Note: This is an updated chapter! The first upload has been deleted.

When the Ghost Rider touched down on the deck of Sevastopol and the passengers disembarked, a couple of security men dressed in special designed uniforms greeted them. It was all standard procedure – as new arrivals they needed to be searched. Yet Hicks couldn't help to wonder how the heck they were going to get Pops passed the security check! Right now it seemed like a really bad idea to have brought him along, but the cyborg refused to leave Newt's side for an extended period of time. One of the men started to frisk the corporal by sweeping a hand-held metal detector over his body. He came out clean.

"Major Winters wants to see you immediately," the guard said in a flat cold tone.

"As soon as I see that my companions are treated properly," Hicks said. "We've been through a lot together."

"You don't need to worry about that," the guard said impatiently. "They will be well taken care of!" It seemed ludicrous to scan the child, but it was procedure that needed to be followed during the circumstances. As expected there was nothing out of the ordinary with her – the problem started when the guards brought the detector close to the old man. A signal was activated the instant it was held right before his face.

"What the hell is this?" the guard said perplexed.

"Problems?" Pops asked calmly.

"You're not a synthetic, are you?" the guard asked, a question that was quite unnecessary. A synthetic person was not compiled of any metal substances – they were all designed to be an artificial duplicate of a biological human to the greatest extent as they could make.

"No," Pops said unconcerned. "but I'm a war veteran, and I've had my fair share of injuries during my service. There's a metal plate in my skull after a hovercraft crash and many of my bones have been reinforced with titanium pins. A large part of my ribcage and hips have also been replaced."

"It's a wonder you're still alive, pal," the guard said, frowning. Hicks had trouble to keep himself from laughing. So the cyborg had a cover-story of his own – it shouldn't have come as a surprise since Terminators were infiltration units.

"Better have the Doc do the check on this one," one of the other men said. "They are to be taken there anyway. You do that while I bring Corporal Reese to major Winters." The guard nodded and motioned for Pops and Newt to follow him.

"You be good now, Caroline," Hicks said after them as he followed the other man. It was said as a reminder that they were not to reveal their true names to anybody while they were on Sevastopol. The girl threw him a petulant look anyway.

"So what war were you in, Old-timer?" the security man asked as he led the two civilians to the infirmary.

"That is classified!" was Pops' simple reply.

"Classified?" the guard questioned. "I never head of a war to be classified. Unless you were involved in the Black Ops!"

"You're asking questions you should know better than to ask, son."

"I'm just finding this whole thing peculiar," the guard continued. "If you've been in the service with the Black Ops, then why is it not you seeing Major Winters now instead of that grunt?"

"I never said I was in the Black Ops. That was your assumption!"

"So why can't you tell me then what war you were in…" The guard halted and spun around. "…unless you are hiding something?" The guard looked at Pops sternly. "Are you a deserter? Or perhaps a spy? Maybe I should put you in the stockade instead of taking you to the infirmary?" The guard was reaching for his radio hanging on his belt.

"You should know to mind your own business," Pops said flatly. Then in a movement so fast that Newt didn't have time to see it, the cyborg slugged the guard and he slumped to the deck out cold.

"You didn't kill him, did you?" the child asked.

"No," Pops said as he picked the unconscious form up. "but he won't wake up for a day or so. My fist isn't like the soft texture of your bones." Newt could see it. The guard looked like he had been hit in the face by a pile-driver. Pops took a moment to scan the design of the uniform the guard was wearing – then with the help of is poly-mimetic alloy, he changed his own clothing to match that of the guard's. "This will help us to infiltrate the people onboard this station."

"What about him?" Newt asked, indicating to the unconscious guard.

"What about him?" Pops questioned. The child gave him a stern look.

A moment later the infirmary of Sevastopol II was visited by a big guard carrying another. The nurse in there rose in alarm from her chair. "What happened?" she asked.

