What?

Wes couldn't help it. "What a piece of junk!" he said, hands on hips.

Zordon bridled. "This is the fastest landship in the quadrant, Junior. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts." He patted the worn and pitted metal siding of the landship. It looked like a glorified version of the smaller whatsit Ben had provided, only in much worse shape. Wes snorted.

Ben nodded. "We'll take your word for it. I think we should go, and go quickly, however. This is a public hangar, after all." As if to prove him right, the sounds of a commotion echoed down the narrow companionway to the hangar in which they stood.

"Right." Zordon pulled open the hatch of the ship and motioned the others in. He closed the hatch behind them and shoved past them toward the front of the small craft. Wes, following, was surprised to see a pair of boots propped up on what was presumably the controls console.

"What's the matter? Took too long to get drunk?" inquired a female voice. The boots came down; the copilot's seat swiveled around to reveal a young woman, dark haired and pretty.

"Hello to you too, Dimi," growled Zordon. "Just get ready to go, willya?"

She nodded toward Wes and Ben. "Who are they?"

Zordon shot her a look. "What is it with you and the questions? Get moving!"

Dimi raised a hand to forestall further complaints and bent over the control panel. "Are we paid up?" she asked Zordon, eyes on the hangar door, which was closed.

Zordon made an 'are you kidding' sort of noise, and Dimi shrugged. "Everyone buckled up?" she tossed over her shoulder.

Wes grabbed Ben with one arm and a handy strut with another as Dimi opened fire on the hangar bay door, incinerating it. The ship shot through the opening and they were speeding across the desert before Wes had time to process the information. Zordon shot him a smug look. Wes grinned. "Not bad," he acknowledged.

Zordon grinned. "The engine's my own design, that and the weapons array. After my next -- I mean when I get some more credits I'm gonna do up her hull real nice, maybe have her look like something big. Impressive, you know? Like -- like a dinosaur or something. Whaddaya think?"

Wes rubbed his nose. "Good idea," he said, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from bursting into hysterical laughter.

"Yeah," said Zordon, satisfied with Wes' noncommittal tone. He spread his hands wide. "Gonna make a whole army. Call 'em Zords."

"Great," said Wes. "This ship have a head?" He had to get out of there before he disgraced himself, or called his sanity into question.

"At the rear," said Zordon, waving his hand in the general direction. "Okay, Pops, where are we headed?"

As Wes headed aft he heard Ben over his shoulder. "Tyr Tantalis Prime, I expect," the older man said.

Wes sat on the can, his head in his hands. What the hell was going on? No sooner did he feel like he had the rhythm of the situation down -- based, he freely admitted, on a movie he'd seen far too many times, thanks to Eric -- than everything took a sharp left into bizarre. Bizarre-er, he mentally amended. He sighed. This Chewbacca was definitely easier on the eyes, at least.

With a boy-stood-on-the-burning-deck sort of feeling, Wes squared his shoulders and headed back to the bridge.

Ben and Zordon were arguing. "...never said we were gonna drive straight into the enemy camp!" the younger man was hollering.

"You didn't ask," said Ben, unruffled. Wes really had to admire that guy. Talk about cool under fire.

"Yeah, well, I didn't ask if you were insane either, but obviously I should have!" Zordon shot back.

Dimi was watching the two, her head swiveling like a spectator at Wimbledon. She caught Wes' eye and, to his astonishment, winked. "What's the problem, 'Don?" she broke in.

"You heard him! 'Tyr Tantalis Prime' he says! He's either nuts or suicidal, and I'm not betting on either." Zordon threw up his hands, clearly frustrated.

"Did he hire us?"

Zordon ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah," he muttered resentfully.

Dimi nodded. "And you agreed to his terms?"

"Yeah." Zordon blew out a breath. "Yeah. Okay, okay. So we go to Tyr Tantalis Prime, and we all get killed. Everybody's happy."

Dimi caught Wes' eye again and he could swear she flashed him a grin before turning back to the control console.

"Okay. All right," Zordon muttered, fiddling with his own set of controls. He turned to Ben suddenly, poking a finger at the older man's chest. "But your definition of exorbitant had better fit my definition of exorbitant, or somebody's gonna get it."

Ben patted him on the shoulder kindly. "Mine exceeds yours, I'm sure. Don't worry about it, my boy."

"Worry? Who's worried?" But Wes noticed Zordon eyed Ben pretty closely, for all his bravado.

~*~

As Alice walked into Ops, Rick felt a surge of anxiety. She looked as close to tears as he'd ever seen her. Paired with the closed expression on Kimberly's face and Rick found himself putting two and two together. Something's wrong with Eric. That just isn't fair...

Alice took up the seat next to him. Unobtrusively, he sought her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Want to talk?" he offered quietly.

Alice shook her head. "Maybe later."

Given that Lucas, Al and Rob walked in at that moment, Rick couldn't argue. A moment later and Hawking, who looked exhausted, and Namir entered the room.

