Out of Place

AN – Well this has taken me a little longer to write than I hoped! Thank you to islandsandstars and LMC25 for your reviews, it's much appreciated and I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Disclaimer – I don't own Thunderbirds

Chapter Five – Communication

Sally had taken pity on Tintin and sat her down on one of the sofas in the sunken section, giving her a glass of water as her hysteria abated. She could hear the strange Alan, who was so much older than their boy, arguing hotly with Scott about something. Sally wasn't really listening, but she did feel a pang of concern about their missing Alan. Funnily enough she wasn't as concerned about John and Brains, they were that much older and she had every confidence they would be able to figure something out to get themselves home.

The other side of the room, Jeff was making his way over with Virgil to help Scott with the irate Alan. The hologram Scott had disappeared, she thought that perhaps Gordon had given directions on how to use the space elevator but she couldn't be sure as she had been helping the poor girl at the time. She could see that Tintin was very shaken, the glass she'd been given was vibrating so much the water was in danger of spilling everywhere. The shouting really wasn't helping matters, it made it difficult to think. Kayo and Gordon were just standing and watching, Kayo impassively with her hands folded and Gordon looking confused.

Sally decided enough was enough. She marched over to the bickering boys and stood between them, hands on her hips.

"Enough! Arguing like this is getting you nowhere, you need to cool your tempers and think about this rationally. We need to come up with a plan. Wherever Brains is, he will be doing the same thing. Now, what's the first thing we should do?"

Alan and Scott looked away from each other sulkily, and Sally was struck by the fact they were a lot closer in age than their Alan was to Scott.

A quiet voice came from behind her. "We need to try to communicate with them."

They all spun around to see the other brunette, the quiet girl who was still clutching a glass of water and wearing what Sally now suspected was Brains's dressing gown. She had got over her hysterics and had a determined expression on her face. "I know that the first thing Brains would do is try to contact you all, so we need to make sure we are reaching out to him as well. If people made it between dimensions then a signal should."

"But how would we do that?" Virgil asked her. "We don't have Brains here to do it, the rest of us wouldn't know where to start."

"You might not," the new voice had them all spinning towards the direction of the hanger, where the other Scott stood after coming down the space elevator. In the flesh the similarities to their Scott was all too obvious, except he was wearing a space suit that didn't fit properly and was barefoot. "But I bet Tintin has some ideas." He looked expectantly at the woman, who was frowning in thought.

"If we are in some form of parallel universe, then the displacement caused by myself, Scott and Alan should have left a kind of…trail, that we could follow. If we could try to modulate the frequency of the communicators from here to tune it to one that could bypass the dimensional drift… although I'm not sure how much I'd need to adjust the amplitude of the Fourier waveform synthesiser to break through the barriers. And it would rely on Brains trying to do the same thing from our universe so that the frequencies could connect."

Sally felt a rush of respect for the girl. Kayo, who was normally unflappable, was seemingly in a state of shock at the scientific language coming out the mouth of her alternate counterpart. The rest of the boys were less subtle, their mouths hanging open in surprise.

"I would need someone to help me build it, I don't have the same construction ability," Tintin was confessing. "Plus I need the receiver that most commonly communicates with whatever communicator Brians would be using."

"Max," Gordon shrugged. "Max usually communicates with Brains."

"But John communicates with us all on a regular basis," Scott seemed to have relaxed slightly since there was now a constructive task he could turn his mind to, though he still pointedly ignored the other Alan. "Surely the comms from Tracy Island to John are the most frequently used?"

Tintin was frowning. "I think I'll talk to Max," she decided. "If your Brains is anything like ours, then he probably will have put any prototype technology into his system first to test it, and we need all the power we can get. Besides," Sally didn't miss the way she cast her eyes to the other Scott as she hesitated over how to say the next words. "I would assume we all switched, one for one. In which case John may not be on Tracy Island with Brains."

Scott frowned at her. "Why wouldn't he be? What's going on? Is John in danger?"

"No!" The other Scott interrupted before he could get into a tirade. "Not in danger, but I wasn't on Tracy Island just before I came here." He looked around, catching Tintin's eye. "I was staying with my… girlfriend."

That caused a few raised eyebrows amongst her grandsons, goodness knows she'd been telling them all to find steady relationships and settle down for a while now. But Sally was most interested in the reaction from the other new arrivals. Tintin also raised her eyebrow, pursing her lips but not saying anything. Alan scoffed, dragging a foot across the floor. He looked like he wanted to say something but a warning glare from the second Scott kept him quiet. Interesting, there was something fishy going on there and Sally could never resist a puzzle.

"Wait…" Gordon stated, his face breaking into a grin. "Does that mean Johnny has woken up next to some random girl in bed?" The delight in his expression was evident, causing Sally to shake her head at him.

Luckily Tintin didn't seem to notice, she was frowning now as she absently stared into space. "I might need some help with the calculations though… it will be very complex."

Their Scott frowned. "It would usually be Brains or John who would be able to help with that. But neither are here."

