ChirikoFan – I'm glad to see that you're reading my sequel. More action to come.

Linilya Elf – Hehehe, yeah, I thought Ariedel needed to slap him to get him out of his trance. But she did feel bad about it afterward. Lots more will happen in future chapters. I had to create a chart so I could keep track of everything and not forget to tie loose ends as I go.

Chapter 3 – A Mission in the Making
Valinor
Weyland-Yutani Research Base

The USM Orpheus had departed days ago, leaving only a single-level structure. Upon first glance it looked similar to an airplane hanger of the old days, a simple edifice commonly used in the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth. But beneath the surface of the ground were six sub-levels, consisting of research labs, ten observation chambers, a medical room, a communications room, a generator room, a dining hall and living quarters for the fifteen members of staff. The small outer structure was purposely well hidden behind several tall hills, to prevent any of the land's occupants from seeing it.

Dr Jordan Messer, Biogeneticist, exited the lift when it reached Sub-level Six. It was the level that contained the ten observation chambers. She walked along the short corridor, passing through five emergency doors that were programmed to close in a matter of seconds if the need arose. At the end of the corridor was a door made of titanium, ten inches thick. Next to the door was a keypad. Jordan entered a code and then pressed her thumb on a green piece of plastic beneath the numbers. The door slowly cycled open allowing Jordan to enter.

The floor in this room was also made of titanium, as were the walls separating each of the ten chambers. An extra measure of protection…just in case. The ten small chambers were opposite a conglomeration of workstations consisting of computers with advanced technology that recorded everything that happened within the chambers, as well as outside of them.

Jordan stepped up to one of the workstations and checked some readings on a printout. She made a few notes on a piece of paper near the computer and then turned toward the chambers on the opposite side. Eight inch thick clear Plexiglas covered the front of the chambers. Another measure of precaution. Apparently the four inch Plexiglas that had housed the aliens on Gateway Station had not been thick enough. It was actually so thick that whatever was on the other side seemed smaller than their actual size.

When Jordan stepped up to the Plexiglas, the alien inside the chamber raised its elongated head and peered back at her. As it tilted its head from left to right, the creature reminded Jordan of a dog trying to understand what its master wanted. But she knew damned well that this beast didn't think of her as its master. It thought of itself as the master and she was the prey. If given an opportunity, the alien would kill her in a heartbeat, without an ounce of remorse or thought. Without a queen, an alien's instinct was to kill. Period.

Jordan walked along the clear Plexiglas, peering into five other chambers. Only four were occupied by aliens, brought in by The Company, while two chambers each contained an alien egg. The remaining four chambers were left empty for other prospectives.

A few minutes later the door cycled open again and Phillip Quinn, the base's resident computer geek, sauntered in. He had a mug of coffee in one hand, a Physics magazine in the other and a donut in his mouth. He mumbled a greeting in Jordan's direction and took up a seat in front of the closest computer terminal. After taking a bite out of the donut, he placed it on a stack of printouts and immediately signed into the computer. "Hey, did you hear the latest?"

Jordan turned away from the last alien occupied chamber and sighed heavily. "No. What's the latest?"

"Remember how they said that the alien infestation had been eliminated on this planet?"

Jordan took several steps closer to Phillip, but purposely kept her distance. They had only been on SR-682 for a day and he had already made a play for her. "Yeah. That was eleven local years ago."

"Well, whoever did the job fucked it up."

"What do you mean?" she questioned curiously.

"We picked up a trace..."

Jordan didn't wait for Phillip Quinn to finish whatever else he was going to say. She immediately knew the situation and rushed passed him, quickly exiting the observation room. After taking the lift up to Sub-level Three, she ran down the corridor, her heels clanking loudly on the metallic floor. The door at the other end of the corridor slid open as she approached. There was no need for a security check to enter Lab 3. It wasn't restricted.

Dr Oscar Leland, Biochemist, was studying the readings of a cryosleep chamber when he heard the door slide open. A quick glance revealed his colleague, Jordan Messer. "Good morning, Dr Messer."

"Why didn't you tell me there's an alien running around out there?" she asked without greeting him.

"I just discovered it myself. Lieutenant Train came to my office first thing this morning and told me he picked up a trace on a drone in the vicinity."

"Is he out there looking for it?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"We have four specimens already. I see no reason to get another at this time."

