CHAPTER SEVEN
Forty-two weeks after the Auriga crashed
"Hey! You're early!", Ripley's smile fades as soon as she throws open her quarters' door. The guest is totally unexpected and definitely out of place, at the moment.
Wow! Despite the comfortable outfit, a soft burgundy shirt over a pair of black pants and simple sneakers on her feet, Ripley is glowing this evening. A remnant of attraction crossing her consciousness, she recognizes it, and immediately represses it, replacing it with a hint of sorrow at the realization that she's ruining an evening that was clearly supposed to be a special occasion.
"Hello, Ripley", the woman in front of her greets her cordially, not daring to cross the threshold. In spite of the urgency, she doesn't want to alarm her or seem intrusive.
"Danielle!", a note of irritation leaks from her tone, as she greets her, leaning against the door, as if to block her way in.
"You need to come with me, right now", the chief of the scientific section announces in a peremptory tone, ignoring her instinctive gesture, repressing a motion of offense.
"I really can't right now, I'm waiting for someone", the clone replies in a slightly dry tone.
What the fuck? After being dumped from her on their fourth date, and moreover without even an explanation, she shows up at her place expecting to be followed on the spot, ignoring her schedule?! An icy chill runs down her spine when she realizes that the beautiful woman in front of her must certainly not be there for personal matters.
"Call's not coming", Danielle takes her by the arm, the very moment she notices the concern surfacing in her eyes.
"Where is she, is she okay?", Ripley slams the door behind her without even bothering to turn off the lights. The two march quickly through the hallways, heading for the science labs.
"She started the treatment without notifying anyone", the scientist decides to take the long way, hoping the other won't protest. She needs time to explain what's going on, before the woman sees her friend in the state she's currently in.
"What do you mean? What treatment?", Ripley shakes her head, increasingly confused and anxious.
"She didn't tell you anything, did she?", she's not surprised at all. Call must have known that Ripley would stop her from doing that nonsense, just as she herself would, if she knew.
"I should have known!", she comments through gritted teeth. "We were stuck, when we tested the nanorobots on your DNA. Something inhibited their functioning inside the machine. So this morning we sat down to brainstorm a solution. She came up with the idea of training them using a native circulatory system, mixing the Auton's fluid with your blood, counting on the fact that the nanorobots would be facilitated by their familiar environment and would quickly learn how to screen out acidity and eliminate it in the process of purifying the entire helix", Danielle took a breath and gave her a sidelong glance, grateful for her silence and patience.
"But it was still a faint idea! Someone protested, challenging her to find a volunteer, and she offered. We had a discussion. She is a key piece of the process and one of the most valuable scientists on the Base, I couldn't risk her. I should have known right away, she gave in too quickly. In a nutshell, she waited for everyone to leave and, I assume, about two hours ago, connected to the pseudo-dialysis machine, alone. I got a delayed audio message from her, because she knew she would need assistance, went to check on the situation, instructed my boys, and then immediately came to you"
As her friend speaks to her, Ripley's concern and fear increases. The urgency to get to where she needs to be, right now, becomes more and more compelling. She tries to keep her composure, thinking of one of the greatest 'revelations' gained during her altered state, -our individual death has no relevance-, screw it! Of course it does, if it's Call!
"What do you mean? Is she okay?", Ripley takes her by the arm, squeezing a little tighter than necessary, moved by her concern.
"It's too early to tell", the woman places her palm on her hand, inviting her to loosen her grip, and at the same time, conveying some sort of support.
"Can't you stop it?", she asks, already knowing it's a stupid question, if they could have, Dani would have taken care of it by now.
"It's out of the question", the other denies shaking her head, quickly taking the last, long corridor, leading to the science area.
"I swear, if the fucking treatment doesn't kill her, I'll fucking kill her myself!", Ripley exclaims, caught by a sense of frustration given by helplessness.
"I doubt it", Dani exclaims promptly, chuckling nervously.
