"Get off of him, you sex-crazed alien beast!"
A female had come through a door into their cell, a door Akkan had not previously noticed. She had positioned herself between Paul and Akkan, and brandished a buzzing stick-like weapon
Akkan regained consciousness almost immediately, and his instinct took over. He had to protect.
Hissing at the female prey, he dropped himself on all fours.
She held the weapon in front of her, and ever so often stabbed in his direction. In a split second he decided to attack. Launching himself forward, his momentum carried the female against the wall. She pushed the stick against his shoulder, make it fizz with electricity. He lost his grip on her, but ripped her belly with his sharp talon, spilling blood and sweetly smelling intestines.
She reeled over, coughing up blood and splattering it all over the floor.
Paul! Quick! As long as the door is open!
Paul raised his body from the bed, his face bearing a horrified expression. Slowly, exhaustingly slow, he made his way for the door. There was no time to waste.
Forcefully, he grabbed Paul who could not tear his gaze away from the bleeding female, and made a run through the door.
The room behind it was filled with humans of all shapes and sized, staring at monitors. They were taken aback by xeno's sudden appearance, and quickly began to yell.
Paul shouted too, but Akkan had no time. They would escape!
Instinctively, he dived down a ventilation shaft, and scrabbled away, roughly pushing Paul in front of him.
He did not stop until they had reached a junction.
Paul? Are you okay?
He groaned I'm all right. Just got a bit manhandled, and I had to watch you tear a researcher apart.
Akkan felt Paul was shaken, and even a bit hurt. I know you don't like it. But she was hurting me! And she might have hurt you! I had to protect you.
The human raised an arm and patted him on his head. I know... I don't want it to be like this. I don't want any of this. And then, he started to sob.
The xeno did his best to soothe him. He hugged him, and put their heads together. And then an idea struck him: What do you want, Paul?
He looked at him, with teary, red, exhausted eyes. Full of pain, and longing. I want peace. I want a quiet place, away from Weyland-Yutani. A quiet place where we can be together.
This in turn made the Xeno sob. Well, not sob, because a Xenomorph had no visible eyes. But he showed his sadness in a way Paul could understand.
They hugged, and the human pressed a small kiss on the domed, smooth head.
I don't mind what the place looks like as long as no one is trying to kill us.
That made Paul laugh a bit.
They shocked you, didn't they?
Didn't half hurt. He remarked bravely.
You should be out cold! At least for an hour! Your neck is burnt! Paul stretched out an arm to touch the burns.
Don't touch them! It might still be bloody! I don't wanna hurt you anymore…
He nodded.
We will stay here, in these tunnels.
Yeah, we're safe here. They might find out where we are, but they can't shoot you.
Why not?
Because your blood will burn through the wall of the ship and suck us all out into the emptiness of space.
Oh this time Akkan hissed happily So I should avoid cutting myself then!
Probably.
Akkan stroked Paul's good shoulder How is your shoulder?
Hurting. What'd you expect? I don't get shot every day.
Around me, life is never boring! Akkan remarked
That's true. Still, there was an awful lot of death in these few days…
Hearing Paul sight, he pressed a short, slobbery kiss on his lips. Shh… It's gonna be okay...
It's not! What are we supposed to do? We can't stay here forever. How do we get off this ship?
Ummm, I don't really know. I don't even know how this thing works. I'm a dumb Xeno, remember? He nudged him.
You're not dumb, Akkan.
We need to focus. Find a nesting place. Somewhere warm and hidden away. You have to rest. Recover.
The earnest way he said this made Paul giggle. All right mum.
And don't go sassy on me!
Do you even know what sassy is?
No, but don't go sassy on me!
Akkan raised himself, and hit his head deliberately on the roof. Flopping down on his belly, he made funny noises
That made Paul smile.
You will stay here. Right here. You won't move anywhere. I will take a quick look for a better nesting place. I don't like this.
He could feel Paul not wanting to let go of him. Yeah. Go. But hurry up! I'm not sure if they will start looking for us in here.
I will be fast like lightning.
He scuttled off.
Paul was left alone in the dimly illuminated ventilation shaft,
His heart raced, and his shoulder throbbed painfully. Akkan had left, and he was alone. He didn't know why the xeno had not been knocked out the blast from the collar, and how much it had hurt him. But he couldn't get those images out of his mind. Akkan had killed the woman. Yeah, sure, she had almost roasted him and was attacking him with a shockstick, but still the images were stuck in his mind. How fast he was. Truly a lethal creature. His strength and speed truly were inhuman.
Stop thinking about him as human! He isn't.
It didn't matter how human Akkan behaved, he wasn't and he never would be. He was a creature from a nightmare, a nightmare in itself.
A nightmare in love with him. And for an inhuman reason within himself, he loved Akkan back. He couldn't bear the thought of seeing him in pain, and the shock had put him through a lot of it.
