Chapter 3: Collisions
Aboard the Shimmering- Hyperspace
Offworld.
It was just a word. One single word not even accompanied by a sentence, only eight measly letters long. And yet that word made all the difference. Offworld meant freedom. And Freedom meant everything.
Even if that freedom was currently confined to the inside of a shipping crate.
He had light and warmth, things that were almost foreign to him after his long confinement, and he was quickly rediscovering their comforts. He had a soft blanket to lie down on, with pillows. What's more, he had all the food he could eat, compliments of Shizuka (who had an actual berth on the ship).
At times Takashi thought that he had died and gone to heaven. So what if it was a shipping container? It was immeasurably better then the box.
He didn't have much to do, but Takashi was used to prolonged periods of inactivity. His alien was forced to spend the voyage in a state of suspended animation (there was no way to feed her), which meant he couldn't commune with her. Not that their conversations were particularly interesting anyway. So in the end he had asked Shizuka for a book, preferable one concerning the planet they were going to. And he had discovered, much to his quiet delight, that he could still read (Next he was going to ask her for a guitar).
However, the book Shizuka gave him was nothing so useful as a history book or a tour guide. But she had managed to borrow a data tablet and a copy of Don Quixote. It was a difficult story to work through (the words felt almost heavy as he read them) but so far he had learned one very important lesson: Acting like you're insane is a good way to get what you want (especially if you have an alien to back you up). He spent a good deal of time reading, with Shizuka sending new books to his data tablet occasionally. Takashi also spent a good deal of his time trying to recover his strength.
Shizuka told him shortly after they boarded the ship that many of his muscles had atrophied and his physical state was about equal to a ten year old's. So, it was pushups, sit-ups, and squats for Takashi every day, despite the burning pain it brought to his body. He hated being weak.
At first, Takashi thought he was recovering his strength far to rapidly to be normal, but then he set aside such trivial concerns as he found himself in the best shape he'd been in his whole life. Such is the plight of having nothing to fill one's time.
Yes, his conditions were far from ideal, and his journey was far from over. But even the inside of a shipping crate was light-years better than his previous circumstances. He was doing his best to move forward, instead of always looking back. He was trying his damnest to be strong, even though he had started out so weak. He was trying to be human, when his humanity had been ripped from his fingers. He was trying so hard.
For he had made one promise to himself after the end of his stay with Weyland-Yutani: I will never be that weak again.
And he would never let anyone he cared about suffer as he had.
Colony of Ter, Eios
Rei crouched low, gripping her weapon tightly in her hands. Something that lurked just out of sight was stalking her, waiting for the right moment to pounce.
With a feral shriek her attacker jumped Rei from behind, arms reached out to latch on and..
"Oh no you don't!" Rei spun, dropping the pillow she held in her hands. She grabbed Alice out of the air and pulled the little girl to her chest as she fell backwards onto a plush couch.
The tickle fight then commenced.
Now, I'm sure that some of you are thinking 'wait wuh?'. Where's the blood? Where's the horror? What happened to the dystopia? Where the hell does this girly tickly fight fit into the grand scheme of things?
The answer: in a place happily blind to the horrors of the universe.
Eios was a clean world. It has no xenomorphs, no predators, no war. Out of all the human colonies in the cosmos, only about ten percent were labeled clean. One would think that the people on Eios would have some sense of perspective when faced with that statistic. One would think that they would see how lucky they were to be born on a planet known for peace instead of suffering. One would be wrong.
Indeed, most of the three hundred million inhabitants of Eios barely understood the concept of 'xenomorph' at all. Why? Or more importantly how? when ninety percent of the human race fought a war of extinction with the creatures.
One finds that until a person experiences suffering, they cannot comprehend it. It is only shared hardship that breeds empathy, only mutual pain that creates understanding. Information packets and television programs can only impart a sterile, clinical, interest. But rest assured, the people of Eios would understand soon enough.
xXx
Alice wanted to go to Market Square.
