From The Ashes
by Cheryl Roberts

Chapter 7

"What's up?" Tommy asked, entering the Command Center's main chamber, still trying to shake off the effects of the most God-awful teleport he'd ever endured. Threan teleports should have been able to handle human transportees better than that! He wasn't sure his stomach would ever stop churning. At least, changing clothes enabled him to settled down somewhat. As per Bey's request, Vlar had found him one of the black, form-fitting jumpsuits, and somehow, he had managed to find one with white trimmings.

The head of security and the Imbera were bent over the long-range scanners. Beys had made herself useful at the communications console.

"A large asteroid entering the system," Vlar reported in clipped, urgent tones. "Its trajectory will bring it crashing into Threa."

"Are the Rangers going to destroy it or divert it?" Tommy wondered.

"Synn recommends diversion," Jax spoke up. "The meteor shower from the resultant debris would still do considerable damage not all the pieces would burn up in the outer atmosphere.

"I have managed to lock onto their signal; the interference is very unusual. If I did not know better, I would say that the transmission was partially jammed," Beys muttered. Even as she spoke, the Viewing Globe flickered to life.

"... picking up unusual readings on the surface of the asteroid," Zol was saying.

"What sort of readings?" Brath queried. "Emd, are the rockets ready? If this thing gets any closer to Threa...."

"All I need to know is whether to go for deflection or blast it," the Green Ranger said.

"I am picking up traces of technology... or at least technological artifacts," the Blue Ranger reported. "I cannot get a precise scan, but I would theorize that it could be debris from a crashed ship or...."

"I have a visual," Synn announced. "I see what looks like the remains of some buildings and .... By my first Ancestors! Command Center, can you confirm ... ?"

"Confirmed, Yellow Ranger; those are pieces of an older model Megazord."

Suddenly, Jax's eyes rolled back, and Tommy was hard pressed to catch him.

"What happened?" he asked as he lowered the Imbera to the floor. He was reasonably certain this was no ordinary faint.

"He has 'gone out,'" Beys explained. "He has sent his consciousness out... probably to investigate the wreckage."

"Foolish boy," Vlar grunted. "Twyn has told him how dangerous it is to do that... how vulnerable it leaves him. Only in the direst of circumstances...."

Even as the elder spoke, the young White Ranger began to come around.

"No... good... too far for me yet...." he stammered weakly.

From his words, Tommy received the impression that Jax wasn't fully trained in the use of his Imbera powers. From everything that Jamie had told him, the Imbera had the potential to level planets and communicate halfway across the galaxy.

"Prist, you are close. What can you sense?" Jax asked of his Pink Ranger.

Where the previous Pink Ranger had been a healer, her younger sister was an empath and telepath of the highest order. She was more skilled at sending her consciousness out than Jax was.

In the Viewing Globe, the team in the Command Center watched as the Pink Ranger went limp in her seat. She wasn't 'out' long.

"Life form...." she began hesitantly. "... impression too confusing... cannot discern if alive or dead. Some kind of psychic residue... very powerful traces...."

"We will have to go down and search to make certain nothing is down there," Brath decided.

"Can the location be narrowed down?" Jax asked as he recovered further. "If you can extract a section of the asteroid to be brought back for examination, the rest can be destroyed."

"Prist, can you give me a general area to search?" Zol requested, and the two put their heads together. They were silent for several moments. Then . ... "It looks as if the traces are centered around the debris field. We should be able to carve out what we need with relative ease."

"Emd, power up the Solar Saber, and get to work," Brath ordered.

"Take the pieces to our satellite base until we see what we have," Vlar recommended. Then, he seemed to remember himself and shot Jax an apologetic look.

"Precisely what I would have said had I not been gathering my wits still," Jax responded dismissively, grateful for the experienced advice. This was not the time to nurse injured pride.

Tommy turned away from the Viewing Globe and wandered over to Vlar's side.

"Any chance Jamie could see those scans?"

