Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven: Plot, Characters & Lore

Published: November 23, 2011
Writer: Liam Sharp
Artist: Liam Sharp
Lettering: Blambot
Cover: Liam Sharp
Editor: Chris Warner
Publisher: Dark Horse Books
Format: Hardcover graphic novella, 40 pages
Setting: Europa and its space elevator

Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven is a 2011 hardcover graphic novella from Dark Horse Books, with story, art, and cover by Liam Sharp and lettering by Blambot. A rescue team rode a decaying space elevator down toward Europa, the ice-covered moon of Jupiter, to reach a car that had stopped halfway with no word from the crew aboard. They found the car full of cocooned bodies and an adult Xenomorph that had grown inside a researcher working for Weyland-Yutani. The survivors fled to a research station under the ice and tried to lure the creature into the deep ocean before it could reach the orbital station above.

Plot Summary

The Stalled Elevator

Colonel O'Shea briefing the rescue team in the elevator car in Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven

The elevator car Beagle had stopped 40,000 meters above the surface of Europa, and contact with the people aboard was lost. Dr. Alan Negshin and his team had been riding it back up to the orbital station, known as Heaven, after identifying a new life form at a recently discovered black smoker in the Precambrian Rabbit Abyss. That vent lay nine kilometers southwest of the elevator's ground tether, beside the research station the crews called Hell. A second car, the Bible, was sent down after the Beagle with a small rescue team.

Colonel O'Shea, a scarred security officer who called the scientists hippies, told them that his word was law while they were in the elevator. The team included the ecologist Susanna Rendall, John Bamber, a long-haired researcher named Al, Owen, and Dr. Mike, who arrived just before the car left. Rendall and Bamber argued that the company cared about its assets and treated the Europa ecologists as good publicity. O'Shea answered that it had built a bridge to the stars, and Bamber was sick as the car dropped down the shaft.

Inside The Beagle

When the team forced its way into the Beagle, the inside of the car was covered in hardened resin, with the missing crew fixed to the walls in cocoons. Dr. Negshin was among the bodies, with a large hole in his chest. Rendall saw that there was no entry wound in his back and realized that whatever had made the hole had been inside him. One of the cocooned crew was alive and tried to warn them that something was behind them, but the warning came too late.

The creature dropped from the ceiling of the car and killed two members of the rescue team, among them Owen, before anyone could fire. Someone shouted at O'Shea not to shoot, because a stray round could breach the hull of the car. O'Shea ordered everyone back to the Bible and an evacuation of the Beagle. Rendall did not want to leave Owen behind, and when O'Shea dared the two doctors to kill the creature themselves, she answered that she was an ecologist and could not do it.

Retreat Down The Bible

The Xenomorph on the roof of the Bible as it dropped down the elevator shaft in Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven

The survivors sealed the door of the Bible, but the creature found its way onto the roof of the car through a service hatch. Rendall wanted to capture it, while O'Shea wanted it dead, since it had already killed Negshin's people and two of his own team. He refused to take the car back up, because that would put everyone on the Heaven docking station at risk. Instead he sent it down at full emergency speed, hoping to trap the creature below the ice. Communications were out, and the drop would take half an hour.

During the descent the scientists argued about what they had seen. Al noted that the animal had survived in the airless shaft and had a body built like a biped, nothing like the aquatic life of Europa, and he doubted it came from there. O'Shea told them he had once waved a flag to save the whales before he joined the military, but he meant to kill the creature and mount its head in his cabin. He planned a run through three hatches and two chambers into Hell, with Al in front and himself at the rear.

The Airlock At Hell Station

Colonel O'Shea staying behind in the passage at Hell station in Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven

When the Bible reached the ground, the team ran for the hatches. Dr. Mike turned back for his kit, and the others shut the doors behind them before they noticed he was missing. Al wanted to wait for him, but O'Shea told him to go on with the others and stayed behind himself. Al called the colonel an asshole for it, and O'Shea replied that it was his duty. He went back down the corridor alone and found Dr. Mike with the creature close behind him. O'Shea fired several shots into it.

About ten minutes later someone came through the airlock. It was Dr. Mike, badly burned by acid and holding the kit he had gone back for. He told Al that the bullets had only sprayed the creature's acid blood, and that it had kept coming and torn O'Shea in two. The acid had also burned through the structure, and water was coming in. Mike was in great pain and his strength was going. Rendall pushed Al to keep moving.

