[in response to some guest reviews and some messages]

The reason I didn't have Ellie flip her shit about the Engineer/Zarek mentioning children, is because she did technically have a baby. [No doubt it'll come back up though] I figured at the time she would have sort of tried to block some of that hurt after what had happened with her alien fetus…lol. When tragic and traumatizing things like that happen, people tend to try and block it out. A reaction of pure… Shock. I figured she hasn't necessarily come to terms with the alien baby thing…But her giving birth to an alien leads me to believe, she can in fact bear children under certain… circumstances… Wink wink. ;D

But no worries, her meltdown is coming, for those of you waiting for it. lol. You always have to come to terms with your feelings, sooner or later.

Please leave your thoughts! Enjoy! :D

-[6]-

A couple days later…

It was hard not to hyperventilate as she struggled to breathe while strapped to a hard leathery chair. The bars to keep her in the seat didn't come close to her body because she was so much tinier than the Engineers. David sat beside her on the left, a platonic curve playing his lips. If he could feel what excitement was, this was it.

The last few days had been a breeze.

Ellie had touched up the skin on David's neck and upper chest area, so that he would at least appear more natural looking. The nasty gash in his collarbone would easily make him appear artificial. Her Engineer, Zarek, had apologized to the doctor for 'breaking her 'friend'. She knew the alien saw him more as a tool, and as property, not a human being. The Engineer was kind enough to refer to him as a friend rather than calling him an instrument.

She had done her best to stick by Zarek at all hours, not wanting to start anymore trouble with that ferocious Engineer she had encountered at the beginning of the journey. No real issues occurred, except for the female captain giving her what she perceived as death glares. Her pale friend had tried to convince her it really wasn't out of spite, it was out of misunderstanding. The female Engineers are highly competitive. They had to be, since family groups and connections meant everything in their society. The red head had admitted to David in confidence that she thought the females were actually quite beautiful, for having no hair. Their angular features gave them an almost wickedly ecsquisite appearance. Their rib cages were tiny compared to their powerful shoulders and large child birthing hips, it was an interesting proportion.

A loud roar of engines made the doctor press her head into the thick seat behind her. Her blood pressure went almost through the roof and her hands clenched hard on the bars in front of her. The android made her release her left white knuckled hand from the bar as he held her hand, trying to comfort the anxious woman. The red head swallowed hard, squeezing David's hand as they descended. She didn't move her head to look at him, she was too nervous. There were no windows on the pod in the sitting area, and all she could hear was the roar of the engines.

The female captain had been the one to drop the three of them off. They imagined that the captain had been glad to get rid of them and get back to work.

Zarek was sitting across from Ellie and the synthetic, his eyes closed and his head leaned back. He looked so relaxed, almost relieved to be home. He probably was also thinking of how to explain the entire situation in a way that didn't take hours. The doctor couldn't imagine why he looked so tranquil, his home wouldn't even be there; most likely. After an unfathomable two thousand years, he probably wouldn't have any relatives left. Maybe some great descendants of his family remained, but the chances were slim.

A shout from the female in the cockpit made Ellie's mouth drop open and gasp for air like an water starved fish. No matter how fast she breathed, it was as if no air filled her lungs. The doctor was told by the Engineers that she wouldn't need a helmet, since their air is breathable. She and the two males simply wore the space suits, no helmets or gloves.

This seemed unbelievable. This wasn't happening. She wasn't really about to set foot on the alien's home planet; not in her mind. So many thoughts ran through her head, she felt like screaming. If David could feel pain, he would have taken his hand back from her instantly. She crushed down on the artificial human's hand like it was life support for her.

The feeling of the engines slowing made her literally tremble in her seat. A sickening clunk of metal hitting the ground of a platform of some kind made her stomach lurch. A rather vocal sigh of exasperation escaped the woman's mouth as she turned her head and locked it on the loading bay of the small hopper ship. The android beside her could sense how fast and hard her heart was beating in her chest, he knew she was panicking. This was the moment she had been waiting for her entire life. He couldn't imagine how stressed she was.

