"Colonel, are you out of your mind?!" Hicks was quite baffled.

"You still retain an insubordinate tone to your superior officer, Corporal!" Decker said coldly.

"What's the meaning of this? You did nothing while Morse held us at gun-point, but now when he's dead you're pulling a weapon against us?!"

"Don't question my motives, Corporal! I could not risk him shooting you." Hicks knew that Decker wasn't referring to his personal welfare. "Morse was right on one point: a queen is a much more valuable price than a couple of eggs. It's going to more than make up for the loss of the previous specimens. Now move it." Decker made an indication with his gun.

"Where are we going?" Hicks asked.

"You are going to the cryogenic deck!" Decker said icily, which meant that his orders left no room for argument. "Hypersleep will slow the growth rate of the queen until we reach our destination and there you will be delivered to Michael Weyland."

The situation reminded Hicks of the argument that had been going on after they had caught Carter Burke trying to impregnate Newt and Ripley with two aliens in an attempt to smuggle the monsters past quarantine procedures at Gateway station. Hicks figured that he would have to try to retaliate the same way Ripley had threatened Burke with what she would do.

"There's no way I'm going to let any of you sneak this thing past the ICC. I'll spill the true story the first chance I get."

Decker did not falter one bit. "You are referring to the authorities back on Earth. But unlike you, Weyland has learned his lesson! Our destination is not Earth! We're going to one of his private-owned moons where he has built a secret research-facility! Only I knew that part of our mission. So even if the creatures do break loose, they will be isolated there. Earth will be in no danger."

Hicks felt how the situation slipped out between his fingers. "The creatures have killed hundreds of people!" he persisted. "They're like a deadly virus – they have to be exterminated! I will not cooperate! I'll die first!"

Decker growled. "Listen Corporal, either you'll walk to the cryogenic deck by your own feet, or I'll drag you there. I only need to deliver you alive, not in one piece! I can cripple you without killing you – I'll just break your fourth vertebra, rendering you immobile but with respiratory intact. So I'll suggest that you hold on to what little dignity you have left and get moving!" Decker was now walking around his desk in order to 'escort' them to the cryogenic compartment.

"What about them?" Hicks asked, referring to his three friends. "What will become of them?"

"I don't know and I don't care! But most likely the brat will be properly reconditioned and put away somewhere. She is after all officially dead. Fixer is already working for the Company, they'll probably buy him out or make him disappear – none of it concerns me!"

"I won't allow any of that!" Hicks all but shouted.

"You're in no position to bargain!" Decker retorted.

"But I am!" Bishop suddenly spoke up. "In these past days I've done extensive and thorough research of data that will be invaluable to the Company. It is all within my memory-banks. I want you to open a direct-link with Michael Weyland and let me talk to him to bargain for the safety of these two. Otherwise I will be forced to destroy the data."

Decker was furious. "Are you trying to blackmail me, Robot? And going against your own designer? I thought you were obedient to him?"

"We had the code of directive incorporated to my protocol to protect innocent lives. I can rescind all other priorities now."

"In other words, you are malfunctioning - which means that you have become a liability to the mission! It'll be my pleasure to scrap you!"

"My programming will not allow any human-being to do me harm." Bishop stated in an as-of-matter-of-factly tone.

"We'll see about that, Robot!" Decker roared and fired his gun at the android's head at point-blank range. With speed that only an artificial being could muster, Bishop attempted to duck sideways. He wasn't all the way successful: the bullet hit one of the metallic plates which reinforced the dome of the android's skull and caused the projectile to ricochet off to the side. There was a momentary garble in his systems but that quickly stabilized – he wasn't seriously damaged. The synthetic straightened up and now that Decker had made the first assault, Bishop allowed his programming of self-preservation to kick in and he went to attack. But Decker displayed an unexpected and enormous strength in response to the android's charge – as the two combatants locked arms, the colonel used Bishop's momentum to slingshot him around and he was suddenly thrown into the display-cases that had previously been shot broken by the straying bullets from Dr. Peters' rifle. As the synthetic lay there trying to collect himself, Decker approached him with a menacing posture. "I'm going to rip out your diodes, Robot!"

