'Cellini's Dragon'



Cellini's Dragon is a retrospective nickname applied to a deadly alien creature, which was discovered aboard an abandoned alien spacecraft by the crew of the Ultra Probe in 1997

Apparently immune to laser fire, the creature used a form of hypnotic inducement and its tentacles to grab the crew members and move them towards its "mouth" - a large hole at its base - and devour them. A few seconds later their smoldering skeletal corpses were subsequently spit out by the creature. The creature appeared able to affect the crew member's minds and weaken their resistance to being eaten alive until it was too late.

However, when Mission Commander and sole survivor Tony Cellini made it back to Earth six months later, and informed the authorities, they refused to believe him, as the creature did not appear on videotape or mission records, nor did the vessels flight recorder pick up any lifeforms or conclusive evidence of a field of abandoned spacecraft. The conclusion was that Cellini had accidentally opened the airlock too early and his crewmates were sucked into space. Cellini was forced to undergo extensive psychiatric evaluation on Earth.

Shortly before the Breakaway incident, Cellini was eventually assigned to Moonbase Alpha as an Eagle pilot by his friend John Koenig, one of the few people who believed Cellini's tale about the creature.