He nudged her softly, making her head whip towards him. Her eyes were wild and jumpy as she stared at him, the half curled red hair formed a perfect curtain around her face. A small genuine smile appeared on his face,

"It'll be fine. Stay calm Dr. Shaw."

With some mechanical conversation in the ship, the bars on their seats lifted up. Their attention returned to the door as soon as these sounds echoed in the air tight pod. It was like a roller coaster as the bars came up, the scariest one Ellie had ever been on. As the three of them removed their belts holding them to the chair, the unlatching of the loading gate made all of them look to the opening doorway. Zarek was the first to stand, his posture tall and proud as he stared intently out the door. The small woman jumped up to her feet, her body on the defensive as the door lowered down to a ramp. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed the Engineer's right forearm, peeking around it wide eyed.

There were a group of Engineers in what looked like hazmat suits, with clear, but tinted material covering their faces. There had to be at least fifteen of them, all surrounding the opening of the ship. This seemed wrong, there was no way they would be seen as infectious, they had been on the ore transport ship for days. She supposed it was a safety precaution after what had happened on LV-223.

The huge alien she clung to slowly pulled his arm from her as he began to walk forward, down to the ground in front of the group of Engineers. Ellie and David kept their hands out and open now, so the group didn't see them as a threat. Everything after this became a blur. Within a few seconds, they were being surrounded and dragged off. The doctor only resisted slightly, trying to turn her head and catch a glimpse of where they were taking Zarek. The feeling of him being away from her made her feel even more afraid and alone. The huge alien disappeared into a pair of double steel doors identical to the ones she was being dragged into. The group of suited aliens dragged David into a room closer to hers on the right.

The area they were leaving from was a huge hangar from what she could tell. It was solid, no natural light seemed to be getting in. Large steel doors on the ceiling made her think it was a small landing bay for small transport ships like the one they had come off of. There were rows of huge steel doors, all with writing she couldn't read painted on the outside of the doors in white paint on the dark grey metal. Lighted pathways on the floor and the walls lit the huge hangar, they looked like tiny LED lights. But she didn't get to continue observing it, she was dragged into a medium sized room with metallic mirror like walls on her left and right. There were tall doors straight ahead of her, and some weird grate beneath her, like a drainage system.

When the female Engineers dragged her in there, she only fought them so she could keep standing. They were very rough with their grasps on her arms as they stopped in the center of the room. Ellie nearly fell over a few times as her significantly smaller feet caught the holes in the grate on the floor. There were three females, and two of them began removing the space suit the Engineer had made for her. They yanked furiously at the thick uniform, making her sputter a few profane words as they aggressively pulled it down and forced her to step out of it. The woman had no say when they ripped the bandage undergarments clear off of her, making her hands shoot up to cover herself. Her heart was racing faster than it ever had in her life. It was freezing inside the room, and her quick paced heartbeat didn't help warm her.

None of them seemed to care about her being nude, and stood upright after stripping her. After exchanging quick glances, two of them turned and left the room from the doors they had entered. A demand from the third Engineer in the alien language accompanied a gloved hand pointing at the ground and making hard eye contact with the red haired woman.

Out of instinct, Ellie nodded her head as if she understood. She wasn't going to move without being told, not to risk getting anyone angry. Goosebumps covered her skin as she kept her eyes on the final female exiting the room. Her body shook in fear, and from the bitter cold. Her hands desperately grasped at her arms, covering her upper body as best she could while trying to keep warm. Her head was on a swivel, looking at the two mirror like walls the most. It made her feel uncomfortable to think that they were probably large walls made of one way glass.

A sound from above her made her jerk her head to look up and shriek as a lukewarm liquid poured down on her from small holes in the steel ceiling. The doctor writhed around attempting to wipe it off at first, and looking at her palms and trembling as she saw it looked similar to mercury. It didn't feel like mercury though. It had a very thick and heavy feeling, and it was slick like oil. She breathed quickly through her nose, and closed her mouth to keep it from getting inside her body. She stood as still as her shaking muscles would allow as the silver shower continued for another minute or so.

