"Nah, man," said Johner nervously. "We still got twelve minutes."

Lucas squirmed in Christie's grip. "These people don't run to a fucking schedule," he cried. "We gotta go. Now."

"Fuck that!" barked Christie angrily. "We didn't come here for nothing."

"Fine!" yelled Lucas back at him. "We can all die here together!"

Christie took Lucas by the shoulder and pushed the muzzle of his pistol up the hacker's nostril until he winced. The secrets of the coded data would die with him, Christie knew, but better it die with him than die with them all. St Just, however, was the voice of reason.

"Can you decode data back on our ship?" he asked Lucas.

"Sure," he said, his voice adenoidal. "Got the algorithms in my bag."

Christie looked to St Just, and then released Lucas with a shove.

"Alright," he decided finally. "Let's get."

Christie took the lead, thundering along the walkway until they reached the stairwell and then sliding down it in two bounds. Johner brought up rearguard, which was as much about keeping Lucas between them as it was watching out for the inevitable encounter with armed CAS troops. That encounter came in the arrivals lounge. No longer the picture of abandonment, it was now a thriving military stronghold spawning with near identical troops. Christie stormed into their midst, but backtracked in time to escape their indiscriminate fire.

Under the orders of one senior officer, a dozen men started out in pursuit. Something of a running battle ensued, with Christie and his companions being pushed back into the commercial sector. It suddenly occurred to Christie that they were not only being driven further from the Betty, but would also eventually be driven back in a circle to the arrivals lounge. He didn't know whether their pursuers were yet aware of this fact, but unwittingly or otherwise, they would force the pirates into a trap.

"We gotta find another way outta here," he said, stopping to reload.

Johner seized Lucas by the elbow. "You know another way out?" he growled.

Lucas shook his head desperately, but then said, "No, wait! The tunnels!"

"The what?" said Christie and Johner together.

"Quick!" hissed Lucas. "Follow me!"

With alternative suggestions at a minimum, Christie allowed the gangly hacker to take the lead with little reluctance. Proving to be a faster leader than Christie had been, Lucas picked up the pace as he forced his way through one bolted shop door and stormed through to the back of the shop. It took both him and Johner to smash through a second bolted door, which was wooden and was shattered by the impact. They followed him down a series of steps into something of a dank cellar set into the cold, hard stone beneath the colony complex.

"Here," said Lucas, stopping for breath beside a humming refrigerator.

Christie became suddenly dubious. "What the fuck are you trying to pull?"

"No," cried Lucas, straining across the fridge. "Someone help me push this."

Even Johner met with difficulty, which seemed to puzzle even Lucas. Leaving St Just to guard the door, Christie pushed his way between the other two men and flipped open the lid of the freezer with ease. Within were two bodies: female, naked, bound and slit at the necks. Their blood had congealed at the bottom of the fridge. Christie, who had the strongest of stomachs, found it difficult to stifle a retch.

"Johner," he mumbled. "Help me out with these."

As they lifted the frozen corpses out between them, Johner cursed loudly. "Christ!" he said. "And people call us psychotic. What the fuck was going on around here, huh?"

Lucas shook his head, his wrist to his mouth, unable to keep it down. He was unable to watch as Christie and Johner lifted the second corpse from the open freezer, each taking hold of a frozen, emaciated wrist, and then set it down beside the other on the far side of the cellar. They then returned gloomily to the refrigerator, the lid of which Christie slammed shut angrily.

"Alright, let's move this thing," he snapped.

With both him and Johner behind it, they were able to push the refrigerator back against the near wall with ease. Doing so revealed a large circular hole in the stone floor, which Christie nearly fell through. He looked to Lucas and summoned him over with a cocked finger.

"This your escape tunnel?" he asked sceptically.

Lucas nodded. "Old smugglers route," he told them. "Leads straight there."

"You know the way?" checked Christie.

Lucas nodded again. "I'm always using it," he said confidently.

"Hey, I'm convinced," said Johner, lowering himself into the darkness.

Christie poked Lucas with his gun. "You next," he demanded.

