Aki'ru was lying low, covered up by a clump of dried shrubbery.

This was a frontier town, and it was guarded, obviously. Aki had told Eran to go somewhere out of sight, and the Alien had complied, hiding itself within an earth hole, burrowing down in the mud, out of sight.

But now it was down to him to enter this town, and for some reason Aki was having doubts. So far, he'd only seen guards patrolling the perimeter, but it was still only dawn.

The sun had risen a few minutes ago, but already the rays were scorching the earth. It was hot here, very hot

He could wait. Wait till he'd make out some kind of official, and then question him how to get to the Spaceport of this world.

Because this was no spaceport. There were no large fuel tanks, nothing but a large hover train to transport goods to and fro from the town.

Maybe they could hitch a ride…

Suddenly, there was movement.

Five people left a larger house, two were burly men, dressed in miner's overalls, and armed with rifles. They carelessly shoved a young woman and a child down the steps on the hard-packed dirt in front of the house. The fifth man stayed in the shadow of the doorway, and Aki'ru couldn't make out his face.

"Where is your husband?" he demanded, with a soft, soothing voice. Something was wrong here.

"I ... I don't know, governor. I haven't seen him since the incident."

One of the men savagely kicked the woman's side. "Lying bitch! Tell the governor the truth!"

"I have!" she wailed.

"Well, see how well you remember, when I do this:"

To Aki'ru's horror, he saw the man pull a gun, a gun on an unarmed woman, and child.

"No, Senor! Por favor!"

The gun went off.

The woman let out a long-drawn wail, jumping to her feet and sprinting over the ground. Blood seeped from the child's body on the ground.

"GET AFTER HER! I WANT HER ALIVE!" the governor roared to his men.

She stood no chance against these bad-blooded humans. Aki had to act, act in a way that wouldn't increase his popularity within this town.

Roaring violently, he jumped out of his hiding place, charging towards the two men following the fleeing girl.

He head-butted the first one, sending him flying through the air. No matter how strong the human was, he was stronger.

The second one fired his rifle, but the bullet glanced harmlessly off Aki's mask. The aiming system of the plasma caster locked on, and in seconds, the man was a smouldering heap on the floor.

Roaring, the yautja turned towards the governor.

To his own surprise, the governor had stepped out of the door, standing on the blood-saturated ground in front of his house and was clapping his hands.

"Very good. Very, very good!"

Roaring, the yautja aimed his plasma caster.

"You can stop playing the big bad hunter right now... Or I'd be forced to hurt you, and we don't want that, do we?"

The houses flanking the road to the governor's home, suddenly came alive with men, armed with rifles and other makeshift weaponry.

Ah, shit. He should've known.

They had seen the escape capsule fall, and probably it had even sent out a distress beacon. What a fool he had been.

At least they didn't know Eran was here, and that was good.

Maybe if he'd complied at first, he'd get into a better position to kill the governor and escape unscathed.

This wasn't a hunt. He wasn't hunting humans. They weren't prey, and they had different laws, laws he should abide to when he was around them.

But they wouldn't stand in his way, not once.

He deactivated his plasma caster, sheathed his wrist blades, and advanced towards the governor.

"Good. Good. Pray tell, do you speak English?"

"Yeah", the yautja retorted.

"Good good! Good good!" the governor clapped his hands. "Let us head towards our small bar, to have a drink and a chat!"

Growling, Aki complied.

The governor and the yautja sat on old-fashioned chairs around a table that could well be older than the governor himself. He was a man of 35, maybe older, wearing dirty clothes. His eyes glowed with an inner fire, a fire that worried Aki. This man was capable of anything. And he was careful.

The saloon was filled with men in dirty miner's overalls, armed with rifles and pistols.

"Pray, do you have a name?"

Aki stayed silent.

"Well, are you going to talk or not?"

"What does my name matter?"

"Technically, nothing. But we don't get many visitors, so I'd love to hear your name."

"Aki'ru".

"Good, I'm Jeff, but around here, everyone just calls me the Governor. Pray, what led you to these parts?"

"I need to go to the spaceport."

The governor sighed, and folded his hands. "I asked a question. I'd prefer to hear that question answered."

Aki'ru growled "That was the answer"

The two stared at each other in silence. The Atmosphere in the room thickened.

"It's not an answer I approve of." The governor said simply "Care to explain the scene on the street? You see, we've seen that landing craft of yours fall. I've met your race before, and I am fully aware that you have some strange code of conduct. The Point is, I need to know why you are here. Who sent you?"

"Sent me?"

"Well, I doubt you came here alone. Where are your friends?"

"Friends?" Aki looked at the Governor. Was he trying to take him for a fool?

"Oh, don't for one moment think that the face you are pulling convinces me otherwise." Calmly, the governor pulled out a blaster, and rested it on the table, his fingertips brushing over the grip "Listen, I don't want to see you dead. These men here, on the other hand, very much want to kill you. You killed one of our number, a dear friend, a father to a family."

