Story of a lifetime
Written in response to a Tracy Island Writers Forum prompt to write a missing scene for TINY about what happened in Thunderbird Four after Gordon had rescued Ned and Joe. my thanks to Purupuss for proofreading, to ITV for copyright and Gerry Anderson and his team for the original story.
As soon as the airlock door opened, I knew.
Back at the time of the Sydney Olympics I had been a junior reporter on the NTBS team. In this lowly role, my assignments were mainly the sports in which the US team were unlikely to win medals, such as show-jumping, fencing ...and swimming. So when the airlock door opened and I found myself looking at Gordon Tracy, I knew.
I didn't say anything, and I think he interpreted my stunned expression as shock from the ordeal Joe and I had been through; we certainly had valid reason to feel that way. Having been trapped underground for twenty-four hours, part of that time underwater, we'd managed to reach Thunderbird Four on the last remaining dregs of oxygen in our tanks. Then no sooner had the outer hatch closed behind us than I heard a voice over the airlock intercom yell "Brace yourselves!"
The next thing I knew was that the entire craft was being picked up and tossed around, accompanied by ominous clangings on the side of the hull; it was like being trapped in a tin can that was going through a washing machine with a load of rocks. I clung onto Joe, trying to protect him from too much buffeting; he'd been hurt in the original fall, even before the Empire State Building came down on top of us, and the hours trapped beneath the building in cold water had taken their toll.
So when the tumult ceased and the inner hatch opened, I retreated to the back of the airlock while the person I had last seen standing on an Olympic podium with a gold medal around his neck checked over my colleague. He then fitted Joe with a neck brace and carefully manoeuvred him onto a bed he folded down from the cabin wall, finishing by inserting a drip into his arm.
Tracy then returned for me, helping me onto another bed and checking me over. I think he was a bit puzzled by my silence, but muttered "I bet you've got a humdinger of a headache, huh? We'll get the medics to look at you when we get topside."
I couldn't trust myself to speak; I knew if I said one word, the whole thing would come tumbling out. Now I'm lying here, watching as the small sub negotiates the narrow passage carved by the underground river, with the occasional rock still pinging off the hull. My reporter's mind is juggling with the known facts, trying to put the pieces together.
Gordon Tracy is one of the sons of former astronaut and billionaire businessman Jeff Tracy.
Jeff's oldest son and heir is Scott; it would be too much of a coincidence that the man who helped me through the long night of waiting for Thunderbird Four would be a different person who just happens to have the same name.
Another son is Alan, the world motor-racing champion, who retired from competitive racing a couple of years ago; is he a member of International Rescue too? Is the whole family involved?
Jeff Tracy rarely appears in public, running his business empire from a small island somewhere in the south Pacific; what better place from which to run a secret rescue organisation?
Uh oh, Gordon just turned round and caught me staring at him; he's turned back again. Does he suspect that I know his identity?
The joke's on me; only last week I was prepared to do anything - even risk Joe's life, as he stood at his camera on top of my news van while I drove at top speed (and just how did I think I was going to outrun Thunderbird One anyway?) just to get some pictures of the Thunderbird machines. Now their whole secret has fallen into my lap; I could blow the whole organisation wide open. Ned Cook: Reporter of the Year!
I won't do anything of the sort, of course. I owe these guys my life, and Joe's too. Scott was my lifeline over the radio all through the long wait for rescue, making sure I didn't give up hope, and Gordon risked his neck coming to get us. And that's not counting all the hundreds of other people who International Rescue have saved since they started operations.
But how can I reassure them without letting on I know who they are? Gordon keeps glancing over his shoulder, and I don't think it's just because he's worried about Joe's condition.
I've had an idea; it's four days until my next studio recording of the Ned Cook Show. I'm going to convince the doctors to let me go on air, even if I have to do the programme from my hospital bed. Then I can publicly thank these guys and show them that their secret is safe with me.
It's the story of a lifetime, that's for sure, but without these guys, my life would have been over. Ned Cook, ace reporter, has finally learnt that some stories are too big to tell.
The end