***Well! I'm not dead and apologize for the lack of posting for the past little while. Was on a bit of a vacation and did not have the ability to work on Amun's story. But I'm back! And will be trying to post again on every Monday! Thank you for sticking with it for so long! Hope you are all doing great!***
Chapter 38: Modern Medicine
The warm wind blew against Amun's cheeks, beckoning him to close his eyes to focus on its whisper of a touch. It was pleasant and peaceful, everything he could want. He smiled and took in a deep breath, just enjoying the moment as the wind flicked his short hair. Sitting in his chain on the deck of the farm house, one that resembled the one on Jolene's family farm, he could only imagine a cup of coffee would make this moment better. He opened his eyes when he felt something in his hand. Looking down, he now held a hot cup of coffee, cream and sugar seemed to be added already.
"Huh, look at that." He remarked as he lifted the warm cup to his lips. Taking the first sip, he was surprised that it was French vanilla, one of his favorite flavors. It made his smile even bigger.
Taking his eyes from the cup, he looked around at the farm house that he had reconstructed from his memories. He had done a pretty good job with the details but it still didn't feel quite right. He looked over to the part of the deck he had accidentally destroyed when they have visited in the real world. Wood that was scattered on the far side of the deck still in pieces. He laughed at the memory.
A sudden rush of wind came across his face, the smell of bacon and eggs was thick upon it. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, remembering the meal that he had shared with Jolene while they had stayed here, it was the first real peaceful meal he had had after he had been changed. It was another good memory like most that were connected to this place. Too bad it was just a dream. He let loose a long sigh and took another sip of coffee.
He opened his eyes to the sound of the front door being opened and watched as Jolene came out wearing a beautiful white sun dress that danced in the light breeze. Her long blond hair flowed over her face and open shoulders. She was as beautiful as he remembered. As he looked upon her, his smile got even larger. He enjoyed seeing her, even though he knew she was not his true love, part of him did not care.
Amun gestured to another chair that was beside him, offering it to the standing woman. There was a hesitation in her eyes that Amun caught just before she put on a smile and made her way to the chair. As she began to sit, Amun threw out a question, knowing something was wrong.
"How bad?" He asked with a rather happy domineer, trying to keep the atmosphere enjoyable. Jolene looked to him quickly, realizing that she had failed to cover her concern.
"N-Nothing… why?" She was not very convincing, and Amun raised an eye brow at her.
"You are horrible at lying." He said with a giggle. "Your eyes give it away...How bad?" Jolene looked at him as the concern behind her eyes slowly took over her face.
"Your heart...s-stopped." She whispered.
"O... then...I'm dead?" Amun asked with a guess. He knew that it could not be the case or she would most likely not be present. Yet, it was in his head, perhaps she was just another dream.
"You have...another one." Amun let out a laugh, he was surprised to hear that, he had not known.
"O? Well, that's good, I guess. Something tells me that's not the only thing." He placed a hand onto hers as she stared at him. Her eyes starting to fill with tears.
"Your...not g-getting...better." She struggled to tell him the truth because she did not want to hear the words herself. He was dyeing and they didn't know how to help him. Something that no one wants to tell a loved one. Amun's own sadness grew as he looked at the face of Jolene and hated to see her like this. He smiled at her and placed a hand on her warm cheek.
"It's ok Jolene, I know this will be hard, but if it's my time, there is not much we can do about it." He gave her another large smile, trying to make her feel better. She suddenly shot to her feet and balled her fists at her sides. With fury in her eyes, she looked down at the man sitting before her.
"NO! I... just g-got you...back!" She yelled through her stutter. "You...can't...g-go!" Her stare was harsh and angry. Amun looked up at those blue eyes and could tell that she was serious and would not hear anything but.
"Jolene..I-"
"NO!" She cut him off quickly. Amun watched as she struggled with her words, so he patiently waited for her. Her lips tried to move and form the sounds, but noting came forth. So, he stood and started to pace along the deck while he thought about this sticky situation.
"Do you know what they have tried?" He asked. Jolene took a deep breath to calm herself, letting her shoulder relax, unclenching her fists.
"Drugs...and...a liquid...cryo chamber." She responded while watching the man pace. He nodded his head, agreeing that its something that he would have done back in his lab.
"Good good...do you know which drugs?" Jolene shook her head.
