I HOLD NO CLAIMS TO ANY MEMBER OF THIS STORY. Only Riley and Jack are mine!

Chapter Six

A plan is formed

"Is she okay?"

"She's your sister, Ripley. You ask her." Jack sighed. They were all gathered in a room, talking about what they were going to do next. Everyone's tensions were high so it wasn't a calming atmosphere. Having just put Newt to bed, they were now listening to Bishop's report. "Besides, you can talk to her better than I can and you know that. You're twins for God sakes."

Riley had been silent for the last hour or two, making her sister wonder if something was wrong; other than the fact they were once again in battle with Xenomorphs and about to die.

"The Molecular acid oxidizes after the creature's death, completely neutralizing it." Bishop was telling them.

"Well, that sucks," Jack crossed his arms. "There goes my plan about using it against them.

"Using it against them?" Hicks raised a brow.

"Yeah. Killing one of them and using its blood against the others; like tossing it on them or something and watching them squeal and burn."

"Yeah, you have fun getting that close to one," Hudson grunted.

"You know, that's very interesting," Ripley growled, her patience wearing thin. "But it doesn't really get us anywhere, does it? I'm trying to figure out what we're dealing with."

"It's really not that hard, now is it?" Riley finally spoke up; she moved in closer to the others in the room. "The aliens built a nest out of the colonists. Moved the people to be hosts for their Facehuggers. Which also means that there are more of these eggs that Kane found on the ship last time we were here, right?"

"Right," Jack's mind was working fast. "So that means…there's something laying the eggs right? There has to be. Kinda like a beehive, right? Or ants."

"There's a Queen," Bishop nodded.

"And she's badass, man," Hudson joined. "I mean big." He measured with his fingers.

"These things ain't ants." Vasquez told him.

"I know that," He growled.

"Bishop," Ripley began. "I want these specimens destroyed as soon as you're finished with them, is that clear?"

Bishop glanced off to the side. "Mr. Burke gave instructions that they were to be kept alive and in stasis for return to the company labs."

"What?" Riley looked at him in surprise.

"He was very specific about it." He told her.

"Just kill the fuckers," Jack told the robot, turning to leave the room. "I'll deal with Burke."

"Uh-oh," Riley watched as the man stormed out. "You might want to go catch up to your boyfriend before he kills the other guy."

"Yeah," Ripley nodded and then gave a smile. "But it won't hurt if he get's a little beating, right?"

Riley chuckled as her sister left the room. When she finally caught up to Jack, she was surprised that he hadn't laid a finger on Burke and was just asking him questions.

"Those two specimens are worth millions to the bio-weapons division." Burke was telling him. "Now, if you're smart we can all come out of this as heroes ndd we will be set up for life."

"Set up for life?" Jack repeated him. "Bullshit, dude. That's just your stupidity talking."

"You're crazy," Ripley joined in. "Do you know that? Do you really think that you can get a dangerous creature like that past ICC quarantine?"

"How can they impound it if they don't know about it?" Burke asked her.

"Oh, I'll let them know all about it." Jack replied. "Kane's granddaughter works for ICC quarantine and I'm sure she'll be happy to hear all about the damn creature that killed her grandfather that you're trying to sneak back in."

"And they'll also know that you were responsible fo r the deaths of the 157 colonists."

"Wait a second," Burke stood up.

"He's the asshole that sent them to the ship?" Jack asked his wife.

"You're wrong."

She nodded. "I just checked the Colony log, Directive dated 6-12-79, signed Burke, Carter J. You sent them out there and you didn't even warn them. Why didn't you warn them, Burke?"

"Okay, look," Burke began. "What if that ship didn't even exist? Did you think about that? I didn't know. So if I made a major security situation out of it, everybody steps in. Ministration steps in, and there's no exclusive right for anybody. Nobody wins. So I made a decision and it was wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley. It was a bad call."

