From The Ashes
by Cheryl Roberts

Chapter 8

An asteroid... barren... supposedly devoid of life... yet, Tommy could see the towers of the solar collectors rising from the rocky surface. There were buildings hidden beneath the rock a huge complex, visible only because the concealing boulders had been blown away by a power blast.

~*~

"Tommy, are you all right?" Jamie queried as he met up with his father in the shuttle bay; he had been absent from their quarters when Tommy woke up that morning. "You look unwell."

"A monster headache... I didn't sleep very well," Tommy admitted. "What a nightmare...."

"I, too, suffered from bad dreams... actually, bad memories," Jamie confessed. "Seeing the footage from that asteroid and reviewing the telemetry from the Megazord... it brought back all that had happened on the asteroid when Mother died."

"Was the dream like you were inside Kim's head somehow?" Tommy asked.

"You had the same dream?" Jamie gasped. Then he frowned. "I believe I may be at fault for your uneasy sleep. It appears I may have been broadcasting my own dream; I wonder if anyone else picked up on it."

"Was that really what happened it Kim?"

Jamie nodded. "Those were the impressions I received through our parent bond."

Tommy was too shaken to comment further. It was one thing to know the details, but another to actually feel... as if he'd actually been there....

"Tommy?"

He hadn't realized that Jamie was still talking to him.

"What?"

"Is this truly necessary?" Jamie complained, gesturing to his wheel chair in disgust. "I feel ridiculous."

"If we want to keep up the pretense that you're incapacitated, it is," Tommy reminded him. "By the way, where is Lris? I thought she'd be here to see you off."

Tommy had a good idea where Jamie had been that morning... probably not too long after waking up from that nightmare.

"I slipped off without waking her," his son said sheepishly, for all the world like an adolescent who'd been caught in some mischief.

"Coward," Tommy snickered.

"Laugh if you want," Jamie retorted, "but something tells me you would have done the same thing with Mother."

"You got that right," Tommy grudgingly agreed.

"The shuttle is ready for boarding; the team has already teleported ahead," Beys announced as she disembarked from the space craft, having run the pre-flight check.

"I wish we could teleport," Tommy sighed.

"You are the one who said the shuttle was necessary to keep up appearances," the former Pink Ranger reminded him.

"Are you sure you would want to chance a teleport?" Jamie laughed. "After your experience with Twyn's teleporters, I did not think you would ever want to go near a Threan teleporter again."

"Don't remind me," Tommy groaned, feeling a twinge of nausea at the memory of the rough ride.

"There you are!"

Both men halted at the surprisingly imperious declaration. Jamie cringed. Lris did not sound at all happy.

"Now, Lris...." Jamie began placatingly. "We discussed this last night; you have to stay here...."

"I know that. I just cannot believe you were going to sneak off without a word." Her tone was more hurt than angry. "Still, I would rather be going with you; after all, I am a Ranger in training."

Jamie cupped her cheek affectionately, his eyes softening. "You would be too much of a distraction."

Tommy blushed, having no doubts as to what sort of distraction his son meant.

"You should have come to my quarters sooner...."

"Ease up, you two; company," Tommy interjected, grateful from the reprieve, and he had to wonder if their friends had ever felt this uncomfortable when he and Kim had been mushy.

What had caught his attention, were two figures hurrying across the hangar towards them. One was a male Threan of indeterminate age; his coloring was dark, reminiscent of Jamie's. His companion was the youngest Threan Tommy had yet seen. Reed slender, bright wide brown eyes, blonde hair curling close around her head, she appeared to be a typical energetic, excited teenager.

"Nahl and Shan," Jamie informed him.

Jamie's eldest son and his granddaughter my great-great granddaughter, Tommy extrapolated.

"Father," Nahl greeted his sire; concern for his parent was written all over his face. "We came as soon as Twyn contacted us. Isht wanted to be here, but she is with her ailing grandsire, and Wyn and his lifebond are overseas.... Are you all right? What happened? Twyn gave us very few details."

"The 'what' will have to wait for my return, but I am as well as can be expected. Given time, the healers expect me to recover fully."

"If your injuries are as serious as Twyn said, why are you taking a shuttle trip?" the fifteen year old Shan blurted out. "Should you not be resting?"

"I should, but the Imbera cannot wait for me to recover; I am needed."

Tommy had to hide a smile; Shan looked as if she wanted to ask a million more questions, but Nahl quelled her with a look. It was enough for him that Jamie had been summoned on Imbera business, but it was not sufficient for his granddaughter. Tommy flashed Lris a teasing grin.

"You and Shan should get along just great."

The cadet shot him a questioning glance.

"That's the other reason we need to you stay behind," he improvised. "It's important we keep Shan safe until this is all over. We're counting on you to do that without raising suspicions."

Lris nodded her understanding, then she shot Jamie an accusing stare. "You could have filled me in on this last night."

"I was... distracted," Jamie whispered back. Then, he proceeded to introduce his liaison from the Academy.

