Alien (aliens universe)

by Alan Dean Foster

  'Looks like it's still functioning. Wonder how long its been running like this.' Kane examined the device, fascinated. 'Wonder what it does.'

  'I can tell you that.' They turned to Lambert. She confirmed what Dallas had already guessed. She was holding her finder, the same instrument that had led them here from the Nostromo. 'It's the transmitter. Automatic distress call, just like we imagined it might be. It looks clean enough to be brand new, though it's likely been putting out that signal for years.' She shrugged. 'Maybe decades. Or longer.'

  Dallas ran a small instrument over the surface of the alien device. 'Electrostatic repulsion. That explains the absence of dust. Too bad. There isn't much wind in here and the depth of the dust might give us a clue to how long the machine's been set up. It looks portable.' He turned the scanner off, slipped it back into its waist holder.

  'Anyone else find anything?' They both shook their heads.

  'Just ribbed walls and dust.' Kane sounded discouraged.

  'No indication of another opening leading to a different part of the ship? No other floor gaps?' Again the double negative responses. 'That leaves us with the first shaft, or trying to bore a hole through the nearest wall. We'll try the first before we go slicing things up.' He noticed Kane's expression. 'Giving up?'

  'Not yet. I will if we run through every centimetre of this big grey bastard and don't find anything besides blank walls and sealed machines.'

  'That wouldn't bother me a bit,' said Lambert with feeling.

  They retraced their steps, carefully positioned themselves close to the lip of the flush, circular opening in the deck. Dallas knelt, moving slowly in the suit, and felt as best he could of the shaft's rim.

  'Can't tell much with these damned gloves on, but it feels regular. The shaft must be a normal part of the ship. I thought it might've been caused by an explosion. That is a distress call we're picking up.'

  Lambert studied the hole. 'A shaped charge could make a smooth hole like that.'

  'You'll do anything to make a guy feel good, won't you?' Dallas felt disappointed. 'But I still think it's a normal part of this ship. The sides are too regular, even for a shaped charge, no matter how powerful.'

  'Just giving my opinion.'

  'Either way, it's look down below, blow a hole in a wall, or go back outside and hunt for another entrance.' He looked across the shaft at Kane. 'This is your big chance.'

  The exec looked indifferent. 'If you wish. Suits me. If I'm feeling generous, I'll even tell you about the diamonds.'

  'What diamonds?'

  'The ones I'm going to find spilling out of old alien crates down there.' He gestured at the blackness.

  Lambert helped him secure the chest climbing unit, made certain the harness was firmly affixed to his shoulders and back. He touched the check stud, was rewarded by a faint beep over his helmet speaker. A green light winked on, then off, on the front of the unit.

  'We've got power over here. I'm all set.' He eyed Dallas. 'You ready yet?'

  'Another minute.' The captain had assembled a metal tripod from short lengths of metal. The resulting construct looked flimsy, too thin to support a man's weight. In actuality it could hold the three of them without so much as bending.

  When it was locked, Dallas moved it so that its apex was positioned over the centre of the shaft. Braces secured the three legs to the deck. A small winch and spool arrangement attached to the apex held thin cable. Dallas manually unwound a metre or two of the gleaming lifeline, handed the end to Kane. The exec affixed the cable to the loop on his chest unit, double locked it tight, and had Lambert check by pulling on it with all her weight. It held easily.

  'Don't unhook yourself from the cable under any circumstances,' Dallas said sternly. 'Even if you see piles of diamonds sparkling just out of your reach.' He checked the cable unit for himself. Kane was a good officer. The gravity here was less than on Earth, but still more than adequate to make a mess of Kane if he fell. They had no idea how deep into the bowels of the ship the shaft went. Or the shaft might be a mining shaft, extending below the hull into the ground. That thought led to another, which made Dallas grin to himself. Maybe Kane would find his diamonds after all.

  'Be out in less than ten minutes.' He spoke in his best no-nonsense tone. 'Read me?'

