Chapter 2

Having friends is important

"Xenomorphs?" Marc asked astonished. He was going to be seeing xenos? " You mean that specie that has acid blood, and what borns from humans?" Marc asked nervously. He had always amazed xenomorphs, and actually thought them beautiful. "Yes. Exactly them. I see you know them already so I don't need to explain that much. Your job is to study their behavior and physical capabilities. We have good specimen for you. You will move next to its room yet today. Oh, and before we meet it, remember: it's a very hard case. Ok! Here we are" Marc had hardly paid any attention to John's talk: He was so eager to finally see a xenomorph in live! He knew so much about them! He had read almost everything he could when he was at Earth, although many things were still unknown. Now he was going to be the one to extend that information what was known about xenomorphs. "Let me introduce you to: Specimen X-021." John said as they walked into a room with a glass wall, and behind it, a xenomorph.

It was beautiful: standing about 7 feet tall, black as night and with skeletal look, only thing Marc could think of it was; beautiful. When they had gotten into the room, the xeno had been, by the looks of it, waiting for them. It had just looked through the glass, sitting. As Marc walked closer, xeno stood up and started to do the same thing. Finally, they both were just an inch from the glass, watching each other. Xeno had no any aggressive looks, more like curios ones. Of course, it didn't have any visible eyes, but Marc knew that this xeno was as interested of Marc as Marc was it. They just stared each other for a while, until Marc heard a couching behind him: "So, Marc, if you follow me, I'll show you your living quarters. When Marc left the room, he still knew that the xenomorph still looked and followed where he went.

"This is your place; here's the bed, kitchen, toilet and a free room what you can use as you want. Your things will be moved here soon. Until then you should go and have time with your xeno; it seems interested of you." By saying this, he left the room. Marc let this all sink in, and after this left the room and went back to the observation area. The xeno was still there. Looking at him, but this time differently. By its posture, you could think it was thinking. Marc went to the glass and put his hand on it. The xeno did the same. He bend his head. So did it. Finally he walked a bit backwards and then back. After a while the xeno repeated. It was mimicking him! He had heard of xenos' intelligence, but this was already something new! Then he saw something in his vision; a mike. He took it and tried talking into it. "Test test 1 2 3" He said. The xeno immediately looked around behind the glass. Only now Marc saw what xeno's room was like: It was a white room, with one wall black. So he could use the speakers. He tried something: he hissed in the mike, and after that, the xeno hissed around the room, alerted. "This was so much fun!" He thought as he started to giggle, trying not to laugh. He stopped when he heard a knock. No, three knocks. He looked around. The xeno had seen him laughing and now hissed towards him as it knocked the window. He immediately stopped. So did the xeno hissing and knocking. Just from looking at it he felt sorry for laughing. Without thinking, he said "sorry". as he said it, he actually thought to see it to make something like a some moments, his things were brought by two soldiers carrying a box. He went back into his new apartment and started unpacking. When he was ready, he started to work.

First day he just investigated it by looking, but in the next day ha had to start the tests. He had to test its reflexes, vision and its physical capacities. This went on until one day, he had to take a sample of it. This meant that he had to put it asleep until soldiers came and attached into a wall. Then he waited for it to wake up. He wanted to test something himself. When it finally woke up, it was first surprised but as seeing Marc it calmed, now it seemed tensed. Marc took a step forward. No hissing or growling. Good. Step by step, he walked closer until he was just few feet from it. He slowly raised his arm and brought it towards it. Without breaking the eye contact, he finally touched it. Its skin felt like dolphins; just a bit dryer. It felt warm, and when he started to almost pet it, it started to make a noise in its throat, like growling, but more peaceful. "Is it... purring?" It seemed to enjoy it, so that's what it was: purring. Marc continued to stroke the xeno as he took the samples; saliva, sweat, claw... But when it was time for skin sample, he skipped it. He didn't want to harm this beautiful being. After he had took the samples, he slowly started to reverse back to the door. The xeno did notice that, and it didn't seem to like it than Marc had stopped petting and stroking it. It didn't hiss, but it did seem a bit disappointed. When he got back to observation room, he pressed few buttons on the control panel and the xeno was once again free.

Nothing particularly special happened after another week, until one day, Marc came back from the canteen, his working hour already done, only to see this: his xenomorph, lying in the floor, injured badly and not moving. It was still in its room, but still Marc's heart did stop for a moment. Without thinking, he went in the same room with the xeno, without thinking how dangerous it was. As he was running towards it, he took of his lab coat. When he was next to it, he used his lab coat to bandage its major injuries and when he was doing this the xeno started to wake up. Now Marc remembered: he was in the same room with maybe the most powerful hunter in the world! Still he risked it and kept healing its injuries. At some point, it had reached consciousness, but it didn't attack him. It just sat there, letting Marc help it out. When he was ready, he fell to his back and let his heart catch up the pace. He lied on there for some time, without thinking anything. At some point he felt that something was touching him from the foot. He looked who it was. It was the xeno. It had stood up and its tail had touched him. The alien just stood there, looking him. Anybody else would had been scared for his life but Marc somehow knew that it didn't want to hurt him. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his head, like somebody was puncturing it, but the pain was gone as fast as it had started. After that, He felt something, like there would be wind in his head, and then, two words. In his head. "Thank you"

