"Are you sure this isn't a nightmare? And that we won't just wake up? Yes. Because dreamers always wake up and leave their monsters behind."

― Alexandra Bracken, In The Afterlight

December 12th, Earth Central Time. Private commercial vessel Torrens out of Saint Clair, in orbit around gas giant KG-348.

The hiss of water vapor and the twinkling red lights awoken Amanda, her visor was clouded with the condensation of her breath. She felt arms and legs heavy and was struggling to get up. When she was finally stood, the hissing was finished and she knew the airlock was completely pressurized.

She didn't remembered how the Hell she'd get inside the airlock; she remembered being expelled from the clamp and the cable making her crash with the Torrens and nothing more. "Maybe it was pure adrenaline and survival instinct" She thought.

The inner hatch opened and Ripley came out from it into the partially darkened corridor. At the junction ahead the lights flickered, the cabinets for the spacesuits were there, Ripley wanted to get out her suit as she felt it claustrophobic, but Amanda felt that with every step she had to make a great effort.

-"I'm tired" She said quietly, "I'm so fucking tired" After all she had experienced, she wasn't surprised this was the case, all the tension, running and the constant fear had made her use all the adrenaline she had in reserve, and now it had ended, her organism relaxed and she felt like the addict who is forced to quit drugs suddenly.

-"Verlaine?" She asked, and obtained no response.

She walked till the junction, the cabinets were empty, she remembered Samuels, Taylor and she had taken the suits when they boarded Sevastopol. "Where are you?" she wondered. At least, she expected Verlaine or Connor will be at the airlock waiting for her, but nothing.

The corridor's door leading to the galley was closed. Strange, generally that door was on automatic. The compression suit weighed on her but she did not want to take it off.

-"I'm on my way into the bridge." She reported, but again, no response "Verlaine?"

Amanda pressed the button and the door slid up. To her horror, the first thing she saw was the smooth, elongated carapace of the creature's head. With the room's lighting, Amanda saw it was kind of translucent; a human-like skull staring at her behind the dome, its silvery fangs seemed to smile. She backed away without turning around, slowly. Each step she took was followed by a step of the creature. "How the Hell it came onboard?" Ripley wondered "It has killed Verlaine?" She remembered something about the airlock being on auto, maybe it crawled inside.

Hisses by the creature indicated it was furious, but unlike when they were inside the station and killed poor Dr. Kuhlman as soon as the door opened, the beast did not attacked, it took its time. Amanda wondered if inside its brain the thing was sentient and knew it was her who destroyed the nest and it was taking its time to kill her in revenge. More steps, now she crossed a pressurized door and she noticed she was inside the airlock. The creature followed, waiting until the woman was cornered to tear her in pieces.

Amanda bumped her back against the outer hatch. She was cornered, extended her arms and fumbled; to her right was the button to close the lock. She found it and pressed it, the inner hatch closed and she was trap with the creature, it opened its maw, showing the inner jaw, ready to strike, and at that moment, the outer hatch opened and they were expelled from the ship.

- o -

-"Amanda?" a voice called her on radio. She was almost unconscious by the lack of air, she barely opened her eyes and closed them again as a light hit them.

She must be dead, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but at least she had killed the last of those monsters, any other had perished on the planet, along with her friends: Ricardo, Taylor, Samuels… Waits, Kuhlman and others she'll never know their names. She'd ended just like her mother, missing floating on space forever.

-"C'mon Amanda, wake up, sweetheart, you're safe now." the voice insisted. It was female, and judging by how she was addressing her, Ripley began to think if she was not already dead and her mother called her. No, her mother wasn't dead, she was stuck in a lifeboat and besides, Ripley wasn't a believer.

She opened her eyes once more time and the light hit her directly, she was lying and her suit had disappeared.

-"She's waking up" another familiar voice said.

When her vision cleared, Amanda saw two women standing over her, one was a short haired redhead, Verlaine, and the other was Afro-American, she seemed familiar too, but she didn't remembered from where.

-"Verlaine!" Amanda exclaimed "How-? But you were… The creature got inside the ship."

-"Dead? You were having a bad dream, Amanda" Verlaine told her. "As soon as you freed the Torrens we were launched full speed, but your safety line must have broken and you were left floating on space."

Amanda sighed in relief, it was a nightmare only. That mean she and Connor were alive, and- "Who are you?" Amanda turned to the other woman.

-"I'm Karen Lindgard. I was the chief medical officer at Sevastopol." The woman responded "We are safe now, Amanda." The doctor told her how they came aboard.

- o -

Lights in the ambulance flickered and then went off, followed by the artificial gravity. Julia and Karen floated in the tiny cabin. They were safe but not for long, as that ship wasn't meant for long travels, they needed rescue fast.

-"Mayday, mayday, this is Karen Lindgard calling from an ambulance shuttle, somebody, please respond." Lindgard called on radio. The ship, Torrens, must've near, she had heard them before. Unless…

-"Mayday, mayday. Torrens, this is Dr. Karen Lindgard calling from an ambulance shuttle, please respond" She insisted, Karen refused to think the ship that moments before was trying to rescue them had gone along with the station. "Mayday, mayday-"

-"Ambulance shuttle, this is Diane Verlaine of the Torrens, I got you, hang on, we're coming for you" the radio crackled. Finally, they were truly safe. Someone was coming and they would live on, they cried part relieved part grief for the people who didn't make it.

- o -

Ripley now remembered her, she was the woman on that video record she'd saw at the hospital, she had treated Marlow's wife unsuccessfully. Speaking off, she was in the Torrens med bay, it seemed ages ago when she had encountered Samuels right here after waking up from hyper-sleep.

She tried to get up, but the doctor calmed her down "No, no. You need to rest. You were floating around KG-348 for a couple of hours before Verlaine had picked you up; you almost suffocated and received a great amount of radiation. I need to check you out."

-"Hey. Do what the good doctor says" there was another person in a berth besides, a black haired woman with a cast arm "She know what's she doing. I'm Julia Jones."

-"Amanda Ripley, your name sounds falser than a three dollar bill." Ripley said.

-"It's an alliterative stage name, my boss thought-" Julia remembered when she had the same discussion with that man in the bar "I'm a reporter."

-"And your real name is…?" Ripley asked.

-"Ashley McLaren" She responded "But my brother calls me Lee, he lives on Wisconsin. God, I think I'm going back there, I'm sick of fucking space"

-"Wisconsin, eh? I never had been there. All mi life had been in Luna and the colonies."

-"It's nice this time of the year." Julia… Lee said "Maybe you should visit us once."

-"Maybe" Amanda stared at the ceiling, and then she lay on his side and slept.

- o –