ALIEN: HARD-HEADS
Disclaimer: The ALIEN Franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.
UPDATED 04/26/2017: I've fixed some spelling and grammar errors found throughout the chapter. Also, I have changed the description of the facehugger from pale or tan-skinned to pink with creamy yellow highlights, so as to match up better with, well, "you know what" in later chapters.
CHAPTER 04: FACEHUGGER
DATE: AUGUST 16th, 2137
TAROS STATION #4 OPERATIONS CENTER
Sitting in his chair while going over some spreadsheets, Fred Marcus heard a loud beep. He glanced over at one of the monitors and saw an emergency message on it. "Martin," Marcus said, getting the man's attention as he glanced away from his game of solitaire on a spare console. "What the hell?" Martin asked as he stood up from his station and walked over to the terminal with the emergency message on the screen.
Marcus reached over and grabbed the headset from Martin. "Ack!" Martin cried out as the cord yanked on his shirt. Marcus saw that the emergency message was from the air station just outside of the elevator in mine shaft C. "This is Operations Director Marcus, who is this?" he asked into the headset.
"This is Fairbank! Sir, we've run into some trouble down here!" Fairbank cried out in a panicked tone. "Fairbank, what do you mean by trouble? What's happened?" Marcus asked him urgently. "Eastman; he... something inside the ship attacked him!" Fairbank exclaimed. "Say that again? Something... attacked him? Something alive?" Marcus asked in confusion.
Martin looked at one of the monitors for the elevator cameras and saw two men outside of the elevator doors. One was standing up, while the other was lying down, with something on his helmet. "Hey, Fred. Take a look at this," Martin said as he grabbed the lapels of Marcus's shirt and tugged, forcing the man to look at the screen.
"Why is he on the ground?" Marcus asked himself quietly. "Fairbank, I need you to be calm. Who else is out there with you right now?" Marcus asked him. "The corporate suit. Garfield! We went into the ship to collect some pieces of the wall for study, and then we found a hole, and Eastman lost his flashlight and tried to get it back, and this thing attached itself to his face!" Fairbank explained in a panicked tone.
Marcus took off the headset and covered the microphone. "Martin, go get Burns or someone and have them go down to the mining elevator and keep the doors closed. Have Elliot get some equipment and see if he can go outside to help," Marcus said. Martin nodded his head and stood up from his chair, running out of the room.
Marcus then put the headset back on. "Okay, Fairbank, I need you to stay outside with the others until we can get Elliot out there with some medical equipment. Do not attempt to return inside," Marcus said.
"But what about Eastman!? He could die out here!" Fairbank exclaimed. "Fairbank, you know how quarantine works. Twenty-four hours for decontamination," Marcus said firmly. "But Eastman-" "Put Garfield on the line," Marcus demanded. "What?" Fairbank asked him.
"I said, put Garfield on the line. I want to talk to him," Marcus said. Fairbank agreed to retrieve Garfield, leaving the line static for a few minutes until Garfield spoke into it. "Hello, Mister Marcus," Garfield said.
"Hello, Mister Garfield. You got one of my men into a bad situation," Marcus said darkly. "He chose to venture down into the hole on his own. He could have easily told me off and returned with pieces of the wall like we'd planned," Garfield said defensively. "What did you want with pieces of the ship?" Marcus asked him.
"Physical samples to return home with. I'd be in for a bonus myself if I had something to show for this trip," Garfield admitted. Marcus scowled at the admission, but held his tongue as he restrained himself from making a nasty retort.
"Okay, I need to know more about Eastman's condition. What exactly has attached itself to him?" Marcus asked Garfield. "Some kind of... alien life form," Garfield said hesitantly.
"Alien? Is it hostile?" Marcus asked. "It's attached itself to Eastman's face! What exactly would you call that!? I mean, it could be frenching him or it could be eating his flesh! I don't know!" Garfield retorted defensively. "So, it's less hostile than you at the moment," Marcus commented out loud, slapping his hand over his mouth when he realized what he'd said.
"Is there any other sign of injury on Eastman?" Marcus asked after a minute. "What do you mean?" Garfield asked in return. Marcus took a breath to calm himself.
"I mean, is there any blood? Anything that looks severe... other than the face-thing?" Marcus asked him. "Well, he did fall onto his back, so I think that his suit's air supply could be in trouble soon," Garfield replied, remembering the dents he saw in the external portions of the air system.
"Shit," Marcus muttered. "Okay, you're inside that air station with its own little airlock, right?" Marcus asked him. "Yes. You want me to bring Eastman in here so that he can survive if his suit's damaged?" Garfield asked him. "Yes," Marcus replied. "Yes, that's exactly what I want you to do."
"You want me to get him inside?" Garfield asked him. "Yes, get him inside," Marcus said firmly. "I understand. He'll be inside shortly," Garfield said before hanging up.
