Zae Note: Since Xeira is my sister's character, this chapter starring her was written by Faeryl. And by the way, as promised Faeryl has completed Sebastian's story, Afterwards has been up for almost two months, but from the complete lack of reviews I guess nobody has noticed.
Author's Note: As noted above, this chapter stars the old Xenomorph Queen, mostly because we wanted to have a bit of a interlude to let you guys see what is going on back on the ship and to have some insight into the mind of a Xenomorph. (Also we're evil and letting you hang on what's happening on the hunt…). Totally making up some facts for the Xenomorph physiology…
Disclaimer: I only own Xeira that's it.
The holding cells were quiet for the first time in several days, since Javelin was on the hunt he was no longer visiting Xeira on a daily basis. The presence of the Yautja elder frequently stirred up trouble among the three queens being kept on the ship, Xeira accepted, even enjoyed his company at times, but the other two queens always made a commotion over the old hunter. The youngest queen, too young to have even hatched her first brood, was curious about everything, she did not yet know the pain and anger that she would soon endure because of the Yautja's terrible hunts. The middle aged queen, however, knew too well and her angry snarls toward the Yautja elder every time he entered were unmistakably threatening, but Xeira as the eldest and most powerful of the three, kept the trouble making queen in line.
Now as the giant queen lay in her cell in a place between sleep and consciousness an old wildness stirred in her old body as her half sleep flashed images in her mind of a time when she was younger, of her young ones, freshly hatched and vulnerable. In this state of dreaming Xeira snarled as the memory of her youngling's slaughter played vividly in her mind. The old queen remembered with dismay how, despite her efforts, time and again she had not been able to save a single one of her hatchlings.
A sudden clang of doors being shut and the rousing snarls of the other two queens woke Xeira from her reverie and she too looked up vibrating the spines on her back and letting out a high screech as she did so. Her kind did not have eyes, nor noses, but she had senses beyond the understanding of lesser creatures. Her spines acted as a type of radar, and as the group of intruders got closer their movements formed a picture from the echoes bounced back at her from the high pitch screech revealed them to be a group of Yautja.
"The little one," A Yautja snarled in his own language, "We must get her down to the planet."
Xeira did not understand the language, but as the Yautja crept their way toward the now overly excited smaller queen, she recognized the task they had come in to complete. The old queen had been on this ship for many, many years and seen many of her kind get transferred to and from the ship. Xeira let out a screech, joining her middle-sized companion in warning the little queen of her predicament.
She was going to be sent to the planet to be used in their cruel hunts.
Though Xeira's growing bond with Javelin prevented her from attacking him, she was not beyond fighting other Yautja. She lifted her tail and struck at the edge of her cage just as the middle-sized queen rammed the sides of her own cage, trying to break free and stop this act.
The little queen heard their warnings and backed away into the furthest reaches of the cage, hissing violently and raising her tail in defense. She had no clue as to what was going on, only that her two companions, who were normally at odds with each other, were now combining their efforts to prevent the Yautja from reaching her.
Several of the Yautja broke off of the main group, raising their spears at the other queens and even mounting their shoulder cannons, "This would be easier if we'd just wait for Jaev'len." One of them remarked.
Xeira paused her screeching momentarily, though she did not understand the Yautja language she did recognize the name "Jaev'len". Xeira snapped out her double-jaws, taking in deep gulps of air, trying to recognize the elder's scent among the group. The second mouth inside her muzzle, though it was used frequently for the final blow in combat, its main use was as an olfactory sensor, as Xeira's jaws snapped she took in the scents of the many Yautja who were present, but Javelin's musk was not among them. Angry, Xeira snarled again and rammed heavily against the walls of her cage.
Too late.
Xeira's spines tingled as one of the hunters pulled out a small object, the picture that she received back informed her of the tranquilizer that the Yautja was about to use. Unable to help the little queen now, Xeira rammed her giant body against the cage one last time before the tranquilizer was shot at her small companion. The middle-sized queen gaze an angry screech, but as the little queen slumped forward, weakened by the powerful drugs, both she and Xeira quieted down, though both still snarled quietly as the watched their companion be carefully hauled away, doomed to participate in the hunt.
It was cruel, and Xeira hated it, but in her efforts she had exhausted herself, the old queen stalked quietly to the corner of her cage and laid down. She made a noise, similar to a yawn, and rested her head on her largest pair of arms. Her spines drooped slightly, signaling that the old queen had successfully fallen into a deep sleep.
