Standard Disclaimer: All characters and situations related to Star Trek are wholly owned by Paramount Pictures. All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" TV series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide. All characters and situations related to the 'Alien/ Aliens and Alien 3' films are wholly owned by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. The story is mine as well.
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It was easy to say upon first sighting it, that neither Ensign Angel nor Christie had ever seen anything like it. The structure stood at the edge of the prison facility, having been unseen from the air because its close proximity to the prison and mining complex made it blend into the dour grey background with ease. However, upon sighting it with their own eyes, it did not take them long to come to the conclusion that whatever this curious construct might be, it stood on its own, having nothing to do with the prison or those who built it. From a distance, the domed shape was a stark contrast to the block shaped buildings of sharp angles that ran against the skyline. For a moment, they were tempted to contact the senior officers to report their find but then abandoned the idea when they realised that they were uncertain of what exactly they were calling in. Short discussion was made regarding the folly of looking foolish before their superior officers, particularly where a lack of information was concerned.
Finally it was Christie who was the senior of the two ensigns who came up with the idea that they ought to at least take a closer look at the structure before reporting to the Chief. When they had first seen the structure it did not seem very far from the edge of the facility. However, upon making the journey itself, the gap seemed to widen and they realised that the reason for their misjudgement in distance was due to the size of the construct. From a far, it had not seemed terribly large but as they narrowed the space between it and themselves, they were able to appreciate its size very clearly. It was also difficult to discern what the structure was made from because it did not resemble any construction material known to them. It was strangely organic in design and for a time, both Starfleet officers tried to place where they might have seen something like it.
Once they neared the base of it, they realised that the dome was constructed not of any kind of building material but rather of anything that was available at the time. They could see everything from chairs and tables, to kitchen utensils being forced into place and held together with thick epoxy like resin. There were papers, wood, plastic and every conceivable of object that was available, frozen into place like a piece of abstract sculpture from a tortured artist's mind. The dome was just that, a dome with no windows or anything that might allow in light and for some reason that sent a sliver of uneasiness through both the ensigns.
"We should report this." Angel said still staring at the dome through the veil of teeming rain that was coming down on them. Even though she was soaked to the skin, the humidity in the air did not allow her to feel cool and instead she was wet and miserable. For a time, she had been willing to explore what they had found but now it appeared they were dealing with something that was entirely out of their depth. It made her grateful that although long-range communication was non-functional, at least short-range communications was still possible because she they could defer to the senior officers with this.
"I think you're right." Christie agreed. "You contact Lieutenant Collins and I'll take a closer look at this thing. There has to be a way inside."
"Well don't go in there if you find it." Angel called out as he drew away from her. "At least, not until you let me know. You're not doing this alone."
"Yes mom." Christie threw her a mischievous grin.
"Very funny." Angel grumbled and waved her arm at him, indicating she was washing her hands of him completely before tapping her com badge.
"Lieutenant Collins." She spoke out loud, her voice an octave higher than usual because of the rain.
Lieutenant Collins, who was at the present time, standing guard outside the EEV where the senior officers were presently looking over the find, immediately responded. "Collins here, what's up Angel?"
"We've found something Sir." Angel responded.
"What something exactly have you found?" Collin's voice tensed up immediately. For most part, the Lieutenant was a happy go lucky personality and was one of the more casual senior security officers on the ship. She worked closely with Lieutenant Katovit but was known to be more approachable than the Assistant Security Chief. Most of the time, Collins acted as the go between the security staff and Katovit who would then bring it to the Chief, if it were required. However, those who knew the woman were often surprised by just how seriously she took her job as opposed to playing den mother to the younger officers.
"It appears to be some kind of a structure." Angel explained. "It doesn't look to be a part of the prison facility and its construction is strange."
"How so?" Collins asked.
"Well it appears to be constructed out of materials from the facility. I'm talking everyday appliances." The young woman reported as her gaze swept across the area, searching for Ensign Christie. "There aren't any windows and Christie is investigating the grounds looking for a way in."
"Hold position." Collins ordered tautly. "Contact Christie and tell him not to proceed until you receive further instructions. Is that clear?"
"Yes Sir." Angel nodded, somewhat relieved that she would not have to venture into that structure alone. Something about it made her skin crawl. She did not know why this was but she trusted her instincts enough to know that when she felt like this, it was usually for good reason. "Angel out."
Once the connection between them was terminated, Angel resumed her search of Christie across the landscape and was not at all happy when she did not sight him. Had he found a way in? She started skirting the edge of the large structure until she saw fissure at the base of the dome. It was no more than a crack of space between objects fused in its strange configuration and knew that it was large enough to enter. Tapping her com badge once more, this time she tried to raise Christie.
"Christie." Angel spoke loudly. "Where the hell are you?"
Christie did not answer and that raised Angel's apprehension even more. Despite her better judgement, she entered the fissure, leaving the comforting feel of rain and daylight behind her as she stepped into almost complete darkness. She fumbled for her belt and immediately found the small torch that hung there with the rest of the standard issue equipment that was a requirement of any Away Team mission. Fumbling for the switch, with nothing less than panic in her heart for the darkness, she did not even register the overpowering smell that wafted through the place. It was only after the light had filled the chamber, did she note that it was a maze of chambers, one after other, all built from that peculiar alien resin. The walls seemed to run with thick veins and gave Angel the sense of being trapped in something that was very much alive.
The smell however, soon assaulted her and it was almost drove her to retch. The smell was familiar to her even though she could not place it at the moment.
"Christie!" She called out again, her voice echoing through the thick, bulbous chambers of odd shapes and dark shadows. "Are you in here?"
There was no answer and Angel had a sudden foreboding that something bad had befallen her comrade. It was this fear for his life that forced her to continue instead of holding position. She continued deeper and deeper, breathing in more of that terrible stench which seemed to have soaked into the walls. The interior of the dome felt like a hot house for flora cultivation and her skin moistened with sweat very quickly. The shapes did not stir as she continued deeper into the chamber, calling out for Christie, telling herself she would fairly roar at him for being so foolish as to wander through this stygian darkness all by himself, when she found him.
Ensign Christie had surveyed the base of the structure and found the fissure several minutes before Angel had made her entry in search of him. Upon finding the way in, he chose wisely not to enter and continue on his way, trying to learn whether or not there were other entrances. Whilst he was doing this, he discovered that his com badge was malfunctioning when he attempted to contact Angel and tell her what he had found. Upon examining the small communicator fashioned into the Starfleet insignia, he learnt that some moisture had had penetrated the casing. It was a simple matter to repair but chose to do it when he was somewhere dryer. Being out of communication with Angel, Christie decided the wisest course of action would be to turn back to rejoin her.
Unfortunately, when he returned to the place where he had left her, the young woman was nowhere to be found. Realising that she might have taken her inability to contact him as a sign of danger, Christie wondered if she had gone looking for him and found the entrance into the dome. Uncertain of what she might find in there if he had done the same, Christie was nonetheless unprepared to let her face it alone if she had placed herself in danger because of him. Without having to think twice about it, he entered the fissure and found himself enclosed by the same darkness that had greeted Angel upon entering the dome. He immediately reached for his phaser and his torch at the same time, providing himself with light as well as protection.
Christie did not scare easily. His origins in the Canadian Rockies had seen his upbringing in the midst of some of the most beautiful country on Earth, as well as the most dangerous. Kodiak bears, wolves and mountain lions roamed freely, endangered species no more thanks to conservation efforts and anyone who could become comfortable with such creatures sharing the same local area with them, did not get frightened of the dark. He was just as confused by the maze of chambers as Angel was before him and Christie told himself not to touch anything while he searched for her.
"Angel!" Christie cried out beyond the range of the torch's illumination.
It was to his profound relief that a few seconds later, he heard her response. "I'm here!" She returned. She was some distance away and her relief at being discovered was profound in her voice.
"Stay where you are!" He ordered, feeling suddenly protective of the young, willowy woman, who was brave, as she was beautiful. She would probably hit him if she thought for a moment he considered her that way, Christie thought with a bemused smile.
He found her in a chamber that looked nothing like the one they had encountered previously. For starters, the floor was covered in bones. The bones did not appear to be human but rather of small animals, like dogs and cats. After closer examination, Christie was certain of this. Their bones were all shattered around the sternum and while some remained on the floor, others were attached to the wall, held in place by the resin. He could see the same wounds on all of them and understood finally what that stench had been. It had been the lingering odour of decomposing flesh. The realisation almost made him gag in disgust but he forced the unpleasant sensation away.
"Look at this." Angel pointed to the leather shaped objects that stood in correspondence to almost every set of bones found here. The objects were unsealed and whatever they had contained had long since departed for the interior of the biological canisters was empty.
"What the hell is this place?" He asked.
"I don't know," she whispered anxiously. "But I think we ought to get the hell out of here."
With that Christie could not disagree. "I think you're right."
They turned around slowly and retreated the way they had come, or so they believed. The maze was so thick with so many looming shadows that it was hard to tell. Suddenly they entered a new chamber and stopped short immediately.
The floor was covered with the leather objects and they were all sealed.
The chamber itself was enormous and was the largest one they had seen yet. Neither of them could tell where it ended and the floor was covered with the objects they knew unconsciously to be eggs. Slowly, their eyes moved around, watching the pulsing life inside the translucent objects, wet with moisture from the hothouse conditions inside the dome. They could see digits moving through vicious fluid.
"God," Christie whispered. "We're in an egg chamber."
"What's laying the eggs?" Angel asked.
She never got an answer to her question because there was no need. Christie had been standing against a formation they had both assumed to be the strange walls of the dome, never anticipating that in the shadows, something had been waiting or a long time. He never even had the chance to scream. His head ruptured like a cracked egg, the massive inner jaws of something very big, smashed through his cranium and pulled apart his skull when it exited through his forehead. Angel staggered backward and screamed, watching everything that had been her friend splatter onto her uniform and in the surrounding area.
The creature pulled back its jaws once it had finished with Christie and regarded the remaining human. Angel could not tell how large it was because it was hidden by the darkness of the place and the range of the torch was simply not enough to tell her. She saw limbs moving, large, thick limbs and a ring of material over its enormous head that could have been a crown. Upon retracting its inners jaws into past another set of jaws, it hissed at her, foot long teeth bared as it cocked it eyeless head and stared straight at her.
Something inside her snapped.
Scrambling to her feet with more than a case of mild panic, she started running blindly. As she raced through the dark maze, her torch gripped tightly in her sweating palm, she became aware of others things. Something was slithering to life in the darkness. She could hear wet sounds of things breaking free and slicks noises of movement against a slimy wet floor. Those vague, nondescript emanations struck cold fear through her heart and sent her pulse racing as she continued at breakneck speed. She did not realise that she was moving so fast that whatever she and Christie had awakened had not quite time to shake the sluggishness from their post hibernating systems.
Angel saw the fissure of light ahead and knew that she was almost out of the dome but refused to let her guard down for it was in her nature to believe the closer one reached to their goal, the more likely it was to slip away from one's fingers. Just as the thought crossed her mind, something leapt out in front of her. Although smaller than the nightmarish figure that had claimed Christie's life, this one stood taller than her and by no means any less lethal. It hissed at her, a mass of tentacles, protrusions and an elongated head, to which rather sharp teeth were attached. The two hands it brandished in her direction were capable of ripping through steel though at this time, she was unaware of that fact. Angel reacted instinctively, she withdrew her phaser and began firing without hesitation. The beam of energy struck the creature in the chest and flung it backwards, its body exploding as it was propelled away from her. Acid sprayed in all directions, eating into the ground as soon as it splattered across it. Angel did not ruminate on this and continued running, leaping over the remains of the alien before escaping through the fissure.
