Soon they had reached a second floor of the derelict after some rough climbing. They moved their light bars all over the large chamber to survey their surroundings and they all ended up shining at the center of the platform on which they stood. They had reached the pilot's chair where the fossilized carcass of the massive alien sat. They stared in astonishment at the giant being… it was hard to comprehend that something that big had actually existed. But they quickly forgot about it and went back to business as Colonel Decker once again barked out his orders.

"This will be our starting-point for our extended search! Spread out and search the whole ship if you have to, but find the entrance to where we will find the eggs! Now move!"

As the troopers dispersed, Hicks was the one who took no hurry. He didn't care if Decker would court-martial him for acting sloppy. As it was, how could the colonel even threaten him with that? Hicks was officially a dead man – how could you court-martial a corpse without raising unwanted questions? He was not going to be the one who would make this mission a success, so he made sure to remain in the back. Still carrying Newt in his arms, Hicks instead walked closer towards the pilot's chair, finding the dead alien to be more interesting. He recalled the story Bishop had told them: from somewhere inside this chamber a beacon had originated and signaled passing ships to stay away, but instead it had attracted the Weyland-Yutani Company to do just the opposite. He remembered the suspicion that the signal had been in the same language of some alien scripts that archaeologists had found on an excavation site, scripts that had prompted the Prometheus to set out to explore this region of space after evidence that extraterrestrials had once visited Earth. Were those extraterrestrials really of the same species as this deceased pilot? Was this race really involved in the creation of humankind? Had the religious Morse been down there with them, he might actually think that this dead being was none other than God, if there were any truth to the hypothesis. Or he would have thought of the whole theory as a blasphemy.

"Where do you think it came from?" Newt whispered so that none of the superior officers would hear, indicating to the carcass.

"I have no idea," Hicks answered just as quietly. "No one has as far as I know ever encountered a being like this before. It's completely fossilized, might've been here for an eternity, maybe longer. Who knows, this ship could be older than the entire human race itself."

"You mean it might have crashed here even before the dinosaurs on Earth were born?"

"An amazing thought, isn't it? This body could very well be the sole and final proof of the existence of a race that today is extinct."

"I know what killed this one," Newt said with a thick throat. "Look at the chest. It was them."

Hicks had already seen it. Some rib-bones on the right side of the being's chest were bent outwards, like it had exploded from the inside. But the bones of this entity must be at least five times as thick as that of a human's. How strong were those little chest-bursting bastards anyway he wondered?

"What is that device he, or she is sitting under? Is it a cannon?" Hicks realized that Newt was indicating to the entire machine that was the pilot's chair. It was a strange design that was quite massive and elongated, mounted on what looked like a rotating base and pointing upwards so that one could suspect that it was a weapon of some kind. But it didn't fit in with the rest of the ship's exterior. If this was indeed a battleship, then why was it armed with only this one weapon? Of course, how could he know? He had not seen the rest of the ship and the whole thing was completely alien, he would probably never know in what manner this race had fought wars.

"Maybe it's not a cannon." Hicks finally decided. "If this ship was made for exploration, that thing could most likely be some kind of telescope."

"You think those guys might've been scientists?"

"Why not? There is a striving need in every kind of civilization to want to learn everything there is to know of what's out there in the universe."

"Then they didn't learn the lesson to stay away from something that's not supposed to be touched either!" There was bitterness in the child's tone. "He probably found the monsters somewhere and was about to haul them back to his world for studying when one of them broke loose."

"Either that, or he was on his way to dump them somewhere."

"Hicks. Do you think it was… these people… who created the monsters?"

"There's no way we'll ever know that, Newt," Hicks answered, but he couldn't help but to start to wonder about that as well. The child had raised a very interesting point. Could it be like that? If this species really did create mankind on Earth, then why couldn't they have created the aliens? Maybe the creatures were nothing but a hazardous byproduct extracted from some genetic experiment in order to create an ultimate life form? Hicks almost wanted to laugh at the thought, thinking that the bug-like aliens were the leftover trash, the genetic waste. He resisted the urge to do it though as he kept in mind that the threat of the aliens was very serious - it was not, and never would be a laughing matter! What was an even worse thought was that the aliens might even be some kind of biological weapon, created for extermination. The prospect of that scared him.

