The General was viewing the monitor when he saw the ship that would change his life. It was a relatively small spacecraft; they made them large enough for 300 inhabitants, now. He was watching the small blip when another entered the screen. This time, though, it was a meteor. It was barreling toward them. For a moment, the General looked out in shock.

He gathered his wits and pressed that big, red, shiny button that no one ever wants to press. Sirens erupted into the crisp, climate-controlled air. The crew began to evacuate as the meteor hurtled toward them. The pilot refused to leave; he thought he could steer them out of the way in time.
The General spoke, “Please, John. It won’t work.”
John didn’t respond.
The General knew that John wouldn’t budge. He boarded the escape pod and left his favorite pilot to die.

The General spoke to his men through the intercom located in all of their uniforms, and told them to aim for the nearby spaceship. As he drew closer, the General gave his ship one last look as the meteor made its impact. He watched as his beloved spaceship was torn to pieces, shattered. He had worked on that ship for twenty-seven Earth years. Its broken fragments flew off into the vastness, never to be reunited.

“Goodbye, old girl,” he murmured. The General focused on the ship. It looked old and abandoned. He went back on the intercom and communicated the landing.

“Scotty, you dock at port three…,” and so on.

They waited for the air pressure to equalize. The General walked on to the ship. The first thing he noticed was the dense humidity. As he stepped into the light, he noticed something else. The lights were a soft, warm, amber glow; not the harsh white lights of most ships.
Gradually, more of the crew boarded the ship. Again, the general used the intercom, “Alright men, let’s spread out and find the central computer so that we can call in help from mission control. Intercom me when completed. Go.”

The General ordered the men he met to walk with him, and the group gradually grew to twelve survivors. After a time, they came to both a room and a conclusion. The conclusion was that there was no one else alive on board. The room was circular and green. The green was a giant vine that covered literally every surface of the room. In the center was a large pillar-shaped bulge. It was unclear, at the time, why the plant would grow this way. The General left three of his men by the bulge to try to take it apart and understand why it was there.

They kept going, and soon came to another circular room covered with vine, and another. After a while, with still no computer system in sight, they came to another room with vines, but this one was different. It was rectangular. A sign on the door read, “Genetics Laboratory.” Over the intercom, the General asked how those three men were doing. There was no response. I guess the intercom is down, he thought to himself. The group turned around to find the other men. They walked for a long time, and found nothing except more rooms filled with vines. The pattern was disorienting. They couldn’t find the other men. There were nine men left. “Let’s take a break. I’m sure the rescue team is on its way,” the General ordered. The group of nine sat down and slept in one of the circular rooms. But the sleep was short lived. They woke up to the sound of a scream. When they woke up, there were only four men in the room. Where did everyone else go? They followed the direction of the scream, and watched while Paul, one of the men who was dissecting the bulge, was eaten by the vine. His lasts words were, “The plant is carnivorous! The bulges are people! It ate the others!”

“We need to get back to the escape pods. We can aim them at Wampaloo. Go, go, go! “

They started running. The plant tripped Harold. They kept running, ignoring his pleading screams. The plant was snaking towards them quickly. They dodged. Trevor was down. Just keep running. Just keep running. They dodged and dodged. The escape pod was fifty yards away. Scotty went down, and the general looked back. The vacant pod was one way; his best friend was the other. Scotty was the man with whom he had grown up and worked with for all of those twenty-seven years. Scotty had been with him in both good times and bad times. He hadn’t known the escape pod for long, but it was really starting to grow on him. Which to choose? For a second, the general hesitated, glancing between his two choices. He made his decision. You know, thought the General, if we had more men, we could fight this thing. If only I had saved the pilot, or Harold, or Trevor, or Scotty. He made it to the escape pod, boarded and left. He was the sole survivor. What he failed to notice, however, was a little slice of green that was riding along beside him.