"Do any of you have a clue where I can find a timer or something?" X asked the worms as he moved away from Kay and went over to check on Elle. "Hey, Little Ears. Come on, don't you want to wake up now and yell at me for something? My entire family's on their way here, and you know what my mother's going to be like." Nothing, though, and she was still freezing, even though it didn't seem to be as bad as Kay. Why in the world weren't they getting better? Rationally, X knew it hadn't been long enough to see a change, but still, he just wanted his partner to open those beedy eyes and start yelling. He hadn't seen Elle this quiet since he arrived on the planet and it was more than a bit alarming.
"The coffeemaker has a timer."
"Want us to go and get it?"
"Not that we're going to make coffee with it."
"Fine." They probably would make coffee but he wasn't going to complain, not with how the worms had been helping. He couldn't believe that those four pests were actually being useful for a change.
"I can't believe this." Frank said as he looked up from where he was sniffing around by Zed. "And who's going to protect the planet until they all get better?" Not that he thought that some of the agents were going to get better. With the way that Kay was looking, well, he had a feeling he was going to need to get his suit cleaned real soon.
"Help's on the way." It would be at least a day before it could get there, though, and with the number of criminals that we're running wild in the city, X didn't want to think of what might happen before then. They were going to have to do a ton of neuralyzing over this. He just hoped that no one was doing anything important this week that they didn't want to forget. "Do any of you know how to pull up agent lists?" Surely he wasn't the only agent left standing.
"Sure, but Elle got all of the agents who were in town."
"What about the Hollywood agents? They're nice."
"They wouldn't know what end of a weapon they were supposed to shoot from either." X grumbled. No way was he bringing that group on incompetents into this situation. With a shudder, he realized that he would need to contact them, though. Incompetent or not, with the main agents out of commission, they were going to have to figure out something to protect their alien clients until help arrived. Who knows where else the alien criminals could be attacking? And what in the world was he going to do about the tourists? He remembered now that Elle had scheduled the party around a lull in incoming and outgoing flights, but sooner or later, he knew a ship would show up, wanting to land, or people were going to want to go home. And even if he could deal with letting tourists through, there was no way to protect the visitors once they were there. Oh, this was a total disaster. At least Zara was on her way, though. He would let her handle breaking the news to Zed when he woke up. She had the training to handle the explosion he was sure that this mess would cause with his boss.
"Got the coffeemaker. What time do you want it set for?" One of the worms asked as he came hurrying in with the appliance in question.
"Zara said we had to check Kay at least every fifteen minutes, and he has to have a shot every four hours. See if you can set it for that." X told them.
"Can do."
"Fifteen minutes, that's one vanilla almond."
"And four hours is sixteen. Not that we're going to drink sixteen pots of coffee." another worm tried to reassure X.
"Not going to drink coffee at all."
"What do you need us to do?"
"Yeah, we want to help!"
"Okay." X couldn't believe he was going to have to do this, but what other choice did he have? The worms were the only assistance at hand. And they did drink all of that coffee. At least he could be reassured they wouldn't run out of energy. What in the world should he tell them to do, though? "The other agents. We need to get a list of agents that weren't here, and weren't effected." he said after a moment's thought. Should he call any agents who were out on assignment back to headquarters? But if he did, that would leave the areas where they were at unprotected. He could figure that out later, though. The important thing right now was to alert the other agents. "We need that list, and what about a list of resident aliens?" the JeeDangians wouldn't have a clue as to what aliens might be friendly, unlike the agents. They needed to alert the friendly residents, and somehow get them off the streets.
"Sure." "Zed has a list in his office, of people to call if there's an emergency."
"What? Why didn't someone call me?" Frank demanded.
"You're probably on some sort of do not call list." X muttered just as the twins' monitor panel beeped. "No. Please tell me that isn't..."
"Ship wanting to land. Do you think we ought to answer?"
"Not like we have a choice. The rest of you go and get those lists. And someone see about getting some more blankets. There have to be some left somewhere in the building." X ordered as one of the worms hit the button to open the signal on the complicated monitoring panel. "What do you want?"
"I need directions to land." the pilot of the ship said with a friendly wave. "I know we're a little early, but we made good time around Pluto. I hope that isn't going to be a problem."
"Just perfect. Why don't you head back for Pluto then? The planet's closed today."
"What do you mean the planet's closed?"
"I mean just what I said. It's closed. Someone littered. We're cleaning it up. The entire place is messy, very messy. No one can land until we get through sweeping up. Go away and call back tomorrow to see if we're done. Not that I think we will be." He didn't want to think of how long it was going to take to pull headquarters back together once the other agents were on their feet.
"But I've got a shuttle full of people on their honeymoon. Their booked to see Niagra Falls. Surely that's okay."
"No. No, you can't see that. It's the messiest place of all." X said, as he recalled a show he had spotted Jay watching one day. "Some magician got it and turned it purple, as part of some little human trick. I don't know how we're going to get that thing cleaned up. No, go away and call tomorrow."
"But what about all of these people and their honeymoons?"
"Do they want to spend their honeymoon sweeping up? Because that doesn't sound like how I would want to start a marriage." X said. "Show them the rings of Saturn or something. We're cleaning as fast as we can."
"Lyndon isn't going to like that." Frank commented as X slammed the communication shut.
"Lyndon won't like it if those honeymooners don't live to finish their honeymoon either, which with the way the criminals are running loose is likely if we let them land." X replied. And if the head of the Alien Rights Commission showed up to cause trouble, he could always repeat what had netted him suspension number two. He was sure that Zed would take it a whole lot better than Chief Zeredon did. "Make yourself useful. Keep an eye on them." X ordered the dog as the worms came hurrying back with blankets and lists. "Bark if they get worse. Worms, let's see that list of agents." Even if they couldn't pull them away from where they were now, maybe they could offer some suggestions for what to do until help arrived.