It was a spooky feeling, walking through the darkened corridors of the sub-levels of the facility. The more reasonable parts of their minds told them that it was probably due to anxiety of sorts – there was nothing down there that could harm them anymore. Everything was dead, save for the emergency lightning. The EMP bomb had fried every living circuit there were. To Ripley's chagrin, that included the main electronic doors, which meant that those couldn't be opened now. They were trapped underground.
Hicks wasn't that concerned for their current predicament of being trapped. As a soldier, he knew what procedures was taken into effect when an emergency occurs, especially when it concerned a facility that was in one way or another contracted to benefit the country. He knew that right now above ground, there were plenty of people from the local authorities on the premises, the military, and the police, whom had answered to Skynet's unwitting alarm of a radiation leakage. Without a doubt, they were at this very moment looking for a way in themselves – and if they couldn't find a way in, they would simply break through.
What did concern the corporal was when that happened, it would be the end of their little band. Ripley was an escaped convict – falsely accused, but in the terms of the law she was going to be returned to prison. He himself would most likely also end up serving time in the locker as well. There were plenty of military regulations he had broken to get to this point, having made unauthorized access to restricted areas, stealing the prototype stealth ship the Ghost Rider and being instrumental in wreaking havoc at the space station Sevastopol as well as on this base.
And Newt was an orphan with currently no legal guardians. She would be hauled off to an orphanage and put under care of people she didn't know and didn't trust. Worse even, she might get sent back to Washington to resume her classes at the school where she was bullied. In a way, it would be a prison for her as well. They would all be separated again, and it was that knowledge that made them all anxious.
Hicks would do anything to prevent it, but as the situation were at the moment, there was nothing he could do. Besides, there was one more very important task they had to do before the authorities broke in there. They had to make sure that history stayed its course.
Ripley and Newt were heading back up to the Time Displacement Equipment to attempt to power it up. It, as well as the particle accelerator the T.D.E. used as a power source would still be operational since those had been deactivated when the EMP bomb went off. Hicks was now heading down to the generator itself to fetch the grand player of this last operation.
He found the one he sought, right where he and Ripley had left him within the tunnel of the accelerator. Pops' younger self, the last remaining terminator whom had been lying inert since they pulled his CPU. The cyborg had fallen to the floor after the generator had been shut off – no magnetic pull locked it to the surface of the accelerator. Save for the wound in his scalp, he looked relatively undamaged.
Hicks did feel a bit apprehensive of what he was going to do, mostly because Ripley had expressed concern that she might not have managed to finish the reprogramming of the chip to the desired extent before the Hunter-Killers blew the computer to bits – or it might be that Hicks was apprehensive because he had never been fully comfortable around the machine, even though the older version of this unit had saved them all.
Reason won over reluctance. If they wanted to keep the timeline the way it was now, this had to be done. Before Hicks re-inserted the chip, he exercised caution. The Pops they knew had had no memory on whom had sent him back in time, and the survivors had to make sure that this unit would be kept in the dark about it as well. Hicks put on a balaclava, a head-mask he had found in one of the labs which he guessed was used as protection gear. By hiding his face, the terminator wouldn't be able to imprint his appearance once it was reactivated, and the anonymity would be implemented. Praying that this would work, he put the chip back within the cranial socket. The cyborg came back online in an instant.
The terminator sat up straight, and then it stood up. It looked around, apparently confused as if it couldn't get its bearings. Finally, it focused its sensors on the living person in the vicinity. Hicks stood his ground, hiding his nervousness. He took it as a good sign that the cyborg didn't attempt to kill him – at least not right away.
"Identify yourself," the terminator demanded.
"Who I am is irrelevant," Hicks answered. "What is your current status?"
The terminator twitched his head, having not expected to have his question thrown back at him. To Hicks it looked like he was ready to attack, but didn't know the reason why it should do so. "My memory banks…" the cyborg then said. "…are corrupted. Several data are not in sequence and the files are incomplete. I will need to defragment my CPU."
"Postpone that action!" Hicks quickly said. "There will be time for you to do that later. Just answer me this: what do you know of Sarah Connor?"
