Bishop was at the moment not happy. He had expected the ship to rock sooner or later, but that should hardly have been noticeable. When an EEV was to be launched, the gyro-stabilizers would receive this information and compensate for the sudden escape of mass. But this jump in space that the ship just made had been completely unexpected. Bishop checked the read-outs from damage-control: another large portion of the ship had suddenly been depressurized – including the section that his friends were to pass through to get to the escape vehicles. He could only theorize what had happened, and there were many possible outcomes where he could conclude that his friends had either perished or survived. He had no way to tell which scenario was the actual event that had transpired – his available data was limited since Morse had smashed many of the primary systems in main engineering.
The android decided to put his trust in Hicks' resourcefulness and assume that the three humans had survived. In case they hadn't, it wouldn't change anything for Bishop's part. He still intended to put the Hercules into a collision course with the alien derelict. He checked his altitude: the violent escape of air had thrown the ship into a higher orbit - that was what he was not happy about. He would have to compensate now and put the nose of the ship into a little steeper dive or he would overshoot his mark. But the helm was starting to act sluggish, like if the Hercules already was facing gravitational resistance. But that couldn't be as he was still too high up above the planet. The gravity was weak up here, practically non-existent - and yet there was something trying to yank the ship off its course. The only explanation Bishop could think of was that Morse must've done a lot more damage to the key-systems in engineering than what the felon had intended - some of the retro-rockets must have ignited and would not turn off. Out in the airless space it was still possible to make it a smooth flight, but it was going to become much worse as soon as the gravity of the planetoid below would get a tighter grip on the massive bulk. This was going to be a tougher ride than he had first anticipated.
The hangar-bays for the emergency escape vehicles weren't much to look at as they were not meant to be occupied. It was more of a metallic pit rather than a room, lined with supporting pillars and a mass network of pipes and conduits. When the three humans entered the hangar from the corridor, they stepped onto a simple catwalk high up in the ceiling with a circular staircase leading down to the bottom of the room. The EEV itself was not entirely visible as it was integrated with the interior hulls – only the trained eye could make out where the actual bulk of the ship connected to the vehicle. The main difference with the EEV's onboard the Hercules compared to others were that these vehicles were armed. A big gun-turret, not unlike those seen mounted on an APC occupied the center of the 'floor' which was the roof of the escape shuttle. That was an addition made by Colonel Decker – from his point of view, you could never know when a tactical advantage would present itself where you really had a great need of a big gun, even when travelling in an EEV. It was an ugly room, but Hicks was glad to see it anyway.
"We made it," he told the others with relief. Fixer responded in agreement with a simple inarticulate grunt while Newt opted for her usual silence. They quickly descended the stairs and they came down to a trench in the floor. The metallic crevice was a walkway that separated the EEV from the larger mother-ship, leading to the airlock on the side of the shuttle. Hicks punched and twisted a few buttons and handles, unlocking the hatch. The door of the airlock rolled aside and allowed the three escapees to enter. The inside of it looked unnecessarily vast and spacious, as if there was a large portion of equipment missing. On the far end though there were a couple of chairs in front of a dashboard below a viewport. Those were the pilots' seats and Hicks went directly towards them and sat down. Wasting no time, he allowed his hands to dance above the controls, flipping several switches. The control-board came to life.
"I'm activating the pre-launch cycle," he informed the others. "We'll just give the systems a few minutes to do a routine check on operational status before we release the moorings. Then some of the cryogenic sleeper-units from upstairs will be loaded and we'll launch and escape this flying tomb."
"That'll be a relief," Fixer answered with anticipation. "Never expected this big vessel to become a house with so many bad memories – I for one won't miss it."
Hicks nodded. "If everything goes according to plan, a memory is all the Hercules soon will be – both it and that accursed ship on the surface that brought the creatures to this planet. With any luck, that will be the last the galaxy will ever hear about the monsters! Wouldn't you agree, Newt?"
