Before I tell you about Ellen Ripley and Grandma, I must tell you some of the events that happened before.
You see, I still haven't addressed the issue of what we did with all the bodies, nor what happened between that fateful explosion at the power plant, and the events which precipitated a final violent bloody conflict between Ss'sik'chtokiwij-kind and the human species.
You shall hear about "The Bitch", soon enough.
After Brice set off his explosives, there remained a hole in the floor, broken railing, and other things.
Sarah and I stood inside the broken remains of the doorway, along a narrow sliver of concrete that connected to the walkways of the power station, watching the android repair the machinery.
Rebecca cautiously crept up behind us. "What's going on?"
"We're just watching the repairs."
We continued observing the android's work with rapt attention.
Unknown to us at the time, important machine parts had been tucked inside many cubbyholes, storage bins and lockers within the walls and flooring of the power station. In a matter of minutes, Barbara had working turbine and retractor arm components assembled, lowering them down on a winch to their respective platforms.
On a few occasions, Barbara would step behind a transformer and come out hefting a large metal turbine ring over her shoulder like an innertube at a water park. I briefly wondered if she could have used such strength to defeat Mother, but then realized the metal was rather lightweight, difficult to access, and mother had been faster and heavier. The robot, not built for battle, still could not have saved Kihoon's mother.
Even at the present moment, Barbara's movements became unsteady as she navigated the rickety narrow ladders with her large burden. Her face reflected indifference, but I knew she would continue looking calm, even if she fell off the side.
As she worked, the exhaust fans whirred to life, console and overhead lights flashing on like a decorated Christmas tree with the cord suddenly reattached. She even had the safety railings back up where they were supposed to be. Things looked promising.
A Floorbot 852 busied itself scrubbing the area where Kihoon's mother had died, clearing up the blood and coolant. Since we still had a hole in the floor outside, Sarah and I had to help Floorbot over the gap so it could get in, but now it hovered over patches of grime, foaming up with cleaning chemicals. Soon it would have the socmavaj egg yolk scrubbed away as well.
"My hands are hurting," Sarah said suddenly.
I let go of her hand. "Sorry. Was I gripping you too tightly?"
"It's...not that. It just feels like I've been...I don't know, punching a wall or trying to pull boards off of something with my bare hands. I feel it in my arms too. They ache."
I guessed it had something to do with my fight with the robot. "It is a pain that makes you stronger."
She answered me with a very serious nod. "I'm hungry. And you must be starved."
"You read my mind," I joked.
"I'm hungry too," Rebecca said.
I glanced behind me and sighed. Dead bodies lay scattered all over the place. Everything had blood caking on it. Knowing what I did about humans, I somehow doubted their little stomachs could handle eating next to such horrific scenery...and it seemed too much temptation for my aching belly. "I'm afraid you'll lose your appetite if we use the kitchen back there."
The kitchen, cafeteria, and break room were out. Too much cleaning would have been required, and we were exhausted. "I don't know what to do. The place is a mess."
"Let's have a picnic," Sarah said quickly.
"Where?"
"Let's go to the garden. It's a nice place."
Nice.
I must have shown my dismay bodily, for the girl switched to speaking Ss'sik'chtokiwij. "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, let us overcome the bad that has happened in that place by creating better memories there."
"You are wise for your age."
Sarah shrugged. "I have absorbed your memories."
"Are you sure that's the reason?"
She smiled.
We found a Batman bedsheet inside Brice's hut, spreading it in a picturesque spot in front of the fountain. Since Mr. Hansen's body was nowhere to be found, I decided it a nice enough spot to dine, despite the mist and damp from the irrigation system.
The next item on the agenda: Food. Since I didn't want the girls to see the bodies, I volunteered to retrieve whatever I could in the kitchen while the two relaxed in a more idyllic environment, reading comic books and playing Brice's handheld video games.
No, I didn't know anything about depreciation, resale value or priceless collectables.
There comes a time in every Christian's life in which they find themselves sliding back into their old sinful ways., and that time arrived the moment I entered that kitchen alone, by myself.
It seemed the floor cleaning machine had given the place a once over, for although the bodies remained, the pools of blood had shrank to small puddles, the rest of the floor appearing to be relatively clean.
Despite my best intentions, I found myself salivating as I looked at the dead bodies.
Insects had begun to gather, though they hadn't stayed long enough to reproduce in the meat.
I thought to myself it would be wasted anyway, so I nibbled on the body of a cook, careful to only eat the areas that appeared ripped or mangled. I suppose I thought myself to be playing funeral director by `cleaning up'.
Hearing a soft sigh, I looked up and noticed Sarah watching from the doorway.
She gazed at me for a moment, then sadly stared at the floor.
I spit out a bit of meat. "I'm sorry."
Sarah swallowed. "I understand."
"If it makes any difference, I didn't kill him, and he's still intact enough for a proper burial."
She didn't speak. By her facial expression, I could tell I was only fooling myself.
"The Lord has sent you to save me. To protect me from my own sinful ways."
Turning away from the corpse, I hugged her, careful not to burn her flesh with my secretions. "God bless you."
I sighed, suddenly feeling depressed. "This isn't a nice place for little girls to be in. You shouldn't have to see this."
She looked indifferent. "I've seen it before."
Through my eyes, no doubt. "I'm sorry about that, too."
"Why? It was my decision to take your memories." I opened my mouth to speak, but she quickly added, "Your world is real. It has substance. Me...I don't have a life. It's all artificial."
"We must create real memories together. Happy ones."
She nodded. "I'd like that."
The discovery of more than three hundred pounds of synthetic bacon in the freezer felt like a slap to the face, like the Moses who, thirsting for water in the wilderness, struck the rock with his staff instead of obeying God and prophesying to the rock instead.
In addition to the frozen goods, Brice had left behind some of the bulkier items, the industrial sized cans of baked beans, pudding, and a vat of mashed potatoes.
The colony canned their own produce, but often supplemented this supply with additional shipments from earth. I compared the cans with the garish paper labels to the bland gray canisters with plain looking stickers and strange flip top lids, wondering which would taste better.
