Lightning

Part IV

The sky was black and filled with stars. It was the middle of the night, at a time most people would've enjoyed their well-earned rest after a day of hard work, but that didn't include the people inhabiting Tracy Island.

"Welcome back, boys," Jeff said, as soon as he saw four of his sons enter the living room of the Tracy mansion, "Great job you've done. Take a shower and get some sleep, we'll debrief first thing tomorrow morning."

"Got it dad," Scott replied, as he and his three younger brothers made their way to their quarters.

"What?" Daniel exclaimed.

"Well, it was just an idea..."

Sam sighed. "With all due respect, colonel – I think it's a fine plan, but planting a bomb in the Colorado Springs library doesn't seem like the perfect way to contact the Thunderbirds to me. That way everyone will blame us and they'll never believe us when we say, 'Well, we had to do it, because we are from the past, and we wanted to contact International, because they are the only ones who have the equipment to send us back home.' Or something like that."

"Okay, so... what's your great plan then, Carter?"

But even before SG-1's second in command had the chance to reply, a big brown man who had been standing just a few meters behind them, turned around and joined the conversation.

"Sorry, but did I just hear someone say Thunderbirds?"

"Yeah, and?" Jack said, not sure he liked the guy very much.

"If you'd like, I could bring you in touch with them."

For a moment no one dared to speak. Jack raised an eyebrow... was it just him or was this going way to easy?

"Just like that?" he asked suspiciously, "It doesn't bother you that they're an secretive operation?"

"Oh, but I know someone who knows them very well, and I'm sure they don't mind at all."

Jack tried to smile, but did not succeed entirely. "Just one moment, we'll have to discuss that. Sam, Daniel?" He called his team members with him, and as they walked away from the strange man, he continued. "Well, what do you guys think about it?"

"Eh, Jack... I don't really like this at all. At first sight, I'd say this guy works for someone we don't want to get involved with."

Jack nodded, "I agree. However..."

"It's our best shot," Carter finished Jack's phrase, "And I don't think we have any other options left. I don't like it either, but it's better than, well, planting a bomb in the local library."

"Okay then," Jack turned around to face the big man, "We agree."

"...and after that, I called some paramedics to take care of those people. They assured us that there were no serious injuries, just a few people with minor respiratory problems. So, we wrapped everything up, and returned home." Scott finished his debriefing.

Jeff nodded. "Okay boys, thanks a lot..."

"Dad," Alan suddenly interjected, "There's just one question we have..."

"Or actually some questions," Scott added, "Who's Brains' sister? And what about those three people we were sent out to follow?"

"What?" Virgil exclaimed, since he and Gordon hadn't heard the story yet, "Brains' sister? Where were we when this all happened?"

Gordon looked at his elder brother. "Yeah, I never knew Brains even had any relatives left!"

Jeff sighed, and looked at his second eldest son, who had been listening to every single word said in his father's office via the video link with Thunderbird 5. John nodded, to show that he thought it was okay to tell his four brothers the whole truth. Jeff, glad to have John's support, sighed and began the story. "Alright... well, about those three people – they're no longer in John's view, so we've officially lost them. However, I've informed every agent of International Rescue in Colorado to look out for them..."

"That's gonna be hard if no one knows what they look like." Jeff heard one of his sons whisper, but chose to ignore it.

"...so the moment someone sees them, we'll be informed. Until then, there's not much we can do either. In the mean time, life goes on, even here on Tracy Island. I've got that business trip to New York coming up, and that means Scott's in charge while I'm away. Got that?" As he saw four of his sons nod, he continued. "I'll leave at 0200hrs this afternoon, and don't forget John's due to come back tomorrow, boys. It's Virgil's turn to replace him, and I want Gordon to pilot 3. And last but not least, I don't want to see the island become the same mess it was the last time I went on a business trip. Understood?"

His four sons all nodded again, but somehow that didn't assure Jeff. "Good..."

"Ah, but dad-", Alan interrupted his father again, "You haven't told us about Brains' sister yet..."

"I'm not sure if..."

"You're the right person to tell us about Brains' sister," Scott finished his father's phrase, "We know. But we're not gonna give up until you tell us the story!"

