Without the directive to override his decisions, there was no longer any problem for Bishop to open the door to Hicks' cell.

"Did you bring any weapons?" the corporal asked as he stepped out.

"There was no time to get any," Bishop explained. "As per orders from Colonel Decker, Sgt. Hurst is about to decompress all the surrounding corridors to this section to keep the aliens confined here. We have to go now, or we will be trapped here with them."

"But what about the others?" No matter what Hicks felt for the members of the 'Rawhides', he couldn't just abandon them there even though there were now only two left. Three more creatures had emerged while Bishop had been with Fixer: only Dobermann and Simpson were still alive.

"I understand how you feel, Hicks, but there's really nothing you can do for them," Bishop tried to reason with the corporal. "They're unconscious. The only thing you can do is to pray for them that they remain so until their time – but we have to go now!" Bishop finally managed to drag Hicks out of the detention area and they hurried to get away from there. But after a few meters ahead, Hicks hesitated once more.

"Wait! What about the aliens? Do you really think that they will stay put?"

"Off hand, I'd say…" The distinct sound of a door being torn off its hinges and thrown to the floor was heard. "…no!"

"Amazing that they waited this long until one of them finally broke out."

"It was not a coincidence," Bishop told him. "Actually they remained where they were because of you."

"Me?"

"I figured it out on my way back here once I was able to think more clearly after my visit to Fixer. You're carrying a queen, Hicks. The drones stayed put because they were guarding you, to protect their unborn queen."

"But that means that they will come after us in order to protect it!"

"That's why I hope that I timed this correctly. Let us be on our way quickly!" Bishop urged him. They reached the end of the corridor, and once they were through the door Bishop closed and locked it. "We made it!" Bishop said with a hint of relief. "If my calculations are correct, Hurst should start decompress the corridors behind us right about… now!"

They waited to hear the computerized voice to boom over the P.A.-systems to warn them about the corridors being depressurized. They waited for a whole minute…

"Nothing's happening!" Hicks stated.

"Wait," Bishop replied. But after a few more seconds they both looked at each other, confusion evident on their faces...

"Come to think of it," Hicks said. "…the computer said nothing about the breakout back at detention! It should have noticed when that door was ripped off!"

"Something's gone very wrong!" Bishop admitted.

"Do you think we should head down to main engineering?"

"I think we should."

Newt's eyes darted back and forth repeatedly over the workshop, searching for movement. She was trembling all over, remembering how she had been in the exact same predicament trapped in a sealed room three years earlier, with a facehugger lurking around. Back then the child had been locked in together with Ripley, but the adult was not around this time. Although Newt was willing to put her trust in the little man Fixer, she honestly didn't think that he was competent enough to fight this thing. He was only a mechanic, not a warrior like the woman. She wouldn't tell him that of course - this was no time to lose any heads. She therefore had to try to rely on her own experiences.

The workshop was window-less - no glass to break. And there were no big air-ducts on the floor-level to escape through. The door was the only way in and out! She wondered who had done it this time... who would want to hurt her? Last time it had been Carter Burke who'd relesed two facehuggers into the room in an attempt to smuggle some creatures back to Earth – but although these new military people were bad, she couldn't imagine why they wanted to do this, especially since they themselves had recently got impregnated with the creatures. No need to smuggle them anywhere.

Maybe this is the colonel's doing, she thought. He certainly seems to hate her, and this might be his way of disposing the witnesses. This was after all a secret operation! As she pondered on this while she searched the room, Fixer was busy trying to get them out. He was just finished unscrewing the panel to the door switch to look inside. A slow work since he had to use ordinary tools, because he had somewhere misplaced his precious battery-operated polysizable screwdriver which would have done the job at a faster rate. It annoyed him considerably, because the cost to replace it would be cut from his pay-check! He would have to worry about it later though. Peeking inside, he saw that the two locking-pistons had been pushed into position. That meant that there was no point in trying to open the door manually by pumping the air out of the vacuum-containers - not while the pistons were hooked on to the door, and there was no power active to retract those. If he only had a portable generator available he would have been able to add some external electricity to the mechanism, but he had totally relied on the power-sockets of the work-shop. And since there was no power to the door, that meant that those were gone as well. Only the lights still worked as they were operating on a different power-source, but those were integrated to the roof. He couldn't get in there, and besides; the lamps were too high up for him anyway. There was only one option left to him…

"I have to cut through the locks," he said, fetching the welding torch that was connected to a portable tank of propane. "The problem is; I can only do it from this side. This door is doubly sealed because of the valuable equipment in here, there's another set of locking-pistons on the other side of a partition panel inside the wall. It will take time to cut through all of it!"

