Another chapter, as promised! Hope you are all doing well amidst the pandemic. In the meantime, I'll do my best to occupy... well, a chunk of your time. Let us continue, shall we?
Kira made her way across the winding paths as quickly as she could. She knew she had to act quickly to prevent Meyers' plan from coming to fruition.
"There's already been enough people in my life dead!" Kira said to herself. "I won't let anymore suffer, and I won't let Meyers have the satisfaction!"
As she continued making her way along the path, she began to sense some human brainwaves with her xenomorph telepathy, distantly, but still there. They were of a particular pattern that she was quite familiar with, however...
"...Sam!" Kira uttered.
Immediately, she made her way in the direction from where the faint brainwaves were emanating. She could tell that Sam was quite anxious, whatever she was doing out here. After a bit, Kira came to a road, and sensed Sam's brainwaves getting closer, along with a lone SUV. She flagged the driver down, and sure enough, it was her flatmate, pulling up on the curb.
"Kira!" Sam said. "I was getting worried. What happened out here?"
Kira shook her head. "Nothing good. And it's about to get a whole lot worse if we don't do something soon!"
"Like what?" Sam asked.
"I'll explain on the way back," Kira said, climbing into the passenger seat. "Let's just get back to the house, and step on it!"
On the drive back, Kira explained Meyer's plan to trigger nuclear warheads all across the globe, along with disabling nuclear powerplant failsafes to result in meltdowns as an added measure, all by tricking Sir Peter Weyland into triggering it in place of what he, and the public believes, will distribute WY OS Omicron over the internet.
Sam bit her lower lip, gripping the wheel tightly. "Man, this is getting crazy...!"
Kira sighed. "I know, and I'm sorry that you had to get mixed up in all this, Sam. I really am."
"So, what are we gonna do about all this?" Sam asked.
Pulling out Margret's sat-phone, Kira accessed the Weyland-Yutani website to determine when the unveiling event would take place. It turned out her fear was correct; it was going to be taking place that afternoon, at the Austin convention center. In fact, the event had already started, with the company showcasing their new technologies to be released later that year.
"We're going to need to get there and warn the Weyland employees about what's really going on!" Kira said.
"Okay," Sam said, getting a proper hold on the wheel, "I'll get us on the interstate, and hopefully we can make it in time."
Meyers prepped himself up by procuring a business suit, while Baldwin was stationed outside the center in a vehicle by the former.
"Keep an eye out for any sign of trouble," Meyers instructed. "This must be absolutely flawless if we are to pull off the true rectification of this flawed, diseased world!"
"Got it, boss!" Baldwin said.
With that, Meyers made his way into the building, while Baldwin patrolled in a security vehicle Meyers managed to obtain through some bribery.
Meyers went through security, and after a bit of wandering around through the massive crowd of eager tech enthusiasts and Weyland consumers, he made his way to the private executive box. The guards let him in upon identification, and waiting inside was the CEO of Weyland-Yutani, Sir Peter Weyland himself.
"Ah," Weyland said upon entry, standing from his seat at the table, "Dr. Meyers. Glad you could make it."
Weyland extended a hand, which Meyers shook.
"Pleasure's all mine, sir," Meyers said.
"So," Weyland began, holding up a tablet detailing the specs of WY OS Omicron, "we are preparing to release our newest operating system to the public. And from what I understand, you contributed a great deal to it?"
Meyers nodded, smirking. "I believe you could say that..."
"Sir, please...!" Kira said to the guard at the entrance of the Austin convention center. "There is a dangerous man in this building! He's posing a major threat to everyone associated with Weyland-Yutani!"
"Miss, I've already told you," the guard said, "I cannot let you in without a pass."
"You don't understand," Sam said. "Everyone might be in danger!"
The two of them agreed not to tell the truth, as they believed anyone might think they are crazy or something.
"You gotta believe us!" Kira said.
"There's gonna be trouble if nothing get's done about this!" Sam said.
The guard folded his arms, his gaze stern. "Listen, ladies... you two are to get off the premises right now, or you'll be detained!"
"But sir-" Kira spoke.
"GO!" The guard shouted, pointing the opposite direction.
Knowing it was not a good idea to keep arguing, the two young women walked away, disappointed.
"What do we do now?" Sam asked.
"I'm thinking!" Kira said, pulling out the sat-phone.
All they could do at this point was access the live stream of the event, as they had been trying various methods of entry for a while now, to no avail. Unfortunately, they found out that now was the time for the flagship unveiling event to begin...
The crowd applauded as Peter Weyland made his way onto the stage, making his way up to a pedestal with a single, touchscreen button on it. Following behind him was Meyers.
"Thank you," Weyland spoke, prompting the audience to quiet down. "Now, I'm sure all of you have become fairly familiar with WY's operating systems, given how we have dominated the computer technology industry, and have become one of the biggest competitors of Microsoft, Apple, and Google.
"And I'm pleased to announce that, in a few moments, you will have free access to our newest, most up-to-date, and most secure computer platform ever developed. And a big contributor to this milestone is my longtime colleague and noteworthy member of WY, Dr. Huge My-Ass."
The audience laughed at the slipup, and Meyers bit his lower lip as he recalled all the times everyone addressed him with that slur.
"Oh, sorry," Weyland said, chuckling, "I meant 'Hugh Meyers.' Yes, that's his name. So, anyway... all that I have to do to get this revolutionary software, OS Omicron, to each and everyone of you, is press the button on this pedestal, which will directly transmit the software package to the official Weyland-Yutani website for download."
"Oh, no!" Kira said. "It's all over!"
"He's gonna do it!" Sam remarked.
Weyland held his hand over the touchscreen. "...For the future of WY, and technology!"
He then touched the button, and after a few moments... there was a confirmation on screen, indicating that the signal successfully went through, making the operating system available publicly.
Meyers' eye went wide, and his jaw hung agape. This was not at all what he expected to occur.
No! He thought. What happened? Everything was supposed to go up in fire and radiation!
Kira and Sam, needless to say, were equally confused.
"Wait..." Kira said, "...was it just a lie, what they told me?"
"Hold up, look at the screen!" Sam said. "Something else popped up!"
On the stage display behind Weyland and Meyers, a popup appeared:
ERROR-205: SIGNAL NOT SENT
COULD NOT LOCATE "HM_NuclearDetonation. obj"
COULD NOT LOCATE "HM_PowerplantSafetyDisable. obj"
NO SUCH DIRECTORY EXISTS IN "HUGHMEYERS_SIGMA_83" FILE DOMAIN.
"Huh?" Weyland uttered as his eyes skimmed over the popup. "What is this?"
Confused babble started among the crowd. Weyland turned back to face his childhood bully victim.
"Meyers!" He said. "What's the meaning of this? What's this about 'nuclear detonation' or 'powerplant safeties'?"
Meyers darted his gaze about, not sure what to do; he had not planned to be exposed like this. Hastily, he started walking offstage. Weyland followed after him, however, leaving a confused, dissonant crowd growing in volume.
"Meyers!" Weyland said. "Meyers, stop! That's an order!"
And the former doctor did stop... but turned to face his superior, winding his fist back, and connecting with his mouth. Finally, after all these years, he released his pent-up rage against his bully. Weyland stumbled backward, clutching his jaw.
Meyers continued on his way, exiting the stage area, and pulling out his radio.
"Baldwin," he spoke, "Plan Alpha is compromised! We need to retreat immediately! I'm exposed!"
After a moment, a response came through: "Copy, Meyers. Meet me at the west gate, and we'll go straight for the backup."
"Alright," Meyers said. "Just be prompt about it!"
"I don't get it..." Kira said, "...what happened?"
"Think he might've forgotten a semicolon when hacking the whole thing?" Sam suggested.
"Actually..." came a familiar male voice from behind them, "...he doesn't keep his login credentials securely stored."
The two girls turned to see...
"...KAI?!" Kira exclaimed. "Oh my God! You're alive!"
"Alive?" Sam asked.
Kai smirked. "Let's just say... I had a big splashdown. But one thing to remember about falling toward water... angle yourself upright, keep your legs straight and together, toes pointed down. Fortunately, the water in that ravine was nice and deep, so I didn't get smashed by the bedrock at the bottom."
"And..." Kira spoke, still surprised by her friend's sudden reappearance, "...d-did you stop Dr. Meyers?"
Kai nodded. "After I swam back to a bank where I could climb back to the top of the ravine on a trail, I realized Meyers kidnapped you, based on your brainwaves, and traced you to the abandoned building. I overheard everything, and planned to come in and help you... but, clearly, you know how to get things done yourself, Kira.
"So, knowing I didn't have much time, I went to the convention center, accessed a WY terminal, looked up Meyers' profile, and from there, access the source code to find the domain host. From there, it was simply a matter of keylogger records, and as luck would have it, I happened to locate the two .obj files Meyers recently put in the execution batch for OS Omicron. I simply permanently deleted them before the event began."
"Wow," Sam remarked, "one step ahead... you're pretty good, Kai!"
"Huh?" Kira uttered, holding up the sat-phone again. "What's this?"
The live stream was still going. It seemed that the event feed was cut off and replaced with a reporter.
"There appears to be speculation that Dr. Hugh Meyers of Weyland-Yutani was involved in an attempted terrorist attack, as execution of OS Omicron's distribution also triggered an error code containing Meyers' username and suspicious filenames hinting at transmitting a signal intended to cause potentially a nuclear explosion.
"Authorities are now in pursuit of Meyers who, moments ago, left the convention center with the apparent aid of an accomplice occupying a security car. State troopers, the Austin Police Department, and federal authorities are now in pursuit of the alleged perpetrators of an attempted attack. We will update the news status upon receiving more information."
Kai raised his eyebrows. "Well, looks like they're on the run now."
"Guess that means we don't need to worry about them anymore?" Sam asked.
Kira shrugged. "I guess not. Well, Kai... I guess we really owe you one, being able to stay ahead of us like that."
"I just did what had to be done," Kai said. "Anyway... you ladies got a ride back? No way am I heading back on foot from here."
"Sure," Sam said, "I'll drop you off at your place before we head on back to ours."
"And hopefully," Kira said, "we can finally put this whole nightmare behind us..."
Seems like they've finally stopped Meyers... or have they? I'll be getting back to you guys real soon with another chapter! Keep holding on...