Disclaimer: All characters and organizations from Alien, Aliens, Alien3, and Alien: Resurrection belong to Ridley Scott and associated studios. We do claim creative rights, however, to the original characters introduced in this story.

Author's Note: Following the events of Alien: Resurrection, the USM Auriga does not simply explode into bits of debris in the Earth's atmosphere. Ripley and the survivors of the Betty crew will discover their battle is not over yet…

Steelbourne Offshore Shipping Facility, Earth

At 0500, a spaceship fragment was sighted in the water to the East. It had sunk by the time a boat had been launched to investigate, but the trawling crew managed to recover several cryotubes and some medical equipment. The tubes were still frozen and sealed, the inner surface of the glass covered with a thick layer of opaque frost. There could have been survivors in them. The cryotubes were promptly sent to the medical bay, where the resident doctor and his assistants examined the first tube. Its readout had a series of nonsense numbers and letters. The only legible word was [sterile]. It made no sense. Nevertheless, the doctor cut the tube open with an electric saw, the assistants pulling the glass cover away.
Mist spilled out from the open tube, thinning to show what looked like a half dozen huge, leathery eggs. All but one of them was damaged by the frost.
"What the hell is this?" one of the assistants asked.
The doctor shrugged. "Probably some kind of animal egg. You know how them space travelers like picking up new lifeforms for study."
He turned to the assistant next to him.
"Hey, Zorphus, poke it with a glass probe."
"And why the heck should I do that, Doc?"
"Consider it a stimulus test. It's obviously some kind of egg, so nothing should happen until it hatches."
Zorphus looked uncertain, but he was also curious. He picked up a glass probe from a medical tray and gently tapped the strange egg.
It started to open, its top peeling back like a perverse banana. It revealed some sort of membrane. Zorphus leaned in closer to see, when suddenly something came shooting out and latched to his face. He only struggled for a second before he lost consciousness.
The other assistants swore and jumped back. The doctor bellowed at them to initiate quarantine protocols while he examined Zorphus. The thing that had latched onto the assistant's face resembled something like a mix of an octopus and a scorpion. Its skin was rubbery with a waxy texture. It had eight long legs and a long, whiplike tail. The legs were firmly grasping Zorphus's head. The tail was tightly coiled around his neck. It seemed to be breathing for him. What it was, the doctor could hardly guess, but he had to figure out how to get it off of Zorphus without killing him...and how to prevent this from happening again. Several minutes later, everything was ready. Zorphus's vitals were stable, and he had been placed on an examination table. The thing on his face appeared to be unresponsive to external stimuli, but the doctor was taking no chances. He and two of his assistants were in full biohazard suits, preparing to remove the little beast...whatever it was.
"Prepare local anesthesia," the doctor said. He wasn't sure if Zorphus could feel anything in this condition, but he wasn't going to risk the possibility. An assistant applied it to the patient, then stepped back to make way for the doctor.
"Here we go," he said, looking over the facehugging alien. "I'm not sure what this thing is, but it looks like it's got a pretty firm grip on our friend. I could cut off its tail, but that might make it choke Zorphus to death."

"What about cutting the legs off?" one of the assistants asked.

"Possible, but time consuming since there a lot of them. Might cause the tail to tighten anyway. No matter what we do, it might kill him." He grunted in frustration. "Here's what we'll do. We'll attempt to cut it at the upper knuckle of its legs, at least try to expose Zorphus's eyes. Maybe, if I'm fast enough, it can be removed in pieces."
The assistants looked dubious, but they weren't the ones with the medical degree. The doctor produced a surgical laser and powered it on. He made a quick incision and skillfully removed a large chunk of the creature's flesh...but then he hit some kind of major artery that was too large for the laser to cauterize. The creature's blood sprayed the doctor and the assistants, burning through their suits. They cursed and screamed as they struggled to remove the suits before the acid reached their skin. The blood also trickled down along the places where Zorphus's skin met with that of the parasite. Their skin burned, fusing together. Blood dripped down along the creature's tail and burned through the skin to Zorphus's spine, joining his nervous system with that of the creature. His one exposed eye shot open and he screamed, the sound muffled by the thing on his face. His jerking movements flung the alien's blood across the room, where it spattered on the unopened cryotubes. Electronics sparked and fizzed as the acid burned through, and the tubes opened...just as the doctor and his assistants managed to get their suits off. The eggs contained within them opened one by one, facehuggers leaping out to find a host. In moments, the doctor and his assistants were down, with a parasite firmly attached to their faces.
Outside, a janitor happened to walk by, wheeling a mop and bucket in front of him. He glanced through the observation window, cursing when he saw the doctor and his assistants on the floor. He was about to swipe his keycard to open the door, but a facehugger dropped down through the vent above him. He fought it, but its tail wrapped around his neck. It squeezed until he blacked out, and latched onto his face.