April 18th, 2062 - 14:11 NZST
Scott stands outside the same door from a few days ago. This time he has a chance to knock on the door. He waits patiently as he hears shuffling behind the door. "Coming!" a voice calls and after a few seconds the door opens to reveal Marion, "Oh, hey Scott."
"Erm, hi," Scott says awkwardly and coughs, "Can I come in?"
"Sure," Marion says with a smile and steps aside to allow Scott to enter the room. Scott walks in and takes a look around before making his way over to her bed. "Please take a seat."
"Thank you," Scott says and sits on the edge.
"What can I do for you?" Marion asks casually as she sits at the table that she had set up in the corner of the room, "Its unlike you to come here."
"Well, I actually want to ask you something," Scott says and before Marion could say anything he adds, "Something personal."
Marion raises her eyebrows, "Go on."
"Would you like to go on a date?"
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are Go!
On board Thunderbird 5, John is sitting down across from EOS in a game of hologram chess. Its John's move and his is currently thinking on what his next move should be when EOS decides to speak up.
"John, I'm intercepting a GDF-encoded message," EOS says, "The signal's very faint."
"You're trying to distract me, EOS," John says with a smile and looks up at her camera, "You know I finally have you checked."
"Honestly, John," EOS sighs, "The bulk of my processing is currently dedicated to boosting the weak signal. It's a distress call from the moon side of EDEN."
"Okay. Let's hear it," John says.
"Mayday! I repeat. Mayday! This is GDF Captain Ridley O'Bannon! I'm in an uncontrolled spin and venting air," a female voice calls out.
"International Rescue here, Captain. Hold tight. Help is on the way," John says.
"Please make it quick, I only have five minutes on the meter," Ridley says.
"Then we'll see you in four," John says and heads up to the main control room, "EOS call Tracy Island."
"With pleasure," EOS says and the familiar beeping is heard before a hologram of Alan appears.
"We have a situation," John explains.
"I hear it, John," Alan says, "I'll head to launch."
"No need. EDEN's a hop, skip and a jump from Thunderbird 5," John says.
"FAB, John. Good luck," Scott says.
5
Thunderbird 5's rear access hatch opens.
4
John starts to suit up.
3
"John, my scans show you're sweating, and your pulse is racing," EOS says, "Is everything all right?"
2
"Just fine, EOS," John replies, "I can finally take this new suit out for a spin."
1
John finishes suiting up.
Thunderbirds are Go!
"The exopod is go!" John says but the suit seemingly shuts down after 100m.
"Green button, bro," Alan says over the coms.
"Right," John says, looking down at the controls and pressing the green button. In an instant, the exopod launches John away from Thunderbird 5 and towards the moon, "Whoa! This is awesome!"
"Just keep your eyes on the road. Precision flight isn't as easy as I make it look," Alan jokes as John flies over Australia and then away from Earth, "Let me know if you need any pointers."
"Oh, I do have one question," John says coming to a stop and turning around to face Earth again, "What is that big blue marbley-looking ball down there?"
"Oh, ha-ha," Alan says sarcastically, "Here if you need me."
"Isn't EDEN that unfinished generation ship parked halfway between the earth and the moon?" Kayo asks as she walks up to the top of the stairs that lead down to the kitchen.
"You should know," Alan says, "Unless you're pretending to not know and it's not that hard for you to do, is it?"
"I—" Kayo starts but then pauses, "All I know about it, is its GDF controlled."
Alan sighs and turns to face Kayo and makes eye contact for the first time in months, "The GDF maintains the ruin to make sure it doesn't become a space hazard. it was designed for people to spend their whole life on that ship as it travelled to distant stars."
"Sounds pretty amazing," Kayo says.
"Maybe, but whenever I'm near it, the place always gives me the creeps," Alan comments and looks back at the hologram again.
April 18th, 2062 - 14:19 NZST
John nears EDEN and decides to contact Ridley to make sure that she is still doing alright and to check how much air she has left.
"Captain O'Bannon, John Tracy here. How are we holding up?" John asks, but he only gets a cracking noise that distorts the reply, "EOS, I'm losing O'Bannon. Can you boost the signal?"
"Sorry John, the—" EOS starts, but also drops out, "—is degraded. Boosting—" EOS cuts off again for a few moments but John only gets to hear the last of what she is saying "—not be possible."
