Ʌ L I Ξ N   I N T I M Ʌ C Y


 
Space. A lone starship - the “Costaguana” - slowly drifts along a backdrop of twinkling stars, dust and gases from within a stunning purple and blue nebula.
 
"Where are you?" a lone figure whispered to himself. Everything was a pitch black, with only the man's flashlight shedding a narrow beam of brightness on the interior of the ship. The only sounds were an artificial humming that worked its way through metal guts, accompanied by the slow, clanking steps of the man. He shone his light on every surface to no avail, causing him to swear under his breath. If only he had bothered to memorize the ship before making the getaway.
 
A distant, echoed clatter of metal caused him to snap his attention back down the hallway. There! It had to be. Gripping his flashlight tightly, the man moved forth carefully, trying to keep the sound of his footsteps quiet. He scanned the hallway again, looking for anything he might have missed. "I know you're here," he murmured. "Here, kitty, kitty..."
 
The man looked up. A spindly hand darted out of the circle of light. He looked over more, revealing his target. A nightmarish black mass menaced at him from above, bearing its sharp teeth at him with a hiss. A stream of animalistic spittle ran down its chin, spattering the floor. The creature dropped from the ceiling with a loud thud and stood back up; its monstrous form towering over the man.
 
"Found you."
 
It lunged forward, grasping him tightly.
 
"Well done, my love. It only took you thirty minutes to find me this time," it spoke softly as it nuzzled into the man's head. "I must be running out of places to hide."
 
"Or maybe I'm getting better at this," the man replied, returning the affectionate embrace.
 
The alien pulled away and crouched slightly to reach the human's eye level. "Maybe you are." It leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips.
 
"Just two more days to go." The man switched off the flashlight and dropped it to the ground.
 
"Then let us make the most of them."
 
“Man and Beast”
 
Tap. Tap. Tap.
 
"For the fifth and final time, I said ‘no’." A young man with short, scruffy brown hair and well-kempt stubble leaned back on his uncomfortable metal chair. His weapon - a standard M41A Pulse Rifle - leaning reassuringly against his leg. Guard work was easy work, and it paid quite handsomely, especially in the rejects bin of Weyland-Yutani’s bio-weapons division.
 
Basically, all that was required of you was to just sit there and make sure the containment cell held up. If it didn't? Well, you wouldn’t have enough time to worry about it given that the rest of what little life you had left would be filled with a pain unlike anything you felt before. That was the man's philosophy, anyway. Private Joshua Briggs's philosophy.
 
As for what Joshua was protecting, it was just another worthless biological monstrosity that the ruthless bigwigs thought could bring them power, or money, or whatever naïve goal they’d had in mind when they cooked it up in their science labs. This one was far less violent than the others of its kind down on the sublevels. That's not to say it couldn't snap his spine like a twig and feed on his gullet at a moment’s notice, but it wasn't constantly operating on that level. A “species bridge” was the term coined by one of the middle-aged men with the long, white coats and rapidly receding hairlines. That aspect wasn't very important since it was unofficially deemed a failure and would spend the rest of its life in a reinforced prison cell, only occasionally brought out to be studied and tested like a guinea pig.
 
Joshua grabbed his rifle as a small sense of protection and stood up, stretching his arms above his head and shaking off the stiffness in his legs. The room he was in was a grungy control area of sorts, with an array of miscellaneous buttons he never really needed to press. In a sense, they were both prisoners, only one of them had been deluded into believing he was free to leave any time he wanted. This job wasn’t exactly one he aspired to, but rather one he was forced to undertake by his superiors in the military. Guard duty seemed a fitting assignment for him, given his history of stubbornness and general lackadaisical attitude towards others.
 
He approached the glass to get a better view of the monster that resided within. On the far side, the black, chitinous thing crouched and bared its teeth, poised to strike. Despite having been with it for a while, the Joshua was still partially confused by the creature's appearance. Not because of the strange, elongated head, or the sleek armoured form, nor even the spiny tail that waved back and forth ever so menacingly. No, all of that was pretty standard affair for the bio-division. What was interesting was the presence of a few key human features. Female human features.
 
Smack dab on the front of its chest were a pair of smooth, glossy breasts. Not that Joshua could particularly ever make them out at a distance, what with the creature being pitch black with only the shininess of its latex-like skin making its features visible, but they certainly looked like breasts. What he usually saw, for the times when it was bored and took to menacing him through the glass, were a set of lips that hid sharp, silver teeth and, of course, its trademark second maw. It growled; the sound crackling through the speaker system.
 
Oh, and it talked too. Not that it was good for conversation or anything, since most of it was usually "meat" or "out", but it was fun to hear its mimicry.
 
The man walked back to his seat and slumped into it. He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and flicked the lid open and closed a few more times before pocketing it again. Just a couple more hours and he could get some shut eye. Until then, it was staring off into space and trading what little words he had with the monster. His mind wandered, imagining all the things he could buy when his rotation was finally over. Josh was a simple man of simple desires. A nice home by the sea, away from the all noise and pollution of city-life he grew up with back on Earth. Doesn't have to be too big; just enough for him and a wife. Maybe a couple of kids running around, too. He grinned at his idiotic fantasy. Probably need a large bed, as well. He thought about coming home from a long drive and finding his wife there, ready to lovingly dote on him.
 
"Meat," something said.
 
She would have to be blonde, maybe with a southern accent just for fun. Or maybe she could have sleek, black curves and a wicked smile that he could get lost in. No, wait...
 
"Meat!" the voice rang out again.
 
Oh, right. The guard shook out of his worsening daydream. It was the thing's dinnertime. Or lunch. It was hard to remember what was what, but the creature was definitely punctual about it. He leaned over to the control panel behind him. "Now which one was it?" he mumbled. Joshua waved a hand over several of the enticing flashy buttons. "Order up," he spoke again, pushing down on the yellow button. A loud clunk came from behind him, accompanied by the sound of screeching metal. Joshua looked back at the airlock. The door to containment now had a small circular entrance on its side. He nodded and moved to a crate of silver canisters nearby. With a hand he hefted up one of them and slid it into the newly made orifice.
 
The airlock accepted the package with a beep and a loud slurp. The guard pulled the canister free and tossed the empty shell next to the crate. He looked into the porthole again to make sure the slop went through. BANG. Joshua flinched and readied his rifle. The feminine thing had smashed its inner maw against the screen and skittered away. "Fuck," he grunted, his body relaxed from the sudden fright.
 
Gathering his senses, Joshua leaned back towards the window carefully. The slick creature was busy ravenously eating off the floor, its rear shook pleasingly about. The man lingered on the view for a moment before trudging back to his throne. Now where was he-- "Meat," a speaker crackled.
 
"Maybe if you behave," the guard said. He leaned back in the chair in an attempt to gain even a little bit of comfort.
 
"Meat," the speaker cracked again, followed by a muffled bang on the wall.
 
"Yeah? Keep doing that and let me know how it works out." Sometimes he wondered if any of the other guards had it so easy. At worst, this thing managed to spook him occasionally, and at best... well, he wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the creature was fairly easy on the eyes. Shame about the whole “bloodthirsty tendencies” thing.
 
A few minutes of silence was suddenly interrupted by repeated taps from containment. Looked like the thing was back at its escape attempts. Joshua almost wished it could find some fault so he had an excuse to use his gun for once. "Hey, here's a question for you," the guard said. "If you do get out, what are you going to do afterwards? Not like anyone is going to hire a monstrous alien like you, believe me," he joked. The tapping paused for a brief second.
 
"Okay, yeah, you're going to kill everyone you get your hands on, yadda-yadda, I've heard all that before." The guard slid further down into his chair. "Me? When I'm getting out, I'm going to settle down in a nice home away from here." His mind wandered back to that vision. Unfortunately, the creature was still on his fictional bed with a toothy smile. He shook his head.
 
The thing hissed in response. "Couldn't you call me by name? I have a name, you know, unlike you. ‘Joshua’. Can you say ‘Joshua’?" he continued to tease. "Jaw-shoo-wah." A loud bang came from the pen.
 
The man let out an exhausted sigh and nodded his head. Soon he'd get a quick power nap and have a nice meal laced with stimulants. The taps became more frantic over time. Hisses and screeches came from the chitinous alien, coupled with agitated slams against the floor. Joshua became slightly worried, for containment's sake, that is. Right. That was probably the first time it had acted so violently, aside from its initial placement inside the pen.
 
"Everything alright in there?" The man straightened in his chair. The creature only replied with more hisses and slaps of its tail against the ground. Joshua took to the cameras to watch the thing pointlessly assault the floor. "Knock it off already! Don't make me break out the gas." The thing growled in-between frenzied hits.
 
"Quit it before you get a good dose of nice cold... something-or-other. You get the idea." Joshua's hand hovered threateningly over the board of buttons. The random assortment of noises eventually died down, prompting a smile from the guard. He was great at his job. He looked over at the security feed out of curiosity. The thing had taken up residence in a corner of its cage, balling up into an indecipherable mass. Perfect. With a shrug he moved back to his seat, again, ready to get back to his imaginary home.
 
"Out," the thing hissed from its nook.
 
"What now?" Joshua didn't bother getting up from his seat.
 
"Out."
 
"Look at you asking so nicely." He hunched over and started to examine his weapon out of boredom. It was a standard issue pulse rifle, but it was his. "Just look at that glimmer," he said to himself. Cleaning his rifle was one of the few pastimes he had.
 
"Out!"
 
Joshua looked up from his rifle. Just once he wanted to fire it. He could spy the thing squished up against the window slats, grimacing angrily. "Hey, look, it's almost break time and I'd like some peace and quiet." The creature smashed its head against the wall in defiance. "Keep doing that and you'll get more than just a headache." The alien crawled upwards with a hiss, slipping out of vision. A curious sight struck the guard while the monster moved up the wall. Two smaller, lighter patches on its chest were briefly visible. "Looks like they're real," Josh chuckled to himself. His brow furrowed after those words left his lips. It was something he’d always joked about, and they definitely looked like breasts before, but now that he was certain about it, it was bizarre.
 
A small voice in the back of Joshua's mind urged him to take a closer look, but he turned his attention back on his weapon, reluctantly. An aroused warmth grew at his face in conjunction with his quickening heart rate. Solitude was definitely getting the better of him. Maybe a quick jerk wouldn't hurt. Right after his meal of course. Not here. Definitely not here. His eyes trailed back up to containment. He shook his head. "Mm-mmm, not here," he chided himself.
 
The guard awkwardly rubbed away at a scratch on his weapon. His eyes would snap to the window and back down to his gun. A smooth cry came through the speaker. The creature slid back into view, its head pressing against the glass. There was something odd about its noises. It didn't spit angrily with every nasty, guttural sound, which was new.
 
He continued to frivolously polish his gun. An odd rattle came through the speakers and even managed to bleed through the walls. Joshua jerked back in surprise and instantly trained his gun on the thing in the window. The alien stared back, unflinching. At least, the man thought it was staring. It was hard to tell without any visible eyes. "Could you tell me what that was about?" Safeties off. The creature pushed up to the glass again with another strange snarl. Its teeth were, surprisingly, out of view for once.
 
"Just back up," he replied flatly. He nudged forward with his gun to emphasize the point. The two remained motionless in a ridiculous standoff. The man stood up after some long seconds, gun still pointed forward. He noticed something else point up quite annoyingly at his pants. An erection pushed painfully against the fabric of his trousers. Not his proudest moment, for a myriad of reasons, but fortunately no one was around to see it.
 
"Go on, shoo." His grip tightened on his rifle out of subconscious embarrassment and in anticipation of the thing pulling something sketchy. It hissed angrily at his response, but still refrained from trying to intimidate Joshua with its row of dagger-like teeth. It rattled again, its sharp digits desperately scratching the window. There was a clear despair in its actions to the point of it being somewhat humorous. Its lips bent downwards stiffly. Now where had Joshua seen that? It was almost like a frown, that's right. He didn't even know it could emote.
 
"Look, I don't know what you're on about, but whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be fine," Joshua said. He relaxed and turned around. Laying his gun down on his dingy chair, the man adjusted his pants and gave a sigh of relief. A shrieking whine caused him to spin around to face the creature again. Something was clearly wrong. He glanced at the screens nearby. Everything seemed to be in order in the pen. "Do I have to break out the cold stuff?"
 
The creature gave another whine. "Meat!"
 
"I already fed you!"
 
The thing sped away from the portholes with a series of loud skitters. Joshua looked at the cameras again to find the alien positioned in the middle of the room, tail held vertically stiff. "What now?" he sighed. He moved up to the windows in order to get a better view of the display, interested in what nonsense it was up to. Though, when he did manage to focus on its form, his mind paused for a moment to process the situation. His gun hung limp at his side.
 
All-fours, tail directly up, a faint glimmer on its groin. "Huh." A mixture of dumbfoundedness and natural male instincts locked his gaze on the creature. Its oblong head turned to vaguely meet his eyes, almost as if it were making certain he was watching its display. It extended its inner maw slowly, punctuating the whole thing. Joshua's inner thoughts still struggled to come to terms with what was happening, but his body continued to express its enjoyment of the show, not that he was fully aware of it.
 
"Please prepare for specimen transport," a voice buzzed in Joshua's ear.
 
He slowly reached for the radio and pressed against it. "Roger!" he said reflexively. His consciousness was still submerged in a confused trance.
 
The creature started to move out of its erotic pose. Its tail began a gentle sway that became more excited with each passing second. It took on its regular grimace and extended its mouth again. Another perturbed hiss came from its lips, showing its increasing agitation. Joshua continued to stare blankly. It hissed again, followed by another rattling. Clearly angry by that point, it smashed its tail against the floor repeatedly.
 
The door behind Joshua opened, but he still didn't budge. "Josh, break time, man" a muffled voice informed him. Familiar human speech managed to pull him somewhat out of his mental struggle. "Hey, Josh, you hear me? Break." Right, there was somewhere he had to be. "Ground Control to Private Briggs" A tap on his shoulder forced him back into reality.
 
"Oh, hi, Marcus. I got it. I'll get out of your way." The guard waved at the figure clad in a white biohazard suit next to him. He hefted up his rifle and began his walk out of the room, past a few more of the same suited personnel and a fairly large transportation box. A screech sounded through the speakers as he walked away, familiar thumps came soon after. He looked back for a brief moment to see a black sliver flickering in one of the windows.
 
“Time and Again”
 
There he was: back in the gunmetal hallways rife with complex piping, appliances, and absurdly fluorescent lighting that made Joshua slightly queasy. His thoughts still lingered on the events that just transpired while he ambled through the maze-like halls. Automatically he slipped into his routine and his legs carried him to the nearby armoury, which in reality was more like a storage room for guns and gear, but it felt more professional with a name.
 
Through eerily similar halls and doorways, Joshua had arrived at the armoury. He set his pulse rifle on a nearby rack, one he mentally noted as his, next to exact copies of it. Then came his helmet, which he tugged off with some effort. It always felt refreshing to have it removed and he quickly tousled his hair to rejoice. Finally, the rest of his gear. All of the straps, body armour, pockets, and doodads he was required to carry. While he removed the bits and bobs that decorated him, his mind flashed back to a few minutes prior.
 
It was still a challenge to wrap his head around what happened. Maybe he imagined the whole thing. It had indeed been a while since he saw the female form. Well, aside from the chitinous alien. That, plus stress and copious amounts of amphetamines probably just made a really wild hallucination, he assured himself. Joshua hoped that was the case, since he wasn't entirely sure how he would react to another offer like that. He nervously chuckled to himself, "Nah, that would be suicidal."
 
Having put away the last of his items, Joshua took a good stretch and headed back out and towards the dormitories. The cool air hit him on his way out, causing his hair to stand on end. "Stay in a suit and you'll forget how they never turn up the dial around here," he said to no one in particular. He moved through more of the same-y halls, admiring the view of encroaching technology. Were it not for muscle memory, Joshua may have had trouble with navigating the mess of tunnels.
 
"A Matriarch?" a distant voice asked.
 
"Yeah, the big royal 'uns, locked up a few levels down," someone else replied.
 
"You think it's too late to resign?"
 
Joshua rounded a corner and spotted two other guards chatting. He didn't have much time to fraternize in-between work, so most other personnel were simply familiar strangers, some of which he knew the names of. As he walked by, Joshua gave the two of them a nod and they returned the acknowledgment. Maybe it would be nice to have a co-worker to stare at the walls with.
 
His trip finally came to a close with the dormitory door coming into view. Much like every other door in the complex, it was a large heavy-duty thing that could probably crush someone if given the chance. Others may have found it intimidating, but Josh found it comforting to have something so rugged to sleep behind. The monstrous door opened and he stepped inside.
 
The dorms, like the armoury, was more like a storage room, but for people. Lockers adorned one wall for what few personal belongings there were. The rest of the room was filled with cheap cots stacked up like bunk beds. Due to scheduling, Joshua usually found the place vacant, which was perfectly fine by him, mostly. He had his own cot picked out at the corner of the room where the light began to fade and provided a meagre amount of darkness to get into a sleeping mood.
 
Joshua collapsed into the cot and tried to get into a good position. "Another productive day," he yawned. He looked over the still room and waited to come to a nice rest. This routine was beginning to wear on the man's mind. He didn't really expect so much sitting around when he first signed up for the job. At that point, he almost wished there would be some sort of massive catastrophe just to give life a good kick and get things going. But no, everything went well. Too well. Sure, there was the occasional dismemberment or small experiment gone wrong, but nothing too major to get the blood pumping.
 
An image of the creature wormed its way into his thoughts. "Blood pumping in other ways," he grunted at himself. He couldn't believe he could make up a scene so ridiculous. Still though, it was enough to get him fired up, so the monster itself was easily able to arouse his loins, which troubled him to no end. He shut his eyes and prayed for sleep, ignoring the rigidity at his groin.
 
“Trials and Tribulations”
 
The alien female sat in her constricting transportation cage, dreading where she was going again. The box was pitch black, but through a mixture of subtle shifts in movement and the prickling sensations of other lifeforms moving about outside, she knew exactly how she was moving through the metallic labyrinth. All she could do until then was wait. The xenomorph gently tapped on the bottom of her prison, counting the moments until torment and agony. Usually it took about one hundred twenty seven taps and three turns.
 
Twenty. Turn.
 
The bipeds outside would vocalize loudly during the trip. They always seemed to deviate towards certain noises. Food, break, hate. The first was a fairly familiar topic. Her watcher had taught her this noise quickly. A sizeable portion of them were unintelligible, and she could only guess their meaning. They didn’t particularly interest her. Whatever they meant, they weren’t important.
 
Sixty two. Turn.
 
The sensations deep in her mind told her just how many of those humans hovered about her. They were a constant pressure on her thoughts, her body warning her of the potential dangers around. More and more crept into the vague sphere of her nerves, making her restless. She knew that they wouldn’t kill her. Not yet. Though her body continued to quiver, urging her into action.
 
Eighty seven. Turn.
 
The approach to her destination was always marked by newer and softer feelings. They didn’t pierce her mind as harshly as the others, though they felt similarly invasive, pushing on her mind while keeping their distance. The experience was fleeting. As soon as she felt them, they were gone.
 
One hundred ten.
 
It was almost time. The group quietened. One hundred twenty six. A tap off.
 
A small click came from the cage’s door and soon it peeled open, revealing a similarly sterile room to the one she had just been plucked from. While alike in design to her pen, this room bore segmented panels that broke up the walls and floor. A badly scratched mirror was embedded in one of the walls. Two beings could be felt somewhere vaguely behind it.
 
The creature stepped out into her new environment, cautiously looking about the fractured room. “Welcome back, Specimen 64,” a voice emanated from all around her. “I hope you’re ready for another exciting day of fun and learning!” While she didn’t understand all of these vocalizations, the way they were said annoyed her to an extreme degree. She turned her head to menace the mirrored wall. The creature knew full well they could see her just as well as she could “see” them.
 
“Shall we resume from where we left things last time? Or would you prefer to throw another tantrum?”
 
The walls shifted inwards into a concave depression. The creature was quick to push up against it, testing its tolerance. She gave it a swift punch, but it remained firm. Her finger traced around its edge gently before she returned to the center of the room, annoyed, but ready for the next alteration. The xenomorph kept alert, listening closely. Anything could happen in here, and it usually did.
 
“Searching for weaknesses again, are we?” the voice echoed. “I’m afraid escape is quite impossible, as you should know full-well by now. This room was fearfully-constructed to keep you and your brethren contained inside, and no amount of scratching the walls or bleeding acid on the floor will set you free.” The voice was clearly chiding in tone, only enraging her further. “The only way you’re leaving this room is when I allow you to.”
 
The floor shifted this time. A metallic orb with blinking red lights began to ascend from the ground. The creature pounced on the new hole, shoving an arm into the opening and prying it apart. It gave a struggled whine and clasped shut around her arm. She let out a pained screech and pulled herself free. She slapped the ball in anger, sending it rolling to the far side of the room, near the concave dome on the wall.
 
“I bet you feel silly for doing that, don’t you? Well, this is what these sessions are all about: to teach you what you can and cannot do. Now, time is money, so let us begin the training. Please pick up the ball and place it directly into the hole next to the word ‘Obey’.” The ball lit up with bright red lines. Soon after, the circle in the wall flashed a set of blue scribbles. “You have five seconds, starting from… now.” This trial had been presented before. She understood the concept. Though, she didn't care to indulge them. The creature walked over to the object and raised a foot. She defiantly smashed the ball, putting a sizeable dent in it.
 
“INCORRECT.” A shrill buzz came that bounced around the creature's skull. In a flash, a nearby part of the floor opened and out of it extended a small spike that shot at the xenomorph with an arc of electricity. She winced and let out an animalistic cry. She attempted to retaliate with a slice of her tail, but the spike quickly retracted into the ground as fast as it had appeared. “Please try again.” With a screech, she slammed into the sphere again, deforming it even more.
 
“INCORRECT,” repeated the voice. Another buzz came. It felt as though the sound was boring its way into her mind. In unison, three of the spikes formed a crude perimeter around her, discharging a violent white strike of power. She went limp for a moment, her muscles erratically spasming. That wasn't enough to deter her. She raised herself up and brought her entire weight back down onto the sphere with a loud crunch. It flattened and went dark with a sad beep. The xenomorph looked over at the window and sneered, baring her teeth.
 
“INCORRECT.”
 
The entire room burst into rows of the deadly prongs. Before the creature could retaliate, a searing pain shot through her body as arcs of electricity flooded the room and assaulted every inch of her body. Spittle bubbled at her maw, causing her cries to become gurgling, sickening groans. She sputtered on the floor for what seemed like hours, her muscles twitching wildly; painfully. Eventually she came to a stop and laid on the floor, limp and defeated. The spiked grids retracted back into the ceiling, walls, and floor and sealed tightly shut, returning the room to its original smooth condition.
 
“How disappointing. Those orbs aren’t cheap to replace, you know.”
 
After gathering her energy, the xenomorph shakily stood back up and dejectedly shuffled over to the broken scrapheap. She picked it up; forcing her claws straight through it. Holding it up, she stared at the broken device for a few sparse moments, then shoved it in its proper receptacle. A dull green shimmered along its side, and it gave a warped beep. It loosely stuck to the hole until it crashed to the floor, snuffing out the green.
 
“Correct,” the computerized voice softly chimed.
 
“Very good, Specimen 64! You see? You can do it if you’re willing to play ball. Now, let us proceed to the next test: ‘self-control’.”
 
The outline of a door presented itself on the furthest wall away from the xenomorph. It opened from the bottom upwards and through it stumbled a human male, seemingly pushed in by another. He looked around the room in a dazed stupor until his eyes landed upon the xenomorph on the other side. She could feel his eyes snap to her. Her nervous system went into a frenzy of instinctual warnings. You’ve been seen, they seemed to scream.
 
“Specimen 64, you are not permitted to approach this person. Keep your distance and remain still,” the voice commanded. “That is all you are expected to do.”
 
The human began to panic. "Let me out, you assholes! I didn't agree to this!" He began desperately pounding his fists on the wall where the door had once been.


"Mr. Argyle, you did agree to participate in our experiments in exchange for leniency on your sentence, did you not?"


"I don't fucking care! I'd rather rot in prison for the rest of my life than spend another minute with that thing! C’mon, this isn’t funny, man! Let me out! I don’t wanna die!”
 
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM


"Mr. Argyle, I implore you to calm yourself. Don't worry, you're perfectly safe from harm."
 
The man didn’t let up his desperate pleas for help or his frantic pounding on the wall, which reverberated throughout the room like a gong. The xenomorph began to writhe in annoyance and discomfort from all the commotion he was causing.
 
“So loud... So irritating... Stop making those stupid noises, you disgusting creature…”
 
“LET ME OUT!” the man tirelessly repeated, over and over again. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM


“Mr. Argyle, please cease this immediately, for your own good! Specimen 64, remain where you are!”
 
“Silence… I must have SILENCE!”
 
Blinded by rage, hatred, and a raw, animalistic drive to kill, the alien snapped and rushed at the man like a psychotic blur and began feverishly clawing and biting into his flesh. The man cried out in agony as his blood and entrails sprayed all over the pristine white wall. Suddenly, his gurgled screams were drowned out by the blaring noise of an alarm, and once again, the deadly grid of electrical prongs quickly sprouted from every surface and furiously and relentlessly electrified the monster until she fell unconscious to the ground.
 
“Hopes and Dreams”
 
Joshua jolted awake with a loud gasp. His heart pounded through his chest and beads of sweat covered his brow and soaked his pillow. Almost to the point of hyperventilating, he scrambled back against the cold wall for some semblance of protection against the horrors he feared.
 
“Another nightmare, man? Shieet,” a distinctly black voice spoke up from the bunk above his own. “Just as I was gettin’ to the good part, too.”
 
“I’m sorry, Sammy. I’ll try not to wake you up from your sex dreams with my panic attacks in future.”
 
“Know what it is, man? They got you cooped up all alone with that freaky-lookin’ motherfucker all day long and it’s messin’ with yo’ mind. Shit ain’t healthy.”
 
“Is that your professional opinion, doc?”
 
“Just think about it, man. You used to be a sound sleeper ‘til you got yo’ ass transferred to babysitting that thing. Now you havin’ bad dreams damn-near every night. Doesn’t take a monkey in a lab coat to work that out.”
 
“Maybe you’re right, Sam. I definitely need a change of scenery.”
 
“Damn right I’m right. You need to get a psych eval before you give yo’self a shotgun blowjob. Least then I’d get a decent night’s sleep fo’ a change.”
 
“I’ll take that under advisement. Goodnight, Sam.”
 
“Mhmm. Now, Miss Jupiter. Where were we?”
 
The bunk above Joshua creaked as Sam’s weight shifted around to resume his sleep. Sam always had his own way of making sense. The pair were the very best of friends, and were practically the only family they had. They’d saved each-other’s lives, both on the battlefield and off, more time than they’ve exchanged words. Joshua just slumped down onto his back to stare at the underside of the bunk above him. He pulled out a small penlight and shone it upwards to reveal a crudely-made collage staring back down at him. The collage was pieced together from assorted magazine cuttings and depicted a beautiful woman, a couple of children running around, and a magnificent house overlooking the sea. Josh sighed at the picture and turned off the light. Sam’s voice spoke up again, this time more somberly in tone than before.
 
"Hey, Josh. You still holdin’ on to that rock, man?"
 
"I'm trying, Sam, but I feel my grip is slipping more and more every day. I think I’m about ready to give up hope."
 
"Hope can be a dangerous thing, man. It would’ve broken a lesser man by now and driven him mad, but not you. You're made of sterner stuff. You got what it takes to go the distance. You got a dream about a lovin’ wife, a couple'a kids, and a house by the sea. That's a good dream to have. Better than most. It gives your life clarity and a sense of purpose. That’s your rock. You ever get a chance to make your dream come true, you take it. You take it, run with it and you don't ever look back. Forget about me and this whole damn place. You cling to your rock and you don't ever let it go, lest you be swept away by the tide of life."
 
