Parallels II Chapter 5: Dreamscape pt 3, a power rangers fanfic

Disclaimer: Power Rangers Time Force and all related logos are property of Disney and/or Saban Entertainment. I am using them without permission. KJ Sheldon, Lt. James Emery, Trinity Oliver, Camille Summers, Amanda "Mandy" Scott, Mr. & Mrs. Mathew Scott, Leo Claw and the "Omega Project" are property of yours truly.

A/N: This fic takes place about a week after the end of Future Shock II. Dreamscape pt 1 & 2 appear in the original "Parallels" series.

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……beep……

There was a certain pattern to it, a rhythm. It remained steady, constant, and on some subconscious level, she'd been listening to it the entire time. She was never really sure what it was or why it was beeping, but it was somehow comforting.

……beep……

It seemed to be getting louder, stronger, closer. She wasn't sure how or why, but the pulse like sound seemed to be coming towards her. Finally, in an effort to see how or what it was, she opened her eyes. There was nothing but light as far as she could see, and it was a blurry light, making it almost impossible to see. Soon, her vision between to normal, and she had was able to determine where she was.

'The infirmary? Why am I here?' she wondered.

She tried to recall the circumstances leading up to her being taken to the infirmary, but was drawing a complete blank. 'Was I on a mission? Was I injured?' she asked herself.

It took almost all her strength, but she sat up on the examining table, glancing around the room. For the looks of it, it had to be after hours in the infirmary; no other patients and most of the lights were off for the evening. She looked to her left, where they was a young woman sitting next to her. She was leaning up against the wall in a chair, fast asleep.

"Who…" before she could even finish her sentence, the young woman sat up with her eyes wide open.

"You're awake. Oh God, you're awake," she said eagerly.

"Um, yeah. I am,"

The girl reached for a Morpher. "Cynthia to Admiral Kendall," she said.

Katie watched on in amazement.

'Lucas here. What is it Cindy?' a voice said.

Katie recognized the voice as Lucas, but was baffled by what the young woman called him. 'Admiral?' she thought to herself.

"Its Katie. She's awake," she said eagerly.

'Assemble the senior staff and have them meet me in the infirmary in five minutes. I'm on my way down there,' he said.

"Understood," she quickly walked over to the control panel next the examining table, pressing a button. "Cynthia to all senior staff, please report to the infirmary immediately," she said.

Katie grabbed her wrist. "Who are you? And what the hell is going on?" she inquired.

Cynthia stared at her strangely. "You mean… you don't know?" she paused. "I suppose you wouldn't," she said.

"Know what?"

"You've been in a coma for the last twenty years," she told her.

Katie's eyes got wider. "What?"

"When the senior staff get here, we'll try to explain it all to you. I promise," Cynthia assured her.

Shortly afterwards, Lucas walked into the infirmary along with four other people. At first glance, Katie observed that Lucas looked much older; he even had a full head of gray hair, a mustache and a beard. Next, she recognized Tommy, and just like Lucas, appeared much older. The other three people were unfamiliar to her.

"Katie, its so good to see you up and around again," Lucas said, walking over to her and wrapping his arms around her.

"What the hell is going on?" she snapped.

It was Tommy who turned to Cynthia. "You're dismissed Ensign," he said sharply.

"But dad, I…" he cut her short.

"That will be all Ensign," he said firmly.

"Yes sir," Cynthia groaned reluctantly, walking away.

"Did she just call him dad?" Katie asked.

"There's a lot we need to talk about Katie," Lucas mentioned.

"I'll all ears,"

"First, let me introduce you to the senior staff. You already know Admiral Oliver and Captain James Emery," the man behind Lucas nodded slightly. After looking at him a second time, Katie realized that he was in fact James Emery, but with a full beard. "This is Commander Elizabeth Summers and Commander KJ Sheldon," he introduced.

Katie stood up, walking over to the woman with short brown hair. "KJ? My KJ?" she mumbled.

"I am very pleased to see you have been reactivated Katie," she said warmly.

"What the hell happened to me?"

"Approximately twenty years ago, you returned from a routine mission on the slipstream project, you had been infected with a dose of Thorolon radiation. Apparently there was a disease on that world. When you returned, you went through a standard decontamination procedure, but the decontamination in conjunction with the Thorolon radiation had an adverse effect on your Ethros DNA, altering you in a sub atomic level. Your body went into full shut down, allowing yourself the time needed to repair the damaged cells, but you never woke up… until now," Lucas explained.

"And I've been out for twenty years?"

