'What do you think the stuff is?' Dallas's gaze travelled from the tiny crater in the deck to the hole in the ceiling overhead. 'I've never seen anything that could cut through hull alloy like that. Not with that kind of speed.'
'I've never seen anything like it myself,' the science officer confessed. 'Certain highly refined varieties of molecular acid are tremendously powerful, but they generally will act only on certain specific materials. They have restricted general applications.
'On the other hand, this stuff appears to be a universal corrosive. We've already watched it demonstrate its ability to eat through several very different substances with equal facility. Or indifference, if you prefer. Hull alloy, surgical gloves, the medical pallet, infirmary bedding; it went through all of them with equal ease.'
'And that damned thing uses it for blood. One tough son-of-a-bitch little monster.' Brett spoke of the hand- shaped alien with respect, despite his feelings toward it.
'We don't know for a fact that it uses it for blood.' Ash's mind was functioning overtime under the pressure of the situation. 'It might be a component of a separate circulatory system, designed to lubricate the creature's insides. Or it might comprise part of a protective inner layer, a sort of liquid, defensive endothelium. It might be no more than the creature's counterpart of our own lymph fluid.?
'Wonderful defensive mechanism, though,' Dallas observed. 'You don't dare kill it.'
'Not on board a sealed ship, anyway.' Ripley made the interesting point quietly.
'That's so,' Ash conceded. ' We could take Kane outside, where the creature's fluids couldn't damage the Nostromo, and try cutting it off, except that we're fairly certain it's the only thing keeping him alive.'
'Once we cut it off him and got that tube out of his throat, we could feed him oxygen.' Ripley pressed the thought. 'A thermal wrap would keep him warm. For that matter, we could set up an air tent with a ground seal. Let the liquid drip onto the ground below it.'
'Not a bad idea,' admitted Ash, 'save for two things.' Ripley waited impatiently. 'First, as we've already discussed, removing the creature forcibly might result in a fatal interruption of life-sustaining action. The shock alone could kill Kane.
'Second, we have no guarantee that, upon being sufficiently injured, the creature might not react by Spraying that liquid all over itself and everything else in sight. That would be a defensive reaction fully in keeping with the fluid's destructive and protective qualities.' He paused long enough to let the image dominate everyone's mind.
'Even if whoever was doing the actual cutting could somehow escape serious injury from the flying liquid, I would not care to be the one responsible for what would be left of Kane's face. Or head.'
'All right.' Ripley sounded a bit resentful. 'So maybe it wasn't such a brilliant idea. What do you suggest instead?' She jerked a thumb toward the infirmary above. 'Trying to haul him all the way home with that thing sitting on his skull?'
'I see no danger in that.' Ash was unimpressed by her sarcasm. 'As long as his vital signs remain stable, I consider that a viable alternative. If they show signs of failing, naturally we'll have to try something else. But at this time I have to say that I think removing the creature forcibly presents greater potential for injury to Kane than it does improvement.'
A new face appeared at the top of the nearby companionway. 'Still no sign of the stuff. It's stopped bleeding?' Parker switched his gaze from the sullen Ripley to Dallas.
'Yeah. After it ate through two levels.' He was still a bit stunned by the potency of the alien fluid.
Ripley came to life, looked around. 'We're all down here. What about Kane? No one's watching him. . or the alien.'
There was a concerted rush for the stairs.
Dallas was the first one back at the infirmary. A quick glance inside showed him that nothing had changed. Kane still lay as they'd left him, immobile on the platform, the alien secured to his face.
Dallas was angry at himself. He'd acted like a damn kid. The liquid had demonstrated unexpected and dangerous properties, sure, but hardly enough to justify the total panic that had ensued. He should first have delegated one or two members of the crew to remain behind and keep an eye on the creature.
Fortunately, nothing had changed during their absence. The thing hadn't moved, nor, from the looks of it, had Kane. From now on, regardless of any problem that might arise elsewhere, there would be someone assigned to the infirmary at all times. The situation was serious enough without offering the alien the opportunity to do things unobserved,
'Any of the acid get on him?' Parker was at the portal, straining to see Kane.
Dallas walked over and stood next to the platform. He inspected the exec's head carefully. 'I don't think so. He looks okay. The fluid ran down the outside of the creature without contacting his skin.'
Brett crowded into the doorway. 'Is it still dripping that crap? We've got some ceramics down in engineering supply that'll hold just about anything. I don't know about this stuff, but we can give it a try if we have to. I can jury-rig a container out of scraps.'
'Don't bother,' Dallas told him. 'It's stopped bleeding.'
Ash was examining the section cut by the laser knife. 'Healed over. No sign of the wound. Remarkable regenerative abilities. You'd never know it had been touched.'
'There must be some way we can get it off.' Lambert shivered. 'It makes me sick to see it resting there like that, that tube or whatever it is down his throat.'
'You'd be a lot sicker if it was on you,' Ripley taunted her.
Lambert kept her distance. 'You're not being funny.'
'I'll say again, sir, I don't think it would be a good idea to try removing the creature.' Ash wasn't looking at him. 'It didn't work out too well the last time.'
Dallas glanced sharply at his science officer, then relaxed. As usual, Ash was only being objective. It wasn't in his nature to be sarcastic.
'So what do we do?' Lambert wanted to know.
'We do nothing,' Dallas finally said. 'We can't do anything. We tried and, as Ash noted, it nearly cost us a hulled ship. So. . we feed him back to the autodoc and hope it can come up with a better idea.'
He touched a control. There was a soft hum as Kane's platform slid back into the machine. Dallas threw additional switches, was again provided with internal views of the comatose exec, plus related schematics and diagrams. They offered no new information, and no solutions.
Ash was correlating several readouts. 'His bodily functions continue normal, but there's some fresh indication of tissue degeneracy and breakdown.'
'Then it is hurting him,' Lambert said.
'Not necessarily. He's gone without food and water for some time. These readings might reflect a natural reduction in weight. There's no indication he's being drastically weakened, either by the creature or circumstances.
'Nevertheless, we want to keep him in the best condition possible. 'I'd better get some intravenous feeding started, until I can determine for sure whether the alien's absorbing protein from his system.' He activated a block of controls. New sounds echoed through the infirmary as the autodoc began to efficiently assume the job of feeding the helpless Kane and processing the resultant waste products.
'What's that thing?' Ripley was pointing at a portion of the slowly shifting internal scan. 'That stain on his lungs?'
'I don't see any 'stain'.'
Dallas studied the view. 'I think I see what she means. Increase magnification on the respiratory system, Ash.'
The science officer complied. Now the small blot that had caught Ripley's attention stood out clearly, a dark irregular patch overlying Kane's chest cavity. It was completely opaque.
'We don't know that it's on his lungs.' Ash fiddled with controls. 'It could just as readily be a scanner malfunction, or a radiation-damaged section of the scanner lens. Happens all the time.'
'Try more power,' Dallas demanded. 'Let's see if we can't improve the resolution.'
Ash adjusted instrumentation, but despite his best efforts the dark blot remained just that: an unresolved splotch of blackness.
'I can't raise the intensity any further or he'll begin to suffer radiation damage.'
