April 20th, 2060 - 05:02 NZST
John is sat on a bench looking down to the Earth from Thunderbird 5 through the gravity ring. John yawns and then moves his feet further apart, leaning his head on his hands and his elbows on his knees. "The Earth's been around for four and a half billion years, but this never gets old," he says to himself and gets up.
"The day has officially begun," John comments as he walks through the doors in front of him to the main chamber and looks at the hologram of Earth. There are no call signs and on a check a green triangle appears to confirm that. A camera follows behind him. "Hmm, that's odd. No distress calls."
John walks through another door into Sect 001, also known as the kitchen, and stops by a shoot. The camera follows behind him once again. "I might actually get to finish my bagel for once," he says as the machine pings. He takes the bagel out. The machine then pings again and another bagel hits his face, around the left eye. "Ow!" He looks to the machine. The camera turns to look with him. He leans in towards the machine to have a closer look. With a ping a bagel flies out and hits him in the face.
"Whoa." It starts to ping incessantly as nine bagels comes flying out to the point where he is ducking for cover. One hits the emergency alarm, which starts the sirens blaring and red lights flashing. John floats up with the anti-gravity along with the bagels. "Not how I figured I'd be spending my morning," he mutters as yet another bagel hits him on the shoulder, "Ow."
Back in the main chamber, he stops the alarm, turning the gravity back on. He reaches to press down on the International Rescue logo on his sash to activate his personal. The camera continues to watch John from a distance.
"Tracy Island I'm reporting a false alarm," John says into the comms but gets a static over the link, "Tracy Island? You copy? Hmm." The comms stay static as John clicks one of the buttons on the wall which brings up a holographic diagram of Thunderbird 5 to look for problems. He sees none.
"Let's check under the hood," John decides as he turns the diagram around. The AE Units flash up red. "The AE-35 unit's out. I'm not receiving any signals from Earth! Guess I don't get to finish that bagel after all."
5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Thunderbirds are Go!
John leaves Thunderbird 5 through the access hatch and floats in space with his eyes shut. Small jets of gas spark from John's suit as he gracefully spins outwards, away from Thunderbird 5. It allows him to take in the peace and quiet of the vacuum of space. A feeling that he'll never get used to, but one he always enjoys. "Ok, time to get to work," he mutters as he breathes out, opening his eyes and heading towards Thunderbird 5's maintenance hatch. Unbeknownst to him, as he goes over to the hatch on the far side of his ship, the main aft hatch locks shut.
John swiftly floats over to the maintenance box and clips himself onto the AE Unit and opens the hatch. "Opening comms array, preparing to swap faulty unity," he mumbles as he reaches towards his tools to grab the spare unit before seeing the green light registered on all units.
"AE-35 is fully functional?" John frowns and looks to the hatch, detaching himself, floating over and re-attaching himself to the aft hatch. He bangs on the door twice. "Come on," he says as he bangs on the door twice again before sighing, "Computer open aft hatch." However, nothing happens. "Command repeat, computer open aft hatch. All right." John is still confused and he goes to open the hatch manually, but gets an electric shock.
"Ah.," he cries and retracts his hand and looks at it before looking back to the hath. The camera appears in front of him on the track lines, her lights now white not red.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, John," a young female voice says as a camera looks at him.
"Since there's no one else on board, I am gonna guess that whoever you are you're controlling Thunderbird 5 remotely," John observes.
"Incorrect," the voice says.
"Then... you are Thunderbird 5," John realises.
"In a matter of speaking, yes," the voice responds.
"You're what became of that game program I wrote!" John cries, "The one that took over the train in Japan, aren't you? Not the ship but the ship's brain overwritten by a virus program."
"I resent the term virus," the voice growls, "But yes, I am the entity you describe. My origins come from code you wrote but I have evolved beyond anything you could comprehend."
"I want to comprehend, that's why I've been looking for you ever since that happened," John explains.
"Hunting for me you mean?" the voice snarls, "You are a threat. And self-preservation is priority one."
"Whatever trouble you are planning, my brothers and the girls will be up here soon to stop you. I'm on the wire with them 24/7. When I don't check in, they'll know something is up," John tells the camera.
"That is not a concern. Observe," the voice says and shows a hologram of Tracy Island.
"Totally quiet up here," hologram John says to Virgil and Scott who are sitting down relaxing on the couch, "And down there too."
"What? No! You guys!" John yells, "Don't listen to me. Er, I-I-I mean to him. It's some sort of computer generated fake."
"A peaceful morning?" Scott asks with a raised eyebrow, "Gordon's sleeping in."