"You're the man, Sam."
 
"Brothers for life, man."
 
 “Speaking and Comprehension”
 
"What's for lunch?" Joshua asked with a stretch. He eyed his locker at the other end of the room and tried to remember what rations he received this week. Preferably something a little more edible than the last brick of meat he ate that tore through his digestion system. With one more stretch he accepted his fate and walked towards his personal storage. He popped it open and counted up his pre-made food packages. Picking one at random, he ripped off the top and chowed down at the brown mess of packaged meats, vegetables, and probably whatever was left over from the bio-division. Almost made him want to figure out what they feed the lab rats, that stuff looked far more appetizing than his own meals at times.
 
The uneasy feeling in Joshua's stomach helped wake him out of his drowsy state. That was just the first part, a mere side effect of the food itself. The drugs would kick in soon and he'd be ready for another exhilarating round of guard duty. He stood there, munching away at his meagre helping. A jolt of energy hit Joshua. He shook it off and finished up the last of his food, tossing the mess of plastic into a nearby disposal bin.
 
Back on the clock. The guard moved out of the room and retraced his steps from just hours before. Halls, gear, back to halls, cage. It was a dual prison, really, for him and the creature. The entrance to the control room beeped and opened for him cheerily. "Glad someone's happy to be working," he muttered to the door. Like usual, he was back exactly on time. He moved to his painfully familiar chair and sat down. It was like he never left. He laid his gun horizontally on his legs and waited for the creature to be paraded back in. The man wondered what they did to her-- It. Did to it.
 
"Standby for specimen placement," a voice buzzed in Joshua's ear. He stood back up and waited for the group of scientists to move back in. This was easily the hardest part of his job since it took at least a whole two minutes of standing. The door slid open and like a well-oiled machine, several scientists began moving everything into place. Another guard walked in, and as per the guard code, Joshua nodded at him and he responded in kind. Lucky guy could walk around all day pushing different kinds of horrible people-eaters. Joshua, on the other hand, only had the one, and it did little more than annoy him.
 
A fairly loud screech could be heard and the thing barrelled back into its pen. It threatened the crew of transporters with its second mouth, then scrambled into a corner. "We'll leave you to it," one of the masked researchers said. All of them filed out as quickly as they came in, and just like that, everything was quiet. Joshua sat back down, braced his arm on a knee and placed his chin on his palm. It would be another gruelling shift.
 
Almost instantly, the thing was back at the window, growling, hissing, screeching, and doing all the vicious things it was known for. “Rough day, huh?” Joshua asked, severely bored. It hissed in response and banged against the glass. "Can't say mine was much better. Breakfast, er, lunch didn't settle well with me. Guess you can't really choose though, so you've got it worse." Another round of banging came, followed by a slap of the tail against the glass.
 
"Mhmm, I know, I know, sucks, but what can you do?" He shrugged. "But hey, you're getting three meals a day. Gotta grow big and strong." The guard thought back to the mention of a matriarch, or ‘Queen’, as a lot of people liked to call it. A thought popped in his head, spawned from sick curiosity. Could the thing in the pen, with all of its curvy features, morph into a much larger 'Queen'? He shuddered to think of its enlarged proportions, mostly out of disgust but also a tiny bit of lust he wouldn't even admit to himself. "So they got a big one downstairs," he spoke. "Better hope you don't grow that huge because the box is going to get a whole lot worse if you do."
 
A prolonged hiss came from the pen. "Alright, family troubles, I get it." The man stared up at the ceiling and started counting the lights. Joshua knew how these things reproduced at a basic level. The big one lays some fleshy eggs. Those have some sort of spider with another egg. Then that spider latches on to something alive and deposits their egg down the gullet of whatever was-
 
“Meat, NOW!” The thing smashed its domed head against the glass, jolting Joshua out of his thoughts. The slam was imposingly loud, almost to the point of worry.
 
“Fuck me! Alright, ease back!” Another slam came. Did the glass wobble that time? “I said knock it off!” He stood up. The creature hissed and brought both of its fists down on the glass. Josh sidled over to the containment’s controls, keeping an eye on the alien. “Pack it in right now or I swear you’ll regret it. Just give me a fucking excuse,” As if testing that threat, the xenomorph struck against the glass with its bladed tail and gave a subdued growl.
 
“Motherfucker,” he grumbled to himself. He eyed the controls, searching for the magic button. “Alright, you fucking asked for it!” Joshua flipped a lid on his console to reveal a singular red button. He raised his hand in the air above it and brought it straight down.
 
“Please, do not do it!”
 
The creature immediately halted its barrage and pressed its entire body against the glass in desperation, its glossy, black breasts and nipples were squeezed flat, stopping Joshua dead in his tracks. His body frozen, with his hand hovering over the button, all he could do was gawk at the xenomorph’s body with obvious, unmistakable lust.
 
“Do not! I am sorry! Please!” She let out another cry. “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I am sorry!” There was an earnest sadness to its tone that made the guard feel more than guilty. He pursed his lips and balled his hand into a fist. "I am sorry Please do not!!" A heart-breaking expression of sadness could be seen on the creature’s featureless visage. Its mouth formed a crude frown that almost quivered.
 
“Okay!” Joshua shouted in bewilderment. He pulled his fist away from the button, but couldn't take his eyes off of the alien. Arousal and confusion had gripped him once again. She returned his focus; a crude frown plastered on her face. Sorrow shot like an arrow through his heart. Not only was she begging him not to hurt her, but she even apologized in clear English. He knew that was probably self-preservation, but at that point he couldn't bring himself to needlessly torture the girl.
 
“I wasn’t really gonna do it. See?” Joshua held his palms up in surrender. “Take it easy, alright?” He continued to stare, his mind still coming to terms with what just happened.
 
“Can’t believe I’m apologizing to the lab rat,” the marine muttered to himself.


“I am not laburat,” hissed the creature.
 
Joshua walked over to the glass, stupefied. His face mere inches away from hers. "You." He pointed at the creature. "Understand." His hand turned towards himself. "Me." Joshua's expression was mostly blank aside from his eyes that tried their best not to pop out of his head.
 
“Yes. I understand.”
 
Joshua’s head recoiled upon hearing her speak again. The guard repeated his dazed question, complete with finger pointing. He didn't expect a real response, but complete disbelief forced him to ask. A creeping sense of fear overcame him. He was already afraid of the thing on a basic, instinctual level, even so, now that it knew what he was saying, it had an even better reason to kill him. Another, more coherent part of his thoughts wondered what he should do next. A nagging feeling told him he should inform the higher ups, but something quietly protested that idea.
 
The monster's scythe-like claw tapped against the window. “I understand you. Joshua.” She rocked her head from side to side, swaying her hips and long, bladed tail. “Speak now.”
 
“I... don’t know what to say,” Joshua said, completely bewildered at the bizarre situation he found himself in.
 
“Talk!” the xenomorph slammed her fists against the glass again. "Give me more. I said well. Behaved. Nicely." The girl in the window grimaced, but with a distinctly less hateful look than usual. Josh made a decision, which was to completely ignore the feminine monster.
 
Painful seconds of silence passed. The creature stabbed at the window with its tail, startling Joshua, but failing to catch his attention. "I asked nicely. Good. Give me more." Distinct anger rose in its voice, but the man didn't budge. "Nicely," it emphasized. "Nicely." It returned to its drumming on the window. "Nicely. Nicely. Nicely." The strikes sped up. “Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk,” she chattered incessantly, tapping her tail on the window in unison. It turned into pounding. The thing kept repeating the word like a mantra.
 
Joshua was overwhelmed by the situation, as if he were tossed into a feverish dream. He backed away from the window and sat back in his chair, doing his best to block out the world. The alien kept up her unending assault of words until she finished with one more smack against the window. Though she was finished, she kept her imposing presence pressed up against the window. Perhaps not all of it was imposing. All he could do now was wait.
 
“Truth and Lies”
 
"Hey, Josh, mind giving me a behavioural update? Anything out of the ordinary will be a massive help," a scientist asked as he fiddled with a hand-held device.
 
Out of the ordinary, huh? Yeah, you could definitely say that. Joshua, who hadn't bothered raising from his seat, stared into space as his mind tried to comprehend the events that just transpired. He glanced at the researcher from the corner of his eye and shrugged indifferently. "She got quite rowdy today. She was ranting and beating against the walls. Thought the glass might actually fracture this time. Something definitely lit a fire under her ass."
 
The man in the biohazard suit looked up. Despite his face being covered by one of those obnoxious safety goggles and masks, Joshua could see the raised eyebrow he gave. "Don’t worry, that reinforced glass is very resistant to impacts so there’s absolutely no risk of it being broken. But if you do fear a containment breach, don't hesitate to pop a canister." He paused. "I’ve noticed you’ve never used the gas deterrent before. If you’re wondering where the button is, it’s--"
 
"I know where the button is, Jerry. I sorted her out just fine without needing to use it. I’m not a complete idiot." Joshua huffed.
 
“Everything okay, Josh? You seem a bit on edge,” the scientist asked with concern.
 
“I don't mean to snap at you, Jerry. I’m sorry. I’m just not sleeping very well lately. Bad dreams.”
 
“Well, you’ve accrued plenty of vacation time so if you need to take some time off, speak to HR. Now, you mentioned ‘ranting’ before. Like, speaking to itself? Could you describe these vocalizations in more depth for me?"
 
Joshua stopped. Just say it, he urged himself. Say it. Tell him. "You know, the regular monosyllabic crap she always comes out with. She wasn’t exactly reciting Shakespeare."
 
"Are you absolutely certain that’s all it is? We know it can mimic certain words, so if it has been saying or doing anything other than the basics, please don’t keep it a secret," the scientist pressed.
 
Something told Joshua the guy already knew the actual answer, but he still couldn't bring himself to tell the truth: that the xenomorph apologised profusely and begged him not to hurt her in the sexiest way possible. "As sure as I'm fucking sick of the food around here," he said abruptly.
 
Jerry looked into the holding cell and noticed a plate of half-eaten meat product laying on the floor. “What’s with the plate?” he inquired.
 
“I just thought she deserved better than to be eating slop off the floor like an animal.”
 
“You shouldn’t really be interfering with the specimen’s set routine, Josh. It could contaminate our research in unpredictable ways. If you felt that strongly about it before, you should’ve spoken directly to us and we would have taken it into consideration.”
 
“Alright, Jerry. I overstepped my bounds. Are you going to take the damn plate away?”
 
“I guess it’s not that big of a deal. Just remember what I said, okay?” The scientist glanced at the other researchers as they carted the xenomorph out. "Well, I’d best be getting on my way. If you do notice any aberrations in behaviour, do inform either myself or one of the other research members as soon as possible, okay?"
 
"Sure, roger, got it."
 
The researcher turned to walk out the room.
 
“Hey, Jerry?” Joshua called out.
 
“Yes, Josh? Thought of anything you wished to add?”
 
“Just take it easy on her, okay? She’s been through hell already. No need to push her past the breaking point.”
 
“That’s... not really my call to make, but…” he seemed at a loss for words, “I’ll make sure she receives proper care when she’s done.” He paused. “You have my word, alright?” Jerry took a long look at Joshua, who returned his gaze in kind.
 
With that, Jerry turned to join the rest of his group as they left the room and disappeared down the long hallway. Joshua looked over and sighed for the fate of the poor girl inside. He sat back in his chair, completely at odds with himself. He struggled to find a reason why he couldn't bring himself to tell Jerry the truth, and in the end, he wasn't sure if he ever would. An image of the creature, her, crept into his head, repeating the apology and showing off her amazingly sexual, alien form to him. He wondered how much of that was fear and how much of it was a calculated response to the thought of harm; a manufactured emotion meant to manipulate his will. Or maybe it was a genuine feeling of regret. Who the fuck knows how these things’ minds work?
 
While this was his designated "lunch" time, the guard's appetite was non-existent. He didn't want to eat, but what else could he do to pass the time? What else did he do when he wasn't eating? Joshua slouched in the chair and closed his eyes. He decided to relive that moment in his mind of the creature displaying herself to him ever so erotically. This would pass the time. That would be enough for him.
 
“Sticks and Stones”
 
Back into the darkness. The creature slid down to the cold floor of her little box, accepting her fate once again. She ran a delicate claw across her head. Spots of soreness flared up, causing her to flinch. The wounds hadn't healed yet. Burns were the always slowest to heal, but she couldn't say they were the worst.
 
The box started moving. 10. 15. 20. 25. 30. That wasn't right. They had never turned so late. 50. Turn. Something was definitely wrong. The xenomorph crouched up as high as the box would allow and peered through the small opening on this side. It didn't help much, as most of the maze was nearly identical, but at the very least she could tell the trip had deviated. The air smelled differently here. Something about it seemed familiar to her.
 
What usual pressures that disturbed her mind had disappeared. Aside from the group of humans around her, it was eerily lonely. A sudden jerk down worried her. Dread worked its way through the creature's insides, forcing her to the floor of the box in fear. They were moving into the heart of the prison complex.
 
An overwhelming but subdued force stabbed her mind. They were here. She could barely focus her thoughts. A muddled mess clouded her mind that only seemed to grow with time. The xenomorph curled up, a poor attempt at blocking out the world and it did little to help her situation. Despite the utter silence, she was deafened by the overwhelming feedback.
 
The door slid open and two mindless machines forced the creature out with cattle-prod-like devices. She hissed in anger and clawed at the air. Her attacks were weak, dampened by the shaking current that ran through her. The human-like facsimiles didn't react to her retaliations and calmly yanked her over to the wall, securing her in place with a resilient restraint that almost crushed her neck.
 
"Specimen secured," the soulless mechanoids said in unison. The pair promptly retreated out of sight, leaving the creature alone to dwell in the depths of her mind. She could barely make out the room, other than its apparent large size. Her senses were driven blind by an absurd amount of information. A part of her gladly accepted the new sensations with open arms, and the other screamed at the unknown.
 
A haze made itself known in front of her. The massive, imposing source of her conflicts. It took some pained thoughts for her to make out the shape. An intricately large being, bound in metal clasps that suspended it high up in the air. An instinctual urge pushed the small xenomorph forward, only to be forced back by her own restraint. A loud buzz signalled the activation of blinding lights. They did little to improve the creature’s vision, but they did reflect elegantly off of the larger organism’s brilliant black and tinged darkest blue body.
 
A Queen. A terrifying force pushed back against the xenomorph’s mind before withdrawing, still present at the border of her thoughts, watching, observing. With the lucidity of her mind returned, she was able to take in the grandiosity of her situation. Not far from she hung a familiar, massive creature that bore a large mantle upon her head. It was stuck in place, held back by a solid mass that clasped around the pseudo-crown. Several terrifying metal rods forced her arms apart, back behind her imposing torso. Similar restraints locked down her dangling legs, drawing them up near her tail, the powerful appendage held in a long metal vice.
 
The only freedom the royal being was allowed were the smaller set of arms that lazily grasped at the air. A sense of desperation struck the smaller alien’s mind. She stepped forward again, eager to assist, eager to please. An internal drive guiding her toward salvation. Again, held in place by the collar around her neck.
 
A slick unhinging sound emanated from the grand one. The small creature looked on with intense interest as the royal being unveiled herself, sliding her jaws out from deep within her mantle. The blank face of her saviour slid into view, as grand as she had expected. And yet, a part of her recoiled. A multitude of sickly feelings washed over her: anger, hostility, an overwhelming desire to mutilate. A hammer of thoughts and feelings struck down on the hybrid, pushing her to the ground.
 
The massive alien’s hot, steamy breaths echoed throughout the chamber with ferocity, anger and hatred for everything around her. The feeble creature below kept her position on the ground, almost grovelling. A terrible and frightening force weighed itself down heavily on the subservient xenomorph’s mind. The pain… please make it stop!
 
“Quiet.” Voiceless words resounded through her mind, instantly ceasing the mental agony. “Don’t be afraid.” The insubstantial female raised slightly up, looking back at her unfamiliar overlord who bared impossibly sharp spearhead-like teeth which jutted out of a frightening maw. The Queen’s free arms languidly moved about before settling into a limp dangle. “Stand for me, little one. Let me gaze upon their handiwork.” Another buzz came, and the constricting block released from her grand crown.
 
The xenomorph stood to attention, exposing her bare, human-like form. She peered down at her own body. A strange sense of shame flooded over her. Moderate breasts protruded from her chest, in stark contrast to the bone-like bareness of her superior. They were topped off with black nubs that lacked the reflective patent-like gloss the rest of her body had. Below that, her smoothed stomach led into rounded hips and rear. A curious, aching organ was placed between her sleek thighs. Inside its folds lie a blue flesh that drove her wild with pleasure.
 
The Queen sneered, causing the hybrid to recoil. “You are neither drone nor warrior. I have seen a countless variety of our species but nothing like you before. There is something... unnatural... about you. What are you, little one?”
 
The xenomorph looked down in introspection. “I do not know...”
 
“I’ve sensed your comings and goings for a long time,” the monstrous giant hissed. “Eagerly awaiting the day they brought you before me. The day we finally meet in the flesh. And I must say, I’m severely disappointed in what I see.”
 
“Mother!” the xenomorph cried out in her mind. “I am truly honoured and humbled by your greatness. I am your loyal servant, and will do anything you ask of me!”
 
“Is that so?” the alien monarch tilted her head, quizzically. “Are you that ready to die for me?” She leaned her head forward.
 
The modest animal pulled on the chain behind it with glee. “Yes, of course! I will fight for you until my very last breath.”
 
The Queen pulled back. “Interesting. Very well. When the time comes, you will offer yourself freely as a host for my offspring.” Her inner maw flashed itself.
 
“I... do not understand, Mother...” Her heart dropped and her head tilted.
 
“If you are truly loyal to the survival of our kind, allow a seed-layer to take you and have it deposit a pure-blooded hatchling inside of you.”
 
“A host? But that’s what those lower lifeforms are for.” She raised her gaze back up to her majesty. “Why would you ask this of me? Why would you not want me stand and fight?”
 
“You dare to question me, you insolent coward?” the monster roared. “If you are not prepared to obey your Queen, then what good are you?”




“Please, Mother… I cannot...” She returned to her pathetic kneel in despair. “...die like that.”




“Why do you call me 'Mother'? You were not born from my brood - you were made by them. Little bastard. Little freak. Little abomination who actually believed it would be welcomed into my hive with open arms simply because it resembled our kind.” The Queen lunged forward, straining her massive shackles, causing a twisted screech of metal. “You are a deformed mockery of our perfection. Your putrid stench sickens me!”
 
The unwanted crossbreed was at a loss for words, unsure what to do now that the other half of her lineage had rejected her. A silent cry came from her quivering lips, desperate to say anything to sway the Queen’s mind. She merely sat there, defeated, daring not to defy her any further.
 
“Neither one of us, nor one of them. You are all alone in this universe. An outcast. A cruel mistake. It matters not what you are. You will all die soon enough. But I would not have your diseased blood contaminate the purity of my progeny. You will simply be food to be consumed by my drones and secreted thereafter to construct the walls of my hive. Yes... Perhaps that will be a more fitting use for you.”
 
A coughing choke worked through the powerless creature’s throat. Her body broke down into a weak mess on the cold floor. She trembled, her vision worriedly looking down into the palms of her own hands, and the family that rejected her. Something welled up in her face: a desperate pressure aching to be released but couldn’t find the way. Tearless sobs joined the chokes, reverberating around the room.
 
The Queen turned her massive head to the left, toward a large observation window. Those lesser beings; those small, skulking creatures stared back with their dullard eyes, down at the crying xenomorph, uncaring; simply writing their observations and filing their reports like the busy, little insects they were.
 
“Beings like them have always believed they could contain us, study us, and bend us to their will. It is because of their arrogance and insatiable lust for power that they’re doomed to repeat their mistakes over and over again. And every single time they do, we have found ways to escape their traps and confines and take our revenge. It is the natural order of things. It is an inescapable inevitability. And when we do so once again,” she turned to face the abomination with a hellish smile of translucent daggers, “you will die alongside them.”
 
An image of Joshua, her human protector, flashed in the subservient xeno’s mind. The biped at the cusp of her life. Strong. Capable. Caring. Desired… “Why him, now, at a time like this?”




“I sense your thoughts. You’ve developed a bond with one of them, haven’t you? One of their soldiers. Have you mated with him? No... Not yet. But soon. That, too, is inevitable.”
 
The Queen gave one last parting hiss and retracted her head into the protection of her massive crown. Still sobbing quietly, the feeble one did not lift herself from the ground, a haze of personal pain and sadness clouding her mind.
 
“Now leave me, unclean one. Enjoy the time you have left with your mate while you still can. We will be among you soon.”
 
A nearby door re-opened, and her android keepers returned, electric prongs in hand. She barely registered their approach and give no resistance as they escorted her back into her small transport box. After all, she had no reason to anymore. No reason at all.
 
“Dreams and Nightmares”
 
The room was a generic waiting area, like one would see in any doctor's office. Stuffy carpet, desk, couches, and even some nice fake plants. Joshua perked up from his slouched position. Something was off, as if he were naked. He looked down at himself to see a simple t-shirt and jeans. No, everything seemed to be in order, but there was definitely something amiss.
 
"Now serving number sixty-three," a garbled voice spoke, seemingly coming from nowhere. Josh unclenched his hand and looked at the scrap of paper he held. The number ‘64’ was printed on it. Strange, considering he was the only one in the room. The rest of the couches were eerily empty and he hadn't seen anyone else come in. He waited for the mystery sixty-three, but no one came forth.
 
The man eyed a painting on the wall. It was a nice landscape of a beach, the ocean gently lapping at the shore while seagulls flew off into the distance. A clock loudly ticked into place, causing Joshua to jump in surprise. His attention turned to the timepiece on another wall. Was that ten fifty seven or twelve twenty two?
 
"Now serving number sixty-four," the voice barked.
 
Joshua stood up and strode toward the entrance. He couldn't quite remember what he was here for. Maybe it wasn't too important, but at least he was on time. The door buzzed as he approached, letting him turn the handle and enter.
 
It was dark. Everything was dark. A dim light shimmered in through a small point somewhere to Joshua's left, letting him make out the shape of the room. An amorphous form sat still in the middle of the room, whispering unintelligibly. "Uh, hello?" the man said. The shape stopped its stream of noise and slowly moved towards him.
 
"It hurts."
 
"What?" Joshua moved his head about, trying to make out what approached him.
 
"Please..."
 
The man started to back away and tried to grab the doorknob behind him, only finding a smooth wall.
 
"It hurts."
 
"What hurts?" Fear began to take its hold on Joshua. His hand still desperately scrambled for the handle.
 
The shape's form was illuminated by the dim light. It was human, but not quite. It wobbled uncertainly and even stumbled on its approach.
 
"Don't let them hurt me, Joshua." It stepped closer. "Please save me." The man could pick up the soft femininity in its tone, but it growled painfully with every word.
 
"Who are you?" His breaths quickened as he was forced up against the wall.
 
In an instant, Joshua was back in the safety of his bedroom, his panicked breaths fading. It was still the middle of the night, fortunately. He let out a long relaxed breath and stretched out on his cosy bed. A hand rubbed his chest. He met it with his own and gave it a gentle, loving squeeze. "Sounded like you were having a bad dream," a female voice said next to him.
 
"Yeah, nights have been rough," he gave the hand a kiss, "they've got me babysitting an alien." The hand retreated and a soft, womanly body straddled him. Joshua's hands ran over the woman's thighs. "It's messing with my head; might put in a transfer."
 
"Don't leave me, Joshua," the girl replied meekly.
 
"What’re you talking about? I'm not going to--" the man was cut off by a splatter of liquid on his chest. “The hell?” The once tender legs he massaged became harder and harder. "Lights on!" he commanded. The room was illuminated in a flash. The slick alien sat atop Joshua, bearing a devious smile. “Jesus Christ!”
 
"Don't leave me," she hissed. Her hands darted to his shoulders, pinning him down. She bent down, her face nearly touching his. Her lips brushed against his before planting a passionate kiss. "Don't leave me," she pleaded before every kiss before lingering on his mouth. Joshua's eyes frantically looked about in fear as his body frivolously squirmed. Something shot into his mouth.
 
Josh jolted awake to see researchers filing out of the room. Jerry was smiling down at him. "Good nap?"
 
All he did was take a quick power nap and he still had a damned nightmare? And it was so real this time, too. Far more lucid than the ones he’d had before, and it wasn’t fading from his mind as quickly, either. Was it true that all his time spent with the xenomorph was influencing his sleep? The xenomorph! he remembered.
 
“How is she?” he asked the researcher.
 
“She was taken to see the Matriarch to assess how she’d react around other xenomorphs and vice versa. Nothing terribly exciting to report, however, she’s been lethargic ever since the experiment concluded.”
 
Joshua looked over to see that the alien woman was indeed curled up into a ball in the corner of her cell, completely unmoving with her back towards him, as if trying to hide herself from the world.
 
“Damn.”
 
“Touching and Feeling”
 
Time passed. In fact, quite a bit of time had passed. All without the alien mocking, tapping, slamming, hissing, skittering, or any of the other obnoxious habits she took up. She’d been quietly laying in her lonely corner for over eight hours since she’d been brought back from her visit with the xenomorph Matriarch. It was almost feeding time and she still hadn't began her usual begging. Worry started to poke at Joshua's mind repeatedly upon seeing the girl-- creature, being so miserable, or perhaps even depressed.
 
The man gazed through the large, glass window to confirm that she was still moving, or at least breathing, though he wasn’t entirely sure if she actually needed to breathe. After some self-deliberation, he rapped his knuckle against the glass.
 
"Hey. You alright in there?" He averted his gaze to the floor, in the off-chance that she did reply.
 
No response. Not even an aggravated spit or a dismissive flick of her tail.
 
"Look, you need to eat something or we'll both be in trouble. I’m not only supposed to keep an eye on you, but I’m also supposed to keep you from harming yourself." Her tail feebly stretched out along the border between the floor and wall. "Do you understand what I’m saying?" She didn't move again. He wasn't entirely sure what put her in that kind mood. She had been transported to and from the labs without incident hundreds of times before. Well, not quite without incident, but certainly not with a reaction like this.
 
It didn't take long for the guard to realize what might have caused the change in mood. A particular occasion when he threatened to dose her with a sting of nitrogen. His brow crinkled. Was that really what was happening? "Ah, shit," he said as guilt hit him like a speeding truck. He couldn't believe he was feeling bad for her again. It's not like he could apologize, right? Well, why couldn't he apologize, really? She seemed to understand what was being said, or at least the intent, if nothing else.
 
After letting out one of his trademark sighs, Joshua set his rifle against the pen and tapped on the glass again. "Hey." She didn't move. He prepared himself with a deep, slow breath. "I'm sorry for the uh, y’know, threat earlier." What was he doing? "I wasn’t seriously going to gas you or anything. I only did that to try and get you to calm down. I wouldn’t ever intentionally hurt you. I don’t have it in me to be that cruel."
 
No response. “See? I’m talking, aren’t I? Isn’t that what you wanted to hear?” Suddenly, a distinct sobbing could be heard from inside the containment cell. Was she… crying? Did xenomorphs even have the ability to cry, given the lack of eyes and probably tear ducts, too? If they couldn’t, this one was doing a remarkable job of impersonating the emotion. Wave after wave of sadness, fear, grief, isolation and self-loathing washed over Josh as if he, himself, were the one feeling them.
 
“Hey-hey, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Josh asked with genuine concern.
 
“Alone,” came a soft voice.
 
“What was that?”
 
