Hi, again. =) Me, with more. Thanks, Thunderbird Shadow, Bow Echo, Tikatu, Creative Girl and Whirl Girl, and "hi, there," KensiBlye! Edited yet more.
22
Thunderbird Shadow, high in the air over the Midlands, former U.K.-
It had started to rain; the droplets spattering Shadow's sleek canopy, then sliding backward in narrow, speed-shriveled lines. Jeff watched them a while, sensing his daughter's impatience, but hesitant, still.
Heavy clouds swept past them in banners of grey, streaming mist. Kayo's red, low-light instrument panel was reflected back from the canopy, making it seem that ghostly planes and pilots were just outside, on both flanks. No help, there.
"Tanusha," said the Colonel, after clearing his throat, "how much do you remember about your other family?"
"You mean, the Hood?" she snapped, spitting her uncle's false name like it tasted bad. "More than I want to. He's not my family, Dad. You are."
Jeff smiled, the expression lost in that beeping, humming darkness, but perfectly clear in his voice.
"You're my daughter, Princess. You have been since Lee and I answered Kyrano's distress call, and came to rescue you… but, there's more to your background than that. I… You'll have to forgive me, Tanusha. When you keep something quiet, this long… it's hard to open up. Hard to know where to begin."
Kayo had started breathing hard. Very slightly, she shook her head, no.
"If you try to tell me that the Hood is really my father…"
"No," Jeff cut her off, reaching forward to place a firm hand on the girl's rigid shoulder. "He's a usurper, who had both of your parents killed. None of that changes who you are now. You're Tanusha Kyrano-Tracy, my beautiful girl. You have a grandma and five brothers who love you with all they've got, just like me. Nothing I'm going to tell you could ever threaten that, Princess."
He could see her face, dimly reflected on the inside of the Bird's perma-glass canopy. Saw and heard a gloved hand reach up to dash at her vivid green eyes.
"I love you, too, Daddy," she told him, her voice a low, ragged whisper; barely detectable over the muted noise of engines, rain and night-wind. "I don't remember much, before you broke into that hole and pulled me out. My mother tried to protect me. I don't remember her face, very well, but I think she was beautiful."
Jeff nodded.
"She was," he said. "Kyrano was a very lucky man. He was also the Kyrano, head of his family, until the Hood had him murdered, along with your mom. Lee and I got there too late to prevent their deaths… but we did save you, Princess, and I'm grateful to Heaven for that. You were just a shivering wisp of a girl. Didn't know how to smile or hug… but you were alive. That much, at least, I could do for my friend, Kyrano. I could raise his child."
"What…" Kayo began, her voice thick and scratchy with unshed tears. "What does this have to do with Chancellor Shaw? Is he using my connection to the Hood as blackmail, Dad? Is that it?" Because she would jump from that streaking dark Bird, rather than harm her adopted family.
"No, TinTin, it isn't that," he assured her, once again reaching forward to give her slim shoulder a pat. "It's more complicated, and goes back much further in time, to before the last conflict."
"I'm not that old," she snipped, "and neither are you. Grandma, maybe."
Jeff snorted.
"Don't let Ma hear you say that," he chuckled. Then, growing serious, again, "I'll tell you what Pa told me, Princess. It's not a pretty story, and I don't know much beyond what I got told, but… Back before the last conflict, when every nation was poised on the brink of war, with Richter aiming for world domination, and the United States, France, Persia and England at odds with Russia and China… there were some terrible weapons developed. Out of that time came super-flu, cyborg technology, gen-mod attack dogs, earthquake triggers, weather control and, um… and the so-called "Special Soldier" program."
Here, Jeff paused, hearing the rest of the story in his father's rumbling bass voice; delivered as they'd stood there smoking, leaning against a split-rail fence, the night before he'd left to join the Space Corps.
"They had the technology to take service members with "promising" traits, harvest cells and alter their genetics. They made weapons. Living, powerful, used-to-be-human battle equipment. Only… their creations rebelled. Didn't want to fight their handlers' battles. Especially not against their own abused kind. And that's where the picture gets fuzzy…"
Jeff paused, as Grant Tracy had, that long-ago night.
"There were many cell-lines and Specials developed. Not just in the States. But… other than the Kyranos and Kanes, all I know much about is us. The Tracys."
Kayo had half turned in her seat to stare at him, green eyes gone very wide and rejecting.
"That's just legend, Dad. Horror and action movie stuff. You can't really mean that we're… I mean..."
