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2021-04-15 11:31:59 -07:00
Bearer of the Beast
It begins with peace and sleep. Then distant,
brilliant light approaching. Just as it always
had. As it must.
CHAPTER 1
"...hhMMm?" The Richard's eyes fluttered
open, locking upon the face hovering above that
curiously regarded him.
"Hi." She smiled.
Richard's eyes shut.
"Hey," A hand tapped the boy's face, light
but insistent. He squeezed his closed eyes even
tighter as he turned away, aranging himself back
into the sleep from which he'd emerged.
Denial worked just fine, right up till the
hands grabbed his shoulders and hauled him up.
"Hey damnit!" This woman was shouting right
into his face. "What's the matter with you?"
One eye, reluctantly, opened. Regarding her
again. Then both eyes were open and flashing
about, fitfully assimilating the sights over her
left shoulder before returning to the woman who had
never stopped regarding him.
She tilted her head in query.
Richard wiped his nose absently "This.." He
was speaking to himself, "'s a detailed one." His
voice was thin as a breath.
"It speaks." She tried her smile again.
"Which means you can tell me how you feel?"
He only stared at her, blankly.
"Let me try." A man's voice, behind them, said.
The boy's heart... clutched, in
an understanding ignited by that familar locution,
he turned slowly, impelled instinctivly, to face
the source of his suuden comprehention and fear,
this voice.
Richard met those eyes.
With a jolt he was off the examination table,
IV's and diaprobes popping. He fell to the floor
in a flailing tangle of sheet and limbs. Trying to
spring to his feet, he only staggard back, balance
strangly unfamiliar, and fell again. Crawling
backwards mecanically, methodically untill a wall
stopped him, his gaze still fixed to the center of
the room by the motionless man with the steel grey
eyes.
"Hey," The woman was calling after in
soothing tones. "Your... ok now."
The boy levered himself upright against the
wall, flashing her a glance as
her hands raised, threatlessly.
"We'll stay back." She began as the boy
snapped his attentions back to the man, a bead of
sweat shaking down his forhead as his eyes darted
back and forth, as if seeking to pin them both with
the threat of his notice.
"She's right," The man was edging closer.
"Now listen, now, You've nothing t--"
"Keep away from me!" the boy shrieked wildly.
The man whispered something to the woman.
"What?" The boy was trembling, he looked to
the woman. "What'd he say?"
The man's brow furrowing at the boy with
unknowable estimations, he eased himself across the
room. Arrays of campartments and trays of medical
impliments suddenly lay within his reach.
"What'd...He...Say!" The boy repeated,
clearly panicking. Eyes locked still with the man
that continued, rather sincerly, to NOT be
selecting a dermal spray.
"It's awlright Ash." The woman held up her
hand, never quite turning away from the
boy. "Don't do anything. Everything's ok. Let's
just CALM down."
"I'LL be calm!" The boy skreached desperatly,
"When he.... is OUT of HERE!"
The woman considered the boys face carefully.
"Ash," She said softly, "Leave us alone here.
It's ok, I can handle it."
Ash gazed coolly at them both. "I'll fetch
Dallas." was his cliped responce as he walked to
the medlab's exit. No one noticed the comm he
thumbed as he walked quietly out through the
doors.
"'Dallas...'" The boy repeated the name
like a preposterious notion.
The woman stepped smoothly, casually
backwards. She glanced out the medlab doors before
shutting them, then returned to where she had stood
before, by the examination table, but no closer.
"Gone, see? He wont come back if that's
what you want. So just relax. Everything's
going to be fine."
"--yeah." The Richard seemed almost to
chuckle. Spent, he slid down the wall and slumped
there.
"My name," She tried again, a keenness in her
gaze as she knelt to face his rapidly deflating
attentions, "Is Ripley."
"I know that!" The boy snapped. The woman
tilted her head skeptically.
"I know." He said again.
Then the boy pinched his arm. Hard.
"OowW!"
He sighed,
He took several slow breaths, deep and slow. "Ok,"
He looked up. "'m naked." he informed her.
"I'm told you didn't have any clothes benieth your
suit." And she rose from her crouch.
"Ahh." he obsorbed this blankly,
"Right. Well, 'Ripley' can I have the sheet back?"
"One second." She was picking through an
overhead cabinet and chose a grey one-size-fits-
all jump suit. She tossed it to him.
"No underwear?" He answered finally as he
finished steping into the jumpsuit, it fitted and
sealed itself around him.
"Your welcome." She returned to her chosen
spot on the floor and sat down this time, as the
boy sat, knees to her chin. "What's YOUR name."
For some reason, he had to think about
that, it seemed all... slipery for a second.
"I'm Richard."
"Who?" She coaxed.
"Richard Magyar."