Marcus took off the headset and let out a sigh. "Jesus H. Christ!" he spat out in anger and frustration as he kicked a chair. "Shit!"
THE MINING ELEVATOR LOBBY
Alexandra Burns leaned against the wall next to the main airlock doors, wearing her usual attire of a brown flight jacket and a cowboy hat. "Make sure that no one comes in or out," she said to herself with a British accent. "Unless he's a knight from Camelot," she added with a snicker as she remembered a scene from a movie she'd watched with her parents countless times during her teenage years.
Her jovial attitude changed, however, when she heard a mechanical noise and looked up to see the lights on the airlock doors changing colors. "What the... oh shit!" Burns exclaimed as she realized what was happening. She ran over to the nearest comm-station and called the operations center. "Marcus, someone's using the elevator!" Burns exclaimed.
"But I told... that son of a bitch! Keep those airlock doors sealed! Do NOT let them inside," Marcus barked over the phone. Burns nodded her head before hanging up the phone and rushing back over to the airlock doors. She took out her access card and slid it through the reader before punching in a lockdown code.
She hit one wrong button by mistake and soon had to redo the sequence again, entering her authorization code as the lights on the side of the elevator lit up, one by one, indicating which level the elevator was on as it neared the top. The final light at the top of the level indicator had just been lit when she managed to lock down the elevator. She rested her head against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief.
The communications phone on the wall next to her soon rang, interrupting her reverie. Picking up the phone for internal elevator communications, Burns listened to a slightly muffled voice yelling out over it. "This man needs immediate medical attention! Whoever's listening, you have to let us out!"
"I can't do that," Burns said sharply. "We have a quarantine procedure for a reason. Now, we can begin decompression and give you air in there while we prepare some emergency medical supplies from one of the medical kiosks in the lobby, but we can't open these doors until the area is locked down tight," Burns explained.
"Eastman could die before that happens, dammit!" Garfield snapped. Burns slowly drew a breath before letting it out. "I... I know," she said with a frown. "But I can't jeopardize the rest of the station," she said resolutely.
"You'd do the same in my position," she added.
"This is one of your own men! Don't you care what happens to him!?" Garfield shrieked over the phone. "Yes, Mister Garfield, I care. But I also care about the other people in the station as well," Burns replied firmly.
A few minutes later, one of the doors to the room slid open and Elliot walked inside, pulling a gurney and pushing a tray with medical supplies on it. He looked over at Burns after closing the door. "Go get a pressure suit on or leave the room," he said to her. Burns nodded her head and removed her jacket and hat before grabbing a pressure suit from one of the lockers.
When she had suited up and attached an air hose to one of the air stations attached to the wall, she retrieved her hat and placed it on her helmet. Elliot looked at her incredulously before making his way over and grabbing his own suit. After making sure that the suit's air supply was filled, he began locking down the room.
"I have a containment wrap we can place over him so that we can move him to the medical lab. But wait for me to give you the signal," Elliot said to her. Burns nodded her head in understanding as she waited for Elliot's signal to unlock the doors to the elevator.
When Elliot had his gear ready, he gave her an OK sign. Burns nodded her head and entered the de-locking code for the elevator, before entering the access code to open the doors. The doors slowly slid open, and the two conscious men inside looked at her. Burns glanced over at Elliot, who had the gurney set low to the floor.
Elliot looked at Garfield and Fairbank before gesturing for them bring Eastman over to him. "Come on, let's get him on the gurney," Elliot said as he helped the two men carry Eastman's body out of the elevator. Burns waited until they had exited the elevator before closing the doors.
THE MEDICAL LAB...
Elliot made sure that the dual locking transparent doors of the medical lab, which effectively formed a small airlock, were both shut securely before doing anything else. He then made his way over to the doors that separated the lab from the infirmary and locked them down as well before returning to the gurney. Looking at Burns, Fairbank, and Garfield, Elliot ordered them to keep their suits on as he opened the containment wrap and uncovered Eastman.
He was just preparing to removed Eastman's pressure suit when he heard Marcus's voice over the intercom. "Attention, all personnel. The station's medical lab is currently under lockdown, as is the mine until further notice. I want Lieutenant Goodwin to meet me outside the the medical lab in half an hour. All other personnel are to remain where they are until further notice. Thank you."
Elliot glanced over at Garfield. "Well, I think we know why he's coming down here," Elliot said to Garfield. Garfield remained silent as Elliot resumed his task of removing Eastman from his pressure suit. "Burns, I may need your assistance," Elliot said after a few minutes.
"What do you need?" she asked him. "Grab a cutting tool. Scissors, a scalpel, whatever. But be careful with it. The helmet is stuck, and the rest of the suit won't come off without it," Elliot explained. Burns nodded her head and began rummaging through various cupboards and cabinets in her search for a blade.
Elliot kept the medical lab almost immaculately orderly, and that meant nothing was lying out and about when not in use.
