Alien: Isolation

Chapter Twenty: Sacrifice

Trying not to worry as Samuels climbed onto the reformat chamber, Ripley tried to focus on the positive things about this instead. If it worked, Apollo would allow them access to the A.I. core, and then the Working Joes could be stopped before they killed every last person on the Sevastopol. If it didn't work, however… well, hopefully it would, since the alternative was not pleasant to think about as the Synthetic laid down on the machine's table and pressed the startup button.

"Warning: Apollo connection initiating." An automated voice said as he was moved into the chamber. "Apollo connection established… now beginning Seegson Reformat Sequence Phase I… failed… attempting to begin Seegson Reformat Sequence Phase I… failed."

"I must not be compatible with Seegson software." Samuels said as the scanning beams continued to pass over him. "But I am connected to Apollo, so I'll try another approach… Apollo, the bio-infection has been purged; the creature is no longer onboard the station. Request that all hazard containment operations are suspended immediately."

For a moment there was silence, aside from the beams inside the machine continuing to scan Samuels, and maybe this was a good thing if Apollo was taking time to rerun its scans of the station or something. Yes, this had to be good, Ripley thought as the seconds passed by, and surely once the station's A.I. realized that the creature was gone, it would stand down without further incident. But then she jumped when an alarm started going off, and all of the lights in the room turned red as electricity began to flow through the reformat chamber, making Samuels scream.

"Ripley, Apollo's rejecting me!" The Synthetic yelled in a pained voice as he tried to pull himself out of the chamber. "I can't get out… shut off the machine, hurry!"

"Hold on, Samuels!" Ripley exclaimed as she jumped off the maintenance bed. "I'm coming!"

She ran over to the machine and pushed the emergency stop button on the controls, but aside from her receiving a shock that made her arm numb for a second, nothing happened. The electricity must've shorted out the controls, as far as she could figure, which meant that the only way for her to get Samuels out of the chamber was to manually cut off power to it. This would be easy, since the loss of even one of the switching stations that he had rigged up should result in the machine stopping, but then Ripley realized that it wouldn't be so easy since it required a tool like the maintenance jack… and she had lost hers back at the Server Hub.

"Ripley, help!" Samuels yelled as the electricity kept flowing. "You've got to shut off the machine!"

"I'm trying, damn it!" She screamed, trying not to panic while looking around for a solution. "Try to hold on!"

There was absolutely nothing inside of the room that would help her, and Samuels was brought closer to termination with every second that she wasted doing nothing. But what could she do? There were no tools or rewire switches around… in fact, the only thing around that Ripley could see was the shotgun. A dangerous idea suddenly popped into her head, and it was risky, but a risky plan was better than no plan in this situation, so she went back to the maintenance bed and picked up the shotgun.

The weapon was empty from the recent encounter with the Working Joes, and Ripley was so nervous and scared for Samuels that she almost couldn't get her hands to stay still enough to load the shells. Once they were finally loaded, she walked up to the switching station, cocked the weapon while aiming, and a resounding bang echoed through the room when she pulled the trigger. Sparks flew as part of the metal casing was shredded by the shell, but the switching station was still active, so she cocked it and fired again… and again… and again until the power finally stopped flowing.

Silence quickly filled the room as the reformat chamber lost power, and it allowed Samuels to finally pull himself out, but then he coughed up some white blood before falling forward onto Ripley. She caught him, but the Synthetic weighed a lot more than he looked, so she was forced to sink down until they were both kneeling on the floor. He made an attempt to sit up on his own, but coughed up more white blood that splattered across Ripley's face as he fell onto her again.

"I've really screwed up this time, Ripley." He said weakly as she held him. "I don't think I can go with you any farther."

"No." Ripley replied, realizing what he meant. "No, no, no, no, Samuels, no… please don't die."

Samuels started to say something, but instead only a choking sound came out as more and more of his white blood was splashed onto her jumpsuit. She wished that there was something she could do for him, but Ripley didn't know anything about building or repairing Synthetics, and this helplessness was one of the many factors that caused her to silently cry.

"You talk like I've had… an actual life." He continued, slightly weaker. "Thank you for that… but all is not lost. During the connection, I was able to… open the elevator to Apollo. Now you can stop it, Ripley… you can stop the Working Joes… and live to find your mother. I just wanted… Amanda Ripley to have… closure… so that you can be… happy."

"You did that for me?" She asked, getting more choked up. "Samuels, you did have an actual life… you're the bravest and most selfless man I've ever met… please don't go… Samuels? Samuels?!"

The Synthetic said nothing in reply, nor did her move at all when she shook him, and there was an empty feeling inside her when she realized that he was gone. Ripley would have expected anyone in this kind of situation to scream or get angry, but instead she just remained in place, silently holding him as her falling tears dropped onto the white blood. Eventually she was able to move enough to lay him down on the floor, and she was just using her hand to close his eyes, when a crackling sound came through her radio.

"Ripley?!" Ricardo's voice yelled through the slowly clearing static. "Ripley, can you hear me?! Are you all right?! Please, answer me!"

"I… I'm here." She replied, wiping her eyes. "Ricardo, I'm here."

It was hard to pay attention to what the Deputy said next; something about interference that started when she had entered Android Processing, and him losing her signal until just now. It was probably Samuels' work on the reformat chamber that caused the radio to be jammed like that, and now that the power had been stopped, the signal was clearing up.

"Ricardo… Samuels is gone." Ripley interrupted. "He opened the maintenance elevator to Apollo's core… but he's… he's gone."

"Oh, shit." Ricardo's voice whispered. "Oh, Ripley, I'm so sorry."

The Deputy tried to be sympathetic, but from the way he formed half-finished sentences, she could tell that he wasn't very good about these kind of situations, so she just told him that she would be fine. After all, Samuels had given his life so that they could save the station, so she gave the Synthetic a kiss on the forehead before slowly pulling herself to her feet.

"I'm going down to see Apollo." She continued, having to wipe her eyes again. "I'll get the damn thing to stand down, and then maybe we'll be able to get communications back as well… you didn't, by chance, happen to spot Taylor anywhere onboard the station, did you?"

"No, I'm afraid not." Ricardo replied. "But I did manage to find the security recordings from right before the Joes all went crazy. She was at the cell door, talking to Marlow for a good length of time… the camera was too far away to hear what was said, but she definitely let him out right after those God damn Androids broke into the Bureau."

Well, that was great, Ripley thought as she walked toward the now open maintenance elevator. By now the two of them could have been anywhere on Sevastopol, if they managed to get past the Working Joes, that is. Unless… unless their plan was to find a way to get back onboard Marlow's ship, the Anesidora. Of course, even if they managed to get onboard, communications were still locked down, so they wouldn't have been able to let the rest of them know.

"We'll sort that out after I deal with Apollo." Ripley said, stepping into the elevator. "Hey, maybe we'll get lucky, and they've already contacted the Torrens… if Verlaine hasn't given up on us yet and left."

"You mean from the Anesidora?" Ricardo asked as she pushed the button. "Not sure how, since Waits blew up the dry dock… unless they did another space-walk like you three did when you first got here."

As the small maintenance elevator started down, it was hard to imagine anyone getting Taylor to do another space-walk for any reason after the disaster that happened with the first one, but it was also hard to think of another way to get onboard the Anesidora. Sure, Marlow's codes would allow it to be piloted by remote and even open the airlocks, but getting into a suit seemed to be the only way. Well, like she said, Ripley would have to figure that out after dealing with Apollo… a meeting that was getting closer as the elevator descended down into the station's A.I. core.