Only three items were brought with them when they left Colonel Decker's office: they brought the rifle that Dr. Peters had shot Morse with as it turned out it still had three bullets left. But the gun Morse had captured from the late Sgt. Hurst was empty and therefore useless, so they left it behind. Decker's weapon was another matter: only one shot had been fired - the clip was almost full, so Hicks brought that with him. But the rest of the weapons in the war-room had to be abandoned. The ballistic armaments were functioning, but there were no ammunition for them. And without that, all the rifles and pistols displayed in that museum were nothing but worthless junk. Even the swords were left behind: against aliens, the blades would hardly be any effective. There was only one more item brought, but Hicks preferred not to think about that object for the time being – that would be a later concern.

The four friends arrived at the makeshift airlock to the depressurized zone where they would part ways. No word had been said since they left Decker's office as they knew that nothing spoken would ever make the upcoming goodbyes any easier. Fixer walked without a word over to the air-pump that would suck the oxygen out of the airlock, making sure that it was ready to use. Bishop was the one opening a new dialogue and breaking the uncomfortable silence. His words were all business though.

"All right. Don't be alarmed when the ship rocks – that will be the portion of air in the lower level on the other side being sucked out when I open the door. I will seal it as fast as I can when I'm through before the remaining oxygen escapes from the fore-section. I will need, say ten minutes to get to the bridge from this point - another five minutes to prepare the helm and override all safety-protocols. That's when I will start the descent, so that's how long you got to reach an EEV and make a controlled eject before we get too deep into the atmosphere."

"Don't worry." Hicks told the android. "We have no intention to remain onboard any longer than necessary. This ship has become a vessel of death and just like its crew it should be nothing but one with eternity. I only regret that it has come to this."

"Unfortunately we don't have time for regret, nor the luxury for it. Better to accept it and make sure that we go out with dignity."

"Or as we in the Marine Corps have a habit of saying: 'Like a soldier dying for his country'. It's supposed to make us feel better about it."

"Does it work?"

"I'm going to ask myself that question when I'm ready to deal with the beast within me. Until then, I prefer not to give an answer."

Bishop held out his hand. "This is it, then."

Hicks took it. "Let's get those bastards."

Bishop bent down before the quiet child. With his hand he gently lifted up her wet face. "Are those tears for me?" he asked. "I am honored. I doubt anyone else would bother doing that for an artificial being like me." Newt didn't say anything. She had trouble just trying to compose herself and remain brave. Bishop was not at all offended by her quiet response – instead he fumbled with something on his arm. "Newt, I don't possess the ability to predict the future – and yet, how illogical it all may seem, I can feel it in my core that you will survive. That's why I want you to have this…" From the recorder fastened to his arm, he removed a compact disc which he handed to the girl.

"It probably won't seem much to you – you might even dislike it, but I want you to promise me that you will hang on to this. This disc contains all of my research; every scrap of information I've discovered about the creatures and of the derelict ship. It's not at all for the benefit of the Company that I want this to survive – it's because I want it to be your insurance ticket. With this information you can convince anyone to believe what has happened here, and as you get older you will attain the wisdom to use this as a leverage to file charges against the Company or whatever you wish to do. You got your whole life ahead of you to decide what to do with it – and I've made sure that no other than you will be able to access it. Just be sure that you only share its contents with those you are certain that you can trust." Newt didn't at all understand what Bishop was telling her - she wasn't sure she wanted to. But her friend wanted her to have it, and that was enough for her. She accepted it, but she still couldn't look Bishop in the eye as her tears began to sting again. Bishop caressed her arm.

"I know that look. But don't feel guilty… if I have to die for somebody, I am glad that it is for you - you are all worth it. Always remember that." He squeezed her arm gently one last time. "Good luck, Newt."

Bishop turned to the small-sized mechanic and shook his hand as well. "Thank you for bringing me back, Fixer."

"It… was my pleasure." The small man said, not knowing what else to say. Instead he indicated to the door. "I'm ready when you are."

"Then let's do it," Bishop replied and stepped inside the compartment.

"See you on the 'other side', Bishop," Hicks called after him with a merry voice.

