Boarding party

A greenship captain recounts his decision to enter an out-of-bounds planetary system to replenish mineral-deficient nursery soil, detailing the covert lowering of a ship-to-ground capillary tube, technical monitoring of nutrient transfer, and precautions against cultural contamination. Routine procedure is upset when a solitary native successfully boards the greendeck, makes off with a small animal, a child's toy, and trading disks, and the ship sustains unexplained shortening of its capillary tube. Presented as a formal report, the account interweaves logistical detail with wry reflection on commercial obligation and the unpredictable effects of fleeting contact with an extra-Community culture.