The liquid seemed to cling to her, making her almost entirely silver in color. New doors ahead of her slid open, revealing one of the females from before. At least she thought it was her. The single Engineer herded her forward, pulling her by her wrist through the new doorway. This room was tiny, almost like a wide closet. A third set of doors was just three feet ahead of her, and closed. These doors also had some small writing on them, it looked like a list of some sort.

A loud hum made the human look up at the ceiling, a huge vent from above blew warm air down on her. A quick gasp escaped her lips and she flinched as the air hit her like a wind tunnel. The doctors head dropped to keep the air from blowing in her eyes, she noticed two smaller vents on the walls of either side of the room. She squinted as she looked up to the female Engineer who began wiping her skin. This room was like a small gas chamber, and it instantly dried the metallic substance on her. It began flaking off like paper, and breaking apart in the air around her. The female engineer swiped at her skin with her gloved hands, knocking the metallic sheets off of the human's skin with ease. It seemed to all come off, making the female then made a call on what Ellie assumed to be a transmitter.

The third set of doors opened, revealing a slightly longer hall, almost like a foyer. It had lots of small doors and two small bench looking structures lining the walls. These walls were solid looking, with tiny elongated doors lining it. About twenty feet up, there was a huge door. This massive door had to lead to somewhere important.

While she was focusing on the huge steel door with a single word written on it, the female Engineer startled her by holding out something. The woman flinched as she looked at what was in the alien's hand, she shook it at her and barked something in her language. She seemed agitated that Ellie was so dumfounded. Shaky human hands took the material from her, realizing it was a type of clothing. As soon as she recognized it as such, she began figuring out how to put it on. The suit seemed to be pretty straight forward as far as putting it on. The material was a light gray, and felt warm to her touch. She wasn't sure why it was warm, but was so glad it was that way. She was freezing still, the warmth of the wind tunnel closet was wearing off.

The suit was tight as could be, and had a long slit down the front middle, similar to her old suit. She struggled to get her fingers to the end of the long sleeves, the suit had long pants as well. The whole thing was a light gray and was tight all over, a few black, leathery, rib looking pieces covered her rib cage. It almost looked like stripes. As she reached back, she could feel the back of the uniform had a thin, but raised spine made of the same material to where the small rib structures were attached. A small black collar covered her neck, tight and warm like the ribbing and spine. It was a built in heating material of some kind, just warm enough to make her feel comfortable. As she pressed the front slit together, she realized it was just like the space suit she had previously worn, and seemed to melt together almost. The female Engineer had also pulled out four dark strips, and had tossed them on the ground in front of her. The alien then impatiently waited beside her to figure out what to do next.

After staring at the small pile for a few seconds, the doctor grabbed two of the shorter strips and pulled them up. As she held them up, she realized it looked like a rubbery glove. It was soft like the skin of a dolphin, and a very dark black. Little sparkly flecks made her admire the material for a few seconds. But realizing the female Engineer was growing irritated with her, made her pull on the gloves. Along the top of her wrist and hand, she could see four small raised strips. These went down to her fingertips and she yanked on the gloves completely. It warmed her hands to a comfortable temperature, it was a fantastic design. She then grabbed the two larger black strips, and pulled them up over her feet, and all the way up to above the knee. On these, there was a heating strip in the front, the outside of her leg, and on the back of her leg. As soon as the last tug pulled up the 'boots', the engineer made a huff sound and began to walk to the large set of doors. A slam of the small rectangular storage door made the red head jump and scamper after the Engineer like a stray dog.

The female Engineer lazily pulled off the helmet as she opened the doors from a small control panel nearby the doorway. As soon as the doorway opened, a light glow of natural light became visible in the large room ahead of them. This room looked almost half as big as the hangar at least. The ceiling was impressively high and had a clear fiberglass looking roof with steel ribs holding it sturdy in some places. The sky was a dull grey and it seemed almost foggy outside the ceiling. There was a huge curved desk to her left, almost like a reception looking desk with four Engineers sitting at it. All of their attention was focused on large holographic screens in front of them, some of them had head pieces with a hologram type of bar going around their eyes. They looked through it to the computers and typed rapidly on the touch screen holograms. Huge navy colored floor panels covered the floor, a space mural engraved into the marble looking material. It was breathtaking craftsmanship in Ellie's opinion.

