Categories > TV > Thunderbirds > Enhanced

Adaptations

by andrewjameswilliams 0 reviews

After participating in a rescue at a US research base John begin's experiencing strange and amazing side effects.

Category: Thunderbirds - Rating: PG - Genres: Action/Adventure - Published: 2006-03-18 - Updated: 2006-03-18 - 2933 words

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Enhanced

Enhanced


Chapter Seventeen: Adaptations


Brains Lab

One Week Later


Brains smiled as he put the finishing touches to the device that he had been working on for the last week. After the boys had returned from the fire at that refinery that had threatened Sydney with destruction it had been obvious that they needed something, something to monitor John's nanites. At very least until they could figure out away to get them out of him without killing him in the process, which could be along time.

He had been studying the data that Alan had recovered on the nanites for them. The technology was extremely complex and while he was beginning to understand the principles, it would be along time before he was comfortable enough to begin experimenting to see what he could do with it. Until then they would have to make adjustments to cope with the nanites being inside John and what they had done to his body. Brains had been thinking about the way John would get tired and low on energy and how his body behaved when it did happen, it had sparked an idea that he had begun testing out while they continued doing tests to determine the strength and limits of John's abilities.

One of the things he had soon discovered was that when the nanites ran low on power John's blood sugar level dropped dramatically. Which explained why John felt so lousy when it happened, the effect was almost like diabetes in that regard. But other things changed as well, blood pressure for one shot up and the levels of the bio-polymer residue that the nanites seemed to produce as part of the metabolic process of there organic components, dropped dramatically. Brains had had to come up with something that could monitor all these levels and sound or display a warning when they began approaching danger levels, by the time John started feeling the effects it could always be to late.

The solution had been simple but executing that solution had been the difficult bit. Brains had come up with a new wristcom for John that would monitor everything and still perform its normal job of watch/communications device. That had been the difficult bit, even with modern microelectronics, the wristcoms were complex electronic devices packed with micro circuitry not to mention a heavily miniaturised but extremely powerful battery. To make a new wristcom for John had required him to go right back to the drawing board and design it from scratch.

Brains had actually enjoyed the challenge as it had forced him to think and design in away that he hadn't had to do since they were first designing the Thunderbirds. Though this had been somewhat different, the Thunderbirds were after all macro-engineering not micro-engineering like with the wristcoms. Brains picked up the wristcom and examined it, the display screen was lit up and displaying the normal digital time display, John preferred digital watches to the analogue clock ones that his brothers wore. Brains wasn't sure why that was, but guessed it was more a personal preference than anything else and it had been easy enough to accommodate.

Satisfied that everything was fine with the new wristcom Brains smiled and put it down. Before reaching out and pressing the intercom control on his workbench.

"Mr Tracy," he said.

"Yes Brains," Jeff Tracy answered immediately.

"C...c...can you please s...s...send John down to my lab please Mr Tracy."

"You have something Brains?"

"Y...y...yes Mr Tracy I do," Brains replied.

"I will send John down as soon as possible Brains."

"Okay Mr Tracy." Brains signed off and turned to his computer and pulled up the data on the sensor that Alan had recovered with the data on the nanites.

While he waited for John to arrive he might as well see how he could adapt it for there use, he'd already come up with adjustments to there existing stealth technology to counter the sensors ability to scan them now he wanted to see how they could use it themselves. Alan was right the sensor had some pretty impressive capabilities, capabilities that he could improve upon for their use. It was just a matter of figuring out how to do it.

***

Sundeck


Jeff lowered his wristcom after Brains signed off and looked over from his position under one of the parasol towards the swimming pool. John was in there swimming, completely oblivious to the rest of the world. For a few moments Jeff just watched his third born son swim, his tall frame moving effortless through the water, while he wasn't as good or graceful a swimmer as Gordon, John could still make swimming look easy.

"John," he called after a moment. Hearing his name being called John stopped swimming and treading water turned in place to look over at his father.

"Yes Dad?" John asked curious as to what his father wanted.

"Brains just called he wants to see you in the lab," Jeff replied. "He says that he has something for you."

"Something to help with these things in me," John asked.

"That is a pretty safe bet John," Jeff answered with a smile.

John smiled back and swum to the edge of the pool before climbing out and not for the first time Jeff mentally smiled when he saw how fit John like all his brothers was. Despite being tall and slim John was still well built, like a gymnast, balancing muscular bulk and strength with agility. All the boys were like that, as was Jeff himself in point of fact. Having been bitten by the fitness bug years ago as a young man just entering the US airforce Jeff had made it a point to keep himself in top shape.

