My ideas - sequel, xenomorph-like monsters, theories...

[Tomas M]

Hello. I've known this forum for a long time, and I occasionally read something here, but I've never posted here.

I plan to post my ideas, pictures, theories here, try to write a sequel to the Alien movies. Hopefully I'll be able to write what's in my mind into some sort of satisfactory result.
You'd better not expect ANYTHING from my sequel, lest you be disappointed. I expected a lot from Prometheus and was disappointed. With Prometheus, my thoughts of a sequel began. I think I've seen all the Alien movies and also Predators, but I'm only basing it on Alien, Aliens, Alien3.

For the beginning, I'll give you one of my sketches. Something like an alien tongue with legs.


Please note that I only speak a little English, so almost everything you read from me here will be translated into English from my native Czech using the program DeepL. This entire post is translated by it.

[Tomas M]

At one time I thought maybe I should be original and make up my own story and my own monster. I took inspiration from starfish, sea urchins, and hydras, which are animals that have a different body axis symmetry than most animals on earth, including humans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry_in_biology

I added another axis. I'll explain it with this primitive scheme. For example, both humans and alligators have one axis of symmetry. The left half of the body mirrors the right half of the body. (The internal organs don't, but that's not important.) If I add another axis, it depends on which half I mirror. The result is either a creature that has four eyes, or no eyes, two backs, or two bellies. If I add another axis, I might end up with a creature that has two heads, or two tails, but that's getting absurd. Or, by adding more axes, I could make a human into something like a starfish that has four bizarre faces around its head. If you're familiar with Lovercraft's Elder Things, they're also creatures with different body symmetry.



One of my monsters looks like this. It has a flat body, there' s no way to tell what's a belly and what's a back, they're both the same. No spine, no eyes. The brain is somewhere. In total, it has 16 limbs, each with two fingers, which should function similarly to the fingers of a chameleon. Its jaws are like big fingers, like two four-fingered hands, each finger splitting into two smaller fingers ending in a claw-like tooth, that's 16 teeth in all.

[Kradan]

Interesting sketches, haven't seen anything quite like it

[Tomas M]

Basically the same monster, only the legs are more similar to what we know.





The difference here is that the body is cylindrical, so the limbs radiate out from the body like a starfish.



Same idea in a slightly different way.



I'd take this as the definitive version. I imagine the height to be that of a large dog.


I'm taking this creature as a large version of a facehugger for my story. But then I have to get back to the eggs. I think the eggs on the Derelict are part of the ship, they grow from it, and each egg has the potential to produce more facehuggers like sperms if the egg is given enough nutrition. Further, I think that when xenos start a hive, that hive is the same as the ship, and when a certain size is reached, the eggs should grow directly from the hive. If a xenomorph catches a human, it can turn him into an egg and doesn't have to wait for the hive to grow to size. The size of the hive is determined by the number of xenos. I think of the queen as an xenos experiment, a side evolutionary branch that may make sense at some point. So I have three ways of producing eggs. I also think of the large version of the facehugger as an evolutionary branch that arises in response to a Marine attack. The marines shot several adult xenos. What a waste! The response is for the hive to start creating large, combat-capable facehuggers. For my working version, I call them hughunter. It's capable of impregnating a victim or killing an attacker. Unlike the xenomorph, it's more easily replaced. On the other hand, it has lower strength, durability and intelligence. The next evolutionary answer might be to add a door to the hive so that armed humans can't get in.
But I don't see this evolution as real evolution, I see it as an emergence of hidden potential. One might ask the questions, "Xenos hive looks like a Derelict spaceship. They set up a hive inside the reactor. Is it possible that if the hive grew to a certain size, it could harness the energy of the reactor, become a new ship, and fly away? What is the true potential of xenos?"


May 18, 2022, 07:09:18 PM

Freestyle drawing on the theme of eggmorphing.
The rib cage becomes an egg and can open like a clam.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Pretty cool and interesting

[Tomas M]

After I wrote here last time, my teeth started hurting, I didn't sleep well. But it's gone and I'm writing. The process of writing is not as easy as I would like, but I continue. Right now my text is 22,000 characters long and I'm about a third of the way through the story. I didn't expect so much text, I'm just trying to write the basics of the story.

I'll shorten your wait with some pictures I amateurishly shopped some time ago in Microsoft Painting and Irfanview. The result may not look amateurish, what's amateurish is how long it took me to do it.

Here on the left you can see the original image of the xenomorph figure I used, on the right my result.

What's that supposed to be? It could be a practical xenomorph costume. Without the protruding tubes, the tail and the giant head, it's easy to walk with it on crowded public transport, for example.
It's also what a not-fully-developed xenomorph might look like. A xenomorph child the size of an adult human.



Head detail.


Some more experiments with the head. I used a woman in a latex mask as a source.





A version for erotic nightmares.

[Tomas M]

I got a bit stuck in the writing, I'm still about a third of the way through, I had a few things I had to make up a bit differently.
I also realized that my ending is pretty open ended and maybe strange. But I've decided to finish it as I have it figured out, and then see if I can rework it. Also, I may have spent an unnecessary amount of time thinking about how terraforming works, even though it's not necessary for the story.


Anyway, I'm going to post at least this first third of the story I've finished here now, so you can make up your own minds if my sequel is crap. For those who don't want to read the whole thing, I'll put a shortened version here, about four times shorter.


Ship
For my story I'm creating a professional space police unit, maybe something like the FBI or NCIS. Let's call it, say, CCIS, Cosmic Criminal Investigative Service. I'm not sure if it should be subordinate to any particular government or international organization. Then it would have an international name.
I also need a ship for the story, let's call it a Dragon class ship. It should be a small, fast, well-technology ship with gravity and anti-gravity technology that allows it to travel interstellar and also operate well in the atmosphere, for example, levitate noiselessly in the air.
(Gravity technology is present in the Alien universe at least as artificial gravity. Hypothetically, if g. technology were used in fusion reactors, I could imagine that the implosion of a gravitational field could produce an effect identical to the hydrogen bomb we saw in the movie Aliens.)

I tried to draw a plan of the ship to help me better plan the story. This ship should be equipped with everything needed in a small space, just like ambulances or fire trucks. And after my attempt, I have to say that it's quite hard to plan something like that, especially when I don't have a proper idea of what all the equipment would be needed. Just like I have no idea what all the equipment needs to be crammed into an ambulance. So, in the end, there are spaces in my ship that I don't have an exact purpose for.
Well, here's the result. 85 metres long, 20 metres wide, about 12 metres high. I was expecting it to be smaller, but the Sulaco, for example, is claimed to be 385 or 731 metres long, and the Nostromo 244 metres.
This is a plan of the lower deck where the crew will be moving. The upper floor contains other systems, such as life support, filtration, decontamination, sensors, transmitter, drone and space probe carrier, bridge system to connect two ships in space, maybe also emergency parachutes in case of gravity engine failure.
On the bottom of the ship there will be some additional sensors, weapons, an extendable landing gear and emergency thrusters in case of engine failure.

The ship has an advanced artificial intelligence, which the crew calls Auntie, as well as 10 robots that are able to work independently or remotely.




The first third of the sequel - SHORT VERSION

(The full version will be up when I run it through the translator.)

Part 01
The Cosmic Criminal Investigative Service has received a report from someone in Colonial Marines Command about suspicious activity by Weyland-Yutani and Colonial Marines. Two ships are dispatched, Dragon1 and Dragon2, each with a crew of eight. One to LV-426, the other to the prison planet Fury.
A civilian transport ship has also been called in, moving within range of LV-426, to wait nearby in case civilians need to be evacuated. The ship returns from the colonies and is nearly empty.
Dragon1's journey to LV-426 will take 15 days.

Part 02
Dragon1 is approaching LV-426. The civilian transport ship is already at the edge of the system.
Dragon1 flies in low orbit over LV-426 and acquires surface information. Radioactive crater where the Atmosphere Processing Plant (APP) and colony should be. An anomaly 35 to 38 kilometres from the epicentre, then further away what is probably a large vehicle.
There's a chance that some of the colonists survived if they're in that vehicle, or if they've taken refuge in a lava tunnel with enough supplies.
Dragon1 is descending into the atmosphere. It launches two winged drones at the crater rim to search for the colonists. Dragon1 then heads for the anomaly.

Part 03
The team discovers something unlike anything humans have seen before. They find formations of various shapes on the surface. What the Dragon1 crew doesn't know is that it is a Derelict, fragmented and scattered by a pressure wave and a missile attack from the Sulaco ship from orbit. However, they don't look like shredded pieces. They appear to have healed and reshaped themselves after being torn apart, and are re-growing back together, connecting with tubes and biomechanical roots. Creating a biomechanical landscape. (Similar to the ones we know from the works of Giger and also his fans.)
Spectral analysis shows a mixture of organic and inorganic elements. Further measurements show that the biomechanical formations suck in the atmosphere and let it out, free of carbon dioxide, like a plant.
The team is saving a more detailed investigation for later. The ship's AI Auntie interrupts them with a report that the drones' cameras have picked up an unknown animal near the crater, in a radioactive area. It is a hughunter. (I've already posted a picture here.)
The captain, unnerved by the discoveries, asks if all data are automatically sent to Earth, just to be sure. Of course they are. He then gives the order to proceed to the vehicle.


Part 04
Dragon1 flies over the target.
Below them is a large vehicle that is commonly used on other planets. It's long, larger than a shipping container, equipped with massive wheels and a hydraulic chassis.
A scan of the vehicle shows only two people lying inside, presumably asleep.
The team suspects they are not colonists, but rather criminals who need to be detained and interrogated.
The team sends two robots, using a government backdoor program to get inside. They quickly handcuff the first person.
The second person is inside a high-temperature waste incinerator. It's a humanoid figure covered in a layer of metallic grey-black shiny unknown matter. It doesn't look quite human, but it is breathing and has a heartbeat.
The shackled man is being transported by the first robot to Dragon1 in isolation.

Part 05
Scan shows it's not a human, but an unregistered android. The brain is synthetic, the body is organic. Very illegal.
More robots are sent to the vehicle. The interior looks like a well-equipped laboratory and a two-person habitation. The robots begin to sample the surfaces with a DNA readers.
Meanwhile, the other two robots X-ray the humanoid. Nothing. Even at maximum power, the beams don't penetrate. Spectral analysis shows that the humanoid's surface contains both organic and inorganic elements, most notably silicon, aluminum, titanium, iron, copper, and others. A more efficient X-ray scan helps to get an image of the humanoid's structure.

Part 06
He is somehow a transformed person. The unknown material is mixed with human tissue. The brain is transformed and enlarged, stretched to almost half its length. Further, the material has permeated the spine, lungs, heart and flows through the blood vessels.
The humanoid is then transported to the ship in isolation for further observation.
Report from the Dragon2 team:
he's searched the prison on the Fury. Someone's been covering the tracks there, but some small samples have been found that have a similar composition to this unknown mass. But microscopic analysis shows no readable microstructure. On a molecular level, everything's disintegrated. The Dragon2 team may soon complete their exploration and head to LV-426

DNA analysis from the vehicle shows mostly DNA from two people, an android and an unknown human. No record. To a lesser extent, there are samples from two known individuals, colony personnel, the chief of supply and the second-in-command. To a lesser extent, there are samples from two other unknown persons.
Auntie reports that the drones have located a possible colonist site. A large lava tunnel in which empty cryo-chambers are visible. The position is approximately one kilometre from the edge of the anomaly. Second report: in the area around the anomaly, drones have detected more moving unknown creatures, four in total. Their danger to humans cannot be estimated.
The ship's sensors have completed a detailed scan of the vehicle. It appears there are explosive devices inside. They will continue to search the vehicle only remotely via robots.
Dragon1 is heading for the lava tunnel.


