They were up at the cave again in just a few hours. Jar-hidda's crystal anesthetic-thing had apparently worn off, and she had felt the burn of pulling healing flesh the entire way up. She had been amazed though. Whatever he had put in her would be the envy of any physician anywhere. The bullet wound already looked days old into the healing process, though the staples weren't nice to look at. She could probably pull them out, but the idea of pinching them and prying them out of her tender flesh was almost sickening, so she left them in until she could work up the guts to get it over with.
She was now sitting outside the cave at the edge of the level spot where she knew some rocks would have been if there was no snow. She figured she wasn't allowed inside, and she didn't want to risk finding out, so she had parked herself on the crest on watch duty and he hadn't even paused before walking into his ship and getting to work. If that wasn't confirmation that he wanted her to stay out she didn't know what was.
She was still in one piece, even though she hurt and Jar-hidda was in the cave, in his now-visible ship, tearing things apart. She had her senses on alert for movement more than sound. With as much noise as Jar-hidda was making, no animal would dare come within two miles. It was the 'animals' that would be attracted to the noise she was watching for, and would shoot on sight. She had her rifle laying in her lap, easily accessible just in case, and she kept a look-out down the mountain, but also kept an eye on the sky. She was sure Weyland would not be above dropping mercenaries into the situation.
The day was cloudy and grey, windy, blowing loose crystals of ice and making snow-drifts along the mountain face. The sky was threatening to drop more snow on them, but all Hannah could think of was how hot she was. She had already shed her parka, sitting on it to keep her rear from getting wet, but even now it seemed like it wasn't enough. She was sweating, and quite sure she was melting a nice spot in the snow the same size and shape as her ass.
She relented, stripping off the wool sweater and tying the sleeves around her waist. She could feel the sweat dripping down her back underneath her thermals, the final layer of top that she had on. She still had two layers of pants on, and the thermals were sticking uncomfortably to her legs, and her feet felt gross under two layers of socks. She kept the gloves and scarf on to provide some protection to the extremities that weren't being heated by the net.
Heaving out a cloudy sigh, Hannah turned to look at the mouth of the cave. Another roar and string of what she would assume were curses came from within the ship, amplified by the walls of the cave. There was a crash, some banging, and some metallic object came flying down the ramp, crashing twice against it, causing sparks to light up the heavy mist that was billowing out, before settling in the snow with a heavy womph. Jar-hidda appeared soon after, bending to take the half-buried metal canister, that was almost as tall as he was but much thinner, and he threw it back into the ship. He followed it inside as it crashed into something, and the sound of more metal things falling to a metal floor could be heard.
Apparently the primary building material for his species was metal.
Honestly though she was bored, next time she was going to bring her bow for target practice on a tree or something. For now she was entertaining herself by repeating what she could hear from behind her, roaring out of the ship, quietly to herself. If one was to learn an alien language, one of the good places to start was slang. Expletives were fun slang to start with. What little she knew in French was mostly expletives.
She didn't like the sound of his frustrated banging, crashing and cursing though. Each outburst put a cold blade of doubt into her gut, that the worst case scenario was the inevitable outcome, and he would be stranded here. She looked back to the tree line below, sighing again.
She frowned, lifting the cuff of her thermal and itching under the metal band on her wrist. She paused to look at the netting. He must have modified it from a spare that he had, fitted it to her size, with amazing accuracy. She was impressed despite herself, but to do that kind of work in just a few hours? And make the heating unit? Had he not slept last night? He didn't show it if that was the case. She turned to look back at the ship.
She felt her gut clench at another roar and crash and tightly closed her eyes. She prayed that it was not as hopeless as it sounded, that there was some way of fixing things. And like a stroke of divine inspiration, she got the idea that maybe she could help. She didn't know how, or even if she could if Jar-hidda would just brush her off, but at the very least she could offer. She debated for a moment, looking at the heavy mist caused by the intense heat that was no doubt the ambient temperature of the ship.
She stood up as she heard more crashing and approached the cave. The ramp of the ship was several feet into the cave, where it was mostly hidden by shadow, but she didn't walk right up to it. She stood a few feet away and leaned down, unable to catch a glimpse of the interior of the ship, but could only see a red light through the heavy, hot mist. The air flowing out felt different, wrong, even from this distance.
"What's wrong Jolly?" she called in.
There was a break in the noise and Jar-hidda appeared out of the mist, the fog rolling off his body like some beast out of hell. He took two steps toward her, shoulders squared. She understood the gesture perfectly, without her base instincts telling her to back off.
She stepped back hurriedly, finding herself back in the full light of day within a split second, which bolstered her courage slightly.
"What the hell's you're problem!?" she snarled and he stopped, standing calf-deep in the snow, head tilted at her. He had his mask off, probably because the ship simulated whatever atmosphere he was native to, and therefore didn't need it to breathe. She composed herself and spread her hands as a gesture of truce.
"Can it be fixed?"
