Alien: Isolation

Chapter Twenty Two: Reactor Maintenance

"I'm still here, Ricardo, I'm okay." Ripley whispered once the Android was out of sight. "I think I just saw one of those industrial Working Joes that you mentioned, but it didn't see me."

"Well, thank God for that." The Deputy's voice replied. "The last thing you want is to get one of them after you… these things are tough, Ripley, like, really, really tough. Now, they might not be as fast or smart as the Weyland-Yutani models, but as far as strength goes, these things could easily match Samuels."

Yeah, this lengthy description about how big and bad the industrial Androids were, was not exactly boosting Ripley's confidence, and of course Ricardo began apologizing when she informed him of this. However, there was no need for him to apologize, since these were things that she needed to know, and when it all came down to it, she really was making a stupid decision by going down into the engineering decks alone.

"Relax, Ricardo, I don't plan on fighting." She answered, peeking out to make sure it was gone. "I'm gonna try to sneak past it, so tell me how to get to Reactor Maintenance."

"You're pretty close to the entrance, actually." Ricardo said. "Just stay on that corridor, and follow the directory signs."

Like in all the other areas of Sevastopol that she had explored, there were clearly marked signs painted on the wall, and of course, the path to Reactor Maintenance made her go the same way that the Android had gone. So she made sure that the shotgun was completely loaded, and kept it in a ready position as she started moving forward, even though she hoped that there would be no reason to use it. The steam and spraying water made it more difficult to both see and hear anything that was moving around, but maybe that would make her harder to spot as well.

Moving up against the wall as she neared she reached the junction, Ripley slowly peeked around the corner, but the Working Joe was nowhere in sight. It was nice that the thing wasn't waiting right around the corner for her, but then again… where the hell was it? During Waits' whole 'cage within a cage within a cage' nonsense, Ricardo had used his monitors to track the position of the creature, but when she asked him about doing this for the Androids, Ripley was disappointed to hear that the steam and water was causing too much interference.

"I'll just have to be more careful, then." She whispered, crouching down as she rounded the corner.

There were several small workshops that she passed while moving down the corridor, but as much as she would have loved to spend hours scavenging useful tools from them, the risk of being discovered by an industrial Android wasn't worth it. The corridor turned once or twice, and Ripley was genuinely shocked to see active security cameras moving from side to side at a few points along the path. The time that it took to avoid their bright searchlights really slowed her down, but even though no one was going to arrest her for trespassing, an intruder alarm was sure to bring more Working Joes to this area.

"I'm almost there, Ricardo." She reported as she approached a large doorway. "It says Reactor Maintenance above the door, and so far no sign of the Android… um, Ricardo… Ricardo, there's a security shutter in my way."

"There shouldn't be." Ricardo replied as she nervously looked around. "I mean, of course there's shutters, but they should be open unless someone closed them manually. Hold on, let me see if… nope, it's a closed system, so I can't do anything about it from here… you'll have to backtrack to the Facility Manager's office, and use his terminal to open the shutter before you can go any further."

Wonderful, Ripley thought as she turned around toward the workshops that she had passed, more time that a Working Joe could use to find her. Still, there was no sign of the Android anywhere, and as she ducked into every shop and hid underneath every table on the way back toward the junction she had arrived at… there was still nothing. She knew that there was one of them around, and not seeing the damn thing was almost worse than knowing where it was, since at least then… well, then she would know where it was.

Turns out that if she would have gone right instead of left at the first junction, she would have gone around a corner, and come to an open door with the words FACILITY MANAGER painted above it. Now all she had to do was go in and access the terminal, but this plan was halted, as were her movements when the industrial Working Joe came walking out of the office.

"There… you are." It said as it turned to face her. "You are… getting careless… Ripley, Amanda… you're presence… has been logged… come with me… please."

This model of the Working Joe Androids was even bigger and scarier looking up close than it had been at a distance, but so was her shotgun, and the Android's advance was stopped when she raised the weapon, and fired a shell right into its chest. There was a splash of white blood as it stumbled backwards, but then it regained its footing, and stood back up like nothing had happened.

"Do not… do that." It said, resuming the advance. "My turn… now."

But it was not the Working Joe's turn, it was Ripley's as she cocked the shotgun and fired another shell that tore into its face and neck. It stumbled again as the steam and spraying water washed away the spilling white, but the thing was still on its feet, when that kind of punishment had never failed to destroy one of the other models. So she fired again, and again, pulverizing parts of its head and chest, until the last shell in her shotgun finally sent the Android down. It fell onto its back, twitching as more of the white blood poured out onto the grated floor.