"I can make copies for him. May I ask why?"

"Just a gut feeling... old Megazord debris on an asteroid... something tells me he'll be able to identify the wreckage."

~*~

And Tommy wasn't wrong.

Healer Ming had released Jamie from the infirmary, and he was comfortably ensconced in his private quarters. Lris had things she needed to take care of, so she gratefully accepted Tommy's offer to spell her.

"I sincerely hope we either solve this mystery soon or my stomach mends quickly, or else Lris and I will be answering the demands of our bonding stitches or no," he joked soberly.

Tommy was learning that the urge to mate once a bond was formed was impossible to refuse. Trying to do so often had serious health consequences.

"Is there any way a healer could work on you without forming a link with you?" Tommy asked.

"We could ask Lris, but I think it would make for imperfect healing. The link puts the healer in tune with one's particular phsyiology, and my genetic quirks would only add to the difficulty."

"Before Lris gets back, I want you to take a look at these and tell me what you think," Tommy said, handing over the print outs.

Jamie's face paled instantly.

"Where did these come from?" the First Born choked out in a shaky voice.

"An asteroid that just made it's way into the solar system on a collision course with Threa."

"This cannot be possible! Those..." Jamie pointed to a pair of fallen spires, "... are from Norzod's asteroid power plant. Those..." He indicated the metal debris sticking up out of the rocky surface, "... are the remains of Megazord I. This is where the first team of Rangers died... where Norzod was destroyed... where Mother died."

"Didn't you tell me that you sent that asteroid into the heart of a sun?" Tommy recalled.

"I did. My computer registered an explosion," Jamie insisted. "It's remotely possible that something might have survived something small, but it would be unlikely to have escaped the gravitational pull of the star."

"But not totally impossible."

"Tommy, even if something had escaped, the surface of the surviving rock would have been nothing more than melted slag. The debris would have been nothing be unrecognizable lumps."

"Were there any pictures or descriptions of the asteroid's surface before it was destroyed?"

"There was my report, but I did not get into minute detail about the conditions of the wreckage nor of the relative positions of the zord and the buildings. This print out looks as if it could have been taken from an eyewitness account, but there were only three of us who were there to witness the end of the battle, and I am the only remaining survivor."

"What about the telemetry from your zord?"

Father and son looked up to see Twyn in the doorway, accompanied by the oldest Threan Tommy had ever seen. She actually looked old!

"Twyn!" Jamie exclaimed, immeasurably surprised to see his daughter. Tommy and Vlar had not yet had time to tell him of her decision to join them.

"I came as quickly as I could," the caramel-haired woman said; it was obvious that it was taking every ounce of strength she possessed to be there.

"Thank you," was the heart-felt response. Then, Jamie shifted his attention to the elder with her. "Marg. It has been much too long."

"But you have not changed much still single-handedly depleting the infirmary's supply of bandages and ointments," the sharp-tongue woman noted.

"Marg was D'Ez's chief assistant," Jamie explained to Tommy. "D'Ez was not a native Threan; he arrived with Atir, but he was a flesh shaper and taught Marg everything he knew and then some."

Tommy vaguely recalled Kim mentioning D'Ez as Alpha to Atir's Zordon, and he wondered if D'Ez was the mirror of their Zedd. However, he was heartened to know that Marg was someone who had been around the Command Center since Kimberly's days.

"Let me have a look at your abdomen," Marg instructed.

"I cannot allow you," Jamie demurred, to which the retired healer raised an inquiring eyebrow. "We think Trin was murdered because of her healer's link with Jax...."

"... and you do not want to endanger other healers," Marg concluded. "I know. Twyn told me what was going on. While it is a prudent precaution, my hands have known you since you were an infant. I will not need a deep healer's link to fix you up."

"That's great," Tommy sighed. He really hated seeing Jamie in pain.

"I thought you and Vlar said my being injured served a purpose," Jamie began.

