Acheron Chapter 14 – Without the Soul for Getting Down

A/N- The creature that is born has knowledge and memories from its host, I would like to point out a few things that support this. The second movie, they knew how to cut the power to the facility and open doors, both demonstrated in the epic ops/med lab showdown scene. The forth movie, the cloned Ripley had memories from her previous life.

The night was quiet and still, the make shift sentries patrolled the hallways, ensuring all those who slept were safe. Marie sat at the communications terminal and typed in her passcode and waited for the device to acknowledge her. Getting a menu screen asking her what type of communication she needed, scrolling down she touched the emergency priority one icon, giving her direct contact with the company. Typing out a brief description of her issue she waits for someone to pick up on the other end, a man with dark brown hair in a nice suit picks up the line, "Thank you for calling Wayl.."

She cuts him off on his company approved greeting, "Can we skip the formalities, I need to speak to someone higher in the chain of command then a receptionist."

Looking at the information on his screen he asks, "Are you certain there is nothing I can do to help?"

"Unless you can authorize a rescue then no," she replies sharply, frustrated and tired she didn't have the patience to jump through hoops at the moment.

"Thank you for calling again, I'm transferring you now," the screen goes black with the company's logo on it and in little fine print the words transferring please wait.

For ten minutes she waited at that screen, writing out the upcoming shifts rosters, twisting the seat back and forth impatiently. The screen flickers, "Hello, my names Angelica Johnson, I am the lead supervisor at the communications hub, how can I assist you today?" The sandy blonde haired woman had her hair done up in a bun, her black rimmed glasses perched high on her nose wearing an expensive looking black dress suit and a fake smile upon her face.

Marie cleared her throat and then began, "This is the colony of Hadley's Hope on the planet Acheron LV426 in the Zeta II Reticuli star system requesting immediate assistance.'

Ms. Johnson looked over her computer terminal, "All the read outs from your mother unit is showing all systems are nominal in the APP, that your atmosphere is breathable and there is no structural or system damage in the colony complex. What seems to be your issue that requires our assistance?"

"There is this lifeform," Marie starts but was cut off.

"LV426 is an uninhabited world with no life on it," Ms. Johnson's eyes looked cold, as though this entire conversation was pointless, she knew all there was to know about the planet and nothing could change her mind on that.

"Well, I'm telling you there is, there massive with acid for blood and very aggressive," Marie took a breath to calm herself, "We are requesting immediate evac from the closest ship available."

Ms. Johnson clicks through a few scenes on her end, "Unfortunately there are no ships in your area available for such a endeavor."

"Look bitch, we need help and we need it now, we have already lost 23 people to these things, and I don't want to lose no more."

With the name she was called Ms. Johnson stopped all work on her end and stared into the monitor, "All I can do for you is to send your request up the ladder, without the company's authorization I cannot simply divert a cargo or military vessel your way. You should get a reply within eight to ten business days, have a good day." And the screen goes black with the company logo upon it, signaling the end of the transmission.

"Fuuuuuuuck," Marie screams as she pushes herself away from the terminal violently.

A knock at the open door and she turns to look in its direction, waving Nat in, "Trouble in paradise boss lady?"

"Don't ask," she says angrily and picks up a digital pad off the desk and hands it to him, "There's the list for the rotation, get started on waking these individuals up and put Kevin in charge and instruct him on patrols and the rotation."

"Yes ma'am," he walks out of the office with the pad in hand heading toward Kevin's home to wake both him and his husband up. Giving him his instructions Nat bids them a good night and heads to the next room, hoping to get this over with so he could lay his tired bones down for some much-needed sleep.

"Man, why did we even go to sleep," Kevin complained as he stretched his back, "I feel more tired than when we laid down."

"I'll make some coffee," Edd in truth hadn't slept a wink, his thoughts were full of the death of Mr. Jorden and for those poor souls who were now suffering the same fate. Blood spatter and screams of pain was all that filled his mind as he tried to fall asleep, though Kevin was able to fall asleep his dreams were no different. Replaying again and again the events of Bridget's death and the thing that burst its way out of Bethany's chest, his dream morphed into a scene of him leaning over Edd as he screamed in pain, his chest contorting in unnatural ways as he begged for death. He was only spared the moment of his demise by his door bell ringing, bringing him back into consciousness, banishing his nightmarish dream.