"Captain, your weak signal is playing havoc with my NAV system. We have to do this another way," John explains, "On Three, we both blast our high beams. One, two, three!" There is a moment of silence as John scans the space in front of him with a murmur of a pulsating beep in the background from his high beam. After no response he turns it off, "Captain O'Bannon, can you see us?" he asks, "Come one, where are you?" A few seconds later to his left, John sees a bright glow coming from Ridley's high beam. He flies towards Ridley at a high speed and sees that she's struggling for air. When he gets close enough, he grabs onto her and starts to patch up her suit. Once that is complete, he reaches into his pocket and brings out a new oxygen meter and inserts it.
"Guys, target is secure," John says, and watches in relief as Ridley takes a deep breath in, taking in the fresh air that John had sorted out.
"All right!" Scott says.
"Not too shabby," Alan says.
"Captain, you should take better care of your toys," John says with the intention of it being a joke.
"Afraid I'm in no mood to play. I need a ride back to EDEN," Ridley says.
"Not until you've seen a doctor," John surprise but stern.
"What is need is to see EDEN's system logs ASAP," Ridley says.
"EDEN's powered down and not going anywhere. I'm sure it can wait." John says.
"No!" Ridley cries, "EDEN's supposed to be powered down, but I was alone on board for her system check. Suddenly, lights, sound, and a voice came over the coms. Next thing I know, I'm nature trailing it in zero-grav."
"Whoa! Back up. A voice? What did it say?" John asks.
"Couldn't make it out or where it came from, except for the control section, EDEN has no life support, but whatever it was sounded in distress," Ridley says.
"Hmm. A little interference, but life signs: Zilch," John says as he scans EDEN, "Nothing out of the ordinary." He pauses for a second as a signal appears on his scan before vanishing as quickly as it showed up. "Wait a second. I've got something. No. Gone," he sighs, "All right, you win, Captain. We're going to EDEN. You check the logs and I'll search for anyone that needs help. Deal?"
"Deal," Ridley says with an affirmative nod, and so the pair fly towards EDEN. They reach the air lock that Ridley opens. When they go inside, they are met with lights.
"Lights on, but nobody's home," John says and takes off his helmet. He follows Ridley through the tunnels until they reach the control section, allowing the pair to set down both of their helmets.
"Logs are fried," Ridley sighs.
"I guess we're both searching for clues the old-fashioned way," John says and turns to Ridley. Ridley glares at John but turns around to head to another air lock that would take both of them into the main body of the ship and to the location where one of John's signals briefly appeared. The enter an area of the ship filled with cartoon advertisements.
"EDEN was meant to be a home among the stars but ended up nothing but an empty shell," Ridley explains as they look in both directions at the adverts, "Some people say the place is haunted."
"There's no such thing as ghosts, Captain," John says with a chuckle but pauses quickly when a buzzing sound is heard. Suddenly, the adverts disappear and are replaced by skull and crossbones. "Fucking hell!"
"It's the end of the line!" a voice says, and a shrill screech causes John and Ridley to cover both of their ears. The frequency of the screech makes all the screens to break, then it all goes quiet.
"Er, okay," John says, recovering, "Maybe you should call your superiors."
"I tried before. No signal," Ridley says.
"Our systems are a little more powerful," John says.
"Scott, do you read?" John asks into his com but all he receives is a loud feedback whistle, "Scott?" He decides to give up, "Do you get the feeling we're not alone on this ship?"
"A little bit. Yeah," Ridley says looking at John. The sound of metal hitting each other is heard and she turns to see a robot spider heading towards them, "What the fuck?"
"What are you?" John yells at the robot, "Stay back you motherf—"
April 18th, 2062 - 14:50 NZST
On Tracy Island, the hologram starts to flicker, and it disappears along with the voice from John and Ridley.
"John, are you there?" Kayo asks but only gets feedback, "EDEN, do you copy?"
"Ah!" Alan says covering his ears.
"Signals in the vicinity of EDEN appear to be cloaked, Alan—"
"Way ahead of you," Alan says and sits down in the chair. He pauses before looking back at Kayo, "You look like you want to join."
"I'll stay," Kayo says defensively.