"Make sure you don't bring any unwanted guests over there." Bishop called back with the same cheerful tone as the door rolled shut, separating them. Newt couldn't understand how they could make jokes in the face of death. It took a moment while Fixer pumped out the air, then he reported that the android had proceeded to the depressurized section.

"There's nothing more we can do here," Hicks stated, now all devoid of his faked cheerfulness. "We got our own schedule to keep, so let us be on our way." They left the make-shift airlock behind them, not looking back. Three minutes passed, and then they felt the ship rock. But there was no cause for alarm – they knew that it meant that Bishop had reached the other side of the vacuum. They each gave a silent prayer for him and went on.


Hicks had refused to admit it earlier, but he had no choice but to accept it now – Bishop had actually done the right thing when he'd deliberately injected that weird jelly into the embryo within his chest, making it into a queen. If he hadn't, Hicks doubted that there would be much of a chance for survival for the three of them as the corporal saw what was ahead of their route now.

He had seen it before - and he recoiled from the sight of it. The corridor ahead of them was obscured with a weird substance that blended perfectly with the metallic bulkheads before filling out into an epoxy-like incrustation that extended deep along the way ahead, resembling the interior of a rib-cage. Hicks knew that he was looking at the entrance to a crèche – the hive of the aliens! Of all the places they could choose to build their nest, they just had to choose this area – the corridor the three of them had to go through!

"Can we go around?" Fixer asked with a quivering voice.

"There's no time." Hicks answered him grimly. "We have to go through here or we won't make it before Bishop sends this ship crashing. Let's just hope the creatures are as protective of the queen as he expects them to be."

Newt would have nothing of that. She jerked back with her eyes wild and panic evident on her face. "NO! I don't want to go! I don't want to go in there!" she cried. Her reaction was not so strange. Before they had fled the planet three years earlier, Newt had been captured and brought inside the hive by the aliens, into the lower dungeons of the atmosphere processor. She would have become infested with one of the monsters had not Ripley got there in time and rescued her. It had still been traumatic for her though; she had seen the bodies of her people cocooned within the walls – people she had known. And full of monsters everywhere. She knew that the monsters would be waiting for them inside, and now Hicks wanted to go in there willingly – into the lion's den? It wasn't just stupid, it was downright crazy!

Hicks' tone was apologetic. "I'm sorry, honey. We don't have any choice." The rifle they had brought with them was slung over Hicks' shoulder. Now he took it off and handed it to Fixer. "Here's what we'll do: you will have to keep that rifle pointed at me all the time as we go through there. The creatures should recognize it as a threat and not dare to attack you in fear of it going off. Just don't shoot me with that thing, will you? At least not yet," he added as an afterthought.

"Let us just hope that the creatures don't know that I've never handled one of these things before," Fixer replied while looking incredulously at the weapon.

"The evident threat to their unborn queen should be enough to keep them at bay," Hicks assured him, although he was not entirely convinced of that fact himself. "Are you ready, Newt?"

Newt wasn't ready and it looked like she wasn't going to be any time soon. She kept backing away from the entrance to the crèche, going into hysteria. "No! No!" she screamed. "They'll take us! They'll get us, and they will put monsters inside us!"

The girl was on her breaking point for the second time. Hicks couldn't have the child to crack down now – he quickly went over to try to talk some sense into her. "Newt! Calm down! Look at me!" But she wouldn't calm down. She wept and tried to wriggle out of the way. There was a great risk that she would run off, and there definitely wasn't time to chase her down if that happened. He took hold on both sides of her face, more firmly than he wanted to, and spoke to her in his most authorizing tone. "Hey! Hey! Rebecca! Listen to me! Hey! Rebecca Jorden, look at me! Look at me!"

As Hicks had hoped, the use of her birth-name seemed to trigger something deep within the girl. Her weeping eyes focused on the adult and although she still trembled all over, she stopped fidgeting.

"I know you're scared, honey. I don't blame you at all, because I am too. But I won't let the fear take control of me; I use it to focus on the task ahead of us, and that's what I want you to do as well."

"I can't…" she whimpered.