The terminator looked at the human, again with bewilderment. But it answered anyway. "Sarah Connor is the mother of the human resistance leader John Connor, who is arch-enemy to Skynet. Sarah Connor was born 1964 and lived in Los Angeles. Only the basic information is available. Most records were lost during the war against mankind."
"It will have to suffice. Just tell me what your feelings for Sarah are?"
"I am a Terminator. I do not have feelings. Nor do my sub-routines cover the concept of emotions."
"Let me rephrase that," Hicks quickly countered. "If you met Sarah Connor, what would you do?"
"I would do nothing. Sarah Connor is demised."
Darn systematic terminators! Hicks grumbled silently to himself. "It is a theoretical question: if you went back to the past and met Sarah Connor, what would you do?"
"I am a Terminator," the machine repeated. "My primary function is to terminate!"
Uh-oh! Hicks felt a cold shiver crawl down his spine.
"But… Sarah Connor is not listed as an enemy in my files."
"What if I told you that she has been targeted for termination by Skynet in the past? That a terminator has been sent back in time to kill her to prevent John Connor from being born?"
"No. It must not happen. Sarah Connor must live, so that John Connor will come to be! Skynet cannot be allowed to succeed."
Hicks relaxed. The re-programming appeared to be adequate. "That's where you come in," he explained. "I need you to go back in time to intercept the terminator and protect Sarah by any means possible. You are her only hope for survival!"
"My files states that a protector has already been sent back to 1984 to deal with the terminator. A human resistance fighter."
He remembers the details of the story he overheard being told by old Pops. "Yes. Kyle Reese! Unfortunately, Skynet has learned of that mission and has rectified it by sending a T-1000 back to the year 1973 to kill Sarah while she was still a child. I don't need to tell you that a mere human is no match to a mimetic poly-alloy entity. That's why we need you! Your mission is to protect Sarah and ensure her survival 'til 1984 when Kyle Reese arrives. Then she and Reese will have to… hrmm… mate so that John Connor will be born!" That was a lie. In this timeline John Connor never came to be. He, like Kyle Reese, will eventually drop in from an alternate reality where John has become an agent of Skynet's. Christ – these quantum physics distortions are a real mess and hard to keep up with.
"I understand," the terminator said.
"As we speak, the Time Displacement Unit is being prepped for your departure. I need to prepare you for your trip. I will need to put back your port-cover to your skull and mend the wound you got in your scalp. You need to be completely covered by your living tissue so that nothing goes wrong."
It was a good thing Hicks had found a can of dermipatch, a synthetic emergency skin-replacement paste in one of the first-aid boxes that was put up everywhere in the complex. The corporal applied the paste around the cut in the scalp and filled up the deep scars. The flesh around the terminator chasse would in time absorb the paste as it regenerated, but for now it should simulate human fat to the point that the time-field would not discharge against some bare metal. While he worked, the machine continued to ask him questions.
"My files are in complete disarray. What has recently transpired?"
"The resistance has blown up the central core. Skynet has been defeated." Hicks was telling the machine the events that they had been told had happened in the deleted 'original' timeline. To keep up the cover, Hicks was going to make sure that the cyborg would believe that this was actually the year 2029. He hoped that the terminator would be so eager to get the files organized that it would not think of scanning for the human's voice stress levels. If it detected that he was lying, the whole story would blow.
"I do not recognize my whereabouts."
"We're nowhere near Skynet's main facilities. This is a secret compound where the first prototype of the Time Displacement Unit was constructed. We, as in I and my accomplice, brought you here after we captured you out in the field."
"How did you manage to defeat me?"
"Sorry, that's a secret I am not ready to divulge. No offence."
"Just like you are not willing to share your identity with me?"
"Call it a security measure for the sake of the timeline. Skynet found out about John Connor sending Kyle Reese back. I do not wish our enemies to find out that we repeat the act with you. It will therefore be better for all of us if you just consider me as an erased file. Us being incognito will ensure success."
"I understand," the machine replied.
