Alien

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

  “Careful not to flash that thing around too much,” he said. “We don’t want to get caught.”

  “Caught by what?” She kept the headset, switching it off.

  Axel didn’t answer, grabbing a bottle of water of his own, opening it, and swallowing it all down in one gulp. Then he tossed the plastic bottle aside unceremoniously.

  “Let’s go,” he said, and he led her back into the maintenance tunnel. They clambered through as quietly as they could, not saying a word—which, given Axel’s mouth, was kind of a relief—until they reached another hatch. Axel started to open it, then pulled his hand back and stopped. Instantly, Amanda understood why—she too heard voices, and they sounded a lot like the two guys with rifles.

  “Yeah, I hear you,” one said. That was followed by the staticky sound of a radio, but Amanda couldn’t make out the words. “Will do. Out.

  “Got to meet the others,” he continued, most likely to his companion. “Something’s going down.”

  When his companion spoke, it was with a long-suffering tone.

  “There’s always something going down.”

  “C’mon, we don’t want to piss him off.”

  There was an echoed clomping as they moved away. Once the pair’s footfalls were no longer audible, Axel opened the hatch, putting them in another darkened corridor, empty save for graffiti scrawled on the walls. Most of the tags were names, though Amanda’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to a group of large letters.

  The end is Nigh!

  And right under it, in different handwriting…

  NO, THE END IS HERE.

  10

  SOLOMONS HABITATION SPIRE, SEVASTOPOL STATION

  DECEMBER 2137

  Axel took no notice, but just started down the corridor. Amanda followed.

  After a few seconds they rounded a bend, but then Amanda heard more voices even as she saw a bunch more shipping containers. Ahead lay a full-on freight hangar, with a set of cargo doors on the right, and smaller doors straight ahead on the far side.

  Off to one side were half a dozen civilians, all armed with rifles. Two of them seemed likely to be the pair they’d seen earlier. At the sight of them, Axel and Amanda took cover behind a large container that still offered them a vantage point.

  “What’s the emergency?” someone asked. It was one of the two people they’d heard outside the hatch. There was a reply, but the distance made it impossible to hear clearly.

  “Someone else has been here,” another responded. “Everyone stay alert. Keep your rifles tight. Shoot anyone you don’t know.”

  That came through loud and clear. Amanda gulped. How the hell did this station go from being a decent port of call, albeit run-down, to the site of the apocalypse? She glanced at her companion. Axel was staring at the group.

  “They’re well-armed,” he whispered, as much to himself as to Amanda, she thought. “Too many of them to take on.”

  “Take on?” She couldn’t believe he saw that as an option.

  He ignored her words, though, and pointed to the small door on the far side of the hangar. “We’ve got to get to the transit center, and find a way to hook up with that ship of yours. First, we gotta make it through that door there.” He then pointed off to one side of the hangar. It wasn’t near the group of survivors, but there wasn’t a way to reach it without being seen.

  “How?” She looked dubiously at the six people, each holding a weapon of some sort. They continued to chatter, but kept their voices too low for her to understand what was being said.

  “A distraction,” he said. A moment later he added, “If the generator goes down, they’ll have to check it out.” Axel pointed at the entryway that stood directly opposite the cargo doors. “You’re smaller than me, you’ll make less noise.”

  Funny how that works, she thought. What an asshole.

  “Great,” she said aloud. Knowing the way stations like this one were built, she was pretty sure the generator wasn’t anywhere nearby, but often there were control panels placed throughout the facility in case of emergency.

  She nodded, more to herself than to him. Climbing to her feet as quietly as she could, Amanda started to move quickly, weaving through the containers, snaking around them and trying desperately to keep out of sight. Every once in a while she caught snatches of conversation. They said something about supplies going missing.

  Nearing the entryway, she came closer to the group and peered over the top of a low container. Their conversation was clearer now.

  “Someone’s gonna have to tell the boss.”

  “Boss? He’s a goddamned store clerk.”

  Amanda winced as she ran into the side room, now fairly sure that these were all just regular civilians who had banded together in the crisis. Which meant they weren’t trained, and would probably make things worse rather than better.

  Amateurs with weapons.

  As she’d expected, there was a control panel, as well as a vent. Her fingers danced quickly over the keyboard. She called up a schematic of the station, but it would only give her one of the spires—the one they were in. That was enough, however, to confirm that Axel had been telling the truth. The way to the transit center was through that door—

  Or under it.

  She could control the vent from here, temporarily stopping the airflow so that she could crawl through it to the other side of the door. She had no way of telling Axel, but found it difficult to care. He would just run through the door on his own as soon as the civilian nutjobs were distracted. And if he didn’t, she could find her way on her own now.

  Killing the vent airflow, she opened the door. Then she shut the generator down, which extinguished what few lights were remaining. Activating the flashlight on her headset, she jumped down into the vent. Behind her, she could hear confused cries.

  “The fuck just happened?”

  “The generator died.”

  “It didn’t die on its own—someone shut it off.”

  “How the fuck do you know that? Everything on this station is fucking busted.”

