Work Text
FROM 2040 to 2043, Planet Earth wasn't a safe place to be. A global war had ravaged the planet. Many lives were lost as the armies of the world struggled for dominance. In the East were Russia, Korea, China, Japan, India and the majority of Indonesia against the West, consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, the whole of Europe and even the majority of Africa. The reason behind the fighting - Australia and New Zealand. The Eastern Alliance tried to pull Australia under their rule but the Australian government refused and asked the rest of the world for help. A brutal and bloody conflict arose with many of the world's cities falling victim to missile strikes, bombardments and acts of sabotage. Even under the surface of the ocean and in space it wasn't safe for several countries had placed deadly sea and space mines ready to strike and immobilise unsuspecting ships.Whilst no nuclear weapons were actually fired during the conflict, the fear and threat of the world's arsenal was ever present - until eventually, one man decided to act. His name was George Younger, the President of the United States. He saw just how much Australia and New Zealand were suffering, the latter being so close to Australia caused it to fall under the dark cloud of war despite it not actually being a part of the main conflict. He decided one day that enough was enough and made a declaration. He vowed to end the conflict and bring peace to the world. Setting up Unity City in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he gathered all of the world's leaders together in a neutral environment and showed them the harrowing images from the bombed out cities and said that everyone was suffering due to what described as a petty dispute. He mentioned how people like Napoleon and Hitler had brought misery to the people of the world for needless means of greed or evil and that it all needed to end.Whilst the main fighting took place during 2040-2041, it took another two full years almost for President Younger to get the leaders of the world to finally realise just how fruitless the fighting was. One by one the leaders on both sides agreed that it really was a waste of time, materials, and above all else, innocent lives and soon peace agreements began to be made. The biggest rule, which the President decided should apply to everyone, was that all nuclear weapons were to be disarmed and disposed of. This became the deciding factor and on January 5th 2043, a massive peace treaty was signed by all nations with a mutual agreement that Younger would step down as President of the United States, and would instead become the World President, leading the world under one united guideline. The world's military would also be given the jurisdiction to be called upon to work as one unit should the case ever arise. That would soon prove very useful, when it soon became apparent that where 99% of the world's leaders had agreed to peace and nuclear abolishment, one country did not.The country in question was Bereznik - a small, newly-created country that took territory from both Russia and China. A Russian-born Chinese man by the name of Valentive Heyon-Ban started his own government and after gathering numerous followers and creating his own military, he soon started a civil war which brought about the creation of his own country - Bereznik. It was in fact President Heyon-Ban who started the Global Conflict by gathering as many of the Eastern countries as possible and convincing them to band together. But when Australia refused, the fighting really began.When President Younger announced the global peace and disarmament, President Heyon-Ban was the only person not to answer the call to make peace. He vocally opposed it and vowed to continue the war. This made the other world leader's angry and under President Younger's orders, everyone including the other Eastern countries, turned on Bereznik. The now newly-created World Army, World Navy and World Air Force turned on Bereznik, not with the intention to fight, but to scare them into surrendering. It worked in a way. Several of the Berezniki people surrendered and laid down their arms and a coup took place in the Bereznik government that forced Heyon-Ban out of office. He refused to surrender though and with what followers he had left, escaped the country in the A-850, a large, Russian-built stealth submarine and three B-class Chinese-built submarines attack submarines: B-925, B-926 and B-928. The captains and crews of the four subs were the only ones who remained loyal to Heyon-Ban and together they managed to slip the net of World Navy warships and disappeared into the oceans.Even though the new Bereznik government had made peace with the World Government, President Younger was convinced that so long as Heyon-Ban remained on the loose, the world could still be in danger and whilst the major battles were finally over, and the world could start rebuilding, the Global Conflict would not be officially over until the four missing submarines were located and forced to surrender.With the conflict over as far as the world was concerned, Earth healed from its war wounds and things became so much better. The Global Defence Force was located and in the mid-2050s billionaire and former astronaut Jeff Tracy set up International Rescue to assist those in dire peril for despite mass advancements, disasters could still happen. Among these were callouts from cargo ships in all corners of the globe which would report that they were being attacked and then disappearing with no survivors. Many couldn't understand what was going on, but there were several who were convinced that it was the work of the missing Bereznik submarines.For eighteen years the submarines remained hidden in the vast oceans, preying on unsuspecting ships or carrying out commando-like attacks on ports for the pure purpose of replenishing their supplies, as well as to keep the World Military guessing as to where they were.This sneaky war that President Heyon-Ban was conducting continued to plague the World Government and the military, but eventually everyone, even Heyon-Ban himself felt sure that it would eventually come to an end. And the day that it did would take place on Easter Sunday of 2061, at an event that became globally known as The Gibraltar Incident! 5!4!3!2!1!"Thunderbirds Are Go!" "THE GIBRALTAR INCIDENT"EVER since he'd returned to Earth from the Oort Cloud, there was nothing Jeff Tracy enjoyed more in his free time than to read through the many rescue reports that had been made by International Rescue during the time he'd been missing. There were so many that even well beyond the two years he'd now been back there were still several. There were so many interesting ones. The Ring of Fire incident, Alan's near-miss with a space mine, the missions to the Moon, Mars, Mercury and Europa, to Bay City, Azethril's theme park, dealings with The Hood, The Mechanic and The Chaos Crew, there really was no shortage of different reports. Some unnerved him, some amused him, but mostly they made him feel proud of his sons and what they'd achieved in the time he had been stranded. Very rarely did he ever ask the boys, Brains, Kayo, Penelope or even Grandma to elaborate on any of the missions. But soon he found one that intrigued him more than any of them."Reading more reports, Jeff?" Grandma asked as she brought him some coffee."Yes, Mother," Jeff replied. "And this one is very intriguing."Grandma leaned over at the report. "Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "I remember that one well. Very tense it was, and not just from our point of view either."Jeff read through the report. It was a long one, filled in by all five of the brothers and Kayo. But it was the title that intrigued him the most - The Gibraltar Incident. "I must ask the boys more about this later," he said. "Where are they?"Grandma glanced out of the window. "Looks like they're returning now,!" she said. "They've been on their annual Easter Egg hunt. I wonder how many they've managed to find."It was a yearly tradition that on Easter Saturday, the Tracy brothers would go exploring the island in search of a number of specially made Easter Eggs. they weren't actually real eggs, just small concrete ones that were easy to handle. Each batch would get painted into a different colour. Blue for Scott, Green for Virgil, Red for Alan, Yellow for Gordon and Orange for John. The night before, Grandma would normally recruit Kayo and normally MAX to go around the island when the brothers weren't looking and hide the eggs. Then the brothers would be given as long as they needed to search every inch of the island to try and find them all.Scott was the first to arrive back from the hunt, carrying a basket full of fake blue eggs. "Mission complete!" he said cheerfully. "Can't remember the last time I finished first.""Neither can I," agreed Grandma. She chuckled. "Gordon and Alan won't be pleased at that."Alan and Gordon would get very competitive when it came to this hunt and quite often would rush to get back first. Grandma had barely finished counting the eggs in the basket before they heard the commotion of two competitive brothers scurrying through the kitchen below."You're gonna lose again, Alan!""Gordon, get out of the way! I'M going to win!"Kayo, who'd been lounging on one of the sofas, rolled her eyes. "Here we go," she said.Gordon and Alan appeared seconds later, racing to get to the metal floor strip that separated the lounge from the staircase which was the finish line. They were busy trying to push each other out of the way in order to get there first.Gordon's leg just crossed the strip ahead of Alan. "YES!" he said triumphantly. "I WIN AGAIN!"Alan threw his basket on the floor and began to have a tantrum. "That's not fair!" he complained. "You won last year! Grandma!""Alan, quit whining!" Grandma said sternly. "You're in your late teens now! Not a child anymore!"Alan folded his arms and pouted. "Not fair," he muttered.Gordon however was doing a victory dance. He put his right hand in front of his forehead and positioned his thumb and forefinger into an L-shaped position. "Hey, Alan," he said. "Loooooooooser!""Cut that out, Gordon," barked Jeff. "And take note of your surroundings."Gordon was puzzled. "What do you mean?" he asked.A small cough brought both Gordon's and Alan's attention to the middle of the lounge, to which their respective expressions were wiped clean off by the sight of a rather smug-looking Scott sitting on another sofa. "SCOTT?!" they both exclaimed together."That's me," said Scott. "Commiserations, boys. Second and third this year. You're slipping.""What?! But…but…" Gordon tried to come up with a protest, but instead collapsed to his knees with a loud "Awwwwwwwwwwh MAN!"Alan began to laugh. "You know, to see Gordon have the tantrum, that was worth coming in third," he said.John then arrived with his basket. "Oh, dear," he said, amused at the sight of the grumpy Gordon. "Looks like I've missed something.""Fourth place, John," said Grandma. "One better than last year."John sighed with a smile. "It's the gravity, Grandma," he said. "It slows me down."Kayo glanced at her watch. "Just Virgil to go," she said. "Although I've never known him to take this long before.""Or come last for that matter," agreed Scott.Just then there came a beeping from the table. All turned to look as Hayley's hologram appeared from the projector in the middle. "Err, guys?" she said nervously. "Could you all come to the beach please? We have ourselves a situation." The four brothers, Kayo, Grandma and Jeff made their way down to the beach and headed along to where Hayley said she and Virgil were. Brains and MAX came along too. Hayley hadn't said what was wrong so they were all curious and a little concerned at the same time.Hayley soon appeared. "Oh, thank heavens!" she said. "Quickly, over here!""What's wrong, Hayley?" asked Scott as he, Kayo and John reached her first. "Where's Virgil?""Just round here," Hayley said and lead them round behind a large rock. "He's right there," she said, pointing.John, Scott and Kayo stopped dead when they saw what the problem was. Kayo clapped her hand over her mouth, trying to contain the laughter that was trying to escape. Virgil was lying on his front, arms propping him up. He looked very embarrassed, for only the top half of his body was actually visible. His waist and legs were inside the cave behind the entrance he was stuck in."V-Virg?" Scott said once he'd found his voice."Scott…" Virgil said slowly. "Please don't laugh." He could see that all three of them were trying to contain it.But then Alan and Gordon arrived and the second they saw Virgil's predicament they absolutely lost it. Gordon fell on the floor, howling with laughter whilst Alan had to hold onto a nearby palm tree for support. This then caused Kayo, John and Scott to start laughing as well, which caused Virgil's face to fall in the sand."Oh, m-my!" exclaimed Brains when he arrived and he did his best to try not to laugh, which he did a better job of than the others.Finally Jeff and Grandma arrived, and even they seemed slightly amused by what had happened."Are you all done?" Virgil asked grumpily as the laughing began to subside."Are you hurt, son?" asked Jeff, getting down on his hands and knees."Only my pride, Dad," replied Virgil. "Could you get me out now please?""Aw, come on, Virg," said Gordon. "At least tell us how you got into this mess before we get you out.""It was my fault," said Hayley. "I should have let Virgil guide me through the caves instead of the other way round. Seems I still haven't learned the geography of the island yet. I thought this was the way we went in.""But it was that one, wasn't it?" asked John, pointing at another entrance a few yards away.Hayley nodded sheepishly. "Y-Yes," she said, embarrassed."Okay, everyone, calm down," Jeff said. "Let's get Virgil out of there."John and Alan went inside the cave via the other entrance in order to examine Virgil and see if they could free him from inside."How does it look, John?" Jeff asked over his watch radio."Not good, Dad," John replied. "He's pulled himself right in. maybe if we wiggle him a little, he might work himself free.""Back into the cave or forwards?" asked Jeff."Could try both ways," said John. "If one doesn't work, perhaps the other will.""Do you have a preference, Virgil?" asked Jeff."So long as I get out, no," replied Virgil."Okay, we'll try backwards first," said Jeff. "Gordon and Scott, push his shoulders gently. John and Alan, move him by his legs. Virgil, try wiggling yourself as they did so.""F-A-B," the brothers said together."Okay," said Jeff. "One, two, three, go!""Heave!" the brothers said as they tried to move Virgil back into the exit of the cave. Virgil tried to wiggle himself, but all he felt was the rocks rubbing against his sides."OwowowowOW! STOP! STOP!" Virgil shouted.They did. Kayo had to stop Hayley from rushing forwards to intervene."You hurt, Virgil?" Jeff asked anxiously."No, no, I'm fine, Dad," Virgil said. "Sorry, that was just rubbing against me. Nothing major."Jeff spoke into his watch again. "John, Alan, have you managed to move him?""Negative, Dad," replied Alan from within the cave. "He's still stuck fast.""Then trying to get him out forwards won't be any different," said Grandma. "We need a Plan B.""I m-may have a Plan B," said Brains. "But I need to c-collect a few things. Be right back. C-Come on, MAX!" He hurried away with his robot assistant whirring and beeping behind him.Hayley was feeling miserable. "This is all my fault," she whispered to Kayo. "Why did I lead him into this?""Shhh, it's okay, Hayley," Kayo soothed. "At least it's happened here and nowhere remote."Hayley had to admit that Kayo was right.It was at that moment everyone realised Scott had began to laugh again,"What's so funny, Scott?" asked Virgil, irritated."Sorry, Virg," Scott replied, swallowing the majority of the laughter. "But seeing you like this has reminded me of something from our childhood.""What would that be that?" asked Gordon."Winnie…Winnie the Pooh!" said Scott and he started laughing again, which caused Gordon to laugh as well.Virgil stared at his older brother. "Winnie the Pooh?!" he asked."Yes, don't you remember the books Mom used to read to us?" asked Scott once he'd recovered. "In one of them he ate too much honey and got stuck in a hole. Then he had to wait before he got a bit thinner so that he could then free himself."Virgil wasn't impressed. "Very funny, Scott," he said. "And for your information, I am NOT fat!""I didn't say you were, Virgil," replied Scott. "Just seeing you like this reminded me of the cartoon, that's all.""Well you might be onto something, Scott," said Gordon. "All we need to do is wait for Virgil to get a bit thinner then he can get himself out. How long did it take Winnie the Pooh before he got out?""A week I think," said Scott."A WEEK?!" Virgil almost shrieked. "If you think I'm going to stay here for a whole week you are very much mistaken!""Virgil, VIRGIL!" Jeff thundered, finally deciding to intervene. "Calm down. You'll be out within the next half hour, I promise you." He then turned on Gordon and Scott. "Knock it off, you two. Let's wait and see what Brains has in mind." Brains and MAX returned about ten minutes later. Not only had they brought a medical kit so that Grandma could examine Virgil, but he'd also brought what he felt was their best chance at freeing him quickly and safely."Four h-hammers and four chisels," Brains said. "If Scott and Gordon c-carefully chip away at the rock from this side. J-John and Alan can do the same from the inside.""Brilliant, Brains!" said Jeff. He turned to John and Alan who'd come back out of the cave for some fresh air. "Can you do that, boys?""Sure, piece of cake," said Alan as he took one of the hammers and one of the chisels."It can be done," said John. "But we'll need some light in there. It's pretty dark and the light from our phones isn't enough. We need someone to hold a big torch for us.""I can do that," said Kayo."Anything I can do?" asked Hayley.Virgil answered. "You can be my distraction," he said, holding out his hands."Might help him take his mind off the thought of the chisels being so close," Grandma said.Hayley dropped down to the ground, lay on her front and took hold of Virgil's hands, squeezing them tightly. "I'm sorry I got you into this," she whispered.Virgil smiled. "It's okay, beautiful," he whispered back. "I should have realised we were going the wrong way.""Ready, boys?" Jeff asked."Ready," said Scott and Gordon."Ready," said John, Kayo and Alan from inside the cave."Good," said Jeff. "Be careful and try not to hit Virgil as you do it. Begin!"For the next ten minutes the brothers worked carefully, chipping away at the rock rubbing up against Virgil's hips. None of them made any jokes or laughed as they worked. They knew now the time for mocking Virgil was over and it was a serious task to free him. With the last of the offending rock removed, Virgil shifted himself forwards with Hayley guiding him until he was completely free of the cave. Everyone cheered and Hayley threw herself on top of Virgil before they began to embrace.John, Alan and Kayo exited the cave from the bigger entrance. "Is Virgil okay?" asked Kayo."Yeah, I'd say he is," remarked Gordon watching as Virgil and Hayley continued to embrace.Jeff cleared his throat. "Let us, erm, leave them to it, shall we?" he said, ushering the others to let the two lovers have some privacy.Alan picked up Virgil's basket of green eggs. "Hey, Virg, do you want me to take your eggs back to the house?" he asked.Virgil's response was somewhat muffled due to his lips being linked with Hayley's but Alan could just about manage to hear the words "Yes" and "please" so he picked up the basket before being ushered out by Jeff. Grandma had clearly wanted to examine Virgil, but Virgil seemed to be fine, and he was preoccupied so that would have to wait."Enjoy, son," Jeff said with a smirk as he was the last to leave the scene, leaving the two lovers to carry on with what they were doing. Virgil emerged from the showers feeling refreshed. "Ahh, much better," he said. He then noticed Hayley sat on the bed. She didn't look happy. "Something up?" he asked."I'll say," said Hayley grumpily. "I held myself together because your father was there."Virgil frowned. "Go on?"Hayley stood up. "How dare your brothers laugh at you for your predicament?" Hayley said furiously. "They should have supported you, not mocked you!"To Hayley's surprise, Virgil simply shrugged. "We're brothers, Hayley. It's what we do," he said."But-""To be fair, if that was Gordon, I probably would have laughed too," Virgil said as he did up the buttons on his shirt. "Wouldn't you have laughed if that was Gordon?"Hayley thought for a moment. "I, er, guess so?" she said, unsure. "I'm not sure even Gordon deserves that though.""Yeah, well I'm not hurt and no harm's been done," said Virgil, taking hold of Hayley's arms. "Grandma told me Scott won the hunt this year which apparently caused Gordon great upset. That's enough to make my day."Hayley broke into a smile. "That would have been worth seeing," she agreed."Come on," said Virgil, taking her in his arm. "Let's go have dinner." Dinner turned out to be pretty normal and a rare occasion that the whole family was together at the table. Hayley was pleased to see that nobody, not even Gordon or Alan even mentioned Virgil's mishap. Afterwards they all went to relax in the lounge for some tales and to discuss recent rescues."Have to say, it's been strangely quiet lately," remarked John."Famous last words that," chortled Alan.Scott leant back in his seat. "For once, there really isn't a lot to talk about," he remarked.Jeff spoke up. "Actually, boys, there's something I'd quite like to hear about if any of you feel up to telling the story?"The brothers were intrigued. "And what's that, Dad?" asked Gordon.Jeff went to his desk and picked up the report he'd shown Grandma. "As you know, since I've returned, I have enjoyed reading about the adventures you've been up to since my time away. But here's one that I have not even heard of before - The Gibraltar Incident."An awkward silence fell across the room."Oh, wow!" remarked Virgil. "That was a hell of a day, wasn't it?""That was this day as well!" added Alan."That was five years ago!" said Scott. "And yet I remember it as though it was yesterday.""Wasn't long after The Hood tried to take the island if I recall?" said Kayo."I've only had a brief look, but it seems like you were all involved somehow?" said Jeff."Well except for Hayley, yes," said Gordon."Wrong."Everyone looked at Hayley, who they suddenly saw was looking rather downcast."Something wrong?" Virgil asked.Hayley looked up. "I remember that day too," she said. "I lost a lot of friends that day.""What happened?" asked Kayo."It's a long story," Hayley said. "It's the day I got my first ever glimpse of International Rescue. It's also the day I became a captain.""Please tell us," said Gordon.Hayley took a deep breath, and the story began.*Flashback Begins*
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
APRIL 2061: HMS Dragonfly - a Type 46 Destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was an improved version of the now outdated and retired Type 45s with increased speed, maneuverability and weaponry. She and her four sister ships had played vital roles during the Global Conflict, protecting the shores of the United Kingdom and helping out in the Mediterranean. Since the Global Conflict had ended she'd undergone an extensive refit and was now regularly stationed in the Med, based out of Gibraltar.Easter was approaching, and to coincide with it, the World Navy was going to have a special open day in the Bay of Gibraltar with some of the world's top vessels in attendance. The highlights were to be the Russian Submarine K-298, United States Navy Cruiser USS Philadelphia, the French Navy Destroyers Toulouse and Berlioz and topping the bill was the brand-new Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Valiant. Not that anyone anticipated that there would be any trouble, but the two destroyers based at Gibraltar had been tasked with making sweeps of the surrounding area both to the East in the Mediterranean and out in the Atlantic to the West.Amongst the Dragonfly's crew was Hayley Madison, a Sub-Lieutenant who had recently returned to her position of Damage Control officer following a stint with the World Aquanaut Security Patrol. Whilst she'd not yet had to deploy her Damage Control team in action for real, she put them through daily exercise drills to make sure that if anything was to happen, they'd be more than prepared for it.Hayley emerged onto the deck towards the stern of the destroyer and made her way along the port-side of the vessel towards the bridge where she was due to join the watch. As she went, she passed Veronica Viljoen, one of the cooks who was busy peeling potatoes."Morning, Sub," Viljoen said as Hayley passed."Hello, V," Hayley replied. "I see the navy still hasn't run out of spuds during my absence.""This ship definitely hasn't!" chuckled Viljoen.Hayley continued to make her way towards the bridge, bidding 'Morning' to crewmembers David Seward, Matthew Parr and Steven Henley as she went. She soon arrived on the bridge where the First Officer Christopher Friend was on duty. Helmsman Thomas Willis was at the wheel and Second-Navigator Robyn Taylor was monitoring the radar."Ah, Hayley," said Friend. "Was wondering where you'd got to.""Not late am I?" asked Hayley, checking her watch."No, no, not at all," said Friend. "You're just in time actually."Hayley was puzzled. "Time for what?""Time for tea," said Friend with a chuckle. "It's eleven hundred hours."The door of the bridge opened and one of Viljoen's assistant cooks Millie Fallowfield entered with a tray of tea and biscuits for the bridge crew. As she was handing them out, Taylor spotted an unusual blip on the radar screen. "Sir, I'm getting a contact off the port bow," she reported. "Bearing One-Nine-Six, range three miles.""Course and speed?" asked Friend."Contact is stationary," Taylor replied. "No movement whatsoever."Hayley and Friend looked at the radar screen. The contact was minute. Smaller than anything either of them had ever seen."Any other ships in the area?" asked Friend."A tanker to the North - eight miles," said Taylor. "Some fishing vessels off the port beam - ten miles. Nothing else near to the contact."Hayley took her binoculars and began to scan the horizon in the direction of the contact. Within a few seconds she'd caught sight of it. "I have a visual!" she said. "Object in the water!"Friend joined her on the wing of the bridge and observed the object. "Well spotted," he said before going back inside. "Port ten degrees. Steer Two-Zero-Zero. Half speed ahead.""Aye, sir," acknowledged Willis. "Port ten. Two-Zero-Zero. Half ahead." He adjusted the wheel and the telegraph accordingly.The Dragonfly turned to the left and began to make its way towards the object.Friend then picked up a phone to call the ship's master - Captain Robert Hart. "Captain, we have an unidentified object off the port bow. We're going to investigate.""Very good," answered Captain Hart. "I'll be right with you." As the Dragonfly got closer to the mystery object, the ship was slowed to around two knots whilst those on the bridge tried to identify what it was. It wasn't easy due to the position of the Sun, but as they drew closer the shape became more identifiable.Captain Hart joined Friend and Hayley on the bridge wing. "Strange," he remarked. "Looks like a lifeboat. Have we received any Maydays?""Not to my knowledge," replied Friend.Captain Hart scratched his chin and beard. "Something odd going on here," he said. "Chris, have the engines stopped. We'll hold our position. Taylor, pipe Boarding-Stations." He then turned to Hayley. "Take the boarding party," he said. "There could be people in trouble in that lifeboat.""Aye, sir," said Hayley.Friend called into the bridge. "Stop engines!""Stop engines, aye!" Willis responded.Taylor spoke over the intercom. "Hands to Boarding-Stations! Hands to Boarding-Stations!" Stopping at a distance of roughly five-hundred yards from the object, the Dragonfly's satellite navigation adjusted the vessel's thrusters to ensure it held position whilst a RHIB was lowered over the side. Hayley led the boarding party along with crewmembers James Brace, Andrew Fitzgerald, Neil Wight and Medical Officer David Banner. Together they made their way towards the object, which indeed was the lifeboat from a larger vessel. As they had no idea what they might be faced with, they took guns with them from the ship's armoury for protection."Check your guns, boys," warned Hayley as they approached. "Bracey, bring us alongside.""Aye, ma'am," said Brace as he skilfully moved the RHIB alongside the lifeboat. As they did, Hayley saw the name Andromeda painted on the orange hull."Andromeda?" said Banner. "Wasn't she in Gibraltar when we left?""Yes, she was coming in as we departed," said Wright.The Andromeda was a small cargo ship that frequently visited Gibraltar and often served the ports in and around the Mediterranean. It was one that the crew of the Dragonfly were familiar with and had seen many times. They also knew that with a minimal crew it only had one large lifeboat which they'd seen attached to its launch ramp onHayley got onto the radio. "Charlie One from Sierra One. Over?""Go ahead, Sierra One," answered Captain Hart over the radio."It's the lifeboat from the Andromeda, sir," Hayley said. "We're about to check on the occupants.""Proceed with caution, Lieutenant," warned Captain Hart. "It could be a trap.""Will do, sir. Out."Captain Hart, Taylor and Friend were standing on the bridge-wing feeling confused."What's it doing all