"I doubt we have that much time," Newt answered, once again sounding remarkably adult. "But I suppose you'd better get started."

Newt took a firmer grip on the tool she had used earlier as Fixer began his cutting. It wasn't much of a weapon and it would probably be useless against the creature, but it felt better to have that than having nothing at all. Time moved by extremely slow while Fixer worked and Newt had to resist the urge to tell him to hurry. She forced herself to breathe more easily as she felt her chest starting to sting again from the excitement while her eyes continued to search every corner. Where was it? Newt hoped that she had managed to hurt it more than she thought so that it lay writhing in pain somewhere, but she doubted that was the case.

Finally a satisfying 'clink' was heard from inside the wall as something metallic fell aside. "Got the first ones," Fixer said. "Now I have to go through the partition panel."

But that was not an action that fate was willing to give them. Newt's heightened senses finally caught on some movement and over at one of the work-tables she saw how the hand-shaped terror crawled up and then crouched as if to take charge for a leap.

"LOOK OUT!" she screamed and pointed. Fixer saw it and reflexively jerked back. He quickly assessed the situation and came up with the only defense he currently had available. As the creature jumped, Fixer quickly opened the gas-valve all the way on the handle and made an improvised flame-thrower. He raised his hands that held the torch and the facehugger was suddenly jumping into a giant fireball of ignited gas. It emerged from the other side of the flame with a shrilling hiss and landed as a heap on the deck. Its yellow-white hide was singed and blackened, and there were small portions of fire along its spine. But it was still totally relentless, it refused to give up. It scrambled up and was about to make another jump – but its adversaries were ready for it.

"Burn it!" Newt shouted.

"I got it!" Fixer replied and directed the flame towards the small parasite. The mechanic managed to drive it back, keeping it at bay with the gaseous fire. It was too hot for Newt to get close to, so she traded the pliers that she had been holding on to for one of the two-meter long metal-pipes that littered the floor. The pipe was heavy, normally too much weight for a child of her age – but her small form had an added strength fueled by her fear of the aliens, as well as hate. And it was from that hate that she moved slightly closer to the facehugger, keeping her distance from the fire and began to beat the creature with the end of her metal rod. The critter shrieked with each hit from the child and from the heat of the flame – it finally escaped back under the workbenches. The two small people felt a euphoric sensation rush through them from their momentary victory, but it was short-lived. They were faced with a new problem as the torch suddenly withered and died out.

"Why did you put it out?" Newt was looking accusingly at Fixer as if he was dumb for doing so.

"I… I didn't!" Fixer stammered. "I opened it too much… it's out of gas!"

Now Newt was looking at him as if he had gone completely crazy. "Well, don't you have more?"

"Not here!" Fixer said almost in panic. "It's all in the ship's storage as per regulations!" Newt knew exactly what this meant. Not only had they just lost their best weapon against the monster, but they had also lost their only tool that would've gotten them out of the locked room. She stumbled backwards as all hope left her body and as she connected to the doorpost with her back, she leaned all her weight against it and almost began to cry. "I don't believe it!" Newt whispered frantically with closed eyes. "I don't believe it, I don't believe it!" Despite her frustration, she strained her ears to listen for movement. She still had the pipe in her hands - not a good weapon, but it was what she had. And she was going to give it a good beating until it got to her. She couldn't hear the creature, but she did pick up another sound. It sounded like muffled voices that came from outside the door!

"What's going on here?" The voice sounded like Bishop's. "Why is the door sealed?"

Another voice spoke up. "Newt? Fixer? Are you in there?"