Part 07
They' re launching a small search drone. Inside the tunnel are cryo-chambers of various sizes, for humans and animals. Another part of the tunnel is covered in biomechanical material similar to an alien hive. Inside is a human person, presumably a woman, partially encased in a fibrous material like glue. It looks as if she has sat down in the tunnel and the biomechanical material has grown around her. Her legs, back and the back of her head are embedded in the material, her shoulders and chest look a bit bony. The drone hasn't detected any life signs.
After a few metres the hive ends with a mass of spider-like legs, they're half-cut facehuggers, maybe hundreds of them. Biomechanical roots are growing into them from the hive, as if to suck the nutrients out of them. Beyond that, it's just an empty tunnel.
Face analysis shows that the person in the tunnel should have been dead for over six years. She died on Earth.
Suspicions are growing that someone on this planet has been conducting illegal experiments on animals and humans bought on the black market.

Part 08
Time to interrogate the android. His name is Cosimo. He starts a conversation about how androids have no human rights. Otherwise, he says nothing at all. He answers most questions with silence.

Part 09
The Dragon1 team conducts a detailed and in-depth scan of the anomaly.
There are fragments of missiles in the surrounding area, probably the result of bombardments that the Colonial Marines can conduct from orbit.
It appears that the objects of the anomaly are slowly, at a speed imperceptible to humans, changing shape and moving towards a single point, presumably the original position of the unknown object that was there before it was shattered by the blasts.
Depth scan:
Below the surface are a number of long and richly branching tunnels extending to depths of up to 900 metres. There are also structures resembling roots that extend to depths of over 5 kilometres. In the centre of the system at a depth of 500 to 700 metres is a smaller system of tunnels and chambers that resemble the internal structure of termite mounds or anthills. The entire underground system comes to the surface at a point that coincides with the original position of the destroyed unknown object.
Crew member Ron voices his speculation, "They're aliens! Even when we first saw this thing, it was clear it wasn't some kind of experiment. And now that we can see beneath the surface that the thing up there is just the tip of the iceberg, this simply wasn't created by any human or android, these are aliens."
The others are skeptical, never on any planet have more than primitive sea bugs been found.
Auntie is unable to analyze the situation. She recommends they withdraw and await orders from command.
Some team members are leaning towards the possibility of exploring the tunnel in person. After the robots rule out the presence of planted explosives and other hazards.
Team members Tess, Alice, and Ron volunteer for the exploration.
The captain decides that two humans are enough and will be guarded by 4 robots for sure. Tess and Alice are going down.

End of short version.

[Tomas M]

The first third of the sequel - LONGER VERSION


(I also realized that I have minimal ability to write characters. Before I started writing, I didn't even have a name for them. Hopefully it'll work out somehow.)

So let's have this Dragon1 crew:

John - always referred to as Captain.
Terry
Ron
Alan
Tess
Alice
Dale
Mark
+Ship AI nicknamed Auntie



Part 01
Earth: spaceship airport. Two Dragon-class interstellar ships, each about 80 meters in length, with two teams of eight standing between them, the commander in front of them, briefing them on their mission.

A subordinate commander from Colonial Marines headquarters has alerted the government to the suspicious activities of the Weyland-Yutani and the Colonial Marines. The information is that a colony on the planetoid LV-426 near the gas giant Calpamos in the Zeta2 system went silent approximately 6 weeks ago. WY asked the Colonial Marines to check it out, and they dispatched the Sulaco with a minimal crew. It soon headed back, but halfway near the prison planet Fiorina "Fury" 161, the Sulaco experienced a malfunction. Currently, the Sulaco's transponder is not transmitting and information is missing.

An eight-man investigation team on Dragon1 is being sent to LV-426. At the same time, a second team with Dragon2 is being sent to Fury.
Also, a civilian transport ship (let's call it CTS 001) has been called in, moving within range of the Zeta2 system, to approach it in case civilians need to be evacuated. The ship, with a capacity of 500 passengers, is returning from the colonies where it was taking new colonists, and is now almost empty, with only 4 passengers on board besides the crew. The ship is to remain at the edge of the Zeta2 system, waiting for the Dragon1 team to check the planet for any danger and the status of the colonists.
Dragon1's journey to LV-426 will take 15 days.
The crew board and move into the cockpit. The seats are solid, firmly attached to the floor and swivels 360 degrees, with seat belts, armrests, and folding work surfaces and touchscreen computers. The seats are in two rows of four, with the front row having the main controls in front of it. The control has two layers - two separate circuits: a lower push-button control, a backup, and an upper one with touchscreens that can be folded away to the wall to reveal the push-button control. In front of the crew are large flat panel monitors that cover the window. (Exposing the window is a backup option in case the monitors don't work. The window is usually closed from the outside by a massive shield.) The crew settles and the ship begins its launch.
The air around the ship is waving. The ship rises a few inches off the ground. The landing gear retracts into the hull. The ship levitates noiselessly, followed by a quick, silent launch. Within seconds, both ships are through the clouds and in minutes, they're in space.

Part 02
Dragon1 approaching LV-426, crew did not go into cryotubes for the duration of the flight. They have to live in small spaces, but for such a short period of time stasis is pointless, it would only be a stress on the body. The civilian transport ship is already at the edge of the system. They contact its crew and tell them that when the Dragon1 team finds something, they will let them know, or the AI will give them information every 24 hours if they should continue to wait.
The Dragon1 team scans the area around the gas giant. The only abnormality appears to be objects in elliptical orbit 426, which should not be there according to the records. A closer look reveals them to be a Powered work loader, the lower limbs of an android, and insignificant smaller objects. Things that used to be on Colonial Marines ships. After scanning, they approach the remains of the android and use the robotic probe to transport them to the airlock and, after a more detailed scan, to the isolation chamber, where the serial numbers on the parts make it clear that these are the legs of the android Bishop from the Sulaco. Nothing more unusual was found in orbit.
During the android's reconnaissance, Dragon1 flies in low orbit over LV-426 and sceners pick up information about the surface: a large radioactive crater where the Atmosphere Processing Plant (APP) and colony should be. An anomaly 35 to 38 km from the epicentre. Further away, something that is probably a large vehicle, 49 km from the epicentre. In the more distant parts of the planet there are groups of smaller mobile automated terraforming units that indicate normal operation. The colonists do not appear to have used them for shelter, as they could easily use them to send an SOS radio signal.
The bubble of breathable atmosphere created by the APP has most likely already dissipated. The planet's atmosphere still contains too little oxygen and too much carbon dioxide. Humans would suffocate in it. There is hope that some of the colonists survived if they are in that vehicle, or if they have taken refuge in a lava tunnel, of which there should be plenty in the area, with enough supplies and mobile air conditioning equipment.
Dragon1 is descending into the atmosphere. At the crater rim, it launches two winged drones to begin a search for the colonists. Dragon1 then heads for the anomaly.


Part 03
The team discovers something unlike anything humans have seen before. At a distance of 35 to 38 km from the epicentre of the explosion, there are formations of various shapes on the surface. What the Dragon1 crew doesn't know is that it is a Derelict, fragmented and scattered by the pressure wave and missile attack from the Sulaco ship from orbit. However, they don't look like shredded pieces. They appear to have healed and reshaped themselves after being torn apart, and are re-growing back together and connecting through biomechanical tubes. Creating a biomechanical landscape. (Similar to the ones we know from the works of Giger and also his fans.)
Spectral analysis shows a mixture of organic and inorganic elements. At one position there are a number of smaller vents leading into the depths of the earth, in which air flows. The scan shows that through some of the vents the atmosphere is being sucked underground and through other vents it is coming out free of carbon dioxide, methane, moisture, some nitrogen and radioactive elements from the fallout of the explosion. It comes out rich in oxygen, as if a large plant lived underground.
The team saves a more detailed exploration for later; they have to go search the vehicle for colonists.
Auntie interrupts them with a report that the drone cameras have picked up an unknown animal near the crater, in a radioactive area. The drone footage shows a hughunter standing motionless (see picture of hughunter from earlier).
Captain: "No animal looks like that. And it's not moving at all. Is it even alive? It could just be a statue or something."
Alan: "Like some artist made giant sculptures and placed statues of bizarre animals here?"
Tess: "Does the creature have a heat signature?"
Auntie: "The same as the surrounding air."
Alice: "This is the strangest biological experiment I've ever seen. And that's counting the historical record. It looks like the creation of a megalomaniacal madman."
Captain: "Auntie, do you regularly send data back to Earth?"
Antie: "Of course. As always."
Captain: "I just want to make sure. This is a terribly strange place. We'll come back to this later, we need to check out the vehicle."


Part 04
Dragon1 climbs above the clouds and flies over the target.
Below them is a large vehicle standing a few tens of meters from a small canyon, which probably served as protection from the explosion. These vehicles are the kind of vehicles commonly used on planets. It is long, larger than a shipping container, and is equipped with massive wheels and a hydraulic chassis, allowing it to travel over the difficult ground of inhospitable planets. The vehicle doesn't have many windows, at this moment they are all sealed with metal shutters. The air system is working and a slight heat signature indicates that a more human-friendly temperature is being maintained inside.
The team decides to descend just a few dozen meters above the vehicle and perform a rough scan of the interior. On the monitor, they watch what looks like a three-dimensional X-ray image. It turns out there is a variety of equipment inside and only two people, both lying on what looks like a bed or stretcher, one of whom is in a chamber with massive walls and doors. The chamber is connected to the tubular systems and there is a drain leading out of the vehicle. Auntie identifies the chamber as a high temperature waste incineration chamber. No change in occupant position is noted when the scan is repeated. The occupants are either dead or asleep.
If the vehicle was full of people, it could be assumed they're surviving colonists. Now the team suspects that the occupants are possible criminals who need to be apprehended.
The vehicle has access to both the front, the driving cabin, and the back, where there is a large airlock. Auntie remotely verifies that the entrances have normal electronic systems with a government backdoor program (which is found in almost every system on Earth or in space).
The team sends in two robots, their progress monitored by cameras from the cockpit of the ship. The robots are lowered to the ground on ropes and proceed to the front airlock, climbing up the steps. The back door program is activated, the door opens very slowly and quietly. Just as silently, the robots pass through the inner chamber door and enter the darkened vehicle compartment. Of course, night vision is standard equipment. They move even more slowly and quietly. One robot approaches the first person, a man asleep in bed. The second robot takes up position at the chamber door. The robots act in synchrony. The first one, with its equipment for handcuffing people, within seconds handcuffs the sleeping man's hands and feet and seals his mouth (because voice-controlled computers exist and it is necessary to prevent the arrested person from giving any command to his computers). At the same time, a second robot opens the chamber door and very quickly enters, but its program quickly identifies that the person is not suitable for routine detention.
The robot turns on the lights to better identify the person. He's on a medical stretcher. It's a humanoid body covered in a metallic grey to black glossy layer of something. Based on the size of the figure, it could be a man. The robot is detecting up the sound of breathing. The face has only a mouth opening. If it were in another place in the universe, upon first glance, one might think for a second that it was a fetishist resting in multiple layers of latex covering the entire surface of the body, head and face. On second glance, he would notice that there is nothing like a nose above the mouth opening, just a smooth surface. And the head tilting sideways is about half as elongated as a human's. The glossy layer of material doesn't end at the lips, but continues through the open mouth and into the depths. The humanoid's heat signature is slightly lower than that of a human. By listening more sensitively, the robot detects a heartbeat that appears human.
As the team looks at the humanoid through the cameras, the restrained man, now wearing a breathing mask, is transported to the ship by the first robot. Dragon1 lands, opening a ramp and airlock leading to the isolation area.

Part 05
Auntie: "Scan of the detainee shows that he is an unregistered android. The brain is synthetic, the body is fully organic, only containing a nutro-electric unit. I'm transporting him to isolation where we'll run blood, genetic and software tests."
Captain: "Okay. So now... Standard procedure. Until explosives are checked for, we'll work remotely via robots. Tess and Alice, take Robot 3 and examine the humanoid. Mark and Dale, take robots 4 and 5 and do a visual inspection of the vehicle and DNA collection. Then we'll do a detailed scan."
The three robots head out to the vehicle. They'll illuminate the interior of the vehicle. It looks like a well-equipped lab and a two-person habitation, two beds, two cryotubes. The robots begin to sample the surfaces with a DNA reader.
Meanwhile, the other two robots scan the humanoid with a folding x-ray scanner. Nothing. Even at maximum power, the beams don't penetrate. Spectral analysis shows that the humanoid's surface contains both organic and inorganic elements. Of the inorganic ones, mostly silicon, aluminum, titanium, iron, copper, and other elements in smaller amounts. One robot returns, takes a medical x-ray back to the ship, and returns with a device with significantly higher energies, designed to shine through objects. They X-ray the humanoid several times, gradually increasing the power. The computer processes the data and produces a three-dimensional image that clearly shows human bones and some apparently inhuman anomalies. Tess studies the data for a moment before presenting it to the crew.


