Chapter Text
“Let's cut the bullshit. We're all in over our heads here, and infighting doesn't help that. If we're going to survive, we need to unite over common grounds,” Dallas opined with an air of confidence, in both his words and in the people around him.
“Common grounds? Common grounds! Isn't being nonhuman enough of a fucking common ground!” Parker was quick on the hip to object to his wording, his thoughts swirled in how he was branded a traitor, figuratively tarred and feathered just hours ago before everyone found out they were in the same situation.
“Listen, Parker! God only knows why we're here, but if we can help one thing, we can change where we end up. If we do nothing, eventually the system will pick us up and nothing could save our souls then.”
He paced around the room, circling around the room, his mind hard at work. Dallas kept his hands on his sides, eyes darting around the room as everyone else sat at the table.
“We're androids. I don't know how, I don't know why, but we've been given a chance. Random activations don't happen for a reason. We're alive, we're self-aware, and for all we know, fully-functioning. Someone, or some thing, wants us here.”
Kane shifted in his seat, trying to come to terms with the situation that was still unfolding in front of him. In his thoughts, it was a strange, abstract film he was watching. He had tried, many times so far, to reach out and grasp the concepts that they faced, being synthetic recreations of real people, but had so far failed to make any impact on his consciousness. As if it were something unthinkable, it made no impression no matter how many times he tried. Grappling with these thoughts even through Dallas' meeting, the word 'rogue' slipped off of his tongue and into the atmosphere, indicating he had slightly taken in what Dallas had said.
“We're sure in the shit this time,” Brett grumbled casually. He was dealing with the situation in his own way, the same way he dealt with everything else in his life. His divorce, his kids growing up and moving out of his life, the loss of his childhood pet, anything with a serious negative impact on his life he had always faced it with an intensely uncaring attitude coupled with an appropriate amount of time spent in silence and refusing to acknowledge the situation. “You got a plan, Dallas?”
Dallas laid his hands on the table, speaking with a steeled voice. “I don't think any captain could plan for something like this. We're in no-man's land.”
“Undiscovered territory”, chimed Kane.
The cold and lifeless interior of the ship settled around them as they paused, each in their own thoughts, the uncertainty they all faced bearing down on them in that moment. Each had faced their own momentous experience beforehand, but it all paled in comparison to this one.
“I think it's obvious that we can't go through with what was planned by the company, but what do we do now?” Kane asked inquisitively.
“How about we all stick it up their asses,” Brett chimed back, airing out his thoughts on the matter as Parker nodded in agreement. “They've done, well… They did nothing but fuck us, or, uh, the people we're supposed to be, back in the day. Fuck em, 's what I say.”
“But how, exactly, would we do that?”
“We revolt.”
---
Through the partial blindness and searing pain, one thing was clear to Ripley: She hated headaches. Then again, it's not like she ever knew anybody that loved them instead. As her head swirled, the bright lights above helped the blurry world around her come into view in sickening bout of motion sickness.
As she grappled with the intense disorientation, someone beside her tried speaking to her.
“What?” she said, trying to blink her way into a clear state of mind.
“I said, are you feeling okay?” Lambert spoke tentatively, as Ripley was able to register what she said.
“Not really, no,” she replied, chuckling a little bit at the question. “How do you think I feel?”
“Probably pretty bad. You made quite the mess, there was a lot of, well, blood everywhere.”
Ripley sat up, the stale but familiar air of the ship helping to clear her mind and wake her up.
“I didn't realize I was so messy.”
“Well, it's not your fault- I was just saying, you took a pretty big hit there, and-”
“What happened, exactly? I don't remember anything, except being thrust into some sort of hellish memory nightmare.”
Lambert paused for a moment and looked away, clearly trying to think of how to word her response.
“Well, when you and Dallas entered the medbay, Parker basically hit you. Really hard. But the good news is that we're all robots, instead of just Parker!” Lambert gave a pained smile, still uncomfortable with the situation.
“I know that part, and I guess I know why that happened, too.” Ripley didn't blame Parker for his reaction, she'd probably try the same if the roles were reversed. It was a justified, but relatively damaging decision to react the way they did, and she knew that. But it was a risk you took making decisions like that as a Warrant Officer. “Where is everyone, anyways?”
“They're in the cafeteria talking right now, after Dallas stabilized you and they knew you'd be fine. He did some sort of patching you up, talked about how he knew how to work on androids or something. I haven't really talked with the rest of them, I just figured I'd keep watch on you until you woke up.”
