The story of the universe "Aliens". The background to the events where the action takes place on the ship "Nostromo" is described in my story "Breath of xenomorph".

2147, the satellite of the Solar System "Titan", research station X-310 "Forgeit", property of the Weyland-Utani company, number of employees - 457 people.

Behind a thick layer of armored glass sat an alien creature that embodied the most nightmarish ideas of humanity about extraterrestrial life. It was large, bigger and taller than a man. Black shiny body, elongated head without any sign of the eyes. Well developed jaws with a row of sharp gray teeth. Transparent, sticky saliva constantly dripped from the mouth. In addition, the creature had a long tail consisting of many segments, the last of which resembled a spearhead.

At the moment, there were two people in front of the camera: an elderly professor in a white coat and a middle-aged man in a business suit. First name was Fidley Scott, the last twenty years he worked for Weiland-Yutani, doing not the most legitimate research in the field of biotechnology. The second was the director of promising technologies, Michael Erton, who was recently engaged in an incredible discovery of the company: an ancient alien ship discovered on planet LV-426, in the Zeta Grid system.

When an unidentified signal was caught from the surface of the planet, the company immediately sent its cargo ship Nostromo there. The crew descended to the surface and inspected the ship, finding there the skeleton of a huge alien in the pilot's seat and many objects similar to large leathery eggs that were stored in the cargo hold. One of the crew members was attacked by a parasite that clung to his face. Subsequently, an alien creature that quickly grew to a large size burst from a human chest. Subsequently, it killed almost the entire crew of the ship. Only the security officer, Ellen Ripley, survived. She managed to lure the creature into the airlock and then throw it into outer space. She again sent Nostromo to the solar system and lay down in anabiosis chamber. To her misfortune, the onboard AI still sent an encrypted data packet on its way to the system. Weiland-Yutani sent her special stripping group, which was the first to board the ship. They kidnapped the camera of anabiosis together with officer Ripley, copied the onboard computer data and replaced it with new ones, which contained nothing about the finding of LV-426 on the planet and the alien organism. According to the new version, the whole team died as a result of an explosion that completely destroyed the compartment with anabiosis capsules.

Weiland-Utani received all the necessary information about the find. Of particular value were recordings from hidden surveillance cameras, which recorded, among other things, how officer Ripley got rid of the alien creature.

Using the data, Weiland-Yutani sent a well-prepared expedition, which returned with the eggs of an alien organism and delivered them to the satellite Titan. The company intended to acquire new technologies and outrun all its competitors. The planet LV-426 itself was very rich in rare natural resources, so it was decided to establish several large colonies on it.

- Why are they different from each other? - Michael Erton asked, examining images of several alien individuals.

“Most likely it’s just polymorphism, like that of ants,” explained Fidley Scott. - In addition, they acquire some signs of an organism that “endured” them, so to speak.

“Recently, Professor, you have not seen any progress in studying the object,” noted Michael Erton.

“It's a stranger,” said Fidley Scott with a strange smile.

- What else is "alien"?

- So we call them, "strangers."

“Listen, I don't care what nicknames you give them.” You have already raised as many as ten individuals, including two from human bodies. But these creatures only eat and pull resources from the company, not to mention the danger from the System Security Service, which has long been sharpening our teeth.

- You have already received data on macro-energy acid compounds, they are capable of carrying an incredible amount of energy.

- Yes, but ...

- In addition, their digestive system is essentially a universal reactor that can process absolutely everything: any organic matter, metals, and even silicates. Wouldn't you like to get him?

“... but according to our estimates, it is more profitable for the company to throw the resources on a study of an alien ship, which will give a much faster and more reliable result,” Erton said in a cold tone.

- Listen, you can squeeze out much more from "alien" than from a half-collapsed ancient ship!

“Perhaps Professor Scott, but in a very distant future,” Erton said, leaving the observation deck.

Fidley Scott was extremely angry: his research had long been under the threat of complete freezing. Recently, he really failed to advance in the study of these incredible creatures. At first everything went smoothly: he dissected a couple of beasts and got a lot of data that interested the management of the company. But the matter stalled at the stage of studying the Aliens life cycle. The number of eggs found on the ancient ship was limited, and new ones were simply nowhere to be found.

Obviously, there must have been a female alien - a womb large enough to produce these eggs with parasites. But all individuals received at the moment were males. Fortunately, it was possible to identify a number of features of the sexual organs of others, which indicated the ability to change sex. The snag was that none of the individuals were going to be reborn as a female, which could just be a lot of reasons: the surrounding temperature was not suitable, the absence of any elements in the diet, and so on. But Fidley Scott was still convinced that the matter was something completely different. The creatures were adapted to live in the most extreme conditions, and, consequently, should also reproduce there.

The tense train of thoughts of the professor was suddenly pierced by one guess, or rather only her shadow. He recalled the circumstances of the death of the first copy of the Alien, who was on board the ship Nostromo. Professor Scott returned to his office and ordered the AI ​​to display the recordings of the last twenty minutes before officer Ripley threw the individual into outer space. The professor's excitement and joy grew every second as he watched what was happening on the screen, where a black monster was raping a naked, helpless girl. Someone else had time to download into Ripley literally liters of sperm in all the holes. It was not clear why he took her for a female, because he simply killed the rest of the crew and ate it. Perhaps it was that at that moment she was completely naked, but this was too primitive an assumption. The professor felt that the solution was somewhere nearby, it was necessary only to dig a little ...

- What did he do?! Exclaimed Michael Erton, sitting at the table in his office.

“I got officer Ellen Ripley out of the cryocapsule, the one that was taken from the board of Nostromo,” the station security chief John Cooper reported.

- Does he have few problems? - the director Erton was indignant. - What the hell Ripley left alive and kept until now, it was necessary to immediately get rid of it!

“Judging by the report, the head of the operational group decided that it represents a certain value for finding out the details of what happened on the ship,” Cooper replied dryly.

Michael Erton rose from the table and took a decisive step towards Professor Scott’s laboratories, pushing random station workers along the way.

- What are you doing, professor? - hissed director Erton, once in the laboratory. - Have you lost your mind?

“Oh, take it easy, Erton,” said Fidley Scott in a confident tone.- By the way, I just found something that will interest the company.

- Rather, it will interest the PRS, if they somehow get wind up about that ...