The whale was literally sitting on the beach. It hadn't been there the day before meaning it had been washed up by the tide during the night. And the tide wasn't due to come back in for hours meaning there was no quick way for the local Police, Coastguard and Navy to get it back in the water.

Two Navy destroyers were brought out of Pearl Harbor and dropped anchor off the beach to keep surfers and water-skiers from sailing too close to where the whale was stranded. The Police did the same on the beach itself by creating a mile-wide exclusion zone on opposite sides of the whale. This also went right up to the road where several unhappy people were forced to stand back and watch.

"But, Mom!" complained Paul. "Why can't we play next to the whale?"

"Don't be stupid, Paul," replied Barbara. "Whales aren't meant to be on any beach."

"What's going to happen to it?" asked Katherine. "It's not going to die, is it?"

"They'll make sure to do what they can to keep it alive, I'm sure," said James comfortingly. Although deep down, he wasn't hopeful.


Word of the stranded whale had quickly spread and news crews were soon arriving in helicopters to catch the story. Among them was American Reporter Cat Cavanagh – who always somehow seemed to get to a big story in a record time.

"This is Cat Cavanagh reporting live from above Hawaii. There are dramatic scenes going on down on the beach near Pearl Harbor this morning following the discovery of a whale which has somehow got itself stuck on the sand. The Police have thrown a mile-wide exclusion zone on each side of the whale to keep the large crowd of tourists at bay and the Navy are anchored out just off the beach to make sure nobody gets in too close from the water. it is unclear how such a large whale, which looks to be a humpback, could've gotten stuck on the beach, nor is it clear how the local authorities will get it back into the sea."

The newscast from Cat's helicopter was intercepted by Thunderbird 5. Kerry, Katrina and Becky watched it with growing concern.

"That sure is a big whale," said Katrina. "Can they really get that back in the sea?"

"Certainly not quickly that's for sure," said Becky. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"I don't see why we couldn't," Kerry said. "Thunderbird 2 has the power to lift a heavy creature like that. I'll contact Daniel and put him in the picture. Maybe he or Jodie can come up with some ideas."

The Tracy family had just finished breakfast when Kerry's call came through. They were just as surprised when she showed them the video feed from the helicopter.

"Blimey!" exclaimed Beth. "Is that for real?"

"I wouldn't be showing it to you if it wasn't, Beth," Kerry said. "As you can see, they've created an exclusion zone around the whale to keep people away. But I can't see how they're going to move it without heavy equipment."

"They would need to dig a trench underneath before getting lifting cables around it," Jodie said. "But that could take hours."

"And in that heat, it's very unlikely that it would survive," agreed Laura.

Wizzy looked sadly at the whale in the hologram. This all seemed very weird having been watching the documentary the night before. "Can't we help?" she asked.

"I'm glad you brought that up, Wizzy," said Kerry. "I was going to ask your permission, Daniel, to contact the Hawaiian authorities and offer our services?"

Everyone looked at Daniel. "Hmm," he said thoughtfully. "We didn't really set International Rescue to save animals, but I don't see why we can't. Sure, Kerry, go ahead."

"F-A-B," said Kerry and she signed off.

"This wouldn't be the first animal we've had to save, Dad," said Katie. "You remember that family of cats we rescued a couple of years back?"

"That was during the Colorado floods, wasn't it?" asked Adrienne.

Katie nodded.

"Yes, I do remember," said Daniel. "Although there were people in danger as well. The owners needed saving as well as the cats."

"If we do get permission, what will we need to take?" Leanna asked.

Jodie had been pondering that very question. "That's a tough one, Leanna," she said. "We can't use the Mole to dig under the whale, the drill and rollers could cause injury. Same with the Excavator. We could however use the interchangeable pods and make them into diggers."

"What about the Firefly?" asked Beth. "Don't whales need to be kept cool?"

"Yes, they do," said Jodie. "That's also a possibility. We could use that or one of the other fire vehicles to spray water onto the whale to keep it cool from the heat."

"And then when we're done, we can use Firefly's blade to refill the trenches we did," added Katie.

"What about getting it back into the water though?" asked Joanne.

"That part's easy," said Daniel. "We can simply use Thunderbird 2's cables to lift it up and carefully put it back in the water again. Then it can swim away safely."

"What about Thunderbird 4?" asked Wizzy. "Could she be used in any way?"

"I don't see how she could, Wizzy," said Jodie. "That's unless you've got any suggestions?"

Wizzy hesitated for a moment. "Well…not during the actual recovery," she said. "But once it's back in the water maybe I could escort it away from the beach so that it doesn't try and beach itself again?"

The others were puzzled.

"Why would the whale want to beach itself?" asked Adrienne.

