Chapter 10

As Olivia and the team of marines advanced cautiously through the building, there was a conspicuous lack of xenomorphs. Lilith had warned them, at the time she had made contact, that there had been at least three of the creatures just inside the entrance. The aliens were gone now, but gone where?

"Sarge, we've got a problem," said O'Neil. Her voice was quiet but decidedly tense. "Look at this." She had a light fixed on one of the demolition charges that Lilith had set. The wires had been torn and the receiver smashed. "That got to be intentional, right? There's another one in the same condition right over there." She directed the light across the room. Taylor looked questioningly at Olivia, who shook her head.

The team kept a tight formation; just because they hadn't seen any of the aliens didn't mean that there weren't any, and the last thing they needed was one of the creatures dropping down between them so they couldn't get a clear shot. Fortunately, they knew all the places that Lilith had planned to rig with the explosives, and could make a fair guess about the path she would have taken in order to do so. Following along that path, they continued to come across ruined demo charges. They almost looked as though they had been chewed through. That was a disturbing thought. For all the speculation about how intelligent the aliens were, Olivia didn't want to believe they would be capable of identifying and disarming explosives.

Even without any of the creatures in the immediate proximity, their presence could be clearly felt. The darkness, the resin, and the hot, oppressive air all contributed to the feeling that the xenomorphs could suddenly appear from anywhere at any time.

"They don't waste any time making themselves at home," Newhouse muttered.

"Yeah, but where the hell are they?" Burbank asked. "With all the resin, could we be looking right past them?"

"Theoretically, yes. But I don't think so," said Olivia. "We'd know by now."

"Something's definitely not right," said Taylor.

"What was your first clue?" asked Newhouse.

"I don't like this," said O'Neil. "That just, like… you know. For the record."

Despite their misgivings, they pressed on, passing through long, narrow hallways and wide open rooms in turn. It was starting to look as if Lilith had completed setting the charges, but then something had gone wrong afterward. That didn't make sense to Olivia. If the aliens had figured out what Lilith was up to, why let her finish setting the charges at all?

At least if Lilith had gotten this far, she had probably been able to kill the Queen, Olivia thought. The Queen was a stationary target during Her laying cycle, after all. And if Lilith had been successful with that part of her mission, the rest of the aliens would have immediately made for Lilith's position. That much had been part of Lilith's plan, and would explain why there were none of the creatures to be found elsewhere in the facility. What it didn't explain was how Lilith, armed with both the weapons she had been provided and her own innate abilities, could possibly have failed to escape. It also didn't account for what had happened to the demolition charges.

Suddenly, they could all hear screaming from deep inside the building, a sound that was definitely not coming from the aliens, but was not exactly human either.

"Lilith!" Olivia yelled.

A quick look at the map indicated the sound was coming from the area they had identified as the Queen's chamber. Olivia ran ahead, giving the others no choice but to follow.

"Isn't this what we said we weren't going to do?" Newhouse asked.

"Too late," said Burbank. "We're committed now."

Eventually, the screams built to a long crescendo, and then finally stopped. Even without the sound to guide them, the team knew exactly which part of the structure they were headed for.

"Turn right up ahead, then left," said O'Neil. "And, um… then right again. I really don't think this is a good idea."

"Fuck, man!" Newhouse exclaimed. Bodies of the xenomorphs' victims were cocooned up and down both sides of the corridor.

"Look over there!" said Olivia.

It was the uniform that had been given to Lilith, or at least what was left of it. Sticky residue from what looked to have been resin bonds coated the tattered garments.

"It looks like Lilith broke free," Olivia said. "Maybe she got away." Then she noticed the dead facehugger curled up next to the fatigues. O'Neil and Verne saw it too, and looked at each other, Verne shaking his head slightly. Olivia reached the opening to the breeding chamber before Taylor and the others could stop her, and any hope she might have had left was cut short.

Lilith was lying on her back in her transformed state, perfectly still, with her jaw slack and eyes half lidded. Blood was pooling around her, slowly trickling from the ruptured tunnel between her breasts. From this gory hollow emerged the developing alien that had chewed its way free of its victim's chest. The creature finished wriggling its way into the open, its serpentine body twisting and coiling around itself, before quickly slithering away from Olivia and the marines.

So focused was Olivia on the fate of her beloved charge that she hadn't initially registered the xenomorph Queen and over two dozen drones on the other side of Lilith's body. It wasn't until the chestburster had hurried off, winding between the feet of the adult aliens, that Olivia became aware of their presence.

"We're not equipped for this," said Taylor. "Retreat, now!"

Olivia was still in shock, staring numbly. Burbank grabbed her by the arm.

"It's time to go," he said. She looked up and nodded, joining the rest of the team as they backtracked down the corridor.

"Burbank, O'Neil, stay on Olivia. Get her out of here." Taylor ordered. "Verne, you cover our six."

"Already on it," said Verne. He opened fire on the first of the aliens that had turned the corner to pursue, killing two and wounding a third. The acid blood that splashed the hall melted several of the cocooned bodies down to the bone.

"Newhouse, you're with Verne," shouted Taylor. "Anything that gets close enough, light it up."

"Affirmative," Newhouse responded. He readied his incinerator, but it seemed as if no additional drones were giving chase. "There's no more coming. What's going on?"