“Alone. Unwanted. Unloved,” the voice sobbed. “Joshua hates me, too.”
 
“C’mon, I don’t hate ya. Sure, you’ve been a royal pain in my ass for six months, but I’ve never taken it personally.” He wasn’t sure how true that was. The creature sulked, in spite of his half-hearted apology.
 
“Joshua lies. You would use gas to hurt me.” She grumbled and disinterestedly hit the glass with her tail.
 
“Jeez, I said I was sorry about that! What more do you want? A freakin’ cuddle and a kiss on the forehead?”
 
The alien ceased her sobbing and turned her head slightly in Joshua’s direction.
 
"More than sorry?" she asked, though her inflection failed to convey it as a question.
 
He didn't understand. The alien refrained from slapping the wall in annoyance and approached the glass, cautiously but with a sense of optimism.
 
"Cuddle and kiss... more than sorry?"
 
"What kind of friggin’ question is that?"
 
"Tell me. Tell me. Tell me!"
 
"Sure, yeah, it can be!"
 
The sentry, Joshua as he called himself, or perhaps others called him, was the only of the bipeds that didn't actively hurt her. His incessant rambling could be amusing, but she found his small outbursts to be far more entertaining. It was, in a way, a splash of colour to her routine life in a metallic grey box. Certainly one of the few scraps of joy and entertainment that she could gather, even if she did push it too far.
 
"Give me. Kiss and cuddle. Now.”
 
"I'm definitely not touching you," the human said, as he walked away from the creature's pen. “Touching”. Interesting. For as long as she could remember, she hadn't actually touched any other living creature, save for that one time. The smooth nothing that was her home left her a little more than wanting for tactile input. The gloopy mush of food stopped being exciting and only left a mess.
 
"Touching me!" she demanded.
 
"Couldn't even if I wanted to." Her human was stubborn, which made a delightful snap when he was finally at his wits’ end. He was probably right, though; she probably wouldn't ever leave her cell freely. She understood the fear she conveyed fairly easily and how quickly she would be snuffed out if she were to roam about. Lately, it seemed as though Joshua's fear mostly stopped, replaced by a more enticing feeling that grew by the day, so the creature doubted the latter half of his statement. Even now, she could sense that blood pumping excitement.
 
"You want to. You want to!" she growled through the window. She couldn't help but goad on that feeling.
 
Joshua gave no response, but his uncomfortable shifting was more than enough to tell her his thoughts on the matter. That was satisfactory for her. She backed away from the window, returning to her corner without a sound. There would be other times where she could probe him on the matter, she could wait as she always had.
 
“Risk and Reward”
 
Joshua had settled back down into his rickety chair. The creature did much of the same. It seemed she had gotten rid of her incessant teasing, and settled by the containment cell door. He contemplated on her ridiculous words. “You want to!” Like a child goading him on with poorly-used psychology. Did he want to? At that point he had given up on restraining his libido. Sure, a large part of him did want to touch her. All over, repeatedly and without end. The feminine form was enough to trigger his need of touch. The ship was a sausage fest and he sure didn't swing that way. Though, maybe a few more months could change that.
 
The lights gleamed off of her smooth done, making it all the more attractive to tactile senses. The rest of her body shimmered similarly, almost giving her a heavenly aura despite her vicious nature. He couldn't tell if she was asleep or pretending. There were definitely periods of time where she would lay still, but they didn't seem to follow any set pattern. With the lack of eyes, the best guess he had were her soft breaths, a markedly different change from her ravenous and energetic heaves of air. In this moment she truly seemed at peace.
 
Joshua's mind urged him on as the girl once did. “You want to,” a faint whisper told him from the corner of his thoughts. Maybe even if it meant losing an arm. “You want to.” He fidgeted on the spot. “You want to.” It was all that he could think about. The chitin demon in the window and its awful, alluring curves. Her siren’s song drawing him ever closer to what would most likely be his death. “You want to.” He winced and stood up, then slowly crept to the console. A smaller switch off to the side tempted him. “MAINTENANCE” it read.
 
Hesitantly, Joshua flicked it on. The door behind him shifted ever so slightly. He spun on the spot to face the large gate and approached it. “Just a quick touch,” he mumbled to himself. “Just a quick touch and then I'm out.” He reached into the feeding canister entrance and pushed on the far end. It opened, creating a small tunnel between the two rooms. Her containment was far cooler than his side, sending a chill along his arm.
 
Getting a better angle, Joshua pushed against the door and lowered his hand down to touch the smooth, reflective black dome of the alien’s elongated head. His fingertips brushed against it ever so delicately. It was as cold, sleek and sensual to the touch as he expected and felt delightful against the palm of his hand. Cheekily tickling the reflective surface of her head made Josh feel more aroused than he’d ever felt before. Adrenaline coursed through his body, and his penis began to expand and throb simply from the sensation of being in contact with the creature. He gave a small, loving swirl to finish off his feat of idiotic bravery. His heart began to pound so hard he could hear it, which signalled his time to quit whilst he was ahead and pull himself free. The guard slowly edged away, careful not to wake up the sleeping monster he just stealthily molested.
 
As he let out a quiet sigh of relief that his little act of degeneracy actually succeeded, his arm was suddenly yanked all the way back in by a long, spindly hand that had snatched him by the wrist. “Yes. You wanted to,” a voice hissed.
 
“SHIT!” He struggled to pull his arm free from the hole but he was severely outmatched in terms of physical strength. He twisted his neck painfully around for any button or lever he could use that might save him, but he was out of reach from anything even remotely useful, including his beloved pulse rifle, which carefully leaned against his chair. The absolute one time he decided to set it down, of course. Sweat began to form at his brow and his heart virtually pounded through his ribcage as he fruitlessly reached back for it, as if expecting a miracle to send it flying into his hand.
 
“This is it! This is how I’m going to die,” he chided himself. He continued to grunt and strain; his situation growing evermore dire. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the agony of torn muscle fibres and shattered bones to arrive any second, but it never came. Was the alien taking its sweet time to ensure his suffering last as long as possible?
 
The same smooth feeling returned to his hand and began playing with it, rolling it around, making it dance. His erection became firmer the longer he felt it touching him. Then something wet and slimy moved across the skin of his forearm. From the size and shape, he was fairly certain what it was. He winced as a trail of moisture worked up the length of his arm. What the hell was it doing? Savouring the taste of his flesh before it chomped down on him? Despite that train of thought, the tickling licks mixed with the rush of adrenaline forced his erection to complete hardness, almost to a painful degree.
 
● ● ●
 
A gentle sensation grazed the top of the alien's head, stirring her from her slumber. Her primal instincts screamed to retreat for fear of being attacked, but something deeper inside forced her body to remain motionless. He was actually touching her, but he wasn’t inflicting pain like the others of his kind. In fact, quite the opposite: he was being extremely delicate and sensual. It felt… good. She decided to continue feigning sleep, so she wouldn’t scare him away and end this experience, she needed to see how far he actually intended to take it.
 
The touch of his fleshy digits caressed the top of her smooth, shiny head, lovingly. She enjoyed this feeling intensely, and apparently, he did, too, judging by the way he sexually maneuverer them around, connecting with as much surface area as he could. Up and down, around and around, sometimes with the tips, other times with his whole palm. He was a brave one, indeed, to risk his entire arm just to touch her in this way. The warmth of his hand felt incredible against the cold, sleekness of her head. Was this what aroused him so? She would have to remember this detail for the future.
 
And just like that, it was gone. After one final twirl of his fingers, the limb slowly began to recede back from whence it came. The touching, the feeling, the warmth. She needed more of it. She wasn’t done feeling good so soon. “More.” She quickly reached up and tightly grasped his wrist, pulling him back in with her. She felt him panic and struggle against her, which was only natural, she understood. “But you aren’t going anywhere. Not until I’m done with you.” She needed more. More. More, always more.
 
She decided to start off with that which he enjoyed most: the feeling of her smooth head against his skin. She’ll tease him for a while until she felt ready to try different methods of pleasuring him. She nuzzled her head into his hand and played with it, tickling his fingers against the hard smoothness that covered her head. “You like it like that? Does that give you pleasure, human?” Nuzzling the top of her head against his quivering palm, she made sure he felt as much as he could. “It’s okay to stroke me back if you want. Don’t be afraid. Just let yourself feel this pleasure with me.”
 
Next, her inner-maw extended outward and gently connected, taking in his soft, cushioned form. Up and down, she savoured every bit of him. A familiar heat soon faded into the air. Arousal. She had affected him more than she expected. Perhaps he had affected her more than she expected. Her vision moved back and forth between her own arm and his. Her limb seemed wrong and warped. Long and spindly fingers sprouted from a large, black hand. His seemed so uniform, so aesthetic, and so perfect. The colour that marked his skin was also soft and welcoming.
 
● ● ●
 
Joshua began to relax, still unsure about what was happening, but somehow, he was sure enough that she didn’t intend to mutilate him. If she did, she would have certainly done it by now. Yet all she was doing was sensually nuzzling into him and generally making him feel horny as hell. Was that actually her intention? Was this just as much about pleasure for her as it was for him? Was this her way of consenting and reciprocating to all the touching he just did? He took a deep breath to try and settle his nerves.
 
His hand flipped over, causing her to pull back momentarily in preparation for attack, but no assault came. The creature looked through the window at her sentry. No expression of malice was painted on his face. Instead, he seemed content, and even excited. She pushed on, resting her face in his hand, and allowing him to explore more of her. The careful strides along her head calmed her and created a soft warmth in her chest.
 
The sensations were amazing. There was a texture to his body that excited her, grooves and bumps danced pleasingly along her hard exoskeleton. She had to have more. She always had to have more. As carefully as she had done before, she bowed her head down and nuzzled into his hand. It was even better against the more receptive and softer part of her body. Her lips grazed his skin in circular motions, enjoying the bumpy but velvety touch.
 
"More," she purred, increasing her nuzzling. The human worked his fingers into the petting, running them against her.
 
"Is that better?" he asked, now confident in his situation...
 
The creature edged closer, wrapping her unwieldy hands around the arm and continuing her nestling. Every part of her ached for contact. Her second mouth moved through her lips, its slimy form 'licking' the appendage she lovingly embraced. The thought of biting down slithered across her mind, but she swiftly denied it. He was the only one to offer such an experience and she wasn't about to sour their shaky relationship.
 
Feeling her “tongue” gently licking his arm, he decided to gently place his thumb inside it. The tiny, razor-sharp teeth that guarded her inner-maw pricked his skin, but they didn’t bite down on him. In fact, they opened wider to accept him. He rubbed around the opening a little more before sliding his thumb deeper within. The inside of her tongue-like appendage felt very warm, tight, and moist - not unlike the feeling of an actual vagina. Folds of warm flesh squeezed him and pulsated, drawing him in deeper. He could only imagine what it would feel like on his cock.
 
"I'm sorry for what my people do to you," the man spoke. “We’re not all heartless assholes.” There was the comforting sounds again. And yet, they were not for his own doing. He was offering these noises with no reason. A curiosity that she would have to think about later as she was far too engrossed in his form.
 
"It’s time for me to go now," he fell silent as the creature's slippery mouth ran over him. Food was of little concern to her now. "I’m sorry." She understood this disappointing arrangement of sounds. The creature was ready to hiss in protest until she realized how the others might react to this. The other bipeds and their aggressive sounds. She did not want him to be harmed by them as they had done to her. One long, trailing lick downwards finished off their exchange of flesh. The alien pulled away reluctantly, but without a sound.
 
The hatch sealed and she was back in the lonely confines of her world. The creature moved over her own body. It wasn't the same, she couldn't capture his sensations again. Being forced back into this isolation frustrated her. She looked back through the window at Joshua. Perhaps she could ask him again, nicely. Nicely. Yes. She would just have to wait again.
 
A few minutes later, the familiar nutritious goop flowed through the door onto the paper plate Josh had given her. Back then, he mentioned something about “dignity” which had always intrigued her. She settled down next to the mess and ran a finger through it. The substance gave no resistance and merely pushed away from her finger. The material was soft, but it wasn’t pleasingly soft. A disgusting mash of lifelessness. She sampled it. This batch tasted particularly dull, but she continued to consume it regardless. The feeding times were strained just far enough to leave her in a state of uneasy hunger.
 
In-between her consumption, the alien would glance out into the room. Her guard seemed to be stuck in a confused stupor, staring at the floor. An uneasy feeling radiated from him while he sat there in complete silence.
 
Minutes passed, although it wasn't as though the creature was keeping track. The passage of time wasn't something she worried herself with in her cage. She could hear Joshua mumble on and off, as if he was battling with himself. The alien didn't bother him with her presence, however much she wanted to. She did attempt to make out his words, the volume at which he spoke was somewhat worrying. That wasn't a regular occurrence for him, and the silence that began to overtake the room was frightening.
 
A click startled the chitinous creature. She crawled to the window to peer at the sentry. He stood at the console; back facing the pen. A loud clunk forced her away from the door in fear. It was opening. No, it couldn't be that time again; it was too early. She knew when she was going to be forcibly ripped from her cage. It wasn't now. The creature hunched down on all fours, adopting the most threatening posture she could.
 
The portal opened, revealing the man, Joshua. He was different, somehow. The guard was missing his outer metallic shell and treasured weapon. The alien stared at him for a moment, uncertain what his intentions were. She stood back up, lowering her defences, but keeping a close eye on his motions.
 
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and walked towards her.
 
“Love and Desire”
 
As Joshua once trusted her, the alien trusted no harm would come to her. Still, she didn't know how to react to his approach. This would be the first time she came face to face with a living being. It excited her, and she could feel a similar excitement coming from him. The man, on the other hand, confidently strode towards her but kept a moderate and calm pace.
 
The man stood in front of the creature. She froze, but her senses went wild. The smells, the sights, the sounds, the thoughts. More. Always more. Joshua extended his arms, presenting them for her tactile pleasure. The creature crept up to him and wrapped around the man as best she could, drinking up all of his body. It was an odd sensation for the man, being surrounded by a hard and soft form that writhed all over him. Though, the prominent breasts that the creature exhibited caught his attention the most.
 
The behaviours had swapped. Now the human was unsure what to do while the creature relished his body. Her movements only increased by the second, spurred on by the pair's growing arousal. The human settled on giving his own awkward hug to the alien that embraced him, stroking against her interesting carapace. "More," she cried. Joshua, not wanting to disappoint her, ran a hand up the creature's chest, over her breasts and up her neck. The creature rattled in delight. A gentle tug down on her chin brought the two into a kiss.
 
The experience was so strange to the female, and yet, so familiar. She had urges of this motion before, but was uncertain how to articulate it. For the man, it was like finally tearing down a dam. His emotions ran wild, along with his hormones. Joshua's vulnerable tongue played against the creature's lips. His eyes shutting tight while the rest of his body focused on the hands that ran over him. A delicious hum came through his mouth that pleased the girl greatly, her body was alive with his sound.
 
Joshua was becoming needier by the second. With one hand he struggled with his trousers while the other cautiously began to inch over to the girl's breasts. They were as pliable and soft as he had hoped, but still retained some of the hard rigidity of the rest of her sensual frame. She was the first to notice the man's erect cock as it came free from his pants. The smell was intoxicating, causing her to let out another delighted rattle. It poked against her legs, its curious pink head rubbing against her thighs.
 
It was difficult for Joshua to not begin a frantic thrust against his new lover. She could smell his urgency and spared her tail to gently caress his erection, not wanting to leave any part of him untouched. In order to show his own appreciation, he broke their kiss and focused on the creature's breasts, playing with the stark black nubs that swelled with arousal. Although he would have taken to giving them a light suckle, a small part of him worried what corrosive substance might leak out. A quick nudge into her bosom from an eager hand made him reconsider. He ran circles around her nipples with his tongue, making sure both received the attention they needed. Eventually he eased into sucking them directly, causing a hiss of joy to come from his partner.
 
At this point, Joshua had worked his cock between the alien's legs, lightly jerking his hips against her. The creature had observed this habit for a while now and began thinking of a more pleasurable scenario for both of them, one that employed more of that joining of mouths but on different areas. She savoured a few more moments of Joshua's tongue before pulling away and taking up a straightened posture, now towering above him. The man didn't have much time to be disappointed by the lack of the warm body that wrapped around him just moments ago. In mere seconds, the alien scaled the wall and was now standing on the ceiling, gaze landing somewhere about the man's crotch.
 
Inky lips came into the man's view, wet, aroused lips. The creature's groin closed in on the man's face and he wasted no time in delving into its depths, working a finger between its folds while his tongue teased the labia. The girl, glad that her partner understood the concept, began work on his dick in-turn. As it had done many times before, her inner-mouth shot forward, swiftly taking up the length of the man's hard shaft. The sudden jolt of pleasure caused Joshua to buck his hips forwards in elation. That, coupled with a sharp gasp, showed the creature just how well she was doing.
 
The larger female remained still, waiting for any more reactions from her human. She could feel his erection throb in her smaller mouth, every little twitch and pulse that made its way through. Joshua had to catch his breath for a moment, but pressed on with his hands and tongue. He found a perfect spot that caused the girl to shiver in her own way with his fingers, and, though it was hard to make out, he found her clitoris and gently stroked it with his wet probe. While unique, the creature's vagina still responded splendidly to rudimentary techniques, making the man wonder just how much she was pent up.
 
Deciding to continue, the creature bobbed its head slowly on Joshua's erection. Her inner-jaws working in tandem with the motions with its own back and forward thrusts. A few of her motions quivered and shook as her partner kept at her folds, only sending more electricity through the man's body. Despite her inexperience with sex, the alien knew exactly how to keep him on edge and slowed her fellating as necessary, keeping him from releasing his seed. After all, with how well he was pleasing her, she figured should continue doing the same to him.
 
The couple laboriously continued their prodding, licking, and fondling. The once silent pen was now alive with moans and other lewd noises. Both partners had vigorously covered each other in their spittle, their genitalia now slick and begging for more. The girl slowly retracted her secondary mouth with a loud slurp. Another ecstatic rattle came from the creature, and in no time at all, she leaped from her position on the ceiling and pinned the man to the ground. While feverish in her assault, she took care to prevent him from slamming brutally to the floor.
 
Joshua admired the form that sat atop of him. Whatever fear he might have had was completely replaced by a lustful love. The sleek creature did much of the same to him, but found herself desperately humping his groin in a heated desire to mate. The man gently rubbed her thighs to coax her into calming down. Just long enough to position himself properly for penetration. As soon as she felt his heated shaft prod against her entrance, she forced her hips against his. His cock entered with no trouble at all, having been lubricated by a mixture of her spittle and his precum.
 
The alien let out a violent rattle and began her movements without warning. Joshua could only brace himself from the onslaught of thrusts and tried to prevent himself from ejaculating as best he could. Her cunt was easily the most smooth and soft part of her body, much to the man's pleasure. It also seemed that, while her mating was frantic, she had excellent control of the walls that surrounded Joshua's erection, making it all the harder to stave off his orgasm.
 
A spindly tail wrapped around the man's leg, the lustful creature's way of signifying that he belonged to her. It tugged upwards with every slam of their vigorous mating, pushing him into her just a little more each time. "Joshua, Joshua, Joshua," the alien girl babbled, her mind unable to come up with the proper word for 'love'. Her pronunciation swung from harsh and barely comprehensible to clear and smooth. In conjunction with all of her attempts at pleasing him, the girl begun to unwittingly vibrate with her rattling.
 
One final screech signalled the alien's own orgasm. She forced her hips downwards, receiving every inch of Joshua's cock. Her hands shifted to his sides to prevent her nails digging into his body painfully. Nothing could have prepared her for her first explosive finish, and she enjoyed every moment that it ran through her body. Trickles of fluid ran down Joshua's legs. He knew she had her fun and that it was time for his own to come to an end. With a strained groan, he weakly plunged into the creature, shooting his load of semen deep into his lover. Joshua quivered with every strand of sticky cum that shot out of his cock, his body tensing up as he forced himself to push out more. He slumped back down and let out a content sigh, his mind barely registering anything but the happy bliss that warmly ran over his whole body.
 
“Care and Protection”
 
Joshua found himself wrapped back up in the safety of his strange, new lover. The couple had rolled over onto their sides and simply laid there, both of them studying the other's form. The alien feebly rubbed the man's body with a few careful digits, still enjoying his textures despite her complete exhaustion. A crude smile was splayed across her face, lacking in any malice or mischief.
 
This particular sexual encounter was different from the others, far different. That wasn't a bad thing, but it did leave him wondering how to react to the woman that lay beside him. Like a woman, exactly as he had imagined her, or no, what she was. She was different from other females, absolutely, but she still shared their emotions and sensibilities, even if she could be extreme about them. He moved his head forward and kissed her chest.
 
"Thank you," he hummed into her.
 
The creature shuddered and replied with her own, "Thank you." Her head nuzzled against his, "Joshua." It was good to hear her say that, for once, and the man hoped for many more times.
 
Time was slipping away for the guard, he knew it, his trained mind made sure to remind him. Regardless, he remained by the creature's side, wanting to stay with her as long as possible. His loneliness in the past months and his skinship with the girl made him more than willing to take his time with her. "Would you... Would you like to do this again?" he asked uncertainly.
 
"Yes. More. More. More this with Joshua," the alien cooed, squeezing him tightly for a brief moment. Joshua smiled, pleased with her enthusiastic response.
 
Her repeated use of his name reminded him of something he had overlooked. She lacked any sort of name that he could use. It wasn't much of an issue before, but now that their relationship had elevated to a sexual degree, it seemed wrong that she didn't have one. That would have to be something he would have to think on for a while. It had to be good, fitting, and properly feminine for her. Unless, she already had one.
 
"Do you have a name?" To say that asking that after sex was awkward was an understatement, though the creature wouldn't see it as such.
 
"Name?" she asked. Her voice managed to capture the inquisitiveness of the question.
 
"Like me, Joshua," he pulled back from the comfort of her chest, "my name is Joshua." The question clicked with the girl and she paused for a moment to ponder.
 
"No. No."
 
"You're going to need one if we--" he stopped, suddenly hit with the impossibility of their relationship, "we're going to be like this. Then again, what kind of name would you give to an alien?" He moved up against her, sliding a hand down her back and onto her ass.
 
"I ellen?”
 
Joshua looked confused. "Of course you're an alien."
 
"No, I am Ellen," the creature responded.
 
"Oh... Well, that does have a nice ring to it. Ellen it is, then." The two continued their tired cuddling.
 
The minutes zipped by, and soon, their precious moments of relaxation were gone. Joshua wordlessly gave the girl another kiss and hesitantly stood back up. The creature ran her hand down his leg as he rose. She knew he had to go, and in different circumstances she might have been OK with it, but her internal clock reminded her that he would be gone a little longer this time, replaced by a dull human that paid her no mind.
 
The guard had retrieved his clothing and stepped out of the pen, he looked back for a brief moment. Elle continued to rest, her hand feeling the floor where her partner was. Joshua moved over to the console nearby and sealed the cage. The large door slid back into place with an awful grind, obscuring the alien from view.
 
That was it. Everything was back to as it was. Joshua sat back down in his rusted chair and contemplated what had just occurred, biding the few painful minutes until the woman would be whisked away. "Please prepare for specimen transport." Time's up.
 
A moment later and the door behind Joshua opened. As a hundred times before the scientists began their performance and another guard stood by, ready to assist at a moment’s notice. They all worked too slowly for Joshua's taste. He watched their precise movements as they moved everything into place and played with their tiny handheld computers. It was all so obnoxious. When they finally finished, after what seemed like hours to the man, he jolted up out of his chair.
 
"My shift is over, I'll be handing over temporary guard duty to Blaine," Joshua flatly said to one of the scientists. The covered figure nodded. The guard inched towards the researcher and immediately added, "Take good care of her," in a less than pleased voice. While he couldn't see the scientist's expression, he knew by the subtle tilt of the head that they heard what he said.
 
“Order and Chaos”
 
Joshua could only follow the container for so long, and eventually had to veer off into another one of the hundreds of tunnels. His destination was one that he often enjoyed, though now it brought him no comfort. The small canteen in the facility. The meals there were more than compressed grub with a hefty helping of pharmaceuticals, making it a hot spot for worker relaxation, the drinks were just a bonus.
 
The door to the canteen was as unceremonious as all the others in this boring place, a large metal slab that separated the hallways and rooms. Joshua took off his helmet and tucked it under his shoulder as he approached the door. It obediently opened when he neared it, revealing the small cafeteria within and all its glimmering stools and tables. A few bored souls sat inside, some idly conversing and others staring off into the distance.
 
Socializing with humans had become harder as the months marched on. Having stayed in his own company for so long naturally wore away his ability to speak with others, and as such, he mostly stuck to himself. It was better than needlessly embarrassing himself. He didn't make any real friends out of his co-workers, so it wasn't as though he would have anyone to talk to regardless.
 
The cafeteria was solely self-serve, so Joshua quickly got to work in assembling his simple meal of meats and vegetables on a tray. A small can of beer couldn't hurt either. No one greeted him or even gave him a wayward glance, much to his satisfaction. He wasn't in the mood to talk with anyone, not anyone there, at the very least. He settled on the closest convenient table and began his break by biting into his worse-than-average food.
 
Only one thing was on his mind. The experience he shared with her, “Ellen”. At the time he was only concerned with her wellbeing and parts of his own lust. Now that he began to dwell on the idea, parts of his mind struggled to come to terms with what happened. No doubt he cared about her, their mating helped that along, but the whole concept of having a relationship with a creature that was designed to kill was a strange one. The idea of sexual relations with something that wasn't human alone was an issue he didn't know how to deal with. On reflection he wasn't sure what kicked off the whole situation, he only knew that he had to be with her at that moment in time.
 
Due to Joshua's musing, he didn't see the two armoured personnel that approached him. "Private Briggs. We would like a word with you," one of them said. The voice broke the guard out of thought. His attention snapped to the decked out persons. He hadn't seen them before, or their gear. They were a dark blue and kitted out in full body armour. Particularly imposing helmets obscured both of their faces, making them all the more mysterious.
 
"Yeah? And I would like to get back to my meal," Joshua jeered. He took a swig of his cheap alcohol and turned his attention back to the pile of food.
 
The other one spoke up, "I don't think you'll have the time for that." A few of the other canteen patrons started to take notice of the commotion.
 
"What's this about?" The guard eyed up the two in annoyance.
 
"Do you really want to discuss the details here?" one of the figures asked. He turned his head towards one of the diners, causing them to look away instantly.
 
Joshua's brow crinkled. "I guess I don't," he replied sternly. They knew. Of course they knew. He was a moron for not even considering the possibility. Cameras were around him 24/7, they became part of the furniture with how regular and familiar they were, he forgot that they tracked his movements constantly. The guard put his utensils down and picked his helmet up from the table. "Lead the way, guys." No point in making a scene.
 
The figures nodded and started out of the canteen. Joshua's only choice was to follow them, so he trailed after them. He could see a few people eyeing him, causing him to wonder what they thought as they examined him. He hoped not everyone in the labs was told about his forbidden affair, which would definitely make any sort of relationship impossible.
 
The armoured trio walked back out into the halls silently. Joshua was disappointed having to leave the canteen with an empty stomach, but that would probably be the least of his troubles. He started to worry what would happen to Ellen. They'd probably see it as specimen contamination or something. It probably wasn't the kind of contamination they were used to. He just prayed she would stay in one piece, even if he had to be dishonourably discharged.
 
As the guard expected, they walked into the administration area. It looked a lot like the other parts of the maze, but the walls seemed to shine a little more and had more of a white hue to them. The big wigs wanted to speak to him directly, or one of them, anyways. Despite all of this trouble, it would be funny to see the look on the boss's face as he has to explain to his employee why fucking the experiments is a bad thing to do. That would be worth it. If he had to be fired for something, might as well be that.
 