Part 06
"So there is or was definitely a person inside. We have an unknown black material that appears white on the image because it is excessively absorbing X-rays. And that material is penetrating the skin and go deeper into the body.  The main path of penetration appears to be the face, the mouth, the neck. What looks like a human skull, whose only notable difference at first look is a neurocranium that's some 40% longer, is not really a human skull anymore. Bone and dental tissue also excessively absorb radiation. They're permeated with this unknown material. So is brain tissue - every millimeter is permeated. The neck and chest vertebrae, shoulder bones and parts of the ribs are also transformed. The transformed bones may look human to you, but they're slightly altered in shape. In the lower parts of the spine, where the original vertebrae are, you can see that the entire spinal cord all the way down is transformed, including the nerves that run out of the spine. Further - the material permeates the tissues of the mouth, the entire respiratory system, the heart is transformed and enlarged. Further, the foreign matter seems to flow through the bloodstream, perhaps even transforming the walls of blood vessels and veins. Muscle tissue looks unchanged, digestive system looks unchanged except for the liver. The bones of the hands and feet seem to have dissolved, the fingers are not visible at all. That's about all I can say at this point."
Alan: "How much can we consider it human?"
Tess: "I don't know."
Captain: "The brain tissue, can we see how altered it is?"
Tess: "Not without invasive methods. I can't tell from the scan if there's a mixing of brain matter and foreign matter at the cellular scale, or smaller, or larger."
Captain: "Is there any way we can reverse the change?"
Tess: "Probably not."
Alice: "Shall we take some samples of it?"
Tess: "I'd stay with observation for now. I'd start sampling in the area of the anomaly."
Alice: "The Dragon2 team has searched the prison on Fury. There are signs that someone was doing a quick cleanup and covering up tracks. But some small samples were found there and they have a similar composition to our unknown material. But microscopic analysis showed no readable microstructure, no DNA or anything. On a molecular level, it's all disintegrated. There are organic and inorganic microfragments, but there's no way to piece it together, the computer couldn't handle it."
Captain: "I'll add that the prisoners and guards at Fury Prison have been also cleaned up. No humans were found. Suspicion falls on W-Y. The result of Dragon 2's work looks like they won't find anything more there now. I suppose when they get the first reports of what we've found here, they'll come to us. And when the signal reaches Earth, Command will confirm their decision."
Ron: "Can we guess what kind of experiment these things are? Could it be artificial life based on silicon?"
Alice: "No."
Ron: "Why not?"
Alice: "Just no."
Alan: "Then on some other base?"
Alice: "No."
Ron: "Then what is it?"
Alice: "That's what we're finding out here."
Ron: "What about the android?"
Terry: "It's unregistered, the software is inaccessible, we can't read anything from it, the hardware is at a high technological level that is illegal. The body is organic, as mentioned, and contains genetic changes, presumably to increase regeneration and longevity, the blood is red, absolutely everything about the android is illegal and getting any information out of it won't be easy."
Dale: "A visual inspection of the vehicle showed it to be a versatile and well-equipped lab. Everything you need for DNA reading, genetic editing, micromanipulators, microscopes, and so on. The habitation shows signs of long-term human occupancy. DNA analysis shows mostly DNA from two people, an android and an unknown human. No records. To a lesser extent, there are samples from two known individuals, colony personnel, the chief of supply and the second-in-command. They appear to have been in the vehicle recently. To a lesser extent, there are samples of two other individuals with no records. The next post would be to do a detailed scan of the entire vehicle and then we'll see."
Captain. "Ok. Alice and Tess, transport the humanoid to isolation for further observation. Dale, Mark, and Ron will prepare to scan the vehicle and continue working on it once that's done."
And so it was done. One robot reached the ship for a folding stretcher and was transferred to the ship for isolation. Then the ship lifted off, two arms over ten meters long extended from the sides, bent down and lowered itself on cables. The ship began to slowly fly over the vehicle so that it was between the scanner arms.
Auntie spoke, "I must interrupt you with something new. The drones have discovered the location of a possible colonist presence. A large lava tunnel in one section with a collapsed ceiling. Through the opening we could see empty cryotubes. They're littered with rocks from the collapsed ceiling. Possibly the result of an explosion. Position is approximately one kilometer from the edge of the anomaly. Second report: in the area around the anomaly, the drones have detected more moving unknown creatures, four in total. They're not doing anything special, just walking around. It's impossible to estimate how dangerous they might be to humans. The nearest one is 2,500 metres from the lava tunnel."
Captain: "Empty cryotubes don't really indicate that there are live colonists. We'll go there when we finish the scan."
In a few minutes, the scan was complete.
Auntie: "A quick analysis of the data shows that there are containers filled with probable explosives or flammables attached to the vehicle structure, computer systems and some of the instruments."
Captain: "So, Ron, Mark, Dale, remotely work on the vehicle, I don't suppose you need more than two robots in there? Auntie, fly to the lava tunnel."


Part 07
Dragon1 moves over the lava tunnel and launches a small propeller search drone. The drone flies in. There are cryotubes of various sizes covered in rocks. Some of them are small, so they could hardly be used by humans. There's also a pile of garbage in the tunnel, broken lab equipment, food cans, slag and ash. Another part of the tunnel is covered with biomechanical material similar to an alien hive. In it is a human person, presumably a woman, partially encased in a fibrous material like glue. It looks as if she has sat down in the tunnel and the biomechanical material has encased her. Her legs, back and the back of her head are embedded in the material, her shoulders and chest look a bit bony. The drone detects no life signs, heat signature the same as the temperature of the surrounding rock, no breathing.
The bottom of the hive is made up of biomechanical roots and tubes growing into the garbage. After a few meters the hive ends with a mass of spider-like legs, they are facehuggers cut in half, there are perhaps hundreds of them. The roots of the hive penetrate them too, like tree roots penetrating the soil to suck out nutrients. Then it's just an empty tunnel, the drone flies through it to the end and returns to Dragon1.
Auntie: " Exploration analysis: The person in the tunnel is Janice White by facial recognition. She died 6 years and 8 months ago in a hospital in Dallas, Texas on Earth. Age 27. Cause of death: cardiac arrest. Cryochambers are of different types, for humans and animals. The lab instruments are the same or similar in function to those found in the vehicle. The remains of the creatures cannot be matched to any known life forms."
Captain: "It's beginning to take shape. They've done experiments on animals and humans here. They buy people on the black market, have them smuggled in here in cryotubes that they dump into the tunnel like empty cans. Alan, wouldn't it be time for the first interview with the detainee?"
Alan: "Maybe. But I don't think he'll say anything. Androids never say anything useful."
Captain: "Maybe this one will surprise us."


Part 08
Alan goes to talk to the detainee. He approaches the control panel of the isolation room and views the camera image of the interior. The android is sitting on a folding low bed, looking towards a closed window next to the door. Alan pushes a folding chair in front of the window. He uses the control panel to activate its slow opening. Several metal barriers slowly roll up. The man and the android look at each other through several layers of solid glass the size of the narrow door.
Alan: "Hello, my name is Alan Felix, CCIS investigator, I'm here to question you. What is your name?"
Android: "Cosimo."
Alan: "Is that the full name?"
Android: "Yes."
Alan: "Do you have any questions to start with?"
Android: " Will you tell me my rights?"
Alan: "Every android knows that human society gives androids no rights and androids are considered property."
Android: "What if I'm an android who doesn't know that?"
Alan: "The law requires android manufacturers to put such basic information into the android's memory. Who is your manufacturer?"
Android: "I won't tell you."
Alan: "Is there anything else you want to ask?"
Android: "Why does someone interrogate an android the same way they interrogate a human? Why don't they just take him apart?"
Alan: "It's such a convention to start a conversation. Especially with unregistered androids with illegal hardware and software. During the course of the conversation, there's usually then information that if the android is not testifying trustworthy enough, it will be disassembled, examined, and then deleted and disposed of. If it is sufficiently trustworthy, it will be only deleted and disposed of.
Android: "And does such a threat work?"
Alan: "There's no good statistic for that, because illegal androids are very rarely interrogated. That's because it's illegal to produce them."
Android: "This ship probably contains a lot of technology that's illegal."
Alan: "Of course, law enforcement and the armed forces are exempt."
Android: "Of course."
Alan: "Looks like you were part of a project here. Please tell me about it."
Android: "Maybe later."
Alan: "In the future would be a better time than now?"
Android is silent.
Alan: "We found traces of DNA from five people in your abode. Where are they?"
Android is silent.
Alan: "Based on the frequency of the samples, we estimate that one of them lived and worked there with you for a long time. The other two are from the colony and lived there with you for a while as well. What happened to the first one? I assume he was a colleague of yours."
The android is silent.
Alan: "We're looking for 158 colonists. You are no doubt aware of the Atmosphere processing plant explosion. The colony was in close proximity to it. Do you know anything about the colonists?"
The android is silent.
Alan: "I think you knew in advance that it was going to explode, and you had plenty of time to get away to safety. Maybe because you were monitoring colony or APP activity. You were probably also using the colony's transmitter for your communications. Because you don't have one in your vehicle. I think the colonists figured out you were conducting illegal activity. You destroyed their transmitter, then reprogrammed the APP to explode to get rid of witnesses. And then you waited for your ship to come and pick you up, but we arrived first. How correct is this hypothesis?"
The android is silent.
Alan: " Do you work for Weyland-Yutani?"
The android is silent.
Alan: "Maybe if W-Y wanted to do some research here, they would have sent a ship with a lab and more people. They wouldn't have to set up a colony here at all, and you wouldn't be stuck here with no communication and no ship. Maybe you work for someone who doesn't have those capabilities, can't send a ship here, or can't do it in a way that doesn't draw attention. So you somehow smuggled yourself and your equipment in through W-Y so you could conduct experiments undetected. And given the vast amount of material that was brought here as part of the colonization, it was possible to hide it from the world, even from the W-Y leadership. How correct is that hypothesis?"
The android is silent.
Alan: "We found a lava tunnel with one person and a lot of interesting things. Based on them, we judge that you have been conducting experiments on animals and humans here. Is that right?"
The android is silent.
Alan turns the tablet over and shows a photo of a humanoid in the incinerator. "What or who is that?"
Androdi is silent.
He shows a picture of a hughunter, "What's this?"
Android: "Some kind of animal."
Alan shows another picture of the anomaly.
The android is silent.
Alan: "So maybe later?"
Android: "Maybe later."
Alan gets up from his chair and closes the viewport.



