The rest of it went mute for a moment as what he said opened a classified file in her mind.
Kill Me...
It was the same sentence she heard a moment before when the girl spoke. Now she was reliving a recording.
Jean jerked and flattened her body against the pipes. She closed her eyes tightly as she shut down the recall processor. The android actually gasped. She actually pulled her weapon for the first time without being asked and chambered the round that she secretly replaced back into her magazine for the second time since the mission. She re-opened her eyes and her emotional processor commanded her to take a deep breath.Accessing... Cleared - Weyland Yutani Classified File: 00388122
Thomas Kane -Executive Officer - Nostromo -
Archived and recorded by Ships AI and Undercover WY Unit "Ash"
Jean began studying the footage as if she were witnessing it through the eyes of another Android; an android named Ash.
"Do you remember anything about the planet?", asked the Captain. He was a tall man in his mid to late forties, scruffy beard, non-upkept hair, and wore matching white fatigues that most the crew wore at the moment aside for one of the ship's engineers who whore a shirt fitting for a Hawaiian vacation.
The man he asked, Kane, still in his underwear and with part of a nightgown draped over his skinny shoulders took a sip of his drink before replying in a scruffy voice indicative of a man who had a sore throat.
"... I-- remember some horrible dream about... smothering - and, and... Anyway, where are we?!"
"We're right here..." Replied the captain with a hint of relief in his voice.
"We're on our way home!" Replied a young, curly headed brunette. Followed up by a reply from Brett, the man in the shirt that clearly needed a vacation for real.
"Back to the ol' freezorenoes..." He said with a delightful laugh.
"Ahh.. Can I have something to eat before we go back?" Replied Kane
:::: Log Skip :::
- Later in the afternoon -
The crew was eating in a dining room -- a ship's dining room. The captain sat beside Kane, and Parker, the black lead engineer sat opposite Kane. The room was brightly lit, filled with chatter from the other warrant officer, and the navigator, a woman with blonde spikey hair.
"The first thing I'm going to do when I get back," Kane said ".. is to get some decent food..." Kane was happy, delighted to be back from whatever ordeal he had been through. The observer that recorded the incident, Ash kept his focus on Kane as if he knew that he was recording this for androids like her, and for Weyland Yutani to see. Jean felt a chill brought on by her emotional processor as she continued to observe through the eyes of Ash, an old Cyberdines system model.
"I can dig it man. I tell ya'..." Followed by some intelligible comment that Ash couldn't pick up with his audio processors. "... I'd rather be eating something else right now but right now I'm thinin' food." Jean didn't understand that but it seemed to get the attention of the women crew members.
"At least you know what it's made of," said one of the other crew members.
"Man, I don't want to know what it's made of -- I'm eatin' this!" Said Parker.
At about that point Kane leaned forward and began to choke.
"What's the matter man?" Parker asked. It was assumed at first that he choked on the food while laughing at Brett's joke but Jean could see through Ash's eyes the horrible pain written on Kane's face as he looked down at the table, not understanding what it was he was feeling, and why it hurt so badly. "... the food ain't that bad, baby.."
"You chokin'?" Asked Dallas, the Commanding officer.
"What's wrong?" Ripley quickly followed.
Parker wasn't smiling anymore, Dallas placed a hand on Kane's shoulder as Kane went to stand up and choked even harder. He got almost all the way up before falling over backward onto the table.
"... what, what?!" Asked another crew member. Jean looked off in horror as she recalled the information. Kane fell back onto the table, and attempted to scream, but the pain was so bad that he couldn't scream. The crew began to think he was having a seizure at the point where Kane attempted to gasp for air. Brett stood behind his friend Parker and looked at him helplessly as Parker helped Captain Dallas hold him down. Kane attempted to shake and move his head violently from side to side as his arms retracted inward as far as they could before Dallas and Parker tried harder restraining him.
Parker picked up a utensil from the table and attempted placing it into Kane's mouth as he screamed through his teeth.
"I'm trying!" Parker yelled.
The struggling lasted for a few seconds more before there was a sudden cracking sound and blood suddenly sprayed through his shirt. With some kind of pressure released, Kane relaxed for a moment as the crew looked at him dumbfounded and helpless. Then, it started again; the young XO struggled back and fourth a few times while Parker and Dallas tried to hold him down.
Then the unimaginable happened...
It burst through his chest and shirt, a creature -- covered in blood, shrieking loudly as the crew let go and walked to the wall. Lambert, the navigator took a face full of blood and Ash watched from the other side of the table as if meaning to record the entire thing in his image processor. Ash even made an effort to keep it from being killed.
"Don’t! Don't touch it... Don't touch it..."
Then, she returned to the girl and continued comforting her with her free hand, the other hand, weaponized, at the ready.