Special Order 937
- "Priority one
Insure return of organism for analysis.
All other considerations secondary.
Crew expendable." - —MOTHER's order directives[src]
Special Order 937 was a classified retrieval order given by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to Science Officer Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo. The order's main priority was to preserve the alien specimen that was encountered by the Nostromo in the Zeta Reticuli system and bring it back alive for analysis. All other priorities were considered secondary and all of the Nostromo's crew members were deemed expendable.
History[]
In 2121, the USCSS Nostromo's onboard computer, "Mother" intercepted a signal originating from a planetoid near Zeta II Reticuli within close proximity to the ship as it made the journey to Thedus. For the return trip, Weyland-Yutani Corporation installed the synthetic Ash on the vessel as Science Officer to represent the company's interests. The Nostromo's flight path for the return journey to Earth was set to pass closer to the planetoid to be investigated.[1]
The crew members were awakened prematurely from their hypersleep to investigate the signal as per standing company orders. The crew landed the Nostromo on the planetoid where a landing party discovered a derelict alien spacecraft. Executive Officer Gilbert Kane was attacked by an alien organism that attached itself to his face. Ash, operating under Special Order 937, allowed Kane back on the ship, overriding Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley who wanted to hold him, and the other members of the party—Captain Arthur Dallas and Navigator Joan Lambert—in quarantine for twenty-four hours.[2]
The organism released itself from Kane and Ash insisted on keeping the now-dead creature for study. Ripley wanted to throw it off the ship, but Captain Dallas deferred to Ash's judgement at the Science Officer. Kane awoke and the crew planned to return to stasis; at a meal, Kane was killed by an alien creature erupting from his chest. Ash stopped Chief Engineer Dennis Parker from killing it and it fled into the ship. After the alien killed Engineering Assistant Samuel Brett and Captain Dallas, Ripley learned about Special Order 937 as the ship's ranking officer. A confrontation with Ash led the surviving crew to discover that Ash was synthetic. The alien killed the majority of the remaining crew, but Ripley managed to escape on the shuttle Narcissus with the ship's cat, Jonesy, after destroying the Nostromo and killing the alien.[2]
Appearances[]
- Alien (First appearance)