She also admired the large two columns holding up the front of the building, and the support beams of the glassy looking structure. A huge slope in the ceiling led to the far wall, across from the main desk looking structure, upon which there were round platforms next to the fiberglass wall. There had to be at least thirty or forty of them in rows, a smaller blue glowing circle filled some of them. As she focused to the more middle section of the room, she saw Zarek and David standing there. Two other male Engineer's were standing and talking to her 'friends' as she approached. She almost didn't recognize them because of the way they were now dressed. They also had strange looking robes on top of their gray jumpsuits. The majority of the robes were the same light gray color, but they had a black trim on the bottom edges of the robes, with a vibrantly colored collar. The collar was raised and a royal blue color, and sagging behind it was a light gray hood. She assumed they went through something similar to what she had upon seeing them dressed this way.

Seeing them made her heart jump in her chest as she briskly darted over to them, immediately moving between her two male counterparts. The female Engineer didn't join them, she simply walked to the desk and began conversing with another alien behind the counter. It really seemed human to her. It was definitely a social society.

David smiled at her return, and nudged her to know he had acknowledged her and to bring her to the conversation. Her Engineer held something to her without looking over, it hung loosely on his forearm. She slowly took it, and she instantly recognized it as a robe identical to theirs. The duo of other male Engineers seemed incredibly happy and curious about whatever her space jockey had to say. Zarek was very focused into what he was being told by these other two Engineers, whose collars were bright red. She made a quick mental note of this as she slipped on the outer layer of fabric she had been handed. Her robe didn't have long sleeves like the males' did, hers was short, and connected at her collarbone area, and the collar was smaller, just going around her neck. The royal blue collar went down the males' chests a bit, where it connected there, in the middle of the chest rather than the collarbone. Hers also had a short shawl looking thing on the front rather than sleeves, that had a slit open straight down the middle of the short front section of the fabric. The back had a hood as well, and the whole robe was long and billowing and had four large hidden pockets in it.

One male was speaking to them, his voice deep and raspy. This was the first older Engineer she had seen. His eyes had rings underneath them, and he had creases on the corners of his eyes from squinting and/or smiling. He looked sleepy, but content, and a bit more friendly looking than Zarek.

Ellie's attention moved from the red collared Engineers to the large shorter wall now to her left. It was the one lined with the round platforms. It had to be at least a couple hundred feet wide, and the circles on the ground she could now see were all a few different sizes. The shorter wall seemed to have no doors. She couldn't see a door on an exterior wall now that she looked around. Huge glass windows were all she could see, and there was nothing outside. It was white. When she looked higher up, more towards the ceiling, she could see the wind was blowing what looked liked now rapidly passed them. She cooed at the sight. No direct sun peered through the foggy looking air, the light was simply a glow from one direction from what she could tell.

As the conversation ended, she noticed that the two male Engineers eyeing her like an animal in a zoo. They sort of craned their necks down and stared in awe as Zarek spoke to them. It made her uncomfortable to have those sets of black eyes on her, like she was an alien herself. She knew she would have to get used to this. The woman swallowed hard, whispering to David,

"What is going on?"

The android shifted slightly back, trying to keep his distance from the Engineers, so he didn't' agitate anyone. He certainly didn't need his head torn off again,

"Zarek is explaining how he found you, and that he is keeping you because you were enslaved by your own people. He took pity on you and brought you here out of mercy, he's making it a bit more of a sob story."

"I found him…Why would he lie to his people right off the bat?"