"Are Ven and Eric coming?" Lucas asked as Hawking sat. Kimberly shook her head. Lucas' expression darkened. "I understand. In that case, we'll get under way." There was a pause, presumably while Lucas gathered his thoughts. "There's good news and there's bad news," he began. "Bad news first: We haven't been able to find Wes and Katie; Hawking," and he nodded to the temporal analyst, "has detected some form of temporal jamming. So someone doesn't want us to find them -- at least, not yet."

"The jamming's crackable," Hawking put in. "But only with the high powered scanners available at TFHQ."

"Shit," muttered Al.

"That," said Lucas, "is actually some of the good news. Director Kerin has offered to...ah...bury the hatchet -- and I don't mean in my head -- on a temporary basis, which means that when this meeting gets done, Hawking and I will be on our way back to Central City."

"What's bitten Kerin?" Rob wanted to know.

"This would be the more bad news," Namir judged.

"Short form," said Lucas, "there was a break out from MAX at about the same time last night as Wes and Katie were abducted."

"MAX?" queried Kimberly. "What's MAX?"

"The maximum security jail just off the northern tip of the Russia, in the Bearing Sea," Lucas explained. "It's where the real nut jobs and hard cases get put -- and after the TOI, it's probably the most secure corrections institute planet side." Lucas smiled faintly. "More secure than the TOI in fact, seeing as it doesn't have a waste disposal pipe someone determined enough could crawl up." That provoked a small chuckle from those around the table. "It's not the place you escape from solo, so the escapee had help."

"Who escaped?" Rob asked.

Lucas offered up a wry smile. "Take a wild guess."

"Ransik," said Al quietly.

"How?" asked Kimberly even as Lucas was nodding.

"Kerin didn't seem to know," said Hawking. "Considering his department is effectively down to him and his aide, can't really say I blame the chap."

"That's the other thing we -- or, rather, I hope to establish while I'm in Central City," said Lucas. "Meantime," he continued, "Alice, Rick and Namir are -- with Kerin's cooperation -- going back to the TOI."

"You expect to find anything?" Kimberly queried.

Rick glanced at Alice to see if she was going to answer, but her mind was clearly on other things. He shrugged. "Won't know until we get there -- but it's got to be worth a shot."

Lucas nodded. "Exactly. And it's the best lead we've got right now." Kimberly subsided. "Also coming back to Central City -- Al and Rob. We're -- you're," he corrected himself, "going to be taking Carmen to see Alicia Roberts prior to interrogation."

Nods met that statement from both Rob and Al -- though Al looked less than enthusiastic about the prospect. Probably the thought of spending time with Carmen, Rick decided.

"Kim, I know you're not going to want to go anywhere from here," Lucas continued. Kimberly gave him a look that said 'no shit, Sherlock'. "Can you keep an eye on the comm. terminal in here? We'll all be reporting back here..."

"Comm. control. Got it." Kimberly gave a terse sort of smile.

Lucas stood up. "Let's get this show on the road."

~*~

Katie got to her feet, ignoring the sinister-looking device. "You just don't know when to stay down, do you, Ransik?" she snarled, her hands curling into fists.

He smirked. "And you don't know when you're beaten. Typical." Ransik took a sudden step forward and shoved Katie to the bench. Snakelike metal tentacles slithered from the walls and wrapped themselves around her, holding her there. "That ought to dispose of that misplaced might of yours rather neatly."

"What are you doing here?" she growled through clenched teeth.

Ransik gave a chuckle. "You don't even know when we are, do you?" Katie just glared, unwilling to give him even that much. Ransik laughed outright. "I must say, I really do admire the Master. He has such a piquant way of treating a situation."

"The Master, huh?" Katie managed a derisive snort. Not particularly effective, maybe, given her current situation, but it made her feel better. "I knew you couldn't have made it out of MAX on your own. You're not smart enough."

He looked her up and down, his gaze lingering on the restraints that held her. "Nor are you, my dear."

Katie struggled; the tentacles tightened. "All right, Ransik, since you're burning to tell me, when are we?"

He calmly began cleaning his fingernails on a protruding corner of the floating torture device. "Roughly 10,000 BC, as the crow flies. It's an interesting time, don't you think?"

Katie snorted again. "That's ridiculous. There were no civilizations this advanced at that time in Earth's history."

Ransik grinned and pushed a button. "Of course there were, Katie my dear. You have the evidence before you. It's not healthy to deny what's right before your eyes." He chuckled again. "Time has a way of turning most history into legend. You might call it 'Earth's hidden history'. Gone, as you might say, but not entirely forgotten."

Katie's mind ticked over rapidly. Was it possible?

A communicator on Ransik's wrist crackled. "My lord, we approach Tyr Tantalis Prime."

"Acknowledged." Ransik's eyes narrowed. "And here I've been wasting all this time. Fun's fun, my dear, but I've work to do. You don't mind if I get on with it, do you?"

