Few of us had come into contact with such a thing before. 

I cupped my fingers around the tiny, transparent drop of water. I tried to take as much as I could from the wailing miniature human being's eyes in order to fill the specimen jar but it was impossible to collect more than a pitiful amount.

My nostrils flared at the scentless thing. I recalled on a past mission finding an identical-looking liquid that had a sharp, unappealing scent to it. It had been a substance we were easily able to collect, one we found on a planet three light-years away. The liquid had rested silently in pools and had burned my flight master's skin when he touched it without his gloves. 

This specimen was gentler to the touch. It did not come from the pools of that far-away planet, yet from a tiny, wrinkly human with scrunched-up eyes. The being was hairless and toothless. I felt the sudden need to protect it even though I was positive it could survive on its own.  

"I'm not sure this is enough to run tests." I looked from the few drops in the jar to my superior. When she took the jar from my hand, I marveled at the fact that she had never reached for something with more care. The transparent liquid just lay there, but she looked at it as though it was the most precious thing we'd ever found. It was just a glob of liquid with nothing extraordinary about it. Or so I believed.

"It will be enough," she replied as she tucked the jar gingerly into the specimen bag. "We must take care for it is precious."

"But how can something coming from a leaky earthling be?" 

"Some things just are," stated my superior. "This is one of the most beautiful things in the galaxy."

Furrowing my brow I asked. "What do they call these drops?"

My superior ran her purple fingers over the tiny earthling. When it looked up at her and cooed she smiled and replied, "Tears."