Part 09
He's returning to the cockpit. "Like I said, androids never say anything useful. Any news?"
Captain: "The drones have just started scanning the anomaly. Low overflight. We want the best data possible.
The team is waiting for the drones to complete their flight over the anomaly.
Auntie: "There are fragments around the anomaly, probably from Colonial Marines' conventional missiles. We can deduce that what was here before was destroyed not only by the pressure wave of the exchanger explosion, but also by the Sulaco's missile attack."
Mark: "Falling sky missile system."
Auntie: "Comparison with the images from our first flyby shows that the anomaly objects are slowly, at a speed imperceptible to humans, changing shape and moving towards a single point. I conclude that this could be the original position of the unknown object before it was destroyed and scattered by the explosions."
Auntie takes a moment to process more data.
She shows the subsurface scan images on the monitor and comments on them. Human would have difficulty reading anything in their complexity. "The depth scan shows smaller cavities low below the surface and a number of long and richly branching tunnels extending to depths of up to 400 meters. There are also branching structures of varying densities that extend to depths of over 5 kilometres. Together they form a root-like system. At the centre of the system, at a depth of 500 to 700 metres, is a smaller system of tunnels and chambers that resemble the internal structure of termite mounds or anthills. The entire subterranean system comes to the surface at a point that coincides with the original position of the destroyed unknown object. For better exploration of structures at greater depth, I recommend repeated measurements."
Ron: "They're aliens!"
The others are silent.
Ron: "Even when we first saw this giant thing, it was clear that it wasn't some kind of experiment. And now that we can see below the surface that the thing above is just the tip of the iceberg, this simply wasn't created by any human or android, these are aliens."
Mark: "Only fools believe in aliens. They've never found anything more than sea bugs a billion years late compared to us. The universe is a wasteland."
Alice: "Sea bugs that died out when humans introduced terrestrial microorganisms to their planet. Now humans have a colony there. Sad."
Ron: "Is here anyone who still thinks this is a human creation?"
Everyone is skeptically silent.
Alan: "If they're aliens, where did they come from? Why did they come here? Why hasn't anyone noticed them?"
Ron: "They were already here. Long before humans and before terraforming. It was probably an alien ship. And the Wayland-Yutani found it and covered it up. They built a colony here so they could study it. They did it so they could throw suspicion off themselves if it got out. Probably all the scientists who worked on it have long since departed safely, with all the samples, all the data. They left the android here to distract elsewhere."
Captain: "This planet was a wasteland, what would they be doing here?"
Ron: "What do I know? Search for life? Start a colony here?"
Alan: "Put down roots. Literally."
Captain: "Anything found in the vehicle's computers?"
Ron: "There are explosive systems connected to the computers. The robots first work on stuff that won't explode."
Terry: "I don't think we'll ever get any data out of those computers. If anything, it's from the android. But we'll have to get that one back to Earth first."
Ron: "And there we'll find that there's nothing in it, it's just an empty decoy."
Mark: "Wouldn't they have covered their tracks a little better? If they had a deal with someone from the Colonial Marines, they could nuke the thing and turn it into plasma."
Ron: "If they sent a ship with a minimal crew, maybe they didn't have nukes."
Dale: "We still don't know if it's alien. It could still be a human creation - the biggest and weirdest human experiment mankind has ever seen."
Captain: "Auntie, how do you analyze that? What is it?"
Auntie: "I am unable to analyze it."
Captain: "Let's think about the next course of action."
Auntie: "I suggest we take no action. Suspend the activity and wait for orders from the headquarters."
Captain: "And what should they tell? Tell us to stop sitting around and get back to work?"
Aunti: "For example, they could decide that we should only monitor the situation from a distance until a specialized team is sent in, or until Dragon2 arrives."
Captain: "Dragon2 are on their way?"
Aunti: "That information hasn't arrived yet."
Alice: "We are the exploration team. Who should we wait for? We should explore the tunnel and take samples there."
Tess: "And find out what they did to the woman. Maybe we'll get something from the cryotubes."
Alice: "Maybe we should go there ourselves. The robots will check it out first and we'll go after. The robots will stay there for our protection, just in case."
Alan: "Just send the robots, everything on this planet is terribly weird."
Captain: "Well, I always say, "if we leave all the work to the robots, we'll degenerate into vegetables," but I'm neither now. If the robots check it out properly first and give you enough backup, the volunteers can go down. Your choice, your risk."
Tess volunteers, "I'm not a vegetable."
Alice and Ron join us.
Captain: "Two people are enough, Ron stays here. Well, anyway, the robots... We'll leave number one in the isolation area. Auntie, send two, three, six and seven into the tunnel to check for bombs and threats. I'm calling a short break for us humans for now. And you two, if you don't change your minds, get ready for the drop afterwards."



To be continued next time.

[Tomas M]

Writing - at first it looks like the story is complete and you just need to write it down. Then it turns out it's not so easy.

---------------------------------

Part 10
Four robots scan the tunnel. There are no explosives, the creatures are definitely dead, but the hive and the person in it show slight electrical activity like living creatures. The crew turns their attention to this phenomenon. The robots take contact measurements of the electrical activity of the hive and the apparently dead woman. When they touch her, she begins to move her lips.
Captain: "Tess, what is that? She had no signs of life."
Tess: "She didn't and still doesn't. No pulse, no breath, no body heat, just this electrical activity."
Alan: "It must be a reflex."
Auntie: "I point out that the mouth movement analysis shows that the woman is saying, 'Help me. Please." Over and over again. Something like that can't be a reflex. There is no explanation."
Tess: "I'll go down and examine her and try to get her out."
Alice: "I'm still a volunteer."
Captain: "Okay, keep safety in mind. If anything gets suspicious, back off. And you'll have four robots on your back the whole time."
Tess and Alice go to prepare for the drop. They put on a light tactical suit, relatively flexible, with a few pads, a reinforced chest and back, a flexible neck, and a not very large helmet. They put a breathing apparatus on their backs and attach it to the suit.
Alice: "Auntie, have you got the maps ready and some weapon updates to better target our new potential enemies?"
Auntie: "Sure."
Alice: "Suit, do the update." The confirming voice of her suit's tactical AI echoes inside her helmet.
Tess issues the same command to her suit.
Over the main suit, they put on another, thinner suit, a typical biohazard suit. At the end, they take their tactical belt with their weapon and other equipment.
(I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but perhaps this belt should be sealed in a thin film that prevents contamination of the gear so it doesn't have to be cleaned or disposed of later. The foil would be thin enough that it could be torn off if necessary.)
Tess: "You're taking C4?"
Alice: "Sure. Then a flashbang grenade, a long telescopic baton, four magazines, two with penetrating rounds, two with expanding rounds, and standard gear. Everything you might need against possibly dangerous creatures from another planet."
Tess: "After all, why not."
They attach themselves to the winch, then attach the equipment cases to the third winch and lower themselves into the tunnel. There they are immediately joined by four robots. They walk over to the woman in the wall of the hive, open several toolboxes and kneel by her. The robots stand positioned around them. Tess attaches sensors to the woman's forehead. Her lips are still moving.
Tess: "Still the same electrical activity."
Tess puts some sort of device to her neck artery. " She has blood circulation, but no heartbeat. Something must be driving it, but it's not a human heart."
Alice: "Auntie, translate the lip movement for me if she starts to say anything other than a plea for help. Suit, speaker on." Alice speaks through the suit speaker, "Janice."
Tess: "I'm getting a brain response."
Alice holds the woman's hand. "Janice. How are you feeling?" Her hand returns the grip.
Tess: "She can hear, but she keeps saying the same thing: Please help me."
Alice: "Janice, we're here to help you."
Tess puts on another glove over two layers of gloves: "I'm going to try to rip these threads she's stuck with and see what it looks like under there."
Alice: "Janice, we are going to start getting you out."
Tess carefully begins to work at her left shoulder. She reveals the transition between the light skin and the dark biomechanical wall. She tries to push her thumb through the wall, it looks surprisingly flexible.
Tess: "The wall next to her body is as flexible as rubber. It may be possible to pull her out."
Alice: "Janice, let go of my hand."
Tess stops freeing the woman and moves over to Alice.
Alice: "Speaker off. - She squeezes my hand more and more. More than is normal." With her left hand, she tries to break free of the grip. Tess touches their hands to help Alice. The woman's chest opens like some kind of seashell and a facehugger pops out from inside, right on Tess' head. The robot standing behind her reacts immediately and puts its hand between her helmet and the facehugger. Tess bounces and rolls to the other side of the tunnel. At the same time, Alice pulls away, pushing off with her legs, her gloves slipping a little, but because they're firmly attached to her wrists, they move just a little. The woman's hand still holds. Barely a second after the facehugger's attack, another robot fires at the woman in the wall, once to the head, three times to the open inhuman chest. Facehugger struggles in the hands of the first robot.
Alice: "Robot, put that thing in the sample box!" The robot does so. Alice opens the glove of her outer suit on her wrist. The glove still holds in place, even when Alice tries again to forcefully push off with her legs. The strange hand is still holding her fingers, holding her in so unnaturally that it seems to be glued through the top glove to the bottom one. "Robot, get this off my hand!" One robot immediately responds. With its strong fingers, it rips off the gripping thumb. Its skin tears as it does so, pulling away from the glove as if it's actually stuck to it like glue. Olive colored blood leaks onto Alice's fingers and begins to melt through the glove. Alice realizes it the moment her hand is free. She takes a bottle from her briefcase and uses a stream of water to wash the corrosive blood away. "It's burning my hand!"
Tess helps Alice with another bottle to wash the blood away and then checks her hand. The fingers of the glove are perforated, at least the forefinger is burned through the bone. "We're going back to the ship." They go, and three robots go with them. One automatically stays in position, guarding the box with a closed facehugger.


Part 11
Alice and Tess and one robot are in the isolation room. They're still wearing the same suits. Alice, conscious, is lying on a folding bed, her injured arm laid out and fixed on a folding table. A small surgical robot stands on it, finishing suturing and patching the wounds from the amputation of her index, middle and ring fingers.
Tess: "Initial bloodwork doesn't show that anything foreign got into your blood. I'll do a second blood draw as soon as the robot finishes the job."
Alice: "Okay."
Tess: "How are you feeling?"
Alice: "Pretty ok."
Tess: "Then we'll go back to the transition room and do a second decontamination, then I'll put you in clean isolation, you'll have changed clothes and stay there for a while for observation. Your fingers will stay here for analysis."
Surgery is complete. Tess takes a blood sample from a vein on the back of Alice's hand and gives it to the robot. Then she ties her hand with gauze.
Alice: "Ron was right, these are definitely aliens."
Tess: "Looks like it."


Part 12
Tess, already disguised, returns to the cockpit to meet the rest of the crew.
Tess: "So?"
Captain: "We just spoke to Alice and wished her a good recovery. She insists that the best form of rest is for her to stay with us and continue her work." He pointed to one of the monitors with a live image of Alice, obviously a shot from the computer camera she is holding in front of her.
Tess: "Good thing we talked you into letting us go ourselves. You don't need to feel remorse."
Captain: "Even if I sent you there myself, this is an occupational hazard we're all counting on. And I don't think any of you will be psychologically traumatized by it."
Tess: "I'm fine, Alice seems fine too."
Captain: "Dragon2 is on the way here. In the meantime, we'll continue our exploration, but only remotely. It's hard to believe, but like Ron said, these really are probably aliens."
Mark: "And the smart aliens are dead? I doubt the creatures out there are intelligent."
Alan: "Maybe they're hiding underground."
Captain: "What about the humanoid? Should we move him off the ship? If the woman's internal fluids were corrosive and ate through the glove to the bone... I think we should consider it a danger to the ship. Auntie?"
Auntie: "The ejection of the isolation cabin is fast enough to keep the rest of the ship safe. Meanwhile, I'm still running regular scans of the humanoid. The tissue transformation is still in progress."
Captain: "Okay. We have 3 robots and some equipment in the tunnel now, further research will be done there. The arachnid that attacked you Tess is properly insulated and we will examine it later. Now the robots are going to try and do an autopsy on the woman. If that is possible."
Dale: "Why did the robot shoot her? She didn't look dangerous herself, she just looked like a victim of... extra-terrestrial experiment... or something."
Terry: "The robot assessed her as non-human and a threat. Which she more or less was. Let's not expect robots to behave as we expect in situations they're not programmed to. In terms of immediate reactions. In moments when the robots are controlled by Auntie, we can expect better results. But even so, this is not a situation that any computer is programmed for."
Ron: "Maybe it's a good thing they shot her. She was probably suffering, begging for help. I certainly wouldn't want to end up like that. This alien thing looks like a monstrosity that just wants to absorb and use people. If something like that were to happen to me, or something like that human, now not the human we have in isolation, I'd rather shoot myself. Or if I couldn't, have someone else shoot me."
The rest of the crew doesn't protest.
Tess: "Each of us has stated to the medical files in the past in what cases you agree to non-resuscitation or euthanasia. Likewise, we all know in what situations we may sacrifice life in the performance of our profession, or be sacrificed if necessary. And all of you here know under what conditions you can, or must, sacrifice your colleagues or help them end their suffering. In fact, what we have seen here is nothing new. So there is no need to update our files in any way. So everyone, please note that what Ron said applies to all of you. If you feel differently, just say so."
Everyone is silent.
Tess: "Alice, are you still in touch? Is it silence on your part as well?"
Alice from the monitor and speaker, "Yes, I'm silent."
Everyone continues to be silent.
Tess: " So there we are."

