XXVII

For several moments, I dared not speak a word. I barely dared to breathe, fearing that Alan and Nathan might open fire on me.

"Well, Jones?" Alan eventually asked, breaking the awkward silence of the corridor. "Care to explain yourself?"

"I… well, she… and Ryan…" I tried desperately, stumbling over my words as I spoke.

"Smith here tells me you've been… doing things with this creature." Alan continued "Is this true?"

"Well…" I began meagerly. "Doing 'things' is a very broad-"

"I hope you'll bear in mind, Jones, that I have a loaded weapon right now." He interrupted. "And very little patience with you. Now I'll ask you again: Is it true that you have been harboring this Xenomorph in your quarters?"

I looked down at the floor, my heart racing and my head pounding. There was no way out of this now. It had to come clean. I glanced at Xena, who was still rooted to the spot behind me, and gave her a small nod. She nodded back, a comforting and reassuring smile on her face. 'It's time', I thought to myself, looking back to the others. 'Time to tell them the truth."

"Yes." I told Alan, as confidently as I could muster. "Yes, I have been keeping… this Xenomorph safe in my quarters."

"May I ask why?" He pressed. "Is it as Goddard suspected? Are you a sympathiser? Or is it something even worse?"

"I-I'm… I'm a sympathiser." I nodded, tensing up, prepared for the shots to start flying. After a second or two, none did, so I decided that before Alan and Nathan killed me, I should at least explain to them why I was a sympathiser.

"There's a word, you know, which springs to mind here." I continued, starting to feel slightly less afraid of the two fully-armed men. "It's 'xenophobia'. Commonly compared with racism, although there are slight differences. Xenophobia refers to an irrational fear or hatred of people who are of different cultural origin or ethnicity to the observer. In essence, it's a dislike of people who are different. White people to black people. Earth-born citizens to those born on Luna. Now, of course, when it comes to humans disliking animals, that's a different subject altogether. It's called zoophobia, as a matter of fact. But it's all the same thing at the end of the day, isn't it? And to be honest, I don't think that there's ever been a more appropriate time to use the word 'Xenophobe'." I know it was a cheap pun, but my life was on the line here, it was the best I could manage.

"What are you saying, Jones?" Alan asked, although I was pretty sure that he'd already got the gist of it. "Are you seriously trying to compare that thing to a human? Trying to compare us to racists?"

"In a nutshell, yes." I nodded. "And perhaps you might think that's out of line. You might think that me trying to say that such a creature is 'human' is unspeakable. And you'd be right. Because Xena's not a human. She can't talk, or read, or write like we can. She doesn't have a job, or a home, or any of the things that you might expect a typical human to have. To say that she's a human when quite clearly she isn't would be absurd."

"So what are you trying to say?" Nathan enquired, the first I'd heard him speak since his arrival.

"What I'm trying to say…" I murmured, still a little unsure of what I was trying to say. "What I'm trying to say is that there's a difference between being human and being a human. And I'm telling you that Xena is human. She doesn't have two eyes, two ears and hair on the top of her head. But she can think and feel. She can display human emotion; happiness, curiosity, fear." I looked over at Xena once again, even now losing myself in her blind gaze.

"Compassion." I continued. "But you don't see that, do you? Because you're xenophobic, zoophobic, whatever you want to call it. 'If one Xenomorph's a killer, they're all killers', right? Just like 'all Americans are fat', and 'all Frenchmen are drunkards', and 'all people from Luna are less intelligent than people from Earth'. Isn't that right?"

"I can assure you that this is not the same thing at all, Jones." Alan insisted, looking at Xena sourly. "'Xena', as you so affectionately describe that thing, is a creature of instinct, as is any other of its kind. It is a cold-hearted killer, Jones. It is nothing more. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

"You're wrong!" I shouted angrily. All of a sudden, I didn't care if he and Nathan were both pointing their guns at me. I was irate now, frustrated at their ignorance. And so help me, God, I was going to make a point of it.

