"I feel the kind of desperation, I think, that cancels the possibility of empathy… that makes you unkind."
Sue Miller, While I was gone.
December 11th, 2137, Earth Central Time. Colonial Marshal Bureau, Solomons Habitation Tower, Sevastopol Station.
Marshal Will Waits was desperate, over the past days, the creature on the loose aboard Sevastopol have been slaughtering the inhabitants and last night, in less than an hour he had lost nearly all of his remaining officers: Ross, who had run AWOL; García, killed in front of Waits, and Turner, dragged through a vent. All killed while chasing the beast in maintenance levels. After that, Waits was determinate to exterminate the creature by any means necessary, he had ordered Gardiner to get to Seegson synthetics and collect a "package", more specific, the Hydrogen fuel cells the androids use for power.
The colonial Marshal were now seated on the console waiting for the report. He was wondering how to make the creature activate the trap, the last one they had set up in San Cristobal reception was still there, the creature hadn't set it up. Waits reassured this was due to the fact there was no one at the hospital. "It needs bait" he thought.
He looked at the onboard clock: 730 Hours, Officer Gardiner had reported he had the explosive at seven o'clock and he had to report by now. Something bad must had happened and he had sent Ricardo to help him, the young officer was locking down the Armory and Prisoner processing to prevent looters from raiding the place looking for weapons, especially those bastards from Seegson security. Sinclair and his people had locked inside the Rec room in habitation and his goons had been shooting and looting all over the tower.
He checked the console and read the message Ricardo had informing the situation. He had found the explosive material and Gardiner was dead, Waits had ordered Ricardo to take the explosive to the Lookout in Habitation. The miniaturized hydrogen fuel cells weren't as potent as the Di-ethyl ether they had set up in the hospital, but it can cause a catastrophic decompression if placed in one of the large windows. Waits hoped to blast the beast to space with that.
He instructed Ricardo to send the confirmation receipt Waits had written on the console, the officer just need to press send and the Marshal will be warned the explosion was about to happen.
-"Ricardo, press send on this message when you've got to the area. I want a heads up before the explosives go off."
After a moment which seemed forever, Marshal Waits had received the confirmation receipt from the deputy Officer. He had planted the bomb and alerted the survivors to leave the area. Waits cursed, without any people there the creature has no motivation to be there. There was a time when Waits cared for the people living on the station, but after seeing what a lot of armed and desperate survivors did –shooting innocent people, leaving them at the hands of the creature, fighting over a food can- Waits sanity started to deteriorate.
-"This is…sel Torrens out of… gistration numb… 7760, calling… three passengers… mmediate permission to transfer… portside…" an old CB radio crackled.
Waits startled. He had almost forgotten the outdated device installed in case any ship appeared, and now the Torrens, the ship sent to retrieve that goddam flight recorder had finally arrived. Waits had hoped the old transmitter was enough to send a message to the ship. He picked up the microphone and talked back.
-"This is Waits, Colonial Marshal at Sevastopol station. We have a serious situation here. Non-local comms are down and we need to send out an emergency message, do you read me? Repeat, our ranged communications are down and we need help. Stand by and send help."
He waited and there was only static on the radio. He tried again and didn't get a response. The console beeped and shown the confirmation message from Ricardo. The bomb was about to explode. He picked the radio again and tried to warn the Torrens.
-"Torrens, this is Marshal Waits at Sevastopol station. There's a bomb about to explode, you need to clear Sevastopol space and call for help. We are in a desperate situation. Over?"
The radio remained silence. APOLLO had blocked all radio transmission. "That damn computer had caused only problems." Waits thought, and he hoped his message was heard or by the time another ship arrived there were no one alive to be rescued.
Fifteen minutes later, the station shook by the explosion, Waits slipped and fell, almost hitting his head on the desk, lights flickered.
-"Jesus Christ! That was a big one." Waits exclaimed. "It shook the entire station."
-"Initiating Orbital correction maneuvers, please stand by." The automated computer voice announced after a few minutes.
The Marshal waited until the station stopped its correction. The orbit was so close and any disruption on it can cause the entire installation to fall to the gas giant below. The terminal displayed a new message from Ricardo, the man did make it.
-"Waits, we're trap down. The creature set off the explosives we set in the Habitation Tower, and I'm hearing reports of damage to the Spaceflight Terminal docks. I don't think we put a dent in it. There's activity in San Cristobal, so maybe it's gone back. Find a way over the Scimed Tower transit. Hope to God the sensors in medical reception are still online."
"Damn again. What do you need to kill the goddam thing?" Waits thought, by what Ricardo reported, the Alien was expelled by the explosion but the beast had crawled by one of the transit tubes back into the Station. He took his equipment, a shotgun and his personalized .38 special gun and leave the Marshal Bureau and the people bunkered there and headed for the transit station.
