Few cars made an entrance into the London Metropolis like the FAB-1, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward's personal painted pink six wheeled Rolls Royce. The design had been a one-off special commission it had two Rolls Royce engines in the extended front of the car and instead of a solid roof the vehicle had a clear canopy which was more like that of one found on a fighter plane. Inside the vehicle was fitted with a plush white interior, a video communication system and a small mini-bar stocked with Lady Penelope's favourite drinks. Once the vehicle had been completed, she’d had Brains give the vehicle his own once over which had added even more capabilities to the vehicle.
In the front of the cabin at the driver seat was Lady Penelope's driver and personal assistant Parker wearing his usual grey jacket pants and flat cap, Parker was dressed to be invisible allowing him to go completely unnoticed which Penelope had found useful on numerous occasions. "A couple of times around the block? Milady we can make sure Spectrum are not trying to pull a fast one on us."
"As you wish Parker, but I do not want to be late" she said from her relaxed position in the back, she knew Parker was right, Spectrum had already wasted a lot of resources attempting to track down International Rescue's base of operations after Thunderbird Ones exploits in Japan had caused questions around the globe. Since the 2037 unification of the United Nations Advisory Council into the United Nations World Government Spectrums profile had risen significantly with-it having responsibilities across the globe, on Earth and in humanities efforts on Mars. International Rescue needed their cooperation not their animosity which was what had led to this planned meeting.
Lady Penelope had known Jeff Tracy for twenty years and when he had proposed that she act as a "Wandering Ambassador" for International Rescue she had seen the benefit. She continued her life and with her own projects while assisting International Rescue when they needed her.
"Only the single Spectrum Saloon Car” he said motioning to the red vehicle parked in plain sight for everyone to see. “Of course, I wouldn't put it past 'em to have more nearby waiting" Parker reported bringing the limousine around to the front of the Grand Bilbo Hotel on the centre of London, they were only a few streets from Buckingham Palace.
"Very good, Parker stay with the car and keep watch." She instructed him
"Of course, Milady" Parker responded on his thick cockney accent, he knew this town better than anyone else and would spot something off.
The canopy slid open and the door automatically opened allowing Penelope to exit the vehicle. Before she had even moved Parker was stood by her door ready to lend assistance should she need it. "Thank you, Parker" she said stepping out of the vehicle she had chosen a pink business skirt designed by Elaine Wickfern with a yellow belt which matched her hair colour. Finally, a beautiful pair of pink shoes and a gold handbag completed the look.
She walked up into the Great Bilbo Hotel's grand entrance hall and saw the two Spectrum Agents waiting for her. "Gentlemen, thank you for agreeing to meet with me" she said approaching them immediately "shall we sit?"
"Of course, Lady" the male in the red and black uniform said indicating for her to head to their table first which she did. As she headed along the two men followed her.
Once at their table immediately a server attended "Drinks?" He asked the three of them
"We are on duty so Water for us, Lady Penelope?" The male in the all-dark uniform said curtly.
"Business and pleasure often mix in my like of work I'll have a glass of Pernod Red." She said naming her favourite wine brand hurriedly the waiter left.
"Lady Penelope, I am Captain Scarlet and this is Captain Black." The man in red and black said he was in his thirties English judging by his accent, which indicated to her he'd grown up in a good family with education, and he was quite attractive, if Lady Penelope was twenty years younger, he'd be in trouble.
"Spectrum does love it's colour codes?" Penelope teased "I am honoured really Spectrum Royalty for little old me. It's fastest rising recruit in the last twenty years" she said looking to the man in red "and the commander of the next Martian Mission."
"That's classified" Captain Black snapped he had a gruffer accent perhaps from a tougher background than his colleague and he had also seen a few more years.
"Yes, as are your names… Conrad and Paul" she said looking first at Captain Black and then to Captain Scarlet. As the waiter returned with their drinks before leaving "now gentlemen I know you and I am quite sure you did some digging and know who I am and what I am capable of..."
"The parts of your record which are not redacted are quite impressive, Lady Penelope." Captain Scarlet replied trying a more friendly approach.
"Ah yes, the security services do like their secrets. Was the part where it states have the ear of the Prime Minister, the World President and the King mentioned? She asked genuinely interested
"Yes, it was, Lady Penelope your point?" Captain Black asked
"You know my capabilities, my connections and reputation. I am being completely open which is the most important in this negotiation." She offered them “I wish to represent Internation Rescue in the most open way possible.”