New hope sparked up within the child's body. "HICKS!" she shouted through the door-frame. "BISHOP! HELP! THERE'S A FACE-MONSTER IN HERE!"

Outside in the corridor, Hicks went wild as he heard the child's plea. "Get it open!" he screamed to the android. Bishop didn't even hesitate. With the strength that his pneumatic arms possessed, he ripped off the control-panel from the wall, popping the screws in the process and reached in to pull out the circuitry. The locking-pistons that sealed the door were controlled by magnetic blocks. Bishop was going to use his own power-supply to feed energy into those blocks to reverse the polarity.

"Hang on, Newt!" Hicks called through the door. "We're coming in!"

"Okay," Newt said weakly. She met eyes with Fixer and he nodded to her in encouragement. They were going to get out of there. She turned back towards the room… and screamed as she caught glimpse of the blackened spider-like thing flying towards her, legs spread widely apart. Instinctively she raised her arms that held on to the metal pipe…

Hicks heard the girl scream from the inside and he went into hysteria. He clawed at the door, trying to get a grip. "NEWT! NOO!"

"Clear the way!" Bishop said, pushing the corporal aside. He had just managed to retract the locks and now he took a grip on the door and pulled. Slowly, fighting against air-filled canisters that held the door closed, the android managed to shove it slightly open. Once the opening was wide enough, they both dived into the room.

The sight within the workshop was not what they had expected. Fixer stood to the side, watching in amazement. Newt was still leaning against the doorpost, panting heavily, and staring wild-eyed at the hand-shaped creature that remained affixed just centimeters before her face. It had jumped at her with great velocity, and Newt had barely had the time to raise the pipe in her hands as a last defense. But it had been enough. Newt had by pure instinct raised her long pipe as a spear in front of the approaching creature and with the speed it had mustered, it had impaled itself on the rod, glided forward by the momentum it had carried until coming to a stop halfway along the pipe. Now it hanged there motionlessly, dripping acid from the entry-wound that was right now eating its way through the metal it was nailed on.

Bishop immediately went to her. "Newt. I'll take that, child."

Despite the fact that she trembled all over by the shock that she'd got and had hard time to get her reflexes to function, she willingly relinquished her hold on the pipe and surrendered it to the android. Bishop quickly carried the pipe which the facehugger was nailed on across the workshop while small drops of acid spilled on the floor. The front end of the pipe had almost given away when he reached the vat of water which Fixer had used to cool off the panel he had welded earlier. Bishop let the carcass drop into the vat as the pipe split in two - hopefully the water would dilute the dripping acid so much that it would be rendered almost harmless – or at least weak enough to be unable to eat through the stain-less steel of the vat. He took a moment to study the dead creature.

"Talk about an incredible luck," he said. "You managed to stab it right through its center where the embryo was located. With that gone, the facehugger had no more reason to live on. Plainly speaking; you destroyed its only purpose of existence. Otherwise, it would still be coming at you despite being impaled."

"Lucky me," Newt said with a shivering voice.

Hicks came up to her. "Are you all right, honey?" But Newt was looking at him as if she saw him for the first time and was frightened by his appearance. She gasped loudly and scrambled away from him.

"Newt?" Hicks called out to her in bewilderment.

"Stay away from me!" she almost screamed and retreated even further back. "Don't come near me!"

"What did I do?" Hicks asked her in almost the same despair as she displayed.

"She knows, Hicks," Bishop explained to him sadly. "She knows that you're carrying an alien within you." Newt huddled in the corner now, hugging her knees while tears streamed down her face.

"Newt, I know how this looks to you…" Hicks started to tell her.

"You're lying!" she sobbed. "You don't know!" She paused, while her lower lip trembled violently. "I don't want you to die… like Ripley did. She left me… m-my parents left me… and now you are going to die too! I'll be all alone again, just like before!" Her shoulders shivered as she struggled to hold back her sorrow.