What Waits and Ricardo didn't knew was there were more than one. The creature that had set the bomb was indeed floating right into KG-348, but inside the Hospital, others of the hideous beasts were after the survivors.
- o -
December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Chief Executive Ransome's penthouse.
Ben Ransome looked at the destroyed android inside the living room. Two days ago, he had returned after fleeing his penthouse and being hiding on the temporary clinic, now a survivor's camp. There was no way an important executive like him had to endure such bad conditions: cramped, dirty and lacking food and meds. He had armed himself with a wrench, had stolen one of the motion trackers and then reduced the android's head to a pulp.
After that he tried to contact Gregor Speeding but there was neither response from him or Chief Porter. He then tried APOLLO from his personal terminal –the one he used to spy and to blackmail anyone- but the main computer had responded now it runs under W-Y directives and the Seegson Chief Executive didn't have the authority needed to reestablish comms.
Ransome realized the company interest was on the creature only, nothing more. Although communications were down, he wrote an angry message addressed to Weyland-Yutani directives, perhaps comms were only unavailable for the station inhabitants who are not W-Y employees.
-"This is Seegson executive Ransome, reporting in to the board. You son of a bitches. I was loyal to you and you cheap bastards left me twisting in the wind. I was going to give you the find of a lifetime. I was willing to risk my life for the company. I could have called in a special team, secured the specimen and we all would have been happy. But APOLLO has cut all communications. None of the technicians in APOLLO core are answering my messages. We're all dying here, you bastards! You threw it all away! Fuck you and fuck your company! Fuck you!"
It was a rant and he knew it, nothing of what he said had any effect on those corporate bastards, seated on their leather chairs, drinking whiskey on their offices while they send people to their deaths literally light years away. No, Ransome was a man of action, he would make sure they didn't get anything they were looking for.
Now, he was ready. He was about to slip out of his Penthouse decided to destroy any data on the creature, as the creature had proved to be difficult to dispose. Something outside called Ransome's attention. Parked beyond the spaceflight terminal was a ship! Large white letters painted on the Hull indicated the ship's name: TORRENS.
-"They're here!" Said Ransome. "I have to delete all recordings before they get them."
He grabbed the motion tracker, his high rated access tuner and one shock baton he had steal. His objective was the control console from where he would delete all servers, also he wanted to shut off the cameras and close all the station's external shutters.
Ben Ransome took his gear and felt the comfort of the Penthouse, the hallways were well lit, during the last days had been multiple power failures all over the station, but not here, not in the Executive penthouses. After a few steps, he heard noises coming from one of the vents ahead.
Quickly, he hid behind a crate and saw the creature climb down the vent. Ransome observed and he couldn't avoid to admire the way the creature descended, slowly and quietly, almost as if it didn't weigh. That changed once the creature was in the floor, it growled and walked down the corridor stomping.
-"Damn, it's here." Ben cursed.
The creature was blocking the access to the area he need to go, to the right there was the cinema. Ransome headed towards the door. Inside it was dark, the only light came from the large screen used to project films. He moved along, crouching behind the seats; Ben saw a figure reclined and recognized the man, Barker, the old bastard had his belly open and the innards dripped into the floor. The creature must have killed no more than an hour ago.
Beep, beep. The tracker alerted Ransome something was coming but he hasn't heard the doors open. "A rat, maybe?" he thought, hoping it was true. Then he heard the chirping sound.
-"Shit!" Ransome exclaimed as a creature crawled towards him.
Before the creature leaped onto Ransome's face, the Executive took his maintenance jack and hit the tiny beast with a powerful blow. It crunched like an oversized cockroach and died, the acidic blood corroded the floor. Ransome examined the creature, it was the same he had taken from the Anesidora and gave it to Dr. Wong in the labs to study. "No, not the same, there are more of this fuckers, now Waits has a real problem." He thought.
The station shocked and Ransome hit the door frame, after that the computer voice was heard.
-"What the Hell?" Ben exclaimed "Speaking of the devil. Waits and his bombs. Bastard."
-"Initiating Orbital correction maneuvers, please stand by." The automated computer voice announced after few minutes.
The maintenance jack was damaged, but for Ransome's fortune, he wasn't going to need it anymore. His office was locked but using the access tuner, Ben opened it and turned on the control console. It was easy from there to shut down all windows in habitation, especially those in the spaceflight terminal.
-"That's it, Good luck fuckers." Ransome exclaimed, satisfied those W-Y operatives were now blind and without a single bit of data. There's one more thing to do, destroy any research Lindgard still have on the Hospital. He returned to the cinema and took the keycard from Barker.
He intended to use Barker's shuttle to get to the hospital, and ran for the elevator towards the Penthouse's marina.
- o -