THUNDERBIRD 3's ion-engine made short work of the journey from Earth to the Moon. It was a journey that over a century ago would have taken almost a week to make. For those aboard Thunderbird 3 it was hardly any time at all. Nobody spoke as they made the trip. They were too busy worrying about what had occurred on the Moon. What was the explosion? And would they find any survivors at all. Even though the glow of the explosion had looked tiny from their viewpoint on Tracy Island, that probably meant it was colossal.

Brains too had been silent as he examined data sent via Thunderbird 5 to the holo-table in the lounge.

"How's the Moon looking, Brains?" Jeff asked. "Are we going to be in for another global catastrophe?"

"T-Thankfully not, Mr Tracy," answered Brains. "That explosion was c-colossal in order for it to have been visible from Earth. However, it has n-not caused any problems for the Moon itself. It's registering as f-fully intact and still in its designated orbit."

Jeff frowned. "Something that large should have pushed the Moon out of orbit," he remarked.

"Could it be possible that the explosion wasn't actually on the Moon's surface?" suggested Penelope.

"No, it was d-definitely the Odyssey that exploded, Lady Penelope," said Brains grimly. "I have detected a m-massive new crater in the area of the launch site."

"Better tell the boys and Kayo to check it out," said Jeff. "Thunderbird 5, any luck with reaching Base Endeavour?"

"Negative, Dad," said John. "And I'm not even going to attempt it. The airways are jammed with NASA and other agencies desperately trying to get through. If their communications aren't down, they're probably not going to be able to make any out."

"Can't you just run a thermal scan of the Moon and see if anyone's still alive?" asked Gordon.

"I've tried that, Gordon," replied John. "But Endeavour's now on the dark side of the Moon currently. The interference I'm getting following the explosion is preventing me from doing so."

"In other words we won't find out if anyone's alive up there until Thunderbird 3 gets there," said Grandma.

Jeff nodded grimly.

Thunderbird 3 was now approaching the Moon. as they flew around, it wasn't hard for the crew to locate where the explosion had taken place because a huge new crater lay below them.

"Jeez…" remarked Virgil. "That's gotta be one heck of a blast to cause that."

"Nobody aboard the Odyssey could have survived, surely?" asked Kayo.

"It's not even worth checking the site for any remains," agreed Scott. "Everything was probably vaporised."

The others reluctantly agreed.

"So, what do we do?" asked Virgil.

"We go to Endeavour and find out what's going on there," said Scott. "Alan, take us there."

Alan responded with a grunt and altered Thunderbird 3's course to head down towards the lunar surface.

It came as somewhat of a relief to discover that Endeavour hadn't been destroyed in the creation of the new crater. The distance between the base and the launch site had been a good few miles which Colonel Straker had insisted on to help keep the base safe in the event of a catastrophe on launch. However, they were quick to notice that it looked like some pieces of debris had come back down and landed on the base causing some areas to be damaged.

"Thunderbird 3 to Base Endeavour? Does anyone copy?" Scott said into the radio.

All they got in response was the crackling of static.

"John did say the airwaves were jammed up," said Kayo.

"Perhaps we should try a sonic amplifier?" suggested Virgil.

"Good idea," said Scott. "That'll be airwave free and we should get through straight away. Alan?"

Alan grunted again and pushed a button. As Thunderbird 3 closed in, a small yellow device was launched out of the nose-cone and attached itself to the roof of the command centre of Endeavour.

"This is Thunderbird 3 calling Endeavour," Scott tried again. "Does anyone hear me?"

"TRACY?!"

Everyone jumped at the sudden sharpness of the response.

"Well…that worked," remarked Kayo.

"Er, loud and er, clear, Colonel Straker?" said Scott.

"My God…" said Colonel Straker as his hologram appeared from the projector. "Am I glad to see you guys are here?"

"What's the situation, Colonel?" asked Scott.

"Disastrous!" snapped Straker. "The Odyssey is dust and debris from it and the pad has hit several parts of the base - including the transfer tunnels. We've got six injured here and maybe others in other parts of the base. We can't get out. Need assistance urgently!"

"Heavy lifting is here, Colonel," said Virgil. "We'll get to work straight away."

"Good," said Straker. "I don't wish to put pressure on you guys, but please be quick about it."

"We'll do our best, sir," promised Scott. "Alan, you might need to use Thunderbird 3 for some heavy-lifting as well. Drop me and Virgil to the ground and we'll give you instructions."

"Right," said Alan, finally breaking the silence he'd had since launching from Tracy Island.

Thunderbird 3 extended its grasping arms and landed itself nose-down on the Moon's surface close to the command building of Endeavour. Scott and Virgil donned their helmets and attached their jetpack and Mech-Suit respectively before Scott carried them both down to the ground.