"I'm not talking about bringing it in here. Why isn't he out there killing it?"

"Not our problem," Leland uttered casually before turning back to the display on the cryosleep chamber.

"Oscar, there are people that live around here. It's going to kill them."

"Like I said, not our problem. Besides, we're not talking about people of any great intelligence."

Jordan was appalled at Leland's lack of respect for the people of this world. "Are you serious? We can't just turn our backs and expect them to defend themselves against a creature they won't know how to deal with."

Oscar Leland straightened up and turned to Jordan. "Must I remind you of our directive, Dr Messer? We cannot involve ourselves in the affairs of the locals. They'll figure it out. They did it over a decade ago, they can do it again."

"But aren't you the least bit curious as to where this alien came from? It was reported that all aliens on this planet were destroyed."

"I honestly don't give a damn. Now, if you don't mind, I need to finish calibrating this for our first clone." He turned back to his task, dismissing her completely.

Jordan stared open-mouthed at Leland. The man had no morals. But then again neither did she for allowing herself to be assigned to this base. She turned and stalked back out of the lab.

Project Genesis. That's what the board of directors of Weyland-Yutani called it. Years ago two scientists, Dr Wren and Dr Gediman, had succeeded in creating a clone of a host impregnated with an alien queen. An alien queen was extremely difficult to come by these days. But it was the clone that truly caught the attention of The Company and they had made every endeavor to locate it. But everytime they thought they had caught up with Ellen Ripley, she skillfully evaded them. Jordan held a great respect for Ripley, even though she had never met her, and didn't blame her for dodging Weyland-Yutani. So without the live clone specimen to work with, The Company was forced to create their own. And on top of it all, they decided that an Elf would make a much better clone than a human. Jordan wasn't privy to how they came to that conclusion, but she wondered.

At first Jordan was excited about the project, especially after she read the report on the Ripley clone and the special abilities that were gained from the alien. Although the Ripley clone had taken thirty days to mature, Dr Oscar Leland had discovered the ability to increase the rate of growth by utilizing cryosleep technology, so the clones they intended to create would mature in a fraction of the time. The more Jordan thought about the project, the more she began to find it unethical. But she was already too deep into it and knew that The Company would never simply let her walk away with the knowledge she already possessed of the project. Too many scientists leaving Weyland-Yutani suddenly died from unexplainable circumstances, and nothing to implicate The Company.

So what was it about Elves that drew the attention of Weyland-Yutani enough to build a research base on SR-682? As Jordan stood alone in the corridor, she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

Avalon
Earth date: December 12, 2357ad

Seth Schuyler sat in a dark corner booth of a quiet pub that he and General Burbank had decided to meet in after the meeting earlier. He was still fuming over the carefree attitude of Defense Secretary Rohlwing. Despite the fact that Rohlwing knew the hazards of trying to reform or experiment on the aliens, he didn't seem willing to put an end to Weyland-Yutani's campaign.

Known mainly as The Company because they were involved in just about everything on Earth, Weyland-Yutani was responsible for much of the technological advancements, and not just the processors that converted the atmosphere on a planet to suitable levels for human habitation.

Seth thought about some of their accomplishments. Granted, they had achieved some medical miracles, finding cures for hundreds of diseases, just from researching the DNA of the aliens. And Seth himself was fine with that, as long as they used dead alien subjects. Dead aliens couldn't attack and take human lives. Then there was the fact that The Company was known to use human hosts as well. That part was inexcusable. It had been discovered a decade ago that Weyland-Yutani convinced General Perez of the Medical Research Vessel USM Auriga to commission mercenaries to secretly bring them live human hosts. Whatever results from experiments conducted by Dr Wren and Dr Gediman were not available to anyone except those of The Company. Seth had no doubts that the aliens had a hand in the deaths aboard the Auriga. But he did learn, however, from a reliable source that a human clone was successfully created on the research ship, after seven other failed attempts. The outward appearance of the clone was human, but it displayed alien characteristics that were not readily visible to the untrained eye. For all practical purposes, the clone vanished from existence, or at least she managed to conceal her identity from prying eyes.

