Hard Dicussions

"What is love? It is something special, as animals seem to not feel it. So far phrase "Love is blind" seems to count only humans. But why? Are we special? Or is it because we haven't yet met another sentient species?"

It was warm. And cozy. And... actually, not that soft, but still comfortable. He opened his eyes an was greeted with Celeste's a little creepy smile. How had she been able to persuade him to sleep so close to her? He was tucked a bit too close to her and she was keeping him there with both of her right arms.

"Could you let me go? I think this is a bit too close to me." She slowly rose her arms so he could stand up and walk around a little. He noticed that he was now fully was completely accustomed to the near perfect darkness down here. He could perfectly see Celeste's chamber now; it was large, of course but it had a lot of small holes in its walls. No idea for what. He heard her, still dizzy from sleeping, rising from her lying position. Not that she was able to lie down, she was fixed to the wall, but she was able to lower her down so it was close to lying. He turned around to face her.

She was beautiful, in a weird way. Not in human standards, but in a same way one would say a cheetah beautiful. Graceful. That was the word he was looking for. Easily bigger than he, maybe 15 feet tall and with a huge crest attached to her long curved head. She was black like a shadow, and her biomechanical look gave the final touch to her mysterious appearance.

"How did you sleep?" She signed slowly and smiled weakly. He could tell why; he was a mess.

"Pretty well, I guess. First time sleeping with a xenomorph, so I don't know what to compare to." She smiled wider and then quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts.

"Enjoyed it? Knew it. I think you were comfortable; soft and warm." He heard some voices behind him. He looked around and was scared half dead as a small octopus-like creature ran towards him. The facehugger then stopped just some feet away from him, seemingly to study him. Then, it jumped, but not on his face but on his hand and wrapped its tail tightly around it. It did look strange; it had no visible eyes like xenos, no mouth nor any other facial features. In fact, it seemed to lack head and all the other humanoid parts. It had about ten bony finger-like limbs, which were, like its tail, tightly clasping his hand.

"What is it doing? And why it didn't attack me?" he asked Celeste. She hummed amused and signed:

"She likes you. They all do this to me when possible. It's their way of showing that they like someone. And it didn't attack you because I asked it to not to. And because you carry my scent. Pat it, they like it." He carefully patted its main body and it began to purr. Soon it released its grasp and crept away. He didn't want to see one again. It had been peaceful, but their appearance just...

They spent the morning mostly talking about their species, explaining them to each other. Her species was a huge pile of rules, which they all obeyed instinctively.

"...Queen is always the top priority, not even the nest come before her. The one responsible of protecting the Queen is all of her children, except her Queens. And the one who is always close to her and is expected to protect her always, is her mate, if she has one. If a Queen is to attack another nest, No one else except a Queen or her mate, who we call Prince, is allowed to kill another Queen. If any of these rules are broken, we instinctively want to punish ourselves." She was amazed of his species; how fragile they were but how they were able to fill those weaknesses with their brainpower. She was very interested in humans' social behavior, which differed a lot from xenos'.

"What about fighting? You have no physical power, I can see that, so how do you fight?" She seemed interested about all of the machines and inventions of humankind.

"We use weapons. We have melee ones and ranged. Long time ago, one didn't even consider killing his enemy from distance. Nowadays, we have weapons which can kill one's enemies without weapon's user seeing his enemy. We humans use technology so powerful that we could destroy planets with just pressing one button. It scared me and I left. We humans, even though intelligent, are stupid in a way too. We have become better, but we are still dangerous. Fortunately, there haven't been wars in a long time. We looked forwards, but we looked too far away. We were destroying, slowly but surely, our own planet. When it was noticed, it was already too late. Now, none lives on Earth. It's a lifeless planet inhabited by robots and factories where they work." She seemed puzzled when he mentioned robots.

"We are able to make "life". We can turn lifeless matter into something that can do anything without a user. That's what we call a robot. For instance, we could turn the stone around us into a copy of you, which would be able to do everything you are capable of. But it wouldn't have heart, brains, emotions... Then there's AI:s, but they are something too complicated to explain." She nodded and then signed:

"You are powerful when you have your machines and tools, but without them, you are weak. We are strong always. But again, when you have your weapons, we are weak against you. We are always... strong, but you are some times unbeatable, some times weak. We both have our own strengths. Now to change the topic; Have I told you that you really need to clean yourself?" She grinned as he smelled himself and obviously didn't like the smell.

