Ash looked doubtful. 'I don't know if that's really such a good idea.'
'Why not?' Dallas eyed his science officer questioningly.
'At the moment,' Ash explained, not offended by the slight challenge in Dallas's voice, 'the creature is keeping him alive. If we remove it we risk losing Kane.'
'We have to take that chance.'
'What do you propose to do? It won't pull off.'
'We'll have to try cutting it off. The sooner we remove it, the better it's likely to be for Kane.'
Ash appeared ready to argue further, then apparently changed his mind. 'I don't like it, but I see your point. You'll take the responsibility' This is a science decision and you're taking it out of my hands.'
'Yeah, I'll take the responsibility.'
He was already pulling on a pair of disposable surgical gloves. A quick check indicated that the autodoc wasn't attached in any way to the body, wasn't doing anything to it that could result in harm if it was temporarily removed. A touch of a button and Kane slid back out of the machine.
A cursory inspection was enough to show that the creature still hadn't moved or released its grasp on Kane's face.
'The cutter?' Ash indicated the laser device Dallas had used to remove Kane's helmet.
'No. I'm going to proceed as slowly as possible. See if you can find me a manual blade.'
Ash moved to an instrument case, searched through it briefly. He returned with a thinner version of the cutter and handed it carefully to Dallas.
He inspected the tiny device, shifted it in his hand until he had a firm, comfortable grip on the slim pencil. Then he switched it on. A miniature version of the beam the heavy-duty cutter had generated appeared shining coherently at the far end of the surgical knife.
Dallas moved to stand opposite Kane's head. Working with as much control as he could muster, he moved the light-blade toward the creature. He had to be prepared to pull away fast and carefully if it reacted. A wrong move and he could sever Kane's head from his shoulders as easily as a bad report could cut a man's pension.
The creature didn't move. Dallas touched the beam to grey skin, moved it a millimetre or two downward until he was sure he was actually cutting flesh. The beam travelled effortlessly down the creature's back.
Still the subject of this preliminary biopsy did not move, nor did it show any sign of pain from the continuing cut. At the top of the wound a yellowish fluid began to drip, flow down the smooth side.
'Starting to bleed,' Ash noted professionally.
The liquid flowed onto the bedding next to Kane's head. A small wisp of what Dallas first thought might be steam rose from the pallet. The dark gas was not familiar. The hissing noise that began to issue from the bedding was.
He stopped, removed the blade, and stared at the sizzling spot. The hissing grew louder, deeper. He looked downward.
The liquid had already eaten through the bedding and the metal medical platform. It was pooling and sizzling, a miniature hell, near his feet as it began to eat into the deck. Metal bubbled steadily. Gas produced as a by-product started to fill the infirmary. It seared Dallas's throat, reminding him of police-control gas, which was only mildly painful but impossible to stomach. He panicked at the thought of what this stuff might be doing to his own lungs.
Eyes filling with sharp tears, nose running, he tried frantically to close the wound by squeezing together the two sides of the cut with his hands. In the process, some of the still-flowing liquid leaked onto his gloves. They began to smoke.
As he staggered toward the corridor, he fought to pull them off before the tough material was eaten through and the liquid started on his skin. He threw them on the deck. The still-active droplets fell from the gloves and commenced dissolving additional pits in the metal.
Brett was looking mad and more than a little scared. 'Shit. It's going to eat through the decks and out the hull.' He turned, ran for the nearest companionway. Dallas yanked an emergency lamp from its holding socket and followed the engineering tech, the others crowding close behind.
The B deck corridor below was lined with instruments and conduits. Brett was already searching the ceiling below the infirmary. The liquid still had several intervening levels of alloy to penetrate.
Dallas turned the light on the roof, hunted, then held it steady. 'There.'
Above them, smoke began to appear. A smudge of yellow fluid appeared, metal sizzling around it. It oozed downward, formed a drop, and fell. It immediately began to bubble on the deck. Dallas and Brett watched helplessly as the tiny pool increased in size and ate its way through the bulkhead.
'What's below us?'
'C corridor,' announced Parker. ' Not instrumentation.' He and Ripley rushed for the next down companionway while the others remained staring at the widening hole in the deck.
'What can we put under it?' Ash was considering the problem with his usual detachment, though fully aware that in a few minutes the Nostromo might be hulled. That would mean sealing all compartments until the destruction could be repaired. And it could be worse. A large amount of critical hyperdrive circuitry ran through the main hull. If the liquid ruined it, it was quite possible the resulting damage might be beyond the meager capability of the ship's engineering staff to repair. Much of that circuitry was integral to the ship's construction and not designed to be worked on outside of a major zero-gee shipyard.
No one offered any suggestions as to what they might employ to catch the steady leak.
Below, Parker and Ripley moved cautiously along the narrower, darker confines of C corridor. Their attention remained fixed to the ceiling.
'Don't get under it,' Parker warned. 'If it can eat through deck alloy like that, I don't care to think what it could do to your pretty face.'
'Don't worry. I'll take good care of my pretty face. You watch out for your own.'
'Seems to be losing some activity.' Dallas peered at the hole in the floor, hardly daring to hope.
Brett and Ash stood opposite, crouching over the dark depression in the deck. Ash fished a stylus from one of his tunic pockets, probed the hole. The outer metal lining of the writing instrument bubbled weakly, looking like carbonated quicksilver. The bubbling stopped, petering out after barely marring the shiny finish. The science officer continued to poke at the hole. Instead of slipping through, the stylus met resistance.
'It's not passing more than three centimetres in. The liquid's stopped penetrating.'
Below, Parker glanced over at Ripley in the dim light. 'See anything?'
They continued to scan the ceiling. Beneath their feet lay a small service crawlway, and beyond that, the Nostromo's primary hull. After that, there was only the atmosphere of an unknown planet.
'Nothing,' she finally replied. 'Keep an eye out. I'll go see what's happening above.' She turned, sprinted down the corridor toward the stairs.
Her first sight was of the others all crouching over the hole in the deck. 'What's going on? It hasn't come through yet.'
'I think it's lost steam.' Ash knelt over the pitted metal. 'Either the continuous reactions with the alloys have diluted its strength, or else it simply loses its caustic potential after a certain period of time. In any case, it no longer seems to be active.'
Ripley moved to check the still-smoking hole in the deck for herself. 'Could the alloy be stronger inside this deck than above? Maybe the stuffs corroding the deck horizontally now, looking for another weak place where it can eat downward.'
Ash shook his head. 'I don't think so. From what little I remember about ship construction, the principal decks and hull of the Nostromo are all composed of the same material. No, I think it's reasonable to assume the fluid is no longer dangerous.'
He started to put his stylus back in his pocket, still holding it by the unmarred end. At the last moment, he thought better of the idea, continued to let it dangle loosely from one hand.
Ripley noticed the hesitation, smirked at him. 'If it's no longer dangerous, why not put it back in your shirt?'
'There's no need to act recklessly. Plenty of time after I've run tests and made certain the substance is truly no longer active. Just because it can't eat through deck alloy any more doesn't mean it couldn't give you a helluva burn.'
