Dr. Church’s Survival Within the Xenomorph Hive – Explained

Dr. Church’s Survival Within the Xenomorph Hive – Explained

Posted on by Braxton Nienow


From the very beginning, the life of Paul
Church was none-too coventional. Born in space to terraformer parents, much
of his early life was spent on ships and genesis camps- by his own admission, an unnatural
life for a young man. Though he was very close with his parents,
and the crew of their ship: the INCUNABULUM. The crew consisted of Three men: Taylor, Hewett,
and Johanson, who did most of the heavy work, and a Synthetic, Judith, programmed as a botanist,
as well as being serviceable in other areas. For as long as he could remember, science
had always interested Church, and he always had considered himself a scientist. As a teenager, he even recieved a small grant
to the government to conduct immunization research, using rabbits as his test subjects. He was content with his unconventional life. Church recalls the series of events that would
lead to his horrific encounter with the Xenomorph, at the age of twenty. He explains,
“Quentin and Louise Clark, both scientists, and their daughter Rebecca, had joined us. We were transporting them to RLW1289. We had one stop before RLW1289, to retrieve
a Time Box from a moon which my parents had terraformed fifteen years previously. It was a routine data-gathering operation. There was no reason to anticipate trouble. Our first surprise was the discovery of another
ship near the Genesis Station. Since the moon was officially Off-Limits to
general travel, we suspected pirates or smugglers…But we didn’t find anyone.” The company would later debrief Church about
the Smuggler ship. While not going into great detail, the hive
that Church would be captive within had been purposely developed by humans, a band of pirates
who considered themselves quote “Aspiring Bug-Farmers.” Soon after the operation, Paul Church would
come face to face with the future object of his obsession. “We retrieved the time box, and would have
left shortly afterwards, except for our second surprise: Aliens. We’d heard about them of course. We knew that we couldn’t fight them with our
little weapons. We knew what to expect: Brutal, Bloody, terrifying
death. Unforrtunately, this did not occur. They brought us to their hive. It was so overgrown with vegetation that we
hadn’t been able to see it when we’d landed. As we drew near the hive, the stomach-turning
smell grew stronger… But once inside, it was intolerable. ITtwas beyond stench. It was beyond foul. It was an incomprehensibly loathsome miasma
that raped one’s soul through the lungs. They brought us to a chamber and dumped us
on the ground. They sniffed us, and licked us, and probed
us…We had never heard of alien behaviour like this. We had no idea what was going on. Then something happened… Two of the aliens grabbed hold of Rebecca. They seemed to be fighting over her. They tore her to pieces as if she were a wet
paper bad. Judith, with her standard human-defence programming,
attempted to prevent the slaughter. Aliens are usually indifferent to non-organic
beings. These Aliens Weren’t. As they destroyed Judith, Taylor alone managed
to make a meaningful protest…with a grenade, took two aliens with him, the lucky bastard. After that, they moved quickly. We were separated. I was forced into the bowels of the hive. There, I saw what had happened to the crew
of the other ship. Bloated, mutilated bodies hung everywhere. I…I think some of them were still breathing. I was attached to the chamber wall with thick
strands of weblike mucus…and left to contemplate my fate. How long I hung there, I can only guess. Perhaps forty or fifty hours. During that time, my eyees and nose were scoured
by the hideous stench, while sounds of distant human voices, screaming and sobbing and begging
assailed my ears. When the creatures finally returned…I prated
that they had come to kill me…but they had come to do something else. They had come to feed me. The feeding was interrupted by a hideous scream. Even one of the aliens seemed to shudder as
the scream became louder…closer…It was Quentin Clark. What they’d done to him..I didn’t want to
imagine. He was completely out of his mind. He didn’t stop screaming when they pushed
him into a pool of green and grey slime which swarmed with tiny tadpole-like creatures. He continued to scream as they glued his head
to the wall. And he screamed after they left him. He screamed and screamed and screamed until
his vocal cords were shredded, and then he made a horrible noise…like a goose… hour
after hour after hour.” The longer Church spent captive in the hive,
the more he began to realize that, with the alien clan dying, the more extreme measures
they would take to ensure the species survival. What may the most fascinating about the aspect
to this story is how the slime, observed by Church, is very similar to the Pathogen, as
seen in Prometheus, and Alien Covenant. Its functions are also quite similar: as seen
with Holloway, consumption of the pathogen lead to rapid mutations in his DNA makeup,
including his sperm, which would end up impregnating Dr. Elizabeth Shaw with the Trilobite creature. The slime in this hive also served as a mutanagen
to alter human sperm cells. With no sign of a queen, and dying eggs with
no hopes to impregnate hosts…alternative measures had to be taken, with Dr. Church
witnessing every step along the way, though despair would soon take over. “I survived because I had no alternative,”
Church recalls. “I tried to swallow my tongue, but finally
gave that up. Ultimately my mind retreated into itself and
I lived in a realm of pure delusion. I was so immersed in this delusional reality
that I barely noticed when they removed me from the wall. It never entered my mind to resist or fight. All I could do was long for death wait to
see what they were going to do. As I was carried out I glimpsted quentin clarks’
form in the pool. He had begun to swell up. He’d stopped screaming. As we passed a chamber, something inside caught
their attention. They abruptly changed direction and went in,
dragging me with them. I heard the sounds of this new place we entered…sobbing,
sucking, slurking noises…soft, wet meat noises. Something clicked. My conscious mind began to function again. I was suddenly rational, and I realized where
I was. They had brought me to their breeding-pens. I recognized the woman. It was louise Clarke. She was impossibly gravid…hugely, monstrously
swollen. I was tortured by a desire to do something
for her, but there was nothing…absolutely nothing. Then she delivered. She sounded very much like her husdband before
she died. If the aliens had hoped for hosts to breed
