Alien: Uncivil War E-Book

Brendan Deneen

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 435

Beschreibung

After narrowly escaping a Xenomorph attack and crash landing on the wrong planet, former military man Chris Temple just wants a peaceful life with his daughters. He just needs to deal with the brewing civil war and a Xenomorph on the loose. War will always find a man like you. This ALIEN story begins where most end: with a xenomorph loose on a damaged spaceship hurtling through space. Once a highly decorated marine, Chris Temple, a recently widowed single father to two young daughters, Jane, 11, and Emma, 8, is onboard. Despite his particular set of skills, Chris doesn't get involved in the fight with the alien, instead focusing on keeping his children safe as the ship comes in for a crash landing. The family land safely on an idyllic outpost planet, where Chris is told that the ship has been destroyed beyond recognition and nothing could have survived the crash. That's only the first lie. Chris and his daughters love their new life, but something doesn't feel right. Chris is a paranoid type, but just because he's paranoid, doesn't mean he's wrong. There are nasty surprises in store as Chris investigates the web of lies and conspiracies. After leaving a ruined Earth, it seems Chris and his daughters have crash-landed on a planet on the verge of all-out civil war. Chris will have to call on the battle skills he never wanted to use again in order to protect his daughters, deal with violence-hungry marines, and battle the xenomorph that's killing people regardless of which side of the civil war they're on.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Leave us a Review

Copyright

Dedication

Part 1: Gestation

1

2

3

4

5

6

Part 2: Emergence

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Part 3: Occlusion

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Author’s Note

Acknowledgements

About the Author

THE COMPLETE ALIENTM LIBRARY FROM TITAN BOOKS

The Official Movie Novelizations

by Alan Dean Foster

Alien, Aliens™, Alien 3, Alien: Covenant,Alien: Covenant Origins

Alien: Resurrection by A.C. Crispin

Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay

by William Gibson & Pat Cadigan

Alien

Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon

Sea of Sorrows by James A. Moore

River of Pain by Christopher Golden

The Cold Forge by Alex White

Isolation by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Prototype by Tim Waggoner

Into Charybdis by Alex White

Colony War by David Barnett

Inferno’s Fall by Philippa Ballantine

Enemy of My Enemy by Mary SanGiovanni

Uncivil War by Brendan Deneen

The Rage War

by Tim Lebbon

Predator™: Incursion, Alien: Invasion

Alien vs. Predator™: Armageddon

Aliens

Bug Hunt edited by Jonathan Maberry

Phalanx by Scott Sigler

Infiltrator by Weston Ochse

Vasquez by V. Castro

Bishop by T. R. Napper

The Complete Aliens Omnibus

Volumes 1–7

Aliens vs. Predators

Ultimate Prey edited by Jonathan Maberry &Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Rift War by Weston Ochse & Yvonne Navarro

The Complete Aliens vs. Predator Omnibus

by Steve Perry & S.D. Perry

Predator

If It Bleeds edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

The Predator by Christopher Golden& Mark Morris

The Predator: Hunters and Hunted

by James A. Moore

Stalking Shadows by James A. Moore& Mark Morris

Eyes of the Demon edited by

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

The Complete Predator Omnibus

by Nathan Archer & Sandy Scofield

Non-Fiction

AVP: Alien vs. Predator

by Alec Gillis & Tom Woodruff, Jr.

Aliens vs. Predator Requiem:

Inside The Monster Shop

by Alec Gillis & Tom Woodruff, Jr.

Alien: The Illustrated Story

by Archie Goodwin & Walter Simonson

The Art of Alien: Isolation by Andy McVittie

Alien: The Archive

Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report

by S.D. Perry

Aliens: The Set Photography

by Simon Ward

Alien: The Coloring Book

The Art and Making of Alien: Covenant

by Simon Ward

Alien Covenant: David’s Drawings

by Dane Hallett & Matt Hatton

The Predator: The Art and Making of the Film by James Nolan

The Making of Alien by J.W. Rinzler

Alien: The Blueprints by Graham Langridge

Alien: 40 Years 40 Artists

Alien: The Official Cookbook

by Chris-Rachael Oseland

Aliens: Artbook by Printed In Blood

Find the Xenomorph by Kevin Crossley

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ALIEN™: UNCIVIL WAR

Print edition ISBN: 9781803366951

E-book edition ISBN: 9781803366968

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street, London SE1 0UP

www.titanbooks.com

First edition: July 2024

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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.

© 2024 20th Century Studios

Brendan Deneen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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This novel is dedicated toRidley Scott, Dan O’Bannon, and Ronald Shusett,and David Giler and Walter Hill.

Collectively, you created a masterpiece of a filmthat contained three essential elements thatspawned a massive franchise.

I’m honored to now be a part of it.

PART 1

GESTATION

1

TRANSPORT SHIP VX-72383

MAY 23, 2381

Another explosion rocked the ship.

Chris Temple glanced over at the corner of his small living quarters, where his two daughters, Jane and Emma, stood with Alicia, who had both arms wrapped around them. Alicia had what seemed like a look of genuine concern in her eyes, but Chris knew that was impossible. She was, after all, an auton—a highly developed synthetic who nonetheless hadn’t been programmed with real human emotion.

