"Murdock, where are your hole cards?" Face asked, frowning across the table at Murdock.

"In my pockets," Murdock said, grinning. "Oops, is that kind of a giveaway?"

"So, Murdock's got a pair." Hannibal said.

"Last time I checked." Murdock stuffed a handful of potato chips in his mouth and studied the cards on the table trying to decide which ones his pair of jacks would get along best with.

"Quit eating all the chips!" BA pulled the bowl away from Murdock. Then he scowled at Face. "Are these all the chips?"

"All the ones were having tonight," Face said. BA looked disgruntled and sipped his glass of powdered milk.

"I should get more, since I don't drink any of the beer."

"You're welcome to have a beer," Face said. Murdock eyed the two of them. BA was going to be tricky over the food, he thought. Face was being pretty strict with the rationing. They weren't going hungry, but they weren't snacking all day either. Murdock knew BA liked his snacks, especially when he was bored and stuck some place with nothing else to do. Like now.

The last two weeks had gone by relatively harmoniously. They'd slept a lot. The team led pretty hectic lives and saw to it that Decker did too, so a chance to recharge their batteries and catch up on lost sleep had been welcome. Like a relaxing, if rather dull, vacation. But the cracks were starting to show.

BA was still glowering at Face and looked like he was about to say something. Murdock jumped in instead.

"Call." He tossed a poker chip into the pot. "Hey are we gonna put up decorations for Christmas?" He grinned, "Or should that be 'Decker-ations'?"

"What would be the point of that?" Decker asked.

"Well we don't want Santa to miss us. Especially since we're practically on his doorstep!"

"Like I said, what would be the point of that?"

"Don't be a spoilsport, Decker." Hannibal looked at Murdock with just a touch of concern, making sure that Decker saw the look. Murdock tried not to smile, seeing the Colonel's game. "If Murdock wants to decorate, let him decorate."

"Yeah, don't be such a buzz kill, Rod," Murdock drawled.

"Are we playing cards here, or what?" Face asked.

The game went on around the table. Murdock made sure to attempt to bet the edible chips instead of the plastic ones a couple of times.

"Wind's getting up," Hannibal observed, glancing at the window, though it had the shutter closed over it. They could all hear the howling outside. "I'll contact the Mounties later; see if we can get a weather forecast. I was talking to Barlow and she said the storms can sometimes close in for several days at a time."

"Days!" Murdock said. "Better get out to the 7-11 for more beer before that happens."

"With the wind this strong we'd better make sure everything is fastened down tight." Decker glanced upwards. "Hope the radio antenna holds."

"Gotta make sure we can easily get into the generator house too," BA added.

"Did you say 'she'?"

Hannibal turned to Face, who was looking at him speculatively.

"Yeah. You've not talked to Barlow? Oh I guess she does the night shift. She goes off at seven, so the chances of you being awake are pretty small." He grinned.

"You were keeping the lady to yourself, Colonel?" Murdock asked.

"Of course not. Face is welcome to get up at six a.m. and talk to her."

"Erm, no. I'll take the other end. What time does she start?"

"Midnight."

Face sat back in his chair, grinning. "Then I guess I have a date at midnight. What's her first name?"

"Shila."

"Sheila?"

"No, Shila. It's Inuit."

"Face has always been Inuit." Murdock waggled his eyebrows. Nobody quite seemed to understand that comment, but that was okay, even Murdock didn't think it meant anything. He wondered if MH Murdoch had ever met any Inuit women.

"Are we playing cards here, or what?" Decker asked. "Raise twenty."

~~~~

When the game ended it was nearly eleven thirty. Decker, Hannibal and BA went to bed. Face hung around the rec room, waiting to go on his "date".

"I'm gonna have a couple more hours on the book," Murdock said.

"Okay. Want me to bring you some cocoa or something later?"

"Thanks." Murdock went back to the office. Late nights had been rather productive times for him. His imagination seemed to soar in the wee small hours. He sat down and started to type at once.

Murdoch stared in horror at the massed ranks of Queen Azaria's Martian army. They were ten feet tall, their bodies and all eight legs were armour plated. Their compound eyes looked back at him, and if they'd had faces he knew they would be snering. Perhaps they could smell his fear.

Spiders! Murdoch had faced any number of nature's terrors without a qualm. He had wrestled a crocodile. He had been dropped into a pit of venomous snakes. He had been thrown into a bulll ring wearing a red suit. But he still had to ask Ace to come around and deal with spiders in the bath. Spiders were his, well, his bugbear. The feaar went back to his childhood, when his father's enemies had triedd to kill him by slipping a tarantula into his crib.

His life had been saved bt hid old nur

Murdock's face settled gently onto the desk and he began to snore.

