TimeFire
03-02-2008, 10:07 PM
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A Power Rangers: Taskforce prologue
20 Light-years from the planet Earth, farther and more remote than it sounds, an anonymous cluster of asteroids and stellar debris bobbed like balloons along the currents of space.
Looming among them was a rogue moon, having once served as inspiration to the civilisation blossoming beneath it, and even a home to some of the galaxies’ hardier animal life.
Now all of that was gone. The moons orbit had decayed until finally, stronger forces had snatched it up and dragged it across open space. Now it was simply another point along the trade routes, an obstacle to be avoided by passing commercial liners and freight ships.
Battered by millennia of meteor impacts, it had a surface of jagged peaks and networked caves. Its thinning atmosphere still clung, bloody-mindedly to the surface. But indigenous life was now the dust and fragments under the boots of the pilot, stepping shakily from the radiating wreckage of his one-man craft.
He was clearly wounded and badly shaken, enough so that the slow, tentative steps he took looked like his first on solid ground. Only his shape was visible under the sickly minimal light from the neighbouring stars. He was sturdily built, dressed in dark fatigues. After a moment he stopped in his place, visibly listing. It seemed an enormous effort just to stay upright. But more than that, it was his awareness of his surroundings; the aggressive geography of the place, the forbidding growl from the low skies and, above it all, the plain, primal knowledge that he was being watched.
* * *
From his crouched position on the promontory above, the aliens gaze followed unblinkingly the pilot’s progress.
There really was nowhere for either of them to go.
With clarity impossible in a human, the alien figure spotted the small device strapped to the wrist of the pilot, who stabbed at the control keys. He also scratched at his skin now and then, feeling the irritation of the grit in the air. The alien felt it too, but his plated skin had a hard, armoured texture, and he’d endured far worse.
The pilot paused, apparently having no success and opened the pack he had retrieved from the wreckage. He sorted through it in a business-like manner that made the alien take note. First the pilot had tried to establish communications, only to find this was impossible. Someone less experienced would have wasted time on futile further attempts. Instead he took stock of supplies. This creature, whoever he was, went about things with a military efficiency.
* * *
Leaning against a cave wall, Eric Myers scratched at the bristles on his jaw. For some odd reason, of all the supplies lost in the crash, his shaver would be missed the most. Growing up, he had always taken pride in being immaculately turned out. Now, for the first time in years, he would have to perform his duties unshaven. That, more than the meagre food supplies or the single emergency flare, was what hit home the dire state of things.
He allowed himself one last glance at the Eagle, its main fuselage buried in the dirt and its nose section pointed towards the sky in a way another man might have found poetic.
She deserved better he thought.
No. Don’t get sentimental.
It had been one hell of a crash. But he’d walked away from it that was all that mattered. And the mission wasn’t over yet. He turned towards the cave, appearing not to notice the long shadow that crossed the cave floor like a ghost. Eric kneeled, supporting himself against the wall, and opened his miniaturised tool kit just enough to reach inside. Whoever was behind him would had to have been leaning over his shoulder to see the hold-out pistol, but Eric was taking no chances. This guy knew how to track and hunt. He was stealthy and the Quantum Ranger, as he was known millions of miles from here, had no intention of being caught off guard.
Eric hunched over, rolling his weight on to one knee, presenting himself as vulnerable. It was an opportunity for one of them.
Then, in that instant, he felt it. The moment was right.
He dropped forward, rolled and twisted on his good heel, silently cursing the pain that caused the slightest wobble as he came to the draw and fire crouch. But his arm was steady and his aim solid. He wouldn’t miss.
He couldn’t. He wouldn’t miss.
The alien snorted through its long snout. His long muscular arms were folded across a broad chest, giving way to armoured shoulders. Enormous deep-set eyes took in his opponents’ proximity, stature and weaponry. There was no expression on the aliens’ blue scaled face. Just those eyes.
Anubis Cruger and Eric Myers stared at each other without a word.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, the two were in the exact same positions as before.
Eric’s injured leg was beginning to feel cold. He continually flexed the toes of his other foot to stave off the numbness.
“Look, I’m not here to make any incursions into anybodies territory. You may notta noticed but my ship took a nose dive onto this rock. I’d be just as happy to see me leave as you.”
“But the fact remains” said Cruger “you were in Sirian space without authorisation. Otherwise you’d have been told to avoid this area as hazardous.”
“I didn’t even know this was Sirian space. My charts say your system was light years from here. If you’ve extended things this far out, why weren’t there beacons in orbit? Or ships patrolling the border?”
“You would have been warned by our sentry fighters.”
Eric started to sigh. It turned into a dry cough, then a laugh. If Wes could see me here and now, he thought.
Eric generally reserved laughter to punctuate his own words of scorn. But at that moment, in this rocky hellhole, perched on an injured ankle and pointing his gun at what was unquestionably a very large, very disgruntled blue dog on two legs, even Eric had to see the funny side.
Cruger tilted his huge head at the sound, presumably hearing it on many different frequencies with his sharply pointed ears.
Eric caught his breath and decided to very slowly lower his blaster.
“That is not wise” said Cruger, matter-of-factly.
“Well” said Eric “are you armed?”
A small pause then Cruger said simply and quietly, “I have no weapon.”
There was no capitulation in his voice. He simply didn’t need a weapon, was the message. Eric nodded and holstered the pistol inside his vest. The movement threw his balance and he had to grab for the wall to keep from falling on his face. The big dog didn’t move.
Minutes passed slowly, silently.
