CHAPTER 4

Scott headed towards his bedroom to change into his uniform, after informing Alan they would be leaving shortly. He stopped short at the end of the hallway as he noticed the wet towel, flip-flops and t-shirt leaving a trail from the steps towards Gordon's room. He shook his head, more in exasperation at Gordon's untidiness than anything else. As usual, he scooped up the items and headed towards Gordon's bedroom.

"Gordon! Would you please not leave your wet mess all over the hallway," complained Scott. Not getting an answer, he knocked on Gordon's door. Still not getting an answer, Scott opened the door and peeked inside. "Gordon? Did you hear me?"

Realizing that Gordon wasn't in his bedroom, Scott walked in and headed towards the bathroom. He tossed Gordon's wet items in the bathtub and walked out. He had just closed the door and headed down towards his own room when Gordon came walking up the stairs. He stooped down on the top step and watched his eldest brother leave.

"Gee Scotty. Caught you once again trying to get one over on me," Gordon thought to himself.

Waiting until Scott entered his own room and shut the door, Gordon walked slowly towards his own bedroom door. Before attempting to touch the doorknob, Gordon carefully inspected the door to see if anything appeared amiss. Not seeing anything unusual, he stood off to the side and cautiously reached over and turned the doorknob. With a slight push, he opened the door a fraction and flattened himself against the wall at the same time.

Nothing happened.

Peering cautiously once again around the frame of the door, he tried to see as much inside his room as he could without opening up the door any further. Still not seeing anything, he decided to risk opening the door even further. He stood back by the side with the hinges and gently pushed the door open a bit further using his foot.

Still, nothing happened.

Gordon dropped down to his hands and knees and was leaning up against the door frame, trying to look at the top of the door, inside his room, when Scott walked out of his room. Virgil walked out of his room at the same time and the two stood and stared at Gordon.

"What are you doing?" Virgil wanted to know. "Oh wait, don't tell me. You've decided to start playing secret agent again."

Scott chuckled. "Oh no! Not that again."

Gordon stood up and frowned. "Very funny guys. But once again, I foiled an attempt of Scott's to try and pull a prank on me."

"Gordon!" Scott sighed. "I haven't had the time to even think of a prank to pull. I'm getting ready to fly Alan up to Five and help do some repair work on the communications system. What makes you think I have time for pranks?"

"Because I saw you coming out of my bedroom not ten minutes ago," Gordon accused.

"Of course you did. I went in there to throw your wet, dirty clothes in your bathtub. You've been warned about leaving them in the hallway like that. These floors aren't carpeted and someone could trip and fall on a wet spot."

"Not to mention the wet clothes will ruin the floor," Virgil added.

Gordon shrugged. "Grandma called me downstairs and I was getting cold with the wet shirt and towel wrapped around me."

"So you just took them off and dropped them on the floor!" Scott cried out in disbelief. "What are you – five years old again?"

"Cute Scott. You're just angry because whatever prank you decided to pull on me isn't going to work. Once more, I have foiled your attempts," Gordon stated triumphantly.

"Scott? You ready to leave?" Alan's voice could be heard calling up from downstairs.

"Coming Al!" Scott called back. "Virge, see if you can talk some sense into this idiot while I'm gone."

"Alan. You call me if you have any problems with your wrist. You got it?" Virgil warned.

"Yeah, yeah." Virgil heard his brother mutter in reply.

Scott turned and headed down towards his baby brother. The two then headed off to the couch that would take them directly to Thunderbird Three's silo. After watching them leave, Virgil turned to Gordon.

"Gordon. What the hell is the matter with you lately?"

"Nothing is wrong with me, Virgil," Gordon shrugged. "I'm just not going to let Scotty out-prank me, that's all."

Virgil sighed in frustration. "Gordon. Scott wasn't kidding when he said he hasn't had the time to even think up a prank. And now, he's probably going to be gone at least half the day working with Brains and John on trying to get Five's communication system fixed."

Gordon only grinned and rubbed his hands together. "So that means I've survived two whole days without Scott being able to best me. Being that he'll probably be exhausted when he gets home and will be debriefing with John and Father tomorrow, I'll probably get through half the day before he tries anything. I'm going to win this bet!"

Virgil only threw his hands up in frustration, growled and walked away. "Whatever Gordon. Whatever."

TBTBTBTBTB

While en-route to Thunderbird Five, Brains had been scouring over the blueprints trying to figure out what the problem could be. Not coming up with any solution, he sighed in frustration.

"Sc. . .Scott?"

"Yes Brains?"

"How cl . . . close are we?"

