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Short story or book about a space crew on a broken ship who were capturing alien animals for a zoo


I would like to know the title and author of a short story I read a long time ago. It's about 3 men in space. They were sent to different planets to catch other organisms on different planets. Presumably to bring back to Earth and put in zoos. The ship they are on breaks down. They notice that the animals on the planet, instead of running away, curiously walk up to them. The animals are too friendly and easy to capture. They cannot fix the spaceship and after a few days, one of the men attempts suicide by slitting his wrists. His attempt fails. They look outside on the planet and they find their homes that they had on earth. The men realize that they were captured by aliens and that they were meant to live on this "alien zoo."



Answer



I would like to know the title and author of a short story I read a long time ago.



"Collecting Team" aka "Catch 'em All Alive!" by Robert Silverberg, first published in Super-Science Fiction, December 1956; the reprint in Authentic Science Fiction #81, June 1957 is available at the Internet Archive.


It's about 3 men in space. They were sent to different planets to catch other organisms on different planets. Presumably to bring back to Earth and put in zoos.



Davison disappeared back into the storage hold, while Holdreth scribbled furiously in the logbook, writing down the co-ordinates of the planet below, its general description, and so forth. Aside from being a collecting team for the zoological department of the Bureau of Interstellar Affairs, we also double as a survey ship, and the planet down below was listed as unexplored on our charts.



The ship they are on breaks down.



I stood there thinking about nothing at all for a moment, then went inside myself to begin setting up the blastoff orbit.

I got as far as calculating the fuel expenditure when I noticed something. Feedwires were dangling crazily down from the control cabinet. Somebody had wrecked our drive mechanism, but thoroughly.

For a long moment, I stared stiffly at the sabotaged drive.



They notice that the animals on the planet, instead of running away, curiously walk up to them. The animals are too friendly and easy to capture.




He put the animal down--it didn't scamper away, just sat there smiling at us—and looked at me. He ran a hand through his fast-vanishing hair. "Listen, Gus, you've been gloomy all day. What's eating you?"

"I don't like this place," I said.

"Why? Just on general principles?"

"It's too easy, Clyde. Much too easy. These animals just flock around here waiting to be picked up."



They cannot fix the spaceship



That night, the three of us stood guard in the control-room together. The drive was smashed anyway. The wires were soldered in so many places by now that the control panel was a mass of shining alloy, and I knew that a few more such sabotagings and it would be impossible to patch it together any more—if it wasn't so already.



and after a few days, one of the men attempts suicide by slitting his wrists. His attempt fails.



I entered his cabin. He was sitting at his desk, shaking convulsively, staring at the two streams of blood that trickled in red spurts from his slashed wrists.

"Clyde!"

He made no protest as I dragged him toward the infirmary cabin and got tourniquets around his arms, cutting off the bleeding. He just stared dully ahead, sobbing.




They look outside on the planet and they find their homes that they had on earth.



The following morning I rose early and got my tool-kit. My head was clear, and I was trying to put the pieces together without much luck. I started toward the control cabin.

And stopped.

And looked out the viewport.

I went back and awoke Holdreth and Davison. "Take a look out the port," I said hoarsely.

They looked. They gaped.

"It looks just like my house," Holdreth said. "My house on Earth."



The men realize that they were captured by aliens and that they were meant to live on this "alien zoo."



"Forget the giraffes. They tried to warn us, but it's too late. They're intelligent beings, but they're prisoners just like us. I'm talking about the ones who run this place. The super-aliens who made us sabotage our own ship and not even know we're doing it, who stand someplace up there and gape at us. The ones who dredged together this motley assortment of beasts from all over the galaxy. Now we've been collected too. This whole damned place is just a zoo—a zoo for aliens so far ahead of us we don't dare dream what they're like."



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