the way out here?" Taylor asked. "Could it have just fallen off?""Unlikely," replied Friend. "Those holders are very secure.""And we've had no mayday from the vessel," added Captain Hart. "I have a bad feeling about this." He raised his binoculars and observed as the boarding party moved alongside the drifting lifeboat.With guns at the ready, Fitzgerald and Wright prepared to board the lifeboat. Fitzgerald knocked on the hatch of the lifeboat. "HELLO?! ROYAL NAVY!" he called. "ANYBODY THERE?!"No reply came from inside the lifeboat. Wright took hold of the hatch and prepared to open it. Banner was ready with his medical kit to treat anyone inside. Fitzgerald mouthed 'One, Two, Three,' to Wright and then Wright pulled the door open. Fitzgerald dived in, followed by Hayley and then Wright."ROYAL NAVY! CALL OUT!" they shouted through the boat to get anyone's attention.Brace, Banner and the rest of the crew on Dragonfly watched with anticipation for what was going to happen next. Listening to the radio, they were surprised by what they heard. "Charlie-One from Sierra-One. Lifeboat is empty. Repeat - lifeboat is empty!""Sierra-One, confirm the lifeboat is empty?" asked Captain Hart."Affirmative, sir," answered Hayley. "Lifeboat is completely empty. Nobody's here.""Any sign of foul play?" asked Captain Hart."Negative, sir," said Hayley. "It's pristine in here.""This makes no sense," Friend said to Captain Hart. "They can't have just let it go. Something must have happened.""Maybe they lost it in the night and haven't noticed?" suggested Taylor."No, they would have noticed by now if they had," said Captain Hart. He went inside the bridge and called down to the Dragonfly's Communications Room on the phone. "Langford, I need you to try and contact the Andromeda. Not sure of her location but if I remember her schedule correctly she should be on her way to Cartagena. And get me the Admiral at Gibraltar as well. He needs to know about this.""Aye, sir," answered Chief Radio Operator Robin Langford over the phone. Hayley removed her hat and wiped the sweat off her face as she tried to figure out the problem. "Boys, keep an eye on the water," she said. "There has to be something else nearby.""What makes you think that?" asked Brace."Call it a hunch," replied Hayley. She looked out across the vast open sea around them, looking for any other pieces of evidence that could prove useful to them. "Where are they?" she asked herself out loud."What do we do with this?" asked Banner, indicating to the lifeboat."See what the Captain says," said Hayley. "I suspect he's reporting it back to base. Admiral Hart will have the answer. Either we'll have to tow it back to Gibraltar or we'll have to sink it.""It's a shipping hazard leaving it out here," Wright called from the top of the lifeboat."But I didn't think we were in the shipping lanes right now?" said Brace."That's irrelevant, James," said Hayley. Unlike normal navy tradition, she didn't like calling people by their surnames and would call them by their Christian names wherever possible. This was why the whole of the Dragonfly's crew had a great respect for her. "It could very easily drift into the shipping lanes and potentially cause a disaster if another ship hits it. It may be small but could easily get missed and breach a ship's hull if hit in the wrong place.""Then we'd need International Rescue," remarked Fitzgerald.Hayley's gaze turned up towards the cloudless blue sky. The small shape of an airliner could just be seen several thousand feet up and leaving a vapor trail behind it. International Rescue, she thought to herself. Gosh, how I wish I could see them. Even if it's just for a second. Captain Hart walked up and down inside the bridge until Langford called back. "Sir, I've had no luck in contacting the Andromeda. Getting no signal from her at all and cannot locate her AIS beacon. However, I have gotten a reply from Admiral Hart. he's on the line for you now, sir.""Put him through to the main bridge phone, Langford," said Captain Hart."Yes, sir."Captain Hart picked up the phone. "Dragonfly here."In his office at Gibraltar, Admiral Dave Hart spoke with his son. "Hello, Rob. How are you?""Am good, thank you.""Good. I trust you're on your way back to base?""We've had to make a stop, sir. We've discovered a lifeboat drifting empty about twenty miles East of The Rock," said Captain Hart. "It's the Andromeda's."Admiral bit his lip. "Ahhh. I feared as much," he said."Sir?""Andromeda left about 2am this morning. Within three hours her AIS beacon disappeared. We've had aircraft searching the area but found nothing. Was there anything other than the lifeboat found?""No. Nothing. No survivors. No wreckage."Admiral Hart sighed. "Bad business, Rob," he said. "Admiral Richardson at Alexandria called me two weeks ago and said they too had a missing vessel near Crete.""Seems to have been a fair few occasions of vessels missing over the past decade or so," said Captain Hart. "You don't suppose it could be-""Rob, I bloody hope it is not!" said Admiral Hart shortly. "You know as well as I do how important this Navy event is to us as well as Gibraltar and the other nations taking part. With such high profile visiting ships, we cannot afford to have anything go wrong. Make your way back towards base. Have your crew maintain an ASW alert as well as providing escort.""Escort?" asked Captain Hart."Yes, the Queen Alexandra should be close to your location," said Admiral Hart. "Given that she is yet another visitor, we need to make sure she is protected. Run ahead of her and lead her in. I'm sending Verulam and Virginia out to join you. They'll provide side screening. I'll also have them informed of the situation.""Understood, sir," said Captain Hart. "What should we do with the Andromeda's lifeboat?""I would say tow it back, but given your new assignment you'll need to dispose of it," said Admiral Hart. "Regrettable but it's the only way.""Understood, sir," said Captain Hart. "I'll let you know when we're in formation with the Queen Alexandra.""Very good. Goodbye," said Admiral Hart and he put the phone down. He then opened the door to his office where his secretary Tracci Jackson was at her desk. "Tracci, I need you to contact the Valiant's group and warn them to be on high alert. The Andromeda is lost. I fear we have a Bereznik submarine in the area." Captain Hart called Friend into the bridge. "Chris, have Turret A ready for firing. I'll call the party back to the ship.""Aye-aye, sir," said Friend and he hurried off.Captain Hart spoke into the radio again. "Charlie One to Sierra One. Over?""Go ahead, Charlie One?" answered Hayley."Return to ship. Repeat - return to ship. Lifeboat will be scuttled.""Aye-aye, sir," said Hayley. "Back to the ship, boys! Hurry up!"Wright and Fitzgerald returned to the RHIB and Brace drove them back to the Dragonfly. Whilst they were returning, the powerful single-turret gun on the front of the destroyer was turned to port until it was directly targeting the lifeboat."RHIB is clear, sir," reported Taylor."Turret A reporting," said Friend over the radio. "Target locked.""Command approved," said Captain Hart. "Engage.""Open fire!" ordered Friend.The operator of the turret fired a single shot at the waterline of the lifeboat. The resulting impact sent a small column of water into the air as the shell ripped through both sides of the hull. Water gushed in through the two holes that were made for the shell had passed clean through both sides of the lifeboat like a knife through butter. In less than two minutes it had completely filled up with water and sank."Target sunk, sir," reported Friend."Very well," said Captain Hart."RHIB recovered, sir," said Taylor.Captain Hart turned to Willis. "Starboard thirty," he said. "Makes revs for twenty knots. Steer Three-One-Seven.""Starboard thirty. Revs for twenty knots. Steer Three-One-Seven, sir."The propellers of the Dragonfly began to spin faster and the rudder was turned enabling the vessel to make its turn to starboard coming onto a course to rendezvous with the Royal Navy frigate HMS Verulam and the United States Navy destroyer USS Virginia. Having joined up with the two other warships, they sailed in a V-formation with Dragonfly leading as they waited for the CUNARD Cruise Ship Queen Alexandra to join them on its voyage from Dubrovnik to Gibraltar where its passengers could take part in the Navy Day before it would then sail off back to Southampton to complete its Mediterranean cruise."There she is, ladies and gents," said Captain Hart, observing the giant ship through his binoculars. "What a sight she is.""She's magnificent!" agreed Hayley. "This weather's perfect for cruising. What I'd give to be in one of the swimming pools or a deckchair with an ice cold drink in this weather.""What's the plan of action, Rob?" asked Chris."We'll take position ahead of her," replied Captain Hart. "I've instructed Virginia to shield her port-side whilst Verulam will cover the starboard.""Do you really think one of those Bereznik subs is in the area?" asked Hayley."If there is, we cannot let it be a threat to our visiting ships," said Captain Hart. "Taylor, anything on the scopes?""No, sir," replied Taylor. "Radar and sonar both show negative. We're the only vessels in a ten mile radius.""Let's hope it stays that way," said Captain Hart grimly. The ships formed up with Dragonfly leading the group followed by the Queen Alexandra. The Virginia took up position off the port-side of the Cruise Ship whilst the Verulam did the same on the starboard. Now they had the ship contained in a protective screen to make sure that it was as protected as could be. As they made their way towards Gibraltar, everyone on all ships were on high alert. Naturally the sudden presence of a warship escort caused some concern amongst the ship's passengers but Captain Harry Cotterill reassured them that it was just a precaution as there'd been some suspicious activity reported in the area. He advised them to continue with their leisure activities but were to be ready to react and go to Muster Stations if the need arose.Hayley stood guard on the starboard bridge wing of the Dragonfly, scanning the ocean with her binoculars to look for any signs of danger. Even though it wasn't confirmed, she was a sneaky feeling that there was indeed something hiding out there under the surface, waiting for them.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
FAB1 touched down on the airstrip at Gibraltar's Airfield. As well carrying Lady Penelope and Parker, Lord Patrick Creighton-Ward was also aboard. Being a former Navy man himself, he was very interested to be a part of Gibraltar's Navy Day. he was long time friends with Admiral Hart and the two had been looking forward to catching up."Very smooth landing, Parker," observed Patrick. "I had no idea you were such a good pilot as well as a regular driver.""H'I learned from the best, sir," replied Parker. He was of course referring to Jeff Tracy but Patrick did not know that."How long has it been since you last saw Admiral Hart, Father?" asked Penelope,"Oh, a good three years at least, Pen," replied Patrick. "It's a damn shame your mother wouldn't come but then she hates flying as you well know.""Yes, a great pity," agreed Penelope.As FAB1 moved towards the exit of the airport, they were stopped by a security guard. "Excuse me. May I see your identification, please?"They complied, but with confusion. Parker in particular seemed reluctant to do as the guard asked."Pardon me, soldier, but we've never been asked for that before," said Patrick."My apologies, Your Lordship," said the guard. "But I'm afraid you'll most likely have to get more thoroughly checked as you go around The Rock. security has been tripled in the last hour.""Why is that?" asked Penelope."I'm afraid I cannot answer that, Your Ladyship," said the guard grimly. "I don't know the reason either. All I'm doing is following instructions. They come from Admiral Hart himself."Penelope and Patrick exchanged worried looks as the guard let them proceed. FAB1 headed along the short coastal route past the main port as they headed for the Navy Headquarters on the South-Western point of The Rock. as they went, they saw a pair of tugs moving what looked like a line of blue buoys connected by strong cables across the bay towards mainland Spain."Cor!" remarked Parker. "They must be h'expecting a great catch with that!""Parker, what are you talking about?" asked Penelope."Fish, m'lady," said Parker. "With h'a net that size they'd get quite the catch!"Penelope was bewildered. She'd never heard of fishing being done with tugboats before. But Patrick, being the ex-navy man that he was, knew exactly what the tugs were doing. "That's not a fishing net, Parker," he said. "It's an anti-submarine/torpedo net. It's what we've used for over a century to protect our harbours from enemy attack.""But why are they doing it here?" asked Penelope. "The war ended years ago."Patrick shrugged. "I would have said possibly testing it in case of future war or that it could be part of the Navy Day demonstrations," he said. "However…given the sudden increase of security, I get a feeling there's something else going on." The small convoy of Queen Alexandra and her escorts was making good progress. The sea was calm. The wind was low. It was a typical Mediterranean day where one wouldn't even think that danger could be lurking nearby.Fallowfield walked to the stern of the Dragonfly with two buckets of food waste. Working down below in the galley could be hot, uncomfortable work and the heat was getting to her. She felt grateful for the sea air blowing in her face but she was still a bit hot tempered with having to dispose of the waste. "Come and get it, you hungry buzzards!" she called out as she threw the waste of one of the buckets over the side. She put the bucket down and did the same with the other. "Here's another one!" She wiped the sweat from her brow and carried the two buckets over to one of the depth-charge launchers where Wright was talking with another crewman by the name of George Shrapnel."Feeding the sharks again?" asked Wright."Damn nuisance," grumbled Fallowfield."They're just fish," remarked Wright with a laugh."What do you make of her, Millie?" asked Shrapnel. "Neil and I were just admiring the pretty bird that's following our tail."Fallowfield looked back. "I presume you mean the liner?" she asked, for the only thing noticeable was the large shape of the Queen Alexandra following in their wake."But of course," said Shrapnel. "Wouldn't you rather be aboard her right now? Sunbathing or drinking cocktails?""I'd rather be back on dry land," said Fallowfield simply. She picked up the buckets and headed back to the inside of the vessel. Friend joined Hayley on the starboard wing of the Dragonfly's bridge. "Anything?" he asked."No, nothing," Hayley replied. "Kind of hoping it stays that way?""Same," said Friend. He handed her a small white cup. "Squash?""Oh, thank you," said Hayley gratefully. She took the cup and took a swig of the orange squash. Her throat had been getting a bit dry in the heat. "Ah, that's better," she said.Friend had taken the moment to scan the area with his binoculars. "Ah, The Rock!" he said. "That's always a welcome sight."Hayley put the cup down and looked in the direction he was pointing. In the distance they could just make out the shape of Gibraltar or The Rock as it was known as through the haze."A few more hours and we'll be there," said Friend.Hayley nodded. "A lot can happen in a few hours though," she said. "Let's pray it doesn't." Guarding the starboard side of the Queen Alexandra was HMS Verulam, a Type 24 Frigate. Like how the Dragonfly was an updated version of the Type 45 Destroyers, the Verulam was an updated Type 23. The design remained very similar although it was slightly more streamlined with curved superstructure, masts and funnel. Armed with weapons to deal with aircraft and submarines, it was a force to be reckoned with. Its firepower was not as great as the Dragonfly's but it wasn't far off.Commanding the Frigate was Lieutenant-Commander Amelia Rowley. She was the latest in a long line of members of her family that had served in the Royal Navy. Her Great-Great Grandfather had served on the previous HMS Verulam during the Second World War - not as the skipper, but she felt the honour of serving on a ship with the same name very strongly.She had been off-duty for a short while and returned to the bridge to resume. "Thanks for the call, Mr Cooper," she said as she sat in her chair and checking her watch. "Anything to report?""No, ma'am," replied Cooper. "However we have re-established visual contact with The Rock. We're on the home straight now."Rowley looked through her binoculars at Gibraltar through the haze. "Excellent," she said. "Anything on radar or sonar?""Negative," replied the operator. "Nothing for several miles.""TORPEDOES! STARBOARD BOW!"The shout came from the young seaman on guard on the starboard bridge wing. Everyone on the Verulam's bridge sprang into action. Rowley and Cooper aimed their binoculars in the direction he was pointing to."Sound the alarm, Mr Cooper!" ordered Rowley.The alarm blared out across the Frigate, also alerting the other ships in the formation.Captain Hart joined Friend and Hayley on the wing of Dragonfly's bridge. "What's occurring?" he asked. They couldn't see any torpedoes or wakes but decided not to chance it."Verulam's going to Action-Stations," said Friend. "They must have seen something."Captain Hart hurried back into the bridge. "Taylor, full sonar sweep! Anything on scope?"Taylor performed a full sonar sweep of the area. "No contact, sir. Area's clear."Verulam had begun a slow turn to starboard. As yet nobody other than the seaman had noticed any torpedoes incoming."Where are the fish, sailor?" asked Cooper."I've lost sight of them, sir!" said the seaman. "Wait, there they are!" He pointed.Cooper looked and now could see what he was pointing at. He then lowered his binoculars and gave the young man a hard stare for a moment."Can't you see them, sir?" asked the seaman.Cooper did not answer. He simply went back inside and got on the loud-speaker. "Ship's company from First Officer. False alarm! Repeat - false alarm! Secure from Action Stations.""What is it, Mr Cooper?" asked Rowley."It's fine, ma'am," said Cooper. "We're not under attack."The confused seaman came into the bridge. "But, sir, I saw them!" he protested.Cooper adjusted his collar. "What's your name, son?""Bailey, sir.""Ever seen a dolphin, Bailey?""No, sir.""You have now," said Cooper plainly.Rowley looked back out across the sea with her binoculars to where it was believed the torpedoes were. Instead she saw a small group of dolphins briefly appearing above the surface of the water, and realised what had happened. "Ah, I see them, Mr Cooper," she said. "Helm, return to escort position.""Aye-aye!" said the Verulam's helmsman.Bailey was still confused. "I'm sorry, Captain. I don't understand. What dolphins?""What you saw were dolphins, not torpedoes," Rowley replied.The colour drained from Bailey's face as he now realised his mistake. "Oh…""Oh?!" said Cooper, suddenly turning angry. "Is that all you can say, sailor?! Your mistake nearly sent us after a false target!""Mr Cooper!" Rowley snapped, silencing him. "In his defence, at the wrong angle they could easily be misidentified. Back to your post, Mr Bailey. Please."Bailey was embarrassed, but relieved that Rowley wasn't going to hold it against him. "Aye, ma'am." He hurried back out to his position on the bridge wing.The communications officer then rang on the bridge buzzer. "Captain, I've got Captain Hart from the Dragonfly on the line for you.""I'm not surprised," replied Rowley. "Put him through, Hendricks."Hendricks complied."Verulam here. Go ahead, Dragonfly.""Amelia, this is Rob. is everything okay?""Yes, Rob," replied Rowley. "Apologies. One of my crew mistook some dolphins for torpedoes. False alarm. Nothing to worry about. Radar and sonar are still showing clear.""That's a relief," said Captain Hart. "Be extra vigilant, just in case. We're all on edge at the moment and I reckon we'll remain so until we reach Gibraltar.""Agreed," said Rowley. "Verulam, out." Having passed through several recently set-up security checkpoints, FAB1 was finally given permission to enter HMNB Gibraltar - the headquarters of the Royal Navy in the Western Mediterranean. Patrick and Admiral Hart were soon shaking hands."Dave, long time no see," said Patrick."Pat, it's good to see you," replied Admiral Hart. "And this must be your daughter?""Indeed," said Patrick. "Penelope, meet Admiral Hart.""Pleased to meet you, Admiral," said Penelope.Admiral Hart kissed Penelope's hand. "Heard a lot about you, young lady," he said. "I must say I can see the resemblance with your mother. Two fine roses you have, Pat."Penelope blushed."I wish I could be more welcoming," Admiral Hart went on. "But unfortunately as you have no doubt seen, security has been stepped up considerably in the last few hours.""We did notice, yes," said Patrick. "Also noticed that there seems to be an anti-submarine net being put up across the bay. May I enquire what that's in aid of?""You remember my son, Rob?" asked Admiral Hart.Patrick nodded. "Got command now, hasn't he?""Yes. He's in command of Dragonfly," said the Admiral. "This morning they discovered the lifeboat of the cargo ship Andromeda. The ship disappeared off radar in the early hours of this morning. No other trace of the ship or the crew have been located. The lifeboat was empty.""Pirates?" asked Penelope."Unlikely," said Admiral Hart. "These waters have remained pretty much trouble-free since the end of the war. Rob and I have our suspicions though. Over the past couple of decades ships have vanished without any trace. Ever since the end of the Global Conflict and since those four Bereznik submarines went missing.""You don't think one of them is lurking offshore here, do you?" asked Patrick, worried."Pat, I certainly hope not," said Admiral Hart. "But I cannot afford not to take the chance that one of them is. With the Valiant heading this way, she might be a tempting target if Heyon-Ban was to learn of her presence.""Of course," said Patrick. "When does the Valiant arrive?""About five hours," said Admiral Hart. "But right now the Dragonfly is escorting the Queen Alexandra in along with two other ships. Right now we need to make sure that she arrives safely. Like the Valiant, she too could be too much of a tempting target for a misguided submarine captain. Thirty minutes had passed since the false alarm had taken place on the Verulam and everything was quiet again. However, everyone on the four ships was even more on the lookout for anything that could jeopardise the safety of the Queen Alexandra.Taylor adjusted the sonar and radar screens. There was nothing registering on the sonar but she had just become aware of a very tiny blip on the radar scope. "Sir, I may have something," she said. "Contact at Three-One-Seven degrees. Range 2,900 yards."Captain Hart, Friend and Hayley scanned the direction with their binoculars. "I have no visuals," said Captain Hart. "What about you two?""I see nothing," said Friend."Me neither," said Hayley. Then suddenly she froze. "Hang on. Yes. Yes - there!"Captain Hart and Friend adjusted their binoculars to look and they saw it too. In the distance they could just make out three very thin masts very close together moving very slowly through the water in their direction."That's a snorkel!" exclaimed Friend."And a radar mast!" added Hayley."And if my eyes don't deceive me the other one is a periscope!" said Captain Hart. He dashed back inside and grabbed the phone. "Langford! Have sighted masts in water off the starboard side of formation. Alert Verulam and send her to investigate. Then tell Virginia and Queen Alexandra to break to port and proceed at full speed on course Two-Two-Four." He put the phone and spoke urgently into the tannoy. "ACTION STATIONS!"The Dragonfly's alarm now began to blare as the crew ran to their stations. Langford immediately got onto the radio to alert the other ships to the danger. "Dragonfly to all ships. Submarine periscope and masts spotted bearing Three-One-Seven. Range - 2,900 yards. Verulam, you are to head for the target. Queen Alexandra and Virginia, turn to course Two-Two-Four and increase to maximum speed. Condition red!"The orders were swiftly received by the other ships. Cooper and Rowley soon caught sight of the masts from their viewpoint on Verulam."There he is!" said Rowley. "Starboard ten! Steer Two-Nine-Zero! Full ahead!""Starboard ten, steer two-seven-zero, full ahead!" acknowledged the helmsman.The radio operator on the Queen Alexandra raced onto the bridge. "Captain! The Dragonfly's reported a submarine off the starboard side and we're to head Two-Two-Four at full speed with the Virginia!""Hard a-port! Full ahead both!" ordered Captain Cotterill."Hard a-port! Full ahead both, sir!" said the helmsman.The formation began to break with the Virginia and Queen Alexandra turning to the left whilst the Dragonfly and Verulam turned to starboard to make their way over towards the where the masts were.Captain Cotterill also knew to ensure his passengers were prepared for any eventuality. "Seal all the bulkhead doors! Sound the alarm!" he ordered.The General Emergency Signal began to blare out across the ship. Seven short blasts followed by one long blast on the ship's whistle and alarm bells alerted all the passengers to hurry to their Muster Stations, located on the boat deck where access to the lifeboats was easily done."Come on, hurry!" crewmembers urged the alarmed passengers as they were given life-jackets as there wasn't time for anyone to go back to their cabins and retrieve their own. Concealed beneath the surface was the Bereznik submarine B-926. From his position in the control room located in the conning-tower, the Captain observed the ships. As Admiral Hart had predicted, seeing the Queen Alexandra had proven too tempting a target for him to ignore. He was so busy focussing on the giant CUNARD ship that he failed to notice that the ship was beginning to turn, let alone that two of its escorts were now turning in his direction. As far as he was concerned, he was about to make history by becoming the first submarine commander to sink a passenger ship since the Second World War."Тorpedo Оdin - Huǒ!" he ordered. With a whoosh of bubbles, a sleek jet-black torpedo with a red warhead was fired from one of the tubes in the submarine's bow. Its gyro adjusted and it began to race through the water heading towards its target - the Queen Alexandra.Running out onto the boat deck, the passengers on the Queen Alexandra could see the distant white trail of bubbles being left by the torpedo as it made its way towards them. It was also spotted by those on the Verulam and Dragonfly and they were horrified by it. Their worst nightmare was coming true."READY THE AA-GUNS!" Captain Hart bellowed. "PREPARE TO ENGAGE THAT TORPEDO!"Still oblivious to the approaching danger, the B-926's Captain readied his second shot as he observed the trail of the first heading towards the Queen Alexandra."Тоrpedo Dva - Huǒ!" he said. There came another whoosh as the second torpedo left the tube and began to make its way towards the Cruise Ship.Seeing the bubbles ahead of the masts confirmed to the crew of the Verulam the exact position of the submarine."Oh, no. You're not getting away with that!" said Rowley furiously. "Ready the depth-charges and homing torpedoes. We'll blow him to kingdom come if we have to!"Whilst the B-926 wasn't actually registering on the sonar properly due to its cloaking technology, they could use the masts as a point to head for.It was only at this point that the radar operator on the B-926 finally realised that two of the escort ships were heading directly towards them. "Duìzhǎng! K nam priblizhayetsya korabl'!"The Captain turned the periscope to the left. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the grey shape of the Verulam charging directly towards him. "Nyet!" he exclaimed in alarm. "DIVE! POGRUZITES' SEYCHAS! Cōngmáng! Cōngmáng!"The B-926 began to dive to try and escape from its attacker.The masts may have disappeared from view, but the crew of the Verulam had a rough idea of where the submarine was. As they passed over where the masts had been, a set of four depth-charges were fired off from the stern whilst the homing torpedoes were readied for launching. The depth charges went off a short distance from the fleeing submarine. That was pure luck and the shockwaves caused the vessel to shudder violently. Inside the Captain screamed at his men for more speed and depth. At that moment, two homing torpedoes were launched from the port-side of the Verulam. They had no fixed target, but the special homing devices in their warheads allowed them to acoustically track the propeller noise coming from the submarine. They soon locked on and began to pursue their target. Not realising they were there, the crew of the B-926 made a sharp turn to starboard in the hope of avoiding more depth-charges, and in doing so sailed right into the path of the oncoming torpedoes. They struck the hull of the submarine and blew it clean apart. The explosion ripped right through and totally obliterated the vessel, sending a massive column of water high into the air alerting everyone that it had been destroyed."Captain! We got him!" exclaimed the radar operator.Rowley shared no excitement though. "It's not over yet, Swanscombe," she said grimly. "Let's hope the Dragonfly can stop their own fish." The threat of the submarine may have been over, but the danger wasn't. The torpedoes were still heading straight for the Queen Alexandra and despite the best efforts of the crew of the Dragonfly, one had gotten past and they could no longer shoot at it with the ship's Anti-Aircraft guns for fear of them accidentally hitting the Cruise Ship. they therefore had to focus on the second torpedo which they did successfully manage to hit the warhead and it detonated. Now they could do nothing but watch and hope that the Queen Alexandria could turn clear of the oncoming torpedo and let the Virginia take a shot at it.As the torpedo got ever closer, the terrified passengers began to back away from the railing. "STAY BY THE LIFEBOATS!" ordered one of the ship's officers. "IT'S THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE! REMAIN CALM!"That was easier said than done for the passengers, several of which were frozen in fear at the sight of the torpedo.What the Queen Alexandra needed was a miracle. And she got it. The hard left turn the ship was doing was just enough for the bow to clear the path of the torpedo. It missed them by centimetres and continued on towards where the Virginia was waiting."FIRE!" yelled the Virginia's Captain. The ship's Anti-Aircraft guns opened fire, peppering the water around the torpedo with bullets until one scored a hit on the warhead. It exploded harmlessly away from the ships. The danger was over.A huge cheer erupted on all four vessels as everyone realised they'd won the battle."Phew!" exclaimed Captain Hart, removing his cap. "That was a near thing.""It sure was, sir," agreed Hayley. "It sure was." Penelope and Patrick were still with Admiral Hart when they received the call from Dragonfly regarding the attack of the submarine and its destruction."Fantastic news, Rob," said Admiral Hart. "Let's hope that'll send a message to the remaining three subs, wherever they may be hiding. They'll realise from that that they're no longer invincible, once they realise one of theirs has been found.""I couldn't agree more, Dad," said Captain Hart over the phone."We will have a drink to celebrate when you get in," said Admiral Hart. "I have Admiral Creighton-Ward here and his daughter Lady Penelope. I am sure they will join us?""Most certainly," said Patrick."Excellent. Looking forward to it," said Captain Hart. "Our ETA is one hour.""Very good," said Admiral Hart. "We'll watch you from the balcony as you come in. Goodbye." He ended the call and turned to Patrick and Penelope. "Well I guess that's that over with then."BOOM! A horrendous blast shook the entire building, shattering all the windows."WHAT THE DEVIL?!" exclaimed Patrick.The door burst open and Tracci ran in, white as a sheet. "ADMIRAL!" she cried. "THE LIPARUS HAS GONE UP!"Penelope ran out onto the balcony and looked around for the cause of the blast. Her eyes widened as she saw it. A large super-tanker was anchored out in the bay. She had noticed it when they'd flown in, and now it was somehow burst into flames. Flames roared several feet into the air above the ship creating a colossal cloud of thick black smoke which rose high into the sky.Patrick and Admiral Hart ran out as well as saw the carnage."My God!" exclaimed Patrick. "What happened?!""I don't know," replied the stunned Admiral. "That tanker was here to resupply all our ships. There are people aboard her working!"Upon hearing this, Penelope knew what needed to be done, but she had to ensure that neither her father or the Admiral were aware of what she was going to do. Making sure they weren't looking, she snuck back inside the building and concealed herself from anybody's view before pulling out her compact radio. "Calling International Rescue. This is Lady Penelope. We have a situation!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
