Chapter Thirteen

It's good to have friends

"WHOW! FUCK! JESUS!" The woman screamed as Astarte appeared in the door way. The cloud of mist around her was filling the small hallway, Astarte could almost not see her past the body of Luke that was infront of her. It was putting the xenomorph on edge. Luke intercepted the woman as she attempted to run past him and towards the monster that was now in her home.

"Hanna! SHHHH! Be quiet! Do you want to wake the neighborhood?!" He gently shoved the woman back down the hallway and raised a hand to stop any further advance. Astarte froze, her gaze fixated upon the hand that the man had raised. Luke didn't realize that he had accidently created the hand gesture that had been planted into Astarte's brain. The Xenomorph froze in place, her brainwashing still prominante within her mind. Her heart raced as her body reacted without her consent, her muscles flexing and tense as she tried to move.

"Ok, ok ok ok! Fuck, there is an actual Xeno in my house! Eeek! This is so cool!" The woman, Hanna, exclaimed as she vibrated in front of Luke.

"You said you wouldn't freak when you were on the phone Hanna." Luke said as he gave her a stern look, trying to get her to suppress her excitement even a small amount.

"Yeah, no, yea we good. Mmmmhummm." She said through her teeth, still dancing with excitement.

Luke, satisfied that she would be in better control, lowered his hands. He did not see that the gesture caused Astarte to lay to the floor against her will. The confused expression of Hanna caught the mans attention.

"Did… did you do that?" She asked him as she pointed a finger past his him and towards the xeno that was now on the ground.

Luke, confused as to what she was talking about, turned to look behind. His gaze was up, expecting to meet the face of his eight-foot-tall friend. He was a bit shocked to not see her there, but rather low upon the floor. It hit him quickly what had happened.

"O shit, Astarte! I'm sorry, damn. I forgot about that." Luke lowered himself to the floor, his hands very deliberately at his side so that he would not accidently do another command gesture. "It's ok, I didn't mean to do that. Everything is ok."

He stayed extremely still, keeping an eye on the alien in front of him, not wanting to startle her in anyway. A hand from Hanna upon his back almost made him jump.

"Dude, what did you do?" She whispered as she herself joined him in a crouch. Luke kept facing forward, keeping eye contact with his friend, while he responded to the woman.

"If I understood her right, they did something to her mind that responds to specific hand commands. It was so the people at the labs, and the people who bought her, could control her. It's disgusting. I just forgot that I have to be careful with my hands." He explained through his own whispering. "She did learn ALS in one night though, so some hand motions are ok."

"Well…shit." Was Hanna's only response.

"Astarte, you are safe. It's ok, you are in control." He told her as he kept eye contact. He noticed that her lips were quivering, flashing the sharp teeth that hid behind. Astarte was fighting with the urge to attack, to go on the defencive.

"Remember, you're not in the lab anymore, they cannot hurt you. You are safe. We can go play with Kimberly later ok, I know she would love that." He said as he noticed every part of her struggling.

His words were soft and kind which helped to relax the xenomorph's mind. It took a moment for her muscles to stop shaking, but the words and passive body language brough her back into control. Her breathing began to slow as she felt her muscles come under her control once more. She stood to her full height in the hallway, being only an inch or so from the ceiling. She took in a deep breath, glad that it was under her own control. Astarte then looked down to the two humans that were in front of her through her own gaze. The command-and-control aspects of her mind finally back behind what ever barrier her mind had created for it.

"Sorry about that." She signed to Luke with her hands. "I know you did not mean to."

"It's ok, I have to be a bit more careful. I apologize." He signed back to her.

Astarte watched as a smile took over Hanna's face.

"Holy crap, you weren't kidding, she does know sign language. That's dope! Too bad I don't know any ha ha!" She said as she stared at the xenompoph. Luke turned to face his old friend.

"Well, you really had no need of it." He nodded down the hall way. "Mind if we come in?"

"Yes yes yes! Sorry, please come in, come in!" Hanna said energetically, begging then in with a few hand waves. She darted down the hall and to the left, past a coat rack and a row of shoes upon the ground. Luke turned back to Astarte and gave her a reinsuring smile. He brought his hands up.

