November 26th 2060 - 11:58 CET
"Commencing landing sequence. Standby for final approach," Alan says.
"There it is, Alan - QUARC. Quantum Research Centre," Brains says, "Home of the Supreme Hadron Collider. It's like a giant theme park of science."
"Cool. Where are the rides?" Alan asks.
"Don't be a child Alan," Kayo scolds.
November 26th 2060 - 12:00 CET
"This is the epicentre of leading edge research into spin-2 bosons," Brains explains.
"Spin-who-Watson's?" Alan asks.
"Gravitons I think," Kayo says.
"Exactly," Brains explains, "The superglue of the universe. My old lab partner at C-Cambridge, Professor Moffat is leading the team. It's been years since we've seen each other. We've got so much to c-catch up on."
"Oh great, I have to listen to you and some nerd buddy reminisce about Bunsen burners and advanced algebra," Alan complains. There's a noise and Alan the gets a whiff of something, "Wait... Brains, is that cologne?"
"Wha—" Kayo starts and smells it as well.
"Oh?" Brains asks before the door opens to reveal a women who instantly walks towards Brains.
"Hiram!" Moffie says.
"Nice to see you again, Moffie," Brains says.
"Looks like someone just spun your bosons," Alan says quietly causing Kayo to let out a small giggle.
"I know how busy you must be with International Rescue, but I'm so glad you could come!" Moffie says and shows them into the room, "There's simply so much to show you and I need to pick that big brain of yours about some questions we've been having."
"Well... p-pick away!" Brains says rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, "It really is lovely to see you again."
"Hi. I'm Alan, by the way. 'Oh, hi, Alan. Lovely to meet you'," Alan complains with a sigh and follows the pair though to the main workspace.
"Don't take it personally," Kayo smiles, "It's kind of adorable when you think about it."
"Ohh!" Brains says in amazement.
"Well, here it is," Moffie says giving Brains some time to look around.
"You've got the TR-4500!" Brains says, "And an Intersecting Synchrotron." Brains marvels over what he is seeing when something catches his eyes causing him to jog over, "Wait... is that a..." Brains asks.
"Yes! A Thurbilapse Impulser!" Moffie says.
"D-76!" they say in unison looking happy.
"Yawn," Alan says as the pair walk off again, "I thought we were gonna smash some atoms. You know, pound some gluons, crunch some neutrinos? Boom! Crash! Kapow?" This comment earns him a slap from Kayo, "Ow!"
"Yes, let's see the Collider in action," Brains says.
"Of course!" Moffie says and leads them over to the collider's control panel and stand in front of it. Moffie then turns it onand moves a few things on the holo-screen in front of them.
"Graviton generator operational," a female voice says, "Building up injection reserves."
"Who would like to do the honours?" Moffie asks.
"Ooh, ooh! Me! Me! Me!" Alan says, raising his hand and jumping around like a child. Moffie smiles and flings the start button overto Alan on the holo-screen which Alan presses. The button turns from grey to green.
"You're such a child sometimes Al," Kayo says.
"Initiating atomic collision," the voice says, and they wait a minute.
"Ur... maybe it's broken," Alan says.
"Atomic collision complete," the voice chimes in again.
"What? That's it? No mushroom cloud? No mega boom? Nothing?" Alan asks, and Kayo shakes her head.
"Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it isn't p-powerful," Brains says in admiration, "Some of the greatest forces in the universe are completely invisible."
"And completely boring," Alan says blowing a raspberry, "Just when I thought physics was gonna be fun."
"Come on Al enjoy yourself a bit," Kayo smiles, "I mean who's kidding I'm here." Kayo laughs at her own joke as Alan's cheeks go slightly pink.
November 26th 2060 - 22:18 NZDT
"Calling International Rescue," John says looking at his holo-map. Currently it is monitoring a meteorite path, beeping incessantly in the background, "I'm tracking a magnitude three meteorite passing through the Earth'satmosphere." He follows the path on the holo-screen when it mysteriously starts to change course, "Hold on. Standdown, IR. It's heading for an unpopulated region in Southern Berekhstan." However, the meteor changes courseagain causing John to look around in confusion, "What? Scratch that. International Rescue, we have asituation."
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are Go!
"The meteor has impacted in downtown New Geneva," John explains looking at a holographic diagram of where the meteor crashed.
"Sounds like this is going to take some heavy lifting," Virgil says.
"Copy that Thunderbird 2," John says, "Just the person for the job."
"Until local authorities ask for help I'll access and report back," Virgil says.