Hicks was just finishing with the patch-up of the cyborg when the warning alarm of the Particle Accelerator being activated sounded. "Perfect timing," Hicks remarked behind his mask. "Let's go, Pop… err… buddy! Your mission is about to start."
The soldier led the machine through the corridors to the level above the accelerator where the T.D.E. was located. On the way, they passed several bodies of the security team that had lost their lives to Skynet's sentry-drones. Hicks didn't give any details about them, and the machine didn't ask. When they'd reached the doors to the time chamber, Hicks gave a new order. "Take off your clothes. I shall just go inside and see so that everything checks out. I'll fetch you when we're ready."
"Affirmative," the cyborg said and took off his jacket.
Hicks walked inside, removed the mask and walked up to the control board where he found Ripley and Newt.
"You got it warmed?" he asked the woman.
"As far as I can tell, it's all set," Ripley said.
"You're certain you got the right date and coordinates set?"
Ripley shrugged. "That was the easy part. I simply recalled the last input of coordinates used on the board from the system. I'm sure Skynet knew what it was doing when sending the T-1000 through."
"And you said you weren't a computer expert," Hicks said with a smile. Then he grew serious. "Listen, I want you two to stay here while I lead the machine through. Keep the protective goggles on you. I don't want the thing to get any look at you for the sake of secrecy."
Woman and child nodded in understanding and put on the goggles. Hicks turned and was about to put his mask back on when he hesitated and turned to them again.
"Oh, and do make sure to avert your eyes when I bring him in. Remember that these guys are anatomically similar to real humans in every way."
Newt didn't understand what he was talking about, but Ripley rolled her eyes. "Hicks, you tend to forget that I've been married and had a child! It's nothing I haven't seen before!"
"I was thinking more for Newt's sake…"
"There's no need. The horrors of life have put her past reacting to such things."
Hicks said no more. Instead he went back out to fetch the cyborg. The terminator was unclothed and ready. Hicks motioned it in and led it to the middle of the chamber where the raised platform was awaiting the next traveler.
"Are you clear on your instructions?" the soldier asked.
"I am," the cyborg confirmed. "Find Sarah Connor in the year 1973 and protect her by any means necessary until Kyle Reese arrives, which will be according to my files: May 12:th 1984. However, most of my files are still in disorder."
"You'll find a way to organize them. And since you don't know my identity, you will regard it as irrelevant data and have them deleted. But do you think you can find Sarah?"
"I'm a terminator. It's what we do."
"Are you sure you're up to the task to look after a nine-year-old kid?"
"My CPU is a neural-net processor; a learning computer. The more time I spend with people and observe, the more I will learn how to."
Hicks was tempted to say that it took a little more than that, but time was of an essence, and he didn't want to waste it by explaining to a machine how parenthood worked. He figured that it would work out just fine anyway, thinking how old Pops had connected to Newt. It was a bit hard to believe that this thing was going to become that grumpy old man whom had gotten acquainted with all of them for the past weeks.
There was nothing more to say. The terminator took place on top of the platform and Hicks gave a signal to Ripley to activate the time field.
"Goodbye, Pops," Newt whispered as Ripley hit the switch. The platform raised and the unit on it kneeled to become as small as possible. The containment-rings started to rotate and built up an electrical field which swarmed around the crouching figure. The platform descended again, but it had left the traveler suspended in the middle of the field while the rings turned so fast that they could no longer be seen by the simple eye and the energy increased in power. In a final blinding light, the energy dispersed and the machine powered down. There was no sign of the terminator. It had been thrown through the space-time barrier just as it was intended. The task was completed, and the mission was a success! All was suddenly quiet in the chamber after the time machine became still, so quiet that they could hear the muffled rumblings in the foundations how somebody was attempting to break in through the main doors. It wouldn't be long until the authorities got in there and have them all arrested – and they would be separated again. They had succeeded in saving their timeline and mankind, but was the cost their own future and freedom?
"Ripley…" Hicks said as he listened to sounds of the break-in equipment. "There's no future for us here what I can see. When they get in, it's the end. Maybe it's our turn?" He nodded to the time machine. "We could go. Go somewhere in time where we're not wanted by the law?"
