Chapter 3
Authors note: Okay, okay, I may use just a little of the ideas that Steve Perry gave in his novels, and that's cause I like `em so much. Again, don't sue, as I have no money and they are being used in different context! If I haven't described the Captain beforehand, please tell me by R+R! Btw, I was pretty stuck for a while on how to get around the idea of prejudice against the Alien, how it wouldn't have a bullet in its head the moment it shattered the glass,, the idea of it actually knowing about electronics etc., as it has never encountered them before, but hey, this is a work of fan - "Fiction", right? And I've tried, u gotta give me credit for that!
The Alien still sat, looking at him, as the machine finished stuttering the last words. He stared blankly at its huge, smooth forehead, and stared into the folds near that spot that could hold eyes. It's black, reflexive surface drew him in, into his own mind, where he grappled with the tremendous idea growing there. He did not want to think it, as that meant a danger beyond dangers, but he so hoped it would be true, so that he - they, the whole human race - could to begin to control it, to teach it not to ravage and destroy. He buried the first scenario, and decided the second had a better overall outlook. He looked at it, then at the box. Then he spoke directly to it, "Uh, hi. I'm, uh, a human. You're, um, an Alien, as I've noticed, and you've probably, um, noticed..." he sweated it out. What a stupid sentence to use for First Contact. He must sound like he did when he had first asked a girl out, stuttering and really, really dumb.
The Alien looked at him, then tapped out in the box, using the pliers, on something that looked like melted solder, yet seemed a bit too, what was the word, silvery? No, that wasn't it, that sounded dumb. A bit too much like a metal? That must be it. He concentrated on the box again, as the Alien, through the translator, spoke again.
"More - tools - needed. - You - get - me - equipment? - I - work - you - listen, - huh?"
He nodded, dumbfounded, and glanced at the Alien again. It seemed ageless, yet he knew it had lived for nearly 5 years, much longer than any ordinary Alien would have in captivity. For some reason, they just lost the will to live away from the Queen. He kept staring at the Alien.
The Xenomorph stared straight back.
Then it struck him. It couldn't leave without him! Without him, it would be destroyed as soon as he left, and would be attacked and cut down before it even opened the door. And as a minor matter, the door was locked, but he had no fear that the Alien could unlock it anyway.
Oh, okay then. Let's get going, Science Lab 4 is down this same corridor, but you should know that, having been in it through the vents, hmm..." he thought aloud. "Wait a minute, I can't just walk out of here with you! I'd be shot down, or court-martialed for even thinking of threatening the whole ship with a fully-grown Xenomorph! What to do, what to do..." He looked around quickly as he thought, as all Marines and their lackies were taught to do, and by chance caught sight of the camera, still whirring away merrily in the corner of the cargo bay, but facing towards the door. It must have become stuck when the Alien had jumped him earlier, and he repelled the thought of it, but went right ahead...
"Could you get me up there, to the camera? At that whirring thing," he clarified as the Alien looked at him in a somewhat blank way, "I'll be able to tell the control-centre you're harmless. I would just radio in, but you kind of ruined the only form of communication in the room." He pointed at the box.
The Xenomorph looked down, then grabbed him, jumped up to the ceiling, clung on and scrabbled over to the camera and stuck his face in front of it. It all happened in a second, so fast that his head spun, and it took him a moment to realise that he was on the ceiling, being held by thin, cable-like arms that were so far away from the floor... He screamed. The Xenomorph throttled him, gently, and he calmed down. He looked toward the camera, away from the spinning floor, and, flustered, spoke towards it, "Sergeant Wallis reporting in, Sir. The Alien is harmless, repeat, harmless," It growled at him, "and will not hurt any soldier. Tell the soldiers to back down, we're coming out." He turned toward the Xenomorph, whose saliva dripped on the floor, and told him, "Okay, now, nice and slow, toward the floor. Don't forget, I'm only bones, and you've a hard YARGH!"
