Hunter, Prey
By Sapphire
Disclaimer in part 1
Chapter 5 – Rescue in ChinaHunter was quite satisfied with the way his first conversation with John had gone. Once or twice, he had wished that he knew more words of the human's language, but he had the impression that he had managed to convey everything that was important.
After John had come over his first shock, he had begun to ask many more questions.
How did Hunter make those words appear? How did the symbiosis work? How long had he travelled to come to Earth? What was with Hunter's space ship? How did he plan to find his prey?
Hunter had tried to answer them as well as he could, but he didn't know the answer to all of them.
Especially the last question had him stumped.
How did he plan to find his prey?
Hunter had never thought he would follow the other to a planet with intelligent life forms. He knew there had been a few expeditions in this region of the galaxy, but to his memory, there never had been a report that there were habitable planets.
Now, with over twelve billion humans on Earth, finding the other was like finding a needle in a very, very large haystack. His only hope was that the other hadn't left the island where Hunter had found the space ship. He knew from John that there were only nine humans without John living permanently on Tracy Island, and that they rarely left the island. If, and that was highly likely, his prey had blended with one of those humans, he would need also some time to adapt. Hopefully, the other one didn't know that Hunter had found his ship and knew where the other was. If this was the case, there would be no reason for him to try to get off the island. And in this case, Hunter had still a chance to find him.
Too many 'ifs' but it was the only thing Hunter had going for him at the moment.
John had reacted pretty badly when Hunter proposed that the other one had possibly blended with somebody on the island. It seemed that he was emotionally very attached to all of them. Some of them, as Hunter understood it, were his brothers, and one was his father. Hunter had to confess that he had a little problem with that concept, even though he had observed similar family groups in some other races he had worked with. Actually, it didn't matter why John cared. The important thing for Hunter was that he cared. And if it was important to his host, then it was important for Hunter.
That was the way things were with host and symbiont.
John had asked for some time alone to think, so Hunter had stopped projecting the words on the retina of his host's eyes, leaving the other to his thoughts.
The human had gone to the communications room, the largest room on the station. It seemed as if John's preferred method of thinking was to listen to all those channels all at the same time. Hunter had no idea how John was able to sort through that chaos of voices and the many, many pictures, projected on multiple screens on one side of the room. To him it was all just white noise.
Suddenly, a voice seemed to rise out of the chaos.
"Calling International Rescue. Calling International Rescue."
oooooo
"Calling International Rescue. Calling International Rescue."
John immediately toned down the other channels coming in. For some strange reason he always had been able to think best when there was a lot of noise – and there was a lot to think about.
After facing the irrefutable proof that he indeed had an alien inside of him, he had needed some time to come to terms with it. Like everybody who ever had looked up into the skies, he had wondered if human kind was alone in the universe, or if there was other intelligent life to be found between the stars.
Now he had the answer – and a lot closer to home than he would have liked. Hunter had said that his people, and seemingly quite a few more races, lived just on the other side of the galaxy. Using some kind of faster than light travel he had been able to reach Earth in little more than three weeks. Considering the immense distances between the stars, this was just a short stone's throw away.
Hunter's people had even been to this neck of the interstellar woods before, but somehow they had missed Earth. The alien was sure that he and the one he was hunting were the first of his species to ever land on the planet.
With the alien's ability to blend undetectably with any human, the one Hunter was searching could be anywhere by now. On one hand, John almost wished that was the case. Because the alternative was that the other alien was inside of one of his friends or family. When John had asked, Hunter had admitted that he could do quite a bit of damage inside a human's body if he wanted. Beginning with just pinching off an artery, to manipulating the whole hormonal system, to influence everything from breathing to the immune system. Hunter knew more about John's body than he did himself.
Only Hunter's elaborated honour system seemed to put a stop to any temptation.
John didn't want to imagine what an alien with fewer scruples could do to his family.
But right now there was an emergency and that took precedence over his own and the alien's problem for the moment.
He flipped a switch and spoke in a microphone. "This is International Rescue. What is the emergency?"
