Mission 16: Part 3
The next evening, Martin Sterling sat in his quarters taking a video call on the computer while also studying some lunar charts. As he put down his work for a moment, he gave a weary smile to the girl on the screen, "I'm glad you like the scarf Chrissy, and again… I'm really sorry I couldn't make it back in time for your birthday."
On the other end of the line, Christina Lasky draped a fashionable purple scarf around her neck and donned a pair of sunglasses pretending to look like some movie star. While she did, she playfully spoke with a clipped upper class affectation "Quite all right daah-ling. Your gift was still faah-bulous."
The two shared a short laugh before Chrissy removed her sunglasses and studied him for a moment, "Martin? Is everything okay? You've seemed kinda distracted and worried tonight."
"I'm sorry," he apologized as he tossed some flight plan papers aside on his desk, "There's a lot going on here that I can't really tell you about right now."
"Ranger business?"
He nodded, "What I can say is that I'm headed out on a pretty dangerous mission tomorrow… probably the most dangerous one that we've ever undertaken. I guess I'm… well…"
"You're worried that you might not come back?" she asked slowly, "Is it really that dangerous? Is there any other way?"
He shook his head, "No. Someone very important is in trouble and needs our help. We have to do this. I didn't want to worry you about everything, but it didn't seem exactly fair if I wasn't honest either… especially if something did happen to me."
"Well… for what it's worth, I'm glad you're being honest. So thank you," she said quietly. "You know I'm still going to worry, but not too much."
"Oh?" he blinked in surprise, "Why is that?"
Chrissy winked and tried to sound positive, "Well you are the Red Nova Ranger after all so that means you can't die. Isn't that some kind of unwritten rule? Like it's supposed to make you all the more heroic and invincible?"
"I'm not invincible and I'm far from being a perfect hero too," he replied with a self-deprecating snort.
Chrissy waved it off, "Well in my book, it still qualifies you as top notch boyfriend material and... umm..."
She paused before Martin shook his head, "No, it's okay. This is something we should talk about... so that we know where we stand with each other."
"And where is that exactly?" she asked hesitantly.
The Red Ranger sighed and looked to a small framed picture on his wall. It was a photo of the skyline of his own home city of Chicago taken from the waters of Lake Michigan. He looked back to his video screen and tried to give a hopeful smile, "We're in a place where the first thing I'd like to do when I get back is to see you. I know Thanksgiving is coming up and..."
"And I'd love to have you over for it," Christina chimed in, "We could take a few days around Minneapolis, and maybe I could introduce you to my family too... if that's okay and won't freak you out."
"No, it's okay. I'd like that," he said gently, "Maybe after I spend a couple days with my own family back home. Let's plan on doing this if I get back?"
"You mean when you get back," she corrected him, "Promise me you'll return home safely?"
He laughed softly and nodded, "We'll talk soon."
She gave a quiet smile before ending the call. As the transmission ended, Martin glanced back to the lunar charts and the written mission plans on his desk. He would have to get to bed soon, but he knew there was still going to be a lot of preparations left to make if he wanted to keep his promises. He reached for his morpher and sent out a call, "Erik, are you still awake?"
He waited a moment before he heard a yawn on the other end, "I'm here Captain. What's going on?"
"It's about the coming operation and it's important," Martin answered as he leaned back in his chair, "Can you come to my room for a little bit? I've got some specific instructions for your ears only."
"I'm on my way."
Meanwhile, Erin Reilly lay in her bed within the base's medical facilities. Despite her relatively good health, the doctors had ordered her to stay here under observation in case she had another seizure or fainting spell. If she was honest with herself, it had been a terrifying experience to be walking and talking one moment, then blacking out for several hours and potentially dying. The thought scared her and she was restless to get up and do something, anything to help her teammates right now. She needed something to distract her from all the other thoughts eating away at her at the moment.
She gave a dejected sigh and picked up another one of the books that Bharata had brought her. Between their mission planning, each of her teammates had stopped in to do whatever they could to cheer her up. Bharata had loaned some books to keep her occupied. Erik periodically stopped in to do his own medical assessments and Martin had come just a little while ago to play a few games of cards with her. Even Jake had offered to give her a pack of his cigarettes, but she settled for having him entertain her with some jokes instead.
As Erin tried to get back to her book, she looked up when she heard the nearest door swoosh open. To her surprise, Ella walked in carrying a paper bag in her hands. The Pink Ranger tried to give a cheerful smile as she came over and sat down at her teammate's bedside, "Hey girl, how are you feeling tonight?"
