· · · · · · ·

Author's Note : Cautious optimism that this time, no more two or five year update gaps, as I've sorted out the stuff that was an obstacle before, and fixed my attention issues. I regret it took so long, I reckon few of the people who started on this story remember after those time. Oh well. Here goes nothing.

· · · · · · ·

August 11

· · · · · · ·

Karga'te sat atop the plateau, now quiet without the hum of many of its typical ships. Waiting was over, but he remained.

The enemy ship had arrived in orbit a few minutes after the Sanhedrim ship had left. By now the Auton must've discovered Kirindi wasn't aboard; he regretted not getting a look at that. Less amusing was the frustration from the indiscernible threat on the dropship.

Ti'chai-di noticed them strongest, even as she was far away on a moon. Three of them, with a dozen smaller minds attached. Like Ayo.

Without them in the proximity though, Kirindi was calm enough. She'd been going through what was aquaintances remained in the market as farewell, and now crawled up to his spot.

"It's goodbye," Kirindi said. "Why are you only looking at the sky?"

"I'm waiting for the dropship, then we'll move out. If we're lucky, we're moving to nothing."

She wanted to stay, and he didn't know what to do about that.

"No. The Auton say that there'll be more humans anyway, you know, right? They're going to leave. This won't be an open market anymore," she said. "Where are we going?"

He shrugged.

"I'll miss it. Our home."

Hah. Home. To be fond of the place you grew up in was not his language. She had never known living in any other place than this. Jake sometimes brought it up, and Sarah ... was opaque.

"I hope we're going to a place with lots of other people. Maybe one day we can come back here?"

And add them all to her hivemind. She didn't have to say it.

The years he had spent here were but a small portion of his life. He did like it better here than anywhere else he'd lived before, though, something he'd never have guessed. There was no promise to give her that it would be the same wherever he led her next. Hell, he hadn't even chosen this place, the Auton had.

He ruffled her head. "Come on. Let's end our jobs here without a single death on the market, maybe then it'll be one again someday."

"Yes."

· · · · · · ·

Calm, Andrew peered over the planet below his ship's orbit. One step back towards status quo if they found Amy B here. Back towards the same empty progress for Enigma II, and himself back to Naseim.

As she gazed over the horizon of the planet, upon the continent their targets had to be, wrung from dreams of an escaped host, somehow it didn't feel like that. This was the time to unravel—

"Welcome to planet Kiyasumeni. I'm your host, Satchasisa."

The cheery voice startled him out of his reverie.

His ship's AI switched open a new communication channel to his side, displayed a smiling brown youth with bright eyes and eccentric hairdo.

"With whom do we have the honor?" this one asked.

"Andrew Edelburg," he muttered, unable to deal with the clown in his face. How how this line even come through without authorizing?

"Wonderful to learn this so belatedly."

"You're a human?"

"Of course. I work for the grand ospassulu Hguthreeit as translator. Why are you visiting our fine amusement park? It seems we did not get your payment, so pardon me asking. An emergency perhaps, or will you be able to pay now? Perhaps you're stealing away some vacation time? No problem, we have a strict no tell policy! For the right price we will corroborate whatever story you would like to get away with."

"Uhh ..."

"Between you and me, I had to be dragged out of another deal because not too long ago, it appears someone sent an unauthorized mission to this planet. We never got a hold on the culprit. Maybe that's the one you're after? They've moved on, unfortunately, but by all means, scout the area to find traces. Would you like to book a nice visit to our excellent restaurants in the meantime? Or perhaps the bath house?"

"We are on business," he said, and paused to consider.

Was this the innocent offer suggested, or a feign? Mission control expected the Auton to be hiding on the planet somewhere, under the shadow of ignorant worms in mud pits. Not this. Would playing along walk him into a trap?

The other end of the line started transferring a vacation brochure and conduct rules, as well as biological hazards, guided tours and dinosaur sightings, in multiple languages. Pages and pages and holograms even. This wasn't a joke.

"Whom exactly do you host here?" he asked.

"This is a state of the art vacation resort now where we value the privacy of our guests."

"Forgive me, I meant to ask, what kind of people? Should be expect politicians, or—"

"That is classified. You will not be allowed to make a scene if you want our cover story."

