Things are heating up: Alan is trapped in the last remnants of the former diamond mine, The Hood has possession of Thunderbird Three, Jeff has ordered Thunderbird 2 to a distress call in Antarctica, and there is less than five hours left before Jeff has to meet up with The Hood.
Time for part three.
The Choice
by Girl-Detective
Chapter Three - Arctic Trap
Four hours till deadline-
Scott sat in the co-pilot seat of Thunderbird Two, and was studying the readings coming through the sensors when he heard Virgil acknowledge a transmission by their father.
A few moments later, he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Wrap up what you have, Scott. We've got a distress call in Antarctica that we need to attend to."
He swore softly. "There's timing for you. What's going on there?"
"Avalanche," Virgil replied simply. "I'm contacting John for the coordinates now. There's supposed to be a scientific camp there being threatened, so we will probably be called on to do some evacuating."
Scott nodded. "Right. We better get to it then. Is Gordon going to join us?"
"Dad didn't say," Virgil replied, "so for now it's just us."
After a few hours of work and feeling around in the dark, Alan had managed to free himself from his bonds, but that had taken quite a bit of effort and gouged skin in the process.
He then tried feeling around where he remembered the entrance to be, but when he began to dig the rubble shifted, allowing rocks of various sizes to come at him. He managed to avoid most of them, but a large rock penetrated his defenses, striking a glancing blow against the side of his head that left him reeling.
Crawling and feeling his way back over to where he had started from, Alan rested for a few moments. His pounding head wasn't allowing him to do much in the way of thinking, but he did check his flight suit again for the umpteenth time for anything the Hood might have missed.
Nothing. The Hood even took his International Rescue badge. Heh, he had thought of everything it seemed.
The darkness wasn't helping either. Alan had felt his eyes close more than once, and he struggled to stay awake.
He shuddered as he thought of his family walking into the trap that the Hood had told him about. The Hood seemed to be more powerful than ever before and-
Stop it. He told himself. This isn't helping you or them at all.
Alan pulled himself into a sitting position, leaned his back against the cool stone wall behind him, and settled in to wait.
Help would come. He just had to keep believing that.
After apprising Virgil of the coordinates of the distress call in Antarctica, John turned his attention back to the scans. He had printed out scans of the time frame just as Alan left Thunderbird Five to just after the time Tin-Tin had notified him of Alan's disappearance.
As he had told his father hours ago, something wasn't right about them. Using their data,
he was able to determine that Thunderbird Five was able to track Alan as far as five thousand meters from the station, and then, nothing. Well, almost nothing at any rate.
There seemed to be a low level noise on the scans that was barely noticeable. It wasn't any normal noise that he could recognize, but that was the reason he had forwarded a copy of those scans to Brains. He opened a comm channel.
"Brains, come in, this is Thunderbird Five."
An image of Brain's lab appeared on his screen, but the man in question was not in sight.
"Brains, are you there?"
From the lab, he heard a loud thump followed by low muttering. Brains then appeared from under his work counter, rubbing his head gingerly.
"I'm here. Was just p-picking up a tool that fell under the table. W-What's happening?"
"Were you able to make any sense of those scans I sent you?" John asked.
Brains leaned over, and picked up a small stack of printouts near the corner of his lab table.
"I took a look at them, and I noticed the low level d-distortion on the charts that you noticed. It didn't s-seem to be any normal space noise."
John sighed. "That confirmed what I was thinking, but is there anything else that they are similar to?"
Brains thought for a moment. "W-well, they do look a bit like br-bra-brain waves."
John gave him a skeptical look. "Brain waves?"
Brains launched into an explanation. "Yes, brain waves. Different states of the brain can be m-mapped using Electroencephalography. The different types of brainwaves observed are labeled with Greek l-letters. This distortion looks like a Beta wave."
John wasn't buying the explanation. "Well, even if it is a brainwave, how can they be strong enough to reach out into space? The Hood couldn't have had that much influence, surely. He would have to have an amplifier or transmitter of some sort, wouldn't he?"
Brains nodded. "That is possible. If you have a transmitter small enough or-"
John noticed him trailing off " Or what? What's wrong Brains? You look as white as a ghost."
He saw Brains stare at a device he had positioned on his table nearby.
"I have to check s-something."
Brains quickly grabbed a nearby Satellite phone and punched in a number.
"Millington? T-This is Professor Hackenbacker. Has anything s-strange happened to my neural net control p-project?"
