The Xenomorph
This is the story of a colonist and his Xenomorph waifu.
You awake to find yourself pinned to your bed by the Xeno creature. Your initial shock gives way to curiosity. The Xeno doesn't seem to realize you are awake.
Its head is tilted as if looking away from you. It's biting its lip and has a hand to its face.
After a few moments that feel like forever, its head tilts in your direction and comes to a sharp stop. You think it knows you're awake now.
You open your mouth to speak, but the sharp intake of breath startles it. It leaps off you and lands flat on its ass next your bed.
The creature flails around a bit before it gets its footing and bolts out of your room. You don't know what bothers you more: the fact that you still don't know how it entered your house, or that that you can now be sure it is NOT trying to eat you.
That night stayed with you over the next week. You couldn't stop wondering what that thing could have been thinking about when you woke up.
It was fully capable of killing you in a multitude of ways. Perhaps it couldn't decide on just how to kill you? Yes, you much prefer that idea to the more obvious implication; that the creature had some sort of fondness for you.
The creature was nowhere to be seen in this time, and you were beginning to worry it was planning something.
Actually you were beginning to worry it left for good. But you didn't want to admit that to yourself.
Your fears were abated when it finally made a move. You were making breakfast for yourself when you caught a glimpse of a black figure in the door way. You turned to see the Xeno sitting like a dog, it gave a faint smile and lowered its head.
You stared at it not knowing what you should do. It certainly didn't seem threatening, but you still weren't sure if you wanted to invite this thing to get any closer to you.
Finally you let the word "Hi" slip from your mouth. You felt rather silly about it, as you have no idea whether or not this thing speaks or can understand your language.
The creature looked up slack-jawed for a moment and then began breathing heavily. It started making a wheezing sound. You THINK you heard a "Hi" come from it, but you couldn't be sure.
Regardless if it was successful or not it seemed proud of it self for 'communicating'.
It has stayed with you since then. Luckily it is pretty good at hiding from everyone else so you haven't had to confront anyone about it, though you think your closest neighbor might be onto you.
You had come to think of it as a pet. A very intelligent pet that you don't need to feed. Whenever it isn't hunting for something to eat it is by your side, lounging around, or begging for your attention.
It took a bit of convincing on its part, but you have begun to allow the thing to sleep in your bed. You didn't think too much of it at the time. Don't people let their dogs and cats sleep in their bed with them?
But then things got weirder. It started when you were watching TV one night. You were petting her (yes you refer to it as a ‘her’ now) when she leaned over, closer then she usually gets, and kissed you. Not completely on the lips, but her resting her head on your chest told you exactly in which way she meant it.
You really didn't have a response to that. It certainly changed things, you no longer feel comfortable calling her your pet.
You think perhaps you should have responded, maybe scolded her in some way. Maybe then she wouldn't feel inclined to embrace you the way she does now. You now wake up with her arms wrapped around you.
You’re scared to tell her to stop, for fear she will get mad and use that scythe like tail to its full effect, but even more terrifying is the creeping realization that you don't want it to stop.
You have slowly come to terms with this, relationship.
She has started taking on chores around the house. You guess she was tired of feeling like she was mooching off of you. Things kind of have a different connotation with her no longer being a pet.
One morning she made you eggs and toast. It was apparent the eggs were not intended to be scramble, but they were fine regardless. The toast, however was practically charcoal. You ate the eggs, but the toast was beyond saving. She was watching you eat and it was rather hard to tell her you couldn't finish.
Right then you were very glad she doesn't have eyes because you probably wouldn't have been able to look at them. Her mouth looked as if she was sobbing. She threw the burnt toast across the room and stormed off to the living room to mop. You didn't understand why she was so upset, until you went to kitchen and saw she had gone through all of the bread trying to get it right.
You felt bad for her, so you decided to see if you could, cheer her up. You found her sitting cross legged on the couch holding a pillow. The TV was on. You don't know if she can differentiate colors, but you guess the sound was calming regardless.
You went and knelled beside her and said it was okay, that you could get more bread. She grimaced and turned away from you. You probably shouldn't talk about bread or toast for a while.
You tried to reach around and hold her but the spines (or whatever they are) on her back complicated things. You sat down on the couch and reached from the side until you found one of the chitinous plates on her chest that you can only imagine are her breasts, though they lack a nipple and don't protrude that much. You clutched onto it.
This incited a response, a quick flinch and a gasp, which was a relief to you because you were shooting in the dark with that one. You said that you really liked the eggs. She tried to hold back a smile, before tossing the pillow aside and embracing you.