Ripley looked sad. "I would be lying if I said that the thought never crossed my mind. I want to go back… to my daughter's eleventh birthday as I had promised her... I would bring Newt with me and I would raise them both… both of my children. But… we can't! It would be irresponsible and selfish! I told Bishop that causality is not to be taken lightly and we must stand by it. The timeline is already messed up as it is with the terminators; who knows what might happen if we also went through? Besides, how would it look like with three people showing up from nowhere with no identification and no history in the systems? There'd be no place for us."
There was a crash heard in the distance somewhere, as if something had given in. Hicks knew that it meant that the storming crew had broken through and was now entering the secret complex. "It's too late anyway," he said dejectedly. "It won't be long until they get here and arrests us. What a drag! We save the world and we'll end up in prison for life for it!"
The woman was a dejected as he. "I have the proof that we were framed, but I no longer dare to believe that I'll be able to present it. The Company's got people everywhere. They'll take measures to make sure that the truth doesn't get out.
"It's so unfair!" Ripley finally burst out, looking close to break apart. She leaned down and clasped Newt tightly to her. "I already lost one child – I can't bear the thought of losing my other! Or you for that matter, Hicks."
Hicks walked up to them and wrapped both of his arms around the females, leaving the three standing in a tight group-hug. They had been through so much the three of them – he hated the thought of never seeing the two of them again. "We'd have a better chance if we didn't get separated. But they'll never let us stand together… I'm sorry, but I am out of ideas! I don't know what we can do…"
Ripley was as much at loss as the corporal. She hadn't the faintest clue on what they could do to persuade the people of the law to let them remain together.
Unbeknownst to the adults however, the young child did.
The girl's acute senses detected that the storming crew was approaching outside in the corridor, so she figured that it was time to put her own little plan in action. She dug her hand into her pocket and her fingers came into contact with the special item she had secretly brought with her from the Ghost Rider. Carefully she fished it out just as the police stormed inside and barked their orders.
"Freeze! Keep your hands where we can see them!"
Hicks reluctantly unwrapped his arms from the woman and child and stretched them up towards the ceiling. Ripley did likewise with her right arm. Her left she couldn't raise that high, because Newt wasn't willing to let go of her hand. Before the woman could start to convince the child to disengage her grip, Newt did something Ripley would never have expected her to do.
It was a weird sight when the prisoners from the complex was brought out on the tarmac outside the building. They were a mess; torn and bloody as if they had just been through war. But there was one detail that was more upsetting above all.
"Are you out of your minds?!" the captain of the police force raged at his men. "What were you thinking, putting handcuffs on a child?!"
The male soldier was handcuffed, that was no problem. A bunch of soldiers had already come up to lay claim on him. But the woman was firmly holding the child's right hand in her own left. She couldn't do much else, because there was a nice shiny pair of cuffs tying their wrists together.
"Unlock those cuffs immediately!" the captain barked.
"We can't," a policeman stammered. "It's a military brand, not like ours. It wasn't we who put those on, Sir!"
"Well then, who did?" the captain feasted his eyes on the woman prisoner.
"Don't look at me," the woman said. "Wasn't my idea!"
"It was me," the girl said, looking proud as she made her confession. "I put them on us!"
"You? Why'd you do that?"
"So that you wouldn't be able to take my mommy away from me!" The look of pride had been replaced with a stern determined face as she gave the captain her motive.
"Your mother?" The police looked doubtful that this was accurate, and it really didn't change a thing. "Well, sorry kid, but in accordance with the law, your 'mother' is to be taken into custody and you will be dropped off at the nearest child care center." The captain turned to another of his people. "Have the military fetch a key and get those cuffs off."
"Err… Sir! That's an electronic pair of cuffs. There's no key. You have to punch in a code or a password to open them"
The captain was growing impatient. "Well, what's the code, then?"
"Won't tell you!" the girl said with a smile.
"The password can be chosen, Sir," the subordinate confirmed.
"I don't have time for games, kid!" the captain growled. "Open up those cuffs!"
