Disclaimer: Gerry Anderson owns the Thunderbirds, I own Melissa. Enjoy, more may come… Mouse, December 2002.

Danger Zone

By Mouse

Scott was the first to arrive at the danger zone in Thunderbird One; Virgil only five minutes behind him. He climbed down and ran over to the waiting personal to get the gist of the situation. Flames were still licking at the remains of a rather large building, but otherwise the fire danger was gone. The man that met him pointed over to where some people were trying to break the ice with picks and shovels.

"All our heavy equipment was destroyed; this is what we're down to. We lost contact about ten minutes ago with the four people down there, their survival packs will last about another two hours.
"Okay. Leave this to us, we'll get them." he rushed back over to thunderbird one, watching as thunderbird two came in for landing. Moments later the four others came out, wrapped up in thermal gear.
"They can't get to the people. We have two hours to get them out before their survival gear gives out on them." Melissa looked around and then at Scott, going over in her mind what had to be done.
"We need to get a scan of the ground around here, see how stable it is, before we can even think about using The Mole."
"Good idea Melissa. Virgil can help you get that set up. Alan, Gordon, you two will help me get the gear out and ready in case we have to do this the long way."

They moved quickly, working quietly and effciently. Virgil and Melissa went back inside and come out with portable geo-readers. They went over to the area that the other people were trying to break into. Virgil quietly asked them to move away and let them do their work. Melissa instructed him on how to position them to obtain the best readings and they set the x-ray sensors in the ice, gently tapping them in with ice picks. Moving back, Melissa unslung the portable reader from her shoulder and activated the sensors. Virgil stood at her shoulder, watching as the readings appeared. They were lucky in this respect as Melissa's other specialty was geology. Melissa pointed out to a couple of stress points to Virgil, her voice low as Scott joined them, wanting to know what was going on.

"These are the three main stress points. We can't risk jarring them any more than necessary, so we can't use the Mole, that would be too much stress and could cause the ice shelf to collapase." Virgil shared a glance with Scott, shades of Melissa's own rescue all those years ago coming to the fore. Melissa looked up at Scott, her expression concerned. "We can't even risk anything that'll make allot of vibration or noise, those stress points look a little too unstable for my liking." Scott thought hard a moment and then nodded.
"All right, we'll use the laser cutters. Melissa, find us two spots to drill in, safe as possible. Virgil, you and Alan will run one rig, Melissa and I the other."
"Right Uncle Scott."
"Okay Scott." They moved out to get the gear. Walking slowly and carefully over the reformed ice, Melissa examined it carefully, finally marking two spots for them to drill.

After about an hour's worth of hard drilling they were three-quarters of the way down to the trapped scientists. They had chosen to do two tunnels, in case one became unstable and they had to abandon it. Melissa was also insisting that they stop every ten minutes so she could take readings on the area, to avoid more crevices forming and making it more difficult. They had stopped while Melissa took some readings, moving in front of Scott to take them. She frowned, her voice soft but echoing the hole.
"Alan, can you confirm these readings?" Alan was doing the same in the tunnel he and Virgil were in.
"Yes. The temperature has risen by five degrees." Melissa looked at Scott, concern on her face, her cheeks rosy with the cold and heat from the lasers.

"We have to hurry, I think we're near some sort of heat source I can't detect." Scott frowned. "It could cause the ice to melt even faster than we are doing with the laser cutters, and cause a cave-in." Scott nodded in comprehension.

"Alright, let's speed this up as much as we dare."

They stepped up there pace, pushing harder and harder to get through to the trapped people. The steam was fogging up the goggles they were wearing, making it harder to see what they were doing, but they kept on going. But after a few more minutes they finally broke through to the cavern that had formed when the crevice had sealed over again. Scott stumbled and would have fallen down another crevice if Melissa hadn't caught him. He smiled his thanks and she grinned at him, shaking her head. The four scientists looked up with concern and relief. Melissa gave them a smile as she slung her medical backpack off and walked
carefully over to them, grinning widely at their amazed expressions.

"International Rescue taxi service, you rang?"

Six hours later Scott and Virgil were relating the details of the rescue to Jeff and John, who had called to see how it went. John was smiling widely at Scott's bad attempt at Melissa's Australian accent.
"...And then this guy just looks up and says, 'Yeah, I did. Did you grab me a pizza with the works like I wanted?'... And that started us off again. I swear that was the funniest thing I've ever seen on every single rescue I've been on." John laughed and shook his head, smiling at his brothers from Thunderbird Five.
"You've got to watch that sense of humor of hers, she'll get you every time."
"Gee thanks Dad." Melissa grinned at him, blushing wildly at the praise she was getting.
"I'll get the rest from you guys later; I'll get back to work. Thunderbird Five out." He disappeared with a wink and a smile at his daughter. Jeff smiled at them all as well.

"You all did well. And you Melissa, how do you feel after your fist official rescue?" Melissa sat down next to Gordon on the lounge.
"Just fine grandfather. Glad I've finally done one, and the next few are going to be interesting as well, until I get used to it. But it was funny in a way," Her eyes twinkled with mirth as she looked at her four uncles, who suddenly found immense interest in looking everywhere but at her.
"How so Melissa?" Tin-Tin was intrigued and smiling from where she was sitting next to Alan. Melissa gestured to the remaining four Tracey brothers.
"I couldn't move for tripping over one of these guys. You'd think I didn't know how to look after myself." All four had the grace to blush and suddenly find other parts of the room extremely interesting. The two woman laughed at them and Jeff smiled indulgently.
"Ok, that's enough of that. You did well, as always. Now, it's late, we can continue this tomorrow." Laughing, the Tracey clan made their way to their beds.

The next morning found Melissa sitting on the patio surrounded by books and a large glass of iced tea, having been up a few hours already, for an early morning swim and breakfast. Sounds of the rest of the Tracey clan moving around the house came through to her and she smiled to herself as she immersed herself in some study. She was catching up on the latest in geology texts and also doing some studying for her astronomy degree, which she was still in her first year of doing. She enjoyed the quietness of the morning, the birds softly whistling to each other. She loved this time of morning, having spent many a similar morning in Australia when she was at University and then when she had been working. She smiled indulgently at Gordon and Alan came running out of the house and began playing in the pool, even though they were in their 30's now, they still behaved like a couple of teenagers. Jeff came out onto the patio and saw what she was doing.
"Didn't you get enough of that when you were at University." Melissa smiled at him and gestured to the books on the table.
"Yes, I did. But I am catching up on some articles and the latest texts for geologists." She lifted a few papers and found what she was looking for. "Here, got this shipped in for you grandfather, latest theories on structural engineering, I knew you'd like it." Jeff accepted the book with a smile.
"Thank you." he glanced at the title and author and smiled, it was by an old engineering friend of his. He sat down opposite her and began flicking through it, sipping his coffee. All in all, it was a nice, quiet, peaceful morning.

Little did they know, it was to be the last for awhile…