"Yes, ma'am!" I cried with enthusiasm, rushing to the door. Seldom do I receive an order that I so wholeheartedly agree with.

I only paused at the open door for a moment. "Ms. Ripley. Please put my sewing materials and my daughter's Christmas gift in a safe place. I do not wish to disappoint her."

Ellen sighed, but I thought I detected motherly empathy in her expression. "I'll take care of it, Ernie. Now go!"

I jumped outside, rushing through the light drizzle to the entrance to the power station's entrance.

Zero difficulty tracking the soldiers. They smelled of sweat, gun oil, cigars and boot polish.

The facility's organic machinery had expanded significantly since I'd last visited the facility. The primary heat exchangers stood four stories above Grandmother's abode, and yet, thanks to all the new growth, large portions of the equipment and the associated facility had been obscured by strange colonies of biomechanical `barnacles.' Although I could still make out parts of platforms, the elevators and the stairs, you couldn't quite tell humans had built the place.

I found the soldiers trapped near the lower floor staircase, shouting and firing their weapons as they fought to return to the upper landing.

Vasquez, cornered at one end, blasted my relatives with her gun and a flamethrower. Hicks stood nearby, battling his own foes.

A Ss'sik'chtokiwij with a shell textured like cork pinned Hudson to a grating. I shoved her aside with a growl. "Leave these people alone!"

"They are killing larva and other Ss'sik'chtokiwij."

"They are scared for their lives. They will go if you let them."

I turned to face the man I rescued. Hudson. His pear shaped head dripped with perspiration. His buzz cut hair, cropped in a widow's peak, damp with sweat. "What the hell are you, man, Super Bug?"

"It's not important! Get your men out of here! Gorman's orders!"

Gorman didn't actually give orders, but since the little man held so much authority, I thought it an effective line.

"Shit, you don't have to tell me twice!" He backed away, muttering something about Gorman being a genius. "Do me a favor, Super Bug! Grab Apone and Vasquez for me!"

He ran to the stairs.

I quickly hurried to Vasquez's aid, shoving aside her foe, a Ss'sik'chtokiwij with swaths of white around its exoskeleton.

"These humans are fleeing in terror," I said to the assailant, waving Vasquez onward.

Two Tone shoved me into a pylon, claws clenched around my neck. "They are killing Ss'sik'chtokiwij!"

"I'm sorry, but they are leaving."

A deafening rattling sound, and Two Tone's head exploded, spraying blood and brains all over me.

Trembling, I looked up and saw the red bandanna. "De nada."

I scowled at the woman, outraged.

De nada!

Someone dies right in front of your face, and it was nothing?

Still, nothing constructive I could do or say about it. I could only move on, let the experience develop into some form of PTSD later on in life.

More bursts of gunfire. Hicks came marching up to me.

"Gorman says you must leave."

The man cast me a skeptical look. "So I'm supposed to take orders from a bug."

"He's the team mascot," Vasquez said. "See the cape? Anyhow, Cucarachón has a good idea. Let's scram."

"Not yet. We're missing Drake, Apone and Wierzbowski."

I shook my head. "I'll go find them. You get to the APC where it's safe."

Still looking uncertain, Hicks retreated from the heat exchangers to the opposite staircase, firing at any Ss'sik'chtokiwij that got close. Xylena shrieked and died in a spray of bullets.

I found Apone surrounded by three of my relatives. He'd discarded his larger weapon due to running out of ammunition, and now frowned as his secondary weapon, a pistol, also clicked empty.

I pushed one of my aunts away, yelling for him to run, but then a Ss'sik'chtokiwij with a cobra patterned shell rammed into me, and the two of us fell clumsily thundering end over end down the stairs.

My assailant hit me, grabbed my head, bashed it into the grating that served as the flooring. "Traitor! You are not a Ss'sik'chtokiwij! You are ssogdisfi! You are soft bodied human prey in a Ss'sik'chtokiwij shell!" She ripped off my cape, waving it in my face. "This—"

A tremendous crash interrupted her, metal screeching, pillars collapsing on the steel flooring upstairs.

Ripley shouted for the soldiers to hurry into the vehicle.

"This is your fault! You let those humans escape, and now they're destroying our home!" Cobra head dragged me to the next flight of steps, shoving me down, but I grabbed her around the throat, so that we dropped together, tumbling to the next landing.

My attacker picked up a wrench, striking me in the head over and over again. So much for Ripley's comment about only using claws and teeth.

"Anjonssud!" a voice screamed. "You leave my mother alone!"

My mouth fell open in surprise. "Shauqauzjarruba?"

My enemy hissed at me angrily, turned and stomped up the stairs.

More gunfire, another crunch, then quiet.

On the upper landing, a pair of my relatives now tore into Apone's body. I'd been too late.

No screams, no gunfire. All the humans had either died or boarded the APC, rolling away.

