**Hello all! Sorry for the long wait between chapters, I was out of the country for a bit. But will be getting back to posting once a week until I have Astarte's story done! Have a great day!**

Chapter eleven

Making Friends

A soft noise brought her gently back to reality, it was some kind of hissing noise from outside of the deck she was currently sleeping under. As her mind began to awake, she remembered a similar sound, one that she had heard from within the maze inside the lab that had released the gas that had caused her to fall unconscious. Her adrenalin spiked, thinking it could be the same trap.

"No!" She screamed within her own mind, also letting out a low hiss from between her razor-sharp teeth. Her body violently snapped up so she could dig her claws into the dirt and run. She had to get away from the gas, she had to escape, she had to get out of the labs!. As she began to take in her surroundings, her mind changed the underside of the deck into another cage from the lab. She was trapped.

"No, no no!" She panicked, her long head snapping from side to side, desperately looking for an exit. Her mind no longer realizing where she was, knowing that she was outside and safe. When she finally came to look upon the entrance that she had first used to enter the crawl space, she did not hesitate. She sprinted, wanting desperately to be free of the cage. As she took up speed, she forgot all notions of stealth and tore part of the wood frame of the deck off as her large body went through it. Her shoulders caught both sides, sending pieces of two by four into the side of the year. The impact also caused her body to twist and turn as she emerged from the deck. It was a rather ungraceful exit by the xenomorph.

Limbs tumbled, a tail whipped through the air and Astarte's head ended up slamming into the fence that separated the properties. With panic still dominant in her mind, she recovered with speed from her oddly twisted position against the fence. Down on all fours, Astarte raised her bladed tail to take on any threat that might be around her. Yet, in the silence of the night, there was nothing. Her mind was starting to push the nightmare aside as it realized where it was. No prison, no maze full of traps, no one looking to harm her. The only thing making noise was the automatic sprinkler system that was now watering the grass. Her breather was short and shallow as her mind began to process the situation, realizing that she was safe and away from harm.

Her body relaxed, her tail lowered, she had to pull her claws out from the dirt where she had anchored them. Part of her still stayed ready to defend herself, still thinking that she was not safe. As she listened to the silence that surrounded her, the cool, crisp air over her ebony exoskeleton, she began to relax.

She tilted her head up towards the night sky, into the vast gray void with not a thing in it. She remembered her mother telling her what the stars looked like when she had her human body, Astarte wished she could see it now. The hissing noise once again grabbed her attention, and her long head came back to look towards the strange devices that were poking up from the ground. She stood to her full height on her two legs and walked over to take a closer look.

Once nearby, she brought her head close to the ground and watched as the water appeared from the nozzle of the sprinkler head. It reminded her of the sprinkler system of the lab that they had used a few times to neutralize her acid blood. Occasionally, their experiments would be a bit too harsh and would cause injury, so they took precautions. Using a foaming liquid of some kind to cover any acid blood that would be spilt to neutralize it before it caused any damage to the lab.

In truth, Astarte had rather enjoyed the gallons of foam that filled the room in response to an acid burn. She would play in it while the scientists panicked and tried to exit the room. It was a nice change of pace from the constant experiments they performed on her every day. And anything she could do to get away from their constant poking and prodding was a relief. Just then a soft noise grabbed her attention, it was coming from the house behind her. She kept low and turned to face whatever it was, tail once again over her head and ready to attack. What she saw made her freeze.

A human, a child by their size, was now standing in the sliding glass door frame on the far side of the deck. They did not move, only stood with their eyes locked onto her from afar. It only took a moment, but once the pheromones reached Astarte's long head, she could see that the child was not afraid of this monster in her back yard. The child took a few steps out onto the deck, getting closer and closer to the xenomorph.

Astarte, being able to see that the child was not afraid, relaxed, put her tail down, and stood. When she did, the child did not run but simply kept walking to the edge of the deck. They were wearing what looked like a large shirt that must have been their sleep garment while carrying some kind of toy in their other arm. It looked soft and fluffy from what she could guess. As the child approached the edge of the deck, they placed a hand down and slowly lowered themselves so they could sit upon its edge. Once there, they sat, just looking out towards the monster in the darkness. Their legs swinging playfully back and forth.

