Alien: Out the Shadows

Ripley was stronger than ever, yet he could sense a ripple of danger emanating from her now. A need for some sort of vengeance, perhaps, that might well put them all in peril. She was a logical woman driven by the instinct for survival, intelligent and determined. But as she was shooting that queen, he’d seen something in her eyes that had no place with logic. Still instinct, perhaps. But the instinct for attack, rather than defense.

When she’d looked at him just now, he’d seen murder in her eyes.

He walked into Lachance, then realized why the Frenchman had stopped.

The hidden route emerged onto the huge ship’s wings close to the cavern wall. The miners’ lights were still strung across the cavern, shedding a weak light over the whole area. Looking back along the wing he could see the damaged area where they’d entered, several hundred yards away and seemingly so long ago.

“Can’t see any of those bastards,” Hoop whispered.

“If they’re up here, they’re hiding,” Lachance said. “But look. What is that?” He was pointing to the right, toward where the ship’s hull seemed to disappear beneath the cavern wall that rose high above them, curving eventually into a high ceiling hidden by shadows.

“That’s our way out,” Hoop said. There was a series of cracks in the wall above the wing, any one of which might have been a route back up into the mine.

“Yeah, but what is it?”

Hoop frowned, looked closer. Then he saw what Lachance meant.

“Holy shit…”

It wasn’t part of the ship. It was made of stone. Much of it had tumbled, but some still stood, a structure that at first glance formed the crevassed, cracked wall of the cavern.

“Is that a building of some sort?” Lachance asked. “A wall?”

“We’ll see,” Hoop said. “But not yet. Come on, we need to get the others.”

“And wipe out those eggs,” Lachance said.

“Yeah.” Hoop took one more lingering look around the cavern—the huge, buried vessel, like no ship any of them had ever seen; the massive cavern formed above and around it; and now this vast wall that seemed to loom over the ship, burying it, smothering the parts of it they had yet to see. It was almost as if the ship had crashed into the structure, rupturing it, ploughing through until it wedged to a halt.

Whatever had happened here, they’d never know the full story. He’d bet money on it.

Because even after wiping out those eggs, there were more measures they could take. Already he was making plans.

They ducked back inside the ship, descended the steep steps, and reached the open area at the head of the longer staircase.

First came the flash of plasma fire from the lab ahead of them.

Then the scream.

Lachance was first across the landing, ducking through the clear curtain into the lab, thumper coughing as he entered. Hoop was right behind him. Ripley started without us! he thought, but as he entered and saw what was happening, he knew that wasn’t the case.

They should have been more careful.

* * *

Ripley waited. She walked a complete circuit of the center of the room, careful to give the dead miner a wide berth. None of the eggs gave any signs of opening, there was no sound or movement, yet she remained alert. If one of them so much as twitched or pulsed, she’d open fire.

Baxter had crouched down beside Sneddon and the two of them were motionless, unconsciously mimicking the mummified aliens. Kasyanov continued to blink quickly, touching at her eyes with her good hand and wincing as her gloved fingertips brushed against the swollen red eyelids. Her acid-burnt hand was held in front of her, shaking. She’d need attention back on the Marion—they all would—but they had to get there first.

Apart from the one that had opened, the alien eggs seemed untouched, and almost immune to any effects of time. Perhaps the wire enclosures formed some sort of stasis field, letting the eggs and their monstrous cargo sleep until the time came for them to wake.

That time was when a host, a victim, was brought before them.

Finger still stroking the trigger, Ripley moved closer to one of the hybrid figures. Though they repulsed her, she couldn’t deny that she was also fascinated. This one must have been birthed from one of the dog-aliens that had built this strange ship. Which meant that the aliens seemed to take on some of the attributes of whomever or whatever they used as a host for their gestation. Did Kane’s alien have some of Kane in it?

Would Amanda’s?

“No,” Ripley breathed. “They’ll never leave here. None of them.” She looked at Sneddon where she sat slumped close to the doorway, that huge spider-like thing still clamped tight to her face, tail around her throat. Soon it would die and fall off, leaving an egg inside her chest that would quickly gestate and become one of them. Then the pain, the terrible agony of her death, and the new monster would emerge.

If Ash had his way, Sneddon would be in stasis before that happened.