"Well shit, look we need to leave now. The CEO of Weyland Corp. himself is coming to the station and we need to be long gone by the time he gets here." Sarah started to leave.

'Wait a sec, I need to grab someone first.' Caleb dashed around the corner, he reappeared a moment later with a body.

"Who the hell is that?"

'Dr. Nelson Chekoff, he's the one that took your place after you stabbed me. He along with another doctor that is', Caleb looked around for any signs of trouble; 'look I need you to carry him so that I can deal with anyone who gets in our way.'

"What? You want me to carry a full grown man? There's no way I can even lift him!"

Caleb held him up so Sarah could see. 'I wouldn't say full grown, he's only about four foot six. He's a downright dwarf.'

"Really? How'd I miss that?" Sarah took the little man. "Well I'll lead the way; you stay a bit behind so you can deal with anyone who stops us. Sound good?"

Caleb nodded, 'Let's go.'

The trio quickly moved down the corridors meeting few people, those they did meet where too busy running to the safe rooms to bother them. It was only when they met a security squad that they had some trouble...

Sarah rounded the corner and practically ran into a group of four people all carrying assault weapons and once again riot gear. The quartet instantly spun and trained their weapons on the approaching woman dragging a body. "State your name and business, now!" Caleb heard this and stopped just around the corner. He was about to round the corner and attack whoever stopped them when he heard a voice.

"Stand down, that's Dr. Masalym" It was Joseph...

'Of all the people we could have met it just had to be him, dammit all.'

'Don't worry Caleb, we'll find a way around this.' Sarah began babbling an excuse, something about being lost.

'What do you mean? It's not as if some miracle is going to drop into our lap, the world just don't work like tha-'

A door just behind Caleb opened and a short man stepped out, his eyes landed on Caleb and he screamed, "OH SHIT!" before ducking back into the room.

Joseph reacted immediately, raising his rifle he said, "Johnson, Ramirez, go check that out."

"On it."

Joseph, Sarah, and the remaining security officer watched as the two moved out of sight. Moments passed by silently.

"Ramirez...what's going on ov-" Gunshots rang and Ramirez flew across the corridor slamming into the wall; followed closely by Johnson, they where both limp when they landed. The remaining two armed personnel trained their rifles forward...seconds pass...then more...then the screaming began again. "No! Go away! Stop! Put me down! Heeelp!"

A second later Joseph saw a xenomorph walk almost casually into view...holding the wriggling body of some poor man, but something was amiss. A rifle was raised in Joseph's peripheral vision; he reacted quickly, shoving the barrel of the gun down.

"Hold your fire", Joseph said quickly, "it's got a hostage!"

Indeed Caleb did have a hostage; he held the squirming scientist by his neck and placed his tail blade lightly on his collar bone. Joseph kept his gun trained on the creature but had no intention of shooting yet. Upon closer inspection he spotted the doctors name tag. "Dr. Wesson, I think you should stop squirming before that thing slits your throat..."

He did in fact stop moving but shut his eyes and started saying, "this can't be happening", over and over.

'Well what do we do know oh great and intelligent Hades? We can't speak to negotiate with him; all we did was buy a few seconds and put ourselves in a shooting gallery.'

'You forget Sarah, though, why don't you ask her to help us hmm?'

'Wait, why me? It's your idea after all.'

'You never properly introduced me remember, she has no idea who I am.'

'Oh crap, I didn't...sorry man, it must have slipped my mind, look it's just that in all the-'

'Caleb, men with big guns are staring at us, please talk to Sarah now. Also I'm not a man.'

'Oh right...how do I do that?'

'Forgive me, sometimes I forget how ignorant you are. Instead of speaking inward as you are now, try speaking outward to the world, all who can will hear it.'

Caleb thought about it for a second, 'Umm...Sarah?' Sarah was visibly taken aback by the sudden voice in her head.

'Ah good you can hear me. So I'm in a pickle, I need you to do...something to Joseph, maybe like tackle him or scream at him or-' Sarah placed Nelson, who was currently snoring and murmuring something about rainbow ponies, on the ground. Then, quite to everyone's surprise, she unclipped Joseph's sidearm and smashed the pistol into the base of Joseph's skull.