The Alien ran for the door, still on the ceiling, then dropped him when it was above the door. He landed in a heap, muttered a "You call that slow?!" then lifted himself off the ground, a few joints cracking from his drop, and faced the door straight-backed. Something black dropped beside him, and pressed the button to open the door before he did. Light flooded the cargo bay, and he saw the silhouettes of soldiers readying arms. He held up its arms.
"It's alright, men, nothing to worry about, just an, er, Xenomorph." He only now realised how crazy that sounded. Suddenly, he was just really tired.
"Look, guys, it's me, I ain't crazy, it won't hurt you. For Jesus' sake, you've got Pulse Rifles! Keep us under armed guard, but he'll probably get to Science Lab 4, anyway. Right?" The guys faces stayed passive, but with the Xenomorph mimicking his raised arms, a few dropped their weapons. One of the soldiers, wearing full acid-proof garb, covering his face but not his thickly-muscled, chocolate brown arms. stepped out of the ranks and handed him a piece of paper. It had the signature of the Captain, who he had not met yet, and a short message followed.
"Sorry, sir, higher orders. You're to proceed to Science Lab 6 for testing, follow us there, and that...thing...had better keep its hands up." The Alien rattled its tail threateningly, but knew the odds were against it. It kept its hands up, with the translator above it.
"I wouldn't insult it if I were you, and we're going...Science Lab 6? That's - That's reserved for special experiments, special equipment! What are we going there for?!" His voice rose in panic, about to lose his new specimen before he had studied it more.
"Like I said, special orders. And for what it's about, I didn't ask!" The soldier raised an eyebrow. He raised his gun, then pointed it towards the passage to their right, and back to him again. The sergeant sighed, and followed the soldier to the Labs.
The journey was short, with the Xenomorph losing its temper twice, but thankfully only lashing at the walls. The sergeant wasn't far away from hitting something himself, this was so frustrating! They arrived at the Science Labs, and the soldiers gathered round the doors again. The soldier who had given him the orders stood to attention, then pressed the button to open the doors. He nodded and said, "The Captain will be with you in a minute."
The sergeant and the Xenomorph walked in, the translator rattling slightly.
The Science Labs were large and spacious, with silver desks along one side of the lab, and tubes, cages, glass and metal, tools and many things that even the sergeant couldn't identify. The Xenomorph paused inside, then dashed to the tools side of the lab, then dashed across, holding silvery items in its hands, and even its tail gripped a small wrench. It worked hard at the tables, so much so that the sergeant was fascinated by its absorption. It stood there, its tail lashing from side to side when an explosion happened, and totally extruding the outside environment.
The tap on his shoulder came out of nowhere. He had not heard the door open, and he whipped around quickly. The technician from the pen stood there, arms folded slightly, and tapped his foot.
"What? Is the Captain here? He's supposed to be meeting us. How are you, by the way, you looked horrific when they took you away!" He was puzzled at the ripe laughter he could see wanting to burst out of the technicians chest, and also puzzled at the twinkle in his eyes.
"Still not figured it out, sergeant? Why, I'm surprised. It said on your Letter of Application that you were quite smart. It must have been mistaken!!" The laughter burst out of him, and the sergeant looked at him, puzzled. His eyes widened as he finally figured it out. How else could he have gotten down here?
"What? You're the Captain? You?! But, but,"
"Come now, sergeant, don't be too upset. I was pretending to be a technician, and to be terrified out of my wits. Very good act, no? But we Germans are very good actors." The sergeant listened carefully, and did detect the hint of an accent. "I loved that specimen see, was very interested when it did not pine away and die like the rest, and loved to be with it, so I pretended to be a technician so as to be with the subject as much as I can. I know a lot about it now, its moods, its thoughts, its routine. When you arrived, as you saw earlier, the Xenomorph went berserk. I didn't know it had to be you till later, but it shocked me so much that I dashed out to the corridor, where we encountered each other. I kept myself a secret for the time-being, as you didn't need to know, huh? Anyways, I knew the Xenomorph was acting strange because of you when you entered the viewing area over the pen, and decided that it wouldn't hurt you when it dashed past you to the vent. Which is why
I sent no soldiers after you in the cargo bay, even though I saw no activity from the camera, even when I saw the flash of black. I was the one who ordered the soldiers down, and even was kind enough to get you an area here, for you to study it. The Alien seems to listen to you more, as he never has avoided trying to kill someone when I tell it not to."