"We should be docking in about five minutes," Alan responded.

Brains came forward to the control deck. "Is . . .is . . .would it be . . .po . . .possible to do a . . .flyby of the communications . . .a . . array? I'd like to ch . . .check on that first."

Alan looked over at Scott, who nodded. "Sure Brains. How close do you need me to get?"

"As cl . . .close as you can, Sc. . .Scott."

Scott frowned as he thought ahead to the maneuvering that would be required. Alan chuckled at the expressions on his older brother's face.

"Need some help with that Scott?"

Scott smiled ruefully at his baby brother. "I just may Al," he admitted.

Alan laughed. "Okay, the easiest way to do this would be to line the nose of Three with the main observation windows and then slowly descend until we can see the array."

"That sounds easy enough," replied Scott.

"Easy as . . .as long as you re. . .remember that you have to be fa . . . far enough away from the st. . . station so as not to hit it," Brains remarked.

At Scott's glare, Brains turned back in the cabin and sat down. Alan laughed again. "Don't worry Scott. I'll make sure you're far enough back. I don't think John would appreciate being tossed around while we are trying to do this."

"He most certainly would not," John's voice came over their radio.

"You breaking contact protocol now John?" Scott demanded, however his tone of voice had a smile to it.

"No. You guys are. You're supposed to contact Five whenever you decide to change flight plans at the last minute. Remember?" John teased.

Scott looked over at Alan and mouthed 'oops'. "Sorry John. Brains asked us to check the communications array at the last minute."

"Oops my ass, big brother. I'll make sure Gordon hears about this one."

Alan, Brains and Scott all frowned at their radio. "John, how did you know I said oops to Alan?" Scott wondered.

"Well Duh big brother. I can see you." John suddenly frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"Because we can't see you John," Alan told him. "All we're getting is voice feed."

"Damn," John muttered. "Guess that's another item to add to the To Do list Brains."

"Hold that though John," Alan interrupted. "We've arrived and Scott is lined up to view the array."

Brains inched forward to get a better view as Scott slowly brought Thunderbird Three close to Five. There was a moment when they descended past the observation windows and could see John waving to them, his eyes big in mock terror at how close Scott had managed to get the 'bird.

Scott never noticed as he was in deep concentration as to what he was doing. Alan only offered up a quick chuckle but then turned an expert eye on how Scott was managing the controls. He felt a moment of frustration that he wasn't at the controls, but then remembered that maneuvering such as this required a set of firm hands on the controls and right now, his bad wrist would be too much of a liability.

Scott breathed a sigh of relief as the communications array came into sight, then frowned when he realized what he was seeing.

"Damn," Alan muttered. Brains only nodded and then sat back down to review the plans once more.

"What's up guys?" John asked. He heard Alan's response and Scott's silence was just as telling.

Instead of answering, Alan turned to Scott. "We need to see how far it goes. Can you edge her down just a bit more and then in a bit closer to Five?"

"Think so, kiddo. Hang on," Scott's firm grip on the controls soon had the red 'bird moved into a better position to view the damage.

"Guyyyyssss?" John again asked, his tone growing more worried.

"Sorry John," Scott replied. "I think we found out what is wrong with communications. It looks like a section of the array exploded or something and there's exposed wiring and scorch marks around it."

"WHAT!" John exclaimed. "There's no way something like that could happen and I not notice it."

"Jo. . . John, when did the pr . . .problems with the com . . . communications start?" Brains asked. There was a few moments of silence while John thought about the question.

"Remember when Dad had us put Five on automatic because of that flood rescue we had about two weeks ago? I thought at first that maybe something with the routing was messed up, but everything kept checking out fine."

Brains nodded. "I would su . . .suggest you bring up the . . . recording lo . . .logs for the diagnostics that we . .were run auto . . .automatically while Five was un . . unmanned."

"Okay Brains. I'll have them up by the time you get in here."

"So what do you think Brains?" Scott wondered. "Do you think something short-circuited inside Five that we can't easily see?"

Alan, who had been looking intently at the damage, replied. "I don't think so Scott. Look at the scorch marks on the side. It starts out small and then gets bigger, almost as if something collided with Five."

"Of course, Al . . .Alan!" Brains exclaimed. "I remember Jo . . . John mentioning about the nu . . .number of meteorites that were fl . . .floating around whe. . .when he returned. The ar. . . array was probably hi . . .hit by one of them."

Alan remembered flying John back up to Five. "You're right Brains. If I remember correctly, some of those rocks did look pretty big."

