Alien: Out the Shadows

For a while none of them spoke. There was very little to say. Shock worked its way around them, and they all dealt with their own thoughts and fears.

“I think we’ve found the ship builders,” Ripley said.

14 BUILDERS

PROGRESS REPORT:

To: Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Science Division

(Ref: code 937)

Date (unspecified)

Transmission (pending)

Warrant Officer Ripley is still on the planet surface with remainder of Marion’s crew. No updates for some time.

Single alien specimen survives on Marion, whereabouts unknown.

Plan proceeding satisfactorily. I am convinced that Ripley will fulfill her purpose. She is strong, for a human.

I look forward to conversing with her again. I acknowledge that I am artificial, but it has been so long. I have been lonely.

I hope this does not contradict programing.

Infiltration of ship’s computer about to commence.

* * *

As they had moved through the ship, Hoop had been building a mental picture of the aliens who might have constructed it.

His imagination had dipped once again into that childhood fascination with monsters. Such tall stairs implied long limbs. High arched openings could hint at the aliens’ shape. This ship, its nature, indicated something almost beyond understanding. It was either so technologically advanced that it was barely recognizable, or the technology was so different from any he knew that it made it futile to try to interpret it.

What he saw before him dispelled any such guesswork. There was a sadness to their appearance that invited only pity, and he realized that their story was just as fear-filled, as tragic, as what was being played out now.

“Poor things,” Ripley said, echoing his thoughts. “It’s not fair. None of this is fair.”

There were three dead creatures lying in front of them—two that must have been adults, and one child. They cradled the child between them, protecting it with their bodies, and that’s how they had died and decayed. The mummified infant’s corpse was nestled between its parents’ torsos, an expression of love that had lasted for countless years. Their clothing had remained relatively whole, a metallic material that still lay draped across prominent bones and between their long, thick limbs.

From what Hoop could make out, they each had four legs and two shorter, thinner arms. The leg bones were thick and stocky, the arms much more slender and delicate, hands protruding from narrow sleeves. The hands were skin and bones, digits long and fine, and he saw what might have been jewelry on one adult’s fingers. Their torsos were heavy, contained within suits that were reinforced with a network of metallic ribs and struts.

It was difficult to see how much of the bodies remained whole. The skin or flesh that Hoop could see was mummified, grown dusty and pale over time.

Their heads were the most uncertain part about them, because each had been smashed and holed by an impact. Hoop thought he knew what the impacts had been. Lying beside one adult’s outstretched hand was a weapon of some kind.

“They killed themselves?” Sneddon asked.

“One of them did,” Hoop said. “Killed their partner, child, then themselves. Rather that than be fodder for those things, I reckon.”

The skulls still retained shreds of skin and waves of fine hair. It looked as if they’d had a small snout, two eyes, a wide mouth containing several rows of small teeth. Not the teeth of a carnivore. Not the bodies or the appearance of monsters.

“They look like dog-people,” Lachance said. “Only… big.”

“I wonder what happened here,” Ripley said. “How did the aliens get on their ship? What took the ship down?”

“We might figure it out one day, but not today,” Hoop said. “We need to keep moving.”

“Yeah,” Baxter said. “Keep moving.” He was starting to sound weak, and Hoop was concerned that he’d start slowing them down. There was nothing to do about it if he did—nothing but reduce speed for him to keep up.

Kasyanov threw him a brief frown. She was also exhausted.

“Let me,” Hoop said, but she shook her head.

“No way,” she said. “I’ve got him.”

Past the bodies, the passageway started to grow wider and taller. Their flashlights gradually lost effectiveness, and the further they went the darker their surroundings. Footsteps began to echo. Baxter coughed and the sound carried, reverberating back to them, rumbling on and on.

“What is this?” Hoop asked as Sneddon walked beside him.