[A man enters the mess, but is not in his usual attire. He is dressed in khaki dockers, a plain white cotton shirt and white sneakers. He stops to prepare himself his usual cup of Fortnum and Mason raspberry tea. While doing so, he looks up to see Murphy...]
Hey, Murph. I'm not sure if anybody else has been drinking this stuff. If they haven't, you probably won't need to buy any more.
[After he finishes making the tea, he walks out to the common area, finds the table at the middle of the room and steps up onto it. Once again, he accidentally knocks over Psiclops' drink]
Sorry, Psi. You know, we've gotta stop meeting this way.
[He clears his throat...]
Excuse me everybody, but I have an important announcement to make. It is with deep regret that I must tell you that this will be my last day for posting for quite some time. My wife and I have accepted positions with a volunteer medical group - Physicians Without Borders, perhaps you've heard of them - providing services to poor and/or isolated areas of the world. It is something that we have wanted to do for years. Now, with our son leaving college, it has become a possibilty, well, a reality.
Our assignment is taking us to Madagascar where we will be assisting doctors in remote areas. In some cases, we ourselves will be providing the only medical care for isolated peoples there. This is a two year commitment, with a one-year renewal option.
We will have brief repatriation visits, but I don't see much chance to get on-line during those times. Nor do I anticipate that Antananarivo is very well cyber-connected. I hope that Mars Dawn and all the MARSupials will still be here when we get back.
It's been fun. Take care of the probes for me. I'll tell them that I'm going in for some maintenance and will be incommunicado. And thanks to Toasted for keeping this under his hat for so long.
Fare well, my friends.
[He steps off the table. As he reaches the door, he takes a long wistful look around, then exits.]