"Gordon, you've activated your emergency code." John had lost Gordon's comm signal only moments before, just as a couple of projectiles narrowly missed him. This had left John both deeply concerned and confused, if the projectiles had not hit him, what had happened?
The static coming through the emergency radio gripped John in a vice; the comm was active, the signal clear in both directions, but there was no response. "Gordon?"
"John? What's happened, an emergency code beacon has been activated." Scott's face flickered up in front of the red flare on the ocean floor.
John swallowed, it had been a long time since he had felt nauseous in zero gravity. He had never uttered the words outside of a drill situation before. "Emergency code confirmed, imminent deployment required."
John could see the panic flare in Scott's eyes as he commanded Virgil and Alan to move.
"John? John?" EOS broke through John's transfixion on the pulsing beacon. "I've tried re-calibrating, but the sensors cannot completely penetrate the area due to all the mineral deposits in the chimneys." Her tone was tentative, John's increased heart rate and respiration would not have gone unnoticed by EOS.
The initial panic was swept under the anti-grav rug as years of training re-aligned neural pathways and an idea clicked into place in John's mind. "Then we'll just have to boost our output." He momentarily flicked half of the Earth's display to an orbital view. "That one ought to do it." He zoomed in on another nearby satellite and pulled up its schematics.
"John?" Scott's voice sounded hesitant.
John noted the green icon on the earth-side display, Thunderbird 2 was just about to take off. "Still nothing." His mind was in orbit, approximately eighty kilometres to starboard. I don't think so, John swiped and pinged the holo-display in front of him. He glanced back at the red dot on the ocean floor. "I'll let you know." He flicked Scott away. Almost there.
"John, that system is not ours." EOS's informative tone was edged with nervousness.
"That doesn't matter right now EOS." There. He was in. "EOS, link and re-calibrate sensors and focus on the emergency beacon."
"FAB John." The visual display of the link blinked into life, one end reading 'IR', the other 'GDF'.
That boy needs a hospital, NOW. John had heard it all unfold and felt every one of the two-hundred and fifty three miles of atmosphere and empty space separating him from his siblings.
"John!"
"On it, there's a GDF medical facility not far from your position, I'm alerting them now." Stress only added to John's level of organisation and preparedness. He selected the nearest medical facility from the list already hovering in front of him.
"This is International Rescue, code 7601, medical emergency incoming to your location, connecting live medical scan."
"This is GDF Facility Theta," a woman in tortoise shell glasses flicked up in front of him. "Message received and confirmed, we are standing by."
John slaved the medical read outs from Thunderbird 2's med-bay straight to the GDF facility. "EOS, move us over the facility and prep the space elevator, I'm going." He was already half way to the airlock, his helmet on, when he heard a commotion on the comms: Gordon's lung had collapsed.
The override controls on the thrusters for the space elevator were not supposed to be operated during descent, but EOS had given up warning John after the fourth attempt. Two thirds of the way through the atmosphere and they were nearly at breaking point.
The only thing stopping John from already being on his feet was the safety protocol in the space elevator that didn't release the restraints until it had fully touched down, which both fortunately and unfortunately for John, could not be overridden. Once the clamp was sure it had made contact with the ground, the restraints released and John was up and ducking though the not yet fully opened door.
If his thought processes hadn't have been firing in a crosswind of worry, John would have remembered why lowering and exiting the space elevator in such a hurry was a bad idea. The pressure headache snapped against his eyelids and he swayed against the outer hull of the space elevator momentarily. He yanked off his helmet as something threatened to crawl up his throat, but a couple of deep earth-air breaths and he managed to swallow it.
"EOS, retract the space elevator." John would stay until Gordon was definitely safe, no matter how long that took. Though he checked for any air traffic in the area, there was every chance he was obstructing a flight path.
"FAB John, retracting now."
John made sure he stood well back, it was one thing to push the thrusters to their limit, it was quite another being in their direct firing line.
The space elevator's thrusters burst into life and it disappeared into the atmosphere as John entered the low grey building.
Every hurried step sent a dull wave of pain through the back of his eyes and reverberating around his temples.
It didn't take John long to find them He could hear Scott's voice and, he thought, Penny's. He ran in their direction and soon enough he could see them all hovering in front of a set of 'restricted access' doors.
"Don't worry Scott, I've already sent Parker to the island. They should be here soon."
