Alien: Isolation

Chapter Nineteen: Samuels' Plan

"You really shouldn't be here." One of the Working Joes said as the group started toward her. "Follow me, please."

Aiming the shotgun and pulling the trigger, Ripley's response came in the form of a loud bang that echoed through the room just as the Android was starting to reach for her. The shell tore through its chest, sending it reeling backwards as more of that white blood spilled onto the floor, but even though this one was damaged, there were still four more to deal with. So she cocked the weapon and fired again, finishing off that one so that it could no longer help the others, but when she turned to aim at the next one, it grabbed the barrel.

"I hope that weapon is registered." It said, grabbing with the other hand as she cocked it. "Why not ask me about Sevastopol safety…

It was trying to pull the weapon upward in order to get it away from her, but this action allowed Ripley to pull the trigger at the same time that the end of the barrel passed under the Android's chin. This caused another bang to echo through the room as most of its head was blown apart. That was two down, but the third one managed to grab the weapon and turn it so that she could neither cock it nor fire the weapon while they struggled. Ripley tried to regain control of it by bracing one arm with the other in an effort to overpower the Android, but was stopped when the Working Joe let go of the weapon with one hand in order to pull back and punch her in the forehead with the other.

The force of the blow caused her vision to go white for a second, while the rest of her was knocked off her feet so that she fell into the wall and sunk down into the corner. Ripley's vision was just coming back into focus, when the nearest Working Joe grabbed her by the front of the jumpsuit, before pulling her to her feet, and effortlessly tossing her toward the beds where the Androids had been awaiting maintenance. She landed on the first bed, only to slide across it and fall to the floor between it and the next bed, and although still dazed from the punch, she knew that she had to get out of there.

"I just want to help you." One of the Androids said as they started toward her again. "Let me help you."

Turning away and crawling underneath the next bed, Ripley kept on crawling when she realized that her only hope for survival was to reach the door, the bottom of which she could see beyond the very last bed. So she crawled as quickly as she could, passing underneath the next bed, and the next one while the Android's continued their pursuit, and she was just getting under the one after that, when a powerful hand was felt clamping down on her ankle. Not only did this stop her from crawling any further, but then she gasped as she was pulled backwards.

"There is no need for this." It said as she was taken out from under the bed. "Please, calm down."

She kicked at the Android, hitting it in the face with her feet as hard as she could, but this did nothing to stop it from grabbing her by the jumpsuit and pulling her to her feet. There was no possible way to get a hold of the shotgun, which was lying at the far end of the room, so she punched and pushed the Android in an attempt to get away. This attempt was quickly stopped, however, when the Working Joe locked its hands around her throat, squeezing hard enough to stop her from breathing as it forced her to bend backwards until she was pinned onto the nearest bed.

"You are becoming hysterical." It said as its grip tightened. "Hush now."

Ripley flailed her arms, hitting the Android and hopelessly trying to break its grip while gasping for air. Soon her lungs were burning, and she was beginning to get tunnel vision as her arms got weaker, but still the Working Joe didn't let up. Tears started to run down her cheeks as her arms fell onto the bed, and as the world around her grew darker, she began to see memories from the past. Most of them involved early childhood with her mother, and then how she had joined the company as a deep space engineer in the hope of finding some trace of her.

Most importantly, Ripley saw how much she didn't want to die on this station. She was only twenty-six years old, and there was so much that she still wanted to do with her life, but now as the red light in the Working Joe's eyes was the only thing she could see… it appeared that all of her future plans were about to be cut short while she made one last attempt to get air.

"Get your hands off her!" A voice suddenly yelled.

Ripley could feel that death was about to take her, but then there was movement in the room, before something collided with the Android. Just like that the Working Joe's grip was released from her throat, allowing her to gasp so intensely that it was almost a scream, and as her vision started to clear, Ripley saw that there was someone else in the room. Someone who was now struggling with the Androids… or more accurately… they were struggling with him.

