Doctors and Aliens

Posted on Mon Nov 9th, 2026 @ 11:52pm by Lieutenant James Phoenix & Lieutenant Kate Kono
Edited on on Mon Nov 9th, 2026 @ 11:53pm

7,799 words; about a 39 minute read

Mission: Another Tin Man
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Late Evening (Sometime before "Second Chances")

ON:

[Holodeck Two]

James walked quickly through the corridor. He wasn't in any rush, he just felt like walking fast. His destination: Holodeck Two. He needed to clear his head after the last few missions. For him they weren't nearly as bad as the mission to the German colony or mirror universe. In the weeks since, he'd been busy working and trying to clear is head and he had succeeded for the most part. One question kept coming back to him: What if he had to really order Ash to die? He kept trying to refuse to think about it, but it was difficult.

And now the Lieutenant found himself in front of the holodeck in the late evening, pondering what program would be the answer to forgetting things, if at least for a few hours. Perhaps it could be another regular outlet for him. But what program to choose? There was his regular selections such as old Earth motorsport races or fighting blood thirsty Klingons. Perhaps he could practice the command test, something that had crossed his mind multiple times despite not being eligible to take it yet. No. There would be time for that in the future.

He scrolled through the program selection screen next to the door for a while. He stopped when his eye caught something. Band of Brothers.

He looked through the program description for a bit. It was based after the real events that Easy Company participated in in World War II. When he was young, he had watched the mini series and he read the books too, but while those were based on the real thing with well known actors of the time, this was the real thing as accurate as it could be with the information the computer had to go off of.

James was hesitant. There was zero doubt that the real thing would show rough things, some of which were similar to the Lieutenant's own experiences in the past few weeks. But he enjoyed the series but he had always wanted to see the real thing. He was somewhat of a history nerd, but he looked up to officers like Richard Winters, who he felt was inspiration to be the officer he was today. At least that's how he felt.

Screw it, James thought to himself. He tapped a few buttons to save it to his program files and load it into the holodeck.

"Program error. Missing dependencies. Program deactivated for further review" the computer said.

Phoenix shot a death stare at the control panel. There was fire in the man's eyes that remained consistent for a few minutes before it subsided and he relaxed.

"Blasted machine" he muttered before scrolling through the other options in the selection screen.

Kate stepped out of Holodeck One and saw that James was staring at the accesspannel motherf-ckingly with a particular expression that seemed to say I'm about to flood this holodeck with 100% piss, from concentrate and decided to see what was wrong.

"Hey, just got out of some self defense training with my boyfriend. What's going on here?" Kate looked between the panel and James as if the panel were a person that was about to get a non-panel level beatdown if it didn't start communicating correctly.

"Bloody program won't load" James sighed. "Was hoping to witness Easy Company's accounts of World War 2. Currently looking for something else."

"Maybe the program just wanted you to experience Difficult Company instead?" Kate mused. "Whats this one?" She pointed to a line that said 'James Cameron BS' that was blinking. "It says it's got a 98% rating on Rotten Isolinears."

"Funny" James laughed as he read the title, which said Titanic. "Ehh it's an old film about the Titanic disaster. Pretty boring film for my tastes. I only watched it because my best friend practically dragged me to the tv to watch it" he said.

He continued scrolling. "The funny thing was that there was totally enough room for Jack on that door."

"These things were on the Titanic?" Kate flipped a PaDD around and showed him the image on the tablet, depicting a seven foot tall creature, with razor sharp teeth, and a set of double jaws, one inside the other. Kate rasied an eyebrow. "Must have been one hell of a show." Kate's dark eyes landed on the tablet as she looked into it. "What is an LV-426, anyway?"

"Hmm?" Phoenix raised an eyebrow in return. "Oh no, that's a different film. That movie is called Aliens and it is terrifying. I believe LV-426 is a moon if I remember correctly."

He shook his head. "I'm sure James Cameron would have made loads of money if he combined the two into a film. With everything that came out before I was frozen I wouldn't even be surprised."

"Not saying I wouldn't watch that, but if it were me, I would combine Aliens with something else that was science fiction, to make it make sense and all" the Lieutenant continued.

Kate leaned against the wall and started ticking off her fingers.
"Okay, Aliens and Driving Ms. Daisy, Aliens and John Wick, Aliens and Star Wars," Kate's face scrunched up, "Eew. Nevermind. Not Star Wars. Maybe Star Trek," Kate looked directly at the reader that's reading this story for just a moment before bouncing her eyebrows and going back to the scene. "... or Aliens and A Justin Beiber Concert." Kate's eyes nearly rolled back at that thought and her legs quivered while seductively bitting her bottom lip a moment. The thought of watching that horrid kid getting his head ripped off by a Xenomorph... "-- ahh, yes... Sorry. Mm..." Kate switched to her other hand, "Alienx and Days of Thunder. Where Tom Cruise is racing away from the creatures while everyone in the stands is getting eaten! Rawwr!" Kate winked and curled her fingers into claws playfully.

