Chapter Three

The next day, everyone was excited beyond belief. It was finally time. Even Amelia couldn't help feeling some excitement. Tom and his team were attaching the anchors for the gravity tethers to the area they would pull up when they "popped the cork" as they said. Sammers was in the control room, looking over things and making sure everything was running smoothly.

"Team Seven, how goes it?" Sammers asked, wiping some sweat from his head.

"Just fine. Getting it locked now," said the female miner's voice. On the grid, Anchor Seven turned from red to blue in the grid, and Sammers sighed.

"Good. Head back when you're done," Sammers instructed, tapping his holopad and entering the data. Amelia watched him as he worked.

Michael Sammers was not the kind of colony manager who sat back and barked orders. He was right there in the Operations office, working as hard as everyone else. That was part of why people liked working with him. Amelia wished the rest of her bosses and supervisors had been half as nice and hardworking as he was.

"Anchor Eight here, ready to go!" said Tom's voice. Sammers smiled as the whole grid was lit up a pleasant green.

"All right. All teams, return to the colony," said Sammers as he wiped his brow again and looked relieved, but not ready to relax just yet. They waited a few minutes until all the teams had radioed in they were safe. Only then did Sammers open a line to the orbiting Castle. "Castle, this is Sammers. All anchors are ready and set. We're ready when you are," said Sammers.

"This is Castle, we're popping the cork," came the reply. Everyone tensed and hoped for the best. There were so many variables involved with planet cracking, things could go wrong even with all the greatest precautions. The anchors opened and bright blue lines of pure gravitons shot up into the sky. "Commencing planet crack in five, four, three, two, one," counted down the controller on the USG Castle. The whole area shook as the rock cracked and began to lift. People in Operations cheered as the huge, continent-sized chunk of rock rose skyward. "This is Castle. We have a solid hold. Everything stable. Good job," said Captain Giles on a holoscreen, his waxed, curled mustache a source of amusement to many. Some privately called him "Snidely Whiplash" for his distinctive look. Sammers looked at Amelia and grinned as everyone cheered. She smiled as well as they watched the rock ascend into the sky. She was glad she was worried for nothing.

XXX

Down in the tunnels, the miners returned to work. There was a few more things to do, even though planet crack had started. They needed to survey other areas before the next chunk was brought up. A group of miners entered the tunnels, gear in hand, wearing their distinctive Miner RIGs.

Warton sighed as he leaned against a forklift.

"Hey, you okay?" asked a female miner. Warton nodded, but his body language said otherwise.

"You don't look it. Why don't you go see Amelia gain. We got it covered down here," said another male miner.

"Yeah, I'll take care of the F-91 today," said Jenkins. Warton looked at him.

"You driving that thing is a recipe for disaster," he shot back. Jenkins shook his helmeted head and held up a hand like a Boy Scout.

"I promise she won't have a scratch on her!" The other miners eyed him, but looking at Warton, relented, albeit very reluctantly.

"Any damage comes right out of your paycheck," Warton shot back before Melanie helped him to his feet and to head for Medical. Jenkins smiled and waved to them happily. He looked at the only other remaining miner, Todd, who groaned.

"If you screw up anything, I'll chuck you into the crater," groused the other miner as he went off to his shift. Jenkins mockingly saluted, then turned to walk to where they had left the drilling rig.

XXX

The tunnels were still pretty dark, even with the installed lights, and even then, the areas he had to go to were dark since they had not yet put lights in them. But, Jenkins was not afraid of the dark, not even remotely. He had no idea why some people were. It was stupid. It was just dark, and the worst fear was maybe tripping over something. He brought out his flashlight, just so he wouldn't trip. Sure enough, the huge machine was right where they left it. He grinned under his helmet. It would be fun to drive the thing on his own. As he was about to head to the ladder, he noticed something a small ways away from the back of the rig. He stopped and went to see. If it was a dropped rock, he should mark the area as a potential falling rock or even cave-in hazard. As he got close, he furrowed his brows. It looked smooth, and too regular to be a rock. As he came closer, he shined his flashlight on it. He blinked. It was most certainly anything but a rock.