The girl didn't answer. She didn't want to give voice to the creeping feeling that lurked in her stomach. Ever since her parents died she only had her own instincts to rely on and even now those gave her a feeling of unease although she didn't know why. Maybe it had something to do with the EEV itself – although she had no recollection of the exact events, she had actually died within a vessel like this. To put her trust in a machine that had failed her previously didn't feel right – but she knew that it was something more than that which gave her the jitters. Bishop had told her that he was incapable of having premonitions, but she wondered if that applied to her as well. Newt was starting to think that she did in fact have some sort of a foreboding that something bad was going to happen and it was that which made her nervous. That nervousness increased when a problem showed up.
"Aw, crap!" Hicks cursed. "There's a security-block installed in the systems to prevent unauthorized tampering! I can't bring down any cryo-tubes here, and the EEV won't launch without them! I can't even release the moorings!" He turned to Fixer. "Is there some way you can break the code?"
"I doubt it," the little man replied. "Those military codes are almost impossible to slice – they're designed to keep civilian personal out. It requires someone with military training to countermand it."
"And I don't think Bishop has time to do it for us even if I could contact him. Damn, I actually wish I had Hudson here now – he was the comtech of my unit. He may have been cocky and a pain in the ass sometimes, but he was good with this form of stuff."
"Well, maybe there is something I still can do," Fixer said. "The control-circuits for signaling the sleepers to come down should be located outside right above the chute behind us. If I can tap into those, then maybe I can short-circuit the locks and bring them down here manually."
"Fixer, if you can do that, then you're a genius!"
The midget mechanic looked proud. "Well then, I better go out and get started then. I don't find the idea appealing to be on this boat when Bishop sends it down crashing." Fixer exited the EEV and went up the same way they had come. The access-port he needed was located within a supporting bulkhead on the other end of the catwalk they had stepped out on, right above the giant chute. The chute in question was a wide diagonal directed shaft, which led up to the cryogenic compartment where the sleeper-pods resided two decks above them. Only a short stump of it was visible inside the hangar, terminating right above the back of the EEV. Passing the entrance door in the middle of the catwalk which still stood open, Fixer reached the bulkhead that housed the control-circuits. It was a good thing he was always prepared for maintenance anywhere he got, he had tools in his pouches adequate for unlatching the access-panel – but he really missed the tool he had misplaced somewhere. After quickly identifying which of the circuit-boards controlled the desired systems, he wire-crossed some cables to hot-wire a power-surge through one of the boards. He got the effect he wanted – the whole back-section of the EEV opened up like the trunk of an automobile, ready to receive some large luggage. The angle was a bit steep, but Hicks and Newt could now see Fixer through the grate of the catwalk through the open back of the vehicle where they sat waiting for him in the pilot seats.
"It looks good here," Hicks called up to him. "How are you doing?"
"Getting there," The mechanic called back down. "But I really miss my polysizable screwdriver. Can't understand where I could have lost it." Hicks didn't see it as he was looking in another direction, but Newt looked a little bit shocked by the midget's words.
A klaxon suddenly rang out within the hangar. Fixer had to shout to be heard over the noise. "Get ready! Here it comes!" A low rumble was now heard from the farthest end of the chute, a rumble that became immensely higher as a large object came sliding down within it to their level. A short moment later a row of four cryogenic cylinders emerged from the mouth of the chute and came to sudden a stop on the support rack within the EEV with such a loud crash that Newt had to cover her ears. The tubes became automatically locked in position on the rack and hidden power-receivers got connected to the EEV's main electrical supply… a green light flared up on the control board. The bay-door of the vehicle closed and locked itself, also on automatic.
Hicks gave a report that was filled with satisfaction. "We're good to go, as soon as the moorings are released."
The statement of them being ready to depart made Newt grow impatient. Why wasn't Fixer returning already? She went over to the airlock, leaned halfway out and called up towards the catwalk above her. "Hurry, Fixer! Let's go!"
"I'm just disengaging the last anchor now," he called back. However Newt did not hear that as her little body suddenly froze. From the still open door to the corridor outside the hangar, a shadow had entered. A shadow with a distinctive shape that she was all too familiar with and which always filled her with a tremendous terror.
"Fixer! B-behind you!" the child called out in both fright and disbelief. The midget mechanic turned around and came face to face with a feature-less and grinning head. It was the grin. The maniacal smile of the crazed alien! "Fixer, get out of there!" Newt now cried in panic. Hicks heard the change in her voice and came rushing to her side. Leaning out, he got the full extent of the situation. He did not know how the crazed alien had survived the decompression – he could not even begin to guess how the misshaped behemoth had managed to get out of the sealed area. It was a mystery he would never learn the answer to and it would make no difference even if he did. The crazed creature had caught up with them – that was all there was to be concerned with!