"Angel!" Collins was already there with the Chief. "I told you not to go in!" Collins barked angrily, noting the blood on the younger woman.
"We can't stay!" Angel stammered. "They're coming!"
"What's coming?" Collins demanded again.
"Take it easy on the young lady," Ezra interjected. "Ensign, report."
"Sir, there's no time!" Angel declared, averting her eyes frantically between him and the fissure. "They're in there! They killed Christie!"
"The Ensign is right." Ezra responded, needing to hear nothing more. He knew perfectly well what was inside the dome and had known so ever since he had seen this structure and guessed its purpose. There would be time enough for explanations later but for now, the ensign's advice though inspired by fear was sound judgement. "We have to leave here immediately."
"What is it Sir?" Collins asked, seeing the fear in his eyes.
Ezra glanced at the darkness of the fissure for a second before answering grimly. "History repeating itself."
"I'm going to disconnect you for awhile Bishop." Alex told the android as she prepared to transport him to the Sulaco.
"Oh." Bishop responded quietly, clearly disliking the idea of going to sleep again.
"Its okay," she assured him. "I'm not going to leave you behind. You're coming back with us to the Sulaco and later onto the Maverick."
"The Maverick?" Bishop asked.
"Yes, its our ship." Alex responded, aware that the android was feeling a little uneasy about being disconnected once more.
"A warship?" He inquired.
"No," she shook her head slowly. "A lot has changed. While we do defend the borders of the planets in the Federation, in the instance of attack, our charter is mostly for the exploration of new life, to extend mutual cooperation between all members races towards peaceful co-existence."
"An admirable goal." Bishop replied. "Very different from my time."
"You'll have plenty to catch up on," Alex responded. "Now I have to disconnect you but I promise it won't be for long."
"I believe you." Bishop responded, appearing as if he genuinely believed it. Alex was touched by the faith he had in her and promised herself inwardly that whatever happened during this mission, she was not abandoning him here.
"Alex," Vin hurried into the EEV. "We've got trouble."
"What sort of trouble?" She asked automatically.
"Ensign Christie is dead." He replied sombrely. "He and Ensign Angel found what Ezra thinks is some kind of a nest outside the facility."
"How is that possible?" Alex exclaimed in shock. "There has only been one alien on this planet."
"All the drones have the ability to produce some eggs if they are alone." Bishop informed them dutifully. "It is from this group that a queen is usually created."
"An egg layer." Alex uttered softly.
"Yes." Bishop nodded, seeing that she understood the ramifications.
"But this planet has been abandoned for the last four hundred years." Alex could not wrap her mind around it. Everything they knew said that for the alien to produce in large numbers, there would have to be hosts and to their knowledge Fiorina had been devoid of humans for almost four centuries. "There wouldn't have been any viable hosts."
"Alex, we can debate this later." Vin said shortly, helping her to gather her tools. "Right now, we've got to go."
"Alright," she nodded in understanding before turning back to Bishop. "I'll see you soon." She offered the android another reassuring smile before disconnecting the attachments that made him conscious. The android's remains spasmed at the cessation of power, twitching sharply for a few seconds before he stopped moving altogether.
"Is Ensign Angel alright?" Alex asked as she gathered up Bishop's remains.
"She's fine but she's shaken up." Vin retorted as they both walked out of the EEV together. "Alex, there are aliens here and judging from what Angel has told us, there are a lot of them."
Alex looked at him. "What do you mean a lot of them?"
Her question went unanswered for the moment as they joined the Captain, Ezra, Collins and the clearly upset ensign who was doing her level best not to let her fear overcome her. Not an easy task one supposed after what she had just seen.
"We're moving out." Chris announced as soon as he caught sight of them.
"Alex," Ezra turned to her. "Can you configure the tricorder to detect these creatures? I am detecting no life signs at all."
"Its not set up to deal with possible silicon based creatures," Alex explained and immediately took the device from the Security Chief. "Exactly what did you see Ensign?" She asked.
"I knew we shouldn't have gone in," Angel responded as they started moving towards the drop ship. "But I thought Christie was in there and I didn't want to leave him alone."
"It's alright Ensign," Chris said soothingly, aware of how guilty she felt just by the sound of her voice. "You didn't want to abandon a comrade, that's admirable."
"Thank you Sir," she smiled at Chris before continuing. "It was dark in there and the construction was bizarre, like being inside something alive. In retrospect, I guess it reminded me of an ant hive. I walked in quite a way when I heard Christie. We met up in this chamber that had all these bones in it. Now that I think of it, all the skeletons were intact except for the chest cavity."
"Human bones?" Chris asked, his stomach hollowing at the thought.
"No Sir," she shook her head. "Animal bones, dogs and cats to be specific. Captain, there were a lot of them, I estimate more than fifty at least and that's not to mention the ones one the wall."
"The wall." Alex mused. "That's the same way the Marines found the colonists on LV427. They were all suspended to the walls of the atmosphere processor for embryo implantation."
"I don't understand how there could be that many cats and dogs on this planet." Vin declared. "Where did they come from?"
"The Company." Ezra stated firmly.
"The Company?" Chris shot him a look. "How do you figure that?"
"Well consider this if you may." Ezra remarked as they moved through the facility as fast as possible, their footsteps making harsh sounds against the crack linoleum floors. "What if the alien who had come down here from the Sulaco chose to lay eggs? There were more than enough prisoners to act as hosts for its progeny. Of course we assume that the creature was killed when the company shut down the facility but what happened if those eggs were discovered? The company finally had what it wanted, alien specimens in what could be considered a rather controlled environment. They close the facility and start bringing in dogs and cats, creatures large enough and completely expendable to be used as hosts for the eggs. Naturally after the first few are spawned, a queen is created if I can compared the life cycle of these organisms to known contemporaries like ants and bees."
"You wouldn't be wrong." Alex agreed with his theory. "Before I disconnected him, Bishop said as much. The alien drones has the capability to lay some eggs, one of which can be a queen."
"So the queen is produced and with a steady influx of animals to act as incubators for the spores, the Company had its very own colony of aliens." Ezra concluded.
"But why leave them here Sir?" Collins inquired. "After all that? Why just abandon them?"
"That's easy," Chris responded in complete agreement with Ezra's hypothesis over what had happened here at Fiorina 361. "World War 3. When the Optimum movement took over, a lot of outposts were abandoned, scientific personnel were recalled to Earth. I'm sure whomever was in charge here, did not want to stay in orbit around Fury considering what's waiting for them on the surface."
"I think I saw her." Angel gulped.
"Saw what?" Collins looked at the junior officer.
"The queen." She muttered softly. "She was huge Chief. I mean she wasn't moving or anything but she was enormous. She didn't even have to move when she killed Christie." Her voice threatened to break but once again, Angel maintained her composure.
"Not unusual," Ezra responded. "The queen is usually larger than the normal drone. The queens in wasp and bee colonies may sting many more times and is often larger, where else in termites and ants, she usually needs caring for and is quite helpless."
"Okay," Alex stated as they reached the tarmac where the drop ship was presently waiting for them. "I've configured this thing so that it will register non carbon based life forms."
"I hope we don't need it," Vin remarked. "From all accounts, anyone running into these things are going to have a bad day. I say we leave while we can."
"Good idea." Chris agreed.
However Alex was not speaking. Her eyes widened as she saw the readings on the tricorder and she raised her eyes to the Captain. "In that case Captain," Alex swallowed visibly. "I think we better get moving."
"Why?" Chris asked, even though the question seemed some redundant. He knew why.
He just did not know how bad.
She met all their gazes as Ezra came next to her and when he saw what she was seeing, his face drained of colour as well and Alex finally answered. "Because I'm reading one big fucking signal coming right for us."
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The drop ship seemed untouched as they reached the hatch that led to its innards. However, this was no indication that they were safe. According to the tricorders, the aliens were all around them and probably had a better knowledge regarding the layout of the prison facility then they had. Fury 361 was a maze of shafts, underground access ways, electrical access tunnels and crawl spaces, all of which the aliens had proven from what they had learned of the disaster at Acheron, were more than capable of traversing. In Chris' opinion, if they made it off the planet, they would be exceedingly lucky. What he saw on the tricorder screen had justified Alex's startling announcement. The life signs of the aliens were so many that it was difficult to take an accurate count of them and judging by the volume, they were at the moment about to converge upon the potential hosts that had unwittingly strayed into their realm.
The rain had begun to pick up momentum again and the wind seemed to increase, creating even more visual confusion as windows shutters slammed and doors flew open, creating noises that added to the chaos of their departure. Ezra, Chris, Collins and Angel were keeping a watchful eye out for the savage creatures, while Vin and Alex went on ahead. Alex had refused to leave the Bishop android and Vin needed to get to the drop ship first so he could prep the craft for take off. Ripley had given them scant information about the alien's abilities beyond the fact that it was a killer, capable of surviving in a vacuum and did not have any trouble getting through barricades. Chris hoped that did not mean titanium hulls as well.
"How close?" Chris demanded as they saw the drop ship through the rain.
"Ten metres." Ezra retorted and noticed Angel's eyes wide with panic because she more than anyone had first had knowledge of what the things could do after seeing what had happened to poor Ensign Christie.
They were moving across the tarmac, making good time when suddenly, a screech filled the air just as they began to round the drop ship to reach the main hatch. The alien scrambled over the top of a near by building with such speed it was nothing more than a dark blur against the grey sky. In the light of day, it was no less terrifying than it was when it hid in the shadows and were it alone, they might not have felt the panic they did but it was not alone. There were at least four others behind it and their approach was not frenzied or disorganized but the coordinated attack that usually from pack hunters. The lead alien hissed at them, teeth bared while resin oozed in thick, long rivulet from the two-inch fangs.
"Oh shit." Chris swore under his breath, as he understood the gesture for what it was; attack.
It sprung from the roof of the one storied building like a coil serpent; fangs bared as the other four behind it split into two and attempt to approach them from the flank. The alien reached the tarmac as if it had flown there and leapt again. The next time it landed, it would be right on top of them. Chris did not plan to let it get far. He aimed his phaser without even thinking about aiming and pulled the trigger, watching the amber beam of energy tear the creature apart. Whatever it used for skin was extremely tough for usually a phaser set for kill would disintegrate anything unfortunate enough to get in its path. The aliens did not vaporize but rather exploded and considering what their blood was made off, that made them extremely hard to kill in close proximity.
Acid began eating into the ground as soon as the creature had ruptured. The potency of its blood could not be denied as they saw bitumen dissolving before their eyes and shuddered at what that could do to skin.
"Behind you!" Ezra shouted at Collins as the two aliens finally made their arrival, now that their pack leader was gone. Collin swung around gracefully like a dancer doing a pirouette, her phaser already drawn and fired before the alien could even attempt its customary lunge. Like the others, it met its end in the same spectacular manner and Ezra dispatched the second alien that was approaching her flank. Even through the rain, the noxious stench of burning asphalt was filling the air, as well as the ragged holes in the ground where the acid had eaten away through the bitumen paving. Angel was firing away with the same intensity, ensuring that the remaining two aliens did not reach her or her captain, who was standing side by side with her in the endeavor.
Chris swung around and saw Vin running up the open hatch of the drop ship and was about to turn his back on what remained of the aliens had tried to take them before they reached their ship, when an ugly thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Vin!" Chris shouted. "Not so fast!"
