CALL FOR THE DEAD
alien au
hoteldenouement
______________________

THIS UNIVERSE IS VAST AND BEAUTIFUL.

Upon the Praetorian, a Weyland-Yutani scouting ship dedicated to the exploration of uninhabited planets, Katja Bix had had the opportunity to see the best of it. For the past five years, the Praetorian had been her home. Its crew, skeleton though it was, her family. They had to be. When they had taken this posting, each of them had known that this was no short-term task. The Praetorian was built to survive. It was built to keep going, and communicate any findings back with the Company before continuing onwards. Consideration was given to every role — from repairs to scientific studies to medical attention, each crew mate was carefully chosen to ensure that the ship continued. To ensure it survived.

    For five years, the Praetorian Crew had done exactly that — survived. Endured. No matter how tough things had gotten, they had survived it all. Yet now, their future was at risk.

    There were always perils with space exploration. So much of what was out there was unexamined, and, in Katja's experience over the years, the unexamined should be assumed to be deadly until proven otherwise. Precautions should be taken. Protocols should be followed — but protocols were much harder to follow when it was your family on the line. When it was your family locked in quarantine, something attached to their face, unconscious and, as far as you knew, dying — protocols feel inhumane. They had sworn to one another once that families like theirs lived and died together. How could they leave one member to die alone?

      There was nothing beautiful about what became of the Praetorian. There was nothing beautiful about what became of her crew. Perhaps the universe is vast — but in that vastness, there is no one to hear you scream.

♛

KATJA BIX
CHIEF ENGINEER

let me bid you farewell; every man has to die

♛

CALL FOR THE DEAD
( started — october 2024
first published — november 2024
completed — ??? )
hoteldenouement

♛

a/n: alternative title: i dont want to write my dissertation proposal and so i am doing everything i can to avoid it lmao

i've been an alien fan since i was eleven and it feels only right that i try to pay tribute it in my own weird way. i feel a lot of me has been shaped by these films, and a lot of the way i write survival stories and tension within my stories comes from specifically the first alien film — and the way i write relationships born from combat definitely comes from hicks and ripley in aliens. anyway, this is just my silly little story with my silly little crew. it's more of an alien complimentary story than anything else — at least certainly at the beginning. we won't actually interact with ripley & co for a while, or with the romulus lot for a while either — we have a whole crew to kill off first!!

i'm actually so attached to these characters it's unreal. every relationship within it really does mean something special to me, and the way that they end actually hurts me — because, lets face it, not many of these characters are making it out alive. this found family was doomed from the beginning.

anyway, i hope you enjoy my little adventure into space horror, and fall as in love with the praetorian crew as i have! see you all soon x