Thunderbirds Are Go: Titan

1

Tracy Island, before sunrise-

For just a few moments longer, the house was still, peaceful and quiet; beginning to glow in the silvery light before dawn. Three of the boys lay in their newly reconstructed bedroom suites, with assorted visitors. One was just sneaking back in from a clandestine "field trip". Max drowsed in sleep mode, down in the ring. Like the rest of the house, the sunken comm center was both brand new, and exactly the way they all remembered it, thanks to detailed scans and painstaking programs. An appetizing aroma was just beginning to waft through the air, and it would no doubt have awakened everyone, soon. Unfortunately, no one had a chance to find out.

Jeff picked up a big metal garbage can and a baseball bat, and began striding through the house, slamming the bat around inside that galvanized steel can, making more noise than a cement mixer filled with cannon balls and loose change.

"ON YOUR FEET!" he bellowed at the top of his very considerable lungs. "MESS CALL! Breakfast is ready!"

Back in his almost-right quarters (Brains had inexplicably programmed those microstructures to place his closet door in the bathroom) Scott sat bolt upright, dislodging Penelope.

"Breakfast?" he repeated, sounding hopeful.

Penny was much less enthused. She had arrived with Parker and Bertie only the night before, having been smoothing things out with the World Council, back in London. The Hood's condition had not gone unremarked, it seemed, and hard questions were being asked about the emotional stability of International Rescue's prime operatives.

"Good heavens, what is that beastly racket?!" she hissed, hurrying to kiss Scott and struggle back into her dressing gown. Grandma Tracy did not hold with open cohabitation, and would only turn her blind eye so far.

"It's breakfast," Scott whispered back, racing to put on his own clothes, and then holding the balcony door open for Lady Penelope. "Trust me," he told her, as his father continued to bellow and crash, "it's worth it!"

"I do so despise early mornings!" Penny grumbled, as Scott lifted her up and over to her own railed balcony. (At the pilot's request, Brains had made the balconies wider, and nudged them much closer together.) Sherbert was barking, bounding and chasing his tail over there, ecstatic at the return of his lovely young mistress.

Scott took Penny's head in both hands and tipped it forward to kiss her tousled blonde hair.

"See you downstairs, Pen," he told her. Then, after a deep breath and warm eye contact, he added, "Love you."

Penelope's jaw dropped and her soft pink mouth fell open. He'd never said anything to her, before, about love.

"I… I… thank you, Scott. I… of course, needless to say… only too happy. Erm… the sentiment is… is returned. Absolutely."

Not what he'd been expecting, as it happened. His handsome face grew rigid and tense. Then, Scott forced a smile.

"Right," he said, quietly. "Talk to you later, Penny."

Meanwhile, Alan and Gordon were already at breakfast; the one having bounded downstairs three at a time, the other having just come back in. The usual Tracy meal-blessing: 'Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghostest, the one who's firstest, eats the mostest!' had already been said by one of them, at some point… probably with his mouth full.

Now they were stuffing their faces with pancakes, bacon, toast and eggs, threatening to devour the entire spread before anyone else could even show up. Jeff stood over them with a fond smile. He was wearing a big, canvas "Kiss the Cook" apron over his jeans and IR tee shirt, and he was morning-barefoot, with dabs of flour still smeared on his face, hands and grey hair. The garbage can and baseball bat had been set aside, leaning against the unused auto-chef.

Grandma was next to come in. She entered the dining area with Captain Taylor, snapping,

"Jeffrey, them kids ain't in boot camp, and we got guests! Mind your manners, before I put you over my knee! You ain't too old to feel the back of my hand, Boy!"

Alan and Gordon kept their faces straight only by bending low over the glorious food… but it was a very near thing.

"Yes, Ma. I'm sorry!" Jeff pulled out two chairs for his mother and chuckling best friend. "Now, have a seat, and prepare to feast!"

