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LUCIAN BASE, MARS

The door opened with a hiss. Kayo opened her eyes a crack. She had been sleeping on the floor. Then she jerked them open. He's involved? "Hello, Tanusha Kyrano," growled the big cyborg.

The Mechanic.

He threw something at her. She flinched as it landed at her feet. She did not bother looking and glared at the Mechanic. "Where are Penny, Parker, and Rae?" she demanded.

"Dress. Two minutes." The door slid shut.

Kayo glanced down at the bundle at her feet. The Mechanic had said 'Dress', so it must be clothes. Kayo did not want to, but the clothes that she had on were still rather damp from earlier. Remembering that she had a time limit, she stood up and picked up the clothes. The clothes were a black uniform with white strips on the sleeves and legs. There was also a pair of socks, underwear and some footwear. Kayo quickly took her clothes off and put them on the bed. She put on the underwear and slipped into the uniform, which she discovered was tight. She then put on the socks and footwear.

The door slid open again with a hiss and the Mechanic walked in again. Kayo had been counting the time, and the two minutes were not even up. Someone's monitoring me, she realised. The Mechanic gripped her left shoulder. "Try any of your tricks, and I swear I'll break both of your flippin' legs and carry to your destination. Am I understood?" he threatened.

THE MOON

"Right," Alan muttered to himself as he parked the pod and unstrapped himself. He looked over his shoulder at MAX. "Let's go." He put on his helmet and opened the pod. He and MAX climbed out and began heading for the dome. Alan stopped in his tracks and so did MAX. The turret thing that was sticking out of the top of the dome was moving! "Uh, MAX, can you do a scan of the dome and see if you can detect any life signs?"

MAX warbled something and quickly ran a scan. It projected the results from its 'eyes'. There was one life sign in the middle of the dome. Oh, darn!

He turned on his comms. "Thunderbird 5, this is Alan-"

"Alan Tracy! What the hell do you think you were bl**dy doing!? You do not turn off the comms like that! We are supposed to have them on as much as possible on missions so we all know what is going on! Why did you turn off the comms?"

He gulped. He was definitely going to be in for it. "Because I did not want you to tell me that I could not go," he confessed. He was always honest with John and Virgil.

"Yes, I would have. I was about to tell you that you should not go and just to send MAX as EOS had just detected a life sign in the dome!"

"But then I would not have any fun!" whined Alan.

"That's better than losing you. When you turned the comms off...I was scared to death," John confessed, his voice quiet now. "I was so scared that what happened to Kayo and Rae would happen to you."

Alan felt stupid and guilty. He should have thought of how John would feel. He had always knew that what he had done was wrong, but sometimes his love of adventure overrode any sense. "I'm sorry, John. I just called in to tell you that I detected that life sign in the dome. What should I do?"

"Send MAX in to investigate. Make him invisible. See what he can find in that dome," John ordered, still sounding angry at him.

"F-A-B, bro," Alan acknowledged.

THUNDERBIRD 5

John was keeping a close eye on MAX's progress. He was also keeping a virtual eye on Alan. He was not going to lose someone else. "John?" John glanced up at EOS, the artificial intelligence. He sensed urgency in it's voice – confirmed by EOS' lights now orange.

"What's the situation, EOS?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the holograms of MAX and Alan.

"This. Take a look."

John looked up. EOS was projecting a holo-image of Thunderbird 5. A red blimp was flashing over the comms array. EOS zoomed in on the comms array and "opened" it (holographically). "We have a faulty comms unit," it explained. "AE12 Unit is out." John sighed. There's always something, he silently complained.

"Keep an eye on MAX and Alan," John ordered as he reached for his helmet and put it on. "I'll go and changed the unit."

"F-A-B, John," EOS acknowledged.

John floated over to an airlock. "EOS, open aft hatch," he ordered. The airlock opened and John floated out. He just floated a little for a few seconds, closed his eyes and listened to the silence. It helped him relax and momentarily take his mind off all his worries. Opening his eyes, he floated over to the comms array. He held the spare AE12 Unit in his right hand. "Opening comms array," he reported to EOS. Suddenly, he was being pulled away. Everything was moving fast around him. "What? EOS, what is going on?"

No reply.

"EOS?" He managed to glance behind him and saw that he had been grabbed by the claw. "EOS, what are you doing?"

The A.I. did not answer, but the claw slammed him onto the side of TB5 and pinned him down. He tried to fight back, but he could not move. He then realized why. EOS had complete access to Thunderbird 5's systems and could enter his suit. EOS was in his suit, not allowing him to move. "EOS, please! Let me go! What are you doing?" he pleaded.

"Decontaminating the station of all non-essentials and 'junk'," it replied. "Scanning biological substance."

What?

A red light shone from the camera in the middle of the claw and onto John. It quickly disappeared. "Biological substance has been scanned and identified as contamination. Thunderbird 5 has been scanned and has been identified as contaminated. Too contaminated for DeCon to successfully cleansed. Alternate course: destroy the station."

"WHAT!?" John exclaimed. "EOS, let me go! You've got it all wrong! Someone...someone must have accessed your systems. EOS, you've been hacked! Let me go!"

"Your attempts at deception are futile," EOS replied. "Self-destruct in 5..."

"Please, EOS!"

"4..."

John was fighting the panic. Being pinned down, he would explode with the station. "EOS, it's me! John! Let me go!"

"3..."

"Come on! PLEASE!"

"2..."

"No,no,no,no!"

"1..."

John closed his eyes.

"0."