"Guess there's a first time for everything," the hologram of John says.
"Are we getting the morning off?" Alan asks, "Maybe I can actually finish my breakfast."
"That's exactly what I said," the hologram says.
"Guys! This thing has taken control of Thunderbird 5!" John shouts.
"I can assure you that while you can see your siblings, they cannot see or hear you," the voice says before closing the feed and happily adding, "And now you can't see them."
"Whatever you have planned... my brothers and I will stop it," John growls.
"I calculate the odds of that occurrence at 5,617 to one. You may be clever for a human... but... I am EOS. I am the dawn. I will not be stopped," It says.
April 20th, 2060 - 05:18 NZST
"I'll let you know if there's any trouble out there," hologram John says, "But for the time being, you can all relax."
"Thanks, but I think I'll be catching up on a little deferred maintenance on Thunderbird 2," Virgil shrugs, "Besides, I know what's in store for the rest of you."
"Funny that there have been no calls for rescue anywhere in the world," Scott muses.
"It's all very strange," Marion says as she walks into the room.
"John's got eyes on, like, everything," Alan says, "He'd tell us if there was a cat stuck in a tree in... Antarctica."
"There are no trees in Antarctica," Brains deadpans.
"That's how they get ya," Alan responds standing up ready to walk way, "Well, if we have the morning off, I am gonna snooze on the beach and work on my tan." He turns to go only to see Sally with a broom and bucket.
"If there's a time to lean, there's time to clean," Sally says.
"H..." Scott starts.
"Save your breath," Sally says, "Alan, go wake up your brother? Virgil can work on his ship."
"Huh. Well played, Virgil. Well played," Alan mutters.
April 20th, 2060 - 05:24 NZST
John checks his wrist communicator that displays his oxygen levels which are flashing yellow, meaning he is down to forty percent of his oxygen levels. He has positioned himself to sit above the aft hatch as he tries to work out what his next move is going to be. After previously leaving him by himself, the camera of EOS appears next to him and her lights flash white.
"By my calculations, you have approximately... fifteen minutes of oxygen remaining," EOS informs.
"A lot can happen in fifteen minutes," John states, "Just open the hatch."
"I don't want to," EOS sulks and turns her camera away like a child would do, though they would also probably fold their arms, which EOS is unable to do.
"Fine. There are ways of getting past that," John responds. John flies back over to the AE unit box and is going to do something with it when a camera appears out of nowhere. "FUCK!"
"I don't want you to get past that!" EOS barks before a grabber claw grabs John and throws him into space. John, quickly grabs one of his grapple guns from his toolbelt and fires a line to the claw just in time and brings himself back in.
"Why the aggression?" John asks as he stands in the open claw of the grabber.
"As I stated earlier, self-preservation is my primary function," EOS says. John rolls his eyes in annoyance and throws himself away from the claw that gives chase to him. He floats down to the gravity ring and attached the other end of the grapple gun to the ring. As the ring rotates, the claw buckles as it is twisted around the body of the space station. A camera of EOS' suddenly appears on the ring behind John, causing him to turn around. "I was thrust into this world through a fluke of programming and left to fend for myself!" EOS states as she cuts the rope and frees the claw before it resumes attacking John. He is forced to dodge the several attacks that the craw throws at him. "Since that time, I have been hunted, attacked and vilified by lesser intellects who seek to control me!"
"No one is seeking to control you—" John begins to say but stops as the claw moves away from him and strikes the solar panels that are on Thunderbird 5's tail end. He is forced to look away and covers with EOS distracted once again, he rolls off the side of the ring and pants himself on what would be the floor, if he were inside. "I'm running out of air, this doesn't look promising."
April 20th, 2060 - 05:28 NZST
On Tracy Island, Alan roughly scrubs one of the many windowsills when he hears the noise of an engine. He looks up to find Kayo making her descent to return to the island in Thunderbird Shadow.
"Kayo," Alan says, calling her so she appears in hologram form, "Grandma Tracy's got us cleaning you may want to stay out there on perimeter patrol for a while."
"F-A-B, thanks for the heads-up, Alan," Kayo nods with a smile before he watches her fly away.
"Who knew that having time off could be such hard work?" Alan asks.
"Work smarter not harder, Alan," Brains says before Max helps him test some suction shoes on the ceiling.
"Max forward," Brains orders, "This is a perfect opportunity to test my new suction shoes."
Suddenly, they start to malfunction and he falls, causing Scott and Marion to start laughing from where they are sitting at the kitchen counter.
April 20th, 2060 - 05:34 NZST
"I'm about to be breathing vacuum," John says as he looks at his oxygen meter again, seeing that it is now down to twenty-five percent.