Eric caught his breath and started to build a fire.
Cruger stepped inside the cave mouth and turned his back to Eric.
* * *
Some while later, Eric reasoned it couldn’t have been longer than an hour, the fire he had put together with what little petrified wood he could find and his distress flare (useless in these surroundings) was crackling nicely.
The dogs’ mood hadn’t improved. He had now taken a position opposite Eric, still and solid as marble. He stared into the fire but Eric knew that from such a spot the dog man could observe every move Eric made. Well fine. He had nothing special planned.
The pleasant blanket numbness that Eric was very used to fighting off was drawing over him. It was unsettlingly easy to lose his focus, to drift off while gazing into the slow burning at the heart of the cave. There was something so mesmerising about the fire. Since Eric’s childhood, what passed for it, he would be found sitting near any source of flame, no matter how large or small. The social workers and foster carers that came and went, interchangeably, would pull him away. Sometimes gently with soft words, sometimes with raised voices and raised hands. And there were times when
-no
Mind’s wandering again. A poor show, Myers, that’s what the sergeant would say. He didn’t have to say it often, but when he did it was enough. Back then, as a cadet, Eric had expected the harshest treatment, the most rigid regime. What he hadn’t expected was fairness. His skills, he knew, would be recognised. But it was the recognition as a human being that was so unexpected. In those years of training, of tempering himself, Eric learned next to nothing about his commanding officer. But whatever the sergeant knew of Eric, he used to ensure that the driven young man would never be at the mercy of another human being.
He glanced up at the dog. The alien was looking at him with his huge head cocked slightly to the side. Some tiny aspect of his expression had changed. Unnervingly, it seemed as if he were reacting to the sudden stream of memory in Eric’s head. Could the dog man be reading his mind? I recent years, Eric had seen creatures of bizarre form, with powers no sane man could believe possible. Telepathy seemed almost mundane by comparison.
It occurred to Eric that if this alien was a mind reader, he would be sensing his curiosity. Oh for God’s sake, just ask him, Eric thought. He was tired and cold and wasn’t used to his thoughts taking a life of their own like this. It was disconcerting to the point where, for once in his life, Eric actually desired a conversation instead of his own company. He opened his mouth to speak and then the dog spoke first.
“Why did you come here?”
There was still a hint of warning in the voice, making clear that the wrong answer would be a mistake. But Eric was impressed to receive a straight question, and opted for a straight answer.
“I was looking for something.”
“On a dead moon?” Cruger clearly wasn’t satisfied.
“Not exactly” Eric replied.
He looked away from the dog. No need to make things easy for him. A grinding pause followed, then a low growl that sounded like gravel being crushed underfoot.
“If you had strayed into our space inadvertently you should have signalled the nearest listening post. One of our ships would have escorted you back.” Said Cruger
“I don’t go signalling for help at the first wrong turn.”
Cruger folded his arms.
“Strong words for someone who was just shot down.”
The two men met each other’s gaze. A look of what Eric imagined to have been satisfaction crossed the Sirian’s features.
He went on.
“The impact patterns on your fighters’ hull were not caused by any storm. You were blasted out of the sky.”
“Yeah” said Eric, defiantly “and you’d know about that.”
“My people had nothing to do with your ships destruction.”
“I wasn’t talking about your people, doggie, I was talking about you. Exactly what are you doing on this rock? Don’t tell me it’s one of your military outposts, I’m not buying it.” Eric took a breath.
“You’re all alone here, aren’t you.”
Cruger’s eyes made a rare blink.
“I am alone.”
That scraping, growling sound. Since he had first noticed it, Eric realised, it hadn’t stopped for more than a moment or two. And unless the dog had a second set of vocal cords, it couldn’t have been coming from him.
His senses went on immediate alert. He pulled himself, hobbling, to his feet.
The sound was coming from underneath them.
Cruger looked to the cave floor but otherwise didn’t move.
“But” he said “we are not the only ones alive on this moon.”
The bedded rock began to rumble and crack not an inch from where Eric had sat. Like grotesque veins formed deep splits along the inside of the cave, spreading out in all directions. The largest seemed to head straight for Eric and Cruger, narrowing to a tiny point at their feet. And at the centre of where the split had began, a huge slab lifted centimetre by centimetre, being rent, pushed from bellow.
Cruger lowered his arms to his sides. Eric’s hand found the grip of his blaster.
One second passed and then the floor of the cave exploded, spewing forth a creature of such misshapen ugliness, its arms and legs seemed to almost mock the humanoid form; an asymmetrical face with brittle folds of skin which curled up on either side into a parody of Cruger’s own ears. Illuminated half-moon eyes with a snub of a nose and a slit mouth that could have been carved into the aliens head, framed by thicker sides of the same grey flesh like the lips of a Venus fly trap. The aliens’ humped shoulders pointed at different angles and were covered by a ragged cape, thick with rock dust.
It craned its neck at them and made a tinny, gurgling sound. The creature was laughing.
Now Cruger was growling. Eric drew and levelled his weapon and the alien sprang at them with demonic speed, its limbs unfurled like a spider. A well timed turn on his heel would have spared Eric the impact but in his battle-ready stance he had forgotten the pain from the crash and staggered back against the wall.
His fingertips connected with the cold rock and he launched himself around having thrown his weight onto his good leg. He reacquired his target immediately and aimed to fire, but the weapon was struck from his hand. Cruger had slapped it away and now had the alien on his back and clawing at his eyes and snout. Then Cruger turned his right hand into a claw shape and drove it, hard, into the folds under the creatures’ cowl.