It was Tommy who took a step forward. "Yes. None of our doctors understood why it was taking you so long, but a few years ago, we'll in a specialist from the Ethros home world. After studying your condition, he was able to determine that the Thorolon radiation altered your DNA in such as way that it made your Ethros side work almost 78% slower than it normally would. Though you'd been completely healed for years, your mind needed the time to adapt itself," Tommy told her.

"I remember the mission, but I also remember everything being just fine when we got back," she said.

"No doubt your mind, during the regeneration process, forced you into a dream state in an attempt to keep your higher brain functions active," he said.

"So I've been in a coma for twenty years?" she asked. Even after saying it several times, it was hard for her to come to terms with.

"You'll come to discover there have been a lot of changes in Time Force since the last time you were on active duty. In time, we'll explain everything to you," Commander Summers assured her.

"Right now, we need to let Dr. Haskins run some tests on you to make sure everything is okay. When he's cleared you, I'll have security escort you to my office. We'll catch up, I promise," Tommy said.

For the next 45 minutes, she allowed herself to be examined by a doctor she'd never seen before. Over the years, she'd become accustomed to being examined by Dr. Young, or even Dr. Hamilton, so it was awkward for her to have a stranger looking at her.

"Well…" she scoffed, waiting for him to pass judgment.

"Physically, I don't see anything wrong. There are no more traces of Thorolon radiation in your bloodstream, but what I'm worried about is your mental condition," he told her.

"Listen doc, I'm fine. Really, I just need to go talk to my friends," she said.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. The last thing you need to do overwhelm yourself. Talking to your friends about your past could do more damage than…"

"Unless you plan of chaining me down to this bed, which still wouldn't help you much, I'm going to talk to my friends," she told him.

"They told me you were stubborn,"

"They told you right," she said proudly, walking out the infirmary.

Katie had been wandering up and down the halls in Time Force for nearly twenty minutes, trying to make her way to Tommy's off. Her first stop was deck 6, but it was nowhere to be found. Next, she headed to the science lab, hoping that someone there would be able to help her, but the lab wasn't even there anymore. Finally, she made her way to deck 8, under the impression that someone in memory adaptation could at least point her in the right direction, but the entire memory adaptation center was gone.

After another 10 minutes of aimless roaming, she was cut off by security. "Lt. Commander Taylor, can you come with us please?" one of the guards asked her.

"Where are you taking me?"

"The Admiral wants to see you," the other said.

"Fine, take me to your leader," she said jokingly, but neither of them laughed.

The two of them led her down the hallway, then to the last door on the left. Each of the guards stood on either side of the door, motioning Katie to enter.

As soon as Katie walked in, she saw Tommy sitting down behind his desk going through some papers. She closed the door, forcing him to look up.

"Kathryn, Dr. Haskins said you threatened him, then walked out the infirmary about 35 minutes ago. Where have you been?" he asked.

"Looking for you,"

"I told you I'd have security escort you down here. Things have changed around here," he said.

"So I see,"

He let out a sigh. "Just have a seat. I'm sure you have a lot of questions,"

"You damn right I do. Where is Jen? And Trip? And Camille? How long have you been an Admiral?" she asked.

He took a deep breath. "About a year after your accident, Jen went on a mission to the Fikus sector to help the Katerrians with a plague on their home world. Before a cure could be found, she contracted it as well. Her condition began to deteriorate rapidly, and she was told that the baby could be saved, but she wouldn't survive the procedure," he paused, wiping a tear from his eye. "The baby was born healthy, with no traces of the disease, but after the birth, things got worse for Jen. Within 48 hours, she was gone," he sighed.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea," she mumbled.

"No, of course you didn't," he said. "After Jen died, nothing was the same around here. Alex committed suicide, Trip and Camille both retired, and as the highest ranking officer in Time Force, I appointed myself Admiral and tried to pick up the pieces," he explained.

"It must have been hard on you, having to raise a child on your own and rebuild an entire company," she said.

"You don't know how many times I waited for you to wake up. I kept thinking if you had been here, things would have been a lot different for me. But you never did," he sighed.

"I'm sorry,"

"Don't be, none of it was your fault. Besides, its not like I've been completely on my own. KJ was a tremendous help, and once Cynthia turned 16, she applied to the academy. Camille and Trip let Lizzy apply to the academy too, and both of them moved through the ranks rather quickly," he brought up.

"Well, if it means anything to you, I'm ready to do my part," Katie said eagerly.

"I know you mean well, but you'd have no idea how to function in this era. Things are different, the people are different, the technology is more advanced than anything you've ever used. You'd have to go through the academy again just to learn half the things most of the cadets already know," he said.