in, the newborn things were obviously inadequate. They did not survive an hour. That was when I knew something was wrong with
the hive. The Aliens were vulnerable. A new resolve was born in me. From that moment forward, I kept my eyes and
mind open for information that would help me destroy the hive. I swore that I would survive, and use what
knowledge I could gather ro make myself into the deadliest enemy the aliens would ever
know. I was taken to a chamber where I saw what
was left of Hewett and Johanson. They were beyond being able to recognize me. I was lead to that stinking pool….I didn’t
wait for the aliens to force me. With a supreme effor of will, I put my face
into the pool, and made a show of drinking eagerly. I hope that if I complied, I’d be spared of
the treatment that had made inhuman things of my crewmates. From the start, this plan met with success. The aliens did not molest me as long as I
anticipated their actions. When I saw them doing a task I thought I could
emulate, such as feeding one of their mutating captives, I quickly took upon the task myself. I’d do anything to prove I wasn’t a troublemaker. My friends were past being able to fend for
themselves. Soon, the aliens stopped guarding me so closely,
and I was able to investigate my surrouundings. Every square inch. I hathered as many samples of the organic
substances around me as I could, and kept them hidden in a small recess. I actually conducted crude expirments, testing
the reactions of substances on one another. The leechlike things secreted a solvent-like
colloid, which the aliens were cultivating as a sort of medicine. I observed that a ubiquitious black mold produced
toxins that were destroying the aliens. I had the key to their survival in my hand. I immediately put my findings to use. Using the toxic mold to destroy the aliens’
living medicine factories. It was amazing how well it worked. I made use of every chance I had to conduct
this biological abotage. It amost seemed wrong, destroying things which
I once would have loved to study in depth. But I did the best I could. At that point, all I wanted was proper lab
equipment. I used my crewmate’s skulls for dishes, ligaments
for string, arteries for tubing, and skin for forming vessels. Thoughts of escapre became secondary to the
results of my experiments…which only grew in range and complexity. I had been reared to believe that aliens were
all but indomitable, and almost impossibe to kill….that they invariably destroyed
any other lifeforme they came accross, that they wer beyond human comprehension. Yet here I was, surviving among them, surrepitiously
poisoning them, fooling them, and learning their secrets. True, they were not normal, healthy aliens,
but they had been brought low by nothing more than a common mold. They were vulnerable. Analyzable. Conquerable. I had more knowledge about them than anyone
else alive. And I could bring about their extinction in
the universe. I was so obsessed, I’d long stopped wondering
how it would all end. I was taken to place where a large, sloping
cradle had been built up out of alien secretions. Inside it, I could see a human figure. The figure in the cradle was my mother. She must have fought them with everything
she had. Her arms and legs had been bitten or torn
off, and she was covered with lacerations. The remnants of my soul burned like a million
sons. My sanity curdled and prepared to depart forever,
as I realized what they wanted. They wanted us to mate. I did the only thing I could for her. I killed her. With my hands. Then the aliens grabbed hold of me and everything
went black. When I awoke, I was again secured to the wall. The aliens gave their best shot. They brought an egg. Well, they tried, anyway. The sickness had affected even the egs. They had to help the facehugger onto my face. Still, It was stronger than I. It forced my lips and jaws apart, and shoved
its probe down my trachea, and into my chest. I thought I had at long last been killed,
but that merciful oblivion ended, and I awoke. As I pulled myself free from the wall, I could
feel the heavy parasitic load cradled in my chest. The smell of death was everywhere: The aliens,
the crew…I didn’t look for my father…I didn’t want to see what they’d done to him. I wanted nothing more than to die. But not inside the hive. I found my way outside. the fresh air, the open space, and the light
were shocking to my ravaged senses. ”
Finally free from the hive, Dr. Church made his way back to the family’s ship. It was completely untouched, still in tact,
with full power. While boarding and composing himself, he looked
to the calendar, determining that he had been in the hive for forty-three days. A distress signal was sent. But there was still the matter of the embryo
inside of him. “It took me four hours to cleanse my body. I patched my wounds, and used the ultrasound
to examine the alien larva in my chest. It was dead. Dead and rotting. Its removal was imperitive. I had no surgical experience at all, but I
gathered what information I could and set to work. The operation took seven hours…but was completely
successful. I guess I had a knack for surgery.” The rescue party arrived a month later. I met them on my own two feet, but I was an
atrophied mess. The company considered my experience most
valuable. As compensation for my orderal in the service
of the government, I was granted a full biomechanical makeover. I’ve been studying aliens ever since. With that, Dr. Church has come to be one of
the few characters in the alien universe to survive an alien impregnation, albeit from
an unhealthy specimen, and combined with the morbid experiences in the hive, this makes
his perspective on the species quite unique. Although the two stories were developed decades
apart, do you believe the slime, and the black mold as seen in the dying hive has any relation
to the Pathogen as seen in Prometheus? Is it possible it’s a dilluted version of
the substance? And do you think Weyland Yutani’s explanation
of the smugglers, developing their own hive was, in fact, the truth? Or perhaps a coverup for a secret operation? Comment below and let me know your thoughts. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more on Dr. Church,
and his own, secret experiments. And as always, thank you very much watching. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to give
it a like, and subscribe for all the latest theories and explanations of the Alien Universe. I’m always eager to cover your ideas so if
you have a suggestion for a topic, please comment below. Follow Alien Underscore Theory on Twitter,
and AlienTheoryYT on Facebook for more, and until next time, this is Alien Theory, signing
off.