"We're descended from that program, Princess. Your old family, and your new one, both. The original Tracy, the one they cultured from some hot-shot fighter pilot… didn't do like all the rest. He didn't go ape-shi… Pardon me, Tanusha. He didn't go nuts and kill all his handlers. Just found a way to escape from his cell at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, leaving only concussions and half-choked guards in his wake. He wouldn't have got very far, but a young lady in a red pickup truck spotted him walking by the side of the road, and pulled over. Must've been a good-looking cuss. Runs in the family."
Kayo managed the ghost of a smile for his joke, but clearly was not in the mood for humour. Not in the face of all this. Clearing his throat, again, Jeff pressed on.
"Anyhow, she gave him a lift and provided shelter, just before the last conflict erupted. Her name was Jessie Anne Wright, but she changed it, once they got married. He didn't have a first name, to begin with. Picked "Jake", after she told him he needed one. The rest is family history. Since then, we've stayed low and kept out of trouble, until I went and joined the Space Corps, then started International Rescue. I, uh… didn't mean to cause a ruckus. But, that's how I met your father, Kyrano… and found out there was more than one surviving Special family. The Kyranos made it, too, by keeping to themselves and living underground. Avoiding contact with what they called 'typicals'."
"Except for the Hood," cut in Kayo. "He's been nothing but public, and bloody awful."
Jeff nodded, shifting position in the padded rear seat.
"Decided he was sick of hiding. Wanted to make regular humans afraid. Turn them into his slaves. Kyrano didn't agree, and tried to stop him, with my help."
They were silent for a bit, watching the rain clouds break past them in hissing and pattering bursts. From time to time, there was a brief spear of brilliant white lightning, followed by muttering thunder. Then,
"Special how?" asked Tanusha, sounding troubled. "What is it that makes us so different, Dad?"
Jeff sighed. Raking a big hand through his dense, grey-brown hair, he said,
"The Tracy line was selected for strength, endurance and speed, princess… with odd new traits springing up, as each generation appears. Don't know how else to explain Gordon's speed in the water, John's near-psychic hacking ability… or Virgil's strength. That first Tracy's genes were tweaked so that his descendants became more than human. Took a lot of tries and false starts, though. Their first real success was Jake… only he didn't choose to be used as a weapon. He went AWOL, instead. Found himself a pretty girl and settled down. We always do."
Shadow had been placed on autopilot, heading due north for Scotland. This freed Kayo to think and ask questions, without maybe crashing her plane.
"That's what's got the chancellor's knickers in a twist, then? He's discovered what we can do, and he wants us pressed back into service?"
Jeff nodded.
"I'm afraid you're right, Princess… and I don't think he means to give us a choice in the matter. Shaw's already tried blackmail, and nearly killed the young intern who warned me about his special holding cells."
Sounded bad, the girl acknowledged, but then,
"What about me, Dad? I'm a Tracy by love and adoption… a Kyrano through stupid biology. What are my parameters? The Hood doesn't depend on physical strength, that I've ever seen."
Kayo heard her father move restlessly, as though his worried thoughts made it impossible to find a comfortable position. After a bit, he said,
"The Kyranos are psions, Tanusha. They have gifts ranging from mind control, to full-on TP and TK."
"I don't," she reminded him; feeling relieved and disappointed, both.
"Not sure why not," her dad told her. "Your biological father was stronger than the Hood, but a lot more ethical. In the end, I guess that's what killed him."
"No," Kayo snapped back. "His brother killed him. Would have gotten me, too, or stolen me, if you hadn't been there with Uncle Lee. Maybe it's better I don't have any weird mind powers, Dad. I want to be like the rest of you. I don't want to control people."
Just for a moment, she halfway recalled something terrible; something she'd done that had stabbed her adopted family right to the heart. Drawing a deep, shaky breath, TinTin shook her head.
"I don't have any strange powers. I'm strong, athletic and fast, is all... like a Tracy." Then, hurriedly changing the subject, "This meeting in Edinburgh… who's going to be there, Dad? Not the GDF. That's a radioactive desert. An access-controlled disaster zone." She sensed, rather than saw, her father's baffled shrug.
"Me, for one, and the Mechanic's people, the cyborg Kanes. Probably the Kyranos, as well. Kane said there are other families. Seven or eight in total; he wasn't very clear how many."
"I'm going, too," the girl decided aloud, a hint of challenge creeping into her voice. "You'll need backup, Dad, and that's me. We don't face danger, alone."
"And if they try to reclaim you?" he asked, as though that fear was worse than the thought of risking his life.
