IX
For several moments, no-one said a word. We simply stared in disbelief at the scene which had just unfolded before our eyes. Cara was dead, and this time, there was no denying it. Blood still seeped from the hole in her stomach, and I suddenly remembered that this was how we'd found one of the crew of the XH-12. This was how he had died. And the thing that came out of him had obviously killed the others. Now that Cara had suffered the same fate, it seemed inevitable that those things would somehow kill every single one of us. But how? They were so small, almost an insignificant threat. Could two tiny creatures really take the lives of five adult men? I just didn't know. I didn't want to know. But I had a feeling I soon would.
"O-Ok…" Nathan eventually said, breaking the silence in the room. "Let's all just remain calm."
"Calm?" Brad replied, almost shouting. "Calm?! Are you blind, Nathan? Look at her, she's… she's dead."
"Smith's right, Nicholson," Alan nodded, although I could tell by the look on his face that he was more terrified than the rest of us combined. "Panicking's only going to make things worse. Smith, do you have any idea what just happened?"
"I'm… not sure." He said, honestly. "The scans didn't show anything, I swear." I trusted Nathan, and knew that he wouldn't have lied about something like this. But that would mean that the larvae really didn't show up on the X-Ray or the CT scan.
"So what do we do now?" I asked, realising that we were becoming tangential. Whatever had happened to Cara, it had happened now, and it was too late to do anything about it. All we could do from this point forward was protect ourselves.
"I think we have some weapons in storage." Alan replied, looking down at the ground.
"Wait…" I began, glaring over at him. "Weapons? Are you serious? And you didn't think to tell us this before we went aboard that other fucking craft in the first place?!"
"For your information, Jones, I didn't know what you'd find over there!" He shouted, turning his gaze towards me.
Suddenly, everybody turned on each other, and the conversation soon descended into childish insults and a lot of swearing. Within moments, we were at each others throats, the panic getting to us more than anything. I heard every obscenity under the sun, and more, within those next few minutes. Eventually, I decided I'd had enough. Stepping back from the group, who continued to curse and argue, I clambered onto the table behind me. Stabilising myself on the slippery surface, I faced the four men and shouted at the top of my lungs: "Everybody SHUT UP!"
The group fell silent in an instant. After a few moments, Alan said that he would take us to the cargo hold where we could gather together what little weaponry we had. Despite the fact that I was still annoyed with him, for not telling us earlier that we even had any weapons, I knew that we were already losing time, so I decided to just let it go. Before we left, though, we had to determine what to do with Cara's body. Nathan felt it best that we preserve her body in hypersleep, so that we could give her a proper ceremony when (or indeed if) we got back to Earth. Alan detailed myself and Nathan to undertake the task of carrying her over to Science and Medical, whilst he, Brad and Ryan went for the weapons. We agreed, and as the three of them left the room, Nathan and I walked over to where Cara still lay, readying ourselves to lift her up.
Ten minutes or so later, Nathan and I had reached Science and Medical. In my arms, I held Cara's legs, which were now limp and cold. Nathan held Cara's own arms, although they too were lifeless and grey. Upon entering the room, we carried her straight over to the still-open medpod in the centre of the room. I ensured she was laid comfortably, even in death, whilst Nathan prepared the pod for hypersleep. As the glass encompassed her, I wondered to myself: Could we really survive this? Could we get Cara back to Earth, and give her the funeral that she deserved? After the scenes I'd witnessed aboard the XH-12's craft earlier today, I wasn't sure. But we had to try. We had to survive this. For Cara's sake.
By the time we'd gone upstairs to rendezvous with the others in the briefing room, another fifteen minutes had passed. Alan, Ryan and Brad were already there, with a bundle of weapons sprawled out across the desk. There were small, black pistols, huge, chunky energy blasters, and sleek, but deadly assault rifles.
"Will any of these work?" I asked, picking up a long shotgun and examining it carefully.
"Against those little things?" Alan replied. "Not a problem. However…"
"However?" Nathan asked, leaning against a wall with his arms folded.
"Ryan's been telling us more about these Xenomorphs." Alan explained. "Apparently they can reach full maturity within hours. And once they're fully grown, these weapons might not make a dint."
Ryan stood up at this point, and walked over to the desk. He grabbed one of the largest weapons there, a huge energy-burst cannon, and headed for the door which lead out into the corridor.
"So why are we still here talking?" He said, cocking the weapon for effect. "Let's kill them before it's too late." Alan agreed, and told us all to take what we could carry, before warranting a full-scale search of the entire ship. He too was determined to find these things and kill them, before they grew up and killed us. For now, we decided to travel as a group, since we truthfully had no idea what we might encounter. Our first port of call was the bridge.
Upon entering the bridge, it became abundantly clear that something had indeed been in here since we had. A few papers on a desk by the wall had been knocked onto the floor, and a computer mouse dangled from a table by the monitor on which it was placed. But there was no sign that anything was currently hiding within the room. We turned to leave, and proceeded along the corridor to the server room. And so it continued, for the next three hours, in fact. We went around the ship, checking every room twice: The bridge, the briefing room, all of our living quarters, the cargo bay, the kitchen, the dining hall, and even Archie's control hub. In all of them, nothing. Eventually, the only place left to search was the engine deck.
"This is the only place left, guys." Alan said, pressing the button that controlled the door into the room.
"They must be in here." Nathan agreed, as the door slowly slid open. Immediately, the sweltering heat and noise of the engines filled the air. We stepped in, and were bathed in red light. This was because the only sources of light in the room were a few red cage lamps. The dimly-lit room made it difficult to see if anything was lurking in the shadows by the engines. But I thought back again to the XH-12's escape craft. I remembered the nest of eggs in the engine bay, built close to the warmth of the throbbing generators. A gut feeling was telling me that this was where the larvae must have slunk off to. I didn't have to wait long for my suspicions to be confirmed.
"Guys, look." Brad whispered loudly, pointing over to one of the engines. I followed his finger, and saw that between the engine itself and the wall beside it was a large, dark mass. As I watched, it slowly began to move, pushing itself out from the shadows. The creature that I saw then, however fascinating it was, scared the wits out of me. It was tall, almost 8 feet in total, and completely black. It stood on two legs, and had two arms, much like a human. But perhaps the most intriguing feature of this monster was it's head. Almost two feet long, in the shape of a banana. In this darkness, it was impossible to distinguish any facial features, but I wasn't planning to stick around to learn more.
"Do we fire?" I whispered, as the creature slowly crept towards us, rearing it's head and sniffing the air around it.
"It wouldn't do anything." Ryan replied. "That's a fully grown Xenomorph, that is."
"So what do we do?" Nathan asked, although as we all edged back towards the door, the answer was increasingly obvious.
"Leg it." Alan commanded, running out into the corridor suddenly.
"Shit!" I shouted, seeing the creature respond to Alan's outburst. I quickly followed him down the corridor, with Ryan, Nathan and Brad hot on my tail. I was still trying to process the Xenomorph's appearance in my mind as it let out an ungodly noise behind us. Then, I heard the sound of rapid footsteps against the metal floor of the corridor. It was running, and apparently at more than twice the speed that we were.
Reaching the kitchen, Alan flung the door open, and myself, Nathan and Ryan bundled into the room. Before we even had time to process what was happening, Alan slammed the door shut, and engaged it's lockdown mechanism. But things were far from over. Without warning, a scream of pure fear suddenly pierced the air around us. It came from the corridor, from outside the room. I looked around desperately to check that everyone had made it into the kitchen.
That was when we realised that Brad was still outside.