You can't bare to look Ryan in the eye. You can feel his judgment bearing down on you. The Xeno sits perched on your coffee table, timidly "looking" back and forth between the two of you.
"So," Ryan finally speaks up, "how long have you had this thing?"
"She's been here a few months."
"And you've just been keeping it as some sort of pet?"
This question strikes a chord. She looks up at you in anticipation. She's not a pet, she is much more, but does Ryan really need to know that? Does Ryan need to know how close the two of you have become? How much the two of you have bonded? No. He can't know, revealing your feelings for her would only make things worse.
"Yes, she's just a pet."
She looks down in disappointment. He gives you a concerned look, "Just a pet?"
You could have worded that better. Ryan looks back to her, you can see a hint of disgust in his face.
"What does it eat?" He asks gravely.
Now that you think about it, you have never actually seen her eat. She leaves the house for a few hours every day, at about the same time. You always assumed she just caught some of the local wildlife to feed on.
"Whatever she can catch," you say.
He glares at you with the look of a man worried for his. You definitely could have worded that better.
You try to save yourself by adding, "Like wildlife."
You don't know if he bought that. He concludes the meeting by saying he wont be calling in the marines, but that he will be keeping in touch with you about the thing. You say that's fine. You thank him, and show him to the door.
Once he's gone you turn to her. "Well, that didn't go too terribly." She ignores you, slinks off the table, and sulks off. Her slick black body glistens in the light of the window before she disappears into the next room.
Honestly you are a bit afraid to confront her, but you know things could only get worse the longer she thinks you meant what you said.
You go to the bedroom the two of you now shared to find her laying in the 'nest' she had before you allowed her in your bed. It was a pile of your old clothes, bed sheets, and blankets.
"You know I didn't meant what I said right? About you being just a pet."
She doesn't respond. She remains curled up in a ball, her tail tapping on the floor. You walk over to her and sit on the floor beside her. She buries her face in the sheets.
"I didn't want him to know, I'm sure that if he knew about us, well, it would have made things a lot worse."
At this she reaches to the desk nearby and grabs your word pad. She types something out and hands it to you, then sinks back down into the sheets. Your heart sinks when you read it.
It reads simply "You are embarrassed of me."
"Oh sweetie, I was only thinking of your safety. You saw the way he reacted to you, and if he had called the marines, I don't know what I would have done if they-" You are cut short as she tosses herself onto you. You now lay on the floor with her wrapped around you, your lips locked together.
Her inner mouth, which you had only seen on a few rare occasions, now enters yours. it gently explores your mouth. A viscous fluid now covers the lower part of your face, but it has no taste nor smell. After what feels like an eternity she moves away from your face. Strings of what you assume is her saliva are suspended between her mouth and yours. She then continues to cuddle you.
"Well, I'm glad we got this sorted out."
First Ryan now Marisa. At this rate the whole colony is going to know about her by the end of the month.
You slightly regret getting her a vocalizer, she has been extremely talkative ever since she got it and it is for that exact reason that you now have to explain to another friend why you are harboring an alien. She just couldn't keep quiet until after Marisa left.
And of course she's quiet now. She left to the other room after she was confident Marisa wasn't going to call in the military. You went through the same motions you did with Ryan. No she's not dangerous, yes she learned English, No I don't know where she came from. It was what you expected, and she seemed to be taking it quite well, but then a question you didn't expect comes and punches you in the stomach.
"So have you had sex with it yet?"
You glare at her. Your brain is a complete mess right now trying to figure out why the hell this was asked, and better yet how you should respond. It was a yes or no question, and the honest answer is no, but that 'yet' makes that no still sound bad. Finally you think you've found a fool proof response.
"Why do you ask?"
You're not exactly a master of debate, but you figure turning the question back on her can't hurt.
"I thought that was every man’s dream, and she is rather adorable."
Again you find yourself at a loss for words. You realize your mouth has been hanging open for a while now so you swallow and continue with counter questions.
"You find it attractive?"
"You don't?"
You can't tell if that's a trap or not. You begin weighing the consequences of answering one way or another in your mind. Suddenly your brain comes up with a clever solution.
"You do know it's a girl right?"
"And?"
Dammit brain! That was stupid and juvenile! You have already refereed to her as 'she' at lest a dozen times now. Fuck it.
"No, we haven't had sex yet."
"Well when that happens don't forget to tell me all about it."
"Um, sure."
With that she leaves.
You go to the bedroom to find her laying on your bed. You sit beside her and rest your hand on her thigh, feeling the sleek muscles punctuated by her exoskeleton. The slightly synthetic yet gentle feminine voice of her vocalizer breaks the silence.