With a woosh the lab doors opened, Dallas
strode carefully in.
* * *
(Harsh overhead pov from a camera in the corner
of a square metal room, looking down on three
spacesuited individuals sitting along a molded
bench.)
"Ok Ash," (Dallas' voice)
(Now suddenly pov has jumped to look out from
the camera beside a helmeted head, the view pans to
address a large lens mounted high against a cieling
corner, then back to the bare wall oposite.)
"We're set here. Open the outer hatch."
Suddenly one of the walls slides away and a
furious wind screams in. (Dallas stays motionless
long enouph for the pov to default back to the
airlock's overhead,) All three suited figures
stand frozen for a long moment. The airlick's
outcycle strobe working with red and eirie silence.
"Everybody set?" Dallas brakes the thrall
with his relaxed tennor, (the pov jumps back to
him.) "According to Ash's atmospheric, it's mostly
inert nitrogen, high concentration of carbon
dioxide crystals, plus methan and frozen amonia."
"Throw in the lava based rock, the deep cold--
it's almost primordial." trilles Ash, (pov
unchanged by HIS participation,).
"Swell." Lambert mumbles, (summoning the pov
as she looks out over the edge of the lock
platform, to the Zeno-Firma 20 meters below.)
Slowly, a light frieght gantry loweres
the suited spelunkers to the ground. Outside the
ship, accelerated plasma blazes across the
enormous frieghter's belly as the Nostromo's
navigation array presses outward a stronghold of
light against the darkness. The immediate area is
exposed for what it is. A mad, bent landscape,
shifting before their very eyes by the behmoth
winds.
Up one immence flank of the Nostromo, Ash is
waving and saying hello from his transparent perch.
One of several crows nest, overlooking the loading
arena below and amidship and more commonly employed
in all manner of cargo shuffling. Above and
watching, Ash appeared to be well in his
element.
Kane waves back.
"One more thing," Dallas glances to his
companions in turn, the anonymous suit to the
right undoubtedly being Kane and the shorter one
Lambert, "keep away from your weapons, unless I say
otherwise."
Lambert, ignoring Dallas in favor of her suits
forarm displays, promptly turns off most of her
telemetries.
"SKrEEEkerkkkkKKKK aKKsrrrrr RIIiBSSSh",
skreeches over the link. As Lambert twists to
determin the the strongest reception of the beacon
she's routed to her suit's headset.
THAT way, she inclines, for the benefit of
the two men.
"OK Lambert," Dallas nudges, "You first."
Her vicious mumble christens their march as
she plodes ahead of the two men, picking a path
over the queer landscape. Bare vocanic formations
frozen in mid eruption. Heavy ash and strata
flakes lying behind the formations in treacherous
lee-clutches or bourn aloft in madening subsonic
volleys. Walking grows frusterating and the three
find it to be a popular dicussion point. The
further they venture out, the less clearing the
Nostromo's landing blasts accomodate them and the
harder it's going.
"It's not so bad--" Kane encourages between
pants, "--as it could be. I'd say...this--"
"Dallas," Lambert interupts, "I can't see a
goddamn thing beyond the ship's floods!"
"Quit griping."
"I like g--"
"--Christ!" They hear Kanes scream. Once
Everyone yelling, some glimpses benieth the
sands. Kane is down. They're all running.
Lambert unjacks her handgun and pivots as she
skids to a halt and brings it level.
Kane is motionless as he gestures at their
feet. "Don't move! Look. Down."
"Shit." Dallas observes calmly.
"Yah. Nostomo's blowoff must've exposed it
when we landed." Kane agrees excitedly.
"Is it Integral?" Ash's voice inquires over
the link.
"Yes," Ripley's voice--a new participant in
these events-- suddenly joins in the link.
Dallas shoves it, hard! For several
seconds they wait anxiously.
Nothing.
"It's got feet." Lambert confirms as
she fingers into the loose soils with her unarmed
hand. "Could still be sealed."
"Look here." Kane directs his hand
light onto a part of the leg. The top half of which
seems erribly eroded, but the lower area appearing
nearly untouched. "It doesn't look as if it's
moved in decades."
"Maybe." Dallas is guarded. "Maybe these
winds could score a suit like this in an hour. No
way of knowing really." He glances for a moment at
Lambert and Kane, then he's moving forward, leaning
in over top their discovery.
He hovers above it push-up fashion for an
uncertain moment. Then eases closer
towards the head, stopping as it's
faceplate lay scant millimeters from his. With
apprehensive curiosity, the man peers deep into
the scored helmet's depths.
Bam!
Dallas gags in shock, spastically launching
backwards away from the figure, landing on his back.
"God!" Lambert skrieches.
"Ok. I'm ok." Dallas growls, "I
knocked faceplates."
Breath returning, he rises steadily to his
feet. "I was, just startled."