"Above you!" said Verne. Newhouse looked up; one of the drones was clambering along the ceiling of the hallway. He fired a stream of burning fuel, and the creature immediately caught fire. It screeched in agony and rage, and leapt down and towards him. Newhouse instinctively jumped back, when the alien suddenly stopped in mid-air and flew spiraling away from him. It took him a second to realize that Verne had grabbed hold of the creature and quickly thrown it backward.

He stared at Verne for a moment, mouth hanging open.

"That was fucking crazy, man!" said Newhouse, "Are you sure you're not an android?"

"Pretty sure," Verne answered simply, patting out the fire on his arm.

The alien, meanwhile, had finally succumbed to the flames. No more of the creatures appeared to be chasing after them, and the two marines ran to catch up with their comrades. They heard firing up ahead.

The rest of the marines and Olivia were dealing with the swarming xenomorphs that had cut them off at an intersection. They had killed three of the aliens between them, but more were quickly closing in, sprinting along the walls and ceiling. The team was losing ground, and the creatures were closing in too quickly to deal with one at a time. Burbank made a snap decision.

"Get down!" he shouted, firing a grenade into the hissing, snarling mass of aliens.

Burbank was knocked over by the force of the explosion. The others had already thrown themselves down, but could feel the blast wave and the heat rushing past. When they looked up, they were able to make out parts of at least four xenomorphs, counting by the heads. Unfortunately, the grenade had also brought the ceiling down, cutting off their avenue of escape.

Before Burbank could stand, he felt something grip his leg tightly, and heard a menacing hiss. One of the aliens had survived the explosion, and though it had lost its entire body below the waist, it clearly had every intention of killing him before it expired. He lifted his shotgun and blew apart the creature's head.

"Shit!" he yelled. Xenomorph blood had spattered his boots and pants, and he hurriedly set about devesting himself of both. Afterwards, he carefully looked himself over until he was satisfied that none of the acid had reached his skin. Relieved, he took a deep breath. "Sorry about that."

"Don't apologize," said Taylor, "you've got nice legs."

"I meant about bringing the roof down."

"I like your boxers," said O'Neil.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna miss the boots more than the pants."

"What's going on up here?" asked Newhouse. He looked around at the collapsed hallway, the dead and dismembered xenomorphs, and the half-naked Burbank. "Damn!"

"Burbank was just doing a little striptease for us girls," said Taylor.

"Well, he does have nice legs," Newhouse observed.

"I know, right? I was just saying that!"

"Anyway, the bugs stopped following us after I torched one of them."

"My guess is they were all busy cutting us off," said Burbank.

"Well, I see the path is all clear now," said Newhouse. "Good job on that, by the way."

"We're going to need to find another way out," said Olivia.

"You think?" said Newhouse.

"Already have one," said O'Neil. "But… well, you might not like it." She showed everyone the map on her com, a new route highlighted in red. Taylor looked skeptical.

"That takes us kind of close to the nest, doesn't it?"

"We've got no other options," said O'Neil apologetically.

"Wait a minute," said Newhouse, "what about all these?" He gestured to several branching hallways.

"Well that's the thing," said O'Neil. "None of those actually lead out of the building."

"Double check me on this," Taylor said. "There were twenty-five or so of the drones back there, and we've already taken out about ten." She arched an eyebrow. "That's actually not bad work. Anyway, that leaves about fifteen more. I think we can hack that."

"Better odds than when we came in," Newhouse admitted.

"About half of those were mine," Burbank reminded them, "and I almost got us killed blowing them to hell."

"Grenades in small spaces, not really ideal," said O'Neil. Burbank shrugged.

"Yeah, well. Things weren't ideal to start with," he said.

"All right, everyone listen up," Taylor began. "First off, I want you all on fresh clips. Verne, you're up front this time. Newhouse, you watch our rear. Remember, these things like air ducts; they may come from unexpected places. We're going to take this slow, corner by corner. Any of the bugs show up, get a clear shot and take it. We aim to kill about three each, and that should be all of them."

"You're forgetting the Queen," said Olivia. "That one won't go down so easy."

"If we stick to these hallways… well, they're smaller than the main one. Like, person sized, not… truck sized." said O'Neil. "It'll be a pretty tight fit for mama bug."

"Olivia, as of now this operation is no longer your responsibility," said Taylor. "You want to help, that's great. Just don't get in the way, or do anything crazy."

"Affirmative," answered Olivia.

A heartbeat. A sudden gasp of air. Organic tissue twisting and coiling.

Confusion. Vertigo.

Shapes in the darkness.

Lilith screamed and jumped to her feet. Her hands flew to her chest, and found it intact. She was still alive. But how? She had always assumed that if her heart were destroyed, she would die. It felt like… a memory, locked somewhere in her DNA.

"Reggie," she whispered. He had always said that Lilith's design was an improvement over that of the original SILs. Could this be part of what he meant?

Still half in a daze, shocked by her own continued existence, she looked around her; what she saw brought her immediately back into the present.

She was still in the egg chamber. The Queen looked at her, as astonished as Lilith herself. Next to the Queen, nuzzling up against Her leg, was a single drone. He looked different than any of the others Lilith had seen; among other things, his chitin was a murky greenish gray, glossy and translucent. Although he was now fully grown, Lilith immediately recognized him as the one that had grown inside her own body.

"He is perfect," said the Queen.