Astarte took a few steps towards them, wanting to see what they would do. Again, they did not run, and their sent was telling her that they were still not afraid. So, she took a few steps closer, coming to a stop only ten or so feet away from the child.

"Hi." A high, innocent voice came from the child. Feminine sounding, but Astarte was not sure, she had never met a human child before. The words startled her a bit, not thinking the child would be brave enough to talk to a xenomorph.

Astarte, with no verbal way to respond, raised a hand and gave the child a small wave. Something she had seen the scientist at the lab do to one another as a greeting. The difference being that her hands were full of sharp talons instead of soft fingers. Yet again, the child was not afraid.

"I'm thirsty. Can you help me? Daddy is asleep." The child asked as they held their stuffed toy closer. Astarte looked from the child to the open door behind her, then back to the child. She was going through the risk of entering the home and helping the child with a glass of water but knew that it was not a smart idea. Part of her felt the need to help the small one, that it didn't matter how much of a risk it would be. So, Astarte took a step forward, heading towards the deck to help the child.

Thankfully, a motion from the house stopped her as the large man from the day before appeared from the doorway. Astarte froze and waited, not really knowing how to react. The man, a bit shocked from the eight-foot monster in his back yard, came to a halt and froze. The pheromones coming from him told Astarte that he was, unlike the child, afraid. She watched as his breathing became rapped and the mist around him grew to a large, yellow and black cloud.

There was a tense moment as the two stared at one another. However, it was after a moment that Astarte noticed that his pheromones changed from fear to those of excitement and happiness. She was confused at the sudden change of feeling from the man but was glad that he did not seem to want to attack her. Not really knowing what to do, she just stood still, letting the man make the first move. After a moment, he did.

"Kim…Kimberly, come here. Come please." The mad said with an outstretched hand. The small child turned to look at her father and smiled, she stood from the edge of the deck and happily walked to her father, putting her small hand within his. He pulled her in close and wrapped his arms around her before taking a quick second to look over his daughter from head to toe. Astarte felt a small amount of anger at the thought of him thinking that she would harm a child, but then quickly realized that he was only a concerned parent looking out for their child. After him inspection the man looked back to Astarte who was still attempting to be as harmless as a xenomorph could be. It was then that she heard the whisper from the man.

"You...you're one of his, aren't you?" Astarte tilted her head, confused as to what he was referring to. The man gave his head a slight shake and let out a soft laugh. "Sorry, umm…what was his name. It was on the news…Amon, Almon? Wait...Amun, that was it! Amun, the big alien that was in the center of the city. That was him."

Astarte felt the wave of adrenalin rush through her body at the mention of her father's name. In her excitement, she quickly rushed to the edge of the deck, wanting the man to tell her everything he knew of her father. Once her claws were upon the wood of the structure, she froze as she watched the man stumble backwards, his pheromones changing back to those of fear. She instantly realized her mistake and took a few steps backward, lowering her head at the same time. She could only imagine what a charging xenomorph would feel like to a much smaller human, not knowing what her intentions were.

The man, who had fallen to the ground, with his arms wrapped around his daughter for protection, watched with wide eyes and the monster in his yard strangely back away from him. Astarte noticed that his body relaxed, and his breathing slowed with each passing second. He began to realize that he and his daughter were not in danger. She wanted to seem as harmless as possible, so she decided to sit on the cold grass in attempts to be as timid as possible.

As she sat patiently, the man, daughter still clutched tightly, stood back to his feet. The whole time keeping his eyes locked onto the nightmare in front of him within his yard. He placed the small child onto the deck in front of him before shuffling her through the door and closing the glass between them. He slowly turned back towards Astarte, who had not moved from her spot. She could see him relax a small amount when he saw that she had not moved a muscle.

"Sorry." He said as he looked to his feet in a small amount of shame. That struck Astarte as rather odd that he would apologize. She felt that his reaction was perfectly normal considering the situation. "It's just, we've only seen your kind on the news. Never thought I would have one in my back yard. Wow, you are a lot cooler in person for sure. Thank god you are nothing like the movies." What was he saying? That he knew what she was? That he had seen a xenomorph before? Something was going on here that Astarte just did not understand.

"They did say something about you disappearing into the mountains though, that we would never see you again. But then there was a sighting overseas and some kind of battle in the middle of nowhere. Lots of people died, but the investigation said there was some kind of illegal lab in the jungle." The man explained. Astarte slowly approached the edge of the deck. The man, being quite relaxed again, approached as well.