Marc immediately rose, looking around. Who had said that? He was alone here, if you didn't count the alien. When he did this, he felt it again, but now he understood that the voice was in his head. "Thank you" He slowly turned his head towards the alien and said: "You?" He asked, not believing what he was doing "Me" He felt the voice saying. "You speak?" Marc asked pointing at the alien. "Yes, I do. Thank you" It said. He felt astonished. He was talking to an alien lifeform! Or was he just going mad? Like an answer, he heard: "No, you are not going mad" And even to prove it, the xeno shake its head. "Thank you" It said again. "Thank you fr what?" He asked. "For helping me." Without thinking anything better to say, he said "You're welcome" With this, the xenomorph suddenly walked towards him and curled next to him, its tail on top of his chest, and started to purr. Not daring to move, Marc finally fell asleep.

"It didn't attack him. Why?" scientist asked looking at the monitors showing the xeno's room.

"I thought so... "The man next to him said. "I'm going there. Inform me if something more happens." Man said, leaving the control room. This time they were not going to get away. When he trotted the hallway, he awarded himself for giving that order years ago: If a xeno was too friendly with a human, it was to be informed to him immediately. Now, that order was paying itself back.

He woke up xeno next to him. It had rose up and was noq sitting, waiting him to wake up. When he tried to stand up, the xeno came towards him and grabbed him and made him sit. after that the xeno sat too. They looked at each other for a while. Finally the xeno "spoke": "What is your name?" "Umm... Marc. What about yours?" He asked. "I don't have one." It answered. "You don't have one? I need a name what to call you." My kind doesn't use names. We don't need them. But if you need to call me something, call me Zahira (Sha-hiira)." It said. "Wait. You're a girl?" "Yes. I'm a female. All drones and warriors of my kind are." It said. For Marc, this didn't mean anything. But his subconscious part did think more of it. "Ok... Zahira. Umm... when did you learn to speak?" "I'm always been able to speak. Your language I learned about 8 months after my birth." It said. "8 months? But that's amazing! You have learned our language faster than any of our own kind!" He said, amazed of her ability to learn. "Really? I thought you learned it faster." She said, a bit pride in her voice. "Wait a minute. How did you actually learn our language?" He asked. "Just by listening what you talked. It was one of my few ways of killing time." She said. This was amazing. She had learned something so complicated than language just by listening, and only in 8 months! Before he could even think, he let out: "You are beautiful." "What did you say? Beautiful?" She asked, bit denial in her voice. Marc understood what he had done, but knew there was no way denying it anymore. He was already blushing. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. But it's true. I think you are beautiful." He said, his human part of his mind protesting. How he could think a xeno could be beautiful? Still, that's what he was thinking. "Thank you. Nobody has ever said that about me. I think you are beautiful too." He laughed when she said this. "I'm sorry but you don't say men beautiful. You say them handsome." He said, still smiling. "Oh. Well I still think you are beautiful."

They kept talking, and by time, Marc began to get used to her mind-talking. He also finally actually heard her voice, before it had been more like a feeling than voice. Her voice was a clear feminine voice, something you could hear from somebody 20-25 years old, but always when she talked, it seemed to echo in his head. When they talked, he totally forgot what he was talking to. Zahira told her life's story: She had no memory of her birth, but she knew how she had born. She didn't like the her kind reproduces, but she also knew something she didn't tell. She told how she had been going between different tests for years. She didn't even want to tell what those testes were. Marc also learned that his kind communicates by mind, body language and voices. They also are able to "feel" minds, and so they know what everyone are going to be like. That's also why Zahira was so curious about Marc, as she sensed that he was not going to hurt her. When Marc told about himself, he didn't want to tell her about his past. Zahira felt how his past was sorrow, hate and sadness, and didn't ask further. Marc also learned that he didn't need to say anything to Zahira, it was enough to think what he wanted to tell. This made their communication easier and also a bit more special, as now their both thoughts were open. Then, their thoughts came back to the reason behind Zahira's injuries. "Do you remember how you got these bruises, Zahira?" Marc said inspecting her cuts and presumably what was bruises. "No. I remember smelling something funny in the air and then I just... Fell asleep. I woke up you caring me." She said reaching her memories. "That would be Unix-gas. It makes you sleepy." He said. " I can't think anyone who could even come here! It needs special authorization from me. Also why would anyone just come here, gas you and then hit you and leave?" Marc said to himself. "I don't know, but you helped me. Although I didn't need any help. My kind heals fast." She said, looking at her injuries. Finally, at late midnight, Marc told her that he needed some sleep. Before he went to bed, he could feel her thoughts saying: "Good night, I'll be waiting for you."

Authors note: So now we know who she is. Hope you like it! Chapter 3 incoming, PM me if you need to and reviews are always appreciated. Also next chapter is going to be partly from Zahira's perspective, and we are going to know more about Marc's past.