Erin simply shrugged, "Oh you know, aside from some headaches and that horrible seizure... I'm getting by and trying not to look like I'm actually sick or something."
"Well I hope you're not actually feeling too sick because I brought you something to cheer you up," Ella said as she reached into the baggie and handed Erin a large chocolate chip cookie.
The Yellow Ranger eyed the cookie for a moment, "You made this?"
Ella shook her head, "No. I flirted with one of the servers in the mess hall and bribed him to give me a bunch of extra cookies from dinner tonight."
Erin smiled and took a bite of the cookie. As she began to chew and eat the snack, she stopped and gave a small sniffle. She wiped a tear from her eye and took a moment to steady her breathing, "I'm sorry... I just... thank you Ella."
Ella looked to her fellow teammate and consolingly reached out to take her hand, "Erin? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"
Erin wiped her eyes again, "I'm sorry... this is so embarrassing right now. It's just that everyone has been extra nice to me here and I feel like I don't deserve it at all."
"Why would you think that?" the Pink Ranger asked in confusion.
Erin sighed and looked away, "Because of what you guys are going to do. What I'm making you do here. Come tomorrow, you and the whole rest of the squad are going to be flying up to the moon on a suicide mission... and it's all because of me."
"Erin, you're our friend and our teammate," Ella began, "You know our unwritten rule. None of us are going to give up on a fellow Ranger or let them die if we can help it. We're a team and that means we'll go to the ends of the earth... or moon to protect one another."
Erin took another bite and sniffled again, "I'm sorry Ella. I don't want you guys to do this. I don't want to be responsible for making you guys throw your lives away."
"We're all choosing to do this of our own free will Erin," Ella said firmly, "Sure we're all scared, but none of us feel it's a waste either. We're more scared of losing you."
Erin turned away and leaned her head on her pillow, "I'm scared too Ella... about what's going on in my head. I hate the thought of possibly losing my mind and slowly going brain dead or something. I don't want to die either. I'm too young! We're all too young."
"No one's dead yet," Ella simply said in a feeble voice as she was at a loss for encouraging words at the moment.
There was a long pause before Erin turned back to her fellow female comrade and said, "Let's just say goodbye now... just in case. So that if something happens to you, you can remember me as I am now... your genius and coherent friend."
"No!" Ella insisted, "It's not happening!"
"What do you mean, no?"
"I mean I'm not saying goodbye," Ella replied stubbornly with surprising forcefulness in her voice, "We're going to the moon and coming back to save your life and that's final. You got that?"
"Ella you're being completely unreasona..."
"Damn it Erin, don't argue with me on this, okay?" Ella said fiercely while looking her friend in the eye.
Erin paused for a long moment before breaking out into a small grateful smile, "I guess I should know better than to fight with you by now. It's impossible to reason with a hot blooded Italian... thank you Ella."
The Pink Ranger relaxed into a small smile of her own before reaching over to give her friend a comforting hug. After letting go, Ella sat back and Erin took a deep breath. The Yellow Ranger touched a book at her bedside and mused aloud, "You know... if my family knew what was going on right now, they'd all be saying I told you so. This is what you get for joining the military. You could have done something safe and become a college professor like your older brother or a lawyer like your big sister."
"Yeah, but I'm sure the stories about what they do for work every day aren't half as exciting as yours," Ella said encouragingly.
Erin snorted, "They probably wouldn't understand. They didn't when I left home and I'm not sure they would now."
"You don't know that. Maybe you can help them understand. When you're well again, you can go home to visit them for a little bit," Ella suggested, "You never really talk much about your family back home."
Erin looked over to her friend, "What do you want to know?"
"I don't know... everything, or anything you want to share."
The Yellow Ranger grimaced, "It's getting late Ella. If you're going on that mission tomorrow, you'd better get to bed and get some sleep."
Ella nodded and sat back comfortably, "I will... but this is important too. If it makes you feel a little better, then we'll stay up and just talk a little while longer."
Erin stopped before giving a grateful look, "Yeah... I'd like that."
The next morning, the Nova Rangers and their allies assembled in the base's medical ward to give one more round of encouragement to their bedridden teammate. They had suited up in the standard combat uniforms of the UNAF troopers and prepared to head out toward the armory and then the North End's launch bays. After Erik fluffed the Yellow Ranger's pillow, Erin gave a mild huff, "Thanks Erik, but you can stop fussing over me now. I'm fine."