"An accident," the big guard explained. "He was running to his station when he slipped on the deck and fell head-long into a console in one of the corridors. It's a one-in-a-million freak accident." The big man put the unconscious form on a bed.

"God damn," the nurse said as she saw the swollen face. "That's going to leave a mark."

"Will you take care of him? I'm late for my shift."

"Yes, of course. We'll take it from here. I'll call for the doctor immediately."

"Thank you, Nurse," the man said and turned to leave.

"Hey!" the nurse suddenly called after him. "Weren't we supposed to receive two civilians who'd just arrived?" But the big guard had already left the infirmary. Outside in the corridor Pops rejoined Newt who had stood out of sight.

"Satisfied?" he asked her and the girl nodded. She did not like the idea to leave a wounded man behind without giving him proper treatment. People may have treated her badly in the past, but she was not going to sink to their level.

Sevastopol II was much more grandeur than its predecessor. As it was a gathering point for travelling ships, the station was built to acknowledge the interests for what visitors mostly sought during the stop. The station was designed simply: it was mainly a circular disc in the middle with three oversized cone-shaped towers attached to the sides. Two sets of 'cones' made one tower: one spire pointing up and one spire pointing down. One of those towers was reserved for the civilian section of Sevastopol and the whole structure was like a shopping mall with several shops of different kinds and many restaurants. As the Tower resembled a tall pointy spire, the floors within were more described as levels. The main floor was in the middle as it was part of the 'center-disc' of the station and then there was seven additional levels up and another seven down. Each of those platform levels faced the outer wall which was one gigantic window where you had a spectacular view over the gas giant of KG348. This was the main reason weapons were forbidden on the station. If a ballistic projectile would hit the window, it could result in a humongous disaster. The other two towers were reserved for functional use. One or those were for storage and temporary space for traveling goods. The third Tower was for the personnel of Sevastopol: offices, habitats, and infirmary – it also had a brig. The main disc in the middle was where the space-hangars were located.

To avoid detection, Pops and Newt had to go out into the civilian tower. Pops may have branded himself with a likeness of the Sevastopol uniform, but in a station where every permanent resident would most likely know his other colleagues, Pops' face would give him away instantly. It was only by sheer luck that the nurse had been so busy examining her patient that she had failed to look more closely at the one who had brought the guard in. The civilian space-travelers visiting the station on the other hand shouldn't be so familiar with Sevastopol's guards, so there was a bigger chance that Pops could move around a little more inconspicuously here. For a station that worked as an intermediate platform for travelling ships, it was surprisingly crowded. The fact that it was wasn't in the pair's favor as it meant that they had more faces to search.

Pops was actually not looking for Ellen Ripley – he knew that she would not be in this section. As she was a prisoner, she would be in the tower that was used for storage to unload the ship. Pops was looking for the other Terminator whom had bigger reason to bide his time here. As an infiltration unit, it too needed to remain inconspicuous to not be compromised until it had located its target, and the best way to do that was to hide among other people. Pops' logic was simple: find the Terminator and either let it lead Pops to Ellen Ripley, or find a way to dispose of it before it could finish its mission. Pops had not told Newt any of this though, she was in fact frantically looking for Ripley. Pops' intention was to identify the Terminator that was hidden here somewhere and then he would find a spot to put the child away from the prying sensors of the other. He would then tell Newt to wait there until Ripley would come by, (it would be a lie, something she would not be happy about - but it was better than risking her life,) and then Pops would deal with the Terminator somehow.

"Your attention, please," a female voice called over the PA-system. "The Piper Maru is scheduled for departure at 14 hundred hours from docking bay Four. All passengers for the Piper Maru, please proceed to docking bay Four!"

