Thanks again for the reviews. Just a head's up that there may be a slightly longer than usual wait for the next chapter.

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Space, the final frontier… Man's greatest conquest… And somewhere Kayo's not entire comfortable.

There's the fact that the only thing saving them from a rather unpleasant death is a few feet of steel (not that she doesn't trust Brains' engineering) and then there's the lack of gravity. She finds herself floating around helplessly inside of Thunderbird 5, unable to stop herself from spinning.

Jeff's rather keen for them all to do at least a brief spell of satellite duty, even though John seems to have practically been born for the role. The Tracy boys' father's logic is that one day maybe John might not be able to man the satellite for whatever reason sinister or otherwise and if that ever happens, they'll still need their eye in the sky, so it's vital that one of them can take his place if the need ever arises.

She's the last one to be sent up there, well asides Alan who's been deemed too young by his father, grandmother and eldest brother. Scott, Virgil and Gordon have all had a shot though, they're more or less suited to it but none quite so much as John, the isolation barely seems to affect him, if anything he appears to be thriving in it.

She's not quite so keen.

She was born and spent the first few years of her life in the Borneo rainforest, after that she was taken to Tracy Island… She's very much a child of the outdoors and these close confined spaces with their recycled air don't suit her. They're cold, dead and unnatural.

She shouldn't be floating like this, not in such a clumsy fashion. She's not used to being unable to control her trajectory. Of course, she understands why it's happening and the physics behind it but somehow she can't figure how to apply them here in order to prevent this ridiculous spinning.

Unfortunately for her, John who was supposed to be showing her the ropes seemed to find her predicament rather amusing and was being less than helpful as he floats there as if he was born in zero-gravity. He's been laughing at her and teasing her for the past fifteen minutes and it's beginning to ware her patience a little thin. In much the same way as she doesn't like being at the wrong end of one of Gordon's pranks, her pride's never been able to put up with being mocked too well either.

"John! Stop tormenting Kayo!" Jeff requests before pausing to reflect on his words. "Now there's something I never thought I'd have to say…"

"Okay dad…" John eventually stops chuckling. "Hang on Kayo, I'll help you out."

He takes her hand, stopping her from spinning uselessly. It was a spin he'd actually put her in earlier when he'd grabbed her foot and sent her spinning literally head over heels. She's not too unhappy to be relatively stationary again, so far, she's not all that impressed with space.

John gives her his best apologetic smile which leaves decidedly to be desired. She just rolls her eyes, it's one thing punching Gordon in the face but the second eldest Tracy brother just doesn't seem worth the effort, especially not when she's got to spend the next week up here with him. No, she'll have to learn to live with all of his space-oddities at least for a little while.

They made their way over towards the airlock. Jeff's about to go back into Thunderbird 3 and return to the Island. He gives them a last bit of advice.

"Remember-" He addresses both of them. "Keep in contact."
"We will do." Kayo promises waving.
"And for goodness' sake, try not to blow up Thunderbird 5!"
"We won't dad." John declares giving Kayo a knowing smile.
"Well, then… I'll see you two in a week!"

They wait for a couple of minutes until they can see Thunderbird 3 whizzing away back towards the island. Kayo would rather like to stay on the ring, at least there's some gravity there! Unfortunately, that's not where most of the action happens and she finds herself following John back into the zero-G zone.

She doesn't know how he makes it look so easy, practise she guesses. They have trouble getting him to come back down to Earth sometimes, he's had time to get used to it, unlike her. It's very much like trying to learn how to ride a bike. Ouch! She bumps into another wall. She just knows she's going to be black and blue by the end of the day.

"You don't like this very much, do you?" John guesses.
"What clued you in?" She asks sailing past the control panel she had been aiming for.
"That's because you're applying Earth physics." He informs her drifting over to where she just collided with the wall again. "Think of it like dancing more than running or fighting."

