Non-Participation II - Nineteen.
The movie finished. "Fancy another one?" Gordon asked.
"No thanks." As we exited the theatre I checked at my watch. "It's too early to go to bed..." I looked without enthusiasm towards the lounge. I knew Jeff would still be there, catching up on some Tracy Industries business. Honestly the man was a workaholic.
"Fancy a bit of star gazing?" John asked companionably.
"Why do I get the feeling that you guys are trying to keep me and your father apart." Then I shrugged. "Sure. Why not."
"I'll leave you two to it." Gordon said. "The only stars I'm interested in are star fish." I bade him a good night.
John led the way to his room, but we didn't enter. Instead he opened the door to a nearby cupboard and felt inside. A light came on and he placed his hand over a shiny patch of wall. The back wall of the cupboard swung open.
Amazed I stepped through into a lift. We started descending.
"Aren't we heading in the wrong direction to be looking at stars?" I asked.
John laughed, but didn't reply as the lift doors opened. We stepped out into a car of the monorail system. I took my seat and John operated the controls that sent the car hurtling forward.
He settled down in a seat facing me. "Even out here on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean," he explained, "we've got too much light pollution coming from the house and the other buildings nearby. There's also minute vibrations from all our machinery that upset my equipment. So the observatory is on the far side of the island. And this is much more comfortable than hiking in the dark."
"And easier on my foot."
The monorail slowed down and came to a stop. We alighted.
The observatory was one place that Scott hadn't showed me today. It looked like a standard observatory, a big domed roof with a slit in it.
John started setting up his equipment. "So Chris, what do you fancy seeing tonight?"
"You're the expert. You tell me."
He punched in some co-ordinates and the dome starting rotating, along with the telescope. Then he indicated the eyepiece. "If you look through there you'll get a good view of Alpha Centauri."
I looked at the yellow, glowing dot. "So what's so special about that?"
"It's the group of stars closest to Earth, apart from our sun of course."
"Of course."
"You may be able to pick out that it's made up of three stars. One marginally bigger than the sun, one marginally smaller and another about the tenth of the size."
"No. I can't see that."
"You would be able to from Thunderbird Five."
"So where out there..." I gestured towards the heavens, "...is it?"
He brought up a sky map on a video screen. "There." He pointed. That's the constellation known as 'Crux' or the 'Southern Cross'. And there..." he moved his fingers slightly, "are the two pointers pointing to the 'Southern Cross'. The one closest to the 'Cross' is Beta Centauri and the farthest is Alpha Centauri."
"It looks so small from here."
"It's just over four light years away. The 'ancient mariners' used to use it to navigate. In the northern hemisphere you can find north by the North Star, but here in the southern hemisphere we don't have such a marker. BUT, by using these two constellations it is fairly easy to find the south celestial pole." He drew a line bisecting the two Centauri stars and another through the long axis of the 'Southern Cross'. Where they met, about four times the length of the 'Southern Cross', was south.
"That could be handy to know." I said.
"Would you like to see some of the planets?"
"I'd love to."
The telescope shifted its position. "There." John said. "What's that?"
I looked at the orb through the eye piece. I could see faint rings surrounding it. "Saturn?"
"Actually it's Uranus. It's the rings that fool you don't they."
"I didn't realise that Uranus had rings."
"All the big planets do, but Saturn's..." once again the telescope moved and stopped. I could now see a large globe with clear, bright rings, "... are the most well known. Galileo discovered them."
We continued on in this vein, with me asking questions and John giving clear, concise answers. I could see that he was in his element and was enjoying giving out his knowledge.
"I'll bet you get great views from Thunderbird Five."
"I'll say." His face grew radiant. "I thought I was lucky when we moved here, but up in Thunderbird Five we're above the Earth's dust and pollution and the stars are that much brighter and that much clearer. It's given me the opportunity to further my research in a way I'd never be able to on Earth."
"I'd love to see it." I said wistfully and turned to look back into the telescope.
"What time were you planning on heading to bed?" He suddenly asked.
I shrugged "I don't know."
"'Cause it's two-o-clock in the morning."
I stared at him. "You're kidding!"
"Nope. I guess we'd better shut everything down." I stood back and let him do his work.
We arrived back inside the villa. "Good night." I whispered.
"Are you alright going back to your room?" he asked.
"I've been here long enough that I should be able to find my way." I told him. "Thanks for an interesting evening. I'll see you in the morning."
"Night Chris."
I made my way quietly back to the guests quarters. I hesitated outside Trixie's room, wondering how she would be in the morning.
