A common tavern that connects all fantasy worlds

This is the characteristic of this era, the power of the state is held by private companies in various ways.

"... Now, Ms. Ripley will introduce you to the enemy we will face." Goldman finished his short meeting speech and handed over the right to speak to Ripley.

Ripley took a step forward, looked at her audience and said, "I can only tell what I know... There is an alien life form on LV-426. When it was first discovered, it was egg-shaped, with arthropods inside the egg. The creature is attached to your face and cannot be removed by normal means.

"...we believe it injected some sort of parasitic organism into the victim's body through the mouth in the process, because within hours it burst out of Kane's chest, consuming all of his internal organs.

"In 24 hours, the thing had grown to 20 feet long, was covered with a head armor hard enough to resist bullets, was extremely fast, had the strength to tear a full-grown man in half from the waist, and could not lose to any earth The hunting instinct of the beast, and the strong acidic blood, can corrode the 8-inch thick alloy floor in a few seconds. It killed all the crew members on the Nostromo I served in this period."

"Just one?" Vazquez, who was of Latin descent, asked one of the only women in the group.

Ripley knew what she was asking, and nodded: "Just one, one monster, destroyed the entire crew. But before Kane was parasitized, we found that the unit of 'hundred' was on LV-426 eggs... So, if the immigrants placed by the company encounter those things, we will probably never find them again."

However, some members of the Marine Corps scoffed at her story.Before disbanding, she clearly heard a contemptuous voice whisper: "Coward."

The young Lieutenant Goldman of the Marine Corps was very dissatisfied with this. He put on a face of "that's okay", glanced at the Marines, and said word by word: "You asked for it. Tomorrow morning at 8:30 , I want to see you get ready and assemble here. Disband!"

Ripley was not angry.She has already said what she should say, and the rest... the team will understand when they see the real thing.It would be even better if there was no alien encounter this time, but it was found out that the 70 households in the colony lost contact for other reasons; It doesn't matter if you are a coward.

Ever since she saw that thing, she has always had a fear that cannot be easily erased.She can't help thinking, if that kind of thing reaches the earth, will human beings perish directly?Compared with that kind of creature, human beings are too fragile and primitive.

Thinking of the former crew members, she felt bitter in her mouth again, and wanted to drink a glass of wine to press down.

The crowd dispersed, and Advisor Ripley once again had nothing to do, so she put her hands in her pockets and wandered around in the empty spaceship.

This is the first time she has seen such a big battleship.

The scale here is like a small fortress, a steel fortress floating in space, even if there are hundreds of passengers, it can fully accommodate, but this time there is only one combat team and one company representative on board, one from 57 years ago. Advisors, and an android.

It may be that the company thinks that the 70 families in the colony are still alive, and wants to transfer all personnel and materials through the Sulaco.

This huge battleship even has two airports, and an empty ground shuttle is parked right here.Tomorrow morning at 08:30 earth time, a group of people will take this shuttle to land on LV-426.

Just as she was standing on the corridor on the second floor, leaning on the railing and looking at the shuttle, a calm and magnetic voice sounded behind her.

"Ms. Ripley... We will be leaving tomorrow morning on earth time. I suggest you rest."

The Bishop stepped out of the shadows, a wrench still in his hand.He does not need to sleep, and he will adjust the required equipment in advance when the marines are falling asleep, so that the team can quickly enter the state as soon as they land and perform tasks with maximum efficiency.

"I went to bed early enough."

Ripley replied, turning to face the android warily.

The bishop smiled, and was about to come up to say something, but found that the woman opposite immediately took a step back.His smile turned into helplessness, he put his hands where the other party could see, stood still, and raised his voice slightly: "I have read the task record you submitted in the company's database, and I can understand your request. Worrying. However, Ash is the last generation of bionics, and I belong to a different model. His logic prioritizes obeying the company's orders. The priority principle is the safety of human life, don't worry that I will do anything to harm you."

"I wouldn't trust a robot that couldn't even control what it was thinking," the woman said.

"...I can decide my own thinking, ma'am." The bishop had to retort, "It's just that this thinking mode has been 'defined' in advance for your safety. , herd mentality and other factors draw boundaries in thought, not so different from me.”

Ripley pursed her lips: "...a robot that can think of these things by itself is even more unbelievable."

The bishop looked at her in confusion, and continued to ask: "Then what do you want the bionics to be? You are our creators... You can change our settings before the next batch of bionics leaves the factory. You can even decide our character, For example, I have a 'missionary' personality who likes to explain my thoughts to others and likes to pay attention to other people's emotions."