Lambert's "HAH!" goes largly unacknowleged.
"What did you see." Ash persists.
"Nothing." Dallas shrugs. "The
faceplate is too badly scored. It's
totally opaque." "Can't find readable markings anywhere."
"There may be more like this."
"If the beacon's coming from a downed ship or
lifeboat or something Ash wouuld've picked up
something on the way down." Ripley, who had
refrained from unnessicarily distracting the three
outside, nevertheless interjected with this, "Or I
would have. Core-splash, Resonance, something.
Right Ash?"
"Yeah" Dallas staring at the still figure.
"Impossible to know for certain untill you
find the beacon's
source." Ash comments. "Sensors just havn't
been capable of the nessicary resolutons in
this maelstrom. Dallas I recommend that
Ripley and I go out and retrieve your discovery
whilest you continue after the signal, yes?"
"Kane." Dallas speakes. "Brake out the
gurney. We're bringing it back." Then the captain
turns to Lambert, her gun still in hand.
"You can holster that now, dead-eye."
Then they pause in mid step, frozen.
Dallas looked away from the monitor thet'd
been watching and regarded the boy sitting across
the room.
Richard glanced from the now frzen image on
the screen to Dallas and Ripley as they awaited his
comments.
"I've seen the movie, that's not how it
happens. And what I asked you was how I got here."
He said.
"You just saw the how. That was you in that
suit." Dallas reexplained.
"Me" Richard repeated somewhat thickly.
"Why would I be in a space suit buried under the
sand in this movie?"
"That's my question isn't it." Dallas
reponded, "Why WERE you out there in the first
place? Why are you on this planet? Why is your
distress beacon so strange? Did you crash? --
Feel free to interupt with answers any time."
Richard began to protest, considered Dallas's
words a moment more, then; "If that's... what
happened, I'm more confused than before I... This
is just a dream, I mean it's a movie." He was
nodding at them assuredly, "Right?"
Minutes later, Ripley and the man, Dallas,
still spoke in hushes across the room from Richard.
He couldn't make out what they were saying, though
Dallas seemed angry with her for something.
Richard just... watched them.
He watched as them as if he'd come upon a pair
of movie stars inexplicably chating in his bedroom.
And this was not his bedroom, it was madness!
And he was lucid as all hell. It was all so very
real. He pressed his hands on the floor, traced
the seams in the tileing to reassure himself of
this hard fact. He felt giddy suddenly! Wildly
excited, and insane, then terrified again, because
if this was real (it wasn't--couldn't be)then he
was presently exposed to perhaps the most horrible
danger he could imagine. These people too. Course
this can't be right? I'll wake up in a minute and
laugh at myself.
And Richard watched the people standing there,
right before his eyes, waiting to wake up.
"Um, excuse me." it was almost a whisper, but
Ripley and Dallas fell immediatly silent, finally
ceasing to peep at him in guarded sideglances, and
just plain look at him. Richard tried to smile, it
wasn't something he was good at. "Uh, I think I'd
better say something here. I think you'd better
listen."
Immediatly, they were listening like
gangbusters, and the young man squirmed a bit
before this extream attention. "You'll never
believe me." he muttered, a sqeeky bubble of
laughter escaped him before he could swallow it
back. "Nobody... EVER believes people like me in
the movies!"
"Try us anyway," Ripley said, arms crossed
in an advocate's bearing. She stepped up to
Richard. "I GARRANTEE we'll listen. Tell us
everthing you can." She held out her hand to him,
and he looked up at her.
She had a reasonable, composed look, Richard
thought. Pre-alien. Still whole and sane and
without the horrible emotional scars yet to be
inflicted upon her. Cocky. He could see it in
her eyes. An innocence of a sort. It was scary.
SHE scared him, a bit, her being right there.
Ripley still held her hand out in invitation,
and Richard grabbed it.
"Yeah. Right." He accepted her help to his
feet. She was strong for a woman.
Sudden astonishment whirled through him.
"Hey," He regarded her puzzeled brown eyes.
"I'm... taller than you!" He shifted
exploritivly opon his own legs. "I just
never thought about it. I mean.., on screen you
always..."
Ripley regarded him perplexedly.
Richard laughed, a sqeeky wild laugh.
"You know, this could actually be fun."
His grin darkened quickly upon them.
"I want to figure out the best way to
tell." He groped aloud. Suddenly and with clear
deliberacy, he turned away from The woman and
addressed Dallas instead. "I'm going to
describe something. The things I remember.
okay? Just hear me out. Till the end. Please."
Dallas spread his arms magnanimously. He'd
resighned to play along.
"The last couple of hours I remember,"
Richard began, "Me and a friend of mine had went
and seen a movie--a... show. It was called Aliens.
