Everyone trained their guns on Zorphus, but he only sneered at them as a siren started going off.
"What's that?" Slate growled. "What did you do?"
"If you were planning on leaving," Zorphus said, "then I suggest you try now before everyone has been released from their pathetic human forms."
No one bothered to ask him what he meant. They ran out the way they had come.
"Screw this," Smith was saying as they ran down the corridor. "I say we just take one of the ships. Fuck this place and their freaky cult."
"I would agree," Slate said, " but we have a problem." She had come to a halt because several dozen of the hotel workers had gathered in the corridor, blocking the way. They did not appear angry, because they were all smiling. They were holding different objects - knives, wrenches, crowbar, staplers...whatever they had picked up from their workstations.
"What the hell?" Lee muttered.
The workers started beating themselves with whatever they were holding, screaming in unison, "For the Release!"
The self-inflicted injuries triggered the chestbursters, and the little aliens came shooting out of their hosts simultaneously in a spectacular shower of blood.
"We're fucked," Johner grunted.
"No," Ripley said. "I'll distract them. I'm the monsters' mommy, remember? But you - all of you - go."
"Ripley, you don't -" Call started to say, but Ripley turned away and walked toward the swarm of newborn xenomorphs.
"Let's go!" Johner said urgently, pushing Vriess's wheelchair toward a side door. Call took one last look at Ripley, then followed the others.
Ripley knew the newborns would not harm her. She was less confident about the two full-grown xenomorphs that punched their way up through the floor. She held her ground and waited, letting them smell her. One of them was a drone. It picked her up gently and carried her back into the darkness from which it had come. The other xenomorph and the newborns followed. It was time to build a nest.
Slate led the group out onto the landing deck, and she pointed to one of the shuttles.
"Smith, you think you can hotwire that?"
Probably," he said.
"Then do it. Lee, you cover him. The rest of us will grab as many supplies as we can from that supply depot over there."
"Copy that, Captain."
Lee and Smith ran over to the shuttle to secure it. Meanwhile, Slate and the others plundered the supply depot for weapons and food. Call was clipping a grenade belt around her waist when she turned, eyes widening.
"Captain!" She shouted, but it was too late.
A xenomorph had crept up behind her. Its inner jaws shot out and punched through her skull before she could react.
"No!" Dawson screamed.
"Shit!" Johner shouted. He pulled out his shotgun thermos and blasted at the creature, destroying its shoulder, but not killing it. It shrieked in pain and lunged toward Johner, but Vriess shot it dead before it could reach him.
"I guess I owe you one," Johner grumbled.
Vriess shrugged. "We're a crew, dammit. We gotta stick together."
Lee came running up,stopping short when he saw the Captain's body on the ground.
"Avery, she's…is she?"
"I'm sorry," Call said softly. "We were attacked."
Lee swallowed. "No, that's okay. She...she knew the risks of joining the military. At least you killed the fucker that got her. I also rigged the other ships to explode after we lift off. I figure we need to blow this cursed place to kingdom come."
"Then we better get the hell out of here," Johner grumbled.
Call hesitated. "Give me twenty minutes. I'm going back for Ripley."
"Like hell you are," Johner snapped. You're just one little girl. A synthetic, sure, but those fuckers can kill you just the same."
"I don't care," Call retorted. "Ripley's saved us how many times now? I think it's about time someone saves her."
"Ripley's great," Vriess said, "But I ain't going back in there."
"Then stay and guard the ship. If I'm not back in twenty minutes, take off."
"I'm coming with you," Dawson said, grabbing Vriess's rifle.
"What are you going to do?" Johner snorted. "You're a doctor."
Dawson narrowed her eyes as she chambered a round. "Not just a doctor. I'm Australian, love."
Ripley slid out of the drone's arms. They had come to what looked like a storeroom, but this one had been rigged up with something like an assembly line...but it was pumping out xenomorph eggs. A drone stood at the end, calmly moving the newly cloned eggs to an empty space on the floor, where another xenomorph was extruding a glossy resin from its mouth to make the nest.
The multitude of newborns had dispersed, clustering in the shadows to sleep and grow. Ripley did not know what the xenomorphs expected of her, since the machine was generating the eggs, but she was content to remain. Her friends were alive. That was all that mattered.
"You!"
Ripley sighed in exasperation. She knew that mechanical voice.
"Yes, Zorphus. Me." She turned to face him. He was standing with Charlie the xenomorph, who was ineffectively dabbing the ground with its mop.
Zorphus was angry. His eye was flashing with anger, his facehugger flushed. "What are you doing in this most holy of sanctuaries, you blasphemer?"
"I was...invited," Ripley said with a smile. She walked towards him. "In all honesty, I don't know why you don't like me, Zorphus. All of these creatures came from me, so you and I should at least be friends."
"What you say is impossible," Zorphus growled. "These blessed beings couldn't come from you, unless you were dead.
"Is it?" Ripley asked. She ripped open the front of her shirt and traced her scar with a finger.
"Or is what you say impossible?" She grinned darkly. "I once carried a chestburster, Zorphus. but it was removed from me...and I still live in the form that you see now. Having these things rip out of your chest is not elevation. It's procreation. No host survives it, either in body or soul."
Zorphus's eye darkened. "You are a liar. A false prophet!"
"This isn't a religion," Ripley replied. She walked over to Charlie. "This isn't one of your followers, nor are any of the aliens. If it wasn't for that thing on your face, they would have killed you like anyone else."
Zorphus didn't respond, but he noticed a monkey wrench on the ground.
"If what you say is true," he said casually, "then why are you still alive?"
"Because they are in me," Ripley said. "Behind my eyes. In my blood. I am a hybrid. And you, Zorphus, are a mere wannabe."
"Blasphemy!" Zorphus screeched. He scooped up the wrench and swung at Ripley, who dodged. Zorphus swung again, but the blow was blocked...by Charlie's tail. The xenomorph snarled and lunged at Zorphus, who didn't even have time to scream before he was decapitated by the creature's jaws. It flung his body away, where it was swarmed by the hungry newborns. Charlie paused to smell Ripley, as if it was making sure she was unharmed. Then it bounded away, followed by other grown xenomorphs. Ripley wondered where they were going, until she heard gunfire echoing through the chamber. She headed toward it, wondering if it was the USM. There were a couple explosions, some automatic fire, then silence. Ripley rounded a corner, her face lighting up in surprise. Call, Johner, and Dawson were standing over the steaming remains of the older xenomorphs. Call waved.
"We figured we should rescue you this time," she said.
Ripley laughed. "Well, you're all idiots. But I'm glad you came back for me. Now let's blow this joint."
"Smith and Lee have that covered," Dawson said. "There's a ship ready for us. We just have to get back up there. Let's go before the guys decide they're better off without us."