"I think I have to go home and take a shower. I'll eat something too, I'm getting hungry." She nodded hesitantly and signed him to leave. He smiled to her and left. It was a challenge to find the entrance but he finally found it some time later. The light of the outside world's sun was too much to him first but he was able to stand it and began his way towards his house.

"I hope sir had a good night, wherever he was. You seem happy, at least." A familiar voice called out from the living room as he opened the door.

"Morning to you too, Rick. I thought it wasn't a problem to you if I wasn't here with you. You're a robot." He said as he walked to the living room. Rick was sitting on the couch reading the news. Even if they were far away from mankind, Internet still worked. After revolutionary inventions in information transferring, Internet was now literally "World wide web".

"You seem happy but you certainly need a shower." it said and stood up. It almost pushed him to shower and closed the door. Sometimes Rick acted like a overreacting mother. He undressed and took a shower. The water was pleasantly warm and he would had liked to stay a bit longer, but his urge to get back to the nest was greater.

Rick was browsing its files. It had been easy to notice an alien smell on him, and even easier to get a skin contact with him. Then it had analyzed the particles which had come out of him. Not that it wanted to break his trust, but it was just... worried. It broke its programming, but it was the only word to picture what it was feeling. It was lost in thoughts when it saw a note that the search was done. And the result was a shock.

He walked out feeling better than ever. The feeling of clean had been forgotten, and now he remembered how it felt. Awesome. He walked past living room and prepared a lunch. He was stopped when Rick turned him forcefully around. Even if it didn't have feelings, it seemed angry.

"Why have you gone after xenomorphs?" The question got him off guards. Somehow it had found out. Now was his time to be angry.

"It's my thing, it isn't you business. I promise you that I'm not in danger." It still glared at him dangerously.

"If you go hunting them, you make a huge mistake. Not even a normal-sized patrol of Weyland-Yutani soldiers can kill even one of them, not much you."

"I don't hunt them, I-" He quickly shut up before told it more. It waited for him to continue. It was a small, awkward and tensed moment. Finally when it understood he wasn't going to continue, it said:

"If you really want to continue this whatever you are doing, you have to take me with you. At least I can protect you if they attack." Was there worry in its voice?

"No. It is my thing, and I can just shut you off if I need to, so stop talking, okay?" It tensed for a moment and then smiled at him.

"Now you can't do that. My programming of protecting you from the dangers is now more powerful than my programming to obey you. If you want to me not to come with you, you have to stay here." It grinned and then walked to the door and locked it.

"And only I can open this now. Well? It's your choice. I'm doing here what you ordered me to; protect you." It had done all this so fast that he hadn't been able to understand it all.

"You are keeping me here against my will?" he asked finally. It nodded. He was able to stay away from the nest for a day or two, but Celeste? He had no idea how long she was able to wait.

"Really, Rick, I need to go! If I don't, they'll come here!" It just grinned wider.

"Why would they come here? They don't even know where we are, I hope at least. And again, why would they come here if you didn't go? Come on, tell me already. You can't hide it forever." He thought his options for a moment before chose to tell it. Whatever if it it didn't believe him, at least he was going to get back and she wouldn't have to send the others.

"Ok, I think that you are not going to believe what I'm going to say, but I ask you to think; what actually would make this impossible. Okay?" he requested. If he hadn't known better, he would had swore that Rick seemed eager to hear his story.

"About a year ago, when we first came here, I went to explore the planet. During this journey, I saw a huge animal chasing a xenomorph. The scene was sad, in a way I still don't know, and I chose to help that xeno out. I shot its chaser with plasma rifle, and waited for it to notice that I had saved it. Soon, it did notice and came to me curious. It didn't attack, just studied me. Then it left." Rick had understood the story, and didn't even question anything. It gestured him to continue.

"Then I came back, and we started to build this home. Nothing really happened for a half a year but I still remembered that xeno I had saved. Then, I began noticing different hints of close-by xenos. I began to prepare, but they never attacked. Finally, from my curiosity, I ventured to the forest. I found their nest and ran. I hit a tree and fell unconscious." He had a small pause.

"Where is this nest exactly?" Rick asked.