Whatever he did, it caused the alien to yelp and howl in pain and rage, enough to allow Cruger to hurl its spindly form into the dirt. Even then he didn’t let it loose from his grip. By the scruff of its neck, the Sirian dragged it up to his eye level.
“Where is he?” Cruger barked.
The alien hissed and Cruger made to toss him into the crop of boulders at the rear of the cave.
“Hey!” Eric was back on his feet and trying to hide his astonishment at how quickly everything had happened. His training told him all he needed to know now.
“You knew he was here” said Eric. “Who is he? Why did you come here, doggie?”
“My name is Anubis Cruger!”
He had transformed. His voice reverberated with animal fury. He seemed to Eric very alien.
“And what is it to you?! He attacked us, what else do you care?”
Again the alien, still in Cruger’s grip, laughed. His wounded voice crackled.
“Daaww-geeee” it mocked.
Cruger pinned him against the wall with one arm, the other drawn back with fist clenched.
“Where” he snarled “is Benaag?”
“Wait a second!” said Eric.
“No! This animal is a Draskean courier, his kind betrayed my people to Emperor Grumm. The Troobian armies swarmed across my world. They destroyed everything, my home, my...My wife. They’re all gone because of scum like this.”
Cruger shook the alien, the Draskean, in front of him like a ragdoll. But the word that really caught Eric’s attention was ‘courier’. The alien was transporting something. He must have been stranded here too, that’s why he had fired on the Eagle. He must have assumed that Eric was one of Cruger’s people come to stop him.
The Eagle.
Without warning, the dog man and the alien turned into a blur, like a tiny tornado, they became a single, spinning blur. Eric had barely time to register the image before it struck him with tremendous force, slamming his body into the wall.
He dropped, coughing so hard he thought his chest must surely be collapsing, that all his ribs were broken. But he fought it, fought the instinct to fall and stay down. He’d spent his life fighting that very feeling and would not be the end of him now. He heaved himself in agony to his feet and lurched through the cave mouth after them.
Enough was enough.
“Quantum Power!”
His morphing call was more than just magic words it was his oath to the world. I Have Power and I Will Not Fail.
He scanned the perimeter, finding the two combatants on maximum magnification. They were grappling dangerously near the precipice meters away from the crashed TF Eagle. Eric’s HUD scanner told him the aliens molecular structure seemed to be vibrating from within. That’s how he could hide inside the rock. But the heavier gravity of this moon and the atmospheric pressure would have thrown this internal processes into flux. Perhaps he could only maintain the intangible state for moments at a time.
Eric considered all of this in the seconds it took him to close the distance between himself and the two aliens. He didn’t know how the ‘courier’ had brought the Eagle down, but he knew that with the ability to move inside solid rock, he might be able to free the ship. And if he was carrying the Obsidian fragment as Eric suspected, he would have no problem getting the Eagle to fly again, or leaving Eric and Cruger to rot on this cursed moon.
Ahead of him, the Draskeans limbs held Cruger in some sort of lock. Like a stubborn old dog, Cruger snarled and pulled in all directions. He was on one knee, dragging his attacker away from the ship, bit by bit, having clearly come to the same conclusion as Eric about the courier’s next move. The dog had no chance of succeeding, but he was keeping him occupied. Eric pulled his Quantum Defender from its holster. He had no intention of firing it.
Long, painful seconds later, Cruger had summoned his every last iota of strength to get back on two feet. He pitched forward, the Draskean beast still clamped around his torso, and slammed them both into the dirt. His gamble had paid off. The Draskean was wounded and did not pass through the solid ground. Cruger was now between him and the ship. He rose and braced himself for the creature’s last charge.
He saw its eyes glow. He clenched his fists. He thought of Isinia. Then he felt ready.
The monster surged forward.
A flash of red struck Cruger not from the front, but from the side. It wasn’t a hard impact, not intended to damage him, but to knock him far out of the Draskean’s narrow field of vision.
The last of the Sirian people and the Quantum Ranger tumbled into the ravine and skidded to a halt on their backs, to the sound of revolting alien laughter and the Eagle’s engines sputtering to life.
Cruger’s jaws actually snapped at Eric’s arm as he helped him to his feet.
“What have you done!” he roared “what was...”
“That” Eric said “was a distress flare.”
Both men looked to the sky. The capsule blazed ever onward through the thick cloud banks, the Quantum Ranger touched a key on his morpher and then-
Like a supernova born in a split second, the Eagle exploded in a burst of orange flame, throwing colour onto the contours of the valley bellow. The shadows of Cruger and Eric grew tall, dipped towards the horizon, and finally faded into the rock.
* * *
Later, as what passed for dawn was breaking over the wasteland moon, Eric Myers sat on the steps leading to the main cabin of the Aquitian light cruiser. It had set down minutes ago and a blue uniformed medic had used one of their bizarre instruments to treat Eric’s ankle and his various scrapes and bruises. Another medic had tried to tend Cruger but had been brushed away, as had talk of all of them leaving together on the transport.
Eric’s tired eyes were narrowed on the big dog man, who stood twenty feet away with his back to them, gazing into the cave mouth as if trying to divine its secrets.
Red boots clomped down the steps as Aurico knelt at Eric’s side.
“Anything?” Eric asked without looking up.
Aurico, known elsewhere as the Red Ranger of Aquitar, shook his helmeted head.
“I’m sorry, Eric. If this alien you spoke of had the fragment, it was destroyed with him.”