Lucas dropped down behind Johner without argument.

"Come on, Justy," called Christie, before climbing down himself.

St Just followed him obediently.

There was a searing heat down in the tunnel, and it just kept on getting hotter and hotter the further they progressed. Though they had started out squatting and shuffling through it, they soon found themselves forced to crawl. Lucas assured them that it would get no tighter, though Christie was well aware of how far he could be believed, and his suspicions were quickly confirmed. There was sporadic lighting in the tunnel, and this came in the form of long lasting red safety lights that had been in active service so long, they were hot to the touch.

Lucas crept through the tunnel confidently and it did not occur to Christie that he might not actually know the route until they came to an intersection, at which point Lucas hesitated. Disregarding their own, there were three tunnels to choose from. One continued straight ahead, but there were two others, one leading away from each side. Lucas squatted down in one and allowed the others to squeeze into the intersection.

"So which way now?" asked Johner hoarsely, his throat dry with the dust.

Lucas licked his lips nervously and gave Christie an apologetic look.

"You've never been down here before, have you, Lucas?" croaked Christie.

"No, no, I have," he pleaded. "But going in the other direction."

Christie shook his head. "I should shoot you now and take pot luck," he said.

Finding it difficult to resist regardless of their need for Lucas, Christie took aim just to watch him squirm. They were all distracted, however, by the sound of something heavy shuffling through one of the adjacent tunnels. Lucas slid back against the far wall whilst the three pirates chose a common target for their guns. Then they waited. When the source of the shuffling eventually emerged from the cloud of dust, it was the last thing Christie had expected to see.

"Elgyn!" he laughed.

The captain was clawing his way through the dirt, sweating profusely and caked in grime. He was wheezing quietly and could only manage a nod in acknowledgement as he caught his breath. Behind him was a stranger, and behind the stranger Hillard, looking bizarrely elegant despite her circumstance. She had a dirty kerchief tied across her mouth and saluted with a finger to her comrades.

"We found Lucas," Christie told them.

Elgyn looked surprised. "Funny," he said. "So did we."

Christie's Lucas padded over indignantly and glared down the tunnel.

"That's not me!" he cried.

"Oh?" asked Elgyn. "Who is he, then?"

"He's a two bit smuggler," snapped Lucas. "That's who he is."

Elgyn's Lucas spoke up now. "He's lying," he said. "He's the impostor."

At the back Johner shook his head and laughed. St Just began to yawn.

"Okay," said Christie. "Let's prove it and waste the faker."

Elgyn nodded, too exhausted still to make much more of a contribution.

Christie slid his pistol over to Elgyn's Lucas. "Shoot the fake," he told him.

"What?!" cried Elgyn's Lucas, shunning the weapon. "No!"

Christie nodded, then passed the gun to his Lucas. "Shoot the fake."

His Lucas took the gun, aimed and fired. It clicked empty.

"We have our fake," Christie said, nodding at Elgyn's Lucas.

Elgyn turned to glare at the fake. "You lied to me," he said menacingly.

The impostor gulped. "Okay, I did," he confessed. "But I can lead you out."

"I'm sure the real Lucas can as well," Elgyn replied, cocking his gun.

"Don't count on it, man," muttered Johner from the back.

Christie nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, all our Lucas has done is get us lost."

Elgyn chewed this over, then asked, "You know the way to the dock?"

"Of course," said the fake Lucas. "But you gotta take me with you."

Elgyn sighed. "No promises," he muttered.

"It's this way," he told them. "Let me get through."

They parted to allow him to pass, for the time being putting their trust in him. He began the long crawl down one of the side tunnels, and Christie slipped in immediately behind. Perhaps this Lucas would not be so creative with the truth if he had Christie's loaded gun trained on his rear. The rest of the pirates filed in behind, pushing the real Lucas ahead of them.