"So, in the effort of co-operation what is it that your organization wants Lady Penelope?" Captain Scarlet asked
"The people I represent would like to not be hunted, to be left alone and to be allowed to help people. International Rescue wish only to help those in need, without looking for compensation or persecution for their actions." She said plainly
“That is a difficult ask Lady Penelope” Captain Black stated “your organisation has only showed off one piece of its equipment but it has shown exceptional capabilities, one may even say dangerous capabilities.” He pointed out “for what you are suggesting we would be unleashing a powerful organisation on the world which has capabilities which we do not know and possibly could be a threat to international security.”
“We have multiple capable vehicles or bespoke designs which have been built specifically for rescue efforts.” Lady Penelope countered taking a sip of her drink. “Our capabilities are purely defensive in their nature.”
“But you do have weapons capabilities, like the weapon you used to disable the Bullet Train’s electronics?” Captain Scarlet asked his tone lighter than the other man’s more curious than anything.
“Our craft are capable of self-defence.” It was a small admittance but one she had to make, of Spectrum thought they were hiding things from them they’d never let it go. “However, those capabilities have dual purposes for use in rescue operations.” She said glancing up seeing a screen in the Hotel lobby displaying breaking news. “Excuse me” without another word Penelope stood up and walked into the lobby looking up at the screen the camera image was obviously from another aircraft looking at the world’s newest hypersonic airliner, the Fireflash. Under the headline it stated that the Fireflash was currently unable to land due to faults with its landing gears and its engine core shielding was failing.
“That, gentlemen is something that International Rescue could help with…” Lady Penelope said glancing at the two Spectrum Captains who were now standing beside her.
“You think so?” Captain Black asked “that craft is a flying bomb, it should never have been allowed to take off.” He grumbled “it is a vanity project, who needs to be able to stay in the air for six months.” The idea behind Fireflash was it was a flying hotel or cruise-liner capable of staying aloft for six months, it was able to pass over landmarks on any of the continents and it was able to enter hover mode allowing its guests to savour their time in different locations. The drawback was of course that it was powered by a fission engine, which needed specific engine shielding or they leaked radiation. Unbeknown to anyone beyond those in International Rescue the engine was the same as those on the Thunderbird machines and had been invented by Brains.
“I know so… and it will give your people a chance to observe our capabilities, which I am sure your commanders will be interested in.” She teased them, the more Spectrum were able to observe International Rescue the more opportunities they would have to trace them to their base of operations and the more they would see what they were dealing with. Also having Fireflash explode in the air or having it crash somewhere would be a massive disaster.
The two captains exchanged a look before nodding “Thank you, gentlemen” she said raising her hand to her necklace turning one of the gems “Lady Penelope calling International Rescue…”
Half the way around the world Jeff Tracy listened to Lady Penelope’s call as it was relayed around their private satellite network and he looked around his office at his sons. “Well, you all heard the message, what do you think?” He asked all eyes turned to Brains.
“It all depends on the d….d….damage to the shielding. If it has been comp…compromised those people could be in serious trouble.” Brains stammered “we are however probably best placed to repair any damage” he said “given the origin of the power plant.”
“Alright Scott, go! Virgil, I want you, Alan and John prepped in Thunderbird 2. Whatever Scott finds you will load as required.” The three brothers exchanged glances, Thunderbird 2 was more than four times the size of the first craft and it was designed to carry their rescue equipment to operations. She was designed to be operated by one person with most of the equipment automated. “Just in case, it’s her maiden flight you are all available until the space station is completed so we work together as a team. Virgil you are the pilot, Alan co-pilot and John you are equipment specialist.”
Soon after Scott’s Thunderbird One was completing its de-orbit burn entering the upper atmosphere near Fireflash’s location in the aerospace over China. As he approached, he saw the four Angel Interceptors which Spectrum had sent to escort the stricken craft. “Angel One, this is Thunderbird One, requesting permission to approach.” He communicated seeing two of the craft peel off and approach him, the craft her sleek and fast, quickly they raised up into formation with his craft.
“Hello again, Scott” Destiny Angel replied using his name again “it didn’t take long for us to meet again.”
“Permission to approach Fireflash?” He asked attempting to keep things professional.
“Permission granted; we will stay in close proximity should you need assistance.” She said, the two white Angel Interceptors pulled off to the right allowing him to approach.
