Chapter 6: Alan's POV
A/N: I was working on Gordon's POV, but I had already written Alan's, so I thought, 'let's give my faithful readers/reviewers something to read.' So, here it is. Please read and review!!
Alan was sitting in Thunderbird 3. It had only been a couple of hours ago that his second eldest brother had been flying this bird. Only hours ago when John had made his last flight. Alan could hardly grasp it.
John had been the first to actually fly this craft. He had been the one to explain the extra buttons, handles and so forth to him. John had worked together with Brains to design and make the Thunderbirds, so naturally he knew the aircrafts. Sure, they had all helped making the Thunderbirds, but John had been of biggest help to Brains.
Alan remembered the first flight he had taken with John.
Flashback:
John had been sitting at the controls, preparing for take-off, in the mean while explaining the whole procedure to Alan. Alan was an astronaut, so he should be able to take off in this bird, but because there were some extra things with which Alan was not familiar, John first 'showed him around'.
Alan had been nervous and excited. Not only because this was the first time that he would be in space with the Thunderbird, but it was also his first time with John at the controls. He had never flown in space with John before, so he was a bit nervous about that, even though he was confident that his brother could fly. After all, why would NASA have been so desperate to keep John otherwise? But actually being with John in a space shuttle was still an adventure.
Once they had entered space, Alan had taken his eyes away from the stars, and settled them on his older brother.
John looked so comfortable at the controls, causing Alan to immediately forget why he had been nervous about flying with John. John had everything under control. No doubt about it.
At that moment John had asked whether he would want to take over the controls. Immediately Alan's doubts began to surface again, but this time about himself. What if he wasn't as good an astronaut as he thought? What if he wasn't able to handle the Thunderbird?
John must have sensed it, because he said: "It's not difficult and I'm totally confident that you'll be able to handle her." He gave his younger brother a reassuring nod, then stood up and made room for Alan.
Reassured by his brother, Alan sat down at the controls. He took a couple of moments to take in all the buttons, handles and screens.
"OK, where to?" He asked John who had sat down next to him.
End of flashback
Alan smiled at the memory. The test-flight had gone quite well. John had taken over again to land, but Alan had done the rest, with instructions from John.
After a series of training flights, both John and Alan had been confident that Alan would be able to lift off and set her down again. It hadn't taken very long before Alan was completely used to this new space shuttle.
His Thunderbird. Or actually John and he shared Thunderbird 3 and 5, but Alan had always tried to get more time on Earth. He hated being in Thunderbird 5, away from the action.
Looking back Alan realised that there have been times where he has taken advantage of John's understanding, of John's love for space. He wished he hadn't. He wished he could turn back the clock. Maybe they could have done this rescue differently. Maybe John would still be alive then. Deep within, Alan knew that this was not the case, but he couldn't seem to convince himself.
Instead he blamed Nicole. He knew that John would have done anything to make sure she would be safe. If she hadn't been on that space shuttle. If she hadn't taken that oxygen bottle. If she hadn't noticed the leak. If she... Hold on. What if she hadn't noticed the leak. Then Nicole would have died. Then John would be mourning now. Probably blaming himself for not noticing the leak. Would John have been able to survive if Nicole had died instead of him?
Alan didn't know. He didn't want to know. He quickly pushed those thoughts back, but, even though he still blamed Nicole for his brother's death, the anger was based on grounds he had thought immovable, but now appeared not as strong as he had thought.
A/N: well, what do you think? Please review!!