The captain did not have time to complete his warning because Vin was suddenly thrown backwards through the open ramp, the dark shape which he was wrestling with was unmistakable, claws, tail and that elongated head filled with razor sharp teeth. Both tumbled down the ramp way and somewhere through the rain, Chris heard Alex cry out in horror as she saw them both go down.
"Vin!" The science officer dropped the android remains she was carrying and immediately went for her phaser in record time but producing the weapon did not give her a clear line to fire. Vin and the alien were a tangled mess of limbs, tail and body parts and she could not fire without hitting the Vulcan or worse yet, keep him from being sprayed with acid even if she did hit her intended target.
Vin was beyond hearing anything at the moment.
He could feel the fangs trying to reach him through the aliens frenzied flaying of its limbs. The creature's tail lashed at him several times as he tried to keep its claws from tearing him to pieces. The alien was incredibly strong and if Vin was not Vulcan, he might not have been able to fight the creature off. He heard Alex screaming in the background and saw her rushing towards him, attempting to dislodge the alien from the top of him when the creature's tail lashed out like a whip and struck her hard across the body. His fear for her allowed his guard to drop and suddenly he felt razor sharp nails sink into his side and pull back with ruthless savagery.
"Shit!" He swore feeling blood running down his flesh, soaking his uniform even more, as if the rain had not done it enough. He could feel the alien's breath on him, could see the triumph in its bared fangs and suddenly, Vin got very, very mad.
Unaware of where the rage had come from, satisfied only that it would be put to good use, Vin ignored the pain in his flank and snapped his fist around the alien's thin neck. Using the animal's frenzied movements as a momentum, he rolled on top of it and smashed his fist into what would have been the space between the alien's eyes had it optical senses. The blow disorientated the creature and Vin continued pounding, cautiously reminding himself he could not break skin no matter how much he wanted to make this thing bleed. He only wanted it off balance enough to get away. However, something else was penetrating the wall that separated him and this creature, the veneer of civilization that made the alien what it was and himself, a Vulcan.
The familiar warmth of the meld had enveloped him before he even knew what he was doing but remembered that Vulcans were able to read the thoughts of other creatures simply by making physical contact with them. It was part of the reason why they had cultivated such a strict regimen of mental discipline in order to protect themselves from being overwhelmed by the thoughts and emotions of others. Vin had only a limited discipline and though he was fighting this creature for his very life, he could nonetheless feel what was going on inside its mind, such as it was. The experience was beyond description and Vin was staggered by what was filtering into his mind.
Brutal, savage need, lacking in all conscience, with no complicated feelings of morality or understanding, just instinct, driving heated instinct that burned with the intensity of a thousand black stars. This creature did not think. It did not ponder its place in the scheme of the cosmos. Its comprehension was occupied with the singular need for which it would do anything, kill anyone, and use anything to accomplish. Nothing else made any difference, not one single thing that could replace that feverish; all consuming desire that dictated this alien being's entire existence.
The need to breed.
"Vin get away from it!" He heard Chris order and snapped out of the haze that his mind had slipped into. For an instant he had almost forgotten where he was. He was gripped with an overwhelming sense of rage and brutal desire he knew was not his own anger but rather the alien's. Even when Chris' voice had brought him to reality, the lingering effects resonated through him even when he felt Alex dragging him off the alien. There was a momentary bout of disconnection when he heard the alien screech just before Ezra turned his phaser on it destroyed it. However, the effects of the meld lingered and for a second, Vin thought he might faint. However, he maintained his equilibrium.
"Vin," Alex came to him and examined the wound on the side of his body. "God, you're hurt!"
"We've got to keep moving!" Chris ordered. "Are you okay?" The captain asked.
"I'm fine." Vin nodded and meant it. The pain was starting to make itself felt but he knew as well as Chris that they could not stop to let it pass, there were too many of the aliens converging upon them. They were directly beneath the drop ship now and Vin had regained his composure enough to know that he had to get to the cockpit and fire up the engines if any of them were to leave this place alive.
"Vin," Ezra suddenly spoke out. His eyes looking past the drop ship and the helmsman to the surrounding area. "How long is it going to take you to lift off?"
"Three minutes." Vin retorted as he started running up the ramp way back into the drop ship, this time he was a little more cautious about his entry since it was conceivable that they might have stowaways.
At first they had all thought that it was the sound of the rain pounding down around their ears that was creating such a loud hiss but now that they were listening closely, they realised that it was not rain at all. The aliens came into sight, no longer hindered by the effects of their long hibernation. There were so many across the skyline of buildings that surrounded the tarmac that for a moment, they made a sheer wall of black that was quickly converging upon them. Their teeth were hissing and they moved slowly, as if trying to stay out of range of the terrible weapons that had claimed some of their brethren.
Chris knew immediately that he and his crew were about to be hit by a swarm. "Vin. We don't have that much time."
No sooner than he had made that remark, the aliens charged. They swept across the tarmac like a black tide and the only sensible order Chris could give was one he never thought he'd ever have to say.
"RUN!" He shouted.
Alex had already scrambled up the ramp carrying the android Bishop. Chris could not bring himself to order her to leave the synthetic behind. Ezra was telling Collins to get into the ship and keep an eye out for any stowaways. Ezra's gaze met his once his junior officer had gone and both of them knew immediately that in two minutes, these creatures would tear through the hull of drop ship. He and his crew would die before they ever left the ground.
"Captain." Ezra and he exchanged looks for an instant, as they both knew what had to be done.
"I'll do it." Chris said quickly, reaching for his phaser. "If it wasn't for me, none of you would be here."
"I don't understand Sir," Ensign Angel asked as she paused at the ramp, wondering why the two senior officers were not coming on board the drop ship.
"Absolutely not Sir," Ezra declared refusing to even entertain the notion of letting his captain fall on his own sword to save their lives. "I will not let you sacrifice yourself. If anyone undertakes this suicide mission, it should be me."
Angel suddenly understood what they were debating. The captain couldn't sacrifice himself, she thought instantly. He was Chris Larabee. He was the Captain! If the Captain died, then none of them would get out of here alive. A surge of bravery surfaced inside the young Ensign as she watched the two men prepared for the inevitable and wondered if she could be that brave. When Christie had died, she had just run like a coward! Where had been the honor in that? The Chief had been good to her. He had accepted her, a rookie into his ranks, when senior officer would give their eyeteeth for an assignment on board the Maverick. The last few months on the Maverick had been the best in her life and she did not want it to end but she also wanted neither man to sacrifice their life.
The Captain had great things to do and people who counted on him, just like the chief. She had no family and everything in her life was her job as a security officer. Security officers weren't supposed to live long and this was all her fault to begin with. She had woken those things up. They had been sleeping, unaware of the Starfleet officers in their midst when she had broken protocol and gone searching for Christie, even though he had never gone in there in the first place. Christie had died because of her, she was going to let the Captain and Commander Standish die too. Taking a deep breath, she quietly turned her phaser over and set it for overload.
She walked down the ramp, past the two men, towards the swarm that was only a few dozen meters away now. The creatures that were coming at them like black tide of death.
"Ensign, what are you doing?" Chris demanded as she saw her walking past them. Through the charge of the aliens, he could hear the low hum of a phaser in overload.
"You need to get into the ship Sir." Angel said coolly and remarkably calm to her surprise. She continued walking, until it dawned upon him what she was intending to do.
"No, you don't!" He started for her when Ezra pulled him back.
"CHRIS, NO!" Ezra grabbed him by his arm and kept him from going after that poor child. The aliens having seen their quarry come out to meet them had hastened their pace and were now converging on the young woman like a pack of wolves on a lone sheep.
When she looked over her shoulders, she realised why.
"ENSIGN YOU GET BACK HERE!" Chris shouted impotently, more than prepared to go after her, anguished as he saw her take the place that should have been for him. The aliens swept over her, until her uniform disappeared in a wave of black gleaming bodies and Chris remembered screaming her name, while Ezra dragged him up the ramp as he tried to search for her. However there was nothing left of the young Ensign from Texas, whose appointment to Ezra's security staff he had approved because he had read her Academy files and learnt that she had liked books, the kind of old books his father used to collect, bound in leather and age.
"CAPTAIN, SHE"S GONE!" Ezra's voice cut through his ears as he forced Chris into the drop ship, hiding his own sorrow at the loss of one of his youngest and brightest. The pain he felt was just as acute as Chris' even more because he had worked with the young woman and knew she liked pictures of puppy dogs and was not just another uniform to him. Angel was something to him too and it was his life she had tried to save not just the captain's. It was that fact alone that made Ezra determined not to let her sacrifice be wasted by allowing themselves to die.
Collins pulled the hatch close as soon as Chris and Ezra were through and as she secured the lock, Ezra noted that her eyes were wet with tears after she had done that. She wiped it away quickly though, as if the situation at present did not allow her to grieve. The interior of the drop ship was rumbling as the engines prepared to fire and lift them off the surface of this nightmarish world. A loud explosion was heard outside the ship, followed by the screeching of dying aliens in the fireball induced by Ensign Angel's heroic sacrifice.
Chris broke free from Ezra, having regained his composure and reminding himself that his sorrows could wait until he delivered what was left of his crew from the danger he had so irresponsibly put them. Hurrying past the two remaining security officers, Chris made his way to the cockpit. He was almost in the middle of the ship when suddenly something flurried past him over head. He drew his phaser as the alien landed in front of him on the landing. Chris prepared to fire when suddenly he realised that if he did so, the creature's acidic blood would eat through the bulkhead and cause god only knew what damage. The drop ship would be in the same predicament that had caused the Sulaco to send Ripley and her companions to the EEV! Only there would be no EEV for them to escape. The alien crossed the space between them quickly and Chris turned to run when the drop ship lifted off the ground. The sudden movement caused him to loose his footing and the phaser felt out of reach as the alien prepared to leap.
"Captain!" Collins exclaimed as she saw her commander about to be torn to pieces by an alien stowaway and immediately reacted in kind.
"Don't shoot it!" Chris tried to warn her but it was too late. The drop ship was already airborne, soaring into the clouds when the beam of amber from her phaser struck the creature in mid thorax and immediately caused it to rupture with acid spraying in all directions. Chris barely managed to get out of the way as the noxious liquid began to eat through the metal floor and fill the narrow passageway with smoke.
The drop ship continued to climb. Chris could see through the small window that they were still soaring through the thick, cumulous clouds. He began to hope that perhaps the acid did not eat through any vital systems, that perhaps it would be all right.....
Then the ship dipped sharply, throwing both him and Collins to the side of the corridor.
"What the hell just happened?" Vin demanded through his com badge. "I just lost the attitude control!"
Ezra struggled up the passageway and the expression on his face as he saw the corridor filled with smoke and the fast appearing hole in the middle of the steel floor, told Chris there was no need for explanation. The drop ship rocked once again and they were forced to their knees.
"I'm sorry Sir!" Collins said frantically. "It was going to kill you!"
There was nothing Chris could say to her that would lessen the degree of what she had done but he knew that she had been faced with an impossible choice, one he would have made himself had he been the one with the phaser. If she had not acted, he would be dead now, there was no doubt about. "You did what was necessary."
"Vin." Chris tapped his com badge. "We had an alien in here."
"I guessed as much." The helmsman responded. "Alex, see if you can stabilize that booster!" He barked to the science officer in the background.