"I never thought I would get to see one of you in person. This is…this is unreal. You are real, yes?" He asked.

Astarte pulled back her lips and let out a low, not threatening, hiss to let him know that she was, in fact, in front of him. She watched as the man smiled and took another few steps forward.

"He had said that he was not a monster, but a lot of people didn't believe him. I was hopeful, knowing that he could probably kill everything in the city with no effort, but chose peace instead." He watched as Astarte tilted her head at the mention of 'him'.

"Amun, the big guy. He seemed to be your leader in a way. The head honcho." She could tell that the man's confusion was growing. Astarte thought of an idea that would help the communication a bit. She used her hands to gesture using a pen and paper. As the man looked at the motions of her large hands, he realized what she was trying to tell him.

"Hold on!" There was a large amount of excitement in his voice as he turned and made his way into the house. Leaving the glass door open behind him. As Astarte watched the man disappear, she found herself coming to look upon the child standing behind the glass door frame. The small one took no time in making her way out of the house and towards the eight-foot xeno at the end of the deck.

Astarte stood very still, not wanting to scare her. As the little one squatted down so her face was level with Astarte's, she reached a hand outward to touch her elongated head. Not a pinch of fear surrounded the child, it brought some sense of joy to Astarte to know that not everyone would fear her, even if it was only a child.

Astarte stayed very still as the child stroked the long carapace she called a head. Her tiny fingers reaching as far as they could before she lost her balance but making sure to stay in contact with her new friends the whole time. Astarte found a strange level of comfort within the action and did not realize she was letting loose a low thrumming sound from her throat. The two stayed like this until the larger man returned, pen and paper in hand. He froze in the doorway when he realized his daughter was now touching the xenomorph, but relaxed when he noticed she was in no danger. He walked over to the duo and sat down on the edge of the deck and placed the paper and pen down beside him. He waited and watched as his daughter continued to 'pet' the xenomorph. He then placed a hand on the back of her head which caused her to stop and look to her father, a smile upon her face.

"Ok hunny, let's give her a chance to talk." He turned his gaze to look at Astarte. "Sorry, it is 'her', right? Do you even have a gender?" Astarte nodded, as far as her mother had told her, all smaller xenomorphs were female, as well as their queen. The King was the only male within a normal hive.

As the small child retracted her hand Astarte was able to bring her head up as she stood to her full height. Moving a bit slower than normal, she reached for the large sharpie pen that the man had brought for her to write with. Popping the cap with a bit of effort, she brought the tip down to the paper and scribbled away in rather rough English. Jolene had taught her to write but had not had much practice at it between all the experiments she was put through. The only real chance she had was when chatting with Evelynn, and that did not happen often. Once she had been sold to her captor, she had no chance to practice. So, it had been a while. Her first message was simple and direct.

"Where is Amun." The man looked to the words that had looked like his daughter had written them and then back to the xenomorph.

"No one knows, he disappeared after the thing in the jungle. He hasn't been seen since." He responded while his daughter climbed into his lap. Astarte wrote again.

"Where is the jungle?"

"O, well, it's strait east across the sea by boat if you can do it, but it would take you a while to get there."

"Where is boat?"

"At the dock, but you can't just walk up and hop on a boat. People would freak out, that and you don't even know if the boat would head in the right direction."

Astarte tapped her large claw upon the last message she wrote with a bit of aggression. The man pressed his lips and raised an eyebrow.

"I still don't think it would be a good idea. I mean, hell, you would have a better chance of finding him in the mountains. That's if he came home, it's a lot closer too."

He watched as Astarte visually perked up. The man threw up his hands.

"Now hang on, I can't stop you from going, but it might be better to make a plan first. You seem like you really want to find this guy, so I can only imagine that you are part of his 'hive' as he calls it. So, I get it. But a lot of crap has happened since he first showed up, you can't just go walking around." He explained with a certain tone of confidence that Astarte could not ignore. She knew that he was telling the truth. So, she wrote.

"What kind of plan?"

"Well, considering its three thirty in the morning, how about I finish sleeping first, then, in the morning, we can work on how to get you to the mountains. Sound good?" He scooped up his daughter and began to make his way to the door. "You are welcome to stay in the house tonight if you wish. I know if you had wanted me and my daughter dead, you probably would have done it already. We have a spare room." He said as he vanished around the corner of the door frame.

