My first ever Thunderbirds one-shot, I'm so excited. I hope you enjoy this little scene between Tin-Tin and Lindsey, one of the archaeologists seen in The Uninvited - an episode where Scott was shot down by three aircraft over the Sahara desert. Lindsey and another archaeologist called Wilson were seeking the Lost Pyramid of Khamandities and they discover the pyramid is actually home to a lost tribe of hostile desert people who are highly advanced.
Anyway, I wanted to focus on Lindsey's views on the desert.
Enjoy and don't forget to tell me what you think.
The Desert.
Tin-Tin woke up because of the strangeness of the environment; the tent was air-conditioned thanks to Brain's hard work as part of the preparation for use by International Rescue since there was a chance they would need living quarters in a desert environment, but while the tent was - miraculously - cool, she just felt there was something not quite right.
She didn't like that feeling.
She liked being certain, but ever since she had joined Thunderbird 2 on the way to recover Scott after he'd been shot down by 3 unidentified aircraft who'd appeared out of nowhere, and Scott had been worried about a second attack which was plausible, and Wilson and Lindsay hadn't helped when they had told them how…empty and ominous the desert was. In the end, she had had enough, and she'd sent them off to bed.
But Tin-Tin hadn't had a restful sleep. She had travelled to many places, both before that mess with the Fireflash when some criminal had planted an explosive on the aircraft in an attempt to trap International Rescue and during her time with the boys.
But there was something about the desert. Wilson was right there, there was something about it. Something she couldn't identify….
But she didn't like it, and that surprised her; Wilson and Lindsay both seemed to be under some kind of spell where they viewed the desert like it was a bad omen, and Tin-Tin knew only too well how the sun, the lack of proper hydration, and the added effects of isolation from other humans could have some kind of effect, but she hadn't expected herself to be worried herself. It had started as soon as Scott had made that observation about being attacked again; Tin-Tin had felt a chill go down her spine, as they were confronted once more with the burning questions of the day.
Why had three aircraft attacked Scott in the first place?
Where had they even come from? Scott was an experienced fighter pilot, who'd served with the World Air-force, and he regularly checked the radar set in Thunderbird 1, and he'd said the fighters had come from nowhere, which meant they had to have some kind of base in the desert. But Lindsay and Wilson had been everywhere, and they hadn't found so much as a sign of a fuselage, never mind an air-squadron.
With a sigh, Tin-Tin got dressed; she doubted she could get any kind of sleep right now, and besides she wanted some fresh air before she, Brains and Virgil prepared Thunderbird 1 for recovery.
When she stepped out of the tent, Tin-Tin shivered at the contradictory cool breeze mingled with warmth. The night was almost over. Daybreak was just breaking out over the horizon. In a few hours, the sun would be out and the desert would once again be its hot self.
She was surprised when she saw the silhouette of a man standing on the edge of the camp, well away from the Thunderbird machines, just looking out over the horizon. She could tell it wasn't Scott or Virgil. It wasn't even Brains.
"Trouble sleeping?" Tin-Tin asked as she approached.
The figure yelped and swung around, and Tin-Tin winced at their reaction and the loudness of the yelp while she realised it was Lindsey.
"Sorry!" Tin-Tin held up her hands to pacify the archaeologist.
Lindsey took a deep breath. "No, it's okay. God, you almost scared me to death. Are you okay? You're up early."
"So are you," Tin-Tin replied.
Lindsey chuckled before he turned back to face the desert. "I like waking up early and watching the sunrise over the desert, it lets me picture the remaining ancient mysteries that are waiting to be discovered still."
"Do you sometimes hope to wake up, and see the pyramid of Khamandities?"
"A few times; but I gave up soon after when we began to find no sign of it," Lindsey let out a slow regretful sigh and then he turned to her. "How's Scott?"
"I dunno. I haven't checked up on him yet, but he didn't yell out or anything when we went to bed. Thank you again for helping him," Tin-Tin added; she and the others might have profusely thanked the two archaeologists, but once more didn't hurt in her mind.
Lindsey took the thanks with a kind smile. "You're more than welcome; to tell you the truth, we were glad to help and we were even happier to have fresh faces and people to talk to after so long in the desert on our own."
Tin-Tin's heart went out for the archaeologists. They had been out here, in the scorching desert, relying on themselves and depended on a trailer full of supplies trying to find a pyramid that they knew they had a 50/50 chance of finding. Meeting new people must've had a significant effect on the two men, and in a few hours, they'd be on their own again. "Has it been hard, been out here?" She asked him quietly.
"Yeah, it has," Lindsey nodded solemnly, his expression darkening as he thought about the weeks they'd spent looking for the pyramid, but they hadn't had anything to go on. To make matters worse, the sun had played games on them within days of setting out here. "Wilson might be a bit antagonistic at times, but when he'd decided he'd had enough of this whole thing, I was more than glad. I welcomed it. I was sick and tired of going around and around the desert in circles. Our supplies were holding; we had enough water and food to keep us going and the fuel cells for the jeep were capable of giving us enough gas for months, but we have been travelling across this desert so many times we can tell where we've been, and there's been nothing. There has not even the smallest sign of any kind of Egyptian presence, never mind the pyramid or any kind of desert settlement. That's why we're both baffled about the whole attack on Scott in the first place. There's nothing around for miles, never mind anything worth guarding as far as we could tell to warrant such a vicious attack in the first place. But at the same time… you heard what he said last night, about getting a weird feeling about this desert. Well, I agree with him; there is something truly bizarre about the desert, but it's ominous and worrying because there's nothing out there to be worried about."
