The Complete Aliens Omnibus, Volume One (Earth Hive, Nightmare Asylum, the Female War)
Page 59
—and Billie spun just in time to see a scrabbling shape, coated with fire and screeching, run into the entry and jump for her.
* * *
There was a dead man in the pilot’s chair, his throat torn out.
Ripley kicked at him. The body slid to the floor with a thump. She dropped into the seat, stabbed at the controls, and the ship’s engines coughed to life.
Relief, cool and welcome, flooded over her.
She heard the little girl scream, heard Billie’s weapon rumble and roar as she continued to check the readings. Hardly enough fuel to take off, recyclers down, landing gear disabled, shields missing—they’d be lucky to move at all.
Just a little, just enough, just get us out of here—
Amazed, Ripley discovered she didn’t want to die.
* * *
The creature fell toward Billie; its dying claws clutched at her torn coverall. Hot pain as the fire burned her arms and chest—
She rammed the weapon out, jerked the trigger—
The monster flew back, sprayed pieces of burning shell. Billie slapped at the fire on her clothes, the stench of burned flesh and hair her own. She dry-heaved once with pain and the odors of cooked skin—
The ship jerked suddenly beneath her feet. Billie stumbled backward and fell.
“Hold tight!” she shouted to Amy. She saw that the girl had grabbed on to the edge of a form-chair.
She turned back to the door, everything in slow motion now as the world shook—
—yet another monster scrabbled at the entry and Billie fired, blew it back. Strange, she had only seen its head—
She hiked herself up on one elbow and watched. The night was lit from the burning flier, monsters howled and ran past the doorway, the smell of burned materials gagged her—but—
Amy was alive.
It was her last thought before the darkness claimed her for itself.
* * *
The ship trembled as Ripley worked the lift controls. It rose at a slant, one of the mains out—but it did rise.
Fuck coordinates. Ripley grabbed the stick and pushed, led the disabled ship up and away from the creatures, headed west.
* * *
“Got ’em!” Tully shouted.
Wilks felt a grin spread across his face.
The Kurtz was in the air, flying an eight pattern high over the compound. Wilks hadn’t waited for the bugs to show—half an hour into Ripley’s time limit, he’d had Brewster take the ship up. If they were coming back, better that they had a clear spot to land…
Tully frowned. “Wait. It’s not them.”
“Who else?” Wilks began and then stopped. He leaned over her shoulder and checked the read. It was the other ship, the breeder. As he watched, the vessel got closer to the compound and started down—
“It’s gonna crash,” said Tully, her voice cracking.
It was them, it had to be, and they were about to smack down hard. Wilks clenched his fists and waited.
* * *
The ship was called the Coleman, according to the control board. Odd how she would notice a thing like that at a time like this. She navigated the landscape as best she could, but the crippled flier dipped and swayed alarmingly. She shouted Billie’s name once, but no answer. She had no time to panic; alarm lights blinked across the console and told her that the flight would be a short one.
They were almost to the compound when the blinking overheat panel turned to solid red.
“We’re going down!” she called back. Sweat dripped from her scalp and she lowered the ship, prayed that the drop wouldn’t kill them when the engines cut out.
* * *
The ship sheared off the tops of a dozen trees and hit the ground in a steep slide.
“Get down there, now!” said Wilks. His body felt tight and shaky as Brewster took the Kurtz down.
* * *
Billie opened her eyes as something shook her awake. She hurt all over, her stomach swam and dived—
Everything was strange, tilted. She sat up sideways and shook her head, wondered—
“Amy?” Her throat felt dry as sand.
The little girl clutched at a bolted chair across the room and wept. At the sound of Billie’s voice, she lifted her puffy face and looked at her.
“Your daddy sent us,” said Billie. “He’s safe.”
“Really?” Amy’s eyes widened.
“Yes,” said Billie. “Really.”
Amy’s face changed, the look of despair swept away. Tears still running, the child stood and stumbled across the room toward Billie, who stretched out her arms. Amy fell into them and hugged her hard.
Billie felt no pain, in spite of her wounds.
In fact, she’d never felt better in her whole life.
* * *
Ripley limped into the room and saw the two of them embracing. The sound of the Kurtz’s engines overhead was beautiful, a perfect complement to the picture before her.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said. Tears trickled down her cheeks for the first time in as long as she could remember.
She could still cry.
Something else to live for.
30
The Kurtz lifted, up through the atmosphere to where Orona’s dish would be aimed. The dark Earth fell away.
Wilks stood at the door of medlab.
Billie and Ripley had both been wounded, but not as badly as he’d first thought when they’d staggered out of the ship. Both had acid burns, and Billie had inhaled a good amount of chemical smoke, but they were going to be okay. Jones checked the child for implantation; she was clean.
It was over. Almost, he amended.
He felt—pretty good, actually. For a change. The way Billie had smiled at him in medlab had something to do with it…
He’d thought that the end would leave him empty, but it was having an opposite effect. There was still a lot of universe out there. He was old, yeah, but not dead yet.
Not by a long fucking shot. For a burnout, for a dumbass marine who had wasted so much of his life waiting for it to be over, he had finally done something worth doing—and now, he decided, it was time to move on.
Yeah.
* * *
Billie lay in her cot and felt sleepy and warm. Whatever Jones had given her was doing her a world of good.
Amy and her father had just left for the dining hall, hands linked. They’d sat on the exam table next to her for an hour, exchanged stories, paused now and then for pats and hugs. Amy cried through much of it; the emotional wounds would be slow to heal, Billie knew. But she would be there to help.
Billie felt a sense of peace that she had never felt before. The hiding was over. She had set out with the others little more than a scared child herself, had faced fears that had plagued her entire life—and had survived.
No, better. They had survived. Ripley, Wilks, Amy and her father, the rest—now they could move on.
To what, she didn’t know—and as she felt consciousness slip away, she found she didn’t care. There was love in her… for Amy, for David—hard to think of him that way and not as Wilks, but she could get used to it. Things were okay—
Billie slept.
* * *
Ripley touched the plastiskin on her arm absently and stared into the blank computer. She sat in front of the controls, Tully, Wilks, and McQuade nearby.
Seeing Amy and Billie together had reminded her of a few things from her past, emotions that were real and strong, synthetic or not. She had played a part in the lives of these people; and she had discovered something in herself that she’d thought was gone forever—self-respect. She was ready to give a shit about who she was—what she was. Somehow, it wasn’t nearly so frightening anymore…
“Whenever you’re ready,” Tully said.
Ripley put her fingers on the keys; a sudden rush of energy flowed through her. What word could she type in, what word would tell the story best? It didn’t matter, of course—any four-letter command on the right fre
quency would send the signal that began the countdown, the pulse that would start the clock running—but it felt important anyway, some symbolic gesture of the finality…
After a moment, she tapped in the word Life and looked at it for a few seconds. Yes. That was appropriate.
With a steady hand, Ripley reached for the send key.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Steve Perry was born and raised in the Deep South and has lived in Louisiana, California, Washington and Oregon. Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories. He has written a number of teleplays, including those for The Real Ghostbusters and the animated Batman television series. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing. He has also taught classes in writing in the Portland and Washington Country public school systems, and adult writing classes at the University of Washington in Seattle. Perry now lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife, who edits and publishes a small newspaper.
Stephani (S. D.) Perry is the author of several tie-in novels to popular series such as Aliens, Alien vs. Predator, Star Trek and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Perry also wrote the movie novelizations for Timecop and Virus. She is the daughter of bestselling sci-fi author Steve Perry and lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children.
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