"A cadet from the Academy and of the House of Sahr...!" Shan gushed girlishly. "Mer and Dith my cousins have just entered the Academy. I want to go, too, someday, but those two will not answer any of my questions or take me to see the campus or...."

"I believe I could arrange something," Lris offered when she could get a word in edgewise.

"Thank you!" Shan squealed with delight.

"We really should be going," Tommy informed Jamie. Both were trying not to laugh at Lris' long-suffering expression.

Jamie bid his family farewell and he and Tommy boarded the shuttle.

"A brilliant ploy," Jamie complimented him on the inspired means of distracting Lris.

"We may not think so if Shan wears out Lris' patience," Tommy cautioned.

"Good point."

"I noticed you didn't introduce me," Tommy observed. "And Nahl seemed to have a lack of curiosity."

"To him, you fell under the heading of 'Imbera business - classified.' I had hoped he would make the connection on his own the way Twyn did, but the main reason I did not volunteer an explanation was to spare you Shan's interrogation. She would have questioned you to death."

"Thanks for saving my life," Tommy laughed.

"Do not thank me yet; I have only postponed the inevitable. She is as tenacious as Mother was when her curiosity was aroused. And believe me, Shan was plenty curious."

~*~

Once the shuttle was off the ground, Tommy was able to sit back and meditate, readying himself for what awaited them on the satellite base. After the dream he had last night, he had a very uneasy feeling about what they'd find there. However, he had to admit to feeling pleased that their ruse to get Shan under guard seemed to have come off without arousing undue interest.

At least we have all the Imberas or potential Imberas in one place, he reflected with some amusement.

"Yourself included."

"I wondered where you've been," Tommy mused with some concern. The presence sounded very tired and very far away and hadn't surfaced at all the previous day. "And what do you mean myself included?"

"I include you because you're a potential Imbera, too just as Kimberly was because of her connection to the Morphin' Grid."

"I thought the Imbera power could only be passed on to Kim's descendants."

"They're your descendants, too. The power would recognize your genetic signature."

"Great, now I'm a target for Norzod, too," Tommy grumbled, which elicited a laugh from his spectral contact.

"I would think you'd be used to that by now, considering you've been in the bad guys' sights since Rita first got a hold of you."

"Maybe I should have a bull's-eye tattooed on my forehead," he sighed resignedly. "You've been awfully quiet. You okay?"

"It takes me longer to recoup my strength after each time I contact you," the Voice explained, "but thank you for your concern."

"You know, I think I've finally figured out who you are," Tommy confessed.

"Oh?"

"Since Jamie swears you can't be who I originally thought you were, I guess you have to be Atir."

"And how did you determine this?"

"Who else besides Kim would a) be someone who had sacrificed much to keep Threa safe and b) know anything about Earth and the Morphin' Grid."

"I could be anybody; there are no secrets from the dead."

"Apparently there are; after all you don't know what Norzod is up to, just that he's back."

His guide had no comment.

~*~

The hold where the asteroid chunk had been housed had been de-pressurized; the Rangers had wanted to take no risks in exposing the artifacts to atmosphere after their being in the vacuum of space for so long. Tommy and Jamie had to don space suits to accompany the six Threan defenders.

"Is something wrong?" Tommy asked his son as they paused by an observation window outside the hold. Jamie stared at the barren, debris-strewn vista in silence.

"I half expect to see myself kneeling out there, holding Mother's body," the one-time Imbera choked out at last. "It's almost too perfect, Tommy."

"Are you absolutely certain that Norzod's asteroid was destroyed?" Tommy queried again, though they had covered this ground the other. He recalled too many times they had thought a monster or machine destroyed only to have it rise again.

"As I said, I did not actually see the asteroid blow up," Jamie responded. "The shields on Norzod's ship were too damaged to allow me to look at the sun for long. However, I watched as long as I could... Norzod's asteroid had been trapped in the sun's gravitational pull, and the ship's telemetry recorded an explosion of great magnitude in the corona. They detected no interference with the asteroid's trajectory. I do not see how much could have survived or escaped from the star's pull."

"I don't either, but stranger things have happened," Tommy concurred. "Come on. The others are waiting on us."

Though he knew he was in an enclosed area, Tommy still felt very much as if he were drifting in space as he followed the Power team across the dense rock. It was far too quiet, which made him antsy. Something felt very wrong. In a way, it reminded him of how he always felt when he walked past the bend in the path by the pond... the spot where Goldar ambushed him the first time Rita had stolen his powers. He always felt cold inside... like someone was stepping on his grave.

We are stepping on someone's grave: Kim's!

The Rangers spread out to cover more ground, heading in the direction of the remains of the zord and the exposed portions of the underground buildings. Jamie had continued forward in his chair, seemingly lost in painful memories. Tommy, however, had paused atop a slight rise to survey the field before him.

No wonder Jamie is so spooked; this is a perfect copy of what I saw in that dream last night. All that's missing is the crater....

