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Hi there, for Febuwhump, can I have Day 9 - Bees (that's my birthday) and writers choice of character for Thunderbirds

Thank you!

Listen To The Bees

@febuwhump day 9. I fell down a rabbit hole with researching bees...

Thanks to @the-original-sineater and @mariashades as always.

~

The first indication that something was wrong was the appearance of a bee. Bees, while populous on Earth, were unheard of on Thunderbird Five.

John paused, bagel half-raised to his mouth, as a honeybee slowly hovered in front of him. It hovered in his eye-line for several seconds before disappearing.

He blinked and waved a hand through the air where the bee had been.

‘EOS?’ ‘Yes, John?’ ‘Did you see that bee?’ ‘No. There is not and has not been any bees on Five according to my data banks.’ ‘Are you sure.’ ‘I will not dignify that with an answer, John.’ ‘Sorry, sorry.’ ‘We have a call coming in.’

And just like that breakfast – and bee – was forgotten.

Until another one appeared.

This time the bee was beside John, only just in his sight. It appeared to be watching the holograms with him. Scott and One’s progress was clearly shown as they flew around the globe towards the rescue.

The bee seemed content to watch the rescue with him so John ignored it. The rescue went smoothly and before long Scott was heading home. The bee had been joined by another and then another until there were six by the time John swiped the rescue away. As the holo disappeared so did they and John sighed.

Just to be sure he ran the Medscanner over himself. Nothing flagged up and John concluded he was just overtired. He handed the comm over to EOS and headed for bed.

There was a bee asleep on his pillow.

John blinked. It was definitely sleeping and John had the overwhelming feeling that he shouldn’t disturb it. Instead, he sat on the end of the bed and got his tablet out.

There were two distinct types of honeybees he’d seen.

Apis Mellifera Mellifera, or the Black Bee, was the native honeybee of Ireland. Unlike the bees that John was used to seeing from home this one had a mostly black abdomen. The other bee was the usual yellow-orange-black that he was used to when home in Kansas, Apis Millifera or the European Honeybee.

It was the Black Bee that was now sleeping. One of his little back legs was twitching. John watched it for several minutes before turning back to his research. And he needed to research why on earth there were bees appearing on his space station.

Research was something John was very, very good at, but the deeper he looked into the bees the more his logical, scientific side was challenged. Eventually he put it all away and moved to the ring where he could watch the Earth and ruminate over what he’d read.

He forgot about the bee.

Tracy. Theirs was an Irish name, and somewhere in the dim and distant past the clan had moved from Ireland over to America and established themselves as wheat farmers. Their Mom too had Irish roots – far more recent ones, as her father was English and her Mother was Irish.

Of all the boys John himself was the closest to their Irish ancestry. His red hair, the paleness of his skin – all of it pointed to Celtic ancestry. Only Alan came anywhere close with the blond hair and smattering of freckles.

Celtic ancestry. Irish mythology.

He fell asleep to dreams of bees. Many, many bees. He woke to the comms beeping.

Sally had been alerted when John had used the Medscanner. The results had automatically shown in the infirmary. Nothing out of the ordinary for John – a touch of dehydration and as usual a little sleep deprived – so her curiosity was piqued. She let him sleep for the night and called him up at a reasonable time that morning.

‘Grandma! Is everything alright?’ ‘Yes, John. Is everything alright with you?’ ‘I’m fine, Grandma. Honestly.’ ‘I know you are; I saw the readouts.’

John silently cursed. He’d forgotten that the Medscanner would give the infirmary a record of the event. But he knew better than to lie to his Grandmother. A thought had him perk up. Maybe she’d know about the Celtic mythology of the bees. He looked at her and she smiled encouragingly.

‘Can – can I ask you something, Grandma? Something odd?’ ‘Of course you can, kiddo.’ ‘What do you know about bees?’ ‘Bees? Can you be a little be more specific for me?’ ‘Yesterday I saw a bee.’ ‘A bee?’ ‘An Irish Black Bee to be precise. Here, on Five. It was here one minute and gone the next.’ ‘Go on, John.’ ‘Throughout the rescue there was one watching, then another and another. Some were like the ones I remember from Kansas but most were the Irish kind. And when I went to bed there was a black bee asleep on my pillow.’

