Book Review 137 // Reclamation by Yvonne Navarro

Continuing my run of Alien short stories. I've been enjoying these a lot, so I am going to keep going. Reclamation, a short tale following Corporal Hicks and his career before the film Aliens.

The story begins as one of happiness, with Hicks getting married to Private Rachel Miller. As with most Marine marriages, their time together is cut short, with her unit being sent off-world on a search mission. Through recorded messages, he watches as his wife and her unit deals with the discovery of an alien spaceship. Her final message declares the unit is under attack by "some kind of alien" and then there are no more transmissions.

The mission is sealed away from further mention, and Hick is forced to give up chasing for answers under the fear of court-martial. But he has a plan. It takes five years, but Hick ends up joining a recovery team searching the wreckage of his late wife's ship. Unable to continue the lie, he comes clean to the squad about the ship and his dead wife. Unfortunately for all involved, the aliens on board the ship aren't dead, and soon only Hick's is left alive (plot armour). Sealing the doomed ship, Hick leaves the planet and vows to have his revenge on the strange aliens.

Overall a solid read that gave some real depth to the character Hicks. As a fan of the novel series that followed Aliens, I was always disappointed how they just killed him and Newt off in the third film. I feel this short story justifies my feelings, and how Hick's could have easily been a joint lead in a third film.

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