John noticed that the reply Brains got from the other end was not encouraging.
"T-thank you for the information. I-I'll be in touch."
Brains allowed the phone to drop to the counter, and he turned and ran out of the lab.
Astonished, John shouted after him. "Brains, where are you going?"
Brains had only one mission in mind. He had felt like a fool for not seeing it earlier, but John's comment had sparked a memory about his latest invention, the neural net control device. He was developing it with the help of his friend Professor Millington, who was one of his old school buddies.
Brains had finally perfected it just after the failed takeover attempt of Tracy Island by the Hood. It was to amplify brainwaves and focus them with such intensity that the wearer could very well manipulate almost anything with their mind. The main purpose was to help with construction, cutting the need for massive machines, but he also foresaw pilots being able to intelligently controlling their craft from a remote location, without having to rely on the crude simplicity of auto pilot. It had definitely come a long way from what he had shown his son Fermat during the spring break he came to visit.
When Brains called friend and found out that a man matching the Hood's description had stolen a full working prototype of his device, it all fit. A power like the Hood's amplified by that machine could feasibly produce the distortion they saw on the scans, and that in turn cloaked Thunderbird Three and allowed the Hood to take control.
He rushed through the complex with such speed that it was a miracle that he didn't fall flat on his face.
When Brains reached the control room, he found Jeff poring over some reports.
He was out of breath, and his stuttering became more of a hindrance. "J-Jeff, I-I-"
Jeff got to his feet in concern. "Brains, what is it?"
He was still catching his breath when Jeff came over and directed him to sit down on the sofa. "There. Now I need for you to calm down, Brains, and tell me what's going on."
Brains told him everything that he had found out so far.
Jeff didn't like what he was hearing. "So you are saying that with this device, it can amplify the Hood's power?"
Brains nodded simply.
Worried now, Jeff quickly went over and sat down in front of his control panel. "I need to call Thunderbird Two then. If the Hood used the control device to control and cloak Thunderbird Three, then we have a very dangerous enemy in the sky."
He activated a communications channel. "Thunderbird Two do you read me?"
Jeff waited for a reply, but all he received was static. "Something's not right here."
He made a few adjustments, and then tried again, with the unfortunate same result.
Jeff then changed tactics. "Thunderbird Five come in."
The familiar sight of the space station came to life on screen on the wall, along with a very worried John. "Dad, what's going on? I was talking with Brains in one moment, and the next he dashes off on me, then I tried reaching Thunderbird Two, but I am getting nothing but distortion. There are no discernable storms in Antarctica right now that can be interfering with communications. Are Scott and Virgil in trouble?"
Jeff slumped back in his chair. Oh God, I sent them into a trap.
Thunderbird Two closed in on the coordinates where the distress call came from, and strangely all was quiet, and the tall mountains of ice surrounding the scientific camp seemed to be intact.
"Sensors read normal," Scott mused as he read from the instrument panel, "I am not reading any seismic activity or any phenomenon that could move that ice. I don't understand it."
"It does seem like a wild goose chase," Virgil agreed, "but it does look like that camp is inhabited. I saw some movement down there."
Scott looked out the cockpit window and sure enough, he saw a few heavily clothed individuals scurrying around the encampment.
Virgil glanced at Scott. "Something isn't right here. I am going to call John and see what's up."
Scott continued to visually scan the landscape as Virgil tried to hail Thunderbird Five.
"Thunderbird Five, come in. John, do you read us?"
Static was the only thing that greeted their ears.
"Try dad," Scott urged.
Virgil made a few adjustments and tried to contact their father, again with the same static as before.
"It's no good, it is as if we are being jammed," Virgil groaned in frustration.
It was then that a familiar malevolent voice sounded through both of their heads.
"Hello, boys. This is the Hood. I do hope you like my trap, because you will not be escaping from it."
I took creative license with one of the items in the movie. The neural net control device has a lot of potential, in my opinion, and not just for a clever sight gag like they used it for. I figured it would be feasible that the Hood found out about it one way or another, and probably figured that would be easier to get and use than free his jailed lackeys, Mullion and Transom. (or at least, I hoped I made it sound feasible.)
Again I really appreciate the reviews. You guys have made me feel welcome here and have provided some valuable feedback, and I appreciate that. Due to some nastiness going on in my life, the next chapter will not be out for about another week to week and a half.
Hope to see you then,
Girl-Detective