Then again, she seemed different lately—ever since those men had broken into their house and damaged her shortly before they’d left it for the final time. The home where his girls had spent their entire lives. The ensuing trip to Gateway Station and then quickly boarding this transport vessel were a blur.

“Dad?” Jane said, her voice breaking on the single syllable. Even though Chris always considered his oldest child shockingly wise for her age, she was still only eleven.

Emma, nearly as tall as Jane even though she was three years younger, stared at her father with a shocked look on her face, almost dazed, as if her brain had shut down—a small miracle, perhaps. Even though this was a new experience for his daughters, Chris had been in similar situations many times, and he’d seen people much older and more experienced than his daughters completely break down during emergencies.

But that was in his previous life. He thought he’d left this kind of thing behind him.

War will always find a man like you, his sergeant had said to him, when Chris finally found the courage to quit the military in the days after the USM Auriga smashed into the Earth. So much had changed since Chris had joined the service as a younger man—and was still changing—but that disaster, and all its secrets that had been hidden from the public, were the final straw for him. He wanted out—out of all of it. He and his daughters needed a fresh start on a new planet.

Chris calmed his nerves. He’d trained for this.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he responded, walking over and kneeling in front of his daughters, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. “I’m sure it’s just a minor malfunction.”

The lie sounded terrible even to his own ears.

“Alicia,” he said without looking at the family’s android, forcing his voice to remain steady despite his own fear. “Can you hack into the ship and find out what’s going on?”

“My protocols do not allow me to connect with any ship’s mainframe without prior United Systems Military authorization,” she responded in a monotone voice. She got like that when she was quoting the rules.

“I’m giving you that authorization right now,” he said, his voice louder, tone suddenly clipped. His daughters’ eyes widened. They had never heard their father speak like that before—certainly not since the death of their mother. “Sigma epsilon default seven seven two, protocol unlock.”

He hadn’t thought of this specific string of words in a long time, not since he’d been promoted to colonel, but they reemerged out of the dark recesses of his mind as if they’d been waiting there, anticipating this exact moment, all along.

Alicia’s head twitched slightly as she slipped into the ship’s computer, then glanced briefly down at the girls and back up at Chris, staring him directly in the eyes.

“We should evacuate. Immediately.”

Jane let out a small whimper, but her eyes remained dry. She gently, silently took her younger sister’s hand in her own.

Chris knew that there must have been a reason why Alicia wasn’t giving him any details in front of the girls. The situation was bad.

Very bad.

“Grab any essentials,” he ordered, his voice still hard. “Only what you can carry. You have ten seconds.” Jane nodded, clearly afraid but always a good soldier, and pulled her sister along, off to their tiny, shared bedroom.

Chris hated the way he sounded but knew there wasn’t any other choice. He’d been in life-and-death situations before, and survival often hinged on seconds, not minutes.

He glanced at Alicia, who stared back without blinking, even though she was programmed to do so, and then dashed to his own quarters, reaching under his bed and grabbing his go-bag. Elizabeth used to make fun of his “over-preparedness.”

Elizabeth.

The thought of her sent a wave of pain racing across his body. He had promised on her deathbed that he would always take care of their girls, that nothing bad would ever happen to them. Those words had elicited a smile from her, the last thing she ever did before slipping away. He couldn’t fail.

War will always find a man like you.

“No,” he said out loud, running into the common area, where Alicia still stood in the exact same spot, her head slightly tilted as if she was listening to a particularly interesting radio drama. She turned to look at Chris again and opened her mouth to speak, perhaps to clue him in to what the hell was going on, when his girls came running in, too.

Nine seconds, Chris thought, his chest filling up with pride. But no, there was no time to be proud.

“Follow me,” he ordered. “Stay close and do exactly what I say. That includes you, Alicia.”

“But…” she started to respond, then stopped herself and nodded.

The interaction caused Chris to hesitate for the slightest moment. Her programming shouldn’t have allowed for any kind of active disagreement with him in this kind of situation, but she was clearly fighting against it. Was that even possible? Her face reflected a mix of conflicting emotions, but he didn’t have time to investigate her control structures.

Chris moved to the door. He punched in the security code and watched as the two thick metal panels slid open, revealing a hallway full of smoke and strobing lights.

He stepped forward and could hear his girls and Alicia following close behind. A sort of calm washed across his senses, the bizarre but familiar sensation blanketing him for the first time since he’d been an active soldier.

A memory came back to him—his last real battle before the Auriga crash. They’d been sent to deal with a large, violent group of Weyland-Yutani cultists who had carried out a series of terrorist attacks against key USM targets.

The incursion had been brutal and bloody. Chris had been forced to do things that still haunted him.

Weyland-Yutani had been out of business for decades, but an almost religious following had risen up in its place, elevating the company’s two founders—Peter Weyland and Cullen Yutani—to almost godlike stature. Acolytes of this faction had continued to work in secrecy after their beloved corporation’s collapse, allegedly even having moles within the USM, gathering data and stealing equipment for mysterious reasons, an unknown agenda. It was a slow boil of aggression between the two uneven entities, and then the crash of the Auriga—and the resulting secrets that came to light—had thrown this shadow war into open chaos. The world descended even further into confusion and violence. People who had the means to escape, did. Including Chris and his girls.

He continued to move forward, keeping as low as possible, listening as distant screams echoed. He had studied the layout of this transport ship for hours once they’d been assigned to it. You can never be overprepared.

