She could hear the soft whine of the scanner as it moved down her body, sliding smoothly on its hidden track somewhere deep within the instrument-packed cryotube. Even though there was no actual physical contact between her and the instrument, she found herself twitching slightly at its perceived presence. Whoever said there was no link between imagination and physicality had never spent any time in cryogenic deep sleep.
‘Upper chest now,’ Aaron was saying. ‘I can see the tops of your lungs. Heart coming into view.’
Despite her determination she found herself tensing uncontrollably. The muscles of her right forearm began to twitch spasmodically. The acting superintendent’s voice buzzed in her ears, a lethal drone.
‘Full chest view, at least according to what it says here. Heart and lungs seem to be functioning normally. Moving down.’
The twitching stopped, her breathing eased. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Hey, I don’t see anything. If you’d give me an idea what I’m supposed to be looking for… maybe I missed it.’
‘No.’ Her mind was working furiously. ‘No, you didn’t miss it.’
‘How do we get some enhancement?’
‘Try B.’
He complied, to no avail. ‘Nothing.’ He tried again, muttering to himself. ‘I gotta get a better angle.’
The instrumentation hummed. Suddenly he paused. ‘Holy shit—’ He broke off, eyes bulging as he leaned towards the screen.
‘What?’ she demanded. ‘What is it?’
‘I don’t know how to tell you this. I think you got one inside you.’
He stared at the screen in disbelief. The embryonic creature was definitely kin to the monster that had destroyed the men… and yet it was also distinctively, subtly different.
It wasn’t fair, she thought. She’d known, she’d more than suspected, for days. Then her chest scan had come through clean, giving her hope. Now this, the ultimate morbid revelation. Still, it wasn’t a shock.
Now that her suspicions were confirmed she felt oddly liberated. The future was no longer in doubt. She could proceed, confident in the knowledge that she was taking the right course. The only course.
‘What’s it look like?’
‘Fucking horrible,’ Aaron told her, at once repelled and fascinated by what he was seeing. ‘Like one of them, only small. Maybe a little different.’
‘Maybe? Are you sure?’
‘I’m not sure of anything. I didn’t hang around to take pictures of the big one.’
‘Keyboard,’ she told him. ‘Hit the pause button.’
‘Already did. The scanner’s stopped moving.’
‘Now move the screen. I’ve got to take a look.’
The acting superintendent hesitated, looking towards the cryotube and its recumbent occupant. ‘I don’t think you want to.’
‘It’s my choice. Do it.’
His lips tightened. ‘Okay. If you think you’re ready.’
‘I didn’t say I was ready. Just do it.’
He adjusted the viewscreen, waiting while she took a long, unblinking look.
‘Okay. That’s enough.’ Aaron instantly deactivated the scanner.
‘I’m sorry,’ he murmured as gently as he could. ‘I don’t know what to say. Anything I can do—’
‘Yeah.’ She started struggling against the confines of the tube. ‘Help me get out of here.’ Her arms were extended upward, reaching towards him.
XIII
The assembly hall looked emptier than ever with its reduced population of prisoners. The men muttered and argued among themselves as Dillon’s fist slammed into the transparent window on the wall. Reaching in, he ripped free the loosely secured fire axe within and turned to hold it over his head.
‘Give us strength, O Lord, to endure. Until the day. Amen.’
Fists rose into the air. The men were uncertain but determined. Dillon surveyed them intently.
‘It’s loose. It’s out there. A rescue team is on the way with the guns and shit. Right now there isn’t anyplace that’s real safe. I say we stay here. No overhead vent shafts. If it comes in, it’s gotta be through the door. We post a guard to let us know if it’s comin’. In any case, lay low. Be ready and stay right, in case your time comes.’
‘Bullshit, man,’ said prisoner David. ‘We’ll all be trapped in here like rats.’
Dillon glared at him. ‘Most of you got blades stashed away. Get ’em out.’
‘Right,’ William grunted. ‘You think we’re gonna stab that motherfucker to death?’
