Hurricane Season?? McKay leaned back in his chair, boots resting on the edge of the weather control console, one hand cradling a mug of coffee with so much sugar it could cause diabetes... If it were still a thing. In the other, he held what the station's fabricator optimistically called a maple donut. It tasted like sweetened insulation foam. "You know," McKay said around a bite, crumbs falling on his 'I'm the Genius' T-shirt. "I keep telling them if they're going to fake a donut, they should at least fake the regret afterwards." A long, theatrical sigh drifted across the control room. The alien shuffled into view carrying an industrial-sized coffee carafe nearly as large as he was. Barely a metre tall, with slate-blue skin and oversized amber eyes, he moved with the sluggish pace of someone convinced the universe existed solely to inconvenience him. McKay had long since given up trying to pronounce his real name. "Morning, Philpot." Another sigh. Then the alien topped off McKay's mug without a word. "You know why I call you Philpot?" Another sigh. "'Cause every time I see you, I ask you to fill the pot." Philpot closed his eyes. Another sigh. "I'm beginning to think," McKay continued, "that your species evolved the sigh before language." Philpot slowly looked up. "It was our second greatest achievement." McKay grinned. "What was the first?" "We nearly became extinct." McKay snorted coffee through his nose. Before he could recover, every screen in the control room flashed crimson. A deafening alarm shattered the morning quiet. EMERGENCY WEATHER OVERRIDE - HURRICANE PROTOCOL INITIATED McKay dropped his donut on the floor and didn't bother wiping away the crumbs. Outside the panoramic window, sunlight bathed the city in a cloudless blue sky. He frowned at the alert, then back at the sky. "No hurricane." Philpot followed his gaze. "No." McKay frowned harder. "That's... odd. Because we don't even fabricate hurricanes. " Philpot studied the warning for another moment. Sighed. Then, in the same flat tone he used for everything from coffee shortages to asteroid strikes, said, "That seems... unfortunate."

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