What would happen if Weyland-Yutani managed to clone an impregnated Elf host? According to what Seth read about Elves on SR-682, they were superior over the race of Men they shared the planet with. The Elves were immortal and possessed healing qualities, not to mention superior intelligence and skills in battle. To clone an Elf with alien characteristics was one thing, but to clone an alien with Elven characteristics…The board of directors at Weyland-Yutani were all insane. A super-intelligent alien was something Seth thought the universe could definitely do without. At least the aliens he had dealt with when he worked at Lifesource's transmutation platform on Gateway Station didn't have the time to learn anything from experience. Seth usually wiped them out before they had a chance to even think about their own existence.

General Burbank entered the pub and spotted Seth immediately, walking over and sliding opposite him into the seat of the booth. Seth nodded to acknowledge his presence. Not a salute because their camaraderie and relationship didn't require it when they were alone.

A rusted android, not one of the new models, sauntered over. "May I offer you a drink, General?" All androids, from the top models that worked in the government to the lowest grunt that worked as a waiter in a pub, had databanks containing visuals of any government official, whether the official wore a uniform or not. It was difficult to remain anonymous around an android.

"JB on the rocks. Make it a tall one." When the android walked away, Burbank turned his attention to Seth. "So what're some of your ideas?"

"Just one, Jim." Formalities were dropped, much as the salute had been. "We go in and disrupt their base of operations."

"Disrupt?"

"Blow a few things up, make their operation inoperable."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that, Seth, but it sounds like a good plan to me."

Seth shook his head in confusion. "I can't understand how Weyland-Yutani came to the conclusion that they needed to go to SR-682?"

"Jonathon Warner," Burbank reflected and then glanced at the approaching android who carefully rested his JB on the table and walked away again.

Seth remembered every confrontation he had with the Director of the Lifesource platforms on Gateway. The man was not outright with his sneakiness, but Seth always felt Warner had some underlying intention reserved for just the right moment of opportunity. But Warner went up in flames when Gateway was destroyed by the US Colonial Marines. The station had somehow become overrun with aliens, according to the report of the Bishop unit that contacted Burbank. Whether Warner was alive or not before the station was destroyed, no one would ever know. "What about Warner?"

"He contacted me when he learned that the queen and the Elf she was extracted from could telepathically communicate with one another. He told me he was going to conduct his own research and I warned him against it. Later I received a message from Communications that someone had tapped into the signal during Warner's transmission to me. My guess it was Weyland-Yutani. At the time I didn't think they'd actually make plans to set up a research base on the planet." Burbank took a long gulp from his drink. "Goddammit, Seth, there's no telling what they're liable to do to those people there."

"I know someone who can take care of the job."

"Mercenary?" asked Burbank.

"Not exactly. He just hates the bugs as much as any of us do. Besides the fact that I grew up with him, I trust him without a doubt. I know the way he operates and he'll make it look like an accident."

Burbank frowned. "So he's done this sort of thing before?"

"I know what you're thinking, Jim and I can tell you right now that his methods of making things look like an accident have nothing to do with alien infestation. He doesn't use aliens as the source of the destruction. If you want examples, I'll give them to you."

Burbank shook his head. "No, no. I believe you. What about the lives of those on the base?"

"He's always given innocent bystanders an obvious route of escape. If they choose not to take it, well…there's nothing he can do about it without compromising his identity."

Burbank took another long gulp from his drink and sighed heavily before turning his eyes back to Seth. "What of those already impregnated?"

"If it isn't too late, he might be able to save those lives. From what he's told me, he has the appropriate facility on his ship and a capable crew that can safely extract and destroy the embryos."

"And any clones already growing, if in fact they've gotten that far?"

Seth looked solemnly at Burbank. "That's gonna be a tough one. He's not very partial to killing babies, if that's the stage of growth they're in. The one clone that I know of had reached maturity in thirty days."

Burbank closed his eyes and shook his head. "Then I don't want to know what he does with them."

"All right."

"When is he going to leave?"

Seth sighed heavily. "Well, I haven't exactly told him yet."

"We need to stop those bastards before they cause mass chaos on that planet."

"I'm with you, Jim, I'm just having a hard time getting a hold of him. The last time I saw him was at a class reunion on Luna III about six years ago. But I have a pretty good idea now where I can find him."

"Good," said Burbank before finishing the contents of his glass. The liquor warmed his insides and made his thoughts seem less rational. Despite the importance of this mission, it was being done unlawfully and he hated that there was no other choice.

"I have one request," said Seth a bit unsurely.