This large barrage of information was a lot to take in, and the Sergeant jerked as the Alien placed something on his head. He ripped it off while it put it on the Captains head, and studied it. It looked slightly like a mouthpiece and earphones mixed together with a television aerial. He looked up from it as he saw the Alien place a small, black box on its forehead, strapped it on, and motioned for him to put on his headset. He put it on again, covering his ears with the headset.
"Right. So now that we can communicate, I can get comfortable. I also need a replica of these given to each of your staff, and they are easily configured, so don't worry, they can be translated to other languages too," A voice whispered in his ear, disembodied but hard to hear around crackling, hissing and other things on the line. "I understand that you would like to experiment on me? That would not be highly recommended, considering my temper, and also the composition of my blood. Though the glass cage does look quite inviting...Understood, Captain?" The Alien stared at the Captain. He looked a bit dazed.
"Oh yes, loud and clear. We'll get you set up straight away. External experiments will be satisfactory, I hope?"
"Depends on what you mean," the whispery voice hissed back.
"Oh, electro-chemical scans, study of your brain patterns, mainly questions and answers sessions. Nothing too stressful, it's just that, I need SOMETHING to give the laboratory boys here..." the Captain scuffed his shoe into the floor.
"It sounds adequate. Since your collective body seems to dictate the advancement of this operation, then the closure of the project must be prevented so that the liquification of the project and its subjects is not finally initialised."
The two of them stared blankly at it. It sighed.
"Big bosses get no progress, you go-go very quick-quick?" it gave helpfully.
"Alright, no need to get sarcastic, don't forget who keeps you alive here, bub. Jeez, we give you a small part of our language and suddenly you're Fred Astaire!" grumbled the Captain. "I'll make the necessary arrangements. Sergeant, bring your belongings here immediately. At least the guys upstairs will allow that, if we give them this to chew on for awhile."
"Huh? May I ask why, Sir?" the sergeant asked, stricken. The Captain grinned at his confusion.
"Well, how else are you going to study it? That does bring up a question," he said, speaking into the mike. "What sex are you? We've never got close enough to study your species, we don't even know whether you have two separate sexes like us. And we need to give you a name. We can't keep calling you `it', or `the Alien'." The Alien grinned.
"I am male, but we change sex every 3 weeks to try and keep our species alive. You remember my mood swings of late? And as for a name," he hissed, annoyed. "I was not given one by my brethren. And Human names are meaningless and pointless to me. I tried a one myself, but it sounds like:" Here, a huge amount of hissing and static blasted over the headphones, and they ripped them off in pain. They put them back on when they assumed it was safe.
"As you can see, it is very distressing. I have no knowledge of human names, and since it will be more comfortable for you to call me by a human name, why don't you think of one for me?" The two humans looked at each other. Neither was a father (Military conditioning hardly allowed it), so they had no experience of name-calling, except in the worst pubs in space.
"Uh, Bill? Roger?" tried the Captain. He withered under the Aliens glare.
"We need something that will be smart, human and easy to use. Hmm..." He put his hands in his chin.
"I know!" Shouted the Captain, like he had won a contest. "What about Socrates? That's easy to remember, and he was one of the smartest humans around." He spread his hands wide.
"I like it," came static over the line. "But what about him? Isn't he the smartest human around?" He pointed at the poster that a post-graduate physicist had placed on the wall. They pondered it, and eventually all three nodded.
"It is easy. But is Einstein even alive anymore?"