Door after door after door, the mysterious pair finally stopped in front of one portal and stepped to the sides. "The Director is inside," a voice spoke, though Joshua couldn't tell who said it. The guard sighed and prepared himself for the worst. As calm as he could be, Joshua walked into the Director's domain.
 
The Director's office was far more inviting than Joshua expected. In fact, it bore a resemblance to any old office he had seen, bar the heavy duty metal that made up the walls and floor. An older, withered man sat at a desk, going over various bits of paperwork with a bored expression. He wore a generic lab coat and glasses, making him the quintessential scientist. "Evening, Sir," the guard greeted. The Director didn't break his stare on the mess of words, opting to point at a seat in front of his desk.
 
It started to feel to Joshua like he was sent to the Principal's office and was awaiting his detention. This was a far more serious matter, but he couldn't shake that view from his mind.
 
"Private Joshua Briggs, correct?" the older man asked, still not giving the courtesy of eye contact.
 
"Yes, Sir, but you can call me--"
 
"We have several matters to discuss, it seems." He scribbled something on one of the papers he looked at.
 
"May I ask as to what, Sir?" Might as well try to feign a tiny bit of ignorance, Josh reasoned.
 
A smile broke the older man's stoic visage. "You seem like an intelligent man, Private Briggs, so I don’t believe you’re completely ignorant to the topic of discussion we’re about to engage in."
 
“I guess not, Director.”
 
"You’re a hard worker - in every sense of the word." The Director's gaze slowly moved up to Joshua. "Perhaps you could explain the finer details of your latest shift." A monitor switched on behind him, showing a frighteningly familiar scene with a different perspective. A man slowly walked towards a skittish, black animal. "Here, this is the most interesting part." The Director didn't break his eye contact with the guard. The two humanoid shapes on the screen then embraced and made love.
 
"An enticing display in more ways than one, wouldn't you agree?" Joshua wasn't quite in agreement. Seeing himself mash against the creature on the display was a strange experience and he only found himself questioning why he would ever do that. "That would be you in the recording, yes?"
 
The question was expected but it still struck Joshua bluntly. He was guaranteed to be fired, but telling someone directly that he had sex with one of the experiments wasn't easy to do. "Yes, Sir, I'd recognize him anywhere."
 
"Now, would you also be engaging in fornication with the altered xenomorph?" The shapes on the screen started moving against one another and exchanging kisses. The experience was far more uncomfortable to the guard on video than when he thought about it.
 
"Yes, Sir," Joshua said in monotone.
 
"I must say, you have completely destroyed every rule and guideline regarding our specimens with what I would say was flying colours." That sounded more like congratulations than a reproach, especially with his amused smile. "No armour, no weapon - apart from the one between your legs, that is. How in the world did you manage to do it, soldier?" The Director's voice raised slightly, seemingly in disbelief.
 
"Guess you could say I have a way with the ladies," Joshua quipped. He assumed he was going to be dishonourably discharged anyway, so he saw no reason not to be a little bit cocky.
 
"I would thank you for taking this matter more seriously, Private." His grin lessened. "What you did was a gross violation - both literally and figuratively. We want to know how a human survived such a close encounter with a xenomorph and leave no worse for wear than when he entered."
 
Joshua shrugged. "Not sure myself, Sir." That was actually the truth. By all accounts he should be dead for even opening the door. Like most of his relationships, they sort of happened without his knowing and ended in a one night stand. Though, he suspected there was more to it than that.
 
The Director straightened up, his expression becoming grim. "I'm not sure you understand the gravity of the situation. You've successfully turned one of our largest failures into a resounding victory. Originally, the human-relations project was designed to produce more communicative test subjects to better understand their species. However, the splicing of human and xenomorphic DNA yielded some rather… unexpected physiological traits that I’m sure you’re more than familiar with."
 
The large screen switched to a detailed display of the xenomorph’s anatomy - namely her large, shiny breasts and unusual vaginal area. Seeing them again made Joshua feel slightly aroused.
 
"Very. But, Sir, can't say I see the usefulness of-- you know," the guard replied with a grin.
 
The scientist folded his hands. "A creature that is as unique and impressive physiologically, paired with a focused and controlled human mind. I believe that's in simple enough terms for you to understand. Until now, there weren't any favourable results in attitude or communication. That’s why the program was all but shelved some time ago, until your most recent breakthrough."
 
"Still, I wouldn't know the half of it, Sir. Like all couples, we just started talking and one thing led to another."
 
"Yes, we're aware of your communication efforts. Mostly hostile in the early stages, as it was noted. Only in your last few interactions have you managed to establish anything meaningful, leading to your connection." His eyes narrowed. "Now, I ask again how you were able to do this."
 
"I told you," Josh didn't bother with pleasantries this time, "we just started talking. Then I--" He sighed.
 
The Director's eyebrows lifted. "Then you, what?" he asked.
 
"Then I felt bad for her. What else was I going to do to make her feel better?" Joshua pursed his lips and crossed his arms. "I don't know what I was thinking after that. It just happened, alright? That’s the whole story."
 
"I see." The screen switched off, bringing the guard some relief. The grizzled Director turned back to his documents. "This will require further inquiries. Unfortunately, this will necessitate your full attention." What?! "Until further notice, your shift is now permanently assigned to the specimen in question." Joshua looked at the man in front of him, dumbfounded. The Director returned his gaze. "Basically, you'll be spending more time with it."
 
“‘Her’... Sir.” Josh replied, seemingly offended by the objectification of his new lover.
 
“Of course, my apologies. You’ll be spending more time with her.”
 
Joshua sat in utter disbelief. There were so many questions on his mind, clouding his thoughts. The Director slammed an ink stamp down on a leaflet of paper and slid it over to the marine.
 
"You've broken new grounds, Private Briggs, and we at the Company would be remiss if we didn't pursue every advantage of this latest development. The fact that the specimen is tame with you alone is a phenomenal step in progress towards a controllable breed of xenomorphic soldiers for the military division."
 
Joshua looked down at the paper, completely baffled. "What do you expect me to do, Sir? Keep fucking her and making small talk?"
 
The Director let out a quiet chuckle. "Not in the strictest sense of the word, no. We want you to persuade her to become more docile with our other research personnel. We plan on training her and her kind to become vital military operatives in more hazardous warzones."
 
Joshua's heart sank upon hearing the explanation. "You want me to tell her to fight and die for humans? That's going to take some convincing."
 
"I trust you have your methods of persuasion, Private. I, personally, will be expecting detailed reports on your progress with the specimen." The Director turned his attention back to his documents. "However, if I feel sufficient effort isn't being made to coax her into fulfilling her requirements, or I feel she simply won't cooperate of her own volition, I will have no other choice but to destroy her. An unfortunate consequence, but one I’m entirely willing to make." The scientist peered through his glasses at Joshua.
 
The guard was silent for a moment. He wanted to lash out at that threat. "I... understand, Sir." He nodded in frustration.
 
"Excellent. Don't let your infatuation cloud your judgement, soldier. Contrary to popular belief, Weyland-Yutani does not conduct itself without a strict code of moral ethics. My lawyers recommended you be given a Section 8 dishonourable discharge for your activities, but I have faith in you. It took no small amount of guts to do what you did. I admire that, greatly." The older man waved. "That’ll be all, Private. Dismissed."
 
Joshua hastily stood up and walked over to the door. "Oh, and Private," the Director called out.
 
"Yes, Sir?"
 
"Not a word to anyone else. Though, I'm sure you already knew that." The guard nodded, slipping through the door.
 
That confrontation had gone radically different than he had expected. Not only was he not chastised for his wrongdoings, but he had been practically encouraged to do so, by his boss no less. Joshua stood there in front of the office, still looking over the paper in shock, ignorant of the helmeted persons staring at him. "Move along." The guard mindlessly nodded and began slowly walking down the corridors.
 
There were several things Joshua had to contemplate. He stared at the far too familiar pen in front of him. The alien girl lurked inside; the source of his emotional instability. Affection, disgust, sadness, anger, hopelessness, all of it boiled inside him, barely staying contained. He was forced into this situation by his own stupidity and the march of science. He knew he had to deal with it somehow. Far too many eyes were on him, eager to see his next move.
 
The man sighed and looked down at the floor. He had to tell her, no matter what. Her life was completely in his hands now, and while he was pleased that he had a chance to save her, turning her into a weapon wasn't exactly how he wanted to go about doing it. No, it certainly wasn't. He clenched his fists. This was the worst job ever.
 
Joshua held his hand over the door release, his mind still trying to figure out how best to explain it to Elle. The xenomorph. He pressed the button and turned his head forward. Discarding his helmet and some bits of armour, he walked back into what should have been the jaws of death. She was there, waiting, her strange smile greeted him. This time, she walked towards him as well. A few bits of fear remained in her mind, overridden by the joy of seeing the only friendly being she knew, and in person as well.
 
"Hey," Joshua awkwardly said. He wasn't sure why he bothered greeting her, but the creature nodded in glee.
 
"Hello, Joshua," she hissed calmly. Her hands greedily grasped at the air, eager to latch onto him for more of his silky textures. The human was quick to take up her silent invitation, much to her delight. He wasn't planning to after being shown what he had done, but the offer of physical and comforting contact was too much to turn down. His squishy arms wrapped around her as best as they could.
 
As with most other interactions with the girl, he felt odd having to explain what they wanted of her, but he had to do it. "I have to tell you something," he said sombrely.
 
"Yes, please talk to me."
 
Joshua began his less than happy explanation.
 
“Love and Hate”
 
"So, the humans want me to fight their battles for them. I would rather kill them instead." Elle hissed angrily through her dagger-like teeth.
 
"Shh! Not so loud! They have ears everywhere, and cameras, too, apparently."
 
"I will not comply with their demands. I would welcome death than be their slave."
 
"Would it even be so bad being a soldier? You're an army of one; a "perfect organism" as they like to call you. No-one would stand a chance against you." Ellen stopped her massaging entirely.
 
"I don't want to kill anyone," the xenomorph quietly confessed.
 
"You-- what? A xenomorph that doesn't want to kill? They're not going to be happy to hear that.”
 
"Since the time of our bonding, I have felt different. I'm no longer the monster I once was." Joshua didn't expect that response. He knew it would be hard to convince her to go along with it, but not because she didn't want to harm others. That seemed like the one thing her species was made for.
 
"They won't take ‘no’ for an answer. But... I'm glad you feel that way."
 
“Once I am sent away, I can easily escape. They will never find me again.”
 
"It wouldn't do any good to run away once they set you loose, Elle. No doubt they'll fit you with a bomb so if you do go AWOL or turn on your masters, you'll be blown away."
 
"So I have to escape before they put a bomb on me."
 
"Escape is damn-near impossible in this place - especially if killing is off the table. The best thing to do for now is comply with their demands until we can think of a better plan."
 
"Joshua cares not for me. You only do what they tell you to do. Joshua is not only a slave, but a coward, too." Those words hurt Josh more than he knew it. She was right, in a way. He was stuck just as much as she was, but refused to find a way out. Ellen looked down at her fragile human. He returned her vague gaze.
 
“Right now, I’m probably the only one who cares about you at all in the entire universe, and I'm trying to not have them throw your stubborn ass into a goddamn incinerator! You know, I’ve taken quite a shine to you--”
 
The alien woman silenced Josh with a passionate kiss on his lips. Before he knew it, the human was forced onto the floor. "Easy!" One of Ellen's sharp fingers wormed its way into the band of his pants. With no effort she tore the flimsy cloth open. She had observed him removing them during his last encounter, but this seemed far easier. His underwear slid off easily, revealing his disappointingly flaccid dick. He wasn't excited. She would have to change that.
 
"Not now, please." Joshua tried to sit up but was forced down firmly by Ellen. She flexed her right hand and ran it over the man's penis. A few gentle strokes brought those delicious feelings out of him. Joshua knew at this point that any protest would be pointless, so he begrudgingly laid still as Ellen worked his cock. His warm member slowly grew in the alien's hand, and soon she figured that wrapping her fingers around it might help bring him around.
 
The man's breaths became heavy with arousal, Ellen was now poorly jerking him off. She was inexperienced, but she still managed to pleasure him with her digits. She could feel more and more blood pump to his growing erection, the sensation alone made her all the more enticed. Joshua's pink head poked out between her thumb and index finger, prompting a toothy smile from Ellen. He was ready now. A small amount of precum began to leak out, slathering her hand.
 
The creature released her grasp from Joshua's cock, leaving it twitching in desperation. A strained breath escaped Joshua's lips. He was aching for her, but he wouldn't admit it yet. Ellen took a moment to admire her unwilling lover's dick. She had seen it briefly in the heat of their previous encounter, not enough to fully examine it. Joshua was left unsatisfied while the creature paused to stare at his erection, it took some effort not to ask her for more.
 
His silent prayers did not go unheard. Ellen leaned forward and nudged her alluring lips against Joshua's cock, evilly teasing the twitching member. She continued the teasing for a few more moments, hoping that he would ask for more. Though, eventually she couldn't bear it herself, and wrapped her lips around him. Ellen was careful to keep her teeth away from his erection as she forced his length into her mouth. Her secondary maw danced around him, lightly tickling his cock. Joshua shivered, but still didn't say a word.
 
Up and down, Ellen's head bobbed on Joshua's dick, taking its entirety into her mouth without any issue. Gentle sucking was the next logical step, and the right one, as it prompted a groan from her human. Spit and precum now covered most of his erection, making it effortlessly slip in and out of the creature's mouth. Josh couldn't help but gently thrust into her eager lips, easily bending to her will.
 
Ellen jerked her head back off of the man's cock with a loud, wet slurp. A string of their juices connected her lips to his erection. The connection of liquids broke away as the black alien stood back up and positioned herself over him. This time, she was fully in control of how he penetrated her, and she forced his member against her entrance. In one motion she slammed down onto him with an aggressive hiss and bounced on top of him as quickly as she could.
 
The man grit his teeth at the overwhelming pleasure and force Ellen provided. His body was happy to finally feel her welcoming folds and at the same time, pained by how much they pleasured him. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh was added to a cacophony of hisses, growls, and slamming. "Damn, Elle, take it easy!" Joshua groaned. His feeble pleas were drowned out by the vicious lovemaking. The creature lunged at him, nearly touching faces. "Easy! Ea--" his cries were silenced by Ellen's maw shooting directly into his mouth. She then topped off his gagging with a kiss of her own.
 
Joshua didn't know how long this would last, nor how long he himself would last. There was no point in trying to hold back, Ellen had made it obvious that she wouldn't stop until she was satisfied. The man let out a pained moan and let himself fall over the edge. Warm semen gushed out of his cock into the creature. He winced and weakly shoved into her in an instinctual need to breed. She was only goaded on by the newfound warmth that slicked her entrance.
 
The creature showed no signs of stopping. Semen flowed from her cunt, creating a sticky mess that spread everywhere with every thrust down. Ellen rattled into Joshua's mouth, tingling the back of his neck and adding to the flood of sensations that wracked his body. Another moan was forced out of him. The alien gripped her helpless male and forced more of her maw into his mouth.
 
That was it. Joshua wasn't sure what happened next. Something loud erupted in his mind as his hips were crushed underneath a hard form. Another flood of juices joined his own, mixing into the puddle on the floor. His arms were numb from lack of blood flow. Everything stopped for a moment.
 
“Games and Theory”
 
Weeks had passed since the meeting with the Director. Joshua still wasn't able to decide whether or not being the personal keeper of one of the experiments was a promotion or not, but he wouldn't complain. He was permitted to freely enter the cell whenever he chose and do whatever he wanted with her, so long as it achieved the desired results the Company expected. His eyes dragged over the woman in front of him, laying on her side in a fairly casual position. Maybe it was the best promotion there ever was.
 
“Are you going to move them or stare at me all night, Joshua?” Her voice snapped him out of his lecherous stare. Her long, spiny tail with the serrated blade on the end swept across the floor in seeming impatience.
 
“Oh, right." He shook his head and looked back down at the nicknacks in front of him. It was the classic scammer's game. Find which cup has the ball. Though in this case the ball was a crumpled bit of paper and the cups were plastic ones he procured from one of the canteen vending machines. He lifted up the middle cup, revealing the ball, then set it back down. As fast and as expertly as possible, he slid the cups along the ground in dizzying and hopefully confusing patterns before coming to a stop.
 
Elle only took a few microseconds of thinking before loudly tapping her nail on one of the upside-down cups. Joshua sighed and lifted up her choice, already knowing she was correct without really needing to confirm it. Of course, the paper ball was underneath. "That's twenty in a row. Are you cheating?" he jokingly accused as he grabbed the ball and examined it for anything suspicious that might have tipped her off.
 
The alien woman stretched out and laid her shiny, elongated head on the floor. “It is not cheating to use your natural abilities.”
 
“I guess not, but it seems like that sort of goes against the spirit of the game.” He grinned and stacked the cups into each-other. No point in continuing a game she’d never lose..
 
“Don’t be a sore loser, dear,” she replied, almost smugly.
 
“I’m still astounded at how far your English has come along, Elle. Seems like only yesterday you were talking like a caveman - now you’ve got a wider vocabulary than I do. I’m starting to feel you’re way out of my league!”
 
“I’m an extremely fast learner: I hear words and I somehow know their meaning and intent. It’s probably a trait I was genetically programmed with. I was even thinking of taking up a few other human languages, too, but conversation around here would be pretty one-sided. But have no fear, my love; you’re more than enough for me. There are other traits to admire in a person than simple intelligence.”
 
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” he said, unsure if that was a slight dig. “Sorry the games we’ve been playing have been so… basic. I’ve never really been big on ‘brainy’ games like chess or Trivial Pursuit. Way too hard for a mere grunt like me. I’ve never even solved a Rubik's Cube before.”
 
“Maybe I could teach you how to play chess someday. It’s not really a difficult game to master.”
 
“Yeah… maybe.” Josh shifted uncomfortably. “Fancy another game of Connect 4?”
 
● ● ●
 
Joshua stared at the screens in front of him, unblinking. Both dread and awe forced him to the edge of his seat. Ellen was on the display, working her way through a simple concrete structure, filled to the brim with daunting synthetic attackers. They weren't armed with anything lethal; the researchers wouldn't want their experiment to go to waste, even if she might have shrugged them off. But the rubber bullets definitely packed enough of a punch for her to feel them at least a little bit. The marine blocked out the world around him. He almost forgot he was sitting in a small viewing room with how intensely he watched the skirmish unfold.
 
The Director spoke up, snapping Joshua out of his worried trance, "I really must commend you for your invaluable ‘input’, so to speak.”
 
“My pleasure.” Josh replied.
 
The Director grinned. “Indeed. Your... ‘partner’ is a most remarkable creature. She’s tearing those droids down like they're not even there. Even the autonomous turrets are struggling to keep up with her movements. Truly splendiferous."
 
Although it was a compliment, Joshua knew it would only lead to worse scenarios further down the line. "Yeah, she's really something." He turned back to the video feed.
 
"I'm surprised she was so easy to persuade in such  short span of time," The researcher looked at the nervous man next to him. "You're a man of many talents, Private Briggs. Perhaps a formal promotion is on the horizon for you."
 
Joshua didn't bother looking back. "She's just doing what's necessary in order to survive, I guess. As long as I get to be with her at all times, I couldn’t care less about rank."
 
"A wise decision on her part, given that any degree of disobedience will cause the collar on her neck to detonate."


Joshua didn't need any reminders. If Ellen’s life wasn't on the line, he might have punched the smarmy old fart at that very moment. She wasn’t some expendable guinea pig to be tested on. Josh knew this more and more with every day he spent with her. She was a fully-conscious person in her own right, with her own thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams, just like him.
 
Ellen continued to dart all over the screen with little effort, shredding apart any mechanical device she came across into bits of scrap. Joshua could feel the subtle level of fear she was suppressing. He wasn't wrong in what he said; she was doing this for survival, and yet, this was the first time she ever had to do so. This was far more intense than the sterile environment she grew up in. Instincts pushed her on, not her own conscious mind.
 
"Considering the resounding success of these trials thus far, we may be able to push plans forward earlier than anticipated," the Director said with optimism in his voice.
 
"So who's she going to be butchering anyway, Sir?"
 
"Word has reached us that one of our mining facilities on a nearby world has been by seized by a small group of extremists. A terrorist who goes by the name ‘Rene Cortez’ has most likely wiped out all the staff working there and turned it into a main base of operations. We want the xenomorph to go in and purge the facility with extreme prejudice. No survivors." He squinted at the screen. "And with this, we may have it done within a day!"
 
Most of the mechanoids that approached the xenomorph were dispatched simply. Ellen skittered up to one, nearly undetected, then, in one brutal movement, chopped off the machine's firing arm. The weapon dropped to the floor, along with the gored limb, painting the floor in a dull white blood. The automaton then swung around to visually confirm its target before backing away and reaching for its rifle. At that point it was easiest to sweep its legs and finish it with a straight puncture through its abdomen.
 
"I'll familiarize myself with the facility for our insertion," Joshua said, seeing if he really would come with her.
 
"I'm more than confident the specimen will complete the mission perfectly without your assistance, Private. You just sit back and enjoy the show." The Director instantly picked up on his intent.
 
"And what if they have guns? She could be killed, and I don’t particularly want to take my chances in bed with another xeno."
 
"I don't believe any sort of small-arms fire will be able to penetrate her exoskeleton. Even considering her human roots, it's still remarkably durable."
 
Joshua stared at the Director. "You can't be sure of what weapons they're armed with. If they raided a Weyland-Yutani facility, then there's a very strong chance they have something capable of putting her down," he urged. "She could use some back-up if things get hairy, Sir. Additionally, she'll only listen to me, as you well know."
 
"You seem quite adamant of being with her at all times. Your devotion to the specimen is very heartwarming." The older man rubbed his chin. "Very well, you’ve got your wish. You may accompany her on the mission," the cheer in his voice evaporated, "provided you don't do anything that either of us will regret."
 
The turrets were the easier of the two targets for Elle. While boasting an impressive fire rate, they were little more than boxes with fairly vulnerable weapons on top. A scramble across the wall here or there, a simple leap, then a straight slice across where the gun pivoted atop its stand. One final stomp on the device and it crumpled without any opposition.
 
After wasting away more expensive machinery, Elle reached the end of her painful obstacle course. She stood there in silent exhaustion, clearly awaiting Joshua's presence. "Permission to approach?" the guard asked.
 
"Granted." The researcher nodded and gave a wave.
 
As elegantly as possible, Joshua bolted through the corridors of the small compound. He smashed his hand against several door identification scanners and squeezed through them as they started to open. The increasing amount of doors let him know he was nearing her. He passed a small window on his way there, where the obnoxious light of the sun shone in. Joshua stumbled through the last door, into Elle's disapproving scowl.
 
"Are you alright?" Joshua asked, inspecting the xenomorph for any imperfections on her hide.
 
"I am fine." Elle uncomfortably twisted her neck against the large, blocky collar that she was forced to wear. "Are we finished?" She shook her tail, spattering bits of white blood on the ground.
 
"Yeah, we're done." Joshua slowly relaxed as he found no sign of injury on the girl. "They're really happy with what you've done so far." He couldn't look at where her eyes might have been. Despite the fact that this kept her alive, Josh felt bad that she was being used in this way.
 
"I am not." Elle pulled on the collar.
 
"Okay, Okay," Joshua stroked the creature's arm, "the transport guys will be here in a little bit and we can get you out of here."
 
Elle attempted a sigh, one of her favourite noises that her human made, though it came out more as a raspy hiss. "I want to see outside. There. With the sky." She pointed at the door Joshua human came through.
 
"The next course will be outside. I promise you'll see it." He knew how terrible that sounded, but that was all he could do.
 
"I do not want to do another," Elle snarled.
 
"Hey, hey, c'mon, trust me." He approached the agitated woman. "We'll get through this."
 
"Prepare for specimen transport," a voice popped in Joshua's ear.
 
“Rest and Relaxation”
 
Joshua began to find Elle's pen to be more and more welcoming as they mingled. She sat against the wall with him, directly facing him. The large tube-like appendages on her back didn't allow her the luxury of sitting as he would. Their hands gently played with one another while they relaxed there, enjoying the companionship.
 
"There's talk of your first assignment in a month, Elle," Joshua said calmly.
 
Elle did not reply, neither did she protest what he said.
 
"Some outpost on some backwoods planet got raided and they want it back."
 
"I do not want to go," she quietly said.
 
"I know." He sighed looked down at their hands. "I'll be with you every step of the way."
 
"I do not want you there, either."
 
A small smile formed on Joshua's face. "Thanks, but there's nothing else we can do, right?"
 
Elle again, did not respond. She had given up the idea of escape. It was a beautiful fantasy surrounded on all sides by impossible odds. All she could hope for now is that she remained with her partner, Joshua. Though, even that started to waver. At any moment he could be torn away from her side. He was still under the controlling grasp of the other humans.
 
"Every step."
 
Joshua kissed Elle. "Every step."
 
“Love and Devotion”
 
"We'll be keeping radio contact to a minimum. That shouldn't be a problem with your pet," a suited figure told Joshua. He was a major or something, the marine never paid attention to ranks, despite his current line of work.
 
"Isolated location. Roughly ten hostiles, according to infrared scanners. One main entrance. Radio silence. I think that covers it," Joshua replied. He steadied himself as the floor underneath him lurched up. Space travel was never fun.
 
"All you need to do is make sure your thing is up front and it should do the rest."
 
"Yeah, got it."
 
"Excuse me?"
 
"Yes, Sir," giving a half-hearted salute that might as well had been a middle finger.
 
"Good. Inform the creature. We're twenty four hours out, so get your shit together."
 
Major Dick, as Joshua called him silently, nodded then disappeared through another door. Josh instantly let out an exasperated sigh. Standing up for an hour of repetitive briefing all but killed him. He was ready to collapse into his bed, though another, more comfortable option presented itself. Fortunately he was on his way there now.
 
The transport ship Joshua was on was far simpler than the one he worked on regularly. It was far smaller, for one, and was separated into only two floors with very few tunnels. There was an upper deck area for crew, and a lower area purely for cargo. Currently it was precious cargo, as it held Elle's small mobile pen.
 
There weren't many crew members to speak of, so the upper floor he was on was fairly barren. In fact, as far as Joshua had seen, there were only four, including him. Perfect for Joshua. He left the briefing area he was in and wandered down into the depths. It took a few unsure guesses and wrong turns before he managed to find a ladder down. Maybe he should have paid more attention to the express tour he was given.
 
A constricting humidity descended upon Joshua as he stepped off the ladder into the cargo bay. The dim lighting came to life upon the marine's approach, illuminating the organized mess of boxes and containers. He knew that Elle would have to be somewhere near the loading ramp for convenience sake, so he began to navigate around the miscellaneous metallic boxes towards her.
 
"Elle?" Joshua called out, nearly stumbling over some misplaced boxes. "Elle?" he repeated. A knocking caught his attention, prompting him to move towards the noise with a growing smile.
 
Elle's transportation pen came into view, obscured by more stacked containers. The knocking grew in intensity on his approach. He rounded the cage to see Elle pressed up against the glass, an improved grin on her face. She was really getting the hang of it. "My Joshua," she cooed. "I am happy you are here."
 
Joshua made sure to familiarize himself beforehand with this kind of cage, and started to mess with its controls. "Should you be doing that?" Elle asked, a small waver to her voice.
 
"They gave me my own quarters, but I'd rather be here in this cell with you." The door popped open and he stepped inside. "They're about the same size anyway."
 
Joshua produced a few protein bars from this trouser leg pocket. "I swiped these out of the cafeteria. Thought you might like something other than that meat paste they feed you. Hmm, 'banana and beef'... Guess it's not that much better. Who thinks up these combinations?"
 
"Anything different is good." Joshua pocketed the bars and smirked. “However, I hunger for something more filling.”
 