"I'll say, 'No thanks. I'm a Tracy', and fight my way out, by your side."
His smile felt warm and loving, like a brush of pipe-smoke and unshaven cheek.
"I hope we won't need to do any fighting, Tanusha… but, if it comes down to it, there's no one I'd rather stand up with than you and your brothers."
He was squeezing her shoulder, again, so Kayo reached up and across to press her father's big hand.
"They don't know, do they?" she suddenly asked. "You haven't told the boys any of this!"
"Just Scott," he admitted. "I've raised all six of you like normal, happy, innocent kids. Away from government interference, as much as possible. My Pa waited to mention all this, and so did I. It's a lot to carry around, Princess, and I just couldn't do it to them. Not until Scott asked about the Hood's obvious, unending hatred."
"He hates us because you took me?" she guessed.
"More than that. It's because we're out here in the world, living among regular humans… and because we're not "pure", anymore. Lucinda Taylor was a beautiful woman, and the love of my life, but she wasn't a Special."
"And that bothers the creep?" Kayo scoffed, snorting, "Good! I'll marry Captain Rigby, tomorrow."
A sudden, sharp flare of surprise and reflexive rejection blazed from her father.
"Rigby? Marry?! But you're only nineteen! He has to be at least…"
"Twenty-six," Kayo filled in, smiling a little. "Down, Killer! I was joking… mostly. I haven't gotten that serious. Yet."
"At all," her father corrected. "You hardly know the man! He might be working for Shaw."
"At least I didn't just pick him up on the side of the road," Kayo teased mischievously. "Compared to Umpty-Great Grandma Jessie, I'm a pillar of iron restraint!"
"You're an incorrigible brat… but I suppose it's partly my fault. I may have spoiled you, somewhat."
Kayo smiled in the dim red cockpit glow. Then, she changed the subject again, asking,
"Any special coordinates, Dad? Or is it just Edinburgh, in general? It was a big city, back in the day, and a huge, glassy wasteland, now."
"Good question," he admitted. "I received a psionic message, like Kyrano used to send. It contained time and place, but no specific coordinates. That being the case, here's the plan: you get us there, then decloak Shadow and circle overhead a few times. We'll see if that stirs up a response. If yes, we play it by ear; follow their lead. If not, we drop back and punt; head back to the Reservation. I have a feeling that this meeting is vital, though. I think they'll show up."
The girl nodded, turning her attention back to the thrill and escape of a wild, rainy night-flight. She couldn't quite visualize those other Kyranos, much less the rest of the Specials. They were nothing but names and silhouettes; legendary monsters she'd be facing by next afternoon.
"I'll bet it's about the alien derelict," she assured herself, and him. "I'll bet they want to help out."
"And stay away from Chancellor Shaw," said her father, staring back out at the night. "We can't be the only ones he's gone after… but he won't succeed, TinTin. I intend to protect my family, and everyone else's. If they need IR's help, they've got it, no matter what's happened before."
Hands on the controls, feeling Shadow slice through the air like an invisible dagger, Kayo nodded.
"We're not weapons," she said, "But we sure as h*ll know how to fight."
It was a sign of her father's distraction, that he didn't notice the cuss word, at all. Just drummed the fingers of his right hand on the armrest, and silently worked out a plan.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Mars, in the crowded cockpit of Thunderbird 3, a few hours later-
"What do you mean, he's 'gone'?" Scott demanded, in a carefully controlled, quiet voice. Alan spread his hands, looking confused.
"I mean gone, Scott. As in, not here, anymore! Havok and Fuse are still where I put them, sleeping it off… but, the Hood just up and vanished. Guess maybe he took off while we were working that mess with the crane?"
The young, golden-haired astronaut looked just about ready to cry. As it was clearly no use hammering Alan, Scott muttered an oath and pivoted to face John, who was already hard at work on his virtual data screen, searching. Virgil was present, as well, with Gordon and the little time-bender, plus the Mechanic and Beech. Standing room only, in a cockpit designed for just two.
"John?!" growled the tall field commander, "Tell me something I want to hear, Little Brother."
"I'm looking, Scott… So's Eos and, um… the Martian Secure Net." John's sea-green eyes were narrowed in concentration as he swiped and tapped at that midair virtual screen. About the time that he said, "Nothing, Scott. The Hood isn't anywhere on Thunderbird 3, or this base."
…Kane lunged across the cockpit to confront him, grabbing for the astronaut's left arm, with its suddenly red-gleaming wrist comm.