"Yes, you can! You've done it before! Back in your colony you used it to survive! It will come back to you if you will just let it!" To Hicks' relief, it looked like the girl managed to find the defensive techniques that she had once relied on, she looked much more composed now. Those techniques had always been there of course, ever since she had developed them in her solitude in her wrecked colony - she had just needed to be reminded of them.

Hicks combed back locks of honey-blond hair behind the girl's ears with his hands as he continued to speak to her with a reassuring tone. "Do you trust me, Newt?" To the child it was an inane question – but she nodded in response anyway. "Then trust me when I say that I won't let those monsters get their claws on you. I'm going to carry you through there – they won't dare to do a thing to you while you're in my arms as they don't want to risk damage to the queen. You will be safe."

But the child looked at him with an earnest expression. "What if you're wrong?"

It was a valid question, and one that Hicks was hesitant to answer. But he was certain that the child knew the seriousness of the situation and he decided that it was best to be as honest with her as possible. It would not do to lie to this child anyway – he knew since before that she could see right through any false words.

"I won't let them have you," he told her in the same earnest tone. "Not in any way!" Newt knew what Hicks meant by it. If the worst occurred, then the adult would make sure she wouldn't suffer – it literally meant that he was going to put a bullet through her head to give her a clean, easy and instant death. She wasn't shocked by that knowledge because she had faced that outcome before. Her own biological mother had been prepared to do the very same thing to both her and her brother when the colony was all but lost rather than letting the aliens have their way with them. But the air ducts had then been the alternate escape and it had never come to that – until maybe now. There would be no escape through any ducts this time. If the aliens decided to attack them inside the crèche despite the fact that Hicks was carrying a queen, it would be the end. And a bullet would be a lot more merciful compared to what the monsters would do.

She stretched out her arms, preparing to entrust her whole being to the soldier. But she did shiver at the thought of having to be in such a close vicinity to the unborn queen inside of him even though it wouldn't come out yet.

With the small strong arms locked around his neck, Hicks lifted the girl up from the floor and supported her weight with his left arm as she responded with folding her legs around his waist. That left his right hand free to carry the colonel's pistol they had brought with them in case he would have to shoot their way out.

"Are we ready to go then?" he asked his company. Fixer took his position behind the corporal, pointing the barrel of the rifle to the small of Hicks' back. There were no words needed to be said.

As they prepared to enter the nest of the aliens, they experienced a collective tremor flowing through them. At first they thought that they had felt their nervousness overwhelm them, but then they realized that the tremor was the result of the Hercules changing position in space. That meant that Bishop was on the bridge and was going to start the descent to crash the ship into the alien derelict on the surface of the planetoid below – and that in turn meant that they didn't have that much time to spare any longer.


As expected, Bishop had reached the bridge without any problems. There was nothing alive in the front of the ship that could even have got the idea to stop him; he had the whole area to himself. The problems started as he input the flight-plan into the navigational computer, but that too had been expected. Naturally the security systems would object to the intention of taking the ship down into the atmosphere and make a forcible impact on the surface. After all, most of the battle-cruisers serving in the Colonial Marine-corps weren't designed to go into the atmosphere, and definitely not to land. The ship's computer was expected to analyze each new input Bishop made into the helm and take an immediate counteraction to protect the ship. Bishop would have to override each of those counteracts as soon as the computers presented them before they got into effect – he would only have one half of a second to implement the countermeasure. That would be an impossible task for a human, but not too big of a problem for a synthetic with a calculative mind which was capable of working at a much faster rate than that of an organic.

As he input the coordinates of the plateau where the derelict rested, he got the confirmation of what he already had calculated on how he had to proceed. He couldn't just plunge the Hercules in; the atmospheric resistance during reentry as well as the strong winds would throw the ship to all sides and make him fall towards the surface like a meteorite and he would most likely miss his target. Bishop would have to prolong the descent in order to make a controlled entry. LV-426 was quite small, only around twelve hundred kilometers - one orbital circle around the planet to get into position and then another circle in a glide-flight through the atmosphere, gliding with the wind and with a steadily dropping altitude should do it. It will still be bumpy ride and the heat-shields will be completely burned out – but what difference will that make to a ship that was about to be destroyed?