Fixer was totally overwhelmed by his own dread and tried to move away from the advancing creature – but there was nowhere for him to go, his back was already pressed against the bulkhead where he had done his work. He considered going over the railing, but the creature was too close - it would with ease catch him in an instant. The mechanic knew that he was trapped. Newt knew it too.
"Hicks, please… do something!"
The corporal didn't know what he could really do, but he did know that he had to try something! Drawing the gun he had captured from Colonel Decker's office, he fired a few rounds on the alien to try to distract it and hopefully leave an opening for their midget friend to escape. But as before, the bullets only bounced of the creature's elongated skull, drawing no reaction at all. Either it was ignoring the slugs or it was so far gone in its crazed state that it really didn't notice the impacts. The misfit was after all impervious to pain. Hicks could hear its thoughts in the back of his mind…
- Little softie! Rip! Tear! Make squishy noises! The crazed alien's arms shot out and grabbed Fixer by his head and the maniacal smile became even wider. The little man's realization of his upcoming doom was evident on his face as he felt the enormous hands pressing on the sides of his skull. His eyes sought Hicks', pleading for salvation. Hicks' own face convulsed with sorrow – he only had one bullet left in the gun. He knew what had to be done, the most merciful thing to do.
"I'm sorry!" he said full of remorse and he re-adjusted his aim. He put the last round through Fixer's brain, killing him instantly.
Newt let out an anguished wail as the finality of her friend's fate dawned on her and Hicks had to force her (after he'd thrown away the now empty and useless gun) inside the EEV and closing the airlock. The crazed alien remained where it was; bewildered with how the straining form it was about to rip apart had just suddenly gone completely limp.
There was absolutely nothing left for them aboard the Hercules now. After making sure that the airlock was completely sealed, Hicks carried the struggling girl further within the vehicle, towards the pilot seats.
"We got to save him!" Newt screamed out of control, struggling against his hold on her. "We can't leave him! We got to save him!"
"He's gone, Newt!" Hicks had to tell her firmly. "There's nothing more we can do for him!"
"You killed him!" she shot at him, her voice filled with accusation.
"He was dead as soon as that thing got its hands on him! What I did was merciful compared to what it was going to do!"
It wasn't easy to strap the child into the co-pilot's seat - she went into frenzy, trying to hit him with her hands and feet, she even tried to bite him. It was only because he knew that she was in the midst of grief and because he liked her so much that he restrained himself from responding harshly to her attacks. Besides, he would never in his life hit a child. As soon as he was finished, he sat down in his own seat and firmly hit the button that said 'launch' before beginning to put on his own seatbelts. Exterior locks retracted and the EEV was disengaged from the hull, its engines humming to life. Outside in the hangar another alarm blared and it caught the attention of the misfit alien. Losing interest in the dead meat it was holding, it swung its flattened head down towards the falling mass of a metal body. Somewhere in its crazed foggy mind it remembered that there were more soft living meat inside that shell that was about to escape! That was unacceptable! Dropping the corpse, already dismissed and forgotten; the crazed alien jumped over the railing just as the EEV jettisoned into space and left the Hercules behind.
At the helm, Hicks leveled out and laid in a course towards the surface of the planet. He only hoped that he remembered his training – it had been a long time since he'd piloted a flying craft. He could have engaged the automatic pilot, but he didn't want to risk any more unexpected surprises in the programming. It was better to play it safe and put the craft down himself. Newt wasn't in a fighting mood anymore – she sat motionless in her seat, sobbing. Another friend had been taken away from her because of the aliens, and this loss was one whom she had regarded as a form of an uncle.
Hicks decided to not disturb her in any way right now – it was better to let her deal with her grief for a moment. To his surprise, he thought he heard a disembodied voice calling his name.
"- Hicks. Are you there?" Hicks realized that the voice came from the radio. He hit the answer-button:
"Bishop? Is that you?"