"Where do you think she could be?" Newt asked, rightly ignorant to the message on the PA-system as it was of no concern to them. She was both anxious and afraid. Anxious for the prospect of seeing Ripley again and afraid that she was going to be rejected. Her insecurity was unfortunately the dominating force within her right now after her year of mistreatment from her grandparents and fellow classmates. Even though Hicks had decreed that the letter sent to her was a lie, Newt was terrified that there had been a truth to it. What if Ripley really didn't want anything to do with her? What then would she do? She knew she would never be able to handle a rejection, so she was considering that maybe it was better to leave it all behind and keep the dream of how it could have been. But that sort of fantasy would also be a burden that would make her feel unhappy. She was in for losing either way.

"We will need to conduct a systematic search," Pops said answering her question. "We should therefore start on the top floor and work our way down." Pops' real plan with that was that from the top level he could get a vast oversight of the tower. He would use his sensors on a long-distance mode to scan as far down he could and maybe catch sight of the Terminator. His advanced sensors could easily identify another Terminator no matter what appearance or disguise it had. It was also a good place to leave the girl to keep her out of harm. Spotting the elevator tube, he led his protégée to that direction.

The prisoners of the Penal Cruiser Cerberus were at that moment sitting down eating the lunch that the personnel of Sevastopol had been gracious enough to provide them. They were still in Tower Two which was designated for travelling goods – there was no way either the personnel of Sevastopol nor civilians would want convicts in their presence in one of the restaurants at Tower Three. The prisoners ate in silence – while it was a good opportunity among common people to share stories or just enjoying others company at the table, these people had no reason to enjoy anything. They were all there because their own actions had put them in this predicament and it was nothing to speak loudly about. The only thing they shared was that they all felt tired after their labor and that was nothing anybody felt like whining about, because there would be no sympathy given. Do your work and shut up, that was the silent rule. Accept privileges when it was given, but don't expect it to become a habit; that was the truth they had to live by. Complaining wouldn't change anything.

Ellen Ripley hated this life, and why wouldn't she? She didn't know the stories of her fellow prisoners who usually all claimed that they had been set up, but she really had been framed. The Company had put all the blame of the disasters concerning the Xenomorphs on her shoulders to save their own worthless hides, but no one was willing to listen to her side of the story. Her only way out of this was to act on her good behavior. Once this current penal tour was over and they would go back to their permanent prison facility until the next trip out, Ripley had every intention on calling her lawyer. It had been a year now since her incarceration and her service record was spot clean. She had the right to have her case reopened and to at least request to be transferred to an open institution where she would be allowed to write letters. Of course, she knew that that would never happen. The Company wanted her out of the grid so that she could not spread her words to anyone else and they would make sure that she would remain there. But she would gain nothing if she didn't at least try. Eventually someone would have to look at her case and raise questions – a faint hope, but a possibility she had to grasp.

"Your attention, please," the PA-system came to life again. "Last call for passengers to embark the Piper Maru. Please proceed to docking bay Four immediately!"

"Bet you lot wish you could board it, don't you?" the ship's captain and 'warden' Mr. Cinch mocked the interns. Some of the prisoners made grimaces, but said nothing. "But that's a no-no for you! You lot belong to the Cerberus – for a looong time!" Cinch snickered. He enjoyed pushing down the morale of his prisoners. In fact he dared them, sometimes even provoked them to stage a revolt, but no one was stupid enough to do that. Things would only get worse if they did.

"Attention, Sevastopol docking crew. Prepare docking bay thirteen for next ship's departure at fourteen twenty. Please report to docking bay thirteen."

"Did you hear that?" Cinch said. "That's us she was referring to. We'll be leaving in twenty minutes, so eat up! I want you lot back aboard in ten! The one who falls behind will be left here and I assure you; Major Winters won't be as kind to you as I am." Many of the prisoners bit back a remark on how Cinch treated them, but it was hard to do so. About all of them rose and took their dishes to place those back on the carriage that was to be rolled back to the kitchen.

"Attention, Commander Cohoe!" the PA was heard again. "Please report to the infirmary. Repeat: Commander Cohoe to the infirmary!"

