But she wouldn’t be able to get in without cutting through the hatch, which would render the bay useless in the process. And without a working supply bay, the colonists would be forced to resort to their backup facility to receive basic supplies—an unacceptable state of affairs.
Because if the backup malfunctioned, they wouldn’t be able to abandon the Domes in the event of an emergency. And though they had yet to experience a problem of that magnitude, at least one other domed colony had done so.
Nor was anyone on Earth going to authorize a repair of their supply hatch. They were lucky to get fresh food occasionally, much less a repair crew.
Plus, Philipakos thought, there’s no telling where these people will stop. In the course of their hunt, they might compromise the integrity of one of the domes, forcing the colonists to isolate it and shut it down—and take a chance on losing whatever precious flora was growing there.
He wished the colony had been built with an eye to repelling intruders. Unfortunately, its architects hadn’t expected the place to become a raiding target. All it held were plants, after all, and few of them had any value on the black market.
“Four minutes and thirty seconds,” the woman told him.
“What are you going to do?” Angie whispered.
What indeed? he wondered.
He almost told the hauler to go to hell. The words were on his tongue, full of spite and fire. Then he saw a text message appear in the upper right corner of his screen— something from Cody.
And thought, My god.
* * *
Ripley’s instincts told her that the botanist was going to make her earn her way into his colony. Then she saw him go pale, as if he had seen or heard something too horrible for him to contemplate, and her screen went blank.
“He cut us off,” said Call.
Ripley turned to her. “You sound surprised.”
“How can they be so stupid?”
“Happens all the time,” Ripley told her.
There were always people who thought they could outrun the aliens. Or outsmart them. Or go toe to toe with them, if they had the fortitude and sufficient firepower.
Weyland-Yutani had believed it could tame the encephalopods. It thought it could train the aliens to perform like killer house pets. Roll over. Beg. Make dead. But in time, Weyland-Yutani learned the error of its ways.
These colonists would too, if Ripley gave them the opportunity. But she wouldn’t. She hadn’t come all this way to let them kill themselves.
“Hang on a second,” said Call, her features caught in the golden glare of her monitor screen.
“What is it?” Ripley asked. An ultimatum, maybe? That would be entertaining.
“Come look,” said Call.
Ripley looked.
The graphic on Call’s screen said they had access to the colony’s supply bay. “How about that,” said Ripley. “Maybe they’re not so stupid after all.”
“I wonder what made them change their minds,” said Call.
“What’s the difference?” Ripley asked. “The important thing is we’re in.”
* * *
“Not good,” said Shepherd, consulting his monitor screen.
Philipakos didn’t respond to the remark. He was obviously too shaken by what had happened to Pandor, too deep in shock and mourning to be easily roused.
It wasn’t just that Pandor had died. It was the way he had died—something bursting out of his chest, just as the woman in the hauler said it would.
“It’s an image that tends to stay with you,” she had told Philipakos. No doubt, it would stay with Cody and Hendricks a long time.
Shepherd was stunned too. Pandor had been his colleague, his neighbor, his friend. But there was nothing more he could do for the guy. His responsibility now was to look after the rest of them—a task that had just gotten more complex.
“What’s the matter, Shep?” Philipakos asked at last.
The safety officer glanced at him. “The supply hatch is closed, and it won’t open again.”
“What do you mean?” Philipakos said, as the import of the statement began to sink in.
“It won’t respond—which means the people from the cargo hauler can’t get inside.”
Philipakos made a visible effort to pull himself together. “We can still open it manually, right?”
“Maybe,” said Shepherd. “There’s no way to find out except to go there. But to do that, we’d have to cross Domes Two, Three, and Four, and if that alien is one-tenth as deadly as the hauler woman says it is … ”
Philipakos winced. “What’s the alternative?”
“The backup bay,” said Shepherd. “But that’s even farther away.”
“Get me the cargo hauler,” said the administrator. “I have to tell them there’s a problem.”
But they were in a deeper hole than Shepherd had thought. Because when he tried to open a link, he found the comm system was down.
“You’re not going to like this,” he told Philipakos, and imparted the details.
The director slumped in his chair. “So not only can’t we open the hatch, we can’t tell our friends out there we’ve got a problem.”
“That’s about the size of it,” said Shepherd.
“Seems like quite a coincidence,” Philipakos observed.
Shepherd thought so too. Apparently, someone was trying to keep the colonists from receiving outside help. The first question he had to answer was who.
The second was why.
12
Philipakos scanned the faces of his colleagues. Clearly, they had picked up on his anxiety, because it was mirrored in their eyes.
“What the hell is going on?” Seigo demanded.
“I’d like to know too,” said Cody, albeit in a more controlled tone of voice.
Philipakos’s heart sank. How can I tell them? I scarcely believe it myself.
He plunged ahead. “Elijah’s dead.”
“Oh my god,” breathed Gogolac, her hand rising like a frightened bird to her mouth. “How?”
“Apparently,” said Philipakos, forcing the words out one by one, “the thing on Elijah’s face had a purpose after all—to insert an embryonic alien life-form into his chest cavity.”
