Disclaimer: The Power Rangers are the property of Saban Entertainment and I lay no claim to them. The character of Mackenzie Dekalb is property of Karilee who can be contacted at kajwr@twcny.rr.com. The character of Cassandra Jensen(the Emerald Ranger) belongs to Helen who can be contacted at helen0724@yahoo.com. Jeffrey Kincaid, Lord Crucible, and all other characters relating to them are mine. Should anyone wish to use my characters contact me at foi72@yahoo.com.
by John Chubb
Mackenzie Dekalb was flying the Astro Viper through space with six fighter craft on her tail shooting at her. "Mobile safe house, this is White Astro. Fighters are in pursuit. Am making my way back to base request reinforcements."
No answer came forth.
"Mobile safehouse where is the back up?"
On the bridge of the mobile safehouse Ashley was ready to head for the Blackhawk when Kincaid stopped her. "Mackenzie's in trouble!", Ashley protested.
"Mackenzie's luring away the patrol.", said Kincaid.
"Battlestar Galactica:The Lost Warrior.", said Hardrive.
"What does that mean?", asked Adam.
"I saw that episode.", said Cassandra. "I was looking through some of Hardrive's TV library. In that episode Captain Apollo was luring away a Cylon patrol from a fleet of refugees. He broadcast transmissions trying to trick the Cylons into thinking he was headed for the convoy when he was luring them away."
"And Mackenzie's now doing the same.", said Kincaid.
"Mobile safe house where's the backup? I'm running out of time!!!"., shouted Mackenzie over the intercom.
"I don't like it.", said Ashley. And all the rangers agreed.
"Where's the back up?I'm running out of time!!!"
The guardsmen were listening to Mackenzie's transmissions. "She is heading for their base. Maintain pursuit!!!"
Unknown to the guardsmen Mackenzie was listening to them too. "Perfect!", she thought. She then reversed her thrusters and fell behind the attacking fighters. Mackenzie then brought her Astro cannon to bear on a fighter and blasted it to kingdom come.
One fighter then turned to face the Astro Viper and launched a missile at close range. The missile detonated close toe the Astro Viper and then sent it off spinning into space.
"Fighter seven. Resume formation. Maintain seeker course towards Nightfighter base." And the guardsmen resumed their course away from the Mobile safehouse believing they were heading for it.
Mackenzie however had a bear of a time trying to right her Astro Viper. After some fighting with the controls she managed to right her ship and level out. But her damage board was lighting up. The Astro Viper took quite the beating.
"Clusterfriggin Hell!", she cursed as she scanned for a planet where she could set her Zord down so the self-repair program could do it's work.
The Zord computer found a planet that seemed like it was hospitable but there were a number of pollutants in the atmosphere. She tried to find someplace better, but none of the other planets were a suitable candidate.
"Guess I have to breath smog.", said Mackenzie. And she flew her Astro Viper to the polluted planet.
A teenaged boy of about 15 years of age was walking down a worn narrow path. He was thinking about his family and the impending death of one member. "It isn't fair! He's done so much!" screamed the boy.
His concentration was broken as a ship made it's way down towards the ground. He followed it to where it landed.
What the boy saw was a sleek fighter ship and it's pilot who was all dressed in white come out of it. "Self-repair program engaged. Self-repair will be complete in 72 earth hours.", said the Astro Viper computer.
"I love this Zord but the computer ain't no Hardrive.", said Mackenzie to herself.
"What's a Hardrive?" asked the boy from behind Mackenzie. Mackenzie then turned and drew out her Astro blaster. The kid backed away when he saw the gun.
"Uhh…I'm sorry.", said the boy as he was trying to reassure Mackenzie. Mackenzie then slowly lowered down the pistol.
"Don't worry about it.", said Mackenzie. "What planet is this?"
"Chilicos.", said the boy. "And my name is Tedius."
"Chilicos?", said Mackenzie trying to place the name. Tedius was mezmerized by the sight of the Astro Viper. "Is this ship yours?", he asked.
