The Gathering.

Trista followed behind Trent toward the stairs to the next level. She heard the insistent blipping of Murray's MT behind her and shuddered. It was a reminder that certain hell could be below or above them. She felt the hairs bristle on her arm as Bennet shuffled up beside her.

'What's the reading, Winters?' asked Bennet, lifting up the visor on her helmet.

'I can't count how many are below you, commander…too many to count' he breathed 'there are a few signals on the level above' replied Winters.

Bennet briefly glanced behind to the team. 'Yeah, we got that on the MT. We're going up.'

Trent took the lead holding his gun tight as he trod swiftly but noisily up the metal stairs. Trista dropped to the back alongside Simmons, deciding that it might be fruitful to keep an eye on the darkened stairs below in order not to get bitten from behind. Murray kept centre with Adam and Max. The bleeping of the MT was slightly drowned out against the collective steps of the group pressing up the stairs but Trista could still make out its repetitive chide, the insistent beats quickening along with her pulse.

'Can you not shut it off?' she whispered.

'We need it' said Bennet, recognising the source of Trista's irritation.

'I can't hear if anything's coming' snapped Trista. All I can hear is that damn blip-blipping.

'Use your eyes then' said Max.

Trista glared up at Max, who gave her a wide grin. Sweat was dripping off his eyebrows and the shadows under his eyes seemed have gotten darker in the last ten minutes. She gave him a half smile. 'Who's the smart arse?'

Trent neared the door to the next level. He looked to Bennet who edged forward in order to activate the doors. They sprung open with a hiss which made Trista gasp. Bennet heard her and snorted.

'Be careful to check the corners, commander' said Trista through gritted teeth.

Trista almost tripped on the next step. She regained her balance and grasped the rail and caught sight of a dancing shadow approaching from below. The blips were rapid fire now.

'Oh my God, they're coming' said Murray.

The shadows in the levels below increased. The darkness was rising. As Trista shuffled back through the door she saw a telling tubular shadow on the wall below. The hissing pulled Trista back into familiar territory – Xenomorphs.

The group darted down the corridor, graced with the same décor as the others – cold and stark, although this one had a few more blood stains gracing the walls. Trista tried to ignore them as the team continued through the brightly lit corridors. They passed by doors at either side of them, which automatically pulled open as they hurried by, each dark interior promising an untimely end or a huge sigh of relief.

As they passed the forth door, the M.T. increased it's rhythmic tapping. The group slowed. Bennet communicated with Winters again.

'Winters, do you have our position?'

'There's something in front and behind you. Get out of there' he gasped.

Trista looked back at the stair doors. The hiss of their opening gave way to a louder, sharper hiss. She saw an arm glide through the doorway, black and sleek, its sharp spiny fingers curled slightly. The slick black dome came next, edging its way forward, cautious and slow. Trista watched as the lips slunk back revealing the glassy fanged smile of the Xeno. Trista didn't need to see anymore, she turned and willed the muscles in her legs not to give way. She saw the team ahead turn a corner into the next narrow hall and heard a scream followed by a quick burst from a pulse rifle.

Trista burst into a sprint. There was no turning back. She rounded the corner to find nothing. No team, just two walls, a floor and ceiling and the space between filled with air. She faltered and gasped in frustration. The hissing behind her was approaching. She could hear the pattering of Xeno limbs clambering along the smooth floor apace. She jumped over to the first of two doors opposite each other. She had to get in somewhere, maybe try to override the controls for the door, jam them. She winced as she realised she wouldn't have nearly enough time to do so. She felt the jerk on the back of her shirt and gave a yell. The sharp blade rocketed out of her arm in an instant and then it was dark.

It took a few seconds for Trista's eyes to allow for the low light in the room. She could make out Adam's silhouette and several people around a disassembled panel by the door.

'Be quiet. Don't make a sound, for God's sake.'

Trista recognised Bennet's sharp tone and immediately turned to face her. She could just about make out the moist glare in her eyes as they stared unblinkingly at the door. They stood still in the darkened room listening to the everywhere noise of scraping, padding and Xeno screams as they passed outside the door. There was a sound of tails whipping and slapping the walls and then silence.

There was a soft bleeping as the light increased in the room. Trista looked toward the door panel and saw a balding thin man fiddling with the components in the broken panel. Trent stood a little way behind him and next to a boy who couldn't have been more than twelve years old. Trista turned to Bennet with a puzzled look and then noticed Adam who stood staring at the bald man with a huge smile on his face.

'Thanks' whispered Max to the man as he fixed the panel back in place.

'We're just pleased to see you here' said the man as he turned the group. 'Adam...' the man ran over to him and hugged him so hard, Adam's feet lifted from the floor.