Eventually, Burns found a pair of heavy-duty scissors inside a cupboard. She grabbed them by the blades and walked over to Elliot. "Here," she said as she handed them to Elliot. Elliot looked at the instrument as he retrieved it from her hand and began cutting around the helmet section of the suit. "This may take a while," Elliot said as the material of the suit proved itself to be very thick, making the cutting process rather arduous.
In fact, it took nearly half an hour for Elliot to cut around the helmet area, and it was right as he was removing the rest of the suit that Marcus arrived outside of the lab's doors. The lab's wall-mounted phone/intercom system rang, with a red LED flashing above it. "Burns, please answer that," Elliot requested.
The pilot quickly made her way over to the com system, brushing past Garfield and Fairbank. "Hey there, Fred," Burns said through her suit into the phone. "Burns? Burns, please put Mister Garfield on the line," Marcus requested with restrained anger in his voice.
"Sure thing, Fred. Hey, Garfield! Get your ass over here," Burns called out. Garfield quickly marched over to the com system. "Hello, Marcus," Garfield said over the com.
"Hello to you, too, Garfield. I told you to get Eastman into the com-shack that was in the mine. You've put this entire station at risk by violating quarantine procedures," Marcus said with restrained anger.
"Eastman's life was on the line!" Garfield retorted heatedly. "And just who was it that wanted to go inside the ship again in the first place!?" Marcus asked him in response. Garfield almost growled in frustration before he took a breath to calm himself.
"Fine. I am responsible for his being in the mine. But that's why I brought him back to the station as soon as possible!" Garfield exclaimed. There was a pause before Marcus spoke to him again.
"Is that so? In that case, you'd better get cozy, because you ain't leavin' this station until we've gotten that thing off of Eastman and made sure that he's okay," Marcus said over the com. His tone of voice brokered no room for argument. Garfield merely nodded his head in reluctant understanding.
Meanwhile, Elliot was almost finished removing the helmet from Eastman's body. "Aaaanndd... presto!" Elliot said as he finally removed the helmet. Fairbank and Burns looked on as Elliot held the two pieces of the helmet in his gloved hands before stepping back to view the pink-skinned organism that had attached itself to Eastman's face.
"Jesus Christ," Burns muttered under her breath as she looked at the sight. "Are those... fingers?" she asked as she saw the creature's thin bony limbs wrapped around the sides of Eastman's head. Behind both sets of limbs, just before the tail protruded, were what looked like bladders of some kind. The bladders were slowly inflating and deflating in a rhythmic fashion, coinciding with the rise and fall of Eastman's chest. The creature had no visible eyes, and the tail itself seemed to be segmented in appearance. While the whole of the creature was pink in color, there were faint creamy yellow-colored bands in certain places, such as the knuckles of each finger-limb, and every other segment of the segmented tail. She had never seen anything like it in her life. This thing was, for lack of a better word, alien.
Taking a closer look at the creature, Elliot looked down at the creature's tail, which was wrapped around Eastman's throat. Elliot narrowed his eyes at the sight. "Clever little bastard," he muttered, causing Burns and Fairbank to look at him.
"What?" Fairbank asked him, confused. Elliot glanced up at him before pointing at the tail. "It's already got itself in a defensive position," Elliot explained with a frown.
"Is there any way that we can get it off?" Burns asked him. Elliot sucked in a breath before letting out a sigh of contemplation. "Well... I think we should get him on the examination table first," Elliot said as he walked over to the first exam cabinet. There was a keypad on the side of it, along with a small LED screen. Elliot pressed a few keys and opened the lid of the cabinet before pressing another set of keys to make the examination table slowly protrude out of it in a clock-wise fashion, slowly spinning until it stopped in the center, facing outwards.
"Let's get him on the table," Elliot said before moving forward. Burns and Fairbank both helped lift Eastman off of the gurney and onto the table. Burns accidentally touched one of the limbs of the facehugger as she lifted Eastman's head, causing the tail to coil tighter around the comatose man's throat.
"Shit!" Burns hissed as she saw the tail moving, prompting Garfield to pause his conversation with Marcus and look over in their direction. "What? What happened?" Elliot asked her with concern. "I touched it... and it wrapped its tail around him tighter," she explained.
"Just get him onto the table," Elliot said as the trio gently set Eastman's body down on said table. Elliot walked over to the control panel again and pressed a key for the table to spin back into the cabinet. Burns stepped back as Garfield walked up behind her.
"So, what happened?" Garfield asked, causing Burns to jump slightly. "You shit! Don't sneak up on me," Burns spat at him angrily. "Sorry," Garfield muttered.
After the table was secured inside the cabinet, Elliot pressed another key and closed the cabinet's transparent plexiglass door. After it closed shut, he opened a small flap covering the rest of the control panel and pressed several more keys, activating the scanner inside. Elliot walked over towards the front of the case and looked at a monitor above it to see the results of the scan as it progressed.
