all of them were operating properly. It’s watching you, and I’ll

  be watching its monitor over in the other room. I’ll be able to see

  you just as clearly in there as I can when I’m right here.’

  When Newt still seemed to hesitate, Ripley unsnapped the

  tracer bracelet Hicks had given her. She slipped it around the

  girl’s smaller wrist, clinching it tight.

  ‘Here. This is for luck. It’ll help me keep an eye on you too.

  Now go to sleep—and don’t dream. Okay?’

  ‘I’ll try.’ The sound of a small body sliding down between

  clean sheets.

  Ripley watched in the dim light from the instruments on

  standby as the girl turned onto her side, hugging the doll head

  and gazing through half-lidded eyes at the steadily glowing

  function light imbedded in the bracelet. The space heater

  hummed comfortingly as she backed out of the room.

  Other half-opened eyes were twitching erratically back and

  forth. They were the only visible evidence that Lieutenant

  Gorman was still alive. It was an improvement of sorts. One step

  further from complete paralysis.

  Ripley leaned over the table on which the lieutenant was lying,

  studying the eye movements and wondering if he could

  recognize her. ‘How is he? I see he’s got his eyes open.’

  ‘That might be enough to wear him out.’ Bishop looked up

  from a nearby workbench. He was surrounded by instruments

  and shining medical equipment. The light of the single high-

  intensity lamp he was working with threw his features into sharp

  relief, giving his face a macabre cast.

  ‘Is he in pain?’

  ‘Not according to his bioreadouts. They’re hardly conclusive,

  of course. I’m sure he’ll let us know as soon as he regains the use

  of his larynx. By the way, I’ve isolated the poison. Interesting

  stuff. It’s a muscle-specific neurotoxin. Affects only the nonvital

  parts of the system; leaves respiratory and circulatory functions

  unimpaired. I wonder if the creatures instinctively adjust the

  dosage for different kinds of potential hosts?’

  ‘I’ll ask one of them first chance I get.’ As she stared, one

  eyelid rose all the way before fluttering back down again. ‘Either

  that was an involuntary twitch or else he winked at me. Is he

  getting better?’

  Bishop nodded. ‘The toxin seems to be metabolizing. It’s

  powerful, but the body appears capable of breaking it down. It’s

  starting to show up in his urine. Amazing mechanism, the

  human body. Adaptable. If he continues to flush the poison at a

  constant rate, he should wake up soon.’

  ‘Let me get this straight. The aliens paralyzed the colonists

  they didn’t kill, carried them over to the processing station, and

  cocooned them to serve as hosts for more of those.’ She

  pointed into the back room where the stasis cylinders held the

  remaining facehugger specimens.

  ‘Which would mean lots of those parasites, right? One for

  each colonist. Over a hundred, at least, assuming a mortality

  rate during the final fight of about a third.’

  ‘Yes, that follows,’ Bishop readily agreed.

  ‘But these things, the parasitic facehugger form, come from

  eggs. So where are all the eggs coming from? When the guy

  who first found the alien ship reported back to us, he said there

  were a lot of eggs inside, but he never said how many, and

  nobody else ever went in after him to look. And not all those

  eggs may have been viable.

  ‘The thing is, judging from the way the colony here was

  overwhelmed, I don’t think the first aliens had time to haul

  eggs from that ship back here. That means they had to come

  from somewhere else.’

  ‘That is the question of the hour.’ Bishop swiveled his chair

  to face her. ‘I have been pondering it ceaselessly since the true

  nature of the disaster here first became apparent to us.’

  ‘Any ideas, bright or otherwise?’

  ‘Without additional solid evidence it is nothing more than a

  supposition.’

  ‘Go ahead and suppose, then.’

  ‘We could assume a parallel to certain insect forms who have

  a hive-like organization. An ant or termite colony, for example,

  is ruled by a single female, a queen, who is the source of new

  eggs.’

  Ripley frowned. Interstellar navigation to entomology was a

  mental jump she wasn’t prepared to make. ‘Don’t insect queens

  come from eggs also?’

  The synthetic nodded. ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘What if there was no queen egg aboard the ship that

  brought these things here?’

  'There’s no such thing in a social insect society as a “queen

  egg”, until the workers decide to create one. Ants, bees,

  termites, all employ essentially the same method. They select

  an ordinary egg and feed the pupa developing inside a special

  food high in certain nutrients. Among bees, for example, it is

  called royal jelly. The chemicals in the jelly act to change the

  composition of the maturing pupa so that what eventually

  emerges is an adult queen and not another worker.

  Theoretically any egg can be used to hatch a queen. Why the

  insects choose the particular eggs they do is something we still

  do not know.’

  ‘You’re saying that one of those things lays all the eggs?’

