Whether accidentally or on purpose, the alien's sharp foreleg had penetrated Alan's calf muscle in order to climb up the rope away from the danger of falling from the now lethal height or being incinerated by Sandra's ray gun. As Doctor Helena Russell and Commander John Koenig held on to Alan's arm and tried to bring him into the Eagle the weight of the multi-legged creature threatened to either pull three humans out of the spacecraft or rip Alan's leg off.
"Auuuuuuuuugh!" yelled Alan in excruciating pain. "Shoot! Shoot!"
"I can't!" Sandra replied. The young data analyst had a quandary on her hands. The effect of killing the creature would make it release its grip on the rope and with its pincer perhaps still stuck in Alan's leg she was sure it would take Helena the Commander and Alan out of the ship. What more the amplified plasma energy effect on the alien's body might burn Alan too as he was in physical contact with it.
"You'll be killed!" Sandra explained.
"AaaahhhhhOWwwww! Help!" Alan bellowed.
"Rifle!" This came from a straining Helena. She indicated with her head and eyes, as her hands were fully occupied, towards the shoulder fired weapon on the floor of the cabin. "The Laser Rifle!"
Sandra dove for the weapon and picked it up. She braced herself against the doorway again and aimed the rifle at the creature, but hesitated. She had only been given the briefest training in the weapon and was not sure what to do…or if she should use it at all.
"This will be worse!" she complained over the engine noise.
Doctor Russell was now beside herself with agony. It felt like her arm sockets were about to pull out.
"Intensify the beam!" she clarified. "Cut it off!"
Ahhhh. Now Sandra understood what she meant. Cut the creature's leg off. Cutting beam. She reached forward and began twisting the wavelength adjustment control on the barrel of the weapon.
It was just then that a sudden jolt of turbulence caused a buffet in the ship and made Sandra lurch forward. With that she accidentally squeezed the trigger firing off the laser prematurely at an intensity and magnitude higher than wanted. The beam struck the clinging alien in dead center mass and within a matter of a half a second its body cooked, expanded and exploded all over Sandra, Alan and the side of the ship.
"Aug! Crap!" Sandra cried.
"Sorry!" came Kano's voice from the front of the ship, apologizing for the rough flight. "We're gonna level out now! Have you got Alan? Do you need help?"
"Not anymore!" replied Sandra with relief, irony, and slight contempt in her voice. She wiped the hot alien goo from out of her eyes.
With the weight of alien gone Doctor Russell and Commander Koenig had pulled Alan in with an abrupt yank, and he was now clutching at his leg on the floor, still grunting with the pain. Sandra gingerly pulled out what was left of the disintegrated alien creature's long fore-pincer from the chief astronaut's leg and chucked it out the open door. She never wanted to see anything related to those creatures again. She deactivated the door override with her commlock and watched it slide closed and seal itself.
"You can climb out now," she announced into the commlock after a deep breath. "We're ready. Ready to go."
"Roger." Tanya Alexander pulled up sharper on the control sticks, but also glanced at the commo screen and noticed how disheveled and gore splattered Sandra was. "OH Sahn-"
Kano took notice too and now realized that more had gone on back in the passenger module than he or Tanya had been able to realize while trying to keep the shot-up Eagle stable.
"Holy sm-… Sandra?" Kano inquired. "Are you okay? What happened? Were you hit? What is all-"
"No. No, it's okay," Sandra said trying to sound reassuring. She self-conciously tried to wipe her short black hair clean with her hand. "It's just…just alien bits and pieces…all over me."
"Oh…Is that all..." Kano said with a warm but still concerned smile.
"Yes," Sandra with a light laugh. She pointed upward. "Now please …if you can…go up, fast."
"No problem," Kano affirmed. "We're at 10,000 feet now and climbing." He watched Tanya pushing the main thruster throttles forward and added: "We'll be in orbit in…" Tanya gave him one finger up. "In about one minute."
"Good." Sandra acknowledged with soothed relief, as Eagle One blasted a course into the upper atmosphere.