Summary: There is a break in at Marineville...
Notes: I don't claim to be a expert when it comes to Stingray, but WASP is a major part of Gordon's pre IR history...
A Sunny Day in Marineville.
2044
If you were to ask John Anderson where he thought he was going to spend the twilight years of his career, before his son was born, overseeing the construction of a new base for the newly formed World Aquanaut Security Patrol, at Marineville on the west coast of USA was not it.
Heck even after his son was born it wouldn't his first answer.
It probably would have been something along the lines of overseeing the protection of his home waters at Mermaid's Cove.
But his home at Mermaid's Cove was long gone… Destroyed by human greed and intolerance from the deep sea community.
He had only had returned once to Mermaid's Cove after he took what was left of his family and fled to the US after the attacks - that was to attend Sarah Fergus's funeral.
He had to commend the human's for trying to rebuild the village the way it was, but without the Mer community that lived in the bay, the town was a shadow of its former self.
It was a shame to hear about Sarah's son Peter, barely a year later, there was no denying that Loraine Houseman deserved a comeuppance for her role in the destruction of his and family's home, including deaths of his brother in law and nephew, but for Peter to take matters into his own hands…
He had told the investigators, when they asked what Peter motives might have been, since he had been the one that Peter had put down as next of kin, that Loraine must cheated him in some way, not willing to tell the officers the real reason, because one, what actually happened at Mermaid's Cove was classified, and two, to say that she was killed for her part in the in slaughter of a colony of Mer people and many of the human's that lived with/near them, would of had him locked up in the funny farm faster than a seagull could scab chips from an unwitting beach goer.
Even though all he had to do is introduce the officers to his younger sister, Anna, to prove that there was some truth to his story.
It was said back in the day, to be considered a born and bred local of Mermaid's Cove, you had to have at least one Mer relative in your family's tree.
John's family was no exception to this, even though he was born to human parents, and was considered human himself, one of his grandfather's was a Mer, and that all of his other grandparents had fathers that were Mer's as well.
Anna being born a Mer, was a shock to his parents, because a Mer child born to a human mother was a very rare occurrence, as it was usually what the mother of the child was that dictated what the child would be in such unions, let alone one born with two human parents.
Anna had been the only Mer to survive the catastrophe that happened to his home - as her daughter had been born human, which caused its on fun and games when she nearly drowned when she was born.
So, yes John hated Loraine, even more so than that lying bitch that was his son, Liam's, mother, she had called herself Laura Harley, a fake name he was to come to find, when he went against the guy that brought his son to him wishes, and tried to find out more about her so he could tell his son more about his mother, other than she was a lying cheating whore, that abandoned him the first chance she got, and that the only reason he got back to him was that someone else in the bitch's family cared about his welfare.
Seriously, his son was the best thing to come out of that fucked up mess of a situation, even though he himself had never found the one person to spend the rest of his days with, he never intentionally messed with those that supposedly had… He was lucky the husband was not violently protective of his woman or the vindictive type, otherwise his physical health and working career could have been in major jeopardy.
As far as John was concerned, Liam's mother could go rot in a hole somewhere, maybe in the same one as Loraine's.
When it came to Loraine, it was hard to believe that Samantha Huntington had been, Loraine's mother, Samantha had made an effort to mingle and get to know the people of the town, and she had become quite a good of his family in the few years that he knew her.
Samantha would have been heartbroken to see what became of Mermaid's Cove, Sarah had mentioned that Lucy and some friends of hers, had visited what was left of the town and had been horrified, about the damage done to it.
John felt sorry for the girl, he knew Lucy had mostly been raised by her aunt and uncle, that Loraine was only a mother to Lucy when it was convenient to her, and that the girl was only couple of months from being able to claim her inheritance when her mother stole it from her, the loss of the village wasn't her fault, yet she felt the guilt from it.
He wished he had a chance to meet her, but he had long left the town by the time she visited.
0o0o0
There was an security issue at Marineville…
Construction of the base hadn't even been completed but somebody was trying to break into the base and steal the top secret plans kept there, including plans to the Stingray class submarine prototype that was going to eventually make up the majority of WASP's submarine fleet, or maybe they were trying to get hold of some of the working prototypes that, that were being used to develop WASP's training program, Admiral John Anderson was at a loss to what to do.
While the efforts of base security had been able to keep the intruders out, they hadn't been able to spare anyone to actually track down the intruders.
The GDF support that he was getting was subpar at best, too busy chasing their own tails and covering their own asses.