Astarte, not wanting to pass up a chance at being inside, gently leapt up onto the surface of the deck and made her way to the door. When she almost at the door frame, she was slightly startled as Kimberly came shooting towards her. Astarte froze as the small child took her by the hand and pulled her into the house. Past the living room that was rather large, past the kitchen that was just on the left-hand side. Kimberly paused when she came to the stairs and let go of Astarte's finger because she needed all her limbs to ascend the stairs, going one at a time because they were still too big for her legs. Astarte smiled as the little one moved quickly and excitedly up to the second floor. When she was at the top, Kim turned and looked back to her new friend.

"Come!" She said as she darted down the hall and out of view.

Astarte looked down at the stairs and was worried that her feet would be a bit too big for the small landings. She would just have to try and see. To her pleasure, if she stayed on her toes, it went rather well. That was until halfway up she missed a step. Her hand lunged outward to stop her from falling, along with tail. She felt her talons dig into the wall as she fell which stopped her descent. Her tail imbedded into the opposite wall helped as well. She took a deep breath and recovered her footing but was not excited to look upon the two new holes in the walls of her host's home.

She would apologize for that later.

She continued her way up the stairs when something struck her. Her mind flashed to the maze that she had been thrusted into within the lab and the traps that had been placed in the hallways just like this. She felt her heart begin to race, her breathing quickened, and her head began to frantically look for some kind of trap or attack. She began to back track, her feet tripping backwards down the hardwood stairs. In her panic, she managed to make it back down to the main level, but she was not met with any feeling of relief. Instead, the interior of the house began to change into the maze that she had once navigated and been attacked in.

Her gaze snapped from wall to wall, from corner to corner, looking for anything that might be coming her way. Be it a flame thrower, or that gas that seemed to knock her unconscious. Back she went until she ran into the far wall of the living room, knocking something off of a side table. She then slid along the wall until she found a corner, which strangely felt safe within the open room. She pressed herself hard against the wall, her back spikes preventing her from becoming flat against the smooth surface.

It was only a moment later when the man came running from around the kitchen corner and saw the xenomorph pressed into the corner. It was easy to see that something was wrong, so he placed the blankets he was holding onto the kitchen island and slowly made his way towards Astarte. When he was close enough for her to notice him, her long head and mouth full of teeth snapped towards him. He raised his hands up to show her that he meant to harm.

Something in her mind clicked, the panic went away, and she could focus on nothing but him and the position his hand was in. She knew this gesture and her body took over, becoming perfectly still. The man, noticing the sudden change in deminer, slowly lowered his hands, causing Astarte to lower herself to the floor.

He was shocked, had he just done that?

He began to raise his hands and watched as the brainwashing that had been implanted within the xeno in front of him took over and she rose with the speed of his hands.

"What…what is this? What is happening? Are you ok?" He asked, but she had no way to respond. The man slowly put his arms at his sides, hoping that it would stop whatever it was that he had done.

After a moment or two of standing, Astarte slowly felt the fog of her mind begin to lift and she gained control of her body once more. She looked around for her old captor and was relieved that he was not here, but she was scared that the conditioning was still so powerful within her mind. She did not like it. It scared her that someone could control her so easily, it made her feel so vulnerable. She hesitated but made her way towards the patio door; thinking it might be best that she didn't stay here tonight. However, when she was almost at the door frame, a voice stopped her.

"Don't go." Astarte froze, still looking at the door that led out into the vast, unknown world, as Kimberly's words came from behind her.

Astarte turned to see the child being held by her father at the bottom of the stairs. She could see that they were both surrounded by a yellow mist which meant they were scared. Astarte knew it was for two very different reasons. The xenomorph did not enjoy seeing them so afraid, it reminded her of when Evelynn was shoved into her room for the first time. She too had looked at her the way this man was now.

"Don't go, we haven't played yet." Kimberly said once more from her father's embrace. Astarte's glance moved from the child up to her father, who had also been looking to the xenomorph for an answer.

"I don't know what that was, but I can tell something has you spooked. You don't need to sleep in the room, you can stay down here if you would like. There just isn't a bed to sleep on. That's if you even sleep, I mean." The man told her.

