Chapter One.
The sun disappeared past the small opaque window, the light in the room faded as the ball of fire no longer was in view. The red glint of light became a dark metallic blue, the normal colour of the rooms walls, and only the glow of the blue planet would give out light, and even then it was only a faint light that would allow you to see your hand in front of you. But this did not bother Sam, she was used to the darkness, hiding away from the monsters that plagued her nightmares, haunting her existence each time her eyes would close. She could sense that something was wrong, that very soon everything that she had come to know in the past two years was going to disappear as the sun had just done.
Sam was only in her teens, Eighteen years old, yet like most young woman she believed herself a lot more mature, especially when she was back on Earth and Billy Johnson would be pulling her hair at the age of fifteen. And having to look after her younger sister Emily. Since the aliens had come and her parents killed, she took it upon herself to raise Emily the best she believed possible, but it was never that easy when the one you were looking after was an annoying spoilt thirteen year old who wanted everything. Sam would never complain though, she loved her sister even if at times Emily did not deserve any love when she would be brought back to the room by the large armoured guards.
"What has she done now Officer?" The question that would be asked most days, but she did not want to show the two guards her sadness at her sisters actions, she was trying her best, maybe it just was not good enough and she knew that soon the Elders would take Emily from her.
"I am sorry Miss Verona, she was caught in the command chamber playing with the control board. We got her before the General found her, she would have been seriously punished if he had found her." Officer Williams was not the largest of the officers, but what he lost in pure muscle he made up in his smile, ear to ear and that is why Sam would just shake when she saw him at her door. She controlled herself though, this was a serious matter this time and by the look in Emily's face it seemed that her little sister did not really care. "But I trust you will keep her in her room this evening, give the station a little peace for this evening." And that is when he did it, he smiled, and then her knees wobbled.
"I am sorry Officer Williams, I really do try to keep her from doing anything like this, but she is just out of control, please don't tell the General, I will have a long talk with her... Won't I Emily?" Her heavy glare looked straight at Emily who kept her eyes down, but rudely giggled at her sisters words. "You can go to your room and do not think you are going to be allowed out this evening or tomorrow evening. If mother was here you would be grounded for a month, be glad she isn't." Words that she should have chosen a little differently, when mother was mentioned Emily's eyes rose up looking at her sister.
Emily with amazing strength struggled herself free from Williams grip and charged past her sister, bumping into her. Before Sam could react the door to Emily's room slammed loudly and was followed by echoing tears, crying again at the memory of her dead mother. "Emily I'm sorry..." But the little girl could not, maybe wished not to hear her sister almost sound like she was begging for forgiveness. Turning back to Williams she her gaze fell as did her head, saddened, not knowing what to say to the officer.
"Its okay Sam, Emily will be fine, she's just at a loss at the moment, she knows you love her, she even told me that when I was bringing her here, she did not want to upset you." He finished with a soft hand on her shoulder, a slight squeeze of comfort. Sam's head lifted and she looked up and smiled, thinking to herself that Williams was really cute, but she dare not say so. "Well Sam, I better get going, they will be wondering where we are. Are you okay?" Looking down at the young beautiful woman.
Her smile would almost light up the room and Williams could see that Sam had a crush on him, but he was older than she was, in his early twenties, which was not really a problem, but with the war on Earth going on, it was better that he did not say or do anything. "Yeah, everything is fine officer Williams." And she took a step back from the doorway into the main room of her apartment. Trying to keep her smile showing, not wanting to show how upset and sad she truly was, but with Williams standing and offering support, she would keep strong. "Thank you for not telling the General."
Williams kept his eyes upon hers and smiled, "No worries, just have a talk with Emily. Damn, we better get going." Looking over to Officer Chance not making a sound, not even looking at the two talking, probably annoyed at the fact his friend was flirting with the girl. "Hey Chance, man, lets get going." And Chance nodded, turned and began to walk towards the channel corridor that would lead to the command block elevator.
"Thank you again officer Williams." With a genuine smile, with her thoughts on his lips, she was thinking about one kiss, and then her knees would shake once again, she felt funny, not felt like this since Eric in school five years earlier.