When he turned right at the corridor’s first intersection, towards the transport ship’s escape pods, he glanced back, relieved to see his girls and Alicia were still right behind him, faces stoic and determined. He couldn’t wait to hold them close, tell them how proud he was, if… when they got out of here.

They continued on. Chris was surprised, and concerned, by the lack of people they came across. Yes, a large percentage of the civilians on board had elected to enter hypersleep chambers almost immediately after takeoff. A few had decided to stay awake for part of the trip, even though they would age at a regular rate during that time. Jane and Emma hadn’t been ready to enter one of those intimidating devices for the first time, and Chris decided to let them choose when the time was right.

All awake civilians on board had been instructed to shelter in place during an emergency but that didn’t explain where all the guards and other non-civilians were—like the scientists he had seen scurrying around during their months-long journey so far.

He’d heard the rumors—and had done his best to ignore them.

Rumors of genetic materials being shipped with them to their new host planet. Rumors of experiments being conducted during the journey itself in anticipation of their eventual arrival. Even rumors of active cloning. And one name—a name that sent literal shivers up and down his spine every time he heard it.

Ripley.

That name meant nothing to the masses, but his rank within the military had allowed him access to information that would have given pause to even the most seasoned of soldiers.

But no, that was insane. It couldn’t be anything more than a ridiculous rumor, spread by people who trucked in conspiracy theories and fantasy. Because if what he’d heard was actually true, if the kind of situation that had doomed the Nostromo and the Auriga and so many others was playing out in any kind of fashion on this ostensibly non-military mission…

A gurgling sound down a hallway to their left interrupted Chris’s thoughts as he and his family continued to hustle forward.

He knew he should keep moving, knew that curiosity was often a death knell in combat situations. But he hesitated, and looked, and then wished he hadn’t.

Down the hallway, through the haze of smoke, he saw a security guard who seemed to be floating. The man’s arms were outstretched as if in religious ecstasy, but there was nothing religious or ecstatic about the look on his face. His eyes and mouth were wide in soundless agony, his body convulsing in time to some rhythm that no one could hear.

Chris focused his eyes, tried to make out what was happening, and that’s when he saw that something was jutting straight through the guard’s midsection—in through the front and out the back, with blood gushing down onto the floor, pooling there and reflecting the red strobe of the emergency lights. At first it looked like some kind of black weapon that had impaled him, but the end of it was swaying gently, like a tree branch in the wind.

Or a tail.

The smoke cleared for a moment and Chris finally saw what the black ‘weapon’ was attached to—something he had read about in military journals, had even seen on grainy, terrifying video footage after his last promotion, but had never actually witnessed in real life. Very few people had.

It was a Xenomorph.

The creature was taller than Chris expected, and its long, ridged tail had skewered the guard while the monster stood staring curiously at the suffering man, as if trying to understand what it had wrought, what it was witnessing.

Its head was a long, glinting slope, coming together at its forefront with a silver jaw of teeth which opened and closed as it observed its prey. Four large ridges extended out of its upper back and its six-fingered claws seemed to be shivering with excitement. Chris had read that the creatures were like animals, that they took no pleasure in slaughter, they were simply acting on pure instinct.

A descriptive term from one of the classified military manuals dedicated to the Xenomorphs suddenly flashed in his mind.

Perfect killing machines.

At that moment, Emma let loose with a scream that almost caused Chris to literally jump. She had clearly caught her first glimpse of the monster. And he couldn’t blame her for yelling.

The creature’s elongated cranium turned towards them, the skewered guard letting out a final, wet gasp before going completely limp.

Chris had taken notice of the guards during the time they’d been traveling on this ship. They definitely weren’t USM officers, retired or otherwise, which wasn’t altogether surprising. The chaos that had erupted on Earth after the crash of the Auriga, and from the general discontent from the world populace about the heavily polluted, damaged planet, had seen a number of soldiers go AWOL. It wasn’t easy to find experienced officers for a long-term, low-paying mission.

He had briefly thought about volunteering to help guard the transport ship, but Chris had pushed the idea away as quickly as it appeared. His daughters had already been through enough. They didn’t need their father to be gone for hours at a time, even during an ‘uneventful’ trip to their new home.

But the current situation was clear enough: the guards on this ship weren’t prepared to deal with an emergency of this magnitude.

Chris and his girls were on their own.

He barked a single word—“Go!”—and watched as Alicia surged forward, grabbing each of his daughters by the hand. In situations where an enemy is behind you, the most capable soldier always takes rear position.

Backing up as quickly as he could, hearing Jane, Emma, and their cybernetic caretaker sprinting forward behind him, Chris observed as the Xenomorph quickly withdrew its tail from the dead guard, a final burst of blood exploding from the corpse’s stomach before it collapsed on the ground, face first.

The Xenomorph seemed to be staring at Chris, though he couldn’t see the creature’s eyes, and it bared its teeth at him, saliva dripping from its dark jaw. Then the monster took a single step in his direction, its claws slowly closing into what seemed like purposeful fists.

That was all Chris needed to see. He turned and sprinted after Alicia and his girls.

His vision tunneled. He had never been in this particular section of the ship, had never needed to journey down here. He knew the escape pods were off limits to civilians unless orders were given otherwise, but he didn’t care about protocols at this given moment. The commanding officers of this vessel were either dead or very bad at their jobs. No instructions had been given over the loudspeakers, which meant Chris was free to create his own mission parameters, as far as he was concerned. He was getting his daughters off this damn ship.

