The past
1623
The rain was drenching, thunder rumbling.
They had been moving around for a week, P'sy's musk picked up easily by Tlotl.
And once the bad blood realized he was still alive, P'sy hadn't seen that level of rage and one-track mindedness in years.
On second thought, maybe he could relate. He and Tlotl were brothers after all.
"Teotl."
P'sy resisted arguing with Atzi's preferred name for him.
"We are being followed."
P'sy paused, listening carefully.
There was something.
"An animal?"
"No." P'sy turned, flickering his biomask through filters.
Skittering.
-The fuck were they?
P'sy growled lowly.
"What is it?"
"Nothing." P'sy guided Atzi away. "You need shelter."
Those damn abominations with six-legs were getting smarter with every generation. A few times P'sy had wondered if the regulations surrounding the farming of the Kiande amedha eggs should be tightened.
As it was, anyone could take an egg and do what they wanted with it.
It was irresponsible.
And stupid. Very stupid.
"Let's go."
P'sy pulled Atzi back.
And there it was.
Those fucking facehuggers.
It whipped out of the brush, straight for Atzi, natural instinct driving it in a straight trajectory for the human, rather than the Predator.
P'sy snarled, extending his combi-stick, slicing the freak in half, keeping Atzi back so entrails wouldn't burn her.
If they thought that was the only one, they were naïve.
Skittering. Many of them.
"Cjit!" P'sy turned, shoving Atzi ahead of him. "Run Azti! Run!"
The woman only hesitated for the briefest of seconds, before sprinting away. P'sy switched his biomask to heat signature, with only the barest hint of annoyance at the ooman's sprint speed.
Yes, fast for a ooman. Slow for a yautja.
The facehuggers were gaining on them.
"Fuck!"
P'sy increased his speed, grabbing Atzi who yelped.
He didn't pay too much attention to where they were going, following the fading tracks of a small deer.
Then something hot and unforgiving hit him in the back just as the jungle floor disappeared beneath the predator's feet.
As they tumbled, P'sy curled around Atzi, cushioning her from the rocky face. With a bone crunching thud, he hit the unforgiving boulders below.
The impact jolted Atzi.
With a squeal, she bounced out of his arms and hit the ground.
If P'sy thought his injuries sustained from Tlotl had completely healed, he was wrong, his body involuntarily freezing from the agony.
And that plasma shot to the back….
"Teotl!"
He saw nothing as her tiny voice cut through the darkness.
Clumsily, he reached for the hoses connecting his broken biomask, grimacing at the shards of pain. At least two of his fingers were broke.
Groaning, P'sy leaned off the rock, falling to the ground and tried to get to his hands and knees.
"Teotl!"
In the gloom and sheets of rain, a hulking shape.
"Get up!"
For her credit, despite the murderous danger stalking towards them, the smart thing for Atzi to do was run, but tiny hands were on his bicep.
That shadow was too close.
That familiar whiiirrrrrr of the caster starting up-
P'sy sight returned.
Atzi's eyes were wide, three dots formed a triangle on her forehead.
Hissing, P'sy extended his spear.
Spinning, he sliced through that caster, giving a satisfying scrape across Tlotl's mask too.
Tlotl roared.
Smacking the spear, the bad blood followed up with a kick to P'sy's chest.
What ribs didn't break the first time, did the second as P'sy hit the ground hard on his back.
P'sy's eyes threatened to roll.
Desperately, he held onto consciousness even as he coughed, fluorescent green blood coating his teeth.
Atzi.
Where was she?
He couldn't hear her.
He forced his eyes open.
Those red dots again.
She was to his right, fear stifling. She wanted to flee and he didn't blame her. But the Aztec woman had a fault.
Loyalty.
And Tlotl knew it.
Laughter. Deep and guttural.
"Pathetic bitch."
P'sy rolled, knocking Atzi's legs out from under her, a craterous hole where she had stood seconds before.
P'sy's caster rose, firing back, hitting Tlotl. Damaged by the fall, the power wasn't enough to kill. So, he was surprised when green splattered…from the middle of Tlotl's back.
Tlotl screamed in rage, whirling.
Then he scoffed.