Ripley's odd sense of humor is one of the things that most attracted her when they first started dating. Since she had returned from South America months earlier, her look had been almost unrecognizable. He had never seen her so at ease!
Before that event, she would never, ever have dreamed of receiving an invite from her, let alone accepting it! In fact, she was trying to keep her distance as much as possible. The hybrid was always in such a gloomy mood! There and then she had assumed that something had happened between her and Call during that short 'vacation', something more than a simple clarification for the previous months.
But then the DMT story had come up and it had seemed consistent, the sole clear emotional metamorphosis of the hybrid. Then she'd asked her out and so she had thought, why not? Let's give it a try.
"Yeah", Ripley rolls her eyes. Was her so damn obvious?
"Anyway, she's stable at the moment. We'll take good care of her", Danielle assures.
*.*
Without waiting for the go-ahead from her friend, Ripley rushes to Call's side as soon as the sliding doors are wide enough to allow her to walk through.
The oldest of the researchers opens his mouth to protest, but Danielle raises a hand, silently admonishing him, remaining at the entrance, to prevent anyone else from crossing the threshold.
The Android lies unconscious on a common medical bed. The headboard is filled with the machine they tweaked to clean her DNA of the sequences that are part of the xenomorphs' genetic code.
The first thing Ripley takes notice of are the tubes coming out of both of her arms. Judging by the size of the titanium syringe used and abandoned on the equipment cart beside it, the clone is sure to have shot at least half of her blood supply into her own circulatory stream. That's enough to kill her! Damn her!
Her heart loses at least one beat and she finds herself gasping for air suddenly as her gaze settles on the delicate features of her face.
"Why is she so flushed?", she asks, gently touching her forehead and squinting. "She's on fire!", she exclaims in an increasingly worried voice.
"It's the nanorobots working to keep the acid at bay", Danielle explains, crossing her arms and leaning wearily against the doorframe. "It's a good response, if nothing else", she adds, hoping to be partially comforting to her.
Ripley gropes for the chair behind her, which she had been eyeing earlier, and sits down, getting as close to the bed as possible, keeping her eyes fixed on Call's distended face.
She gently takes one of her hands between her own, gazing at slender fingers for a long moment. Her thumb traces a line down each finger, from the knuckle, to the he brings the tangle of hands to his face and his lips rest on that portion of skin that doesn't belong to her.
"Damn you, Call!", but there is a gentleness and tenderness in the tone of her voice that, had she been speaking a foreign language, Danielle would have sworn she was telling her something quite different.
Finally, the scientist ventures into the room, approaching the clone, she places a hand lightly on her shoulder, feeling her stiffen under her touch.
"I'll get you something warm to drink", she says softly, barely tightening her grip in a gesture of comfort.
"Why did she do that?", Ripley asks foolishly. "I mean, she's a scientist, for crying out loud!", she adds puzzled.
"Same reason you rushed over here?", Dani replies, as if it's a matter of course and she looks at her in surprise.
"You two need to have a nice talk... or maybe... do something else, you know…", the woman adds, raising an eyebrow, amused to see her blush. Unbelievable, almost six feet of... a potentially fatal being, blushing for so little. Still, she knows that the woman in front of her has a relatively short past full of trauma, and the few months she's spent on the Base are certainly not enough, to have had great experiences.
"Yes, we know", her friend comments, rolling her eyes, looking somewhere between embarrassed and amused.
Danielle raises an eyebrow, surprised by that news.
She could have been less selfish when, on the third date, she had confessed to her that she had no direct experience with it whatsoever, and that she had little recollection of the past from which they had created her. Perhaps they could have simply had some fun, that is. But she knew that if she went through with it, she would become fond of it, and she was already beginning to realize that in reality, Ripley's heart would never belong to her.
"Do you see now why I preferred to end it, with you?", she asks her in a gentle tone.
