The Abduction

A/N: After I enjoyed writing my other Alien fanfiction (Succubus), I wanted to try my hand at another, longer fanfiction. I'm aiming for this one to be about 6-7 parts, detailing the (short) existence of one of my favourites, Gilbert Kane, in Alien. Most of it will be based on the movie, some parts on the Alan Dean Foster novelisation, and other bits made up by me ~ This is only a short opening chapter, but the other sections will be longer :) Feedback is always appreciated c:

PART 1 - AMNIOTIC

With a slow, mechanical exhale, the tops rose off the cryosleep pods. Pure, white light flooded the sterile room. Screens and consoles flickered and blinked to life. One by one, the children were delivered into the world by their mother.

Kane was the first. Leisurely, he eased open his eyes. For a few moments, his body felt like a foreign object. He squinted down at his bare limbs and wondered what he was looking at. Like operating a puppet, he raised his right arm and held a hand up to the strange glow about him. Thick, viscous fluid dripped down his pale skin. It was cold - getting colder as his senses woke up.

Something was pressing against his neck. He reached up and pulled off a sensor attached to his pulse point. Its lethargic beats were beginning to quicken. With each rise and fall of his chest, deadened humming sounds faded in and out of his ears. An almost pleasant, airy dizziness shrouded his detached mind.

Inch by inch, he felt along the rim of the tube. His hands slipped along the sides, investigating the bed he had awoken in. It took a few tries but gradually, he managed to pull his weightless body from the cocoon. Glowing sparks drifted behind his eyelids at the movement - the first in he didn't know how long. He watched them until they disappeared, timing his breathing with their soft throbbing. The relaxing aura soothed him. He had to resist the urge to sink back into the comfort of the incubator.

Slowly, he shifted to place his feet on the ground. Chills caressed his every bone. The preservative liquid still swaddled him in a wet embrace, covering every inch of skin. He made a half-hearted attempt at wiping it away, and found a towel left on the floor. He wrapped it gratefully around his naked shoulders. It thawed him a little but more pleasant than that, traces of a warm, gentle breeze were beginning to breathe into the room.

Lured by its promise of comfort, he went to stand, only for his legs to wobble and buckle beneath him. He fell to his knees, shivering. Like a child, he crawled towards the open door. His hazy vision was beginning to clear, blurry forms taking firmer shape. He kept looking forward, down the curving, white corridor into the distance. In some way, he knew he had been here before - before the void of his dreamless, amniotic slumber.

On shaking limbs, he pulled himself up, leaning against the wall. Behind him, the others were stirring. Bits and pieces of fractured memories drifted into his mind, but not enough to ground him. All he wanted was to be warm.

Without a glance back, he left the aseptic bubble of the cryosleep chamber and entered the long hallway into the unknown.

(tbc)