Chapter 6.
Like last time things: 'bla' = thoughts & "bla"= Japanese spoken ^_^
Then came the time she had dreaded. Getting out there and meeting the islanders.
Getting a comforting look from Tintin, the bluenette opened the door, …
She went into the hallway as far as she could with it being so crowded.
Tintin came out too, rolled her eyes when she saw all of them standing there and coughed tactfully gaining everyone's attention.
The oldest Tracy snapped out of his trance-like state and said,
"Right, where are my manners? I suggest we take this somewhere else, preferably a place with more room and a bit of comfort."
"Alright Sir, Fermat and I'll meet up with you guys in a second, we'll put our stuff away first. Come on Fermat." With that said, the two left. The others went to the living room.
When Alan and Fermat joined them later on you could cut the tension with a knife. It wasn't that anyone was acting hostile; they were just weary of each other. Apparently no one had said a word because they didn't know how to start.
When both the boys sat down the silence reigned for a while longer until Alan couldn't take it anymore.
"Could someone please just ask a question and get this over with?"
"Then perhaps I can start? I do have some questions of my own you know."
Six heads went from surprised looking in her direction to confused looking at each other.
After a while, Tintin realized she was the only one who understood what the girl was saying, since only she had a translator. The young girl sighed and said that their guest asked if she could ask some questions first.
Amy nodded with that explanation and awaited their answer.
"What questions could she possibly have? She's the intruder! I'd rather have her answering than questioning." Scott said with a huff. This aggravated the young woman and she stood up and went to stand in front of him.
"In case you didn't notice it, I'm in this room too. Perhaps you didn't see me because your gigantic ego was in the way, but I prefer that if you have something to say to me you say it to my face instead of acting as if I'm air, or not worthy of your time."
She said this in such an icy tone, Scott thought she was about to kill him with a smile on her face. In the meantime Tintin was cracking up.
"Eh Tintin, a little help here?" The eldest Tracy son said with a blush of anger and confusion on his face.
The girl translated literally and added that according to her, Scott asked for it.
"Don't forget she knows what you're saying, while you can't understand a word she says."
"I think I'm going to like this girl! If she can handle Scott than she has my respect. The only females I know who can do that are Grandma and Lady Penelope, even Tintin has sometimes trouble."
Gordon ignored the playful glare he got from Tintin and the angry glare from Scott.
"That's enough Gordon, " Jeff said with a stern edge to his voice.
"Nice as that might be it still hasn't gotten us anywhere, " Virgil reminded them.
"Well before you start questioning her, could someone please take over the job of translating everything she says? I don't feel like repeating her every word and I don't want to say something wrong." Tintin asked.
"W-W-Well we're o-o-o-out." Fermat said pointing towards himself and his dad with a sad look on his face. No one else offered to take over until Jeff spoke up.
"Perhaps we should let this young lady decide who will be her representative, after all he will be the one who will speak to us in her name."
"Sounds like a great idea Dad." Alan said with a grin on his face while the 'young lady' herself gave the head of the family a warm smile.
Tintin got up, took off her headphone and gave it to Ami. "Here you go. Good luck with your choice, " the Malaysian girl said with a grin on her face while she went back to her seat next to Alan who immediately put his arm around her shoulders.
The bluette looked at every face in the room, and as she did so, each got the feeling she was looking right through them. After a few minutes of examining her options she went to one of them and offered him the translator set. While he put it on he looked at the woman standing in front of him in disbelief.
"Would you do me the honor of being my representative and, occasionally, protector against this very weird family? Fermat I believe your name was, right?"
The boy nodded softly but asked her, "Why m-m-me?"
"I have three reasons for picking you: one was that I wished for a person who knew which words to use and which not; you seem like a you man who knows his way with words pretty well. The second was that it had to be someone I felt comfortable talking to; you are someone who makes me feel very much at ease so it is only natural that I chose you"
"And the th-th-third reason?" The girl got a mischievous look in her sparkling sapphire eyes and answered, "I was merely searching for the most sane person in the room."
The boy couldn't help but giggle. "W-w-well I guess you found your m-m-m-man then didn't you?"
