Chapter Eighteen
The doors of the elevator opened into the sublevel, and Amelia was ready, flamethrower raised.
The hallways of the Maintenance level were always dim, and Amelia realized that gave the Aliens the perfect place to hide as they grew. Amelia was wary as she moved. She had several flashlights, but she was wary to use them. She still had no idea how these creatures perceived the world. They had no visible eyes, nor anything that looked to her like ears. However, she knew for a fact they had every good hearing, recalling the very first time she saw them alive.
Maybe they use some form of echolocation? Or maybe some other kind of sense? She pondered. She was not a zoologist, but knew a little about animals. There were some species on Earth that got on fine with no eyes. Almost all of these were cave-dwelling or deep sea creatures. Some species of insects had acute senses even modern science could not entirely explain. Despite how far humanity had advanced, there was still so much they didn't know. Here, far out in the vastness of space, that was laid even more bare. Here and there, she saw signs of fighting there, too. Plasma damage, some acid holes, blood stains. She shook her head and continued on, but was wary and careful. Even so, her mind kept returning to her close encounter with that Alien who had not hurt or even touched her. It had killed Ethan, but left her alone. Why? Her mind kept repeating the question, but she still could not answer. Amelia stopped and looked at the illuminated digital signs. One made her stop. She looked up at it. Storage. She paused and looked at the sign above the large doors. She looked, and it was unlocked. She hesitated a few moments, then moved and opened it.
She kept her flamethrower raised as the door opened, but nothing presented itself. The large room was mostly dark, but the lights came on as she entered. They were dim lights, no need for bright ones and thus more power. Not in a storage area. She wandered through, and stopped when she saw a familiar machine, sitting in several pieces. It was the old scanning and X-ray machine from Medlab. Tom and others had disassembled it to put the new one in. She frowned for a few moments, then raised her left hand and activated the Kinesis module. She moved the large parts over and placed them together, where they locked. She then grabbed the plug and plugged it in. She waited, and the screen loaded and the machine did a self-diagnostic. She watched as he bar filled, and it said all systems were functioning properly. She sat on the table, swung her legs up, and reached out to press the button. Unlike the newer model, this one didn't have remote screen capability, so she would have to scan, get out and look at the screen. The scanning bar popped out of the machine over the bed, shined and whirred as it ran down over her body head to toe, then back again. The machine hummed and whirred as it processed the data. Amelia waited for the small beep to signal it was done. Once it came, for some reason she was tense. Reluctantly, she sat up, grunting. She stood up, turned and looked at the screen. She almost dropped her weapon.
While not anywhere as clear as the screen of the new model, and with a little bit of static, it clearly showed her organs.
As well as the creature between them.
It was nestled between her heart and right lung, curled in on itself, a complex network of veins, arteries and tubes attached to her heart, lungs and the creature. It was contained in an amniotic sac of some kind, a bulbous placenta of some kind between it and her organs. However, Amelia noticed this one looked different from the ones that had hatched from the people in her lab. Those had no limbs that she had seen, while this one had six of them. Two rear legs and four small arms, one pair smaller and curled against its chest. She also noticed something on the back of where the head was. It almost looked like the buds of some kind of horns, or a crest of some kind. It was clearly kindred to these creatures, but different.
Amelia felt like she had been punched in the stomach. There it was, her death warrant. The machine listed off data, focusing on the growing Alien. Foreign Tissue Type, it read. Amelia felt sick. Now she knew why. Not just why they had not hurt her, but why she had been feeling off. Her mind raced back to the pod in the lab, the closet, and waking up. Nobody had been sure how long she had been unconscious. She swallowed the lump in her throat. Oh, the bitter irony. She had never been able to bear Terry a child, been born sterile. It seemed the Universe had a cruel, twisted sense of humor. She felt like she was going to throw up, but whether that was from stress, or the effects of the creature growing within her, she didn't know. She looked at the details, and something in her gut said the differences she was seeing were important. She looked down to her side, at the medical pouch that housed ampules of Morphine. She had more than enough to end her life. She had no idea how long she had, and no desire to suffer the same fate as the people in the lab had.
Even so, she couldn't give up. Not now. Part of her mind wondered if she might be able to remove it in Medlab, but quickly shut that down. Self-surgery always a very risky proposition, even in the best of times and for someone trained like herself. They were too small to warrant something like an Autodoc or Medpod, as they were very expensive. There also would be so many unknowns with an experimental surgery like that. She also had no idea how long she had until it hatched. If it erupted during surgery, she was still as good as dead. There also was the fact, it seemed to be the one thing preventing the Aliens from killing her. With how smart they were, if they somehow got wind of what she was doing, they might intervene. She was shaking as all these thoughts swirled. She slammed a fist against the machine, looking at the image. My baby, she thought with bitter sadness. With a heavy sigh, she turned and headed out of the storage room.
