PART III

By:
QUINTIN J. SCOTT

“So, what’s going to happen next?” Maya asked.

A six-tone chime issued from Sean’s desk. He pressed another one of the buttons on his flip-top panel. “Go ahead.”

“MASTER, I HATE TO BOTHER YOUR MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FORM WHILST YOU ARE ENGAGED IN THE MOST NOBLE OF ENDEAVOURS,” a dignified voice came from the speakers. Sean sighed while Angela just chuckled.

“That’s okay, Z,” the young man answered. “What’s going on?”

“I HAVE DETECTED AN ENERGY SPIKE WITHIN THE MORPHING GRID. IT IS DISRUPTING SEVERAL KEY SYSTEMS AND MY HUMBLE AUTO-REPAIR PROGRAMS CANNOT PINPOINT IT. I-I-IF LADY ANGELA IS NOT TOO BUSY, PERHAPS SHE CAN HELP ME REPAIR IT, IF THAT IS ALL RIGHT WITH YOU, MASTER?”

Angela continued to chuckle before nodding and reaching for her cellphone. Sean smiled, shaking his head. “She’s on her way, Z.”

“THANK YOU, MASTER. I AM SORRY THAT I BOTHERED YOU. IT’S JUST THAT…” Before the voice could finish, Sean pressed the “CLOSE” button on his panel.

“Who was that?” Ashley asked.

“You’ll find out,” Bill replied, smiling.

“I swear to God, he’s going to drive me to drinking one of these days,” Sean replied.

Angela raised an eyebrow before smiling, widely. “It’s good to have a hobby.”

Sean pressed a few more buttons before lifting a wide mahogany box from a drawer in his desk. It was highly polished, decorated with a stylized “X” and fastened with a golden clasp.

“These are your wristcoms and X-Rings,” Sean explained. He undid the clasp, opening the box to reveal five black watches nestled within soft velvet. Next to them, gold rings with colored "X" on the crests rested. “They will allow you to contact the Power Tower, each other, and access the teleportation system. The X-Rings are the keys to your powers.”

Bill took them out, passing the red ones to Jason, purple to Ashley, white to Maya and the green one to Sabrina while he snapped on the blue one. They put them on, admiring the design.

“We’ll give you a full rundown on their uses at a later date,” Angela said, “but right now we need to get to the Power Tower.”

Sean looked over at Ninjor. “We’ll head to the Tower. See you at the time we specified.”

Ninjor nodded, turned and disappeared in a ball of light. It floated up and through the ceiling.

“Now…to the Power Tower,” Sean said as he activated the teleporter controls. The energy beam caught them, disassembling their molecules and transporting them over the vast distances to the Arlington National Forest.

As their vision readjusted (along with their equilibrium), they noticed the smooth walls that looked like a cross between plastic and metal with halogen running lights decorating the crevices where the floor and wall met. The lights also ran at the top where the wall and ceiling met, as well as the middle of the wall. Beneath their feet, black carpeting with silver chevrons marked their path, pointing towards the great door that stood before them. To the right of the door was a multi-colored control panel, blinking with lights.

Sean walked over to the control panel. The others noticed that he stood on a semi-raised platform. He placed his hand on a solid black portion of the control panel and looked directly into a black glassed panel. A thin red beam of light shot out and hit his eye while the panel flashed about his hand.

“Welcome, Sean,” a voice announced. Two giant circular locks spun counterclockwise, made a complete revolution before the seam of the door split. The great doors slid open, a hissing of steam escaping them. The group walked through the steam, stepping out and onto a metal framework, overlooking a vast expanse. Maya released a gasp, joining in with the murmurs of amazement with the other Rangers sans Sabrina who just took in the sight with silence.

There were four different computer banks at each of the directional points. Each one had a six-foot viewscreen. Various control boards and panels lined the places in front of the screens, blinking with multi-colored lights and avian twitters. At the places in between the computer banks, a large hexagonal pad of black stood, peaceful and quiet. The walls of the place were of the same darkened silver-ish color as the walls outside the doors. Looking up, they saw a visual representation of the Earth and the continents marked in different colors. Off to their right, a large door rested. However, their attention was focused on the center of the room.

In the center, a globe that bore a remarkable resemblance to the Viewing Globe of old stood silent. It was completely crystal with diamante rods in it and other mechanisms. Five different floor panels of their colors surrounded it. A black pole that jutted from a large hole in the ground supported the globe.

“Well?” Angela inquired, looking at them.

“It’s amazing!” Maya gasped.

“This place is HUGE!” Ashley commented, walking away from them to look at the single door with a blinking control panel.

Jason just shook his head, eyes wide at the complexity of the place. Sabrina, who just let her jaw drop, joined him.

“Follow me,” Sean said, gesturing for them to follow him. He began to walk down these rounded oblong stairs with black circles-in-circles on them. It wasn’t until the rest of the surprised group got on the lower level that they realized that the stairs were floating. Actually, they weren’t really stairs but blocks arranged in a pattern that resembled stairs.

“How…?” Maya asked, examining them.

“It’s called ‘gravimetal’,” Bill began to explain. He walked over to one of the blocks and removed it from its place by pressing a small button near the back of it. He held it up so that they could see beneath it. A small crystal panel was at the bottom of it and they could see a silver liquid sloshing around in it. “It is a powerful magnetic substance that when exposed to an opposite magnetic charge, floats and remains in place. It’s kind of like an alien version of lodestone.” He gestured back to the place where he removed the block and pointed to the blue panels on the floor. “If you look, you can see where the anti-magnetic charge comes from.”

“That is too cool right there,” Jason commented as Bill put the stair back. It unerringly snapped into place.