They sat together, watching Cruger for a few moments. They each wondered if they shouldn’t be saying something to him.
Eventually, Aurico took the data recorder hooked to his belt and switched on its small holographic display screen. The semi-transparent image of the opaque crystalline fragment rotated in the air.
“There had to be someone else here” said Eric.
Patiently, Aurico said “Our sensors could tell you the number of microbes per cubic centimetre if you’d like. But believe me when I say, the only higher life forms on this moon are us...”
“-And him” Eric finished.
He reached over and took the data device from Aurico. He looked at the Obsidian fragment and realised at last what it had reminded him of. That flat-topped irregular diamond shape. Mentally, he drew a stylised ‘S’ in the centre of it.
Of course.
He shook his head and stood, handing back the device to Aurico, who reminded him that they had only a small take-off window left.
He knew this already, and he knew that Cruger had heard everything they had said. Eric approached him. He opened his mouth to speak but...Dang, he was no good at this stuff.
“Look, uh...” Not a good start.
“Ok, it looks like we both came here looking for something we lost. Then we got a little lost ourselves.”
Cruger didn’t move or speak.
“I’m just thinking maybe we can leave all that stuff here. This place, it... There’s something here, something in the rock. Like a darkness, a presence that draws all your worst feelings to the surface. And now they’re out here, we should just leave ‘em behind.”
Still Cruger made no response. Eric wanted to curse his stubbornness and walk away. But he didn’t. He changed tack.
“The way I see it...” he began.
“My shuttle is hidden on the outer asteroid belt. In thirty-two hours the auto-pilot will return for me.” Cruger said flatly. This answered the question of how he planned to leave this rock, but not in a way Eric liked. There was no point in arguing and it made Eric’s temples throb.
“You can’t just sit here until then, at least let us take you to your ship.”
Silence again.
“Dogg... Cruger. If you don’t let go of what happened now, you may never let go. Don’t let that tragedy define you. I know it hurts, I do, but you can use that pain. You can fight for others, save them from having to go through what you did. There are always bad guys but there are...” Eric was hearing his own words now; “there are good people who will stand with you, who believe in justice and will fight for it with every last second they’ve got.” He breathed.
If Anubis Cruger had been listening, he showed no signs of it. Moments passed. The wind picked up and Aurico’s voiced carried across the valley.
Time to leave.
With the promise that they would leave supplies and food for him, Eric turned to leave the dog man behind. It just did not feel right. Something caught in Eric’s chest. He took his hold-out pistol from inside his vest and dropped it to the ground near where Cruger stood.
“If you change your mind” he said. “If you’re ever on Earth, look me up. Just uh...Just ask anyone about Time Force.”
He walked to the ship, up the gang way inside, and in the plumes of dust shot into the air from its powerful thrusters, the vessel sailed into the night and all that lay beyond.
Eric would not look through the portal to the planet below as they sped away from its surface. He sank into his seat and closed his eyes. His thoughts were of Wes and Jen and the other Rangers. He thought of the tyrannical Mr. Collins ferrying disaster victims in his limo. He thought of the Sarge, of Doctor Zaskin and the Guardians under his command. He thought about where they all were, what they must be doing now. His foot still ached, but he didn’t care.
He didn’t see the parting in the clouds above Cruger, he didn’t see the odd shape of the raised landmass that had almost finished them both; from far above, it seemed like a huge black diamond, with a flattened top.
* * *
At the edge of a precipice, Cruger stood holding the laser pistol in front of him. There was only the howl of the wind now, but he could still hear the detonation of Troobian grenades, the clashing of swords, the thud of bodies against granite, and his wife’s scream.
He stretched back his arm and threw the weapon as far and as hard as he could.
END
Coming up on Power Rangers: Taskforce-
• Alex knew that the days ahead would be punishing. He asked himself, not for the first time, if he had ever been the right man for the job, for the role history had cast him. “Alex” the voice echoed around the chamber “now is the time.”
• It was Tommy Oliver, against all logic and staggering odds, Tommy Oliver on the screen before them. “This is a chronicle of my last mission, of my last battle, as the Dragon Thunder Ranger.”
• Kyle had shaken off the last blow. He saw his team in the corner of his eye, scattered about the field. It was fitting. From strange dimensions and other times they had been assembled; Kids, veterans, an alien prince. Now all stood ready, waiting on his word. Or words. He drew back his sleeve to reveal the jewelled bracelet. His fist struck out at the air, and bringing it sharply up, he spoke. “Trooper Transform!”
• The monsters forked tongue curled around his chipped incisor, both looking sharper and more deadly than before. Under his helmet, Zhane grinned. He threw open his arms as if taking flight, and from the bank behind, Merrick pounced, spring boarding off of the Silver Rangers shoulders and dropping to roll on his back with his rifled Cue gripped tightly to his body. Both knew that this was the fight of their lives, that Daggeron and the others didn’t have a chance without them. They would not disappoint.
• “Waitaminute, waitaminute...” Zack was saying. “Who exactly are you guys?” The one in yellow stepped forward, holding his helmet before him in two hands. Like the others, it seemed oversized with an exaggerated bulbous visor; his was a simple horizontal bar. There was no humour in his baring. “We...are the Meta Morphin Power Rangers.”
• “A new presence has emerged from the fire... A new force...” Madrea shoved her lackey aside and clamped her veined talons on the Phantom Rangers shoulders. “A new power. What power? Name it! “ At once his face changed, his tired eyes sparkled with defiance. “Omega.”