After a minute, the screen showed a CAT-scan of the facehugger attached to Eastman's head, with a long, dark tube being seen running through his esophagus, all the way down into his chest. Elliot raised an eyebrow at the sight, Burns scrunched her face in confusion, Fairbank stared blankly, and Garfield quietly inhaled with a knowing look on his face, but he made certain to cover his expression so that no one would notice.
"What the hell is it doing?" Burns asked. Elliot looked back at the cabinet, seeing Eastman's chest slowly rise and fall. Looking back at the screen, Elliot furrowed his brows and frowned.
Letting out a sigh, Elliot made his way over to the com system near the doors. "Marcus, do you want me to attempt to remove the alien from Eastman?" Elliot asked him. "I need to know what all is going on first. How is it attached to him? What does it look like? How risky would it be?" Marcus asked him.
"I'll need time to perform a greater examination of the organism. But, if you want to know more, you should probably come in here," Elliot replied. "Are the others okay? Are Burns and Fairbank at risk of being contaminated?" Marcus asked him.
"Neither of them were exposed to the atmosphere along with the organism. They've been in their suits the entire time," Elliot replied. There was a moment of silence before Marcus spoke again.
"Alright. Send them over to the infirmary. I still want you to check on them, but tell them that they can remove their suits once they've exited the room. I need to know what the risk of contamination is if I open this door," Marcus said. Elliot nodded his head in agreement.
"Give me a couple of hours to examine this... thing, and I might be able to see if it harbors anything contagious. What should I do with Garfield?" Elliot replied. "Keep him with you. Let him join the others in the infirmary, but don't let him leave until I give the OK. Understand?" Marcus responded.
"Yes. I understand," Elliot replied with a curt nod inside his helmet before hanging up. He turned around to face the others. "Burns, Fairbank, and Garfield; you may head into the infirmary and remove your pressure suits. Please keep the doors shut tight and do not leave the infirmary until I perform a brief examination on each of you," Elliot said firmly. The trio nodded their heads before walking over to the dual airlock doors between the infirmary and the medical lab, walking inside and waiting for the lab-side door to close before opening the infirmary-side door.
Walking over to the examination cabinet, Elliot pressed a key and opened the cover before the table slowly spun outward again. He walked over to a cabinet and removed a set of surgical tools and some syringes. He prepared his tools on a small tray with wheels before wheeling it over to the table.
He then walked over to the airlock doors and made certain that they were locked before returning to Eastman's side. Taking a syringe, he tested it to make sure that there was no air stuck in it before grabbing a wash cloth and placing it next to Eastman's head. He gently pressed the needle against one of the facehugger's legs, scanning it for signs of reaction.
Looking over at the tail, which was still wrapped tightly around Eastman's throat, Elliot closed his eyes and let out a breath. "Here we go," he told himself as he gently pushed the needle tip forward, piercing the creature's hide ever so slightly. He checked the tail again before pushing forward more, when something unexpected happened.
The point where he had inserted the needle shot out a yellow-green substance. The substance landed on the right arm of his suit and it began to eat away at it. Elliot's eyes widened as he brought back the syringe, only to see that the needle had been corroded and rendered unusable as he dropped the syringe onto the tray and quickly began taking off his suit.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Elliot hissed as he quickly removed the suit and its layers before stepping away to the side. He quickly grabbed a pair of tongs and held the suit off of the floor as he watched the hole grow larger in the arm, before the gloved area fell to the floor and continued dissolving. He quickly grabbed it and placed it on top of the rest of the suit to keep it from hitting the floor.
Elliot quickly opened a nearby drawer and retrieved a small carton of baking soda. He then returned to the dissolving suit and opened the carton before pouring a small amount onto the suit, slowing down the harsh chemical before it stopped eating away at what was left of the pressure suit. Only parts of the air supply system were still intact, along with some outer portions of the fabric and other materials.
"Son of a bitch," Elliot muttered as he stood up.
"Elliot! What's going on? What's happening!?" Marcus cried out over the intercom. Elliot walked over to the com system. "Fred, I'm afraid that removing this thing from Eastman is going to be more difficult than I'd anticipated," Elliot said.
"Why? What happened?" Marcus asked him urgently. Elliot rubbed his temples with the palm of his free hand before mussing his hair. "Well... the damn thing appears to have a highly corrosive base for blood," Elliot replied.
"It... what?" Marcus asked him, confused. Elliot inhaled before letting out a sigh. "Its blood, Marcus, is highly corrosive. It ate through my pressure suit and would have eaten through the floor if I hadn't doused it with water," Elliot explained.
"It's got acid for blood?" Marcus asked him. "Possibly. I'd classify it more as a corrosive base, actually," Elliot responded. "I neutralized it... to a degree at least, with some baking soda, which is amphoteric, so... it could be either one at this point," Elliot added.