"You're telling me I'm… obsolete?"

"I wouldn't put it that way, but…" he paused. "Yeah, I guess so,"

"There has to be something I can do, something to make myself useful around here," Katie said.

He shook his head. "Nothing I can think of off hand. I appreciate that you want to help, but to be honest with you, there were a lot of major systems you weren't familiar with even in your day,"

"Are you saying that I was obsolete back then?" she asked.

"No, of course not. I'm just saying that you didn't have a grasp of all the major systems," Tommy told her.

She never felt the need to learn all of the technical inner workings, always confident in the fact that Trip and Camille would be there to handle everything. 'But that isn't the case anymore, is it?' she thought to herself. Both Camille and Trip were gone, and she had no real idea how anything worked.

"So what am I suppose to do now? Retire? Just go home and try to catch on the twenty years of my life that were stolen from me?" she snapped.

"I understand you're upset, I know what its like to wake up and everything you thought you knew was gone. You can adjust, its just a matter of what you really want to do," he said.

"I want to go back to my life. Things were just starting to look up for me. I just got a promotion, I was finally over losing Ransik, I had KJ to look after, and I was about to make my move on…" she let her sentence trail off for a moment. "What ever happened to Adam?" she asked.

"He married Nadira about fifteen years ago, the two of them had triplets; two girls and a boy. They both retired from Time Force not too long after," he said.

"Adam and Nadira? I always thought she'd end up with Lucas,"

"She did end up with Lucas, but he was killed about six months after they got married," he said.

"Oh God," she put her hand over her mouth, trying to deal with the shock. "Is this what I have to look forward to? All my friends dying? Leaving? There's nothing in this time for me, nothing at all," she sighed. "Just send me back,"

"You know I can't do that. It would disrupt the space/time continuum,"

"I don't care, I want go to back. No one would even know. I could go back to a point before any of this happened," she said.

"And this time line would cease to exist. Do you really want to sacrifice the lives of countless millions who have been born over the last twenty years before you don't like how your life turned out?" he asked.

"All of them will be born. They're lives will be different, but they'll all be born… eventually,"

"You can't say that for sure,"

"And you can't say that letting me go back will change things. I can't live my life like this Tommy, feeling obsolete, in the way. I don't belong here," Katie cried.

"You don't belong here any more than I belonged in your time when I woke up, but I made the best of it. I know you Katie, you're strong willed and…"

"Don't you mean stubborn?" she asked.

He giggled. "Yes, I suppose so,"

Then, it happened… she heard it again, just as clearly as the first time.

……beep……

She glanced around the room, noticing that things seemed to be getting lighter. "What's going on?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you hear that?"

……beep……

"I don't hear anything. Are you sure you're okay?" Tommy asked.

"I'm fine, it's just that damn beeping sound,"

……beep……

"Maybe I should get you back down to the infirmary," he suggested.

The light seemed to be getting brighter… and brighter… and until finally she had to close her eyes to protect herself from the light. She began to feel light headed, and before she could stand up, she passed out.

……beep……

Katie opened her eyes, sitting up in a cold sweat. Her clothes clung to her as she glanced around the room, only to find herself in the infirmary.

"What the hell?" she groaned. She glanced over, noticing that Adam was leaning in a chair next to her examining table fast asleep. Judging on the position he was laying, he wasn't very comfortable. "Adam?" she mumbled.

That was enough to make Adam leap up, turning his attention to her. "Oh God, you're awake," he reached for his Morpher. "Adam to Tommy, you should get down to the infirmary. She's awake," he said.

'On the way,' a voice answered.

"For a minute there I didn't think you were going to snap out of it," he said.

"Adam, please tell me what the hell is going on,"

"You and the others went on a mission, you were exposed to Thorolon radiation. The radiation had an adverse effect on…" he was cut short.

"My Ethros DNA. How long was I out?" she asked.

"Two days," he said.

"Two days? That's it? Oh thank God. It was only a dream," she said, wrapping her arms around him.

Just then, Tommy walked into the infirmary, making his way over to her. "Glad to see you're back on your feet Commander," he said.

"Thanks,"

"Dr. Young said while you were out, your REM patterns were up almost 1000%. He said your mind constructed a dream world to keep your brain active while your body healed itself. Judging on the tossing and turning you did, it must have been a hell of a dream," he mentioned.

"Trust me Tommy, you have no idea,"

Preview: Mimic

Next time on Parallels II: The rangers face off against a shape shifter. Meanwhile, Jen is given a new position in Time Force.