A series of muffled booms, accompanied by an ominous rumbling in the ground was Scott's first indication that something had gone horribly wrong.
The second clue was the rush of workers that streamed out into the corridors from parts unknown, racing past him towards the lower levels of the moonbase as alarms began to blast through the tannoy system.
"Hey, what gives?" he shouted to a passing miner without success. "What's happened? Someone answer me!"
Miners, along with office staff continued to race past him, ignoring him until he was forced to grab hold of the nearest person.
"Tell me what's happening!" he demanded to know as another muffled rumble shook the ground beneath their feet. "Maybe I can help?"
"Explosion…" the miner panted, wrenching his arm out of Scott's grasp, leaving Scott to jog alongside him to keep up. "Mine collapse…Sorry, I have to go!" The man ran off without a backward glance.
Scott stopped dead. "Mine?" A second later the awful truth dawned on him. "John!"
Yanking his radio out of his pocket as he ran after the rapidly retreating pack, he yelled into the receiver, "This is Scott calling John, come in John!" Static was his only answer, yet he felt compelled to try again. "Come in John!"
Alan, maybe he would know something? John was supposed to be down there, maybe Alan could track him somehow?
"Scott calling Thunderbird Five, come in Alan!" he called urgently, his breathing ragged, fear propelling him onwards.
"Hey, what's up Scott?"
"Alan, no time to waste, there's been an explosion in the mine. John was heading down there and now I can't get in contact. Can you try?"
"F.A.B.," Alan answered, not bothering with further pleasantries.
The crowd had converged near the elevator shaft that would take them down to the mine proper, but the doors were sealed tight. Loud chattering had broken out amongst the workers as they shouted back and forth, trying to work out what had happened and what to do next.
"Is there anyone down there?" Scott asked, needing to know if John had still been in the mine when it had happened. But no one heard him over the noise of a dozen different conversations all happening at once.
Scott scanned the crowd, looking for the face of someone he recognised who could give him some information. He wanted to help, disasters and rescues were his job, but more importantly, he needed to know where his brother was. He didn't see any of the supervisors he was acquainted with, but two faces stood out amongst the rest as they skirted their way around the crowd.
"Hey! You there!"
Cosmo looked up at Scott's yell, as did Atlas, who, upon spotting Scott, took off running without bothering to wait for his friend.
"Hey! Stop I say!" Scott bellowed as Cosmo sprinted after the man's rapidly retreating back.
For the first time in his life, Scott felt himself paralyzed with indecision. Did he follow those men, one of whom he now suspected was the Hood, or did he stay and try to help his brother? One instinct warred with another. He couldn't get sense out of the workers, he had no rescue equipment with him and no way of getting to mine if John was in there, yet the desire to chase after the man who was probably the cause of all their troubles was there too.
"Alan calling Scott."
The voice from the radio jolted him out of his thoughts, bringing him back to the present.
"Alan? Have you gotten in touch with John? Is he okay?"
"Afraid not, all I'm getting is static. But there's something else, the intruder alarm on Thunderbird Three just activated, someone is trying to enter the ship."
"The Hood," Scott growled, the hand that wasn't holding the radio balling into a fist in anticipation of their next meeting.
"The Hood?" Alan inhaled sharply. "He's there?"
"I wasn't sure at first, but this confirms it. Did he gain access?"
"Negative, the new security system Brains designed is working well, it initiated a full lockdown of the ship, only overridden by remote access from outside with a specific code."
"Good to know, but he doesn't. He's probably still trying, which means I have a chance to catch him."
"Don't do anything stupid, Scott, think of John. If he wasn't trapped he would have made his way to you by now, and we don't know what shape he's in down there."
Scott nodded, even though he knew his brother couldn't see it. "Believe me, I know."
"I'll radio base and catch Dad up, you do what you can there."
"F.A.B.," Scott said, his mind already turning over the options available to him. "Keep in touch."
"Will do."
-x-
"Do you think this will work?" Selene asked, watching John intently as he worked.
"Only one way to find out," he answered as he carefully prised the back off his watch.