It was Samuels; bashing the Android's head into the wall, before grabbing it and tossing it into the others. All of the remaining Working Joes collapsed to the floor while the clearly superior Weyland-Yutani model picked up the fallen shotgun, and after the sound of bang… bang… bang… the fight was over. The Working Joes lay in a puddle of their own white blood, and now Samuels was coming toward her. Ripley wanted to thank him, but found herself only able to gasp and cough as he scooped her up into his arms.

Did it make her feel a little insecure to be carried out of the room like some kind of a damsel in distress? Sure… but given that the alternative was to be choked to death by a Working Joe, Ripley was sure that she could find some way to live with it. Besides, it was nice to see one of the men being brave for once, since she had been getting used to them hiding while she did all the work… like Waits and Ricardo were so fond of doing. So she took this opportunity to rest for a moment, until they reached a large room where he set her down on what looked like another maintenance bed.

"I'm so glad that I got to you in time." He said, hitting the override button to seal the door. "Are you all right, Ripley?"

She tried to reply, but her words came out as more coughing and gasping to the point that all she could do was give him a great big hug and sort of whisper the words thank you once he returned to her. Breathing and speaking gradually became easier over the next few minutes, especially since Samuels managed to find a bottle of water for her, and this gave her some time to take in her surroundings. It was some kind of laboratory that he had brought her to, with several switching stations along the walls like the ones she had used to cage the creature.

The only other feature inside the room, aside from all of the monitoring equipment, was a large device in the very center that looked sort of like the imaging chambers that could be found in the medical bay of any ship. Only this one looked different… larger and scarier, and without padding on the table, as if it had been made for Synthetics… and during her recovery, Samuels had been doing some kind of repair work on it.

"What is this place?" Ripley asked with an improved voice. "Some kind of diagnostic station?"

"Sort of." Samuels replied while hooking up a high-capacity cable to the switching stations. "It's the backup Reformat Chamber for the station, which also contains a maintenance access elevator to Apollo's core… unfortunately, the A.I.'s security network has been configured so that only Seegson Synthetics can interface."

The Synthetic then began to lay out a plan that was… ridiculous at best; Samuels had been using the lab's switching stations to reroute power to the reformatting chamber, and now he was going to use it on himself. Weyland-Yutani had dozens of safeguards installed into their Synthetics to prevent them from ever being reprogrammed by a third-party, but in using the chamber to connect with Apollo's systems, his hope was that it would be enough to trick the A.I. into allowing him access to the elevator.

"That's a terrible idea!" Ripley exclaimed once he was finished. "No, you can't, its way to dangerous!"

"Of course, it's too dangerous." Samuels replied as he approached the now active machine. "In fact, this is probably the worst idea I've ever had… wish me luck."

Oh no, not only was she not about to wish him luck, but Ripley was about to do everything in her power to stop him from going through with it. Jumping down from the maintenance bed, she ran around in front of him, and halted his advance by putting her hands on his chest.

"No, you can't!" She yelled. "Samuels… this could kill you!"

"And the Working Joes are already killing others." He calmly replied. "Something is wrong with Apollo; maybe it's not receiving the stand-down command, or maybe some of its mother-boards were damaged during everything that's happened. But regardless of why, more and more Humans are being hunted down and killed, and Apollo is the only one that can stop them."

There was no physical way for Ripley to stop him as he walked around her in order to continue on toward the machine, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to try. So she repeatedly blocked his path while using all of the logic and pleading that she could in order to make him give up this awful idea, but eventually Samuels just picked her up again. This time he threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and carried her back over to the maintenance bed, where he sat her down.

"Ripley, I know you're scared." He said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I'm scared, too, but this is the only way. If you have another idea, I'll gladly consider it, but there are hundreds of Working Joes on this station, and how long do you think Sevastopol's survivors will last against them?"

She tried to think of a usable alternative to the reformatting chamber, but nothing came to mind, and unless she wanted to shoot Samuels, there really was no way that Ripley could stop him. He reassured her that even though it was dangerous, it was just as likely that the sequence would run just fine. Then they could take the elevator down to Apollo's core, and put an end to this madness once and for all.

"Good luck." Was all she was able to say as he started toward the machine.