If they could bust the sarsathrizmat for a violation of their contract with the alliance, that would smooth over a few things. If not, this mission was in violation and that required all kinds of cover ups. Good grief. Now he had all this brood to deal with.

"We would be happy for any help you can give. Your assumptions are correct. We are in pursuit of a dangerous criminal who stole valuable technology. We want to ensure they have not tried to hide stolen loot here and find any traces of their whereabouts. I would gladly take the offer for a ... cover story, as this is rather embrassing."

· · · · · · ·

"Kirindi is not here?" Persephone didn't scream, she was programmed better than that, but she also had a protocol for righteous indignation because who the ever loving hell would screw up a carefully laid plain like this?

"I'm part of the hive thingy, I can find people too," Jake said.

Persephone shut off blinking. "You do not have Kirindi's senses, and we not have any information on the current layout, passwords and anything else. It took us years to prepare for the first visit, we were counting on Kirindi to mind control someone inside."

"But we have this freaky spider drone!" Shadhahvar swayed both arms at Xylia. "Look, more hands to hold things!

"Whom we cannot communicate with," Persephone said.

"I'll translate anything that one says," Jake added.

"You can't even be near Ayo! She's one of our key players!"

"Jake's like a radio mast," Ayo said. "I can telepathically relay to him rather easily. I would have much more trouble with Kirindi, who's instinctively hostile to my kind," Ayo said into Persephone's earpiece.

Persephone threw up her hands. "Alright then. If we must. Let's go over what we know all anew."

· · · · · · ·

"Why did we even bother with a brood if we can't use them?" Kesly said from her secure place in orbit.

After killing the urge to point out he could not predict the future, Andrew whispered, "It is better if we don't," into his headset; for Kesly's ears only.

He and Warrain sat a distance from the space marines, in the dropship back. The noise was loud, but caution still was worth it.

"Alright, so what about the whole scheme where we're just officially here to find dinosaurs? Are we still doing that?" one of the marines asked.

"No, that's just the cover for the Alliance, we're now doing another cover for the owners of the planet, because they own the dinosaurs and they apparently will sue us if we take anything of them," Andrew said."

"Right. Sure."

The space marines weren't that informed, as they worked more directly under the Alliance. Truly a hassle.

The descent vessel landed on one of the small plateaus.

They sent out a drone to scout—

Aaaand a big white dinosaur hurled a rock at it.

"Can we sign this planet down for illegal experiments?" Kesly asked. "I really want to get this over with."

"Unfortunately no," the captain said. "We humans made that one."

"It's coming your way," Kesly said. "Does it count as property damage if we shoot it?"

"Unfortunately yes," Andrew said.

· · · · · · ·

With every mile they got closer to the surface, Kirindi had grown more anxious. They'd moved into the jungle to keep an eye on them, and perform a few scans to see what weaponry was brought along. No direct interference unless Hguthreeit approved.

The enemy got permission to let cyborg scan the jungle from the wormy overlord, and it was left to the controller to instruct them how to gather dinosaur DNA, which they didn't have the programming for. They weren't allowed to let the space marines ago along, to prevent any needless dinosaur death. Kirindi thought this was a nice solution, and Karga'te thought it was stupid. They were right here, why did any of those rules even matter?'

"The Interstellar Alliances are all the big human nations and colonies together. Enigma is run by someone within that whole thing, but its got its own leader with their own plans," Kirindi said. "Enigma Zero has obey the Interstellar Alliances, so they don't tell the Alliances everything. The space marines work for the Alliances. They know they are looking for a stolen monster, that there might be Auton, but they don't know anything about Sarah having been here or about the weird cargo."

Prelude to asking whether they couldn't just add the humans to her hivemind, give them a good reason to be scared of their employers along the way.

"No. Adding the enemy into our circle is absolutely not going to help us, what with that political shit going on."

Disappointed as usual, but for once it wasn't only for lack of new friends. She wanted allies against the enemy because among the dropship were two of Ayo's kind, along with a group of subservient attachments. She desperately wanted them dead.

