Alien - 3 (aliens universe)

by Alan Dean Foster

  ‘Very effective survival trait.

  ‘If this was an ordinary worker it would have come out by now, emerging through the sternum region. Also, it’s gestating in the uterine cavity instead of the chest. Since a queen is a much more complex organism it apparently requires both more space and time to mature. Otherwise I’d be dead by now.

  ‘I’ve seen how they work. It’s not very pretty. When full grown this thing is enormous, much bigger than the one we’ve been fighting here. It’s definitely going to be a queen, an egg layer. Millions of eggs. It’s not going to be anything like the one that’s out there running around loose.’ Her voice fell. ‘Like I said, nobody’s had any experience with a larval queen. I don’t know how long a gestation period it requires, except that it’s self-evidently a lot longer than an ordinary worker.’

  He gazed down at her. ‘Still sounds like bullshit to me. If you got this thing inside you, how’d it get there?’

  She was staring down at her hands. ‘While I was in deep sleep. I guess the horrible dream I had wasn’t exactly a dream.

  I got raped, though I don’t know that that’s a wholly accurate term. Rape is an act of premeditated violence. This was an act of procreation, even if my participation wasn’t voluntary. We would call it rape, but I doubt that the creature would. It would probably find the concept. . well, alien.’ She looked thoughtful, thinking back.

  ‘The one that got loose on my first ship, the Nostromo, was making preparations to reproduce itself, but it wasn’t a queen either. At least some of them must be hermaphroditic.

  Self-fertilizing, so that even one isolated individual can perpetuate the species. A warrior-worker is capable of producing eggs, but only slowly, one at a time, until it can develop a queen to take over the job. That’s how this one was able to start a queen inside me. At least, that’s the best scenario I can come up with. I’m no xenologist.’

  She hesitated. ‘Great, huh? I get to be the mother of the mother of the apocalypse. I can’t do what I should. So you’ve got to help. You’ve got to kill me.’

  He took a step backward. ‘What the fuck you talkin’ about?’

  ‘You don’t get it, do you? I’m finished. I’m dead the minute it’s born because I’ll no longer be necessary to its continued survival. I’ve seen it happen. That I can live with, if it’s not too strict a contradiction in terms. I’ve been ready to die ever since I encountered the first one of these things. But I will be damned if I’m going to let those idiots from Weyland-Yutani take it back to Earth. They just might succeed, and that would be it for the rest of mankind. Maybe for all life on the planet. I don’t see why these things wouldn’t be able to reproduce in any animal of a size larger than, say, a cat.

  ‘It has to die, and in order for that to happen somebody’s got to kill me. You up to it?’

  ‘You don’t have to worry about that.’

  ‘It’s kind of funny, in a way. I’ve done so much killing lately and now I find I can’t manage just one more. Maybe because I’ve had to concentrate so hard on surviving. So you’ve got to help me.’ She met his gaze unwaveringly.

  ‘Just do it. No speeches.’ She turned her back on him. ‘Come on,’ she urged him, ‘do it! You’re supposed to be a killer. . kill me. Come on, Dillon. Push yourself. Look back. I think you can do it, you big, ugly son of a bitch.?

  He studied her slim form, the pale neck and slumped shoulders. A single well-directed blow would do it, cut through her spinal cord and vertebrae quick and clean. Death would be almost instantaneous. Then he could turn his attention to her belly, to the monstrous organism growing inside. Drag the corpse to the smelter and dump it all in the furnace. It would all be over and done with in a couple of minutes. He raised the axe.

  The muscles in his face and arms tightened convulsively and the axe made a faint whooshing sound as it cut through the stale air. He brought it down and around full force. . to slam into the wall next to her head. She jerked at the impact, then blinked and whirled on him.

  ‘What the hell is this? You’re not doing me any favours.’

  ‘I don’t like losin’ a fight, not to nobody, not to nothin’. The big one out there’s already killed half my guys, got the other half scared shitless. As long as it’s alive, you’re not saving any universe.’

  ‘What’s wrong? I thought you were a killer.’

  ‘I want to get this thing and I need you to do it. If it won’t kill you, then maybe that helps us fight it.’ She stared at him helplessly. ‘Otherwise, fuck you. Go kill yourself.’

