Alien: Isolation

Chapter Twelve: Waits and Marlow

A little disoriented when she awoke, Ripley had hoped that everything that had happened since arriving at Sevastopol had just been a horrible dream, since she was now lying on some kind of hospital bed. Yes, that had to be it; she had been doing a routine job, when something fell and smacked her on the head, knocking her out, and everything, the androids, the lunatics, the creature... all of it had just been a nightmare. Of course, this hope was shattered when she looked at the far wall across from her, and saw a propaganda poster that read:

COLONIAL MARSHALS

SEVASTOPOL STATION

"I gave you a clear directive not to land on this station, damn it!" A voice yelled from outside the room. "And now you wanna blame me for the Torrens getting damaged by one of my traps?!"

"And I told you, Marshal Waits, we didn't receive your message." Samuels' voice replied. "You should've stood down from whatever... detonation you had planned, the moment you spotted us."

As the argument continued, it now clicked in Ripley's mind that the explosion in the hospital had been from a trap set for the creature... as had been the explosion that damaged the Torrens. To be fair, the Marshal had sent a warning transmission, but that Apollo computer had blocked it as well as all external communications, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to give this Marshal Waits a piece of her mind.

She was feeling a little better as she sat up; the ringing in her ears and dizziness having completely faded away, and the hospital bed that she was in, turned out to be a basic life-support unit that was commonly issued to law-enforcement agencies like this one. There was also a second bed, where an unconscious Taylor was also resting. She appeared to be asleep, but her wound had been tended to, probably thanks to the trauma kit that Ripley had taken from San Christobal, so at least that much had been accomplished.

There was a shower toward the back of this room, which she desperately needed, since she was covered with blood, grease, and... other things... and someone had left her a clean jumpsuit as well, so she undressed and got under the water as the conversation outside continued. The water running over her head stopped her from hearing parts of it, but some Ripley could make out.

"So what is going on around here, Marshal?" Samuels' voice continued. "Where are your security forces?"

"You're lookin at them." Waits answered. "We're all that's left; that damn computer cut off comms, so between the looters, and everything else fucked up that's been happening around here, we're lucky that there's this many of us left."

She wished that there was more time to enjoy the flowing water, but as Verlaine had told her, there was only a total of twenty-four hours that the Torrens could remain in transit, so Ripley had to act fast. Drying off and getting dressed, she walked out of the room to find Samuels still talking with an older man who was most likely Marshal Waits. A conversation that was interrupted when they noticed her approaching.

"Well, well, if it isn't the one who ruined the trap." Waits said, adjusting his hat. "It was supposed to take the bait we left in the middle of the reception desk, but thanks to you, the thing barely got burned at all."

"Bait?" Ripley asked. "What could you have possibly used for... no, I don't wanna know. But I have seen the creature... what is it?"

Now there were a few conflicting theories in response to her question, but one fact remained constant. They believed that it was some kind of parasite that was brought onboard by a man named Marlow, the Captain of the Anesidora. That was the name of the ship that she had seen on Patient Zero's charts, and apparently there had been something inside of that woman... that wanted out pretty badly. From the little bit that Waits could tell her, the creature had started out really small, but that had changed very quickly over a short time.