How'd the eggs get on The Sulaco? Give me your best shot

For me...It always comes down to: Who was flying the Sulaco? Why did it stop at a prison planet and not just travel back to Earth or a safe station?

I assume Bishop set course for Earth and MUTHER superseded. 

It comes down to Bishop or the queen. It seems like Bishop's accounting for time from when he crawled into the pipe, did what he had to do and get back was pretty much accounted for. The queen could have stowed it somehow but it couldn't be seen with the queen- I would have to say the queen brought it aboard. 

 The Queen and Bishop are the most plausible theories. Alien Theory on you tube covered them as well. My only issue with Bishop is the egg appears to be in in hallway somewhere. Not on board the drop ship.

My best theory so far

I thought up an angle regarding Carter Burke. Burke sends a message from Hadley's Hope to Weyland Yutani. Receives orders to use the facehugger to impregnate Ripley and Newt. This obviously fails. One thing about the messages is if you're watching the special edition you learn it takes 2 weeks to get a response due to obvious distance. 

In Alien 3 Weyland Yutani shows up quickly once they learn of the dragon being captured and also seem to know Ripley is impregnated with a queen. My opinion is the Sulaco was being shadowed the whole time by the ship that arrives on Fiorina 161.

So far the best thing I can think of is Michael Bishop Weyalnd's security force was prepared to hijack the Sulaco once Ripley and and Newt were in cryo but also most likely sending a group into the LV-426 derelict with the knowledge that the atmosphere processor destruction will likely destroy the derelict.

When Burke fails with with Ripley and Newt, Weyland Yutani boards the Sulaco with what is likely a royal egg (I don't know really). It hatches and impregnates Ripley. Weyland Yutani possibly reroutes the Sulaco to Fiorina 161 to perhaps watch and collect data on the xenomorph in a live environment( Holes in this theory since Fury 161 has no working surveillance according to Mr. Aaron). The rest you know.

I know thats long and perhaps ridiculous but it's the best I could come up with lol. 

Also I'm aware of Colonial Marines dlc Stasis Interuppted but know nothing of it's plot. If I'm treading familiar territory let me know.

Who was flying the Sulaco?

From everything else we've seen in the Alien universe, the ships are on autopilot when the crew are in stasis. Having said that...

If a ship is on a long journey, the chances of a fire breaking out and happening to be a very short distance from a planet is extremely unlikely. Unless the Sulaco was already orbiting Fiorina.

So what was the autopilot doing?

In respect of what happened on the Sulaco, it might be worth reflecting on the dialogue between Ripley and Bishop after she reactivates him.

RIPLEY: Was there an alien onboard?

BISHOP: Yes.

RIPLEY: Was it on the Sulaco, or did it come with us in the EEV?

BISHOP: It was with us all the way.

RIPLEY: Does the Company know?

BISHOP: The company knows everything that happened on the ship. It all goes into the computer and gets sent back to Network.

RIPLEY: And they want it.

I wonder, is Ripley thinking of the 8-foot Alien or the facehugger when she asks this question? Because when she talked about the facehugger before, she describes it very clearly as a "parasite".

If she has the fully grown Alien in mind... perhaps the Queen wasn't the only hitch-hiker on the dropship. Maybe a drone snuck in and took an egg with it.

After the dropship landed on the Sulaco, there wasn't any time for Bishop or the Queen to wander about and glue the egg to a ceiling. It's not exactly clear where the egg was placed, but it obviously wasn't too far from the hypersleep chamber. The facehugger obviously had no trouble getting from the egg to Ripley's stasis tube.

When Bishop accesses the flight data recorder, the implication is that he gets to see a lot of things, including the information that was sent back to the Company. If an Alien had pasted an egg in a corridor, the Company would know, and so would Bishop at the point he accessed the recorder.

In Aliens, there is not a single clue to explain the egg. Because it was never planned.

I don’t think that trying to explain the plot hole makes any sense. This is not even Damon Lindelof's mystery box. Which has no solution and is intended solely to create speculation. Egg in Alien 3 is just a plot hole.