This show was a sequel. You know... like a
continuation of the original story?"
They nodded patienty.
"The origonal story, was called Alien. That's
where we are now--"
So Richard went on. Reciting as best he could
all he was able to remember of the tale. Often
having to stop and plead with Ripley and Dallas to
listen--To wait till he was finished. A half hour
later he was done.
"...and that's all of it. The only ones left
alive are you, Ripley, in the emergency shuttle.
You and your cat. Everyone else is killed."
Dallas rubbed his face exhaustedly, saying
nothing. He quietly abandoned the wall he'd
listened against, walked to Ripley, and leaned
knuckle-down into the cousioned tabled beside
where she sat, internal debates evident in his
expression.
"Anyways. That's all I remeber."
Richard was trailing off, with Dallas's back turmed
to him. "But like I said. This is
like some hallucination or something, I'm IN the
story with you. I just.. don't understand it. I
don't remember anything short of coming home after
seeing the movie, then somehow I'm waking up on a
hard table and seeing you" He looked at Ripley.
"I just dont.. undestand how I could be in
here just WARING you and all.. and..." and he
traced a groove in the floor again.
"Dallas," Ripley spoke sidlong to the captain,
"He's not any danger, I--"
"Please think!" Richard pleaded, suddenly
envigored by the thoughts he'd just been
exploring. "How can I
know what happened on this ship even before you
brought me on board! Hmm? Ripley how would I
know you have a cat, I've never met any of you!
Richard edged nearer. "How can you NOT check!
Maybe... I really work for the... Company, somehow
or, or... I don't know! Just go to that-- MOTHER
computer of yours--like Ripley did in the story.
Ask IT about your real purpose! Please! How hard
would be!" The boy was shaking again. "THEY are
OUT there! This is your shot at not letting it all
happen!"
Dallas eyed the boy untill he sat back down.
Richard slumped heavily to the deck.
"Fine, die
like stupid dumb fucks." He spit the words,
deflating. His head drooped and he stared at the
floor, "That's how you all die anyway."
Dallas slowly walked to the lab's door. Ripley
followed him out of the boy's earshot.
"Do you think you can handle him for a little
while?" Dallas spoke softly.
"Well... sure," Ripley answered the Captains
quiet voice in kind, "He's paranoid, not anything
violent or dangerous, But
I'm no psyctech or babysitter.
Let Kane or someone watch him. Or put him under
again, I have work to do."
"No. You thawed him, you voulenteered."
"And what about the signal, then."
"I have Ash on that."
DALLAS, REPORT TO THE BRIDGE PLEASE
The P.A. trilled.
Dallas sighed with burden. He turned to
Ripley again. "All I'm asking... is just keep an
eye on him, just for a while. He seems to respond
to you. Watch him. How he acts, if he speaks
even one sane word, for
the next few hours. Then we'll decide how to handle
this. Kane's good at cute reg- interpretations, &
he's never locked me out of my own ship."
"Listen," She hesitated, "I was right you
know, The boy SHOULD have undergone the 24 hr
decon--"
"God," he gave her a rare smile, "My
dear,
it's just a job. Something else, none of this is to be
discussed with the ANY of the others until I call a
meeting. Especially that shit about Ash, got it?"
He moved to leave but she grabbed his arm.
A pensive gaze that drew his eyes, "You know he
really BELEAVES everything he said."
"You mean, will we check it out?"
The captain looked to the boy, who was quietly
looking at them.
"Hell yes." He said softly. And Dallas
walked out the door.
* *
Ripley sealed the door behind her, turned and
smiled stiffly at Richard, then walked over to sit
herself before a terminal built into one of the
ships-consoles.
"So what now?" Richard asked despondently.
"You make yourself comfortable," Ripley said,
"And I get some work done." She looked over to the
the boy sitting sullenly on the floor.
"Also," she pursed her lips thoughtfully,
"You can tell me some more."
"More what?"
"About the fates I suppose."
"Fates? That's cute. I wouldn't have
expected that."
Ripley looked down at him.
"Why should I say anything." He looked up in
anoyance.
"Because you desperatly want to." she
answered casually, "And because I believe that
you do know something, Richard." She said now
concentrating on the screen before her. "I'm curious."
The boy perked up. "You've got good sense,
lady." He said. "I guess that's why your a
surviver."
"How so?"
"The sequel. It's all about you, your the
heroin in it. Do you... even know what a movie
is?" He asked.
"I have some idea." She teased him.
"Ok then. I just saw this movie so it's fresh
in my mind. Imagine this huge action packed movie
all about you."
"Why me?"
"I told you. Your the only survivor of the
Nostromo."
"Not yet." She reminded him once more.
"Right." He nodded, the significance not lost
upon him. "Anyway you go running around with this
huge gun blowing the aliens away--"
"Hardly," She interjected, "I hate guns."