  Amanda crawled through the vent. It was an automatic door, so she couldn’t shut it without power. Well, she could, but the manual override would take too long, and make a lot of noise. But leaving it open would show the goon squad which way she’d gone. She just had to hope it would take a while for them to find it.

  With the schematic clear in her head, she worked her way to the other side of the hangar’s door. This time she would have to use the manual override, and hope she was far enough away that no one would hear. She pulled the housing off the panel, reached in, and yanked the lever down. The hatch slid open with a loud creak.

  As she crawled out of the wall she spotted Axel, coming through the door to the hangar and visible in the glow of her flashlight.

  “Nice work, Ripley,” he whispered, then he gestured. “This way.”

  His praise made her bristle, and she was tempted to tell him that she already knew the way. She kept her silence, though. Besides, she had promised him safe passage on the Torrens. He might be an asshole, but a promise was a promise. Too many had been broken over the course of her life, and that was a family tradition she was hell-bent on ending.

  “Keep it down,” he added. “They’re still close by.”

  Amanda nodded. In the distance she could hear them, still trying to figure out what happened to the generator. She only caught snatches here and there, and one voice came through more clearly than the rest.

  “It couldn’t have blown. If it had blown, there’d be smoke.”

  That elicited a new round of murmuring, which was fine with her. As long as they were still trying to figure out what happened to the generator, they wouldn’t notice the open vent. That would give her and Axel a head start.

  Not exactly the galaxy’s best and brightest, she mused.

  “I just hope your ship’s still there,” Axel said, his voice low and carrying an undertone of menace. Amanda just ignored it. Verlaine had said she’d sta
y for twenty-four hours, before everything went to hell. The captain seemed like a straight-shooter. She wouldn’t just abandon them.

  Would she?

  Then again, her mother had promised to be back for her eleventh birthday.

  And her stepfather—

  No. She cut that off at the pass. Dwelling on shit like that would just make her upset. That would cause her to make mistakes that she couldn’t afford. Switching the flashlight off again, she focused on following Axel, his shadowy form just a few feet ahead of her.

  They approached the entrance to the transit center, a long, narrow metal platform. She knew this from her cursory study of the schematic, and it was confirmed when she spotted a terminal that must have been connected to an emergency power source. It glowed with green letters.

  SEVASTALINK

  Beyond the terminal was a window that showed the tracks for the transit cars, as well as another that looked onto another long, narrow metal platform that, Amanda recalled from the schematic, was a mirror to this one. A catwalk crossed over the tracks.

  “I’m not even supposed to be here,” Axel muttered, and she wondered what the hell he was talking about. “My shipping-out papers were for a week ago.” As understanding dawned, for the first time, Amanda felt a pang of sympathy for the man. If the timing had been just a bit better, he would’ve missed this entirely. That was a frustration she empathized with.

  Not enough to say so out loud, but still—

  Axel stopped dead in his tracks.

  “It’s powered down!” he shouted. “Those assholes cut us off!”

  What happened to keeping it down? she thought, but she held her tongue. He was agitated enough. Amanda followed his gaze and saw a wire that ran from this console up through a pinhole in the bulkhead and across to the tracks on the other side.

  Axel was working the nearer console. He called up a status report on the screen, which confirmed that the two had been linked. To open the door, both consoles would have to be operated simultaneously. If they were to escape she would need the man’s help after all.

  “I’ll activate this one,” Axel said. “You go ’round and do the other at the same time. The system’ll tell us what to do.”

  Nodding, Amanda jogged across the catwalk. He called out after her.

  “Hurry, Ripley, they could be here any minute!”

  Then why don’t you shut the fuck up? she thought. Why the hell do I have to be stuck with this jackass?

  Dropping down on the other side, she stepped up to the console and entered the activation sequence. With her hand hovering over the big red button that would complete the process, she looked back across and waited for a signal from Axel.

  Why is it always a big red button? she wondered. Maybe it’s for civilians who’d be too stupid to know what to do otherwise.

  C’mon, Axel, give the signal…

  As if on cue, Axel held up his hand and mouthed the word ready? He probably said it out loud, but they couldn’t hear each other through the two windows. Amanda just nodded in response.

  Raising three fingers, he mouthed the countdown.

  Three…

  Two…

  One.

  Amanda hit the button. Her console indicated that power was restored to the door. With a feeling of triumph, she looked across to Axel, and a wave of terror hit her. He was looking in her direction.

  There was a man sneaking up behind him, holding a wicked-looking crowbar.

  “Axel, behind you!” she shouted.

  What? Axel mouthed.

  The man raised the crowbar, and brought it down on his head.

  “Dammit.” Amanda sprinted back to the catwalk and across the tracks. As she ran, she could see the man standing over Axel, who was writhing on the deck, hand to the back of his bald head. She drew closer, and could hear the man talking into a radio.

  “This is Jenkins—I’m at the transit center. Get over here, I found the thief.” Letting go of the radio, Jenkins kicked Axel in the ribs. “Fuck you, asshole—think you can fucking steal from us?”

  Coming up behind him, Amanda raised her K92 and returned the favor, hitting Jenkins on the back of the head.