JOHN was alerted by the emergency siren aboard Thunderbird 5 and he hurried to the main control room to take the call. "This is Thunderbird 5. Go ahead, Lady Penelope?"Penelope's hologram appeared on the projector. "John, I'm in Gibraltar. One of the ships has mysteriously exploded and is burning horrendously.""What kind of ship is it?" asked John."A tanker," replied Penelope. "And by the look of it it must have been fully loaded."John brought up some satellite imagery of the bay between Gibraltar and Spain. "Good grief!" he said when she saw the burning tanker. "This is serious. Okay, Lady P, I'll alert the others. This is gonna be a big one!""F-A-B. Thank you, John," said Penelope. "I'm afraid I'm in close proximity to my father so don't know if I'll be of any use.""Don't worry about that," said John. "We'll handle it." He pressed a button to call Tracy Island. "Thunderbird 5 to International Rescue. Come in please." Scott, Virgil, Alan and Gordon were all in the lounge when John's call came through. He showed them the video footage he'd picked up of the burning Liparus and they were just as aghast as he'd been."Great Scott!" exclaimed Scott. "That's a total disaster right there!""I've run a scan of the tanker," said John. "Looks like there's quite a few of the crew trapped below decks and the tanker's starting to sink.""We have to get out there this instant!" said Gordon, jumping to his feet."I agree," said Scott. "Gordon and Alan, go with Virgil in Thunderbird 2. We may need Thunderbird 4 as well." He began to run towards the revolving wall-panel. "See you in the sky!"The team split up. Scott went to the wall panel and was turned out of the lounge and to the express elevator that would take him down to Thunderbird 1. Virgil went to the painting of the rocket, leant against it and it tilted backwards sliding him into the harness that took him down the long twisty chute towards Thunderbird 2. Alan sat on his seat and was lowered down into the floor before heading to the changing chamber and Gordon ran around to just outside the lounge where the fish tank containing his prized model Stingray submarine was located and pressed his hand against the glass that recognised his handprint to activate his own express elevator like Scott's. As the brothers headed down and through their respective routes, robotic arms attached their uniforms to their bodies. Scott soon reached his destination and after exiting the elevator was taken out on the extending platform to Thunderbird 1. He climbed in and was raised inside the rocket whilst the platform retracted. The trolley that held Thunderbird 1 began to head up the diagonal tunnel towards the launch bay underneath the swimming pool. Meanwhile Virgil had arrived and dropped out of the harness into the cockpit of Thunderbird 2. He closed the hatch and hurried to his seat where he selected Module 4 from the list of Modules on the ship's computer. The conveyor moved Modules 1, 2 and 3 underneath the main body of the giant green ship before stopping with Module 4 underneath. At the touch of a button, the main body was lowered down onto the Module and locked into place. Just after this was done, Virgil was joined by Gordon and Alan who took up their positions in the cockpit. The hangar door opened and Thunderbird 2 taxied out onto the runway with the palm trees falling back to allow it to pass. It travelled along the runway before coming to rest on the launch ramp which rose up into position and the blast shield lifted into place behind it. At the same time, the swimming pool had finished opening for Thunderbird 1 which was just arriving into place in the launching bay. Now both ships were in position and ready to go.5! 4! 3! 2! 1!Thunderbird 1 was the first to launch, rising up through where the swimming pool had been with its thrust pushing away the sun-loungers…again. Thunderbird 2 followed seconds later, rising up into the darkened night sky above Tracy Island. The two ships formed up and began to head North-West towards Gibraltar."Thunderbirds are GO!" said Scott. The Liparus was still burning ferociously. Those on deck lucky enough to have not been caught in the blast had jumped overboard as the ship began to list over to starboard. The thick smoke filled the entire bay and could be seen for miles. Fire Tugs were racing towards it and began spraying water into the flames in an attempt to try and get it under control, but it soon became clear that it was going to be a tough battle, one that they were not likely to win.In the control room at the navy base, Admiral Hart and his team were busy trying to organise a rescue operation, but weren't having a lot of success apart from the ones the rescue boats were retrieving from the water. They were getting reports that several had suffered severe injuries and burns. Some life-threatening. There also came the reports of fatalities. And there seemed to be quite a few.Tracci rushed in with some news for them. "Sir, I think you should see this," she said beckoning Admiral Hart over to a computer screen. Patrick and Penelope came over to join them. "We have some CCTV of the initial explosion," said Tracci. "Look at this."The Admiral and the Creighton-Wards watched the footage of the tanker sitting at anchor in the bay. At first it was all fine and calm, but then there came two small explosions on the outside of the hull that were preceded by two small wakes in the water. The initial small blasts then triggered the much larger explosion that ripped a massive hole in the side of the tanker."Unless I am very much mistaken, those were torpedo strikes!" said Patrick, going pale."You're not wrong," said Admiral Hart. "It means one of those other subs is inside the net!" He turned back to the operators. "I want a full sonar sweep of the entire bay!" he ordered. "One of the Bereznik subs is out there hiding! I want it found!" The smoke from the burning tanker could even be seen from the Dragonfly's group as they approached Gibraltar from the East."Sir, I think something's on fire," said Taylor who spotted the smoke first.Captain Hart, Friend and Hayley all gazed out in alarm and looked through their binoculars. From their current position they couldn't see what was burning so it looked like The Rock itself was on fire."Something's not right," said Captain Hart. "Langford, get me the Admiral.""Aye, sir.""What do you think it could be, sir?" asked Willis."With that amount of smoke I'd say that's a fuel fire of some kind," said Hayley.Friend went pale. "Erm, wasn't the Liparus anchored out in the bay?" he asked.Captain Hart grimaced. "She was, Chris," he said."Sir, the Admiral," called Langford over the intercom.Captain Hart took the call. "Sir, we can see smoke. What's going on?""It's the Liparus, Rob," answered Admiral Hart. "She's been torpedoed. There has to be another one of the submarines and it must have entered the bay before we set up the net.""Are there any other potential targets in the bay?" asked Captain Hart."A few of the coastal freighters but nothing major," replied the Admiral. "I've ordered a full air, land and patrol boat sonar sweep. The Veronica is also in the bay so she's looking as well.""Anything we can do to help?" asked Captain Hart."Have Verulam and Virginia continue to protect the Queen Alexandra," said Admiral Hart. "If there is a gap in the net and sub does somehow manage to escape we may need you to help hunt it down.""Understood, we're on our way," said Captain Hart. he ended the call. "Langford, inform the others that we will be leaving them. Tell Virginia to take the lead. We're going sub-hunting! Full ahead, Willis.""Aye, Captain. Full ahead!"In the engine room, Chief Engineer Simon Merriett was getting concerned and he expressed them to Second Engineer Andy Berry. "IF WE CONTINUE THIS WE'LL BLOW THE NUMBER TWO ENGINE!" he yelled over the noise of the engine."WILL SHE HOLD FOR THE MOMENT?!" Berry bellowed back."FOR THE MOMENT, YES!" shouted Merritt. "I JUST HOPE WE'RE NOT GOING TO BE DOING ANY CHASING!"With the engines at full power, the Dragonfly accelerated away from the Queen Alexandra and its two remaining escorts and hurried towards Gibraltar and the disaster zone. Penelope secretly snuck away to pass the news on to John who then relayed it to Thunderbirds 1 and 2. "It would seem those missing Bereznik submarines are responsible for this attack," he was saying. "One already made an attempt to sink the cruise liner Queen Alexandra but was thwarted by its escorts. Now it would seem that a second was in the area and has fired shots at the Liparus.""How many are still aboard the Liparus, John?" asked Scott."Difficult to say," replied John. "Most of the survivors appear to have been picked up by small boats but I'm detecting at least twelve more still aboard. Five in the superstructure at the stern and seven below decks. They're in a compartment towards the bow, sealed off from the fire. They're safe from getting burned but with the ship sinking the water's getting dangerously close to their position.""An explosion that big surely would have broken the ship in two?" Gordon asked."The Liparus is a unique d-design of ship," said Brains who had been listening in. "Her s-storage areas were reinforced to help contain any kind of explosion as best possible.""The ship hasn't sunk yet but it's getting close to," said John."Guess it didn't work then?" said Alan."N-No, Alan, it has," insisted Brains. "If it hadn't, the ship would b-be on the bottom of the bay before we could even have launched.""Speaking of fuel, if it was full is it not leaking oil into the water?" asked Virgil. "Could we potentially have an environmental disaster on our hands?""Only six of the eight tanks inside the ship have actually exploded," said John. "All that fuel has been burned up already and the small amount that is leaking out is also burning. So long as we can arrest it, dowse the flames and make it safe we shouldn't have any problems.""How do we save the crew?" asked Scott. "I'm open to any suggestions.""The f-fire is covering the deck," said Brains. "To get those in the s-superstructure to safety is to get them to go to the stern of the vessel and simply airlift them off. But the f-fire is blocking their exit so it needs to be put out first.""And those below deck?" asked Alan."Again, access is from the main deck but the fire is b-blocking the only way in," said Brains."There's also the problem of the tanker sinking still before we can get them out," said Gordon. "Should we not try and stabilise it?""Yes, G-Gordon," agreed Brains. "The remote airbags should be able to h-hold the tanker in place just long enough for you to get the remaining crew to safety.""Okay, I'm getting a plan here," said Scott. "Gordon, take Thunderbird 4 down and supervise the airbags.""F-A-B, Scott," said Gordon."Thunderbird 2 will need to use arresting foam to kill the flames. Virgil, you then land and rescue those trapped below decks. There may be other fires so I suggest you use that fire-protective suit of yours.""You got it, Scott," said Virgil."Good. Alan, I'll need you to take control of Thunderbird 2 and airlift the crew from the superstructure first after I get them out of there. Then retrieve the ones that Virgil will be going to get.""Piece of cake," said Alan."Sounds like a plan," said John. "What are your ETAs?""Three minutes," said Scott. "Just flying over the Mediterranean now.""Thunderbird 2?""Just crossed the Suez Canal," said Virgil. "We're about eleven minutes behind Thunderbird 1.""F-A-B," said John. "Good luck." The Dragonfly soon rounded the southern tip of Gibraltar and the scene of devastation came into view. The crew stared in shock at the sight of the Liparus, completely engulfed in flames and with its deck nearly underwater. It had a strong list to starboard and the fire was beginning to spread onto the water as fuel leaked out of the vessel."Oh, my God…" Hayley said under her breath. She'd seen her fair share of scary sights in her time but this was by far the worst. In some ways it was more frightening than seeing the torpedoes heading through the water."What can we do?" Friend asked Captain Hart.Captain Hart let out a sad sigh. "For them? Nothing," he said. "If there's anybody aboard, only a miracle can save them."It was at that moment that they heard a shout coming from the rear of the destroyer. It belonged to crewman David Seaward. "THUNDERBIRDS!"Captain Hart, Friend and Hayley spun to face the stern just as Thunderbird 1 came swooping down from above and passed right over the top of the Dragonfly."Woah!" exclaimed Willis. "Where did that come from?"Taylor checked the radar screen. "It's…not registering on the scope!" she said in confusion.Hayley had gone into an awed trance gazing in wonder at the sight of Thunderbird 1 which was now circling the burning tanker, much to the surprise of everybody who was in attendance."Is that International Rescue?" asked Admiral Hart. "What are they doing here?""I don't know," replied Patrick. "But my God am I glad to see that they are! Those men in the tanker may have a chance after all." Nobody had noticed Penelope had slunk away out of the main building to where Parker was waiting by FAB1. He too had been watching the terrifying disaster unfold and was equally pleased to see Thunderbird 1."Parker!""M'lady?""Let's get down there," Penelope said as she climbed back into FAB1. "That enemy submarine might still be lurking. We can't let it interfere with the rescue operation.""You h'are aware that if we go down from 'ere that we might get seen h'entering the water, m'lady?" asked Parker."Then we'll go somewhere where nobody will see us," said Penelope. "Now let's go!" Scott was thunderstruck by the devastation on the tanker. "This is worse than I thought," he reported. "She's not far off going under. Thunderbird 2, how far away are you?""Approaching now, Thunderbird 1," answered Virgil.Thunderbird 2 appeared from behind The Rock, flying down over the water between the shoreline of the navy base and where the Dragonfly was sailing. Her sight awed all who were watching her - especially Hayley. "Ohhhhhh, hello beautiful!" she gasped, unable to take her eyes of Thunderbird 2.Virgil brought Thunderbird 2 over the anti-submarine net and began to hover over the bay. "In position to deploy module," he said. "Are you ready, Thunderbird 4?""Systems check complete," Gordon acknowledged. "Ready to go, Thunderbird 2." The clamps were released and Module 4 dropped out from the main body of Thunderbird 2 to land with a splash on the surface of the water. The door opened and the ramp holding Thunderbird 4 was lifted into place. Gordon fired up the thrusters and the small yellow craft darted down into the water submerging instantly. "Thunderbird 4 is GO!"Diving down, Thunderbird 4 swiftly moved over to underneath the sinking tanker whose starboard side deck was starting to dip beneath the surface, something that wasn't visible topside because of the flames and leaking fuel."How does she look, Thunderbird 4?" asked Scott."Not good," replied Gordon. "Deck's coming under.""She's forty-eight percent flooded," John said from Thunderbird 5. If she passes fifty the flooding will get worse very quickly and then she drops like a stone. Hurry, Gordon!"Gordon hastily moved Thunderbird 4 around so that it was facing head-on to the starboard side of the Liparus. Using the target computer, he selected the two best points for the airbags locked them on. "Targeting complete," he said. "Launching remote airbags…NOW!" He pressed the button and two small pods were fired from the sides of Thunderbird 4. The clamps attached themselves to the bottom of the tanker and the bags were inflated. The tanker's slow descent stopped and gradually began to rise again as the buoyancy in the bags counteracted the flooding."It's working!" said John. "Thunderbird 2, time to deal with that fire.""F-A-B," acknowledged Virgil. He guided Thunderbird 2 directly over the tanker and disappeared into the smoke. Nobody could see what was happening but Virgil knew the thick acrid smoke wouldn't harm his ship. He opened the underside of the module which he'd retrieved from the water following the launch of Thunderbird 4 and lowered a powerful hose from which he could spray an instant fire-killing foam down onto the deck. Starting at the stern and working his way forwards, the foam covered every point of the deck of the ship and smothered both the flames on the deck and on the surface of the water. The foam had a secondary role of arresting the leaking fuel that wasn't burned and making it safe from contaminating the water. "Deck fire out and spillage contained," Virgil reported."Good work, Thunderbird 2," said Scott as he donned his helmet. "Now let's get the crew out." The underside hatch of Thunderbird 1 opened and Scott dropped out of his seat, activating his jetpack and gliding to land on the deck of the tanker just beside one of the entrances to the superstructure. "Man, the fire's out but the deck is still red hot!" he said. "Good job my boots can protect my feet but I'm worried about the crew walking on this.""There's another entrance round the back of the superstructure, Scott," said John who was checking the Liparus's schematics. The fire never reached that far, that would be a better place to airlift them off as well.""Got it," said Scott and he made his way towards the back of the ship.Virgil meanwhile had left Alan in control of Thunderbird 2 whilst he changed into his fire-fighting suit with the jaws of life. "All suited up," he said. "Ready to lower, me?""F-A-B, bro," replied Alan. "I've got Thunderbird 2 positioned over the bow. Just say the word."Virgil watched as the hatch opened underneath him. He attached his harness to the winch and looked down at the blackened deck of the tanker below. "Okay, hold her right there, Alan," he said. "Position is perfect. Lower away!"Alan activated the winch and Virgil began to be lowered down towards the deck of the tanker. Having managed to leave the navy base without being challenged, FAB1 made its way down to the quietest area of coastline that Parker could find. "Will this do, m'lady?" he asked."It'll have to do, Parker," Penelope replied. "All the same, better engage stealth-mode until we've gone under. We shouldn't get noticed then.""Right you are," said Parker. He activated FAB1's camouflage-mode before switching the engines to air-mode and moved off the shoreside before dropping down into the water and switching to submersible mode. Once safely below the surface the black camouflage disappeared and the normal pink paintwork returned. "FAB1 is h'off," said Parker. Virgil landed on the deck of the Liparus and unfastened himself from the winch. "I'm clear, Alan," he said. "Get to the stern and be ready to help Scott evac the first members of crew. He'll free them sooner than I can free this group.""F-A-B," said Alan and he began to move Thunderbird 2 away from the bow towards the stern of the ship."How are the airbags holding up, Thunderbird 4?" Virgil then asked as he began to cut his way through the hatch on the deck which had been melted shut by the heat from the flames.From his position in Thunderbird 4's cockpit, Gordon was monitoring the airbags closely. "Airbags are holding steady," he said. "All looks good from here."Just then Penelope appeared on the hologram projector. "FAB1 calling Thunderbird 4. Do you read me, Gordon?""Lady Penelope?" said Gordon, his heart fluttered as it always did when he heard Penelope's voice. "What can I do for you?""Nothing, we're coming to you," replied Penelope. "We're going to offer protection for you just in case the Bereznik submarine is still in the area.""Is it likely to be?" asked Gordon."Well the torpedoes were fired from somewhere inside the bay after the nets were put in place," said Penelope. "Unless it's found a way to cut through then it's very likely."Scott then came over the radio. He'd been listening in. "Gordon, did you check your surroundings as you came over to the ship?" he asked."Errrrr, no?" Gordon replied."Well take a sweep!" ordered Scott. "We can't have it attacking us mid-rescue."Gordon turned Thunderbird 4 around and shone his lights out into the darkness. He couldn't see anything. "Nothing," he said. "Nothing on sonar either.""Those subs are fitted with some pretty impressive stealth tech," John said over the radio. "Even I can't find any trace of it."Gordon turned Thunderbird 4 back towards the tanker. "Hopefully it's trying to get out and leaves us alone," he said. He completed the turn and turned his attention back to the airbags. "How are you boys getting on?""I'm at the stern of the vessel," Scott replied. "I've found the way in and am cutting through the door. What about you, Virgil?"Virgil had managed to cut open the hatch leading down inside the tanker and was beginning to descend down the ladder to the deck below. "I'm just entering the ship now," he said. "John, how far down do I have to go to reach the trapped crew?""Three decks, Virgil," said John. "But hurry, the water's starting to enter their compartment. They have not got much time."Virgil reached the bottom of the ladder and looked for the set of stairs down to the next deck. "So long as those airbags remain in operation, we'll be fine," he said.Suddenly, both Thunderbird 4 and Thunderbird 5's scanners began to beep alarmingly for they'd detected a fast moving projectile heading straight for the tanker."Uh-oh!" exclaimed Gordon. He turned his head sharply to the left just a small torpedo rocketed past Thunderbird 4 and slammed into one of the airbag holders. There was a loud BANG that rocked the tanker. Scott flew backwards, falling over the stern railing and dropping his laser device as he did so. He did however manage to grab the railing and save himself from falling into the water. Virgil lost his footing on the stairs and fell to the bottom and Thunderbird 4 was thrown backwards by the shockwave. As Gordon recovered his craft's spin, he glanced up in horror to see that the airbag had been destroyed and there was yet another hole in the hull of the tanker."Thunderbird 4, what happened?!" demanded Scott."Missile!" Gordon cried. "That sub IS here!" He then looked to the left and froze, spotting the culprit - a small jet-black submarine was just visible about five-hundred yards away. It was smaller that Gordon was expecting though. "What the hell?!" exclaimed Gordon. "I literally just turned and looked! He wasn't there!""Well he's there now!" said Virgil as he picked himself up off the floor. "The ship's shifted!""She's been holed again, guys!" John said looking over the holographic schematics. "She's taking on more water. You have to get those men out, now!"Just then the mystery submarine launched a second torpedo, which Gordon quickly realised was aimed at the second airbag. "Oh…oh NO!" he cried. Without even thinking, he brought Thunderbird 4 upwards and right into the path of the oncoming weapon, which struck Thunderbird 4's left side instead. "GAAAARRGHH!"Gordon's cry as Thunderbird 4 was hit by the torpedo was heard through the headsets of Scott and Virgil plus over the radios of Thunderbird 5, FAB1 and back on Tracy Island, sending chills up everyone's spines. "Gordon?" came several cries of alarm. "GORDON?!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