After saying this, seeing that Ripley didn't respond to him, he smiled embarrassedly, shook the wrench in his hand, and walked down the stairs quickly... He still has work to finish tonight.

I wish there were no bionics in this world...

Ripley said so in her heart.

But she also knows it's hard to do.Bionics, born to serve human beings, will only obey the company's orders, and do not need salary or other benefits. The cost is much lower than that of employees...especially when the technology is getting more and more advanced and the output is getting higher and higher Under the circumstances, the company will not give up the bionic man plan.In the next ten years, there will only be more androids in various positions in the company than there are now.

Think about it, the company wants to revoke Ripley's pilot license and has to hold a hearing. If she is replaced by a bionic person, can't she just say a word?The company wants to take the alien larva back for research, but it still has to hide it. If the crew on the Nostromo were all bionics, wouldn't they have been able to transport all the eggs back from the beginning?

Maybe many employees don't want to work with bionics, because the more bionics pretend to be human, the more terrifying it is. Ripley still can't forget how disgusted she felt when she knew Ash was a bionic.

It's just that they're not here to work with you... they're here to replace you.

She stood on the second floor for a while, watching the bishop quickly check the shuttle with a more serious and responsible attitude than anyone else, and silently retreated into the shadow behind him.

The bishop with a keen sense looked up at the empty second floor, then turned his head and continued to tighten the screws of the insulating door of the landing gear under the shuttle.

When he talked to Ripley about his thoughts and emotions just now, he was very grateful that he still had them.

Some people think that androids don't have souls... But if you ask him to say it, he thinks he has one.The soul in the human mouth is nothing more than the accumulation and organization of electrical signals, an illusion caused by specific emotions overwhelming logical thinking.

Speaking of which, he would try to repair his relationship with Ripley, would think of things that had nothing to do with work when he was alone, and would want to be recognized by humans. Is this a manifestation of "soul"?

Here comes the problem again... If even these are designed by the "creator", that is, human beings, then what to say?

Relying on his calculation ability and the accuracy of executing instructions, the bishop completed the scheduled work while thinking about unimportant things.

He even had time to load some of the weapons into the shuttle in advance before the marines recovered their energy and assembled again.Compared to the 100-odd years of FTL engines on the road, those few hours go by so fast.

In this remote galaxy, there is no sunrise to tell the time, and the marines are all woken up by the alarm clock, and they are still cursing when they arrive at the airport.

But the bounden duty of a soldier is to obey orders, and soon everyone has brought all the equipment and boarded the landing vehicle in the shuttle, ready to head for LV-426.

Chapter 5 Orphans in the Dead City

The rescue operation looked more and more like a mistake from the very beginning.

Lieutenant Goldman of the Marine Corps looked young and didn't have much experience. In fact, he had less experience than everyone imagined. He was so nervous that he was sweating profusely when the shuttle was about to land.Ripley couldn't help asking, and the answer she got was "This is the second time I've actually landed on an extraterrestrial planet."

The Marines chewed gum and looked disapproving.This team seems to have perfectly inherited the fine traditions of the American soldiers in the popcorn movie. They don't care who to save, they just want to know where to fire.

The company representative Burke sitting next to him kept rolling his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking, and seemed a little nervous, but this Ripley could understand...According to the company's regulations, his performance should be linked to this task Well, if the rescue operation can't be completed smoothly, then not only will he not work for nothing for three years, he may even lose the company's money.

Even Ripley is a little out of sorts.

Last night she went to another airport to check on another shuttle while no one was looking.After learning that even if there was no one on the Sulaco, the shuttle could be started remotely through the remote communication module, she felt a lot more relieved.

But even that's not safe...

In the entire action team, the most normal behavior was the bionic man "Bishop".

He focused and professionally reported the airflow conditions on the asteroid and the status of the shuttle to the flight officer, and helped the flight officer land in an open space in front of the LV-426 colony complex.

"The safety bar is unlocked! Check the weapons! Somebody wake up Hicks!" Sergeant Major Apeng shouted, kicking his subordinates from time to time, urging them to act quickly.

When the marines set off to enter the colonial building first, Lieutenant Gorman, as the commander, will temporarily stay on the shuttle, and remotely dispatch and command through the cameras and radios on the team members; other non-combatants will also temporarily stay here Just wait for the crisis to resolve before starting to act.

Ripley also unbuckled her seat belt, and bent down to the porthole of the shuttle that had just been opened.