"Forgive her, she is rather energetic. But the kindest person you will ever meet." He told her.

"That's ok. She is kind enough to help us so I do not mind." Just as Astarte finished her signs, Hanna poked her head around the corner of the hallway.

"You two coming?" Then she disappeared again.

Astarte followed Luke as he made his way down the hall. There was a small amount of panic from her mind as thoughts of the horrible maze flashed through her vision. She quickly shook it off, reminding herself that she was out of that nightmare. That she would never go back to that place of horror. She anchored herself onto Luke and just focused on the center of his back. It helped her stay in the present and out of her own mind.

As the two rounded the corner, Astarte was meet with a pleasing sight, and one that was filled with colors she had never seen before. Plants, hundreds of them. Every open area, flat surface and wall space was filled with plants. Large ones with giant leaves, small vines that were making there way up the walls and even across the ceiling. There were plants with flowers that were surrounded by beautiful rainbows of colors, and others that were not so pleasant. But still wonderful to see.

She felt a bit over whelmed.

The space was rather large, but felt so small with the number of plants that were in it. However, it was by no means a mess, with everything seeming to be in organized areas. Even the non-organic items were skattered all over the small space, but seemed to be kept neat and tidy. There was just so much of it. Piles of books and papers upon a small desk in the far corner that also housed a computer screen of some kind. Astarte noticed a coffee table in front of a long couch, but it was covered in small plants and even more books.

She then noticed the massive shelving upon the wall immediately to her left. It was a simple design with a six by twelve grid, with each box filled to the edges with either plants, books, papers or other random boxes and items. It put the tiny book shelf of Luke's to shame. Astarte noticed Hanna darting around what looks like the kitchen area on the opposite side of the house, Astarte wanted to look at the books that were within the large book self, so she walked over to take a look. She scanned over the spines of each one as she walked passed.

There was everything from science texts, to fantasy stories. Some books were two to three inches thick, with others being no thicker that her own clawed fingers. Part of her wanted to start reading them all, to learn what they had to offer. Her hands started towards the nearest book to pull it off the shelf, but was stopped when a mug of warm coffee was placed into it.

Astarte grasped the small, ceramic vessel and looked to the wonderful smell that was coming from the warm liquid. She then looked to Hanna who was now standing beside her, a gient smile upon her face.

"I hope it's still good, the pot is a few minuets old but still fresh." She said as she wrapped her hands around her own warm mug of the liquid.

"Thank you." Astarte motioned with her other free hand.

"O! I know that one! You are welcome. I know little to none when it comes to sigh language, so Luke might have to be the translator for us ha ha." She explained.

"On that note." Luke said as he sat on the couch with his own cup of coffee. "We do need your help Hanna. I know you have obsessed with the xeno's ever since Amun first showed up."

"I am a huge nerd so yeah, duh." She cut in quietly.

"So, like I mentioned on the phone, we need help finding him, and I have a feeling you can help with that." He took a long sip of his warm coffee as Hanna moved towards the computer across the room.

"You damn straight I can." She exclaimed triumphintally. "Howerer, the truth is people never really lost track of him since he popped up in the jungle. Which, don't get me started how cool that was. But…" She moved a pile of papers to revile a keyboard which she started clicking away on. "If sources are right, and only a hand full of them are. He should be back in the mountains near the coast somewhere." A wave of excitment ran through Astarte.

Father, mother… thank goodness. I'm so close now. Astarte thought to herself as she watched Hanna continue to fiddle with her computer. A relief washed through her as well when she realized that it would be much easy to find them now they were back on this continant. However, her feelings were cut short.

"O, wait…he's not there. O boy" Hanna said while staring at her screen. "It looks like he was there, but moved on shortly after." She explained. Luke got up off the couch and made his way beside her, looking over she shoulder.

"Wait…is there just an alien tracking website?" He asked as he watched his friend on the screen.

"Well…no, yes. Kind of? It's not a solid website, but if you know what sources to trust, which I do, you can keep track of Amun and his hive. Emilia too, she showed up on the coast a while before he did, then she disappeared. Which was odd, they were always together…hummm…"

Emilia? The name ran through Astarte's mind. That must be another one of my sisters.