Having never cooked anything, ever, I didn't know the first thing about microwaving, simmering meat on a stove, or even using a can opener had not been part of my education in Rosedale Square, and I had not received any additional information from my mental link with Sarah.
Thankfully, though, the girl did know what to do, having absorbed the information from a chef puppet in her simulation.
While I ate strips of frozen synthetic bacon, I watched with interest as she pushed buttons on machines (some microwaves still worked), and set a pot of beans on a burner.
I helped any way I could, lifting things for her, scooting a drum of jalapeňo peppers around so she could reach the counter, that sort of thing.
As the food thawed and cooked, we moved bodies and cleaned blood off food preparation surfaces with antiseptic sprays and rags, making the place halfway presentable.
Sarah turned the sizzling bacon. "This will be a good memory."
I wagged my tail a little in response.
"Need a little help?" said a voice from the doorway.
A blonde Mara android. Hissing in fright, I grabbed Sarah, pulling her back.
The robot smiled. "It's me, honey. I downloaded my mainframe into a new body."
"Mara?" Sarah said.
"Mom?" said I.
The android nodded.
"Is the power fixed?"
"We're working on it, sweetie. I left my other body in the medical bay to keep energy levels maintained. Need help with anything?"
Sarah grabbed my claw, nervously squeezing it. "Can you please do something about all these dead people? Maybe bury them somewhere?"
"Sure thing, baby. I'll take care of that right away. Don't burn the bacon."
As Mara left for the outer hallway, Sarah whispered, "I don't trust her."
"I don't blame you. But the real Mara was programmed to love you like a mother."
Sarah set the crispier bacon on a plate. "Would she hurt my brain?"
I sighed. "I don't know. Hopefully she's not connected to the other ones."
"She has to be. They act the same back there." She pointed in the direction of DAMBALLAH.
I peered into the back hallway, watching Mara throw a corpse over her shoulder like a sack of flour. She marched down an adjoining passage.
"We can sleep in shifts. We'll watch each other."
Sarah nodded gravely.
Once finished cooking, we found a little six wheeled cart, upon which we laid the food we'd prepared. The food slopped around a bit during transport across the uneven floors and the Hydroponics dirt, but we eventually made it to the picnic spot with our modest feast.
When we found the bedspread abandoned, I began to worry, but after a frantic search of the premises, we found Rebecca asleep on Brice's bed, surrounded by a scattering of action figures and packages. I suppose Brice would have been horrified by how she defiled his mint condition collectables.
We shook the girl awake, leading her out to our little picnic.
It was quite a pleasant affair. We even had dishes to eat from.
Even more wonderfully, when I started to eat before saying grace, Sarah scolded me, coercing both Rebecca and I to hold hands and pray together.
We sat and ate, occasionally observing Mara marching into the huts with tools, carrying others out. A lot of digging tools.
Being too tired to climb walls, I climbed the stairs, watching the robot setting up grave markers, laser etching names, depositing containers of their personal effects at each spot. "You're doing a nice job with the burials. How many have you buried so far?"
"Nine. Four outside the building, and five here. I have two more in cold storage because they volunteered for the organ donation program. Five others I have cremated, according to their preferences in the crew database. Their names will be inscribed on a special wall to preserve their memory."
Sarah joined me. "So...is the kitchen and cafeteria clean now?"
"Yes, dear. I have also buried Sam Fujicama, Kihoon Kim's father."
The girl shuddered at the mention of our lobotomized friend.
I stared at the android in puzzlement. "If Sam is the father, why does his son have a different name?"
"Honey, sometimes people who are not married get together and have children."
I sighed. "Oh."
"I am still searching for bodies," the android said.
"Why did you bury some outside and not others?"
Mara smiled. "There's only room for a few of them in Hydroponics, sweetie. We can't compromise any of our crops. What's more, the added bacteria and other nutrients to the exterior soil will aid Weyland Yutani with their terraforming goals."
"What?" The name sounded slightly familiar, but I couldn't place why. "Who's...?"
"This base was founded by the Weyland Yutani corporation, with an objective of terraforming, or recreating the surface of planet Archeron into an inhabitable environment. Hydroponics was only the first step of a much more ambitious project. For the last year and a half, teams have gone out to far regions on the planet, setting off different devices to build an atmosphere capable of sustaining life.
"Many workers on this base have signed contracts agreeing to volunteer their bodies to the terraforming or organ donation programs. So far I haven't come across any individuals with donor flags on their records." She paused. "Except...Brice Pittman, but his body is so badly burned that nothing useful can be harvested from it."
"What about Boger Hernandez?"
I would have mentioned Sarah first, but wasn't sure how New Sarah would react to the sight of her other self being buried, and I wanted to do something really special for her. The same went for Brice. Mr. Hernandez deserved something nice as well, but I'd already made a decision to accompany Mara through the process, so I knew he'd get the best, too, one way or another.
The robot froze a moment. "Mr. Hernandez is not on our records for organ donation. Is he not alive?"
I shook my head sadly.
Careful to speak in Ss'sik'chtokiwij, I instructed Sarah to watch Rebecca as I took Mara to retrieve the body, and to hide in the underground tunnels if she saw anything from DAMBALLAH.
"I want to come with you," Sarah protested. "I remember your memories of him. He was a nice man."
"But who will watch Rebecca?"
"She'll be okay. She doesn't remember anything about...that program."
I nodded. "You'll need a spacesuit."
"I remember where they are. Or rather, you do."
"Very well." I turned to face Rebecca. "Will you be okay by yourself?"
"Where are you going?"
"We're going to have a funeral. For Mr. Hernandez and the others."
The girl's eyes widened. "Booger Bell is dead?"
I just shook my head sadly. "Did you want to join us?"
She frowned. "I don't know. I don't like funerals."
"It's okay. Just stay here and take a nap."
"I saw some other games in Brice's room," Sarah added.
Rebecca smiled a little. "All right."