"Can we maintain altitude?" Chris asked, although he could tell by the gradual dip of the drop ship that they were losing their ability to remain airborne.
"I'm sorry Chris," Vin answered after what seemed to be an interminably long pause. "I don't know for sure what killing that thing did to the ship but we don't have the power to break orbit and we're going down."
Julia Pemberton peered out the edge of the armory door and stared cautiously as the passageway that led back to the hangar. She felt her hands moistened around the bulky weapon she was carrying, hoping that she understood its working correctly or else her attempt to reach Fury 361 was going to be a very brief effort indeed. She had not seen the alien since she had escaped its clutches in the runabout and dreaded facing the thing again. However, she had listened just as closely to Ellen Ripley's briefing as the others and knew that the bizarre chemistry of the alien's physiology demanded that it propagate and at the moment, she seemed like the only viable candidate.
Of course Julia had no intention of ending up like poor Lieutenant Atwater and had every intention of finding the creature before it came looking for her. Besides, her inability to contact the rest of the Away Team had given rise to some rather disturbing thoughts. They had considered it impossible for there to be an alien on the Sulaco and yet here it was. Was it possible that the same could be said equally about what was awaiting the Away Team on Fury? Julia had thought that the loss of communications with Ezra and the others had been due to Fiorina's strange atmospheric conditions, what if there was a more sinister reason for their silence. She may well be their only hope of escaping the planet and what may be waiting for them down there, alive. Whatever happened, she simply had to fix the run about and get to Fiorina 361.
A sixth sense told her that if she did not, it would be too late for anyone.
With this thought in mind, the Chief Engineer of the Maverick emerged from the armory where she had found suitable weapon to replace the phaser she had lost in the runabout. Although she found the guns she was carrying to heavy and cumbersome, she could not help thinking that they did a great deal for her morale. The gun she was holding, according to the manifest, was an M-41AAA 10-mm pulse-rifle, over and under with a 30 mm pump action grenade launcher. It was in its day, the state of the art in combat weaponry, that seldom jammed, worked under water or in a vacuum and had no difficulty putting a sizeable hole in steel plates and she hoped aliens with a tendency to spill acid when attacked.
The gun was surprising light considering how large it was and Julia made certain she had ample ammunition to last her for quite some time. She had every intention of killing the alien if it got in her way but no desire to go hunting for it. If Ellen Ripley's tapes had told her one thing, the alien was more than a match for a human and no matter how well armed she was, Julia was not confident enough to seek confrontation with the thing unless she really had to. The weapons she had at the moment would protect her while she repaired the runabout. She was more than willing to leave the alien with run of the Sulaco while she was retrieving the others from the surface of Fiorina if this six sense of hers was right, that they were in need of retrieval.
Emerging from the lengthy corridor, she held the tricorder with one hand while ensuring the pulse rifle was firmly in her grip with the other. Julia had configured the tricorder to seek out non-carbon based life forms, having no intention of letting the thing jumped out at her unexpectedly as it had done earlier when she had tried to take off in the runabout. She attributed the alien with some intelligence for she found its previous attack too fortuitous to be mere coincidence. It had waited until she had attempted to lift off before choosing to strike and whether that action had been guided by some understanding that she was about to elude it, Julia was not about to take any chances. She was getting out of this alive, one way or another.
As much as she admired Ellen Ripley, Julia Pemberton was not going to die like her.
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Chris fought his way to the cockpit as the drop ship continued to shudder, its descent apparent by the clouds that were thinning around them when its nose sagged forward and the ground seemed like a monster opening its maw to swallow them whole. From the freshly melted orifice created by the alien in its death throes, a column of dark smoke was rising up its jagged walls to fill the ship with black smoke. Ezra and Collins were making a valiant attempt to dissipate the noxious fumes but it was fast making the air in the rear end of the drop ship, unbearable for the duo. Chris in the meantime found himself pulled forward by the steep incline of the ship's trajectory towards the cockpit where even without his com badge, he could hear Vin barking orders at Alex as they struggled to keep the ship in the air.
"I can't get the landing gears to lower!" Alex cried out when Chris entered the small cockpit that was the nerve centre of the craft. In the window in front of her, Chris could see just how close they were to the ground.
"We'll have to do without it." Vin said sharply, having no patience with groaning about things they could not change. "I'll have to angle the nose just right before we touch down. With any luck, I can find a stretch of land somewhere and slid this thing to a stop."
"Exactly where would that be?" Chris asked as he saw what was awaiting them beyond the cockpit window. The ground was much lower than the thought and the majority of the landscape was the grey, choppy ocean that covered much of this planet. The prison had been built on one of the few stretches of solid land there was on Fiorina and judging by their rate of descent, there was not going to be time to search for a safer landing place. Given the alternative of not landing and all and landing to deal with the problem of the aliens once more, Chris decided that for the moment, he would take the latter. Besides, he had to assume that eventually Julia would come looking for them. Their mission was to last no more than a day and if they had been out of communications for longer than that time, the Chief Engineer would follow procedure and come in search of them.
"The only place we can land." Vin said grimly. "At the prison."
"Damn." Chris whispered under his breath. "Can you put as much distance between us and the prison as possible? We need some time to set things up if those aliens are going to come after us."
Alex shuddered openly at the thought but Vin was more composed about that eventuality and nodded in response. "I'll do what I can pard but I can't make any promises. Right now, I'm just aiming to get us to the ground in one piece."
"Do what you can." Chris replied patting the Vulcan on the shoulder in a gesture of thanks and it was more than just for his piloting skills.
Vin gave his captain a look, understanding the sentiment behind the gesture. "You bet. Now go strap yourself in Captain, this is going to be a rough landing." He retorted, moving past the moment. Chris nodded and retreated out of the room with Vin still watching him a few seconds after he left.
"He's feeling bad." Vin remarked as he faced front again.
"He shouldn't." Alex said automatically as she aided Vin in their rough landing, trying not to pay too much attention at the ground coming up at them. "We all wanted to come here."
"I know," Vin retorted unhappily. "But he took the drop ship because of me. I wanted to fly her out here."
"Vin," Alex reached for his hand briefly. "Don't start blaming yourself on how we got here. The truth is, I've got as much to do with it. I wanted to come here just as badly to get my hands on the android. We all had our reasons for being here, you're not alone in feeling the way you do."
Vin stared at Alex for a moment and felt himself melt at the sight of the smile she aimed at him. He watched her for a second as she returned her attention to their difficult landing. Even though the situation was completely inappropriate Vin could not get enough of looking at her. Just watching the determined way she was handling the controls next to him and being able to scent the subtle perfume she wore was capable of stirring his emotions to such a state. He had no idea that he was physically experiencing something when he felt tingles against his skin. For a minute Vin was rather shocked by the sensation and shrugged it away, wondering what that was all about.
Instead he turned to the screen before him and searched for possible landing sites, trying to keep Chris' request about keeping as far away from the prison facility as possible. Unfortunately, the list was savagely short. Vin's hand moved across the controls at lightning speed. Being Vulcan, he had the benefit of the eidetic memory genetic to the race and was able to memorize the cockpit controls very quickly. He fed in the coordinates required and hoped that the choice he made would be adequate.
"I'm going to try and set her down on the coast." He explained as he directed the steering controls to where it needed to be. "I hope the stretch is long enough."
"It will have to be." She answered hopefully, trying to hide the fear at being anywhere in proximity to those aliens.
"You okay?" He asked, seeing something in his eyes that forced the question from him. When it came to courage, Alex was one of the bravest people he knew. What fear she felt, she hid beneath a veneer of ruthless control and it was rare that she let that tough mask slip enough to let the emotion show.
"Yeah," she nodded slightly but her apprehension was clear. "Vin I don't want to die with one of those things inside me. I'd rather kill myself first."
"I understand," Vin replied, agreeing with her on that much. He had no wish to go out of his life knowing that his end would see the birth of one of those monstrosities that had killed so many already. "Alex, I'll never let it happen to you." He said firmly. "I promise."
"Really?" She looked at him, seeing him so far removed from that shy young lieutenant she had to rescue Charlotte Richmond's acidic tongue. She wondered at what point had their relationship changed that she was now seeing as more than someone she had once had to protect. She thought about the nights they spent together, where he held her in his arms and allowed her to sleep without nightmares. With a feeling of reassurance, Alex realised that it was good to know that he would always be there for her when she stumbled or simply needed holding in the dark, to chase away the ugly dreams.
"Yeah, really." He smiled at her and then faced front again, all business as they landing began. Tapping his com badge, he spoke to the other passengers in the drop ship. "Everybody, buckle up. We're going to land."
Vin did not have time to learn if they were indeed strapped in because the ground came up at them with terrifying speed and he began to fight the controls against the pull of gravity. Struggling to keep the drop ship's nose up, he fought the sharp downturn pull that would kill them all unless he made the descent gradual. The small craft began to shudder against the two opposing forces and Vin found he was using every ounce of skill and strength to keep them from slamming into the earth. Unlike the design of the runabout whose snub nose front, Vin had to level the more stream lined version belonging to the drop ship in order to make a successful landing without any landing gears whatsoever.
The sandy stretch of beach upon which he was using as a runway of sorts swept towards them as the buckling and shuddering became more and more violent. Seals began to snap glass shattered on Alex's right, she raised her hands to shield herself from the flying glass but most of it was borne away by the speed of their descent. Vin continued to wrestle with the steer and finally, the horizon sneaked into view even though around them chaos was ensuing as the drop ship groaned from its exertion. He had no idea what state the rest of the craft was on and someone managed to yell out as the sand rushed up against them.
"Brace for impact!" He shouted and hoped those behind him were listening.
The nose of the drop ship met the dirt first; creating a tidal wave of sand and earth as it impacted like a flaming comet. It dug in and then through as the forward momentum propelled it across the sandy shore. Vin could feel objects being crushed under the tremendous weight as the drop ship scraped across the ground, creating a loud, screeching sound that send tingles though him and made him wince in reaction. He could see the prison facility not far from them and the grey, ugly sea on his flank. The drop did not seem to slow and Vin started to worry that it if did not stop, it would keep going and end up in the water.
"She's not slowing down!" Alex shouted over the power roar of grinding metal.
"I know!" He shouted back but there was very little he could do at this point. A tremendous heaving was heard and Vin saw what was left of the drop ship's wing fall away from the structure of the craft as if it was blow away in the wind. It its place were ragged and twisted strips of metal and the exposed framework of the wing. For a moment Vin was horrified that the lack of wind resistance would keep them going but instead the drop ships journey across the ground began to slow. The shuddering though violent began to ease off and slowly the horizon of water ahead began to lengthen further away instead of drawing closer and closer. An eternity of moment passed with Vin holding his breath before the drop ship finally came to a rest with the edge of the shoreline only a few hundred yards away. For what they had been through, it had been a narrow miss despite that distance.
"Oh my god!" Alex let out a gasp as she unbuckled herself from her seat. "We made it!"
"Just barely," Vin muttered but nonetheless felt just as relieved as his breath escaped him and he leaned into the chair. "And I think we tore her pretty good making that landing." Vin did not even have to examine the damage to know that they would not be taking off again any time soon. He leaned towards the side window of the cockpit to examine the state of the hull and pulled back a second later, his expression grim. "She's had it, Alex.""How bad?" She asked, not needing to clarify what he was talking about.
"Pretty bad." He replied. "We've lost a wing and an engine. However, we get off Fury, its not going to be on this ship."
