STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All characters and situations related to the 'Alien/ Aliens and Alien 3' films are wholly owned by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. The story is mine as well.

ALIENS: ORIGIN

PROLOGUE:

A BRAVE NEW WORLD

As planets went, it was hardly impressive.

Initial sensors scans detected vast tracks of marsh like terrain. By all accounts, it was estimated to be hot, moist and bleak, like the rainforests everyone tried to save but no one wanted to visit. The science officer studied the readings from the computer console and knew instantly that life existed in vast quantities. Most surveyed worlds had yielded little more than bacterial organism, nothing to inspire anyone except some egghead who lived his life staring through a microscope.

The planet would have gone completely unnoticed by humans and the galaxy in general if the commercial cruiser Iago had not developed engine failure. Bio National’s procedures regarding such an event taking place were specific. In the even that stasis was in danger of compromise, the said vessel would immediately awaken all crew members. Computers as formidable as they were, could not be trusted to handle such a crisis.

The emergency that brought the crew of the Iago was nothing out of the ordinary despite the danger of the situation. The computer logged a malfunction in the cruiser’s star drive and following its programming, revived the crew from stasis to repair the problem. Eight sleepers rose from the induced state of coma, confused by their abrupt awakening but grateful that they were awake at all when they discovered the nature of the emergency. It was not unheard of to remain trapped in the coffins like stasis tubes, drifting across the galaxy forever entombed in glass.

The repairs were conducted in record time and departure to leave became eminent in a number of hours. It was until the science officer made the discovery of the planet wedged uncomfortably between the orbit of two binary stars. Its proximity to each afforded an abundant explosion of life on the surface of the green gold planet. From space it looked like an orb covered in decomposing moss, hardly the stuff to inspire the imagination. Nevertheless current directives of the United Nations of Earth required a formal expedition be launched for a quick survey of the planetary ecosystem.

The Captain of the ship was unhappy to be snared in this often forgotten tenet of his contract, however, he was unwilling to risk the forfeiture of payload by ignoring the policy, however inconvenient to him. His reservations were due in part to the extended time it would place on their return journey and the fact that his crew were mining surveyors, not the research scientists that would be necessary for a survey mission of this nature.

There was also an unspoken fear which he revealed to no one but as a man responsible for the people under him, undoubtedly possessed. No human had set down on this world before and space was filled with a dozen things that could kill just as easily as it looked at you. He disliked sending his people into the unknown, no matter what the UNE felt about first contact. Nothing that they had encountered in almost three hundred years of space travel had ever turned out to be friendly or sentient for that matter.

Nevertheless, he kept such worries to himself and authorised the mission, selecting from his crew on the basis of expertise, who would be best suited for the surface landing. Most of them were enthusiastic about the prospect of playing explorers. His executive was thrilled by the idea, as well as his science officer who was eager to see in person what had tantalised her so greatly by mere sensor scan readings.

A party of four out of the 8 crew members of the Iago was selected to go. The captain requiring to stay on board while he send friends and colleagues into the fray, cursing deeply at the bureaucrat who emerged with the policy of keeping captains in their ships at all time. The others monitored the progress of the mission with intense scrutiny, lingering at the communication centre of the ship, watching the external view afforded by the in built cameras of their colleague’s environmental suit.

The five set down the small shuttle in a patch of earth that seemed to be one of the very few solid masses of land in the entire planet. If the camera’s were correct, the planet was hot, moist and humid with a denser oxygen content that most humans were accustomed. Foolishly, someone decided to remove their helmets, opting to test first hand if the air was breathable.

It was.

However, mobility across this terrain was another thing entirely. The ecosystem was little more than an extended marsh that swept across the entire planet. The survey team was immediately beset with problems of transportation as they struggled over the swamp like landscape. As the mission had been unexpected, there was no equipment available to traverse such terrain.

The Captain was almost pleased to hear the news and instructed the survey team to make a quick investigation of what was accessible to them and before ordering them back to the Iago. Although there was every reason for an abundance of her life, the survey crew detected nothing of note. There were the usual night crawlers, some interesting forms of reptile life but nothing larger than a small dog roamed this unyielding terrain. Of course, it was impossible to say what lay beneath the grey muck of the swamp but the sensor equipment detected nothing as well.

It bothered the Captain more than he liked to admit and was almost relieved when the allotted time for the expedition passed and finally the last day arrived. Unfortunately at the 11^th hour, his intrepid science officer detected something that had so far remained hidden during previous searches. From his monitor screen on the ship, it looked almost like a structure. Slapped together and held fast by some form of biological resin, the construct was built of any material that was available. Bones, wood, leaves and rocks were amalgamated into a dome not unlike the insect colonies of earth with one notable exception. The creators of the dome were not ants.

The structure was big enough to accommodate several hundred human beings even though the survey team could see no entry point other than narrow fissures that ran along the sides.

It could belong to an evolving child race, the science officer had reported back enthusiastically, for the structure definitely showed signs of sentience in its unusual architecture. The captain was unhappy when the science officer lead the team to investigate but once again, could see no reason to object. Armed with good intentions and scientific curiosity, the procession made its way to the inside of the dome.

As the team approached the object, the captain watched in growing apprehension as the dome loomed closer in the screen. He did not know why but it seemed sinister in a way he could not pin point and while the others around him burned with curiosity, he fought the urge to order the survey crew to withdraw.

The pandemonium that followed once the team had breached the walls of the fortress was beyond even his worst imaginings. The inside of the dome was unlike anything he had ever seen. It felt as if they had walked into living innards of some huge creature. It was moist and damp, with noisome fluids running thickly against the oddly shaped walls that appeared to have protrusions running across the length of like the giant veins pulsating with their own version of life.

Immediately, the group had began to sense some of the danger that he had been feeling through this entire mission and caution became the word of the hour as they proceeded deeper inside the maw of darkness. There was an odour, the science officer had reported of dead and rotting things that gave off a rank stench that made them grateful to be wearing environmental suits that filtered the oxygen through their breathing masks.

The initial chamber of the dome was unsettling enough with its stygian atmosphere of shadows everywhere. When they penetrated another inner chamber, the captain knew it was time to leave. What lay inside seemed something out of a nightmare. Half the survey team was soon doubled over, some having torn off their helmets, daring to brave the foul stench out of the air, just so they could retch. Those watching from the Iago were spared that indignity but no one spoke and everyone appeared ashen with horror.

The captain had seen many things during his time. Some had left him wonder, others in sorrow and regret, what he saw within the chamber could only be described as black horror, unyielding and complete. The tapestry of bodies forced into place, trapped against the walls in a rictus of pain and agony stretched across their alien faces was a sight he knew would follow him to the grave. They lay trapped in clear resin against the walls on any surface that could hold them in place. It answered the question on the fate of the large organism in this desolate ecosystem.

Each one had died terribly, their torsos a grisly work of broken bone and ruined flesh, gaping holes that trailed rotting entrails. Whatever had caused such horrific and ultimately fatal injuries could not be ascertain for it seemed as if the hapless victims had exploded from the inside. The survey team was too horrified too move when they realised the stick wetness they had been treading on upon entry into the chamber was most likely the decomposing organs of the guests in the macabre gallery.

The most disconcerting of all were the empty pods that lay open before them. In front of every carcass, no matter how decomposed or maimed in form, the leather like objects were present. They opened like a twisted version of a blossoming flower, full of gelatinous substance that had no doubt given sustenance to whatever lay within. They littered the floor of the chamber, almost in reverence to each one of the dead that had been captured in this strange lair.

It was the science officer who discovered the creatures. They were lying on the ground just as dead as everything else in the chamber. For a minute they looked like hands with too many fingers, spindly and covered in caking resin that held them in place where they had died. The reasons for their demise were not so easy to discern. There were no injuries or signs of violence. It appeared as if they had simply stopped and ended themselves. It was a mystery as unnerving as everything in this awful place.

The captain had seen enough at this point and ordered the group to withdraw. This time, there were no protests or arguments for scientific exploration. The science officer who was visibly shaken by what they had discovered revealed a fear that no amount of scientific detachment could erase. The survey team proceeded out the way they came, moving faster than they had in entering the chamber when suddenly proximity sensors started screaming in alert.

Multiple signals began appearing in their tracking devices. From the Iago, the large sensor sweep of the facility allowed the Captain to helplessly watch as more thirty new life forms started closing in on the team. That was the first wave and those on the Iago could do nothing more than watch helplessly while screaming desperate orders to survey team within the dome to get out while they could. The warning more or less fell on deaf ears as the team began to descend into panic of the prey that understood that it was being hunted.

From their internal cameras, the Captain could see nothing except vague shapes and sounds of slithering in the dark. There were visible shifts in the air, slight movements that were almost shadowy in their consistency. He could see some of it but not all and it terrified him more than an enemy he could see. There was nothing tangible in the obscure veil of mist that seemed to fill the chamber when the danger started to present itself. Yet the motion detectors clearly showed the signs of the impending peril.

The screams followed no long after.

With stomach clenched in rising horror and anguish, the captain was forced helpless to sit by and watch the phantoms on the sensor console come to life with terrifying intensity. The were fast and they final. There were screams of pure terror, followed by a glint of sharp teeth and a screeching sound that was unearthly as it was blood curdling. Each screech would follow or precede a very human scream that signalled the end of the survey team. Life sign readings started to flat line, some becoming so faint that the injury sustained must have been severe for the victim was almost comatose.

The captain was preparing the second shuttle for launch even before the first screams were heard but knew that he would never reach them in time. On that point at least he had been correct. The attack was over in five minutes, leaving nothing but static where there used to be images and that voices to accompanied it. They had seen almost nothing of the things that had attacked the crew with devastating force.

The second team consisted of Iago’s last remaining crew members. Analysis of the tapes from the viewing cameras of the survey crew yielded little answers. Whatever they were facing appeared before the survey crew as little more than fast moving shadows that savage and vicious in their attacks. No one spoke out loud that the probabilities were high that the primary team was dead.

The captain cared little for such things even if he had paid attention. All that he could see at the moment was the safe retrieval of his lost crew members, ignoring the real chance that they were already dead and the rescue attempt was a wasted effort. The second team landed on the planet armed with light armour piercing weapons and every intention of using them.

Meanwhile, the Iago sat in space waiting for their return.

It would remain trapped in orbit for two years.

Chapter One

I

She should not be doing this.

Technically, she was still attached to the Marine Corp but when the new replacement to the UNE Security Division contacted her and asked her to undertake this mission, Maia Sanjay found it hard to resist. After all, she had spent almost six months in the corp and while she was surprised to admit she found the blunt force attack praticised by the military enjoyable, Maia missed the subtle infiltration of a perfectly covert operation.

She had sat on top of the roof for almost two hours now, glancing at her watch to see that it was almost five minutes to midnight. Most of New York was currently congregated in Times Square, preparing for the coming of the New Year. The rich elite who believed themselves above the need for such common entertainment, were gathered in their plush apartments, celebrating with champagne and caviar.

In about an hour, she was due to meet Kevin MacReady, her Sargent and sometimes more at the party held at Corporal Tim Addison’s parents Long Island home with most of the Marines in attendance. As their Captain, her presence was expected and Maia had no intention of disappointing the men and women who served under her command. In the last year, she was surprised by how much the group had come to mean to her. She never thought she could come to care so much about a bunch of grunts since she was strictly from an intelligence background.

Nevertheless the missions had come and gone and they relied on her expertise with a confidence that was not only surprising but also strangely fulfilling. After her disillusionment with the UNE, the Marine of the Sparta had been wonderful for her morale, not to mention how she felt about her Sargent.

MacReady had been the biggest complication when she accepted the rank of Captain and agreed to play double jeopardy by retaining her UNE officer status at the same time. Their relationship had never been strictly professional, not since the moment she first stepped on board the Sparta to partake in that first mission. The attraction between them had been so strong that she was surprised that any man could effect her so profoundly. Not only was he incredibly handsome, with steel coloured eyes that seemed to pierce straight through the skin when he aimed his intense gaze at anyone, he seemed to enjoy getting the better of her.

Maia had stayed away since assuming command of his platoon, keeping him at arm’s length because a relationship between them was sure to get in the way of the job. MacReady had not liked it but he understood her reasoning, realising that it was necessary for both their sakes to keep each other at a distance. Lately, however, Maia had been questioning that choice. She wanted him and she also knew she was disciplined enough to keep an intimate relationship and a professional relationship apart if she so desired. Maia was forced to endure much worse constraints in her time.

A question for another time, she decided when she looked at her watch again and saw that the seconds were ticking closer to the New Year. Without delaying and longer, she stepped out of the shadows and slowly made her way to the edge as the countdown began in many households and parties below. She could hear voices chanting the last seconds of the year, building almost to a feverish climax as the time drew closer.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The roar seemed to move throughout the building and most likely through all homes and gatherings throughout the city. Taking advantage of the euphoria of those below her, Maia stepped onto the stone palisade and reached for the handle of the pulley that would take her across the building she was on, to the structure on the opposite site of the street. Earlier that evening, she had tethered the line that was linked to a small stake firmly imbedded in concrete and fired its end to the other building where a grappling hook had latched on to the first available ledge Thus she was left with a bridge between the two structures.

As the revelry and debauchery continued to new heights or lows, depending on how one looked at it, Maia began her mission of infiltration. She grabbed on and stepped of the ledge, feeling a sudden whoosh under her as her weight propelled her forward on the small measure of slack provided by the line. She glanced down at the street below as she slid towards her destination and made a note not to let go. There was nothing worse than death by falling into a crowd of drunken people enjoying their street celebration. At the very least, it was going to seriously dampened the mood.

She reached the other building when she saw a wall coming at her and Maia pulled her legs up to stop herself when she reached it. Her feet impacted softly against the concrete surface and allowed her suitable grip to climb over the ledge onto the roof of the building. Like the one she had been on earlier, the roof was empty and quiet. A few birds resting on the ledge had taken flight at her arrival and she bid them farewell with little more than a glance in their direction as they disappeared into the bright, New York Skyline.

Maia ran softly across the rough bitumen paved ground, her eyes scanning the area for anything that might endanger the mission. As expected, the occasion ensured her privacy as she moved across the roof, appearing like a shadow in her black jump-suit and soft soled boots. She carried a knapsack across her back, which contained a few things she might need this evening.

The door to the inside of the building was locked but she had anticipated that. The mechanism was expensive and state of the art. Obviously, the target was not averse to spending good money on security. Maia studied the device for a few seconds, having never seen one of these object before this time, even though she was aware of its existence before she had even stepped onto the roof. Maia had pulled up all the construction plans and blue prints on the building when she had accepted the mission, so she was quite prepared for what she would encounter.

Reaching into her backpack, Maia found the tools she had brought with her to disable the system. It took her no more than a few minutes to bypass the mechanisms trigger device before moving into the innards where more delicate work was required. Finally, the system yielded in defeat as Maia heard a slight click that indicated that the actual locking mechanism had opened for her. Replacing her tools back into her bag, Maia reached for the door handle and twisted gently, poised for trouble if her tampering had failed.

Nothing happened and the door came open in her hand without any further difficulty. She slipped into the darkness of the steps that led downwards into the top floor of the building. The corridor was dark and Maia did not wish to risk alerting anyone to her presence so she slipped a pair of night-vision goggles over her eyes before continuing any further. Immediately, the lenses turned everything before her a shade of green and allowed her full perception of every obstacle before her.

She had expected this floor to be unoccupied since the party was taking place in the middle and lower floors of the building. As the upper floor consisted of mainly of bedrooms and the target’s study, there was little reason to keep the lights on less to discourage guests that might choose to wander up here by mistake. This suited Maia fine as she descended into the hallway. Although the lack of illumination indicated there was no one on the floor with her, Maia preferred not to take the chance and waited for a few seconds before emerging from her hiding place near the steps to the roof.

Maia knew precisely where she intended to go as she ran softly down the carpeted hallway, the soft pile of the fabric beneath her feet dampening the sound of her movements until she reached the open door of the study. Stepping inside the room, Maia scanned the space with its shelves of books that covered almost every wall and the expensive mahogany desk that set in the corner. Taking no chances, she closed the door behind her and locked it for good measure.

The target was a man called Lenard. He was a member of the Security Council of the UNE, representing the United States. Lately, the State Department of that country had been reporting a number of security leaks in relation to government contracts and a particular company that had been able to undercut many of its competitors with uncannily low bids. With the end of Weyland Yutani and the formation of Bio National, there was still large void left by the demise of the all powerful company which had held the monopoly on the economy of the planet for so long.

Would be contenders had rushed into the fray attempting to take up lucrative business opportunities and one of these that had risen to prominence was a company called Paragon. Part of Paragon’s steady rise had to do with its winning tenders of government contracts, however the frequency of these successful bids had to do with their being able to undercut the competition. Naturally questions were raised in whispered voices among the trade sector and eventually, the UNE Security Division was called in to make discreet inquiries.

Maia slid behind Councilman David Lenard’s computer and immediately activated the machine. The wide screen came to life and went through the motions of the initial rebooting process as it came alive with colour. She swore slightly as the bombarded of light against the night vision glasses almost blinded her. Maia saw flashes of purple spots drift in front of her eyes for the next few minutes until her vision cleared.

Fortunately, the sudden discomfort had ended when the machine ready to accept instructions. Maia slipped the shiny round disk from its case from her backpack and inserted it into the extended drive waiting for it. Once inside, Addisons’ program started searching the computer’s hard drive for the information. During their first mission together, Maia had not known that her comtech was actually quite an able computer hack, who had some ingenious invasive programs at his disposal (most of which was highly illegal) that Maia had put to good use over the course of their serving together.

As the program did its work, Maia turned away from the bright screen and did a manual search of the room, in case Lenard was smarter than she realised and kept his private files in a less predictable place. She went through his books, checking drawers and cabinets, invading every part of his life inside this room in the effort to find evidence of Lenard’s complicity. As expected, there was nothing to find and she returned to the computer and saw that its search was progressing with better results.

Lenard had a heavily encrypted file, which seemed extremely suspicious in Maia’s case judging by the number of safeguards he had placed upon it. Deciding that it was most likely what she was looking for, Maia transferred the entire file on the disk in the drive while at the same time, connecting online with the UNE Security Network. Keying in her personal code name, Artemis, the public relations web page disintegrated into a more complex system. Once that was done, she sent Lenard’s secret file straight to UNE’s Code Breaking Division.

Suddenly, Maia heard voice coming up the hall and quickly ejected the disk from the drive and proceeded to shut down the company. She could hear the laughing voices from a man and woman. Judging by their footsteps, it was quite obvious they were drunk. She heard the fumbling of a doorknob before they disappeared into the room next to the study. Maia let out a sigh of relief, deciding she was not prepared to deal with Lenard’s bodyguards tonight. As it was, she was eager to depart the premises now that she had found what she was looking for.

Maia collected her things and secured them back into her knapsack before slinging it over her shoulder. She peered out of the room and saw no one in the darkness before deeming it safe to proceed. She had not taken more than a few steps past the door where the couple was no doubt indulging in all kinds of sexual activity when she heard a pained cry.

