Unnatural Sabotage
by Time Guardian
Chapter Three – Rescuing the Rescue
From his vantage point in Thunderbird One, Scott Tracy's heart nearly bottomed out when he saw the rescue platform nearly disintegrate right before his eyes. No!
Scott then breathed a hesitant sigh of relief as he realized that neither John nor Alan had hit the water, which meant they must have managed to grab hold of the remnants of the platform, which were currently twisting in the unrelenting wind. He could see little else due to the weather, and that only served to help him quickly make his next decision.
Scott turned his attention back to his communicator, his voice nearly a shout as he gave the order. "Virgil! The rescue platform collapsed! Get those two back up now!"
Virgil's tense voice came in reply. "I'm bringing them up now."
Scott said a silent prayer of thanks as he heard John's sudden and strained protest come through loud and clear. "No, Virgil. That woman and child are still in danger."
Virgil Tracy leaned back in his seat as he heard John's voice. Trust his brother to survive nearly anything. When the camera poised out the cargo door caught the collapse of the platform, he was ready to panic.
"John, are you all right? What's your status?" Virgil asked quickly.
John chuckled weakly in reply. "Hanging on for dear life and thankful that the bottom of the platform did not completely detach from the railings, otherwise I might have been swimming for it, or worse."
"John, the structural integrity of the platform is in question," Virgil argued, "With your weight and Alan's along with the-"
Virgil was more than surprised to hear John swear. "Damn. Alan is not in sight and he hasn't said anything."
Visibility was getting worse by the minute as the storm that Virgil had told them was getting stronger by the minute. Angry dark clouds were growing steadily and the wind that was whipping around them only served to make the broken platform twist around at a dizzying rate.
Right now though, John Tracy was worried about other things. For one thing he was doing his best to keep hold on the edge of the bottom plate of the platform, which was now pointing almost vertically. Now that he was thinking clearly he realized that there was no sign of Alan anywhere. Did he fall into the water?
He saw no sign of his brother at all and it worried him to death. "Alan! Where are you? Answer me!"
Silence. John had a bad feeling about this. C'mon Alan, give me a sign, please.
A moment later, his worry turned to relief as John finally heard Alan groan. "Oww, I'm okay John but I'll probably be feeling this in the morning. I'm hanging on to the bottom of the platform. I assume you are on the other side of this since I can't see you. What happened?"
Virgil's worried voice broke into their conversation. "That's what Scott and I would like to know."
John shook his head to clear the mental fog. He kept as firm a hold on the bottom of the rescue platform as he could, despite wearing the thick gloves that were a mandatory part of the envirosuits.
Unfortunately from his vantage point, John had nothing to brace his feet on so he was left dangling. He had been on numerous mountain climbing trips over the summer, so his upper body could take it for a short time - John was more worried about the people they had come to rescue. "What happened to us will have to hit the back burner for now. Right now we are going to try this rescue again."
John tuned out both Scott's and Virgil's protests as he ventured a quick and cautious look down and didn't like what he was seeing. "Alan, we didn't get a chance to winch up the people trapped down there. We're not going to be able to pull them out of there properly if Virgil pulls us up now."
Looking around, John saw the box that the cables fire from, inches away from where he was hanging. By the way the box was pointed it looked like the cables were pointed downward, and with their current position, they may be able to save the people below. He knew that he was on the wrong side to help them any, but if the wiring was still sound, maybe they could still pull this out. "Alan, can you reach the controls to fire the rescue cables?"
Another groan issued from Alan. "I can try, John. The controls are only inches away from my right hand. Hold on."
John did his best to brace himself as he felt additional vibrations in the platform. Suddenly he heard another metallic snap and a low curse issue from Alan. "Uh, John we have a problem. The controls have come loose from the platform. They are dangling in midair at the bottom of the platform by the power cables. They seem to be intact - I think I have a plan to get to them."
John didn't like the sound of that and ventured another look downward. Sure enough, he was seeing exactly what his brother had described, which made John all the more nervous because there looked to be no way to get to them without being able to fly. "Wait, Alan, what are you going to do?"
He got his answer moments later when he saw Alan diving down. Is he crazy?
John's grip quickly tightened in reflex as the remains of the platform violently vibrated with the force of Alan's jump and abrupt stop at the end of the rope and tether that he had used to hook onto the platform. John risked a look down again and saw Alan swing towards the dangling control panel and manage to grab hold of it on his first attempt.
Seconds later John heard a triumphant shout from Alan. "Rescue lines activated!"
John flinched as he heard the box beside him come to life, firing two cables downward. Precious minutes later, he saw that the woman had managed to grab hold of the rescue lines and had them firmly wrapped around her and the child. They seemed to be holding steady. "Virgil, everybody is now on the line. Pull us up!"
"FAB!"
It was nearly ten additional minutes before Thunderbird Two had pulled all of them safely inside and it was nearly another fifteen minutes as a weary John and Alan escorted their patients to the small medical bay they had in a small room off the cargo bay.
John walked out of the medical area and sighed heavily as he began the arduous task of removing his envirosuit. He was nearly in the middle of the cargo area when he caught sight of the remains of the rescue platform laying there. Alan and I were almost done in by this thing.
"We did good, didn't we John?"
He had been preoccupied with his thoughts, so he did not hear Alan approach behind him. Startled, John turned and glared at Alan as he shed the last of his envirosuit. "We did well, yes, but we are going to have to have a long talk about taking crazy chances out in the field. Alan, you know full well that you could have been killed out there pulling a crazy stunt like you did."
He wasn't surprised when Alan turned around with a half grin, his own envirosuit long gone before they had reached the cargo bay. "Guess it's a good thing we hooked in then, huh?"
In spite of Alan's reply, John grinned and shook his head. "You could say that, but if you pull that type of stunt again without letting us in on your plans, you do know that you will incur the wrath of ALL of your brothers, not to mention dad."
John watched as his brother cast his eyes downward. "Sorry, John."
"In the end two people are safe because of what you did, so I can't ride you that much. On the other hand, dad may give you more grief," John intoned with a wry smile. "Now let me get you settled in so we can have you checked out when we get back. I saw you nursing your shoulder back there when we were securing the patients and don't you dare deny it."
Alan looked at him and groaned dramatically. "Aw man, does this mean I get to miss out on cleanup when we get back?"
John chuckled and gave Alan a gentle shove in the back towards the cockpit. "Brat. Let's get going before I push you out of the open cargo bay without a rope."
Thank you to all that have reviewed and apologies all around – delays are too long and involved to explain here. Much to my regret, time for January will not be my own. I will do my best to get the next chapter out soon though.
Till Next time,
Time Guardian
