Bouvetøya Island, Antarctica – October 14th, 2004
A small submarine was descending into the depths of the ocean next to Bouvetøya Island. The three scientists on board were looking at the monitors on board, while the Weyland Industries' operator guided the sub further down into the dark pit below. Soon, the radar started beeping and a large white dot appeared on the sonar screen.
"Surface, this is exploration team, ID code whiskey, India, three, six, one," said one of the scientists through the radio.
"Exploration team, this is base camp," replied another man's voice, "what is your current status?"
"Surface, I think we have made contact with something big down here," said the scientist. "We're heading toward it to verify its nature."
"Roger that, please keep us posted on what you may find, over"
The sub operator pressed a button and two bright lights under the cockpit shot strong beams down into the bottom of the ocean. One of the scientists looked over the operator's shoulder and opened his eyes wide.
"Sir, what's that?" asked another scientist, looking at the video feed on another screen.
Right in front of the submarine, about a hundred feet below, a large, metallic, cylindrical structure lay crushed and wrinkled, already covered in ice. Lying next to it, its body crumbled and stiff, frozen and lifeless, there lay…
It had been nearly a week since Alexa 'Lex' Woods had returned to the civilization. Even though the expedition on Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica one month before had gone wrong, Weyland Industries had paid her a large sum of money, though they had confiscated the spear that the elder 'hunter' had given her before going back into space. She had managed then to move to a small apartment in DC, not before listening to the people of Weyland Industries promise her that they would contact her again.
Even though she had kept trying over and over to forget the events of Antarctica, she leaned under her bed and pulled out a small box, opened it and took out a piece of a sensationalist newspaper dated Oct 16th, 2004 and looked at the page that she had kept:
NUCLEAR FAILURE WIPES OUT TOWN
Gunnison, a small county in Colorado, has been completely destroyed due to a critical failure in an experimental nuclear reactor that was being tested on the local electrical plant. Several power shortages had been reported during the course of the night on the past October 12th, followed by a series of random explosions inside the plant. The government, alerted of the situation, deployed a military convoy in order to evacuate the people in town, but the nuclear reactor couldn't be contained and resulted in a disastrous meltdown, followed by a devastating explosion that wiped out the entire town and its whole population. No survivors have been reported so far.
Despite the government's explanations about the nature of the event, our correspondents have been asking questions across the nearby town and many witnesses have ensured that they had seen military jets flying toward Gunnison, as well as helicopters and armored vehicles. Also, a few people who requested to stay anonymous, have mentioned that they had seen a large object falling in flames into the forest surrounding Gunnison.
Question remains as we wonder if the disappearance of Gunnison County was actually an accident, as the government wishes to ensure, or if it was all a cover to prevent us from discovering what really happened. What could the government been trying to hide, that it was worth the sacrifice of an entire town full of innocent civilians?
Lex didn't know why she had thought this article to be of importance, but something about it made her feel uneasy. She looked at her watch and noticed it was almost noon, which meant she was running late for a job interview. She showered quickly, got dressed in a nice navy blue suit and left the apartment. Parked in front of the building, there was a limousine with the logo of Weyland Industries on one of the doors.
"Miss Woods?" asked a man in a black suit, exiting the limo.
"I'm sorry, I have no time for this," she replied, trying to walk away. The man reached her in no time and grabbed her arm.
"I'm sorry, but I must insist." Lex pulled her arm free and glared at the man. "I'm Ethan Harris. Mr. Weyland has requested that you're taken to his presence."
"Mr. Weyland is dead," said Lex. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm not talking of the late Mr. Charles Weyland," replied Mr. Harris. "I'm speaking on behalf of Mr. David Weyland, Mr. Charles Weyland's son."