A Power Rangers: Taskforce prologue
20 Light-years from the planet Earth, farther and more remote than it sounds, an anonymous cluster of asteroids and stellar debris bobbed like balloons along the currents of space.
Looming among them was a rogue moon, having once served as inspiration to the civilisation blossoming beneath it, and even a home to some of the galaxies’ hardier animal life.
Now all of that was gone. The moons orbit had decayed until finally, stronger forces had snatched it up and dragged it across open space. Now it was simply another point along the trade routes, an obstacle to be avoided by passing commercial liners and freight ships.
Battered by millennia of meteor impacts, it had a surface of jagged peaks and networked caves. Its thinning atmosphere still clung, bloody-mindedly to the surface. But indigenous life was now the dust and fragments under the boots of the pilot, stepping shakily from the radiating wreckage of his one-man craft.
He was clearly wounded and badly shaken, enough so that the slow, tentative steps he took looked like his first on solid ground. Only his shape was visible under the sickly minimal light from the neighbouring stars. He was sturdily built, dressed in dark fatigues. After a moment he stopped in his place, visibly listing. It seemed an enormous effort just to stay upright. But more than that, it was his awareness of his surroundings; the aggressive geography of the place, the forbidding growl from the low skies and, above it all, the plain, primal knowledge that he was being watched.
* * *
From his crouched position on the promontory above, the aliens gaze followed unblinkingly the pilot’s progress.
There really was nowhere for either of them to go.
With clarity impossible in a human, the alien figure spotted the small device strapped to the wrist of the pilot, who stabbed at the control keys. He also scratched at his skin now and then, feeling the irritation of the grit in the air. The alien felt it too, but his plated skin had a hard, armoured texture, and he’d endured far worse.
The pilot paused, apparently having no success and opened the pack he had retrieved from the wreckage. He sorted through it in a business-like manner that made the alien take note. First the pilot had tried to establish communications, only to find this was impossible. Someone less experienced would have wasted time on futile further attempts. Instead he took stock of supplies. This creature, whoever he was, went about things with a military efficiency.
* * *
Leaning against a cave wall, Eric Myers scratched at the bristles on his jaw. For some odd reason, of all the supplies lost in the crash, his shaver would be missed the most. Growing up, he had always taken pride in being immaculately turned out. Now, for the first time in years, he would have to perform his duties unshaven. That, more than the meagre food supplies or the single emergency flare, was what hit home the dire state of things.
He allowed himself one last glance at the Eagle, its main fuselage buried in the dirt and its nose section pointed towards the sky in a way another man might have found poetic.
She deserved better he thought.
No. Don’t get sentimental.
It had been one hell of a crash. But he’d walked away from it that was all that mattered. And the mission wasn’t over yet. He turned towards the cave, appearing not to notice the long shadow that crossed the cave floor like a ghost. Eric kneeled, supporting himself against the wall, and opened his miniaturised tool kit just enough to reach inside. Whoever was behind him would had to have been leaning over his shoulder to see the hold-out pistol, but Eric was taking no chances. This guy knew how to track and hunt. He was stealthy and the Quantum Ranger, as he was known millions of miles from here, had no intention of being caught off guard.
Eric hunched over, rolling his weight on to one knee, presenting himself as vulnerable. It was an opportunity for one of them.
Then, in that instant, he felt it. The moment was right.
He dropped forward, rolled and twisted on his good heel, silently cursing the pain that caused the slightest wobble as he came to the draw and fire crouch. But his arm was steady and his aim solid. He wouldn’t miss.
He couldn’t. He wouldn’t miss.
The alien snorted through its long snout. His long muscular arms were folded across a broad chest, giving way to armoured shoulders. Enormous deep-set eyes took in his opponents’ proximity, stature and weaponry. There was no expression on the aliens’ blue scaled face. Just those eyes.
Anubis Cruger and Eric Myers stared at each other without a word.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, the two were in the exact same positions as before.
Eric’s injured leg was beginning to feel cold. He continually flexed the toes of his other foot to stave off the numbness.
“Look, I’m not here to make any incursions into anybodies territory. You may notta noticed but my ship took a nose dive onto this rock. I’d be just as happy to see me leave as you.”
“But the fact remains” said Cruger “you were in Sirian space without authorisation. Otherwise you’d have been told to avoid this area as hazardous.”
“I didn’t even know this was Sirian space. My charts say your system was light years from here. If you’ve extended things this far out, why weren’t there beacons in orbit? Or ships patrolling the border?”
“You would have been warned by our sentry fighters.”
Eric started to sigh. It turned into a dry cough, then a laugh. If Wes could see me here and now, he thought.
Eric generally reserved laughter to punctuate his own words of scorn. But at that moment, in this rocky hellhole, perched on an injured ankle and pointing his gun at what was unquestionably a very large, very disgruntled blue dog on two legs, even Eric had to see the funny side.
Cruger tilted his huge head at the sound, presumably hearing it on many different frequencies with his sharply pointed ears.
Eric caught his breath and decided to very slowly lower his blaster.
“That is not wise” said Cruger, matter-of-factly.
“Well” said Eric “are you armed?”
A small pause then Cruger said simply and quietly, “I have no weapon.”
There was no capitulation in his voice. He simply didn’t need a weapon, was the message. Eric nodded and holstered the pistol inside his vest. The movement threw his balance and he had to grab for the wall to keep from falling on his face. The big dog didn’t move.
Minutes passed slowly, silently.
