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*
She wakes to the pulse of his heartbeat on a monitor.
As her eyes adjust to the light, she recognizes the usual trappings of a ship hospital and she feels that familiar ache in her bones after hypersleep. Turning her head, she sees him, a still form lying on a cot next to her. Men and women in white coats are busy around him, carefully removing his bandages and checking his vital signs.
She hears one of the doctors say: "See how the flesh has been burned? They must have had a run in with Species 001. I'll need the salvegel."
Their patient awakes with a groan. "Did we make it?" he mumbles.
She opens her mouth to reply, yes, maybe, I think so but a nurse beats her to it.
"You're going to be fine, Corporal Hicks," – the nurse turns to look at her – "You're in good hands."
Ripley watches as Hicks turns his face towards her. He's badly burned but as his eyes find hers, he smiles. "You look terrible," he says.
She chuckles.
*
The doctors do amazing work in a short amount of time, Ripley has to admit. Her cuts, bruises and broken ribs are healed within days. Under their care, Newt has transformed into a normal-looking, clean-faced kid. And when Ripley brushes her fingers across Hicks' face, she can't feel the damage the blood acid must have caused.
Newt trembles, holding her hand, as a nurse explains in a whisper: "You have no idea what medical breakthroughs we've made since first contact, since we started the Project."
A doctor peers in the doorway and the nurse puts her hand over her mouth quickly. "I wasn't supposed to tell you this. Not till after your debrief, but –," and she smiles, "Oh Lieutenant, it's a new age, a new world!"
*
Ripley curls up on a bench in the observatory room, and watches the stars; she feels small, insignificant.
When Hicks appears at the doorway, she makes room for him; his body is warm, so she leans gently against him.
"How long do you think it's been?" he asks.
She looks at the silhouette of his face in the near dark. "Too long."
*
They say: You left the planet Acheron in the outer rim twenty years ago. With your homing beacon disabled, the Colonial Marine Rescue Vessels were unable to locate you.
They say: But now, you're safe here on the USS Nerys. We're taking you back to the Gateway Station where Weyland-Yutani will be handling your affairs, Lieutenant Ripley, and the Colonial Marine Corps will take care of yours, Corporal Hicks.
They say: The USS Sulaco's log and the memories of the synthetic you knew as Bishop corroborate with your debriefs.
They say: Thank you. The Company will not forget your bravery and your actions.
They say: It's a different world you've woken to. We need to tell you about the Project.
*
A Weyland-Yutani officer and a Colonial Administration general escort them to a cargo bay. "You'll see," the Company man says, his face full of delight.
Ripley stands very, very still the moment she sees them behind glass; six of them curled around each other and staring at the approaching visitors.
Hicks swears violently under his breath.
"We call them Species 001. And you have no idea how much we have learned from them—"
She stops listening when she hears the tenderness in his voice as he speaks of the creatures. Spellbound, she is drawn to the glass, drawn to stare at their familiar faces, the gleam of their skin, the intricate contours of their form. They uncurl and move closer to her and there's a feline grace in their slow, deliberate movements.
"And in short," the man concludes, "the damned things have cured cancer and countless other diseases. It's—" and he laughs, "incredible!"
Heart in her chest, Ripley is so close that her breath fogs the glass. She reaches up to wipe it away, and Hicks grabs her arm. "Don't."
"Oh, it's perfectly safe," the Company man says and he taps the glass.
She looks at Hicks and he lets go of her arm. Holding her breath, she reaches out and touches the glass. One of the six leans in close, bares its teeth, and seems to laugh.
Hicks clears his throat. "And what about the alien itself? Is the Bio-Weapon Division using them as—"
"That's classified, of course," the general says, waving his hand. "You understand."
*
Twenty fours till they reach Gateway, and Ripley finds the weak ones in the Company employ.
"How do you keep them docile?," she asks, her hand firm on a doctor's shoulder.
The doctor's face is a bit pink. "I—".