THUNDERBIRD 4 was severely damaged by the impact of the torpedo, but wasn't critically disabled. Despite this, the craft did slowly sink momentarily towards the seabed before Gordon was able to counteract the flooding and make her as steady as he could."GORDON!" came several cries over the radio."Guys, don't shout!" Gordon shouted. "I'm fine!""What happened?" asked Scott."Never mind me," Gordon said. "Just get those men out."John and Brains however had seen on the hologram projectors what Gordon had done and they weren't happy."Gordon, you took that hit deliberately, didn't you?" said John angrily."Yeah, and?" Gordon asked."ARE YOU CRAZY, GORDON?!" bellowed Scott who by now had pulled himself back over the railing and onto the deck of the Liparus. "YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!""Not to m-mention you've almost destroyed Thunderbird 4!" added Brains crossly.Penelope was equally angry. "Gordon Tracy, if this is true, you are getting one hell of a-" She broke off suddenly, remembering that although she had deep feelings for Gordon, neither were ready to admit them to the others yet let alone each other.An awkward silence fell across the team before Virgil broke it. "Guys, can we sort this out later?" he asked as he made his way down another deck. "In case you hadn't noticed this ship is now sinking again? We need to get these men out!""What about the sub?" asked Alan. "It's still down there.""Leave the sub to me," Gordon said, turning the damaged Thunderbird 4 towards the Bereznik sub that was still closing in. "I'll make him pay for this.""No you won't, Gordon!" said Penelope sharply. "Parker and I will handle this. You'd better try and hold the ship in place as best you can…IF you haven't damaged Thunderbird 4 that much?"Gordon sighed. "I'm never gonna hear the end of this," he told himself. As Gordon moved his damaged craft over to the Liparus. He extended the grabbing arms and pushed up against the hull of the ship before putting the thrusters on full power as best he could to act in place of the lost airbag. He took a glance out the cockpit window as FAB1 came around the side of the tanker and hurried towards the Bereznik submarine which had now decided it wasn't worth trying to attack again and had now turned to run."There she h'is, m'lady," said Parker. "Looks like she's 'eading for the net.""Not very smart, are they?" asked Penelope. "Full speed, Parker. We'll catch them at the net."As they closed in, they too became suspicious by the design of the submarine. It wasn't one that they recognised."John, this doesn't look like a Bereznik submarine," Penelope said. "It's too small. We'll send you a scan. Perhaps you or Brains might have an idea?"John and Brains watched as the scan of the mystery submarine came through."That's v-very strange," remarked Brains. "I've studied the B-Bereznik navy's schematics for all of their crafts. I d-don't recognise this type at all.""Neither do I," agreed John. "Although I may have an idea. One of the subs that went missing was an A-class. They had an onboard chamber designed to carry troops and land vehicles." He checked the scan of the mystery submarine along with the one he had of the A-class. "It matches up!" he said. "This could be a secret design of submarine. It's small enough to fit inside the A-class.""Meaning that's likely to be around here as well," Penelope realised. "This is rather distressing news."Parker however had noticed something equally distressing. "M'lady! Look!" he cried.Penelope looked up from her compact and gasped as two small sleek missiles shot upwards from the top of the submarine. Parker prepared himself to take evasive action and to deploy countermeasures. But the missiles didn't come for FAB1. Instead they broke the surface and shot upwards into the sky, alarming everyone who was watching the bay. The crew on the Dragonfly readied themselves for the incoming attack, but it soon became clear that they weren't the target. The missiles broke off in opposite directions and began to dive towards their actual targets - the two tugs holding the anti-submarine net in place."JUMP!" yelled the captains of the tugs.The tugs only carried crews of five people and they hastily jumped overboard and began to swim away from their boats as quickly as they could before the missiles dived down and struck. Both tugs were blown to smithereens and without anything to hold it in place, the net began to sink which would give the submarine a clear run out into the Mediterranean."The net's down!" exclaimed Admiral Hart. "They're going to get away." "Looks like they're escaping, m'lady," said Parker."Not whilst we're here," said Penelope firmly. "Parker, close in and prepare for attack.""Yus, m'lady!" The Dragonfly crew were also rushing about, readying their weapons and making radar and sonar sweeps for any sign of the enemy vessel. They were in the perfect position should they get a contact."Any contact?" Captain Hart asked Taylor."Not yet, sir," replied Taylor. "That pest could be anywhere.""Concentrate on the area the missiles came from," said Captain Hart. "Even if it's just minor engine noise. No submarine can remain completely silent."Hayley frowned to herself. It hadn't occurred to her before, but overhearing the Captain's words was making her think back to something she had learned during her time with the World Aquanaut Security Patrol. But try as she might she couldn't remember what it was."Hayley?"Hayley jumped back to reality."Are you okay?" asked Friend."Yeah, sorry," Hayley replied. "Deep in thought. It doesn't matter."Now that the net was down, the Bereznik submarine began to increase its speed up to twenty knots and headed out towards the open sea with FAB1 in hot pursuit. Inside the submarine, its five-man crew quickly realised that they were being followed. "Duìzhǎng!" exclaimed the navigator who was monitoring the radar. "Nas presleduyet...mashina!""A car?!" exclaimed the Captain, who unlike the others did speak some English. "Razrushat'!"Targeting FAB1 via external cameras, the weapons operator launched two sleek torpedoes at FAB1."They've seen us, m'lady!" exclaimed Parker."Evade, Parker! EVADE!" yelled Penelope.Parker's expert driving allowed FAB1 to dodge the torpedoes which harmlessly slammed into nearby rocks and exploded. The columns of water created were seen by the Dragonfly crew."Starboard twenty!" ordered Captain Hart. "Head Two-Seven-Nine!""Sir, I have two contacts!" Taylor called. Bearing Two-Six-Eight. Range 1,750 yards!""Steer Two-Six-Eight!" ordered Captain Hart. "Prepare depth charges!"The Dragonfly altered its course and began to close in at speed towards the contacts. The sudden change in the destroyer's course didn't go unnoticed by John on Thunderbird 5. "Er, FAB1 you might want to get out of there," he said. "That destroyer seems to be closing in on you. I think it may have detected you.""Then we'll have to make this quick," said Penelope. "Parker, target that submarine.""Yus, m'lady!" replied Parker. He flicked a switch which opened up the grill of FAB1 to reveal its own missiles. He then used the targeting computer to lock onto the fleeing submarine. "Target locked.""Fire!" ordered Penelope.Two missiles were launched from FAB1 and homed in on the submarine."Xiǎojiě! Xiǎojiě!" screamed the submarine's navigator in horror."UBEGAYTE! UBEGAYTE!" bellowed the Captain.The submarine made a sharp turn to starboard and began to dive to try and escape from the homing missiles coming in at them. But unlike FAB1 who had an expert driver, they weren't so lucky. The two missiles found their mark, completely destroying the portside water-jet and obliterating the steering controls. The vessel began to flood and alarms blared inside the control room. In the panic, the dive controller pressed the button that activated the emergency ballast blow.Penelope and Parker watched as the submarine began to hastily rise towards the surface. "They're going up, m'lady!""Thank goodness," said Penelope. "Come on, let's get out of here, Parker. We'll let the navy deal with them. We cannot let anyone see us."Parker turned FAB1 away and made a hasty exit from the scene whilst the submarine continued its rise towards the surface. Taylor watched the sonar scanner in disbelief as she saw one contact fleeing the scene and the other rising up to the surface. "Sir! The small contact just attacked the big one," she said. "Small contact is fleeing. The big one is coming to the surface.""Position?" asked Captain Hart."Bearing Two-Five-Six. Range three-hundred yards!" said Taylor."Slow ahead!" Captain Hart ordered. "Revolutions for two knots.""Aye, sir!" acknowledged Willis.Captain Hart grabbed the tannoy microphone. "Captain speaking. Enemy vessel surfacing off port bow. Range three-hundred yards. All guns prepare to engage on my order."The guns turned and aimed at the section of water that was bubbling nearby. Moments later, the enemy submarine broke the surface."There she is!" said Friend."All guns stand-by!" said Captain Hart.All the gunners readied themselves with twitchy trigger fingers, waiting eagerly to open fire.But before Captain Hart could give the order, Langford appeared on the bridge with some surprising news. "Sir! I have Admiral Hart on the line. He says do not sink the target."Captain Hart stared at him, as did Friend, Hayley, Taylor and Willis."What do you mean not sink it?" demanded Captain Hart. "Is he on the line?""Yes, sir."Captain Hart grabbed the phone. "Admiral?""Rob, do NOT sink that submarine!" ordered Admiral Hart. "I want the crew taken. Alive if possible!" And he hung up before Captain Hart had a chance to reply.Captain Hart was stunned as he placed the phone back on the hook. For once he seemed unsure of what to do or say.The gun crews were starting to get impatient. "Come on!" grumbled Seward who was part of the crew in the forward turret. "Give the order, damn it!"Captain Hart finally found the words he needed to say. He took the microphone. "All guns - keep the target in sight. Do NOT fire. Repeat - do NOT fire! We are boarding her." He turned to Hayley. "Lieutenant - take the boarding crew over. Get the crew of that sub out of there if you can.""Yes, sir," said Hayley and she hastily left the bridge. It was lucky for Scott that he kept a spare laser in his toolbelt and was able to finish cutting his way through the door leading into the Liparus's superstructure. "I'm in!" he said with relief. "How about you, Virgil?""I'm on the deck above where the crew are," Virgil replied. "I'm going to see if I can raise them." He had found another hatch and tapped on it with one of the jaws of life. "Hello?" he called down. "Can anybody hear me?"Immediately there came a chorus of frantic shouts from below. "HELP!""GET US OUT OF HERE!""OH, GOD! THE WATER'S RISING!""HOLD ON!" Virgil shouted. "I'M GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF THERE!""WHO ARE YOU?!" asked one of the voices."I'M INTERNATIONAL RESCUE!" Virgil shouted back. "CAN YOU CLIMB OUT?!""NO! THE HATCH IS JAMMED! AW, MAN, WE'RE GONNA DIE IN HERE!""NO, YOU'RE NOT! HANG ON!" Virgil yelled. He grabbed hold of the hatch with one of the jaws of life and effortlessly ripped it clean off. He peered down and shone his light through the open hole to see the seven frightened crewmen with the water up to their chests. All were rather surprised at how swiftly Virgil had removed the hatch."H-How did you-?" one of them stammered."Never mind how," Virgil said shortly. "Climb up to me. One at a time. ONE AT A TIME!" he shouted for he saw them all try to grab onto the ladder at the same time.Scott had also managed to find the five remaining crewmembers that he'd tasked himself with finding. These included the ship's Captain. "Is anybody hurt?" asked Scott."A few cuts and bruises when the windows on the bridge blew out but otherwise we're okay," replied the Captain. "Are we glad to see you?""Follow me," Scott said. "Will have you out in no time." He began to lead the way back towards the exit. "Thunderbird 2 I've got my party of crewmen. Have the evac-chairs ready for them.""F-A-B!" said Alan. He brought Thunderbird 2 into a hover above the stern and opened the hatch under the module again before lowering the evac-chairs down to deck level. They arrived just at the same time as Scott emerged with the Captain and four other crewmembers."Climb aboard," Scott said to the crewmembers. He and the Captain helped the other four climb into the chairs facing them before Scott made sure the Captain climbed aboard himself."Wait!" the Captain said. "I don't know if anyone else is still aboard.""There are, sir, but my brother has found them and is bringing them up from below decks," Scott said. "They're in the bow section so the sooner you board and get off this ship the sooner we can pick them up as well."Reluctantly, the Captain boarded the last chair facing the stern of the tanker and was strapped in. Scott then signalled to Alan who hoisted them up into the safety of Thunderbird 2."One group down. One to go," Scott said. He suddenly felt the ship shift and list further over to starboard. "Gordon, what's happening?""Scott, Thunderbird 4's losing power," Gordon answered. "I'm not sure how much longer I can hold her up."Brains had been closely monitoring Thunderbird 4's stats and was also concerned. "G-Gordon, you are putting too much strain on Thunderbird 4's hull and engines. Structural integrity is down to forty percent and slowly dropping. And your engines are r-registering dangerous levels of overheating.""She'll hold, Brains," Gordon said. "We've come too close to fail now."Just then FAB1 appeared. Parker extended the car's front claw and attached it to the hull of the tanker. "Need a hand, Thunderbird 4?" asked Penelope.Gordon was relieved. "Thank you, Lady Penelope," he said breaking a smile. "What would we do without you?""I shudder to think," replied Penelope with a mischievous grin."You've changed your tone towards 'im, m'lady," Parker said in a quiet voice so Gordon could not hear."Oh, I'm mad at him, Parker," Penelope said quietly back. "But in all fairness, I'd probably have done the same.""As would I, m'lady," agreed Parker. The RHIB from the Dragonfly cautiously approached the disabled Bereznik submarine. Hayley was once again joined by Fitzgerald, Wright, Banner and Brace. Shrapnel had also come along as extra with a loaded weapon. Fitzgerald and Wright were also armed with machine-guns like Shrapnel whilst Hayley had her small sidearm. They did not know if the Bereznik crew would come quietly or not, but given how they had not yet emerged from the vessel they were expecting a possible fight."Check your guns," Hayley warned. "Be ready to engage if necessary."They soon reached the submarine and Fitzgerald boarded first. Wright followed him. Then Shrapnel and finally Hayley whilst Banner and Brace remained behind in the RHIB.Fitzgerald knocked on the hatch. "ROYAL NAVY! OPEN UP!"No response came from inside the submarine. Hayley took out a smoke grenade. They were all wearing protective armoured suits and helmets that would protect them from any gunfire or gas. She and Fitzgerald gave a nod to each other. Fitzgerald opened the hatch a little and Hayley dropped the smoke grenade inside before he slammed the hatch shut again. They heard a soft pop from inside as the grenade went off. They waited for about a minute to allow the smoke to get through the submarine and hopefully take out the crew. Then he opened up the hatch again and Hayley jumped inside.Hayley dropped down the tube before landing with a clunk in the control room. Straight away she saw the gas had done its job. Two of the crewmen were slumped against their control consoles. It was the navigator and the weapons operator. The helmsman was missing, as was the Captain. Hayley moved out of the way of the hatch to allow Fitzgerald, Shrapnel and Wright to come down and join her. "It's clear," she said. "Spread out. Be careful."Fitzgerald, Wright and Shrapnel acknowledged and spread out to begin a search of the submarine whilst Hayley began to examine the instruments to try and learn more about the submarine and where it had come from. Virgil emerged from the hatch on the top deck of the tanker. It was a struggle for him and the seven remaining crewmembers to climb through the ship due to the heavy list it was on but eventually they managed it. Alan had also moved Thunderbird 2 back to the front and with Scott also coming to assist, they helped the grateful men into the evac-chairs and were hoisted to safety. Virgil then used a grapple hook to hoist himself clear whilst Scott used his jetpack."Ship's evacuated," Scott said. "Can you confirm that, Thunderbird 5?""I sure can," said John happily. "Scans show no life-signs inside the tanker. Thunderbird 4 and FAB1 - you may let go now."Gordon and Parker released the grips of their vehicles off the ship and dropped down before moving clear. The flooding of the Liparus got greater with more compartments getting filled with water thanks to the new hole in the side. The one remaining lift bag held the front section up for longer but the stern was soon full of water. Everyone stood back and watched as the one mighty tanker rolled over and slowly slipped beneath the surface. Gordon, Penelope and Parker watched from a safe distance as the ship sank down past them before striking the ocean floor with a loud THUD. "She's down," said Gordon."That she is," said Penelope. "We'd better get back before my father realised we're missing. See you later, Thunderbird 4.""Bye, Lady P. Bye, Parker," said Gordon as he watched FAB1 head off. "And thank you."Scott's hologram then appeared in front of Gordon. Gordon gulped when he saw the stern expression on his eldest brother's face. "Come up to the surface, Thunderbird 4. We need to talk."Gordon quivered as he set Thunderbird 4 to head to the surface. He was not going to enjoy what was to come next.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
HAYLEY managed to access the main computer of the submarine. What she saw sent chills down her spine. The mini-computer built into her helmet translated the Bereznik language into the following.From A-850 to all submarines.B-926 is to seek, locate and destroy the cargo ship Andromeda and the cruise ship Queen Alexandra. Status 50% complete. Have currently lost contact with B-926. Still awaiting news.B-925 and B-928 are to remain with A-850 in order to hunt down and destroy Aircraft Carrier Valiant and her escorts.C-850 will deploy from A-850 and proceed to Bay of Gibraltar where it will target any vessels at anchor. Main target is supertanker Liparus."Oh, God!" Hayley said and got onto her radio. "Sierra One to Charlie One. Do you read? Over.""Go ahead, Sierra One?" answered Captain Hart."Sir, can you get Admiral Hart on the line as well? He needs to hear what I've discovered.""Stand-by, I'll get Langford to contact him," said Captain Hart.Wright, Fitzgerald and Shrapnel were checking the accommodation, galley, engineering and weapon areas of the C-850. The lights were dim due to the lack of power being generated so they proceeded with extreme caution."Weapons bay clear," said Wright."Galley is clear," said Shrapnel. But he was wrong. Suddenly the cook lunged out from the store cupboard where he'd been hiding and knocked Shrapnel off his feet. He gave a bellowing yell as he grabbed a kitchen knife and attempted to stab Shrapnel with it. But to the cook's dismay the sharp knife broke on the very thick armour that Shrapnel was wearing. Before he even had a chance to react, Shrapnel fired his weapon in a panic. The cook cried out and fell onto the floor - dead.Wright and Fitzgerald came running in."Are you okay?" asked Wright, helping the shaken Shrapnel to his feet."Y-Y-Yeah," stammered Shrapnel."I thought you said it was clear?" asked Fitzgerald."I-It was," said Shrapnel."Clearly not," said Wright, nodding towards the open door of the store room. "Did you not check there before you reported?"Shrapnel stared at the door. "I didn't notice there was a door there," he said sheepishly.Fitzgerald sighed. "George, we're supposed to be a tight well-oiled machine. That's what we have the equipment in our suits for. To scan walls and check for body heat. Like so." He indicated for them to follow him back up towards the control room where the living quarters were. "Turn on your scanner," he instructed.Shrapnel did so and Wright did the same. Through the heads-up display in their helmets they could see the body heat of a man hiding inside the living quarters - the one section of the submarine that they hadn't searched yet. The man appeared to be holding a gun facing the door, shaking with terror and waiting for them to come in to get him.Fitzgerald knocked on the door. "Hey, buddy? We know you're in there. Make this easy for us all and throw the gun away.""G-G-GO AWAY!" shouted the crewmember from inside. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE ON OUR SHIP!""Oh, don't we?" asked Fitzgerald sarcastically. "So do you have the right to torpedo a defenceless oil tanker?"The crewman didn't seem to have an answer for that. He just trembled and whimpered.Fitzgerald nodded to Wright. "Get the door," he said quietly."On three?" said Wright. He turned to Shrapnel. "Watch and learn, young man."Shrapnel moved back to observe whilst Wright and Fitzgerald readied themselves for the takedown. Wright put his hand on the door open button whilst Fitzgerald raised his machine-gun with it set to 'stun'. Using the display in his helmet he was able to see through the door and aim the perfect shot on the crewman inside."One, two, three," said Wright and he pushed the button. The door opened and Fitzgerald pulled the trigger at the same time. A small blast of yellow energy shot out from the gun and zapped the crewman. He yelled in pain as he dropped his own gun and fell to the floor. "Nice work," said Wright.Fitzgerald nodded. "Thanks," he said. "You two cuff him and bring him out. I'm going to see the Sub in the control room. "IRRESPONSIBLE! STUPID! RECKLESS!""I know it was stupid, Scott," Gordon said. "I think you've made your point.""No, I'm NOT done!" Scott said furiously as the two brothers stood on the bow of Thunderbird 4 which had come to the surface. "You could have gotten yourself killed! Not to mention the damage that Brains is going to have to do to repair Thunderbird 4.""Oh, Scott, for heaven's sake, I know it was a silly thing to do but we put ourselves in danger every single time we go on a mission!" Gordon said."Not like that we don't!" snapped Scott. "We don't go throwing ourselves or our ships in front of incoming missiles!""Torpedoes, Scott," Gordon said. "Underwater they're called-""I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT THEY'RE CALLED!" bellowed Scott. "You just count yourself very lucky that I am your brother and not Dad, Gordon. Otherwise you would be in a whole lot more trouble.""It's what he would have done," Gordon said simply.Scott froze and gave his brother a very hard stare. "What did you say?" he asked, slowly advancing towards Gordon."I said, it's what he would have done," Gordon repeated, trying his best not to feel intimidated.Scott grabbed Gordon by his uniform and pulled him close to his face. "HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH A THING?!" he thundered, his eyes burning dangerously. "HE WOULD NEVER-""SCOTT, BACK OFF OF HIM!" Virgil had appeared out of nowhere. Having seen things were about to turn ugly between his brothers he had decided to intervene. He grabbed Scott and forced him to release his grip on Gordon."GET OFF ME, VIRGIL!" roared Scott."SCOTT, YOU ARE OUT OF LINE!" shouted Virgil.Scott stared at Virgil in disbelief. "You're DEFENDING HIM?!" he exclaimed. "WHAT HE DID WAS-""Correct," Virgil said, stunning Scott into silence. "I agree with you, Scott. It was reckless of Gordon for what he did. But what he's just said about Dad is also true. That's the kind of person he was." His angry face turned into a sad one. "He's already proved it, too."Scott looked down at his boots as sadness flooded through his veins. Immediately his vision was filled with the harrowing video footage of Jeff inside the Zero-X as he attempted to get it out of the Earth's atmosphere only for them to see it explode in a massive fireball."That hurt, Virgil," said Scott, tears starting to fill his eyes."I know," said Virgil. "But you needed to hear it. I'm sorry."Scott turned away to wipe his eyes.Gordon sat himself back against Thunderbird 4's cockpit, also sad at the memories of seeing the Zero-X explosion. "Thanks, Virgil," he whispered. "Scott, I truly am sorry for what I did. I won't do it again. I promise."Scott glanced back over his shoulder whilst keeping his back to both him and Virgil. "Glad to hear it," he said with a slight croak in his voice. Hayley had been completely unaware of the drama going on further forward. She'd been too busy waiting for Admiral Hart to join her and Captain Hart in the conversation. Using the wrist communicator on her suit, she addressed the father and son via hologram on what she'd learned from the submarine's computer. "We thought there might be more than one of the Bereznik submarines here," she was saying. "According to this order issue they're all in the area! The B-926 was the one that sank the Andromeda and attempted to sink the Queen Alexandra.""And what of the others?" asked Admiral Hart."Well this submarine came from within the A-850 to attack shipping in the bay, specifically the Liparus," Hayley said. "The rest of them are somewhere out in the Atlantic hunting the Valiant. They need to be warned, sir."Admiral Hart grimaced. "I feared as much," he said. "I'll contact them straight away. Good work, Lieutenant Madison.""Thank you, sir," said Hayley as the Admiral signed off."What news of the sub's crew?" asked Captain Hart."The gas worked to an extent, sir," Hayley replied. "Two crew unconscious. The others are checking the rest of the sub. None of them have reported yet.""Roger," said Captain Hart. "Inform me when all are accounted for."Hayley turned back to the computer and looked at the translated message again. Suddenly she was grabbed from behind. She cried out in alarm as two strong arms wrapped themselves around her body and dragged her back to the rear of the control room. It was the Captain of the submarine and he had grabbed hold of Hayley's weapon before snatching her. He now held it up against her helmet as Fitzgerald entered the control room."SUB!" Fitzgerald shouted, raising his own weapon at the Bereznik officer. "DROP THE WEAPON!""NYET!" shouted the Captain in a strong accent. "YOU DROP WEAPON, OR I KILL HER!""Lower her weapon, sir," ordered Fitzgerald more calmly, although he could feel his heart racing inside of him."YOU ARE BENEATH ME, BOY!" roared the Captain. "I AM COMMANDER OF SHIP! I GIVE ORDERS! DROP YOUR WEAPON!"Hayley seized a chance. She stamped hard on the Captain's left foot. He yelped and let go of her. She then swung her head back slamming the rear of her helmet onto the Captain's chin causing him to swear in his native language. Hayley spun clear before grabbing the Captain and pulling him forwards before slamming his head against the periscope. He cried out a third time before falling to the floor, clutching his head and groaning in agony.Fitzgerald lowered his weapon. "Are you okay, Sub?" he asked.Hayley was panting to get her breath back, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm good," she said. "Where are the others?"Wright and Shrapnel then appeared with the cuffed crewmember. "Duìzhǎng!" he cried when he saw the Captain on the floor. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" he tried to lunge at Hayley but Shrapnel and Wright held him back."That's four," said Hayley. "Any others?""One - deceased," said Fitzgerald. "He caught George off guard."Shrapnel looked ashamed of himself. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I wasn't thorough enough."Hayley wasn't bothered by that. "As long as you guys are alive, that's all I care about," she said. "Let's get these morons back to Dragonfly. Then we're going after the big one.""The big one?" asked Wright.Before Hayley could reply, a groan from the Captain made them all look down at him. He looked up at Hayley with a mixture of hatred and amusement. "You lose," he said and pressed a button on his wrist controller which activated a siren, made red lights start flashing and a series of strange symbols appeared on the main monitor screen."Er, what's that?" asked Shrapnel.Hayley's eyes widened as she realised what this meant. "Oh, God! Self-destruct timer!" she said. She ran across past Fitzgerald and punched a button on the wall which opened up an emergency exit in the side of the control room. "EVERYONE, OUT! NOW!"Fitzgerald, Wright, Shrapnel and their prisoner hastily dived out of the submarine into the water. Hayley went last and only just managed to jump out as the self-destruct reached zero. There was a bright white light and an ear-splitting boom as the submarine exploded in a fireball, the shockwave hitting Hayley and sending her flying further than the others had jumped and she hit the water hard. Despite the protective suit, the impact was strong enough to knock her unconscious. Scott, Virgil and Gordon all jumped when the explosion happened. They turned to see the huge column of fire shoot high into the sky where the submarine had been."Good grief! The sub's exploded!" exclaimed Scott."Come on!" said Virgil. "We've gotta do something!"Gordon scrambled back into Thunderbird 4. "Hang tight, Virg, I'll drive us there."Scott fired up his jetpack. "I'll take Thunderbird 1 across," he said. "Alan, have you offloaded the crew of the tanker?""Last one's in care of paramedics now, Scott," Alan said. "What was that explosion?""The Bereznik sub," Scott replied. "There's a warship close by and I could have sworn they'd put some people aboard. We need to see if we can help."Alan ran back into Thunderbird 2 which was parked on the tarmac at the Gibraltar Airport. "F-A-B! I'm on my way!" he said.Thunderbird 2's mighty VTOL engines roared as it took to the air once more before making its way over towards where the Dragonfly was. Scott was now in Thunderbird 1 and also heading over to the new scene of devastation. Arriving on the scene, the Tracy brothers found a scene of total carnage. Large chunks of the destroyed sub had been scattered in all directions. Some had even landed on the Dragonfly. It looked like a small fire had broken out behind the funnel and the crew were battling to contain it, at least those who weren't seeming to be disoriented by what had happened."Thunderbird 5, can you detect anybody in the water?" asked Virgil. "With all this debris it's hard to make out what is what.""I can, Virgil," John answered from the space-station. "Guys, use your heads-up displays. I'll mark all the bodies in orange so you can identify where to go."Virgil didn't have his helmet on so he wasn't able to do much. However, Scott, Alan and Gordon could use the ones built into the consoles of Thunderbirds 1, 2 and 4 to see the orange signatures."You're in the better position, Thunderbird 4," said Scott. "Virgil, pick them up and transfer them to the evac-chairs.""F-A-B," said Virgil as he positioned himself right at the very front of Thunderbird 4's front-end. "You will have to guide me, Gordon.""F-A-B," said Gordon. "Approaching the first one now. They're underneath that piece of debris."Virgil reached out, moved the chunk of debris and a body popped to the surface. It was Wright, and he was alive. "Hang on, sir. I've got you," said Virgil as he pulled Wright up onto Thunderbird 4. "Take us to the next one, Gordon."Gordon moved Thunderbird 4 over to the right towards the next target, which turned out to be Shrapnel and the Bereznik prisoner. Shrapnel appeared to be unconscious whilst the Bereznik crewman was dead, having been hit on the head by a piece of falling wreckage. Alan lowered the evac-chairs and Virgil and Wright, despite Wright having suffered injury to his left shoulder, helped the unconscious Shrapnel and the body of the deceased crewman into the chairs. They then found Fitzgerald. They found the visor in his helmet had shattered and any attempt to get him to respond ended in failure as a scan from Virgil revealed that he had drowned.Even though they weren't in communication with International Rescue, the crew of the Dragonfly who weren't dealing with the damage watched anxiously as their comrades were fished out of the water. A hand signal from Wright told them that Fitzgerald was deceased which sent shockwaves of sadness flooding through their veins.Finally, Thunderbird 4 approached the last orange contact in the water. Virgil could see the body of a person laying face down in the water and he prepared himself for another potential fatality. Taking a hold of the