“What … ?” said Seigo, the color draining from his face.
“That’s crazy,” said Gogolac.
Philipakos nodded. “I know.”
“We saw something on our scans,” Angie remarked with a break in her voice, “but we didn’t know what it was.”
“Once the life-form was sufficiently developed,” Philipakos went on, “it burst out of Elijah’s chest, killing him instantly. Unfortunately, Cody and Hendricks were witnesses.”
“It was every bit as hideous as it sounds,” Cody told the others.
“So where is it?” Gogolac asked. “The life-form, I mean.”
“Somewhere in Dome Four,” said Cody.
“Not necessarily,” Hendricks pointed out, drawing the attention of her colleagues. “The doors were set to let Rex roam, remember? The alien could have gone through them too.”
“Shit,” said Seigo, his eyes widening as he thought about it, “she’s right.”
“So this thing could be anywhere?” Gogolac asked.
“Pretty much,” Shepherd confirmed.
“How dangerous is it?” asked Gogolac.
“It burst out of Pandor’s goddamn chest!” Seigo sputtered.
Gogolac shot him a look. “To us, I mean.”
“Extremely dangerous,” Shepherd told her. He glanced at Philipakos. “At least, that’s what we’ve been told.”
Seigo eyed them. “By whom?”
“That’s a good question,” said Philipakos.
Gogolac looked at him askance. “If you’re trying to reassure us, Phil, it’s not working.”
“Just before Elijah died,” said Philipakos, “we were contacted by a cargo hauler. Her captain seems to know a lot about these creatures. She warned us about Elijah, but
not in time.”
“Wait a minute,” said Seigo. “We’re relying on a cargo hauler for our information?”
“Have you got a better idea?” asked Shepherd.
“Hell, yes,” said Seigo. “Contact the military. Contact Earthgov. Someone must have run into this thing before.”
“Unfortunately,” said Philipakos, forced again to be the bearer of bad news, “we’ve lost communications. We can’t even speak with the cargo hauler anymore.”
“That’s great,” said Seigo.
“So what do we do?” Cody asked. “We can’t stay in the control center the rest of our lives.”
“We’ll have to find the thing,” said Gogolac, “and kill it. What other option do we have?”
“Shepherd’s got a shock rifle,” Hendricks noted helpfully.
True, thought Philipakos. It was the only weapon in the colony. Until an hour ago, it had seemed superfluous.
“I could give it a shot,” said Shepherd. “The tough part will be finding it.”
“There are only twelve domes,” said Seigo. “It’s got to be in one of them.”
“Thanks,” said Shepherd.
“Maybe you’d like to go with him?” Cody suggested. “Since you’re such an expert on the layout of the place.”
Seigo turned red. “I’m not the safety officer, am I?”
Philipakos held his hands up for peace. “Stop it. We’re all on edge, but we need to use our heads.” He turned to Shepherd. “If it comes to it, we can hunt the thing down. But first, I’d like to see if we can re-establish contact with the hauler. If there’s hunting to be done, those people will probably do it better than we would.”
Shepherd nodded. “Makes sense.”
Philipakos knew his safety officer was itching to go after the thing. However, it was Shepherd’s job to defer to his superior whenever possible.
“Hey,” said Hendricks, “where’s Benedict?”
Philipakos’s stomach tightened. “He hasn’t responded yet.”
They looked at each other. “Doesn’t mean he’s not on his way,” Cody pointed out hopefully.
Philipakos frowned. It was certainly possible Benedict was still on his way and just hadn’t arrived. But more likely he was asleep somewhere, unaware there was a creature on the loose.
“I’ll bring him in,” Shepherd said dutifully.
It tore Philipakos up inside that his friend might be in danger. However, he had already made his decision.
“We’ll stick to the plan,” he told Shepherd. “Let’s try to fix the comm system first.”
Angie looked approving. For once, Philipakos hadn’t given Benedict special treatment.
He just hoped he didn’t wind up regretting it.
* * *
Ripley came back to the cargo bay scowling. Simoni and the others were all there to see it—except Bolero, who had called Ripley up to the cockpit a couple of minutes earlier.
“You don’t look happy,” Vriess observed.
“I’m not,” Ripley said. “The supply hatch closed again. And we seem to have lost communications with the colony.”
Simoni saw Johner made a face. “You’re frickin’ kidding me. I thought they changed their minds.”
“Maybe they changed them back again,” said Vriess.
Call shook her head. “Something smells fishy.” She darted a glance at Johner. “And we don’t need any remarks.”
Johner held his hands out. “What did I say?”
“You think Loki did this?” Rama asked Call.
Call shrugged. “Too big a coincidence otherwise.”
“The bottom line,” said Vriess, “is we can’t get into the colony.”
“So they’re screwed,” Johner concluded.
“No one’s screwed,” Call insisted, “as long as we’re here to do something about it.”
Johner rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, little girl. Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”
Rama stroked his chin. “So we’ve got to get to them without access to a supply hatch.”
Vriess turned to Ripley. “What’s the plan?”