"Oh, thank the gods that I reached you," a voice replied in Mandarin. "My name is Huang Xian-Gua. I'm manager of the Lian-Chow-Po dam. There has been an explosion on the dam half an hour ago. We suspect sabotage. At the moment the dam is still holding, but it's only a matter of time before it gives. When that happens, the whole valley will be flooded, killing hundreds if not thousands as we can't possibly evacuate the people in time. A team of our people is working desperately to prevent this, but if they don't succeed, they will die, too. They are stuck in the work booth on top of the dam. We need help."
John thought for a moment about the situation, then spoke again, also switching to the Chinese language, "We will send a team to you as soon as possible. Please give us all the data you have on the dam and on the situation on site."
"Thank you, International Rescue. Thank you."
He cut of the audio link, but left a data link open waiting for the requested data.
"Sorry, Hunter, but it looks we have another emergency to take care of first," John said half to himself and half to the alien being in his gut, or wherever Hunter had settled down.
He then flipped another switch on his control board, connecting down to the island. There in his father's study, the eyes on his portrait would light up, indicating that he needed to talk to somebody.
"Thunderbird 5 calling base."
A screen lit up, showing Jeff Tracy. As usual, father was sitting behind his desk. He looked serious, ready for anything John would throw at him.
"What's up, John?"
"Father, there's been an explosion at a dam in China. So far, the dam seems to hold, but if it should break, the valley will be flooded. They'll never get all the people out of there in time. Also, there's a team working to hold the dam together somehow, but if they should fail, they're in danger as well."
Scott and Alan joined father at the desk, listening intently to what John was saying. In the background, John could see Virgil and Gordon coming into the room as well.
"Okay, John. We take it", John's father said. Then, to the other men, "You heard John. Thunderbirds are go."
John activated a 3D display and started to enter data rapidly. The promised data from China had arrived, and he forwarded it to the computer on the island. From there, it would be distributed to Thunderbirds 1 and 2. He knew that down there, Scott and Virgil would use the hidden access doors in the study to reach their respective craft in the shortest possible time. Alan and Gordon would probably ride with Virgil in Thunderbird 2, spending the time of the flight to make sure that all equipment that might be needed during the rescue was warmed up and in tip-top shape.
Next John activated the camouflage system that prevented anybody from detecting the launch of the two Thunderbird craft from the island. He then checked the traffic around the island, satisfied that nobody was close enough to see the launch with their own eyes. While in flight, the two machines had their own masking program that hid them from all electronic detection. Except of course, from their Big Brother watching from above. A display lit up, showing a map and the progress Thunderbirds 1 and 2 were making towards the danger zone. As usual, Scott was ahead by a good bit, but Virgil was also making good time.
Suddenly, letters showed up in his field of view.
JOHN, the alien projected on his retina.
YOUR BROTHERS
THEY CAN NOT LEAVE THE ISLAND
John shook his head. He had thought about that as well. If the alien Hunter was looking for was in one of his brothers – a thought that didn't sit well with him – he just had given him the perfect excuse to leave the island and possibly move on to another host. He would be lost on planet Earth forever, and Hunter would have practically no chance ever to catch him.
"I'm sorry, but they have to. Lives are at stake. They should have little contact with others during the rescue, so nothing should happen if one of them is the host."
And there was not much Hunter could say or do about that.
John went back and contacted the manager of the dam again. The man almost broke out in tears when he heard that help was on the way, but John cut his grateful rambling off in mid-sentence.
"Sir, we need a location to land our two machines. We also need an English speaking local liaison to coordinate our efforts. And last, but not least, we need your assurance that nobody comes into the vicinity of our craft or tries to take any pictures of them."
The manager promised everything John asked for, nearly bending backwards in his effort to accommodate the fabulous International Rescue team.
Next John contacted Scott in Thunderbird 1 and relayed all the information he had and also the name of the local liaison, some woman named Suzan Chow.
"Thanks, John. My ETA is seven minutes. Virgil is twelve minutes behind me."
