CHAPTER 6
June 22nd, Hadley's Hope Operation's block
Newt and Tim followed their mother till Operations block, Dr. Kent had called Anne about Russ medical condition and Anne had rushed there. Although she had said Newt and Timmy stay home, they had followed anyway, wanting to know about their father's health.
-"Did you know they'll let us in, Timmy?" Newt asked, walking on the corridor right below med-lab. A technician was welding a metal plate on the floor and ceiling.
-"Careful kids!" he yelled.
The two climbed the stairs to the second level, just outside the medical area. Deputy Ramirez and another Colonial marshal were there, guarding the entrance.
-"Sorry kids, you can't get in" Deputy Ramirez said.
-"But, we want to see Dad" Newt begged.
-"Only authorized personnel. Go home; your mother is there, please." Ramirez insisted.
-"Just obey Deputy Ramirez, kids." Mary Coles appeared on the hallway, she was carrying her pest control equipment; Ramirez let her pass inside.
- o -
After Dr. Kent had called Anne about the status of her husband, he called Mary asking her for helping him capturing the escaped parasite. He explained the situation and told her the organism was dangerous; he want it contained before another colonist was attacked. In fact, Topher Wilson had returned from the warehouse were terraformer Derrick Russell gave him a nahtrolite solution -basically sodium bicarbonate -which potentially neutralize the creature's acidic fluids.
-"Are you sure that thing is contained inside the observation room, Doctor?" Mary asked, pulling her Arious motion tracker from the bag.
-"The room is sealed. There has to be hiding inside, under the cabinets or perhaps up in the monitor's beam, near the sprinkler system." Kent said, "There's no way it has escaped."
-"Is Russ okay?" Anne was worried about her husband.
-"Seem he's fine, Anne. He's breathing, but we can't enter until that thing is contained." He explained "Mary, are you sure you can capture the little acid filled bastard?"
-"I only need one thing: Where it is" she said, pressing the baton's button and an electric spark surged from its double tip. After that she turned on the motion tracker and the black screen depicted range and position data in green. She swept the medical bay to test calibrate it. Anne, Marshal Wilson and Dr. Kent appeared as green dots on the screen, she pointed it towards the observation room and the device shown no targets besides a faint signal from Russ Jorden.
-"Where's it?" Marshal Wilson asked.
-"Dunno, it's not moving" Mary hit the device with her palm, the screen flickered but didn't show the creature "Slept or fled"
-"We had to get inside" Wilson said, "No other option, get ready. Doctor, Anne, stay here."
The Marshal opened the door and he entered, followed by Mary, both holding stun batons. Dr. Kent closed the door behind them.
-"Come, little bastard, I have something for you" Mary said, brandishing the baton "this won't hurt... well, maybe"
-"Careful Coles, that thing is not a rat" Wilson warned her.
They reached the bunk in which Russ laid unconscious, peered down it and the adjacent cabinet; Nothing. They moved to the far edge of the room and checked the air vents, they weren't burnt or opened. The room was sealed.
Mary turned up, she wasn't sure if the creature could climb but given her resemblance to a scorpion or a spider, she supposed so. The panels of the false ceiling were neither moved nor broken; the creature hadn't hidden there. Mary feared that the little bastard had climbed into the open space between the roof and the complex's hull and escaped, the creature could be anywhere.
-"Where the fuck did it go?" Wilson asked. He was standing just below the monitors suspended by a metal beam next to the fire detection system. A segmented long tail appeared from the space between the cables and fell on the back of the Colonial Marshal followed by a beige-yellowish body with long legs.
-"Son of a –!" Mary pounced on him ready to shock it with the baton, but before that happened, Wilson threw the little creature to the floor where it remained with its legs curled up.
-"Wait! Wait! It's dead" Wilson shouted, examining the alien. He touched the creature's ventral part with the baton, but nothing happened.
-"Fuck, it scared me." Mary relaxed. "Almost zapped you Marshal."
-"Don't worry, Coles. I've seen worse things. It reminded me of my days as a colonial marine and that bug hunt in Helene-215. Hell, those Krites' bites hurt like a bitch." he said and he turned to the observation window gesturing "Doctor, it's safe, little fucker is dead."
Doctor Kent and Anne came inside, followed by two more technicians from the med-lab. As the doctor checked Russ, the technicians picked up the creature.
-"Well, it seems that the parasite did not leave permanent damage, in fact its vital signs seem to be normalizing." Dr. Kent said "He'll wake up soon; anyway, we will check it again with the auto-doc"
-"Thank you, Doctor" Anne was relieved
The two walked towards the analysis lab and Kent admired the little monster lying over a stained steel tray before an optical microscope. He touched one of the finger-like legs, it was completely rigid. The proboscis in his belly was lax, with a fleshy consistency. Now he could observe it better, sprouting from the body through an elongated opening almost of vaginal shape.
The doctor grabbed his auscultation equipment and examined the creature's innards.
-"No acidic fluids, seems it neutralizes on the creature's death, probably by releasing an alkali solution producing the usual exothermic reaction." He dictated "Look, here, this rigor mortis due to the heat generated by the acid-base exothermic reaction.
-"At least we know they're sensitive to heat" a technician said
-"If the acidic fluids are based on fluorine it will highly reactive to heat." The other technician concluded.
-"Good to know" Mary said "If there are more of those parasites out there, a good old flamethrower will do the job"
-"I'm not sure it's a parasite anymore." Dr. Kent said without taking his sight off the microscope. "No internal organs, no stomach, intestines, or even a heart. It's just an empty sac inside and nerves. What's the purpose of this organism?"
On the observation room, someone coughed. "Dr. Kent, It is Russ, he's waking up" Anne's voice interrupted them.
-"Ok, let's see how he is doing. Put that thing on the container, we will check it out later" Dr. Kent ordered, and the technician put the dead creature inside the nahtrolite solution filled tank.
- o –
The two kids went back on the housing block; there they ran into Aaron Lidecker.
-"I heard your dad is in medical" he said.
-"Yeah, but they didn't let us see him. Ramirez is guarding the door." Tim responded.
-"I know a way in. Let's go" Aaron invited them, Timmy promptly followed him.
-"But… Mom said we weren't to leave our quarters" Newt hesitated. She suspected what was that way Aaron was talking about.
-"Newt, are you coming or not?" Aaron asked, impatient.
-"See you later Rebecca" Tim said waving his hand, and followed Aaron.
-"Tim, don't leave me" she begged, and after five seconds, she ran after them "Guys, wait for me!"
Aaron stopped at a metal grate which reads "Maintenance access 02".
-"Aaron, we've never gone this way before." Newt said, somewhat worried.
-"Quit your whining, are you scared?" Aaron mocked her, and then addressed to Tim "Maybe you oughta send your sister back home"
-"Just, leave her alone. Come Rebecca, This is the way to the Med-Lab; don't you want to see Dad?" Tim said, and then encouraged her and he entered the tunnel after Aaron, second later Newt ventured inside too.
Unlike the ventilation ducts, the maintenance tunnels were slightly larger so that engineers and their equipment could enter them. Water and gas pipes as well as power lines ran through them, Aaron and the brothers used it to guide themselves, taking care of not touching the exposed lines. They'd get to a vertical shaft with a ladder formed by steps welded to its smooth wall. They climbed it to the second level.
-"This way, follow me" Aaron said, and continued crawling. Overhead, there was a series of metal grates, Newt heard voices.
-"Shhhh, were here." Aaron told them,
He continued crawling towards a small open area where the conduct it rose to the ground level of the medical area. From there they could see almost everything inside the med lab; Dr. Kent was talking to Anne and Russ, who was already awake, but still disoriented and weak. They stopped and listening carefully.
- o –
Hello readers, welcome back. Thanks for your suggestions, some of them I have already considered, but the story so far is the alien is about to burst in the next chapter. Here I wanted a brief novelization and expanded scene of Newt, Tim and Aaron from the comic Newt's Tale, give them a reason to crawl in the ducts to see Russ in the med-bay. Also the med bay scene was similar to that of Alien when the facehugger disappeared and Aliens where Newt and Ripley were trapped there. I wanted Marshal Wilson and Mary Coles interact in hunting the facehugger (They didn't know it is dead yet) and a reason for them to be there when the alien finally burst.
I had made adjusts to the last chapter, when the acid blood melted the med-bay's floor, there was a little dialog from a worker who was almost hurt. Another thing I want to show is the day/night cycle in the moon, very important for the story. In Colonial Marines technical manual it's stated that days and nights lasts 24 hours and 73 hours of twilight. That give us June 22nd when Russ was attacked was before sunset so the alien would burst during nighttime.
I want a very brutal and graphic scene for the birth of the queen so maybe it takes a while because I don't want a repetition of any scene in the movies. Meanwhile, you can read and review my other stories: Alien Isolation: Monster Maze, an Unnoficial novelization, Predator: The last Hunt and Prometheus: New Discoveries, all on the same shared continuity.