After turning an abrupt corner a short crawl ahead, the tunnel widened considerably, and it wasn't long before Christie began to feel a cool breeze drying the festering sweat from his face. He was soon able to rise into a crouch and shuffle the remainder of the distance. It was not far. Not only did the tunnel grow suddenly colder, but also the air became suddenly thick with the searing smell of exhaust fumes. When next they came to rest, and by this time panting the lot of them, the fraudulent Lucas was stooping beneath a grate.

"This is it," he told Christie quietly.

"Open it," Christie ordered, using his pistol for emphasis.

Digging his heels into the stone for added purchase, the desperate colonist seized the grate in his hands and pushed until he winced. Yet still the grate did not budge. He gave Christie an apologetic look, and then tried again. This time Christie heard metal scrape across stone, though the fake Lucas was straining so hard he must have missed it. He stopped once again, panting harder.

"Keep going," urged Christie. "You nearly got it."

The man tried a third time, his knuckles turning white through the effort, his face screwing up from the pain. Slowly the grate began to slide from its home until eventually it flew clear and clattered out of sight. The fake Lucas slipped from his position and fell against the stone hard, but quickly pulled himself back to his feet, and clambered up and out of the tunnel.

"Hey, we're through!" called Christie to his crewmates.

The impostor was crouched nervously beside the hole, but as Christie shuffled into position beneath him, he stood and ran. Having outlived his use to them, he had been smart enough not to wait around and seek a favour repaid. Tucking his two pistols into his belt, Christie set about climbing from the hole himself. As he was climbing, however, a loud pistol shot rang out above them and he dropped back down.

"What was that?" asked Elgyn, his voice muffled by the stone between them.

Christie's only response was to take one pistol back in hand and switch the existing clip for a fresh one. Then he began his ascent once more. It was entirely possible, he realised, that someone was awaiting his appearance with the intention to snipe them all off. A pistol was an unlikely weapon for a sniper, but Christie never assumed it was a CAS soldier shooting at them anyway.

He rose from the hole slowly, cautiously, silently. It was not actually located upon the landing grid itself, but in the lay-by between two of the preparation platforms. He was protected on both sides and to the rear, but was prone directly ahead. That was where the fake Lucas had run. Christie could see his crumpled form lying sprawled dead across the decking between here and the Betty. Surprisingly enough, however, the Betty was not alone. There was another, even smaller ship waiting immediately behind, though besides that the landing grid was deserted.

As the real Lucas emerged from the hole, Christie signalled for silence. It was a message Lucas passed down the tunnel and along the queue of waiting pirates. Gradually they began to emerge, crouching low within the lay-by and waiting for the order to move from it. Elgyn emerged last, at which point he took command again.

"We under fire?" he asked Christie.

Christie nodded. "Could be from that other ship," he said.

"Doesn't look like CAS to me," his captain noted.

Christie agreed. "No, it's not CAS," he said. "It's arrived since we did, too."

"It arrived after us?" asked Elgyn with a dubious eyebrow raised.

Christie nodded slowly. He was sure. He remembered the small freighter that had been in its place. It had been one of the four ships to leave as they arrived. That ship, wherever it had come from, had landed whilst they were in the complex.

"Alright," croaked Elgyn as he turned to face his crew. "Time to run for it."

On his signal they broke from their hiding place and tore across the landing grid toward the welcoming sight of the Betty's open airlock. Christie cleared the corpse of the fake Lucas in a single bound, and was the third to reach the airlock. The first was the real Lucas. He took a bullet in the belly. The second was St Just. He took a shot to the head and was killed instantly. It all happened far too fast for even Christie to react. Coming to a sudden halt between the two ships, the crew of the Betty suddenly found themselves inexplicably surrounded and outgunned.

When Spint appeared at the Betty's airlock, however, it all became instantly clear.

NOTES:
St Just not appearing in "Alien: Resurrection", I naturally had to kill him off sooner or later, seeing as this story leads right into the beginning of the film. On another note, I've always wanted to write about psychotics in a futuristic environment, hence why evidence of some pretty horrific killings pop up almost at random through many of my stories. This was another difficult chapter to write, largely because of its action content, and I fear I never really capture the invasion of LM17 in the scope I originally imagined it.