The young girl always chaffed at the confines of her adoptive parents home. She loved the city, and begged constantly to be allowed to explore it. And, as every child has 'favorites', Alice's favorite place in the colony of Vexin was the city's central plaza- An open market, reminiscent of the ancient bazaars on Earth, that thrived six days of the week.
Rei, the babysitter, was more than happy to agree. While going to Market Square wasn't quite her idea of a grand adventure, there was always good food to be bought and cute boys to flirt with, much better than sticking around the boring apartment all day. And so they went. Rei following behind Alice as the little girl dashed around the cobbled square like a hyperactive chipmunk.
Alice's father, her adoptive father anyway, was the mayor of Eios and was too busy with work to watch over his daughter many a day. That being said, he adopted the poor girl in the express hope of providing her with a childhood filled with laughter, and he hired Rei to take care of the girl and make sure his daughter had fun.
Alice, from what Rei had been told, was a survivor from a condemned world, a planet overrun by xenomorphs. And Rei could tell that Alice, though she appeared happy and cheerful, had some deep psychological scars.
Rei also thought that most of those scars were necessary for Alice's continued survival.
Now, Rei Miyamoto had her own share of dangerous (read: life threatening and incredibly stupid) episodes from her own childhood, like the time she hid in the trunk of her father's patrol car when he went on a sting. It came with the territory when your father was a police chief who thought deskwork was a waste of his skills and your mother was, well, someone who lived and worked in the shadier parts of the colony. But her experiences paled in comparison to Alice's.
How did she know? Alice would often talk about her time on the condemned planet. And how did Rei know that Alice was a bit off in the head? Alice talked about people dying with the same amount of cheer as she had when talking about the weather. In Rei's opinion, not that she was a psychologist or anything, Alice probably had more than a few mental blocks to help her cope with her memories from before.
But the one and only person that Alice always spoke of with genuine glee was the young man she called-
"Oniisan!"
Rei's head snapped up as Alice took off across the plaza and nearly tackled a young man wearing jeans and dark long sleeved shirt. His tawny eyes widened in surprise and he stumbled backwards as Alice wrapped her little arms tightly around the boy's waist and pressed her face into his stomach.
"Oniisan! Oniisan, you kept your promise!"
By then Rei was there, and she watched silently as the boy bent down and scooped Alice up in his arms. He brought Alice up to eye level and gazed into her face with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Alice..." His voice was a whisper, half a question, half a prayer, as if he couldn't believe what was happening before his own eyes. He hugged the little girl tight, "Alice. It's been too long."
The little girl with maroon hair just smiled widely and buried her face back in Takashi's shoulder, the tears on her cheeks running into the fabric of his shirt.
After a moment of surprise Rei figured out what was happening and decided to stay quiet so the two could have their reunion.
So this was the boy that Alice could spend days talking about, she mused. The one that saved her from the dying world. With one glace Rei could tell that this boy, Alice's Oniisan, was dangerous. And she was a very good judge of character.
Of course, Rei also noted that he was a complete cutie, with his windswept black hair and smoldering gold eyes. His toned arms certainly didn't hurt Rei's estimation of him either, but that was just her being a girl.
Then Alice was babbling again, "...and you have to come over for dinner, and meet my new 'parents', and then maybe Mr. Wilson can adopt you too! then we can find Mr. glasses and then you and my Oneechan can-"
"Whoa there." The teen interrupted. "One thing at a time. What's this I hear about your 'oneechan'? you haven't replaced me have you?" Alice shook her head furiously. Rei noted that his voice was deep and rough, but kind.
"No way! She's my Oneechan and you're my Oniisan!" As if such a thing should be obvious. Then the little girls eyes lit up like she just had the Best (capital 'B') idea evar! "And if you two get married, then you can be my Otou-san and Okaa-san instead! Then we can be a family again, just like you said!"
The teen coughed in embarrassment at her statement. Off to the side, Rei only blinked as Alice's comment flew right over her head (Alice had only taught her a few words in Japanese, which was the little girls native language). "Let's not decide that right now or anything, okay?" The young man said. Then he turned towards Rei. "So, you're her oneechan?"
