"I'll only be able to maintain the cloak on the ship for about 30 minutes. After that, I'll have to tap into the ship's internal power. If I do, we won't have enough power to sustain the trip back to Earth. Not to mention without all our fuel cells, we won't be able to engage the hyper drive. We'll be defenseless," Carmen explained.
"So we'll have to hurry," he turned to Adam. "If we're not back in twenty five minutes, go on without us," he said.
"Sir?"
"You heard me. If we're not back in twenty-five minutes, there's no reason for you to be killed coming in after us. I'm giving you a direct order to take the ship and return home," he told him.
"Yes sir,"
"Alright Carmen, lets go,"
Tommy and Carmen walked to the back of the shuttle, giving the nod to Adam, who activated the teleportation system. Within seconds, the two of them disappeared into a stream of light, and rematerialized outside the shuttle.
"Which way?" Tommy asked as he glanced around, getting a good look at his surroundings.
The entire planet seemed to be covered in sand, with no signs of life as far as the eye could see. There were no trees, no water, nothing. The blue-tinted sun shined down on them, forcing them to put their hands over their eyes to shield them.
Carmen pulled a small tracking device out her pocket, scanning the area. "This way," she said, pointing north. Without question, the two of them headed north.
The two of them remained silent as they walked; Carmen paying very close attention to her tracking device, which beeped as they got closer.
"What else can you tell me? You know, about the future," Tommy brought up, trying to spark up a conversation.
"Just that it was a living hell. Even before the time line shifted, there were heavy causalities for Time Force. The Harvengers are unlike anything you've ever encountered before, and at this point in time, you will have nothing to stop them," she said.
"Are you saying you did have something?"
"Yes, a months years ago," she chuckled slightly. "A few months ago my time, Admiral Summers and I began constructing a new Morpher, a Morpher even more powerful than the Black Chrono Prototype that Adam has. We called it the Omega Project, and we spent most of our spare time perfecting it," she said.
"Did it work?"
"I don't know. Captain Emery believed that it was much too powerful for any one person to maintain, so it was locked away. Before I came here, a friend of mine was on his way to get the Morpher, but I have no idea if it made a difference in the war," she explained.
"So you really don't…" he paused. "Wait a sec, Captain Emery?" he inquired.
"Yes. In my time, Captain James Emery is one of the most decorated officers in Time Force. He was responsible for leading us to victory against the android invasion a few years back. He also the negotiated peace treaties for over three dozen worlds, expanding Time Force in ways that no one had thought possible," she said.
"James? He always struck me as…"
"I know how you felt about him. After he took over as head of the Slipstream project, you were always a little jealous of him,"
"Jealous? Of James, I don't think…"
"We've got company," Carmen said.
The two of them stood back to back as creatures seemed to climb out the sand. Each of them were at least three feet tall, and each had several tentacles with claw-like hands on the end.
"Did you order the overgrown lobster?" he asked.
"No, but as long as they're here, how about we make'em well done?" she suggested.
"Sounds good,"
Tommy coupled his hands together, giving Carmen an extra booth that allowed her to land on one of the creature's backs. She quickly took off her uniform jacket, wrapping it around the throat – or at least what she thought was the throat – and began to choke it. The creature responded by jerking forward, knocking Carmen off its back and back into the sand. Tommy tried to check on her, but the second creature reached out, grabbing him.
"Dad!" she screamed, trying to run to his rescue, but was grabbed by the first creature.
The creatures slithered through the sand, making their way to what appeared to be a cliff of some kind. Tommy managed to glance over the side, but couldn't see what was on the bottom.
"Sorry guys, this is where I get off," he struggled to get his arm free. "TIME FOR, TIME FORCE," he called out, transforming himself into the red ranger. He quickly called for his chrono saber, slicing off the creature's tentacles. As he fell to the ground, the creature lunged at him, but Tommy fell to the ground, allowing the creature to jump over him and over the side of the cliff.
The second creature was about to throw Carmen over the side of the cliff, but Tommy threw his saber, cutting the creature's tentacles. Carmen fell to the ground, picked up the saber, and with one good swing, sliced the creature's head off. The creature's lifeless body fell to the ground as blood began to gush out the open wound.
"Suddenly I'm not very hungry anymore," she sighed.
Tommy walked over to her. "Come on, let's keep moving," he sighed.
~
"Sir, we have reason to believe that the Time Force shuttle survived our attack," one of the Omaraian soldiers said, saluting his superior office.
"How is that possible? We all saw the shuttle destroyed," he mentioned.
"Yes sir, but there is no debris, no signs of the shuttle's hull anywhere. We suspect that it may have been…"
"Cloaked. I should have known. Alert the guards, the shuttle must be found and its occupants brought in. Also, dispatch a sub-space communication to Admiral Logan at Time Force, tell him the shuttle has eluded us for the time being," he said.
"We've been trying to send a communication, but everything at Time Force headquarters seems to be shut down,"
"What do you mean?"
"Our sensors say that everything should be functioning normally, but it all just seems to be… turned off," he told him.
"Well keep trying. In the meantime, our main goal should be finding that shuttle," the General said.
"Yes sir,"
~
Adam sat in the shuttlecraft impatiently, staring endlessly at the clock on the control panel. 'Its only been 6 minutes. Geez, I'm going to go crazy in here,' he thought to himself.
He kept telling himself that he would be more helpful out there with Tommy and Carmen, instead of just sitting in the shuttle on stand by. Just then, one of the lights on the shuttle began to flash. Adam stood up, rushing over to the opposite panel.
"Omaraians. A lot of them, and they're headed for Tommy and Carmen," he sighed.
He quickly sat down in front of the controls again, but stopped himself. 'If I go after them, I'll use up the last of the fuel cells and we won't be able to make it back home,' he thought. 'But if I don't do something now, both of them will be killed,'
It didn't take him very long to make up his mind. "Computer, activate engines and tap into reserve power," he said.
'Reserve power at 45%,' the computer answered.
"I understand that. Engage the engines,"
'Warning. Vessel approaching,' it told him.
"Oh great. What else can go wrong today?" he groaned.
~
"There is it. The temple," Carmen said.
The two of them stared upward at the temple, which seemed to simply tower over them. Tommy found it odd that, considering how big it was, he didn't see the temple from orbit.
"Okay, so how do we get in?"
"We have to solve the riddle," she said.
"The riddle? What riddle?"
"This one," she said, pointing to markings on the side of the temple.
Tommy glanced at them, but none it seemed to make any sense. "It looks like chicken scratch to me. How do you know it's a riddle?"
"Its not chicken scratch, it's written in Omaraian. The language isn't hard to understand, its based loosely on Latin. See," she pointed to some of the markings. "A lot of it is early Latin, but the grammar seems a little off," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"Hold on a sec," she stared up at the markings on the temple, trying to decode them. "It says B DBBCC, DBADABCDA B AC," she told him.
"What?"
"It's encoded. Each encoded letter represents more than one real letter," she said.
"What?"
"I'm going to need time to decode it," Carmen said. "But there's a problem,"
"What is it?"
"According to this, I only get once chance at the riddle. If I get it wrong, we'll both be killed, instantly," she said. "And I only have 1 minute to answer it correctly,"
"I don't wanna put any pressure on you, but NOW would be a good time to figure it out," Tommy turned around, only to see another group of sand creatures coming towards them. "You take care of the riddle, I'll go dance with our friends," he said as he pulled out his Chrono Saber, standing in-between them and the temple.