Aki growled, refusing to be intimidated by this human. "You speak such grand words, but yet you killed as well."

"Justice is sometimes painful"

"Justice you call this? It is dishonourable to kill children." Aki balled his fists on the table.

"Help me, Aki'ru. How do I resolve this?" The governor's hand span the blaster on the table. Aki watched it closely. This man had no compunction about killing, and the crowd were now drawing a ring around the table they were sitting at. He knew he wouldn't be able to play for time much longer. The Governors hand slammed down on the blaster, stopping its rotation. He looked at Aki: "Well?"

"How about this!" Aki growled, kicking the table up into the direction of the Governor. He spun backwards, grabbing the closest man, ripping the Rifle out of his hand, and spinning around for cover behind him.

There was an uproar in the room, as Aki'ru now pointed his extended Blades at the throat of the man.

The governor emerged from the debris of the table, a clearly-broken nose dripping blood on his dusty suit. His hand wielded the blaster. Each and every rifle was aimed at Aki, who was having trouble hiding his large frame behind the human. Taking hostages was rather disgraceful, but then again so were those humans.

"That was a nice trick" the governor coughed, wiping the blood from his nose with his sleeve

"Leave this room" Aki growled.

"You see, this is one of those interesting situations, the ancients called them Mexican Standoff, as far as I can remember." The governor wiped his nose again. It was causing him discomfort, and he winced "Of course, this situation is only to our disadvantage, If I had any qualms about doing this:" And with those words, he shot the man Aki'ru was holding.

Time seemed to slow, as Aki felt the man go limp. He let go of the body, and with a muffled crash, it dropped to the ground.

Aki, his options slimming down, took a leap behind the bar, as at least fifteen weapons cracked, sending shots across the room, breaking glass. The Yautja crouched behind the wooden counter, as bullets and shrapnel flew all about him. Bottles broke, the alcoholic liquid flowing over the dirty floor.

Slowly, the noise of the guns subsided. He heard a hurried conversation, and then the order from the governor "Well don't just stand there, you fools. Go on and kill him!"

Aki readied his plasma caster.

Suddenly, the floor in front of him moved. Shielded from view by the counter, a trapdoor hinged upwards, two black talons shot out from the dark, grabbing him, and then he was falling in the dark, the square of light growing smaller in the distance.

The impact winded Aki, as did the cold of the water. He was pulled down, the mask ripped away from his face, and momentarily his head swam. Eventually, after what seemed like an age, he bobbed up again. Treading water, he craned his neck upwards, he saw the trap door through which he had fallen, no, not fallen, he had been pulled, slowly close.

Then, he heard another splash, not far away from him.

"Aki?" a voice clicked. Eran!

"Eran?"

"I'm here!" Slowly, the yautja swam into the direction of the clicks, his splashes echoing in the cavernous space. His claws brushed something hard and sleek, and he suddenly felt a talon reaching for his

"Hello!"

"What the hell was that about?"

Eran stayed silent for a moment. They were treading water, both of them, in the dark. He could fell the Xenomorphs breath on his cheeks.

"I wanted to help. Whilst you got into the fight, I checked the mud hole. It turned out into a long tunnel, which led me into the room under the saloon where they stored buckets"

"Buckets?"

"Liquid humans drink"

"Oh."

Aki'ru heard something the equivalent of a hiss-giggle "I had some of it" the xenomorph clicked

"Seriously?" He could smell the whisky on the creature's breath.

"Yeah it made my head woozy."

"Is that why you just did this?" Aki'ru felt slightly cross at Eran.

"No. I did this to save you."

Aki growled, but nodded his head. He felt a talon slip along his arm, and touch the shoulder. He couldn't see anything in this pitch dark. The talon moved away.

"You've been hurt" Eran let go of Aki's other talon, and suddenly, the Yautja felt very alone in the dark waters. He reached out in the direction where he expected Eran to be. He didn't want to call out.

Relief washed over him, as he felt the xenomorphs talon in his again.

"You've been hit" Eran repeated.

"I don't feel anything." It was a lie. The water made his damaged hand throb, and he felt a slight sting in his shoulder, too.

Eran made comforting clicking noises, which annoyed Aki. "You are tired. You have not rested for a long time."

"I don't need rest"

Suddenly, he felt both of Erans talons around his shoulders, and something, yes, it must be his tail, curling around his hips. The xenomorph pulled him tight, and Aki could smell the alcohol on his breath again. He could feel his scaly skin touch the silky smooth exoskeleton of the Xeno. He felt Eran's powerful legs kick the water below him, to help them stay afloat. The large head of the xenomorph brushed his, and Aki relaxed.

"Go, sleep. I will take care of us for the moment. I am a strong swimmer."

Aki wanted to protest, to tell the Xeno off for invading his privacy like that, but, inexplicably, he suddenly felt an inner calm, warmth spreading throughout his body. His arms curled around the xenomorphs thin ones, his subconscious marvelling at how much power lay in such a spindly frame, and then, his eyes closed, and he drifted off into unconsciousness.