Summary: Jeff offers Paul a job.

Notes: I've had the idea for the Hatchling craft for a while, and have dropped hints to their existence in other stories, Scout's husband Mike (he is not Paul's nephew) was a pilot on Hatchling 6 when she met him.

Job Offer

2071

When Jeff Tracy was setting up International Rescue there were three people he had in mind to eventually join the organisation, that didn't end up working for the organisation by the time Jeff was rescued from the Oort Cloud.

These people were, Piper Taylor, Carrie Metcalfe and her brother, Paul Metcalfe.

Piper would eventually join the fold a bit over a year after Jeff's return, once she and Scott buried the hatchet and realised that they were better together than apart, where she took on the role Jeff originally wanted her on the team as one of the primary support personnel of the organisation.

Jeff wasn't so lucky with Carrie and Paul, by the time he returned, Carrie was married with a child of her own and Paul had his career in the special forces.

Had Jeff been lucky enough to have actually secured Carrie, she would had been given the role of chief medical officer, a role that was eventually taken over by Piper's friend and colleague, Willow Ling, which turned out to be a better match up in the long run - especially in regards to her relationship with Virgil.

But Jeff was still disappointed that he had never been able to secure Paul for the team.

Before Jeff had his accident, Paul, who had just started college as well as joining the Airforce, had aspirations about following in his fathers footsteps and exploring space and Jeff had seriously considered asking Paul to potentially take on the role of Thunderbird 3, at the time, so it had been a surprise to see that Alan had been the one to take on the role in the end.

Jeff hadn't initially considered Alan for the role of Three, because he had been only six when Jeff had brought the Island and started truly building what would become International Rescue, and was only eleven when he disappeared, so Jeff wasn't 100% sure on what Alan wanted to do when he was older, and for a job that had the demands that IR would have, Alan would have to be dedicated or he could potentially end up dead, and Jeff wasn't about to force his son into anything he didn't want to do.

Besides, he had fully expected Alan to complete his education before offering him a full time position at International Rescue in the first place, so Alan would of had a place, just maybe not in the role of one of the primary pilots.

Jeff was heartbroken when he learned the reason why Paul gave up space, and angered by the people that pushed him away from that path.

Paul and Carrie's parents, Tom and Ann, were some of his closest friends and supporters, Tom had been the third member of the team he led to Mars, to hear that they died in a unfounded terrorist attack, that triggered the Bereznik conflict, Jeff understood why the young man wanted revenge and joined the special forces.

Considering that it had been Paul's team that helped Scott escape from that country it turned out to be a good thing in the end.

But that was the crux of the problem, Paul didn't leave the special forces when the conflict ended, he stayed on with them, only moving on when another top secret world government organisation offered him and a couple of his friends/colleagues jobs with their outfit.

Jeff still didn't know which one Paul had joined, someone with Paul's skills could have join any of the intelligence agencies or even Spectrum (which Jeff hoped wasn't the case), but Jeff was now hoping that he could lure Paul away from his current position.

Carrie had called him, a few weeks earlier at her wits end, asking Jeff if he had a job opening anywhere that could take someone with Paul's skills, she had hoped with Paul getting married and having a baby on the way that Paul would give up his military career for a more stable and safer job.

Her husband, Micheal, had been Airforce pilot that had died in a military operation in 2065, leaving her to raise their son Mikey alone, and she was petrified of losing her brother, the only other family member she had left.

While Jeff told Carrie he couldn't guarantee the job that he had in mind for Paul would be any safer than the one he was currently working at, he did state that he would try, but the final decision was ultimately up to Paul.

0o0o0

The job offer was a good one, Paul had to admit, and had his circumstances been different he would have honestly considered taking Jeff up on it.

He probably would have even checked if he could have gotten a job offered for at least Adam and Serena as well, considering that they were probably going to find themselves in a similar situation to Simone and himself soon, if he had taken up Jeff and Scott's offer.

The job would have given Paul the command of one of International Rescues Hatchling units…

Jeff, recognising that some rescues needed more resources and man power to be pulled off successfully, came up with the idea of having six supporting units, that were going to be kitted out with standard rescue equipment, that anyone trained in it's use could use, in fact the only piece of custom equipment that these units would be using would be the Hatchling aircraft used to transport the equipment around.

These aircraft were nothing overly special, they only had a little bit more hauling power than the Albatrosses Spectrum used and their top speed was similar as well.

