The drone of monastic prayer resounds through the wooden innards of this cathedralesque world. Monks make their way up ladders and onto a wide and dimly lit plateau.
They group beside a cold black lake, their expectant faces raised towards the unshielded heavens.
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mosqueda
The monks gather in hope as day by day ‘the star in the east’ approaches…
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
Until finally this star — Ripley’s escape pod — crash-lands in the satellite’s lagoon.
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
The monk we first see, John, goes over to the crashed spaceship in a coracle – an ancient little vessel made of hide.
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mortimer
Artist: Worrall, Photoshop: Mortimer, Concept: Ward
Everything is destroyed inside. John and the other monks find bedchambers with the glass broken.
They find trails of blood leading to a child’s bloodied clothing (Newts) but there is no sign of the girl’s body.
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
Then they come across Ripley. She is encrusted in dried saliva and her sleeping shield is broken but she is still in an unconscious sleep.
Artist: Traditional
They take her by boat and by ladder down to the Abbot.
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mortimer
Artist: ILM, Concept: Ward
The Abbot is a real reactionary and rules with an iron rod.
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mortimer
They interrogate her. They are uneasy about having a woman in their midst and believe she has been sent to tempt them. Unless they overcome her she will lead to their demise.
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
She only has one ally — this monk John, who’s a little more open than the rest and younger, too. He must have arrived on the last supply ship, now more than ten years ago.
There’s a weird physical frisson between him and Ripley.
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mortimer
Ripley tries to explain to them about the alien; that it is a dangerous creature which stowed away in her spaceship and must be slain.
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
Ripley’s pleas fall on deaf ears. They refuse to listen. Instead freaked out by the carnage they found in her spacecraft, they hasten to lay blame on her for the murder and desecration of a child.
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
They feel that if they can get rid of her they may yet have a chance at salvation.
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mortimer
They cut off her hair and put her in a cell at the bottom of the world
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
In doing so they hope that they have purged themselves of temptation and rid themselves of the evil she has brought upon them.
Artist: Ritchie, Concept: Ward
Unbeknownst to the in the darkness of the catacombs it waits…
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mortimer, Concept: Ward
All are against her except John who has a strange feeling he has seen something like what Ripley is talking about somewhere.
Artist: Traditional, Photoshop: Mortimer
Mutant sheep
Then things start going wrong.
So wildly and strangely wrong that Ripley doubts the reports are true. And wonders what could have affected the creatures DNA to have caused such mutations.
Artist: Worral, Concept: Ward
Click button for Part V