"Believe me Ripley," Richard half laughed,
"You get over it."
"Progress?" Dallas bent to watch the
flickering symbols rise into the top of Ash's
screen. The bridge hummed quietly about them.
"MOTHER's getting bogged." Ash said over his
shoulder. "We know the beacon references
trigonometric correlations to this planets diameter
as a common bassis for comunication. The crux of
it is a don't-cross-this-line sort of thing. To
that end it demonstrates planetary orbit. But
that's all we have, so far. It's diabolicaly
foriegn. Terribly facinating."
"Keep on it."
"Well there's the problem, I called you
because the damn thing is fading. And without that
signal to follow, in these conditions," Ash
gestured to the bridge's main ports as the abrasive
tempests raged beyond, "it might take days,
even weeks to actually find the source on
foot. I don't need to tell you our cost in
the consumables are--"
"Damnit. How long before it goes out
entirely."
"No idea. Eratic degradations began over an
hour ago."
"Why?" Dallas was shaking his head, "I don't
get it. The beacon's broadcast envelope is decades
in radius, at least! Why suddenly fail just now?"
"I'd say we caused it. Mother has been
beaming respoces at it for over ten hours now.
Maybe shutting off is it's way of telling us we got
through. Perhaps it would be wise to
send out a search party after all? Before it goes
out altogether, yes?"
Dallas paused at that. He looked down at his
science officer with cold appraisement. "My orders
stand." He stated with cool precision. 'Unless you've
got a hell of a better reason, under no cercomstances
are we approaching something that expressly warns
us to stay away."
"We've already defied the warning, we landed."
"I said no Ash."
Ash sighed.
"And the signal source?" He seemed unaware
to the captains tense posture towards him.
"Yeah..." Dallas exhaled, "Uplink with the
Refinery and triangulate a location as best you
can."
Lambert spoke without looking
up. "Already done. Location maped at 3.3 to
3.8 kilameters distance. With an arc tolerance of
.002 seconds. That works out to search an area to
search just over 1 and one eighths klicks
square." She sat at a nearby station, fully absorbed in
a notebook full of scribbled computations.
"On foot? That's horrible." Dallas scoffed.
"Clean this 'mosphere and a straighten out
that beacon, I'll give you better tolerance"
Lambert shrugged. A cigarret gripped tightly in
her lips. "So tell, Dallas, what's the story on
the kid? Ash says he's up and talking. Is he
really crazy?"
"Yes," Ash looked up from his work, "has he
provided us any answers? He seemed... less
than lucid."
Dallas eyed Ash suspectively. "Keep me
posted on the beacon's status" Then he turned to
Lambert and answered carefully "The boy has said
almost nothing. He's delirious, maybe worse. I
don't know really. I have Ripley
keeping him under observation for now."
Lambert laughed. "Serves her right." She
shot Dallas a sarcastic look. "I'm gonna go down
and meet him." She began to untagle herself from
her station.
"No." Dallas cut her off, then in a more
anounciary tone he lied, "Listen, I'll
be calling a crew meeting soon. Everyone can meet
then, and we'll decide how we deal with our guest.
untill then I want no unnessicary... breaches in
the quarentine."
Lambert rolled her eyes. "Where'll we
keep him? He can't stay awake on the trip in,
any more than we can, and he sure as hell can't
have MY capsule."
"We could put him down in one of the
Narcissus's freezers." Kane said. Dallas turned
to see Kane entering the bridge, a fresh cup of
coffee in hand.
"That's what I figgure too." Dallas agreed.
Satisfied with the solution, the navigator
took a deep drag on her cigaret, and returned to
her notes. It was a pension of Lambert's to recheck,
on paper, her navigational calcs whenever she had
a chance. "So when are we out of here? I'm sick
of compensating for this shitty ball's wobbles.
Consumption gonna suck. Stupid JOB!" She snapped
after the captain, imitating Dallas's favorite dig.
"New invention Lambert," he said as he stepped
by the testy navigator, "Called a computer."
"Fuck you, SIR." She mumbled around her cigarett
and continued her laborious calculations.
He resisted smiling as he turned to Kane. "What
is the word from Parker?"
"Nothing in the past hour," Kane replied,
Down in the Engine Room a beeper whooped
over the noise of heavy labor. A sweaty Parker
cursed the tone and stepped up to a comm box.
"What!" he barked in annoyance.
"Dallas. How's it coming gentlemen."
"S' comin' as fine as can be expected.
Mostly puttin' things back together with spit and
solder, but it's gettin' done."
From behind a power Cell, Brett grinned at
his partner.
Parker grinned back, "Also Brett and I would
'preciate some beer, if you don' have nothing to do
but chat."