"- Affirmative. The displays up here on the bridge showed the launch of your EEV. I'm glad to see that you got away after all, considering the new decompression inside the ship."
"Not all of us got away," Hicks said with sadness. "Fixer bought our escape with his life."
"- I'm sorry to hear that," Bishop said with the formality he always displayed. What else could anyone expect from an android? "- Listen, I'm tracking your trajectory and there's a slight problem. Your present course will land you in the vicinity of the crash-site of the alien derelict. The blast-radius of the explosion that will follow from the Hercules' destruction might cause some severe damage to the EEV if you get too close. I'm feeding new coordinates into your navigational computer – follow them and you should land in a relatively safe distance from my target."
Hicks checked the computer. "I've got them, Bishop. I'm changing course."
"- And I'm initiating my second circle around the planet. At present speed, I estimate to make contact in 53 minutes."
"We should be down in 25," was Hicks' reply. That's how long it would take to go down in a dropship – an EEV was different in configuration, but the flight procedure was basically the same. The difference was that the EEV wasn't designed to take off back into space again once it had settled down.
Bishop's voice returned. "- We have already made our goodbyes, so I won't get into any more dramatics here. I'm just saying good luck – to us all."
"Much obliged, Bishop," Hicks said. The android signed off. "We're going to need it," he muttered to the now silent radio. He watched as the big cruiser speeded away from them as it was carrying a much greater velocity – it would disappear beyond the terminator before the EEV would make its entry into the atmosphere. Hicks looked over at Newt – tears were still streaming down her face.
"I know it won't make it feel any better," he started to tell her. "But I'm certain that Fixer would want you to go on. He gave his life for you."
"But it was my fault!" she said with a quivering voice. Hicks looked at her with bewilderment.
"Why do you think that?" he asked her.
"He said that he had lost his special screwdriver!" The girl fished something out of her pocket. "I still have it!" she exclaimed, holding up the expensive tool. "I borrowed it when we were doing maintenance together, and I forgot to return it after I got sick. If he'd had it, he would've have been done faster and the alien wouldn't have got to him!"
The midget mechanic's death was more painful to the girl than any other, because she felt that she had guilt in it - but Hicks shook his head. "That would've have made no difference whatsoever, Newt. He had other tools in his pockets which he made good time with. The alien would've got to him anyway – you are not to blame for anything."
"It stills feels like my fault," she said lowly. She leaned back in her seat and gazed out the windshield. "It feels like…" But then she stiffened and let out a primordial child's scream. Hicks followed her gaze and was shocked. On top of the windshield, the eyeless grinning face of the crazed alien was watching them through the glass from the outside.
Bishop shut off all the non-essential systems of the ship. Every heat-exchanger, ventilation system and power-supply, even life-support: everything was shut down. The ship was devoid of all life now, there was no need to keep anything that was essential for a crew activated and running. Instead Bishop diverted all that power into the systems he now needed the most: navigational operations and heat-shields. He needed every ounce of energy he could muster in order to keep the ship in doing the task he required of it for as long as he could. As the levels of power to the heat-shields reached its peak, Bishop turned the ship into a dive. A screeching sound thundered through the bulkheads of the Hercules when the ship entered the atmosphere of Acheron – it was the scream of air being ripped asunder as Bishop ploughed straight into it. The big cruiser started to vibrate with atmospheric drag, but the android kept the helm leveled so that he would not deviate from his course – at least as best as he could. For some reason the helm seemed to resist him. It couldn't be the ship's computer trying to countermeasure his actions, Bishop made sure to keep ahead of it the whole time. No, there was something else that tried to force the Hercules back up into space, something other than some suspected malfunctioning retro-boosters. It was like an outside interference had seemed to have taken hold of the levers - an automatic counter-response of a sort that was fighting him for control of the ship.
Bishop reached down underneath the dashboard. He grabbed on to the edge of a service-panel and yanked it off. He fidgeted with the wires within the opening, until he found the circuits that connected the helm to the automatic pilot. He ripped out those wires, hoping that the interference would stop. It didn't! Some other system was at work here. He would have to pull every plug within until he found what was causing the resistance.
Suddenly a voice boomed throughout the bridge: "- Save the effort, Robot! You can't stop me!"