Most likely, this is David, who, with the help of fingering, was able to make the ship grow an egg. It also perfectly explains why the egg grew on the ceiling.

"2 weeks to get a response"

They need to figure out if they have faster than light communication(like Star Trek's sub space..instant coms across the galaxy) in the Alien verse.

Weyland Corp. "Was the mission a success?"

Space Marine director: "Won't know for two weeks..sorry"

@Leto, you are being completely defeatist. Of course there is sense in trying to fill a plot hole - if a plausible explanation can be found. Part of the fun of spinning a story is filling holes that don't have an explanation. I see that speculation isn't your strong point.

In William Gibson's script for Alien3 Bishop tells Hicks that the Queen managed on board Sulaco and somehow it deposited genetic material in the ship, that was used by the weapons division to create smaller version of the alien eggs that grow bigger day by day. But in the beginning of the script we see that Bishop had an egg within his entrails. So Bishop was infected by the queen and the egg developed inside it.

hox

I just don't like ideas about Bishop-traitor or Queen carrying/laying egg. For many years I saw many ideas and some were dumber than the other.

Do you know? There was no egg in the Alien 3 preview! Only facehuggers.

But a test group of viewers began to ask: "Where did the egg come from?"

And FOX: "Well, they come from egg".

FOX adds egg.

Test group: "Yes, but where did the egg come from?"

FOX: "Oh... shut up!"

XDDD

You should better ask - why did two facehuggers appear from one egg?

hox

You made me think. xD

Yeah, my new theory is simple. The Queen grabbed the ship and took root. Merging with the hull of the ship, the Queen became part of the spaceship and grew eggs in the inner compartments. This perfectly explains the two facehuggers. I think there were more eggs. This is a really cool idea for Alien 5.

Just imagine - Sulaco arrives at the arctic dock. People open it and... contamination of the Earth has begun!

Bishop sets the Sulaco on a course for Earth. the crew enters hypersleep. Mother countermands Bishop's order. staying in orbit above LV426. Mother sends a drone to retrieve the queen.....the Queen destroys the drone...Mother moves the Sulaco closer to the queen and fires the main guns to stun or subdue the Queen...after the queen is unconscious/docile/dead, mother sends more drones to bring back samples(eggs if possible).....Mother loses more drones from acid damage and concludes :bringing the queen aboard would compromise the hull....she scans and tags the queen for retrieval.  David shows up 3 weeks later and takes the queen.  plants an egg near the Sulaco's crew and then orders/programs the Sulaco to spend the rest of it's days visiting prison planets.

"My opinion is the Sulaco was being shadowed the whole time by the ship that arrives on Fiorina 161"

I would certainly BUY into that and the Sulaco and Crew were just Expendable like the Nostromo Crew

A Few Things we have to look at.... and remember that MUTHUR and Bishop are A.I and a A.I could have a Hidden Command that could be HIDDEN from Bishop... like a Sub-Routine.

I do However find it Unlikely that Bishop had any time to Obtain a Egg/Eggs from LV-426 never-mind get them to the Sulaco before he had to go and Rescue Ripley and Newt.

Could there have been another Operative Hidden on the Sulaco?  If so what Happened to them!  If there was such a Hidden Synthetic then maybe they could have Obtain some Eggs... but then WHY would they have not got down to Fiorina 161 soon after the EEV had been Launched.... Unless its Mission was deemed a Success with the Face Huggers on the EEV.... however you would have thought the USCSS Patna would have got a Heads Up earlier. 

So i would instead have to look at either the Queen or another Alien got aboard... I cant see how/when another Alien had chance to manage that.

So the Queen seems the ONLY real Solution... but we dont see HOW she could have SNUCK any Eggs aboard.

Alien Covenant does give some Glimmer of a Explanation ;)

SMALL EGGS....

If the Queen could have taken Small Eggs that would GROW then that could Explain HOW they got on the Ship... but it then comes down to WHEN could she had done that as it does-not appear the Eggs where Placed near the Drop Ship that she had Stowed Away on!

