The Complete Thunderbirds Story
Adapted by Lee Homer
Disclaimer: A fan adaptation of the origin story, printed in the pages of Thunderbirds The Comic. All rights reserved. I don't own Thunderbirds.
-Two-
Jeff journeyed home, still troubled by the hostile attitude of Larry Hauptman. He tried to think of a reason why the pilot should resent his position as Mission Commander. Sure he had resigned from the World Space Administration to pursue his activities, but these were closely associated with the WSA space programme. The sight of his wife Lucille and son Scott missed for a moment the anxious thoughts about Major Hauptman. Later that day, he relaxed in the warm and friendly atmosphere of the family ranch-house, catching up on the news.
"Did you have your check-up at the clinic?" Jeff asked Lucille as Scott scrambled onto his lap.
Lucille was expecting a baby.
"I certainly did," she replied with a smile. "Young Scott is going to have a little brother. We'll have to think of a name for him."
Jeff pondered for a moment and then announced, "Virgil!"
Lucille came to sit beside her husband. "That's an unusual name, Jeff," she said in surprise. "What made you think of that?"
"Well," Jeff explained, "we named Scott after one of the early astronauts - Malcolm Scott Carpenter. Virgil - Virgil Grissom was one of the greatest of them all. He was one of the original seven U.S. astronauts and became the second man to fly in space."
At that moment, Jeff's father Grant Tracy came in. "Gus Grissom was a real hero," he said, shaking his son's hand. "He died in a fire during a launch test."
Lucille paused thoughtfully. "I guess Virgil does have a unique ring to it. Yeah. Virgil Tracy. I think it works nicely."
A short while later, as Lucille took Scott to the coral to feed the horses, Grant sat down with his son. Grant was an expert when it came to faces. He noted the look of worry in his son's eyes.
"So, how's the training coming along?" he asked. "Lucille tells me that you trained on the Aurora recently?
Jeff's brow furrowed he recounted the event vividly.
"Yeah, and it was going fine until my pilot tried to scare me silly. He put the plane into a nose-dive!"
"Was that part of the training?"
"No," Jeff answered. " It appeared that the man has a real beef about me being in charge of the mission. I've been trying to play it down, dad. It would be difficult if his attitude affected the other crew members."
"Guess you're right, Jeff. What's next on the agenda?"
Jeff smiled, once more attempting to put aside the worries about Larry Hauptman. "We're due to to some Moon orbits in a Shuttle...you know, flights over the proposed Moonbase site. It will allow Alison to check her scientific data."
Weeks later, as the spaceplane was prepared to launch, Controller Luke Davis added further details to the flight plan. Jeff and his team were ordered to replace a set of solar batteries which had burnt out on an orbiting communications satellite. The satellite itself was in a fives orbit around the moon. Jeff's objective was to replace the batteries themselves while the rest of the team proceeded to the Moonbase overfly point. It sounded simple enough. Jeff believed that if they co-operated enough, then they could complete the mission in no time at all. Still, the thought of Larry turning on him again gnawed at his conscience. A short while later, the spaceplane was propelled through the atmosphere on two large rocket boosters. With Larry Hauptman at the controls, they steered on course for the satellite. In under an hour, they saw it, dancing majestically along its orbital path above the Moon.
As soon as they were in range, Jeff prepared to climb aboard the satellite. As he changed into his crimson pressure suit, he heard yet another snide comment from the Major.
"I thought the Commander would stay with his ship?"
Jeff looked back at him. "Just what is your problem, Major? We don't have time to do this again. As Commander, it's my responsibility to carry out this walk. So I suggest you shut your face or I'll put you on report. Maintain our position and course. Can you do that?"
Hauptman snarled under his breath as if he had been told off by a parent. Jeff smiled to himself as he returned to the airlock. With the aid of a jet pack. Jeff moved out of the satellite, towards the gold shimmering panels that housed the faulty solar batteries. The job took less than thirty minutes to complete. As soon as he was done, he detached himself from the satellite and returned to the spaceplane. They then swiftly continued on their way towards the Lunar site.