Jar-hidda didn't react at first, keeping his eyes on Hannah for a moment before looking back at the ship. He was breathing heavily, obviously frustrated as his clicking tusks gave away. He turned away from the ship, looking down at the snow by the side of his boot.
"Yes, but," Hannah felt a chill go down her spine, "the ship is old, it is hard to repair, and I do not have what I… want," he growled and paused, "what I… desire," he grunted and shook his head.
"What you… need?" she offered and he repeated the word in her voice, "need is more than want," she tried to explain. He gave a curt nod.
"I need… things to repair what is… not working," he rattled in frustration his fingers flexed and clenched. She almost expected those wristblades to come out but they didn't. They must work some other way besides muscle tension.
"Calm down," Hannah said, trying to sound calm herself "what do you need?"
Jar-hidda was silent, but not because he did not want to answer. She could see him struggle, eyes searching.
"I need…," he moved his hands, attempting to 'show' her, but hesitated part way through and growled, unable to effectively pantomime his technology, "c'jit. I need what is not here, what you do not have."
Hannah's lips thinned in thought, "can you…," she couldn't believe she was asking this, "call others of your people to bring you what you need? Or to even pick you up?"
He gave her a look like it was the stupidest thing she had ever said, and she agreed. She was trying to prevent an invasion not call one down. Jar-hidda didn't even grace that stupidity with a response.
Hannah took a breath, "okay look, I can go down the mountain into town and start buying random things, that, maybe, you can use," she felt a heaviness in her chest thinking about how much this was going to cost her, and the risk that whatever she got not working for him anyway. She sighed to herself in resignation, "would that help?"
Jar-hidda looked at her, clicking thoughtfully, either trying to make sense of what she said, or considering the offer, maybe both. Jar-hidda then turned his back to her and made his way to his ship with a simple, "maybe."
Hannah bristled, clenching her fists tightly before letting it go and turning. She didn't like the idea of going back into town so soon after what had happened, but being useful was better than sitting in the snow listening to Jar-hidda's rage fuel her despair. She snatched up her parka, shook it out and hung it on her shoulder. She turned to the ship, opening her mouth but her voice caught in her throat. She was going to say, 'see you at home,' or something along those lines. Instead she swallowed the valediction and headed down the mountain. He could stay in his ship if he wanted, for as long as he wanted. He didn't need to stay at her house anymore.
By the time she made it down, she was regretting moving. She threw her parka into the passenger seat of her truck and drove down the mountain. She felt the same notion that Mike had mentioned, that she was suddenly becoming a very frequent visitor to the city. This was twice now within two days, unheard of for her. She made Mike's convenience store her first stop, pulling up and sitting in her car for a moment. She sat back against her seat, looking through her windshield and into the windows of the store. She caught her reflection in the glass and hastily donned her sweater, the sleeves a little stretched from being tied.
She adjusted the shirt to fit better over her first layer, hearing the bell ring above her as she pulled the door open.
"H-Hannah!" she was expecting the surprise, "back so soon? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah Mike, I just forgot some things I was supposed to pick up last time," she answered quickly, only giving the surprised man a glance as she moved to the side of the shop that was everything but edibles. She put a hand on her hip as she perused the selection. Then she began grabbing. A battery, jumper cables, extension cords, batteries, even a few small lights, anything that had something to do with technology she grabbed one of and stacked it on the counter.
"There I think that's everything," she said, avoiding eye-contact as she hurriedly filched her wallet out of her pocket. Mike gave the pile of things a wary once-over before giving Hannah a worried look. She had her card ready to swipe, waiting on Mike, finally actually looking at the man. He was silent, holding in his concerns, thinning his lips before his shoulders sagged and he asked.
"Credit or debit?"
Hannah didn't understand why the look Mike gave her bothered her so much. It haunted her the entire drive back up the mountain, but the torturous hike up carrying the heavy bag of items did not give much room to think of anything else besides 'ow.'
She knew it was foolish to make the trek back up the mountain so late in the day, she was going to end up in the same boat as the previous night, but if Jar-hidda was going to stay in his ship, she wanted to make sure he had his things.
"Jolly I'm back!" she called into the cave, shrugging the bag off her shoulder. The red light was much brighter in the fading light of day, and she was easily able to tell when Jar-hidda was approaching by the dark shape blocking the light. She laid out the items in the snow and stepped back. The hulking figure of the alien seemed all the more imposing as darkness was falling, especially with his mask on. He bent down and touched the car battery with his claw. He outlined the top then reached for the extension cord and held the bundle close to his mask.
He rattled, pleased, gathered the things and brought them inside. Hannah gave a sigh of relief at the new fragment of hope. Jar-hidda did not come out for a long while, and Hannah turned to go down the mountain. She then heard a crackling and hissing and looked back as Jar-hidda finished tapping his wrist device. He looked back at the ship, then at her. It took him just a few strides to get to where she was, looking down at her, then he motioned with his head that they get going.
Hannah was sort-of glad, despite herself.