Chapter 9: The Hunted

"Who is she, General?" Ripley asked as she sat beside Adam and watched Samus walk away.

"I suppose you really don't know, do you?" Adam replied, looking at his companion with amusement. The idea of anyone not knowing of the feats of Samus Aran seemed ridiculous in this day and age, but he knew she had been in hypersleep for 57 years, far longer than Samus had even been alive.

The flight officer shook her head. "I thought she was some kind of robot at first. Even now, she hardly seems human."

"Well, you're not wrong about that. Samus is a semi-human. She's the genetically enhanced super soldier I told you about before." Adam paused. "I'm actually really surprised to see her here. I'd like to know how she found us."

"She told us she was on a private contract for the Federation Chairman." Ripley stared at where the bounty hunter had disappeared behind some storage crates, unknowingly followed by a curious Portia.

"That's odd." Adam also looked to where Samus had gone. "I didn't think the Feds would send anyone else in at this point. Unless Keaton didn't get approval to hire a mercenary and acted independently, which is entirely possible."

"Do you trust her?"

The General looked genuinely surprised. "With my life."

"Even knowing what she is?"

"I know people of your time had their prejudices," Adam replied sternly, "but I would think you intelligent enough to know how to look beyond that and see Samus as a person rather than just a weapon. Especially with her coming out here to rescue us the way she has."

Ripley shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I just worry about the motives of whoever engineered her. You said they didn't see themselves as beholden to Federation law. And they created an extremely powerful bioweapon. Why? Surely not just to protect the Federation considering how insignificant they consider it. Why did they make her the way she is? And does she have her own hidden agenda they've built into her? It's just… scary to think there's a species out there that can actually take a human being… a person… and turn them into a machine of war."

Adam was quiet for a while as he thought about how to respond. "I doubt Samus is some kind of sleeper agent for an extinct alien race's hidden agenda. From what she's told me, they gave her the powers she has so she could be the 'Protector of the Galaxy' or some such title. The Chozo, the aliens that made her, were a fairly peaceful race, though they had fallen into decline. I think Samus was supposed to be some sort of guardian for their civilization and a weapon against the Space Pirates."

Ripley nodded. "They told me about the war. They might have told me about Aran at some point, but I really can't remember. Fifty-seven years is a long time to catch up on. I've never seen technology like that suit she wears. Closest thing I've encountered to it is the power loader I've been operating back at the company."

"Seems funny they'd have an experienced flight officer operating a power loader."

"Well, when I woke out of hypersleep, they stripped me of that rank, not believing me about the creature that took out the Nostromo, but they promoted me again for this trip. Because now they can't pretend I made these creatures up." She watched as Portia seemed to walk in on the bounty hunter's little cubby at a bad time and wondered what the tall blonde woman was doing in there. "I'm sorry if I'm being too critical of Aran. I'm worried about Newt, so I'm on edge. I've seen what those things can do and she's just a little girl."

"You're thinking about going back out there," Adam stated firmly, no hint of a question in his tone.

Ripley nodded. "I don't care if I have to do it by myself. I was hoping she'd be here when we got back, but she's not. We searched all afternoon and into the evening for her, but she's nowhere. I know she's still alive…"

"If Samus couldn't find her, you won't be able to either, especially not now that it's night again. You'll be killed in an instant, and if the girl happened to survive the night, which we know she is capable of doing, she'll be worse off for losing you than she would be if you waited for it to be safe."

Ripley sighed and fiddled with the dial on the flamethrower beside her. "I know that. That's the only reason I'm still down here. We've already lost so many people. Today alone we lost Gorman… I'm not losing her."

Adam nodded. "If there's a way to find her, Samus will do it. I have no doubts about her abilities. Searching for survivors is something of a specialty of hers."

"Then why isn't she out there right now?"

The General shrugged. "I'm sure she was anxious to find me. Aside from that… there must be other things she's working on. Things she thinks could help us."

"She looked like something cut her up pretty good when she took off her suit. Maybe she's injured."

"As ridiculous as it sounds," Adam said with a sigh, "she would never let something like that stop her. She's doing something behind those crates. There are things she hasn't told us about, but those things will reveal themselves in time."

"Let's just hope she was actually contracted for a rescue mission then. Not to capture one of those things and bring it back for research…"

Adam shook his head. "Even if she was hired to do that, she'd still rescue us."

"Heh," Ripley scoffed. "You obviously don't know how that works, do you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"How you would catch one of these things. They can't be taken in fully mature like the ones you saw. You'd have to bring one back in the fetal stage."

"I read about this." The General regarded Ripley very seriously. "These… Facehuggers, for lack of a better term, come out of eggs and attach themselves to a host. And then they implant something that gestates inside of that host."

