You know that one post about humans being really durable compared to aliens and that one about humans being really cute to aliens?
What if they were both true at the same time. Like the aliens decide to take their human on a landing mission because they get so exited and it’s so cute but then a storm hits and they crash. And the aliens are all freaking out because they can’t be rescued without going outside to fix something but the readings say they’ll die if they do because of the storm. The leader’s all prepared to make a heroic sacrifice when the cute human just walks out the airlock to fix the thing and when they get back they’re just like “what? It’s not that bad out.”
And the aliens find out humans are made of iron on top of being adorable.
Captain Kulld was originally sceptical about the value of having a human on board.
Sure, the human, “Viola” (which Captain Kulld’s dictionary of human languages assured him was a stringed instrument, which was an odd thing to name one’s offspring but Kulld supposed xe had come across weirder) was a great morale booster for the crew, but Kulld was not sure really if that was worth the consumption of oxygen and food from the ship’s stores. Xe could have used a sixth of the cost in resources to double the entertainment library and get roughly the same value as far as crew morale went.
It wasn’t that Viola with her bouncy curly hair and her dark brown colouring wasn’t the most adorable thing Kulld had ever seen – xe was secure enough in xir class designation to admit such things. Viola also made the most pleasant of noises when simply communicating. It was like having a meditation track and juvenile comforter on board instead of another crew member.
But that didn’t make her as smart as a Azigplast or as fast as a Huupo or as knowledgeable as a Jijip. Captain Kulld was left wondering what xir recruitment officer had been thinking.
At least until the time the ship, stopped for supplies on an uninhabited planet, had been caught in a storm that had moved in unexpectedly fast.
The crew had huddled in the ship, shivering, as the winds rocked the fragile spacecraft. To Captain Kulld’s alarm, xe noted that one of the rear solar fins was starting to come loose.
“Isn’t anyone going to go out and fix that before it blows away?” Viola asked.
As one, the crew turned to look at her like she was suffering from a neurochemical imbalance. Foliage was blowing off the native flora. To go outside in such conditions would be to risk life and limb!
Viola sighed in exasperation, (causing a frisson of murmurs as various crew members exclaimed over how it sounded just like a juvenile Skubub,) saying, “fine, I’ll do it then.”
Before anyone could stop her, she was already outside, the contents of her utilitity belt proving to be sufficient for the quick repairs.
Captain Kulld stared with all five of xir eyes.
“Destrue,” xe addressed the ship’s xenometeorologist, “exactly how fast are the winds out there?”
“51 km/h,” Destrue responded faintly, his face-fronds curling in distress. “She’s out there in near-gale force winds, and the only protection she’s applied is her goggles!”
The crew watched, spellbound, as the human manouevred the heavy solar wing against the strong winds and secured it quickly with a combination of duct tape and rivets.
All gasped in horror as a particularly strong gust threw silica particles into the human’s skin.
Would their crew-member disintegrate in front of their very eyes? Captain Kulld braced xirself. It would not do to look away from what could be Viola’s last moments, what would have been the last moments of any average being.
Apparently, they were all coming to realise, humans were rather tougher than the average being.
When Viola finished the repair job, and came back into the ship, all were in awe of her bravery, of her toughness, of her ability to not die in the face of the elements.
Viola all looked at them a bit oddly. “What, seriously?” she said. “I used to pull in the washing off the line in stronger wind than that.”
Captain Kulld thought that xe maybe understood now, why xir recruitment officer had been so adamant that hiring a human was worth every molecule of excess carbon dioxide for the environmental scrubbers to process.
I feel as though Floridians would rank second to Australians in desire to have on ships because while the Aussies can take care of the most violent flora and fauna to exist, Floridians do not give two shits about the weather. Personally, I have flown kites while a hurricane was just off of the coast and the rain hadn’t hit.