AlienX: A Different Light: Prologue

…..

Okay, this one's going to take some explaining.

This fic is based on an alternative ending that I read of in a review of the 1979 movie, "Alien," starring Sigourney Weaver. If you don't know what the alternate ending is, read this prologue. See what you think. If you like it, I might do more with it. It's not my idea; I'm not claiming that it is.

I can't say I prefer it, as it would do a number on the sequels that I loved, but it's just a concept to play around with. And, as you'll see, it doesn't exactly kill the notion of future stories.

Needless to say, I don't own anything about the "Alien" franchise. …..

Ripley moved cautiously throughout the cramped corridors of the shuttle, keeping track of everything around her. There; the airlock controls. All she had to do now was hit the emergency open switch….

….a movement to one side….

POV: Outside the shuttle: The shuttle doors blew open, with the atmosphere behind them exploding into the void of space. A seemingly tiny bipedal figure twisted and turned as it was ejected into the harsh vacuum—and a chain tethering it to the ship tightened, drawing the figure back into the shuttle. At the next instant, the chain was severed, and the figure tumbled into the darkness between the stars.

…

POV: Outside the ship: A woman's voice heard over the broadcast 'com. "I was very very lucky. Just as the thing lunged at me, I was able to hit the blast doors. The resulting outrushing air blew it completely free of the ship, but a chain somehow got wrapped around its leg. Its reaction time was incredible; it actually started to shimmy back up the chain. I was able to blast the chain off, however; surely, not even one of these things could survive in empty space."

As the voice continues, the POV moves, moving through the ship from the rear. "I can't find Jones. I've got to find him before I enter cryosleep. If he's not with me, he'll starve. I can't have that. I'm…" And here the woman's voice shakes, slightly. "I'm fond of that cat."

The POV continues to move forward, moving through the silent machinery, as the voice continues. "I'm not going straight back to home base for obvious reasons. The corporation deliberately set us up to be killed, all in an effort to bring back a murderous life-form for God only knows what reason. So I can't go back there. I'll head for the frontier. I've got some of the alien tech I can fence on the black market, keep me going for a while. And I want to come back out here, knowing what I know now…" The POV moves into the command chamber. In front of the camera is the high-backed command chair, from whence the voice comes. The screens are alive all around the chair. "…I feel I can salvage some of that alien tech. It might prove to be very valuable indeed.

"Yes, some changes are definitely going to have to be made in my relationship with the company. Whether they like it or not."

The POV swivels around to face the command chair. Sitting in the chair is a being that can only most charitably be described as "humanoid." It possesses two arms and two legs, but it also has a sharp, barbed tail extending from its back, twitching back and forth between the thing's legs. All over its body is a black, shiny, chitinous exoskeleton, segmented, with the appearance of armor. It looks like it could turn a bullet.

The head is the worst. It is an oval oblong over a yard long, and resembling an oversized shiny black cucumber. It has no eyes. The creature has one set of jaws in the front of the monstrous head, and another, smaller set can be seen within its mouth. The two working in combination produce an exact replica of Ripley's voice. It brings the microphone for the log recording up to its face once again. "This is Warrant Officer and Acting Captain of the Norstromo, Ellen Ripley, signing off." The creature's thumb clicked the button off. "Yes," it said, in Ripley's voice, "some changes will definitely have to be made. Now." It got up, unlimbering its long limbs from the comparatively confining command chair. "To find Jones. I know what'll do it! Where did that can opener get off to?"

Epilogue: Ripley came to consciousness gasping for air. The last thing she remembered was the starry void whirling past her, and her vision dimming…

Now…where was she?

She raised her head, and stifled a gasp. Standing before her—if, indeed "standing" was an accurate term—was what resembled a large jellyfish, seated in a mechanical contraption that sprouted metallic tentacles around its rim. Behind it was a hulking humanoid that roughly resembled a six-armed gorilla. Arrayed around the circular walls were other, even less easily quantifiable creatures. "What…where am I? Who are you?"

The jellyfish, who seemed to be in charge, turned a knob in the floor with one of its metallic tentacles. There was a rising hum, and a voice rang through Ripley's mind: We are the Displaced. We saw your vessel coming from one of the Proscribed Worlds. We knew it would have at least one of the *an untranslatable but thoroughly unpleasant sensation* upon it. You are not the first to covet their secrets. Sadly, you will not be the last.

Now you are one of us.

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