This week, Titan Books is re-releasing Alien: The Official Movie Novelization, Alan Dean Foster's long out-of-print adaptation of the sci-fi horror classic, and we've been provided with an exclusive excerpt where the crew first discover the derelict ship on LV-426:
"Since its release in May 1979 Alien has garnered iconic status, reaping critical acclaim as well as box office success, and this May marks its much-celebrated 35th anniversary. Seamlessly blending the interstellar science fiction with dark, moody horror, Alien: The Official Movie Novelization allows fans to rediscover the unparalleled exhilaration and sheer terror of the legendary film
Alan Dean Foster ghost-wrote the original Star Wars movie novel, and his novelization of Alien has been praised as the finest movie novelization ever written, setting the standard for those that followed. "
Exclusive Excerpt:
"As the hidden sun continued to rise, the bloody red colour of the atmosphere began to lighten. It was now a musty, dirty yellow instead of the familiar bright sunshine of Earth, but it was a vast improvement over what had been.
The storm had abated somewhat and the omnipresent dust had begun to settle. For the first time, the three footweary travellers could see more than a couple of metres ahead.
They’d been climbing for some time. The terrain continued hilly, but except for isolated pillars of basalt it was still composed of lava flows. There were few sharp projections, most having been ground down to gentle curves and wrinkles by untold aeons of steady wind and driven dust.
Kane was in the lead, slightly ahead of Lambert. Any minute now he expected her to announce they’d regained the signal. He topped a slight rise, glanced ahead expecting to see more of what they’d encountered thus far: smooth; rock leading upward to another short climb.
Instead, his eyes caught something quite different, different enough to make them go wide behind the dirty, transparent face of the helmet, different enough to make him shout over the pickup.
‘JESUS CHRIST!’
‘What is it? What’s the mat…?’ Lambert pulled up alongside him, followed by Dallas. Both were as shocked by the unexpected sight as Kane had been.
They’d assumed the distress signal was being generated by machinery of some sort, but no pictures of the transmitter source had formed in their minds. They’d been too occupied with the storm and the simple necessity of staying together. Confronted now with a real source, one considerably more impressive than any of them had dared consider, their scientific detachment had temporarily vanished.
It was a ship. Relatively intact it was, and more alien than any of them had imagined possible. Dallas would not have labelled it gruesome, but it was disturbing in a way hard technology should not have been. The lines of the massive derelict were clean but unnatural, imbuing the entire design with an unsettling abnormality.
It towered above them and the surrounding rocks on which it lay. From what they could see of it, they decided it had landed in the same manner as the Nostromo, belly down. Basically it was in the shape of an enormous metallic ‘U’, with the two horns of the U bent slightly in towards one another. One arm was slightly shorter than its counterpart and bent in more sharply. Whether this was due to damage or some alien conception of what constituted pleasing symmetry they had no way of knowing.
As they climbed closer they saw that the craft thickened somewhat at the base of the U, with a series of concentric mounds like thick plates rising to a final dome. Dallas formed the opinion that the two horns contained the ship’s drive and engineering sections, while the thicker front end held living quarters, possibly cargo space and the bridge. For all they knew, he might have everything exactly reversed.
The vessel lay supine, displaying no indication of life or activity. This near, the regained transmission was deafening and all three hastened to lower the volume in their helmets.
Whatever metal the hull was composed of, it glistened in the increasing light in an oddly vitreous way that hinted at no alloy ever formed by the hand of man. Dallas couldn’t even be sure it was metal. First inspection revealed nothing like a weld, joint, seal or any other recognizable method of cojoining separate plates or sections. The alien ship conveyed the impression of having been grown rather than manufactured.
That was bizarre, of course. Regardless of the method of construction, the important thing was that it was undeniably a ship.
So startled were they by the unexpected sight that none of them gave a thought to what the seemingly intact derelict might be worth in the form of bonuses or salvage.
All three were shouting at the same time into their helmet pickups. ‘Some kind of ship, all right,’ Kane kept repeating inanely; over and over.
Lambert studied the lustrous, almost wet shine of the curving sides, the absence of any familiar exterior features, and shook her head in wonder. ‘Are you positive? Maybe it could be a local structure. It’s weird…’
‘Naw.’ Kane’s attention was on the twin, curving horns that formed the rear of the vessel.; ‘It’s not fixed. Even allowing for alien architectural concepts, it’s clear enough this isn’t intended to be part of the landscape. It’s a ship, for sure.’