What appeared in her field of vision were several huge buildings. The top of the triangular cone was a flat air tank, and pipes with a thickness of more than ten meters were crawling on the concrete surface. The sound of rumbling electric current echoes along the pipeline and reaches the air tank, making these buildings roar like monsters, and then spit out a large amount of gas with a puff.

"Atmospheric modulator?" Ripley asked.

"Not bad." Burke, the company representative who came close to her, replied, "The top mechanical engineering creations, fully automated, produced by the company, have created the most suitable atmospheric environment for humans and various earth creatures on this asteroid. There are even There is weather, have you seen that dark cloud in the sky... LV-426 already has its own microclimate, and the distance to a complete habitable planet is just transplanting plants. Oh, of course, the temperature is also a problem... There is a little temperature difference between day and night here If it is too large, it may need constant temperature modification.”

"How long has it been running?"

"More than ten years. 20 immigrant families first arrived 70 years ago, and their residences were first established... Over there, the Marines are going inside."

Burke pointed to the other window, and Ripley hurried over.

Compared with the giant building just now, the residence of the company's colonial team is not so conspicuous, but it is also one giant steel building after another, with a height of six or seven floors.On the outside of the building, there are still functional modules that must be possessed before the atmospheric transformation is completed, such as the giant air pipe needed for survival, the movable armor sheet that can be raised and lowered freely outside the window, the water circulation system, the anti-radiation coating, and so on.

The core of the building complex is an FTL engine, which is usually used to drive a large warship like the Sulaco to break through the speed of light, but just like a diesel engine can also be used to generate electricity...it can also reduce the output power, supply The energy needs of a colonial base for thousands of years.

Signal lights outside the building remained bright, and the base had not lost power.After circling in the sky just now, no one found any visible damage to the outer cladding. If they want to know what happened inside, they can only continue to wait for the report from the ground team.

"Oh, I just talked about the climate...it's raining."

Burke said aside.

Ripley took a look, and sure enough, raindrops began to crackle from the sky.

The gravity coefficient on LV-426 is 0.86, which is 86% of the earth's gravity at sea level. The speed at which raindrops fall is not much different from that of the earth. The speed of second... Who cares about this when they are idle?

But the rain came very quickly. The marine team had just reached the ground for a minute, and the surrounding environment had not yet been confirmed to be completely safe. The heavy rain had already formed a line, splashing water on their helmets.

"Vazquez!" shouted Sergeant Major Appon, "open the way!"

The female man Vazquez picked up the heavy machine gun in his hand and rushed out of the bunker first. Standing at the airlock on the north side of the building, he glanced around, checked the motion sensor on his wrist, and shouted: "Safety!" !"

Behind her, several soldiers quickly took their positions with submachine guns. After she pointed the end of the heavy machine gun firmly into the airlock, she made a gesture, cracked the combination lock, and opened the gate.

The messy scene in the core building immediately made the marines vigilant. Several holes were opened in the metal floor between the lower floor and the upper floor. layer.

Except for a few large holes that seemed to be corroded by concentrated acid, there were no traces of any living things, including human blood.

"Safe... let's go. Sergeant Major Apeng, the team, go to the main control room and wait for us to enter; leave two people at the airlock door to meet us. The radio call is over."

Lieutenant Goldman, who was in charge of the shuttle, said, took off the headset on his head, tightened the hat on his head, and beckoned Ripley and Burke to go together.

Ripley took a deep breath and jumped through the open hatch into the rain.

The colonial base is no longer the same, as if it has just survived a natural disaster such as an earthquake or typhoon.Except for the solid walls, almost all metal products fell crookedly on the ground, even the ceiling and the floor had several depressions, and there were occasional bullet holes and charred blackness from the flames on the walls.

The people here seem to have tried to block the passage with airlocks and heavy equipment, but they failed in the end, leaving only broken copper and rotten iron everywhere in the corridor; fortunately, the purpose of the alien is only to prey, so the central control room and the laboratory were not damaged. to too much damage.

When the soldiers of the Marine Corps escorted a few unarmed people in, the recorder in the central control room was still faithfully performing its mission, printing the operation log of the computer system on the record sheet and spitting it out. A thick pile of reports was left on the ground, and no one would come to pick them up again.

The same is true in the laboratory, the ugly and disgusting larva is well sealed in the sturdy glass jar, and it has not been broken.

"Is this the thing you said?" Burke, who followed in, asked, and after receiving Ripley's affirmative answer, he couldn't help but walked forward and looked carefully through the glass.

Ripley's eyes changed suddenly, but she quickly covered it up and turned her head in the other direction.

It just so happened that the Marines shouted outside the door: "There is something! It looks like a survivor!"