"Jamie!" Tommy called out excitedly, eager to share his observation and put his son's anxiety at rest.

"Over here, Tommy."

Tommy glanced towards an outcropping of rock to find Jamie trying futilely to maneuver his chair over the uneven surface. Tommy grinned, knowing his son had to be muttering all sorts of curses at least, that's what he'd be doing in his son's shoes. As he headed towards Jamie, he stopped short, looking around sharply. Something had caught his peripheral vision... a movement in the shadows.... He checked the location of Jax and the Rangers; they weren't close by. Tommy turned to the gap in the craggy rocks where he had caught the flicker of motion. His investigations turned up nothing, but he could have sworn he'd seen someone....

One of the technicians, he tried telling himself, so why then did he feel so uneasy? There had been something not quite right about that shadow....

"Can you help me get this contraption over this hump?" Jamie grumbled, distracting him from his musings.

"Sure," Tommy said absently, pushing musings aside for a moment. Once he had Jamie up the slight incline, he asked, "Still think this is the real thing?"

"It cannot be, but yet, the more I see of it, the more I am unable to shake the feeling...."

"So where's the crater?"

"Crater?"

"The one we should be standing in the one made when Kim transferred the power to you."

Later, Tommy would not have been able to say what exactly tipped him off. There had been no sound... nothing visible. There had been no outward indication save for a sudden chill which shuddered down his spine and raised the hackles on the back of his neck.

"Jamie down!" Tommy shouted, pushing his son aside, sending him flying from his chair and sliding down the incline. Seconds later, an explosion blew apart the crest of the rise, sending Tommy tumbling pell mell after his son. The pair were pelted with rocks and debris, and Tommy flung himself across his son's prone body as the mini avalanche swept over them.

The blast drew the attention of the Rangers. They rushed over and began digging the pair out even before the dust settled.

"First Born... Tommy... can you hear me!"

"Are they still alive? Can the scanners...?"

Prist, can you 'feel' them...?"

"They live...."

"Thank goodness they had on space suits."

Even as the rescuers frantically worked to unbury the two, father and son were doing their part to extricate themselves. It was not long before they blinked against the glare of the lights of the hangar bay.

"First Born, are you all right?" Brath queried, mindful of the Jamie's (supposed) injuries.

"I will be," Jamie mumbled, battered, bruised, disoriented but intact. "If Tommy had not pushed me when he did.... Tommy?"

Tommy, staggered forward, shaking his head as if to clear it. "Anybody get the number of the zord that stepped on me?"

"What happened?" the Red Ranger asked.

"...saw something... or someone... in the shadows," Tommy said groggily. "I didn't get a good look...."

"Is that how you anticipated the explosion?" Jamie wondered.

"I just had a feeling.... Has anyone checked out ground zero? What caused that explosion?"

Jamie laughed weakly. "You sound just like Mother. She could be barely conscious, and she would be more worried about what was going on in a battle than about herself. But then, she always said she learned that from her team leaders."

"Emd, Synn and Zol have gone to investigate," Brath assured them.

"I guess this takes care of our missing crater," Tommy joked grimly.

"What do you mean?" the Red Ranger wondered.

"Tommy pointed out that while this was a close replica of Norzod's last battlefield, it was missing the crater created by the Imbera powers during the transfer from Mother to me," Jamie said.

"That explains why I could sense no aura of death," Prist spoke up, "but it does not account for the life I sensed earlier."

"Perhaps that was whoever set off the explosion," Brath ventured.

"Has this area been sealed off?" Jamie asked suddenly.

"The area should have been locked down at the moment the explosion happened standard procedure."

Jamie nodded, then turned his attention back to more pressing questions. "Why would anyone go to all the trouble of recreating Norzod's asteroid base?"

"I'm more worried about how they were able to do such a good job of it," Tommy commented.

Before that line of questioning could be pursued, they were interrupted by the returning trio of Rangers.

"Find anything?" Brath queriend.

"This," Synn reported, and held out the twisted remains of a black metal box.

"Without analyzing it, we cannot be sure, but it could be some form of detonator," Zol said.

"It was in the crater... buried fairly deep, but it is impossible to know if it was placed there prior to our taking in the asteroid or if it became buried after the explosion," Emd added.

"If that's a detonator, was it on a timer? Or was it set off at close range?" Tommy asked.

"And what was the purpose?" Jamie speculated. "While the explosion did some damage, it was insufficient to damage the base."

"Unless it was meant for a specific target," Zol reasoned.

"Could this have been another attempt on the First Born's life?" Synn asked.

Brath shook his head. "How could anyone have known the First Born would come to the satellite base that was only agreed upon last night, and the device had to be here before we secured this section."

"Unless the shadow Tommy saw belonged to someone who stowed away on this hunk of rock and just planted it," Jamie speculated.

Tommy was gripped by a sudden dread. "Where's...."

"JAX!"

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