So here's my second story for The Thunderbirds! It's another multi-chapter fic, though probably won't be as long as Of Umbrellas and Brothers. And fear not! I haven't abandoned OU&B but I need some time to get some ideas for it, though I've still got a bunch of chapters written so there'll still be regular updates! Hope you enjoy this fic, and let me know what you think!

This fic is also a belated birthday present for my best friend Starkid-McFly (I hope I got her username right) but she knows who she is!

baao

Disclaimer: I don't own Thunderbirds though I really, really, really wish I did.

Chapter One:

It was a routine trip to Thunderbird Five for Alan and Scott Tracy; John was due downtime so Alan and Scott had to take Thunderbird Three up into space to switch the two brothers and then Scott had to escort John back down to Earth. It was a trip that they had done many times before, and the journey was going as smooth as ever as Thunderbird Three broke out of the Earth's atmosphere and into the glittering world of space.

As per usual, Scott was allowing Alan to take the lead – it was Alan's 'bird after all – and Scott would fly himself and John home again afterwards. Alan was chattering away about cars which his elder brother didn't really understand, nor particularly care about, and so Scott was gazing into the dark void that was the home to his immediate younger brother.

"So Scotty,"

Scott turned his head to look at his youngest brother at the mention of his name.

"How does it feel to not be in command at this point in time?" asked Alan, with a cheeky grim plastered across his face.

"A breath of fresh air," replied Scott, grinning, not allowing Alan to have the satisfaction that it was somewhat unnerving for the eldest Tracy brother to not be in complete control at the moment.

"Sure, sure" said Alan dismissively and with a wave of his hand "I can see the tension in your face, Scooter. You're wishing you were flying this beauty."

"I'd rather be flying my 'bird actually, Sprout. Space was never anything particularly special to me – I don't understand how you and our stargazing brother do it."

"Do what?"

"Spend weeks and weeks up here. I'd much rather be in the skies on Earth."

Alan frowned before continuing: "it's not too bad... I mean, I miss Grandma's cooking when I'm up on Five, but at least I'm relatively safe from Gordon's pranks way up here."

"One plus for you two, then, though I bet you get hit extra hard when you get back. I wouldn't risk it if I were you." answered Scott, with a slight grimace at the thought of his trouble-making brother's antics back on Tracy Island.

"Yeah, well, I can always get him back."

"Sure," replied Scott with a laugh, "I'll leave you to your plotting whilst I call John with our ETA."

Alan merely shrugged whilst Scott put in the call to their blond brother.

"Reading you, Scott, what's up?" answered John, promptly.

"Just keeping you up to date with our ETA; should be docking at Five in approximately 50 minutes." replied the eldest Tracy.

"Sounds good, Scott. I tell you what, I can't wait to get back home – I ran out of coffee three days ago and I'm dying for a Soy Skinny Macchiato."

"Each to their own, Johnny," laughed Scott "Alan'll be relieved to know I packed more supplies for Five and I did manage to include coffee."

"Shame you didn't do that for me last time," grumbled John whilst Alan cheered in the background.

Scott laughed and replied: "I'll bare that in mind for next time, Johnny. I'll call you when our ETA is minus 10 minutes."

"FAB Scott," said John with the final traces of a frown just leaving his features, "but before you go, Alan needs to know there's a group of asteroids heading in your direction very soon. You should miss them, but the flight could get a little rocky. We'd need to wait here on Five until it's passed before we can head back home."

"FAB John, we'll be with you soon." responded Scott before signing off. "You get that, Al?" he asked.

"Sure did, Scooter. We'll be fine with an astronaut like me around!"

"Yeah, yeah, kid, don't get too cocky."

"Fine, fine..." mumbled Alan, and the journey continued in silence for half an hour. Scott was about to radio in with John with their new ETA when Alan's voice cut through the silence.

"Er, Scott, we may have a little problem..."

"And what's that, Alan?" asked the elder of the pair.

"The asteroids may have arrived earlier than expected and-"

Alan was suddenly cut off by a tremendous bang and the entire ship shook with the force.

"Don't panic, Alan," commanded Scott, "use the radar to pinpoint their positions and fly around them – I know you can do it."

Alan nodded and began fumbling with the dials in front of him whilst Scott called base.

"Thunderbird Three to base, come in."

"Base here, what's the problem, Scott?" answered their father, Jeff.

"We seem to have hit a group of asteroids. Alan's going to fly through but I need you to call John for me. I need to help Alan." informed Scott.

"Consider it done; call me when you're through."

"FAB sir,"

Scott ended the call with Tracy Island and changed his focus to his youngest brother. Alan looked stressed as he tried to steer through the almost overwhelming number of rocks with the ship being hit once more.

"Calm, Alan," reinforced Scott as they avoided yet another very close call with a particularly nasty looking asteroid.

"Right, calm," breathed Alan is response and narrowed his eyes in focus.

It seemed as if they were nearing the end of the group and Scott took a breath of relief which may have been done a little too soon as suddenly, an asteroid slammed itself into Scott's side of the vessel.

"Sorry!" cried Alan, "I couldn't -"

Before Alan could finish his sentence, an enormous asteroid took its chance to rocket into Thunderbird Three. Small explosions burst all around the Tracy brothers as the 'bird struggled to deal with the impact.

Another asteroid took the chance to fly head-on to the 'bird, which suddenly felt very small to Scott, and before he could warn Alan, everything went black.

Jefferson Tracy waited patiently for his eldest son to return his call. He hoped that Alan and Scott had avoided all the asteroids, and John had seemed confident over the radio that Alan could evade everything.

However, it had been over 20 minutes since Scott had called him; Jeff was now starting to worry. Turning to face his sons' portraits, he put another call in to his eldest son.

He waited for an answer for a minute, then another, and then another but there was still no answer and Jeff had no choice but to give up.

"Dad?"

Gordon's voice cut through Jeff's reverie and he raised his head to look at his fourth-born.

"Yes, Gordon?"

"Everything okay? I haven't heard from Allie yet and I thought they'd be at Five by now." asked Gordon, coming fully into his father's office.

"I hope so. Scott called in about a group of asteroids headed their way, but John seems to think Allie could get through."

"And now you're not so confident?"

"I can't raise an answer from Scott or Alan, and Scott promised to call me back when they were through." replied Jeff, running a hand over his face.

"Maybe they're not through yet..." suggested Gordon.

"I doubt it – it's been almost half an hour and the group apparently wasn't that large. I'll call John and see if he knows anything."

Dialling his second-eldest son, Jeff could only hope that Gordon was right.

What did you all think? Let me know in a review!