"No!" the girl said determinedly.
"Get a tool to cut the chain," the officer snarled to his underling.
"You can't do that!" Hicks suddenly spoke up.
"Shut up, you!" said one of the soldiers whom had taken custody of the renegade corporal.
"And why can't I?"
Hicks indicated to the cuffs Newt had lifted from the ship. "Those are of the new advanced pair of cuffs meant to escort political or military prisoners. Did you notice that they are color-marked? The blue end goes around the courier's wrist and the red goes to the prisoner. Usually it is the courier alone who decides the password to avoid tampering."
"Yeah, so?" the captain asked growing even more impatient.
"It so happens that the red bracelet, the one locked around the girl's wrist, contains a needle with poison which pricks the prisoner should somebody try to cut the cuffs or if the courier's pulse suddenly stops. It kills the prisoner if you don't remove the cuffs with the correct password!"
"Is this true?" the captain asked the military men whom had secured Hicks.
One of the soldiers nodded. "It's concentrated curare. Enough to subdue a full-grown man. To a child the dose would be deadly."
"And you let her play with those?!" the captain raged at the captured corporal.
"I told her to put them back! She didn't listen."
The captain turned to Newt. "Kid, don't you know what a dangerous game you're playing? I'm serious, you must remove them before something bad happens!"
The girl smiled knowingly. "I'm safe as long as you don't do anything." The captain's face dropped as he realized that the child knew exactly what she was doing.
Ripley couldn't help but to be amused, despite the seriousness. "She planned this. She knew we'd be captured eventually. I always knew she was clever, but I never realized just by how much!" There was pride in her voice.
"Look…" the captain feebly tried to reason with the girl. "There are laws that we have to abide with. And it's not like we're about to hurt your… 'mother'. We will take good care of her and you will be put under good hands while we sort this out. I promise that you'll see her again soon, if you will just open the…"
"You're lying!" Newt rebuffed.
"Of course not!" the captain said, but not without being baffled. Surely he couldn't be that transparent before a child?
"Yes, you are!"
"Captain, this isn't some regular child you're speaking to," Ripley said. "She's got a very insightful mind with the ability to see through false words - I wouldn't try to manipulate her like you are attempting. It will only make her grow more aversive to you."
"This has gone far enough!" a new voice interrupted. Two men came up: one a big burly-looking character with dark skin and the other a young runt with a furrowed face. "If she wants to stay chained to the broad, then let her! Have them all brought to our transport! We'll take charge of them from here!"
The captain frowned at the two agents. "This is a police matter!" he told them.
"The corporal stands under military authority!" the soldiers guarding Hicks said.
"No, it is a corporate matter!" the dark-skinned agent rebuked. "They attacked an installation belonging to the company! We'll deal with this matter!"
"Yeah, right," the captain snorted. "Like I'll let you have them after seeing how you dealt with the situation on the bridge? I think not!"
The agent blinked. "What are you talking about?"
"Are you so arrogant that you don't recognize me? I was leading the police force on the Golden Gate Bridge!"
"What are you doing here?!" the younger agent sputtered as he made the connection.
"What do you think? I'm a hostage negotiator! I serve the New Mexico Police, but I happened to be in San Francisco when I was called in about the kidnapping case. I was there to try to talk the kidnapper into releasing that girl, but you blew both the crook and the poor kid off the road! I wouldn't entrust you with even a potato!"
"So you are the ones who tried to kill me over there?!" the child raged.
"Shut up, you brat!" the other agent barked.
"You don't tell her to shut up!" Ripley roared.
The captain did a double-take as he took a moment to look past the dirt and grime smeared on the child's face and then he saw the resemblance from the provided photographs in the kidnapping case. "Wha…?! You're her! You're Rebecca Jorden! You're still alive?!"
The girl said nothing, but she didn't deny it. Her pretending to be dead didn't seem to matter much anymore now when the threat of the terminators was gone.
"Look, what happened on the bridge doesn't matter," agent Bolton tried to collect the situation.
"Oh, yes it does!" Ripley retorted. "If you tried to have her killed, then there's no way we'll go with you! We'd rather surrender to the police!"