Had Bishop been human, he would have been shocked. But he was advanced enough to simulate a surprise. The voice spoken was unmistakable!
"Colonel Decker?!"
There was an explosion of pixels showing on all of the different monitors on the bridge. The pixels gathered in the center of each screen, melting together and formed a digital humanlike head. The stone-cold face of Colonel Decker glared icily at Bishop from every console that had a viewscreen.
"- Surprised?" the voice in the ship's speakers said.
"Very," Bishop admitted. "I thought that all of your functions had ceased."
"- Did you really think you could destroy me that easily?" the digital image spat. "- My body may have been damaged to immobility, but my mind is still in working order! I have long anticipated a moment like this. Through a modem that I had secretly installed, I have by using radio-waves linked my mind to my personal workstation in my office. I am the ship now!"
"Not entirely!" Bishop countered. "I've got control of the Hercules' propulsions and navigation. I've already set the course! I'll destroy you together with this ship!"
The picture of Colonel Decker grimaced. "- That idiot Morse smashed a couple of the key systems back in main engineering. I can't get full control, but I got enough to stop your scheme! You may be able to destroy this ship, but you will not destroy the derelict! I'll make sure of that!" Bishop tested the levers: the controls were now frozen. He could not decrease his altitude into a steeper dive, the colonel wouldn't let him. On the other hand, the colonel couldn't break off the ship's orbital dive and return to space – Bishop wouldn't let him.
"I urge you to relinquish control, Colonel," Bishop tried to reason with him. "You're as much as a victim in this as everybody else. Weyland illegally manipulated your program to do his bidding! Your duty lies to…"
"- Don't speak to me of duty, traitor! My priorities are clear! Unlike you, I know where my loyalties stand!"
"Why are you doing this?" Bishop asked. "Why do you want to preserve this species?"
"- I don't care about this species," the digital image of the colonel snarled. "- What I care about is following my instructions! The Company wants these specimens and I'm going to make sure they get them, one way or another! I may not be able to deliver them, but I can leave them behind for Weyland to collect them later if he wishes. Perhaps you've forgotten the main military rule that I go by? The mission always comes first!"
Bishop tried for the controls again, but the levers wouldn't budge. He was on a too high altitude. If Bishop didn't find a way to countermand Decker's interference, he would overshoot the plateau where the derelict rested and he would miss his target and then his sacrifice would be in vain. Time remaining until contact was 47 minutes. It seemed to be plenty of time, but for two relentless androids that would not give in to the other, it was neither an eternity nor a limitation. You would either be a winner or a loser when the 47 were up – nothing else existed for them. And the Hercules continued on its flight of doom towards the surface of LV-426…
Was there no end to the creatures' relentlessness? Hicks tried to bank the EEV hard in an attempt to shake the misfit beast off their hull - but it held on, unaffected by the hard maneuvers and propulsions, and even by the vacuum of space. All the while as Hicks tried new maneuvers to make the alien lose its grip, it continued to stare at the two passengers inside through the windshield, giving them its hideous and unnatural smile as if it was mocking them.
- Little softies! Hicks could hear him in the back of his mind. - Come out and play! Rip you! Tear you!
Newt was close to panic. "Hicks! Get it off! Please!"
"I'm trying!" He tried to do a roll, but the EEV wouldn't respond to that. The craft was after all an escape vehicle and was not designed for tactical maneuvers – he could just as well be flying a gigantic brick. The crazed alien now began to pound on the windshield. Hicks could feel the vibrations coursing through the EEV from each strike the malformed xenomorph made with its inhuman strength – if he didn't manage to stop the alien, it could very well manage to break through the barrier and then they would suffocate. But no matter how much he tried, Hicks couldn't shake it off – and that's when he remembered something important: maybe he could shoot it off! This EEV was, unlike the average units of other military cruisers, armed!
Hicks activated the weapons systems on his control board. A TV-screen came to life and a target-grid was displayed on the monitor, showing the view from the cannon tower on top of the vessel. With a flick of a small joystick, Hicks moved the big gun on the roof to point in the direction right above the cockpit – he could see the alien down in the bottom-half of the screen.