  'Aye, aye.' Kane carefully sat down, swung his legs over the edge. Grasping the cable with both hands, he pushed off, hung by the cable in the middle of the opening. His lower body was cloaked in black air.

  'If you're not out in ten minutes, I'll pull you out with the override,' Dallas warned him.

  'Relax. I'll be a good boy. Besides, I can take care of myself.' He'd stopped swinging from side to side, now hung motionless in the gap.

  'Do that. Keep us informed as you descend.'

  'Check.' Kane activated the climbing unit. The cable unwound smoothly, lowering him into the shaft. He thrust out with his legs, contacted the smooth sides. Leaning back and bracing his feet against the vertical wall, he was able to walk downward.

  Holding himself motionless, he switched on his lightbar, pointed it down. It showed him ten metres of dull-coloured metal before dissolving into nothingness.

  'Hotter in here,' he reported, after a cursory inspection of his suit's sensory equipment. 'Must be warm air rising from below. Could be part of the engine complex, if that's still functioning. We know something's supplying power to that transmitter.'

  Kicking away from the wall and playing out cable, he started down in earnest. After several minutes of rappelling his way down the shaft, he stopped to catch his breath. It was warmer, and growing more so the farther he dropped. The sudden changes put a burden on his suit's cooling system and he began to sweat, though the helmet's own unit kept his faceplate clear. His breathing sounded loud to him within the helmet and he worried because he knew Dallas and Lambert could hear. He didn't want to be called back up.

  Leaning back, he glanced upward and saw the mouth of the shaft, a round circle of light set in a black frame. A dark blot appeared, obscured one round edge. Distant light glinted off something smooth and reflective.

  'You okay down there?'

  'Okay. Hot, though. I can still see you. Haven't hit bottom yet.' He sucked in a deep draught of air, then another, hyperventilating. The tank regulator whined in protest. 'This is real work. Can't talk anymore now.'

  Bending his knees, he kicked away from the wall again, let out more cable. By now he'd gained some confidence with regard to his surroundings. The shaft continued steadily downward. So far it had displayed no inclination to narrow, or change direction. Widening he wasn't as concerned about.

  He kicked off harder the next time, began taking longer and longer hops, falling steadily faster in the darkness. His lightbar continued to shine downward, continued to reveal nothing but the same monotonous, unvarying night beneath him.

  Out of breath again he paused in his descent to run a check of his suit instrumentation. 'Interesting,' he said into his pickup. 'I'm below ground level.'

  'Read you,' replied Dallas. Thinking of mine shafts, he asked, 'Any change in your surroundings? Still the same stuff walling the shaft?'

  'Far as I can see. How am I doing on line?'

  A brief pause while Dallas checked the cable remaining on the spool. 'Fine. Got over fifty metres left. If the shaft runs deeper than that we'll have to call this off until we can bring bigger stuff from the ship. I wouldn't think it'd go that far down, though.'

  'What makes you think so?'

  Dallas sounded thoughtful. 'Would make the ship all out of proportion.'

  'Proportion to what? And to whose ideas of proportion?'

  Dallas did not have a reply for that.

  Ripley would have given up on the search if she'd had anything better to do. She did not. Playing at the ECIU board was better than wandering around an empty ship or staring at the vacant seats surrounding her.

  Unexpectedly, a realignment of priorities in her querying jogged something within the ship's Brobding
nagian store of information. The resultant readout appeared on the screen so abruptly she almost erased it and continued with the next series before she realized she actually had received a sensible response. The trouble with computers, she thought, was that they had no intuitive senses. Only deductive ones. You had to ask the right question.

  She studied the readout avidly, frowned, punched for elaboration. Sometimes Mother could be unintentionally evasive. You had to know how to weed out the confusing subtleties.

  This time, however, the readout was clear enough, left no room for misunderstanding. She wished fervently that it had. She jabbed at the intercom. A voice answered promptly.

  'Science blister. What is it, Ripley?'

  'This is urgent, Ash.' She spoke in short, anxious gasps. 'I finally got something out of the Bank, via ECIU. It might have just come through, I don't know. That's not what matters.'