"Yes," Ripley replied darkly, a note of anger rising in her voice. "That's when you would transport them. Freeze the host with the specimen still inside and bring it back in medical quarantine."

"You'd have to kill the host."

Ripley nodded. "Exactly. A sacrifice though… for the greater good. That's how they justify it. For science. To make more weapons to protect us. In 57 years, people haven't changed. That's why Ash brought one on board the Nostromo, and what Burke did…"

"Carter Burke was the Weyland-Yutani representative on this trip," Adam filled in, noting the visceral reaction the flight officer had at the mention of his name. "I'll venture it's safe to assume he is dead now."

"Not a moment too soon." Ripley stared at the General, a new ferocity in her eyes. "He was with us the whole time, acting like he wanted to help rescue the colonists, but he was here for the Corporation, and he was planning to bring back one of those things." She put a hand up to her mouth and took a deep breath before continuing. "He locked me and Newt in a lab with one of those eggs. We barely survived the thing trying to—"

She stopped, but Adam knew exactly where she was going with her story.

"Samus would never do something like that," he said quietly. "I don't care how much money any corporation or government tried to offer her. She would never allow a woman and a child to be violated and sacrificed for greed or weapons research."

"And yet," Ripley looked at him very seriously, "she bares the legacy of a species that did sacrifice a child for weapons research."

As Hector rose through the ship's exit hatch to stand on top of it, he stared down at the little girl who looked back up at him. Although dirty and generally nervous looking, she appeared more curious about him than frightened by him. Slowly, the boy stepped forward, not knowing exactly how to approach the situation. His intent had been to rescue her and bring her back onto the ship, but he got the strange feeling that she had a better handle on the situation than he did.

"Hey," he called out to her as he awkwardly tried to balance walking down the side of the ship. However, the sides of the golden ship were rounded and treacherous to walk on, and he wondered how Samus managed to make jumping on and off of it look so easy. "I'm here to rescue you and protect you from those—"

The boy yelped as he missed his footing and suddenly found himself tumbling down the side of the ship and onto the pile of debris that rose halfway up the hull. Though he tried to find something to hold onto, he rolled a good way through the ashy pile of stony debris until he found himself laying flat on his back and gasping for air. A quick assessment of his body let him know he was not hurt or anything, but the shock of falling had momentarily knocked the wind out of him.

Hector started to sit up but jumped as the face of the little blonde girl appeared above him. Her haunted gaze stared down at him.

"You can't," the girl said in a hollow tone that made chills run down the boy's back.

"I can't do what?" Hector asked as he got to his feet and dusted himself off, checking to be sure the paralyzer gun was still in its holster.

"You can't protect me," she continued in her eerily empty voice. "You can't protect anyone from the creatures. No one can."

He stared down at her, dumbfounded. Though he had never actually tried to rescue anyone before, the whole situation had played out very differently in his mind.

"Of course I can." He gestured over to Samus's ship, half covered in debris. "We can go into the ship, and whatever those monsters are, they can't get us there."

The girl looked over at the ship. "You couldn't even walk down the side of the ship. How are you planning to get back on top of it to go inside?"

Hector didn't say anything for a moment, suddenly aware of how bad of a job he had done thinking his plan through. He was about to say something when all of a sudden one of the buildings he had hit with his ship began to tremble. As pieces of the building began falling, he realized the unstable structure was about to collapse.

"Watch out!" the girl shouted as she took his hand and pulled him away from the danger zone. As they ran away, the building continued to crumble, and within moments the entire structure collapsed, completely burying Samus's ship in twisted metal and chunks of debris. Though it took a long time for the dust to settle, Hector peaked his head out from the dilapidated structure they had taken shelter behind and groaned.

"Oh crap…" He stared at the crumbled remains of the building in disbelief, searching desperately for any sign of where his mother's ship had once been. "Samus is gonna kill me…"

The girl looked at him curiously. "Who's Samus?"

Hector looked back at her, having momentarily forgotten her presence. "She's my mother. And some kind of super warrior."

She stared back at him with her empty eyes. "You don't call her 'mom?'"

"Um… It's complicated." Though it was not actually a very complicated topic, Hector did not feel like discussing his personal life with the creepy little girl. "I'm Hector, by the way."

"I'm Newt."

"Newt? That's your name?"

She looked at him in a way that suggested she should have been sad. "My name is Rebecca Jorden, but everyone calls me Newt. Except my brother Timmy, but he's dead now."

"I'm sorry…" Hector was not sure what to say to the information she had so casually and emotionlessly volunteered. He wondered if she had simply become numb to such things and then wondered what else had happened to render her that way. He found himself wishing Samus were around, certain that she would know how to handle the situation.

