Lt. Julisa Paris: Brackett's XO At Hadley's Hope

Full name: Julisa Paris
Species: Human
Affiliation: United States Colonial Marine Corps
Rank / role: Lieutenant, second-in-command of the Marine detail at Hadley's Hope
Known for: Serving under Captain Brackett · finding Luisa Cantrell · escaping Acheron
Setting: Hadley's Hope, Acheron (LV-426), June 2179
First appearance: Aliens: River of Pain (2014)
Status: Alive, aboard the science evacuation ship after leaving Acheron on 26 June 2179
Kills (novel): The Xenomorph that killed Chenovski · the one that killed Crowley, with Yousseff · several more in group fire · the wounded one that killed Pettigrew

Julisa Paris was a lieutenant in the Colonial Marines and second-in-command to Captain Demian Brackett in Christopher Golden's 2014 novel Aliens: River of Pain. She served with the Marine detail at Hadley's Hope on Acheron and fought through the colony's 2179 Xenomorph outbreak. She was one of four people to escape on the science team's hidden ship, with Brackett, Dr. Mori, and the rescued girl Luisa Cantrell.

Biography

Welcoming Brackett To Acheron

Paris was a tall, dark-skinned woman with short curls and an old pale scar across her left cheek, and the muscles under the scar did not move when she smiled. On 10 June 2179 she and Sergeant Coughlin met Brackett on the landing pad in a grit storm, and she told him that weather like that was an ordinary day on Acheron. She showed him through the colony, introduced the administrator Al Simpson, and warned that the detail had its share of troublemakers before thinking better of saying more. Later she advised that Sergeant Marvin Draper could be handled if Brackett left him alone, and explained that two Marines had always gone out with every civilian survey team.

The Processor Six Rescue

When a survey team was stranded at the failing Processor Six, Brackett took Paris on the heavy-crawler, privately trusting her knowledge of the terrain, the Marines, and the storms after only a few hours. On the ride she told him her first commander on Acheron had called the survey escorts routine since the science team arrived twelve or thirteen years earlier, and she answered his questions about the company's motives with a wary "It's Weyland-Yutani, Captain." At the processor she knelt beside the injured surveyor Curtis Finch, had Nguyen and Hauer splint his shattered leg, and helped carry him out before the station tore itself apart, but she later reported that shock and blood loss had killed him on the way back.

The Missing Jordens

Paris served as a duty officer at the colony and brought Brackett word that the Jorden family had not checked in from their survey run and that Simpson had made no effort to reach them. She never reproached him for the decision that had sent them out without a Marine escort, and she argued that she, not the commanding officer, should lead the search, but Brackett kept her at the colony to keep Draper from taking charge. When the family came back with a Facehugger on Russ Jorden's face, she comforted Newt in the garage and told her the smiling Dr. Reese was surely as worried as everyone else.

Guarding The Sealed Perimeter

As the outbreak spread, Paris took the reports from relocation details that had moved the colonists into protected pockets, and by 26 June she was guarding a welded-off section with Pvt. Ankita Yousseff, Aldo Crowley, and others. She found a Xenomorph dragging off the paralyzed Marine Chenovski, a friend from many card games, and shot at it in the hope of driving it away without splashing him with acid. The creature killed him with its tail, and Paris blew it apart, then she and Yousseff destroyed a second one that came out of a stairwell and killed Crowley.

Sending The Colonists To The Ops Center

Back in the storage area, Lydecker revealed that Dr. Reese and Dr. Mori had gone off to secure data, and Paris told the colonists plainly that the perimeter Marines were not answering and the creatures were likely inside the lines. When Anne Jorden led a group toward the surveyors' operations center, Paris and Yousseff went out ahead of them. As the wounded Pvt. Dunphy ran up with three creatures behind him, Paris sent Anne and her children on by another route, promising that the two Marines would deal with the pursuit and catch up.