She returned to the halls, now not bothering to hide or stay low. She knew they wouldn't attack. Amelia wound her way through the area, now and then having to backtrack. It was a bit of a maze down there, and she had only been down there once, to treat an injury. Onward she went, came to an elevator down, but saw an error message displayed across the door. "Fuck," she hissed. She'd have to find another way. She looked around, and saw directions for an access ladder. She followed around and through, and ended up at a large hatch, which was open. There were no signs of struggle, or blood, but the room was dark. She frowned, switched on a light and climbed down. The darkness seemed to press in all around her as she descended the ladder, down, down, down. It seemed like forever when her boots contacted metal. She was relieved, felt her chest tight. She took a few steadying breaths, turned and headed down the access corridor.
As Amelia walked down the hall, her light began to illuminate something. She stopped. It was something shiny. She swallowed and moved forward warily. She had been expecting one of the Aliens, but what she saw was something new. Tendrils were attached to the walls, black, vitreous and shining. The tendrils grew larger the further back into the dark they led. She shined her light, and the substance glistened. In some areas, she could see partially through, and a complex internal structure was displayed in the areas where it was semi-transparent. She could see long strings of clear mucus dripping from it in some areas. She shined her light down the tunnel, which was much more narrow due to the substance, the top of the tunnel barely a few inches above her head. The only sound was her breathing as she moved. She began to feel the substance under her boots, some of it squishing, and she cringed. The tendrils grew larger, and more complex. They began to resemble shapes like . . . spinal columns, ribbed tubing, and other bizarre shapes she had seen before. Amelia shivered. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck standing on end as she felt like she was venturing into the proverbial lion's den. No, not a den, she mused. It hit her then, and she felt mildly stupid for not seeing it sooner. The way they act together, their behavior, they are acting like bees or hornets. And what do bees and hornets make?
"A hive," Amelia breathed as she came into a slightly larger chamber. She could see some of the underlying pipes and structure, upon which the strange substance lay. It was easily the single most bizarre thing Amelia had ever seen in all her life. Long tendrils ran along the ceiling, some swooping down in organic curves to form supporting columns, others smoothly transitioned into odd shapes. Large pits between the "vertebrae" and some holes that, in overall shape, resembled nothing so much as a human vulva. A new shiver when up and down her spine. It was so much like what she had seen of the cells of the Aliens, but seeing it so large, it made something primal in her absolutely terrified. She shined her light around, the substance glistening, long strings of mucus and slime dripping down. Amelia had no idea if the substance had been secreted and molded into shape, or, and more disturbing, had grown this way.
Amelia froze as her light fell on a shape that was not alien, not wet and shining. It was familiar. She felt her heart leap into her throat as she ran up. "Jessica!" she yelped as she ran up. The young woman lay on the alien floor, sprawled. Amelia knelt, and saw that her eyes were open, but she was not breathing. Amelia was panting. She hesitantly reached out and touched her cheek. She was dead. Amelia quivered, fighting a losing battle with tears. She still remembered when she first met her, just fresh out of college, three years ago. Her working with Amelia at the Aerodyne colony was Jessica's Internship. It hit Amelia harder, when she remembered Jessica wanted to be a Pediatrician, to work with children. Amelia sniffled as she touched the young woman's face. There was no blood on her, no marks. She activated her RIG scanners, and they quickly determined what had killed her:
Ventricular tachycardia. She literally died of fear. Amelia stifled a sob as she ran her gloved hand over Jessica's face, closing her eyes. Amelia rose to her feet after a few silent moments. Amelia looked to her right, and saw the tunnels led further in. Hefting her flamethrower, she headed deeper inside.
Amelia moved though more tight tunnels, the strange alien substance barely inches above her head at times. As she moved, she noticed she could see fluid, like water, puddled in some places, dripping from the material. She checked her RIG, and it detected an increase in both heat and humidity. Safe inside her RIG, she didn't feel it, and was glad. As she moved, she passed doors and hallways that had become part of the alien structure. A few looked to be so heavily encrusted, she had doubts they could open. Maybe it was intentional. If so, that made her task all the more urgent. The narrow tunnel opened up into a particularly large chamber, and she was able to stand up fully without fear of maybe getting her helmet stuck in the strange substance. She turned her light, and stared in abject horror and awe at what she now beheld.
