Chapter Four

Introductions

She violently regained consciousness with the sounds of screeching from a large metal door closing somewhere behind her. Her head snapped up to scan this new room she was in. Her elongated head snapped back and forth looking for any threat that might be nearby. Nothing, it was a dead and cold space. She could not even hear the hum of lights that usually filled the silence of the rooms she had been in. She was met with a large empty room, and most likely the same behind her. She still got to her feet quickly and snapped around to make sure. The smooth metal door that had closed was the only thing to greet her.

She slowly turned around, her long tail trailing her movements behind her. The smooth walls in front of her showed no seams, no panels, no windows. She moved to the nearest wall of her confinement and began to walk along them, looking for anything that might be different, anything that might give her a chance to escape. As she walked, the smooth, cold, metal walls of the room reminded her of her own elongated head. As if they had mimicked the designs of her own body.

She walked the entire length of the room and was met with disappointment; she was quite trapped. Astarte, realizing that she was along, reached out to the one person who was always there.

Mother.

"Mother? Mother, where am I?" She waited. Moments, seconds, minutes went by with no response. This was strange, this had never happened before. She had always been there when she mentally reached out. Astarte searched for that familiar feeling of connection within her mind but found nothing but a void.

"M…mother?" The words ran through her mind like a silent whisper. She had always had her mother there to help. But now… "Mother…where are you…"

A feeling that she had never felt before swept through her body as panic set in. It was cold and freighting. She had never felt this sense of hopelessness and alone before. She did not enjoy it. Her head began to dart back and forth, desperately looking for something she had missed, some hidden way out of this room. She wanted mother, needed to find mother. But how?! She was trapped with no way out!

Astarte began to climb the smooth walls of the room, checking every corner of the roof for a seam or crease that she could perhaps pry her claws into.

Nothing.

She let out a low hiss and dropped to the floor, again checking the floor for anything that she might have missed.

Again, nothing.

Where was mother? She would be able to help, would help her calm down and get out of here. But that empty void was still within her mind, and she knew Jolene was still not there. As she paced along the far wall of the room, it was then that a sudden noise startled her. Her head snapped back to the door that had now shot open, revealing a single woman standing in the doorway. She then noticed an armored human standing behind them.

Astarte took one quick step towards them before the guard shoved the woman inside and the door snapped shut. The woman fell to the floor, her hands not coming out to stop her head from slamming into the cold, metal floor. Astarte took another step towards her. But something stopped her, something was not right.

The woman… she was surrounded in a strange mist that she had never seen before. It was…intoxicating. That was when Astarte realized that it was the same smell that had come from the large pieces of meat that had been her usual meals within her nest room.

This woman was covered in blood.

"No…" Were the only words that she could muster before she felt the hunger beginning to take over her thoughts, taking over her body, telling her to feed upon the woman that was now upon the ground. Her lips pulled back, drool began to flow and her claws began to flex. Hunger was taking over.

She involuntarily took a step towards the unconscious person on the floor. She tried to stop herself, but her now heavy breathing was all that she could think about. She didn't even notice that she took another staggered step towards the unsuspecting target.

Her head went low, her back arched and her clawed hands began to move towards the woman who was now only a few feet from her. She was still fighting herself, not wanting to harm the woman in front of her. But the hunger was strong, she had not eaten in a while and it was showing.

As her hands grew ever closer to the blood-soaked woman, Astarte paused with the sudden movement of the human's arm and then head. She was coming to! Her hunger was telling her to act fast, to kill her before she had a chance to run. Her conscious was fighting to get her to move back! To slow her approach.

Astarte watched with confrontation behind the dark dome of her head as the woman rolled over to reveal her face. It…it was her! The same woman that she had been interacting with in her own room.

She laid before the xenomorph, soak in blood that might be her own, with a monster lurking above her, ready to take her life. Astarte winced as she fought to pull herself away from the woman. Her hunger still pushing forward, wanting the kill.

"NO! She screamed in her head, the anger and rage giving her some power over her impulses to kill.

She pulled her head back with speed, causing her body to spring backwards and away from the woman who was still waking up.

She crashed to the floor from the violent and sudden jerk of her own body. Her limbs and tail landing with a loud thud. She did not bother to get up, she turned her vision away from the blood-soaked woman and stared intensely at the wall, Focusing on its smooth surface. She breathed deep.

In and out. In and out.

She felt the hunger beginning to subside with each breath. And after a shot while, found that she was back in control of herself. Pleased that she had won over the hunger within her mind, she unflexed her hands and hit her teeth behind her lips once more.

