The exploration ship gyrated lazily in the void, deep in the outer reaches of the galaxy.

At the helm, Captain Brad Redwin tapped the keyboard in an ever-increasing state of agitation, but it still insistently told him what he didn't want to hear. As a final resort, he gave the monitor a thumping. The result didn't change. He swung his chair round and faced his concerned crew.

“Well, this is the moment we all hoped wouldn't happen.”

“The scanners aren’t wrong?”

“No.”

Some unsavoury curses filled the craft's interior.

The crew huddled round the screens and watched the mysterious, multi-limbed shape that seemed to be treading water about ten kilometres away from the ship.

Marta shifted uneasily. “Do you think it knows we're here?”

Leonti frowned. “There must be some mistake, that thing cannot possibly be alive, never mind intelligent. It is floating in space. Impossible!”

Brad shrugged. “Well, obviously you never read 'Voyage of the Space Beagle' then.”

“I did.” Marta said softly, glancing terrified at the shape outside.

“Then you know what happened when they brought a creature aboard their ship that they found lurking in space.”

“It would never fit on board our ship anyway.” Leonti pointed out.

Brad rolled his eyes.

“I would suggest that since it is in our mission directive to locate alien lifeforms, then we should try to communicate.”

“Are we sure about this?”

“Just play the damn tape, I'm sure it won't understand it anyway.”

Broadcasting on all frequencies, Marta sent out the set of signals carefully prepared by SETI, which included several greetings from famous celebrities on the wane, perhaps hoping for starring roles in the alien equivelent of Hollywood, along with data collected by schoolchildren and other harmless, trivial bits and bobs. Humans are harmless really, no threat to anyone, honest.

“What's it doing?” Brad asked Leonti.

“Nothing new.”

“Sure? It looks like its waving.”

“No, we're just experiencing a bit of cosmic wind.”

“Is it trying to return our communication, Marta?”

“Not that I can tell. It might take it a while to figure out what the greeting means.”

“Hell, I don't even know what it means, what hope does that thing have?”

“Captain, its coming closer.”

“Right, we don't want it to dismantle our ship. Thrusters on, we're moving back.”

The ship kept a ten kilometre distance. The creature didn't advance any further.

“I don't think anyone at home actually thought this through, did they?” Brad said, his knuckles white on the controls. “I mean, we all know that these encounters with aliens never end well, and how could it? If the aliens aren’t trying to take over Earth, then we would want something of theirs.”

“There was ET.”

“What about it?”

“That ended well.”

“That is a matter of opinion, but I suppose you're right. Death and disaster didn't finish us all.”

“We all agreed to come on this mission.”

“And hands up how many of us actually thought we'd find something?”

All hands remained firmly where they were.

“And how many of us truly believe that this thing out there is going to be friendly? It needn't be outrightly homicidal, but it could unwittingly destroy us.”

The others nodded in mute agreement, secretly glad that their leader felt this way.

“I mean, if we'd happened upon a planet of Ewoks, or harmless little turds like ET then I might reconsider, but how could a creature that is able to travel through space by itself be anything other than an outright menace?”

Leonti concurred. “The scanners only register that its somehow sentient, but cannot establish anything about its physiology. Those limbs could be for breathing, locomotion, reproduction or anything, there is no way for us to tell.”

“They may be weapons.” Marta added.

“Indeed.”

“What do you suggest we do, captain?”

“I suggest that we continue our course, head back to Earth and deny all knowledge that we found anything.”

“But we played the tape.”

“So? We could say we just found a strange nebula that we thought might be life, but oh dear, silly us, it was just a cosmic phenomenon. Nobody will ever know the difference.”

“I agree with Brad.” Leonti said, “There is too much at stake. I don't believe our governments are truly prepared to establish contact with an alien race, no matter how much they think we might want to. Being in the actual situation and confronted with an alien being is a lot more difficult than just theorising about it.”

“Marta?”

“I think it couldn't be good to draw this creature's attention to Earth.”

“Fine. We're united on this one. Lets get out of here.”

The ship turned on its axis and departed hastily. The luminescent multi-limbed creature floated in the void and watched them go.

* The hybrid deep-searcher Solnon-Rees felt bemused that his attempts to contact the fragile vessel had been unsuccessful. He had picked up their signals, and was still trying to process the spectacle of the human called Keith Chegwin, expounding on something unintelligible.

At least that established that he'd encountered humans. His race had been picking up their myriad broadcasts for many years but had largely decided to leave these beings alone. However, he had been sent out to warn them that the Holcron were coming, a fearsome warlike race that wanted dominion over all life.

The thing was, that despite the humans' noise, nobody knew where they were situated. Solnon-Rees felt fortunate to have encountered the human vessel, but they had gone again too quickly for him to deliver his warning.

He continued with his methodical scan of the galaxy. It might take him a million years to find the humans' home planet, but he would find it eventually. Whether or not there would be anything left by the time he got there was another matter. He just had to hope that he found the planet before the Holcron did.