"Suit yourself," Alan says and starts to descend.
"John, do you hear me?" Kayo tries, "EDEN, are you there?"
5
Alan descends and starts to get suited up.
4
Alan is lifted on a crane from the bottom of the hanger into Thunderbird 3.
3
Thunderbird 3's blast door closes.
2
Alan's chair rolls up to the controls.
1
Thunderbird 3's rockets start up.
Thunderbirds are Go!
April 18th, 2062 - 15:13 NZST
"Hello there. We come in peace," John says with his arms up, and watches as the robot stops, "He understood, much be some kind of sentient AI." John slowly approaches the robot and opens up his suit to show it off to the spider.
"Tracy, no sudden moves," Ridley says as the spider backs off in a seemingly scared way.
"What why?" John asks, turning suddenly. However, with his suit open, he ends up throwing the robot backwards and onto its back accidentally. He hears clicking behind him and turns again to see the spider has risen to tower over him. The once green eyes had turned red, "Oh, sorry," John says, and raises his hands again, only for the robot to grab both of his arms, "Oh! What do I do?"
"It thinks you're a threat. Show it you're not," Ridley says.
"Seriously? Okay, I surrender," John says panicked seeing the 'teeth' of the spider move around. He quickly raises his arms higher but with the robot still grabbed onto him, he accidentally slams it into the ceiling, "That was totally my bad."
"Uh-huh," Ridley says and takes a step backwards.
"Duck, Captain!" John cries and throws the robot with a grunt but gets dragged along due to the grip.
"Whoa! From which one of you?" Ridley asks and watches both go flying.
"Uh, okay! A little help," John says as the sider stabilizes itself and starts to throw John around into the walls, while keeping hold of him the whole time.
"Why? You're doing a bang-up job." Ridley says watching with a smile. John eventually finds a planting with his feet and tries to break away from the robot. Consequently, the strength of John destroys the robot completely.
"Aah! Ooh!" John grunts, "Oops."
"That's one of the old maintenance-bots. No one's activated those things for years," Ridley explains, "Kinda creepy."
"It's just silicone and steel," John says grabbing the head and waving it around. He chuckles along with Ridley at the situation, "See Captain, there are no ghosts in this machine, but there are life signs."
"That's EDEN's power core," Ridley says, "I don't know how a maintenance-bot got reactivated or why you're registering possible life signs, but I'll bet a tank of the good stuff our answer lies down there."
"And that answer won't be ghosts," John says, and follows Ridley through another airlock. They go through a series of tunnels before coming to an opening. They peek out of a tunnel and look around a room that is similar to the advertisement room, with the skull and crossbones on the screens. They turn to a noise and sees a screw unscrew.
"Whoa!" John says in amazement and watches the screw float away, "Okay, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation." John says and turns back to see Ridley floating over to one of the walls.
"John," Ridley calls and beckons John to come over.
"It's vibrating," John says.
"Which means someone, or something fired up EDEN's engines. Come on," Ridley says. The pair keep going further down the tunnel with Ridley taking the lead once again. They arrive at a large room near the main body when a rumble is heard in the distance. John stops and turns.
"Whoa!" John states worried and turns around when he sees that Ridley is continuing without him.
"Hey, Tracy, I think you'll want to see this," Ridley calls.
"Okay." John says but before he could move, he feels a hand on his shoulders.
"WARGH!" John screams turning around, "Motherfucker!"
"Hey, John," Alan says.
"ALAN!" John yells, "You sick bastard."
"John, are you okay?" Ridley asks.
"Sounded like you were in trouble, so I came to help," Alan says.
"Who's this?" Ridley asks.
"Captain Ridley O'Bannon, Alan Tracy," John introduces.
"You did find some trouble. Check out your suit," Alan says, "Class-A safety hazard, bro. Can't steer. Might leak fuel. Even I wouldn't fly that."
"Maybe you should take better care of your toys," Ridley muses and watches as John takes the suit off.
"One more piece of scrap for the pile," John sighs and releases the suit, watching it float off into the distance.
"This way!" Ridley announces and beckons Alan and John to follow her.
"There is some serious weirdness going on around here," John explains to Alan, who had gone in front of him, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say EDEN really was haunted."
"Haunted? Right?" Alan says nervously looking around.