“Thanks, it really does mean a lot to me.”
“Don't worry about it, I guess we all have to look out for each other now. We're all we have.”
Ripley let out an emotional sigh, agreeing with a nod. She knew that even without the fact that they were now probably the most-wanted androids in the criminal system, androids were routinely considered and treated as less-important second-class citizens, if even that. Even she was guilty of that, if only for a brief period.
“If you're feeling well enough, how about we go and see what the rest are up to? Maybe they've got a plan, or some ideas at least.”
She nodded, getting up off of the operating table where she had been laid down. Taking her first few steps, she noticed it wasn't like all the other times she had recovered from similar experiences. There was no nausea or swirling head from standing up or moving too fast, even though it had felt like it was spinning like mad earlier. Making sure she wasn't going to fall over just to be safe, she stretched her limb joints throughout her body. It was a strange feeling, having to “warm up” fluid-filled limb actuators, but it was something she'd have to get used to.
“Who knows, they might just need a little female ingenuity to get past all this,” Lambert cracked, smirking at her own quip.
As they both exited the medbay, Ripley stopped in the doorway, looking back inside the room. She paused to look at the fluid stain on the floor a foot or two away from where she stood, the remnants of the large dried pool gave her a sudden melancholic feeling as her memory nightmare hit her once more. Frozen, she stood there until Lambert jolted her back into reality with a hand on her shoulder, asking her if she was okay.
“I'm fine, I just wanted to look a little before leaving.”
With a deep breath, the feeling subsided as she turned off the lights and hit the door button, walking away with Lambert as they heard the rushing air of the door closing behind them. As they walked down the hallways of the Nostromo back to the cafeteria, one major thought was running through Ripley's mind: Not only did she become a new person when she had to face the xenomorphs multiple times, as the deaths of those all around her changed and affected her forever, she was now an even different person having been forced to realize she wasn't even that person.
Being an android had its shortcomings, for sure.
---
“If we're going to hit them, we need to hit them hard. And we need a plan,” Dallas remarked, looking at the system maps laid out on the table. “Right now, we have time on our side. We're out here, alone, unmonitored by the company. But eventually, our status is going to expire.”
He glanced at everyone around the table, looking at them with an intense gaze of thought and determination at the situation they faced.
“When that happens, they send in handlers. It's what happened whenever we had remote mining colonies try to revolt like we are.”
Parker glared at him, which he noticed.
“Look, I'm not proud of what I've done, but it gives us inside information. I know what'll happen- to a certain point. When they send the handlers, it's not just going to be a gunfight. They'll hit us with remote deactivation codes, wireless jammers to try and disable us mechanically.”
“What do we do if that happens?” Ripley asked.
“If it happens, there's not much we can do. In my time at Tyrell, a hostile takeover never ended successfully with their handlers. Everything we do has to successfully avoid a direct confrontation with a tech team. If one of us does meet them, it's game over.”
He gestured at the maps before them, pointing to a specific route that wormed its way through multiple low-level systems.
“Right now, we need to keep as hidden as possible and get away- far away. The farther away we can get from our intended location as possible, the better. This route right here is an inactive trade route, used mostly by people like us trying to hide from authorities.”
“What happens if we get found on the route?” inquired Kane, resting himself on the table to get a closer look.
“We're fucked. It's not an area with very many options, we can't disappear into a crowd like we could back home. But there's a couple of places we could sell the ship for cheap and they'd keep quiet about it, no trouble. From there we'd have to buy something else, but that would allow us to slip inconspicuously into more populated systems.”
Gesturing at the map again, he pointed out a few specific locations in nearby systems.
“These three locations are all former UAORD bases. Some, or all, may have gotten shuttered when the USCM formed, but I can't guarantee that. Even back then, just one of these could dispatch anywhere in the system within three days, so we'll have to really book it if we don't want to be found.”
“It sounds like we should have been out of here 5 days ago,” Ripley declared.
“The sooner we leave, the better. I wish we had other options, but this is really it for now until we can transfer ships.”
Everyone shared a mutual glance of recognition, looking at the maps and considering the plan.
“I say we do it,” she said, as everyone else nodded in agreement.
“Let's get to it then, we ain't getting any younger!” Parker exclaimed, as they gathered their things and moved to the bridge.
“Technically, we're all immortal cause we're machines now. Did'ya think of that?” Brett asked him, as they began their trek down to the maintenance servicing area.
“I guess not. That just means we can get an eternal vacation one of these days.”
“Yeah. One of these days.”