Hicks risked going a little closer to her – but not too close. He spoke to her with his gentlest tone. "Honey… had I been able to change the situation, then I would have done everything in my power to make sure that you wouldn't be alone. But the circumstances aren't in my favor, I won't deny that. But whatever outcome that I'm facing, I want you to know that I care about you. Heck, I'll even go as far as saying that I love you as a father would." Newt bit her lip and buried her face in her arms. She wished he hadn't said that. By knowing his true feelings for her, it made losing him even more unbearable, because she did feel that he was the closest thing she had to a father today after having lost her own.

"That's the only thing left for me," Hicks continued. "That's the only thing that matters to me now. I can't save myself, but I can still save you!"

Hicks stretched out his hand towards her. "I want to take you out of here, Newt. I want to take you off this ship. I will destroy these monsters and make sure they won't come after you again. For as long as I breathe, I swear that I will protect you just like any father would do!" He risked leaning in a little closer. "Please Newt… for as long as I can, let me help you."

Reluctantly, the child took Hicks' outstretched hand and allowed to be pulled up on her feet. She kept her distance though, staring at a certain spot on his chest.

"Don't worry about this," Hicks said with a smile, tapping that spot. "It's a queen. Bishop says that it will be a while before it's time. But when the time does come, I'm going to make sure that the beast won't cause any trouble."

"How can you speak so calmly about it?" Newt asked feeling somewhat indignant. "It will kill you!"

"No, it won't. I'm going to kill it first, but not before I've made sure that you're safe." Hicks brought her up to Bishop and Fixer who had stood aside waiting in silence. "All right, people, let's assess the situation here," Hicks addressed everybody. "First: what happened here?"

"I don't know," Fixer said. "Everything was fine 'til after Bishop had left, then all of the sudden this creature bursts in here and the door was locked! Did somebody try to murder us?"

"That wouldn't be the first…" Hicks started to say.

"No, no, Hicks, let us think reasonably here," Bishop intervened, holding up his hands. "I know what you are thinking: somebody took the two eggs that were left and used them to get to Newt and Fixer."

"Right, that's what I'm thinking!"

"But there was only one coming in here," Bishop continued. "If somebody wanted to murder these two, he would've made sure that both parasites got in here. Besides, it came from that duct in the corner – that leads to an entire network of ventilation-ducts; it must've crawled around in there for hours before it found its way in here. This couldn't have been planned."

"Are you saying that it was just a coincidence?"

"Yes. It must have been an escapee from the vault for toxic waste that Phillips released. It probably slipped away before you people got there."

"But the door was still locked!" Fixer pointed out.

"Yes, the door," Bishop admitted. "Probably it was done to keep the two of you in place for some reason. We have somebody aboard with an agenda, there's no denying that."

"But who could it have been then?"

"Most likely it was done by the same person who thrashed main engineering – and murdered Sgt. Hurst!"

"What?" Fixer was shocked of hearing this.

"We found him shot dead in engineering," Hicks filled in. "And all of the primary controls were smashed. We have a saboteur aboard."

"This is what we're facing:" Bishop spoke up more directly. "Sgt. Hurst was supposed to decompress the corridors around the detention block to keep the aliens isolated, but he was killed before he could do so. His murderer sabotaged the controls in main engineering to prevent the order from being carried out – and I'm quite willing to assume that the murderer also was the one who coerced Phillips to release the eggs in the vault."

"You think he was coerced?" Hicks asked.

"Naturally. The murderer couldn't release the eggs himself as he would risk falling victim to the aliens. Better to let somebody else do it in his stead."

"Somebody wants the aliens to roam free onboard the ship!" Hicks said bitterly.

"But why?" Fixer asked. "And who?"

"Could it be Colonel Decker?" Newt asked. She stood away a bit from them by the halfway open door as she was still a little uncomfortable with Hicks carrying an alien. "He hates us, and Mr. Weyland said that this was a top secret operation. He could be disposing of witnesses."

Hicks shook his head. "No, kid. Decker is a ruthless man, but he is still a military officer. He may not be above breaking the rules when it comes down to completing a mission and I'm sure he would on some occasions sacrifice his own men to accomplish his duty – but he would never waste his troopers deliberately in favor for a civilian no matter what Weyland is paying him! No, somebody else is doing this!"