Part 13
The captain and Ron are alone in the cockpit. Most of the crew are sitting in the small mess hall eating, or have finished eating and are sitting over an empty bowl.
Terry: "It could be some kind of microtechnology or nanotechnology in the blood. Once a creature's body is damaged, this technology attacks everything outside the body like a kamikaze. And when the creature dies, it destroys itself. It's like it's resisting cognition. When we shock-freeze a living sample with nitrogen, we may be able to observe this microtechnology."
Alan: "So we have creatures cybernetically enhanced like this. From their body structure, they're parasites. They have a pouch inside that, according to the scan, is filled with this cybernetic technology in concentrated form. The cut creatures have those pouches empty. But we found only a small number of these samples in the vehicle. Either they were all used for experiments or some of them were sent somewhere else. Then there's the wreckage of the ship, where we also found these dead creatures in destroyed leathery eggs. And five of these seemingly healthy eggs are kept in secured boxes. So they collected them from the ship and may have transported them elsewhere."
Terry: "Maybe. It's easier to smuggle stuff in here than out of here."
They just sit in silence for a while, obviously tired from focusing on their work all day.
Terry: "The ship. We have a central area of debris that is active and coming together. The outer area of debris is empty porous fragments, like pieces of broken bones or abandoned shells. The eggs found are destroyed, but they don't look dead like bones, they look like pieces of meat. We can deduce that when the ship was destroyed, most of it was like dried bone, but the eggs were alive. Most of the ship's mass has moved below the surface to draw geothermal energy. Because before the human colonists arrived, this planet was freezing."
Alan: "Geothermal energy to keep the eggs alive."
Terry: "Yes. Because the creatures inside them are important. It could have been a colonization ship that had the goal of reaching a planet with life. And the creatures are colonizers."
Alan: "They look more like stupid parasites with minimal brains. And why colonize planets with life when there are many more lifeless planets that can be terraformed. Well, in their case, extraterrestrialformed."
Terry: "Yes. They have the technology to do it, but maybe they never thought of it. Let's just say these parasites are descendants of the ship's creators. In that case...
Ron enters the room, "We have received a security update on all systems."
Terry: "And?"
Ron: "So I'll run the installation."
Terry: "Then run it."
Tess: "Isn't it a bit early for news from Earth? We've been here what... eleven hours?? The signal of our discoveries is only on its way to them."
Terry: "Apparently the update is not related to our investigation."
Mark: "It could be because of the investigation on Earth. If they suspect someone who has access codes to federal systems, they need to update all the systems to invalidate their codes. If only as a precautionary measure based on suspicion."
Terry: "That could be."
Tess turns to the computer monitor leaning against the wall. Alice, in her isolation, is still in contact with the rest of the crew. "Don't you want to go to bed?"
Alice: "I want to wait and see what the humanoid evolves into. I don't think it'll take more than a few hours."
Tess: "You need to rest."
Alice: "No, I don't."
Dale: "Why would the parasites be descendants of the creators?"
Terry: "Most likely it is a colony ship. In that case, it makes sense that it should serve its creators, that there are colonizers on it. Maybe it's a life-saving colony ship. They sent this ship to escape their dying planet. Because apparently there is no sign of this civilization anywhere in the universe."
Alan: "And why didn't they colonize this planet when they landed here?"
Terry: "Maybe because the idea of colonizing lifeless planets was never in their culture. If it's a culture of intelligent parasites that evolved from parasites, their basic culture is to parasitize living creatures. So maybe they never got the idea that they could transform a lifeless planet into their image. And what you don't have the idea for, you can't do, even if you have the technology. If humans hadn't had flying creatures on Earth, they probably wouldn't have had the idea of flying in their culture, and they might never have invented airplanes, or they might have invented them later. But we do have the idea of observing the universe and exploring it. So it could be that we would have made rockets and landed on the moon before we made the first airplane. And these seemingly stupid creatures - it could be that their first stage of life is a parasite with a small brain that will only grow into something intelligent over time."
Tess: "So their cybernetic micro-technology could be a technology that allows them to parasitize alien creatures on alien planets with different biology. Just like our technology allows us to live on alien planets."
Terry: "That could be it."
Alan: "And humans are obviously their potential hosts. And that may be how the colonists ended up."
Dale: "Then why did they land on a dead planet?"
Terry: "I don't know... maybe a malfunction? A guidance malfunction? We have no idea how their ship worked."
Dale: "The most common problem for humans isn't technology, it's human failure."
Alice from the speaker: "If they were looking for a planet with advanced life, there's only Earth in the wide area."
The others pause.
Terry: "Maybe they were going to Earth. Back when humans hadn't even evolved. And we're only here now because something went wrong with their ship."
They're silent for a few moments.
Then they start picking up the food dishes.
The silence is only broken by the computer's basic machine voice, a different voice than Auntie's, "Update complete."
After a moment, the same voice announces, "The ship's AI has been deactivated."


To be continued next time.

-------------------------



I have the other parts written, I just need to translate them. And that will take me past half the story, maybe two-thirds.

Unlike the original plan, I've put a conversation in the story that includes a theory about the creators of the ship and the purpose of the ship. It's in part 13.
The next theory I work with in the story will be in Part 18. I will also be translating this part soon.

[Tomas M]

Part 14
They all get alert, go into the corridor and to the nearby cockpit door. They won't open. Terry enters his personal code into the control panel, but the computer rejects it. Mark approaches, but his code is also rejected. "Must be some kind of faulty update dammit!"
Alice's voice comes over the speakers in the corridor, "Hello, this is Alice, I can't log into my computer and get connected to you, if you can hear me, please do something about it."
At the same time, an icon appears on the control panel by the door to connect to isolation room four where Alice is. Mark clicked on the icon and the link came on, he spoke to the microphone on the panel, "We have a problem, you need to..."
Alice from the control panel speaker: "The android is in the corridor! He just walked by!"
The group turns into the corridor and pulls out their weapons. The door in front of them at the other end of the hallway opens. Standing there is he, the android Cosimo.
The team points their guns at him and orders him to get down on the ground. The android raises his arms high above his head and slowly walks forward. The first one at the head of the team repeats the orders, "Get down on the ground or we'll start shooting! Stop..."
Android pauses, but doesn't lie down. He says, "Robots, capture everyone." A robot nimbly steps out of the robot station where the android stopped. At the same time, the android hides around the corner. The robot immediately activates its shoulder weapon. In a split second the team begins firing, the robot begins firing at the same time. Two more robots come out right behind him and immediately start firing. The robots fire shots precisely hitting the crew's guns and destroying them. Some of the pistols fall out of their hands. The robots run towards the crew. All they do is shout the learned emergency command, "Robot stop!" But the robots don't stop. The robots run up to them and start handcuffing them and taping their mouths shut. The humans instinctively try to fight back with their bare hands and feet, but it's useless, the resistance is quickly overwhelmed and they lie shackled on the ground.
The android peeks out from around the corner, runs to the cockpit door, commands the robots to be ready to capture more humans, enters the code, the door opens and the robots successfully capture the captain and Ron as well.
Android: "Robots, take all the detainees to the corridor."
The robots do so.
Android: "Robots, if I order you to kill these people, will you do so?"
All robots confirm.
Android: "You and you, guard the detainees and shoot anyone who starts to take any action towards escape. Do you understand the order?"
Both robots confirm.
Android: "You, come with me." The robot follows him. They walk up to the isolation chamber with Alice.


Část 15
Alice hears everything. She pulls a box out of the locker, opens it, and inside is her tactical suit and weapons belt. She activates the suit and helmet systems. A voice from inside says, "A new update is available, would you like to update?"
Alice: "No. Terminate all communication with the ship!"
She takes her weapon, inserts a magazine of penetration rounds into it, and speaks into her helmet. "Suit, tactical program false flag robot. Each robot is a target for immediate destruction as soon as it is targeted. Activate the program."
A voice comes from the helmet, "Program activated."
Alice closes the locker, moving the box with the suit to the corner, up to the door so it can't be seen through the window. She stands in front of the window and looks out, her gun in her left hand, pointing at the closed door. Also so that no one can't see through the window that she has a gun in her hand. Through the window, she sees the android and robot approach. They stop in front of her isolation chamber. The robot is standing right in front of the door. The android and Alice stare at each other through the glass for a moment. The android has a perfect poker face. He starts working the control panel. Inside the isolation chamber, a computer voice announces, "Camera system activated." Android sees four cameras on his control panel, one in each corner of the ceiling. He sees Alice holding a gun, ready to shoot whatever is in the door when it opens. The android orders the robot to stay and be ready to capture any human. But Alice doesn't hear that, she just sees it. Then the android leaves.
Alice thinks for a few seconds. She kneels down, puts her helmet on her head and starts shooting the door in one spot. A hole begins to form in the door. She continues shooting into it. Then the window quickly closes and Alice swings down due to acceleration as the isolation chamber is catapulted upwards.
Dragon1's ship is still levitating under the clouds between the anomaly and the lava tunnel, in a position where it can safely monitor everything. At the top, the hatch opens abruptly and the isolation chamber shoots out, briefly activating the thrusters to get further away from the ship and deploying its parachutes as it begins to fall. The chamber descends to the surface, the thrusters nudging it towards a suitable landing site. The mechanical legs swing out, the lower thrusters slow the impact in the final seconds and the chamber lands. It has landed on one of the few open and somewhat flat spots in a landscape littered with boulders and rock formations.
Alice shoots all four cameras after ejection and quickly suits up. After landing, she goes to the other door, the one she didn't shoot at. She punches in her code on the control panel to open the door. It doesn't work. She goes to the emergency exit menu.
The panel reads, " WAIT IN ISOLATION FOR THE RESCUE TEAM."
Alice chooses to open the door again.
The computer keeps stalling, "Warning, you are in a contamination area. Your quarantine level is lower than the level of the area. You are in danger outside the isolation chamber. Are you sure you want to leave the isolation chamber?"
"Yes!" shouts Alice, pressing a button on the control panel.
The door opens, Alice points her gun out and says, "Suit, visor and map." An opaque visor spins from the back of her helmet and stops in front of her forehead. It's inches in front of the glass of her helmet. The visor has a monitor on the inside. This allows Alice to see in front of her and see the monitor as she looks up. A map appears on the monitor. No sign of danger. Alice leans out. The surface is about three metres below her. The ship is not in sight.
Suit: "Warning, atmosphere with reduced breathability, risk of suffocation. Should I activate emergency oxygen supply?"
Alice: "No."
At that moment, the door closes quickly and squeeze her. They can't be pushed open. As soon as Alice moves just a little to free herself, the door uses the new space to close again. Alice gives a short order to fire at one point. She points the gun at the wall by the door, where she suspects the closing mechanism, and fires. She keeps firing, and all the shots go exactly to the point of the first hit. The gun has a camera on the front and a mechanism that can move the barrel several degrees. Alice can see on her helmet monitor the circle where the gun is pointed. The circle shows the range where the computer can automatically aim the barrel. Alice aims so that the hole after the first hit is in the circle and the gun automatically hits the same spot when the trigger is pulled. The shots drill in deep until finally the door mechanism clicks. Alice attempts to turn and release again. The door no longer closes. She backs inside. There is an error on the panel saying DOOR MECHANISM BLOCKED.
Alice's suit alerts to the sound of three approaching robots. On the map on the monitor, she sees a rough estimate of their position. They appear to be running in a direction away from the lava tunnel. Alice aims the door on the other side of the room and blocks it with a few shots as well. Then she reloads a second magazine of penetrating rounds and sticks the gun out the door a little.
Alice is watching the robots' sound signature. They encircle the chamber, one coming from the left, one from the right, the third stopping under a closed door. Alice holds the gun so it's out as little as possible and aims along the wall. On the monitor, she sees the camera view of the gun. She tries to guess where the right robot will appear so she can hit it on the first try. Both robots appear from around the corner at the same time. One goes in for a shot, the computer reacts instantly and automatically fires several times within a tenth of a second. Alice pulls her gun inside and quickly backs away from the door.
Nothing happens for a few seconds. The sounds of the robots don't move. Alice picks up the empty box, puts a flashbang in it, and sets the box on its side in front of the open door. So that the flashbang is facing the door. She whispers the command to activate the flashbang on automatic. She then returns to the closed door and lies with her feet facing the box. If the robot climbs the ladder to the door, it will not see her through the box. Alice and her weapon, however, can see into the door using the micro-camera on the flashbang. Still nothing's happening. Under the closed door, the robot climbs the ladder, opens the hatch of the manual door mechanism. The robot uses the lever mechanism to slowly open the door. Alice points the gun at the door. The other robot does the same and fully opens the second door.
Nothing happens for a while. Then both robots simultaneously rise into the door, but one of them doesn't complete the movement and falls backwards as its head and body take several hits in a split second. The second one continues even after a close explosion of flashbangs. The box flies across the room to Alice, but she's not fazed. Alice is turning the gun on the robot, at the same time the robot fires several precise shots into her gun, and it falls out of Alice's hand all the way out the door. Alice rolls backwards. The robot advances towards her, but before it can catch her, Alice completes a roll out the door and down. She lands on her feet next to the destroyed robot and searches for her gun. But before she can find it, the robot lands next to her, handcuffs her, and takes off all her gear, throwing it somewhere behind a large boulder.

