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"It's a blur, mostly."
"Please try. We're all very anxious to hear what happened. Do you
remember... the others? Mister Levenson? Tell us what happened to
him."
v
The name brought tears to her eyes, and drew vivid images in her
mind. She shut her eyes. "Killed."
"One of these... creatures?"
She strained to answer, but could only nod her head. Levenson had
gotten the worst of it. He had been braver than she had given him
credit for. He waited for the others to get inside. All he had was
his computer, and in the end, he used it like a shield. It couldn't
stand in the way of the alien marauders. They grabbed him, and he
screamed as they pulled him up and away. Screamed until he couldn't
be heard anymore.
"Put that in the record as an affirmative," the interrogator said, to
no one in particular. The conversation was being recorded. He chewed
on the end of his pencil, looking not at his subject, but at the
paperwork laid before him on the table. He looked up again, after
finding another question to ask. "Miss Avery, the marines who picked
you up could not confirm the nature of your injuries. Do you want to
explain the burns?"
Avery stared at him. Obviously, this corporate investigator did not
believe anything she, or the other survivors, had told him. "Their
blood is like an acid. It eats through anything. I got splashed when
Alex -- Mister Gonzales -- shot one of them."
"That was the fatal incident with Gonzales?"
"Yes. No. That was before. We were, I think Engineering, and we ran
into one of the creatures. Gonzales shot it, and killed it, and I was
standing kind of, next to Gonzales, and I felt this searing pain..."
"Tell me again about Gonzales."
"He was killed outside the escape pod -- I mean, outside the science
probe that we used to escape in. Trying to protect us, to keep the
creatures away from us long enough to launch."
"And Mister Niven? He died in the science lab by the escape pod?"
"Yes."
"By the creatures?"
"No. He was killed accidentally. By Mister Gonzales. We were in the
science labs, and the power was out, it was very dark. There were
strobe lights, and we couldn't see very well. The, uh... the
creatures were dropping in through the elevator shaft. We were
scrambling to get into the launch probe. It was dark, and very
confusing. And Mister Gonzales was firing his gun, and he shot Niven.
It was a mistake."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
At the beginning of the interrogation, now so long ago that Avery had
lost track, she had had a fresh box of tissues next to her chair. Her
hands were full with bunched-up wads.
The interrogator crossed something off on one of the sheets of paper.
Crossed someone off. "So that left Mister Dean, Mister Sato, Mister
Schabowski, Miss Young and yourself in the escape pod, correct?"
"We're here, aren't we?"
The interrogator looked up. He smiled. "You're right. I'm sorry. But
other than a few scrapes and bruises, and some questionable burns on
your leg, the commission has yet to find any evidence that justifies
the use of a military nuclear device on a space platform. Hundreds of
lives were lost, billions of dollars in hardware. There's a very
serious contamination issue as well, not to mention the logistical
nightmare of re-routing the traffic for the dependent colonies in
that region."
Avery snorted.
"Sygnus tells us they didn't receive any transmissions from Rodina
regarding an infestation of hostile creatures. The marines confirm
the Korea docked with Rodina some days before the explosion, and that
they lost a marine patrol vessel and its crew in that same explosion.
We've got nothing but your word to go on here. And the marines claim
they've lost another ship near Acheron, which is in that neck of the
woods, and that's raising suspicions. We have a serious problem here,
and until we sort it out, you're going to be under house arrest. We
may have more questions for you. I'm sorry about... what happened...
but honestly I'm not sure why you did what you did. The commission
seems to think you've all gone space crazy and they're willing to
write this thing off on you. And if they have your way, your grand-
kids will be in debt because of this."
There was a long silence as the investigator stared at her, his face
pinched and accusatory. Avery looked at the table. "Am I done?"
"Yes," he said. "The orderly will escort you back."