Now it stood out she had truly tolerated Ayo, whose presence displeased her instinctively, but she followed Karga'te trust in her and tried to think of her as ally. No such restraint existed for these beings. For them she had a cinder to burn, subdued only by the need to hide. All hunting they had done before was nothing but her humoring Karga'te, this was her own will. If it wouldn't jeopardize the people within the city, she would have waged war.

Because he was bored, he asked her how she imagined to do that.

Everyone nice goes into the hivemind. Maybe some space marines too, if they listened. Everyone else would die and she completely missed that the question was about strategy. There was an armed ship in orbit, for starters. The cyborg and the ... the ...

What the hell were those things?

He didn't directly sense them, but there was anxiety among the marines of this enemy according to Kirindi; the kind of thing she'd use to lure them to her safety.

A few smaller vessels detached from the ship, the one carrying these things looking no different, but it headed in the direction second closest to the plateau, along with one batch of the space marines.

Kirindi and the drones were all but begging to kill what was within it. It began to disturb him. He didn't know a Kirindi who was so eager for violence.

· · · · · · ·

Sarah woke up because she was called more fiercely than ever. Noasyvé, and Kirindi, and Lemura. It was time. They pulled her out of the induced thickness around her mind, into a painful awareness.

She could not move enough. Her eyes were closed, her ears muffled. Narcotics?

How long had she been out?

Pain riddled her legs and she could not even scream.

She reached out, found Noasyvé in her enforced slumber, then Lemura, the rest distant spots. Jake was near.

Why ... why were there ... like Lemura, but her own. Three more to the hivemind.

Who?

It didn't matter. They were part of the hive. Through her mind she reached out to them, and brought them in with the promise they would escape soon.

· · · · · · ·

They weren't supposed to start a fight. What a ridiculous command. The damn hunter didn't get it, but Odygos did. Today they lived for the same cause : the annihilation of the threat. Kirindi would stay around Karga'te and oblige, hope he didn't notice the absence. Let him be a fool over there, and keep Kirindi safe and occupied.

The enemy's very existence was provocation enough, they could not be tolerated to be here when their Mother arrived.

Odygos had learned how to fly the hovercrafts. Eliath had to admit the use of curiosity as motivation : it meant benefit from otherwise wasted time if apparently unrelated skills were picked up. He might have to explore more in this manner so he didn't need Odygos for this. He was not serving in his optimal capacity if he lagged behind.

But it would have to be later.

The transports settled down near the plateau, and the human resident deboarded to meet with the local staff; some pretense they uphold for complicated political reasons; even Odygos didn't fully get it. They should find out later, because somehow this meant that the enemy was stalled.

More of interest was the separate transport and its cargo released far from the large entrance. They looked like human children. Very small, naked, all male. They didn't speak, but moved on an command of their own hivemind.

Find Ti'chai-di.

The moment Eliath pushed his telepathic abilities enough to link to them, they saw him in return. Well enough.

Odygos went into the empty Auton base, preparing. Eliath flicked his arm blades and left a few drops of acid for them to find, but Odygos stopped him. Oh, Odygos had a bit of Auton blood in storage. Better bait. They could aim further.

· · · · · · ·

They weren't allowed to throw bombs at the hell dinosaur, Satchasisa made that very clear, so the drop ship ended up docking in the vacation resort itself.

It was impossible to miss : stretching out below the colossal plateau was a space harbor. The rock surely had been hollowed out, judging by countless smaller windows on the side. He'd never seen such a large gathering of alien life that didn't include humans; likely by their intent. They'd gone out of their way not to be visible from space.

On the floor between the pillars were countless lit streets, scents and sounds of a thriving city. Not the sort welcoming to humans, as the closest to humanoids were poleepkwa.

Poleepkwa were stupid. They would absolutely rush them unless they had a smart and compassionate leader; and there were no green ones in sight. He couldn't imagine the catastrophe if they'd deployed the troops right away. Even with cyborg and the brood along, or perhaps because, it could have easily dissolved into a terrible fight. Over a vacation resort, or something that would pass as such before a court.

"My professional advice is that we do not provoke this place, even if we get the politics sorted out," Warrain said.

The commander of the space marines shrugged. "This mission is ridiculous, do what you want."

"We'd still like some dinosaur DNA," Andrew said. "That objective was not a lie."

The man shot him a steely glare. "Do you think I am so uninformed I need to be told that, paperpusher?"