  ‘Well, not exactly like one we’re familiar with. Only if the

  insect analogy holds up. Assuming it does, there could be other

  similarities. An alien queen analogous to an ant or termite

  queen could be much larger physically than the aliens we have

  so far encountered. A termite queen’s abdomen is so bloated

  with eggs that she can’t move by herself at all. She is fed and

  tended by workers, mated to drones, and defended by highly

  specialized warriors. She is also quite harmless. On the other

  hand, a queen bee is far more dangerous than any worker bee

  because she can sting many times. She is the centre of their

  lives, quite literally the mother of their society.

  ‘In one respect, at least, we are fortunate that the analogy

  does not hold up. Ants and bees develop from eggs directly to

  larvae, pupae, and adults. Each alien embryo requires a live

  host in which to mature. Otherwise Acheron would be covered

  with them by now.’

  ‘Funny, but that doesn’t reassure me a whole lot. These

  things are a lot bigger than any ant or termite. Could they be

  intelligent? Could this hypothetical queen? That’s something

  we never could decide on back on the Nostromo. We were too

  busy trying to keep from getting killed. Not much time for

  speculation.’

  ‘It’s hard to say.’ Bishop looked thoughtful. ‘There is one

  thing worth considering, though.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘It may have been nothing more than blind instinct,

  attraction to the heat or whatever, but she did choose,

  assuming she exists, to incubate her eggs in the one spot in the

  colony where we couldn’t destroy her without destroying

  ourselves. Beneath the heat exchangers at the processing plant.

  If that site was chosen from instinct, it means that they may be

  no brighter than your average termite. If, on the other hand, it

  was selected on the basis of intelligence, well, then I think we’re

  in very deep trouble indeed.

  ‘That’s if there’s any reality to these suppositions at all.

  Despite the distance involved, the eggs these aliens hatched from

  might have been brought down here by the first ones to

  emerge. There might be no queen involved at all, no complex

  alien society. Whether by intelligence or instinct, though, we

  have seen that they cooperate. That’s something we don’t have

  to speculate on. We’ve seen them in action.’

  Ripley stood there and considered the ramifications of

  Bishop’s analysis. None of them were encouraging, nor had

  she expected any to be. She nodded toward the stasis cylinders.

  ‘I want those specimens destroyed as soon as you’re done

  with them. You understand?’

  The android glanced toward the two live facehuggers

  pulsing malevolently in their tubular prisons. He looked

  unhappy. ‘Mr. Burke gave instructions that they were to be

  kept alive in stasis for return to the Company laboratories. He

  was very specific.’

  The wonder of it was that she went for the intercom instead

  of the nearest weapon. ‘Burke!’

  A faint whisper of static failed to mar his reply. ‘Yes? That’s

  you, isn’t it, Ripley?’

  ‘You bet it’s me! Where are you?’

  ‘Scavenging while there’s still time. I thought I might learn

  something on my own, since I just seem to be in everybody’s

  way up there.’

  ‘Meet me in the lab.’

  ‘Now? But I’m still—‘

  ‘Now!’ She closed the connection and glared at the

  inoffensive Bishop. ‘You come with me.’ Obediently he put his

  work aside and rose to follow her. That was all she was after; to

  make sure that he’d obey an order if she gave it. It meant he

  wasn’t completely under Burke’s sway, Company machine or

  no Company machine. ‘Never mind, forget it.’

  ‘I shall be happy to accompany you if that is what you wish.’

  ‘That’s all right. I’ve decided to handle it on my own. You

  continue with your research. That’s more important than

  anything else.’

  He nodded, looking puzzled, and resumed his seat.

  Burke was waiting for her outside the entrance to the lab.

  His expression was bland. ‘This better be important. I think I

  was onto something, and we may not have much time left.’

  ‘You may not have any time left.’ He started to protest, and she

  cut him off with a gesture. ‘No, in there.’ She gestured at

  the operating theatre. It was soundproofed inside, and she

  could scream at him to her heart’s content without drawing

  everyone else’s attention. Burke ought to be grateful for her

  thoughtfulness. If Vasquez overheard what the company

  representative had been planning, she wouldn’t waste time

  arguing with him. She’d put a bullet through him on the spot.

  ‘Bishop tells me you have intentions of taking the live

  parasites home in your pocket. That true?’

  He didn’t try to deny it. ‘They’re harmless in stasis.’

  ‘Those suckers aren’t harmless unless they’re dead. Don’t

  you understand that yet? I want them killed as soon as Bishop’s

  gotten everything out of them he can.’

  ‘Be reasonable, Ripley.’ A ghost of the old, self-assured

  corporate smile stole over Burke’s face. ‘Those specimens are

  worth millions to the Bioweapons Division of the company.

  Okay, so we nuke the colony. I’m outvoted on that one. But not

  on this. Two lousy specimens, Ripley. How much trouble could

  they cause while secured in stasis? And if you’re worried about

  something happening when we get them back to Earthside

  labs, don’t. We have people who know how to handle things

  like these.’