"Stop it, you’re hurting me!"

Maia froze in her tracks.

Glancing slowly at the door, Maia heard the distinct crack of knuckles against skin before another cry of pain was heard. The sounds behind the door suddenly captured Maia’s attention and refused to let her move from the spot. Her stomach hollowed as she heard the sound of whimpering and animal grunting that left no doubt in her mind what was happening within that room. Maia was torn. She wanted to barge in there and stop this but if she did that the mission would be in jeopardy. It took two seconds for her to debate that question before deciding the mission could go to hell.

Maia entered the room no sooner than the decision had appeared in her mind. The man was lying on top of his victim, oblivious to the fact that her weeping now made the whole sexual act he was engaging in, rape. Not that he cared for he was trusting furiously even though the woman was sobbing incoherently. Maia crossed the floor in three strides and dragged him off her.

"Who the fuck are you?" He growled as he rolled across the floor after she had flung him aside.

The woman on the bed had rolled off the bed and was still sobbing. Maia went to her and noticed her face was covered in bruises and blood. Her clothes were lying in a heap at the floor and Maia retrieved them.

"Get dressed and get out." She ordered the woman who was staring at her in a mixture of gratitude and confusion. Despite her ordeal however, Maia’s order was the only thing that sliced through the mist of her panic. She was getting out. Without question, she started pulling her clothes on while Maia turned her attention to the man with a raging erection that matched the anger in his eyes.

"I don’t know you!" He shouted and slammed his fist on the nearby table. The button his hand landed on made immediately flared in angry crimson and with a sinking feeling, Maia recognised it to be a security alert. In a matter of minutes, depending on the efficiency of his security team’s response time, she was going to be facing a group of armed bodyguards. Maia decided not to be around for that particular performance.

"You’re some kind of animal aren’t you?" Maia returned as the woman had wisely run out of the room, not waiting to be fully dressed. The UNE officer shared her sentiments and decided that vacating the premises was the best thing to do at this moment.

"Fuck you bitch!" He snarled and with a flash of insight, Maia knew everything about this man in an instant. This was a man who was drunk with his own power, who often indulged himself by battering women who were too weak too fight even though he was intimidated by the ones who could. A coward.

"Not a chance." Maia retorted and kicked him squarely in the groin.

He let out a soft squeak of pain before he collapsed onto his knees, quite incapacitated. Leaving him writhing on the floor like the animal he was. She stepped over him and hurried out the door, leaving him groaning in pain. Maia had no more passed the door when she saw two men in automatic weapons appear at the steps from the lower floor.

Damn, their response time was fast!

Maia had no more time to pull out her own gun to fire when a hail of bullets came flying at her. She leapt back into study, just as the bullets tore through the wall behind her with loud roar. Plaster and concrete flew in all directions as she landed on the floor, just beyond the door. She could hear their footsteps coming up the hallway when she kicked out her foot and slammed the shut loudly. No sooner than she did that, another barrage of ammunition tore the door, sending splinters at her as she held her head down from the bullets that flew over head.

When the bullets stopped coming, Maia jumped to her feet, knowing that they were seconds away from breaking the door. There was an open window and Maia ran to it and slid the glass door aside. The door smashed open and the two men made their appearance followed by the would be rapist.

"Freeze!" The lead man in the expensive dark suit ordered, aiming his automatic weapon at her. "Move and we’ll fire."

Maia peered out the window and considered her options. She could not be arrested, under any circumstances and the look on their master’s face did not bode well for her personal safety if she surrendered. Taking a deep breath, Maia met the man’s gaze and replied. "I guess you’ll just have to fire."

With that, she tumbled out the window into the night.

"Shit!" The headman cried out and ran to the window, with his employer and his partner at his side.

Instead of expecting to see a dead body at the foot of the building next to the sidewalk, they saw a very live one, making good time as she proceeded to a motorcycle that was parked on the other side of the street. The fall should have killed her but fortunately the windows below the one she had existed came equipped with plastic awnings. Each of the bright orange awnings were torn through the middle, halting her speed descend with each impact. By the time she had landed on the last awning, there was not even enough velocity to break the plastic.

"I don’t fucking believe it!" Councilman Lenard swore as they watched helplessly as she climbed onto the vehicle and revved the engines. As it roared to life, she directed the vehicle to pass directly under them as she made good her escape.

The last thing they saw of Maia Sanjay was her smiling face as she waved goodbye.

*********

Maia drove her cycle to a garage where she rented space about twenty minutes away. Upon arriving, she promptly began rummaging through her knapsack to find the soft linen dress that had been tucked away. It took her all but ten minutes to slip into what she considered appropriate fashion for a Marine party. Once she was presentable, she slipped into her car and made the drive to Long Island.

II

Corporal Addison’s parties were supposedly legendary.

Maia had heard the tales of how its decadence had written new volumes in the annals of debauchery and inebriated behaviour. She wondered if her presence at this particular celebration would change any of that. Probably not, she decided as she drove into the driveway full of cars while the sound of rock music pounded loudly in her ears from almost two blocks away.

Tim Addison’s parents were apparently seeing out the new year in the tax free Bahamas and had wisely or unwisely, depending on how one looked at it, left their house to the son. Maia wondered if the senior Addisons had any idea what their large home was subject to during these occasions and since this was the first time that Maia was attending on these functions, she had to admit she had no idea herself.

Maia pulled her car into the driveway and actually found a space, a small miracle in itself since the driveway, the surrounding street and some patch of lawn was currently playing host to several cars in assorted makes. Maia stepped out of her gold Maserati and counted at least a thirty such vehicles. As for people, she could see them exuding from every window in the place. Some were Marines; she recognised Tina Marin somewhere in that tangle of bodies. The petite smartgunner was dancing very closely with one of the newer members of the group, a rather perfectly formed African American named Jaleel.

Wonder how Quinn was going to take that; Maia snorted as she started up the cobbled stone walkway, which culminated at the door. As she walked past the manicured garden, she spotted at least three couples using the topiary for purposes, she was certain it was not originally intended. Judging by the giggles and grunts she was hearing and the rustle of a bushes, it appeared that three couples was a modest assumption. Having no wish to be called a peeping tom of an auditory type, Maia kept walking.

Predictably, there was no answer when Maia knocked on the door and she tested it to find that it was unlocked anyway. She entered the house and saw that her prediction of just how many people had also fallen short considerably. Through the sea of gyrating bodies dancing to the music, the mating dance of pick up lines, the drunken collection that was a staple of such parties making complete asses of themselves, there were also several blondes roaming the place. The ladies in question had divested themselves of their blouses and were baring themselves for all to see.

Maia was starting to wonder if it was not a better idea if she went home and curled up with a book.

"Hey!" She heard a voice call.

Turning around, she found herself standing before Kevin MacReady who had spotted Maia the moment she walked into the house. He was pleased to see her here and had thought she might skip the idea of coming at all when she had not shown by midnight. Although no one would get him to admit it, sober any way, the Sargent had been waiting in eager anticipation of her arrival all night. In fact, that was part of the reason he had been fighting off many offers from young women wanting to share his company.

"Mac!" She smiled, genuinely pleased to see someone she knew. There was so many people about that Maia was starting to feel a little overwhelmed.

"I thought you’d never show." He replied with a smile and then noted the dress she was wearing. "You look great." All he had ever saw her in was fatigues these days. The white dress she was wearing was simple but left little to the imagination. He could see the shapely outline of her curves through the fabric which only made MacReady more grateful that she had actually turned up to this orgy.

"Thanks," she beamed at him, remembering clearly the decision she had come to about their relationship tonight and reminding herself to let him in on the secret later on. "You weren’t kidding when you said this thing was nova."

"A little too loud actually." He replied, trying to speak over the din. There were so many voices and the music was loud enough to wake the dead, or was that the name of the band playing? "Come on," he took her hand and started moving towards the bar. "We’ll get you a drink."

"Good," Maia cried out in response, seeing Private Alex Quinn surrounded by some of his fellow Marines while trying to ingest an entire keg of beer. It was running out of his mouth and down his face, most of it was on his clothes and Maia winced at the disgusting sight he presently displayed and could understand why Marin was on the other side of the floor with Jaleel. "Some party!" She declared but MacReady could not hear her as they moved to the epicentre of the noise.

It took several minutes before he could get a her a drink of Barcadi and coke but when he finally did, Maia found herself being led away from the dance floor, passing by Addison who was currently engaged in some heavy discussion with a half naked blond. The conversation involved Addison’s hands doing the walking.

Outside, the ocean was just metres away and the night outside was cool but not enough to be uncomfortable. In truth, it ought to be freezing if it were not for the weather control stations in high orbit around the planet. Instead of experiencing winter in full season, the residents were enjoying a warmth of an early fall night. Maia could see waves rolling back and forth along the shoreline, white froth in a thrust and parry over the white sand. There were couples out here too, indulging in all manner of things under the moonlight.

MacReady and Maia put some distance between themselves and the house, leaving the blaring noise behind them as they walked along the sandy beach. She removed her sandals and MacReady joined her in removing his own shoes so that they could walk in the surf. They continued side by side with the moon over their shoulder, basking in the quiet of the night once the party faded into the distance.

"I’m glad you came." MacReady said breaking the silence.

Maia smiled faintly. "I wouldn’t have missed it. After all, the Captain has to make an appearance, doesn’t she?"

"Yeah," he nodded breaking into a wide grin. "Its getting pretty out of hand now but it was sort of fun earlier on in the evening when everyone wasn’t so wasted."

"I can believe that." Maia laughed remembering her recent images of Addison, Marin and Quinn. "I’m sorry I couldn’t be here any sooner." She apologised sincerely. "Something came up that I couldn’t avoid."

MacReady did not ask her to elaborate because he had learnt early on in their relationship that she had a life away from the Marines and the Sparta. Maia was a UNE agent, what the Marines affectionately referred to as a ‘spook’ or a spy. He understood that there were things about her profession that she could not explain or answer if he was ever curious enough to inquire. MacReady could accept that. Her job was so much apart of what she was that he would not presume to intrude on it. Still, he was disappointed about her decision to keep him at arm’s length. He understood that too because he was a career soldier and he had seen too many relationships that had not survived the job.

He did not want this to be one of them.

Still, thinking a thing was the correct thing to do and then adhering to it was another.

"Mac, I’ve been thinking." She spoke up suddenly.

"Sounds serious." He said in that soft voice of his.

"It is for us both." Maia continued and saw his eyes shift immediately to hers when he realised she was not speaking of their professional relationship, rather their personal one.

"I’m listening." MacReady urged, showing no signs of the intense curiosity he was feeling.

"I think….."

Suddenly, her pager started screaming inside the bag hanging off her shoulder. Maia swore with genuine annoyance because she had wanted to finish telling MacReady about her decision. Digging her hand into her bag, she found the device and read the message scrawled on its digital surface. When Maia looked up at MacReady he seemed hardly surprised by what she was going to say next.

"This is an alert from General Hanlon." She said slightly surprised. Hanlon had never recalled her from a furlough for any reason. Whatever crisis had to be faced could usually wait until the morning. In the past six months, she had come to respect the man as no alarmist and it concerned her greatly that he would call her so unexpectedly.

"Should I get the others together?" MacReady asked, aware of the same thing. Something was up and it could not be good for the General to make personal contact like this.

"No," she shook her head. "We don’t know what this is about yet. He only wanted to see me." Maia said quickly. "Besides, I don’t think anyone is in any condition to go back to the Sparta right now." Maia answered unable to keep from smiling as she said that.

"Tell me about it." MacReady laughed. "I guess I’ll see you later." He sighed disappointed that she was leaving so soon after arriving, especially since he had waited most of the night for her appearance.

Maia felt the same twinge as well but had a better solution than he did which was to merely accept things the way they were. "Hey Sergeant," she said with a hint of suggestion. "Want to take a ride in my car?"

A slow smile stole across his face. "I think I can handle your driving. Where are we going?"

"To see the General of course." Maia said firmly as they started back towards the house and then added a second later. "And maybe a little something else after."

MacReady could only stare as he tried to figure out what that meant……..

Chapter Two

I

Gateway Station was just as busy as always, despite the fact that it was New Years day. With all the incoming and outgoing space traffic that was a constant around the planet earth, it could ill afford to be anything else. Dates and events seemed to hold little significance to the place when so much depended upon its smooth running. As the centralised hub of human space travel, Gateway had exceeded the boundaries of such trivial concerns.

Since its establishment almost one hundred years ago, the enormous station had grown to the size of a city. In the network of corridors, pylons and numerous docking rings, Gateway housed everything from commercial freight depots, terminals for civilian space travel and not to mention the more important government base of operation. When it had first began operation, the station had relied heavily upon Weyland Yutani dollars to keep it afloat. However, with the demise of the almost immortal Company had seen a visible shift in Gateway’s fiscal supply. The slack had been taken up immediately by the government and commercial sectors that were never eager to let opportunity pass them by. Now Gateway was self-sufficient and beholding to no one. It operated almost autonomously with its commander who ensured that the running of the station would never be interfered by the problems of Earth.

Maia and MacReady had left the party at Long Island and drove immediately into the city. Although he was burning with curiosity to know what it was she was about to tell him before the untimely interruption by her pager, MacReady held himself back. It had sounded important whatever it was and he did not want to seem forward by pushing too hard for answers. Still, she had invited him along on his meeting to see General Hanlon so whatever was on her mind, Maia herself seemed reluctant to let it go despite the present situation.

The military offices at Gateway Station were mostly used for mission briefing for commanding officers of transport such as the Sparta. Since Gateway acted as a shuttle station for the transportation of personnel arriving from earth on their way to their ships. Hanlon used these offices for preciously that reason and most of Maia’s briefing with the general took place on these premises. As usual, Hanlon’s secretary guarded the way to his temporary office just Military Police guarded the entrance to the military facilities.

"The general is expecting me." Maia announced to the dour face woman who eyed her distastefully because she was out of uniform and was accompanied with what looked like a date. Maia noticed how she was looking at MacReady and decided that explanations were in order. "Captain Maia Sanjay and this Sargent Kevin MacReady."

That announcement did not change her opinion of their appearance and both Maia and MacReady exchanged looks of resignation when she informed the general of their arrival.

"The general will see you now." She responded with clear disapproval.

"Thank you.’ Maia said sweetly and then muttered under her breath silently. Hag.

The two Colonial Marines entered the modest office of General Steven Hanlon. Hanlon was seated behind his desk, wearing a decidedly grim expression on his face that put them both on guard immediately. By the sudden summons here, Maia had already guessed that some crisis had arisen because Hanlon was not prone to react prematurely.

"Captain Sanjay, Sargent MacReady," he greeted, making no reaction at MacReady’s presence but then Maia knew Hanlon thought highly of the young man and would not have trouble speaking freely. "I apologise for dragging you out here on New Years Day."

"Perfectly alright General," Maia said easily. "The party will go one without us."

"Please sit down," he said grimly, his voice betraying the urgency of the situation for which they had been summoned. Watching his dark expression only serve to put Maia on guard even further. Once everyone was seated, Hanlon took a deep breath and continued speaking.

"A month ago, one of survey ships discovered a commercial freighter in orbit around a planet with two binary stars. The survey ship has been scouting for possible locations for war games exercises and it was pure luck that they detected the ship at all. We ran it through the registry and discovered that it was the Iago."

"I remember that." Maia remembered hearing something of the news reports. "She was carrying a surveying team."

"That’s right." Hanlon nodded. "When our people went on board, there as no sign of disturbance, everything appeared ship shape. With the exception of the normal degradation that comes from neglect, there was no other damage to the ship. We downloaded the ship logs and discovered that it had pulled into orbit when there was a slight engine problem. The crew was revived as standard procedure with Weyland Yutani directives of the time and they repaired the problem."

"So what happened?" Maia inquired.

"They discovered life on the planet." Hanlon replied quietly, with no signs of the enthusiasm that would usually follow such a discovery. Discovering life on other worlds was usually an event that sent the media into a feeding frenzy and yet there was no pleasure in Hanlon’s voice as he made this announcement.

"Dangerous life?" Maia asked, suddenly feeling a tightening in her chest she could not explain.

"The survey team made a planetary landing because Weyland Yutani contracts with its employees demand that any planet exhibiting life signs must be investigated or else it will result in the forfeiture of all shares."

"Bastards," MacReady, who had been silent up to this point, muttered under his breath.

"I tend to agree," Hanlon sighed. "They did go down there and we have tapes of their encounters with the supposed life forms." His eyes were black and did not meet Maia’s as he reached for the panel on the edge of his desk that would run the images he wanted them to see. Hanlon could not bring himself to explain further because it would entirely redundant once he showed them what the down load from the Iago had revealed.

"This was taken from the internal cameras of the environmental suits," Hanlon said as he prepared the tapes to be run. "I’ve had it edited. The rest is pretty standard stuff, new terrain that sort of thing. I’ll have the complete edition sent to you later if you like."

"Certainly," Maia said shifting her eyes to the screen, as did MacReady. For some reason, they both felt something coming at them with the speed of a locomotive. They just could not shake the terrible foreboding that had seeped into their bones the moment Hanlon had mentioned the discovery of life.

The screen behind him flickered to life and very soon images began flashing before them of a most dismal looking planet. However, in an instant, it became very apparent why Hanlon had summoned them here. The shape in the distance as viewed by the doomed survey team, which Maia and MacReady knew with absolute certainty were dead, was something out of a nightmare. Unfortunately it was a familiar one. The dome shaped structure with its strange design and materials sent a shiver down both their spines as their eyes were fixed on the screen, with almost transfixed expectation of the horror to come.

"That is what I think it is, isn’t it?" MacReady found his voice as he saw the survey team approach the structure with no idea of what lay inside. They should have been running far away, not continued walking into certain death.

"It is." Maia said coldly, remembering how she had seen the exact same structure on Fiorina, shortly before she had lost almost half a platoon of Marines. She thought of Parker, O’Neill and Yates, not to mention a host of others whose names and faces were burned into memory each time she went to sleep. The nightmares had subsided for a time but now Maia knew they were going to return with a vengeance.

"Jesus." MacReady swallowed, suddenly feeling very dry in the mouth. "They’re all dead." He said with certainty.

"We think so." Hanlon said grimly. "Certainly, the rest of the images in this recorder show that."

"So this isn’t a rescue mission." Maia retorted wondering for what purpose Hanlon had summoned her. Her eyes were still fixed on the screen as was MacReady but it was a foregone conclusion in her mind what would happen next. It was almost predictable.

"No," he shook his head. "We don’t believe anyone is alive down there, not after two years." Hanlon said regretfully. "We believe that is the alien homeworld."

MacReady instinctively looked at Maia remembering what she had said to him almost a year ago when the Fiorina mission had come to an end. He never forget the coldness he felt when she had told him that aliens from Acheron were now from that world, that it had brought there by a spaceship. Somewhere out there was a planet full of these things and it now appeared that mankind had stumbled upon it again. She did not react as he glanced in her direction but the expression on her face as she stared at Hanlon told him, she was remembering those fateful words as well.