Bennet shook her head and Trista's jaw hung open. Adam, still smiling, turned to them and announced in a low tone 'I'd like you all to meet my brother – Sam.' He turned to his brother 'I knew you'd be alive, you old dog.'

The young boy scurried up to the brothers and pulled on Sam's bloodstained shirt. 'Let's go, we have to go…please.'

'Okay Paul. Don't worry, they're gone now.' Sam looked at each of the group in turn. 'We'll go back to the Morgue. I'll explain everything there and there's a few other survivors who'll be pretty damned pleased to see you lot.'

'Wait a minute. What the hell is going on?' hissed Bennet. 'How many survivors are there?'

'The morgue?' added Trista.

'You could've got yourself shot buddy' piped in Trent.

'Yes, sorry about that, but you gave us quite a scare out there' said Sam, chuckling. 'But really, we should be…'

Sam was cut off by a soft scraping on the outside of the door. A heavy breath and a thud confirmed that they had been found.

'How do we get out of here?' said Max, pushing the boy to the back of the room.

'This way' said Peter leading the group to an air duct behind a desk. Trista looked at the small hole and groaned. Behind her the thudding increased, a collective rumble against the heavy door. It sounded as though they were being chased by thunder.

Trista crouched before the vent. She was the last one in after Max, who beckoned to her to hurry.

'Try not to create any sparks with your arm' he said with a wink.

…..

They had spent ten minutes scurrying through the vents, trying to remain quiet despite Trent's soft swearing when he managed to keep jamming his pulse rifle between the narrow metal panels. Bennet occasionally broke the silence to give instructions for Winters and the crew to head back to the Sentinel and perimeter the space station, giving them strict orders that on no account should they land again unless given the say so by the commander.

When Sam jumped out of one of the outlets to the right, the team gave a collective sigh of relief and rapidly shuffled toward the exit. They found themselves in a large white room filled with empty glass tubes, some of which were shattered. Shards of glass rested along the shiny grey tables and on the white tiled floor.

'What happened here?' asked Max, glancing at some of the damaged instrumentation.

'Is this the morgue?' asked Trent, staring at a bloody patch on one of the tables.

'No, no. They can get into here, the morgue is this way' said Sam in a cheery voice. He strode toward a thick set door to the right. The panels on either side had wires poking out as if pulling tongues to the visitors. On either side of the top of the door were two smooth black panels- Visipanels, thought Trista, expensive. They looked new.

'Man, where'd you salvage these from?' asked Trent, running his finger down the slick ebony.

'Didn't. They were already here' replied Sam.

'That doesn't make any sense, why would anyone want to attach high security to a morgue?' said Bennet.

'All will become clear' said Sam cryptically. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small circuit board. 'Nothing can get into here…unless you have a key' he said holding up the board.

It took mere seconds for Sam to attach the coloured wires to the board. He tapped a few numbers into the console housed in the wall causing it to give a solitary bleep. A worried voice emanated from the console.

'Is that you, Sam?'

'Yep, and we have visitors. Security forces, no less.'

Trista heard a squeal of joy from the console. The door slid open with a groan. Two faces peered out from inside the room, one a wrinkled male, the other a woman Trista guessed was in her early thirties. She had red rimmed eyes which might have added a few years, if it wasn't for the vitality in her gaze as she looked at each of the team.

They were in the room now, and Trista saw that there was another man, sitting on the floor, his left leg stretched out in front of him secure in a cast. The other was a child – a girl with chubby cheeks and matted black hair, but it was the other addition in the room which had attracted every one of the teams' stares. In the corner of the room, enclosed within a huge clear stasis box and stretched out on a slab, its feet and crusted shell of a head resting over the ends of the table was the hunter that had haunted Trista's dreams.

'Was that the thing that chased us in the Arboretum?' asked Murray, her shaking hand clasped around the rifle which she pointed at the corpse.

'What thing?' asked the man in the cast, his eyes wide and searching 'What, you mean there's another one of these out there?'

'Yep and very much alive and probably looking for his comrade' said Trista waving her metal hand toward the dead alien. Brilliant! This just gets better.'

'Well, that explains the security' whispered Adam, inching closer to the huge bulk of the creature.

Trista paced back and forth. She felt the walls of the morgue closing in on her. She tried to avoid looking at it, but her survival instinct kicked in and instead her gaze couldn't tear away from the dead figure. 'Where did it come from? We need to get it out of here.' She could hear her voice rising into panic.

'Calm down will you. The Xeno's can't get in here and neither will that other…thing' snapped Bennet.

Trista breathed deeply and walked up to the mottled body of the hunter. She scanned its greyed face. The scientists had tried to preserve it, but already pieces of its flesh were rotting off.

'I wouldn't bet on it' whispered Trista.

'