1 always heard there were a few that got out alive, but man... I never thought I'd see one.
Johner starts laughing.
JOHNER
Oh, Christ. Doing fucking nickel and dime border runs, selling second hand junk to
the farm belt... and we're carrying the most expensive piece of contraband in the system.
That's rich.
PURVIS (getting anxious)
It's great, she's a toaster oven... Can we leave now?
Vriess tries to touch Call's wound.
VRIESS
Let me see.
Call pulls away.
JOHNER
Yeah, get your socket wrench, Vriess.
Maybe she just needs an oil change.
RIPLEY
Let's go.
They start off again, Johner and St Just bringing up the rear
JOHNER
Can't believe I almost fucked the thing.
ST JUST
Yeah, like you've never fucked a robot.
ANGLE: RIPLEY
Letting DiStephano lead.
RIPLEY
DiStephano. Where are we?
DISTEPHANO
Upper decks... Storage... the chapell's up here, not much else.
RIPLEY
Can we get to the ship?
DISTEPHANO
Well, we're a ways out,of the way, but I think we can get through to the garden.
From there, it's down a few levels, it's do-able.
What if the fucking doctor gets there first?
VRIESS
It's a good point.
DISTEPHANO
Shit.
They have reached an access door. Debris blocks the way.
RIPLEY
Another way?
DISTEPHANO
Uh, yeah. Through the wall. We'll have to get one of these panels off. It'll take a while.
(to Vriess) You got tools?
VRIESS
Yeah, but no torch.
JOHNER
Fucking blow the door!
HILLARD
Assface, We're on the top of this thing.
(pointing to the ceiling)
That's hull.
VRIESS
What about Wren? if he gets in the computer he can really fuck us around.
RIPLEY
We have to get in too.
DISTEPHANO
There's no access console on this level. We'd have to-backtrack.
HILLARD
Fuck that.
DISTEPHANO
And I don't have the security access that Wren does anyway.
Ripley turns to Call.
RIPLEY
Call.
CALL
No. I can't.
JOHNER.
Bullshit. She's a damn well talking machine.
CALL
There's another way.
DISTEPHMO
Just tell her to access it on remote.
VRIESS
Shit, that's right. Any of the new model droids can access the mainframe.
JOHNER
Just by blinking.
CALL
I can't.
ST JUST
No time to get coy, Annalee.
CALL
I can't. I burned my modem drive. We all did.
VRIESS
You can still patch in manually. You know that.
Call looks over at the group, staring at her. She knows she doesn't have a choice.
DISTEPHANO
There's ports in the chapel.
RIPLEY
Come on.
(to the others)
You get started on that wall.
CUT TO: INT. CHAPEL - CONTINUOU@
Ripley and Call enter the small room. Ripley sits in one of the pews, pulls out a bible.
it somewhat resembles a Newton Under the leather flap is a screen reading.:
HOLY BIBLE. PRE START.
Ripley pulls out the cord from the bible's port, holds it up
CALL
Don't make me do this.
RIPLEY
Don't make me make you.
CALL
I don't want to go in there.
RIPLEY
Get over it.
CALL
It's like... your insides are liquid. It's not real.
RIPLEY
You can blow the ship. Before it reaches Earth. Kill them all. Just give us time to get
out first.
That convinces Call. She pulls up her sleeve, and begins. pushes a part of her forearm,
just below the crook of her elbow. It has a spring release catch, and a small panel rises
up with two computer ports on it. She takes the cable from Ripley and plugs it in.
It looks almost like she's mainlining heroin.
She cocks her head.
CALL
Dammit.
RIPLEY
Anything?
CALL
Hold on.
She reaches in her chest, reconnects some tubes. She twitches then shuts her eyes.
It's beginning.
She begins speaking very rapidly, eyes still shut.
CALL
Breach in sector seven sector three sector nine unstable -- engines operating at eighty
six percent -forty six minutes until earthdock.
Her voice has a slight mechanical quality as she rattles this off. Her eyes open.
CALL
We burned too much energy -- I can't make critical mass. I can't blow it.
RIPLEY
Then crash it.
TO: INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS
As the crew works at getting the wall panel off,.
TO: INT. CHAPPEL A BIT LATER
CALL
Ground level recalibrated... new destination 760, 403. Done. Forty one minutes until impact.
RIPLEY
Try to clear us a path to the ship.
CALL
Tracking movement in sublevels six through nine. Video is down. Attempted rerouting
nonfunctional, wait, partial visual in waste tank 5, unauthorized presence...
VRIESS
Unauthorized?
CALL
Nonhuman.
RIPLEY
How many?
Please wait.. emergency override on. console 45V, level one... handprint ID...
(like herself)
It's Wren. He's almost at the Betty.
RIPLEY
And how do you feel about that?