She had found out what the creatures did with those they captured. All along the walls, were people, entombed into the alien encrustation. Her light fell upon pale faces. People were stuck to the walls, down low and up high. A resin-encrusted pillar had a woman stuck to the side nearest Amelia, and further up on the other side, she could see a man hanging at least twenty feet off the floor, arm outstretched and stuck to what seemed to be a pipe above, also heavily transformed by the substance. Everywhere she looked, arms and legs were bound by bonds of the thick material. Amelia moved in a daze, unable to believe what she was seeing. The only light was from her flashlight, the small flame of her flamethrower, and a few small lights here and there, and so dim, they may as well have not been there at all. She heard a moan, whirled, and her eyes flew wide as she saw a familiar face, stuck to a large pillar. "Sammers," she breathed. He weakly raised his head.
"Am . . . elia," he gasped. She was almost shaking. She almost ran up, looking around. His limbs were glued to the sides of what looked like a very large pipe, running floor to ceiling, so covered with the alien material, it looked like a giant spine. He managed to smile. "I'm . . . glad you're alive," he said just above a whisper.
"Sammers . . . Oh, god. They did this, Weyland-Yutani. They hid the pods in their machines. This was all a setup," she said as she retracted her helmet. She could feel the heat, the moist air, and the smell. She knew the smell of rotting flesh. He barely managed to keep his head up.
"Amelia . . . they're preparing for something," he said, and she looked around. She saw people in the material, moaning in pain and delirium. She also saw some human bones among the resin, becoming part of the Xenopsychotic nightmare she found herself in. She looked back to Sammers.
"I know. And I think . . . it has to do with the one in me." Sammers moaned, drooping. "Michael, how do I overload the power core?" she asked. He grunted as he looked up at her.
"Y-you . . . can't. They sealed it . . . off," he rasped. She blinked. Were they that smart? Did they know the danger it possessed? He managed to look to the left. "But . . . the Megavents. The gravity tethers. If you . . . overload them . . ." he trailed off, and Amelia realized what he meant.
"It will create a Black Hole," she finished for him. He managed to smile softly.
"I'm . . . so sorry, it . . . came to this," he said in a trembling voice. She gently touched his face.
"You have nothing to apologize for, Michael Sammers. Nothing at all." He managed to smile back at her. She reached down and opened her pouch, drawing out a Morphine syringe. "It's all I can give," she said, not bothering to fight her tears, now. He turned his head and presented his neck. She gently pressed the syringe to his neck and injected it. He would just go to sleep and stop breathing. A far more merciful death than anything the Aliens might give.
"Thank you . . . Amelia . . ." he said as he drifted off to sleep. Amelia activated her helmet and turned away. She repeated the same thing with as many of the people as she could on her way. As a doctor, her duty was to ease suffering. She had no idea how quick death from a Black Hole might be, and some of the people were in obvious pain. As she headed for the door, she looked back, and could imagine the Aliens bringing pods to the room to lay at the feet of the immobilized people. Their life cycle was now making more and more sense. All of it horrible. By the time she reached an open door, she was out of Morphine, save one last dose. She would save it for when she would need it. She hefted her flamethrower and left the room.
Amelia wound her way through the alien tunnels, and Sammers was right. The hallway leading to the power core was totally encrusted and closed off, so she had to go around. Thankfully, a few of the signs still worked, and she was able to follow to the Megavents. As she did, she came upon another chamber, a very large one. She saw large pipes overhead, and several huge pillars made of the hive material. What caught her eyes, though was a strange array of what looked like huge bones, that extended down from the ceiling. Amelia counted six of them, and noted they didn't come down to the floor, but terminated roughly fifteen feet up. She also noticed a distinctive abundance of space. Her eyes flicked back up, and she remembered what she and Sammers had wondered, about where the pods themselves came from. She doubted Weyland-Yutani made them. So, if not, then that left only one possibility. She touched her chest, recalling how the scan of the one inside of her was different. Her gaze went back to those six huge bones. Perhaps, Weyland-Yutani was unaware of the full life cycle of these creatures? If that was the case, it was even more imperative she destroy the place, and these creatures. She was startled when station speakers screeched to life.
"This is Wey-Yu shuttle craft WY2984, calling Aerodyne colony. We are inbound, ETA twenty minutes. Rescue is en route," said a male voice. Amelia's heart leaped into her throat, but for very different reasons. She frowned as she gripped her flamethrower.
"Speak of the devil," she muttered. She glanced up at the strange forms one last time. As she did, she thought she felt something move inside her chest. She didn't have much time. She hurried out of the hive, not seeing the slithering shadows move behind her.