His fingers reached for the door latch, froze without touching the metal. The latch was already turning, seemingly by itself. Almost paralyzed with fear, he staggered backward as the door was slowly opened from the other side.
The loud crack of a descending stinger was not heard by those in the annex.
Vasquez's grenade party had cleared the corridor long enough for Hicks to get the door sealed. It assured them of a few secure minutes, a holding gesture and no more. Now the corporal backed away from the doorway and readied his rifle for the final confrontation as something whammed against the barrier from outside, dimpling it in the middle. A second crash made metal squeal as the door began to separate from its frame.
Newt tugged insistently at Ripley's hand. Finally the adult took notice, forcing her attention away from the failing door.
'Come on! This way!' Newt was pulling Ripley toward the far wall.
'It won't work, Newt. I could barely fit in your hideaway The others have armour on, and some of them are bigger They won't be able to fit in there at all.'
'Not that way,' the girl said impatiently. 'There's another.'
Behind a desk an air vent was a dark rectangle against the wall. Newt expertly unlatched the protective grille and swung it open. She bent to duck inside, but Ripley pulled her back.
She glanced petulantly up at the adult. 'I know where I'm going.'
'I don't doubt that for a minute, Newt. You're just not going first, that's all.'
'I've always gone first before.'
'I wasn't here before, and you didn't have every alien on Acheron chasing you before.' She walked over to Gorman and swapped her rifle for his flamethrower before he could think to protest. Pausing just long enough to tousle Newt's hair affectionately, she dropped to her knees and pushed into the shaft. Darkness unknown confronted her. At the moment it felt like a comforting old friend.
She looked back past her shoulder. 'Get the others. You stay behind me.'
Newt nodded vigorously and disappeared. She was back in seconds, diving into the duct to crowd close to Ripley as the older woman started forward. The girl was followed by Hicks Gorman, and Vasquez. Between their armour and the big pulse-rifles they were hauling, it was a tight squeeze for the soldiers, but everyone cleared the opening. Vasquez paused long enough to pull the grille shut behind them.
If the tunnel narrowed down ahead or split off into smaller subducts, they'd be trapped, but Ripley wasn't worried. She had a great deal of confidence in Newt. At worst they'd have time to exchange polite farewells before drawing straws, or something similar, to decide who got to deliver the final coup de grace. A glance showed that the girl was right behind her.
Closer than that. Used to moving through the labyrinth o ducts at a much faster pace, Newt was all but crawling up Ripley's legs.
'Come on,' the girl urged her repeatedly, 'crawl faster.'
'I'm doing the best I can. I'm not built for this, Newt. None of us are, and we don't have your experience. You're sure you know where we are?'
'Of course.' The girl's voice was tinged with gentle contempt as though Ripley had just stated the most obvious thing in the world.
'And you know how to get to the landing field from here?'
'Sure. Keep going. A little farther on and this turns into a bigger tunnel. Then we go left.'
'A bigger duct?' Hicks's voice reverberated from the metal walls as he spoke to Newt.?Girl, when we get home, I'm going to buy you the biggest doll you ever saw. Or whatever you want.'
'Just a bed will be fine, Mr. Hicks.'
Sure enough, another several minutes of rapid crawling brought them into the colony's main ventilation duct, right where Newt said it would be. It was spacious enough to allow them to rise from a crawl to a low crouch. Ripley's hands and knees screamed in relief, and their pace increased markedly She kept banging her head on the low ceiling, but it was such a relief to be off all fours that she hardly noticed the occasional contact.
Despite their increased speed, Newt kept up easily. Where the adults had to bend to clear the top of the duct, she was able to stand and run. Armour clattered and banged in the confined tunnel, but at this point it was agreed that speed was more important than silence. For all they knew, the aliens had poor hearing and located them by smell.
They were coming up on an intersection where two main ducts crossed. Ripley slowed to fire a preventative blast from the flamethrower, methodically searing both passageways.
'Which direction?'
Newt didn't have to think. 'Go right here.' Ripley turned and started up the right-hand tunnel. The new duct was somewhat smaller than the colony main but still larger than the one they'd used to flee Medical.
Behind her and Newt, Hicks was addressing his headset pickup as they scuttled along. 'Bishop, this is Hicks, do you read? Do you read, Bishop? Over.' Silence greeted his initial query, but eventually his persistence was rewarded by a static-distorted but still recognizable voice.
'Yes, I read you. Not very well.'
'Well enough,' Hicks told him. 'It'll get better the closer we come. We're on our way. Taking a route through the colony ductwork. That's why the bad connection. How are things at your end?'
'Good and bad,' the synthetic replied. 'Wind's picked up a lot But the dropship's on its way. Just reconfirmed drop and release with the Sulaco. Estimated time of arrivaclass="underline" sixteen minutes plus. I've got my hands full trying to remote-fly in this wind.' An electronic roar distorted the end of his sentence.
'What was that?' Hicks fiddled with his headset controls. 'Say again, Bishop. Wind?'
'No. The atmosphere-processing station. Emergency venting system is approaching overload. It'll be close, Corporal Hicks Don't stop for lunch.'
In the darkness the soldier grinned. Not all synthetics were programmed for a sense of humour, and not all those that were knew how to make use of it. Bishop was something else.
'Don't worry. None of us are real hungry right now. We'll make it in time. Stand by out there. Over.'
Preoccupied with his communication, he almost ran over Newt. The girl had halted in the duct. Looking beyond the girl he saw that Ripley had stopped in front of her.
'What is it, what's wrong?'
'I'm not sure.' Ripley's voice was ghostly in the darkness. 'I could swear I saw—there!'
At the extreme limit of her flashlight Hicks made out a moving, obscene shape. Like a ferret, the alien had somehow managed to flatten its body just enough for it to fit inside the duct. There was additional movement visible beyond the invader.
'Back, go back!' Ripley yelled.
Everyone tried to comply, jamming into each other in the confined tunnel. Behind them the sound of a grating being torn apart echoed through the duct. The grating collapsed with a sharp spanggg, and a deadly silhouette flowed through the resultant opening. Vasquez unlimbered her flamethrower and bathed the tunnel behind them in fire. Everyone knew it was a temporary victory. They were trapped.
Vasquez leaned to one side and stared upward. 'Vertical shaft right here. Slick, no handholds.' Her tone was clipped, matterof-fact. 'Too smooth to try a chimney ascent.'
Hicks broke out his cutting torch, snapped it alight, and began slicing through the wall of the duct. Molten metal spattered his armour as sparks filled the confined tunnel with lurid light Vasquez's flamethrower roared again, then sputtered out.
'Losing fuel.' From the other direction the column of aliens continued to close on them, their advance slowed by their need to squeeze through the narrow walls.
Hicks had three-quarters of an exit cut in the side of the tunnel when the portable torch flickered and went out Cursing, he braced his back against the opposite wall of the duct and kicked hard. The metal bent. He kicked again and it gave way. Without pausing to see what lay on the other side, he grabbed his rifle and dove through the opening.