Cat and Mouse
A Thunderbirds Movieverse fanfic
by Timeguardian
Chapter Ten
The sound of voices broke into Scott's consciousness.
Opening his eyes, it took a moment for the room to come into focus. When he did, Scott was surprised to see Lady Penelope and Parker along with Lady Cassandra and two of her guards. What are they doing here?
None of them were focused on him, so he decided to keep quiet for the moment to see what he could find out.
Lady Penelope chanced a quick look at a Scott and noticed that his eyes were finally open. Inwardly she was relieved – her plan of distraction involved freeing him enough to help.
Still, her declaration of having unfinished business with Lady Cassandra was met with a peal of laughter.
"Oh, is the mighty secret agent pissed that she let her quarry get away when last we met?" Lady Cassandra taunted.
A flash of anger rose through her, and Lady Penelope impulsively stepped forward only to be brought up short by the two guards pointing guns in her.
Amused now, Cassandra reached up to brush her hair braid off of her shoulder and then spoke to her guards. "Please – if she feels like she can take me down, who am I to stop her from trying? Stand down."
The guards gave her a confused look, their weapons still drawn.
Lady Cassandra was irritated now, her face nearly as red as her hair as she shouted. "Do not make me repeat myself again: I said STAND DOWN!"
The guards finally did as she asked, taking a step back and putting their weapons away.
Satisfied now, Cassandra moved closer to Lady Penelope and quickly swung around with her body, her leg outstretched.
Penelope ducked quickly, attempting to move into a foot sweep.
The scene was surreal in its own right – Scott watched transfixed as Lady Penelope and Lady Cassandra fought intently. Penelope was holding her own by blocking many of Cassandra's hits but judging by the looks on the guard's faces, the order that they were given to stand down could be discarded with at any time.
That was also when he noticed that Parker was not in his immediate line of sight.
Scott's curiosity was up, but soon he had his answer when he heard sounds of movement near him. Parker!
The manservant moved quickly behind him. Scott's hands were tied behind him but seconds later he felt the tension of the ropes disappear. He freed my hands.
Scott cast a quick side glance to Parker, but he had already moved back towards Lady Penelope and the fight she was in.
He flexed his hands but kept them behind the chair while trying not to wince as proper circulation was restored.
They had to have some sort of plan, but what?
Alan descended down the stairs until he reached the bottom of the ship. He knew his target was the engine room with the end result of taking control of the ship – or at least taking its weapon capabilities out of action.
The problem with the plan was that there were sure to be people manning the engine room. He could probably take on one person, but he had no clue on what to do if there were more.
Alan found a hallway branching off in two directions. Stopping long enough to get his bearings, he turned right, the direction he knew that would take him closer to the rear of the ship.
Soon enough, he noticed that there were a lot of conduits flowing from this direction towards back where he came from. There were also very few doorways, along with a few recesses built into the hallway walls.
Finally at the end of the hallway, he found a large red door with what looked like a sensor door lock. Bingo - that has to be the engine room, but how do I get in?
He was still trying to think of possible solutions when he heard a transmission come through his telecom. "Thunderbird Five to Alan."
Looking around quickly, Alan found a recessed section in the hallway close to the engine room and ducked into it.
Alan lifted his arm to check his tele-com only to find Gordon's face staring back at him.
Alan hissed. "Are you TRYING to give me a heart attack? What if we are being monitored?"
"Not happening," Gordon reassured him. "John just gave me the frequency mod I needed to reach you. I promise you, no intruders are listening."
The mention of John's name made Alan pause. "John? He's safe?"
"A little beat up and dehydrated, but he's intact," Gordon explained. "He's with dad and Virgil and they are on their way to you guys now."
Alan turned his attention back to the hallway. One of Cassandra's men came into view, so he ducked back into his temporary hiding place. "Well, unless we can find a way to put a dent in the operations of this battleship, Dad, John, and Virgil are going to be flying into some pretty stiff opposition."
"So that's why you are trying for the engine room."
Alan nodded as he looked around the small recessed area he was in, looking for ideas. "My optimist side was, but there is a little too much activity down here. I still think I can pull it off though. All I need is a computer interface – and I think I just found one."
Sure enough, Alan spotted a small square computer panel was built flush into the wall behind him.
He turned his tele-com towards the panel to give Gordon a view of it before he tried to access its systems. After a few minutes of trying, Alan stepped back and sighed in frustration. "Gordon, we have a problem. The system has a serious level of encryption right here – it doesn't want a password, it's looking for a numerical key of some sort."
"Unless you can hack in right there you'll need to get into the heart of the engine room."
Alan looked around the corner of his hiding spot towards the hallway leading to the engine room. There were at least three more people he could see milling about now. Great, my odds keep going down. "That's not going to happen – I'm outnumbered here, believe me."
"Hold on Alan, let me see what we can do. Don't go anywhere."
"Like I have a choice," Alan quietly retorted. "Hurry, will ya?"
Trouble is brewing – more coming soon.
Till next time,
Timeguardian