Lex looked at Harris in surprise and admitted her defeat, allowing him to lead her back to the limo. She was already used to this routine, for during the past first two weeks after Antarctica, Weyland Industries had been sending agents to the hotel where she had been first staying and taking her back to one or another of their several operation buildings. While the driver drove toward the airport, Lex allowed herself to remember her first questioning right after she had returned from Bouvetøya:
"Ok, Miss Woods, let's start over again," said the man in front of her, a tanned man in a black suit who wore slightly tainted glasses, placing a recorder on the table.
Lex was in an interrogation room with a one-way mirror window for the fourth time during the day, and she was getting really tired. However, she knew that if she didn't cooperate she would only have to suffer longer.
"What do you want me to say?" asked Lex. "I've already told the three men before what happened."
"Yes, indeed," said the man, opening the folder in front of him and looking at the notes. "You said that you entered the pyramid as planned, even though you warned Mr. Weyland that you should all return to the surface, and that you found…" he looked at her, urging her to complete the declaration.
"We found a circular room full of long decayed corpses, mummified and dried to bones, which ribcages seemed to have been torn from the inside out," recited Lex in a monotonous tone of voice.
"Yes, yes, that's what you said," replied the man. He looked at the notes again and smiled. "You left a team there and Professor De Rosa took you further inside, right?" Lex nodded. "After a while, you reached another with a large sarcophagus, but there was not corpse inside but…" he looked at her again.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Lex, raising an eyebrow.
"Please, Miss Woods, I'm also trying to verify the notes."
Lex sighed and recited again, "we found three objects that seemed to be of advanced technology. They ended up being the weapons of the race who had constructed the pyramid in the first place."
"Tell me about this… race…" said the man, closing the folder. "They weren't… human, according to what you said."
"No," said Lex, "they were a race of hunters from…" she paused and looked at the man, who had a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, Miss Woods?" he asked.
"They were from another world," said Lex.
The man looked at her for a few seconds and removed his glasses, set them on the table, stood up and began walking around the room.
"You mentioned that these 'hunters', they weren't searching for human prey, were they?"
"No, we weren't their objective," said Lex.
"What were they hunting exactly?"
"When Mr. Stafford and his men removed the hunters' weapons from the sarcophagus, the pyramid started to shift and the team we left in the circular room was attacked. Soon, we started running into these creatures, 'serpents' the ancients called them, and the hunters engaged them in combat."
"You mean that Mr. Stafford and his men caused the death of the whole team save for you?" the man's tone had started to get stern.
"No," replied Lex. "The whole expedition was a trap set by the hunters so we could become the hosts of the serpents."
"The hosts?" said the man. "You mean, as you said on your previous declaration, that these serpents gestate within our bodies?"
"Is this really necessary?" asked Lex, starting to get annoyed.
"Just answer the question," replied the man.
"These serpents are bred by a sort of queen, live in some kind of a hive and…" she was interrupted when another man barged into the room and approached her questioner. She waited while the two of them conversed in low voices and then exited the room, leaving her alone.
Lex stood up and paced around the room for a few minutes before another man entered the room.
"Miss Woods, you are free to go," he said. "Please go to the front desk before you leave so you can claim your pay check for your services during the expedition."
"Will that be all at last?" she asked.
"We'll stay in contact," said the man, before motioning her out of the room.
Lex came back to the present when Mr. Harris announced that they had reached the airport. She exited the limo and Mr. Harris led her to the private jet waiting a few feet away.
Dallas was pacing around his cell, trying hard not to lose his temper. His brother Ricky had been locked away in a separate cell as well as Kelly and Molly, who had also been rescued when the helicopter went down after the destruction of Gunnison. It had been nearly a month since the event and they still hadn't been released, or even informed about why they were being held captive. Every day, someone slid a plate with food through an opening in the wall three times a day, and he had never received so much as an answer when he had asked any questions.
This time, whoever, he heard someone fiddling with the door lock and then the door swung open. Two armed men entered, followed by a Japanese woman in white robe, decorated with a strange logo with a 'Y' on the left chest pocket.
"Dallas, right?" she asked in a sweet voice.