Newt was too young to think in such scientific terms, so those possibilities eluded her innocent mind. Instead she continued to examine the pilot in the way only a child could do. "It looks so strange where he sits. He looks like… like he's somehow grown together with the chair."

"Not grown. Molded. I think the creatures did this. It's the same ribbed pattern we've always seen around them. Once they cannibalized him from the digestible stuff, they must've have molded him to the chair with that strange secreted resin they somehow produce."

"What for?"

"I can only think of one reason, although it sounds quite ludicrous. Nostalgia. This is the first host of the crèche, the symbol of their lives. So they redesigned him for a more coziness home-decoration."

"I won't buy that! That would make them… caring."

"There is no animal in existence that does not care for its own kind or its own surroundings, Newt."

"Hicks! Why the hell are you standing around over there doing nothing?" Hicks didn't have to turn around to recognize the speaker. Sgt. Hurst was playing bully again.

"I am doing something, Sarge. I'm trying to get a comprehension of this species."

"Since when is that your job? You're supposed to be looking for the eggs, you nitwit! Get on with it unless you want another hour of penalty duty!"

"With all due respect Sarge, I don't see you looking for them either."

"Right, that's it. You're on…"

"Colonel. Sergeant. Over here! I believe I have found them!" Every person in the area turned towards the voice that came from somewhere behind the pilot chair's base. Hicks suddenly felt overwhelmed with despair, but not because that the eggs seemed to have been found. It was because the 'culprit' who was now enabling Colonel Decker to complete his mission was none other than Bishop. Whatever parameters Fixer by instructions of the CEO of the Company had programmed the synthetic with, it seemed to have taken effect. It was now confirmed: the android had become a puppet under the Company policy and he would aid them in any way he could. Hicks felt he'd just lost an ally.

"There's this shaft here that seems to go very deep down to the bowels of the ship." Bishop explained to Decker and indicated to a gap in the floor. "It's logical that we will find what you're looking for down there."

"Very well, Robot, let's find out if your theory is correct." Decker turned to his men. "I need a volunteer to go down into the shaft!"

Private Shawn began to take a step forward, eager to be the good soldier.

"Don't forget to mention that the one who goes down there will get a face-full of certain death," Hicks quickly said. Private Shawn reversed his step. He may be eager to show his quality, but he wasn't ready to die for it.

"If you're so certain that the volunteer will die, then why don't you go down there yourself?" Decker said annoyed.

"That won't do you any good, Decker." Hicks didn't understand why, but he felt almost cocky. "It doesn't matter who you send down there, it won't give you the eggs. Ripley said that there may be thousands of them down there and you only got two-hundred claws. There's no way anyone of us can work safely down there. Once somebody gets too close to an egg, he's a goner. The parasite will hatch and attach itself to the sucker's face and impregnate a monster that you lack recourses to contain. Don't you see, Colonel? This operation is futile."

"Are you finished?" Decker asked coldly.

"Colonel, Hicks is right," Bishop cut in. "You can't send any of your troopers down there, their living presence will immediately rouse the specimens from their dormant state and then it will be impossible to contain them with the claws. You'll only doom your entire party and we won't be any closer to completing the mission."

Hicks felt that he could relax. It was over before it was started, and it seemed that Bishop perhaps still was on his side. There was no way to get the eggs without condemning them all; even Decker had to see that. He has no other choice but to go back to Earth and report his failure. Once there, Hicks might be able to persuade the Company to recall his and Newt's deaths.

"I am the one who should go down there," Bishop then said. "As I am completely a mechanoid now, the parasites shouldn't even detect me since I am devoid of flesh and blood. No body-warmth, no smell of meat or anything else that they might sense within an organic being. We don't know how the aliens prey on their hosts, but theoretically I should have none of those traits they're being attracted to. It's reasonable to think that they would remain dormant within their egg-shells until I can put the claws on them."

Hicks' newfound hope instantly died. Newt said nothing, just observed how the situation developed with somber eyes. Hicks recognized that look: she had the same expression on her face after Carter Burke had been caught trying to impregnate her and Ripley with two aliens that had been kept in stasis while they were sleeping. Newt already knew that the soldiers would under orders do everything they could to get the eggs - but she, like Hicks, had not wanted to believe that Bishop would help them to do it. It saddened her that she was proven otherwise even though she knew that the synthetic was forced to do it just like she had been forced to come back to the place that haunted her dreams.