"You may be onto something Brains," John's voice came back. "I just got the first printout and it does look like something had struck the station. I'm not positive, but the readings almost make it look like whatever it was bounced or skidded across the hull."

"I don't understand," Scott interrupted. "If it was debris just floating around, how could they cause that much damage?"

Brains shook his head. "Mo . . .most likely Sc . . Scott, a passing meteor that mig. . .might have been moving qu . . .quickly could have ca. . . cast off a pie . . .piece of itself. If it was mo . . .moving at the same . . .speed, that co . . .could explain the damage."

"Great. Just great," Scott replied sarcastically. "Well, let's get this 'bird docked so we can figure out what to do."

TBTBTBTBTB

Scott, Alan and Brains found John sitting in the kitchen area with diagnostic readouts spread out over the table. He was frowning at several of them, but looked up as they came in.

"We were right. In checking out the dates and times on the diagnostics, it looks like a small meteor storm blew through while Five was on automatic," John explained. He held out one readout to Brains and pointed to it. "See what showed up on diagnostics?"

Brains read it and frowned as well. "From th . . . this reading, it a . .appears that a meteor ab . . .about the size of a so . . . softball hit the array."

Alan groaned. "Big enough to do some damage, but not enough to completely destroy it."

"Exactly, Al . . Alan."

"What about the array? Is it a total loss?" John asked.

Scott shrugged. "I'm not sure. It was too hard to see the whole thing without worrying about crashing Three into the side."

An incoming signal interrupted their conversation and John ran back to the control room. "Come in Base," he responded when he saw the call was coming in from Tracy Island.

Jeff's face appeared. "Hadn't heard from you boys and I was starting to get worried."

"Sorry Dad," Scott apologized. The four of them quickly brought Jeff up to speed on what they had discovered thus far.

"Brains, is it possible to bring the satellite and communications array inside Five without having to send one of the boys outside to get it?" Jeff asked.

"Oh yes, Mr. Tracy," Brains assured him.

"Yeah, Dad. It was something Brains, Alan and I worked up when we upgraded the system last year," John explained. "We designed it for just this type of circumstance. We can remotely retract the satellite into a bay area, close the hull off and pressurize the bay. None of us will even have to put on a spacesuit."

Jeff nodded. "Good. Bring her in and see if the repairs could be completed while you're up there. Hopefully, the repairs are minor enough that you won't have to bring it back to base."

TBTBTBTBTB

It wasn't as easy as John made it sound in his explanation to his father, but Brains, John, Alan and Scott were able to get the array inside the bay area and determined that they could fix the unit on Five and then Brains would stay up a few extra days to help Alan repair any damage done to the system internally. Jeff, while glad that the damage wasn't so bad that the unit had to be replaced, he wasn't happy that most of the team was up on Five. Thunderbird Five was still able to monitor incoming calls and the emergency communications band, but it was on a lower frequency than normally used and Jeff was afraid that they miss an important call. For that reason, he had Penny issue a bulletin to all Emergency Services that International Rescue was out of service for 24 hours. It would at least give them some time to fix their problems.

It was almost the full 24 hours later before Scott and John found themselves back on Thunderbird Three and heading for home.

"I'm sure glad to finally be heading home," Scott sighed in exhaustion. "I've felt more like an overworked mechanic the past few days, then a rescue person."

John chuckled as he piloted Thunderbird Three towards home. "Yeah, I imagine doing all that hard work instead of sitting on your bottom giving commands is a bit hard on the body."

Scott frowned at his brother. "Very funny, John." Scott suddenly moaned. "I only hope Gordon hasn't decided to set up a prank for either of us. In my state of mind, I'd probably kill him."

John reached over and patted Scott on the arm. "Don't worry big brother. I spoke to Dad while you were helping Brains and Alan get settled in. Dad promised he would make sure Gordon has no surprises set up for either of us."

"You got Dad to take sides?" Scott was surprised.

"Not really. But you know he is going to want a full debrief on all this right away and it won't happen if we're both trying to kill Gordon."

"I only hope he'll let us get something to eat first," Scott grumbled. "I'm starving! I don't know how you and Alan can live on that boxed food for an entire month."

"We can't. Haven't you noticed how we both eat almost non-stop when we first get back on firm ground?" John asked.

Scott shrugged. "Not really. Trade-off's are usually done right around a meal so I just figured you guys skipped it getting ready."

John only shook his head as he contacted Tracy Island for clearance to land. No wonder Gordon found it so easy to pull pranks on Scott. How could his eldest brother be so in control during rescues, but becomes completely clueless once home again?

TBTBTBTBTB