*.*
Two months earlier
"I mean, seriously? What the fuck does it mean 'I can't tell you, you'll figure it out on your own, sooner or later'?", she exclaims mimicking a frivolous voice that in no way mirrors Dani's, -but at the moment she feels hurt by being dumped so suddenly-, she empties the beer bottle into Call's glass. "I mean, that seems like such a childish attitude to me! Tell me straight to my fucking face! Tell me what I did wrong!", she adds, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
Her friend snorts a smile, "Now you know how it feels", she jokes without a shadow of animosity in her voice.
Those words are like a stinger to her stomach, even though she knows Call said them without any malice. "It's not the same, Call!", she exclaims a little too harshly, regretting it immediately, seeing her seethe, disheartened. So, after tossing the empty bottle, she hurries to sit next to her again, looking for casual contact.
"You're right, it was unfair", the young woman apologizes, avoiding her gaze.
She slips an arm over her shoulders, drawing her to herself tenderly. "Sorry for my reaction", she whispers, kissing her temple affectionately.
"I just don't understand!", she justifies, thinking that she's not so sorry, after all, that Danielle wanted to break. She almost feels relieved, if she has to admit it.
"I'm sorry, that it ended like that, I know you liked her", Call presses himself against her, in an attempt to comfort her.
"Yeah, I kind of liked her, I'll admit it"
*.*
"I feel like such a fool, Danielle", she says, scratching her head in an awkward gesture. Far from childish, the woman had seen right through it, and she was right, it wasn't her place to shove her feelings for Call in front of her.
"It's okay, Ripley", she smiles serenely. "Seriously though… you need to talk to each other", she reiterates seriously, thinking back to a few hours earlier and the confrontation with Call.
*.*
A few hours earlier
"I can't let you do this, Call! It's too high a risk. We don't know enough about it at the moment", she speaks in a firm tone, after joining her in the warehouse two rooms ahead, after the android had left the briefing red with anger and frustration.
"It's my decision-"
"No, it isn't, and it can't be, Call. This is about Ripley, not you. And I'll bet you anything she'd never let you do it", she retorts sternly, crossing her arms.
"You don't understand, if we don't find a way soon, I'm afraid she-"
"No she won't", she reassures her. "That's absurd, and you know it! Too much has happened since you came back from Venezuela, Call. You know that better than I do", she adds, hoping her friend and colleague can read between the lines as well.
"She knows she's a threat, as long as she carries certain genes, Dani"
"Yes, but she also has confidence that we'll find a fix, and right now she has way too much to lose", the scientist insists, giving her an exhaustive look.
"She's not as selfish as you see her"
"I don't think she's selfish at all, far from it, actually"
"She deserves a peaceful life, as much as possible"
"I agree with that, and she will have it, as far as possible, but not like this. If anything happened to you, she'd never forgive herself, you know that", she steps closer, laying a hand on her petite shoulder.
"I'll tell you what. You talk to her. If she agrees, we'll see if we can find a way to do this safely, as soon as possible. Maybe we'll start with a micro-dose and see how your system reacts", she proposes diplomatically, standing beside her.
"I've already computed the maximum amount of blood I can introduce-", Call hastens to point out, but Dani interrupts her, impatient.
"Talk to her", she insists, softening her tone. They're too tender for her, these two idiots!
*.*
She was sure Ripley would never let her risk so much. She hadn't reckoned that Auton had the same certainty. She was just looking for a way to buy some time and had hoped that if Call talked to her and they finally opened up to each other, the android would be more motivated to find a safer option as well. Call's hunch was a good one, but this wasn't the way to show Ripley how much she cared.
"I'm sorry for the way it went down between us, Dani", Ripley awakens her from recent memories, surprising her with that statement. "That wasn't my intention"
"I know, Ripley", the woman nods, smiling. "It's all in the past now"
"For what it's worth, I really liked you", the clone insists, genuinely.
"I know that too, don't worry. I liked you, too. But I understand that what you have with Call is special", she declares, watching the girl and Ripley reaching out a hand and lovingly caressing her delicate profile.
No, she would never be able to have fun with Ripley and Ripley would never have fun with her, knowing that she would be somewhere else, head and heart.