Sally felt a weight on her shoulder and she turned slightly to realise Jeff had come up beside her. He looked pale, she realised that this was probably taking its toll on someone who hadn't had much of a chance to adjust to being on the Earth again.

She was about to insist that he go and sit down again when the strange Scott spoke.

"Well, could Eos help Tintin?"

"Eos?" Scott started to splutter, while Gordon was gaped again at the newcomer.

"Her name is Eos, isn't it?" The other Scott was looking confused. "I brought her down with me, she was worried about John." He held up a small, flat disk.

Scott was eyeing the disk warily. "I don't know what she's told you, but Eos is dangerous. She only really cares about John. She tried to kill him once, too."

Jeff straightened up at that and Sally sighed. Obviously a nugget of information that John hadn't shared with his father when describing the AI to him. She also heard the older Alan scoff again, "Sounds familiar." She wasn't the only one who heard him either, if the strange Scott's glare was anything to go by.

"Well then she has a lot of motivation to get him back. Here Tin, she's an advanced artificial intelligence – her words, not mine – so she should be someone you can work with given your specialisms. John was her creator apparently… which actually sounds like something John could do if he had the right help." Tintin took the disk warily, jumping when lights swirled around the outside.

"Greetings. Polite Scott has saved me the effort of explaining my existence, for which I am grateful. How can I assist?"

"Oh, hello, I'm Tintin. It's a pleasure to meet you. Um... I need some help calculating the frequency modulator…" Sally tuned out the talk of frequency whatsits and pulse transforming thingummys. She eyed up the Scott that was still stuck in a spacesuit that didn't fit.

"You need some proper clothes," she told him, gaze falling on her Scott. "Scott, you're about the right size. Get the poor boy some actual clothes. This… Alan, too. He can't go around all day in a dressing gown. Talking of…" Sally turned Tintin, still talking in a language she barely comprehended to Eos.

"I'm on it," Kayo informed her, moving past Sally to take the other girl by the elbow. Kayo gently guided her out of the room, all the while Tintin still talking to Eos rapidly.

"Come on then," Scott sighed, beckoning the other two to follow him. "I'll find you something." He looked critically at Alan. "You're a lot taller than our Alan, he's really still just a kid. John… John should have something that would fit you."

"Are you actually believing this dimension travel thing," Alan turned to his brother, demandingly. "For all we know they could have lulled us here to steal our secrets."

The other Scott sighed. "Alan, I woke up in space, talking to a camera who happens to be an AI. Yes, I believe in 'this dimension travel thing'."

Alan's eyes narrowed but he seemed to accept his brother's response and the two of them followed Scott up the stairs towards the boys' bedrooms. As soon as they were gone Jeff sighed deeply and sunk into one of the sofas.

"You alright, dad?" Virgil asked with concern.

"Just worried about your brothers and Brains. What a mess." Virgil nodded, while Sally fetched Jeff some water. "It's almost unbelievable, but as that other Scott says, he woke up in space. On our Thunderbird 5. It's the only explanation that even comes close. What I don't get is why those three in particular were chosen to swap."

"Do you think it has anything to do with that rescue yesterday?" Gordon asked, collapsing into a sofa seat himself.

"I checked them all over myself when they got back and there was nothing wrong with them." Sally insisted.

"All I'm saying is that it's quite a coincidence. And if it was something…inter-dimensional, then maybe your scanners wouldn't have been able to pick anything up."

Sally and Jeff both looked at Gordon. "That's very… possible, Gordon."

The blond gave them a cheeky grin. "What can I say, I'm not always just a pretty face."

"Not even," Virgil chipped in as he sat in the seat next to him, earning himself a shove in the arm. "Does sound plausible though, there was some weird pulse thing when it detonated according to Alan. It's in pieces in Brains's lab, isn't it? Maybe we could have a look at it."

"You, son?" Jeff raised his eyebrows.

"I could have a look at the engineering side of it," Virgil shrugged. "Maybe ask the other girl…Tintin? If her rambling to Eos is anything to go by she's obviously very smart."

"She's very different to Kayo," Gordon mused. "Not that Kayo isn't smart – she's wicked smart, but she isn't… extra smart, you know?"

Sally shook her head at Gordon's mangling of the language. "While that's true, Kayo has many other skills. I'm not sure Tintin would be able to take on her head of security role."

"I wonder who does," Virgil cradled the mug he was holding. "Would be interesting to find out more about their lives, see how they differ from us. And what their ages are, their Alan is so much older than ours."

"Much as I hate to say it, we probably don't want to pry too much." Jeff stated, leaning back on the sofa cushions. "You don't want to torment yourselves with what the other versions of you could be doing – you aren't the same and you haven't had the same experiences. Although, it might be time for you to actually get girlfriends, or boyfriends if you prefer. The other Scott may have it right."

"Did anyone else notice something odd about the reactions of the rest when Scott talked about his girlfriend?" Virgil asked.

"Yes, but it isn't our place to pry." Sally stood up and stretched. "Well, with so many mouths here I'd better go and make a start on lunch."

Gordon grimaced. "Isn't the kitchen module working now?"

