Chapter 2: Pink Feathers
Two days later and Virgil had spent a constructive morning in Brains' lab with his head bent over a circuit board. During a recent rescue they'd had problems getting the Laser Cutter Vehicle out of pod 2. They initially hadn't been able to release it from the clamps that secured it to the pod floor during the flight. Brute force had got the vehicle into action eventually but a solution needed to be found for the future. Virgil had presumed it to be a mechanical problem and had spent a fruitless day tinkering with the release mechanism. He got Brains along for his opinion and the two of them had tracked the problem down to a 10 centimetre rectanglar circuit board. A component on the circuit board had disintegrated, melting a hole through the board. This failed thyristor had prevented the mechanics from working.
In Brains' lab, Virgil had replaced the component and resoldered new links and enjoyed a couple of hours having the software versus hardware discussion that he and Brains indulged in periodically. Virgil was always complaining that the software crashed more often than the beautifully constructed hardware but Brains maintained that all Virgil's hardware was run by a software program in some way and he should stop complaining. They never reached a conclusion but just enjoyed the argument and left it at that.
Now Virgil was walking down the hallway to the kitchen. His stomach told him it was lunchtime.
"Whatcha doing?"
Virgil turned at the sound of his eldest brother's voice. Scott always had to know what he was doing. He had learned to live with it. He tossed the board to Scott.
"That little beauty will no longer be stopping us getting equipment out of the pod."
"You fixed it?"
"Of course. And now I'm going to get some food. Coming?"
"Don't you think you ought to reinstall the board first?"
"No, I think I ought to have lunch first."
"But Virgil, if there's a call-out it would be better to get the board in first."
"You think there's going to be a call-out in the next twenty minutes while I eat my lunch?"
"Could be. Come on, it'll only take five minutes to slot it back in."
"Yeh, and another hour to put all the flooring back."
"Quit complaining, I'll give you a hand."
"You ever get bored of being conscientious?" enquired Virgil.
"Nope. Glad you appreciate me."
"I didn't say that."
"You said I was conscientious."
"That wasn't a compliment."
The two continued to bicker amiably as they took the lift to the pod storage bay. Eager to get to lunch, Virgil was ahead of Scott as they approached pod 2. He stepped inside and then halted in surprise as a huge glob of something sticky landed on his head. The sticky goo started to run down his arms and the front and back of his shirt. Virgil was about to react when a single feather floated down from the ceiling of the pod and stuck to the goo on his shoulder. Virgil looked at it. Then he looked up. The feather had been a hint of what was to come. Suddenly what seemed like a ton of feathers dropped from the ceiling on top of him. Worse than that, these weren't ordinary feathers, they were bright pink, fluffy feathers, the ones that Lady Penelope might have on a feather boa when visiting the Swinging Star nightclub. The feathers fixed themselves onto the goo and Virgil was instantly covered in them from head to toe. Then a blinding flash went off. Virgil looked into the middle of the pod and saw a camera dangling from the ceiling, pointing directly at where he stood. Virgil felt anger rising within him. Gordon!
"He is dead meat. Today is the day that Gordon dies," Virgil stated as calmly as his anger would allow. Behind him Scott was chuckling.
"Oh come off it, Virg, you've got to admit that was good. One of his better ones, in fact."
"And would you be saying that if you had gone into the pod first?
Scott didn't reply to that so Virgil spoke again.
"Just go take a look at the camera and see if it's a stand-alone one. If it is, bring it here so I can smash it."
Scott squeezed passed Virgil, keen not to get any of the goo and feathers on himself. He examined the camera and then glanced around. He went to look at something else in the gloom of the pod and then went back to Virgil trying, and failing, to keep a grin off his face.
"No luck. The camera's Bluetoothed to a laptop which is connected to the network. Gordon will have emailed that picture around the globe by now."
Virgil's expression may well have darkened even more at this point but it was hard for Scott to tell because of the pink feathers stuck to Virgil's face. He could tell, however, that Virgil appeared to be shaking with anger.
"Looks like we're going to need a new aquanaut," said Virgil threateningly.
"Calm down, Virg, it's just a joke."
"It's one joke too many. His final one, in fact."
"Look, we haven't had a rescue needing Thunderbird 4 in a while. Gordo's just bored and you know how restless he gets when he's bored."
"But why me? Why does he always take it out on me?"
"Brotherly love," snickered Scott and then instantly regretted it. He realised now that Virgil was seriously wound up and he needed to calm him down before he took his anger out on something important. Like the pod. Or Gordon. "Just go grab a shower and then get some lunch. I'll slot the board back in."
"I'll kill him."
"Shower then food. Then I'll help you put that flooring back and we'll work out how to exact your revenge."
"You can't exact revenge on a dead man," replied Virgil ominously and trudged off towards the shower. As he walked pink feathers occasionally floated off him onto the hangar floor. Scott quickly went back into the pod so that Virgil wouldn't hear him laughing.
…………………………………………………………………
Half an hour later Virgil stomped into the kitchen. It had taken some time to get the sticky stuff out of his hair. Around the table Scott, Gordon and Alan were eating lunch. Virgil frowned at the sight of Gordon.
"Hey, Virgil," said Gordon, "Rob loved the photo. He thinks you look great in pink." Virgil frowned even more at the mention of one of their friends who had lived down the road from them when they were growing up in Kansas.
"You sent the picture to Rob?" asked Virgil, his anger apparent again.
"Let me take another look," said Alan, laughing as he reached for the printout on the table in front of him. Virgil stalked across the room to Gordon, obviously as mad as hell.
"Of all your little jokes, that was the most infantile," stated Virgil.
Gordon looked surprised. He had expected Virgil to take it better than this. Virgil came towards him, his body language threatening. Virgil reached Gordon and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, hauling him up out of his chair.
"Let go!" yelped Gordon.
Scott, across the table, recognised the signs and realised that Virgil was just about to be on the wrong side of in control. He started to get to his feet to restrain his younger brother. He spoke in a soft, warning tone.
"Virgil…."
Virgil paused in mid-yank. After a few seconds he shoved Gordon back in his seat. Then he picked up Gordon's bowl of apple pie and ice-cream, tipped it upside-down and dumped it unceremoniously onto Gordon's head.
"Who needs a shower, now, pool-boy?" he growled. He turned on his heel and walked smartly out of the kitchen.
Virgil, his mind no longer on food, stormed out of the house and out across the Island. He was so angry he didn't trust himself to stay near the house and not kill Gordon.