That was when an visiting British Navy commander, Hugh Creighton-Ward, made an offer to put in a few calls to see if he could get in someone in to take a look at the cyber security of the base, which John took up and he had sent his son, Commander Liam Anderson, who was also the man in charge of designing the training program for future WASP officers, to pick this 'Sunny' up from the airport, while he, with Commander Creighton-Ward and his 2IC, Commander Sam Shore, worked on possible plans of action should this 'Sunny' find something.
John was surprised to find, when Liam had returned to the office, carrying bags of equipment, that 'Sunny' was a woman, that was about the same age as his son, with golden blonde hair and brown eyes and that she was pushing a pram full of more equipment with a, blond haired blue eyed, baby in a red onesie, on her hip, that couldn't have been more than six months old.
Hugh looked up at Sunny with narrowed eye's, "You couldn't have found a sitter, Sunny?" He growled. "This isn't exactly the place to be carting an infant around."
Sunny shot Hugh an equally venomous look, "Oh STFU, Hugh," she snapped back. "I was meant to be spending a quiet weekend with this little ray of sunshine, while my Apollo and his father, took my other ray's and Star's Light camping," Sunny sighed loudly, "My mother-in-law currently has her hands full with helping looking after Star's mother and her business as she busted her ankle, the other week and you know my side of the family don't live in the same state, and finding a babysitter at the last minute is not easy," she bounced the baby on her hip. "Especially, since I am still feeding him."
Hugh looked like he was about to argue, when Sunny cut him off, "You're the one that wanted me here as soon as possible, remember?" She growled. "Now we can waste time arguing about my youngest's presence, or you can give me a hand in setting this up."
John caught Liam's eye, and his son shrugged as Hugh and Sam moved to give the lady a hand.
Since John didn't know as much about the technology being put together as his colleagues, he offered to hold the baby, until the pram was cleared and the child could be put into it.
Turned out the kid took a shine to him and didn't want to be put into the pram, "I should have warned you," Sunny commented, as she plugged in a few cords and booted up her computer systems. "Allie is a little snuggle monster… He likes being cuddled, which can make him difficult to put down for naps."
John looked down at the little boy in his arms, he liked children, if there was one thing he regretted about not finding his soulmate it was the fact that Liam was an only child, and while it's true he had his cousin's growing up, he would have loved it if his son had a sibling, "Is that so?" He asked the boy as he ticked his belly. "Well it looks like you are just going to have to stay here and watch your mummy work, is that okay with you?"
Allie squawked happily in response, as Sunny smiled, and got to work.
John was aware of the amused looks he was getting from Liam and Sam, but the pair wisely said nothing as they continued on with their duties.
0o0o0
It was a couple of hours later, when Sunny made a breakthrough.
"Got ya," Sunny hissed. "Now let's see… Oh you have got to be kidding me," she turned to Liam, Sam and Hugh. "Look alive there boys, it looks like Becky the Buck Toothed Beaver and Mullion, her Meat head bodyguard are paying us a visit."
Hugh swore loudly, "What is she doing here?" He snarled.
"Probably looking for some tech to steal," Sunny replied. "That's what she does… It looks like she is hanging around one of the prototype storage sheds on the west side of the base."
"Crap," Liam hissed. "That's where the Stingray prototype is being kept."
"Give security a call, and get after her Commander," John ordered. "She can't be allowed to steal anything that could compromise the future security of this base, Creighton-Ward will assist you."
"I'll do what I can from here to slow her down," Sunny added. "Knowing Mullion, there could be a booby trap set up somewhere to slow you down, so watch yourself's."
Liam and Hugh acknowledged the order and left the room.
John turned to Sunny, "What do you know about these intruders?" He asked her. "It's clear from your earlier comment you have history."
Sunny snorted, "History would be putting it mildly," she replied. "Beaver Face's real name is Connie Transom, she used to be the girlfriend of the brother-in-law of a colleague of mine," Sunny grimaced. "I have only had the pleasure of her presence a couple of times - let's just say she took an unhealthy interest in my husband, and neither of us appreciated it."
"Ahh," John nodded in understanding, woman had tried to swim in Sunny's husband's pool only to find a couple of sharks.
"Hard to believe with a face like that she would even had a boyfriend," Sam commented.
"Well looks aren't everything," Sunny growled. "I think you will find that she is well versed in other forms of seduction," she turned back to the screen. "Besides, my colleague's brother-in-law, is a bit of a sleazy guy too, which is probably why he found her appealing."
John turned his attention to the security monitor, and watched the woman and her colleague attempting to break into prototype shed, and looking frustrated as the security lock on the door refused to disengage.
