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Hi, Alien: Isolation is by far my favorite Alien game and one of the best stories, for that reason I wrote a short story about how Marlow and crew found the Nostromo flight recorder. Also including some of game's cut content as the Solace. I hope soon write the rest of the story: a novelization of the mission LV-426. also Foster's death from the point of view of Lingard, Waits trying to kill the alien. the point of view of reporter Julia Jones, even the point of view of the Xenomorph. So, there is. Enjoy. I don't own any Alien: Isolation characters or events, those are property of Creative Assembly and Twenty Century Fox.

PROLOGUE: ANESIDORA

‘Son of Iapetos, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire--a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.’

Hesiod, in Works and days.

Henry Marlow woke up and groaned as he felt the cold air inside the cryogenic bay of the Anesidora, his ship.

-“Damn heaters, need a fix again” He said. To his left, Heyst woke up: “Didn’t pay enough for this, Boss.”

-“Believe me, if I won enough, I’d pay you just for not seeing your face, Heyst” Marlow answered “I hope this work is worth. The ship needs a complete overhaul.”

The Anesidora, Marlow’s ship, was an old salvage vessel, retrofitted from an M-class freighter. Marlow and his wife Catherine (neé Foster) had invested all their savings just for purchase it. They chose an M-Class because its durability and large storage bays, excellent for transport scrap metal and salvage. What they didn’t know was there’s not much to salvage, and when there was, corporations often offered poor fees, not enough for pay spare parts or even fuel.

Last job take them to Sevastopol station on KG348, gas giant on Zeta Reticuli sector, basically in the middle of nowhere. The station was on process of decommissioning but Marlow found another source of income: Black market.

The medical staff of Sevastopol was short in supplies so the chief practitioner, Dr. Karen Lindgard resorted to trade some lab supplies, mostly restricted chemicals compounds, for the much more needed antibiotics, surgical equipment and first aid kits. Lindgard contact with Marlow was a man named Sinclair, a security officer with a questionable past who run Sevastopol’s black market.

-“Now we’re a tow service, Marlow?” –Lewis, the engineering technician commented.

-“Listen. The Solace is a medical ship. Its FTL drive was damaged when something hit it between jumps and the crew left in the shuttle. It needs to be towed to Sevastopol dry docks for repairs. It’s carrying medical supplies and its mission was to transport psychiatric ward patients from Sevastopol to Helene 215. Our dear Dr. Lindgard needs the supplies and Sinclair pay well for anything useful, plus we can take any part damaged. Now, everybody to the bridge”

The bridge of the Anesidora was big for a ship this class, that’s because Marlow had modified it, the front windows was from an old Heliades-class exploration vessel. Large plastic panels angled downward for a better view of planetary surface when orbiting. Five chairs, one for each crewmember. Two on the front, for Captain and pilot, one left for navigator, two behind, for Engineering and Communications. The red lights glowing in the bridge faded as they enter gave place to white led lights. As there was October someone had decorated the cabin with a skeleton paper doll chain. There were two plastic dinosaurs and a fern over Lewis station.

Marlow and Catherine sat on the front seats. Meeks turned on radar and comms.

-“Boss, we’re approaching the Solace. Coming into view now” he said.

-“It isn’t that bad, I expected worse.” Foster noted. “Anyway, what was she doing here?”

The ship was left in orbit around a large terrestrial planet. No clouds were visible, only brown and red rocks with a few topographic features. Scans show no magnetic field, which explains the lack of a dense atmosphere. No moons, only a fine residual debris ring. Not the best candidate for colonization.

-“Good sign, which mean supplies are still intact, but bad news is no spare part for us. Lewis, prepare the umbilical” –Marlow started to give orders. “Lewis, you come with me, we’re EVA and prepare the towing clamp on the Solace. Heyst, Meeks, you go looking for anything useful the crew left behind and see if we can learn what the Solace was doing here, outside the Sol-Thedus flight path. Catherine, you’re in command, and watch for objects. If a meteor hit the Solace, could be others, we didn’t want any surprises”

Foster maneuvered the ship and parked her next to the Solace, an umbilical extended between both ships and Heyst and Meeks crossed. Meanwhile, Marlow and Lewis opened the airlock and used their EVA maneuver equipment, dubbed the “Bedstead” for its appearance.

