Chapter 8: Homecoming
Brains had remained in the lounge as the five brothers departed on their separate missions. As was protocol on any mission he stayed in contact with Thunderbird 3 while Grandma Tracy talked to Thunderbird 2. However, at almost the same time they had lost contact with both of them. He didn't like being in the dark like that, not knowing what was going on, so he buried himself in his computer trying to find some sort of way to reestablish contact with Thunderbird 5.
Brains was starting to get antsy after two hours had passed. The time it would take Thunderbird 3 to reach Thunderbird 5 and return to earth was about two hours, but they had not seen or heard from them at all. Then the time it should have taken Thunderbird 2 to do a search, pickup Kayo, and return, was also around the two hour mark as well. They should all be arriving home any time now.
Three hours had passed and Brains knew something had gone wrong. Even taking into consideration that Thunderbird 3 was unable to dock with Thunderbird 5, three hours was plenty of time. Scott and Gordon should have found Kayo by now, even if her tracker had been disabled somehow, and be on their way home.
Another half hour passed and he found himself standing on the deck looking up into the bright blue sky. Even if John had been unconscious because of the erratic movements of his bird, three and a half hours was far to long for it to be taking them. Even if they had to tow Thunderbird S back, it shouldn't have slowed them down that much.
Brains looked back into the lounge to where Grandma Tracy was sitting, watching the news for any reports that may involve her grandsons. He was glad that nothing had been reported, but at the same time that would have at least given them some answers. It was almost another half-hour later, while Brains was pacing the length of the lounge, that the proximity alarms on the island started to go off. Brains ran to his computer and brought up island stats, Grandma Tracy coming up behind him.
"It's T…thunderbird 3, she's approaching the island," Brains reported.
"Oh, thank goodness," Grandma Tracy sighed.
"N..no, this is not good," Brains frowned as he looked at the numbers that were flashing on the screen.
"What do you mean? Brains, talk to me," Grandma Tracy ordered as she shook his shoulder slightly.
"She's coming in at the wrong angle, too deep, and she's going way to fast," Brains reported as he typed away at the display, "Thunderbird 3, come in. You need to adjust your heading and speed, Thunderbird 3 can you hear me?" There was nothing on the comms and Grandma Tracy walked to the deck and looked up into the sky.
"I can see her Brains," She called out to him. Brains tore himself away from the screen, there was nothing he could do there unless they could hear him, and from what he could tell they couldn't. "Oh dear," Grandma Tracy gasped as Brains joined her, "She's on fire, Brains." Brains looked up and a large black column of smoke was trailing after the red rocket. Brains stepped father out onto the deck so he could get a better look at her angle and decent. Quickly he figured out just where she was landing, and grabbed Grandma Tracy's hand pulling her back into the house and down into the depths of the building. "Where are we going?" She asked as she was dragged farther down past, the silos to a part of the base she had never been to."
"M…Mr. Tracy knew that there was a chance that one of the birds might have to crash land in the ocean. So, he p…prepared equipment just for that scenario."
"My son, always prepared," Grandma Tracy smiled a little. Brains led her to a hidden dock on the far side of the island, along side it sat two small ships loaded down with all kinds of equipment.
"We've only used them a couple of times, in the beginning when we were still testing the birds," Brains explained as he helped her onboard. They had just reached the bridge of the ship when a thunderous crash rang throughout the cave.
"What was that?" Grandma asked fear in her eyes.
"I expect it was the communications tower," Brains replied as he started the ship up. They were underway in moments and another thunderous sound echoed throughout the air around them.
"And that?"
"A…as long as it doesn't sound like an explosion and burning we should be okay." The boat sped around the island and after a minute or two came into sight of the red rocket that had crashed between two small peaks that jutted out of one of the smaller islands. She was still smoking badly, but the fire seemed to be contained and not spreading. He had hoped that the landing would have put it out, but they were not that lucky.
