On July 22 2123, a group of scientists and a space commando landed on a previously unexplored moon. The moon was a lush jungle planet and they hoped to determine if it was safe for a colony. After landing a horrible storm completely destroyed their ship, leaving them stranded with no food or drinkable water. After the storm passed a large Lizard man creature walked up and said "Hello, I saw you land and came to investigate. I have my own ship nearby and would be happy to give you a lift back to your planet." The scientists were skeptical and Sebastian the space commando outright refused because very few aliens are helpful and he was confident at least the radio could be fixed. . Finally Paul, the bravest of the scientist agreed to investigate with the alien and would report back if their was indeed a ship. He figured they were all dead anyway and even though he might end up eaten at least they had a chance. The scientist was lead away with the alien following close behind. After a brief hike he saw a small shuttle craft belonging to the alien. The alien said " here she is, its only made for two but I can ferry your crew up to my ship one by one and then we can be off." Paul was satisfied and hurriedly returned to the crew to tell them they were safe. One by the scientist were lead off and ferried up to the aliens ship. Upon arriving the helpful alien helped the scientists onto the ship and lead them into the ship kitchen. "It will be a long journey help yourself to anything in the fridge.", said the alien. He would then lock them in the fridge as he indeed had a long journey and needed all the fresh meat he could get. Finally only Sebastian remained, feeling hopeless he also agreed to be rescued and was ferried up to the ship. Upon arrival Sebastian was very suspicious of where all the Scientist were and did not believe they were off settling in. When asked if he was hungry Sebastian responded "absolutely, would you mind going in first to show me what you have, I don't want to be in there any longer than I have to be." The alien was overcome by his greed for meat and went into the fridge only to be locked in by Sebastian in his own fridge, leaving him to die by the same deception he used to kill others. Sebastian was then able to fly the ship home where he was able to live a long and warm life.
Authors Note: My story was inspired by "The Cunning Crane and the Crab". I replaced the setting with that of a futuristic setting. I also replaced the animals with people who were also trapped in a place they could not live long and needed a rescue. Instead of a crane coming to the rescue is a large alien who wants to eat them as well. much like the crane the alien would also meet his end by being deceived in the same way he deceived others, getting what's his.
"The Cunning Crane and the Crab" From The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse, online at:Internet Archive.
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Space ship over planet.
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Hi again! This story is so creative and I really liked your take on the story. I really liked how it had a similar storyline to the original story. The crab story was one of my favorite stories last week, so it is cool to see different takes on it. I also like how Sebastian refused to go in the beginning and was always skeptical of the alien, he definitely took caution, which saved his life. Great story!
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting adaptation of "The Cunning Crane and the Crab". The futuristic setting adds a little bit more to the depth of the story, but there was one aspect I was wondering if you had considered. In the original story the crab was of a different species from the fish, this leads me to believe that the crab had little to no moral obligation towards the fish. However, in this story the commando and his scientists are presumably all human, I feel like having his crew murdered should have elicited a stronger response from the commando. Regardless, it was a good story and the aspect of ironical revenge was still there.
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