Disclaimer: The following chapter contains a theory about the Aliens I based on comic I read years ago (and only recently remembered) and my own ideas.
Chapter 7
For the next week Arthur gave No-Tongue his space, not wanting to push his luck with the Alien: he didn't even look at the monitors. He couldn't help but feel eager to actually 'talk' the No-Tongue again, wanting to know and understand everything about him and he suspected No-Tongue was just as curious about him. When he finally went to the room to see him, he found No-Tongue waiting for him at the force field.
-Took you long enough.- He quipped.
"If you were ready to talk, why didn't you contact me?" Arthur asked.
-Drone mind speech is short range.- No-Tongue explained. -And I couldn't risk doing a general 'broadcast' to get your attention.-
"Didn't want anyone else to hear you in other words?"
-More like I didn't want to cause ship wide panic.-
"That's understandable. So did you want to talk about anything specific?"
There was a long pause as No-Tongue thought it over. -Tell me about your kind, where you came from and such.-
"Ok, history happens to be my worse subject but I'll give it my best shot..."
Arthur gave him a brief overview of human history, including their first encounter with the Alien. No-Tongue listened with great interest. -I've heard of this 'Ripley'.- He said when Arthur was finished. -Many consider her to be a traitor, murderer of our people.-
"And what do you think of her?" Arthur asked.
-I cannot really judge, as I only have what you and my hive has told me.- No-Tongue replied. -But I feel she does have a right to be angry with us, considering what we have done to her and your kind.-
"But you are only doing what comes naturally to you right?"
-Yes...- No-Tongue emitted what sounded like a sigh. -But we kill too recklessly, too aimlessly. There was no need for those solitary drones to keep killing those people, especially with the absence of a Queen.-
"Ripley was impregnated with a Queen on the prison planet." Arthur pointed out.
-True, but the drone should have been capturing, not killing. Those people would have turned into my kind soon after the Queen was born.-
"Turned? You mean served as unwilling hosts for your...infants."
-You give such a negative phrase for it.- No-Tongue said with a chuffing sound that must have been a snort. -But you are right. There are some that wish it wasn't this way, but 'willing' hosts are so rare. So to survive we have no choice but to kill the unwilling, in a way we have remain with our original ways.-
"What do you mean?"
-I remember our Queen telling us stories, stories her Mother told her and her Mother's Mother told her, stories of our lost homeworld and how we used to really be the animals you see us as.-
"Tell me more..."
-Back 'home' we were prey as much as we were the hunters, the Queens the only ones with what you call 'real' intelligence. The ones that hunted us kept our numbers in check: therefore there was a balance. However invaders from the sky came and stole some of our Queens, removing us from our home. While most took care to ensure only drones were sent to virgin planets for their sick 'hunts', occasionally a Queen made Her way down. When that happened, that planets natural balance is thrown off balance and we end up suffering as much as the planet does.-
"You end up using up all your resources unintentionally and start to starve."
-Yes, like my hive was. We have evolved enough to learn to move the hive to new locations every once in a while, to give the land a chance to recover, but that only works if the hive remains small. My hive had moved several times before you found it, every time we did it was less and less effective since the hive kept growing in size. Or so I've heard from the others. By the time you found us, there were scouting parties out looking for a new location, but with no luck in finding a suitable place for a long time.-
"So you were a lot more like animals on your homeworld, but some were taken away by space capable races and you evolved since then. There's a theory that you take some traits of your host when you are born, which seems to be confirmed considering the different body forms we have seen."
-That is correct, but we take more from our hosts then physical traits: we obtain some of their intelligence as well, if it is greater then the base intelligence.-
"What's the base intelligence?"
-Base intelligence is determined by the Queen. The Queen is always the smartest of us, since She controls us, thus she determines how smart any drone will be based on what She wants that drone's purpose to be. That may be increased depending on the host. If it is dumber or equal to the base, no change is made, but if it's smarter...-
"You inherit some of that from the host." Arthur finished. "So when you started being 'born' from humans and other sentient beings, your race as a whole started getting smarter."
-Correct, but most of the time we, besides the Queen, do not now how to use that intelligence. We are like unschooled children, with only our instincts and the Queen to guide us. With time we do learn, but more often then not we die before we reached our full potential.-
"As drones don't have the lifespan of your Queen."
-Correct.- No-Tongue confirmed. -But thanks to you, I believe I will reach that potential long before my time.-
"Well you are certainly a better conversationalist then many of the soldiers on board..." No-Tongue laughed at that. "But with that in mind, your host must have been pretty high on the intelligence scale."
-My host was a member of an amphibious race my hive caught by chance.- No-Tongue explained. -They must have been very smart...as none have been seen since I was born. Of course...I haven't been around for very long either...-
They talked for a while more, before Arthur had to call it quits for the day due to exhaustion. What a report this one will be...