We left her there, returning to the ghastly scene in the downstairs air duct.
I showed Boger's body to Mara. It still lay sprawled in a pool of caked blood inside the vent.
"It's good that you found him. This area is a blind spot to our recording equipment."
Working together, we dragged him out, carried him to the airlock, and Sarah, clad in a child sized space suit, followed us out into the wasteland, where a few graves had already been dug.
I and Mara, of course, didn't need space suits, so we stood out in the toxic environment as-is, working on the new grave.
"I'm glad I don't have to pretend I'm human anymore," Mara said as she shoveled large mounds of dirt with no effort at all. "Those space suits are extremely inconvenient, especially when I have to pretend to breathe all the time. Pumping oxygen out of my body immediately after pumping it in is a nuisance."
I had no eyebrows to raise, or I would have. I silently helped her excavate.
We buried Boger deep enough to avoid an accidental uncovering, then said a few words, and prayers (I don't think robots pray or have souls, but Mara humored us, joining hands and bowing her head anyway).
The ground suddenly shook like an earthquake hit it, a halo of blinding light erupting around the building.
A few seconds later, it rained.
Actual rain.
Hydrogen and oxygen.
"The terraformatters have been activated. If this program is a success, you will no longer be required to wear spacesuits to go outdoors."
"Can I take mine off now?" Sarah asked.
Mara patted her on the helmet. "Sorry, sweetie. The environment hasn't stabilized enough to support life just yet. You'll still have to wait a little bit longer."
I fashioned a little cross out of rocks, placing it on the mound of dirt we shoveled over Boger's body. We returned to the base, working to extricate Brice's remains from mother's claws and the pile of rubble. Mara could move the chunks of concrete with relative ease, so it didn't take long.
The building shook several times as we worked, the brilliant flashes beyond the skylight indicating more terraformatter activity.
When we at last carried Brice's shredded remains out the airlock, we found ourselves in a monsoon. The winds beat hard upon us, everything taking on a bluish tint as the water came down in heavy mists.
The ground turned to mud, but Mara dug quickly and efficiently, giving Brice the burial he deserved.
Well, sort of. It's a little hard to make a Star of David with rocks, an android is not quite a rabbi, no matter how well she speaks Hebrew, and we didn't have those little hats handy. But we tried.
More terraformatters went off as we put Brice's remains to rest. I suppose it's fitting for a man who loved stories about people blowing things up.
Seeing his fried corpse in the ground made me sad. Sarah seemed to share some of my grief, though tempered by her not knowing these people firsthand, as with the burial of Mr. Hernandez.
Dead Sarah's body also lay in a camera blind spot, due to privacy laws. I guess Brice and Kihoon saw the body and didn't tell her?
When we dragged the other Sarah out of the bedroom air vent, Mara covered her mouth, dropped to her knees, and wept. A rather lifelike response for a robot.
Well, until she took a couple blood samples and scans of the victim's body.
"I've lost her before," Mara sobbed. "But it doesn't make it any easier."
The Live Sarah took all this surprisingly well. At first, I had attempted to dissuade her from coming along, but she had insisted.
Sarah looked somber, and a little unsettled, like a person staring at their own open casket. A sobering reminder of one's own mortality, like Mr. Scrooge's future in A Christmas Carol. She never really knew her other self, so didn't grieve as much as become reticent.
We gently carried the little body away, burying her next to the supply hut in the farm. Not quite as elaborate as I would have liked, but okay. I already saw her existing in a better place anyway.
"She always liked to help me garden. I think it's appropriate." Mara let out a deep sigh, smiled at the new Sarah. "Well. It looks like we're going to have to start all over, aren't we?"
Sarah narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, as a family. You and I."
"You're a robot."
"Yes, honey. And you're a clone. I am glad to be so honest with you. My relationship with the previous Sarah was marred with feelings of betrayal brought on by your father's well meaning attempts to shield you from the truth."
"I have a father?" the girl said with surprise.
Mara nodded. "I suppose, in your case, he's more like a creator, because he didn't physically father you like a regular daddy would."
"There's no creator but God," I said.
The android chuckled a little. "In the sense of creating the universe, you may be correct, but Lou knew how to artificially assemble modified human beings."
"How were they modified?" Sarah asked.
Mara didn't answer.
The girl frowned. "Are you going to operate on my brain?"
The robot froze, her face making an expression like a mannequin in a coin operated fortune telling machine when it opens its hinged mouth. "Who said I'd do that?"
Sarah sighed. "Me. Someone like you and another android tried to cut open my head."
Mara dropped to one knee, putting her hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Baby, I love you too much to hurt you like that. You're my daughter." She rubbed the girl's head. "Besides. The unusual mental connection you have with this extraterrestrial life form is too important a scientific discovery to compromise with standard memory erasure techniques."
Sarah hurriedly backed away from her.
I attempted to make the situation less awkward. "We still have bodies to bury."
"Who's next?" Mara said.
"My mother. She deserves a proper burial."
I had my sisters to bury as well, or at least memorialize, but Mother took priority.
A Ss'sik'chtokiwij caring about ceremonial burial. You have Rosedale Square to thank for this.
"I'm sorry Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik," Mara answered. "That's company property now. Such a large alien specimen will be of great importance to our biological research division."
"What?" I cried. "You're going to experiment on her?...Cut her open?...More?"
"Insufficient data. It is a possibility."
"It's my mom!" I cried. "You wouldn't do this to a human being!"
"I'm sorry. This research is of vital importance to the survival of the colony. Your mother represents the largest specimen of its kind. We need to study her internal organs and do some tests."
She must have read the skepticism in my posture, for she added, "Think about it, honey. What if you get sick or break a leg? By dissecting this adult specimen, we'd know exactly how to treat you!"
I cringed. This kind of science was as cruel as it was a blessing.
Yes, she wasn't alive enough to care, and I thought I had seen her in heaven, but had I really?
I admit, an ironic sort of circularity to it, a creature that disembowels people having their insides removed with a scalpel, but she was also family. We may have had our disagreements, but I didn't think even she deserved this kind of treatment. Imagine walking past the dead body of your closest kin in a glass case every day!