~~~~

"Templeton is such as unusual name," Shila said.

"Well, I sort of made it up." Face admitted. "I thought it sounded good at the time. Templeton Peck. What was I thinking, huh?"

She laughed. Face liked her laugh. He imagined her tossing her head back, long glossy black hair cascading around her marble white shoulders, her ample bosom quivering... He mentally slapped himself, realising he'd been reading too much of Murdock's book.

"Well I like it." Shila said. "It's different."

"Shila is a very pretty name. Though 'Barlow' doesn't seem to go with it."

"Oh, that's my husband's name."

Face's expression froze. Damn.

"Oh you're married?"

"Well, technically I still am. But the name's one of the only things he left me when he cleared out our bank account and ran off to Toronto."

"That's awful." Face said, grinning. He kind of liked this chatting up over the radio. The only acting he had to do was with his voice. "So, how long have you been a constable?"

"Oh, I'm not. I'm just a radio operator."

Not a cop. Face grinned again. He liked her more all the time.

"Captain Baker likes to have the radio monitored twenty four hours. You folks aren't the only ones cut off during the winter. The Captain likes them all to be able to contact us any time in case there's an emergency."

She sounded pretty admiring of Baker, Face noticed. He began to wonder what Baker looked like.

"Do you get many emergencies?" A buzz of static interrupted him.

"Say again?" Shila said and he repeated himself.

"Well," she said, "there was one late last winter. There's a community north of here, only about twenty people. A man came on and said it was an emergency. That they needed to talk to a priest."

"A priest? Wow, was someone dying?"

"That's what we assumed. It was three a.m. but the Captain was here working. He called for Father Harvey to rush over and then he asked what the problem was." Shila giggled, and then went on. "And the man says 'we need to get married.'"

"Married?" Face laughed. "Since when is that an emergency?"

"That's what the captain said. He started shouting at the guy, saying getting married wasn't an emergency situation. Then this woman's voice came on and she said 'yes it is an emergency! My water just broke!'"

"Oops!" Face laughed with her. "Well I can safely say that's one emergency we won't have. And if any of us want to get married, I promise we'll call up during the day." She giggled again. Another burst of static drowned her voice for a moment. Face sighed as he tried to clear up the reception. At this rate he'd have to go to bed before he secured a date for the spring.

~~~~

Murdock sat up with a grunt. His cap slid off the back of his head. He rubbed his eyes. Okay, bed. He glanced at his watch in the light of the desk lamp. Nearly two. Face must have forgotten about the cocoa. Or he was still chatting up Shila.

Murdock glanced at the last few paragraphs he'd typed. God, what a load of drivel. He pulled out the sheet and was about to throw it in the waste basket, but then he put it down carefully. No. Look at it in the morning. This time of night the critical faculties were not at their best.

He got up and stretched. It was very quiet now. The wind had dropped outside. Murdock shut off the desk lamp and used his flashlight to find his way. No light on in the radio room. Face must have gone to bed. Something caught Murdock's eye as he passed the kitchen. He went in and over to the small, un-shuttered window, turned off his flashlight and looked outside.

Murdock gasped and stared.

~~~~

Face groaned and hid his head under the pillow when someone banged on his door. Morning already? It was just five minutes surely since he's had to give up talking to Shila as interference had finally overwhelmed the connection.

"Face! Get up! Get dressed!" Murdock's voice was inside the room. He turned on the light, making Face groan again and he ran out.

"The building better be on fire." Face muttered as he sat up, dragged a sweater on as he heard Murdock banging on the other bedroom doors and yelling.

"Everybody up! Get dressed. Outside now!"

"What the hell is going on, Murdock?" Hannibal didn't sound any happier than Face felt.

"Crazy fool! People are trying to sleep!