Astarte looked at the two and went over her options. Did she risk another night outside somewhere far from here and figure out a plan tomorrow. Or did she trust this man and the fact that he is willing to help her, an alien within his home. The thought of becoming trapped inside another cage flashed through her mind. It was not a pleasant one. She was worried that she could not trust this human, she was so used to being betrayed. She turned her head towards the door and took a step or two. She thought it would be better to risk the outside world, not wanting to be hurt again.

"Luke." The man said before she was out of the house. "My name's Luke by the way. I don't think I ever got to tell you." The kindness within his words made her turn around once more and face the couple who had still not moved. "Listen, I won't tell you to stay, but I do know that there is a bounty on any information on any aliens. The government is paying a lot of money to know what Amun is up too. So just…be careful out there. Amun's said that you have all been thought a lot."

Astarte watched as the man's pheromones changed from yellow to a brown-blue swirl. She could tell that he was telling the truth. She looked to the backyard once more, still thinking it might be a better option to risk the outside world. But slowly, she used her clawed hand to slide the glass door closed before turning back to face the family of the house.

Luke pointed a finger to the rather large corner couch that lined the living room wall.

"That should be big enough for you to stretch out on if you would like. Other than that, make yourself at home. Kimberly and I will be upstairs if you need anything. G'night." He gave her a smile before lifting Kimberly up into his arms and turning to make his way up the stairway. Astarte watched as Kimberly looked over her father's shoulder at the alien in her living room. Her smile could not have been any bigger, it made Astarte smile inside. Once the two were out of site, Astarte decided to explore the space a bit, which was rather large for a home, but then again, she had been crammed into tiny rooms for most of her life.

The kitchen was large with an island between it and the living room. It had a strange surface built onto it with strange metal rings on it. Astarte had never seen it before. She moved on to look at the tall, metal object that was on the opposite side of the kitchen. She looked over it once and noticed that there was some kind of handle on the front, so she gave it a pull. It swung open to reveal the inside of a box that released a wave of cold air from within. Small boxes and containers full of food rested within the cool air within its selves. She could not tell what any of it was, it all seemed to be too cold to be giving of any kind of scent. Not really being interested in the containers, she closed the door gently.

Astarte made her way around the kitchen, stopping to inspect every item that lined the hard, stone countertop. There were so many fascinating things to look at! Several small machines that she could not even start to guess what they would be used for. Then again, she was not human and therefore did not need such things. There were smaller tools made of wood in some kind of cup, and metal pots hanging from hooks upon the wall. After the self-guided tour of the kitchen, she found herself making her way back to the living room area, where the large corner couch was taking up most of the room. But it was not the couch that was grabbing her attention, it was the large gathering of small objects that were lining the shelves of some kind of case.

She made her way in front of the piece of furniture and, with a tender clawed hand, removed one of the objects. It was around nine inches tall and six inches wide, but it was thin. Too thin to be of much use as anything. As she tilted the object to look at the back side, she was slightly surprised to see it flip open, revealing small sheets of paper inside.

Was…was this a book? She remembered her mother talking about such objects, but she had never seen one in the lab. It had always been the data pads that the humans had used to record their information. Screens that she could never see anything on. But this, this was interesting. Even with her gray scale vision, she could see the words that had been created on the thin, paper pages. As she looked upon the words written in English, she was rather glad that her mother had taught her how to read and write.

After reading the title, "Lord of the Flies", she placed it back into the same small void she had taken it from. She then scanned across the shelves that were in front of her, reading the titles along the way. From what she could see, there were many self-improvement books, fantasy and science fiction books and informational texts. Nothing was really grabbing her attention until she came upon one book, a bit thicker than the others, but it was the titles that made her pause.

American sign language: A complete course. She pulled out the book and flipped the hard cover open to the middle. It was there that she saw the diagrams of hand positions and their meaning in English. The page she was on described Fish, fishing then Fishermen. It was then that it clicked. She could use this to communicate with Luke and his daughter.

Astarte took the book in hand, made her way to a comfortable position by the coffee table and placed the book down. She curled her legs under her and sat as best she could while still trying to get near the book. She opened the first page and began to read the introduction.

"American sign language is used throughout the country of America while being useful in many other countries that have adopted it as their main form of communication with the deaf…"