‘Ash, can you see this?’ Dallas remembered that the science officer could see clearly via their respective suit video pickups, had probably noticed the wreck the moment Kane had topped the rise and given his shocked cry.
‘Yeah, I can see it. Not clear, but enough to agree with Kane that it’s a ship.’ Ash’s voice sounded excited in their helmets. At least it was as excited as the science officer ever sounded. ‘Never seen anything like it. Hang on a minute.’ They waited while Ash studied readouts, ran a couple of rapid queries through the ship’s brain.
‘Neither has Mother,’ he reported. ‘It’s a completely unknown type, doesn’t correlate with anything we’ve ever encountered before. Is it as big as it looks from here?’
‘Bigger,’ Dallas told him. ‘Massive construction, no small details visible as yet. If it’s constructed to the same scale as our ships, the builders must’ve been a damn sight bigger than us.’
Lambert let out a nervous giggle. ‘We’ll find out, if there are any of them left on board to give us a welcome.’
‘We’re close and in line,’ Dallas said to Ash, ignoring the navigator’s comment. ‘You ought to be receiving a much clearer signal from us. What about the distress call? Any shift? We’re too close to tell.’
‘No. Whatever’s producing the transmission is inside that. I’m sure of it. Got to be. If it was farther out, we’d never have picked it up through that mass of metal.’
‘If it is metal.’ Dallas continued to examine the alien hull. ‘Almost looks like plastic.’
‘Or bone,’ a thoughtful Kane suggested.
‘Assuming the transmission is coming from inside, what do we do now?’ Lambert wondered.
The exec started forward. ‘I’ll go in and have a look, let you know.’
‘Hold on, Kane. Don’t be so damned adventurous. One of these days it’s going to get you into trouble.’
‘I’ll settle for getting inside. Look, we’ve got to do something. We can’t just stand around out here and wait for revelations to magically appear in the air above the ship.’ Kane frowned at him. ‘Are you seriously suggesting we don’t go inside?’
‘No, no. But there’s no need to rush it.’ He addressed the distant science officer. ‘You still reading us, Ash?’
‘Weaker now that you’re on top of the transmitter,’ came the reply. ‘There’s some unavoidable interference. But I’m still on you clear.’
‘Okay. I don’t see any lights or signs of life. No movement of any kind except this damn dust. Use us for a distance-and-line fix and try your sensors. See if you can see or find anything that we can’t.’
There was a pause while Ash hastened to comply with the order. They continued to marvel at the elegantly distorted lines of the enormous vessel.
‘I’ve tried everything,’ the science officer finally reported. ‘We’re not equipped for this kind of thing. The Nostromo's a commercial tug, not an exploration craft. I’d need a lot of expensive stuff we just don’t carry to get a proper reading. ’
‘So… what can you tell me?’
‘Nothing from here, sir. I can’t get any results at all. It’s putting out so much power I can’t get any acceptable reading whatsoever. We just don’t carry the right instrumentation.’ Dallas tried to conceal his disappointment from the others. ‘I understand. It’s not crucial anyway. But keep trying. Let me know the minute you do find anything, anything at all. Especially any indication of movement. Don’t go into details. We’ll handle any analysis at this end.’
‘Check. Watch yourselves.’
What now, Captain? Dallas’s gaze travelled the length of the huge ship, returned to discover Kane and Lambert watching him. The exec was right, of course. To know that this was the source of the signal was not sufficient. They had to trace it to the generator, try to discover the cause behind the signal and the presence of this ship on this tiny world. To have come this far and not explore the alien’s innards was unthinkable.
Curiosity, after all, was what had driven mankind out from his isolated, unimportant world and across the gulf; between the stars. It had also, he thoughtfully reminded himself; killed the figurative cat.
He came to a decision, the only logical one. ‘It looks pretty dead from out here. We’ll approach the base first. Then, if nothing shows itself…’
Lambert eyed him. ‘Yeah.’
‘Then… we’ll see.’
They started towards the hull, the superfluous finder dangling from Lambert's belt.
‘At this point,’ Dallas was saying as they, neared the overhanging curve of the hull, ‘there’s only one thing l can…
Back aboard the Nostromo,’ Ash followed every word carefully. Without warning, Dallas’s voice faded. It came back strong once more before disappearing completely. Simultaneously, Ash lost visual contact."
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