I can't believe no one has thought of this, I have checked numerous websites. Bearing in mind that massive abdominal surgery would result in serious tissue and vascular damage, Shaw's recovery is amazing but this is the future and you would have to suspend disbelief in such cases. Medical advances and all. My hypothesis is that Shaw pilots the ship as far as LV426 but succumbs to the internal bleeding she undoubtedly would have developed following the rushed procedure she undergoes. She did rip out the umbilical cord and there didn't seem to be a placenta attached! This is in itself an infection risk. She would have had to sit in the chair to pilot the ship, thus being engulfed by the jockey suit, although she would be too small for it (plot contrivance). She would also have to have been infected by something other than the squid she gave 'birth' to, although this is not a stretch of the imagination in this universe! Taking into account that a massive squid face hugger thing can impregnate a space jockey (not engineer but haphazard experimenter with life with little or no control seeing as they perished at the same hands) and lead to a precursor alien xenomorph as we know it, jumping many stages of evolution as we know it, this is not a stretch of the imagination. The 'alien; at the end of the film is clearly not a queen and we are not on LV426, what was the point in seeing this birth? Who is the space jockey in alien with the torn out chest? Shaw? What came out, an alien queen or did the egg preceed the chicken? Liked the movie as a sci fi epic, beautifully shot, but story lacked, especially in the alien universe/