The synthetic sighed and blinked, looking down at her,

"He's saving your life. If he says you just woke him up and came along to send word back to your people about them, I'm sure you wouldn't be alive for much longer. He's just twisting the story a little so they'll let you stay with him and not be hauled off to be…studied. Or you could be dissected, if I heard that elder Engineer correctly. They know what you are."

The red head felt tension hug her body, like she was on trial for a murder. Her Engineer was trying to keep her, it only made sense that they would try and take her away to dissect and study. That's what her people would do to an Engineer if it set foot on Earth. Another commonality between the races.

Once her Engineer finished speaking, he and the others placed a single hand on the other's shoulder. First Zarek and the older Engineer, and then he and the younger one. They used their left hands, and placed it on the opposite Engineer's shoulder, giving it a squeeze and saying something. It must be a respectful goodbye of sorts, a tradition she couldn't believe her Engineer would know since it had been two thousand years since he had been in contact with them. Some traditions must never die with this society. With little social and economic issues, the civilization must not have changed too drastically. This was something hard to believe. Two thousand years was an unimaginable amount of time, and things had to be different now. Very different. Perhaps traditions were still around, but she would bet money that the actual structures and method of ruling were different. She would have David sit down with him and clear up some questions regarding the changes since he had been there.

Zarek briefly glanced back to the synthetic and the doctor, waving them with his hand to follow him. Curious brown eyes flitted back to the red collared Engineers that gawked at her one last time before turning and following the third Engineer. Her Engineer led them to one of the circular platforms, and they casually stepped up onto it. Before Ellie could ask what this was, the space jockey turned and looked to the aliens at the desk. One of them with the glowing hologram visor looked at him and nodded. A strange tingling feeling began to cover their bodies as the platform began to glow. The woman quickly spouted her question,

"Ask him what's happening!"

The alien responded before the android could even translate the question, David informed Ellie of his statement before the light engulfed them,

"He said; try not to move, and to trust him."

…

The world was hazy now, a familiar male voice was speaking to her and a pair of hands where slowly shaking her. As Ellie's vision came into focus, she realized David was holding her up for the most part, his hands clenching the front of the tight space suit. She quickly pulled away and got her footing, she put a hand to her nauseated stomach as she met the android's concerned gaze. The blond synthetic forced a sigh,

"You were in and out of consciousness for about seventeen minutes. I kept you here while Zarek made his way up that flight of stairs. Teleportation must be difficult on your body, since it's new to you."

As soon as David said stairs, the doctor's head whipped to her right and up the gargantuan flight of stairs. It tapered at the top just slightly, and there were a concave row of throne looking chairs at the top. She could only see the very tops of the backs of the chairs from where she and David stood. Thoughts of how teleportation was even possible flew out the door, these aliens were way ahead of human technology. Peter Weyland could have learned quite a bit from them, but probably wouldn't have used it for good.

It looked like they were in a huge foyer to a throne room, it had pure white shiny floors. Huge black columns held up the fiberglass looking ceiling; upon which large, black, gothic style ribbed vaults held up the clear material. Outside was still a mix of snow and fog from what she could tell. To her left, there were three rows of those round platforms. She and David stood near some platform against the small section of marble looking wall, her eyes slowly scanning the room. All the remaining nausea seemed to fade away.

Two figures then caught her attention near the landing of the staircase. They were two huge Engineers, muscular males in what looked like titanium plated armor. She knew it probably wasn't titanium, but it definitely looked like armor, just without the helmets. Before she could make her way over to take a closer look, the sound of a bellowing voice to her right made her look back up to the top staircase.

It was definitely Zarek. However, David's voice suddenly whispering right beside her head made her focus on him instead,

"From what I can tell, he's appealing to an elder council of some sort. They aren't all here from what I gathered, and they're discussing his current situation, and setting up a meeting for tomorrow so they can gather all the councilmen. It seems that there are thirteen of them."

Her mouth hung open as she stared up the marble stairs, her mind racing a mile a minute. So they're run by a council, not a single ruler. It seemed fair enough, it didn't even surprise the doctor really. The woman then waved with her hand for David to follow her towards the staircase. He scampered after her and tried to hold her back,

"Dr. Shaw I don't think that's a good idea, just let him handle it for right now."

