A wave of red across his display and John's reaction was instant – alert and concerned. Alpha One command overrides were only to be used in the most extreme situations, such as when the pilot was incapacitated or the machine was compromised, so seeing control wrested from him during what was a normal and peaceful Friday morning was a shock.
Putting down the data pad he had been reading John activated the holo-comm and patched straight into the research lap. "Brains? Is something wrong?"
While waiting for a response John was trying to work out exactly what the issue was; he no longer had access to most systems and the ones on read-only didn't show any problems. All the Thunderbirds took a large amount of general maintenance to run smoothly and reliably and John took that a step further as he lived on his, so he was confident there hadn't been so much as a dodgy battery in months. There was nothing to justify Brains taking over all of Five's systems, never mind shutting down the circuit breakers - from deepening John could see them turning off in a cascade. Without them he would be vulnerable to -
- the power surge that Brains had just initiated.
Shit.
John's mind was racing and heartrate picked up. "Brains? What the – Brains! Stop it! It's overloading!" He yelled, aghast. Without the virtual circuit breakers that power surge would destroy the battery storage and probably take up the whole station. And he didn't have the access to stop it.
Stomping on a wave of panic John gave a kick off a wall and floated to the main power array. The push button panel came off quickly but sparks were already beginning to fly – resistors and wiring hissing and spitting like hot fat. Maybe he couldn't stop the surge, but perhaps he could redirect it.
With deft fingers John began to physically pull the boards out of their housings – letting go as soon as they were free and leaving them to float by his head. There were twenty to pull to completely shut down the systems. Twenty to remove - carefully - so they could be reinserted without damage. Hopefully there would be something to reinsert them into afterwards. If he pulled the circuits the power surge would have no-where to go and it would redirect into secondary systems. Secondary systems like life support. Not ideal but the least bad option at his disposal.
As each circuit slid out it's housing the whine of a station under strain kicked up a notch, pitch increasing until Five was screaming, smoke beginning to form from the overburdened wiring. The power surge still ballooned and he was only half way there. It wasn't going to be enough! He wasn't quick enough. His heart sank, there were just too many.
"It's going to - " John's words were cut off as the equipment in front of him exploded, massive surges of power destroying the remaining circuits and sparking instant combustion. Caught in the wave John was thrown across the whole length of the station, hitting hard against the opposing wall with a dull thud.
Lights flashed behind his eyes as his skull cracked against the bulkhead and breath was stolen from his lungs. Dazed, he floated, barely able to raise his arm to protect his face from the intense heat bellowing from the bowels of his station. There was a roaring in his ears that he couldn't tell if it were from his own frantic pulse or the inferno that was springing up just a few feet away. His vision was blurry, but that could be the heat or the blow to the head – pain spiderwebbing over the back of his skull.
If there had been gravity he would have been on the floor somewhere: instead he hung with the perfect view of his ship ripping itself apart, stunned enough that he couldn't do anything about it. Emergency alarms blared: signals that would go no-where because the overrides were in place. Fire suppression systems still worked and thankfully began to apply a cloud of CO2 to the damage before the fire burned up all the oxygen.
John knew he should be doing something, but with thoughts as thick as honey and his movements just as slow all he could do was watch helplessly. A rumble deep inside the power array sent shudders through Five and the power control unit ripped itself open. Emergency lighting turned on, bulkheads went down and pieces of the power conduits careened in all directions, including his own. All went back.