Ouch! My Spaceship!

Even Gordon had been a little put out by Penny’s insistence but she stuck to her guns and now Scott and Penny were on a train travelling through Europe on a train with various security services in attendance and quite a target.

A target for all kinds of terrorist organisations and for her uncle.

If her Uncle got his hands on Scott…

She paused at the desk and jabbed at the comm button. Again.

‘Anything, John?’ ‘Not in the 90 seconds since you last asked.’

Kayo sighed and resumed pacing faster.

~

In the carriage set aside for Penny she and Scott were deep in conversation about the variety of delegates present.

‘So we have Spectrum, WASP and the GDF represented.’ ‘Yes. There were a few people there I didn’t recognise but I noticed you did.’ ‘I did, Scott. From several intelligence agencies as a matter of fact.’ ‘Anyone we need to take a closer look at?’ ‘There’s only one person I have no knowledge of. I’ve already put some feelers out on Captain Foster. I can’t put my finger on it but there’s something odd about her.’ ‘Fair enough. Are we going to ask John to look into her?’ ‘Parker is looking, if he doesn’t turn up anything then we’ll ask John. Now, have you seen who Colonel Gray and Commander Shore have brought with them?’ ‘Yes. I know Atlanta, obviously, but I don’t know the Colour Captain with Charles.’ ‘Two. Two Colour Captains, if I’m not mistaken. One with the Colonel and one in the background.’ ‘Makes sense. I didn’t see anyone else from WASP I know but Unc…Sam Shore will probably have someone else here. In fact, almost everyone seems to have two escorts.’

Penny nodded. They had been over everything in depth. It was time to retire for the night and start again in the morning. They’d agreed to talk to John in the morning before breakfast.

With a hug and forehead kiss Scott left Penny for his own bunk.

~

‘Well, Dad, what do your sea legs say?’

Shore laughed. He always appreciated his daughter’s wicked sense of humour, and Atlanta wielded that power ruthlessly whenever he needed it.

‘This is an odd assortment of people our World President has invited onto this train.’ ‘I agree.’ ‘I’m sure that you’ve seen our mutual friends?’ ‘I have. Haven’t had the chance to talk to either of them yet but I intend to talk to Scott before we leave.’ ‘Good. We should have him and his brothers over once this is done.’ ‘I’d like that, Dad.’

Sam grinned impishly.

‘I’ll make sure Troy isn’t anywhere around…’

It was Atlanta’s turn to laugh. She kissed her father goodnight.

~

Weston sighed.

Seeing Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward had thrown him. FAB and WIN had a fractious relationship. Ostentatiously they operated in the same circles but they didn’t work well together.

President Younger had thought about folding both agencies into the GDF but had been persuaded that keeping the peacekeeping force separate from the intelligence forces would be better. It hadn’t stopped him from snapping up certain officers from all agencies into the new one he set up, creating lasting animosity from all agencies towards Spectrum.

Sam himself was a little…jealous. He’d have loved to have been asked to move to Spectrum but he had not been selected. Unlike everyone else Weston had not brought a co-worker with him. He hadn’t felt the need to and his boss hadn’t offered.

Now he knew why.

He wasn’t really here to represent WIN. He was here to support the Lady. She’d once been head of FAB at a very young age. Not many knew that but he did. WIN did.

So he read through his notes and put them away and went to bed.

If Lady Penelope wanted to share intel with him she knew where he was.

~

Val Casey pinched her nose to try and ease the growing tension headache.

Rigby had given her a concise report of all the delegates and Foster had agreed with everything he’d said but, while there was no one untoward on the train, she worried.

There was so much that could go wrong…

Eventually she called it a night and sent Rigby and Foster to their own sleeping quarters before rereading all the notes and finally settling down for the night.

Something was going to go wrong. She could feel it.

~

Rigby went straight to sleep in the top bunk but Foster lay back, hands under her head. She grinned and waited for her bunkmate’s snoring to even out before soundlessly getting up.

This was going to be…lucrative.

~

Captains Ochre and Blue had delivered their reports and Charles had dismissed them for the night. Or should he say early morning…

It was closer to two in the morning and Charles was feeling restless. They had been told that they had the run of the main carriages but not the personal ones – which was fair enough and a rule Charles was thankful for – so he made his way through to the dining car. There was tea and coffee available in their quarters but Charles was craving something different, sweeter.