The colonel did not acknowledge Bishop's offer with any kind of appreciation at all. The only thing that mattered to Decker was that now that he had his volunteer, he quickly ordered PFC Simpson to assemble a descent rig over the shaft. The soldier set up a tripod equipped with a winch that would lower the android into the hole. Even if they knew, none of the present personnel would even reflect on the fact that history was now repeating itself. The same procedure had been done on the exact spot sixty years earlier when the derelict was visited by three crewmembers of the Nostromo, and Captain Dallas had set up a similar device of his own to lower his executive officer Kane down the very same shaft. Kane had gone down, and he paid the ultimate price for doing so. When Captain Dallas hauled him back up, his face was covered by a parasitic creature and that incident led to the beginning of a terror of unfathomable properties for the unfortunate ones who fell victim to it, and even worse to the ones who survived it. Once the terror had begun to haunt you, it would never again give you peace.

When PFC Simpson was finished with the contraption, Bishop tied the end of the descent-cable to a concealed loop that was standard for his thermo-armor. The synthetic double-checked the radio attached to the side of his head to make sure it was functioning properly before he slid his legs down the dark hole. Dobermann handed him an egg-claw and a lightbar for him to bring along. Before Bishop went down though, Hicks came up and offered Bishop something else:

"Hicks, you know that I'm a pacifist," he said crisply as he looked with a hint of distaste at the pistol Hicks held out.

"This is no time to play by the rules of some saint, Bishop!" the corporal argued. "You don't know what will happen down there! It never hurts to be precautions."

"I appreciate the concern, but I'll pass anyway. I don't expect that I will have to fire at anything down there. There's no doubt that the aliens will remain dormant and pose no immediate threat."

Hicks grumbled, but put the pistol back in the holster on his thigh. "The expectations I'd rather have is that you will find all specimens down there dead, killed by radiation poisoning."

Bishop smiled. "That's an unlikely scenario. As I expected: the alloy this ship is made of is shielding us from the radiation. It is clean in here. Besides, I don't think the eggs would react to it anyway."

"One could still hope," was Hicks' sore reply.

"Enough delay!" Colonel Decker almost roared, his obsession of time and efficiency once again making itself reminded. "Get down there before I kick you in!"

"As you command, Colonel," Bishop said and slid off the edge of the shaft, allowing gravity to pull him downwards a few centimeters before the wire caught him and halted his fall, leaving him dangling. Simpson took a firmer grip on the control-box that operated the winch and pressed the 'down'-button. An engine activated and started to rotate the spool on the tripod, allowing the cable to which Bishop was tied to unwound and slowly lower him down the hole where he was quickly swallowed by the blackness.

Had Bishop been human, the darkness and the narrow shaft would most likely cause him a feeling of claustrophobia, because the blackness seemed to creep tighter around, threatening to crush him. The temperature was also rising, so the increasing heat didn't do things much better. But Bishop was not human, so he didn't experience those feelings. He wondered though if the previous visitors here had felt such anxiety? What feelings did the executive officer of the Nostromo experience as he descended downwards through this very shaft? What did Newt's father feel? Maybe neither of them felt frightened at all – maybe they both felt an exhilarating sense of adventure as they explored the unknown ground. Bishop couldn't guess. No matter how much he tried to understand how humans worked, he would probably never stop to be surprised by their respective actions as no human react the same to different situations. They were all different from one another: some were brave, some were not. So the synthetic decided to assume that there probably was something that was considered desirable that compelled the two previous men to ignore common sense, to cast cautiousness aside and go down to unknown depths alone and unprepared. Most likely they were hoping to find something of great value, and greed had proved to overcome the reasonable senses on many occasions. Too bad that their greed had led them both to their deaths, and an even greater pity was that the same greed had condemned their respective companions as well. Exec Kane's desire to find something valuable had killed the crew of the Nostromo, while Newt's father's actions had destroyed the colony of Hadley's Hope.