"Sorry, but not going to tell you. Anyways, when I woke up, I had been moved inside the nest. I noticed that unlike usually when I hit my head, my head wasn't hurting at all. I began to find my way out of the nest. After some time a xenomorph found me. It didn't attack, but did something I was surprised to see; It gestured me to follow! I had no other options but to follow. After some walking we arrived to the center of the nest: Queens chamber. I thought that this was where I was going to die. But there never came any pain. Quite opposite, actually. This Queen hugged me! No, don't say anything, I was as surprised. It turned out that this Queen was the same xenomorph I saved a year ago, and it didn't so hate me nor want to kill me. Also, they are not just animals, Rick. They all have personalities, and they are able to communicate. They aren't able to speak, exactly, but they are able to use this sign-language. I learned a lot from them so. For example, the Queen's name is Celeste." the android was quiet. Then it smiled widely.

"Okay, so could you please now tell me the truth?" it said smiling.

"That was the truth! I said already that you should just believe me!" it rolled its eyes and sighed.

"So you are not going away. Not until you tell me the real story." Then it walked away and sat to the couch.

"It was the real- You know what? I think you are going to believe when she gets worried and sends her nest here to search for me."

"You really are mad aren't you?"

"No."

"I take that as a yes."

"Fuck you, Rick."

He waited. He had nothing much to do here. Rick had taken all of his tablets and stuff away so he wan't able to open any windows or doors. It had been almost an hour since he left the nest. Soon he should see dark figures coming towards the house. But after half an hour later, nothing had happened. He was getting worried. Would she actually danger her own children for a rescue mission? Did she really care that much? Yes. He was able to see one dark slender figure running towards the house from his bedroom window. He waved his hand towards her. She noticed and slowed hr pace. She arrived soon and tapped the window. When it didn't seem to open, she lowered her arms to the small button outside the window and pressed it. He had taught the meaning of buttons to Celeste, and it seemed that she had taught on to her children. The window opened with a small hiss.

"Why didn't you come back? Mother was so worried that something had happened to you."

"I was hold here against my will. And you can help me with one thing."

"Rick? Could you come here for a moment?" he shouted from his bedroom. He couldn't help it when he let out a little girlish giggle after he had said it.

"What is it? Have you made up a new story? Or are you ready to actually tell me what really is happening?" The android walked into the room and was greeted with Will sitting next to a xenomorph on his bed. Its eyes widened from surprise but it didn't do anything else.

"I told, they are my friends. Do you believe me now?" It nodded slowly and then stepped to the side.

"Door's open now. You may go. And I need some time to process all this data." He left the room and then the house. They walked with a quick pace; she was surely waiting. They reached the edge of the forest in no time and continued. He hadn't talked a lot with the other xenos, and they didn't want to either. They seemed to just accept him, nothing else. Maybe like him, but certainly not think him as a friend. Maybe they accepted him only because of Celeste. That was something grim to think of. Think something else. Now that he thought about it, he only was sure of Celeste's sex. What about the others? Were they like bees, all of them females? On a whim he ducked so he could see under the xeno he was following. He didn't know what to expect, they were aliens, and was so surprised to see an almost invisible slit. The xeno noticed what he was doing and turned around.

"What are you doing?" she signed. Will feared she was angry but nothing in her pose told him that she didn't like what he was doing. Quite opposite exactly. She seemed amused. He blushed a little, and she seemed to notice this and giggled. Then she turned around and continued walking. This time she walked more human-like manner, and actually waved her hips. Great, now she thought he was a pervert.

They arrived to the nest after some walking, which was a nightmare to him. She had walked all the way waving her hips so he had to stare. Not that he wanted. He had to ask some questions from Celeste after he had explained his lateness. The xeno ran inside the nest with a wave of her tail indicating good byes. He sighed and walked inside. This time he didn't get lost at all, but found the main chamber with no problems. Celeste was hanging from the wall looking like she was sleeping, but when she noticed him, she immediately stirred up and smiled to him. When he walked close enough, she lifted him from the ground and hugged him.

"Where were you? I thought some animal had caught you!" she signed to him but still smiled.

"I'm happy to be here again too. I wan't in danger, my... friend was just overprotective. It won't happen again, I promise." She nodded and hugged him quickly a bit harder before she lowered him down. When his arms were free he stroke her head slowly. She began to purr loudly. It sounded like a sound what a lion would make but it was higher.

