Due to various restraining orders unfortunately I don't believe I will ever own Thunderbirds…
Chapter 4!
Jeff looked around the chaos that had once been a state of the satellite he had spent millions developing. Everything was either burning, burnt or a pile of ash. As he looked down at his sons he realised how bad this was.
Scott was practically cradling John, whilst the blond babbled to his older brother who was trying to keep him awake but clearly wanting to rest himself – struggling to keep his grip on his brother and eyes open with every passing minute. Despite their obvious exhaustion though, both boys were surprisingly perky. Scott laughing at the appropriate points and John making small gestures with his hands to accentuate the facts, neither really paying close attention their surroundings. Jeff allowed himself a small smile, it was bad, in fact it classed as a near death experience – but it wasn't awful, not yet.
Shaking all sentimental thoughts from his head, he began to take in the practical side of their problem. The door was still jammed, the little natural light available was being blacked out by 15 inch thick titanium protecting them from the infinite abyss outside meaning they had to rely on the emergency lighting which gave everything a green tinge, and life support functions would stop working in little under two hours. In short, things weren't exactly great.
To top things off though both he and Scott were now injured. Not to the extent where they needed immediate medical attention like John, but bad enough if not treated soon, they could turn nasty. He knew for a fact he had a broken arm and some severely, but if you saw him in the street he looked absolutely fine, just a little singed. Scott on the other hand looked a sight. There was blood staining a good proportion of his face from a cut just behind his hairline, and he had burns of varying severity all over his uniform which no doubt had gotten through to his skin.
John however was in a worse state than both of them put together. As if being blown up once wasn't enough, he had already been thrown into a wall of borderline indestructible steel and then been left for almost an hour to inhale gases which were unlikely to enhance his life expectancy , and then there were all the cuts and burns he had been exposed to during the explosion itself.
Now he was critical.
Back down on earth they were doing everything they could to get their guys back online before they either fell out of geo-stational-orbit or the life support systems failed. But it wasn't going well. Gordon and Alan had gone to the satellite relay station to see if they would have any more success but had yet to contact the main console on their progress.
Jeffs' deadline of half an hour was quickly running out and so were ideas. Every attempt they had made at manual override had been blocked. The irony was the program blocking the override had actually been installed to protect them from an enemy trying to hack into their organization – and now it seemed that their cautiousness may just mean their destruction. They could un-install the program, but it would take almost 6 hours and require a voice authentication code from Jeff. Then Brains had a brainwave…
Scott looked up at the time readout on the computer, one of the only things that hadn't been obliterated in the events, it had been almost twenty minutes since they had last contacted base, He knew Jeff was doing all he could not to go crazy. They all were.
Except John, who appeared to be enjoying his time in critical condition on a doomed space mission, but Scott knew this was not the case. He had felt the fever coming through from the moment they had arrived, he was just delusional. It definitely did not come under the good thing category, but it made the experience a little more amusing as John felt an unquenching thirst to tell Scott about everything he liked – no matter how inappropriate or how little Scott wanted to hear about it.
Halfway through John explaining his rather frightening enthusiasm for spandex, a shrill beeping engulfed the quiet on the space station. Jeff almost launched himself into what remained of the panel, only to see a screen filled with static. Whatever it was trying to warn him was not getting through. To make the situation just a little more intolerable, the beeping was unrelenting.
Brains scowled at the monitor. He had known the satellites condition was getting worse with every minute, and it was imperative that he contact them soon. He wasn't exactly worried the plan wouldn't work; it would work, even without their co-operation. It was just kinder to let them know of the oncoming events before he put his theory to the test.
Jeff was leaning against the console when he heard it. Just above the incessant beeping. A quiet voice made its way through the half melted speakers. A Quiet stuttering voice which, as it had with Scott earlier, made Jeff smile. Brains. He dragged himself to his feet with his one good arm, and rebooted the communication system. Then he heard Brains' voice resound through the ship, clearly worried by the lack of response. "Tell me you have good news Brains" Jeff said, the smile audible in his voice.
Brains smiled as he heard his friends' voice come over the monitor. He quickly explained his plan and waited for the go ahead – knowing he would need a big leap of faith on Jeffs part to allow him to follow it through. Whilst he waited for a response he looked across to Virgils sleeping form on the sofa. He knew there would be hell to pay for not waking him up, but the kid needed rest, they all did. Anyway it would be another thirty minutes until Jeff could even consider coming back to earth. If he had the chance that was. Finally he got Jeffs response and put the plan into action.
Jeff sat with his sons as they watched every light, every system, every little molecule of energy within the satellite diminish until they were surrounded by darkness.
Everyone was back at the main control with Brains now, awaiting to hear the fate of their colleagues. They were each staring intently at the screen, trying to ignore the silence.
Scott tried to hold onto his little brother as the anti-grav unit stopped working as well, not wanting him to fly into some random piece of the engineering sector and cause himself anymore damage. He watched his father grab Johns other arm, and then lifted his head to smile at him through the mask covering the lower half of his face.
Brains hit the button. There was nothing to do but wait.
Despite their best efforts John was now unconscious and looked on the brink of death. Then the beeping none of them missed returned – but this time it was welcome. Within moments all of them were back on their feet, except John who had dropped unceremoniously to the floor with a resounding crash. Jeff beamed at his eldest son as the computer said the words they'd been waiting to hear.
"Thunderbird 5 is Online"