I continued on to my room.
I was about to open the door when a whisper startled me.
"Chris."
I spun round. "Je... uh, Mr Tracy!"
"Sorry." He said quietly. "I didn't mean to frighten you."
I was unsure as to why he was there. I propped myself against the door frame and looked at him. "Why are you up at this time of night?"
He gave a wry grin. "To make sure Virgil got some sleep. He's been known to get so engrossed in his painting that he's either worked all night, like I think he did last night, or he just dozes off over the canvas. Sometimes to the detriment of his painting."
"And tonight?"
"He'd obviously sat down to look at his work and fell asleep in his chair. I took the paint brush out of his hand, - he's got red paint in his hair now -, put a blanket over him and he didn't move a muscle." Jeff Tracy gave a quiet chuckle. "I don't know how he does it. When he's on a rescue he seems to be able to go for days without sleep."
"Must be the adrenaline."
"Yes, and he paints to relax, so I guess it has the opposite effect..."
There was an awkward silence.
I eventually broke it. "That doesn't explain why you're in the guest quarters."
He looked uncomfortable. "About yesterday..." I assumed he meant the argument the day before, "You were right. I should have got you and Trixie to join us in the debriefing. I apo... I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."
"Or your sons?"
"Or my sons." He agreed. "You did what I'd trained you for and they did what they'd been trained for. I can only say that I got a fright when I realised what could have happened to both you and Trixie. I started International Rescue to save lives, not to endanger them...
He shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I've been trying to talk to you about this all day, but you seemed to have been always out with someone."
"I got the feeling your sons were trying to keep us apart."
"Giving me a chance to cool down. Quite probably. Gordon told me that you'd gone to the observatory with John and I knew you'd be late back. So I stayed up and waited."
"I'm glad you did, Mr Tracy."
"Come on now" he said with a wry grin. "We don't need to be formal do we? I'm sorry for the way I treated you and I hope we can continue to be friends and that you'll still want to work for us."
"I was thinking that maybe you wouldn't want me to work for you anymore!"
He looked shocked. "Oh, no! That thought didn't even cross my mind. I value my agents, especially the good ones."
The good ones?
"Well I've kept you up too long. You'd better get off that foot. Good night Chris."
"Good night Jeff."
I slept well that night.
The movie finished. "Fancy another one?" Gordon asked.
"No thanks." As we exited the theatre I checked at my watch. "It's too early to go to bed..." I looked without enthusiasm towards the lounge. I knew Jeff would still be there, catching up on some Tracy Industries business. Honestly the man was a workaholic.
"Fancy a bit of star gazing?" John asked companionably.
"Why do I get the feeling that you guys are trying to keep me and your father apart." Then I shrugged. "Sure. Why not."
"I'll leave you two to it." Gordon said. "The only stars I'm interested in are star fish." I bade him a good night.
John led the way to his room, but we didn't enter. Instead he opened the door to a nearby cupboard and felt inside. A light came on and he placed his hand over a shiny patch of wall. The back wall of the cupboard swung open.
Amazed I stepped through into a lift. We started descending.
"Aren't we heading in the wrong direction to be looking at stars?" I asked.
John laughed, but didn't reply as the lift doors opened. We stepped out into a car of the monorail system. I took my seat and John operated the controls that sent the car hurtling forward.
He settled down in a seat facing me. "Even out here on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean," he explained, "we've got too much light pollution coming from the house and the other buildings nearby. There's also minute vibrations from all our machinery that upset my equipment. So the observatory is on the far side of the island. And this is much more comfortable than hiking in the dark."
"And easier on my foot."
The monorail slowed down and came to a stop. We alighted.
The observatory was one place that Scott hadn't showed me today. It looked like a standard observatory, a big domed roof with a slit in it.
John started setting up his equipment. "So Chris, what do you fancy seeing tonight?"
"You're the expert. You tell me."
He punched in some co-ordinates and the dome starting rotating, along with the telescope. Then he indicated the eyepiece. "If you look through there you'll get a good view of Alpha Centauri."
I looked at the yellow, glowing dot. "So what's so special about that?"
"It's the group of stars closest to Earth, apart from our sun of course."
"Of course."
"You may be able to pick out that it's made up of three stars. One marginally bigger than the sun, one marginally smaller and another about the tenth of the size."
"No. I can't see that."
"You would be able to from Thunderbird Five."
"So where out there..." I gestured towards the heavens, "...is it?"
