After Hannah left, Jar-hidda had time to think, not just about their plan to escape with the fake-human's help, but also what was said between them, his knowledge of the word 'love,' and the possibility of Bhu'ja-zhu-ju'dha's wisdom.
More than one Path...
Such ideas were blasphemy, and for an arbiter to hold on to such a belief...
Jar-hidda rattled in his throat, sitting as if poised for meditation, but his mind did not allow for him to enter zazin. Too many thoughts whirled through, too many questions demanded answers, and guilt at abandoning something he had held as truth for so long continued to eat at him.
Saying he would let the Path freeze over was easy, actually letting go of it was something different. He had no doubts he was making the right choice in that; Hannah never fit on the Path he walked, on the one he had been taught to strictly follow until the day he found a good death, and Hannah had become more important to him than anything else. He knew that continuously trying to bring her along the Path would end in her death, that had been the message of his dream: her walking into a blackness that he could not follow.
He would not stand for it. And since she could not walk his Path, he would walk hers instead.
And just maybe, that was still a Path of honor.
It went against almost everything he knew, every lesson that had been beaten into him, every tenet that he had almost died for, and letting go of it was like trying to shake off claws that dragged along his skin.
But this was his choice.
For once.
His nearly closed eyes opened fully when he saw a change in the humans. All of them suddenly looked up and around, seemingly confused as they began to move about. He felt a drop in temperature, from the comfortable heat they had been keeping him in, to something Hannah would have felt more at ease with. He sat unmoving as they milled around, had a discussion, and left four humans inside with him while the others left.
It seemed that the plan Hannah and Fred had come up with was being put into action now. He kept his eyes barely open as he forced himself to clear his mind, shaking off any creeping thought or emotion as he prepared himself. Time passed and humans came and left, sometimes it was the soldiers, sometimes it was the non-combatants. There was some kind of uproar going on. If he had to wager, Jar-hidda believed that power to the ship had been disabled, accounting for the temperature drop and the concern in the humans.
Finally, he saw them begin to pack equipment, and Jar-hidda anticipated that they would be getting ready to move him. That was when he would make his escape, he decided, and began to plot different scenarios in his mind of how to deal with the armed humans first, retrieve his gear and meet with Hannah. The mental exercises finally calmed him enough to enter a trance. Not quite zazin, but mesh'in'ga; applying the memories and experience of his past to the potential choices and outcomes in the future, reducing the chances that he would be surprised by anything the humans tried.
He felt himself prepared for everything, until a lone individual entered, frantically pointed at everyone and gestured for them to leave. After some arguments, both the soldiers and the scientists took the equipment they could carry and filed out of the room, leaving the one woman alone with him.
His eyes opened again, staring at her as she stood in the center of the room, looking back at him. She then began to undress. Jar-hidda rattled in confusion, shifting and standing from his kneeling position. He tilted his head as she sauntered forward, resting a hand on the console that controlled everything about his cage. With the tap of several buttons the door to his cage opened, and she strode to the entryway.
The scent of her musk hit him and he snorted and tossed his tresses.
He had to admit, he had not accounted for this outcome.
"Look at you," she spoke, her voice barely a whisper, her desire in her words very apparent.
"I know you can't understand what I'm saying," she breathed, Jar-hidda tilting his head at her words, "but understand that you are my future, the future of the human race. Predator-human hybrids will send humanity to a level we thought could only be obtained through the Engineers."
The woman stepped forward, out of the entryway and towards him. He watched her, but didn't move, looking down as she laid a delicate hand on his abdomen. She gave a shuddering breath, and looked up into his eyes.
"Take me," she whispered insistently, the heat in her body betraying what she meant, "I will give you what she denied you," her hand began to slip down over his stomach, "give me the future."
It was the most gentle touch he had ever felt from someone who desired his body. Her hand trembled as it moved past his center, past where his abdominal muscles ended. His hand engulfed her wrist as he snatched it, pulling it firmly away from him, just before her fingers reached his bulb. The woman gave a cry of surprise and her eyes searched his, confusion clear on her face. He hissed a breath and grinned, upper mandibles spreading.
"Ah ah ah," he scolded, waggling a finger, "no touching."
With little effort he lifted the woman off her feet, dangling her by her wrist in front of him.
"You!" she gasped, "you speak English!"
Jar-hidda rattled, "and Nihongo, but that is irrelevant to you," he walked forward, keeping his eye on her as he moved, "Hannah and I speak often in English so that my people don't understand what we're saying. Makes insulting them behind their backs very easy, especially the females."
He chuckled, "you must be Dr. Nielson. Hannah said you were obsessed with us loving and mating each other."
He turned and set the woman down, his frame blocking the doorway to the cage so that she couldn't escape, though it seemed she had no intentions of running, standing still, surprise written on her face. With a grin, Jar-hidda drew his claws along where his skin was still inflamed by the electricity burn. She watched the motion and fear filled face.
