Not my best work I'm afraid.. but hey it's there.
Zayne belongs to the awesome @kings-out-of-pocket-hell
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Fingers raked themselves through greyed hair, a couple of desperate streaks of blonde still desperately tried to hold against the toll of age. A mechanical chorus of whirs, beeps and clicks hovered around the cockpit like a weighted blanket. Adjustments to the position of the ship were made by the silver-grey controls, hands expertly guided the ship as if human and mechanics became one, breathed the same breath in a spectacular display of merely an extension of the pilot's body, navigating the orange ship through the void.
'Incoming space debris port side,' the co-pilot who had previously been to the back of the cockpit within a holographic readings cocoon pushed himself beside the greying pilot. A frown deepened the lines on his face, tugged at his eyebrows as they drew themselves inwards, eyes narrowed, 'keep her steady.'
'Doubting me, little bro?' A grin from the pilot as he tilted the orange rocket effortlessly, as if space flight was a simple dance he lived and breathed, the space debris flickered past and the rocket travelling tremendous speeds didn't falter.
'Oh you know,' there was a chuckle and a yawn, before the co-pilot settled into the grey seat beside his older brother, 'it's odd to get debris out here, unless a ship has crashed.'
Both the deep-space astronauts took a glance at each-other, 'Iris scan the area for distress signals,' the pilot asked as he flicked her autopilot on and jumped from his seat to get more appropriate attire on if he were to exit his rocket.
'Theres one, weak, from the ship identified as the URSA,' Iris' mechanical voice lulled over the hum of her mechanics, 'he's calling for IR but his signals can't get out to Thunderbird 5, damaged comms.'
'So how can you contact him?' the co-pilot asked, taken flight controls and headed towards the distress signal.
'I have capabilities,' Iris sounded like she was grinning- if she could in her ship form.
'Patch us through if you can,' the pilot finally settled back into his chair, his orange flight suit glowed gently under the dull cockpit lights.
'F.A.B, patching through,' Iris' voice faded as a crackled comm spluttered to life, only audio, the hologram showed as unreadable.
'Hello? Anyone there? Please, out of cont-- spin-- can't-- Inter--al Res--e?' The pilot sounded young, well, to the two men with their greyed hair- with an exception of the younger brother given he still dyed his a deep brown.
'This is The Bird 06, I've received your SOS, we're inbound your location,' the pilot said quickly.
'Neil, his ship is about to explode,' Iris quietly mentioned.
'Always like myself a little challenge, Orion take helm, I'll grab him,' Neil grabbed himself a rope and chuckled, 'you know what I could do with? Alan's damn astroboards.'
'Argh, lifesavers they'd be,' Orion nodded.
'Welp, old fashioned way for now,' Neil chuckled, 'Alright Iris, let me at em.'
Bay doors swung wide open for Neil and he watched the ship roll, 'keep her steady Ry and get me as close as possible,' Neil steadied himself as he figured out the precise time to drop.
'F.A.B big bro, and no back seat piloting!'
'It's my ship!' Neil exclaimed.
'Shut up and save the damn kid would you?' Orion shot back a glare as his older space brother disappeared from TB-06's hatch doors, with a grunt of feat and pain that rolled through his shoulders - curse old age and old injuries - Neil managed to get to the airlock of URSA. He unattached his line from 06 not to get wound up in his own spider web of rope, and checked his grapple gun sat sturdily on his hip. Perks of being an ex-IR operative and still having an engineer who used to work on rescue ships and gear.
Neil shouldered the door in, expected the pain to be a later him issue as he held onto the side as the tilt of the craft gave a weird tilt. He scanned the bay for the rescuee, yet fell empty handed, 'I'm going deeper in, no sign of our friend.'
'F.A.B,' Orion fell into his old operative tone, calm, collected and a weird void of chaos in which usually hung over the two Tracy boys like a bad smell. Despite their age, they never found a break in the chaos and fun- though it drove their older brothers up the wall in worry for them.
'Bingo,' Neil breathed as he crouched beside the pilot, purple and grey-black flight suit pinned by debris, he lifted it off and winced at the cracked visor of the man's helmet.
'Neil- CO2 levels are critical in there, you are on no life support,' 06 oh so helpfully informed him as if the readings on his suit didn't tell him such.
'Got it, hey kid, put this spare helmet on yours is compromised,' Neil offered the man a space helmet and eyes widened slightly, the pilot squinted before he coughed as he switched helmets, a relieved sigh was the best thing to Neil's ears.
'Alan?' The pilot squinted and coughed.
'Not Alan sorry,' Neil smiled, 'close, but lets get you safe before I explain all of that.' The older Tracy hauled the pilot over his shoulder before he pushed off and burst through the door to URSA, his grapple pack effortlessly loaded with his free hand and connected to his ships hull as he pulled them both towards the safe interior of Iris who sat patiently for her precious cargo.
Slowly, the line retracted and Neil managed to take a glance back just before the URSA went up in flames. A second later would have had them bathed in a fiery furnace, swallowed by the oxygen on board alone. Neil took a second glance to the man held up by his arms and pulled them back into 06's cargo bay. Doors shut and Neil dragged the rescuee along. 'Still with me kid?'
The man gave a couple blinks, 'yeah.' The man sounded brief, like he dilberately chose the words that exited his mouth in a guarded deliberate manner.
'Probably should explain who we are huh?' Neil grinned as he clipped his grapple pack back into his black utility belt that sat around his spacesuit at all given times.
The man gave a brief hum of agreement, cautious eyes scanned both men, 'you coulda just kidnapped me.'
The pilot of URSA gave a shrug.
'Neil Tracy, over there is Orion Tracy,' Neil extended his gloved hand for the pilot to shake, eyes met his own and the pilot relaxed.
'Zayne Anderson,' he took Neil's hand.
'Like.. Mark Anderson jr?' Orion swivelled around in his chair which earned a glare from Neil which could be translated to something as watch where you're flying, asshole.
'Uh yup,' Zayne gave a nod and Neil took his place in his respected pilots seat.
'Man thats cool! Jeff knew Sr. I was a test pilot for Anderson Tech as a bit of a side job, Neil helped run some numbers and I think Rigel used to work on the shuttle program ages back.'
Zayne held his hand up as if to pause, 'hold on sorry bit slow here, how many of you are there?'
'8,' Neil replied before there was a wince, '7.'
'I'm sorry I've probably heard about all of you but.. Dad knew many many people,' Zayne threw a shrug. The slight glimmer in his eye made the fathers hearts of both the older men crack a little.
'Don't stress it kid, Lee Taylor still doesn't know my name,' Neil smiled.
'He only knows Jeff off by heart, the rest, wouldn't have a clue,' Orion cast a fond smile, 'where can we drop you?'
'Uh, Thunderbird 5 will do,' Zayne bowed his head in thanks.
'Alright Iris course to Thunderbird 5 for us, Orion take the helm and lets get you patched up,' Neil grabbed the med kit from the secured part within the side.
2087
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