Authors note: Okay, okay, I may use just a little of the ideas that Steve Perry gave in his novels, and that's cause I like `em so much. Again, don't sue, as I have no money and they are being used in different context! If I haven't described the Captain beforehand, please tell me by R+R! Btw, I was pretty stuck for a while on how to get around the idea of prejudice against the Alien, how it wouldn't have a bullet in its head the moment it shattered the glass,, the idea of it actually knowing about electronics etc., as it has never encountered them before, but hey, this is a work of fan - "Fiction", right? And I've tried, u gotta give me credit for that!
The Alien still sat, looking at him, as the machine finished stuttering the last words. He stared blankly at its huge, smooth forehead, and stared into the folds near that spot that could hold eyes. It's black, reflexive surface drew him in, into his own mind, where he grappled with the tremendous idea growing there. He did not want to think it, as that meant a danger beyond dangers, but he so hoped it would be true, so that he - they, the whole human race - could to begin to control it, to teach it not to ravage and destroy. He buried the first scenario, and decided the second had a better overall outlook. He looked at it, then at the box. Then he spoke directly to it, "Uh, hi. I'm, uh, a human. You're, um, an Alien, as I've noticed, and you've probably, um, noticed..." he sweated it out. What a stupid sentence to use for First Contact. He must sound like he did when he had first asked a girl out, stuttering and really, really dumb.
The Alien looked at him, then tapped out in the box, using the pliers, on something that looked like melted solder, yet seemed a bit too, what was the word, silvery? No, that wasn't it, that sounded dumb. A bit too much like a metal? That must be it. He concentrated on the box again, as the Alien, through the translator, spoke again.
"More - tools - needed. - You - get - me - equipment? - I - work - you - listen, - huh?"
He nodded, dumbfounded, and glanced at the Alien again. It seemed ageless, yet he knew it had lived for nearly 5 years, much longer than any ordinary Alien would have in captivity. For some reason, they just lost the will to live away from the Queen. He kept staring at the Alien.
The Xenomorph stared straight back.
Then it struck him. It couldn't leave without him! Without him, it would be destroyed as soon as he left, and would be attacked and cut down before it even opened the door. And as a minor matter, the door was locked, but he had no fear that the Alien could unlock it anyway.
Oh, okay then. Let's get going, Science Lab 4 is down this same corridor, but you should know that, having been in it through the vents, hmm..." he thought aloud. "Wait a minute, I can't just walk out of here with you! I'd be shot down, or court-martialed for even thinking of threatening the whole ship with a fully-grown Xenomorph! What to do, what to do..." He looked around quickly as he thought, as all Marines and their lackies were taught to do, and by chance caught sight of the camera, still whirring away merrily in the corner of the cargo bay, but facing towards the door. It must have become stuck when the Alien had jumped him earlier, and he repelled the thought of it, but went right ahead...
"Could you get me up there, to the camera? At that whirring thing," he clarified as the Alien looked at him in a somewhat blank way, "I'll be able to tell the control-centre you're harmless. I would just radio in, but you kind of ruined the only form of communication in the room." He pointed at the box.
The Xenomorph looked down, then grabbed him, jumped up to the ceiling, clung on and scrabbled over to the camera and stuck his face in front of it. It all happened in a second, so fast that his head spun, and it took him a moment to realise that he was on the ceiling, being held by thin, cable-like arms that were so far away from the floor... He screamed. The Xenomorph throttled him, gently, and he calmed down. He looked toward the camera, away from the spinning floor, and, flustered, spoke towards it, "Sergeant Wallis reporting in, Sir. The Alien is harmless, repeat, harmless," It growled at him, "and will not hurt any soldier. Tell the soldiers to back down, we're coming out." He turned toward the Xenomorph, whose saliva dripped on the floor, and told him, "Okay, now, nice and slow, toward the floor. Don't forget, I'm only bones, and you've a hard YARGH!"
