Author's Note: Hopefully I'll have enough chapters built up by September to resume with weekly updates. Couple more chapters before I do another time jump, I think. Presumably to the point you're most interested in. Piusnex being released back into the hive.
Pvt. Hunter wasn't having a good day. He'd just woken up and whatever the bastard scientist had used had given him a headache that put him in mind of a bad hangover.
To cap it all he was also in steel restraints connected to a mortuary slab. And it wasn't too hard to figure out who the previous occupants had been either, the acid damage was something of a giveaway.
Blearily he tried to remember what had happened, he'd entered the lab with the Yutani lackey and then... and then... He shook his head, he couldn't remember.
Idly he tested the restraints in the vague hope there was some give in them, no such luck, not that he'd expected any.
There'd been a xenomorph, that was one fact that came back to him. It had been unusually large. He's been shot with the tranq gun, that also came back, picking up fragments of memory and assembling them piece by piece.
The xenomorph had grabbed the scientist, Alec. Picked him up like a rag doll but there had been something else, before that, something important.
In his mind's eye he saw the spear-like tail lashing towards him, while he pulled the trigger of his gun. He couldn't remember the next bit, there was a sort of blur leading up to the scientist lifted up in the air by the alien's tail, audibly choking.
He remembered raising his gun again, going to shoot. The scientist was shouting something. There was a slight impact on his shoulder as the tranq dart hit him. And then nothing.
It was incredibly frustrating.
There was a sound from behind him, just beyond his line of sight. A slow familiar hissing.
Piusnex snarled lightly, flexing against her bonds.
"Do not move. Hurt. Self. Stay still." The human's talking box said. Instantly she stilled, trusting the human's advice.
She'd seen it happen herself, what could happen if you overworked a wound. A number of good warriors had been lost that way after they'd defeated the humans.
"How long?" She asked, hoping the human would understand.
A hand was placed gently on the dome of her head, the skin felt different than usual, rougher. She could smell her blood on him.
She knew humans could communicate through facial expression and suddenly wished she could express her gratitude the same way, it was odd, she'd never thought about being anything other than what she was before. Still something deep inside her was aglow, her human had saved her again.
"I don'kt knows." The human spoke, not using his machine for this one, his speech was heavily accented but understandable and she appreciated the effort.
Gentle hands began to undo her bonds, just the ones on her torso but still enough to allow her to behead him with a casual swing of her claws. She wondered why.
"Sit up slowly, I brought food." The machine again but the mention of food more than forgave it's wavering tones.
The praetorian slowly sat up, her legs still bound. Her human placed a semi-sphere like container in her hands, it's speech was too fast for her to quite catch though she did recognise it's name for her.
"Thank you." She said as she stabbed into one of the pieces of meat with a claw, bringing it to her mouth, much like how her human ate. There had been a lot more of the meat lately rather than the fungus stuff he'd first fed her. Not that she minded.
He sat on the slab, sitting next to her, worryingly safe with her presence. It would be so easy to snap out her inner jaws and cave in that delicate skull, or to gut him with a taloned finger, had he forgotten that?
The thought worried her, another first for her, that she should view the fragility of humans as a bad thing.
He waited quietly for her to finish eating before using the machine to talk.
"I need you to talk to a person. Do not kill them. Please." At least that was the rough translation, there was no actual word for please in xenomorph, it was rather pointless considering the caste system meant most conversations were orders so the nearest equivalent was only used between praetorians.
Alec typed the instruction to stay still into the translator. Surprisingly Chrome obeyed, before hissing.
"How much time?" The translator supplied. Alec guessed she meant until her wounds healed.
He hissed, the harsh tones hurting his throat. Hopefully he'd got it right.
Calmly he removed the manacles, allowing her to sit up. He typed into the translator. Chrome sat up compliently, as he put a bowl of meatballs into her taloned hands, he'd found out that she didn't like them with sauce.
It was amusing to watch her eat, at times she almost seemed human. He supposed in some ways she probably was, her host for example.
Smiling to himself, Alec sat next to her, just resisting the urge to give her a hug, with her wounds so recent it would probably be a bad idea. With a certain solemnity he waited for her to finish her meal before typing his request.
Yeythwei remained still as he could, watching the khainde amedha crawl over the hull of his ship. His silhouette and electrochemical signal broken up by the bushes he was crouched in.
He had never been quite so angry in his life, his supplies, his trophies and even most of his weapons were on board the ship.
There was nothing to do now other than try to leave the area as quietly as he could.
With a firmly set scowl he crept away to find new accomodation, perhaps a human building would suffice?
Author's Note: Yep, no queen this chapter. Hope none of you are too disappointed by my long absence.
Author's Note 2: Was planning to wait to September as I can do regular updates at that point but I may not even have a laptop soon so uploading what little I've got now.