Everyone was still for a moment as Sarah stood there with the pistol in her hand. At that point several things happened all at once. Dr. Wesson broke free of Caleb's loosening grip and ran, still with his eyes closed, until smacking into the wall. Nelson squirmed on the ground and started sucking on his thumb. The remaining security officer reacted the quickest, stepping forward and slamming the butt of his gun into Sarah's head, knocking her to the ground. And Caleb's vision turned red...

Caleb was on the man in an instant, taking the gun and breaking it in his grip. Then grabbing his vest Caleb lifted him up before slamming the man into the ground. He tried to back away, but wasn't quick enough before the xenomorph's foot stomped down on him, crushing his ribs and forcing them into his soft organs. Caleb watched as the mans struggled breathing caused his ribs to puncture his lungs over and over and his heart tore itself apart on the sharp fragments of bone. He was dead in minutes.

Several moments passed as Caleb just stood there. The red eventually faded from his eyes and he could think once more.

'Holy shit...Hades what the hell was that?'

'Your female parental figure...'

'What?'

'Oh is that not how it's said, hmm, never mind then. That which you experienced a moment ago came from our body, from our very instincts. You see my kind sometimes take partners, mates if you will, when they reach adulthood. Even though most of my kind lack the ah...parts...that humans use to show affection we grow very close to our partners, and thusly each partner will furiously defend each other, even with their own lives. That is what you felt when that man struck Sarah.'

If a xeno could, Caleb would be blushing after that alien talk of the birds and the bees...or lack thereof.

'So any time someone hurts Sarah...'

'We will likely kill them.'

The implications of that hit Caleb rather quickly. One however hit faster than the others.

'You said we...so that means...'

'Yes, I harbor the same feelings for Sarah as you do.'

'Um... Shit that's my fault isn't it.'

'Oh now don't be that way, I would never condemn you simply because you chose to feel for Sarah, besides while Sarah is not the same as I had thought, she is a very intelligent and a very interesting being. To be quite frank there are worse beings to be bonded with.'

'Well regardless I still feel kinda bad; I mean I basically chose who you will be without even asking.'

'Do not worry, I hold no ill will. And we can talk more later, for now we must do as Sarah said and get off this station.'

'Oh crap! I forgot Sarah.' Caleb looked to see her lying on the ground clearly unconscious but breathing normally. 'Well at least she's ok...crap we gotta carry all three of them don't we?'

'Yes, yes we do Caleb.'

'And we gotta bring Joseph too?'

'I doubt he thinks we pistol whipped him, when he wakes up he'll probably tell someone about how he was attacked by a blue xenomorph and had it right where he wanted it until some poor defenseless woman cracked him in the base of the skull. It's either bring him with us or kill him'

'Damn...well let's go I suppose.'

And so they did, dragging the three of them was very awkward so it took several minutes to reach the evacuation bay. Upon arriving Caleb and Hades noticed that there was no one there.

'Well, that makes sense I suppose, everyone is likely in their safe rooms by now.'

Hades looked around. The E-vac bay was fairly basic in construction, it consisted of a spaceward facing arc with circular hatches along the way; all closed currently.

'See any pods that strike your fancy?'

'Hades...they're all the exact same, in literally every way. How could the one I choose be any better than the one you choose?'

'Humor me.'

'...Fine, how about...the seventh one from the right.' Suddenly, unexplainably, the seventh closed door from the right decided it was time to open. Caleb was at a loss for words, the only thing he could manage was, 'How?'

The sound of many footsteps approaching snapped Caleb out of stupor, Hades however was already reacting, he rushed in to the open pod slashing the door controls with his tail on the way in. The thick doors slammed together, shutting out whoever was following them quite effectively.

'Now, I know that you're probably quite confused...' Hades began fastening the unconscious trio into their seats. '...and I know you have several questions about what just transpired, but for now please get us out of here.'

'Fine, I will, on one condition.'

'And that would be?'

'Stop. Reading. My. MIND!'

'But I am your mind.'

'Fuck you, you know what I mean.'

'Fine. I Hades, do solemnly swear to stop "reading your mind" to the best of my abilities. There happy?'

'Yes. Let's get out of here.' Caleb then launched the pod.