The Alien ran for the door, still on the ceiling, then dropped him when it was above the door. He landed in a heap, muttered a "You call that slow?!" then lifted himself off the ground, a few joints cracking from his drop, and faced the door straight-backed. Something black dropped beside him, and pressed the button to open the door before he did. Light flooded the cargo bay, and he saw the silhouettes of soldiers readying arms. He held up its arms.
"It's alright, men, nothing to worry about, just an, er, Xenomorph." He only now realised how crazy that sounded. Suddenly, he was just really tired.
"Look, guys, it's me, I ain't crazy, it won't hurt you. For Jesus' sake, you've got Pulse Rifles! Keep us under armed guard, but he'll probably get to Science Lab 4, anyway. Right?" The guys faces stayed passive, but with the Xenomorph mimicking his raised arms, a few dropped their weapons. One of the soldiers, wearing full acid-proof garb, covering his face but not his thickly-muscled, chocolate brown arms. stepped out of the ranks and handed him a piece of paper. It had the signature of the Captain, who he had not met yet, and a short message followed.
"Sorry, sir, higher orders. You're to proceed to Science Lab 6 for testing, follow us there, and that...thing...had better keep its hands up." The Alien rattled its tail threateningly, but knew the odds were against it. It kept its hands up, with the translator above it.
"I wouldn't insult it if I were you, and we're going...Science Lab 6? That's - That's reserved for special experiments, special equipment! What are we going there for?!" His voice rose in panic, about to lose his new specimen before he had studied it more.
"Like I said, special orders. And for what it's about, I didn't ask!" The soldier raised an eyebrow. He raised his gun, then pointed it towards the passage to their right, and back to him again. The sergeant sighed, and followed the soldier to the Labs.
The journey was short, with the Xenomorph losing its temper twice, but thankfully only lashing at the walls. The sergeant wasn't far away from hitting something himself, this was so frustrating! They arrived at the Science Labs, and the soldiers gathered round the doors again. The soldier who had given him the orders stood to attention, then pressed the button to open the doors. He nodded and said, "The Captain will be with you in a minute."
The sergeant and the Xenomorph walked in, the translator rattling slightly.
The Science Labs were large and spacious, with silver desks along one side of the lab, and tubes, cages, glass and metal, tools and many things that even the sergeant couldn't identify. The Xenomorph paused inside, then dashed to the tools side of the lab, then dashed across, holding silvery items in its hands, and even its tail gripped a small wrench. It worked hard at the tables, so much so that the sergeant was fascinated by its absorption. It stood there, its tail lashing from side to side when an explosion happened, and totally extruding the outside environment.
The tap on his shoulder came out of nowhere. He had not heard the door open, and he whipped around quickly. The technician from the pen stood there, arms folded slightly, and tapped his foot.
"What? Is the Captain here? He's supposed to be meeting us. How are you, by the way, you looked horrific when they took you away!" He was puzzled at the ripe laughter he could see wanting to burst out of the technicians chest, and also puzzled at the twinkle in his eyes.
"Still not figured it out, sergeant? Why, I'm surprised. It said on your Letter of Application that you were quite smart. It must have been mistaken!!" The laughter burst out of him, and the sergeant looked at him, puzzled. His eyes widened as he finally figured it out. How else could he have gotten down here?
"What? You're the Captain? You?! But, but,"
"Come now, sergeant, don't be too upset. I was pretending to be a technician, and to be terrified out of my wits. Very good act, no? But we Germans are very good actors." The sergeant listened carefully, and did detect the hint of an accent. "I loved that specimen see, was very interested when it did not pine away and die like the rest, and loved to be with it, so I pretended to be a technician so as to be with the subject as much as I can. I know a lot about it now, its moods, its thoughts, its routine. When you arrived, as you saw earlier, the Xenomorph went berserk. I didn't know it had to be you till later, but it shocked me so much that I dashed out to the corridor, where we encountered each other. I kept myself a secret for the time-being, as you didn't need to know, huh? Anyways, I knew the Xenomorph was acting strange because of you when you entered the viewing area over the pen, and decided that it wouldn't hurt you when it dashed past you to the vent. Which is why
I sent no soldiers after you in the cargo bay, even though I saw no activity from the camera, even when I saw the flash of black. I was the one who ordered the soldiers down, and even was kind enough to get you an area here, for you to study it. The Alien seems to listen to you more, as he never has avoided trying to kill someone when I tell it not to."
