NationStates Jolt Archive

At the city of Tripolis, a lone spacer was out in a tiny EVC, inspecting and repairing a section of hull.

"EVC One reporting. Completed section, moving to the next site."
"Roger, EVC One. Proceed."

The tiny craft began to move away from the hull and rotate to face its destination at another point on the station.

"EVC One reporting, unidentified object at One o'clock, Two o'clock. Confirm?"
"Roger. Sighting confirmed. Object incoming. Standby."

There was a tiny pulse of light from the object.

"EVC One, the object has changed course. It's heading in your direction."
"Roger. Taking evasive measures."

The EVC speeded up, and the object changed direction again. The EVC stopped, and the object changed direction again. By now, it was easy to see. A long, silvery tube, with large feathery projections in trilateral symmetry, and a pointed nose. Like a mix between a dolphin and a tree... but with a very menacing set of jaws.

"EVC One reporting, I'm getting kinda freaked out here. This thing looks alive!"
"Roger, we're aware of the situation. Standby."

Suddenly, the object froze in space, completely losing all momentum.

"EVC One, situation clear. We have a lock with the HPD."
"Copy that, control. I'm comin' in."
"Roger. Control out."

The object was moved, struggling, into a nearby unoccupied freight airlock. Upon repressurization, the creature began thrashing about, trying to smash its way out of the airlock, until it finally slowed down and floated inert.

The apparently incapacitated creature was quickly transported to a medical facility, where it awaited close examination....

The LDSF 'Footprints' was on a regular supply run to the various mining outposts established outside of the Sol System. It had come out of warp 15 minutes ago, and was manuvering into an asteroid belt when the crew began to notice these... things... swimming outside. They bumped up against the hull, the vibration sending boom's echoing through the cargo pods.

"Any idea what those things are?" the captain asked. "No idea. Never seen anything like em." his wife replied. He and his familty ran the ship - he was the only one with a formal rank. "They look something like fish though."

The creatures didn't seem to be causing any damage though - the cargo pods were tough, designed for hauling heavy loads of gold, silver, iridium, tungsten, and iron back to Mars.

"Maybe we should try to grab one - put it in an empty cargo pod," Adam, the youngest son, suggested. "Might be able to get something for it at a zoo or something."

"Good idea son." Dollar signs lit up in Captain Harold's eyes. "A rare critter like this could bring a lot. We'll use the cargo tractors to push one in."

Minutes later the deed was done.

Upon being brought inside, the captured creature began thrashing wildly, breaking off several leaf-like structures and sporadically spewing small flames from the aft end.

Those captured by the Sunsetians and the Spacers were approximately 5 meters long, and 1.5 meters in diameter at their thickest points. At the butt end of the beasts were large off-white aerospike shapes, made of something like bone or horn, with two tiny holes in the end. At the juncture between this and the body was a ring of large silvered leaves. The aft section resembled a tree given dolphin skin. The Spacesharks are sleek, looking like a cross between shark, tree, xenomorph, and rocket ship. The rest of the body looked something like a shark, but in place of fins were antenna-like spikes, and collapsable parabolic dishes. The relatively small mouth was a sharp tri-sectioned bony beak, hiding a second set of blunt jaws behind it. Just behind the mouth, three deep slits ran horizontally along the body in line with the fins. Three small pits were positioned within each slit. The entire thing, save the aerospike and black mouth parts had a dark green tint.

Both specimens died soon after exposure to atmosphere, their insides cooked by excessive heat.

The thing had become something of a curiousity - being dead it couldn't fetch as much from a university. Instead the family imbedded it in a big block of acrylic, and displayed it to the curious for a di-coin each. It wasn't a lot, but it supplemented their income.

"And you say you picked it up on a extra-solar supply run? Interested - it appears to be bio-mechanicial in some way. Have you ever seen any others?"

The curious person turned to Captain Harold, who had just told the story of it's discovery.

"Yeah - saw a bunch mora them too. Like a flock or somin."

"I think I could make it very worth your time to take some passengers back there. I'll buy this specimen off you, and if it's real, I can likely get a grant for several million di-coins to find the creature and study it. Part of that would go to the ship of course."

"Several million you say?" Dollar signs lit up in his eyes. "Deal. How much you give me for this thing?"

"How does 5,000dc sound?"

"Sold!"

In the Tripolis Hospital, a biologist hovered over the creature. By this time, the aerospike on the back had begun to get dark streaks on it, and gave off a smell like burnt hair. Fortunately, the low-oxygen atmosphere of Tripolis kept it from flaming up. Apparently, the burst of fuel given off while it chased the EVC had heated it immensely.

"Laser scalpel?"
"Ready."
"Good. Make an incision from here, just behind the mouth, down to here," he said, pointing at two locations along the body.