"I'll go and have a shower then head to the lab Dad," John said.

"Okay John. I'll join you down there shortly."

"Okay Dad." As he spoke John picked up the towel that he had left on one of the sun loungers and wrapped it around himself before heading towards the house. As he walked he smiled at Kyrano who was coming the other way. Kyrano smiled back before continuing on his way to speak to Jeff.

"Excuse me Mr Tracy," Kyrano said respectfully. "There is a call for you waiting on line three."

"Thank you Kyrano. Who is it," Jeff asked standing up.

"I believe its Miss Adams," Kyrano answered. Jeff blinked surprised, Julia Adams was one of the top mangers of Tracy Industries, and one of the few who knew what really went on here on Tracy Island. Julia wouldn't contact him here unless it was important and not something she could deal with on her own, such instances were few and far between.

"Did she give you any idea what the problem is," Jeff asked.

"I'm afraid not though she did say it was a matter of the utmost urgency," Kyrano replied. Jeff nodded having expected that, so without speaking further he followed in John's footsteps bound for the villa house.

***

John's Room

Ten Minutes Later


John stepped out of his bedroom, freshly showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. He was curious as to what Brains wanted to see him about but he was certain that it had to have something to do with nanites inside his body. He knew that Brains had been examining the data Alan had recovered intensely, maybe he had found away to remove the nanites from his body.

Strangely John wasn't sure how he actually felt about that prospect now. Though the nanites were causing him some problems now and again when they ran low on energy he was beginning to like the way they made him feel most of the time. He had never felt as good as he felt now, and while his now superhuman speed and strength scared him somewhat, he liked the feeling. The thought that he could suddenly go back to being a normal human being, with normal senses and normal physical abilities was not as appealing as it had been. I'm coming to like being a virtual real life superman, John thought, going back to being normal would be so strange. But if that is what Brains has figured out how to do then I'll cope. Probably be easier to do in now than later.

John sighed to himself. Standing here in the hallway outside his bedroom was not going to tell him what Brains had come up with. So he turned and started walking in the direction of Brains lab, mentally preparing himself for whatever Brains had to say.

He hadn't gotten far when a voice behind him made him jump slightly.

"John," Scott asked from behind him. John paused and spun around almost tripping himself up with the speed of the motion. He was still getting used to the way his body could move so fast, though he was having fewer and fewer problems in that regard at least. He saw that Scott had emerged from his bedroom, where he'd been doing something on his computer, and was looking at him in curiosity. John could hear music coming out of the room as well and resisted the impulse to roll his eyes as he heard the distinctive sound of jazz. He hated that what Scott and surprisingly Alan found so attractive about jazz was beyond him.

"Hi Scott," John replied. "You startled me."

"Sorry I didn't mean to," Scott answered with a smile. "Guess my music masked my footsteps from even your hearing." John shook his head.

"No I'm trying to keep my hearing at normal level," John replied smiling back. "It's not polite to inadvertently eavesdrop on other peoples conversations after all. And that's way to easy to do when I let the sensitivity of my hearing creep up."

"True. So where are you heading in such a hurry? I thought you were swimming."

"I was but Brains called up to Dad," John explained. "Brains wants to see me in the lab. He says he has something for me."

"That sounds interesting," Scott answered. "Mind if I tag along?"

"Sure come on." Scott smiled.

"Ok I'll just go turn my CD off and be right with you." John nodded and for a moment Scott disappeared back into his bedroom.

After a moment the sound of jazz music stopped as Scott turned the player off and John resisted the impulse to sigh in relief that the horrid sound was no longer assaulting his ears. Then Scott reappeared, walking fully out into the hallway and closing the door behind him. Scott inwardly smiled when he saw that John was hiding his relief that he had turned the CD off, he knew that John did not like jazz one bit. Though I don't see why, he thought, jazz is perfectly good music.

"Lets go then," he said to John. John smiled once then turned and started walking again, Scott matched his brothers pace and they walked in companionable silence towards Brains lab.

***

Brains Lab


Brains looked over at his lab door when he heard the familiar sound of it sliding open. He smiled when he saw John come in and he wasn't surprised to see Scott coming in with him. Though he was a bit surprised the Jeff hadn't come along, something had obviously come up to delay him.