As her breathing began to slow, her body relaxed, it was then that a hand upon her head caused her to tense and snap her head around. The action frightened the woman who took a few steps back. Astarte was surprised she had made her way to the downed xenomorph without her noticing. Then again, she had been focused on suppressing her hunger. Astarte froze, not knowing what to do as she looked to the woman who was now hovering over her.

They both froze, looking to one another to see who would move first. Thankfully, the woman was the first to move, but not in a way that Astarte would have thought. She fell to her knees, slamming them into the hard metal floor. Her hands shot to her stomach, clutching at a wound that Astarte was now just seeing. It was a large gash, covered in blood. Not deep enough to seriously injure, but enough to cause the large amount of blood that had covered most of her lower body.

With a quiet, and tense moment between the two, Astarte was able to look over the woman and notice that it was not the only wounds that was upon her body. Her forehead, neck, chest, arms, stomach, legs and feet all had gashes and wounds upon them. She watched as the woman was starting to realize just how injured she was. Her breathing becoming quick and shallow, her hands moving from wound to wound as the pain began to sink in.

She must have been unconscious when the wounds were inflicted because she very obviously did not know about them all. Anger began to boil up within Astarte's mind, how could they have done this to someone? Her hatred for these scientists coming forth for just how awful they would treat one of their own species.

Astarte moved to get her own feet under her so she could crouch in front of the woman who was now almost hyper focused on her own body and all that had happened to it. With her vision, Astarte looked over each of the wounds that were bleeding and began to assess their severity. After a quick assessment, she began to call forth the building resin that she had built her nest with.

Cupping her hands in front of her, she caught the sticky ball of mucus between her clawed fingers. She brought her head up to look to her friend in front of her and was glad to see her head up and looking back. Astarte then began to take small amount of the resin in her fingers and place it upon the more serious wounds that the woman possessed.

The human, glad for the help, moved her hands out of the way and stay as still as she could, letting the monster in front of her continue her work. As she covered the broken skin, she was sad when the human winced in pain. She did not like causing it, but knew that it had to be done in order to help. So, she continued as small sounds of protest came from her friend.

It took only a few minutes to cover all the wounds that she could see and she was glad for it. Her friend should start to heal quickly with the help of the sticky resin. Astarte moved back to give the woman a bit of room and the two were able to look at one another directly. Tears rolling down the human's face as her lips quivered, Astarte wanted nothing more than to take away her pain when she knew she could not.

A strange, painful smile took over the woman's face, the gesture caused Astarte to tilt her head, not understanding why she would be smiling through all the pain. Her mental question was answered as the woman began to turn, putting her back to the xenomorph. She slowly began to pull up her shirt to reveal a large wound that looked like an animal had attacked her. Long gashes from side to side, from neck to tail bone. Again, they were not deadly, but must be causing agonizing amounts of pain. It was done that way most likely to cause as much bleeding as they could. Astarte froze as she looked upon her back and her rage took over every inch of her mind and soul. She let out a low hiss just before she called forth more of her resin.

When she applied the first handful upon the wound, the woman recoiled and arched her chest forward and let out a low scream of pain. Astarte watched as her ribs expanded and contracted, the woman's breathing was staggered and heavy. After a moment she forced herself back up so Astarte could try again to apply the sticky substance to her back.

"I am sorry, little one. I am sorry. You do not deserve this." Astarte said in her mind as she quickly placed her resin covered hand upon the wounded back, spreading it over as much as she could. Another scream of pain escaped the clenched teeth of the human. Astarte could do nothing as she caused her more and more pain with each handful of resin.

When she was done her work a few heart-breaking minutes later, she sat back and gave the woman a moment to herself. Hopefully letting the pain be taken away by the bio-band aid that had been applied to her body. The silence was broken after a few moments by very soft words from the woman who was still faced away from the xenomorph.

"Evelynn. M-my name….is Evelynn." The words came between stuttering breaths of air. Astarte crawled around the curled-up woman so she could write upon the floor with her claws.

"I am Astarte." Her claws easily scratched the smooth surface. She watched as Evelynn read the message and lifted her head to look at the xenomorph in front of her. Her body still quivering as her arms clutched her own chest.

"It's…n-nice to meet you, Astarte. We…we have to stop meeting l-like this." The attempt at humor gave Astarte hope that her new friend would be ok. The alien moved to write her another message. Something she very much wanted answered.