During her rest Xeira was plagued, both by dreams and her own painful memories, particularly the memory of that horrible day when she had lost her ability to lay eggs. For the longest time the giant queen had hated Javelin for what he had done to her. A queen's brood was her life, to disable her ability to breed was to take away her reason for living, and for many months Xeira had sat in this very cage awaiting for the Yautja to come and kill her, she was useless to them now, why would they keep her there?
It was a long time before the queen had noticed that Javelin, the one who had done this terrible thing to her, came to watch her daily, and even longer before the hunter started testing her. He came into her cage, and dared her wrath. Over the years the pair began to grow old, and it was in this age that they began to understand each other in ways their kinds never had before. The giant queen allowed Javelin to get close to her, even touch her, and something sparked between them; respect.
Javelin picked a name for her, she had no clue that in its original context the word "Xeira" was an insult for the weak, she knew only that Javelin used it for her as a term of endearment as compared to the other hunters who dared come down who called her other names. In turn, Xeira also recognized the Yautja's name. She did not know that "Javelin" was just a name that the hunter used to make things easier for the human hunter who had once lived on the ship as well. All Xeira cared was that "Javelin" referred to her Yautja companion.
In her sleep Xeira made a noise like a purr and twitched her tail, but something was wrong outside of her dream world. The first signal was the threatening hiss Xeira heard coming from her remaining companion's cage, then her spines picked up movement and the old queen shook herself from sleep and let out her own screech to identify the Yautja that was now daring to enter her cage. It was not Javelin, the hunter was too big, and too young Xeira noted from the musk the hunter gave off.
Outside the cage was another Yautja, "This is a bad idea Thu'gh." He warned.
Xeira hissed as the big Yautja entered the cage, but didn't attack, not yet. The big hunter stepped closer to her and she raised her tail threateningly. "Thu'gh, you're pissing her off." The Yautja outside the cage warned again looking between Xeira and his companion, even glimpsing to the howling middle-sized queen. "And I doubt Darht will be impressed be you picking on the old Hard-Meat anyway."
"Why wouldn't it St'rii-k? Besides don't worry if Jaev'len can tackle this old bitch, so can I." The big hunter called back smugly.
Xeira snarled, she didn't understand anything of what was being said except for two things- the big Yautja had mentioned Javelin, and he had called her by one of the words she recognized as an insult. Opening her double-jaws in a violent bite the big queen launched her first attack, missing on purpose as a warning but her second strike would not be.
The big hunter jumped away as the old queen lashed out with her tail, "Thu'gh, get out of there!" His companion roared and the big hunter barely dodged Xeira's swinging claws.
Thug, backed against the wall as Xeira started to lunge toward him menacingly, it finally dawned on him just how stupid he was being, he glanced from Xeira to the exit; if he ran he could make it, especially he he diverted the large queen's attention first. "St'rii-k, throw me your spear, quickly!" He hollered.
Outside Strike clutched at his spear, "Are you crazy, you can't fight her, she'll eat you alive!"
Thug pulled closer to the wall, inching slightly toward the exit, "Just throw it!" He called, "Hurry!"
In a panic, Strike threw the spear, aiming only to distract the large queen, but Xeira moved, causing the spear to plunge painfully into her side. Xeira screeched angrily and clawed at the spear, tearing it from her side and turned just in time to see the hunters racing for the exit completely unaware of their big mistake.
They'd left the door to Xeira's cage open.
At first Xeira herself didn't notice, but after laying down to lick her wound the old queen realized that something was different about the air in her cage, it seemed fresher. Getting back up she screeched loudly, trusting the echoes to show her what was wrong. The middle-sized queen looked up from her cage and shrieked as she noticed that Xeira was crawling out of her cage. Xeira looked back and hissed dangerously, warning the other queen to stay put.
After the middle-sized queen complied Xeira shook herself, and screeched again to get a layout of her surroundings. The pictures the formed in her mind showed a few exits, one of which the hunters who had left the door open had fled down only moments before. Xeira chose to go a different way, for in her old age Xeira knew that if she pursed them she could end up in a battle against many Yautja.
A battle was not what Xeira wanted, for she knew as well that though she was powerful in her age, she was also getting slower, and though she would take out many of the hunters, it would be only a matter of time before they took her out in turn.
Choosing to go down the passage to her right Xeira crawled onto four of her six limbs, though mainly bi-pedal, the old queen found it much easier on her old body to walk on four legs. This left her smaller arms open for pushing open doors or exploring the walls of the ship. Within moments the passage opened up and Xeira's spines quivered violently as she tried to make sense of the pictures that were echoed back at her.
