I HOLD NO CLAIMS TO ANY MEMBER OF THIS STORY. Only Riley and Jack are mine!
Chapter One
Bastards
"All of you are just stupid."
"No, bastards is the right word for it."
"We should add pricks to that list, too."
"And Dumbasses."
"Morons."
"Chicken-shits."
"The list is endless."
~With the two of you going at it, yes it is.~
Eleanor Ripley stared at her sister Anora 'Riley' and her husband Jack Rush. As the three remaining survivors of the Space Freighter Nostromo, the three of them had been rescued and revived after drifting 57 years in stasis. Imagine their shock to that. All three of them were having nightmares over the events every night; Ripley had the worse. And adding that to the fact that Jack and Ripley just found out that their daughter Amy had died 2 years ago at the age of 66 with no kids, well, you would expect Ripley to be with Jack, cursing out their employers, not her sister.
Ripley and Riley were identical twins with dark eyes and their curly hair and Jack had sandy brown hair and blue eyes.
The three of them were now at an interview with a panel of executives from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, their testimonies about the Xenomorph being, well, laughed at.
Burke gave a silent sigh as Riley and Jack continued on with their name calling for a moment before the lead man, Van Leuwen continued.
"I'd just like to go back to this point about the override destruct elements."
"What don't you get about it?" Riley asked him, a hand on her hip. "Are you guys not smart enough to understand it?"
"We have been here three and a half hours," Ripley began. "How many different ways do you want us to tell the same story?"
"Look at it from our perspective, please." Van replied. "You freely admit to detonating the engines of and thereby destroying an M-Class star freighter, a rather expensive piece of hardware."
"42-million in adjusted dollars," Another man commented, glancing at the three of them with a look. "That's minus payload, of course."
"Fuck off." Jack told the man. "It didn't seem to hurt you guys at all 57 years ago, now did it?"
Van sighed. "The lifeboat's flight recorder corroborates some elements of your account in that, for reasons unknown, the Nostromo set down on LV-426, an unsurveyed planet at that time, then it resumed its course and was subsequently set for self-destruct by you for reasons unknown."
"Not for reasons unknown." Ripley hissed. "We told you. We set down on Company orders to get this thing which destroyed my crew…and your expensive ship."
"The analysis team, which went over the lifeboat centimeter by centimeter, found no physical evidence of the creature you describe."
"Good! That's because I blew it out of the goddamn air lock." Ripley stood from her chair. "Like I said." Riley had learned about the final events with the Alien after she had been put into stasis so she wasn't surprised to hear that.
"Are there any species like this hostile organism on LV-426?"
"No," The smoking woman replied. "It's a rock. No indigenous life."
"Did IQs just drop sharply while we were away?" Ripley asked.
"I think they've been like this all along, sweetheart." Jack replied, locking his arms behind his head. "We already said that the Xenomorph was not indigenous." (That means native)
"It came off of an alien ship," Riley had dropped her head onto the desk for a moment before looking back up. She knew that losing her cool against these bastards again was not going to help the situation. "We homed in on its beacon."
"And found something never recorded once in over three hundred surveyed worlds. 'A creature that gestates inside a living human host,' these are your words, 'And has concentrated acid for blood.'"
"That's right." Ripley nodded.
"Don't pull this how 300 world crap on me," Riley stood up from her seat. She had had enough. "There are thousands of galaxies that we haven't even seen yet and in your life-span, especially with all your smoking, you ain't ever gonna see. There could be thousands of life-forms that we've never heard of so I want you to take that and shove it up your asses. And even if we weren't the first humans to come across it, I'm sure you or the military would keep it under lock and key like the money-hungry bastards that you are. Now I'm tired of talking so hurry up and get this over with so I can go back to what is now my home and try to live the rest of the life that I have." The smoking woman looked at her like she was crazy and Riley went to hop over the desk but Jack moved and caught her before she did; Ripley doing so too.
Van gave a sigh. "It is the finding of this court of inquiry that Warrant Officers E. Ripley N-O-C-1-4-4-7-2 and A. Ripley N-O-C-1-4-4-7-3, has acted with questionable judgment and is unfit to hold an ICC license as a commercial flight officer. J. Rush is also unfit to hold one as well. Said licenses are hereby suspended indefinitely." He stood up. "No criminal charges will be filed against you at this time and you are released on your own recognizance for a six-month period of psychometric probation to include monthly review by an ICC psychiatric technician. These proceedings are closed."
"A psychiatrist, huh?" Riley felt the corner of her mouth twitch. ~They want a psycho, huh? Well, I can give them that~
Burke, the man that had been trying to help them, moved forward. "Well, that could have been better."
"Shut up," Jack told him, standing from his own seat.
"Van Leuwen," Ripley moved to the man before he could make it through the door. "Why don't you just check out LV-426?"
"Because I don't have to." Van replied. "People have been there for over 20 years and they never complained about any hostile organism."