"And that somebody is me!" a new voice broke in. Everybody spun around, all except Newt who suddenly found herself trapped within an arm that coiled around her upper body and the muzzle of a gun was pressing against her temple. "Just keep calm and this lovely little girl will not be harmed," Robert Morse said.

"You!" Hicks roared. "What are you doing? Unhand her!"

"I will, once I'm certain that I got your full cooperation." Morse had a weird triumphant smile plastered on his face.

"So you're the saboteur," Bishop said calmly. "I must say that I didn't expect that despite the fact that you are a convicted felon. I was under the impression that you hated the aliens since you barely escaped the massacre of 'Fury 16' with your life and would therefore want nothing to do with them."

"Life is full of surprises, isn't it?" Morse said. "I'll be happy to explain it to you - but first we're going to take a little trip to the colonel's office. I have some special instructions for him to set the rest of my plans in motion."

"Let go of the girl first!" Hicks demanded.

"Uh-uh! She's my guarantee that you won't jump me. That's why I locked the door in the first place from engineering so that I could come here and collect her."

"Did you send a facehugger in here?" Hicks asked angrily.

Morse actually did look confused. "No. That was not my doing. But apparently God was with them, since they survived." Hicks was not convinced by that theory – but it did look like now that the attack of the facehugger was just a chance-incident. "You don't think so?" Morse went on. "Believe what you choose to – but in my eyes, God made sure that they survived so that I could use them for my purpose. He is with me!"

"And what purpose is that?" Bishop asked.

A sour expression came on to Morse's face. "As my guarantee for your cooperation, weren't you listening? Now, come on. We're going to the colonel's office… you go first."

Hicks was boiling with rage as the group walked along the corridors of the Hercules. But he wasn't just angry with Morse whom held them at gunpoint – he was also angry with himself. The felon had caught them completely by surprise and now Newt was in his clutches. Morse was holding her by her collar behind her neck, driving her forward. He was supposed to protect her! He should have seen that possibility: Sgt. Hurst was shot dead with a gun, so why didn't he think that the culprit might've decided to go after them as well? Right now he wanted to strangle the man who had captured them, but he couldn't risk Newt's safety. So he went along willingly, waiting for an opportunity to show up. Hopefully Bishop was thinking in the same line as he.

Soon the group had reached the colonel's office. Morse indicated silently with the gun to Fixer that he would open the door, and then they all went inside. Colonel Decker looked up from his desk and was immediately enraged.

"What's the meaning of this intrusion?" he demanded to know.

Morse stepped forward, still holding Newt in front of him. "The meaning of this, Colonel, is that I am assuming control of this vessel!"

"You'll do no such thing!" the colonel growled. "GET OUT!"

"I don't think you understand, Colonel," Morse said patiently. "I'm the one holding the bargaining chips."

Decker snorted in reply. "You mean them? What are you going to do if I don't give in to your demands? You'll kill them? Go right ahead! Their lives are irrelevant to me."

"Oh, but his isn't!" Morse countered and suddenly he was pointing the gun at Hicks. Decker's reaction to this threat was just as absent as it had been the second before. "And why should his life mean something to me?" the colonel countered.

"Because your mission has been a bust ever since you lost all the eggs," Morse said with a challenge in his voice. "Hicks will save your mission, but only if he remains alive a while longer."

"What do you mean?" Decker questioned him.

"He's carrying a queen, Colonel – an egg-layer! That will be worth a whole lot more to the Company than some couple of eggs, won't it?"

Decker glared at him. "Once a terrorist, always a terrorist, isn't that so, Mr. Morse? But I don't give in to terrorism!"

"I'm not a terrorist." Morse said with a warning.

"Oh no?" Decker smiled knowingly. "Your crimes states otherwise!"

Hicks couldn't help himself. "What crimes were those?" he asked.

"You don't know?" Decker sounded amused. "He attempted to blow up all the nuclear power plants on Earth – all at the same time!"

"You held them for ransom?" Hicks asked Morse. "Or was it an environmental act?" But it was Bishop who answered him.

"No, Hicks. I think I know what incident the colonel is referring to." Bishop stepped up and locked eyes with the felon. "You're part of the 'God's rectifiers'-group, aren't you?"