"What’s our role in this?" Maia inquired. Surely he did not expect them to make a surface landing of the planet because if he did, Maia would find herself in a dilemma because there was no way in hell she was putting her Marines in that kind of danger again. Only four people out of the entire squad had survived Fiorina, the rest had died horrifically.

"Nothing as dangerous as you might think," Hanlon responded quickly seeing the deadly gleam in her eye that spoke threats he could not hear but could feel instead.

"The UNE Security Council has been apprised of the situation and have deliberated that the planet be quarantined. At this moment, we have a putting together a permanent task force that will be in permanent orbit around the planet to ensure no one interferes with these creatures or attempts to take them off world. Legislation is being written as we speak putting into effect a law that will make transportation of dangerous organisms from their natural habitat a punishable offence. In the wake of Weyland Yutani trials, it is going through the council with surprising ease."

Maia could understand that perfectly well since she had secretly been responsible for the demise of the all-powerful company. The dying testimony of Ellen Ripley delivered to the Council by Maia after Fiorina had ensured that the Weyland Yutani Corporation was dismantled forever.

"What we need the Sparta in temporary orbit around the planet until that task force is ready to assume the duties of guarding the planet on a permanent basis. In effect Captain, you and the Sparta will create blockade. The Ronin and Fury will join you within two weeks of your departure from Gateway. I am recalling their personnel now."

"We’re not to go on the surface at all?" Maia looked at the General, wanting to be absolutely clear on this point.

"It will be illegal to break quarrantine," Hanlon said firmly. "Not unless you have a very good reason for it."

Maia could think of no reason good enough that would induce her to land on a planet full of those acid-bleeding monsters. What she had seen on Fiorina was enough. If the mission required her keeping any corporate raider from attempting to transport the creatures off world, then she could accept the mission on that basis. "Is anyone aware of the planet’s existence?" Maia questioned.

"No," The General shook his head in response. "We’re keeping this information top secret."

Maia however was sceptical of that assertion. Secrets had a way of getting out despite the best efforts to conceal them. Somehow, she had a feeling this particular one would do so with far more ease than even Hanlon might suspect.

"How much force as we permitted to use to stop anyone from making a landing?" MacReady inquired.

"As much as necessary." Hanlon declared with a steely look in his eyes. "The Council views this matter in the same regard of planetary security. You and the Marines are authorised to use deadly force to keep this threat isolated and bound to the homeworld. Believe me, I’ve seen the probability statistics of what would happen if any infestation got a foothold on this planet and so has the Council, it scared the hell out of all us."

Hanlon need not elaborate. Having seen the aliens first hand, Maia and MacReady were perfectly aware of what the species was capable of if ever they should reach the earth. If nothing else, the two soldiers could count on the fear of the Council to ensure that they kept their promise of the permanent blockade. It required military grade hardware just to kill a drone, let alone what would happen if a queen got loose in a populated centre. A civilian would have no chance of survival if indeed death were all he had to worry about. Maia could think of nothing more horrifying than playing host to a future monster.

"Trust me, Captain." Hanlon replied with a hint of confidence. "This time it will be different."

Maia said nothing but things always went wrong when someone said that and she had bad feeling this would be no exception.

II

They returned to the Sparta after the meeting had concluded, filled with so much apprehension about the mission ahead that they hardly noticed Hanlon’s battle axe secretary when they left.

MacReady walked Maia back to her quarters, feelings somewhat overwhelmed by what General Hanlon had told them and knowing just how much danger the mission ahead would involve despite the general’s assurances. The last time they had encountered the aliens, most of them had died and MacReady could not help shifting his thoughts from the recruits who were really too raw to take on what they would be facing when they arrived at the planet. MacReady was not even sure that seasoned professionals like Marin, Addison and Quinn would be eager to undertake this mission. Still, they were Colonial Marines and Marines were always where the action was.

"You’re quiet." Maia looked at him as they reached her door, noticing the intense way his piercing blue green eyes were lapsed in thought. It required no clairvoyance to know what was on his mind. The mission ahead was enough to shake anyone to the core. Maia herself had finally managed to shake off some of the nightmares she had been suffering since their return from Fiorina. In almost a decade of service as a UNE agent, nothing had shaken her nerve like the aliens that she and the Marines had encountered on that stygian world.

Sometimes she even dreamed of Ellen Ripley.

"I hate this mission." He admitted freely.

"You’re not the only one." She sighed as she leaned against the door to her quarters. "But he is right, we are the only ones who have had prior experience with the aliens."

"I have the experience," MacReady said with more vehemence than he meant. "You have it, Marin, Addison and Quinn have it but not the rest of the squad!"

"Mac." Maia stepped forward and pressed her body against his, placing her hand on his face so that he would look at her. It took quite a bit to shake his cool reserve and he was visibly apprehensive. Maia hated seeing him like this.

He met her gaze, surprised by the sudden show of affection. It was very un-Captain like behaviour coming from her. Maia lifted her head and met his lips in a soft kiss. It felt just as wonderful as the first time in the bowels of the drop ship on Fiorina, when they had been fighting for their lives with an alien infestation loose in the shadows. "Captain, could we have that talk now?" He said huskily, suddenly remembering they had been in the midst of an important conversation that they had still yet to finish when Hanlon had summoned them to Gateway.

"Come inside." She said pulling away from him.

Maia turned to her quarters and entered the security code in the access panel that would allow them entry. Behind her, MacReady was silent but she could tell from his breathing that he was full of anticipation for more than just talk. She could not deny feeling the same way, just feeling the warmth of his taut body against hers had reminded Maia just how long it had been since she had a real relationship or even been with a man.

They entered the cramp confines of the officer’s quarters. Despite the fact that it was in military decor, Maia had come to enjoy the simplicity of it in its lack of pleasantries. There was a bed, a desk, an electronic entertainment unit mounted on the wall, a terminal for computer access throughout the ship and a private latrine and shower.

"Lights." She spoke initialising the voice activated environmental controls. "Minimum illumination."

The light filled the room with just enough brightness so that they did not stumble about in the dark. They faced each other in the dim light, unable to deny the awkwardness in the wake of what had transpired between them just a few moments to go. Maia knew for certain that if she and MacReady were to advance beyond this point, it was time to say what she had intended to during the private moment on the beach.

"I’ve been thinking about us." She said quietly, deciding that it was best to just say what was on her mind instead of delaying it with trivialities. MacReady was used to her being direct any way.

He was standing before her, his arms folded and his powerful gaze pierced through her skin as he waited patiently for the conclusion of her deliberations regarding their non-existence relationship. "And?" He asked, finding himself very much in control for a change. He liked how it felt.

"I want you." Maia whispered, her eyes meeting his with a measure of shyness. "I don’t think I ever stopped wanting you and I know it might complicates things with us working together."

"Not for me." He said firmly and without hesitation.

Maia saw the certainty in his eyes and realised that he meant it. She wondered how he could se so sure about things but then MacReady was like that, always surprising her when she least expected it. He was the one thing in her life she had never been able to predict. Just when Maia had thought nothing was capable of affecting her again, this Marine with his penetrating eyes of ice blue and laid back manner had more or less swept her off her feet since the moment they met.

"Somehow, I’m not surprised." She said with a smile even though she was nervous and trying not to show it. Maia could not believe how hard this was. It was not as if this was her first relationship but with MacReady nothing was simple. None of the old rules applied for he was always something new that she could not fit into her ordered existence.

He saw the difficulty she was having and decided that for once, he was going to have to take the initiative. MacReady stepped forward and pulled Maia to him once the surprise of what he saw in her eyes and what she had just revealed to him faded away. Maia did not protest because he could see from the arousal she was trying so hard to hide, that she wanted this as much as he did. It filled him with such intense pleasure to know that she cared about him enough to ignore her reservations and take this all-important step. He had come to learn much about Maia Sanjay since he had first met her and guessed that she did not give her affections to just anyone.

MacReady’s touch unlocked something inside Maia, a deep hunger that would not go away until she felt his lips against hers. From the first time they had kissed, Maia had suspected that MacReady was capable of bringing her to such heights of pleasure that it would not be just her body she was surrendering but also her soul. Finally Maia was no longer afraid of that release. She was tired of being the supercool agent Artermis of the UNE and Captain Sanjay of the Colonial Marines. For once in her life she wanted to be treated as nothing more than a woman and she wanted to be loved by him the same way.

When MacReady drew her to him, their mouths with fierce intensity. He slid the wet heat of his tongue past her teeth while savouring the softness of her lips. He could smell the faint tinge of alcohol on her breath and paused long enough to question if this was the right thing to do, she was after all his commanding officer and after this, their relationship in the field would never be the same again. However, when he felt her hands pulling at his t-shirt before slipping her smooth palms against his bare back, any doubt was washed away with the incredible sensation of her touch. He felt her breasts heaving against his chest and could feel the points of her nipples through the thin fabric of her dress. With each second that passed, MacReady knew he was fast reaching the point of not caring. He wanted her. He had wanted her ever since he had first seen her. He wanted nothing but to hear his name from her lips the first time he pushed inside her body.

Maia did not resist when he started pulling at the straps of her dress and she let her arms dropped to her sides so that he could slip them past her bronzed shoulders. The thin material peeled off her skin easily as MacReady enjoyed feeling every curve under his palm as he manipulated the fabric in its descent. It landed on the floor silently and Maia heard his sharp intake of breath, when she stood before him wearing only a pair of lace briefs. She felt strangely submissive as she let him have free reign upon her body. She wanted to indulge him because she trusted him enough to know that he would pleasure her equally.

As if proving that her faith in him was justified, MacReady’s mouth left her lips and then slid down her neck as he started tugging at the lace undergarment. MacReady worked the scant scrap of lace of her hips free while he continued kissing her. Very soon, she stood before him completely naked. The sight of her bare was enough to make his cock stiffen with such rigid desire that he could feel it pressing uncomfortably against his jeans. However, MacReady was determined to take this slow. He wanted to enjoy every moment of this for as long as it lasted.

He tortured Maia’s mouth mercilessly with warm, seductive kisses while at the same time caressing the swollen breasts before him. He groaned softly as he felt the pointed nipples under his palm, hardening each time he moved his callused skin over the sensitive tips. Maia released a pleasured sigh that only forced him to kiss her with greater passion. MacReady moved from her lips once again, devouring the flesh as he glided down her neck. He reached for her hair and brushed it aside while searching for that one place in her neck he knew would make the most effect.

While still engaging her in such passionate kisses, MacReady had steered her towards the narrow bunk bed that was regulation, even in officer’s quarters on military ships like the Sparta. Gently, he lowered her down to the bed, hating to leave her mouth but knowing he must for a brief moment. Maia eased back into the bed, watching him strip off his clothes with nothing less than pure lust. She had often admired his lean body when they had been forced to share communal showers and before they slipped into the stasis tubes but seeing him like this brought on a completely different feeling. She felt another gush of moisture between her legs as she saw him completely naked and licked her lips in anticipation at how beautiful he was.

"I’m impressed," she smiled at him seductively.

Despite his usually laid back demeanour, she saw an involuntary flush of red seep into his face as he smiled. "I’ll ask you that again later." He replied quietly and took a closer step forward to join her.

However, before MacReady could lower himself down on the bed to join Maia, she stopped him in front of her. She gazed at the raging erection and could not help noticing how big he was. The anticipation of that formidable piece of equipment plunging into her depths, made Maia gape at him with a leer of salacious desire. She met his eyes and started working her warm tongue over her lower lip, her movements slow and full of promise at what she wanted to do to him at this moment. MacReady was mesmerised by the languid dance of her soft lips and suddenly found himself leaning closer to her, his cock brushing her face gently. The tip that touched her cheek made him groan softly.

Maia liked the sound he made as he struggled to restrain himself against the pleasure her breath against his stiff cock was making him experience. She decided she wanted to torture him a little herself and smiled as she continued rubbing its swollen head against her skin. As she felt his smooth skin, Maia knew with absolute certainty that she wanted that beautifully hard cock as far down her throat as she wanted it inside her body. Maia positioned herself so she do just that before her brown eyes met his playfully, parting her lips ever so slightly in an invitation for him enter. Her tongue slipped past her teeth, beckoning him with its tantalising slither across her upper lip. MacReady felt his cock spasm at the thought of burying himself in that warm, moist mouth.

"I am going to make you scream, Sargent." She whispered and saw the restraint snap inside him as he trust his hips at her mouth, his hands holding her head firmly as he pulled her down on him. Maia caught sight of the expression on his face and saw the ecstacy that clouded his eyes as he clamped them shut from the intense pleasure. She delighted in the sensation as MacReady slipped his heavy engorged cock down her throat before she closed her lips around it with tight wet pressure.

"Jesus." He whispered.

The enthusiasm in which she swallowed his throbbing cock deep into her mouth was more than MacReady could endure. He was so hot and inflamed as she ran her tongue over his shaft that he could not help but groan loudly. With a start, he realised that he was being very vocal as he thrust his hips forward, his cock determined to bury itself as far down her throat as possible. The pleasure of what her tongue was doing to him was beyond description.

MacReady was hardly aware of anything except how her mouth was capable of producing such mind numbing pleasure. No woman he had ever been with had managed to match this sweet delight. His hands were running through her hair as he pulled her face forward while thrusting into the taut ring of her lips. She increased the pressure even more until all he could feel was that surge of crushing weight as her lips slid over his shaft. MacReady could feel the sudden tightening in his groin when his cock hardened beyond the point of endurance and the back of his stamina threaten to shatter. He had to stop her or else he would come in her mouth. As much as he wanted to feel that ecstasy, MacReady wanted to share this experience with her and so he managed a strangled gasp.

"Not yet." He said feeling anguished when he pulled himself out of her mouth. The cessation of pleasure almost drew a sob from him but he wanted to be inside her when he emptied his seed.

MacReady climbed onto the bed, lowering her flat on her back in his descent. Once they were nestled together, MacReady started kissing her again, unable to get enough of her wonderful taste. His kisses were harder and more intense where they had been warm and gentle earlier. The desire to explore her mouth was gone, now he was invasive and brutal. His tongue plundered hers with passion, until the ferocity of it took her breath away and she was left gasping for air.

After awhile, he slipped away from her mouth, sliding further down her naked body, until his mouth found her nipples and took one into her mouth. He started sucking it insistently, sending exquisite waves of pleasure rippling through her body each time he chose to swirl his hot tongue over the erect tip. Maia had started to groan incoherently, feeling that pleasure while at the same time aware that MacReady’s hands were sliding down her thigh. She felt thick fingers slip past her aching folds, prying them apart as he buried one finger deep into her warm recess. The muscles within gripped the finger with such hard suction that MacReady felt all the blood rush to his cock in a single gush of desire at the anticipation of what those muscles would do to his manhood.

"God, you’re so tight." MacReady gasped softly before forcing another finger inside her until she arched on into MacReady’s awaiting mouth from the sheer of pleasure of it. "You’ re so fucking tight." He groaned again, as the ache in his cock became a pounding sound in his ears that drowned out everything else. Maia was running her hands through MacReady’s hair, while moaning as he probed deep inside her with his fingers.

Her cries were almost incoherent now as she was treated to the ministrations of his sensuous mouth as he nibbled gently on her nipple while his hand kneaded her other breast. MacReady’s lips were everywhere at once after awhile because he delighted in her reaction. The way her body shuddered in sighs of delight each time he ran his hands over her skin or laved its silky texture with his tongue in long strokes, made him so aroused he could hardly believe it.

Suddenly, MacReady withdrew his fingers and started sliding downward; eliciting a ragged sob from her when both hands and mouth stopped what they were doing. She looked down at him with glassy eyes and swallowed hard when she realised what he was about to do. MacReady trailed hot kisses down her abdomen as he made his downward journey. Finally he arrived at his destination and gently coaxed her legs apart before lowering himself into the mound of dark hair. If she felt so good around his fingers, MacReady wanted to know if she tasted just as delicious. As he nuzzled into the cleft between her legs, MacReady was rewarded with a groan of utter ecstasy.

"Oh god!" She cried out. Her eyes were closed but her jaw was slack with pleasure. "Oh god, Mac…" She could hardly form the words as she felt his mouth searching for her clit. All she could stand was that wet tongue burrowing deeper into her, until he found that pearl of flesh that would bring down the walls of her control in one resounding crash.

"Enjoy it Captain," MacReady paused long enough to say huskily as he looked up and her face contort into visions of ecstasy. "Just enjoy it."

His tongue darted into her deepest crevices, moving to the rhythm that only he could hear. He swirled around her erect clit, until that tiny node of skin was so hard, he could feel his own cock straining with excitement at her intense reaction. Maia dug her fingers into his hair as MacReady proceeded to fuck her with his tongue, sliding in and out of her with long, smooth strokes until she was moaning incoherently with mindless pleasure.

Maia was unable to grasp how wonderfully MacReady was able to drive her absolutely insane with his sensuous mouth. She could nothing but wrap her legs were around his back as his hands pulled her thighs around his face and nuzzled deeper into her.

His tongue started to tingle as he felt Maia reaching the peak of her climax. He loved the sensation against the tip of his tongue when a woman was about to come in his mouth. MacReady loved doing this. He enjoyed turning someone so in control into this mass of nerve endings screaming for release. He swirled around the tiny, sucking it hard between his teeth before laving its tiny tip with his hot tongue. She was whimpering now and MacReady knew that he had snapped the last vestiges of resistance when the full flow of her orgasm came rushing at him. She filled him with her warm taste, allowing him to lap her up with relish while he noted that she tasted sweeter than anything he had ever had in his mouth.

Seeing the dreamy expression on her face as she came down from her shattering climax only made MacReady want to plunge into her sensitive flesh. He did not want her to have time to regain her composure because more than anything at this moment, he wanted to feel those powerful muscles grab his cock and crush it helplessly in a surge of beatific pleasure. MacReady looked at Maia whose expression was starting to fill with hungry need at the sight of him. She met his gaze and smiled. "I need you inside me, Mac." She said running her tongue over her lower lip as she spoke. "Take me please."

MacReady slipped up to her and covered his mouth over Maia’s own. She felt the strange sensation of tasting herself on his lips. She wondered at the saltiness of it before allowing herself to become aroused again. It was impossible not to when she felt his fierce lips kissing her with as much power as he had done when he had brought her to such dizzying heights of pleasure only minutes before. She paused long enough to smile at him as she brought her hand to his face and felt the rough stubble of skin while she savoured how handsome he was and knew that this was not just a casual fling. MacReady was not merely having sex with her; he was making love to her. Maia was surprised with how much of a difference that made.

MacReady was so hot and ready that he could barely stand to wait another second, as he remained poised at her slick opening. Spreading her legs apart with his knee, MacReady did not offer her warning when without hesitation, he rammed his cock deep into her throbbing folds, as far it would go. Her back arched on the bed as she cried out but MacReady was there to capture her mouth again, stifling the sound before it could escape her lips. Maia started to moan into his mouth the faster MacReady pumped into her hot, warm passage.