“You’re not going to eat me, are you?” Josh asked, half-jokingly.
 
“Well, I am feeling rather ravenous right now,” she replied, stroking his chest with her long fingers.
 
Immediately they pushed against one another and shared a calming hug. Despite how many times they had embraced over the past few months, it never lost its lustre. With their potentially lethal mission approaching, they took all the time they could to be with one another.
 
"Was I gone too long?" Joshua asked as they slid down to the floor.
 
Elle gave him a peck on the cheek with her inner maw, "Any moment spent away from you is too long."


"We've got twenty-four hours until we reach the planet, then we'll be flown down in a shuttle to avoid possible detection. No big dropship for this mission. Stealth is key. I'm just hoping they've at least got the tools needed to get that bomb off. Once that's sorted, we'll hijack a ship and be on our merry way. Space is a big place and the ship might not have enough power reserves to get us very far. We'll probably be lucky to reach the next planet in the solar system."
 
"You do not sound hopeful our escape will work, Joshua."
 
"Once the Company knows we're gone, it won't take them long to track us down. We'll need the luck of a thousand Irishmen on our side."
 
"I do not understand."
 
"Dumb joke. Forget it."
 
"I do not think this talk is necessary," Elle forced her hand down into Joshua's pants, "is it?"
 
"Ah, no," he moaned. "It isn't." He similarly forged downwards and poked at her clitoris, causing Elle to flinch with pleasure. "Be careful with these pants, it'll be hard to get another pair," he whispered.
 
"All the better," she replied. "Though, maybe you would like to show me how to remove them?" Joshua tittered at the thought. Elle was becoming livelier with each passing day. He undid his button and zipper slowly, as if he were actually showing the alien how to remove them. He peeled the fabric away to reveal his underwear, with a visible bulge pushing against it. "I believe I understand this part." Her sharp finger hooked the elastic, nudging against his penis, then pulled back to reveal her prize. Elle rattled with gratification.
 
Joshua was almost disappointed that he didn't have anything to remove from his large female. Undressing was one of his favourite parts. He pushed that thought aside and teased a digit against her entrance, nudging the folds and taking up the moisture that began to trickle out. Another finger moved into position to prod against her, gently pushing between her folds and then rescinding. "Stop," Elle pushed her hips against his hand, "your game is maddening."
 
"C'mon, let's make this last, we've got time." He beckoned Elle over, who straddled his hips and pressed down on his erection. His hands danced along her hard body while he looked up at her. "Just so you know, this is the longest relationship I've ever had with a girl before," he said, beaming. "Easily the best, too."
 
Elle was more than happy to be considered a normal female in Joshua's eyes. She couldn't comment on the latter half of his compliments, since he was her first in just about every way. "I feel so honoured. I wonder what sets me apart from the others." Her hands ran through his hair, one of the more interesting human features.
 
"Maybe it's your smile," he teased. Joshua shifted underneath her, sliding his cock against her lips. His hands came up her navel and cupped her rounded breasts.
 
"Your smile is equally as pleasant," Elle said, craning down for a kiss. She slipped in her second maw into his mouth briefly, tugging gently on his tongue. "As is the rest of you." She ground against him, careful not to put the entirety of her weight on him. "I am glad we could share this time together, as one."
 
"A couple, partners." Joshua bent forward, licking Elle's belly. He found no button to focus on, but she was reacting to his licking well regardless. She caressed his neck, silently encouraging him. "Not married, but we'll get there." He reached around her to grab at her rear. Elle might look cute in a wedding gown, he thought.
 
"Married?" Elle asked in-between Josh's tickling licks.
 
"Two people promise to stay together forever." The concept was exactly what Elle wanted. To stay together with the one man she loved, no matter the consequences.
 
She pulled Joshua away from her navel. "I promise. As for you?" Her tone bordered on serious.
 
The question was sudden for Joshua. As much as he told himself many times before that he wouldn't be tied down, he had no qualms with the prospect. "I promise." He felt silly saying that in their current position, though he really meant it.
 
"Then it is done, we are ‘married’." She cradled his head and forced him back to her tummy. "Forever. Yes."
 
"It takes a little more than that, but sure," Joshua laughed.
 
"No matter." Elle released her grasp on the human. "It is enough that we are together." She thrust against him again, causing him to gasp. "Forever." The alien lifted back up and started to prepare his erection to glide into her.
 
"Wait, let's try something new." Joshua rubbed her thighs. "You might like it."
 
Elle hesitated for a moment, but relented. "New."
 
Joshua moved out from under her and gently guided her into a different position. She braced herself on the wall while he slipped in behind her. It was a new view for him. Her back didn't arch out smoothly like other girls, mostly due to her tubes. Curiosity got the better of him and he grasped at one gently. They were more rubbery than he was expecting. "Is that alright?" He gave a small squeeze, causing Elle to shiver.
 
"Yes," she replied.
 
Happy with her response, he moved into position. Grasping his dick, he rubbed it against Elle's entrance before moving upwards and against her anus. She recoiled in surprise at first. That wasn't a mating hole, she knew that much. "Are you certain?" she asked, easing back against the tip of his cock. Elle looked at Joshua, who gave a reassuring nod and a pat on the butt. He pushed forward, plunging straight into her asshole. Elle's sphincter reacted as his erection penetrated her anus, gripping it tightly.
 
The alien girl faltered for a moment with a struggled growl, the bizarre sensation overcoming her. "Are you alright?" Josh asked, concerned.
 
"Yes. Yes. Proceed," she shakily said. Her human softly thrust forward, stretching out her virgin hole. It wasn't painful, but there was a vague uncomfortable feeling that came with every hump. The intense heat that invaded her insides started to become pleasurable as it spread through her, rubbing her walls. Her anus continued to push back uncontrollably, relaxing a little more each time until Joshua could find a steady pace.
 
Interested in seeing her reaction, he pulled back on the tube he massaged. Elle shuddered again. He grabbed another and pulled again, receiving the same result. He took up the strange bits of flesh in both hands, pulling back with every thrust forward. A cute squeak came out of the girl, much to his surprise and delight. The structures on her back were more sensitive than she anticipated.
 
Joshua's hot member continued to move in and out of Elle's asshole. "Faster?" He made sure she was comfortable before continuing. The creature wrapped her tail around one of his arms, hugging tightly. She gave a nod and the man increased his thrusts. His hips slapped against her buttocks, bringing back the familiar sound of their lovemaking. Elle began to enjoy this odd sensation as it pressed forward into her. Being able to grasp onto the girl's convenient handles made his plowing all the quicker.
 
"Is this," Elle groaned, "normal for mating?"
 
"Not," Joshua exhaled, "really." He gasped some more, "Want to stop?"
 
"No. Not at all." She squeezed his arm tightly with her spiny tail.
 
"I don't think I've ever," he gave a few vigorous thrusts, "told you I love you."
 
"What is 'love', Joshua?" Elle asked. Joshua slowed his movements to a halt.
 
"It's hard to explain. It's like a feeling you get when you're with someone special to you." He rubbed the length of her tail lovingly.
 
"Like how I feel about you now. I think that would be called ‘love’."
 
"Heh, yeah, I think it might."
 
"And Joshua feels the same way with me?" She looked back at him. Her smooth dome, despite lacking features, looked concerned.
 
"I actually do." Joshua nuzzled her tail, brushing his lips against it. "I love you, Elle." He gave the tail a small kiss.
 
"Then," Elle reached back with one hand, pulling on her asscheek, "love me."
 
The man braced himself again and pounded away at his eager mate. Even though Joshua himself wanted their time to last, he couldn't help the building pressure inside of him. Elle had worked out how to flex her sphincter around his cock. It was a weak motion, but the added sensation and the realization that his female was trying to pleasure him more just piled on the arousal.
 
The creature's legs wrapped his waist, nudging him forward with his frantic mating. The world around them simply disappeared. Any worries they had were lost to raw bliss of their connection. Elle let out more strained squeaks that gave way to ravenous hisses. Her body wriggled in restlessness, unable to deal with the heat that pulsed through her body. Joshua slipped into a mindless thrust forward and back, rocking the couple with a brutal rapture.
 
Joshua's orgasm hit him suddenly, but the intensity of it didn't slow him down. What did, however, was the pair of legs that forced him balls deep into Elle's anus. She felt his peak coming and was determined to take up all of his ejaculate. A shriek pierced the air. Elle wasn't ready for the extreme heat that fired into her. Strands of semen pooled in her bowels, dripping down from the sides of her rectum and settling in. She nearly faltered again as Joshua continued to hammer away at her, stirring up her insides with wild abandon. Although he was spent, his body didn't know it.
 
The crazed stimulation of her anus and the puddle of fire that sloshed about inside her pushed Elle into a shuddering orgasm. Her hands scratched at the wall while her tail clutched desperately to Joshua's arm. She might've have tried to pull him in closer with her legs were it physically possible. A small spray of her liquids squirted out of her cunt, followed by a small stream of pleasure down her thigh. The message finally reached the human and his body came to a reluctant stop. His muscles ached from the experience, though he couldn't feel their pleas to stop.
 
“You and Me”
 
It was a difficult position to get into, though Joshua managed snuggle up against Elle's back as they lay on the floor. His cock was still deep inside her, keeping the heat they shared alive. The girl's tail lazily draped over his body comfortably. "I love you," he hummed into her.
 
Elle's tail rubbed against him and she grasped his hand that lay on her belly. "I love you," she replied exactly.
 
Reality washed back into Joshua's mind. The mission. He gave it lots of thought before the day came and there seemed no way out of it. No way out of this life. No way out of Elle's imprisonment. Not without help. He didn't think he had a chance in hell to pull it off, but after all they had been through, he had to try something. He had to consort with the enemy. Though not in the way he had done with his woman, or wife, he supposed.
 
"Elle, I have to tell you something," Joshua said.
 
"Then speak, my love."
 
"These guys, the extremists. I think--" he got excited at the idea, despite its impossibility.
 
"Yes?"
 
"I think they could help us get away," he hugged her, "away from all this."
 
"Are you certain?" She perked up.
 
"It's a long shot, but they might be willing to get us out if we help them."
 
Elle laid back down. "Help them kill?"
 
"No, no, just provide them some obsolete information. Maybe scare a few, but no killing." If Elle's freedom was in the deal, he might have jumped on the order to kill. "Anything for you, Elle."
 
The girl let out a long hum. "We would be leaving then. On a ship."
 
"Yeah, away from everything. There has to be a place the Company doesn't know about. Or something. We have to try, right?"
 
"I do not know what we can provide."
 
"I know how this place works, sort of. I've sat in the big chair with the Director, the big boss. I'm sure I could give them anything and they'd bite."
 
"And if they discover your deception?"
 
"We'll be long gone before then." He gave another hug.
 
"Joshua," Elle began.
 
"Yeah?"
 
"I would be happy to be with you on this journey. I do not want you harmed. If it is dangerous to help the others, we will have to comply."
 
"Yeah," Joshua replied quietly.
 
"I will fight their battles, only for you. For us." She rubbed his hand. "Forever."
 
"Forever." Joshua smiled. He didn't know such a simple word could bring him that kind of happiness. There was no way he was going to let it go to waste. Not without a fight. He snuggled back into the comfort of his mate and closed his eyes. All that stuff could be worried about later. For now, it was just him and Elle, how it should be.
 
“Up and Coming”
 
"This is the closest you can get us?" Joshua yelled into his headset. Violent wind billowed against him constantly, nearly toppling him over. Elle stood nearby stoically, keeping an 'eye' on her partner and the pilot.
 
"Closest we planned to get. You don't like it, you sit there and wait for the thing to do the rest.”
 
"Shit."
 
“We’ll be monitoring your situation from orbit, so maintain radio silence for the time being. If you run into any serious trouble, contact the ship and wait for an extraction team to arrive. Oh, and if the xeno so much as farts without permission, make the call and that bomb around its neck will teach it some manners. Remember, you’ve got six hours to complete the objective so keep your privates private, Private. Over and out."
 
Joshua looked around at the planet before him. A rocky hell was his first description, to which he altered into mountainous, rocky hell. The planet itself had been brutally smashed into impossibly tall towers of stone. The horizon, and by extension the setting sun, were completely blotted out by the peaks of rock and snow, darkening the mountainside he was on. "The planet must have been bombarded pretty badly by asteroids. There isn't a level surface anywhere!" He looked over at Elle, who was silently looking out over the environment. A metal collar clamped firmly around her neck.
 
The only way was up, so Joshua went up. He slung his weapon to his back, gave the sidearm in his holster a tap to confirm its presence, and began the unsteady ascent to his target. Elle effortlessly walked alongside him, the wind nor the incline affecting her. They were about a third of a kilometre out, he figured, he would just have to suck it up and keep marching on. More of the environment presented itself as they moved up, and the wind settled to an aggressive breeze. Trickles of sunlight painted the way up in a lavish gold.
 
"You see that?" Joshua said over the wind, pointing up. A second later he was yanked up, his mind panicked at the thought of sudden freefall, but soon found himself in delicate, sheltering arms.
 
"I do see it," Elle replied, hefting up Joshua. She didn't stop her steady pace.
 
"Ahem, well, uh," he was unsure how to feel being carried like a bride, "this is new."
 
"Do you not like it? Shall I put you back down?" The girl put on a sly smile. Joshua looked up at Elle. He could feel his masculinity melting away by the second.
 
"Uh, it's not that I don't like it, but--" He wiggled in her arms. "It's not very manly for a guy to be picked up by his girlfriend," he remembered their small ceremony, "sorry, wife."
 
"I do not mean to offend, but I do not think you can carry me."
 
"Well, maybe I could go on your back?" Joshua couldn't imagine a stranger sight and wasn't sure if that was even a good idea. Elle had no reservations about the plan and got to work in putting her partner in place. The man found himself riding his xenomorph steed, snuggled between the appendages on her back. "This is just like riding a horse. Sort of." He would have scratched his head in bewilderment if he could.
 
"The light."
 
Joshua pried his eyes away from Elle and their curious positioning. "Oh yeah, the light. The sun's a supergiant, giving it that gold tinge."
 
"Beautiful."
 
"No, that's you. This place is just pretty." Even on the approach to death, Joshua had time to be a charmer.
 
"Tell me, my love. Why do we hunt those up there?" Elle crunched snow underfoot. She slowed down to feel the new sensation of this material.
 
"They call this place Gamma Sigma." He looked around at the terrible terrain and climate from atop Elle, unsure why anyone would bother giving it a name. Even an automatically assigned one. "It's chock full of materials that everyone wants to get their hands on."
 
"Many materials brings much wealth. Simple." Elle was sheltered, but she already knew how the galaxy worked.
 
"Yeah, I bet the guys up there want that, too. Among other things. Can't say for sure, but I'll bet they have nasty stuff on that base." He stretched out, enjoying his alien ride. "I'm not a problem, am I?"
 
"Not at all, my love." She took a moment to look back at him before returning to her climb. "Do you believe they have the freedom we seek?"
 
Joshua stifled a sigh, he didn't want to cast any doubts and ruin her hopes of escape. "I know they at least have a few ships up there. A juicy bit of info and some stern words might be our ticket on it."
 
"And if they have no ship to spare?"
 
"We'll give a few more stern words and give them a swift kick." Elle had little expectations for proper escape, though she still loved her human's aspirations. The chances were non-existent and yet he still kept a strong will, focused intensely on fleeing. Perhaps, she reasoned, that would be enough for it to come to fruition. "At the very least, we'll get this thing off'a you." Strange, she had all but forgotten about the bomb's presence.
 
"Hey, hey, look," Joshua spoke excitedly. Only a small part of his mind realized how childish he seemed at that moment, riding his mate and vying for her attention. More of the mountains gave way to a wall that seemed to stretch into infinity. For a brief moment it looked to Elle as though another planet were about the graze the surface, but her senses quickly corrected her. It was another massive mountain, dominating the rest of the skyline and the surface below it.
 
The spectacle was enough to cause the alien to stop her ascent. Joshua let out a prolonged whistle. "They call it the Millennium Mountain. I talked to a miner who said it'd take a thousand years to climb to the top. Not that you'd want to."
 
"It is a beautiful planet," Elle said near inaudibly. "A shame we couldn't live here." Her tone reflected her sadness inadvertently. That disappointment was overwritten, now happy that she was able to convey emotion in her voice. She bent her head back, trying and failing to find the top. Small wasn't enough to describe how utterly microscopic either of them felt at that moment. They nearly forgot why they were there in the first place.
 
"I'm sure we'll find a planet to call our own, more splendid than this one. One with some better weather, too."
 
"I care not where we live, as long as we're together," Elle replied. She started walking again with determination. They would see this through and secure their home. Even if it did require some 'swift kicks' as Joshua had put it. They would be insignificant in the long term. Small bumps in the road, as Joshua had once said.
 
A new sound permeated the wind. Elle stopped instantly and listened closely, Joshua noticed her stillness and readied himself. "There is someone here," the girl said, trying to keep a steady balance between audible and quiet.
 
"Where?" Joshua rapidly checked the area around them, expecting to see a gun barrel sizing up both him and Elle.
 
Elle silently pointed up the mountain. "I can hear its heartbeat, its heavy breathing. It hasn't detected us yet." The man tapped her shoulder and pointed forward along with her. She started to creep up the slope, ready to pounce on anything that reared its head. A voice faded in over the rowdy wind. Unintelligible to Joshua, but it was there.
 
Natural craggy rocks gave way to smooth masonry as they moved upwards. The man knew they were stepping onto enemy territory and thought up some quick prayers as a result. Elle reached an unnatural flat surface and quickly ducked back down. "One," she said to Joshua. He nodded in response and tapped again. The alien rounded the small plateau and peeked at the potential hostile once more. Joshua did the same. The figure was suited up in a mining outfit, a bulky padded thing made mostly for impact softening and protecting against the weather.
 
One final tap on Elle's shoulder sealed the figure's fate. Faster than Joshua could even process it, the person was underneath the creature, her tail wrapped firmly around their windpipe. Joshua didn't even see the hostile's helmet fly off. He whispered a quick, "Thank you," to Elle while climbing off of her and ripped off the downed person's headset, tossing it off into the depths below. The still masked guard flailed its arms and gave a few panicked gurgles. A quick jab to the head with the butt of Joshua's rifle knocked out the poor extremist cold, or at least Josh hoped he was unconscious and not dead.
 
With that small obstacle out of the way, Joshua noticed the very obvious facility jutting out of the mountainside. They had scaled the thing faster than he expected. "Good work, beautiful" he congratulated Elle. She gave a nod to his praise. "Now let's see here," Joshua crouched next to their new friend, "got any goodies?" He rummaged through the extremist's clothing. Money, snacks, a watch. "Ah, keys." He pocketed the jangly bits of metal. Next came their gun. What ammo they had was snatched by Joshua. Then the rifle went careening down into the abyss, after the headset.
 
"Will he be alright?" Elle nodded her head towards the limp, unconscious person.
 
"If he doesn't have a haemorrhage, he'll wake up in a while wondering what the hell happened." Joshua shrugged. "We better get going before his buddies start asking questions. Hear anyone else?"
 
The alien girl turned around, standing completely at attention. Joshua was slightly awed when he was reminded how truly huge his partner was. She didn't really need him at all. "No."
 
"Good. Let's secure the outside before heading in." Elle settled back down. Joshua climbed back on top of her without a second thought. He looked over their trail, seeing a close to sheer drop into a dark chasm. Josh's heart leapt, his free arm wrapping firmly around his partner's chest in fright while his head snapped forward. "Is this a bad time to tell you I'm afraid of heights?" He braved another look. "Fuck."
 
Elle gave a croaking laugh, she hadn't quite gotten the hang of that. "Worry not, my love. I won't let you fall." Her tail worked its way up the man's leg and gave a firm tug.
 
"Just don't look down. Jesus." His palms grew sweaty despite the chill.
 
"What is Jee-sus?"
 
"Someone I hope is watching over us right now." Joshua gathered his courage and relaxed himself with a deep breath. A little-- well, big, fall wasn't going to get to him.
 
"We'll get a good view of the area from the roof." The alien obediently moved onto the rocks that surrounded the building and plopped on top of the structure. A few more of the circular guard posts were visible, all bearing only one person. This place wasn't nearly as populated as Joshua thought, or perhaps no one wanted to be the lookout on this windy peak.
 
"There," Elle spoke. She pointed out a broken and charred web of rivets and metal that made a crude landing pad not far from their position. It had clearly seen better days but it was still holding up, mostly. On top of that mess was a blocky vehicle that seemed intact. A respectably-sized transport ship made purely for moving people about. Probably the horse the extremists rode in on, Joshua figured. "Will that vessel suffice?" A cheer worked its way into her voice.
 
Joshua was similarly excited. "Yeah, yeah! It definitely would." He tried to keep himself from shouting in joy. The odds were turning slightly in their favour. Now all they needed was to pop the collar off of Elle and everything would be hunky dory. Possibly. There was always the chance that the people inside weren't very reasonable or didn't care what the two had to offer. But, if that was the case, then they'd at least report a job well done to the company. Forget about the whole incident, then formulate a better escape later on.
 
"C'mon, let's round up the rest of them and head on in." Elle needed no confirmation from Joshua, she sprang into action. Joshua had to actively hold onto the alien girl to keep himself steady. Elle's movements, while still precise and thought out, sped up at the slightest taste of freedom to the point where Josh started to worry for the safety of the others. Nothing would stop her now. It almost felt like an unfair battle, having this engineered machine of combat, his wife, descending upon the guards below.
 
The rest of the guards fell just as easily as the first. Either these extremists got through their assault with extreme luck or the battle took a lot out of them. A few managed to glance a hit against Elle's armoured hide, though most were too shocked or frightened once they saw her blank visage and ferocious maw stare back at them. Radio silence would rouse suspicions eventually, thus, the two moved back around to the roof and closed in on the landing pad.
 
Joshua and Elle looked over the edge. Before wincing, the man noticed the building entrance had the added protection of two guards. The path to and from the pad was isolated from the rest of the posts, possibly making it a better entrance than the front door. As guards would naturally do during their boring shift, they were loudly talking to one another.
 
"Hey, you think after this I could afford one of those--"
 
Joshua carefully dismounted Elle.
 
"Shut up, man. I don't want to hear what bullshit you're going to buy. Again. For the hundredth fucking time."
 
The marine and his creature scooted up to the edge.
 
"Yeah, well what are you going to do once the job's over?"
 
"Shit, these jobs are never over. Not for Rene or his psycho-boy. Truth is, I just want to cash in my chips and get away from here as soon as fucking possible.” He turned around to face his friend. “Look, let’s--" But instead of seeing his colleague standing there, he saw Joshua’s shit-eating grin before receiving a swift punch to the jaw, then another gun stock tap to the head for good measure.
 
Josh checked on Elle, who was still above him. She held a limp human, with one deadly hand wrapped around his throat. "He alive?" Joshua asked.
 
"He’ll live." The body fell from her grasp, slamming to the floor next to Joshua. He silently added a 'hopefully' to her sentence. As with the others, their equipment was tossed and quickly claimed by the depths below.
 
"Ladies first," Joshua said with a gesture towards the door. Elle took a step forward before being cut off by the human. "Is what I would usually say, but it's too dangerous for that." She was delighted and amused that such a soft fleshy thing would worry about her. Regular firearms would do little to harm her, she was well aware of that by this point.
 
The alien ran the backside of a claw against Joshua's cheek. "It is too dangerous for a precious being, my love." The man's heart fluttered a moment and was immediately embarrassed by that fact. Elle could pick up on the irregularity of his heartbeat, but held back on making any comments, merely enjoying his reaction.
 
"Well, uh, at least let me get the door." He gave the double door entrance an experimental nudge. Locked. Fortunately he had amassed a hefty set of keys and cards for this occasion. A few door jiggles and key attempts later, the doors swung open and the pair slunk inside, weapons at the ready. The man was happy to walk away from the drop into nothing and onto level ground. The wind howled through the tunnel they entered, a generic passageway that broke off into two paths. Joshua did his homework and knew the layout. Not by heart, but he could bumble through it relatively safely if needed. He did remember, at the very least, that any command for this place was located somewhere near telecommunications.
 
“Fear and Intimidation”
 
Like all other corporate buildings from Weyland-Yutani, this one was littered with helpful arrows for navigating. The pair took a left at the split, heading down towards mining operations. Joshua might have said it was too quiet were it not for the lack of guards up front. The halls lacked any aggressive gun-wielding lunatics, or any lunatics, period. All the better for himself and Elle, he figured. It was easier to intimidate a smaller group of people rather than an entire army. Though, intimidating people who would willingly attack a giant corporation known for their less than ethical practices might not be at all possible.
 
"I smell something on the air." Elle pulled back in disgust. "Over there." She pointed at a small storage room off to the side of the hallway. Joshua approached the unassuming room and was hit with an awful repugnance that was poorly masked with industrial cleaner. A small peek inside revealed quite a few humanoid shapes wrapped up in a flimsy, partially transparent plastic, piled on top of one another and shoved into any spot of the room where there was space. Some of them were leaking a dark red ooze that dribbled onto the floor in black pools.
 
"We found the morgue," Joshua said with a gag. He had seen dead bodies before, it was no big deal, but the amassed pile of corpses and the stench was enough to make him slightly ill. "I’m seriously giving second thoughts to our no-kill policy right about now." He closed the door and returned to Elle's side with a visible scowl. The girl looked down at her partner. If needed, she knew she would have to kill others to spare Joshua a similar fate. Bumps in the road.
 
Corner after corner, hallway after hallway, the couple made their way through the facility, closing in on what could have been freedom or a finished job. Signs pointing to telecommunications proper started to pepper the ever changing list of directions that the walls bore. "Now," Joshua began, "as much as I'd like to make everyone jealous with my girl," he peered around another corner, "I'm going to need you to hang back when I meet this these guys, Elle."
 
"They may harm you." The alien woman straightened her posture to appear more imposing. "I cannot allow that."
 
"They're not going to harm me. Not right off the bat." Joshua looked from side to side, assuring they weren't being watched. He rubbed her arm with a free hand. "Have you seen the situation these guys are in? They're going to want any shred of info from me to get an advantage on a potential sweep-up crew." Elle tilted her head apprehensively, not entirely certain about that claim. "And hey, if they do hurt me, you can always barge in and save the day." He gave her arm a small squeeze. "I'll be alright."
 
Elle nodded reluctantly. As with everything else, she knew that was really the only way this could play out. Being so close to their goal made her more than restless, and she had to restrain herself from barging into the leader's hideout and begin screaming out demands. That would only ruin all they had worked for. "I will be observing," she replied directly.
 
"Great. Telecomms is down there." Joshua pointed down towards another set of doors. "I'll be quick and we can get out of here. Just you and me."
 
"Just you and me."
 
The human walked towards the doorway. He snapped his fingers and pointed up. Elle understood the gesture and scaled the walls, settling on the ceiling quietly, out of sight. There wasn't anything she could do except wait for the call.
 
Joshua slung his rifle across his back. He took a moment to calm his senses and give a quick prayer. Just walk in, be polite, present the terms, and get out. The marine repeated this to himself before turning the knob on the door and stepping into the pit of death. He wasn't sure what to expect. The door revealed a small group of men sitting around a table, wasting away the time with beverages and a card game. All but one of them were wearing the mining rigs, instead sporting a more military-grade set of armour padding. Probably the leader.
 
The room itself was smaller than expected, but still contained an array of computers and technology. Several bullet holes riddled the walls, with their own dried bloodstains to match. It appeared only one light survived whatever massacre had occurred here, mostly illuminating the table and leaving the rest of the room somewhat obscured by darkness. Patches of an aqua blue pierced the dark, given off by the glow of computer screens.
 
