Chapter Thirteen
"Emergency call, Scott! This is a bad one! Thousands of peoples' lives are at stake here!"
"But the time gate!" Scott cried into the microphone embedded in his helmet. "It's only one minute more!"
"Brains, shut it off!" Virgil yelled, tearing his helmet from his head. "Scott, we can try this when we get back. You think Father would want us to let people die?"
"Shit!" Scott yelled, taking his helmet off as well. "Turn it off, Brains."
Brains complied, with only fifteen seconds to spare.
"Tin-Tin, Gordon, John, Virg, with me. Kyrano, I need you and Grandma up there to man Base. Brains, stick by that goddamn machine until we get back! Alan, where's the rescue?"
"Halmahera Island, Scott! Indonesia!"
Everyone fled the lab as fast as their legs could carry them, leaving Brains behind with the phase converter. He stared at it as he lowered himself onto a nearby stool. They'd only been seconds away from possibly opening the time gate that could bring Jeff Tracy back to them. And then a rescue call.
"Bad goddamn timing," he muttered. Then his eyes widened as the words reverberated in his head. Bad timing? "More like perfect timing," he whispered, rising to his feet. "Shit."
Jeff ran into the great room and veered left into the small hallway that, he found, led into a second, smaller chamber. He screeched to a halt as he took in three dead bodies – the members of the faction who'd been with Penelope. Then he looked up and saw the most amazing machine he'd ever laid eyes on. It looked almost like an oversized mirror, but instead of reflective glass, the middle of it held something that looked very, very familiar.
Those blue waves of light. That's what I saw back in the lab. Right before...it can't be.
He heard a whimper and jerked his eyes to the right. There, next to the machine, stood none other than the man Jeff could only assume was Belah Gaat himself. To Jeff's horror, he held Penny tightly against his body, his arm wrapped around her neck. He had a machine pistol resting against the side of her head.
"Penny!"
"I was right. You are alive."
"You must be Gaat," Jeff seethed, gently lowering Brains to the floor.
"Correct. Jefferson Tracy," he replied, tightening his grip on Penelope. "I would suggest you drop your weapon, or very soon her ladyship will be joining your genius friend there in death."
Jeff's eyes darted around the room. Belah jerked Penny, who cried out in pain.
I don't have any other choice. If I don't do as he says, she's as good as dead.
Reluctantly, Jeff let the rifle clatter to the stone floor.
"Excellent. I assume you know what it is you're looking at," he said, nodding toward the machine.
"A way to travel through time."
"Very good. I'm impressed." Belah moved slowly in front of the machine until he was only two feet away from the liquid-like wavering blue light in the middle. "It doesn't matter what you do after I step through that," he said confidently. "Because once I arrive at my destination, I'm going to kill you. And then you won't even have been here."
"Why don't you just kill me now? I'm standing right here before you."
"I suppose I could. After all, I wasn't exactly expecting you to show up on my doorstep."
"Just let her go. She can't do you any harm."
Belah considered for a moment as he stared his enemy down. "No, I don't think so. You see if I let her go that will make you happy. And I simply cannot allow that. And even if I kill you now, there are certain other things I have regretted not doing that I would like to change. No, I think the best solution to my problem is to make sure you die back in 2033, like you were supposed to."
"That doesn't make any sense. You already have control of this entire planet. What more could you want?"
"It's not that I want more than I have, Tracy. You don't understand anything. I want to relive it. To do it all again. The satisfaction I gained from killing your family members is satisfaction I have not found since."
"You are a sick fucking bastard."
Belah laughed. "Farewell, Jeff Tracy. Here's something to remember me by."
With that, Belah pushed Penelope away from his body. Her eyes met Jeff's as Gaat fired. The bullet tore into her head and she fell to the floor with a sickening thud.
"Penny!" Jeff cried, racing forward. "Nooo!"
Belah laughed maniacally and turned to face the time gate. As he fell next to Penelope's body, Jeff caught movement in his peripheral vision. When he looked, he couldn't believe his eyes.
A bright flash of light leapt from his right, across the room, and into Belah's arm. Belah screamed in pain as his arm fell to the floor. He turned, his face a mixture of shock and disbelief as he sank to his knees. Slowly he struggled to grab the pistol from his severed limb as Jeff scrambled from Penny to Brains, who still weakly held the laser rifle in his hands.
"Brains, my God, you're alive."
"I-I...dream..."
"No, Brains, you're not dreaming. I need to get back to the past. I need to stop Scott from landing on that rescue," Jeff said frantically, lifting the engineer's head and shoulders into his arms. "Please, Brains, help me."
