Wow! An update from me in one month! I guess I was dying to know what was going to happen next myself. :-D Well, here they are. I hope they don't disappoint…
ILL
Chapter 12
She could hardly believe her eyes. It was as if a monster had stepped out of one of the science-fiction movies she loved to watch and was standing right in front of her. The thing was horrid to look upon. Its head was large, black and elongated with no visible sensory organs. Quivering lips were pulled back in a snarl revealing squared, silver teeth. Pools of saliva dribbled out of both sides of its terrifying mouth. Dark, mottled skin stretched tight over gaunt bones. Thin arms, which seemed too long for its body, ended in two abnormal, clawed hands. The creature stood on the pads of its taloned feet and bowed legs.
Although the monster had no eyes, Nia could feel its gaze upon her and she shivered in fear. Her heart pounded in her chest and air wheezed out of her throat and mouth. She had not been this afraid since that fateful day in the alley when she'd first beheld Prae'tor's fearsome form.
"Shao'uta…" someone said behind her and although she was nearly frozen with fear, she dared take her eyes off the monstrosity to find Zen standing in the doorway. It looked like the garden-keeper…but…then again…it didn't.
"What are you-" he began but stopped when he beheld the creature.
Nia's gaze shot forward again. The thought that his voice sounded different didn't stick in her mind long because the beast was charging right at her! She stumbled back, too petrified to even scream. There was a flash of gold out of the corner of her eye. A split second before the monster could reach her, Zen slammed the full force of his heavy robot body into its chest, knocking it backwards. The creature tumbled head over heels twice before it dug its claws into the smooth concrete floor and scratched to a halt.
"Run." The robot called out over his shoulder, but all she could manage was a few clumsy steps backwards.
"Nia? What are you doing out of bed?" a second voice said behind her, "Jax is going to kill both of us!" The woman spun around and saw the same robot staring at her in disbelief from the entryway.
"Wha…?" She looked ahead again, wondering if fear was causing her to see double. "Who are you?" she asked stupidly.
"I am Zen. Who do I look like?" he snapped.
"Well, who's that?" she fired back, pointing to the robot in front of her. Zen looked to where she was indicating and his eye-lights brightened when they caught sight of the creature. "Oh, no...Nia, get in here!" he screeched, then reached out and snatched her inside before she could even wiggle a toe in compliance.
A few feet away, the Zen look-a-like was dodging the lashing tail of the creature with the speed of a cheetah.
"Wha- what's going on?" the frighten woman stammered, too pumped up on adrenaline to think straight. "What is that thing?" But Zen was too busy beating on the metal doorpost.
"It is stuck," he declared, inching his fingers inside the narrow space in an attempt to pull the door close.
"Wait! You're not going to leave him alone out there to fight that thing are you?" She demanded, grabbing Zen's arm to try and stop him.
"He can take care of himself."
"But…there's no way he can kill that thing on his own!"
"He does not have to kill it. He only needs to buy me some time to get you to safety." He replied, his voice straining with his efforts to yank the door out of the wall. "Terminating it would only be an incentive."
Beyond the doorway it was monster against machine. The A.I. caught hold of the creature's flailing tail and shoved the spiked tip deep into the stonework. He locked his hands together into one mighty fist and slammed it against the side of the brute's head, propelling it against the wall. The beast shrieked in pain and in fury.
"But Zen-" she protest, barely able to take her eyes off the skirmish a few feet away.
"No buts!" He shouted, abandoning the door and spinning on her. Nia physically jumped and stepped back, surprised because he had never yelled at her before. "That robot out there is fulfilling his duty. The primary duty of all of us, and that is to protect you, the shao'uta, and your baby." He nodded up the hall in the direction of the gardens. "Run."
She hesitated, glancing outside again where the monster had collapsed to the ground under the robot's onslaught.
"Run!" Zen cried, shoving her by the shoulder. Nia tore her eyes from the scene outside and raced up the hall.
Behind her she could hear the roar of the creature and the scraping of metal against stone, but she did not look back. When she got to the first corner, however, her curiosity got the better of her and she slid to a stop to peer back down the corridor. Zen had ripped a paneling off the wall and did something that caused an electrical spark. He stumbled backwards, startled, but quickly stepped back to the exposed circuitry. He snatched out one neon-orange wire and reconnected it somewhere else. All of a sudden, his attention was drawn out the door. He watched for a few seconds and whatever he saw made him work more frantically than he had beforehand. After another burst of electricity, the main access door creaked shut. Satisfied, Zen bolted up the corridor in her direction.
"What are you waiting for? Get inside the gardens!" he shouted after he'd spotted her peering around the corner wall. She nodded and darted for the garden entrance. Seconds later she was inside the arboretum with Zen who then began to stab buttons on a nearby control pad.
"What are you doing?" she asked panting for air.
"Disabling the motion detector so the doors will not open without an access code- or fingerprints."
"Why? Did that thing get inside the pyramid?"
"No, but those creatures are very cunning. We should not underestimate it."
She was starting to panic. "What is that thing, Zen? Where's Jax? What the hell is going on?" Her voice rose with each question until she was practically shouting. Zen registered the stress, spun from the panel and clutched her shoulders.
"Remain calm. You are pregnant, remember?" He could feel her entire body trembling uncontrollably and she looked as if she was fighting the impulse to have a nervous breakdown.
"I'm scared," she confided in a whisper.
"I know, but I am not about to let anything happen to you. We are going to be all right, I promise."