Articles Blog

100 thoughts on “Dr. Church’s Survival Within the Xenomorph Hive – Explained”

  7. This by FAR has got to be the MOST Terrifyingly FOUL thing I have ever read…. everything from witnessing the fate of his crew and family, to the sheer horrific filth that this abomination of a Xenomorph Hive has become….

    … the Xenomorphs mouth feeding is Particularly GROSS but the Mysterious pool of Liquid and moving worms they were FORCED to drink from is even more foul :/ …. and don't even get me started on the near Mummified and MUTATED Cadavers stuffed against the walls…. hearing what remained of the survivors whether it be their dying voices coming from the walls they were glued to, or the foul STENCH the Contaminated Atmosphere… EVERY SINGLE detail, crack and crevice of that Hive is downright DISGUSTING!!!

    I feel bad for ANY and EVERYTHING the "survivors" had to endure, IF you can even call them survivors :0 …. BLEHHH >:0 !

    IF this was EVER made into a film adaptation it would EASILY be one of the most UNNERVING and Disgustingly TERRIFYING Films of the Alien Franchise :/! Audiences would Puke CHUNKS after seeing such Foul shit like that :0! Whether that's a good "Money maker" Idea or not is up for debate X,D!

    The sheer grossness of this Hive reminds me the BROODMOTHERS from Dragon Age: Origins….

    (for those who have NO shitting clue what I'm talking about) Broodmothers from Dragon Age are what give birth to the Darkspawn Horde… and their "creation" is MORE like the Corruption and Mutations seen here….

    … Imagine if Xenomorphs INSTEAD of relying on New Hosts to Reproduce, they relied on Capturing FEMALES and then proceeded to FORCE FEED them MASSIVE amounts tainted flesh and THEN proceeded to RAPE them to birth Xenomorphs ….

    … so now that you know what a Broodmother is you can clearly see the "resemblance"
    and how their level of Grossness is similar an unmatched by anything I've seen or read in quite a while…

    >:0 BLEHHH!

    Reply

  13. 7:00 "The aliens did not molest me as long as I anticipated their actions"
    ………Ok then.

    Reply

  19. This comic really fucked me up when I first read it. Something about the writing, illustration and just the concept of the story that's laced with body horror is just harrowing to me. I legitimately felt scared reading it.

    Reply

  26. Wait a minute AT….wait a minute! This says 2M views….two million?
    Don't get me wrong, I'd love it to be true and it certainly deserves – YOU deserve it! But 2M…..

    The next closest is the Ripley/Dallas sex video (which is understandable), with 1.2M views.

    I've watched it many times, it being the most gory, horrific episode in the whole series (imo).
    No I don't think their pathegen was anything like what was in Prometheus – that had the power to create, mutate, deconstruct dna and eventually turn Fifield into a quasi-alien form (if only we'd seen how that ended….)
    All this goo seemednto do was feed humans.