  'Congratulations.'

  'Never mind that,' she snapped worriedly. 'Mother has apparently deciphered part of the alien transmission. She's not positive about this, but from what I read I'm afraid that transmission may not be an SOS.'

  That quieted Ash, but only for an instant. When he replied his voice was as controlled as ever, despite the import of Ripley's announcement. She marveled at his self-control.

  'If it's not a distress call, then what is it?' he asked quietly. 'And why the nervous tone? You are nervous, aren't you?'

  'You bet your ass I'm nervous! Worse than that, if Mother's correct. Like I said, she's not positive. But she thinks that signal may be a warning.'

  'What kind of warning?'

  'What difference does it make, "what kind of warning"!'

  'There is no reason to shout.'

  Ripley took a couple of short breaths, counted to five. 'We have to get through to them. They've got to know about this right away.'

  'I agree,' said Ash readily. 'But it's no use. Once they went inside the alien ship we lost them completely. I've had no contact with them for some time now. The combination of their proximity to the alien transmitter coupled with the peculiar composition of the vessel's hull has defeated every attempt of mine at re-establishing communication. And believe me, I've tried!' His next comment came off sounding like a challenge.

  'You can try to raise them yourself, if you like. I'll help in any way I can.'

  'Look, I'm not questioning your competence, Ash. If you say we can't contact them, we can't contact them. But damn it, we've got to let them know!'

  'What do you suggest?'

  She hesitated, then said firmly,?I'm going out after them. I'll tell them in person.'

  'I don't think so.'

  'Is that an order, Ash?' She knew that in an emergency situation of this kind the science officer outranked her.

  'No, it's common sense. Can you see that? Use your head, Ripley,' he urged her. 'I know you don't like me much, but try to view this rationally.'

  'We simply can't spare the personnel. With you and me, plus Parker and Brett, we've got minimum take-off capability right now. Three off, four on. That's the rules. That's why Dallas left us all on board. If you go running after them, for whatever reason, we're stuck here until someone comes back. If they don't come back, no one will know what's happened here.' He paused, added, 'Besides, we've no reason to assume anything. They're probably fine.'

  'All right.' She admitted it grudgingly. 'I concede your point. But this is a special situation. I still think someone should go after them.'

  She'd never heard Ash sigh and he didn't do so now, but he gave her the impression of a man resigned to handling a Hobson's choice.

  'What's the point?' He said it evenly, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. 'In the time it would take one of us to get there, they'll know if it's an operative warning. Am I wrong or am I right?'

  Ripley didn't reply, simply sat staring dully at Ash on the monitor. The science officer gazed steadily back at her. What she couldn't see was the diagram on his console monitor. She would have found it very interesting. .

  V

  Refreshed by the brief rest, Kane kicked away from the smooth wall of the shaft and continued downward. He kicked off a second time, waited for the impact of his booted feet contacting the hard side. They did not, sailed off into emptiness. The walls of the shaft had vanished. He was swinging in emptiness, hanging from the end of the cable.

  Some kind of room, maybe another chamber like the big one above, he thought. Whatever it was, he'd emerged from the bottom of the shaft into it. He was breathing hard from the exertion of the descent and the increased warmth.

  Funny, but the darkness seemed to press more tightly about him now that he was out of the shaft than it had when he'd been dropping within its narrow confines. He thought about what lay below him, how far away it might be, and what could happen to him if the cable broke now.

  Easy, Kane, he told himself. Keep thinking of diamonds. Bright, many-faceted big ones, clear and flawless and fat with carats. Not of this fog-like blackness you're twirling through, redolent of alien ghosts and memories and. .

  Damn, he was doing it again.

  'See anything?'

  Startled, he gave a reflexive jerk on the cable and started swinging again. He used the mechanism to steady himself, cleared his throat before replying. He had to remind himself that he wasn't alone down here. Dallas and Lambert waited just above, not that far distant. A modest hike southwest of the derelict lay the Nostromo, full of coffee, familiar sweat smells, and the patient comforts of deep sleep.

