"Show me." Scott growled, striding over to the projector nearest the medical bay.
A website flickered into life, accompanied by EOS' hologram. "I researched the two attackers that Kayo scanned. They are members of an organisation called 'The Pandora Alliance'." She explained. "Their founder split off from the Luddites not long after their formation."
"What, those crazy people who shut down London?" Virgil frowned, arms crossed over his chest.
"Affirmative." EOS brought up the mission statement on the website. "While the Luddites wish to eliminate technology, Pandora advocates greater control of it. They wish to keep technology as is, no further advancement. As far as they are concerned right now is utopia, any further development will threaten it."
"They want humanity to stagnate?" Gordon looked skeptical, reaching out to scroll through the website. His expression quickly developed into a scowl at what he was reading. "These people are certifiable!"
"I've heard about them from Rigby, they've been on a GDF threat watchlist for over a year now." Kayo gently untangled herself from John to bring up a file on her communicator, flicking it over to join EOS' hologram and the website. "They claim that they will actively seek out and destroy any technology above what we currently have. By their rules Tycho Reeves' hypercar and hypertube are acceptable because it's just an extension of what we already have with maglev technology, but EOS wouldn't be. So far it's all been rhetoric, but it looks like they've now decided to take action."
"I believe this webinar clip may be illuminating. I haven't discovered anything about their founder, but this is their spokesperson, Eleanor Grace." EOS blinked out, replaced by a shot of a statuesque middle aged woman dressed in 00's era tech CEO chique- a black turtleneck and dark grey slacks, long brown hair pulled back into a severe ponytail and minimal makeup and jewellery. She was standing in a plain room, flanked by two tall projections of various scenes- forests, bustling cities, families in the park and other things, all emotive visuals designed to endear people to her and the message she was about to deliver.
"Time and time again, philosophers, psychologists and historians have pointed out how fiction, especially science fiction, is one of the primary ways humanity holds up a mirror to itself and asks 'what if?'." Eleanor began, her voice warm and friendly. "It's where we try out thought experiments, float concepts and ideas, and it's where we look to for inspiration. The original mobile phones, for example, were spurred by the concept of the communicators in Star Trek, from where we also first had the idea of tablet computers."
Her expression turned into a frown, her tone now bearing caution and warning. "It is also where we experiment with horrors, with the darker side of humanity and the effects of an unchecked ego combined with that fatal question of 'What if?'. Time and time again we have seen humanity predict what will happen if we allow our technology to outstrip ourselves. What we have now, I'll be the first to admit it's not perfect, but it is very good. We have space travel, let us stop here before someone brings back a creature or disease to which we have no natural defence, as explored in so many sci fi horror movies. We have robotic assistants, good, let us stop here before we cross the threshold into The Matrix or Terminator. Our current level of medical care is incredible, and there's an entire subsection of movies just on medical experimentation gone wrong. The specter of the 'grey goo' of nanotechnology hovers over us even now. Right now, right here, we have clean air, non polluting transportation and manufacturing and a standard of living our ancestors could only dream of. So let us now stop, rest on our laurels and focus on the good things we have, rather than open Pandora's Box a little wider, to roll the dice and play the odds yet again. We were lucky when the Allies developed the A-bomb before the Reich could. Let us not chance that again."
The projection cut out. "They have several hundred other messages like this, all becoming more and more radical." EOS said as she winked back into view.
Scott frowned, dark brows drawing close and his posture mirroring Virgil's. "She makes some good points, but we can't live like that."
"That's the danger of people like her." Kayo shook her head. "Just enough good to shepherd in the bad. The more you watch, the more bad sips in."
"So what should we do?" Virgil asked, looking around the group.
The question hung in the air for a long moment.
"Make an example of them." Kayo declared at last, her voice harsh. "We already have enough trouble with The Hood and the occasional criminal trying to steal the Thunderbirds, if word gets out about this it's going to be open season on International Rescue by every fringe group out there."
"I agree." Gordon nodded his approval. "If we come down hard on them, no one else will touch us."
"It is logical." EOS added her two cents.
"But the GDF…" Virgil tried.
"Will do nothing." Gordon cut him off. "It'll be a slap on the wrist and a don't do that again, and that's if they even catch them. They didn't even know the Luddites existed until they blacked out London, not to mention we're the ones who keep handing them The Hood and all his cronies and they're the ones who keep letting him get away."
"Then maybe we should stop doing their jobs for them and focus on ours!" Virgil retorted. "I didn't sign up for police work or the revenge business, and this sounds a lot like revenge."
"We wouldn't have to worry about it if the GDF did their jobs in the first place!" Kayo snapped back. "They've let us down far too many times! This was a cunning, well laid out plan that only failed because of sheer luck, you've got to see that!"
"John?" Scott stepped in, "what do you think? This was aimed at you and EOS after all."
John wearily raised his head and looked around the group. Decide later he signed. Hurt, he pointed to himself and Alan, tired, angry, he swept his hand around to encompass and indicate the rest of them. Decide later. He locked eyes with Scott. Dad do what? He asked, somehow making the question pointed despite the lack of audible tone.
Scott blew out a frustrated sigh and leaned on one of the medical cabinets as his bubbling anger deflated like a pricked balloon with the simple question. John had a point, Dad wouldn't have reacted and gotten angry like this. "John's right." He reluctantly admitted. "Dad's priority would be taking care of ourselves first, but that doesn't mean we're just going to sit on our hands. EOS, how long until the storm passes?"
"Projections indicate the storm should downgrade to a category 12 in your area in the next 83 minutes." Was her reply.
"Virgil?" Scott looked to Two's pilot.
"I can fly that easily." Virgil nodded.
"Good." Scott nodded decisively, the next steps clearer. "Virgil, go rest up until then so you're fit to fly. Gordon, you and I will look after Alan and John, when we leave we'll move them up to the cockpit so we can keep an eye on them. Kayo, EOS, I want everything you can pull together on the Pandora Alliance, bring in Lady Penelope too."
As everyone set out on their tasks, Scott couldn't help but feel a nagging concern. How had The Pandora Alliance found out about EOS in the first place?
A/N: English-based sign languages have a different sentence structure to standard English- for example in NZSL instead of 'I have a red car', someone would sign 'Red car I have'- and it strips out a lot of the filler words like 'a', 'the', 'and', and 'is'. It's fascinating to get into the nitty gritty of it and I really encourage you to look it up or do a course on it. I learned some NZSL once upon a time and I've worked with translators on courses. I have massive respect for translators not only translating the words but also the emotions when translating from sign language into English. They are literally acting as the voice for someone and as far as I'm concerned seeing a skilled Sign Language translator at work is the closest we're going to get to telepathy outside of sci-fi and fantasy stories.