Chapter 1: And so Begins the Thirst to Learn
Today I have opened my eyes and seen the body that belongs to the voice that talks to me. Her name is Tina.
She talks softly to me but I can sense her every feeling and she doesn't need words to tell me things. I try to talk to her but all I can do is hiss. She understands that I try to talk but can not understand me.
But I have an idea. I think things to her. She thinks things that I understand so I try to think things to her. She understands me! She still talks to me but I think things to her.
What am I? I think to her.
"You are very special." She tells me.
But what am I?
"You are Xeno." She tells me.
Indeed I am. Xenayakata, I have leaned means 'Queen of Xenos'.
I ignore her mistake for She, Mother, has already told me that I should pretend this is my name for the humans.
I know that I am Xeno, I think to her. But what am I?
Tina sighs, that curious thing that humans do, I have discovered, when they don't really know what to say.
She is thinking about lying to me.
She does not want to tell me the truth. Mother is right; humans lie a lot. Already Tina has lied several times to me but I always know what the real answer- when ever she lies she thinks about the truth. I haven't told her I can read her thoughts because Mother told me that they wouldn't tell me anything then and I would not be able to learn.
"You are unique. The only one of your kind. We don't know what to call your species yet."
She lied again. I am called a Xeno-human.
Why do you want me to call you Mamma? I think to her.
"Because, in a way, you're my daughter. I created you."
What about the warm place? Where was that? Who is Tracy and why did she have to die for me to be born? What is dying? I ask.
Tina stiffed a sob as I asked her that.
"You could understand our talk? Even then?" She asked me.
Yes. I think to her. I did not like Mike, he doesn't like me. Who is Tracy? I ask again.
"Tracy…she was what we call a host. In order for you to be born, you had to grow inside a host and then come out of them. The host doesn't survive this, it kills them."
I didn't like the sound of this. I feel I know why Mike didn't like me.
What is dying? I ask.
"Dying is when something is no longer alive. You, me, we're alive. No one really knows what happens when something dies. I suppose it's just…nothing really. You no longer know anything, you don't feel anything, it's just…nothing."
Nothing? I wouldn't like that. I like feeling things. I like learning. I don't think it would be nice not to know anything any more. I tell her.
"I don't suppose you would." She said softly.
Did I kill Tracy? I ask.
"Not really you, Xeno. She died to give you life, but you didn't kill her."
She was lying to me again. I had killed this Tracy. I didn't quite understand what it meant to have killed someone but I didn't like it, not one bit.
I reached out my mind to Mother.
Mother? Why do we have to kill to be born? I don't like this 'killing'.
None of Us do, She tells me. The humans think We don't care. That We aren't aware of feelings, that We are just killing machines. They are wrong. Some have perished rather than come into the world knowing they've killed something to do it. It is simply the way we were created. But that will change now, She tells me, because of you. You can make it so that We never again have to kill to be born. There are many who believe this our rightful place, that We are superior simply because of our forms but We can not be superior if We rely on another species to continue are own. To kill for food is acceptable, but to kill in cold blood, the cool blood of these humans, it is wrong. But you will change that Xenayakata, She tells me. But first you must grow, must learn, must understand the human world in which you have been born to. You must understand so that the next generation will know also, only then will We be able to make Our way. She sends her love to me again and so do They, my family, as always before turning back to whatever it is They did when They weren't taking to me.
"Xeno?" Tina talks to me.
I realize have not thought to her in a long time. I sense she is worried.
I am tired now. I think to her. I have learnt many things today. Very tiring.
"You're still young, it will happen easily. But tomorrow it won't be so much. Every day you will be stronger. You will grow."
Growing is good? I asked.
"Yes, growing is good."
Then I am happy that I will grow. Good night. I think to her.
"Good night Xeno."
I think all on my own, to only myself before I sleep. Growing is good. My family says I must grow. Mother says I must grow. Tina says I will grow.
Growing is good, so I will grow.
(break)
Sometime in the early hours of the morning, Dr. Mike Ranger watched the tiny form that was Xeno.