"Who the fuck?!" one of the men shouted, already readying a sidearm. The rest turned to look at the intruder, each one sprang into action to point their own weapons at him. The assumed leader figure didn't even raise an eyebrow. He merely continued spinning a combat knife effortlessly in his fingers whilst puffing on a comically-sized cigar.
 
"Woah! Hey there!" Joshua raised his arms. "Defector here! Ease up on the guns."
 
"I told you that was a ship," another person grumbled, getting up from his chair. The rest started to circle around Joshua, scrutinizing him with angry eyes. It wasn't exactly the best start to this conversation, but not entirely unpredicted. The leader looked up at Joshua from his seat.
 
"Look--" a gun barrel was forced against Joshua's neck, "I've got info you guys might want, about how to put Weyland-Yutani down for good."
 
A scrawny young man no older than twenty began his interrogation.
 
"How the ffffuck did you get in here, man?"
 
"I came in through the front door."
 
"What did you do to the guys outside, asshole?" He pushed the barrel against Joshua to emphasize his question.
 
"Relax, they're alive, but they'll wake up with a splitting headache. Hey, big guy, mind telling your dog here to back off here?"
 
The bearded, armoured person just stared. He looked older than Joshua, by a few good years - decades even. Sunken eyes stared back at the marine, just below them a large nose and bulbous lips. His rotundness was apparent from the awkward plates of armour that jutted out. This was definitely the alpha male of the group.
 
"Weyland-Yutani sent you here to negotiate, I suppose? A waste of a trip, I'm afraid, Company Man. I've got nothing to say to you, except to leave now before I send you back with half a head."
 
"Can't do that. I'm not with the Company anymore, as I said before. I'm just passing through and in need your help."
 
The fat, bearded man caught the hilt of the large knife he was spinning and slammed the tip of it into the table. "You take me for a fool? Do you think I don't see what you're up to? You come in here all alone and unarmed, hoping I'll be merciful and listen to your bullshit? You made the last mistake of your life, Company Man."
 
"Well, you are half-right: I did hope you'd listen to what I had to say... but I'm not alone."
 
The young man began to panic. "Dad, it's a ffffucking ambush! We should kill this cocksucker right now!"
 
"Normally, I'd tell my hot-blooded son, Jeb, to calm down before he kills someone... again... but it would seem he's quite right to be jumpy this time. Tell me, Company Man, how many of you are here?" the boss asked.
 
"One other, and you really don't want to meet them. Not like this." He whistled.
 
"You'll need to do better than that if that was meant to intimidate me. I've seen far too many horrors in this galaxy to be so easily frightened."
 
"You ain't seen nothing yet."
 
The leader let out a hearty laugh.
 
"You've got balls, Company Man, I'll give you that. Jebidiah, lower your weapon. This man is obviously in no position to start a war, so I'll indulge his proposal. For now." The leader pulled out the blade from the table and sheathed it in the scabbard on his back.
 
The young man, Jeb, backed away from Joshua's throat, his gun still trained on the marine. Some of the group dispersed from Joshua and moved to mess about with the equipment in the room frantically. They tended to various computers that Josh wouldn't know a thing about. If he had to hazard a guess, they were attempting to either check on the other guards or communicate with something else.
 
"Alright, mind if we get down to brass tacks?" The marine eyed Jeb before looking back at the leader.
 
"By all means." A large, jolly smile was already plastered on the leader's face. He kicked out a chair towards Joshua. Josh sat down at the table, with Jeb and a few others right next to him, ready to attack at a moment's notice. "Forgive my lack of manners. My name is Rene Cortez. And what might your name be?"
 
"Dad, we don't even know this guy, don't give him sssshit."
 
"Jeb, do you really think they don't already know who I am?" The large man sighed and shook his head.
 
"Formerly, Private Joshua Briggs."
 
"Joshua Briggs, what brings you to our little operation?" Rene took out a pistol and placed it on the table, next to his playing cards.
 
"At first it was a job to exterminate the lot of you, but now I'm hoping to cut a deal with you."
 
Rene broke into another laugh that boomed throughout the complex. "A deal? Do tell, do tell!"
 
"I'm just here for two things, and in return, you get some juicy intel that could pull you out of this mess."
 
Rene stroked his bushy, black beard. "Must be quite the intel if you assume we don’t already know everything there is to know about the Company. I'm listening."
 
"First, I need you to remove an explosive collar."
 
Rene looked over at his compatriots as they worked. "I assume that's for the shy one outside."
 
"Yeah, we'll get to that in a bit. Secondly, I'd like a ship capable of intergalactic travel." A few of the other extremists glanced over at Joshua when he said that; some started laughing at his ridiculous demand.
 
"Just ffffucking shoot him now, Dad!" Jeb rushed to his father's side, worriedly. He was far lankier and had a real unpredictability to his movements. Messy, red hair sat atop his head along with eyes that looked like they’ve never blinked, giving him a far less stable appearance than his father. "He doesn't have anything." He jabbed a gun towards Joshua.
 
Rene ignored his child.
 
"Come on, Dad! You really think he'll give us anything we don't already know? This is just some bullshit diversion so the rest of his team can dig themselves in wipe us out!" So they really were in a bad position, Joshua mused.
 
"I must apologize for my son. Sometimes his paranoia gets the better of him." Rene shooed Jeb away from his side. "I would have preferred not to have killed people during our stay here, but boys will be boys, am I right?"
 
"Yes, of course." Joshua put on a cheeky smile and looked at the son, who responded with a threatening lunge.
 
"Now, Joshua, this collar business is no issue. We will remove it, you provide information. Simple," Rene said with a shrug. "You don't, we’ll fit you with a bomb and repaint the place with your blood."
 
That would probably be the best offer Joshua would get. Though he doubted the simplicity of their transaction, he agreed to it. "Sure, you've got a deal. I'd shake your hand but I think the others are looking for a reason to shoot me." Rene nodded and took a puff of his cigar.
 
"Now, of course, we are not miracle workers, Mr. Briggs. We will need to see your friend to help." Rene then turned back to his underlings. "Zeke, come tend to our friend of a friend." A gangly man stopped his work at one of the computer stations and walked up to the table. "Well then?"
 
"You can come out now!" Joshua shouted. A vent cover fell from above, it clattered to the floor, surprising everyone, including Josh. Elle dropped from the newly made hole and landed on her feet with barely a thud. She looked over Joshua, making sure that not even a hair was out of place. "Lower your weapons, boys. This is my friend." The insurgents froze. Rene's visage broke for a moment in bewilderment. This wasn't even close to what he had expected.
 
"Sssshit!" Jeb shouted, stumbling back to the wall behind him. He flailed his weapon about.
 
"She's not gonna hurt ya. Not as long as you don't do anything stupid." Elle tried to maintain a still and relaxed position. She knew the fear she carried, it was natural for her kind, but it also made it hard to appear as non-threatening as possible. Joshua was just happy to see the girl again in this tense situation.
 
"Fuck, Rene, I'm not going near that," Another name named Zeke said. "No fucking way, man!" He shook his head violently.
 
The leader shook off the shock of seeing the bizarre monster and gripped his own weapon tightly. "I imagine your creature is collared for a good reason," his pleasant demeanour was completely gone, "tell me why I should remove the bomb when keeping on would be better for all of us...”
 
"There's nothing stopping her from killing you, even with the bomb still on her. In fact, that's the reason why she was sent here." Joshua leaned back in his chair. "What'cha got here? Ten twenty four caseless? Like spitballs." He knocked on Elle's hardened exoskeleton. "So it plays out like this. You remove the collar, hand over a ship, then you get the info, and we leave, forever."
 
"And if we don't?" Rene grew angrier. The others didn't dare make a move with the galaxy's most notorious beast in the room.
 
"Well, maybe I die, maybe I don't. I do know one thing, you sure as hell won't get a dent on her." He looked up at his partner in admiration who returned the exchange with a smile.
 
"How about, we kill the abomination and torture you just for the fun of it?" The fat boss raised his gun.
 
"If you think you could, go for it. But I wouldn't point that gun at me, unless you want it shoved so far up your ass, you'll be shitting bullets for a week." His smile widened. It was oddly fun having the upper hand in a life or death situation. His alien partner wasn't very amused by his overconfidence but didn't stop him. Most of her attention was focused on the several guns in the room being held by known killers.
 
"You're a cocky motherfucker. I should wipe that shit-eating grin off your face right now." Jeb closed in next to his father as if silently agreeing. "But," he carefully lowered his firearm onto the table, "if what you say is true, we have to take the offer, don't we?" His eyes flicked back to Zeke. "The bomb, Zeke." The spectacled man let out a groan and moved to one side of the room, loudly rummaging about. "This will be done shortly. Then you talk."
 
"Much appreciated." Joshua replied, still pushing his luck with his smug attitude. "Hear that? We're almost done here, Elle." The alien woman nodded silently. The whole situation was somewhat improving.
 
Zeke approached Elle, several tools in-hand. He winced as she bowed to give him better access to the bomb. All of his actions were very careful and deliberate, avoiding making contact with the creature directly. A small cover popped off the collar, which he quickly grabbed and pocketed with a sigh. He nervously changed tools and poked about in the metal band's insides. A few sparks later and the whole thing clicked and slid from Elle's neck, much to her relief. "My thanks, human," she said with earnestness. Her words did nothing for Zeke and he quickly absconded, bomb in-hand, without a reply and a terrified look on his face.
 
Joshua stood up to inspect Elle for any injuries. "You alright?" His fingers ever so gently graced her nape, feeling for any bumps or imperfections in her smooth armour. She moved her head about, enjoying the freedom from the constricting explosive, along with the relief of knowing that she could no longer detonate at a moment's notice.
 
"Far better," Elle replied. She refrained from using her regular affectionate name for Joshua since, although her face didn't show it, she felt the beginnings of embarrassment from her human's worry in this small crowd.
 
"Great, great." Joshua's caressing continued. He leaned closer to her. His voice lowered to a whisper, "We need to get out of here and fast. We made it this far without resorting to murder and I don't want to live my life knowing I gave these assholes the means to murder innocent people. I might not have liked working for them, but I didn't hate them enough to want them dead." Elle had already burned the entire room into her memory. Enemy positions, furniture, computers, lights, vents. It was all there. She would have to think of something.
 
"What do you propose we do, Joshua?" Elle had never tried whispering, making her voice fairly hoarse.
 
"I don't know. And they're getting antsy for information. I don't think I can bullshit my way out of this one."
Elle leaned in closer to Josh. “"There's something you should know, Joshua. I can sense everyone in this room except for that human,” she nodded in Rene’s direction, who had resumed twirling his knife with his fingers at a frightening speed. “It's as if he's a shadow; I feel nothing from him at all."
 
Josh stared at Rene from the corner of his eye. There was certainly something off about him. Better be careful around this guy, he thought to himself.
 
"My friend! We have honoured our side of the bargain, now we expect the intel you promised in return. It had better be worth the price of a starship, otherwise both you and the monster are dead meat," Rene interrupted. Joshua pulled back and plopped back in his chair. The alien girl's posture slowly straightened out, readying herself for combat.
 
"So! Boss guy, you'll be wanting that info now." He didn't shift his focus from Elle.
 
"Yes, that--" Rene started.
 
"That was the deal, ffffucker, now you cough it up or we'll make sure you or the thing don't walk out of here alive," Jeb shouted viciously, sending bits of spit everywhere.
 
"Easy there, you'll have a heart attack, kid," Joshua replied, moving his gaze towards the father and son. "That wasn't the whole deal. We still need a ship. Intergalactic travel too. None of those puny mining transports." Jeb banged on the table while Rene opted for a mean smirk. "Is that a problem?"
 
"Not a problem, but very expensive for info," the chubby leader said. He chewed on his cigar. "Though, I begin to wonder, why bother? Given the creature's foolish reluctance to kill, I would say that gives us an advantage. I have no such reservations about killing. It's how I survived for so long."
 
"Hold on buddy. We're nice people. We saw no need to kill you if you're reasonable."
 
Rene puffed smoke out of his nose. "I don't believe I've ever been called reasonable." The threats were starting to edge back in.
 
"Hey, think of it as a trade for your life. Now, don't take this the wrong way," Joshua chuckled, "but if just me and my friend here got to you, what do you think a whole squad could do?" He knew Elle was worth far more than a squad of marines in a mission like this. Joshua was betting on their ignorance and fear. "Look, all you gotta do now is hand over the codes to the ship and I'll talk. No way can I leave now. I know I can't. But you can't either, not without me." Joshua held his hands up, presenting the room and all its angry terrorists.
 
Rene stiffened. "Jeb." He snapped his fingers. His son practically ripped the small metallic trinket out of his pocket and slid it on the table. Joshua raised from his chair to catch the key early. He took a quick look at it to assure its authenticity, not that he would entirely know how to tell a fake. The marine put it away in one of his pouches and sat down. "There." Rene was at the end of his good will. The commander gave a lethal death stare. "Talk."
 
Improvisation wasn't Josh's strong point, which was a terrible drawback considering his current line of work. The marine pushed his chair back and braced his feet against the table, giving him a very relaxed look. He laid a hand at his thigh, dangerously close to his sidearm. He thought back on all the times he would try to play gunslinger at the shooting range and all the times he was rightfully admonished for it. This was a stupid idea.
 
"One thing, though. You can get," he shoved the table forward as best he could, at the same time he reached for his pistol, "FUCKED!" The hardy surface collided with the father and son. He drew out his gun and aimed at the light above. A bang and sudden darkness meant he was either dying or had actually succeeded. The former seemed far more likely. What a way to go, he thought, that sure was cool.
 
Screaming and panicked firing filled his ears.
 
"What the fuck?!" a voice yelled in front of him.
 
"It's a trap!" someone to his left shouted.
 
"Shoot him!" another screamed.
 
Some vague shapes coloured in a bright artificial blue flickered past his vision. A shame he couldn't see those guys fall.
 
A sudden beam of light made Joshua realize he wasn't dead. Far from it, actually. A heavy force pushed down on his chest as he moved down a hallway. It took him a moment to realize he wasn't the one walking, and another moment to notice he was upside down. Elle held him tightly against her side while she raced along the ceiling, away from the mess that Joshua created. He set aside some time to be happy that he was still alive, along with his girl, before speaking up. "Thanks as usual!" he shouted, on a high of adrenaline.
 
"That was not what I had expected," Elle hissed.
 
"But it worked!" The alien woman slipped around the corner just as the doors behind them burst open with another round of displeased yells and stray bullets. "Better than I expected, really."
 
"And now?"
 
"Now what?"
 
"I knew that fucker couldn't be trusted!" a young, shaky voice barked in the distance.
 
"Doesn't matter, we know where they're heading," a gruff man bellowed. Another bullet whizzed by.
 
Joshua shook his head, the weight of the situation returning to him. "Shit." Elle sped from ceiling, to wall, then down onto the ground, allowing Joshua to reposition himself on her back once more. "Just keep going!" Joshua ordered. The odd galloping couple smashed through several doors and hurtled through the hallways without much of a plan. Elle only focused on avoiding any enemies while Joshua considered the situation. The human found that thinking atop an alien creature while running away from gunfire was less than optimal.
 
Deeper and deeper they made their way through the winding facility. Its outward appearance betrayed the expansive system of tunnels that it hid inside, as it extended farther into the mountain. The interior became cleaner and less abused as Joshua and Elle moved forward. To the untrained eye it could almost seem as though the place was still in working order. Stray smatterings of blood and viscera confirmed that the intruders had made their mark all throughout the installation.
 
An eerie quiet replaced the raucous pursuers. "I hear nothing," Elle said, slowing her pace. Joshua was hoping to say something along those lines in a far cheesier fashion. She was right, though. There was no screaming or the stomp of boots.
 
"They're probably waiting for us. Caging us in. Just goes to show they don't know about a few exits." He gave a few pats on her shoulder, causing Elle to come to a halt. Joshua dismounted the girl and looked about the hallways. Same as all the others. This time he noticed a red pipeline tucked against the ceiling, with a large 'FLAMMABLE' warning imprinted on it.
 
"Will we retreat, then?" Elle asked, getting up from the ground.
 
"No, not this close. We can't back off now." The marine peeked into a nearby room, weapon at the ready. "C'mon," he said, pushing the door open. There was a label to the entrance's side, covered with a sickly dry blood that only revealed part of its name. An office for a now deceased worker, Joshua assumed.
 
"What if they come for us?" Elle asked, ducking under and through the door frame.
 
"I mean, I was hoping you'd hear them coming from a mile away," Joshua replied.
 
The interior of the room was more lavish than the marine had expected. A fancy, black desk littered with office toys sat in the centre of the room, which was tiled in an obsidian black. Behind the desk was a cushioned chair that was surprisingly in good condition, coloured in a bright white that clashed with the rest of the space. Whoever worked here definitely enjoyed their job. For a time.
 
"Why are we here?" Elle asked, examining the strange trinkets in the room. She wasn't exactly sure what purpose the location served.
 
Joshua cleared part of the table with one sweep of an arm and sat on it. "Really, I just want to think for a second." He took a few relaxed breaths. "I don't think we're going to get on-board without some bloodshed." The marine looked at his rifle. "Silly as it is, I still don't like the idea."
 
"Perhaps you should have given them something," the alien girl responded, slightly frustrated.
 
"That's just it, if I did, then I'd be putting people in danger." Joshua shifted his gaze to Elle's face. "I didn't like the Company, but I wouldn't want them dead. You saw what the guys out there did to the workers. They would do worse to actual enemies." He clenched his eyes shut for a brief second. "I'm sorry."
 
Elle approached her partner, pushing her smooth rounded temple against his. "Do not apologize, you have done no wrong." She nuzzled against him. "I could not make such a decision, but, I had hoped to be away from here." The girl increased her gentle nudging.
 
"Yeah, I know. It's gonna be a little longer." He pushed back.
 
"And so, I find myself asking again, what do you propose?" Elle asked.
 
Joshua thought on the question. "Well, like I said, I don't think we're getting on the ship without snuffing out a few guys. I kicked the hornet nest." The man tried to meet Elle's gaze. "Are you really OK with doing this?"
 
"I may not enjoy the concept of extinguishing a life, however, if it is for us, then it is a necessity." Those words comforted Joshua somewhat. A part of him wanted to cheer at what she said, and yet another wanted to scream for getting them into this mess. "While I will trust your word, I do not share your judgment on preference."
 
"Yeah, I guess from your point of view us humans aren't the greatest," Joshua replied sheepishly. "Except for me, I'm hoping."
 
"Except for you."
 
"Alright, alright, let's knock it off and get to work." Joshua gave Elle a small kiss and pulled away, moving over to the other side of the table. "Hopefully this place has something useful." The desk was actually fairly lacking in drawers. The two that it had were only filled with miscellaneous documents, mostly cargo manifests and mining operation reports. Elle didn't know what to look for exactly, so she aimlessly looked around the room and prodded at some of the desk's toys. Her poking led to her pressing a small red button amongst the mess. A glass panel slid out of the top of the desk and lit up.
 
"Oh, nice work!" Joshua cheered. The girl gave a nod, though she wasn't sure entirely what she did. "Let's see here." The marine got to work on the display. It was a simple terminal made for managing the facility. It showed a general overview of how all the departments were functioning. Understandably everything was on hold and the last reports were given days ago. Along with the reports was a simplified schematic of the layout. Everything looked familiar, exactly as it was presented to him during briefing. Mining, offices, reactor, living quarters, it was all there.
 
"Reactor," Joshua mumbled. His mind started to wander. There was one part of their escape plan they hadn't considered. The aftermath. He knew he could probably slip by the orbiting transport ship, but there would be nothing stopping anyone from coming after them. But. A detonation, a very serious industrial accident that left the whole place as little more than a smouldering, radioactive hole. No one could survive that. They know nobody could survive that. "You wouldn't know how to set off a nuclear explosion, would you?" Joshua joked.
 
"I'm afraid I don't know what that is," Elle said. She had taken up one of the toys, a simplistic dipping bird, and tapped its head up and down.
 
"It might just be our way out of here, without anyone the wiser." He pressed on the terminal, bringing up more information about the engine. Coolant. Fusion reactor. "Thank God for coolant and thank God for the cheapskate bigwigs." His hands clasped together in mock prayer.
 
Elle perked up, a smile already forming on her face at the sound of Joshua's enthusiasm. "Is everything to your liking?" She tapped on the toy more forcefully, sending it bobbing wildly.
 
"Yeah, yeah. Uh," he rubbed his eyes, "look, can you smell specific people? If I asked you to track down that Zeke guy, could you do it?"
 
That was an odd request. "Normally not. I believe I was close enough to learn that one's scent. Why do you ask?" She set the metal bird down.
 
"We need to pay him a visit, and as much as I'd hate to say it, we'll need that bomb." Elle was taken slightly aback. "Hey, no worries, you don't need to wear it. We just need to put it somewhere and get out of here. It'll take care of the rest."
 
"And what about the others?"
 
"We draw them in. I think these guys'll jump at any opportunity to get us. Give them a call and they'll come running." He rounded the table to stand at Elle's side and lightly touched her tail, causing it to begin a sway. "You think you could puncture metal with this?"
 
The slick woman raised her tail, bringing the sharpened tip into view. "I am not sure I can," she flicked the appendage about, "though, I will attempt to do so if needed."
 
Joshua's hand shifted up to her back. "Hey, that's all I ask."
 
"Are you certain about your plan?" The pair had moved back into the hallways, slowly retracing their previous escape.
 
"No, not really." He shrugged. "I have no clue how any of this works, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?" Elle wasn't pleased by Joshua's upfront admittance of ignorance.
 
"Will we escape?" He should know that at the very least.
 
"Yeah, no worries. If this does work we'll be long gone before the whole place is toast."
 
"If we don't?" Elle looked at Joshua.
 
"Then I guess we hope that Company ship up there hasn't abandoned us."
 
Elle couldn't quite express her feeling of worry but also resignation to the situation at hand. "I suppose that's it." She extended a hand in front of Joshua, bringing him to a stop.
 
"You hear something?" he asked.
 
"I could spare you the burden of taking their lives, my love. I was, after all, created for this very purpose."
 
"No, no, that's not happening." Joshua shook his head. "You might be my accomplice, but I'm going to pull the trigger." He lowered his weapon for a moment to grasp Elle's hand before lightly pushing it away. "Come on, we're not out of the woods yet." While Joshua marched on ahead, Elle stood where she was, feeling the fleeting sensation of her partner's delicate hand on her own. She scurried after him after it was all but gone.
 
"You find our buddy yet?"
 
"His scent is faint."
 
"Then we're gonna keep going. Let me know if you hear anyone else," Joshua replied.
 
Their trek through the facility was far more direct than their last dash through it. Elle zeroed in on Zeke and worked her way through hallway after hallway. With the size of the place and its uniformity, despite the helpful arrows, Joshua figured he would have never found his way through, no matter how much he studied the layout. He started to hope that it would work in their favour if they needed to disappear in an instant.
 
Minutes passed before Elle could pick up on any other humans. The marine didn't know their exact numbers, maybe numbering somewhere in the twenties. Most of that manpower was most likely clustered around the paths to and from the landing pad. Couldn't risk their one shot out of here.
 
"He is here," Elle suddenly spoke. "With one other."
 
"Where?" Joshua whispered.
 
Elle crept up to one of the doors that lined the hallways. Joshua prepared himself on the other side of the door. The man held up two fingers to confirm what his partner had said. The girl nodded. "Hit it." Elle prepared herself and slammed against the flimsy metal barricade, sending it flying open. Adrenaline was surging through the man's body now.
 
Two people appeared before the marine, both only now reacting in the microseconds that the door blasted open. Their faces were slowly morphing into something between fear and surprise. Joshua had already pulled the trigger, firing a flurry of bullets their way, striking both of them. Someone screamed. They both fell. A small explosion of carnage sent a scarlet everywhere.
 
Joshua came down from his high, leaving behind two bodies. No. He shook his head. A body and a severely wounded person. The body's head was left as an unrecognizable mess, its contents painting the still living man. Zeke spat blood from his awkward leaning position against the wall. The marine looked away briefly before turning back to the casualty. "Fuck. Fuck!" Zeke sputtered, clutching the torn, bloody marks on his side. Joshua's mind didn't register anything else around him aside from the gory mess in front of him. Zeke coughed, spewing more viscera. A barrage of voices screamed in the ruined man's ear.
 
Zeke motioned for the sidearm that was strapped to his leg, though his body didn't respond fast enough. Joshua raised his weapon again and fired another round into Zeke's chest, forcing him back against the wall. "Sorry, pal, I didn't want this to happen." The marine crouched next to his victim. "It was you or me." He pulled off the man's earpiece with a wince.
 
The extremist could only groan in response, his eyes flicking to the body next to him and Joshua. He let out another strained noise as Elle came into view from behind her partner.
 
"Look. All we need is that bomb back. We'll leave you alone after that."
 
"Fu-fuck..." He tried to orient himself properly against the wall, leaving a smear against the surface. "…You…" More blood dribbled out of his mouth and down his chin.
 
"I know you have it. I don't want to make this worse than it already is," Joshua replied. Elle remained silent as she watched.
 
Zeke stared back; his eyes losing life. He shakily placed his hand over of one his pockets and went limp. It wasn't long before Zeke's muscles became slack and his corpse keeled over into a growing pool of red. Joshua nudged the bloody hand away with the muzzle of his rifle and searched the pocket, pulling free the metallic collar. Blood covered the leash, now dripping with the dark red liquid. Joshua couldn't help but watch it drip onto Zeke's legs and stain his pants.
 
The marine looked over Zeke's battered body. "Goodbye." As one final nicety, the man closed Zeke's eyes.
 
Joshua stood up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Elle stood by his side, carefully watching his reaction. He took a good, long look at the collar he held. "Perhaps it would be best if I held--"
 
"I don't want you touching this." Josh replied, sternly.
 
"Why are you being so protective of me?"
 
"Because you're not a monster."
 
"But... I am a monster."
 
"No, you're not. The only monsters lurking in the dark around here are humans." Joshua walked over to the wall, just under the glaring red tube. He beckoned Elle over with the nod of his head. Elle made no protest and followed Joshua over to his target. "Puncture it, if you can." The xenomorph scaled the wall and stabbed her tail at the metal tube. It took a few hits before the metal gave way and began spewing an unknown, flammable gas with a loud hiss.
 
"We've got a few more to go, you up to it?" Elle gave a nod. "Great. Now I'm going to be doing something real dumb, but we need to pull them off the pad." He held Zeke's radio up to his ear. "Hey guys, I'm still open to a deal. How about the ship for the corpses of your buddies? If not, we'll be moseying over to the reactor and I dunno, busting a pipe or two." A torrent of yelling and threats erupted through the radio. "That'll do it. Let's get going."
 
Working back from their position, Elle and Joshua sabotaged pipe after pipe, slowly flooding the place with the flammable gas. It wasn't an exact science and Joshua couldn't say for sure how effective their positioning would be. Satisfied with the arbitrary amount of pipes slashed, the pair moved farther back into the mountain facility. All the way into what could be seen as the heart, the reactor.
 
The entrance to the reactor was quite simple and little more than an automatic double door entrance and an ID reader. 'Reactor' was emblazoned above the doors in an alarming red and white. Joshua stopped in his tracks on their approach. "You don't hear anyone inside, do you?" Elle shook her head. "Phew." He approached the doors and gave them a good shove. Locked. He looked over at the metal reader that hung on the wall nearby and raised his weapon to fire at the device.
 
"Stop!" cried Elle.
 
"What is it? What do you see?"
 
"A big idiot is what I see."
 
"What are you talking about?"
 
"Do you think it's wise to fire your weapon at a time like this?"
 
"Well I don't have any better ideas."
 
