Thank you so much for the reviews once again, i am glad you are enjoying this one so far. As its Christmas (and this is a Christmas story) I thought I would release another chapter. Merry Christmas!

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Christmas morning was a laid-back affair on the island, most of the Tracy's were still abed but Kyrano and Tin-Tin had risen early to start the Christmas lunch preparations. Garlands were suspended from the kitchen ceiling, a twinkling kaleidoscope of festive spirit. Tin-Tin was preparing a rosemary stuffing as her father placed the rather large Turkey in the auto oven. He struggled to complete the short walk, as burdened as he was by the immense weight of the thing. They chatted companionably about last night's Christmas party antics and Tin-Tin's plans for the day as Kyrano started to prep the sprouts, Tin-Tin shaped the stuffing balls out on a tray. It was nice to be able to spend this time with her father on Christmas she reflected.

Christmas day was the only day Jeff allowed himself a lie in. As the sunlight began to creep into his bedroom, he still remained in a deep slumber, his pin striped covered arm resting over the coverlet. His reading glasses were spread midway on the empty side of the bed next to him along with his discarded book from the night before. It was a surprise therefore when he was awoken by a furious knocking on the door. His eyes sprung open with a start, his heart hammering as he quickly flipped the covers and slipped his feet into the waiting slippers. Odd, the klaxon hadn't sounded so it couldn't be an emergency call.

Jeff's door opened with a swoosh to reveal an anxious Brains who was fully dressed. "Brains? what's the meaning of this?"

"I'm s-sorry to bother you Mr Tracy but this is u-ur – urgent. Something has t-triggered the ah.. close proximity alarms on Thunderbird Five. When I err c-checked the Ah! data, she's moved from her orbit by nearly 300 meters." Jeff's brow furrowed with worry.

"And John's not been in contact?"

"N-n-no that's what worries me."

"Right, give me a moment, warn the boys and get them to the lounge - Tin-Tin too, we might have a situation on our hands."

"Y-yes Mr Tracy."

As soon as the door shut Jeff hurried to grab his shirt and trousers off the chair. He hit the speed dial for John on his watch whilst he was still shirking on his shirt and straightening the cuffs. "It has not been possible to connect your call." Glowering; he pressed the speed dial again as he slipped though his door and out into the hall. "It has not been" – Jeff furiously punched the red icon to terminate the call. Why was it not going through? The wristwatches always worked no matter how weak the signal, something must be seriously wrong. He sat abruptly at his desk.

"Father what's wrong?"

"Is John, ok?"

"Should we go and check?"

Jeff held up a placating hand in a stop gesture. "Boys; I know just as little as you I'm afraid. We're not sure when this problem occurred overnight and communications don't appear to be functioning. Alan, I want you to launch Thunderbird 3 and get up there, your brother is likely in trouble."

"F.A.B"

"Scott are you happy to go with him?" Scott glanced at his partner who was already shooing him to the sofa. He gave her a quick kiss and darted off.

"Yes sir."

"Tin-Tin you better go in case they need back up, who knows what you might find, we'll try and brief you more when you are on your way."

Tin-Tin quickly sat in between the boys as the sofa started to descend. Jeff watched them go before returning his attention to Virgil and Gordon who were hovering by his desk. "Dad look at this, I only just looked at my notifications." Gordon took his watch off and passed it to his father.

Jeff scrolled through the latest social media headlines. There was an array of new reports, blogs all complaining that the Santa tracker had been down for some hours. Jeff checked the official page that he knew John maintained to see that the last update was back at 7 am their time. Santa should be over Europe by this point. "I guess we now have a time frame, good work. Virgil, Brains, I want you to look at NASA's and the space observatories satellite data for any anomalies in the vicinity of Thunderbird Five's location."

"Yes father" Virgil dutifully replied before ushering Brains out with him.

"What can I do father?" Gordon was itching to assist, his face solemn at odds with his off-kilter Santa's hat. The presents were abandoned across the couches and the floor where the boys had been sat only moments before waiting for their father to get up.

"You can write a press release to explain the loss of the Santa tracker, blame it on a suspected communications blackout but reassure people Santa is still able to complete his duty."

Gordon frowned in disgust, he wanted to help John not paper push. Suspecting his trail of thought Jeff added. "There are a lot of disappointed kids out there right now Gordon, we may not be able to help John immediately but we can put those children's minds at rest that their presents are on the way and that's what John would want.

"I guess, leave it with me and I'll get on it."

"Thank you, try not to worry about your brother, he's trained to manage these kinds of situations." Jeff stipulated with more confidence than he felt, which was at odds with his stomach as it churned and twisted with worry.

Gordon nodded before retreating. Now all his sons were occupied he could reach out to his contacts at the air force and NASA to see if there was anything he should be aware of that might be linked to this incident.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"What do we think could have occurred then?" Alan sat at the helm of Thunderbird three with Scott by his side. Tin-Tin was in the chamber below tracking their journey, as custom.

Scott adjusted his powder blue sash. "No idea but it can't be good, I just hope he's alright. Can we speed this up some?"

"You know I'm already at maximum Scott, I just can't think what's happened. Tin-Tin is trying to contact Five now we have left the atmosphere but there's still no reply. Hopefully its just a communications blip but I've never known John to move five out of orbit. It must have been a real emergency."

"Hmmm." Scott frowned to himself. He didn't like it at all. He couldn't help but think the worst in that there were probably no communications because John was hurt in some way or had bigger problems. His brother was a communications technician and a damn good one too. He would easily be able to restore them. No something was very wrong. Needing to do something to alleviate his deepening anxieties he called base.

"This is Thunderbird Three to base, any news father?"

Jeff's gravelly tone filtered through the airways. "Well, we now know the Santa tracker went down at 7 am our time this morning so we are confident this may have been the start of the incident. I spoke to a few of my associates in the control centre. They were very cagey about details but there seems to have been some diplomatic incident that's got them all scrambling to defend airspace and the outer atmosphere which makes me think something serious has occurred."

"You don't think Five's location has been compromised do you dad?" Alan asked, his brows drawing together in concern. It might explain why John tried to move out of orbit.

"I don't know but I think you should be on your guard till I can try and get more information."

"We'll be ready." Scott hand instinctively twitched over the weapon at his side. It wouldn't be the first time he'd been ambushed on a mission.

"I want you to report in as soon as you are in sight of her."

"F.A.B" they chorused in unison.

Alan flicked open the internal comms "Tin-Tin?"

"Yes Alan."

"Take her over threshold will you and boost it. We need to get to John, I'm sure this old girl can take the strain."

"Increasing thrust now by twenty percent."

They felt the additional thrust as it thrummed into life, Alan pushed forwards on the lever, increasing the thrusters as much as he dared. Hold on John, we're coming.