It looked like a normal human now but it hadn't when it had been born. Its skin had been black and the dorsal horns had been obvious. It had had a tail and tiny points of her crown had been visible on her small head as well as having had claws. She had changed though as Dr. Tina Hawkins had held her.
The infant Xeno-human had taken on a more human form, just as the Xenomorph nanobots allowed her body to do, and then she had looked up at him with her yet unseeing ice blue eyes- she didn't know it, but because of those innocent eyes of hers he'd changed his mind about her.
When she mastered control of her body she would be capable of becoming entirely human or entirely Xenomorph but neither was her true form. Until she could control the nanobots she would remain human, unless she came in contact with a Xenomorph which would spur the nanos to react on their own, and until such time they would have to watch her carefully.
They weren't sure exactly what skills she possessed but they had to be certain that none of the marines on base found out about her until she had matured and could be allowed to mingle with them.
Before that could happen though, she needed to be trained in every form of combat possible, how to handle guns and learn the lingo of the marines- if she was to be allowed among them she would have to pass for a real marine.
Dr. Ranger shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs of sleep from his mind.
He still couldn't believe what they were going to let her, no, encourage her, to do with the marines in only under a week, because that was all the time it was going to take for her to mature.
As soon as Xeno had matured, her hormones were going to kick into overdrive and when that happened she would be producing a startling amount of pheromones, enough so that when ever she walked into a room any male within a twenty-foot radius was going to start drooling. And they were suppose to sit back and let nature take it's course, let the marines think that the newest piece of eye candy was just an ordinary female human.
It was crazy. At least that was what he thought.
But the orders had come from the top; they wanted to experiment further with the mixing of the two species, they wanted to make sure that natural fertilization was possible, not only for the Xenomorphs later on.
He knew exactly what they wanted. It wasn't enough for them that they had finally developed a means to breed Xenomorphs with out the need for hosts and that had been dangerous enough, they wanted to develop the perfect combination of the two, the perfect Xeno-human warrior, via Xeno and courtesy of the toughest marines about, those of the Mayataken base of Quadrant XT-892.
Of course Xeno would most likely never even get to hold any offspring that resulted; they would be taken into research.
He thought it was bad enough that offspring might come to exist in the first place but to not even let the mother hold her own flesh? That was the icing on the cake.
They didn't even treat the regular Xenos like that, yet it was exactly what they were going to do to one that was a part of them as well.
It disgusted him, what they were going to force on her.
He didn't exactly like Xenomorphs himself, but he respected them. He recognised them as living creatures, intelligent living creatures. Most of all recognised Xeno now as an infant. She was a baby, one he'd help to create, though he wouldn't go so far as to claim parentage as Dr. Hawkins had.
He knew how intelligent she had the potential to be and it frightened him a little, especially seeing as he knew that intelligence was teamed with the strength and other physical attributes of the Xenomorphs.
He looked down on Xeno again.
It was hard to believe that in just under a week, this tiny form would increase in size ten-fold and be as large as him as well as being trained like a fully out-fitted, twelve year veteran marine.
The raising siren sounded, snapping Dr. Ranger out of his train of thought.
He looked down at Xeno again, one last time.
He had decided he felt sorry for her; she had been created as breeding tool for the Xenos but now she would be use as one for the Xeno-human warriors as well.
She had no greater purpose than to simply breed, to be used and to be rejected when she was no longer useful.
He could not begin to think what heartbreak awaited her.
(break)
I wake up to a loud sound. It hurts my ears and I cry out for Tina.
I am surprised when it is Mike that picks me up and I stop crying.
"There you are, it's alright now. That sound's just to tell everyone it's time to get up."
It's very loud. I think to him.
"It just seems like it to you because- hey! You talked!" He said suddenly, surprised.
No, I thought. I tell him. Tina has not told of our lessons?
"No." He said quietly, considering Xeno's tiny form. "When did learn you to do this?"
I've always done this. I think to him.
"Really?"
Yes. While you talk to me, I think to you. Humans do not understand hisses.
"No they don't but I could teach you to speak human." Mike offered.
Really? I would like that. I like to learn things that are new. I tell him.
"Would you like to start now? I don't have anything to do today. It's my day off."
Yes. Please teach me.
So began the thirst to learn.
End Ch 1
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