"Part of it?" Morse smiled again. "I founded it! I'm the leader!"

"I don't quite remember that," Hicks said. "Who are they?"

"It's a religious militia cult," Bishop said. "A fanatical underground movement that believed firmly in the Bible – to the extent that they wanted to repeat all that happened in it."

"Repeat what exactly?"

"They believed the population of Earth was being corrupted and full of sin, and they wanted to scour the world from it."

"How?"

"In the Bible God flooded the earth with water – the Flood!"

"And where would they get the ability to do that?" Hicks asked.

"They couldn't. That's why they choose a different method!"

Now Hicks understood. "The power plants? You wanted to flood the Earth with radiation?!"

Morse only shrugged; he displayed no kind of remorse. "I thought it was only fair, using mankind's own satanic invention to cleanse the world of them."

"But it wouldn't be 'clean', would it?" Hicks countered. "I seem to remember that God flooded the earth to start anew. The radiation from the power plants would ruin the soils and make the world uninhabitable."

"That was the draw-back," Morse admitted. "I know now that was the reason why God wasn't with us that day. He didn't approve of that method."

"I doubt he'd approve of any method at all," Hicks challenged.

"Oh, he does," Morse told him. "He's showed me the true tool of cleansing which will spare the Earth itself."

Hicks' jaw dropped as he realized what the felon was referring to. "The aliens?!" Morse's smile became even wider. "But that makes no sense," Hicks went on. "You should hate them! You were almost killed by one of them!"

"But I wasn't! I was spared! God made sure that I would live as per our agreement!"

"Agreement?!"

"I cleanse the world – he makes me live forever! That's our deal! I admit that my faith was a little swayed when Ripley came to us with that creature in her tow – I thought God was punishing me for my failure. At first I actually did hate the beast – it really scared the shit out of me! But I lived, and afterwards I came to realize that it was the sign from God who showed me the tool he wanted me to use in my holy work!"

"But the books you wrote…" Fixer was perplexed. "You said you wanted to tell the galaxy what had happened. You wanted to honor Ripley's memory and warn the people what was out there…"

"I'm not warning them – that was your assumption! No, the books are my messages to my followers, to tell them what to expect!"

"You still have followers?"

"Lots of them!" Morse's smile was almost maniacal now. "Why do you think I was sentenced to Fiorina 161? The court wanted to cut me off! Total radio-silence in that desolated place on a remote world made me totally unable to remain in contact with my cells and I could not recruit new followers among my fellow inmates: they all had their own ideas of world domination! But after the creature destroyed them I was moved to a new facility where security wasn't as tight as it should. I gained access to the net and restarted my holy work. I wrote 'books' with secret codes in them to inform my followers of the new direction we were going to take, and one of my most trusted and devoted accomplices held me updated with Weyland's own obsessions with the creatures."

"You have a spy in Weyland's staff?" Bishop asked.

"One of his most trusted men – or so he thinks." Morse was euphoric now. "The 'spy' as you call him was the one who issued the order to spring me from jail and putting me aboard this boat with instructions to 'help' the colonel pick up the three of you who was dead. It's my one master-plan: I escape from prison and personally sets in motion the plan to cleanse the world of all sinners!"

The colonel's expression was one of absolute fury. He had been used by a lowlife of the civilian society and he didn't like that. "I should have left you to rot back on Fiorina as I was tempted to do!"

"But you couldn't, could you?" Morse taunted him. "You were under orders to bring me back to jail afterwards. But bringing me back is exactly what you are going to do now, Colonel – we'll just skip the detour through prison and go directly to Earth and 'deliver' the cargo!"

"I told you: I don't give in to terrorism!" Decker spat. "Do you really believe that I would let you have the specimens?"

"Oh, by all means, deliver them to the Company if that's what you want. It makes no difference to me as it eventually will go my way, anyhow. Bishop knows what I'm talking about, don't he?"

Bishop turned to the colonel and spoke to him directly. "Sir, we can't bring the aliens back to Earth. My research has shown me…"

"Your research is of no concern to me, Robot!" Decker snarled.