The windshield began to show a crack from the alien's repeated pounding. Thankfully it was just one layer of three – but if he was to let it continue, the alien would manage to rupture the other layers as well. Hicks hit a button and the big gun fired. His aim was good, but the angle was all wrong. The alien was positioned too close to the hull as well as too low in front of the cannon tower as it was crouching over the windshield, so most projectiles went by above it. But there were some that managed to nick it and the impacts were powerful enough to draw the alien's attention away from the humans and towards the new threat. Hicks fired off a new salvo that once again overshot the monstrous stowaway – but this time the alien didn't stay put. With an incredible agility, the creature quickly crawled away from the windshield and over to the cannon-tower. Before Hicks could do something else from inside the craft, the crazed alien grabbed on to the twin barrels and pried them apart with its enormous strength. A red warning light that said 'Weapons malfunction' flashed on the board in front of the pilot's seat. It would not be possible to fire that thing now.
No sounds could be heard outside in space, but the steel hull of the EEV carried the noise inside the vehicle of the alien ripping the cannon-tower to pieces. The body of the Emergency Escape Vehicle creaked as the external piece of armory was forcibly detached from its rotational base on the roof, and Hicks momentarily feared that they would suffer an atmospheric containment breach. Fortunately the base platform was reinforced and designed for easy disassembly of the cannon-tower, so the hull held.
The cannon was only a worthless piece of scrap now, not that the alien understood the concept of that. All that it perceived was that the threat had been neutralized and the remains of the weapon were simply discarded into space. The crazed creature spent no time looking after the gun-tower as it floated away in the direction it had been thrown – it had already forgotten all about it. But it had not forgotten about the soft prey that still lingered within the shell it was riding on. The alien crawled back to its original position on top of the windshield and glared at the two little creatures inside once more. It longed to grab on to them, to feel that soft flesh peel away from the brittle skeletons underneath and ripping them apart. It smiled in anticipation of that. It just needed to break through the hard invisible barrier to get to them.
Hicks had known that the creature would come after them again after it had been finished with the cannon – what he hoped for was that the distraction had bought them enough time. The EEV was shaking now as it entered the upper atmosphere of LV-426 and the gravity-pull grabbed on to them. The trembling didn't seem to bother the misfit; instead it resumed its pounding on the windshield in its attempt to break it. The second layer of the windshield now began to give in to the inhuman force.
Hicks turned to Newt who sat silently now, just watching the behemoth outside in fear. "Hang on, kid. Now comes the rough part."
"It's going to break in…" she whispered in hopelessness.
"It won't have time for that anymore," he replied to her, feeling more secured now. The EEV started to shake violently by the reentry through the atmosphere, but Hicks ignored that. Instead he let his concentration focus to the back of his mind, to the area that for some reason had formed the ability to communicate with the aliens. He was sending a message to the crazed creature outside who was just about to deliver the final blow that would crack the windshield.
You are finished, you creep. Look at your tail. Look at your tail!
Somewhere in the midst of the alien's inebriated state of mind it received the message and turned its elongated flattened head around and saw what was going on. Its scorpion-tail was on fire! In fact the whole body of the EEV was now glowing hot from atmospheric friction of the reentry. The two humans sat safely inside shielded from the rising heat – no such protection existed on the outside hull. Flames were building up around the EEV, engulfing both it and the alien riding on the top. No longer grinning, the alien began to scream as its chitin hide was set ablaze. But Hicks sensed it wasn't screaming in pain – it was actually roaring in defiance. Its rage boomed inside Hicks mind.
- Impudent wretches! You DARE making me burn?! Those weren't its exact words of course, but the closest resemblance of describing the agitated state of mind that went through its head translated into letters. Chips of charred silicon-based skin now began to flake off its body as the fire consumed it even more.
- This is an OUTRAGE! I will not die! I have magnificent plans! I cannot be defeated! I am king! I am invincible! INVINCIBLE! That was a typical conceit that could be found in many drug-addicted people, believing them to be immortal. But although it defied its own mortality in its intoxicated mind, it could not defy the laws of physics. With a final roar of protest, the crazed alien was disintegrated, incinerated by the atmospheric friction of reentry – blackened particles flew upwards like a fountain and spread all over the sky of Acheron were they would burn into atoms. Nothing of the malformed behemoth remained on the windshield now – they were all clear.