"That's yours?" he accused, as the redhead shoved his snatching hand aside. "The A.I. that attacked me belongs to you?"
The atmosphere, already tense, turned electric. Kane was powerful, but injured. Meanwhile, John's environment suit made him strong enough to perform a rescue on Jupiter… and he wasn't backing down.
"First, he doesn't belong to me. Jaeger's a friend. Second, if he attacked you, he probably had a good reason."
Virgil and Cody had both started forward, intent on calming the Mechanic, while Scott, Gordon and Alan moved to surround and push aside John. Tried to, anyhow. With that suit, in the right mood, he was d*mn near unstoppable.
"Okay, you two, enough 's enough," Virgil ordered, surprising everyone. "We've got a legitimate, five-alarm threat running loose somewhere…" (A problem Kane didn't seem too worried about, Virgil noticed. Hunh.) "…and the last thing we need is a fight. Stand down, both of you."
Kane looked from one Tracy to the other. He hurt all over, and needed a recharge, having spent far too much power creating a very unusual drone. Wanted to trust his mongrel allies, but…
"I want the truth, Spaceman," he rumbled. "I'll tell you what I've done with the Hood, and you explain that effing A.I. It came from the Hunter, didn't it? It's the one I was trying to capture, in Scotland."
"Wait, you've got the Hood?" Scott cut in, not sure how relieved he should be. "Is he even alive?"
The Mechanic's cold amber gaze flicked his way, briefly.
"I said that I'd trade information. You first, Tracy. When did you acquire that thing, and why did it attack me?"
All of their wrist comms flashed red, briefly, then came back online, altered in ways that the GDF engineers couldn't handle. Said John,
"Yeah. Met him some time ago. He was the Hunter's A.I., awakened by accident, when a salvage crew got too close. I caught him in an electronic trap, and brought him up to Thunderbird 5, then let him out to help control the alien derelict and nanites. He's called Jaeger. It's old German. Means "hunter"."
Scott whipped around, seized his shoulders, and shook him.
"Dammit, John! That's not the kind of thing I need to be hearing, last! Do you have any idea how dangerous that monster is?!"
John's stance was rigid, his muscles bunching, but he did talk, rather than shove Scott off of him.
"That's exactly why I didn't tell you about him, Scott. You wouldn't get it. You wouldn't give him a chance to learn from us, and alter his own programming. He's intelligent, Scott… like Eos. He can adapt. He has been."
"Why," growled Kane, stalking forward, "did it attack me?"
John's gaze seemed to un-focus, for just half a heartbeat, as though he'd seen, and reacted to, something they couldn't. Coming back to the present, the astronaut turned to Kane and said,
"You were headed for Thunderbird 3, while no one else was aboard but some very dangerous prisoners. He remembers you, too, Mechanic, and he thought you were planning to steal our ship, or free the Hood. He hacked in for a look at your purpose. Then, once he learned what he needed to, Jaeger backed off."
The Mechanic was silent for a while, processing all of this. Then, grudgingly, he nodded.
"It might have looked that way," he admitted. "But I had other business. I agree with Ramrod that your "friend" is dangerous… but so am I, and that doesn't seem to be stopping our alliance."
"Okay, but… what about the Hood?" prodded Gordon, easing up with his med-kit. Wasn't sure what he could do for a wounded cyborg, but it was obvious that Kane needed help. "Where is he?"
The Mechanic shifted position; grinding and clanking like an overloaded mine-car. Addressing his words to Virgil, he said,
"I've had him dropped where he can't cause any trouble. He's got an altered collar on him, and he's been left at the bottom of a crevasse at the south pole, guarded by one of my drones. As long as he's time-locked, the conditions won't harm him. If he breaks free, he's dead."
Jerking his partly shaved, tattooed head at the cockpit windows, Kane added,
"Once we've dealt with that alien ship, I can come back and get him. He needs to face me in combat, not be taken away by the GDF. They can't hold him, and you know it."
"So, he's alive?" Virgil asked him, again. "Your word on that, Kane?"
"I didn't kill him," the Mechanic replied. "And I don't know how much my 'word' means to you lot, but I'll give it… so long as you don't interfere in my battle."
A beeping noise from the Bird's comm had drawn Alan up to the pilot's seat, for a look. Now, the young astronaut turned to the others and said,
"Hey, uh… guys? The derelict's still slowing down, and a lookout post on Deimos shows it starting to light up. I think we don't have as much time as we thought we did, fellas. I think its waking up."