"Danny, my name is Danny." He said with a smile and turned, walking towards the elevator that would take him down a mile into the station. And as he reached Chance he quickly spun round and threw Sam a smile, just as her door slid closed. He again turned back to Chance and smiled, almost smirking picturing young Sam Verona in her cute white laced night-dress. "You know I am totally going to hit that ass Chance, hit it so hard." Then he followed the sleazy remark with a faint deep laugh. "Yeah I am."
Of-course he would be saying that, Sam was five-foot, seven inches almost, a perfect height. Slender with a body you just wanted to hold and keep a hold of. Her light brown hair flowed over her shoulders and over her ample sized breasts, always seeming to be pushing against her thin tops. Maybe that made her feel good about herself, but for Williams, it made him feel good, wanting to rip the top of and just suck on her nipples, in good taste of-course. Chance knew that it is what his friend was thinking, wanting to take advantage of the girl. Who wouldn't thought, she was gorgeous, but Chance did not want to be thinking the same dirty thoughts that Williams was most obviously thinking as he moved his hand down and rearranged himself. Chance did not have that much respect for his friend. No longer sure why they were actually friends, not forgetting the battle for Paris years earlier. Oh yeah, Williams had saved his life when the aliens came knocking.
The elevator doors opened and the two officers stepped in, Chance head down just slightly gave a fainter laugh, trying not to show his dislike to the comments of his friend. He was thinking about how Sam would react to Williams remarks, but wished not to picture her face, and he knew that he did not want Williams to know how he felt about his friend, knowing that Williams would do anything to get the young woman into bed, poor Samantha, knowing that he would protect her from his friend. Not knowing how, his blackened face scarred would only show him to be a feared menace, not knowing that he was in-fact a warm hearted young man. Other peoples perceptions were mostly wrong, and that he knew as the elevator door closed.
"Going down." He muttered.
--
How could Sam talk to Emily with the door locked and the sound of crying echoing over every apology. Reminding her younger sister that their parents were dead was a mistake she wished to be able to take back. Especially for Emily who had witnessed them being taken, hiding in the closet as the aliens smashed their way into the hidden rooms under their family home and in a matter of seconds were gone with her parents. It was that night her nightmares began, each night waking up screaming after dreaming of the monsters chasing her and her parents, catching, killing them, and very gruesomely. And Sam tried her best to keep her little sister calm and with the help of Doctor Susan Bell the medication that was prescribed would help, luckily it had been a couple of weeks since Emily's last horrific episode.
"Please Emily, open up the door." But her words weren't heard, maybe ignored. Upset she turned and walked back over the window, and watched the stars. Not knowing what to do anymore, she could not be a parent, everything her mother had taught her did not help. The things she was told would not help her raise her sister; listen; comfort; understand. None of that would help, so looking at the stars glistening in the endless reaches of space, a single tear rolled over her cheek and fell to the cold metal panelling that was her apartment floor.
Time moved by slowly, seconds felt like hours as her thoughts would bring happy memories of her past, being back on Earth years ago. She could remember the warmth of the sunlight heating her body, making her almost perfect tan that little bit more perfect, and the hours she would spend in the rays of the sun were very much missed, especially now being stuck in a cramped apartment. Soft grass would cool her warm feet, the feeling of each blade of grass between her small toes. The cool breeze and the sound of birds singing their enchanting song. Nothing could be any more surreal, sadly she knew it was only a memory and soon she would open her eyes and once again see the darkness of space.
"I'm sorry..." Sam heard the soft squeaky voice from behind her, bringing her out of her thoughts of the past. Turning she could see Emily standing in the doorway of her room, with her head down and tear stained cheeks, red and pale at the same time on different parts of her young face. Her sadness hit Sam hard and she began to run to her sister, arms open wide as she jumped into Sam's embrace. Emily's tears fell upon Sam's bare shoulder, rolling down over her back, warm. This brought tears to Sams eyes also, trying to be strong for her little sister, she just held onto her with all her love. "I miss mommy..."