She leans in and her grip hardens. "It's not in their nature to sit quiet and obey."
He straightens, looks proud. He tells her of a serum, a complex cocktail of alien embryo DNA. "Species 001 won't attack their mothers," he says.
Rolling up her sleeve, he gestures to a pinprick mark on her arm. "The inoculated are safe," he tells her.
"Is everyone inoculated, then?" she asks.
He tilts his head to one side. "Of course not."
*
Later, she wakes to see Hicks asleep in the arm chair next to her. She watches him, impressed by his calm, serene face. His eyes flutter open and they stare at each other for a moment.
"We gotta get out of here," she says.
He shakes his head. "I can't just leave, Ripley. They own me."
"I didn't see this sort of helplessness on LV-426, Corporal."
"It's Lieutenant now," he replies with tight smile.
She rolls onto her back, stares at the ceiling. "I see."
"Not everyone is as strong as you," he tells her.
*
Even before they reach Gateway, Newt is taken from her.
The Colonial Administration officer looks down at her angry face with a knowing smile. "Lieutenant, she's been taken to her relatives on the southern plains of the Asian Federation. She's with her family. She'll be safe with them."
She hits him square in the jaw.
*
She's not surprised to find Gateway a completely different space station than she remembers. She bets that her old efficiency apartment is now a suite of rooms with tile floors and marble countertops. She wonders where the station's classified pets are being kept in the basements.
Hicks, walking at her side, looks generally unimpressed.
Their handler from the Nerys takes them to Central Command. Ripley sees the officers of the Company and of the Colonial Marines waiting together for their new charges and she stops, her hand on Hicks' arm.
"This is it," she says.
Hicks turns to look at her, a sudden predatory look in his eyes that startles her for a half a moment before she realizes she's probably looking at him the same way.
She lifts her hand to shake his, but he tugs at it instead, pulling her flush against him. He kisses her without hesitation, and with an intensity that surprises her. She's been kissed before, but not like this. There's little restraint and no regard for those watching, waiting for them; and he takes his time.
It's not a nice kiss, she thinks; but as she grips his arm and licks his bottom lip, she thinks she could get used to this.
"Come with me," she breathes.
He leans in once more and kisses the corner of her mouth. When he pulls away, his jaw is set. "See you, Ellen," he says before releasing her and turning to face his masters.
"See you," she echoes.
*
The Company pays her royally, for "her troubles," they say. She suspects that the money is for her silence – although, it's not likely that anyone in authority would heed warnings of doom about humanity's newfound treasure.
With her flight status reinstated, they offer her a contract to captain a cargo ship. She suspects their intent, suspects what it would be that she'd transport for them across the stars.
"Sure, but I'd like some time off first," she lies.
*
Money buys her favors, information and a decent ship. She's quick to find a skeleton crew and a Bishop-model synthetic. She's surprised at how easy it is to lead them.
Piracy is a decent living, compared to the alternative.
*
In the mess, she sits with a cup of coffee and a cigarette and listens to her crew tell stories.
They're good in a firefight, in a tight spot, in a crisis. They don't leave anyone behind. Despite what he is, they are inclusive of Bishop; Ripley's pretty sure that her engineer is sweet on him.
"Tell us about what it was like," they ask her again. "Tell us how you survived."
They like adventure, she notices. She understands this.
*
She’s on the sixth moon of Tetra negotiating a price for a medical supply shipment when she first hears the rumor.
– The strikers on the mining installation on Pluto were attacked.
– I thought that colony was under the Colonial Administration's jurisdiction.
– The Company doesn't take no for an answer.
– It was a massacre.
– Hundreds dead, ripped apart from the inside.
*
"Dwayne," she says firmly. "Tell me what you know." She wishes she could reach through the vidscreen and shake him by the shoulders.
He grimaces. "Honestly, I don't know anything about it. It's not my assignment."
"Make it your assignment," she says before shutting off the communicator.
