Codename: TABASCO: MG

(The Awesome Background And Secret Chronicles Of... Michael Guerin)

Episode 115, Part 1

Strong, Dangerous, and Undeniable

(Sexual Healing)

I looked at Najiyah and noticed that she seemed to be bursting to ask something else.

Do you have another question, Najiyah?

"You could tell?"

Yeah. Kind of.

Najiyah grinned and blushed ever so slightly. "I didn't know I was so obvious. But I do have a question… if you don't mind. After you got emancipated, was that when you and Max first realized you were having, you know, an actual physical affect on Maria and Liz?"

I smiled.

Well, Liz had seen stars and stuff with Max before that, I think, but yeah, after my emancipation, things started to really kind of heat up in that respect… for all of us. By 'physical' I assume you mean the glowing and stuff like that…

"Yeah, that and the stars and everything, too."

Liz was the first one to say that she had seen stars, then Maria told me that she had been seeing them, too. Later, she told me that she had made it up, because she wanted us to be close, but by then she really had seen stuff in my mind, and I had seen things in hers. It happened. But like I said, Liz noticed it first. When Max told me about it, my first thought was that if it was true maybe she might see something in that head of his that would lead us to our home planet. I even started to think that maybe it might have been planned for us to find out from Liz and Maria and that maybe we needed them to find our way back home, so I started encouraging Max to go for it, whatever it took. But Max was worried about hurting Liz.

It was about a week after Valentine's Day, February… the 20th! Funny I would remember that! I wonder why that stuck in my mind? Anyway, Liz had been having these weird feelings that she couldn't understand. She said they were, like, chemical… strong, dangerous, and undeniable. That's the way Max told me she said it. Just like that. She said it was like she had no choice. She was feeling all strange inside. Max went to the CrashDown to see her and found her standing over a bowl of spilled strawberries. Maria said that she had found Liz daydreaming about Max and that Liz spilled the strawberries when she interrupted her daydream. Liz went into the kitchen to get some more strawberries, and Max followed her…

What are you doin' here, Max?

Well, I have orders from my planet to take over the Earth.

Besides that.

I want to make sure we can still be friends.

Yeah. I mean, we are.

Good.

Why wouldn't we be?

We really haven't been able to talk since… that night.

Max, people do a lot of dumb things when they're drunk. Anyway, I understand.

And we're friends?

Yeah. We're friends.

Just friends?

Yeah. We're just friends.

Liz started to leave, but Max grabbed her and they began to kiss each other passionately. Then she saw images of something flying through space. That was kind of the real beginning… for Max and me, I mean. That's when we became aware that something was really going on. Not just pretty stars and galaxy thingies. Something more. Something deep in our minds was coming out… or trying to. And we had to figure out what it was.

About that time, as I remember, I got a call from Valenti. Okay, actually, he picked me up from school in a squad car. It wasn't the first time, and I was starting to feel a bit self-conscious about it…

"Couldn't you just shine a bat light thing at the sky at night or something when you need me, Sheriff? Everybody's starting to think I'm a delinquent or something! I mean… I get picked up at school at least once a week by the sheriff! What other guys do you know that that happens to!?"

Jim just grinned and nodded. "Well, I do regret having to pull you away from classes for the rest of the afternoon, Michael."

Okay, so there's an up-side. What do you need this time, Sheriff?

"There's been some things going on that are kind of hard to explain, Michael."

Hey, look, Maria and I were just kissin'! That's all Max and Liz were doing, too! I'm sure Kyle must've done that at least… once or twice himself, Sheriff! It wasn't a crime the last time I checked.

Jim turned and looked at me as though he hadn't quite been expecting that and didn't know how to interpret it.

"Well, Michael, normally, I'd agree that kissin' is kind of innocent… and definitely not a crime… as long as you both agreed to it, though in your case I may reserve judgment until I have more information to go on."

He opened the door to his office and motioned for me to go in, then he followed me in. "But I didn't bring you here just for kissing, Michael. There are other things I have on my mind."

At that moment, Jim noticed Deputy Hansen standing there. The deputy quickly dismissed himself and left the room. Jim started to resume his speech, then his eyes suddenly grew wide and he turned and rushed out the door…

"Hansen! Wait a minute! Come back here!"

