Alien

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

  At this point, Captain Marlow is the only surviving member of the crew that brought this nightmare to the station.

  This message and any attachments are confidential, privileged and protected. If you are not the intended recipient, dissemination or copying of this message is prohibited. If you have received this in error, please notify the sender by replying and then delete the message completely from your system.

  22

  LORENZ SYSTECH SPIRE, SEVASTOPOL STATION

  DECEMBER 2137

  “After they took Foster to medical, Waits brought me here and started questioning me.” Amanda stood outside the brig, listening through the intercom as Marlow told his story.

  “He tossed me in here right after he told me that Foster was dead, the fucker.”

  “I’m sorry about Foster,” Amanda said, meaning it. That was a particularly horrible way to die, with an alien thing attached to your face and another alien exploding from your chest. Having now seen several people die in truly awful ways, she couldn’t imagine the terror the woman must have experienced.

  She also came to a depressing realization. If the Nostromo landed on LV-426, and that was where those things came from, her mother’s crew probably got attacked as well.

  Those monsters trashed an entire space station in nothing flat, she thought, a pit opening in her stomach. Who knows what they’d do to a ship with only half a dozen people on it?

  Her mother was, in all likelihood, dead. The Nostromo was probably floating in space, filled with those alien creatures. Maybe she didn’t want to find the Nostromo. Not if it would mean letting more of them loose in the galaxy.

  At the same time, though, she wanted to kill as many of the monsters as she could.

  “We need your comms code,” Amanda said, “so we can bring the Anesidora in.”

  “’Scuse me?” Marlow said. He was lying on the bunk, and his head popped up.

  “We need ships, Marlow. The Torrens is out there somewhere, and so’s your boat. Give me the code so I can call it back, and we can start getting people off this heap.”

  “You want that, you gotta get me outta here.” Marlow sat up. “I want off this heap, too. My wife’s dead, fuck knows where my crew is—they’re probably dead as well. Get me outta here, I’ll help.”

  “Not gonna happen.” Amanda could picture what Waits would say. As far as he was concerned, this was the person responsible for letting monsters loose on Sevastopol.

  “Fine, then my boat stays where it is.” Marlow lay back down on his left side so his back was to Amanda. “You know where to find me if you change your mind.”

  For several seconds, Amanda just stared at his prone form. Once she started hearing snoring, she let out a snarl and walked away.

  * * *

  Just as she re-entered Waits’s office, she heard Ricardo’s voice over the radio.

  “Waits, my board just lit up like a Christmas tree. It’s here.”

  “Plan B,” Waits said. “Set it up.”

  “I’m guessing you’re talking about the alien?” Amanda approached his desk. Waits was staring at his NohtPad, studying a map of the station.

  Waits nodded.

  “I want in,” she said.

  That got Waits to look up. Amanda hoped the look of anger and determination on her face was as intense as what she currently felt. Based on the way Waits regarded her now, she suspected it was.

  “Okay, then. C’mere.” Waits led her over to a storage locker and entered a code. It opened to reveal a closet with three flamethrowers on wall racks, plus five canisters on the floor.

  “Excellent.” Amanda reached for one.

  “Only thing that’s made this thing even blink is fire,” Waits said. “Even though you fucked up my lobby trap, the thing still ran away once the place was all lit up. Figure it’s our best shot.”

  Nodding, Amanda hoisted a canister onto her back, and found that she could position it so that it rested over her backpack.

  Samuels entered the office. “Ripley?” he said, casting a questioning look at the flamethrower.

  “Just doing my bit to help out, Samuels. How’s Taylor?”

  “Resting comfortably. The med computer’s monitoring her and will alert me if anything changes. Meantime, I’d like to help.”

  Waits looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. “Hang on, you’re a synthetic, right?”

  “Yes.”

  Amanda hadn’t actually realized that Samuels was a synthetic, though it explained why he came out of cryo before everyone else. Not that she cared all that much, either way.

  “All right,” Waits said, “then you can help. Head down to Android Processing and see if you can access APOLLO and lift the lockdown. The Joes should leave you alone, and maybe we can finally actually use the fucking station again.”

  “I can do that,” Samuels said.

  “Peachy.” Waits opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out an Armat M4 pistol. “You’ll need a weapon.”

  “Thank you, Marshal.” Samuels took it, checked to make sure the safety was on and that it was loaded, then placed it in a pocket.

  “Let’s get moving,” Waits said. “Right now, we’re all that stands between this place and outright disaster.”

  Amanda barked a laugh.

  “I say something funny, Ripley?”

  “Look around you, Marshal. ‘Outright disaster’ has already happened. All we can do now is kill the fuckers.”

  “Yeah, well, you shoulda been here before those things showed up. At least now we’ve got an excuse why nothing works. Fucking place was a disaster already, and then they announced that they’re decommissioning the place.”

  “Decommissioning?” Amanda shot Waits a look.

  It was Samuels who replied. “Yes, Sevastopol is scheduled to be decommissioned within the month.” He looked up and around. “Not that it matters much now.”