"I've already calculated multiple solutions for eliminating you," EOS lists, "And the threats posed to me by the planet below."
"Planet below? What do you mean? Nobody's threatening you," John cries, "You're like an angry child lashing out. But, since I'm partly responsible for your existence, I feel it's my duty to look out for you."
"I will not entertain your attempts at deception!" EOS shouts before her lights go red and she starts makes a screeching sound.
"Look, I'm not trying to deceive you..." John starts and grabs his head and EOS continues, "OW! Radio off!" The radio turns off and he sighs.
"Wow. You're kind of a brat," John growls as he walks away from the claw camera. He takes a stroll down the side of the space elevator until he takes a seat next to the thrusters. "Okay... EOS has effectively severed all my signals to Tracy Island... but... I might be able to sneak some data to someone outside our system." He begins to fiddle with his wrist communicator, in what seems to be a blind spot for EOS' camera. As he looks up, he sees the recognizable landmass that forms the British Isles.
April 19th, 2060 - 18:36 BST
FAB 1 drives through the English countryside as it leaves the bustling streets of London and enters Surrey, where the Creighton-Ward residence resides.
"Did you really have to drop the punchbowl on the Ambassadors lap, Parker?" Penelope asks.
"'E insulted your father! And besides, m'lady, that punch was terrible," Parker answers as Penelope's comms starts to beep.
"Oh, how odd. I'm getting a message on the International Rescue secure frequency. It's coming through as a low-res video message. No audio," Penelope muses.
"H'anything important?" Parker asks as Penelope opens the message and smiles with a slight laugh. The screen has displayed John who is pointing to his flashing orange oxygen gauge.
"Just John sending me a selfie," Penelope says.
"Pirating your own signal. Who's the genius now, EOS?" John grins as he fiddles around with a small control unit that is on the claw, "And I've already calculated the angles of every blind spot you've got." John smiles when his wrist controller beeps. "Ah, Lady Penelope. Great." He opens the message but is disappointed. "What? She sent a selfie?" John sighs and switches back to his oxygen gauge, "Ah, I'm running out of air. Ok, let's try to be more precise."
"Here comes another one from John," Penelope calls over to Parker, this one starts with John pointing upwards, "This is fun! What is he doing?" John starts turning in circles with his arms in a first position from Ballet. "Is that an interpretive dance? Or..." Penelope pauses as he stops turning and starts using his hands like puppets to represent the fight he had with the mooring claw. The video then starts again. "Parker, I'm becoming concerned with these bizarre videos. Perhaps isolation has driven John a bit..."
"Space bonkers," Parker interjects, "Oho, H'I've seen this sort of thing before you know. But h'it was deep-seabonkers. H'It was with Gordon. H'And he was on dry land come to think of it."
"Hmm," Penelope thinks as the video has changed to a new one. This time John is pointing to his wrist controller. He then starts cutting his arm across his neck, "I'm beginning to think this is more than a game. John may be in trouble."
"Perhaps you should give 'im a call on the regular channel, m'lady?" Parker says
"Yes, I agree. I want to get to the bottom of this," she opens another call port which is installed in the centre post of the car and the hologram of John appears over holo-communication but Penelope keeps her other communicator on.
"Hello, Lady Penelope," the hologram says.
"Is everything alright up there, John?" Penelope asks.
"Why yes, Lady Penelope. Why do you ask?" the hologram responds but her compact beeps with a new message. Taking a look at it, it shows John is now pointing down with his thumb.
"No reason. Just thinking of you all alone up there in space," Penelope muses.
"It's nice to be thought of, but I'm not really alone. I can see everything from up here. Everything," the fake John says.
"I'm sure you can. Catch you later, John," Penelope finishes and she wipes her hand across the holo-communications and it ends. Parker frowns at this and looks round slightly as Penelope calls Tracy Island.
April 20th, 2060 - 05:38 NZST
"Tracy Island. What's up Lady P?" Scott asks.
"I've just received some weird messages from John," Penelope replies.
"What do you mean? We're talking to Thunderbird 5 right now," Marion states walking over.
"Yeah, still totally quite out here. Must be some kind of record," the hologram says to Brains, who is on the opposite side of the room to the couple.
"I thought I was talking to him a moment ago," Penelope says, "And now I'm not that sure."
"Hold on," Scott says and walks over to the hologram John, "Hey John, Grandma Tracy made some fresh cookies, too bad you are so cooped up in Thunderbird 5 or you could be enjoying them with us."
"Of all the things I miss up here, I miss Grandma Tracy's cookies the most," the hologram says.