God, she felt so damn good!

MacReady’s mind clouded over with pleasure as he felt her tight muscles contracting around him each time he pounded into her body. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and her hands dug into his back, raking her nails and driving him insane with arousal but the pain. He could do nothing but clamp his own fingers around her thighs so that he could impale her with even more force. She began to whimper the faster he thrusted into her steamy depths and the sounds she made just about drove him completely over the edge. MacReady fought for control, closing his eyes shut while his body be came utterly subservient to the immense pleasure of fucking Maia Sanjay like there was no tomorrow.

Neither was aware when their groans became one voice.

Maia could not have offered testimony to that either because she was too busy savouring his stiff cock inside her. No doubt she would suffer for this hard pounding this in the morning, if she could even walk but at the moment, she could not care less about anything except this tidal wave of pleasure carrying her to parts unknown. She could feel another orgasm made its timely arrival and Maia’s breathing shallowed as she allowed the wave to sweep her away and knowing that it would likely take MacReady too.

MacReady felt himself explode inside of her when the pressure of those incredibly tight muscles gripped him with such pressure that it forced all sense from his world as he came crashing down, in the wake of his own release. The final shudder of their bodies and their hot fluids melded in an erotic mix of heat that warmed them both. "God! Maia!" He groaned as he continued pumping into her, forcing every ounce of his pleasure to fill every corner of her wonderful body to complete the ecstasy of this perfect joining.

He collapsed on top of her, still panting as he felt all energy drain from him with the intense climax she made him experience. Maia smiled, enjoying his weight on her body as he felt his ragged breathing in her ear. After a moment, MacReady slid off her and nestled beside her so that he could cradle her in his arms. God he loved her and until now, MacReady had not realised how much. Still he could not bring himself to say it to her, not yet anyway. This was all too new to both of them for such declarations.

"That was incredible." She whispered as she opened her eyes and looked into his with a smile. The contentment he saw in her face made MacReady very pleased with himself.

"I’m glad I impressed you." He grinned.

"Oh I’m not impressed yet," she let a suggestive smile steal across her face. "At least not until the rest of the night is over."

"Captain," he said in his most official voice. "I’m at your service."

"Don’t you ever forget it." Maia chuckled softly before leaning over to kiss him again.

CHAPTER THREE

I

David Lenard had to think fast.

When he discovered that the unexpected guest to his New Year’s party had downloaded the entire content of his home computer, he knew that he was in trouble. There was only thing of value on his computer that would be of interest to anyone and through some impossible miracle of computing tampering, his mysterious visitor had acquired it. The information that had been commandeered against his wishes was inflammatory to say the least, to the say the most; it could ensure him being kept behind bars for the rest of his natural life.

Time was the only thing he had in his arsenal to fight the calamity that would overtake his life when the news reached the Security Council. The UNE would be merciless in their prosecution considering the recent collapse of Weyland Yutani. The company had died, revealing all its filthy secrets over a century of corruption. If there was one thing that incensed anyone these days it was the possibility that any rising corporation may attempt to take its place.

Paragon Innovations could become that company. The man in charge of it Crispin Dunne was by all accounts a genius that had emerged from nowhere with a small software company and had built it into an empire in a fairly short space of time. Dunne had achieved this considerable feat because he did not believe in playing by the rules. When he had approached Lenard with promises of more money than a civil servant had ever seen in his life, Dunne had shown just how much the rules meant. Lenard was in his forties and fifty seemed to be looming dreadfully close when the exorbitant offer was made. A man mindful of the days after retirement could ill afford to ignore such an offer and so Lenard went on Paragon’s payroll when he secretly fed sensitive material regarding government tenders. With this information in hand, Paragon had shot itself right to the top of a pyramid built on the decaying body of the once great but now defunct company.

In the wake of the invasion of his house, Lenard knew his usefulness to Dunne was just about to end. Once he could no longer provide valuable information to Paragon, he would be discarded. Lenard was not that arrogant that he did not believe such a thing could happen to him. He had over his lifetime, seen better men fall in the same way. Not to mention that once the UNE caught up with him, Paragon would move to sever all connection to him, in order to save themselves. After Weyland Yutani’s demise, the UNE was keeping a watchful eye of Corporate Earth. Extraordinary powers could be applied to take a company apart if even the slightest hint of wrongdoing was suspected.

What Lenard had to do was to get himself off the planet and disappear. He had enough money from Dunne to retire but not to undertake something so permanent as to leave no traces of himself anywhere in existence. What he needed to was to offer Dunne something of such great value that it would be the ultimate pay off. A final parting gesture of wealth that would ensure his future freedom.

"You asked to see me, Lenard." Dunne looked at him through his steel rimmed glasses and greyish blue eyes. "On New Years Day no less," there was just enough annoyance in his voice to hint that Lenards’s reason for asking this audience had better be a very good one. "What could warrant such a demand?" He said in his smooth Harvard voice even though Lenard’s inquiry into the man’s background and revealed a decidedly modest upbringing in Brooklyn, New York.

Dunne was typical of the young successful corporate raider. Just past his mid thirties, he commanded a veritable empire in blue chip stock. He was of Irish American in descent, with dark auburn hair and Celtic features of which chiselled lines and a strong mouth. A man who commanded not only an empire but also the presence to run it without peer.

"I think the UNE broke into my home tonight." Lenard said nervously.

If the new upset Dunne, the man certainly did not show it. He sat behind his large desk of an office that was easily the size of a small home with its polished marble floors and smooth surfaces. Lenard found it sterile and imposing, succeeding in all accounts by Dunne’s reckoning to make his guests feel intimidated when in his presence. "Really?" He said simply. "What did they find?"

"Enough to bury me." Lenard said without hesitation.

"And naturally your first impulse was to run to Paragon." He stared at Lenard coldly, with unmasked contempt in his eyes.

"You have to help me." Lenard implored. "They’ll strip me of my post at the very least and throw me in jail at the worst."

"You were well paid," Dunne replied. "You knew the risks."

"You can’t just leave me to the wolves!" Lenard continued to whine, while Dunne seemed bored by the whole proceedings.

"Tell me why I should not have you thrown out of this room and deny vehemently that you were anything to me?" Dunne looked at him with a raised brow and a clear challenge.

"Because I have records." The former UNE Councilman threatened.

"You would not leave this room to deliver them to the proper authorities and there is no computer system in this galaxy I cannot tamper with and have the information erased. So if its threats you are resorting to, you’re going to have to do better than that." Dunne said with a faint smile.

Lenard eased into his chair, grateful to understand what his situation was no matter how unpleasant the realisation. "I have something of greater value than a threat." Lenard replied, producing a diskette that he had kept concealed in his suit all this time.

He put the disk on the smooth surface of the black marble desk. "I present to you," he looked at Dunne with a hint of smile. "The next revolution in biological warfare."

"Drugs do not interest me," Dunne said unimpressed by that grandiose statement. "Neither do vermin under the skin I cannot see."

Lenard smiled, pleased that he had the upper hand and felt some satisfaction at being aware of something that would leave Dunne speechless. That alone was worth the price of the dozen laws and breaches he would be committing when he offered this top-secret data to Crispin Dunne. "I’m not talking about a drug or a bacteria." He said, playing the upper hand well with a smug smile on his face. "I am talking about a weapon the like of which you have never seen. "

"All right," Dunne nodded and picked up the disk on the table. "You’ve bought yourself an extra five minutes."

"You won’t regret it." Lenard said with a widening grin. "What you hold in your hand is the entire summary complete with graphic data of a meeting I attended early yesterday morning."

"You are still not saying anything that is interesting me." Dunne replied shooting down any attempt by Lenard to get too cocky. In truth, he was interested in what the man had to say but he was not about to let his power over Lenard diminish in any way. Men like Lenard needed to be held down and reminded who was in charge. David Lenard was ambition unchecked and unfortunately for him, without the brains to match.

Lenard was unfazed by Dunne’s ambivalence to his announcement and continued speaking, realising how much depended on his ability to convince the man of the opportunity before him. "I will," he said confidently, more than he felt actually. "The meeting was top level between the Council, the military and the UNE security division. Only the most high clearance personnel were allowed in the room."

Dunne shifted in his seat, indicating his impatience and made Lenard swallow thickly, before continuing again. "We’ve found the planet where the Weyland Yutani aliens originated."

The reaction was immediate. While public knowledge of Weyland Yutani’s crimes were not specifically known, anyone with an ounce of ability at acquiring information and secrets would be aware of the significance of that statement. Dunne was one of these. He sat up in his chair as saw the smile stealing across Lenard’s face at finally capturing his interest. "You’re certain of this?"

"Absolutely." Lenard grinned even wider now. "A commercial ship, the Iago, discovered the planet in a binary star system and put down there for landing in accordance with Company Directive 324.1 where any evidence of life must be investigated."

"I know the clause." Dunne said abruptly, wanting to hear more about the alien. "Paragon contracts have something similar."

"There is visual evidence that it is the home world for the aliens." Lenard answered. "If not, then its a highly virulent infestation all across the planet."

"Well," Dunne said with a smile as he eased back into his chair and turned his intense gaze on Lenard. "It does appear that you have succeeded in escalating your value to me. I assume you have terms you wish to discuss?"

"You damn right." Lenard said rudely, enjoying the ability to dictate for a change. "You’re going to make trillions with even one specimen from the planet. I want a share of that. I want enough money to disappear out of the UNE’s reach forever."

Dunne considered the request and found that he could live with those terms and in truth, he would not mind seeing Lenard disappear. The man was tiresome and apparently had some very distasteful personal habits that Paragon wanted no affiliation with, if the young ladies that had been interviewed were to be believed. "Done." He declared.

"Good," the former Councilman grinned, leaning forward. "Now we don’t have a lot of time. Even as we speak, the UNE is moving to quarantine the planet. If we can get there before they do, we can transport as many specimens as you like before a blockade is put into effect."

"A blockade." Dunne smiled. "I like the idea of the UNE ensuring we have the genuine product only."

"A contingent of Marines will be despatched as the initial enforcers but they will be followed by a permanent task force. "

"Marines?" The head of Paragon mused and thought quickly, disliking to be forced into any constraint of time but aware that some things simply had to be, no matter how inconvenient. A plan began to form in his head because he knew more about these aliens than Lenard had even dreamed he was aware. The fool had believed he was telling him something new but in truth, it was Dunne who always had more information. He just missed the vital clue of not knowing where to find the aliens.

With a smile he met Lenard’s eyes and replied. "I think we can arrange to have a little reception committee waiting for them when they arrive."

II

The Marine were not happy to be home.

Considering most of them had spent the last night indulging in various forms of debauchery. The team, which usually conducted itself with total professionalism, staggered onto the floor of the Sparta’s main landing deck, looking quite pathetic. Most of them appeared as walking advertisements warning against the dangers of alcohol. Maia could only imagine the symphony playing in their heads if the party she had seen last night was any indication of how the rest of their evening went.

"Captain, there ought to be a law…" Addison grumbled as he staggered towards her with MacReady trying very hard to remain the tough, sargeant instead of laughing his ass off at their suffering.

"I’m sorry Addision," Maia replied feeling, genuinely sympathetic to the dance that must be going on in his head at this point. The comtech kept running his hand through his blond hair, as if doing so would dispel his headache as well as the fact he had slept in his clothes the night before. "We got an emergency. "

"Wonderful." Private Samantha Leigh, one of the new additions to the squad muttered through the mop of red curl that covered most of her face. Maia did not need to see her eyes to know that she was in a similar state of pain as Addison. Leigh was one of the better recruits the Marines had been provided with. She was a natural leader and was quick thinking, holding up well under fire as the last six months in Maia’s command had proved. Maia knew for a fact that the young woman from Tuscon had impressed even MacReady’s need for excellence. He said she was all right and Maia knew that from Mac, that was quite an endorsement.

"Get into the showers," Maia advised. "I need you people somewhat alert."

"Not a chance in hell." Quinn growled as he staggered past. Maia wondered if he knew that he was wearing his shirt inside out. Despite the apparent effects of hangover that they were all suffering from, Maia noticed that her smartgunner was extremely ornery even for this particular occasion. She wondered what might have caused such a thing since very little bothered Private Alex Quinn. She had seen him face aliens with little more than a sneer and hungry growl before he shot all of them to pieces. The huge blond man seemed to be affected by nothing until now.

Instinctively, Maia’s gaze shifted to Marin who was still standing at the door of the shuttle that had brought them here from gateway, engaged in a rather steamy kiss with Private Jaleel Washington. There was no doubt in her mind that Marin and Jaleel had been engaging in a little more than an all out drinking competition to celebrate the New Year. The duo seemed very friendly as they parted and headed towards Maia and Mac who exchanged a guilty glance. After all, considering what the Sergeant and herself had been up to the night before, neither could make any judgements on Marin’s dalliance with Jaleel.

Since the first day of his arrival into the squad, Jaleel had pursued Marin with a vengeance. While he never allowed his interest to effect his working relationship with her, Maia could tell that his infatuation with Marin was no passing thing. Maia had been around enough men in her life to know when one was completely enraptured by a woman. The private had launched himself vigorously as Marin’s direction, making every effort to court her as a woman. Wisely, Jaleel did not allow himself to be deterred by Marin’s natural aggression as a smartgunner and slowly the tough young woman found herself warming up to the young man’s advances. Last night was a culmination of a six-month campaign by Jaleel to win the hand of his lady fair and his victory no doubt contributed to Quinn’s ugly mood.

In comparison, Quinn and Jaleel were worlds apart, not just in physicality but also in their personalities. Quinn had treated Marin like his partner and best friend. If he saw her as a woman, he made no mention of it. However, Jaleel was very much aware of Marin’s femininity and he treated her like the most ardent suitor during their off duty hours together, indulging her with candle lit dinners and moonlights strolls. Things that Quinn in his even most sentimental state could not imagine doing.

Maia took note of the tension building between Jaleel and Quinn and realised now, as MacReady probably already had that eventually it would reach flashpoint. With the obvious intimacy between Marin and Jaleel, the two ranking Marines could see the confrontation between Quinn and Jaleel coming to a head very soon.

"Keep an eye on Quinn." Maia said quietly to MacReady.

The Sargeant nodded and replied just as softly. "You’re not fucking kidding."

The duo walked past them, still wrapped around each other, looking long enough to offer a greeting. "Hey Captain," Marin smiled as she moved her lips out of reach of Jaleel’s. "Have a good New Years?"

"Almost as good as what you had." Maia laughed as she flashed MacReady the barest hint of a smile. The Sargeant said nothing but his eyes spoke volumes. "Go and get cleaned up you too, debriefing in exactly one hour."

"One hour?" Private Benjamin Yugowa said sceptically as he walked past them towards. Yugowa had been smart enough to make an obligatory gesture of turning up to the party before disappearing to meet his girl friend who had a more private celebration in mind. Considering the state of his comrades, it was a decision he was most grateful for at this point. "You’re extremely optimistic, Captain." He chuckled.

Maia liked Yugowa. As their medtech, there was none finer. Yugowa had been a failed medical student who decided to defy the conventions of his family to join the Marines. She had read his file and knew that he no longer had contact with his rigid Japanese family who had never forgiven him for becoming a Marine. She felt saddened knowing that his family had shunned him, especially when Ben Yugowa was so likeable. Since his arrival, Maia knew that he had embraced his fellow Marines as his new family and when he was required to administer medical aide to any one of them, that feeling of warmth showed most profoundly.

"I live in hope Ben." Maia laughed.

"How was Chrissy?" MacReady asked, knowing that Yugowa had planned a big date with his girl to see out the New Year, since he had made a hasty departure from the party last night.

"She was terrific." Yugowa smiled. "We did Times Square and then we went back to her place after a late supper at a club. What about you, Sir?"

Maia suppressed a smile of her own as she saw MacReady wince at being called Sir. He could handle the title of Sargeant but she knew for a fact that anyone calling him Sir had a tendency to make his hair stand on end. Yugowa in particular had taken great delight in calling MacReady that, knowing just how much it raised the Sergeant’s ire. Maia think she liked Yugowa most by his ability to irritate Mac because in some ways, their quiet mannerism were not so different.

"Don’t call me Sir," MacReady grumbled unhappily before answering Yugowa’s question. "I had a quiet evening too." He replied, lying through his teeth because he and Maia were anything but quiet during their sexual marathon within the bedroom of officer country.

"Hey you need a hand?" Yugowa turned his attention to a small petite Brazillian woman who was trying very hard to prop an enormous Islander as they staggered out of the shuttle onto the deck.

"Yes actually." Assistant Pilot Carmen Lopez declared as she grunted to keep Private Temura Richards on his feet. Tem, as everyone had taken to calling him was almost six foot seven of enormous islander bulk. He towered over Quinn who used to be the tallest of them and had these enormous hands Maia was certain he used to wrestle bears in his youth. The giant had an equally grizzled temperament and it was not wise to upset him even though he understood the chain of command well enough and had no difficulty taking orders. However, when his temper flared, the only way to calm him was to shoot him with a tranquilliser dart and film the proceedings for National Geographic.

Even MacReady was spurred into action as he and Yugowa took hold of the behemoth from Lopez who was clearly out of breath and grateful for the relief. It required every ounce of her strength just to keep him from toppling her over. Maia had to admire Lopez’s endurance for this long. A lesser person would have let him drop.

"What the hell happened to him?" Maia asked, although a second later she thought the answer was quite obvious even without needing to hear Lopez’s explanation.

"He drank a keg of beer." Lopez replied.

"A keg of beer?" MacReady looked up and asked as he and Yugowa filed past the two women and headed towards the door. "That ain’t much." He pointed out. With Marines, a moderate drink was a keg of beer while a gas tanker full might be considered excessive.

"At a time." Lopez retorted.

The last thing Maia saw of MacReady as he filed out the door was his astonishment expression at that snippet of news.

"A keg of beer at a time?" Maia turned her gaze to the private almost horrified. "I definitely am being optimistic at seeing him up in an hour."

"Don’t worry," Lopez chuckled. "We’ll just have to keep in the shower for the next 30 minutes, under cold water of course."

"Of course." Maia said expecting nothing less. Lopez was very much the rookie unlike Tem who had been transferred to the group when the number of his former squad had dropped to necessitate re-posting. While Tem was the veteran, Lopez was the young novice who had come to the group as a pilot in training. Although their relationship was platonic, Tem had taken her under his wing. As he had once rumbled in that low gravelly voice of his when Maia asked, Tem had revealed that Lopez reminded him of a sister that was no longer alive. In some sense, Maia was glad at the friendship because she would hate to see anything happen to the bubbly young woman.

Lopez was exactly like the country of her origin, with dark wiry hair and exotic coloured skin. Although she was the rookie, she did not behave with reservation but exuded confidence when necessary. She had a tendency to ramble on sometimes but considering what Addison was capable of during his most excessive talking jags, Lopez was mild in comparison.