Sean smiled and led them to the Viewing Globe. He stepped up to a red colored panel. The Viewing Globe came to life, sparkles of energy playing around in it. Sean placed his hands out in front of him and a fluorescent outline of a control board popped up near his hand. He heard a collective gasp of the others and smiled again. He started typing in the air, calling up an image of the Rangers in action. He turned around and faced them.

“What you see here is a little bit of alien technology going to work. Precisely placed forcefield generators are embedded in the panels where each one of your symbols is. When you step near it, it will automatically recognize your biorhythm and activate this control panel you see before me. You can manipulate the image…” Sean said, as he played his fingers over the control board, little lights showing where his fingers were pressing down at. “…or call up minor, relevant data up from here.” He tapped again and a small viewscreen popped up in midair near his head. “Although we advise using the main computer banks, you can call up complex data here, too.”

“I guess a little alien tech goes a long way,” Sabrina said.

“Actually, that was Sean’s idea,” Angela commented.

Bill walked over to his panel, which sprang to life. “Sean had the idea, Angela and I helped refine it and voίla.”

“Morphenomenal,” Ashley breathed.

“Excuse me, Sean?” Angela asked. “Shouldn’t we introduce them to ‘Z’?”

Sean nodded and gestured for them to follow him as they walked up another flight of stairs to one of the black hexagonal pads in between the computer banks.

“This is Z.O.R.D.-1,” Sean announced. He turned to the blank pad and tapped it. “Where are you manners, Z.O.R.D.-1? Speak!”

“APOLOGIES, MASTER!” A great voice boomed. “I DIDN’T MEAN TO BE RUDE.”

“That’s okay, Z,” Sean said, smiling. “They require a visual interface.”

“AT ONCE, MASTER.”

Suddenly, an iridescent azure diagram of a bald head, popped onto the black pad.

“IS THIS SATISFACTORY?”

“Yes, Z.”

The Rangers looked at the pad for a moment before Maya started giggling. “Master?”

“Uh…yeah,” Sean looked down uncomfortably. “It was a glitch in the programming.”

Bill added, “We left it be.”

“We need each of you to speak to him so that he can get a voiceprint match. He’ll scan you, take a retina imprint, and give you your access clearance.”

Sabrina stepped forward and began to speak to Z.O.R.D.-1. Jason cocked his head to the side as he listened to the computer speak. He, then, turned to Bill. "Am I hearing things or does this computer sound familiar?"

Bill chuckled. "Yeah. It's Saba."

"Saba?" Jason raised an eyebrow. "White Tiger saber Saba?"

"Yep."

"How?"

"We wanted a computer that could think. We mapped out our brain algorithms, trying to build an artificial intelligence, but...it just wasn't the same. I guess we were thinking too far ahead of ourselves. The betas kept falling apart. So, I brought up Saba's consciousness which was saved after the Orb of Time incident. Angela took down the template for DECA from the Astro Megaship, built the very basis for consciousness imprinting and there you have it."

Jason nodded and moved forward a bit as the other Rangers were finishing with Z.O.R.D.-1. "He doesn't sound half as arrogant as he used to be."

"His consciousness degraded as time passed," Bill explained. "Something happened and he imprinted on Sean, thinking Sean to be his master."

"The 'glitch'?"

"Yeah."

Jason stared up at the glowing blue head and smiled. The reason for the interface was quite clear; a testament to Zordon's influence. "I'm Jason Lee Scott."

"WELCOME, JASON," Z.O.R.D.-1 said and the corner of his digitized lip turned up slightly. "IT IS AGREEABLE TO SEE YOU AGAIN, SIR."

"Same here, Z. Same here."

"Now that that's out of the way," Sean began, "we've got to show you the..."

The klaxon echoed loudly in the Command Chamber. The lights immediately dimmed and the room was filled with flashing crimson alert panels. Their attention immediately went to Sean who stared at the Viewing Globe.

"DISTURBANCE DETECTED IN ARLINGTON CIRCUS, MASTER," Z.O.R.D.-1 reported.

"On screen," Sean ordered.

The holographic emitters, tied in with the Thunderspace orbital satellites, projected the image of downtown Arlington within the Viewing Glove. There, amongst the brightly-colored buildings and multiple lighted structures, hordes of black creatures attacked the people. The AFPD took their shots at the weird creatures, but for every one they took out, twenty more appeared. Soon, they, too, were overwhelmed.

"What...are they?" Maya asked.

"Analysis, Angela," Sean ordered.

Fairweather went ahead and typed on one of the upper platform stations, graphical menus popping up to give her more options. "According to the scans, they're composed of some form of phased matter, highly charged with an energy I can only describe as negative."

"CONFIRMED, MASTER. THE ELEMENTS PRESENT IN THE CREATURES ARE VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL TO THE ELEMENTS PRESENT IN THIS UNIVERSE. HOWEVER, THERE IS A PHASE VARIANCE."

Sean raised his eyebrow. "Conclusion?"

"I'd say they were from another dimension," Angela said, taking off her glasses. "Like you."

Sean looked back at the globe, watching the carnage unfold. "Like me?"

"We've got to do something!" Jason exclaimed, immediately slipping into the role of leader. "Innocent people are getting hurt!"

"If you're going to give us new powers," Ashley said, "do it now!"

Sean cast his eyes back at Ashley before turning to Bill. "Take them to the Armory. Activate the Power Transfer."

"This way!" Bill shouted, already in motion towards one of the hyperportals. He pressed "09", the "Enter" key and the portal immediately energized. The team followed him into it.

-= BACK 2 ACTION =-

PART I / PART II / PART III / PART IV / PART V / PART VI / EPILOGUE