"I know," he said gently, "I just want you to be comfortable until we get back. I promise you'll feel better in no time."
She nodded in gratitude before Bharata and Jake stepped forward to say their goodbyes. Jake put a cartridge of cigarettes on her bed-stand and gave a wink, "Hold on to these for me Lieutenant? When I get back I'll smoke these over a rematch game of darts, yeah?"
"I look forward to it Corporal. Thank you."
Ella took her turn and gave Erin another hug before Martin stepped up and gave his teammate's hand a comforting squeeze, "What's your status Lieutenant?"
"Wishing I could go with the rest of you Captain."
Martin shook his head, "No. Your orders are to hang in there and get well. I promise we'll be back soon. When I took command of this squad, I made a solemn vow to myself that I wouldn't let any harm come to this team. I'm not about to break that promise to myself... or to you."
Erin smiled weakly, "Look at that. I must be rubbing off on you. That almost sounded soft and sentimental... thank you Martin."
As he stepped back and the others made their way out of the ward, Julian was the last to address Erin. The Yellow Ranger looked to him in slight dismay noticing that he was suited up for a field mission, "Julian... this is insane! Don't do this! What do you think you're doing?"
"Making it up to you," he said as he took her hand and spoke with conviction, "I'm just as responsible for what that helmet did to you and I'm going to make things right. You're my friend and you... well, you mean a lot to me. If I can do something to help the Rangers save you, then by God I'll do it."
"Julian..."
"Don't worry Erin. We'll talk again when we get back. I promise," he said as he reached down and surprised her with a kiss on the cheek. He turned and headed out of the ward leaving Erin sitting on her bed in stunned silence.
After stopping in at the base's armory, the Rangers, Julian, and Taldyr took a monorail to the runways and launch pads of the North End. Upon reaching the hangers, they were directed to a sleek medium shuttlecraft which would get them into orbit and then take them to the moon. While the flight crews made last minute checks and preparations, the Rangers headed up the main boarding ramp to get in to the shuttle. While they did, Martin stopped when he heard Lucy call his name. He turned in surprise and saw her walking out to meet him in front of the boarding platform.
"Lucy? Hey, I thought you were going to be monitoring us from Ops. Is everything okay?" he said in mild concern.
"Everything is fine," she said with an uneasy waver in her voice, "I... I just wanted to see you and the rest of the team off myself. I'm scared and worried... about what's going to happen to the others Rangers, and to Julian, and most of all you."
The Red Ranger stopped and gave a consoling look to his friend and stepped forward putting his arms around her. He spoke softly, "It's okay. I'm scared too. We all are... and I'm sorry about all this. You know there's no other way."
She hugged him back and clung to his uniform, "I know. I just don't want you to go."
They stood there for a long moment holding each other before Martin let go slightly and tried to give her a reassuring look, despite his own misgivings, "You know Luce, you and your equipment have never let me down in the field. I've always had complete trust that you and your gear would protect me. Now I'm just going to ask for you to trust me here and know that I won't let my best friend down either."
Lucy looked to him and nodded forcing herself to give a weak smile in return. Before she let go and stepped back, she hesitated. To his surprise, she reached up gave him a kiss between the lips and cheek, "Hurry back."
He took a breath and gave a resolute nod before heading up the ramp into the shuttle. Upon reaching the cockpit, he found the rest of the team strapped in and making last minute checks. Erik glanced over as the Red Ranger sat down in the pilot's seat and buckled in, "Everything okay boss?"
"I'm fine," Martin replied while putting on a headset and flipping a few switches, "Word of warning, if anyone here calls me bus-driver, I'm going to shoot you myself. Are you guys ready to do this?"
Taldyr sat with a stone faced expression while Julian looked ready to throw up. Ella gave a nervous laugh and raised a timid thumbs up, "Well, I did join the Air Force and I've always wanted to go up into space. Now's as good a time as any, right?"
"Let's be sure to bring Erin home some moon rocks," Bharata added while also trying to put on a brave face.
While the shuttle powered on, the platform that it sat upon was raised from its underground hanger and lifted to a wider runway on the North End of Atlantis Base. As the squad looked out the windows they could see the light of the dawning sun breaking over the horizon. To the east, an ominous dark front of clouds hung over the skies suppressing some of the light and hinted at a possible storm. A few of the base's ground controllers waved their glowing batons guiding the shuttle forward from its starting position while a call came in over the radios, "Shuttle Ulysses, this is Homestead Tower. You are clear to taxi to runway 3. Position in hold."