Tin-Tin felt that chill again. "How long have you been looking for this pyramid anyway?"
"About two months, now; when we set out, we wanted a small army of archaeologists and a supply truck or two. That way we could have covered much more ground, but Salar base didn't see it as a good idea. They might have been interested and intrigued by the pyramid, but they felt the whole story was too obscure to send an expedition into a remote patch of the desert," Lindsey told her. "In the end, they reached a compromise; they would supply our trailer with enough fuel 'gas' cells and provisions for two people and give us a radio pulse, so if we found the pyramid, we can give the position to other archaeologists to study it."
Tin-Tin could well understand the practicalities of the point; with the chances of finding a pyramid these two had admitted could be a figment of other archaeologists' imaginations so low, no exploration organisation would risk so many lives but they would be intrigued enough to send Lindsey and Wilson out into the desert just to be on the safe side.
"But our expedition seemed doomed and destined to be a failure," Lindsey went on. "We travelled for days looking for signs of the pyramid; we had gotten together the reports and claims from other archaeologists. We figured it would give us clues or help us narrow down the places it could be. And it worked; their accounts and their map references helped us narrow down the location so we didn't travel through the entire desert, but realistically we knew there was a chance they got it wrong. It's very hard to be precise in a desert; there are sandstorms that make it impossible to chart the ground, and the sun and its effects make it hard for people to make precise fixes. We'd even started guessing the pyramid was miles off and that the earlier explorers got their map fixes off, but 3 months before we started out another expedition doing a mineralogical survey out in the desert reported spotting a pyramid, and they gave a more precise location, unfortunately there are no landmarks in a desert so narrowing it down is virtually impossible. That's why we brought the radio pulse, so if we found it another team wouldn't spend weeks trying to track us down. But I can tell you, we have seen and heard nothing. After a while Wilson and I got bored of the never-ending lack of leads and so we decided to do one last sweep to make sure, and then head back; it wasn't until yesterday things changed, but it dropped a new mystery in our lap."
"Who those aircraft belonged to. I know," Tin-Tin nodded.
"Wilson and I talked about it during the night; he kept going on about how this desert is just wrong, and y'know what?" Something in Lindsey's tone made her look into his eyes, and she saw a serious look on his face. "I didn't tell you this before, but occasionally I've gotten the feeling we're being watched."
"Oh, please don't!" Tin-Tin didn't like the sound of that; it only made her feelings about this place even worse. "What makes you say that?"
"I dunno. I dunno if it's just the sun, something in the air, the loneliness despite having Wilson around, but this whole expedition has been a nightmare. I told you it seemed cursed from the beginning, but I didn't tell you that once, Wilson and I went to sleep one night but in the morning we found several pieces of equipment and tools were missing," Lindsey said, casting her a regretful look at frightening her so badly.
"What?" Tin-Tin whispered, and for a moment she wondered if the heat and isolation had gotten to the archaeologist.
Her fears must have shown on her face because Lindsey added. "I mean it, Miss Tin-Tin. We woke up and found several things were missing. There was no sign of them, and trust me, we looked. We'd had the radio with us; in expeditions like this it's simply common sense and good judgement to keep the set with us in case of an emergency, so it wasn't touched. However bits in the trailer were moved and touched, we knew because we remembered how it was the night before. But when we checked, the only tracks in the sand were our own, but it spooked us for a bit. We went around the desert looking for clues, but we found nothing."
"Your friend didn't mention it," Tin-Tin commented. She wondered if there was something going on between the two men, but at the same time, it seemed like such an isolated event to remark upon last night.
Lindsey shrugged and confirmed her thoughts. "It only happened once, but it was enough to convince us both there was something wrong; we'd heard the same thing from the diaries of other expeditions, we'd just assumed the reports were just the desert getting to them or freak occurrences, people putting things in this case or that case, or something like that. But we carried on with the expedition regardless before we found nothing for weeks."
That had been a bitter pill to swallow.
Lindsey had become fascinated with the idea of a pyramid in this part of the desert a long time ago. You didn't become an archaeologist here without learning about some of the legends and myths that hung over the place like a sandstorm waiting to happen. He was a patient man by nature, who went through life calmly and with a plan. In contrast, Wilson got bored easily, but even Lindsey had to admit they'd found nothing, so they had both decided to give up and return to base, and pray they got a different lead at a later date.
"We have found nothing, for weeks. We brought with us surveillance drones that have a digital vision scope capable of processing 10 miles worth of visual data, but they proved useless. All they showed us was sand, sand, and more sand. Wilson and I came up with a few theories about where those aircraft came from, but we couldn't see how it worked," Lindsey said.
"Yeah, me and the others tried coming up with our own theories; the trouble is Scott keeps a watch on the radar scopes in Thunderbird. He would have noticed if he was being followed, but there was nothing."
"Yeah, that ties in with one of our theories as well, that Scott was simply followed by hostile aircraft which came from a totally different part of the world, and they decided to attack here, although that makes less sense," Lindsey suddenly chuckled, surprising Tin-Tin; this was hardly a topic that was funny.
"What is it?"
"I was just thinking; many people believe that as we continue to spread across Earth, we solve more mysteries after the other, but it's not true. There are many things we still don't know. It looks like we've got another mystery."
Tin-Tin didn't like the sound of that, but then again there was a lot of this she didn't like.
Until the next time...