"I know you do sweets, I do to." Not really knowing what to say to her sister, trying to comfort her as much as she possibly could. She had learnt from her mother that being their when someone needs you is the most important, so as long as she would be breathing, she would always protect her sister, with her life. Yet as she held onto Emily she could feel, sense the darkness that was coming, but she did not know what would be coming, and in all honesty, did not ever want to know. "I will always be here for you Emily, always." Emily held her tighter and her tears no longer fell on to Sams shoulder.
Only a few minutes had passed until Emily finally let go of Sam, who did not really want to let go. For that one moment everything in their lives was at peace and the past had not taken place, but the cold stale air from the vent that caused them both to shiver would bring them back to reality. "How about we go to the movies in East Central? I heard that they have got a copy of an old classic, some hero flick about Spiders." Still at Emily's level she smiled and waited for her sisters answer.
"Can Max come with us?" Maxine Parker, fourteen, snobby and annoyingly popular in the B-Sector. Sam believed Maxine to be nothing but trouble, probably the reason Emily was getting in so much trouble in the Station. For her sisters sake she agreed with a smiling nod, hiding her displeased feelings for her sisters friend, but honestly Maxine had not really done anything that was truly worth the dislike that she felt, it was just a feeling. Maybe it was the fact Maxines father was the Commander of the South-side Sectors, and was always shouting at her for no apparent reason. Cannot change a family of arrogant snobs who think themselves better than everyone else, but for her sister she would not say that Maxine could not come.
Emily disappeared into her room, singing some stupid song about boys and her noise implied that she was dancing again. Sam laughed at her sisters excitement, finally relieved for some peace for a few hours. "Can Mooka come?" Emily's voice echoing into Sams ears, now with a high pitched exciting tone. Again not wanting to cause any friction between them, she nodded and smiled, who was she to get in-between her little sisters friends. "Yay, shouldn't you go get ready?" Smiling and giggling. Sam looked over to her sister who was grinning in the shadow of her doorway.
"I am ready cheeky. You better hurry, the movie starts in an hour." Into the room Emily disappeared into her room, now singing even louder. At least she was happy now and her parents were not on her mind, and as it was going to be a night of baby-sitting, she was going to try and enjoy herself, and her smile widened when her thoughts drifted to Officer Williams, Danny.
--
Sub-level 42, deeper than anyone actually knew about. The elevator doors opened, Chance looked at all the whitecoats, not even noticing that the elevator had been opened, that would not help them if there was a serious threat to the level and some madman with a gun came running in, firing. He looked around for a familiar face, not knowing why they had been ordered to go down there, given the clearance that no other officer had been given, this must be important.
Williams nudged Chance out of the way with a snigger and passed by him, wanting a closer look of the laboratory they had been ordered to go down to. He himself was wondering why this place existed and for what business, but right now, he did not care, he could not take his eyes of the large glass tank in the middle of the chamber. Full of bluish liquid and something else, but he couldn't make it out as of yet. So a few steps forward he realised what it was, as did Chance who now had hurried past Williams for a better look.
Its body length was hidden by the fact it was curled up into a protective ball. The black skin could still be seen through the blue liquid, as could its thin boned body. The tail looking almost segmented was wrapped around the lower part of its body. Its two arms crossed and protecting its chest. Chance looked upon its long rigid skull, from the round end to the clenched outer jaws teeth shining dirty silver. Normally the creature would be drooling thick saliva, salivating was normal to the species. For instance, if you found some of its saliva somewhere without the monster, you would soon find the creature hidden somewhere close, but due to the liquid the creature did not have any of its bodily liquids anywhere. The creature itself, jet black, with gleaming skin, light bouncing of its limbs, teeth and domed head.
"Xenomorph specimen X526S. That is if you two were wondering, genetically created in our lab, but do not worry, its dead or in hibernation, one of the two. Good that you came down so quickly." The man talking was General Isaac Perry, the man in control of the entire station, very powerful. From the stories that Williams and Chance had heard, he was an evil man who showed his mean streak if you ever crossed him. So there and then as they looked at each other, Williams and Chance decided to try and not piss him off in any way.