A shot rang out and a bullet tore through Jeff's shin. He cried out in agony and grabbed the rifle from Brains' hand. Whirling on his foe, he fired and ripped a hole clean through Belah's skull.
Belah Gaat dropped to the floor, never to move again.
Jeff groaned as blood poured from his leg. "Brains, the machine. Can you get me back to the right time?"
Brains nodded as Jeff ripped his shirt off and tied it in a tourniquet just above his knee. Once finished, he lifted Brains to an almost standing position and hobbled him over to what looked like the machine's control panel.
He lifted the genius' hand to the pad and said, "Come on, Brains. You can do it. Come on."
Brains' fingers moved across the pad ever so slowly. He punched four keys before going limp in Jeff's arms. Jeff lowered him to the floor, tears stinging his eyes. "Was that it? Was that it, Brains? Can I go through now?"
Brains didn't respond. Jeff bowed down and held the man in his arms, his cheek resting against the engineer's. "Please, Brains. How do I know if it's right to go? How?"
"A-Alpha..." Brains' fading voice whispered into his ear. "Gamma..."
Jeff pulled away and looked into eyes that held no more light. He saw the ghost of a smile on Brains' lips as he spoke his last words.
"You...win."
He exhaled slowly, and this time, did not take in another breath. Jeff lowered him gently to the floor, wincing as he came to his feet. He felt lightheaded, and knew he was losing blood fast. He fell against the control panel and saw ten letters. Two of them were A and G.
"Alpha," he said, pressing the A. "Gamma," he said, pressing the G. He moved toward the middle of the machine's frame, but his mangled leg gave way and he fell to the floor. Turning to look behind him, he saw Belah, Penny and Brains, all lying dead. Just then there was a commotion coming from the hall beyond. He heard loud, angry voices speaking a language he didn't know.
He'd forgotten all about whomever was in the helijet.
Jeff Tracy was out of time.
He struggled to his good leg and faced the blue liquid waves. "Now or never," he said, just as six fully armed men rushed into the room. He crouched and then sprang toward the machine.
The six warriors opened fire as Jeff's legs disappeared into the gate. One of them fired a small missile. It hit the control panel, and exploded in a violent display of sparks and fire. Streaks of what could only be described as lightning bolts shot out from the center of the machine, hitting every one of the men in the chest. Their bodies convulsed as they cried out in pain.
Then the lightning turned inward upon itself, hitting the gate's frame. Slowly it began to melt. Slowly the top of it sagged. The blue liquid shot outward, then collapsed back in on itself.
The one person left alive, a warrior who had stayed out near the helijet to guard against further rebel attacks, turned and watched in horror as an explosion ripped through the side of the temple, sending a fireball miles into the night sky. Then another explosion, and all he knew was darkness.
Brains had been listening in on the communications between Thunderbird 1, Thunderbird 2 and Ruth there at Base. Scott was less than fifteen minutes from his destination. The entire time, Brains had been pacing the lab. He knew something wasn't quite right. Everything that had happened had seemed far too perfectly timed for his liking.
Finally he removed his radiation suit, and turned on both the computer and the generator. He flicked on the phase converter and looked at his watch. "Five minutes," he said. "I have to get him back. I have to."
"ETA to Danger Zone now thirteen minutes," Scott said. "Virg, I'll let you know as soon as I land where to put down."
"F.A.B."
"Base, any word from Brains?"
"No, Scott. In fact, Kyrano just tried to call the lab, but he didn't respond."
"Shit. You don't think he's-"
Scott's voice cut Virgil off. "Damn him! Get down there! He's probably trying to open the gate!"
"We're on our way!" Ruth exclaimed as she and Kyrano scurried out of the Lounge.
"Two minutes," Brains whispered. He watched as each second ticked by. Too slowly for his liking. But he had to wait until the time was right. He knew Scott would kill him for doing this, but something told him he had to.
He heard Kyrano calling out to him, but paid no attention.
"One minute."
Brains reached out, his hand hovering over the small screen across which passed number after number after number. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them and looked at his watch. Ten seconds left.
"Please let this work."
As the second hand slowly hit 12 on his watch, Brains lowered his fingers to the converter. Suddenly he felt something surge through him, an electrical energy the likes of which he'd never felt before. His body stiffened as strange blue waves of light began to appear in front of him, making their way toward his body as though seeking out his warmth.