CUT TO: INT. HALL - CONTINUOUS
Wren is holding his hand to the scanner, just as Call described. The red light turns
green and we hear the locks the door crack open.
FATHER
Emergency override validated.
The door begins to rise. Looking around him, Wren waits to through.
The door grinds to a halt, still too low to climb under. Th lights go out, only the
faintest glow coming from various instrument panels. wren's expression drains.
WREN
Father, reboot systems on 45V, authorization 'starling'.
Nothing happens. Wren looks about him, beginning to sweat.
Did the aliens do this?
WREN
Father, locate power drain, report.
Father?
CALL - (on the system)
Father's dead, asshole.
Wren spins in shock at the sound of Call's voice. it,s everywhere around him.
She has downloaded her vocal matrix place of Father's.
(She's not just speaking over a PA, she is the PA.)
The door SLAMS back-down, locks clack into place. The doors behind him open up,
emergency lighting pulsing along toward him.
CALLSHIP
Intruder on level one... all aliens please proceed to level one.
Wren is freaking. He turns back down the corridor, looking about him wildly.
CUT TO: INT. CHAPEL - CONTINUOUS
RIPLEY
You got a mean strak.
CALL
It's done. That should hold the fuck.
This as her voice track slips even more. She works the wires in her cheest, trying
to fix it.
RIPLEY
Let me see
CALL
Don't touch me.
Ripley backs off.
CALL
You must think this is pretty funny.
RIPLEY
Yes. But I'm finding a lot of things funny lately. And I'm not sure they are.
CALL
Why do you go on living? How can you stand it? How can you stand... yourself?
Ripley shrugs.
RIPLEY
Not so hard. Not much choice.
CALL
At least there's p art of you that's human. I'm just... fuck. Look at me....
She looks at the hole in her chest, the white and sticky fibers.
CALL
I'm disgusting.
Her voice is at its slowest here, low and eerie. It's a mechanical problem, but
it sounds just like despair.
RIPLEY
Do you dream?
CALL
I ... we have neural processors that run through.... (stops) Yes.
RIPLEY
When I sleep, I dream about it. Them. Every night. All around me ... in me.
I used to be afraid to dream, but I'm not anymore.
CALL
Why?
RIPLEY
Because no matter how bad the dreams get ... when I wake up it's always worse.
Purvis enters.
PURVIS
I guess we're almost there.
RIPLEY
Right.
He exits again. Call finishes fiddling with her internal wiring. We hear her voice slip
back to normal as she says:
CALL
Let's get going.
CUT TO: INT. TUNNEL
As they come one by one through the wall.
DISTEPHANO
Not far now.
PURVIS
God, I'm so tired...
JOHNER
Yeah, well, we'll sleep when we're dead.
Ripley follows him through.
RIPLEY
Don't count on it.
The rest of them come through and walk into:
INT. THE GARDEN CONTINUOUS
The Garden runs nearly half a mile straight across, and then down on a terraced slope.
Everywhere are different kinds of plants: trees, vegetable plants, exotic and experimental
hybrids.
Access paths crisscross the beds.
It's huge, the single biggest space on the ship. Yet the low ceiling, laticed with grow-lamps
now dim in nightcycle, and prodigeous undergrowth make it labyrinthian, almost claustrophobic.
From where the crew is, they can barely see where it slopes down.
JOHNER
What's this fucking deal?
DISTEPHMO
This supplies most of the food for the unit.
VRIESS (holding a lucious ripe pear)
You guys got something against spam?
DISTEPHMO
And there's some lab work here too. Hybridization.
RIPLEY
At the other end?
DISTEPHMO
Runs down to the by the waste tanks. We can get to the dock from there. You,okay?
Ripley is holding her head. She shuts her eyes.
CALL
What is it?
Ripley shakes it off.
RIPLEY
Nothing. I'm okay.
She looks out at the jungle, they have to cross.
CALL
We should get moving.
ST JUST
Hey! Check it out!
He has come upon a small loading truck, a sort of platform jeep. Vriess checks it out,
takes a huge bite of his pear.
VRIESS
Beats walking.
He hauls himself up-into it. Everybody piles onto the back flatbed just a foot or so off
the ground and just big enough to hold everyone but Vriess, Call and Ripley, who pushes
into the driver's seat.
VRIESS
Quickly and quietly, people.
Ripley stares unconprehendingly at the controls for a momen till Call flips on the ignition.
RIPLEY
Thank,you.
The jeep pulls out. It's electric, so it emits just a low hum as she takes it at a good clip
toward the other side.
The access paths are just a bit wider than the jeep itself, plants rising tall all around them.
Ripley concentrates on driving.
The pass through as section of wheat , then of corn. As they come to another section,
The crew's expressions change to one of pleased disbelief.
You gotta be fucking me. St Just! Is this real?
ST JUST
So this is what heaven looks like.
We see they have driven into a healthy section of CANNABIS plants growing ten feet high.
