"Is that the only picture you have on this person?" I asked.

"Unfortunately yes. Our database is incomplete, which is why we're sending photographs off to the authorities for verification."

"You said there was a seven year gap," Sarah said. "And this `Flo' is twenty eight. Why don't you have any pictures of her when she got older?"

Harold shrugged. "This is an old computer system."

"I had to remove a lot of corrupted files," Aaron said. "The other pictures must have been part of that." He squinted at the monitor. "Plus, you hacked several police databases containing your pictures."

Sarah moaned in despair.

"Oh mother!" Julia cried. "This is such a distressing, confusing situation! These men are clearly incorrect, but they will not listen! Can I please eat them? It would solve many problems."

"And create many more," I countered.

Sarah grinned. "Yes, Julie. Eat them."

"No, Julie. It is not our way." I frowned. Back at the ship, Julia had eaten a large bowl full of `pot roast.' I thought that would have been sufficient. "You are still hungry?"

"As a larva," Julia said. "You ate many large humans. My hunger should not be surprising."

I nodded grimly. "I suppose we should take you back to the ship to feed again."

I gave Sarah an apologetic smile. "Remember the story of Joseph. The man was sold into slavery and wrongfully imprisoned, but the Lord used the situation to make Joseph king over all of Egypt."

Sarah sighed. "I don't want to be queen of a prison."

"Sarah, a real queen or king would be free."

"I want to know more about this `Joseph.' Maybe you can tell me more about this while I'm in Solitary."

"I will, if that's allowed," I said.

"You mean you're not able to talk about the bible either? Just like the droids?"

"No, but the phrase `solitary confinement' implies being alone."

"Mr. Aaron," Harold said. "Ms. Kenney is exhausted. Would you mind showing her to her quarters?"

Sarah shook her head. "I'm not tired."

"I'm sorry," Aaron said. "This is as much for your protection as it is for the protection of other prisoners. We'll let you out once we get word back from the agency."

"And how long will that take?"

"It depends. Probably a week or two. Not to worry. You'll be taken care of."

"Are you going to spray me with a fire hose?"

Aaron gawked at her. "There's...an automatic shower that we'll set to come on at ten A.M. every morning. If you refuse to use it, then we'll bring the hose."

"You may find it a bit cold," Harold remarked. "Though not as cold as the fire sprayer."

Sarah jumped off her chair, backed into a corner, jostling a coffee maker in the process. "I don't want to go! I'm innocent, and you shouldn't be treating me like a prisoner!"

"Can I come with her?" I asked.

Aaron glanced at Harold. "Only while Mr. Aaron or another one of my guards is present. I saw what you did to that cell lock."

Aaron grabbed Sarah, pushing her out the door. I followed him.

David, who had been sitting against a wall during the proceedings, rose to his feet. "Where are you taking her?"

"Solitary," Aaron said. "Did you get your laundry done?"

David blushed, chuckling nervously. "Sorry, I'm just not used to living with a deranged serial killer under my roof."

"Maybe you should go home then. There are a lot of those under this roof."

David shook his head, straightening his back. "I'd like to see this `solitary' place. For my own piece of mind."

"It's the safest, most secure place in this prison," Aaron said. "But if you must insist, you can follow us."

The prison had a unique Gothic architectural style. I admired it as we followed the man down a cell block.

"Does this place have any security cameras?" David asked.

"Yes and no. The ones in the uniform room and art room are perfect. The cameras along the outer hallways and foundry are spotty, and will go on the fritz for months at a time, only to resume functionality when you try to work on them. The ones in this area don't work at all."

He pushed Sarah up a rusty metal staircase. "We tried to get your synthetic friend to repair them, but she only told us to `use your imagination' and make believe they were working."

David burst out laughing. "She actually told you that?"

Aaron nodded, not looking amused at all. "Your friend needs her circuit boards checked."

We crossed a landing, turning down a tunnel.

"So who's in Dianetics?" David said. "I saw a book on the desk."

Aaron glanced at him uncomfortably. "That's mine. You going to tell me I'm going to hell?"