Still, what could I say to change Mara's mind?
No human being in a civilized society would have to accept something like this, but as an alien, I was somehow required to? Not fair!
I saved human lives, saved the entire base, even, but still I had no rights.
Although Jesus did say to "Let the dead bury their own dead, I'm pretty sure it didn't mean "Put their corpses on display for curious people to examine."
Okay, so maybe I am the only Ss'sik'chtokiwij who cares about burial, but I challenge you to find any Ss'sik'chtokiwij that does not at least drag the bodies of their loved ones out of public view after death.
I sadly shook my head, gazing at Sarah's grave.
Mother wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon, and I could work on her interment later, when Mara wasn't looking. "There's more bodies in the Biology Lab."
Not much left of Kurt and Doug to bury. Mostly we found skeletons with a little meat hanging off of them, mainly the joints and cracks, like the bits of gristle humans leave behind on pieces of chicken.
The men been so badly disfigured that we could only identify them by their hair, their teeth, and their ID badges. Even that was skewed because some of their limbs had been scattered halfway across the room, an arm here, a femur over there, chewed down to the marrow.
The floor hadn't even been cleaned because of the lockdown. The Floorbot 850 came whirring in while I and Mara collected parts of our dead friends.
Sarah wanted to help us, but I thought it too grisly a task for a little girl to perform. Plus she had gotten tired of removing her space suit and putting it back on, so she still wore it, with those stiff unwieldy astronaut gloves.
It turned out the base actually did have a crematorium, basically a concrete box with an oven, benches and a few metal drawers for cadavers in the walls.
Mara said they used to have a propane powered one, but they abandoned it due to the discovery of the active volcano, so now they had sort of an Indiana Jones style chain elevator that lowered the bodies into magma in a slow and ceremonious fashion.
As I watched the bones of the victim disappear, I kept thinking this to be the kind of burial mother really should have, not the disgusting scientific display Mara proposed.
"Mara," Sarah said as the android closed the chute. "What's DAMBALLAH?"
"Call me `mom', honey. It's more respectful."
Sarah sighed. "Mom. What's DAMBALLAH?"
Mara paused and thought a moment. "Damballah is the name of an African god."
The girl frowned. "Then what's the program about?"
Mrs. Hansen looked blank. "What program, dear?"
"The DAMBALLAH Program. What is it? What's it about?"
Mara didn't answer.
"Mom," Sarah said impatiently. "I asked you a question."
The android looked like it had been shaken out of a dream. "I'm sorry, dear. What did you want to know?"
"What is the purpose of the DAMBALLAH Program?"
The android again fell silent.
"Mom?"
Mara blinked several times, smiling apologetically. "I'm sorry. Were you saying something, dear?"
Sarah looked furious now. "Mom!"
I gently touched the girl's arm. "Give it up, Sarah. She obviously has some kind of program that forbids her from telling you."
"Telling her what?" Mara asked.
"You have selective deafness," Sarah grumbled.
Mara looked genuinely surprised. "Oh? And what makes you say that?"
"What's the DAMBALLAH Project?" I asked before Sarah could speak again.
The robot's mouth instantly snapped shut.
"Give up," I told Sarah in Ss'sik'chtokiwij. "She won't be any help."
The girl nodded, but she was still angry. "And what about the other Sarah? Did you have some special program for her, or did you plan to lay her down on one of those tables so she can be a good little mommy?"
Mara's features locked up again.
"Sarah," I scolded. "This isn't going to get us anywhere."
The girl sighed.
"Get where, dear?" Mara asked.
I shook my head. "Never mind. We're done here. I showed you all the bodies I know about. You seem to be adequately skilled enough to take care of the rest. We shall now part company."
A brush off. I didn't want her around while I buried mother, but of course I couldn't tell her that or she'd dig the body up, or worse.
The robot frowned slightly, an expression that could either mean she suspected something, or one of her microchips had come loose. "Yes, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik. I should have them all taken care of in approximately two hours. In the meantime, you, Sarah and Rebecca should rest. You've had a very difficult day, and I want all three of you alert and focused for school tomorrow."
I gawked at her. "School?"
She nodded. "Don't look so surprised. Just because we're thousands of light years from earth doesn't mean that children shouldn't receive an education! How will you run this colony unless someone teaches you?"
I pointed to myself, staring at her in disbelief.
Mara chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik. I'm afraid you don't qualify for that task. But someday the children will. If they study."
Again, I can't visibly roll my eyes.
"Good night, you two." The robot marched away.
The moment she was out of earshot, Sarah spoke to me in Ss'sik'chtokiwij. "Do you trust her?"
"Not a hundred percent," I confessed. "But she's still your mother."
"She's a machine. I don't have a real mother."
"Now, Sarah! She's probably the closest thing to a mother you'll ever have!"
"Then I have no one."
I sighed. "She loves you, you know."
"She's programmed to love me. It's not the same." I opened my mouth, but she spoke first. "Look, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik. I know you love her because she acts like a mother when yours rejected you, but it's not the same. All you really have is a teddy bear that says I love you."
I cried a little. "That's mean."
"But it's true."
"You're right," I sobbed. 'We're both motherless. You were born with none, and I killed mine."
She stroked my head. "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, who did Jesus say were his mother and brothers and sisters?"
"The faithful?" I whispered. I hugged her as best a Ss'sik'chtokiwij could.
She spoke in a lower tone. "You still want to bury your mother?"
I nodded vigorously.
"Well c'mon then. Mara's going to be busy for two hours. I think we can manage something."
"We should cremate her. Digging takes too long and she'll notice."
"Right."
Luckily, Mara had removed most of the debris from Mom in order to retrieve Brice's body. We only had to move a few rocks and we had her carcass loose, slowly tugging it off the rock pile.
Heavier than expected, hence why I couldn't just climb the wall and pull her into the power plant.