Alive.

Chris caught up with Alicia and they glanced at each other, the auton smiling slightly, a look of deep compassion in her eyes as she continued to shepherd the girls along to potential safety. He had never seen the family’s android like this. If he hadn’t been in pure protection and survival mode, he would have been deeply perplexed.

“I remain connected to the ship’s central database,” she said. At first, he was surprised that she didn’t sound winded by the run, but then remembered that she didn’t actually have lungs. He wasn’t thinking straight. “Despite multiple systems failures, it is rerouting for the closest inhabited planet, LV-1213. There is a colony there—Mining Outpost Omega Seven Tango. There is a twenty-eight percent chance it will be able to reach its destination intact. However, the escape pods are currently unaffected by the power outages.”

“How close?” he managed to respond.

She narrowed her eyes almost playfully at his question, what he took as confusion, not an emotion she normally expressed.

“Two minutes until we reach the escape pod. Approximately five hundred thousand miles to the outpost,” she said succinctly, answering whichever question he had meant to ask.

“Daddy, I’m scared,” Emma finally cried.

“He’s doing his best!” Jane yelled, her own face finally revealing the terror she felt, unleashing it on her sister since she couldn’t do so on the situation itself. Still running, Chris scooped his younger daughter into his arms, had to stop himself from bursting into tears as she shoved her face into the space between his shoulder and neck, and she started crying instead, her tiny sobs reaching his ears.

“Girls…” he huffed. “We’re almost there. We’re going to be okay.”

A noise suddenly sounded behind them—a skittering that caused goosebumps to run along Chris’s flesh. He knew exactly what it was. He also knew they were out of time. There was no way they could make it.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. To no one. To all of them. To Elizabeth.

As he started to turn around, ready to go down fighting, Chris was surprised by a blur of motion in the corner of his vision. The Xenomorph exploded out of the smoke right in front of him, its claws heading straight for his face, but Alicia was faster. She tackled the monster at full speed, slamming it into the wall with a concussive force that he could literally feel, and the two of them rolled along the floor in a flash of coiled black muscle and synthetic human limbs.

They vanished back into the smoke.

“Alicia!” Jane screamed, starting to move back towards the family’s auton.

Chris grabbed her with his free hand, lifting her slightly off the ground, holding Emma with the other, and pushed forward, drawing from reserves he didn’t know he still had.

“No! We have to help her!” his older daughter yelled, fighting him.

“She’ll be fine!” Chris lied, and he immediately felt her resistance lessen, but her exertions were still slowing him down. “Jane. Please.”

She went completely slack in his grip, and he let go, dropping her to the floor as gently as he could while still moving forward, and she continued to run next to him without missing a beat, keeping an impressive pace. Within moments, they reached the escape pods. The area was depressingly empty. No one else had made it here in the short time since the explosions had begun.

Chris ran to the console on the wall and quickly entered command codes that no normal passenger would know. The doors to the multiple escape pods immediately hissed open and he sprinted for the closest one, still holding a shivering Emma, his other arm now wrapped around Jane’s small shoulders and pushing her forward with him.

The pod was smaller than he expected, but he didn’t give a damn. He quickly got each girl situated in one of the four seats—a number that broke his heart for multiple reasons. He thought of Elizabeth, part of him glad that she didn’t have to experience this, a larger part of him still missing her desperately. And he thought of Alicia, most likely being ripped limb from limb by the Xenomorph at this very moment. He shook the images from his mind and focused on saving his daughters.

The girls now buckled in, Chris shimmied to the front of the pod and collapsed into the pilot seat, hitting buttons on the computer console as fast as he could. The transport ship shuddered violently as another explosion sounded in the distance and his girls screamed behind him. They were both openly weeping now.

Jane hadn’t cried since Elizabeth’s funeral, and the gentle sound broke Chris’s heart.

He strapped himself in, set his jaw against the noise, and finished punching in the launch codes, remembering what his superior officers had taught him: Emotions get soldiers killed.

The escape pod door began to shut just as the Xenomorph burst out of the smoke down the hallway, a bone-chilling screech emanating from its gaping, razor-lined mouth. There was no sign of Alicia.

“Don’t look!” Chris screamed at his girls, looking around for his go-bag, inside of which was the pistol he’d smuggled onto the transport ship. As he quickly surveyed the pod, he realized they had all dropped their bags while fleeing from the monster. They only had the clothes on their backs at this point.

It didn’t matter. Even if they managed to get free of the transport ship, they still needed to somehow make it to LV-1213.

Panicking, Chris looked over his left shoulder. The door was still closing, slowly, while the Xenomorph got closer and closer. Its speed was astonishing.

Just as the door was about to seal shut, the metal came to a screeching halt, leaving a small opening. Even that slight gap was enough to stop them from ejecting. And the opening might just be big enough for the large but clearly dexterous creature to slip in and slaughter them.

Without hesitating, Chris unbuckled and bolted forward, gripping the metal and pulling down as hard as he could. He told himself not to look through the door’s small window, but he couldn’t help himself.

The creature was only a few feet away, its claws outstretched towards his face. It almost looked like the monster was smiling.

