Thicker than Blood

I do not own any film in the Alien franchise

Chapter 14

Ed led Cres'sa to the lift in the main shaft. They rode up it up to the surface in awkward silence. Ed didn't want to hurt Cres'sa. Did she already know why he wanted to talk with her? Hell, maybe it would be better if she could read him. She'd know his feelings without him having to say too much .

Pushing open a hidden hatch, Ed exited the lift into the abandoned hangar. He waited for Cres'sa to exit, then walked outside. He still marveled at how well hidden the base was. No one would think that this piece of garbage of a building was anything but what it appeared to be. Old and abandoned.

Ed sat on the ground, his back leaning against the hangar. He turned to Cres'sa when she sat beside him, and cleared his throat. He noticed how close the female xenomorph was sitting next to him. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something, her head looking up and then down as she seemingly looked at him.

"Cres, you know that I like you, right?" A slight nudge against his arm told him she did. "You're an..an unusual...person. You've helped me immensely, and I'm very grateful. More than I can say. I hope you know that." He smiled when she began to purr, touching his arm with a long-fingered hand. Damn, what was he going to say to her. Her purring was distracting him with its almost melodious tone. He felt himself relaxing, the tension of the past two days melting away. Tanner's men and Company men had worked to bury the dead Company soldiers, victims of a most brutal attack by something too cruel to imagine, but it wasn't something he expected would ever happen again. That it took a massacre to bring them together was the unfortunate thing. Still, he didn't trust them, and he knew Tanner didn't either.

Ed realized in his now broken revery that Cres'sa had been caressing his head, long fingers playing with his ear. He almost shrugged off her touches when he felt an urge to take her hand. Giving in to that urge, Ed intertwined her fingers with his own. He looked at their hands now together. Different, yet not so much. She wasn't quite like her father, who was full xenomorph. Human elements came into play due to the heritage of her mother, Annalise. The leanness of Cres'sa's body which was all muscle, and her head, of course, made her so much less human. Yet Ed never cared, once he got over the initial strangeness. She was gentle and inquisitive, nothing to fear at all.

Cres'sa had felt Ed's apprehension, thus her unconscious efforts to soothe him. Her desires could not be easily spoken, so Cres'sa tried to show him in another way. And he responded, to her pleasure. He was not like her brothers, yet her heart beat for him. Her kind did not freely mate, since that was the Mother's duty, but she felt the need to be close to this human male just the same. Would that anger the Queen, her mother? Not caring, she rested her head upon the man's shoulder. This was what she liked, being close to Ed, her human,

The two sat on the ground in the shade of the hangar, not speaking, yet somehow they were being what Jennifer would call sympatico. Ed felt he should have been angry when his best friend had admitted to having a relationship with Cres'sa's brother, Jonathan. But he was closer to being human than Cres'sa was. Only his black eyes and greater strength betrayed him as an alien. Ed even understood Jenn's attraction to the male xenomorph. He was dark and mysterious, handsome by anyone's estimation. Ed hadn't trusted the male's intentions, but his fears seemed to have been placated by Jenn's assurances. Reaching up with a free hand to pet the carapace resting on his shoulder, Ed wondered if he could give Cres'sa what she craved. Something stirred inside him at the thought. What would sex between him, a human, and Cres'sa be like?

In his mind, he pictured Cres'sa offering herself to him in a most primitive fashion. Poised behind her, he imagined palming himself, readying for the initial thrust into her female orifice. He wasn't even sure of her physicality. Did Cres'sa have the same parts as a woman? Was there anything at all, since only the queen mated and bred. God, even thinking about this affected him. Or was he just horny. It had been awhile since he had been with anyone. No, using Cres'sa for his own satisfaction hadn't crossed his mind.

Ed was suddenly startled from his imaginings by a hand in his lap. Nearly jumping up, he quickly placed his hand over the searching one, and laughing nervously, pulled it from his semi hardness. "What do you think you're doing, girl? Are you reading my mind now?" Shaking his head, he smiled at her. "Do not read my thoughts if you know what's good for you. I mean that." He exhaled, cheeks puffed. A sound came from the xenomorph. Was she laughing? Ed felt that she was, and from amusement.