So as LETO had said.. we are looking at a PLOT HOLE from those who wrote/shot the Movie who NEVER gave any Explanation or Thought.... we was simply NOT supposed to ASK.

Its Fun trying to come up with a Valid Explanation but i dont think we could ever come up with a WATER TIGHT case... as i think any Explanation would have HOLES.

I will add WHILE we see ONE Egg.... but we have TWO infections in Alien 3, we cant rule out TWO Eggs.

The Biggest Puzzle comes down to HOW are the Eggs Activated?  We are shown in the Franchise via Proximity but then its a case of IF the Face Huggers had NOT been Unleashed until after Ripley, Hicks and Newt had been placed into Cryo-sleep then WHO would have SET the Eggs off?

In ALIEN the Blue-Myst may have Prevented this....but with Alien Covenant we dont have that and it appeared that maybe Close Proximity was needed for a Egg to OPEN.

The ONLY way the Eggs could have Opened on the Sulaco would be via the Queen.... but this would mean those Eggs would have to be brought on to the Ship... LARGE.

So maybe we cant RULE-OUT a Hidden Operative

The mystery isn't only an egg was on the ship, but an egg that had a royal face hugger. I wonder if the queen, being abruptly separated from her nest, may have had some sort of physical survival response that enabled her to lay a couple emergency eggs- kind of a last ditch do or die effort to propagate the species? 

Definitely not! Ovomorphs form in the egg sack. This shows that the Queen herself (as is) cannot produce eggs. When Ripley destroyed an egg sack, unformed "yolks" fell out.

We also forget that the Queen simply did not have time for this. She either fought with Ripley, or hunted for Newt.

Certainly Leto ;)

I had mentioned the same years ago regarding if the Queen could Lay Eggs without the Egg Sack, which i was in doubt because INDEED we do see some Eggs in the Sack that only look like Yolks.

At this time (prior to AC) i found it would NOT make sense in how a Queen could Lay a Egg as it was in Alien 3 and Stick it to the underside of the Drop Ship simply because then we would have to ask WHY the Egg Sack?

so its nice you Mentioned that again ;)  it kind of escaped my mind a little when i looked at the Alien Covenant Small Eggs...

Because with those if the Queen Could Lay Small Eggs and Stick them to the Drop Ship that maybe could have explained it..

However.... indeed it seems if this was the Case then the Queen would NOT need or USE the Egg Sack.  But also the Egg from Alien 3 does-not look like its stuck to the Drop Ship and there was NO TIME for the Queen to place any Eggs anywhere else.

so its simply comes down to those working on ALIEN 3 to simply come up with a Egg on the Ship so we get another ALIEN Movie.. so it was a Plot Device... but ONE with no Explanation that could NOT contradict what we saw in ALIENS and so yeah!   a Lazy Plot Hole ;)

'Because with those if the Queen Could Lay Small Eggs and Stick them to the Drop Ship that maybe could have explained it..'

I like that!

The Queen seemed intelligent and she would use all of her tricks to get revenge. She must have realized her chances of surviving(in the landing gear of a spaceship)were slim...(what if the ship was headed to Earth without a stop? She got lucky....it was a short trip(Engineer ships stayed in orbit for decades...or at least the ones her brood had infested) Her children would finish the job.

Wasn't the queen with them at the ship when they left the exploding planet in Aliens? So the queen must have gotten on the ship put the eggs in there in some place and there it is. I agree that this is not given a good explanation in the movies but I do not have a huge problem with it.

Watched Aliens and Alien 3 again....

And the Dilemma is WHY would the Queen need to use the Egg Sack to Mature/Grow the Eggs so they are then ready to LAY... if she could LAY Small Eggs that can Grow?

The Egg Sack clearly has Yolks and so the Eggs go through a Process before they are ready to be Laid.....

2nd the Area the Egg we see in Alien 3 is Planted does-not look like Part of the Drop Ship and the Queen had NO-TIME to plant any Eggs elsewhere..