"John." Scott almost sounded surprised to see him.
"I had a comms blackout on re-entry, what's going on?" Evidently overriding the thrusters had an adverse affect on communications when burning through the upper atmosphere, he made a mental note to mention it to Brains at some point.
"They're assessing him now, they said they'll let us know."
John noted the deflation in Virgil's voice.
Suddenly, the corridor felt as though it would sway violently out from under him. John pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes momentarily, trying to focus his equilibrium back to centre.
"John? Are you alright?" Penny's hand was on his shoulder.
"Yeah, fine, just gravity." He vaguely waved his hand indicating the invisible force currently crushing his temples.
Penny gave his arm a squeeze and meandered back towards the doors that would only part for medical personnel.
Virgil, knowing his older brother all too well, silently passed him painkillers from a pouch on his belt.
"Thanks." John gratefully swallowed them without any liquid assistance and took a deep breath. "It sounded pretty rough when my comms broke off."
"Yeah," Virgil's arms were half crossed protectively across his chest. "We just about rebalanced the pressure as we landed, thanks to Alan holding the tube so steady."
John leant back against the wall, his hands overlapped at the base of his spine, taking everything in while the painkillers slowly numbed the splintering cracks of the headache, though they did nothing to ease the constricted churning of his stomach.
Penny's communicator bleeped quietly and she excused herself as Parker's image appeared within the silver compact.
John had many years of experience of brotherly confrontations to the point where, if he believed in such things, he would swear he could telepathically tell when one was about to happen and, sure enough, as he hauled his head back upright from leaning against the wall, Scott's eyes were boring into him.
"Twenty minutes." Scott's utterance was more escaped thought than statement.
"What?"
"It takes twenty minutes for the space elevator to descend safely and by my estimates, you did it in less than fifteen." Scott's voice was teetering.
"Fifteen minutes and twenty seconds, actually." John let his head dip back against the wall.
"Jesus John, there's a reason you're not supposed to override the safety protocols, you could do some real damage."
"EOS retracted it back, it's fine." John was still staring at the ceiling, though he could feel a red prickle around his collar. Scott would never tolerate being told how to fly Thunderbird One.
"I meant to you. You're already paler than you normally are, I don't need you being that reckless right now."
John's jaw tensed and he snapped his head up so fast the ceiling and the walls momentarily blended. "Reckless? You want to talk about being reckless? Do you want me to start chronologically or alphabetically with every time you've thrown the rule book out the window?" John's voice was low, which to anyone who knew him, was a warning sign that the slow burn of his temper was about to erupt.
"There's a difference between risking your life on a rescue to save others and being reckless unnecessarily." Scott's voice straining between field commander and older brother.
"Unnecessarily?!" John could feel the flush in his face spread to the backs of his ears, the throbbing behind his eyes returned with a vengeance. "In case you hadn't noticed, this was a rescue — Gordon was dying, what did you expect me to do?"
"Not end up in there with him!" The strained composure was gone and the volume control with it.
"Look, I get it, you're pissed, but if you could try not to take it out on everyone in the vicinity, that'd be great!" John's tone was a neon glow of sarcasm.
"Boys!"
If vocal cords had emergency brakes, John and Scott would have had sore throats for a week.
Their Grandmother's voice punctured the air. Penny and Parker flanked her as she joined them in the cramped hallway.
The glare between John and Scott lingered.
"Now, I don't know what this is all about, but it stops now. Your brother is badly hurt in there and the last thing he needs is for you all to start falling out." Her voice was granite, hard and unyielding.
Their glare was broken, both of them had their eyes on the floor. A sludge of guilt wrapped itself around John.
"Sorry Grandma."
"Sorry Grandma."
It wasn't quite in unison, but at least it was audible.
"Well, it's a start."
"Hey, guys." Virgil piped up from the corner. "Where's Alan?"
The guilt toppled into alertness as John flicked his gaze around the immediate area, noting Scott doing the same.
"We didn't pass him on our way in." A frown crinkled Penny's brow.
John brought up the holo-projector on his wrist. "EOS, locate Alan."
"His comms are disabled, but I have triangulated his most likely location."
A red dot flicked up with a layout of the corridor system of the hospital wing.
"Good enough."
"John, why don't you go and find Alan, we'll wait here for any news." Grandma Tracy's suggestion was not argued with.