-gives a small smile before taking a drink of her strong coffee-
I had mentioned that if and when I Cosplay, it will be Ellen Ripley from my all time favorite Aliens franchise, but I was torn as to which portrayal of her I should embody. After really thinking about it, I remembered how much my Father and I absolutely loved how twisted she was in Alien Resurrection and I remember thinking to myself how much fun it would be to portray that kind of character. Ellen Ripley, clone number 8.
Now here's the fun part; the dream 'theme' I've been having every night has involved that movie and the characters in it. But as all of you know, my mind is a terribly twisted place (even Stephen King himself would be afraid) and it created an alternate universe.
Here's what I can recall...
* * * *
Johner, Vriess and Call (Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, and Winona Ryder) were there with Ripley and I on a very large cargo ship. Ripley was becoming more and more like her old self (personality wise) which I took comfort in. I can't remember specifics as to how this all came to be, but I do remember vividly all of us sitting in a dimly lit chow hall, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. Call seemed on edge around me, even more so than she had been around Ripley when she first encountered her in the movie. Ripley had noticed it right away and told Call she needed to spill it already.
Johner had snorted out, "Yeah, Call. What's got those mechanical panties in a twist?"
Vriess, even in his motorized chair, managed to reach over and slap his upper arm and gave him a look. "Cool it, Johner."
"Hey, I'm just sayin' what were all thinkin'!" Johner exclaimed and smacked Vriess gently upside the head.
"You finished?!" Ripley snapped under her breath and received an inaudible grumble in reply. She then turned her eyes to Call, who was staring at me as if I were going to grow another head. "Go ahead, Call."
She took a deep breath, let it out slowly and ran a hand through her short hair. I found it rather fascinating due to the fact that she was a synthetic and didn't actually need to breathe in the first place. My thoughts went silent when she started to speak.
"There were hidden files in the data base." she began and finally gave me her eyes, "about you."
I blinked, "Okay, random." I quipped and licked my lips thoughtfully, "what did they say?"
Call seemed to be struggling internally about what she had to say next. She let out another sigh, "It was hidden under allot of encrypted coding so it took me some time to process it." she paused. "You're not supposed to be here."
"Alrighty," I shot out and narrowed my eyes, "elaborate."
"It was hidden even deeper then the cloning experiments." Call explained and looked from me, to Ripley and back to me. "Clone number seven's eggs had been extracted. Some kind of side experiment to see what would happen if they could fertilize one and bring it to full term."
I felt the blood drain from my face when she paused, eyes filled with sympathy. "It was a success. They created a healthy baby girl. Physically, you appeared completely human, like Ripley."
"Why do I hear a 'but' coming?" Ripley's voice cut through the sudden wave of static in my head, which caused me to glance to my right where she was sitting and then brought my gaze back to Call.
"They placed you with a surrogate family and monitored your development. Apparently they almost canned the project until you hit puberty. That's when things got interesting. Your physiology started to change, but it was too slow and they needed immediate results. So they put you under and sped up your aging process to the age you appear now. They were about to restart the experiments again when someone had reported you had flat lined around the same time this Ripley," she motioned to my hero, "was in development. Since she was a success, they wrote you off as a failed experiment. What they didn't realize is that you had been hidden away in cryo by someone who not only had the clearance to pull that off without being questioned, but a someone who actually cared about you."
It dawned on me at that moment, remembering a caring man who was more concerned with my well being than even the people who were supposedly my parents. "Dr. J something... I, I think I remember him." I announced and shook my head. "Wait a minute. Wasn't he the same Doc that worked with you?" I said to Ripley and she nodded. I just shook my head and muttered, "holy shit."
"Doctor Jonathan Gediman." Call corrected and worried her bottom lip between her teeth before continuing. "After the Queen had been extracted and placed in another part of the ship, Gediman noticed the readings coming from your cryo cell. Your brain activity started going off the charts as the Alien grew into maturity. He was so fascinated by this that he woke you up and kept you hidden from the rest of the crew, which was easy because no one knew what you looked like as an adult. He realized there was a link between you and the Queen. It seemed to get stronger when Ripley became more aware."
Johner suddenly piped in, "now wait a minute. If she was born inverted..."
"It's called in vitro." Vriess corrected and dodged Johner's paw of a hand when he motioned for him to shuttup.
"In vitro, what the-shit-ever," Johner snarled and leaned forward. "She was the other Ripley's kid. So wouldn't that like, make you her mother too?" He motioned to Ripley and a strange emotion danced through her soulful brown eyes.
A strange silence filled the room as we all let Johner's words sink in. It was frightening and intriguing to think that I was, technically speaking, Ripley's child. But I also knew that Ripley number seven was severely deformed and had more physical attributes to the Alien that bonded to her DNA through the cloning process. Why did it skip me and allow me to be born appearing like a normal human being?
"I'm not human..." I thought aloud in a low voice and felt everyone tense as if a gunshot had gone off. "I look human, but there's something inside me..." I trailed off and met Ripley's gaze. "I can feel it behind my eyes."
Ripley said nothing. The understanding was written in her worried expression. She simply placed her left hand over my right hand and held it. Her silent warmth a reassurance that I wasn't alone.
"You're not the only one who's got issues." Vriess chimed and gave me a small grin and a wink that actually caused me to chuckle.
Johner seemed to be having a serious thought because of the pained look on his face when he suddenly blurted out, "Fuck, know what I just realized?"
"That you have half a brain?" Call mused sarcastically and he just gave her a smirk.
"And proud of it!" He shot back and went back to his original thought. "Anyway, point is we all know Ripley's one scary motherfucker." Johner stopped and looked to Ripley. "That's a compliment."
She smirked and replied, "Thanks."
Johner gave her a grin and looked back to me, "Now we got you in the mix. Which makes me wonder what kind of monster you'll turn out to be?"
"Well," I said thoughtfully and grew strange kind of smile. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see."
* * * *
So yeah... Interesting, huh? Gives me all kinds of ideas...might even just run with it and keep writing, but we'll see.
Anyhoo, I gotta finish my coffee and start my day. This weekend is Time Traveler weekend at faire. Should be fun ^_^
And on that note, I'll see you all on the flip side.
-Adieu
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