Sally pursed her lips. There was a stirring of memory, like a voice that was as ancient as anything she’d ever heard. It had a trace of her Grant in there, his brother and her closest friend Mason. The lilt of Lucille’s soprano and a vague notion of what could have been her mother – Sally had met her once and her accent had been gentle but there.

And Sally knew about mythology. It was an area she’d studied extensively, curiosity about some odd traits Grant’s family had. No one talked about any of it and her research had been…illuminating. And she had learnt about the bees. She took a moment to gather herself together.

‘Tracy is an Irish name, did you know that, John?’ ‘I did.’ ‘And the Irish have a rich mythological history.’ ‘Do you believe in all that stuff, Grandma? I find it difficult to.’ ‘John, I have lived a long time. And in that time I have seen many things that could be attributed to mythology. Don’t forget, much of what we call “myth” is merely science that wasn’t understood back then. But there is other things that science cannot explain even now.’ ‘Like what?’ ‘Take, for example, Scott’s insane ability to almost always know what to do, his gut feeling that lets him take the most outrageous risks and mostly pull them off. Or Gordon’s Squid sense.’ ‘But they can easily be explained by body language and…’ ‘They could, but what about the connection between Scott and Virgil – how they can read each other’s minds and even know when the other is hurt? There’s no scientific basis for any of that, yet we see it on a daily basis.’ ‘Huh. I guess you’re right – I hadn’t really thought about it in this way before.’ ‘We take it for granted because we’ve always lived with it – it is normal to us.’ ‘So what about the bees?’ ‘In Irish mythology bees are revered as messengers. The Irish believed they were the messengers between the spirit realm and us. It was such a commonly held belief that the Irish actually had laws to protect bees.’ ‘So me seeing bees on Five is what – a message from beyond?’ ‘I’m not sure, John, but you have to admit that it’s not a usual occurrence.’ ‘What should I do, Grandma?’ ‘We need more information. The bees seemed interested in the work we do so maybe it’s connected to that. The next time one comes hold your hand out and see if it will land. Give it some respect and see if it will do anything.’ ‘FAB, Grandma. I will.’ ‘And get some more sleep – I’ll watch the comms for a couple of hours. You look like you need the rest.’ ‘Ok, I will. And Grandma – can we keep this to ourselves for now?’ ‘Of course, kiddo. Now shoo!’

With a chuckle John returned to his quarters and collapsed into a deep and dreamless sleep. Meanwhile, Sally thought long and hard about the potential consequences if what was happening was indeed a message.

iR had never been busier. Alan was ready for missions now, had been out in Three alone clearing space junk to get used to handling his ship. Gordon and Four were amazing and she couldn’t be prouder of any of them. Virgil and Scott still made up the backbone of the rescues with at least one of them on every callout.

It was starting to wear Scott down, Sally knew. What with iR, TI and family responsibilities her eldest was beginning to show signs that he was struggling a bit. Sally was contemplating shutting iR down for a week to give him – them all really – some much-needed down time, but Scott was like his father. Her Jeff was a workaholic that thrived on stress and Scott was no different. He’d been adamant before that shutting iR down even for a day would cost lives and he was unwilling to make that choice. His brothers were of like minds, although Virgil had been talking more recently about taking a break.

Sally sat at the comms and watched the world and planned how to give Scott a break.

John woke up feeling much more refreshed. For once he’d not been woken by an emergency, but as he made his way to the control hub he could see there were two rescues going on.

Virgil and Gordon were in the Tasmanian Sea, seeing to a three-fishing-boat fleet that had got into trouble in a squall. The local services were tied up in the same issue rescuing a tourist boat and had referred the call to iR since they were tied up. Once they had rescued and dropped off the men they would return and help there if it was still needed.

Scott was over the other side of the world. In Ireland. Just seeing his brother’s icon there inexplicably made John’s blood run cold. He was in Killarney National Park looking for a missing child.

It took all of his self-control not to order Scott to abandon his quest and fly home immediately as EOS and Grandma filled him in as John settled down and took back control. As it was, in a move that was unheard of for John ‘the multitask king’ he asked that Grandma take over Two’s rescue so he could concentrate solely on Scott.

Taking one look at John’s face, pale even in the holo, Sally readily agreed. Her bones said John was right.

‘Scott? Status report please.’ ‘Hey John, glad you could join us. One’s drones have located the child, I’m just about to jetpack down to her.’ ‘That’s great, Scott. Keep the comms open will you?’ ‘FAB, John.’ ‘Thanks.’

