Incoming

Picture this

Its midnight
Somewhere just south of the equator
The sky is awash with stars
The sea is dead flat

And there I was on the flag deck of the Quapple, about 40" above sea level, taking a coffee break.

On this, my first major trip, I had been introduced to seeing some sea life that I knew existed, but had never seen. One of these creatures was the flying fish. As my ship steamed through the sea, these fish would launch themselves out of the water to get away from us. It was pretty spectacular watching one, then 2, then dozens fan out across the water.

Back to my coffee break.
I was looking up at the sky, seeing things that you just can't while surrounded by buildings and night light and I hear this buzzing noise.

BZZZZZZZZZZ, THAWCH! THUD!
Holy @#%@, I just about peed myself. I look down and there was this flying fish looking back at me. How in hell did it get up here? It had mangaged to get itself about 50 feet up, hit one of the radio antennas and then flopped onto the deck beside me.
There it was, looking up at me like it "Hey, you gotta a problem buddy?"
I decided that if it had enough energy to get itself up to where I was, I didn't want to mess with it so I turned, grabbed a broom and flicked it over the side.
Then I decided that it was far to dangerous to be outside, exposed to God know what else...