Brains pulled the ship up next to the rocket and made his way to the top of a large machine that sat in the middle of the ship. It looked like a cannon of some sort, and Grandma Tracy watched as Brains aimed it at the pluming smoke and shot a foamy substance from it. She understood what he was doing, he was extinguishing the fire. Once he was sure the fire was out he made his way back down to the deck and into another small cabin at the other end of the boat. He returned with a stretcher tucked under his arm. Meeting Grandma Tracy at the gangplank he hit the button that extended it to the ground. They made their way to the rocket and Brains entered the emergency code on the access panel on the cargo bay door. The door hissed and slid smoothly open allowing the two to climb into her belly.
"Alan," Grandma Tracy exclaimed as she saw her youngest grandson strapped to the wall of his own bird, still unconscious.
"We're quite l…lucky," Brains mused as he took in the young pilots situation.
"How is this lucky?"
"The rocket could have landed so that he was hanging from the ceiling," Brains pointed out. Grandma Tracy couldn't help but agree with that logic, and helped Brains to disconnect the AED pads. Brains quickly felt for a pulse, and was satisfied when he found it. Deciding to use the stretcher from the bird, Brains unlatched it from the wall, but it took both of them to keep it from falling to the floor. Brains activated the hover function and left Alan with his Grandmother's smothering.
He made his way into the cockpit and found Virgil in the pilot's seat, John in the co-pilots. This caused some confusion for Brains. Alan and John were the astronauts, if anyone was going to pilot Thunderbird 3, it would be one of them, not Virgil. He quickly made his way to the two young men and checked their pulses. Both were strong, but they were both unconscious. He noticed Virgil cradling his left hand and picked it up gently. Virgil twitched at the movement, and Brains was sure that he had broken it. He then lifted his eyelids to see if they would react to the light. They did and Brains sighed in relief. Hopefully the extent of his injuries were to his hand, and the results of extreme space sickness. He then turned to John. His face was black and blue, and blood had run down it in several places. But the blood was dried, it wasn't new, so the wounds were probably from his tumble aboard the space station. He noticed that John was cradling his right hand, and picked it up. He could feel the disconnection of the bones near his wrist and knew it had been broken. He noticed that John was also holding his other arm a little strangely. Brains walked to the other side of the seat and moved his arm a bit, the muscles in his shoulder tensed up, but the astronaut did not even twitch. Brains felt around his shoulder and could feel the collar bone move under his fingers. That would make moving him a bit more difficult. He then lifted his eyelids and frowned when the pupils remained dilated.
"Brains," Grandma Tracy's voice echoed through the hatch, "Can I come up there?" She was hesitant, afraid of what she would see herself.
"Yes, please, and bring a stretcher with you," Brains called back, "I'll need your help moving them." Grandma Tracy made her way into the cockpit and frowned upon seeing the two in their seats unconscious. Brains had made his way back to Virgil and slid back the seat. "I'll g…get his torso, if you would get his feet," Brains instructed. Grandma Tracy jumped forward and as soon as Brains had pulled Virgil half way onto the stretcher she reached down and lifted his feet. Once upon it, Brains strapped him in, making sure to keep his hand in a safe place. He noticed then, the black round device that was attached to Virgil's belt. He pulled it free and laid it on the stretcher next to him. "What is that," Grandma Tracy asked looking at the strange devise.
"Thunderbird 5's memory core. I'm u…unsure as to why they have it though," Brains shook his head, making note that he would look into it later, and then took him back to the cargo bay next to his younger brother. When he returned to the cockpit, Grandma Tracy was spitting into a tissue she always seemed to have on her and was wiping John's face. Brains couldn't help but feel sorry for the older woman, she had already seen her husband and son die before her, he was afraid it would do her great harm if one of her grandsons went too.
Brains cleared his throat and Grandma Tracy looked up, a small smile on her lips, "They haven't let me do that in years. Mind you, they never liked it then either." She stashed the tissue away and helped Brains move John onto the other stretcher that had been attached the the hull. Once secured as best he could, they made their way, one by one, back to the ship. Brains didn't think to close the cargo bay, he was too worried about the boys and wanted to get them back to the island as fast as possible.