As the laser cut through the outer layers of flesh, which turned out to be more like a dead hull than skin, foul-smelling steam began to fill the room.

"My heck! Turn on the ventilators, get this cleared out!"

When the steam cleared, the creature' internals were clearly visible and available for study. "Interesting. That must be the stomach, or some part of a digestive tract. I can't seem to find anything like a heart, though. These organs might be kidneys, except that they don't output to any orifice that I can see. I can't identify the structures they are attached to. Like giant air bladders...."

The following indesputable information was gleaned, along with much more that was uninterpreted or under debate:

The creature is a photochemosynthetic autotroph with facultative anearobic metabolism which propels itself through space via a primarily methane-fueled aerospike engine ignited by focused solar energy or internal body heat. It appears to be able to hear and transmit radio waves. Three large air bladders are contained in the central torso which apparently hold supplies of recyclable CO2, oxygen, water, and sugar. Exposure to an oxygenating atmosphere causes the creature to hyperoxidize and overheat, literally burning itself to death.

"Doc - I don't see this evolving anywhere. No matter how much time you give it..."

"I'd agree. We've settled the important point though. It's not a fake. Which means we are going to be heading out-system. Unless the grant committee had their head stuck up their digestive tract again."

A month later...

"A week, and nothing yet. Captain - are you sure this is where you spotted the creatures?"

"Aye - musta been twenty o' the things. We'll find em - I bet they migrate."

"You serious man? Migrate? They arn't bloody whales..."

An itty bitty Snel probe flew by a remote section of space in the Oort Cloud.

As it approached a large cube of space defined by bright lights at its corners, the probe began to communicate with another already in the area. After a short exchange of information, alarms sounded.

Several Spacesharks were missing. As were the Sturgeons. Somebody had escaped. And if they were away from their food supply, they just might begin attacking ships....

CRUMP. Another one had rammed the hull, apparently trying to take a bite out of it. The expedition had finally found them - a flock of 30 had gathered in a wreck floating in an asteroid belt. They had called in a SDF recovery cruiser for the wreck, but they wouldn't be there for a couple days.

"You sure you don't want me to fry you up a little space shark Doc?" Captain Harold asked. He had a old phaser battery on both ends of the ship - good enough to hold off pirates, maybe.

"Are they even close to getting through the hull?" the doctor asked - though he knew the answer.

"Well no, but this is cutting into my costs."

"You've got a million di-coins in your account man! A little hull damage might cost you 10,000, if you don't just wedge a loaf of your wife's bread in there."

No one liked her bread, not until it had been nuked to put some moisture back into it.

"Let's grab a couple and go then. No reason to hang around."

"I want to see if they have made any modifications to their habitate. Anything that might indicate sentience. Besides - your kids are still busy welding plates onto the cage we made on Mars."

It had been a cage - a large barred enclosure with an inertial compensator on the bottom. It would keep the space sharks secure and in their native enviroment for the trip back to Mars, but it would keep them from getting smooshed as the freighter went to warp. Now extra plates were being welded inside and out - since the sharks had shown the ability to eat metal.

Several partially-consumed Spaceshark carcasseshung off of sharp corners and torn edges on the wreck. Most of the creatures just sat, waiting, not wanting to waste fuel chasing non-existant food, but the occasional few took a swing at the intruders. Two or three could be observed tearing up the freeze-dried remains of their dead. One of the bodies, however, was conspicuously left alone. As the Sunset ship moved closer, the dead Spaceshark suddenly split open as a tiny torpedo-shaped object emerged and began to unfurl a set of sails.

"What in ter heck is dat?"

"Heck if I know, Captain. I would suggest grabbing it though."

"Luthor - tractors boy!"

Luthor, a gangly teenager, looked up from his console. He had been looking at porn again likely enough. The doctor had walked by previously and he hadn't been too quick on the ol alt-tab.

"Um, got it Pa. Want it hard or soft?"

"Soft! We don't want to crush it. Grab it and manuver it towards the cage."

The doctor raced out of the room, heading for the cargo hold, and a spacesuit. He pulled on the suit, checked the seals, and steped into the lock. The cage had a second cage inside, with a door, for observing the creature as well as access. The two young adults who had been welding on plates were just cycling through the lock when he came in.

He stabbed the intercom, and was rewarded with a burst of static. 'Why is it that Jethro and his kin find the biggest biological find in a century?'

Hit by the tractor beam, one of the serenly floating sharks drifted towards the ship, apparently oblivious to the fact that it was being captured... right up until it got near the cargo hold doors. As soon as it realized that it was about to enter a ship, the creature began writhing, pumping around its internal fluids to re-orient itself away from the ship. After a few ineffective puffs from the back-end nozzle, the creature folded up its sails and let out a hard blast of CO2/H2O plasma.