Out Of Place
AN – Now it's time to switch viewpoints again, we're definitely coming towards the end of this story now but there is still quite a lot of action to go! I'm going to try to post more frequently, possibly shorter chapters as we'll switch between viewpoints quite quickly now. Thank you again to my reviewers, I always really appreciate the time you take to comment 9n my work. I hope you enjoy where it goes – and sorry if you'd have preferred a different route!
Disclaimer – I don't own Thunderbirds
Chapter Twenty Four – Farewell, Tracy Island
Tintin carefully packed the small metallic pieces into one of the transport crates, tucking foam in around them that would expand when the crate was sealed to make sure the contents were safe. These gadgets were too precious to be handled roughly. There were four in total, one for each person stranded in this dimension that shouldn't be. She had worked closely with both Brains to design them, knowing that they were doing the same. They would swap back one at a time, with about ten minutes between each swap to recharge the device.
Sealing up the crate, she stepped back. "Would you be able to load this onto Thunderbird 2 for me please Max?"
The robot whirred happily, gripping the crate securely before trundling off towards Thunderbird 2. Tintin could just about make out the edge of the behemoth from the workbench she was using – it was all a lot more open than the Tracy Island she was used to. Instead of small interconnected tunnels this was one large space, meaning that she could see almost all the Thunderbirds from her current position.
Tintin shook her head to get back to work. Up next was the device itself. She gently lifted it into another polycarbonate crate. It had been stripped back and reassembled – it was no longer as pretty as when it arrived in the laboratory but she was confident it would work. Given enough power, it should be able to pull and push people across the dimensional barrier provided they were tagged at a molecular level, hence the gadgets Max was already loading. More expanding foam followed and by the time Max returned she was sealing the second crate.
"Here we go Max, everything we need to send us home and bring your friends home."
Max cheeped, but then his eyes drooped and he gentle trundled over into her back, pressing his head up against her and whistling softly.
"Aww thank you Max, I will miss you too." Tintin gently patted his head. "Come on, lets go and see if the others have any news for us, they were meant to be talking to Mr Tracy… well, my Mr Tracy anyway!" Max chirped again and grabbed the second crate to load it while Tintin started the walk up from the laboratory.
Tintin waited for Max by the exit of the hanger when Kayo joined her after arriving back in Thunderbird Shadow.
"Everything ready?" Kayo asked, watching Max backing out of Thunderbird 2.
"I think so," Tintin replied. "It's an odd feeling, I'm so pleased to be going home but I'm really going to miss you all."
"I know how you feel," Kayo told her. "We want Alan, Brains and John home naturally, but we're going to miss having you guys around. Will we be able to talk to you?"
Tintin thought for a moment. "I don't think so. At the moment our dimensions are connected together because we've passed between them, when everything is put back right that connection just won't be there anymore. It must have been monumentally difficult to set up in the first place – that and incredibly lucky. The chances of this happening at all were just so small."
Kayo scowled. "So the Hood must have been liaising with the Black Phantom, but why did we get sucked into it?"
"I think it must have been accidental. If I had to guess, the devices we both found in space are the ones used to set up the link initially between the dimensions. They probably never intended for them to activate, but when we got too close it did. Again, it's just luck that it happened to us."
"The one place in the world where there was the capability to make any sense of it." Kayo started walking up to the lounge as Max rejoined them. "I see why you think the odds were so small."
"It's almost enough to make me believe in a higher power," Tintin agreed with a smile.
The girls entered the lounge together, to see that most of the family were already there. Grandma and Jeff were notably absent, but that was about it.
"Did you talk to them?" Kayo asked. "How have they got on?"
"We could only speak to Alan and the other version of dad," Gordon answered as he lounged back on his seat, hands clasped behind his head.
"And…?" Kayo prompted when Gordon didn't say anything else.
"They didn't have a lot to say," Virgil replied when he realised Gordon wasn't going to elaborate. "Apparently they think they've found the Hood and that he's somewhere in Malaysia. Thunderbird 2 had just gone to take most of them out, I think they're planning to take Alan at the very end."
"He's not particularly happy about it," Gordon added. "Kept saying he was being treated like a kid."
The other Alan, silent until this point, snorted quietly. "Well he is a kid," he said when the others looked at him. "He's what, eighteen? Finishing my degree was a mandatory requirement of me joining International Rescue, even if I hadn't already been twenty one when it started up."
"Well forgive us for not being happy to let Alan just wait around until one of us deemed him old enough," Scott crossed his arms on his chest and glared at Alan. "Some of us thought he should get a chance to prove himself."
Alan raised his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm not saying he should… but what if he's forced to choose who lives and who dies? It's a lot of responsibility to put on someone so young. Even if that person is me."
"You're thinking of the Sun Probe," the other Scott spoke up, looking at his youngest brother curiously.
Alan nodded. "Well, yes. We didn't know that we'd get out of that alive, in fact we knew there was a good chance that we wouldn't. Even then, we had to choose whether to save ourselves or the crew of the Sun Probe. It's only sheer luck that it wasn't the last decision any of us made."
"We all agreed at the time, Alan." Tintin said quietly, looking down at her hands. The memory of the Sun Probe still scared her – the suffocating heat, the darkness, the realisation that they couldn't fire the reverse thrusters.
"I know," Alan reassured her with a smile. "But we were that much more experienced, I'm not sure I could have made that decision at eighteen."
"Alan's a good kid," Scott interrupted, a frown on his face.
"I'm sure he is, but you just referred to him as a kid. I think my point is made."