Burbank didn't like the sound of his uncertain tone. "What?"

"I want to go."

Burbank immediately began shaking his head. "No way, Seth."

Seth knew it would be a lost cause to plead his case, but he tried anyway. "You know my specialties in electronics. I can disable every power source of their operation and they wouldn't be the wiser."

"I know, but I just can't let you go. Wendy would kill me for allowing it."

Seth sighed and sat back in the booth. His wife was Burbank's daughter and like her father, she was strong-willed. She would never understand why he needed to risk his life for others when his family needed him so desperately.

"Think about Wendy and Kira," Burbank implored. "Think about what would happen to them if something happened to you."

"Nothing's going to happen to me."

"Have you forgotten the reason you resigned from Lifesource? The reason you're devoting ninety-five percent of your time to your family?"

"Don't you think I know that?" he admonished with a deep frown, not looking up at Burbank because he felt as if he were about to burst into tears. His six-year old daughter, Kira had a rare form of cancer and she was obsessed with his presence, always calling for him in the night or at the clinic. When he had been away on missions, he always thought he'd come home to discover that she had died, because he had not been there to support her during her treatments. His thoughts of her and lack of concentration on the job nearly cost him his life one too many times. And so he promised Wendy he'd resign from Lifesource and they would live on his Lieutenant's commission. Despite the fact that it was not Kira's fault for her illness, he had resented everything and everyone because he had been forced to give up his career.

Burbank reached for his son-in-law's hand. "I'm sorry, Seth. I know how important Wendy and Kira are to you. I didn't mean to imply that you were shunning them. I just don't want you to take any unnecessary risks. Wendy needs your strength."

Seth nodded and looked up with a sigh. "I know. I was just…Crystal. I was just thinking of my sister. Some months have passed already, probably equating to years for her, and I thought maybe I could find her and see how she was doing."

Burbank patted the back of Seth's hand. "Just because you're not going doesn't mean you can't send along a message to her on the ship."

"Yeah, I'm sure my buddy would take care of that for me. Crystal knew him too. Who knows, maybe she'll decide to come back to Avalon. If she's all right."

"I'm sure she is. Come on, let's go have dinner before Wendy sends out the cavalry."

The Gladden Fields
(Ariedel's POV)

"You were asleep, Legolas, I saw you."

"I may have been asleep, but it was no dream, Ariedel," Legolas stated with extreme conviction. "I saw it as if it was happening that very moment."

"There are no aliens here. We killed them all. Remember?" I wanted to sound reassuring, but I was more frustrated than anything else. "Randle blew up the mountain and the entire hive." I watched Legolas as he got up from the ground and began pacing. After his little freak episode, which scared the living shit out of me, Anwar and everybody else in our company, I called for a rest and pulled Legolas away from the others so we could talk alone. But all I got out of him was that he had witnessed the death of some horses and a man of Rohan. He kept repeating that they were back. The aliens were back and what he had seen was no dream.

Legolas stopped pacing and turned to look at the trees on the east side. "They sense the disturbance."

"No," I said as I stood and walked up to him. "What they sense are your emotions. They know how upset you are. The trees have always been sensitive to you." It amazed me that he had this connection with all the living things around him. The trees, the birds, the little critters that spied on us from behind the bushes. Sometimes he sensed things even from the waters of a stream or a lagoon. It creeped me out sometimes, but it fascinated me at the same time.

He looked down as I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my forehead against his. "Something is not right, Ariedel," he whispered. "I can feel it in the air."

"I wish Lady Galadriel was still around. She would be able to help you figure out what you're feeling." Lady Galadriel had sailed West not too long ago, along with her husband, Lord Celeborn, Arwen's father, Elrond and her two brothers and Gandalf. With them they had taken two Hobbits. Bilbo Baggins and his nephew Frodo, whom I had only met at my wedding to Legolas.

"Forgive me for frightening you, Ariedel. Let us return so I may assure Anwar and Brendan that I am all right." Then he leaned in to give me a lingering kiss on the lips, probably to convince me as well.

For as long as I had known Legolas, never had he been wrong about what he sensed. If he felt a disturbance then I was terrified of what it could mean. Hopefully we weren't going to be attacked by Orcs on our way to Edoras or to Minas Tirith.

Hey, is anyone out there reading? I would love to hear your thoughts so far.