"FAB, Virgil," Scott says, "I'm ready if you need me. I'll go and inform Marion."
"There's something highly p-peculiar about the trajectory of the that meteorite," Brains says.
"Brains is right," Kayo says, "Giant hunks of space rock don't just c-change direction on their own."
"Thunderbird 2, I advise you to t-take care," Brains says.
"Arriving in New Geneva now," Virgil says, "It looks like they've got those fires under control."
" Local emergency services are taking care of evac, but they need someone to gointo the impact zone and check out that meteorite," John relays, "Can you see where it impacted?"
"Yeah, I think I've got a pretty good idea," Virgil says, "I'm going to put her down and go in onfoot." He lands Thunderbird 2 and get his gear on in preparation.
"Ok, Thunderbird Two. You might want to take a little extra muscle of themechanical kind," John says.
"FAB. Well ahead of you," Virgil says as he heads down into the impact zone and starts to move heavy bits of material out of their way. "Are you guys seeing this?"
"Coming in loud and clear," John says.
"We're right there with you, Virgil," Brains replies.
Virgil starts getting closer to the meteorite, and pushes away some of the rubble but is confused at what he sees, "Er, do meteorites usually have antennas and solar panels?"
"Not typically. Can you get a closer look?" Brains says as Virgil pulls some of the rubble away,moving into the centre of the wreckage to reveal a panel with GDF printed on it.
"Holy shit!" Virgil says.
"Well Brains, what do you think?" John asks.
"What is it?" Alan asks and the holo-screen in front of them changes to display an image of what the GDF satellite should look like.
"It's a satellite!" Kayo says.
"A satellite? Crashed to Earth!" Moffie cries.
"Why?" Alan asks, "Did it run out of gas?"
"No. Something must have caused it to fall out of orbit," Brains says.
"Something or someone," Alan says, "I'm calling sabotage. And if you look up sabotage in the dictionary you'll find a picture of The Hood."
"I don't think so," Kayo says as a shiver goes down her spine, "It's not his type."
"Guys! We have another falling plane. What are the odds?" John says and looks closer to the trajectory of the plane, "And it's right above Alan, Kayo and Brains at the collider."
"Thunderbird One responding," Scott says.
"We've got this," Marion says as she had entered the room moments earlier.
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are Go!
November 26th 2060 - 12:47 CET
"Thanks for the visit, Professor Moffat, but we really gotta go," Alan says.
"B-But we only just got here," Brains complains.
"Brains, The Hood crashed the satellite and now he's trying to bring down a jet plane," Alan says, "We have to get where the action is!"
"Alan, as I've said I've been following leads on him for over half a year now," Kayo says, "This isn't his type."
"Besides, I haven't shown you the results from the lead nuclei test," Moffie says, "They're truly fascinating. Hmm?"
"Ah, okay. You can look at your numbers, but then we are out of here," Alan says.
"Fantastic," Brains says.
"Spectacular," Moffie says.
"Oh, brother," Alan says and Kayo places a hand on Alan's shoulder.
"At least you've got me," Kayo jokes.
November 26th 2060 - 12:56 CET
Thunderbird 1 arrives on the scene of the falling plane and slows by the windows.
"Did someone call for a tow?" Marion asks.
"International Rescue, thank goodness," says the pilot of the plane.
"Thunderbird 1 to Thunderbird 5, I'm going to try to grapple the jet andyank it out of its dive," Scott explains. He pulls Thunderbird 1 overhead of the plane and tries to fix the grapplearound the nose of the plane, yet his first attempt misses. "Oh, almost had it. Going in again," Scott says and firesagain and manages to successfully grab the plane before pulling ahead so he can drag them, "Got it!"
However, before Scott and Marion could celebrate Marion notices the warning systems starting beeping, "Er... Scott, we've got a problem," and brings up the holo-systemimage of Thunderbird 1 which has turned red and the beeping becomes incessant.
"Shit! I'm losing 1 is going down!"
"Thunderbird 1, give me your situation," John orders.
"Altitude boosters are ineffectual. Retros firing at maximum. Controls aren'tresponding," Marion relays as Scott desperately tries to regain control. The warning system starts beeping incessantly again which was starting to get annoying. "Thunderbird One is in serioustrouble."
"The Hood's got Scott!" Alan yells, which earns him another slap on the head from Kayo.
"That would be a negative. The diagnostics scan shows all systems operating as normal. If The Hood had something to do with it there would be a sign of sabotage," Kayo says.
"Then it's the jet. It's dragging Thunderbird 1 down," Alan says.
