Kat Cavanaugh: Well…if you don't want to talk about that time, and I totally understand that, how about we discuss when you legally became parent to two of your brothers?

Scott: That was another difficult time our family went through.

Kat: One that the world found out several months after the fact, if I remember correctly.

Scott: Yes. We needed time to adjust, to work out what we were going to do…


Jeff's wake-up call did more than just return him to the family. It enabled him to see a path forward without his beloved wife and his father. He began to plan for something to one day be in place to try and stop others going through what he – they – had been through.

With the help of a genius he'd met, the purchase of an island that had the right assets they needed and his best friends, Jeff set about creating International Rescue. By the time they were almost ready to begin producing the ships, Scott, John and Virgil were all on board.

Scott was to finish off his four-year stint in the USAF, learning the command and organising skills he'd need to be Thunderbird One.

John was in space, also on a four-year stint with NASA. A genius with astounding communication and computing skills, he was more than excited at the prospect of practically living in space on Thunderbird Five as their communications expert.

Virgil had finished his engineering degree at Denver and joined Brains and his Dad on production. He'd fallen in love with Thunderbird Two when he'd seen her unique design. He began to work on building himself up, recognising the need that one of them became a heavy lifter in case the need ever arose. Both Scott and John, while fit and strong, didn't have the frame to build that kind of muscle, but he did.

While the building and designing was going on, Jeff moved the family over to the island officially. With the two youngest still in the States at their individual boarding schools it didn't actually make much difference, but both boys thoroughly enjoyed their school vacations exploring their new home.

There were ships for Gordon and Alan too, but they were too young to bring into the organisation at the moment. Alan was only six whereas Gordon, at 15, had won his Olympic Medal and just joined WASP early for training. Jeff had a sub ready for the boy who'd been called Squid by his brothers almost from the moment they had found out how much the toddler had loved being in the water.

Val, Lee and Jeff started International Rescue quietly. But it was an instant success and the world wanted to know where these amazing ships came from. Jeff was adamant about security, realising that if people were to know that he and his family were behind iR then they would forever be targets to unscrupulous people.

Scott was honourably discharged six months into the third year of his tour, three months into iR. He needed months of physio to get back on his feet. During that time John also left NASA, after they refused to send him back into space, saying he was more of an asset on Earth. They began their training alongside Virgil for iR in earnest.

Eighteen months into International Rescue operations Jeff and Scott took off in Thunderbird One to assist in the launch of a new engine.

The Zero-X was an amazing new engine, hopefully capable of faster-than-light travel and the ability of pushing mankind beyond the stars they currently knew.

It was only supposed to be a trial run. One was there merely as a precaution – as the fastest ship in the world, if something did go wrong it would be up to them to save the ship or prevent a disaster.

When an intruder began to fire up the engines, they knew there was only one thing to do. With Scott holding One steady, Jeff dropped onto the Zero-X and made his way into the ship in an attempt to turn the engines off. With Casey and other jets from the GDF in attendance, Jeff was sure nothing would go wrong.

Something went very wrong.

With the explosion Scott went from 24-year-old ex-USAF pilot to Head of Tracy Industries, Head of International Rescue and Head of the Tracy Family.

Two months they spent searching for any sign of their father or the Zero-X. They ran One and Two into the ground.

Nothing.

Scott brought Alan home, and Gordon had been allowed home on compassionate leave. The boys clung to each other. Sally and Brains tried their best to keep the family going, but there were things that Scott needed to do that he could no longer put off.

He contacted his father's lawyers the next morning.

By the end of the day Scott was now the legal guardian to Alan and Gordon, not that it meant anything to the squid since he was already in WASP. But at younger than eighteen he wasn't legally allowed to decide some things, and Scott had stepped up to take responsibility for him

The next day a suited Scott flew out to New York and spent the week taking charge of Tracy Industries. None of his brothers envied him this role, but someone needed to keep the business running, and at least Scott had some experience, having received some training from his father.

By the end of the first year the world knew that Jeff Tracy was dead, that Scott Tracy now ran the show and that the Tracy family were International Rescue.

IR suspended operations for another two years, allowing time for the family to mourn, to grow. For Gordon to recover from his hydrofoil accident and learn how to use Four. For Alan to become the youngest astronaut ever.

Then Scott Tracy announced to the world that International Rescue was back in business.