‘I don’t think shit,’ Dillon told him. ‘Maybe you can hurt it while you’re checkin’ out. It’s something. You got any better ideas?’
William did not. Nor did anyone else.
‘I’m tellin’ you,’ Dillon continued, ‘until that rescue team gets here, we’re in the shit. Get prepared.’
‘I ain’t stayin’ here.’ William was already backing away. ‘You can bet on it.’
Dillon turned, spat to his left. ‘Suit yourself.’
* * *
Aaron tapped out the necessary code, then ran his thumb over the identiprint. The inner door which protected central communications slid aside, telltales coming to life on the board, the screen clearing obediently as the system awaited input.
‘Okay,’ he told the woman hovering nearby, ‘what do you want to send?’
‘You got a line back to the Network?’
His brows furrowed as he checked the readouts. ‘Yeah, it’s up. What do you want to say?’
‘I want to tell them the whole place has gone toxic. I think they’ll buy it. There’s enough refining waste lying around to make it believable.’
He gaped at her. ‘Are you kidding? Tell them that and they won’t come here. Not until they can run and check out the results of a remote inspection, anyway. The rescue team’ll turn back.’
‘Exactly.’
‘What are you talking about? We’re like dead fish in a market waiting here. Our only hope is that they arrive in time to kill this fucker before it gets the rest of us. And maybe they can do something for you. You think of that? You’re so sure this thing can beat anything they’ve got, but you don’t know that for a fact. Maybe they can freeze you, do some kind of operation.
‘You said that they’ve been accumulating information on it. You think they’d be coming to try and take one back if they didn’t think they could contain it? Hell, we contained it and we weren’t even ready for it. They’ll be all set up to try a capture. They got the technology.’
She remained adamant. ‘All the Company’s got is greed for brains. I know. I’ve dealt with them and I’ve dealt with the aliens and frankly I’m not so sure that in the long run the Company isn’t the greater threat. I can’t take the chance. All I know for certain is that if one of these things gets off this planet it’ll kill everything. That’s what it’s designed to do: kill and multiply.
‘We can’t let the Company come here. They’ll do everything in their power to take it back with them.’ She made a disgusted noise. ‘For profit.’
‘Fuck you. I’m sorry as hell you got this thing inside you, lady, but I want to get rescued. I guess I’ve got more confidence in the Company than you. As it happens, I don’t think you’re looking at the situation rationally, and I suppose you’ve got plenty of reasons not to. But that doesn’t mean I have to see things the same way, and I don’t.
‘I don’t give a shit about these meatball prisoners. They can kill the thing or avoid it and howl holy hosannas to the heavens until they drop dead, but I got a wife and kid. Married real young so that despite the time distortions we’d still have quality time together when I finished my tour here. I was set to go back on the next rotation. Because of all this I can maybe claim extenuating hazards and go back with the rescue ship. I’ll collect full-term pay and probably a bonus. If that happens you could say that your xenomorph’s done me a favour.’
‘I’m sorry. Look, I know this is hard for you,’ she told him, trying to keep a rein on her
temper, ‘but I’ve got to send a message back. There’s a hell of a lot more at stake here than your personal visions of happy suburban retirement. If the alien gets loose on Earth your sappy fantasies won’t be worth crap.’
‘I’ll put my trust in the Company,’ he said firmly.
‘Dammit, Aaron, I need the code!’
He leaned back in the seat. ‘Sorry, mum. It’s classified. Can’t expect me to violate the regs, can you?’
She knew she didn’t have much time and she was starting to lose it. Here she was, dealing with the Company attitude again—that closed, restricted corporate world where ethics and morals were conveniently masked by regulations.
‘Look, shithead, you can screw your precious regulations. It’s got to be done. Give it to me!’
‘No fuckin’ way, lady. You don’t get the code out of me without killing me first.’
She bent towards him, then forced herself to ease off. Once again she found herself tired beyond imagining. Why was she driving herself like this? She didn’t owe anybody anything, least of all the representatives of the Company. If they took the alien on board their ship and it killed all of them, what was that to her?