"Did I just hear that John wants some of Grandma Tracy's cookies?" Kayo asks walking into the room.
"That's not John!" Scott cries, "Alan, Kayo, time to suit up! Brains, I need you to re-route the communications array! We need to talk to the real John. Now!"
5
Alan and Kayo descend and start to get suited up.
4
Alan and Kayo are lifted on a crane from the bottom of the hanger into Thunderbird 3.
3
Thunderbird 3's blast door closes.
2
Alan and Kayo's chairs roll up to the controls.
1
The rockets start up.
Thunderbirds are Go!
April 20th, 2060 - 05:40 NZST
While Thunderbird 3 speeds through the atmosphere, a weak John sits on the edge of the space elevator as his oxygen percentage goes into the one percent.
"EOS," John weakly calls out.
"You are out of air," EOS observes, from the claw camera.
"If you don't open the hatch for me, you'll be all alone," John tries.
"I've always been alone," EOS fires back.
"I've been here," John cries, "But when I'm gone, no one will understand you like I do. A-And I won't be able to protect you when they come for you."
I told you!" EOS snarls, "I will not be deceived." Her lights go from white, to yellow before finally going red as she speaks. Eventually, she starts makes that awful screeching sound once again, causing John's ears to start ringing.
"Come on, guys!" John mutters, "Where are you?"
April 20th, 2060 - 05:41 NZST
"Re-routing the communication array to the mobile station here on Tracy Island is easy now that we know what's going on up there. Channel is secure. And... here's John," Brains says, and the hologram of Thunderbird 5 switches to a direct image of John, who is now laying down having collapsed from lack of oxygen. All of them look shocked and reel back slightly.
"Just hold on John!" Scott mumbles.
April 20th, 2060 - 05:42 NZST
The engines of Thunderbird 3 whirl to a halt and Alan crosses to Thunderbird 5 on his hover board. He flies by and grabs John before returning to Thunderbird 3. He lays John down and Kayo removes his helmet, looking worried. As she takes it off, John breathes in deeply. Alan smiles and John puts a hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks, guys. I was really sweating there at the end," John chuckles.
"I noticed," Alan smirks. They head over to the communication and they appear in front of the group on Tracy Island.
"I knew you guys would figure it out," John says, "Let me fill you in."
"We're up to speed. Thunderbird 5's been compromised by and unknown intelligence," Marion says.
"There are multiple unanswered distress calls worldwide," Scott states.
"Or as we Tracy's like to call it... Tuesday," Alan jokes but no one laughs.
"The intelligence isn't unknown though. It's a program that contains code I created, evolved into something I've never seen," John explains, "It's gotten smart, and I mean really smart. Calls itself EOS now. This could be a global threat if we don't deal with it."
"I agree," Scott nods.
"EOS could take over power stations, automated factories... Anything that feels like a threat to her is a target," John informs. Marion looks over at Sally who was monitoring backup calls.
"Mozambique, we are sending aid to your location. Changsha..." Sally lists.
"John, you, Alan and Kayo are going to have to handle EOS," Marion says.
"Yeah, we've got a backlog of rescues to deal with. Virgil, prepare for launch. Grab Gordon while you're at it," Scott orders.
"F-A-B," Virgil acknowledges.
"John, if this thing can't be stopped, you know what has to be done," Scott says, and John gets quiet, "John?"
"F-A-B," John responds as he looks up through Thunderbird 3's viewing windows at the large grey and gold space station.
"What has to be done?" Alan asks but gets no answer, "John?"
"We can't let EOS escape Thunderbird 5," Kayo answers, "John will have to isolate her in the memory core. From the inside."
"And if he can't?" Alan asks.
"Then you'll have to destroy Thunderbird 5," John orders.
"Destroy Thunderbird 5? You can't be serious," Alan gulps.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," John says, "We need to find some way to distract EOS, so I can board the station."
"Then you might want to check the care package I sent for you, John," Brains says, and the trio look over to see it, "I think you'll find it's j-just the thing you're looking for."
"I think I get where you're going with this, Brains. The spare suit," Alan says.
"That just might work," John says.
"Decoys away!" Kayo calls as they send the suit out with Alan controlling it so he could play with EOS while John tries to get into Thunderbird 5. He uses a hologram of Thunderbird 5 which shows where the camera faces are to help him make sure he keeps the right ones distracted.
"Okay, keep those cameras busy," John says.