"It doesn't compute. That's a Botchily Skyliner," Brains says and brings up a hologram of the jet onthe holo-screen, "Which if I recall correctly has a gross operating weight of 318.7 metric tons. Thunderbird One is in an incline dive of approximately 6.7G," he continues adjusting he glasses, "But it has a vertical thrust of 47,000 pounds, which is enough to tow 6.4 skyliners."
"In English please?" Alan says rolling his eyes causing Kayo to turn to him.
"Something really weird is going on," Kayo summarises.
"But if it's not The Hood and not the jet then what is it?" Alan asks.
"Gravity!" Moffie exclaims.
"Of course, why didn't I think of that?" Brains says, "The jet weighs 318 tons undernormal Earth gravity. But what if gravity isn't normal?" He pauses and contacts John, "Thunderbird 5. Please run a gravity scan on Thunderbird 1."
John runs his hand over theholo-screen to do the scan. "Already on it," he says and when the scan finishes it displays a well, "That's strange."
"Guys, you're caught in a gravity well," Brains says to Thunderbird 1.
"How improbable!" Moffie says.
"A gravity what?" Alan asks.
"A gravity well," Brains says, "It's like a whirlpool sucking him down to Earth."
"Sounds really mean, but what do we do about it?" Marion asks.
"I calculate you don't have enough engine thrust to climb out of it," Brains says as Thunderbird 1 and the Skyliner continue on the incline dive.
"But gravity can make him go faster," Alan says pushing himself forward, "It was like when Kayo and I were in space and slingshot Thunderbird 3 around the sun."
"Of course," says Kayo, "That will give him the thrust he needs to break free."
"Thunderbird 1! Accelerate to 9Gs!" Alan says.
"In an incline dive?! Are you crazy?" Scott asks.
"Trust him Scott," Kayo interjects, "We've done this before."
"Of course that was in space and we weren't towing a jet plane,but..." Alan trails.
"FAB, I guess," Scott says.
"Wait 'till you reach 9G," Alan says
"7.5" Marion says, "8.2... .6... .8..."
"9G!" Scott says.
"Now hit it!" Kayo calls and Scott flies both Thunderbird 1 and the Skyliner out of the well.
"Looks like you're good to go guys," Marion says.
"Thank you, International Rescue," the pilot says.
"Any time," Scott says, "Ah! That was close."
November 26th 2060 - 13:06 CET
"YEAH!" Alan says.
"That was some quick thinking, guys. I'm impressed," Moffie says.
"Ah, it was Brains. He taught us all about it," Kayo says, "International Rescue would be nothing without him, you know."
"By the way, have you ever seen him without his glasses?" Alan asks.
"Oh, stop it!" Brains says and laughs nervously before clearing his throat, "All we need to do is figure out what caused this gravitational anomaly."
"I think I can hazard a guess," Moffie says, "Ever since we got the Collider up and running, we've been registering localized gravitational anomalies. That's why I asked you here."
"But the idea of graviton inducing a gravity well is only a theory," Brains says.
"Okay, imagine for a second that we all don't have PHDs in particle physics," Alan says.
"A gravity well is like a giant vacuum cleaner," Moffie says, "Sucking everything down to earth, but it's only a theory."
"Until now. When you activated the collider, there was just the right conditions to generate a gravity well and it pulled down the satellite," Brains says.
"What, so this wasn't The Hood?" Alan cries, "This was my fault!"
""Well, you did touch it last," Kayo says.
"Then shut it down! Shut it all down!" Alan says as Moffie runs over to shut it down.
"Supreme Hadron Collider offline," the voice says.
"Thunderbird Five, please rerun the gravitational scan," Brains asks.
"Bad news," John says as he does another scan of the well, "The gravity well is still active and it's growing."
"But.. But we shut it down?" Alan says.
November 26th 2060 - 13:23 CET
"It's too massive, it will take you down with it," Brains explains to Scott as the hear news of the WSS had been caught in the gravity well, "We need tostop the Supreme Hadron Collider physically. That's the only way to restore g-gravity to normal."
"We can't do it by remote. We'll have to do it on site from there," Moffie says pointing to theCollider.
"That's fine, I'll go do it," Alan says determined.
"No. G-Gravity may be lessening here, but out there it's increase a hundred fold," Brains explains.
"Maybe I could get to it in the pod?" Alan asks.
"The pod's hull probably won't be able to survive the gravitational pull," Kayo says, "We would be sitting in a tin can."
"What about Thunderbird 3?" Alan asks
"Thunderbird 3 is built for space flight. A procedure like this would require a vehiclethat's been structurally reinforced. Something compact, built to withstand environments of extremepressure," Brains says and pauses when an idea comes to mind, "I know just the thing!"