Reaching the ground, they began to examine the wreckage of the tunnel that connected the command building to the Medical one. The latter didn't look to be damaged.

"What's the plan, Virgil?" asked Scott.

Virgil looked at the wreckage from the tunnel and thought hard about it. "It's been hit in two places and has fallen to the ground," he observed. "There's no way I can lift that, even with my suit. Thunderbird 3 will have to hoist it up and then hold it place whilst we weld it back together.

"You think that'll work?" asked Kayo, who'd been listening over the radio.

"It's the only option other than using Thunderbird 3 to transfer everyone from building to building, Kayo," said Virgil.

"Alright, let's do it," said Scott. "Alan, get Thunderbird 3 ready for lifting."

"F-A-B," answered Alan, firing up Thunderbird 3's engines again and lifting off. Keeping the nose pointed downwards, he moved his craft over the ground until it was hovering right above the collapsed part of the walkway tube. "The tube's badly damaged," he told his oldest brothers. "I can't get any kind of lock onto it."

"You don't need to, Alan," said Virgil. "Just lower the cables down to us and we'll attach them to the tube."

"Okay, Virgil," said Alan. He pressed a button. "Lowering cables."

Scott and Virgil watched from the ground as the cables began to be lowered from the grasping arms.

"You do the ones on the right, Virgil," said Scott. "I'll do the left."

"F-A-B."

Grandma was just finishing putting away the dishes leftover from dinner. She was tired and wanted to go to bed. But like the others, she couldn't bring herself to do so knowing that danger was still very present on the Moon. As she closed the last cupboard, she noticed Sophie in her hoverchair, sitting out on the lido by the pool and looking up towards the Moon. She decided to go and see what the matter was.

"Are you okay, dear?" Grandma asked after approaching the young doctor.

Sophie had been almost in a trance, looking up at the Moon and had jumped when Grandma's voice cut through her thoughts. "Oh, my God. I'm so sorry, Mrs Tracy, you startled me."

"It's okay," said Grandma reassuringly. "I just thought you needed someone to talk to."

Sophie looked back up at the Moon which looked perfectly normal glowing in the sky as it normally did. "Have you heard anything?" she asked.

"Only that Thunderbird 3 has arrived and started to help those trapped in certain parts of the base that were damaged by debris," said Grandma. "From what Colonel Straker has said, other than those aboard the Odyssey, there are no fatalities."

Sophie breathed a small sigh of relief. "That's good," she said. "God, poor Grace. She's going to be in for a busy night if there are many injuries."

"Ah, yes, your sister?" said Grandma.

Sophie nodded. "You'd like her. Although I do wonder how many here would get us muddled."

"Identical twins, huh?" said Grandma.

"Couldn't be more identical if we tried," chuckled Sophie, finally taking her eyes off the Moon and turning to face Grandma. "Face, hair, voice. You name it, we're the same. Mum's always trying to get one of us to dye our hair or have it cut so at least people have some idea who each person is."

Grandma chuckled. "I was going to go to bed, you know?" she said. "But Jeff and Brains aren't going to be going to bed anytime soon. I'm gonna make them a coffee. Would you like one?"

"Yes, please, Mrs Tracy," said Sophie. "I'll even help you make it. It'll take my mind off worrying about Alan."

Grandma smiled. "I hoped you'd say that," she said. "And please, call me Sally. We're not formal here."

Sophie blushed. "Sorry. Force of habit," she said.

The travel tube was heavy and Alan had to use all the spare power he could manage from Thunderbird 3's engines in order to hold it in place whilst Scott and Virgil worked as quickly as they could to weld it back to the other sections.

"Hey, guys? My engines are getting a little hot up here," Alan said. "Not to hurry you but-"

"We're getting there, Alan," Scott answered over the radio. "I need only a minute. Virgil?"

"About the same," Virgil added. "Do you think she'll hold, Alan?"

Alan checked the instruments. "She will. I'll make sure she does."

"F-A-B," the two eldest brothers said together.

Colonel Straker looked over at the people in the control room. Nobody had been killed luckily but a piece of debris hitting the roof of the building had caused a minor collapse inside, although fortunately the air-tightness of the structure hadn't been breached meaning that a decompression wasn't likely. However, they were trapped in the building until the tunnel could be repaired.

Straker paced up and down, looking at his watch almost every few seconds. "Come on! Come on!" he said impatiently.

"Steady, Colonel," said Lieutenant Barry. "International Rescue cannot be rushed in their task."

Straker sighed. "I know. I know, Lieutenant. I'm sorry," he apologised. "I guess I'm just a little-"

He was then interrupted by Scott's voice over the radio. "International Rescue to Colonel Straker. Travel Tube back in place and sealed. You can attempt to re-pressurise."

