Aliens on the International Space Station

by Sally Ann Melia

  May looked thoughtfully at the alien trees one more time..

  “Katy, I don’t know if you’re seeing this, but it looks like the aliens needed our trees because theirs have died.”

  “May, you need to be careful.” The voice was cracked and cut through with static, May could barely make out the words at all.

  “Yes, I know.” May gazed around. Though this sudden and extraordinary green space at the heart of an asteroid was a rough and ready wilderness. Trees packed together like so many filters, no birds, no lawns, no undergrowth. Yet they were still trees, and even after only nineteen days in space, May longed to walk and sit at the foot of one of the trees, feel its bark against her shoulder blades. Who knows, she might even remove her helmet to breathe the fresh air

  “Not today,” she thought.

  “Pull yourself together,” Jasmin again. “Why would you even think of removing your helmet?”

  “Because I think these aliens breath air, like ours,” May did not think the ISS could hear her, but she could still speak to her twin.

  “Think!”That was Jasmin’s voice and she sounded outraged. “You know no such thing.”

  No such thing, May repeated.

  Okay, where had the alien gone? To her left was a rocky path, and at the end another hexagonal lattice. So now she had to climb up to another platform. Above her there appeared to be a vast mushroom-like cavern, but until she climbed up there, she would not be able to see inside.

  “Is this a good idea?” she asked herself, but then banished the thought. Let the others do the worrying. “I’m going up,” she said aloud.

  Was her space suit heavier? Maybe she was just weary. Still, she reached up. She had to do this. She knew Jasmin would, and her sister was with her, her soul floating alongside her as she climbed slowly, listening for sounds. The alien had gone, and so far as she could hear, there was nothing else there. The alien’s blood showed her the way. She reached the final handhold to pull herself onto the next level pathway. Then, standing up, she tottered.

  “No,” she thought, and grabbed a rocky outcrop. “I must not fall.”

  Looking back she remembered her and Jasmin on wires, high above the NASA compound. May remembered collapsing to her knees as others ran to grab her, holding her back from the emptiness and her twin sister’s broken body below, so far below. What had they been doing 50m high in the air? What was it that had caused Jasmin to fall, as May watched helplessly?

  Even here, she could imagine Jasmin sprawled on the ground left.

  Jasmin saved me that day. She reached to grab me, then she stepped back. Stepped into emptiness as it turned out. Now Jasmin was not here. Jasmin would never be here.

  She’s the reason I cannot fail, May thought.

  “Tell Jasmin, I’m thinking of her,” she said aloud. This time there was not reply, not even static, a faint haze of white noise filled her headphones. She had lost communications with the outside.

  Alone, she thought. Okay, so breathe.

  No, not alone, I have Jasmin.

  So…Do you hear that noise Jasmin?

  Something knocked rhythmically from behind the rockface. The sound was too small to be the alien. May reached to the rock face and a door opened. A drone buzzed past her face. May pulled out the tablet and zapped the drone. It glided to a stop at her feet. Annoyed she bent to pick up the small machine, then pushed through the door, to look into the room beyond. The first thing she saw was a carcass hanging on a meat hook. It looked like a joint of meat prepped by butchers, but vast. What kind of creature was it?

  “If the aliens can use our trees, then what of meat? Do they eat our food? What creatures on Earth might they see as a meal?”

  And while it was a large piece of meat, it was the only one. The rest of storage space was empty.

  May’s eyes were drawn to the many meat hooks hanging from the rafters. The larder, if that was what this was, was bare. She backed out hurriedly.

  “I don’t want to a meal,” she said.

  No you don’t, Jasmin replied. Even if you are a dumpling. This time her words were full of love.

  May felt tears filling her eyes. Had Jasmin ever been this kind in real life?

  Maybe she should go back. She held one robot in her hand, and there was one more to find. She should go back shouldn’t she? She had seen the trees, the meat locker. Wasn’t that enough? It was dangerous to stay alone on this ship, but still the trail of alien blood continued tantalizing along the stone balcony. The tablet told her the last drone was in the next great cavern.

  One more drone, she told herself.

  “Let’s go take a look.” Jasmin replied.

  She turned a corner and found the alien. Right there, staring at her with unseeing eyes. Hanging in water. He was not dead, but he also did not appear to be awake. The alien had climbed into a chrome and glass sarcophagi. He was floating asleep, or unconscious, in water. May peered closer, his face appeared to be hugged by an transparent octopus, whose head expanded and shrank as the alien breathed, and blue and silver coiling eels were tending to the wound in his foot and ankle. What was this? Animal medical symbiosis?

  More importantly, is that the only alien on board? Jasmin again.

  May checked. Alongside the injured alien there were four further empty sarcophagi. They did look like birds’ nests, twisted circles of stone each encasing an ebony globe. Only the one with the alien was illuminated and full of water. The other globes were empty and dry, two had fur pelts twisted and abandoned across the floor. So was this where the aliens slept, and if they were injured, was this is where they were healed?