"Yep.", said Mackenzie. "But it's a little wrecked and it needs some time for repair. So I have to wait a while before it's fixed. Is there a town nearby?"
"There's my house which is not far away. You can sleep there if my mom says it's all right."
"What about your dad?", asked Mackenzie.
Tedius didn't answer right away. "My dad is sick. We're taking care of him."
"I'm sorry.", said Mackenzie.
"It's no problem.", said Tedius. "Come on." And he led Mackenzie back to his house.
When they arrived at the house they stood in a booth before entering the house. "This purifies the room. The bad air is pumped out as new good air is pumped in." Mackenzie was grateful that her helmet had it's own oxygen supply. She wasn't sure why the air was so bad or how Tedius could live in it but she didn't want to try to breath any of the pollutants.
When new air was pumped in Tedius and Mackenzie walked into the house where Tedius's mother walked into the living room. When she saw Mackenzie she freaked. "Who are you?" she asked.
Since the air in the house was clean Mackenzie went to remove her helmet figuring that the sight of her unmasked would set the mother at ease.
"Easy ma'am. I'm not here to cause trouble. My ship went down and your son was gracious enough to allow me to stay here if it was all right with you."
Tedius' mother looked at her son. "What are you doin'? Your father's sick with the inner decay. Why do you have to bring a stranger here at this time?"
"The inner decay?", asked Mackenzie.
"That's what we call it.", said Tedius's mother. "It's devouring my husband through the inside out and it be killing him.
"Could I see your husband? Maybe there's something I can do.", said Mackenzie.
"I guess there is no harm done. Oh I didn't catch your name."
"It's Mackenzie."
"My name is Alyssa.", she said as she led Mackenzie to where Alyssa's husband rested. "And this be Stephan."
Mackenzie looked at Stephan and brought her gloved wrist to her face. A control panel appeared on her wrist and she later waved the device over Stephan. "It's just a scanner set to medical.", she said.
When Mackenzie was finished she reviewed the data and she felt her heart sink. Stephan had a cancer growth in lungs.
Mackenzie Dekalb was coming face to face with a disease that almost took her life years ago.
Mackenzie had then demorphed and sat down in one of the chairs in the family room. "How long has yuor husband been like this?"
"It's only been a few months since he started working at that factory.", said Alyssa.
"Factory?", asked Mackenzie.
"Aye. This fleet came down here and started landin' this factory and took a lot of the men on this planet to work in it. Chilicos used to be a clean planet but now we have to recycle our air. We can't breath clean air anymore, so the we have the home recyclers. A gift from our slave lords at the factory. And as you saw with my husband, a lot of the workers are getting sick."
Mackenzie was shocked. "You mean there are other people with cancer at this factory?"
"If you mean the inner decay then yes. A few men had parts of their bodies removed because of it. Arms and legs. Few internals too. But most just outright died."
Mackenzie couldn't believe it. There were people dying on this planet of cancer because of a factory. "What does this factory produce?", she asked.
"I think my husband said somethin' about bioweapons. I don know what they are but if people are getting sick they ain't good."
"First thing in the morning I want to check out this factory.", said Mackenzie. 'And then I'm going to do whatever it takes to shut it down' she mentally added.
Mackenzie's night was anything but peaceful. She couldn't sleep since she was thinking of her own time when she had cancer in her small intestines. When the doctors diagnosed her and she felt her world end, like she was going to die. Even through the chemo treatments it seemed like the battle would never end. When it did and the cancer was gone she was happy that it was but she didn't show it.
It had felt like death had decided to pick a fight with her and decided to use her body as it's weapon. But even though death fought hard Mackenzie was a fighter and fought harder and came out the winner. Death lost that day.
When she was at the mobile safehouse Mackenzie saw something in Hardrive's TV files called "the Terry Fox story". Kincaid said that he kept it around as a reminder that he could have cancer himself someday. He even told her that there was a history of members of his family having it in the past and it scared him. She thought Kincaid meant well, but he knew only the fear of having the disease, not the reality of it.