Avery stood, for the first time in some hours. Her leg was weak and
dumb, and hurting like hell. They wouldn't let her take any
painkillers until after the interrogation, and the pills were the
only thing on her mind anyway. She limped past the interrogator, and
would not meet his gaze. He was gathering his paperwork, but took the
time to open the door for her.
In the hall, she was met by the falsely-old face belonging to Dean.
He was standing with a clean-shaven Company rep, awaiting their turn
to be questioned.
"How was it?" he asked, but Avery walked on by.
Dean took it well, and walked into the interrogation room. Finding
his seat quickly, he watched the brief exchange between the
investigator and the Weyland-Yutani lawyer that had been sent along
with Dean to represent him.
"Mister Dean, before we begin, do you have anything you would like to
say?"
Dean's eyes flicked from the lawyer to the investigator. "Yes. First
of all, I would like to state clearly that I do not agree with the
statements given by the others. I saw no evidence of a xenomorph
contamination aboard Rodina. My memory files will show that I was
incapacitated and brought aboard the science probe, and later forced
to serve as a pilot. The responsibility for this catastrophe rests
squarely on the shoulders of the persons you now have in custody.
Furthermore, I would like to extend to you my complete cooperation in
this matter."
The investigator chewed his pencil. "How interesting..." he said,
very slowly.
* * *
So what REALLY happened?
I'm going to leave a lot to your imaginations, but here's the plain
language version of what really happened in the final moments on
Rodina. Our heroes scrambled down the stairs, surviving an encounter
with a lone patrolling alien. This is where Avery received her nice
acid burns, and where Gonzales used all but the last of his pulse-
rifle ammunition. Pressing on, the group reached the lowest deck, and
set to work bringing the probe launch online. It took much longer
than they wanted, and making room for everyone was becoming a
torturous process of throwing out essential ship components.
Eventually the aliens decided who would stay and who would go. But
Gonzales decided who would live, and who would die.
With Sato and Schabowski already inside the probe, tearing out chairs
and instrumentation, Gonzales cried out. The aliens had found them,
in the lowest part of the station, with no where else to run.
Levenson, of all people, put up an admirable fight, using anything he
could throw, keeping them at bay long enough for Gonzales to kill a
few. But soon it came down to the last bullet. Levenson was snatched
up, taken away. Niven was frozen in fear, grasping the bomb case to
his chest. Gonzales turned, coolly, and fired. Niven collapsed, and
an instant later, Gonzales was grabbed by two aliens. They twisted
him in opposite directions so that his bones cracked and his skin
burst, spilling his innards.
The probe doors closed, and everyone who would survive the
catastrophe was crammed into a space hardly bigger than a closet.
Dean, acting as pilot, launched the probe, leaving Rodina behind. And
then there was silence for a while. The probe drifted into a nice,
predictable orbit around the giant planet below, and they waited.
They were so far over the horizon that when the station finally blew,
they knew it only by a sensor reading... heavy EMP and high energy
discharge. Rodina, and the horror, was over.
Except that there was a lot of madness in that probe for a while. It
took exactly twelve days for a marine patrol ship to rescue them, and
by this time they were starved, filthy, and at the edge of insanity.
Under military guard, they went back through Sygnus, and onto Earth.
Well, Gateway Station, which looked like it was going to be the
closest they would ever get to the surface. Weyland-Yutani filed
lawsuits, the Interstellar Commerce Commission wanted answers and
reparations, insurance was asking outrageous questions, and everybody
wanted to put the blame on a handful of outlanders who went plum
crazy. So in a way, none of the survivors avoided the fallout.
Naturally, Weyland-Yutani has everything to gain by making sure Dean,
and its other android products, comply to Company policy... which is
to make a profit. A few outlanders will spend the rest of their lives
in prison, while the corporates look for any recurrance of these
hostile creatures... leading us neatly into Alien3.
Not my favorite movie, but at least we can pretend there's some
continuuity. Hope you guys have enjoyed this stuff!
THE END
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