  Humm, a sleeping bed come healing pod, maybe a cryo-pod for long distances? May mused.

  There’s the last robot, Jasmin said.

  And true enough, the last robot flew towards her having completed it’s full scan of the vast cavern. .

  “Got you,” May said as she zapped it. “Hope you did a good job?”

  Five in total. Keeler was right there had only been only five aliens. Only one was here. Two already dead planet-side, he had said… If that was true, that meant there were still left two…

  And they might be coming back right now. Jasmin again.

  Hmm, May thought,

  How long had it been since she left the ISS?

  How long since she saw Sergey and the others?

  She had to get going.

  She attached the two robots to her belt.

  She took one last look at the alien, immersed in water undergoing healing.

  So like us, she thought.

  She went to glance around one more time, when all at once she saw Jasmin, standing directly in front of her, she was wearing, a vest and shorts, with mud splashed over her boots and up her legs. Her hair was untify and the short tuffs at her neck lifted in the breeze, as Jasmin looked directly at her, her eyes full of terror.

  “OH MAY… THEY’RE COMING. THEY ARE COMING TO GET YOU.”

  Instinctively, May looked back the way she had come. Nothing.

  She turned back to Jasmin, but the vision had gone. It had to be a vision, right? Jasmin could not have been here, not just clad in shorts and vest top, was she muddy because she had been walking in the woods?

  No matter.

  May had heard the warning.

  “I have to get out,” she thought. “Now I know there are only five of them, I really must get out now.”

  Quest airlock, International Space Station

  In the end, Frankie did have to rescue May. For as she dived from the alien asteroid, the alien planetary shuttle was powering back towards the hanger, so May gunned her space scooter only for it to cough, splutter and fail. Checking the fuel gauge she saw she was out of juice.

  “I need help…” she barely uttered the words before Frankie was swinging her around, and the two powered back to where Vladimir waited at the end of the double tether. Ahead of her, May saw Sergey was already boarding the ISS, and Vladimir pointed to where the military shuttle sped
back to Earth.

  Reentering the ISS but isolated to allow for decompression, May proudly showed the last two drones, and pulled out the sample of alien plant-life from her inner pocket. The others cheered and waved, and Katherine switched on a terminal so even as she decompressed, she spent in comms with the drone specialists on the ground and was pleased to see the video files safely transferred.

  Much later, Katherine called her team together.

  “They have safely landed…” she told them.

  “Keeler?” May asked at once.

  “Not in good shape, but they have him stabilized, they think he’ll make it.” Katherine confirmed. “You saved him May.”

  “And I got his robots back.”

  The others cheered as Katherine handed out snacks. It was a celebration.

  “I’m starving,” May said grabbing a bag of chips, and greedily starting to eat. They all laughed.

  “You should have some proper food,” Prisha said.

  “Or just eat junk like the rest of us,” Frankie said.

  “Thanks for coming to get me Frankie,” May said accepting a donut from the pilot. “My scooter was completely dry of fuel.”

  “No problem. What’s more we now need to do more testing of their range, they are saying.” Frankie laughed.

  “Really, that sounds like - erm - fun?” May giggled.

  “Yeah, and they are no longer BETA, we can use them whenever we choose.” Frankie gave her the thumbs up. “So well done you on testing them in extreme circumstances.”

  “And I got the robots…”

  “Okay you guys, settle down.” Katherine again. “I’ve just had a call from Houston, they stopped the live transmissions about twelve hours back, and when we go live again, we have to say we had a problem, with space debris. No scary aliens, no injured aliens, no death-defying escapes in space. Just a bit of debris and a short blackout. Do you hear me everyone, and nothing is to slip out, specially not on social media.”

  “I have to call Jasmin,” May said. “Can I tell her at least?”

  “I think SETI at least already know; who do think met and kept the aliens on the surface?” Katherine replied. “But before you go. You might as well know, we need to send a couple of people back down to the surface. We used up a lot of fuel, there’s been some damage, and Houston want to send up a couple of repair men. So I’m sorry May - well I’m not sorry - because tomorrow you’ll get to celebrate with Jasmin in Mountain View. It’s you and either Frankie or Prisha. But I’m thinking we will need a medic…”

  “Houston can always broadcast treatments via video call,” Frankie protested. “Any of us could…”

  “Katy, Katy… they’re on the move…” It was Sergey, he was speeding through from their wing, it was not like him to sound panicked.

  “What?” Katherine said.

  “The aliens, they are sending another ship down to the planet’s surface.” Sergey said.

  “Houston, are you seeing this?” Katherine again.

  “Roger that. SETI have given us an estimated trajectory. They are saying Mysore, it’s south of Bangalore, we’re sending alerts to our contacts in the Indian Space Program… It’s Friday afternoon over there, I hope someone picks up.”

  “What do they want from Mysore, India?” May asked.

  “How is anyone going to get there?” Frankie said. “How long is the flight from California to India?”