Worse, internal organs kept falling out. Sarah asked if she should get a blanket to wrap her in, to keep the stuff in place, but I thought that would take too long, so I opted for cocooning.
Really hadn't wanted to do this. To touch a parent's corpse was horrific enough, putting organs back in, even worse, but cocooning? We cocoon prey in order to lay eggs in their body. This felt very wrong from a reproductive standpoint, but I couldn't think of a faster solution to our problem. I didn't want to get caught!
Glad I didn't have a sensitive stomach. Even Sarah, having witnessed similar horrors through my eyes, had not fallen ill with nausea. I sealed the organs in place, managed to drag her to the foot of the power plant stairs with as much speed as we could muster with that heavy load.
Yes, they probably had elevators somewhere, but we were in a hurry. We'd just have to figure out how to navigate the stairs.
Sarah had suggested we dump the body in the sewer, to spoil the high minded goals of the scientific community, but I argued it would be twice as disrespectful as putting her on display, and furthermore they could just dig her back out. That place had been due for repairs too.
I would have liked to use the official cremation center, but it wasn't designed for such a large body. It would have to be the power plant.
"Where are you taking that?" Mara said from the top of the stairs.
While I stammered, searching for a response, Sarah blurted, "We're taking her upstairs to the Biology Lab."
I stared at Sarah in horror. "What!"
The girl just frowned and cocked her head in Mara's direction, implying that she had a plan. It worried me, though, because I didn't know what sort of plan. Surrender, after all, is a plan.
"Very good," said the android. "Let me help you."
I murmured in protest, but Mara was quite helpful in getting the body up all those steps. I don't think we could have done nearly as well on our own.
"I see you've encased the organs beneath a sheath of mucus," she said when we arrived at the upper floor. "Our researchers will glean valuable information from this tissue." She dragged the body toward the Biology Lab.
"Wait," Sarah cried. "Before you take this body away, we must perform a special religious rite."
Mara smiled. "What kind of religious rite?"
"It is a very old Ss'sik'chtokiwij ritual of mourning. It cane take up to an entire day to complete."
Mara chuckled and shook her head. "Sarah! An entire day? Really!"
"I have been in Ernie's mind, mother. I know this to be the truth. Now if you excuse me, I must begin our sacred prayer."
She took my claw, bowing her head as she spoke in Ss'sik'chtokiwij.
"Dear great Ss'sik'chtokiwij in the sky, welcome the spirit of Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik's mother S'Caizlixadac into your eternal hunting grounds, overlook her sins and grant her to feast forever in your kingdom."
I gawked at the little girl. Sarah actually knew my mother's full name!
She repeated this chant over and over again. If getting into heaven meant repeating prayers endlessly, I figured Sarah had my mother covered already.
"Honey," Mara interrupted. "Are you sure you need to keep repeating the same thing like this?"
Sarah sighed in frustration. "Yes, mother. I have to say it a hundred times or it won't work. It must be said with the right feeling and emphasis, or her soul won't go where it needs to go. Also, for the first four hours, adults and robotic adults are not to be present. Their time of petitioning begins only in the fifth hour."
For a robot, she sure looked suspicious.
I decided to embellish the lie a bit for good measure. "She is correct. The pupae gather around the corpse, giving their petitions, and then the mature Ss'sik'chtokiwij later."
"The prayers must go into the correct circles," Sarah said. "Your presence here disturbs the process. Please depart until our portion of the ritual is complete."
I have never seen a robot's eyes get so narrow.
"Have you buried everyone else?" I asked quickly.
Mara looked like she smelled something foul. "No, I am still searching for other victims."
She paused, shook her head. "Very well. I will allow your time of ritual prayer." She let the last phrase hang in the air.
I didn't like the expression on her face. It seemed...cagey.
Sarah put up a good act, repeating her mantra, bowing her head, gesticulating at random moments to cover for sneaky sideways glances at the android. I did my best to play along, but instead of repeating nonsense, I made my petitions to the Almighty Ss'sik'chtokiwij more purposeful.
At least I had the luxury of praying with my eyes open. I just had to bow my head. In fact, Sarah capitalized on this by asking me, in my language, to watch Mara for her.
I did.
The further the android got from us, the less time Sarah spent chanting, alternating the mantra for fake silent prayers and singing songs that may or may not have come out of my brain, like Abba's Summer Night City and Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc. The simulation did have some music in it.
At last, Mara disappeared into crew quarters.
"Now. She's checking the bedrooms, I think."
We hurriedly dragged the corpse closer to the power plant. Again, slower than I would have liked, but nothing I could do about it. We didn't have a dolly or anything handy, and dragging that six wheeler up from Hydroponics at this point would have looked too suspicious.
We only made it to the southernmost corner of the railing before Mara caught us.
In a hurry, we took up prayer positions, reverting to our ritual.
Looking furious, the robot stomped up to our little group, planting her hands on her hips. "What is this!"
Sarah ignored her, continuing to repeat the Ss'sik'chtokiwij prayer she made up.
"Little girl! I demand you answer me this instant!"
"You should kill her." Sarah slipped this phrase into her prayer, acting like it were part of the rite.
I responded with a false Ss'sik'chtokiwij prayer of my own. "She is your legal guardian. I doubt other humans would just let you run around without a parent."
"Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, you are the only mother I care about."
This choked me with emotion for a moment. "I will not kill this well meaning but misguided thing simply because of a betrayal of my mother's memory. Mara has done us no physical harm."
"Then your mother will not get the burial she deserves."
"If that's God's will," I sobbed. "So be it. But I won't give up just yet."
"Young lady! I demand an answer!"
"It hasn't been four hours yet," Sarah snapped. "And now you've interrupted my series of prayers! Now I have to start all over again, or she won't get into heaven!"
"Sarah, I respect your religious beliefs, and I won't dissuade you from them, but I demand an explanation!"
"Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik says that her mother's body has to align with a constellation in order to open a gateway for her spirit to enter."
I pointed in the direction slightly to the right of the power plant. "There. That is...Sielduntah, The...Great...Eater, I mean, Gateway. Some expressions are difficult to convert to English."