"So... what are you gonna do now?" Marcus asked Elliot after a minute of silence. Elliot leaned against the wall and looked over at Eastman and the facehugger. "Well... I guess I'm gonna have to just carefully secure samples of its skin and check for contagions that way, although with how its blood behaves, I'm beginning to wonder if it's at all possible for this thing to carry any micro-bacteria," Elliot replied thoughtfully.
"Still... I'm going to need a few hours to run some tests, on both this thing and Eastman," Elliot added with a sigh. "However long you need, Elliot. Just make sure that this station is safe from contamination," Marcus said over the phone. "Understood. Should I let the others leave the infirmary yet?" Elliot asked him in response.
"You said that they weren't exposed to this... thing, right?" Marcus asked him. "That is correct," Elliot replied. "Okay then. Let them out. When you're done with your tests, let me know. I'll have Goodwin post someone outside the room for security, just in case," Marcus said.
"Thank you. I should have some answers in a few hours. Until then," Elliot said before hanging up.
THE RECREATION ROOM, THIRTY MINUTES LATER...
"Wait, wait, wait... say what?" Anna Torres asked incredulously from her spot by the pool table. Anna Torres, the station's main electrical engineer and computer guru, had dark red hair, a mole on her left shoulder, and dark brown eyes. "An alien life form attached itself to Eastman's face," Burns said. "An alien? Are you fucking kidding me?" Jeff Green asked incredulously.
"Right. You'll accept the existence of the alien ship, but not a living alien itself," Vince Hoffman snarked. "Well, that ship's been buried in this moon for thousands of years! How could anything in there still be alive after all this time?" Green rebuked.
"He's got a point," Torres said as she leaned against the pool table. "'Cause it's different than us, see? 'Cause it's a fucking alien," Burns said harshly from the stool that she was sitting on, after taking a shot of her whiskey, a bottle of J & B Rare Blend, catching everyone's attention. She had grabbed her jacket and cowboy hat after leaving the infirmary and was now wearing them again, with her cowboy hat resting on the back of her neck as it hung by a string around her throat.
"Um, should you really be drinking at a time like this?" Bowman asked her. Burns looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a frown before taking another drink as a response. "Right," Bowman said under his breath with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Are there more of those things in the ship?" Hoffman asked. "Possibly," Garfield said from where he was sitting. Everyone turned their attention to him. "Well, Eastman did say that he saw several trenches full of egg-like objects covered with a blue mist," he elaborated.
"What the hell was Eastman thinking?" Green asked. "He dropped his flashlight and went to retrieve it," Garfield answered. Fairbank let out a sigh of frustration from his spot against the wall. "Yeah. He always did have this compulsion for not leaving equipment behind if he could help it," he said.
Everyone was relatively quiet for a minute after that, until Green spoke up again. "What's gonna happen to us?" he asked. Everyone looked at him curiously. "Well, you know... has Elliot found any diseases on the... uh..."
"The facehugger?" Garfield suggested for him, prompting everyone else to look at him curiously. "Facehugger?" Burns asked him. "Well, you saw it, Burns. What else would you call that thing?" Garfield replied, causing her to subtly nod her head in silent agreement.
"Yeah, the face... hugger. I mean, has Elliot found any diseases on it yet? Is it carrying a plague or something? Are we all doomed?" Green elaborated after catching his wind again.
"When Elliot finishes his tests on the facehugger, he'll let us know what he's found," Garfield said confidently as he looked at the floor. Bowman raised an eyebrow at his superior, curious as to why the man had seemingly changed his opinion on the droid. Garfield glanced over at him and saw his curious expression. "What?" Garfield asked him.
"Earlier, you weren't exactly fond of Elliot. What's with this confidence in him all of the sudden?" Bowman asked him. Garfield shrugged his shoulders. "I was merely unhappy that I wasn't told about him being an android who... doesn't have the most polished history," Garfield said. "That being said, I appreciate his efforts to keep us safe from harm," he added.
Bowman tilted his head quizzically, but otherwise said nothing as he processed Garfield's words, not quite finding himself able to take the man at face value.
"So... I mean, like, are we gonna have to go into quarantine or something?" Green asked again, gesticulating with his arms.
"Like the suit said, wait for Elliot to tell us what he's found. Then we'll go from there," Burns said before glancing around the room. Milo and Rains were both sitting down near an air hockey table in the far corner of the room. "Yo, Rains, how's the shuttle coming along?" Burns asked the engineer.
"Shuttle's doing fine. We just started the third automated systems check before heading up here. It'll be another seven hours or so before it's done," Rains replied. Burns nodded her head before taking another shot from her whiskey bottle. "Uh, do remember to sober up before the final systems check, please," Milo asked.
"Yeah, this is my last sip," Burns said before capping the bottle. "Happy?" she asked as she looked at the two engineers. Milo and Rains both looked at each other before nodding their heads in unison. "Mm-hm, yeah. Yeah, we're happy now," Rains said with a smirk. Burns rolled her eyes and flipped them off in response.
