Spoilers: First two episodes of Ninja Storm. More of a spoiler for episode 1 than episode 2, but still....

Author's notes: I wasn't too impressed by the first two episodes of Ninja Storm. In fact, there was only one character I really liked there: Cam. Still, this isn't an attempt to rewrite those episodes, and who knows, the characters (and the dialogue) of the newest PR series might stop grating on my nerves. Since it's kinda doubtful that there will be a crossover between NS and previous PR series, I'm doing my bit of one now. Thanks to Chris and Rach for the plot ideas, general encouragement, and on Rach's end, letting me leech off her when she was editing. Thanks also to Beth for reminding me that he's a guinea pig, not a hamster.

Home in a Breeze
By Selma McCrory
Copyright 2003

The partners of Nick of Time Odd Jobs were doing the variety of Odd Jobs that kept them in laundry detergent and pizza when the alert came. Actually, the alert came first to Trip, who was doing a repair job on an elderly twentieth century computer a few blocks away. "Trip! I've got a strange temporal reading from Wilkins Plaza."

Trip looked around, wondering if the people whose computer he was fixing would notice that their handyman had slipped out to investigate an anomaly. "What kind of reading?" Trip asked.

"I don't know, Trip," the mechanical owl said regretfully. "It seems to be a temporal wormhole of some kind, like what Time Force uses to travel, but its readings don't match any known time hole readings!"

"Right, I'll be right there." He shut down the connection to his friend and partner and looked at the computer. The ancient program known as Windows 95 would take a while to reinstall, so it could do that while he investigated the reading. Quietly, as quietly as an asian-looking kid with green hair and a geekish outfit could, he left the building. He could always bypass the magnetic security system later anyway. His morpher had no doubt picked up the system they were using and the only thing he needed to do was press his morpher to the door sensor to get back in.

Trip jogged down the few blocks to Wilkins plaza. He could see the Silver Guardians arriving, preparing to cordon off the area, and hoped he wasn't too late to find the phenomenon before the Guardians did. "Circuit, where's that anomaly?"

"Approximately twenty feet to the left of you, Trip."

That meant, most probably, the wormhole was somewhere in the area of the statue, either behind the bushes or in the flower garden. Trip scampered off to his left, hoping to find where the thing was.

But apart from a young human male, not much older than Trip himself, if that, there was nothing there. As he was bringing his morpher up to ask Circuit where the phenomenon was, it cheeped. "Trip! It vanished!"

"Where was it?" he whispered, as the other young man looked about wildly and started dusting himself off. It was as if he'd fallen into the small flower garden, thoroughly smashing most of the decorative flowers there.

"Near you, Trip," Circuit said. "I can't say more."

The young man finished dusting himself off. "Where am I?" he wondered out loud.

Forgetting momentarily Circuit and his employers, temporary or otherwise, Trip rushed over to the only other person in the area. "Are you all right?" he asked.

Straightening his narrow-rimmed glasses in reply, the newcomer looked at Trip suspiciously. "Who are you? Where am I?"

Trip tried to recall his training on concussions, which wasn't coming to him at the moment. "You're in Silver Hills, on Earth. In 2001."

The other young man looked at him. "You must be joking." The other reminded him of a classmate from his home village of Tloss, a serious young man who never seemed to have any fun. "This must be some joke."

"Y-y-you fell through a temporal wormhole," Trip explained, though not without stuttering.

"A wormhole?" the young man said. He started to clean off his glasses. "That would explain things."

But before they could get any further, there was a yell to the side. The Silver Guardians had found them. "Clear out," the Guardian who found them said sharply. "There's an attack in progress here. Civilians need to get out of the area."

Trip let the falsehood slide, knowing that the Guardians were investigating the same thing he had been. "Okay," he said, gathering the young man and pulling him out of the way.

"But..." the young man squeaked. Trip didn't give him a chance to object. He knew the Guardians weren't equipped to deal with whatever had delivered the young man to the flowerbed. "But..."

Once Trip had gotten the other young man out of the Guardians' perimeter, he stopped. "What's your name?"

"Cam." The young man glared. "And that might be my only way back home!"

"No it isn't," Trip pointed out. "The wormhole's closed."

Cam visibly sunk at that. "Great. When father needs me the most...." He stumbled, and Trip caught him, sitting him down on a low-slung ledge. "I've got to get home! I can't leave father with those imbeciles!"