Hicks had another opinion to that threat. He may have had his doubts about the android ever since he'd turned against him down in the derelict, but Bishop was still a comrade of his former unit – and in a unit, the soldiers always looked after their own. Rushing up behind him, Hicks grabbed Decker in a full nelson and attempted to drag him backwards. But Decker displayed an incredible strength and agility again: he reached behind his neck and grabbed hold of Hicks' shoulders. Decker crouched, and like when an angry horse throws off his rider, the colonel threw Hicks off his back and hurled the corporal across the room. The wind was knocked out of him as he crashed on the deck. The only thing Hicks had won with his attack was that the colonel had lost his gun. Decker now turned to the child and the mechanic – he didn't say anything, he didn't even growl: but his face was a mask of pure rage. The two small people backed off in fear.

But now Bishop had crawled out of the broken display-case. When he rose up on his feet, he unintentionally knocked off the remaining support-rods that had come loose from the earlier shooting which held the swords and blades in place. As the metal-rods clattered on the floor, the up-ended blades tipped over. But they didn't fall off the shelves they were standing on; there were still some undamaged fittings that held on to the handles. It resulted in the sharp pieces of metal standing out from the wall like a dangerous row of spikes. Bishop didn't take much notice of it – instead he rushed up to take battle with the colonel again with the full intent to protect the two civilians. Decker saw him coming and charged against him in return and they slammed into each other, getting into a clinch. They beat each other with fists and foreheads, going for throats in an attempt to rip the other's head off. Bishop no longer held back – he had this fleeting suspicion that Decker was not what he appeared to be as he was so immensely strong. The servo-motors in Bishop's artificial joints could actually be heard whining as they struggled to match the impossible strength of the colonel.

"I think we had better get out of here, Newt." Fixer said, knowing that they would be a distraction as well as a weakness if they remained here. But as he turned to grab hold of the girl's arms to get her out of the office, he saw that the child was no longer standing beside him. Instead she had gone over to the broken display-case and reached for something on the floor among the glass-shards.

Newt thought of Ripley, acted like Ripley, became Ripley – at least in the way she pictured the adult. She remembered how the woman had fought for both their lives in the midst of danger, refusing to embrace defeat. The girl also remembered how Ripley had come after her into the dungeons of death to save her from the mortal peril that were the monsters which had slain her entire colony. And yet it wasn't the monstrous creatures that were first-hand responsible for that… it was the people whom they fought now who were the real enemy – the Company reps whom had deliberately let the aliens loose on them! Colonel Decker was like Carter Burke, and like Michael Weyland… a Company rep who with cold-blooded purpose and total disregard for human life had sacrificed a whole lot of innocent people so that they could get their hands on the terrible species that brought nothing but death and destruction. The girl understood now that when all the time Ripley had fought the aliens she had really fought against the Company, preventing them from getting the creatures. And now Newt was going to do the same – she didn't want to be just a frightened little girl in this case. Fearing the aliens was one thing; only a fool wouldn't fear them - but she would not be intimidated by the Company reps. She would fight them, just like Ripley had! Therefore she now picked up a metal-rod that lay on the floor, holding it like a club just like she had done in the workshop. Forcing down her fear and letting her anger flow, she went in and started to beat the colonel over his head and his back with the rod to allow Bishop to get the upper hand.

Unfortunately it didn't seem to help at all – the colonel didn't react as a human-being should. Although he still was fighting Bishop, Decker turned around and glared angrily at the child. His arm shot out and he back-handed her across her face, sending her sprawling. It was fortunate that he was still in clinch with Bishop, otherwise the slap would have been much more powerful – but it was still enough to send a shock through her little body as she had never experienced such brutality on her before.

"You monster!" That shout had come from Hicks. He had seen how Decker had knocked the child away and his body was suddenly fueled by a tremendous rage of his own. Hicks rushed up to his feet and jumped into the two-man brawl, making it a three-man fight – two to one. Finally it seemed to have an effect on the colonel – one-on-one was something the C.O. could easily handle, but fighting two seemed to be odds that were against him, especially since one of his opponents was an android. But still the colonel refused to surrender.