This large barrage of information was a lot to take in, and the Sergeant jerked as the Alien placed something on his head. He ripped it off while it put it on the Captains head, and studied it. It looked slightly like a mouthpiece and earphones mixed together with a television aerial. He looked up from it as he saw the Alien place a small, black box on its forehead, strapped it on, and motioned for him to put on his headset. He put it on again, covering his ears with the headset.
"Right. So now that we can communicate, I can get comfortable. I also need a replica of these given to each of your staff, and they are easily configured, so don't worry, they can be translated to other languages too," A voice whispered in his ear, disembodied but hard to hear around crackling, hissing and other things on the line. "I understand that you would like to experiment on me? That would not be highly recommended, considering my temper, and also the composition of my blood. Though the glass cage does look quite inviting...Understood, Captain?" The Alien stared at the Captain. He looked a bit dazed.
"Oh yes, loud and clear. We'll get you set up straight away. External experiments will be satisfactory, I hope?"
"Depends on what you mean," the whispery voice hissed back.
"Oh, electro-chemical scans, study of your brain patterns, mainly questions and answers sessions. Nothing too stressful, it's just that, I need SOMETHING to give the laboratory boys here..." the Captain scuffed his shoe into the floor.
"It sounds adequate. Since your collective body seems to dictate the advancement of this operation, then the closure of the project must be prevented so that the liquification of the project and its subjects is not finally initialised."
The two of them stared blankly at it. It sighed.
"Big bosses get no progress, you go-go very quick-quick?" it gave helpfully.
"Alright, no need to get sarcastic, don't forget who keeps you alive here, bub. Jeez, we give you a small part of our language and suddenly you're Fred Astaire!" grumbled the Captain. "I'll make the necessary arrangements. Sergeant, bring your belongings here immediately. At least the guys upstairs will allow that, if we give them this to chew on for awhile."
"Huh? May I ask why, Sir?" the sergeant asked, stricken. The Captain grinned at his confusion.
"Well, how else are you going to study it? That does bring up a question," he said, speaking into the mike. "What sex are you? We've never got close enough to study your species, we don't even know whether you have two separate sexes like us. And we need to give you a name. We can't keep calling you `it', or `the Alien'." The Alien grinned.
"I am male, but we change sex every 3 weeks to try and keep our species alive. You remember my mood swings of late? And as for a name," he hissed, annoyed. "I was not given one by my brethren. And Human names are meaningless and pointless to me. I tried a one myself, but it sounds like:" Here, a huge amount of hissing and static blasted over the headphones, and they ripped them off in pain. They put them back on when they assumed it was safe.
"As you can see, it is very distressing. I have no knowledge of human names, and since it will be more comfortable for you to call me by a human name, why don't you think of one for me?" The two humans looked at each other. Neither was a father (Military conditioning hardly allowed it), so they had no experience of name-calling, except in the worst pubs in space.
"Uh, Bill? Roger?" tried the Captain. He withered under the Aliens glare.
"We need something that will be smart, human and easy to use. Hmm..." He put his hands in his chin.
"I know!" Shouted the Captain, like he had won a contest. "What about Socrates? That's easy to remember, and he was one of the smartest humans around." He spread his hands wide.
"I like it," came static over the line. "But what about him? Isn't he the smartest human around?" He pointed at the poster that a post-graduate physicist had placed on the wall. They pondered it, and eventually all three nodded.
"It is easy. But is Einstein even alive anymore?"