there?" he asked.
"Yeah, Lucas was there but was accidentally trapped there," she recalled.
"We were able to scan for his home world and open a portal there. We should be able to use Jen's Morpher to get her bio-molecular signature, then input that signature into the computer and begin scanning the timeline for that signature," he said.
"But that could take years,"
"Based on what we know, the rift itself is much too small for it to be an opening to a different reality, which means that Jen is either in the past, or in the future," he said.
"So we should scan the time line for Jen's signature," Camille said.
"Exactly,"
She paused. "We have to consider the possibility that when we find her, she could already be dead. Based on these readings, that explosion was huge, and it's highly improbable that anyone could survive it," she sighed.
"I know, but we have to try," he said.
"Should we contact Tommy and tell him?"
"No, I don't want to get his hopes up. We should wait until we know something for sure, then contact the commander," he said.
"Sounds good. Lets get to work," Camille said.