"Distress," said Wizzy. "Sometimes when whales are stressed they go looking for help and sometimes they beach themselves in order to get attention."

"Was what you're saying in that documentary last night?" asked Daniel. Even though he'd been in the lounge whilst the program had been on, he hadn't been paying attention to it.

"Yes, Dad, it was," said Wizzy.

Kerry suddenly reappeared on the hologram-scope. "Three words," she said. "Thunderbirds are go!"

"F-A-B!" said Daniel. "Right, here's what we'll do. Jodie, have two of the interchangeable pods removed from Pod 2 and have the Firefly put in there. We'll use the other two as diggers. Wizzy, we won't have room to carry Thunderbird 4 but if you want to, you can take her by sea although it may take you a while to get there."

"Well you won't get the job done in five minutes, Dad," said Wizzy. "I can get there within an hour I reckon."

"Very well," said Daniel. "Now I reckon we'll need every available pair of hands we can get so Sian and Cassidy, you come with us in Thunderbird 2. Adie and Beth, you go with Laura in Thunderbird 1. Jodie, it might be an idea if you came as well so you can have a first-band look at the whale."

Jodie nodded. "Certainly, Mr Tracy," she said.

Daniel clapped his hands. "Let's go, people!"


The team split up. Laura hurried over to the revolving wall panel that led to the revolving elevator that would take her down to Thunderbird 1. After having turned through the wall and standing on the elevator, robotic arms attached her uniform to her as it went down. At the same time, Katie, Rosie, Jodie, Leanna, Wizzy, Sian and Cassidy hurried out of the lounge to make their way down to Thunderbird 2 whilst Daniel hurried over to the large rocket painting on the wall. He leaned back against it and it began to tilt backwards sending him sliding down into a harness which took him down a long green tunnel. Robotic arms worked to attach his blue uniform with green utility sash as he went down. Once all that was complete, the rail his harness was on moved from the bottom side of the tunnel to the top side. Laura was now in her uniform and being carried out on a retractable walkway to Thunderbird 1. She sat down in the seat which was then moved inside before the hatchway sealed. She was shortly joined by Beth and Adrienne who'd got their suits through a couple of the other express elevators leading to the silos. They took their positions in the seats located underneath Laura's and strapped themselves in. The trolley that Thunderbird 1 stood on began to move taking Thunderbird 1 up the diagonal tunnel towards its launching bay under the swimming pool. Daniel then reached Thunderbird 2's silo and swung down through the hatch in the top before closing the hatch behind him. He hurried to his seat and sat down before selecting Pod 2 on the computer. The pod conveyor activated moving Pod 1 underneath. Once Pod 2 was in position, the main body of Thunderbird 2 was lowered down onto it. Whilst all this had been going on, Katie, Jodie, Leanna, Cassidy, Sian and Rosie had travelled down express elevators from the mansion to the silo and like Daniel had been changed into their uniforms on the way. They were now able to join Daniel in the cockpit and were ready to go. The rocks concealing the entrance to the hanger were lowered to allow Thunderbird 2 to taxi out onto the runway. As it came out, the palm trees were tilted back to allow it to pass. Up by the house, the swimming pool was opening up ready for Thunderbird 1 which was just coming into position on the launch pad. Thunderbird 2 was now on the launching ramp which lifted up into position. The wings folded into position and the blast shield rose into place behind the rocket engines.

5…4…3…2…1!

The rocket engines of Thunderbird 1 fired and it lifted up off the launch ramp, though the gap where the swimming pool had been before climbing high into the clear blue skies above Tracy Island. Thunderbird 2's own engines fired and it lifted up off the ramp to join its sister-ship.

"Thunderbirds are go!" said Daniel as the two ships headed north towards Hawaii. "See you when you get there, Wizzy."

"F-A-B, Dad," Wizzy replied. She was in Thunderbird 4 which had already been moved from Pod 4 to the nearby cave where it could head out into the open sea. Once the crane had lowered the small yellow craft into the water, Wizzy started up the engines and headed out of the cave to begin her much longer journey to Hawaii.


The Hawaiian authorities had already begun digging a trench around the sides of the whale, but they were only using shovels which was going to take a very long time. They had also put some protective sheets over the top of it in order to keep the sun off its body.

"Aren't you going to move it?" James shouted to the Chief of Police.

"Sir, have you any idea how much that thing weighs?" the Chief asked. "We need special equipment before we can get it back into the water."

"Well where the hell is this equipment then?" asked James. "Don't tell me you're waiting for it to arrive from the States?"

"That thing won't last the day!" agreed Barbara.

Just then a loud roar of jet engines made everyone look upwards to see the sleek silver shape of Thunderbird 1 arrive on the scene.