"So we leave the bandages on and don't tell anyone you're better," Tommy answered.

Tommy watched with interest as Marg laid her hands on Jamie's abdomen. A soft glow spread out from her fingertips and enveloped Jamie's midsection. The luminance then penetrated his body, and Tommy could see the flesh knitting before his very eyes.

"Of course, if it were not for D'Ez, I would never have been able to work on your mother or you," Marg remarked as she concluded the healing process. "He taught me how to open your closed minds to form the necessary healing links; without that, healers would never have been able to work on you."

"I brought Marg not only because I thought she would be acceptable help for Father, but also because the lab that was raided was something she and D'Ez worked on," Twyn interjected.

"It was not so much a lab as an archive," Marg took up the tale. "D'Ez conceived of it, but it was not built until after his disappearance. As to what it contained: a wealth of medical information. There had been a library for historical data and for technical schemata, but there was no repository for medical data. There was an enormous amount of information due to all the work done on Kimberly to enable her to exist on Threa and on the changes wrought on Jamie to make him biologically compatible with Threans. Plus, there was data on all the other Rangers, but primarily on all the Imberas."

"Which was why it was under the jurisdiction of the team healer, which was why Trin was so interested in investigating the break in," Tommy concluded.

"But who would want to steal medical data?" Twyn asked.

"Marg, do you think you could take a look at the archive and see what, if anything, is missing?" Tommy requested.

"I assume that whoever ransacked the lab also wiped the computers," Marg murmured with a frown. "We had kept a computerized inventory." She sighed and considered further. "There are two possibilities. One would be the updates that were supposed to be given to the Imbera on an annual basis. The other would be my private journals. Those would only cover the period I was in charge of the archives, though."

"You kept a copy of the inventory in your private journals?" Tommy asked skeptically.

Marg shrugged. "I realize it could have been a huge security risk, but until the Command Center had been breached and D'Ez abducted, such was not a consideration, and even afterward I just could not break the habit."

"What about the Imbera's annual reports or whatever? Where would those be located?"

"On disks that are kept here in my quarters," Jamie said. "Mother thought it best to keep those summaries as back up files and to keep them in a secure location outside the Command Center, just in case."

"How quickly can you get your journals, Marg?"

"Just point me to a teleporter."

"All right. Jamie, you and Beys take a look at the historical and technical files to see if there was any visual record of your last battle with Norzod. Marg, after you get your journals, you and I had better take a look at that lab. Twyn, find those annual reports and see if you can compile a list of the medical archive information since Marg retired," Tommy directed.

No one objected to his taking command.

~*~

"Beys and I found nothing," Jamie reported as the investigative team gathered in the family quarters for dinner and discussion. Vlar was able to join them at last and was brought up to date on their inquiries. "There is no record of any visual telemetry from my zord during the final battle on file. There are audio records, but they do not give a precise location of anything on that asteriod."

Tommy appreciated how difficult it must have been for his son to listen to those recordings and relive his mother's final moments.

"Did anyone else have any better luck?"

"I'm afraid not," Tommy said glumly.

"The damage in the archive is extensive. It will take some time to determine what, if anything, is missing," Marg added, "but to the good, my notes have proven to be excessively thorough."

"Twyn, did you come up with anything?" Tommy asked as gently as he could. His granddaughter looked even more haunted by the day's activities than Jamie.

"I searched the annual reports and made a list; although, it is not very detailed," Twyn said, her tone bone weary. "Trin only made one report before her death, and it mostly contained the results of team physicals. She made a footnote that a more detailed report regarding my... injury would be forthcoming, but apparently she died before she made it."

"So, we are no closer to answering any of the questions we have formulated than we were earlier," Vlar summarized, feeling the gatherings' overall sense of dejection.

"There is one question we could possibly answer," Tommy said pointedly, and while he volunteered to be the 'bad guy,' he couldn't bring himself to ask Twyn the questions about her assault.

In the end, the question was self-evident.