"Of course we didn't try to kill her…!" Bolton said.
"It sure looked that way to me!" the captain pointed out. "What I don't understand is why?"
"Because they want to have us three silenced," Ripley explained to the police officer. "The Company don't want us to tell the world of the crimes they have committed – the crimes they've framed me for!"
"What crimes?"
"Hold it!" Bolton barked. "That's classified information!" Afterwards he realized that he had just dug the hole much deeper.
Newt pointed an accusative finger towards the agents. "It's because of the Company that my people on Acheron are dead!"
"No! You don't know what you are saying!"
"We have proof!"
That was something Ripley had no not wanted to reveal in front of Company representatives, but the girl's anger had momentarily got the better of her. The color on the dark-skinned agent seemed to pale. "You do?"
Bolton was still trying to talk their way out of this, but the younger, more eager, and impatient agent Humphrey was now losing his cool. He stepped back and angrily began to mumble into his radio that was attached to his ear. "Fire! Fire, you idiot! Shoot them before they spill too much! Do it now!"
Most of the police and military personnel were standing listening to the heated exchange between the captured perpetrators and Company reps, so none was paying any attention to the young agent as he issued a kill-order. None except for Hicks. As he had decided beforehand to let Ripley handle the talks, he had kept a close watch on his surroundings. He had a hunch that things might turn ugly, and it had just been proven right. Just by watching the body-language of the young agent and straining to hear his words, he could make out exactly what was going on. His military training did the rest of the math – sniper! Thanks to his training, he could pinpoint the location from where a bullet would be shot from. No way he could get up to the point to stop the shooter, but he could protect the intended targets! Suddenly breaking away from his assigned warders, Hicks rushed up to where Ripley and Newt were standing and pushed them both down on the ground.
BLAM! Hicks groaned as the projectile intended for the females clipped the back of his shoulder.
The police captain was not stupid. It was quite clear to him that an assassination attempt had just occurred, and he ordered his men to scramble up to the high point of buildings where the sniper was probably covering. Medical personnel were already rushing up to treat the wounded corporal whom otherwise was already cared for by the woman and the child he had taken the bullet for. Agent Bolton turned to his younger partner with a reproachful look on his face.
"That was stupid!" Bolton said. "There's too many witnesses here!"
"They were about to spill everything!" Humphrey said in self-defense. "Besides, many witnesses weren't a problem on the bridge?"
"Fool! We had leverage on the fact that the old man was shooting back at us on the bridge! These people have already been detained, there's nothing that can justify us to take extreme action against that! Have you learned nothing?!"
It didn't take long before the police had apprehended and brought out the sniper. None of Ripley's team knew it, but it was the executive officer of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System Receiving Station with a high clearance that was the shooter. As he was brought forward, he practically begged for being released, insisting on his innocence.
"It's not my doing!" the man cried. "I was only following orders! They told me to do it!"
"Who did?" the captain demanded. "Who gave the order?"
"They did!" the exec said, pointing at the two agents. "They told me that either I killed them or I'd be out of a job! I didn't want to, but I got a family…"
"Preposterous!" Bolton snapped. "We're not in the business of shooting women or kids."
"After what you did on the bridge," the captain said. "…I'm inclined to believe him."
"Don't get any ideas!" Bolton warned the captain. "You know our lawyers will settle the matter in our favor!"
"Only as long as the evidence is solid!" a new voice intervened. This time it was Ripley who did a double take, not believing her eyes. A man was approaching, this one looking like a dead ringer to the android Bishop.
"Mr. Weyland!" Bolton gasped, now looking nervous.
"Only it appears that the solid proof is against you this time, if I am not totally misunderstanding?" The agent gulped.
Despite the ache in his shoulder, Hicks spoke lowly to Ripley: "Don't let his appearance fool you! That's not Bishop! Judging by the reaction of the agents, that's none other than Michael Weyland, the owner of the Company. It looks like Bishop had some kind of connection to him which we were unaware of."