It had taken the two over an hour to get the three injured pilots back to the island and to the infirmary. It was time, now, to find out the extent of their injuries. Brains moved to John first, figuring he had had his injuries the longest of the three. He cut off his spacesuit and saw that he had AED patches on him as well. Brains pulled the patches off with a quick jerk as Grandma Tracy approached with a washcloth and basin of warm water. She went to work cleaning him up as Brains used the portable x-ray machine to see the damage to his arms. Both the break in his wrist and his collar bone were clean. He had bruises all over his torso, and Brains x-rayed his chest to find two broken ribs, and several cracked ones. He pulled out the heart monitor, whoever had put the AED patches on him did it for a reason, and placed the patches on his chest. The monitor beeped to life in a steady normal rhythm. He then scanned his arm and started printing out an orange brace for it. These 3D printed braces were a much better solution than the old standby of casting the broken bones, though that was still done on occasion. The brace was printed in a honeycomb structure that only touched his skin at certain points which would help support the bone while it was healing. This allowed the skin to breath and was more comfortable for the patient. He couldn't use the brace on his ribs or his collar bone, so that was done the old fashioned way. With Grandma Tracy's help, he wrapped John's chest to keep the bones as stationary as he could, and then slung his other arm into a tight sling to keep it stationary as well. Brains then turned to his head. He had a few abrasion, and bumps as well as bruising along one cheekbone and a split lip. He opened up one of his eyes flashing a small light in and out of it, but the pupil still did not respond. That was not a good sign. Brains pulled out two IV bags from the medicine cabinet and hung them next to the heart monitor. One was basic fluids, they had been gone a long while and probably needed some. The other was a newer medicine, only on the market for five years, but it had been proven to counteract some of the effects of a concussion. Hoping he wasn't too late in administering it, he inserted the IV into the crook of John's elbow and started the drip. Finally he helped Grandma Tracy pull on a clean pair of pants, leaving him shirtless because of the contraption on his shoulder.
Next in line was Alan. He went to work cutting off his spacesuit, pulling off the AED pads as he went. He was careful as he reached Alan's left hand, having noticed that it was at a strange angle, and wasn't surprised when he saw about two inches of bone sticking out of it. The bone had stopped the bleeding, but he needed to get it set as soon as he could. He took a quick x-ray, the bone hadn't broken cleanly, but he thought he could get it back without having to do any emergency surgery. Brains had to beg Grandma Tracy to help. She had retreated away at seeing the injury, but slowly approached keeping her eyes on the wall behind Alan's bed. He had her hold his elbow as tightly as she could, while he pulled on the other end of the arm. Slowly, the bone retreated behind the skin and muscle and popped back into place. Brains placed a quick splint on the arm so he could take another x-ray, the picture came back good, he had done it. he scanned the arm to make a brace for him, red of course. He cleaned up the entry wound and then applied a glue like substance to keep it closed and to protect it from germs. Brains then turned to the oddity that was the duct tape around his waist. Using a pair of scissors he cut the tape and started to pull it away. Grandma Tracy yelped as the skin started to peel back and fresh blood started to ooze from his abdominal wound. Brains grabbed a large square of gauze and held the skin down as he pulled his suit away and dabbed at the fresh blood. The cut wasn't deep but it had gotten quite dirty either from what had cut it, or the duct tape he wasn't sure. Once the tape had been removed, he worked on cleaning the wound. He wasn't sure he had gotten it all, so instead of gluing it like he did his arm, he left it open and bandaged it with some gauze. Once he was sure there was no infection, he would close it more securely. Once the worst was taken care of, they finished taking off the rest of his spacesuit. Brains checked his eyes, they dilated fine, and hooked a heart monitor up to him as well as some IV fluids while Grandma Tracy finished cleaning him up and redressing him in some cotton pants and a t-shirt.
