Recuperation

John was back home, recuperating from surgery to his broken foot. Virgil had also returned, his burns healed completely. Alan was up in Thunderbird 5, taking his usual spell of duty. Scott and Gordon were helping Brains, Bekkah, and Tin-Tin with a thorough inventory of Thunderbird 2. They had not been able to examine her as minutely as they had Thunderbird 4 before that vessel's reconstruction. So now they were going over Thunderbird 2 with a fine-toothed comb, looking for hull fissures, checking the engines and propulsion, restocking the equipment lockers and basically doing whatever they could to make her good as new. Virgil was spending most of his time in the simulator, getting used to the new controls.

Bekkah was also taking some quality time with her children. The stress and odd hours of the cockpit refit had left her children mostly to their own devices, with Kyrano and Grandma trying their best to keep track of them. Now Bekkah was going over their school work, seeing what needed to be studied just a bit more, or where a certain child was ahead of the lessons. She was also making sure she took them out to play or swim or visit their favorite tidal pool. Jeff had decided to buy a swing set/fort combination for them and the pieces of it would be arriving any day. The children were really excited to have something new to play with.

"Movie night tonight." Bekkah announced at breakfast.

"Yeah!" Chell shouted.

"With our uncles and Auntie Tin-Tin?" Joey asked.

"Yup."

"All right!" Terry exclaimed. "Should we tell them about it now?"

"Finish breakfast first, bud." Bekkah told him. "Also, I'd like you to invite Mr. Tracy, Mrs. Tracy, and Mr. Kyrano."

"Do you think they'd come?" Chell asked dubiously.

"Maybe. Never know until you ask."

"What's on the program tonight?" Virgil asked Chell.

"Mom didn't tell me. But it will be fun," Chell replied.

"I'm in."

"Me, too," Scott said, poking his head out of the hatch in the bottom of Thunderbird 2.

"Please, please come and watch the movie with us?" Joey wheedled.

Kyrano looked at Grandma Tracy. She nodded.

"We will come."

Knock, knock.

"Come in."

"Mr. Tracy, do you want to see a movie tonight?"

"What movie is it, Terry?"

"I don't know yet. But it won't matter. We always have a good time."

"I'll think about it. Thank you for the invitation."

"You're welcome."

"All the uncles said yes, and Auntie Tin-Tin, too." Chell reported.

"Mr. Kyrano and Mrs. Tracy are coming." said Joey

"Mr. Tracy said he'd think about it." Terry added.

"Well, looks like we'll have to have something special."

Bekkah pulled out a Star Wars movie, Chapter 4: A New Hope. She thought that this story would keep the attention of everyone, including the older generation. She was not disappointed. Everyone got into it, even Jeff. Kyrano appreciated the references to the Force and its grounding in Eastern philosophy. Grandma liked the fact that a handsome older man was one of the swashbuckling heroes. Jeff applauded the strategies used by the rebels in attacking the Death Star. Everyone else just enjoyed the action and adventure. There was the usual food fight. Bekkah sighed. It was getting harder and harder to get the popcorn bits out of the carpet.

It was during a dogfight between the Millenium Falcon and Imperial Tie fighters that the idea came to her. She saw the mounted laser guns used against the enemy and thought, What if we could mount those on Thunderbird 2 and use them for firefighting? She filed the idea away in her mind until she could dictate it into her microcomp. Then she leaned closer to Gordon and enjoyed the movie.