While the three fought, Fixer went over to Newt to see how she fared. She was teary-eyed from the slap, but she was otherwise all right. Fixer didn't say it, but he was astonished by the child's bravery. She was only six years old and yet she went in to aid her friends like an adult would have. Fixer was secretly ashamed because he himself had only stood by and watched, doing nothing. It had been almost the same back in the work-shop: hadn't it been for Newt's bravery, he wouldn't be standing there now. He was starting to think that he was nothing but a coward and it was not a comforting thought. But he forced himself to push the thought aside and pulled Newt back on her feet to clear her away from the combatants.

Finally an opening showed itself in the struggle. Decker stood with his back against Bishop and he threw an elbow into the side of the android's head, which momentarily left the colonel's arms spread apart. Hicks summoned all his strength and knocked the colonel backwards with a double upper-cut that hit him square in the jaw. Hicks' knuckles felt like they've just punched into a brick-wall, but it had been worth it. Decker stumbled into Bishop and now it was the android who took advantage of the other's momentum. Like Decker had done to him earlier, Bishop swung the colonel around in a slingshot to add some speed to his velocity and then he hurled his opponent away. But the momentum wasn't as great as when the colonel had thrown him – Decker might've been able to stop himself, had he not tripped over Morse's dead body. Falling over, Decker flew head-long backwards against the same wall which Bishop had been thrown into earlier. But this time there were sharp blades of swords and sabers standing out to meet the approaching body. Decker may be immensely strong, but he was not invulnerable. He slammed into the row of deadly blades with his back first and the speed was so great that the swords punched through his entire frame and his body fluids sprayed in all directions. To Newt's dismay, it splashed all over her as she had been standing too close. She winced and shut her eyes as the warm liquid came into contact with her face and chest, not wanting to see the result of the evil deed that she just had participated in. She had only wanted to distract the colonel, not taking part in his death. She had heard sayings how people did not want blood on their hands in some matters – that meant it had to be much worse to get blood all over her body. Daring not to face whatever the consequences of that might be, she kept her eyes tightly shut. All was unusually quiet for a moment before Hicks finally spoke: his voice was one of shock.

"I don't believe it!"

"It does shed some new light on many things where he's concerned." Bishops tone was as calm as always, but Fixer's voice matched that of Hicks'. "You mean… under all this time…?"

Hicks finished the sentence. "Decker is an android?!"

Upon hearing those words, Newt finally took a dare to open her eyes and she looked down on her body. Where she had expected to see blood, she saw some kind of milk – the same milky substance that Bishop used to have before the queen had torn him apart. She looked up at the body hanging on the blades like a butterfly nailed to a wooden surface. It looked like a leaking rag-doll. Decker's face was stuck in a permanent expression of rage, but there was no other movement. There were only some electrical sparks from severed conduits and circuits discharging against the protruding blades.

"How could this be?" Fixer asked. "I mean… what kind of a synthetic is he? Acting as a military officer without anyone noticing it and being so dispassionate? Aren't androids supposed to be friendly?"

"This thing certainly wasn't friendly," Hicks said. "I've never seen an android being so malevolent! Aren't there supposed to be certain protocols preventing robots from harming people like this?"

"In the newer models, there are," Bishop confirmed. "But I have a feeling that this one isn't so new…" Bishop stepped up to Decker's broken body. Hicks couldn't see what he was doing, but when Bishop turned back to them again, he seemed delighted somehow. "That certainly explains a lot of things," he said. "It's a Hyperdine Systems 120-A/2 – the same base-model as Ash, Ripley's science officer on the Nostromo!" Bishop actually giggled. "They always were a bit twitchy."

"An A/2?" Fixer questioned. "Aren't those like seventy years old?"

