Chapter 4
Miguel gave everyone the choice of coming along or staying behind. Tatiana was clearly out, and if she was staying so was Ethan. Marty decided he would be more useful staying put in a logistic capacity. Jude claimed he was going with because the situation in Sector 7 was too important not to see with his own eyes.
Abbie simply said, "I'm going too." As for Cynthia, she went where Miguel went.
Several hours later, the open-air bus approached the gate, a gigantic pair of industrial doors that dwarfed the surrounding wall. The walls around the sectors had been built to keep out the local wildlife, but Olivia quickly realized they would be entirely useless against creatures that could scale sheer surfaces as quickly as cover ground. Worse, they would hinder the escape of the human inhabitants they had been built to protect. She looked over at Miguel, who looked like he was having similarly grim thoughts.
The xenomorphs would likely as not ignore the gates themselves, but that had not prevented the gathered marines and local officials from reinforcing it with vehicles and stacked cargo containers. The enlisted men and women sat on and stood around the makeshift barricade waiting for orders, while the commanding officers appeared to be having a heated discussion in the control room.
As the bus slowed to a stop, two of the marines nearest them looked at one another. One of them, a woman with a look of authority, jerked her head toward the control room, and the other took off to inform their superiors of the new arrivals. Immediately following this exchange, two additional marines jumped down from their perch atop an APC, and approached the woman that Olivia presumed to be their sergeant. One of them asked her something that Olivia couldn't hear, receiving a brief nod in response.
Moments later, two men emerged from the control room, and Olivia was surprised to discover that she recognized them both. The younger man was Terence Harvey, a lieutenant she had worked with during her own time with the Corps. He was exactly the kind of transparently self-serving boot licker that ironically never amounted to anything, but her job had been to follow his orders, not to like the man. Shortly before she left active duty to pursue a career with Weyland Yutani, he suddenly expressed an interest in her. Nothing along the lines of sexual harassment, thankfully, as breaking his arms would have reflected poorly on her record. Olivia guessed that he just wanted an "in" with the Company and was hoping she could provide him with that. She politely turned him down, and had not heard from him since she began her new career.
The older man was Colonel Bill Gecko, who Olivia knew only by reputation. After publicly retiring as a war hero, he had been in charge of a number of classified missions on behalf of the Company. Olivia wasn't sure whether to be reassured or alarmed by his presence here.
As Miguel and the other passengers began to disembark, Harvey stepped forward.
"What the hell kind of operation are you trying to pull here?" he asked accusingly. Colonel Gecko said nothing, apparently willing to let the lieutenant beat his chest and get it out of his system. Miguel paused, trying to decide the appropriate response, but Olivia put her hand on his shoulder.
"I'll handle this one," she said, stepping down. On even ground she was still about five inches taller than Harvey. "The operation is above your pay grade, Lieutenant, but since we're all here I might as well fill you in. The genetics division of Weyland Yutani has developed what they believe will be, among other things, an effective deterrent to xenomorph infestations. Accordingly, the Colonial Marines will stand by to act in a support role while we carry out our mission."
"Yeah, I know all about it," Harvey sneered. "The company wants to give their new toy a test run." Olivia frowned. Someone was being far too cavalier with classified information.
"Hey, now, they're here to help," Miguel said.
"It's all right," said Olivia. "That's a bit of a cynical interpretation, but basically correct." She looked at Harvey. "At any rate, I don't see what you have to complain about. Didn't you always used to say that the Marine Corps weren't Weyland Yutani's lap dogs? I would think you'd be happy to see the Company taking care of its own problems. Maybe you're just upset about missing out on a chance to further your own career?" Harvey opened his mouth to speak, then shut it, then scowled and looked away. Colonel Gecko laughed out loud.
"It looks like you two know each other," he said. "And I'm guessing you know who I am."
"Yes sir, Colonel," Olivia said, saluting him. "And let me introduce Lilith. She's a very special girl, and hopefully she'll keep you from having to put marines in harm's way."
Lilith stepped out behind Olivia, and did her best to mimic Olivia's salute. During her preparations for the mission, she had read extensively about the Colonial Marines, learning everything she could about their history, missions, weapons and vehicles, and most importantly about their past encounters with the xenomorphs.