The woman grinned and shook her head as she approached the bottom of the stairs,

"I didn't come across the universe to sit back here, I want to just see them. I won't say anything!"

Before she could take a step onto the stairs, her entire body froze mid-stride when one of the armored Engineers turned his head in her direction. Her muscles simply locked, and her entire body felt like it had been frozen in place, only it didn't feel like ice. Her chest rose and fell in short gasps for air, her fingers barely twitched as she just moved her eyes to look at him. Just him looking at her made her body stop moving where it was, like she couldn't control anything anymore. Something unnatural had a grip on her, and it made her afraid. Were the Engineers telekinetic?

She tried to speak by forcing the air out of her lungs, it was almost too raspy to understand,

"Da… David…I can't… move…"

The android mumbled something in response, but she couldn't understand him.

Neither of the guardian space jockeys moved, the left one just kept his eyes on her. He was the one holding her there; somehow. His face was stern, almost meaner looking than Zarek's. If that was even possible.

A noise from up on the stairs made her move her eyes; the only thing she could move. Her chocolate colored eyes were met with a familiar muscular figure, he held a hand out to the Engineers, like he was waving them to stop. Of course no real emotion was displayed on his face, from what she could tell from the bottom of the stairs. It brought her a tiny sliver of relief to know he was still watching out for she and David.

The guard didn't even move, but the invisible hold on the two of them ceased; dropping them both to their knees at the bottom of the stairs. Huge calming breaths filled Ellie's lungs as she looked up at the left guard, in disbelief about his power. Was it just an ability? Was it something to do with his suit? She had never felt so tiny, so fragile.

Up at the top of the huge staircase, Zarek dropped to one knee and was speaking to the unseen councilmen. She could just see the tops of the chairs, she didn't know how many were even up there, it must not have been all of them. He probably would have to come back to the 'throne room' to explain what had happened on LV-223, and she wasn't sure where she and David would be sent. Where were they going to stay now?

The artificial male behind her reminded her to stand up by gently pulling up on her right arm. The doctor stood upright, glancing back at the left guard once or twice before staring up the stairs at her Engineers descent. He calmly walked down the stairs, and over to the two of them. The red haired woman tried to brush off the strange feeling lingering on her skin, not wanting to be like a child that needed babysitting from him constantly. His dark eyes looked down at her with a small look of endearment, like he was happy to see she was okay. He slowly turned his head to David and began speaking, the synthetic listened and translated the message to Ellie.

"He says we now have a place to stay, thanks to the Elder Council. He is to meet them tomorrow and explain his situation in full to the entire council."

The doctor quickly glanced to the left Engineer guard once again, he wasn't looking at her, her eyes fluttered back to Zarek. She shifted her weight and rushed a question for the artificial human to decipher,

"Before we go, ask him if these guards are telekinetic, I'm just wondering."

After David asked the question, the large space jockey looked at the guard and then back down to the human woman in front of him, he responded cooly. The wiry blond looked to the side of the mess of red hair on his left and relayed the response,

"He said; Yes they are. And he wants to know if you are ready to go?"

The woman seemed perturbed, she slowly tilted her head,

"Where are we going?"

The Engineer nudged her with his hand toward the round circular floor panels behind her, he responded to David with a single word and moved his unemotional gaze passed them. His heavy footsteps echoed in the room as his boots planted into the hard marble, he made his way towards the transport floor panels. The woman felt like she was in a trance, and followed him by turning her head and staring up at his pale scalp. The two Earthlings followed him like stray cats, and the android quietly informed her of his word,

"Home."

[][][]

I did kind of rush this one, because I was so busy, so my apologies for any mistakes. I just like updating regularly. :D And I think that a potentially M rated scene is in favor with those that have already reviewed or messaged me. Hehe. Looking forward to that.

AND,

Please leave a review, let me know what you think. I'd appreciate it a whole lot.

Those are all that keep me updating… And I love hearing from everyone!