The people in the laboratory rushed out, but only had time to see a few team members cursing at a narrow vent.

"What's the matter? Report the situation, soldier!" Lieutenant Goldman asked immediately.

"There's a taupe thing that looks like a human being, but it's too short... before I could see it, it got in here!"

The Marines replied that they had too much equipment on them and were too strong to get into the ventilation ducts.

Ripley couldn't wait any longer, so she simply spread her hands towards Goldman: "Give me a gun and a motion sensor, I'll go in and chase."

Goldman didn't think about it, and ordered directly: "Hicks!"

After receiving the gun and equipment handed over by the soldier, Ripley chased into the ventilation duct without hesitation.

This pipeline should have been built after the atmospheric modification was basically completed, even here you can smell the heavy rain and mud outside.The breeze brushed over Ripley's temples, and several forked roads almost made her climb the wrong way. Only by biting the strap of the motion sensor in her mouth and barely checking the direction indicated on the screen with cross-eyed eyes, could she keep up with the road ahead. That could be the shadow of a survivor.

Finally, she caught the figure at a certain intermediate point in the ventilation duct.

As soon as she grabbed the shadow's clothes, she knew immediately...it was a little girl.She's not too thin, and there are all kinds of vacuum food packaging bags everywhere in the relay point. She can still find some food...but the food residues are being brought to this planet by humans - bacteria Digested with fungus, even in this well-ventilated place, there is a stench.

The girl was struggling in her arms, so Ripley had to hold her hands tightly and whisper in the little girl's ear: "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

After a long time, the little girl calmed down, or she had no strength to move anymore.

It's just that Ripley suddenly thought of the look in Burke's eyes she saw in the laboratory just now, and she suddenly felt a little unconfident, so she changed her words: "We are here to save you. You don't need to hide here anymore , I will send you to an absolutely safe place, where those monsters can never find you again."

Of course she can say that with certainty, because after sitting here, she has already seen the door... It's on the side of the ventilation duct turned upward, on the duct wall, behind the fan.

After learning that the time in the tavern is linked to her own subjective experience, she probably also had this guess... This door will appear when she needs it most.

After trying that the tavern did not allow any creatures to hurt each other, she felt that it was the safest place compared to being with Burke and the soldiers.

"Shh, baby... come on, let's escape from here." Ripley stood up holding the girl, and quickly picked up a photo from the box beside her.

Chapter 6 retreat

"Daiger, you go to Sao Paulo to buy some children's clothes, both inside and out. Cheetos, take her to take a bath...Where did you fish this child?"

The tavern ushered in the youngest guest so far, and the girls’ eyes were filled with stars. They wanted to come up and hug that fierce-looking little girl for a long time. When they heard the boss Xue Li’s order, they immediately moved forward. Go, squat down and comfort her well.

Ripley rubbed the little girl's messy long blonde hair and replied: "It's complicated, I have to go back quickly. If you want to know anything, ask her yourself. Don't scare her!"

"What if she scares us?" Xue Li also looked back at the little girl who was being led by Qiduo to the staff bathroom. Thriller works... that child is one of the most dangerous creatures.

Ripley didn't have time to linger here, she nodded at him, opened the door and went out without answering.

Xue Li babbled, went back to the back of the bar boringly, found a plate, and prepared some food, planning to feed the little girl after she finished her bath.

The child's defense was very strong at first glance, and he didn't know whether he would like to eat the food he prepared... He really lacked experience in dealing with children, and now he has amnesia, so he doesn't know what to say in a while.

[43. No. 43]

But after washing it clean and putting on the slightly larger clothes that Daige bought, the little girl calmed down a lot. After climbing onto the bar chair, she directly took the plate that Xue Li handed her, He grabbed the sandwich and ate it in big mouthfuls.

Daiger and Chito sat down on either side of her, looked at the little guy, and felt as if they saw themselves who were shrouded in endless fear some time ago.

"What did you tell her?" Xue Li couldn't help asking.

Before the two girls from the wasteland world could answer, the little guy raised his head and answered him while chewing: "She showed me the mark on the back of her neck and told me about you. So ...there really aren't those monsters here, are they?"

"No, there are no monsters here that can hurt you." Xue Li said, and couldn't help but glance at Elder Amelia who was sitting at the side of the bar.But the vampires have been pretty good lately, and the food they eat in this tavern is normal food for them, so there shouldn't be such a thing as "thirsty blood disease", right?

In addition, the mark on the back of Cheetos neck... is from Old Joe's brand.

As if he knew what the boss was going to say, Qiduo explained first: "Don't think that the child doesn't understand anything...she's fine."