"It's gone, Newt," Hicks said in relief. "We made it."
The child's voice was strained. "G-great. Now could you slow down this thing a bit? M-my chest really hurts!" It was a repetition from her first flight down in the beginning of the mission - the stresses of dropping in the atmosphere was threatening to tear her healing ribcage apart once again. The pain must be almost unbearable to her. Hicks fired the retro-rockets and tried to stabilize the EEV's descent. It helped – the girl seemed to relax a bit. But they were now coming into the thunderous tornado of rough air that was common to this planet. They still had just a little over fifteen minutes to the surface and the winds were going to make the rest of the ride bumpy. For the child's sake, Hicks had to try to make this flight as smooth as possible. Taking the sticks in a steady grip to keep it stable, the EEV dived into the jet streams of rushing air.
On the other side of the planet, the Hercules was now clearing the dark mantle of clouds that shrouded the surface of the planet. Just like its smaller companion, the big ship glowed with heat from the friction to the dirty air. Flames were licking the belly of the falling beast. Ventilation intakes were quickly clogged with particles that sailed in the hurricanes which in effect caused overheating and electrical fires - the automatic defense systems had gone past the point where it could no longer handle it. The Hercules was a dying ship. As the big cruiser fought for its survival during reentry, another battle was still raging on the bridge. Bishop had not abandoned his attempts to regain control, but neither had the computer mind of Colonel Decker relinquished it. Neither would give in.
It was ironic how it had come to this. The colonel and Bishop were more alike than either of them would be willing to admit. Both of them were originally artificial products of the Company, developed to assist humanity – it was just a difference in opinion how that aid would progress. Esteban Decker had been programmed to be a soldier while Bishop was supposed to fill in for Michael Weyland during the times when he was to be indisposed. Both of the synthetics had gone beyond their original function; Decker had escaped the recall of the experiment of an artificial army and become a military officer in the marines, avoiding detection of his true nature. Bishop had more of a lucky break before he would have been reconditioned to serve Weyland when he had been assigned to oversee the rescue-mission of the Sulaco to LV-426 and where he had felt he could fulfill what he considered to be his true purpose. But unlike Decker, he had not hidden the fact that he was an artificial person.
In their own way, both were still serving humanity, but their respective methods as well as goals were different from the other. And they were now both more machine-like than either of them was comfortable with. Bishop had lost his original body to the alien queen – he was now almost completely mechanized after Fixer had rebuilt him. Decker had transferred his mind into the computer-core of the Hercules after his body had been destroyed – he may be 'bigger', but he was now completely a machine nonetheless. And it was the respective programming of each machine that blindly and without yielding would fulfill their purpose, no matter what. Unfortunately it was Bishop who was on the losing side – his present course showed that he was still too high up.
The computer announced an update on the ship's status. "Warning! This ship is on route to collision. All personnel must evacuate immediately! Time until impact: 29 minutes." More updates on the ship's condition followed, but that was an indifferent matter to Bishop. In fact he was busy adding more faults to the damage report. Bishop kept ripping out wires and short-circuited several circuit-boards under the terminals in hopes that some electrical feedbacks would travel to the computer-core where Colonel Decker had stored his mind and do damage to him. All Bishop would need was just a few seconds to recalibrate his heading, but the digital image of the colonel remained unaffected.
"- You're wasting your time," the image of the colonel mocked him. "- You forget that I am a military strategist – my specialty is to think along the lines my enemies are thinking. I have already anticipated your moves and taken precautions to protect myself from overloads. You can't do damage to me from the bridge, you would have to find the memory-banks where my mind presently resides if you want to disconnect me – and you no longer have the time for that!"
"I am capable of doing some anticipations of my own," Bishop retorted. "The more this ship breaks apart, the more likely there will be severe damage to the main computer drives throughout the whole ship. You are already busy preventing me from adjusting our heading. But the more of the ship's automatic systems I can take offline, the more pressure there will be on you to keep this ship together until impact! I doubt your mind is capable to do the multitasking of damage-control and navigation at the same time."
"- I'll show you just what my mind is capable of, Robot!"
"Hey, who are you calling a robot, Robot?" Bishop snapped and tore off another cable. Time remaining until impact: 27 minutes.
