Salvage Vessel Nimrod
2101
13:00 hours
“Yeah, there’s definitely something out there,” Captain Delroy Jones says through the wad of tobacco under his bottom lip. “Looks like some kind of escape craft. Real roughed up too! Scored…Burned. I doubt anybody’s alive in there.”
Suddenly, Captain Jones sits forward in the Captain’s chair.
“Wait a minute?!” Jones hollers. “Does it say ‘Dayshadow’ on the side of that vessel?”
Lieutenant Lisa Preston, a retired colonial marine, leans forward and adjusts the image on the forward viewer. She turns to the captain with a huge smile.
“That’s what it sure looks like, Captain!” Lisa says.
Excitement flashes through Jones and he claps both hands.
“This could be our lucky day, folks! If this is the escape craft Weyland Industries has been looking for…We just might strike it rich!”
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Whoops and whistles fill the bridge as Jones’ crew express their excitement.
“Preston…See if we can’t get a cable on it and drag that sucker in?” Jones says with a sneer.
“Yes, Sir,” the lieutenant replies with a firm head nod.
Captain Jones rubs both hands together, anticipating the find of his lifetime. A find like this could be worth its weight in gold, credits, and women. He’ll take them all.
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The crew finally finishes hauling the battered escape vessel into the salvage ship’s hangar. Captain Jones shoves another bit of tobacco under his lip and strolls toward the forlorn piece of space trash. He patiently waits as his crew uses a blow torch to open the tiny vessel’s misshapen door.
After a few minutes, the crew emerge from inside the ship lugging a dingy old-fashioned stasis pod. The four crew members, one woman and three men, gently lower the pod to the hangar floor. Captain Jones peers through the small viewport at the front of the pod; his eyes landing on the slumbering face of a woman.
Lieutenant Preston attaches a lifesign meter to the outside of the pod and it emits a loud beep. Lisa grimaces and looks up at her expectant captain.
“She’s only sleeping, sir!” Preston relays.
Captain Jones spits out a wad of tobacco and tosses his cap on the floor.
“Goddamn it!” he cries. “After two years! Who the hell survives in an escape craft for more than two years? Oh well…Open it up!”
The crew do as instructed. As soon as the pod is open, and the woman is clearly visible, a collective gasp sounds throughout the hangar.
What appeared to be a woman is not a woman at all. Tucked inside the escape pod is a very large insect of unknown origin. Hardened carapace, fierce sharpened forelegs, mandibles which could rip a man in two, and a large crest on whose surface is the face of a beautiful woman.