"Ah.. yeah,"
"Want to sit down somewhere? I guess we should probably talk, or else things might start getting even more confusing." Rei nodded.
Things did get a bit jumbled in the interim, but eventually they managed to fight their way free of the bustling square, and Rei led them to a small cafe off a quiet side street. She snagged a booth in the corner, well away from the few other patrons in the shop. This was a conversation to have in private, between the person who delivered Alice from hell and the one who took care of her afterwards.
Of course, just because they both knew Alice didn't mean they connected instantly and tense silence filled the air for a few moments before the boy finally spoke. "My Name's Takashi..."
She noticed that he hesitated slightly when he said his name, was it a pseudonym perhaps?, but she let it slide, "I'm Rei."
"Alice trusts you... Did your family adopt her?"
Rei shook her head, "The Mayor of Vexin did actually. But he doesn't have a wife, and he's almost always busy. So I take care of her most days; I practically live at her house." She frowned, "It's like I'm a nanny."
Takashi cocked an eyebrow, for some reason she felt he was laughing inside. He smiled wryly, "I'm just happy she's been well taken care of. Has Rei been a good oneechan, Alice?"
"Yeah!" The little girl chirped, "Rei-oneechan is the best. She always listens and we have story time evvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvery day!"
Takashi paused at that. Story time, did she really mean-?
"She chatters about you constantly." Rei confirmed, "Her Oniisan, the best person in the 'whole wide galaxy'. I never thought I'd actually meet you." She glanced out the window. "She talks about it so much that it scares me sometimes, how she can talk about all of her experiences so... calmly, like she wasn't the one who lived through it."
"Yeah, Alice was always like that. I think it's her way of coping." Takashi ruffled Alice's hair "How much did she tell you?" He seemed on edge, probably wondering what this stranger knew about him.
Rei shrugged. "Not much. She talks about you a lot, but it's all like 'my oniisan is the best' or 'and then oniisan saved the day'. Stuff like that." It was an awkward topic for her too. According to Alice, the sun rose and set with this young man before her.
"Oniisan is the best!" Alice chirped, and Rei threw a glance at Takashi as if to say I told you so. He let out a quite chuckle, more than used to the girl spouting things like that at random times. It was part of her character.
Takashi leaned back in his chair and sighed. "I've only been on world for about a week, and I can't really stick around for too long right now, but do you think we could meet up ag-"
A deafening explosion shattered the air.
Rei's head snapped up "Wha-"
"Get down!" Sweeping Alice up with one arm Takashi tackled Rei to the ground. The shockwave hit the building a second later, shattering the glass windowpanes. Civilians screamed and shouted in panic as the shards of glass sliced through the air.
Even before Rei regained her bearing, Takashi was at the window looking at the sky. In the distance, just now crashing at the edge of the horizon, was a burning space ship, human design. Takashi's eyes widened as he heard voices that were not human (though 'heard' was not the proper word) emanating from the downed vessel. A violent shiver ran the length of his body.
"What the hell..." Rei groaned. She stumbled to her feet, "What just-"
"We have to get off planet, now." Takashi's voice snapped her back to the present.
"Eh? What are you talking about?"
"There are aliens on that ship, a lot of them." He cursed under his breath. "This city doesn't even have a wall for christsakes. They'll overrun it in an hour!" He glance back at Rei, "We have to move now!"
"Aliens on the ship? How the hell do you know that?" She could tell he was dead serious, but some part of her just refused to accept that he could be right. There was no possible way there could be aliens on Eios!
Takashi turned around fully, and looked Rei in the eye. "I've been through hell once. I'm in no hurry for a return visit. Don't believe me? Look at Alice." Rei looked at the child.
Alice had gone very quiet, very pale, and very still. She just started out the window, eyes wide, as if she were reliving terrible nightmare.
A nightmare that was about to become reality once more.