The bedstead was an ugly piece of machinery, basically two seats, hydrazine tanks, old satellite maneuvering system and a submersible’s robotic arm all welded together in a frame that looks like an old brass bed frame.

-“Ok, time to relax with some music from old John Denver” Catherine reclined on her seat and extended legs over the panel as she watched the bedstead reach the Solace, she sang “Flying for me

My being there would bring us a little step closer together They were flying for me
They were flying for everyone
They were trying to see a brighter day for each and every one
They gave us their light
They gave us their spirit and all they could be
They were flying for me
They were flying for me
And I wanted to wish upon the Milky Way
And dance upon a falling star

Marlow set foot on the hull; the magnetic boots of his suit prevent him from fly into outer space in zero gee. He walk towards the clamp terminal, opened the keyboard. As the clamp needed a password and Marlow didn’t know it, he took his code breaker. A hacking device which use radio signal for tune a code sequence shown in a CRT screen as a series of symbols. Matching those symbols unlocks the mechanism. CRT was used on EVA devices, because the more recent LCD touchscreen devices didn’t work in vacuum and broke easily.

Meanwhile, in the umbilical, Heyst opened the airlock and he and Meeks stepped inside. There was a hiss of air as the door closed and matched pressure. “We’re inside, Foster” Meeks informed.

-“Proceed to medical, first secure the supplies, then recover the captain’s log. See if there’s something useful.” Foster ordered.

The pair kept moving through the main corridor ‘till Medical, the door opened and they entered. There was a reception desk, a waiting room and a big panel indicating “← LAB WARD ↑ DISPENSARY →”, they headed to dispensary.

-“We’re in Dispensary, anything in place. We have antibiotics, alcohol, surgical equipment, serum and glucose packages, morphine… maybe some of it gets lost in transit.” Meeks said.

-“Nobody touches anything” Marlow said over comm link.

-“No drugs for you, not in service.” Heyst told him.

-“Oh right, everything in order there, proceed to Captain’s quarters.” Marlow ordered.

Captain’s quarters were located next to the bridge, so they back towards the corridor and continue ship’s bow. A panel reads “CAPTAIN BARRELL, J. ← BRIDGE ↑” They turn left and opened the door. The room was clean and ordered, bed well made, which indicated Captain Barrell is military, and they were not in panic when they have left the ship, simply boarded the shuttle and head for Sevastopol some days away.

Heyst turned on the computer and downloaded the ship’s log. “Got it, Marlow. Now we’re going back to engineering and check the FTL drive.”

-“Negative, Heyst. From here I’m seeing a nasty hole right through engine room. Must have been done by a meteor, it hit the drive and part of the coolant storage.” Get back to the Anesidora” Marlow ordered.

They return to the Anesidora and retracted the umbilical. Marlow guided the Bedstead back inside its hangar and Foster maneuvered the ship so the Tow clamps matched those of the Solace. Once everybody were on the Bridge, they were ready for leave the system.

-“Ok Foster, leave orbit and prepare the FTL drive, we are leaving as soon as possible.” Marlow ordered.

-“Sub-light thrusters online, leaving orbit in three, two, one, calculations for FTL will be ready in…” Foster typed on her station’s keyboard. A red light turned on followed by a beep, but soon stopped. “Strange, I swear we were receiving a signal from a beacon.”

-“There’s nobody on this system. All Solace’s crew arrived at Sevastopol, no one was left behind.” Marlow said.

-“Maybe is the beacon they’re looking for. Boss, I’ve checked ship’s log and the reason why the Solace was here is they intercepted a faint signal from a flight recorder, so they came here, but as the ship slowed from hyperspeed, they were hit by an object.” Heyst told them.

-“If there’s a flight recorder here, then some corporate suits will pay handsomely for it. It must be into that planet’s debris ring. I’ll tell you what we do. We’ll tow the Solace to Sevastopol, we collect our payment, then we get back here, recover the flight recorder, return it to whatever corporation it belongs to, and get us a bigger check.” Marlow explained.

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