November 20, 2189 [0400 U.T.]

Hey! I found him! – U.T.-04:12:43 – M.T.-67:12:43

Lewis, say again? – U.T.-04:12:47 – M.T.-67:12:47

I found him! I found Johnson! –U.T.-04:12:52 – M.T.-67:12:52

Well, where the hell was he? – U.T.-04:12:58 – M.T.-67:12:58

Cargo hold E. –U.T.-04:13:01 – M.T.-67:13:01

I thought you people said you looked for him there? –U.T.-04:13:04 – M.T.-67:13:04

We did, but I think we couldn’t find him because he was hiding behind some crates. –U.T.-04:13:10 – M.T.-67:13:10

What? Was he playing hide and seek? Let me talk to that idiot. –U.T.-04:13:15 – M.T.-67:13:15

Sorry, sir. He’s unconscious. – U.T.-04:13:18 – M.T.-67:13:18

What? –U.T.-04:13:20 – M.T.-67:13:20

You better come and have a look. –U.T.-04:13:24 – M.T.-67:13:24

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Dear Diary,

Well, I’m relieved to say that we found Johnson. Son-of-a-bitch was in cargo hold E the whole time. But things are getting weirder and weirder around here. Lewis found Johnson at about 4 O’clock unconscious. We don’t know if he hit his head or something like that, but he was found unconscious on the cargo hold floor behind some crates. Surprisingly, cargo hold E did not sustain any fire damage. Everything in it is intact!

Now, everything that happened after that was weird. For starters, Gorman told all of us not to tell the company people anything and then he and Wilman ran off and boarded the Sulaco. Of course, the company people were suspicious. They started to ask all of us what was going on, but just like them we had no idea, except that Johnson was found. About 15 minutes later, the four of them come back with Wilman carrying this thing that looked like the shit we found in the cryogenic compartment, only not burnt and disgusting, and Gorman holding something that looked like a giant spider with a long tail. Obvously, like the rest of us, Gorman thought that the company people were hiding something. He started demanding answers from them, asking what the real purpose of this mission was and if they knew what that thing he was holding was.
Instead of giving us answers, all the company people wanted to know was if Johnson was infected.

“Infected with what?! What aren’t you telling us?! Answer me, you fuckers!”
I’ve never seen Gorman so pissed off like that, but those idiot company people wouldn’t give him a direct answer. Quite frankly, we are all fed up with them. Gorman had to smack down the law to get them to talk, but the answer they gave us was even more unreal. The thing Gorman was holding was what they called “The Facehugger.”(18) They believe it attaches itself to a host and impregnates them with an alien embryo. The embryo eventually bursts out of the host and grows – within a matter of hours, according to them – into an adult. To be honest, almost all of us found this story to be ridiculous.

They asked if they could have a look at Johnson, but Gorman was so pissed off he basically told them to get lost. Johnson was a little worried, though, having heard what the company had just said. He asked if he could have a chest examination. Stevens took him to the infirmary to have a look. They came back quite relaxed, actually. Apparently they didn’t find anything, which was a relief, because I was starting to believe the company people.

-A.

==============================

(18)
The information the Weyland-Yutani had gathered about the alien species was all based on the enquiry into the destruction of the U.S.C.S.S. Nostromo by the Interstellar Commerce Commission in June, 2179. The enquiry found Lieutenant Ellen Ripley responsible for the loss of the Nostromo and her crew, dismissing her story as a creation of fiction(18-1).

(18-1)
According the Ellen Ripley, the Nostromo had set down on LV-426 on June, 2122 after intercepting what was first believed to be a distress signal originating from the planet. The signal was traced back to “The Derelict,” where the crew found the alien eggs. According to Ripley, First Officer Kane was carried back to the Nostromo with “something attached to his face.” Kane was impregnated with an alien embryo, which grew and burst out of his chest and escaped. The alien killed Ripley’s crew. She activated the ship’s self destruct system and escaped on the shuttle Narcissus. According to Ripley, the alien had managed to board the Narcissus with her, at which point she blasted it out of the airlock and into space.