"My Halkrath Lar'ja, my deadly shadow."
Through blurred vision, the newcomer looked familiar. A slender build compare to the typical male yautja.
A female.
The yautja woman was rooted to the spot.
"Tlotl." She was in disbelief.
Noni.
P'sy breathed a pained sigh of relief. T'sey-s hadn't forgotten about him.
Noni stepped forward as if on autopilot, embracing the bad blood as if P'sy wasn't there. Though he didn't care much, pulling himself into a sitting position painfully.
"I thought you died."
Tlotl was tender, murderous tactics absent as he gazed at his lover.
"I was free, Halkrath Lar'ja. I am free. No restrictions. I do what I want, when I want!"
"You were free…" Noni shook her head in confusion. "I don't understand-"
"Your uncle, Noni, he doesn't understand me. Always on my back about everything!"
Noni's biomask tilted past Tlotl's, attention on the ooman and P'sy.
She left Tlotl and went to P'sy.
"P'sy…"
"I found him like this. Lucky too, he's losing blood."
P'sy's vocals weren't working. He could only stare at his adopted sister dumbly.
Noni glanced at Atzi. The ooman recoiled closer to P'sy not that he was in any shape to protect her.
"His spine is broke." Noni pulled her hand away from his left shoulder, her scales coated in blood. "And he was shot?"
"He fell." Tlotl gestured above their heads to the cliff. "And the oomans, Noni. The oomans have our technology. They must have been hunting him and shot him."
Noni's head twitched, slowly she stood, punching a sequence into her gauntlet.
"What are you doing?"
"Calling J'kul. P'sy is no shape to move on his own. And if the oomans have our technology then we need to get it back."
"Noni."
The female yautja paused.
"We don't need J'kul."
Noni ignored him.
"Ooman." She directed to the woman. "Where is your tribe?"
Atzi startled, frightened eyes flickering to the hulking predator behind the woman. She whispered something.
"Louder!" Noni snapped. "Where is your mate?"
"I am alone." The woman returned her attention to a barely conscious P'sy. Then she glanced up. "He was killed…by him."
Noni clicked in surprise.
She turned.
"You killed a human?"
Tlotl watched her coolly. "He attacked me first with a bow and-"
Noni snorted. "Comparative to a rock! Did he take the technology?"
Tlotl was quiet for a moment.
"No." He hissed through clenched mandibles.
"They are primitive, Tlotl!" Noni growled. "You know we leave the indigenous alone! Who took the technology? The white man running around here?"
"Ate. He ate…."
The words were quiet, Noni almost missed it through the heavy rain pattering. The female yautja looked down at the ooman.
Oomans never lied. Not to yautja.
"She's lying!"
Noni was quiet as she surveyed her once upon a time lover.
"And so is your breath?" Noni took a long inhale. "Pre-puberty, it smells like."
Tlotl snarled.
Noni was graceful. The caster shots missing her as she dodged them.
Lightening cracked, lighting up the shadows.
Nothing. She was gone.
Thunder.
With a yell, Noni reappeared, combi-stick arcing. Tlotl parried, but only just. Another plasma shot hit Tlotl in the other shoulder, knocking him back.
Enraged, the bad blood rolled, his spear handle hitting Noni in the legs, knocking her off her feet.
Somersaulting, she landed on the balls of her toes, and didn't miss a beat, her spear catching Tlotl in the chest. She followed it up with a kick, sending the evil yautja into a heap.
"Bitch!"
Tlotl surged upwards, tackling Noni, slamming her down, her head cracking painfully on rocks. Clawed hands tightened around her neck.
"You could have joined me!" Tlotl yelled. "We could have been a force across this galaxy! The cattle already here for the taking! These wretched insects!"
Noni was barely able to pull in air under the strangling hold on her neck.
"We don't take slaves, Tlotl!" She choked.
"That's T'sey-s's ways! Not mine!" Tlotl lessened his grip slightly. "Now, Halkrath Lar'ja, join me. My love. Together, other will bow before us."
Wrist blade erupted, punching through scaly skin, severing arteries and stabbing bone. Tlotl jerked with a strangled gurgle.
Noni gasped in the air denied to her.