"We should get out of here," Newt said, suddenly changing the topic. "The sun is going down, and the creatures mostly come at night. Mostly."

Hector just nodded as he followed the girl farther into the deserted city. He was not sure where she was taking him, but he knew he could not get back into the ship now. Fortunately, the shields had most likely held up, so the ship itself and Archer would be all right, but he had no way to get into it the way it was.

Newt seemed to know where she was going and very decidedly set the pace for their journey. As light as she was, the girl moved like a ghost, silently and quickly as Hector followed along behind her. Her face displayed no affect as they continued through broken streets covered in debris. She evaded everything easily, although he had to be careful not to trip on anything and turn an ankle. When they came upon an unremarkable little building, the girl stopped and turned to Hector. He nodded as she opened the front door and stepped inside.

However, as the boy and girl stepped into the lobby, they both stopped in their tracks. The front room was not large, but it was very dark, and as they entered it, they could hear the muffled sounds of something breathing. Newt froze up entirely as her breathing quickened and Hector saw fear taking hold of her face, the first real emotions he had seen from the girl.

"Newt," he whispered, taking her hand and trying to lead her back out through the front door. "We need to go."

But the girl stood frozen in terror as she stared at a back corner of the room where the breathing sounds were coming from. They seemed slow and steady as if whatever was making them was asleep, and through Hector's eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness, Newt looked like she could see whatever it was, and she could not take her eyes off of it.

"Newt," he repeated, tugging on her as his other hand reached for the gun on his waste, "come on. We need to—"

With a sudden sound like rustling, a screech came from the back corner, and Newt's breathing became even faster.

"Newt!" Hector yelled as he forcefully pulled the little girl back through the door, we need to run! Now!"

Snapping back into reality, the girl's petrified body began to move again as both children ran out the door and back onto the streets. As the sun disappeared from the sky, they sprinted as fast as they could over the dilapidated streets, each one silently hoping that they did not trip over anything. Though they did not look back to see if it was following them, they could still hear the creature's screeches, and they were certain it was getting closer.

Hector was about to draw the gun from its holster when suddenly Newt's hand latched onto the sleeve of his jacket, and the girl pulled him into another building with her. Eyes slowly adjusting to the pitch darkness, Hector looked around the front room of this latest building and noticed the girl pulling what appeared to be a large air vent off of the wall. As she set the vent cover to the side, she looked back at him.

"In here," she whispered.

Without hesitation, Hector crawled into the ventilation shaft, and Newt followed close behind, replacing the vent before they crawled farther in. Not far from where they entered, the shaft went up at a ninety-degree angle, and Hector had to pull himself up to nearly the height of the ceiling. Newt, however, was no where near as tall as the boy, and he had to turn around and give her a hand up before they could crawl further into the shaft. They were halfway across the room when they both stopped suddenly as a shadowy form walked through the front door.

Hector watched in paralyzed horror through a small vent cover as one of the spiny black aliens walked into the room. Though he had seen them briefly on the windshield of the ship, nothing could have prepared him for seeing one up close and personal. The creature stood nearly eight feet tall as its faceless head looked around the room. The boy and the girl both tried to soften their breathing as quietly as it could go, lest it find them.

The creature moved like a hunter, slowly and decisively, looking around and sensing the air for its prey in ways Hector could not understand given its lack of eyes. When he was just starting to think they were safe, the creature sharply turned its attention to where he and Newt were hidden in the duct and let out a horrifying primordial scream as its mouth opened to reveal a second silver mouth growing out of it and screaming as well.

Within an instant, Hector and Newt were off clamoring through the ventilation ducts at breakneck speed, no longer bothering to try to keep quiet. As they crawled as quickly as they could, they heard the vent being pried open behind them as the creature's screams echoed through the shaft.

Heart pounding and terrified out of his mind, Hector kept crawling as fast as he could, even as he could hear the creature clamoring into the vent behind them. He was certain he was going to die and wished desperately that Samus would appear again and save them, just as she had done on Daiban when he had been attacked by the other bounty hunter. But there was no such luck, and he was on his own now, save for a terrified little girl crawling behind him.

"Go right!" Newt shouted at him.

Before he had any time to wonder what she meant, the duct branched off into two directions, right and forward. Quickly, he turned right, realizing he was crawling into a much more narrow duct this time, one he barely fit through. However, he realized that if he barely fit through it, there was no way that creature would. With a renewed hope that they might just survive the encounter, Hector clamored as quickly as he could through the vent, listening as Newt turned down the narrow passage behind him. Though he could still hear the creature's screams reverberating through the shaft, they were becoming more and more distant, and it was not long before he saw a dim light up ahead coming from another vent covering.

