A/N: Can you believe it? An update. To all of you who have been waiting for the next installment, I hope you enjoy. My apologies for taking so long in updating it - life gets in the way sometimes. I'll try and keep a fire under my rear and update more frequently. And, if you get the chance, please review…sometimes it takes the story in all sorts of creative and unexpected directions.  -Thanks again - RL

Chapter Five

0430 – Arkansas2

151 – 2105

Predawn light began glinting on the UV and X-Ray filtering dome above the mining camp's main settlement as two silhouetted figures darted down an alley next to the general store. The shadows stopped at the back entrance and slunk down next to the door.

"Why are we doing this again?" a voice whispered hoarsely.

"Because of the note you found in your bag," the other voice hissed in return.

"Right. I'm not psychic, Niko, but I can tell you this doesn't feel right." Doc Hartford replied as he pulled out his pistol.

"Well, I am." Niko returned as she too prepared her rifle. "And, I happen to agree with you. This isn't right."

"That does not make me feel any better." Doc grumbled as he prepared to knock on the door. Before he even rapped once, the door slowly swung inward. "It's already open. You want to take point or you want me to?"

Niko answered by hefting her rifle and slowly entering the dark building. As her eyes adjusted to the muted light coming from the doorway and from the lone window facing the alley, she was able to make out rows of boxed and bagged goods. Slowly, she skirted around one side of the rows toward the door that adjoined the stockroom to the general store. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Doc doing the same thing to the other side.

Suddenly her psychic senses seemed to blare, as she could almost taste the aura of danger. "Doc," she breathed in warning and turned to look for her companion.

"Over here, Niko." Doc called back softly and stood up from where he had been crouching down. "We're too late."

Niko sucked a quick breath and walked over to where Doc was standing. There at his feet lay the body of a woman. "Is this Sarah?"

"Yeah. She didn't even have a chance." He sighed. "If I had just found the note a little sooner…"

Niko placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault."

"I guess." Doc's agreement was half-hearted at best as he knelt down beside the body of the grocer. "Single gun shot wound to the head. Looks like a small caliber conventional weapon. Given the spatter on the wall and blood underneath the body, this would be the crime scene."

Niko nodded and slowly scoured the room with her safety light. "No sign of a struggle." She walked over to the stockroom interior door and then to the back door that she and Doc had entered. "No sign of forced entry either. She probably knew her assailant."

"What now?" Doc asked. "Do we alert the local authorities?"

"That would be protocol." Niko agreed. "But given the local authorities and questions Zachary has with the senior deputy, I think we should try one more thing first."

"Like?"

"I could try to see if I can get any more information…"

Absolutely not!" Doc interrupted her. "The Captain and Gooseman would have my head if I let you try any thing of the sort."

"We're running out of time." Niko argued.

"That may be true, but that doesn't mean that you should…"

"Shhh!" Niko warned putting a finger to her lips.

"What?" Doc asked her in a quiet tone.

"I thought I heard something." Niko crept back to the door that joined the stockroom to the rest of the store. She heard the muffled noise of something splashing across the floor. Peering carefully through the peephole, she could just make out a blurry form pouring something on the floor.

"We need to move, Doc!" Niko stage whispered and pulled Doc to the back entrance, the same entrance they had used to enter the establishment.

Doc pulled on the door, but nothing happened. He tried the knob and jiggled it, but the door held fast. "It won't open."

"Let me try."

"Niko, Sarah was murdered in here." Doc warned.

"I'll be careful." Niko promised as she gently triggered her badge. Focusing her mind away from the events that happened in the storeroom, she concentrated on pins of the lock. She carefully played with the locking mechanism and then tested the door itself. Finally, she stepped back from the door and looked at Doc. "It's not locked. I'm not sure what it is, but I can't move it - not the lock not the door."

Niko could just make out the faint scent of smoke and some kind of chemical accelerant. She glanced behind her and saw tendrils of gray floating up from the other door. "Other door is a no go. They set a fire. Probably to conceal the crime scene."

Looking around, Niko grabbed two produce bags, ripped them open, poured the contents onto the floor, and then broke open a container of water. The first few clothes she saturated and shoved under the door to help slow the entrance of the smoke. The next few she also drenched with water and held out one to Doc. "This is only going to buy us a little time."

Niko and Doc rapidly counted their options. The only other way in or out of the storeroom was through the window and neither of them could fit through the small opening.

"Blast our way out?" Doc suggested.

"It's worth a try." Niko agreed and leveled her rifle at the door. A volley of shots rained across the door, but in the end, the door remained standing as an unmoving barrier.

"It's no good." Doc coughed from the fine dust their shots had caused as well as the smoke entering the room. "It must be made of some compound that makes it practically laser proof."

"Call for help," Niko suggested.

Doc thumbed his communicator. After receiving no signal, he looked back at Niko. "Yours working?"

Niko shook her head. "All of the seismic activity has wreaked havoc with the communication systems. All I'm getting is static."

"I know." Doc agreed as he continued to scour the room for an alternate way out. The smoke was starting to thicken as it worked its way past Niko's barrier and started to seep through the walls themselves. He looked back at the door scorched by their weapon fire. It truly was the only way out. "We need a low-tech solution." He said to himself as he ran his hands over the doorframe across the hinges looking for any kind of weakness. "Wait a minute," he stepped back and looked at the door again. "I'm such a techno-snob, sometimes."

"What did you find?" Niko's voice was muffled through her makeshift respirator.

"What if we take the pins out of these hinges? We should be able to simply pull the door off its frame."

"I tried doing that with my telekinesis. It was a no go." Niko sighed.

