Chapter 6

Jessica coughed even louder. The mask that covered her mouth and nose was trying hard to fill her lungs with air, but with little success.

Wes sat next to her, holding her hand. She was asleep, her temperature high and her cough getting worse and worse.

She had been admitted two weeks ago with pneumonia, and while the doctors said the hopes of survival were high back then, two weeks later they weren't so sure. Whatever it was that was causing her pneumonia (It could be many kinds of bacteria) had probably spread throughout her body, seemed now to be infecting her stomach at a tremendous speed.

So, Jessica Collins, who was a very healthy woman three weeks ago, found herself, suddenly, on the verge of death. And her husband, Wesley Collins, found himself again torn between work at Bio-Lab and the hospital room where someone he loved lay waiting for death to claim her. The previous time, it had been his father on the bed, and he had been almost certain (thanks to Alex and the great human relationship courses Time Force gave to their officers in the year 3000) he was going to die.

But now, he was even more scared. He loved his wife deeply, and the idea of losing her so soon seemed unfair, unreal. It felt impossible, and yet probable. And this time he had no idea if she was going to make it or not, if she was ever getting out of that bed, if she was ever going back to help him with Bio-Lab, their child.

She coughed harder and stirred. "Wesley?" she called softly through the mask. He stood up so she could see him next to her.

"I'm right here, honey," he told her, forgetting her great disgust for sweet talk.

"How did." a coughing crisis got her and she shook with the strength of the spasms of her muscles. Wes held her by the shoulders and caressed her hair. She stopped coughing as abruptly as she had started and collapsed back on the bed. "How did the meeting with finances and human resources go?"

Wes couldn't help but chuckle. She was on the verge of death, lying on a bed, barely breathing, unable to eat anything, and she was thinking about the results of a meeting he had had with Human Resources and Finances days ago. Jessica was probably lost in time, due to the fever and the disease, though the meeting had taken place that very morning.

"It went fine, we reached an agreement," he told her, knowing that refusing to answer her questions would only make everything worse.

"What agreement?" she asked, lost. "You were supposed to get an agreement with the Brazilians, not Human Resources." she said, her voice thick and small, as she took deep breaths between words.

"The meeting with the Brazilians was postponed. Human Resources, Finances and I decided we have to let go some people who aren't doing much for the enterprise," he explained to her softly.

"The Silver Guardians?" she asked, opening her bloodshot eyes a little. Her pale face and purplish red rings around her eyes gave her a really sick look. Wes took her hand again.

"Try to rest," he told her, kissing her hand right next to where the intravenous solution was being constantly injected into her body.

"Are we letting the Silver Guardians go?" she asked again, her head falling to one side.

"Yes, The Silver Guardians, and other people," he told her, squeezing her hand. "Jessica, try to rest."

"Okay," she agreed, relaxing against the mattress. "Did the doctors tell you when I can go home?"

Wes looked at her, feeling tears stinging the back of his eyes. She didn't know what day it was, or how badly she was doing, and she seemly had no idea of the danger she was in.

"No, they didn't tell me," he half-lied to her tenderly.

"I hope it doesn't take long," she wished. "I wanted to do some changes to the house decoration." He smiled sadly and caressed her shoulder, she didn't seem to notice. "I hope you don't mind," she added, her eyes closed and her breathing as regular as it got those days.

"No, I don't mind," he told her, wondering if he should let her know how bad she was. He decided against it because it would only make things worse.

He noticed she was retching. He took the mask from her face and helped her on her side, putting the waste basket under her face. She threw up a little liquid, because her stomach had been empty for days, but the retching seemed painful, and it provoked another fit of coughing. The liquid was red. It was blood.

Wes helped Jessica on her back and then turned to get her some water and a paper napkin to clean her mouth. When he came back to her side, he noticed she was crying. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" she asked him as he cleaned her mouth and helped her take a couple of small sips.

"I won't let it happen," he told her. "I have all of Bio-Lab looking for a cure." He put her mask back on her face. Before she could answer, she was asleep again, totally exhausted. Wes walked out of the room and called a nurse with a choked voice. Then he sat next to his wife, held her hand, and broke into silent tears. She was dying so fast, and now she knew she was dying.

**********************************

The Time Force Rangers entered the house that was surrounded by that pretty "do not cross- police line" yellow tape (One thousand years and they still couldn't find a better way to keep people out of crime scenes.) Jen was leading the way, with Alex closely by her side, almost stuck to her. She stopped halfway up the stairs and the others copied her moves, completely silent.

"Do you hear him?" Alex asked after a couple of minutes.

"He's not in the attic like the last time," she told them.

"He's somewhere in the house?" Katie asked, scared, looking around her compulsively. Jen didn't understand what the use of that was; Ransik wasn't exactly something you missed when you looked around a room.

"I can't tell," Jen told them worriedly. "I can't hear his thoughts anywhere."

"Then, we should leave," Alex suggested, starting down the stairs.

"Alex, wait!" Jen called after him. "Let me try a little harder."

He climbed back up. Jen took a deep breath, and was getting ready to find some thoughts, even trapped ones, when Alex's communicator beeped. He raised his arm and pressed the button.

"Drake," he barked. Logan was the image that appeared over his left wrist.

"Colonel, this is Major Logan," he said and saluted. "The headquarters are under attack, we need the Power Rangers team now. We have all the available men trying to stop the invasion and rescuing the important equipment, but they are commanded by an old friend of yours."

"Who is it?" Alex asked.

"Ransik," said both, Logan and Jen as one.

"We're on our way," Alex said and closed the communication. "Why Ransik and not Nadira?" he asked Jen.

"Take me to him, and I'll find out," she told him and they both ran downstairs followed by the others.

"What's Nadira got to do with all of this?" Lucas asked.

"She supposedly betrayed The Mistress," Jen said.

"Says who?" Lucas asked angrily.

"The Mistress," Jen answered, shrugging.

They ran outside and mounted their vector-cycles. As they rode through town, Jen could pick up Lucas' thoughts, and they weren't happy.

************************

Samantha Drake finished getting everything she needed into her ship. Her new mutant assistants helped her with the bigger boxes and everything else. She carried in her hands a very small crystal sphere, filled with a red powder. If everything went fine, she would get rid of that farm girl and all her family of farmers in two hours time.

She fastened her seatbelt and started the engine. Somewhere, a computerized voice called: "Authorized time ship departure on gate 9 in 20, 19, 18, 17, 16."

*************************

Circuit was connected to the Time Force system, trying to help with the data rescue. He perceived a Time Ship leaving to the year 2004 during the crisis. He investigated further, as he was programmed to do with everything that seemed slightly out of the ordinary, and discovered the ship had been authorized to Samantha Drake a.k.a. The Mistress.

To be continued.