Aboard the deep space vessel USM  Auriga , the unthinkable occurs—Ellen Ripley awakes. Her last memory is of her own fiery death on the prison colony Fiorina 161. And yet she lives. Stronger, fiercer… changed. Ripley discovers that military scientists have learned how to breed Xenomorphs, creatures with which she somehow shares an empathic link. The course is set to take the Aliens to Earth. Based on the screenplay by Joss Whedon, acclaimed author A. C. Crispin has written the final novel in the original Alien movie quadrilogy, forever changing the saga of Ellen Ripley—the last survivor of the  Nostromo .