Rei only needed a moment to come to a decision. He was telling the truth. "I need to warn my parents." She said. Takashi scoffed as he picked Alice up in his arms. The girl was in no condition to move. "I'm not just going to abandon them!" Rei hissed.
"Where are they?" That gave Rei pause, because neither of her parents were close by. Her father was at a nearby military base, probably the safest place on the entire planet, doing some routine inspections, and her mother was currently in a equally safe place, an easily defendable high-rise at the north end of the city. Unfortunately, Rei and Takashi were in the southernmost section of Vexin, miles away.
"Alright, I'll go with you." She agreed quietly, "I know a place we can go that will be safe. It's in the northern part of the city."
"Let's focus on getting off the planet. please."
"What, you think that the marines are just going to let you waltz into the spaceport and borrow a military frigate?" She shot back. "If you're right then we have to survive until the evacuations start."
After a few moments of deliberation Takashi nodded. "I need to find someone first."
"Who?"
"The woman who saved me from hell." Then he took off into the streets with Rei half a step behind.
People filled the streets. They ran in all directions, screaming and shouting. Already there were ambulances on the scene, picking up those who had been injured by the shockwave before lifting off into the sky. People had their communicators out and were taking pictures. Even as Takashi grabbed Rei's wrist and led them swiftly down the street she could tell that no one else knew about the aliens.
"Takashi!" She had to shout over the noise. "We can't just leave! Those people could be killed! We have to try and warn them." He didn't even pause, and Rei was left wondering if he heard her at all. She shouted at him again, and he darted into a nearby alley.
"Look," He said, "You can do that, if you're so dead set on being the hero." He had heard. "But they won't believe you, and, more importantly: they. are. not. my. problem."
"Not your problem! You're part of the same species last time I checked!" She was livid now, "What, you're just gonna run off and leave them to their fate?"
"They left me to mine." And then he was off again, farther down the alley, and Rei was forced to follow him or be left behind. "Think about it this way." Takashi continued. "Who do you have a better chance of convincing and who can do more good: those random bystanders on the street, or the person at whatever safe haven you know about?"
Rei clenched her jaw. That didn't make it right, leaving those people behind. But even so, she couldn't argue with him, with his iron clad logic and cool, emotionless, eyes.
"Shizuka!" Rei looked up to see them in front of a small apartment complex.
"Oh! Takashi? What are you doing here?" A voice, high pitched and soft. "Ah, there was that sonic boom earlier, my head still-"
Rei looked up to see Takashi talking to a buxom blond woman. And by buxom Rei meant: That's the biggest f#%king rack I've seen in my life! She could only stare, dumbstruck, as Takashi explained the situation to the woman. Then Rei glanced down at her own, reasonably endowed chest. I'm not that small... am I?
"-do we need to go back to the space port and get...?" Shizuka was talking now.
"She'll be fine without us, they won't kill one of their own." Wait, who are they talking about. "We need to move."
And then they were running again, only they had to check their pace because Shizuka couldn't really run in her long skirt. In the end, Rei led them to a side street with less people in it to compensate. The road ran all the way to the Northern suburbs. If they moved fast enough, then maybe they could make it to her mother's pent house before things started falling apart.
Did Rei really believe Takashi about the xenomorphs? She wasn't entirely certain. But when he had told her that there were aliens aboard the crashed ship, she could tell that he believed it. Rei knew from experience that it was better to be safe than sorry, especially if your life was on the line. Even still, she hoped that Takashi was wrong.
But then the screaming started.
These were not the screams of surprise or pain. No, these were the cries of abject terror. The sound of nightmares become reality, of hell upon the earth.
Rei shuddered and couldn't stop glancing over her shoulders at each cry, each explosion and screech and gunshot. Takashi didn't even slow down, his iron grip about her wrist forcing her to keep pace.
When the first xenomorph landed in front of them Rei nearly screamed herself. She froze in her tracks, eyes growing wide at the sight of its smooth black exoskeleton, its razor sharp claws, its glistening teath. She would have screamed...
But at the sight of the alien, Takashi changed.