body, he pulled it aboard Thunderbird 4 and laid it down on the deck. As he scanned the body, he was relieved to see a heartbeat and then he looked inside the helmet. He found himself freezing for a moment as he gazed at the face of the woman inside. A strange feeling came over him. Although he could not see her fully, he couldn't help but feel a kind of attraction towards her. He felt his hands seem to move by themselves towards the helmet with a strong curiosity to remove it so he could see her face properly."Virgil?"Virgil snapped back to reality. "Scott?""Are you okay?" Scott asked.Virgil shook himself as he pulled himself together. "Yes, of course," he said. "Alan, we have one more and then you can take them off of here.""Okay, Virgil," said Alan. "Am I taking them back to shore like the others?""No, Alan, I've just spoken with the Captain of the ship," said Scott. "He's requested that we drop them on the stern and let his medical team take care of them.""F-A-B."Wright had gotten himself into one of the other evac-chairs. He and Shrapnel were on one side whilst the bodies of Fitzgerald and the Bereznik crewmember were on the other.Virgil lifted Hayley up off the front of Thunderbird 4 and placed her gently in one of the evac-chairs. As he pulled the safety-bar down over her, he noticed she was beginning to come around.Hayley's eyes opened a little bit. Everything was blurry, but through the visor of her helmet, she could just make out the figure of a man standing directly in front of her. She couldn't see his eyes properly of any of his facial features but she could just about tell that he had black hair and was wearing a blue outfit with some kind of green sash over his left shoulder. Then she thought she heard a voice accompanying the movement of the man's lips. "It's okay, miss. You're safe now."Virgil stepped back as Alan retracted the winch hoisting the evac-chairs up towards Thunderbird 2. As it did, he saw the woman's hand begin to reach out towards him, but it was already out of reach before he had the time to react to it.Gordon, seeing Virgil's strange behaviour, emerged from the top of Thunderbird 4's cockpit. "You sure you're okay, Virg?" he asked."Y-Yes, Gordon," said Virgil, although he didn't sound entirely sure. "I'm…fine." Hayley couldn't be sure how long she'd been out for, but by the time she'd come to her senses she found herself lying on a mattress on the aft deck of the Dragonfly. She could feel the thumping of the ship's engines through the deck and as she sat up, she realised that they were travelling at quite a high speed. Looking around, she saw Wright being tended to by Fallowfield whilst Shrapnel was wrapped in a blanket looking miserable."Hey," said a voice. Hayley looked and saw it was Taylor. "You're awake.""Robyn?" said Hayley sitting up. "What happened?""The Bereznik sub exploded. You were thrown into the water," Taylor said.Hayley tried hard to remember. Then the memories began to flood back. "Self-destruct…explosion…a man…""A man?" Taylor asked."Yes, a man in blue," Hayley said. "He said something to me. I couldn't quite make it out.""That would have been the guy from International Rescue who fished you all out of the water then," said Taylor.Hayley's eyes went wide. "International Rescue saved me?!" She began to look around for any sign of the Thunderbird machines. But they were nowhere in sight. She also noticed that the crystal blue sky had turned dull and was becoming grey and overcast."They've gone, I'm afraid," said Taylor. "They finished with the tanker and ended up assisting us after the explosion. Lucky they were able to get to you in time."Hayley's heart sank like a stone. She'd wanted to meet International Rescue just as much as she had wanted to catch a glimpse of a Thunderbird. To hear that she'd been close to death and had been rescued by one of their members made her feel very upset. She tried to get up."Easy, Lieutenant," said Assistant Medic Haydon Hebb. "Try to stay still. You got thrown quite a distance by that blast. We need to run some scans on you.""Never mind about me!" Hayley said abruptly. "Where are the others? I've seen Neil and George over there."Hebb and Taylor looked solemnly at each other and didn't reply.Hayley looked between the two. "Why have you both gone silent?" she asked suspiciously. "Where are Andrew, James and Dr Banner?"Hebb moved to one side and let out a deep sorrow-filled sigh. "They're over there," he said sadly.Hayley turned her head and she froze, her eyes widening with horror at the sight of four body-bags laying side-by-side along the side of the deck. Three were covered in white ensigns whilst the other had no flag at all. "NO!" Hayley cried, trying to sit up but was kept down by Hebb and Taylor."I'm sorry, Hayley," said Taylor. "The RHIB was right next to the submarine when it blew. Andrew had his visor blown out when he hit the water most likely."Hayley was shaking. She couldn't believe what she was hearing and seeing. As she looked over at the body-bags again, she could feel her eyes filling up with tears. "They didn't make it," she said in a shaky voice. "Damn it!"Taylor squeezed Hayley's hand and handed her a clean tissue for her to use. Hebb went off to see how Wright and Shrapnel were.Pulling herself together as best she could, Hayley looked up at Taylor. "Where are we going?" she asked, re-remembering that the Dragonfly seemed to be moving at quite a speed."To rendezvous with the Valiant's task group," said Taylor. "We're going to join its protection team as part of a hunter-killer group."Hayley sat herself up. "We're going to hunt down the other subs?""If we can," said Taylor. "But you know how difficult they are to track. They're terribly stealthy." She stood up. "I have to get back to the bridge," she said. "You take it easy."Hayley looked out across the water. No longer was it the tranquil calm warmth of the Mediterranean. It was now the cold, grey, unforgiving vastness that was the North Atlantic. "You're out there somewhere," she said quietly with a touch of bitterness in her voice. "And we WILL find you!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
THE Tracy brothers were gathered inside Module 4 looking at the damage on Thunderbird 4.Alan let out a whistle. "Brains is sure gonna be mad at you when he sees that," he said teasingly."Knock it off, will you?" retorted Gordon. "You think I take pleasure in what I did? I had to do it. I had to be sure Scott and Virgil got everyone out safely.""There are better ways, Gordon," said Scott, whose anger towards his brother had dropped significantly following the talk down by Virgil. "But, thank you. And I'm sorry for shouting at you."Gordon nodded. "Thanks, Scott. I may have already said it, but I'm sorry too."Scott broke a smile and patted his brother on the shoulder."So…why have we landed in this field on a Spanish clifftop?" asked Alan as they all walked out of the module. In front of them stood the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. "The rescue is done. Surely we need to get back to base?""John asked us to come here," Virgil said. "He didn't say why but I'm sure he has his reasons."Scott's radio then bleeped. "Speak of the devil," he said. "Go ahead, John?"John's hologram appeared on Scott's wrist-controller. "Guys, I've just been in conversation with Admiral Hart at the navy base. He's asked if we can stick around until the Valiant comes in.""The Valiant?" said Gordon. "Why does that name sound familiar?""That's the British navy's flagship Aircraft Carrier if I'm not mistaken?" said Virgil."That's right," said John. "She's on her way to Gibraltar to take part in the navy day and onward deployment in the Mediterranean. Turns out the crew you recovered from the water raided the submarine and found an orders document from the Bereznik lead sub. It specifically stated that it and the other two missing subs are going to try and sink it and its task force.""That would explain why the destroyer took off in such a hurry," said Scott. "Where is the Valiant right now, John?""About twenty miles from the Strait of Gibraltar. It has an escort of eight destroyers and frigates," John said. " Let's hope that's enough to fend off the Berezniks.""The Berezniks are a stubborn bunch," Gordon said. "I remember we had one working with us at W.A.S.P. Tried to flirt with several of the ladies - including my old partner Hayley.""What happened to him?" asked Alan."Got thrown out in the end," said Gordon. "Commander Shore takes no prisoners when it comes to strict discipline. But the guy tried to sneak back in until he was eventually deported. I wouldn't be surprised if they attack the escorts in order to get to the carrier.""Which is exactly why we need to be on stand-by," said John. "If the escorts fail to locate and disable the subs - we might be their only chance of rescue.""Understood," said Scott. "We'll remain on stand-by until the ships safely arrive at Gibraltar.""F-A-B," said John. "I'll be monitoring them constantly and will inform you of any developments."Virgil looked out to sea. For some reason he was still thinking about the young woman he'd pulled from the water. I hope she's safe, he thought to himself. Wish I could have seen her properly. Twenty miles from the Strait of Gibraltar came the large Queen Elizabeth-class Aircraft Carrier HMS Valiant. Surrounding her were her escorts. Leading the formation were the frigates HMS Devon, Lancashire and Fife sailing level at line abreast. Behind the Lancashire was the Valiant and behind her was the Royal Fleet Auxiliary refuelling ship RFA Neptune and the fourth frigate HMS Northumberland bringing up the rear. Behind the Devon on the left flank guarding the Valiant and Neptune's port-side were two of the Dragonfly's fellow destroyers - HMS Daunting and Dedalus whilst behind the Fife covering the carrier and resupply ship's starboard-side were HMS Dominator and Dastardly. It was a tightly-formed group with the carrier having regular aircraft flying over the formation to cover.On the bridge of the Valiant was Admiral Anthony Marshall. He had been informed by Admiral Hart of the danger of the rogue Bereznik submarines and had ordered all ships to Action-Stations. But as he gazed out of one of the windows, he couldn't help feeling a little worried."Mr Reay?"Captain Christian Reay came over. "Yes, sir?""How's the weather looking?" asked Admiral Marshall."Not too good, I'm afraid," replied Captain Reay. "Some strong winds and potentially pitching waves. I know we aren't too far from the Strait but-""Still enough time for the Berezniks to strike," said Admiral Marshall. "And we can't launch planes in this weather."Captain Reay got called away for a second then returned. "Some good news, Admiral. We've got an extra destroyer joining us. The Dragonfly. She's going to scout around for the subs ahead of us.""That's some comfort," said Admiral Marshall. "But I'll feel a lot better knowing that the subs have either failed or have been dealt with." As the wind picked up, the sea began to swell, causing both the carrier group and the Dragonfly to bob up and down in the water. For those on the Dragonfly, this was totally different to the warm, smooth climate and waters of the Mediterranean where they'd been only a few hours beforehand.The cheerful mood that had been on the ship first thing that morning was also long gone. Ever since the discovery of the Andromeda's lifeboat the mood had become uneasy. Since the attack of the B-926 against the Queen Alexandra it had become tense. The subsequent attack on the Liparus and the self-destruction of the C-850 causing the deaths of Fitzgerald, Brace and Banner had made everyone angry and determined to hunt down the remaining submarines and bring their reign of hidden terror to an end.With rain beginning to fall, Hayley was now inside. Dr Hebb had declared that despite being shaken by the ordeal she was physically fine. Captain Hart wanted her to rest but Hayley wished to remain on the bridge as she found rest impossible to manage right now.As she stood at the rear of the bridge, propped up against the wall, Fallowfield entered with a single mug of coffee. "Doctor asked me to bring this to you, ma'am," she said, passing it to Hayley.Hayley took it gratefully. "Thanks, Millie," she said as Fallowfield then left again.Captain Hart came over to her. "Hayley, I know you probably want to see these subs stopped more than any of us, but I would rather you be resting."Hayley took a sip of the coffee. "Unless you're ordering me to, sir, I'm staying right here," she said. "I won't get in the way. I promise."Captain Hart gave a small smile. "I had a feeling you would say that," he remarked as he headed away.Hayley moved over to the radar and sonar scope where Taylor was looking fed-up. She could see the contacts of the Valiant and its escorts off to starboard, but apart from that, both scopes showed nothing.Taylor had been listening to the sonar through some headphones. She let out a deep sigh and lifted one off so she could rub a finger in her left ear."Getting annoyed with constant pings?" Hayley asked.Taylor rolled her eyes. "How could you tell?" she replied. "I've had these damn things on for most of the day. I'm going to end up in a mental asylum after hearing sonar all through my head for the rest of my life!"Hayley, feeling the need to help, saw her chance. "Would you like a break?" she asked. "I could have a listen for you."The two young women looked over at Captain Hart who nodded his approval. Taylor removed the headphones and gave them to Hayley. "Thanks," she said gratefully. "I'm gonna see the doctor about some cream for my ears, sir." She then left the bridge.Hayley put the headphones on and began to listen. Every few seconds the sonar probe in the bow of the Dragonfly sent out a pulse. It was a single repetitive noise as it wasn't bouncing off any potential targets. As she settled back to listen, there was still something bugging her. Something in the World Aquanaut Security Patrol that she'd learned about the Bereznik submarines, and yet she could not quite place it.Willis was having a slightly difficult time trying to keep the Dragonfly on course for the wind was buffeting the ship and causing it to deviate from the direction it was meant to be going in. "These waves are a bit troublesome, sir," he said to Captain Hart."Do your best, Mr Willis," Captain Hart replied. "She's a tough old girl. She'll get us through.""How do you reckon our chances with finding the subs?" asked Friend.Captain Hart shrugged. "Honestly cannot say," he said. "Those things are practically impossible to detect. They must have some kind of silencer or special kind of propulsion.""Like the Russian Typhoons did?" said Friend.Captain Hart nodded. "Exactly like that," he said. "Caterpillar I believe they called it."Hayley's eyes shot up. She only had one of the headphones on and had overheard what Captain Hart had just said. The word 'caterpillar' sounded very familiar. She thought back to her training in the W.A.S.P. One of the tasks was to try and hunt down the rogue vessels and the instructors had even said about the special kind of propulsion that some of them used having adapted old Russian technology. Was it possible, Hayley pondered, that these submarines had the same kind of silent propulsion as well as their sonar-absorbing outer skin which made them virtually impossible to detect?Hayley closed her eyes and removed the headphones for a second. She'd been made to listen for a specific sound that the caterpillar system made. Although it was very quiet, it wasn't totally silent and only a very trained ear would be able to identify it. She took a few moments to try and remember what it sounded like before putting the headphones back on and adjusted the sonar to listen acoustically rather than sending out pulses. Turning the underwater microphone manually, she quickly identified the distant sounds of the Aircraft Carrier and its escorts. And then she found it. It was very faint, but she could hear a noise very similar to the one she'd heard in class at the W.A.S.P. It sounded like a very faint heart beating rapidly. She adjusted the sonar to get a compass reading. The destroyer was heading on a course of Two-Zero-Zero. The beating sound was ten degrees to the left but gradually moving along to cross their path."Sir? I think we might have something," Hayley said.Captain Hart, Friend and Willis all looked over at her. "We do?" asked Captain Hart."Yes!" said Hayley, with a tad of excitement in her voice. "I heard what you said about caterpillars and I suddenly remembered that I had a lecture at W.A.S.P. about the special noise that the caterpillars make and how to detect it. And I do believe that I've found one.""Where?" asked Captain Hart."Judging by this - a bearing of One-Nine-Eight. Range - 3,000 yards."Captain Hart looked at the scope. "Why isn't it showing?""Because I've adjusted it to listen acoustically," said Hayley. "These can't be detected by our modern scan sonar, but they can be by acoustic."Captain Hart was amazed and impressed. "Can you guide us to him?" he asked.Hayley broke into a grin. "Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure," she said.Captain Hart quickly drew up a plan. He grabbed the tannoy microphone. "Attention all hands - this is the Captain speaking. Lieutenant Madison may have just located one of the subs. She's going to guide us in and we will see if it is friend or foe. Everyone be on your guard. AA crews prepare to take any surface to air missiles should the enemy launch them. Depth-charge crews be ready to drop if ordered to. It's unlikely we'll be able to make a torpedo attack so they may be our best hope. God bless you all - and good luck." He replaced the tannoy speaker and called down to Langford in the communication room. "Langford?""Aye, sir?""Contact Admirals Marshall and Hart. tell them we have a possible target. Request back-up if the Valiant can spare it.""Sir!" said Langford and immediately set about making the calls. Captain Reay received the message on the bridge of the Valiant and handed it to Admiral Marshall. "Dragonfly looks to have found one of them, sir," he said. "They've requested back-up if we can spare any of our escorts?"Admiral Marshall thought carefully before making his decision. "Granted," he said. "Tell Lancashire and Northumberland to break from the formation and to go rendezvous with Dragonfly. Our flanks will remain protected.""Aye-aye, sir!"Captain Reay quickly relayed the orders to the lead and trailing frigates. With blasts from their sirens, the two small ships broke off from the rest of the formation and proceeded at full speed to the position of the Dragonfly. Concealed beneath the surface, the B-925 was slowly closing in on its target - the Valiant. Using its powerful sonar, the crew were steering a course to intercept the Task Force."About thirty minutes and we will be in range, Duìzhǎng," said the Sonar-Operator."Excellent," replied the Commander. He then turned to his Weapons Officer. "Have all torpedoes and missiles prepped and ready for launch.""Da, Duìzhǎng," said the Weapons Officer.It was then that the Sonar-Operator then picked up another signal - one that puzzled her. "Duìzhǎng?""Da?""There appears to be ship heading our way," said the Sonar-Operator. "Going by size and speed, I would say it's destroyer."The Commander looked at the sonar screen at the contact. "Probably just coincidence," he remarked. "Maintain course."A few minutes went by with the Sonar-Operator closely monitoring the approaching vessel. "Ship has altered course, Duìzhǎng," she said. "It seems to be adjusting according to our position."The Commander looked at the screen again. "Strange," he said. "Periscope depth!""Glubina periskopa!" ordered the Executive Officer.The B-925 had been sailing at two-hundred feet below the surface. It rose up to fifty feet and was now at its periscope depth. The Commander pressed a button and the periscope rose up into position. He then looked through the periscope and turned it around. The visibility was poor, but he could just make out the shape of a warship coming in their direction. He lowered the periscope again."You think they can hear us, Duìzhǎng?" asked the Executive Officer.The Commander shook his head. "Nyet, Kloup-Sing," he said. "I suspect it's coincidence.""Duìzhǎng, with respect I suggest we find out for sure," said the Executive Officer. "Make two turns and see if ship reacts to it."The Commander thought for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. Give instruction."The XO turned to the helm-station. "Gǎngkǒu èrshí dù."The B-925 began to make a twenty degree turn to the left. Captain Hart, Friend and Taylor, who had returned to the bridge, watched Hayley with anticipation as she gave them regular updates. With the adjustment of the sonar-scope, Hayley had been able to set it up to show any acoustic sound waves as little flashing dots on the screen. "Slight increase on the starboard caterpillar," she said."What does that mean?" asked Taylor."It means they use the caterpillar thrust to change course," Hayley replied. "It'd say they're turning to port.""Then they must have detected us and are trying to test our response," said Friend."Then let's not show him that we are," said Captain Hart. "Maintain course.""Aye, sir!" called Willis."What's his range?" Captain Hart asked Hayley."2,300 yards. He's directly ahead of us," Hayley replied."Once he gets within 2,000 yards we can use a Hedgehog on him," said Friend.Captain Hart nodded. "Have them stand by for directions, Chris," he said.Friend hurried to the microphone. "First Officer to Hedgehog Battery. Prepare to engage submarine. Stand-by for directions."This made Seward and Parr rather excitable. "Oooooooh!" exclaimed Seward. "We actually get to do something!" The B-925's Commander, XO and Sonar-Operator watched the contact."There is no change to their course, Xiānshēng," said the Sonar-Operator."Make course change," the Commander said to the XO."Yòuxián sìshí dù," ordered the XO.The submarine began to turn again. This time it was a forty degree turn to starboard. "They're turning again," Hayley said. "To starboard. I estimate forty degrees.""Course change, sir?" asked Willis."Negative," replied Captain Hart. "We alter our course now he'll realise we're tracking him. Let's make him think that we're not. At least not until it's too late for them to do anything." The silence inside the B-925 was almost too much to bear. For several years its crew had remained hidden from the world and they were used to travelling with the understanding that nothing would ever find them. They were also unaware of the fate of the B-926 and that it had failed in its own assignment."Any change?" asked the Commander."Nyet, Duìzhǎng," said the Sonar-Operator. "They continue on their course.""Should we attack?" asked the XO."Nyet," said the Commander. "If we do that then Carrier group will know of our presence. Our orders are to shadow group until A-850 and B-928 are in position. Then we attack together. Resume course." Hayley continued to monitor the submarine's progress. "Changing course again," she said. "Going back onto what they were originally on.""Then we're nearly ready to engage them," said Captain Hart. "Range?""2,180," said Hayley."Very close," said Taylor."Tell Hedgehog mount to raise the elevation to forty-five degrees," Captain Hart said to Friend. "Hayley, as soon as we're level with him on our starboard bow, give the order to turn. Then when we're lined up, he's ours."Friend nodded and relayed the instructions to the weapon crew. For the next few minutes the Dragonfly and the B-925 continued on their respective courses. Most of the submarine's crew had relaxed, back with the belief they weren't detectable. The Sonar-Operator however continued to watch the scope and was still a bit worried about the destroyer that was about to pass behind them around 2,000 yards away. Then her attention was grabbed by something else. Whilst she'd been busy looking at the ship in close proximity, she'd failed to notice that two ships had broken away from the Valiant's group and were now heading in their general direction. Her eyes widened when she saw the two contacts that were the Northumberland and Lancashire heading their way. "Duìzhǎng?""Da? What is it?""Two ships from Carrier group are coming this way…" said the Sonar-Operator.The Commander looked at the screen again and frowned. "What?" he said. "Why would they be coming towards us?""Perhaps they're going to join the destroyer in trying to hunt us and our comrades?" suggested the XO. Seward and Parr were ready with the Hedgehog launcher. It had been raised to the correct position and they were eager to press the launch button.Hayley and Taylor watched the sonar screen, their eyes barely blinking for the concentration was very strong. "2,000 yards!" Hayley said. "Direct abeam starboard."Captain Hart exhaled. "Here we go then," he said. "HARD A-STARBOARD!"Willis spun the wheel around and the destroyer made a very sharp turn to the right, the whole vessel leaned as it went with the spin. The attack was on.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
THE B-925's Sonar-Operator's heart skipped a beat. "Duìzhǎng! The destroyer is turning!""Which direction?" asked the Commander."To-To-Towards us!" said the Sonar-Operator, her eyes suddenly wide with alarm as the Commander, XO and the rest of the control room crew began exchanging concerned looks."Duìzhǎng…" said the XO with a shaky voice, "I think they know where we are."To the Commander, that didn't seem real. "Nevozmozhno!"It did indeed seem impossible, but it really wasn't. The Dragonfly completed its turn and was bearing down on the B-925 at thirty knots."1,900 yards," Hayley said. Then she noticed one of the pulse signals was getting stronger. "I think they are trying to turn away.""Chris?" said Captain Hart."Yes, sir!""Fire Hedgehog!""Fire Hedgehog!""FIRE HEDGEHOG!" yelled Seward.Parr pushed the button. This was followed by several pop-pop-pop-pops as ten identical small depth-charges were launched from the launcher on the bow of the destroyer. The projectiles flew high into the air before dropping down and hitting the water in a wide circle pattern. They sank down towards where the B-925 was turning and starting to dive in an attempt to try and escape from its pursuer. The Sonar-Operator's heart nearly burst out of her body. "SPLASHES!" she cried, pulling off her headphones.The Commander stared and looked up. "Nyet! It cannot be!"But it was. One of the small bombs found its target and detonated upon contact with the submarine's hull. It ripped through the sonar-absorbing rubber skin and punctured a hole in the hull causing water to begin to flood inside. A second bomb landed behind the conning tower closer to the stern. It too detonated and ripped through to the starboard-side caterpillar exit turbine. The crew of the Dragonfly had been half expecting to not get any result from the attack, so it came as a surprise when two columns of water shot up into the air following the detonations on the submarine's hull."Good lord!" said Friend. "Did we get him?"Hayley looked at the screen having noticed two sharp blips on right where the submarine was. "You know what - I think we did!" she said in disbelief. The B-925 was in serious trouble. The whole vessel shuddered and all the lights inside went out. Panic broke out as water began rushing into various parts."KAPITAN!" screamed one of the crewmen. "FLOODING IN EIGHT COMPARTMENTS! WE ARE SINKING!"The XO turned to the Commander. "Duìzhǎng, your orders?"But the Commander had frozen. As solid as a statue. He was in total shock."Duìzhǎng! Duìzhǎng!" cried the XO. "What do we do?"The Commander muttered something but nobody could make out what he was saying.Realising that the Commander had broken, the XO seized control of the situation. "SKORAYA MEDITSINSKAYA POMOSHCH'! BLOW ALL TANKS! SURFACE! POVERKHNOST'!"There was a whoosh of air as the B-925 blew its emergency ballast tanks giving it some buoyancy against the flooding. Slowly it began to rise upwards towards the surface. Hayley heard the sound of escaping air through the sonar. "Good heavens!" she exclaimed. "They've blown their ballast! They're coming up to the surface!"Captain Hart dashed to the window and looked out across the water. He could see the water bubbling giving away the submarine's location. "Hard a-port!" he ordered. "Half-ahead both!""Hard a-port. Half-ahead both, sir!" said Willis, spinning the wheel to the left and adjusting the telegraphs to slow the engines down."Thank God for that!" growled Merriett in the engine room. "This engine's not gonna be able to take much more."Captain Hart got on the tannoy again. "Captain to gun crews. Submarine surfacing on starboard side. Be ready to engage!"As the Dragonfly turned to the left, the guns turned ready to engage the submarine if it looked like it was going to continue the fight. After a few moments, the B-925's bow broke the surface and rose into the air before crashing back down onto the water. An explosion erupted from within and a fire began to engulf both the inside and outside of the vessel. For those inside there was little chance of escape as another explosion in the torpedo room ripped the bow apart and caused thousands of gallons of water to gush into the submarine. Safe to say it was doomed."Shall we fire, sir?" asked Friend as he watched the submarine burn.Captain Hart thought for a moment. Then shook his head. "I don't think that will be necessary, Chris," he said. He turned to Hayley and patted her shoulder. "Well found, Lieutenant," he said proudly. "I'll be recommending you for this. Go get yourself a drink."Hayley beamed. "Thank you, sir," she said, saluting him. "But what about the other subs?""I'll find them," said Taylor. "Now we have the sonar calibrated, we'll be able to