"Hey, it's International Rescue!" cried Paul excitedly.

The crowd cheered as Thunderbird 1 hovered overhead.

From her seat in the cockpit, Laura surveyed the scene. "Gosh, that whale is certainly big," she told the others. "At least they've covered it over to protect it from the heat."

"That saves us one little job," said Daniel. "Is there room on the beach for the ships?"

"Easy," said Laura. "I'll put Thunderbird 1 down on the left side of the whale and you can put the pod down on the right."

"F-A-B," said Daniel. "We can just make out the coastline on the horizon. We'll be with you in two minutes."


As Laura gently guided Thunderbird 1 down towards the beach, she noticed that several people in the crowd were pointing their cameras and phones towards her. "Will they ever learn?" Laura sighed and pressed a button. It sent out an invisible shockwave which turned everyone's cameras off and wiped any photographic records that they had taken of them. It would remain that way until after the operation. She could see everyone was now fiddling with the cameras trying to work out was wrong with them. "Sorry, everyone," Laura called out over the PA system. "But you should know by now that International Rescue cannot be photographed or filmed."

"Ha! They didn't like that, did they?" chuckled Adrienne.

There were several grumbles amongst the crowd and several had to back away quickly when the power of Thunderbird 1's jets kicked up a great cloud of sand-dust. Laura, Beth and Adrienne then disembarked and came over to the Police Chief.

"Glad you could come, International Rescue!" the Chief said. "We've been getting bombarded with questions as to why we aren't getting the whale back in the sea."

"Didn't you tell them that heavy equipment is needed?" asked Laura.

"Yeah, but that didn't stop them," the Chief replied. "Speaking of the heavy-gear, when will it be here?"

Laura pointed up into the sky. "Here it comes now," she said.

All eyes now turned to see Thunderbird 2 coming down towards the beach. Daniel and the girls could all now see the whale for themselves.

"Woah, big fish!" remarked Sian.

"Mammal, Sian!" Wizzy said sharply over the radio. "Whales are mammals."

"Wizzy, there's no need to get defensive about it!" Daniel said sternly.

"Sorry," Wizzy said. "I guess I'm just worried about the whale."

"We all are, Wizzy," said Katie. "But we'll get it back in the ocean. Coming in to land."


Just like Thunderbird 1, Thunderbird 2's engines kicked up a huge cloud of sand-dust as it landed on the beach. The legs came down and lifted the main body clear of Pod 2. It then lifted off again retracting the legs as it went leaving the pod on the beach.

"Okay, girls, you're up," said Daniel.

"F-A-B!" answered Beth, Adrienne and Leanna. Leanna had already climbed aboard the Firefly by the time Beth and Adrienne had got into the pod. They then programed the robotic arms to make the two read interchangeable pods into diggers with crawler-tracks and shovels on the front. They were like the bulldozer pod only the buckets were different design and the arms were more flexible.

As the three vehicles drove out from the pod, Jodie and Rosie were busy making sure that Cassidy and Sian got to do something as well.

"These hoses will be needed to pump water from the sea," Jodie was saying. "Sian, I want you to take one down to the water whilst I take the other. Cassidy, I want you take the other end with Rosie and attach them to the back of Firefly. Is that clear?"

"F-A-B," said Sian and Cassidy together.

They quickly set to work. Jodie and Sian took the ends of the red hoses and ran them down to the sea where they put the ends down in the water. Cassidy and Rosie took the other end of the hoses over to where Firefly was standing and attached them to the back of it.

"Pumps in place, Leanna," said Rosie.

"F-A-B," said Leanna. "Jodie, how's things your end?"

"Hoses are in the water, Beth," said Jodie. "Ready when you are."

"Okay," said Leanna. "Firefly to Diggers. I'm about to commence spraying."

"Understood," answered Beth.

"We're about to start digging," said Adrienne.

As Leanna activated the pumps, water sprayed out from the Firefly's rear-mounted hoses onto the top of the whale. The Police had removed the sheets so that it would be more effective. At the same time, Beth began using her digger to make a trench on the left side of the whale whilst Adrienne did the same on the right. Laura stood back with the Police Chief whilst Jodie, Rosie, Sian and Cassidy watched from by the pod and Daniel and Katie watched from Thunderbird 2 which was now hovering nearby.

"How's it going?" Wizzy asked over the radio.

"So far, so good, Wizzy," Daniel said. "Leanna's using Firefly to spray water onto the whale whilst Beth and Adie are using the digger-pods to create a trench around the whale. Hopefully by the time you get here we'll be ready to lift."

"Great," said Wizzy. "I'll be there in about twenty minutes." But as Thunderbird 4 continued its route, Wizzy couldn't help worrying. Any second could so easily be the whale's last.