"You want to know what happened that night," Twyn gulped, her voice quavering.

"Not the end result, just the events leading up to it," Tommy clarified, trying to make this as easy as possible for her.

It was obvious that she did not wish to speak of it, but Twyn did not retreat from what she had to do.

"I was on the house grounds. It was quite late at night," she began in clipped, wooden tones. She closed her eyes as if to refuse to see the memories indelibly burned into her damaged brain.

"Of course it was night," Vlar chuckled. "Since you were a little girl, it was your favorite time to go walking; you loved the peace and solitude...."

"And the occasional dance in the moonlight," Beys added, an impish twinkle in her eyes.

In spite of her pain, Twyn blushed, and Tommy wondered what was so special about dancing in the moonlight. However, no explanation was forthcoming, and Twyn resumed her tale.

"The moon was high that night. Perfect for dancing," she murmured self- consciously. "I was alone and was not on my guard, but I cannot believe I was so caught up in the music of the night that I never heard him coming."

"Him?" Tommy pounced on the pronoun.

Twyn nodded. "There was only one attacker. Taller than I... broader... there seemed to be something not quite right about him disproportionate. He had very long arms and did not move like a Threan. He lacked... grace. However, he was exceptionally strong and swift. He was dressed all in form fitting black; his facial features were not visible. There was nothing with which to identify him.

"Our struggle was as fierce as it was brief. It is all a blur now, but one moment I swear I had the best of him with my powers, and the next he had me pinned and was reaching into my skull literally.

"This was not the touch of a flesh shaper or healer. He reached inside me and my mind caught fire. I could feel him destroying me little by little."

Twyn drew her knees up and tightened her arms around them.

"He was sifting around as if in search," she continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "But he was not after thoughts; he was after my powers. I did the only thing I could do. Before he totally destroyed me, I sent the powers out to Jax.

"After that, I remember nothing until I woke up in the infirmary."

"I was the one who found Twyn," Vlar took up the tale. "I knew she had gone out as was her wont, and when I saw the bird of flame the flare of her powers I knew something awful had happened. I teleported... but it was already too late. She was the only one in the glade when I arrived; her attacker had left her for dead."

That Twyn still wished she had died that night went unspoken but understood nonetheless. For a few moments, no one said anything, and Twyn curled in on herself, shaking violently with her resurgent emotions.

"I know this was hard for you," Tommy began, reaching out to lay a hand on her shoulder, "but I'm glad you told us. Your description of your attacker matches that of the guy I saw when Jamie was nearly kidnaped and that of what Prist was able to tell us of Trin's last observations about the archive raider."

"As you surmised, Tommy; all three events are related," Jamie murmured.

"Someone wants the Imberas dead," Beys remarked.

"Or incapacitated," Marg added.

"But who? And why?" Twyn demanded.

Questions to which no one had answers to yet.

"Who did you say was next in line to hold the Imbera powers?" Tommy asked suddenly. "Thus far, the attackers have concentrated on past and present Imberas, but since Jax doesn't have a child yet, there has to be someone...."

"Shan, Wyn's daughter," Jamie answered. "My great-granddaughter through Twyn's brother Nahl, but no one else particularly Shan knows about that. I identified her potential at her birth."

"It would have to be either Shan or Kath," Twyn pointed out. "They are the only two females in the bloodline thus far."

"Why does that make them more likely to have the potential?" Tommy asked.

"The Power thus far has passed from female to male and back since Grandmother held it. It is as if it is maintaining a balance of some sort."

"We should find a way to bring Shan here without raising suspicions," Tommy recommended.

"Is she not safer away from the family complex?" Jamie ventured. "Thus far, all the attacks have happened here or at the Command Center."

"True, but we cannot count on that to continue," Vlar said in support of Tommy. "It would be better if she was here for us to keep under supervision."

"Marg, what is it?" Beys asked, noting the intent expression on the retired healer's face. "You have been scowling like that since Twyn began talking."