Scott paused for a moment. John seemed…off, somehow. He resolved to make sure his brother came down tonight. That decided, Scott set One to hover and leapt into the grey skies.

John bit his lip and listened as Scott jetted down and began speaking to the lost girl. She was only six and had wandered off and was terrified even of Scott. John listened as his brother took off his helmet and spoke soothingly to her and she calmed down. Scott then wrapped her in a foil blanket and attached the safety harness to her and checked over the clip to the line from One.

Suddenly a bee appeared right in front of John’s eyes. This time the bee was agitated, flying to and fro in front of John and buzzing angrily. And then there was another. And another.

Until John could barely hear anything more.

He remembered the advice his Grandma gave him, holding out a hand. A bee landed on it momentarily before lifting off slightly and then going back to the up-and-down, left-to-right flight with the agitated buzzing. Maybe he should try talking to it, to them. The Irish put a great stock in talking to the bees and being respectful to them. John thought back to the research he’d done last night.

‘What is it, my friends?’

The bees swarmed around him suddenly for a few seconds then began to form a shape in front of him. It didn’t take long for John to recognise the shape formed. He gasped and his knees turned to jelly and he was so, so thankful that the gravity was off or he would have fallen hard.

The outline of his Mom stood before him. Even her hair was just the way he remembered it. ‘She’ stretched out a hand and without thinking about it John reached to take it. There should have been the furry bodies and buzzing wings of many insects, but all John felt was warmth. And love. So much love.

‘John.’

The voice was his Mom’s, but in the background he could hear the deep booming voice of Grandpa Grant. There was a feeling of familiarity in the melody that was speaking in his mind.

‘Mom?’ ‘My little Starman, all grown up. How I’ve missed you.’ ‘Mom.’

John words came out in a quiet rush, full of pain and love. His ‘Mom’ smiled sadly and John’s heart clenched.

‘There isn’t much time, John. If you’re to save Scotty you need to move now.’ ‘I – I don’t understand.’ ‘Trust me. You need to get to Scott or you are going to lose him.’

John swallowed. The bees moved as if the figure was walking out the way and he set Five off to Scott’s coordinates. It would take the station around 12 minutes to arrive and he could drop from Five to the ground in around eight minutes in an emergency.

He hoped that would be quick enough.

‘I trust you, Mom.’ ‘He’s going to need you on this one, my Johnny.’ ‘I’ll be there.’

His Mom reached out to cup his cheek and John closed his eyes as the warmth caressed him. When he opened his eyes all but one of the bees had gone.

’Tell your brothers how much I love them and how proud of them I am.’ ‘I will, I promise.’

The bee nodded and vanished, and John’s heart ached a little, but he had a mission. He blinked as he realised that the ‘clunk-click’ noise he just heard was Scott clipping the girl’s safety harness to One’s cable meant that time had frozen while he had been speaking to his Mom. It gave him more time to get there.

‘EOS, fast as possible please.’ ‘Yes, John.’ ‘John?’ ‘Grandma! I gotta go save Scott!’

Sally just nodded. She knew the bees had a reason and it looked like they had spoken to John. Whatever was about to happen, she prayed to Lucy that John would be in time.

‘Now, Aoife, I want you to put your arms around my neck and hold on tightly. We’re going to fly up into the sky!’ ‘Okay.’

But before she could get a secure hold the ground gave way beneath them.

Secured tightly to One’s cable, Aoife fell only a short way before she was yanked away from Scott and left dangling in the air. EOS, seeing what was happening, carefully reeled the cable in so that she was safe.

Scott was not so lucky. Unable to lock his baldric to the cable as he had intended, he fell with the ground, and the battering he took from the surrounding rocks put his jetpack out of action. He tried to fire his grapple off but there was nothing to connect with. Everything was falling.

He was unconscious before he crumpled on the floor.

It had happened so quickly that John barely had time to blink. One minute Scott’s icon was there, the next it wasn’t, and he was so glad their Mom had given him the heads-up to get moving. Two would be on her way as soon as possible, but even if Virgil red-lined her they would still take too long to get there.

Five would be there in less than 10 minutes now.

John was thankful he wouldn’t need to say anything to their Grandma, knowing that she’d be keeping an eye on both rescues. He needed to stay focussed on what he was doing.

‘EOS, Five is yours. Get us in position so that I can drop down to Scott.’ ‘FAB, John.’