David shook his head. "Maybe that Jesus can save you from hell, but I'd probably start by saying Star Wars is a better fictional religion than Scientology, and you don't have to pay as much to attend."

Aaron looked very annoyed. "I wish you wouldn't. Let's just say you don't know what you're talking about, and leave it at that."

"You're right. It's none of my business." David fell silent.

He fell silent.

The cell doors in this hallway were thick intimidating metal objects, with not much of any place to see out, just mere observation slots, and tray slots that you could latch shut.

I watched as Aaron unlocked one, revealing the interior, a dark place with a single concrete bunk, a thin mattress, a lidless metal toilet, and a shower with no privacy.

Sarah started crying again. "I don't want to go in there! It's dark!"

"You must be strong, Sarah," I said. "Look to the Lord. He will be with you, even alone in the dark."

"Can I take Julia with me?"

"I don't think that's a good idea. She has a voracious appetite."

"That's okay. I'll share my food with her."

She was so naive.

I chuckled. "That's cute, but I'm afraid she'd still want to eat you. She's a growing Ss'sik'chtokiwij. She needs a steady diet of large quantities of meat."

"She can eat me," Sarah said. "I don't mind. At least I won't be alone."

"I'm sorry," Aaron said. "I can't let you bring that extraterrestrial tube worm in there. We shouldn't have even allowed those in the prison."

He unlocked Sarah's cuffs, pushing her into the cell.

"Keep hopeful, Sarah," I said. "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."

As Aaron closed the cell door, Sarah asked, "Are they going to behead me?"

I had no answer.

Aaron turned the key in the lock, closing her off from the outside world.

David put his hand on Aaron's shoulder. "Regardless of what you believe, I can't completely hate you guys. A long time ago, a Scientologist tried to protect me from child abuse."

Aaron had started out looking uncomfortable and offended by David's embrace, but now his mouth hung open in shock. "Just tried?"

David withdrew his arm. "Somehow dad convinced the cops there was nothing wrong, then he got revenge by reporting the Scientologist to the city for violating zoning laws. Sent him packing. The guy lived right next door. If he hadn't had all that construction equipment in the back yard..."

"I'm...sorry."

"Me too. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to me if the city did take me away to a foster home."

Aaron took a deep breath. "You might have ended up in a place like this, with a bar code tattooed on your neck."

The thick metal muffled Sarah's screams, but I could still hear fists pounding on the door.

Aaron opened the observation slot. "Settle down in there. We're right outside. Someone will check on you every hour! You've got nothing to worry about."

"Until they chop off my head," Sarah said darkly.

Aaron frowned and closed the slot.

"I want to see Ripley," Newt said.

I let out a heavy sigh. "She may not want to see you."

"I don't care."

We found the Ripley woman in the prison morgue, crying over Rebecca's body. The woman had clothes on now, army pants and green cable knits.

Aaron had excused himself already, saying he had other prison business to attend to.

David, who had been following us, muttered, "Damn," shaking his head.

"No..." the woman sobbed, cradling the dead child to her chest. "No no no!"

Clemens stood nearby, watching the scene rather dispassionately. "I've never seen anything like this before. What would cause a chest cavity to rupture outwards like that?"

She laid Rebecca back down on the slab, glaring at the man. "It's an alien parasite. They impregnate the host with an egg, and it gestates into flesh eating larva."

Clemens must have noticed our presence, for now he slowly turned his head, staring at us with suspicion. Ellen turned to look as well.

She grabbed a scalpel, marching up to me with it clenched threateningly in her fist.

"Whoa. Hey!" David shouted. "What are you doing with that?"

Ellen ignored him, coming closer to me. "It was you! You climbed aboard the Sulaco while everyone was asleep and did this!" She jabbed the scalpel in the direction of Rebecca's lifeless corpse, then turned it on me.

"That's impossible," I said. "You left me to die on LV 426." (1)

She had no comeback for that.

"Ripley, please don't hurt Ernie," Newt said. "I'm still alive. I'm just in a different body. I'm still Newt! You've gotta believe me!"

