Part VIII
"Great, just great," Alan muttered. He looked out of the left window of the plane he was currently flying. Not only he didn't get to see the aliens at all, his dad had run up to the plane, and had given him and John the task to dump a massive amount of C-4 in the ocean. Just because those… idiotic aliens had 'forgotten' they were carrying a bomb in their backpack. Not that he didn't want to do it or anything, Alan just thought the whole situation was plain stupid.
"Alan, you ready?" John yelled from the rear of the plane, ready to dump the bomb in the middle of the North Atlantic. "We're running out of time!"
"FAB!" Alan yelled back, as he pushed the button to open a hatch in the rear.
"Okay," John responded after a few seconds, "You can close it again!"
Alan pushed the same button once again, and John sat down next to him. "Just a few more seconds," the eldest blond-haired Tracy said, "Let's get the hell out of here!"
Alan smirked. "FAB!"
"Okay," Jeff said, glancing at his watch, "They should be back any minute now."
Daniel looked up at the sky, and indeed, he saw a small plane closing in on their position. "You've got some heroic pilots, Mr. Tracy. That's something even I can't deny."
The CEO of Tracy Enterprises just smiled. "I'm sure they'd love to hear that."
"Nice work, boys," Jeff said to his two blonde sons, "And now, I'd like you to meet… some old friends of mine."
"Oh, eh, Daniel Jackson."
"Samantha Carter."
"What? Oh, Jack O'Neill."
Alan just stood there, obviously disappointed by the lack of green slime on the so-called aliens, butJohn smiled and shook each hand. "John Tracy. Nice to meet you."
Sam's eyes grew wide. "Tracy? You don't happen to be related to…"
"Him?" John said, pointing at his father. "Oh, no. He's just my dad."
"Oh, I didn't know that… you don't look like him very much, do you?" Sam asked. "I mean, you're blonde, he's brown…"
Suddenly, John's smile seemed to fade a little. "No, I don't," he said, a little sad, "But I can guarantee you that he's as much my father as yours can ever be yours."
"Oh, okay." Sam said with a smile. She really liked this guy… not to mention that he quite possibly had the squarest jaws and most handsome face on the world.
"Hang on," Jack interrupted, "Jeff's your father right? Just a while ago, he told us… me and Daniel, that is – did you really earn a medal of honor? How old were you? 20? 21?"
"Eh," John hesitated, "Actually, that wasn't me-"
"Come on guys," Jeff interrupted the three with a laugh, "No need to do a cross-exam on my son! Besides, we've gotta go… we need to pick up Fermat too?"
"No, actually, we don't. Scott's taking… care of that," John answered, with an emphasis on care.
Jeff understood it immediately – Scott went to Massachusetts with Thunderbird One. "Alright then, let's go."
Four hours, and a lot of questions later, the plane finally approached Tracy Island.
'Thank God,' Jeff thought, 'One more question, and I would've hit someone.'
As Jack, Sam and Daniel watched in awe as the plane descended, Jeff reminisced the long flight. In no more than four hours Jack and his comrades had gotten to know a lot of things. Yes, Alan was his son too. Yes, he did marry Lucy eventually. No, unfortunately she died twelve years ago. No, it's okay.
After that, a short silence. And than it begun all over again.
No, this was not the only plane Jeff owned, he had six other private jets. No, he did not live anywhere in the vicinity of the United States, he lived on a tropical island. Yes, he really did. Along with his family and a couple of very good friends. Yes, most of the time actually pretty good weather. In fact, you'll probably get to see it for yourself very soon. Yes, we're going to the island now-
Jeff sighed. Arguing with one of his sons was a piece of cake compared to this cross-exam.
"Welcome back, guys," Gordon said with a mischievous grin on his face as the six people entered the Tracy mansion. Jeff could tell by the look on his son's face, that he was eager to meet the three so-called 'aliens'. Little did Gordon know, that the aliens were in fact-
"WHAT? THEY are the ali-"
"Shut up, Gordo," Alan replied with an equal mischievous grin, knowing what Gordon was about to say as the second youngest Tracy-son first caught a glimpse of the three visitors. "Yes, they are the visitors. Quite a surprise, don't you think?"
"Knock it off, boys," Jeff interjected, "Where is everybody, Gordon?"