"Bad call?" Jack watched as his wife grabbed Burke and slammed him against the wall. "These people are dead, Burke! Don't you have any idea what you've done here? Well, I'm going to make sure they nail you right to the wall for this. You're not gonna sleaze your way out of this one. Right to the wall." She let him go and backed away."

"Ripley," Burke called after her. "I…you know I expected more from you; from all of you. I thought you'd be smarter than this."

"Well, in the words of my sister," Ripley glared at him. "I'm happy to disappoint you."

Jack wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her from the room. "God, I love you."

She gave a chuckle before pausing for a moment. "Kane's granddaughter words for ICC quarantine?" Ripley asked her husband.

Jack gave a shrug. "Who knows?"

Ripley went to reply but an alarm from the Robot sentries went off and they rushed back to the others.

"What is it?" Hudson asked. "What's going on?"

"They're coming." Hicks replied. He and Riley were sitting in front of the screens.

"Where?"

"In the tunnel."

As the firing began, Riley bit her lower lip, nervous at how fast the ammo for the guns were depleting. There were over a hundred of these creatures. This just had to be the first group of them. There's no way they were going to be able to survive against all of them. Newt survived because the Aliens hadn't know that she was there. They now knew that there was someone else here with them and they were pissed that they had been attacked.

Guns B and A were empty and thumping could be heard from the Pressure door.

"Man, listen to that," Hudson commented.

"Good God," Jack hung his head.

"Bishop here." Came the voice over Hick's headpiece. "I'm afraid I have some bad news."

"Well, that's a switch." Hudson growled.

What Bishop had been talking about was the Emergency Venting.

"That's beautiful, man," Hudson chuckled as he walked away. "That beats it all."

"What does that mean, though?" Riley asked him.. "I understand that's not good…"

"It means it's going to blow." Hicks told her. He glanced at Bishop. "How long do we have?"

"Four hours." Was his answer. "A blast Radius of 30 Kilometers. Equal to about 40 Megatons."

"We got problems." Hicks sighed, turning away himself.

"I don't believe this. I don't fucking believe this!"

"Why can't we shut it down from here?" Ripley asked.

"I'm sorry," Bishop replied. "The crash caused too much damage. An overload is inevitable at this point."

"Oh, man," Hudson continued on his rant. "I was getting short. 4 more weeks and out. Now I'm going to buy it on this rock."

"Dude, just shut up," Riley growled at him. "Or I'm going to toss you in the hall with the aliens!"

"Well, look at it this way," Jack decided to grin. "At least the damn aliens will die."

"Yeah," Ripley nodded. "With us right along with them."

"Not necessarily," Riley turned from the window. "We still have the other drop-ship, don't we?"

"Yeah, up in space," Vasquez replied.

"Can't we bring it down on remote?" Ripley asked, agreeing with her sister.

"How?" Hudson asked her. "The Transmitter was on the APC. It's wasted."

"I don't care how, but we better thing of a way. And think of one fast."

"Think of what? We're fucked! We're doomed!"

Hicks shut Hudson up, his brain working fast. "What about the Colony transmitters? The uplink Tower down at the other end? Why can't we-"

Bishop shook his head. "The hard wiring between here and there was damaged. We can't align the dish."

"Well, somebody's going to have to go out there," Ripley told them. "Take a portable terminal and patch it in manually."

Hudson was just getting worse and worse. "Oh yeah, sure! With those things running around? You can count me out!"

"Yeah, I guess we can count you out of everything," Hicks told him.

"What kind of marine are you?" Jack asked him. "It's your job to do crazy shit like that, right?"

"Hey, fuck you man!"

"All of you just shut up!" Riley ordered them. "If no one else will go then I'll fucking do it."

"Riley," Ripley sounded shocked. "You won't know what to do!"

She gave a frown. "Well, I can learn really quick. All I need are instructions and I'll be fine. I-" She gave a pause when Bishop put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll go," He told them. "I'm the only one qualified to remote-pilot the ship anyway."

Hudson liked that idea. "Yeah, man, Bishop should go. Good idea."