Finally it was Virgil's turn. Brains immediately cut off the left arm of his suit taking pains not to move his hand too much. He then took a quick x-ray to determine the extent of the injury and stood studying it for a moment while Grandma Tracy continued to cut off the rest of his uniform. Luckily he hadn't broken any of his finger, it had been the bones in the hand itself that had broken. Unfortunately, there was no easy way of splinting the bones. He decided that another 3D cast, green, was the only answer, altered so that it would hold the hand as straight as possible, keeping pressure on the palm so that the bones wouldn't move around too much. He looked over the rest of Virgil, no bruises or other cuts that he could find. He checked his eyes, and they were a little slow to dilate and retract, but he had no obvious head injury. Brains figured it was because of the sever dehydration from throwing up, or dry heaving, which could cause some brain issues if done over an extended period of time. He checked in Virgil's mouth and did find some blood mixed with the saliva. He set him up with a bag of fluids and after inserting the needle set the drip at a little faster rate than his brothers. He went ahead and pulled out another heart monitor just in case and set him up. The room was starting to sound like a confused orchestra, so Brains silenced the monitors before they drove him crazy. They finished up with Virgil dressing him like his brother in a t-shirt and cotton pants.
With those three taken care of, Brains tried once again to contact Thunderbird 2 only to remember upon his failure that the communications antenna was currently laying somewhere in the jungle. He looked down at his watch, it was nearing five o'clock and there had been no word from Scott or Gordon, let alone any further message from Kayo. He realized now, that he should have contacted Lady Penelope at some point that day, but it was now impossible to do, so he put it out of his mind. He sat and watched the lines on the heart monitors as they went up and down in rhythm, and then took a second look at Alan's. His heart was beating strong and had a good rhythm, only every now and then it would stutter for a moment before returning back to normal. He walked over to the young man's bed and took his wrist in his own, feeling the pulse for himself. Yes, it was there, it happened once every couple of minutes. He decided to fully look over the boy again and this time found something he had missed. Two of his fingers on his left hand had black burn spots on them. Nothing large, just two small circles on his forefinger and thumb. Brains mused on this for a moment and wondered if it had been an electrical shock that had done the damage. Their spacesuits were made to protect them from minor shocks, but if it had been a major one, that might explain the odd twitter in his heart.
Making a mental note to keep an extra eye on his monitor, Brains finally turned his attention to the black cylinder Virgil had been carrying. They were not to ever remove the memory core from Thunderbird 5 unless she had been damaged beyond repair. Even then, it would only be removed once it had been deemed safe to do so. So, why was it here now.
"Max," Brains called. Max had been sitting just outside of the infirmary having been told not to enter. The last thing Brains needed was for him to be under foot. Upon hearing his name Max zoomed in and waited for his instructions, "Do you have an extra connection cable?" Max nodded and then pulled out the cable from his rear compartment. "Thanks." Brains plugged the cable into his tablet and then turned back to Max having just thought of an idea, "I should have plans in the database for a simple communications antenna." Max beeped and squealed a little before displaying the schematics to Brains. "Yes, that's the one. Do you think you could build it? The supplies should be in the repair shop." The little robot bounced on its wheels and sped out of the room. Brains turned back to the memory core and slid back an access panel on the back end of it and plugged the cord in.
"JOHN TRACY! YOU LIED! YOU LIED TO ME!" The voice echoed throughout the entire building as both Brains and Grandma Tracy covered their ears, and if she could she would have covered the boys' as well. "YOU TOLD ME I WOULD ONLY BE IN THERE FOR A LITTLE WHILE! IT HAS BEEN ALMOST SIX HOURS!"
"EOS," Brains called to the AI as she continued to yell at John who laid unresponsive in his bed.
"Brains?" EOS asked as a red circle appeared on Brains' tablet.
"Yes," Brains confirmed.
