Chapter 5

There was a human standing on the far side of the room. It was dressed much more loosely then the humans that had captured it, but a human was still a human. The Xeno hissed threateningly, a tickle of revenge coming to mind for it's defeat by these creatures before. It could see that it was unarmed, thus easy prey. Without further hesitation, the Xeno sprang at the human, only to collide with something it's sonar couldn't detect until the very last second. If it had proper eyes the resulting flash would have temporarily blinded it.

Dazed, the Xeno staggered a moment, before shaking it off and looking up at the human in puzzlement. It cursed itself mentally for not realizing the oblivious: the human was far too calm and unconcerned considering it was in the same room with it, meaning it had a different means of protecting itself. In this case it was some sort of barrier instead of a weapon. Cautiously it reapproached the human, stopping just before the barrier that showed up as a sparkly semi-transparent wall in it's sonar. Experimentally it poked at the barrier, finding the spot it touched 'solidified' in it's sonar even more. Forgetting the human for the moment, it poked and stabbed at the barrier for several minutes before the human spoke.

The Xeno focused it's gaze back on the human, hearing sounds and seeing it's mouth move, but not understanding what it was saying. It's tone hinted at a fascination with it that was nearly as great as the Xeno's own curiosity, but beyond that it had no clue what it was trying to say. The human kept talking, it's paws moving in gestures foreign in meaning to the Xeno and suddenly the Xeno realized it was doing: it was trying to communicate with it.

No human had even bothered trying to 'talk' to it's kind from the Xeno's recollection, or from what other Xeno's and it's Queen told it: on the whole they were more interested in trying to destroy their proud race. Was this human trying to learn secrets it could use against it's kind? Whatever the reason, the Xeno found itself to be eager to try to communicate back with the human, if only to satisfy it's own curiosity of humans. It attempted to send a mental message to the human, emitting a low questioning hiss, asking why it was captured. It didn't know if humans could 'hear' the mental voice or not.

The human seemed to have 'heard' something, as it took a step back, it's eyes wide in surprise. But did it understand what it said? It wanted to read it's mind to find the answers for itself, but only the Queen had that ability.

Arthur had a new respect for the Alien's speed now. Though he was expecting the Alien to attempt to attack him, he wasn't expecting it to be that fast: he jumped back a bit despite himself. Fortunately the Alien didn't keep attempting to get at him, in fact it's attention turned completely to the force field Arthur had erected between them.

He watched the Alien inspect the field, fascinated by it's behavior. It obviously realized he was no threat and could afford to ignore him, but Arthur didn't want it to ignore him.

"You find everything that's new to you fascinating don't you?" He asked it. He did not expect the Alien to understand his question, or anything he said for that matter, but he needed to get the Alien's attention somehow. It worked. The Alien 'looked' his way, forgetting the field.

"For countless decades our two species have clashed." Arthur said. "You just want to survive and reproduce and we see you as a threat to our lives. Many people see you as nothing but animals, but I don't believe that. I believe you are far more intelligent then people give you credit for, but I need your help to prove it. To do that, we need to learn how to understand each other. But how to break that communication barrier..."

The Alien's attention held, seemingly interested in his words, but whether or not it understood him was another question.

Then, he felt a 'tickle' in his mind, at the same time the Alien emitted a low hiss. He stepped back, eyes wide in surprise. What was that? Did it come from the Alien? He felt it again a moment later, with the same audible hiss from the Alien. Yes, it was trying to communicate with him, but what was it trying to say? It was a subject of curiosity with a few other scientists on how they communicated with each other, but no one had bothered testing any theories they had: one of the theories was telepathy. With that in mind Arthur focused his mind on the Alien, hoping it would try to 'talk' to him again.

The Alien seemed to recognize that he was making an effort to understand him and did repeat it's message a third time, the hiss the same as the previous two times. It was more then a 'tickle' this time, but all he comprended was that it was a question. It was a start though. "I'd love to answer whatever your question was." Arthur said. "But before I can, we need to work together to break down this communications barrier. And that will take time..."

The Xeno sat back on it's haunches, slightly frustrated. The human seemed to have understood the extremely basic premises of it's message, but didn't understand what the message itself was. The human however, going by it's tone and body language, appeared willing to try to improve it's understanding of the mental voice.

So was the Xeno.