Dallas listened patiently,
"Just make sure you keep to Ripley's 15
hour deadline."
"Hey." Parker hastened. "Whats the story
with this kid we found? Kane says Ripley and Ash
woke 'im up after the rest of us got tired of
lookin' at him sleep."
Word traveles fast on a ship of 7 people.
"You'll see him once you two finish down there."
"Way'll shit," Parker snorted, "we'll actually
start working then.."
"Don't fuck with me Parker." Dallas sounded
tired. "Not today. I want us orbit-ready pronto.
And I want to to know the minute we are." He broke
the connection.
cursing, Parker walked back to the exposed
erj cells he'd been working on.
Brett succeeded in both smiling
and talking while never once droping the cigarrett
from the corner of his mouth. "Show me our pronto
clause."
"Heard that, man."
Brett pondered his next inscision as he
reignighting his cutter. "Asshole." The thin man
shook his head.
Parker just
studied a charred surge link
thoughtfully.
"Why so jumpy?" Ash studied the
captain out the corner of his eye.
Dallas smiled quick.
"Just covering my ass." he mumbled.
"Kane," He said hoarsely, "Give me a hand
with the coolant for the Narcissus's freezers. We
also need to review any policies--"
"--Our mystery boy. Right!" Kane gulped down
the last of his coffee, "What IS the scratch on 'im
now?"
"Don't ask." Lambert called sarcastically
as they left. "He wants to get to call a meeting."
"We'll talk on the way." Dallas said. But as
he and Kane entered the hallway, Dallas stopped,
turned, and studied Ash one moment more.
The captain snaped about and strode down the
corridor, a sudden purpose fueling his stride.
Kane followed quietly. Dallas slowed suddenly as
they passed a narrow side tunnel.
"What is it?" Kane asked. Dallas continued
staring down the corridor that led to the
Nostromo's brain.
"Kane, see what you can get done in the pod
without me for now. Run the Narcissus systems
up, ok? I wont to make sure ALL it's freezers are
up to it. I've just
remembered something I have to do first."
"What? Mother again?"
"Use the full checklist." Dallas continued.
"I'll be along to help in a while."
"..., All right." Kane obeyed hesitantly.
"Whatever you say."
Dallas watched the executive officer turn
off, through the Nostromo's dinning room.
Then Dallas turned back down the corridor they'd
past.
The side tunnel led to a bulkhead which
opened to the same corridor leading direcly from
the bridge to Mother's core. He glaced left and
heard Lambert and Ash discussing something. With
an aukward stealth Dallas stepped into this next
corridor and crept to it's far end. It, too, ended
with a bulkhead, opened with a simple tap to it's
controls and closed behind automatically as he
moved through. Dallas was now confronted with a
bulkhead yet again. This one however required
thumbing a print scanner and typing the his ID
code into the pad.
MOTHER spread wide for him.
The captain eased into the Nostomo's tiny
nerve center. It's sole furnishing, a generously
cushioned chair mated smoothly
with the master terminal. MOTHER's maximum
security door slid firmly closed at his back
and Dallas soaked in the comfort and
security this small room lavished. The sigh of
the computer core's dedicated venilation dispelling
the tension that'd been gathering in his neck all
damn day.
"Ok MOTHER," he said, "I've taken a big bite
and I need some help chewing it." His fingers move
like lightening over the keyboard as he began to
dig.
"I don't know," Richard answered Ripley's
question unconfortably, "That's just where it ended. I
guess you and Hicks might've went on to raise Newt
and live happily ever after together on earth.
Something like that. That's how I imagined it."
"That would've been nice." Ripley reflected
wistfully. "Unrealistic, but nice."
Richard picked at the corner of a floor tile.
"Why unrealistic?"
"Lots of reasons."
"What WOULD you have done."
"Oh, mad as you make me? I'd probably go to
the Net with my story. Blow the lid off the whole
thing."
"I got the impression these guys'd kill to
stop that."
"The Company does't need to kill." She said.
"But then, I'm the invincable star here, right?"
Richard condsidered that.
"Why do you call it 'The Company' without ever
saying it's name?"
"It's just slang, for whichever corporate
thing you slave for."
"That being, 'THE COMPANY'?"
"No, look, Wehland owns the Nostromo,"
"Yeah! Oh right 'Wehland-Yutani'. I remember
now. That was the Company's name!"
"No. Never heard of any Yutani."
"Oh... so you... Contract right? Contract to
work for Wehland?"
"I'm ICC talent, licenced to bid myself as
freelance to ANY shipper in the Network. This time
it's Wehland. The shipper cuts the deals with the
governments or Guilds or whomever, and I get the
percentage I contracted for out of the run's net
profits. That's it."
"Your a trucker."
"Hauler."
"Your young for your position too, right?.
Astronaut on a star ship, second in command."