She had never seen this side of him before. In the past he was either doing stuff to make her laugh or cat-fighting with Jax. Somehow this confidant, take-charge side of Zen made her feel safe. Nia took a deep breath and visibly relaxed a little.
"I need you to trust me, okay?" he requested of her and she nodded.
"I do trust you, Zen."
He smiled and released her. "Good." Turning back to the control panel, he depressed more buttons and said, "When I am finished with this we can then call for back-up, okay?"
"Works for me," she agreed. "Mind if I ask you a question?"
The robot shook his head no.
"Question number one-" she began, holding up an index finger, "-just what in the world is that thing?"
He kept working as he answered. "They are called xenomorphs. The Yaut'ja hunt them as a rite of passage into adulthood. Sometimes they are hunted for sport."
She had to pause for a second to let that one sink in. Why would any rational being choose to come face to face with a monster like the one she had just seen?
"Oh…kay," she sang, unable to come up with a decent explanation. "But why is it knocking on our door?"
"I will not know that until I speak with Jax. But I am willing to bet that something-" he turned to look at her pointedly, "-or someone…" he faced the wall again, "attracted its attention. Someone who should not have been outside in the first place."
Nia narrowed her eyes at him sourly. "Rub it in, why don't you?" she objected, but didn't press it because she knew he was right. "Are these things native to this planet?"
"Absolutely not. The Yaut'ja always go off-planet to hunt them."
"Then it can get back here, right? I mean all they have to do is hide out in some quiet corner of one of their ships and wait."
Zen shook his head no. "Yaut'ja ships rarely land. Warriors are jettisoned down to a xeno-inhabited planet in one-man drop ships." he clarified, suddenly turning from the console. He rushed across the spacious foyer to a small room along the far-left wall, Nia practically on his heels. The room was no bigger than her bathroom, but it had smooth, metal counters projecting out from the walls. Two 17-inch, flat screens were built into the wall at eye level, one on the left and one on the right.
"These monitors don't have keyboards," Nia noted as the robot moved to the one on the left.
"They are operated by voice command and touch. VCAT for short. My idea," he explained, then said to the monitor, "Locate A.I. designated Jax and open comm-display."
"What's that?"
"Communication screen," he supplied while they waited. "It is similar to webcam, only more advanced."
They didn't wait long. Soon the back of Jax's head appeared on-screen. Zen called his name and his counterpart looked upward as if whoever had spoken was on the ceiling.
"Turn around stupid!" the gardener quipped and Jax spun around and glared angrily through the screen.
"Zen? What do you want? I do not have time for your nonsense. We have a situation over here."
"And we have a xenomorph over here!" he snapped back.
"We?" Jax's eyes shifted to the form standing slightly behind the other robot. "Nia? What are you doing out of bed?"
"Is that really relevant right now?" she quipped just as Prae'tor's face appeared on the monitor. She didn't recognize him, though, because he wasn't wearing his mask which had long become familiar to her. She stared at his features in awe. The sunken eyes of the Yaut'ja widened and his brows shot up in surprise. He turned to Jax and verbalized something.
"I do not know. Ask him!" The robot responded and Nia knew Prae'tor, too, had asked why she was out of bed. The Yaut'ja turned his heated gaze on Zen.
"Look, we can place blame later. Right now we need reinforcements and information," he rationalized. "How many more are out there?"
"There should be none," the other robot replied. "All of them have been hunted down and killed. The carcasses are being burned as we speak."
"Well, you missed one." Zen said sarcastically.
"I do not miss!"
Zen glared at him as if he was the xenomorph. "Why you self-righteous, over-zealous…" he stumbled for another label, "…glory hound! Are you trying to say that we imagined the creature standing outside the main entrance?"
"Can you two focus on the issue at hand, please?" Nia jumped in. "I cannot believe you two are arguing at a time like this." She had been transfixed on the face of the alien standing next to her guardian, but her attention was diverted when the two A.I.'s started quarreling. Jax harrumphed, but held back the retort he was going to blurt out in return.
"All right, all right. We will worry about the how's and why's later," he relented. "How many did you see?"
"Just one." Zen replied.
Jax looked to Prae'tor. "How did we miss it?"
"Focus!" Both Nia and Zen shouted at the screen.
"All right!" Jax whined. "You two, find a safe place with very thick walls. Be careful and stay alive. We are on-"
Suddenly the lights in the room shut off and the screen went black.
"Zen!" Nia cried and reached out for him in the dark.
"Remain calm," he said coolly. "VCAT, initiate secondary power." After a short pause the familiar orange/white lights in the floor and ceiling hummed to life. Nia sighed in relief.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I do not know. I cannot restore primary systems." He moved to the other monitor, tapped on it and after a moment announced: "VCAT has been cut off from the mainframe, but I do not know how or why."
"Maybe that other robot did it to stop that zoo-morph thing from getting in."
"That other robot is dead." Zen informed, not bothering to correct her. "It was destroyed just before I got the main door closed." Thinking back, Nia remembered that he had noticed something outside which sent him into a frenzy. His fellow A.I.'S destruction must have been the catalyst.
"But…how? It was winning," she mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief.
"You have never seen a xenomorph in action. I have. They are relentless. They will strike until their last breath- or yours."
She didn't like the sound of that. "Still, it can't possibly be smart enough to know which plug to pull to shut off the power," she reasoned, biting down on her lower lip nervously. "Can it?"
Before Zen could answer, though, there was a loud clattering of metal outside the entrance of the small room, followed by a deafening roar. Nia jumped in fright, her gaze darting to the source of the noise.
"Oh, no, it's in here!"