Ellen scowled at me. "Did you train it to say that?"

"No. She's really Newt. She somehow transferred her consciousness..."

"Bullshit!" the woman raised the scalpel. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't drive this through your shiny painted head!"

"Because you might burn your hand with the acid, and ruin a perfectly good scalpel." I frowned, staring at the floor. "Also, it would hurt me a lot, if that means anything to you."

The woman dropped the scalpel on the floor, breaking into tears.

"I'm sorry for your loss," David said.

Ellen acted like he wasn't there.

This show of emotion was apparently not for us, for as soon as I tilted my head in sympathy, she turned her back to us, hurrying around a corner to cry in seclusion.

Clemens followed her there, but I decided it unwise to do the same.

Newt hopped down my back, scurrying across the floor.

"Newt, no!" I scolded. "She doesn't want to talk to you!"

"She's my friend! I have to try!"

I followed cautiously behind, dreading the results of this unsolicited encounter.

"Ripley!" Newt called. "Don't be sad! I'm still here!"

Ripley didn't answer.

"I know it's not the same, but can we at least be friends? Kind of like we used to?"

Ellen snatched a pair of forceps out of the doctor's surgical apron, brandishing it at the larva, tears welling in her eyes. "You stay away from me!"

Newt crept closer. "Ripley! Please don't hurt me! I love you!"

"You can't love anybody!" Ellen spat. "You're just a bloodthirsty insect baby about to grow into a creature that lives only to rape and kill and destroy everything and everyone that I care about, and you have the gall to pretend to be my dead child! You make me sick!"

Newt cried bitterly, but, of course, Ellen probably thought she only had the sniffles.

Overwhelmed by sadness and loss, my friend fled the room with a gurgling screech.

The woman resumed her weeping. Now everyone was miserable.

Clemens rubbed the woman's back consolingly.

"Ernie's really not a bad girl," David said. "She's not like those other things. Neither are her children."

"Oh yeah?" Ellen snarled. "And what would you know about it?"

"I've seen them. On other planets. Ernie and her kids are different. They don't hurt people."

"What, you want me to accept this bullshit story about that thing containing the essence of my little girl?"

"No, but can't we all be friends?"

The woman swallowed. "I...need to be alone."

We granted her this concession, backing away, but a couple minutes later, I heard Aaron shouting, "Hey! Clem! There's been a...situation. Would you come take a look at this?"

The doctor calmly rose to his feet. "What seems to be the matter?"

Aaron shook his head. "You're not going to believe this unless you see it yourself. She's in the infirmary."

"She?" The doctor frowned. "Please tell me it's not another crash victim."

It was Sarah. They had her strapped down to a bed, handcuffed. Harold and Aaron stood to one side of the bed, their faces reflecting a mixture of worriment and disgust. Dillon sat on an empty bed nearby, looking equally troubled.

Zadoori, keeping to the terms of Clemens' agreement, watched from the opposite side of the room, near Thonwa, the expression on his face reflecting confusion and unease.

Sarah's clothing was tidy, her skin clean as it had been before. No signs of wounds or injury. I supposed it could still be rape, but I supposed wrong.

Dillon showed the doctor a laser knife like the one we'd demonstrated the day previous. "I caught her cutting herself with this."

The doctor took it, nearly slicing off a finger as he experimented with the buttons. He handed the device back, frowning at the patient's unmarred body. "Do I want to know what she sliced off?"

Everything looked fine until Sarah opened her mouth.

The young woman had sliced her tongue down the center. When she noticed David standing next to me, she waved to him, proudly waggling the pieces. "`Ook, Dawib! I got a abeya dung!...Do you wub nee now?"

David shuddered and looked away. "Oh God."

[0000]

(1) Alternate ("Peacekeeper") paragraph, for preserving continuity:

"That's impossible. I was onboard the Iberet, circling LV 426."

"Yeah? For all I know, your alien buddies could have flown you back onboard to lay your little egg!"

"I can only assure you that I didn't."

"I'm human, ma'am," David said. "I'd never let someone do that to a child."

"Bull shit!"