"No." She snarled, and ripped her blades out, kicking the bad blood off her.
Stumbling to her feet, she watched the dying predator impassive. Then her caster came up, three dots on Tlotl's ruined throat.
One blast, his head severed in a shower of gore.
….
Cold sheets of rain sent a shiver down P'sy's spine. A hand touched the side of his face.
Jolting awake, he gasped.
"Calm. Everything is okay now."
"N-Noni?"
P'sy swallowed with difficulty.
"Tlotl?"
"Taken care of." Noni said. "Just rest. J'kul is coming."
P'sy struggled to turn his head.
"A-Atzi?"
Noni tilted her head, her attention on the ooman.
Atzi crawled forward.
"I am here."
He could smell fear in her as ooman and yautja woman turned to something he couldn't see.
Then darkness claimed everything.
…
The Present
"Hey."
Kelly glanced up. "Hey."
Dallas sat. "Anything good?" He paused, pulling a screen towards him.
"It only makes sense." Kelly took the tablet back. "We're going to be here, might as well not be completely ignorant."
"No offense, but looks like a bunch of lines."
"Well, to be fair, they'd probably say our alphabet looks like a bunch random symbols too."
Dallas watched her until the point of self-consciousness.
"What?"
Dallas shrugged. "You have a point, I guess. How hard is it?"
A rare flicker of amusement crossed Kelly's face. "Are you asking to learn?"
"Only if you're my teacher."
Kelly grinned.
….
Jessie watched from the river bank as A'luet handed over his spear to Ricky, a comical reaction from the human as he realized the weight of the combi-stick.
"Wow. This is heavy…"
Nearby, Paya snorted. "We are stronger than you."
"Extend it…"A'luet ran a finger quickly across the sensitive shaft, the spear lengthening in one smooth snnnickk. "Shorten it."He repeated the sequence in the opposite direction.
"Cool." Ricky lost his balance as he tried it. "Don't suppose I can ever get one of these."
Paya regarded the human peculiarly. "Wipe out a hive of Kiande Amedha, sure."
"You wiped out a-a hive?"
A'luet nodded. "Four years ago. Oomans can earn the right to one of these, but it comes from an act of honor and bravery."
A gentle breeze blew on Jessie's arm. K'iera sitting down.
"Hello."
"Hi."
The yautja woman's friendliness vanished. "Oh, not them."
"Who?"
K'iera stood. "A'luet!"
A'luet didn't need his mate's warning, the change in the light wind told him they were no longer alone.
Ricky handed him back the combi-stick as A'luet turned.
"A'seigan."
The male yautja grinned, mandibles flaring, two friends behind him.
"They finally grew some balls, huh? Showing their faces in society."
A'luet slid his spear into the sheath on his back. "Now, is that any way to speak of your mentor's guests?"
A'seigan lost his amusement slightly, then moved around A'luet to get a better look, his head flicking Jessie's way as well.
"Awfully short."
"He is a different species." Paya said.
"Well, yeah, but still…." A'seigan leaned in close, drawing in a breath, smelling Ricky. "And stinks."
"Pretty sure space is a universal virtue."
A'seigan stepped back, eyes on Ricky. Then he snorted.
"Fiesty, I like that." A'seigan's amusement was back. "Going for a little nature walk. Care to join?"
"Not interested. Thanks for the thought." A'luet turned Ricky around rougher than he planned.
"Why, got something better to do? T'jierk? Hanging with P'sy?"
A'luet shook his head. "No, I just don't feel like your little nature walk turning into something else."
"Like what?"
"Anything other than what you're calling it."
A'seigan scoffed. "Pauk-de pussy."
"I really don't like that word."
"Quiet!" A'luet hissed.
"Maybe it won't be that bad." Paya shrugged. "We could always leave."
K'iera wasn't convinced, the same level of concern A'luet felt.
"Jessie can stay with me."
"Yeah, you know what…what does he want? A little dude time?" Ricky feigned interest and confusion in one ball of good bullshitting. "Let's go."
A'luet clenched his mandibles.
A'seigan laughed. "He's a smart little ooman."
A'luet grumbled. "If you only knew."