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Aliens: Steel Egg is a 2007 novel written by John Shirley and published by DH Press. Set several decades before the events of the original Alien, the story concerns the crew of the UNIC Hornblower, who are dispatched on a routine survey mission to Saturn where they discover an ancient alien spacecraft in orbit around one of the planet's moons. Upon boarding the mysterious vessel, the unprepared crew soon find themselves trapped in a fight for survival against the Xenomorphs that they accidentally awaken on board.
Publisher's Summary[]
THE FIRST BATTLE BEGINS...
Before Ripley, there was a first encounter. Someone on Earth knew about the Aliens. Someone battled them, and survived. Aliens and humans have fought before.
When a human spaceship discovers a vast egg-shaped vessel in Saturn's orbit, they zero in to investigate the anomaly. They force their way aboard, finding evidence of an ancient alien civilization of peaceful creatures, now eradicated by an unknown foe. Three teams split up to explore the ship. But already the Aliens have awoken. The first of all the battles unfolds...
Plot[]
During a routine survey mission to Saturn, the crew of the United Nations Interplanetary Corps (UNIC) vessel Hornblower discover an anomaly in orbit around the planet's moon Iapetus. Determining the vast, egg-shaped object to be a spacecraft of non-Earth origin and learning that a Chinese/Asian-Nation Cooperative (CANC) ship is also closing in on the potentially valuable find, Captain Corgan quickly organizes a boarding party to investigate. Among those who accompany him aboard are his science officer Ashley Norton and the Hornblower's arrogant exobiologist Eli Reynolds. On board the deserted alien vessel they find evidence of an advanced, sentient race that they christen Giffs, learning that they were apparently slaughtered by a second species of highly aggressive black-shelled aliens. Searching further, several members of the Hornblower crew discover a number of egg-like objects deposited in a maintenance passage on the ship; upon disturbing them, Cruz, Beresford and Collindale are attacked and subdued by the spider-like creatures that emerge.
The three stricken men are taken back to the Hornblower and quarantined, while Corgan orders the eggs destroyed with flamethrowers, much to Reynold's fury. Several hours later, Cruz is killed when a Chestburster rips from his body. Suffering a mental breakdown at the sight, Beresford attempts impromptu surgery to remove the parasite from his own body, cutting himself open and pulling the creature free before succumbing to his wounds. The final infected man, Collindale, concludes that his crewmates are more interested in recovering the creature within him than his own survival, and so kidnaps the Hornblower's nurse Julie, steals a shuttle and escapes to the Giff ship. There he asks her to remove the Chestburster, but it bursts from his body before the surgery can be completed, killing him before the infant Xenomorph mauls Julie to death.
On the Hornblower, the crew begin hunting the now-fully grown Xenomorphs loose on their ship, but succeed only in losing several of their own number. The survivors hole up on the vessel's bridge, where they discover the ship's scanners have been sabotaged, leaving them unable to track the incoming CANC ship. The culprit is Reynolds, who is secretly working with the CANC to help them secure the mysterious alien vessel. Several crew are sent to fix the scanners, but they are killed by Xenomorphs that Reynolds lures to their location with a pheromone extracted from the deceased Facehuggers. Reynolds himself flees the Hornblower for the Giff vessel, where he discovers the lone Xenomorph born from Collindale has now become a Queen and laid hundreds of new Eggs. Becoming increasingly deluded, Reynolds hatches a plan to take the ship for himself and use the creatures to wipe out anyone who tries to stop him.
Meanwhile, the CANC exploratory vessel Glorious Sun arrives at Iapetus. Its troopers immediately board the Hornblower and find only Corgan, Ashley and chief of security Nate still alive, along with one the Xenomorphs. When the creature begins attacking the CANC soldiers, their commander Kyu Kim has the ship evacuated before pushing it into Saturn's atmosphere, destroying it along with the Xenomorph on board. Kim then orders the captured Hornblower crewmembers to lead an expedition to the Giff ship. Once on board, Corgan manages to trick Kim and most of his men into entering the Queen's Egg chamber, where they are promptly overcome by Facehuggers. In the confusion, the Hornblower survivors escape from their remaining guards and flee to a hangar bay on the ship. There they commandeer a Giff shuttle, although Nate is killed holding off CANC reinforcements so Corgan and Ashley can escape.
Unable to control the alien shuttle, its autopilot takes Corgan and Ashley to a hidden Giff base beneath the surface of Iapetus. There they encounter a living Giff, who calls himself Larry. He explains that he has been in suspended animation for over 1,000 years, ever since his ship was overrun by Xenomorphs planted on board by a third race of aliens with whom the Giff were in conflict. Agreeing that the Xenomorphs now pose a threat to all of mankind, Corgan, Ashley and Larry return to the Giff vessel in orbit with a plan to destroy it. They arrive shortly before Reynolds deciphers the vessel's propulsion technology and sets it on a course for Earth. Seeking to wrest control of the ship from the rogue scientist, Corgan and Ashley head for the engine room while Larry goes to the bridge. As they depart Saturn's orbit, they see the Glorious Sun explode, destroyed either accidentally or deliberately as the crew attempted to combat the Xenomorphs that were loose on board.
With the Giff vessel rapidly approaching Earth, Corgan and Ashley manage to turn control of the ship over to Larry, while Reynolds is killed by Xenomorphs when the pheromones he had been using to distract them cease to be effective. A UNIC cruiser patrolling Earth space fires upon the unidentified vessel, causing a massive hull breach that sucks a suited Corgan and Ashley into space. As they float adrift, Larry contacts them one final time to inform them that he intends to fly the ship into the sun to prevent its technology — or the Xenomorphs — from falling into human hands. They solemnly watch him go, before they are rescued by a UNIC ship.
Reprint History[]
Aliens: Steel Egg was collected along with Aliens: Cauldron in The Complete Aliens Omnibus: Volume 6, published by Titan Books, in June 2018.
Trivia[]
- Aliens: Steel Egg is one of several Aliens/Predator/Alien vs. Predator novels that were never officially published in the United Kingdom.
- The assault rifles in the book are called the "M-270", which is also the number of pages in the book (270).
Goofs[]
- Early on in the novel it is established that there are 15 crewmembers aboard the Hornblower and each of them is identified by name. However, after the initial expedition to the alien spacecraft, a sixteenth crewmember called Buxton appears out of nowhere.
- Initially, the pheromone Reynolds uses to guide the Xenomorphs is said to come from the Chestburster stage. Not only did he have no opportunity to harvest anything from the Chestbursters on the Hornblower, it is later said that the pheromone actually comes from the Facehugger stage.
- After discovering the Hornblower's scanners have been sabotaged, Corgan sends Buxton, Dorea and Chang to fix them. Moments later, Chang is said to be on guard duty outside the bridge.
- Zheng's name changes to Zhang shortly after she is introduced.
- During the battle in the Giff ship's hangar, several CANC soldiers exposed to the vacuum of space are said to physically explode. This is a complete fallacy, although the misconception is a fairly common one in science fiction. Notably, the same factual error also occurs in author John Shirley's other franchise novel Predator: Forever Midnight.
- Towards the end of the story, the Xenomorph Queen is shown to be highly mobile, chasing people around the Giff ship and attacking anyone she finds, despite the fact she was apparently laying Eggs a short time previously. It is never mentioned when, how or even if she separates from her ovipositor in order for this to be possible.
- Saturn is said to be "electric-blue" in color. It is actually yellow.
