INT. DROP-SHIP - COCKPIT / CLOSE ON BISHOP: as he checks over the instruments for damage. All is fine. They have survived. He picks up the inter-ship mike.

BISHOP: It's okay. We're okay.

INT. DROP-SHIP: Ripley hears Bishop's words and closes her eyes, relieved. They made it. She looks at Newt in her lap.

RIPLEY: Hey?

Newt looks over at her.

RIPLEY: We made it.

NEWT: I knew you'd come.

Ripley smiles and kisses her. They turn and look out at the welcoming stars of space.

EXT. DROP-SHIP - SPACE: The tiny ship rockets upward, heading back home to the Sulaco.

INT. SULACO CARGO LOCK - IN ORBIT - LATER: The scorched and battered ship once again sits in its drop bay, steam blasting from cooling vents beside the engine. Rotating clearance lights sweep around the large chamber.

INT. DROP-SHIP: Ripley inspects the comatose Hicks. Bishop and Newt are beside her.

BISHOP: He's going to be alright. He's just out. I had to give him another shot for the pain.

Ripley starts to lift the seat restraint to take him out, but Bishop stops her.

BISHOP: We need a stretcher…to carry him up to medical.

Ripley nods and lowers the restraint back. They leave the ship.

INT. CARGO LOCK - DROP-SHIP: The group appear, coming down the loading stairs.

BISHOP: I'm sorry if I scared you. That platform was just becoming too unstable. I had to circle and hope things didn’t get to rough to take you off.

He stops under the back landing leg of the ship. Ripley catches up and stops before him.

RIPLEY: Bishop...you did okay.

BISHOP: I did?

TIGHT ON RIPLEY: as she looks at Bishop. It's hard to admit it, but she does.

RIPLEY: Oh yeah.

They hear a sizzle sound from below Bishop. Looking down, they see a tiny innocuous drop of liquid splash onto the deck next to Bishop's shoe. SSSSS. A hole begins to form.

Acid. Something bursts from Bishop's chest, spraying Ripley with milk-like android blood. It is the razor-sharp scorpion tail of the Alien Queen. Driven right through him from behind. Ripley pushes Newt back out of the way, onto the floor. Bishop thrashes, spraying white blood out of his mouth. He seizes the protruding section of tail in his hands, as it slowly lifts him off the deck and up to the Queen's chest.

Above them, the Queen glowers from its place of concealment among the hydraulic mechanisms inside the landing-leg bay. It blends perfectly with the machinery until it begins to emerge.

Seizing Bishop in two great hands, it rips him apart and flings him aside, shredded, like a doll.

Bishop's upper-half lands hard on the deck near the front of the Drop-Ship. His milky blood covers him. Bishop looks over at what did this to him.

The Queen descends slowly to the deck, the rotating lights glistening across its shiny black limbs, dripping acid and rage. It is huge, powerful...and very pissed off. It descends, it's six limbs unfolding in inhuman geometries. Ripley moves with nightmarish slowness herself, staring hypnotized...terrified to break and run. Never taking her eyes off the creature, she motions to Newt with her hand.

RIPLEY: Go. Move.

Newt crawls slowly backward. The Queen sees her and HISSES.

Ripley waves her arms, decoying.

RIPLEY: No! Here! Here!