"You heard him!" Straker barked at the controllers who weren't injured. "Do it!"

A system of hisses could be heard as air was pumped back into the travel tunnel. Several green lights came on one of the control panels.

"They did it!" said a controller. "The tunnel's fully pressurised!"

"At last!" said Straker. "Thank you, International Rescue. Can you sort the other tubes out?"

"Right away, sir!" said Scott over the radio.

It took some time for the International Rescue team to complete the repairs to the other travel tubes and fully reconnect all the sections of Endeavour. Tragically they learned that out of a total of twenty who were injured by falling sections of ceiling, three had lost their lives. Although saddened to hear this, the International Rescue team weren't affected too badly. Deep down they had been expecting this.

Eventually all the injured were transferred to the Medical building and the team of doctors and nurses began the painstaking task of treating the patients.

Scott took a moment to update Jeff on the situation. "The base is back as one, Dad," he was saying. "I'm sorry to report three lives have been lost though."

"That's unfortunate, Scott," said Jeff. "Please pass my condolences to Colonel Straker and his crew."

"Will do," said Scott.

"Have you seen Grace, Scott?" Sophie asked.

Scott's hologram looked at her. "Can't say I have," he said. "We've not been inside the medical bay. And with the greatest of respect, Sophie, I expect she's gonna be pretty tied up with all those patients in there. I would rather not disturb her."

"That's…fair enough," Sophie said. "Sorry."

"Don't apologise, please," said Scott with a polite smile. He then turned back to Jeff. "They've got a lot on their hands, Dad. Should we offer our services to them?"

"If they want it, they can have it, Scott," said Jeff. "Certainly stick there for the time being in case they do need any more assistance."

"F-A-B," said Scott and he signed off.

Gordon and Penelope had noticed that Sophie was looking somewhat uncomfortable. She kept rubbing her head.

"Headache, Soph?"

Sophie looked over. "Pardon?"

"Do you have a headache?" asked Gordon. "You keep doing this." He then mimicked what Sophie had been doing.

"Oh…no, I'm fine," Sophie answered. "Although she didn't sound too sure."

"You worried about your sister, aren't you?" said Penelope.

Sophie nodded. "I'm not scared for her," she said. "She can handle herself. I just want to know that she is okay. That's all." She exhaled. "Please excuse me," she said. "I need some air." She turned her hoverchair and headed out of the lounge to go back outside to the lido.

"Something's not right," Grandma muttered.

"What was that, Mother?" asked Jeff.

"Something's wrong up there," said Grandma. "It's almost like Sophie can sense there's trouble with her sister."

"That c-could be possible," Brains agreed. "They are identical t-twins after all. They could have s-some kind of psychic link between them."

"Let's 'ope she's not one h'of the deceased," Parker muttered, thinking none of the others would hear.

"Parker!" hissed Penelope. "Don't even think of such a thing."

"Sorry, m'lady," Parker said. "But Mr Scott didn't say who the three deceased were."

"He wouldn't have been told who they were," agreed Jeff. He then shifted. "Let us pray she is not one of them."

Sophie was now outside on the lido. She hadn't heard what Parker had said, but deep down she was feeling the same thoughts. She closed her eyes and began to do some breathing exercises to calm herself down. Please be okay, Grace. Please be okay, she said in her head. Once she'd calmed herself down, she then had an idea. She took out her phone and after selecting Alan's number, sent him a text message, hoping that it would pick up despite him being off-world.

"Hey Alan. Please can you discreetly check to see if Grace is okay? Don't disturb her if she's busy. Just get a visual of her, please. Thanks luv. Sophie xx"

To Sophie's relief, Alan did indeed get the message due to the advancement of the Tracy's phones courtesy of Brains' ingenuity. He looked around to make sure that Scott, Kayo and Virgil were deep in conversation with Colonel Straker before slipping away towards the medical bays. He responded.

"Going in now. Will let you know ASAP xx"

Double-checking to make sure they weren't looking, he pushed one of the double-doors and went inside. He soon found himself inside the main ward of the hospital and found it to be quite chaotic with the staff rushing to and fro taking medicine and other emergency equipment to treat the wounded crew of the base. He tried as best he could to remain unnoticed, although that was easier said than done given that his blue uniform stuck out amongst the relative grey and white uniforms of the Endeavour personnel. He tried as best he could to try and look at the faces of all the female personnel that he could see, both the medics and the patients just in case Grace had been amongst the injured. The more he looked, the more he became worried for he couldn't see her at all.

"What are you doing here?"

Alan jumped at the snappy voice behind him and spun round to find Dr Helen Russell standing behind him. She did not look happy. "Oh, er, Dr Russell?"