Granted, Bishop realized that he was a little unfair to the two men now. They were after all victims of orchestrated circumstances that should never have been allowed to be set in motion. The greed of the C.E.O. of the Weyland-Yutani Company exceeded that of the men who were sacrificed to the cause. How one man could have the heart to rate a seven-man crew, a whole terra-forming colony, one- no, two marine units and a prison-facility as secondary consideration to a species of biological killing-machines was beyond the synthetic to comprehend. Had Bishop had any choice in the matter, he would refuse to assist in capturing the alien life form and bring it back to the Company.

But he didn't have a choice: he was programmed to comply with his designer, to the man who had sacrificed all those people in order to get his hands on the species. The same man who considered his own life to be of a greater value than to that of any other person's. And Bishop did what he was programmed to, but he's only doing it in the hopes that he can save the lives of those people who are involved this time. That was Bishop's primary concern, even if it meant capturing the specimens for the C.E.O. and bringing them back. Nothing else mattered.

Bishop's internal sensors suddenly registered a large increase of space which made him realize that he had cleared the shaft. It was very hot in this area. He didn't need to switch on his lightbar, because there was unexpectedly a light down here. He surveyed his whereabouts - and on the bottom of the chamber he saw them - the eggs! Thousands of them as far as his perceptive sensors could determine in the dimly illuminated space. From what he could tell, a large quantity of them had succumbed to the age of time. There were many eggs that were nothing but dry shrunken husks, decomposed to a sad resemblance of a deflated leathery balloon of some sort. But there were also several that was still intact, healthy, and untouched by time. And more importantly, the top of the eggs were still sealed. Bishop decided to call in his find over the radio.

"Bishop to the upper level. I have reached my destination, and I got visual confirmation of our objective." Bishop's communicator was set on an open commlink on all frequencies so everybody upstairs could hear him.

"What's their status?" Decker demanded.

"Most of them are destroyed, but I see some that still seem to be in good condition. I might be able to give you a better number as I can get closer to investigate."

Hicks had heard every word and he groaned. In the end he hadn't expected Bishop to find anything else but at least some healthy specimens, but now that the eggs had finally been found, Hicks felt the full force of despair wash over him. The other soldiers had heard the transmission too, but no one seemed to care. None of them understood the magnitude of the catastrophe that some madman back on Earth had begun to set loose by sending them all here.

Simpson was busy with the winch - Decker and Hurst were supervising the operation... so the rest of the troopers were left to their own. Half of them just stood hunched against different obstacles of the interior of the derelict, smoking narco-sticks and looking bored while the other half simply paced planlessly around, eager to kill something. Newt stood silently leaning against Hicks' thigh, once again just staring at some distant point in space which only she could see, waiting for the inevitable.

Bishop's voice was heard over the radio again. "Simpson. Stop the winch, but don't engage the brake. My feet are on the ground, I'm going to continue on foot and drag the line with me." The soldier complied.

Bishop was walking along a bridge – that was the best description he could conjure up despite the fact that it was designed with the same fleshy rib-pattern the aliens like to produce. But it could also be a gigantic support beam that ran across the bowel of the ship that held segments of the hull together. Whatever its function was, it was clear that it divided two sections of the floor and kept them separated. On one side there was an unorganized pile of ruined eggs, with traces of them having decomposed for over decades; dry, rotten and collapsed. He could even make out some fossilized remains of facehuggers within the cracked shells. On the other side of the 'bridge' though, the eggs were perfectly intact and untouched by time. Bishop wondered if it had something to do with the strange blue field above them – it appeared to be an energy-barrier of some sort, emitted from a strange mound in the middle of the floor. There were more emitters on the wall which seemed to complete the barrier to the edges of it. The energy from the wall-emitters acted like spotlights which was what illuminated the darkness of the large cavern. The field 'rested' just above the bridge, ankle-deep from Bishop's position. He could 'wade' through it, and a strange musical chime sounded as he did this.

What could the purpose of it be? Was it some sort of stasis-field or just something that would help to store the eggs in a suitable environment? There was after all a strange mist floating underneath the thin layer of light. The mist could perhaps be helping the eggs to remain hydrated, maybe even supplying them with special nutrients to keep them in a good condition.

Bishop pondered on this. There was no way the alien creatures could have created the field. It required a power-source and there have been no evidence that they were intelligently advanced with technological knowledge. They were single-minded and one-purposed; their only goal was to procreate and survive. They did have a rudimentary intelligence – smart enough to learn how technological devices worked and deduct whether there was a tactical advancement involved, like when they cut the power to the colony before they made their final attack – but they could never duplicate the technology.

