?Fire … -*crackle-* … yes. It was electrical, in the subflooring of the cryogenics compartment. Presence of a catalyst combined with damaged materials to produce the explosive gas. Ventilation failed completely. Result was immediately life-threatening. Hence ship’s decision to evacuate. EEV detected evidence of explosion on board subsequent to evacuation, with concomitant damage to EEV controls. That’s why our landing here was less than perfect. Present status of Sulaco unknown. Further details of flight from Sulaco to present position available.?

?Skip ‘em. Did sensors detect any motile life-forms on the Sulaco prior to emergency separation??

Silence. Then, ?It’s very dark here, Ripley. Inside. I’m not used to being dark. Even as we speak portions of me are shutting down. Reasoning is growing difficult and I’m having to fall back on pure logic. I don’t like that. It’s too stark. Not anything like what I was designed for. I’m not what I used to be.? 113

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?Just a little longer, Bishop,?she urged him. She tried tweaking the power up but it did nothing more than make his eye widen slightly and she hastily returned to prescribed levels. ?You know what I’m asking. Does the flight recorder indicate the presence of anything on the Sulaco besides the four survivors of Acheron? Was there an alien on board? Bishop!?

Nothing. She fine-tuned instrumentation, nudged controls. The eye rolled.

?Back off. I’m still here. So are the answers. It’s just taking longer and longer to bring the two together. To answer your question. Yes.?

Ripley took a deep breath. The workroom seemed to close in around her, the walls to inch a little nearer. Not that she’d felt safe within the infirmary. For a long while now she hadn’t felt safe anywhere.

?Is it still on the Sulaco or did it come down with us on the EEV??

?It was with us all the way.?

Her tone tightened. ?Does the Company know??

?The Company knows everything that happened on the ship, from the time it left Earth for Acheron until now, provided it’s still intact somewhere out there. It all goes into the central computer and gets fed back to the Network.?

A feeling of deadly deja vu settled over her. She’d battled the Company on this once before, had seen how it had reacted. Any common sense or humanity that faceless organization possessed was subsumed in an all-encompassing, overpowering greed. Back on Earth individuals might grow old and die, to be replaced with new personnel, new directors. But the Company was immortal. It would go on and on. Somehow she doubted that time had wrought any

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significant changes in its policies, not to mention its corporate morals. In any event, she couldn’t take that chance.

?Do they still want an alien??