Chapter Three

Night came as it had for thousands of years, maybe millions. Wes, Ripley, Call, Sir, and the other crew were munching on what one might call junk although it was supposed to be food.

"You know one would think after I've eaten this crap all of these times I'd start to like it but it tastes just as bad now as it did back on the Nostromo." Everyone laughed at Ripley's comment, even Sir. That surprised Rosh.

"Ripley, stop your griping." Sir tried not to laugh "Here's some cornbread." This reminded Ripley so much of something that probably happened on the Nostromo.

Ripley was about to say something in response when she felt the alien's presence again. This time one was in almost visual contact. She could feel it come closer. A scream was heard close by. It was that of the crew member that Ripley had thought she had seen earlier.

It was Riddick. A young, maybe 25 at the very most, semi-muscular man. He was a jerk yet most people liked him. Riddick continued to scream louder.

"Damn it Ripley, aren't you going to do anything?" Sir shouted trying to resist the urge to strangle Ripley.

"There's nothing I can do. The alien will eat its way through his chest and he'll die." Ripley paused for a second, "We all will." Sir seemed to look at her with an even harsher look at her than he had before. It was hard to believe that he had been laughing at her minutes earlier.

"What do you mean there's nothing you can do? You've dealt with these fuckers before. You have to do-"

"I can't . If I could tell when and where they were coming from then I wouldn't be here right now. In fact if I knew how where they were coming from….goddamn it I could've experienced a lot of things. I could've watched my daughter grow up. But that's just a fucking fantasy and both you and I should know that fantasies don't mean SHIT!"

Sir wanted to say something else but he knew his words would be muted due to the loudening scream coming from Riddick.

"Guys, I don't think now is the time to-" Riddick held on to his gut, doing what most alien-chestbuster victims did, praying that his hand would kill whatever was eating away at him. His prayers did no good.

The creature became more and more visible to the crew. It looked like a typical alien but there was something different. Not different as the Newborn had been different but it looked like a queen except huskier and its skin was more of a gray, blue color than the usual cream-ish, glue colored white. The Rouge Alien was born.

"Ripley, what the hell is that thing?" One of the crew members pointed in disgust. Ripley wanted to answer but even though she had very personal connections with the aliens she wasn't sure of this creature. She would've said that it was a queen or a warrior except this one had a different coloring and body structure than both queens and warriors. She would've taken a closer look at the creature but it quickly ran off as most aliens did when they left their dead or dying hosts.

"Some type of xenomorph I guess. Far different from what I've ever seen. Facehugger made itself invisible so that we would all be surprised when its offspring came out. As most of you probably know reading and/or hearing stories throughout the years facehuggers normally hide in a private, out of the way spot until they sense their prey coming then the pounce out on the prey's face and implants its egg inside of the prey. The result being what you just saw with Riddick. This one on the other hand puzzles me. It went completely unnoticed and implanted its egg inside Riddick without anybody knowing it." Wes was interested in what Ripley was saying.

Wes cleared his throat. "Hey um… didn't ya say something about seeing an alien earlier? I know I accused you of hearing voices but after hearing what ya said it got me to thinking otherwise. Maybe this is the face hugger of um…an invisible xenomorph or something. I've been studying aliens for years and I read that millions ago there was this species that had some chemical thing in it, similar to the acid blood, that would give it the ability to make itself invisible to its prey yet perfectly clear to its own kind. Well one day this um…predator I guess found some way to see these creatures and eventually passed it on to its fellow warriors leading to the downfall of that alien species." Several of the crew members yawned as Wes tried to continue his statement, others were already off in their cot things.

"So Wes, what are you trying to say? We should fire out guns like a group of morons or let the alien mother over there guide us through the whole thing?" Cantu yawned trying to point at Ripley and keep hold on the drink she had in her hand all at the same time.

"Yes. Use Ripley to help us find that species. Bring it to extinction and well….you probably know the rest."

Ripley was only slightly listening to Wes' speech but after hearing her name she was ready to kill Wes. "Wes, how do you know I could help defeat them? I could've been hearing things like you said."