"What is this?" Decker sounded even hoarser than normal, if that were possible.

Face dragged on his clothes and boots, put his coat on and stumbled out. He saw Murdock run off into the kitchen, pulling on a coat.

"What's going on?" Face asked the dark shapes in the corridor. He couldn't even tell who was who.

"He's crazy that's what," BA growled. The four men followed Murdock and Face had to swallow down his shock as a spooky glow made him think for a moment that his flippant comment about the place being on fire was actually true. Where were the fire extinguishers again?

The exterior kitchen door stood open.

"Fool's letting out the heat!" BA snapped. As strict as Face was about the food, BA was stricter about the power.

"Come on then," Hannibal said. "Let's see what the big deal is." They trooped outside. BA closed the door behind them. Murdock stood in the snow, gazing up into the sky, rapt.

"Oh my." Face whispered. Curtains and ribbons of light flickered across the sky. Rays fell like liquid, like paint against the blackness. The stars shone brilliant through sheets of glowing colours. Green and red and white shimmered and danced.

Okay, this situation has its compensations, Face thought.

"The Northern Lights." Hannibal sighed. "Been a long time since I last saw them." He found a couple of cigarettes in his pocket and passed one to Decker. Decker found his lighter and lit both the cigarettes. The two colonels stood smoking and watching the light show.

Face didn't know how long they all stood there for. Only when he realised he couldn't feel his toes any more did he touch Murdock's shoulder gently.

"I think we'd better go inside, before we all freeze to death."

Murdock tore his eyes away from the sky. The aurora was starting to fade. He gave a slightly sheepish smile.

"Okay."

They went back into the kitchen, stamping snow off their boots, rubbing their hands and noses.

"Bit nippy." Hannibal said. He turned on lights over the kitchen worktops, left the main lights off. "Better have something to warm us back up." While the others stood or sat around the kitchen table Hannibal made hot chocolate.

"I'm sorry, guys." Murdock said. "Dragging you all out of bed like that. Kind of silly."

"That's okay, Captain," Decker said. He stubbed out his cigarette and carefully put the butt away in a tin he was carrying around in his pocket. "It was worth it." Murdock smiled at him, surprised.

"Yeah, it was good," BA said. "I never saw that before. It was... good." Now Murdock was staring amazed. Then he broke into a wide smile.

"Yeah. Well, it's kind of late in the year for them. I didn't want you to miss them."

Hannibal came over with the hot chocolate and passed around the cups.

"I wonder what people used to make of them, before we knew what caused them?" Face mused. Not that he knew very much about what caused them. Something to do with the sun and electromagnetism he thought. But he'd spent most of his physics classes trying to work out how his lab partner Holly Burnett's chest managed to defy gravity so stunningly. Murdock probably knew - about the aurora, not Holly Burnett's chest - but Face wanted to go back to bed sometime tonight so didn't want to get him started.

"Magic, I suppose," Hannibal said. "The gods." He shrugged and yawned, didn't go on, just glanced at his watch. "Okay." His voice had a touch of the old colonel snap that he hadn't used much over the last couple of weeks. "Let's all go to bed."

"We're not that desperate yet." Face said, unable to help himself. BA smirked. Hannibal led the way out of the kitchen shaking his head and smiling.

~~~~

Unsurprisingly they were slow starting in the morning and by the time Murdock finished his chores and got to his typewriter it was almost noon. Outside the weather was clear and the sun glittered on the crusted snow.

Murdock looked at the manuscript of MH Murdoch and the Spiders from Mars, thumbed through the pages for a few minutes, sometimes smiling, sometimes shaking his head and clicking his tongue. Then he went to the stationery cupboard, found a folder, put the manuscript into that and placed the folder on a shelf. He took out a new ream of paper, and put it on the desk. With a degree of ceremony he sat down and rolled a clean sheet of paper into the typewriter.

Murdock began to type.

My first memory is about the sky. My grandfather held my hand and we watched from the shelter of the barn as lightning licked down from the clouds to kiss the ground. After the rain stopped the sun found cracks in the gunmetal heavy clouds and a rainbow arced over the land. I learnt that day that there is nothing more beautiful on the earth than there is in the sky.

My name is HM Murdock. I was born

End part 4

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