"GO AWAY!" a voice yells.
"Whoa!" everyone grunts as something is turned on that throws the three of them against the ceiling.
"Whatever it is, I don't think it wants us here," John says.
"You boys all right?" Ridley asks.
"I am not all right," Alan exclaims, "This is not all right. Why is this happening?!"
"Captain! Alan! Your instruments," John says looking down at his own which has gone haywire.
"So?" Alan asks.
"Which means someone has turned this ship into an electro-magnetic," John says just as they get dropped and slam against the ground.
"Electro-magnet. It's not like there are ghosts haunting spooky abandoned ships in cold, empty space, right?" Alan asks with a nervous chuckle and looks to the other two.
"Someone must have super-charged the power core," Ridley explains, "But why?" They head into an airtight room that is full of suits.
"Helmets," Ridley orders and everyone puts on their helmets. Ridley floats over to another hatch and starts to open it, "Gentlemen, I give you... EDEN?"
"Whoa," Alan says as he watches a bunch of the old maintenance-bots fly around with equipment.
"Impressive," John says.
"Not what you expected?" Alan asks as he sees that Ridley is staying quiet.
"Why would someone restart building?" Ridley asks, and they head down. Ridley comes to a stop and points off to something in the distance, "That doesn't belong here. What is it?"
"A ship," Alan realises, "And not just any ship. Pirates!" Taking a closer look, they see black skull and crossbones on the orange surface of the ship.
"O'Bannon to Mission Control, I need immediate GDF backup. Please respond. Over," Ridley says into her coms but only receives static, "No signal. Looks like it's up to us, gents."
"Erm, us?" Alan questions.
"What Alan is trying to say is that we're not exactly crime fighters," John says.
"Yeah, that's Kayo's thing," Alan mumbles.
"We specialise in search and rescue," John continues.
"International, Rescue. See?" Alan states, "It's there in the name."
"Stop, for mercy's sake!" a male voice wails, "Leave us be!"
"Help! Help!" another voice says.
"You were saying?" Ridley smirks and the trio head towards where the noise is coming from. The noise gets louder and louder. When they get close enough, the three hide behind some junk that is on the floor and look up over it to see one of the pirates fighting with a maintenance-bot.
"Panic the marauders!" the pirate says with a grunt, "Stop there you sneak thief! Let go of my gaming console! I found it fair and square."
"So where are the pirate?" Alan jokes and turns around.
"They be here, matey!" the other pirate says.
"Son of a bitch!" Alan gasps.
"Oi!" the second pirate says, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Let's start over. My name is Maurice. This here is my partner Dobbs."
"International Rescue, you got here fast!" Dobbs exclaims, "That's five-star service, that is."
"Captain Ridley O'Bannon GDF, you pirates are under arrest. Drop your weapon!"
"This is no weapon," Maurice says indicating to the tool in his hand, "It's my back scratcher. Ha-ha! These suits are so uncomfortable you know."
"Urgh!" Dobbs sighs as he watches the maintenance-bot crawl off with his games console, "They're just awful. Every time we have a load ready to go, one of these beasties steals it out from under us."
"I've heard enough," Ridley says grabbing onto both of their suits," Piracy, assault, plundering. Let's go!"
"Plundering, right," Dobbs says, "Do you hear that? I like that. Very nautical."
"You d-don't understand," Maurice stutters, "Dobbsy and I aren't pirates. We're pie-rats."
"I told you we shouldn't have called ourselves that. Leaves a bad impression," Dobbs sighs, "My apologies if we frightened you. Scrap metal was our trade, but it's hard to find valuable junk in space."
"Yeah, we figured it's more recycling than piracy, but we act the part to scare away the competition and cloak our signals to stay under the radar," Maurice explains.
"Wait. You have a signal cloak?" John interrupts.
"My daddy always said, 'A little stealthiness goes a long way,'" Maurice says.
"Your tech isn't stealthy," John angrily says, "It's deafening. It's been messing with every electronic signal for 100 miles. That's why EDEN's systems were going fucking haywire. It's also what woke up the builder-bots."
"So, it wasn't ghosts," Alan sighs in relief.
"We woke up these robot rapscallions?" Maurice cries.