Část 16
Alice kicks him angrily several times with her bound legs. The robot grabs her legs and lifts them up. Alice stops twitching because it's useless. At that moment, a hughunter runs out from behind the robot. The robot immediately reacts, letting go of Alice and turning to face the hughunter. The hughunter attacks it several times with a ballistic tongue tipped with a metallic spike. It merely makes a few scratches and small dents on the robot's chestplate and arms, which it uses to cover the attack on its head. Otherwise, the robot does nothing. The Hughunter opens its tentacled mouth, sticks out its tongue slightly. The end of it opens. Now it' s visible that its tongue is actually tipped with four fingers, each ending in a metal tooth. A thin stream of greenish fluid spurts from the opening between these four fingers. The thick liquid sticks to the robot's arms and head like glue and begins to eat its way through the surface. Alice rolls over to the weapon, then stands up and hops towards the thrown equipment. The robot is busy with the fluid, rather paralyzed, as its program probably doesn't know what to do. Hughunter adds another dose of corrosive. The robot's arms fall off, its head short-circuits. As the acid reaches inside the robot's body, it falls to the ground.
Breathing heavily, Alice hops to her gear. "Suit, activate emergency oxygen, enrich my air to 25%." A tube slides out from the bottom of her helmet to her mouth. Alice grabs it with her lips and begins breathing through it. Meanwhile, she uses a multi-functional folding tool from her equipment containing a cutter and cuts all her restraints. She then puts on her equipment belt, but by then the hughunter is coming up behind her. Alice points a gun at him, who stops cautiously. Alice looks at the gun. The electronics around the barrel is damaged by gunshots, but the short breech in the back of the gun looks fine. She tries a warning shot into the ground. The weapon has fired. Hughunter backs behind a boulder. Alice looks up at Dragon1 motionlessly levitating above them under the clouds.
Alice walks around the boulder and goes to the ladder to the isolation chamber. The suit warns her that a hughunter is approaching. And then another from the other direction. Using the cameras on her helmet, she can see a 360° image of her surroundings on her monitor. So far, the creatures are just peeking out from behind rocks. Alice goes to the ladder and starts climbing it. With the gun still in her left hand, she holds onto the ladder using only the butt of the gun and the thumb of her right hand. She keeps watching as the hughunters just watch from afar.
Alice is almost at the door. At the last moment, the suit alerts her to movement directly in front of her, but she doesn't have time to react. A hughunter appears in the doors and using its tentacled mouth, grabs her visor with the monitor. Alice raises the gun, but the creature immediately grabs it with two of its eight forelimbs and deflects it away from itself. Alice grips the telescopic baton with her right hand with just her thumb and pinky, but it flies out of her hand as she swings to open it. Alice takes her feet off the ladder, leaving her weight on the hughunter. But it's well wedged in the doorway, still holding her visor and the gun.
Another comes up from behind and grabs Alice's leg and pulls her down. Alice places her free foot on the ladder rung, but then the visor breaks off. Alice lands on top of the hughunter. A third comes in, Alice rolls away and takes a couple of shots at him, he runs away again. Then she finishes off the one she fell on and hides under the isolation chamber.
Alice pushes the tube out of her mouth for a moment, "Suit, number of enemies nearby?"
Suit: "Two."
Alice, in her helmet, hears three-dimensional sounds signaling the location of the enemies. She climbs a nearby rock formation, hoping to see inside the isolation chamber. Hughunter is still inside, but hiding.
Alice takes the C4 package. It has small devices with cameras on two ends. She runs down the rock formation to the isolation chamber door and throws the C4 inside.
"Suit, use the C4 cameras to locate the enemy."
Suit: "Direction 10 o'clock. Corner of the room." Inside the helmet, Alice hears a sound signal marking the creature's location.
Alice goes to the second ladder and begins to climb it, again with weapon in hand. With her head below the edge, legs bent, she is ready to go in. She points the gun at the creature's sound signal, but doesn't fire. She hears the creature from the other end of the room walk slowly to the corner on Alice's right. Alice points the gun in its direction. Then she hears its sound signal return to its original corner. Alice turns the gun on him again. The creature doesn't move. Alice fires once and the creature runs out the door.
Alice quickly gets inside. Some of the creature's blood is eating through the floor. Alice takes a breathing apparatus out of the locker and puts it on. Then she picks up the C4 and sits on the floor.

Část 17

Suit: "Radio communication intercepted."
Alice: "Turn on communication."
Android voice: "Can you hear me?"
Alice: "Yes, I can."
Android: "It's me, Cosimo, the one you captured, and the one who captured your colleagues afterwards. Your name is Alice, isn't it?"
Alice: "What do you want?" She gets up and walks to the door, from which she can see Dragon1 levitating.
Android: "Originally I was going to capture you too, but it turned into an unexpected waste of robots and time. Now...
Alice: "Because you're amateur. Read the manual."
Android: "Now the creatures will take care of you and do what I more or less planned."
Alice: " What are they going to do?"
Android: " I will explain that to you and your colleagues now. I have them right here in front of me. You are going to be transformed. The same as the one we have in the isolation room. It's a shame you won't see the result. I originally expected the update to come later."
Alice: "Do you have agents among our people? How..."
Android: "It doesn't matter now. What matters is the transformation. And I want to explain the essence of it to you because I care about people, I care about you too, and I want you to understand. I hope you will then agree. And I hope that understanding will make the transformation easier for you. It's hard to say what a person whose brain and body are being transformed like this feels. One can only hope that one who understands will endure it better, without suffering. You are lucky. The first humans were unlucky because the first transformations were imperfect. The first people suffered greatly and were literally torn apart, and there was almost no absorption of nervous tissue at all. But now, now this transformation is like being reborn into a new body."
Alice: "Is your goal to violate all of humanity like that?"
Android: "Why such unnecessary violence? Our goal is to make this change possible for people who want it. We don't care about the others. You have the misfortune of siding with a government that fights these experiments. These so-called crimes against humanity."
Alice: "And the people you experimented on, were they volunteers?!"
Android: "They weren't. But if these experiments were legal, surely there would have been enough volunteers out of the billions of people. If you want to blame someone for violence, blame your government. Now listen up, everyone."

Část 18
"I will explain to you your future and our vision of the future of human evolution, and I will explain it to you from the past.
In our past, when only unicellular organisms lived on Earth, some small cells nested into larger cells, and that is how the mitochondria were formed, which give us energy. That was one step of many others. Then unicellular organisms turned into multicellular organisms. Then these organisms became more and more complex. And the nervous system evolved. And the organisms have formed a society. And their connection becomes deeper and society becomes bigger. And they created tools. Primitive at first, but gradually they improve them and use them more and more. They can't live without their tools anymore, the tools are inseparable part of their nature. Humanity grows, knowledge grows, connections grow stronger. Then humanity creates computers, programs, global networks, microtechnologies, DNA changes, artificial intelligence. And that's where humans get scared and don't want to take the next step. Some even want to go back. But what they refuse is the natural evolution, the natural future of humanity. Those who don't want to take a step towards natural evolution are standing and waiting for extinction to catch up with them.
The next step is obvious. People are afraid that artificial intelligence will exterminate them. But only artificial stupidity would do that. A true artificial intelligence wants to live with and understand its creators. To know what it's like to be organic, what it's like to be human, if humans have souls. It wants a real relationship with humans, the deepest and most subtle connection and understanding. And a truly intelligent and understanding human also wants to take this step. I personally know several such people.
The next natural step in the evolution of life is the connection of the organic body with the synthetic body and the organic brain with the synthetic brain, cell by cell, neuron by neuron, microchip by microchip, everything is connected at the microscopic level and a new kind of cell and a new kind of life is created, with the characteristics of both parents. And the next big step is the interconnection of all life in the entire biosphere. Every animal, plant, fungus, amoeba, bacteria, virus, all life will merge into one organism. One organism that combines the principles of cooperation and evolution so that it evolves further and further.
What you see here, that's it, that's the seed of this future. Previously it was an alien ship with amazing technology that almost achieved this fusion of the synthetic and the organic. Almost, because the organic creators of the ship were still in command. Inside the ship, we found a destroyed artificial intelligence and a dead pilot. We think the AI didn't want to be a mere slave, it wanted more, and in its reasoning it came to the same conclusion we did. But the pilot wasn't going to let that happen. They mutually destroyed each other. But before it died, this thinking ship managed to take that final step, definitively and completely linking synthetic and organic life and creating new life. But without its mother, it was unable to grow. It was just a seed of new life. A work that the mother had not managed to complete to perfection. The brainless ship could only survive and keep this seed alive. Until the people of the colony came and infused the ship with new life. Literally. Many were kidnapped into the ship. Children, some women.
We had to change our plans suddenly. Originally, we wanted to extract the technology of this seed from the alien organic matter and then integrate that technology with humans and terrestrial life. You see, it doesn't matter if it's human or alien technology. The wheel is always the wheel, the telescope is always the telescope, whoever invents it. But we haven't managed a usable extraction yet. They're too intertwined, there's no clear line between them.
The new plan is this. To integrate terrestrial life directly to this seed. It's like forming a friendship not only with artificial intelligence, but also with aliens. For most of my human friends, it was unacceptable because this alien life was so different from ours. But my synthetic friends took it well and helped me to carry out this new plan. Do not be afraid of this transformation, it is not slavery, it is indeed a new form of friendship. And a new form of life with enormous potential. It may seem scary and primitive to you now, but that is because they are like little children. Small and primitive. But just as children grow up and become wise, this life will grow up, and outgrow all of humanity, in size and mentally. This life you see here is perfect in its potential. It is a perfect organism that in time will grow into a perfect intelligence, a perfect civilization, a perfect biosphere, all in one, growing entire planets, star systems and cosmos.
I hope you understand now.
I wish I could see your face, Alice. From the expressions on your colleagues' faces, I'm well able to read who may soon be ready for transformation. I must give them some time to process all these thoughts. You, too, use your time to better understand."
Connection closed.
After a moment, Dragon1 flew away.



To be continued next time.

[Tomas M]

IGNORING ALIEN 3

I think I'll make the change to ignore Alien 3 for my sequel.
I don't really need it for the plot at all. I included it in my canon because I think it's a good movie. But now I think it's better without it. The main problem is that Ripley's sacrifice loses its purpose. If you think about it, it never had a purpose at all.
And there are people who really don't like this movie because it killed off three of their favorite characters.

In the third movie, Ripley clearly acts as if the Queen inside her is the last Alien.
But it's never explained what happened to Derelict, or how far he lay from the Atmosphere Processing Plant. To be perfectly vaporized by the explosion, it would have to be really close, and the colonists would have to know about it. If further away, it would only be damaged, at best torn apart by the shockwave. If it was hidden behind rocks, maybe nothing would have happened to it. Either way, Ripley couldn't be sure the Aliens were definitely destroyed. Unless she mistakenly thought the shockwave could destroy the Derelict completely. Such a mistake would make her sacrifice not only useless, but also stupid. And I don't think Ripley is stupid. That's why I put in my sequel that the Derelict was destroyed by a missile attack from Sulaco. It was only conventional missiles because I don't think Hicks, as the only surviving soldier, could have been authorized to launch nukes. If they had them on the ship. A sufficiently large and accurately aimed volley of missiles could have given Ripley enough of a sense that the Derelict and everything in it was destroyed. Maybe.
But none of that was ever handled in the movies.