  Waits just nodded. “All right, let’s move. Ripley, Ricardo’s waiting for you at the server hub.”

  “Right.” She looked at the synthetic. “Good luck, Samuels.”

  “To you as well, Ripley.”

  She went back to the transit hub and took the next car to arrive. When she reached the server farm, Ricardo was sitting at a terminal.

  “All right, here’s the plan, Ripley,” he said without preamble. “This spire was built to process high-value compounds harvested from the gas giant. That’s the sort of thing people like to steal, so there are piracy precautions in place that allow us to seal everything in. The problem is, since this area was shut down, the automatic protocols are also down, so we have to do it manually.”

  He handed Ripley a Pad. “Go to each of these spots and seal them off. Use the codes on the Pad. That will build a cage around the creature, and I can activate the lockdown from here, once you get out.”

  “Good.” Amanda nodded. “Let’s do it.” She memorized her first route, and then pocketed the Pad. The motion detector stayed in her left hand—that was her lifeline, letting her know if and when the monster was nearby. She kept her right hand free to grab the flamethrower that currently hung from her right shoulder.

  One at a time, she went to each spot on the Pad and entered the codes Ricardo had provided, which shut the security doors in that section. She had no trouble at Supply or Maintenance. Computer Control was a minor problem—the codes didn’t work. Luckily, she still had the Halfin, and that cracked it right away. Her last stop was the reception area.

  There was a large hole where the terminal was supposed to be.

  “Shit.”

  “What is it?” Ricardo asked over the radio.

  “The terminal at reception is gone.”

  “Can you fix it?” Waits asked.

  “I didn’t say it was broken, Waits, I said it was gone. Somebody ripped it out. I’m looking at a hole and some wires. That’s it.”

  “Try the manual override,” Ricardo said. “There’s a panel by the door itself.”

  She looke
d over at a door that was riddled with bullet holes. They spread all around it—including on the panel Ricardo had mentioned. Thus, getting it off proved easy, as it was already halfway there. Underneath, she found another mess of wires and chip boards, all broken and shattered.

  “Yeah, manual override’s off the table, too.”

  “Peachy,” Waits muttered. “Ricardo, can you do—”

  Amanda got a beep from her motion detector.

  “The monster’s coming this way!”

  “Get out of there, Ripley!”

  “No shit,” she muttered as she turned and ran.

  “I’m sorry,” Ricardo said, “but I’m afraid the plan requires all the doors to be working.”

  “Yeah, that was kind of a flaw in our planning.” Waits snorted. “Luckily, we’ve got a Plan C.”

  “We do?” Amanda asked as she ran down a darkened corridor. She checked the motion detector again. “Hope it’s a good one—that thing’s still on my ass.”

  “Take the elevator to Gemini, Ripley,” Waits said. She started to ask him why, but he cut her off. “Just do it. It should follow you there. Seegson shut Gemini down, and nobody’s been up there since then, so the equipment should work.”

  “Should is out the airlock at this point, Waits.” Amanda ran for the elevator. Slamming a hand on the call button, she added, “We’re pretty much stuck with might or might not.”

  “Just get up there, Ripley.”

  There was a loud, echoed scrabbling sound behind her of hard claws on metal. Turning, she saw the alien barreling down the corridor toward her.

  “Fuck.” She grabbed the flamethrower, and fired a huge stream of flame toward it, obscuring her view. The elevator came and she dove in, not waiting to see how the fire affected the creature. Either it worked and she was safe, or it didn’t work and she was just lucky. If it was the latter, she didn’t really want to know. At least the flamethrower gave her the illusion of power over the monster, and she didn’t want to lose that just yet.

  Enough of her illusions had been destroyed.

  The possibility that Ellen Ripley was dead had always been there, but Amanda had never been willing to accept it. Ships had cryo pods, and space was really big. It was easy to get misplaced in the vastness. So Amanda had clung to the hope that her mother was on the Nostromo, and it was just off course somewhere.

  That someday they’d find it, and find her.

  Now, though, she had to accept the much more likely scenario—that the Nostromo went the way of Sevastopol, becoming a charnel house courtesy of the monster.

  The elevator rose. “Head to the control terminal,” Waits said. “They left a Joe to take care of things after the shutdown, so be careful.”

  “There’s another reason to be careful,” Ricardo added. “The creature’s moving through the ductwork again, and it’s going up toward Gemini.”

  “That’s what we wanted,” Amanda said dolefully.

  The elevator arrived at a darkened lobby. She saw three more bodies on a reception couch and chair, and it barely registered. She missed the good old days when the sight of a dead body would make her sick.

  Those good old days being a few hours ago…

  When she reached the control terminal, Waits proved prophetic. A Working Joe stood in front of it. Its eyes were dim and it wasn’t moving, so Amanda allowed herself some hope that it was shut down, but as soon as she got close, the eyes lit up and that damn monotone came out of its fake mouth.

  “This facility is off-limits to visitors unless they are part of a Sevastopol sales tour.”