"Third. I'm third ranking officer."
"Oh, what's your rank?"
"This isn't the military Richard, and I'm no
astronaut. We're all just haulers."
"You don't have a title or anything?"
Ripley sighed. "I'm the Warrant Officer on
this run." She stated, almost entirly
without pride in the admission.
"So, what do you do with all this iron ore
your shipping."
She stared at him a moment before shaking her
head. "At no point did anyone tell you we were
hauling ore"
"No, I just remember it from the movie"
"Mmm. Well, Antarctica gets the cheap
processed ore and the Solomans Belt got cheap
consumables, water and oxygen, from the ice we
hauled out."
"Ice?"
"A glacier"
"Neat. How long this whole thing supposed to
take?"
"This was supposed to be a 13 month round
trip, but now that we've been diverted here, plus
the fuel expended, Our navigator slotted us
for a slow burn home in ten months."
Richad thought a bout that a bit. "How do you
deal with being away from everything for what?--
years ata time?"
"Not years, not usually, I mostly contract for
flights of less that 1 projected year."
He nodded. "But that's not an answer. Who
takes care of your kid while your gone?"
Ripley's head snapped to face him.
"In the book version--I read that too--," he
hastened to explain, "It mentions that you had a
kid, a girl. She was dead by the second movie but
since this is the first I figgure--"
"--Amy?" She stared shocked and confused at
him.
Richard felt oddly like one of the characters
he'd been describing, "I said you were in
hypersleep for over 50 years." he reminded her
carefully.
"Hold it!" Ripley's eyes flared with rage.
"I'm a good MOTHER and I do the best I can!--"
"Hey--"
"--don't like my life being picked apart like
I don't exist! I didn't ask for it to be
like this. Amanda came later, but I love her and
I've worked my ass off to make sure she'll live
right, she UNDERSTANDS why I'm away every few
years."
"Ok! I'm sorry. I didn't realize... Ok?"
Ripley's teeth were still clenched as she
fixed her rankled scowl back onto her screen. "I
don't like how you know so much about me." She
stated flatly. "Like some damn clerk."
Richard sat there on that floor feeling like
a scolded puppy. "Sorry." He mumbled after a
moment.
"I'm all alone here. I can't afford to be
making enemies. I was just talking...
thinking in terms of charecters, and plots and
things. It's hard to accept all this, ok! And I
think I'm handling this preaty damn well!"
She was ignoring him.
So Richard stood. "You have to understand
that I DO know a lot about you. About all of
you. About what's happening. But... as words
in a book! See? As pictures on a screen, or
Starlog articles. I don't know you as actual
flesh and blood people who I talk to, and meet,"
He streached over the console and tilted his head
to look straight into her eyes, "and be taller
than.".
He watched her for moment, then sat back
down. "It's real hard to bealieve that I'm not
actually here talking it up now with -
-Sigourney Weaver, somehow." He mumble, more to
himself than to her.
She listened, and Ripley's gaze droped finally
from the screen she'd fixed on. She looked down at
the boy, and evenly let out the breath she'd been
holding. "Sig-- who?" The woman asked, letting her
anger go.
Richard looked up, "Yeah," He smiled a bit.
"Sigourney Weaver. It's the name of the actress
that... er, played you--in both the movies."
"Odd name," She said. "That's from The Great
Gatspy isn't it?"
The boy turned, confused.
"Sigouney May? The Great Gatspy is one of my
favourite books from childhood.
He blinked in astonishment. "I never knew
that." He said slowly.
"Good." She replied.
Ripley thought quietly a moment, then asked,
"What'd this actress look like?"
That surprise the boy even more. "Just like
you." Richard answered with reflection. "Exactly
like you in every way. In fact, you even talk the
same. Snobby 'O's and all that.
"Oh." She said, somehow disapointed.
"Hey, Y'know," he realized suddenly. "What's
YOUR name? I mean your first name. It seems dumb
now but I don't think they ever mentioned it in any
of the movies, or the books."
"I bet." She jut out her chin in a wry and
thoughtfull expression. Her tone was filled with
sarcasm. "Personals are'nt used much around
here." She turned to Richard and saw his unmalicious
curiosity.
"... Ellen." She confessed reluctantly.
Richard looked truely shocked.
"It's not that bad." she sniffed with
unaccostomed self-consciousness.
Richard eyed the far wall. "It's a nice
name." Was his reply. "You DO look like an
'Ellen'. I just expected something more
glamourous, or futuristic, or something."
"So did I." She agreed, tossing the pen away
and forgetting it. "Maybe I should try Sigourney?"
They both smiled.
Ripley turned back to her keyboard.
"And you ask a lot of damn qoestions."
"Yeah." he agreed with a nod, "I do.