Unable to sit around and do nothing, they had explored every inch of the tunnel system available to them, sifting through the scattered equipment until he had struck gold. Nestled in a bag of tools he had found a portable radio used by the workers. When he had tried it he'd quickly realised it was a closed system, working only within the mine itself, but that had given him an idea.
If he could remove the inhibitor and replace it with one of the connector chips from his watch, he might, just might, be able to override the system and put out an external call.
Taking a small multitool from his belt he unscrewed the back of the radio's case and studied the circuit board. It was simpler than he had expected given this was a government-run facility, but that was a good thing, that meant it would be easy enough to patch into.
The only problem was that, once he cannibalised his watch, there would be no going back. Not that he had much of a choice, the watch was doing them no good down here and he needed to make contact with someone sooner rather than later.
Selene watched as he worked, holding the beam of a recovered flashlight trained on his hands. She had been quiet, not really talking other than to say she was 'fine' when he asked, but he could see by the way the light trembled that her hands were shaking.
"Try not to worry," he said as he carefully levered out the part he needed from the interior of his watch and set it gently into place in amongst the radio's circuitry. "We'll be out of here soon."
Selene nodded, not trusting herself to vocalise any of the thoughts that were currently tumbling around in her mind. If she started to talk, then she wouldn't stop, the more she talked the more she would think, and then, she was liable to give in to the overwhelming panic building inside her. No, this was better.
John clicked the pieces back into place and replaced the cover before holding down the transmission button. No static sound, that was promising. "Calling International Rescue, come in, International Rescue."
This time Alan was there immediately. "This is International Rescue, receiving your call. John, is that you?"
"Alan," John breathed, relief flooding his system. "Thank heavens that worked."
"Where are you? Are you in the mine? Scott said there had been a cave in but he didn't know any details."
"Yes, I'm in the mine. But it wasn't a cave in. The Hood was here and he detonated some nutomic charges. We're trapped in the centre of the right-hand tunnel system off the main shaft."
"But you're okay? You're not hurt or anything?" Alan started to ask before his brain caught up and he registered John's choice of words. "Hang on, we're stuck? Is someone with you?"
"A few bruises, but otherwise I'm okay," John answered, scowling at Selene who stuck her tongue out in response. "And yes, someone decided to take it upon herself to disobey orders and follow us in because she thought she knew better."
"And I did," she argued. "In normal circumstances, without Atlas and his weird eye thing, I probably could have talked them out of it."
"You're stuck with a girl?" Alan asked, slight amusement creeping into his voice.
"Yes," John confirmed shortly.
"You get all the luck."
"Alan, this isn't a pleasure cruise," John admonished, ducking his head so Selene wouldn't see the way his cheeks flushed at Alan's implication. "We need to get out, we don't know how long the air will last down here. It's a long tunnel so we should be alright for a few days but we need rescuing."
"They're trying," Alan said, ignoring John's big brother attitude as always. "But from what I overheard during their broadcasts it seems like part of the main tunnel has completely collapsed and the mining equipment they have isn't powerful enough to be able to get to you any time soon."
"You mean we're stuck here?" Selene gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in horror.
"We're temporarily trapped until my colleagues get us out," John corrected, before returning his attention to Alan, his tone thoughtful as he mused, "If only we had-"
"The Mole?" Alan guessed. "I hear ya, it seems like the only option."
"But we'd need Thunderbird Three, and that's here with us. Scott can fly it on his own but we can't leave that maniac running around a moonbase full of innocents."
"Let me get on to Scott and update him, then I'll radio base, maybe Da-" Alan paused and corrected himself, "the commander can come up with something."
"Even if he could arrange for another organisation to lend us a ship to bring it that would take at least half a day, maybe more."
"Yeah," Alan agreed, his cheeky tone back as he added, "have fun with that, fella." He disconnected the call before John could call him any of the names on the tip of his tongue.
John stared at the silent radio for a moment, then turned to Selene. "I guess we're stuck here."
"Then I guess we'd better get comfy," she said, plonking down on the floor.