All respective rights to the owners – I am not profiting from this work of fiction or own any of the characters save for the original ones created. – Yours Hopefully

Transit

"Vra'jek! A word," barked a voice down the corridor. Scar exited the medbay with the doors closing on the sterile light bleeding through. The small problem that had been occupying his chest cavity was safely evacuated by the ship's surgical table with little issue – only a microscopic burn from where the entry incision had been made and cauterized evidence of the act. Oomans were susceptible to a shorter incubation period compared to his race. For that, he was lucky.

Still, he cursed his sloppiness. It was his one downfall in the temple that night.

A hulking female was hot on his heels, it seemed. Yautja women rarely were small save for their adolescent phase. Even that didn't last – his own sisters born many cycles after him were far outracing him in size by the year.

He nearly did a double take at the familiar sight of this particular one. She was older in years, marked from seasons of the hunt and still outfitted in her chrome gilded awu'asa and thermal netting. A bio-helm was snug over her features, rising in a broad sweep over the crown of her head with narrow slits lacquered in steel mesh. A mark mirroring his adorned the headgear.

"I don't know whether to congratulate you on your success or berate you for foolishness," growled the female. More commonly known as Rah'wan, Scar felt his hackles rise at the abrasive texture to her language.

"You wish to challenge me on these grounds? Who died and made you arbitrator? It is allowed, and no one has ever disallowed it. Our clan has marked an ooman before."

The argumentative tone he took on with the elder female didn't help his case. Scar could practically feel her slitting her eyes at him, heat rising to flush her veins green and throbbing against the pebbled skin.

"I do not challenge you," she said after mastering her anger. It was rare that she would strike – not him, at least. She'd always spared patience for the young. Elders who riled her up weren't so lucky. The body count for that infraction was in the hundreds.

"I have come to meet the female. And do not look upon me so – I swear with your grandsire's blood that no harm will come to her."

That disarmed him thoroughly. It was more than he could hope for to have an honored huntress meet Lex on good terms. She wasn't out for the ooman's blood at least. It was a step in the right direction – acceptance.

Rah'wan cast a look at the medbay, then Scar saw the slits of her helm's eyes tilt towards the thin silver of the scar on his chest. "Ah. You disposed of it properly?"

"It's in the incinerator. Nothing left behind," he assured the female, knowing that his small secret of no great importance was safe with her. Rah'wan snorted and shook her great head, moving off with the quiet grace that puzzled many. She was no dainty thing. Nearly topping out at seven and a half feet, she towered over most males and gave many elder females competition in size. Solid muscle lined her long legs, cinching in on a wide pair of hips and a chest riddled with muscle. Even her arms were impressively wrought with lean cords of the stuff.

The only reason she was so far out in deep space on a hunting cruiser with mostly male passengers was simple. She'd been stricken barren after birthing one large brood in her youth, no medicine or prayers restoring the life to her womb. After the death of her life mate, nothing had bound her to the clan's city on the homeworld where most females resided. The young had grown out of her home and gone off to breed or hunt. She took off with the clan cruisers and reaped honors as a solitary hunter. Rarely if ever did she dock with the clan ship on her cruiser from the kv'var in systems even Scar found too far to range towards.

Like always, Rah'wan took the lead. Scar admitted them to his chambers and sent out a cautionary trill for Lex. They had rested and dined after a long night of rest, Pawal never making good on his silent threats and posturing.

He caught sight of his female lounging near the viewport on a cushion, the thin pane of a terminal clutched in her hands. She was catching on to the mechanics of his language with a few hours of tutelage, but it would be months until she was fluent. Her eyes lit up in a warm smile before the large Yautja behind him shoved her way past. Scar had to repress a rumble of satisfaction when he saw Lex clutch her combi-stick beneath the cushion.

She was learning.

Expecting her oversized roommate, she was in for a nasty shock when a muscle-bound female barged past him. Jealousy grated on her nerves and roused a bit of shock – she had no claim on Scar. Why should she care?

Still, she shoved back all those pithy feelings and rose to her metal shod feet. Scar had procured a whole set of clothes for her, but to date she had worn the thermal netting and steel armor. It didn't cover much, more like a glorified bikini and the female counterpart to Scar's less than modest armor.

Lex stood her ground, tilting her chin to accommodate for the large difference in height between her and the female Yautja. She wasn't getting friendly vibes off of this one, but at least the scaled alien wasn't ripping into her with the wrist blades adorning her long forearms.