“Dad!” Jane screamed, but he couldn’t respond. His entire being was focused on getting the damn door closed, on rescuing his daughters.

The metal began to move beneath the weight of his exertions, and he said a silent prayer to whatever deity was paying attention to his plight. In the distance, he heard more explosions, but didn’t care.

He slammed the door shut just as the Xenomorph reached it, and he heard the creature slashing at the half foot of metal and reinforced glass that separated them, could feel the violent vibrations against his palms.

“Launch protocols engaged,” the computer intoned, and then they were blasting away from the main ship, and his daughters were both screaming, and he was flying through the cabin, and his head smashed into something hard, and Chris Temple instantly succumbed to an all-encompassing, undeniable blackness.

2

THREE MONTHS EARLIER

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, EARTH

“Your father will be home soon.”

Alicia folded Jane’s shirt and placed it in the travel bag, smiling at the girl as she did so. Emma was off in her own room, talking to herself and shoving far too many items into her own luggage. Alicia would need to go in there soon and help her sort through her belongings, figure out the most important things to take—and leave the rest.

“Are you sure?”

Alicia could hear the fear in Jane’s voice, but her sub-routines instructed her not to mention it. Humans didn’t always like to have their emotions pointed out, especially the ‘negative’ ones, though it was often difficult to decipher which were positive, and which were not. And sometimes, the values flip-flopped. It was hard to compute, impossible to predict. So, Alicia remained silent on the matter, and instead placed her hand gently on the girl’s shoulder.

“Yes. He sent me a message an hour ago that he was on his way.”

Jane looked up into Alicia’s face, her eyes asking questions that her mouth couldn’t seem to quite verbalize, then went back to going through her belongings. She was considering each object as if she was an archeologist, attempting to pinpoint the value of every artifact she held, then either putting it into the bag, or placing it gently into the discard pile.

Although Alicia didn’t experience human emotions, something about the care the girl was taking with each decision made her circuitry almost physically hurt. She couldn’t quite understand the intricacies of what she was witnessing, no matter how hard she tried. So, she shunted the images to one of her many sub-processors, would attempt to comprehend them again later, when circumstances weren’t so tumultuous.

“Do you think the colony will be nice?” Jane murmured, holding two stuffed animals, looking back and forth at them quizzically, weighing their individual merits, knowing that only one would be deemed worthy to be chosen.

“Based on the records and the images to which I have access,” Alicia responded, “I believe it will be more than adequate for our needs.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jane said, looking up. “But do you… you know… Do you think we’ll like it?”

Alicia contemplated the question, tilting her head slightly—it was an affectation that she couldn’t control, a glitch in her programming. None of the other domestic autons she had met did this. It bothered her. Chris said he liked it, but Alicia considered it a personal failing, and often wished that he would authorize a diagnostic to fix the error. But she didn’t verbalize this, decided that such a request would cause inconvenience for the Temple family.

“I do not know. I certainly hope so,” she responded after a moment.

“Are you… definitely coming with us?” Jane asked, looking away from Alicia, keeping her eyes focused on the pair of pants that she was now folding.

“Of course,” Alicia said quickly, the speed of her response surprising even her. She tended to compute answers to her humans’ questions very carefully, running through any number of options and variables. But this time, she had spoken before processing, something she couldn’t recall ever doing before. “If you and your sister and your father still want me to, that is,” she added—a more calculated addendum to her initial, spontaneous answer.

“I do,” Jane responded softly, then looked up, directly into Alicia’s eyes. “I love you and I want you to come with us. Very badly.”

Alicia opened her mouth to speak but her various operating systems seemed to be at odds with each other. Since the moment she had been switched on at the factory, no one had ever said that they loved her. It wasn’t something she expected to hear, if she was being truly honest with herself, and even though her central processing unit always formulated dozens of acceptable conversational responses within milliseconds, she now found herself unable to speak.

“It’s okay,” Jane said, turning her eyes back to her work. “You don’t have to say it back. Dad has trouble saying it sometimes, too, since Mom died. But I love you, Alicia. And so does Emma. She told me yesterday. We both want you to come with us and be with us forever.”

“Jane, I—” Alicia started to say, having settled on an answer that her programming indicated was gentle and honest. However, the sound of smashing glass downstairs interrupted her words and caused Alicia to raise a hand, instantly stilling the girl’s movements.

With her heightened hearing, she listened as Emma’s footsteps padded down the hallway, soft but urgent, and the small girl burst into the room a moment later, her eyes wide with fear.

“Did you… Did you hear that?” she asked, barely more than a whisper.

“I did,” Alicia answered, standing smoothly and heading towards the hall. “I want you both to stay here and lock the door after I leave. I am sure it is nothing serious, but I will make sure and come right back. No matter what, I will not let anything happen to you.”

Jane nodded, swallowing nervously, while Emma sat down on the bed next to her older sister, shimmying in close. It was something Jane wouldn’t normally allow but she didn’t seem to mind the proximity at this particular moment.

Alicia exited the room and shut the door behind her as quietly as she could. After a moment, she heard the lock click. Good girl, she thought. Based on the sound of the footsteps and the weight on the floorboards beneath them, it was Jane. To Alicia’s surprise, the girl’s words—I love you—replayed in her mainframe but she bypassed those memory circuits and focused on the task at hand. She would process what she’d heard later. Right now, she needed to investigate what was happening on the first floor of the house. She couldn’t hear precisely what was occurring down there, but she knew someone was inside. Possibly more than one person.