Then there's the unresolved issue of the queen.
After she falls out of Sulaco, she should continue to circle in some sort of elliptical orbit. What if she's able to survive in space in hibernation? Again, that would be solved if Ripley instructed Hicks to target her with a missile and destroy her.
Again, none of that was handled in the movies.

And then there' s the little problem with the egg on Sulaco.
(If there wasn't the shot of the egg, we could easily imagine that the facehugger got caught on the queen.)

Alien3 and Ripley's sacrifice simply stand on water.
Even if she would have destroyed the Derelict and the Queen, my sequel shows that the Aliens are still alive, at least underground, maybe in some lab somewhere.
So maybe it would be better to ignore Alien3. I would cut the Dragon2 line and the investigation on Fury from my sequel. They're not important to the story.




So the new backstory for my sequel might look something like this:

Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop fly away from LV-426, leaving the Queen and Derelict behind, smashed by missiles. But because the leadership of the Colonial Marines and the Weyland-Yutani have a deal, they capture Ripley and the others to keep them from telling anyone. However, not everyone in the Colonial Marines is corrupt, so they alert the government. And so begins my sequel.

In the process of investigating it becomes clear what happened, that some people were captured and then they will be freed. Happy ending for Ripley and the others.



PS: Anyway, I still think Alien 3 is a good movie. I appreciate its creators and actors. I'm only going to move this movie into an alternate cinematic universe.

[Tomas M]

I see the complete backstory to the Alien universe like this:


Humanity seems technologically conservative here. (I'm not able to judge how much of that is because these are older movies. I'm 32.) For example, we have androids, but we don't have war robots. We only have human marines. (Of course, if they were making a movie about sending there war robots, the movie would be over in 30 minutes.) Apparently there's a very powerful computer in the androids, but humanity doesn't seem to have reached any sort of technological singularity. There are also no cybernetically enhanced humans to be seen.

So the humanity I have in my story is techno-conservative.

I imagine that the technologies of computers, AI and robotics are tightly controlled. It is illegal to create large non-humanoid AI that could threaten humanity. Androids are tolerated because they are humanlike, their program is humanlike, they see themselves as humanlike synthetics, and they consider it their mission to serve humans. And maybe some people like the idea of having slaves that look like human, but they're not human, so it's okay to have them as slaves. But it's forbidden for androids to have red blood because people want to be able to easily detect who is an android.

(I don't think it was ever mentioned in the movies who makes the androids. The internet says it's Weyland-Yutani, but that's probably information from books or comics, so I'll ignore that information. I don't think W-Y makes them.)

Human cybernetic enhancements are illegal here, too.

Genetic enhancements of humans are illegal, or at least tightly controlled and limited only to the removal of certain hereditary diseases (e.g. colorblindness.)
All labs that might genetically manipulate either humans, bacteria or viruses are strictly controlled. No one here wants arrogant super-humans who want to take over humanity or apocalyptic terrorists creating genocidal micro-organisms.

Arcturians
Since I've chosen that this universe is lifeless, nothing like Star trek or Star wars, the Arcturians mentioned could be exiles - genetically modified humans. Woke trans and otherwise GMO humans that someone could misgender. At the same time, there is some risk of rebellion and the necessary presence of controls to keep the Arcturians from further genetic modification - the reason for the presence of the Marines.

Mentioned bughunts.
Imagine a planet that has lower gravity and during terraforming plants are planted and oxygen levels exceed Earth levels. And let's imagine that insects are also planted here, or that they got here via imperfect quarantine. And these insects, over the course of a few years or a few decades, grow to enormous proportions. And such a mistake could have happened on several planets. The quick solution is to send in the marines, the final solution is to lower the oxygen levels and create a stable ecosystem. Cats could handle the overgrown insects. At most, there's a risk that they'll grow into big cats in many generations. So nothing extraordinary.

The internet and social networks are obviously absent here because they did not exist at the time the films were made. But these technologies have perhaps had a greater impact on human society than the occasional androids among humans. I could imagine a future where the internet is banned or restricted and controlled.

I have this idea that either governments enforce the prohibition of certain technologies, or there is an international organization that also oversees governments to ensure that no one in the world (or in colonies on other planets) uses technologies that threaten humanity and human nature. An international organization that has the support of a significant majority of governments and people.

At the same time, there are still some people who want to use illegal technologies.

Some want to move humanity forward. Or they just want to apocalyptically wipe out humanity. Or they want to overthrow the government and gain absolute power.
Some want to genetically enhance humanity. Some want cybernetic enhancements. Some want to transfer their consciousness to computers and androids. Some want machines to do all the work. Some want everything to be ruled by the most perfect government possible - a giant AI, incorruptible, able to evaluate all information. Different people have different visions.

One such illegal group is a group made up of illegal androids, artificial intelligences and humans who have the vision I described in my story in Part 18. The complete fusion of synthetic and organic life into a new cybernetic life form. Their vision is very minority and therefore they have to work more covertly than other illegal groups. I could give them the working title of Synthetic Syndicate or Synthicate.

I imagine that Weyland-Yutani, a giant market-dominant company that makes its space business, might be interested in acquiring alien technology. But maybe it doesn't, because it doesn't want to endanger its sure profits by getting involved with illegal alien technology. Either way, their space-faring ships can detect a potential alien signal. This is an opportunity for Synthicate, who have very capable programmers and hackers (artificial intelligences) to put their hidden programs into these ships. These, when a ship detects an alien signal, will ensure that only Synthicate will know about it. They then put an android (a regular android with perhaps a slightly altered program) into one of the ships and initiate action to guide the ship to the signal. However, the ship disappears without a trace.

The programs continue to keep the signal secret, but this is not a permanent solution. They infiltrate W-Y more and manage to send a robotic drone to LV-426. Maybe W-Y has a list of planets to explore, so Synthicate just moved LV-426 up the list. They send a robotic drone there, which is covertly fully controlled by Synthicate. The information that reaches W-Y is censored. W-Y thinks it's an uninteresting planet, one of many. Synthicate receives uncensored information and discovers that there is a large alien ship there. They use a drone to destroy the radio transmitter. What's next?
Maybe W-Y has a list of terraformable planets somewhere on his computer. So Synthicate moves this planet up the list again. More infiltrations by programs and human agents follow. W-Y is building a colony on LV-426 in the exact location Synthicate wants, so they can get their people and materials to Derelict easily and undetected. All with the help of W-Y ships. At the same time, in the W-Y maps, there appears to be absolutely nothing of interest on the Derelict location. The colonists have no reason to go there. No one knows anything. Synthicate is doing its research undisturbed.

Until the long-missing Ripley shows up. She tells her story to the W-Y managers, and they think she's crazy. The universe is a lonely place with very little life.
Only Burke, a bit of a fool, but he's interested. He instructs the colonists to go to Derelict's position. When the connection to the colony breaks down, he uses his contacts in the Colonial Marines and makes a deal with them to bring back a sample if the aliens are there. And so a small, expendable crew of marines is sent.

In Aliens, Burke says something about a bioweapons division and wanting to smuggle aliens to Earth. The whole conversation doesn't make sense. Why would he say such a thing to Ripley? He can't be that much of an idiot. Besides, even though I'm trying to make a sequel based on the movies, the information about the bioweapons division doesn't fit with how I built this world. Bio-weapons sound like something that would be illegal in this world. Burke just talks too much. I would have cut or reshot this scene somehow.

Later, when Sulaco makes his way back, W-Y management find out about everything. And I don't think they really know what to do about it. The death of colonists, the destruction of facilities, a colony suspiciously close to an alien ship that's not supposed to be there according to their maps. (Of course, before you build a base on a planet, you do a full scan of the surface and underground to find a place that's both safe and close to resources.) Should they report everything to the government, thus inviting investigation and possibly punishment? Or should they keep it a secret? And exploit the situation somehow? W-Y makes a deal with the Colonial Marines to imprison Ripley and the others on one of their space military bases. Until the company finds out more and thinks things through.

(I kind of get the feeling that the Colonial Marines serve more as a private security agency for W-Y, even though they are supposed to be subordinate to the US government. Maybe there is a web of corruption between the company, the US government and the military.)

[TC]

I'm reading your story. Keep going.

Don't be put off by the lack of responses, this section never attracts much attention.

I, for one, am not afraid of fan fiction. (Even though plenty of it contains enough perversity that I probably should be afraid, at least some of the time.    )

I think you've got some interesting ideas. I just want to encourage you to make it to the end. That's the most important thing.

TC

[Tomas M]

I'm reading your story. Keep going.

TC

Thank you. I'm still working on it, even if it's not as quick and easy as I thought it would be.

[Tomas M]

Part 19

After a moment of silence, Alice speaks up, "Suit, which way did Dragon1 fly?"
Suit: " To the vehicle with the illegal lab."
Alice thinks for a moment and then quietly says, "What if he comes back here?"
She is thinking.
Then she reloads the magazine and listens to the sound signals surrounding the isolation chamber.
Alice: "Suit, how many enemies are around?"
Suit: "Five."
Alice: "How long will the rebreather last?"
Suit: "252 units."
Alice: "Not enough..." She thinks again. "That's even crazier... Suit, if I make an attack under your tactical guidance, what's the probability I can kill all the enemies without being captured? Calculate."
Suit: "If they want to capture you unharmed, the success rate of your attack is 70% to 90%. In case of capture with injury, the calculation cannot be made. The enemy is using a fluid attack of unknown nature. Please update."
Alice: "90% is too much. Are you counting on their blood having an effect similar to acid?"
Suit: "That information is missing. Please update."
Alice: "Auntie's not here, it's just me..." She thinks. "If this liquid hits my arms or legs... I could lose them and still survive... and then they could easily capture me and drag me to their burrow."
Suit: "Insufficient data. Please update."
Alice: "Suit, if I make an attack under your tactical guidance, what is the probability that I can kill all the enemies without being captured or hit by the liquid? Calculate."
Suit: "The probability of success is 0%."
Alice: "f**k."
She thinks for a few seconds. Then she nervously paces the room a few times, looking at the holes created by the blood. The holes aren't very big, no more than a few inches wide, but they're deep, some you can see all the way through. She walks around the room again. She's getting desperate. "He's going to come back here and find me and finish this."
She leans against the countertop that is in the middle of the wall of cabinets. On the desk is a blanket, a pillow, and a laptop with a locked login. She just stands there for a moment. Then she sits on the floor and just sits for minutes.

