Weyland gripped the glass tighter, Aki noticed his knuckles whitening slightly. "You are sure it wasn't Jean?"

"I know what I heard."

"Describe her."

"A human female. Brown hair. I saw her run away into the desert. Who is she?"

"She's someone I need to contact."

"Why?"

"Because she knows the location of a place I want to go to."

"If you could drop us off at the space port before you go…"

"I'm sorry, I can't. You have to come with me."

Aki growled "No. We have a task of our own. We don't care a bit about you. We have our-"

"I know."

"No you bloody don't." Aki balled his fists "You have no idea about honour!"

Weyland leaned back, but Aki hadn't missed his hand sliding into the folds of his suit. He was armed.

"Oh, I do know about honour. I'm a businessman. Without honour nobody would buy anything from me."

"This is different."

"It isn't. The problem is, you are so caught up in your hunting rituals, and you can't see the bigger picture."

"That is what?"

Weyland stopped. "I don't fully know myself yet."

Aki snorted "That is bullshit"

"Indulge me then."

"Go ahead"

"What if I were to tell you that there is another pair like the two of you. It's a xeno and a human. The Xeno is similar to yours, but he doesn't speak, at least not with sound. I think Eran does, right?" Aki nodded. "Well, I met those two a few years back, quite by chance. The thing is, there are no sentient xenomorphs, at least not like this. Your Eran has been the result of someone performing some nasty experiments, experiments that put us all under threat."

"How would human experimentation put us under threat?"

"You have no idea how long we have tried to weaponize the xenomorph creature. It goes back centuries. Akkan was a step in the wrong direction, and Eran seems so too, but they are progressing somewhere, even if it's not where they want to go, and that makes them dangerous."

"They?"

"I don't know, but it's not us. Weyland-Yutani has quit experimentation on Xenomorphs."

Aki ground his jaw. "What did you say again the other Xeno's name was? The one you met?"

"Akkan. The human was Dr. Paul Cromwell. Why, what's wrong with it?"

Aki realized the connection. "Where are they now" he asked

"What does it matter to you? A few minutes ago you wanted to leave." Weyland said slyly.

"Situations change."

"Yeah, tell me about it." The human chuckled. "Anyhow, why the sudden spike of interest?"

"Eran needs to meet this Akkan." Aki scratched his chin "Exchange experiences."

"That was precisely my plan. There's only one hitch."

"That might be?"

"The only one who knows where they are is Jeanne."

"So we have to find her, if she is still alive."

"Sort of. We don't just need to find her, we need to get her ship."

"Why do we need her ship?"

Weyland sighed "Because I'm afraid it's the only place where the location of the planet is saved. She probably hasn't memorized it, so I need her to access the computer to find it"

"We don't need the ship then, we only need to access the information on the computer? Where is the ship?"

"It's in the shipyard of the colonial authorities."

"Then we should go there. We don't need to find her."

"Yeah, in principle you are right." Weyland sighed again. "For one, I'm sure her ship is filled with awful security measures, and secondly, she's a sort of friend."

"You want to save her?"

"I suppose I do."

"Saving her is important to you." It wasn't a question, Aki was stating a fact.

"Yeah."

"I can help you."

"I was counting on that."

"I know. But I need Eran by my side."

"Can I trust the two of you? I'm taking quite some risk, you know that."

Aki got up and placed his fist on his heart "I swear, by my honour, neither me nor Eran will hurt or attack you in any way. Does that suffice?"

"I think it does."

"Can you unlock Eran?"

"I could, but I think I'm going to stay here. The door opener is the large blue button beside the door."

"What about the code?"

Weyland laughed "There is none."

"You mean-"

"I was bluffing."

"What?"

"Seriously, if you guys were sent to kill me, you wouldn't have faked an accident and behaved like utter pricks afterwards. You'd have done it differently. I just didn't want any of you to fly at me in rage or do something stupid."

Weyland stared moodily out of the bridge window. He had granted the two his guest quarters, and they had disappeared inside it.

He was wearing his brown coat again, concealing quite an array of weapons. He would not go unarmed again.

The sergeant had steered the ship down into the atmosphere, and they were following the line the hover train took. Aki had said it stopped there.

The table top mountain rose up before them, and the ship rose with it, keeping three hundred metres above the ground.

From a crack in the cliff face, a waterfall spouted, producing rainbows in the intense sunlight.

With relief, Weyland noted that clouds were forming on the horizon. At least they'd be out of this annoying sun.

He did realize that question the people of the settlement would unlikely provide them with anything new. The easiest way would be to track Jeanne either by scent or tracks.
Whilst he was no useless tracker, it was best left to Eran and Aki'ru. He had handed them back their equipment, even though there wasn't much.

He also gave them a beacon, and gave them a description of Jeanne. He only hoped she wouldn't shoot the xenomorph. Quietly, he had told Aki as much.

The ship soared upwards, on the flat top of the mountain, and sped towards the settlement.

