Sadly, I don't own Thunderbirds in any iteration.
Please let me know what you think.
The Mechanic's Failure.
The stars above Tracy island were beautiful; one of the advantages of the family living in this part of the Pacific Ocean was there was next to no light pollution, so it was possible for the Mechanic to see the stars above. But this must be one of the few times he had actually looked up into the skies.
The Zero-X flight had been haunting the Mechanic for a long time. The Hood had never let him forget his failures; whenever they met such as when the other supercriminal wanted to be broken out of prison or if he had some scheme that he could only fulfil with his help and engineering ability, the Hood would sometimes drop in the Zero-X mission and the failure of the T-Drive engine to motivate him to work faster, or because the Hood wanted to make a point.
For a long time, the Mechanic had nursed a strong loathing for the Hood, and the way he was mocked made him continually try to find a way to escape from the influence of the Hood. But at the same time, the Mechanic had spent so long trying to work out what had gone so wrong with the T-drive. He had met other physicists, engineers, and scientists to discover what went wrong; the Mechanic was good at what he did, and he had graduated with honours, and he had worked with many great scientists and worked at many institutions before he turned to crime but he wasn't so prideful so as not to get the second opinion of another scientist's work. And the T-Drive had been incredibly complicated. He had wanted to know where he had gone wrong and why. A few scientists had offered opinions and reasons, but there was nothing concrete enough for him. And he had never gained the courage to construct another T-drive powered spaceship to see if the engine had been sound in the first place.
But now he had just discovered by a strange quirk of fate the engine had worked. All of the Hood's taunts and cruel quips about not wanting something to go wrong as the T-Drive had were now meaningless. It had worked. And more than that, Jeff Tracy, the founder of International Rescue and one of the most revered pilots in the world, was still alive. And he was apparently somehow clinging onto life in the Oort Cloud asteroids, just beyond Mars. It was no wonder International Rescue wanted his help and expertise, and the Mechanic planned to help them.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?"
The Mechanic turned briefly, startled by the sound of Grandma Tracy's voice. He then turned away, unsure if he could face her. "Yes, it is," he agreed. "You're lucky to live here. No light pollution."
"True," Grandma Tracy smiled amicably, but then her smile faded. "It really hurt you, didn't it? The T-drive?"
The Mechanic wondered if it was a strange ability for parents or grandparents to see when someone was unsettled, but he knew there was no point denying it like he normally would have done. Besides, he felt he needed to explain, to a non-scientist. Brains would understand, but he wanted to open up to someone else.
"The Hood has never let me forget for a second what went wrong that day," he whispered while he refused to take his eyes off of the stars, wondering just how long Jeff Tracy had survived and how much time he had left before whatever meagre survival equipment he had available gave out.
"What do you mean?"
The Mechanic looked into the quizzical face of the older woman sadly. "Ever since the Hood 'recruited' me and planted that cybernetic implant into my head so he'd control me, he continually reminded me of my failure with the engine. He would drop in quips, it was all 'I hope this works better than the T-Drive' or 'I remember the biggest chance you had, and it failed' things like that, and he would always be sure I would take it because of his hold over me."
The older woman grimaced. "Y'know, I sometimes wonder just how low and twisted the Hood can sink, but he always surprises me when he tries something new. Thanks to him, my son has been lost for so long, and all he can do is spit on my son for kicks."
"No, this is different," the Mechanic surprised her and she looked deeply into his face to get his meaning. "The T-Drive was Earth's first working and functional faster-than-light engine. It worked in experiments and it allowed someone or something to cross massive distances in the blink of an eye. If he'd gained it, the Hood would have found many ways of using it to gain power for himself. That's why he went to so much trouble to steal it in the first place. But when your son stopped him, the Hood changed his plans. He hates your son, and that hate is enough of a match for his love and desire for power."
"And he's been reminding you of that all this time?" The older woman - no, lady - gently touched his shoulder in sympathy. The Mechanic glanced at it, feeling such a degree of acceptance that he had never gotten before, not once from the Hood or the Chaos idiots.
"Yes, because he knew what the T-Drive meant to me," the Mechanic looked at her solemnly. "Has Brains told you anything about me?"
Surprised by the question, Grandma Tracy blinked quizzically at him. "Er, no. I mean, I know, we all know that he knows you from somewhere, but he won't say."
"I assumed as much. I wasn't always a criminal Mrs Tracy. When I built the T-Drive engine, there were people clamouring to invite me into various institutes and research facilities. I literally had the pick of them all. The Zero-X mission was touted as the most prestigious space exploration flight in human history, a ship which would travel beyond the moon and Mars, travelling to the Oort Cloud and map out the region, bringing back samples while sending out probes deeper into space, maybe even travelling to a different star system if they received the go-ahead. If the experiments had gone ahead without the Hood's meddling, there's a chance that life would have gone the way it looked up. I was really looking forward to it; a nice position, responsibilities. I also hoped to get the chance to explore space, if I was given the opportunity."
"But it never happened because of what the Hood did," Grandma Tracy looked at him sympathetically, even resting a hand on his shoulder.
"No. Once the Zero-X was…lost, all of those opportunities were lost to me, and I was a pariah in the scientific community. I lost everything overnight," the Mechanic gave her a dark look. "Do you blame me for turning to crime?"
Grandma Tracy looked down. "No," she whispered. "But did you try to find some other way?"
"You mean an institution who was willing to trust me, yeah right. I mean, I did try, but none would trust me after the Zero-X disaster. It was too well publicised," the Mechanic explained solemnly. "The only life for me was crime. I used what I knew about science, engineering, technology, and I came to enjoy it, but underneath it all…. I felt the shame of the Zero-X failure. But I didn't know how to find redemption. But now I do. The only problems we have is the working of the whole thing, and the Hood. Sooner or later, he is going to discover what we're doing, and when he does he will interfere."
"I know," Grandma Tracy grimaced as she thought of the Hood and his callous disregard for life, and his insufferable greed and arrogance. Because of him, so many people had suffered while he barely paid any kind of price back. The Hood had unleashed all kinds of horrors and International Rescue had barely been able to mitigate the harm he caused, and for what? What was the point? All the Hood had ever wanted was accumulating more power for himself. But the Mechanic was right; the lure of the T-drive and virtually unlimited space travel without the annoying travel times was too much for him. "But we'll be ready for him. We have to be. Anything to get Jeff back."
The Mechanic smiled. "We will," he promised.