The room was largely empty, but there were tables and selves scattered randomly through it and on those tables were mixtures and chemicals that made the large queen gag when she snapped her double-jaws for whiff. She continued on past the tables, stopping only to snap a bit a the chemicals. She was almost to the other end of the room when her jaws caught a familiar scent. Curious, Xeira moved toward one of the shelves and with on of her smaller limbs pushed away the other mixtures, snapping her jaws to find the source of the scent. Finally a small vile on the center shelf caught her attention. Xeira snapped at it, allowing her double-jaws to take in the scent that she now recognized.
It was a vile of her own blood.
Disgusted Xeira raised an arm and shoved the vile off the shelf and onto the ground, relishing in the fact that her acidic blood was burning through the floor of the ship. The giant queen knew that the Yautja studied and experimented on her, but to just keep her blood in a vile on a shelf seemed like an insult to the old queen. Snarling quietly, Xeira moved on into the next room.
There were Yautja in this room, but Xeira could sense that they wore no armor and carried no weapons. She did not understand that these Yautja were not warriors or hunters, but instead were scientists, dedicated to the study of their world and the universe beyond. But it was not the presence of the scientists that make Xeira growl, but of the other creatures they had strapped to the tables; hard-meats. Xeira of course knew that "Hard-Meat" was the term Javelin used when referring to her kind. One of the Yautja moved toward one of the helpless hard-meat drones with what appeared to be a scalpel, the young hard-meat screeched in apparent terror.
Something inside Xeira snapped at the sound. Snarling angrily the old queen rushed at the Yautja with the scalpel, clawing at him in an attempt to defend her little one. Several of the scientists jumped and roared with surprise, one even tried to run to the nearest exit, but Xeira cut him off with her tail. The young hard-meat drones all roared at the sight of the large queen and Xeira felt satisfaction in know that she was successfully defending her hatchlings.
Until she remembered that they were not her hatchlings.
Xeira had turned to nuzzle one of the drones, but then her double-jaws lashed out, gulping in the young one's scent and the old queen realized with dismay that the drones here were not of her line. Xeira growled, registering that drones that were not of her line were a threat. She snarled, both at the drone and at herself for foolishly attacking the Yautja in defense of hatchlings that were not her own. Instinct told her to kill them; she couldn't disobey, they were not of her line, they were a threat.
Xeira snapped out her double-jaws, stealing the life of the nearest drone, the one she had been about to nuzzle. The Yautja scientists roared in protest, but they could do nothing as the enraged queen mercilessly slaughtered their experiments. Xeira turned once more to the scientists and snarled. Instinct told her to kill them too, but something held her back. Xeira knew that if she harmed these Yautja she would pay for it. Normally she would not care what the consequences of her actions were and would just follow her instincts.
The old queen was baffled by this sudden conflict within her, did she want to follow her instincts, or listen to that part of her that said not to? Making a split decision, Xeira roared violently at the scientists, but did not attack, choosing instead to run ahead away from the lot of them. She ran, and ran past many other Yautja, some with weapons even tried to stop and fight her, but the old queen ignored them, snapping her double-jaws out, searching the air for Javelin's musk.
Xeira was scared now, she wanted Javelin's familiar, comforting presence and so she searched for him, using her own special call she had created for him. "Jaaaroow!" Her screech called, "Jaaarooooooow!"
Xeira rarely used this call, preferring that Javelin call her instead, but when she could not find the Yautja elder by smell, she resorted to calling for him. He didn't respond. In her mind Xeira knew that Javelin was on the planet hunting, but she wanted so badly to find him that she began to confuse herself.
It finally dawned on her that Javelin was not there, and that the Yautja were now in a panic over her rampage, she could her their roars as those left in charge ordered a searching party be formed to locate the rampaging queen. Xeira looked around, she was trembling now and in her rush to get away from the scientists she had exhausted herself. The old queen had no idea where she was, nor how to get back. Stopping Xeira climbed up into a vent just big enough to hide her large body. She watched several panicking hunters run by, and when ever one got too close to her hiding spot, Xeira lashed out a warning with her tail, careful not to harm them, for she knew if she killed any of them she would be putting herself in trouble.
Xeira crawled further into her hiding space, and though she knew the Yautja knew where she was, she also knew that if she stayed put they would eventually leave her alone. Unable to lay eggs she posed no threat as compared to her middle-sized companion who was still back in her cage. Gradually, less and less of the hunters bothered her until finally she was left in peace. Xeira allowed herself to fall asleep, knowing that if Javelin was not here now she would have to wait for him to come back.
End Note: And so now we have some drama back on the ship, just to keep things interesting. The idea of the Xenomorph's senses are completely made up, but if somebody writing a fic about the Xenomorphs wants to use these ideas, that's fine with me. The double-jaws I think are like a snake's tongue, so they can smell without having a nose, and the spines work sort of like echolocation.