I came up with this concept back in 1993. Since the subsequent films rendrered much of it moot, I never bothered to finish it, yet it has never gone away and pops up in my mind all the time. So, I decided it was time to get it done once and for all. Here is a brief taste, what do you think?
Falling, endlessly down a deep dark chasm, which should only take a few seconds seemed to stretch on forever in an endless drawn out finale. Some said that one’s entire life passes before their eyes shortly before their moment of death but oddly there was no memory before the horror that had consumed every moment of life.
At first at peace with the decision has the drawn out free fall continued unabated hope of imminent finality of which the end decision was so greatly desired.
Freedom would be at hand. An end to the pain, fear, and constant dread that had been a constant companion for far too long. Soon it would all be over they prayed.
With the blinding flash and a shocking buzz and whirr, this is not how they expected their final moments of sentient thought to end. Nor had they expected to have neither the sensation of cold nor the discomfort of bright light in their eyes.
Slowly, cautiously, Lieut. Ellen Ripley opened her eyes and found herself staring up at the lid of her cryo tube in the hold of the Sulaco and found herself with more questions than answers.
Cautiously sitting up, she could see the forms of Newt and Hicks begin to stir, and could smell the stillness in the air that had recently filled the chamber prior to their reawakening.
Memories of Clemens, Golic, and Dillon, and Fury 161 filled her head, as real as anything that was before her now. Ripley had heard of strange dreams in Hyper sleep before, hell; she had even experienced her share when serving on the Nostromo, but nothing was ever as detailed and lengthy of the nightmare she had just experienced.
The next few hours were whirlwind as she assisted Newt and Hicks with talking preparation. Although largely automated, task such as getting dressed, eating, and going over just what to report took up a large part of their time. Ripley decided against telling the others about her unusual dream and instead was warmed by the fact that the two that she had thought past were alive and well. While Hicks would need further medical care upon docking he did appear to be healing well and was certainly able to get up and about the ship thanks to the regenerative nature of hyper sleep in the medicine he been given prior to entering the cryotube.
They decided to leave what’s left of Bishop exactly where they had left him has to be better for the techs to recover him and provide him the best possible reconstruction options.
Looking out the view port anchor head station grew from a distant pinprick of light to a large sprawling structure that filled all the eye could see. Berkeley never been happier to see the earth as it spun slowly below them. For brief moment she worried that this too was a dream in which she would quickly wake up from and find herself back in free fall. She quickly decided to suppress those thoughts. Upon receiving the all clear from the ship’s computer she and her fellow survivors made their way to the nearest airlock to begin departure from the ship.
As the final door between the ship and Gateway opened, Ripley was not shocked to see the various corporate types and colonial Marine officers waiting for them.
One person however had her taken aback abruptly had her convinced that she was still trapped in a nightmare. How could that traitorous worm still be here, when I last saw him he was cocooned in the alien nest begging me for mercy and yet here he is standing in front of me.
The stranger before her obviously noticed her discomfort with the eerily familiar smile spoke to her. ” Ripley, let me help you with your apparent confusion, my name is Donald Burke, I’m Carter’s twin brother and we apparently have a lot to talk about”.