*
It takes her six months and the purchase of a second gen synthetic to hack into the Network in order to find out more about the "classified" ways the Company is utilizing Species 001.
Weyland-Yutani appears to be preparing for war, she reads in Colonial Administration communiqués, against the United Americas; the victory being total control, total autonomy.
"Species 001 is their ace," she tells Bishop.
He ponders this. "They'll control access to the serum for colonists. Use it as a bargaining chip."
"We have work to do, then," she says.
*
The rumor finds its way to Earth: Colonists throughout the core planets and outer rim are being visited by a strange woman with a cargo of a strange vaccine and weapons; and even stranger stories.
Some say that the woman isn't human, isn't a droid; she's immortal, others say, and she protects us. Some say her endoskeleton is made of steel and her blood burns like acid. She brings nightmares, others say, she is fire and the storm.
They agree to this: she's without fear.
*
Ripley reads the official report on Orca Septimus. She reads of colonists huddled in a safe room while ten aliens stood peaceably at the doors, waiting. The Colonial Marines arrived, dispatched the threat, and discovered that every man, woman and child had been inoculated with the serum.
"They’ll be coming after us now," says Bishop.
"We needed a faster engine anyway," she says. "We’ll drop Pancks on Fury 161 to scrounge for parts."
"We could leave him there," he mutters. Bishop isn't fond of their resident thief.
She laughs.
A week later, they pick up the scavenged engine parts, and a doctor.
*
Hacking further into the Network requires a piece from the communication center on the Centauri Military Station. The mission is simple, in and out, limited casualties. Her crew is already bored.
But when she sees her face plastered on every vidscreen and the words dangerous, terrorist, and shoot on sight, she speeds up the timetable, gets her people out and torches the room, burning out her visage.
She thinks: I'm just a flight officer. I transport mineral ore for the Company and save up for Amy's future. I'm not what they all think I am.
Her eyes close and something slides sinuously against her calf. Turning, her flamethrower readied, she sees it and does not scream. The tail of the alien slithers back behind it and it approaches her slowly, almost timid. Ripley holds her breath and straightens her back, and her trigger finger relaxes. Opening its mouth, the alien's second head emerges and bares its teeth at her before retreating. It lowers its head and slinks to the side to let her pass.
It's strange to her how easy it is to lift her hand and rest it on top of the alien's head, as if it were a pet, a friend, an ally. It leans into her touch and she breathes in slowly.
"It all comes back to you, doesn't it?" she says.
A few minutes later, when she's halfway down the corridor, she turns around and sees the creature there where she left it, waiting.
*
There's a note for her on New Salvador. There's a price on your head, she reads. Be careful. – H
*
Curious, she lets her guard down and is cornered by a couple of hired men on a way station. They're the professional type, she thinks, not just local goons. The heat of adrenaline rises in her and she grins.
It takes her a few minutes to kill the first; but she takes her time with the second. He's stronger than she is and she lets him smack her around a bit more than she should, but as he smiles like Burke and she spits the blood out of her mouth, she finds her focus and centers in on his weaknesses.
Later, on the ship, Clemens treats her cuts and bandages her arm. "You have to stop looking for trouble, Ripley."
She chuckles. "Nice barcode, doc. Where'd we pick you up again?"
He doesn't flinch; she likes that about him.
*
Her first officer is the first of her crew to die and she recognizes the shattering sensation of loss; she questions why she thought this crew was untouchable.
Bishop sits by her after it happens, and she's grateful to him. She remembers his brother, his duplicate – thinks he's probably in a trash heap in the Delta by now. It's easy, then, to picture the rest of the dead, the lost. To mourn one, she thinks, is to mourn them all.
*
On a whim, she searches the Network for security footage from the Sulaco, the Nerys, from Gateway, and takes some stills of him and of Newt. She studies the images with greedy eyes, every detail a heartbeat closer to them both. Her access to Hicks' whereabouts is still spotty – she only knows his promotions, where he's been. The information on Newt, on the other hand, is full and thorough.