Katie found, as the needle sank into her skin, that she very much did.

~*~

Eric heard Kimberly and Alice's footsteps fade from the hallway.

"Do you really have another reading to make?" he asked quietly.

"No." He heard Ven sigh. "The scan I've done has identified the damage and given me a prognosis."

"How bad?"

"Twenty-four hours, realistically," Ven answered. "Thirty-six if you're lucky."

Eric shivered. "That quick."

"It's systematically destroying your nervous system, Eric," she explained. "Your sight is so far the only thing to firmly go, but there's extensive damage to the whole rest of your nervous system. With that level of impairment..."

"It's going to turn me into a vegetable."

"If I can't find a way to reverse the damage in total and purge your body of the toxins, yes."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Eric, I'm not giving up on this -- on you," said Ven softly. "If there is a way to beat this, I'm going to find it."

"I know."

"I can't guarantee how this is going to go," she continued.

"It's messy," Eric said. "I've seen the victims, remember?" He swallowed. "If...if you can't find a way to beat this..."

"I won't leave you to die in pain, Eric," Ven promised.

~*~

"I have the jamming signals set up for Tantalis Gamma and Beta," came a tinny voice from behind Wes, who went into immediate cardiac arrest as a small robot bustled past importantly. "And a flight plan for avoiding checkpoints at Epsilon and Delta. But I still think this is a bad idea."

Wes stared at the robot, willing his erratic pulse to slow. It was small, about half man-size, and had a head like a football. "R2D2, I presume?" he muttered, subsiding as Ben gave him 'the look'.

The robot gave the impression of having raised an interrogative eyebrow. Impressive, Wes thought, considering it had neither eyes nor brows. "My designation is Alpha 5."

"Wes Collins," said Wes, feeling like an idiot for introducing himself to a robot.

"You may call me Ben," said Ben, all but patting the 'bot on the head.

Alpha tilted that appendage. "But that is not your name."

Ben looked less patronizing and more nervous. "True," he admitted.

"Coming up on the gate at Gamma, Alpha," barked Zordon. "Stop fooling around and jam it!"

"Ai-yi-yi!" cried the robot. Zordon reached out a fist and thumped Alpha sharply on the head. "Sorry," the little 'bot said. "Jamming."

Dimi spoke up. "You still haven't gotten rid of the virus?" she asked.

They passed the gate, a largish structure that towered over the river it spanned. This was the fifth river they'd crossed, Wes thought, or was it the sixth? For a desert, there sure seemed to be a lot of water about.

But on further inspection of the landscape, the desert had given way to savannah. That in turn was being slowly replaced by meadow as they got closer to their destination. River, plain, river, plain... this reminded Wes of something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He sort of got the impression he didn't really want to put his finger on it, particularly.

"What virus?" he asked, more to distract himself than anything else.

"A little worm called Nacixem," Zordon said shortly. "I got rid of most of it, but that 'ai-yi-yi' thing just keeps replicating itself on a new circuit every time I purge."

"Irritating," said Wes.

"You don't know the half of it," agreed Zordon. "Coming up on Beta, Alpha, and if you ai-yi at me I am gonna fry your hard drive."

Alpha did what Wes assumed to be the robot equivalent of clearing his throat. "Jamming," was all the little 'bot said.

They sped past miles more of placid terrain, then Zordon pulled the craft to a halt. "Okay, Gramps. The next bit is tricky, so if you have any fancy-schmancy ideas, now's the time to trot 'em out."

Clarification seemed to be in order. "What do you mean by 'tricky', exactly?"

Zordon snorted. "Are you kidding me? Tantalis Prime is sewed up tighter than Dimi's -- ah," this as Dimi stretched out one graceful leg and poised her foot over his groin with a considering expression on her pretty face, " -- hem, the security's pretty tight, kid. Gonna take some kind of miracle to get us in there."

The craft shuddered and started to move. "What the hell?" said Dimi, her hands racing over the console.

"Tractor beam," Zordon snapped. "Do something, Dimi!"

She shot him a look. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

Wes looked through the viewscreen: they were indeed being pulled inexorably toward what looked like another checkpoint arching across another river. What's this one, number nine? Bizarre. He said as much.

"Not rivers," supplied Alpha in his tinny voice. "Concentric moats. Tyr Tantalis Prime is in the center, raised above the rest for optimum defensive capability."

Bells went off. "Is some part of this place open to the sea?" asked Wes impulsively.

Alpha nodded his football head. "The far side from our position, beyond Kappa gate."

Now he knew why he found it all so vaguely familiar. He'd seen a million quasi-literate documentaries on cable about it. Jen was fascinated by the things, and Wes generally watched along for company. A lost civilization, before the dawn of written history, more advanced than modern man dreamed. Nine concentric moats alternating with nine concentric plains, a single opening to the sea; all surrounding the raised walled city.

Not Tantalis.

Atlantis.

Oh Crap.

TO BE CONTINUED...