Nonetheless Mackenzie watched "the Terry Fox story" and saw the story of a college athlete who had cancer in his leg and the doctors had to amputate it. Fox tried to continue with his life and took up running. He then decided to run across Canada to raise money for Cancer research. According to the movie he never quite made it since he got cancer in his lungs but he did suceed in raising $7 million dollars for cancer research.
And now she was on a planet with a factory that was killing people with the same disease that nearly took her life and changed Terry Fox's forever.
"That factory is closing down.", said Mackenzie. "Count on it!"
The next morning Mackenzie and Tedius left to see the factory. Mackenzie had brought along her T-16 binoculars which looked like something out of Star Wars to get a better view of what she was getting into.
"Your mother said this factory landed here right?"
"Yes.", said Tedius. "It came from the sky with the fleet."
"What can you tell me about the fleet?", asked Mackenzie.
"Well these ships had metal things that walked."
"Metal things that walked? Were they red and have weapons like mine?", asked Mackenzie.
"Yes they did."
"Guardsmen.", cursed Mackenzie. She later left to go back to the Astro Viper. When she got there, she activated her computer. "Self Repair Program requires another 56 hours for completion.", the computer said.
"What is the status of the escape teleporter?", Mackenzie asked.
"Escape teleporter is at fifty percent operating capacity. Beam-in locking system disabled for beam in. Short range teleporting available. Emergency retrival system fully operational."
"So I can probably be teleported out but I can't teleport in. And even if I teleport out there's no guarantee I'll make it out?", said Mackenzie weighing her options.
"Affirmative.", said the computer.
Mackenzie sighed. She had an idea but it would involve getting the factory to launch into space. If she blew it up on the planet then the carcinogens would spread throughout the atmosphere giving more people cancer. She needed to get the factory up into space that way the carcinogens would disperse into the vaccum. But she needed the teleporter to get her out before it blew.
"Well I'll figure something out.", she said. "In the meantime, I have to figure out how to get the guided tour."
The factory administrator was someone named Tain. He sat behind his desk with an office that allowed him to look over the entire factory. Tain saw the subjugated people doing the work for their leader Lord Crucible. Sure some of the workers were exposing themselves to cancer, but for the good of Crucible and the empire the lives of a preindustrial civilization was well worth it.
A guardsman later entered the room escorting a small woman dressed in rags. "What is her purpose here?", asked Tain.
The guardsman communicated that she was someone who was looking for her fiancee' whom she was engaged to marry. "Check among the discards.", said Tain.
"I've looked among the discards.", said the girl in a frail voice. "I cannot find him."
Tain briefly considered for a moment. "Could a slave have escaped?". Then the sound of a riot jarred his concentration.
"Pardon madam, but I must bring order to the workers." Tain then ordered the guardsman to watch by the door to see that no one got in. When Tain and the guardsman left the rag girl removed her disguise to reveal the face of Mackenzie Dekalb.
"There's a sucker born every minute. And I just met one.", she said snickering. Then she went to the central computer on the desk. From what Tedius's father told her Tain has a central control station in his office that allows him to monitor and control the factory. She needed to figure it out fast since the prisoner riot that she engineered would not last too long.
"Let's Rocket!", she said as she punched in the 3-3-5 code to become the White Astro ranger. She then punched in a second code 1-1-0 that activated a computer link-up function in her Astro suit. Unlike other computer link-ups that hackers used, the White Astro link-up allowed it's user to mentally link into the system, to be able to merge with it and to program the system from the inside.
She wasn't sure if any of the other Astro morphers could do the same thing. Probably not, she thought since she remembered the other morphers were hastilly constructed due to their need to fight an old evil force. So some of the powers were taken out in order to have them ready. Mackenzie's was the first, and the morphin masters were able to give it all the powers of the other morphers combined, plus a few extras. The computer link-up was one of them.
Mackenzie hooked up the computer link-in device to Tain's system and she felt her mind leave her body as she entered Tain's computer.
