Chapter 5
Elizabeth is whimpering softly to herself. Her arms and hands are slimy from touching the face hugger, and she didn’t enjoy seeing me smash it with the mallet Janessa had found. I felt bad, I shouldn’t have asked her to do that. I probably could have held the bugger down myself.
But she is fine, she realizes that it was something that had to be done.
Now we walk through the halls again, me holding the acid-melted mallet in my left hand, and holding Lizzie’s hand with the right. Janessa is linking arms with Lizzie, quietly muttering prayers. I’m not sure about her anymore, she’s starting to loose it.
But I can’t blame her. Our only weapon is a mallet which is mostly burned away from the acid blood that came from the face hugger when I killed it. Plus, we know that there are other horrors far worse than xeno-spiders just waiting for us to move into range.
Secretly I realize that there is also a queen. A queen xenomorph had to have lain the egg which the face hugger came from. And unless someone was shipping xenomorph eggs in their luggage, that’s the only way they could have gotten here. But why?
It has to be Weyland-Yutani, they’re the only ones who would do such a thing. There are other companies, such as Biotech and Chigusa. But neither of them are as devious as Weyland-Yutani Corp. “Building Better Worlds” is their motto, for they used to focus mainly on terraforming, building planets, but nowadays they seem far more interested in the xenomorphs and yautja than anything else.
I curse that company. I curse Charles Bishop Weyland, I curse who-ever-the-hell Yutani. They’re all bastards!
I feel Lizzie’s hand clutch mine, to stop it from shaking in anger so violently.
We continue walking, until we come to the next intersection of hallways. If we turn right, it will lead to the third entrance to the galley . . . and it might be closed.
Taking a deep breath, I prepare myself for the worst. “The key to happiness is low expectations” I like to say. And I’m right, because when I turn the corner I see the closed door.
“There’s only one entrance left,” I say solemnly.
“Malum, it will be open, we’ll be fine,” Lizzie says, trying to be optimistic.
Janessa, on the other hand, isn’t taking things so well, “Why would it be? The other three weren’t! We’re doomed!”
“They will open soon enough, do you think the others are doing this on purpose?” I ask with slight confidence.
“No,” Janessa whispers.
“What if we go to the bridge?” Lizzie asks.
“It will probably be locked down,” I pause. “But that’s not a bad idea. We could at least try. And they might see us on their security cameras and open the doors.”
“You mean, we’ll be safe?” Janessa asks, seeming a little
less . . . psycho.
“For awhile, at least,” I say under my breath.
Lizzie jabs me with her elbow. I shut up.
So we head off towards the bridge.
* * *
“All hands, all hands to battle stations,” called Dr. Jonathan over the intercom.
Something was attacking the
Exposure. It wasn’t human.
“Sir, we’ve got three hull breaches on levels seven, twenty-eight and thirty,” called out Commander Anderson.
“Seal them off,” Dr. Jonathan ordered.
“But sir, there are people in there,” Cadet Wood started.
“I said seal them off, Commander Anderson!” Dr. Jonathan
roared over the sounds of explosions and death.
“Sir, the yautja ship is coming closer!” Cadet Wood yelled.
“Darwin!”
“Yes sir?” asked a bald man wearing a vest with many badges on it. He was tall, strong, and completely blank. His face showed little expression as he asked the question. On the back of his head was a small, gray device, a transponder. Darwin was the Head of Security and Boarding on the ship, he was also and android, a synthetic person.
“Prepare for a boarding party of yautja warriors,” Dr Jonathan ordered, sounding slightly worried.
Why are they attacking? wondered the doctor. Shouldn’t they be focusing on the xenomorphs?
“Doctor! We’ve lost engines!” called Helmsman Lern.
“Our weapons our offline,” informed Lieutenant Merch.
Jonathan felt a tingle go through his body. The yautja weren’t going to destroy his ship . . . if they wanted to they could have a long time ago. They were hunting him.
“Everyone, grab a weapon and prepare for a fight!”
* * *
The leader of the Ki-caru Clan , Sle-kaun had decided to come along for the hunt. Though he was old (nearly two hundred-eighty ooman years) the great hunter was far from retiring. He carried with him a combi-staff, three wrist blades, a shoulder cannon, two spear guns, a maul, and a smart disk. Though old, Sle-kaun knew how to arm himself.
Unlike his second-in-command, T’liom, who carried but half of the arsenal his leader packed.
Though a good, honorable warrior, Sle-kaun was not overly fond of T’liom. He showed off, far too often. He would bring but a spear into battle with a Kainde Amedha Drone simply to show that he could kill it. Sle-kaun knew that his honorable seconds was just waiting for him to die, so he could rule the clan.
But that wouldn’t be anytime soon.
Sle-kaun glanced at T’liom, who was obviously in a pure state of Zazin. He was completely centered with himself, ready for the hunt. Sle-kaun felt a sharp feeling of anger and envy towards his lesser. Zazin was one thing he could never accomplish until the battle had actually begun. But it didn’t matter, for he still possessed far more trophies than T’liom.
As this thought passed the leader’s mind, the door in front of the assembled warriors opened, and they were admitted into the ooman vessel, ready to kill.