"Permission to speak Sir?" Williams took a single step forward, not wanting to intrude on the Generals sudden appearance moments earlier.
"Permission Granted Corporal Williams. You are wondering what the alien is doing in the station are you not?" That was exactly what Williams wanted to know, with the Xenomorph Quarantine laws it would be impossible to have any form of alien DNA on the station, especially with all the civilians. "I will take your silence as a 'yes' then. To answer you silent question, the xenomorph is part of our experiments on the alien species. Working with Bio-Pharm we have learnt the aliens physical anatomy to the molecular level. And have now been able to clone such monsters in a machine for our use only." Was this insane, how in gods name did they get clearance for such experiments.
Chance was looking at the monster, floating motionless in the tank. It was huge, almost twice the size of any normal drone, guessing that this was one of the Queen warrior aliens, but how did they obtain such DNA, it was only available on the aliens hiveworld, and it was obliterated months ago. He was not sure that he wanted to know how they had obtained clearance for such horrific studies, the idea of a machine that made the monsters was almost unbelievable, yet the stories of the General seemed to be true, he was a madman. "Sir, I thought that there were new laws in place that stop all xenomorph experimentation on civilian occupied stations. How did you get the clearance, I really do not understand?" Trying not to choose harsh sounding words in his question, he waited for an answer.
General Perry looked somewhat shocked by the question aimed at him so directly, thinking to himself that maybe it was wrong of him to decide to bring Marines into his plan, but he knew that he would need military back-up and his team were not able for such a task, he needed others and these two standing in front of him were meant to be the best, and from what he was told, would not ask too many questions, but the inevitable had to happen sooner or later. "Bio-Pharm holds rights to most xenomorph experimentation. From Royal Jelly to bimolecular testing. For years I have argued in court that it was our right to find ways to protect ourselves against the alien threat, but now we have taken back the Earth, experimentation was overruled as illegal in any civilian area. Luckily I won the rights to do so in this highly secured Sector of the station." Hoping that any further questions would not be asked, but sadly the general was not that lucky.
"Yet still, the threat even in an secured area is not worth any human life, so the laws that were put in place just four months ago are not being met at this location. Can you explain this please?" Chance was risking his own life, hoping that being so direct to the General would not make him simply disappear anytime soon, so keeping firm he waited for his answer, looking at the General in a slightly bewildered expression.
The General looked at Chance and began to laugh, and with a strong pat on the shoulder he looked away towards the tank with the alien floating motionless. "Corporal Chance, just look at it. The monster that would destroy our world, killing millions. And right now I am creating ways to prevent any threat to our existence. To answer your question honestly Corporal, we do not have permission to experiment in the station, but I will." Looking back at Chances' shocked face the General smirked. "You are here as my back-up, the ones that will protect me from anyone who wants to shutdown the operation, and sadly for you, you have no choice." Again he looked back towards the tank. Chance took a few steps back.
"Perry, your are not going to get away with this, I will tell..."
"Who are you going to tell Corporal? I control this station and there is no way you can gain the communication equipment to contact Earth or anyone. As a matter of fact, you are locked out of any existence outside of this station, I am in total control." That is what Chance did not want to hear, as he looked over at Williams holding the Carbine up at the General. "Corporal Williams, you told me that your friend here would not be a problem." Those words hit chance hard as he saw Williams, his friend aiming the carbine now at him.
"I do apologise General, he will fall into line." Looking at Chance without any emotion, he pointed the end of the gun at his friend and grinned. "Chance, man, just do what the General tells you and think of the bonus you will get when the experiment pays of." Lowering the gun he watched as Chance turned and headed towards the elevator. "Come on man, don't do this." But Chace was gone, he was steps away from the doors, then his eyes began to hurt and all went black. The General stepped up to him holding a small gun.
"Do not worry Corporal, its just a sleeping agent, we will continue this discussion in a few hours." And he simply turned and headed towards the inner lab. Williams followed the General, not caring that his friend was lying unconscious on the cold laboratory floor.