It was shiny, almost wet. It was roughly oval in shape, and reminded him a bit of leather. He guessed it was, maybe a little less than a meter long. At one end were something that looked kind of like roots of a plant. At the other was something like a closed flower. His jaw dropped open as he realized he was looking at something alive, and something not human. He was the first human being to find alien life! Jenkins' smile almost broke through his helmet. He couldn't believe it.

In all of humans' exploration of space, all the planets they had visited, they had never found any evidence whatsoever of any alien life. Not even bacteria. Jenkins was almost jumping up and down, excited. He flashed his light up and wondered if maybe it had fallen from the ceiling, somewhere. Maybe it was a fossil. Even if so, that proved there had been alien life at one time. But when he looked back at it, with how wet it looked, there was no way it could be a fossil. Either way, he was going to be famous! Maybe they'd name it after him. He came closer, and shined his light on the middle, grinning. His grin turned to awe as, right before his eyes, the middle of the ovoid turned semi-transparent. He could see movement. His jaw dropped open again. It was still alive. His first thought was to radio in and tell them what he found. But, then, nobody might believe him. What if someone else came while he went to tell them?

He could send them a video over his RIG! He was about to, when a wet sound drew his attention back. He looked down as one end of the ovoid peeled open, like a fleshy flower. His eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets in shock and amazement. He came closer, realizing he was the first human to see a real, living alien lifeform. Even Altman never actually met a real alien, just what they supposedly left behind. He came around and knelt down to shine his light inside, wondering what it looked like, images of a huge, beautiful alien flower blooming bright orange and pink entered his mind. He shined his light into the opening, noticing how the petals seemed to be lined with what looked like veins and flesh. Before his mind could process this further, something lunged out at his face faster than he could blink.

XXX

Amelia took Warton's blood pressure as he sat with his RIG removed. His RIG and the digital tools said he was fine, but clearly he wasn't. Amelia looked at his blood pressure, and got an old-fashioned stethoscope.

"Okay, breathe in for me," she said. He did as she asked. Her brows furrowed as she moved the stethoscope and listened. She removed it and stood straight. "You have diminished lung capacity on your right lung," she said as she noted it down. He stared at her, Warton an older man approaching his fifties.

"How did that happen?" he asked. Amelia looked at him.

"Likely your accident. Even with your RIG, can't have a couple hundred pounds of rock crash onto you with no effect." She tapped on her holopad and sent it order to the Pharmacy. "I'm prescribing some Somatic Gel with painkiller and bed rest," she said. He gawked at her.

"Are you kidding me? I just got back to work!" She smiled at him.

"Don't worry. You know Sam is great about this. I'll message him, say it's work-related, which it is, and he'll have someone else cover for you." That made Warton feel a tiny bit better.

"Ugh, but Jenkins went to get the drilling rig, and I'm not comfortable leaving the likes of him alone with that kind of machinery." Amelia giggled, knowing what he was talking about. Jenkins had a penchant for getting into trouble. She still remembered when he got his hand stuck in one of the vending machines.

"I'll tell Sam and ask him to have someone check on him for you, okay?" Warton sighed and nodded.

"I trust you," he replied as he got his RIG back on. Amelia smiled as she tapped on her holopad and entered the data before she dialed Sammers.

XXX

Melanie and Todd groaned as they walked down the tunnels.

"Great, why do we have to babysit Jenkins?" she groused.

"Maybe because they want to prevent him destroying half the colony in that monster?" Todd shot back. Melanie looked up at him, eye slits of her visor shining.

"Yeah, I suppose so. But why have us check on him in person? Couldn't we just message him? It's a long way to walk!" Todd tilted his head.

"Maybe, but someone's gotta keep an eye on the troublemaker, too." Melanie groaned again.