"Well get started," Maia prompted her to get a move on "We have been given a mission so I want to run you guys through a preliminary debriefing."

"Yes Sir." Lopez offered her a salute and a smile before hurrying out of the deck.

The last member of her team stepped out of the shuttle, looking as composed and in control as ever. Even though his eyes were bloodshot and he appeared to have had just a good a time as his fellow Marines during the celebrations the night before, Pilot Dimitri Petrov seemed to be suffering none of the hangovers that the rest of the team seemed to be enduring.

"Good morning captain." He said in that thick Russian accent.

"Hello Dimitri." Maia greeted. She knew her relationship with the Marines was more informal than military protocol would prefer however, she fought alongside these people in situations that required trust to be given. If she could not take some official frowning at her familiarity with them, then Maia Sanjay was not worth her mettle. She had faced worse in her life to let their disapproval bother her. "I did not see you at the party last night."

"I was in St Petersburg." He replied smoothly as they both started walking off of the deck. Having greeted the squad upon their return, Maia now looked forward to getting some breakfast at the mess. Although she seemed to think that she would be one of the few who could actually hold down food at this moment.

"All that vodka is bad for you." She pointed out.

"Its mothers milk." The man grinned. "They breast feed us Vodka when we are born."

"I’ll take your word for it." Maia laughed, unable to keep the image those words conjured up from her mind.

"So what it is the op?" He inquired. "Will there be wine, women and song?"

His question reminded her of what they would be facing when they arrived at their destination and suddenly, the humour drained out of the whole morning. She cared about these people, with all their quirks and personality traits. They were indeed like family and the idea of the aliens anywhere near them made Maia nervous. It was an expression that Dimitri caught in her eyes.

"That bad." He said sobering up immediately.

What an underestimation, Maia thought before answering. "No Dimitri, its worse."

CHAPTER FOUR

I

Debriefings on the Sparta normally took place on the floor of the cargo bay. The tradition to hold mission briefings in the that place was so ingrained in Marine tradition that no one ever questioned who originated the idea in the first place. Whatever the reason for its initial inception, it was agreed that it seemed a somewhat appropriate practice for the rough and tumble world of the Colonial Marine Corps.

It took a little longer than an hour for the Marines to recover from their New Years Day celebration so that they could attend the meeting in any coherent form. In body anyway, all were present but as Maia stood before them as they were seated on crates or standing close by waiting for her to begin, she knew not all of them were there in spirit. Nevertheless the mood was still jovial, with jokes and humorous bantering being served back and forth. MacReady had made no mention of what he knew regarding their impending mission but then he was always one to obey protocol when it came to such things. His and Maia behaviour towards each other revealed nothing but a complete professional relationship. For their future together, that part of their life simply had to work or none of it would.

The atmosphere was so far cheerful. That was about to change.

"Welcome Marines," Maia addressed them. Most of her squad had showered and had changed out of their civilian clothing to be clad in a variations to the theme of their military uniform. Some were creative, others preferred to remain according to regulations. Maia did not mind and knew there was unspoken rule somewhere in regards to the dress code of the Colonial Marines that allowed for the individuality of their uniforms. "I am sorry to cut short your furlough but we apparently have been assigned something of a ‘hot potato’."

What an understatement, she thought to herself before continuing.

They were quiet as she expected them to be. The squad normally was well behaved because they knew that once the briefing was over, it was Maia’s habit to allow them the opportunity to voice any opinions or ask any questions. It was one of the things that made them so loyal to her because they knew their opinions mattered to their commanding officer. For some, that was a novelty unexperienced before assignment to this particular squad.

Maia tried to think of the best way to tell them and then decided that the truth was probably her best bet.

"We will be assigned to a binary star system for an indefinite period of time to form back of a planetary blockade."

She could see the puzzlement in their faces for such assignments really required pilots not Marines who in essence ground troops. A blockade required ships and to a Marine a ship was merely the vessel that moved them from assignment to assignment.

"Before you ask why we got this detail, I’ll tell you straight up. This is not just any blockade. We are responsible for the quarantine of a planet with extremely and I shit you not when I say this, an extremely hazardous form of life."

She saw the sudden shift in the features of Addison, Quinn and Marin when understanding or at least suspicion started to make itself known to them. With the exception of herself and MacReady, the three veterans were the only members of their squad to survive the Fiorina mission and even then, it had required her direct intervention to save their lives. Their eyes hardened as they stared at her intently, waiting for her to continue to disprove their suspicions. Maia wished she could oblige but she could not.

There was not a night since Fiorina where a soft sound in the dark, or slight scraping against steel in a corner she could not see would keep the normally detached and deliberate Captain Sanjay from breaking out into a cold sweat. Every time she saw an ant colony, she felt this unmistakable to smash it to pieces, to seek out the queen among the millions that ran through the tunnels, to destroy her as Maia had once had to destroy another like her. Only the scale had been much larger and infinitely more terrifying.

"There can be no allowing any one specimen off the planet. I have prepared information tapes for all of you which Foster will distribute later this afternoon. I expect you all to be fully versed in every aspect of it by the time we reach the planet." The tension in her voice was unmistakable and her Marines picked up on this immediately.

"We will maintain the blockade alone until the arrival of the Ronin and the Fury. This mission is absolutely top secret so there will be no discussing it outside off this ship even after this mission. This is by the order of UNE Security Council. Talk about this to a civilian and not even I am going to be able save your butts when they get a hold of you."

"Okay," Maia let out deep breath and took another one in as she prepared herself for the next part of the briefing, the part that was not in any report or in any file for reference. "That’s the official information, now I’ll give the unofficial version. This squad encountered the alien in question almost a year ago of Fiorina. Myself, Sergeant MacReady, Private Marin, Quinn and Addison are all that was left of that group."

She could see nervous glances being thrown across the room as eyes shifted in the direction of the Marines in question. The veterans stared at her with hard eyes and yet beyond the steel in their gazes, she could also see the tiny kernel of fear desperately trying to hide behind Marine bravado. She could not blame them for their apprehension for Maia was well aware of what it was that frightened them so. Colonial Marines were fearless. It was not only in their reputation throughout the military but a way of life to those who served under its banner. It took a great deal to shake the core of that belief and she knew for all of them, Fiorina had been the test that they had survived yet still failed to conquer. They lived only because they had run from the enemy. For some, it was a bitter pill to swallow when having spent one’s life in the service of beating the odds.

However, Fiorina was an abject example of the fights one could not win.

"I had just joined the Marines," Maia continued to explain. "We were investigating reports of the creatures that we had retrieved from a Colonial Marine ship called the Sulloco. The Sulloco had been lost for 35 years, its own crew of Marines had been killed by the same creatures. The EEV carried the alien to Fiorina where an infestation was allowed to continue unchecked for all that time. When we arrived, the aliens had established a formidable colony. We barely got out with our lives."

There was no reason to reveal the part the Company played in the mission because much of that information was deemed classified during the close door trials that finally saw the dismantling of the powerful Weyland Yutani corporation. The veterans of Fiorina had been given very specific instructions by General Hanlon to remain silent on what they knew and since the whole incident had been nightmarish, it was an oath that was easy to adhere to. The truth was, none of them had ever really spoken about what happened on the former prison planet.

To remember the details of Fiorina was to remember the friends and fellow Marines who had fallen in battle. Some had died quickly but most had not and their deaths were the constant companions in the survivor’s nightmares. Maia still woke up weeping whenever she was visited by a nightmare where Cassandra Yates begged her to die. The former UNE officer could recall every aspect of the dream with shocking clarity. Yates who was their former Medtech had been impregnated by the alien spore. When Maia found her, there was little the Captain could do to save the young women. Although it was one of the hardest things that Maia had ever been asked to do, she somehow managed to pull the trigger and end Yates pain before the horror of her alien progeny burst through her chest.

In her dreams, it was decidedly different ending. Maia would pull the trigger, splattering blood and bone on the slimy walls of the egg chamber, watching the life drain out of Yates’s eyes as she waited in anticipation for the monstrosity that would emerge from inside the young woman’s sternum. She watched and waited, staring at the empty egg pod that was unsealed and acted as testament to Yate’s doom. Except as time went on and it truly crawled in her dreams, the alien’s emergence was not forthcoming.

Maia would wake up screaming when she realised that Yates was not impregnated.

"We had a difficult landing coming into Fiorina so by the time we touched down, the dropship could not make a planetary launch." Maia looked at MacReady who was not looking at her. His intent blue eyes were no doubt elsewhere, probably with Sergeant Parker who trusted him and made him the corporal everyone trusted and the man who succeed the old warhorse in death. MacReady had thought a great deal of Parker and still felt the man’s loss most profoundly, particularly in his death. He assumed the Sergeant had died in the initial attack but MacReady just knew he was still alive when the aliens took him into the egg chamber.

"We investigated the terrain and found that Fiorina had been formerly a company prison facility. It was abandoned by the time we arrived but apparently the infestation had managed to avoid discovery and with the exodus of humans, allowed free reign." The Captain saw that she had the undivided attention of all the Marines except the veterans. They did not have to listen closely to her tale because they had lived it.

"A full sweep of the compound followed and we stumbled across some sort of alien structure. It was built with just about anything the creatures could stick together with an artificial resin they produce which is on par with the strongest epoxy I have ever seen. I sent the squad in to investigate. The aliens which were dormant at this time gave no indication of their presence. They are not a carbon based life form so we had no idea what we were dealing with."

She saw questions that were begging to be asked, etched in the faces of those new to this tale. They burned with curiosity but Maia would not be interrupted, not only she had explained the full enormity of what they would be facing when they came across the planet the Iago had discovered and had willing entered to face their doom.

"We went through structure and found a lot of carcasses of animals, their sternums appeared to have ruptured. As you will learn when you study the data tapes, the aliens reproduce by embryo implantation in a host organism. We found a lot of eggs that had been unsealed but at this time we did not know what they meant. We soon entered a chamber with sealed eggs and discovered that trigger for stimulus is the presence of a warm body. Once the spore within detects a viable host, it emerges from the egg and attaches itself."

Maia felt odd to be explaining the Fiorina experience like this. She felt more like a university professor delivering a lecture on an organism that was no more fantastic than a domestic cat, not the most terrifying creature she had ever seen in her life. "O’Neill was the first to be taken this way. It emerged and attached itself to its face. In the panic that followed, there was gunfire and suddenly, we detected massive amounts of movement on the motion detectors. These were multiple signals that appeared all around us. Myself and Lieutenant Devine were in the APC and we ordered a general retreat but it was too late."

To this day, Maia wondered if she had given the order sooner, perhaps more of them would be alive. "We lost five people including Sergeant Parker," she said quietly and saw a pang of sorrow on MacReady’s face but continued with her briefing nonetheless. "Six actually because we had no idea what had happened to O’Neill and when we did realise, it was too late. We barricaded ourselves in the dropship while Foster attempted to pilot the second dropship for pick up. The aliens came in force and we lost four more people before we got to the dropship and got the hell out of there."

Maia did not feel it necessary to add how she had been forced to enter the alien hive and retrieve MacReady, Marin, Addison and Quinn when they were taken as hosts. She had reached them in time but not for Yates. She found nothing heroic in herself at facing the alien queen because ending Yates lived had destroyed any vestiges of bravery she might considered possessing. That mission would always be a failure to Maia Sanjay because she had failed Cassandra Yates.

"We had set some tactical nukes for detonation prior to leaving so when we were airborne, we took the entire nest with us. We wiped them all out." Maia paused and then added. "Or so we believed."

She gathered her thoughts and then continued. "Until the Iago landed on the planet orbiting the binary stars, we had no idea where the aliens originated. The specimens found on LV427 as you will learn after you review the data tapes were brought there by an alien ship. Its pilot had died because of implantation. Ever since its discovery has been made known to us, the alien threat has been further exacerbated by the fact that certain corporations wished to make bioweapons of these things. They are extremely formidable in combat. A human could not defeat one without a whole lot of firepower. Drop a few into a populated centre and I guarantee you, within a month if not less, you will find humanity absent. The aliens need our warm bodies to reproduce so they are perfect biological weapons. Our blockade is to prevent anyone from Corporate Earth thinking they can commandeer one or two specimens for use. "

She could see the horror appearing in the eyes of the newest team members. The veterans knew first hand just what the Company had been willing to do to acquire their specimens. The space station orbiting Fiorina had known precisely what awaited the Marines down in the planet and had done nothing. "We are instructed to use all necessary force to keep raiders from the surface, even shooting down unauthorised ships attempting to penetrate the atmosphere. Fortunately, the UNE has given us a great deal of latitude in dealing with this situation. The Security Council is aware of the danger should these aliens reach Earth."

Maia’s portion of the briefing finally ended and she was now prepared to field their questions on everything she had just discussed. No doubt, there would be some heated debates if the stormy look on Addison’s face was anything to go by. The smartgunners were more restrained because Quin was usually impassive about his deeper feelings just like Marin. MacReady merely wore an expression of icy calm because he was the Sergeant and he had to keep his wits about him or he could not expect any of the people under his command to do the same.

"Questions?" She asked, meeting their gazes.

"Are they fucking crazy!" Addison burst out, confirming Maia’s suspicion that he would be the first to speak.

"Take it easy, Private " MacReady said sternly in a voice that he used only when he wished to be seen as Sergeant MacReady and not good ol’ Mac.

"Aw come on Mac!" Addison retaliated oblivious to the warning. "You can’t be any happier about this than I am! Shit, we almost all died the last time we were out there facing these things! "

"I’m aware of the risks," Maia spoke up before MacReady could. "However, this directive comes from the top. At the moment, we are the closest things to experts on these aliens."

"But…" Addison wanted to protest but knew she was right, however much he hated to admit it.

"We’re not landing on the planet right?" Marin made herself heard. In truth, she could face the aliens again if she had to. The Smartgunner would love to tear them apart with her bare hands if possible but even she understood how hopelessly outmatched she was. However, the idea of keeping the aliens trapped on their little world instead of spreading death and terror across any others, gave her the courage to stand before them once more.

"No," Maia shook her head, glad that someone had something positive to say. Addison’s outburst had unsettled some of the others. She could see the doubt and uncertainty creep into their eyes. "Our primary goal is to ensure that no one lands on the planet. We are only acting as an airborne blockade. Eventually, a permanent task force will arrive to quarantine the planet. "

"Captain," the question came from Leigh. "What happens if someone penetrates the blockade?"

"If someone penetrates the blockade and lands on the planet, we have the right to board the ship, destroy any samples and arrest everybody on board." Maia answered, further pleased that she was getting an intelligent question. Somehow it did not surprise her that the question had come from Sam. She was fresh and raw but she was also very good. "That is if they’re still alive."

"There is no way of removing the spore once its attached to the host?" This question came from Yugowa, which did not surprise Maia at all. Ever the medtech, the young man did not believe any situation could be completely hopeless. Maia liked his optimism but hated to disappoint him with her answer.

"Not that we are aware of." Maia said sombrely. "Once it attaches to the host, it takes over the organism’s body functions. It locks out the lungs ability to absorb oxygen and processes incoming air through its own organs and filters into the host’s blood stream. The eggheads who studied our reports seem to think that this is some adaptive process so that the host can accept the alien embryo."

"How long is the gestation?" Dimitri inquired. The Russian inquired, with no signs of worry or distaste on his face. However, Maia was used to such calm from the man. It must be a Russian thing, she decided.

"Very quickly, usually less than 24 hours." Maia replied, remembering the reports compiled by Foster, their resident artificial person. "The newborn exits through the sternum and having witnessed the process, I can tell you, I wouldn’t wish that kind of death on my worst enemy." Her throat ran dry as Yates involuntarily crossed her mind.

"Fucking A." Quinn made himself heard. "I saw what it did to O’Neill." The Smartgunner who rarely contributed anything to mission briefings other than an occasional grunt remarked. "The best thing we could do for him was put a bullet in his head and end the pain."

Quinn did not mention how it had been up to his Captain to make that ultimate sacrifice on two occasions. First with O’Neill and then with Yates. With O’Neill, none of them had known what was coming and Quinn remembered with shame how he had wrestled with Maia in his ignorance, when he tried to prevent her from ending his comrades torture. Thanks to him, the alien had escaped into the catacombs than ran throughout the drop ship and was allowed to kill Hall and Daley. Despite telling himself he had not been aware, Quinn still felt the guilt that he had not been able to trust her for those two lives might still be here if not for his intervention.

"I think we just nuke the fucking planet." Addison snarled in uncharacteristic venom. "We know where they come from now so we should just rain a dozen tactical nukes over the entire surface of the planet and turn it into one ball of radioactive mush!"

"What about the life forms who aren’t apart of the alien hive?" Lopez asked. "Do we sentence them to die as well?" Lopez who was an advocate of animal rights among several other liberal causes that did not fit with her tough Marine image, was always mindful to point out such concerns no matter how out of place they might seem.

"What life forms?" He retaliated. "There couldn’t be anything sharing the planet with these things. You haven'’ seen them. They ain’t the normal bug hunt we been doing! These things are huge, they’re almost man sized and when they come at you, it’s like trying to kill a shadow. In fact, it doesn’t even seem real until you see the teeth tearing at you."

Lopez shuddered visibly, hating to admit that her inexperience was letting Addison’s chilling words get to her.

"Well maybe if you stupid enough to let it come after you, you deserve being eaten." Tem quickly spoke up in her defence

"Hey fuck you asshole," Addison snapped. "It will make mincemeat out of you too!"

"That’s enough!" MacReady barked with enough force for the group to fall silent immediately. He could see Maia about to intervene to bring order to the discussion but it was really not her place to do so. It was his. He was the Master Sergeant in charge of this squad of Colonial Marines and it was his duty to keep them in line.

"Like the Captain said, we are not landing on the planet, Corporal." He threw Addison a stern look to remind him of the status quo. Just because Maia had given them leave to ask questions of her, it did not mean the subsequent discussions would be allowed to disintegrate into a free for all with insults being traded.

"Exactly," Maia reiterated. "Chances are, we won’t even encounter any one of these things during this entire mission or any human either, for that matter. No one is aware of the planet’s existence to know what is even on it, let alone organise a safari to capture specimens. The planet was discovered by survey team first who unwisely made the decision to land on the surface for exploration as per Weyland Yutani’s contract directives of the time. Unfortunately, none of them made it off the planet to tell anyone about what they had found. All the evidence we have of what happened to them is from the internal recorders on their environmental suits. If not for a military ship scouting locations for possible wargames, no one would have had any idea what happened to the Iago. It was just blind luck that the army stumbled upon it first and therefore full classified protocols have been implemented with all information regarding this subject."

"Secrets have a funny way of getting out Captain." Addison remarked, looking at her intently and not believing her reassurances for a moment. He could not imagine going anywhere near an entire world of those creatures, not after Fiorina. Unfortunately, he was a Marine and that pretty much took the decision out of his hands. Still, Addison was not about to bend down and hold his knees when someone was about to shaft him.