"Indeed they are," Bishop confirmed. "And that's how long it is said that Decker has been in the army. I remember reading that story: it was during the last eastern crisis. Some top-brass generals at the Pentagon wanted to start training a new brand of special soldiers who would be willing to deal with America's adversaries more efficiently and methodically - but the war had already claimed the lives of many young men, so they couldn't find the special type of personality that they wanted to recruit. That problem reached the ears of the robotics-division of the Company and they sent an executive to sell the army a large quantity of special custom-made androids: androids that would never tire on the battle-field - who would not have any fear of death and who of course would follow orders to the letter."

Bishop's visual attention remained focused on the remains of the military C.O. as he continued with the story. "All 'nice' traits of the personality in those androids were deliberately excluded – they all acted like the colonel here did around the living people, but that didn't concern the top brass. They were very pleased with having a group of soldiers who obeyed their every whim without question and did their missions thoroughly within the expected time-frames and all that. That's why Decker always was so obsessed with time… however that's where the problems with them originated."

"An upraise?" Hicks asked.

"Not from the androids," Bishop answered. "But from several civilian parties. It turned out that the androids became a little too systematic. Basically their orders were to exterminate every kind of threat they stumbled over, and soon it involved people with only loose connections and then to those who had nothing to do with the matter at all."

"They attacked civilians?" Fixer asked.

Bishop nodded. "They made their own decree to wipe out the threat to the mother country: all persons found guilty of terrorism, or aiding a person convicted of terrorism, or associating with a person convicted of terrorism were sentenced to public execution by a firing squad. All civil rights: legal counseling and right to verdict by a jury of peers was by their own martial law suspended. Family members, friends and even shopkeepers who only sold some goods to an associate to a terrorist were executed. The top brass tried to smooth these incidents over but in the end, the associations for civil rights worldwide became the dominating voice for recalling all the units and have them dismantled."

"Decker somehow managed to escape the recall." Hicks stated.

"Escaped, or somehow made 'lost' in the process. There were rumors that not every unit had been accounted for, but it was never confirmed. This is the first proof we've seen that the top brass did save some units and had them put in new positions to do their more 'questionable' work. It is amazing that no one ever connected Colonel Decker to that incident, he being a stone-cold officer with absolutely no regard for laws and civil rights – but unfortunately people do have the tendency to forget things as time goes by. He hid his true nature very well by pretending to spend his time in stasis while he was off duty, otherwise some people would have begun to wonder why he never reached an age of retirement."

"There are some departments who just turn a blind eye as well." Hicks snorted. "But I don't get how Decker could hide it for so long? He was injured down there – an alien bit right through his chest! Why didn't any of us see the white of his blood?"

"Probably because of the dim light," Bishop theorized. "And because of the leather uniform he wears. It is a non-breathable type - fluids that become stained on it, in this case from the inside will not be able to sip through the material. It will just show as a dark spot on the outside without being distinguishable to what it really is. I remember seeing him gripping the uniform tightly over his wound on the way up after the encounter with the creatures."

Hicks nodded as he remembered that as well. "Yeah, and he wouldn't let Simpson check his wound. He'd actually shoved him away to not let him see it."

"And once he was alone up here he repaired his injury, once more hiding what he truly was so that no one would ever know."

Bishop gave time to a moment of thoughts. "Michael Weyland must have known of this – that's how he managed to persuade Decker to undertake this mission against the authority of Colonial Administration. He didn't need to buy Decker out: he must have somehow managed to upload the same kind of override directive into his obedience chip as he did to me. Those chips are installed in all units during assembly as a security measure: the Company never wanted to risk having their own products going against them. Weyland have had control of Decker all along like a good little machine – and to think: he had the nerve of calling me a robot!"

"That must've been the reason why he disliked you so much," Hicks said. "He obviously didn't like to be reminded of that he himself was an artificial being."

"Does it really matter now?" Newt sounded bitter. She was busy trying to wipe off Decker's android internal fluid from her face and clothes, but all she managed was to smudge the milky substance over to parts of her body that had not been sprayed. She looked very fretful. "We've got him out of the way now, haven't we? So shouldn't we do what we're supposed to be doing? The monsters are loose and I don't want them to come looking for us!"