"They're just following their original orders to finish construction on this place," Ridley sighs and let's go of both pirates, "That's not a gaming console. It controls the builder-bots."
"Oh, well, then, I'd better turn off the cloaking signal," Maurice says.
"Good thinking, Reece. I'll just reverse their orders," Dobbs says getting the pad out, "And we'll be back in business."
"Reverse their orders?" John trails, "Wait! No! Don't do that"
"There. It's bedtime for the 'botties," Dobbs says and presses a button.
"Don't you get it?" John cries, "If you reverse the bots' orders to build the place, they don't shut down—"
"They tear the place apart!" Alan finishes. The group look up and see the bots starting the destroy the place. There once green eyes, flicker to red like what happened with John earlier. One bot comes over and takes the pad away from Dobbs and destroys it.
"Oh, dear!" Dobbs states.
"The quickest way out is the air lock back to my ship," Ridley says and the group start their escape. All around them, the maintenance-bots rip the place apart. So much so, that the air lock to Ridley's ship got destroyed by falling debris. Maurice and Dobbs fight some of the bots and the group turn around to go to the pirates' ship instead. They run across the main body before coming to a stop in front of another bot. Maurice and Dobbs go forward and start to attack with only their back scratchers. The bot eventually gets destroyed by another piece of debris allowing the group to make a final sprint towards the pirates' orange ship. They were too late.
A falling beam lands on top of the ship blowing it to shreds, "Oh that's gonna kill the resale," Dobbs sighs.
"With the signal clock off, I can try and bring Thunderbird 3 in for a pickup," Alan explains.
"Great," John comments.
"Not great," Alan sighs as his wrist controller continues to beep, "There's no path in. Thunderbird 3's too big."
"Then, let's go small," John calls the exopod over to the group, "Everyone clip on."
"Wait John," Alan argues, "You can't handle thrust and steer with a blasted jet."
"Which is why I have a co-pilot," John deadpans, placing a hand on Alan's shoulder, "Do you remember where you parked?" They all get hooked up, "Hold on everyone."
They fly around several bit of lose debris that have been disconnected, "Alan, on my mark, roll left 23°," John says and Alan spins around from John's shoulders. Behind them, everything is getting destroyed in a series of explosions. Following some evasive manoeuvres, they also destroy the bots that are following them. One such destruction let to a massive explosion, ripping a hole in EDEN, and allowing John to fly out to Thunderbird 3, the group quickly make their way inside as the whole of EDEN blows up.
"International Rescue, mission complete," John announces. Once in the cargo hold, Ridley makes the decision to let the pirates off and give them salvage rights in space, thus making them no longer pirates.
"Pretty fancy flying for a console jockey," Alan says to John.
"Of course, I did have an excellent co-pilot," John says and the pair make it to their seats and take off back to Thunderbird 5.
"Don't worry, I'll keep your secret," John says.
"Mine?" Alan questions, "What about yours?"
"I'm just saying Kayo never has to know you're scared of ghosts," John says.
"Me?" Alan scoffs, "Yeah, right! But I won't tell Scott that you're scared of ghosts."
"Er, you both know I can see you, right?" Kayo smirks with her arms cross in front of her on the hologram.
"Ah, just kidding Kayo," John says.
"Yeah, ha-ha! Kidding!" Alan says, "Ghosts, right. Ha-ha!"
April 18th, 2062 - 18:32 NZST
Meanwhile, Scott and Marion where on the beach, watching as the autumn sun set over the Pacific Ocean. Scott had brought a similar picnic to the one he had a few days ago and Marion seemed to be enjoying the tranquillity.
"I'm glad you asked me here," Marion says shyly, "I've had a thing for you for a while now."
"Y-Y-You have?" Scott stutters.
"I mean who doesn't want a big strong man coming in to save the day," Marion jokes and playfully punches Scott's right shoulder causing him to blush.
"Oh, stop it M," Scott waves off with a chuckle.
"But seriously," Marion states, "If it wasn't for you, I'd be neck deep in trouble working for The Hood. Thank you."
"You've said that plenty," Scott says and places an arm around her, pulling her close, "I hope this could be the start of something special."
"Me too, Scott," Marion says snuggling into Scott, "Me too."
Within a few moments the sun fully set, leaving the pair in only the light of the stars.