?Let’s get this straight. I’m with you all the way. I just want to do my job. You just gotta tell me what to do next.?

Though it lingered in the still air for quite some time, the two unconscious, bleeding men sprawled on the floor did not hear the singular high-pitched scream. 172

Alan Dean Foster

Dillon relaxed on his cot, engaged in his thousandth or ten thousandth game of solitaire. Idly he turned over another card and fingered his one long dreadlock as he spoke to the woman who stood before him.

?You’re tellin’ me they’re comin’ to take this thing away??

?They’ll try,?Ripley assured him. ?They don’t want to kill it.?

?Why? It don’t make no sense.?

?I agree completely, but they’ll try anyway. I’ve gone around with them on this before. They look on the alien as a potential source of new bioproducts, perhaps even a weapons system.?

Dillon chuckled, a deep, rich sound. But he was clearly disturbed at the idea. ?Man, they’re crazy.?

?They won’t listen. They think they know everything. That because nothing on Earth can touch them, this thing can’t either. But it doesn’t care how much power, how many politicians the Company controls. They try to take it back for study and it’ll take over. The risk is too great. We’ve got to figure out some way to finish it off before they get here.?

?From what you’re tellin’ me they ain’t gonna like that much.?

?I don’t give a damn what they think. I know better than anyone, better than any of their so-called specialists, what these things can do. Sure you can build a cell that’ll hold one. We’ve proven that here. But these things are patient. And they’ll exploit the slimmest opportunity. Make one slip with them and it’s all over. That doesn’t mean a lot here, or on an isolated little outcolony like Acheron. But if 173 173

these things ever get loose on Earth, it’ll make Armageddon seem like a school picnic.?

The big man fingered his dreadlock as he puffed away on his relaxer. ?Sister, I lost a lot of the faithful trappin’ the motherfucker. Men I’d known and lived with for some long, hard years. There weren’t many of us here to begin with and I’m gonna miss them.?He looked up. ?Me and my brothers ain’t gonna be the ones goin’ in there and hittin’ it with a stick.

?Why do we have to kill it anyway, if the Company’s coming for it? Let them worry about it.?

She held her temper. ?I told you. They’re going to try to take it back to Earth.?

He shrugged indifferently. ?What’s wrong with that??

?It’ll destroy them. They can’t control it. I told you, it’ll kill them all. Everyone.?