"Al, I still refer to you as a kid." The other Scott told him with a smirk, to which Alan rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, I was going to say that they don't know what they are walking into with the Hood. If he's anything like the one we met that time then he isn't someone to be taken lightly." Alan shuddered at the memory.
"That we can agree on," Kayo said. "Changing the subject, do we have any further information about where the Black Phantom might be? If it sounds as though the other team are closing in on the Hood we should probably be doing the same."
"Nothing has come through yet from the tracker Scott placed on the Chaos Cruiser." Scott told her, managing not to look too smug. "Eos is still exploring the strange signals she's picked up in Siberia." As soon as Scott finished talking, the communicator from Thunderbird 5 started flashing. Kayo looked at it in bemusement, John would always just pop in. Eos obviously thought it better to call first. Just another reminder that John wasn't actually up there.
"That will be Eos now," Scott stated the obvious. "What do you have for us, Eos? Have you managed to track the signal from the satellite station yet?"
"Negative," the AI replied. "I do believe I am close though. In the meantime, I have some information regarding the tracker that Polite Scott requested I follow."
Scott nearly spat out the mouthful of coffee he'd just taken, glaring at the other Scott he asked Eos to continue.
"It first travelled to a hospital in the United States of America and remained there for a short while. I did not report this as I considered it was likely due to the injury sustained by Fuse during the altercation on the cargo ship. However, recently it moved again and has now reached a new location. It has remained at this new location for a considerable mount of time now, leading me to believe that this is likely to be their base."
"Where is it, Eos?" Virgil asked, leaning forwards in anticipation.
"It is in Patagonia, specifically in the Chilean Andes there. It appears to be the site of a disused radio telescope array."
"Of course!" Tintin exclaimed. "They will be able to use the array to boost their signal, it would be the perfect place to see up a portal to the other dimension."
"You think that's what they are doing?" Virgil asked her. "Setting up a portal to transport things through?"
"I don't think I could say for sure, but it seems likely that this would be designed as a way to transfer technology and weaponry between our dimensions." Tintin told him, her voice serious. "It is a very complex thing to have achieved at all, it would have to provide very large material gains for it to be worthwhile. I'm not sure that a hiding place just to stay out of prison would be sufficient reason to attempt it."
"No, but exploiting both dimension for monetary again would be, and would be something that the Hood would do. Being able to escape the GDF would just be the icing on the cake." Scott stated, leaning forwards with his arms resting on his thighs, hands clasped in front of him. "Making money and destroying International Rescue are pretty much his two goals. I bet he thought he would be able to catch International Rescue off guard in their dimension too. Perhaps we should warn them."
"I'm not sure we need to," Alan was shaking his head. "Not if your John and Alan are there to tell them. Plus, I doubt the Hood has ever come across anyone like Angel before."
"Scott's girlfriend?" Gordon perked up at the potential gossip. "Why would she have anything to do with it?"
Alan didn't reply, just looked warily at the other Scott, who sighed and unfolded his arms from where he had crossed them across his chest.
"She's very capable." He said firmly. "Plus, she can get a little… defensive over me."
Alan snorted. "That's an understatement."
"So kind of like Kayo then," Virgil mused. "Except she gets defensive over all of us." He smiled at her, in that big brotherly way he had with everybody.
The other Scott looked at her and seemed to be assessing her. Kayo wasn't sure she liked the feeling much. "Something like Kayo." He said eventually, folding his arms back over his torso.
"So what now?" Gordon asked as he looked around at them.
"Now, we go and get them." Scott confirmed, his face set in a resolved expression. "We'll call Penelope and let her meet us there. I'll get going in Thunderbird 1, the rest of you can follow in Thunderbird 2. Eos, I need schematics of the radio array and any information you have about where they could be setting up a base. I'll just go and let dad know."
"No need," came a new voice and they all swivelled to see Jeff coming slowly up the stairs from the kitchen, Grandma hovering behind him. "I think I caught the gist of it – you're going to go and find the Black Phantom, stop him and the Hood from transferring weaponry between dimensions and bring my boys home. Is that right?"
Jeff's sons exchanged glances before Scott shrugged. "Pretty much."
Jeff nodded thoughtfully. "Do you have a plan?"
"We need to scope it out with Lady Penelope." Scott told him. "Eos is getting us details and Kayo can scout ahead in stealth mode. We can sort it out on the flight."
"Ok boys, be careful. You don't need me to tell you that these people are dangerous."
"Yes dad," Scott sprinted to his departure point and pulled down on the lights, quickly disappearing from view. Virgil stood up and stretched.
"I'll see you on board," he told the rest of the room as he headed to the picture that swung him upside down and away to Thunderbird 2. Kayo also waved as she headed to Thunderbird Shadow.
That left Gordon standing with the three from the other dimension. Jeff looked at them. "I don't know what's going to happen later, but if you do go home then, well, it's been a privilege to get to know you. I can't speak for your father, but if he is anything like me then I would say that you've probably made him very proud."
"Thank you sir," the other Scott replied on behalf of them all. "We feel the same. The organisation you've built here is incredible and your sons have strength that I'm not sure we do. I'm not sure that we could run International Rescue without dad, yet your sons have done it and done it well."
Jeff nodded at them as he held out his hand for Scott to shake, moving onto Alan and Tintin who gave him a quick, tight hug.
"Now you all take care," Grandma told them, pulling all three in for hugs. "I echo the words of my son, this has been a time I won't forget. I appreciate all you've done to get our boys back."
With a final few words of farewell, the trio followed Gordon into Thunderbird 2's hanger. As the green giant rumbled on the runway, all looked back one last time at this Tracy Island as they prepared to leave it for possibly the last time.
