Leave It To Mae

Bent low, a shadowy figure made its way around the front of the temple hide-out, bypassing the stairs to the front entrance and staying low until it reached a dark corner where a tree grew. In the cover provided by the position of the moon and the wide stone steps that made up the outside of the temple wall, the lithe phantom quickly climbed to the temple's summit and approached the nearest of the smaller pagodas. Well-manicured hands lay for long moments on the intricate stonework of the large roof ornament.

Hmm. It's vibrating a little. More like a hum in the stone. Must be some sort of machinery inside.

The small square door was difficult to pry open, and a pain filled curse was whispered.

"Damn. I hate breaking fingernails!"

Feet were applied instead, and the door fell inward to a sturdy kick. A light flashed around inside the pagoda, and the figure's beautiful face smiled.

This must be his communications mast! How clever to hide it in a pagoda... or whatever this thing is. Now, where's the ladder? There's got to be one; this must need maintenance sometimes. Ah! There it is. Okay, Sally. I'm coming!

And swinging herself over to the interior ladder, Mae Tracy was the first to breach the temple's defenses.

Kyrano and Jeff sat close, crosslegged on the floor of Kyrano's suite, a small incense burner between them. Jeff was nervous, not only about this new side he saw in his old friend, but also about the procedure they were going to undertake.

"Now, Jeff. You must relax. Close your eyes. I am going to put my hands on your temples. Breathe in the incense. Do you smell it?"

Jeff nodded.

"Good. Now, focus on its smell. It is heavy, spicy. Focus only on that. Now, do you smell it anymore? Do not speak; just shake your head or nod."

Jeff was surprised at how quickly he had become accustomed to the heavy odor of the burning spices. He shook his head gingerly.

"Excellent. Do not seek to smell it anymore. Just accept that it is gone. Now, focus on my touch as I rub your temples. It is soothing. It is warm. Focus on that. Do you feel it?"

Again, Jeff's original nod turned into a bare shake of his head as the nerve endings in his temples grew accustomed to the touch and he could no longer feel it.

"Do not seek to feel it. Accept that my touch is gone. Focus on my voice. I am speaking low and softly. I will keep speaking. It will become a murmur to you; a droning background noise...."

Kyrano's voice faded into the background of Jeff's consciousness, becoming little more than the gentle noise of a brook. Suddenly, he felt he was in a dark place, alone. In a way it was worse than sensory deprivation training because here he couldn't feel or hear the beat of his own heart, or the sound of his own swallowing.

"Jefferson."

The soft mental voice nearly undid all of Kyrano's preparations as Jeff reacted in shock to the first touch of his friend's mind. But as Jeff had accepted the loss of his senses, he now accepted that this was supposed to be happening. Tentatively, he reached out with his own thoughts, weak and feeble as they seemed to him.

"K-Kyrano?"

"I am here, Jefferson. Look with your inner eye and you will see me."

Jeff didn't exactly know what Kyrano was talking about, but he instinctively tried to "see" into the darkness around him. His efforts did not go unrewarded; a cool golden light materialized beside him. Somehow, he knew this to be the embodiment of his old friend.

"Good. You see me now. And now I see you. Together we will find Sally. But you must trust me. Our thoughts must be one and you must reach out to her. Her mind is very much like your own. I will carry us, and you will search. But should Bella appear on this plane, I will not confront her. She is very powerful. Once we have found Sally, we will know where she is in the physical world. Do you understand?"

"I-I think so."

"Then let us be merged."

The merging of the two personalities was not without pain. For the first time, Jeff saw the scene when Kyrano's father disinherited him for his younger sibling. He saw the cruel but beautiful face of his enemy as a much younger woman. He saw Kyrano's wife, Samani, and felt the love they had for each other. The birth of Tin-Tin, the completeness they had as a family, and Kyrano's terrible grief at Samani's death all became part of Jeff's knowledge, too.