"Let's see- Scott's picking Fermat up, Virgil's still on the business trip," Gordon said, the mischievous grin returning on his face – boy, did he love secret code talking, "Brains is down under, if you know what I mean (Jeff snorted, while the three SG-1 members just looked plain confused), Onaha and Tin-Tin are at the mainland, shopping – and Kyrano's around here somewhere, I think."
"Right, thanks-" Jeff was about to say more, but was interrupted by one of his visitors.
"Look, quit the code talking, I want to know what's going on here – and I want to know it right now."
Jeff sighed. Not more questions…
Jack was confused. Not just a bit, but a lot. As he looked at his team members, he knew they were thinking the same. As the kid, probably yet another Tracy-son, explained where 'everybody' was, even more questions appeared in Jack's mind. He knew that some 'Scott' was picking a 'Fermat' up, but who were they? And who was this 'Virgil'-person on a business trip? What did the kid mean with 'Brains being down under? Australia? Of perhaps he was… nah, that's too gross. Onaha and Tin-Tin (Who the hell would name his kid TIN-TIN, Jack thought) were probably the only women around, since they were doing the shopping… but were they family? Or quite possibly two Jeff's 'good friends'? Where was the mainland? And who the hell was Kyrano?
Questions… questions… questions… No, Jack couldn't stand it anymore- "Look, quit the code talking, I want to know what's going on here – and I want to know it right now."
Jeff sighed, and looked at his three sons. They all just shrugged – but Jeff knew they were willing to back him up in the upcoming cross-exam. "What do you want to know?"
But before Jack even had the chance to ask something about Scott, Fermat, Virgil, Brains, Tin-Tin, Onaha or Kyrano… Daniel asked quickly, "Why do you want to help us?"
"Excuse me?" Jeff replied – this wasn't the first question he had been expecting.
"Why do you want to help us?" Daniel repeated. "You don't know me, you don't know Sam, you don't really have a close relationship with Jack… and still you're willing to help us? We carry a really large amount of C-4 with us… still, you're willing to help us? You just let your own sons dump it in the ocean?"
"Mr. Jackson, Daniel-" Jeff said, "What do you know about the Thunderbirds?"
Daniel blinked. "I don't see what that's got to do with it, but – eh, they're the good guys, got these really big planes, and-"
"Mr. Jackson, how many Thunderbirds are there?" John suddenly asked.
"What the hell has that got to do with anything?" Jack exclaimed. "We're trying to get some goddamn answers, and you're just avoiding the questions!"
"We're not avoiding any questions, Mr…"
"O'Neill. And yes, you are."
"Well then, Mr. O'Neill, we're not avoiding any questions," John said coolly, glaring at Jack, "We're just asking you a simple question in between: how many Thunderbirds are there?"
"Eh," Jack hesitated, not exactly knowing the perfect answer, "Two?"
From the corner of his eye, Jack saw the blonde kid, Alan, whisper something in his brother's ear – Gordon was it, the colonel thought.
"Just one more question," John continued, "Where are you from?"
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Colorado Springs. You just should've asked your dad, he knew that-"
But John just seemed to ignore him. "What year is it?"
'Damn it,' Sam thought, 'He's onto us…'
"Eh," Jack hesitated again, desperately looking at Sam. "20… 21?"
"I knew it!" Gordon suddenly exclaimed. "You're not aliens! You're time-travelers!"
Jeff sighed, and made a mental note to himself that not only he had to hide the Independence DVD, but his Back To The Future Trilogy as well. "Gordon. Quiet."
But it was too late. All hell broke loose.
Scott approached the Tracy living room with great caution. In all the years he'd lived there, he'd never heard so much noise coming from it.
"Time travelers? No way! That's so much cooler than Aliens!" - that was definitely Alan.
"How the hell did you know that we're-" – Unknown male voice.
"Shut up, Daniel!" – Second unknown male voice.
"Guys, please stop, you're not making this any better-" – Unknown female voice.
"So, tell us, when are you from?" – Gordon.
"Oooh, I bet they're from the past! I'm right, aren't I? I knew it! I knew it!" – Alan.
"Alan, please, don't make this any worse!" – that was John.
"What? You started it in the first place! If you hadn't asked them about 'what year is this', we wouldn't have found out at all!" – Alan again.
"Come on, Alan, don't be stupid! John's a genius!" – Gordon.
Meanwhile, the three unknown voices (one of the male voices was a 'Daniel', Scott just didn't remember which one) also continued to argue.
"Just great is this! How are we ever going to get back now?"
"Don't look at me! Technology has never been my department! I'm an archeologist!"
