Chapter 9: Wolf in a Cat Fight
“Thanks again for letting me stay guys,” Jake said, smiling weakly as he stepped inside.
“It’s no problem, really. Plus, I’m sure the baby could use your influence. Being a hybrid, it will take longer to grow up than an Xenomorph, but shorter than it would a human. Which means it will remain a child longer, and will need to be supervised longer. And let me tell you, my instincts do not include fatherhood, because it’s natural for us to let our young fend for themselves since birth.” Mozart explained.
“Hey, may as well do something useful while I’m here, right?” Jake chuckled. He lay down on the couch and pulled a blanket over himself.
“Are you sure you’re alright sleeping on the couch?” Jeica asked.
“It’s fine,” Jake assured her. “I could be on a pile of rocks and still sleep soundly after what those two put me through.” Jeica laughed awkwardly, then said goodnight. She and Mozart disappeared into their bedroom for the night. Jake sighed and pulled the covers up higher.
Jake stretched as he stepped out into the morning sunlight. As promised, he had slept soundly all night. Jeica and Mozart were still dozing. Being a parent probably wasn’t as easy as it looked, and it didn’t look very easy. He realised the baby had been crying during the night, but he’d just slept through it. As he took his first breath of outside air, he heard an odd noise. He opened his eye a crack moments before a large black shape slammed into him and knocked him to the ground.
“Ostea!” he yelled. Advena shoved her off him and looked at him sympathetically.
“It’s okay, this dumb thing just can’t take no for an answer. She’s insane; definitely not a worthy mate.” Advena offered him a hand up, but Jake got to his feet by himself, wincing slightly at the remnants of pain in his chest, and just went back inside without another word. He sighed and sat on the couch, rubbing his forehead. His phone rang, and the caller ID was Alistair, so Jake picked up.
“Hello?” Jake grumbled.
“Hi... er, bad time?”
“Not at all, in fact, I could use something to distract me right now.”
“Well, we’ve got an immigrant awaiting your approval.”
“Why do you need my approval? You’re in charge of immigrants.”
“It’s a very special type of immigrant. We need you to see if Weyland is involved.”
“Oh,” Jake realised. “Okay, I’ll be right down.” Jake shoved his phone in his pocket and headed out the back door to the landing pad. Alistair was waiting there next to a new plain grey ship. Jake entered the small office next to the landing pad and found a man and Xenomorph waiting inside. The man had his back to Jake, but there was something familiar about him. “Okay sir... I’m going to need to ask you a few questions before I can let you in,” Jake started politely. “Where did you get your Xenomorph?”
“Funny you should ask that, Jacob,” the man growled. He spun around in his seat.
“Dutch?” Jake exclaimed in disbelief.
“After you abandoned me, we were united,” Dutch continued. “I was so close to being rich and famous. I had an egg. An egg Jacob! But you just couldn’t handle that, so you left me to die and claimed one for yourself. After all the Xenomorphs left, I still had the egg clutched in my hand. We were both abandoned you see, so I let it grow inside me. Then it healed me up and we became a ruthless team, seeking revenge all around the galaxy. Which lead us here, to you,” Dutch explained. The Crusher Xenomorph next to him snarled for emphasis. Dutch rose from his seat, pistol in hand. Jake flung a knife at him, which was blocked by his Xenomorph. Jake opened his mouth, but three bullets silenced him. Dutch exited the room and headed for his ship. Alistair appeared; swinging a wrench at Dutch’s face, but his Xenomorph caught the wrench before it could get near its target and crumpled it like a ball of paper. Alistair paled, then was grabbed around the throat by the Crusher. He was thrown across the landing pad, then the villainous duo proceeded to their ship. Unfortunately, being the arrogant man he was, he had refused to believe that this planet would contain any defence system whatsoever, and therefore was quite surprised when he was gunned down by six villagers with Pulse Rifles. His Xenomorph went down with him, melting his body in a puddle of acid. Alistair, dazed but uninjured, staggered into the small building, Jake’s two Xenomorphs right behind him. Jake was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Advena bit her lip to stifle a sob.
“J-Jake?” she whimpered. She gently picked up his body and cradled him to her chest. She sniffed and hun her head in shame. “I’m sorry... I should’ve been there for you...” Advena could feel his weak breathing slowing and becoming more laboured every second.
“I’m sorry,” Alistair said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Her body sagged as she carried Jake’s body out of the room. Alistair felt sick as he met Kuala outside. He hugged her for a minute before glancing back at the almost fully dissolved body of Dutch. “Stupid Weyland bastards. They couldn’t just take their sick experiments and mutated clones somewhere else,” Alistair muttered angrily.
“Wait, clones...?” Kuala asked. They both turned and looked at each other.
“Vena! Advena! Wait!” Alistair shouted, sprinting as fast as he could to catch up. He practically punched her shoulder to get her attention. “Weyland ship! NOW!” he yelled. He started running towards it, but Kuala scooped him up and they ran faster that way. Advena sighed wearily and slowly picked up the pace. She wasn’t really in a running mood, but something had gotten them worked up.
“I, uh, think I know how to... okay. Advena! We... we need to remove his brain,” Alistair gulped as he scanned the controls, preparing for the procedure ahead. Advena shuddered and slowly extended a claw.
“Are you sure you can save him?” she demanded, her claw inches from doing its job. Alistair nodded confidently.
“Yah, we need to be quick though.” Advena set about completing the gruesome task, though Jake’s blood pressure wasn’t very high, so it wasn’t a particularly messy job. Kuala glanced at the small screen that displayed what the result would end up looking like.
“Er... Al? That appears to be an Xenomorph,” she observed. Alistair nodded.
“Yup, it’s been pre-set into the system. It’s the only way – if I programmed this from scratch, it would take way too long and I wouldn’t be able to stop the body from deteriorating without giving him the body of a newborn, which is exactly what I’m about to do now, by the way.” Advena held Jake’s brain out to him. Her face was an ash grey and she looked like she was about to be sick. “Drop it in the tank,” Alistair instructed. Advena gently let it slide out of her hands and into the glass tank that was filled with a mysterious, transparent liquid. Alistair finished up with the machine and turned to face them. “It’ll take another couple of days to fully grow the body, so until then, there’s nothing we can do.” Advena nodded hesitantly, then strutted out of the room. Alistair heard retching a few minutes later. He motioned for Kuala to follow him, feeling quite ill himself.
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