Awakening
It was cold. A wet mist rolled over his arms, it was freezing. Through his eyelid a white, sharp light hurt his tired eye. His legs felt numb, as if a giant weight had been set on them. He felt a feeling of warm rubber gloves on his arm and then a sting. It made him shiver. Breathing faster, his extremities began to feel again. A sharp pain ran through his body as it became aware of its wounds. Slowly, slowly, as his mind came out of the hypersleep, he remembered... Their mission, Ripley, the aliens... How they escaped.
He did not fully remember though, had he been unconscious? He must have been! With his right hand he felt around his head, how bad were his wounds? He could not tell, as he was so drained of energy that he could barely move, yet less reason. It felt as if he was lifted up into a sitting position. His eyesight blacked out for a second, but then returned. The room was lit up by the bright lights of the hypersleep bay. It looked blurry to his eye, as if he was still dreaming.
Looking over at Ripley and Newt, he saw they were still in hypersleep. Why then, had he awoken? He tried not to think about how alone he was here, pushing away the memories of his last awakening. Then he had woken to find his whole squad around himself… now they were all gone... dead.
"Corporal..." Hicks shuddered by the sound of a voice. Whose voice was that?! Was there someone in the hallway in front of him? Or had there really been someone in the room with him, someone who had lifted him up? He could not tell; he felt so drained of energy that he barely could keep himself upright in the pod, even less see what was going on in the hallway. Was it the medication that android-Bishop had given him before they left Acheron? Why then, would he be awake? He remembered the sting in his arm; someone must have neutralized the sedatives! Footsteps echoed somewhere. Obviously it was not the aliens. He sat more comfortable, relieving his burning chest. Why were the others still asleep? The question nagged him. The computers would have no reason for waking him up first, as he was wounded. That meant someone else had woken him.
"How do you feel?" Someone asked. Hicks jumped at the sound of the voice, as he had not noticed anyone entering. He looked around, finding a man standing beside himself. Had he been there all along? He looked up and saw... Bishop?!
"Bishop...they...repaired you?" He rasped whilst overlooking the man with his grainy eye. The other eye was covered in bandage and he could not see with it.
"Oh no, Corporal, I am the 'real deal'. I am human. But, the androids are based on my appearance."
"The real deal..." Hicks murmured. His head throbbed even more. Why was he here?
"But now is not the time for introductions, Corporal, you need to be taken care of first, then you can tell us what happened." Hicks was helped out of the hypersleep pod by two men he did not know. It was a slow process, as he had problems with moving his left arm and much of his chest. Was this the reason they had woken him? So he could give an oral statement of what had occurred on Acheron?
"What about..." Hicks began but Bishop silenced him with a lifted hand.
"You are after all ranking officer now Hicks, remember that! Your statement will be the official story. But first - to medbay!" That confirmed it; they wanted to know what had happened! Without having the time to protest Hicks was shoved off towards the medbay. As the doctor removed the layers of bandages that the android Bishop had wrapped around his acid burns, Hicks was left stunned. It was not a nice sight that met him in the mirrors. In addition to the burns, he could only make out diffuse shapes with his left eye and the entire left side of his face burned now that many of the painkillers had stopped working. It was not better with his chest. He could still not believe that the acid had eaten through his armour! It must have been extremely potent! It made him understand the Company's extreme interest in the aliens.
"That acid ate through more skin than I'd prefer." The doctor said. "We'll have to remove every trace of the acid before applying any regenerative gel. It will not be fun. I can not do more than give you some painkillers until it is finished!"
"The scars..." Hicks began, lightly touching the left side of his face.
"The will not go away anytime soon." The doctor said. "If you are lucky, you'll still be able to see with that eye of yours. But I wouldn't try it yet for a few weeks!" He continued, smiling wryly. "Now go get those clothes off and lie down... Bishop wishes to see you as soon as you are ready!" Hicks obeyed.