He held her stare a moment longer, then dropped his eyes back to the map. ?How do you know that??

?It’s like a lion. It sticks close to the zebras.?

?We don’t have any zebras here.?

She halted and gave him a look.

?Oh, right,?he said, subdued. ?But running around down there in the dark? You gotta be kiddin’. We got no overheads once you get out of the main shaft here.?

?How about flashlights??

?Sure. We got six thousand of them. And rechargeable batteries. But no bulbs. Somebody forgot that little detail. I told ya, nothin’ works.?

?What about torches? Do we have the capability of making fire? Most humans have enjoyed that privilege since the Stone Age.?

The old vertical shaft stretched up and down into darkness, the ladder welded to its interior filthy with carboniferous grime and accumulated gunk. Damp air ascended languidly from the black depths, thick in Ripley’s nostrils as she leaned out of the corridor and aimed her torch downward. No bottom was visible, not had she expected to see one.

They’d started in through the tunnel where Murphy had been killed, past the huge ventilator blades, which Aaron had shut down prior to their departure. She sniffed, wrinkled her nose. The rising air was more than damp; it was pungent with rotting vegetation and the sharp tang of recycled chemicals.

?What’s down there??

Aaron crowded close behind her. ?Air and water purification and recirculation.?

?Which explains the stink. Fusion?? 142

Alan Dean Foster

?Yeah, but sealed away. Everything operates on automatics. A couple of techs from the supply ship run a status check every six months.?He grinned. ?You don’t think they’d trust the maintenance details of a functioning fusion plant to the delicate ministrations of a bunch of prisoners and a couple of prison administrators with general degrees, do you??

She didn’t smile back. ?Nothing the Company does would surprise me.?Holding on to the edge of the opening she aimed the torch upward, played the light over the smooth metal walls. ?What’s upstairs??

?Low-tech stuff. Storage chambers, most of ‘em empty now. Cleaned out when WeylandYutani closed down the mine. Service access ways. Power and water conduits. All the tunnels and shafts are bigger then they need to be. With all the drilling and coring equipment at hand the engineers were able to make it easy on themselves. They built everything oversized.?He paused. ?You think it might have gone up there somewhere??

?It would naturally choose a large, comfortable chamber for a nest, and it likes to keep above its … prey. Drop down from above rather than come up from below. Also, the upper levels are closer to the prison habitat. That’s where it’ll expect us to be holed up. If we’re lucky we might be able to come up behind it. If we’re unlucky…?

?Yeah??Aaron prompted,