She felt herself flying through the datastream as she headed to the central core. When she arrived she formed a compuer generated amalgam of herself as she saw bits and bits of data flying by. Mackenzie looked for the first pathways that she needed. "Galaxy Glider, hang ten!", she said as the white Galaxy Glider formed near her feet.
Mackenzie then went to work and as she touched the panels she mentally altered the first paths to obey her commands. She then flew over to the second set of paths and did the same. Mackenzie also flew to a third set of data paths and gave commands for them too.
When her work was done she flew out of the computer and re-entered the real world. Bet there isn't a ranger who can do that.", she said.
Then Mackenzie left the office. She couldn't leave without first saying goodbye.
Tain had assembled the slaves into the central area. Whether they were sick or well it didn't matter to Tain. He wanted them all where he could see them so he could have a choice of which ones he would punish.
"I do not tolerate disorder in my work camp.", said Tain. "An example must be made." Tain then brought out three slaves and had them kneel down as a guardsman made ready with an energy whip to lash across the backs of the three slaves. Next thing Tain knew the guardsman with the whip was blasted away, as well as the guardsmen surrounding Tain.
As Tain looked up a figure in white jumped down and put a white sword to Tain's throat. "The White Astro", he said surprised.
"Congratulations, and for your prize you've just won a free all expense one way trip to whatever planet is the slime pit of the galaxy this year.", said Mackenzie. "And I have a nice conselation prize for your audience too." Just then the doors all around the hold opened up around the slaves to reveal the sky of Chilicos.
People you have two minutes to get out of this place before it launches and blows up." Mackenzie then turned to Tain. "And don't have any of your guardsmen stop them or would you like a blade through your pork belly?"
Tain didn't have any guardsmen stop them as the slaves escaped. "I'd really like to stick around but I have a plane to catch.", she activated her emergency retrival unit, but nothing happened. Mackenzie tried again, still nothing happened.
"Emergency transporter under self repair.", said the computer. She looked up tp see Tain smirking as he walked away down the hall.
"Oh no you don't", Mackenzie said as she took off after Tain.
When all the slaves were out of the factory they turned to see the factory lift off into the sky. None of them saw the White Astro ranger come out.
The mobile safehouse was passing close by Chilicos. As it managed to elude the guardsman patrol they went to look for Mackenzie. "Anything on scanners?", asked Kincaid.
"Nothing", said Cassandra as she sat at one of the scanner stations. Then Adam saw someting at his scanner station. A station was taking off from the planet they were passing and then explode as soon as it was clear of the planet. The explosion then formed a message that had Adam chuckling.
The message said, "I'm over here morons!". All the rangers and Alpha started laughing.
"I think we've just found Mackenzie.", said Kincaid. And the Nightfighters went down to Chilicos.
When Kincaid and the Nightfighters set down they saw the people both healthy and sick. The others were shocked and saddened by what they saw of the people. Kincaid then asked people if they knew where Mackenzie was. One of the people said that she was still on the station went it went up.
"Then she must have still been on it when it blew.", said Ashley as she started to cry beneath her helmet. The other nightfighters were ready to do the same when Justin pointed to the sky. "Look!"
Mackenzie was on her galaxy glider as she was carrying a portly administrator in her hand. When she was close to the ground she let the administrator drop into a mudpit. "Have fun little piggy.", she called back. Tain didn't like being embarrassed.
The other Nightfighters grouped around Mackenzie and gave her a group hug. "And now for my next magical trick!", she said as the other nightfighters laughed.
Kincaid then contacted the united resistance as they sent doctors and relief to try to hepl the people of Chilicos. Some of them wouldn't make it but Kincaid would not just turn his back and give up. "Thanks.", said Mackenzie.
"No problem.", said Kincaid. "You know what this disease is capable of. I only know the fear of one day having it as do a lot of people."
"Still, it helps to get involved.", said Cassandra.
Then all the nightfighters turned to leave as Justin asked a question that he meant to ask but never got to until now.
"What's a Cylon?"