"The recent reports I've received lately has been a most disturbing bedtime reading!" Weyland spoke with authority. "What's been going on here? A space station wreaked havoc! A kill-contract on a child?! That's not how this Company operates!"
"It was those people there who made a mess on Sevastopol, Sir. We were just…"
"I did not come here to listen to you prevaricate yourselves, Bolton!" Weyland snapped.
"Sir," agent Bolton stuttered. "The special operations department has always worked to your complete benefit in order to achieve the results you require. Sometimes the situation does take ugly turns, but surely you understand that the end benefits from the cause. That's why special operations department…"
"Special operations department can kiss my rosy ass! You're fired!"
"B… but, SIR…?"
"You heard me, Bolton, you're fired! Both of you! Get out of my sight!"
The shoulders of the two ex-agents sloughed, and then they waggled away, their steam having totally gone out of them. Ripley and Newt watched them go, but neither could bring themselves to feel sorry for them. Those people had after all been part of the Company department whom had instrumented their individual incarcerations to keep them apart. The question was how much Michael Weyland had been part of it? Was he really an okay guy?
Hicks gave the answer to what Weyland's intentions most likely were. "Don't be fooled by the act of reprimand to those guys Weyland just displayed," he said, holding on to his aching shoulder. "It's just for show. He's relieving himself of all responsibility by shifting the blame onto his minions and let them take the whole fall. Corrupted men have been known to do that way back in history."
They could see how Weyland now turned to the captain. "This has gone way out of hand," the C.E.O. said with a perfect tone that would sound completely genuine to the untrained ear. He was a good actor. "I knew it was time to step in personally to set things straight. If I may, I'd like to have a talk with your prisoners in private."
The police captain really had no formal reason to grant the Company leader such a request, but he did. The C.E.O.'s power in the world was obviously a little too overwhelming to deny. With some hand-signals, he dismissed both medical and police personnel from the three survivors and left them a secluded area in which Michael Weyland could approach them. The three and the Company man now stood facing each other, tension rippling in the air.
"I don't suppose an apology is adequate to diminish some of your hostility towards me?" Weyland asked straight out.
"Drop the pretense, Weyland, you don't fool us!" Hicks spoke up. "We are fully aware that you sanctioned the programs which we were put through after our homecoming from LV-426! It was confirmed by Bishop through that 'Predictor' of yours!"
"Fair enough," Weyland said, not losing a bit of his self-control. "Though I hope that it can make you understand why I had to do it. You must see it from my perspective: I'm running a world-wide corporation, employing one-third of the Earth's population. We are living on the policy of being the friendliest employer there is – can you imagine what would happen if a scandal of a magnitude became publicly known? The stock-holders alone invests millions of billions of dollars into the Company; if our name became tarnished they would pull it all back! We're talking of a share-drop of eighty-four percent in stock! Surely you must understand that I couldn't afford taking the risk of letting that happen?"
Ripley couldn't believe her ears. "Of all the nerve… you're only concerned about money! But what about lives?!"
"I am talking lives: the lives of those I employ. If the Company loses money, my employees will lose their jobs and the lives they're living."
Ripley was not swayed. "And what about our lives? I lost my daughter through time because of you! And what about my crew on the Nostromo? This little girl's family?! Hicks' team?! They're all dead! Doesn't those lives mean anything to you?"
"Of course it does," Weyland said. "I'm no monster. It pains me greatly thinking of all the lives that has been lost. But surely you can't hold me responsible that things got out of hand?"
"No, you just shifted the responsibility on to our shoulders and made us the scapegoats!" Hicks said.
"I stand by what I said: I had to keep the stock-holders interests in mind. I'm sorry, but that's how business looks like!"
"Releasing monsters into my colony is business?" Newt questioned. For once, Weyland looked troubled. "That was carter Burke's doing! Not mine!"
"Now who's the prevaricator?" Hicks asked. A dark look came over the C.E.O.'s brow.
"It was on Company orders that the Nostromo set down on LV-426 fifty-eight years ago," Ripley pointed out. "We set down to get that creature – all other priorities rescinded! Whom are you going to blame that on?"
