Cold. He was cold. Waking from hypersleep was always signalled by a drop in temperature but not like this. The cold was harsher than climacontrol would allow, seeping into his bones in an unfamiliar way as his other senses started to kick back in. He could hear… water?

Hicks opened his good eye to almost complete darkness. His sense of balance told him his cryotube was on its side, the gravity must be malfunctioning. Not malfunctioning, he corrected. The gravity was all wrong. Instead of the 0.95G his body was expecting, he was pulling more than Earth-normal, which meant one thing: planetside.

He sat up, straining to see in the half-light afforded by the emergency strip lighting of the EEV. The light bounced around eerily and it took him a moment to work out why: the compartment was flooded. The EEV seemed to be on its side in deep, dark water, the way the craft was moving making him think of an ocean he'd seen once, the way the water had moved. Above his head, the outline of the emergency exit hatch flashed dimly.

Hicks cast his eye around the compartment, relieved when he saw it looked like all four cryotubes had made the trip intact. A surge of water hit the side of the EEV, drawing his attention. He sucked in a breath as he saw Newt's cryotube was about to go under.

Ignoring the protest from his still-healing acid burns, Hicks heaved himself out of his tube, wading through waist-high water and hitting the emergency release on the girl's tube. He dragged Newt out of the water and over his shoulder and shot a helpless look across the flooded EEV. Ripley's tube had come loose from its mooring and was floating, keeping her out of the water for the time being. He made to move towards her but the EEV lurched again and he had to fight to keep Newt out of the water.

He made his decision quickly, holding the kid in his good arm and yanking a locker open with his left hand, biting back the resulting wave of pain. He grabbed the contents of the locker and jumped to hit the door release, resolving to come back for Ripley when he'd gotten the girl to safety.

/\/\/\/\

The dream was familiar. It should be, it had been her constant companion since she'd awoken from her extended hypersleep aboard the Narcissus but it was no less terrifying for that. It always started the same way, the tightness in her chest that felt like a weight until she realised the pressure was inside, seemingly desperate to find a way out.

But this time was different, this time she wasn't alone. The Narcissus was replaced with the Sulaco's cryo compartment and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Newt sleeping in the cryotube next to her. Panic threatened to overwhelm her. The alien would rip its way out of her and kill Newt as she slept and there was nothing she could do.

As the pressure in her chest intensified she sensed movement to her side; Hicks' cryotube was opening. She turned, wanting to call out to the marine, have him fulfil his promise, but her lungs didn't seem to want to fill.

Ripley woke, gasping for air and sensing someone nearby. She reached out and gripped the man's wrist, stilling his motion. As her vision cleared she saw he was holding a hypodermic. 'What is that?'

The man raised an eyebrow, regarding her coolly. 'My own cocktail. Sort of an eye-opener.' When she didn't release his wrist he glanced pointedly at her hand. 'Relax, Lieutenant, you're safe. I'm Clemens, the medical officer here.'

'Here?'

'Fury 161. One of Weyland-Yutani's backwater work prisons.'

'We were way off course. What happened?'

'You crashed in an EEV. Must have separated from your mothership before you hit our atmosphere.'

Ripley glanced around the infirmary, finding it empty. 'Where are the others?'

'Others?'

'I was travelling with a marine, a little girl.' Ripley said, sitting up and feeling nausea wash over her.

'You were the only one in the EEV,' Clemens said, watching her carefully. 'There were no others. Just a synthetic, ripped in half.'

'No,' Ripley whispered hoarsely. 'That can't be right.'

Clemens' expression was contrite. 'I don't know what to tell you, Lieutenant Ripley. There was no one else with you.'

'How do you know my name?'

'It's stencilled in the back of your shorts,' he supplied, apparently relieved she'd stopped asking about her friends. 'You'll want to shave. Lice,' he clarified. 'Do you mind?' he gestured with the hypodermic.

She nodded and he injected her. As the drugs swam into her system her mind cleared slightly. 'I need to see the ship.'