He brought up a sky map on a video screen. "There." He pointed. That's the constellation known as 'Crux' or the 'Southern Cross'. And there..." he moved his fingers slightly, "are the two pointers pointing to the 'Southern Cross'. The one closest to the 'Cross' is Beta Centauri and the farthest is Alpha Centauri."
"It looks so small from here."
"It's just over four light years away. The 'ancient mariners' used to use it to navigate. In the northern hemisphere you can find north by the North Star, but here in the southern hemisphere we don't have such a marker. BUT, by using these two constellations it is fairly easy to find the south celestial pole." He drew a line bisecting the two Centauri stars and another through the long axis of the 'Southern Cross'. Where they met, about four times the length of the 'Southern Cross', was south.
"That could be handy to know." I said.
"Would you like to see some of the planets?"
"I'd love to."
The telescope shifted its position. "There." John said. "What's that?"
I looked at the orb through the eye piece. I could see faint rings surrounding it. "Saturn?"
"Actually it's Uranus. It's the rings that fool you don't they."
"I didn't realise that Uranus had rings."
"All the big planets do, but Saturn's..." once again the telescope moved and stopped. I could now see a large globe with clear, bright rings, "... are the most well known. Galileo discovered them."
We continued on in this vein, with me asking questions and John giving clear, concise answers. I could see that he was in his element and was enjoying giving out his knowledge.
"I'll bet you get great views from Thunderbird Five."
"I'll say." His face grew radiant. "I thought I was lucky when we moved here, but up in Thunderbird Five we're above the Earth's dust and pollution and the stars are that much brighter and that much clearer. It's given me the opportunity to further my research in a way I'd never be able to on Earth."
"I'd love to see it." I said wistfully and turned to look back into the telescope.
"What time were you planning on heading to bed?" He suddenly asked.
I shrugged "I don't know."
"'Cause it's two-o-clock in the morning."
I stared at him. "You're kidding!"
"Nope. I guess we'd better shut everything down." I stood back and let him do his work.
We arrived back inside the villa. "Good night." I whispered.
"Are you alright going back to your room?" he asked.
"I've been here long enough that I should be able to find my way." I told him. "Thanks for an interesting evening. I'll see you in the morning."
"Night Chris."
I made my way quietly back to the guests quarters. I hesitated outside Trixie's room, wondering how she would be in the morning.
I continued on to my room.
I was about to open the door when a whisper startled me.
"Chris."
I spun round. "Je... uh, Mr Tracy!"
"Sorry." He said quietly. "I didn't mean to frighten you."
I was unsure as to why he was there. I propped myself against the door frame and looked at him. "Why are you up at this time of night?"
He gave a wry grin. "To make sure Virgil got some sleep. He's been known to get so engrossed in his painting that he's either worked all night, like I think he did last night, or he just dozes off over the canvas. Sometimes to the detriment of his painting."
"And tonight?"
"He'd obviously sat down to look at his work and fell asleep in his chair. I took the paint brush out of his hand, - he's got red paint in his hair now -, put a blanket over him and he didn't move a muscle." Jeff Tracy gave a quiet chuckle. "I don't know how he does it. When he's on a rescue he seems to be able to go for days without sleep."
"Must be the adrenaline."
"Yes, and he paints to relax, so I guess it has the opposite effect..."
There was an awkward silence.
I eventually broke it. "That doesn't explain why you're in the guest quarters."
He looked uncomfortable. "About yesterday..." I assumed he meant the argument the day before, "You were right. I should have got you and Trixie to join us in the debriefing. I apo... I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."
"Or your sons?"
"Or my sons." He agreed. "You did what I'd trained you for and they did what they'd been trained for. I can only say that I got a fright when I realised what could have happened to both you and Trixie. I started International Rescue to save lives, not to endanger them...
He shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I've been trying to talk to you about this all day, but you seemed to have been always out with someone."
"I got the feeling your sons were trying to keep us apart."
"Giving me a chance to cool down. Quite probably. Gordon told me that you'd gone to the observatory with John and I knew you'd be late back. So I stayed up and waited."
"I'm glad you did, Mr Tracy."
"Come on now" he said with a wry grin. "We don't need to be formal do we? I'm sorry for the way I treated you and I hope we can continue to be friends and that you'll still want to work for us."
"I was thinking that maybe you wouldn't want me to work for you anymore!"
He looked shocked. "Oh, no! That thought didn't even cross my mind. I value my agents, especially the good ones."
The good ones?
"Well I've kept you up too long. You'd better get off that foot. Good night Chris."
"Good night Jeff."
I slept well that night.