"It's an honor to meet you, Sir," she said. "I've read about you." The colonel smiled.
"Well now, the honor is all mine, young lady. As it happens, I've read about you as well. Some of it was frankly hard to believe, but I guess the universe is just chock full of unbelievable things these days. Anyway, I've got no problem having our boys sit this one out. We'll be here if you need us."
"I'm glad to hear it, Colonel," said Olivia. "We could really use a perimeter to keep the creatures contained. These walls aren't going to be much help on their own, but with some guns on top they just might do some good."
"You heard the woman," Gecko said to Harvey, who snapped the Colonel a salute, looked at Olivia like he wanted to give her a quite different gesture, and turned to give the men their orders. Miguel introduced his team to the Colonel, who called over the group of marines that had been watching the newcomers since they arrived. "This bunch here has volunteered to help you set up your base camp outside the hive, and generally do anything you need them to. Alice, why don't you introduce your team?"
"Yes sir," said the woman Olivia had noticed earlier. "To start, I'm Sergeant Alice Taylor. This is Corporal Clint Burbank. Over there is Jack Newhouse. The big guy is Samuel Verne, and last but not least is Julie O'Neil. Well, only least by size, at any rate."
Lilith looked them over one by one. Sergeant Taylor was broad shouldered and solidly built. Her hair and eyes were brown, and her features plain. She gave the impression of someone who had weathered many hardships, and come through them all the stronger for it.
Clint Burbank was by no means brawny, but was definitely fit. He had a face that struck Lilith as calm, kind, and a little bit sad. When he looked in her direction, his ice blue eyes paradoxically made her feel as if she was going to melt.
Jack Newhouse had the kind of figure Lilith had heard described as wiry. One corner of his mouth had a tendency to pull upwards as if he was thinking about something amusing. She couldn't quite get a handle on him, but that just made her all the more curious.
Samuel Verne was quite simply a monolith of a man, towering over even Olivia. His skin was a rich dark brown, which combined with his stern face seemed to pull all the light from the air around him. He was built like a wall of rock, and Lilith found herself wanting to climb him.
Julie O'Neil was short and had a boyish figure. She seemed unable to keep still, and it struck Lilith as if the girl had more energy than she could fit into her small frame. Her hair was short and sand colored, and her wide open eyes further added to her childlike appearance.
Lilith was feeling elated about meeting so many new people in one day, more than she had ever known on the space station. She had to keep reminding herself that she wasn't here for fun and games, and that the xenomorph infestation was a very real threat to the people of this planet. They were all counting on her, and it was important that she stay focused. Still, she decided, it was all right to be a little bit excited. After all, this was going to be her chance to prove herself to Reggie.
"They may not look like much," Taylor said, "but they're good to have around when the shit hits the fan. I'd trust any one of them with my life."
"Who doesn't look like much? I know you're not talking about me," said Newhouse. Taylor smirked.
"We had O'Neil take a look inside while we were waiting for you guys," she said.
"Inside the hive?" Lilith asked, raising her eyebrows.
"No, no. Inside the sector. Near the hive," explained O'Neil. "It's not all hive. Not yet. The bugs are working on it though."
"Did you see any survivors?" asked Miguel. Abbie's words had clearly been weighing on his mind.
"No, I'm really sorry. I mean, there still might be some, inside some of the buildings. Some of the other buildings, I mean, not the big one in the middle. Any survivors in there would be, um… not survivors." She winced. "At any rate, the aliens aren't going anywhere. Not just now I mean. They're staying inside the buildings for the most part. Sometimes they'll go from one to another, and I spotted a couple of them on rooftops like they were on watch duty. It feels like they're waiting for something. Or getting ready maybe."
"Watch duty," General Gecko repeated. "Now that's something new. Makes you wonder how smart these things might really be. But they didn't spot you while you were looking around?"
"No sir," Julie answered. "I mean, at least I don't think so. They didn't act like they noticed me. But you can't really tell where they're looking. I'm pretty good at staying out of sight, but I don't even know if they see like we do, you know?" Gecko nodded and took out a com panel.
"I've got the schematics for the sector here. I'd like you to draw a map showing the path you took getting in and out. If it worked for you it should work for Lilith. Can you do that?"
