Disclaimer
Thunderbirds and all the characters etc. belong to Gerry Anderson and Working Title films, I'm just borrowing them.
Answers to reviews:
Zeilfanaat – Thanks for the compliment
Jenihenpen – Don't worry, John's my favourite character too. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to throw him about a bit!
All reviewers – Here's the next chapter for you!
Accidents
Chapter 4 – Mayday
"How long before it hits?" Scott asked hesitantly once he had gotten over the shock of what John had just said. John looked down at a console
"1 minute"
"Are you sure there is nothing we can do to stop that missile?" Colonel Roberts demanded, not wanting to hear that some of their equipment would be responsible for damaging one of the Thunderbirds craft, or even killing one of them.
"Certain sir" the technician said sadly "the laser beam destroyed all control over the missile that we had left"
"I presume you heard that, International Rescue" the Colonel said to Scott and John on the screen "I'm afraid there is nothing we can do"
"Thanks for trying anyway" John said, slightly distracted as he tried to think of something, anything to stop the missile. He wasn't really doing it for himself, although he didn't want to die, but he was doing it for all the people in danger that International Rescue wouldn't be able to help if Thunderbird 5 was destroyed. They wouldn't even know they were in danger. That was something that John didn't even want to think about.
"We should be the ones thanking you. You're only in this mess because you tried to help us out…" the Colonel was feeling very guilty about this whole situation
"Hey, it's what we do. I don't blame you for anything" John said quickly, trying to stop the Colonel blaming himself. "As far as we know, all this was caused by a simple technical malfunction. It wasn't anyone's fault."
"Hello again viewers" Lindsey Acclebourne started, but not feeling as cheerful as she sounded. It had taken some time for her to get permission to report what was going on, as she had argued that the world deserved to know. "International Rescue has successfully managed to save the 4 people on board the Television satellite, but it seems that by doing so they have put Thunderbird 5 and the person manning her in great danger. At their request, I will not be reporting any more on this situation, but will hopefully be able to get you some more information soon. We wish them the best of luck to stop the missile before it hits…" She stopped, not wanting to continue "So its goodbye from me…"
"John, I want you to get into one of the escape pods, now!" Jeff ordered, knowing that he might not survive if he stayed.
"But I can't…" John started, but Jeff stopped him firmly
"I know you don't want to abandon the station, but we have no time to…" Jeff was also interrupted.
"No, you don't understand. Even if I burned the escape pod's engines beyond safety limits, there is just no way that it would be able to get out of the range of the missile blast in time." John explained quickly "It would be even more dangerous in the escape pod. I'm safer staying on Thunderbird 5."
"Then…what do we do now?" Virgil asked quietly. It seemed that they were out of options.
"There is nothing we can do" Scott said, looking sadly at John on the screen. The only option left was to wait and hope that John could survive the blast
"Its no good, we're out of time" John heard Colonel Roberts say quietly through the link-up to Earth as he walked through the airlock to the secondary command centre, making sure all internal airlocks were closed as he went. As the missile had gotten closer, he had been able to tell where the ship would be hit (somewhere near the main control room and medical bay), and try to avoid being in that section. Now I just hope that it doesn't hit the main antenna as it passes, or that really could cause some damage to the hull, John thought bitterly, and it would make it far more difficult for a rescue, he added in his mind. He looked at his watch, knowing that it was pointless to make a mayday call but he was going to anyway. 20 seconds, 15…
"Thunderbird 5 to base, Mayday! Mayday!" John's voice echoed through the speakers at Tracy Island and NASA Control, along with the sound of a rather large explosion only seconds later.
John was sent flying across the control room from the force of the blast, several pieces of debris from the walls and floor being knocked loose at the same time. The lights went out and the station was thrown into darkness. To try to slow down and avoid a hard landing, John reached up with his left hand to grab one of the railings built into the ceiling for when the artificial gravity went offline. Unfortunately, at the same time as he did this, a large, and rather sharp, chunk of floor debris flew towards him. He tried to move out of the way, but the piece of shrapnel hit him hard on the left elbow and forearm, causing his fingers to be forced backwards and he lost his grip on the ceiling rail.
He landed on a bank of computer consoles on the opposite side of the room, and then slid uncomfortably to the floor. The pieces of debris landed on and around him, and the last thing John felt before he lost consciousness was a solid computer panel hitting his right shin and snapping the bone.
Everything suddenly went deathly silent…
However, none of what happened to John was known by those watching the link-ups, as when the missile hit the main antenna as it passed and then communications consoles in the main control room, the link-ups frazzled out and the screens went blank, cutting off even Tracy Island from talking to Thunderbird 5.
"John!" Several different voices cried out as they heard the sound of the missile hitting Thunderbird 5 and then the screen going blank. Immediately, Jeff tried to find out if they still had contact.
"Tracy Island to Thunderbird 5, come in." Jeff said, but the only answer was static "John, if you can hear me, please respond." Still nothing.
"It won't work Mr Tracy" Brains said quietly. "The…signal isn't reaching Thunderbird 5. The missile must have hit the antennas and…" Brains was cut off by the sound of someone thumping another computer panel in the room
"No!" Scott cried out softly, leaning heavily against the wall beside the panel he had just read from (and hit!). Everyone in the room looked at him
"What is it Scott?" Jeff asked nervously, dreading the answer. Scott tried to pull himself together
"I just checked the bio-transmitter reading from John's watch…" Scott started, really not wanting to be the one to say this "…negative reading." There was a long silence before Virgil stood up, not willing to just sit around and do nothing any longer.
"Then we have to get up there! We have to see for ourselves if…" Virgil trailed off. None of them actually wanted to admit he was dead, even though their technology seemed to be telling them that he was.
"We can't" Brains replied sorrowfully "Thunderbird 3 is still badly damaged"
"But what about spare parts. I thought we had made sure that we had spares for all the Thunderbird craft" Jeff demanded
"Well, we do but…" Brains replied hesitantly "…but…they're up on Thunderbird 5"
"What?! Why?!" Jeff yelled, loosing control of his emotions entirely "Why are they up there?! My son is dying up there simply because we can't get at the parts we need to save him! We're supposed to be rescuers, how can we rescue people if we're stuck here on the ground?!" Jeff then collapsed into his chair, completely drained. His sons looked at each other nervously, Jeff rarely ever lost his temper, but this situation had tried everyone's nerves to the limits.
"How long will it be before we get all the parts from the suppliers, Brains?" Tin Tin asked, trying to calm everyone in the room down
"Err…eight days, absolute minimum"
"Eight days! John will probably be dead by then!"
"NASA Control to International Rescue base, come in please" a technician said calmly, before turning to Colonel Roberts. "It's no good sir. We've lost the link."
"Then I guess they're on their own."
"Lady Penelope calling International Rescue base, come in Jeff" The soft English voice startled Jeff out of his thoughts. He quickly hit the answer button, but wasn't sure if he wanted to talk to anyone at the moment. Lady Penelope's concerned face appeared on the screen seconds later. "Jeff, I saw the television broadcast. Is John alright?" She quickly realised that he couldn't be by the look on Jeff's face
"Oh, hello Penny." Jeff swallowed, and then started to tell Penelope what they knew. "To be honest, we don't know exactly what has happened. We've lost contact with Thunderbird 5. Brains is in his lab trying to regain contact and find out how bad the damage is as we speak." Jeff actually felt slightly better now that he had told somebody
"I'm sorry to hear that Jeff. Is there anything I can do?"
"Just hope for the best, Penny. Its all any of us can do right now."
TBC…