Andrew just sighed and peered out of the window, trying in vain to spot true humanoids. Not a whiff of Auton activity, on scanners or otherwise.

Once docked, Satchasisa met them, and demanded intell on all activity of the space marines, cyborgs and vessels.

He endured the routines, went through a lot of identification, feigned wonder why this place wasn't advertised to humans. Then he was somehow accidentally signed up for a tour when he tried to hand wave Satchasisa's attempts at selling something with, regular will do.

Thus he ended up on a hovercraft covered with slime, wedged between Poleepkwa, guided around the attractions.

"We are proud to host the annual Sogmasth Oghyutt festival! Well, annual by their standard. It takes a few centuries for their home planet to turn their sun. But we'll be hosting it eventually and the cash is going to be so worth it," the obnoxiously perky voice announced. "The festival is when they all crawl into a big pile and wrap their slimy tentacles all around for reproduction. You know. Orgies. While we were at it, we themed it to host other fine people with moist inclination."

Warrain and him managed to be only slightly queasy outwardly, but sex being brought to mind was never pleasant. Far from the casual fun it was for others, it set them on edge.

Below that discomfort, he didn't notice right away.

Someone watched them, chased, followed.

The way even humans sometimes sensed being watched, hair stood on his neck. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get a grasp of the source.

· · · · · · ·

When Jake got his earpiece, that was his first real meeting with Ayo; the enigmatic not quite human woman who somehow knew Karga'te, before moving on to the better friends that were the scaly space kangaroos with the organic ship.

"I'll be giving you prompts starting with a visual in mind," she said, while the image of a unicorn appeared like weird daydream. "I cooperate with the Auton to create a safe direction, but will relay any changes to you too. Keep radio signals low. Enigma II researches mental influences too, prime yourself to only respond to my visual cue."

"Hello to you too," he said. "How are you doing?"

She chuckled. "I'm quite alright everything considered. Certainly better than you are. Now focus, please."

"Unicorns, got it. I'm all focus, miss."

"No, you're not."

Fixating on the vision she sent was rather easy, perhaps exactly because of its quirky animal choice. It even held Shadhahvar's attention.

He didn't know what went on outside this small room, and couldn't read squad of their host's tech, but Ayo supplied insight.

Right now the ship teleported next to the Enigma station, cloaked visually with technology snatched from the yautja. The Aing Tii had something to distort scanners, but would not be able to do anything about the gravitational impact. Sooner or later, Utara would notice something was out here.

The hangar was closed. They would only force it open at the end of the mission. Their infiltration would occur with a laser cut at the side of the station, using a smaller cloaked vessel to get near. This would lead to compression issues within the ship, another risk of Utara noticing.

Y-921 was part of the mission again, apparently an expert, but Jake didn't know much else.

The android didn't remember anything, and though Jake was tempted for small talk, he didn't want to bring it up. It might be painful for the guy to have lost something so important like a friendship; he actually seemed to avoid Kirindi now. Hard to imagine he'd erased his memory for her sake.

"We're ready," Shadhahvar said.

The Sanhedrim ship's hatched curled up, revealing the narrow outline of the nearby star against the edge of Enigma II. He darkened his visor, drifted out, and fought his dread alone.

· · · · · · ·

A simple, barely human mind, hard to distinguish by traits, but so powerful. She listened and emanated. Utara was right, Amy B had to be here somewhere. An ever subtle presence, almost tantalizing to destroy.

Parts of the space marines had been cajoled, possible with psychic persuasion by worms, into what few saunas were accessible to humans. He and Warrain had avoided that only to get accidentally signed up for a guided tour.

"And we are proud to hos the annual Sogmasth Oghyutt festival! Well, annual by their standard. It takes a few centuries for their home planet to turn their sun. But we'll be hosting it eventually and the cash is going to be so worth it." Satchasisa said that in English, too, from the podium. "We have already finished the bathhouse, which you can see behind us. We will now pause here for a well deserved rest before we continue."

Oh god.

The crowd cheered in inhuman chirps and growls as they writhed past him.

That's when he heard the shriek come from a nearby tunnel. Unmistakably that of a xenomorph.