"Sounds like they got a busy day here," one of the guards of Cerberus said in passing. There were only some shrugs in response from the others. They were all preparing to walk back to the ship when another message came through.

"Attention: Ellen Ripley! Please head for the main entrance of Tower Three, civilian section. Repeat: Ellen Ripley to main entrance of Tower Three where company awaits!"

Ripley stopped in her tracks as she couldn't believe her ears. Someone was paging her? Here? Who would know that she was here and what kind of company would that be? Mr. Cinch seemed to wonder the same thing as he rushed up, grabbing her arm, and spun her around to face him.

"What is the meaning of this?!" he barked into her face.

Ripley stammered. "I… I swear… I have no idea…"

"You got a message out somehow!" Cinch roared. "You arranged for some accomplices to come here to break you out!"

"NO!" Ripley protested. "There's no way that I could've…"

Cinch wasn't listening to her protests. "Well, they didn't know how to find you, so they foolishly paged you on an open system, foiling your plans!"

"This is not my doing!"

"Well, miss Ripley… why don't we just go there? Let's see who it is whose calling for you – and then I will have them arrested for attempting jailbreaking! That will make major Winters' day! Let's go!"

Newt and Pops where at this moment on the top-level of the cone-shaped Tower. Pops was leaning over the railing, scanning the floors that was positioned like stairs beneath them all the way down to the center. It wasn't really much space available to scan, but it was a good start. He could not get a reading of the levels beneath the center floor though as it was cone-shaped the other way downwards – those levels had to be searched one by one. His initial scan came up empty and he was about to tell Newt that they would move down to the next floor when they heard the call on the PA-system.

"Pops!" Newt gasped out before she remembered that they were incognito. "Err… Uncle Bob! Did you hear that?"

"Yes!" the cyborg said simply. But he looked a bit annoyed. "And that was a stupid move! Michael Reese must have made that call – he should have known better if he wanted discretion!"

"Why's that?" the girl asked.

"Because the Terminator will have heard it too. All he has to do is to go there and then he will have them both in his sights and terminate them!"

"We have to go back down there!"

"Correction: I will go back down there. You will remain here, Caroline Connor!" The cyborg marched back to the elevator tube. The car was fortunately still waiting.

"But Pops…" Newt objected, taking a few steps after him.

"Remain here!" he said more firmly as he stepped into the car and the elevator doors closed, taking the cyborg back down to the center.

Remain here? The cyborg couldn't understand what that meant to Newt. The last time she had been told to stay put somewhere was on that faithful day on LV-426 when her family had gone out into the unexplored grounds and discovered that accursed alien ship. She and her brother had been told to stay in the tractor while her parents had gone inside and that had been one of the worst waits in her life, especially since it had resulted in her father getting that horrible thing on his face. That had led to his death and then those hideous monsters had overrun her colony, killing everyone, and left her all alone. Newt couldn't stand waiting in situations where she didn't know the outcome after that – it gave her a massive dose of jittery. She had always felt bad because there had been nothing she could've done to save her family, but if there was some way she could save Ripley, then she had to do it. She spotted a staircase at the far corner of the platform, and it was to those she now rushed. Pops' orders be damned!

Cinch and Ripley did just then step out onto the main platform of Tower Three, the warden holding the woman's elbow in a steady grip. Cinch looked around to see if there were anybody there who seemed to take a special interest to the pair. There was none at first sight.

"So where are your accomplices, then?" the warden spat.

"I'm telling you," Ripley began. "I don't know anybody here…"

"Don't act innocent, doll! Somebody paged for you, hence somebody knew that you would be here! And I want to know who it is so that I can plug this leak you obviously managed to get messages out through! You're in deep enough shit as it is, doll, so why don't you just tell me who's the familiar face here is?"

"I did not send any messages!" Ripley persisted.

