Copper Luck
Chapter One: The Beginning

Darkness enveloped her, covering her like a blanket and wrapping around her like a snake; she felt like she was suffocating in the bleakness.

"Get in!" someone shouted from beyond the blackness, "get in and I'll handle the rest!" She couldn't bear the thought of leaving this person alone; did she know them? She felt like a weight was being pressed down on her chest, and she felt tears prickle at her eyes, "I can't! I can't leave you." It was just above a whisper, less than a shout and more than a mumble.

"You have to; we can't let this thing win. No matter the cost Penny, no matter the cost we can't let this thing get out of here."

There were no more words, just darkness engulfing her like thick tendrils that slithered over her body and curled around each follicle of hair, each finger, and even each toe. Then, there was nothing. She couldn't even hear the sound of her own heartbeat, there was just … nothingness.

It was nothing more than a prick, a pain, a stinging burn, and she gasped. Her lungs exploded with oxygen and she gasped for more; she greedily breathed in through her mouth and nose before her eyes snapped open. Bile rose up in her throat and she nearly choked on it before someone pushed her up into a sitting position; the bile flowed down her chest, dribbling into her lap and someone kindly held her hair back as she did so.

Her breathing turned into shallow bits of breath, her chest heaved, and her vision clouded over even before it could totally clear.

"Breathe," She could hear someone shout before soothing circles onto her back, "You have to breathe!" Bile rose in her throat once again before she let it pour from her mouth, and her breathing hitched in her throat afterwards.

"Get the doctor!" Her limbs vibrated with an unknown energy and she felt herself choking, and it slowly was getting harder to breath, "she's going into shock, get the damn doctor!" Her chest swelled and she thought it was going to explode; that feeling got even worse, and she could see the images of Kane, his chest cavity open for the world to see, blood pooling out from him, and his lips moving to say something unrecognizable.

She moved her lips, she wanted to cry out for him, but nothing left her mouth but screams of pain as she started to seize.

"Move, move aside, hand me the epinephrine nurse," she couldn't feel anything besides the intense pain that surged through her torso, "hold her down," suddenly she couldn't move her arms or legs, but she moved up and down off the table, sweat dripping down her forehead and coating her hair, "dopamine!"

Everything seemed to stop, not completely and not totally, but it slowed down; she could hear her heart beating in her ears and the thumping in her chest slowing down, "get me her chart, and let her rest; we can't afford another shock episode like that one, her heart can't take it after such an extended hyper-sleep."

She tried to fight off the darkness, shaking her head back and forth muttering something even inaudible to herself, but there was an uncomfortable pin-prick against her arm and everything seemed blissful.

"Keep the sedatives on hand for the nurse on cycle tonight."

"Of course doctor."

It was his smiling face that she woke to see, his hair slicked back and the crinkles that were pressed beside his eyes.

"Penelope, what were you dreaming about?" She snuggled up to his bare chest, her hand resting against his pectorals before leaning up to kiss his throat tenderly, "you know I hate it when you call me by my full name, especially in bed." He chuckled, his hands weaving into her hair and petting it with a familiar softness that she had grown to love, "Penny, what were you dreaming about?"

"I had a nightmare, something awful that I can't even speak about."

"That you can't or won't darling?" He soothed his fingers over her hair, moving it around each curled tendril before tugging on it softly, "I won't push it."

She hummed under her breath, kissing his Adam's apple once more before his grip tightened on her hair, making her head get thrown back. She could see the pain etched on Kane's face, it contorted and he let out a hellish scream.

"Kane?" She questioned and watched in absolute horror as blood started to drip from his chest, a hole forming in his cavity before blood splattered on her skin, "Kane?" Pain emanated from her scalp as his hand continued to draw her head back. She screamed as blood continued to splatter on her, and it finally reached a crescendo as a small organism popped from his chest and let out a screech.

Kane was no longer there, it was just the alien and her.

She sprang up in bed, sweat dripped down the side of her face even down the bridge of her nose. She gasped for air, clutching her chest as she tried to still her frantic heart.

"You alright there?" The voice startled her; she almost jumped out of her skin before she looked at the chair beside her bed, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you."

Her throat was scratchy and sore,"you didn't."

The man that was sitting there was wearing a formal suit jacket with a red tie, brown hair, and dull blue eyes. He looked happier to see her than she was to see him, "did Kane scare you then?" Her eyes narrowed and she scowled at the smiling man, "what?" She sneered, and it took every bit of her strength not to throw off the scratchy sheet and hit the man. His smile quickly disappeared and it was replaced with an uncomfortable frown, "I, uh, I'm sorry I heard you muttering his name earlier."

Had he been sitting here watching her sleep? Her eyes narrowed even more before she dismissed it, not wanting to talk about it anymore, "where am I?"

"The Gateway Station, we're currently orbiting Earth." She nodded her head, biting down on her lip, "there is no easy way to break this to you," he scratched the back of his head and peered into her eyes.

"Break what? The company picked us up – where's Ripley?" Panic consumed her very being as she made way to stand up, but the man quickly pushed her back down, "God damn it where is Ripley!"

"Calm down, she's in the next room. She still hasn't woke up." The panic simmered as she lay back down, breathing out a sigh of relief, "can I see her?" The man shook his head.

"It wouldn't be smart until we know if there was any internal damage, but for the time being I think introductions are in order, I'm Carter Burke; I work for the company and you're Penelope Lucia Jarvis, the Chief Medical Officer on the Nostromo. It's a pleasure." His out stretched hand was extended for several moments, but when she made no move to shake it he pulled back.

"Why am I here?" She motioned to the hospital room around her. Burke sighed, pulling his hand through his hair and then looked up at her.

"Here's the thing, we found you and Ripley floating around in deep space. You've both been in hyper-sleep for a well, a pretty long time if the ships indicators can be trusted."

"How long are we talking? A year, two?" Penny felt groggy as she asked; she placed the palm of her hand against her forehead before laying her head against the pillow.

"Fifty-seven."

"Fifty-seven what? Weeks? Months?"

"Years Penelope, you've both been in hyper-sleep for fifty-seven years."

The information hit her like a ton of bricks and her vision blurred as hot tears flowed from her eyes, "fifty-seven?" Her voice was hoarse and it cracked as she asked for confirmation. What about her sister? Her parents and her grandparents? "I've been gone for fifty-seven years." The information shook her and she felt her body react in same as it started to shake.

"Please calm down; we've tracked down your next of kin."

It was too much. Her body shook violently and she felt pressure build up in the back of her head, "shit," he muttered as he stood from his chair, hitting a button on the wall nearby. There was a sort of alarm that rang out which caused her body to rack even more than it was before; convulsions blasted through her body like waves in the ocean, "nurse!" He yelled and before long the doors swung open, and in came a scrambling flow of nurses in white dresses and doctors in white coats.

"Move, move to the side, now!" There wasn't much she could make out besides Burke being pushed out of the room and then a flood of white covering her vision, "get her vitals down! Blood pressure is spiking, get it under control."

Her eyes flickered back and she could hear the beeping of the machine that monitored her heart slowly lowering before falling into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter Two will be up ASAP.