  ‘We knock its ass off, then you’ll kill me?’

  ‘No problem. Quick, painless, easy.’ He reached up to tear the axe out of the wall.

  The remaining men had assembled in the main hall. Aaron stood off to one side, sipping something from a tumbler. Dillon and Ripley stood side by side in the centre, confronting the others.

  ‘This is the choice,’ the big man was telling them. ‘You die sitting here on your ass, or maybe you die out there. But at least we take a shot at killing it. We owe it one. It’s fucked us over. Maybe we get even for the others. Now, how do you want it?’

  Morse eyed him in disbelief. ‘What the fuck are you talkin’

  about?’

  ‘Killin’ that big motherfucker.’

  Aaron took a step forward, suddenly uneasy. ‘Hold it.

  There’s a rescue team on the way. Why don’t we just sit it out?’

  Ripley eyed him narrowly. ‘Rescue team for who?’

  ‘For us.’

  ‘Bullshit,’ she snapped. ‘All they want’s the beast. You know that.’

  ‘I don’t give a damn what they want. They aren’t gonna kill us.’

  ‘I’m not so sure. You don’t know the Company the way I do.’

  ‘Come on. They’re gonna get us out of here, take us home.’

  ‘They ain’t gonna take us home,’ Dillon observed.

  ‘That still doesn’t mean we should go out and fight it,’ Morse whined. ‘Jesus Christ, give me a break.’

  Aaron shook his head slowly. ‘You guys got to be fucking nuts. I got a wife. I got a kid. I’m going home.’

  Dillon’s expression was hard, unyielding, and his tone smacked of unpleasant reality. ‘Get real. Nobody gives a shit about you, Eight-five. You are not one of us. You are not a believer. You are just a Company man.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Aaron told him. ‘I’m a Company man and not some fucking criminal. You keep telling me how dumb I am, but I’m smart enough not to have a life sentence on this rock, and I’m smart enough to wait for some firepower to show up before we get out and fight this thing.’

  ‘Right. Okay. You just sit here on your ass. It’s fine.’

  Morse’s head jerked. ‘How about if I sit here on my ass?’

  ‘No problem,’ Dillon assured him. ‘I forgot. You’re the guy that’s got a deal with God to live forever. And the rest of you pussies can sit out too. Me and her’—he indicated Ripley—

  ’we’ll do all the fighting.’

  Morse hesitated, found some of the others gazing at him. He licked his lower lip. ‘Okay. I’m with you. I want it to die. I hate the fucker. It killed my friends, too. But why can’t we wait a few hours and have the fuckin’ company techs with guns on our side? Why the shit do we have to make some fucking suicide run?’

  ‘Because they won’t kill it,’ Ripley informed him. ‘They may kill you just for having seen it, but they won’t kill it.’

  ‘That’s crazy.’ Aaron was shaking his head again. ‘Just horseshit. They won’t kill us.’

  ‘Think not?’ She grinned wolfishly. ‘The first time they heard about this thing it was crew expendable. The second time they sent some marines: they were expendable. What makes you think they’re gonna care about a bunch of double-Y

  chromos at the back end of space? Do you really think they’re gonna let you interfere with advanced Company weapons research? They think you’re crud, all of you. They don’t give a damn about one
friend of yours that died. Not one.’ There was silence when she’d finished. Then someone in the back spoke up.

  ‘You got some kind of plan?’

  Dillon studied his companions, his colleagues in hell. ‘This is a refinery as well as a mine, isn’t it? The thing’s afraid of fire, ain’t it? All we have to do is get the fuckin’ beast into the big mould, pour hot metal on it.’

  He kicked a stool across the floor. ‘You’re all gonna die. Only question is when. This is as good a place to take your first step to heaven as any. It’s ours. It ain’t much, but it’s ours. Only question in life is how you check out. Now, you want it on your feet, or on your knees beggin’? I ain’t much for beggin’.

  Nobody never gave me nothin’. So I say, fuck it. Let’s fight.’

  The men looked at one another, each waiting for someone else to break the silence that ensued. When it finally happened, the responses came fast and confident.

  ‘Yeah, okay. I’m in.’

  ‘Why not? We ain’t got nothin’ to lose.’

