Patrolling the Summit Part 1

Posted on Tue Sep 17th, 2024 @ 3:56pm by Kilena Keithron & Fraser Rehami & Damien McGinnis & Ellie Evans & Harper Maddison

1,379 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Shadows of Trust
Location: Summit Room
Timeline: March 1st 2051

The summit room was crowded with beings from multiple species. Inspector Harper Maddison paced around the room, wearing a well fitted business suit and a badge identifying him as head of security for the summit. He pressed two fingers to his ear.

"Maddison to alpha team. What's your status?" He asked.

"Well, we're meant to be undercover and I've got two fingers to my ear, so peachy." Came the response of Damien McGinnis "Can I ask you to not come through the comms every five minutes?"

"You can ask, cadet. Maddison out." Maddison replied, moving towards one of the empty tables behind one with a pair of young women sat on it, speaking seemingly to himself "Is your friend always that... Irritating?"

Kilena smirked and nodded still looking at Ellie. "Yes and unfortunately sometimes he is a lot worse." The woman assured. It was unfortunate but the man's heart was in the right place he just had no emotional maturity to process it at points.

"A lot worse," Ellie agreed. She frowned just slightly, feeling uncomfortable with the formality of everything; an irony, given how her childhood had been literally filled with formal events held by her parents. Perhaps that was why she hated attending them as an adult. "Do we stand out here? I feel like we stand out..."

"Just act like you belong and you'll be fine." Maddison noted, "This summit is so full of different beings from different planets and backgrounds, everyone stands out to such an extent that no one does."

Kilena flicked her head over her shoulder and laughed a little as she picked up the drink she had. "Come on Ellie relax. We can do this." The pink ranger commented as she saw Fraser Rehami across the summit room. He noticed her and nodded before he moved to another group deciding to avoid for now to not bring people on them.

"I am relaxed. Sort-of. It's just been a while since I had to put on the pretend smile and act like everyone I met was some important dignitary or something..." Ellie replied.

"There are a lot of people here. Do you see anyone you notice?" Kilena asked the pair making a natural conversation.

"Notice? I've already clocked the two waiters that are clearly trying not to reveal the deep sexual tension between the two of them. And there's definitely a century-old ambassador in the corner who's either asleep or on his way out..." Ellie shook her head. "No, nothing unusual yet. It would help if we had some clues to look for. A tell, or a sign."

"Oh, they are going to get married and the ambassador is asleep. I saw him drinking in the hallway." Kilena laughed teasing about her abilities before she glanced around. "Want to dance El or Maddison?"

"No thanks." Maddison said as he rose from his seat "I need to check in at the checkpoints. I'll leave you ladies to it."

The pink ranger glanced over to where she saw Fraser talking to an Ambassador and offered a wink to him. "Suit yourself," Kilena said with a smile. "Open offer by the way though I have a couple of offers." She added before she turned back to Ellie and offered her hand. "We could use it as a way to scout around more. Less obvious."

"Sure. You prefer Viennese?" Ellie asked, deadly serious. A beat later she cringed internally when she realised what she was saying. "Sorry...that's a really bad memory that I'm never going to get rid of." She took a deep breath. "I'm classically trained...do you think they're going to notice?"

Kilena giggled slightly at the expression on the woman's face and shook her head. "You are Earth classically trained and there are about 50 different species here so I think you might be safe." Kilena grinned standing up taking her teammate's hand before she could dig her own hole any deeper.

Ellie paused self-consciously and concentrated on remembering the steps and the timing. "Okay. I lead. You look?" she suggested, drawing the Pink Ranger out towards the dance floor. "So long as we don't tread on each others' toes, I mean."

Kilena grinned still as she let the woman lead her out among the groups already out there and laughed. "You will be fine. Just focus on that and I will look around."

"If you're sure." Ellie held her in a lead grip and gently started them moving through the other dancing bodies. "I'm pretty rusty."

“You’re doing great,” Kilena said, her voice cutting through Ellie’s focus. “Just relax. We’ve got this.” The Pink Ranger assured as she spotted Fraser talking to a pink-coloured alien but his gaze kept glancing around.

"Amazing how quickly it comes back. Like riding a bike." Ellie admitted, keeping the movements a little more fluid now. Silently she wished being a Power Ranger was as easy as remembering how to dance.

Kilena chuckled softly, sensing Ellie’s growing confidence. “See? I knew you had it in you.”

"Uhhem... Can I borrow Kilena for the next dance?" A voice asked from behind and Kilena broke into a smile as Fraser was there.

"Oh. Uh, sure." Ellie gave Kilena the look - making sure her compatriot was willing - before releasing her.

“It’s okay.” Kilena assured smiling as she realised she was going to have to admit about Fraser to people finally. The man smiled patiently as he allowed the pair to step a few steps away. “He is the missing spouse.” She said quietly feeling a little guilty that she had not had time to catch up with Ellie properly around it all. “I remember everything now,”

"Ah..." Ellie gave another look, this time one of understanding. "Lovely to meet you," she added, bowing out gracefully.

"You too." Fraser said smiling not wanting to correct the woman that they had met several times but it was not the time to correct people. He knew the Rangers were there for a job. "Our holiday away has done you a world of good."

Kilena smiled looking up at him grinning. "Everything has settled which is nice," She said looking away from him and around them. She had to maintain her role even as the man span her around. "The break over Christmas and up till now was nice."

"Big relief for me," Frazer answered thinking the quietness meant he was not holding press conferences at all hours of the night and day which was nice. He was about to comment about how she was going to jinx it when a scream went up making the woman spin around to face where the scream came from as the room went silent.

There was a large cluster of people huddling around someone. Through the middle of the cluster, Damien could be seen crouched beside someone, Maddison next to him. The two men whispered something between each other before Damien stood up, moving towards them, a serious look on his face.

"Ambassador from Mirinoi is down." He said "The weird thing is, his daughter did it, right before disappearing into the crowd but not before bumping into herself. Guys, I think we've got a shape-shifter on our hands."

"A shape-shifter? So they could be anyone?" Ellie gasped, staring around at the enormous number of events guests that were crowded around. "How on earth are we supposed to find them?"

"I don't know." Damien said, looking to Frasier "Mr. Public Relations, if you'd be so kind as to relate to the public. Kilena, Ellie, you're with me. We'll regroup with the others and formulate a plan."

Fraser gave the red ranger a look but nodded adjusting his bow tie and doing a small cough as she swept away. "You could be nicer to him." Kilena hissed as she pulled out a pair of glasses from her dress pocket and started looking around the crowd scanning people.

"I'm plenty nice to him. As nice as to anyone else." Damien remarked as he looked around "She could be anyone by now..."

Kilena said nothing as she looked around just as confused. "Let's join with the others and we can start looking around more," Kilena suggested focusing on the job.

 

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