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, A.I.S.H.A., Admiral Summers, Camille Summers, Leo Claw and the "Omega Project" are property of yours truly. Sierra appears courtesy of… well, Sierra.
Please take a moment to review. I live for reviews!!
"There she is," Camille said proudly as she and Adam walked into the main shuttle bay, staring at the shuttle Camille built.
It had a long, slender design, and was a metallic silver color. It was far from the traditional time ships manufactured by Time Force; it was much smaller, and had wings on each side.
"I'm impressed," he said, admiring the design.
"You ain't seen nothing yet. This thing is equipped with a phased cloak, re-modulating shield rotation and the most advanced hyper drive in Time Force. This baby could travel around the world and back in fifteen minutes," she boasted.
"That's great, but can it get us to the Fikus sector?" he asked.
"Of course," she walked over to a control panel and activated the launch sequence. A small door on the ship opened, and the two of them headed inside. They both sat in front of the controls, and the hatch closed. "Preparing for launch," she said.
"Thrusters seem to be operating normally, but the compression systems look a little strange," he said.
"Its okay, I rerouted the compression systems through the hyper drive. With the extra, the ship will be able to go twice as fast as the time ship," she told him.
"Lets put all your modifications to the test,"
"Computer, establish a link to the main computer in science lab one and upload project A1," she said.
'Working,' there was a pause. 'Upload complete,' the computer announced.
"A1?" Adam asked.
"It's the A.I.S.H.A. program," she paused. "Computer, integrate program A1 into the navigational sensor array and executive," she said.
'Working,' it paused. 'Integration complete,'
"A.I.S.H.A., I need you to plot a course to the Fikus sector, hyper drive level 5.2," Camille said.
The shuttle bay doors opened, and the shuttle lifted off. As soon as it was clear, the hyper drive engine was activated; the shuttle disappeared, leaving a streak of light in the sky.
As best as Tommy could tell, an hour had gone by, and he was unable to find a way out. There were no doors along any of the ways, no windows, nothing that indicated an exit.
"Tommy, take a look at this," Jen called out.
He turned around, rushing over to his wife, who was standing in front of a generator of some kind. "I thought I told you to stay off your feet," he brought up.
"Thanks for your concern, but I have no intention of having my children in this place," she motioned towards the generator. "It looks like temporal accelerator," she said.
"Wow, the last time I saw a temporal accelerator was in an old prison movie. I can't believe these things are still around," Katie said, staring at the generator.
"Weren't these things outlawed in the earl 28th century?" Nadira asked.
"Yeah, they were deemed unsafe by the government, but leave it to the renegades to have one laying around,"
"Can we disarm it?"
"Without killing ourselves? No," Katie sighed.
"A temporal accelerator?" Tommy inquired.
"They were used in the early 27th century in prisons. The idea was that they could imprison criminals in one build, but each of them at different points in time. With all them a minute or so in the future ahead of one another, it made for infinite space to imprison them," she said. "The only problem was exposure to the radiation for too long was enough to kill them all, and the accelerator was outlawed," she explained.
"Okay, so how do we turn it off?"
"We don't. If you touch it, it emits an electrical surge that would be enough to cook your internal organs. Before you had a chance to realize what was going on, it would be too late to worry about it," she told him.
"There has to be a way to disable it," he groaned.
"If we had something we could wrap around our hands for insulation, you'd be able to touch it without being shocked, but you wouldn't be able to hit it with enough force to disable it,"
"If we could get this thing turned off, time would be restored to normal and we'd be able to catch up with Katie and Nadira in normal time," he added. "Isn't there anything we can do to destroy this thing?"
"Why would we want to destroy it? Its not hurting us, and I'm sure Camille and the others will be able to rescue us sooner or later," Nadira said.
"If the accelerator is shut down, then time will return to normal and we'll be able to get out of here. More importantly, the radiation coming from thing, after too long, will kill us. Millions of people have died in places like this," she said.
"Yeah, but we're not people. I'm a mutant and you're a… whatever you are," she pointed out.
"I'm half human, but that doesn't mean…" she paused. "Wait, maybe my Ethros DNA would allow me to touch the generator without being killed," she said.
"Yeah, not killed, just seriously injured and burned nearly to death. That's creative Katie," Nadira sighed.
"We just have to be creative, that's all," he glanced around the room. "Wait, our uniform would be enough to insulate my hands," he quickly took a firm hold of the sleeve on his left arm, snatching it off, then wrapped the material around his hand. "Now all I have to do is…" he reached out to touch the generator, but a surge of energy knocked him backwards, forcing him to collide with a pole. The beam bent on impact, and Jen hurried over to her husband.
"Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine, but we're running out of options,"
"Maybe if we…" she paused as she glanced up, noticing a pole about twenty feet from them. "Wait, was that pole always bent like that?" Katie asked.
"I don't know. I wasn't paying that much attention,"
"Well I am, and that pole wasn't always bent like that. It looks like someone hit it," she paused again. "Almost like someone tried to tamper with the generator, and they were knocked backwards and hit the pole," she said.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I have an idea," Katie said.