Eric caught his breath and started to build a fire.
Cruger stepped inside the cave mouth and turned his back to Eric.
* * *
Some while later, Eric reasoned it couldn’t have been longer than an hour, the fire he had put together with what little petrified wood he could find and his distress flare (useless in these surroundings) was crackling nicely.
The dogs’ mood hadn’t improved. He had now taken a position opposite Eric, still and solid as marble. He stared into the fire but Eric knew that from such a spot the dog man could observe every move Eric made. Well fine. He had nothing special planned.
The pleasant blanket numbness that Eric was very used to fighting off was drawing over him. It was unsettlingly easy to lose his focus, to drift off while gazing into the slow burning at the heart of the cave. There was something so mesmerising about the fire. Since Eric’s childhood, what passed for it, he would be found sitting near any source of flame, no matter how large or small. The social workers and foster carers that came and went, interchangeably, would pull him away. Sometimes gently with soft words, sometimes with raised voices and raised hands. And there were times when
-no
Mind’s wandering again. A poor show, Myers, that’s what the sergeant would say. He didn’t have to say it often, but when he did it was enough. Back then, as a cadet, Eric had expected the harshest treatment, the most rigid regime. What he hadn’t expected was fairness. His skills, he knew, would be recognised. But it was the recognition as a human being that was so unexpected. In those years of training, of tempering himself, Eric learned next to nothing about his commanding officer. But whatever the sergeant knew of Eric, he used to ensure that the driven young man would never be at the mercy of another human being.
He glanced up at the dog. The alien was looking at him with his huge head cocked slightly to the side. Some tiny aspect of his expression had changed. Unnervingly, it seemed as if he were reacting to the sudden stream of memory in Eric’s head. Could the dog man be reading his mind? I recent years, Eric had seen creatures of bizarre form, with powers no sane man could believe possible. Telepathy seemed almost mundane by comparison.
It occurred to Eric that if this alien was a mind reader, he would be sensing his curiosity. Oh for God’s sake, just ask him, Eric thought. He was tired and cold and wasn’t used to his thoughts taking a life of their own like this. It was disconcerting to the point where, for once in his life, Eric actually desired a conversation instead of his own company. He opened his mouth to speak and then the dog spoke first.
“Why did you come here?”
There was still a hint of warning in the voice, making clear that the wrong answer would be a mistake. But Eric was impressed to receive a straight question, and opted for a straight answer.
“I was looking for something.”
“On a dead moon?” Cruger clearly wasn’t satisfied.
“Not exactly” Eric replied.
He looked away from the dog. No need to make things easy for him. A grinding pause followed, then a low growl that sounded like gravel being crushed underfoot.
“If you had strayed into our space inadvertently you should have signalled the nearest listening post. One of our ships would have escorted you back.” Said Cruger
“I don’t go signalling for help at the first wrong turn.”
Cruger folded his arms.
“Strong words for someone who was just shot down.”
The two men met each other’s gaze. A look of what Eric imagined to have been satisfaction crossed the Sirian’s features.
He went on.
“The impact patterns on your fighters’ hull were not caused by any storm. You were blasted out of the sky.”
“Yeah” said Eric, defiantly “and you’d know about that.”
“My people had nothing to do with your ships destruction.”
“I wasn’t talking about your people, doggie, I was talking about you. Exactly what are you doing on this rock? Don’t tell me it’s one of your military outposts, I’m not buying it.” Eric took a breath.
“You’re all alone here, aren’t you.”
Cruger’s eyes made a rare blink.
“I am alone.”
That scraping, growling sound. Since he had first noticed it, Eric realised, it hadn’t stopped for more than a moment or two. And unless the dog had a second set of vocal cords, it couldn’t have been coming from him.
His senses went on immediate alert. He pulled himself, hobbling, to his feet.
The sound was coming from underneath them.
Cruger looked to the cave floor but otherwise didn’t move.
“But” he said “we are not the only ones alive on this moon.”
The bedded rock began to rumble and crack not an inch from where Eric had sat. Like grotesque veins formed deep splits along the inside of the cave, spreading out in all directions. The largest seemed to head straight for Eric and Cruger, narrowing to a tiny point at their feet. And at the centre of where the split had began, a huge slab lifted centimetre by centimetre, being rent, pushed from bellow.
Cruger lowered his arms to his sides. Eric’s hand found the grip of his blaster.
One second passed and then the floor of the cave exploded, spewing forth a creature of such misshapen ugliness, its arms and legs seemed to almost mock the humanoid form; an asymmetrical face with brittle folds of skin which curled up on either side into a parody of Cruger’s own ears. Illuminated half-moon eyes with a snub of a nose and a slit mouth that could have been carved into the aliens head, framed by thicker sides of the same grey flesh like the lips of a Venus fly trap. The aliens’ humped shoulders pointed at different angles and were covered by a ragged cape, thick with rock dust.
It craned its neck at them and made a tinny, gurgling sound. The creature was laughing.
Now Cruger was growling. Eric drew and levelled his weapon and the alien sprang at them with demonic speed, its limbs unfurled like a spider. A well timed turn on his heel would have spared Eric the impact but in his battle-ready stance he had forgotten the pain from the crash and staggered back against the wall.
His fingertips connected with the cold rock and he launched himself around having thrown his weight onto his good leg. He reacquired his target immediately and aimed to fire, but the weapon was struck from his hand. Cruger had slapped it away and now had the alien on his back and clawing at his eyes and snout. Then Cruger turned his right hand into a claw shape and drove it, hard, into the folds under the creatures’ cowl.