Bishop activated the navigational thrusters to move the ship into the bearing he required for his descent – the ship shook slightly as it broke the orbit it had held previously, but that was but a minor tremor compared to what was going to come. He fired the afterburners next to get into his new trajectory. The Hercules had now begun its final voyage - Bishop only hoped that the others would manage to get off the ship before he had completed his first initial run around the planet…


How did they manage to build all this in such short time? It was a thought that all three humans silently shared. The tunnel they had entered extended as far as the eye could see and it gave a sickening feeling to walk across the raised surfaces. Not because of its appearance or because they knew that the aliens had to be around here somewhere – but because the resinous material they crossed over was freshly applied. It hadn't hardened yet. Hicks and Fixer's boots made squishy sounds with each step they took and sticky, gelatinous filaments trailed off their soles each time they lifted their feet. It was slimy, gross, disgusting! And as if that wasn't enough, the corridor felt incredibly hot. There was a fine mist of steam hanging in the air.

"Those creatures… do they like the heat?" Fixer asked breathlessly.

"I think it's a safe bet to say that they do," Hicks replied. "When I first encountered them they had built their nest under the primary heat exchangers of an atmosphere processor. It was hot as a furnace down there. It's obviously the ideal environment for their kind."

"Then I think I know why they choose to settle down here. We're right beneath the steam-pipes of the water-cooling systems for the engines. The heated water is being led away from there and is used to warm up the habitat sections of the ship. Those creatures of yours must've cracked the pipes and somehow channeled the steam into these walls they built."

"That's a theory as good as any." Hicks said, wincing as he stepped in a puddle of the slimy substance that splashed up on his trousers – it made him slip. He almost dropped the quiet Newt as he stumbled, but she held on to his neck. The puddle had been invisible in the vitreous surroundings, and there was not much of illumination to make out any deviations – all the lights in the corridor had been either covered by the epoxy-like crust or been smashed. It was because of that darkness that he failed to spot the first alien until he had rounded a bulkhead. It stood poised against a wall, spitting out a spray of slime from its mouth on to a weird mass of form that he couldn't make out. It looked like it was embedding some kind of obstacle within the translucent resin.

"Oh, my god!" Fixer exclaimed as he saw the behemoth. He had never actually got a good look at any of the creatures for what they really were until now – the only specimen he had seen thus far was the carcass Bishop had brought up to the ship. But since it had been dead, Fixer hadn't quite gotten the full grasp on the ferocity a live one really displayed. The alien turned its elongated head and looked at the three intruders. The humans gasped, halted in their tracks – but Hicks composed himself almost instantly. "Quickly – make sure you point the rifle at me!" he told Fixer. "Let them see it!"

Fixer complied. The alien hissed as it seemed to realize the danger that was presented towards the unborn queen – it made no advancement towards them.

"Okay, let's move – nice and easy." Hicks felt the girl tense up as he moved closer to the alien in order to walk past it. She grabbed on much more tightly to his neck but made no form of sound at all. Even her breathing was subdued. As a security measure, Hicks held his gun ready to shoot in case the creature would try anything. But all it did was to follow them with its gaze as they crept by almost on tiptoes. They could now see what was embedded in the wall and they almost gagged at the sight. It was the cannibalized remains of a human – of who it had been they couldn't tell and they didn't want to know. What was clear was that the aliens had consumed the carcass of its meat and now used the skeleton to serve as a 'decoration' for the nest. There were other stuff within there as well: collected junk of utensils from the mess-hall, tools, broken machinery and even rocket shells from the hangar. All of it were used as filler-material for the nest they were building.

As the humans continued to identify the stuff the creatures had gathered, another alien moved past them from behind right above their heads, crawling without any difficulties along the roof with more collected stuff under its arm that it had scrounged up from somewhere. This one didn't pay the humans any attention at all - it just went on with its task of creating the crèche, completely oblivious to the fact that it was all for naught. Soon the ship was going to be destroyed and they with it.

The humans kept their eyes on the first drone even though they had passed it. The alien seemed to have lost interest in them though – it went back to its previous engagement and cared no more for the intruders. Hicks thought that perhaps they were home-free now – he turned… and came face to face with another alien – close enough for them to only stretch out and touch one another. Newt' face creased into a silent scream, but no sound was coming from her throat. Fixer tensed up and made a show of pointing the rifle he was holding at the corporal, threatening to fire. Hicks raised his gun-arm, pointing the muzzle at the blank eye-less forehead above the row of teeth which was continuously dripping mucous to the floor.