James cocked his head. "Star Trek? What is that, some sort of niche franchise that's way better than Star Wars because it's more scientific and has less fantasy?" Phoenix then had a muse. "What about Aliens and Doctor Who?"

"Yeah Star Trek sounds too good to be true. So what's this doctor thing?" Kate asked with a scrunch of her nose. "Doctor, what? Who?" Kate truly didn't know much about it. "If you load it up, you'll just have to walk me through it," Kate said while trying to search for the synopsis of this Doctor on her PaDD.

"It's a series about an extraterrestrial humanoid being known as The Doctor, who travels all over space and time in a blue police box, sometimes with friends" he said the basic gist of it.

"Police Box? Is that like -- a Starfleet Phaser Cache'?" Kate reached over to the wall and dialed in a few numbers and pulled out two phasers to enhance the explanation. She put the phasers back and re-secured the door before going back to her PaDD. A moment of realization washed over her features as she nodded in understanding. "... So this is where they must have gotten the idea of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures!"

"But arguably better" he said as he began programming the two programs together.

"Ever wonder if they should put warnings on program mixing in the same way that household cleaning supplies do?" Kate asked as she stared forebodingly at the holodeck door that opened.

Phoenix shrugged and looked at Kate. "Depends on the program. But this kind of thing happened all of the time back when I was young. Even if it wasn't an actual movie, it was easy enough to combine worlds with computers, which is essentially what this is."

He looked back at the panel before tapping a few buttons to finalize the program. "This one is simple enough. It's more of a simulator of the TARDIS, which is what that police box I mentioned actually is. Since it travels in time and space I've programed it to land wherever we decided to, as long as it's a part of the program, which does include locations and events from the show. The only real complicated part was programming the box landing into the alien program" Phoenix added as he turned to Kate again.

"This LV-426 thing, right?" Kate asked as she looked at the strange blue box that Phoenix had called up on the program after they had walked in. "So what do we do? Just walk into this -- box thing?"

Kate stepped in and was immeadiately overtaken by the strange size comparison considering the outside looked so small.

"I imagine rent for this place is dependant on who knows about the inside?"

"Something like that" he said as he followed Kate into the box and entered the console room. "The Doctor actually took the box from his home-world and was on the run for a while, until he was the last one of his people left after a rather bloody war."

James stood in awe as he looked at the TARDIS console. He had set the program to start off in the original console room from the classic seasons of the show. "I've set the controls to easy mode. The holodeck should theoretically guide us through the flight process. We can also select the desk-top theme."

"I still don't see where Aliens come into this yet but I'm patient," Kate said.

Kate watched as James worked an old-style science fiction console as if he were a pro at what he was doing, even though she didn't exactly know what she was doing but the entire asthetic of the events was entertaining to her and captivating to watch as James indulged in his fantasies.

James moved back to the main console in the center of the room and pressed a button. Suddenly the entire room changed. The color pallet changed. The room was about the same size, but the center console looked vastly different. The room now looked coral-esc. "This what I grew up with when they rebooted the series."

He fell silent as he looked at the console and reminisced about the times he sat in front of the television when he was younger, watching The Doctor run around the console. After a few moments, he switched the theme of the room again. This time, the room was much larger than the first two, but had the same color pallet as the first, but had multiple ramps going to the walls which led to different parts of the tardis.

"Erm, sorry" he said realizing he was acting like a kid in a candy store. "Trust me, we'll get to Aliens" he chuckled. "Any particular room you liked best? There's plenty more than the those three."


"It's not the esthetics that matter as much as the company," Kate said with a kind smile. She sat in a chair and pretended to hit buttons on the console, knowing that the game would always make it to where she tapped the right things even without knowledge. She grinned wider and giggled as she played away.

He returned the smile before moving around the console to begin the de-materialization sequence. Once he was done setting everything up, he pulled the lever, and the time rotor started moving. James tapped a few buttons into the computer screen, and set the course for LV-426, the moon from Alien.

The police box broke through the thick, dark surulian blue overcast and landed in front of a neon BAR sign in the middle of the colony complex. Kate opened the door and aimed a phaser that the holodeck provided, out into the rain soaked surroundings.

Phoenix, who was still in the tardis, pressed a button on the console. Seconds later a small cylinder shaped device popped out and he caught it. The device was called a sonic screwdriver and it could do anything. Anything except for wood.

He moved in behind Kate. "What do you see?" He asked quietly.

"Tequila, Rum, Vodka, Bourbon, an assortment of Beers, wine, and a large Tap," Kate whispered into the Tardis. "We landed in front of thr bar." Kate confirmed.