"Breathe," Trip told him gently. "What imbeciles?"

"The idiots that he gave the morphers to. He's there, alone, with them." Cam took a deep breath. "I have to get back!"

*Morphers?* Trip thought, and wondered if he meant another Ranger team. Probably. If so, that meant that Cam had to get back. "We'll get you home," Trip said, with a confidence he didn't feel. "Right now, we've got to get you out of here."

"I don't think I can stand," Cam said. "I don't want to get far from where that wormhole closed."

"Look," Trip said, secretly proud of himself for sounding so calm and collected, "I need to get back to base or I can't find you a way home."

Cam looked up at him with renewed respect. "You're a technical expert?"

Nodding, Trip slung his backpack so it wasn't so uncomfortable. "Yes," he said.

"You're an expert with computers?" Cam asked.

"I am," Trip said.

"Good." Cam's eyes lit up. "Let's go." He got up abruptly. "Well? Lead the way!"

Trip shook his head at the human's obvious eccentricities, and started to lead Cameron to the clock tower. "I forgot! I have to finish fixing this computer!"

Cam shook his head. "We don't have time for this."

"I've got to do this, Cam," Trip said gently. "If I don't, people will get suspicious."

For a moment, he thought Cam was going to go his own way again, but the other nodded reluctantly.

Trip took Cam down the block to get to the building, and easily used his morpher to get in. Cam sniffed at the age of the computer. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because these people hired me to fix their computer," Trip said, knowing Cam was itching to get home, as the humans of this time put it. "It's what we do."

"We?" Cam asked, clearly not seeing the connection. He knelt next to the computer, looking at the display. "What are you doing?"

"Re-loading the system software," Trip said, "And restoring the files from backup."

"I've got a faster way," Cam said impatiently, letting the software reload. As soon as the system reloaded, Cam did a few things, too fast for Trip to comprehend. Before Trip could understand what was happening, Cam had the system back on its feet, reloaded, and working fine. "You're sure you're a technical expert?"

"Not with this century's computers," Trip admitted, knowing the slow, primitive machines were sometimes beyond his comprehension.

"Then with what century's computers?" Cam muttered, finishing his checkover.

"That's a long explanation," Trip said. He heard the door open. "Hide!"

The president of the business came in. "Is it working?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Trip said. "You shouldn't have any problems with it. If you do, let me know."

"I will," the president said, smiling in a way that indicated that he'd be asking for his money back, and more, if it wasn't. Knowing the computers of the century, Trip guessed that they might well be seeing the man again. "Thank you. Here's your fee." He wrote out a check and gave it to Trip, and trip tucked it away in a pocket. Checks always confused him, but Wes would know what to do.

When the man was out of the room, and safely out of sight, Trip led Cam out of the building. "It won't malfunction," Cam said. "That was a simple backup and restore."

Trip nodded nervously. "Let's get back to the base."

But before they could, Trip's morpher bleeped, and Cam looked boredly at it. Trip reminded himself that he'd just about told Cam he wasn't ordinary as he lifted the morpher up and answered it.

The annoyed, gruff voice of the Quantum Ranger came over the morpher: "This is Eric."

Staring at the morpher, Trip managed an incoherent "What?" and promptly shut up before he dug himself six feet down, as Wes liked to put it.

"Face it," Eric said, "The only reason we're not talking face-to-face right now is because someone didn't realize who you were." Trip could visualize the Silver Guardian who had encountered them standing nearby as his commanding officer talked to Trip. It was not a pleasant visualization. "Believe me, he won't forget again. Now, where are you?"

"About two blocks south," Trip managed, looking at Cam. The other looked like he was ready to bolt. He was tapping his foot, and his expression was clear: get me home or I'll find my own way home. Without you.

Suddenly, Cam grabbed the morpher. "Look, whoever you are. I need to get home, and unless you're personally a heck of a whole lot more competent than the guy who's with me, then bug off. I'm needed where I am and I don't have time to waste."

"And who are you?" Eric asked.

"I'm Cam," Cam said, not without more than a touch of impatience, as if Eric was below him. "And you are?"

"Eric Myers," Eric said sharply. "Commanding officer of the Silver Guardians. And for me, you'll wait."

Cam rolled his eyes slightly. "I don't wait for anyone who isn't going to help me get home."

"You forget: I know where Trip lives, and I can guess where he's going. So I can either pick you up quietly and we can have this talk at HQ, or you can bolt and I can just beat you there."