Maia could not deny his statement or his fear. She had more reason than any of them to be very afraid. She had gone into the maw of hell alone and faced the devil in the form of the alien queen. None of the Marines had been privy to that experience, only Maia because they had been made unconscious by the alien venom at the time.

There was little more that she could say on the matter and knew that she had no wish to answer any more questions. The Sparta had been given priority clearance to leave Earth as soon as she was space worthy and there was much work to do before that time was upon them.

"All right," she spoke up loudly, cutting off any questions that were still being bandied about. "We have clearance to leave as soon as possible, I want everything to go by the numbers. You people know your jobs so I expect launch preparations to be completed by the end of today at 1800 hours. I want all our systems checked, I want life support supplies doubled, I want artillery supplies trebled. If the quartermaster gives you any trouble refer him to me and I will deal with it. Addison, I want a complete diagnostic of all computer related operations on this vessel, you will coordinate with Foster."

"No problem." The corporal swallowed thickly, still wearing that unhappy expression on his face but had more or less resigned himself to what must be.

"Marin, Quinn, I want you to go through our inventory in the armoury. Top up on everything, like I said, if the quartermaster gives you trouble, patch him through to me." Maia continued, firing orders at them like a commander on the eve of a great battle. There was no difference really because she was the commander of this mission and the men and women before her were the soldiers under the protection. A blockade may not be a great battle but it was no less formidable.

"Captain," Quinn spoke up. "It’s a good idea if we got a few more flame units and extra supplies of ammo for the grenade launchers. We got more results from these on Fiorina then we did with the regular fire on the M16s."

"Agreed," Maia nodded in approval at the idea. "Get the requisition ready and I will sign it." Without missing a beat, she turned to the two pilots in the group. "Dimitri and Lopez, same kind of Class A diagnostic on all the vehicles, including the APC. I want to check for structural faults, fissure lines, anything. I want both vessels at optimum performance."

"Yugowa, you handle life support supplies and also stock up on anything else you might need." She replied.

"Any idea on what kind of injuries, I’d be treating?" The medtech asked.

"Severe lacerations, blunt force trauma." MacReady volunteered before Maia could respond. "Acid burns for certain." On that note, the Sergeant looked up at the team and announced. "These things have acid for blood so if by any chance we do encounter them during this mission, fire at them only when you are a safe distance. You fire too closely and you might find yourself getting a bath with molecular acid."

"Shit!" Jaleel exclaimed, his face contorting into visions of horror at the kind of agonising death that would be. "How smart are these things?"

"Not very smart." Marin answered her love with a smile. Quin watched the exchanged and frowned, saying nothing but despising the intimacy between them both.

Unless of course you face a queen, Maia thought silently to herself.

"That it Captain?" MacReady inquired, as he asked permission to dismiss the troop. 1800 hours was only eight hours away and MacReady wanted to meet that deadline.

"Yeah," she nodded slightly. "I’m done."

"Alright you scumbags!" MacReady said loudly. "We got a job to do people, let’s get to it. Marines dismissed!"

As the group scattered to go about their assigned duties, MacReady found himself gravitating next to Maia to have a private word. "I have this feeling that this isn’t gonna go by the numbers." He admitted reluctantly.

Maia could share his scepticism. "You and me both." She replied after a moment. "You and me both."

CHAPTER FIVE

I

The normal frantic activity of voices working towards the preparation of the new mission was nowhere to be heard on the deck of the Sparta, following the debriefing given by Maia Sanjay. No one seemed to be able to loosen up enough to make a joke or speak about anything else once they were aware of what they would be facing when the arrived at the planet that Maia had called Styx. Somehow it seemed appropriate after hearing the terrible tale of what had taken place on Fiorina.

Under normal circumstances, the Marines took their cue from their leader or in this case, the newcomers to the squad took the lead from the veterans. There was nothing that hardened Marines like Addison, Marin, Quinn and particularly the Sarge could not handle and over the time the recruits had served with these veterans, they had proven their reliability a dozen times over. In all the missions over the past six months, there was nothing thrown as these men and woman that could possibly give them reason to fear.

Until now.

The recruits could smell the fear and knew it was not imagination that inspired but something real and tangible floating around the floor of the deck, like a mist to be breathed in. None of them had yet to review the data tapes that Captain Sanjay had prepared for them. Yet there was no doubt in their minds that it contained information about this terrible creature that would in no way exonerate of the fearsome reputation that the veterans of Fiorina had placed upon it.

"Hey Quinn," Marin called as they were going through the inventory of the armoury, as per Maia’s order. Usually it was just another chore to be performed before the onset of a mission however, this time they would more than simply going through the motions. Each of the smartgunners were taking this task to heart, completely aware of how responsible the weapons within this arsenal could be for the preservation of their lives.

Private Tina Marin was not about to deny that she was afraid. Only a fool would face those creatures and then claim to not come away from the experience with enough wisdom to understand that they were lucky to be walking out at all. It bothered her to go back but she was after all, a Marine and those were the breaks. However, underlying all this worry about the mission to Planet Styx, it now appeared that she had problems closer to home.

"What?" Quinn looked over his shoulder. The big blond man had been individually inspecting every pulse rifle that sat in its compartment of the extensive weapons rack covering much of the wall he was standing before. Usually the room was alive with conversation no matter how inane just as long as they were talking to pass the time away. However, Quinn was silent and broody on this particular occasion. Any attempt she made to draw him into conversation was met with little more than a grunt of acknowledgment before he would fall silent again.

"What is it man?" She groaned, putting down the particular flame unit she was examining with the same intensity as Quinn had been doing to the pulse rifles. He did not react to her outburst, merely glancing over his shoulder in a non committal way before returning to work.

Marin crossed the floor and put her hand on his broad shoulder, forcing him to face her because this behaviour was so unlike him she could not even begin to imagine what the problem was. They had been comrades in arms for years, fellow marines who had fought and bled alongside each other in more battlefields than she could count. In all that time, he had never treated her so obliquely and frankly, it frightened Marin more than the aliens they could be encountering on Styx.

"Goddamn it!" She swore. "What is it?" She demanded again when she was able to stare him in the eye. His intense predatory eyes showed little more than indifference. However, that was to everyone else. To Marin, who had seen him once cry after a night of too much booze, when he confessed how his father had thrown him out of the house because he was not quite officer material like the brother who died in combat, she knew better.

"Nothing!" He growled.

"There’s something going on with you." She insisted, feeling genuine alarm now that there was definitely some thing happening between them but she could not fathom what it was.

"There is nothing wrong, get back to fucking work." He snapped.

"Hey!" She shoved him hard. "Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?" Marin demanded. "I ain’t just anybody, I’m your friend."

"So be a friend and shut the fuck up." He retorted.

Marin was too astonished to speak as Quinn turned around and returned to the duty at hand. For a moment, she remained where she was, unable to do anything but fight the knife that was cutting up her heart into tiny pieces while he busied himself with making sure that the pulse rifles were ready to fire. It was too long since she felt the heat of tears running down her cheeks. As a Marine, she had seen all there was to see in the misery of human existence, from the rabid culture of her East LA childhood to the blood spilt over a dozen combat missions. Marin had seen it all and none of it had driven to the state of emotional dismay that she now felt.

"Fine." She said clearly shaken but determined not to let him see her cry like some..some fucking girl. "If that’s the way you want it Private." She took a deep breath and steadied herself. With focussed calm, she walked out of the room and into the corridor, needing a moment to catch her breath before she really made a fool of herself.

Quinn heard her leave and swung around abruptly, hoping to take back some of what he had said but she was too quick for him. He stared at the door for a few seconds, feeling inordinately bad at how she had been treated and swore under his breath because he had no right to feel this way. It was always so simple before, it was just him and Marin. No matter what happened, in combat or out of it, he could rely on her without doubt or hesitation.

When Jaleel had first started paying her more attention than normal, Quinn had shrugged it off. He was younger than her and for certain, Quinn had believed that she could not be possibly swayed by the sweet talking rookie. Sure, he could understand Jaleel’s attraction after all, Marin was beautiful. She maybe small and handled herself like any tough soldier but she had the most beautiful skin he had ever seen and even though she was all army, her scent reminded him of hot Latin nights under the stars. Considering that he had never even been south of the border in his whole life, Quinn had believed that made her special.

But then she started responding to Jaleel, warming to kid’s advances and showing a side of herself that he had never seen and felt robbed somehow that a complete stranger should have access to it. Of course, Quinn had never shown Marin any indication that cared for her as more than just a friend even though he knew exactly when her birthday was. He knew what scent she wore or that she preferred jazz music when Rock and Roll was blaring at the parties he dragged her to. He knew all those things about her and yet it was Jaleel whom she had taken as a lover.

When she had seen her all over Jaleel the night before, Quinn had promptly gotten himself blind stinking drunk and yet no amount of alcohol imbibed had been able to numb the pain. It simply made it easier to tolerate but had no power to dispel it. He did not want to hurt her especially when it was possible that they could die in this next mission but each time he picture Jaleel making love her, the image drove his straight out of his mind as it had done moments ago.

He did not know what to do to make it right between them after this and with anguish he bore silently that no one would ever know, Private Alex Quinn was sure he had lost the only woman he had ever loved.

***********

The artificial synthetic life form who went by the name of Foster had the singular privilege of being one of the few of his kind to have autonomous domain over a science laboratory specially equipped for the purpose on any vessel of the Colonial Marines. Usually the task of a science officer was given to a human, however, after Foster’s impressive performance at Fiorina, Maia trusted the synthetic more than she trusted any human being who might deign to take on the responsibility. Since her assignment as the commander of the Sparta and Captain in charge of these Colonial Marines was by General Hanlon’s personal order, she was in the position to receive a great deal in exchange for her presence. Foster remaining science officer was one these demands.

Since Fiorina, Maia was aware that Foster had been doing research on the aliens, gleaning all valuable information from their encounter. It would surprise most people to know, especially the corporate bought scientists that had for so lusted after the alien as a potential bioweapon, just how much that Foster now knew about the creatures. In the past six months, he had devoted considerable time to studying what information they had on the subject of the aliens of LV427 and Maia now considered him their resident authority on the alien’s culture.

"Hello Foster." Maia replied entering the laboratory which was always in pristine condition. Foster kept it like he kept everything on the Sparta, running smoothly and at optimum performance.

"Captain Sanjay." He greeted in the calm, serene voice that did not correspond with his sombre looking face. "How was your New Year vacation?"

"Uneventful." She remarked and knew she was lying but there were just something’s that she could not reveal to him, no matter how much of a confidant he had become to her since she had met him. "You’ve read the mission briefing." She sighed taking a seat at his work bench.

Foster was studying the tapes again, stared at the computer console before him further along the bench. "Yes," he nodded. "I have. It is unfortunate."

"We always knew it would happen." Maia pointed out.

It was true. Ever since they had returned from Fiorina, Maia had feared this eventuality, that someday they would indeed find the alien world and the queen with her biomechanical convey belt of death would use the human race again and spawn her new army. It was a dramatic rendering of the situation but no less accurate.

"I had hoped it would not be in our life time." She continued.

"I would have believed it as well. It is after all a vast galaxy, it would have be forgivable to assume that the planet of origin could have been further away than the sphere of human influence." Foster remarked, sounding very much like a synthetic then for synthetics seemed to view human achievement as something to be lauded, not to be viewed with caution as she tended to do.

"It’s just rotten luck as they say." She replied. "You’re my expert, Foster. You looked at the tapes, any insight into what we might encounter?"

"I was under the impression that we were leading a blockade." The android looked at her. "I did not think we would be landing on the surface of Planet Styx."

"We won’t technically," Maia agreed. "However, if there is one thing I’ve learnt over the years is that being a pessimist can keep you alive. So I want to know probabilities of anything, no matter how minute, no matter what it says on the mission briefing. I expect we will encounter trouble whether or not we go looking for it."

"A rather depressing view but one I cannot find fault with." Foster replied and then correlated what he knew of the planet in that formidable brain of his before presenting her with an answer that she would be satisfied with.

Maia smiled at being called depressing but could not blame Foster for making that observation. She wondered if the programming that allowed him to simulate emotion also allowed him to understand it. Sometimes, she saw a spark of something that did not seem generated by artificial means but was almost spontaneously human.

"I have studied the tapes and the planet as far as I can tell is heavy in organic life. However, there is a decided lack of indigenous life that is larger than a domestic cat. I believe that the alien’s presence in the ecosphere has decimated the rest of the ecology. Nothing larger than that exists."

"That makes sense," Maia nodded in agreement. "They need hosts. Although you would wonder why nature has not kept its checks and balances. You would think for such an aggressive reproductive need, there might be predators that could have caused the alien to evolve that way."

Although she had to admit the idea that the aliens might have had a predator feeding on them was even too frightening to contemplate.

"Not necessarily," Foster pointed out. "Humans breed prolifically and there is not predator involved in the equation for quite some time now."

He did have her there. Humanity had spread across the planet Earth with such tenacity that there was a time where non-human life was almost wiped out altogether . Only the hard work of environmentalists and public awareness had kept the balance poised over a knife’s edge instead of slipping into extinction completely . Now those creatures were flourishing as man was flourishing across the stars.

"It may just be that the alien has manage to gain dominance over every other life form on the planet which is unfortunate for them because the effects of that decimation is eventually going to become acute." Foster remarked. "Unfortunately, hosts are an exhaustible commodity and the aliens will soon be lacking in new ones, since they are killing off natural hosts before those host organisms have time to reproduce their own young."

"Its poetic justice." Maia responded. "So, you don’t think we’ll encounter anything worse than the alien if we go down there?"

"The odds are against it and anything that could survive without being a host must be very formidable indeed."

"And probably more than we can handle whether we know about it or not." Maia concluded without having to hear him say it. She could see the possibility in his brooding features. "What about the ecosphere itself?"

"As far as I can tell it’s mostly swamp land. The sensor scans of the planet reveal that its proximity to the twin suns has forced it into what we define as equatorial climatic conditions. The temperature according to the first team was little above 36 degrees Celsius with a humidity factor of almost 93 percent. Most of the planet is either covered in very dense jungle or swamps like the one the Iago’s team reported."

"Not the most hospitable place in the galaxy." She mumbled, wishing the news was better and knowing that in such terrain the APC was going to be next to useless. God, she prayed that no one did anything so stupid such as attempting a run at the blockade. If they went down on the planet after the Sparta was forced to shoot them down, it would be next to impossible to retrieve survivors without knowing the precise location of their landing.

"What about the aliens themselves?" Maia probed, hoping the news was not so bleak on all fronts.

"Well I have made some theories." Foster volunteered with almost a hint of excitement that was rare from the android even though it was programmed to display it at appropriate times. "Since we encountered them, we know the aliens have a hive social structure with the queen at the top of the chain. There are drones, spores and the queen but we have not seen any warrior aliens."

"I thought the drones were the warriors?" She asked. After all, the drones were highly dangerous. She hated to think they were only the lowest members of an alien pecking order.

"No, the Queen is meant to have her own guard if the social structure of ants and bees are anything to go by. I believe the lack of hosts on Acheron and later Fiorina made the drones forego the need for a warrior caste. They only produced a queen because she was necessary to direct them, which brings me to another interesting point. How they communicate?"

In truth, Maia had to confess to feeling some measure of curiosity on that point as well since the aliens had no mouth to speak off, no eyes that she had been able to see. Their voices were little more than sharp screeches that could not possibly be construed as a form of communication at least for the sophistication required of their complex social structure.

"Ants and bees communicate with their antenna or their front limbs however, we have witnessed the aliens coordinating attacks, moving together as a single unit not as thousand of individuals. I believe that this is because they are telepathic."

"Telepathic!" Maia exclaimed with astonishment. Of course that had never occurred to her but now that Foster had made the announcement, that too made sense because individually their intellect was not at all as formidable as their physical prowess. "I’ve not seen any evidence of that at all," she countered, daring him to explain how this could be.

As always, Foster rose to the occasion with surprising aplomb. "They are not telepathic in any sense that we know. I believe the only true telepath would be the queen for she is the central brain. I think she sends her instructions to them through telepathy. That is probably why a single drone’s first order of business would be to create a queen not only for the need to reproduce but also to restore the telepathic link."

Maia was fascinated by the insight Foster was offering although she was realistic enough to know that he was working from scant facts gathered over thirty years of secrets. Naturally, there might be some inaccuracies to his hypothesis. However, she did not believe he was wrong. Did she believe the queen might be telephatic? Maia had once stood face to face with the Fiorina queen and in the moments that passed before she had killed the thing, there was an understanding of where they stood in each other’s universe. Had that been a form of telephatic communication? If it were indeed possible than Maia was faced with another very unpleasant possibility.

Was it possible for the queen to affect humans with her telepathy?

*********

Cripin Dunne was very pleased with himself.

Thanks to the information that the former Councilman Lenard had brought to his attention, he already had a dozen buyers lining up with tremendous amounts of money waiting to purchase his most ambitious undertaking to date. Naturally, he had run into obstacles but Dunne knew how to make his way around those. His biggest problem however had been the time factor. A military ship like the Sparta could traverse the distance between earth and alien world much faster than a commercial passenger cruiser would ever be capable of doing so.

Dunne had no intention of being anywhere in the vicinity of a military blockade when he finally went to retrieve his prize and so he was forced to think quickly. Even with its formidable stardrive, the Sparta would still take months to reach a planet that was almost on the edge of explored space. Thus Dunne was given that much margin of time to make his move. With a flash of inspiration, he knew what had to be done. It was not necessary that the ship responsible for collecting his specimens be launched from Earth or Gateway. Presently, he had a dozen ships scattered across the galaxy conducting various duties that could be easily diverted to the alien homeworld and undertake the task he required of them before departing with the military none the wiser.

It was a simple matter to re-route one such ship from their present course and heading by sending a message to the computer intelligence that controlled all shipboard functions while the crew was slumbering in hypersleep. In a matter of weeks, not months, the crew of the Persephone would find itself walking up to a view of a binary stars. It was not to say that Dunne was not making the journey himself. He was a man who believed in having plans within plans and the Persephone’s part in the retrieval process and indeed the drama that was unfolding with such speed that no one else but Dunne could keep up, was only the first act.

Still, he had no intention of being left out of the loop while events that had such far reaching consequences into the future of his company transpired without him. Even as he sat in his office, awaiting the arrival of David Lenard, Dunne knew that his private ship was being prepared at Gateway to launch. According to his calculations, he would be ready to depart Earth orbit exactly half a day ahead of the Colonial Marine vessel, the Sparta. It had taken a great deal of money and calling in more markers than he cared to squander to acquire priority scheduling for launch at Gateway. However, nothing would keep him from acquiring his specimens or seeing the alien homeworld for himself.

Unfortunately, he would have do so in the company of Lenard who was fast becoming a source of great annoyance to the corporate tycoon. In the beginning Lenard had proved useful but now with his seat at the UNE in jeopardy in light of his inappropriate relationship with Paragon, the man needed to be off planet quickly before the Security Division turned up at his door. Since Dunne was partially responsible for this state of affairs and because Lenard had brought him news of the alien, the CEO of Paragon felt that he owed the man something, even if Dunne could not abide him at all.