Phoenix carefully stepped out before waving the sonic screwdriver around while pressing a button. The end of it glowed blue and made a buzzing sound. Normally he wouldn't understand much of the device, but he set the program to allow him to. "Interesting. No hostiles in the vicinity."

Kate nodded as she stepped out further toward the bar. The rain matted her hair to her face as she had spent some time since last mission growing it out longer. Now, she regretted that decision. She counted herself lucky that a simulation showed her how annoying long hair could be before she ever returned to a real mission. She made it to the Bar and started scanning with her tricodrer and concurred with her partner; there was nothing going on - the place was dead.

James entered the bar. The door was unlocked, so no need for the sonic screwdriver to unlock it. He waved the device around and it made the same buzzing sound. "Still nothing."

Kate walked behind the bar and found a glass with a blue hedgehog and a big logo that said "Sonic". She opened the fridge and found orange juice. She filled half the glass with Orange Juice and the other half with Vodka. The young Lieutenant began holding the glass up as if she were scanning with it before downing the drink.

"My sonic screwdriver detected nothing, either." Kate confirmed.

Phoenix cackled. "Seems legit. Could you pass me those two?" He asked, indicating to the "Sonic" and the orange juice.

Kate sailed both bottles and a glass over to Phoenix's side of the table with a smile.

"Thanks" James returned the smile and then poured the two drinks into a glass. He then crouched under the bar to grab a tumbler, which seemed clean. He put it on top of the bar and then poured the drink into the tumbler and placed the glass upside down and began to shake carefully. Moments later he poured the drink back into the glass and took a sip. "Hmm, not bad. It's been a while since I've had one of these."

Kate nodded and giggled as she walked over to a door that had access to the inner colony corridors that connected the majority of day-to-day life of the moons inhabitants under the shelter of a common complex that interweaved most of the colonies society under one mega-structure. As the doors opened, they were met with empty metallic hallways, few lights, and a consistant red beacon indicating something was wrong as the crimson light flashed silently every other second.

"Yeah not creepy at all," Kate's sarcasm echoed in the empty expanse where there should have been hundreds of humans traversing between home, work and leisure.

"We probably shouldn't go in there" James said cautiously. "If watching horror movies has taught me anything."

Kate spun around and looked up at Phoenix with a wink.
"But that's the whole point if the simulation isn't it? To get a scare?"

James raised an eyebrow. "Getting a scare may be a stretch" he quipped skeptically.

Kate raised a brow as she walked into the corridor.
"As in, too scary? Or not scary at all for you?" Kate giggled. "Computer! Arch!" The arch appeared and she tapped away at the LCARS console a moment. That's when a Bullhorn appeared and she picked it up as the Arch vanished. "I was introduced to one of these things recently. People at protests love using them to inflate their own ego's. She aimed the horn down the empty hallway and her voice echoed down the corridords into the dark unknown of the facilities abyss. "HEY ALIENS! YOU SUCK!" The hallway rattled with the shrill amplification of her voice as Kate threw the bullhorn onto the ground and pulled her tricorder to see if anything noticed them this time.

James watched in horror. "You just had to alert them?"

Kate waited and listened.
"Well, wherever the Aliens are, they either are too far away from here to have heard anything, or they don't care about us at all. Computer! Can you give me a weapon appropriate for the story?"

The computer beeped and there was suddenly several sets of weapons at their feet. Kate picked up an M41A2 Pulse Rifle and eyed the design. "Weird looking thingy isn't it?"

James shrugged. "Not to me" he crouched down and picked up an energy shotgun looking thing.

Kate moved down the corridor when her tricorder started beeping. The air seemed to grow colder in her lungs as a similar chill danced up her spine. Of course the holodeck program would wait until they were forty meters through the door before sending anything, she thought to herself as she raised her pulse rifle.

"I have a a life detections signature moving quickly this way," Kate said. She raised her rifle and readied herself as she heard the sounds of thumping on metal as something from just around the blindspot at a T intersection got closer! Kate raised the pulse rifle and focused on the front sight. Her slender finger dropped from the side of the trigger guard to the trigger itself and she pushed the trigger in before the break. A dark crimson sihlouette came between the lighting at the far end of the hallway and her eyesight and that was the moment! Kate aimed just ahead of the movement and squeezed the triger all the way in as 10 millimeter caseless ammo pushed the stock back into her slender shoulder with a deafening roar!

The dark figure at the end of the hall danced as round after round solid projectile impacted raw flesh and bone. Shreds of material and dark matter painted the corridor behind the target. Kate leaned into the firing and kept the followup shots tight as the counter unloaded from 41 down to nothing. She smashed the mag release and slaped another magazine in before going back to her tricorder...

"All clear..." Kate said with a sigh. Her ears rang slightly as she approached what she had killed. It was hard to make out as she got close to it but it was mainly mangled flesh now, wrapped in blue coveralls, and holding a plastic dolls head. There was bloodied blond hair strewn around a deflated face with an eyeball dangling out of a torn orbital socket which seemed to signify that Kate might have just met one of the colonists...