Scar placed himself in the zone of neutrality – in-between the two and off to the side. Lex knew he was planning for the 'if' in life. Diving in at a moment's notice might save her skin, so she allowed him the protective proximity despite her armed state.

"You are the one called Lex. I am Rah'wan of Dto-Vehn."

Lex bent her head in a respectful incline like Scar had taught her. The female seemed pleased by the gesture. "So. Vra'jek has taught you of our customs. I was told you killed a kainde amedha with one blow. Impressive," she trilled in what Lex surmised as grudging appreciation.

The hint of blue in the dark mass of dreads trailing to her thickly muscled waist suggested the female was as old as the Elder N'jal. Lex wasn't about to make herself the expert on their biology, though.

"It was a good kill," Lex said in awkward Yautja. But instead of laughing at her clumsy attempt at the language, Rah'wan tilted her head in curiosity.

"You wish to live among us and learn our ways? To stand beside Vra'jek?"

"I do."

"I do not sense much conviction in that statement, ooman. Do you or do you not wish to live freely as one of this clan?" hissed the female, and for once Lex felt rage spark up in her belly. Fire brewed in her veins as she reared up at the female, baring her teeth in a careful show of aggression before the torc at her neck grated out a fierce reverberation. Her normally puny growl turned into something threatening and metallic.

The limb she had gone out on proved to be the right response. Reh'wan threw her head back in a growling laugh, barking madly before sliding the hoses out of her bio-helm and lifting it off. Lex's first look at a female Yautja was like her first look at Scar – everything about her features was foreign. But something feminine was echoed in the slimmer bone structure and narrow chin. Eyes wider and silted like a cat's eye stared back at her in a murky gold. Like the rest of her, she was molted in exotic greens and browns with skin smoother and fleshier than the male counterpart of the race.

Even the mandibles seemed a bit daintier, but the teeth were certainly just as wicked. Her broad brow was crested with tiny spikes and adored with the same mark Lex and Scar wore – the clan mark.

"I have the misfortune of calling this troublesome intellectual my grandson – sired by my late son who championed the clan as leader before the Black God took him," clicked the female in the low-pitched, sensual rumble. The elder female situated herself at the table in the common room, and Lex tried her best to not bang her shin on the low piece of furniture as she followed suit.

Savory pastries stuffed with a fluffy sort of meat and porridge-like rice fanned out on the platter. Nuts and some strange fruits she couldn't identify spilled over the top of one chrome bowl while a pitcher of the sweet c'nlip beaded with moisture beside it. Males served the females firstly – Scar complied with the tradition by pouring out a measure of the viscous, thickly iced liquid. It was vaguely red and stained the tongue. Lex discovered even a small quantity of the alien alcohol put her under the table, so she raised her cup with the others and took only small sips when necessary.

Meals were completely communal and shared off of the plate in their culture. Already she'd teased Scar about his careful way of eating and he'd ribbed back about her mouth's ability to gobble up every tidbit offered. His grandmother was just as ponderous in movement, stripping bits of mango-like fruit up with her claws and holding a piece on the tip of her tusk while one mandible leveled the other morsel at her mouth. She tore into the dripping flesh of the fruit, chewing quietly before bringing in the other mandible with the fruit speared on the end. Lex tried not to stare in fascination like she did with Scar.

These guys made eating a dance.

"Lex is part of our language, in a way. D'lex – an unbreakable compound of metal and crystal. All glimmer on the surface, but riddled with bonds even the finest laser cannot cleave. You come from an honorable linage of your race?" Rah'wan asked after they had pushed aside the platters and emptied cups. Lex took advantage of an engrossing conversation between grandmother and grandson earlier by dumping the heady contents of her glass into a nearby potted plant.

Only time would tell if it would live. She was all about protecting the environment, but unleaded gasoline might be healthier to ingest than that stuff. It'd be rude to not eat and drink everything put before her.

"My parents were both great warriors, you could say," she said evenly before adding a perfunctory "Elder Rah'wan" to the end of the sentence.

"We will use that to your advantage. Already N'jal has contacted the council of the elders on the homeworld. In half a year, you will stand before them and demonstrate your range of knowledge concerning our culture, our creeds, and our code. Only then will your position in society be assured – on top of the trials you must undergo if you intend to be a hunter."

"I'd rather not sit around and look good. I need to be useful to function properly. I want to help," Lex said in a rush, eager to earn a friend in the lean female. Rah'wan gave her a rare smile and clicking approval.

"I can empathize with that, ooman. I will help you where I can, but it will be grueling. Vra'jek can help you only so far. We are clan now, but you must be strong as an individual to attain harmony as a mated pair."