Before, Rei pegged him a pretty normal teenager. He was obviously a bit 'off' and had his fair share of mental and physical quirks, but no more so than Alice. That sort of behavior was to be expected from someone who survived a condemned world. He was odd, she though, but thoroughly human.
Now though, he grew very quiet, very pale, and very still. His entire body seemed to turn into stone, and, for a moment, Rei swore that Takashi and the alien were staring at each other. At Rei's side, Shizuka murmured something under her breath.
Rei could barely believe her eyes when the xenomorph turned and disappeared back into the shadows.
And then Takashi glanced back towards her, his golden eyes burning like stars. Rei shuddered, there was nothing human about that gaze.
"We won't make it this way." He murmured, his voice gruffer than before, horse and deep. "Follow". And Rei could finally understand how a boy her own age became a leader of men on a war torn planet. She finally understood why others would follow him, and how he had saved them all.
It was everything about him, every line of his body, every shadow on his face. He was a natural born leader, full of almost animal magnetism that convinced other's to obey him.
Rei and Shizuka nodded mutely, and they followed him deeper into the city.
xXx
He wasn't panicking (panic implied a certain amount of uselessness) but he was close. Of course there would be aliens on any planet he went to. Fate (yeah like he believed in that) wasn't done playing with him yet.
The exhaustion from an entire day of pretending to be 'normal' didn't help in the slightest. Watching his every action, checking his every impulse, left him worn. And he'd had to focus on his behavior even more than usual when talking with Rei (that girl had eyes). He barely remembered what humans were supposed to act like in the first place (the same apes he guessed, probably).
And to top it off, he couldn't command these 'friends' to do anything. He could commune with them, but though they heard his voice (voice? stupid word, voice implies speech) they were under another creature's sway. The queen. That first alien earlier was a moment away from attacking him, he'd only stopped it by convincing the it that he was a queen too. The alien mind drove him to distraction.
So, here he was, leading a rag tag group of people through a city he didn't really know, so that he could get Rei close enough to her safe location that the other aliens wouldn't be able to stop them. He had to take them North.
He could stop and ask her for more specific instructions, but the thought of that chaffed on his pride.
At the very least, he could ensure Alice's safety. One more weight off of his shoulders. Ironic right? that he felt happier with another useless person to take care of. Perhaps he felt that she was safest in his keeping.
But back to the problem at hand. After years in the darkness, Takashi's memory was nothing special, but his patience was limitless. He'd spent the last day studying a road map of the city until he knew all the major streets by heart (he'd thought himself paranoid, until today). The northernmost section of the city sat across the wide and deep Onbetsu river, forded only by two bridges.
He had to lead the other three to one of those bridges, through a city fighting (and losing spectacularly) with aliens and filled with screaming people running around like headless chickens.
But for the next ten minutes, mainly due to Takashi, the group managed to avoid any other xenomorphs. The bridge was still a few miles away, but the worst of the fighting was behind them as the aliens focused on the easily available prey. By now there were drop ships in the air as well, at least the marines were responding to the threat with suitable alacrity. Takashi didn't think it would do much good. He could already tell that the drones were dragging new hosts back to the queen.
Takashi's only hope was to escape beyond the alien's reach, not that bridges and rivers would halt the creatures for long. And he really hoped that Rei's 'safe place' was a secure as she made it out to be. Otherwise they were all screwed.
"Can you lead us from here?" Takashi's voice snapped Rei back to the present. She nodded quickly, anything to get her mind of the poor souls they'd left behind.
They had moved quickly, but all their speed was for naught. The bridges were gone when they arrived. Well, not gone per say, more like obliterated, with large chunks of concrete and durasteel debris lying in the river, causing the current to swell. In all likelihood, the military had rocketed the bridges within minutes of first contact.
The entire group, even Alice who was in so much shock that she could barely speak, stopped to stare at the rubble.
Takashi summed up their situation with one eloquent statement. "Well shit."
He turned to Rei. "Is there any other way across the river?"