"Where the hell am I? And, where is my brother?" he replied.
"I apologize for the isolation, Dallas," said the woman. "I'm Dr. Kimura, your brother is ok and completely recovered from his injuries. If you please follow me I will take you to him and Mrs. O'Brien, for there is a lot that we need to converse about." She exited the room.
Dallas looked at the two armed men and followed Dr. Kimura out of the room, followed closely by the two guards. The aisle outside was completely white, something he hadn't noticed before as he had been brought in blindfolded, and several doors seemed to be aligned along the way. The reached a crossroad and turned left, soon reaching an elevator door. Once inside, Dallas looked at Dr. Kimura and spoke again.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"I'm in no position to reveal any information," she replied.
"And who's in position?" he pushed.
"You will soon find out," she replied with a smile.
The elevator door opened and they stepped into a room with a large window. There was a large circular conference table in the middle of the room and a long table on one side, full of American food. Judging by the architecture outside, Dallas guessed that they were somewhere in…
"Are we in China?!" he asked.
"Japan, actually," replied Dr. Kimura. "Tokyo, to be more precise."
Dallas retort was lost when another door opened and a small girl came running toward him and embraced his legs tightly.
"Dallas!" she screamed.
"Molly!" replied Dallas in surprise. He looked behind the girl and saw Kelly, also escorted by a white-robed scientist and two guards. "Kelly!"
"Dallas, where are we?" asked Kelly.
"No idea," replied Dallas, patting Molly's head. "Where's…?" another door opened before he could finish and Ricky stepped into the room with a similar escort as theirs. "Ricky!"
"Dallas!" said Ricky, as he also embraced his brother.
"I will ask you to please get comfortable," said Dr. Kimura, motioning them toward the table with food. "Soon you will be able to ask any questions that you may have."
Dallas nodded and the scientists left, leaving the guards behind, while Molly ran to the table and started helping herself some fries into a plate. Kelly, Dallas and Ricky also sat at the table, but looked at the food feeling uneasy.
"Where are we?" asked Ricky, looking through the window.
"Tokyo," replied Dallas, "that's all I know."
"Why are we here?" asked Kelly.
"I don't know," replied Dallas, "but I'm sure it is because we weren't meant to survive Gunnison."
Kelly grabbed a plate and helped herself a slice of something that looked like turkey while Dallas paced around the room and Ricky stood by the window. Dallas couldn't stop wondering why they had been taken to Japan in the first place, and how could this people be involved in the events that led to the destruction of Gunnison County. He approached Ricky and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey," he said. "You ok?"
"Yeah," replied Ricky, "It's just that… well, I can't stop thinking of her, Jesse, you know? I keep replaying her death in my mind over and over again."
"It's ok," said Dallas.
"No, It's not ok!" shouted Ricky, brushing Dallas' hand and stepping away. "None of this shit is ok!"
"Hey!" said Dallas with a strong voice. "Molly's here!" The girl was eating some fries while looking at the two brothers arguing.
"I should have saved her, you know?" said Ricky, not looking at them. "If I had stopped her from running or ran faster after her…"
"It would be you who'd be dead," replied Dallas.
Ricky opened his mouth to retort but the door of one of the elevators opened again and two more guards came in escorting another Japanese woman with a stern look across her face and a silver briefcase in her hand. Dallas, Ricky, Molly and Kelly stared at her as she stepped into the middle of the room and looked at them, slightly relaxing her expression. She then motioned the guards to stand by the door while she left the briefcase on the conference table and motioned them to sit around it.
"Sorry to keep you waiting and for the isolation in which we have kept you the last weeks," she said. "It was a necessary measure to be taken in view of the recent events in which you were involuntarily involved."
"Who are you?" asked Dallas, approaching the table but not sitting down. Kelly and Ricky also approached.
"I'm Ms. Yutani, head of the Yutani Corporation," she replied. "What we're about to discuss is confidential and none of our words will be recorded in any way."