"You were right about one thing," he growled reaching forward, "I love her," he gripped Nielson's shoulders, "but I have no interest in breeding her, or anyone for that matter."
With controlled effort he tossed Nielson to the back of the cage, "now sit there and think about what you've done."
He moved to the console and mimicked the commands he had seen entered so many times. The door to the cage shut just as Nielson tried to throw herself out of it, her shoulder impacting the surface and she began to scream and beat the walls in silence. Jar-hidda growled in his throat, looking down at the console, recalling the button to press to begin the electricity. His claw hovered over it, before it withdrew.
No. Not taking revenge would still be a code he kept on his new Path. Nothing good ever came from revenge. That was the person he wanted to be for Hannah.
With a snort and a toss of his tresses, he looked to the frantic woman and rattled, "you're lucky," and turned, stalking out of the room.
The door was easy to manage and the floor was completely empty. He was free, and he knew that his equipment was here, somewhere down the long hallway, on either the first or second floor. He went first to the nearest door first, figuring that he had time to either find his things and meet up with Hannah, or take long enough looking that Hannah came to him.
The door was easy to open, he suspected it was due to the loss of power in the ship, but the room was empty, save for bulky equipment that were likely deemed non-essential. Rattling in disappointment he left the room and moved to the next one.
His claws barely touched the door handle when he heard a noise. He looked down the way to where Hannah would be coming from, but there was no body of heat. He heard the sound again, and was able to now determine that it was coming from the floor above him. Silently he moved towards one of the stairs that took him to the balcony that circled around, leading to more doors but leaving the center open, giving him view of the lower floor in case Hannah arrived. But the source of the noise needed to be dealt with first. He would not allow a human like Nielson or Weyland to succeed in an ambush against them.
Without his mask and wrist computer, he was forced to throw himself back to the basics on keeping hidden. Things were not as detailed but he could tell the walls from the floor and the railing, and make out where the doors were. His ears did the rest, leading him down the way to where he heard the scuffling past one of the doors. Here was where it got tricky. Opening the door was sure to alert whoever was inside of his presence. Because the window on this side was made of glass he could not see through to determine who was there and how many, though he guessed only one by the sound.
He looked above the door for possible entry through the ceiling, but found none that would not create a lot of noise. The door was his best bet.
Holding in a rattle of annoyance, he crouched and made himself as small as possible to the side of the door, slowly lowering the handle until the latch was loose, and then with a tap he retracted his arm so that the doorway was empty as the door swung inward.
The shuffling sound stopped and Jar-hidda waited. After a moment he peered past the threshold and saw no one within. He kept one of his tusks from clicking in confusion and he leaned further into the doorway, slowly standing to his feet and entering the room cautiously. It was like the other one, devoid of paper and other easily carried things and left behind were empty canisters and bulky equipment. There was a single table in the middle that was neatly set with instruments, some of which were on their side, possibly knocked over from the humans' rush to leave. Jar-hidda considered that the source of the noise may be hiding behind the table.
He crouched in a battle ready stance and silently moved around the furniture, hesitating at the edge before leaning over, claws raised and ready, but there was no one there.
He rattled in frustration.
A scream answered him.
His blood chilled as he reacted immediately, dodging towards one of the walls, the equipment on the table suddenly seemed to explode and scatter across the room.
Jar-hidda roared.
Without the mask, the kainde amedha was nigh-invisible to him; a ghost, mere glimpses of movement. The yautja moved away from the wall, hearing the crash of chitin against the hard surface. He turned his head to try to glimpse his enemy, knowing full well that there had only ever been one yautja who had defeated a kainda amedha bare-handed.
And Yeyinde had at least been able to see his prey.
Jar-hidda could only use the sound of the hissing, the screaming, and the sound of skittering claws to determine where the kainde amedha was, and it was only enough to keep dodging out of its way as it came after him.
He pushed the idea of heading back to the floor out of his mind; he would only give the kainde amedha space to out-maneuver him. Here in the small room it was at least contained, and he had some sliver of a chance.
As he moved around the room, keeping continuously on the move as he darted one way and then the other, he swung his arm, scattering more and more of the small abandoned equipment to the ground, all the while his opponent screeched and pursued him. Once he had made enough of a mess, Jar-hidda turned on his heel and snarled. His eyes cast to the ground and saw the objects he had thrown about shifting in a path.
With a roar he charged that path and felt his body impact the slick shell of the kainde amedha's body. He grabbed what he could, feeling claws rake down his back, and swung himself around, throwing his weight into tossing the kainde amedha away against a wall. He saw the cabinets on the wall crumple, and the items below scatter. He could see the barest of an outline of the kainde amedha's shape, the same color as the rest of the surroundings, but it was gone in an instant, the beast's position determined only by the movement of debris on the ground.