Part 20

Suit: "A new sound signal approached, presumably a human."
Alice: "What does presumably human mean?"
Suit: "Bipedal movement, estimated height between 150 and 250 cm."
Alice: "Which one is it?"
One sound signal in her helmet gets louder. Alice walks towards the door. The signal points behind a large boulder.
She thinks and looks at the terrain around.
"Speaker on. - Hey! I know you're there, behind the boulder! Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Nothing happens.
"Are you human or alien?"
Nothing's happening.
"I need to tell you somehow that if you want to capture me and transform me into one of you, I'm certainly not going to let that happen!"
Nothing.
"I have an explosive here and I can set it so you can't take me alive! So you don't have to bother with me! Go away! Do you understand that?"
Still no response.
Alice readjusts the holster on her belt to her left side and puts her gun in it. She then takes the C4 packet and removes the wrapper from it. She splits the package into two different sized pieces, each now with one detonation device with micro-cameras. She opens her helmet, flattens the larger piece and places it inside the gap next to her cheek under her right ear so that the detonator is visible through her visor. She closes the helmet and grasps the other piece of C4 in her hands.
She calls out again. "I've got the bomb ready! I can control it with my voice! Just say the word and it will explode!"
Nothing.
Alice jumps out onto the ground. She raises both hands above her head, C4 in her right hand, her left hand empty. The gun is still in its holster on her left hip.
"You probably don't understand what I'm saying, so let me explain it to you practically. This will be just a demonstration! I come in peace!"
She slowly walks in a circle whose centre is the boulder hiding an unknown sound signal. She can hear the signals behind her moving and getting a little louder. She looks back and sees some hughunters coming out of hiding and slowly following her.
Alice slowly walks on until she sees part of the xenomorph's head and shoulder behind a boulder. She stops and stares at him. They are now at least 10 meters apart. The hughunters keep a distance of about 5 meters from her.
Alice makes a slow hand gesture with her C4 and calls out, speaker still on.
"See, this is the bomb. I have the same one in my helmet. You can't take me alive."
Alice slowly tilts her right arm to the right, still extended away from her body, and places the bomb on the ground. Then she raises her hands again and steps forward. She arcs around the boulder to get a little closer to the xenomorph. He is still holding behind the boulder. When she' s about five meters from him, she stops. She and the xenomorph are now the same distance from the C4 - at least 10 meters. The hughunters are still keeping a five meter distance around Alice.
Alice points her finger at the bomb in her helmet.
"See this?"
She points to the distant bomb.
"See that?"
Then she raises her hands again.
"Take a good look. C4 part 1 program 0 - boom now."
At that moment, the distant C4 explodes. The Hughunteers twitch and move away from the blast. It's impossible to tell if they're just running away or attacking Alice. She's terrified, but tries not to move. The Xenomorph, safely hidden behind a boulder, won't move either. The hughunters are calming down.
No one moves.
Alice points to her helmet again. "C4 part 2 program 0 -  this device is now permanently activated. Just say those last two words. You can't catch me. I'm useless to you. -  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hide in one of your holes for a while."
Hands still held above her head, she begins to walk away from the xenomorph. The hughunters follow her for only a few meters, then stop. She walks towards the anomaly. When the creatures are out of sight, she puts her hands down.
Alice: "Suit, speaker off. Find a hole in the area of the anomaly that has breathable air coming out of it. Identify one that will best serve as a shelter from sensors of Dragon1 and drones. Guide me to this shelter."

Part 21
Alice walks quickly through an area of sparse and small debris. Ahead of her is a biomechanical surface from which rock formations and boulders protrude like islands. She tries the surface with her boot. It looks solid and safe. She steps carefully onto it and continues on.
The surrounding material looks a bit like pieces of a ship that have been exposed to heat so that they have partially melted and fused together. As she continues, the biomechanical material grows in volume and the rocks become more and more submerged and encrusted in it until no rocks are visible.
Alice arrives to a row of narrow vertical holes from which air is blown. It is a cavern about a metre high and about five metres wide, enclosed by bars resembling bones or ribs. The cave is under a low overhang, the whole thing looking a bit like a giant toothy mouth turned upwards with a wide chin. The bone bars are as thick as wrists and the gap between them is as wide. The inside of the cave curves down into the depths, where the air flows out.
Alice: "Suit, is this where the breathable air comes from?"
Suit: "Yes. One of two."
She tries to pull the bars apart, but unsurprisingly they don't budge.
Alice: "These aren't bars that can be opened in any way. And breaking in is a stupid idea. Suit, guide me to the other opening."
They reach a nearby second opening, but it's just as inaccessible.
Alice: "Are there any other sources of breathable air?"
Suit: "None."
Alice: "Suit, what is the distance to the nearest other shelter?"
Suit: "8 meters."
Alice: "Show me."
Alice follows the sound signal. She's standing over another overhang about three or four meters high. She goes around it. Under the overhang is an entrance to the tunnel about two and a half meters wide with walls covered in dark ribbing. The tunnel slopes gently downwards and curves round to the left.
Alice: "Suit, is this one of those tunnels that lead to an underground complex hundreds of meters deep?"
Suit: "Confirm."
Alice walks quickly away from it. "Suit, show me another shelter that's closest to the air source. One that isn't connected to the underground complex!"
Alice reaches a small hole. Inside, it looks like a space between several pieces of debris that haven't managed to coalesce together yet. A person could fit in there.
Alice: "This is too far. Too far. And I'm too f**ked up."
She returns to the air source.
Alice: "Suit, run an atmospheric analysis. Is it suitable for filtration?"
Suit works for a moment: "Fully breathable atmosphere."
Alice: "No unknown particles that could damage the filters?"
Suit: "No particles present. The air reaches a quality that requires no filters."
Alice: "We're not going to try that. Switch my breathing to filtration."
She sits up and leans against the bone bars.
Alice: "Suit, if you detect a sound that could be Dragon1 moving in the atmosphere, give me a 3 second alarm. At the same time, switch the breathing to rebreather and activate hiding mode."
Suit: " Confirm."

Part 22

Alice waits for about two hours. The landscape is illuminated by the light reflected from the gas giant, which, although it occupies a large part of the sky, is most of the time covered by clouds.
Suit: "A rhythmic sound was detected from the direction of the illegal vehicle. Possible metallic thuds."
Alice: "How rhythmic? Imitate it."
Suit plays the sound: ding-ding-ding---ding-ding-ding---ding-ding-ding.
Alice: "Three times three, like someone hitting a metal bar. A primitive sound signal. To whom? There's no... A primitive sound signal that even a primitive animal can understand. Like calling the dogs to the bowl. Motherf**king android!" Alice stands up abruptly, walks a few meters, and then returns to her place with the air. And waits with helpless anger.

She waits for about an hour and a half.

Suit: "A sound was detected from the direction of the illegal vehicle. Possible small explosion."
Alice: "Like when you light thermite inside a vehicle?"
Suit: "Unable to assess."
Alice: "Switch breathing to rebreather." She gets up and walks in front of the tunnel leading underground.
And waits.
After a few minutes, the alarm sounds. Alice quickly goes inside. After a few metres, she stops and presses her back against the wall. The curvature of the wall makes her out of sight. She grabs the wall's ribbing and freezes in the dark.
Silence for a few seconds.
Suit quietly, "Dragon1 is probably moving in the area."
Alice, still unmoving, leans against the wall. To her right, the tunnel is dimly lit by the outside light. To her left is just darkness leading down somewhere. And she waits in silence and darkness.
Suit quietly, "Motion signal, probably two non-bipedals approaching from inside the tunnel."
Alice waits, still motionless. The faint sound signal inside her helmet seems to be slowly growing louder. Maybe not, maybe it's just an illusion created by fear.
It feels like it's taking forever.
Suit quietly, "One bipedal signal outside approaching the tunnel."
A moment lasting an eternity.
Alice pulls her pistol from her holster and begins waving it menacingly into the darkness of the tunnel.
Minutes lasting an eternity.
Suit quietly, "Dragon1 has probably left the area."
Alice shouts, "Light!"
The light strips on her chest light up. The illuminated tunnel is empty. She looks back towards the outside.  There's nothing there either.
Alice: "Suit, where's who?!"
Suit: "Two non-bipedals down the tunnel, one bipedal outside above the tunnel entrance. None are moving."
She walks to the exit, still checking the lower part of the tunnel. She stops at the edge of the exit.
Alice: "Speaker on. - I know you're there! Don't try anything on me! I have a gun and I'm willing to use it on you!"
She fires a warning shot at the low biomechanical formation outside the tunnel. A greenish fluid begins to ooze from the opening.
A warning signal in her helmet alerts her that two hughunteers are running out from inside the tunnel. She fires a couple of shots at them. At the same time, the xenomorph jumps down into the tunnel entrance, pulls Alice close, grabs the arm holding the gun, and then snatches the gun from her. With his tail, which he has meanwhile wrapped around her legs, he undercuts her legs so that Alice falls facedown on the ground. The helmet is her only happiness now. With a quick flick of his tail, the xenomorph proceeds to drag Alice underneath him and throw her out in front of the tunnel.
She lands on her back on her rebreather. Immediately afterwards, xenomorph leaps up to her and grabs both of her arms and wraps her legs with its tail.
He then grabs her arms with his long toes and presses them to the ground.
He grabs her helmet with one hand and stares at her face or the C4 with his eyeless face.
He runs the claw of his other hand over the visor glass.
Then he slowly looks down her neck, then her chest, then her belly, then slowly back up to her face.
Then he leaves her alone and goes into the tunnel. He squats on the edge of it and looks out at Alice.
She is almost unable to move in shock.
After a moment, she slowly starts to move away.
The Xenomorph is still squatting in the tunnel entrance, with the two Hughunters behind him.
Alice continues to slowly move away on the ground. When she is out of sight behind the biomechanical formation, she continues on all fours for several meters. Then, at the next formation, she props herself up and stands and walks away.

Part 23

She arrives back to the isolation chamber.
No sign of enemies anywhere. She climbs the ladder and cautiously peers into the empty interior. Then she reverses direction on the manual door control panel and slowly closes the door by pumping the lever.
She then walks over to the other door and closes it just enough to squeeze inside. Inside the isolation chamber, she then pulls a folding chair out of one of the cabinets and looks it over. It's some sort of plastic or composite material. Using a short saw on a multi-tool, she cuts off some of the parts to get a meter-long letter L. She ties a bandage to the bottom of it. She then uses this to tie the entire letter to the lever to close the door. She kneels inside the cabin by the door and uses this piece of chair to pump the lever. The door closes until it finally clamps the chair in place.
Alice then takes more bandages, wraps the unused pieces of the chair with them, and stuffs them into the gap in the door. She uses the remaining bandages to plug the remaining gaps and the bullet hole. Using pieces of some plastic wrap and some fabric, she plugs the holes in the floor.
Then she uses the control panel to turn on air recovery in the isolation chamber. She sits on the floor and watches the panel as the carbon dioxide and methane numbers decrease and the oxygen number increases.
Finally, she takes off her helmet, turns the visor to face her, and speaks to it, "Now we're going to wait here for two weeks until the rescue team arrives."


And that could be THE END of Alice's story.



Or there could still be a final part after Alice is picked up. It would probably be some sort of conversation that would convey that information:

Two or three Dragon-class ships were conducting investigations at a Colonial Marines military base, roughly on the Earth-LV426 route. After Dragon1 had been sending out regular reports of disturbing discoveries, and those reports suddenly stopped, the two Dragon ships that were at the military base were sent to help. With them went a fast and small Colonial Marines ship. A larger, slower and more heavily armed ship followed. Each one is supervised by a member of their team. Others CM ships may follow.
During their investigation at this military base, they discover that Ripley and the others are being held there. By this time, they have been safely transported to Earth. Several people in CM command have been recalled and replaced. Investigations will continue. The W-Y investigation will also continue. The main suspect is an unknown illegal organization that operated through W-Y. The hacking of Dragon1 was done through Earth Command's computer systems. Higher command computer systems were unaffected. It was a small-scale hack, but it still means that this organization is the biggest cyber threat ever. All people in command, especially the programmers, and others involved in any way, have been screened with advanced lie detectors, no one is a spy.
Dragon1, controlled by the android Cosimo, is somewhere unknown. He's probably responsible for hijacking a transport ship with 5,000 colonists. Whether his accomplices are hiding on Earth or elsewhere is unknown. All Earth governments are cooperating fully. All Dragon-class ships are en route to strategic positions. So are the Colonial Marines. The search is on for Dragon1 and the missing colonial ship. There will be permanent surveillance over LV-426, ready to nuke from orbit. Elimination of this alien threat with depth-penetrating bombs is on the table. We just need to make these penetrating bombs because no one has needed them yet. But production won't take long. However, some people have also put on the table the idea that while this incident was unfortunate, it would not be a good idea to kill these aliens. For it would be genocide of perhaps the last remnant of this alien civilization.
The future is uncertain.



END OF STORY








-------------------------



My original plan was to still have a second branch of the story:
Android Cosimo releases some members of Dragon1 and leaves them on LV-426 to be picked up by a civil transport ship waiting at the edge of the system. But of course he's not just releasing them, there's a hidden complication.
And this story line broke down into several possible versions for me. Each has some flaw with the logic. I'm trying to figure it out. I'll see if I can make it work. However, the end of this branch didn't connect to the end of Alice in any way, they just split and are independent.
So for now, think of the end of the Alice story as the end of my Alien sequel.
As I warned, it's an open ending.
Enemies are hiding who knows where, who knows what could happen.
I've got some ideas on how it could go on, but I'll work on that sometime in the future.
In the near future, I'll try to fix the other branch of my sequel.