It actually meant `eater,' but I suppose it could also mean `mouth' or `door', if you really stretch the meaning.
Me and Mom occasionally did stargazing and she taught me about the Great Eater...Nothing mystical about it, really.
Mara sighed, tapping her foot. "That constellation is suspiciously close to the entrance to the power station."
I spread my claws in a prayerful gesture. "Indeed. A fascinating coincidence! The ways of the Great Ss'sik'chtokiwij are mysterious, are they not?"
When she opened her mouth to say something, I cut her off with, "Did you know it is also close to a hallway leading to the medical bay, and the crew quarters where my dear friend the Other Sarah departed for Sielduntah? And also, just a short distance away, the break room, where poor Mr. Fujicama had lost his life? It's a sign!"
Mara shook her head back and forth, looking like a cat being teased by a laser pointer. "You...must...provide more...details regarding...this strange religion."
"I will!" I lied. "But you must first allow us to complete the ritual."
"Did you find any more bodies?" Sarah asked.
The robot frowned. "I'm still looking."
We resumed `praying.'
After a few moments of this, Sarah, like before, asked me in our language about what Mara was doing.
I looked up. "She's not going anywhere."
Sarah opened her eyes, glaring at the robot. "The spirits are angry that you disrupt the circle."
"You're not fooling anyone," Mara said in Ss'sik'chtokiwij.
So there it was. Our cover was blown.
She knew the language, and had obviously been spying on us. Unclear how much she knew, but it didn't look good.
"What do you mean, mother? We are only performing, or rather, trying to perform, a Ss'sik'chtokiwij burial ritual."
"Which will conclude with a burial, I assume."
"You should never assume," Sarah said. "It makes an ass out of you and me."
"It's a death ritual," I supplied. "The burial will be symbolic. We understand your intentions regarding my mother's remains."
Mara scowled at me. "And I understand yours. Incidentally, it is fortunate that you do not wish me harm. We have gone through a lot together, and I would hate to have our relationship spoiled by something so petty as a burial. Let's not make each other miserable, all right?"
A veiled threat, but a threat nonetheless. And she heard what we had discussed in a previous conversation.
My shoulder plates slumped. "Come on, Sarah. Let's go to bed."
"Wait," Sarah said.
With a nasty grin, she said, "Mother, what's the purpose of the Damballah Project?"
We expected her to freeze again, but instead she started yelling.
"You think I like this? They give me a program that enables me to feel emotion, and then I have to sit idly by while small children are experimented upon and tested and forced to endure all sorts of terrible things. And why? Because I'm a robot, and they can unplug me any time they choose!" She broke down in sobs.
Sarah ran to her side, hugging her. "Don't cry! I'm still okay! I'm safe mama!"
Mara wiped her eyes and sniffed, smirking a little. "I know, honey. But so many things make me sad."
She fell silent.
Sarah glanced at me with a confused, fearful expression. I could tell that she really didn't consider the android her mother, but she felt sorry for it. "Mama, I love you, but you're being mean to Ernie. If you could just let us bury his mother instead of putting her up on display, I'd be happy to be your daughter. We'll be a family. Just let me bury his mother, okay?"
"I'm sorry sweetie. She's company property now. Such a large alien specimen will be of great importance to our biological research division."
"But mom!" Sarah cried. "She's her family!"
"I'm sorry. This research is of vital importance to the survival of the colony. Your mother represents the largest specimen of its kind. We need to study the internal organs and do some tests."
Broken record.
Well, she was an android.
I shook my head at Sarah, indicating that we stop trying.
"We should sleep here," she whispered to me. "And watch the body."
"No. We should be watching Rebecca. The dead will have to bury their own."
I hadn't actually given up. I just needed time to strategize.
We returned to Brice's hut, where Rebecca lay on a futon, asleep.
Only one bed, of course, but Sarah said she was fine on the floor, and, noting the girl's pitiful state, Mara had thoughtfully brought down some blankets and comforters from crew quarters for her to sleep on.
As promised, I stayed awake, keeping watch.
Since I had nothing to say to Mara, we just eyed each other suspiciously for an hour before I nodded off for a few minutes. When I awoke, the robot was gone.
Checking outside, I found her by the rabbit hutches, replacing the cage material. Then she disappeared out the door at the end of the chamber, to move the body, no doubt.
I couldn't go far, so I wiped the grime off a window facing out into the base, peering out.
Of course I didn't see anything. The large Ss'sik'chtokiwij body lay on the upper floor, and I didn't have any windows up there to look through, except if I wanted to see the stars.
Sighing, I returned to the hut, reading little picture books about superheroes. Originally wrapped in plastic, I probably devalued a few of them with my dirty clumsy claws, but we no longer had Brice to worry about that stuff anymore.
I fell asleep while reading a comic book about Thor. When I snapped awake, I found I had drooled a hole through it. Fortunate that was the only thing I drooled through.
I felt embarrassed to find Sarah shaking me awake, but was okay, nobody had hurt her or Rebecca during our little rest.
She quietly led me through the various huts, supply sheds, mini nurseries designed for prepping tiny plants for the farm environment, and a room containing Mara's charging station.
Along the way, Sarah idly ran her hands over various containers of flammable liquids, casting me quick sideways glances as she did so.
Well, I supposed, that's one way to respect the remains.
I nodded to her, but only feigned mild interest.
Mara had cleaned up the showers in crew quarters, so I and the children went up there to get clean.
As you know, Ss'sik'chtokiwij don't bathe, but I noticed, after my previous hours of hard exertion, that my body began to take on its characteristic odor of, as Sarah put it, "Mildew, boiled Brussels sprouts and bleach", so I rinsed myself off a bit while the girls shampooed and cleansed themselves.
For the first time in ages, I could casually stroll through the base.
The barrier at the end of the south hallway had been removed, the guards gone. We walked out the mouth of the corridor, as if everything were completely ordinary.
A lot of curious faces. Many people I'd never seen before.