* * *
Cadet Wood prevented the panic from settling in. He clutched the standard issue carbine as if it was his life. It was a powerful weapon, able to shoot not only three-round bursts of heavy ammunition, but five grenades and two EMP blasts as well, which would come in use against the yautja, who required an energy source to power most of their weapons. He sat on the useless bridge of the
Exposure along with the rest of the crew, and the doctor, waiting for the imminent doom that swept through the halls and rooms of the battlecruiser.
The doctor seemed fearless, the young cadet really looked up to him. He had power, wealth, knowledge, and bravery. And now he waiting for his order, waited until the very end. He didn’t know what Doctor Jonathan planned to do, but he was sure it would be the best way to handle the situation. He would follow his orders, no matter the cost.
“Sir!” Commander Anderson tapped the doctor’s shoulder after reading something from his personal desk, “We’ve only got life support systems for two days. The gravity will only last another five hours or so. And I doubt that the ship will be able to keep us at a comfortable temperature for more than twelve.”
The doctor seemed to ponder the statement for awhile, his hand rubbing the fine hairs of his beard, “Anderson, stay here and keep the ship under control, try to get us some more power. The rest of us are headed out to find the other survivors.”
A look of dread appeared on Commander Anderson’s face. The young Cadet Wood wasn’t the most observant, but he did recognize the expressions on the middle aged man’s face. He looked as if he felt betrayed, angry, yet completely terrified. He knew he would die on that bridge.
“Yes sir,” he responded, not a hint of emotion in his raspy voice.
“The rest of you, with me,” Doctor Jonathan said, opening the bridge door and walking out with his gun pointing forward.
Cadet Wood followed, he was second to the rear, with Cadet Thor behind him. In front of the young man and woman were Lieutenant Merch, Helmsman Lern, Cadet Shultz, Lieutenant Leshin, and the doctor himself. It was in that moment that Cadet Wood realized (for the second time since he had been brought aboard) that, not only did the crew consist of rather low-ranked men and women, but he had not seen the actual captain on the bridge but three times. It made him wonder what the true methods behind sending this advanced ship on her current mission Weyland-Yutani had in mind.
It made him wonder whether he was expendable or not.
As they walked through the poorly lit halls, the command crew readied themselves for an attack. But it did not come. They found no one, no survivors, no enemies, no bodies. Cadet Wood was not surprised, for the majority of the
Exposure’s crew worked either in maintenance or the laboratory.
There were only about two-hundred crew members on the entire ship. One hundred being mechanics and scientists, fifty being soldiers, and the rest having various jobs and positions.
But then they reached the labs. The doctor seemed to ready himself for the gruesome sight of his murdered comrades before he pressed the glowing green button which would open the door. He took a deep breathe, closed his eyes for a moment, and exhaled. He held his eyelids down for a few seconds, the opened them, and activated the door.
He turned, gun pointed, into the room. Cadet Wood could not see what was inside, but the doctor seem relieved as he entered with his gun at rest.
As the cadet entered the lab he saw the scientists clutching their weapons in fear.
One of them ran over to Dr. Jonathan and embraced him tightly. The cadet looked away, eyeing the laboratory. There were empty vats and containment pools scattered around in a relatively organized and efficient fashion. They were filled with clear stasis liquid, which he knew was meant to keep whatever was in the vat, asleep.
For each containment pool there was a control panel, which would monitor and control the health of whatever creature would be placed inside, most likely a xenomorph of some kind.
Cadet Wood turned his gaze back to the doctors, which were talking amongst themselves, planning a strategy to remain alive, yet keep the ship. Unlikely.
They talked for awhile, until finally they decided to remain in the lap, and hope that the others aboard the ship would find them. Once that had been established people broke off into groups, to talk with friends and colleagues. And for some, to say goodbye.
Cadet Wood stood near Dr. Jonathan, not speaking a word.
“Alex!” someone hugged him. It was the same someone who had been so excited to see the doctor once he came in.
“Uh, hi, Doctor Franceschi,” the cadet said, uneasily.
“Eww, don’t call me that,” she said, releasing him.
“Oh, uh. Hi Sonja,” he corrected.
“Dude, we used to hang out. Remember?” she said, pointing at him and nodding her head.
“Yeah,” he replied.
She straightened her lab coat and sat down on a chair which looked like half an egg with a leg on the bottom, “Here, sit down.”
He sat next to her in another egg/chair.
“So, what have you been up to?” Doctor Sonja asked, stretching each word out a little longer than it had to be.
“Nothing,” he replied quickly. Being with her always made him feel uncomfortable . . . probably because she was a little over comfortable with him, and everyone else for that matter.
“Oh come on, you’re a cadet now. You’re like . . . the big time on this ship, you know?” she said, slugging him on the shoulder. “Soon you’ll have your own ship.”
Realizing not only that he was far too young to be the captain of his own ship, but also that Sonja was rather young to be a doctor, Cadet Wood wondered what was really going on.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that everyone here is so young,” he said without thinking.
She nodded, “Yeah, it’s totally crazy, dude. I mean, I may be good with DNA, but a doctor? On a battleship? It’s crazy.”
Luckily, Doctor Jonathan hadn’t been listening. Questioning orders and promotions wasn’t a wise thing to do when working for Weyland-Yutani.
Before they could continue their conversation something exploded down the hall.
“Everyone get ready!”
? 