Jeff smiled, he knew Scott was telling the truth. "Alright then, I'll tell. Even I didn't know this one, although I double checked Brains' background the way I do on every new International Rescue agent. However, I never discovered any brothers or sisters, so I just assumed he had none," Jeff sighed, "Yeah, I was wrong. It seemed that Brains' parents got divorced when he was still very young. He went to live with his mother, and never saw his father again. His mother married again to another man, but died giving birth to her second child. As you can guess, it was a girl. Janet. His stepfather married again, but he and his new wife died when a hurricane struck their home.

Brains and his half-sister survived, but got separated when Brains was adopted by a Cambridge University professor, while Janet got placed with the family of a retired Air Force general in Colorado Springs. With Brains in England and his sister in Colorado Springs, you can imagine that their close friendship started to fade away. Things got worse when Janet decided to join the military after she had finished med school. Of course they e-mailed and called each other once in a while, but I'm sure you see what I'm getting at.

Anyway, one day Brains got a message that Janet had died. On duty. He desperately wanted to find out how, but no one wanted, or dared, to explain – so Brains decided to call in the help of a good friend, and skilled hacker, to find out what exactly caused his sister's sudden death. He soon found out that not only the files about the base Janet was working were top secret, and very difficult to decrypt, but also that the death rate at that base was higher than any of the other military facilities in the entire country! Brains got even more anxious to find out what the hell was going on in the Colorado mountain. But when he found out, he almost wished he never started looking in the first place. He never found out much, except for a few codenames: 'Project Bluebook', 'Deep Space Radar Telemetry'..."

"From underneath a mountain?" Virgil said, but Jeff ignored it again.

"... 'Stargate Command', and 'Area 51'."

"Area 51?" Gordon exclaimed, "As in Independence Day Area 51?"

But instead of his father answering, it was his brother up in TB5 who gave the reply. "Yeah, that Area 51, Gordon. You'd better start believing it, your favorite movie is becoming so realistic, it's kinda scary."

Alan eyes grew wide, as he suddenly realized what that meant. "You mean... we got three aliens on the loose?"

Jeff nodded, "If not more..."

He didn't like this. He didn't like this at all, Jack thought. Since they'd agreed with the big brown man to meet another man – one who claimed to know the members of International Rescue – they had followed him into a big black limousine and they drove away to an unknown place. When they arrived at a spooky looking villa just outside of Colorado Springs, the three members of SG-1 had been escorted inside and brought to – what looked like – the 'living room', but it was obvious that it's better years were past. And now they were sitting on a rotten couch, and still Jack didn't like this at all. "Am I the only one who's got a bad feeling about thi-"

He never got to finish his phrase, because at that moment, a small bald man wearing a red – kimono? – entered the room. A shiver crossed Jack's spine, besides that he didn't like the situation they were in, he didn't like that man at all either.

"Good afternoon, lady and gentlemen," the man said with an English accent, "I heard from Mullion that you were interested in meeting the Thunderbirds?"

"Well, yeah, that was our intention," Jack started, "But I guess it depends on what you got to offer us, and what we need to do for it."

The bald man laughed. "Now, now, who says you need to do something in order to get in contact with International Rescue?"

Jack looked at his fellow team members, who were clearly as clueless as Jack was at that moment. What idiot wanted to help someone without even asking something in return? Unless that was the way they did it nowadays…

"However, come to think of it, there's one little thing that you three could do for me…"

Jack sighed, "And what may that be?"

"Now, now, don't rush it! I'm sure you'll find out in time. Until then, I suggest you're just going to have to trust me."

"Oh, but that's maybe a tiny problem," Jack replied sarcastically, "I don't know if we trust you."

"Oh, I can assure you that I am very reliable when it comes to secrets, Mr.-"

"Jack. And I'm sure that we can trust you, I just didn't say we did. Got it?"

"Now, now, what a tone, Mr. Jack. But I think I know a way I can make you trust me…"

"Oh yeah? How's that?"

But what happened next, no one from his team could've expected… the bald man's eyes changed and suddenly the three members of SG-1 were incapable of moving in any way. The last thing that rushed through Jack's head was 'Shit, a Goa'uld…' before someone sedated him.