I know what you're thinking.
A Power Distribution Technician? That job has to be so… wizard. And you're right, it probably is. If your full title is Power Distribution Technician - Field Agent. The words at the end carry the most weight. Field agents are always getting into the thick of it out there. Not that there isn't any action inside the Tomorrowland Light & Power headquarters. Last week Dowdy from the Experimental Vacuum Energy Lab forgot to put the carafe in the caf machine and totally flooded the break room.
"Oben."
I guess that's only a good story if you know Dowdy is a species that is sort of like a bipedal sponge? The Field Agents though, I can only imagine what they see on a daily basis. We hear stories up here of course. Rumor has it there was just a field agent who fought an intergalactic criminal trying to steal a coconut from a Power Palm (metal trees with solar panels that store energy in globes that resemble a coconut)! The intergalactic criminal? A blob of sentient green goo. Can you believe that?
"OBEN!"
"Huh? Yeah, Merril what's up?" I said snapping out of the daydream. "I need to step out and try and get some service on my SMART band, watch the board will ya?" Merril barked leaving our control room. Despite being located in a building with 'LIGHT' and 'POWER' written over the doors we had an office with few amenities, lit largely by the glow of the control board monitoring the power distribution across the district of Metropolis. Green lights? Good. Yellow lights? Probably good. Red Lights? Never seen one. The gig was mostly auto-pilot these days, especially on the overnight shift. Luckily 0300 hours on the clock meant it was nearly time to take the Green Line back home to the Tomorrowland Towers. Oh, not those. The Tomorrowland Towers Apartments. Words at the end etc.
That's when it went dark. The whole board. No green lights, no yellow lights, not even red. Just blank. Which couldn't be right, that would mean no power. Anywhere in Metropolis. I got up and ran down the hall to the nearest window looking out at the city. Nothing but the light of stars outlining Rocket Tower Plaza. "MERRIL!" My scream echoed down the empty halls of L&P headquarters.
Merril was a Gaar, a species that was one of the charter members of the League of Planets and shared the technology of the Power Palms with us. I worked with a lot of Gaar. The thing about the Gaar is to the human eye, they were all identical. Gaar eyes had the ability to see the unique electromagnetic field (they're really all in on light & power) each of them emitted to distinguish each other. I didn't have that ability. It was also pitch black.
Sweeping the halls of our floor and the next two down produced no Merril. Maybe he was out front? I ran straight through the ground floor lobby and out into Rocket Tower Plaza. Even in the midst of the most stressful night of my life I couldn't help but stop and admire the beauty of a dark and silent Metropolis. No hum of the TTA Blue Line gliding by. The reflection of twinkling stars in the Galactic Gateway. The soft glow of green light behind that Power Palm. The soft glow of what now?
"Hello?" I called out down the path toward the metal tree. There was no response as I crept forward between the pristine white planters. I was starting to enter a distance close enough to be of some concern when approaching an unknown green light during a blackout. Scanning the ground I found something to defend myself. Long, solid, and covered in cinnamon sugar? A stale churro? Really? Do people think this is some kind of theme park? Nevertheless I approached striking distance.
Jumping to the side of the Power Palm I screamed the most threatening scream I could muster and raised my fried dough blade. Turning to meet my gaze, at least I think it was since it didn't have eyes, was a green blob of goo. "Hello." it said flatly.
This was not what I expected. "Hands where I can see them, you intergalactic coconut stealing criminal!" I instructed with all the authority of a backseat driver in an autonomous hover-taxi. I think the goo let out a sigh. "Who are you, citizen?" it asked.
"Oben...I'm..I'm a Power Distribution Technician. Who are you?"
"My name includes sounds you are biologically incapable of generating. You may call me..."
"Booger." I interjected. "...Booger." it conceded. I wasn't off on the reference.
"Oben, why are you threatening me with that stale snack item?"
"I know who you are, Booger! You are the intergalactic criminal who has been trying to steal our energy globes! You fought a field agent!"
"Oben," it reached out a glob of goo and somehow took a bite of the churro. "Do I look like an intergalactic criminal to you?"
"Well, you don't..not? You mostly look like a booger."
"I must view one of these boogers before I return home." Booger said thoughtfully.
"Return home?" I asked.
"Yes, Oben. Return home. You see, I have been erm, borrowing parts such as your energy globes,"
"Aha! You admit you are a criminal!" I exclaimed raising what was left of the churro.
"You did not let me say the words at the end, Oben. Will you put that down?"
Having not spent much time debating featureless glowing gelatin I could think of no rebuttal and nodded my head.
"I was answering a distress call from what appeared to be one of your Astro Orbiters. What I found instead was an X-S Tech tractor beam which crashed my ship just outside your city. X-S Tech has been trying to capture one of my species for sometime to experiment on our texture and luminescence. I have been scavenging parts to repair my ship and return home before I am found."
I stood silent for a moment. "You could've just asked for help."
"I did. Your field agent associate shrieked and ran off when I spoke to it."
I attempted to silently toss the churro under the nearest bench. "Yeah those guys don't get out much."
"I calculated my greatest odds of escape was to, erm, borrow this machine from the X-S Tech storage facility and freeze the city in space and time through your wrist transponders."
"They have a what?" I questioned and then shrugged. "How can I help, Booger?"
It handed me a coconut and said "I am curious how you find yourself here and not frozen in time, Oben."
"Oh we get really bad service in my office."
I helped Booger strap the last coconuts needed to his ship and then reached in my pocket to pull out a crinkled tissue.
"Here, my friend."
"What is this?" Booger asked.
"A little souvenir." I said giving a wink.
I returned to my office and sat back in my swivel chair. I looked up at the clock. Merril walked back in the office at 0300 and 04 seconds.
"Why do you look so happy? Day dreaming about being a field agent again?"
The next day the city was completely abuzz about all the missing energy globes. The Robo-Newz reported Metropolis lost power for three hours overnight. The Light & Power Company launched a full internal investigation which turned up no evidence of anything abnormal.
My testimony took place that evening at the start of my overnight shift.
"Merril got up for his break, it turned 0300 hours, and then.."
"And then?"
I thought carefully about my words at the end.
"and then Merril came back."