April 12 --- Rescue

Holiday: Look Up at the Sky Day


Imagination is an instrument of survival. - Rogier Van Der Heide




"They're gonna save me, Face. Take me back to my home planet and say 'so long' to all you humans."

"Murdock, they're meteors. Lots of them, yes, but just meteors."

"That's what they want you to think. If they didn't disguise themselves, the world's armies would be trying to destroy them! Wouldn't even consider a bunch of ETs coming to say a friendly hello."

"You don't look like ET, Murdock. What makes you think they'd know you were... one of them?"

"Vibes, Face. Alien vibes."

"Uh-huh. Tell me - why would you want to leave Earth, anyway? Do you even remember your home planet? Maybe it's like, like Mars, or the moon, even. Would you really want to live someplace like that?"

"It's not what's on the surface. It's what's underneath. You should know that."

Face frowned before moving on. "But what about the team? You could just walk away - excuse me, fly away from the team?"

Murdock watched the meteor shower for several minutes.

"Well, I guess that would be hard to do. But I'd be back among my own, y'know? And I really don't get to spend that much time with you guys, when you really look at it. I could always come back to visit."

"Yeah."

Face stood abruptly and moved back toward the Vette. Murdock, startled, jumped up and followed, granting his 'saviors' one last glance. He slowed when he saw Face leaning against the car.

"Something wrong, Face?"

"Not with me. But I want to know what's happened to you."

"I do not know what you mean, monsieur. I'm tres bien."

"Bullshit. And drop the accent. Your sky buddies won't understand it."

"I - "

"No, Murdock. Why the sudden need to be 'saved'? Why do you want to leave? What happened?"

"Nothing!"

"Again - bullshit! Now you can tell me or you can tell Hannibal. Which would you prefer?"

Murdock kicked at the tire. He knew damn well what would happen if he had to talk to Hannibal. He'd try to fix things, but not before giving Murdock hell. At least if he told Face, he could share the blame.

"Well, you remember that toxic waste stunt we pulled a few weeks back?"

"Yeah." Face immediately knew where this was going. "You neglected to shut off the faucet."

"I was highly stressed, Face!"

"Okay, okay. So what about it?"

"Well, the admins got the bill for the clean-up. They weren't real happy. And they took it to Richter, so he's not real happy. And he showed it to me, so - "

"So you're not real happy?"

"No. They're talking about a transfer."

"What!"

"Yeah, somewhere up north." Murdock slumped against the car. "I don't wanna go away from you guys, Face. But I don't know what I can do about it."

"Other than going back to your home planet?"

Murdock sighed. "Well, it was kinda fun thinking about it. I mean, just think what I might really look like!"

"I don't think I want to know, okay? Anyway, don't worry about it. They're not going to transfer you anywhere."

"How can you be so sure?"

Face chuckled. "You forget who you're talking to, 'ET'. If I can get you out for a lung transplant, I can stop a simple transfer. Now let's go get a pizza."