"And we happened to draw the short end of the stick," she groused.

"Right," Todd replied. They walked in the dim light, until the installed lights vanished and they needed to switch to flashlights. Melanie shined her light around the tunnel.

"Hey, shouldn't Jenkins have installed some lights here?" she asked. Todd glanced around as they walked.

"Yeah, probably slacking off again," he muttered.

They came around a bend in the tunnel, and found the F-91 drilling rig sitting there, not running. That struck them as odd. Todd tapped his radio. "Jenkins, you read me?" he asked. There was no response. They both began to tense.

"Hey, bottomfeeder!" Melanie yelled. No reply. They looked at each other, and then back at the motionless drilling rig, shining their lights on it. Todd glanced at the shorter female miner, then advanced. Even from this distance, they could feel something was very wrong. Todd checked one side of the drilling rig, Melanie checked the other.

"Jenkins!" Todd called. Melanie looked around, shined her flashlight, and was about to move on when she caught the glimpse of the pale blue light of a RIG. "Todd!" she yelled.

"What?!"

"I found him!" she said she rushed to where he lay on the ground. Todd came running not far behind. His heart fell when he saw him laying on his side, back facing them. They had only found him by the blue glow of his RIG. The spinal display of his RIG looked full. Melanie knelt and turned him over. Todd was shocked when she screamed and leaped back.

"What?! What is it?" he asked as he ran up, and saw the reason.

The face of Jenkins' RIG had been melted away. But instead of the familiar face, something very unfamiliar greeted them.

XXX

Amelia had hardly finished filing her latest report, when an alarm sounded. She jumped as the siren wailed and a yellow light flashed and spun. She looked around.

"What the hell?" Suddenly, a vid-window sprang into existence in front of her.

"Amelia, it's Camp. We've got a situation," the doctor panted.

"What? What's going on?"

"We got a Code Green here. Jenkins is down and he's got something attached to him," replied Dr. Camp, his face covered by a Medical RIG. Amelia blinked in confusion and shock.

"What do you mean 'something attached to him'? I need a clearer definition." Dr. Camp sighed.

"Look for yourself," he said as he moved the vid-screen so she could see into the Quarantine Stretcher. The video was grainy with static, but she could see the thing where it had somehow gotten through the face of Jenkin's RIG. It looked like some kind of crustacean.

"Nobody touch it!" she ordered.

"Ain't gotta tell me twice!" said a miner in the background.

"We also found something, some kind of pod. Clearly organic. We think it came from inside. We put it in a Stasis crate," added Camp. Amelia's heart was pounding.

"All right, good. Is he alive?" she asked.

"Yes, his RIG is indicating stable vitals," Camp replied. Amelia nodded.

"Okay, I'm prepping ICU pod Four. I'll call West, tell him and make sure the path is clear. Get him here as soon as you can," she said as she hurried to put on the proper RIG and prep the pod.

"Yes, Ma'am! We're en route. ETA six minutes," said an EMT before they closed the link. Amelia finished donning the protective suit. As she fastened it closed, she couldn't help thinking on the name of it: E-T RIG. Emergency-Trauma RIG. She smiled ruefully. How ironic.

XXX

West and P-Sec kept the crowd away as Medical personnel wheeled Jenkins in the covered stretcher as fast as they could, almost dashing. Amelia and everyone in the whole Medical center were geared up and waiting. Camp was panting as he and the rest almost bolted through the door. She could hear a few shouts from the halls, asking what was going on. They closed and locked the doors behind them. Amelia, Russel, Judy and Jessica were all in full RIGs and waiting in the ICU pod.

The pod had thick, bulletproof glass that ran from the floor to ceiling, and full decontamination and quarantine features. The team of EMTs moved the covered stretcher over to the pod, raising the legs and locked it into the rotating table assembly. They stepped back as the pod closed and a small buzzer sounded.

"Decontamination in progress," said a mechanical voice, the gathered people sprayed down with mist of chemicals to kill any pathogens. Amelia hoped they would work against whatever this might be. Once the spray stopped, Amelia pressed the button, and the cover of the stretcher retracted, and they got their first look.

"Whoa," said Russel as they saw the thing through Jenkins' RIG. It was a pale beige color, almost the color of flesh. They couldn't see much of it, as it had somehow got inside his helmet. On closer inspection, they found out how.

The sides of the helmet, around the creature, were actually melted. Amelia's eyes narrowed as she examined Jenkins.

"His dig team found him like this," said Dr. Camp. "They also found that close by." They turned and looked at the strange pod, inside of a Stasis crate.

"Holy shit," Judy said as they saw the thing. Amelia's eyes went back to Jenkins. She tapped her wrist and looked at his vitals through his RIG. Oddly enough, everything looked stable.

"He's alive and breathing, that's a start," said Amelia. She moved a tray close on its attached arm, check her tools and looked at everyone. "Okay, let's get his RIG off," she said. They then proceeded to remove his suit. There was no problem with this, but when it came to the helmet, they could not pull it off due to the thing inside. Amelia had just the thing for this. A special laser cutter for when they had to remove a damaged RIG from a patient. She checked it, and then looked at Russel. "Russel, hold his head still," she instructed. He did as she asked, but Judy and Jessica stayed well away. She fired up the laser and touched it to the base of the neck of the helmet. She ran it up and just shy of the opening. She then continued down the top and long the back. Once done, she grabbed one side and Russel the other. She nodded, and they pulled. The helmet cracked like an egg, and revealed the nightmare coiled within.

"Oh, fuck," Jessica said as they pulled off the halves of the helmet to reveal the creature.

They all jumped when it moved, coiling its long tail tighter around Jenkins' neck, and its long, spider-like fingers tighter around his skull. At least there was no need to question if it was alive.

"What the mother fuck is that?" Russel asked.

"My newest nightmare," said Judy. Amelia brought down a wand from the hanging overhead tools and set up up to scan him.

"Let's test our newest gear," she said as they glanced at the Weyland-Yutani scanning and X-ray machine, which the unit would feed into remotely. She then slowly ran the wand down Jenkin's body from head to toe and back. They watched the holographic screen flicker to life and display Jenkin's insides, as well as those of the creature.

"Oh my god," said Jessica.

"Ew!" Judy gagged. The image clearly displayed the complex innards of the creature, and the long tube it had down Jenkins' throat and inside his trachea. Amelia's eyes widened as she looked. She then looked and watched as Jenkins breathed in and out. She noticed how the flaps at the sides of the creature seemed to pulse and inflate with every breathe. She looked back up at the screen.

"It's breathing for him," Amelia said. They looked at her. "Somehow, it's keeping him alive. Those lobes seem to act like lungs of some kind." They looked at Jenkins' unconscious form, then back to the screen.

"Wait a minute. It attacks him, gets through his helmet, puts the poor bastard in a coma, then keeps him alive? That don't make any sense," said Russel. Dr. Camp shook his head and scratched the top of his RIG.

"I can't figure it out, either. Only thing I can think of is maybe it's not compatible with a human," he mused. The others looked at him.

"Not compatible?" Judy squawked. Dr. Camp looked at her.

"I'm no Xenobiologist, just a guess. Who knows how something alien lives?" Amelia looked at it, and the scan.

"I want a full blood panel. Test for everything and anything. Top to bottom. If the scans can't tell us what this thing is doing, maybe chemistry can," said Amelia as she got a syringe and drew some blood. She then handed the filled vial to Judy, who took it, put it in a bag with a Biohazard symbol and went to process it. Amelia looked at the small creature, and furrowed her brow. This was going to be an even longer day than she had thought.

Author's note: I want to give an extra big thanks to my Mom, as I was able to ask her questions how a real medical team would react to something like the Alien. Her experience as an ER Trauma Nurse was invaluable.