find them more easily."Hayley smiled. She removed the headphones from her head and handed them back to Taylor. "Thanks, Robyn," she said and headed off the bridge.Leaving the bridge, Hayley headed downstairs towards the dining area. She was feeling pleased with herself as she passed the radio room."Well done, ma'am!" Langford called as she passed."Thank you," said Hayley proudly and went to go down the next set of stairs.BOOM! The whole ship shuddered and seemed to jump out of the water. Hayley cried out in alarm and almost fell down the stairs but managed to save herself by grabbing the hand-rail. As she looked back up she froze to see that the stairwell above was beginning to fill with smoke. Then pieces of the ceiling started to fall. She dived down to the bottom of the stairwell and jumped to the right as a few pieces tumbled down after her.Fallowfield just came through a bulkhead opposite and narrowly avoided getting herself. She screamed in fright."MILLIE!" Hayley cried. "Are you okay?"Fallowfield didn't answer. She was frozen to the spot with fear. Then they began to hear panicked voices from outside before the ship was rocked again with another BOOM. "What's…happening?" Fallowfield asked with terror in her voice and eyes.Hayley pushed open the door leading out onto the deck and looked forward just as Turret A fired a shot out across the water. She and Fallowfield then looked out and saw the shell strike the submarine. There came another huge explosion as the sub was ripped apart and sank back below the waves."MA'AM!" came a cry from the front of the ship. "LIEUTENANT MADISON!"Hayley turned to see Parr running towards her and Fallowfield. His eyes were also wide. "What is it?" Hayley asked. "What's going on, Matt?"Parr pointed up the superstructure. "The sub fired its gun at us!" he whimpered. "They got the bridge!"Hayley and Fallowfield looked up. Fallowfield gasped, her hands flying over her mouth. Hayley froze again, her eyes wide with horror. "No…" she said hoarsely.Thick black smoke and flames erupted from the superstructure - right at the very spot where the bridge had been. Hayley hastily swallowed her shock and sprang into action. She opened a small box on the side of the lower superstructure and grabbed a tannoy microphone. "DAMAGE CONTROL PARTY TO THE BRIDGE ENTRY CORRIDOR! ON THE DOUBLE!"The damage control party consisted of Henley, a recovered Wright, crewman Matt Archer and Senior Weapons operator Chris Richardson. Together with Hayley leading them they began to make their way up the stairs towards the bridge, hosing down the flames and using special gloves and tools to clear away the debris.Reaching the first level, they found Langford trapped inside the radio-room. Party of the ceiling had caved in and partially buried him. He was crying out with pain."Oh, God!" Hayley said. "ROBIN! STEVE, GIVE ME A HAND HERE!"Henley dived in after Hayley to help remove the rubble. Langford cried out as they moved the largest piece."Woah, easy man!" said Henley. "We're gonna get you out of here.""My legs!" Langford cried. "I can't feel my legs!"As Steve moved the piece of debris, Hayley saw that Langford's legs were both gashed severely with his trousers ripped. "Oh, man!" she said. "SOMEONE CALL A MEDIC UP HERE!"Archer poked his head around the door. "Ma'am! You need to see this!""Stay with him," Hayley said to Henley. "Help the medics get him to the Sick Bay.""Roger that," said Henley.Hayley left the radio-room and followed Archer up the stairs to where he and Wright had cleared the rest of the debris and gotten through the door. What she found would haunt her for years to come. The shot from the Bereznik submarine had totally obliterated the bridge. All the windows were shattered. The roof had been ripped away. The starboard bridge wing was gone. And everything around the edges and along the floor had been burned to a crisp. Fires were still raging which Wright was quickly bringing under control. Hayley could feel the wind blowing against her but thanks to her special suit and helmet she was kept safe from the elements.Looking down, Hayley saw the most horrifying sight of all - the bodies of Willis, Friend and Captain Hart lying motionless on the floor. "Oh…my…God…" she said hoarsely. This did not seem real.Wright finished putting out the last of the fires. "They're gone," he said sadly. "All of them."But then they heard whimpering coming from the left side of the bridge and through the spray of the sea that was being blown in they could just make out the shape of Taylor cowering on the floor."ROBYN!" Hayley cried rushing over to her. She rolled the navigator onto her back to see Taylor had her hands over her eyes. "Robyn, are you hurt?""MY EYES!" Taylor cried. "I CAN'T SEE!""Let me see," Hayley said, pulling Robyn's hands away before winching and looking away. "Ugh, God!" she exclaimed. "GUYS, HELP ME GET HER TO SICK BAY! HURRY!"Archer and Wright helped get Taylor to her feet and carried her out of what remained of the bridge.On the way down they found that Langford had been removed from the radio room. Hayley knew she had to break the news of what had happened to base. "Take care of her," she said to Wright and Archer as she went inside the radio room. As she checked to make sure the radio was working, which to her relief it was, she put out a call to Gibraltar. A call that she knew full well she was not going to enjoy one bit. Admiral Hart collapsed in his chair when he heard the news. Despite being such a high-ranking officer who was no stranger to hearing bad news, the news of one's own son having fallen in battle was not something he could prepare himself for. "Rob? I…I can't believe it. How did it happen?""I didn't see it, sir," Hayley replied. "I'd only just left the bridge. Would seem after we forced the sub to surface they opened fire with a deck gun. I guess with the fire burning we dropped our guard…and it got us." She found herself nearly bursting into tears but managed to hold herself. "I am so sorry, Admiral."Admiral Hart was silent for a moment. He struggled to find the words himself. "You…You know what this means, don't you, Lieutenant?" he said. "You're in command."Hayley gulped. "Sir?""With Rob and First Officer Friend gone, that makes you the senior officer aboard the Dragonfly," said Admiral Hart. "Command of the ship therefore falls to you."Many feelings and thoughts rushed through Hayley at that moment. Shock, alarm, fear. It was all there."Did you hear me, Lieutenant?""Y-Yes, sir, I heard you," Hayley stammered. "Working on the believing part.""Well you'd better believe it," said Admiral Hart sharply. "Those submarines aren't going to give up. I want them found….and eliminated! Good luck…Captain Madison."Before Hayley could respond, the Admiral signed off, leaving her in more shock than she'd ever felt in her life. She fell back against the wall of the radio room, slid down, and then broke down. Lady Penelope and Patrick entered the Admiral's office to find him standing out on the balcony, his skin as pale as his uniform and tears in his eyes."Good lord!" said Patrick. "Dave, whatever is the matter?"Admiral Hart wiped his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "I've just spoken to the Sub-Lieutenant on the Dragonfly," he said. "They found one of the subs and forced it to surface. But it caught them by surprise and…it fired a shell right into the bridge." He sniffled. "Rob is gone."Penelope gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh, goodness!" she exclaimed.Patrick went pale with shock as well. "This is terrible!" he said. "Dave…I don't know what to say.""It's fine, Pat," Admiral Hart said. "It's just…what we in the navy have to deal with. But…I never thought it would happen to Rob." He began to weep again with Patrick placing a comforting arm around him. He may have been an Admiral, but he was as human as everyone else was. Hayley entered the Sick Bay to check on Taylor and Langford as Dr Hebb checked them over. Taylor had got bandages wrapped around her head covering her eyes whilst Langford's legs were wrapped in bandages. Both appeared to be sedated as well."How are they, Doctor?" Hayley asked.Dr Hebb came over to her, removing his gloves. "Not good I'm afraid," he said. "However, it could have been a lot worse.""How could it be worse?" asked Hayley, looking sadly at the two injured crew."They could not be with anymore," Dr Hebb said as he washed his hands. "It's incredible they're both still alive.""What's the damage?" asked Hayley."Langford has second-degree burns to both his legs. They should heal over time but it will take quite a while," said Dr Hebb. "Taylor however…well, she may never be able to see properly again."Hayley felt sick hearing that. She looked miserably at Taylor. "Why did this have to happen?" she asked. "I thought that sub was toast.""Captain's gone," said Dr Hebb. "Who's in charge of the ship?"Hayley exhaled. "I am," she said. "I spoke with the Admiral. I am the most senior person on this ship so the command falls to me." She suddenly looked deadly serious. "And mark my words, Doctor. I am not going to fail us again!" She turned and stormed out of the Sick Bay.Hayley went out on deck to compose herself. The rest of the crew were busy cleaning up the mess at the front and Merritt and Berry were using the time of being stationary to work on the temperamental engine. Lancashire and Northumberland had arrived and were sailing a circle formation around the Dragonfly to ensure that if neither of the remaining two Bereznik submarines could attack them unawares. After taking a few minutes, Hayley knew what she needed to do. Despite being scared stiff at the thought of now being in command, she knew she could not let the rest of the crew or Admiral Hart down. She was determined to avenge those that they had lost. She took the tannoy microphone and began to address the crew. "You hear there? You hear there? This is Lieutenant Madison. I'm pretty sure you're all aware of what has happened, but I will make it doubly clear. The Berezniks got a final shot in on us. They hit the bridge. Captain Hart, First Officer Friend and Helmsman Willis are gone. With their passing that makes me the new commander of this ship by default. Now hear this. We are NOT going to let the remaining Berezniks take any more lives! We have already lost too much today. The Valiant is still in danger. We have Northumberland and Lancashire with us to help track them down. And we will not return to Gibraltar until we do. Is everyone with me?"A defiant cheer erupted throughout the whole of the destroyer. Everyone knew and trusted Hayley. They too were determined, not just in getting revenge on the Berezniks, but to also to make Hayley proud. Scott paced back and forth in the doorway of the module whilst Virgil, Gordon and Alan sat on the ramp. All four were getting rather bored."Scott, will you stop pacing?" asked Virgil irritably. "It's getting annoying.""Sorry, Virg, I can't help it," answered Scott. "This waiting is getting to me.""Are you sure we're really needed?" asked Alan. "Surely the navy is more than capable of rescuing their own?""If there are available units nearby, yes," said Gordon. "But as we learned in the W.A.S.P. survival at sea is a very dangerous thing. You are very lucky if you come out alive."Alan scratched his nose. "You mentioned a partner," he said. "What was her name again?""Hayley Madison," said Gordon."Is she still there?" asked Virgil."Probably," said Gordon, getting up rather suddenly. "Can we change the subject please?"Virgil, Alan and Scott exchanged puzzled looks. Gordon seemed rather touchy on that subject, but they decided not to pursue their curiosity. He must have his reasons. Hayley quickly gathered a team of the most senior members of the ship that were still alive. "Okay, guys. With the loss of the bridge we need alternative ways to find these subs. Steve. You're our electronics expert. Can you find a way to rewire the radar and sonar into the main server room?""You got it, ma'am," replied Henley."We have an emergency wheel down in the stern so I'm gonna need some people down working that," said Hayley."My pleasure, ma'am," said Wright."The wheel's heavy," said Archer. "You'll need some assistance.""I'll take George," said Wright. "It'll take his mind off things."Hayley nodded. "Simon, how's those engines?""I've patched them up as best I can," said Merriett. "But they won't be able to take too much stress.""Good man," said Hayley. "Our visibility will be limited thanks to temp sonar so the frigates will take the lead on that. We'll have to coordinate them in.""What about the detection?" asked Henley. "Will they know what to listen for?""I'll get both captains on the horn and inform them myself," Hayley said. "Now let's move. Every second we're stationary leaves the Valiant more vulnerable."As the others headed off to make the necessary arrangements, Hayley went up to what remained of the bridge. The bodies of Captain Hart, Friend and Willis had been removed and placed below decks along with the bodies of Fitzgerald and the Bereznik sailor. They'd not been able to recover the bodies of Dr Banner and Brace following the explosion of the small submarine. From here she could coordinate the ship and lead them to what they hoped would be victory. As she stood there, she really felt the responsibility of her new role deeply and was determined not to mess it up. "Okay, Madison," she told herself out loud as she put a headset on. "Let's bloody do this!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
BOREDOM wasn't anything new for the Tracy brothers, but normally it was spent on Tracy Island, not on a field on top of a cliff in Spain looking out into the Atlantic. By now, even Virgil was getting restless."Aw, come ON!" moaned Alan as he lay on his back. "We've been here for over an hour now! How long does it take for a group of ships to travel a few miles?""They've got more than a few miles to travel, Alan," said Virgil."And they're performing ASW manoeuvres," said John. "That slows them down.""ASW?" asked Alan."Anti-Submarine Warfare," said Gordon."But they're not actually at war, are they?" Alan asked."I think you'd be better off asking the Berezniks in those subs, Alan," said Scott. "Their former dictator is supposedly on one of them. To him the war isn't over.""Then he's either deluded or sick," said Alan."Both I'd say," said Virgil. "The war's been over for twenty years, yet there are some who will refuse to accept they're defeated.""Sounds familiar," Gordon remarked. "The Hood never admits when he's been beaten."Scott and Virgil stood next to each other and looked out across the sea. "They can't be too far away?" Scott asked."Let's hope not," said Virgil.At that moment they all heard a very faint boom sound coming from somewhere in the low cloud that hung over the sea."Was that an explosion?" asked Gordon.Scott tapped his communicator. "John?""I saw it, Scott," John replied. "Looks like they found one of the subs and have destroyed it.""Was it the main one?" asked Virgil."Don't think so," said John. "From the hologram it looks like one of the smaller B-class subs.""The A-class is the Alpha," said Gordon. "That's the leader of the pack. The others won't stop unless it is taken out.""Well there's only the two that are left," said John. "The A-class and the one remaining B-class.""How did they even find it?" asked Alan. "I thought those subs were meant to be undetectable?""Guess they got lucky," said John. He looked at the hologram map showing the positions of all the ships in their respective formations. "Submarines are the perfect predators," he said. "It'll take a miracle to find them.""Can't we do something to help?" asked Virgil. "We feel so helpless just standing around here.""I could try and boost Thunderbird 5's scanners," said John. "That might reveal their position but-""It would go against what International Rescue stands for," said Scott. "We are here to save lives, not guide others to help kill.""Scott, there are more people on those surface ships than the two submarines put together," said John. "It's a horrible thing, but I'm starting to feel if we don't help, many more will die. And besides, it all depends on whether the navy are able to force the Berezniks to surrender.""Berezniks would rather die for their country than surrender," said Gordon."That may be, but those submariners have been living in those ships for over two decades," said John. "If I was one of them, I'd actually want to get out of there alive and return to my home."Scott let out a sigh. "Those subs have been prowling around the world, sinking ships in secret and taking the lives of hundreds of innocent people. They have to be stopped!""Exactly," said John. He took a deep breath. "Now let's give this a go. EOS?"EOS appeared. "You call, John?""EOS, I need you to perform a full-on scan on the section of ocean on the approach to the Strait of Gibraltar," said John. "There are two highly undetectable submarines that need to be detected. I need you to see if you can find them.""Understood," said EOS. "Performing deep-sea underwater scan."John watched as a beam of green light moved down the area of the holomap, passing under the surface of the ocean and began to map out the undersea terrain including rocks, the seabed and millions of tiny little dots that represented the marine life that lived down there. "Amazing!" John said. Then he frowned. "Still no sign of the subs though."The words had barely left his lips before two pings were heard. John blinked as two black contacts appeared on the holomap - one was significantly larger than the other. "You were saying, John?" said EOS with a smug tone in her electronic voice.John cleared his throat. "Well, er, done, EOS," he said, a little embarrassed. "Guys, I think we've got them.""Why am I sensing a 'but'?" asked Gordon."The ships hunting them are nowhere near to where they are," John said. "They are heading South-West and the subs are between them and the Valiant group. Although they are still closer to them than they are to the carrier.""We need to warn them," said Alan."Yeah, but how?" asked Scott. "As I said earlier, we're International Rescue. We can't be seen actually helping them find it! What if they told someone?""Then we won't tell directly," said John with a wink. "Leave it to me, guys." He signed off, leaving four rather bewildered brothers left wondering. Former Bereznik president Valentive Heyon-Ban sat in his cabin aboard the A-850. He looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was untidy. His beard was bushy. He was a shadow of the great man he once believed himself to be - not that he would admit it to anybody.There was a knock on the door. "Da?"The Commander of the A-850 entered. "Excellency. We still no trace of B-925.""Nothing?"The Commander shook his head. "Nothing from B-926 or C-850. Something must have go wrong."Heyon-Ban twiddled his thumbs. "Not possible," he remarked. "We have been hiding for over twenty years, Duìzhǎng. Today is to be greatest triumph for Bereznik. Nobody can find us. No way can they have been found.""With respect, Excellency," said the Commander. "But what other explanation there be?"Heyon-Ban couldn't seem to find an answer for that.The intercom beeped and the submarine's XO came over the tannoy. "Kapitan! Enemy destroyers pass off stern. Distance two mile!"The Commander left the cabin with Heyon-Ban following him. The Dragonfly continued to lead the Northumberland and Lancashire in search of the subs. But so far their efforts had turned up nothing. It was also now raining which made Hayley's position on the bridge rather unpleasant. Eventually she could stand the bitter wind and cold water no longer and put her Damage Control helmet and gloves back on in order to protect herself."Chart Room, what's our position to the Valiant?""About six miles to the South, ma'am," replied Archer from the plotting table. "We're pretty much level with them now."Hayley gritted her teeth. "Best way to attack a surface target is to come at it from the front," she said. "I have a feeling we're going in the wrong direction." She adjusted her radio so she could communicate with the two escorting Frigates. "Dragonfly to Frigates. Reverse course. Steer Zero-Eight-Seven degrees!"The three ships took a hard turn around to starboard and began to sail back in the direction they had been coming from. Heyon-Ban waited in the Captain's chair in the command room of the A-850 whilst the Commander observed the surface vessels through the periscope. "What are they doing, Duìzhǎng?" he asked."They turn around, Excellency," replied the Commander. "They think they are looking in wrong place. They are heading away."Heyon-Ban sniggered. "British fools," he said. "Can't even see what's right in front of them! You see, comrade. Nothing stands between us and the prize!" John too had noticed the warships' sudden change of direction. "Well they're no longer heading away from the subs," he told the others. "However, they are still going in completely the wrong direction.""Have you been able to make any kind of contact with them?" asked Scott.John shook his head. "Negative. They must be on a radio-silence mode or their antenna got damaged in the battle with the last sub. I think it may have taken a shot at them with its deck gun.""That would explain the explosion we heard earlier," said Virgil."So what do we do now if we can't contact them directly?" asked Gordon."I was going to call them unanimously, Gordon," John replied. "However, I may have a Plan B. Scott, could you launch one of Thunderbird 1's drones and hands its control over to me?""Er, sure…" replied Scott. He pressed a button on his wrist controller. A hatch underneath Thunderbird 1 opened and one of the drones flew out. Scott controlled it until it was over the water. "It's all yours, John," he said."F-A-B," said John. "Thanks, Scott." He took over the remote control from Scott and flew the drone out across the sea towards where the warships were. Even with the helmet on, Hayley was feeling uncomfortable where she was on the exposed destroyed bridge. The wind and the rain still battered against her and although she remained mostly dry it was becoming rather uncomfortable for her."Blasted weather!" Hayley grumbled to herself. "As if finding those subs wasn't hard enough as it is. It will take a miracle for us to find them in this!"It was then that a flash of light in and amongst the squall caught her eye. She blinked and then stared in confusion as a small blue and grey drone appeared out of the gloom before coming to hover above the forward gun turret. Its lights then started flashing like Morse code. Hayley was very puzzled, and suspicious. Was this a trick of some kind?"What the heck are you?" Hayley asked. "Where did you come from?"There was one thing she felt sure of however. This drone, whatever it was, didn't appear to be military. It was the wrong colour for a start. Military drones were built and painted to blend in with their surroundings. This one definitely was not.Through the camera, John could see the figure on the bridge curiously observing the drone. "Good, I have their attention," he said. "Now to send a message." He began to type someone on a holographic keypad which was relayed to the drone and began to spell it out in hologram form so that it could be seen.The drone's message read as follows…"Enemy submarines three miles due North of your position.Follow me and I will lead you to them.Flash torch if you agree."Hayley frowned and got on the radio. "Matt, can you come up here, please?"Archer left the chart room and came to the bridge. He did a double-take when he saw the drone and the message it was relaying. "What the hell is this?" he asked."I have no idea," Hayley replied. "Seems like someone's trying to be a guardian angel or something.""Or it's a trick?" said Archer."That would be my guess," said Hayley. "However…that drone doesn't look like it's been built or operated by armatures. I'm wondering if there could be some element of truth in it."Archer turned to look at her. "You're not suggesting we follow it, do you?" he asked.Hayley looked back at him. "Matt, we are in a desperate situation. If there's a chance, and yes it is a very slim one, that this could be true, then I think possibly we need to take it. Or at the very least get one of the Frigates to check it out." She grabbed a torch and began to Morse code back a message."This had better not be a trick.Lead HMS Lancashire, the ship on my port side, to where you believe the targets are.If you are lying, we will shoot you down and come find you as well." "Well, that worked," John remarked. "Guys, I think they've taken the bait.""What exactly are you doing with the drone?" asked Scott."I'm going to use it to guide them to the sub's position," John said. "Once they realise the source is genuine I will leave them to it." The Lancashire broke from the formation following Hayley's instruction and began to follow the drone despite the Captain having his doubts.For the next few minutes the small Frigate followed the drone across the choppy waters. But then a message came through to Hayley that she was not expecting."Contact! Submarine caterpillar sound detected. Multiple thrusts. Has to be the A-850.""Good lord!" Hayley said to Archer. "That drone was right!" She spoke into her headset. "Hard a-port! Steer Zero-Zero-Six! Northumberland, follow our lead.""Roger!" acknowledged the person calling from the second Frigate.The two ships turned and began to head North after the Lancashire and towards the Bereznik subs. The Sonar-Operator of the A-850 stared at his screen in disbelief. "Kapitan!""Da?""Enemy vessels have changed course!""To which direction?"There was a slight hesitation before the Sonar-Operator responded. "Towards us!"Heyon-Ban and the Commander looked at each other."You lie, Krat-San!" said the Commander."Nyet, Kapitan!" said the Sonar-Operator and he pointed at the screen.The ex-president and the Commander stared at the screen. Sure enough, there was one small target that was coming straight towards them. The other two, one slightly larger than the other, were also heading towards them."Zhè shì shénme?" demanded Heyon-Ban."PERISCOPE! Xiànzài!" ordered the Commander. The submarine altered its depth, rising to just below the surface so the Commander could have a look. "Podnimite periskop!" The periscope was raised and he took a look around. At first he could barely see a thing due to the poor visibility on the surface."What you see, Duìzhǎng?" asked Heyon-Ban."Nothing," grunted the Commander. But that soon changed when he looked directly behind the sub. He let out a noise that sounded like he'd been squeezed in the downstairs department.Heyon-Ban pulled him away. "PEREYEKHAT'! Let me look." But when he looked through, he too froze at the sight. The unmistakable shape of a small warship could be seen emerging from the gloom. It was the Lancashire, and it was bearing down on them at full speed. Heyon-Ban moved away from the periscope, turned around and then slapped the Commander hard across the face, startling everyone in the room. "IDIOT!" he yelled. "YOU RAISE PERISCOPE, THEY SEE IT! LOWER IT! DIVE!" He stormed off.The Commander, shrugging off the slap, hastily lowered the periscope. "POGRUZIT' KORABL'! SOTNI METROV! STARBOARD TURN!"The periscope went down and the submarine began to dive as well as make a sharp turn to the right."Kapitan!" called the Weapons-Officer. "We have a lock on enemy ship. Ready to fire.""NYET!" barked Heyon-Ban. "THEY ONLY SEE PERISCOPE! WE DIVE. WE SAFE! THEY NOT FIND US!"But Heyon-Ban was wrong. As the submarine steadied on its new course, the Sonar-Operator felt the hairs on his neck stand on end as he noticed the surface contact start to turn with them. He began to tremble and sweat. "Ship turning…towards us," he said with his voice shaking.Now everyone was feeling tense. They all fell silent and listened, waiting to see what would happen next. The Lancashire completed its own turn. With its own sonar equipment calibrated to what Hayley had gotten out of the Dragonfly's, there was nowhere the Bereznik submarine could go without them seeing it.As Hayley looked through some binoculars, she could just make out the Lancashire through the rain. It was then that she also received a radio call from the Frigate. "Dragonfly from Lancashire. Target located. We're going in for attack!""Roger, Lancashire," said Hayley. "Rough him up and we'll do the rest.""Yes, ma'am!" said the Lancashire crewman eagerly.Hayley began to grin. At long last, the end seemed to be in sight.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