Thoughts and visions began screaming through his mind as he struggled to maintain lucidity. He felt himself losing control, spiraling into a strange sort of liquid as his eyes fluttered closed. Just as the last tethers to reality began to loose, something slammed right into him, knocking him clear of the converter. He landed hard on the floor and felt it land right on top of him.
Coughing and gasping for air, Brains fought to make his arms and legs move, fought to get whatever was on him, off. He opened his eyes, but his glasses had been knocked clean away, and he could only see enough to tell that the thing atop him wasn't a thing at all. It was a person. He figured someone must have tackled him to get him away from the converter, but it felt too heavy to be either Ruth Tracy or Kyrano.
"Off!" he gasped as he heard the other person groan. Finally he succeeded in pushing himself into a sitting position, while the other person remained covering his legs. He felt around for his glasses and found them an arm's length away. When he put them on and took in the identity of the figure before him, he cried, "Jesus Christ!"
Jeff heard someone yell and fought through the murky depths of unconsciousness. He was alive. He knew it, because he could feel indescribable pain from his leg where Belah had shot him. But who had just yelled? Where was he? Was he still in 2048?
"Mr. Tracy!" Brains cried, pushing the older man off his legs. He knelt next to him as Jeff's eyes fluttered open. "My God, it worked! You're here! Mr. Tracy!"
"Huh?" Jeff moaned as he tried to focus his vision. When the face he was looking at came into view, he was stunned to find that not only was it Brains, but it was a much younger, healthier-looking Brains than the one he'd just seen die. "Brains?"
"Yes!"
"Brains...is that you?"
"Yes, yes! Can you stand?"
"My...my leg."
"What the hell happened?"
"Oh, my God!" Ruth cried as she and Kyrano ran into the lab. "Jeff!"
"Brains...date...what's the date?" Jeff ground out as the engineer helped him to his good leg.
"Date? Uh...it's November, uh...thirteenth."
"Year."
"2033."
Jeff's eyes opened wide. "Where are my sons?"
"On a rescue mission," Ruth said, coming forward and hugging Jeff.
"No," Jeff breathed. "Not to Indonesia."
"Yes," Kyrano nodded. "Why?"
"No!" Jeff yelled, pushing his mother away. The others stared after him as he ran for the exit, ignoring the wound that left a trail of blood behind him. "No! Scott! Scott!"
"What the-?"
"It must be that he knows what will occur," Kyrano offered.
"I knew it!" Brains said. "This rescue! Something goes wrong!"
"Oh, no," Ruth breathed. "Jeff! Wait!"
Jeff's mind raced as he rode the elevator up to the house's main level. He squeezed through the doors before they were even open a foot. Within seconds, he'd made it to his desk in the Lounge, where he slammed the palm of his hand down onto the control panel.
"Scott!" he yelled as his leg finally gave way beneath him. "Scott! Don't land! Goddammit, don't land!"
"Eight minutes out. I have the island in view."
"What're you seeing, Scott?"
"Not a whole helluva lot, Virg. In fact, I don't see any smoke or anything. I thought Alan said this place was raging with fires."
"You mean there's nothing? At all?"
"No."
"Maybe you'd better give Alan a call."
"Maybe." At that moment an emergency channel blared open, squealing in protest as Scott's hands flew to his ears. "What the-?
"Scott! Scott! Don't land! Goddammit, don't land!"
"Father?"
"Scott! Veer west! Now! Do not land on Halmahera!"
"Dad!"
"Do it! There's a missile silo due west of that island! It contains a nuclear missile! Your sensors...pick it up. Destroy it. Destroy it!"
"Holy shit! What the fuck?" Scott yelled as he turned his ship away from the island. "Dad, what's going on? Where are you?"
"Fire delayed missile!" came his father's voice. "And get the hell outta there! And Virgil! Turn back!"
"Jesus Christ, Scott, was that Dad?"
"Do it, Virgil! Turn around now! Fast as you can, go back to Base!"
"What the fuck is going on?"
Scott didn't reply. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and neck as he scanned for nuclear weapons. To his surprise, his radar picked one up right away. "Sonofabitch!" He swooped in above his target and fired a time-delay missile. He watched his radar as it buried itself deep into the earth, then turned back the way he'd come. He throttled Thunderbird 1's engines into high gear and sped away as fast as he could.
As his eyes darted down toward the radar, he saw the flash of light which indicated two rapid explosions, one right after the other.
"I'll be damned," he whispered. "Father! Father, can you hear me?"
He received no reply.
"Dad!"
"Scott," came his grandmother's strangled voice through his speakers. "I think you'd better get back here."
"Dad," he whispered.