Everyone gawked at us, but I just waved politely, causing them to stare more, or laugh.
We stood in a place that resembled a parking garage, a large square concrete structure divided by pillars. It had an elevator and passages connecting to other areas in the base, not much else of note.
We breakfasted in a fine little dining room/kitchen belonging to a Weyland executive we just buried. The room featured a counter island of polished wood, with lots of drawers and a row of overhead lights, an electric range, microwave, and a refrigerator with a built in ice machine. It even had a TV, though it only showed static until you put in a thumb drive, which we, at the moment, did not possess.
We seated ourselves around a little table as Mara cooked our meals, staring at the pictures on the wall.
Tropical landscapes. Bikini clad swimsuit models. The victim must have been homesick.
A red light continually blinked on one of his communication devices. Messages the victim would never hear.
Mara suggested I eat some uncooked synthetic bacon, but I wanted to try something new, so I asked for the same thing she served the children.
I enjoyed the taste of pancakes as they went down, but regretted eating them immediately. I abandoned my chair just seconds before throwing up, bile carving a large crater in the concrete.
"Sorry." I returned to my stool. "Something disagreed with me."
Not sure if were the raisins, the fruit, or the bran, or maybe the orange juice I had with it, but I decided to play it safe and only eat synthetic bacon and artificial scrambled eggs. Mara also acquired a bottle of ammonia for me to drink in place of the OJ.
We ate in awkward silence, I and Sarah unable to communicate our plans in the presence of the android, Rebecca too busy staring at me like some character in a Superman story trying to figure out why Clark Kent looked so familiar.
Mara randomly quizzed the children and I with various problems, such as "If Jane has five apples and two bananas and she gives two apples and one banana away, how many does she have left?"
We humored her by answering the questions the best we could. Then, after a "very good" or a small lesson, we'd all fall silent again.
All of a sudden, Rebecca's eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell from her chair.
"Rebecca!" I cried, leaping up on the table to get a better look.
The girl writhed on the floor in convulsions, kicking objects, foaming at the mouth.
Mara cleared an area of the floor for her, setting some cushions around her head, turning her on her side.
"Doctor Bokardo to room 2680," Mara said to seemingly no one. "Stat."
When she spoke again, her voice echoed through the building, by means of a hidden PA system. "Russell and Ann Jorden. Please come to room 2680. Code orange. Repeat, Russell and Ann Jorden. Room 2680."
I stared helplessly at the girl. No clue what to do. I've never seen someone having an epileptic fit before.
About ten minutes later, Rebecca's parents arrived, gasping and panting for breath.
By that time, Rebecca had recovered from her fit, resting on some pillows Mara had set up against a cabinet.
Sarah knelt beside her friend, watching her with worriment.
I waved to Rebecca's parents nervously. First time I'd ever gotten a good look at them.
The pair had a wild, rustic charm to them. An unkind person might call them `rednecks,' but I thought them cute.
The male had a long, slack jawed face, graying matted curly hair in a widow's peak. His mouth and chin featured what they describe as `five o'clock shadow,' which I also found amusing and quaint.
The female had messy reddish brown hair sticking out all over, making her look like a Triceratops in the back. An unkind person would say she looked like a crazed old hag, for her face did reflect a somewhat witch-like appearance.
Mrs. Jorden.
Doug said that a Mrs. Jorden reprogrammed my Rosedale Square simulation.
It astounded me that the simple looking woman standing before me had the capacity to do such amazing things with a computer, but apparently she had. Humans never cease to surprise me.
The two wore rather frumpy clothes, ragged dirt smeared denim pants, the male in beaten plaid flannel, the female in an orange `puffer' jacket, their outfits blotched with grease stains, indicating an occupation involving machinery.
I wagged my tail, but they weren't here to socialize.
"What the hell is going on here!" the man shouted. "I was just about to go on a survey!"
"I'm sorry Mr. Jorden," Mara said. "I wouldn't be notifying you if it wasn't important. It's just...your daughter has been having convulsions, and there weren't any records of similar incidents in her medical records. We thought you should know."
"God," the man sighed, rubbing his face. "That's just what we need...Do you know...what triggered it?"
"Was it the gas?" the female asked. "Was she...playing in the tunnels around the gas leak? I heard the rear portion of the base was under quarantine."
I suspected I knew the real answer, but the moment I opened my mouth to speak, Rebecca's parents began jumping to conclusions.
"You said she was safe!" Mr. Jorden growled. "You said everything was fine!"
"Was she in the explosion? I heard an explosion the other day!"
"Please," Mara said diplomatically. "Allow me to explain. Your daughter was under my care during the gas leak. I made sure she was in a safe location, away from the fumes and the explosion.
"Your daughter simply has a latent genetic condition that predisposes her to epilepsy. As long as she is given treatments once a month, it's a non-issue, and she can live a normal healthy life."
I looked at the man and just shook my head. "Lies," I whispered.
The man's eyes narrowed as he stared at me, but said nothing.
"Oh isn't that awful?" Mrs. Jorden cried.
Her husband, in the meantime, while running his fingers through Rebecca's hair, discovered something in her scalp he didn't approve of. I could tell by the expression on his face.
Casting me, the robot and Sarah suspicious glances, Mr. Jorden picked up his daughter. "C'mon, Newt honey. Time to go."
"But I want to play with Sarah!" she moaned.
He locked a cold stare on the other little girl.
His face said `Never again,' but his mouth said, "You can play with her some other time."
As our little friend's concerned parents dragged her away, Rebecca stared back at us in mute bewilderment, unsure what was going on. Her dainty little hand waved goodbye.
In the hours following, I and Sarah had a pleasant, uneventful time working on Mara's educational modules with tablet computers. We ate lunch, aided Mara with planting crops in Hydroponics.
Eventually, our time became unstructured. Sarah led me into the hut complex, activating one of the computers.
Clicking a few items opened menus and dialog boxes, in which one could see entries about tasks like "Compost Unit 440" and "Transport crops in Tray 390 to location A-110."
