The Terran Ranger Saga Volume 3 by Heather Ray (macos ebook reader TXT) 📕

In the Moon Palace, Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa stretched their limbs, and gazed around their palace in surprise.

"Just look!" shrieked Rita. "This place is a mess! And everything's gone!"

"I don't believe this!" said Zedd angrily, looking up out of his balcony, "Rita, get over here!"

Rita walked to Zedd and looked up at the top tower on the Palace. To her surprise, she saw a large American flag perched on the very top.

"Those little Earth pests have laid claim to my castle!" she shrieked.

"No, it's my castle," said Zedd, "and they won't get away with this! They must've took everything that was here! My throne, my rest chamber, everything!"

The pair looked up again, and saw a streak of light approaching. Zedd stared at it, and his eyebeams magnified the image.

"Well," said Rita impatiently, "what is it? My Repulsascope's gone, ya know!"

"It appears to be a ship, and it has markings identical to that piece of cloth atop my palace!"

"Humans are traveling at a speed approaching the speed of light?" said Rita. "Their technology has improved a lot over this past decade. What do we do?"

"At this moment, we know nothing about this era, so its best for us to learn about it."

"Why don't we kidnap the astronauts aboard the space craft, Zeddie? It'll be passing the Moon any second now."

"An excellent idea, my dear," said Zedd, pointing his staff towards the approaching ship. "All I have to do is await the right moment..."

Meanwhile, aboard the spacecraft Endeavor, three NASA astronauts, William Mitchell, James Montgomery, and Natasha Slovenski prepare to return to Earth after a two week investigation of the outer planets in the Solar System. This mission was the first manned expedition to the outer planets, and was also the first manned voyage using a ship equipped with a light drive, the engine that allowed the ship to travel at the speed of light. Now that the ship was nearly at Earth, its time for the commander of the ship to contact NASA headquarters in Houston Texas.

"This is commander William Mitchell of the spacecraft Endeavor. Houston, do you copy?"

^We read you loud and clear, Will.^

"Our investigation of the outer planets was a great success. We retrieved element samples from Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Pluto, as well as from the rings of Saturn. Now we're only a few kilometers from the Moon, so we're turning off the light-drive. Our ETA is about --"

Suddenly, a beam of energy crashed into the hull of the ship.

"Commander!" cried James. "We've been hit!"

"By what?" said Billy. "We're way past the asteroid belt! Was it space debris?"

"Impossible, sir," said Natasha. "The reading show that a hole has been burnt through the outer hull. We were hit by energy!"

"From where?!" yelled Billy, as the ship was hit again. This time, though, the energy beam smashed completely though the outer hull, creating a hole in the cockpit.

"HELP!!"

screamed Natasha, as the vacuum of space pulled her out of the ship. Then, James and William also fell through the hole, their screams lost in the emptiness of space. Not far from them, the Endeavor disappeared in a violent but silent explosion, lighting up the sky. William could feel the air being sucked out of his body, and even though he was wearing a protective suit, the extreme heat of the explosion of the ship charred his skin. In only seconds, William Mitchell's world blackened into complete darkness.

William Mitchell felt a strong slap to his face, and awoke in surprise. The lighting in the room was dim, and his chest was sore. He took a deep breath, and began to cough, further aggravating his flaming chest and throat. He tried to clutch his throat, but both his hands and feet where restrained. He was sitting on a cold stone chair, and he was tied there with chains on his waist, wrists, and ankles. He peered into the darkness, and to his dismay, he saw two forms not far from him. His eyes widened in surprise when one of them approached him, his silver exoskeleton reflecting the dim light in the chamber.

"Zedd?" whispered William hoarsely. "It's not possible..."

"Oh, come now, my boy," cackled the infamous lord of evil. "A devoted scientist like yourself should be aware that anything's possible. Yes its me, and my lovely wife, Rita Repulsa."

Zedd beckoned to the other person in the room, and she also stepped into the light, a cruel smile on her face.

"But, you left Earth ages ago...about ten years I believe."