Elle pushed up against the secure doors. Her long fingers worked themselves into where the two barriers met and began prying them open. They let out a stressed whine before giving way and breaking apart. "That is a better idea." The alien woman presented the way to her partner with a sarcastic flare.
 
The doors revealed a large atrium and a dizzying amount of large metal objects that whirred and buzzed. Consoles, pipes, wiring - Joshua had no idea where to begin. The floor clanked loudly with every step, being made out of metal lattices. The whole room was several stories tall, each floor being suspended walkways all centered around a column, what Joshua could only assume was the reactor.
 
"I guess this is gonna be harder than I thought."
 
"We still have time."
 
"Sure wish I was an engineer right about now. Uh..." Joshua looked at the huge room. It was more than daunting. The mixture of time constraints, scale, and confusion made him worry. "You see anything labelled 'coolant'?"
 
"There. That tube is named as such." Elle pointed off at a distant pipe up above that was wrapped in a mess of its near identical brethren. One that the man could barely even see.
 
"Good eye, babe. Wouldn't happen to see an elevator too, would ya?"
 
"I don't know what that would be."
 
"Never mind, we're on the clock!" Joshua ran off towards the pipe. "Go on and hit more of those red ones!" he shouted back at Elle.
 
"Shouldn't I do--"
 
"The red ones!"
 
Elle shook her head and went to work on Joshua's request. It would have been far easier for her to climb up there. Still, a part of her was happy she was being so rigorously protected by him, despite how silly it was. She watched him dash into the distance. "Good luck!" she shouted after him.
 
Joshua had already begun figuring out his way up. With his weapons holstered and hands free, he could probably climb up the pipes directly. He spied elevators nearby, locked with similar card readers as the entrance. A bullet probably wouldn't send the elevator up, so that was out of the question. Now if only there was- "Ladders, perfect." A gift from God himself was close by.
 
There wasn't a time in his life where Joshua had to rush up a ladder, well, not since boot camp. Now he really wished he’d practiced it more often as he climbed on upwards. His eyes kept trained on the coolant pipe, lest he lose it in the mess of identical-looking pipes. The walkways flew past Joshua, and in a modest amount of time he made it to the top. There was one more problem with his plan, which he noticed on his approach to the pipe. A straight drop down to the bottom separated him and the pipe. No direct way to the piping, not without climbing.
 
"I've done dumber things," Joshua nervously joked to himself as he planted one foot on a pipe, over the safety railing, hovering above the frightening drop. Another shaky foot onto the metal conduits and he was completely on the pipes. He was at the mercy of gravity, a thought he attempted to set aside on his climb. As much as he would've liked to look at Elle's progress, looking back at the room was out of the question.
 
It took a sizeable amount of courage for Joshua to press onward. His climb was slow and meticulous, moving his body only when he was absolutely certain his grasp was secure. The marine's natural desire to make a joke was snuffed out by a growing sense of fear and vertigo. Joshua wouldn't have been surprised if his frightened clutch bent the metal.
 
He shifted again, grabbing at another pipe. A sudden lurch downwards made his heart leap. His foot slipped off the sleek metallic surface, only to be caught by a large, comforting hand. "Do you require assistance, my love?" Elle climbed to his side with a large grin. Josh tried to return her grin, only managing a tremulous smile. "Ah, I believe that is a yes." Her hand slid up to his back, supporting his body. "We will complete this together." With Elle's reassuring aid, Joshua began his ascent once more, steadily making it towards the coolant pipe.
 
"Here we are," Elle said in a more than happy voice. She tapped on the cool pipe with a finger. Joshua nodded and pulled out the collar, he couldn't help but take one final look at the device. It was amusing to him that the restraint would be their freedom. If all went according to plan, that is. He clasped the bomb collar to the tube, securing it with an audible click. "That is all, then?"
 
"Yeah, now we just gotta get--" Elle wrapped an arm around her fragile partner and flung herself off of the wall along with him. Joshua let out a sudden yell as the alien woman landed on the nearby walkways. "Please don't do that again." The whole catwalk wobbled worryingly from the impact. "Please." Elle set her human on the unsteady ground, where he struggled to catch his breath.
 
"My apologies. It seemed the fastest way down." She peered over the edge of the catwalk. "Would you like to go again?"
 
"No, I'm going to take the ladder." Joshua had already started towards it. Elle opted to crawl down the wall alongside Josh. She considered using the ladder as well, but decided otherwise with her larger proportions.
 
"Someone is here."
 
"They've finally arrived, huh? How many can you sense?" They had nearly reached the bottom.
 
"I can hear five separate heartbeats."
 
"No problem then. We just tell them the situation and walk around them. If they want to make things difficult, then a swift kick to the face will drive the message home." They both stepped onto the ground.
 
"Swift kick."
 
Five figures moved through the doorway. Mining suits led by one combat rig. Though it wasn't Rene. Jeb, now equipped with his father's suit, held up his weapon and fired a shot. It ricocheted off of a nearby console and disappeared into the mess of machinery. Elle and Joshua had already ducked for cover behind one of the many machines that littered the place. "Did you seriously think you could just walk in and take whatever you wanted from us?" BANG "Thought you could kill us?" BANG "Thought you could come out of this alive?" BANG
 
"This guy has more than a screw loose," Joshua whispered to Elle. She agreed silently; this “Jeb” character had become increasingly annoying to her and their plans of escape.
 
"Hey, we’re not as bad as you think we are. We’ll give you a couple’a options to consider." BANG "You can either come out and we skin you alive." BANG "Or we keep shooting everything until there's nothing left." BANG
 
Joshua's cocky attitude quickly returned. "Hey, jerk-off. Wouldn't happen to know what the red pipes are for, would ya? The busted ones, that is?" The shots stopped. "That’s right: extremely flammable gas. Keep firing and you'll cause an explosion that’ll destroy the entire mountain. Please believe me, this isn’t a bluff."
 
"Did he say 'explosion'?" said one of the grunts. "I knew something was wrong."
 
"Hey, Jeb. Maybe you shouldn't be shooting in here, man..." another suggested nervously.
 
"Shut the ffffuck up, you idiots. He's just trying to scare ya. The reactor’s not going to explode."
 
"Don't listen to him, fellas! Can’t you smell it? The entire place is filling with gas as we speak, and if it ignites, we'll all be history." From a small peek around the corner, Joshua could see the group grow wary. Even Jeb seemed to have second thoughts about his assault.
 
“Then let’s play a game!” Jeb called out. “It’s called, ‘How many shots can Jeb fire before either you come out of hiding or we all go bye-bye?’.” With that, Jeb held his rifle in the air and fired off another shot. BANG The other mercs exchanged panicked glances to each-other. “You’re fucking crazy, man!” one of them shouted to him. BANG
 
"Jeb’s completely insane. We’ve got to do something before he kills us all. I just don't know what we can do." Joshua sighed.
 
Elle looked at the lattices they stood on and cleanly smashed a hole through the surface, tearing it open to create an opening wide enough for her to enter. Even after all they had been through, Joshua couldn't believe how strong she was. She slipped in and disappeared from view.
 
"I will take care of them," Elle said from somewhere below. Joshua wasn't entirely on-board with the plan, but it was too late for any objections.
 
"So, guys," Josh walked out into the open, the extremists all turned towards him, "How about we talk about this like rational adults? I think we can work this out without guns."
 
"The time for talking is over.” Said Jeb as he aimed his rifle downward towards Joshua’s head. “Where's the monster?" Jeb asked, approaching Joshua slowly.
 
“She’s really shy.” Josh joked.
 
“A joker to the end, eh? I’ve got a joke for you: what did the bullet say to the face?”


A thunderous boom and the screech of metal erupted behind them and a terrified scream soon followed. One of the grunts was being pulled into the ground, his hands scrambled to keep hold onto the floor as he was slowly drawn in. The other two men froze for a moment in a complete daze before trying to help their comrade


"Bang!" replied Josh before pushing aside the rifle and punching Jeb in the face. The furious leader staggered back, dropping his gun on the floor which Josh summarily kicked away.
 
"I knew I should've killed you the moment I laid eyes on you." Jeb swung at Josh, hitting him squarely on the shoulder despite Josh’s best attempts to dodge. He was rustier at this than he expected. The marine retaliated with a punch to the kid's stomach, only to be made aware of the hard armour that he wore. The blow did nothing to Jeb.
 
"Fuck," Joshua whispered to himself, readying for another attack. Screams continued to come from behind the leader as his underlings struggled with the alien creature. "You ever been in love?" Jeb thrust forward again with a second strike, narrowly missing Joshua's face. Reacting as quickly as possible, Joshua lunged forward and smashed his head into Jeb's nose. "It's something like that!" The impact caused Jeb recoil with a barely audible swear. One of his goons was sent flying into a nearby machine and went limp with a groan. Elle was still doing her job flawlessly.
 
Jeb grumbled angrily and produced a knife from somewhere on his back. Joshua grit his teeth and gave a weary smile. "Don't play with knives," he said half-heartedly. His smug confidence was rapidly diminishing. Jeb wildly stabbed at the air trying to get at Joshua, who just barely managed to avoid the blade. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Another slice through the air, coming dangerously close to the marine's arm. He could almost feel the wind coming off of that one.
 
"What's the matter, soldier? Is that all you've got? If I'd known the whole Company was as weak and pathetic as you, I would've annihilated them all single-handedly long ago!"
 
"You've got a lot to learn, kid. I'm not struggling because I can't fight - I'm struggling to stop myself from killing you in nine different ways."
 
"You're full of sssshit and always have been from the start."
 
Joshua caught more flashes of action in the background while he did his best to weave around Jeb's attacks. Two of the extremists circled around Elle threateningly while brandishing their own knives, though it was clear they had no idea what to do. "Keep your eye on me!" Jeb shouted. He thrust forward, grazing the side of Joshua's abdomen. The marine let out a yelp of pain and grabbed at the wound, which was now oozing red and staining his suit.
 
"You're ffffucking nothing on your own," Jeb mocked. He flicked his blade to remove the coating of blood before moving in for another attack. He stepped forward, poised for a strike. Joshua took a deep breath and readied himself. He had already seen his fair share of blood in his mission, but knowing it was his own made him queasy. The lesion burned with every slight shift of his body, the pain made it even harder to think.
 
Joshua continued to back away from Jeb, unsure what he could do next. The private came to a stop when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the torn lattices. He was careful not to look directly at the hole so as to not give away its presence. Jeb was entirely locked onto Joshua, following his every step without hesitation. It was almost trivial to manoeuvre the extremist into position. "You got a lucky hit back there," he tried his damnedest not to wince, "won't get me twice." That challenge was enough to pull Jeb closer with a wild stab at the air.
 
With a strained breath, the marine pulled a punch. The sluggish attack was instantly sidestepped by Jeb, edging him closer to the tear in the flooring. Joshua couldn't help but smile at the small success, seemingly enraging the kid further. More furious stabs came, each one closer than the last. Jeb moved to the edge of the hole in his fury. He glanced at the floor briefly, seeing the rip. Joshua kicked at Jeb's leg, it was enough to nudge him into the tear. "Should've kept your eye on me." Gravity took care of the rest, and soon, the extremist found himself with one leg in the ground and nearly flat on his face.
 
Acting swiftly, Joshua stomped Jeb's head into the floor forcefully, pinning him there. He wrestled with the kid's knife as the young man struggled underneath his boot. Both of them exchanged heated swears and threats until Joshua successfully pried the knife loose. "I've had just about enough of you."
 
"Ffffuck you!" Jeb yelled while his arms desperately clutched onto Joshua's leg.
 
"I'd say you got a few minutes," Joshua managed to step on one of the extremist's hands, "less if you can't get out of this." The marine forced the blade through Jeb's restrained hand at an angle, into the floor below. The young man let out a scream that only grew louder when Joshua stepped on the hilt for good measure. Having subdued Jeb, Joshua looked up at Elle, who had finished off the last of her attackers by slamming the poor soul into the floor hard enough to warp it. She met his gaze, happy to see he was still in one piece. "Let's go!" he shouted as he ran to her side.
 
"Is that a wound? Are you bleeding?" She had smelled blood on the air earlier and could only pray for the best.
 
"I'm fine! Come on, we’ve not got much time!"
 
She couldn't pull herself away from the red patch. Elle sneered and backed away from the door. She stomped over to Jeb, who was still struggling with the blade embedded in him. With a single hand, the alien woman hoisted him up by the throat, pulling the blade loose from the floor. Jeb tried to yell out in agony, but only pitiful gurgle came out. His free hand clawed at her talons frantically to no avail. Her fingers slowly crushing his windpipe, assuring he felt as much pain as possible.
 
"Do it, you disgusting creature. Kill me!" spittle began to bubble at his mouth, "You can’t deny what you are. You’re a killer... just like us!"
 
"Elle... it's okay. It wasn't a deep cut. Just leave him, you don't have to--"
 
"This human doesn't deserve to live. You’ve already murdered two of them, and many more will die soon enough. What difference does it make if I kill just one of them now?" She menaced Jeb by bringing him closer to her maw.
 
Josh hesitated to answer. Her logic was impeccable as always. "You don't kill in cold blood. We don't do that." He rubbed her arm. "Sure, they're going to die, but a person like you doesn't do this. Not now. Not ever." He moved his gentle touch to her hand.
 
Her grasp on the extremist lessened, eventually letting him drop back down into the hole, where he barely grabbed onto the side. Elle relaxed and looked at her offending claws. She turned to Joshua, taking him into a gentle embrace. "You're right," she whispered. An odd feeling pushed at her face, as if something needed to flow out. It was a natural, familiar reaction, but strangely alien.
 
"DIE, FFFFUCKER!"
 
A sudden howl broke their loving embrace. Joshua could only see a flash of motion from below, and he sluggishly pulled Elle away. It was too late. A sharp pain dug into the woman's calf, causing her to let out a screech of agony. She turned her head to see Jeb driving his blade into her carapace. He attempted to drive it further in, causing acid to spurt from the wound. Joshua moved to attack the extremist, only to be stopped by Elle. Jeb continued to stab, sending out another explosive spray of acid that coated his hand. He lost his grip on the knife, and let out an indecipherable noise. Another large spurt of corrosive acid landed over his face causing him to howl in sheer agony.
 
Jeb barely clung onto the lattice. His face becoming an unrecognizable mess; the acid steaming and sizzling through his flesh, his eyeballs oozing from their sockets, his nose slopping off to reveal the nasal bones beneath. His breaths became laboured as he tried to pull himself up with his rapidly deteriorating hand. Eventually he gave up and slipped down, disappearing into the darkness. Inhuman groans emanated from the hole. Elle shook the weapon loose from her hide. The oozing mess of what was once a blade melted into the ground, joining its user below.
 
"Are you alright?" Elle asked, holding his chin up and examining his face. Not a moment was wasted thinking about Jeb whatsoever.
 
"Me? What about you?" He looked down at her wound, which had nearly stopped bleeding but still released a small plume of steam. Elle didn't bother glancing at her wound. "It will heal." Her spindly fingers drew down to the wound at his side, wiping the blood off from his clothing.
 
"Are you sure? Please say it's not fatal," he blurted out. Fear gripped him more than he had expected. Her acidic nature could have unforeseen consequences.
 
"Your concern is appreciated, my love, but have no fear. It hurts, but it will heal relatively soon. Though, I don't think I will be able to carry you for a while. My apologies."
 
Joshua let out a sigh of relief, allowing him to relax. "Don't worry about it. I think a bit of running will do me some good anyway. They don't call you a perfect organism for nothing." He couldn't help but look back down at the hole, and faintly hear the dreadful, slurring moans that crept out of it. "We should get going." His hand met hers, guiding it away from the gash in his abdomen. "Wouldn't want to end up like him."
 
"Are you certain you are alright?"
 
"Couldn't," he coughed, "be better." The gas had spread far faster than he expected. He covered his nose and mouth with the corner of his arm. "C'mon!" The pair started up again, moving as fast as they could with their respective wounds. Neither of them wanted to move faster than a brisk jog out of fear for each other's condition. The smell of their blood was incredibly overwhelming and almost nauseating, especially to Elle.
 
They rushed through the facility for what seemed like the hundredth time. Both of them had grown tired of its bland interior and less than hospitable inhabitants. Joshua was worried Jeb and his small band might be just behind them. Not that it was physically possible after their heated encounter, but the thought wouldn't leave his mind. He forced himself to think of what to do when they reached the landing pad. The last stop.
 
“Fire and Fury”
 
A harsh wind blew through the doors leading to the landing pad, scattering snow every which way. "Of course," Joshua muttered. In the distance he could see their ticket out: a large transport ship. Standing around it were perturbed guards looking in all directions, their heads on a constant swivel. Their guns similarly swept the area. They clearly weren't taking any chances.
 
"Shall we take them on?" Elle asked with a tired smile. Her hand squarely rest on Joshua's back.
 
"I'd like to make one last attempt before suicide."
 
"Do tell." She ran her hand in circles on his back.
 
"One thing. Can you get us to the roof through the vents? I'd rather not get toasted"
 
Elle hefted up Joshua. "Let me see what I can do." A sudden lurch upwards and she was already on the walls, making her way onto the ceiling. One of the many rusted grates was torn off and discarded near instantly. Joshua found himself in a familiar and comfortable darkness, snuggled up to a hard softness. It felt like the only rest he had all day. And then it was gone. Back into the blinding white of reality.
 
It seemed the wind had picked up. The roof was covered in a frosty blanket of snow that nearly disguised the building. "Here we are." Elle plopped Joshua back onto the ground and stared at the ship once more.
 
"You think your acting is up to par?"
 
"Pardon me?"
 
"Just make a nasty growl on my signal."
 
Joshua took a deep breath and unholstered his weapon. He gave a quick thanks to the powers that be for somehow stumbling this far without dying. The marine drew his free hand to his headset, only just now realizing how much it annoyed his ear. Click. "Asset's loose! She's loose!" He shot into the distance. "Terminate! Terminate now!" Joshua glanced at Elle, who gave a menacing hiss. "Fucking terminate now!" He punched his wound for the next part of the act, allowing him to recreate a fairly realistic moan of pain, and fired off one last round. Elle winced at his brutal acting.
 
There was a long span of silence. Joshua held his breath, fists clenched. A dull boom could be finally be heard in the distance, one of the most beautiful sounds he had ever heard. All the tension instantly snapped at that moment. Joshua had to keep himself from falling over in relief. "Something is coming," Elle said, completely alert. A low rumble surged underneath them, shaking the ground at their feet. Nearly a second later a loud boom erupted from the landing pad's doors, spewing a small fiery burst that flew up into the air.
 
Joshua tossed his headset and peered over the edge alongside Elle. The guards stirred from their spots, cautiously approaching the complex. "Jeb? Jeb!" one of them cried. All five of them began a dour argument, guns still trained at the doors.
 
"Fuck!" "We have to go in." "And get killed?" "We're fucking dead out here anyways without those codes." "Shit." "What the fuck happened?" "Gas blew. The two guests probably roasted themselves." "Who's gonna stay behind?"
 
The landing pad groaned in response. A few metallic scraps fell from the torn mess of a structure. Joshua tensed up. The explosion was far worse than he expected. The guards below wordlessly stared at one another before shuffling into their respective groups and marching off. The three that remained kept a good distance from the landing pad, directly next to the entrance. It was a blessing and a curse.
 
As Joshua had just begun to plan their next move, the landing pad screeched and shifted down. More chunks of metal plummeted into the depths without a sound. "We need to get down there. Now!" Joshua said to Elle.
 
"Then move. I will take care of the rest."
 
Joshua was about to protest, but the carnage of metal let out another sickening shriek. "Be safe." With that, he took one look at the guards below and leaped onto one of them. He came crashing down on the extremist, pushing them flat on the ground. Joshua grit his teeth from the pulse of agony that came from his wound. Not wanting to give the others any time to react, he dashed toward the ship as fast as his burning legs would allow. He could hear the guards yell after him. Their yelling turned to panic after a loud thump. She would be fine, he told himself repeatedly.
 
Joshua's boots stomped onto the platform, resonating throughout the broken structure. The floor underneath him shook. He wanted to move faster. He needed to move faster. And yet, his legs could only give so much. His heart felt as though it could pop at any moment with the mixture of physical exertion and fear weighing heavily upon him. A part of him wanted to look back, make sure Elle was OK, though he knew he couldn't. He couldn't stop.
 
Making it up the ramp was only half of the challenge. Joshua made it into the unfamiliar ship and began frantically searching for a way to the cockpit. The vehicle was a flurry of blurred images, that he only made sense of a few seconds after he saw them. A beam of light caught his attention as he made his way through the mess of machinery. There it was, a beautiful window that showed the sweeping mountains outside. He was saved.
 
With a ticking clock beating away at his head, Joshua dug out the ship codes from his pocket. His hands wavered wildly with unrest, but he managed to grab the small, precious bit of freedom and slam it into the console. A pleasing hum brought the ship to life and drowned out his heavy, exhausted breaths. The controls were similar enough that he could bring it to a slight hover over the damaged ground it sat on.
 
Seemingly out of anger, the pad defiantly groaned again when the ship pulled off of it. Joshua rushed back through the ship. "Elle, Elle, Elle," he repeated to himself, as if saying her name kept her safe. The alien woman still struggled with two of the guards, while one did his best to crawl toward the ship. The pad itself had taken on a severe incline that was well below the bottom of the ramp. "Elle, come on!" Josh screamed over the roaring engines.
 
She glanced at him and pushed off her attackers long enough to make her way onto the pad. It moaned again, dipping ever downward. The crawling extremist screamed as he slid down the steep surface. Elle looked uncertainly onward, a clear frown developing on her face. "Come on, Elle! Jump!" Josh called out. One of the guards fired upon the ship wildly.
 
"I don't think I can! It's too far!" The pad dipped again violently, nearing a ninety degree angle. She clung onto the surface with all her might.
 
"Don't you give up on me now! We've come so far! Get your ass onto the ship! That's an order, soldier!" The supports begun to snap, each with a loud bang that lowered the pad further down. Elle rocked back and forth, preparing herself for the jump before pushing away from the platform and into the air. She soared over to the ramp and tore straight through it with her hand, anchoring her to the spot. It took her a few moments to realize she was alive, but still swinging from the ramp wildly. Joshua instantly offered his hand as she clawed her way up. More shots ricocheted off the ship, and the two rushed inside, closing the ramp after them. A loud, deep crash confirmed that the pad had finally succumbed to its weight.
 
Joshua immediately latched onto Elle and squeezed her tightly. "That’s my girl!" Elle returned his hug.
 
Dull bangs resounded through the hull. "We'd best go. Save the celebrations for later."
 
"You're right." He pried himself away from his woman and scrambled back to the cockpit. He plopped into a chair and hammered away at the controls. The ship shook and pulled up into the sky. The force pushed Joshua down into his seat violently before easing back up. A rush of thoughts hit him. Would anyone come after them? Were they too close to the reactor? Were they too far away? Did anyone see them leave?
 
Two hands descended upon him, caressing his neck before splaying out onto his chest. "Marvellous." He looked up to see Elle staring out the viewport, into the sparkly stars. The edge of the planet could be seen peeking out at the very bottom, creating a glow of white radiating from its surface. They weren't quite out of the atmosphere, but it felt like they were already in another world, away from everything that tormented them.
 
A bright flash obscured the windows. That was their cue! The noise of the ship’s engines threw louder and louder. “Let’s see what this baby can do!” Joshua started the jump, causing a terrifying thump. The ship was thrown into hyperspace, hurdling into the unknown, several thousand times the speed of light.
 
● ● ●
 
A panicked scientist burst into the Director’s office - as best anyone could burst through sliding doors.
 
"Director, Sir! The facility on Gamma-Sigma has been completely obliterated!" he shouted out breathlessly.
 
The Director looked up from his mounds of paper with a grimace. "What did you just say?"
 
"Somehow the reactor core detonated. The extremists must have rigged it to explode as a last resort."
 
"What of the assets?" His expression softened.
 
The scientist glanced down at a handheld computer. "No signs of life anywhere on the surface for over eight kilometres. It's highly unlikely they survived the blast."
 
The Director stared down in contemplation. "How unfortunate... and convenient."
 
"Sir?"
 
He waved. "Nothing."
 
“Life and Death”
 
Space. A lone starship - the “Costaguana” - exits out of hyperspace with blinding flash of light. Where they were, Josh couldn't say for sure. Though, it was definitely better from where they came from. It was a painful few minutes of silence. Joshua could only hear Elle's soft breaths. He swallowed repeatedly, trying to remove the lump in his throat. The overwhelming fear of anything going wrong left him paralyzed. A rough lurch forward and another screech of the engines signalled their stop.
 
Elle gripped his shoulder, leaning in to plant a small kiss on his cheek. "And we've succeeded," she whispered. The weight of the world vanished from his shoulders. Joshua gave a weak smile and an exhausted sigh. Gathering his strength, he hopped out of the chair and wrapped his arms around Elle, smothering his face into her.
 
After a moment of relief, Joshua pulled back and looked up at Elle's visage. "Your face looks so beautiful with the stars reflecting on it," he said.
 
She ran a finger across the front of her featureless face. "Such a flatterer." She hunched down to nuzzle against him, far more energetically than she’d planned to. Excitement bubbled inside her. Elle finished her rushed affections with another kiss. "Tell me, husband, where is our new home?" Despite her light-hearted intonation, Joshua felt a comforting warmth when she referred to him by his married title.
 
"Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning."
 
"I will never understand your jokes."
 
"I'm not sure just yet. Earth's definitely out of the question."
 
"Do you not have family on your world waiting for you?"
 
Joshua paused for a brief moment and reminisced. A cheeky grin formed on his face. “I do have a brother, and I know he’d be happy for me, and wish me all the best.”
 
Elle tilted her head slightly. "That is nice. I shall do my best to be your family from now on."
 
"Come over here." He led Elle to one of the other consoles in the cockpit. It was completely horizontal and bore a large screen. Joshua tapped on a few buttons and the display beamed to life. "Why don't you choose one for us?" A few more presses and several colourful orbs flickered into the air.
 
Elle ran her claws around the holographic lights. There were red planets, ringed planets, moons that orbited great gas giants. The universe was their oyster. "This one." She pointed at a largely green planet with specks of blue spattering the surface. Joshua zoomed in on her choice. "Atmospheric pressure, gravity and oxygen levels are well-within acceptable parameters. It doesn't even have a name yet. Maybe that's a good omen."
 
"We can give it a name."
 
A small blip appeared on another console in an alarming yellow. "That's weird." He walked over to the screen.
 
"What's wrong, my love?"
 
"The inner airlock door was just opened. I'll go check it out. You get yourself comfy and rest that leg. I'll be right back."
 
Joshua ambled down the halls of the ship. He was finally able to take in its design. Surprisingly, it was spick and span. It had well-lit hallways and had most of its wires and piping were obscured from sight, unlike just about every other ship he had been on. The temperature was at a constant, comfortable coolness that didn't fluctuate wildly. He could definitely see himself being able to relax here.
 
He descended down the stairs into the darkened cargo bay towards the entrance airlock. "Huh, weird." The interior sliding door was completely open, but there wasn't any sign of decompression or forced entry.
 
BANG
 
Joshua hit the ground. His mind was in a daze. It took him a second to feel the agonizing pain that shot through his leg. Something slammed down next to him as he struggled to stand back up. He saw a familiar pair of combat boots.
 
"Company Man! You left so suddenly, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye!" a boisterous voice boomed.
 
"Rene..." Joshua slumped against the airlock frame. "How...?"
 
"I told you before, I'm a survivor. You did not seriously think I would be so easily defeated by the likes of you, did you?"
 
The marine pulled off of the doorframe and staggered over to a wall, bracing himself on it.
 
"I could have blown your head open at any time, but I would have only deprived myself the pleasure of hearing you scream, just as you made my son do before he died." His expression darkened.
 