"Something...they have cooked...cooked up for...xeno's." It made sense that Richard would have his own cocktail of things that they invented specifically for Xeno's. They were far from human in their biology, but might share some traits considering they seem to steal something from their hosts while growing inside them. Amun started talking to himself which always helped him to problem solve.
"So...doing all they can but I'm still slipping backwards eh? Which really says that what they are doing... is squat. Thank you modern day medicine, the best that humans can prov-" Amun stopped in his tracks. "Humans... I'm a xenomorph...Richard has never had the chance to study a xenomorph king. He has no idea if the drugs he has developed for smaller aliens will even work on me. My biology might be different enough to cause problems." He worked things out as he continued to pace once more.
"Which makes sense, I tend to run a lot hotter than everyone else, apparently have two hearts and who else knows what. Which might mean that I would burn up the drugs before they have a change to do anything. Like telling someone who is hyper active to go to bed, but in this case, they need a hospital bed. Bed..."
Something seemed to click, he turned and looked at Jolene.
"I'm an alien king...human drugs won't work Jolene, but alien ones might." He said as he walked back to her and placed both hands on her shoulders. "Pull me out, quickly. Get me in a cocoon, use everyone who can to build it. Cover me with as much resin as you can. We need to let me heal like an alien, not a human! Quick!" Amun watched as her eyes shot wide as she realized what she needed to do. Then, her eyes softly closed and she disappeared.
Amun let out a sigh.
"I hope this works..." He said with a concerned smile.
Bobby just barely got out of the way as Jolene suddenly snapped to her feet from her silent slumber, and made her way towards Amun. Something about her posture told Bobby that she was angry, it was confirmed as the queen formed a fist and started punching the glass of the cryo tube. Jolene's daughters evacuated from her body, Bobby took a few steps back and Scarlette moved to her sister in case something went wrong. It was Jenna who spoke out first.
"Jolene! Stop it! You'll kill him!" She screamed over the loud sounds of the glass being struck. Jolene ignored her, she had to get him out, she had to get Amun free from the tube. She kept punching, her hands starting to hurt. Jenna looked to Charles for help, but the man only shrugged.
"She might know something we don't?" He said to Jenna as she stared at him. Jenna could only look back to the queen, not being able to stop her.
A loud crack cut through the room as Jolene started making progress.
"STOP HER!" Richard yelled from behind his computer screens. "He will die if he comes out of that chamber!"
Jenna and Charles ran out from behind the control consul and towards the attacking queen. Thankfully their footsteps were heard by Scarlette, who turned to face them. The Preatorian's arms shoot out and captured the small humans as they tried to run by. The large xenomorph pulled them in tight, not letting them get past her.
"Let us go! Scarlette! She's going to kill him!" Jenna yelled up at her xenomorph companion as she started to hit her arm with her own first, trying to break free of her grasp. As she looked up at her mate, she suddenly heard a purr emanating from the throat of the alien. It was a deep, calming noise. She had heard this purr before, when the two has spent time cuddling with one another. She was happy? Why? She should be as panicked as she was. Something was missing, if the royal guard was ok with this, maybe Charles was right. Maybe she knew something that they didn't.
As Jenna looked at Scarlette, she noticed that Charles was still struggling to free himself from her grip.
"Charles." He kept struggling. "Charles stop!" She said loud enough that the man noticed, and gave up his futile attempts to free himself.
"What?" He asked, confused at her protest. Jenna kept her focus on the purr of Scarlette.
"It's ok, I think you're right, she knows something we don't."
Just then, the sound of the door opening caught the human's attention. As well as the sound of an entire hive of aliens entering the room at full speed.
As Jolene came out of the dream, she quickly scrambled to get to her feet. She had to get him free, she had to save him.
"Mother?" She heard her one of her daughters ask as she stood and moved towards the king. She ignored the question, she had no time. Her fist clenched, she started slamming it into the glass that stood between her and Amun. "Mother?! What are you doing?"
"Jolene!" Bobby yelled to the queen, wanting an explanation. "What are you doing?!" The Queens fist slammed into the glass with another loud bang.
"We need...to free...him. We... need to...cocoon him!" Her stutter emphasized by her haste. "Need...to...free!" She never stopped ramming her fists into the glass, small amounts of acid blood starting to smear on its surface. "My...d-daughters! To me!" She called out to every one of her children that were scattered through out the laboratory.
No one heard the growing rumble of hundreds of clawed feet making their way to their queen. It would be hard to with the continued sound of her hitting the glass. Thankfully, a large crack formed on the surface of the cryo-tube. It brought the queen a new sense of hope. She took a step back and coiled her tail beside her, ready to thrust it forward.