The girl giggled back and nodded happily. "It seems I have."
"Okay, now we can get this show on the road." Scott said. The others nodded and Ami prepared to tell them about the ID Setsuna had given her.
"First question: What's your name?"
"I already told Tintin, my name is Mizuno Ami."
As Ami answered their questions, Fermat continued to repeat her answers to the others, his stutter becoming less and less pronounced as time went on.
"Okay then Miss Mizuno, where are you from?"
"Tokyo city, Japan." She tried to lie as little as possible so her answers would be half-truths.
"How did you get onto our island?"
"That is a question I can't answer, for I do not know this myself. It is a mystery that I haven't been able to solve yet."
"How can you not know that? I mean you must have a clue haven't you?"
"The last thing I remember is leaving my home and going to my work. Then everything went black and I woke up in the ocean about 400 meters from your island."
"And we're supposed to believe that?" Scott said gruffly.
"Yes you are! It's the truth! "and in a way it was. This mission was her new work.
"I believe her!"
Everyone looked in surprise at Jeff, all waiting for an explanation.
"Dad?"
"The Radar doesn't lie, Virgil. Very early today it picked up a very small object about 400 meters from the island. Nothing else appeared on the radar and since it was so small, it wasn't seen as a threat and the system didn't alert us."
All the island's inhabitants nodded in understanding. The blue haired girl however looked incredulously at them.
"You guys have a security system with radar? Okay, talk about being paranoid. I mean sure you're well known, but still. You're on an island somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I really doubt there are any paparazzi here."
"You don't understand Miss, my father has made some enemies with his business. Very dangerous enemies. We can't really risk anything with them, " Virgil explained.
The girl pondered this fact for a while and nodded thoughtfully.
"Next question: You said your were on your way to work, what exactly is your work?"
"I work as a doctor in Tokyo's Universal Hospital. But recently I have been thinking about looking for another job."
"And why m-m-may that be?"
"My reasons are my own, I'm sorry, but that is something I do not wish to speak of."
Ami turned away with a sad look in her eyes, thinking about what she left behind at her 'other job'. The rest looked at each other and left the subject alone.
The inquisition went on for a while longer and Ami started to feel tired again. She had answered all of their questions and had succeeded in giving them the impression that she didn't know about their secret, nor how she got here. She had asked her own questions too. Now all she wanted to do was sleep.
"I really hope that was the last of your questions. I am pretty tired and only wish to sleep now."
Once again Fermat translated, "She s-s-says she's tired and hopes we d-d-don't have any more questions so she can sleep."
"I don't think there's any more we need to know. We'll see how this continues when she's fully rested." To the girl he said, "You can rest in one of our spare rooms, since the bed in the Medical Bay isn't all that comfy."
"So I noticed, " she replied, putting grins on Virgil, Alan and Gordon's faces. None of them were big fans of the stiff bed in that room.
"Virgil will show you the room. I'm sorry I can't do it myself, but I have some important business to take care of. Now if you'll excuse me." With these words the Tracy patriarch left the room to go to his office, followed closely by his oldest son.
Virgil got up with a sigh, accepted the gadget from Fermat and turned around to face a very tired Ami.
"Hi, as you can see, I'm Virgil and I guess I'll be your guide for the moment. Now if you'd follow me please, I'll show you to your room," he said, offering her his arm. She gave him a heart-warming smile and took the proffered arm, saying: "I'd be delighted."
"Okay, back to business. Having her on the island is interesting, but we can't let it distract us from our business. I want Gordon and Brains to go up to Thunderbird 5 tomorrow. See what little hasn't been done yet. For now we can let it run automatically. With John not yet back to his old self I wouldn't risk putting him on the spaceship.
"Perhaps Brains can spend some time on the ship?"
"We can't ask that of him, I mean he hardly ever sees his son, we should let them spend this vacation together."
"But perhaps Fermat can join him? We were planning to start training those three anyway. The only one who knows more about TB5 than Brains is John, so if we let them spend some time together on the satellite, they can enjoy each others' company and Fermat can learn how to work the controls on the station. And in the meantime Tintin and Alan can learn to work with Thunderbird 2."