"Let us pass!" Hicks automatically ordered the menacing creature, although the alien had no way of understanding the instruction. It didn't move at all, it only observed them, staring at the three. How could it stare at them? It had no eyes! But Hicks knew that it definitely was staring at them. There was a rumble of a hissing breathing coming from the depths of its throat, a vapor was exhaled from its mouth, but like its brother behind them, this one did not try to capture them either.

Hicks figured that he had to be imagining things, but he got this weird sensation in the back of his mind that he was registering something – that there was some kind of thought that came to him of what the creature in front of them was actually thinking right now. Not words - it was more of a feeling.

- Soft prey!

Was that what the creature was really thinking at the moment?

- Where will you go?

It was unknown how the aliens communicated with each other. Hicks had never bothered to give it a thought; all he had ever cared knowing about the aliens was how to kill them. But since they didn't possess the ability to orally express words, it had to mean that they had some other method of communications: unseen signals, mind transmitting… but why would he be able to detect it?

"Get out of the way," he urged it again with loud words.

- Always the annoying sounds! Soft prey does nothing but sound so annoyingly. The sounds have no meaning… only disturbing!

Hicks was certain now; he could hear them! But how was that possible? Had it something to do with the queen within him? Could she be receiving the thoughts of her drones and was in turn passing it to him? It didn't seem possible – there was no reason for a host to an alien to attain that kind of ability! But he had no other explanation, except maybe that it might have something to do with that jelly Bishop injected into him to make the embryo into a female. Bishop had theorized that the 'royal jelly' that was being administrated by the worker drones could be used to make changes not only in the alien larvae, but also in a host. What was it he had said? The special substance can also be used to change the DNA-code in a human being to metamorphose him into an egg. Could it be true? Could the jelly Bishop had injected into him have got into his bloodstream somehow, changed him? Hicks wasn't a biologist – he wished that he could somehow talk to Bishop about it.

"Hicks. Make it go away!" Newt whispered in terror into his ear. Could he tell it to? If he could receive those weird transmissions the aliens used to communicate with each other, could he use the same means to tell the drone to step back? He had to try – he focused on the spot in the back of his mind where he had registered the thoughts, and input a command there. He used that area of his brain as a point of origin, and then he directed it to the warrior in front of him. You will step back. You will let us pass.

- Why? Where will you go?

We do not belong here.

- But you do! You bear the queen. You are ours! And the two small ones shall be the first to bear her young.

It was astonishing - Hicks was actually 'talking' with the alien! But the others couldn't hear what was being said, and the silence of the stand-off was starting to get to Fixer. "Hicks. What am I going to do? Shall I fire?"

"Wait," Hicks told him. "I think I got this."

"Got what?" The corporal ignored the mechanic's last question. He changed tactics as he addressed the alien again: The small one behind me will kill me if you don't let us pass – and with me: your queen.

The drone hissed. - The queen must not be harmed!

For the safety of the queen, you must let us pass.

- We can kill the little soft prey in order to protect the queen!

But not before he kills me! Let us pass and his guard will drop. The queen will be born shortly and afterwards the soft prey won't be able to harm her. Then she will come to you.

- That is the order of things. The queen is powerful. You may go.

You will not follow us.

- We don't need to. No matter where you go, you are already ours. To everybody's surprise, the alien stepped aside. "Let's go before they change their minds." Hicks said and started to walk.

"What did you do?" Fixer asked, totally bewildered.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Although Hicks was certain that the aliens wouldn't touch them now, he hurried along the corridor at a much faster pace. The sticky surface of the encrusted resin continued to make squishy sounds as he ran over it, but it was easier to ignore now. The most trouble he really had was that his arm was growing tired of carrying Newt for an extended period, but he wasn't prepared to put her down yet. He saw light ahead – the exit of the crèche was near. He would be happy to be out of there.

