Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own none of the characters, they belong to Gerry Anderson and Carlton Television.
AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. Here is chapter 5, I hope you like it!
Chapter 5
Scott's transmission was abruptly cut off, leaving Virgil almost hysterical with worry. "SCOTT! SCOTT!! Come in Scott…. PLEASE…" The communicator remained silent. Virgil ran his hands through his hair whilst trying to decide what to do. He knew that he would never underestimate the work that John and to a lesser extent Alan did up here. He hated being away from what was going on, he thought he might go mad with worry. After a couple of seconds, he decided that he should contact base and break the bad news to them.
Virgil took a deep breath and composed himself to make what he knew would be an unpleasant call. "Thunderbird 5 to base, come in father…"
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Alan went white when Virgil's transmission came in, knowing that it couldn't be good news, seeing as Virgil had just checked in and if it were good, it would be Scott or Gordon calling. He didn't see that much of John as they were always on Earth at separate times, but he still loved his middle brother fiercely. He closed his eyes as his imagination took over and began supplying worst case scenarios. He shook his head to clear his mind of the images and took a deep breath as he waited for Virgil to start talking.
Watching Alan's face was something that Tin-Tin Kyrano liked to do a lot, although she would never have admitted it to him. Watching his face now however was frightening. All of the Tracy brothers seemed to share a psychic link, and from watching his face, she expected the worst. After growing up with all the Tracy boys, she felt like a member of the family, and she had a special soft spot for John. The quietest member of the Tracy family always had time for her, and was always willing to listen to her or teach her about the stars. When she couldn't sleep he was usually there, stargazing as usual, and he would always point out constellations to her. She desperately hoped that he was ok, and that Virgil was checking in for some other reason. Stifling a sob, she clutched Alan's hand and turned back to the screen and waited.
Kyrano, watching his daughter, the light of his life was also worried about "Mr John". He was indebted to Jeff for paying for all of Tin-Tins education and for helping him in his time of need. Him and Jeff were great friends, and Kyrano liked all the Tracy boys very much. He didn't know what would happen if the worst came to the worst. He bowed his head in the silence. Brains sat on the sofa thinking about ways that he could have made Thunderbird 5 a more pleasant place to be, and mentally berating himself for John's condition. He was relatively close to the astronaut, and they often got together to talk about new ways of communicating and new ideas for Thunderbird 5 that they had. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. He too was deadly concerned, and waited impatiently for Virgil to start speaking.
Grandma sat with her back straight and head up. On the outside she appeared to be a model of self-control. On the inside she was crying, wailing and stamping her feet. She loved all the boys dearly, and she had spent a lot of time with John as he had taken the death of his mother the worst. She had spent night after night consoling him after he had woken screaming for his mother. She didn't know how Jeff would cope if the worst came to the worst. He still wasn't over losing Lucille; losing one of his precious boys would break his heart. She also knew that it would break the rest of the boys, they were all so close. Her façade slipped for a moment and she quickly took a deep breath and took control of herself again. Her son and grandchildren needed her; there would be time later for whatever emotion was needed.
As soon as Jeff saw the look in Virgil's eyes, he gripped the edge of the desk and prepared for the worst. Virgil had amazingly expressive deep brown eyes, so like his mother thought Jeff. He sent up a silent prayer 'Help me Lucy…' and looked steadily at Virgil. "Go Ahead, Virgil"
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On Thunderbird 3 the situation was going from bad to worse. After Gordon's first panicked shout, Scott had cut Virgil off and gone running in to see what was going on. The heart monitor was beeping frantically and Gordon was checking Johns breathing. He looked up as Scott came into the room and said in a monotone "He's failing. I don't think he's going to make it to earth…. His hearts not strong enough…"
Scott cursed and sprinted back to the control room. He looked quickly at all the systems and pushed all available power into the engines. The ship groaned as it was pushed further beyond its limits than it had ever been before. Scott gave a small smile, imagining what Alan would say if he knew what Scott was putting his "baby" through, before turning back to the task at hand. He knew that there was no time to land at Tracy Island and then transport John to a hospital. They would have to land somewhere that could accommodate Thunderbird 3 and then get John to a hospital as soon as possible. He checked their position and then hurriedly input their co-ordinates into the computer to find the nearest available place where Thunderbird 3 could land.
The computer beeped and Scott jumped. Recovering from his fright quickly, he looked at the screen and on seeing that the nearest available place was Cape Canaveral he immediately opened a Comm channel to the main control room. "Come in Cape Canaveral, this is International Rescue." Scott said in a calm and controlled voice. After a few seconds a slightly confused voice answered "International Rescue, this is Cape Canaveral…what can we do for you?" Without hesitation Scott answered "Requesting permission to land our space ship on your launch pad, we have an injured team member on board requiring immediate medical treatment." There was a pause before a new voice answered crisply "Permission granted International Rescue. We will be pleased to help in any way we can. What nature is the injury that your team member has suffered and when is your estimated time of arrival?"
Scott quickly consulted the on board computer and navigational systems before replying "Cape Canaveral, ETA is approximately 6.5 minutes. Jo…Our team member has suffered trauma to the head, which has caused bleeding that we haven't been able to stop, he is having trouble breathing by himself and his heart rate is falling rapidly. Request immediate emergency medical assistance on landing" There was a muttered discussion before the voice on the other end replied "Understood, International Rescue, emergency medical assistance is standing by. See you shortly, Cape Canaveral out."
Scott sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He knew that with their limited supplies there was little that they could do for John should his heart stop completely. There was only another 5 minutes before landing and he only hoped that John could hold on that long. He quickly called his father to tell him what was going on. Jeff agreed with Scott's plan of action and immediately started preparing to set off to meet them either at Cape Canaveral or at the nearest hospital. That done, he opened the internal channel to speak to Gordon "Gordon, we are going to be landing at Cape Canaveral in approximately 5 minutes, you might wanna get yourself and John strapped in, there will be medical help waiting for us when we land. How is he?" "He's bad Scott, he's real bad…" Gordon said morosely "The sooner we land the better" And with that Gordon cut the link, leaving Scott to concentrate on landing Thunderbird 3 somewhere unfamiliar. He was perfectly able to land it, but as Alan and John were the astronauts, they usually took charge, as it was their official job within International Rescue.
The few minutes that were left before landing seemed to pass like hours. As Cape Canaveral came into view, Scott prepared to land. He warned Gordon over the intercom again before beginning the land sequence as quickly as possible. Minutes later, Thunderbird 3 touched down in a perfect landing. Scott promptly shut down the engines and sprinted to the sick bay to get John off the shuttle as soon as possible. Gordon had got John all ready to go, everything was ready to move. They set off, as soon as they got off the ship and onto the runway they were overrun with medical staff. John was taken off them and transferred to the inside of an ambulance to receive more specialised treatment. As Scott and Gordon went to follow, they were held back. "Sorry gentlemen, but we need to give the ambulance crew room to work. Give them a minute." A tall man said apologetically. He was about to continue speaking when a high pitched whine filled the air, this was followed by a shout from the ambulance crew "We need to get him to a hospital STAT. HIS HEARTS STOPPED BEATING!"