Perhaps Lenard could perform one final service for Dunne when they finally arrived at the planet.

In the birthing chamber.

CHAPTER SIX

I

Private Sam Leigh had worked with Sergeant MacReady close enough in the last six months to know when something was bothering him. How much she knew about the Sarge would surprise the cool, somewhat dispassionate man. She was not attracted to him in any way, there was way too much going on behind those ice coloured eyes for her taste but she had come to respect him and admired his ability to hold together this eclectic bunch when things were going to hell.

He was assisting him with the maintenance checks of all the power loaders, especially since they had requisitioned three extra units since Captain Sanjay had presented them with their latest mission early this morning. She could not fathom what the Captain had in mind with the use of these modern workhorses but if she knew the Captain well enough, Sam had no doubt that it would be creative. The tension among all the Marines was already tense but with MacReady and the veterans it was even worse.

She understood to some extent the apprehension they felt because Sam had seen genuine fear in MacReady’s eyes and that had been an non-existent emotion ever since she had first come under his command. Sam also knew that anything that could give the Sarge and the Captain such concern respectively was worthy of being taken very seriously. The Xenomorphs that they had came in contact with seemed terrifying in almost mythical proportions and she shuddered to think of any creature that could wipe out a platoon of Marines in less than 24 hours.

"Any idea what we are doing with these?" She asked as she ran through her checklist of what needed to be evaluated on the powerloaders.

"No idea." MacReady replied honestly. Not even their personal relationship could induce Maia to reveal her plans for these devices when she was in her Captain mindset. He supposed he could understand her need to keep their professional and personal relationship set apart. In fact, he could almost see the chaos that might ensue if she did not. "She was pretty adamant about getting them though."

"It sounded like she was keeping something back when she was giving us the debriefing." Sam observed as she moved onto the next powerloader inside the narrow bay where they were kept.

"She’s not obliged to tell us everything Private." He reminded, content that the loader he had just inspected were up to standard. They had to be if he was even half right about what Maia’s intentions for these things were.

"I know." Sam replied, seldom fazed when the Sarge chose to remind of her situation. She had more curiosity then was good for her and while this was not necessarily a bad thing for it made her a better soldier to not simply allow things go before careful scrutiny, it could be a little annoying at times. "Just sounded like there was parts of the Fiorina mission that she didn’t want to talk about."

"Not talk about," he paused and met the younger woman’s gaze, then realised that Leigh could be trusted with the rest of the story that Maia found so difficult to talk about. "The Captain is the only one who is rated to tamper with a tactical nuclear missile." He said quietly remembering how he had been forced to leave her with that warhead and hated being just a corporal then because he could not refuse. "The second dropship was being remote controlled to the surface by then and we had the bugs running loose through the ship. She sent us to the APC to get protected while she armed the warhead. While we were there, our medic, Yates got taken. The aliens when they need hosts don'’ kill you, they knock you out and take you to the egg chamber. We should have let it go at that but we didn’t we went after her."

"But that’s…" Sam spoke out to say that it was unwise to do that. Marines generally did not leave their people behind but if the odds were overwhelming and there was a substantial risk of losing entire squad, then it was necessary evil.

"I know," MacReady agreed before she could even voice that point. "In hindsight, it was stupid but we did anyway. We went after her and got ourselves in the mess. If it weren’t for the Captain who came after us and pulled us all out, we would be dead by now. "

"So what happened to Yates?" Sam asked.

"She didn’t make it." MacReady said shortly.

"You mean they killed her?" The younger woman nodded sombrely.

"No," he shook his head with just as much regret. "The Captain couldn’t get to her before implantation. By the time, she reached Yates; the alien was growing inside her already. All Maia could do was end it."

Sam’s eyes widened at that, understanding immediately what ‘it’ meant. Her stomach hollowed at being forced to make such a decision and then felt immense sorrow for her Captain who had to endure such a terrible choice. However, Sam found herself admiring the Captain immensely because most people were not strong enough to put themselves through such anguish knowing what seemed to be a terrible act of violence could be salvation to some other tortured soul. It was nice to know that the Captain also felt that strongly about the people under her command. During the past six months, she had displayed such dedication to the squad but until now, Sam had not realised just how much.

"It was the only thing to do though." She remarked. "I would rather take a bullet than have some thing take me out while using my body for an incubator."

MacReady found an involuntary smile cross his lips at her response and knew that he had made a good choice in deciding that she would be a good protege. In some ways, her mind set was very much like the Captain’s except Leigh was young and probably did not have the raw edge that Maia did.

"That’s what I keep telling myself during this mission. Keep a gun close by with a bullet in the chamber because if it comes to that, I’m going that way too."

Now that she had heard this story, Sam would incline to agree.

**********

Dmitri Petrov had thought he had seen it all. However, one of the advantages of working in a dropship, particularly in the cockpit of the vessel was the ability to review data tapes while conducting his routine diagnostic of all shipboard functions. In this instance however, he was somewhat undecided on whether this was a good thing or not. He stared at the fuzzy images taken from a dozen internal recorders from Marines who existence as only noted by the digital lettering of their names at the corner of the screen, starting to understand what he saw in his Captain’s eyes.

Xenomorphs rarely frightened him. Most had been uninteresting and seemed to add credence to those with vaunted beliefs that man was the supreme master of earth and space. They usually annoying more than they were life threatening and they were certainly no bigger than microbes or small furry things that needed removal from shafts. In the most extreme cases, there were formidable creatures that could be kept under controlled by a squad of well armed Marines. As the Russian stared at the screen before him, hearing the screams and obscured shapes of where only teeth and terror had any tangible substance, he knew that their estimation of Xenomorphs were about to undergo a startling re-valuation.

Dmitri had never seen anything like this.

He was no kid fresh from boot camp. He had been a combat pilot for years and then moved to the commercial sector where he decided he did not like the lethargic pace but did not wish a return to the hardcore flying he was forced to endure with the Air Force. He signed on with the Marines, specifying dropship duty because it was simple enough with just a tinge of danger to make it worthwhile. He dropped the grunts off and he picked them up again. There were moments of difficulty but nothing that he could not handle.

He was not so sure now that he had seen what was on screen.

One had to admire the simplicity of the creatures despite the danger they represented. They worked as a single unit, completely coordinated with each other as they launched their attack on the Marines who never recovered from the shock. He could see MacReady shouting orders; still cool under pressure even though he was raising his voice. Marin and Quinn were atypically firing at anything that moved, putting their faith in the enormous smartguns they were carrying.

Addison’s voice was begging for retreat. Once again, that was no surprise to the Russian for bravery was not exactly on the comtech’s list of virtues. Addison had courage but it had to be drawn out.

"What the hell are you watching?" Lopez demanded when she walked into the cockpit, having waited impatiently for the last ten minutes for him to emerge and help her with the hull inspection. The work was tedious enough as it was, having to scour every inch of the drop ship, seeking micro fractures in the steel that could easily evolve into something a lot more damaging should the ship be subject to any unusual turbulence. Lopez had actually seen wings and bits of fuselage torn off a drop ship where this particular chore had been ignored. There was vid demonstrations of such horrors in every training course ever held for ship maintenance.

"The info tapes from the Fiorina mission." Dmitri replied distracted, his eyes still fixed on the screen as he saw the APC smash through the wall of the hive from the point of view of someone named Yates.

"We are supposed to be making hull inspections." The younger woman retorted, not even glancing at the screen as she looked at him reproachfully.

"I think the hull is the least of our problems." He retorted. "Take a look at this." He gestured towards the screen.

Lopez huffed slightly and turned her attention to what had captured his attention so completely. She saw the panic in the faces of the men and women she respected so strongly now. MacReady was firing blindly into the darkness at something coming at him with extremely long teeth and seemed like the product of a terrible nightmare. It was all legs and claws, screeching an unearthly cry as the Sarge’s M16 Pulse rifle reduced the thing to pieces. Acid hissed as its blood splattered on a nearby corpse, the body disintegrating as the molecular acid ate through flesh and bone.

Her stomach lurched at the sight of organic remains liquefying into a unformed blob of meat. She had never seen anything like it before and the only thing that gave her comfort was the fact that whatever that suffered that agonising fate was already dead. A cold shudder ran through her skin when she considered that it could happen to someone who was just as alive as she was.

"God!" Lopez found herself gasping. "Is that it?" She looked at Dmitri, clearly shaken.

"That’s it." Dmitri nodded somberly. "Still think we need to check the hull?"

Lopez felt her throat go dry but recovered quickly enough, even though the images would still remain in memory for some time. "It has to be done." She said firmly although there was not the same confidence in her voice that there was a moment ago.

"Okay." Dmitir rose to his feet to follow her out of the cockpit.

"Have you seen anything like that before?" She asked gingerly as they moved through the ship towards the access hatch that led onto the hangar deck of the Sparta.

"Not even close." He shook his head in response. "Its not wonder everyone is so tense. I would be if we had to face that again."

"But we’re not going to the planet." She pointed out, starting to take a great deal of comfort in that knowledge. The Captain had ensured that they were merely to provide presence to the blockade that was holding the planet under quarantine.

"That’s right." He nodded and then added further. "However, with those things running around, I now understand why everyone is going a little crazy preparing for this mission. You do not want to be anything less than prepared or short of fire power when facing those fucking things."

Lopez could not disagree and was extremely thankful that she was a pilot not a Marine combat troop who would be in the position to face those alien creatures if a surface landing was required of them when arriving at Styx. In fact, Lopez felt a little bit cowardly knowing that she would be safe on the dropship when her friends and comrades went to face the nightmarish vision she had seen in the cockpit of the ship.

"They lost nine people in that mission." Lopez mused as they emerged from the dropship. "I wonder how many we will lose this time?"

Dmitri did not answer but it sure as hell was not going to be him. He was going to survive because was kill anything that got in front of his way, thinking to change that fact.

II

Maia saw Marin in the hallway as she made her way from Foster’s laboratory to the main deck of the Sparta to keep abreast of how the preparations were going for their eminent departure from Gateway. She saw the Smartgunner standing in the corridor looking most desponded in a manner that Maia had never seen in Marin before. As the only other woman that Maia had ever met who could keep her head no matter how terrible the situation was without descending into complete panic, Maia knew something awful indeed must have happened.

"Hey Tina," Maia asked as she came up to the woman. "You okay?" Since they were alone, they could dispense with the formalities for a while. After all, they were friends as well beyond the rank of Captain and Private. Maia could never understand the hierarchal stature of officers over the enlisted. Both did the same job, even though one group made the decisions and the other bled for it.

"I’m fine." The woman tried valiantly to compose herself but Maia could see it was not working and it must have been a deep seeded hurt for it to penetrate the tough mask that Marin wore like a shield around her emotions. As a woman, Marin tried harder than anyone not to let her emotional side reveal itself. Being a woman in a job that was almost a bastion of male dominance as the Marines, Maia could understand all too well.

"Come on," Maia nudged her to follow. "Walk with me. Consider it an order if you’re thinking about saying no."

"Yes ma’am." Marin managed a slight smile. The two women started walking down the corridor, leaving the armoury behind where Maia was certain the trouble had started.

"Now, talk to your Captain." Maia retorted.

"Its Quinn," she answered after a long pause, questioning whether or not she ought to confide in Maia and then knew that there was no one else she could speak to on such matters and the Captain had proved herself to be a friend a dozen times over.

"Ah." Maia remarked without a hint of surprise.

Her response made Marin look at her suspicious. "What is it tattooed on my forehead?" She asked, almost defensively.

"No, no," Maia reassured her, knowing how easy it was for Marin to fly off the handle. The woman had a fuse so short it took a breath of warm air to ignite into full conflagration. "But I could see problems coming."

"I don’t understand." Marin exclaimed. "He was like a different person in there, I’ve never seen him like that. He was mad at me that much was pretty fucking obvious but he wouldn’t’ say why. Quinn is worse than I am when it comes to saying what’s on his mind. He’s never been one to hold back before. Ain’t nothing changed for him to go quiet on me now."

"Hasn’t there been?" Maia looked at her, daring her to remember what had changed in her life most recently to create such ambivalence from Quinn. Maia had an ulterior motive for making Marin deal with this situation before they arrived at planet Styx. For starters, she could not have her two Smartgunners wrapped in such emotional turmoil when she needed them clear headed and alert. Secondly, it was a high-risk mission, no matter what she might have told them during the debriefing. Just because they were not supposed to land on the planet did not mean they would not be forced to do by circumstance. If that happened, then it was quite possible that they would be facing a substantial casualty loss. If there were issues to be resolved before hand, it was best to do so while they were alive to do so.’

Marin considered what Maia said and then realised begrudgingly that Maia was right. There had been a significant change in her life although she could not see why that would affect Quinn. "My relationship with Jaleel ain’t none of his damn business." She retorted, her cheeks flushing in annoyance at the thought that it could possibly be the reason for Quinn’s could be that.

"Let me tell you something about men," Maia sighed knowing that Marin’s experience with men must have been limited if she could not see something so obvious. She supposed it would be with Quinn being such a large part of Marin’s life. "Nothing makes them go more crazy than the fact that someone else might be interested a woman they think is exclusive property."

"Our relationship is not like that," Marin dismissed it with a shake of her head. "We’re buddies you know."

Oh boy, Maia sighed. She really had no idea did she?

"Has he been behaving like a buddy?" She countered to the young smartgunner.

"Well no," Marin had to concede that point. "But he’s never even shown the slightest bit of interest in all the years we’ve been working together. I mean if he even thought of me that way, which I don’t he does, he’s never said anything or made a move. I mean he’s stayed over at my place a dozen times and I thought it was cool that he didn’t try any of those cheap moves most guys do."

"You see, you never know how much you want something until someone else has their eye on it." Maia replied. "And I think that goes double for Quinn. Chances are he probably never thought about you that way until Jaleel came along."

"This thing with Jaleel is nothing serious!" Marin exclaimed. "He’s nice and all but I’m not singing true love or anything. He knows it and I know it. We’re just fooling around you know?"

"I do now," the Captain responded. "But Quinn doesn’t know."

Marin seemed to lapse into deep thought at that point, unable to fathom that she had missed such an obvious explanation even though it seemed highly unlikely. She and Quinn had been friends ever since they been together as Smartgunner a few weeks into Boot Camp. Even then, he had been a tough son of a bitch, who rode her hard during those first few weeks, because he was certain she was not good enough to do the job. She had won his respect and his friendship through sheer determination and ever since then, there had never been reason to see the friendship beyond anything than what it was. They confided in each other and she knew, she wanted no one else to watch her back on the field of battle but this new development had thrown that all into chaos.

Apart of Marin was fighting hard to deny Maia’s claims that there could be more to Quinn’s hostility than she had ever guessed and if so, the Marine had no idea what to do with it. It was one thing to think he might care for her but another to act upon that knowledge. Did she truly want to take their friendship into such unchartered waters?

"This is crazy!" She gushed, feeling truly confused now. "He’s never said the slightest thing to make me believe that he could be jealous about me. I mean, I never said anything when he took off with that blond stripper for three weeks and came back wasted and broke. I’ve had boyfriend before Jaleel, why is he taking it so hard."

"Because Jaleel isn’t a ship in the night." Maia responded. "He’s someone you work with and who won’t disappear in a hurry. He is apart of your everyday life not the one you enjoy during furlough."

The Captain did have a point and as they stepped onto the hangar deck where the rest of the Marines were currently working hard to meet their deadline at 1800 hours. Marin found that she had been given food for thought, even though she still had no idea how to proceed.

Suddenly, her life just became a great deal more complicated.

**********

The cruiser was called the Necromancer and left its private berth at Gateway Station several hours before the military ship Sparta would begin its journey to the planet, Crispin Dunne was told, had been named Planet Styx. It had taken a great deal of money and favours to push through the clearance that allowed the ship to leave with the same urgency given to military and government vessel but Dunne had chosen his supplicants well. He had no use for markers that would be of little use to him and in this endeavour, they had earned their freedom well.

The Necromancer was a small ship, hardly Gargantuan like the military grade ships with their titanium hulls and powerful stardrives. However, she was a speedy craft and would take half the time to reach Styx that any other craft using conventional engines. Stardrives were not utilised unless in emergency situations arose so Dunne was fairly confident that the Sparta would travel under normal engines since there was no pressing need to reach Styx so quickly. As far as the UNE was concerned, the existence of Styx was still top secret. It was still too early for them to guess that a leak might form in the way of Councilman David Lenard but when they did, the Necromancer would be well on its way and beyond even their considerable reach.

If everything went according to plan, they would have their specimens and be back on Earth long before the Marines were even aware that they were there.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I

It was time.

It came by faster than anyone would have liked and even though the preparations were made and all systems on the Sparta were at optimum efficiency, it felt like they were still unprepared for what they would soon face at Styx. No matter how many of her Marines told Maia that they had completed the tasks she had set out for them earlier that day, the Captain still felt as if she had missed something. Perhaps, she understood all too well that there was a inherent futility in their efforts if the aliens were to reach the decks of this ship. In that instance, nothing would matter but the ugly death that would follow the invasion.

Maia walked across the main deck of the hangar and adjoining cargo bays, allowing MacReady to appraise of her their efforts to date, his words bouncing off her consciousness because it seemed unimportant somehow, almost incidental. They were going through the motions of being ready when the reality of it was far worse than anyone of them might have possibly imagined. Maia hated being fatalistic because it was a bad way to start a mission but there were perils in what they would encounter on Styx that was unique.

She had faced the alien queen once and it was the most terrifying experience of her life. She spoke to no one about it; except for what was listed in the xenobiology files necessary for Foster’s research. What MacReady knew was only the barest hint of what she had experienced in those dark moments when she had faced the only aspect of true evil she had ever seen in this life. Maia wondered if Ellen Ripley, who lost so much to these creatures, had felt the same desolation as she stood on the edge of her final moments. Had understanding of the queen and the threat she posed forced Ripley’s descent into that sea of molten lead?

"You okay?" MacReady asked when they had a moment alone, in between signing requisition orders and her final perusal of the ship’s manifest. "You seem a little out of it. "Not that he could blame her of course. Addison was not much better. The comtech was performing his work as best he could but even MacReady could tell that he was afraid to leave earth and go anywhere near those alien monsters.

"How’s everyone holding up?" She asked, ignoring his question with one of his own as she looked away from the inventory list that he had handed only minutes ago.

"Some of them have snuck in a look at the info tapes and it spooked them." MacReady answered, hardly surprised by that turn of events. The internal recorders were meant to be a monitoring and safety tool but too often did they become the final testament of its owner. To watch the compiled recordings of Fiorina was to take a step into hell and for those who had not lived it personally, they could be forgiven in disbelieving what they saw. MacReady still had trouble believing it when he replayed it in his mind. All the friends he had lost, the Sarge, O’Neill and countless others whose memories were starting to fade in his mind except for the terrible way they died. That he remembered most clearly with no flaw in his recollection.

