Part 1
How the Xeno Works:
As a youngling (hatchling to mini version of Xeno: will be from the egg to little ways past the chest burster)- uses echolocation (use of sound like bats) due to undeveloped eyes
"Teen Years" (mini v. to adult: from beginning to take the form of the xeno to the actual bodily development of the xeno) - little use of echolocation due to development of electroreception though both are used frequently. Can switch between them though electroreception is commonly used. Cannot use both at the same time - would cause confusion and complications.
Adulthood - in this case, we have a large warrior type that is bred, eggs all have the slightest difference DNA in them that allows for different classes of xeno. All types will develop their eyesight effectively but in the case of a warrior, they are prone to be more nocturnal. They use eyesight less because of the sensitivity. In case they are blinded by the light (eyes are sensitive for every class), warriors have the habit of naturally relying on other senses including echolocation and electroreception.
Intelligence expands through experience, but most heavily relies on the host. For example, and not as foreshadowing or a hint or anything, if the host is a typical white male who can speak English and German, then the xenomorph would inherit the basic vocabulary of the two languages. They could, of course, learn other languages, but they are born with the basic knowledge of their host's intelligence.
Being social creatures, it is rare to survive without the Queen or hive communication. Drones or workers will not typically survive without direction. Royal guards, those who guard the Queen, will most likely be able to survive the longest but will go into a frenzy looking for that communication. Warriors are the same just different that they will survive a shorter period of time than Royal Guards.
Hunters, a class between warrior and drone, is more like a stage if a drone begins to grow into the warrior class (often viewed as a mutation - never on purpose, but strangely common).
As a scale from longest to shortest, survival rate is from Royal Guard, Warrior, Hunter then Drone/ Worker.
The scientists couldn't have hoped for more. With little sacrifice, they had their third xenomorph on board. According to the DNA samples, it would be warrior class. The other two were both drones and so far, experimenting had been going horribly. They were already weakening due to lack of communication with the Hive.
Unlike other ships, they had no queen aboard in case a break out occurred, which was being a frequent thing. With only three on board, it would be easy to keep under control. Once they died, three or so more eggs would be delivered to continue the experimentation.
As predicted, the drones died out fairly quickly. The warrior was still in its early stages, too young to do the real experiments on. No need to lose this one so quickly, by being impatient and starting early. However, the little bugger escaped during the removal of the dead drones.
Full panic went all throughout the ship. Vents were being closed off and personnel locked in their quarters. Their motion sensors picked nothing up. No tracking chip had been placed either.
The scientists wanted to wait just before the skin hardens to implant one. As younglings, their skin is soft, allowing a chip to be implanted easily, but then, they would rip the chip out, not caring if they were hurt in the process. If their skin was given time to prepare to harden, the implanted chip would slip right in and then be "sealed" inside.
They would scratch at the spot for a couple of days and then, they'd forget about it.
Marshalls led in marines for a full-scale search but nothing was found. Some say it left through a ship that had been docked but the other crew had found nothing.
Life returned back to the ship. The alien must have left through a shuttle pod that had been sent out with waste. Though there was no proof the thing was on there, it was probable and the most accepted theory.
Little Henrietta didn't quite understand why she had been locked up in her room. Her father, a marshal, explained nothing. He threw her inside and locked her in. While she had been, beforehand, given rations to last, she had no access to the public bathrooms on her living quarter's floor. Other than wetting herself on several occasions, Henrietta did fine. Ish.
Once everyone was free to go, she ran to the bathroom to wash and properly use the facility. She was thankful, not alone. Her father hadn't come to check up on her, too busy with his usual duties.
Actually, that wasn't even her real father. She was adopted into the family by her deceased adoptive mother, not necessarily a fact that had been thrown into her face, but her father rarely kept anything secret between them. Her mother had been diagnosed with cancer and died shortly after. They had found it too late, Henrietta was told.
Henrietta just assumed that was his way of grieving. Susan, a teacher at the ship's school, told her that some people have odd ways of dealing with their grievances. Work was her father's.
Henrietta had seen the xenomorph herself when she wandered into the labs. Often, she made her father a sandwich for lunch and on the way to taking it to him, she had taken a wrong turn.
Instead of kicking her out, a scientist had a helper give the sandwich to her father while she explained xenomorphs to her. Her father had been furious and Henrietta banned from the lab.
To her, it was sad to see the little creature all curled up in the center of the room, no blankets or anything. It looked uncomfortable and cold. Waving goodbye to it, her father dragged her from the lab and back to her room.
For a moment, it was as if it had noticed her because it looked up, tailing sliding on the floor, back and forth. But it could have been startled or curious about the sudden noise aka her father yelling.
Now that she and the other passengers were free, Henrietta grabbed her coloring book and headed outside her room. Vents were reopened and free for her to use as a getaway. The school was canceled for a few days due to the panic. It was like school was canceled due to snow, only space doesn't have snow.
Crawling through the vents, careful to keep quiet in case she was caught. Henrietta made her way to an open section. Pipes ran through this area, keeping it warm all the time plus it provided a nice spot for her to set many pillows and blankets.
Grates were above most of the area, so if anyone looked down, they would be able to see her, however, the grates only covered the sections where pipes were. Removing the grates gave easy access to the pipes down below without the hassle of crawling all over the place. Past that section was a large nook where Henrietta stored her stuff.
Now, she had some interesting company.
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11/12: Hey! For any new or old followers of the story, I am replacing chapters with better grammar and such. Also, some new scenes have been added so make sure to look for those! I noticed that the format had gotten messed up for quite a few of the chapters. Those weren't errors on my part but on the uploading. These will be fixed. I have new chapters on the way and if there are any requests to see these guys like on vacation (someone already called this one but as an example) or anything of the sort, just PM or leave a Review for me!
I mentioned it in a later chapter, but old Author Notes are still attached to the chapters. Any new ones have a date attached to them like this one and a few others you'll see with different dates just when I added those during editing.