The only answer was that it must have been the race of the dead pilot who had created the energy-barrier. Bishop kneeled and touched it with his hand. The eerie harmonic sound became much more pronounced as the field reacted to his touch. He came up with another theory: it could be that the field was meant to mask the presence of biological beings from the eggs inside this cargo-hold. But all those theories added up to one crucial conclusion, and the result was frightening. It meant that the fossilized space-jockey upstairs hadn't come across the creatures by mistake during his journey: the eggs were the cargo! Worse: if the mist underneath the barrier really was meant to keep the eggs healthy, then this was not a disposal journey! It might be that the pilot's species may not have been so noble; this would indicate that they were a war-like people and the eggs were a biological weapon! Bishop wondered who could have been the target.

Not that it mattered now – the pilot had fallen victim to his own 'bomb'. The synthetic could only guess what might've happened: the ship was on its way somewhere with its terrible cargo in the hold, and then something went wrong. A meteor shower perhaps? Maybe an attack? Or was it just by chance a simple glitch? Whatever the cause had been, a generator to one of the energy barriers must have failed and a parasite within one of the eggs sensed the presence of a biological entity and hatched. It made its way up to the command-console and impregnated the pilot. Knowing that he was doomed, he set his ship to crash on an isolated planet to avoid a spread. The pilot also recorded a beacon telling his people to stay away, because the creature would be impossible to contain should it survive.

Bishop would have liked to hear the message the beacon had sent out, the one that had lured the Nostromo's crew to this place. There could be something more in it that the experts back on Earth who deciphered it sixty years ago might have missed. The transmitter aboard the derelict was long since dead, so Bishop doubted he could tap in on that. But he would try to access the Network again when he got back to the Hercules, there might still be a saved copy of the transmission hidden somewhere under some restricted files.

"- What are you doing down there, Robot?" Colonel Decker's angry voice screamed into Bishop's ear through the radio. "- Why haven't we heard a report yet of the first egg being ready to be hauled up?!"

"I'm still making an assessment of the situation, Colonel. I don't just want to jump in without evaluating the potential risks first. One wrong step could prove to be disastrous either to the eggs or to your troopers. I am after all on unknown ground here."

"- I think there's something else going on here: you're stalling on purpose! You're the one who insisted on taking this assignment, so get a move on before I send someone else down instead! I'm inclined to send the brat!"

"Understood, Colonel," Bishop replied. He did not take the bait to question Decker's threat to send down Newt into the hole. He only hoped Hicks was able to ignore it as well. Tugging on the line to give himself a little more slack and tightening the hold onto the egg-claw he still held in his hand, he jumped off the 'bridge', fell through the thin layer of light and touched down on ground-level where the eggs were. As he was now underneath the barrier, his sensors failed to detect how a dark protuberance above the field hidden in the shadows on the wall began to bulge.

The eggs underneath the field however didn't move. Bishop kept a close eye on them as he walked around the oval-shaped leathery spheres… but none of them opened up. Bishop assumed it was because he wasn't human or even organic in any sense. The parasites within the biological sacks did not find him interesting at all and that all worked to Bishop's favor. As he continued to stroll around them, he noticed two eggs that were unlike the rest.

"There are two empty eggs here," he spoke into his communicator. "But these don't seem to have opened recently. They're most likely those who contained the parasites that attacked executive officer Kane and Newt's father…"

"- I don't give a damn, Robot!" was Decker's only acknowledgment to Bishop's analysis. The other soldiers had also heard Bishop's descriptions of the empty eggs and like their colonel, they didn't care. But for Newt, Bishop's statement had sent a chill alongside her spine. "He didn't need to remind me!" she muttered to Hicks who gave her his full sympathy.

Quite certain now that the eggs would give no form of reaction to his presence, Bishop choose one at random to put the claw on. He twisted the handle on the spindly construction to spread the legs wider apart and then he positioned it over the ovoid shape like a mammal straddling another body. As he placed the coupling-chamber right over the seam-cross that was the closed 'petals' of the egg, he made sure to position the claw so that the legs covered all four of the flaps. When he was satisfied, he twisted the handles again and the legs clamped down tightly around the sphere. He had to give credit to the designers of the claw: it was fixed completely over the egg and the 'petals' would not be able to open now – the facehugger was trapped inside and would remain there until the claw was removed.