  “I don’t think anyone’s buying,” Amanda muttered. Looking around, she saw a utility terminal a few yards away. Walking cautiously over to it, she called up a service menu, and found that she could call for a maintenance check.

  A voice sounded over the PA. “Maintenance check request in Sector C12, received and confirmed. A service caretaker is on its way.” As that announcement was being made, the Joe turned and walked away, presumably toward Sector C12.

  Nice to see something go right.

  Her fingers flew across the terminal. For some reason Gemini had disabled all their electronic security, so she didn’t even need the AW15 to break into the terminal. Moments later all the lights were on, and there was a low hum all around her.

  “We’re up,” Amanda said.

  “Well done, Rip,” Ricardo said.

  Rip? Amanda considered saying something—that wasn’t a diminutive she was all that fond of—but if Ricardo helped her kill one of the monsters who’d killed her mother, he could call her whatever the fuck he wanted.

  “All right, Ripley,” Waits said, “you need to head to Project KG348.”

  “Right.” She called up a manifest and schematic, finding a lab that was located at the top of the spire. Sure enough, it was labelled KG348. Presumably it was studying the gas giant, since it had the same designation as that large planet. “Heading there now.” She moved toward the internal Gemini elevators.

  “That lab can be separated from the main station,” Waits said. “Bring it back online, and then once that thing’s in there, we can jettison it.”

  The elevator arrived at the top level. Amanda checked the motion detector—no sign of movement yet. That was good. The creature probably couldn’t have gotten up here quicker than the elevator, but from what she’d seen the thing was really fast, and she couldn’t afford to take anything for granted.

  Entering a research lab, she found consoles and lab equipment and tables and cabinets, all under plain white sheets covered in a grimy layer of dust. Pulling the sheets off of several consoles, she eventually found a master control that had a convenient on-off button.

  “Reading a power spike,” Ricardo said.

  “Looking at one, too.” Amanda peered around as the room lit up. She was able to call up a power schematic and used the AW15 to give herself access. “I’m in. Transferring control to Ricardo’s station.”

  “Got it,” Ricardo said.

  “Peachy,” Waits said. “We put out the cheese, now we just need the mouse.”

  She studied the schematics and identified an airlock, figuring that should be her next step. No sense giving the monster a way out, so if she disabled the—

  “Hazardous material leak detected.” The sound of the PA was loud and piercing, and caused her to jump.

  “What the fuck?” She pulled out her motion detector. Movement below her. “Dammit. Waits, Ricardo, what’s—”

  “Hazardous material leak confirmed. Initiating safety procedures. Make your way to the exits immediately.”

  “Shit.” She ran toward the exit, but it was too late.

  “Separation initiated,” the PA said as the doors slid shut.

  “Separation complete.”

  But Amanda knew that, as her entire world turned upside down. The lab separated from Sevastopol and tumbled freely through space, with her and the monster both trapped inside.

  PART THREE:

  REDEMPTION

  GEMINI EXOPLANET SOLUTIONS

  A SEEGSON COMPANY

  MEMO

  From: Deputy Marshal Ricardo Garcia

  To: Marshal Jethro Waits

  Date: August 22, 2137

  Marshal Waits, it is my feeling that there needs to be consideration given to reworking the procedures in the Marshals Bureau. As it stands right now, everything must run through your office, but that’s simply not practical.

  On more than one occasion it has meant a delay in action because you were elsewhere in another spire or busy on a call or unavailable in some other way. With no one else empowered to make a decision, work has sometimes ground to a halt. It is my feeling that you should consider a more hierarchical structure.

  It would probably also reduce your own stress levels, if you didn’t insist on taking everything on yourself.

  This message and any attachments are confidential, privileged and protected. If you are not the intended recipient, dissemination or copying
of this message is prohibited. If you have received this in error, please notify the sender by replying and then delete the message completely from your system.

  23

  GEMINI LAB, SEVASTOPOL STATION

  DECEMBER 2137

  The only thing that saved Amanda was the absence of artificial gravity.

  Had the A.G. held, she would have been tossed around the free-floating lab, striking its surfaces like a rag doll. Instead, she floated, and was less affected by the lab turning around and around. Any impacts were lessened as they tossed her away from the object she struck.

  That didn’t stop them from hurting.

  “A.G. malfunction. System reset. A.G. restoration in five… four… three…”

  Shit.

  Having spent five years on Luna, Amanda had had plenty of experience moving in zero-g, but it was hard to “swim” through the air when you were floating free. With more than a little difficulty she managed to wave and kick her way toward a bulkhead and grab onto something.

  “Two… one…

  “A.G. restored.”

  The pull of the artificial gravity yanked Amanda to the deck. For several seconds, she just lay there, wishing she could just take a damned nap. Then she heard an all-too-familiar slithering sound, and knew it wasn’t an option.

  There was a maintenance hatch near her, and she opened it and jumped down. Or up. She didn’t know, and didn’t really care. It was a damn good thing she hadn’t actually gotten around to disabling the airlock before Waits decided to sacrifice her, because that was her only way out.

  Should’ve known better than to trust him. Or work with him. Axel was right, it’s everyone for themselves.