Alan Dean Foster: Alien - 3

Wrong consistency, maybe. We just call ‘em lice, and to hell with scientific nomenclature.?

‘Can’t you use some kind of spray, or prophylactic shampoo, something?’ Her eyes remained fixed on the razor.

‘Oh, the Company tried that when they were starting up the mine, but these little suckers are tough. Anything’d have to be to make a success of it on this world. Turned out that anything strong enough to dent the parasites raised blisters on the skin.

Bad enough on the scalp. Damn sight worse lower down.

Shaving turned out to be a simpler, cheaper, and more effective solution. Some of the guys hang on to a little hair out of spite and fight the bugs as best they can. Eyebrows, for example. You wouldn’t think anybody would give a damn about something as ephemeral as eyebrows. But dense hair, that’s out of the question. Try to live with the lice and they’ll drive you crazy, crawling around, eating, itching—’

‘All right, all right,’ Ripley replied quickly. ‘I get the picture.’

‘I’ll give you an electric razor for downstairs. When you’re feeling better you can attend to that. The infirmary’s about the most sterile room in the installation, so you should be okay for a while, but the little buggers’ll find you eventually. They’re too small to screen out. Just shave and they won’t bother you.’ She hesitated, thoughtful, then nodded understandingly.

‘My name is Clemens. I’m the chief medical officer here at Fury 361.’

Her brows knitted. ‘That doesn’t sound like a mine designation.’

‘Mine’s what it used to be. Last of the worthwhile ore was dug out, refined, and shipped offworld some time ago. Weyland-Yutani had this huge facility cost that forced them to abandon, so to recoup a few credits they lease the operative part of it for a maximum-security prison. Everybody benefits. Society is separated from its most undesirable undesirables and the Company gets free caretakers. Everybody benefits, except those of us who are sent here.’ He gestured with the injector.

‘Do you mind? This is just sort of a stabilizer.’

She was feeling safe enough now to let him approach as she turned her attention to examining her surroundings. ‘How did I get here?’

‘You crash-landed in an EEV. Nobody knows what happened to your mothership or what caused you to be ejected. If Harry Andrews — he’s the superintendent here -

knows, he isn’t saying.

‘Whatever catastrophe caused you to be ejected also must have damaged the landing controls on the EEV because you smacked into the bay pretty hard. We hauled it back here. I haven’t been inside myself, but if the exterior’s any indication of the kind of internal damage she suffered, you’re damn lucky to be alive, much less more or less in one piece.’

She swallowed. ‘What about the others?’

‘Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that myself. Where’s the rest of the crew? did they get off on other EEV’s?’

‘There is no “rest of the crew,” ’ she informed him tersely.

‘It’s a long story, one I don’t feel much like telling right now. I mean what about those who were in the EEV with me? How many were there?’

‘Two. Three if you count the android.’ He paused. ‘I’m afraid they didn’t make it.’

‘What?’ It wasn’t sinking in.

‘They didn’t survive.’

She considered for a long moment, then shook her head brusquely. ‘I want to go to the ship. I have to see for myself.’

She started to sit up and he put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

‘Hey, hang on. As your doctor, I have to tell you that you’re in no condition for that.’

‘You’re not a doctor, remember?’ She slipped out of the other side of the bed and stood waiting expectantly, quite naked. ‘You want to get me some clothes, or should I go like this?

Clemens took his time deciding, not entirely displeased by the opportunity to view her vertically. ‘Given the nature of our indigenous population, I would strongly suggest clothes.’

Rising, he opened a locker on the far side of the infirmary and began sorting through the contents.

‘Keep in mind as you gambol through our little wonderland that the prison population here is strictly male and none of them have seen a woman in years. Neither have I, for that matter.’

She waited, hand on hip, giving him the calculating eye.

‘Yeah, but I don’t have to worry about you, because you’re a not-doctor, remember?’

He grinned in spite of himself.

Clemens noted how her eyes darted to and fro as he led her through the corridors and along the walkways. Like those of a nervous child. . or sophisticated predator. She missed nothing. The slightest sound drew her instant attention. Their feet made little noise on the worn metal. The garb he’d scavenged for her was a little small, but she didn’t seem to mind.

‘I’ve no idea how long you were in deep sleep, but coming out of it the way you did can be a helluva jolt to the system. Just so you don’t panic if I look at you crossways, you should know that I’m still monitoring you for possible delayed side effects.

So let’s steady on as we go, Ripley.’

She looked at him sharply. ‘How do you know my name?’

‘It’s stenciled on the back of your shorts.’ He smiled apologetically. ‘We also found your ID tag. It was so mangled the computer could hardly read it, but we got that much off it.

Unfortunately, most of your personal medical info was scrambled. I had to guess a lot.’

Ripley rolled her shoulders forward experimentally, let her head roll from side to side. ‘Feels like you did a pretty good job.

Thanks.’

To his immense surprise he found that he was slightly embarrassed. ‘Hey, any jerk can slap on an armpack.’

She grinned. ‘I don’t think so. It takes a specially qualified jerk.’

The work crew was being as careful as possible with the hulk of the EEV as they eased it onto hastily raised blocks. The old crane groaned with the effort. There hadn’t been much call for its use since the mine had been shut down, and temporary reactivation for the purpose of manipulating the emergency vehicle had been a touchy process. But the machinery was responding adequately. Cables sang as the craft was gently lowered.

It had attracted its share of stares when it had first been hauled inside the complex. Ripley drew rather more as she and Clemens approached. She did a much better job of pretending not to notice than the prisoners did of trying not to look.

‘Just what kind of place is this work prison?’ she asked her guide as they started up a ramp toward the battered lifeship.

Clemens stayed close. ‘Used to be a mine cum refinery.

Mostly platinum-group minerals. Naturally the raw ore was refined on the spot. Much cheaper than shipping it offworld for processing elsewhere. I understand there was a considerable rise in the price of platinum about the time the ore body here was located. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth the Company’s while to go to the expense of setting up a facility this size this far from any point of consumption. It was a rich lode, highly concentrated.’

‘And now?’ She had stopped outside the EEV and was inspecting the damaged hull.

‘Weyland-Yutani’s got it on hold. Interstellar commodities trading isn’t exactly my specialty and I don’t know that anybody here gets their jollies from following the relevant rises and falls in raw materials prices. I think I heard that a drop in the price of the refined metal was accompanied by less need for the stuff.

‘So most of the equipment here’s been mothballed. Not worth the expense of moving it, not worth enough as salvage.

There’s still ore in the ground and if the price goes up I’m sure the Company would reopen. That means we’d probably get moved. Wouldn’t do to have felons associating with nice, moral miners. Not that anybody would mind being shifted off this rock. The change would be sweet and it’s pretty hard to conceive of anyplace else being worse.