"Ripley, be honest with me, are you just saying that you heard voices just so you don't have to face these aliens again."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I could care less. Sir just called me over on this damn mission because if it weren't for Sir I'd be jobless. We either kill those creatures or we put are heads between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye and wait for those creatures to kill us all. Like I said before right now I could care less." Cantu yawned even louder this time. It was hard to tell whether she was yawning because of how late it was or to tell Wes and Ripley to be quiet.

"Guys, we're the only three people awake on the ship. Let's go the bed now and worry about those aliens later. Who cares if they mostly come out at night."

"Wes, be quiet because if you won't me and Cantu will be hoping that wherever or whatever the alien is will eat you first. So shut the fuck up." Wes, Ripley, and Cantu went to their separate cots.

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The warrior looked over its offspring with a happy look on its face. Sure its offspring was on a higher social chart than the warrior was but it didn't care. Really the rogue wasn't that far above the warrior. The rogue was bigger and built slightly more muscular than the warrior but they both held the same position, to protect the queen.

The rogue would be the queen's king. Now why did the queen alien need a king if it could self-produce its own young was puzzling to the warrior. A lot of thing puzzled the warrior. Love was one thing. It saw the Wes look lovingly over at the Ripley even after the Ripley yelled at the Wes using words that the warrior didn't know the meaning of. In a way the warrior felt sorry for the Wes because of that. The Wes wanted the Ripley yet the Ripley seemed to have no interest.

The warrior had to stop thinking about feelings. The queen would be ashamed. The warrior watched the rogue grow to a size larger than itself yet not as big as the queen.

Goodbye Rogue, the warrior whispered to its offspring as it ran further away from the warrior. The warrior felt a tear go down its face. The queen would be ashamed of the warrior for feeling. The warrior couldn't help it. It seemed to feel more emotions than its siblings, queen, and offspring. The warrior curled up in a ball in a far away corner. Kill, it didn't want to do but it had to kill. More tears went down the warriors eyes at the thought.

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Wes laid in his cot awake. He couldn't help but stare at Ripley. She had yelled at him earlier but he didn't care. Most people would care. He sighed trying not to say anything assuming that she was asleep.

"Hey, Ripley you were talking about your daughter earlier, so were you um…ever married at one time? I mean I've known single parents I'm just curious." Wes couldn't help himself.

"No. You?"

"Separated. She said that I seemed to care more about science than her and our two kids. Which was true. In the end I packed up all my things and became of full time worker at the company. My kids loved going up to this station. Sir hated seeing my kids. His face would get uglier than one of those aliens. But that's not my point."

"You like me don't you?"

"Where would you get that from Ripley?" Ripley was right. Wes scratched his brown-graying beard.

"Even an alien without eyes could see that you like me."

"You're right, Ripley. But hey tell me more about your daughter."

"I promised Amy I'd be back by her 11th birthday. I thought was going to until the fucking company forgot I was in hyper sleep until 57 years later. Amy had died an old woman thinking that her mother had been killed. Since then I've hated the aliens. It also didn't help that Newt died but you know that story." Ripley looked up at the ship's ceiling with a depressed, angry look on her face.

Ripley's story fascinated Wes. This was something Wes could think about when and if he got back to Earth, write a biography on Lt. Ellen Ripley.

"Wes, could you do me a favor?" Ripley said after sighing deeply.

"Sure. Anything you want, Ellen."

"If the alien even draws a small scar on me, kill me." Ripley's answer surprised Wes.

"Why?" Ripley brushed a tear from her face.

"Wes, you know how I told you I was tired of getting screwed by the aliens. Well our talk about Amy got me to thinking that these aliens will probably never go away. I mean after the Nostromo incident I thought that the aliens were gone. Then 57 years later I thought that the aliens were dead even after we killed the queen. Two hundred years later I dealt with the same thing even when I had killed myself and the queen inside of me. The aliens aren't going away are they?"

"Ellen, we're going to defeat these things. I'll have one kill me before they get even one of their hand things near you."

"Why? You've got family waiting for you. I've got no one waiting for me. Everyone of my family is dead. Even that alien/hybrid thing. God I killed it."

