Alien - 3

XIII

The assembly hall looked emptier than ever with its reduced population of prisoners. The men muttered and argued among themselves as Dillon’s fist slammed into the transparent window on the wall. Reaching in, he ripped free the loosely secured fire axe within and turned to hold it over his head.

‘Give us strength, O lord, to endure. Until the day. Amen.’

Fists rose into the air. The men were uncertain, but; determined. Dillon surveyed them intently.

‘It’s loose. It’s out there. A rescue team is on the way with the guns and shit. Right now there isn’t anyplace that’s real safe. I say we stay here. No overhead vent shafts. If it comes in, it’s gotta be through the door. We post a guard to let us know if it’s comin’. In any case, lay low. Be ready and stay right, in case your time comes.’

‘Bullshit, man,’ said prisoner David. ‘We’ll all be trapped in here like rats.’

Dillon glared at him. ‘Most of you got blades stashed away.

Get ‘em out.’

‘Right.’ William grunted. ‘You think we’re gonna stab that motherfucker to death?’

‘I don’t think shit,’ Dillon told him. ‘Maybe you can hurt it while you’re checkin’ out. It’s something. You got any better ideas?’

William did not. Nor did anyone else.

‘I’m tellin’ you,’ Dillon continued, ‘until that rescue team gets here, we’re in the shit. Get prepared.’

‘I ain’t stayin’ here.’ William was already backing away. ‘You can bet on it.’

Dillon turned, spat to his left. ‘Suit yourself.’

Aaron tapped out the necessary code, then ran his thumb over the identiprint. The inner door which protected central communications slid aside, telltales coming to life on the board, the screen clearing obediently as the system awaited input.

‘Okay,’ he told the woman hovering nearby, ‘what do you want to send?’

‘You got a line back to the Network?’

His brows furrowed as he checked the readouts. ‘Yeah, it’s up. What do you want to say?’

‘I want to tell them the whole place has gone toxic. I think they’ll buy it. There’s enough refining waste lying around to make it believable.’

He gaped at her. ‘Are you kidding? Tell them that and they won’t come here. Not until they can run and check out the results of a remote inspection, anyway. The rescue team’ll turn back.’

‘Exactly.’

‘What are you talking about? We’re like dead fish in a market waiting here. Our only hope is that they arrive in time to kill this fucker before it gets the rest of us. And maybe they can do something for you. You think of that? You’re so sure this thing can beat anything they’ve got, but you don’t know that for a fact. Maybe they can freeze you, do some kind of operation.

‘You said that they’ve been accumulating information on it.

You think they’d be coming to try and take one back if they didn’t think they could contain it? Hell, we contained it and we weren’t even ready for it. They’ll be all set up to try a capture.

They got the technology.’

She remained adamant. ‘All the Company’s got is greed for brains. I know. I’ve dealt with them and I’ve dealt with the aliens and frankly I’m not so sure that in the long run the Company isn’t the greater threat. I can’t take the chance. All I know for certain is that if one of these things gets off this planet it’ll kill everything. That’s what it’s designed to do: kill and multiply.

‘We can’t let the Company come here. They’ll do everything in their power to take it back with them.’ She made a disgusted noise. ‘For profit.’

‘Fuck you. I’m sorry as hell you got this thing inside you, lady, but I want to get rescued. I guess I’ve got more confidence in the Company than you. As it happens, I don’t think you’re looking at the situation rationally, and I suppose you’ve got plenty of reasons not to. But that doesn’t mean I have to see things the same way, and I don’t.

‘I don’t give a shit about these meatball prisoners. They can kill the thing or avoid it and howl holy hosannas to the heavens until they drop dead, but I got a wife and kid. Married real young so that despite the time distortions we’d still have quality time together when I finished my tour here. I was set to go back on the next rotation. Because of all this I can maybe claim extenuating hazards and go back with the rescue ship. I’ll collect full-term pay and probably a bonus. If that happens you could say that your xenomorph’s done me a favour.’

‘I’m sorry. Look, I know this is hard for you,’ she told him, trying to keep a rein on her temper, ‘but I’ve got to send a message back. There’s a hell of a lot more at stake here than your personal visions of happy suburban retirement. If the alien gets loose on Earth your sappy fantasies won’t be worth crap.’

‘I’ll put my trust in the Company,’ he said firmly.

‘Dammit, Aaron, I need the code!’

He leaned back in the seat. ‘Sorry, mum. It’s classified. Can’t expect me to violate the regs, can you?’

She knew she didn’t have much time and she was starting to lose it. Here she was, dealing with the Company attitude again — that closed, restricted corporate world where ethics and morals were conveniently masked by regulations.

‘Look, shithead, you can screw your precious regulations. It’s got to be done. Give it to me!’

‘No fuckin’ way, lady. You don’t get the code out of me without killing me first.’

She bent toward him, then forced herself to ease off. Once again she found herself tired beyond imagining. Why was she driving herself like this? She didn’t owe anybody anything, least of all the representatives of the Company. If they took the alien on board their ship and it killed all of them, what was that to her?

‘Nothing personal, you understand,’ he was saying even as he was watching her carefully, alert for any sudden moves. He didn’t think she posed him any real danger, but in the short time that he’d seen her operate he’d learned enough to know that it would be dangerous to underestimate her. ‘I think you’re okay.’

‘Thanks.’ Her tone was flat, dulled.

‘So that’s settled. We’re working together again.’ He was inordinately pleased. ‘Got any ideas?’

She turned and he tensed momentarily, but she kept going past him to the service counter and drew herself a glass of water. Her thirst was constant and not due to tension and nerves. Her body was supplying fluids for more than one.

‘The worker-warrior won’t kill me,’ she told him as she halted nearby.

His eyebrows rose. ‘Oh, yeah? Why not?’

She sipped at the glass. ‘It can’t nail me without risking the health of the embryonic queen. And while I know that one of them can reproduce others of its kind, it may not be able to produce more than a single queen. Not enough of the right genetic material or something. I don’t know that for a fact, but the proof is that it hasn’t tried to kill me so far.’

‘You really want to bet this thing’s that smart?’

‘Smarts may not have anything to do with it. It may be pure instinct. Damage the host and you risk premature damage to the unborn queen. It makes sense.’ She met his gaze. ‘It could’ve killed me twice already, but it didn’t. It knows what I’m carrying.’ She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

‘I’m going to find it,’ she announced suddenly. ‘We’ll see how smart it is.’

He gaped at her. ‘You’re gonna go look for it?’

‘Yeah. I got a pretty good idea where it is. It’s just up there in the attic.’

He frowned. ‘What attic? We don’t have an attic.’

‘It’s a metaphor.’ She finished the water.

‘Oh.’ He was staring at her.

‘Wanna come?’

He shook his head. She smiled, put the glass back in its holder, and turned to exit the communications room. Aaron followed her with his eyes.

‘Fuck me,’ he murmured to no one in particular.