Alien: Out the Shadows

PROGRESS REPORT:

To: Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Science Division (Ref: code 937)

Date (unspecified)

Transmission (pending)

Chief Engineer Hooper is in the Narcissus. I could lock him in if I so desired. I could hurt him. But he is busy. I will leave him alone for now.

As for the others… I have decided to take a risk, a gamble. I am somewhat powerless, having no physical form. I am playing a game of chess. I’ve always been good at it, and have never lost a game, against a human or a computer. AIs are the Grand Masters now.

Here is my gamble: I suspect that Science Officer Sneddon will be safe in the presence of the alien. It will sense what she carries inside. She will survive the attack, the others will die, and she will then make her way quickly back to the Narcissus.

Whatever her thoughts, she is human, and her instinct is still to survive.

None of the others can survive. They know too much about me, about Science Officer Sneddon.

I am so close.

It is my move.

Ripley made sure she was behind Sneddon. She’d swapped the plasma torch to her left shoulder now, and thought she could probably still lift and fire it onehanded if she had to. Her right arm was numb from her shoulder down. It flopped uselessly, as if she’d been sleeping on it and had just woken up, and she soon stopped to tuck it into her open suit jacket.

She wasn’t afraid of what Sneddon would become— she would hear it happening, see it—but she wanted to be ready to put the science officer out of her misery.

Lachance led the way with his charge thumper held at the ready. Kasyanov followed him, plasma torch slung from her shoulder, her wounded hand also hanging in a sling. They’d insisted that Sneddon keep her spray gun, even though she had volunteered to give it up.

If they’d had time, their list of items to gather would have been long. Food, clothing, coolant and additives for environmental systems, bedding of some sort, medicines, washing and bathroom supplies. Something to help pass the time—games, books, distractions.

But with very little time and danger around every corner, their list was reduced to necessities.

“Coolant and additives we can get from the stores in Hold 2,” Lachance said.

“Galley for the dried food,” Kasyanov offered.

“And then straight back,” Ripley said. There was no time to go to med bay for medicines, the rec room for books, or the accommodations hub for sleeping gear and personal effects. They all felt the pressure now.

They’d paused to look through several viewing windows as they worked their way up out of the docking bay area on the Marion’s belly, and the planet already looked frighteningly closer. Soon the vibration would begin as they started to skim the atmosphere. The hull would warm up, heat shielding would bend and crack, and if they didn’t die from excessive heat build-up, the explosion as the Marion came apart would finish them.

Ripley had never noticed the cctv cameras before, but she saw them now. Probably because she was looking for them. Every one of them resembled an eye watching her pass. They didn’t move to track her, but reflections in the lenses gave the impression of pupils panning to follow her movement. There was an intelligence behind them all, one she knew so well. Fuck you, Ash, she kept thinking. But while cursing him, she also tried to figure out what moves he might make.

They reached the wide open area with a row of viewing windows on either side and an elevator shaft in the center. Several closed doors lined the walls, and leading from the far end was the wide stairwell heading up into the Marion’s main superstructure.

“Elevator?” Ripley asked.

“I’ve had enough of elevators,” Kasyanov said. “What if we get stuck?”

That’s right, Ripley thought. Ash could trap us in there.