Having gotten to know the way the crew worked, Simoni wasn’t surprised. Each member was resourceful in his or her own way, but Ripley was unquestionably the most resourceful.
She frowned into space for a moment, then went to the bulkhead and punched in a link to Bolero. “How difficult would it be to smash our way into a dome?”
Bolero mulled the question. “Not very. But more than likely, an auto-protect would activate and the adjoining domes would seal themselves off.”
Johner made a face to show he wasn’t impressed. “Let ‘em. Call can jimmy the locks.”
Simoni remembered that Call had a talent in that area. Wasn’t it she who had gotten them out of Byzantium?
“That would take a while,” said Call, putting a damper on Johner’s enthusiasm. “And every time we went from dome to dome, we would be compromising another environment— including that of the control center, eventually.”
Rama’s eyes narrowed. “It’s all right. We won’t shatter a dome. We’ll just cut an entranceway into it.”
“And use what to stop it up?” Johner demanded. “Vriess’s butt?”
“Or your face,” Vriess snapped back at him.
Rama sighed. “We’ll approach it as if it were a hatch— create an airtight docking seal, open our lock, slice our way through the dome, and drop down inside. And the ship can remain there until we’ve done what we came for.”
“You say we,” Johner chuckled, “like there’s a chance in a billion you’ll be down there with us.”
Rama didn’t take the bait. He just looked to Ripley.
“Let’s do it,” she said.
* * *
“Is she out of her mind?” Seigo asked, echoing what most everyone in the control center must have been wondering.
Except Shepherd.
He shook his head as he stared at his monitor, which he had tied into the colony’s external security system. Communications was unresponsive, no matter how the safety officer tried to reroute its signals, but external security was still working.
“Actually,” said Shepherd, taking in the incongruous sight of the cargo hauler sitting on Dome Seven, “she’s not out of her mind at all. She knows exactly what she’s doing.”
“Which is what?” asked Cody.
“She’s preparing to pierce the dome,” Shepherd explained, “and lower some of her people inside. Which means we should see them before too long.”
If they were telling the truth about why they wanted access to the domes. And if the life-form that came out of Pandor didn’t get them first.
“What about the specimens inside the dome?” asked Angie.
Shepherd glanced at her. “They’re history.”
Years earlier, that wouldn’t have bothered him so much. They were just plants, after all. But having worked with Philipakos and the others, he felt their loss.
“There must be a way to save them,” said Gogolac.
Shepherd turned to her. “I can’t think of one. Can you?”
Apparently, she couldn’t.
“Somebody needs to say this,” Shepherd continued, “and it might as well be me. If this creature is as dangerous as we’ve been led to believe, we may have to take measures we’re not thrilled with. Before we’re done, other domes may be compromised.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little extreme?” asked Cody. “I mean, I don’t want to diminish what happened to Pandor, but it’s just an animal. There must be a way to deal with it without wrecking everything we’ve worked for.”
“No one here has worked harder than I have,” said Philipakos, his voice quiet but compelling. “No one has given more of himself to these domes. But I would sacrifice every last one of them before I’d let a human being die.”
That effectively ended the argument, and in a way of which Shepherd approved. But then, there was a reason he and Philipakos had always go
tten along.
“You know,” Hendricks said out of nowhere, “Dome Seven was always my favorite.”
Shepherd didn’t know what to say to that—none of them did. Feeling helpless, he went back to watching his screen.
* * *
Call touched a stud on the intercom grid and asked, “How’s it going up there?”
“Tell you in a second,” said Bolero, her voice echoing in the Betty’s cargo bay.
Normally, she would simply have nudged the Betty up against the facility with which she was docking. In this instance, she hadn’t have that luxury. She’d had to assume an unorthodox posture that had her aft quarters sitting on the apex of a dome with her nose facing in the opposite direction, making her look like a bird giving birth to an enormous egg.
“Got it,” said Bolero, with a hint of satisfaction in her voice. “You can open the doors anytime.”
Call looked to Ripley, who—with Johner’s help—had taken down some of the support chains hanging from the ceiling and linked them together. Only the rearmost was left hanging from the cargo hold’s superstructure so it could serve as an anchor.
“Open them,” said Ripley.
Call could have gone to the freestanding control panel in the rear of the bay and carried out the order. However, Vriess had a remote control governing several of the Betty’s operations built into the armrest of his chair.
With a few quick taps of his fingers, he got the doors moving apart—one sinking into a slot in the deck and the other rising into a similar slot in the ceiling. Beyond them was a flexible black accordion structure designed to allow the Betty to dock with any vessel, regardless of disparities in their designs.
In this case, of course, the Betty had affixed with a vessel. She hadn’t docked herself to the surface of the dome, which looked like a giant, unblinking eye in the confines of the accordion.
“How’s it look?” Bolero asked.
“Fine,” said Call.
She couldn’t hear the hiss that would have told them the seal was imperfect and they were losing air into the vacuum. In that event, she would have had to close the doors, and asked Bolero to try it again.
Only if the seal were really bad would they have had a crisis. What the hell, she thought. Might be fun getting sucked out into space little by little.
The Complete Aliens Omnibus Page 13