"Ed sssss goooood for Cres." Raising an eyebrow, Ed nodded. He knew speech was something Cres'sa would eventually learn, but it still surprised him to hear words coming from her elongated head. "Do you think so? Well, you might be right, girl. We'll see." A slight breeze started up from the west, but it was Cres'sa who had Ed's attention. She had lifted her head into the air, like a dog sniffing something unpleasant. "What is it, girl?" Ed looked around, scanning the sky. Off in the distance, he noted a large helicopter heading right for them.

Grabbing the xenomorph's hand, Ed pulled her behind him, while he kept an eye on the approaching air vehicle. He spoke into his comm badge. "This is Wheaton, outside. There's a helo coming this way. Not one of ours. Requesting instructions."

A voice came from the comm badge. It was Tanner. "Don't do anything, Ed. We'll be right up." In minutes, Ed and Cres'sa were joined by Tanner and a few others, pulse rifles slung over their shoulders casually.

Noting this, Ed moved to Tanner's side. "Sir, what's going on?"

Tanner stared into the sky, then turned to Ed. "Remember, we had talked about joining forces with the Company men when we were at the massacre scene. It seems they've decided to talk about it now."

"But how did they find out our location?" This was most unusual, and it made Ed nervous.

Tanner frowned. "That's what I'd like to know. I'm as surprised as you, Wheaton. I'd previously agreed with their commander to meet, to plan a cooperative operation. For now, we've given them clearance to land. But that's the first question I intend on asking."

The helicopter landed near the waiting men, the machine's artificial wind kicking up dirt. Cres'sa began to hiss low. She knew the men who began exiting the helicopter had one thing on their minds. They wanted to capture her and her brother, Jonathan. This made them her enemy.

One man walked before the others, his eyes on Tanner. "There you are, Major Tanner." He held out his hand in a familiar manner.

Taking the extended hand, Tanner shook it and nodded. "Colonel Moore. It's good to see you again."

"Well, now that the insincere platitudes are done, let's get down to business. Earth is being threatened by an enemy like nothing it has openly encountered before. Your people and ours can fight them..."

"Wait, Moore! I have a question to ask, and I want a straight answer. I don't happen like my hidden bases found as easily as you found this one. Now we had agreed to get together soon to make plans, but..."

"Of course, Major. It was simple. We planted a tracker inside that human looking xenomorph when he and your Sergeant Philips were taken into custody. Look, we don't have time to fish out secrets from each other, so I'm going to level with you. You have xenomorphs, and we want them. They would make formidable soldiers if properly trained."

Tanner nodded at his men, who led the other Company soldiers to the inside of the hangar. Ed and Cres'sa followed, aware that Colonel Moore's eyes were on the female creature who walked beside one of Tanner's men. "The xenomorphs are not ours to give. They're not even on Earth. Only the twins, Jonathan and Cres'sa, came back with me. Their parents followed later, and I don't think they'd allow you to try and turn their children, any of them, into soldiers to fight your war against these other alien murderers."

"You might have to change your mind about that, Tanner, once those animals start killing innocent victims," Moore said, a bit smug in his tone.

The conversation stopped until everyone had gone below and were assembled in one of the meetings rooms. Tanner kept his anger to himself about how Jonathan had been treated, hoping that Annalise and Sul'ss never found out. He'd get the base doctor to check Jonathan out later, find the tracker, and remove it. Somehow, they'd make sure Jonathan didn't know what was going on.

Furious that Moore assumed he would have the right to make use of Annalise's children, it was all Tanner could do to NOT let the twin's parents know what the Company wanted. He didn't need another bloodbath though, and here at the base. "So what ideas have you and your Weyland-Yutani bosses have in mind, aside from kidnapping my charges?"

"Simple, Tanner. We're going to hunt down and kill the Yautja before they can kill us." He opened a case handed to him by one of his men, and pulled out several folders. He tossed them in front of Tanner, Ed, and some of his own men. "This is a dossier on what we know about the Yuatja. They've been around a very long time, but only recently have begun to hunt again. These creatures are predators, hunters of humans they feel to be worthy of becoming trophies. That report is from several persons who had direct contact with these hunters, and managed to live."