Rejoining Brackett

Paris and Yousseff killed two more Xenomorphs before the worst screams broke out in the storage area, where the colonists who had stayed behind with Lydecker were under attack. Paris wished they had both left with Anne's group, and when Yousseff sprinted back toward the screams, she caught her at a corner and slammed her against the wall, shouting at her not to be stupid and hating herself for it. Yousseff broke down crying, then laughed through her tears and insisted they were dead anyway. A moment later the two women nearly shot Brackett and Cpl. Pettigrew, who came up behind them. Paris told Brackett that a group of colonists had split off to the surveyors' operations center, and when he answered Yousseff's despair by saying they might not all be dead and Pettigrew explained that there might be a way off the planet, Paris warned them they had better not be joking. Brackett shot a Xenomorph that came around the corner and ordered them to the operations center, and Paris led the four Marines there at a run.

Finding Luisa In The Ops Center

At the operations center the Marines shot the Xenomorphs down one at a time as they came through a single open door, then searched the dead and the half-cocooned survivors inside. Paris asked Brackett what they could do for the living, people she knew as friends where he saw mostly strangers, and she spotted a small cocooned body that Brackett hoped was Newt. She recognized the girl as Luisa, one of Newt's friends, and Brackett lifted her out alive while Paris and Yousseff searched the rest of the room.

The Run To The Evacuation Ship

Paris covered the rear as they left and helped kill two Xenomorphs that rushed them, then took point toward the private evacuation passage beside the med lab. There one creature killed Pettigrew and another dragged Yousseff into an elevator shaft, and Paris coldly refused to die there when they had a way home, shooting the wounded Xenomorph three times through the skull. Farther on they found Dr. Mori with a bullet wound in his shoulder and one shoe lost to acid, and after Brackett told him he was their ticket out, Paris helped him up so his key could open the hangar.

Turning Away From Gateway Station

Aboard the ship, Paris confirmed that the navigation computer held a preset course to Gateway Station, with most of the trip spent in hypersleep. Brackett, who had turned against Weyland-Yutani for treating the colonists as expendable, called her by her first name and told her to disable the course and find a way to keep the company from tracking them. The novel leaves her alive on the ship with Brackett, Mori, and the waking Luisa, and it does not show where they went.

Personality And Traits

Paris had a dry, understated humor and a lopsided smile, and she kept herself guarded, telling her new captain he would have to work her out over time. She was formal and straight-backed on duty but blunt and profane under fire, shouting insults at a Xenomorph before she shot it. She also knew when to hold her tongue, falling silent when she felt she had said too much about the troublemakers in the detail.

As an officer Paris was discreet, loyal, and willing to take risks in her commander's place. She gave Brackett frank advice about Draper, Simpson, and the company, kept quiet about his costly mistake with the Jordens, and offered to go into danger herself because the commander was the one who should stay. In a crisis she told civilians hard truths and made hard calls, even forcing a sobbing Yousseff away from a hopeless fight while hating herself for it.

Unlike the newly arrived Brackett, she saw the colonists as friends and acquaintances, and she could be gentle with frightened children such as Newt. Her friendship with Chenovski ran on her cheating at cards and his letting her get away with it. She accepted the risks of the Corps but was determined not to die on Acheron, and she said she would rather be killed than become a host for one of the creatures.

Behind The Scenes

Christopher Golden created Paris for Aliens: River of Pain, published by Titan Books in 2014 as the second novel of the trilogy that opened with Alien: Out of the Shadows. The book's opening scenes with her are dated 10 June 2179, and her last fight on Acheron falls on 26 June 2179, before the events of Aliens. Audible adapted the novel as a full-cast audio drama directed by Dirk Maggs for Alien Day, 26 April 2017, with Michelle Ryan as Lieutenant Paris.

Conclusion

Julisa Paris was Brackett's lieutenant at Hadley's Hope, the officer who knew the colony, its Marines, and its people when he arrived. She fought through the outbreak, watched most of her detail die, found Luisa Cantrell alive, and reached the science team's ship with Brackett and Dr. Mori. She left Acheron alive, under orders to cut the ship's course to Gateway Station and hide it from Weyland-Yutani.