Unpretentious

Chapter One: Georgia

Chapter One: Georgia

Now that it has entered the atmosphere, the Betty flows smoothly down towards the surface. Call and Ripley are still in front of a window in the loading dock, from the other one, the one without the thermal glass, an acrid smell of burning comes, irritating the clone's nostrils. She approaches the young woman, puts her hand on her shoulder and grips lightly, in an encouraging way.

"Come on... let's join the others", she whispers tiredly.

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"Why the fucking fuck did you fucking kiss me, you son of a fucking bitch!", Vriess yells from the command seat. Call and Ripley share a look halfway amused and incredulous.

"Well, if it's not clear to you, we were about to lose our nuts! I just got caught up in the moment! Don't get any weird ideas, Ironside!"

"Well, glad to know, you fucking bastard son of a bitch! It was worse than kissing the filthy hairy ass of a baboon!"

"Yeah, well... I need to piss!"

The two women suppress the hilarity caused by that bickering, focusing on the immediate future. The clone sits on the second seat and grabs the stick, taking control of the shuttle. The Auton stands next to her, one hand clinging to the back of her seat, the other one resting on the edge of the control panel.

"Where should we go now?", she asks staring at the clouds that they're passing through.

"As far away from the crash site as possible, I'd suggest", Ripley replies, consulting the maps on the small monitor, "I have no clue what the situation is down there, do you know anything about it?", she asks, hoping for practical help.

The girl takes a step forward to reach the console, the narrow space forces her to press her leg on Ripley's, she doesn't pay much attention, but this invasion of personal space doesn't go unnoticed to the hybrid.

"Wow, be my guest, do you wanna sit on me?", her tongue is quicker than her thoughts, damn alien side! Call turns backwards, striking her with a glance.

"Oh, is that you? I thought it was Johner!", the tone in her voice is so harsh that the woman can only low her gaze, and for the first time since she can remember, she experiences a feeling that she identifies as shame.

"Oh, you two keep flirting, as if I wasn't here!", Vriess adds fuel to the fire, offended.

"Shut up! Both of you!", the young woman explodes, imposing herself to keep her eyes on the commands in front of her, "Do you two for real think it's time to mark territory?", she reproaches them, exasperated.

"Oh, hold on a sec, I'm not marking territory!", Vriess raises his hands in an innocent gesture.

Ripley, on the other hand, is silent, reflecting on Call's remark, aware of the fact that, at least as far as she is concerned, she admits herself, she has no wrongs at all! Of all the people with whom she has spent the few hours that make up her whole life, both those who have survived and those who are now gone, the only one for whom she feels a sort of affection is her, and it's much more than what she would have hoped for herself, since the first time she opened her eyes on board of the Auriga.

But it's not just the attachment, there's also something physical, she doesn't know if even in her previous life she was so instinctive or if the Ellen Ripley who gave her most of her DNA was more pragmatic. Nor what her sexual orientation was, - as if it mattered -, she says to herself.

Her brooding thoughts are quite absurd, she thinks, since the young woman is not even a human being! And yet, she doesn't care. She seems more human than all the others put together, perhaps only Hillard and Purvis were closed to it, in terms of sensitivity. Then she thinks back to Christie's gesture and the pain she perceived in Vriess's voice, and realizes that maybe her trust in others is a bit too poor. In any case, she knows she prefers Call to all of them and she's the only one from whom she wouldn't want to separate and with who wants to cultivate a sort of... something.