And here it is. Chapter 8.Quite surprised that anyone would think of my ancient kid work as good, but hey, I'm still pleased people are reading! Thanks as always to those who do and reviewers too!
loonytunecrazy: Why thank you!
The Eyes of the Beholder
By Phoenix Sparrow
Chapter Eight – Return to Dartmoor
Virgil was sound asleep in his bed. Beside him, the numbers on his digital clock glowed, giving everything in the room green tinge. It was not long after 2:30am.
In Scott's room, all was quiet, save for his occasional snores.
It was the same throughout the villa. Jeff, Gordon, Kyrano, Grandma, Tin-Tin, John and Brains were all asleep.
Asleep that was until Alan's call reached base and woke up all essential personnel. That being everyone minus, Kyrano, Grandma and Tin-Tin.
"Alright, Alan. I get the picture. Thunderbird 1 is on its way," Jeff said, leaning his elbows on his desk and resting his head in his hands. He yawned then turned to Scott. "Why are you still stood there yawning?" he asked, yawning again himself. "Thunderbird 1 is on its way, are you?" He waved his hands at Scott, shooing him on his way.
"Virgil? Domo, Excavator, John." Virgil needed no further explanation, but simply wandered off, grabbing John's sleeve as he went and tugging on it until he followed.
"Oh and Virgil, you'll need Brains, too. If that rock fell for unnatural reasons, we'll want to know why in case it happens again." Virgil nodded and gestured for Brains to follow John while he went to his own entrance.
Out in the moors, the team of paramedics were dealing with the injured they could get to. The two trainees were trapped further out of their reach, but the two casualties had seen the danger and attempted to get out of the way, receiving only minor injuries from falling rocks.
"I thought we had gear for moving rocks and stuff," one trainee said, waving a thumb in the direction of the rubble pile.
"We do. We were only training you newcomers on first response, like sort things out, call for back up. No need for that sort of equipment if all you're doing is keeping injured alive. And besides, this rock pile was tampered with. It would never have fallen on its own unless it had human help. This kinda work…" He shook his head, as he looked at it then glanced up as the Thunderbird landed. "This kinda work we leave to the professionals anyway."
"Someone call for International Rescue?" Scott shouted jumping out of his cockpit. The group of men and women let out a cheer. "Right, the equipment's on its way. Can I just ask why you're training these people so early in the morning?"
They all glanced at their watches. "Trust me feller. For us, this is late! We've been out here for a while. We tend to train them early on in the day. Why? What time is it where you came from?"
Scott smiled. 'Nice try,' he thought. "Early!"
Virgil landed Thunderbird 2 with expert precision on the flat, marshy land. He instructed Brains to go and meet Scott, then he and John went down to the pod to unload the two massive excavation vehicles they'd brought with them.
Virgil wandered through the pod until he reached the first vehicle then turned to John. "Which one d'you wanna take?"
"Ah, I dunno! It's too early! Ask me a question I can answer!" John replied, stretching and yawning.
"Oh, you're a load of use!" He looked around the pod then closed his eyes, spun round and pointed. He opened his eyes and was pointing at the Excadigger. "I'll take that one," he said, running over and climbing into its cabin.
"Ah, you're far too energetic!"
The two massive vehicles rolled out of the pod into the early morning sunshine. The grass sparkled with a layer of dew and the air was still cool. Even for summer.
Scott saw his two brothers coming and waved them over then activated his radio.
"Scott to Virgil and John."
"John here. Go ahead, Scott."
"Loud and clear, Scott."
"Right, there are two people trapped in the middle of this pile of rubble. Brains is checking it out now, but we gotta get 'em out from underneath. These guys think they are likely to be injured pretty badly due to the severity of the fall."
"Right, so what's the action?" John asked.
"We get the Excadigger to break down the rocks and the Domo shifts them off of them. Down here, I'll get the easy-to-manage-without-the-strength-of-Hercules rocks out the way and keep my ears open for any sounds."
"F.A.B., Scott," they both answered, almost simultaneously.
They started up the engines on the two vehicles and John and Virgil set to work while below Scott and the other paramedics started clearing and directing the massive machines. While Virgil broke down larger chunks that had simply fallen John attached the Domo's powerful suction pads to the pieces and shifted them.
"STOP!" Scott yelled with his watch-comm. also activated. The movement stopped and Scott listened carefully.
"Help us! We're down here!"
Scott ran over to where he heard the voices coming from and saw a newly formed hole with two young and frightened people in trainee paramedic uniforms looking back up at him. "Are you two ok down there?"
"Yeah we're fine, couldn't be better!"
Scott raised an eyebrow. "I don't have to get you out of there…"
"Only kidding! Jeez! Come on, help us please! Toni's arm's trapped and my leg feels broken."
"Ok, we'll be right down."
Meanwhile, as the boys worked to free the two trapped under the rocks, there was someone else hard at work and not far away either.
"Let's see, if I reconnect this wire… here, and reroute power through… this…" In the pod of Thunderbird 2, a strange man, who most certainly did not belong to the organisation, was crawling around the power units connecting and reconnecting wires. He was very nervous as he worked. "If I don't get this right, it's my head for sure!" he said to himself, though his voice remained relatively low. "If I don't get that piece for him…" He shuddered, trying not to think of the consequences of his failure.
"Yes! Got it!" he said, pulling out a small component from the unit he was rooting through. The small piece made little difference whether it was there or not because there were so many back-ups, it wouldn't be missed. The computer would just switch to the next one in the sequence. The small instrument, though, wasn't something that could be handed out to anyone. The small part was part of the photo-alert systems. It kept it running smoothly.
"Now all I gotta do is get this piece back to him and I'm home free. I think I'll leave him to it while he…"
"Do you have the piece, Carson?"
Carson jumped out of his skin as he heard the voice of his temporary boss on his comm. link. "Y-y-yes, Mr Stutt, sir," he stammered in reply.
"Good! You have done well… so far. You must bring the component to me so that I may analyse it and find a weakness in their photo-alert systems."
'Whoopdidoo! What do I care what you're gonna do with it!' "I'll have it to you as soon as I can get off this moor." He slipped quietly through the pod and waited at its entrance for the first opportunity to get away.
All the International Rescue team was busy and not facing the craft, so he ran.