'You'll have to speak to the warden,' Clemens said, snapping his gloves off and turning away.

Ripley swung her legs over the edge of the bed, glancing down at herself as the cold air hit her skin. 'You wanna get me some clothes, or shall I just go like this?' she gestured down at her naked body.

Clemens raised an eyebrow. 'Given the nature of our indigenous population I'd suggest clothes,' he said firmly, turning away and opening a locker. 'None of them have even seen a woman for years. Neither have I for that matter,' he added, handing her a stack of clothes.

He drew the curtain around her bed, giving her some privacy. Struck by another wave of nausea, Ripley leaned against the bed, staring with unseeing eyes at the clothes. Hicks and Newt couldn't just be gone. If she and Bishop had made the trip down, it stood to reason that all four cryotubes had been in the EEV. Could they have been missed by the rescue team?

Hicks was the ranking - and only - marine on board, maybe the ship had woken him when the emergency protocols were initiated. Maybe he'd gotten out and gone to get help when the EEV crashed.

Feeling slightly more hopeful, she began to pull the oversized clothes on, determined she'd get answers out of the warden.

/\/\/\/\

The warden, Andrews, was less than helpful. It seemed no one had been able to access the flight recorder and they'd left the ruined EEV on the shore where it had washed up, abandoning it to the elements. Bishop had been thrown on the scrapheap, having proven incompatible with the facility's decrepit systems.

Clemens had brought her to the warden's office and been summarily dismissed, dispatched back to the infirmary with barely a glance from his superior.

'We've sent a message to the company, notifying them of your presence here. They'll send someone for you soon.'

'When's soon?' Ripley asked

'We don't know,' Andrews said tersely.

'No one's ever been in a rush to get here before,' Aaron, the warden's second in command, added.

Ripley nodded. 'Good.'

'Not good,' Andrews snapped. 'We have twenty-five prisoners in this facility. All double-Y chromos, all thieves, rapists, murderers, forgers, child molesters... all scum. But scum that have taken on religion. I, for one, don't think that makes them any less dangerous. So I try not to offend their convictions. I don't want to disturb the order. I don't want ripples in the water. And I don't want a woman walking around giving them ideas.'

'I don't intend to give them ideas.'

'I need you to stay out of sight,' Andrews said, glancing down at his paperwork. 'Wey-Yu will pick you up and we can all forget this ever happened.'

'I don't care what you need,' Ripley said, leaning down on his desk. 'I need time to find my friends.'

Andrews glared up at her. 'Your friends, Lieutenant, are at the bottom of the sea. If they were ever on the EEV to start with. For the remainder of your stay with us, you will be quarantined in the infirmary under the care of Clemens.' He looked down at his paperwork, effectively dismissing her.

When Ripley made no move to leave he glanced up at her questioningly.

'Let me go look at the ship.'

'It would appear you're unclear on the meaning of the word quarantine, Lieutenant. You will not be going to the ship, or anywhere else for that matter. Mr Aaron, please escort Lieutenant Ripley back to the infirmary.'

/\/\/\/\

Aaron deposited Ripley just inside the infirmary and sped away, clearly not wanting to spend any more time around her than was strictly necessary. Inside, she found Clemens sorting through a medicine cabinet.

'Were you there?' she said, startling him.

He glanced over his shoulder at her before going back to his work. 'Excuse me?'

'When they took me out of the EEV, were you there?'

'As a matter of fact, I was.'

Ripley felt her heart lift slightly. 'The cryotubes. Were they open?'

Clemens turned to face her, eyebrow raised. 'What does it matter?'

'Were they?' she demanded, laying a hand on his arm.

He glanced down at it before meeting her gaze again. 'I honestly don't remember. We were more focused on recovering you.'

She nodded, withdrawing her hand. 'I need to see it.'

Clemens shook his head. 'I'm sorry, it's just not possible. We left it outside.'