After a brief silence, Kate shrugged her shoulders.
... "Oh well... It's been a while since I've seen the movie. I'll figure out who that was supposed to be later. Let's keep going. Oh! Look! Medlab!"

James stared at the alien corpse in horror. "Remind me never to piss you off Kate" he quipped and followed her.

Kate pulled out a PaDD and bit her bottom lip while pointing at the corpse on the floor.
"Oh that was Rebecca. She was one of the main characters." She tapped through the console as she stood over the dead corpse. "Yes here it is," Kate tapped the corner of the PaDD as if she had struck gold. "Rebecca "Newt" Jordan. Last survivor of LV 426... She was supposed to scare us as a jump scare and then help show us around the facility as a pivitol role in the story's progression..." Kate looked down at the bullet-riddled blond girl and winced. "Oopsie... Computer! Reset Rebecca Jordan's character from after the moment I shot her."

Rebecca ran down the corridor at the T-Intersection and looked down at the corpse of her doppleganger on the floor. Kate sighed in frustration and pulled the Pulse Rifle up to hip level. She squeezed the trigger again and the young girl jolted backward as the muzzle flash lit up the look of shock and betrayal in her dying face as her torso blew out the back of her coveralls. The second copy of the girl fell to the ground in a lifeless heap as Kate flung the magazine out of the pulse rifle and slammed another one in.

"COMPUTER! To be more specific, I want you to reset from the moment I shot her -- twice now... Clear all remains of the last two dead Rebecca's, and then restart the scene -- and give me two more Magazines for the pulse rifle." Kate shook her head and looked at Phoenix as the two little dead girls vanished and the newest version of Newt ran down the hallway. "... sometimes I think directing the actual film must have been easier than programming a holodeck."

Rebecca ran past them and ducked into a crawlspace.
"HEY!" Kate yelled. "Wait! We're right here!" Kate yelled again. She watched as the girl pulled out a panel for the air vents and vanished. Kate looked down at the PaDD. "OH! One of us is supposed to chase after her. Screw that," Kate rolled her eyes and walked away from the girl. "If she wants to survive this she'll have to just come around by herself. Let's do this without her." Kate suggested as they turned to explore the medlab facility, leaving the skiddish child behind to hid alone, all by herself.

"Kate..." he trailed off as he watched the girl run away before looking at Kate. He started to think about his own past and his life ever since he lost his parents. "We can't just leave her."


Kate sighed and loaded a grenade into the pulse rifle.
"Fine... Let's blow her out of that hole she's hiding in," Kate said. She stopped and took a look at James a moment and giggled. "I'm just kidding. I'm not going to kill her a third time. Kate knelt down and easily vanished into the shaft that the girl crawled into. One of the upsides to being small was that she was the same size as Newt and easily able to glide into the small space under the main deck where Newt had been hiding. In the corner, Newt held her dolls head and shook with terror while Kate looked around the room. It was filled with practically everything her parents had given her. Somehow the little girl had stashed her whole life into a small space. Kate pulled a 4th grade award with her name on it; Rebecca Jordan.

"Okay, so, I already know your name is Newt. Sorry for earlier. Long story short, you won't survive very long in here. Especially since we're going to go crazy and nuke the place. So -- come on," Kate reached her hand out and pulled at the suspenders of the girls coveralls. Within minutes, the two petite figures re-emerged from the subterranian shaft and met back up with James.

"Okay, so, what now?" Kate said as she gave Newt a big hug. The girl's bright blue eyes widened as if terrified of Kate as she gave her that happy hug.

James looked around. "Assuming we were supposed to go after Newt, I suppose we're to get her to safety as per the program?"

Kate nodded a little.
"We're supposed to seek out the rest of the colonists and see if they're alive or not " Kate leaned down and tapped the tip of her finger to Newts nose, "... spoiler alert. They're all dead. So!" Kate stood up straight while Newt started to cry. "... we can run thoguh the simulation pretending we don't know that, or, we can beat the game right here. Hehe."

"Tactically speaking that would warrant an investigation" he looked at the kid before turning to Kate. "We probably shouldn't risk her life any further."

A few minutes later, Kate had thrown Newt into the Armored Personnel Carrier that the simulation had created for them to drive directly into the heart of the atmosphere processing facility after they had found the Personal Data Transmitters of nearly all the colonists. Kate was at the wheel with a smile on her face while Newt squeezed her terrified self into the smallest back corner of the troop transport hold in the back.

"This looks perfectly safe! Right?" Kate commented with liberal sarcasm.

Phoenix sat shotgun in the truck. He had his hand on the grab handle like a parent riding shotgun with their child for the first time. "Yeah it sure seems safe" he quipped.