Rei blinked. Before scowling and glancing away from the river. "Across the river?" She shook her head, "Boats aren't allowed, and the only people who have landing craft are the military and the hospital."
Rei noted, to herself, that her voice was rather dry and mechanical sounding. As if she were some kind of android. Huh, interesting. Her brown eyes grew unfocused, as she continued to stare at the rough asphalt beneath her feat. What were they talking about again? Something to do with rivers...
Takashi sighed, he did not have time to deal with this girl going into shock. "Rei," He took her by the shoulders. "Rei! Wake up!" He shook her. "Get your head out of the clouds!" When all else failed he let her go, and slapped her clean across the face. For a moment she stood there, blinking, and then she came to.
"... What the hell was that for!"
"Welcome back to the land of the living, princess." Was his only response. He gave Rei exactly ten seconds to remember what had just happened and compose herself. He couldn't spare any more time than that. "Look." He said. "Are you absolutely sure that there's no way across that river?"
Rei sighed and looked back towards the remains of the bridge. She was functioning better now that she'd gotten the obligatory mental break down out of the way. "Short of stealing a lander there's nothing we can do. And that would be impossible. We don't have the clearance, it's not the same thing as hijacking a car."
"Then we need to hole up for now. Get to somewhere safe." Takashi scanned the area, "Do you know anywhere hat we can find guns?"
"Yeah... Yeah! There should be some leftover weapons and ammunition at the East Police station! Even with all their men out on the streets they should have enough left over for us."
Takashi sighed. "First north then east. Well be running back into the south again next, won't we."
But they ran for the East Police Station all the same. It was a better option than sitting at the riverbank and hoping to be picked up after all. Rei got them inside the building, but it had already been ransacked for weapons, the police had probably taken all the guns when they had left. In the end, Rei only found an old shot gun and a hand full of shells.
"We could hide out here." Rei suggested quietly.
"Not a good idea." Takashi replied. And before Rei could ask he pointed to the foyer of the station.
Crouching in the entrance was an alien. It was bigger than the last one, Takashi noted, taller and more fierce. He racked a shell into the chamber of his shotgun, the action smooth as his body remembered the feel of gun in his hands. "Stay back," He commanded. Takashi handed Alice off to Rei, and the three females quickly retreated.
The alien screamed. It charged at Takashi as he braced the shotgun against his shoulder. Two short leaps and a bound. The beast was airborn, bearing down on Takashi like a avalanche.
Claws outstretched, maw gapping wide, the distance between the two shrank to mere inches.
Takashi pulled the trigger.
A few hours later all four of them stumbled wearily into the top floor of a large apartment complex, farther to the west. Booked to be demolished a month or so from now, the place was empty, but some of the rooms were still furnished.
Takashi had used what little ammo they'd had to kill the next few aliens they'd stumbled across. But at least they had made it to a 'safe' place in one piece.
They shut themselves into a room and barred the door. At the window, Rei could see the destruction that the xenomorphs had caused in a single day. The black carapaces of dead drones littered the streets along with the smoking husks of vehicles and abandoned firearms. But human corpses were few and far between. Broken glass crunched beneath Rei's feet as drew closer to the edge as she watched yet more aliens tear into a squad of marines.
For a moment she contemplated throwing herself from the edge. But a strong hand pulled her back.
"It's not over yet," Takashi whispered. "Look." Rei's eyes glanced where he pointed.
The North side of the city was still untouched. Gunfire from the north bank of the river kept the aliens at bay, and several landing craft unloaded refugees into the streets beyond. If Rei looked closely, she could even see crude barricades being constructed above the waterfront.
"It's not over yet." Takashi repeated, and Rei took strength in that statement. There was still a sliver of hope. If they could just cross the river, then they could survive. They could make it out.
But even still Rei had to ask... "So this is hell?"
"Not quite. But it's closer than I ever wanted to be a second time."
Rei glanced over her shoulder in disbelief. "How could this possibly get any worse?"
Takashi just shook his head, and looked up at the sky. "Just wait until the predators show up."