She hesitates trying to imagine what he's talking about. He makes it sound so easy… She remembers being taught how to dance by Grandma and Jeff. She can't even remember why they'd thought that she needed to learn, other than the fact that she didn't know how. What she can recall is that they'd said it wasn't about strength but rather grace, balance and timing. Now, to figure out how to apply those to the depths of space…

She cautiously pushes herself away from the wall she had just collided with. It's not quite the direction that she wanted to start travelling in but at least she's going at a slightly slower speed. John reaches out and gently grabs her round the wrist as she travels past. It's enough to halt her.

"Just try floating…" John advises.

She nods, relaxing slightly as he lets her go. She closes her eyes and tries to stay as still as physically possible. It's strange up here. She can't tell which way's up and which way's down. There's a lot of noise too as John listens to various radio signals all coming from Earth. She's got no idea how he manages to keep track of all of them but somehow he copes and does a brilliant job too.

A little calmer, she dares open her eyes and reach out to one of the control panels. She knows roughly what to do and how to do it having been briefed by Jeff. It takes a few minutes for her to completely get to grips with the controls but once she's got the hang on it, she finds the task relatively easy.

Everything seems quiet, for the moment at least. It's always a fine line defining an emergency that needs their attention to one which the local authorities could deal with. They all know that sometimes, someone will die but meanwhile the Thunderbirds might be somewhere else saving ten lives. Its painful decision and one that she doesn't envy John and his father having to make.

"Hey, Kayo do you mind if I show you something?" John asks her after about an hour and a half of listening to Earth's radio signals.

"Sure." She replies getting a little bored. "What is it?"

"I'll show you."

That spikes her curiosity. She follows him out onto the gravity ring.

She feels unnaturally heavy. John however barely even seems to register the change as he walks along purposefully. She wonders what this is all about, it's not like the second eldest of the brothers to be so secretive. Eventually he stops and looks out into the depths of space as if he's looking for something out there amongst the stars. She waits patiently in silence as he searches for whatever it is. She hopes this isn't another one of those things where he's become distracted by the beauty of the stars and that he isn't about to start explaining the workings of the cosmos to her.

He's a bit like Gordon in that respect. If you get one of them started about either the water and all of its glory or the wonders of space, then it can be near impossible to get them to shut up. What's impressive is that they can always give you new facts. What's annoying is that they can't detect when you no longer want to know.

Fortunately though, it looks like it's something else which is on his mind.

"There!" He points out suddenly. "See it?"
"That star?" She asks following where he's pointing at.
"Yes." He replies with an odd smile.
"Uh… What's so special about it?"
"Not much…" He chuckles as a reply. "If you ignore the name… It's called Kyrano."

Kayo blinks a couple of times, she's struggling to register what he just said. Slowly, she presses her hand up against the glass. She wishes that the burning ball of gas was a little closer. She knows it's impossible but she's like to reach out and hold it. For a moment, she can understand John's fascination with the stars. Who knows? Maybe some form of life, no matter how strange or primitive might be being warmed by that sun, hundreds of thousands of light years away.

"I'm sorry it took this long." He continues on despite noticing that she's a little distant at the moment. "You remember that promise I made you all those years ago?"
"How could I forget?" She speaks quietly before turning to him. "Thank you, John."
"You're welcome…" Is all that he says as a reply.

How many years has it been? She's no longer a scared kid whose just lost her parents and has found herself on a strange island trying to come to grips with a new language and the fact that her life's been torn apart. He's grown too. They're very much adults now, their own people. Still, he remembered and kept his promise that he made one stary August night when they were waiting for the meteors.

There may be a single tear on the side of her cheek now, she can't quite tell and for once, she doesn't really care or feel like it makes her weak.

She looks out into the vast expanse of space with a slightly heavy heart but one with a fair amount of happiness. She's never really visited her parents' graves, not since the accident, Jeff's offered to take her more than once but she always refuses. She can't face going back, not after what happened. Perhaps, as odd as it might sound, this new star might become their graves. Their bodies won't be there but it's a place for her to look to and remember them without necessarily thinking about what happened to them.

She thinks they'd like that. She hopes they would at least. She hopes that they're up there (or should that be up here?) somewhere and that they're proud of her.

The sun's beginning to rise, peaking around the planet.

High above Earth, her heart suddenly feels a little lighter.