Cam looked like he was going to cough up a hairball. "I'm going to the shortest route to get me home. If you want to meet us there, fine." He punched a button on Trip's morpher - thankfully, the wrong one.

"Right," Eric said. "If it's going to be that way...." He left the threat unfinished. "Eric out."

Cam scowled at the morpher. "Let's go. He's not going to stop me... stop us." With a further scowl, he dropped Trip's arm. "Have you got money for a taxi?"

Trip shook his head. "I have a bike," he explained.

Cam's scowl became even deeper. "Then *I'll* find us a ride." He tromped up the street in sheer determination. "Well, come on!"

"Wait, Cam!" Trip said. "Maybe... maybe your money's like ours."

Cam got out his billfold and thrust it at Trip. "You look. I wouldn't know."

Trip looked through the money, confirming that it was basically like that of this time, though some with 2003 dates obviously they couldn't use. "This, and this, and this."

His companion looked doubtfully at the bills. "You think that's enough?"

"I hope so," Trip said, not looking forward to getting back to the Clock Tower only to find that Eric had beat them there.

"Good. Can you order us a taxi?" Cam said, striding forward once again.

"If I have a phone," Trip told him.

Cam frowned. "There's one over there. Get us a taxi."

Trip looked at where Cam was pointing. There was a payphone on the other side of the street, at a corner next to a mini-mart. "Okay." He hurried forward, caught up in Cam's mood. He punched in the number for a taxi that Wes had drilled into him, and five minutes later, he and Cam were speeding towards the clock tower.

The taxi took them all the way to the clock tower, and Trip let Cam pay the taxi driver off. As the cab pulled away, a Silver Guardian vehicle pulled into the now vacant spot. Eric got out, looking like the universe had offended him, and took off his trademark sunglasses.

"You must be Cam," Eric said, by way of introduction.

Cam's eyes narrowed. "And you must be Eric Myers, prestigious commander of the Silver Guardians."

"I am." Eric hooked his sunglasses to his uniform. "And you left the scene of a temporal anomaly."

"Look, normally I'd be happy to talk," Cam said, interrupting Eric and Trip, as the latter opened his mouth. "It's just that right now I have a dad who's been turned into a guinea pig, a dark ninja that's bent on taking over the planet, and three idiots that my father gave Ranger powers to because they couldn't show up on time to save their lives, and therefore were the only candidates available to fight the forces of darkness."

"Besides," Trip said, "It was one of your Guardians who told us to leave."

Eric's glare told him that the other Ranger was familiar with that point. "What Dark Ninja?" he asked Cam, ignoring Trip completely.

"Look, I don't have time to argue about this. You want to ask me questions about it, fine. Right now I *must* concentrate on getting home." Cam swept forward into the building that housed Nick of Time Odd Jobs, while Eric muttered into his headset. Trip decided that whatever Eric was going to do would hold, and followed Cam inside.

Once he was inside the doors of his home, Trip relaxed a little, until a voice interrupted him. "Friend of yours?" Wes asked, pointing at Cam, who was leaning against the corner between the maintenance/storage room and the staircase up to the top of the clock tower.

Trip nodded. "This is Cam," he said. "Cam, this is Wes. A... friend. Cam got tossed through a temporal wormhole," Trip explained.

"Oh," Wes said. "That's what Circuit was talking about." He gestured with his head and shoulders towards the door. "Want me to run interference?" The human slang escaped Trip completely, but Cam was nodding.

"Sure," Trip said.

"No problem," Wes said cheerfully.

Trip took the stairs two at a time, Cam keeping up with him, though not effortlessly. "I thought I was in good shape," he moaned. "How do you do this, day after day?"

"Most of the time, I don't run," Trip said, though he knew he was lying a bit when he said so. He ran up the stairs more often than not.

"Oh," Cam said. "I think... when I get home I will see if my dad has some conditioning exercises for me." He had to stop, and Trip managed to stop two stairs above him. "I'm in charge of my dad's computer systems. I designed and ran the systems through the help of some of my dad's colleagues and students. I don't go into town much." He sat down. "Dad never thought I'd make a good ninja, and I agree. That's not my kind of life."

Trip nodded. "Feel better?"

Cam got up. "Come on. Lead me to where your computer is before anyone interrupts us." Trip watched him struggle to get up and rejoin the jog upstairs. He knew that Cam was deliberately not mentioning Eric, though the Silver Guardian commander was obviously not far from Cam's mind.