  “It’s not just Mysore,” Prisha said holding up her phone. “It’s Mysore Dasala. It’s a huge festival.”

  She showed a photo of a vast elephant clad in silk and ridden by a red-turbaned mahout, on its back was a golden temple with a silk-robed deity inside. “There will be hundreds of thousands of people there…”

  “God help them,” May muttered. “What do the aliens want this time?”

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  Did you spot the science from the fiction? Almost everything in this story is based on real space technology. To find out more about the research I undertook to write this short story, and also discover the small part that came from my imagination, please visit this page and select:

  Map and Background to Aliens on the International Space Station

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  Aliens in Mysore Dasala

  Nagarahole National Park

  It was hungry. It had survived for six months without fresh meat but yesterday it had tasted warm blood, and today it had awoken ravenous. Looking down on the blue and silver planet, smaller yet otherwise so reminiscent of its home, it knew there were meals on the surface. Creatures that resembled and no doubt tasted like the best cuts back home. It let the ship do the scanning.

  “Not too many natives…” it murmured, and soon enough a herd of grey creatures at a waterside appeared on screen. He enhanced the magnification, thick strong legs, vast grey hides, broad shoulders.

  Perfect.

  Then he saw the mother ambling into the water, filling her trunk and spraying her trumpeting child.

  Divine.

  Saliva dripped from its massive jaw, an infant, it could practically taste the sweet softness of its flesh. It widened the image, the small herd was deep in the forest, the biped natives were present only a scattered few, and there were no large machinery at all.

  “Prepare the shuttle,” it told the ship, walking to the weapons wall to pick out the right piece. It needed to move fast, no doubt once they finished drinking the creatures would withdraw into the forest, so he did not have long.

  As its craft roared down to the surface, it keep the screens firmly fixed on its prey, its eyes seeking out the infant, who was sometimes hidden amongst the herd, sometimes nudging and nuzzling its mother. The mother was a great fine beast as well. It would of course kill the mother as well as the infant. It was kinder that way.

  Impatiently it climbed from its safety chair on landing, and loped around to the side exit, punching the door and gangplank release. Perfect, the mother and child were standing right there. Seemingly they had seen. But what could these creatures comprehend of the craft hanging soundlessly over their bathing pond?

  The alien stepped out onto the gangplank, a fine dark night, and as expected no scent of the smaller bipeds anywhere. The moon hung pink and glowing in the night sky above. It could not help itself, it tipped back its head and howled.

  Okay that was a mistake.

  The howl had frighted the herd, and it saw the mother rapidly corralling the infant to the center of a protective circle.

  No, don’t do that, it thought. I’ll only have to kill more of you, because I am not leaving without that perfect dish.

  Lifting its weapons, it loped along the gangplank to the woodland floor. That’s when it saw it. A giant jumbo trunk raised and ears flapping, the creature’s sharp black eyes were bright with anger.

  Why had it not seen there was a large male with the herd?

  The forest echoed to the sound of an angry trumpeting.

  No matter, it would kill it too.

  Abhimanyu had lived on this planet for 62 years. He was the father of the forest and for good reason. For 15 years, he had been the presiding elephant carrying the 750kg howdah leading a procession of elephants, tigers and bears, marching bands, dancing girls and ranks of ceremonial soldiers through the ancient imperial streets of Mysuru. Then three years ago, he had been retired and released into these protected forests, to live our his last years in peace surrounded by the guns and fences of men, or so it thought. Abhimanyu, king of the Jumboo Savari might never have s
een a creature like this before, but he knew he was the strongest, largest creature in these lands, and he intended to remain so. He charged.

  He was surprisingly fit, and quick and strong.

  Why had it not seen the large male?

  As it crawled across the floor of the shuttle, cradling its ripped stomach to itself, the creature still wondered at its speed. Of course on this planet, prey was still truly wild, with long tusks to match. But still it had not expected such a fast and vicious charge. Had it even got a shot off? It glanced down at its bleeding abdomen, it would need to go into regeneration mode. It dragged itself over to the food preparation area, and reaching up took two orange fruit from a jar.

  Further prey detected. The ship told it.

  The creature snorted. It could not eat, but at least it could look. It tapped a panel that turned into a screen.

  A stage sight appeared, the two-legged pests, as he saw them, had loaded the prey creatures into open metal crates which set off in convoy along a road. How did creatures so small and so puny handle the prey, when it had suffered such painful injuries? Chewing thoughtfully on the orange fruit, it scrutinized the scene. The prey animals were chained and the natives used branches of food to coax them from the front, and canes to wack their behinds. Though in truth there was little beating required. One of the prey looked entirely tame, bending and lifting a leg to allow the small native to climb onto its shoulders.

  Follow, it told the ship. Discretely.

  It was feeling sleepy now, the fruit would have him fully asleep within a few moments, but for now it watched as its ship hovered high above along a line of eight trucks rolling slowly along a long and narrow road.