"That might be a great idea, knowing those two they would love every minute of it . Alright, I'll tell Brains about your idea and let him decide."
Brains was working on making some extra translators, since they appeared to be working and would come in handy while Ami was on the island. More importantly they could be used in rescues, which was his reason for inventing them in the first place. They couldn't always rely on John's knowledge of languages. Now he only had to find some sort of device that translated what the boys were saying into the local language so the people there would understand them too.
Suddenly his Communicator started beeping. He pressed a button and Jeff's face appeared.
"Y-Y-Yes Mr T-Tracy?"
"Brains, could you come here for a minute please? I have suggestion you might like."
"S-S-su- Of c-c-co- certainly Mr Tracy. I'll be there in a minute."
The head of International Rescue couldn't help but smile. He had told Brains about their idea and the guy was bursting with enthusiasm. He practically ran away to find his son and tell him the good news.
He softly shook his head at his best friend's behavior. At least he was happy, and in the meantime one of his problems was solved. Then suddenly he remembered he had a phone call to make. He took the phone and dialled the number he had found on the internet. A female answered and asked him something in another language.
"Excuse me, is this the Tokyo universal hospital?" Jeff asked.
"Yes it is, may I ask who I'm talking to?"
"This is Jeff Tracy, I wanted to ask you some questions."
"Of course Mister Tracy, I'm not sure if I'll be able to answer them, but I'll try my best."
"Thank you, I appreciate your effort. Now I was wondering if a certain Ami Mizuno works at this hospital."
"Dr Mizuno? Of course Sir! She's one of our best. Unfortunately she isn't here right now, but I can connect you to her superior if you'd like."
"I would be very grateful if you would. Thank you."
"No problem Sir. Don't hang up please."
Jeff had to wait for a minute, but eventually got another female on the line.
"Good-day Sir, I heard from our receptionist that you wish to talk about Dr Mizuno? What do you wish to know?"
"I was hoping that you could tell me something about her work as a doctor. I heard she was looking for another job and I might be interested in hiring her."
"So she actually did it? I guess I can't blame her. I would do the same if I were in her situation."
Jeff Tracy looked at the phone in surprise.
"Alan!"
Alan and Tintin had been sitting next to the pool, talking, when Fermat ran towards them out of the villa, a huge smile on his face, barely able to contain his happiness. Alan got up and caught his friend before he ran into him.
"Wow, slow down Fermat. What's the matter?"
"My d-d-dad and I, we're going u-u-u-up to TB5 tomorrow. My f-f-f-father is going to teach me how to work the controls up there."
"That's great Fermat! I'm so happy for you. I'm sure you and your dad will have fun."
"T-t-that's not all; I heard that you and Tintin are g-g-g-going to be trained t-t-too."
"We are? Wow, awesome!" He turned to face his girlfriend. "You heard that Tintin?"
"Yes I did, sounds like it's going to be a great summer, don't you agree?"
The two boys nodded with big smiles on their faces. Then they heard the engines of Tracy 2.
"Oh great seems like mom and dad are back from mainland," Tintin said before running to the plane's landing spot to go and greet her parents.
Things had quieted down. Gordon was back in the pool doing his usual laps, Virgil was playing the piano, Scott was going through some plans of TB1 in his room, Alan was helping Fermat pack his things to go into space and Tintin was helping her mother make dinner. (With all the commotion they had skipped lunch, which meant that the boys were going to be very hungry.)
"So you think it's possible?"
"Yes Mr Tracy, I wouldn't be surprised. There are a lot of things in this world that we don't understand yet. This young woman is probably one of those things."
"If this is true then she would be a huge asset if the Hood were to escape."
"Indeed she would be, but not only then. If she is as powerful as you think she is, then she could help a lot during missions."
"But it seems as if she doesn't know about any of this."
"Then I guess, we'll have to educate her."
So that was the sixth chapter, I deeply apologise for the very late update. School was hell and I had no real inspiration for this story, but now I do again!
Oh and for the people that don't like the way Scott acted in this chapter, it was necessary! Everything will be explained later in the story!