  “Ow! Fuck!” Jenkins staggered forward, then turned around to face her. “Jesus, two of you? I’ll—”

  He was interrupted by the report of a weapon, which blew a hole through his head, spraying blood on the bulkhead.

  “Fuck!” Amanda jumped back.

  “Let’s go.” Axel held the smoking revolver. “There’ll be more coming.” Climbing to his feet, he opened the door that led into the transit center. But Amanda didn’t move. She couldn’t stop staring at Jenkins’s dead body on the floor.

  Hurting him was one thing.

  But killing him?

  “We need to go,” Axel said, “now!”

  Amanda still couldn’t make her limbs move. Then she heard voices in the distance, and realized it was the sound of Jenkins’s buddies. In a flash she knew what they would do when they saw the body.

  We have to get out of here.

  The voices became clear as a small group came into sight.

  “Jenkins, where are—hey! There they are!”

  “What’s going on? Jenkins, what’re you—”

  “He’s dead! They killed him!”

  “Get ’em. Shoot ’em now!”

  A bullet pinged off the metal floor, and another struck the console. As more shots rang out, she ran after Axel, impact after impact coming dangerously close. More shouts rose up behind her. They were out for her blood.

  This would be a shitty way to die, she thought furiously. Then again, up to now it’s been a shitty way to live, so what the hell?

  She caught up to Axel and they ran past more consoles and toward the transit hub. Once they were inside, Axel hit a switch, closed the door behind them, and then locked it. Amanda was grateful for the chance to catch her breath, then she turned on her companion.

  “You killed him!”

  “Fuck that,” Axel said. “He was going to kill me.” He said it as if it was the most obvious thing. “You saved my life.”

  “You’re not welcome, asshole,” she shot back at him. “What right do you—”

  Without warning Axel grabbed her by the shoulders, leaning in. Amanda could smell his fetid breath again, which somehow had gotten worse.

  “This is about survival,” he said. “Do you understand?”

  Amanda shrugged out of his grip and moved away from him. She did understand, to some extent, but still couldn’t…

  “You hear something?” Axel looked up.

  “I—” Amanda cut herself off as she did hear something. Something… odd. It sounded like a snake slithering around, maybe. She looked over at him, and noticed some gunk on the arm of his jacket. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at it.

  Axel stared down at it. “What the fuck have I got on m—”

  Then something sharp burst through his chest, as if from the inside, blood spraying out in all directions. Amanda threw herself back as some of his blood landed on her cheek and neck. Transfixed, she stared as the sharp protrusion—was it a tail?—impaled Axel like a giant spike.

  His face was a portrait of shock and pain.

  And then he was gone. The tail—or whatever it was—pulled back into the shadows, taking Axel’s body with it. His blood was hot and sticky on her neck. She palmed at it frantically to get it off. Somehow she found her voice as she wiped away Axel’s blood.

  “What the hell was that?”

  The now-empty transit hub provided no answer. If it wasn’t for the blood spatter on the deck in front of her, Amanda would have no proof of what had occurred. It all happened so fast. One minute they were arguing, the next he was dead.

  Gone.

  She didn’t even like the guy. He was annoying and obnoxious and a murderer, but he was also the only person she had in this madhouse.

  Then it dawned on her. For what it was worth, that weird spiky tail lent credence to Ax
el’s theory. No animal she knew of had a tail like that. Nor was there one that could kill so silently, so efficiently.

  Voices in the distance reminded her that she had more to worry about than Axel’s killer coming back. There were a bunch of people with rifles who were pissed at her role in Jenkins’s death. She needed to get out of here, and so she started to run, all the while trying to look in every direction, watching for that spiked tail.

  A few yards away she finally found what she needed—a sliding door with a label glowing redly above it.

  DESTINATION

  LORENZ SYSTECH

  SPIRE

  She pushed the call button, and for a moment nothing happened. In a panic, Amanda feared that her killing the generator had also killed the power to the transit system. Then common sense reasserted itself. She’d seen the schematics, and the transit center wasn’t part of the same system. If it had been, neither her console nor the one Axel had used would have worked.

  Sure enough, the door slid open a second later. It wasn’t non-functional, it was just poorly functional.

  Like every other damn thing on this station.

  She stepped into the car and awful music started playing over the speakers. It was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. Then two chimes interrupted the music, followed by a sickly-sweet voice.

  “Welcome to the Lorenz SysTech Spire transit car. Please remain seated until the car has come to a complete stop.” With a jerk, the car started to move. Amanda wondered what fresh hell would await her in the next spire…

  Encrypted Transmission

  From: Marshal Jethro Waits

  To: Deputy Marshal Eamon Turner

  Date: November 14, 2137

  Re: San Cristobal

  Turner, something’s going down here in San Cristobal. Seal off the scene and make sure it’s not touched until Garcia comes in with forensics. Keep this quiet for now. I want total silence. Last thing this station needs is a panic.

  And one other thing: if I find out who leaked this to Ransome, I’ll make them eat their badge. He turned up, quoted Seegson privileges, and had a ringside seat for the whole mess. This is a serious incident. I do not need Ransome making it more complicated.