"What did you end up talking about?"
"Oh, nothing important."
She turns to look at you. She wants to ask you something.
"What's on your mind?" You say preemptively.
"I... I want to know more about human sex."
What a fool you are. How could you not have been prepared for this? You should have known this was the day you have to give "the talk" to your alien lover. Is this even necessary? You know she can read, she can "see" as a well as a dog at least.
"Do you really need me to tell you about it? I mean you learned English in less than a month. I know you could look this up if you were really curious."
"I have looked it up, but I have only watched it and read about it. I can't understand it until I have... felt it."
Her body shifts around so that her chest is facing you, her legs slightly open.
PANIC!
Your heart is about beat out of your chest! You really don't think you are ready for this.
Hell, up until now you weren't even sure if she had genitalia, and now you have so many questions about that. Why does she have genitalia? How do her people reproduce? Why is she sexually compatible with humans? What are her people even like? Why have you not seen any of them?
You feel light headed.
You take a deep breath. That was supposed to help. It didn't.
When you open your eyes you are still looking at an alien in heat.
The more you think about it, the more you realized that it isn't the strangeness of it all that scares you. In fact, you have come to find it endearing. What scares you is the thought that you might screw this up.
You are indeed going where no one has gone before, at least as far as you knew, but you just don't feel it's time to go all the way.
You tell this to her and she responds with, "How far do you want to go?"
You pull yourself completely onto the bed and adjust yourself to face her. You then reach your hand out and make first contact. You blush, not because you are embarrassed, but because you can't stop thinking up these dumb puns.
Puns aside, you are pleased to find the area feels like soft leather, much the skin on her face. You can work with this, and her initial gasp and subsequent moans assure it is indeed working.
It's starting to feel more natural, which concerns you. The patterns seem so, human. You're no scientist, but you're pretty sure that aliens were supposed to be completely different having evolved on a different planet, they were supposed to be beyond human comprehension. But again, you're no scientist, it doesn't bother you too much, and you're starting to get into it.
You have begun inserting your middle two fingers and your hand is now covered in a slimy fluid, not unlike the fluid that comes from her mouth. Is it the same liquid? It definitely isn't saliva. You don't have time to wonder about xeno biology right now though, for she has thrown herself on top of you and is now making out with you.
With your free hand you grab a hold of her breast plate, but you’re not entirely sure what to do with that, so you continue to focus on your other hand. Her inner mouth is nibbling on your tongue and you really hope she doesn't bit down too hard.
After a while, sooner than you expected, she throws her head back and lets out a gargled moan. Her body is shacking and you can see slime is dripping onto your sheets. You let go but before you can move your hand back she collapses on you leaving your arm pinned in an awkward position.
She pulls herself in until she is comfortably wrapped around you. You are able to adjust your arm in the meantime. Well, that went perfectly!
Do you taste blood?
Yeah, your tongue hurts pretty badly.
Okay, almost perfect.
The wonders of terraforming: creating nice environments for extremely deadly creatures that want to eat you to thrive. You move cautiously through the forest looking for any sign of you lover. She should have been home two hours ago.
You really wish the two of you could have decided on a name for her so you could call out for her, but she is against the concept of names, whatever the hell that means.
Colonists are advised to avoid the forests, but you’ve survived worse. Besides your phone does have GPA, it’s not like you could get lost, and you brought your hand gun just in case. Of course it is only a 9mm, damn thing might as well be a pee shooter, but you didn’t want to scare her by showing up with a goddamn pulse rifle.
Finally after wondering around for almost an hour you find the disemboweled carcass of what looks like a bear. Did she kill this? You really hope that’s possible, you don’t like the idea that there is something else in these woods that can rip apart a bear. A bloody trail leads a bit deeper into the woods. You decide, problem against your best judgment, to investigate.
After walking for a few minutes, you begin to hear hissing sounds coming from a clearing up ahead. You duck behind a tree. You can hear static, and electronic clicks. That must be her vocalizer, but what is she doing that could cause it to sound like that? You don’t think she’s alone.
You move from tree to tree until you can get a better look. You see her sitting there is the small clearing, and past her are two creatures laying low in the grass.
You can tell they are of the same species as her, but you really can’t see them as similar. Where she is cute and exotic, these things are horrid. They look like something out of someone’s nightmare. They are a twisted malefic version of your love.
You get the feeling they are communicating somehow. The two creatures aren’t making much noise aside from hisses and breathing, but the static from the vocalizer keeps going on and off.
You feel you should probably leave, but you have to know she’s safe and will be coming home. You can’t leave until then.