Nat continued down the walkway toward the next door on the roster list, stopping for a moment, he thought he heard a noise from behind him, looking down the hallway he sees no one. No sentry, no Edd or Kevin coming out of their quarters, not a god damn thing that could have caused the small clang he thought he heard. He must be more tired than he thought and was hearing things he told himself as he turned back around to continue to the next door. Stopping in front of the doorway he reaches out and pushes the button to ring their doorbell, standing there a few moments humming to himself as he rocked back and forth on his heels to his toes. Pushing the button again he looks down the hall to his left counting how many doors were left before he could call it a day and get some rest.

There was the clang again, and it sounded like it came from the direction he was looking in, but there was no movement from that way either. Something grabs his shoulder causing him to jump a foot in the air, "Hey Nat," Big Ed says.

"Jesus Christ man, don't do that," Nat was breathing hard trying to slow his heart beat down, looking up he sees that Ed had a piece of gauze tapped to his check where he had just come from the med lab having the deep gash stitched.

"Sorry," he said in his child like innocent way, Nat reaches up and taps the doorbell once again, "No answer?"

"No," Nat hummed, "And Jacob is normally a light sleeper." He tried once more and waits a few seconds, then taps his communication device in his ear, "Control, I need an emergency override for Jacob Moore's door."

"Roger, give me just a moment," The female voice replies.

Nat readies his flamethrower, just in case one of those nasties had found their way in. The light on the panel that was red turned green and the door slides open quietly allowing them to see the inside of the man's room. Slowly he walks in with Ed close behind him, the lights turn on automatically when they detect his movement, everything looked normal in the main room and Nat calls out, "Jacob? You there?" No reply, "Don't do this to me man, if your there let me know."

"Yeah," Ed added, "Don't just come jumping out, Nat might roast ya."

Still no reply to their calls, Nat looks around the corner into the bathroom, no sign of anyone or of any struggle. Walking a few steps forward they reached the bedroom's door and they both stayed close to the wall, their hearts pumping as they both wondered what they would find when they rounded the corner. Counting down from three with his fingers, Nat took deep breaths, readied the flamethrower once again and turned the corner. Finding the room empty, one of the tiles on the ceiling removed and the bed in disarray, touching the button on his earpiece once again, "Control, locate Jacob Moore's PDT."

"Stand by," the woman on the other side replied, "That's strange."

"What," he said as they began to walk out of the room slowly.

"It appears as though he is headed down the service tunnel to the APP."

His voice was filled with concern, "Why the hell would he be doing that? Is the pressure door closed now?"

"Yes it is," Nat knew that Jacob's eldest son had been one of the people who had been captured in the failed raid and was wondering if he might be doing something really stupid right now.

"Is the APP entrance open?"

"Yes."

"Seal it," he all but hollered at the poor woman.

"I can't, it appears to be nonfunctional at this end."

A scream at the other end of the corridor and they bolt down the hall, stopping in front of the door, "Open the Conner's door," he bellowed.

"One moment," she replied in a frazzled voice.

The light goes green and the door slides open and in the corner of the room stood a very frightened Mrs. Conner, her husband lying dead on the floor, blood pooling out of his body. In front of Mrs. Conner stood one of the eight foot beasts, toying with her, as though it was enjoying the fear she was going through, it's tail slowly sliding between her legs. "Debby, get out of the way," Nat yelled and motioned with his arm, but she stood their petrified.

The creature hearing the noise, turns and sees the two of them, forgets about the frightened woman and bounds over the kitchen islander toward them. Clinging to the wall it aims then jumps and Nat lets lose a blast from the flamethrower causing it to screech in pain, its limbs flailing as it came tumbling toward them. Dodging it's landing, he blasts it again as it lay on the floor, another scream of pain and it runs, hurt and probably doomed to die, down the corridor toward the pressure door.

Tapping his earpiece, "Control we have a problem, sound the alarm and get everyone up to ops stat." The alarm sounded and the strobes started to flash as the female voice of the officer on duty came over the PA alerting the public where they needed to go.