Only a few meters remained when Fixer made a sound like something had turned his stomach. "Eew. It's Dr. Roman and her assistant! Poor devils – they've been torn to pieces!" Hicks stopped in his tracks and looked over at the wall. Sure enough, it was the remains of the chief medtech and her assistant embedded in the resinous material – although it was mostly the torsos and faces left, permanently creased into agony from the moment of their deaths. Limbs and some other chunks of meat were missing. But that wasn't what was important – what was important was the fact that the bodies were out here! Those two had died within quarantine, sealed inside together with a misshaped alien by Colonel Decker! If the bodies were out here…

"Oh my God!" Hicks gulped. "We're right outside quarantine! And it's been opened! They've released it!"

"Released what?" Fixer asked.

"Let's get out of here before…" But Hicks didn't get to finish that sentence. Something jumped down from the roof in front of them, blocking the exit. Newt whimpered as the creature rose to its full but shortened height and displayed its maniacal grin. It was the misfit – the crazed alien!

Just like with the previous drone, Hicks raised his gun and used the back of his mind to communicate with it. Get back! You will let us pass! He received a response, but it was not a pleasant feeling. The thoughts from the crazed one stung the back of his mind. It was like a high-pitched shrilly voice.

- Playthings! Softies!

You cannot hurt us! You will risk the death of your queen!

- Play! Rip! Little softies to open up!

I'm carrying your queen! But the crazed one wasn't listening to that fact. Instead it was lashing its tail back and forth, its grin becoming even wider. Hicks remembered now that this creature was permanently inebriated. It came from Private Dagger who had been intoxicated with JOY, the synthetic drug that took away all inhibitions of the user. The drug had been integrated to the alien when it grew inside the addict and the unnatural substance had misshaped it, making it short in height compared to the normal drones and somewhat flattened. It would have been comical to look at hadn't it been so unpredictable and dangerous. Apparently it also made it totally unreasonable!

Hicks was left with no choice. The crazed alien was undoubtedly going to attack them despite the fact that he was carrying a queen. The corporal straightened out the arm that held the gun and fired. Several rounds hit the crazed drone, but it didn't seem to notice the impacts! In fact its hide appeared to be impenetrable – the bullets only ricocheted of it! The bullets did break the chitin skin, drawing small droplets of yellow blood, but those quickly healed over.

Not only was it unreasonable, it was also impervious to pain! It had given no reaction of discomfort whatsoever! It crouched, waving its tail repeatedly, preparing to jump them. That was it, Hicks thought. They were trapped, and no alternatives were open to them – except one. The promise he had made before they had entered the crèche…

"Close your eyes, baby…" he whispered to Newt. She understood completely. She shut her eyes as the adult pointed the muzzle of the gun at her forehead…

Before he had time to pull the trigger though, the crazed alien struck with its massive scorpion tail… which was suddenly blocked by another tail before it could hit. A normal alien drone roared with a threat at the misfit – Hicks could hear the exchanged information exploding in the back of his mind.

- DON'T ENDANGER THE QUEEN!

The misfit stopped grinning and roared back. - Softies are mine to play with!

-The queen must not be harmed!

- I no care about queen!

That exchange took the normal drone by surprise. - The crèche must have a queen, it said. - It is the order of things!

- A new order there is now! My order! To oblivion with queen! I am king!

The normal drone hissed in warning again, totally bewildered by the challenge that had been made by one of their own. Hicks wasn't surprised though – it was quite common among drug addicts to feel delusions of superiority above everything when they were high on narcotics. And the crazed alien was always high on the drugs it itself produced.

- You are insane! You already destroyed the two eggs we found!

- Soft things! Fun to rip apart!

- Now you threaten the queen! You are a threat to the crèche!

- I am powerful! I am king!

- You are a failed spawn! You are unfit! You are… The rest of the exchange was not within Hicks' capability to register – he was getting quite a headache from the argument and it was also becoming such a heated debate that he couldn't make out anything more out of it anyway. But the intentions were clear: he could make that out just by listening to the hisses and roars that were thrown across the tunnel they occupied. The creatures were prepared to rip each other's throats off – the problem was that the three humans were in the risk of getting caught between them.

"Be ready to run," he told Fixer.