"Actually, it was exactly ten years," said Rita. "A most ingenious plan on my husband's part, sending us for a ride on the Temporal Comet, only to return to Earth ten years later."

"What do you want from me?"

"Well, here's the story," said Zedd, leaning on his staff, "Rita and I arrived back on my Moon about an hour ago, and our entire palace was ransacked. I figured you Earthlings visited my palace, and claimed it as well. Then, we saw your little spacecraft, flying at the speed of light. We realized we didn't know what has happened in the past decade, and that the only way to successfully conquer a world is to know all about its defenses --"

"So we decided to capture the spaceship as it flew by the palace," interrupted Rita. "And to our surprise, an old friend was aboard. Now that we have you, Mister William Mitchell, we can learn everything about the year 2006, as well as where the former Terran Rangers are now, and what they do. So, Billy, tell us a bit about...the Terran Rangers."

William glared at the two evil beings, and then held his head high in defiance. "I won't say anything."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Lord Zedd, pointing his staff at William. "After all, I can make you suffer horribly with my magic."

"You'll kill me before I say a thing!"

"But my dear Billy, who said anything about killing you?" asked the emperor of evil, "I can make you suffer infinite pain, without causing you the least bit of permanent harm. That's the best kind of torture, one that doesn't allow the release of death."

"You don't frighten me in the least," said Billy. "You're no doubt as inefficient and underestimating as you were ten years ago, and so you'll never succeed."

"Fine," scoffed Zedd. "Maybe we should try another tactic to make you talk. How about...we kill your two companions? They're alive now, but they won't be if you don't speak up!"

"Jim and Tasha," he whispered, thinking about the two astronauts that accompanied him on his latest mission. He, James Montgomery, and Natasha Slovenski were friends since training, and they are the best friends he's had since he left Angel Grove nearly ten years ago. William sighed audibly, and looked up at his tormentors, defeated.

"Excellent!" said Zedd triumphantly. "Now tell me, do the rangers still have the Zeo Crystal?"

"No," whispered William. "They gave up the Power about six months after you left."

"Where's the crystal then?" asked Rita, "Tell us!"

"In the Central Access Complex," he said, "But you can't get to it. The CAC has special energy barriers that block all forms of magic and scanning, to keep its location secret from the world. Those barriers also work rather effectively against intruders. Only me, Alpha Five, Zordon, or one of the rangers could get in."

"So we can't get the Zeo Crystal!" shrieked Rita, "I guess we'll have to send you to get it for us, Billy."

"Not on your life!" William yelled angrily, fighting the restraints, "I'll never betray my friends, and my world, like that!"

"It doesn't matter," said Lord Zedd, walking to the balcony. "The Terran Rangers are helpless without the Zeo Crystal. We may not be able to destroy the CAC, but we certainly can stop the Terran Rangers from getting to it. I'll simply fill the underground tunnels leading to the complex with swarms of Viper Putties!"

Zedd pointed his staff at the planet, and a streak of lightning flew to the Earth. He then turned around and looked at his brave captive.

"Now," he said, approaching William, "what do I do with you? I could very easily kill you, you know. Without you, the rangers don't have the combined brain power to change a light bulb, much less stop me! But, if I let you live, I could use you as a hostage, so the rangers will do my bidding! Heck, I can even turn you into a monster, so the rangers will have to live with the guilt of destroying you, in case they do somehow manage to regain their powers. Oh, so many options..."

Zedd rubbed his chin, while Rita stamped her foot angrily.

"Zedd," she shrieked, "can't we deal with Billy later? Just throw him into the dungeon with his friends, and we'll keep them as prisoners to use against the rangers."

"Fine," said Zedd. "That'll do. For now, anyway."

Zedd zapped William with the energy from his staff, and William instantly appeared inside a small dark stone room, with three walls of cold stone, and one wall of iron bars. William collapsed to the floor, and the two other cellmates hurried to help him.

"Will!" said James. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Jim," he said with a weak smile,