"Please, Colonel, this is not the time to let your dislike for my kind to cloud what is happening here right now! My extensive research of the specimens and the equipment on the derelict has led to the conclusion that our attempts to harness the power of the creatures is pointless. Only that special energy on that alien craft can give us any chance to control the xenomorphs – but not only is it an energy-form that is unknown to us, it requires a technology to contain it that we have no possibility today to construct! I estimate that it will be at least one hundred and fifty years until humankind is advanced enough to duplicate the complexity of those machines to harness the energy! Until then, we should stay as far away from the aliens as we possibly can!"

"It is still not my concern! I follow my orders! The specimens are going back to the Company no matter what! The mission comes first!"

"Colonel, you are not listening to reason!" Bishop argued. "The Company might be able to contain them for a while, but never indefinitely! Without that energy to block them, the aliens will break out of any trappings that man tries to think of. It is their way! It is inevitable!"

"I have noticed you opinion, Robot!" Decker said coldly. "Now will you shut up?"

"Colonel, if they escape confinements and are allowed to roam free on Earth, all of mankind will die! Doesn't that concern you at all?"

"Why should it?" Morse answered for the colonel, despite the fact that he wasn't asked to. "To the colonel they're just worthless civilians, and to me they're all sinners. Let them die!"

"You're a madman!" Hicks burst out.

"I'm a man with a vision!" Morse retorted. "The Earth will be cleansed of all sinners and with God's grace we will be able to start anew!"

"With you calling the shots, I suppose?"

"I'll be the voice of God, of course. I am after all the one who made the deal with him to live forever."

Now Hicks turned to Decker. "Sir, we can't let this maniac get his hands on the aliens! Like you said: we will not give in to terrorists!"

"I'm not a terrorist," Morse protested. Hicks ignored him.

"I'm a soldier. I know my duty. You're going to have to kill me! I know you got a gun under your desk – use it! Kill me and the queen with it! Don't let him win!"

"Hold it right there, corporal!" Morse pressed the gun against Newt's temple again. She whimpered slightly. "If you allow yourself a premature death, then this lovely little girl's life will be forfeited!"

"Why, you…"

"You listen to me, Corporal… cooperate with my cause and I swear you will have bought this girl her life."

"Do you really think that I would trust you with her life?"

"Believe me, I wish her no harm. With me she will be spared from the creatures, as she has already been chosen by God to be one of the few survivors. She will help repopulate the world."

Colonel Decker snorted at the statement from the madman. "What kind of nonsense is that?"

"She survived the destruction of her colony where all other sinners succumbed. The other proof is that she died, but God allowed her to return..."

Newt wriggled in his arm. "My people were not sinners!" she protested angrily, feeling insulted.

Morse had to reposition his grip on her. "They left their home-world and turned their back on it. But you didn't. You were born down there, that's why God spared you – but the others had to be punished…"

"You're a monster!" she screamed and then she bit him in his hand that had gotten too close to her face – at the same time she kicked backwards, right on his shin. Morse didn't cry out in pain, but he did let go of her. She retreated over to her friends.

"She's a feisty little one, that girl." Morse said as he shook his hand that had been bitten – his other hand still held them at gunpoint. "Such spirit. It'll be a challenge a tame her, but eventually I will get her to see things my way."

"You're talking brainwashing!" Hicks raged.

"Nothing so crude, I assure you. I have been gifted with quite a mouth for persuasion. I can easily talk people into doing my bidding."

Bishop seemed to find this interesting. "Like you did with young Phillips?" he asked. Morse began to laugh.

"That one was too easy!" the felon gloated. "His kind is no challenge at all to win over – the alcoholic, unsociable types like him all have as good as zero self-reliance since they don't feel that they got a place in the world. Those are always in a desperate need to belong somewhere, to be accepted as someone of importance… quite easy to manipulate!"

"He was talking about being rewarded for releasing the eggs," Bishop said as he moved further to one side of the room and made his companions stealthily back down a bit as well. The android kept talking to keep Morse too busy to notice that. "What did you offer him?"

"Oh, the usual stuff… the status of being a hero in the new world, a place in heaven… that sort of things." Morse shrugged as if it was just a minor technicality.