For his part, Kyrano lived through Jeff's memories of his arguments with his father, and the passing of both of his parents in a tornado which swept across the Kansas plains. His eagerness to go to the Moon, and the excitement of that venture thrilled Kyrano as much as it had thrilled Jeff. His friend's deep love for Lucille and the contentment he had with her, as well as the joy he felt at the birth of each and every daughter washed over Kyrano like a tidal wave of emotion. The deep, unabating sorrow Jeff experienced when Lucille died, and the slow climb from the depths of that grief with the help of his girls nearly brought the Malaysian to tears. The pride and love that Jeff felt for his children and the places that each of them occupied in his heart were revealed, and Kyrano began to focus in on one in particular.

"Think on Sally, Jeff. Think on her and all that she means to you."

Jeff focused on her. She was his dark-haired beauty, a vision of what he might have been had he not been born male. Stubborn, caring, quick to anger, intelligent, fearless; he recited in his head all the things that made up her personality. He remembered how proud he felt when she decided on the Air Force as a career and marveled as he reminisced on how quickly she rose through the ranks through her own hard work and perseverance. He remembered the awe she showed when Thunderbird One was revealed to her and the joy that sang through her veins and showed on her face as she flew it. The same joy that made him shiver as he had taken off for the moon. Yes, they were very much alike, and as he thought of her, he found himself drawn in a particular direction.

There was a cool blue light, small and muted and Jeff somehow knew that this was the sleeping consciousness of his oldest child. Reaching out, the merged personality of Jeff and Kyrano gently touched the faint glow. Like lightning, the touch awakened the sleeper and the seekers could hear one thought as the young woman's body responded to her mind's fresh awareness.

"Daddy?!"

Sitting in the dark, dank cell, Sally had drifted off into a fitful doze. She dreamed no dreams; her bound body was too uncomfortable to sleep deeply. She had just nodded off again, her mind releasing her from the knowledge of her body's discomfort when suddenly, something happened that shocked her wide awake. Someone had caressed her; not in a physical sense, but there had definitely been the sensation of a touch, gentle as a feather. A touch so familiar that she could not mistake it for anyone else's. In both thought and voice she cried out to him who had so softly embraced her from afar.

"Daddy?!"

She found herself breathing heavily, trying to regain her bearings in the pitch dark of the room. But as she calmed from the surprising contact, she felt her heart fill with hope.

Daddy knows where I am. And he's coming for me.

JC crept quietly around the back of the temple. Here the solid, straight walls faced the jungle, and the creatures in the overgrown tropical forest were still active. She shivered as she heard the growl of some nocturnal predator and, instead of being able to take the time to examine the structure as she wanted to, she felt compelled to push along quickly. Rounding the far corner, she noticed the ziggurat edges of the temple outlined in the moon's setting light.

It would be easy to climb up there if I knew there was an access from the roof, she mused.

Keeping a low profile but scurrying quickly along, JC hugged the edge of the temple's wall, flashing her light occasionally. She was disappointed; there didn't seem to be any entrance other than the one in the front. She was also getting worried. There was no sign of Christa or Mae on this side of the structure, the place where they were supposed to rendezvous.

She made it to a dark corner where a tree grew. Using the shadows for cover, she took a breather. The sun will be rising soon. Then what do we do? How can we rescue Sally?

A swinging light came around the corner and JC ducked for cover behind the tree.

"JC?" someone whispered. "Is that you?"

"Christa!" JC hissed. "What kept you?" She looked beyond her older sister. "Where's Mae?"

"That's what kept me," Christa muttered as she got closer. "Mae's disappeared."

"Oh, great!" the aquanaut groaned. "Now what do we do?"

"That's your department, Miz Military Strategy," Christa groused. "I did find a possible way in, but I can't open it." She looked up, where the stars were fading and the sky's deep blue was going gray with the approaching dawn. "We'll have daylight soon. All the better to see with."

"And be seen by," JC pointed out. She huffed. "I guess that finding Mae is our first priority. I just hope she didn't get into any trouble with this... nutcase."

"Personally, I think that if anyone could handle that 'nutcase', it would be Mae," Christa commented. "Don't know that the weird yellow eyes would have any effect on our resident air head."

JC smacked Christa on the arm. "You know that's not so. Mae may be a ditz, but she's only a ditz in certain areas. She's got a good business head and has learned the communications in Thunderbird Five inside and out. All that wide-eyed innocent look works in her favor... sometimes."

