On the bridge of the Satellite of Love Joel had finished piecing together and restoring the security footage he had tapped into from Deep 13. He was standing ankle deep in loose circuit boards and the multi-colored wires that snaked across the floor. After successfully retrieving the audio for the footage he synchronized it with the visual data. "Okay that should do it. Cambot, play it from the beginning, please." He removed his seldom seen glasses and casually tossed them on the desk.

Cambot rewound the footage then proceeded to play the recorded footage:

'"That's amazing Gypsy. Well, we gotta do something." Mike found a large ringed binder full of details, files and schematics revolving around 'Gizmonic Institute' and opened it up. He rested the binder on the small control panel in front of him. "Here's a manifest for the 'Satellite of Love'; maybe there's something here that can help." He began flipping through the pages.

"Oh, yes! Please, please, please!" Gypsy watched from the satellite's live feed with eager anticipation.

"Alright, I assume you-" Mike was cut off midsentence when an unusually pale gentleman in a purple cloak with a green hued brain in a large dish appeared behind him. Mike, sensing someone standing behind him, stopped reading and looked back at the person who manifested out of nowhere. "Gah!" He saw the exposed brain and took a step back in horror and disgust. "What are you doing with that brain? And who are you anyway?"

"Michael J. Nelson." The pale man spoke with a tinge on hostility in his voice as he answered the confused blonde.

"Hey, I'm Michael J. Nelson, too. But just call me Mike." He grinned like an idiot as he extended his hand to shake.

"Silence!" The pale man pointed a single finger at Mike. "You are a destroyer of worlds and must be stopped."'

"Skip ahead a little Cambot." Joel was fascinated by the monumental situation that had taken place while he was in the theater. "I want to see what happens just before Mike vanishes."

Cambot did as he was instructed and proceeded to fast-forward through the footage. Joel watched in high speed as the gray jumpsuited temp and the pale visitor exchanged odd dialogue and watched as Mike tried to escape through the door. The scene was made all the more interesting when Frank showed up. "That's good! Press 'play' please."

'"Hey, hey, hey! What is going on here?" He stared up and down the pale intruder and noticed the exposed brain in the dish. "Nice brain! Is it yours?" He quickly relapsed into his evil persona. "I mean, how'd you get in here? Who are you?"

"TV's Frank." The pale man answered as he immediately recognized the unexpectedly polite but naïve lackey.

"Hey, I'm TV's Frank! You imposter! I oughta-"

"Wait," Mike overheard the odd confrontation from the door. "he told me his name was 'Michael J. Nelson'!"

"Oh really..." Frank crossed his arms in unfounded arrogance. "so which is it? Are you 'Michael J. Nelson' or 'TV's Frank'?"

"What? Neither!" The pale man shook his head in utter annoyance. "Imbeciles... Allow me to properly introduce myself: I am called 'Observer'."

Mike returned to the center of the room. "Then why'd you say your name was-"

"I didn't! I wasn't giving you my name, I was merely addressing you by your name upon my initial arrival, you towering ignoramus!"

"But you just told me-"

"No! I was addressing you by your name also!" He stared at Mike and Frank for a brief second. "How can a species as dense as humans have possible evolved to the highest form of intelligent life on this ocean covered rock?"

Mike and Frank looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and answered with a simple. "I don't know."

Observer sighed and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "That was rhetorical, you weren't meant to provide an actual answer."

Frank put his hand on Observer's shoulder and pushed him back. "Answer my question you pasty liar! What's going on?"

"I..." Observer removed Frank's hand from his shoulder and straightened his cloak. "I am here to take Michael J. Nelson to an intergalactic prison to prevent this buffoon from committing multiple acts of genocide."

"Genocide!?" Frank couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Mike, what the heck's wrong with you man?"

"I didn't do anything!"

Observer added. "Yet."

"Right, yet." Mike agreed. "Please Frank, you gotta help me! I don't know what's going on and I don't want to spend the rest of my life in jail!"

"The rest of your life?" Frank put his hand to his chin as pondered the idea. "Well, seeing as Dr. Forrester and I were just going to kill you anyway, I think this is the best option."

"Oh, well, if it's the-" Mike's eyes got wide as he just realized what Frank said. "You were going to KILL ME?!"

Gypsy, still watching from the satellite also overheard the revelation. "They were going to kill MIKE? Not Joel? Oh thanks Heavens!" It was then she felt a little guilty for being so happy. "Oh! Poor Mike! I have to help him!" She tried to get Frank and Observers' attentions. "Hey! Hey you guys! Hey!"'

Joel heard Gypsy's concerned voice on the footage. "Gypsy? Wow, she really is worried about Mike." He ran his fingers through his hair as he began processing the odd events and continued watching the incredibly strange footage.

'Frank, Observer and Mike all looked at Gypsy on the monitor. "What?" Frank asked sounding a little irritated.

"Uh, you guys should leave Mike alone! He's a nice guy!"

"Nice guy?" Frank scoffed at the notion. "You only just met him, how would you know?"

"Uh..." Gypsy was struggling to answer. "Well, I was programmed to know nice people from bad people! Mike's nice and you're bad! So there!"

Observer sighed unamused. "Ah yes, the robot called Gypsy. Of course she'd speak up on poor Mike's behalf."

"Huh?" Mike didn't understand what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, right. Time travel. You see Mike, you and those annoying little toys on that ridiculous spacecraft become quite good friends. At least, you did until I decided to alter the current timeline for the betterment of the universe."

"You altered the timeline?"

"Yes. And now we must be off."

"To where?"

