ET- Sensing Government Operation

  But Keys closed the only net of which he had ever conceived—a gigantic one, every knot in it an expert of some kind, and the entire thing able to restore life to a dead and frozen mastodon if it had to, to awaken any organ, rejuvenate any cell, sustain anything, from any conceivable atmosphere in the universe.

  “I don’t want a dead spaceman,” was the order that went out continually to his colleagues, and to the gathering crew.

  But already there was a smothering amount of equipment being assembled; if every one of the test-wires that now dangled at the ready were attached to E.T.’s body, he would look like a telephone switchboard. And everyone in the warehouse wanted desperately to attach themselves to the creature they’d heard about. Who wouldn’t?

  Keys’ gigantic net was electric—incandescent—ready to be wrapped around a three-foot-tall creature hiding in a closet. And somehow, the creature knew.

  The geranium was drooping, as was E.T., head down, hands folded like a pair of dead squid in his lap. All hope for his communicator had left him. It had been running for weeks, and there was no answer from space. The crew of the Great Ship was far off, speeding fast, gone beyond recalling.
...

  He turned away. In a short time, he too would be on exhibit. Stuffed, shellacked, and set on a shelf. Perhaps a few varnished Oreo cookies would be placed beside him to show on what the creature fed.

- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in His Adventure on Earth, chapter 13