Now, let's get one thing straight. Despite what many think, spacecraft aren't that hard to pilot, escape pods even more so. In fact the only thing hard about actually piloting a spacecraft; aside from evading the occasional comet or chunk of wreckage that hurtles by, is takeoff and landing. All Caleb had to do for takeoff was press the release button that sent the small craft hurtling in space. Landing would be a bit trickier...

Caleb set a course in the direction of the swampy green planet. "ETA TEN MINUTES." The robotic voice of the pod announced.

'Well Hades, looks like we found some time to kill, would you care to explain what the hell I did that opened this pod.'

'Ah yes, that...now I had a perfectly well thought out and cohesive way to explain all of this to you...but then the guys and the escape pod and some smart ass comebacks, well you know how it goes. Anyway let me put it this way, you and I; we can affect the physical world around us.'

'So what? I was able to do that before, however not from ten meters away!'

'No no, you miss the point. I didn't say that we can simply move things in our plane of existence, it's something much more than that. How about we think of it like this, are we alive?'

'Ah, yes, I would assume.'

'Right, and what are we made of?'

'Well...flesh.'

'Smaller.'

'Atoms?'

'Correct! And this pod is made of atoms correct?'

Caleb started to see where this Q&A was going. 'Yes... do you mean what I think you're getting at?'

'Oh yes I do, and more. Both we and this pod are made of the same thing, what makes us different?'

'Well for one Hades, we're alive and I doubt this pod could land itself without my help.'

'There's where you're wrong, the ship is alive, it's just made of so many individual specks of life that no one or two moving in one direction could move the others. That's where we come in, we have the ability to make- no that's not the right word, it's more like we ask the life to do what we want it to and it reacts. Whether or not that reaction is what you want is up to them. Usually though, the life will band together and do what it is you want, from what I can tell all life wants to do is move, even in solid objects the millions of specks of life try to tug in one way or another. If you give them a direction in which to tug...well usually they take it. Are you starting to understand?'

'...so the force?'

'Oh for the love of The Mother, I'm practically spelling-'

A rather meek and unmanly groan arose from one of the seats. "Uuhh...where the heck am I?" Nelson looked around until he spotted Caleb and Hades, "aww...hell, you two again."

Caleb did a little "hiya" wave.

"So that is Caleb in there right?" Caleb nodded. "Well that explains why you haven't killed me, hey could you tell the other one to refrain from hitting me in the head again; I've got more going on up there than most."

Hades put a hand on Nelsons shoulder. 'I have a name you know, it's Hades.'

"Fair enough, so what's going on?"

'Ah well we had to get off the station so we stole an escape pod and set off, we should reach our destination...in about a minute. Oh that reminds me, do you know how to land an escape pod?'

"Ah, kinda. Where are we landing? Actually no, first why did you take me with you", something occurred to Nelson that made Caleb seem a lot more scary, "are you gonna hive me! Because that is not happening!"

On the pods control interface a red light began to blink.

Nelson tried to get up and put some distance between the two of them but was stopped by the seat restraints. 'Oh calm down I'm not gonna do that, honestly I don't even know how.'

"...oh...ok", Nelson seemed to calm a bit, "my other question then, where are we going?"

'We're heading to the greenish planet that the station is orbiting.'

"We're WHAT", Nelsons eyes practically popped out of their sockets, "do you even know what's down there?"

'Um...land?'
ANGLE OF DESCENT INCORRECT! MANUAL CONTROL NESSESARY! REPEAT, MANUAL CONTROL NESSESARY!

"Aw crap", Nelson quickly unbuckled himself and pushed past Caleb to get to the pilots seat, after tapping a few symbols the small craft righted itself. Nelson turned to look at Caleb, "you really don't know what's down there do you?"

'No, all I know is that it's a planet.'

Nelson turned the chair around fully and took off his glasses, placing them on his lap.

"Caleb, that planet the site of the original xenomorph infestation, if we land there we're going to die."

Caleb has officially fucked everyone over...shocker. So, tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I could do better. This story can be largely affected by all you readers (mostly because I never plan more than three chapters ahead). And I cannot stress this enough, give a big round of applause for Strawberry. Also, because I am largely unused to working with a beta I really don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I am working as diligently as I can(this dumb school thing keeps getting in the way though). Oh and as a last thing, I havd exams last week but but I will have much more time to write (and play halo XD).

As always you guys and gals have the most wonderful time reading. Your all the best!

Sincerely,

The Fifty