Chapter 2: A Million Lightyears From Home

Ranger Gama's Pov:

With the damage to our ship fixed by myself and my partner, we were able to get back on our course to Star Command and help with whatever trouble our fellow Rangers were having. Soon after the space jump was over, we began to make our approach to our destination when I realized I forgot to check on something very important. Our cargo of new weapons.

"Ranger Sapphire, could you check out the weapons in the back room? Those illegal plasma cannons in that one container have to stay unbroken until they are properly checked out by some professionals back at Star Command."

Ranger Sapphire nodded at me and made her way to said room. It wasn't long until I heard her call out in fright. "Gama! You better come take a look at this!" As soon as those words left my partner's mouth, I was up and sprinting toward her. When I made it and got a good look at the room, I saw Ranger Sapphire holding a young unconscious woman with a huge bleeding gash on her forehead.

"Oh craters, this is just perfect! Now we got a hurt civilian on our hands on top of this cannons! How did she even get onboard to begin with?!"

Ranger Sapphire then picked the girl up bridal style and carried her over to the empty beds we had near the control center.

"We'll find out from her later how it happened, but right now we need to help her and fix this gash she has. Poor girl, she must of gotten hurt when we went into hyper jump."

As Ranger Sapphire got out a first aid kit, I ran to the communication panel to contact Star Command about this minor problem.

"This is Ranger Gama to Star Command! We need someone to prepare a bed in the medbay stat!"

Commander Nebula came on to answer.

"Sweet Mother of Venus Gama, what happened that you need the medbay all of a sudden?"

I then looked back at our unconscious guest before answering.

"Well sir, let's just say it's a long story."

Kate's Pov:

As I felt myself begin to come to, I heard strange small voices and whispers coming from different sides of me. As I slowly opened my eyes to see who it was, I felt like my heart had stopped as I saw right in front of me of what I guessed to be not people, but small green creatures with a lot of eyes! As soon as I realized that I jumped back a bit and screamed in fright, causing the small aliens to scream as well.

"Aaaah!"

"Aaaah!"

After I screamed, I just sat there staring at them in complete shock and disbelief as they came a bit closer after they screamed as well.

"Hello." They all said at the same time with smiles on there faces.

I hesitated for a moment from still being a bit scared of them, but pushed it aside once I realized that they didn't seem to want to harm me in any way. Plus they did look kind of cute as well.

"Um, hello, I'm Kate."

"Kaaaate." They all said with joy and excitement.

I laughed at how they pronounced my name and kept saying the same things at the same time. It made them even more cute than they already seemed to be.

"So, do you have names too, or do I just call ya anything I can think of?"

They then smiled at how I was so interested about knowing them and at how I wasn't scared anymore.

"We are the LGMS. We are the brains of Star Command." They all told me.

"Star Command?"

I then took a good look around at the room I was in. From what I saw, I was in some sort of hospital like room with a few medical treatments and supplies on a couple of counters.

"So that's where we are? How did I get here? Last thing I remember was hitting my head against some wall."

I then touched my head to find that it had a bandage wrapped around it. I then realized that I needed to get out of there and get home. Lord only knew how grounded I'd be once my foster mom got ahold of me.

"Look LGMS, I appreciate the help and stuff, but I really need to leave now. I have to get home and let my folks know I'm alright."

As soon as I tried to get up and leave, the LGMS stopped me by blocking my path.

"Noooo!"

I looked at them with annoyance and disbelief.

"And why can't I leave? It's clear that I don't belong here. And as far as I'm concerned this was all just an accident. Why in God's name do I have to stay?"

They then looked at me with concern in the many eyes they each had.

"You are still recovering." One of them said.

"You must stay til you have fully healed. To travel in your condition would be unwise and dangerous."

Once they had made their point, I realized that they were right. I wasn't in the right shape to go and do things like traveling or doing too many different forms of extreme physical activity. I heaved out a sigh of defeat and laid back down on the bed.

"Alright, I guess you all make a pretty good point. I promise to stay right where you want me until I'm all healed up."

They all smiled and cheered.

"Hooray!"

Just after they had expressed their joy of me staying, we all heard a loud siren go off and turned to find a robot with a small head in a glass dome coming at us.

"Alright LGMS, move it or loose it. We got some questions to ask your little patient here."

He then adjusted his legs to make them longer in order to have better eye contact with me.

"Alright missy, you're gonna explain to us how you snuck onto one of our ships and why Ranger Gama and Sapphire found you in an unconscious mess on the floor of the weapon's locker! And we want the truth! Understand?!."