"Right back at ya," Rains said as he returned the gesture with a grin.
THE MEDICAL LAB
Elliot looked at the monitor in front of him as it analyzed the skin samples that he had collected from the facehugger. He'd very carefully scraped small pieces of it from its back and one of the digits, making sure to avoid going too deep. The data on the screen showed an interesting combination of elements.
"Fascinating," Elliot said to himself. The facehugger was shedding its cells and replacing them with polarized silicone, making it a remarkably durable organism. "Highly adaptable," Elliot muttered to himself before glancing over at the alien. "But... just what is your purpose?" he asked rhetorically before returning his attention to the screen.
He brought up the scanned images from earlier and studied them. "Why are you keeping him alive?" he asked under his breath as he glanced back at the facehugger again. "What exactly are you doing with him?"
Furrowing his brows, Elliot got up and walked over to a cabinet to retrieve a wrapped set of blood sample equipment. Taking the needles, syringe, and capsules out very gently, Elliot prepared to take a blood sample, not from the facehugger, but from Eastman. It was time to see if Eastman was carrying any known pathogens or other contaminants from his contact with the alien.
THREE HOURS LATER...
"Yes, I'm sure," Elliot said into the com system. "There's no sign of bacterial contamination or other known pathogens. The computer analysis was extremely thorough," he continued. "You can come on down and help me try to remove it at your convenience. I'll be waiting. Oh, and one more thing. Um, please bring Lieutenant Goodwin and one other person of your choosing with you," he said before hanging up.
Elliot looked back over at the contained examination cabinet, where he had placed Eastman and the facehugger two hours earlier. Walking over to a large cabinet and a set of drawers, he opened the doors and retrieved some gowns and face masks, along with some goggles that were in desperate need of being cleaned. "How did I let you get this dirty?" Elliot asked as he took the goggles over to a nearby washing station.
Fifteen minutes later, the doors slid open and Marcus entered the room, with Garfield and Goodwin trailing behind him. Lieutenant Samantha Goodwin, the head of security for the station, stood at 5 feet and 3 inches tall. She had curly jet black hair that was cut short to fit under her cap. She wore the standard blue security uniform with patch on the breast showing her rank. She was also carrying an extended-prong taser, about 2.5 feet long, in her hands. There was a rubber cap on the end of the taser for safety, and she was wearing gloves with rubber pads for extra safety.
Walking over to the contained examination cabinet, Marcus and Goodwin looked inside at the comatose body of Eastman, along with the facehugger currently attached to his face. "What the hell is that thing?" Goodwin asked with a grimace on her face. "It's... an alien," Garfield said in a matter-of-fact manner.
Turning around from the washing station, Elliot prepared to greet the others, when he noticed that the doors were still open. "Were you people raised in a barn? Close the damn doors!" Elliot snapped at them. Goodwin and Garfield both looked at Elliot in surprise at his tone, while Marcus simply glared at the droid before walking over the control panel and pressing the button to close them manually.
"You should have told us that the inner door controls were adjusted for manual usage," Marcus said as he walked over to Elliot. "I... I'm sorry, Fred. I forgot," Elliot said apologetically. "Yeah, well... try to remember to tell us next time, okay? I'm not fond of getting yelled at for something I wasn't told about," Marcus said in response.
"So, how are we supposed to remove this thing from Eastman's face?" Goodwin asked. Elliot walked over to her and handed her a pair of clean goggles. He handed the other pair to Marcus, leaving only himself and Garfield without any eye protection. "An attempt at removal with only one of us will be next to impossible, so... I think that if three of us work together to pry this thing off of Eastman, with one of us handling the tail, we can get it off," Elliot said.
"Goodwin, if possible, I'd like for you to use that taser on the creature after we remove it, to stun it into submission," Elliot said.
"Why not have her stun the damn thing with it now? It might make it easier for us to remove the thing," Marcus suggested. "Because the creature is still physically attached to Eastman," Elliot replied. "The electrical current could flow through the creature and into his body. If the facehugger doesn't choke him to-" "Wait, the what?" Goodwin asked him mid-sentence.
"The facehugger," Elliot said. "Face...hugger?" Marcus asked him. Garfield silently glanced between Marcus, Goodwin, and Elliot. Strange minds think alike, Garfield thought to himself as he realized that Elliot had come up with the name by himself, without any contact with Weyland-Yutani resources or personnel to provide it to him.
Garfield then cleared his throat. "In the man-um, droid's defense, what else would you call that thing?" Garfield asked the others. Marcus and Goodwin looked back over at Eastman before returning their attention to Elliot and Garfield.
"Well, I guess that's as good a name as any," Marcus said. "So, if we manage to remove the... facehugger, Elliot, what do we do with it afterward?" Marcus then asked the physician. "I have a containment unit that we can place it in for the time being. There's no way to properly sedate it, however, as its... blood, is highly corrosive to most of the materials in this room," Elliot replied.