Something to help him sleep. He shouldn’t really be going where he was without letting his Captains know, but for some reason Charles needed to be there.

When he entered the dining car he wasn’t really surprised to see someone else already sitting at the bar nursing exactly what he was after. He sat down beside the man.

‘Uncle Charlie.’ ‘Scooter.’ ‘Ha. I forgot you used to call me that.’ ‘I think it’s about time you called me Charles, Scott. You have more than earned the right.’ ‘I’d like that, Charles. Thank you.’ ‘What can I get you, Sir?’ ‘I’ll have a hot chocolate too, please.’

The waiter placed a tall glass of hot chocolate on the counter and discreetly withdrew.

The two men didn’t say anything for a moment, just took a sip and put their glasses down in unison.

And turned when a third person entered the carriage.

Captain Foster cursed the presence of Colonel White and Scott Tracy – trust those two to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were spoiling her plans! But she couldn’t very well carry on now – they would be suspicious if she did. So she nodded to them, asked the waiter for a bottle of sparkling water and returned the way she had come. There would be plenty of time to do what she had planned…

Scott frowned as the Captain left and opened his mouth to say something when the train started shaking more than a top-of-the-range train should do…

But before he could hit his comm to call John the lights went out and they were both thrown to the floor.

~

‘John!’ ‘EOS?’ ‘There has been an earthquake.’

John’s fingers flew as he pulled up the data, paling when he saw what…or rather where this was happening. He hit the emergency klaxon and was gratified as always when his brothers and sister were ready and waiting in seconds.

‘Guys, we have a situation.’ ‘What is it, John?’ ‘Earthquake in Switzerland. The Alps to be exact.’ ‘The Alps…’ ‘Yes. The train that Scott is on is in the epicentre of the quake. EOS is trying to raise him but by my calculations they would be in the Gotthard Base Tunnel and that alone would create communication difficulties without the earthquake.’ ‘How large is it?’ ‘As earthquakes go it isn’t the biggest but it has combined with extra snowfall after a wet summer…Alan, you have One.’ ‘FAB. We’re on our way, John. Keep trying to get through to Scott. Thunderbirds are go.’

It took One less than an hour to get to the epicentre. It was an hour too long.

Alan circled the area, taking aerial images for Five and Two, and he had a lump in his throat the entire time.

Where the mountainside should be, where the Gotthard tunnel ran through…was just a pile of debris and snow.

but so like if we go of the og story order? not the order they were first shown on telly in (and often saved to it and some dvds in). because does screw with the contiuity.

Troy does does moon over marina for abit at the same time as Atlanta. but then cools along the series to more friendly. (particularly after tresure down below. and partly with scripts giving Atlanta more screentime with marinas role being sadly reduced).

not saying thats a good thing or thats a particular Gentlemenly trait.

but i would argue Troy's two timing thibg is exaggerated by the weid show order. as it stops being a linery development and ping-pongs troy back and forth?

another reason show order sucks: troys ego gets a check after raptures of the deep. not huge but enough if you're watching in the script order he isn't having to duck to get his big head under the door. theres more attention in the scripts he becomes a more well rounded character to some degree. but that gets lost with the screening. like how putting plant of doom futher back messes with flow of friendships and trust established, when its supposed to be episode 2

Broadcast order is evil as all Hell. It makes Troy look like he's two-timing and inconsistent, plus a lot of other factors. If you watch Stingray, WATCH IT IN PRODUCTION ORDER, I AM ***BEGGING*** YOU. The love-triangle is actually VERY short lived. It lasts about 10 episodes, then it's over. Troy treats Marina as a FRIEND after that, and sets his cap at Atlanta. The love-triangle also doesn't exist outside of the show. If you came into Stingray via the comics and novels (esp the novels) like me, you would have no real CLUE that Troy was EVER interested in anyone else.