The door to the APC opened and she stepped out onto the metal grating of the atmosphere processors surface level. The motion sensor showed that nothing was moving and the simulated individual inside the APC gave them directions on which way to walk in order to reach the lower levels and find the PDT's.

"You remember this part of the movie, right?" Kate asked Phoenix just to make sure he knew what he was in for. "Sometimes I wish I could erase the memory of a flim from my mind so that I can experience it fresh, you know?" Kate said as they made it to sub-level four where the Xenomorphs changed the interior into their hive. "Yep! This looks scarier than on a screen!" Kate said with a shiver in her voice.

"Nope" he said with the same shiver. "I made sure to forget this film besides the lore. These aliens always gave me the heebie-jeebies" James added. "Luckily three and a half centuries frozen in space helps with that."

"I envy you, Baskin and Robins... You get a genuine scare and I get to anticipate what I know's about to happen." Kate said this while moving forward into the Vagina-like opening of H.R. Geiger's realized-nightmares. "Remember not to touch nothing, this has nothing to do with LV 426's Dry Heat," Kate had to say it despite it being a joke layered upon the sarcasm of an actor long since departed. "If I remember correctly, we go straight ahead and take a left on a 317... I'm so cheating. I even remember the directions." Kate tried to laugh but it was still scary. "It's only the holodeck... Nobody ever dies in a holodeck... Just a simulation - yes yes yes... Simulation..." She kept repeating to herself as she slowly moved forward with Phonenix, pulse rifle in hand.

He pointed the shotgun ahead of himself. He chuckled nervously. "I sometimes envy your optimism Kate."

Kate looked around and got on the radio.
"Bishop," she said while prssing the PTT button on her chest.
"Go for Bishop," the Holographic representation of yet another Ai replied.
"Take Newt and stow her in the back away from the screens."
"Understood," Bishop's voice replied back into her helmet.

Kate stepped forward into the coccoon area where several dead colonists were strung up with fiberglass-like secretions.

"Not that one... Not that one..." Kate said to herself before stopping on a female colonist with nearly the same haircut as her. From memory she nodded to herself. "That's the one!" Kate flicked her nose and the colonist spurng to life suddenly. Kate still flinched even though the slende Asian Cameron-Fan knew it was going to happen.

"Kill m....!" The colonist exclaimed.
"Alright!" Kate blew her away before she could even finish her plea for death. Her chest expanded and melted as the Acid-Infused alien chestburster melted through the corpses mangled lower intestines and her legs fell away as they separated from the rest of her body through introduction of the costic liquid that made up the being she harbored.

"Time to run!" Kate ran past Phoenix in a zip as the walls around them began to move where the Xenomorphs awakened.

His eyes widened. "Oh f*ck no I'm out of here!" He called out as he caught up to Kate and sprinted past her.

Kate's smile turned to concern when she realized that she was out-ran, which means that she was closer to the things that wanted to eat her than he was, which made her push herself to run faster. They rounded the corner quickly and dove into the APC shutting the door just before the hatch shook with multiple colissions from the other side.

"Road Trip!" Kate screamed to Bishop.

The second Phoenix dove into the APC, he busted open the top hatch, and as soon as they started moving, he began firing at the aliens from the hatch.

Kate ran toward the cockpit of the APC and watched as Bishop expertly drove the APC out into the open areas of Hadley's Hope, through the dessolate terrain and out in the open where they could get picked up by Ferro and Spunkmeyer, the pilot and co-pilot of the Chyeanne Class Dropship.

"Hey Ferro! How are you!?" Kate said after slapping the PTT button on her chest.

"Good, why?" The pilots voice rang into her helmet.

"Good, good... Hey! Did you park more than three hundred meters away from the LZ like I asked?"

"Yeah we did! I don't know why you wanted us that far!" Ferro exclaimed.
"Don't worry about it. I just saw the movie and wanted you safer. PIck us up at Bullseye 001 - 200."

"One-Two-Hundred. Oscar Mickeymouse..." The voice rang back.
Kate tapped Bishop's shoulder and turned around to Phoenix and Newt.
"It's time to blow this sodapop stand!" She said.

"Oh dear god" Phoenix said as the APC rounded another bend rapidly, which threw him to the floor of the APC. He groaned rhetorically, "Why don't these bloody things have seat-belts for the main gun?"

Kate giggled at Phoenix and his stance on bad design work. She knew he probably understood the answer to that question and just asked it rehtorically.

"Computer," She said. "Implement all characters that were in the story eh, mnus Ripley. We're running this show this time around and with her around we can't run it into the ground."

There was a beep and all the other characters appeared. Only this time, Hicks' arm wasn't burnt from Acid, and Gorman wasn't knocked out.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Gorman yelled at Kate. She looked at him with veins popping out of his head almost.

"Getting the team out while we have the chance," Kate said.
"Yeah, man! We just got our asses kicked out there. Why did it take these two people to realize we needed help?" Hudson asked despite not knowing where the two Starfleet Officers came from.

"Uh," Carter Burke folded his arms of his checkard shirt and pointed at Phoenix and Kate. "Anyone mind telling me... Where... These guys came from?""

"We're just part of the colony," Kate explained. "We worked at a different site."

Phoenix picked himself up. "Private security" he added.


Kate winked at Phoenix and giggled a little despite the looming danger just outside the hull. They waited for the dropship to arrive as she laid down flares for the improvised landing site. Before Kate could jump back into the APC in preporation of just having Bishop drive into it's bay, Kate caught the glimpse of a looming dark shadow in the cockpit and rapid movement in the Cheyanne Class Dropship.

"Those stupid holodeck programmers made it happen no matter what?!" Kate exclaimed as she dove back into the APC and shut the door just as the APC spun out of control with it's dead pilot in the cockpit. "Everyone brace!" She screamed. There was a flash outside and Bishop slapped the four-point release harness to roll out of the drivers seat and hit the floor just as the entire vehicle rocked violently as a wave of rocket-fueled flame wafted over the armored windows followed by debris that sounded like hard rain on the outer hull. Kate knew that the holodeck programmers would also make it so that the transmission axle would be broken in this crash in order to get the storyline back on track from their meddling.

"So much for changing the narrative," Kate mumbled while shielding Newt from danger in some strange instinctive way.

Phoenix slid forward from the impact before he had the chance to pick himself back up. He impacted the front seats rather hard, despite the holodeck safeties being on. "Sorry for dropping in" he groaned.

Kate playfully punched Phoenix and giggled.
"Shhh! My favorite part!" Kate said as she observed Hudson stumble out of the APC and pick up a piece of half-burning debris. He looked on with a dazed confusion and panic lined his face.

"That's great! That's just flipping great, man! Now what the heck are we supposed to do!" He moved forward and threw the Cheyanne Dropship wreckage to the side. "We're in some real pretty crap now, man!"

"Wait!" Kate said... Hudson looked on at Kate with even more confusion as the slender Asian in Marine Armor walked up to him. "That's not what you said."

"What do you mean, girl! We're doomed, we're screwed! Like way beyond --," Hudson was interurpted by Hicks.

"Are you finished?!" Hudson warned.
"Hey," Burke walked over to Kate, Phoenix and Hudson. "Why don't we build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don't we try that?"

"No!" Kate stomped. "no, no, no.... What I mean is you're supposed to be dropping the F-Bombs and not sugar coating the..." Hudson shook his head. "That's because your SIM is PG-13 rated, Tyke... My language has to be watered down to comply with IDF guidelines! I ain't dropping no F-Bombs Kate! You can count me out."

"Yeah," Hicks nervously ran his hand through his spiked hair and shook his head at Hudson. "I guess we can count you out of everything right?"

"Damn right!" Hudson said.

Kate looked up at Phoenix all affectionately and swung her slender frame from side to side as if swooning. "He said Damn! hehee."

"I mean, a dam is a place" he said with a Jim Halpert smile.

Kate smiled and stepped out of the APC into the harsh tropical winds of LV426. Kate loved how the program could comprehend the fact that, in the story, the atmosphere processors had already transformed this hellish planet from a frozen landscape to perpetually wet and warm surface. Kate helped Hudson grab a few crates off of the wreckage of the dropship and they moved as a group back to the colony complex.

Once inside the complex, Kate realized that with Ripley not around, it was up to Phoenix and Her to fill in the void where the iconic character once stood.

"Hudson, get on that map thingy and catalogue all possible ways to get into this complex. Tell us the weapoints, and we will get welding," Kate looked to Newt, "You're grabbing all the MRE's, take Gorman with you since he didn't hit his head..."

"What do you mean 'didn't hit his head?' Hudson asked.
"Different outcome in this movie," Kate responded.
"What -- movie? What?" Hudson asked.

"Get on it!" Hicks said. He then looked to Vasquez.
"Once Hudson is done with the maps, take two welders and start working on it and I want you to take the two remote sentries and set them up on the other side of the pressure doors that lead to the main corridords out of the complex and into the compartment hubs. That's where they'll try and come at us in bulk."

Hicks then walked over to Phoenix and Kate.
"When was the last time you two got any sleep?"

"Story wise, a long time," Kate said.
Hicks pulled his watch off and Kate happily held her arm out, fully expecting the romance to begin but she was left hanging when he turned around and placed the watch on Newt. Kate stood there looking as if she had just been slapped in the face.

"Yeah, we'll.. Just be over here -- sleeping," The words dripped with insult as she grabbed Phoenix. "I'll be sleeping -- with this guy! Don't worry about me... At all. Really!" Kate hopped as she walked away with jealousy falling off of her.