The clouds had covered the sun, darkening the day. Thunder rumbled far away in the distance. The ship lowered itself, its engines roaring, kicking up dust and smoke. Weyland was at the ramp, with Aki and the xeno beside him. The ground got nearer, and Aki nodded to Eran, and they jumped the last few metres.

Eran swivelled his head, taking in the scent, and broke into a run into the distance. Aki glanced at the ground, and made out three pairs of footsteps, leading off, away from the village. He followed Eran, keeping his eyes to the ground. Footsteps in the sand wouldn't be any good if they reached rocky ground, or, god forbid, if it would start to rain. The female had a head start of at least a week.

Eran stopped for a moment, waiting for Aki to catch up. He was sitting on his haunches, tasting the air.

"She is bleeding" he said simply.
"What about the rain?"

"I can track blood through the rain, no problem."

"She was followed"

"Two men."

Aki nodded. "Let's go. We need to hurry."
The Xenomorph loped ahead, and the Yautja followed in a fast jog. It felt good to run again, he though.

It felt good again to hunt.

Even Eran felt more… real, whilst tracking this female. More alive. Hunting small game was interesting, but tracking a human much more of a challenge, and Eran did rise up to meet it.

After a few minutes of running, the land transformed, resembling much more a rock-strewn field than a prairie. Rocky outcrops raised themselves above the ground, some more than twenty metres high. Eran was still leading an unwavering path through the rocks, reinforced by Aki spotting footsteps in sandy patches every few metres.

Soon, they fell into a routine. Eran up ahead, stopping for a second every few minutes to re-check the scent, and Aki behind him, checking the land for footprints, and keeping their situational awareness. They didn't need to talk, they just ran, the energy of the hunt making their predatorial bloods boil.

After a few hours, the first raindrops fell, eventually turning into a torrent.

Eran stopped, and turned around, but a nod from Aki sent him back in his run. Water ran down the yautja's forehead, soaking his clothes, carving small paths through his dust-caked skin, washing away the grime of the last few days ride.

Eran screeched with joy, and Aki joined him in a loud roar.

This was what they were both made for, he realized. They were hunters, not warriors. They didn't fight, they hunted.

The day had rolled on, into the afternoon, where they found the first body. It was a miner, dead for at least a day, stabbed with a knife in the chest, a holster in his belt empty. The rain had already washed the blood away, making the scene look unreal.

Aki grimaced. She had a gun. They would have to convince her of their harmlessness.

The other man, if he was still alive, they would hunt down and obliterate. But Aki had the strange premonition that this was probably not going to be necessary.

"Do we stop for rest at night?" The xeno asked. His body was taunt as a drawstring, filled with tension.

"If you don't have to stop or eat, we won't stop because I can go on"

"So can I!" Eran grinned his xeno grin "This is so much fun!"

"Have you not hunted before?"

Eran shook his head, the grin wiped from his face.

Aki shrugged "Seems like you are made for it though."

That restored Eran's grin, and he started up along the trail again.

Aki followed, keeping closer to the xenomorph, as daylight faded fast under the clouds.

The ground had transformed from its original dry dusty state into a muddy affair that stuck to Aki's feet and stained his clothes. He caught himself thinking about how annoying it would be to re-buy clothes in his size in a human town, and chuckled.

Eran looked dirty too for once, but the rain was washing most of the mud away quickly again. Nothing did cling to his smooth skin for a long time.
He was beautiful, Aki thought. Beautiful in his own natural way.

Eran skidded to a halt, and Aki bumped into him. The path of the scent, the smell of blood that had been so clear before him was now starting to get fuzzy.

He shook his head, as if to clear it.

"What's wrong?" Aki clicked

Eran got down on his haunches, and passed a talon across the ground. "She's gone"

"What do you mean?"

"The scent, it's gone."

"It doesn't go on? So she must be somewhere here?"

Eran wiped a talon over his dome. "I don't know. It's like she passed through water to throw me off her scent. But there is no water here."

"Let's check around, and see what we'll find." Aki said, and Eran nodded. He just hoped he wouldn't be the one to find her, and decided to move stealthily.

Crouched down low, he headed for a rocky gully.

The rain dripped off its sides, collecting in a muddy stream at the bottom. Eran clambered down, and dropped himself in the cool muddy waters. The water was merely to his knees, and he looked around.

Behind him, the gully started to open up and turn into a broader canyon, but further up, it started to narrow down.

Eran realized that this was how she had lost them, and called for Aki.
Whilst waiting, he tasted the water, and, relieved, felt the sweetness of human blood on it. They were nearing their quarry.

With a grunt and a splash, Aki landed beside him. His clothes were dirty and soaked, clinging to his formidable body. Eran liked how strong and powerful he looked, with a broad back, and those lovely dreadlocks…

"What is it?" Aki clicked

Eran pointed down the narrowing gully "She went that way."

Aki nodded. "I'll go first. She's not likely to shoot me."

Eran nodded, and Aki took the lead.