With that, Cam passed Trip easily, and the race was back on to reach the top of the stairs. As the two caught their breath at the entrance to the top floor of the clock tower, Cam's eyes opened wide as he took it all in. "Do you work here or live here?" he panted.

"Both," Trip offered. He led Cam toward the holoscreen. "The rest of my team's out doing odd jobs," Trip said, "So we'll have this place to ourselves."

"Wes is one of your teammates," Cam observed. "He reminds me somewhat of our Ranger team back home, but a little more serious."

Trip tapped the controls to the holoscreen to make it come alive. "Wes is kinda the heart of the team," Trip told the other. "He wasn't very serious at the beginning, but he learned pretty quickly that we're fighting for something pretty serious here."

Cam nodded. "I guess... I guess ours are waking up to that situation too."

"Circuit," Trip called, letting Cam muse about things. "Could you bring me up the readings from that wormhole?"

"Sure, Trip," Circuit said, flying over to the table next to the holoscreen, startling Cam.

"You're a robot!" Cam said admiringly. He obviously wanted to take Circuit apart, judging from his look.

"I built him," Trip said proudly.

Cam smiled. "So, how are we going to get me back home?" he asked.

The readings from Cam's trip into their time and space flowed up on the holoscreen. Trip scanned through the data rapidly, though it didn't tell him much on the surface. He'd have to do some detailed analysis to discover the origin of the wormhole and how to replicate it to get Cam back. "Cam, what do you remember before you met me?" he asked.

Cam frowned. "I had taken a walk outside, at my dad's request. He thought I needed some fresh air. I was near the portal where the students shift to get back to the outside world when a strong breeze sprang up. It got stronger and stronger... the next thing I knew, I was in the flower bed."

"Shift?" Trip asked, still scanning through the data.

"As far back as I can remember," Cameron said, "There has been a portal between our training school, in the mountains, and the forest outside of Blue Bay, the nearest city. It allows the students to have lives in outside society while still training with my father."

"Like a teleportal," Circuit chimed.

Trip nodded in comprehension. "So... it transports the students several miles?"

"Yes," Cam acknowledged. "It's not technologically based, as far as I can tell." He tapped his fingers on the picnic table top. "Are you thinking that the portal got redirected? It would make sense. But why? And how?"

Trip opened his mouth, but he was interrupted by the thump of boots coming up the stairs. Finally, Eric emerged, taking a quick but thorough look around the clock tower top floor. "I said that we'd talk," he said.

"Not now," Cam said, obviously trying to read the screen. Trip leaned a little bit to allow the other to see it more clearly. "Can't you see I'm trying to get home?"

"You'll get home even faster," Eric said, putting one foot on the picnic bench seat and leaning forward, "if you'll stop running and answer some questions."

Cam looked up at Eric. "Obviously not," he said, and Trip had to wonder how he dealt with the people back home.

"Good." Eric didn't relax his pose. "I wanna know what happened and where you were when I arrived."

Cam gave a precise description, even more precise than he'd given Trip. "I'd just gotten out of the flowerbed when your thug told us to get out of there."

Trip winced; obviously Cam was trying to provoke Eric. He got the sense that normally Cam didn't have problems with authority.

"My 'thug' was perfectly in his rights. As far as he knew, you were in a danger zone," Eric said, in an even tone which meant that Eric was restraining himself. "Anything else you can tell me, or can I leave your charming presence and do my job?"

"Nothing that I can think of," Cam said, just as evenly. "If I think of anything else, obviously Trip can get in touch with you."

"Right," Eric said, turning around to leave. "I'm sure you'll let me know." With that sarcastic comment, he walked towards the stairs and down them, out of sight.

Cam turned to Trip. "You don't have to be afraid of him," he said.

"I'm not," Trip said. "Eric is... Eric." He paused, looking into Cam's eyes, wishing the human could understand. "He hasn't got family, and he doesn't have many friends."

Snorting, Cam said, "I wonder why."

Trip wondered if he could project some of the loneliness he picked up off of Eric, but unfortunately empathic projection wasn't one of his talents. "I know that you're worried about your father," he said, "but there's no need to get irritated at me. Or Eric."

"I'm not...." Cam seemed to pause. "I'm sorry. It's just that... the only ones saving the world right now are my Dad, me, and the three Rangers, and I'm afraid that I'll come back, and evil will have won."

