Star Child

Eight - The Market

The silence hush was suffocating, digging at her throat with its inky talons. It surrounded her in a blanket of darkness.

All around her the lights had long been quieted when the generator ran out of fuel days ago. In the distance, the screams had been silenced. What had once been constant, now echoed only in her recent memories. The wails had been fearful; ones that were cut abruptly meant sudden death. These were facts she was still coming to terms with.

Ashaki couldn't believe she was back here. Back on LV-318 where there had been so much death and suffering at the hands of those things, those Xenomorphs. It was surreal to once again be where her life had truly went to shit; the place where the golden eyes distracted her from the surrounding terror.

Those eyes were all that remained in her vision when she awoke with a start, gasping softly. Just like in her dream, she was cloaked in darkness. The small pricks of light that twinkled alight when she lay down on the couch to sleep, were now absent.

Were they motion activated? Was there some kind of timer? Maybe there was—

She froze when she heard a faint hissing.

Recognition sparked in her mind. The last time she had heard that sound was on LV-318.

It couldn't be. It's impossible.

The darkness was too thick to make out any details. There could be a Xenomorph right in this room and it would be too late. They were fast and lethal, when they decided to strike. She'd be a goner. One of them being here was the last thing she ever expected. Especially on a ship full of murderous aliens.

The couch contoured her body as she pressed herself further into it, drawing the large fur pelt she used as a blanket higher up. The tanned underside was warm against her chin as she cowered beneath it.

Her heart thundered in her chest as she waited with bated breath for a possible attack. The anticipation was terrifying. Her limbs were heavy with lead, removing any possibility of escape if her fears came true. A grunt in the darkness had her hunkering down even more.

It was when two glowing orbs of gold appeared above her, bright like lanterns, that she calmed down. Two twin eyes watched her with rapt interest, the irises blown wide. They drew her in like a moth to a flame. Hovering over her, they looked identical to the ones that haunted her memories of the murky past. 

Familiar chittering filled the void as the eyes vanished.

Slowly Ashaki came to the conclusion that Dhare must be back. He was the only alien she knew. Her mind was too full of cobwebs to fill in the pieces about his eyes and the ones she had remembered from so long ago.

Dhare was silent in the room, not making a sound. She couldn't gauge what he was doing now that he was back. The fact of him being there was enough to quell the fear that held her body in its clutches. Her body relaxed enough to lie there peacefully.

There were no Xenomorphs on the ship. There were only the aliens. There was no danger of one hiding somewhere aboard. There was only the present.

Eventually she drifted off to sleep, slipping into good dreams for once.

• • •

Dhare felt invigorated for the next few days after leaving the Cracked Skull clan's man'daca. After a long night cycle making personal visits to the two females after his heated session with N'dasti, there was a new air of satisfaction surrounding him.

Being in the presence of worthy females, he was reminded why his attraction to Ashaki was unnatural. He liked the challenge and thrill of putting Yautja females in their place. With a human he would have to be careful to not break them, their bodies much more vulnerable. They couldn't please him like he wanted.