Makes me feel
less... out of control, I think." He looked over
her shoulder at the terminal with mock
interest. "How long you gonna pretend to be
doing something with that termal screen Ellen?"
She stopped tapping at the keyboard.
"You're just babysitting me aren't you?"
"In a way." She said honestly. "Don't call
me Ellen."
"How much do you really believe me? Honestly."
His voice unleashed new intensity, "I
mean, if I'm right, what will you do? Those
things are really out there --Ripley. And what
about Ash?"
She studied the boy for a moment.
"Your not stupid Magyar." She
said. "I wont tell you Dallas or I believe you.
Hardly any of it. But we're not stupid either, we
listen to warnings."
He considered that, turning to stare at the
table he'd woken apon. Quietly imagining a
man named Kane lain apon that table, a man with
a hidious thing latched to his face. A thing that
pulsed with insidous purpose.
A beast.
"Good." Richard whispered. "Don't call me
that though, just Richard ok?"
"Anything else?" she asked, sarcastically.
"Um..., Yeah, actually." he said after a
moment. "what... year is this?"
Ripley typed a button or two on the closest
console and gestured for Richard to look.
It read
13:42:26/01-17/2223/(Solis)--------------
"T.G.I.F." She added.
Richard sat back down.
Slowly Dallas had been making progress.
"God." He kept whispering to himself.
With a totally illegal Command Override he'd
broken through MOTHER's securities. They weren't
strong. No one'd ever expected these types of
questions to be asked. Dallas had been hoping
dearly that he'd find nothing, but to his horror...
there it was.
NOSTROMO REROUTED TO COORDINATES---------
A620 D-6392------------------------------
INVESTIGATE LIFE FORM GATHER-------------
SPECIMEN PRIORITY ONE-------------------
INSURE RETURN OF ORGANISM TO ML-SO LAB---
ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS-----------------
SECONDARY--------------------------------
ALL PRIEVIEOUS PRIORITIES----------------
RECINDED---------------------------------
Sonofabitch...
It's all true.
"Sonofabitch!" Dallas seethed with
rage.
Spontaneous rage consumed him and he slammed
his fist against a padded wall. It barely made a
sound. Betrayed! By someone
in his command!
Fury smoldered in his eyes.
Only by force of will did he swallow his
bitter anger. The man pivoted his chair back
towards the terminal. "What about us damnit?" He
typed furiously.
CREW EXPENDABLE---------------------
"There is an explanation for all this you
know." Ash spoke softly.
Dallas's heart skipped it's beat. The voice
was right behind him. He turned his head minutely
and out of the corner of his eye saw Ash in
the now-open doorway. The Science Officer bent
down to examine the console before them both.
"How the hell did you get in here?" Dallas
had remained compleatly motionless, rage all
forgotten now.
"Well," Ash began melodically, his entire body
beginning to surge with spastic twitches, "Perhaps
you should first join Lambert, yes?. You see
we've--"
Dallas bolted as fast as he'd ever moved,
leaping back from his chair and hitting the deck
running. Impossibly, Ash was faster. Something
struck Dallas across the back of his head
incredibly hard. He careened, bounced off a wall
and kept running.
Despair swelled in him as Dallas was forced to
stop, to wait as the next bulkhead opened.
Then Ash had him.
Snagging his arm and yanking Dallas around as
the man tried to bolt though the doorway. It was
only partially by luck that Dallas slamed his
shoulder against the bulkhead's controls as he'd
spun. Ash's other hand fisted and blurred through
the air, striking Dallas down in the same instant
the massive door pistoned closed with a whoosh,
utterly crushing Ash's hand to the Nostromo's deck.
Dallas could hear no sound at all.
Androids don't scream.
Fingers still gripped Dallas's sleeve, but
whatever else remained of the Ash's hand lay
crushed benieth, or on the other side of, the now
closed door, milky blood oozed along the floor to
meet Dallas's cheek as he lay panting and dazed
against the deck.
Dallas ripped his clothing free, staggared to
his feet and
ran, never looking back.
Something warm trickled down the back of his neck,
into his shirt. His head was spinning. Vaguely he
thought he heard the bulkhead far behind him open
once again as a worsening stager delivered him at
last to the bridge. The bestrucken man pawed at
the bridge access until he found the buttons. Slowly,
ever so slowly, an emense isolation wall
emerged from the floor and cut off the entire
bridge area from the rest of the ship.
At
last, sealed safely within the bridge's
quiet recesses, Dallas
leaned securely against the
wall that could only be opened again from his side.
"...Lambert?" He croaked. He swayed heavily
and tried to calm his ragged
breathing as he felt the back of
his head. "Ash, he's..." His hand came back
soaked in blood. Dallas collapsed upon the deck,
never realizing that niether Lambert, nor anyone
else, had ever answered.
* * *