"Why are you in here, Tracy?" snapped Dr Russell. "Can't you see we're busy?"

"I, er, sorry," Alan stammered, turning slightly red with embarrassment. "I was only looking to make sure that Grace is okay, that's all."

"Grace?" repeated Dr Russell. "There are about five people called Grace on this base. You need to be more specific."

"Only one's a doctor, right?" said Alan. "Dr Telford? It's just my girlfriend, I er mean, her sister, was asking me to check on her you see and-" He broke off, suddenly noticing that the entire room had gone silent and everyone was either looking at him or at each other were somewhat disturbed and in some cases upset expressions on their faces. He then noticed that Dr Russell was also showing an expression of what could only be described as an 'Oh God' kind of expression. "Errrrr…was it something I said?" he asked, awkwardly.

Dr Russell looked back at him and swallowed hard before finding her voice again. "Come with me," she said and ushered him away from the rest of the staff and patients towards her office with Alan feeling somewhat embarrassed and confused at the same time.

Scott, Virgil and Kayo were so busy discussing the events of the day with Colonel Straker that none of them had noticed Alan wasn't there.

"Dad told me to pass on his condolences for those three men you lost, Colonel," said Scott.

Straker nodded gratefully. "Tell him my thanks," he said. "Although I should really tell him myself, but I'm gonna be hellish busy informing the next of kin about the eight lives that have been lost today."

"Eight?" asked Virgil. "I thought it was three."

"Odyssey, Virgil," Kayo whispered.

Virgil gulped. "Oh, sh- I mean, yes, of course. Sorry," he apologised.

"It's okay," said Straker. He let out a deep sigh and turned to look out of a nearby window. "God, I spent so many sleepless nights leading up to this day. To venture out to a new planet. The first humans to set foot on a world unlike anything we've ever known about." He paused and rubbed his eyes. "Maybe it wasn't a good idea."

"It's the perilous risk of space exploration, Colonel," said Scott. "The astronauts who were aboard were aware of the risk, I'm sure."

Straker nodded and turned back to face them. "Thanks, Scott," he said. "You're right of course. But losing those guys still hurts."

"Of course it will," said Kayo. "This sort of thing is never easy. It never will be."

Straker nodded again. Then he reacted with a surprised frown in the direction of the doors leading into the medical bay. Scott, Virgil and Kayo turned to see what he was looking at and blinked in surprise to see Alan slowly emerge from behind the door.

"Alan?" asked Scott. "What were you doing in there?"

"Scott?"

"Didn't we tell you not to-"

"Scott!"

"What?!" Scott snapped at Virgil.

"Look at his face…" Virgil said.

Scott looked back at Alan. he stared in confusion. Alan's face was as white as a sheet. He was standing very still, staring back towards them, but he appeared to be staring right through them as though they weren't even there.

Kayo hurried over to him. "Alan? What's the matter?" she asked anxiously. She placed a hand on his shoulder and he jumped out of the trance he seemed to be in. He then started to shake and shudder like he'd just come out of a large refrigerator. His legs seemed to turn to jelly and he almost lost his balance but was saved by Kayo and Virgil who grabbed an arm each. They helped Alan over to a nearby bench and sat him down. He still continued to shake.

"Alan, what's wrong?" asked Virgil. "You look like you've seen a ghost?"

Straker activated his personal radio. "Dr Russell? To the medical foyer. Urgent!"

Within moments, Dr Russell appeared through the doors. "You called me, Colonel?"

"This young man's having some kind of fit," Straker said, indicating to Alan. "What can you do for him?"

Dr Russell looked over at Alan. But she didn't move or say anything. Instead she only looked at Alan with a downcast look on her face. "Oh, lord. He's really not taken it well," she said.

"Excuse me?" said Scott. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm afraid, Mr Tracy, that your brother's just had a very nasty shock," said Dr Russell.

"What shock?" asked Scott. "What did you say to him?"

Before Dr Russell could reply, Alan's voice began to stutter, like he was trying to speak.

"What is it, Alan?" Kayo asked. "Come on, tell us, please?"

Alan tried hard to say whatever it was he was trying to say, but it wouldn't come out. So instead he leant right in and started to hoarsely whisper into Kayo's ear. As he did so, the others noticed that Kayo was also starting to go pale as her eyes widened and her mouth began to fall open. Alan then finished and started to cry as Kayo pulled her head away with a look of complete shock on her face. "Oh…my…God…"

"What is it, Kayo?" asked Scott. "What did he say?2

Kayo looked up at Scott, she too was slightly shaking. "Scott…" she said, her voice trembling a little. "Grace was on the Odyssey…"

TO BE CONTINUED…!