  ‘Yeah. . okay. . right. . I’m in.’

  A voice rose higher. ‘Let’s kick its fuckin’ ass.’

  Someone else smiled. ‘You hold it, I’ll kick it.’

  ’Fuck it,’ snapped Morse finally. ‘Let’s go for it.’

  Somehow they got some of the lights on in the corridors. It wasn’t a question of power; the central fusion plant provided plenty of that. But there were terminals and switches and controls that hadn’t been maintained for years in the damp climate of Fiorina. So some corridors and access ways had light while others continued to dwell in darkness.

  Ripley surveyed the moulding chamber thoughtfully as Dillon and prisoner Troy crowded close. Troy was the most technically oriented of the survivors, having enjoyed a brief career as a successful engineer before having the misfortune to find his wife and superior in the sack together. He’d murdered both of them, with all the technical skill he’d been able to muster. Faint howls of temporary insanity had bought him a ticket to Fiorina.

  Now he demonstrated how the controls worked, which instruments were critical to the chamber’s operation. Ripley watched and listened, uncertain.

  ‘When was the last time you used this thing?’

  ‘We fired it up five, six years ago. Routine maintenance check. That was the last time.’

  She pursed her lips. ‘Are you sure the piston’s working?’

  It was Dillon who replied. ‘Nothin’s for sure. Includin’ you.’

  ‘All I can say is that the indicators are all positive.’ Troy shrugged helplessly. ‘It’s the best we’ve got.’

  ‘Remember,’ Dillon reminded them both, ‘we trap it here first. We hit the release, start the piston, then the piston will shove the motherfucker right into the mould. This is a high-tech cold-stamp facility. End of his ass. End of story.’

  Ripley eyed him. ‘What if someone screws up?’

  ‘Then we’re fucked,’ Dillon informed her calmly. ‘We’ve got one chance. One shot at this, that’s all. You’ll never have time to reset. Remember, when you hit the release, for a few seconds you’re gonna be trapped in here with that fucking thing.’

  She nodded. ‘I’ll do it. You guys don’t drop the ball, I won’t.’

  Dillon studied her closely. ‘Sister, you’d better be right about that thing not wanting you. Because if it wants out, that’s how it’s gonna go. Right through you.’

  She just stared back. ‘Save you some work, wouldn’t it?’ Troy blinked at her, but there was no time for questions.

  ‘Where you gonna be?’ she asked the big man.

  ‘I’ll be around.’

  ‘What about the others? Where are they?’

  ‘Praying.’

  The survivors spread out, working their way through the corridors, head-butting the walls to pump themselves up, cursing and whooping. They no longer cared if the monster heard them. Indeed, they wanted it to hear them.

  Torchlight gleamed off access ways and tunnels, throwing nervous but excited faces into sharp relief. Prisoner Gregor peered out of an alcove to see his buddy William deep in prayer.

  ‘Hey Willie? You believe in this heaven shit?’

  The other man looked up. ‘I dunno.’

  ‘Me neither.’

  ‘Fuck it. What else we gonna believe in? Bit late, now we’re stuck here.’

  ‘Yeah, ain’t that the truth? Well, hey, what the fuck, right?’

  He laughed heartily and they both listened to the echoes as they boomed back and forth down the corridor, amplified and distorted.

  Morse heard them all: distant reverberations of nervous laughter, of terror and near hysteria. He pressed the switch that would activate the door he’d been assigned to monitor. It whined. . and jammed partway open. Swallowing nervously, he leaned through the gap.

  ‘Hey, guys? Hold it, hold it. I don’t know about this shit.

  Maybe we should rethink this. I mean, my fuckin’ door ain’t workin’ right. Guys?’

  There was no response from down the corridor.

  Farther up, Gregor turned to face his companion. ‘What the fuck’s he saying?’

  ‘Shit, I dunno,’ said William with a shrug.

  Prisoner Kevin held the long-burning flare out in front of him as he felt his way along the corridor wall. There was another man behind him, and behind him another, and so on for a substantial length of the tunnel. None were in sight now, though, and his nerves were jumping like bowstrings.