Negshin And Weyland-Yutani

The creature bursting from Dr. Negshin's chest in Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven

Inside the station, Al, who wore a Weyland-Yutani shirt and was the group's conspiracy theorist, explained what he believed had happened to Dr. Negshin. Negshin had gone on an ecological trip for the company and could not remember what had happened before he was shipped back to Europa in deep freeze. The company then sent him straight down to Hell to study the life forms at the new black smoker. He fell sick there and was called back up for quarantine. On the way up, the creature burst out of his chest as a chestburster.

Rendall asked how a creature could have been inside a man, and Al suggested that the company had planned the whole thing. He reasoned that the Europa station had been decaying for decades and that the company might have wanted an excuse to shut it down. Rendall cut the argument short. The airlock was flooded, they could not get back up to Heaven, and they needed a plan. Al decided to take a submersible out, look at the damage, and try to draw the creature away from the station.

Luring The Xenomorph To The Abyss

The Xenomorph climbing onto the submersible in the dark ocean of Europa in Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven

Al and Susanna Rendall took the submersible out and found a hole in the access conduit. John Bamber stayed in contact with them, and he and Susanna agreed to go on a date if they got back up. The others suggested patching the hole and riding the elevator up to Heaven, but Al refused. He said O'Shea had been right that the creature could kill everyone on the station if it found its way up. The creature took the bait and climbed onto the submersible, and Al turned for the Precambrian Rabbit Abyss.

The creature broke into the submersible, the hull was compromised, and Al and Susanna got into their suits as water poured in. Bamber, also in a suit, sang the prospectors' song about riding the fast track to hell and took a remote control from an emergency case, with the creature at his window. He called it just him and the creature, and offered it a smoke. The story ended without showing what happened next. A submersible's lights moved above the black smoker, and an extract from Dr. Negshin's pre-mission report praised the conservation of Europa's life.

Key Characters

Colonel O'Shea was the scarred security officer in charge of the rescue team. He took the Bible down to Hell rather than risk the orbital station, stayed behind for Dr. Mike, and was torn in two by the creature.
Al was a long-haired researcher and the group's conspiracy theorist. He worked out how Negshin had carried the creature to Europa and took the submersible out to lure it away from the station.
Susanna Rendall was an ecologist who wanted the creature captured rather than killed. She was in a relationship with Al and went out with him in the submersible.
John Bamber wore glasses, joked through the descent, and was sick on the drop. He was last seen alone with the creature at his window, holding a remote control.
Dr. Mike joined the rescue team at the last moment, went back for his kit at Hell, and returned through the airlock badly burned by acid.
Dr. Alan Negshin led the research team on the Beagle. He carried the creature inside him without knowing it, and it burst from his chest on the ride back up.

Editions

Dark Horse Books published Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven on November 23, 2011, as a 40-page full-color hardcover in a 7 by 10 inch format, rated for readers 16 and up. The indicia list December 2011 as the first edition, with printing by Midas Printing International in Huizhou, China. Liam Sharp is credited for the story, art, and cover illustration, and Blambot for the lettering. Chris Warner edited the book, Josh Elliott designed it, Lia Ribacchi was art director, and Mike Richardson was the publisher.

Behind The Scenes

Liam Sharp was born in Derby, England, and made his professional debut in the late 1980s drawing Judge Dredd for 2000 AD. At Marvel UK he drew Death's Head II, then worked for American publishers on titles including X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man, Venom, Superman, and Batman. In 2004 he started MamTor Publishing with his wife, Christina McCormack. He drew the comic based on the Gears of War video game, worked on designs for the films Lost in Space and Small Soldiers, and published his first novel, God Killers: Machivarius Point and Other Tales, in 2008.

Dark Horse sold Fast Track to Heaven as an all-new graphic novella, and the back cover carried short praise from Dave Gibbons and Mike Carey. It was the first new Aliens story from Dark Horse after Aliens: More Than Human and Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War. Reviews were mixed. Fandomania gave it 3.5 out of 5 and praised the use of only two or three colors on a page, and ComicAttack enjoyed the art and the characters. AvP Galaxy gave it 2.5 out of 5, criticizing the short length, the stock characters, and the abrupt ending. Horror World called the story too wordy and poor value as a hardcover.

Conclusion

Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven is Liam Sharp's 2011 Dark Horse graphic novella, written and drawn by him alone. It follows a rescue team from the stalled elevator car Beagle down to the research station under the ice of Europa, as the creature from Dr. Negshin's chest kills its way through them. The story ends with Al and Susanna in a flooded submersible above the Precambrian Rabbit Abyss and Bamber alone with the creature, holding a remote control.