THE Lancashire made its move on the submerged submarine. Like the Dragonfly it too was armed with a forward-mounted Hedgehog launcher. Shooting them into the water and then turning sharply away, a couple of the weapons made contact with the A-850's hull. The submarine shuddered, but unlike the B-925 the damage was minimal. It had a much thicker outer skin than the B-class submarines had got and so was able to take more punishment. All the same, the contact and subsequent detonations came as quite an unnerving shock for those working inside the sub.Heyon-Ban was livid that his prized submarine had been hit. "WHAT ARE ALL YOU ALL STAND AROUND FOR?!" he bellowed. "RETALIATE! BLOW THEM UP! KILL THEM!"The crewmembers began to frantically work to prepare the A-850's weapons. As they came closer to the surface, a hatch in the top of the sub opened to reveal a Devil-689 Anti-Ship missile. They would have used torpedoes but the Lancashire wasn't in the right position for the torpedo gyros to get a lock on and also because one of the Hedgehog bombs had struck above the torpedo room causing a small breach in the hull which the crew were desperately trying to fix.As the Frigate moved itself around, the crew were waiting, watching the water in anticipation for the submarine's counter-attack."Géxià, Kapitan, raketa ready for launch!" called one of the crewmen."POZHAR!" screamed Heyon-Ban.A button was pressed and the missile was launched from the submarine. It broke the service and its targeting system immediately locked onto the closest target - the Lancashire. However the crew were ready for it. The Frigate's own targeting system detected the incoming threat and used the radar-guided Anti-Aircraft and missile guns to lock onto it. A small barrage of red countermeasure flares was launched to distract the missile before the guns launched a whole lot of lead causing it to veer off course away from the Frigate and crash into the sea instead."Confirm kill?" ordered Heyon-Ban."Nyet, Géxià," replied the Weapon-Operator. "Enemy used countermeasures."Heyon-Ban let out a scream of rage. The Dragonfly and Northumberland emerged from the gloom and found the Lancashire. Soon they'd both got a lock on the A-850 after tracking down its multiple caterpillar thrust noises. Northumberland was in a somewhat better position than Dragonfly so was better placed for a strike on the submarine."We're turning in to intercept at sixteen knots, ma'am," Northumberland reported. "We'll do our best to hammer him!""Understood, Northumberland," acknowledged Hayley. "Keep him under by all means. Keep him under." She did not want a repeat of the incident with the B-925 surfacing, then thinking it was dead and then hitting them back in a way they weren't expecting. She was determined to win the battle without losing anyone else."Aye, ma'am."Hayley then contacted the makeshift radar and sonar station. "Captain to Radar - keep an eye on Bearing Zero-One-Six.""Weapons primed and ready, ma'am?""Aye, all weapons be ready to engage at will," said Hayley."Aye, ma'am."Due to the weather. Hayley had gotten a few of the other members of crew posted at various points around the superstructure to help keep a lookout for any sign of trouble."PERISCOPE, STARBOARD BOW!" came a cry.Hayley looked through her binoculars. Sure enough, there was the thin mast of a periscope raised out of the water. "PORT FIVE DEGREES! ALL GUNS, OPEN FIRE!"The destroyer made a turn to the left allowing the guns to come to bare. They then started to fire shells at the periscope. All the while, updates from radar and sonar kept coming."Contact Bearing Zero-Two-Zero - range 1,080 yards!"The periscope emerging allowed for Northumberland to make a better run at the target. "Dragonfly from Northumberland. I have him dead to rights. I'm attacking!""Range - 1,000 yards!"Hayley contacted the steering room and then the Frigate. "Steady on course. Keep the path clear for Northumberland. Come on in, Northumberland. We're steering clear for you.""Thank you, Dragonfly. Here we come!" Down in the steering section, Wright and Shrapnel were working as hard as they could to keep the ship going in the direction it needed to. The spare wheel located right down in the stern of the vessel was a lot heavier than the one that Willis had been using on the bridge. It was hot, exhausting work, and Shrapnel in particular was suffering."I can't…I can't keep this up," Shrapnel moaned."WE CAN'T GIVE UP NOW!" Wright bellowed over the hum of the ship's engines. "THE CAPTAIN IS DEPENDING ON US!" Hayley and the lookouts continued to watch as Northumberland sped ahead of them and closed in on where the submarine was. Through the binoculars, Hayley saw the crew getting ready to fire its own Hedgehog."TORPEDO!" came a cry over the radio from the sonar station.Hayley waited for more, but it didn't come. Sounded like the new sonar operator had gone into shock. "Talk to me, Bannister! Bearing? Range?"Bannister pulled himself together. "Torpedo in the water. Starboard beam. Range four-hundred yards!"Hayley and the lookouts began to scan the water for the enemy weapons."TORPEDOES!" shouted one of the lookouts. "BEARING ZERO-TWO-TWO! THREE-HUNDRED YARDS! THERE, MA'AM! TWO FISH!"Hayley looked and saw the two trails of torpedoes coming through the water towards them. "DROP COUNTERMEASURES!" she ordered. "HARD A-STARBOARD!"The Dragonfly responded with a will. A decoy was dropped from the stern and the ship turned very hardly over to the right, leaning heavily as it went. This did the trick. The decoy caused the two torpedoes to lose their lock on the Destroyer and continued straight on without turning back.Northumberland had now reached the point where it could launch its attack on the submarine. "Northumberland to Dragonfly. Hedgehog away!"The Hedgehog barrage was launched from the bow of the Frigate and landed in the water. It then turned away and there came multiple detonations as a number of the projectiles found their mark, scoring direct hits on the A-850. Slightly weakened from the Lancashire's attack, more breaches appeared in the hull of the sub and water began flooding in. it wasn't at critical level, but the crew were now starting to panic. This only infuriated Heyon-Ban more."GET BACK TO YOUR POSTS, IDIOTS!" Heyon-Ban was bellowing at the terrified crew. "STOP FLOODING! FIRE MORE TORPEDO!"The Commander then confronted the former dictator. "Excellency! With due respect, this is my ship. Please don't interfere.""KAK TY SMEYESH'!" roared Heyon-Ban. "I AM IN CHARGE! I GIVE ORDER!""MY SUBMARINE, EXCELLENCY!" the Commander bellowed back. "AND YOUR EGO WILL BE DEATH OF ALL OF US!"Heyon-Ban let out another animal-like roar and tried to strangle the Commander only to be grabbed by some of the other crewmen. He screamed at them to let go of him, but they managed to keep hold of him."Take him to cabin," ordered the Commander. "Make sure he stay there."As Heyon-Ban was forcibly removed from the control room, he continued to scream in anger. "Northumberland to Dragonfly - reporting multiple hits on target!""Good work, Northumberland," said Hayley. "Better clear out. I'm launching my own attack.""Roger. Good luck, Dragonfly."Hayley then contacted the combat room. "Sonar, where is he?""Can't quite tell, ma'am," replied Bannister. "Underwater explosions. Giving false readings. No, wait! There he is! Bearing Zero-Four-Three. Range four-hundred yards!""Port ten degrees!" Hayley ordered.Having already used its Hedgehog on the B-925, the Dragonfly would have to make use of its rear depth-charges instead. Bannister gave updates to alert Hayley when the best time to attack was."Range three-hundred yards!"The Northumberland and Lancashire were now clear of the battle zone."Range two-hundred!"The Dragonfly was straight on course."Range one-hundred!"The A-850 was trying to dive and turn away again. The Commander, having forced Heyon-Ban out of the control room, had only one thing on his mind - to try and escape. He did not want to fight the surface ships."Instantaneous echo, ma'am!""FIRE!" Hayley ordered.The depth-charges were released from the stern. Two were blasted off the portside launcher, two from the starboard and a final two directly off the back. They dropped down and began to detonate around the A-850. The explosions rocked the sub - causing it to shake violently and several crewmembers were thrown to the floor. Now they were really getting scared and massive unrest was breaking out with several cracking and demanding to be let out of the sub, even though it was underwater. More hull breaches were made and even more water was flooding in.The XO ran up to the Commander. "Duìzhǎng! Compartments A, B and D are flooding! We have to surface or we'll sink!"The Weapons-Officer however disagreed. "YOU INSANE?" he shouted at the XO. "WE SURFACE AND THEY WILL BLOW US TO PIECES! I SAY WE CONTINUE FIGHT!"Whilst that was not the way the Berezniks had been taught to fight and believe, twenty years of isolation from the rest of the world had finally taken its toll on the crew. Heyon-Ban's ego and greed had gotten them into a lot of danger now. "BLOW BALLAST!" the Commander ordered. "SURFACE SHIP!"A mini-civil war then broke out within the submarine. Not everybody was as scared as others and tried to fight to prevent those who wanted to escape. Despite one man's attempt to stop the ballast being blown, it was and the sub began to rise towards the surface. Bannister listened to the sonar closely. "Captain! Submarine has blown ballast! It's coming up to the surface!"Hayley grimaced. That wasn't what she wanted to hear, but knew there was nothing that could be done about it. Maybe the crew of this submarine had finally realised the game was up and that surrender would be a better way. Although she felt the need to avenge her fallen shipmates, Hayley also wanted to avoid causing anymore bloodshed if she could help it. "Dragonfly to Northumberland and Lancashire. Enemy is surfacing. Do not drop your guard! Repeat - do NOT drop your guard. They make any attempt to shoot you, take them out!""Roger!" answered Northumberland."Aye-aye, Dragonfly!" added Lancashire.The water erupted as the A-850 burst out from beneath the surface and settled on the top. There was no explosion like what the B-925 had suffered but those on the three warships that had a visual could see that it had suffered some heavy damage.Hayley looked through her binoculars, eyes primarily focused on the double-barrel gun turret located at the base of the conning tower. So far it remained stationary. Hayley then saw several hatches open along the deck and the side of the conning tower. Several frantic sailors piled out, pulling out life-rafts and throwing them into the rough sea before scrambling into them. However, she also saw some emerging with weapons, trying to shoot those trying to escape."What the devil's going on?" asked Archer."Seems like there's been a mutiny," Hayley replied. "Decades of being in that iron coffin must have at last taken its toll."Archer looked through his binoculars. "Ma'am? The bridge."Hayley looked through her own at the bridge on the conning tower. She could see the Commander had come out. He waved hard in their direction before throwing a large white sheet over the side of the conning tower. He then got one of the crewmen with him to flash a light at the Dragonfly to deliver a message in Morse code."Looks like they're signalling us," said Archer.Hayley watched the flashes of the light carefully. "Please, don't fire. We surrender.""Seriously?" said Archer. "That was easy."Hayley gave him a hard look. "Never say it's easy, Matt," she said sharply. "I won't be satisfied until all that sub has been completely abandoned."Suddenly they heard the sounds of gunfire coming from the A-850. Looking through the binoculars again, they watched in horror as they saw a group of five crewmembers using machine-guns to try and shoot all the men and women who had fled the disabled submarine."What the hell?!" exclaimed Hayley. She looked back at the bridge and gasped to see the Commander was in a fight with someone as well. When she saw the attacker, she quickly recognised who it was from photos she had seen. "My God! It's Heyon-Ban!"Heyon-Ban hadn't been taken to his cabin as instructed. As it turned out, a small number of the crew of the A-850 were still extremely loyal to the former dictator and would do anything for him. The men who had taken him out of the control room were two of these supporters and had helped him to now try and take over the submarine. Despite the fact it was damaged and potentially going to sink, Heyon-Ban refused to believe that he had been defeated. Despite the best efforts of the Commander to defend himself, Heyon-Ban produced a knife and stabbed the Commander multiple times before throwing his body over the conning tower and into the water. They then saw him use the knife to rip away the white sheets showing that the surrender had been revoked."My God!" exclaimed Archer. "That was cold-blooded murder!"Hayley gritted her teeth. She opened up the communicator. "Northumberland and Lancashire. Valentive Heyon-Ban is aboard the A-850. He's retracted the surrender. The sub and those aboard are hostels still. Open fire!"At that command, the Destroyer and two Frigates turned their turrets towards the A-850 and began to circle it like sharks having cornered a wounded whale. They began to fire their guns as well, scoring a few hits on the hull and causing it to flood some more.Heyon-Ban, who by now had totally lost his sanity, ordered a retaliation. "FIRE ALL WEAPONS!" he screeched.As the Dragonfly crossed the submarine's bow, Hayley saw the twin-barrel gun turret begin to aim at them. "Take out that gun turret!" she ordered.The guns on the Dragonfly took aim at the one on the submarine and fired. The shells found their mark and the turret was obliterated. The ordinance that the loyal crewmembers had been loading at the time also detonated causing a huge explosion that ripped a large portion of the conning tower and the lower decks apart. Now the submarine was filling with water rapidly and began to sink.The blast not only killed the loyal men and women in the magazine room but also took out those on the deck who'd been trying to murder the escaping crewmen. Heyon-Ban was severely injured by the explosion yet somehow managed to pull himself up to peer over the front of the conning tower. He gazed down at the raging inferno where the turret had been before giving a most hateful glare at the Dragonfly which was crossing the bow. "Qù nǐ de!" he cursed. "Uvidimsya v adu! See you…in hell!"There then came another massive explosion as the fire raging through the submarine reached the missiles and remaining torpedoes. They detonated in a chain reaction that totally obliterated the entire vessel. A bright blinding light illuminated the sky forcing those on the three circling warships out on deck to shield their eyes. The weather around the Valiant's task force was starting to clear, thus enabling those on the Aircraft Carrier and remaining escorts to see the glow from the explosion."Good heavens!" exclaimed Admiral Marshall."I do hope that was not one of our ships," said Captain Reay.They checked the radar scanner and saw the contacts of the three surface ships still circling around. As the A-850 had come to the surface it had finally been detectable to all surface radars on the ships. This contact was no longer visible."It was one of the Bereznik ships then," said Admiral Marshall. "That's a relief.""An explosion like that - her ordinance must have gone up," said Captain Reay.Admiral Marshall looked up at the sky. "Seems to be clearing," he said. "Those ships must be low on weapons. See about getting some planes in the air to assist them, Captain.""Aye-aye, Admiral!" The glow and distant rumble of the explosion had also been seen and heard by the Tracy brothers on their cliff top viewpoint. The weather there was also improving. The rain had stopped. The wind was dying down and the clouds were starting to clear."Woah!" said Alan. "That was quite a blast!""John, was that the sub or one of the surface ships?" asked Virgil."It was one of the subs," said John. "The big one. Something must have exploded on the inside. It's been totally shredded to bits.""That just leaves one to go," said Gordon.Scott had taken back control of the drone and had returned it to Thunderbird 1. "Did anybody make it off the sub before it exploded?" he asked."Yes, at least twenty-two in life-rafts managed to escape," said John. "Hopefully the navy can recover them and we won't be needed." Hayley had mixed feelings about the result. On the one hand she felt a sense of relief and satisfaction knowing that Heyon-Ban's reign was finally at an end. But on the other, she felt deep sorrow for the misguided men and women who had remained loyal to the former dictator and had paid for it with their lives when the submarine had exploded. Despite what they had been trying to do, they were still human after all, and after having gone through a similar experience with her own shipmates, Hayley found herself mourning for them."It had to be done, ma'am," Archer said. "It was us or them."Hayley reluctantly nodded in agreement. "I know, Matt," she said. "That just leaves one more to find.""TORPEDOES! PORT BOW! INCOMING!"Hayley froze. Then spun around and hastily looked over at the port-side of the ship. Not one, but eight trails of torpedoes on a spread of three degrees each were coming through the water directly towards them. Her blood ran cold."FULL AHEAD BOTH!" Hayley ordered. "HARD A-STARBOARD!"The engines of the Dragonfly seemed to scream as the ship tried to escape the incoming torpedoes.Inside the engine room, Merriett and Berry noticed something worrying. The engine that had been giving trouble earlier in the day was now beginning to vibrate and shift about alarmingly."GET CLEAR!" Merriett shouted. "SHE'S GONNA BLOW!"The engine crew hurried towards the exit. There came a loud BOOM as the engine overheated and exploded. The explosion sent a column of thick black smoke shooting up out of the funnel and a column of water rose up from the side of the ship as the blast punctured a hole in the hull. As everyone tried to recover themselves from the blast, they froze in alarm as all the lights suddenly went out as everyone began to power down."What's happening?" Hayley asked. No reply came. Archer ran down to see what had happened."TORPEDOES STILL INCOMING!"Hayley's attention was turned back to the incoming weapons. She could feel the Destroyer was slowing down and was dangerously close to stopping - still in the path of the torpedoes. "Damn it!" she said. "We've lost power! We're finished!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
SEEING the incoming torpedoes caused Hayley to begin to feel like a balloon that was deflating on the inside. With the Dragonfly's engines broken and the ship having no power at all, the helplessness she'd felt following the deaths of Captain Hart and Friend began to flood back. Although the ship had turned to starboard and was no longer showing its broadside at the torpedoes, there was still a likely chance that at least two or three would find their mark.Archer returned. "Explosion in the engine room," he panted. "The hull is breached. Water flooding in. We cannot control it."The was no way to save the ship, Hayley realised, but if she acted now, she might get to save some of her crew provided time was allowed. She got on the tannoy. "Captain to crew. Engines are dead. Torpedoes are incoming. Abandon ship! Repeat - abandon ship! Save yourselves. Good luck."The crew were stumped. It took them a second to process these words. Then they began to hurry from their posts to make it to the boat deck where the life-rafts were located.Hayley and Archer remained on the bridge and watched the torpedo trails getting closer and closer.Archer cleared his throat. "Ma'am?""Yes, Matt?""It's been an honour serving with you."Hayley gave a small smile. "The honour's been mine. Now go save yourself."Archer seemed reluctant. He saluted and Hayley returned it. Then he disappeared off to join the rest of the crew in the escape attempt.Just then, Hayley's helmet radio crackled. Unlike the Destroyer, it had its own power. "This is Northumberland. Dragonfly is down. Torpedoes closing in. We're going in. God bless you all."Hayley's eyes widened as she saw the small Frigate come racing around from behind the Dragonfly's stern and began to cross the paths of the torpedoes. "What the?! NO!" Hayley cried in horror. "Northumberland, what the hell are you doing?""Letting you live, Captain," replied the man aboard Northumberland.Hayley could do nothing but watch as one of the torpedoes struck the Northumberland's bow. The explosion ripped it clean off. Then a second one hit right in the middle below the funnel and then a third hit the stern, blowing the depth charges up and ripping the stern to shreds. Hayley quivered, not out of fear, but fury as the crippled Northumberland's middle section sank below the waves in no less that thirty seconds, smoke and flame billowing out of it as she went.Hayley screwed up her eyes and banged her gloves fists on the side of the twisted metal that had been part of the enclosed bridge. "Damn it!" she cursed as tears began to form in her eyes. She had been desperate for there not to be anymore bloodshed from either side for the rest of the encounter, and yet not only had a number of lives been lost in the destruction of the A-850, but now the Northumberland and its own crew had sacrificed themselves in order to give her and the Dragonfly's crew a better chance of escape, for now there was only one torpedo now coming in towards them whilst the remaining four were going to pass by for the spread had been too wide. Hayley rushed off the bridge, down the stairs to deck level and then ran out onto the starboard side. The Destroyer shuddered as the torpedo struck the stern, destroying the propellers and the rudder and causing the back-up steering section where Wright and Shrapnel had been working to flood. Luckily they were already clear thanks to Hayley's order to abandon ship. The ship was now starting to dip down low in the water as the crew worked frantically to get the lifeboats ready.Hayley observed to make sure everyone was accounted for as they began to launch one by one into the sea which was still a bit rough and made the launching rather difficult.John had seen everyone on the hologram scanner. The explosion of the engine on the Dragonfly. The incoming torpedoes and the sacrifice of the Northumberland. He could see from life-signatures on the deck of the Destroyer that they were attempting to abandon ship. He knew now would be the time to act. "Guys, you're up," he said. "The Dragonfly's been disabled. The Northumberland has sunk. Get out there and rescue anyone that you can.""F-A-B!" acknowledged the other brothers.Scott sprinted back into Thunderbird 1 and was airborne within seconds. Virgil, Gordon and Alan hurried back into Thunderbird 2 and lifted off a few seconds afterward. Both ships fired their engines and began to hurry out across the ocean towards the disaster zone. They could only hope that they would get there in time to save those in the water.Three of the lifeboats managed to get launched from the Dragonfly. By now the waves were coming over the deck and the stern was practically underwater. Only one remained and Hayley was overseeing the last few of the crew getting aboard when the heads-up display in her helmet alerted her to a danger. Looking out across the sea, she spotted what was unmistakably a periscope. The periscope of the one remaining Bereznik submarine."There you are!" Hayley said.Seward was close-by. "Ma'am?"Hayley pointed. "The last sub is right there, and is closing in on us."Seward couldn't see the periscope as well due to the visibility but could just make it out in between the waves. "Nothing we can do, ma'am," he said.Hayley shook her head. "No, David. Absolutely nothing. Get in the boat. Let's get out of here."The Lancashire couldn't do anything to help against the submarine. She was still searching around the other side of the sinking Dragonfly.Just then there came a shout from someone in one of the already launched lifeboats. "AIR COVER! AIR COVER!"There was a whoosh as two Royal Navy Seahawk Fighter Jets came soaring overhead. They began to circle around like they were looking for the submarine."They don't know where to look," Hayley said. Then she had an idea. "Launch the boat! I'm going to aid the planes!""What?!" exclaimed Seward. "No, Captain, we can't leave without you!""Don't worry about me," Hayley said. "I'll be fine. I'll jump overboard when that sub's been found. Now launch the boat.""But, ma'am-""GO!" Hayley shouted. "THAT'S AN ORDER!"Reluctantly, Seward climbed into the lifeboat. "YOU HEARD THE CAPTAIN, LET'S GO!"Hayley hurried away along the deck as the lifeboat was launched. She scrambled a maintenance ladder to the top of the superstructure above and where the bridge had been. Here stood a combined Morse Code and Searchlight lamp. Taking control of it manually she shone the light up into the sky in order to get the attention of the Seahawk pilots before shining it down on the sea right where the B-928's periscope was.The bright light caused the Commander of the submarine to recoil away, scream and cover his eyes due to getting pretty much blinded by the light. Although she didn't know it, Hayley had just saved the Dragonfly from having more torpedoes fired at it.Seeing the searchlight shining over the sea made the pilots realise they might have a target being marked out for them so they decided to take it up. Banking sharply, the two Seahawks dived towards where the light touched the water. They levelled out, flew low, and then fired two missiles each into the water. There came a thunderous roar followed by a violent detonation as the B-928 exploded underwater, sending a huge column of water high into the air. As it subsided, pieces of wreckage floated up to the surface, signalling to all present that the final threat had been eliminated.Hayley watched on, aghast. Her plan had worked. The aircraft had found and destroyed the last of the Bereznik submarines. It was over at last."CAPTAIN!" called someone from one of the lifeboats. "CAPTAIN, GET OFF OF THERE!"Hayley snapped back to reality and looked down. She suddenly realised that the entire stern section of the Dragonfly was completely submerged. Creaks and groans of metal announced that it was about to make its final plunge. Okay, now I need to get off, Hayley thought to herself. She turned off the light, went to the gap in the railing where the ladder was and readied herself. You are an aquanaut as well as a sailor, she told herself in her head. You can do this. took a deep breath and then dived off the top of the superstructure and into the water below. Everything went black as she went underwater. She went down about twenty feet before stopping the descent and started to rise back up the surface. In her haste however she failed to note where the underside of the Dragonfly's hull was in relation to her. She pushed herself upwards and her helmet collided hard against the bottom of the ship. The impact went right through her body. "OUCH!" she cried out in pain as she saw stars in her eyes. She managed to push herself out from underneath the sinking destroyer, but then found herself beginning to black out. "Come on, Hayley," she said to herself. "Must…get…to…the…surface." As everything began to blur and fade away, she could hear the creaking of the Dragonfly as it continued to flood and sink a bit more quickly.The remaining crew of the Dragonfly were anxious. They'd all seen Hayley dive off the sinking ship but hadn't seen her resurface."CAPTAIN?!" several cried out. "CAPTAIN MADISON?!"Just then they were alerted by the rumble of engines from overhead. All eyes shot up to see the shapes of two unique-looking aircraft emerging from the clouds. One was a sleek silver skyrocket. The other was a giant green leviathan."THUNDERBIRDS!" exclaimed Parr. "IT'S INTERNATIONAL RESCUE!"Scott hovered Thunderbird 1 near to the four lifeboats. "Lifeboats located, Thunderbird 2," said Scott. "Pick them up with the evac-chairs. I'm going to check for anyone else floating by.""F-A-B!" Virgil responded. He brought Thunderbird 2 into a hover above the lifeboats before calling down to them over a tannoy. "Everybody hang tight. We're gonna get you to safety."Due to Thunderbird 4 now being inside Module 4, Virgil had to switch to the front-mounted evac-chairs located in the nose of Thunderbird 2. He lowered them down with Alan and Gordon hanging onto the sides, held in place by safety-harnesses."HELLO THERE!" Gordon called as the evac-chairs reached the lifeboats. "HOW MANY OF THERE ARE YOU?!""SIXTY-FIVE!" Archer shouted."LOOK!" Seward then shouted. "OVER THERE!"Everyone looked and they could just make out a body floating in the water about fifty metres from their position."IT'S THE CAPTAIN!" Henley yelled, recognising Hayley's outfit. "SHE DOESN'T LOOK GOOD!""I'LL GET HER!" Gordon said. "Alan, start helping these guys into the evac-chairs.""F-A-B, Gordo," said Alan. He turned to the crewmembers in the nearest lifeboat. "One at a time please, guys. One at a time."Gordon allowed his safety-line to be extendable as he dived off the frame holding the evac-chairs and began to swim across the water towards the floating body.Virgil observed via an outside-mounted camera as Alan helped the crewmembers into the evac-chairs. "This is gonna take a while," he remarked. "I'm not entirely sure that I'm gonna be able to fit everyone in the module.""You won't have to, Thunderbird 2," said John over the hologram-projector. "The Valiant is coming over to your position. Take the crew and land them on the flight deck."At that moment the weather started clearing. A loud horn blared out causing everyone in the lifeboats plus Alan and Gordon to look. They gazed in awe as the mighty Aircraft Carrier appeared from the clouds along with its remaining escorts. "IT'S THE VALIANT!" cried Bannister, and a massive cheer erupted from the whole crew.Gordon soon reached the floating body and made sure it was safe. "Got you," he said.. Placing one arm around the waist, he used his other to reel them both back towards the chairs. "Keep one chair free, Alan," he said. "This one seems to be out cold. Sooner she gets help, the better."Alan complied and helped fill the other ten spaces in the evac-chairs with members of the crew and left the one closest to Gordon free.Thunderbird 1 had found the survivors from the A-850 floating about a mile away from where the Dragonfly was. As he flew lower, Scott couldn't help but notice they seemed rather confused by his ship, and it also looked like they were afraid of it."Strange," Scott remarked. "I've never known anyone react that way to Thunderbird 1 before.""Scott, remember those guys have been isolated from the rest of the world for two decades," said John over the hologram-projector. "It wouldn't surprise me if they've never even heard of International Rescue."Scott found that possibility hard to comprehend, but it was the only plausible explanation. He turned on the tannoy. "Stay calm down there!" he called. "We'll have you safely on the Valiant in no time."The Lancashire then appeared and slowed down, lowering its own rescue boats to recover the Berezniks.With Alan's help, Gordon hoisted Hayley out of the water and into the last of the chairs. He took the decision to remove her helmet for her. "Looks like she's taken a knock judging by the mark on top of the helmet," Gordon was saying. "I'm just going to check her over." He removed the helmet, and then let out a gasp, dropping the helmet back into the water. He stared at the semi-conscious woman who was now slowly beginning to regain her senses. "H-H-Hayley?" he said hoarsely."What was that, Gordon?" Virgil asked over the radio."What?! N-Nothing, Virg," Gordon replied hastily.Dr Hebb then climbed into the one remaining seat on this load of rescuers and was next to Hayley. "I can give her a check, young man," he said to Gordon. "I am a doctor."Trying his best to hide the shock, Gordon climbed back onto the frame. He paused momentarily to look at Hayley again. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "Please be okay."Hayley began to stir. Gordon hastily moved himself out of view so he could still see her but so that she would not be able to see him."G-G-Gordon?" Hayley mumbled, confused as she opened her eyes."Hey, Captain!" said Dr Hebb. "Are you okay?""Doc?" Hayley replied, looking at him. "Where am I? What's happening?""It's okay," Dr Hebb said. "You're safe now. What was that about a Gordon?"Gordon braced himself above."N-Nothing," Hayley replied, still slightly dazed. "I thought I heard my former partner's voice. I must just have been dreaming.""You've been knocked about pretty hard," said Dr Hebb. "Slight delusions. We'll give you a check-up on the Valiant."Just then some clouds parted and a beam of sunlight shone through, right onto the Dragonfly. As Hayley was slowly regaining her senses, a mournful groan of metal made her eyes look straight ahead. The sound caught the attention of everyone else as well. It was the Dragonfly that had made the noise. She was entering her final plunge. Her entire aft section from the middle right through the stern was completely submerged now. The bow was right up out of the water at an almost forty-five degree angle. With a creak and a groaning, she began to slip backwards. Soon the funnel was underwater. Then the mast and forwards superstructure and then with a final groan of dying metal, the bow slipped beneath the waves. HMS Dragonfly was no more."Chairs are loaded, Virgil!" called Alan."F-A-B," said Virgil. "Hang on tight. We're going to the Carrier."Hoisting the chairs away from the water, Virgil moved Thunderbird 2 over towards the Valiant. The crew on the Aircraft Carrier guided him in as he lowered it down onto the deck.The crew on the Carrier worked to help remove the crewmembers from the Dragonfly onto the deck so that Thunderbird 2 could go for another group.As they left the flight deck, Alan noticed Gordon looking back down at the survivors. "Are you okay, bro?" he asked."I'm fine," Gordon said hastily. "Let's just finish the job."It took another forty minutes for all the survivors from both the Dragonfly and the A-850 to be recovered by both Thunderbird 2 and the rescue boats sent out by the other warships and be transferred to the Valiant. Scott aided a number of Navy Helijets and Helicopters in a search for any survivors from the Northumberland and the two remaining B-class submarines. Their results turned up nothing.Once the final members of crew were safely aboard the deck of the Valiant, Thunderbirds 1 and 2 left the scene to head back to Tracy Island after what had been one of the longest days any of them could remember. Both Scott and Virgil put their ships on autopilot."Man, I could sleep for a fortnight," said Alan."Sleep's all you ever do, isn't it?" said Scott jokingly over the hologram-projector."Hey!" said Alan indignantly. "I don't…You know what? I'm too tired to even argue.""See you back at the ranch, Thunderbird 1," said Virgil."F-A-B, Thunderbird 2," acknowledged Scott as Thunderbird 1 zoomed off into the distance and the now setting Sun.Alan went to take a shower leaving Virgil and Gordon alone in the cockpit.Virgil looked over and saw that Gordon was simply staring straight ahead with a somewhat troubled look on his face. "Are you okay, little brother?"Gordon didn't answer for a second. "Yeah…Why wouldn't I be?""I've never known you to be this quiet," Virgil said, sounding concerned. "It's not like you. You almost look as though you've seen a ghost."Gordon let out a sigh. He looked down at his lap before turning his head to finally make eye-contact with his brother. "It was her, Virgil.""Who was?""The Captain that I pulled out of the sea. It was Hayley Madison."Virgil frowned. "Isn't that who you were with when you were at the W.A.S.P.?" he asked.Gordon nodded. "We had a thing going," he said. "I broke it off when I came back to International Rescue.""Did she see you?" asked Virgil."No, she didn't," said Gordon. "I never told her this was the reason why. I just said I had a family emergency and wouldn't be coming back. I think it broke her heart. I thought I was over her. But seeing her today, brought back those painful memories of having to ditch her."Virgil reached over and placed a comforting hand on Gordon's shoulder. "It's okay, Gordon," he said. "She didn't see you. So she'll be none the wiser."Gordon gave a slight smile. "I hope so, bro," he said, looking back out at the setting Sun. "I really do."Hayley stood on the flight deck of the Valiant and watched as Thunderbird 2 disappeared into the distance. She had a lot of emotions going through her right now. Relief that the ordeal was finally over. Sadness at the loss of the Dragonfly and her crewmates who'd fallen in battle. Sympathy for the Berezniks after seeing how scared they were of seeing people again after twenty years. But most of all, she felt regret that she had been saved twice by International Rescue that day, and both times she'd not had a chance to see those who had rescued her. "Whoever you guys are. Thank you," she said in the direction that the Thunderbirds had gone.The Valiant arrived in Gibraltar just after sunset. All of the surviving crew from both the Dragonfly and the A-850 had been checked over. Some of the Berezniks had been injured in the fighting aboard the submarine during the escape and others had bullet wounds from when the loyalists to Heyon-Ban had tried to gun them down. They were given an armed guard. It came as a surprise to everyone that for a country of what was believed to be fearless warriors, these people were as timid as mice.Admiral Hart, Patrick, Penelope and Parker came aboard the Aircraft Carrier along with several other senior Naval Officers to congratulate those who had taken part in the day's events. For Admiral Hart, he had the awful task of seeing the body bags from the Dragonfly. One of which contained his own son. He struggled to hold it together, but failed to hold back any tears at all.With floodlights illuminating the decks. The survivors of the Dragonfly stood in a group along with the majority of the Valiant's crew. Even Commander Rowley from Verulam was there along with the Captain of the Virginia, the Captain of the Liparus and Captain Cotterill from the Queen Alexandra."Ladies. Gentlemen," began Admiral Hart. "When we all woke up this morning, none of us could have predicted that we would be standing here like this this evening. Ever since the end of the Global Conflict, us in the world's navies have tried to hunt down the former President Heyon-Ban and the four submarines that he fled his country with, without any kind of success whatsoever. For twenty years they had remained hidden from our views, praying on unsuspecting ships. Stealing their supplies. Murdering their crews. It was inevitable that some day they would finally slip up. Today was that day, and it has been one that's not passed without a terrible price that has been paid. Many lives have been lost today. Eight of those were from the HMS Dragonfly. The rest are from HMS Northumberland. The latter of which sacrificed themselves to help save a much greater loss of life on the Dragonfly, who was put out of action by a failed engine. All hands on the Northumberland were lost. The same can also be said for the Berezniks. Around twenty survivors were picked up from the main vessel in their group - the A-850. The B-926 was sunk this morning by HMS Verulam as it attempted to attack the Queen Alexandra. The B-925 was located by Dragonfly, thanks to Lieutenant Hayley Madison, whose time in the World Aquanaut Security Patrol allowed her to identify the unique sound of the noise-reducing caterpillar engines that the Bereznik submarines used for propulsion. The B-928 was responsible for the destruction of both the Northumberland, and eventually the Dragonfly. We lost two great ships today. We also lost several good men and women." He paused as a lump came to his throat. "Including my own son - Captain Hart. I would like you to join me in a minute of silent prayer as we remember those we have lost today. But before we do, there is only one thing that I have to say to the people of the following ships: HMS Verulam. USS Virginia. HMS Lancashire. HMS Northumberland. And most of all….HMS Dragonfly. Thank you for what you all did today. I salute you."Silence fell across the whole of Gibraltar. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. All heads were lowered in a mark of respect. Several were weeping at the loss of their colleagues. None more so that the newly promoted Captain Hayley Madison.***Flashback Ends***
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"I WAS offered command of a new Frigate," Hayley finished. "I just couldn't manage it. I tried a civilian job at sea which suited me better. I had to work my way back to the top again, but I felt that I had earned that. But I have never forgotten that day. I'll never forget those who I worked with. I'll never not mourn for those that we lost that day."Silence fell across the lounge. For once, nobody could think of anything to say. So many things that neither they nor Hayley had realised at the time now made a lot more sense.Kayo finally broke the silence. "Woah. so you and Virgil met before the Ulysses incident and neither of you realised.""Indeed," Virgil said.Hayley stretched out her arms. "Well, that's about it," she said. "Now you all know how I became a Captain.""Quite an achievement for you," said Jeff."If I'd done something heroic, yes," said Hayley. "I would have preferred not to have had my CO KIA causing me to become a leader. Hearing those words from Admiral Hart hit me like a tonne of bricks. I just…I was not ready for that kind of burden.""What about the others?" asked Scott. "Do you still see any of your fellow crewmembers?"A somewhat ashamed look came across Hayley's face. "No, Scott, I haven't," she said sadly. "I just think of that day for all the wrong reasons. The death. The destruction. I joined the Royal Navy to see the world and to help people. But I ended up commanding people to destroy. When I think of all those men and women who went down with the subs...that's over two-hundred living beings…wiped out. They may have been led by a complete maniac and a lot were misguided, but, they were still human, just like we are. They did not deserve the fate that they got."Jeff came over and sat next to Hayley. "That's the horrors of war," he said sympathetically. "I too can remember fighting the Berezniks during the Global Conflict itself when I was your age and in the Air Force. At the time chasing enemy planes and destroying them was almost like a thrill to me, until I finally realised that I was taking people's lives. Killing mothers and fathers of young Bereznik children. That's something I will take to my grave.""And part of the reason why you eventually set up International Rescue," said Grandma. "You made it your mission to save lives."Jeff nodded. "Exactly," he said."What are you reading, Hayley?" asked Gordon,Everyone looked at Hayley. She had taken something out from her pocket and was looking at it sadly. "I've never gotten rid of this," she said. "It was taken the day before whilst we were in Gibraltar. As much as I hate that day ever happened, I chose not to forget those who I served with." She passed it to Virgil so he could see. It was an old photograph - taken on the bow of the Dragonfly showing the entire ship's company dressed in their smart white formal Navy Uniforms standing for a group picture. At the front row in the middle were the officers. Virgil could just make out Hayley sitting on the left side of Captain Hart. Virgil passed the photo on to Kayo, who then passed it to Gordon, then Alan, then John, then Scott, then Brains, then Grandma and finally to Jeff."Say, as tomorrow's the fifth anniversary, are they having any kind of event in remembrance?" asked Gordon.Hayley nodded gloomily. "They are," she said. "And I did get an invite. But I chose to come here and spend Easter with you guys instead.""Hayley, you may not have been happy with what happened that day, but that's still probably the biggest event in your entire life," said Scott. "Shouldn't you not be there?"Hayley shook her head. "I thought about it, long and hard, Scott," Hayley said, trying to hold back the tears. "I kind of do want to go. My fellow crewmates will be there. But I just…I can't bring myself to go there. I'm scared that memories will come back and I'll make a fool of myself. Nobody wants to see what they believe is a strong woman collapse in on herself. Besides, I'm here now. It's not like I could go anyway seeing as I am here." She looked at her watch. "Would you all mind if I turn in? I'm feeling somewhat drained after all that.""Of course," said Jeff. "You go get some rest."Hayley stood up and took Virgil's hand. "You coming?" she asked.Virgil wasn't tired. "Not yet," he said. "You go to bed. I'll be along in a while."Hayley kissed his cheek. "Don't be long," she whispered and after bidding everyone else goodnight she left the lounge."Poor Hayley," said Kayo once Hayley was out of earshot. "I can't even begin to imagine the horror that she went through that day.""PTSD sticks for some time," said Grandma."There must be something we can do for her though?" asked Alan. "It's like Scott said, it's the biggest thing that's happened to her. I'm sure her fellow crewmembers would be upset if she failed to show?""That's her choice though, isn't it?" said Virgil. "If she doesn't want to go-""She does though, Virgil," said Scott. "Didn't you hear her say that?"Virgil thought back. "Oh…yeah…"Jeff stood up. "Virgil, do you have the contact details of Hayley's parents?""Yes, I do, Dad," said Virgil. "Why do you ask?"Jeff smiled. "I have an idea." Hayley must have fallen into a deep sleep when she'd gotten into hers and Virgil's bed. He hadn't not been there when she'd fallen asleep. He wasn't there when she woke up either. Although she could tell the bedsheets had shifted telling that he had been there. Hayley let out a moan and turned over.Just then the alarm clock on the side of the bed went off, making her nearly jump out of her skin. "What the?!" she exclaimed. "I didn't set-"A hologram of John, who was now in his IR uniform appeared out of the clock. "Sorry to wake you, Hayley," he said. "We have a situation. All hands required. Can you get to Thunderbird 2 ASAP?""Wha-?" Hayley began, before pulling herself together. "Sorry, John, yes of course!""Don't worry about changing," John said. "There's some clothes for you in Thunderbird 2."Hayley grabbed her dressing gown and hurried from the bedroom. It didn't take Hayley long to reach Thunderbird 2 where she found Virgil, Gordon and Alan already suited up."What took you so long?" teased Gordon."Knock it off, will you?" Hayley retorted before letting out a big yawn. She sat herself down in the seat behind Virgil as he began the taxiing out of the hangar onto the runway.Thunderbird 2 came out of the hangar, passed the folded-back palm trees and stopped on the launching ramp which was raised into place.5! 4! 3! 2! 1!The engines roared and Thunderbird 2 soared off into the sky. Virgil banked the giant transporter to the left and began to climb away from Tracy Island.As they reached cruising altitude, Hayley realised something. "Where's Thunderbird 1?" she asked. "Isn't Scott coming with us too?""He's already gone on ahead," said Alan."By the way, shouldn't you get changed, Hayley?" asked Gordon."Yes, John said there were some clothes in here already for me?" Hayley said."In the trunk by the hatch," said Virgil.Hayley looked back and saw the trunk on the floor. She got out of her seat and went over to it. She bent down and undid the catch before lifting the lid. She gasped and froze. Inside the trunk was not the spare uniform that she'd worn when joining International Rescue on missions before, but the pristine white Royal Navy uniform that she'd been wearing in the Dragonfly ship's company photograph.Hayley rose and turned to face the brothers. "Is this a joke?" she demanded."Nope," came the reply from Alan and Gordon whilst Virgil remained silent."This is my Navy formal uniform!" said Hayley, anger starting to build inside of her. "Where did you even get this?""Your parents," said Gordon. "Scott collected it from them last night whilst you were sleeping."Hayley stared at them. "Just…what the hell is going on here?!"Virgil sighed. "I'm sorry, honey," he said. "I did my best to try and talk Dad out of it, but he wouldn't listen.""Talk him out of what?""You'll have to wait and see," said Gordon. "It's a surprise.""And you'd better put that uniform on," added Alan. "It won't take us long to get there."Hayley shook her head. "This is absurd!" she snapped. "Whoever's idea this really was I am going to-""Hayley?" Virgil interrupted. "Please put it on. For me if nothing else?"Hayley backed down upon hearing that. Virgil sounded upset, and that made her feel bad. "Okay, hun," she said, doing her best to conceal her reluctance. Hayley washed and did her hair and smartened herself up. As she looked at herself in a mirror in the changing room. Although she didn't want to admit it, she'd forgotten how much she used to enjoy wearing this uniform. She then returned to the cockpit and sat down again. "How do I look?" she asked.Gordon and Alan looked at her. Alan whistled."Woah! Hot dog!" said Gordon."You look amazing," added Virgil. "Not far to go now.""In fact I can see our destination," added Alan. He pointed out the cockpit window.Hayley looked out in the direction Alan was pointing. Her eyes widened as a familiar shape could just be seen on the horizon. It was The Rock of Gibraltar. "No…Oh, nonononono, please, tell me this is a dream?"It wasn't a dream though. As Thunderbird 2 flew low over the Mediterranean and rounded the edge of Gibraltar, Hayley saw a mass gathering of ships and boats in the bay. Standing proud in the middle of them all was none other than HMS Valiant. On the deck were a large number of people - all dressed in their white uniforms like Hayley was. She could also make out Thunderbird 1 sitting on the stern of the Aircraft Carrier."How long have you guys been planning this?" Hayley asked."Since you went to bed last night," said Alan.Hayley blinked in surprise. "You got all this planned in one night?!""What can we say?" said Gordon. "Dad's one heck of an organiser."Virgil guided Thunderbird 2 down towards the Valiant. There was no room on the Carrier's deck for them to land so he put her on autopilot and joined the other three down in the module. Using the grapple cables, Thunderbird 2 lowered the module down from the main body and hovered over just off the stern. The door opened so that it was touching the deck and they walked down onto the Carrier. The door then closed and Virgil programmed Thunderbird 2 to go and hover a short distance away.As Hayley and the brothers walked underneath Thunderbird 1, they saw two familiar figures talking to some senior officers. It was Jeff and Scott. Hayley also recognised the man they were talking to. "Isn't that Lord Patrick Creighton-Ward?" she asked.It was - dressed in his own Navy uniform. Penelope was there as well. And so was Parker."Ah, here they are!" said Scott. "The guest of honor has arrived.""Guest of honor?" repeated Gordon. "Why Scott you shouldn't have!"Scott glared at him. "Not you!" he hissed.Hayley tried to hide her discomfort. "I guess you mean me?" she asked sheepishly."Captain Madison!" said Patrick. "It's been quite a while." He saluted.Hayley returned the salute. "Thank you, sir," she said. "Yes, it has. Penny.""Hello, Hayley," said Penelope as the two exchanged a hug. "So good to see you again."As Hayley looked over Penelope's shoulder, she froze when she saw two more familiar figures looking in her direction with pride in their faces. She let out a gasp as she pulled away from Penelope and covered her mouth. "Mum? Dad?!" She sprinted towards them and they embraced."Ahh, so that's Mr and Mrs Madison," said Alan. "I wondered what they looked like."Hayley seemed to have forgotten about being annoyed at having been tricked into coming to the Valiant. She was very happy to see her parents. Little did she know things were going to get even better."HAYLEY!"Hayley looked around. She recognised the voice. Her mouth nearly hit the deck as she saw a group of sailors, all coming towards her. Like her they were dressed in their formal Navy uniforms, and she recognised them as members of the Dragonfly's crew. But it was the person leading them who'd called her name that had caused her mouth to drop. "Oh, my God! Robyn?!"It was indeed Taylor. The two young women practically ran up to each and had a very emotional embrace. Hayley hadn't seen Taylor since she'd seen her and Langford getting medevacked off the Valiant directly after they'd been brought aboard following the Dragonfly's sinking. Straight away she noticed that Taylor had no bandages around her head. Hayley then went on to greet Archer, Wright, Shrapnel, Henley, Parr, Seward and Dr Hebb."Oh, gosh," said Taylor, squeezing her former colleague tightly. "I thought I'd never see you again.""Me neither," Hayley said. She looked into Taylor's eyes. "I could have sworn your eyes were blue?""They were," Taylor said. "Now they're golden ochre."Hayley was stunned. "How?" she asked. "I'd heard you'd be blinded for life?""That's what the doctors all said," said Taylor. "Then I heard about a new kind of experimental bionic eye surgery and was looking for volunteers. I tried it - and this is the result. Oh, and this." She pointed to some stripes on her uniform's shoulders."You can see again," said Hayley. "I'm so happy for you." She then turned to the others. "And you guys. You're all still here after five years!"A bell rang, grabbing everyone's attention. Lord Patrick took to a special podium built between the two superstructure towers. "Ladies and gentleman," he said into a microphone. "We are gathered here today to mark what became the darkest day in the last one-hundred years of the Royal Navy. It was a day where we lost two ships to a rogue enemy force, and numerous brave souls lost their lives, so that we could live ours. But it wasn't just the brave men and women of the Royal Navy who risked their lives that day. The brave men of International Rescue, despite not being summoned, came to assist when the supertanker Liparus was torpedoed. They then stayed in the area and helped rescue the crew of the Dragonfly. We never got to say this last time, but this time I shall. International Rescue - thank you for all you did."Everyone applauded whilst Jeff stood proud and the four brothers stood surprised but honoured."And secondly," Patrick continued. "Whilst we take the opportunity to thank International Rescue, it was not them who ended the threat that plagued us that day.""Erm, actually we did kind of help," Alan said in a quiet voice only to be elbowed quiet by Scott."The Bereznik submarines were stealthy," said Patrick. "Very hard to locate. But thanks to the knowledge of one person, we were able to turn the tables on them. I am of course referring to Captain Hayley Madison, whose short time with the World Aquanaut Security Patrol allowed her to have the knowledge of the unique sound that the caterpillar engines made and therefore was able to help locate the submarines. That's not all though, for she found herself in a very awkward situation, when one of the submarines caused a last second surprise attack which left the senior members of crew deceased, forcing her to take command of the Dragonfly. To take charge of any ship for the first time can be a daunting experience. I speak from my own experience. But when it is thrust upon you as suddenly as that, it's a burden that can be very hard to swallow. Despite this, she persevered. She did not crack under pressure. She did not give up. And that is why a lot of us are still here today. Without her persistence in making sure those submarines were located and eliminated, she ensured not only the survival of the rest of her crew, but those on the Valiant and many other ships, who no doubt could have fallen victim to their atrocity attacks. Unfortunately, Captain Madison quit the Royal Navy shortly afterwards and therefore we were not able to reward her for her bravery and valour. Today we change that."Hayley gulped. Reward? She thought. I don't deserve any rewards!"And if I've timed this right, the presenter of the reward should be arriving any second…" Patrick paused as he looked at his watch. "Now!"A distant whirring sound began to fill the air. All eyes turned to see a large maroon helicopter coming down over the bay towards the Aircraft Carrier. Some of the deck crew used batons to guide it in to land just in front of where Thunderbird 1 was. As it touched down, everyone except for the very few who knew were very surprised to see the Royal Coat of Arms on the side of the helicopter's fuselage."Who's this?" Gordon whispered to Penelope."Shhh! Stand smartly, boys," Penelope whispered back. "This would be our reigning Monarch."Patrick had come down from the podium to stand between the group of sailors and where the helicopter was parked. Beside him was Admiral Reay, who had been promoted from Captain and had succeeded Admiral Marshall. "Have everyone stand to, Christian," Patrick whispered."Aye, sir," said Admiral Reay. He took a deep breath and began to bark. "SHIP'S COMPANIES - ALL FACE AFT! ATTEN-TION!"All the sailors, including Hayley stood to attention. Even the International Rescue team did their best to stand smartly as a very smartly dressed person opened the door of the helicopter. The man then turned to face the gathered group. "PREPARE TO GREET…HIS MAJESTY, KING OF GREAT BRITAIN!" he shouted.A tall and smart man stepped out. Patrick and Admiral Reay saluted, and the King saluted back."Your Majesty," said Patrick, shaking the King's hand."Lord Creighton-Ward," said the King. "Good to see you again. Where's our guest of honour?"Patrick nodded to Admiral Reay. admiral Reay turned to face the amassed sailors. "WOULD CAPTAIN MADISON PLEASE STEP FORWARDS TO RECEIVE MEDAL?!"But Hayley did not move. She was completely frozen with shock. It wasn't until she caught the eyes of her parents and Virgil and a prod from Taylor that she finally began to move. Her legs felt like jelly as she approached the King who was holding a small box. Admiral Reay and Patrick stood aside as Hayley approached the King. Her face was nearly the same colour as her uniform as she curtsied in front of him."Captain Hayley Madison," said the King. He opened the box to reveal a shiny cross-shaped medal. "It is with great honour that I present to you, for your courage, bravery and for your valour, the Victoria Cross." He took the medal out of the box and placed it on Hayley's uniform. As he did, everyone began to cheer and applaud. Hayley's parents began to weep, unable to contain how proud they were of their daughter.Jeff and Scott put their hands on Virgil's shoulders. "Don't you go as well, Virg," teased Scott."Ah, let him, Scott," smiled Jeff. "Still think I shouldn't have asked around, son?"Virgil was too proud of his girl to say anything.Gordon and Alan were applauding along with everyone else when they began to hear someone blubbering."Ha!" said Alan. "See, Gordo, I told you Virgil would lose it.""Er, that's not Virgil, Alan," said Gordon."Oh, Parker!" laughed Penelope.Alan looked round, confused. Then nearly fell over with surprise to see Penelope comforting Parker who blew his nose into his handkerchief. "HUH?!""I'm sorry, m'lady," said Parker. "I'm not usually an emotional man, but sometimes even the toughest nutters crack!"Hayley was completely lost for words. She ran her fingers across the medal before looking back at the King. "I….I don't know what to say," she said, trying not to sound shaky. "Thank you, Your Majesty."The King smiled. He nodded. Then saluted. Hayley returned the salute.Patrick then whispered to her. "Face the crowd," he said. Hayley turned to face her shipmates and the rest of the assembled crowd, all of which were still cheering and clapping for her. "CAPTAIN HAYLEY MADISON - VC!" Patrick shouted to them all. "GIVE HER THREE CHEERS! HIP-HIP!""HOORAY!""HIP-HIP!""HOORAY!""HIP-HIP!""HOORAY!""FOR VALOUR!" shouted Admiral Reay."FOR VALOUR!"Hayley was overcome. Tears of joy came from her eyes and began to trickle down her cheeks. Only a short while ago she'd been angry that she thought she was being tricked into something she didn't want. That was no more. She had never felt happier. She looked down at the medal on her uniform again. "For valour," she said.The End