Aliens

transports in orbit as floating hotels for the necessary personnel. That involves an ongoing cost you can't begin to imagine.'

'They can bill me,' she told him unsmilingly. 'I got a tab running. What else?'

'For another thing, this is clearly an important species we're dealing with here. We can't just arbitrarily exterminate those who've found their way to this world. The loss to science would be incalculable. We might never encounter them again.'

'Yeah, and that'd be just too bad.' She uncrossed her arms 'Aren't you forgetting something, Burke? You told me that i we encountered a hostile life-form here, we'd take care of it and forget the scientific concerns. That's why I never liked dealing with administrators: you guys all have selective memories.'

'It just isn't the way to handle things,' he protested.

'Forget it!'

'Yeah, forget it.' Vasquez echoed Ripley's sentiments as wel as her words. 'Watch us.'

'Maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, Hudson put in, 'but we just got fragged, pal.'

'Look, Burke.' Clearly Ripley was not pleased. 'We had an agreement. I think I've proved my case, made my point whatever you want to call it. We came here for confirmation of my story and to find out what caused the break in communications between Acheron and Earth. You got your confirmation, the Company's got its explanation, and I've got my vindication. Now it's time to get away from here.'

'I know, I know.' He put an arm over her shoulders, carefu not to make it look as if he were being familiar, and turned her away from the others as he lowered his voice. 'But we're dealing with changing scenarios here. You have to be ready to put aside the first reaction that comes to mind, put aside your natural emotions, and know how to take advantage. We've survived here; now we've got to be ready to survive back on Earth.'

'What are you getting at, Burke?'

Either he didn't notice the chill in her eyes or else he chose not to react to it. 'What I'm trying to say is that this thing is major, Ripley. I mean, really major. We've never encountered anything like these creatures before, and we might never have the chance to do so again. Their strength and their resourcefulness is unbelievable. You don't just annihilate something like that, not with the kind of potential they imply You back off until you learn how to handle them, sure, but you don't just blow them away.'

'Wanna bet?'

'You're not thinking rationally. Now, I understand what you're going through. Don't think that I don't. But you've got to put all that aside and look at the larger picture. What's done is done. We can't help the colonists, and we can't do anything for Crowe and Apone and the others, but we can help ourselves. We can learn about these things and make use of them, turn them to our advantage, master them.'

'You don't master something like these aliens. You get out of their way; and if the opportunity presents itself, you blow them to atoms. Don't talk to me about 'surviving' back on Earth.'

He took a deep breath. 'Come on, Ripley. These aliens are special in ways we haven't begun to understand. Uniqueness is one thing the cosmos is stingy with. They need to be studied carefully and under the right conditions, so that we can learn from them. All that went wrong here was that the colonists started studying them without the proper equipment. They didn't know what to expect. We do.'

'Do we? Look what happened to Apone and the rest.'

'They didn't know what they were up against, and they went in a little overconfident. They got caught in a tight spot. That's a mistake we won't make again.'

'You can bet on that.'

'What happened here is tragic, sure, but it won't be repeated When we come back, we'll be properly equipped. That acid can't eat through everything. We'll take a sample back somehow, have it analyzed in company labs. They'll develop a defence, a shield. And we'll figure out a way to immobilize the mature form so it can be manipulated and used. Sure, the aliens are strong, but they're not omnipotent. They're tough but they're not invulnerable. They can be killed by hand weapons as small as pulse-rifles and flamethrowers. That's one thing this expedition has proved. You proved it yourself,' he added in a tone of admiration she didn't believe for an instant.

'I'm telling you, Ripley, this is an opportunity few people are given. We can't blow it on an emotional spur- of-the-moment decision. I didn't think you were the type to throw away the chance of a lifetime for something as abstract as a little revenge.'

'It doesn't have anything to do with revenge,' she told him evenly. 'It has to do with survival. Ours.'

'You're still not hearing me.' He dropped his voice to a whisper. 'See, since you're the representative of the company that discovered this species, your percentage of the eventua profits to be derived from the study and concomitant exploitation of them will naturally be some serious money. The fact that the Company once prosecuted you and then had the decision of the prosecuting board overturned doesn't enter into it. Everybody knows that you're the sole survivor of the crew that first encountered these creatures. The law requires that you receive an appropriate royalty. You're going to be richer than you dreamed possible, Ripley.'

She stared silently at him for a long time, as though she were observing an entirely new species of alien just encountered. A particularly loathsome variety at that.

'You son of a. '

He backed off, his expression hardening. The false sense o camaraderie he'd tried to promote was sloughed off like a mask. 'I'm sorry you feel that way. Don't make me pull rank Ripley.'

'What rank? We've been through all this before.' She nodded down the aisle. 'I believe Corporal Hicks has authority here.'

Burke started to laugh at her. Then he saw that she was serious. 'You're kidding. What is this, a joke? Corporal Hicks? Since when was a corporal in charge of anything except his own boots?'

'This operation is under military jurisdiction,' she reminded him quietly. 'That's the way the Sulaco's dispatch orders read Maybe you didn't bother to read them. I did. That's the way Colonial Administration worded it. You and I, Burke, we're just observers. We're just along for the ride. Apone's dead and Gorman might as well be. Hicks is next in the chain of command.' She peered past the stunned company rep. 'Right?'

Hicks's reply was matter-of-fact. 'Looks that way.'

Burke's careful corporate self-control was beginning to slip 'Look, this is a multimillion credit operation. He can't make that kind of decision. Corporals don't authorize nukes. He's just a grunt.' Second thoughts and a hasty glance in the soldier's direction prompted Burke to add a polite, 'No offence.'

'None taken.' Hicks's response was cool and correct.

He spoke to his headset pickup. 'Ferro, you been copying all of this?'

'Standing by' came the dropship pilot's reply over their speakers.

'Prepare for dust-off. We're gonna need an immediate evac.'

'Figured as much from what we heard over here. Tough.'

'You don't know the half of it.' Hicks's expression was unchanged as he regarded the tight-lipped Burke. 'You're right about one thing. You can't make a decision like this on the spur of the moment.'

Burke relaxed slightly. 'That's more like it. So what are we going to do?'

'Think it over, like you said we should.' The corporal closed his eyes for about five seconds. 'Okay, I've thought it over What I think is that we'll take off and nuke the site from orbit It's the only way to be sure.'

He winked. The colour drained from the Company rep's face He took an angry step in Hicks's direction before realizing that what he was thinking of doing bore no relation to reality Instead he had to settle for expressing his outrage verbally.

'This is absurd! You seriously can't be thinking of dropping a nuclear device on the colony site.'

'Just a little one,' Hicks assured him calmly, 'but big enough. He put his hands together, smiled and pushed them apart 'Whoosh.'

'I'm telling you for the last time that you don't have the authority to do something like—'

His tirade was interrupted by a loud clack: the sound of a pulse-rifle being activated. Vasquez cradled the powerful weapon beneath her right arm. It wasn't pointed in Burke's direction, but then it wasn't exactly aimed away from him either. Her expression was blank. He knew it wouldn't change if she decided to put a pulse-shell through his chest, either End of discussion. He sat down heavily in one of the empty seats that lined the wall.

'You're all crazy,' he muttered. 'You know that.'

'Man,' Vasquez told him softly, 'why else would anyone join the Colonial Marines?' She glanced over at the