“Thunderbird One to Tracy Island approaching Fireflash, radiation levels are steady craft is on a steady heading.” He narrated as he closed on the large craft. Fireflash was a radical design it was three-hundred-and-eighty feet in length, and one-hundred-and-eighty feet in width. The font of the craft was like a rocket point, while the curved delta shaped wings started at about half the way along the craft. There were two engines under the main wings while there were two others at the top of the T-shaped tailfin. “Fireflash this is Thunderbird One, status?” He asked bringing the craft up and over Fireflash surveying the ship. In the two wing-based restaurants/clubs he could see passengers were gathered.
“Our computer core dumped; it’s now rebooted but the core is fluctuating. Other systems have been heavily affected, including out landing systems.” The ship’s captain reported “we don’t know what caused the dump nor if it will happen again.”
“Great, what’s the status of the landing systems?” Scott enquired perhaps this could be a bigger problem than the core, if that wasn’t bad enough.
“We can’t lower any of the gear, we can’t even get the external doors open.” The captain reported for a size of the ship Fireflash was a nightmare. “We also cannot activate our hover systems.”
“Hell, alright standby” Scott swapped frequencies so he could speak with Tracy Island. “Thunderbird One to base did you hear all that, whatever has happened here her computer core is suspect to say the least.”
Back on Tracy Island Jeff Tracy glanced at Brains who sat across from him in the office. “What do you think Brains?”
“It depends how compromised the computers are… that should not have happened there are redundancies on that systems.” Brains replied he knew about the Fireflash’s systems due to his work on the engine core. “It…it must have been sabotage of some sort…”
“Can we fix the computer?” Tracy asked his technical expert. The easiest solution would be if they were able to fix Fireflash’s computer and help the aircraft land itself.
“We would have to interface with it directly, we could inadvertently download it onto our systems and still fail to solve the issues.” Brains suggested “perhaps a mechanical solution would be better…”
“You think we can do it?” Jeff asked wating a straight forward answer.
“Y…Yes… I think so” Brains answered
“Good, Thunderbird One we’re going to send some back up to you. You need to get Spectrum to play ball and allow us to fully take control over the recovery of Fireflash and secure us a landing zone.” Jeff communicated to his oldest son before changing the communication channel “Thunderbird Two, launch when ready, we’ll feed you landing coordinates when you are airborne.”
“FAB” Virgil said from Thunderbird Two’s expansive cockpit. Unlike the cockpit of Thunderbird One which was inside the rocket form of the craft Thunderbird Two’s cockpit was far more akin to the cockpit of a jet liner. Beside him in his own blue jumpsuit was Alan while his twin was sat behind at the operations console. “Well gents let’s see how she flies…”
Like Thunderbird One’s launch bay Thunderbird Two’s hanger was hidden from public view with a fake stone wall covering the hanger entrance. The runway was not hidden and the Tracy family had two small personal aircraft parked in open view for anyone to see if they passed the island but Thunderbird Two’s hanger was concealed. The stone wall lowered into the ground allowing Thunderbird Two’s massive green painted hull to move forward into the open the cockpit of Thunderbird Two fit the aircraft which was like a massive cargo aircraft with a rounded nose, forward-canted wings instead of the traditional swept back wings and a twin aft control tail which was connected by a cross beam turning the tail into an inverted triangle.
Once it was clear of the hanger Thunderbird Two stopped moving. “Extending the runway and we’re connected to the catapult” John said glancing at Virgil to help get the four hundred plus ton aircraft airborne Tracy Island did two things to help get the aircraft airborne, first in the runway was an electromagnetic catapult, the same used in military aircraft carriers, which helped accelerate the aircraft faster than it could go itself. This catapult was completely unseen but the second trick that Tracy Island had was far more noticeable, firstly an extra fifty feet rose out of the water and continued to rise until it curved upwards to a fifty-degree angle.
“Hold on boys!” Virgil warned before triggering the catapult sending the massive aircraft forward at high speed, all three of them were thrown back into their chairs by the G-forces. As the aircraft hit the curved part of the runway Thunderbird Two’s two gigantic jet engines propelled the craft into the air rapidly accelerating into the air. “Whoooooo-hoooo!” Vigil cheered as his aircraft took off, now he understood why Scott had enjoyed himself during Thunderbird One’s first launch.
“Approaching cruising altitude, we’re ready to transit to flight mode…” Alan said from the co-pilot seat Virgil nodded over to him and his brother toggled the transition. Outside the forward-canted wings of Thunderbird Two swept even further forward merging with the hull and creating an even more aerodynamic shape. “Accelerating to Hyper-sonic speeds” Alan said as Thunderbird Two accelerated towards the stricken Fireflash aircraft.
“Thunderbirds are Go!” Virgil called out.