"You do know Thunderbird 4 is a Class C Submersible, right? That means it operates best under wa-ter," Gordon says and Thunderbird 2 arrives on scene with Module 6.
"Thunderbird 4 is the only with a chance of withstanding the intense forces you'll encounter," Brains explains.
"Did you say 'a' chance?" Gordon asks concerned.
"But first we need to get inside," Virgil says looking at a hologram of the gravity well, "Ok, here goes nothing." He enters the gravity well where Thunderbird 2 begins to struggle through before making it to the centre. "We're though. Thunderbird 2 is in position. Preparing for payload drop."
"It will be like fishing in a barrel," Alan explains to Gordon.
"And I'm on the end of the hook," Gordon says as Thunderbird 4 is lowered from the bottom of the Module, "I'm glad my suit's able to counter the pressure of the gravity. I must weigh three tons."
"Bad news guys. I'm caught in the gravity well!" Virgil says, "Increasing to maximum vertical thrust."
"HEY! Keep it steady up there!" Gordon complains.
"I might not be able to fly into the heart of that gravity well, but at least I can help Thunderbird 2. I'm taking the pod," Alan says.
"Alan, the p-pod's thrusters won't provide enough lift," Kayo says.
"Well, it's better than being stuck here," Alan says, "Hold on guys. I'm coming."
"No!" Kayo yells but Alan had already gone, "Fucking idiot."
"Hiram, I'm scared." Moffie says.
"I find that in moments like this it's best to recite my fractal tables," Brains says and the two starts reciting them.
November 26th 2060 - 13:27 CET
Alan flies over to Thunderbird 2, "Hey, bro. Thought you could a little help."
"Ha! From that tiny thing?" Virgil asks.
"Hey, you're not in a position to be choosy," Alan says and grapples onto Thunderbird 2 and does nothing to stabilize the craft.
"Watch it. Thunderbird 4 isn't insured," Gordon jokes.
"Awe, it's not working," Alan says.
"I told you. That thing is too tiny," Virgil says.
"Huh, maximum thrust!" Alan says and as he does this Thunderbird 1 arrives on scene and grapples onto Thunderbird 2, this time stabilizes it, "Whoo! It's working! I did it!"
"Nice try little bro." Scott says, "Nice try."
"Thunderbird 4, what's your progress?" John asks.
"Okay I'm here. What now?" Gordon asks. He doesn't get a response and both Brains and Moffie start to argue on what would be the best way to shut it down. "Oh! We don't have time for a debate," Gordon complains as Thunderbird 1 starts to struggle, pulling everyone further down again. "We gotta do something fast." The station continues to be pulled towards Earth when Gordon has an idea, "I know, maybe this will work," he then fires a set of threemissiles at the Super Hadron Collider completely destroying it and stopping its spin and destroying the gravity well.
"Good work. The gravity well has dissipated. Normal gravity is restored," John says.
Everyone lads their birds and head into QUARC and the guys and Marion walk together with Kayo running over to check if Alan was alright.
"Boy, I'm glad that's over," Gordon says, "I thought I was going to be squashed."
"Now that you mention it, you do look a little shorter," Alan says with an arm around Kayo. Gordon narrows his eyes at Alan when motions with his hand thathe had shrunk. Gordon looks himself over while the group laughs.
"Oh, Hiram, the Supreme Hadron Collider is ruined," Moffie says, "My life's work."
"Don't worry Moffie, I've been thinking and I'm pretty sure I've worked out where it went wrong," Brains says, "With a few improvements it can be rebuilt even better than before. And of course, I'll help. It'll be..."
"The Ultimate Hadron Collider," Moffie says.
"Well, I was thinking the Superlative Hadron—" Brains says and Moffie kisses his cheek, "Oh." causing them to both giggle.
"I'm glad you're alright," Kayo whispers to Alan.
"What was there to worry about," Alan whispers back.
"You running off and trying to be the hero again," Kayo sighs, "Sometimes it's best just to know when you're at your limits."
"I promise not to do it again," Alan says causing Kayo to raise her eyebrows, "Okay, maybe not in the near future again."
"What you guys whispering about?" Scott asks.
"Nothing!" the pair say.
"If you're sure," Scott says with a questioning look.
"Come on Scott, lets head home," Marion says walking over and dragging him away. She turns to Alan and Kayo and throws a wink leaving the pair blushing slightly but Alan mouths a 'thank you' anyway.
It had been a long year.
End of Part 2A