This is what I want this to be. It's so peaceful. But he had to go on. He had to live; eat, speak, breathe... Breathe? He hadn't breathed at all during this moment! He let out the air in his lungs and took some new air. He hadn't even noticed that he had stopped breathing. Then he remembered that he had some questions to ask.

"Celeste, are all of your children female?" He had asked it too straight. She seemed first a bit surprised but then smiled widely.

"Why? Interested here are we?" She let out a small giggle. He was unprepared and didn't say anything. Now she began outright laughing.

"You are! Sorry, but this is just..."

"I'm not interested! Or well, I am but not in that way! Celeste! Do you even hear me?" She nodded but wasn't able to sign anything from her laughing. Xeno's laughing is a bit different from human's but mainly the same. Finally she was calmed enough that she was able to sign again.

"Why is it so funny if I would be interested?"

"We are natural enemies, that's why! It would be just so ironical! You may not understand our humor, but we do have one. And this is funny for me at least. Anyways, sorry. Yes, all of my children are indeed females. I only lay prince eggs every fifth cycle."

"Cycle? What's that?"

"We Queens aren't fixed to our nests all of our lives. That would be horrible. No, we have cycles, during which we lay eggs. Between cycles we are free to go where we want. And we can choose when to begin a new cycle. My cycle is closing to its end, I think." Ok, so she was able to move soon, if he understood correctly.

"Does that mean you detach from the wall?"

"Yes. I also shrink in size a bit. The main reason for the cycles is for us, Queens, to find ourselves a mate, which live's purpose is to protect us. There isn't any males here yet, I haven't began laying eggs for them."

"Do you mean that your mate is probably going to be your own child?"

"Yes? What's wrong with that?"

"Umm... Nothing. It's just one of these human-things."

"You humans are weird."

They didn't talk much for some time. There was couple random conversations but no any long discussions.

"How much do you actually know about us?" she finally asked.

"Well, you have acid blood, that's something everyone knows. Then you have another set of jaws, you have incredible speed, agility and strength and you spread with Facehuggers." he answered.

"That's not much. You know very little about us actually. First at all, we share many traits with humans, a thing we have never understood. We also want to kill humans more than other animals. We live in a hive, which's leader is the Queen. We can feel emotions and we are not just killers. We have a society, just different from yours. Like I said, we share many traits with humans; mostly social features, but we have some things in common with our bodies. For example, we have bones, humanoid structure, we are usually bipedal, we have also human's reproductive parts... Oh. I know what we can talk about!"

"Please, no."

"I really don't understand you humans... Why not? I have no one to talk about this except you."

"For us humans it's like a taboo. You don't talk about it except in special cases."

"Isn't this one?"

"Well... It's just... Well, first at all, you are different species, and also we usually speak about it with "Bros". Meaning I, for example, I am "allowed" to speak about this topic only with my brother or father."

"Well, now you have to get accustomed to me. I'm curious. And you don't have to begin to undress, I've had enough knowledge from that area from my children who has been spying you." He blinked. He had been seen naked by one of her siblings? And she had told about what she saw to her? He couldn't stop a bright red rising to his face.

"You don't need to shame yourself. Not here. I'm going to ask some things, and I would like to you answer them. Deal?"

"Like I have options."

"You don't. First question: Do you humans have this good feeling when you have sex?" Straight to the worst huh?

"Yes. My question: Can you get pregnant like humans?"

"No. Only Queen is able to get children. Question two: How does your kind show affection?"

"Usually just saying it, but there is other ways too. There is giving flowers, going to dates, watching movies together... What about your kind?"

"Protecting the other by all means possible, mating, cleaning each other, and then the usual: hugging, talking and so on... Not that that counts between us. Next question: when do you mature?"

"depends on gender. Men somewhere 11-15 years old, women year or two sooner. You?"

"I'm always mature. A Queen can begin her first cycle immediately after birth."

"Do we really need to speak about exactly this topic? It may not be anything for you, but for me it's more awkward than you think." he asked. His face had gone from the red and it now just felt stupid and awkward to talk about this.

"I know you don't like it, and I continued only to see you squirm in your discomfort. But if you really want to, I can stop."

"Please do."