"The lady speaks the truth." Both warden and prisoner turned to the speaker, and they were both surprised. "It was by my own choice that I paged for this woman. Please forgive me if I caused any confusion."

The warden had totally lost his composure. "I… Who are you?"

The newcomer smiled. "I'm Father Patrick of the Oregon concretion. I was just stopping by at this station while I'm waiting for my transit back to Earth when I saw the prisoner transport coming in."

"You're not looking for a ride, are you?" Cinch asked incredulously.

The priest smiled again. "No. But my church has a program of mercy and prison reform and I felt I couldn't just let your ship pass by without me interviewing at least one of your inmates. I took the liberty of having a look at your crew manifest and this young lady's name kind of stood out from the rest, that's why I picked her."

"Father, this woman is a mass-murderer!" Cinch started to object. "She destroyed a colony…"

"Her deeds are dark and yet I pray that there is a chance to save her soul. I was therefore hoping to take some of this lady's time to listen to some tracts? I hope to make her want to see a new light and be willing to rectify her wrongdoings."

"Absolutely not, Father." Cinch said. "She would not…"

"Actually…" Ripley cut in. "I'd like to take you up on your offer, Father."

Cinch was shocked. "You… you would?"

"I wish to save my soul."

"Oh, it makes me so happy to hear you say that." Father Patrick said. "Shall we find a secluded spot?"

"Now, wait a minute…!" the warden objected. "This is unregularly…"

"Surely you wouldn't want to stand in the way of the church's work, my good man? Isn't it our common duty to rehabilitate the prisoners back into society?"

"No Father, I just…" Cinch looked really lost. "Look, we are scheduled to leave in fifteen minutes. I need her back aboard in ten!"

"I need no more," The priest said.

Cinch surrendered. "All right then… I'll be back here to pick her up in ten." And with that he left, leaving Ripley with the priest.

"Shall we?" Father Patrick asked, gently taking her arm to lead her away.

"I fear you've put me in a tight spot, Father," Ripley said. "Cinch will not forget this."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about him," the priest said as they walked away from the populated areas. Strange, Ripley thought. She had a funny feeling in her gut, like she was doing a mistake.

"You really are heading back to Earth?" she asked.

"When I'm finished here, yes. Why do you ask?"

"You see, Father… I agreed to listen to one of your tracts because I was wondering if I could ask a very big favor of you…"

The players of the recent scene had all left the platform when Pops stepped out of the elevator. He looked around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. He was calculating on his next course of action when Hicks came barging into the civilian section. He was fuming. "BOB!" he barked when he saw the cyborg.

"That was very unwise, Corporal!" Pops said in return.

"What are you talking about?" Hicks asked in a heated voice. "I was just about to ask you what you were thinking? Why did you page for Ripley? I said we were going to do this discreetly!"

Pops looked at the other curiously. "I didn't do it. I thought you did!"

"Me? Why would I…?"

"Then it was the Terminator!" Pops concluded.

"Shit!" Hicks looked around. "Well, she's not here…"

"And neither is the Terminator! And he would be unless he has already acquired his target!"

"Acquired how? She would've struggled, but no one here seems to be alarmed of a commotion…"

"Which means that no struggle occurred," Pops stated.

"You say she went with him willingly?"

"Don't underestimate a Terminator's infiltration skills, Corporal! If he knows what we know, then he knows he can't kill Ellen Ripley in the open as a committed murder will put the station under complete lockdown until the perpetrator is apprehended. His best chance to escape back to Earth is to do the deed in a secluded spot without any witnesses and hide the body."

"Then he must've taken her to the corner of the platform! Those areas are usually devoid of people!"

"We don't have much time!" Pops let his poly-alloy around his thighs flow and from the sides of his upper legs, two objects suddenly protruded from his trousers. He took a firm grip on each of them with his hands and pulled them out from the liquid mass with a soaking sound. In one swift motion, he connected the two objects and reassembled the shotgun he had taken from the Ghost Rider. People around them had already looked at them strangely as the two had voiced a strange conversation about killings and witnesses – but now as the big man dressed as a guard of Sevastopol pulled a big gun out from his legs, their curiosity suddenly changed into a panic. The civilians ran away in panic screaming incomprehensively about armed men and killers while the corporal and the fake guard ran ahead along the platform.

