2
I'm locked up again. The door is open and I look at it and want out. One of the Meat People talks to me about Chest Bursters and she seems mad about it because her voice goes deep and makes growling noises. Talks about someone real little who got put in a cocoon and made me. I was real little once too. When I was real little I didn't have legs, or a dome, or a stinger, or anything. I had Little Mouth but that was about it. Glad I'm big now. Meat Person says the one that made me didn't get to be big and it's bad I don't feel bad about it. I think: that's dumb and stupid, Meat Person. I gotta be born or else I would just be an egg inside a carrier inside another bigger egg.
I look at the door some more and she starts to yell at me real loud. Look at me, she says, and she's leaking clear stuff from her eyes. Why won't you look at me. A Meat Person in a white coat comes in and puts its hand on her shoulder and says Miss Peterson it doesn't understand you please you're not authorized to be here. Miss Peterson just keeps leaking and yelling and the white coat's white coat makes a weird noise like a krr-skrrt and then it says Security Please Provide Miss Peterson An Escort Off The Premises She Is Interfering With Protocol. I yell back at Miss Peterson and I put my tail up as much as I can because she's yelling at me and that's what you do when you're yelled at. That's what Mother said we should do anyway. Mother knows lots of things like how to stop a Meat Man from yelling when you cocoon it for later by putting your tail in its gullet and swiping up so the voice box goes bad. But there's a big glass wall between us and also I can't move so she doesn't get scared only angry.
You Stole Her, says Miss Peterson. You Stole My Bree. Give Her Back. She says it just like that with a lot of gumption which is a word I heard a Ceiling Voice say once and it means their guts are really boiling. Another Meat Man comes in and its hand goes on her shoulder too and he says Miss Peterson I'm going to have to ask you to leave. (I'm glad I have my chitin and slime so no hands go to my shoulders and get nasty Meat Man smell on me.)
Miss Peterson turns around and looks at him and then turns around and looks at me and I think she doesn't know what to do. She doesn't have a Gun or even a Knife but she wants to see my blood. Maybe bathe in it. She hates me very much. She smells like Big Fear and I can hear her heart beating. Her hands are white with how she grips the railing. I don't know what a Bree is and I don't know how I could have stolen it. Does she mean when I was a grub and very brown and small and lived in Meat Man Meat? I don't remember that but everyone does it. It's how we happen and if I never happened I wouldn't be able to help Mother with her nest and to scout tunnels for mapmaking.
Anyway Miss Peterson is gone soon and then a different Needle Man than the first one comes and takes my blood again which I don't like much. He says Sorry About That Forty Four and I think he is saying it for serious because he is a Veterinarian which means Animal Doctor. The vial with my blood in it shines because of the ceiling light and then he says another funny thing: he says it's very pretty and thank you for helping, Forty Four, you're doing great. Think the Meat Men call that Courtesy. Cur-tuss-ee. Since I don't have anything to do now I can learn lots of Meat Man Words. Bet they don't know I even can. Ha Ha Ha.
I'm real smart smart smart now that I know things and can think. Maybe I'll be a Mother someday and get real big and have lots of carriers and drones to do things for me. But then I wouldn't be able to do things for my Mother so maybe that's a bad idea.
Miss Peterson lost her daughter to you he says. You ought to respect that, if you're able.
Maybe I would but I don't know what a daughter is so instead I make a big noise to shoo him away but he doesn't go anywhere. I know you don't understand he says and goes Ha Ha Ha. Hope you don't think I'm losing it.
I think, of course you're not losing it Meat Man you only have a needle and a coat and that's nothing to lose at all.
When you have a Mother and Siblings all you have to do is feel things to talk because the feelings go whoosh into everyone's heads and so everyone knows everything all of the time. Mouth sounds are for scaring food and testing tunnels and making yourself look big and scary (bigger and scarier). I don't like how the Meat Men talk with their mouths. Don't know how they know what anyone's saying. I have to learn new sounds of theirs every time they talk because they talk so much. Now that I have to think by myself there's lots of room for all of the mouth sounds to fit in and so I know words like Bastard and Courtesy and Janitor, but there are so many many many and I don't want my head to pop if I stay here too long and have to fit all of them inside.
It's much easier to talk with feelings. If Meat Men had feelings like mine I could talk that way and tell them, I Hate This Place Let Me Go Home and also I'm Hungry Give Me Good Food. Too bad.
You did something interesting today says Needle Man. You didn't eat when we gave you food. Why is that? Your rations have been meager to say the least and I know you have a voracious appetite.
Vorrrrr-ashuss. He says it with food and eating so I think it means food-want. I am really truly vorrrr-ashus.
He asks me Did we offend you? and then does another Ha Ha Ha. I'll make sure they give you a proper meal before tomorrow, don't worry.
I don't want his Needle Man food. It's probably nasty just like his Needle Man meat smell.
He says I suppose you'll be wanting an introduction. My name is Doctor Cadbury. You can call me Doc.
He holds my blood in the vial and swirls it around and then he pulls out a thing from his pocket and a pocket is like a pouch they have in the soft stuff they wear. The thing is metal and small and he puts it on my head where Little Mouth can't reach. Another one goes on my chest. I try to bite him like SNAP! He backs off and goes Ahp Ahp Ahp Forty-Four, this is for your own good. We've got to start properly monitoring your vitals. Just between you and me my job is on the line.
He pulls out a little box then. I don't know where he keeps all this stuff. Anyway he leans over and shows it to me and I sniff it and it smells like nothing but there's some Meat Man marks on it that he says are supposed to Repp-Ree-Zent my Heart Rate and my Brain Waves and my Blood Assidd-itt-ee and it's Very Important he knows all about them so he can do his Very Important Job. I just want to scratch at the thing on my head because it itches.
He breathes out real hard. You're Weyland-Yutani property now, Forty Four, whether you like it or not. Be good, won't you?
No I don't think I will.