'Andrews told me.' When he looked as though he were about to object, she went on quickly, 'I wasn't alone. I need to find my friends and find out what happened.'

He regarded her seriously for a moment, pursing his lips slightly.

Ripley shook her head. 'Look, I don't need your-'

'Go while they're at lunch,' he said, cutting her off. 'It's the only time you'll have a clear run at it. I can get you to the door but after that, I'm afraid you're on your own.'

Ripley smiled gratefully. 'I can handle myself.'

Clemens looked unsure. 'If you encounter one of the inmates…'

'I understand the risks.'

/\/\/\/\

The EEV was a wreck, even from the outside. Ripley stared at it, wondering how anyone could possibly have survived that. Her stomach turned over at the thought of Newt waking up during the crash, scared and alone in the dark. She pressed forward, fighting the wind all the way to the hatch before ducking inside.

She panned her flashlight around the compartment, counting one, then two, then all four cryotubes and sighing her relief out on a breath. As she made her way across the compartment, she saw one of the tubes had been run through with a support beam, the metal pinning it to the deck.

The disarray caused by the crash made it hard to get oriented. Whose cryotube was this? Ripley rested a hand on the tube, sucking in a breath that was almost a sob and struggling to see through the crazed glass, desperately trying to see whether the pad around the support beam was clean.

A noise behind her made her spin, raising the flashlight in self-defence and sending the beam dancing crazily over the walls.

'Hey!' the intruder raised his hands, showing they were empty. His face was wrapped in what looked like a scarf but his voice was clear.

Ripley lowered the flashlight, training it on his face. 'Hicks?' The marine nodded, raising a hand and dragging the material downwards, revealing his still-bandaged face, his good eye squinting against the light. 'The Sulaco brought you out early.'

'Yeah,' he aimed a kick at the damaged cryotube. 'Lucky for me.'

'It's yours,' Ripley realised.

'Must have happened when it washed ashore.' Hicks looked at her appraisingly for a moment before nodding at her as though impressed. 'Kid was right. You always survive.'

At the mention of Newt, Ripley felt a smile break over her face. 'Newt? Newt's with you?'

Hicks nodded at a tube laying on its side behind her. 'Kid's freezer was flooded. I had to get her out of here before she drowned. I came back for you but the EEV was gone. I thought…' he stopped, moving forwards and resting his hands on her shoulders, gripping her tightly as though to assure himself she was really there. 'Where are we?'

'Fury 161. It's a work prison.'

Hicks rolled his eyes. 'Great.'

'Why didn't you come to the facility?'

He dropped his hands to his sides, making her miss the warmth. 'Didn't know it was there. Had to wait a few hours for Newt to wake up enough for me to do some recon. Early ejection from cryo messed with her system,' he added, off her concerned look. 'And... You see this?' He nodded at a patch of discoloured plastic on Newt's cryotube.

When Ripley ran her hand over it it was rough, burned away. 'One of them came with us?'

Hicks gave a one-shoulder shrug. 'I don't know, I wanted to keep an eye on the kid. That's her tube.'

Ripley sucked in a breath. 'You thought she might have been…'

'I didn't want you to have to see it,' he murmured. 'If she was.'

Hicks' voice echoed in her head, If it comes to that, I'll do us both. She met his gaze, his good eye holding hers steadily, remembering the same conversation. 'But she's not?'

'Seems not.'

'Where is she?'

Hicks jerked a thumb over his shoulder. 'We found some caves. Newt asked me to find the EEV.'

'You thought I'd be back,' Ripley said, smiling despite herself.

He shrugged, glancing away. 'Kid did. Me? Not so much.'

Ripley waited until he met her eyes again, seeing the worry in his gaze, the guilt. He'd thought he'd abandoned her to drown. Ripley reached up and rested her hand against his cheek. 'You should have more faith, Corporal.'

Hicks grinned, the first time he'd smiled since they'd landed here. 'Yes, ma'am.'