His instinct for survival had driven him to do that, and Paul understood. They had escaped. They were safe, for the time being, as no-one would dare to chase the alien into the ventilation shaft. They were afraid of it. Akkan knew this. He smelt it, felt it. Paul knew about the capability of alien senses. Sighing, he propped himself up against the wall of the ventilation shaft. Small pricks of light illuminated it, and it was larger than the maintenance tunnels Weyland had shoved them into. Weyland had to be somewhere on this ship. It was an enigma, even to the mind of Paul. What were Weyland's intentions? Why had he told Akkan what he did? And why did Akkan trust him so much? That didn't make sense. If it had been Weyland's intention to betray them all along, why hadn't the xeno noticed it? Or, what he rather hoped, the executive had some grand masterplan, in which this was, no doubt, another part to get them to safety. But he just couldn't make himself believe that. He was on his own now, and if he didn't take care of himself, he wouldn't make it out of here alive.
Not on your own.
He still had Akkan, and Akkan had him. And Paul knew the xeno wouldn't abandon him. He had protected him, more than once, even against armed soldiers.
Paul would protect Akkan as best as he could. But currently, wincing as his shoulder was stabbed through with a spear of pain, he was just a sack of meat, to be carried around by his friend.
Friend? They'd gotten further than that. Hell, if that scientist woman hadn't stopped them, Akkan would've probably gone further than just kisses and hugs. He'd felt-
Stop right here. No reason to get excited for something you just can't have.
Can't have? Shouldn't have? What should stop him? After all, xenomorph physiology was, to a point, similar to that of its host, and Akkan's host had, after all, been human. So basically…
Paul ripped his thoughts away from the topic. It was no good thinking of such things in here. He wasn't going to get any relief anyway. And they had to concentrate on getting out.
Getting out? They were on a spaceship, they could go nowhere. He sighed, and hoped Akkan would return soon.
Weyland sat looking at the navigational computer with bleary eyes, and a mug of coffee in his hand. Twelve hours of sleep had not helped him loose his sleepiness, but he hoped the coffee would. He recalculated the route again and again the extraction ship had to take, and again and again was puzzled by the route it was taking.
If it wanted to get its freight to earth by the fastest means possible, it was doing it wrong. It had swerved slightly to the left, and was continuing on a different path with reduced speed.
"Could they have noticed us, Jeanne?"
"Not a chance. We are moving in their radiation tail. It's impossible for them to see us on their radar screens."
"Couldn't they just look out of the window and spot us?"
"Unlikely. We're quite far away, and I've switched off the navigational lights. We're practically invisible to the human eye."
"So why did they swerve off course?"
"They've slowed down quite heavily. Either there's a malfunction in one of their systems, or they're experiencing different problems."
Weyland seized his chance. "They're already slow as is. If you keep in their radiation tail, and approach from a slightly different angle, shouldn't we be able to get close enough so I can jump over and hack one of the airlocks?"
Jeanne pondered. "Technically this could work, but then you're in that ship, and alone."
"That's not your concern. I just have to get inside."
Jeanne smiled wickedly. "Then what are you waiting for. Get your spacesuit and prepare. Oh, and I'll bill this extra. You know, dangerous encounters and stuff. I have diff-"
"Just shut up and take my money, you know where to find it." Weyland sighed, and steered towards the airlock of the Shipstern Bluff.
Jeanne had accelerated, and Weyland was looking through the visor of his space suit at the void of space.
He had a jetpack strapped on his back, and was suitably equipped to infiltrate a spaceship.
But still this was a dangerous enterprise. He had to time his launch, and hit the right airlock hatch, the one that he could hack with the code generator. He had one try, and one try only.
The airlock doors opened, whipping the breathable air outside.
Weyland felt his breath go slowly and even, as he watched the hull of the extraction ship slowly appear in his vision.
3... 2… 1… NOW!
Pressing a button on his space suit, he blasted off, away from the Shipstern Bluff.
He heard nothing, but he felt the small cruiser accelerate, and now he was alone.
Putting the thrusters to max power, he plummeted towards the ship's hull
He had ten seconds, and within these ten seconds, he had to touch down.
The airlock appeared in his view, and he altered his course slightly. He was flying blind, without any guidance, just relying on his experience.
Five seconds left.
The hatch was within reach, as the thrusters cancelled out, and acceleration left him. The rail whizzed past, but he managed to grab on to another rail.
Opening the buckles of the belt of the Jetpack, he let it go. It was empty now.
Weyland clutched the rail, as the ship started to change the course. Pulling out his security belt's carbine, he latched himself to the rail.
Looking up ahead, he saw the terminal, maybe five metres away from him.
Being careful to keep himself belted to the rail at all costs, he started to crawl towards the console.
He was almost there. No sound penetrated his ears, but his own laboured breathing. It was utterly silent in space, even though the engines were not fifty metres away.
Fastening himself to the rail adjacent to the terminal, he opened the code generator, and attached it.
It should hurry, they would notice the intrusion to the system for sure.
Gritting his teeth, Weyland set to work.