‘Nothing personal, you understand,’ he was saying even as he was watching her carefully, alert for any sudden moves. He didn’t think she posed him any real danger, but in the short time that he’d seen her operate he’d learned enough to know that it would be dangerous to underestimate her. ‘I think you’re okay.’
‘Thanks.’ Her tone was flat, dulled.
‘So that’s settled. We’re working together again.’ He was inordinately pleased. ‘Got any ideas?’
She turned and he tensed momentarily, but she kept going past him to the service counter and drew herself a glass of water. Her thirst was constant and not due to tension and nerves. Her body was supplying fluids for more than one.
‘The worker-warrior won’t kill me,’ she told him as she halted nearby.
His eyebrows rose. ‘Oh, yeah? Why not?’
She sipped at the glass. ‘It can’t nail me without risking the health of the embryonic queen. And while I know that one of them can reproduce others of its kind, it may not be able to produce more than a single queen. Not enough of the right genetic material or something. I don’t know that for a fact, but the proof is that it hasn’t tried to kill me so far.’
‘You really want to bet this thing’s that smart?’
‘Smarts may not have anything to do with it. It may be pure instinct. Damage the host and you risk premature damage to the unborn queen. It makes sense.’ She met his gaze. ‘It could’ve killed me twice already, but it didn’t. It knows what I’m carrying.’ She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
‘I’m going to find it,’ she announced suddenly. ‘We’ll see how smart it is.’
He gaped at her. ‘You’re gonna go look for it?’
‘Yeah. I got a pretty good idea where it is. It’s just up there in the attic.’
He frowned. ‘What attic? We don’t have an attic.’
‘It’s a metaphor.’ She finished the water.
‘Oh.’ He was staring at her. ‘Wanna come?’
He shook his head. She smiled, put the glass back in its holder, and turned to exit the communications room. Aaron followed her with his eyes.
‘Fuck me,’ he murmured to no one in particular.
XIV
The access corridor was empty. Pausing, she jammed the torch she’d been carrying into a seam in the wall, studying the line of aged, rusting pipes nearby. Grabbing the nearest, she braced herself and yanked hard. The metal snapped and bent towards her. A second yank broke it free. Satisfied, she continued on.
The infirmary seemed more deserted than ever. She paused for a look around, half expecting to see Clemens bent over his workstation, glancing up to grin in her direction. The computer was dark and silent, the chair empty.
It was hard to pull herself up into the overhead air duct while manipulating both the five-foot length of pipe and the flashlight, but she managed. The duct was dark and empty. Adjusting the battered flashlight for wide beam, she flashed it behind her before starting off in the opposite direction.
Exactly how long or how far she crawled before she started calling, she didn’t know; only that the faint light from the infirmary had long since faded behind her. Her shouts were muted at first, then louder as fear gave way to anger. Her fate was inevitable. She just had to know. She had to see that thing face-to-face.
‘Come on! I know you’re here!’ She advanced on hands and knees. ‘Come on. Just do what you do.’
The air vent bent sharply to the left. She kept moving, alternately muttering and shouting. ‘Come on, you shithead. Where are you when I need you?’
Her knees were getting raw when she finally paused, listening intently. A noise? Or her own imagination, working overtime?
‘Shit.’ She resumed her awkward, uncomfortable advance, turning another corner.
It opened into an alcove large enough to allow her to stand. Gratefully she climbed to her feet, stretching. The alcove was home to a decrepit, rusting water purification unit consisting of a thousand-gallon tank and a maze of neglected pipes.
Behind the tank the ventilation duct stretched off before her, an endless, difficult-to-negotiate tube of darkness. As she stared a fresh wave of nausea overcame her and she leaned against the tank for support.
As she did so an alien tail flicked out and knocked the flashlight from her fingers.
It landed on the concrete floor, spinning but staying lit. Ripley whirled, a feeling of desperation creeping up her spine.