Jar-hidda made one step towards the approaching creature before grabbing the table in the center of the room and flipping it end over end. With a screech it caught on seemingly nothing and began to bob as the kainde amedha pushed against it. The yautja leapt up and landed on the table, hearing something snap and his opponent screech in pain. It took only a few moments for the table to begin melting at his feet, but by then he had found the thing's tail and hopped off. He dragged the kainde amedha out from beneath the table, which snapped in half when it hit the floor, and he threw his shoulder into swinging the beast away from him, smacking it into the irregular shape of many cabinets. The impact caused doors to fall away from hinges, and Jar-hidda could see the arch where the kainde amedha blood had streaked against the walls. He would need to be careful.
The doors and trash thrashed around violently as the kainde amedha lashed out in agony at its wound, and Jar-hidda judged the area where it was writhing and moved to follow up with his attack. But his hands gripped nothing, and the thrashing sound and screaming stopped.
He bent his knees and held his claws ready, rattling as he looked around. The acrid taste of his opponent's blood was still in the air, and he listened for dripping to determine where his prey had gone. It lead him to the other side of the room, keeping his eyes peeled for the smallest indication that would give the beast's position away. Slowly, step by step, he followed the sound of flowing blood. He stopped before the crumpled cabinets where he had first thrown the kainde amedha, and saw that the sound was from some substance from within one of them.
Realizing his error, he turned, and a sharp pain ripped through him. He grabbed and felt the spines of the kainde amedha tail buried in his gut. He was lifted from the ground and heard the sound of hissing as he was dragged towards the ceiling. With a snarl he lashed out and struck the chitin of the kainde amedha. A tail-wound to his gut he could survive, a bite from the kainde amedha's inner mouth to his head he would not.
He struck out again and was whipped around with a shriek, the tail end sliding out of his stomach and he hit a wall, falling down onto broken glass. He pressed his hand to his wound and moved forward, needing to move or he would be caught.
Too slow.
He was barely on his feet, not even standing straight as a weight fell down on him, forcing him to go sprawling across the ground. He snarled as the claws of the kainde ameda dug into his shoulders. He twisted his body to try to throw the beast off. His enemy screamed in response and began to drag him across the floor. Jar-hidda's claws found no purchase on the tile. He scrambled to grab onto anything he could to slow himself, to tear himself from the beast's grip. He caught onto the handle of one of the cabinet doors. It was weak but it was stopped enough that he felt the claws pulling at him, struggling to keep him moving.
He turned to fight back. He would not be taken prey by the kainde amedha. He would not be a tesdae to their young. Hannah had already lost one love to that fate, he would not let her suffer another. The cabinet door broke from it's hinges and Jar-hidda turned, slamming the weak piece of wood against the weight on his back. It shrieked and the mass tumbled away. He dropped the splintered wood and turned, snarling at where he could hear the beast. It screamed back, giving away its position. He lunged from the ground. It hissed. Jar-hidda grappled the body of the kainde amedha, feeling the blood of his injured foe burning into his skin. He gripped where he could, using what he remembered of the body as he wrestled to get his arm behind its neck, twisting his body so that he could pin the head to the ground. The kainde amedha thrashed and Jar-hidda felt the bit of its tail glance across his side and then his shoulder. The beast was concerned about hitting itself. The yautja shifted to dig his knee into the neck of the kainde amedha, putting the weight of his body on the beast.
Invisible claws skittered against the ground. Jar-hidda snarled and snorted, tossing his tresses as his arms snaked around the head of his foe, his fingers digging into the teeth of the mouth, pulling them apart. He felt the inner mouth shoot out in protest, skinning his fingers to his knuckle, reminding him how he had lost his other fingers, but he continued to pull the mouth open wider. The beast's thrashing became more desperate, and the tail no longer missed its mark, stabbing repeatedly into Jar-hidda's back, no longer concerned about injuring itself.
With a resounding crack, the kainde amedha went limp and silent. Jar-hidda heaved for breath, releasing the broken jaw of the beast. His fingers bled from the strike of the inner mouth, and the sharpness of the teeth he had gripped. He reached and pulled the tail out of his back, stumbling to his feet and catching himself on the counter. His mandibles hung open as he panted, hand against the gravest of his wounds, and thought returned to him as the fire of battle left his blood.
The kainde amedha were free, which meant that Hannah was in grave danger. He needed his equipment, and to find her before they did. He turned, leaving the dead kainde amedha where it lay, invisible among the debris, and made his way to the door.
His jaw smacked against it and then the floor as he fell forward, his ankle caught in the grip of claws. Jar-hidda roared and looked but saw nothing as he was dragged across the ground, bumping the body of the kainde amedha he had defeated, and up into the air towards a hole in the ceiling. There were more screams, far too many claws ripping into his skin to be just one kainde amedha tearing him away.
His opponent had called for help with its dying breath, and the last thing Jar-hidda heard, was his own desperate cry for Hannah as he was engulfed by blackness.