The young woman tried not to flush up red under her dark skin, but she had the vague suspicion that Scar was fighting just that under the scrutiny of his overbearing relative. Their hands linked under the table after hers sought him out. A reassuring squeeze was given with her small fingers linking through his.

They weren't exactly forced into the position. But Lex couldn't deny the attraction present. Still, she didn't want any fuck ups between the two of them because of outside pressure. It was coy to say 'take it slow' after he'd fucked her brainless in a cave. But they needed time to grow, time to even out the odds stacked against them.

"The first lesson – our clan mark," she said, reaching out to prick Lex's mark cheek with a claw.

"Dto-Vehn has existed since the advent of Yautja culture, before the ancestors crafted the first space worthy ship to breech the stars. A city was forged out of the jungles of our world exclusively by our ancestors. Many pyramids standing still, we boast three elders on the council to gain equal footing with the larger clans. We hunted prey on the homeworld until the discovery of star travel, and then ranged further into the outlying systems to hunt worthier game. The females primarily stay on the homeworld to tend to the home, the pups, the fields, and the politics. Males garner honor and spread their glory throughout the universe. Dto-Vehn was the first clan to stumble upon the worthiest of prey, the kainde amedha. We have made it our mark, symbolized by the long slant of the skull of the hardmeats coupled with the height of its form beneath the slant."

The more she examined the mark on both of the other Yautja, the more it made sense. They practically revered their prey, centering their most sacred rites on the creatures.

The elder continued unbidden, retracting her long arm to trace the dull scar gracing her broad forehead. "We find purpose and pride in this, for no other clan can claim a worthier foe as their own. Our clan territory is established to nearly a hundred galaxies, and in those systems are our hunting grounds. Your system included."

Lex thought it proper. The clan had been hunting earth for millennia before this, every hundred years making the exodus for the trials that Scar and the others undertook. How many more times had they hunted her homeworld?

The viewport shadowed over for a moment, and a voice came over the comm-system. "Docking with the clanship shall commence in half a standard hour – prepare to disembark."

Lex got her first look of the clan ship at a distance. All she could do was gape. It was massive on a scale no human could imagine – at least twelve miles in length with enough width and breadth to fit a couple of skyscrapers standing.

Again, chrome and some black metal comprised the bulk of the ship. The dark hulk of it moved across the stars like some colossal shadow. Lex wrenched her eyes back towards the elder before embarrassing herself.

"I shall teach you what I know, and impart my wisdom and council to you when you are wise enough to seek me out for words, D'lex of Dto-Vehn," said Rah'wan, obviously christening her with her new identity to suit her new culture. Lex didn't mind it so much if it meant a measure of respect instilled with other Yautja. She could no longer call herself human. A drifter between the two races now, she had to latch on to at least one.

She chose the better of the two.

Rah'wan rose after a brief exchange with Scar, clasping her bio-helm back onto her fierce countenance. Bowing to them both, she exited the room for parts unknown. Lex practically crawled to her feet to help clear away the platters and leavings, setting them in a niche on the wall to be transported back to the galley. A flare of light and they were simply vanished.

Lex let out an exhale, trudging into the bedroom before collapsing onto the sectional in front of the wall terminal and unraveling her hair from the thick braid. It felt like she hadn't breathed proper since "Commander Grandma" came stomping into the compartment. Scar came up from behind to gently clasp her neck between his massive fingers, rubbing at his mark silvered in scars on the nape.

"You did very well – most either lose their temper or break under pressure with Rah'wan," Scar said in a soothing tone, chirruping into the loose mass of curls tumbling across her brow. Lex didn't mind the contact. He'd kept his respectful distance like a spooked horse since they'd boarded.

Or more like he was tip-toeing around her. It would take a bit more to really flummox her. In the last twenty-four hours she'd managed to lose sight of most of what she wanted out of life only to reshape it with a new goal. It wasn't about environmental groups and climbing anymore. Not about an empty apartment to come home to and no calls from anyone on holidays. Funerals to attend. Romantic entanglements that led to messy breakups when she couldn't summon up enough emotion to care about the guy on any deep level besides lust.

Lex raised her head, smiling genuinely at the male gently clawing her scalp. That felt better than anything. Intimacy.

"If that's your father's side, I'm not banking on your mother's side being the better half."

Translations

Awu'asa – armor

C'nlip – sweet alcohol

Kainde amedha – hard meat (xenomorphs)

Kv'var – hunt