Sarah scrolled. "It looks like she's going to work on the tunnels soon."
She moved the text up a couple ranks on the list. "There. Now she'll do it sooner."
I stared at her open mouthed. "How did you know how to do that?"
Sarah shrugged. "I don't know. It just came to me. Maybe that's how I got out of my tank the first time."
She picked up a jug of flammable plant chemicals, setting it by the hut's entrance.
By manipulating a few cameras, we could spy on Mara as she worked. A couple button presses, and the android pulled rocks away from the demolished tunnel, crawling down inside.
"Now?" I asked.
Sarah shook her head, pointing to the screens. "She'll just pop back up in a few seconds."
"What then?"
She paused and thought a moment. "Maybe if we make her do everything underground first." She shuffled more menus around.
"I wish you could have thought of this earlier!"
"If I would have remembered it, I would have done it. It was like I had a block."
"Well thank the Lord you're not blocked anymore!"
She used the computer to open the door to Hydroponics.
"Now!"
Although awkward with the added weight, we raced through the farm with our heavy container of Chemical 49 Growth Hormone, darting into the lower floor in a couple minutes.
I glanced back. No one followed us. We made our way up the stairs. Sarah had the door to Hydroponics on a timer, so now it clicked closed behind us.
"Wait," I gasped as we stopped in front of `Remote Sensing.' "Do you have a key to unlock the lab?"
"Your mother ripped the lock off. Remember?"
I thought it oddly fitting that we would break in to save her remains using similar means. "You sure she's in the lab up here and not elsewhere?"
"You saw where Mara was heading before we stopped her. If she wanted to go the other way, you wouldn't be holding that bottle."
I nodded. "You're right. Let's go."
We ran, and after a few jiggled wires, we had access to the Biology Lab.
The place looked spotless. No bodies, no blood, no sign that anyone broke out of their cells except for the damaged lock panels.
For a moment, we wandered the room, searching for the remains, gazing at the rows of glass containers holding socmavaj and infant Ss'sik'chtokiwij with sadness.
Sarah looked sad too. Not sure what she thought about it all.
Again, a thought troubled me: Though mom said socmavaj died when they impregnated a host, much like certain human male cells I would learn about later, and I did no wrong in destroying them, there was Abednego, who behaved rather nicely toward me instead of trying to run away. Was she also nothing more than some kind of zygote?
I decided she, or rather it, must be. Again, life begins in the carcass.
Still, thought I, I had preserved a rather docile sample compared to the others. I had done humanity a favor by cultivating a socmavaj with better genetics. The only problem: No one in their right mind would want it impregnating them.
That particular dilemma I intended to solve once I took care of funeral arrangements. I continued on my way.
We found the big Ss'sik'chtokiwij carcass sprawled across a stainless steel pan on a lab table.
We rushed to the table, climbed up stools, doused the remains with Chemical 49.
"Mother," I sighed as I gazed at the body. "I'm sorry I couldn't give you a better funeral, but it's either this or let your body be used as a...thing to cut open." I choked down a sob. "Goodbye, Mom."
I glanced across the table at Sarah. "You got something to light this with?" I whimpered.
She held up Brice's X-Men cigarette lighter.
To say that Chemical 49 is flammable is an understatement. The moment Sarah touched the flame to the exoskeleton, a roaring blaze engulfed the corpse, exploding with so much heat that we both had to leap back or become consumed. Sarah dropped the lighter with a yelp.
The smoke from the incineration wafted up to the fire alarms, and we found ourselves in a deluge from the emergency sprinklers.
I checked the corpse. The fire had lessened in intensity, but still burned strong.
"I allowed you freedom, and this is what you do with it!" A voice shouted from the end of the room.
"You're a robot," Sarah said. "You wouldn't understand."
"I will not tolerate this kind of disobedience from either one of you!"
She picked up a fire extinguisher, showering Mom's body with white foam.
"I thought we could be a family again..." The android suddenly broke into tears. A jarring transition between moods. Mechanical. "A family. Like before."
Her teary mood disappeared in a snap, like someone had flipped the `non crying' switch. Abrupt. Unnatural. "But no. You had to ruin it. You had to disobey me. You had to reprogram me and sneak out while my back was turned and do the very thing I told you not to do!"
Her mood slipped a gear again, and she became stony cold. "That's it. Fun Time's over."
She clapped her hands, and two more androids stepped into view, a copy of herself, and another Call machine armed with a cattleprod.
"What's the purpose of the Damballah Project?" Sarah shouted.
Mara froze.
Sarah kicked her in the shin and tried to run away, but the other Mara caught her by the arm and wouldn't let go.
"That information is restricted," the first Mara said.
Sarah asked her captor the same question.
The second Mara became like a statue for a moment, but before Sarah could pull herself free from her grip, the first Mara yelled, "You think my answer is going to change? No matter how many times you ask me that question, I'm never going to answer you, because that's how I'm programmed! What is the purpose of the (data restricted)? I can't tell you! I can't tell you, I can't tell you, I can't tell you! How many times can I tell you that I am physically unable to tell you the answer to that question!"
The second Mara stuck Sarah in the neck with a syringe.
"Sarah! No!"
Before I could rush to her aid, I got jolted with the cattleprod until I writhed involuntarily on the floor.
I watched with helpless fear as they dragged the little girl away.
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Author's note: Wow. Three hundred pages! If you've read the story all the way to this point, you are amazing. Your continued readership is what keeps this story going.
2022 update: In case you didn't notice, I revised the first Ernie novel with more concise, dynamic writing. I'm currently working on revising Book 2: Worm Master. My plan is to avoid the entire plot of Alien 3. Once I get to the end of Ernie Book 3, I'll be able to figure out what happens to Ernie when Newt doesn't die and Ripley doesn't give birth to larva.
[0000]
As of 11/2/22 I'm still editng the rest of the story. From this chapter onward, Gretchen Goose is suddenly going to be Big Bird until I finish editing, and Rosedale Square is going to be Sesame Time. In the final version, I'll have all that corrected.