Entry for Deck Log 4.10FR Full Report: The Alien Vagabonds

The docking alarm suddenly went off. The aliens were in the process of boarding the mother ship when it happened. Three of the smaller aliens had already passed safely through the airlock. The Captain yelled to abort the transfer and get the aliens back in their shuttle. The airlock had seriously malfunctioned.

The Yardmaster gladly yelled out, “Prepare for emergency separation.” Just minutes earlier he had cursed the captain for stopping to pick up these migrant aliens. The alien’s old shuttle had been barely limping along inside the transit route.

“Damn it Captain, we can’t pick up every alien in this quadrant, these vagabonds are everywhere, they are not our problem.”

“Easy Yardmaster,” replied the captain. “We can‘t just let them perish.”

“Captain, the bastards have blue skin and stink like sulfur, they are not like us, just cut them loose, or they will rip our guts out first chance they get.” He had heard about these aliens before.

The Yardmaster stared through the glass at five gentle creatures looking back at him. They looked starved and defenseless. The creatures seemed to understand the cause of the alarm and the predicament they were all in. They seemed relieved that at least three of them will survive. They made a soft purring sound that could be heard through the window.

“Yardmaster, provide visual systems protocol while I activate the separation process,” the Captain barked out.

“Gladly Captain,” spoke the Yardmaster as he continued to look through the glass. He had never seen this alien species before. He was curious.

He saw them look at each other while purring. One was holding a baby and gently passed it to the larger creature. It then walked to the glass and looked closely at the Yardmaster then looked beyond to the three smaller aliens behind him. The three smaller aliens moved forward with uplifted arms and purred in a soft manner. The Yardmaster realized this must be a family and was surprised at their affection towards each other.

A creature in the back now stepped to the front and knelt down before the Yardmaster. It held out a yellow glowing object and gestured from it to the Yardmaster then to the three aliens. It then set the object on the floor and stepped back bowing its head.

“Captain, they have about a pound of yellow terrarmite and I think they want me to have it to save the other three aliens.”

The Captain yelled back, “That’s a fortune, but, they can’t give it away, they will need it to power the life support systems in their ship, without it they will all be dead in a minute.”

“What trick are these bastards up to,” whispered the Yardmaster.

Without being told the aliens shuffled away from the window towards their shuttle. Two seemed to move extra slowly and had wrinkly skin. The other ones gently put their long arms around them and helped them walk. They then stopped and looked back one last time at the three aliens inside the mother ship. The aliens in the airlock had blue liquid drops coming from their ears rolling down on their long necks. “I think they are crying,” the Yardmaster said.

He looked back at the three aliens and saw liquid drops rolling from their ears also. “Oh man, these little ones are crying too,” said the Yardmaster.

The Yardmaster watched intently. Something inside him stirred. He faintly remembered playing with aliens as a lonely child so very long ago. He wondered if he had misjudged these aliens and had rejected them solely on idiotic rumors.

No one had ever told him that they had families and could show affection towards one another. He could see they weren’t the devouring beast monster with fangs and claws he had always heard about, stories probably made up by people like himself who had never met one before.

He stared through the glass.

The Captain yelled, “Begin process function one.”

They will be dead in a few minutes thought the Yardmaster.

The Captain yelled again, “We gotta do this now, or, we will lose the airlock permanently.”

The baby looked directly at the Yardmaster with large blue toned eyes, it lifted one of its hands towards him. “Oh, God don’t do that,” said the Yardmaster.

The Captain screamed, “Yardmaster get moving.”

The Yardmaster paused, then began a flurry of action. “I have an idea,” he screamed.

“It’s too late,” said the Captain.

“No, give me a minute,” pleaded the Yardmaster. The three small aliens held hands.

The Yardmaster opened the side panels around the lock and began a calibration sequence. The five aliens recognized he was trying to help but knew they needed to leave quickly to save the mother ship. They continued moving back into their shuttle while looking back.

The Captain was in a panic.

The Yardmaster screamed, “Stop the sequence, Stop, STOP, I fixed…..” At that moment, there was a large whish and the ship shuddered. The Yardmaster quickly looked through the window. The back of the air lock was open and he could see the shuttle drifting away.

He saw through the shuttle window one of the aliens looking at him. It had its arm outstretched toward him. Then the shuttle drifted downward toward the planet with no power to stop itself.

The Yardmaster sat down and lowered his head. Why didn’t he move sooner? Why had he wasted time being so critical of the aliens? He could have fixed the airlock with just a few more seconds. Then he felt a soft touch on his shoulder and looked up, the three small alien creatures gazed at him and moved closer to him to comfort him. He lowered his head and cried.

A few moments later a small explosion was recorded near the mother ship. The three child aliens looked at each, somehow they knew their family was gone. The Yardmaster did not realize until decades later that these aliens were of royal lineage and at one time had great influence in their star system, but, that is a story for another time. 

Reader, thank you for reading this story. If you would like to know how the orphaned aliens later reacted to the spacecat and the bastard baby while on the mothership than please read the other Deck Logs found in my profile. Thank you, DW