Vin's estimation of the damage was not only accurate but in some sense it was somewhat more optimistic than what he had seen earlier. They had come down about two miles away from the prison facility but was certain that that would not stop the aliens from coming after them. Since the species' ability to reproduce hinged on its obtainment of viable hosts, Chris suspected than the creatures could not even afford to pas up on four potential hosts if they were available which meant that if the aliens could sense, they would be coming. After their turbulent landing, the Away Team made a brief inspection of their landing craft to assess how severe the damage to the drop ship had been. Unfortunately the wreckage was extensive and though most of it was intact, there were gaps were an alien penetration would be remarkably easy when the creatures came in force.
"God what a mess." Alex remarked as she saw the wide gapping holes in the hull. They were all braving the wind and rain as it battered against their skin in abnormally large droplets more than aware that the weather would not stop the aliens that would be closing in on them soon enough.
"How long can we hold out in this Sir?" Collins asked none of the officers in particular; however, everyone appeared to be looking towards the Captain.
"A few hours if we're lucky." Chris muttered.
"If there is one thing about this trip has been so far proven incontrovertibly, it is certainly our good standing with Lady Luck." Ezra said dryly.
Vin flashed him a look of pure venom while Alex merely stiffened, not about to say anything. Chris did not react to the obvious jibe, more than aware that he certainly deserved some of Ezra's vitriol. No matter how he might like to think otherwise, the truth was he had placed them in this situation. "We need to retrieve the wing."
"What for?" Vin looked at Chris puzzled. "We're never going to get this thing off the ground. She's had it Chris."
"I know that." Chris returned. "But we better be prepared for them and we're going to need to seal those ruptures in the hull and fortify the ship with barricades. We only need to hold out until our check in time, which is five hours from now. The minute we don't contact the Sulaco, Julia will be on her way here with the runabout."
"He's right," Alex responded in a show of support for her captain. "All we need to do is stay alive until then, possibly sooner if this storm passes." She looked up in the sky and was greeted with rain battering her skin.
"I stocked the drop ship with a considerable amount of fire power prior to our approach." Ezra remarked. "I found what they called remote sentry units. I had at least five of them loaded in the cargo hold."
"Remote sentry units?" Vin glanced at the security chief.
"Yes," Chris nodded. "They respond to motion, I believe. Good thinking Ezra." Chris offered the Southerner the compliment, knowing that it was a meager peace offering and not one that would appease the man very much in light of how against this entire trip he had been from the beginning.
"If we set them up around the perimeter of the drop ship, we can keep them away for some time. I hope." Ezra volunteered, not missing the sentiment directed at him by his captain and deciding for now, he could afford to be a little magnanimous.
"You hope?" Alex frowned wishing the news was a little brighter.
"You should have seen how many there were Commander." Collins responded. "They were a lot of them coming after us. We may not have enough artillery to keep them all away."
"Its something." Chris said firmly. "And if we are to survive this. We best get to work immediately. Ezra, you, Alex and Collins set up the sentry units. Vin, you're with me. We're going to get this wing, while we still can."
"Sure thing." Vin replied, wanting to give Chris as little trouble as possible, more than aware that the Captain had enough guilt of his own as it was.
They set out without saying very much and Vin noted Chris gaze seemed fixed on the shale-covered surface before him. Vin on the other hand found his eyes studying the grey horizon and the equally grey sea and thought how perfect this world was to be the home of an unspeakable species like the alien. He wondered if the creatures even had a name. Probably not he soon decided. No civilized species could have survived long enough on their indigenous planet to name them.
"Chris you okay?" Vin asked as they caught sight of the torn wing of the drop ship ahead. They were not very far from the ship at all and Vin was grateful that they would not have to long a hike before them when they started dragging the large piece of metal back.
"No I'm not." Chris answered shortly because Vin is the one person to whom he could confide without being offered advice or judgement. Perhaps that is why they had struck up such an enduring friendship. Vin knew when to pull back and when to get in one's face. He had never seen the Vulcan impress himself upon Chris yet and secretly the captain wondered what it would take to inspire that kind of passion in the younger man.
"It's not your fault." Vin responded automatically, remembering that Alex had used the same words on him earlier and found the whole think somewhat ironic to a fashion.
Chris looked up and met his gaze. "Yes it is Vin." He replied sadly. "No matter what I might like to tell myself, there is no hiding from the truth. It is my fault that we're in this mess."
"Chris we all wanted to come down here," Vin returned, not about to exonerate himself when he knew how much he had himself had contributed to this situation. "Hell I wanted to take stupid drop ship up so bad I couldn't think straight. If we hadn't taken her, we would be in orbit by now. The runabout would have taken straight off and we would be on the Sulaco safe."
"You didn't have to convince me very hard to take her Vin." Chris offered the young man a little smile and was grateful for what he was trying to do even though Chris knew better inside himself. "Looks, I wanted to know what happened to Ripley, a woman I had never met, who for some reason my ancestor was hell bent on keeping alive. I wanted to know what made her so special and the more I found about her, the more I realised she was special."
"That's not wrong Chris...." Vin started to say.
"Yes it is!" Chris insisted. "It is when I am the captain of a starship and I have a thousand people relying on my judgement to stay alive. Then it becomes very much wrong that I bucked protocol and didn't listen to Ezra when I should have and now that...that...ensign, that child is dead! She died to protect me, her captain because she thought that I was doing the right thing. That I was making the decisions to keep the crew alive and all the while I was wrapped up in what I wanted, I didn't see anything other than getting my hands on it!"
"Chris you're human." Vin found himself saying, wondering where this fountain of wisdom was coming from inside of him but was not prepared to ignore its benefits once it had arisen. He supposed that he was not that reserve lieutenant any more and that somewhere along the line, with Alex and the friends he had met, Chris in particularly he had found his place in the world and was content with it. "After what you went through with Sarah and Adam and learning what you did. You are entitle to show some hurt."
"I didn't just shows some hurt," Chris shook his head wishing he could let himself be exonerated that easily. "I hurt the people I cared about." Chris could not bring himself to say Mary but Vin was certain that was who he meant. "I could have asked for help but I didn't. I done know where I've been the last few weeks. I don't even know who I was."
"I'll you Chris," Vin said hesitantly, a little uncertain about making his inner most feelings known to his captain but he sensed that if there was any time for such revelations, now was the moment for it. "You're my friend and my captain. We will get out of here and we'll find the truth about your family, one way or another."
Chris did not say much for a few seconds but when he did, he raised his eyes to the Vulcan and grinned. "Thanks Vin. I really needed that."
"Any time pard." The helmsman returned the smile.
"When did you wise up?" Chris chuckled as they reached the strip of wing lying half buried in the shale ground.
"I don't know," Vin shrugged and he leaned over. "But I think it suits me."
Julia had a plan.
Actually it was not so much of a plan as it was an improvisation. However, she had no choice but to make the attempt no matter how outrageous it might seem. She knew she did not have the materials to repair the damaged window of the runabout but if she had enough time, she could rewire the shield to extend the protection grid to the exposed area. Usually if there was a hull breach on the Maverick, bulkhead shields would immediately kick into gear, protecting the damaged area from decompression. Julia could see no reason why the same principal could not be applied to the runabouts' current difficulties.
Julia emerged into the hangar of the Sulaco, her eyes scouring the immediate vicinity even though her tricorder indicated that the alien was nowhere in sight. However she did not lower the pulse rifle in her hand as she crossed the floor of the deck that only a short time ago, she had fled in fear for her life being pursued by the creature. Her sixth sense or women's intuition, she was not sure which was certain that something was wrong down on Fiorina 361. Her attempts to contact the Away Team had been met with silence and after what she had seen since finding that what was left of poor Lieutenant Atwater, Julia was not going to blithely assume that there was some reasonable explanation. Reasonable had gone out the window the moment she had seen Atwater's entrails all over the floor of the runabout.
The runabout door was still open when she reached it and cautiously, the Chief Engineer peered inside the cockpit of the small craft, when logically she knew that the alien was not there. At the moment, she detected it somewhere near the engines of the Sulaco, probably finding itself a nice little nest before coming back for her. She did not know how much time that gave her to accomplish what she needed to but Julia knew she had no choice but to try. Entering the runabout, she searched the floor covered in broken glass for the phaser she had dropped earlier. The smooth handle peered at her from under one of the compartments and Julia quickly retrieved it before sliding into place on her belt.
Lowering herself to the floor, she crawled underneath the helm station and slid off the panel, which would give her access to its inner workings. Reluctantly, she relinquished her grip of her pulse rifle and set to work; unaware that she was all that stood between the Away Team and a fate worse than death.
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They were working against time and they knew it. Retrieving what remained of the drop ship's left wing, the Away Team set to work quickly, fortifying their only protection against the alien hordes that were undoubtedly coming for them. Ezra, Alex and Collins went to work setting up the remote sentry units that Ezra had taken from the arsenal he found on the Sulaco. Although he would have preferred something more formidable and still had reservations about relying on the 21st century technology, he knew at the present moment their choices were limited. While they quickly installed the weapons in place, Ezra was also keeping vigil on the tricorder in expectation of the readings that would tell them that the enemy is coming.
Upon their return, the work detail was expanded to include barring all fissures and openings that the aliens might use to make their way into the structure. This included sealing the cockpit that was no compromised because of the shattered glass of its main window. Using their phasers to do the work, since nothing else on board would weld titanium plates, they worked quickly. All the while mindful about draining phaser energy because they would need it to defend themselves when their assailants finally arrived. The storm did not seem to abate but did not become any worse either, having reached a crescendo in its intensity before choosing to level off. The wet did not make the job of building their barricades any easier but fortunately most of their equipment was designed to endure in the most adverse climatic conditions.
They worked at a feverish space until the hours stretched into darkness for the days on Fury 361 were short and with the rain continuing to descend upon them, the blackness that surrounded the ship was more than just a little disheartening. From inside their titanium walled fortress, they could hear the pitter-patter of rain against the hull but in truth, they were listening closely for other sounds in the dark. There had not been enough of an alien carcass for Alex to make a thorough examination for the creature's cellular composition had a tendency to narcotize after death. Alex spent much of the evening studying the damage done to the engines during the acid bath it received from the alien following its demise.
The acid had eaten through all three decks of the drop ship and had unfortunately landed on the main engines. Their only consolation was that the corrosive material had taken time to eat through the metal, giving them the opportunity to land otherwise, they would have been a dead weight in the atmosphere. Following their preparation, Alex took a moment to herself and connected Bishop to a power supply once again. She hoped the android might be able to tell them something further about the alien life form and perhaps interface with some of the data storage units she had taken from the EEV. In any case, there was nothing left to do but wait for the attack or rescue, whichever arrived first. She hoped for the latter but was more than realistic enough to know that the former would make its appearance first.
Sparks of electricity and the spasmodic twitch of his one good hand marked Bishop's return to life. After a few seconds, the same dazed expression bled into the melted face as Bishop opened a lazy eye and took stock of his surroundings. He not say anything as the familiar environment impressed itself upon his memory banks and it was not long before he realised where he was.
"We're on the second drop ship." He stated looking at her.
"Yes." Alex nodded. "You know it?"
"I flew it." Bishop said with a little smile, which seemed bizarre on his ruined features. "From LV427."
Alex wondered how she was going to tell him what they were going through and then realised that he probably would not have any feelings on the matter anyway. He was android. However, Bishop preempted the admission.
"Is something the matter?" That smooth but still gravelly voice asked.