She descended the stairs in utter silence. Despite the carpet, they were wooden and old enough that they creaked with nearly every step when Chris or his two girls went up and down them. Alicia, however, knew every inch of the stairs, could avoid any part of them that would make even the tiniest amount of noise.

Alicia saw them first—two huge men who were rummaging through drawers, shoving random items into backpacks. They whispered to each other, determined to keep their conversation to themselves, but she could hear every word. They were thieves, pure and simple. Break-ins, muggings, and robberies had increased 876 percent in the past year alone—just one of the reasons Chris was taking his family off this planet.

She caught a glimpse of one man’s profile and ran his face through her database. It had become increasingly difficult to get reliable information as the worldwide information network attempted to stabilize amidst global chaos, but information about this criminal downloaded almost immediately into her mainframe.

He had been incarcerated for larceny. Assault. Murder. And was supposed to still be in prison. But had escaped, along with another dangerous inmate. Presumably the other man currently pilfering Elizabeth’s jewelry.

Alicia watched them for moment, her head tilting. She recognized that humans had created a society that was inherently unfair, where people suffered while others flourished, sometimes outlandishly so. But she couldn’t compute this kind of desperation, or the decision to hurt others in order to prosper. It was especially difficult for her to comprehend because the Temple home was modest by most standards. Then again, there were many things about humans that she found impossible to understand. Like how Jane and Emma would sometimes tickle their father until he literally cried.

The second man, slightly smaller but still significantly taller and broader than Alicia, turned and noticed her. He looked alarmed for a brief moment but then looked her up and down, and a nasty smile spread like liquid silver across his stubbled face.

“Yo,” he said, elbowing the other man in the ribs. “Check out what we got here.”

The larger thief turned as well and instantly showcased a similar grin.

“Ooooh, bonus,” he growled, then licked his lips and took a step forward.

He grabbed at her, but she deftly sidestepped his lunge, clocking the other man in her peripheral vision as he flanked her. She thought about grabbing and smashing them together, putting a quick end to this, but her behavioral inhibitor was switched on, which meant it was impossible for her to harm, or by omission of action allow to be harmed, any human.

“She’s a fast little bitch,” the taller one said, then grabbed at her again, quicker this time. But it was slow to her, and she slapped his hand away, a little harder than she’d intended. The discrepancy between intent and action was curious, and shouldn’t have happened. She would have to run a self-analysis once this situation was handled.

“Please leave this home immediately,” she said without emotion. “It is a private residence, and you are trespassing, which is a violation of United Systems Military law.”

“Look at that, Terrence,” the larger man said, circling her, zipping up the half-full backpack and dropping it onto the floor. Alicia could hear his heart rate increasing. He was excited, ready for violence. “She’s quotin’ the rules at us.”

“Hot,” the other man responded, also circling her now, twin orbits ready to crash into her at any given moment. She could only keep her cybernetic eyes on one of them at a time, but her other senses were far more expansive than a human’s, so she could inherently ‘see’ both of them at the same time. Terrence’s heart rate was more controlled, as was his breathing, which she took to mean that he was the more dangerous of the two, even though he was smaller.

And sure enough, Terrence lunged forward, an impressive display of speed for an organic, and jabbed a punch at her face. She dodged it but the other man tackled her from behind at the same moment. His surprised grunt when she didn’t fall made it clear that he had no idea what he was up against.

“The fuck?” he grunted, his arms still around her, legs straining, trying to knock her over. “Hit her!”

Terrence threw another punch, but she moved her head at the last second and his knuckles passed millimeters from her nose. “I’m trying, Mackie!” he practically screamed.

Alicia attempted to redirect her sub-routines so she could lash out and attack these two men, but her protocols were too deeply ingrained in her programming. She could avoid their blows, even defend herself within a certain set of confines, but she was unable to hurt them. Even if she believed, on some level, that they deserved it.

Mackie let go and the two men faced off with her again. Terrence withdrew a large knife from within his long leather jacket, and a large smile appeared on his face.

“I like when they play hard to get,” he murmured, and then lashed out with shocking speed once again while Mackie also feigned an attack at the same time. Their simultaneous movements, combined with Alicia’s internal battle against her own programming, caused her to hesitate just long enough for the knife to connect along her arm, splitting the silicone skin and revealing an epidermis of metal and silver circuitry. A small burst of electricity resulted, and two of her fingers instantly went dead. Milky white liquid oozed from the cut.

The two criminals stared at the wound, at what was revealed within.

“She’s a robot, man!” Mackie shouted. “Let’s fucking ice her!”

The larger man withdrew a knife, too, and Alicia doubted herself for the first time since the start of this encounter. Her programming put her at a distinct disadvantage here. She could defend herself, yes, but without being able to press an attack, there was a significant probability that the two men would eventually overpower her. She backed up a step, running through options. After less than a second, she resolved that discretion was the better part of valor and decided to connect with local law enforcement—even though there were many reports lately of calls for help that had gone unanswered.

Still, it was what she should have done initially. Why hadn’t she? Another aspect of her programming to investigate when she had time to run that analysis.

As the men began to advance on her again and her digital call for help was silently sent, a voice cut through everything.