Whatever he did, it caused the alien to yelp and howl in pain and rage, enough to allow Cruger to hurl its spindly form into the dirt. Even then he didn’t let it loose from his grip. By the scruff of its neck, the Sirian dragged it up to his eye level.
“Where is he?” Cruger barked.
The alien hissed and Cruger made to toss him into the crop of boulders at the rear of the cave.
“Hey!” Eric was back on his feet and trying to hide his astonishment at how quickly everything had happened. His training told him all he needed to know now.
“You knew he was here” said Eric. “Who is he? Why did you come here, doggie?”
“My name is Anubis Cruger!”
He had transformed. His voice reverberated with animal fury. He seemed to Eric very alien.
“And what is it to you?! He attacked us, what else do you care?”
Again the alien, still in Cruger’s grip, laughed. His wounded voice crackled.
“Daaww-geeee” it mocked.
Cruger pinned him against the wall with one arm, the other drawn back with fist clenched.
“Where” he snarled “is Benaag?”
“Wait a second!” said Eric.
“No! This animal is a Draskean courier, his kind betrayed my people to Emperor Grumm. The Troobian armies swarmed across my world. They destroyed everything, my home, my...My wife. They’re all gone because of scum like this.”
Cruger shook the alien, the Draskean, in front of him like a ragdoll. But the word that really caught Eric’s attention was ‘courier’. The alien was transporting something. He must have been stranded here too, that’s why he had fired on the Eagle. He must have assumed that Eric was one of Cruger’s people come to stop him.
The Eagle.
Without warning, the dog man and the alien turned into a blur, like a tiny tornado, they became a single, spinning blur. Eric had barely time to register the image before it struck him with tremendous force, slamming his body into the wall.
He dropped, coughing so hard he thought his chest must surely be collapsing, that all his ribs were broken. But he fought it, fought the instinct to fall and stay down. He’d spent his life fighting that very feeling and would not be the end of him now. He heaved himself in agony to his feet and lurched through the cave mouth after them.
Enough was enough.
“Quantum Power!”
His morphing call was more than just magic words it was his oath to the world. I Have Power and I Will Not Fail.
He scanned the perimeter, finding the two combatants on maximum magnification. They were grappling dangerously near the precipice meters away from the crashed TF Eagle. Eric’s HUD scanner told him the aliens molecular structure seemed to be vibrating from within. That’s how he could hide inside the rock. But the heavier gravity of this moon and the atmospheric pressure would have thrown this internal processes into flux. Perhaps he could only maintain the intangible state for moments at a time.
Eric considered all of this in the seconds it took him to close the distance between himself and the two aliens. He didn’t know how the ‘courier’ had brought the Eagle down, but he knew that with the ability to move inside solid rock, he might be able to free the ship. And if he was carrying the Obsidian fragment as Eric suspected, he would have no problem getting the Eagle to fly again, or leaving Eric and Cruger to rot on this cursed moon.
Ahead of him, the Draskeans limbs held Cruger in some sort of lock. Like a stubborn old dog, Cruger snarled and pulled in all directions. He was on one knee, dragging his attacker away from the ship, bit by bit, having clearly come to the same conclusion as Eric about the courier’s next move. The dog had no chance of succeeding, but he was keeping him occupied. Eric pulled his Quantum Defender from its holster. He had no intention of firing it.
Long, painful seconds later, Cruger had summoned his every last iota of strength to get back on two feet. He pitched forward, the Draskean beast still clamped around his torso, and slammed them both into the dirt. His gamble had paid off. The Draskean was wounded and did not pass through the solid ground. Cruger was now between him and the ship. He rose and braced himself for the creature’s last charge.
He saw its eyes glow. He clenched his fists. He thought of Isinia. Then he felt ready.
The monster surged forward.
A flash of red struck Cruger not from the front, but from the side. It wasn’t a hard impact, not intended to damage him, but to knock him far out of the Draskean’s narrow field of vision.
The last of the Sirian people and the Quantum Ranger tumbled into the ravine and skidded to a halt on their backs, to the sound of revolting alien laughter and the Eagle’s engines sputtering to life.
Cruger’s jaws actually snapped at Eric’s arm as he helped him to his feet.
“What have you done!” he roared “what was...”
“That” Eric said “was a distress flare.”
Both men looked to the sky. The capsule blazed ever onward through the thick cloud banks, the Quantum Ranger touched a key on his morpher and then-
Like a supernova born in a split second, the Eagle exploded in a burst of orange flame, throwing colour onto the contours of the valley bellow. The shadows of Cruger and Eric grew tall, dipped towards the horizon, and finally faded into the rock.
* * *
Later, as what passed for dawn was breaking over the wasteland moon, Eric Myers sat on the steps leading to the main cabin of the Aquitian light cruiser. It had set down minutes ago and a blue uniformed medic had used one of their bizarre instruments to treat Eric’s ankle and his various scrapes and bruises. Another medic had tried to tend Cruger but had been brushed away, as had talk of all of them leaving together on the transport.
Eric’s tired eyes were narrowed on the big dog man, who stood twenty feet away with his back to them, gazing into the cave mouth as if trying to divine its secrets.
Red boots clomped down the steps as Aurico knelt at Eric’s side.
“Anything?” Eric asked without looking up.
Aurico, known elsewhere as the Red Ranger of Aquitar, shook his helmeted head.
“I’m sorry, Eric. If this alien you spoke of had the fragment, it was destroyed with him.”