When he returned to Earth a few days later, Jeff decided to have a quiet word with Luke before he could receive his next mission brief. He felt the stress of his position creep upon him like a phantom and it was all because of Hauptman. He never liked to tattle on anyone, but he had to get to some answers one way or the other. Larry relaxed behind his desk with a cigar when Jeff entered the room. He smiled and gestured his friend to sit. With a straight and grim face, Jeff got to the point.
"What's with Hauptman, Luke? He's been giving me grief ever since the Aurora test?"
Luke shrugged as he slid a folder of papers across the desk. "I don't know, Jeff, but please try not to worry about it okay? You've gotten this far and I'd hate to see you quit now."
Jeff sighed deeply. "Fine. What have you got for me this time?"
"It's all there in the brief," Luke replied.
Jeff opened the notes and studied them. Jeff was going to take another orbital flight in an Aero-Space Plane or ASP. His eyes rolled up at his superior with a ton of questions.
"Wait a minute," he said. "This is the X0B development plane. I thought the project had been shelved."
"It ran into budget problems, Jeff, but the ASP is still there. She's fuelled and waiting to go. You'll launch in two days,"
Jeff stood up, placing the notes under his arm. He nodded for a moment.
"Two days." he sighed. "Two days until another scrap with Hauptman."
Before he could step over the threshold into the corridor, Luke sent him off with a few supportive words, but they meant nothing to him. He hoped that his authoritative tone had knocked some sense into the Major though. He'd soon know in two days. He tried his hardest to sleep, knowing that the upcoming mission would drain him of energy. He stirred in his bunk, trying to focus on the things that meant the world to him. Hauptman was an obstacle he knew he could overcome.
Eventually, that day arrived. The ASP screamed down the runway at full speed until she lifted into the air. As the sophisticated jet climbed through the sky towards the atmosphere, Jeff prepared for his mission. He felt the awkwardness that flowed from Hauptman, who seemed to ignore their previous feud. He held a permanent false smile on his face, which made Jeff shiver to his core. He couldn't take his eyes off the man. Just what was he up to? When they reached their target altitude, Jeff could see the stars appear amongst the blue haze of the atmosphere. They were cruising at a speed of Mach 10 by this point. Hauptman periodically glanced back at Jeff.
"We'll escape the stratosphere in 60 seconds, Colonel," he said.
Suddenly, as Jeff climbed towards his seat, an emergency siren sounded. Red lights flashed throughout the cockpit. He checked the registry gauges to see their needles drop. He tensed at the drama which folded in front of him. He instructed the rest of the crew to keep calm while he assessed the situation with the Major.
"Report, Major?"
"Colonel, there's a malfunction in the fuel change over systems," replied Hauptman. "We're losing height dramatically!"
Jeff grabbed the headset and put out a call to mission control. The reply was immediate.
"Mission control to ASP. We're registering a fuel starvation warning. What's going on up there?"
Jeff breathed deeply. He calmly took the controls from Hauptman all the while mission control screamed at them over the radio.
"Abort mission, ASP. Repeat! Abort mission! Eject!"
"It's no good!" Hauptman yelled. "We're going to crash!"
Amongst the chaos and confusion, Hauptman leant towards Jeff's seat and smacked the ejector button. Unaware of the Major's deception, Jeff catapulted upwards and was thrown clear of the craft. He felt the sharp cold wind lash across his face as he prepared himself for the splashdown. It was all over within a matter of minutes. His parachute deployed as his body hit the water below. He soon composed his thoughts as his survival instincts kicked in. He looked up in dismay to see the ASP whiz above his head, seemingly safe from the danger. He wanted to curse aloud but he didn't want to drown. Then, he spotted a small red object floating in the water ahead of him. Escaping the snare from his parachute, he swam towards it.
"It's a survival pod!" he thought. "I don't understand? Why did they do this to me?"