Alex released a little laugh. "Yeah Bishop." She nodded begrudgingly. "Something is wrong. We're trapped here. We killed an alien on board and it ate straight through the ship. We couldn't break the atmosphere and the ship just about tore apart on the landing. There is also some extreme ionization in the atmosphere that keeps us from contacting our ship."
"I'm sorry." He replied and Alex believed he genuinely believed it.
"Thanks," she offered him a little smile. "We have a rescue ship due within the next few hours so if we can hold out that long."
"Just look out for emergency venting." He said dryly.
"What?" She looked at him curiously.
"A little joke." Bishop shrugged the question away. "So why did you revive me."
"For something to do." Alex replied honestly, "but also because I need you to review the data tapes on the EEV. My tricorder suggests that it may have been used after the crash."
"It was." Bishop explained. "Ripley wanted to know if the alien came down with us. I had to interface with the flight recorder to find out."
"Can you tell me what else she might have used it for?" Alex asked. "I've already got you hardwired to the drive. All you have to do is take a peek."
"I'm not what I used to be," Bishop confessed. "Peeking isn't that easy any more."
"I'm not going to let you become some museum relic Bishop," Alex found herself saying. "You come from one of the most elusive periods of human history. People want to talk to you and I want to see that you're in the state to do it. The best engineer I know is salivating to get her hands on you."
"How appealing." He remarked a hint of amusement in his voice before his face sobered as he began searching through the darkness of electronic information to find out what she knew.
"Alex," Chris Larabee entered the room. "We're warming some rations up. You should get some food."
"Hello Captain." Bishop greeted.
"Hey Bishop." Chris smiled, finding himself similarly found of the android as his science officer. "I thought you were supposed to be convalescing before we got you back to the ship."
"I just wanted to find out what was in the flight recorder Captain," Alex explained. "Bishop is able to interface with it and give us a step by step account."
"I'm doing what I can," the android responded. "As I said its dark in here."
"Sometimes that's the best way to start." Chris said enigmatically.
"She accessed the medivac." Bishop suddenly spoke.
"Ripley?" Chris found himself asking, feeling a sliver of excitement inside of him, as realizing that he was being privy to Ellen Ripley's last few days on Fury.
"Yes." Bishop nodded, his expression turning into a troubled frown quickly. "She is using it on herself."
"Why?" Alex asked puzzled. "Surely the prison facility comes equipped with medical personnel and equipment."
"She's running an internal scan." Bishop continued his running narration. "She's looking for something. She paused at the sternum."
No one needed to ask why.
"Nothing there." Bishop announced to everyone's relief. It's clear. She's moving down mid thorax to the pelvic area......" the android's words drifted away.
"Bishop?" Alex asked but Chris did not need to. Even though Bishop did not say it and though he was an android incapable of displaying that much emotion or for that matter supposed to feel it, Chris saw the glint in his milky colored eye and immediately knew.
"Did it get her?" Chris asked quietly.
"Yes." Bishop's voice was full of unspoken sorrow. "Its different." He added a moment later. "They're usually lodged in the sternum. This one is in the uterus."
"Oh god." Alex gasped, horrified by the notion of something so unholy in that most vulnerable of places inside a woman.
"It's embryonic but judging by the way it looks I think this was a queen." Bishop revealed, his eye squinting as if he were trying to get a better look at the thing. "It would make sense if that is the case. The queen would talk longer to mature. Ripley was still in one piece days after the crash."
"So all these creatures came from an alien queen that used Ripley as a host?" Alex asked, the horror of it was more than she could stomach. There had to be some honor in death but she felt her heart bleed in sympathy for the poor woman.
"I doubt it." Chris said firmly and unaware of how he could be so certain but the truth was he had enough sense about Ellen Ripley to know that she had lived how she wished and given the circumstances, she would die in the same way.
"I agree with the Captain. Ripley would have died before letting it live. She was an exceptional human."
Chris did not speak for a few seconds as the final fate of Ellen Ripley seeped into his mind with the tragic knowledge of the truth. He felt a great deal of sorrow for this woman who had seen so much, deserve more than anyone for a chance of life only to have it cruelly taken from her in the most unimaginable way possible. He mourned for her and knew that perhaps in truth, he was mourning for himself a little as well. He had hoped that finding out the truth for Ripley might salve some of his own issues about his family's murder but all he had done in his quest was sentence a good number of people to die who did not need to.
"I think Hicks cared about her," Bishop volunteered. He hoped his words were in some small way a comfort to the Captain. "They seemed to get along very well. I saw how sad she was when she told me about the others. There was a different kind of hurt when she spoke about Hicks. I think of all the Marines, he was the one who most understood how frightened she was and what act of courage it had been for her to accompany them back to LV427. He didn't say it but after the disaster in the atmosphere processor when she got what was left of the squad out there, he made it his business to see she stayed alive."
Anything Bishop was about to say in response was cut shot when suddenly the sound of gunfire ripped through the air. The sound was powerfully loud; resonating against the titanium hull like it was a tuning fork. Chris and Alex exchanged glances, knowing what the activation of the remote sentry units meant.
"Looks like we have company." The Captain said tautly.
Bishop watched the humans leave the room and hoped thing turned out a good deal better than it did for the crew of the Sulaco.
"How many?" Chris asked the minute he and Alex stepped into the passenger deck, which also happened to be the inner, most centre of the drop ship. Vin, Collins and Ezra were huddled around the computer screen watching the progress of the remote sentry units through the digitized medium. Outside, the roar of erupting gunfire had almost entirely obliterated the sound of rain and screeching aliens as they attempted to breach the deadly barrage.
"Enough." Ezra said coldly as he stepped aside from the screen so that the captain could see for himself.
What Chris saw in that small screen was more than enough to justify Ezra's present snit with him. The aliens had descended upon their target like a swarm of locusts. He could not see where one black, exoskeleton began and where another ended. All he could make out were the taloned hands; the banana shaped heads and the occasional glint of teeth when the gunfire illuminated the blackness surrounding the craft. He could see them being blown apart while trying to approach the ship, their determination to reach their potential hosts beyond reason or belief. They were absolutely relentless and reminded Chris a little of the Borg but at this moment, he could not imagine which was the worse fate of the two.
"Some of them are going to make it through." Chris warned. "They've got the numbers to see to it."
"I'm on it Sir." Collins offered. "I'll walk the perimeter of the barricades."
"Susan," Ezra looked over his shoulder. "I require no heroes among my junior staff. If you so much as see a shadow that does not look entirely right, I want you to get back to us immediately. Do we understand each other Lieutenant?"
Collins knew the Chief' tone well enough to understand how serious he was about that order. The Chief took his people's life very seriously and did not hold with the fact that security officers should not expect to die young. It was his devotion to his staff that inspired the loyalty he engendered in all of them. "Yes Sir." She nodded and left the room.
Once she was gone, they turned their attention back to the screen once more. The aliens were still coming and the counter reading for the number of rounds left in all the guns began to click down with rapid speed. Although Ezra had brought ammunition for the weapons to last them for several more assaults, the problems was not in the supply but being able to replenish them when there were so many aliens attempting to breach the crossfire. Unearthly screeches tore through the air almost as rapidly as the bullets being fired and Chris had to admit for weapons forged so long ago, they were certainly holding up against the test of time.
"They're still coming." Ezra said grimly.
"They won't stop." Vin spoke with something that sounded a great deal like familiarity. "We're what they need to continue and nothing else defines their existence more than that."
Alex threw an uncertain glance at him. "Since when were you a behavioral expert?"
"I just know it." Vin responded, feeling a little uneasy because he could not explain why he had this sixth sense about the creatures that allowed him to make such a statement. However, he had a sense that he was right.
A moment of awkward silence descended the room as no one knew how to respond to Vin's statement. Chris guessed it had something to do with his close contact with the alien which might have allowed his natural telepathy to gain some insight into the creature's psyche, such at it was. However the awkward silence was soon overtaken by something as equally still. Without warning, the guns stopped firing. For a terrible moment, Chris thought it might because the ammunition had finally run out but in truth the guns had still a long way to go before being completely exhausted. What had caused the silence was the sudden withdrawal of the aliens.
"They're going!" Alex exclaimed, never feeling more relieved than at that moment.
"For now." Ezra retorted, not about to get overly optimistic. "They will return later, I am certain of it."
"He's right," Chris agreed. "Let's wait a few minutes and go refill the guns to maximum again. I like to have some insurance before the later rolls by again."
Collins was walking along the belly of the drop ship, poised for trouble when she heard the sound. Although the large rips in the hull had been fortified, she knew that the aliens were strong. The Bishop android had said they were more than capable of tearing through steel as evidenced by the destruction of the barricades the colonists of LV427 had erected to protect themselves. She remembered what the Chief had said she ought to do in the event she heard anything strange and though it was sound advice, Collins found that she could not withdraw. It was not lost upon her that they were trapped here because she had opened fire on one of the creatures when it attempted to attack the captain. Logically, she knew she had done the right thing but it was hard to discern what the right thing was when they were in such perilous circumstances because of her actions.
She raised her phaser to fire, prepared to kill anything that came into her sight because she refused to let the alien if it was in here, have the run of the ship and cause a calamity like the one that had seen them stranded on this hellish world. Suddenly it occurred to her that perhaps using her phaser was not the best course of action. She was also carrying one of the pulse rifles and realised it would most likely cause less damage. Of course the alien would bleed but it would not create explosion of acid that had crippled the drop ship. The sound of something hard skittering across a metal surface cut short her ruminations and Collins swung around to see the dark shadows moving in the corner. Without wasting any time, she opened wire and caused the alien to leap out of its hiding place with an ear-piercing screech. It leapt towards her and Collins had to roll with it to keep it in her sights. She was about to fire again when she saw it resting on the barricade that sealed the hull from the outside. Pull the trigger and the acid would eat away their hopes of staying alive.
For an instant she had no idea what to do and then realised that there was one solution left to her. The alien hissed at her, perhaps sensing her hesitation. If not why. Collins took a deep breath and supposed she might be able to take the creature, at least dislodge it far enough away from the barricade. The belly of the drop ship was pressed against the ground, if she shot it while it was there the acid would leave a whole in the ground but not one that could be exploited by the rest of the aliens. Steeling herself, she ran forward, positioning her body as if she were a grid iron player of all, her shoulder ahead of the rest of her. The alien was more than welcome to the attack. She slammed into its exoskeleton and was about to pull away when suddenly she realised that it was she who had been played the fool, that the trap was meant for no one but her.
The second alien had been watching in the darkness and the minute she was in between the both of them, it sprang forth and joined its brethren as high-pitched screams of agony tore through the darkness. As Collins felt teeth sink into her body, she did the last thing she could to keep more of these monster from penetrating the ship. Pulling the trigger several times, she did not know anything but the pain and was glad that when she was bathed with acid, that she was beyond feeling anything.
The tricorder started beeping.
Julia sat up abruptly and almost cracked her skull on the underside of the panel. She immediately scrambled for her gun, even though she had a phaser in her hand. The tricorder registered the movement of the alien approaching fast to her location and Julia grabbed the pulse rifle because for some foolish reason the large, prolific looking weapon felt a lot more reassuring than her phaser. She knew she was being ridiculous, that her phaser was far more efficient than anything that might have been built in the 21st century. She grabbed her weapon and left the runabout; not about to shoot the alien inside the craft when it was the only means of escape not only from the Sulaco but the only way to reach the Away Team.
