Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, only the power over their life or death and the right to do with them what I want. Which, in my opinion, is enough.

2:

The door swung slowly open, and Hicks stepped cautiously into the darkness, holding the flame-gun in front of him. He was in what used to be the dining hall; the tables and benches were just visible in the darkness, but they were the only things that were. The room was empty.

Puzzled, Hicks shuffled further in, glancing around. The oppressive heat still closed around him, but despite it, there was no sign of any eggs, parasites, or aliens. Every instinct was screaming at him to run back to the shuttle, but Hicks forced himself to move. He picked his way across the room, turning in slow circles to counter anything creeping up behind him.

At the other end, he saw them. Shrouded in shadow underneath one of the tables furthest away from the door, were three eggs, huddled together in the pitch darkness. He couldn't see if they were open or not, but there was a torch attached to the flame-gun. Hicks hadn't wanted to draw attention to himself before, but now he had no choice. Crouching down beside the table, he flicked the on-switch with his thumb, and a beam of light cut through the darkness, almost blinding him. His eyes quickly adjusted to the light, and Hicks swung the torch's beam over the eggs. They were all open.

Hicks's heart began thumping hard. There was one more parasite out there somewhere, and he had left Newt alone.

He jumped to his feet and sprinted down the length of the hall, flinging himself through the door into the corridor. The beam of light swerved crazily over the tunnel walls as he lurched back along the tunnel. A fiery pain was spreading from the wounds in his chest across his whole body, and before he had reached the end of the passageway he screamed in pain and crumpled to the floor. Hicks curled into a ball, moaning through his teeth. His hands were tight against the bandages on his chest; maybe he was trying to push the pain out through his back. All he knew was that he had never felt in such pain in his whole life. It felt like he was dissolving from the inside out.

The pain didn't subside, but it lessened after a while, enough to let Hicks raise his head and open his eyes. He was still knotted in the middle of the dark corridor. He had to get out of there. That parasite was on the loose, and…

Then he remembered. He had made Newt bolt the shuttle door from the inside. There was no way it could get in, and it would have attacked already if it had been in there all the time. Relief swept through his body, followed by another wave of pain. Hicks closed his eyes and waited for it to fade, and then a thought struck him. If Newt was all right, then the parasite was somewhere in the main ship. And it was probably following him.

Hicks struggled to his feet, using the gun as a support. He couldn't stand up straight, and every jerk caused another tidal wave of pain, but finally he was on his feet, hunched over like an old man. Holding onto the wall, he dragged himself back through the ship. He knew the creature was out there somewhere…

As if to confirm that thought, something dropped from the ceiling and scuttled towards him across the floor. Hicks had time to register its legs before his finger automatically squeezed the trigger of his flame-gun. Fire ballooned into the corridor, and the parasite's shriek of pain cut off halfway through. Hicks didn't let go of the trigger; fire spread down the hallway and through the rest of the Sulaco.

He didn't realise he was screaming until the fuel ran out and the flame sputtered to a close. Then the sound of his yell followed the fire as it echoed through the ship. He quickly shut his mouth and breathed heavily through his nose. The whole corridor was awash with roaring flames.

"Shit," said Hicks as the heat began to blister his skin and his wounds prickled painfully. He tossed the empty gun aside, and somehow, found the strength to run.

Newt was standing exactly where Hicks left her, next to the door with her back to the wall. The pistol was gripped in both hands, and her knuckles were white with the effort of holding it raised. Every muscle in her small body was tensed, and her heart was beating fast. She was cold with fear.

Almost an hour after Hicks had gone, there was a banging on the door. It had to be him. Newt turned to the door and punched the number he had taught her into the keypad on the wall. The door unlocked and slid open. Hicks fell inside. Newt had the common sense to close the door behind him, before falling to her knees and pulling at his shoulders, turning him onto his back. His face was cold and damp with sweat, and his skin was red and blistered. He wasn't holding the flame-gun.

"Hicks?" she asked frantically, "What happened?"

"I got it…" he mumbled. "There was…one left, but…I got it." She sighed in relief, and was surprised at how much tension melted out of her. She tried to pull Hicks up, but he screamed out loud and she hastily dropped his arm.

"What's wrong?"

"Acid…acid for blood…" he reminded her, and she remembered what had happened to him. He had shot an alien at point-blank range, and its blood had sprayed over him.

"What do I do?" Newt scrambled to her feet. Hicks waved his arm in what could have been a pointing gesture. Newt followed it and found a first-aid kit in a cupboard; it was large, but Newt managed to lift the box, put it on the floor beside Hicks and unzip it. Hicks scrabbled around inside, grabbed a bottle of pills, and tried to unscrew the lid. His eyes were closed to slits, and his fingers were too clumsy to do anything more than scrape uselessly at the bottle. Newt took it and quickly unscrewed the lid. She didn't know how many he wanted so she tipped a pile into his waiting palm, and Hicks gulped them all down, coughing and retching at the bitter taste. After a few seconds, his breathing eased and he lay back on the floor, relaxing.

"What are these?" Newt asked. The bottle was still in her hand, so she turned it over and read: Antacid tablets. For neutralising acid in the stomach, relieving the pain of… she looked up at Hicks.

"Heartburn tablets," he croaked, and started to laugh. Newt joined in, and their laughter, hers high and light, his low and wheezy, filled the shuttle.

After a while, the pain in Hick's torso had abated to a dull throb, and with Newt's help, he was able to stand. At his instruction, she helped him over to the control panel, and Hicks punched in his name and identification number.

"Welcome, Cpl. Hicks." trilled the robotic voice.

"I know someone," Hicks explained to Newt, pausing every now and then to drag air into his ragged lungs. "He specialises in extra-terrestrial…medical conditions. Maybe he can help Ripley."

"Then let's go," the girl said eagerly.

"It's quite a way away." Hicks said, drawing up a map of the solar system on the large screen. "Are you sure you don't want to…go into hyper-sleep?"

Newt nodded solemnly.

"All right." Hicks entered the co-ordinates, and another image appeared on the screen. A small planet – or at least, it looked small at that distance. Hicks typed in a few commands, and the planet rotated, then zoomed in, bigger and bigger, until a single, small community filled the screen. A number of small buildings dotted haphazardly around two larger, L-shaped buildings interlocked in the centre of the screen to form a square. Hicks tapped the two L-shapes.

"This is a hospital. It's also the planet's signature logo. Remember it." He commanded, his voice taking on the air of a soldier. Newt nodded an affirmative. "And here -" he pointed out the smaller buildings, "is where the doctors and their families live. There's a school for the kids, a bowling alley, cinema, even a Domino's Pizza. It's just like a town. We shouldn't be there long, but I want you to know that it's a nice place. You'll like it there."

"Okay," Newt agreed. She didn't really care what the place was like, as long as they could help Ripley.

"Okay," Hicks echoed. He keyed in a few more commands, and the computer spoke again.

"Course set for: SL621. Breaking away from the ship Sulaco."

"Affirmative," Newt mumbled. Then she yawned, and Hicks realised how tired he was. It must be a side effect of the pills. As the shuttle disembarked on its journey, separate from the burned-out shell of the ship, he made a bed for them in the corner out of clothes from the lockers against the far wall. They burrowed into the home made nest. Newt was sure she wouldn't be able to sleep, but before Hicks's snores reached her ears she had sunk into a deep, dreamless slumber.

The shuttle drifted towards the planet SL621, far on the other side of the galaxy. It took almost three years to get there.