She let out a scream and fired her blade at the crack. Her aim true, but the smooth surface caused the blade to slide off to the side. She lined up again and hit her mark, taking a chip off before her blade slid off once more. It was working! However, she had to go faster, she had no time! Again and again her tail lashed out at the crack, taking little by little off of the large surface. She stopped and looked at her progress, she had to think of something faster.
"Faster..." A line of thought formed and the word reminded her of Amun and the way he would run with his head down to plow through a tree line. Or anything else in his way for that matter. Jolene moved as far away in the room from the cryo tube as she could, making sure to avoid the army of xeno's that had now made their way into the room. The watched from every surface, even taking up most of the space on the ceiling.
"Amun..." The queen whispered to herself before taking a deep breath in, she knew this would hurt, she did not have as thick of a crown that Amun had. She did not care; it was her turn to save the king.
She took one last look to her target, lowered her head and took off at full speed. Despite the smaller size of the room, she was able to build up significant momentum, and in only a few seconds, crashed into the glass holding Amun's tremoring body.
The strength of the impact rattled her mind, body and vision and sent the queen to the floor. Dazed and wobbly. Thankfully she recovered quickly but noticed a lack of liquid on the floor that she was now looked at. She turned to see if her actions had done anything. The hundred of so new cracks that painted the surface of the glass gave her all the motivation she needed to get to her feet. Her daughters began to yell words of encouragement and praise. She looked to Amun, still twitching within the liquid of the chamber, and took another deep breath.
"Do it!" The voice of Bobby came through louder than anyone else in the room. Jolene's muscles flexed, her clawed feet dug into the metal of the floor and she took off at full speed. As she ran, a roar of power came from her throat! She would save her king!
Her head crashed into the glass, only this time, she went through it and into the liquid of the large tube. She did not stay standing for long, as a few hundred tonnes of liquid material came rushing out of the broken chamber she had just created. The weight of it all sent the queen backwards onto her rump. She began to panic as she watched a still unconscious Amun come pouring out as well. Jolene shot her arms out while she fell in attempts to catch the king and keep him safe. Her long arms meet his exoskeleton, but her was to slippery.
"No!" She screamed as the king went crashing down to the floor beside her, taking in a different direction from her by the rushing liquid. She flailed and clawed out for him, fearing that the impact would worsen his situation. She was helpless as Amun landed hard on his side, where one of the war tanks had blown a hole into him with its cannon. Thankfully, Jolene found her feet quickly on the slick floor and made her way to inspect Amun who was now convulsing on the floor.
"Q-q-quickly...c-c..." Her fear was making it very difficult to speak. "C...Cocoon!" The words found her thought as she looked to her daughters, as she looked to find Bobby.
Jolene noticed Amun's daughters protected their human friends, sheltering them from the wave of liquid from the tube. They now unwrapped their arms from their friends and made their way to their father. Jolene watched Bobby approach and the drone looked up at the queen. The drone's head then started to rock back and forth gently as she called forth the sticky substance they build with.
A large glob of resin landed in her cupped hands and she quickly made her way to her father, spreading the substance upon his body. Jolene looked up and was glad to see that her own daughters had began calling forth their own resin and covering the large xeno king.
"H-h...hurry...p-p...please." Jolene said, sadness covering every word. Just then the sound of the door opening again caught her attention. She looked to see who had come. More and more xenomorphs came sprinting into the room, Amun's own daughters had come! Every drone that had stayed with their king now rushed over to their father and began their work, calling forth resin and applying it where they could. She watched as the large xeno crusher made her way into the room as well, going to sit beside her sister praetorian.
Jolene looked back to the fallen king and took a few steps back, knowing that she would only get in the way of the army of alien drones that now worked at speed. They were efficient and precise. When one was done putting their own handful of resin on, their sister beside them would place and connect her own supply. It took no time at all and Amun was half covered by the sticky substance. Jolene lowered her body into a crouch, more out of worry than anything else. She heard the footsteps of someone approaching from behind her.
"This...is this going to work?" Jenna asked as she looked up at the queen. Jolene turned to look at her and let out a low purr, the same kind that Scarlette would do to let her know it was ok. Jenna shook her head and let out a sigh. "I hope so. Come back to us big guy." The human said as she watched her friend slowly disappear. Jolene watched as the few final parts of him began to get covered.
"Come ...back to me you...big...big bug."