He told Warrain to excuse his absence with sickness, and to ensure the brood met up with him. The space marines and cyborg operators were to be left to his command, but Warrain should try to keep them from splitting over the place too much in case of emergency.

After loudly asking for a bathroom and receiving directions, he rushed there, passed it, and spiraled towards the tunnel from from the shriek had come.

At the passage into the arching wall lay the smallest drop of white blood. He stuck his finger in and smelled. No doubt, this was Auton material. It lay between sprays of a garbage, apparently a transport had messed up.

Could it be they were still here, hastily trying to evacuate now they knew an small army was here? They couldn't have know anyone was coming, not in advance enough. Warrain's brood was back there and hadn't yet found anything, but this place was massive.

Should he ...

He took the risk. At intervals of sneaking and inhuman speed, he slipped by without provoking poleepkwa or anything, into the staff area. It was miraculously more clean around here. So clean he soon spotted another drop.

· · · · · · ·

Lemura waited in a dark corner below the floors. She couldn't do anything else. Jay and Bison were apprehended, Sarah forced to sleep while they hurt her.

She didn't know what to feel. Fear was there, and anger, and apprehension, or hopelessness. All words she knew. Sarah would go free Jay and Bison, if she were here. Lemura tried to make herself want to do that too. Motivation was the word for that, right?

The big mother monster was always around, whispering. It got insistent in the past hours, urging her to do the same.

Everyone prepared for freedom. Lemura asked again and again what that really meant, because nothing they explained matched. She always would have to follow others.

Was it safe? Any of this?

Better than where you are now, was what the strange monster mother said eventually. Find better happiness like your mother and aunt. A promise of relief, which she brought together by calling onto what scarce happy memories Lemura had.

More of that, if she just moved, and made freedom a little easier. She didn't have to wait for Sarah to direct, or for feelings to drive. Just follow. The monster mother knew the way.

At last, she started to crawl down the vent.

· · · · · · ·

Back in the vents on Enigma II. Jake was surprised at the ease with which it went. They hadn't triggered a single guard system despite having Shadhahvar on their team.

Their objectives were Noasyvé and Sarah, then two defectors, followed by evacuating whomever else they could. The Sanhedrim ship would approach once all was under control, but did not want to risk it for vague reasons. That was alright. It was easier not having to explain Noasyvé's children who was safe or not, they'd ignore the Auton.

Jake knew that he had to go free the drones. Better those who were Noasyvé's children — she had laid eggs, they had taken the bait, she could have mentioned that before — and any other drones. She was a smart queen, they would bow to her once she was awake.

Acrariel found out the new map, Noasyvé was still in the same place as before, in dorm. She had one new batch of children, hatched and contained. Now they debated whether to free those, or her first, since this would doubtlesly trigger the alarms.

Shadhahvar patted the android on the shoulder.

"Right? We go do it at the same time, you and me to the queen. We're the expects!"

Y-921 gave a longsuffering glance at Jake, before taking off with her.

That was alright too.

Jake went on in a haze, the sense of what he had to do stronger than ever. The cyborg he encountered along the way almost an afterthought, because the drones knew he was coming and reached out.

He dropped into the passage that Ayo indicated.

Right as he stood before the containment unit, a small vibration went through the ship.

Oh, great. Shadhahvar had set off a bomb to free Noasyvé.

He shot the froster mechanism and stood back as acid sprayed in from the other side.

The door brust open and the first drone exited, bleeding, moving on to the next cell right away.

They were not her children. They saw him as enemy. And passed by, because Noasyvé called deeper.

Another voice whispered at him, telling not to, almost pleading.

"Who are you?"

Noasyvé didn't want him to listen to that one. But the voice was fascinating and disturbing compared to her simplicity. Within that voice were countless promises of a changed world, enticing dreams. Betterment for humanity.

Really blatant seduction, coating a join me thing. Pffft. He continued releasing xenomorph.

Simple.

· · · · · · ·

A line of trash and drops led him in a specific direction, ending in an empty underground compound of rock. Despite the things being stockpiled here, the air was desensitized and the grime fresh. He was about to report he had found clear evidence of an Auton base when the door he'd just passed shut close.

He drew his gun right away, only to have something massive fall from the ceiling. He dodged in time, but sharp pain cut across his back. He lost the gun as he collided with a corner.