But these aircraft were not meant to be the speed demons that Thunderbird 1 and 2 were, since there would be one based in every main continental area in the world, not a single island in the Pacific ocean.

These teams would act as support to the main Thunderbird team, as well as extra support for long haul rescues/situations or attend to other rescues that don't require a Thunderbird to save the day.

Paul would have his pick of which Hatchling he wished to command, Simone would be offered a job as a pilot for the craft… Accommodation, health benefits, even funding for the future education for his unborn child and any other children he and Simone may have and that was before the sizeable paycheque he and Simone would be getting for their services…

It was great offer that most people would jump at had they been offered it, but Paul had no choice but to turn it down.

The ever present threat the Mysterons represented had seen to that…

Paul knew for as long as the Mysterons were a threat he would be a target, and a danger to the people around him.

It was one thing for the Mysterons to attack him when he was with his friends/colleagues at Spectrum, but they had attacked him, in the past, when he was with his sister and nephew as well, nearly killing them and Paul didn't fancy his or his family's/friends chances without having the military backing Spectrum had.

To make things worse, Paul wasn't even sure if he was even allowed to leave Spectrum, he was exactly a normal human being after all, and he knew that there were some scientists that would love to get their hands on him and his unborn child.

When Paul turned down the offer, he knew Jeff, Scott and Piper were disappointed, Simone was indifferent, but she knew that he was never going to take the job, and his sister was furious.

Carrie begged and pleaded for Paul to reconsider, and Paul couldn't give her a straight answer to why he turned down the offer, because honestly had things been different he would have taken it.

While Adam, who was never a big fan of nepotism due to his own personal history, was stunned at what Paul had to turn down because of the Mysterons, when Paul finally told him and Colonel White about it.

All Colonel White had to say on the matter was that, Jeff Tracy was a good judge of character and knew the value of having good people on his team, and he wasn't surprised given Paul's history, that Jeff had tried to head hunt him for his organisation, and had the circumstances been different he would have been sad to see Paul and Simone go.

0o0o0

2099

Colonel Scarlet walked up to stand beside his distraught son-in-law, as he overlooked the retrieval of bodies from the wreckage of Hatchling 2, that had been shot down by Bereznik Terrorists while on its way to a rescue in Greece, killing all the rescuers on board.

International Rescue had been denied access to the wreckage site by the world council out of fears for the safety of their other rescue teams, something that Scarlet agreed with, if they were willing to shoot down a Hatchling, nothing would stop them from shooting down a Thunderbird.

Because it was a confirmed terror attack the clean up job and investigation had fallen onto Spectrum, much to IR's chagrin, Scarlet did envy Blue's position at the moment that was for sure.

Captain Mahogany jumped slightly when Scarlet put his hand on his shoulder, "Had things been different," he commented. "Aaron would have been the head security officer of this Hatchling," he rubbed his eyes. "As it stands both Dianne and I knew several of the more senior people that worked on this crew, they were good people doing their jobs, they didn't deserve this."

Scarlet sighed softly, as he thought about his wife up on Skybase, she was just as upset at this whole situation as Mahogany was, "It's been confirmed," Scarlet muttered softly. "The Bereznik's are the ones behind this - they claimed responsibility a few moments ago."

"They have fucking lost it this time," Mahogany snapped back. "At least with the missile and other attacks that they had their agents pull off over the years they had some deniability," he facepalmed. "All IR vehicles, with the exceptions of Shadow and FAB 1, have the same protections that are afforded to all aid organisations - by openly attacking Hatchling two, it's pretty much a declaration of war."

"And they are getting it," Scarlet replied. "This attack was the straw that broke the camel's back…"

"The world government has declared war on Bereznik."

Notes: The bio for NCS Paul, had him studying to be an astrophysicist and wishing to follow in his father's footsteps before his parents were killed in a terror attack - that was when the course of his life changed.

Because of the nature of International Rescue, Jeff (and Scott for that matter) tends to look for people that they already have a trustworthy relationship with his family that has the skills that he needs to run the organisation, Paul was no exception to this.

Carrie has genuine fears for her brother - she gets nightmares of the events that happened in House of Dolls - that's why she wants him out, she doesn't realise that he has already died, on more than one occasion.

Aaron was originally going to head up security on the European based Hatchling 2 before Kallen's 'death' in 2089, because his then girlfriend, now wife, Ginerva (Ginny) Parker, had taken over Parker's duties as Penelope's driver and hexpert, and he wanted to be closer to her.