"Where's Ne… err, Caroline?" the soldier asked as they ran through the crowd.

"On a safe spot!" was the other's reply. But Hicks couldn't help to wonder if she would stay there, wherever this safe spot were.

"Rebecca Jorden?" the priest asked.

"Yes," Ripley confirmed. She didn't use the child's nickname as it wouldn't be that on any records of her. "I have absolutely no idea what happened to her since I was arrested. Father, if you could find her and pass on a message to her from me, I would be eternally grateful!"

The priest seemed to consider this as they walked. This part of the platform did not have frequent visitors as it was on the side of the gigantic window which faced the gas giant of KG348. There wasn't much to see from this spot.

"If I would find her, what is it you want me to tell her?"

Ripley shut her eyes as she walked, composing herself. The priest could see that this was difficult for her. "Tell her that I'm sorry that I could not be there for her. That I'm sorry for letting them separate us! Tell her… that I love her!" The last words came out as a whisper, and there were tears in her eyes. "I need her to know that I'm still thinking of her… that she is my strength…" She couldn't go on as she broke out in sorrow. "God, I miss her so…" she croaked. "My baby…"

"She is your daughter then?" the priest asked, strangely impassive. There was something about this holy man that was not right - Ripley became more certain of it now. But she couldn't tell what it was. And suddenly she regretted that she had displayed her emotions about Newt in front of him. It was a good thing she hadn't revealed the child's true name to this weird man.

Ripley turned away, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand – and registered a commotion coming from the center of the platform. She was too far away and at the wrong angle to see – but it sounded like some panic.

"What's going on back there?" she asked.

"It is of no concern." The priest said. Ripley found that to be a strange answer coming from a holy man. A tingling sense in the back of her mind was really screaming a warning to her now. A quick look around revealed that she was alone here with him in the corner – there was no one else around.

"Father, what concretion did you say you belonged to?" The priest didn't answer. And from behind her back, Ripley didn't see how the holy man did a strange flick with his hand…

It was amazing how quickly Newt had descended the stairs. She was quite the quick sprinter when she needed to be and by physical law, it was easier to go downwards then up. Yet she needed a moment to catch her breath. She had not run into a single person during her descent, but she figured it was for the same reason as back in the mall in Washington: people always avoided the stairs when elevators were available. And as the staircase was built along the corner of the tower, visitors obviously avoided these areas feeling they had nothing there to do – therefore she was alone where she was. Newt was still one level above the main floor and far away from the occupied areas, but thanks to her acute hearing; she could hear that the noise from the people was not of a normal character. It sounded like the people were shouting and screaming in warning of some kind. Newt moved over to the railing on the edge of the floor and leaned over, attempting to look ahead towards the center to make out what the commotion was about. She saw nothing over there – but then she saw something else!

Right underneath her on the level below where she stood, she saw Ripley together with a man she didn't know. Although the woman had longer hair than last time she'd seen her, Newt recognized her immediately. The child tensed up – what was she going to do now when she'd found her? Call out? But her insecurity said against it; what if Ripley didn't want to see her? Besides she was busy talking to the man, maybe she didn't want to be disturbed. Newt listened slightly to make out what they were talking about. "Father, what concretion did you say you belonged to?" she heard Ripley say. Father? It couldn't be her own dad – Newt knew about the story on how Ripley had slept for fifty-seven years drifting in space. She then made a note of the word 'concretion'. The man was a priest, she realized. A holy man…

Newt suddenly froze. Her eyes went wide as a piece of the puzzle suddenly fell into place. One of the mysteries that's been nagging her subconscious this whole time was how the terminator chasing her had gotten hold of her phone-number to track her. The only answer was that her grandparents had given it to them. But why would they have done that? Her grandparents had lived solely for their religion, and they had been holding on to it so strongly that they distanced themselves from everybody who didn't share their faith, even family-members! They would never have left her phone-number to a stranger asking for it. But to a priest…!