"Have you ever thought about having more children?"

"I can't. My acid blood kills any living thing. Don't believe me, got any insects or something in here? If you do give me one of those and a knife." Wes handed her a jar that contained a small beetle-like insect and a knife. Ripley put her hand over the jar and cut her hand. The blood dripped into the jar slowly burning the beetle and the jar. Wes looked in amazement. He had a whole new respect for Ellen.

"See what I mean? If I did have children they probably die before they were given a chance to experience anything."

"Sad reality. Don't worry if one of those alien draws a mark on you, I'll kill you. What if when the alien is killing you you're on your death bed, do you still want me to kill you?"

"No. Let me die. You can go on and kill me if you wish but just let the alien do what its got to do……then kill it."

"Good night Ellen." Wes said after he looked at the clock.

"'Night Wes. Also will you do one last favor for me?"

"Sure."

"When we go out in public with the guys, call me 'Ripley'. In private moments, like right now, you can call me Ellen. I just don't want the guys to think something's going on between us. There is but they would probably make a big deal out of it." Wes nodded in agreement too tired to say something.

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Call watched as Wes stepped out of the small bathing room with an angry look on her face. She had heard Wes talk with Ripley the previous night. Not a lot but enough that one could easily start jumping to conclusions. Not a good kind of conclusion but the kind that a parent would make if their kid came home an hour or two later than what they were supposed to.

"Oh hi Call. What you've been up to? I read somewhere that water is bad for you androids." Wes smelled of fresh shower not that Call would know like Wes said.

"Cut the crap Wes. Now tell me what you did last night. If you hurt Ripley I will kill you."

"Oh last night. I didn't do anything to her. We just had a friend-to-friend talk. Nothing to get your wires in a knot over." Call picked up a knife. Judging by the melted metal on it, Ripley had been using it.

"What about this?" Call showed the knife to Wes. "Why is Ripley's blood on it?"

"We were talking and she brought up how dangerous her blood was. That if she did decide to have more children her blood would probably kill them. I didn't believe her so she told me to hand her a knife and a jar with some kind of organism. I did and she cut herself. Don't believe me ask her." Call wasn't convinced.

"But what about when you said you'd kill her?"

"Call, I trust you but Ripley told that in confidence. The time will come when I'll have to start clearing that up to you but now is not that time. And at the rate we're going that time may come soon." Call still had so many questions for Wes but he was right.

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The four remaining crew members walked out into the semi-large meeting room. Some looked terrified after last night's incident with Riddick. Others, like Sir, didn't seemed to be shaken by what happened. Ripley and Wes seemed to ignore each other. Assumingly to hide what happened the previous night. Call still disliked Wes for nameless reasons. All the same the Lucius crew was determined to destroy the many alien breeds. To the death if needed.

"So here's the plan, we use the alien mutha to help us find this 'invisible' alien. We find it, we destroy the rest of those bitches, then touchdown." Gibson said pointing at some map of the whole ship.

"Gibson, do you honestly think they're going to go away that fast? Like there's only one or two of them. No harm in that is there?" Ripley grunted with a slight sarcastic, angry tone in her voice.

"Sure. Whatever you say alien mutha."

"Well I got news for all of you, there is never just one or two. 'Cause the queen alien is usually the ringleader behind all of this. At this rate there could be hundreds of those bitches running around before we know it. If we don't do anything soon we'll all die. We saw what happened to Riddick are we going to let the same thing happen to us?" This question resulted in several moans, grunts, and other sounds of displeasure. "I'm serious, guys. I've dealt with-"

"Okay alien mutha we believe you. You've dealt with these things before. You automatically know more than all of us put together….with the exception of the bag of wires over there. We all know you died one of the previous times you've battled them. You don't have to repeat this same speech every fuckin' time the aliens are brought up." Cantu complained from the back of the room.

"Good then I don't have to repeat myself. All of you just seem caught up in your own damn fantasy world its hard to tell whether or not you're listening to me." The crew loaded up their weapons ready to venture through the unfriendly depths of the Auriga II.