Short silence.
"What? My area of expertise is quantum technology, not time-traveling!"
"I don't care! Use your quantums to get us back!"
"It's not that easy, Jack! Quantum has to do with the diversity of the extr-"
"Sure, sure, skip the techno-babble, I get the picture! Daniel-"
"What? Me? I'm an archeologist! My expertise is the past, Jack! I don't think that's of any use, because we're in the FUTURE, remember?"
"Yes! I knew it! I knew it!" Scott heard Alan yell. "They're from the past! I told you so, I told you so-"
Scott looked at his watch, and decided that it probably was time for him to interfere. He opened the door, stepped inside the living room, and tried to close the door as loudly as he could.
BAM!
Each one of the seven people previously arguing with each other, turned to stare at the newcomer.
"Hi Scott," Gordon was the first to break the silence, "Did you meet our visitors yet? They're ti-"
"Time-travelers," Scott finished, "I know. I wanna bet that even Virgil knows by now, all the noise you made."
"Well, we can't help it," Alan tried to defend Gordon, "It's not everyday that we have time-travelers in our living room!"
"Alright, Alan – that's enough," Jeff interjected, "It's late, I'm sure we could all use some sleep. Scott, can you escort our guests to their quarters? Gordon, try to pull Brains and Fermat away from their computer screen, Alan – take a shower, and go to bed. Next morning, we'll discuss everything. By the way Scott, nice to see you – how was your flight?"
"Oh, as usual," Scott replied as he led their guests to their quarters.
Fifteen minutes later, everything was quiet once again. To be honest, that is how Jeff liked his house the best – though he didn't want to trade the company of his sons for anything in the world, of course.
"I don't know, John," Jeff sighed, as he sat down behind his desk, "I really don't know what to do anymore. I know, it was probably the best thing to do, bringing them here… but they're from the past. Aliens, I could've dealt with… but time-traveling…"
John sat down at the couch in his father's office / International Rescue's command and control-center. "To be honest, I didn't expect it either. But, somewhere in your conversation I just got an idea… I mean, everyone on Earth knows us, and everyone knows we've got five 'birds. And…"
"John," Jeff replied, "I don't blame you, I really don't – it's just that… how are we going to pull this one of? We're International Rescue, we're suppose to rescue 'em all, but sending at least three people back to the past-"
"You did the right thing, dad, you really did," John said, and yawned, "But if you don't mind, I think I'll go to bed. I'm sure that we'll figure everything out tomorrow."
The next morning, Alan and Gordon were having breakfast at the crack of dawn. However, it did take another four hours for everyone to join them… first their father, who was actually quite surprised to see them up this early (especially since Alan and Gordon usually were the ones who couldn't get out of bed at all);
"I really don't need to know why you're up this early, do I?"
As his two sons shook their heads in unison, he grabbed a bowl of cornflakes with him, and disappeared into his office.
Next was Scott;
"Man, and I thought I was up early," the eldest Tracy-son said, suppressing a yawn. He grabbed some sandwiches and went off to work on Thunderbird 1.
After that, Brains and Fermat joined them in the kitchen;
"G-g-g… hello, boys," Brains stuttered, "W-what are you two d-d-doing u-u-u… out of bed so e-e-early?"
"Waiting for the time-travelers, Brains."
"Oh, that's t-t-true! Could you come and g-g-g-get me when they a-a-a… wake up? I'd l-love to talk to them…"
After his Brains took some sandwiches and a apple with him, as Fermat got a bowl of Cheerios, and joined his father down under.
John got out of bed shortly after that, instead of asking what his two youngest brothers were doing out of bed so early, he immediately knew what they were up to;
"Come on, guys, give them a break. I'm sure they won't like a cross-exam during their breakfast," John said, sitting down next to Gordon at the table.
"Aw, no fun," Gordon replied, "Can't you go eat your breakfast somewhere else?"
"No, I won't. Otherwise those poor people never get the chance to eat theirs."
Alan and Gordon sighed. There was no escaping this time.
As Jack woke up, it took a while for his brain to register where he was. He was lying at a comfy bed, and when he looked at his right, he saw Daniel lying in another bed across the room. As he got out of bed, he noticed that he was wearing blue PJ's (way too small for him) with rockets all over them-
'Oh yeah… now I remember – what was his name again? Oh yeah, Scott – was so kind to lend me some old PJ's of his.' Jack sighed, and swore to kill the guy as soon as he saw him.