“Alicia?”

Her head snapped to the right and she looked over her shoulder, even though she knew exactly who it was. Jane stood on the steps, still in her pajamas, eyes huge and confused and concerned.

The two men also stared at the young girl, and now Terrence’s heartbeat increased for the first time since Alicia had encountered him. He stepped towards the stairs, knife raised, and at that moment Alicia’s programming clicked into a different mode. Jane was in danger.

Or by omission of action allow a human to be harmed.

Alicia moved faster than she ever had since the moment she’d been activated. Terrence was several steps from reaching Jane, but Alicia caught his forearm, snapping it backwards and breaking it before the man even knew what was happening. For a moment, he stared at the appendage as it flopped lifelessly, and then he started screaming, a high-pitched noise that sounded like the cry of a newborn human.

She heard Jane’s sudden intake of breath at the shocking violence from the family’s auton, but before Alicia could say anything to help assure the girl, to calm her, Mackie was on the android, grabbing her from behind and driving his knife deep into her back, more white fluid exploding out from the wound and all over his hand and arm. Luckily, the blade missed any of Alicia’s vital systems, but it was still a curious sensation. She lost control of eighteen percent of her left leg as a result of the incision but in relation to the violent encounter in which she was engaged, it was not a significant disadvantage.

She let go of Terrence’s arm and the man immediately slumped to the ground, his scream having been replaced with a jagged whimper. Mackie was shockingly strong for a human and shoved the blade deeper into her frame, causing her left leg to buckle further, down another twelve percent. She titled her head slightly as she attempted to move that leg, wasn’t completely successful. She had never been damaged like this.

“I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you,” the man whispered harshly into her ear. “And then it’ll be that little bitch’s turn.”

Something about the man’s words caused her sensors to go slightly fuzzy, and while the man began to raise the knife up along her back, causing further damage and more milky fluid to gush out, she reached back and grabbed hold of his neck, squeezing with more strength than she had ever applied to a human before. She felt the skin and muscles immediately give underneath her grip, and the man screamed. She didn’t care.

She flipped him over her head, smashing him hard against the bottom of the stairs. The knife went flying out of his hand and the breath exploded out of his mouth, eyes going wide in pain. Blinking rapidly, he looked at her with confusion, wordlessly asking for mercy as she pulled her fist back.

Alicia was not merciful.

The impact to his face broke nose, teeth, and one eye socket, rendering Mackie instantly unconscious. She brought her bloody fist back, ready to deliver a second blow, but she waited a moment, her sensors determining that he wouldn’t be waking up for quite some time. Terrence had passed out, too. His readings indicated that he would be unconscious for a significant duration as well, and his arm would never regain normal function.

Alicia attempted again to contact local law enforcement. She reached them after thirty-six seconds and explained the situation without having to say a word out loud. Based on her interactions with the USM system, she knew that help would arrive within six to ten minutes. Neither man would be awake by then.

As she looked up and took a step forward, she stumbled slightly, surprised by how much her leg had been impacted by Mackie’s attack. To Alicia’s surprise, Jane was there, moving more quickly than the auton could have anticipated, helping the family’s android regain her balance.

“Are you okay?” Jane whispered, heart beating rapidly within her small chest.

“I am operating within acceptable parameters,” Alicia responded, running another diagnostic. Overnight self-repairs would be more than sufficient to handle her wounds.

“Alicia, no,” Jane insisted, looking into her auton’s eyes. “Are you okay?”

Alicia tilted her head at the question, one she had already answered. She checked her database, attempting to delineate the difference in the exact same question, and then settled on an answer that seemed appropriate.

“It was an unsettling experience, Jane. But I am very glad that you and Emma are safe.”

The girl smiled at the answer and then wrapped her arms around Alicia, hugging her tightly. Alicia replicated the movement, hugging back. They stayed like that for a while. Emma came running down the stairs a moment later and joined the embrace. The house was quiet, other than the labored breathing of the two injured men.

At length, the two girls pulled away from Alicia. Jane stared at the android, then slowly tucked an errant piece of hair behind the auton’s ear.

“You do love us, don’t you?” Jane said slowly, quietly, eyes large with emotion.

Alicia ran the question through her sub-processors. Love was a concept that androids had been programmed to avoid at all costs—human history proved that it was too dangerous to engage in the matter. Therefore, autons were discouraged from discussing it, and never permitted to express the emotion, to a human or otherwise.

Still, she wanted to say the words to them. On some level, Alicia felt the girls deserved to hear them from her, especially after the death of their mother. And maybe she… felt that way, too? But no, that was impossible. Synthetic beings had no emotion, not real emotion anyway. Any errant electric impulses her servers were expressing at this moment were clearly because of the damage that had been caused by the two criminals. She would repair herself, diagnose any internal problems as needed and fix them, and do her job, just as she had been created to do.

In response to Jane’s question, Alicia simply nodded. She wasn’t saying the words—so no programming ethics had been breached. And clearly the gesture was enough, because Jane hugged her again, even stronger this time, and Emma did the same.

“I love you,” Jane whispered.

“I love you,” Emma whispered, too.

Alicia fought to respond, to say what they wanted to hear, but her program wouldn’t allow it, so she simply continued to nod. Over and over again.

3

MINING OUTPOST OMEGA SEVEN TANGO

Chris Temple shot up, screaming.