"Okay, but what now?"

"I could explain some human things to you. It would ease some things for both of us."

"Ok. Go on."

"Where should I start... Okay, first at all, as you have noticed, we have a lot of things we don't like to talk about. There's sexuality, religion..."

"Religion?"

"It's a word for a group which believes into something... godly. Not always, but most of the religions are based to the belief of afterlife, that when you die, your soul will live on."

"Oh. Okay. Continue, please."

"We humans are physically weak when compared to other animals. We can't run for long, we can't lift that heavy objects, we aren't fast and so on. But we are clever. We use our cleverness to make things which do those jobs for us where we aren't good at. Now we are faster, stronger, healthier. We live for 150 years old, we can literally destroy mountains, even planets. That's how we dominated our planet; by technology. But we became greedy and began to battle for resources. We even once almost destroyed ourselves. We may be intelligent, but not wise."

"You certainly are small and weak-looking."

"Can I continue?"

"Sorry."

"Our society works by many small "Hives", families. Usually there's from 3 to 7 persons per family, and many families make a society. We also democracy. When we want to choose about something, we vote. Option that gets the most votes wins and gets to be used. Every individual can choose what it becomes to depending on the chances. They can choose what they'll be doing when they mature. We call them jobs. They are equivalent to your nest's Warriors, Drones and so on. When we do our job correctly, we get paid with money. We use money to get something we need. It's like trading. We give the right amount of money, and the payee gives something I need, for example food. Then the person who got the money can use the money to get something useful for himself. And the cycle repeats forever."

"Who came up with that idea? Seems very complicated."

"I don't know. It's an old thing, that much I know. Anyways, we humans are social creatures, but we don't have to be close to other people. Some people even like to be alone."

"What bout love between humans?"

"Why do you want to talk about this so much?"

"Because you don't like it, and I'm interested. Now could you answer my question?"

"Okay... We humans have this phrase: "Love is blind." When we fall in love, it may be almost literally anyone. Someone others call ugly can be in someone's view beautiful. I haven't fell in love yet, and don't plan to. We are always shy about our feelings, and sometimes we aren't brave enough to express our feelings. We are very shy sometimes, and it's weird because we get scared in places we shouldn't and vice versa. If we finally are able to express what we feel, we wait for the person who we love to say what he or she feels."

"How do you express your feelings then?"

"We give flowers, we just say it, we ask for a date... there's countless different ways. When we have chosen a mate, as you would call it, we won't change it. If one does change his or her mate, it's seen disrespectful. Are you getting somewhere with this?"

"No. I've just never seen humans, and if I would have, I wouldn't had talked to them. I'm curious." He sighed. It was getting late, or at least he was getting sleepy.

"You know what, I don't care anymore. I would like to sleep now..." She smiled then and took something grey from somewhere behind her.

"I noticed that you don't like to sleep on hard things, so I got you something soft to lie on. We are able to produce this silk-like substance which we use as a base for our nest. It's light but still very heat-insulated. It could work for a blanket for you." She offered the grey cloak. It felt a bit rubbery but it wasn't unpleasant. When she let him try it, he was surprised that it didn't weight almost at all! It felt like he was holding solidified piece of air.

"Thank you. I think this is perfect." She smiled and signed:

"I made it myself when you were gone. I wanted to give it to you when you came back, but I forgot." He began to take off his clothes but paused as he remembered who he was going to sleep with. He chose to leave his shirt on for the night, so he wasn't wearing only his underwear. She lowered herself like lad´st night so that she was able to lie down. Then she moved her arms so that he was able to lie next to her. He took the silk-thingy and lied down. Then he covered himself with the blanket and felt immediately warmth surrounding him. She hadn't lied. it was warm. She lowered her arms and tucked him closer.

What a weird life I'm living here. Then he fell asleep.

Author's notes: FINALLY! A new chapter! Once problems with a computer and then a writer's block. Anyways, I've gotten over it and I'm back! In the next chapter Will is going to find something a bit unpleasant but also important. And yes, more humans on their way, but that's for the spoilers. I'm having exams a lot now, and they are going to slow me down a bit, but if I stop writing, I'll inform. As long as I don't say it myself, I have not abandoned this story. I have a lot of ideas still, and most of them coming soon. Thank you for waiting.

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Hergotzer