CHAPTER
TEN
Ryder made her way down towards the cargo bay. She had
set the gas cylinders for her run. She was going to start spraying
the surface of the planet with the gas. She didn't know how but she
knew that this was going to work. She had so much confidence in her
plan.
She reached the cargo bay and made her way to first of the oversized cylinders. She started attaching a line to it and was reading the readout the cylinder had on the side.
She was so focused on her job that anything could have come right up to her and she wouldn't have noticed. She turned around and dropped the hose she had in her hand.
There, standing not ten feet away, was a predator. Just standing there. It's arms were by it side and it didn't look threatening. That didn't do anything to quell Ryder's fear though. How the hell did it get on board? Ryder was fed up trying to understand these things so she forgot it.
The predator looked different somehow. It looked old. She didn't know what made her think that as she hadn't seen one before. She didn't move, not wanting to provoke it.
The predator turned and slowly took a few steps away from her. Ryder watched in fascinated horror, wondering what the predator was going to do. It slowly reached up to its shoulder cannon and unhooked it, dropping it on the ground almost casually.
Ryder got the sense that it didn't want anything to do with her. Then what did it want? There was nothing else around. Did it expect a response from Ryder? If it did, Ryder didn't give it. Its shoulders looked slumped Ryder thought. It was as if it was resigning itself to something.
The predator turned its head slowly to glance over at Ryder. Ryder stared back. The predator barely took any notice of her but looked over towards an air vent in the roof.
Ryder followed its gaze and saw the air vent wondering what the predator was doing. And then she heard it. A hiss. Oh no! It couldn't be. The air vent crashed to the floor as a long black leg smashed it's way down.
Slowly and gracefully the Queen Mother lowered her enormous frame from the ducting above.
The predator didn't move but Ryder took an involuntary step back. The Queen Mother, now completely in the cargo bay with Ryder and the predator, hissed at them. The Queen Mother towered over both of them and the predator was at least eight feet tall.
Ryder slowly backed up looking between the two alien species. The cargo bay suddenly seemed so huge, like there was nowhere to hide. This was what the predator had been preparing for. It knew it was here and it had resigned itself to a hand to talon battle. Ryder didn't know which one would win.
The predator charged, letting out an almighty roar. The Queen Mother charged and Ryder tried to back into a corner. She couldn't do anything but watch. The two hit. The predator was sent flying across the cargo bay, it's small size compared to that of the Queen Mother was no match.
It got up just in time to grab the Queen Mothers arms as it tried to crush the predator. The predator may have been a lot smaller then the Queen Mother but it was by no means weaker. The predator had enormous strength and wrestled the Queen Mother across the cargo bay.
The predator threw the Queen Mother against a wall with such force that Ryder thought for sure that they should have gone through it. The Queen Mother was hissing and roaring at the predator the entire time, its frustration apparent.
The Queen Mother raised its tail up and lashed out at the predator knocking it away. The blow obviously hurt the predator as it struggled to get to its feet. The Queen Mother pounced, flinging the flimsy predator through the air.
The predator landed hard and Ryder knew who was going to win this intergalactic battle. The Queen Mother was just too big. Too quick. Too strong. She had to do something. She was sure that if the Queen Mother killed the predator, she would be next but what could she do.
The predator was moving very slowly now, dragging itself along the ground. The Queen Mother moved up beside it. It opened its mouth and its inner teeth protruded out. The predator rolled over onto its back to face the Queen Mother. They looked at each other. The predator with its big round eyes and the Queen Mother with god knew what.
The Queen Mother lowered her head for the kill when a fire hose was shoved in its face. Ryder was there with the hose attached to one of the cylinders. "Now you're one ugly mother fucker," Ryder said before unleashing the high pressure gas onto the alien.
The Queen Mother screamed in pain as it tried to back away from the gas. Ryder knew that she was hurting it, knew that her plan to rid the planet of the bugs was going to work.
She drove the Queen Mother back and back until she trapped it in an open air lock. She killed the gas just as she shut the door to the air lock. The Queen Mother was now trapped.
For a few seconds, Ryder watched the Queen Mother through the portal. When the Queen Mother made a move towards the door, Ryder hit the button next to it. This button opened the outer door.
All the air and one trapped Queen Mother were sucked out into the hard vacuum of space. Ryder watched the Queen Mother flying off. Ryder smiled for the first time in a long time.
She turned her attention back towards the predator who was slowly, very slowly, getting to its feet. It made its way to within a few feet of Ryder. It looked Ryder up and down.
The predator reached up to the side of its head and unhooked a line that was going into what looked like a mask. It then unhooked the line on the other side. Slowly it took its mask off. It looked at her, before slowly turning away.
"Wait," Ryder couldn't believe what she was doing. The predator half turned back towards her. Ryder stepped up to it, taking her daughters necklace from around her neck as she did so.
Slowly, she reached down to take the predators hand in hers. Turning its hand palm up, she lowered the necklace with the white dove into it. Looking back up at the predator she said, "Take it."
The predator looked down at its hand and the necklace Ryder had just given it. It looked back up at Ryder before turning around and walking away. Ryder didn't know how it was going to leave the ship but she didn't care. She forgot about and went about her original job of setting the cylinders.
Ryder re-entered the Earths atmosphere. She had hooked up the cylinders and was about to make her first run over the surface when she decided to fly over the military fortification they had all been in.
She was hoping to see Presario there but didn't like her chances. She could see the devastation from quite a long way away. The huge crater was hard to miss. She flew in low watching the ground, hoping for a glimpse of life.
"My God." There standing in the middle of it all was Presario. He was just standing there as if he was invulnerable. She was overjoyed that he was alive.
Presario was glad to see Ryder. They didn't say too much to each other, the events of the past few days had taken it all out of them. They now had the best job in the world to attend to. To rid planet Earth of the alien bugs.
They flew along into the sunset, a stream of gas releasing from the bottom of the ship to soak the surface with its cleansing smell.