"Haven't you been paying attention at all?" Observer was losing his patience. "You are going to be incarcerated to prevent genocide. Now, we must be off." He looked over at Frank. "Frank."

Frank responded flatly. "Observer. Mike."

Mike replied in the same demeanor. "Frank. Observer."

Observer joined in. "Mike." He held out his brain. "Say good-bye to your little friend."

Sadly Mike waved good-bye to Gypsy through the monitor. "Bye Gypsy. Thank for trying to help."

Observer shook his head and in an instant he and Mike were gone from the basement of 'Deep 13'.

Frank was left standing alone. He looked around the now vacated area. "Well, that was easy. I wonder if 'Golden Girls' is on..." He walked out of the room leaving Gypsy with a blank monitor screen.

"Oh my stars!" Gypsy was genuinely worried about poor Mike. "I have to do something! I have to tell Joel! Joel will fix it! He can fix anything!"'

The footage came to end shortly after Mike and Observer disappeared. Static and silence overtook the image on the monitor and Joel was left with a critical decision.

"Man, this is heavy." Joel leaned down against the desk and bowed his head as he tried to think of a solution. "This guy is in some serious trouble, but I don't know how I could help." He looked up at Cambot. "But I can't just ignore him, can I?"

Cambot shook his body left and right, answering Joel with a firm 'no'.

"You're right Cambot. But do you really think we could help him out?"

This time Cambot answered a definitive 'yes' by bobbing his whole body up and down.

"Wish I had your confidence."

Crow and Tom returned to the bridge of the ship and were confused by the mess of exposed wires and circuit boards all over the place. Tom hovered up out of the mess and onto the desk. "What the heck happened Joel? Did you see a spider or something?"

"Spider!" Crow started panicking and scrambled to climb up Joel's leg. "Where?! Kill it! Then kill it again!"

"No, you guys." Joel pried Crow from his leg and put him back on the floor. "No spider."

"Oh, good. Then what you do?"

"Remember what Gypsy said about that temp in Deep 13 named Mike?"

"Yeah?" Crow knew where Joel was heading and wasn't thrilled.

"Oh Joel," Tom sounded a little disappointed in his friend and creator. "you shouldn't indulge in Gypsy's fantasies, it'll only encourage her."

"I'm not indulging any fantasy Servo, I was just curious about what happened. That's all."

"And what you find out?"

"I found out that Mike needs help."

"And you're going to help him?"

"I might."

"How?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything about time travel or alien court systems or even anything about Mike!"

"So what you're saying is Mike is doomed?"

"Probably." Joel sounded defeated.

Crow shook his head. "You're just a gleaming ray of sunshine, aren't ya' Joel?"

Joel put his hand on Crow's head. "Hey Gypsy, could you come in here please?"

Within a few seconds Gypsy slithered her way back onto the bridge. She was hanging her head low in sorrow for Mike.

"Aw, Gypsy..." Joel took his hand from Crow and put it on her nose to try and comfort her. "I'm sorry girl, but I'm just not sure what I can do to help Mike. I'm not going to stop trying, but I don't want you to get your hopes up too high, okay?"

"Okay..."

Unexpectedly and out of nowhere the tallest of the three Observers appeared on the bridge. At his arrival all four robots freaked out and screamed in terror as they ran around the bridge.

"Ah!" Tom hovered behind Joel and proceeded to yell over his panicking companions. "It's 'The Crow!'"

"No!" Crow stopped running and screaming just to reply to Tom. "I'm Crow!" He looked back at the Observer and continued panicking and screaming.

Observer was not amused. He stood very rigid and used one hand to cover an ear, while the other hand kept a grip on the bowl with the brain.

Joel tried to take back control of the chaotic situation. "Okay! Okay! Everyone calm DOWN." Using the 'dad voice' always worked. The robots quieted down and positioned themselves behind Joel. "I take it your a friend of Observer?"

"Indeed I am." He uncovered his ear. "I am Observer."

"Okay..." Joel looked back at Tom and Crow who just mouthed the words 'I don't know' in response. "So, what brings you to the Satellite of Love?"

"Are you familiar with one 'Michael J. Nelson'?"

"Only from the security footage."

"Hm," Observer got a sick grin on his pale face. "this will be most interesting."

"What do you mean?"

"At this very moment Mike, as he prefers to be called, is standing trial for his eventual crimes. He has the right to a fair trial by a jury of his peers. Unfortunately one such jury could not be found."

"That's... too bad?" Joel had no idea what Observer wanted.

Observer scoffed at Joel's simplified opinion on the matter. "However the prospect of locating 'character witnesses' to speak on Mike's behalf could be found."

"Wait, do you mean us?"

Nodding 'yes' Observer's sick grin became quite sinister.

"But we don't-"

"It does not matter." He cut off Joel before he could finish his sentence. "The trial has begun and you, Joel Robinson, have been called to the stand."

Observer nodded his head quickly and in an instant Joel, Crow, Tom, Gypsy and even Cambot were taken from the Satellite of Love and brought to the enigmatic alien court room.

Joel looked around the room with absolute horrified confusion, just as Mike had done when he first arrived. Gypsy and Cambot instinctively remained close to Joel.

Crow and Tom looked at each other before excitedly trying to coax Observer into transporting them again. "That was so cool!"

"Do it again! Do it again!"

Observer backed away from the energetic robots. "No."

"Please? Please, oh please, oh please?"

"No!"

"You dink!"

While Cambot proceeded to continue recording the odd unfolding events Gypsy noticed Mike sitting at the defendants table. He was slouched down with his head resting in his hands.

"Mike!" She called out to him happily.

Mike immediately recognized her odd voice and looked up. "Gypsy?"

...to be continued...