"I know," Trip said. "There's mostly just the five of us here," he said. "But you might have allies where you don't know it. We've got some resources from our own time, and even the Silver Guardians help us out a little."

"Lucky you," Cam said. "The five of us... that's all we have." He folded his arms. "What did you do, before you became a Ranger?"

"I was a member of Time Force, the police of my time," Trip answered. "How about your Rangers?"

Cam shook his head. "A surfer, a skateboarder, and a dirt biker, all of which would probably prefer to be doing those things rather what Dad sets before them."

"Maybe," Trip said, "There are things you aren't seeing in them."

"You sound like my dad," Cam said. He looked down for a minute, and then looked over at Trip again, all business. "Speaking of which... let's get me home." He leaned forward. "What were the exact readings of that wormhole?" He withdrew some kind of pocket computer from somewhere in his vest. "I can compare it to readings I get when someone comes through the portal."

Nodding, Trip brought up those readings. "Some of this conforms with a timehole," he said, "Which makes sense, given that you're at least two years out of your time."

"I figured that out when you sorted my billfold," Cam said ruefully. "It's 2003 for me. Here?"

"2001," Trip answered. "It wasn't much of a timehole."

Cam nodded. "But enough to get me out of the way. I bet this is Lothor's doing. The guy trying to take over the earth."

"Maybe not," Circuit said. "My readings seem to indicate that the disruption came from here!"

"What do you mean, Circuit?" Trip said, looking at his mechanical friend.

"The temporal anomaly originated *here*," Circuit said. "In fact, it looks like it was someone trying to modify the time warper that Ransik used to get here!"

"So, this isn't Lothor," Cam said. "Just... but why me?" he asked.

"Where's the end point of the portal in your place and time?" Trip asked, bringing up a map of southern California.

"I don't know," Cam said, squinting at the map despite his glasses being firmly perched on his nose. "I don't even see Blue Bay... no, here it is. I guess it's called Mariner Bay here." He rubbed his nose. "I probably don't even exist here. The academy doesn't exist here." His eyes brightened. "Our Rangers aren't here! That's good."

Trip wordlessly refocused his map on the city of Mariner Bay.

"Can I have a topographic map overlay?" Cam asked. Trip complied.

After some muttering, he said, "I think it's... here. The Blue Bay side of the portal, that is."

"That's not anywhere near where you landed," Trip said. He looked at the map. What was he missing?

"Maybe..." Cam looked thoughtful. "Do a lot of monster attacks happen there?"

"Not in that area, no," Trip said. "What are you implying?"

"If somehow the boundaries between my place and yours have been weakened, then maybe Lothor's presence, compounded by whatever your villians are doing, caused my portal to temporarily connect to your world!"

"Which would mean when that wind blew you, it was into the portal and into our world!" Trip exclaimed.

"Yes!" Cam pounded the table. He sobered up. "But if something your villains did caused it... I'm not going to get home unless you storm the place."

"Not necessarily," Circuit said cheerfully. "There is one other thing that can generate a time hole. Or reopen one."

"What's that?" Cam asked.

"The TF Eagle!" Trip exclaimed. "It can't really generate one, but if there's one that's open, it can go through it. Maybe if I could modify it...."

"Right," Cam said. "Where is it?"

"That's the problem," Trip said. "The TF Eagle is Eric's."

Cam slumped down. "I'd rather go storm the villian's fortress, thanks."

"It's not so bad," Trip said. "Eric isn't as bad as you think. If I talk to him... maybe he'd be willing to let us do something." He got up. "Cam, you and Circuit see if there's anything else useful you can think of. I'm going to talk to Eric."

Cam nodded sharply. "I'll let you know."

Trip moved off to the balcony over the city. "Eric," he said, effortlessly, making a call to the one Ranger who didn't hang around the Clock Tower.

"What now, Trip?" Eric asked, and Trip didn't need his powers to know obviously in the middle of something. "I'm busy."

"I can get Cam home... with your help." He prayed to the Many that Eric would still help Cam get home, despite how he had acted.

Trip could almost see Eric frowning. "How?"

"I need the TF Eagle," Trip said. "I may need to modify some of its subsystems." *That* was a risky proposition; he knew Eric wouldn't go for it.

"Uh-uh. No way, no how," Eric said.

"Please, Eric?" Trip pleaded.