"I've been ready for that from the moment we went in here."

The two aliens all but shrieked menacingly now, their postures were aggressive and relentless. Their screams attracted all the other warriors as well – they came crawling, ready to defend the colony. The misfit in its crazed state was the first to attack; it jumped at its brother, claws extended ready to pierce the other's torso.

The normal warrior was not unprepared though. It made its own charge and the two creatures collided in midair. The impact was so powerful that it sent a ripple through the air which caused the ears of the humans to pop – the combined momentum knocked both of them over to the side of the corridor, leaving the path clear.

"Now!" Hicks called and broke into a run with Fixer following right behind him and they rushed out of the crèche - none of the other aliens made a move to pursue them. The two combatants were all immersed in their rage now as they wrestled on the floor, shrieking, biting and cutting at each other.

The normal warrior was strong, but the misfit had no inhibitions and it could not feel pain – those facts gave the crazed alien the ability to push itself harder, well beyond the point of its already inhuman strength. The death-cry of the warrior made Hicks look back and he saw the misfit alien rip open his brother's chest like a diner prying apart the shell of a crayfish. Yellow acid-blood sprayed everywhere, over the aliens and on the walls. The aliens themselves were not affected by the corrosive blood, but the fluid poured down alongside the smooth crust of resin that covered the original walls of the corridor and it formed a puddle that in turn flowed out of the alien tunnel like a small river, onto the real floor of the ship. The deck-plates instantly began to bubble and melt as the acid ate through them. It didn't bother the aliens present – they were too busy attacking the misfit to even take notice of it. But to the three humans it meant an impending catastrophe!

"Not again!" Hicks sputtered out as a large hole formed in the deck. He had already been through that when he had led the Rawhides on his failed renegade mission to dispose of the eggs in section twelve. The acidic blood from the facehuggers they had shot to pieces had eaten through all the decks below and out into clear space, causing a large portion of the ship to decompress. Now the same was going to happen again!

"RUN!" Hicks shouted as he took a tighter grip onto Newt and broke off into an escape. His mind raced as he rushed along the corridor: – how much time did they have before the acid had eaten through every deck? Where is the closest door? How much damage did Morse do to the security computer in main engineering? Hicks remembered that the computer's connection to the PA-systems at least was severed, but was it still functioning enough to detect the structural damage to the hull again? In a situation like this it was better to be safe than sorry – he tried to run faster, but it wasn't easy. He usually was a fast sprinter, but his new lung was still not fully adapted to his previous physiological condition before his 'death' – he was growing tired fast and it didn't make it any easier that he carried a 33-pound child in his arms. A weight that wasn't a problem for him under normal circumstances, the girl was actually quite light for her age because of her state of malnutrition and other recent maladies - but it did become a burden after an extended period of time. Fixer had it worse though, his short legs made it hard for him to keep up.

Something was obviously still working – to Hicks' horror; the door in front of them was starting to slide shut, sealing off the area that was about to become exposed to vacuum. Hicks was determined that they would not be trapped again! Summoning all the reserves he had and allowing the panic within him to fuel his muscles even more, he grabbed on to Fixer's arm and hurled himself and the two smaller people right past the closing door, just in the nick of time before it sealed. They slid over the deck on the other side and the howls of the fighting creatures were cut off by the barrier that had rolled into place. Hicks looked up, feeling the tension draining out of him as he saw that the other two seemed to be all right. Fixer was pale and sweaty from the running – Newt was trembling all over as she was still terrified, but she looked also evidently relived to be out of the alien tunnel. The corporal was proud of them both.

"I… I'm afraid I dropped the rifle back there," Fixer said as he struggled to catch his breath.

"No matter, it has served its purpose. Be ready. Any moment now…"

The other two looked confused – they didn't know what Hicks was warning them about. Then the Hercules suddenly jumped violently, just like it had the first time a large portion of air had blown out into space. Hicks felt a grim satisfaction – the decompression had got to have killed all the aliens! One problem solved. Unfortunately they weren't out of the woods yet – the ship was still on a collision course with the derelict on the surface. They had to get off of it before it was too late. Pulling up his two wards up on their feet, they resumed their own course towards the escape vehicles.