"Yes sir," she said, and took the offered panel. A few seconds later she had traced her route on the tablet and handed it to Lilith, who looked it over carefully before returning it to the General.
While they waited for the other marines to finish setting up the perimeter, Miguel and the others spent some time getting to know Sergeant Taylor's team a bit better. Lilith mostly listened as the others talked. Her own life experiences had been rather limited, so she focused on soaking up all the information she could. Most of that information came from Newhouse, who was clearly the most talkative of the bunch. His favorite thing to talk about was himself, followed by his squad and their past exploits. Burbank would occasionally chip in, usually correcting or expanding on something Newhouse had said. O'Neil hadn't been with the squad for as long as the others, but she would burst in enthusiastically when a mission she had been part of came up. Verne rarely spoke unless asked a direct question.
Sergeant Taylor was busy discussing contingency strategies with Colonel Gecko, and making sure the other marines knew their parts in those strategies if things went wrong, but she smiled and waved when Lilith looked in her direction.
Out of all the people present, it turned out that only Miguel, Burbank, and Verne were originally from Earth. Lilith was a bit surprised by that. She knew that of the nearly one thousand planets the human race had explored, only about fifty had been deemed suitable for colonization. Of those, most of the colonies were small, ranging from a few hundred thousand to a few hundred million people; by contrast, Earth had well over a hundred billion. Maybe there was something about living on another planet to begin with that made people more predisposed to space travel.
Burbank expressed curiosity about Xanadu. It turned out he was getting near the end of his term, and was looking for a good place to settle down. Miguel and Jude were happy to answer his questions, and Jude had turned to ask Abbie something when they all realized she was missing.
A few seconds later they heard her voice, arguing loudly with one of the marines at the gate. Miguel went to see what was going on.
"This lady here was trying to get past the gate," explained the private Abbie had been yelling at. Miguel could tell the man was a bit flustered, though he was trying not to look it. "She seemed to get kind of upset when I stopped her."
"I was not trying to get past the gate," Abbie argued, "I just wanted to take a look. And this gorilla here grabbed me."
"It's all right, she's with me," Miguel said. He turned to Abbie. "Listen, the man was just doing his job. When the marines have got a job, they take it seriously, and that's a very good thing for all of us. Everyone's a little tense right now, and we're not here to throw fuel on the fire." Abbie looked like she was about to say something else, but then relaxed her shoulders and nodded.
"Sorry, you're right. I overreacted," she said. "Sorry."
Some of the other marines had gathered around to see what was happening. Once they decided the situation was under control, they started to disperse.
Lilith suddenly realized that it had gotten quite dark. The seventeen hour day was a bit disorienting; it had been early afternoon when she and Olivia had first landed, and dusk when they arrived at the gate. The artificial lights, along with her engrossment with her new friends, prevented her from noticing that the sky had gone black until she happened to look upward.
"We usually try to get about 5 to 6 Earth hours of sleep a night," said Miguel. He'd noticed Lilith looking at the sky and realized it was about that time. They'd decided it would be best for Lilith to infiltrate the hive shortly after daybreak, when the aliens would be relatively dormant. "With the perimeter up, we won't have to worry as much about attacks in the night. I assume we can count on the marines to keep watch?"
"Yeah," said Burbank. "The rest of our squad will be on shifts so we can be rested for the mission." Miguel nodded.
"Okay, great. Olivia and Lilith… uh, Lilith, do you sleep?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't I sleep?"
"Right. Fair enough. Anyway, I know you're not used to Xanadu time yet. So you two can either try to get some shut-eye, or do whatever you need to get ready for tomorrow."
"I was with the marines long enough that I sleep when I can, where I can," Olivia said. "As for Lilith, well, it's up to you Lil, what do you think?"
"I'm tired. I think it's a good idea."
The marines had set up private tents for each of their guests, and it didn't take long before they were settled in for the night. Between Xanadu's naturally temperate climate and the slightly shorter nights, there was no significant drop in temperature from the day. As Lilith drifted off to sleep, she could still hear some of the marines occasionally talking outside, but she actually found the voices quite soothing. And somewhere further away, a quiet but insistent thrum that she didn't recognize, but that seemed somehow familiar.