"Where is that bastard!" She started to scream again, letting out an almighty tantrum at being sealed into the black box.
"A…access the security cameras," Brains instructed giving her full reign of the house's computers, "He's in the infirmary." There was a moment of silence, and then the small whirl of the motor in the camera that overlooked the room.
"What is wrong? Why is he sleeping? Why is he wrapped up like that," EOS asked, her red circle turning varying shades worry.
"He's been injured," Brains explained, "He broke some bones, and hit his head quite a few times."
"You must wake him up now," EOS commanded.
"I…I can't. His body needs time to heal. He will wake up when he is able to."
"That is not satisfactory," EOS' ring started to turn red again.
"Believe me EOS," Grandma Tracy stood and looked up at the camera in the room, "If I could, I would wake every one of them so that I knew they were going to be okay."
"Virgil and Alan," EOS observed, "They became like this, how?"
"We don't know," Grandma Tracy sighed, "They went up to get John, and came back like this."
"When I get my hands on those hackers," EOS fumed.
"I…I'm afraid there is nothing we can do at the moment," Brains frowned at the screen before him, "Our communications are out. Max is trying to build a small antenna…"
"Yes, I see the bumbling fool," EOS sneered.
"He is doing the best he can. I'm sure he would appreciate some help," Brains suggested, "He is only a child as well."
"I will see what I can do. The sooner we get communications back, the sooner I can find those hackers." Brains didn't think that was a good idea, but wasn't sure arguing with the AI would be all that productive either. He just hoped John would wake up before she went too crazy and was able to reel her in.
They stayed in the infirmary waiting. Brains kept an eye on their monitors, and occasionally checked their vitals. Grandma Tracy took turns at each bedside, holding their uninjured hands and stroking their cheeks, combing her fingers through their hair, and trying not to cry too much. EOS would occasionally make an appearance, asking if John had woken up yet, and annoyed when the answer continued to be no. Brains went down to the repair room to see how Max was doing. The place had been trashed, but he had gotten the antenna about half done. He found that EOS actually was helping the robot in his task, Brains had been afraid that she might try and bully him or yell at him, but they seemed to get along quite well, so he left them to it.
He returned to the infirmary and sat back down at the desk at one end of the room, when the proximity alarms started to blare again.
"There is a craft approaching," EOS exclaimed over the noise of the alarms.
"Can you see it?" Brains asked, and a picture appeared on a nearby monitor from one of the security cameras outside. It was Thunderbird 2. Brains exhaled a sigh of relief, but then quickly inhaled it again as the situation started to unfold.
"Whoever is piloting it is doing a bad job," EOS observed as the plane veered one way and then was brought back on course.
"They've been gone a long time, do you suppose something has happened to them as well," Grandma Tracy asked as she walked up behind Brains to watch the feed. Brains didn't answer her, he was chanting something under his breath as he watched the behemoth try to land.
"Drop your load," he mumbled over and over, and then flinched as Thunderbird S was caught on the end of the runway. The cables were finally cut and the nose of the bird dove toward the pavement. Brains ran from the infirmary with Grandma Tracy on his heels. They were not far from the silos, and could hear the bang as the bird slammed into the hanger door. Brains made his way out a small side door onto the runway and looked up at the plane before him. There was no smoke, or visible fire, but he could see the damaged thruster above him. He ran to a side hatch near her belly and entered in the access code. The door slid open and Brains jumped in, grabbing the nearby ladder and climbing. He made his way up to the cockpit and threw the door open. He couldn't see who was in the pilot seat right away, and made his way over, frowning when he saw the blond head slouched over the steering wheel.
Brains carefully pulled Gordon back against his seat and felt for a pulse, it was there, and strong, and his breathing was regular, only out of his mouth. He looked up at his face and saw that his nose was swollen, and bruises were starting to blossom under his eyes. Grandma Tracy finally arrived and approached with caution. She gasped as she caught sight of Gordon and had to wipe her eyes.
