Publisher's Synopsis
Following the events of Aliens, a fire starts aboard the Colonial Marine spaceship Sulaco. The computer launches an escape pod containing Ellen Ripley, the young girl Newt, Hicks, and the damaged android Bishop; all four are in cryonic stasis. Scans of the crew's cryotubes show a Queen Facehugger attached to one member. The pod crash-lands on Fiorina "Fury" 161, a foundry facility and penal colony inhabited by male inmates with double-Y chromosome syndrome, a genetic mutation which gives the afflicted individual a predisposition for antisocial behavior. The inmates recover the crashed pod and its passengers. The same Facehugger is seen approaching inmate Thomas Murphy's dog, Spike.
Ripley is awakened by Clemens, the prison doctor, who informs her that she is the sole survivor. She is warned by the prison warden, Harold Andrews, that her presence may have disruptive effects. Ripley insists that Clemens perform an autopsy on Newt, secretly fearing that Newt may be carrying an Alien embryo. Despite protests from the warden and his assistant Aaron, the autopsy is conducted and no embryo is found. The bodies of Newt and Hicks are cremated.
Elsewhere in the prison, a quadrupedal alien bursts from Spike. Growing to full size, the alien kills Murphy, Boggs, and Rains and returns outcast prisoner Golic to his previously psychopathic state � Golic dubs the creature "the Dragon". Ripley finds the damaged Bishop in the prison's garbage dump. Just as she is leaving the area, she is cornered by four inmates and almost raped; inmate leader Dillon intervenes and beats the others with a crowbar while Ripley punches the last man in the face. Ripley returns to the infirmary and re-activates Bishop, who confirms that a Facehugger came with them to Fiorina in the escape pod. Ripley informs Andrews of her previous encounter with the Xenomorphs[10] and suggests everyone work together to hunt down and kill it. The highly skeptical Andrews does not believe her story, and explains that even if she were telling the truth, the facility is without weapons; their only hope is the rescue ship being sent for Ripley by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