"You're wrong." I repeated. Alan and Nathan fell silent, shocked by my outburst. "She's not a killer. If she was, I'd be dead by now. She's a peaceful, considerate and gentle creature, and… and I love her."

"I've heard enough of this." Alan said bluntly. How could he still not believe me? I thought I'd done the right thing, finally telling them the truth about Xena. Yet even now, they refused to accept her. How could anyone be so fucking ignorant?

"Jones, I will ask you this only once." He continued, fiddling around with his gun as he spoke. "Will you stand aside and allow us to open fire on this creature?"

"No." I replied sternly. "I won't." I reached out a hand to Xena slowly. She took it with her own, squeezing my palm gently. I smiled at her sadly, some part of me dreading the inevitability that was her death. But I refused to let her go down alone.

"Very well." Alan nodded. "You have made your choice. May I just say how unfortunate it will be to see you go."

Lifting his gun up to rest upon the stump of what was once his left arm, Alan turned to Nathan.

"Prepare your weapon, Smith." He told his fellow officer, although a look of shock covered Nathan's face.

"But sir, we can't…" He tried, obviously at a moral crossroads on whether he should shoot his fellow crewman or not.

"I said prepare your weapon, Smith." Alan demanded. Although reluctant, Nathan finally agreed. He lifted his own gun and pointed it in my direction.

"Alan…" I pleaded, beginning to fear what I knew was to come. "I know we've had our differences in the past, but you don't really want to shoot me, do you?"

"Ready…" Alan said bitterly, completely ignoring my plea. He and Nathan quickly released the bolts on their weapons.

"Alan, please," I continued, my voice now filled with anxiety. "Look at her. She's harmless, I swear. Do you honestly think I'd still be standing here if she wanted to kill me?"

"Take aim…" He continued, him and Nathan lowering their heads towards the sights of their guns. I knew now that all hope of survival was lost. All it took now was one little word. All it took was for Alan to say 'fire'. Then we were both as good as dead. I glanced at Xena one last time. I wanted to apologise, for putting her through all of this. Perhaps it would have been more merciful if I'd simply let them kill her the first time they ran into her. Tears welled up in my eyes as she gazed back at me, her smile now replaced with nothing more than an expressionless frown. But do you know what? I couldn't think of anyone else that I'd have rather spent my final moments with. At least this way, we'd go together.

"Do we fire yet?" Nathan asked after a couple of moments. Alan's gun shook in his hand as he stood there, aiming in silence.

"No." He eventually replied. "Lower your weapon, Smith." He dropped his own gun, which clattered to the ground loudly. Nathan kept his gun in his hands, but aimed the barrel towards the ground. His expression was almost unreadable, but somewhere in there, I could tell that he was relieved he didn't have to kill me. Even so, it was nothing compared to the relief I was feeling right now. I was still in shock, truth be told, that Alan had actually decided to spare my life.

"Alan, I-" I began, but before I could continue, he interrupted.

"Now you listen here, Jones," He began solemnly. "I can't even begin to describe how many OWA regulations you've broken by keeping this creature hidden from the rest of the crew. Nevertheless, given recent events, I believe that what you have told us is true. This particular Xenomorph is clearly not killer material. But that still doesn't mean she has any rights as a human crew member upon this vessel, and she'll certainly not be accepted on Earth. So here's what you're going to do: You're going to take Syracusia 1, fly as far away from this ship as possible, and never darken our doorways again. Either of you. Do I make myself clear?"

"You do." I nodded. "Thank you, sir." And perhaps for the first time since I'd met him, I respected Alan for his decision. For the first time since I'd met him, he had respected me as his equal. And for that, I'd always be grateful.

"Come on, Xena." I beamed, taking my Xenomorph counterpart by the hand once again. She beamed back, her face lit up with happiness. I turned in the direction of the Syracusia 1 dock, and was just about to take a step forward when…

"Stop. Right. There." Came a voice from behind me, and at this point in the story, I hope you don't need to be told who it was.