As he approached it, Hector put all his force behind pushing the vent cover off of its wall. As the cover came off, the boy stepped through the opening and stared at the new sight before him. They were outside again, and they were at a mining site standing atop one of the raised platforms. As Newt wriggled out of the vent, she replaced the cover behind her as she joined him at looking out over the mines. There were huge machines, some with drills and others with plows and pulleys. In the ground there were deep wells and shafts, although there seemed to be no trace of whatever substance they had been searching for. Various platforms like the one they stood on were built into what looked like the side of a small mountain.

Hector looked for a way down from the platform, but all he could see was a set of rickety looking wooden stairs precariously hewn into the stony gray rock face. Wordlessly, he and Newt headed down the steps, holding tight to the primitive rope railing as though they thought it would save them from anything. After a few moments of descending the stairs, however, Hector felt his hand run over a strange slimy goo. Withdrawing his hand instinctively from the rope, he tried to shake it off and get a good look at what it was.

As he stared at the clear slime on his hand, he looked past it to see Newt's eyes had become wide and terrified again, and he felt his heart sink in his chest.

"Run," she whispered as they heard a sudden skittering from the platforms above.

Though Hector had run track for a number of years at his school never in his life had he run faster than he did in that moment. Realizing there was no way the girl could keep up with him, he lifted her light form onto his back and let her ride him piggyback down to the ground level. As he got off the stairs, Newt jumped off of him and headed directly for a heavy grate in the ground near one of the large drills.

"Help me!" she called as she tried to pull it off. Without thinking, Hector joined her and quickly had the heavy grate off to reveal the tunnel below. Newt looked at him wide eyed, amazed by the lack of effort it had taken the boy to pull off the heavy grate, but her amazement was short lived as she scampered down into the hole. Hector followed behind, replacing the cover as he went and joining the girl as they ran through a long, dimly lit tunnel. It was lined with what appeared to be tracks as though for a coal cart or a small train, but Hector did not see anything fitting that description.

They ran for a long time, as long as Newt could, before they finally slowed down. They no longer heard the sounds of the alien behind them, and they took a moment to breathe. However, they knew they could not go back the way they came and decided to keep walking to see where the tunnel led.

They must have been walking for half of an hour before Hector finally saw something up ahead. Through the tracks continued on past it, there was a wide wooden warning sign with words painted on it in big red letters: "DANGER! No Entry Without Authorization."

He stared at the sign curiously for a moment before he and Newt disregarded it and kept going. However, they did not make it far when they realized what the danger was. In the middle of the tunnel, there was a steep drop-off with only the narrow tracks spanning the distance to the other side. Though the structure looked unsound and poorly maintained, Hector and Newt did not hesitate to walk across it, trying to balance as best they could on the wooden tracks despite how shaky the structure was. Newt made it quickly over to the other side, her light form practically floating across the tracks.

Hector nearly made it to the other side as well when suddenly one of the tracks collapsed under his foot. Without warning, half of his body fell into the hole it left, slamming him forward into the track in front of that. He did not have time to grab ahold of the other track and try to pull himself up before it too collapsed under the force of his fall. Desperately grabbing at whatever he could reach, the boy did not stand a chance as he fell through the rickety old wood and down into the darkness bellow.

Heart pounding wildly in his chest, the boy screamed, but he did not fall for very long before he landed on a soft muddy surface. However, he seemed to have fallen onto a hill, and as he hit the mud, he slid quickly down the slippery surface.

"Hector!" he heard Newt shout behind him as she jumped down to join him, also sliding down the muddy surface.

The boy grunted awkwardly as they fell deeper into the shaft, but when the ground finally leveled out and they came to a stop, Hector was surprised to find the underground cavern illuminated by an eerie orange glow. Stand up and brushing himself off as best as he could, the boy walked forward, and soon the muddy ground was replaced by a floor of well-laid stone work that led to a corridor that contained the source of the light.

Wondering if they had stumbled into some type of ancient ruins, the boy and the girl walked forward together into the hall. The light apparently came from strange glowing orbs built into the wall itself, and Hector wondered what their power source was since they did not seem to be part of the mining tunnel.

The further they walked into the corridor, the more elaborate the stonework became, and even farther down, they started seeing pictures on the wall that almost resembled the artwork of the Ancient Egyptians Hector had learned about on Earth. However, instead of hieroglyphics, there was a strange writing that was all too familiar to Hector, and instead of pictures of humans, the images were of anthropomorphic bird people.

Hector did not need to wonder where they were. He knew exactly what kind of ruins they had wandered into. And his suspicions were only further confirmed when they made it into a large antechamber. There, on a massive stone door directly across from the boy and the girl, was a huge engraved painting of one of the bird people. But instead of the robes the creatures wore in the pictures in the corridor, it had on some type of red battle suit.

Armor almost identical to Samus's.