A short one. Thanks, Tikatu, Susan and RV Fan, for reviewing. You are valued. Edited more. Many Thanks for the heads-up, Tikatu! You rock! :)

36

Far away and a-when, in murky and turbulent waters-

It was one thing to harpoon those vast, snapping jaws; another matter entirely, to survive the wild ride that followed. The barbed metal shaft struck home and bit deep, sending a cloud of dark fluid curling like smoke through the water. Then, jaws as long as Thunderbird 4 clashed shut on the harpoon's braided, steel-alloy line. The creature took hold of the cable, giving Gordon a brief glimpse of ridged scales, tiny eyes and a long row of jagged, interlocked teeth.

Then, that nightmare shook its head, flexed somehow, and started to spin in mid-water. Thunderbird 4 was still attached by her tow line; was soon reeled in close by the monster's wild twist. They were hauled in like a trout, while debris rained all around from above. Thumped hard against the creature's mottled head, making the sub shudder and boom. One of 4's floodlights cracked and went dark, shorted out by cold, salty water. Sudden voltage might've jolted the massive reptile, which took off at once for the depths, dragging Thunderbird 4 like a toy. Sensing the added weight, that monster croc kept trying to turn its head and snap at the trailing sub. Only, the line was too short.

They got struck and battered repeatedly; sending loud, crashing THUNKs through the hull, along with the grinding squeal of hard scales against metal; the sizzle and crack of an overstressed force-shield. Charlie had grown wildly, ascending from three years old, to something like nine or ten. Hard to tell, and harder to hold onto, as they slalomed and spun amid crumbling buildings and turbulent water.

Gordon Tracy wasn't the Colonel's son for nothing, though. Reached across and flipped several switches at once, as Charlie reflexively hammered at time. Managed to break free of that Goddam cable, then fired the Yellow Bird's plasma cutter.

XXXXXXXXXXX

In a battered and tumbling sweeper, high overhead-

First, he'd gotten a sudden stab of worry; thinking, 'Scott…?' Then, no: he hadn't been feverish, deluded or seeing things. Thunderbird 4 was here, having somehow slipped through that gushing hole in the sea. There lay surprise one and two. The next took the form of green, flaring energy, shooting out through the comm and straight into John.

For a moment, all went silent and dark. Then, he sensed immense age, exhaustion and loneliness, together with crushing guilt for crimes that a human could not even grasp. Weird enough, but, after all that he just… got repaired; made whole and well on the instant. Suit laundered and exopod topped up with charge, even.

'Allow an intrusion, Carbon-base,' said the sudden presence, in John's own thinking-voice. 'The missing explorers have risked their existence in a futile attempt to seek out and assist you. They are well-meaning, but unwise.'

Yeah… that'd be buddy and Ellie, alright. On the bright side, the pollution sweeper was all at once upright and humming. John, not so much.

"Um… can you not be in my head?" he demanded tensely. The sensation was crowded and deeply unsettling; worse than one of Penny's social events. Took all that he had, just to stay in control of his own d*mn body.

'I shall be brief, Carbon Space-farer,' said his visitor, from somewhere off to his mind's left side. 'Housed in your shell, I may traverse the portal, and seal it. In the meantime, others search for you and your spectrum's Scott, as well as the pair that were sent to this place.'

Scott? Missing? He'd definitely felt something, earlier, but hadn't had time to think what. Now, though, with corroboration and added power...

"Okay," John decided. "I'll let Eos know what's going on. She can…"

'The entity you speak of has dispersed, Carbon Space-farer. It risked passage through the portal, and lost cohesion.'

As water continued to thunder down through that hole… as drones were crushed by falling debris all around them... John shook his head.

"No. You're wrong, but I'm not going to argue." Gave the spruced-up sweeper a totally needless diagnostic before adding, in a savage mutter, "We'll go get the Pendergasts, and find a way to reach Gordon. There's a large marine reptile down there. He may need backup. Then, I'll help you close the portal, if you'll help me find Eos. Otherwise, no sale. You're on your own." She was okay, and so was Scott. They had to be.

Of course, that alien being… Rigby's "guest" … could have forced him to do whatever the h*ll it wanted him to. Except that those many long eons had tempered its urge for conquest.

'Proposal accepted, Space-farer. Now, make a signal to the recording device of the exploring life-mates, and we shall travel to their location.'

"Done," John snapped, touching his wrist-comm. To h*ll with concealment and safety. Scott, Gordon, Buddy and Ellie… Eos… needed a hand.

Yeah, so… ever get zapped to bits of data, then mailed through a comm signal? Disappear from the bridge of a clunky pollution sweeper, only to rematerialise almost that same instant, on a crumbling ledge above dark, surging water? No? Well, John had. Slipped a bit on arrival, wind-milled wildly, and then had his arms seized by two worried, ashen-faced Pendergasts.

"Bluey!" shouted one, and "Johnnie!" laughed the other, coughing spots of blood. "Jumped f'r it, eh, Mate?"

Something like that. As they drew him to sort-of safety inside that creaking and shuddering building, John fished the meds from a water-proof suit pocket.

"Here," he told them. "Found something that ought to help." Absolutely would, if that weird, greenish sparkle was anything to go by. "Have to inject, though."

Buddy chuckled and mopped at his brow with a sodden red cap, saying,

"Reminds me o' how I lost me leg. Right, El?"

Though fading fast, his wife nudged the man that she loved, and gave him a fond little smile.

"Which time, Buddy?" his partner joked. "You 'aven't told it th' same way twice since I've known you, Chookie."

John saw to her, first; using his exopod's low-beam for light, pushing her filthy sleeve up, swabbing the skin above a good vein, and then plunging the needle right in. Okay, he wasn't Gordon, but did a pretty good job, anyhow.

Next, after lowering Ellie to a seat on some nearby piled rubble, John turned to Buddy. Started to draw a second dose after giving their needle a hasty alcohol wash. Only, Pendergast stopped him.

"Wait, Bluey," said the older man, placing a cold, shaky hand on John's arm. "Enough there f'r you, too, in't there?"

"Yes," John told him. "There is. Now, shut up and take your medicine."

Buddy peered into his face; at once worried and laughing.

"Right-o. You'd say that whether or not it were strewth, Bluey… but th' missus is all that matters. She's th' brains an' heart. Always 'as been. Take care o' 'er, an' y'rself, Mate."

John kept him distracted and talking. Not hard to accomplish, given Buddy's growing disorientation. They hadn't left. Had not fled to safety. Had instead been about to enact some dumbass, crazed stunt to find and help him. Right.

Outside of his family, Jaeger, Eos and Brains, John didn't have many friends. But, that number had just grown by two, and d*mned if he'd lose them, now.