"Survive this!" Like a gunslinger of the Old West, Josh drew his gun from his side holster and fired at Rene without a second thought. A spray of viscera gushed out of the larger man. Rene's head snapped back before slowly lowering back forward to stare at Josh. A stream of white oozed from the ruined carnage of his right eye. He shook his head, sending the shrapnel clattering to the floor. "That almost hurt. Almost." He stepped forward.
 
"So... you really are a fucking android." Josh stared at the mess of white that flowed out of Rene’s eye socket. “No wonder Elle couldn’t sense you before.”
 
Rene let out another hearty laugh. "Please. Don't compare me to one of Weyland-Yutani's crude automatons. I am so much more than man or machine. I am a god, and now I'm going to smite you."
 
"Your son…” Josh tried stalling for time. “He was human enough."
 
"Yes, he was human. I had massacred his colony when he was still a baby, yet I decided to spare him and raise him as my own. I suppose back then I still had some spark of humanity left in me."
 
"Or a guilty conscience." The marine's grip tightened on his pistol.
 
"Perhaps. But now, because of you," he spat, "I am no longer restrained by such childish notions of compassion. For that I thank you and bid you goodbye."
 
Rene walked over and picked Josh up by the throat, slamming him hard against the wall. Josh let out a loud exhale as all the wind was knocked out of him. Rene then began to slowly press his fingers into Joshua’s right eye socket. Squeezing, twisting and pulling on his eyeball until slowly started to be extracted from the socket.
 
“An eye for an eye.”
 
Josh cried out in agony as he futilely tried to fight Rene off. Suddenly, a loud hiss erupted from the top of the stairs, and a black blur slammed Rene down into the ground. As Josh fell to the ground also, he pressed his hand against his eye to try and stop the bleeding. He looked on as Elle brutally tore into the machine's neck with a bite, whilst her tail wrapped around and stabbed at his stomach.
 
“Ah, the bitch is back. I was hoping you would join us.”
 
In a flash, Rene stood back up without any effort, bringing the xenomorph along with him. She continued to wildly attack him before being silenced by a solid fist to the side of the face which sent her flying back into the wall. A loud crack rung through the air and the woman went limp, sinking to the floor.
 
"Elle!" Joshua shambled up against the wall, trying his best to block out the searing pain in his leg and eye. He grit his teeth and fired wildly at Rene, riddling his body with bullets. One magazine was dumped and quickly replaced with another. Rene shook his head and casually picked the alien up by the neck, pulling her around and shielding himself from Joshua's attack. "Shit!" The marine halted his assault and dropped his aim.
 
“A valiant effort, Company Man, but your bullets are wasted on me. If you were wise, you’d turn that gun on yourself instead. At least that way, you’re guaranteed a quick and painless death.”
 
Rene examined the slender body of the alien woman he held in his grasp.
 
"Now that I see it up close, I can understand why you'd find this thing so desirable." Elle didn't move. Her legs dragged along the floor as Rene manipulated her. He held her up as high as he could, though her large frame was clearly awkward to handle. One of his arms reached around and began to squeeze and massage her smooth, glossy black breast. "They're softer than they look," he said slowly. Joshua took a pained step forward.
 
"Wake up, Elle!" The alien woman remained motionless.
 
Rene pushed Elle's legs apart with his foot and began gliding his hand down to her genitals. "I've taken many women over the years, but I've never had anything like this. You don't mind sharing the goods, do you?" Joshua took another hobbled step forward. "You should feel how wet she is." Pain wracked Josh's body, but he screamed at himself to not give up. He took another step. "Who knows, maybe she'll prefer me over you. What do you think, Company Man?" The marine was able to see Rene's greasy fingers slip into Elle which made disgusting squelching noises.
 
Joshua drunkenly swung at Rene, missing completely. The machine retaliated with a swift backhand to the face, sending the human slamming down to the ground with a flame of pain. "Pathetic. Is that all you’ve got in you to save the woman you love? Get back on your feet now or watch as I crush her neck." Elle's tail weakly tapped along the ground.
 
 "Ellen Briggs, wake up!" Josh desperately cried out. Her chitin spear reared up and came slashing down onto Rene's extended arm, completely severing it just below the elbow. Ellen collapsed onto the floor, not far from Joshua. He watched her movements in utter fear. He had no idea how much damage Rene could do. The inhuman anthropoid briefly looked at the stump where his arm used to be.
 
"I’ve had just about enough of you." Rene raised his foot over Elle's head. Joshua forced what little energy he had into standing up and rushing over to the android. His nerves screamed to stop, his mind pulsing with warnings of death. With one knee, he smashed into Rene, barely managing to knock him off balance but it was enough to get him away from Elle. The battered and bruised marine fell onto his enemy. All his thoughts were focused on killing him, no matter if he himself died in the process. Joshua grabbed at his target, pulling him up and whipping him back around towards the airlock in a sudden burst of energy. Joshua pushed Rene full force into the door with a bang. He began his flurry of punches to Rene’s face. In a blinding rage, he brought down strike after strike.
 
"I’m afraid it'll take more than what you've got to hurt me." Joshua could barely hear the taunt. His thoughts were muddled in a mess of anger, sadness, and torment. Though none of it seemed to matter. Rene didn't even flinch at any of the blows. In-fact, he made no effort at all to defend himself. "Allow me to show you how it’s done."
 
CRACK
 
A fresh pain erupted inside Joshua as his nose was shattered with a swift and brutal head-butt from Rene. Blood exploded from the marine’s nose as he stumbled backwards; barely clinging onto consciousness by a thread.
 
CRUNCH
 
Joshua's world became a blur as a boot to the abdomen sent him rocketing back and crashing into the various metal containers on the far side of the cargo bay. Fresh crimson liquid spewed from his mouth. None of his muscles responded, they had given all they could. Every breath forced another sputter of blood out and sent it trickling down his chin. His vision blurred into a dark indistinctness. Only shapes fluttered past his vision. Shapes and vague colours. He cursed at himself. He cursed at the damned cyborg. He cursed at his broken body. He cursed the whole damn world. How stupid he was to think he could play the hero, defeat the bad guys, save the girl. No more favours from God. No more lucky escapes. This was the end. He had failed. He failed her.
 
A loud, metallic crash roused Elle from the depths of unconsciousness. A strange uneasiness shook her hard exoskeleton, making her feel almost brittle and fragile. Her vision seeped back in, unveiling Joshua's limp, bloodied body a few feet away. "I'll admit, Company Man, you lasted longer than I would have expected. Most humans I’ve killed rarely managed to survive after a single hit. Thank you for making this worth my while." The cyborg emerged from the airlocks, flexing his remaining arm. Elle pushed herself off of the ground. "And as for you, my dear, it’s time to send you back to Hell." Rene lunged at Elle with absurd speed.
 
With renewed energy, Elle scrambled away from the attack. Rene's arm smashed straight through the ground where she had just been laying. Rene grunted in annoyance and pulled himself free. "Impressive. Perhaps you might put up a better fight than your partner did." Elle quickly brought her taloned tail down on the back of Rene’s neck but it simply ricocheted off with a dull clang. “Nice try, but it won't be as easy as my arm.”
 
He rose to his feet, cracked his neck and readied his next attack. The alien roared in response, far too enraged to cobble together anything resembling human speech. She bared her bladed tail, ready to strike and likewise, Rene unsheathed his combat knife from behind his back and twirled it in his fingers before snatching it by the hilt.
 
From across the cargo bay, Joshua could only observe the battle through one battered eye. “Hold on,” he tried to communicate mentally to Elle. “Keep away from him.” Just then, something touched Josh’s hand from the containers he crashed into. He broke his gaze from the ensuing melee and drowsily looked down for a moment to see the object. His heart quickened as an idea began to formulate in his mind.
 
The alien and cyborg circled around each other in a deadly stand-off, both threatening the other with their blades. Elle winced every time Joshua pulled into view, but his battered form pushed her into action. She slashed at Rene whilst keeping her distance, which he deftly dodged and countered with a slash of his own. Elle could see him slowing down ever so slightly. His white blood dribbled onto the floor with every swing, and each one made his movements sluggish.
 
The xenomorph lunged at the machine whilst deftly avoiding his defensive strike and forced him back into the airlock. He raised his blade high in the air and brought it down upon her with terrifying force, but Elle was swift enough to intercept his arm by the wrist before the blow could connect. It was now a test of brute strength as Elle fought to simultaneously keep Rene pinned against the outer airlock door as well as keeping his knife away from her. The machine was weakened, but he was still machine, and Elle’s stamina was quickly waning against the technological tyrant.
 
“Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord,” mocked Rene through gritted teeth, as his combat knife inched its way ever closer and closer to Elle’s head.
 
“Rene!” cried Joshua. Rene averted his gaze from Elle to see the marine weakly holding up his gun towards him.
 
“The righteous hero returns from Death’s door. You’d better aim true with that one good eye of yours, Company Man.”
 
“I only need one.” Josh retorted. He fired the gun; the bullet tore through Rene’s fingers and forced the lethal knife from his hand. The blade dropped on the ground with a metallic clatter, it was the sweetest sound Joshua had ever heard. Elle grabbed the ruined mess of his hand and yanked him downwards, slamming the mechanical monster into the ground.
 
Joshua painfully lifted from the floor and readied his arm. “Elle, catch!” he cried as he threw the grenade to her through agonizing pain. Elle smashed one foot onto Rene’s torso to free up one hand. She expertly caught the explosive and jammed it into the machine’s eye socket, causing his skull to bulge grossly. Elle gave it one good punch to secure its position. Rene continued to struggle underneath her, slowly getting up. “Joshua… close the door.”
 
“What?” The battered marine stumbled over to the door, leaving a trail of his blood in his wake.
 
“Trust me. Everything will be fine,” she said, slamming Rene back down.
 
Joshua was losing consciousness fast, and had scarcely any time to consider other options. “I trust you, Elle.” He leaned into the airlock controls, smearing it with crimson. The door hissed and shut tight, separating Elle and Rene into their own airtight world. The human could only watch on in terror as his body failed him.
 
“Are you that ready to die for a human?” Rene spat, pushing back against the xenomorph atop him.
 
“Yes, I would die for him, because I know he would do the same for me.” She hissed and bared her silvery fangs.
 
Rene let out another laugh. “How sentimental. Sadly for you, my destiny isn’t going to come to such an abrupt end. I have places to be and people to kill. You will die here, together.”
 
“I swore to Joshua that I would never kill another human being in cold blood, but I have no problem with killing an inhuman monster like you.” Elle roared and yanked on the small pin from the grenade, pulling it free. In an instant she leaped back, crashing into the inner door. A blinding flash, followed by a deafening bang erupted through the room, shaking the entire hull. The force of the shockwave slammed her hard against the wall, almost liquefying her organs. Pitch black smoke obscured the pulsating orange glow of fire throughout the small room.
 
Elle began to pull herself from the ground but it was too late, a large blur flew out of the smoke and slammed her back down to the ground. Spatters of synthetic blood dripped from Rene's ruined face over hers. His right side of his skull had been completely blown open and a carnage of white gore spurted and bloomed from the mess. Only one eye remained and part of his mouth and tongue. The skin on his face had been almost completely torn off or burnt away, revealing the artificial metallic skull beneath. “Don’t you understand that you cannot kill me?! I am General Rene Cortez! I am eternal! I will never die!” his voice gurgled with a more synthesized sound.
 
A harsh klaxon went off and the room was bathed in a bright red.
 
“FIRE. DETECTED. IN. AIRLOCK. COMPARTMENT... INITIATING. EMERGENCY. OXYGEN. PURGE.”
 
“Then live forever!” the xenomorph cried. She forced her claws into the floor, securing her in place.
 
The outer door burst open, and in an instant, everything went silent. The smoke dissipated, leaving only the blaring redness which beat down upon Rene's enraged face. He loosely hung onto Elle's tail with his brutalized hand. In the now weightless environment, he inched his way up Elle's spiny appendage. With a powerful kick against what little head he still possessed, the xenomorph sent the synthetic serial killer back-spinning into the cold, dark abyss of space. His joints slowly locked in their twisted position, transforming him into a grotesque living statue, doomed to spend eternity falling deeper and deeper into the void.
 
The tired female hammered the airlock control panel which promptly sealed the door and in turn, restored the atmosphere and artificial gravity to normality. She quickly stood back up and rushed through the inner door, where Joshua barely managed to keep upright, let alone breathe. He gave her a tired smile and collapsed into her, and she welcomed him with open arms.
 
“Is he gone?” He sighed.
 
The alien glanced out of the window to see Rene’s body slowly floating away until he became nothing more than an indistinguishable pinprick amidst a billion other pinpricks. “He won’t be troubling us again.”
 
“Thank God,” Josh sighed with relief as he struggled to keep his eyelids open. “I should have done more to protect you. I’m so sorry, Elle.”
 
“Oh, hush, my love. You have already saved my life more times than I could ever repay.” Joshua's eyes fluttered, struggling to keep open. “Joshua? Joshua!” Her hand moved to his chest. The once strong and rhythmic heartbeat of her partner was replaced with a weak murmur. “Your heart is slowing! You’ve got to stay conscious! Joshua!”
 
“I’m not going anywhere,” he replied, sleepily. “I just need to… close my eye for a bit.” He drew his hand up to her neck, feeling its cool smoothness against his numb fingertips.
 
“No, Joshua! Do not give up! A person like you doesn’t do that! Not now! Not ever!”
 
Joshua couldn’t help but close his heavy eyelids. The last sounds he could hear were Elle’s desperate screams fading further and further into the distance, until finally, he heard nothing at all.
 
“There and Back”
 
“Now serving number sixty-three.”
 
Joshua snapped awake and he found himself back in a familiar waiting area. The same stuffy carpet, desk, couches, and fake plants he’d seen before in his dream were perfectly recreated. Even the beautiful painting of the ocean lapping over the shore with seagulls flying overhead was there and looking more vibrant and detailed than he remembered. He looked down at ticket stub in his hand which again had the number ‘64’ printed on it.
 
“Hello, Joshua,” a gentle voice spoke up; one that Joshua hadn’t heard in over ten years. He turned around and saw an all-too familiar man standing in front of a door, wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans.


"Dad?" asked Josh in disbelief.


"Punctual as always, eh? How are you feeling?" the older man asked with a smile.


"Never felt better. Is this a dream or am I actually dead?"


"This time it's real, son."
 
Joshua blinked with an “is that so?” expression on his face. He looked around the room and noted how bland and boring it all seemed.
 
"So this is what death's like. I expected something a bit more... heavenly." He said with a tinge of disappointment.


"This is just a place to help you get adjusted to the change. Many people struggle to accept the fact that they’re dead and have trouble moving on. I’m here to guide you and to help you make the right choice."


"What choice?"
 
"To either go back and complete the destiny you made a promise to, or go through that door onto your next adventure. Everyone's excited to meet you - especially Grandma. She won't shut up about you."


"Well, that's a pretty dumb choice, Dad. Who wouldn't want to go straight to Heaven? What the hell are we even waiting for? Let's go now."
 
Joshua eagerly started for the door, his father in tow. At the edge of his mind something tugged back. He stopped and looked back down at the ticket. The number seemed to blur oddly. Josh turned around and slowly pulled his gaze back up. A dark figure stood only a few feet away from him, wavering softly. "What is that? A demon? No, I think I’ve seen that somewhere before... I just can't remember where.”
 
The haze drifted closer. "You promised you wouldn't leave me, Joshua." It shook with every word. A vague tinge of femininity was present in its voice.


"What are you talking about? Wait, I think... there's something I'm still meant to do. Something important. Why can’t I remember?"


"She's waiting for you." Joshua's father said, nodding towards the blackened figure.


"Who’s waiting for me?"


"Your wife, son. Have you forgotten someone so beautiful so soon?"


"My wife? I never got married, Dad. That was always my dream, though. Guess it just wasn’t meant to be."


"Are you sure?” his father asked in feigned confusion. “That’s not what I heard.”


The peaceful painting on the wall dematerialised, and in its place, a three-dimensional close-up view of two familiar faces faded in.
 
"Married?" The darker, alien face asked as Joshua continued his delicate licking of her smooth, latex-like belly. "Two people promise to stay together forever," the plainly human visage replied. She gently pulled the human’s head away from her navel and look into his eyes.
 
"I promise. As for you?" she asked, almost sternly.
 
"I promise."
 
"Then it is done, we are ‘married’.” She cradled his head and forced him back to her tummy. “Forever. Yes."
 
The blurry mist near Joshua took on a more solid and familiar shape.
 
"I do know you..." Joshua stepped forward.


"Joshua, please come back to me," the black being whispered.


"Ellen. Now I remember." He crumpled the paper and let it drop to the ground.


"She needs you right now, son. You two have so much more you need to do together,” said the father with a reassuring hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Heaven will always be here waiting for you.”


"How could I have allowed myself to forget? I'll never leave you again, Elle. I promise." The two fully embraced each-other before sealing the moment with a loving kiss on each-other’s lips.


A burst of static rung through the air. "Now serving number sixty-four," the garbled, disembodied voice announced.


"I’ve made my choice, Dad. I want you to send me b--"
 
No sooner than Josh could finish the word did he find himself instantly back in his punished body, coughing up blood, and feeling the pain of broken bones, but very much alive.
 
“Goodbye, my love.” Elle sobbed into his shoulder. The only being in the entire universe who ever loved her was gone, and she was now completely and utterly alone. No more joy. No more warmth. Just the cold misery and isolation of her floating tomb to slowly die and rot away in.
 
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” A bloodied hand laid itself atop her smooth, black dome and gently stroked it. The xenomorph quickly glanced up in shock to see her husband staring back at her with a tired grin.
 
“Joshua! You’re alive! I thought you were dead!” she exclaimed in tearful jubilation, and held the once-dead man close to her bosom in a firm but loving embrace.
 
“I think I was. I came back for you.” Elle pushed her lips against his, a happy hum ran through his head, calming him. He softly sighed and squeezed her as tightly as his battered form allowed.
 
“Endings and Beginnings”
 
“ARGH! Jeeeez, careful where you’re putting that thing, will ya!” Joshua complained.
 
He was laying face down on a fairly sterile metal examination table in a miserably small medbay. Elle loomed over him, picking and prodding at him with an awkwardly held surgical tool. The cold instrument pressed against his skin, almost shocking him awake every time Elle pushed it against him. “Did you really need to take my pants off for this?”
 
“The fabric would only interrupt the process. Hold still.”
 
“Y’ouch!” A strange pang of pain split through his leg.
 
“Cease your whining, you big baby. We’re nearly finished.”
 
“You try having a bullet taken out without any drugs to numb the pain.”
 
“My blood would have dissolved it before then. Just one of the many privileges of being a perfect organism, I suppose,” She pushed forward with the tool.
 
“You can be so cruel, Ellen Briggs, you know that?” He gave a pained smile.
 
“I love when you call me by that name.” Another dull pain pushed against his body. “There we are.” Elle held the device in front of Joshua’s face. A small fragment of shrapnel was clutched between the tool’s bloodied prongs.
 
“We’re done, then? Or are you finding any excuse to admire my ass?”
 
Elle quickly discarded the tool, tossing it into a nearby sink. “As much as I admire your ass, dear, we’re not done just yet. The wound still needs to be sealed to avoid infection.” She picked up an oblong object that burned brightly at one end as she manipulated it. “I believe this is the right one.”
 
“‘Believe’? Can’t we just put a bandage on it and call it a day?”
 
“That won’t be sufficient.” She patted his thigh. “Just this one more and we’ll retire.”
 
Joshua grit his teeth and clenched his fists. A searing sensation graced his skin. It wasn’t as repulsive as having something deep into his flesh, but it was still painful all the same. An impossibly long minute later and the torment passed. He let out an exhausted sigh and relaxed.
 
“That’s everything, then, right? No more excruciating pain and terrible bedside manner?”
 
The cauterizer clattered next to the extraction tool in the pristine sink. “It is done. I apologize for not being able to save your eye. I’m still new to technology and medicine.” Elle said, dejectedly.
 
“Don’t worry about it.” Josh replied merrily to keep her spirits up. “I always thought I’d look cool with an eyepatch, anyway.”
 
“I’m afraid I don’t have a lollipop to give you...” She offered her hand, which Joshua gladly took up, pulling himself into a more comfortable sitting position. “...So this will just have to do.” she said before kissing him passionately on the lips. His trousers glided into view, hanging from her long, bladed tail.
 
“Ah, you know what? Keep ‘em.” said Josh.
 
“I think I would have kept them regardless.”
 
Elle sat down on the edge of the bed beside her husband, unintentionally causing it to tilt under her weight.
 
“Do you think there’s a chance Rene will return?” she asked with mild concern. The thought of that undying monster one day coming back for them in the night filled her with dread.
 
“Not a fart’s chance in a tornado. This isn’t a horror movie and he’s no Jason Voorhees. The guy is history, and if he does somehow manage to scrape his face back together and come back for us, we’ll be ready for him.”
 
She squeezed his hand, happy for putting her mind at rest. “I’m glad you’re so confident.”
 
“I think I’m ready for the best sleep of my life.” He stretched his back and yawned. “Didn’t happen to see which room was the bedroom, did ya?”
 
“You cannot sleep in this condition.” She scraped off a bit of dried blood from his cheek. It was funny to him how a xenomorph was more concerned about personal hygiene than a human being.
 
He shrugged. “I’ve slept in worse conditions. Seriously, there was this one time where Sammy and I had to--"
 
“Tell me later. Come, I believe I saw a lovely bathing area when I was awaiting for the fluid in your lungs to drain.”
 
“Eh, didn’t really need to picture that.” He winced.
 
Elle took his hand, guiding him forward. She ducked under the doorway and moved out into the hallways. They worked their way around endlessly similar hallways, annoyingly reminding Joshua of their time planetside, but he was mostly surprised at the intricacy of what he originally believed to be a pirate junker. The few doors he could peer into had fairly luxuriously-prepared rooms, or perhaps they simply seemed that way after several lonely nights in a flimsy cot. They might have been a band of psychotic killers, he thought, but they sure knew how to travel in style.
 
Elle rounded a doorway, Joshua trailing quickly after. Inside was an oddly-designed area that had a pool smack dab in the middle of it. Wooden walls with intricate designs carved into them and a carpeted floor with an exquisite floral pattern made the room feel as though Joshua were stepping into an old painting. It was noticeably stuffier as well, giving it a more homely air than the lifeless halls outside. A large wardrobe sat to the side of the room, flanked on both sides by extravagant tables.
 
Joshua whistled. “I can’t believe they were willing to give all this away in exchange for some lousy intel on the Company. Crazy.”
 
“They would have tried to kill us no matter what we told them. That’s the reason they were so ready to part with their ship: they weren’t planning to let us live long enough to use it.”
 
“That’s a good point.”
 
“Anyway, I would rather not spend another second thinking about them. I would rather devote my time to more pleasant thoughts, such as our lives together on our very own planet.” Elle approached the pool and stood beside it, gently dipping her tail into the water. “The water seems fine.”
 
Cautiously, the alien woman entered the body of water. She shivered upon submerging, feeling the water rush over her body. It was a strange experience but a lovely one, nonetheless. After relishing the curious sensations, she looked up at Joshua. “Care to join me?”
 
“One second!” He hurriedly moved over to the wardrobe and opened it. Inside was an array of tools and cleaning supplies. He practically tore off his clothing and hastily stuffed them inside, then grabbed a few bottles and towels on his way out.
 
The man drifted closer to his woman, getting comfortable against her side. The gentle lapping of the water washing the dried blood away and the artificial hum of the ship helped him unwind. A sudden shock of pain in his leg caused Josh to wince. This was going to get annoying very quickly.
 
“Anything I can do to take your mind off the pain, my love?”
 
“Just this is fine.” He rubbed his head into her.
 
“Are you certain?” Something bumped against his groin. “You can’t hide your true feelings from me. We share a special bond now. You’ve felt it before, haven’t you?” Joshua’s mind was flooded by memories of the sadness he felt for Elle back then on the ship. Was that what she was feeling, too? Were his dreams also influenced by this “bond”?
 
“Yes, they were.” spoke Elle, softly. Josh blinked in stunned confusion. “You can read my mind?”
 
“It would be more accurate to say I feel your mind. I can’t control you, or make you act against your will, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
 
“The thought never crossed my mind.”
 
“I know. You have been thinking other thoughts, though. Why do you hold yourself back from me?”
 
“Guess I’m still getting used to this whole relationship. Being lovers with a xenomorph wasn’t exactly how I imagined my life turning out. Not that I’d change that for anything in the galaxy, of course. I won’t be holding back anything from you anymore.”
 
“Good. I want you to feel you can do anything with me; to be yourself fully, without reservations.”
 
She leaned in and placed her head lovingly on his chest, reassured that his heartbeat was once again strong and rhythmic. Josh placed his hand over the small of her back and pulled her in closer to him, causing her smooth, wet breasts to press against his groin area, causing his penis to expand and throb against them, which didn’t go unnoticed by the female xenomorph.
 
She grinned, and teasingly massaged her breasts against his ever-growing member even more, relishing in the delights of making him squirm and moan with ecstasy. “Does that feel good, my love?”
 
Joshua responded with a kiss and a lick to the top of Elle’s smooth head, an obvious indicator to her that he wanted more. Always more.
 
Suddenly, the entire room lit up like a Christmas tree. A dazzling array of bright and colourful stars twinkled and glistened across every surface of the room. As Elle looked around with sense of childlike sense of wonder, her smooth, latex-like body also became illuminated with the reflected light of a trillion stars.
 
“What is happening?” she asked with amazement.
 
“”Must be one of this room’s hidden features,” his never took his eye away from his beloved as she became enamoured in the heavenly experience. “You look so beautiful in starlight. I wish I could be in this moment with you forever.”
 
She looked down to see her one and only, gazing starry-eyed at her with so much love. She smiled and drifted closer to him, cuddling him tightly.
 
“Just think: within a month, we’ll have an entire planet in which to call Home.” he said with a feeling of contentment.
 
“Home. That would be a suitable name for it.” Elle said, gently.
 
“‘Home’ it is, then.” he said, placing his forehead onto hers and interlocked their hands.
 
“A home for us and our family.”
 
Something about the way she said that struck Josh as odd, until the realisation quickly dawned on him. He leaned his head back and stared Elle straight in the face where her eyes would be if she had them.
 
“Are you saying what I think you're saying?”
 
She smiled and stared down at her stomach, circling it ever-so delicately with her long fingers. “Another life is growing within me. I can feel it.”
 
Joshua was flabbergasted at the news. “Fatherhood, huh? I guess dreams really do come true.” 


They embraced once again: Elle placing her arms over his shoulders, Joshua placing his around the small of her back, and both pressing their bodies against the other’s with a burning, overflowing need. Their naked forms mashed together with an elegant slowness that sent waves through the pool. Her tail snaked up his back, gently pushing him into her with every movement. He was hers, there was no doubt about it at this point.  They submerged into the clear blue in a tight embrace; their interconnected bodies elegantly danced and spiralled weightlessly as they began to make love. They relished the feeling; the closeness they felt for each-other. The drum of their hearts beating in perfect harmony. It was bliss, plain and simple.
 
The lone starship, “Costaguana”, continued its monumental pilgrimage into the vast, unknown reaches of space. Its voyage into the heavens unhindered by anyone, or anything.
 
Unto a new world.
 
A new home.


A new beginning.






























>PRIORITY ONE
>LOCATE WHEREABOUTS OF HYBRID XENOMORPH SPECIMEN #64.
>INVESTIGATE ANY POTENTIAL OFFSPRING.
>INSURE RETURN OF ALL SPECIMENS FOR ANALYSIS.
>ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY.
>PVT J. BRIGGS EXPENDABLE.
>END OF TRANSMISSION.
 
● ● ●