"Why are they hurting you?" Evelynn read the message and let out a long sigh. She straightened her back as much as the resin would allow her and sat upon her own feet, giving her a chance to look Astarte as she answered.

"Honestly…I don't know. I think…maybe, now that they have what they want. I'm expendable. And to keep their secrets, they are trying to kill me, ha ha." The laugh was hollow and painful as she grabbed her ribs. "I bet they are rather upset that you didn't turn me into a snack." She took a moment to spit out a large wad of blood. It landed with a splat on the floor beside her. She brought her gaze back to Astarte and gave her a small smile. "Thank you for not eating me."

"Promise I won't." She wrote in response.

Evelynn's face twitched in pain as she shifted position to stop sitting upon her feet. She slowly moved to sit on her rear and took a deep breath in, causing more pain. Once it subsided, Evelynn looked to the alien that was across from her.

"So…now what?" The human asked the alien. Astarte took a second to think about the question.

"Hmm…now what indeed." Astarte reached out to see if her mother was there and was only met with the same empty void that had been there earlier. Jolene would not be able to help them. She turned her long head to look around the room, reinforcing the fact that there was no way out. Her gaze came back to the door, wishing there was some way to open it. She let out a huff of air, in frustration or acceptance, she was not sure.

"Well, we could always see if they would let us order a pizza. Ha ha-oooff." She wrapped her stomach with her arms. The laugh still causing her pain.

"Pizza?" She wrote on the metal floor.

"O, it's something you can eat as a meal. It's a flat piece of bread with a whole bunch of topping. My favorite has to b-"

She was cut off by the sharp sounds of the door sliding open. Both of them quickly looked to see what was happening and were meet with the sight of five rather large people with guns pointed at them. It caused them both to freeze, knowing what would happen if they did anything but.

The soldiers fanned out, entering the room, but not going deeper than they had to. They probably wanted to keep as much distance between them and the creature of death they now had at gun point. Once they were all in the room, the larger man in the middle of the group tossed a pair of handcuffs towards Evelynn. They slid across the floor and stopped just within reach.

The woman looked down at them and then back to the soldier. Astarte watched as the mist around her new friend changed from a pleasant blue to that of black and red. Astarte looked from the woman to the humans and their guns. She knew they wanted to take her away. She didn't like that idea. Every time they took her, she came back bruised and broken worse than she had left. She hated that idea as it ran through her head.

"Now! We will not ask twice." The man yelled from behind the covering on his face. The bark of an order made Evelynne twitch in fear. Astarte could tell she didn't wish to go either.

So, Astarte acted.

She slowly used her tail first and wrapped it around Evelynn's stomach, as gently as she could. Then, as slow as she could so the humans with their guns did not panic, she wrapped Evelynn within her arms, lifted her and took her to the back corner of the room.

"Stop!" Cried the man from behind her but she just ignored the order.

Once she was at the back corner of the room, as far from the door as she could be, she softly placed the woman on the ground and turned to face the threat at the door. She kept her tail wrapped around the woman so she could keep track of her.

The tension in the air grew as the group of soldiers stared at the xenomorph drone across the room. Her teeth in full view, her talon like claws flexed in front of her. They knew that she was ready to fight, ready to give her all to defend the woman behind her. They had their gun, and would most likely win, but Astarte would make sure that it would cost them dearly.

There was a tense moment of silence in the room. A pin drop could have set anyone of them off into an attack. However, it never came to that.

"Fine." The man who had thrown the handcuffs took a small step forward, taking something from his side pouch at the same time. "Evac." Was all he said as he tossed the small gas grenade towards Astarte, making sure it bounced a few times on the metal floor first. Astarte was fixated upon the small object so much that she hadn't noticed as the soldiers exited the room. The door closed behind them with a quick zipping noise.

She unwrapped her tail and lashed out with the blade with great accuracy, batting the grenade away from the two and back towards the door. However, it was stuck in the room with them. At least they would have a bit more time before the gas got to them. Astarte turned back to Evelynn and brought her into a tight embrace. From within her arms, she heard a soft whisper.

"It's all good, I'll look for you when I wake up, big girl. Hope… to…to see you… soon." Astarte felt sleep take the woman as her body slowly went limp within her arms. The gas affecting the human much faster than the xenomorph. Astarte pulled the small woman in close one last time, feeling her body's warmth against her cold, dark exoskeleton.

"I will as well, Evelynn." A moment later the world went dark as the alien's body went limp and slumped to the floor. Still holding gently onto Evelynn.