She looks at Bishop. "How are you with kids?"
*
She grants her crew a few days leave and steals aboard a transport to Hong Kong.
"You've come for me, haven't you?" the girl says. Newt is almost fourteen and already looking like a woman.
When Ripley nods, the girl throws her arms around her neck and her hair smells of spices and earth. Ripley holds her close, fatigued and a little unsure of her decision. "It's dangerous out there."
Newt holds her tighter. "But it's safer with you; it's always safer with you."
After a moment, the girl lets her go and she looks determined. "Besides," she whispers, "we have to save Hicks."
Ripley's breath catches in her chest. "What?"
Newt recoils. “You don’t know?"
*
Ripley reads his letter again and again on the way back to her ship. don't worry about me, and take care of yourself, and it's going to be okay.
Bishop looks pointedly at his watch when they arrive at the dock together, but backs off when he sees her pale face and clenched fists.
*
At 2600 hours, Major Dwayne Hicks of the Colonial Marines destroyed the Weyland-Yutani Research Installation of Trinidad Prime, she reads. Newt clutches the back of her chair.
Major Hicks had arrived with his unit after a distress beacon had been set off due to a containment breach in the research facility. After evacuating the surviving staff (currently numbered at 50; the station normally operated with a staff of 600), he launched fourteen nuclear missiles to destroy the entire installation from space. Major Hicks is sentenced to twenty years on the Mars Penal Colony for deliberate destruction of Company property.
"You know," she tells Bishop, "It’s time I replaced my first officer."
*
Not without irony, Ripley thinks, the Mars Penal Colony is shoulder to shoulder with one of the many Species 001 research facilities. She does not doubt that certain prisoners go missing to serve certain purposes for the Weyland-Yutani scientists.
Newt sets the timers on the explosives as Ripley reviews the plan with her crew. "You're fools to follow me on this," she tells them, and they laugh.
*
Providing the right codes and the right papers, they're allowed to land and the warden of the prison invites her to dinner – "A pretty girl is rare on a XY facility," he says.
While she eats the finest reprocessed food the Mars markets can provide, her crew lays the trap, places the explosives, and waits for Bishop to give the signal.
Midway through dessert, an explosion thunders through the facility. But the bombs, unscheduled, are from across the fence, from next door. And it is all Ellen Ripley can do to keep from laughing as the warden tells her: "The aliens! They're loose!"
Pandemonium reigns, and she stands still, listening to it, feeling at last where she belongs.
*
"This wasn't quite the distraction we planned for," Newt growls on the comms.
"They’re on the move, Ripley," Bishop warns, and his voice rings in her ear. "Hundreds of them, they’ll be at your position in ten."
"Just like old times," Ripley breathes, moving fast through the corridors; the panicked guards don’t even give her a second look as she passes them.
She smashes a cocktail of C-4 and other explosives against the doorway of cell block 1823 and it blasts open. As she makes her way through the wreckage of metal and wires, she spots him, standing tall as he rallies his fellow prisoners for the oncoming alien attack.
Every eye in the room finds her in the blasted doorway and she watches him crack as he sees her, a strained joy blossoming on his war-weary face.
"Follow me," she says.
He doesn’t hesitate.
*
They're the last to reach the ship, and she feels winded and lightheaded, but his hand is in hers and Newt is beckoning wildly to them at the ramp. Ripley can hear the screeching of the aliens behind them grow louder, so she pushes Hicks ahead of her and yells the order to take off.
By the time she makes her way to the ship's bridge, they've sailed through the atmosphere and Bishop has the FTL drive set and ready.
She sets their course, and monitors the approaching Colonial Administration ships. Hicks slides into the seat next to her.
"I hear you’re in need of a job," she says, casually.
"I'm looking for something quiet," he replies. "Paper pushing."
She smiles, looks him in the eye, and likes what she sees.
THE END