A priest wouldn't be considered a stranger – they shared the same faith, followed the same religion, doing the same work to serve their god. Even one they hadn't seen before would be welcomed with open arms, they were all family in the church! A false priest could easily have manipulated information out of her grandparents if he played his role well enough – and an expert infiltration unit like a Terminator could very well do that disguised as holy man! And if that disguise worked so well to fool her grandparents, why would they drop it? As a priest, it could move around everywhere without anyone questioning it. Newt didn't need Pops' sensors – she knew without a doubt that that man down there was the Terminator! She no longer hesitated…

"RIPLEY! LOOK OUT! HE'S GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Alas, the child's main intention had been to make Ripley aware of the danger she was in – but as the woman looked up to spot the owner of the voice, the adult instead froze, staring in disbelief.
It couldn't be! She couldn't be here! It had to be a hallucination, a figment of her emotional state…
She was so blanked out that she did not see how the priest behind her made a sweeping move…

BOOM!

The gunshot was enough to rouse Ripley out of her stupor. Who would be foolish enough to fire a gun within the civilian tower? If an armor-piercing bullet hit the big window, they would all be exposed to vacuum! It appeared that the priest was the one who had been hit, but then she saw something strange: what was the priest doing behind her with a sword? Then her eyes went wide as she saw something that was not ordinary! The priest didn't hold a sword in his hand – there was no hand visible! The whole fore-arm was shaped like a silvery blade, poised against her. She looked up to look him in the eye – and was shocked! One of the priest's eyes were gone, there was only a gaping hole all the way though his skull like a peep-hole. But the wound wasn't red with raw exposed meat – the edges were all like silver!

The fake priest had staggered from the shot, but now he stood straight and turned to face her, his former pleasant expression all gone. The gaping hole in his head flowed in with silvery liquid filling up the void – and suddenly he was all healed! Both eyes were back like he had never been shot. Ripley was so stunned by disbelief and confusion of what she saw that she was unable to do anything, and the fake priest raised his blade-arm again to make a strike at her…

"Get down, Ripley!" The woman was suddenly knocked to the floor by a flying body, the impact made her breath escape her lungs - and then the shooting started again. The fake priest was hit, and every time he was, a new silvery hole appeared on his chest. The priest was staggering backwards against the railing of the platform, not given time to regain his composure. With one final shot, the priest was knocked over the railing and he disappeared down into the abyss below. A large man holding a smoking rifle rushed forward…

"We got a problem!" he said.

"You know, I really hate it when somebody says that!" the man who had knocked Ripley down replied. She recognized him now. "Hicks?! What the…?" she stammered.

"That was no ordinary Terminator!" the mystery man proceeded to explain. "It's a T-1000!"

"Bad news for us, I take it," Hicks said as he got up to his feet.

"Very! Conventional ways cannot destroy it! Knocking him over the edge won't stop him! He'll be back!"

"Then we better quickly get out of here!" Hicks pulled Ripley up. "You all right?" he asked her.

"What the fuck is this?!" Ripley demanded to know all confused. "What the fuckis going on?!"

"I'll explain later, but right now we have to get back to our ship!"

"That may no longer be an option," the big man said. And true to his words, the three of them were suddenly surrounded by Sevastopol's security team, all holding them at gunpoint.

"Aw, crap!" Hicks muttered under his breath and raised his arms. "There's nothing to be done. Put down your gun, Pops. We surrender." He caught sight of Major Winter's stepping forward with a furious expression on his face. "Well, I had a feeling that he didn't buy my cover-story anyhow."