He was sitting on a small bed in a dark, unfamiliar room. There was a single window to his right, but it was covered by a cloth shade, and there was no light emanating from behind it. It was night. Or simulated night, if he was on a ship. But this didn’t look like any ship he’d ever been on.

There was a door across the room, so he quickly stood up, nearly lost his balance as his head swam, but powered forward, placing a hand along the smooth, painted wall as he headed towards the room’s only seeming exit. He didn’t know where he was or what was happening, but he needed to find Jane and Emma.

Just as he was about to reach it, the door burst open and several people rushed in, surrounding him and grabbing at his arms. They were talking all at once, but his head was spinning, and his mind went white as his training kicked in instinctively.

Chris grabbed the closest person and pulled him forward, using the man’s height against him, then flipped him over and slammed his large frame against the floor. A gush of pained breath exploded out of his first adversary’s lungs, and the man didn’t get up right away, just rolled onto his side and groaned.

One down.

Before the other two could react, Chris threw a vicious uppercut into his second adversary’s chin, connecting with a nasty crack, throwing the man violently against the wall, his head snapping back against it. He slumped to the ground in a disheveled pile, arms and legs a tangled mess.

Chris whirled on the third and final enemy. It was a woman and she stared at him with fear but held up two fists, clearly ready to fight. He advanced on her, jaw set, studying her posture, ready to take her apart and get the hell out of there. Wherever he was. He still couldn’t clear his mind, couldn’t piece together his last memories before the gaping maw of darkness in his mind. And then they came to him in a rush.

The ship. The Xenomorph. The escape pod.

Just as he grabbed the woman by her green shirt and drew back his fist, a familiar voice instantly froze him in his tracks.

“Dad! Stop!”

Chris’s head snapped over his left shoulder and all the fight instantly went out of him. Jane and Emma were standing there, staring at him with shock on their faces. He didn’t recognize their clothes and their hair was pulled back in twin, braided ponytails, something he hadn’t seen since Elizabeth had died. But he didn’t care. They were unhurt. They were alive.

He rushed forward and fell to his knees as he reached them, wrapping his arms around their small bodies, fighting back tears of relief and confusion. His thoughts were still so hazy, but he just closed his eyes against the buzzing in his mind and pressed his face into the small space between his daughters, feeling their warmth on both sides of his head.

“Are you okay?” Jane asked, quietly.

The tenor of her voice snapped him out of his momentary fog. He pulled back and blinked several times, looking up into their eyes, smiling despite his bewilderment, and then stood up, glanced around.

The three people he’d just been fighting were slowly getting their bearings, rising to their feet, and they regarded at him with a mix of abject anger and fear. He stared at them more closely, the heat of battle fading away, and realized they were all wearing scrubs.

“Oh my god,” he said, taking a half step towards them. The medical professionals all tensed, raising their hands slightly as if a new fight was about to break out. “I’m so sorry.”

“Mr Temple?” a new voice said. He turned back around and saw a woman standing behind Jane and Emma. She was tall, almost as tall as him, and had dark hair that was pulled back into the same braided ponytail that his daughters were currently sporting. He glanced down at his girls, smiled sadly, then stepped forward and looked directly into the woman’s eyes.

“Where am I? What’s happening?”

“I’m sure you’re confused, and I’m sorry about that. We were hoping to be with you when you woke up, but our doctors assured us you’d be unconscious for a lot longer. I guess you’re a bit stronger than they anticipated.”

She laughed slightly but he just watched her, waiting for answers.

“My name is Lexa Phelan. I’ve been watching your girls while you were unconscious. They were really worried about you.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Chris said, trying to keep his voice calm. He had no idea what was going on, had no idea if he and his daughters were in danger, but he needed to get as much information as possible while concurrently scoping out his surroundings for potential exit routes and weapons. Exactly as he’d been trained to do. “Where are we?”

“This is Mining Outpost Omega Seven Tango. You and your lovely daughters crash-landed here. But you’re safe. Everything’s going to be fine now.”

Emma suddenly rushed forward and hugged Chris’s legs. She was breathing fast, and she squeezed harder when he gently placed his palm on the top of her head.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Daddy,” came her muffled voice.

Chris looked at Jane and she beamed at him, clearly happy as well.

“We were really worried,” she confirmed.

“You’re okay, too?” he asked.

“They’ve been taking really good care of us,” Jane responded, glancing up at the woman, who was still staring at Chris.

“Are you hungry? Or thirsty?” Lexa asked, then gestured to her right. “We have a small cafeteria down the hall. I mean, it’s not very fancy, but it has some basic provisions. And we could talk. Catch you up on what you missed while you were napping.” She smiled again and he suddenly realized how beautiful she was.

At that moment, the three nurses moved past Chris as they headed out of the room. “Sorry again,” he mumbled but they didn’t look at him, just kept moving forward. As they made their way around his girls and Lexa, Chris attempted to lick his lips and realized that his mouth was bone dry. He couldn’t even swallow.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m very thirsty.”

Emma suddenly looked up at him, her eyes huge and glimmering.

“Come on, Daddy,” she said, grinning her gap-toothed smile at him. “I actually think the cafeteria is really fancy. And the food here is yummy.”

Chris reached down and lifted her up, placing her in the crook of his left arm, like he’d been doing since she was a toddler.