Yet another chapter is complete! No flaming me about the animals in this chapter; it was the scientists, not me! Besides, more humans suffered than animals. Ora is the name given to the Komodo Dragons by the natives of Indonesia. X-13 picked that up from one of the scientist's minds when she was scanning them.
Chapter 12
X-13 spent several happier weeks in the lab. The young Xenomorph had matured into a large, glossy female Praetorian. X-13 had decided to name her Skye because her iridescence was mostly blue. X-13 was currently clinging to a thick, knotted rope, dangling down head first. She was carefully unraveling it since she had nothing better to do. Skye was swimming around in the pool and One was dozing under a wooden platform. X-13 had been extending her awareness as far as she could, but so far, the humans had done nothing with the eggs. Suddenly, the food hopper banged and a large amount of meat slid onto the tray. X-13 flipped off the rope just as One came clambering out from underneath the platform and Skye leapt out of the water. One wouldn't let her eat on her own; he insisted on ripping the meat into small chunks and feeding it to her. He was very protective of her and affectionate. X-13 wasn't quite sure of his advances. Skye was much less talkative than One and tended to be distant; she preferred being alone. X-13 didn't know if it was just her personality or if it was because she had not grown up with the voices of the hive constantly in her head. X-13 accepted a chunk of meat from One, delicately pulling it into her mouth with her tongue. He nuzzled her. X-13 sighed, confused with her feelings and returned it.
…..
Later in the day, after nightfall, X-13 felt the eggs stir. Skye raised her head from the floor where she had been lying and hissed softly.
:MATRIARCH. THE CHILDREN HAVE AWAKENED. MANY, MANY CHILDREN. WE MUST FIND.: X-13 nodded, eyes shut, feeling for them. The humans had finally started experimenting with the eggs. She smiled cruelly and let her mind and senses wander.
She saw through the eyes of each scientist watching over the hosts. X-13 had learned this trick only a few days ago with One and Skye. She had been casting out with her mind, then concentrated on One. To her surprise, she had been able to perceive the world exactly as he could! The world was in amazing focus and it was odd not having eyes, but she could still sense everything. X-13 could even feel the humans on the other side of the windows, which were otherwise opaque to him. She tried it with Skye and practiced until she could do it as easily as breathing. Next X-13 tried it with humans. They were insensitive and hardly felt any of their environment. At first they could feel her doing it, like One and Skye could, but she soon could do it well enough so the humans never suspected a thing. Even so, with her long hours of practice, it was difficult for her for long periods of time. X-13 also discovered that Hager was particularly susceptible to her mind. X-13 would ride in his mind for over an hour at a time, exploring the laboratory with him. She couldn't read the human's thoughts exactly, but she could pick up on their feelings and had an idea of what they were thinking of at that moment, though nothing more than haziness, filled with random words and images. As she moved through each scientist's mind she saw the creatures that hosted the young Xenomorphs. She saw four dogs, bloody scratches on their faces from fighting the facehuggers. X-13 saw two enormous lizards that the scientists called Komodo Dragons, She saw two hulking bears; it amused her that such large beasts could fall to something as small and delicate as a facehugger. She saw three striped cats, paws burned from the acid blood of the facehuggers. Another cat lay dead, half its head eaten away by the acid, mangled facehugger beside it. The last set of cages held ten humans, unfortunates that never knew what happened to them. She stayed with the humans throughout the time it took for the facehuggers to drop off, despite the agonizing headache and crippling exhaustion that quickly crept up on her. Then X-13 abandoned the human's minds and sent welcoming feelings and encouragement to the chestbursters before dropping into a long sleep.
…..
Late the next day the young Xenomorphs had grown enough to rip their way out. X-13, One and Skye drew odd looks from the humans observing them; they had barely moved all day.
…..
As time passed, the Xenomorphs grew into magnificent specimens. X-13 picked up on their looks by again using the humans. The regular, human bred Xenomorphs looked like any other Xenomorph she had ever seen. There was one male Praetorian amongst the Drones. The bear Xenomorphs were both Drones, but massive ones! Heavily muscled with long claws and reduced back spines, they nearly reached the size of the Praetorians. The dog Xenomorphs were mostly quadruped and lacked back spines. The tiger Xenomorphs possessed long, curved talons and were also quadruped. X-13 fancied that she could see faint striping on them. The Komodo Dragon Xenomorphs were slow moving, quadruped and had heavy tails. They drooled more than usual and had many back-curved teeth. The back spines were swept back and thinner. One was a female Praetorian. X-13 decided to name the two Praetorians Gray and Ora. She glowed with pride over the new Xenomorphs. They listened to her requests, put up with the experiments inflicted upon them because she promised that freedom was on its way.