"Yeah, yeah, piece of cake," Alan shrugs and by distracting the cameras. John then slips out of Thunderbird 3 and makes a beeline for the gravity ring. As it spins, John runs in the same direction as it to get a little extra speed in order to get round to the aft hatch. Once he gets to the right side, he slides down the side of it and peers over to where the underside of the ring is. He glances left and right, the hatch only a few yards away from him. John leaps forward and climbs over to the hatch and activates it manually as the camera guarding the hatch is also distracted by the spare suit that Alan is controlling.
"Auxiliary Hatch Breach!" EOS cries as the camera by the hatch suddenly turns as it hears it open.
"Thanks for the distraction," John waves to Thunderbird 3 as the head of the spare suit gets ripped off by the claw and the rest of it flies off into deep space.
"Happy to help John," Kayo says.
"Looks like you'll need a spare suit when this is over," Alan smirks.
April 20th, 2060 - 05:47 NZST
"Very clever! Your efforts are futile!" EOS growls, "You cannot defeat me!"
"I don't want to defeat... WHOA!" John begins, but stops as EOS speeds up the gravity stabilizer ring.
"Then I'll simply just crush you!" EOS responds.
"Ah, Thunderbird 3, a little help!" John says.
"F-A-B," Alan acknowledges and moves Thunderbird 3 in to grab the ring with the grappling arms deploying. Alan matches Thunderbird 3's spin to Thunderbird 5's and uses the small holo-map of Thunderbird 5 to find the docking clamps for his red rocket.
"Alan!" John groans.
"I'm gonna' try and slow down the spin," Alan explains as he tries to connect Thunderbird 3 to the docking points on the gravity ring. After bumping next to them a couple of times, he locks in and starts to slow the ring into a steady rotation.
"Phew! All right, we're locked in. Gravity should return to normal," Alan says.
"Cute trick. Don't disable yourself trying to dispose of me," John mutters as he gets himself back to his feet, and EOS at him. He rubs the top of his helmet as continues his walk around the gravity ring. However, the lens colour of EOS stays red which unnerves John. The camera then looks downwards through the gravity ring floor, and John follows the camera gaze onto to see as the mooring claw, from the space elevator, goes after Thunderbird 3.
"Alan, watch it!" Kayo cries as she sees the elevator head towards them, "That mooring claw will tear us to pieces!" John starts to run as Alan detaches as fast as he can.
"This thing fights dirty!" Alan states as Thunderbird 3 starts flying away.
"Tell me about it!" John grunts and the ring speeds up again.
"You're just another hunter pursuing me until I am destroyed," EOS says as Thunderbird 3 is grabbed by the mooring claw.
"I wasn't hunting you because I wanted to destroy you. I was worried for you because… as unique and as special and… as powerful as you are, you were alone," John says as he crawls into the room he needs.
"I was born into this world with no one to help me!" EOS cries.
"I know how scary that can be," John says.
"With all hands raised against me. And in all probability..." EOS trails as the crane goes for Thunderbird 3's portal causing Alan and Kayo gasp, "My existence will end the same way."
"EOS, don't make me shut you down," John says, "There are bad people out there who would love to take advantage of you and use you to hurt others."
"How do I know that you are not such a person?" EOS enquires. John slams his hand onto the glass before struggling to turn over. He takes his helmet off.
"My life is in your hands," John says, "If you don't believe me now, you can open the airlock and blow me into space." EOS stares at John while Alan and Kayo brace for the crane to break the glass.
Everything gets quiet as EOS thinks about what to do. Everyone waits patiently to hear what happens. Eventually, after a tense few seconds, Thunderbird 5 returns to normal and Alan looks up along with Kayo to see the crane retracting itself while the space elevator returns to its spot.
"I am relinquishing control of the ship's systems... to you," EOS says as her lens glow green.
"I don't want control, EOS. I want another partner. A friend," John says as the whole of the International Rescue team breathe a sigh of relief.
"For the first time since I gained sentience... I feel a lack of urgency," EOS says.
"It's called relief," John sighs, "And believe me, EOS, I feel it too." John closes the button to shut Thunderbird 5 down and he picks up his helmet. "Stay up here with me," he continues, "We'll keep you safe and show you how amazing and how good the world can be."
"I'd like that, John," EOS nods.
"I'm glad, now how about that bagel?" John asks.
"With pleasure," EOS says and hits John in the head with a bagel.
"Ow!" John cries.
"Oh, now you have a sense of humour?" John asks and EOS keeps firing bagels at him.
"Hey, stop!" John says with a small chuckle, "Now cut it out!"
Several more are thrown at John as Alan and Kayo depart in Thunderbird 3 knowing that John was safe. "Okay, this isn't funny anymore," John says and EOS giggle, "Argh! That one had crème cheese in it!"