Jeff could hear hushed voices surrounding him. At first they were all a blur. He could tell there were several, but couldn't tell who they belonged to. He felt strangely like he was floating above his body, and that slowly he was coming back down into it, settling into himself. His eyes fluttered open and the voices fell silent.
He blinked against the bright lights. At first whatever was in front of him looked like nothing more than blurry basketballs, but as he focused his eyesight, he realized they were the heads of his loved ones.
His loved ones. They were there. He turned his head from one side to the other. They were all there.
Pulling himself into a sitting position, he took in his mother, Kyrano and Tin-Tin on his left. Around the foot of the bed were Brains, Gordon, John and Alan. Scott and Virgil stood at his right along with both Parker and Penelope.
"You're alive," he whispered. "You're all alive."
"As are you, Jeff," Penelope smiled.
He looked at her face...her beautiful, unmarred face. His hand reached slowly up and touched where he remembered a scar. "Your face," he whispered. Then he turned to look at Brains. Pink-cheeked, his blue eyes were full of life, and a broad smile graced his features.
Jeff's hand covered his mouth as he struggled to contain his emotions. "You're all alive. I don't believe it."
"Dad," Scott said, pushing his way up to sit on the bed next to his father. "What happened to you?"
"Scott." Jeff reached out, and to everyone's surprise, grabbed his eldest in a fierce hug. "You have no idea."
"Dad," he mumbled into his father's shoulder as Jeff released his hold. "How did you know about the nuclear missile? Did you really travel to the future?"
"What was it like, Dad?" Alan asked from the foot of the bed.
"I did, Scott. I did travel to the future. It was...it was Armageddon. The Hood was in control of everything. We were...you..." Jeff squeezed his eyes closed and exhaled slowly as the willed the images of devastation he'd witnessed away. When he reopened his eyes, he saw looks of concern upon the faces of his loved ones.
"It doesn't matter," he said, smiling, his hand squeezing Scott's shoulder. "It doesn't matter now because that future isn't going to happen."
"You need to rest, Mr. Tracy," Tin-Tin said, tears glistening in her eyes as she gently pushed him back into the pillows. "We can all talk later after you're feeling better."
"No, Tin-Tin. No, I feel just fine. In fact," Jeff said as sat straight up again, "I feel better than fine. But I don't need a bunch of Mother Hens standing around me. Don't you all have Thunderbirds to keep up? And who the hell is manning Thunderbird 5?"
His sons groaned and rolled their eyes, laughing and joking with each other that it seemed like their father was definitely back, and just the same as usual. Ruth hugged her son briefly, and both Kyrano and Parker bowed before leaving the room.
Penelope laid her hand upon his and was surprised when he grabbed it. "Penny," he said softly.
"Jeff, I'm so glad you've returned. When Scott told me you'd disappeared, I didn't know what I'd do with you gone."
"You would've gone on, Penny. You would've gone on, and you would've survived."
"Survived? What are you talking about, Jeff? And why did you mention my face before? Is something the matter with it?"
"No," he smiled, reaching up to touch the smooth, white skin of her cheek. "Nothing is the matter with it. And nothing ever will be the matter with it."
He settled back into the pillows, realizing suddenly that he really was very tired. Penelope just gave him a quizzical look as his eyes closed. She turned to walk out of the hospital ward but stopped as she reached the door.
"Why do I have the feeling, Jeff Tracy, that you have somehow saved the past...and the future?" Then she turned and disappeared into the hall.
Jeff opened his eyes and smiled as a single tear escaped his eye. He knew he would never tell them what he had seen, the horrors that now, would never be. He would keep it hidden away deep inside himself, as a constant reminder of just how precious a thing time was, and how one seemingly insignificant incident or one wrong decision could change millions of lives in the worst way.
For the future, as he saw it, was yet to be known. A clean slate upon which a new history would be written. A history very different from the one he had seen. Blank pages of an unfinished book stretching endlessly into eternity.
The first thing he would do after he took a short nap, was look up an old friend. He wondered, as he drifted off to sleep, if Jen Clarke...and her daughter Dana...were still living in Florida.
EPILOGUE
If once we close our eyes,
Can we not see the future
Stretching out before us now
In all its glory, shame and beauty,
Vastly reaching back to show
The way to make it change and move?
Can we not as idle passers-by
Do more than gaze upon the stage
Like audience to mad playwright
As puppets dancing through time?
To change our past is but a farce,
But to save ourselves from woeful end...
...Is a wish to save the future
- An original poem by LMC written for this story. Please do not reproduce without the author's permission.