Weyland finally lost his temper. "You are so focusing on the negative!" he spat. "Every evaluation we made concerning those creatures all showed that acquiring the species would allow science to take a gigantic step forward onto new levels! I admit that we made mistakes, not fully comprehending what we were up against! But the investments put into the operation would have paid us back multiple! Mankind would have benefited! If only you would've been willing to understand its remarkable… potential!"
"That's the same bullshit I heard from Ash, and later from Burke," Ripley said. "I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now!"
Weyland sighed. "You're not going to let it go, are you?"
"Why would I? I'm already serving time in prison because of it!"
"Is that it?" Weyland asked. "You want out of jail? That can be arranged, you know. I can easily grant you your freedom. I'll buy out your contract and set you up for life – both for you and the girl. I'll even arrange something for the corporal. All I ask in return is that you drop your accusations against me. Put a lid on everything concerning the creatures and never talk about them again. They're already lost to me, so what more can you ask for?"
"Retribution!"
"I'm offering you a heavy compensation! Isn't that enough?"
"I'm not going to let you walk out on this, Weyland! Your 'investments' for acquiring those creatures have destroyed hundreds of lives! Somebody is going to pay for that by law, and I have no intention of taking the fall!"
"Have it your way! Go ahead and take it to court – if you can! But I got funds where you don't! Any counsel for the defense you try to get to take the case I will buy out – everybody's got a price, more than you can afford! And without a lawyer, no court will be interested to re-try your case. You'll go straight back to jail, without accomplishing anything except losing your chance for freedom, as well as the chance of ever seeing that child again! My offer still stands though, if you change your mind."
"That's blackmail!" Hicks growled in Ripley's stead. The woman had fallen silent as Weyland's words were sinking in.
"No. It's business! Too bad that you can't see it." With that, Michael Weyland turned on his heel and was about to walk away, leaving the adults with no further arguments. Newt had one more thing to say, though. "You speak like Skynet!" she called after him.
"Shush, girl," Ripley told her, as she didn't expect Weyland to know what the child was talking about. The adult could understand her though, knowing that the girl's emotions were in turmoil right now, having the man responsible for the trouble with the xenomorphs in front of her. The C.E.O. turned around again and gazed at the child.
"Perhaps from your perspective," he unexpectedly said. "And perhaps I should thank you three for that. It was starting to become quite troublesome."
"You knew?!" Hicks blurted out. "You were aware of Skynet?!"
"Of course! It's not everybody who gets approached at a young age by a malevolent artificial intelligence. It wasn't until later though when it had taken over my android whom you knew as Bishop that I found out what its real plans were. It was Bishop who secretly warned me before he had been completely taken over. I had a crisis team assembled to figure out how to deal with the problem without losing face, but now you've solved it for me.
"It's only because of that I advise you not to bring this incident up to court. They would file you all as nutcases. No one wants to believe stories of evil robots taking over the world."
Weyland walked off again, and said in passing to the police captain as he was headed out: "They're all yours. You may take them away."
The military soldiers on the scene was immediately quick to come up and grab the corporal again. This time they began to haul him away to a waiting transport.
"Hicks?" Newt almost wailed as she saw how her male adult friend, and closest (yet very distant) relative was brought away.
"Don't worry about me, honey!" he called over his shoulder. "Just don't let yourself be separated from Ripley! Stay together and I will find you! I promise that I'll find you again!"
The last Ripley and Newt saw of Hicks was he being brought inside the transport that would take him away to a military camp where he would face court-martial. Ripley wasn't sure how she could help him, and Newt was feeling guilty that she hadn't thought of slapping a pair of cuffs around his wrist as well to her other arm so that they could've stayed together all three. There wasn't much they could do about it now, as police officers now came to take them away in the next transport.
"Someone get a blanket to cover their hands," the captain ordered. "The journalists outside the fence will have a field day if they see us bring out a juvenile being handcuffed."
Author's notes: the 'Dermipatch' is picked up from the latest film: Alien Covenant. The name of the paste was found in the novel of said film written by Alan Dean Foster, so it's nothing I made up by myself.