Chapter 2
Memories of Dreams

A slow whirring mechanical filled my ears, and I felt cold air begin to smother me. The breeze was refreshing and it made my hair stand on end. The white was still in my eyes...well eye. I appeared to have something covering one of my eyes.
"Ripley!" I heard the excited squeal of the 10-year-old Newt.
"Hi Honey," came the soft voice of Ripley from the other side of the cryo-Chamber, "be a bit quieter."
I heard them both getting changed.
"Go check on Dwayne please honey," Ripley whispered to Newt.
I heard the footsteps getting closer, they where very softly, slapping against the grated metal floor of the cryo-chamber. She came up beside me.
"Hicks?" came her soft gentle voice.
"I'm here Newt, don't worry!" I whispered to her.
Ripley came over to us, I tried to sit up but I couldn't.
"Go and get some food please Newt," Ripley told the girl sweetly, "I have got to help Hicks."
"And to do that, I've got to reactivate Bishop," Ripley said once Newt had gone.
I think she did that because Newt thought Ripley was all-powerful, didn't want the girl to know she couldn't do something. Really, I wasn't that bothered, as long as I could get about.
Ripley took Bishop out his body bag and placed him onto a trolley. Ripley used some special equipment attached to wall to reactivate Bishop. I couldn't see exactly what she was doing.
"Hello Ripley.... hello Hicks," came Bishops voice from the side.
"Check Hicks please Bishop," Ripley asked of the android.
Bishops face came over me; he was standing on his hands in the cot. He was examining me. After a few minutes of examination he spoke.
"Ok his eye is fine, you can take the patch off now," he started, "but he will need help moving about on his own. I suggest you get some supports for him."



Once Ripley had got me up and moving we went for dinner, where we had something that was supposed to be bacon and eggs. It looked right, just didn't taste it.
While we where having breakfast, Bishop was fitting himself with some artificial legs, walk frames I believe he called them. He was also checking on the ships systems, making sure everything was going according to plan.
After a long and spirited discussion about horses with Newt, Bishop walked his way into the Mess Hall, he new 'leg' makes rather heavy sounds on the floor. They where metal limbs, with a metal skeletal structure, basically a human leg but with metal instead of bone.
"Nice legs," I commented sarcastically, "where'd you get them, the body shop?"
"Very funny," he responded, "I've checked all the ships systems and we're coming up just past Mars, another few days and we'll be home, computers estimates."
"And your estimate?" inquired Ripley.
"I haven't made any," Bishop simply stated, "I did not think it would be needed, since the computer, is never wrong."
"Right....."
Newt jumped off her seat and ran over to run Bishop. She hugged him tightly.
"Thanks for saving me," she said sweetly.
"I had to it was part of my..." Bishop stopped abruptly, "would you like to come with me and look around the ship?"
Newt turned around and looked at Ripley. Ripley simply nodded and Bishop and Newt turned and walked out.
I had noticed that Ripley and Newt had bonded into a mother-daughter type relationship, that little thing with them there, proved that. A daughter asking her mother if she could go and play. I couldn't blame them really. Ripley did save Newt from a fate worse than death.
I looked over at Ripley she was deep in thought.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Nothing," she started, "its just I remember fighting the aliens again."
"Tell me!"
"It was a dream I had," Ripley said, "I hyper-sleep dream, in which I died. Then a company, a new company in the future, cloned me. 200 years into the future."
"Go on!"
"Well in the first one," she began, "an alien got lose on the Sulaco and caused the ship to crash. You and newt died and an alien got lose on the planet I crashed on. A prison planet, full of rapists and murders. We ended up working together to destroy the alien, but I killed myself because I had a queen inside me."
"I was then cloned 200 hundred years later, by a new company called the USM," she continued, "and the queen inside me. They started to breed the alien and it changed because of my DNA, and a new hybrid was made. It was terrible."
"I had similar dreams..." I told her, "I was the commander of a team who went round destroying alien infestations on other planet. And just before I woke up, I was on my last mission...I was about to die!"
We both sat in silence for a bit, each of us reviewing our thoughts and those awful dreams. Ripley seemed to be having difficulty accepting that they were only dreams. I was already done...moved on.
My current thoughts where on what I was going to do next. All my squad killed...a destroyed droid. He could be remodelled but never top of the line again. My future was a blur.
After a while of silence, Ripley and I got up and walked around the ship. We visited the Observation Lounge, and stared out of the window at the stars around us and the asteroid belt behind us.
It was beautiful, we sat there for hours just looking out and talking about the trifles of live. It was great; I'd never had such a talk before.
Over the next few days all we did was to sit and talk, where? It didn't matter, just because we where talking. Newt joined us several times, but she liked to stay with Bishop, who she now called her 'uncle'.
"Hicks...Ripley," came Bishops voice over the intercom, "we're almost there, we've got to begin the docking procedures!"
Ripley and I stopped talking and made our way up to the command deck.
Bishop was strapped into the Pilots seat, Newt in a passenger seat towards the back. I went to sit in the navigator seat and Ripley went to the Communications.
"This is the Troop Transport Sulacco, CMC 846A/Beta, contacting Gateway Flight Control," Ripley spoke into her mike headset
"Welcome home, Sulacco, we've been expecting you," the officer over the radio spoke, "you are cleared for docking at Port 16C. You're being sent the new procedures. Good luck."