"What do you mean? What people?"
"Terraformers. Planet engineers. They go in, set up atmosphere processors to make the air breathable. It takes decades. It's what we call a shake 'n' bake colony."
Ripley stopped him from leaving. "How many are there? How many colonists?"
"I don't know. Sixty, maybe seventy families."
"And just how far have they spread around the planet? Have they covered the entire thing?" Riley asked him.
"No, not yet, but-"
"Then shut your fuckin' mouth!" She hissed, keeping her voice low as she got in the man's face. "The moment they do come into contact with these creatures, I want you to be ready to bend over and kiss my ass."
~Welcome to the Nightmare
In my head
Say hello
To something scary~
Two months later the three of them all sat in the room that Riley had acquired. Ripley and Jack lived together just down the hall in a bigger place but Riley had been sick the last few days and so Ripley had dragged her husband behind her to go take care of her sister. Ripley and Riley were now working as cargo-loaders and Jack, well; Jack was now announcing what he planned on doing.
"I forbid it." Ripley said instantly. Riley sat there at her table in a blanket, pausing in her feast of soup.
"Ripley, think about it. It would help. It's not like I can do much here." Jack was saying. "Besides, it's where I started 67 years ago. It's how I met you, remember?"
"I know that, Jack, but still, the army?"
Riley closed her eyes. Jack had joined the family 67 years ago. He had been in training for the army and had been a hell of a fighter before he met Ripley and married her and had a daughter. He switched over to working on the freighters to be closer to his wife.
"I won't hear it," Ripley finally put her foot down as Jones jumped into her lap. "I said no and I-" She fell silent as the doorbell rang. Jack stood up and answered it.
"Hiya, guys," Burke's voice drifted in. "This is Lieutenant Gorman of the Colonial Marine Corps-" Ripley had jumped up and pulled the door from Jack's hand, closing it on the men's faces. Riley snorted before having to get a sneeze. "Ripley, we have to talk. We've lost contact with the colony on LV-426."
"Whoo! Kiss my ass, bitches!" Riley called off, throwing her hands in the air. "We told you fuckers but you didn't want to listen! Suck in your reward now!"
Jack gave a laugh as Ripley opened the door again before turning and beginning to pour the men coffee.
…
"I don't believe this. You guys throw us to the wolves and now you want us to go back out there?" Ripley shook her head. "Forget it. It's not our problem."
"Can I finish?" Burke asked.
"No," Riley replied behind a stuffed nose. "Now get the fuck outta my room."
"There's no way we're going back out there, pal," Jack told him.
"You wouldn't be going in with the troops," Gorman had his go. "I can guarantee your safety."
"These Colonial Marines are very tough hombres," Burke continued. "They're packing state-of-the-art firepower. There's nothing they can't handle."
"Yeah, you say that now," Riley commented, slurping up from more soup. "But I guarantee that they'll get their asses kicked."
"We've been trained to deal with situations like this." Gorman told them.
"Good, then what are we needed for?" Jack asked.
"We don't know exactly what's going on," Burke sighed. "It may just be a downed transmitter. Okay, but if it's not, I would like the three of you there as an advisor, and that's all."
Ripley stepped forward. "What's your interest in all this? Why are you going?"
"The Company co-financed that colony along with Colonial Administration. We're getting into a lot of terraforming now and building better worlds."
"Yeah, I saw the commercial." Ripley sighed. "Look, I don't have time for this. I've got to get to work."
"Oh, right, I heard you're working the cargo docks." Burke stood up to put cream in his coffee.
"That's right." Riley answered. "What of it?"
"Running loaders and forklifts…"
"Yeah, so?"
"Nothing. I think it's great that you're keeping busy. And I know it's the only-"
Jack took a step forward. "Say it. I dare you."
Burke swallowed hard and sat back in his seat. "What if I told you that I could get all three of you reinstated?" All three of them looked surprised. "The Company's already agreed to pick up your contract."
"If we go." Ripley sighed.
"Yeah, if you go. Come on. That's a second chance, kiddo. I think personally for the three of you it would be the best thing to go and face this thing. Get back on the horse."
"Spare me, Burke," Ripley sighed. "We've had our psych evaluations."
"I know. I've read it."
"And let's not talk about it, shall we," Jack stood up and pulled the door open. "Both of you. Out." They didn't move. "Now."
"Just think about it," Burke told them before placing his card on the table.
"Thanks for the coffee." Gorman told them before leading the way out. Jack shut the door behind them before leaning against it, lost in thought for a moment.
Riley glanced between the two people, Jack as he stood there and Ripley as she smoked, and gave a sigh as she tried to keep her nose from running.
"We're, uh, we're going… aren't we?"
Jack was silent for a moment before glancing at the wall. "…Yeah. Yeah, it looks like it."
Riley dropped her spoon and dropped her head on the table. "Fuck."
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