"Let's hope this is one of those times, then," Christa retorted, rubbing her arm.

Kyrano and Jeff's foray to find Sally did not go unnoticed. Though not on the astral plane herself, the Hood was aware of it on a subconscious level. When the combined entity of Jeff and Kyrano swept into her vicinity, she knew someone was there.

"My brother makes an effort to find me," she muttered. "He is close. Too close. I must see if I can catch him before he returns to his body. My search for the stupid one will have to wait."

With that, she strode from the communications/command chamber, heading for the main hall and her inner sanctum.

Mae made a slow descent down the ladder in the pagoda, trying to make as little noise as possible. If I'm noisy, it will echo in here really well and that weirdo might come looking for me then. After what seemed to be an eternity, her booted feet reached the floor and she swung her light around. There's got to be a door to the inside from here.

Her search was rewarded. Near the floor was a small, metal door, tall enough for a crouching person, and with a handle on the inside at the left. Smiling, Mae knelt on one knee before it, prepared to slide it across. She had her hand on the grip when she heard a voice inside. Alarmed, she put her ear to the door.

"...returns to his body. My search for the stupid one..." The voice faded as the speaker left the room.

"Stupid one?" Mae huffed in a whisper. "I'll show him 'stupid'..." Pressing her ear to the door once more, she waited to make sure there was no other sound. Then she slid the door across and crawled out of the communication mast's chamber.

On Tracy Island, there was a flurry of preparation. Jeff and Kyrano had come out of their trance, both drenched with sweat and panting for breath. Their gazes met, blue eyes to brown, each filled with a new understanding and respect for the other. And both feeling a connection, not to each other, but to a young woman who waited thousands of miles away.

"I know where she is, Jefferson," Kyrano affirmed. "There is an ancient temple that rested on my family's property. We will find her there."

"I know," Jeff replied, levering himself off the floor and giving a hand up to Kyrano. "My other girls are probably there as well. Let's go get them."

Both men hurriedly changed clothes; Kyrano into khaki pants and safari-style jacket, Jeff into his own IR uniform with a gold sash. They entered the lounge where Val sat behind Jeff's desk, tapping a pencil. Brains was seated near Tin-Tin, keeping watch on the young Malaysian's vital signs, and Ruby was staring out at the morning, arms folded. All eyes turned to the two men as they swept into the room.

"Val, your uniform, quickly. Brains, you too," Jeff commanded. "Then prep the helijet for immediate departure." Val's eyes met her father's and she nodded, then got up to obey. Brains said, "Y-Yes, sir," and followed her out.

Ruby turned to her son-in-law, ready to protest. Her eyebrows went up when she saw how both men were dressed. "What's this all about, Jeff? You know that Valentina is...."

"Valentina is well enough to come with me," Jeff said, cutting her off. He went behind his desk and took a semi-automatic pistol from the safe behind it. He checked it for ammo and holstered it. "We know where Sally is. And where she is, the other girls may be also. We're going after them."

"So, it's not enough to send your daughters on a rescue mission that's also a trap, you've got to go running off into one, too," Ruby scoffed.

"This time," Kyrano said as he examined his son, "we have surprise on our side. My sister will have no idea we are coming." He turned to Ruby. "Mrs. Griffith. Would you please stay with Tin-Tin. He is still sedated, and should remain so until we return."

"You're going off and leaving me all alone?" Ruby asked, her eyes wide at this thought.

"Yes." Jeff put his hands on his mother-in-law's shoulders. "I'm leaving you here to hold the fort because I know you can do it. If anything goes wrong here, contact WASP right away. They can get here the fastest."

"And what if something goes wrong where you are? What do I do then? I wouldn't even know...." Ruby's words trailed off as Kyrano kissed his son on the forehead and left the room. Jeff began to follow, but then stopped, turned around, and came back to do the same to Ruby.

"Just pray that nothing goes wrong and we all return safely," he whispered to her. Then he was gone.

Ruby closed her eyes, and a tear ran down her cheek. She sighed. "I will, Jeff. I will."