claws raised to tear him limb from limb.
But before she could deal a fatal blow, Lex hopped onto the Alien Queen’s back and let out a warrior’s shriek. Shield in hand, Lex lifted the crude spear over her head and drove the tip into the wound Scar had made. The blow was dealt with all the force Lex could muster, and the Queen howled in surprise. Hissing, her tail thrashing, the Hive Mother howled in agony even as she threw her crested head back, trying to dislodge the human.
Lex redoubled her efforts, driving the spear deeper into the Queen’s shiny black hide. Acid blood gushed in a great fountain, drenching Lex and rolling harmlessly off the shield.
Then the Queen rose to her full height, hoisting Lex with her. But still the woman refused to let go of the spear. Instead, she plunged it deeper into the wound. Finally, the Queen whipped her head from side to side with enough force to throw Lex off.
She crashed to the ground, losing her shield. Then Lex rolled away from the Queen, who roared and stamped her massive feet, cracking the ice and trying to crush her flat. Lex leaped to her feet and took off in a dash. Risking a peek over her shoulder, Lex felt a rush of satisfaction when she saw that her spear was still embedded in the Queen’s throat.
As the Alien fought to dislodge the spear, she stumbled against the burning building and plunged into the middle of the conflagration. Lex prayed that the monster would burn. Almost immediately the Queen rose from the flames like a phoenix, to attack once more. But Lex was gone.
Lex hated to leave Scar lying in the snow, but until she finished off the Queen, she could do nothing for the fallen Predator. So when the Queen emerged from the burning building, Lex ran in the opposite direction, toward the frozen shoreline.
Cresting an icy mound, Lex gazed out at a vast landscape of bleached whalebones. The bones littered a beach that was enveloped in a cold mist. Racing toward the whale graveyard, Lex sought shelter, a place where she could hide until she formulated a new plan of attack.
But time had run out. As she stumbled across the whale graveyard, the Queen’s black head loomed out of the fog behind her.
Narrowly avoiding the Alien’s raking claws, Lex ducked into the nearly intact skeleton of a whale. The bones rose out of the ice to form an ivory cage of protection. The Queen’s jaws snapped as she tried to grab the woman, but the sharp whalebone splinters pierced her hide. The Queen let loose with sibilant cries of rage and pain.
Racing among the bones, Lex circled the graveyard and hurried back the way she had come—toward the wharf and the only shelter she could find. Scrambling up the edge of the cliff, Lex dived under the tottering legs of the huge iron separator just as the Hive Mother reached out to snatch her.
“Damn it!” Lex cried, rolling away.
The Queen thrust her head between the separator’s support beams. Lex felt hot breath wash over her. It smelled of blood. She grabbed a chunk of ice and threw it at the creature’s gaping jaws. Then, narrowly avoiding decapitation, Lex ducked as the Alien whipped a barbed chain at her head.
“Come on then!” Lex cried defiantly as she slipped under the heavy iron pot.
Arms flung wide, chains dangling from her limbs, the Alien Queen bellowed in frustration. Lex dropped to the ground, crawled through the snow, and placed her shoulder against the weak support beam. She pushed against the wooden strut with all of her remaining strength. A tiny rivulet of blood trickled from the thunderbolt scar on her forehead. Lex tasted it, and pushed harder.
The Alien matriarch hissed like a rattlesnake and her toothy mouth gaped wide. Out of that noxious hole the inner jaws shot forward, snapping at Lex. Then Lex heard the wood crack, and she felt the support beam tumble as the iron pot dropped from its pedestal, to slide a few feet down the icy slope. But instead of falling on the Queen’s head, it remained in place, held only by a single stout wooden beam sunk deep into the glacial ice.
Collapsed on the snow, Lex panicked. The Queen was advancing, but Lex was out of weapons, ideas and luck.
Just as the Queen’s gnashing jaws were about to close in on Lex’s throat, an unholy howl cut through the frigid air.
Scar!
As he raced forward, Lex could see that the Predator was bleeding from a dozen wounds. But in his hand he held her crude spear, and he was ready for a fight. Fearlessly, he leaped, landing on the Alien Queen’s broad back. With a powerful thrust, he drove the spear clean through her throat.
The Queen bellowed with rage, and the Predator jumped clear. Spinning in the air, Scar landed in the snow next to Lex, where he crouched in a fighting stance.
While the tormented Queen clawed at the shaft, Lex tried to lift one of the chains linked to the Queen’s body and lash it around the iron separator. But the links were too heavy, and her strength, taxed to the limit, finally failed. Dropping the chain, Lex stumbled to her knees.
At that moment, Scar appeared at her side, taking up the task and lifting the chain links, wrapping them around the separator’s handle. Lex rose to help, and for a few triumphant moments they labored together, side by side.
Then Scar suddenly stiffened as the spiked tail of the Alien Queen punched a hole clean through his chest. Arms flung outward, the Predator was hoisted off the ground, writhing on the end of the razor-sharp tail.
With a flick of that deadly, albeit maimed, appendage the Queen dashed Scar to the ground and loomed over him, ready to finish him off.
But Lex was faster.
She rose and stumbled forward, slamming her body against the last support beam. The shock of the blow rattled her teeth and bruised a rib, but Lex heard a satisfying crack as the final leg tore free of the ice. Immediately, the huge iron vat slid the rest of the way down the slope and over the edge of the cliff, tumbling toward the harbor far below.
The long chain snapped taut, and with a jerk the Queen was snatched away at the very moment of her kill. Dragged through the snow, she kicked and clawed helplessly as she was pulled toward the icebound harbor.
The separator bounced end over end and struck the thick pack ice. Under the weight of the cast-iron vat, the ice cracked—but did not shatter. The roaring Alien was dragged along, but she came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the cliff—right in front of Lex.
Lex watched desperately as a spiderweb of cracks spread outward from the vat, but still the separator did not sink.
Then the Queen struggled to rise, and Lex knew she was doomed.
Suddenly an earsplitting crack echoed up from below, and with a groaning sound the frozen sheet caved in under the three-ton separator. With a splash the vat slipped through the hole and into the bay.
Once again the chain was pulled tight and the Alien Queen was yanked, wailing, toward the widening gap. Tittering and slobbering, the creature clawed at the ice, but to no avail. Limbs thrashing, wailing in protest, with hot gore gushing from the wound in her throat, the monster was sucked into the harbor, where she was swallowed by the cold ocean depths, the heavy separator as her anchor.
As the Alien Queen sank, Lex rose and hurried to Scar’s side.
Sobbing, she fell to her knees in the bloody snow, cradling the dying Predator’s head in her arms. His body broken, the Predator seemed resigned to his fate.
As Lex held him, Scar reached up a battered claw and gently traced the thunderbolt scar on her forehead with the tip of his finger. Using a distorted version of Lex’s own voice, the Predator spoke.
“The enemy of my enemy…”
“…is my friend,” said Lex.
Then the Predator shuddered once, and died.
As Lex pressed his face to her breast, a strange wind blew. Something large was passing over their heads. The Predator spacecraft shimmered into visibility, energy crackling across its hull. It hovered over Lex and the fallen warrior, engines humming.
As the shadow of the starship fell over her, Lex looked up. A few feet away, on a low ice shelf overlooking the battleground, a dozen Predators winked into existence before her eyes. Then multiple shadows cast from nowhere played over Lex. With a crackle of strange energies, more Predators became visible.
In a moment they pressed in to surround Lex.
