A severe meteor storm had damaged Commander Deena Larson's spacecraft, and she desperately needed a place to land in order to make repairs.
Fortunately, there was a small planet in the vicinity although the atmosphere was highly poisonous. Deena would need to wear her environmental suit in order to fix the damage.
Landing the crippled vessel on the planet was more difficult than Deena imagined it would be, and she was grateful for the clearing in the midst of a sea of strange rock formations.
After putting on the bulky environmental suit, Deena exited the spacecraft and surveyed the damage. She estimated that it would take several hours to complete the repairs.
While patching a tiny hole near the engine compartment, a hovering alien done appeared and silently watched Deena work.
Deena assumed that someone was curious about her presence and so she took no hostile action against the drone.
Several minutes after the first drone arrived another materialized and also silently watched. Deena hurriedly finished patching the engine compartment hole and then moved on to the cargo hold repairs.
Eventually, a dozen alien drones observed Deena's labor and for some reason they began jostling and fighting each other.
The fighting became so intense that they began bumping into Deena's environmental suit and she knew that even a slight tear would be fatal.
A strange idea occurred to Deena, and she activated one of the ship's drones and set it on a meandering course towards the planet's northern pole.
As Deena had hoped, the swarm of alien drones followed her drone, and she was able to finish her work in peace.
She regretted losing one of the ship's limited supply of drones, but it couldn't be helped and once the repairs were finished her spacecraft lifted away from the planet without any complications.
After leaving the planet behind, Deena wondered about the alien drones. They acted almost like a form of life, and she immediately thought of a flock of crows.
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