"So, I tried to keep track of both of them, It's not them to be separate. But everyone lost track of her only a few days after she was seen at the docks. Same happened to Amun after he showed up a week later. They saw the Queen that he was with, but we all knew it wasn't Emilia, she had both her main arms." Hanna continued, then went back to silentally searching the web.

Wait…queen? She must mean mother…but a mising arm? Who... Something seemed off to Astarte. She placed a hand upon Luke's back to get his attention. He turned around quickly to see what she needed.

"Luke, mother's name is Jolene. Not Emilia." Her fingers struggling to spell out the names because she was going too fast. She did well enough that Luke understood.

"Wait…Jolene? Your mom is Jolene? I've only ever known her as Emilia." He said with confusion.

"Yup, Emilia be Emilia, queen of the hive. She's a big girl too. Poor thing is missing her right arm, ripped off by a bunch of science twats."

Missing arm?That...can't be mother... Astarte's mind started running a million kilometers an hour.

"How do you know all this?" Luke asked Hanna as she continued typing away.

"They got a hold of some of the people who know Amun before he was changed. Along with the guys that knew about him in the forest, a group of four of them I believe. They kinda' spilled the beans on the whole thing." She explained as she kept her eyes glued on the screen in front of her. Astarte once again gained Luke's attention to ask.

"Mother is not missing an arm. That is not my mother." She told him.

"Wait…Emilia is not your mother?" Luke said a bit loudly.

"Wait what?" Came from Hanna as she turned around in her chair to look up at the xenomorph behind her. "Hold on…who is Jolene?"

"Mother." Astarte signed with her hands. Hanna pointed to her as she looked to Luke.

"That was mother, wasn't it?" She asked the man.

"Yeah, it was. So, hold on. If Jolene is your mother…is there two queens? Do these guys have two queens?" He was more asking Hanna than just making a statement.

"Not that I know of, we have only even seen Emilia running around with her daughters. The only Jolene I've heard of wa-no...Fucken...WAY!" The woman yelled as she snapped back to her computer.

Her fingers flew across the key board in a frenzy, hitting key after key. She didn't even bother with the mouse that was to the right side, she seemed to be faster without it. Astarte watched, but could not tell what was going on. She can read the ink on paper because it was physically there, but a computer screen used light as a display, something her gray scale vision could not see. Thankfully, Luke chimmed in.

"Hanna, slow down, what is it?"

She ignored him.

"Hanna?"

Silence.

"Hanna!?"

"Yeah, mmm…what's up?" She mumbled as she continued to work.

"Who is Jolene?" The man asked once again. There was a pause before she answered. As if she was still not really listening to him.

"If she's who I think she is, she was…Here! Holy shit! There is no way, that's fucked!" Hanna exclaimed as she tapped her screen. "She was a garbage truck driver in the city they found the lab in. She helped him escape from teh city and took him to her family farm further inland." She scrolled down the webpage a bit further. "She was killed in the cross fire by some hired merch's by the company and they found her body on the door step of a police station in a mountain town. So, she's dead but…wait a second…no...they wouldn't..." Hanna said slowly as she turned around to look at Astarte.

Astarte looked to the woman who was now locked onto her with a blank expression on her face. After a few moments of silence, Astarte looked to Luke for an explanation, the man shrugged. Her gaze was drawn back to Hanna as she stood and got extremely close to her.

A bit to close, it was making the xeno uncomfortable.

She stayed still as the human was now only a few inches in front of her which caused a bit of a problem because Astarte could not tilt her head that low. She had to arch her back in order to do so.

"Your mom is Jolene? Like, Amun's dead lover, Jolene?" She asked as she looked up at the Xeno. Astarte used her sign language to answer.

"Yes."

"Wait what.. hold on, what?!" The response came from Luke, who had seen the response from Astarte.

Apparently, Hanna knew the response as well, because her expression changed and her eyes darted around as she put her thoughts together. She then looked to Luke.

"You need to translate dude. Ask her about her mother. Where is she, WHO is she? We gotta figure this out, 'cause there is no way a dead person can be her mother." Luke stared at his friend before looking to Astarte. He let out a deep, long sigh and looked down to his empty mug.

"I'm going to need another cup of coffee."