"Miss MaCoffle," Matthew MaDonnle said. "How well did you know Regina Ripley?"

"I knew Ripley scarcely," Sabrina said, looking down towards a photograph in a picture frame in her hands. "She wasn't much of a talker to me."

The woman in the photograph reminded me of a woman in one of those Alien movies Lewis loves to watch. What is her name again? It starts with a 'E'. Right! It is Ellen Ripley. Sabrina clears off the right edge to the dusty photograph using her thumb. I saw a cursive string of letters that read out 'Regina Ripley'.

"Well," Matthew said. "If you didn't know Regina that well then why did you do all that?"

"That Xenomorph had to come from somewhere," Sabrina said, looking up from the picture towards Matthew. "And Regina's family deserves answers why she did what she did."

"That's a good point," Matthew said.

"It is not as though we have a lab making these animals come back to life," Sabrina said, sarcastically.

"True," Matthew said, nodding.

"How well did you know Ripley?" Sabrina asks.

"Pretty well," Matthew said. "She taught me how to fire right in target practice."

Sabrina has a low laugh.

"You didn't know how to shoot," Sabrina said.

Matthew sheepishly goes through his hair.

"Funny story," Matthew said.

"I am all ears for funny stories," Sabrina said.

Matthew takes his hand out of his hair.

"My Pops didn't have any guns around," Matthew said. "And he was very firm on not bringing guns into the house. Pops was very strict on me and my other brothers not having to do a thing with guns."

Sabrina raises a brow.

"Did you live in the city?" Sabrina asks.

"No 'mam," Matthew said. Sabrina lowers her eyebrow. "My family lived in the country in the farmland area."

"You got through school without getting a gun?" Sabrina asks, surprised.

"My Pops once told me 'Resort to your fists, son,' when I was a kid," Matthew said, holding up his closed fist. "I learned to fend for myself at a young age."

"You are a farm boy," Sabrina said.

"Yeah," Matthew said, with a slow nod and lowers down his fist. "Strangely my sisters were allowed to own guns and use them...But not bring them in the house."

"I take it that your father let the ladies do the hard work," Sabrina said, amused.

Matthew sighs nodding his head.

"Pops preferred the girls to kill a diseased animal," Matthew remarks. "Never did have the same 'gun' treatment between us boys and the girls."

Sabrina has a short laugh.

"You must have many stories about your family," Sabrina said.

"Yeah, many wild and crazy stories," Matthew said. "The craziest one is going to College after graduating High School."

"You don't seem like the College kind," Sabrina said.

Matthew laughs.

"That's what my Agriculture teacher told me," Matthew said. "Including; Dig instructor, History instructor, Art teacher, PE teacher, and Psychology teacher."

Sabrina blinks.

"Dig instructor?" Sabrina repeats.

"Yeah," Matthew said. "I major in digging up stuff. I found my passion when digging up my Pops two horses out of wet mud." Sabrina gasps. "Don't worry; they got out fine...Just went inside when it rained instead of sticking around after that."

Sabrina pauses probably contemplating what to say.

"I know how to operate the Truff Dozer," Matthew said.

"That is a dig machine," Sabrina said.

"Yeah," Matthew said.

Sabrina stares at Matthew for a while, contemplating still.

The other men in the room are snoozing with hats over their faces and guns in the corner of their arms face towards the ceiling while slumped against the wall. It is not a surprise to see men chilling out. In my long life I have seen plenty of that happen during war when there were some calm buffers in between it was common to see men taking a nap in hiding. One thing notably has not changed; getting some shut eye in the middle of a threatening situation.

Matthew has a breath mint in his mouth.

"You are a digger," Sabrina said.

"Certified, 'mam," Matthew said, nodding.

"As I recall expeditions don't require Truff Dozers," Sabrina said.

"Yeah, they do," Matthew said. "Who do you think dug up the ice cube? The gals and I did it."

"There was nothing in the paper about Truff Dozers being part of this expedition," Sabrina said. "It clearly said to explore in protection gear and retrieve what has not been destroyed."

"The article I read is different from yours, 'mam," Matthew said. "Archeologists work with construction workers so that means Truff Dozers can work with Expedition Explorers."

"Big machines never end well in an expedition," Sabrina said. "Sounds like this is not really what I signed up for."

"Well, it might be an expedition with the unexpected," Matthew said.

"I don't like not being told," Sabrina said.

If only Sabrina and I could have a high five.

"I had orders not to tell the others," Matthew said, lowering his voice so low I can easily hear a 'I just told you a secret that I was not supposed to tell' tone. "Especially the Expedition Explorers."

"Orders," Sabrina said, folding her arms and frowns at the word.

"Yeah," Matthew said, nodding "Orders from the higher ups."

"So this is a big fraud," Sabrina said. "We were sent to retrieve a Xenomorph!"

"Well, not exactly 'mam," Matthew said. "We just had to find something and bring it back to prove that SpakMokey did in fact have a colony of Green People living on it."

Sabrina narrows her eyes towards Matthew.

"Then how did you find the ice cube?" Sabrina asks.

"Susan detected metal," Matthew said. "And then we started digging. We don't do the transporting so we left after getting it out."

I think what really happened is that the Wayland-Yutani company wanted a possible person of interest brought back and be used as a weapon (that can get out of control) so they made a fake mission by sending people after people, buildings after buildings, and ships after ships to disguise what they were really going to SpakMokey under the lie they were exploring the frozen planet. The company hadn't found what they wanted through the centuries and probably lost money over that so this was likely their last shot. Somehow they figured out a talking Xenomorph with a 'E' carved into their shoulder had been on SpakMokey.

There is a long period of silence between the two that lasts for at least 11 minutes.

"Does Jack know?" Sabrina asks, in a low voice ending the silence.

"No," Matthew said, shaking his head. "He does not."

Sabrina has a square black device reminding me of a walky talky hooked onto a metal part of the vest on the right hand side. A muffling sound came from the black square device making it ring an unusual unexpected tune. The tune reminded me of Christmas music.

Sabrina presses on the side of the square device clicking it off her shoulder.

"Hold on," Sabrina said. "Yes Boss?" She blinks surprised listening into the black square device. "What do you mean there is a planet evacuation going on?" Sabrina raises her brows. "But we have not got rid of the threats aboard The Vlectra! It is not ready to lift off yet."

That is my cue.

I came alongside the wall bumping my tail against some metal slipping into the darkness. A bullet went over my shoulder landing right into the adorning wall. My Xenomorph instincts kicked in. I tore down the lights blinding the awakening mortals. Here is what to happen during the plan: mortals with guns gather the courage to chase me out of the ship, other space crafts depart the planet all over and The Vlectra leaves SpakMokey shortly after I get out. I will go into a ground bound building shortly after being 'kicked out' The Vlectra. This of course will lead Deverous to leaving the space craft and go after me. But what Deverous does not know about me is that I am a former agent.

Don't mess with agents who know how to use guns.