Bishop unhooked the cable from his armor and attached it to the loop of the egg-claw instead. Making sure that the line was secured tightly, he spoke into his communicator:

"The first egg is ready for transport. Haul it up."

"- About time, Robot!"

On the level above, Simpson activated the motor and the winch began to reel in cable. Below, Bishop saw how the line snapped taut and then the egg was lifted from the ground – or more like: first it was dragged over the floor to the side of the 'bridge', and there it was pulled roughly upwards across the edge of it. Bishop was momentarily afraid that it would get caught to an obstacle and that something would break: the line, the tripod or maybe even the claw. But the egg came free from the edge and for a moment it just dangled beneath the entry-hole like a pendulum before it disappeared up the chimney.

"The load is on its way up, Sir," Simpson said while checking the equipment for irregular movement, but the cable rewound in a steady speed.

"Be ready to receive!" Sgt. Hurst ordered two men. But while the pair of soldiers stepped forward to stand prepared by the hole, Newt ran off in the opposite direction and hid behind the carcass of the alien pilot. There was no way she was going to be near the egg when it arrived. Hicks didn't blame her at all as he watched her go. Hers was a reaction that was more natural than anything else when concerning those creatures. After several minutes the load at the end of the cable came into view and two of the grunts reached down into the hole and pulled the weight up.

"Ugh! This is what our objective is? What a disgusting blob!" The egg that was raised up from the hole was fresh, so it looked more repulsive than the duplicate model that had been presented before them during the debriefing back up on the Hercules.

"What's that rattle? Is there something moving within it?"

"Hey, this thing's shaking like mad! Yo, Hicks. Is it supposed to do this?

"The parasite within has become aware of your presence," the corporal explained in a flat tone but his eyes were filled with an evident look of contempt for the development. "It's trying to get out and make a grab for your faces. Fortunately it seems that the claws work."

"Were you in doubt?" Hurst asked in a cocky tone.

"You'd be wise not to underestimate them, Sergeant."

"Are you trying to insinuate something, Corporal?"

"I'm just giving you the facts, Sarge. None of the previous attempts to contain them proved to be foolproof. I wouldn't be so quick to bet my money on this method just yet! They may still find a way to escape."

Private Dagger gave out a scornful laugh. "Let them. You can go hide alongside the kid if you like, you sissy. I'm not afraid of them."

"Then you are an even bigger fool than I'd ever expected!" Hicks threw back at him. "Only a fool doesn't fear those things!"

"Don't try to get smart with me or I'll throw you down that hole!"

"I'm surprised you didn't walk right in it yourself in your state of rush, you stoned freak!"

"How would you like a load of caps in your face, ya dead git?!" Dagger held the end of his gun right under Hick's jaw - he saw that the safety catch was off. The situation was extremely dangerous, but Hicks would not give ground… not to this monkey!

"I've got nothing to fear. In your sad state, you'd even miss if you tried to shoot an elephant inside a narrow corridor!" Dagger looked like he was going to take up on Hicks's challenge, but Colonel Decker intervened.

"That's enough! No one is shooting anybody here! You're behaving like a bunch of schoolchildren! You're marines, so act like them!"

"Shall I mark them for more penalties, Colonel?" Hurst asked.

"As much as I'd like to, we don't have time for it. The eggs are our primary concern now, therefore we will continue with the operation. Send down another claw to the robot."

Speaking of Bishop, Hicks thought that he heard the synthetic's voice over the radio. The argument with Dagger had made him oblivious about it. He thought Bishop sounded a little anxious.

"- …going on up there? Hicks, come in! This is urgent!"

Although Bishop seemed to be excited about something, Hicks was not in the mood to hear anything more about the eggs. He was also still miffed with the android because he had taken Decker's side, programmed or not. Therefore his voice was all devoid of business when he replied to the call. "What is it, Bishop?" he spat into the mike.

"- Finally! You must exercise extreme caution immediately! Ready your weapons and break out your motion trackers!"

"What's going on?"

"- I'm not alone down here!"

"What, the eggs are too tough for you to handle?" Hicks was mocking – that was something he was about to deeply regret.

"- This is not a laughing matter, Hicks! It's them! There are aliens here!"