"Thank you for saving me, Shauqauzjarruba." I brought my daughter close, rubbing my dome against hers. "Dear child, why do you still care for me?"

"Although I would never worship a food flesh human that claimed to be the creator Ss'sik'chtokiwij, I know in my heart that she, Sialigaxar, desires for us to love and forgive each other."

The strange religious terminology alarmed me. "Sialigaxar? Where did you get this name from?"

"I asked Grandmother. That's her word for the Divinity."

This troubled me further. Why did Mother never tell me of this? "What does the name mean?"

My daughter shrugged. "It means God."

"And she believes God is female?"

"Sialigaxar created reproduction. She is above gender. It is simply a place holder to describe what cannot be described."

"So Sialigaxar could be male."

"I do not believe she is human, so no."

I lovingly stroked her shell. "That is a good theology...I am still working on your gift. A..." I stopped myself. I did not want to generalize against humans. "Unfortunately, your sweater got destroyed. I am making you an alternative gift."

"Will it still be cute?"

I purred. "Most definitely."

Nearby, the broken body if red haired Dietrich roasted with the residual flames from the incident with the exploding ammunition. I frowned and looked away.

"Mother, do you love me?"

"Yes," I said. Not "Of course," or "You know I do," but a flat "Yes."

"Even after I killed Pain?"

She had pinpointed the source of my hesitation. I sighed and nodded. "My Lord commands me to love my enemy."

I reflected that Pain, being a Ss'sik'chtokiwij of faith, would have likely forgiven my daughter too.

[0000]

"What if I'm not your enemy?"

"Then I'll love you, just the same."

A Ss'sik'chtokiwij shuffled up to us, one with a horse-like interrupted stripe marking on her dome, bordered by speckles.

"This is Dabmuvum. We're friends."

"Shauqauzjarruba is reluctant to share her memories," Horse Stripe said. "What I have been told confuses me, especially how you risk life and limb to save humans. May I share minds with you?"

Although it reopened old wounds, I consented. "Yes you may. Perhaps you will understand how deeply I need my Savior's grace."

"Another strange concept."

I bared my damaged worms. She only recoiled a little. "I was told you were injured."

"Yes, but I can make this work, if you wish."

Dabmuvum, unperturbed, bumped her dome against mine.

Although like connecting a battery cable to a terminal without a clamp, but our minds still connected, and for what seemed to be an hour, maybe a day, I experienced Dabmuvum probing around in my memories, absorbing and comprehending the depths of human emotion, belief, hope and fear.

As we mentally strolled past the beautiful fountain I remembered from Hydroponics, I led my daughter's friend to faith in Jesus.

She saw my sin, and I saw hers.

Dabmuvum had killed Amber, a woman the Marines set on fire when they found larva bursting from her chest. But my new sister in Christ felt sorry for the act, sincerely repenting.

When our worms separated, we sprawled on the floor next to each other, Dabmuvum softly coughing and sneezing.

I got up, shaking myself off.

Dabmuvum hugged me. "Thank you, cousin."

I looked around, to see if I could possibly share this new joy with my daughter, she had disappeared. I guess she wanted nothing to do with this.

I picked up my ripped Marine Corps cape. "Where is Shauqauzjarruba?"

My new convert shrugged. "She may have taken the tunnel back to the other human structure."

"What tunnel?"

Dabmuvum took me down a floor, showing me a seemingly endless passage, dug out of the rock. It used to have a pressure door, but industrious Ss'sik'chtokiwij had ripped it off its track. "You have lived here all this time and yet you have never known of this?"

"You have seen how much time I've spent in prison."

She nodded. "Yes. That explains many things."

"The humans prefer above surface travel."

"As do you. I suggest you conquer these phobias and use the corridor, if you wish to reunite with your friends."

I climbed through the door frame, then paused to face the new Christian trailing me. "Dabmuvum, I would like to ask of you a favor. The humans' vehicle is traveling aboveground, and in it is a very precious gift I have been crafting for Shauqauzjarruba. "I do not wish for you to put yourself in harm's way, but would it trouble you to find this vehicle, when it is not occupied by weapon bearing humans, and retrieve for me the scarf and sewing tools? I do not know where the Ripley woman has placed them, but my sewing kit is a little box with a handle..."

"I have seen your memory of this. I will search for it. It is a great honor to do something in return for the gift of grace and peace you have revealed to me."

I purred. "Those gifts are from the Lord, but thank you. I would be most appreciative if you can help me."

We went our separate ways.

I traveled down a very long tunnel indeed. Although it took the same exact amount of time to get to the base by way of walking the surface, the uniform monotony of the gray tunnel made it seem twice as long.

Ceiling lights set up in repetitive patterns, junction boxes, storage containers containing...something I didn't have time to open up and see, water and sewage pipes, a few communication stations, that's all I had for variety.