…because if there was one thing Jeff Tracy could do, it was cook. The rest of the family filed in a few at a go; the older boys carefully not at quite the same time as their female guests. Grandma merely snorted at their tissue-thin pretenses, and focused on her plate. Only Brains didn't show, being still too weary after three solid days of non-stop construction programming. The others more than made up for his absence, though.

"This is incredible, Dad," said Virgil, over eggs that weren't concrete-hard, carbonized lumps, and bacon that wasn't half raw. Like Gordon, he'd been eating steadily since reaching the table; vacuuming up anything that wasn't red- hot, nailed down, or cremated by Grandma. Jeff was kept very busy in the kitchen, flipping pancakes from griddle to plate by the score, with Max zipping back and forth, playing waiter. He looked up at Virgil's admiring, mouth-filled comment, frowning, slightly.

"You mean… six years, and none of you have learned to cook?!" Jeff demanded.

"Well…" John offered, in the general, embarrassed silence, "Kayo makes campfire pizza, on special occasions."

"I can microwave popcorn!" chimed Alan, looking as round and smeared as though he'd won first place at a championship eating contest. "It's really good with ketchup and butter!"

Kayo's frosty disgust was obvious to everyone but Alan, who continued, brightly,

"If you put a lettuce leaf on top, and close your eyes, it tastes almost like hamburgers!"

O'Bannon shifted her grey eyes from John, to Alan and back, mouthing: He's kidding, right? But John shook his head, saying silently: No... afraid not.

"That's it," Jeff announced, briskly. "Starting this afternoon, it's kitchen 101. We'll begin with the basics: spaghetti. Anyone not present will be confined to desk detail, for a week. Understood?"

Among the general chorus of "yes, Sirs", Alan's response stood out. His large, sky-blue eyes were wide with something like love.

"Spaghetti…?" he repeated, as though angels had flashed him a glimpse of the Holy Grail. "Why wait, Dad?! I'm ready, now!"

Kayo hadn't sat down, at all. When she'd first become a member of the family, the small girl had refused to sit in a child's high-chair for meals. It was an old wooden hand-me-down, anyhow, with straps and buckles much stained and chewed on by four older brothers. And even back then, she would not be pinned down, nor hemmed in. Instead, she'd been handed around the table from lap to lap, eating whatever she liked from all their plates in turn; being kissed and made much of by Grandma, Dad and her brothers. (Except for Alan. Back then, he hadn't been willing to share.)

Now, she made her circuit of the table leaning across her brothers' shoulders to stab things off their plates with her fork. Dad and Grandma and Uncle Lee, too. At each brief stop, she generally got a shoulder bump or a side-hug, ate, then moved on. Everyone was too accustomed to this set-up to comment, or explain things to Kraft and O'Bannon.

The two young women had come to an understanding a few days previous, having met at last, by the pool deck. Both were GDF officers; one a captain, one a lieutenant, neither in uniform. They'd stared at one another for a few long moments, until O'Bannon shrugged, laughed and said,

"Whatever!"

Sticking her hand out, she'd announced,

"Captain Ridley O'Bannon, Space Corps, Global-1."

Kraft smiled back at her, clasped the hand warmly, then let go.

"Lieutenant Emma Kraft, GDF Navy, Union Jack.:

Then, with more laughter and mischief sparkling in her grey eyes, O'Bannon said,

"John."

…Which Kraft had countered with,

"Virgil."

…After which they fallen to chatting like sisters; comparing notes on careers, command, and on how they'd each met their respective Tracy. Now, they watched Kayo's behavior with mingled interest and confusion. Pretty clearly, the girl was held to a different standard of behavior than her brothers, and it would take a while to fully comprehend the Tracy family dynamics.

Gordon had been aloof from the general chaos and foolery, because he was sitting with an electronic notepad on his lap, trying to watch a show and eat at the same time. It was that, or stare at Lady Penelope, which he did not want to openly do. That's why he failed to notice when Kayo got 'round to his position. Instead of going for his plate, however, the girl leaned close and made a loud popping sound in his right ear.

"Ow! Hey, what's that in aid of?!" Gordon demanded, turning to face her, while rubbing hard at his ringing ear.