John ran to his suit-up room and geared up into his winged exosuit. While the elevator could drop quickly, he could shave a couple of minutes off by riding the outside down low enough and then use the suit. The special shielding Brains had invented to prevent the atmosphere destroying the space elevator would protect him too, but it would still be a bumpy ride.

He made sure that the first aid equipment he was sure he’d need was ready and then checked in with the island.

‘Grandma?’ ‘John. Keep your comms open. I’ve already told your brothers – they’ll be there as soon as possible. Thankfully they’ve just finished their rescue and the rescue services there can manage the tourist ship.’ ‘Thanks, I’ll keep you informed.’ ‘Be careful, John.’ ‘FAB, Grandma.’

Sally didn’t need to remind him how dangerous what John was doing was going to be, nor how much he’d pay for it later. She understood it was the quickest way, and she thanked Brains that he always over-engineered things with safety in view.

John clung on tightly, eyes squeezed shut as he thought about what he might find. The national park had been established over an area that had copper mines long ago, and John assumed that Scott had been standing on top of an air or escape shaft. Such cave-ins were not unheard of, although not in this particular area or John would have known about the risk.

He landed carefully on the ground, listening as EOS talked to Aoife and comforted the little girl. They were soon chatting away and John spared a moment to marvel at how children could adapt so quickly. But he didn’t have time to dawdle so he shed the exosuit, hooked himself to the elevator, grabbed the medpack out of it and the rebreather he’d quickly packed, and launched himself down the hole Scott had disappeared into.

John bit back a gasp. At the bottom of the shaft was a pile of rubble. Sticking out of that was a dust-covered glove, all that was visible of his brother. There wasn’t a lot of room for manoeuvring, but there was a partially blocked entrance to the mine so John set about clearing the pile and shoving the debris as far down that as possible.

It didn’t take long to clear Scott’s head and John stopped there. He didn’t want to make any potential neck injury worse. He felt for the carotid pulse and was relieved when he found it. It was very weak, but still there, so Joh fitted the rebreather and set it to automatic so it would make sure Scott was getting oxygen.

While he waited for help John set about clearing as much of the debris as possible. He’d liked to have Virgil down with him, his brother’s structural know-how would have been handy, but he doubted the broadest of them would fit down here with all the kit Scott needed. It would be tight enough with him and Gordon. John hoped that by clearing as much as possible away down the tunnel they would at least have some manoeuvring room.

By the time Two arrived John had cleared enough room for Gordon to fit down and had managed to get Scott on the floor by carefully removing the debris piece by piece. Virgil scanned the shaft and, much as he hated it, agreed that it would be better that Gordon came and helped.

Getting Scott onto the backboard and into the cradle took precious time, but they soon were speeding over the Irish Sea to the East Midlands Major Trauma Centre where Scott was whisked away from them the second it was safe to do so.

John and Virgil sat in the waiting room. Gordon had been left behind to reunite the girl with her family and fly One home. It looked like EOS had made a fast friend with Aoife and calls were definitely promised in the future. He wasn’t sure how he was going to deal with that, but that was for later.

Gordon was bringing Grandma and Alan back with him in Tracy Two. Kayo was due to arrive imminently. As they sat and waited Virgil went over the recording, trying to get his head around what had happened.

Kayo stormed through the hospital, giving both of them a brief shoulder squeeze before leaving to secure the place for them.

The rest of the family arrived just as a doctor came to see them.

‘Scott is in recovery. The next 24 hours are going to be vital and he still isn’t out of danger yet, but he’s young and his prospects are good. Whoever gave him oxygen undoubtedly saved his life. We’ll move him recovery to a private ICU room until he is well enough to be in a normal room.’

He shook hands with Sally and left with their Grandma. Virgil, frown on his face, turned to John.

‘John?’ ‘Yes Virgil?’ ‘How did you know to move Five? You were moving before Scott fell.’ ‘You wouldn’t believe me if I said.’ ‘Try me.’ ‘Mom told me. I had some bees visit and they formed Mom and she told me.’ ‘Did – did she say anything else?’ ‘She said that she missed us, and that she’d proud of us.’

There was a stunned silence for a moment. Virgil searched John’s face and John held his gaze unwaveringly. Finally Virgil gave a short nod and smiled warmly at him.

‘I believe you. Thank you for listening to her. Listening to the bees.’

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