Again, John contacted the manager and also got to speak with the female liaison, telling her what to do as soon as Scott had landed.
"Thunderbird 1 calling Thunderbird 5," came Scott's voice from the loudspeaker.
"Go ahead, Scott."
"I'm approaching the danger zone. From up here it does look pretty bad. There's a big chunk of the dam missing on one side, and there are large cracks all along the wall face spouting water. The maintenance booth at the centre of the dam is cut off from the road; no way these people can get out. The only saving grace I can see at the moment is that the water level in the lake is fairly low, thanks to that long drought this summer, but even that won't save the dam in the long run."
"Okay. Thanks for the update. You are to land at the parking lot East of the dam at grid 7-13-4. A Mrs. Chow is waiting there for you."
"Is she pretty?" Scott asked, his voice lightening up a little. As usual, the prospect of female company lifted Scott's mood.
"Would I offer you anything else, Scott?" John returned grinning. He wished he could see Scott's face when he saw the lady. The woman was at least sixty years old, thin as a stick and no more than five feet tall. Scott would get a cramp in his back just from bending down to her. But she had seemed very competent when John had spoken to her and had the advantage that she spoke fluently English. If he remembered correctly, Scott's Mandarin was more than rusty, or, more to the truth, non-existing.
For a while, there was no communication as Scott was concentrating on his landing. John knew that Scott would get out Mobile Control and set it up at a location where he was able to monitor the situation. This was the phase of a rescue John hated the most. His work was pretty much done, and all he could do now was to listen in to what was going on on the ground.
"Mobile Control to Thunderbird 2," John overheard Scott calling Virgil.
"Yes, Scott?"
"What's your ETA, Virgil?"
"I'm coming in right now."
"Ah, yes, I see you, sorry. I want you to come in from South-South-West. I think we should try the Web to stabilize the dam. With any luck it works, and we can concentrate on getting those people out of the maintenance booth."
There was a moment of hesitation as Virgil probably was assessing the situation as well. After a minute however, he confirmed that he would go along with Scott's plan.
The Web was a thin net made from an immensely strong carbon and metal monofilament. It could be packed to the size of a parachute bag, but when deployed it opened up to cover an area of several hundred square feet. After it had found its target – in this case the face of the damaged dam – a simple electromagnetic pulse would activate it, changing its structure and stabilize the whole construction.
"Okay, I'm coming around."
In China, Thunderbird 2 would now hover in front of the dam, readying the launcher, which would fire the package with the Web.
"FAB, Virgil."
"FAB."
John heard a soft 'phewt' over the open channel, and then Virgil's "Gotcha!"
"And here they say you can't even hit the broad side of a dam," Scott said lightly. "Good shooting, Virg."
"Who's saying that I can't shoot?" Virgil shot back obviously ready to take up Scott's banter.
"Nobody, Virg. Are you coming in to land?"
"FAB."
From there on, the rescue was fairly normal. Scott, Virgil, Gordon and Alan managed to get out the engineers from their maintenance booth without any injuries. There was no sign of the suspected sabotage. The dam held, thanks to the reinforcing net. The dammed up lake would be emptied carefully over the next couple of weeks to prevent flooding and then the Chinese engineers would start their repairs. But this was no concern of International Rescue.
After two hours, everybody was ready to get back home.
John wrote his report while the others were flying back and sent it down to the island.
After that, he had no more reasons to stall. He had had some ideas about Hunter during the rescue. They needed to talk.
Tbc
Next time in this theatre: John is having another conversation with the alien and a 'Matter of Trust' is discussed.
Reviews:
Agent Five: I have to admit I'm a bit confused on you remark to the last chapter (that is part 4) – What 'new take on changing POV'? I wasn't aware that I had a 'new take'.
John will be more or less okay for the rest of the story (physically, that is), but I have evil plans for Gordon (yes, I know, evil me, teasing again …)
Gismo: Yes, most of the physical characteristics of Hunter (and even his name) are from 'The Needle'. I changed only what I needed for the story. I thought for a while about making him telepathic, but decided against it for a couple of reasons.