Thank you for the kind reviews. As always, the feedback from Tikatu, Opal Girl, Darkhelmet, Barb From Utah, Agent Five and Varda's Servant provide much helpful guidance. There's a great deal going on, and I'm trying not to rush things, but sometimes events turn in ways that startle me.

45

Tracy Island; the office-

The dazzling afternoon light had mellowed subtly, as a bright tropical sun slid behind the green mountain. Soon, computerized sensors would begin cutting on lamps and wall panels throughout the big house.

At the moment, though, all that mattered was Brains' reply, and the fate of a family member, trapped 46 million miles away, on a cold and hostile, alien world.

"Mr. T- Tracy," the engineer said, pushing an untidy thatch of brown hair away from intense, bespectacled blue eyes, "A- accurate intelligence is, ah... is critical to any f- future, ah... Future plans. W- we must know what has, ah... has happened t- to the computer and crew, in order to, ah... to assess, and th- then deal w- with, the, ah... the situation."

Scott cut in, before his father could reply. His cell phone was vibrating like mad; Cindy, no doubt, but, just then, his entire attention was focused elsewhere, like a dagger point.

"Okay. So, we need more information. How do we get it, Brains, when all the damn comm systems are down?"

Scott wanted flight plans, orders... a mission. Not confusion and waiting. Worse still, squashed deep inside, but growing stronger, was the terrible feeling that his brother desperately needed help... and that they might not be able to reach him.

Hackenbacker's blue eyes met Scott Tracy's shadowed ones, and the same bleak concern was mirrored therein. He and John were close friends; had been since the day the confused teenager had been relocated to the island by his father, and discovered there one of his childhood idols, a genius on the order of Erdos, Godel or Newton.

...A currently helpless genius, from whom everyone expected miracles.

"W- we keep, ah... keep trying t- to reestablish contact, S- Scott; with Endurance, w- with Global Surveyor, the probes and, ah... and with John. And w- we accelerate the effing hell out of, ah... of Thunderbird 7's construction."

It was Jeff who responded, first nodding, then saying, in his smoky-deep, sonorous voice,

"Very well, Brains. Shelve every other project but the most urgent rescues. I want Thunderbird 7 go for launch inside the week. TinTin...,"

"Yes, Mr. Tracy?" The beautiful, dark-eyed girl stepped away from Grandma and Virgil.

"I'm placing you and Virgil in charge of patching a line through to Endurance, and containing any Earth-side computer damage. Do whatever it takes, but make this happen. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir," they both replied, very seriously. TinTin Kyrano might be the more scientifically minded of the two, but big, brown-haired Virgil Tracy had a razor-keen head for number patterns and a near-photographic memory. On projects such as this one, they made quite a powerful team.

Jeff gave them a brisk nod.

"Get on it."

Then, turning to his remaining sons, he continued,

"Scott, Alan, I want you on the new simulator, 24-7, if you're not sleeping, eating, or on the can. Got it?"

Big-eyed with shock, golden-blond Alan glanced over at Scott, who'd nodded impassively.

"Yes, Sir!" His oldest brother responded, all but saluting.

Full of sudden, bubbling exuberance (and trying very hard to contain it), Alan whirled to face Gordon's portrait comm, but his best friend's expression was so closed and... empty... that the picture might just as well have been turned around backward. Alan's grin slipped, just a little. Perhaps alone among everyone present, he began to sense that something else was going wrong, not quite so far away. Question was, with everybody on fire about John (probably changing the stupid batteries or something, out on Uranus), what could he do to help Gordon?

Concluded Jeff, once again dialing the number to Johnson Space Center,

"Boys..., and ladies..., I don't believe we've ever been handed a more difficult, more important, mission. I know I don't need to remind you what's at stake, here. But I will say this; when 7 launches, I'll be aboard."