"Believe me," He began. I'd rather not. I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." He glanced to the side and Riley gave a sigh.

"I'm sorry." She told him.

He glanced back at her. "It's not your fault."

Ripley, Riley, and Vasquez went with Bishop to a Conduit that could take him to where he needed to get.

"How long?" Ripley asked as he climbed into the tube.

"This conduit runs almost to the uplink assembly," Bishop replied. "180 meters. Say 40 minutes to crawl down there. An hour to patch in and align the antenna, 30 minutes to prep the ship. And about 50 minutes flight time."

"It's gonna be close," Riley sighed, scratching her head. She gave a chuckle as Vasquez handed the synthetic a gun and he gave it to Ripley. "Be careful."

"Good luck." Ripley nodded.

"See you soon."

"Vaya Con Dios, man," Vasquez gave him her own farewell before they welded the tube back together.

"I wouldn't be able to do that," Riley sighed. "I'd have a panic attack being confined in that small hole."

"That, and your boobs would get in the way." Her sister teased.

"Shut it."

When the trio returned to the others they found that the Aliens had returned, this time in the other hall. The guns went down just like the other two had but the Aliens retreated in the end; for now.

"Next time they walk right up and knock." Hicks sighed.

"Yeah," Ripley nodded. "But they don't know that."

Jack agreed with his wife. "They'll probably be looking for other ways in now. It gives us a little time at least."

"Maybe we got 'em demoralized." Hudson offered.

"Shut up," Vasquez hissed.

"I want you two walking perimeter," Hicks told them. Hudson looked like he was about to say something but the other man wasn't having it. "Move!"

"Ripley," The woman looked at Jack as Hicks continued to talk to his men. "I want you to go and get some sleep with the kid."

"I'm fine," She told him but he shook his head.

"You need to sleep. We all do. We'll take turns. If anything happens, I'll come get you, all right?"

"Fine," She sighed and turned to leave."

"You should go with her," Jack told Riley.

She shook her head. "Like you said, we'll take turns. I'll go after her."

"Then stay here with Hicks. I'll go help the two of them." He grabbed one of the guns and moved after the two marines.

"Is he going to be okay?" Hicks asked.

"Jack was in the Marines before he left to marry my sister. He hasn't done it in a while but he can take care of himself." Riley told him, taking a drink of water from the cup sitting there on the table beside her.

"You know," Hicks leaned against the table across from her. "You don't seem as upset as your sister does. Why is that?"

"Jack and my sister hate these things to death but I guess you can say that I don't."

"You don't?" He raised a brow.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't want to have anything to do with these creatures. I would be completely happy if someone else and their crew had been the ones to suffer at the hands of these things, but you can't really blame these creatures, can you? They're just trying to survive like any other species. It's like hating lion for attacking someone. It's just what they do. You get close to anything and you'll be attacked by them, don't you think?"

Things were silent for a moment but Hicks began to nod. "You're the only one to think like that, Anora." He told her. "And I think you're right."

"Not crazy?" She asked.

"No," He chuckled. "Not crazy; not yet, anyway."

"Well, when it happens I'm taking you with me," She told him.

He continued to smile at her. "I'll go willingly."

Gorman finally awake again and rejoined them with Burke. Having heard what had happened from her sister, Riley tried to stay far away from that man as she explained everything that had happened to Gorman. It was about an hour later that Jack returned, telling Riley that it was time to wake Ripley up so she could get some sleep as well but he paused when Bishop contacted Hicks.

"Say again Bishop? You've got it into Auto-refuel mode and its sequencing, right?"

"That's right."

"Stay on it. Get back to me when you've activated the launch cycle."

"Roger."

Hicks glanced at the others. "He's at the uplink tower."

"Terrific." Burke nodded.

"Thank God," Jack sighed.

"I'm ready to go home." Riley commented. "And when I get there, I'm gonna-" She was cut off by a fire alarm going off.

Hicks turned to her. "It's the Med Lab!"

"Ripley!" Jack cried, taking off for the room.

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