The xenomorph continued to twist and turn in the human's grip, but with her tail caught between his chest and arm, it was all pointless energy spent.
She stopped moving after awhile, hissing quietly instead, as she devoted her energy on sensing her surroundings instead. The terrified scientist was still near, even if the marine's scents were the ones she could feel the best. Aggressive. First to die had she only been older. But there was also the occasional changes in the air and scents that told her that other humans passed by now and then.
Only cold metal walls everywhere, cramped into narrow areas. Nothing smelled right at all, it was just enemy territory. The voices from her Queen had grown silent for now, as if suddenly subdued.
It didn't take long for the area to change, from a narrow corridor to a larger room. There were several humans in there; none of them carried the marine's aggressive scent though. But neither did they have the nervous stench around them.
The grip around the xenomorph grew harder, causing her to shriek in dismay, returning to her trying to bite at the gloved hand holding her.
A shadow landed over her, causing her to stop again, focusing on the vibrations and sounds in the air.
"So you found it. I thought the subject managed to escape the pens," a new human said, as the hand holding her suddenly changed direction, before letting go of her. She fell a bit before landing inside some small box, shrieking and jumping upwards, her jaws opening and shutting again with a surprisingly loud sound for her size. But the enemy hand she had aimed for was quicker than her and she could feel something block her path above her. Trapped.
"Your loose subject got himself trapped in an empty pen. Didn't get further before the bug decided to pop," the marine said, as he placed his hand on the small transparent box that the chestburster had landed in.
"Anyway, I should go make sure all the traces after the xenomorph is really taken care off. Don't let the bloody thing loose now…" With that the marine walked out of the room, grunting displeased as he did so.
The scientist that had accompanied him to this room remained, looking nervously at his older colleagues, before clearing his throat.
"Anyone have the files on the host?" he asked, regaining some of his cool, now that the alien was safely tucked away.
"Right here, Matt," one of them said, handing him a thin datapad. Matt took it, already reading it as he headed back to the box, scratching the brown stubble on his cheek. His features and movements were somewhat different from the other scientists. He wasn't very calm, almost always twitching in one way or another. Nor did he seem to take care of himself very well. There were shadows under his eyes and he was thin, seeming almost malnourished. And yet he remained one of the youngest and most brilliant scientists in the compound. Whether anyone else wondered about his mental state, it wasn't brought up where he could hear it.
"Intelligent one, eh? Hiding under the clothes of the very man you killed," he snorted to the box and the xenomorph lurking in it.
"We like early displays of such behaviors. It tells us in which security category to put you in."
He knelt down next to the box, tapping a finger to its transparent surface before focusing back to the datapad in his other hand.
"Hatched from Milton Davis… subject 16 so far," he read out aloud. "That makes you D16."
It was a crude joke in the compound. 'Honoring' the unwilling hosts by naming the Xenomorphs after them. Making their legacy in the creation of the perfect weapon.
"Matt, stop flirting with the specimen," one of the scientists called from the other end of the room. "It needs to be prepared for its growth cycle."
Matt stood up quickly enough, still clicking away on the datapad before pulling out a thin plate from it that said 'D16.' He attached it to the hatch, before lifting the whole box over to another table with wheels on it.
The scientist who had called out to him, nodded before heading over to the control panel by the door, punching in a few numbers. Very soon another marine and a man dressed in grey overalls entered, the latter taking the moveable table with him back out.
Matt watched them leave over the edge of the computer screen he now stood by, before turning his focus back to his work.
The xenomorph hissed in displeasure at being trapped in this unfamiliar situation. As much as the narrow space and soft vibrations of movement reminded her of her former home inside the living host, this container just smelled very off. It reeked of humans.
D16 bent her head to the side, as the vibrations stopped after an unknown amount of time. Not until the container was abruptly lifted upwards, did she announce her annoyance with a loud hiss, trying to keep her balance during the now swinging movements of the box.
One of the humans had picked it up, the heavily armored one with the aggressive stench. Shortly after the vibrations stopped, only to be replaced with the sudden simple sound of the hatch being opened.
The chestburster literally pounced out from the box, not to tear at whatever had released her, but rather to escape from it. She landed further off, already shrieking and hissing towards the shadow and the source of vibrations.
The marine walked out of the room, leaving her clearly alone in her new surroundings. After the typical vibration and sound of a door closing, she took in what was going on around her. This room was different. It smelled familiar in a way.
Very soon could she pinpoint why. There was a black substance further off in the otherwise plain room; substance she knew had been created by her own kind.
D16 headed over there quickly enough, slithering across the cold floor, before settling in the webbed mucus. It didn't occur to her why she had been released or why something like this suddenly existed in her presence. All she knew was that it meant safety.
There was even enough nutrients for her to feed on and grow. Grow into something way more powerful.