Aware of his situation, Jeff pulled the safety tag loose. He watched as the red survival package sprawled out into an inflatable lifeboat. He heaved his body onto it, grabbed its plastic oar and rowed towards the first landfall he could find. As he paddled in the endless expanse of the South Pacific, he tried to make sense of what had happened to him,
"I was abandoned deliberately here, but why?" he thought aloud. "Surely, Hauptman doesn't hate me that much?"
The sun began to set over the horizon and Jeff began to lose the light around him. As he prepared to settle down on the life raft, a certain shape caught his attention. He spotted an island silhouetted by the moonlight ahead. It was the only landmass in the area. Its tall jagged peaks cast their dark reflections over him. Frantically, he rowed towards the beach. He landed on the island atoll with a sigh of relief. He had found his haven. Hopping out of the life raft, he made a preliminary study of the island. It seemed deserted and it wasn't registered on any of his maps. His hike brought him to a cliff face which overlooked the ocean. Exhaustion set in to the point that he couldn't walk anymore. Locating a cave, he gathered some firewood and successfully made a pit. He sat by the warm glow of the fire, searching through a survival pack that he found on the raft.
"I guess there's enough food here to last me a couple of months," he muttered. "The ASP was okay after Hauptman dumped me here. It seemed like Mission Control wanted me out of that plane. I just can't figure out what this is all about?
As he sat there alone with his thoughts as he looked up at the stars. He thought about his family for a while until his thoughts shifted onto the island itself. He didn't quite know how to feel about it. Did he discover a paradise or a prison? When he awoke the next morning, he felt the warm pacific sun beat on his face. He climbed to his feet, and without a thought, made the trek back to his raft. Now with the aid of the day, he searched the raft's supply box and found a small transmitter radio. It appeared to be in working order.
"This raft has everything," he smiled. "I hope someone can hear me out here?"
He spent the better part of the day, counting his ration supplies along with the intermittent pleas for help over the radio. By lunchtime, he began to tell himself that he was done for. He sat there and feverishly began to recount his wedding vows to Lucille. Oh, how he yearned to hold her again. However, unbeknownst to him, keen eyes watched the island from beneath the waves.
A black, cylindrical submarine broke onto the surface off the coast. The mysterious commander observed the desperate man through a powerful telescope. He smiled, flashing his teeth to the accompanying Lieutenant.
"The Colonel has the perfect weather for a vacation," he said. "He's a lucky son of a gun!
"Rather him than me, Sir." the Lieutenant chuckled. "I can't wait to see the look on his face when we pick him up."
By the end of the first week, Jeff continued to explore the island he would eventually call home. He amassed a collection of drawings to help document his findings. It kept him sane for the most part. He continued to live off his carefully rationed provisions. By week ten, he had found himself battling dehydration. He was exhausted, hungry and found that he couldn't walk anymore. Desperation had taken hold of him. Grabbing the radio, he tried to muster a single word. 'Mayday.' He collapsed in the sand, his hand slipped away from the transmitter. He lay there, disorientated as the sky began to spin above him. He wondered if this was it, only he didn't know what to expect. Before he could think about it any further, he passed out. As he lay there, he heard the sound of boots crunching the sand around him. He tried to open his eyes, but his vision had been severely distorted. He didn't know it at that point, but his life had been saved. He could hear muffled voices around him,
"Alright, get him on board the Submarine. Mission Control will be happy to know, he passed the test."
"Are you sure he'll make it? He looks like a mess?"
"He'll be fine once we get him to the carrier."
"Ha. He should be lucky. He's the first man to discover this island. Maybe we should name it after him?
"Say, you're right. I'd bet he'd be over the moon when he learns that he survived on 'Tracy Island.'"
Jeff felt himself move, only he couldn't place how. He felt disjointed and disconnected from reality. He couldn't tell if he had died or not. Fortunately for him, fate would give him a second chance. A chance to change his life and the world.