The alien peered out at her from within the network of pipes and conduits where it had been resting. It regarded her.
‘You fucker,’ she muttered as she gathered her strength. Then she rammed the metal pipe directly into its thorax.
With an echoing roar it exploded from behind the maze, metal pipes giving way like straws. Fully aroused and alert, it crouched directly in front of her, thick gelatinous saliva dripping from its outer jaws.
She held her ground, straightening. ‘Come on, fucker. Kill me!’ When it didn’t react she slammed at it again with the pipe.
With a roar it reached out and slapped the pipe away, stood glaring at her. Sweat pouring down her face, she continued to stare back.
Then it whirled and bolted into the darkness. She slumped, gazing after it.
‘Bastard.’
* * *
Dillon found the lieutenant in the assembly hall, seated by herself in the huge, deeply shadowed room. She sat with her head in her hands, utterly exhausted, utterly alone. The fire axe dangling from his right hand, he walked over and halted nearby. She must have been aware of his presence, but did nothing to acknowledge it.
Ordinarily he would have respected her silence and moved on, but conditions had passed beyond ordinary.
‘You okay?’ She didn’t reply, didn’t look up.
‘What are you doin’ out here? You’re supposed to be lyin’ low like everybody else. What happens if that thing shows up?’
Her head rose. ‘It’s not going to kill me.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I’ve got one of them inside of me. The big one won’t kill its own.’
Dillon stared at her. ‘Bullshit.’
‘Look, I saw it an hour ago. I stood right next to it. I could’ve been lunch, but it wouldn’t touch me. It ran away. It won’t kill its future.’
‘How do you know this thing’s inside you?’
‘I saw it on the cat-scan. It’s a queen. It can make thousands like the one that’s running around out there.’
‘You mean like a queen bee?’
‘Or ant. But, it’s just an analogy. These creatures aren’t insects. They just have a crudely analogous social structure. We don’t know a great deal about them. As you may have noticed, they don’t make for an easy study.’
‘How do you know it’s a queen?’ he found himself asking.
>
‘For one thing, the shape of the skull is very distinct. It’s backed by a large, upsweeping frill. The beginnings of that were clearly visible in the scanner images. For another, the gestation period for the warrior-worker analogues is quite short, in some cases only a day or so. They mature through their different stages with incredible speed.’ She looked rueful. ‘Very effective survival trait.
‘If this was an ordinary worker it would have come out by now, emerging through the sternum region. Also, it’s gestating in the uterine cavity instead of the chest. Since a queen is a much more complex organism it apparently requires both more space and time to mature. Otherwise I’d be dead by now.
‘I’ve seen how they work. It’s not very pretty. When full grown this thing is enormous, much bigger than the one we’ve been fighting here. It’s definitely going to be a queen, an egg layer. Millions of eggs. It’s not going to be anything like the one that’s out there running around loose.’ Her voice fell. ‘Like I said, nobody’s had any experience with a larval queen. I don’t know how long a gestation period it requires, except that it’s self-evidently a lot longer than an ordinary worker.’
He gazed down at her. ‘Still sounds like bullshit to me. If you got this thing inside you, how’d it get there?’
She was staring down at her hands. ‘While I was in deep sleep. I guess the horrible dream I had wasn’t exactly a dream. I got raped, though I don’t know that that’s a wholly accurate term. Rape is an act of premeditated violence. This was an act of procreation, even if my participation wasn’t voluntary. We would call it rape, but I doubt that the creature would. It would probably find the concept… well, alien.’ She looked thoughtful, thinking back.
‘The one that got loose on my first ship, the Nostromo, was making preparations to reproduce itself, but it wasn’t a queen either. At least some of them must be hermaphroditic. Self-fertilizing, so that even one isolated individual can perpetuate the species. A warrior-worker is capable of producing eggs, but only slowly, one at a time, until it can develop a queen to take over the job. That’s how this one was able to start a queen inside me. At least, that’s the best scenario I can come up with. I’m no xenologist.’