"What's the matter, Becky?" Sunny muttered, as she typed away at her keyboard. "Can't get in? Well I hope you're used to disappointment because you're not getting through me, bitch."
Transom was starting to look more annoyed, as she turned to her partner and said something to him, she then stepped out of the way as Mullion pulled something out of the bag he was carrying.
"Uh oh," Sunny growled. "Hugh and Commander Anderson better shift their asses, I think Becky's done with being subtle about things."
Sure enough, not long after Sunny made the comment, Mullion blew the door…
0o0o0
Commander Liam Anderson cursed when he felt the explosion, and looked at Hugh and his team, "So much for being subtle about things," he muttered, as he picked up the pace. "I'm guessing she is after the sub."
"Is the prototype in the water or dry docked?" Hugh asked, as he ran beside him.
"In the water," Liam replied. "But she will have to get through the outer security gates if she is planning to leave - hold it!" He shouted as he spotted something. "Looks like we've found the booby trap Sunny warned us about."
Hugh growled as he looked at the device and reached for his communicator, "Sunny, we've found Mullion's surprise," he spoke into the device. "Any ideas on how to disable it?"
"Give me a minute Hugh," Sunny replied. "Things that go boom were more Star's field of expertise," there was a beep from Hugh's phone. "Okay, providing Becky didn't put her own special touch to things, I sent instructions to your phone that should disarm the device."
Liam and Hugh exchanged a concerned look, but thankfully the instructions were correct, "Commander Anderson," Liam's father's voice came through the communicator. "The Stingray prototype is not to leave this base, for it to end up in enemy hands would be a disaster, so destroy it if you have to."
"Yes sir," Liam replied, as he gestured to his men. "You heard the Admiral, we have to stop these people from taking anything, by any means."
They burst into the storage area, just in time to to see the submarine start up and begin to move.
Liam spotted Mullion lurking around the doors that led out to the open sea, "Uhh… I don't think Transom had any luck opening the doors…" he hissed.
"Get down!" Hugh shouted, as Mullion blew the doors.
Liam hit the ground as he watched Mullion make a run for the open hatch of the submarine, "Damn it," he snarled. "We need to stop them!"
Some of the men that had came with them started to open fire on the closing hatchway, but Liam knew that wouldn't be enough to stop the submarine once the hatch was shut.
He looked around the shed looking for anything that could help in stopping the sub, but most of the heavy weapons that were kept on the base in another storage shed.
There was a silver lining, in the fact, that since the sub was a prototype it wasn't armed, all they had to do was just stop the sub from moving.
His eyes fell on some hydrofoils that were being kept in the back of the shed and a hare-brained idea came to mind.
His father and wife were going to kill him if he survived this, but if he was able to pull it off he might be able to buy some time for the heavy equipment to arrive.
Liam bolted to the hydrofoil's and fired one of them up, he was well aware of Hugh's confusion, but to tell Hugh his plan would mean wasting precious seconds, the sub had already left the shed and was moving out into the bay, if the sub managed to dive…
He gunned the engines and drove the hydrofoil straight into the submarine's turbines, jumping from the boat seconds before the hit.
There was almighty bang as the hydrofoil blew up, taking the submarine's turbines with it.
0o0o0
Liam gasped as his head broke the surface of the water, he felt as if he had just been thrown into a washing machine, but by some miracle, or his Mer DNA giving him a boost, he wasn't injured, and he was able to swim out to one of the boats that were moving in to retrieve the submarine thieves.
Hugh looked down at Liam as he climbed into the boat, "Of all the stupid, hare-brained stunts," he snapped. "The Admiral is having kittens, what the hell did you think you were doing?"
"Stopping a sub from getting stolen," Liam grinned. "It worked didn't it?"
Hugh looked towards the hatchway to where base security were dragging Transom and Mullion out, "This time," he conceded. "But there were a lot of ways things could have went wrong."
Liam sighed, "I know," he agreed. "And I am not going to hear the end of it from my father and wife."
"You're married?" Hugh seemed surprised.
"And have two daughters," Liam confirmed. "Eight and six years old, I'm not as solitary as the old man."
"Your mother not in the picture?" Hugh asked.
"Never was in the picture," Liam growled. "Woman had someone dump me with dad at the first opportunity…" he glanced at Hugh. "Why so curious about my family history?"
"Just wondering where the crazy streak comes from," Hugh muttered.
Liam laughed.
0o0o0
Back in the command centre, you could cut the tension with a knife, even little Alan who the Admiral had managed to put down into the pram, just before things went sideways, was silent.