  ‘Hey, you hear something?’ he murmured to anyone who might happen to be within earshot. ‘I heard Morse. Sounded kinda—’

  The scream silenced him. It was so near it was painful. His legs kept moving him forward, as though momentary mental paralysis had yet to reach the lower half of his body.

  Ahead, the alien was dismembering a friend of his named Vincent, who no longer had anything to scream with. He hesitated only briefly.

  ‘Come and get me, you fucker!’

  Obligingly, the monster dropped the piece of Vincent it was holding and charged.

  Kevin had been something of an athlete in his day. Those memories returned with a rush as he tore back up the corridor.

  Couple years back there wasn’t a man he’d met he couldn’t outrun. But he wasn’t racing a man now. The inhuman apparition was closing fast, even as he accelerated to a sprint.

  The slower he became, the faster his hellacious pursuer closed.

  He all but threw himself at the switch, whirling as he did so, his back slamming into the corridor wall, his chest heaving like a bellows. The steel door it controlled slammed shut.

  Something crashed into it a bare second after it sealed, making a huge dent in the middle. He slumped slightly and somehow found the wind to gasp aloud, ‘Door C9. . closed!’

  At the other end of the recently traversed passageway prisoner Jude appeared, no mop in hand now. Instead he held his own flare aloft, illuminating the corridor.

  ‘Yoo-hoo. Hey, fuckface, come and get me. Take your best shot.’

  Confounded by the unyielding door, the alien pivoted at the sound and rushed in its direction. Jude took off running, not as fast as Kevin but with a bigger head start. The alien closed fast. Once again, seconds were the difference. The closing doorway separated it from its prey.

  On the other side of the barrier Jude struggled to regain his wind. ‘Over in the east wing: door B7. Safe.’

  An instant later an alien foreleg smashed through the small glass window set in the steel. Screaming, Jude scrabbled backward along the wall, away from the clutching, frantic claws.

  Dillon stood alone in the corridor he’d chosen to patrol and muttered to himself, ‘It’s started.’

  ‘It’s in tunnel B,’ Morse was yelling as he ran down his own private passageway. ‘Must be heading over to channel A!’

  At an intersection, William nearly ran over Gregor as the two men joined up. ‘I heard it,’ Gregor muttered. ‘Channel E, dammit.’

  ‘Did you s
ay B?’

  ‘No, E.’

  William frowned as he ran. ‘We’re supposed to stay—’

  ‘Move your fucking ass!’ In no mood to debate what their theoretical relative positions ought to have been, Gregor accelerated wordlessly. William trailed in his wake.

  In a side corridor Jude linked up with Kevin, and they glanced knowingly at the other. ‘You too?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Kevin was fighting for air.

  ‘Okay. Over to E. Everybody.’

  Kevin made a face, trying to remember. ‘Where the fuck’s E?’

  His companion gestured impatiently. ‘This way. Get a fuckin’ move-on.’

  David was still alone, and he didn’t relish the continuing solitude. According to plan, he should have linked up with someone else by now. He did, however, find what remained of Vincent. It slowed but did not halt him.

  ‘Kevin? Gregor? Morse? I found Vincent.’ There was no response. He kept moving, unwilling to stop for anyone or anything. ‘Let’s shut this fucker down.’ The section of tunnel directly ahead was darker than the one he’d just vacated, but at least it was empty.

  In the main corridor Dillon glanced at Troy. ‘Help them.’

  The other prisoner nodded and headed into the maze of corridors, hefting his map.

  Prisoner Eric stood nearby, his gaze shifting constantly from Dillon to Ripley. He chewed his lower lip, then his fingernails.

  She studied the monitor panel. It showed Gregor going one way, Morse the other. Her expression twisted.

  ‘Where the fuck is he going? Why don’t they stick to the plan?’

  ‘You’re immune,’ Dillon reminded her. ‘They’re not.’

  ‘Well, what the hell are they doin’?’

  Dillon’s attention was focused on the dimly lit far end of the corridor. ‘Improvising.’

  She rested her hand on the main piston control, saw Eric staring at her. He was sweating profusely.

  David stumbled through the darkened corridor, holding his flare aloft and trying to penetrate the blackness ahead.

  ‘Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Here—’ He broke off. The alien was clearly visible at the far end, pounding ineffectually on the door through which Jude had recently vanished.