"Go down to the m…med bay and get a stretcher," Brains instructed. Grandma Tracy paused for a moment before nodding and disappearing back down the ladder. Brains reached over to the control panel and forced the legs of the beast to expand just enough to make clearance for the access elevator to work. The round platform in the middle of the cockpit jerked and then slowly moved down. A moment later, it returned with Grandma Tracy and a hovering stretcher.
"I found Scott. He's strapped in a stretcher in the med bay," Grandma Tracy informed Brains.
"What about Kayo?"
"No sign of her," Grandma shook her head. She moved the stretcher over to Brains and he pulled back the seat to get a better hand on the young Tracy. Grandma Tracy moved to the other side to get his feet, and together they got him onto the stretcher. "Brains, his hand," She lifted the hand which was wrapped in a blood soaked bandage.
"d…d…damn," Brains swore. Grandma Tracy raised her eyebrows, but did not scold the young man. She was worried too. They took the platform down to the med-bay and loaded Scott onto it as well, taking them to join their brothers.
Now it was time to take care of the last two Tracy's. Brains was worried about Gordon's hand first off, and cut the red soaked bandage off, and then using the scissors to cut his glove off as well. He had sliced his hand open along the palm, the tissue around the jagged cut red and tender. He feared it was starting to get infected and used some alcohol to clean it out, this caused Gordon to groan and stir a little. Both Brains and Grandma Tracy paused to see if he would wake, but after a moment he settled back down. Brains applied an antibacterial solution to the wound and wrapped it up again in a clean bandage. Like Alan's wound, he would leave it open for a bit to make sure the infection was gone before securing better. He then turned to Gordon's head as Grandma Tracy went to work cutting him out of his wetsuit. His nose had been set, and there wasn't much left he could do about it except to splint it so it wouldn't slip back out of place. He taped the splint down and then moved to a bandage that had been applied to his forehead. He pulled the bandage off, and saw that he had cut his forehead a bit. The cut seemed clean so he applied the glue and a couple of butterfly bandages to help keep the gap closed and thus as small a scar as he could manage. Brains looked over the rest of his body, and other than a few small bruises, there seemed to be nothing else wrong with the diver. However, Brains wanted to be cautious. With Grandma Tracy's help, they strapped him to a backboard and lifted him onto his side so Brains could x-ray his back. They were always worried about Gordon re-injuring himself, and Brains was not going to take any chances. The pictures came back good and he allowed himself to breath normally again. They laid him back down, took away the backboard and dressed him like his brothers.
Brains finally turned to the last of the brothers. Scott didn't have any obvious wounds like his brothers, but that didn't mean that nothing was wrong. Brains and Grandma Tracy cut off his suit, making note of some bruising along his ribs, and legs. Brains took some x-rays, and found that nothing had completely broken, but a couple of ribs were cracked. He did see something else in the x-ray, he had fluid in his lungs. This could be due to inhaling some water, and since they had been in the Indian Ocean, it was a possibility. He made another mental note to keep an eye on him, if that didn't clear up on his own, it could lead to other issues. Brains wrapped his torso up, like John's and then continued his exam. He found two bumps on Scott's head, one on the front near his hairline and a larger one on the back of his head. He opened his eye and it contracted slowly. Deciding not to chance it, he hooked Scott up to the heart monitor, as well as IV fluids and the same medication he had put John on. They then redressed him like his brothers so that he would be more comfortable.
Stepping back, he looked down the room at the five brothers and decided to add one more precaution to them. He pulled out, what appeared to be thick bulky clips from one of the drawers and attached one to each of the brother's middle finger. They were pulse oximetry meters which showed their blood oxygen levels. John, Virgil, Alan, and Scott's levels were low so he hooked each of them up with some oxygen via nasal cannula. Satisfied that he had done all he could do Brains sat back down at the desk, while Grandma Tracy continued to move from bed to bed, caressing and babying her boys. Thankful that they were home once more.