James looked like a ghost. He whispered to Kate as he walked away with her. "I don't think Ben would be real happy about that."

Kate's eyes widened as soon as she realized that Phoenix got the wrong idea. She shook her head from side to side faster than if she had eaten a half-bag of SweetTart Candies.

"No no, nonono... I mean sleep as in the traditionl sense! Besides unless it's actually for the plot, every holodeck scene switch is can easily be accompanied by a moment of rest."

The holodeck suddenly shifted scenes to them standing inside the quarantine room within medlab. Newt was already sleeping under the cot, with Phoenix and Kate standing in front of the dividing glass.

"See what I mean?!" Kate then turned a little to observe where they were and then turned to Phoeix with an evil grin. "Remember what happens next? Quick!" Kate grabbed hold of Phoenix and they ran to the control room. Kate pulled a blasting cap and a trigger chip from one of the satchel charges.

"What the hell are you doing?" Goreman exclaimed.
"No time to explain! Come with us but be quiet! Shh!" Kate said while clipping the blasting cap in half with a pair of plyers and bending the tip off. Kate ran down the hallway where Hudson was guarding the exits.

"Hudson! I need your bypass thingie!" Kate exclaimed. Hudson was only half way unslinging it form his shoulder when Kate rapidly pulled it the rest of the way off. She opened the bypass computer and clipped it to the charging chip. She set it to remote and assigned it to HIcks' wrist watch transceiver.

"Hudson, get Hick's locator watch and bring it to me," Kate said.
"Who died and put you in charge?!" Hudson asked.
"Just do it come on!" Kate said while affixing the correct prefix code to the activation switch. "And give me a piece of your gum."

"Ma'an! You're asking way too much!" Hudson complained but he handed a stick over anyway. Kate immeadiately jammed it into her mouth while she closed up the bypass computer.

Hudson came back but Hicks was also in tow.
"What are you two up to?" Hicks asked. "You should be sleeping."

"Trust me!" Kate said while peeling the watch off of Hick's arm. "Just hide with me, wait, be patient, and shush!"

They all followed Kate back to Medlab where they hid behind the lab desk. Every time Hicks, or Hudson tried to talk, Kate held her finger to her lips. Kate ran out and stuck the blasting cap to the hydro-tube with the live face-hugger inside of it. She ran back and ducked behind the desk.

"You're really going to have to start opening up with me or else we're going to have some problems, girl," Hicks said. They all suddenly ducked down lower when the medlab doors opened. They watched as Burke quietly stepped into the room and checked on Newt through the glass. He seemed bothere by the fact that Kate or Phoenix wasn't in there with her but he didn't let that stop him. Burke opened the pnumatic doors to the quarantine room and hugged the tank.

"That's going to really hurt his back," Hudson whispered.
"ShhhH!" Kate slapped Hudson over the back of the head as quietly as she could while they watched Burke pick the container up.

It was then that Kate tapped the transmit key on Hicks' watch. The blasting cap for the satchel blew, and met nothing but tempered glass. The tube disentegrated in Burke's hands and the facehugger launched through the cascading water that splashed all over him and attached itself to Burke's face.

"Holy shit!" Hudson yelled.

At about the time that Hicks watched Burke fall over unconscious with the hugger attached to his face, Kate handed Hicks his watch back with a smug grin.

"That's how you screw up a movie," Kate nodded to herself happily.

At this point Phoenix was along for the ride. He wasn't complaining. "No sh*t" he laughed, amazed.

Kate's smile faltered as sweat beaded along her hairline.
"Sorry for leading you on," she whispered, her voice tight. "I've seen this nightmare play out too many times. Every death. Every scream." Her fingers trembled slightly. "Still don't know the whole Doctor Who thing though."

"Fascinating," Bishop's synthetic voice cut through the tension as he appeared in the doorway, eyes fixed on Burke's prone form, his expression unnervingly calm.

"He was going to sacrifice Newt for a payday," Kate hissed, her words dripping with disgust. "Infect her with that biological organism like she was some sort of Corporate Commodity to be experimented on."

"I told Burke it liked him," Hicks said, his voice a deadly calm that sent chills down Kate's spine.

The lights died with a sickening electrical groan. Darkness swallowed them whole before crimson emergency lights bathed everything in blood-red shadows, transforming familiar faces into grotesque masks.

"What's going on?" Gorman's voice cracked. "What the hell just happened?" His flashlight beam caught Burke on the floor, the facehugger's pale fingers twitching against flesh. "Burke?!"

Kate's throat tightened. "They're coming." She swallowed hard. "Get out in the corridors with the trackers. They've cut the power."

"Bullshit!" Hudson's eyes went wild, pupils dilated with terror. "How could they cut the power, man?! They're animals!" Spittle flew from his lips as panic consumed him.

"GO!" Kate's command echoed off the metal walls. She seized a pulse rifle, the weight of it both reassuring and terrifying. "This is where it all goes to hell," she whispered to Phoenix, the words barely audible over the pounding of her heart. She spun toward Bishop.

"Bishop, he's dead already. The uplink tower is our only chance." She thrust a repair kit into his synthetic hands, her knuckles white. "The processor's intact, but that won't matter if we're all corpses. The tower is our lifeline. They won't touch you."

"Won't touch me?" Bishop's usually placid features showed the faintest trace of doubt.

"TRUST ME!" Kate screamed, her voice breaking. "GO!"

"Do we go with her?" Phoenix whispered to Kate. "Or are we supposed to remain here?" He questioned, knowing the likely answer.

Hudson called on the radio not long after he left the room; their earpieces buzzing with his panicked voice.

There's something moving and it ain't us!

Kate pulled out a PADD and reviewed the movie script for a moment and then nodded at the screen just to make sure that she was doing what the were supposed to be doing.

"Computer, advance time just for Bishop. We goofed but we'll retcon the heck out of the situation and have him all the way at the uplink tower."

The computer beeped and acknowledged the change in timeline. Kate then clicked the radio.

"Hey Bishop! How long until rescure?"

Eighteen minutes! Dropship prep is complete and she's at the drop door from the Sulaco.

"Okay, standby. Break - Hudson, Vasquez, what's the story?"

Hudson may be right. Vasquez stated. I'm reading twenty-six meters and closing. Most certainly inside the barricade. They're in here with us somewhere...

"Okay, Hudson, Vasquez, get back in the room. We'll seal the door from the corridors."

Kate jumped up and down next to Phoenix with a big bright grin on her face.
"Having fun?!"

Phoenix simply shook his head. He was having fun, despite Alien being a horror film.

Hudson and Vasquez doubled back into medlab, their boots clanging against the metal flooring. Under the harsh blue emergency lights that cast eerie shadows across their sweat-slicked faces, they whipped out a portable welder that sparked and hissed with blue-white flame. The acrid smell of melting metal filled the air as they methodically sealed the door shut, the welder's glow reflecting in their wide, terrified eyes. Kate looked down at Newt, the child's pale face framed by tangled blonde hair, and realized that she had a line since Ripley wasn't a part of the story.

"Oh yeah, don't look at the light, it'll burn your retinas," Kate warned, her voice unnaturally cheerful against the backdrop of impending doom. She flashed a military-grade flashlight in Newt's face, the beam cutting through the dim room like a laser. Newt's pupils contracted painfully as she tried to avoid it, her small head jerking from side to side, tiny hands rising defensively. Kate giggled, the sound hollow and manic. "Look at this one instead. See there it is! Oop! Hey! Blinded by the light la la la!" Newt's dirt-smudged face twisted in confusion, her haunted eyes staring up at Kate like she was witnessing something incomprehensible. Kate's smile faltered as she realized that no matter what silly games she played, Newt was programmed to be traumatized in this story—the child's hollow-eyed terror ran too deep for flashlight play to penetrate.

Hudson's voice cracked as he stared at the motion tracker's pulsing blue display. "Nine meters," he screamed, sweat trickling down his temple, catching in his stubble. "Eight..." His eyes bulged as the signal jumped. "Four..." The device emitted rapid, shrill beeps that echoed off the sterile metal walls.

"Okay that's right outside the door!" Hicks barked, his jaw clenched so tight a vein throbbed in his neck. "Everyone back!"

The marines formed a semi-circle, boots scraping against the floor. Hicks, Hudson, and Vasquez raised their pulse rifles with practiced precision, the weapons' targeting lights dancing erratically across the sealed entrance. Gorman's hands trembled as he leveled his standard-issue pistol, the comparatively tiny weapon looking pathetic against the arsenal around him.

"Three meters!" Hudson's voice was now a strangled whisper.

Kate's eyes darted between the tracker and the ceiling, her fingers white-knuckled around her own weapon. "How could that be? It's inside the room!" The realization hit her like ice water. "Oh they couldn't possibly be in the dropdown ceiling, I mean, seriously who would have thought of that?! Right?" Sarcasm dripped from every syllable as Hicks dragged a metal chair across the floor with a nerve-shredding screech. He mounted it with military efficiency, the chair wobbling beneath his combat boots. Raising his rifle, he nudged a ceiling panel aside, revealing a pitch-black cavity above. His flashlight beam cut through the darkness like a knife, illuminating dust particles dancing in the beam while his eyes, wide with primal fear, searched the shadows for movement.

Phoenix calmed his nerves and focused past Kate. He moved slowly and started to aim upwards at the chasm that was the ceiling.

Before the program could continue, the intercom chirped. =^=Lieutenants Phoenix and Kono, please report to the bridge.=^=

James shrugged and turned to Kate. "Duty calls I guess" he said, walking out.

 

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