They sat together, watching Cruger for a few moments. They each wondered if they shouldn’t be saying something to him.
Eventually, Aurico took the data recorder hooked to his belt and switched on its small holographic display screen. The semi-transparent image of the opaque crystalline fragment rotated in the air.
“There had to be someone else here” said Eric.
Patiently, Aurico said “Our sensors could tell you the number of microbes per cubic centimetre if you’d like. But believe me when I say, the only higher life forms on this moon are us...”
“-And him” Eric finished.
He reached over and took the data device from Aurico. He looked at the Obsidian fragment and realised at last what it had reminded him of. That flat-topped irregular diamond shape. Mentally, he drew a stylised ‘S’ in the centre of it.
Of course.
He shook his head and stood, handing back the device to Aurico, who reminded him that they had only a small take-off window left.
He knew this already, and he knew that Cruger had heard everything they had said. Eric approached him. He opened his mouth to speak but...Dang, he was no good at this stuff.
“Look, uh...” Not a good start.
“Ok, it looks like we both came here looking for something we lost. Then we got a little lost ourselves.”
Cruger didn’t move or speak.
“I’m just thinking maybe we can leave all that stuff here. This place, it... There’s something here, something in the rock. Like a darkness, a presence that draws all your worst feelings to the surface. And now they’re out here, we should just leave ‘em behind.”
Still Cruger made no response. Eric wanted to curse his stubbornness and walk away. But he didn’t. He changed tack.
“The way I see it...” he began.
“My shuttle is hidden on the outer asteroid belt. In thirty-two hours the auto-pilot will return for me.” Cruger said flatly. This answered the question of how he planned to leave this rock, but not in a way Eric liked. There was no point in arguing and it made Eric’s temples throb.
“You can’t just sit here until then, at least let us take you to your ship.”
Silence again.
“Dogg... Cruger. If you don’t let go of what happened now, you may never let go. Don’t let that tragedy define you. I know it hurts, I do, but you can use that pain. You can fight for others, save them from having to go through what you did. There are always bad guys but there are...” Eric was hearing his own words now; “there are good people who will stand with you, who believe in justice and will fight for it with every last second they’ve got.” He breathed.
If Anubis Cruger had been listening, he showed no signs of it. Moments passed. The wind picked up and Aurico’s voiced carried across the valley.
Time to leave.
With the promise that they would leave supplies and food for him, Eric turned to leave the dog man behind. It just did not feel right. Something caught in Eric’s chest. He took his hold-out pistol from inside his vest and dropped it to the ground near where Cruger stood.
“If you change your mind” he said. “If you’re ever on Earth, look me up. Just uh...Just ask anyone about Time Force.”
He walked to the ship, up the gang way inside, and in the plumes of dust shot into the air from its powerful thrusters, the vessel sailed into the night and all that lay beyond.
Eric would not look through the portal to the planet below as they sped away from its surface. He sank into his seat and closed his eyes. His thoughts were of Wes and Jen and the other Rangers. He thought of the tyrannical Mr. Collins ferrying disaster victims in his limo. He thought of the Sarge, of Doctor Zaskin and the Guardians under his command. He thought about where they all were, what they must be doing now. His foot still ached, but he didn’t care.
He didn’t see the parting in the clouds above Cruger, he didn’t see the odd shape of the raised landmass that had almost finished them both; from far above, it seemed like a huge black diamond, with a flattened top.
* * *
At the edge of a precipice, Cruger stood holding the laser pistol in front of him. There was only the howl of the wind now, but he could still hear the detonation of Troobian grenades, the clashing of swords, the thud of bodies against granite, and his wife’s scream.
He stretched back his arm and threw the weapon as far and as hard as he could.
END
Coming up on Power Rangers: Taskforce-
• Alex knew that the days ahead would be punishing. He asked himself, not for the first time, if he had ever been the right man for the job, for the role history had cast him. “Alex” the voice echoed around the chamber “now is the time.”
• It was Tommy Oliver, against all logic and staggering odds, Tommy Oliver on the screen before them. “This is a chronicle of my last mission, of my last battle, as the Dragon Thunder Ranger.”
• Kyle had shaken off the last blow. He saw his team in the corner of his eye, scattered about the field. It was fitting. From strange dimensions and other times they had been assembled; Kids, veterans, an alien prince. Now all stood ready, waiting on his word. Or words. He drew back his sleeve to reveal the jewelled bracelet. His fist struck out at the air, and bringing it sharply up, he spoke. “Trooper Transform!”
• The monsters forked tongue curled around his chipped incisor, both looking sharper and more deadly than before. Under his helmet, Zhane grinned. He threw open his arms as if taking flight, and from the bank behind, Merrick pounced, spring boarding off of the Silver Rangers shoulders and dropping to roll on his back with his rifled Cue gripped tightly to his body. Both knew that this was the fight of their lives, that Daggeron and the others didn’t have a chance without them. They would not disappoint.
• “Waitaminute, waitaminute...” Zack was saying. “Who exactly are you guys?” The one in yellow stepped forward, holding his helmet before him in two hands. Like the others, it seemed oversized with an exaggerated bulbous visor; his was a simple horizontal bar. There was no humour in his baring. “We...are the Meta Morphin Power Rangers.”
• “A new presence has emerged from the fire... A new force...” Madrea shoved her lackey aside and clamped her veined talons on the Phantom Rangers shoulders. “A new power. What power? Name it! “ At once his face changed, his tired eyes sparkled with defiance. “Omega.”