"I'm all out of ideas," Tommy confessed.
"Well I'm not," Jen stood up. "If Katie and Nadira are only a few seconds in the future ahead us, Katie may be able to shut it down,"
"How?"
"If I insulate my hands. I might be able to use the pole to destroy the generator," she said.
"But your insulation might not be enough. An electrical surge will still hit you, and you could be killed," Nadira said.
"I'm know the risk," she walked over to the pole, snatching it down. "But we have to do something. I'm not willing to stay here like a sitting duck until the renegades come back," she said.
Next, she ripped the sleeves of her uniform, wrapping it around the pole, then the other around her hands.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" she asked.
"No," Katie said as she cocked back, swinging the pole with all the strength she could muster, hitting the generator.
Light filled the entire room, and when it died down, Nadira glanced around the room. "Tommy! Jen!" she said eagerly, rushing over to them.
"It didn't you guys long to figure out how to shut that thing down, did it?" Jen asked.
"Actually, it was Katie who…" she paused, then turned around, only to see Katie laying on the floor unconscious. "Oh God, Katie," she said, rushing over to her.
Tommy leaned down, touching her neck slightly. "She has a pulse, but its faint. I don't know if that's common or not with Ethros, but…"
"We need to get her back to the lab," she grabbed Katie's arm, going for her morpher. "Jen to science lab, come in," she said.
"Anything yet?" Alex groaned, standing over Trip's shoulder as he worked.
"No sir. Camille's shuttle is now out of sensor ranger, so I won't be able to track them. I've also been working on a way to track down Jen and Tommy, but without their morphers, its difficult to get a lock on them," he turned around, observing that Alex was still clinging to his wound, trying to stop the blood. "Alex, you should really have that checked out,"
"I'm fine Trip, just get back to work," he insisted.
Trip glanced down at the small pool of blood, and the long trail of blood coming from Alex's uniform. "Sir, I think…"
"It looks worse than it is Trip, really. Right now our priority is to find the others and…" he paused as he became light headed, stumbling forward. "Just get back to work," he snapped.
Trip turned around. "Trip to infirmary, medical emergency in science lab one. Respond," he said.
"Damn it Trip, I told you I was fine," Alex snapped.
'Infirmary here, we've dispatched a medical team. They're on the way,' a voice said.
"Thank you. Lab out,"
"I told you I was fine," Alex insisted.
"We'll let the medics figure it out. In the meantime, I…" he was cut short.
'Jen to science lab, come in,' a voice said.
Trip turned to the controls. "Its definitely Jen, but its coming from Katie's morpher," he paused, opening a channel. "Lab here. Its good to hear your voice Jen," he said.
'Its good to hear your voice Jen. We thought we'd lost you for a minute,' a voice responded.
Jen quickly recognized Trip's voice. "Can you get a lock on us Trip? Katie is hurt pretty bad," she said.
'You too. Katie is down, and we need you to teleport her to the infirmary immediately,' she instructed.
"I'm on it," he paused. "Locking onto Katie and teleporting… now,"
Jen, Tommy and Nadira stood back as Katie disappeared into a stream of light.
"Good job Trip. Now I need you to teleport the rest of us back to the lab," Jen said.
'Three?' he inquired.
"Just trust me on this one," she said.
'Alright, standby,' he answered.
The medical team rushed into the science lab, making their way over to Alex. "If you'll come with us, sir," one of them said.
"I'll contact you when I know something," Trip assured him. With a nod, Alex headed out the lab with the medical team, and Trip turned back to the controls. "Beginning teleportation sequence… now," he said.
Within moments, there was a flash of light, and the three of them materialized in the lab.
"Thanks for the ride Trip," Nadira said.
"Anytime. Now will someone explain to me what's going on?" he asked.
"The four of us were trapped in time by a temporal accelerator, but Katie was able to destroy it," Tommy said.
"Destroy it? How? That would be enough to… oh my God, is she okay?" he replied.
"We don't know. We'll head down to the infirmary and check on her later. Is there is any news on the renegades and what they plan to do?" Jen asked.
"Actually, there is," a voice said.
The three of them turned around as Lord Zedd walked into the lab.
"Oh great, as if the day wasn't bad enough already," Tommy said, ready to make a move.
Trip quickly stood up, standing in-between them. "No, wait. Lord Zedd is here to help us," he told them.
"Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds? He…"
"He has given us information on the renegades and the one controlling them. He also let us know where we could find a power source strong enough to activate the Omega morpher," Trip informed them.
"I assure you, I mean you no harm," Lord Zedd said, then turned his attention to Jen. "Its you, you're the one responsible for all of this," he said, taking a step forward.
"Wait a minute, what do you mean?" Jen asked.
"Shes the one who allowed Galen to remain of that planet alone. She is the one who will allow the renegades to live until of destroying them when we get the chance," he snarled.
"What are you saying? Are you talking about the future?"
"I'm talking about right now! She is the reason I've come here, and she is the key to preventing all of this from ever happening," he said.
"How?"
Jen sighed, placing her hands on her stomach. "It's the twins, he wants me to kill them," she sighed.