Your phone begins vibrating. You’re glad you set it to silent.
It begins rattling against the gun at your side.
Dammit.
One of the creatures takes notice. It turns its head toward you and stands up. It’s at least 8 feet tall, and that’s not including the tail, which looks like it could take off a limb with one sweep. It has no lips, only bared teeth, and its exoskeleton is much more pervasive than hers. Yeah, 9 mm ain't going to do shit.
To put things into context, the last colony you lived on was attacked by terrorists. It wasn't just bombed, the place was under siege. It was a month before the marines got there. You kept your cool, you did what had to be done, and you made it out alive.
You were not scared then.
Now you are scared.
It opens its mouth to hiss at you and slime begins pouring from its mouth. The fact that you saw a similar effect when your lover climaxed makes this so, so much worse.
It’s coming right for you. You really wish you could have your life flash before your eyes right now just so you don’t have to look at this thing anymore.
Your lover jumps out in front of it before it reaches you. The static from the vocalizer starts up again, and the creature backs down. It continues to glare at you for a time before it and the other one leaves.
Your brain now has to adjust to the idea that you are NOT about to die horribly.
She turns to you. “I’m sorry about that. I know I should have been home earlier.”
“Were those your friends?” Your voice is a bit shaky.
“I suppose you could call them that.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes, let’s just go home.”
You begin to calm down as you walk back. You check your phone for missed calls.
Fucking Marisa.
You wake up sore. You had a terrible dream that involved being eaten by your lover and her monstrous friends. You are trying very hard to forget everything about it, but the concept will probably linger for a long while. You really need to talk to her about, them.
You go to the kitchen and are greeted warmly by her.
“I’m making bacon!”
What’s that? Strips of charcoal? Your favorite!
You sigh. She is easily smarter than any human you have meet, she has a near photographic memory and has used it to become a walking encyclopedia, but there are two things she can’t figure out: Cooking, and cleaning. You are such a lucky guy.
“Honey, we need to talk about yesterday.”
She becomes a bit stiff. You can tell she was hoping you would have forgotten about it. She turns off the stove and sits down at the table.
“Okay, what do you want to know?”
Hey, the bacon didn't burn, nice save. Now, back to business.
“I just want to know more about your people.”
“Well,” she starts, “we live in hives, kind of like ants.”
“Like ants? How like ants?”
“We are born with a certain job with in the hive, we are each crafted to do that job. Most are workers, but there are also warriors, or soldiers, and a queen that lays eggs and leads the rest of the hive.”
You start prepping the coffee maker.
“So, the things I saw yesterday, those were soldiers?”
“Actually those were just workers.”
You turn off the coffee maker and go straight for the beer. You might need to give Ryan a call.
You steady yourself, and take a seat across the table from her. Calling Ryan would be a bad idea. He is already paranoid, and telling him about this would bring him that much closer to calling in the marines. There are still a few very important question you need to ask her. She may be the most important thing to you right now, but you have to be sure the colony is safe.
“So what type are you? What were you made to do?”
She tilts her head down. You get a sinking feeling in your stomach. You know she’s about to tell you something you really don’t want to hear. It’s time to face the truth, no matter how much it hurts. Her synthetic voice breaks the silence.
“I was made to, study humans.”
You had already guessed that, but you know there’s more. There is something she hasn't been telling you, you know it.
“Why?”
“Well, humans have accomplished a lot without our strength nor the interconnectedness of a hive. We wanted to know how.”
Bullshit. You don’t believe for a second that these things have an inkling of respect for humans, but you don’t think you’re going to get any further with this line of questioning. Besides, you have other things to ask about.
“How is the hive connected?”
“We-” she hesitates, “we are all connected to the queen.”
“You all share a mind?”
“No, you saw how the workers act. We have separate minds, we are just, connected to her. She sees what we see, hears what we hear…”
You finish the sentence for her, “feels what you feel?”
Her silence confirms this. You begin to realize the implications of this, and you can’t help yourself from getting a little aroused. You start to fantasize about what this queen could look like. You know that reality is not so kind, and that it is likely that she resembles one of those monstrosities in the woods, but it is nice to dream.
There is one last thing you have to ask, just to be sure.
“Do you love me?”
She is taken back by this question, but it doesn't take long for her to answer.
“Yes.”
“So, that means in some small way, the queen loves me too, right?”
She smiles, “I suppose that’s true.”
The knot in your stomach loosens. You think the colony is safe for now, or at least you are. Regardless you finally have some good news to tell Ryan. You walk around the table to kiss her. She gets up and wraps her arms around you. You end up spending a few more hours in the kitchen then you had planned.