"Was that gunshots I just heard?!" Ricardo asked. "Ripley, were those gunshots?! Are you okay?!"

"Yes, Jesus, I'm fine." She snapped, staring at the deactivated Android. "One of the industrial models tried to ambush me, but I got him."

Not waiting to see if any more of them were going to show up, Ripley stepped over the still twitching Working Joe, and ran into the large office. The computer terminal that she needed was sitting on a large desk at the back of the room, so she rushed over, and pushed the button, causing the SEVASTOLINK logo to display while she sat down. Once the menu appeared, she had to search through several menu options that contained service logs, inventory sheets, and a whole bunch of other things that she didn't have time for.

There was so much junk on this terminal, that it made her think that whoever ran this section of Sevastopol had nothing better to do than just sit there and fill up the machine with complete nonsense. Finally, in the last menu selection, in a folder that had absolutely nothing to do with security, or door controls, or anything, Ripley found icon marked SHUTTER CONTROL. The status said that it was locked, so she highlighted it and hit enter, changing the status to unlocked, meaning that she could now get into Reactor Maintenance.

"Something is… still amiss." The deactivated Android said, making her gasp as it suddenly sat up. "Apollo will… want a… full report."

Ripley couldn't believe what she was seeing; the Android that she had just pumped six shotgun shells into, was not only somehow still functioning, but also pulling itself to its feet like it was about to continue trying to get her. Using the wall as support, the Working Joe slowly got to its feet, and now Ripley's mouth ran dry, since it was standing nearly all the way up before she even thought about reloading the shotgun.

"There, you're… still here then." It said, turning to face her while she shoved in the shells. "Are you… playing a game… with me?"

There were only four shells in the weapon when the Android started into the office, so Ripley jumped up, cocked the weapon, and fired. This time, however, she didn't aim for the head or chest. Instead, the shell was sent into the arm that it was leaning on the wall with, staggering it just in time for her next shell to be fired into the leg that it was leaning on. This caused the Android to fall on its face, and Ripley used this moment of distraction to make a run for it.

Stomping down on the Android's back in order to get past it, she nearly slipped on the grated floor thanks to the constantly spraying water, and didn't bother looking back to see if the Working Joe was going to make another attempt to get up. Not only was this because its resilience was starting to frighten her, but also because based on the feel of her pockets, she didn't have very many shells left.

Now that she wasn't sneaking around, it only took a few seconds for Ripley to pass the first junction and reach the doorway to Reactor Maintenance, which thankfully, was now open. Beyond the doorway was only a short addition to the corridor, which ended at a small service elevator that had the words REACTOR MAINTENANCE painted on top. The security shutters made more sense now, being that they were meant to lockdown the elevator, but that didn't make being trapped with an industrial Working Joe any more pleasant.

"Ricardo, have you ever been to the reactor?" She asked once the doors closed behind her. "I did some training on one, but it seems like a lifetime ago."

"Sorry, Ripley, never took the tour." Ricardo replied as it started down. "That service elevator you're in should take you to the reactor's control room, but the reactor itself is pretty big, so you'll have to look around for Apollo's problem manually… um, Ripley… are you okay? I mean, that Joe you just ran into, he didn't… you know… hurt you, did he?"

She assured him that she was okay, and although it was nice to know that the Deputy cared, it still made Ripley a little angry that she was always the one that had to do all of the legwork. If Ricardo had really been that worried about her well-being, then he would've been there with her, like Axel and Samuels had done, instead of cowering at the Bureau where it was safe… mostly.

It didn't take long for the elevator to reach the bottom, since there wasn't much farther she could go, and when the doors opened, the first thing she saw was a brilliant flash of blue lightning off in the distance, making her jump. She was now inside of a decent size control room that was filled with monitors and instrument panels, and beyond the shielded viewing window, the top of the reactor could be seen. The flash of light had come from one of the two sub-cores that sat on either side of the much larger central core.

However, what she didn't see was a problem. From the viewing window, everything looked like it was functioning properly; both sub-cores were firing, the walkways down below looked intact, and as a bonus, she couldn't see any Androids around, either. Next, she checked the instrument panels, and at first everything was in the green… everything except the sensor group on the lower levels, which showed nothing but errors.

"I think I found it, Ricardo." Ripley said as she looked for a way down. "I'm showing all kinds of errors on the lower levels; gonna have to get down there and fix the problem manually."

"There should be a lift or something near the central core." Ricardo's voice replied. "The catwalks below you should take you right to it."

There was also a small lift in the back of the control room, next to a locked door that was marked EMERGENCY EXIT. So she moved away from the instruments, stepped onto the small lift, and slowly began descending toward the reactor catwalks.