She emerged into the hangar and saw nothing out of the ordinary. She was breathing hard and Julia knew she was scared. There were all too many shapes in this large cavernous decks and more than ever, felt how alone she was in this enormous ship. She shuddered inwardly and ached for Ezra, praying that he was in better circumstances than she. The tricorder could put the alien at a certain distance but it could not tell her from which direction it would come. It was within fifty feet of her, according to the device and Julia found herself standing on the floor in the centre of the deck, making sure that anything that tried to come at her would not be doing so with the element of surprise. Her choice of venues to make her stand gave her direct line of sight with everything on the floor so she was going to be able to vaporized the alien before it could even take a running leap to attack.
The tricorder still continued to show its readings of 50 feet and then 40, dwindling down to a scant 30 feet. Julia began to get confused. That distance should place the creature inside the room and yet she could see no sign of it. She began looking down through the gratings, wondering if it was being smart, that it was making its approach from beneath her. She moved away again from the detachable grills on the floor and reconfigured her safety zone to take the grill into account. Glancing at her tricorder again, she expected to see the distance closing in again but it did not.
Thirty feet and the creature chose to hold position.
Did it know the virtue of patience? Julia asked herself and started becoming anxious as the time lengthened. Did it know how to wait out its prey, holding firm and creating such a strangulating bout of fear that the helpless victim was tricked into doing something foolish? Julia did not know but she feared such a ruse was being played upon her now. She swallowed hard, feeling beads of sweat running down her brow and alone her back. Her gaze began to waver and she kept darting her eyes from one place to another, hoping to catch out the alien that was playing havoc with her nerve and so superbly, she might add.
"Come on out you bastard!" She shouted. Her voice flowing through the room until it reached the obstruction of wall and bounced back upon itself.
Still no response.
Perhaps her tricorder was malfunctioning. Julia slipped her phaser back onto her belt so that she could take a closer look at the device when suddenly; her eyes caught something overhead. It came down on her so fast she barely had time to move and landed almost entirely on top of the petite redhead. Julia let out a scream as she felt it recover much better than she did and lunge at her. She raised the pulse rifle to fire because she had been too frightened to let go of it and attempted to pull the trigger. She almost did before freezing at the realization that the flaying arms and the teeth attempting to tear her apart belonged to a creature that was on top of her at this moment. Pull the trigger and she would kill it alright but she would almost certainly kill herself as well.
Instead as the alien's secondary jaws snapped forth almost crushing her cranium, Julia forced the gun in its way and it ended down crunching down on steel. Hardly a tasty morsel in its opinion because it screeched angrily in protest. A taloned hand dug into her chest and pulled back, taking a good deal of skin with it and immediately tearing a cry from her lips. Julia let out a pained scream as she felt her skin shredded and reacted the only way a terrified woman, filled with anguish could. With complete instinct. Throwing one foot up and arching her back, she flung the alien off her with enough force to sent it over her head and crashing onto the floor.
Julia rolled bodily, her pulse rifle still in her hand as she stood upright on her knees as the alien began scrambling forward, its exoskeleton making a teeth chattering noise as it skittered across the floor towards her, dispensing with the formalities of using her as a host but preparing to tear her apart. This time Julia was filled with an incredible sense of euphoria as well as clarity produced by the adrenaline surge inspired by her abundance of terror. Time seemed to slow as she lifted the pulse rifle and took aim. The alien lunged, its coiled tail propelling it through the air when Julia pulled the trigger. The bullets tore out of the short barrel with such force she fell backwards as multiple rounds propelled by chemical reactions slammed into the alien and halted it progress with deadly efficiency. She heard it utter a final death shriek as its body was torn by the dangerous projectiles, pieces flying in all directions as she scrambled away from the spray of acid. Acid began eating into the floor plates as the alien remains splattered onto the deck of the hangar. For a long while Julia stared at it panting, her hands still clutching the pulse rifle as she aimed at the carcass as even in death it might be harm her. The alien did not move and as the acid of its form ate its way through the floor, she saw it sink past the newly created orifice and disappear into the blackness.
Only when it was completely gone, did she finally lower her gun.
Julia was trembling when she stood up shakily to her feet. "I hope you learned your lesson." She declared when she walked to the hole created by the acid spray that had eaten through more decks than she could count when she peered into it. The corrosive substance did its work well and she could peer through what was almost half the ship. "Never mess with an engineer."
God, she just hoped she didn't throw up.
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"That stings," Vin complained as Alex reapplied the dressing on the wounds he had received when he had been battling with the alien earlier. Although the lacerations were superficial, Alex had been determined that he not ignore the injury even though it barely registered in his mind. His body was surging with adrenaline and pain seemed very far away, even though her presence was impacting on his senses with more acuity than ever. As he felt her fingers on his bare skin, Vin found himself taking a deep breath of her scent and savoring the sensation as it filled him with warmth like he had never known before. Even her innocent touches against him felt tantalising, just the manner in which the pads of her fingers ran across his flesh made him want to...
He wasn't sure what. He only knew he liked it.
"Stop complaining," she said abruptly, cleaning the smears of green blood from around the tears in his flesh. "You may be stronger than a human but you're not indestructible."
"I hadn't guessed," he retorted as he flinched again at her probing. "It isn't that bad."
"In this environment?" She looked at him. "With huge bugs running around the place spraying acid all over, wanting to make us hosts for more of them, not to mention the tiny parasitic suckers that seemed to thrive in this climate? Leaving it will be inviting trouble." She said firmly and went back to what she was doing.
"As opposed to what?" Vin grumbled; more interested in how her fingers were moving against him, how her body seemed more fluid and graceful than ever and how every breath made him feel something he had never felt before. His blood felt as if it was boiling in his veins and the sensation was surprisingly good, even if he did not understand it.
"Good point," she gave him a wry smile. "Just humor me okay?" She responded and continued tending him. The captain and Ezra had gone outside the ship, taking advantage of the momentary pause in hostilities by the advancing aliens to reload the remote sentry units with ammunition for when the creatures made their second attempt to infiltrate the ship. It did not appear as if too long would pass before the aliens came after them again and Alex wanted to put the brief time afforded by the lull to good use.
"Alright," Vin grumbled, hating the fuss but enjoying everything else about her ministrations.
However, his time to enjoy it was soon cut short when the unmistakable sound of a pulse rifle shattered the stillness of the quiet in the small room. Their eyes locked for barely an instant before they realised the shots were close, too close to be produced by either the captain or Ezra outside. Whoever had pulled the trigger to their weapon had done it inside the confines of the drop ship barricades. Vin jumped to his feet, grabbing his own weapon as Alex tapped on her com badge. The science officer was also on the move, unprepared to let him go anywhere on this ship by himself.
"Captain, did you hear that?" She asked as she followed Vin down the narrow corridor.
"Yes we did." Chris Larabee responded, his voice jumping about as if he was talking while in motion. "Ezra and I are on our way." He confirmed a moment later.
Alex disconnected the link between them. Instead she tapped her com badge hopping that Collins who could be the only one of them responsible for discharging a weapon inside the barricade, was still with them. "Collins!" She cried out.
There was no response.
"Come on Sue!" Alex called out again; hoping that desperation alone would produce the result she wanted. The seconds stretched past as she and Vin descended in the lower depths of the drop ship without hearing a sound from the Lieutenant. Although Alex had some idea what they would find at the source of the gunfire, inwardly she dared to hope that Collins was not gone like Christie and Angel but she also knew she had to be realistic.
"I'm not getting anything from her!" Alex cried out as they reached the belly of the drop ship and immediately, the noxious fumes of acid seeped from the cargo hold deck that was pressed firmly against the shale floor. The fumes were accompanied by the familiar smell of molten steel and Alex knew what they would find before they entered the hold. Vin slipped through the door first, walking into a fog of smoke, which he had to brush aside. It was difficult to see inside the room but Alex's readings on the tricorder indicated that there were no creatures presently on the drop ship. She wished she had been as diligent when the aliens had attempted to pass the remote sentries. She should have known that some might penetrate the ship.
Unfortunately, not only did the tricorder register the lack of aliens; it also registered the absence of Collin's life signs. It took only a second later for Vin to confirm visually what she had learnt using the device.
"Alex," he said softly. "Its too late."
"Damnit!" Alex swore emotionally. "I should have been paying attention during the attack."
"Don't start blaming yourself," he replied as he stepped away from the bloody remains of Lieutenant Collins who had died fighting and ensured that she had taken the aliens with her. The carcasses of the dead creatures were already eating their way through the floor and what parts of Collins that was not doused with acid was covered in blood. Vin doubted that there would be enough of her left to bury after the acid had done with its grisly work.
Alex forced herself to look long enough to know that she probably shouldn't have. She turned away in time to see the captain and Ezra making their entrance to the place. Both men paused upon seeing her expression and though it was a redundant gesture, Alex shook her head enough for them to know for certain. "Its too late."
Chris closed his eyes, feeling the burden of another death on his conscience, a death that had come about needlessly because he had decided to ignore good sense and bring them to this world where there was the possibility of danger. His voice died in this throat and he halted where he stood, unable to think for a moment for the overwhelming guilt that lashed at him like the gale force winds against a canvas sail in a storm. Chris did not follow as Ezra forced himself to the place in the room where Lieutenant Collins had died doing her duty.
"It looks like two of them got in here during the shooting." Vin stepped away from the scene, having seen enough to last him several lifetimes. "I figured Collins walked in here and spotted them. She realised that if she used a phaser, she'd most likely spill enough acid blood to leave a serious breach in our defenses. Judging from where she had them pinned, I think she somehow lured them to solid ground so that if she were to kill them, the acid would seep into the soil, not eat through the hull."
"Why didn't she call for help?" Chris whispered angrily.
"Chances are she didn't have time." Alex offered a guess. "You've seen how fast these things move."
Chris has to agree with that much. The aliens moved at lighting speed. Their ability to adapt themselves to any terrain was without doubt and Collins would have known how dangerous it was to have even two such creatures roaming loose inside the drop ship. Even for a craft this small and with their tricorders, there was ample place for the aliens to hide and make it extremely hard to neutralize them.
"Are there any more of them?" Chris turned to Alex who was carrying the tricorder.
"No," she shook her head. "The ship is clear."
"Alright," Chris nodded somberly. "We best get ready for the next wave." He remarked gesturing the others to follow him as he started out of the cargo hold.
Alex and Vin immediately fell into stride side by side while trailing behind their captain, however Ezra had not moved a step. The security chief remained hunched over what remained of Lieutenant Collins staring into the blood and dissolving remnants of an officer and a friend he had worked with closely since arriving on the Maverick. She had always a reputation for being trouble and Chris had more than raised a brow when Ezra had asked for her transfer to the Maverick. However Ezra himself was known to be something of an outcast and he never could find himself to take a bad report about any officer at face value.
"Ezra?" Vin called out.
Ezra did not answer and his silence made the others stop.
Ezra was so angry he could not speak. Only when Silas Poplar had killed Julia in that holo-deck fantasy world created by Q, had Ezra felt anger equal to this. However, his rage this time was not directed at some faceless killer he had yet to discover but rather at a source closer to home. For the first time since this had began, the fury he felt at the irresponsibility of his captain bubbled to the surface and was not held in check by his usual indifferent facade. Ezra rose to his feet slowly and glared at Chris, venom exuding from him in clear waves of rage.
"I hold you completely responsible for this." Ezra spoke in a low hiss.
"Ezra, this is not the time." Alex stepped in, seeing the look in his eyes and pretty sure they were going to have a situation unless it was not stopped in its tracks now.