  ‘Nobody knows how to handle “things like these.” Nobody’s

  ever encountered anything like them. You think it’d be

  dangerous for some germs to get loose from a weapons lab?

  Try to imagine what would happen if just one of those

  parasites got loose in a major city, with its thousands of

  kilometres of sewers and pipes and glass-fibre channels to hide

  in.’

  ‘They’re not going to get loose. Nothing can break a stasis

  field.’

  ‘No sale, Burke. There’s too much we don’t know about

  these monsters. It’s too risky.’

  ‘Come on, I know you’re smarter than this.’ He was trying to

  mollify and persuade her at the same time. ‘If we play it right,

  we can both come out of this heroes. Set up for life.’

  ‘Is that the way you really see it?’ She eyed him askance.

  ‘Carter Burke, alien smasher? Didn’t what happened in C level

  of the processing station make any impression on you at all?’

  ‘They went in unprepared and overconfident.’ Burke’s tone

  was flat, unemotional. ‘They got caught in tight quarters where

  they couldn’t use the proper tactics and weapons. If they’d all

  used their pulse-rifles and kept their heads and managed to get

  out without shooting up the heat exchangers, they’d all be here

  now and we’d be on our way back to the Sulaco instead of holed

  up in Operations like a bunch of frightened rabbits. Sending

  them in like that was Gorman’s decision, not mine. And

  besides, those were adult aliens they were fighting, not

  parasites.’

  ‘I didn’t hear you object loudly when strategy was being

  discussed.’

  ‘Who would’ve listened to me? Don’t you remember what

  Hicks said? What you said? Gorman wouldn’t have been any

  different.’ His tone turned sarcastic. ‘This is a military

  expedition.’

  ‘Forget the whole idea, Burke. You couldn’t pull it off even if

  I let you. Just try getting a dangerous organism past ICC

  quarantine. Section 22350 of the Commerce Code.’

  ‘You’ve been doing your homework. That’s what the code

  says, all right. But you’re forgetting one thing. The code’s

  nothing but words on paper. Paper never stopped a

  determined man. If I have five minutes alone with the customs

  inspector on duty when we turn through Gateway Station, we’ll

  get them through. Leave that end of it to me. The ICC can’t

  impound something they don’t know anything about.’

  ‘But they will know about it, Burke.’

  ‘How? First they’ll want to talk to us, then they’ll make us

  walk through a detection tunnel. Big deal. By the time the

  relief team gets around to inspecting our luggage, I’ll have

  made the necessary arrangements with ship’s personnel to set

  up the stasis tubes somewhere down near the engine or

  waste-products recycling. We’ll pick them up and slip them off

  the relief ship the same way. Everyone’ll be so busy shooting

  questions at us, they’ll have no time for checking cargo.

  ‘Besides, everyone will know we found a devastated colony

  and that we got out as fast as we could. No one will be looking

  for us to smuggle anything back in. The Company will back me

  up on this, Ripley, especially when they see what we’ve brought

  them. They’ll take good care of you, too, if that’s what you’re

  worrying about.’

  ‘I’m sure they’ll back you up,’ she said. ‘I don’t doubt that for

  an instant. Any outfit that would send less than a dozen

  soldiers out here with an inexperienced goofball like Gorman

  in charge after hearing my story is capable of anything.’

  ‘You worry too much.’

  ‘Sorry. I like living. I don’t like the idea of waking up some

  morning with an alien monstrosity exploding out of my chest.’

  ‘That’s not going to happen.’

  ‘You bet it isn’t. Because if you try taking those ugly little

  teratoids out of here, I’ll tell everyone on the rescue ship what

  you’re up to. This time I think people will listen to me. Not that

  it would ever get that far. All I have to do is tell Vasquez, or

  Hicks, or Hudson what you have in mind. They won’t wait

  around for a directive, and they’ll use more than angry words.

  So you might as well give it up, Burke.’ She nodded in the

  direction of the cylinders. ‘You’re not getting them out of this

  lab, much less off the surface of this planet.’

  ‘Suppose I can convince the others?’

  ‘You can’t, but supposing for a minute that you could, how

  would you go about convincing them that you’re not

  responsible for the deaths of the one hundred and fifty-seven

  colonists here?’

  Burke’s combativeness drained away and he turned pale.

  ‘Now wait a second. What are you talking about?’

  ‘You heard me. The colonists. All those poor, unsuspecting

  good Company people. Like Newt’s family. You said I’d been

  doing my homework, remember? You sent them to that ship, to

  check out the alien derelict. I just checked it out in the colony

  log. It’s as intact as the plans Hudson called up. Would make

  interesting reading in court. “Company Directive Six Twelve

  Nine, dated five thirteen seventy-nine. Proceed to inspect

  possible electromagnetic emission at coordinates—but I’m not

  telling you anything you don’t already know, am I? Signed

  Burke, Carter J.” ‘ She was trembling with anger. It was all

  spilling out of her at once, the frustration and fury at the

 

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