"Wait... this thing bleeds acid!?" Goodwin asked him incredulously. "Well, I'm leaning more towards it being a base, but either way its blood is highly corrosive," Elliot said. "Anyway, as I was trying to say, if the facehugger doesn't choke Eastman to death with its tail first, then the electric current certainly will," Elliot finished.
Everyone slowly nodded their heads in agreement. "We have to remove this thing intact," Elliot added firmly. "Right. So... what exactly do you have in mind?" Marcus asked Elliot.
Wearing surgical gloves and a face mask, Garfield slowly reached for the tip of the facehugger's tail, while Elliot and Marcus slowly attempted to grip their hands around the legs of the creature. Marcus gulped as he slowly tried pulling the nearest finger away from Eastman's face, while Garfield slowly attempted to get his gloved hand underneath the tail and between Eastman's throat. Only the very tip of the tail was pliable at first.
"Come on," Garfield muttered with furrowed brows as he used both hands in an attempt to pry the tail off of Eastman's throat. As he slowly managed to get his right hand fully between Eastman's throat and the bottom of the tail, clenching his fast around the tip, Garfield felt the rest of the muscular appendage begin to tighten itself again, crushing his hand against Eastman's throat.
"It's on to us," Garfield warned through clenched teeth, glancing up at Marcus and Elliot. Focusing on their tasks, Elliot and Marcus nodded their heads in understanding. "Just keep it from asphyxiating him," Elliot ordered him.
Elliot attempted to grab two legs and push them together to get them off, but they wouldn't budge, and Garfield let out a hiss as the tail tightened around his hand and Eastman's throat once more. Glaring at the offending appendages, Elliot heard Marcus swear as he, too, failed to remove the limbs.
Elliot attempted to remove a leg again, this time seeing some of the skin on Eastman's face stretch slightly as he pulled it up. He quickly let go of the limb. "It's not coming off without his face attached to it," Elliot said.
"Um, I can't feel my hand anymore," Garfield whined. Elliot and Marcus both looked over at him and then at Eastman's throat, where the tail was crushing Garfield's right hand. "Keep your hand there. That's the most progress any of us have made so far," Elliot said.
"Well, if I hold it there much longer, I think this thing's gonna keep it as a souvenir," Garfield retorted.
Elliot looked down at the facehugger's legs again. "Maybe... if we had some kind of lubricant, or perhaps a change in temperature," Elliot muttered to himself. Soon, an idea formed in his synthetic brain. "Marcus, stay where you are," Elliot said as he marched around the table and over to the washing station.
Elliot knelt down and opened a cabinet under the sink to retrieve a bucket and some sponges, as well as some wash cloths. He placed the bucket in the sink and began running the water, setting it to warm. The others looked at him questioningly.
"Elliot, what are you doing?" Goodwin asked him. Elliot waited until the bucket was filled before giving a reply. "I'm going to try something new," he said as he carefully carried the bucket over to the examination table and placed it on a nearby tray. He partially submerged a washcloth before applying the wet section to one of the alien limbs.
Elliot began rubbing the entire limb with the warm wet cloth before gently placing his free hand's finger around the limb. He pressed the soaked cloth further against the limb to let the water seep under the limb and between the skin. "Come on. That's it," Elliot said quietly as he slowly began lifting the lone limb up from Eastman's face, seeing a red mark on his skin from where the digit had adhered itself earlier.
Elliot began applying the technique to a second limb, and found himself moving that one as well soon. "I think we've got it now," Elliot said with a grin. Marcus sucked in a breath with a smile before grabbing a cloth and submerging it as well. The two men were soon slowly lifting the front end of the facehugger off of Eastman's head, to the point where they could see part of the tube it had inserted down his throat... until the tube expanded.
The facehugger limbs began twitching, and its tail loosened itself before tightening once again, causing Garfield to cry out in pain as he felt the intense pressure begin to stress the bones in his hand. "Oh shit, it's gonna break my hand! It's breaking my hand!" Garfield yelled painfully. Elliot looked over at Garfield, who was now hissing in pain through clenched teeth.
"Come on! Just a little bit-oh no. Oh no!" Elliot exclaimed as Eastman started to seize. He began convulsing as the engorged proboscis inside his throat and esophagus stopped supplying him with its breathing mixture. The bladders on the side of the creature had also stopped inflating, and were now inert. Eastman's body was now struggling for air as its only supply deliberately cut itself off. "Shit! Let it go! Let it go!" Elliot shouted as he let go of the limbs in his hand.
"No! We're almost there!" Marcus retorted as he tried applying the wet cloth to another limb in his continued attempt to remove the creature. "It's suffocating him, Fred! We keep this up and he'll die!" Elliot warned urgently. Marcus looked down at Eastman's body, moving his free hand towards his throat to feel for a pulse. "He's not breathing. Oh shit, he's not breathing!" Marcus exclaimed worriedly before letting go of the limbs in his other hand.