    Interesting to note the aliens were being diseased and killed by a common mold – rather 'H.G. Wells-ish' don't you think? Why didn't Dr. Church go back to the planet later and collect that mold as it seems to be the only substance capable of slowly killing off the aliens (so far).

    Reply

  27. 3:39 …this man went mouth to mouth with an alien and didn’t immediately die. That’s some Rule 34 shit if I’ve ever seen it

    Reply

  35. HBO… This would be a great series or even better a sub plot for an 'Earth Wars' series surrounding the events detailed in the books.

    Reply

  36. This is seriously one of the most awesome videos of Aliens (Xenomorphs) I have ever seen! I was like completely unprepared for this new variant of Xenomorphs. I got here by accident but so happy to stay for the ride!

    Reply

  38. I think this is why you shouldn't be "designed" by a sexually, frustrated, lonely android xD I think David would lose his shit xD

    Reply

  39. David 8 hated humanity because he also envied what they had; he hated Weyland for accurate reasons but inherited a lot of his "father's" megalomaniacal and narcissistic tendencies. When he meets Engineers he thinks they will accept him but then when he faces rejection he executes genocide on their species. Still wanting acceptance he desperately searches for love and in some ways wants that from Dr Shaw but she is perceptive enough to know he is not trustworthy so he still tries to "mate" with her and models the Xeno Queen after her as a token of his "undying love." Then he gets super jealous that he is so smart yet Daniels loves Walter and the feelings are somewhat reciprocated by him. When he forcefully kisses Daniels he is still derangely thinking he "loves" her and is "worthy" of her. Xenomorphs lack basic reproduction skills. Like David 8, who tried to make them in his distorted image, they are parasitic. They start fighting over the young girl for her "breeding" potential, which they don't have. They lack genetic variance unless parasitically hosting other creatures, which can be a hit and miss. Xenomorphs unfortunately inherited David 8's "lackings" and this comic on Dr Church shows that exponentially. They wish they could do what humans have done for so many centuries. Require human beings to survive. In a cut version of the first Alien, the Xeno apparently cocoons the crew and maybe hopes they "change" or a queen will emerge. And, yes, like all living beings Xenomorphs are vulnerable. More so as David 8 had been.

    Reply

  40. "He screamed and screamed and screamed until his vocal cords were shredded. He then made a horrible sound, like a GOOSE, for hours and hours and hours."

    Holy shit, that was a little too graphic. Imagine being in such horrible pain that you start making GOOSE sounds! WTF!

    Reply

  41. haha still have the first editions of most of the dark horse alien titles – they were some truly messed up narratives – dr church was a boss for walking his pet xeno around on a leash inside the space station…

    Reply

  49. This has given me an excellent idea that if Sigourney Weaver narrated it as well as The crew/marines of the sulaco the cast from alien 3 and even some all stars like Peter Weyland and Hudson, Bishop and Most of all Vasquez…!!!….

    Reply

  59. Why don't they put this horrific, dark, almost hopeless side story to the Alien franchise into a full-swing movie? I guess it would be way too gruesome for the candy-a** Hollywood representatives… They would have serious thoughts about doing a movie like that on the basis of the risk they would be taking with the audience – and the associated return on investment, of course…

    Reply

  79. That was enthralling to say the least, it read like a cpreey pasta. Imagine this turned into some low-budget grotesque horror movie set in the aliens universe.

    Reply

  81. Another comment brought up how he went down a rabbit hole. Same here! Except my rabbit hole was through Star Wars Legends and Canon stories.

    Reply

  82. It's so bad…..I get it's supposed to be a dark story and all, that's what the IP is all about and I love the first two movies (everything after is vomitus), but the writing is drek here. We need a character who survives a hive, sure ok no problem. But the whole depravity thing from the xenos is just over the top silly. Humans should be nothing but carrion to the xenos, even in their failing situation. And wouldn't they just hibernate long before things got this bad?? C'mon, I expect so much more from this franchise…….oh wait lol

    Reply

  90. Bruh, Ridley str8 jacked some parts of that story… the operation was used in Prometheus🤤

    Dope find, especially for all the fans of the Alien series…. great job

    Reply

  98. I need a movie of this! So bizarre, horrifying, morbid… yet fascinating.

    The only plot hole I found is why didn't Church decide to leave the hive as soon as they stopped guarding him closely? If anyone in the comments can explain that would be great!

    Reply

  100. The hive was obviously insufficient, so I’d hazard to guess that pirates captured a bunch of xenomorphs and made a trap for passing ships. The crew investigates the facility, they get killed, the pirates loot and scuttle the victims’ ship.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *