Alien: Isolation

Chapter Seven: Tut, Tut

Moving down the corridor, it was nice to not have to worry about insane people running around trying to kill her for a while, but now Ripley was facing a different kind of obstacle. The Working Joes were walking around, kind of arbitrarily performing their assigned tasks, but most of them wouldn't respond to her beyond what sounded like a pre-recorded greeting, and all of them spoke in the same deep, calm voice, which was unnerving in itself. Still, she was able to follow the directory signs until she passed a security office, but instead of wasting time with the android behind the glass, she decided to just go through the door… but the door didn't open.

"That is a restricted area." The android said, turning its glowing eyes toward her. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I need to get into Comms Control." Ripley replied, moving up to the glass. "It's urgent."

She didn't know why she kept expecting these things to understand the emotion in her voice, since part of the Seegson line of Synthetics was to make them easy for people to identify. This meant no simulated emotions, no deviation from standard programing, no nothing, proven when the android simply repeated that Comms Control was a restricted area, while adding a request for her to leave.

"Damn it, I need to contact my ship!" Ripley yelled, punching the glass. "This is an emergency, don't you realize what's happening on this station?!"

"Apollo has the situation in hand." The android replied as calmly as ever. "Further attempt to access restricted areas… is not recommended."

Fine, she thought to herself as she stepped away from the glass. If the Working Joes weren't going to help her, then she supposed that she was just going to have to find her own way in. One nice thing that she had learned about even the most secured locations over the years, was that there was always another way in, if only for emergencies. And most of those emergencies just happened to involve the Maintenance or Engineering departments, meaning that there had to be an access point around there somewhere.

Sure enough, there was a round maintenance hatch nearby, like the ones that Axel had used to move around the station undetected. It was positioned around the corner, away from where most people coming and going would see, which included the Working Joe in the security office. The hatch was locked down, but that was no problem thanks to the access tuner on her belt, and just like with the elevator in the Transit Hub, the maintenance hatch soon opened for her.

"Further attempts are not recommended." Ripley mocked as she crawled into the duct. "Asshole."

Well, what were the androids going to do even if they caught her inside a restricted area? Unlike with the lunatics that she had met in the other tower, the first law of primary synthetic programming was that they were not allowed to harm a human being. Of course they were also not allowed to let themselves be harmed by humans either, so there was always a question of how exactly those rules worked. Either way, the direction of the duct was taking her past the locked door, meaning that it shouldn't be a problem to get into Comms Control from that point on.

"This is a restricted area." The android's muffled voice said. "You are trespassing."

At first Ripley was worried that the one from the security office had somehow discovered her, but then she realized two important things: First was that the voice was coming from up ahead, while the security office was behind her, and second… there was a second voice. It sounded like a human voice, but it was too muffled for her to understand what it was saying, so she crawled ahead a little faster until she came to a vent where she could see that there was, in fact, a human standing there talking with another Working Joe in the corridor.

"Listen to me!" The man exclaimed. "We've got to reestablish long-range communications!"

"You are becoming hysterical." The android replied, grabbing him by the forearm. "Let's resolve this amicably."

The man struggled to break free of the android's grip, but seemed to be unable to. That is, until he used his free hand to take a large wrench off of his tool belt, and used it to strike the android in the face. The grip was broken as the android stumbled back, some of the trademark white artificial blood spraying from its mouth as the man went for another attack. This time the android caught the wrench in its hand, seizing the tool and tossing it away, before grabbing the man and tossing him across the hallway.

"Tut, tut." The android said as it walked toward him.

The man had impacted the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him as he collapsed to the floor, and he was just getting up to his hands and knees, when the android grabbed him again. Ripley's eyes widened and her mouth ran dry as the Working Joe began to bash the man's head against the wall until it caused a large blood splatter, and then it simply left him there as it walked away to continue its rounds.

"Have a good day." The android said as it walked away.

She couldn't believe what she had just seen; insane, murderous people were one thing, and she was even starting to wrap her head around the fact that there was some kind of killing… monster in the other tower, but this… this was just wrong. In all the years that Synthetics had been in operation, regardless of generation, there had never been a recorded incident of one of them attacking a human, let along beating them to death. Of course, it also answered her question about what the androids would do to her if they found her in a restricted area, and now she knew that she had to be careful.

Waiting until the android had rounded a corner, Ripley finished crawling to the end of the duct, where she moved out into the hallway as quietly as she could. Being careful to listen for any approaching Working Joes, her semi-relaxing journey toward Comms Control had now become a deadly game of hide and seek. Unlike when she had first arrived in the abandoned area of the station, there were no construction supplies or cargo crates for her to hide behind, so she was forced to duck into a side room when she heard its approaching footsteps.

The android had just been coming around the corner when she entered the room, and although relatively certain that it had not seen her specifically, there was a good chance that it had noticed the door as it closed behind her. The only thing in this empty room was a desk, so like she had done with the creature, Ripley ran around and ducked down under it. Good thing, too, because she had just gotten down when the door opened, and she heard the android coming closer.

"Strange." It said. "Hello… is someone there?"

Staying quiet and still, Ripley wondered if there was anyone out there who would actually be dumb enough to respond in such a situation. Hopefully not, but the android remained standing there for several seconds as if hoping someone would, and then it walked back out the door as quickly as it had come in. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, she crawled out from under the desk, and made sure to listen at the door before venturing back into the corridor. She had no intention of getting into a conflict with one of them, since everyone knew how much stronger all Synthetics were than humans, so she ducked down, trying to keep a low profile as she moved on.

It was starting to look like that one was the only one patrolling this part of the corridor, and it had been headed in the opposite direction, allowing Ripley to relax a little as she moved on. Still following the directory signs, the corridor soon ended at another door, but thankfully this one was unlocked. There was a hiss as it slid upward, revealing a large and open room that was illuminated by the gas giant from outside the large windows that ran across the far end. There were several workstations, as well as a few Working Joes moving around them, but when she looked at the directory sign, she realized that she didn't have to sneak this time.

"I repeat, this is Verlaine on the Torrens." A familiar voice said over the loudspeakers. "Did any of our EVA team make it onboard? We've taken damage from the explosion, and need to leave Sevastopol space while we make repairs. I can't say how long it will take, but I need to know what happened to my people. Damn you all, respond!"

It was good to know that the Torrens was still out there, and also that she didn't need the entire communications system to send a message to the Torrens, just the antenna array. According to the directory sign, that array was through a side door and up a flight of stairs, so she followed it, and found herself inside of a small control room. The computer terminal was unlocked, so she sat down to access it, quickly discovering a set of logged communications. The first one was the hail that Verlaine had sent when they first arrived, but the second one surprised her. Apparently someone had tried to respond, so she opened the log and played it.

"This is Waits, Marshall of Sevastopol Station." The recording began. "You have no idea how glad we are to see you, Torrens, but whatever you do, do not try to dock or board us. We have a very serious situation on our hands, and long-range comms are down, so I need you to stand off and send an emergency message for us. Did you read me, Torrens? Torrens, please, if you can hear me, stand off and signal for help. Torrens? Torrens?! Aw, fuck this thing!"

Well, at least she knew that he wasn't exaggerating, although it would have bene nice to have gotten that message before the three of them decided to spacewalk their way over. The good news was that Ripley could now signal the Torrens, so she scrolled down to the menu for the External Antenna, only to have the screen turn red. A scrolling text message was now displayed across the screen, and now there was yet another problem was piled onto her plate, but this one was so bad that she wasn't sure what to do.

EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS DISABLED BY ORDER OF APOLLO.

FACILITY OFFLINE. ALL OUTGOING COMMUNICATIONS STOPPED.