"See?" Lacy said to me. "There are real valid reasons why you guys should leave those labs the fuck alone, and they have nothing to do with the plans for your little family reunion. That shit in there, that's why only authorized personnel are allowed to open those doors!"

"Yeah? Well you're not doing shit to help us," I argued. "Besides. We've got it contained."

Lacy put her claws on her hips, reflecting, perhaps, the kind of human she used to be. "Do you. How do we know you haven't just released some kind of airborne biological agent like we had in that other room? Some things actually spread through burning.

"Plus the things in that room you just torched were fucking tiny. You'd have to get an electron microscope and scour every inch of those bulwarks just to make sure nothing slithered into a crack.

"Some tapeworms are even colorless. For all we know, there could be dozens of them under our feet, just waiting for an open wound or an orifice to crawl inside."

"We have heat vision," said Ssunamrozedrah.

"Marvy," Lacy growled. "Did you know that parasites like this reproduce asexually by cell division?"

Since that earned her blank looks, she added, "If you cut one in half, you'll get more worms."

Ssunamrozedrah clenched her fists, glancing uncomfortably at the floor.

"That's what I thought!"

I scowled. "What are you, Lacy? Who put you in that body? Did you go to heaven and see Jesus?"

Lacy shook her head. "It only went dark a second..." She frowned at her body. "And then there I was, in this."

"What...religion were you...before?"

"I didn't have one."

"Maybe that's what hell is like for an atheist. Just nothing forever."

Lacy only growled.

"What happened to you? Where did you come from?"

The Ss'sik'chtokiwij shrieked and clutched the sides of her head, kneeling on the floor.

"Oh God," I cried, backing away. "You got worms, don't you?"

"No," Lacy moaned. "I just..."

She trembled violently. "No! It's my body! You stay in your corner, fuck face!"

Her voice changed pitch as she answered herself. "You had your turn, Jen-Jen! We had a deal!"

"You saw that thing in there! If I let you drive, you'll help them let worse things get out, and then where would we be?"

"I didn't see you stop them from opening that damn door!"

She struck herself in the head. "You don't get a turn! I can't let you fuck this up!"

Every one of my companions stared at her.

She gave us a sheepish grin. "I am sorry. Where do we go next? I am eager to meet my cousins."

I rolled my eyes. "So now you're being all alien and family oriented. How long is this going to last?"

"I'm not certain. Perhaps you should hurry and find my cousins."

I shrugged, leading my pack down the hallway. "Wouldn't you say they're your nieces? I mean-"

"To the best of my knowledge, I have no sisters. You see, my mother is Shasharmazorb."

Upon hearing the name, a picture flashed in my robotic mental databank, an image of the large creature that tried to kill me onboard the Sulaco, the one Ripley attacked with a power loader. The one that had killed me. "The Bitch."

Let's just say this didn't do anything to make me less inclined to murder her in cold blood. "I almost liked your other personality better."

"Speak for yourself," Ssunamrozedrah replied. "At least this one is on task!"

Christie groaned, leaning against a wall. "Hey. Synthetic. Where's the Betty now? Do you know?"

I frowned. "The last I checked, it was hovering around the station. Your friends are probably freaking out, trying to find the earth."

He rubbed his face. "Oh God! I just want to go home! I don't even care if they cart me off to jail! I'm done!"

The man sat down on the floor, staring despondently at a wall.

Unsure about how I could help, I squatted next to him, placing my hand on his shoulder. "Hey. Look. I know you're tired, but these guys are impatient. You're going to end up being left behind."

Christie laughed. "We're on a God forsaken station in the middle of nowhere. Where are you really going to go?"

I had nothing to say to that. He had a point.

"I heard you talking about worms and shit. As long as you're fucking around with hazardous biological agents, leave me the fuck out of it."

I shrugged. "Fine. You're probably safer off where you are, anyway."

The man slouched, one hand fiddling an imaginary cigarette. "Do me a favor. If you find any of my friends, or find some booze or a package of smokes, page me."

I furrowed my brow. "Sure. But how-?"

"I'll figure something out. I'm not blind, my vision just got really shitty."

And so we left him there.

"Good," Ssunamrozedrah grumbled. "The human was only slowing us down."

The hallway ahead had carpeting. I mention this because, a few yards down, I heard something groaning, and soft splashing sounds. A spout of water lapped out of a previously unseen crack near the floor, dampening the gray fiber.

"This place has sprung a leak," Luke observed.

I had nothing much of interest to say about this, other than, "Hopefully it's just a burst pipe in a bedroom, because otherwise we're in deep trouble."

The carpet became more sodden as we marched ahead, the damp sponge-like rug pads squishing noisily beneath our feet.

"I don't think that's a burst pipe," Luke said

"No. Probably not. There's a whole floor flooded with water. I think it's seeping up."

"What will that do to the worms?"

I could just imagine the water flowing into that room, extinguishing all the fire, reviving all the dead worms like a sprinkle of moisture on a parched potted fern.

"Shit."

I rushed to a console, rapidly pushing buttons.

I was getting a little better at the Officer Data routine. In seconds I had the tunnel closed off behind us.

"What about Christie?"

I rubbed my face in frustration. "I don't know! I was just trying to prevent a really big disaster. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Annoying how literal my metaphor sounded at a time like this. "Honestly, I think we're getting the bad part of the deal, unless you like swimming."

We continued our march.

Luke sighed. "You promised to teach me how to read."

"I, I mean, she had no right to promise anything," I said. "By the way, this is coming from an alien controlling a robot body."

He scrunched up his face. "Are you like Lacy, where you died and came back in that body?"

"Kinda."

"You're the strangest robot I've ever met."

"...Thanks, I guess."

"I know how to read, a little. And write. You think you can help me sometime?"

"Sure," I muttered. "Sometime."

I've never been to an actual beach. Hearing a one inch wave lapping against the carpet...it evoked strange feelings in me. "Luke, you ever been to earth?" My robot brain complained about my bad English, but I ignored it.

He shrugged. "Yeah. I'm actually a good swimmer. I was born on a boat."

"Like in a lab?"

"No, I have a mother." He bowed his head in sorrow. "Actually, had. Someone blew her up."

"What was she like?"

All of a sudden, he froze, clenching his fists as he stared directly ahead. Spear weapons shot out of each of his wrists, sort of like X-Men's Wolverine.

I frowned. "What, was it something I said?"

Luke furrowed his brow, and the weapons retracted into his arms. "Mom?"

A moment later, Ripley came squishing up the carpet with a small white...thing clutched to her chest.

It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen, and that's a lot coming from me.

Its body, at first glance, appeared to be that of a super pale human infant, but it also had features of an alien larva, claw like hands, hard plated exoskeleton tenting up beneath its skin, no visible eyes. It mewled, cat-like, through a cleft palate, distending its jaw.

Ripley lovingly bounced this...creature in her arms. "Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late. I just gave birth. It's a..."

She frowned when she glanced between its legs. Apparently the equipment could not be identified. "It's a baby."