Be Careful What You Wish For
A Thunderbirds Movieverse fanfic
by TimeGuardian

Chapter Ten

After giving Thunderbird Three the revised orders, Brains sat back in his chair and took a breath – he had to think, to recalculate.

"Brains?"

Brains held up a hand to cut off Jeff's question, knowing that his employer had heard the whole conversation. Numbers and coordinates ran through Brains' head at a furious rate. He couldn't afford to be interrupted right now - they were so close to a solution.

Sitting back up, he attacked the computer with renewed energy, feeding in the figures that he had in mind. Unknowingly, he began thinking out loud. "The c-c-changes s-s-should have increased t-t-the s-s-strength-"

Jeff's voice broke into his thoughts once more. "Should have? Brains, is this going to work or not?"

A flash of frustration went through Brains as he turned around and snapped. "Give me a moment!"

He immediately regretted the outburst as Jeff shrank back from him.

"S-s-sorry. W-w-we're c-c-close. I need to r-re-f-figure s-s-some calculations," Brains muttered as he turned back to the computer.

After Alan left instructions with the Zeta 5 station to do a station wide systems check, he began another one of Thunderbird Five. The last check he managed to finish was before Brains had him doing the course changes and shield work.

He systematically and carefully made his way around the control room, checking readouts from the panels as he went through the process. The environmental controls still were unresponsive despite his efforts, the boosters were still functional, the lights were touch and go until he rerouted power to them during the last system check, and the life support systems –

Alan frowned as he stopped in front of the panel that gave him readings on the oxygen levels inside the station as well as hull integrity. He tapped at the panel and tried a few other things, but there was no denying it – the life support systems were acting up now. Alan couldn't get a clear read on the oxygen levels inside the station and there were no readings as far as the hull integrity.

No, no, no!

He looked back at the space suits piled up near his chair and debated whether or not to tell John about this latest development. His brothers had enough to worry about as it was, but Alan also knew that John entrusted him with Thunderbird Five – he couldn't let him down.

John sat back in his chair listening to Gordon and Virgil arguing about their current position when he heard Alan's transmission come through. He thought it strange when Alan requested to speak to him alone, but didn't question it. He quickly got out of his chair and ignoring Scott's protests, exited the control room.

Moments later, he stalked into the computer room and sat down in front of the communication panel. After making the necessary settings, John spoke quickly. "Okay Alan, we're alone on a secure channel. You picked a devil of a time to want a chat."

He heard Alan's tired laugh. "Oh this is business, believe me."

John listened as his brother explained how Zeta 5 made contact with him and their current status, along with the problem with the life support system. When Alan finished, he shook his head in amazement. "Things just keep getting better, don't they? I have an idea for you to try to get that panel up. Now listen well-"

The next half hour was spent exchanging information between them, along with Alan making the repairs that John suggested. Finally John heard Alan exclaim. "Thanks, John– I'm getting readings back from the panel finally. I was not looking forward to getting into one of these space suits just yet. It's hot enough around here as is with the lack of environmental controls."

Thoughts of the conditions on Five plagued him, and John couldn't quite keep the guilt out of his voice. "I'm sorry you have to go through this, Alan."

"Don't be," Alan replied simply, "you've taught me enough to get me this far. I'll keep Thunderbird Five as intact as I can - just get me and Zeta 5 out of this mess, and we'll call it even. Deal?"

John smiled – Alan's reassurance was just what he needed to hear. "Thanks, Alan, and it's a deal. John out."

He closed the communication channel and left the computer room. By the time John got back to the control room he heard Virgil tell Scott that they were ready to try again.

He edged around his brothers until he got back into the seat he had vacated earlier. "Brains got us new data, Scott?"

"Yeah, he transmitted what we needed and we just finished up the new changes about five minutes ago," Scott replied, "everything okay with Alan?"

"As can be expected," John replied. "He's also heard from Zeta 5 – they have no boosters and they are totally reliant on Five's shields right now. We need to get this going."

Scott turned to Virgil. "You heard the man, let's try this again."

Virgil turned to his panel. "FAB."

Brains listened intently to the transmission as he heard Virgil targeting an asteroid and firing upon it.

He was confident – with the changes and the shorter distance, it WOULD work. It was the waiting that was the stressful part.

Like the previous test, there was nearly two minutes of silence as they waited as if time was on their side. Brains knew it wasn't, but they had little choice in the matter.

It was another minute before he finally heard the words from John that he was waiting on. "Brains, test was successful – asteroid confirmed as destroyed. Are we authorized to continue?"

Relieved, the scientist smiled and turned to look at Jeff before giving Thunderbird Three the go ahead. "FAB, John. P-p-please p-p-proceed."

Alan was feeling very strange – he didn't seem to be sweating anymore. It still seemed to be extremely hot around him, but it didn't seem to be affecting him as much.

He got to his feet, intent on heading towards the showers when a wave of dizziness and nausea set in. He held the back of the chair in a death grip and closed his eyes.

Moments later Alan opened his eyes, willing the control room to come back into focus. The hot air was continuing to make it difficult to breathe, but the nausea seemed to be leveling off for the moment.

Alan let go of the chair and slowly staggered his way to the showers.

Next up? Thunderbird Three has a lot of work to do and Alan fights on against the heat.

Till Next Time,

TimeGuardian