Lucy glanced back, at the Admiral who was staring at his monitor's fists opening and closing, with and expression that suggested that he didn't know if he wanted to sag with relief or scream at his son's actions.
Lucy knew the feeling, Lee Taylor and Tim Metcalfe were all too glad to report to her about some of Jeff's crazier antics in the field…
And then there was Scott's penchant for doing daredevil stunts off of play equipment - not helped by the fact it became a bit of a hold my apple juice competition between Scott and Tim's son Paul, when Jeff was away on the Mars mission…
And then there was Gordon and his desire to live in the water - regardless on whether or not the boy knew how to swim…
And just recently Lucy had to explain to the GDF, that her six year old son, John, was not trying to steal military secrets, when he hacked into their computer systems, but a bored little boy looking for a challenge…
Lucy groaned loudly, So nice to know, that I have more of these type of shenanigans to look forward to, she thought, running a hand over her face.
"Security have caught the would be thieves, sir," Commander Shore reported, nervously. "The GDF have been alerted, and will be sending people to take custody of the criminals."
Lucy cocked an eyebrow and looked at Shore, "Don't you have your own brig?" She asked.
Admiral Anderson held up a hand cutting off Shore before he could answer, "This base is currently under construction Ms Sunny," he answered her. "The brig is one of the places that hasn't been built yet, although it may become a priority now considering…"
Lucy nodded, "May I also suggest that an update to your cyber security be also a priority," she commented. "I noticed that you're running a system that is very similar to the GDF's set up, my six year old son successfully hacked their system when he was bored."
The Admiral looked at Lucy in surprise, "Smart kid," he commented. "Any chance he might interested in joining when he's older?"
Lucy shook her head, "Not likely," she answered, softly. "Only one of my boy's has an interest in water and that's my four year old."
"Your four year old?" Shore questioned. "Just how many children do you have?"
"Enough, to be able to tell my husband that if he ever knocked me up again, I would castrate him with rusty pliers," Lucy shot Shore a dark grin. "He got the message."
0o0o0
When Liam got back to the command centre John yelled at him, for a good five minutes, and then he crushed his son in a hug.
Relieved that his son didn't get seriously injured or die in the hydrofoil's crash…
0o0o0
Sunny had just finished packing up her equipment when word got back to Marineville that Transom and Mullion had escaped GDF custody.
John frowned as he gave Allie one last hug and a tickle before passing the boy back to his mother, "Looks like the GDF, needs to learn a lesson on how keep their prisoners in custody," he muttered.
"Unfortunately that's not the only time they had managed to escape custody," Sunny growled, as she took back her giggling son. "But hopefully that's the last time, this can't be allowed to continue, they are doing too much damage."
"Think they are going to come back?" Liam wondered.
"Not anytime soon," Hugh replied. "Their MO is a hit and fade, they don't usually come back unless it's something they really wanted."
"Seemed pretty determined to steal something from us though," Sam commented.
"If they try and come back we will be ready for them," John growled. "And they will not get away, if they try I will have no qualms with them having to face the mercy of the sea."
"The sea is rarely, merciful," Sunny replied. "Mess with it and it or what lives in it, will bite you in the butt."
John cocked an eyebrow at Sunny, "Butt?"
Sunny cocked an eyebrow back, "Little pitchers have long ears," she said, bouncing Allie in her arms. "You don't know what they will pick up."
John laughed, "Point taken," he replied. "I always did wonder how Liam picked up his bad language at a young age."
"It's because you swear like a sailor, dad," Liam growled.
John cuffed the back of Liam's head, "What this like a sailor business, son?" He snorted. "I am one."
Everyone else in the room bust out laughing.
0o0o0 (A/N: See the notes below in regards to this next part)
That would be the only time John and Liam would ever meet Lucy, and it wouldn't be until many years later that they would find out that she was Samantha Huntington's granddaughter.
But it wouldn't be the last time that they met any of Lucy's children, especially Gordon, who would become one of Liam's best students at WASP's training academy, leading Liam to become a friend and mentor to the fourth Tracy boy…
Notes: This is where the timeline breaks into the odd's and ends timeline and the Lu timeline, the last part in this and the next two? chapters follow the odds and ends plot line, the Lu au will be posted as it's own thing.
Sunny Celestial, is the name Lucy uses when she is doing intel work for Sylvia.
Star, is Helen Taylor, who died in a car accident about a year before Gordon was born.
Alan is about six months old here, and it hasn't reached October yet so John is still six.