"You asked to see me Brains?" John asked.

"Yes. I have s...s...something here for you John. Something to h...h...help you with the nanites and avoid s...s...situations like the one l...l...last week at the e...e...end of the Sydney r...r...refinery fire," Brains replied.

"Oh what have you got Brains," John asked hopefully, wondering what Brains had come up with.

Brains smiled and picked up the new wristcom and handed it to John. John frowned in confusion when Brains handed it to him. A new wristcom, what did that have to do with the nanites? John looked at Brains with a confused look on his handsome features. Brains smiled softly realising that John didn't understand why he had seemingly given him a new wristcom when his current one worked perfectly well.

"It's n...n...not a normal wristcom John," he explained. "Its b...b...been redesigned to include s...s...sensors to monitor a v...v...variety of things in your body and from them d...d...determine the s...s...state of the nanites. Put it on and you'll s...s...see."

John raised an eyebrow but did as he was told and took off his old wristcom and put on the new one. As he tightened the strap he noticed that there was a new button on the side, next to the small green one that was used when a call was received to either answer or send a busy signal. As soon as he was happy that the watch wasn't going to fall off his wrist he looked at the face of the watch which looked no different to his current watch.

"Okay now what Brains?" he asked. "I noticed a new button on the side near the receive button."

"P...p...press the new b...b...button John," Brains instructed and John did as he was told and was startled when the display on the watch changed. Changed from showing the time to showing what almost looked like a power gage with different sized bars that ranged from a tiny red one to a large green one. The bars shaded from four green ones, to four yellow ones that progressively darkened to amber to three red ones that themselves darkened to the deep red final bar. Currently only two of the green bars were illuminated along with the amber and red ones; the other two were dark.

"Okay Brains what does this display mean," he asked. "It's a display of my energy levels isn't it?"

"Y...y...yes," Brains replied. "Basically that is w...w...what it is. The watch will monitor your blood s...s...sugar level and other factors which my t...t...tests have shown change as p...p...power levels in the nanites start to drop. When you enter the yellow to amber area the watch will s...s...sound a series of warning bleeps to alert you and then a much louder series of bleeps when you e...e...enter the red zone."

As he listened to what Brains said a smile appeared on John's face. The watch would help him; it would help him a lot. Being able to keep an eye on what the nanites energy level was like was a major step in the direction of living with the things and the incredible abilities they had given him. John looked at the energy level display again, he guessed that it was showing only two green bars because they hadn't had dinner yet and breakfast had been nearly four hours ago. Add in the fact that he'd been testing his capabilities some more this morning before going swimming it made sense that the nanites energy level would have dropped considerably.

He pressed the small button again and the normal watch display returned and he looked up at Brains.

"Thanks Brains," he said smiling. "This will help a lot." Brains smiled sheepishly at the praise.

"Y...y...your welcome John," Brains replied. "It's the l...l...least I can do until I f...f...figure out how to get those t...t...things out of you."

"Still that watch will help a lot," Scott commented speaking for the first time. "It's a major step forward Brains. Especially as no one knows if the ultimate goal of getting the nanites out of John is even possible, there are still so many unknowns about this technology."

"True Scott," John agreed a moment before the intercom bleeped for attention. John watched as Brains reached over and answered the hail.


"Laboratory," Brains replied.

"Excuse me Mr Brains but can you please finish whatever experiments you are doing," Kyrano answered. "Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."

Listening John exchanged an amused glance with Scott; it was a common practice for Kyrano to call Brains a short time before dinner was ready. Without being alerted that dinner was almost ready Brains would keep working on whatever experiment or project he happened to be working and not eat at all. It had happened before on more than one occasion. Scott smiled back.

"We w...w...will be right up Kyrano," Brains replied into the intercom ignoring the look Scott and John were exchanging.

"I will set your places ready," Kyrano answered then closed the connection from his end.


"Let's go," Scott said turning around and heading out of the lab. John followed making a mental note to check the energy display on his new wristcom after dinner so he could see exactly what effect it had on his nanite energy levels. He already knew that eating increased energy but it would be interesting to see just how much it helped.

Brains for his part locked down his computer before standing up and following the boys out of his lab towards the surface, all the while making a mental note to check the readings from John's new wristcom later. The more information he had on the nanites and how they behaved and reacted the better, because it would take him closer to what was at the moment his ultimate goal with them.

Getting them out of John.
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