"Homestead Tower, this is Shuttle Ulysses. Roger that. Moving on taxiway," Martin responded as the shuttlecraft began to move forward and angle around to the launch strip.
As they coasted forward, all the Rangers did their best to swallow their fears and anxieties before coming to a halt at the designated point. Martin took a deep breath as he powered the main drive engines and firmly took control of the steering column, "Homestead Tower, Shuttle Ulysses at runway 3, Position Right. Ready."
"Roger that. You are cleared for takeoff Ulysses."
The shuttlecraft shuddered a moment as the main drive engines fired and the vehicle took off down the runway. The squad braced themselves as the shuttle rapidly picked up speed and ascended off the runway into the air. Several moments passed and they quickly gained altitude before leveling off at a cruising level. The Red Ranger flipped a few more control switches and braced himself, "Shuttlecraft Ulysses is clear. Preparing for orbital ascent."
The team within the shuttle gripped their harnesses and held on tight as the shuttle made a steep climb and the secondary booster engines fired, propelling the aircraft higher and higher at rapid speed. Minutes passed and the younger Rangers exchanged nervous looks as the shuttle rattled and shook from all the air turbulence. The clouds faded out the viewport and the blue skies of Earth gave way to darker colors. Martin reached for the control console and eyed the navigation instruments, "Hold on everyone, we're going to feel one more jolt before breaking orbit. Activating inertial dampeners now."
The booster engines of the shuttle gave one more flare and gasp of life as the craft shook. Moments later, everything went calm and quiet while the view outside gave way to the blackness and starry expanse of space. Julian cracked an eye open, "Are we still alive?"
Erik, Ella, and Bharata all got out of their seats and looked out the windows of the shuttle to look at the stars and the blue planet below them. The Pink Ranger was transfixed, "It's so beautiful."
"Attention passengers, this is your Captain speaking. We've just broken from Earth's orbit and are an estimated four hours flight from the moon... and likely certain death," Martin quipped darkly while undoing his own harnesses, "I'm afraid we don't have any in flight movies or meals to serve so we'll just have to settle for prepping our plans and equipment instead."
Erik sighed and gave a shrug, "Well, it could always be worse. We could be flying United Airlines."
Back on the ground at Atlantis Base, Lucy Beckett made her way into the medical ward to check in on Erin. She carried a bag full of items and approached the beds as the nurses finished their rounds. The Yellow Ranger looked up in surprise from where she was doing some work on a datapad. "Oh, Dr. Beckett. I didn't expect to see you."
Lucy raised an eyebrow questioningly, "Yes, and I thought you weren't supposed to be working right now. You should be resting instead."
Erin shrugged and put down the datapad, "I know, but I figured if my team is going up to the moon right now, I might as well try to do something useful too. I'm working on translating the last of the data cache the slow old fashioned way."
As Lucy sat down on the bed she put down the bag. Both young women gave a sigh as if both understanding that they shared in the worry over the other Nova Rangers. Finally Lucy reached in the bag and pulled out a bottle, "Well Erin, I decided to get you something to cheer you up."
Erin took the bottle in surprise and examined it, "Irish Whiskey eh? I don't know what to say Doc. Thank you."
"No need to say anything," Lucy replied as she pulled two shot glasses from her bag and put them on the bed-stand, "Given the circumstances, I think we could both make use of it."
Erin hesitated, "Uh... Are you sure it's okay here in the medical ward? How did you even get that in here?"
Lucy winked and touched her ID badge, "That's the benefit of having a high security clearance. No one asks me questions when I walk around the base."
Erin laughed, "Okay, but I thought you didn't drink either Dr. B."
"I don't," Lucy admitted as she opened the bottle and poured out two shots, "But I think I'll make an exception this one time."
Erin took her glass and gave a grateful little nod, "Thanks Dr. B. Here's to our Rangers... and their safe return home."
They clinked glasses and Erin downed her drink in a single motion. To Erin's great amusement, Lucy swallowed her shot and then wrinkled her features in disgust. She gave a sputtering cough, "Ugh... vile. That's definitely enough for me."
Despite the dire situation and the danger that her friends were now flying into on her behalf, Erin Reilly couldn't help but reply to Dr. Beckett with a moment of bright light hearted laughter. She appreciated the gestures of her friends because in a moment like this, it really made all the difference.
A/N:
All right, just like the Rangers here, I'm going to try to go full throttle with the next three chapters to close out the series first half. You readers have been so awesome for staying with it so stand by for a new chapter each day. You guys earned it! :)