Hicks looked like he was taken by surprise. "You know, she's right! I almost forgot about that! Everything got side-tracked when Morse took us captive." He straightened himself up. "This is the plan: first we assume control of the ship and mount a strike against the aliens! We will nuke the derelict ship from orbit and destroy it along with the rest of those eggs still down there. Then we're going to have to somehow blow the ones aboard out into space!"

Bishop began to walk towards Decker's desk, but he looked peculiarly doubtful. "I fear that may not be so easy after this revelation." Sitting down in the command-chair Bishop hit some switches that made the desk fold back several panels and turning into a terminal for controlling every key-system of the ship's functions. Colonel Decker's office was now in battle-bridge mode, but it helped their situation very little.

"I was afraid of that," Bishop delivered the bad news. "The primary controls are locked down with a security code. Helm, weapons, communications, even access to the main computer… they're all inaccessible!"

"Can't you break the code?" Hicks asked him. But Bishop shook his head.

"This is a 32-digit number. Do you have any idea how long it would take to try to break such a code? The mathematical permutations go up to several billions! Even for an artificial person like me it would take years to find the right combination."

"Then we're stuck!" Hicks exclaimed.

"We're stuck here," Bishop corrected. "But if we could gain access to the main bridge we might still be able to make a difference. Decker can block access to the battle bridge, but not from the primary controls up there. It would be totally against regulations and safety protocols. From there we would have access to navigation and propulsion – but unfortunately not weapons! If I know Decker, he most likely made sure to lock us out from those as well, that would be within his prerogative as a commander of this ship." Bishop took on a determined expression. "There's only one thing to do: we have to crash this ship into the derelict, use it a sledgehammer! At the same time we will take out every alien aboard. It's the only way to be sure!"

"But that means suicide!" Fixer pointed out. "Whoever goes up there would have to steer the ship all the way down! Besides, the bridge is cut off by the decompressed zone! There's no way to get there!"

"Yes there is," Bishop corrected again. "We still have your make-shift airlock on the lower level of the ship. Walking through the vacuum is one thing – the tricky part will be to force-open the pressure-doors to the other side. Then it should be a straight path to the bridge."

"I'll need a space-suit for that," Hicks said. "But they're on deck six within the vacuum."

Bishop looked at him curiously. "Why is that a problem? You're not going there."

Hicks looked back at him with a bemused expression of his own. "I'm carrying, Bishop. I'm a dead man already, so I'm the logical choice to take this ship down!"

"Hicks, you would never be able to do the multitasking required to fly this ship alone while by-passing all safety-measures incorporated within the ship's systems – the ship itself would stop you before you even could enter the atmosphere! But I can!" Hicks was about to object, but Bishop cut him off before he could utter the first syllable. "You on the other hand have another responsibility that only you can do! You must get Newt and Fixer off this ship! You have to get them to an EEV!"

"An EEV?" Hicks was confused. "Why not just evacuate them in the dropship?"

"You're not thinking!" Bishop actually scolded him. "We have to destroy the Hercules in order to exterminate the aliens – that means that those two will unfortunately be stranded here! To ensure their survival they will need to be put into hypersleep capsules until a rescue comes along. A dropship is not equipped to house cryotubes – the EEV is."

"Why can't you take them there?"

"Who knows where the aliens are now? They could be anywhere aboard this ship, probably suddenly sweep down and kill the three of us on the route to the EEV – but you're the one carrying a queen! They won't touch you, and with luck they won't touch the others either while they're under your protection. It's only with you they have a chance to survive!"

Hicks pondered on this, and he reluctantly realized that Bishop was all the way correct in his assessment. "You do realize what this means to you?"

"Yes," Bishop confirmed. "If this is to succeed, I have to give up my life. But I also know what's at stake, so I'll die with the knowledge that my sacrifice will be for the greater good." Bishop smiled. "Believe me, I prefer not to. I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid."

Hicks nodded sadly, knowing that the course of action ahead of them would lead them to their inevitable destiny from which there would be no escape. Fixer looked at the two bigger beings as if feeling ashamed of being a burden to two that would have to die so that he would live. Newt was crying.