Tanner read the report, his expression tense. "Here, it says long ago, these Yautja had been at war with xenomorphs who had been bred here on Earth. We thought that the encounter at LV-426 was the first time we had met up with them."

"Not war. They were used as prey to train the young Yautja to hunt.' Moore read from one of the papers in the folder. "This reported by one Alexa Woods, lone survivor of an Antarctica expedition. So although these Yautja have been around a long time, yes, here on Earth. So why are they back?"

Tanner knew why paper was being used. Pads could be hacked. Odd that old-fashioned methods were safer these days. "I think you're of the idea that the twins have something to do with this. Or perhaps the events at C-04 with Annalise has drawn them here." Yes, Tanner was sure Moore and others had put together that theory. Had he just not now? Moore said nothing though.

While the discussion continued, Cres'sa, who had been told to go find Jennifer, instead sought out her brother. She had heard about the tracking device, and wanted him to know. In tune with the young female, Jonathan appeared in the corridor. "Sister, why are you so frantic? Come inside here." Jonathan led her to an empty room, and shut the door behind her. She crouched in dismay. Jonathan knelt beside her, a hand on her shoulder. He heard her speak to him through their telepathic link. His emotions were first curious, then a fury took the place of interest. He stood slowly, his black eyes empty, but his heart ablaze with hatred. So that was why he and Jennifer had escaped so easily. And that was why the Company men were here. Jonathan didn't know the particulars, but he assumed they had not been invited.

"So, I was a guinea pigs of sorts. And Uncle Richard knows this." He pursed his lips hard, his hands in tight fists. Cres'sa nodded, a hiss escaping her parted lips. "Where is he?"

Cres'sa imparted the location of the meeting with the Company men, but told her brother that he would not be welcome. "Screw them!" Jonathan headed for the main meeting room. Once there, he glared at the guard who stood at the closed door, pushing him out of the way. Throwing the door open, he glanced around the room and strode over to where Colonel Moore sat. Swinging the man's chair around, he grabbed him by his collar and pulled him from the chair.

"Human! You used me against those who help my mother, father and sister. Say something that would keep me from killing you now!" Jonathan raised a hand, drawing it back. Lethal claws extended from his fingertips like a cat as he readied to bring his hand down on the startled me.

Richard hopped up from his chair and ran around the table, yelling at Jonathan to stop. By the time he had reached his charge, the half-human had lowered his hand, his claws now retracted back into his fingers. He tossed the colonel into his chair and whirled around to face Tanner. "Uncle Richard, you know what they have done, don't you! And yet you welcome them here..."

"Not welcome, Jonathan, but we have no choice but to form a temporary alliance to fight these Yuatja who are killing humans."

Yuatja. Jonathan's genetic memory gave him knowledge of the predator species who hunted down his own people so long ago. He looked at Tanner, then the colonel and all around the room. "You aren't discussing how to make my people fight for you, are you!? Mother and Father will never approve! We won't be your private army..."

Tanner took the angry young man by the shoulder, steering him for the door. "Now is not the time, Jonathan. We'll talk later." More gently, he whispered. "I promise." He pushed him out the door, shutting it, then returned to his seat.

Wheaton had watched the exchange with apprehension. He knew how Jonathan felt. He also knew he did not want Cres'sa to be involved in any war against the Yuatja. Later, when this farce was over, he'd talk to Tanner himself.

As for Jonathan, he could only stand in the corridor, fuming. Jennifer, he had to find her. Stalking off in anger, he sought out the woman whom he regarded as his mate.

A/N:

Hi, guys. I'm back! I know it's been awhile. Several issues have made writing more difficult. But I decided to take up my story again. So hopefully there will be more updates.

This chapter is not long, more a tease than anything, to help us both get back into the world of the Xenomorph, Humans and Yuatja. I promise more sex and violence soon. Oh, yes!

Thank you for your patience and continued encouragement.