Virgil's POV:

Dad is going to kill me.

That was the only thought that was going through my mind, as I sat there in the semi-dark control room of Thunderbird 5. The only light was coming from the emergency lights. Everything else was dead. Somehow I had managed to crash the entire computer system of Thunderbird 5.

Communications weren't even working.

Some Thunderbird I was turning into. My first night on Thunderbird 5 alone and I had managed to break it. Dad was never going to trust me with one of the Thunderbirds again.

I had doubled up on my workload this past year so I could graduate a year early. Had even still managed to be Valedictorian which hadn't exactly won me to many friends in the senior class. Despite that, I couldn't perform my duties as I had been trained to do. I wasn't even sure what had gone wrong. Everything had made perfect sense when Scott had been up here with me.

Even without communications I knew that my someone from my family would be up here shortly. Dad would have launched Thunderbird 3 as soon as it was discovered that communications couldn't be established with the station. All I could do was sit and wait for the calvary and the lecture that was sure to come.

I heard the sound of Thunderbird 3 docking with the station. Not long after that, the air lock was cycling open.

"Virgil are you okay," came my father's voice.

"I'm fine," I called back standing up from the chair. At least for now, I added silently to myself.

"What happened?" Dad asked me as he gave me a quick hug. John and Scot were right behind him.

"I'm not exactly sure. Somehow I crashed the system I think," I told him as he let me go. "Dad I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I . . ."

I let my voice trail off as my Dad held up his hand.

"It's not important. The station can be fixed. You're okay, that's what's important."

"Some teacher you turned out to be," John said to Scott over his shoulder as he headed toward the compute console.

"Hey this isn't my fault," Scott said. "Who knew the valedictorian over there couldn't work a computer."

"Okay, that's enough," Dad said even though I could here a hint of laughter in his voice. "What's the verdict?" Dad asked John.

"I think its going to take awhile," John admitted. "It's not rebooting. I think my first priority is going to have to be communications so that Brains can help me out. I'll get it up and running though. Looks like this was a real short trip home."

"Well, I'll leave Virgil here with you. Somehow I don't think a refresher course will hurt," Dad said.

"Not a problem," John replied already taking off an access panel and getting to work.

"Sorry Dad," I said again.

"Things happen kiddo," he told me messing up my hair. "Come on Scott, let's get back to base in case something comes up."

"Looks like you crashed your first Thunderbird, Virg," Scott said as he started following Dad back to Thunderbird 3.

"Haha," I replied to his back.

The airlock shut, leaving me and John onboard the station. John, who should have been enjoying some time at home and instead had to come back and clean up my mess.

"Man Virgil, you really got things scrambled. What exactly did you do?" John asked his head still under the console.

"I don't know," I managed to get out in a choked up voice. I could feel the tears threatening to fall. I had really let everyone down. I closed my eyes, trying to will the tears away.

"Virg, it's okay. Nobody's perfect," I heard John say softly as he put his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I let my head rest on his shoulder, thankful for the comfort of his arms around me. Maybe things would be okay after all.