All eyes turned to the elder.

"The description of Twyn's attacker is familiar to me somehow... as if I had seen someone who was built and moved like that. But I cannot recall...." she sighed in frustration.

"It will come to you," Jamie assured her.

"Just keep trying," Tommy encouraged. Maybe if they could narrow down what species the infiltrators were, they could make some headway with this mystery. However, as he contemplated Marg's ruminations, he thought of a question he wished to put to Jamie but later, after everyone else had gone.

~*~

"What did Norzod look like?" Tommy asked when he and his son were finally alone.

The query took Jamie completely by surprise. "Norzod? Ah, you are thinking about Marg's statement about recognizing the descriptions."

"It's a start," Tommy said with a shrug.

"I can only give you a rough description as I never saw him without his armor. He was completely encased in it. In body type, I would say he was slightly taller than you and quite a bit broader a more human physiology than Threan."

"Was there anything awkward or disproportionate about him?"

"No... but there was something about him...he all but radiated power... strength.... Here, I believe I can pull up some unclassified footage of him," Jamie offered, crossing to the data terminal. Tommy watched over his shoulder as he called up the requisite file.

The screen flickered to life, and a shiver of dread shuddered down Tommy's spine.

Darth Vader has nothing on this guy! he mused grimly. Even Lord Zedd did not strike the chord within him that Norzod did. The gun-metal gray armor bristled with spines and spikes but no visible armaments. There was something about the helmet, too, that made one feel as if the wearer was looking right through you, glaring balefully into the depths of one's soul, making the scrutinized feel as if nothing was secret or sacred any longer. But more than the lethal menace in the metal suit, it was the way Norzod carried himself that conveyed his power, strength and sheer black-heartedness. Tommy could not see him tolerating fools like Goldar or Rito or Elgar. He had the sense that there were no second chances with this being. Failure meant death.

And Kim... my Kim... led the Rangers against this guy? he gaped in silent astonishment.

"You see what I mean about the body type?" Jamie queried, interrupting Tommy's reflections.

It took the former White Ranger a moment to cast off the grip the images had on him. However, he did see. For all intents and purposes, Norzod could have been an ordinary human under the menacing metal.

"That's definitely not the type of body I glimpsed in your room," he admitted.

"Let us see if we can put together a composite sketch; the others can add their observations later," Jamie suggested, his fingers poised over the keyboard.

"I'd say he was Threan tall with human bulk," Tommy began, trying to put his observations in order. "He makes me think of the NBA players who top seven feet but are too skinny."

At Jamie's prompting, the computer displayed the image.

"Lengthen the arms... there," Tommy directed, "and give the back of his head a more cone-like shape. Uh huh... that's it."

"You said he was masked. So we have no facial features to input."

"No, but if we can do a profile angle, I can give a few more details," Tommy said. "When he walked, he was sort of hunched over, like this upper body was too heavy for the rest of him, and I had the impression that if he had to get anywhere in a hurry, he'd walk with his hands like a gorilla does."

After Jamie made the last of the adjustments, he studied the silhouette on the screen. "Marg is correct. There is something familiar about this, but I cannot place it."

"One of Norzod's flunkies?" Tommy wondered.

"No, they were human-like in physical type, like their master," Jamie elaborated, "but I have the feeling that my recollection of this other being dates back to the days of the first war with Norzod."

"Don't push it tonight," Tommy advised. "It'll come back to you."

Jamie nodded. "You are right. Plus, as much as I hate to admit it, I am rather worn out, in spite of Marg's work on me. I had best get some sleep if I plan to visit the satellite base with you tomorrow and do not try to talk me out of going."

Tommy had told the others that Jax had asked him to accompany the Rangers to the lunar base to examine the debris field on the asteroid.

"While it risks blowing your cover of being injured, I think we need to have you there. After all, you're the only one who'd know if this was the real thing or not," Tommy said.

"Then I shall bid you good night."

Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Epilogue