Meanwhile, Garfield's cries had become more painful as the facehugger continued increasing the pressure from its tail around Garfield's hand and Eastman's throat. "It's gonna rip my hand off! Shit, someone help!" Garfield cried out in fear and pain.
Goodwin placed her taser on the floor and quickly rushed over to Garfield's side, grabbing the tail in an attempt to help the man. After the facehugger's four front limbs had found new purchase on Eastman's face again, the tail soon loosened itself and Garfield pulled away, cradling his right hand in his left one, hissing in pain while Goodwin stepped away. "God damn! Son of a bitch!" Garfield seethed as he glared at the facehugger, soon breathing deeply to calm himself. Garfield soon walked over to a counter and pulled out a spinning chair to sit on as he resumed cradling his injured hand. "I... I need some medical attention," Garfield said between breaths.
Meanwhile, Elliot and Marcus were both staring at the facehugger, distraught that their attempts to remove it had failed. "It's not coming off without killing him," Marcus said wearily before walking over and leaning against a wall. "No. No, it's not," Elliot said in forlorn agreement. He then looked at the creature's twin bladders, which had begun inflating and deflating again.
Stepping closer to Eastman's chest, Elliot soon placed a finger on the man's throat to feel for a pulse. He quickly found one. It was slow and shallow, but it was definitely there as Elliot saw Eastman's chest slowly begin to rise and fall again.
"He's breathing again," Elliot said with a sigh, looking at the one silver lining of their situation and failed removal attempt.
"That's nice," Garfield said through clenched teeth. "Now, can someone please look at my hand!?" Elliot and Marcus both looked over at him with frowns.
"Elliot, go help him out," Marcus said with a sigh before he removed his gloves and took off his cap to run the other had through his hair.
Elliot quickly walked over to the tray with the bucket and pushed it towards Garfield. "Place your hand in the warm water," Elliot said. Garfield did as he was told. "Now what?" he asked the droid.
"Just wait for me to get some gauze and a temperature gel band. I'll also need some straight sticks to hold your hand in place," Elliot said as he walked over to a medical supply cabinet and opened it before reaching inside. After gathering the required materials, Elliot walked back over to Garfield's side and took his hand out of the water before treating it.
Goodwin, meanwhile, was examining the facehugger. She had retrieved her taser from the floor and was holding it tightly in her gloved hands, keeping the rubber-capped tip pointed away from the creature as she remembered Elliot's warning from earlier. "So there's no way to get this thing off of him?" she asked as she looked over at Elliot, who was busy wrapping a gauze bandage around Garfield's hand and two flat sticks to hold his fingers in place.
"Not without killing him," Elliot replied in a defeated tone before he finished wrapping the bandage around Garfield's hand.
Marcus snorted in indignation. "Then what are we supposed to do?" he asked with bitterness as he glared at the facehugger. Turning around to look at the facehugger, Elliot let out a resigned sigh.
"For now?" he began, looking between the others before landing his gaze on the alien. "For now... we wait," he said grimly. "We wait... and see what happens."
Author's Notes: And that was chapter four of ALIEN - HARD-HEADS. One of the things that I've always been curious about is just what other defensive measures the facehugger might have if someone manages to get its limbs and its tail off of its victim. We know that it has a tube stuck in the victim's throat, so I've decided that I should use that as a hidden defense.
In ALIENS (1986), Bishop read the notes from the colonists who had tried removing the facehuggers from the other colonists in the med-lab, and while he read the cliff-notes, there was never any real detail on just how they died. The expansion of the proboscis and the deliberate withholding of any breathable compounds is my idea of how the facehugger kills its victim when being forcibly removed while remaining otherwise intact.
And, in response to one reviewer, I can agree that Weyland-Yutani isn't wholly evil in and of itself. However, it is ruthless and criminally negligent in many ways. When describing how the company bribes safety inspectors rather than pay to fix things, I was referencing the Alan Dean Foster novelization of the original movie. Although... Foster did describe the adult alien as having eyes and lacking the inner jaw, and he described the facehugger as having a single eye on its back as well, so maybe I shouldn't really use that as the most accurate source of information.
Also, for those of you who appreciate that I'm making a straight-forward ALIEN story, thank you. Personally, I want to make a story that harkens back to the tone and feel of the first film, which was a straight-forward horror movie IN SPACE! From the second film onwards, the franchise became more action/horror, and there wasn't really a sense of fear or dread when the xenomorphs appeared onscreen or were implied to be nearby, at least from the third movie onwards, with the candles in the tunnel sequence and Clemens' death being the last genuinely suspenseful horror moments in the franchise, at least in my opinion.
Anyway, as always, be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter or story so far in your reviews, as well as your opinions of how I've handled the facehugger. Again, I wrote this while listening to Jerry Goldsmith's score for the original ALIEN.
