Alien: Isolation (1st POV Ripley Edition)

#13

After I passed the scanners, I was out of weapons, but not completely vulnerable (because I still had EMP bombs, pipe bombs, molotovs and signal flares), I moved on.

Into the maze of narrow corridors and chambers that lead to the center of APOLLO, the AI brain of all of Sevastopol station.

It was not pleasant. I had to activate the console on one side, then do the same on the other, then quickly run to the entrance, which is normally a steam drain, and for a few moments you can pass through it in case of repair fix.

I seem to be that fix today. I curled up inside the tiny corridors, and even more so, because soon I couldn't even stand up. Luckily I had turned off the electricity, otherwise I would have been burned to crisp.

I talked with Ricardo for a few more moments about the death of Samuels, and how now it is my responsibility to directly tell APOLLO that Sevastopol is free from monsters.

A new area followed.

A couple of corridors full of toxic fumes, but there was a safety mask nearby, so there was no problem. Although, androids were around, there were problems with them too. The first one surprised me because it was to the left of the entrance I went through, so it started choking me.

Nasty, really. If I hadn't managed to hit him with the maintenance jack in ten seconds, I would have been dead. But it only stunned him. Good enough for me.

I ran on, coughing. The motion tracker directed me to the main console to open the ventilation duct that leads directly to the APOLLO central system, which in physical form is one huge dome with a diameter of 15 meters, into which one person can enter and communicate directly with the system via keyboard.

Creepy synthetic guys. Every now and then they would appear, here dressed in orange raincoats, muttering polite gibberish. Now experienced, I would run past them before they caught me and started strangling me. It didn't take more than a minute and I was already in the air duct that took me to APOLLO.

And then...

I was there. In the brain. APOLLO. But it couldn't be that easy...

It took two hacks with my frequency tuner to open the system.

I took a few steps back because everything started shaking like an earthquake.

Steam started rising from everywhere, the dome also rose a meter or two from its base...

Is this just another pointless special effect to wow the audience during a presentation to the company financiers? Because I was a little taken back, but unimpressed. Or rather, I would be impressed if I knew that this famous artificial brain could make some good decisions on its own, and from experience I knew it couldn't.

After a few moments that seemed like an eternity, the door opened.

I was greeted by a chair, a thick small screen with keyboard and walls full of buttons, sparkling like stars.

A wonderful place for meditation, I suppose, but definitely for someone else in another time and place.

I pounced on the keyboard and explained to the system that the monster had been kicked out of the station. The system paused to scan the station. And...

The following notification sent a shiver of cold fear through me:

- Negative, the core scans are not verified.

What? Are there more of them there, around the station's fusion core? Few? And I'm sneaking around for hours in order to avoid only one specimen?

I am angry and insist that APOLLO remove the lockdown. Negative and negative. Along the way I discover that the system is running on a special order from WY that tells it to make obtaining a creature instance primary and everything else, all lives of others, secondary. Also, WY totally bought Sevastopol from Seegson. Sure, why not.

I did NOT expect that, but I am not surprised. If the WY company bought Sevastopol from the Seegson company, it was expected that they did not waste time but immediately programmed the computers as they saw fit. How? Maybe by radio transmission, probably. Most likely.

Okay, I take a deep breath and step away from the console. I feel like smashing the miniature screens with a maintenance jack and leaving a few signal flares to blow in this poor stupid artificial brain for the next few minutes, but I hold back. That would be catastrophic, if APOLLO were to catch fire and stop working and the station might crash into KG-348.

I walk out and as the doors of the dome and APOLLO close forever on me, I've already made a decision.

I'm going there, to the center of the reactor, to check if that's really the case. If there are more of them there, those horrors on two legs with a tail and an elongated head, I am...gonna do something about that.

I'll be careful, but I have to be sure. If they're there, that's it. Maybe I can somehow destroy them on the spot, and if not... well, we'll see.

After all, I will be there for a very short time. I will not linger unnecessarily.

And so I go down the ladder to a lower level, then to an even lower one.

I descend into the bowels of this mechanical titan that contains the seeds of organic evil, one could say poetically, although I have never had either the gift or interest in poetry.

The elevator-platform lowering console is there, ready for me.

I adjust my equipment a little tighter, sigh and press everything necessary.

Let's get rid of this as soon as possible so we can get on with our lives!, I think, and then the descent begins. The fumes around me brought me back to some earlier, nicer times, when I was surrounded by family at lunchtime, with warm asparagus soup.

I cough and wake up from my daydreaming. Really...these fumes are not soupy in nature, there's no doubt about that.