  For an instant he found himself wishing desperately that he was back aboard her. Then he told himself that there were no diamonds aboard the tug, and certainly no glory. Both might still be found here.

  'No, nothing. There's a cave or room below me. I've slipped clear of the shaft.'

  'Cave? Keep ahold of yourself, Kane. You're still in the ship.'

  'Am I? Remember what was said about shafts? Maybe that's right after all.'

  'Then you ought to be swimming in your goddamn diamonds any minute now.'

  Both men chuckled, Dallas's sounding hollow and distorted over the helmet speakers. Kane tried to shake some of the sweat from his forehead. That was the trouble with suits. When they kept you cool they were great, but when you started sweating you couldn't wipe a thing except your faceplate.

  'Okay, so it's not a cave. But it feels like the tropics down here.' Leaning over slightly, he checked his waist instruments. He was far enough below the surface to be in a cave, but so far he'd found nothing to indicate he was anywhere but inside the bowels of the alien ship.

  There was one way to find out. Locate the bottom.

  'What's the air like down there? Besides hot.'

  Another check, different readouts this time. 'Pretty much the same as outside. High nitrogen content, little to no oxy. Water vapor concentration's even higher down here, thanks to the temperature rise. I'll take a sample if you want. Ash can have fun playing with it.'

  'Never mind that now. Keep going.'

  Kane thumbed a switch. His belt recorded the approximate atmospheric composition at his present level. That should make Ash happy, though a sample would have been better. Still puffing, Kane activated the unit on his chest. With a confident hum, it resumed lowering him slowly.

  It was lonelier than falling through space. Spinning slowly as the wire unwound, he dropped through total darkness, not a star or nebula in sight.

  So completely had the peaceful blackness relaxed him that it was a shock when his boots struck a solid surface. He grunted in surprise, almost lost his balance. Steadying himself, he stood straight and deactivated the climber unit.

  He was preparing to unhook the restraining cable when he recalled Dallas's directive. It was going to be awkward, exploring while trailing the constraining tie-line, but Dallas would have a fit if he discovered that Kane had released himself. So he'd have to manage as best he could and pray the trailing line didn't get itself entangled in something overhead.

&n
bsp; Breathing more easily now, he flashed his lightbar and suit lights in an effort to make something out of his surroundings. It was instantly clear that his guess about being in a cave was as inaccurate as it had been emotional. This was obviously another chamber in the alien ship.

  From the appearance of it, bare-walled and high-ceilinged, he supposed it to be a cargo hold. The light travelled across odd shapes and formations that were either an integral part of the hold wall or else had somehow been attached to it. They had a soft, almost flexible look, as opposed to the solid appearance of the bone ribs that reinforced corridor and chamber walls. They lined the walls from floor to ceiling, neat and orderly.

  Yet somehow they didn't give him the impression of having been stowed. There was too much wasted space in the vaulted chamber. Of course, until they had some idea of what the protrusions were, it was absurd to speculate on the rationale behind alien methods of storing cargo.

  'You all right down there, Kane?' Dallas's voice.

  'Yeah. You ought to see this.'

  'See what? What've you found?'

  'I'm not sure. But it's weird.'

  'What are you talking about?' There was a pause, then, 'Kane, could you be a little more specific? "Weird" doesn't tell us much. This whole ship is weird, but that's not how it's going to be described in the official report.'

  'Okay. I'm in another big chamber like the one above. There's something all over the walls.'

  Holding his lightbar extended in front of him in an unconsciously weapon-like pose, he walked over to the nearest wall and examined the protrusions. Up close, he was able to decide that they weren't part of the hull structure. Not only that, they looked more organic than ever.

  Above, Dallas glanced over at Lambert.

  'How long until sunset?'

  She studied her instruments, touched a control on one briefly. 'Twenty minutes.' She accompanied the announcement with a meaningful stare. Dallas didn't comment, turned his attention back to the black circle of the shaft, continued to stare downward although he couldn't see a thing.