"Well, if mind over matter doesn't work, how about good 'ole fashioned brawn?" Doc suggested before he started coughing.

"Let's do it. But we better be quick; the smoke is getting bad in here." In fact, all of the items in the room were completely obscured by the dark, thick clouds. "I'll see if I can find something to help pry out the pins."

Niko's eyes were beginning to sting and water from the smoke. Trying to hold her makeshift breathing apparatus in place, she fumbled awkwardly on hands and knees as she searched for something to use as a tool. Inadvertently, her hands brushed across the body of Sarah Jamison.

Suddenly, Niko stands laughing at a child who twirls in a circle of flouncing white tulle and braids. A jovial gray-haired man puts his arms around her burgeoning waist, one hand resting on a very pregnant belly. Sirens and lights flash off the night sky as a small house engulfed in flames crumbles to the ground. Across the countertop of the grocery store island, an angry man yells at her. A gravestone bearing the dates of a child gone to soon from the world glistens in the dew as sunlight plays across fresh yellow roses. A Crown agent purchases sundries and pays with threats and worthless coins. A shadowed figure meets another figure in the back alley of the store - an exchange is made. The ground rumbles and trembles as she holds onto a storeroom shelf for protection. Cat's eyes glitter yellow with greed and triumph. Loud noises, white light flashes. Death emanations swirl and pull at her -tumbling - life no more.

"Niko, did you find anything yet?" Doc called through his mask and the ever-increasing smoke. "Not to rush you, but…Niko?" The smoke had become too thick to see anything that wasn't inches in front of his face.

Doc crawled on his hands and knees to the area that he had last seen the auburn-haired ranger. "This isn't funny, Niko." Doc's voice held a note of alarm. He continued forward until he fell across the body of Sarah Jamison. In the confusion of the fire and being trapped, he had forgotten all about the grocer. Continuing past the body, he felt another body, this one much more slender and still warm.

"Niko?" At her lack of response, Doc pulled her closer to him. "Niko?" Niko remained lifeless in his arms. "C'mon, Niko, we're really running out of time here. Niko? Hey, pretty lady, can you here me?" Doc heard another loud crash and then crackling as he looked up to where the wall to the stockroom had once been into a wall made entirely of flame.

Avoiding as much of the fire as possible, Doc dragged Niko across the floor to the still locked exit door. He still needed to find something to pull the pins out of the door.

Suddenly, the door imploded swinging brokenly on its hinges. Fresh air leapt into the room and the wall of fire behind him flashed over at the oxygen fuel. A wall of water sprayed to combat the flames poured over the two trapped rangers.

Hands that appeared to be made from some kind of rock reached in and pulled to two rangers from the building.

"Am…I…glad to…see you." Doc announced through a fit of coughs as he stumble-walked further from the fully involved building following a bio-defense engaged Gooseman carrying the unconscious Niko. "A few…more minutes…and Niko and I…would be toast…burnt toast."

Shane Gooseman re-transformed into his human self as he gently laid Niko on the ground a safe distance from the fiery building. "We need a medic over here!" He shouted to the volunteers trying to contain the fire.

"What the hell happened, Doc?" Goose growled as he gently brushed an errant tendril of hair from Niko's soot streaked cheek.

Doc looked quickly from Niko to Gooseman to his Captain. He was trying hard not to take the accusing tone in Goose's tone personally. A man identifying himself as a medic quickly knelt down next to Niko and began checking her vitals. "I…I'm not sure." Doc finally answered in a hoarse wheeze as another bout of coughs wracked his body. He stumbled slightly, and Zach grabbed him to steady him.

"Sit down, Doc," ordered the captain. He turned to the medic checking on Niko. "I want him checked out too."

The medic nodded and turned his attention back to the female ranger. She didn't appear to have any obvious physical injuries other than apparent smoke inhalation, but he was definitely concerned that she wasn't conscious. " Desario, I need two portable O2 tanks and grab the albuterol." He called to his partner.

Carrying the requested items, another medic ran up from the emergency hovercar. He handed a tank to his partner, and turned his attention to the other victim rescued from the fire. "I'm medic Desario. That is my partner, Gage; he'll be taking care of your friend there." The medic said quietly to Doc as he placed an oxygen mask over the ranger's nose and mouth and began taking his vitals. Doc could do little more than nod as he accepted the mask gratefully.

As Gage infused Niko's mask with the bronchodilator, the female ranger jerked upright with a muffled incoherent scream.

"Whoa, easy there, babe," Shane soothed grabbing her flailing arms and holding her protectively. "You're all right now."

Niko's luminous eyes flickered as she leaned back into Goose's protective arms. "Sarah?" she sighed softly.

"Oh, shit, Sarah!" Doc exclaimed pulling off the oxygen mask.

"Is there someone still in the building?" Zach exclaimed seeing the horrorstricken look on Doc's face.

"Yes…no…I mean." Doc stammered.

"Well, which is it?"

Doc slumped back against the sidewalk curb and closed his eyes. "Sarah was already dead when we got there, Zach. Her body is in there." Defeated, Doc didn't resist when the medic carefully replaced his oxygen mask.

"I think you had better start at the beginning." Zachary said kneeling next to Doc. He turned to the medic. "Is he well enough to give me a report?"

Desario looked at his patient and then up to the Galaxy Ranger Captain. "He needs to keep the mask on to help with his breathing. We're going to want to transport him to the infirmary to have the doctor examine him."

"Do that," agreed the captain. "Doc, just take it easy. You can tell me everything after you and Niko get checked out."

Before Doc could even nod in acknowledgement, another tremor rocked the ground.