"Look, Trip, I can understand you want to get him out of your hair, but no way am I going to let you modify my Eagle."

"I might not even need to modify it," Trip said, a burst of inspiration coming on. "I may just need it to be there, to help the wormhole open back up."

"How?" Eric asked.

"If the Eagle is nearby, it may generate enough temporal and dimensional disruption to open the wormhole back up." Trip paused. "I can rig up a device so I don't have to modify the Eagle."

"Good, because if it involves modifying the Eagle, I'm not gonna do it," Eric said.

"Meet me in the park, in an hour and a half," Trip said. "With the Eagle."

Eric sighed. "I'll be there." With that, he signed off.

Trip hopped back into the clock tower, causing Cam to startle as he tried to work on the holoscreen. "Cam! Come on, I'm going downstairs! I have an idea!"

Not allowing Cam time for a reply, he scrambled towards the stairs, his mind intent on his creation. "Circuit!"

"Coming, Trip!"

Trip raced into the workshop at the bottom of the stairs, ignoring Wes and Jen, who were talking to a customer. He caught Wes saying, "And that's our technical expert, and he's off shift right now...."

Hoping the customer didn't open the door, Trip panted a bit and then went to his hidden depository of thirty-first century parts. If his analysis was correct, all the wormhole needed was a little bit of coaxing, which was actually pretty easy, if he had Eric's help.

The door to the workshop slammed a few minutes later. "What?" Cam said, out of breath.

"This is a phase inverter," Trip explained. "Combined with a hypercore phase system, it should nudge your wormhole back into existence."

"But shouldn't the... never mind." Cam said. Trip looked at him, wondering what he was going to say. "I guess my physics minor is not going to cover technology invented a thousand years in the future, so I'm not going to go there."

"You were a physics minor?" Trip asked. Somehow, it didn't surprise him. Cam was surely what the people of this century termed a 'nerd'.

"Yeah," Cam admitted. "Electrical engineering major, physics minor, with a good dollop of computer science in a degree I never really finished. I'm going for my master's in the fall." He smiled a little. "If the Earth's still standing, then, that is. If not, then I'm not going to be alive to worry about it." He sighed. "What's the idea behind this?"

"It's pretty easy," Trip said, explaining in concise terms the idea behind the invention. Cam nodded after he explained the ideas.

"Sounds good to me," Cam said. "How can I help you with this?"

The two of them worked together on the invention, Cam following Trip's lead. When it was finished, Trip put it in a carrying case and handing it to Cam. "Hold on to this. I'll be right back."

He walked out to Wes, who was leaning on the counter. "You figured out anything?" Wes asked casually.

Trip nodded. "Eric's meeting us out in the park with the TF Eagle. Can you... can you take us there?"

Wes smiled. "No problem."

Shortly thereafter, they were in the park. "Okay," Cam said, "Where's the final piece of the puzzle?"

"I'd say... right there," Wes said, pointing up into the sky. With a roar, the TF Eagle set down a neat one hundred feet away and Eric hopped out.

"Okay, I'm here, it's here, what do you need next?" Eric asked.

"Just keep it running," Trip called, setting up his equipment. He nervously crossed his fingers, a movement he'd picked up from Wes, and activated the device.

Nothing happened except for a breeze picking up. And, unfortunately, that was probably natural.

"Somehow, I don't think that this is what you had in mind," Eric observed. But as Trip turned to answer, he noticed Cam moving.

Cam was striding forward, ignoring the three of them. "Cam!" Trip shouted. But Cam seemed only interested in the flowerbed and the statue.

The young man stuck his hand out. "It's here," he assured them. "This is the portal. I know it."

With that, he walked into the flower garden. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment, and then Cam abruptly vanished. The breeze died down, and it seemed like neither it nor Cam had ever existed.

"Wonder if he got home?" Wes wondered out loud.

"I hope he did," Trip said, looking at his invention. It should have sent Cam back home, but... sometimes he never knew.

"Now that he's gone... I have work to do," Eric said to the others. "I'll see you both later." With a nod, he jumped back into the Eagle and flew off.

"Don't worry, Trip," Wes said, "I'm sure he got home." He put his arm around Trip's shoulder."And speaking of which, so do we. I've got dinner detail tonight...."

Trip's stomach rumbled at that. "Okay, let's go." But he looked one more time at the spot where the wormhole had been. Had Cam gotten home?

He doubted he would ever know.

-end