I found the dead carcass of the Ss'sik'chtokiwij who had killed Roger. I guess Super AIDS had gotten to her at last. Not exactly sorry about that one.

About a mile or so down, something rumbled like an earthquake, dust and bits of rock showering down from the ceiling, and I feared that the tunnel would collapse. Driven by this fear, I ran the rest of the way.

The cause of this tremor, as I would later discover: A foolish Ss'sik'chtokiwij who apparently lacked enough sense to wait for a spaceship pilot to land before eating her. Other Ss'sik'chtokiwij told me they could hear the explosion all over the base.

Sighting no humans anywhere, I opened the tunnel's front gate, searching for signs of the APC.

I nearly got shot. The humans spotted a Ss'sik'chtokiwij coming at them, and fired, no questions asked.

I waved the flag frantically, but it took them a minute to recognize me and relax their grips on their weapons.

I told them what happened to the people who I tried to save. Needless to say, they weren't impressed.

Gorman's team had arrived on foot, two soldiers lugging the unconscious form of their small commander. Apparently during their rapid vehicular exodus from the station, the ride had become bumpy, a loose cargo container striking Gorman in the head.

I heard Drake managed to make it to the APC, but he died outside the door.

A pair of Ss'sik'chtokiwij had been quite tenacious in clinging to the vehicle, their deaths rendering the machine undriveable, hence the reason for the tromp.

"Shit, man!" Hudson complained. "The ship is fucked! How the hell are we gonna get home now?"

Ellen took a deep breath. "We'll make do somehow. Newt's been here twice as long as we have, and somehow she survived. Right, Newt?"

Rebecca gave her a thumbs up.

Ellen rubbed her head. "You're a brave kid."

Rebecca idly thumbed her doll's decapitated head. Not sure where the rest of it disappeared to.

A few days previous, the girl had made a habit of removing Kaycee's body and throwing it in different places, trying to see if I could find it and bring it back to her. I guess she thought of me as a simple dog playing fetch with a stick.

Burke glanced at me, then stared at a damaged wall. "Well, looks like it'll be kinda hard to bomb this place from orbit, being as we don't have a ship..."

"Yeah," Ellen groaned. "That's fucking wonderful! We won't live through the night, but at least we preserved your precious creatures from extinction!"

I didn't like what she was implying, but I just frowned and kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to see these humans dead any more than she did.

"We might as well coat ourselves with barbecue sauce, man," Hudson cried. "`Cause we're dinner, and help ain't coming!"

Rebecca paid him little heed. "We should get inside. The monsters mostly come out a night."

She glanced at me. "Mostly."

We returned to the lab area, from which I typed this my most recent journal entry, listening to Ellen and the others discuss the construction of siegeworks.

They had questions about Ss'sik'chtokiwij pack leadership and biology, which I answered to the best of my ability.

Once all plans had been established, I got assigned several miscellaneous duties, putting up the steel plates to block Ss'sik'chtokiwij out, moving the mattress out of the scary lab with the broken glass (which I also swept up)...

Newt meanwhile collected food packets from other rooms, and some private stores, bringing them to the command center.

The girl watched the soldiers preparing their weapons and ammo, amused herself by trying on one of their helmets. We all found it adorable.

The soldiers collapsed a pair of tunnels with explosives, set up automated cannons to guard the other two, leaving only one entrance/exit, guarded by live human beings with weapons. With weapons at the ready, they played blackjack as they kept watch.

Ellen put Rebecca to bed, pulling a blanket over her. "I think it's safe now. Hicks killed a bunch of those things, and we're out with the soldiers, instead of the lab. They'll protect us"

Rebecca only looked sad. "That won't make any difference."

Ellen frowned.

The automatic machine guns rattled loudly. The sounds of Ss'sik'chtokiwij shrieking and dying made me think of tormented souls in hell.

Hudson and Hicks watched their motion-detecting cannons from the security cameras. The ammunition quickly decreased from three hundred rounds to empty.

"That's the last of our ammo!" Hudson cried. "We're done for! Game over!"

"Wait!" Ellen pointed at a screen. "Look! They're going away!"

Things definitely had become...quiet.

"One of us should go check, just to make sure."

Ellen's eyes narrowed. "And who do you suggest for that operation?"

Everybody looked at me.

The aftermath I witnessed in that corridor was both tragic and good. Although glad for the safety of the humans, I certainly wouldn't dance for joy.

Twenty Ss'sik'chtokiwij lives snuffed out in the space of a few seconds.

To be fair, somewhat their own fault. After the first couple deaths, the others should have understood that the machine sensed motion and fired upon it, but still...My people perish from lack of knowledge.

As if this terrible vignette hadn't placed a heavy enough burden upon my already grieving heart, I discovered a sewing kit, and a piece of orange-brown wool clutched in a dead victim's claws.

Dabmuvum had died to bring me a scarf.