The car screeches to a halt. Ripley's at a crossroads of sorts.
RIPLEY
Which way?
HILLARD (looking at the plants)
I always wondered where the military got its funding...
An alien SHOOTS out of the brush and lands on Hillard everyone SCREAMS -- Ripley SLAMS her
foot on the pedal
The jeep PEELS OUT, as more emerge from the brush.
HILLARD
Get it off MeeeaaaaAAGGHRE!!!!
It bores into her head before St Just can blow it away. It's head exploding in fragments of
bone and sizzling blood as it falls away from the jeep, Hillard's body still clutched in arms.
Another leaps out at them, but the jeep is going a good clip and it misses.
The crew peppering it with bullets.
They look,about them, guns ready.
ANGLE: IN THE BRUSH
Something runs parallel to them in the plants.
ANGLE: ABOVE
Two more run on top of the grow-lamps, pacing them as well.
One DROPS DOWN -- Ripley SWERVES out of the way, driving in the plants.
They are varied, exotic -- and there are aliens behind half of them.
The crew BLASTS away all around them Ripley drives a drunkard's path through the brush,
avoiding trees that dot the scape.
An alien DROPS onto the hood, another grabs the side -- Vries takes out the first,
blowing it off, but the second grabs Johner, he goes flying over the side,.dropping his gun.
St Just is too preoccupied with his own problems on the othe to see that Johner is being
dragged, the alien still clutching onto him.
Shots bang out, ripping into the alien, which lets go. Johner looks up to see Purvis
holding Johner's gun.
Johner drags himself back on.
One jumps down onto St Just, tears a good chunk out of his midsection before he dusts it.
Another alien jumps on the hood just as the jeep SAILS over first ledge of the terraced
slope, comes-down hard enough knock it off, SAILS over the next -- the crew can barely
hang on as the jeep crashes down slope after slope.
Ripley swerves back onto the road, the jeep sliding over onto the steps beside it,
rocking violently as they shoot down the remainder of slope, the aliens close on their heels.
Still blasting away at the beasts, the crew is able to put little distance between them as
they come to the end of the garden. Here it divides into three sections, all open
halls with access for the jeep.
RIPLEY
Which way?
DISTEPRMO (looking over)
Left! Left!
She swerves left,
the jeep-bouncing into the hall
INT. HALL CONTINUOUS
Where windows running along either side look out onto black space.
Ripley drives as far as she can, till a staircase -- going -- fills her vision, too steep
for the jeep. She SLAMS on brakes. the jeep spinning out and coming to a halt.
The crew piles out, Di Stephano grabbing Vriess. At the other end of the hall, the aliens
can be seen approaching.
The crew BLASTS at them, the aliens, blood splattering the narrow hall.
ANGLE: THE BLOOD
Eating into the walls. the floor.
CALL/Ship
Warning. potential hullbreach. Clear sector.
DISTEPHANO (indicating the steps)
Down here!
They start down -- all but St Just. He gets out of the jeep with difficulty.
Looks down at his wound.
Johner looks around to see him still standing atop the steps
JOHNER
St Just! Come on, man.
St Just looks down at the wound. Back at Johner. He walks calmly away, towards the aliens.
CALL
St Just!
ST JUST
You go.
He looks at the appraching aliens.
ST JUST
I'm bored.
CALLSHIP
Warning. Evacuate sector.
A moment, then the crew takes off.
St Just takes a handful of pills, pops them into his mouth. Only the slightest grin suffuses his face ,as he waits for the aliens.
They close on him, and he raises his guns.
CALLSHIP
warning...
CUT TO:
INT HALL NEARBY - CONTINUOUS
The crew runs full out.
DISTEPHANO
We have to get out of the sector!
RIPLEY
Where!
DISTEPHANO
There!
He points at a door that's down two flights and across the hall.
CUT TO: INT. HALL CONTINUOUS
The aliens close, and St Just FIRES, blasting away with bot guns. Aliens writhe on the
floor before him, still they cover the bodies of their brothers, still he fires,
Callship monotones of warning in sharp contrast to the chaos
-- St Just fires until both guns are empty. In one smooth motion he drops them both
and jerks his wrists and TWO-MORE disposable guns fly into his palms and he blasts away
ANGLE: THE BLOOD
Eating through the hull.
ANGLE: THE CREW
desperately racing for the door.
ANGLE: ST JUST
Firing with quiet glee.
ANGLE: THE CREW
The first of them are through the door.
ANGLE: St JUST
The aliens are getting closer, but still he mows them down Both his guns click, spent.
ST JUST
Damn.
CALLSHIP
Warning --
and BOOM!!!!, the hall BURSTS OPEN, everything explodes into space, the wind rushes out as
BOOM!!!, the whole garden sector rips open, sucked out, as
Terry Bisson Page 7