"Yes, sir, Sheriff?"

"Hansen, what you heard back there…"

"I didn't hear anything, Sheriff."

"Yes, you did!"

"No, sir, I didn't."

"Well… okay then… are you sure?"

"Nothing that'll ever leave my lips, Sheriff."

Hansen turned and walked away, leaving Jim with his jaw on the floor. But I saw the grin on Hansen's face. He totally knew that what the sheriff had said--or at least what he had heard of it--was out of context and innocent, and he was letting Jim think he thought otherwise. I've got to tell you, I gained a whole new respect for Hansen at that moment. I never realized he was so sly. He pulled that off slicker than a mayonnaise and banana sandwich slick on the lunchroom floor.

"I'll straighten it out with Hansen later, Michael. He'll understand. I'm sure he will."

Jim was sweating. Yep, I definitely had a new respect for Hansen!

"Anyway, Michael, as I was starting to say before… there've been some unusual things going on lately. There's an old radio tower out by Highway 42. Have you ever seen it?"

"Yeah. I know the one."

"Good. Somebody… or something… has been hanging around out near that tower for several days now. And whoever or whatever it is does not seem to want outsiders anywhere near there. I've had reports of ATV's turning over…"

"That's not unusual, Sheriff. People ride around on those uneven hills, hit a rock, and they turn them over."

"True. In and of itself that wouldn't be something that would get my attention, but there are other things. A ranch hand was riding by there on his horse yesterday, and he swears that his horse was knocked over by a force unseen and slid all the way to the bottom of the hill. He said it was damn lucky the horse, which is a purebred, survived with no serious injuries. I convinced him it was probably a gust of wind, but I don't believe that. Two kids, the day before, were chased down the hill by a sudden rock slide."

"All of those things can happen, Sheriff."

"I know. But it's the pattern I'm looking at. Michael… what can make a horse fall over without touching it… or an ATV… or cause an instant rockslide?"

I shrugged. "I might could."

Jim nodded. "Don't think that didn't occur to me. But it wasn't you. You were in school when it happened. I checked. That left me with one other, rather interesting possibility. Now, I admit, it's reaching… and I'm not saying there's no other possibilities, but… we know there's at least one other person like you out there, Michael. The one that killed Hubble's wife."

I guess I must have jumped, and Jim noticed.

"Does that thought scare you, Michael?"

"No! No, not… not really. I was just… surprised that you would think it was him, that's all."

"Yeah, well… you should be afraid… if it is him. He's not like you, Michael. He's cruel… ruthless… absolutely devoid of any compassion or empathy. So my question is, what does he want with you?"

"Me!? Why do you think he wants me?"

"He has your abilities. He's hanging around out there doing something that I can't even guess. And I think he's left just enough clues to lure someone out there… someone he wants to come. Do you know anyone else that might be?"

I shook my head.

"Neither did I."

"You want me to go out there and find him, Sheriff… if it is him?"

Jim winced. "I don't want you to… but I may need you to. I'm not going to hold it against you if you don't want to do this, Michael. I don't have any right to be asking you to do this. It's dangerous."

"So were some of the other things I did for you."

"I know, but this is dangerous in a different way, Michael. I'm dealing with something I don't understand here. You could be killed… or disappear. That would weigh heavy on my conscience."

I started to say something but decided not to. I could see that Jim was telling the truth. He was frightened to death for me. In a way I felt honored. He cared. Hank never cared. No one else ever cared. Well, Max and Isabel, but they were different. We were in this thing together the three of us. It was us against the world… a world that was alien to us in some ways, even if we couldn't say exactly what those ways were. We felt it. But Jim cared. It occurred to me that this was the absolute epitome of irony. The very person who might be sending me to my death was the one person who truly did seem to care about me. He trusted me… believed in me. I couldn't let him down.

I never told him this, but wild horses couldn't have kept me from going, and not just for him. This person, killer though he might be, was one of us… maybe even my real father. He would certainly have all the answers we were seeking. He could tell us about our planet, about our heritage, about our people...

He could take us home.

tbc…