Troy is a good lad, has a heart of gold, is FIERCELY loyal, always willing to speak up for and defend people - even those he doesn't like in the slightest (like when he saves Jordan's bacon), and he treats people with respect - even for the SHORT period where he's trying to figure out which girl he wants to be with, he still treats Marina and Atlanta with respect and BOTH OF THEM like him and are friends with each other. The closest he comes to being sexist is ONE line that is basically grumbling about women being as changable as the sea... when he is alone in his car, after a pretty big fight... and he sent flowers and an apology card to Marina WITHOUT PROMPTING to apologize for ruining her dinner party, and he simply chose NOT TO SPEAK with Atlanta after their fight, never saying anything rude to her or about her... and when Jordan is revealed to be what Troy said he was, Troy apologises to Marina AND GETS HER PERMISSION before tearing into the guy, then is very kind with Atlanta, making sure to include her in the 'best people at WASP' and the like.

He's short tempered, has a FIERY temper, impulsive, and entirely too bold. (so is Atlanta and Sam) He's got a bit of a big head, but he's EARNED a fair bit of it as he 'is the hype' to a fair degree. He also is not sexist. He treats women with respect, and does his best to apologize or make up for instances where his temper flared up / he screwed up. He's flawed, but has a LOT of strengths.

Gordon was a clingy child. If you needed to be freed of his embrace, you would often need to aquire assistance in prying the creature off. If you were Lucille Tracy, there was no freedom.

Jeff was away on business, and Lucille had enough work of her own to keep her busy for a lifetime- at least thats how it felt. On top of that, she was responsible for FIVE little vermin who seemed to cause any trouble they could.

Should be the last of that bit. She opened her email to send it to the investor. 10 New Emails. Better check them first. And of course, one was from the investor. And of course, he needed nearly twice what she'd just done and of course, he wanted it that day.

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY," she grumbled a few swears at the computer and typed up an acceptable response. Now to get to work.

She jumped a little as she felt something grab onto her leg, "Hey Gordon, how did my little gremlin escape his play pen?"

"Mawmwa," she could tell that was all the information she was gonna get from him.

"Come 'ere," she reached down and scooped up the child, who was happy to release his grip on her leg for a tighter one around her neck, "I'm lucky you're so small, or else you'd have choked me by now". An empty blink was all she got in response.

She carried Gordon into the other room. His playpen was still intact. Maybe he's big enough to climb out now? He has been trying to climb things more lately.

She passed through the kitchen to find John reading on the counter. He didn't even glance up as she walked by, too absorbed by his book. Lucille noted that it was the one his Uncle Lee had given him on his last visit, one about space.

She heard roars echoing through the hall, coming from the nursery no doubt. She stood a moment in the doorway watching Scott murder his baby brother with a foam sword. Gordon seemed to find it entertaining.

"And what did our little sprout do to deserve all this?" She teased. Her oldest jumped, not expecting for anyone to appear.

"Oh, he's a dragon!" Scott tapped the paper cup on Alan's head and picked something up, "he kidnapped the princess".

What Scott had picked up, and was now holding out, was one of Virgil's action figures. "And isn't she just lovely!" Lucy giggled at the sight.

"Yes. End of discussion." Scott crossed his arms defiantly.

"Alright, alright," she stiffled her laugh, "have you seen Virgil?"

"He wanted to borrow my markers, so hes probably sitting under his palm tree again," Scott motioned vaguely in that direction, and took the cup off of his baby brother's head.

"Thanks, Scoot," she started to leave and then turned back for a moment, "just so you know, Gordon's figured out how to escape the play pen".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She found her second oldest under his Palm tree, sketching the view.

"Hey there Virg," she couldn't resist ruffling his hair as she went by.

"Don't call me that!" She could hear him grumbled something about his hair, but the breeze was picking up, and she didn't want to be away from her work for too long. Actually forever sounded like a great amount of time to be free of it, but that wasn't very probable.

She sat down on the beach, the only place Gordon would let her go willingly, and sighed. It was a beautiful view, late in the day, the sky had started to turn a few different shades of pink.

Her curly haired child had picked up a shell, and was now sitting beside her. He held it up, "fow Mawmwa".

"Aww, thank you!" She took the shell from him, she'd put in on her desk when she got back in. Gordon had now, apparently, decided that it was lap time.

"You're so clingy, little one," she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the top of his head, "like a little squid or something".

"Imma 'quid," he giggled at the thought.