"When is it time?" Ezra whirled at her, too carried away by his anger to stop. He had tried so hard to do his job. Time and time again, he had asked the captain to walk on the side of prudence but the captain, obsessed with finding answers to a riddle in the past had ignored him, despite the fact that everything about the situation demanded caution. "When we are all dead?" He sneered. "Well that dear Alexandra is not too far away now is it?"
"Ezra that's enough." Vin warned even though he felt Ezra's anger was warranted. However, nothing he said to Chris would make the captain feel any worse than Chris already did for the deaths of the security team.
"It is not enough!" Ezra glared at Chris. He rarely allowed his rage to have free reigned but now unleashed, it was determined to have its day. "My people are dead! They did not have to die! If you had just listened to me! If you had just acknowledged one single concern that I had, they would still be here! In fact, not only would they be alive, we would be on our way out of here instead of waiting for those hellish creatures to close in on us."
"Ezra!" Alex snapped, this time she was not speaking to the security chief as his friend but rather as his superior officer. "You are riding close to insubordination, now give it a rest!"
"The hell I will," he took a step towards Chris and Vin immediately blocked his path, ensuring that he did not reach the Captain.
"Ezra I did what I had to." Chris finally spoke defending himself. "I'm sorry about Angel, Christie and Collins. I'll never be able to forgive myself for what happened to them and you're right, not just about this but about everything."
"And you think that actually makes a difference don't you?" Ezra retorted shaking his head. "You think that an apologies make everything you did permissible? Forgive me Sir but I am afraid that is not good enough. What happens the next time we have to go on a mission that conflicts with your personal difficulties?"
"Don't push your luck Ezra," Chris broke past Vin and was now standing toe to toe with the security chief. He was more than aware of his complicity in the deaths of those crewmen but Ezra was crossing a line he would not abide from anyone, even a friend like Ezra.
"Or what captain? Are you going to charge me with insubordination?" Ezra returned.
"Maybe." Chris retorted, thinking that was the least he was going to do. The most was he was going to wipe that insubordinate smirk off his face.
"You do that captain and I will charge with misconduct resulting in the death of innocent crew men!" He exploded and lunged at Chris, prepared to strike while Chris did the same. Fortunately, Vin was already grabbing both men apart and flung them to either side of the room. He had more than enough strength to manage the feat quite easily and both security chief and captain went sprawling in opposite directions.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" The Vulcan fairly shouted. "WE ARE IN NO SHAPE FOR EITHER OF YOU TO GET INTO PISSING CONTEST ABOUT WHO'S TO BLAME!"
Vin's own rage had been sparked by this display by both his friends and while Chris did deserve some of the things said to him just as Ezra was justified in saying them, there was a line crossed that he did not care for from either of them. "Now we need to work together to get out of this mess alive. What you two decide to do once we get off this hellhole is up to you but for the moment, we're all standing waist deep in the same shit! Those things are coming back for us as soon as they discover that there are more of them then there are bullets in the remote sentry units so we better start thinking up a plan. Captain, we need you to come with one." He shifted his gaze from Chris to Ezra. "And Ezra, we need you to make it work."
Ezra blinked and looked away, feeling an inordinate amount of shame for letting his anger get the best of him. A short time ago, he had been thinking of how he had asked for Collins to be assigned to the Maverick because he knew what it was like to be undervalued because of what it said in one's official record. Yet he had forgotten that the reason he was on the Maverick at all was because Chris had taken that same chance on him when there was no reason for the captain to do so. In the light of Vin's harsh but appropriate driven words, Ezra realised that he had behaved abominably and Vin was right, nothing he said to Chris could make the captain feel any worse already. Besides, Collins, Christie and Angel were apart of Chris' crew, not just his security team.
"Captain," Ezra swallowed hard, feeling flushes of shame stain his cheeks as he kept his feet on the floor unable to meet Chris' gaze. "I am sorry for what I said. I had no right to speak to you in that fashion and I know that you did not mean for any of this to happen.'
The apology meant a great deal to Chris because he knew exactly how pained Ezra was feeling and he was responsible for their deaths because Ezra had pointed out all the possibilities for something to go wrong and he had ignored them. He was culpable and not about to get on his high horse now that he was a little less angry at Ezra's outburst. "Thank you Ezra," he said genuinely accepting the apology. "I promise you I'll never take your advice for granted again and we will get out of here. I won't let any more of us die in this place."
"Captain," Alex interrupted the speech as her eyes remained fixed on the tricorder. The expression on her face was deathly and they knew even before she spoke what terrible revelation was going to come from her. "The aliens." She met their gaze. "They're attacking."
This time the converging number of aliens did not resemble their earlier attack. Instead of coming blindly at the sentry units and being cut to pieces like before, the aliens were more coordinated, sacrificing some of their number to keep the sentries busy while taking the momentary distraction of the sensors on other targets to slip past the defensive perimeter. The Starfleet officers watched through the console screen at the scenery outside, feeling their blood chill with each screech that tore a shrill path through the air before being obliterated by a more mechanical one as the remote sentries found more targets to shoot. Even though none of the aliens had yet to reach the hull Chris could tell that it was only a matter of time, the problem was, there was little he could think of to stop them once they decided to take the ship. The small room where they were keeping watch made it almost impossible for them to talk with one another thank to the deafening noise outside and thus they were forced to watch without speaking, trying hard not to let the scene outside diminish their hope.
Alex could see the writing on the wall just as her captain could and she knew they would soon be in a position that left very little chance of survival no matter what course they were forced to take. It stood to reason that eventually the aliens would make their way to the hull and when that happened, Alex had no doubts the creatures would have little trouble tearing the titanium off the ship's structure if that was what it took to penetrate the barricades. Once the aliens were inside the drop ship, this was no longer a suitable place to hide and they would have to leave but in all truth, there was nowhere to go. The prison may have been a maximum-security installation but it was not made to keep out a life form as versatile and determined as this one. Alex did not like their chances out in the open but supposed it was better than nothing.
Suddenly, Alex remembered Bishop and realised that she had left him still conscious. She was not about to leave the android behind, especially powered. She could think of no crueler act than to leave him awake, without the ability to save himself and waiting for deliverance that would never come if anything happened to them. For someone who had been in a similar situation a lifetime ago, Alex was not about to let it happen to Bishop if it was in her power to do something. Without considering the wisdom of her actions, the science officer broke away from the others as she hurried to the passenger deck, where she had left Bishop.
She was half way there when suddenly a burst of static ruptured in her ears making her flinch. She looked around and searched for the noise, thinking at first that it must have been one of those old fashioned radios the 21st century was so found of using. Straining to listen in order to pinpoint the source, she was once again rewarded with another scratchy burst that she discovered was coming from her com badge and was trailed by a familiar voice.
"Lieutenant Pemberton to the Away Team! Come in." Julia's voice reached across space and flooded Alex with nothing less than joy.
"Julia!" Alex tapped her com badge and wondered if the captain and the others could hear it. It took her a split second to realize that they could barely hear each other when the sentry units were firing, let alone this uneven voice from space. "Where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea what we've been going through?"
"What you've been going through?" The redhead snorted from the cockpit of the runabout. "Don't even get me started."
"How did you manage to contact us through the storm?" Alex asked, wondering how this minor miracle had come about.
"I'm piggy backing the signal on a tachyon pulse. It's drawing your transmission to it through the interference." The Chief Engineer explained and did not surprise the Science Office by its ingenuity.
"Julia get down here! The place is crawling with aliens. We've already lost all our security personnel."
"All?" Her voice tightened with sheer terror. "Ezra?"
Alex scolded herself and immediately responded. "Ezra's fine but we've barricaded ourselves on the drop ship. We can't take off and we're about to be overwhelmed by these things. Kick that runabout into maximum burn and get us the hell out of here!"
"I'm already on my way!" Julia declared firmly, panic stricken for the safety of not only her lover but also her friends. "Just hang on!"
"Alex!" Chris' voice sliced through Julia's communication with Alex. "Where the hell are you? We've got breaches through the perimeter! They've gotten through the hull! We've got to evacuate immediately!"
Alex swung around and prepared to go back the way she came when something dropped in front of her. All black and slithery, it landed softly on the grating in front of her and straightened itself upright to hiss at her with its massive jaws, tentacles and tail coiling languidly as it prepared to attack. Alex was mesmerized for a brief instance before she pulled her phaser and fired. The alien prepared to lunge but a beam of energy caught it straight in the gut and threw it half way across the corridor before its body exploded, spraying acid in all directions. Alex backed up, preparing to find another way to the captain when she heard something behind her.
Something very close.
She whirled around into a set of glistening jaws and something sharp that struck her in the center of her thigh. There was a moment of clarity when she realised what the creature had done and tried to scream but the darkness overwhelmed her and she knew nothing more.
It was Vin who guessed that Alex might have gone back to get the android Bishop. What was left of the Away team left the command center where they had been monitoring the sentry units' progress at keeping the aliens at bay. Since that was more or less a moot point with the damn things over running the drop ship, all the Away Team could do was find their missing member and get out while they could. It was anyone's guess what would happen once they were out in the open but at the moment, the confined spaces were giving the aliens too much of the advantage. As they attempted to reach the passenger compartment, they saw the damage inflicted by an alien's demise and found another route instead.
"Bishop." Vin spoke as he lowered himself from an access hatch on the ceiling that led from the upper deck. "Where's Alex?"
Bishop could not meet the Vulcan's gaze as Chris and Ezra followed him into the room by way of the same hatchway.
"I heard her coming." He said softly. "She was speaking to someone but she never got here."
"Speaking to someone?" Vin mused and exchanged puzzled glances with both Ezra and Chris.
"Someone called Julia." Bishop informed.
"Julia!" Ezra exclaimed. "Did you say Julia?"
"How did she get through the storm?" Chris asked but decided it did not matter. He tapped his com badge as Vin ran out the room, trying to retrace Alex's step with Ezra following closely behind.
"Away Team to Lieutenant Pemberton. Come in." Chris tried, hoping that the same fluke that had allowed Alex to communicate with Julia was still in existence. "This is Captain Larabee, come in Julia."
"I heard her." Bishop said sadly. "And then I heard it."
Chris' heart froze in his chest when he realised what Bishop was trying to say when suddenly, Julia's voice belayed his horror with hope. "Captain!" She answered, her voice full of relief. "Thank God you're alright. I was talking to Alex and suddenly we were cut off. Standby for pick up, I've got the drop ship in sight now."
No sooner than she had uttered those words, the ground shuddered with violent rumble. Bishop rattled on his table and anything that was perched on a shelf was jostled out of place onto the floor.
"I was not aware of Fiorina experiencing seismic instability." Bishop's grotesque face wrinkled into a frown.
"Its not seismic instability," Chris responded with a grin. "Those are phaser blasts."
"Just clearing the area." Julia retorted. The signal between them was far stronger now since they were no longer forced to send the signal through the atmosphere. "You seemed to be surrounded by the things."
Chris was about to answer when Vin and Ezra entered the room. Vin was carrying a phaser in his hands and the expression on his face was beyond sorrow. Chris had never seen Vin's cobalt color eyes take on the shade of dark almost as black as the alien's soul.. It was as if someone had stuck a knife through his heart and Chris knew of only one thing that could grieve the helmsman that much.
Alex.
"Alex?" Chris was almost afraid to ask.
"There was no sign of her." Ezra spoke because Vin could not. Chris could see the Vulcan's hand clenched so tightly around the science officer's phaser that the metal was starting to bend. "All we found is her phaser." The Chief Security officer responded