"Family time, Gordon. You're meant to be interacting, remember?" Kayo corrected him, her green eyes both friendly and mocking. "Want the rest of your bacon?" she asked in a low voice, while helping herself.

"Guess not," he sighed, tilting his head for another swift peek at the poorly concealed tablet.

"What're you watching?" she enquired, having pretty much cleaned his plate, by now.

"Trying to watch. It's Buddy and Ellie. They're on Titan, in pursuit of the elusive Titanean Mud Worm… only part two isn't coming up, yet. All it says is 'TBA', to be announced. Been over a week, already! I want to find out what happens!" Then, more slowly, "Hey… you don't think they're in trouble, do you, Kay?"

The girl snorted, sounding a lot like Grandma.

"Knowing Buddy and Ellie Pendergast, I'd say "signs point to yes", Gordon. And speaking of trouble… do you think something's wrong with Scott?"

"Scott?" Gordon repeated vaguely, trying to refresh the webpage, again.

"Yeah. Scott. You know… our brother? Fearless leader? Crack pilot and general pain in the arse? Tall, blue eyes, gloomy expression… can't miss him."

Growling impatiently, Gordon gave up on his tablet, and turned to look 'round for Scott, who did, indeed, seem rather quiet.

"Eh. He'll do. You know Scott. He's always depressed when he's not in the air. Probably just needs some stick time. Invite him up to race you in Shadow, or something. He'll perk right up. Bet me."

Kayo smiled at her sandy-haired brother. Then, sniffing audibly, she said,

"You smell good, Gordon."

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Pancake syrup and seawater," he joked. "Drives all the females wild."

She shoved him a little by way of response. When she'd been very little, Kayo hadn't understood about kisses. In attempting to copy the gesture, she'd just blown loud, spit-y raspberries on everyone's cheeks. Now, in a playful and affectionate mood, she blew one against the side of Gordon's unshaven face, and then moved on to John. (Bypassing Alan, because he'd defiantly covered his plate with a napkin. No matter… she'd get him back, later. He had to sleep, sometime.)

The astronaut had carefully eaten exactly half of his food, leaving the rest for Kayo. She came to hang over the shoulder on his other side, away from Captain O'Bannon. Not jealous, precisely… just wary.

"Morning, Brother-mine," she said, around her new mouthful. They'd shared food equally since that first day, when he'd given her half a peanut butter sandwich, by way of hello.

"Morning, Little-Bit," he replied, keeping his voice down. "What's new?"

"Nothing much," the girl whispered back, her dark ponytail brushing his shoulder. "Scott's in a bad way, and Gordon thinks that the Pendergasts may be up against it, once more. Could you do some research?"

"I'll investigate both situations, but Scott…"

"Probably just needs to go flying?" Said Kayo, finishing his food and his sentence, both.

"Actually, I was going to say that he's not sitting next to Penelope, for once. Maybe they've had a fight?" Such things happened, he knew. In theory, at least.

"Huh! You're right, John," Kayo whispered. "They're not sitting cheek-by-jowl, trying to hold hands, or anything… and Penny hasn't touched her food, which doesn't make sense, 'cause it's actually good. Wonder what's up? Tell you what, Brother-mine… you find out about Buddy and Ellie, and I'll see what's troubling our former lovebirds. Meet you back with the facts, this afternoon."

Nothing piqued Kayo's interest like a mystery, or the sight of a fleeing suspect. Tracking, chase and capture were her particular delight.

"Don't get too inquisitive," John advised her. "Personal stuff can get messy. You end up getting blamed by both sides, when you try to interfere in an argument."

Kayo wrinkled her nose at him.

"Says the man with exactly two weeks' relationship experience!" she mocked, elbowing her brother in the ribs.

"I learn fast," he told the girl, rising to help Grandma clear plates. "Meet you in the usual place, before, um… 'cooking class'. Anyhow, it's one emotional mess, and two lost explorers; probably just out of gas. Seriously, how bad could it be?"