Scrambling back to his feet, he found the worst enemy he could fear.

A bladed xenomorph so massive that even on all fours it left no room above; far from the clumsy chimera he was meant to find. This encounter was a possibility, but this looked like nothing he'd seen before.

In the seconds he healed his back, it picked up the fallen gun and aimed.

Andrew dodged to the left, not fast enough. His hit leg sent him sprawling, and as he regenerated. Instinct took over, and his nails lengthened from deep below his skin.

He crawled across the wall at his new enemy, only to get more bullets at him. He healed around the bullets still within, but his movement was impaired. When the xenomorph met his tackle, they slipped. The gun clattered to the ground, far from him. Andrew fought back instinct and scrambled for it.

Just one shot to the skull and it'd be—

The xenomorph planted a cicle claw over his arm, digging right through his skin. Another foot planted on his back. Drool fell on the back of his head.

He heard the jaw open. Seconds before. He let go.

His skin thickened around the cut, spikes emerged from his back and his strength increasing enough to throw the surprised xenomorph off balance. One sidestep and he'd ripped the claw clean off. The acid spray burned him, and he jumped away.

Maybe he could fight it, but he wasn't a soldier, let alone one prepared for this.

The nearest door had simple controls. He fumbled at it before shooting through, hissing close behind.

The door shut and he had no more idea where he was. Warrain could only give him vague directions of where to find his brood.

One the other side of the door, the xenomorph tapped on the controls. Shit. He ran, praying he wouldn't have to transform.

· · · · · · ·

The alarm had gone off, and the humans ceased their efforts to put her back under.

Sarah fixed her eyes on the blinding lights, filling her seconds with hatred. They way it blossomed within the waking hivemind transcended it beyond anything an ordinary human could feel. A completeness came with it, seamless compliment to purpose. It echoed into the simpler minds of the other three selves.

They waited together, listening and feeling as the drones awakened. Noasyvé, anxious but still surpressed, and the thing holding her down grew anxious.

The lights went out.

At last drones broke through the melting doors. Sarah turned her head as much as she could, catching glimpses of the black domes. And of the blood, as the scientists who had holed up here were slaughtered.

Glass shattered as they set free the others.

One drone crawled up to the table. Blood and acid drool dripped over her as the drone studied the restraints. She directed wordless instructions at it. With a few careful swipes of acid, Sarah was loose.

Slowly she moved her stiff limbs. Sitting up hurt; she had not been kept in adequate state while unconscious. She kept her eyes closed while the cries died around her, and swung her legs over the table of the table away from the sounds.

Something nudges her foot.

The other three, her ... her ... no, she wouldn't call them clones. Children would be better.

They had crawled below her table, whimpering in a world they didn't understand. All but her, whom they sensed familiarity too.

The drone waited with her, a shield against whatever might come from behind. She counted, offering the simplicity to the three below, until the gunfire and cries died down and only the hive's silence remained.

When Sarah opened her eyes, she found someone standing in the window of the observatory.

Walltraud met her eyes, and he switched on his intercom.

"Why will you not look at what your new friends have wrought?"

"I have seen enough of your scientists to last me a lifetime."

"You appear to have already spent your lifetime as a human, now you are more of the xenomorph. It shouldn't hurt you. Look at the future you'll provide, if you follow their ways."

"Why not follow their ways?" Sarah asked. "I'm better with them than with you."

"You are barely yourself anymore. You will die entirely if you lose yourself to the hive."

He didn't know what he was talking about. Whatever became of her, she was conscious. She didn't have to fear the monsters, and so the humans stood out all the clearer as the enemy. Her own enemy, she would not rot in here. Serving themselves, they thrived only for incomplete things such as greed, an exagarted ... ah, there it was. She was still human enough to do things for herself.

"We are all mortal." Sarah rain her hand over the crest of the other drone, swiping along the human blood. "But not with the same ease, or for the same purpose, or in the same way."

She cast a quick look at the gore behind her, determined it left her unmoved only because she saw the scalpel that had cut into her, and faced her enemy again. It was power to have the greatest beasts at her back, and that man on the other side with his eyes full of envy.

· · · · · · ·