I was bit shaken by the robot's outburst to properly answer him at that point. From how stern he was being must of meant that he truely meant business and wasn't going to deal with any crap I would probably throw out at him.

"Take it easy X-R. She may be a stowaway but she is also a young civilian who seems to be completely harmless."

I looked to where the voice came from to find a strong looking man in a space suit walking toward me and the bot that was interrogating me.

"But Buzz, how do we truely know that she's a civilian and isn't some spy disguised as one to fool us?"

I glared at the little tin canned creep when he said that.

"Because if I was a spy I probably wouldn't still be here right now. I'd probably be snooping around this place trying to find things to use against you and stuff. So I guess that pretty much answers your second question, right tinman?"

XR gritted his plated teeth in anger.

"It's not tin, lady! It's terillium carbonic alloy! Which happen to be an extremely tough metal!"

He then turn away from me pouting like a little kid with his arms crossed. I laughed at how he was taking my insult.

"Aw, did I upset the wittle tinman?"

With that XR through his stubby metal arms up and screamed in frustration.

"Ya know what, forget this ever happened. Buzz, take care of her will ya?"

He then rolled off in an "I'm ticked at the world" way. I then turned my attention back to the space ranger before me who did the same.

"Alright ma'am, before I ask you any questions, I believe that a proper greeting is in order. My name is Buzz Lightyear, one of the many space rangers here on Star Command who have sworn to help and protect the Galactic Alliance from forces who would love nothing more than to shatter it to pieces. And who do I have the honor of speaking with?"

As he stuck his hand out for me to shake I smiled at how polite he was despite the fact I was a "stowaway" as the tense tinman put it.

"Ok then, I'm Katherine, Katherine Collins, but you can call me Kate."

I then grabbed his strong hand and shook it as he smiled at me. "And it's an honor to meet you Kate. Now then, would you care to explain how you ended up on one of our spacecrafts in such a beaten up state?"

I looked away from Buzz for a moment with embarrassment in my gut.

"Right, well um, the thing is, I sort of did sneak onto the spaceship as your robotic friend put it. But I was only wanting to see how awesome it was from the inside after I saw it crash near the place I live in. I wasn't going to steal anything or even hurt the Rangers I saw. I just had an uncontrollable streak of curiosity to see something that people like me don't actually see everyday. Of course I didn't plan on the door to the room I was in to close on me after your fellow Rangers fixed their repairs. I tried to call out to them to let them know I was onboard, but the roar of the engines were too loud for them to hear me banging on the door in fright. And before I knew it, the ship took off to the sky with me being thrown around the room like a ragdoll until I went flying into a wall, hitting my head, and getting knocked out cold."

He then studied me with a stern kind of look.

"So what you're saying is that you were just an innocent victim of circumstance, correct?"

I looked at him with shame and embarrassment in my hazel eyes.

"Yes, and, I'm truely sorry for doing it and for giving you and your Rangers any trouble. So do you think you and the others could forgive me for all of this?"

His stern look slowly softened into a look of pity. I guess by then he realized that I truely didn't pose as any kind of threat and perhaps realized how young and innocent I seemed. Which I was quite true to be honest. And as far as I was concerned, I needed help to get better and to return home safely to my family, and he and the LGMS were probably the only hope I had left. He then stood up and looked at mean with a reassuring smile.

"I suppose once I tell my commanding officer your story that we would consider letting this slide. But be fore warned that you'll have to follow some rules we have here until we can get you home safely. And I highly hope and expect that you don't try to make any more trouble from here on out, understand?"

I gave a small smile to him.

"You have my word Buzz."

He then turned away from me and made his way to the exit.

"Excellent. Now you stay here and let the LGMS take care of you while I let my colleagues and commanding officer know of this bit of info you told me."

The metal door closed after he left, leaving me in a room with small green dudes.

"So, LGMS huh? I guess that's short for Little Green Men right?"

The nodded as a response.

"Well then, mind if I call you LGDS instead?"

They looked at me with a confused look.

"LGDS?"

I rolled my eyes in a humorous way.

"Little Green Dudes. It's new, improved, and not ta mention really fun to say!"

They all smiled and cheered at me.

"Fun! LGDS! Fun!"

I laughed at how psyched and pumped they were about the new name I gave them. I had to admit, that even though I was far from home, the LGDS and Rangers made feel like I never really left. But all of that would soon change. For even though I didn't know it, but I would soon face a foe that I would have never dreamed of later becoming my friend, and perhaps much more.