"It spooked us all." Maia remarked with a humourless smile. "I hated putting it together." She confessed.

"Captain," MacReady spoke tenderly, forcing himself to remember that in the here and now, she was his Captain and not the woman whom he loved and shared a bed with only a day ago. He wanted to hold her and offer her comfort but this was not the time. At this moment, he was her Sargent and that was his best use to her. She needed a comrade right now, not a lover. "We may not even have to land on the planet." He reminded.

He was not much of an optimist but MacReady could see that she was resigned to the fact that the Marines would encounter the aliens. When someone was so determined on a particular belief, sooner or later, consciously or not, they would find a way to make it happen. He understood her fears were unique, that she had faced something that none of the others including himself had encountered but lives depended on her to be the best that she could be. "Captain, you have to snap out of this. The men and women of this outfit take your lead. You don’t be strong for them and they won’t be able to function if they don’t think you are confident about the mission."

Maia turned to him sharply, disliking that he should point out that her emotions were getting in the way but the truth of it was, he was absolutely correct. Her emotions were clouding her judgement and that state of affairs could not be allowed to continue. "I’m sorry Sargent," she let out a deep sigh and met his gaze with a look of affection that showed him she was not at all upset at his remark. "I guess I have been a little preoccupied. I just have this gut instinct then nothing is going to go right."

In that much MacReady had to concede, she was right. The mission tasted sour in his mouth because nothing with the aliens were ever so cut and dried. Beyond the physical threat they posed to humans, there was also the danger of what they represented to the unscrupulous men who could exploit that savagery for their own ends. MacReady had seen first hand what the Company had been willing to do in order to maintain the integrity of their experiments in Fiorina. The Marines who had landed on the planet to investigate where sacrificed for the sanctity of the project.

The Company was gone now but like a hydra of myth, a dozen had risen to take its place and he knew Maia’s thoughts were focussed on these groups who would risk everything to bring back a live specimen to Earth. He wondered if any of them really had an idea of what they were attempting to control for they judged the alien by the standards of the wildlife they had faced previously. Not one of them had inkling that the alien was something entirely different, something so completely beyond their understanding that it was impossible to outthink it. Scientists were not even sure the species actually held sentient thought beyond the overwhelming need to propagate.

"I understand." MacReady nodded in agreement. "It smells bad."

"Hanlon is sure that no one knows about planet Styx but I’m not sure that’s true." Maia retorted. "People tend to talk no matter how hard they try not to. A subject like this is something that is sure to raise comment somewhere and it’s only a hop skip and a jump before a smart man unravels the little clues." She paused a moment, knowing she was still being defeatist because there were still numerous factors in their favour. For instance they had time on their side. The rumours would not immediately reach the ears of anyone who could exploit it. By the time any corporation learnt about the aliens, the blockade would well and truly be in place. Thanks to the urgency of the situation, she had license to ensure the success of the mission at any cost and that gave her freedom from the constraints of standard military practice.

"I still say it would be smarter to nuke the entire fucking planet." MacReady offered the opinion he would not put to the table when the debriefing was taking place. He agreed with Addison’s assessment to wipe the entire species from existence because it was doing no good to keep them alive. However, at the time he had remained silent because it was the Master Sergeant’s duty to act as intermediary between the Captain and the squad, he had to seem neutral on all things.

"I agree." Maia nodded. "That’s an option we may have to consider if we can’t keep this thing under control."

"Seriously?" He looked at her, never imagining it to be a viable course of action no matter how good it was to know that they could unleash that extreme measure if necessary. The bureaucratic types had no stomach for genocide and the old prejudices of nuclear Armageddon still weighted heavily on their minds.

"The action would be condoned," she answered remembering what Hanlon had indicated to her in the communications they have had since their face to face meeting the day before. "However, on the assumption that all other avenues have been exhausted."

"Great," MacReady rolled his eyes. "Like we would nuke a planet for any other reason."

Maia smiled faintly and decided to move off the subject for the moment. "Any problems with the squad other than they are spooked?"

"Well Addison has been bitching to Foster about going on this mission," the Sargent said unhappily. "Foster didn’t say nothing to rat him out but I overhead him and set him straight. Tim’s always been a bit of whiner but he’s scaring the others with his crap so I want it stopped."

"Good," Maia agreed. "People are on edge as it is, we don’t need a town crier making things worst. Any problems with our smartgunners?" She asked gingerly, hoping that Marin and Quinn were able to keep their personal problems under wraps. While Maia accepted that romances between the Marines did happen, as she could personally attest to, she refused to allow anyone’s personal feelings to get in the way of the job. The nature of the Colonial Marines required that the squad rely upon each other without question or doubt. Without that collective unity, the entire group could not work effectively and that necessitated everyone leaving their personal problems at the door. She considered Quinn and Marin friends but she was offering them no slack because of that.

"You mean has Quinn torn Jaleel a new one?" MacReady laughed. "No. Nothing like that at all."

"Keep an eye on him," she instructed. "I don’t think he can hold out much longer if I know my smartgunner."

"I got you." The sergeant nodded, having known Quinn for an even longer period of time and completely in agreement at about how short a fuse the man really did possess.

"Alright," Maia sighed, deciding that they had just about covered everything that needed evaluation. The Sparta was ready to depart after the ministrations of the Marines and Maia was eager to get started. The sooner they arrived at Styx and put up the blockade, the greater security she would have that no one would attempt to breach it. She glanced at her watch and made some quick calculations to aid her in formulating her next set of orders. "Thanks to our priority clearance, it’s at our discretion when we leave Gateway. I want to get underway as soon as possible so I want everyone ready for the freezers by 2000 hours."

"Yes ma’am." He nodded.

"And Mac," she added after a moment’s thought and offered him a smile that had nothing to do with military convention. "You can use my private shower at 1930 hours."

It took an instant for him to understand her meaning before he broke out into a grin. "I won’t say no to that." He replied as she started towards the Sparta’s main bridge to prepare for their impending launch into two hours.

********

Jaleel Washington was not stupid. He knew Private Quinn did not like him. He even had a rough idea what had aroused the smartgunner’s dislike and was sensible enough to keep out of the big man’s way. However, as they shared the length of table where the Marines were enjoying their final meal before they started readying themselves for cryosleep, Jaleel had this odd feeling that the strange triangle between himself, Marin and Quinn was coming to her head.

Although no one voiced it, everyone noticed that Marin was not seated at her customary position next to Quinn but was instead at his side. Not that she was here in any real sense anyway. She seemed inordinately distracted and was picking at her food with no real intention of eating it. Jaleel glanced at Quinn and saw the smartgunner taking great pains to avoid meeting his partner’s gaze, not that she would have noticed because she was too wounded to do so. He was certain something had transpired between the two normally close friends and what he had previously suspected now appeared confirmed by the aloofness that had suddenly existed between them.

The conversation continued around this strange triangle with everyone ignoring it because it was none of their business and the mission ahead required too much of their focus for them to bother themselves with this nonsense. Jaleel did not wish to think about the mission ahead, particularly after he had seen the data tapes even though he knew he should.

"You okay?" He asked Marin quietly.

"I’m peachy." She said shortly and then returned to shifting her egg to the other side of the plate once more.

"Want to talk about it?" He asked, unwilling to be deterred by her cold response. He knew she only behaved this way when she was upset.

"No," she shook her head as she involuntarily glanced up at Quinn who shifted his eyes as soon as their gaze touched each other. His response only deepened her sorrow at the rift that was now widening them out of reach of any reconciliation.

Jaleel refused to let it go because he knew that she was hurting and he cared too much about Marin to simply let the matter rest. From the moment he had joined the squad, he had seen more in this petite woman who appeared outwardly masculine in every way. She tried to be tough and for most part she succeeded but Jaleel had been able to see past the facade at the woman beneath the Marine. He had pursued her relentlessly, not realising that there had been something between her and Quinn until now. According to Marin, they had always been friends so Jaleel had no reason to suspect that he might have been intruding.

"I’m here if you need to talk." He said squeezing her arm slightly.

"Thanks." She smiled warmly, feeling a wave of affection for the man.

"I’m hitting the showers." Quinn announced over the voices of the chatter. The smartgunner picked up his tray and decided that he could tolerate no more of seeing them together, especially when Jaleel started pawing her.

Around the trio, everyone seemed oblivious to the drama unfolding before them or if they had, was doing their best to ignore it. Jaleel watched Quinn stride out of the mescal before making a quick decision. "I’m done too." He declared and hurried after the smartgunner.

Marin wanted to protest but was too embarrassed to make a public issue about this, especially in front of her comrades. Inwardly, the smartgunner was furious at herself for allowing this unacceptable state of affairs to evolve into what it now was, a melodramatic triangle that seemed straight out of some trashy paperback novel. She glanced at the Captain who was watching everything closely as always, completely aware that Maia knew what turmoil she was enduring.

Maia leaned over to MacReady as she saw Quinn and Jaleel leave and whispered softly into his ear, so none of the Marines could hear what she was saying. "Go after them, will you?"

"Yeah." He nodded in agreement, having observed the eye contact that was being exchanged between Jaleel and the smartgunner. No one seemed to notice the tension moving across the table between the two men since they were engaged in conversations of their own, about the mission and about the aliens they may encounter there. Maia was fielding questions as best she could and MacReady knew he would be missing nothing when he went after Jaleel and Quinn.

Besides, he had better get there before things got ugly and where Quinn was concerned, that was no understatement either.

******

"Quinn!" Jaleel called out as he saw Quinn walking up the corridor leading to the showers.

The big man paused enough to look over his shoulder at who had beckoned him, wincing visibly at discovering it to be his rival. Quinn frowned and continued walking, having no wish to enter any discussion with Jaleel regarding the only subject they had any mutual interest. Ignoring Jaleel’s second call for him to wait up, Quinn entered the locker room adjoining the showers when he heard Jaleel’s footsteps behind him quicken.

"What’s up with you man?" Jaleel reached him as Quinn opened his locker and removed what he needed for his shower. "Didn’t you hear me calling you?"

"Yeah," Quinn met his gaze indifferently. "Just didn’t care enough to stop."

He saw Jaleel’s face darken at the response but then noticed the resolve that replaced it a moment later. "Look, we have to talk."

"No we don’t." Quinn continued to the laundry chute in the wall that ran into the shower cubicles.

"I care about Tina." Jaleel decided he was going to have his say whether or not the smartgunner wanted to hear it. In truth, Jaleel was a little intimidated by the imposing stature of Alex Quinn but his feelings for Marin overrode that fear and he was determined to have this enmity resolved because he knew how much Quinn’s friendship meant to her. "I don’t want to be the cause of any problems between you too."

Quinn paused a moment in mid step and looked at him. "I ain’t got a problem."

"Oh come on," Jaleel snapped. "You can’t expect me to believe that. Look at the way you were in the mess. In the six months I’ve been with this squad, I’ve never seen you two sitting apart, why now?"

"Mind your own business." Quinn glared at him, warning oozed from each word that came from his lips. "My business with Marin ain’t none of your concern."

"It is when you’re hurting her." Jaleel pointed out.

Quinn stopped in front of the chute and started stripping off his t-shirt. "She’s tough, she can handle it."

The man was impossible to reason with Jaleel decided and felt his own anger starting to surface in light of Quinn’s ambivalence. "Look I know you’re a little jealous…"

The words had no sooner passed his lips when he felt Quinn’s hand grabbing him by this own t-shirt before slamming him into the wall. He hit the surface with such force that Jaleel almost felt his head spin from the impact as Quinn leaned in close and glowered with the rage that had been bursting to free of him since this entire conversation began.

"You don’t know shit!" Quinn hissed as he held the man down and glared at him with murder in his blue eyes. "She ain’t just my partner, she’s my friend and you’re just a wet behind the ears grunt who’s going to get zeroed sooner or later. When that happens, she’s gonna be no good to anyone! To the Marines or herself!"

"Bullshit!" Jaleel retorted just as vehemently. "You are so jealous you could spit!" He broke Quinn’s grip and shoved the man backwards. "You want her so bad you can’t see straight, except that you weren’t man enough to do anything about it. Now that someone else has taken an interest, you’re as angry as hell and making her pay for it."

"What do you know about what I’m thinking?" Quinn came forward with every intention of beating the crap out of this upstart little shit that dared to presume to tell him how he was feeling about Marin.

"I know enough to see that you just can’t stand the thought of seeing her with me!" Jaleel snapped back as he prepared himself for a fight.

It had gone beyond words at that point and both men knew that a fight was eminent. Jaleel was more than prepared to fight back if it meant he could knock some sense into the stupid son of a bitch. Why couldn’t Quinn just do the honourable thing and step aside. It was not Jaleel’s fault or Marin’s for that matter Quinn had never made his intentions towards her clear.

"Am I interrupting something?" MacReady’s voice suddenly entered the fray.

Both men stopped dead in their tracks at the appearance of the Master Sergeant. MacReady walked into the room and surveyed the situation, knowing by just the look on both men’s faces what had been about to take place. Over his dead body, the Sergeant decided. This nonsense had gone far enough and he was putting a stop to it now.

"Stay out of this Mac," Quinn growled. "Me and Jaleel here got a few things to sort out."

"Washington." MacReady turned to the younger man. "Hit the showers."

"But…." Jaleel started to protest, wanting to finish this as much as Quinn did, nor did he appreciate the intrusion by the Sergeant into something that was completely a personal issue.

"Hit the showers, Private." MacReady repeated and gave Jaleel a look that indicated he was not about to make the order again.

"Yes Sir." Jaleel swallowed his disappointment away and strode into the showers; the cloud of anger was almost visible as he stormed away from the two veterans.

Nothing was said until the young man was out the room and there was privacy between the two of them before Quinn turned to MacReady. "This is nothing to do with you or the Corp. You should have stayed out of it."

"Really?" MacReady looked at him. "You’re not on furlough at the moment Private, you’re on the Sparta and that makes it Corp and that means your ass is mine." The Sergeant said sharply. "Now I appreciate what you’re going through with Marin and all but you’re letting in get in the way of the job."

Quinn glared at him in anger but did not have the same intensity of hatred that he felt for Jaleel. This was Mac, whom he respected and knew would walk over fire to save his life but the words still stung.

"You’re the last one to talk about letting it get in the way of the job. How long have you been fucking the Captain?" Quinn lashed out feeling some need to return the same home truths that MacReady had forced down his throat.

MacReady said nothing but his reaction was swift. In blur of movement, he had Quinn against the wall, his arm pressing hard into the man’s throat with even more speed than Quinn had done earlier with Jaleel. As he stared into Quinn’s eyes, the smartgunner realised that he had pushed his Sergeant farther than he should have with that remark. MacReady did not lose his temper often and when he did, it meant that he was extremely pissed and Quinn immediately felt regret because Mac wasn’t just his Sergeant but also a friend.

"My relationship with the Captain is strictly off limits Private," MacReady hissed. "It doesn’t get in the way of the job so it is none of your damn business. Now I’m sorry that things with you and Marin ain’t going the Doris Day way but this crap you’ve been pulling the last day or so ends now. We’re going to face those fucking bugs again and chances are we could all get scragged. The last thing I need on top of that is a smartgunner having girlfriend problems!"

"I ain’t having girlfriend.." Quin started to protest, resenting the way Mac had put it but the look in the Sergeant’s eyes told him to shut up immediately, not to mention the arm that was digging further into his throat. MacReady was one of the few people who could intimidate him and do so with utter effectiveness that Quinn had no choice but to obey. He could feel the man’s controlled strength against his windpipe as MacReady exerted the more persuasive physical argument.

"Is that clear Private?" MacReady met the man’s eyes with his penetrating gaze.

"Yes Sir." Quinn nodded, realising that he was not about to debate the point with MacReady when the Sergeant was forced into such an unpleasant mood.

"Good," MacReady released his hold on Quinn who immediately sucked in a deep breath and started rubbing his sore throat. "Incidentally," MacReady remarked as he prepared to leave and return to the mess hall, "you might actually consider telling the woman how you feel before pounding the guy who got there first."

With that MacReady walked out of the room and allowed Quinn to digest his words.

*********

"Man, they never build these damn things big enough." Tem complained as he stood over his cryotube and viewed the glass chamber with distaste. It was bad enough that the temperature in the cryogenic section of the ship had to be kept low but even with the bright fluorescent lighting the Kiwi still felt he was climbing inside a tomb. Of course, his bulk did not help matters much and not only did it feel incredibly confining but also cramp at the same time.

"Well they don’t build these in jumbo." Lopez grinned as she adjusted her singlet as she prepared to climb into her own tube further up the aisle of chambers.

"Very funny." Tem threw her a look.

At present, the Sparta was moving out of its docking ring at Gateway Station, under the skilful ministrations of the programmed autopilot that Foster had set in motion. The ship’s movement could be felt through the floor by a low hum that originated from the engines. It would travel to minimum safe distance from Gateway and earth before the engines switched from cruising speed to full thrust. By the time that happened, the entire crew with the exception of Foster would be already be in stasis. The artificial life form would then proceed to shut down all non-essential systems during the lengthy journey to Styx and monitor their life signs at the same time.

"What did you say to Quinn?" Maia whispered to Marin as she saw Quinn and Jaleel giving each other a very vide berth.

"Just a little reminder about where he is." MacReady responded, having forgotten to tell her half an hour ago when they took some personal time by sharing a shower among other things in the privacy of her quarters.

"It seems to have worked." Maia remarked, remembering what Quinn had looked like when he had walked out of the mess hall earlier on. There was still some tension between the two men and Maia did not envy Marin’s position at being caught in the middle but it appeared that for the moment at least Quinn seemed to have his anger under control.

"He’s a good guy," MacReady sighed. "But this thing with Marin has pushed all his buttons in the worst way."

"I can imagine." Maia sighed and then noticed Foster entering the room, which indicated they needed to get into the chambers now.

"Alright people," she stepped out onto the aisle. "Get a move on. Its time to be put to bed. You’re not getting engraved invitations."

There was a small ripple of laughter as some of the Marines started to climb into the tubes. Medtech Yugowa remained long enough to catch Maia’s attention. "I’ve checked out all the systems, we’re ready as we’re ever going to be."

"Terrific." She said unenthusiastically before turning in Foster’s direction. "Keep the channels open for any incoming transmission, I trust you to read anything that’s meant to be priority for me." Maia trusted Foster with complete confidence to keep the contents of her messages a secret. Besides, he was faster than scrolling through all of it when she woke after months of cryosleep.

"You heard the Captain," MacReady took over, prompting the stragglers who had not descended into their chambers yet. "Move it."

The sharp snap of his words ended the usual complaints about hypersleep as the Marines climbed into the tubes and waited impatiently for the hatches to slide to a close. MacReady waited until there were all gone and the chatter had died down before he slipped inside his own chamber. Overhead, the gentle hum of the lights ended with the abrupt disappearance of the lights. In the dim light, he saw Maia looking a him with a faint smile as she lay against the cushion.

"Sweet dreams Mac." She said softly.

"Sweet dreams Captain."

To be continued….

PART TWO

PART THREE