Finally Bishop had NO-TIME to get a Egg/s and Sneak them to the Nostromo and NO-ONE could have got to them after the Destruction of Hadleys Hope (we assume).

That leaves us with TWO possible explanations.

1) The Sulaco had a Hidden Agent (maybe Synthetic) who had taken down a Drop Shop and Recovered some Eggs, while the Marines and Ripley were Stranded on Hadleys Hope.

The Problem with this would be surely the Agent would awaken once the Crew were in Cryo-sleep and then obtain a Host to Infect with a Face Hugger and have some Protocols to Safegaurd the Storage of a Infected Host.  Alternatively the Agent would Safeguard the Egg/Face Hugger in a way that the Specimen can be passed onto the Company.

We could have a Accidental Loss of Containment but surely a Inside Agent would INFORM the Company and the USCSS Patna would have picked the SOS up.

2) The USCSS Patna or another Ship had Followed the USCSS Sulaco and they had obtain a Specimen and then Placed it on the Sulaco.

The Problem with this would be surely they (USCSS Patna) would have known about any Failure of Containment leading to the EEV Ejection and you would have to ASK as to WHY not just keep the Specimen they obtained from LV-426 there is NO real need to place it on the Sulaco.

so again we just CANT come up with a Watertight Explanation for the Eggs on the Sulaco.

Not knowing the timeline really hurts any explanation.

Did the Sulaco head for Earth immediately? Or hang around LV-426(Still plenty of eggs aboard the derelict)...maybe it stopped at LV-223 and picked someone/thing up.

Aliens: Colonial Marines The game's plot has been stated as canon by 20th Century Fox anyway?

ACM has been struck out. Even before Isolation.

Hadley's Hope - 6 month supply ship docked, cargo offloaded. Crew in bar grabbing a beer in downtime overhear chatter regarding a Mayday call from a family of wildcatters and see vehicles heading out of the complex to assist.

Hours later, whilst prepping the ship for departure, heightened gossip and whispering in the cargo dock regarding why medlab is locked down, operations are keeping out non essential personnel and rumours of a strange animal attached to someone's face..

A short while later, as the supply ship is powering up and awaiting departure clearence, an alarm sounds - coms calling security personnel to medlab. Still awaiting clearance for take off from operations. Shit, we're on a schedule here.. Can't risk getting caught up in quarantine procedures over dumb ass colonist issues.. The button is hit.. The loading door closes, a small fleshy coloured, snake-like tail can be seen slithering over the threshold into the ship as the door closes, and she ship departs...

Several months later: USCM Sulaco - crew in stasis: 4, Destination: Returning to Gateway station from LV-426... A screen flicks into action: Promiximity alert, incoming distress beacon from colonial orbital fueling station, re-route course to intercept and assist, ending stasis programme.

*insert entire new alien movie here with Hicks, Newt, Ripley with survivors of the (docked) supply ship and orbital station... Shit goes down, ends with our three hero's (and a couple of new peeps) crashing landing a shuttle into the Sulacos loading bay (thus damaging the cryo stasis chamber on that deck) - in true xeno form, they have managed to follow and get on board the Sulaco.. *insert conflict here* everything's fine now.. Surviving crew move to lower deck cryochamber, and resume course to gateway... Pan to pulsating egg on ceiling. It opens. Credit roll.

All problems solved.

Well giving this Thought again.... then the Simple Explanation comes from ALIEN COVENANT.

Which i mentioned before.... we can ASSUME that the Eggs in the Room where David takes Oram to become Infected, had been Planted and GROWN from those Smaller Eggs we see on the Table of his Workshop.  The END of the Movie we see that David has TWO Small Face Huggers..... NOW these are NOT going to Face Hug anyone... so they MUST at some Stage GROW!

And so WHY cant a Queen Lay Smaller Eggs that can GROW?

This would be the Easiest Explanation......

Old topic. I have nothing further to add here. Thanks for the bump though