2137

"How in the ever-living fuck did you survive that explosion?" Waits asked, tired mind unable to comprehend that these two were alive.

"We were still able to get to an airlock. Taylor was injured by debris on the way in," Samuels said.

"Did you not get my message? How the fuck you've survived the last few hours, I'll never know."

"We couldn't hear your message, sir."

"So you just decided to cross onto here anyway?" Waits bit his lip. "I sent you a clear directive not to land on-station!"

Samuels looked a little peeved. "I told you, we didn't hear your message. We understood you would be-"

Behind them, the doors leading to the platform opened. Waits whirled around, aiming his revolver at a young woman, who was covered in sweat and soot. She lifted her hands slightly, switching her gaze between Waits, Ricardo, and Samuels. "Hey."

Waits kept his gun trained on her. "Identify yourself."

The woman took a breath. She looked tense and scared. "Ripley. From the Torrens."

OK. She's one of them. Waits flicked the safety back on his revolver. "Relax, kid," he said, gently. Given how long they've been here . . . can't imagine what the poor girl's seen. He holstered his weapon, watching Ripley and Samuels kneel by the injured woman. Ripley must have been through San Cristobal; she had a medkit. There's stuff in there that'll help the sick man back in the Bureau, Waits thought.

As Samuels got to work on Taylor, Ripley turned to look up at Waits. "What the hell is going on here, Marshal? Where's the security forces?"

"You're looking at them," Waits replied, giving a half-shrug.

Ripley glanced over at Ricardo, then back at Waits. Standing, she said, "I've seen the creature. What is it?"

"I don't know. Something brought here by Marlow, the captain of the Anesidora." It pained Waits to think of Marlow. He had avoided it for awhile, glad Marlow was still locked in a cell. He brought that thing here. He fucking got Lingard killed. He swallowed his anger, letting it fester in the pit of his stomach.

"The ship that found the flight recorder," Samuels added.

Ripley kept her gaze on Waits. "Is there anywhere safe left on the station? That creature's running around and the Seegson synthetics are less than friendly."

"Goddamn androids," Waits growled, some of his anger beginning to boil to his surface.

"Ripley," Samuels spoke up, "Taylor needs attention."

Looking back at Waits, Ripley said, "Medical's a no-go. We can't take her there."

"We have a basic life-support unit back at HQ," Waits replied.

Samuels was eager to go, though Waits had to douse the excitement by telling them the transit was down. "Control's upstairs." He looked at Ripley. If the creature was still running around, as she had put it, that meant the explosives set in San Cristobal hadn't done their job. I don't know you. Don't make my fucking job harder than it already is. "Go make yourself useful, seeing as you screwed up the trap."

Ripley gave him a look. "Yeah, right, we'll talk about that later, Waits. You protect them while I'm gone, understood?"

Waits bit his tongue. Any other day, he would have flipped his middle finger in her direction for talking to him like that, but he knew it was best to not have any infighting in his own group. That, and he didn't have the energy. They have a ship. If we want a chance at getting out of here, I can't be getting angry. Once he was connected to her radio headset, she left to head up to transit control.

Why the fuck am I just letting her do this anyway? Waits rubbed his face. I'm completely wiped out, that's why. He looked at Samuels and Ricardo. Sure, there were two other people with him, plus the injured Taylor on the floor, but he felt alone. Maybe I should've waited for Jav and Raine.

He looked up at the ceiling, then back down at Taylor. "We should get her off the floor. Can we move her?"

"I've got the bleeding under control," Samuels said. "Is there anything we can use as a stretcher?"

"We'd have to go back up to San Cristobal, and I don't know how much damage the explosives did. Not to mention, it's probably too dangerous." Waits sighed. "I'll carry her."

Something twisted inside his chest. You can save a stranger. But you couldn't save Lingard. Why couldn't you save her? Why? His throat closed, and he turned away from the group.

"Are you alright, Marshal?" Samuels asked.

"Yeah," Waits said. He didn't say anything else, not wanting to say too much. His entire body started to ache as he struggled to resist the urge to cry. He felt like his emotions would rupture from his chest and belly. Trying to distract himself, he looked in the direction of the transit platform. The lights turning on several minutes later pulled him from his thoughts. Holy shit, she did it. A slight grin crossed his face, and he turned to the others. "Looks like the kid got it running. Let's get a move on." He tapped his headset before carefully lifting Taylor, walking slowly toward the platform. "Ripley, the transit's here and we're waiting on you."

"Take it," Ripley replied. "I had some trouble, so it'll be a little while before I get back."

"We can wait."

"Taylor can't. I can catch the next car."

"Your call." Waits paused, glancing around the dim and empty space. A sound echoed. A sound like a voice. He couldn't see who it belonged to, nor could he tell if it was friendly.

As the group left the transit car at the habitation towers, Waits let out an anxious breath. I don't think those people were any of ours. He activated his radio. "Ripley, we heard voices as we left. Watch yourself."

Some of the survivors in the Bureau looked cautious and nervous when Waits returned with new people. His heart sank when he didn't see Jav or Raine or Hatcher. I hope they're OK. Waits helped with getting Taylor on the life-support unit. "Does she need antibiotics?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so," Samuels replied.

"Alright. I've got someone in here who needs 'em, if you don't mind."

"Go ahead."

Waits took a vial of a clear fluid from the kit, along with bandages. He headed to another section of the Bureau, where a small group of people were sitting with a young, dark-haired man laying across a bench. "How's he doing?" Waits asked.

"Very feverish," Relinka replied. "What took so long?"

"Transit was down, and we had to traverse through Engineering." Waits knelt by the sick man. "Picked up some new friends along the way."

"I thought I heard some different voices."

"They came from a ship docked outside. I gotta get in touch with her captain somehow." Waits sighed, gesturing to the sick man. "Where's his wound?"

A woman seated next to him lifted the man's left sleeve. The wound was warm and infected.

"Alright, that's gotta get drained . . . I need a tissue." Waits grimaced a little while draining the pus from the wound. As he cleaned it and applied new bandages, Relinka spoke up.

"Did the trap over in SciMed work?"

"No," Waits sighed. "I gotta think of something else. I can't keep sending you guys out for material to build bombs. That was our last set."

"We could seal it in somewhere."

"We tried that a long time ago."

"I meant somewhere that can be sealed off completely. No vents, no doors, no openings it could possibly fit through. Systech would be your best bet."

Waits was silent as he administered the antibiotic through a needle. How the hell do we lure the creature in one of those labs, though? "Alright, buddy, you should start feeling better soon," he whispered. "Keep an eye on him, Relinka."

He left the room, finding Ricardo by one of the computers. "Hey, run a couple scans on Lorenz. I got an idea for finally taking care of that thing." When Ricardo obeyed, Waits headed to his desk. Along the way, he passed the small row of cells. Only one was occupied. He heard a door open, and turned to see Ripley entering the Bureau.

"How's Taylor?" she asked.

"Stable," Waits replied. "She'll be walking soon enough. Samuels is with her now."

"OK." Ripley approached him. "Where's Ricardo?"

Why the fuck would you want to know where he is? "Prepping our next move." He leaned over his desk, poring over a set of blueprints Raine had nabbed from the research labs a few weeks ago. Some kind of sonic charge he thought would be strong enough to disorient the creature and give Waits a chance to nail it in the head with a couple of shotgun shells. They couldn't find the materials to build it, though. "Look, I'm busy. I've got Marlow in the cells, the lowlife who showed up with your flight recorder."

"Where's Marlow's ship, the Anesidora?" Ripley asked.

"He put it in a parking orbit around the gas giant. Son-of-a-bitch won't give us the command codes to let us bring it in on auto. Maybe you can get more outta the unhelpful bastard. Go talk to him." Waits could only hope Ripley could get some information out of Marlow; he was on the verge of resorting to torture. Vengeance. Absolute, pure vengeance for the hell he brought here. Waits's chest ached as he watched Ripley leave. Once she had her back to him, he let his face relax, and pain surfaced. Tears dripped onto the blueprints, onto the impossible dream of building it. Waits sighed, hoping his idea would be the last one.

It had been quiet in the Bureau until Ripley started talking to Marlow. Waits's ears pricked to listen. He glanced over his shoulder when he heard Ripley mention she had taken the journey on the Torrens for personal reasons.

"My mother was on the Nostromo when it went missing fifteen years ago," she said.

Waits felt pity and sympathy drive through his heart like a nail.

"You serious? Shit." Marlow paused. "Well . . . shit. We never found her ship, Ripley, just the recorder."

"But you sure as hell found something else. What happened out there?" Ripley asked.

"I need a way outta here, Ripley. Maybe we could make a deal."

Waits tensed. Oh, kid, don't let your emotions get in the way here. Don't even think about trying to convince my stubborn ass to let him out!

Ripley wasn't buying it. "Just start talking. I want to know everything."

Marlow started telling her what he refused to tell Waits and the other Marshals a long time ago. His ship had landed on a moon not too far from KG-348, following a beacon of some kind. A rocky and completely uninhabitable place, with harsh winds and an unbreathable atmosphere. There, they came across a bizarre, horseshoe-shaped spacecraft, possibly alien in origin. His story wasn't all that interesting to Waits until he came to describing an expansive chamber of large eggs. From one of those eggs came a pale spider-like critter that broke through the helmet of Marlow's wife.

I can't believe Sinclair just let them in. Waits sighed heavily. I can't believe they used that fucking black box to get in. I knew they were hiding something. Why didn't I listen to my gut in the first place?!

"I want to know more," Ripley said, breaking Waits's thoughts. "Everything. Where's your ship? If we can break the comms lockdown, what're the codes to bring it in on auto?"

"If you want more, then you need to get me outta here," Marlow replied.

Don't do it, kid, Waits thought.

"Not happening, Marlow," Ripley shot.

"Is that right?" Marlow snapped. "Well you know where I am."

Good girl. Waits allowed himself a smile of satisfaction. Not easily bribed or suckered. I like that.

Ricardo's voice got both his attention and Ripley's. "Waits, my board in the Tech Spire just lit up like a Christmas tree . . . It's here."

"Plan B. Set it up." Waits grew hopeful.

"Whatever's happening, I want in," Ripley spoke up.

Waits looked at her, admittedly surprised she was volunteering before even knowing what the plan was. Then again, he didn't have anyone else he felt would be able to undertake this task. I gotta trust her. "OK." He headed toward a smaller room. "This way. Got something here you'll need." Unlocking the door, he revealed to Ripley a little project one of the engineers had been working on. A crude propane-powered flamethrower. Waits had wanted to test it himself, but figured handing it off to Ripley was a better idea. He sat on the edge of a desk, observing her holding the flamethrower. Just don't test-shoot it in there, kid.

"Let's hope this thing works," she said.

"It's an animal," Waits replied. Worse, to be completely honest. "Animals are afraid of fire."

"I hope you're right."

"I've got a plan to trap it." Waits stood, walking to the main door of the Bureau. "Take a transit car and meet Ricardo in the Systech Spire. I'll coordinate from here." It pained him to say that. He wished he was the one going out, taking this risk. Still, he watched the girl leave without another word.

Relinka emerged from another room. "Any of us could've gone, sir."

"I think she can do it," Waits said. "I got faith in her. Plus, she volunteered." He returned to his desk, taking a breath before putting on his headset. "Hopefully, she runs into Jav and Raine and Hatcher." As he adjusted his radio settings, he noticed someone in the corner of his eye.

Samuels walked up to Relinka's side. "Marshal, I'd really hate to disturb you, but is there anything I could do to assist?"

"Are you a medic or engineer or technician or something?" Waits asked.

"Not necessarily, but I am one of Weyland-Yutani's newer androids. I don't know if Seegson's mainframe will permit me to access the system, though."

"They're not letting anyone access the system. The Working Joes fucked themselves somehow. If you can forcibly access Apollo to lift the Goddamn lockdown, that'd be a big help."

Samuels nodded. "I'll see what I can do, Marshal."

"Thanks." Waits turned back to the desk, tapping his headset. "Ripley? You on your way?"

"Yeah," Ripley replied.

"I sent your guy Samuels to Android Processing. Once this thing's dead, I'm gonna get him to access Apollo and lift the lockdown."

"Samuels OK doing that?"

"Guy said he wanted to help, and I have my hands full here. Besides, he's a synthetic. Should be easier for him to get in there."

"I guess." Ripley sounded hesitant, unsure.

Waits swallowed. There was no time for a drawn-out pep talk. "Look, Ripley, we're the only people standing between Sevastopol and outright disaster."

"Outright disaster's already happened, Waits. All we can do now is kill that fucker."

Waits didn't respond. He rubbed his face, giving a sigh that he hoped wasn't audible to Ripley. He didn't want to admit she was right. Had outright disaster already happened? A part of him thought so, and if that was the case . . . I'm failing at my job.

His body tensed as his thoughts turned to a previous outright disaster. The mangled corpses on LV-112. Blood, tissue, and vomit coated the inside of the bunker. Waits realized he had been holding one of his Marshals for a long time, despite the fact that the man was dead. That was a disaster.

Waits remained locked in his flashback, covering his face as he shivered. He could still hear every sound, every scream. He could still feel a raw pain in his throat and lungs from the fire and ash. Everything hurt as fresh as it had ten years ago.

About an hour passed before the doors of the Bureau opened again. Jav, Raine, and Hatcher walked in. Waits breathed a sigh of relief when he saw them. "You were gone awhile. Damn near scared the shit outta me."

"Sorry, sir," Raine said. "We ran into a woman telling us to leave Systech."

"I sent her."

Raine's hazel eyes widened. "All alone? You said-"

"She volunteered to go. I'm going to trap that creature in the labs, but I need her to lock down the whole system."

Setting his shotgun on the desk, Raine sat next to Waits. "Any of us could've gone."

"That's the same thing Relinka told me," Waits replied. "Ripley volunteered to do this, and if she thinks she can do this, then . . . I'm gonna let her. I can't do it myself."

Jav and Hatcher left to check on the other survivors. Raine stayed with Waits. "I hope this plan works." He sighed, then looked at Waits. "I don't remember seeing her on Sevastopol before."

"She and two others came from the Torrens. Turns out whatever exploded didn't kill them, thank God."

"Do you actually trust her?"

"Who? Ripley?" Waits paused to think. "We haven't had much of a chance to talk. She wasn't too happy about the trap in San Cristobal. I mean, I don't blame her, but I had no idea she was in there. Overheard her say she came because of the flight recorder. Her mother was on the Nostromo when it vanished."

Raine nodded. "That's a shame."

"I don't have the heart to tell her what the engineers found on the recorder; there was nothing. I got a message saying the box was empty and the files were all corrupted not that long after the creature came outta the woman from the Anesidora."

"Jesus." Raine looked at his lap. "So this was a waste of time for her."

"Yeah. I don't know what I'm gonna say when we get some time to just talk."

"Maybe . . . I could be there with you."

"If you could keep the situation calm, that'd be appreciated." Waits sighed. "I feel bad for her."

Raine was quiet for a moment. "Whenever I got to work in San Cristobal, I liked helping some of the psych patients with Kuhlman and Morley. Kuhlman . . . wasn't a big help, but Morley was, and I took it upon myself to visit some of the patients with him. I got more out of that than I did in the labs." He smiled a little. "I know how to diffuse a situation, thanks to Morley."

Waits felt his throat close.

Raine bit his lip. "Glad to have known him, that's for sure. He was a good friend."

"He was." Waits took a breath. "Lingard, too."

A smile tugged on the edges of Raine's mouth. "You and Lingard were a lot more than friends. Every time you visited, everyone in San Cristobal knew, because she lit up like a firefly and acted like she was seventeen years old. When you left, she always had this dreamy look in her eyes. Wasn't that hard to see you both had a crush on each other. That, and Morley tended to talk about you two."

Waits snorted. "Even though I told him not to?"

"It was only with me. I can promise you that. He liked seeing couples happy together."

They were interrupted by Ripley's voice over the radio. "Waits, the creature, how're we gonna seal it in?"

Waits adjusted his headset. "The spire was built to process high-value compounds dredged up from the gas giant. Piracy precautions are still in place. The tower can be shut off-vents, doors, everything-so, you build a cage around the creature, then Ricardo locks it down."

"You trust Ricardo to do this?" Raine whispered.

"I have no choice. He has the credentials to access certain systems, and there's only so much I can do from here." Waits turned his attention back to the radio and Ripley. The process was slow, instructions simple and minimal. Waits could hear just about everything over his headset. He found himself holding his breath when he heard the alien's hissing and screeching. His gut wrenched when he heard Ripley gasp or breathe heavily. She's got that flamethrower, Jethro, she's OK.

Ricardo's voice broke the silence. "Waits, can you patch me through to Ripley?"

"I've already connected you," Waits replied.

"Ripley, there's an override command that allows you to initiate the emergency lockdown. It's on the terminal behind the reception desk."

Waits remained silent while listening to Ricardo guide Ripley. He saw no need to interfere or correct anyone. Everything was going smoothly-

"Is my exit open, Ricardo?" Ripley asked.

"Wait a minute." The deputy sounded panicked.

"Ricardo, is my exit clear?"

"Jesus, it's shut! It won't move!"

"What are you doing, Ricardo? Fix it!" Waits growled.

"I need more time!"

"I don't have more time!" Ripley hissed.

Raine was holding his breath, and bent his head in silent prayer. Waits bit back a frustrated curse. He covered his face, counting every heartbeat he could feel in his chest.

"OK, I got it! Get out, Ripley, now!" Ricardo ordered.

Waits swallowed, relief flooding him, yet something felt off . . . "Ricardo, how did you open it back up?"

"I had to suppress the alert. It was the only way to get Ripley out."

Raine's eyes widened. "Jesus, that means everything she locked down was just reopened!"

Waits felt rage burn and swell in the pit of his stomach. "You let it out? We had it locked down, and you let it out?!" He drew in a breath, his ability to keep calm starting to diminish. "Ripley, it's still on your tail."

"Where should I go?" she asked.

Waits did some quick thinking. "Take the elevator to Gemini Labs. If it follows, we can still trap it there." He wasn't sure what to feel, but he was tired of crying. There was no time to cry, to be anxious. All these people are counting on me to get rid of that creature. "Ripley, Ricardo, we can't let it escape again, no matter what."

"I'm gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch when he gets back!" Jav shouted after Waits updated the group. "We could be reopening the comms right now, but because Ricardo's got no fucking balls, we're not!"

"Hey, take it easy, son!" Waits snapped. "We're all on the same fucking team here! None of you are even gonna think about killing one another! Locking down Gemini can still work. Relax."

Face red with anger, Jav took a breath before sitting down.

Raine looked up at Waits as he returned to the radio. "Can't necessarily blame Jav for being upset."

"No one can, but we can't start turning on each other." Waits rubbed his face, groaning. "This better work."

"I'm in Gemini, Waits," Ripley whispered over the radio.

"We need that whole facility powered up. There's a freight elevator you'll need to take, but ever since Seegson pulled funding from Gemini, it's been out of action."

There was more silence, more relaying of instructions. Waits gradually felt more optimistic when his screens showed power being restored to the labs. He kept glancing at Raine, then returned to Ripley when something lit up on his board. "That's it-elevator's online, Ripley. You're headed for a place called Project KG-348. Let me know when you're there." He held his breath until she responded several minutes later.

"Waits, I made it."

"Is it still after you?" he asked.

"I think so."

"I got a plan. Head for the labs." Again, he waited. Tension coursed through his body, and he felt Raine grip his shoulder.

"Waits, I'm in," Ripley said.

"The lab can be separated from the main station," Waits replied, trying to conceal his nerves. "Bring it back online, and systems can reconnect." We're almost done. Come on, kid, I know you can do it. He nearly clapped Raine on the shoulder when he saw a myriad of data and lights appear on the screens in front of him. "That's it! I can see a power spike! Now, reconnect the lab systems to Sevastopol from the console in the central lab. We're counting on you, Ripley."

A smile blossomed on Raine's face. "Can't believe it. She's got it. Holy cow."

Waits could still hear the alien over the radio. His hopes abruptly halted. We can't let it escape again. He looked over his dashboard, seeing the command to disconnect the labs. He could see from the radio's tracker that Ripley wasn't out of the labs yet.

The only sound he could hear was his own heart pounding, blood rushing in his ears. He could feel Raine's gaze on him. He squeezed his eyes shut, and he saw Lingard's face. I don't want anyone else to end up like you, honey. Tears threatened to choke him, and he struggled to swallow.

I don't want to do this. I have no choice, though. If that thing gets out again, I'll never get another chance to kill it. I'll fail everyone! His heart continued to throb faster and harder as his hand hovered over the command key.

"I'm sorry, Ripley."

Question: If someone were to read this story before actually playing Isolation, how might they view Waits's actions having seen his perspective before Amanda's?