Sally shot Gordon a scathing look. She knew she wasn't a great cook, but at least she tried and the boys could pretend to be enthusiastic. "It may be, young man, but you can't beat good homemade food."

Gordon quailed in the face of her glare, but was saved by John's portrait flashing. With a frown, Virgil looked up at the picture of his brother. "Come in, Thunderbird 5."

A hologram of Eos popped into view. "Eos! Aren't you down here talking to Tintin?" Gordon asked, confused.

The camera turned towards him. "I am an advanced artificial intelligence, I can be in multiple places at the same time. My subroutine can exist both on Thunderbird 5 and on the drive I gifted to polite-Scott."

"Why do you keep calling him polite-Scott?" Virgil asked her.

"Because he has been unwaveringly polite to me. There is a distress call from a tanker in the Antarctic Ocean. It has a hull breach and is taking on water. The crew are not concerned for themselves, but they are transporting a synthetic hormone designed to promote restoration of the Great Barrier Reef that has not yet been fully tested in a laboratory setting. They fear the consequences of it entering the marine ecosystem before testing is complete."

"Oh well, you'll have to fill us in when we get back," Virgil sighed, putting down his coffee. "Come on Gordon, suit up. We're off to fix a ship."

"See ya!" Gordon called, sprinting towards the passenger elevator to Thunderbird 2 as Virgil disappeared upside down through a full length photo that swung around.

Sally shook her head. "Come on, let's get you fixed up with a cup of coffee while we wait for the others," she told her son, taking his arm as he struggled to his feet. "You can help me plan lunch."

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

Tintin looked at the figure-hugging green top and black jeans that Kayo handed her. She wasn't sure it would look anywhere near as good on her as it did on Kayo, she certainly wasn't as toned and athletic even if they did have the same build. It was certainly a long cry from her usual summer dresses or loose fitting overalls.

"Um, thank you," she stuttered. She'd finally been persuaded to put Eos down for a moment in order to be able to change into something more substantial than a green silk nightie and a borrowed dressing gown.

"Don't mention it," Kayo told her, pulling a pair of flat shoes from the back of her cupboard. Tintin pulled on the trousers, just about managing to zip them up in the front. When she looked up, Kayo was watching her curiously.

"Which one?" Kayo asked her, nodding towards her hand. At Tintin's blank expression she elaborated. "The engagement ring. Which one of the brothers is it?"

"Oh!" Tintin looked down at the ring on her left hand. She twisted it with her other hand, smiling at the small ring of diamonds that covered the platinum band. "None of them, actually. I'm engaged to Brains."

Whatever Kayo was expecting as an answer, that wasn't it. "Brains? Really?"

"Oh yes, he proposed when we went to Geneva last year," Tintin pulled on the teal green top, wincing at how form fitting it was but deciding to live with it. "Thank you for the clothes, can you show me to Brains's laboratory?"

"It's this way," Kayo beckoned her out the door and led her down towards the hangers. "If you don't mind me asking… why Brains? Not that Brains isn't great but…"

"...but why not one of the boys?" Tintin smiled at her. "I was close with Alan once, but we realised that we were together more because we were the same age and were expected to be together than because we actually felt that way about each other."

"Alan?" Kayo thought about it. "The Alan that came with you, he's a lot older than our Alan." Tintin nodded at this and they walked in silence for a few moments.

"Do you help Brains in his lab?"

Kayo snorted a laugh. "No! No, there's no way I could keep up with him. I'm the head of security."

"Really?" Tintin paused and looked at her counterpart with wide, astonished eyes. "Mr Tracy lets you?"

Kayo frowned. "He wasn't in a position to say anything about it. Wait, he wouldn't let you?"

"Oh no," Tintin shook her head vehemently. "I've only been on half a dozen missions, at most. Mr Tracy can be a little… old fashioned, sometimes, and he doesn't really like sending me unless there is no other choice. That's why I started helping Brains in the lab, initially. I wanted to be useful, you see? I could help out there, Brains started coaching me and before I knew it he was recommending I go and specialise in advanced robotics engineering and advances in artificial life forms."

"Wow…" Kayo was a little stunned. "Seems like we've lived very different lives. But… didn't your Jeff go missing?"

"Missing? No." Tintin looked confused. "Well, apart from when he crashed in Malaysia and met father and I, no."

"I think you should know… this Jeff was missing for eight years, stuck out in the Oort Cloud. We only got him back six months ago and he's still adjusting to life on Earth and, well, gravity. Scott was running International Rescue all that time instead, which is why Jeff wouldn't have had a say in my role here."

"Oh my," Tintin drew her hand to her mouth in shock. "That's awful! Poor Mr Tracy. Oh and all the boys!"

Kayo started walking again, leading towards the hangers and laboratory. "We're still getting used to him being back, but it was hard for a while. Still, there are some perks." Kayo shot her a smirk. "Want to cone and see my Thunderbird before we go find Max and the lab?"

"You have your own Thunderbird?!" Tintin breathed, astonished.

"Oh yes. Come on, it's this way."