"Too bad he missed the fact that you had him walk the fine line of being a hero and being a memory when you promised him those things." Bishop stated. It looked like to Hicks that the android was preparing for something.

Morse's smile was a little bit more sadistic-looking now. "I would have killed him later anyway! Just another sinner to sacrifice for the greater good of my holy mission! He was valuable for releasing the eggs in my stead, but otherwise he was just another inconsequential fool to both the old world and the new…"

Suddenly several gunshots went off in the colonel's office, making the ears on the hostages ring. Morse was staggering as he was hit, but he didn't fall. At first Hicks though that it had been Colonel Decker shooting the madman with his weapon, but the colonel all but remained behind his desk, impassive and unmoving. The gunshots had come from outside in the corridor, and now Dr. Peters, the surgeon stepped inside with a smoking rifle in his hands and an expression of sorrow and rage on his face.

"You killed my nephew," Dr. Peters spoke lowly with a murderous glare on the felon. Morse stood wobbly on his feet and turned slightly towards the newcomer. "You killed my sister's son, you bastard! He was an innocent boy, just a little lost in life. I took him with me with the promise to keep him safe and to give him something meaningful to do, but you killed him!" The surgeon took a new aim with his rifle, but it was with an unsteady hand as his grief made his body shake. His resolve was unmistakable though. "He was just an innocent boy!"

"No one…" Morse hissed with a raspy voice. "…is innocent!" And then he swung his gun and returned the favor. Knowing what was coming; Hicks clasped Newt to him, turned her face to his stomach so that she wouldn't see the drama unfolding and he even held his hands over her ears. Dr. Peters grimaced as the bullets from Morse's weapon slammed into his body – red stains of bodily fluids blossomed on his white lab-coat. The colonel's office suddenly became like O.K. Corral – the surgeon knew that he was dying, but he was determined to take the villain with him. He let loose almost all that was left in his rifle as he fell backwards, but only a few of the projectiles reached his intended target. The rest missed his opponent and instead ruined the glass of the display-cases with swords and knives that was the exhibit of Decker's war-room. Some bullets even knocked loose the support-rods that held the many blades in position upwards. Dr. Peters now lay as a broken doll on the deck while a red pool spread from underneath him – he would never move again. The smell of burnt chemicals hanged in the air, mixed with the metallic scent of blood. Morse was still standing, but everybody could see that it wouldn't be for much longer.

The cult-leader of the radical movement guilty of attempted mass-homicide turned back towards his hostages – he didn't look all that concerned about how he'd just been perforated with bullets from the surgeon's rifle.

"He couldn't kill me," Morse sputtered, raising his gun again with a shaking hand. "No one can. I made a deal with God… t-to live…" He coughed. Blood bubbled between his lips. "…forever…" But the laws of physics overcame his belief. He coughed again and then his eyes rolled up inside his sockets and he fell over, crumbling like a heap. He was dead before he hit the deck. Now as the shooting was over, Hicks allowed Newt to disengage herself from him as he knew she was not comfortable with being so close to the monstrosity which resided within him. The girl walked aside, keeping her eyes off the bodies. Bishop stepped forward to confirm that both people had passed away. The android displayed an expression of sadness.

"Two more lives lost," Bishop stated. "That was not anticipated."

"No great loss where he was concerned," Hicks said in reply. "He had us all fooled: acting like he was completely sane, but in reality he was an absolute madman." He looked over at the other body. "Too bad about Peters though. Did you know that he was coming here?"

"I heard a person approach outside in the corridor while Morse was bragging," Bishop explained. "Since the steps sounded human, it could only have been Peters as he was the only one left of the original crew. I tricked Morse to confess about Phillips in hopes that Peters would distract him so I could disarm him, but I had no idea that Peters had acquired a weapon of his own. I did not want this to happen."

"There's no point to dwell on that, Bishop. At least we're off that maniac's hook. Now we can concentrate on our primary matters without having to stand under gunpoint."

"I… wouldn't be too sure about that." Fixer said, sounding nervous. Hicks turned around - and found himself staring down the barrel of another gun, which rested in Colonel Decker's hand.