Xenomorph, Emotion or Instinct

Chapter 11: Dance the time away

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The next morning Arran awoke to see Zathena's dome peering at him so he asked "Zathena, you awake?" he got no response. He assumed she was sleeping so he got up and went downstairs, he went into his private, locked cabinet in the living room. It was an ash wood box about two feet wide, three feet long and a foot tall; Arran opened it and prepared his plan for today. Inside was a bottle of whiskey, an antique E-System from 2053 and a disco holographic sphere. Feelings of nostalgia rushed through Arran as he remembers being a child and using these with his friends and family at social gatherings. Here though nearly 100 years after it was made Arran still had it just in case, so he took it from the box and set it up on the main table in his living room. Arran looked through his list of songs on the E-System. The main selection of songs was old but favourable tunes to Arran's taste in music, then he setup the sphere. It was a hovering system of strobe lighting and multi-coloured lasers, although for now he had it off so as not to startle Zathena.

Later in the morning around 10am Zathena woke up and went down stairs to see what Arran was doing, she was still mildly tired from last night but she did enjoy the experience thoroughly. She saw him standing there in the middle of the room with his hand out towards her. Zathena slowly came to him and put her right claw on his left hand, he then turned on the E-System and holographic sphere. The room filled with light and sound, she heard a man's voice say 'I believe in a thing called love! Just listen to the rhythm of my heart!' The voice was high pitched and like a scream but strangely interesting to listen to, Zathena thought it was an intruder though, so her natural instincts kicked in. She crouched with her mouth, claws and tail at the ready to strike, she exclaimed nervously, whose there?! Hello! Where are you?! Zathena was terrified about the noise but her reaction was completely pointless as it was just an audio entertainment system. Arran then said humorously "It's… Ha, ha, ha, ha. It's just a song Zathena, music for enjoyment, it comes from this." With that he pointed to the E-System he turned on, she then slowly calmed down. Arran took her hands and began moving away from her, then towards her in a swinging motion. He said happy that she'd calmed down, "Just relax; let your body lose control. Enjoy yourself a bit, just try and flow naturally." They then began a slow rhythmic dance sequence of moving toward and away from each other while holding hands firmly to one another. Zathena's tail then started swaying side to side as she enjoyed this bizarre way of moving, unlike sex this wasn't particularly enjoyable on a physical level but on a psychological level it released a ton of endorphins while performing the act. It felt great and as Arran varied it up a bit by moving his pelvis around, it was all the more of an exciting display. Zathena tried to copy by swaying her slim hips rapidly left to right, Arran then brought them together and kissed her on the top of her head before swaying away again.

They're dance lasted for a few minutes before the song finally ended, with the now deafening silence Arran went over to the system and put on a different tune. This one was much smoother than the last, where the last one was quick and pumping music this was something much more subtle and slow in contrast. Arran returned to Zathena and grabbed her waist sensually, he said softly "Trust me, just follow my lead, ok?" She nodded to him and with that she carefully moved her hands around Arran's pelvic area as she was taller. They held each other lovingly as Arran put his right hand over her left hand; he gently guided them around the room with wide but rhythmic steps in perfect coordination with the music. Zathena had never moved like this or even conceived of this as a possible romantic act for humans, all she knew about this was that she loved it. For all the time that passed it felt like mere minutes compared to the four hours of dancing to specifically this one song. Once Arran began to feel tired he broke the embrace with Zathena and turned off the lovely music mainly because he hadn't eaten for two days and was very weak. While Zathena had helped herself to a number of Weyland staff during the breakout, "Zathena, I…" he panted to her. She could sense his discomfort in his heart rate which was now erratic and his pale complexion, she asked him, what can I do? Can I get you something? Anything? Arran just panted for breath, then he finally managed a few words "Look Zathena, I'm going to have to leave ok. I need to go to the food depot; otherwise we'll have nothing to eat. Understand?" Zathena was wary and nervous about possibly letting him go but she realised he was right, ok Arran, if you must. But at least be quick, ok? He said gently "I'll be not a second longer than I have to." After that he rested Zathena on his bed and left, while she was worried about him it was true that without food they wouldn't last long.

About an hour later after leaving his house on foot he arrived at a mildly remote food depot on the outskirts of the main colony; the owner was a friend to Arran as a few years back Arran developed a cure for a genetic disorder that the owner's daughter had. For that the owner had been incredibly grateful to Arran, in return he gave Arran a discount in his store. Luckily for Arran the medium sized depot looked mostly empty which was surprising for 5pm, he went inside to see an abundance of delicious looking food products. "Arran!" the shop owner said in a cheerful voice, "Nice to finally see you again buddy." The shop owner continued, Arran replied relieved to find just him in the place "Hey David how's Isabelle?" David responded happily saying "Oh, she's fine, got her exams this year. They really do grow up fast; I only wish her mother could have been here to see this… Anyway, what can I do for ya? You look quite pale." Arran responded reasonably calm "Oh, it's nothing. Just been…quite preoccupied over the last week. I could do with some food though; I'm running quite low, especially on meat." David showed Arran to the main meat aisle, as Arran picked out the food his friend took it down on a credit list; four beef steaks, three chicken breasts, three bacon strip packets and two pork sides. It was good business for David as the company complexes drove traffic away from his food depot, Arran also picked up a variety of soft drinks, vegetables, herbs and spices, and lastly he picked up the rarest food item David sold, a very rich milk chocolate. The total came to 3,340 colonial credits; considering Arran only made about 2800 credits per month and the company had stopped funding him it was a steep price, luckily Arran always had a fall back of 76,000 credits on his P.A.D (Portable Account Device). Once the food was packaged David gratefully told Arran, "Thanks Arran, those damn company complexes are almost closing me down. Take care now." With that Arran replied "My pleasure, have a nice evening." Then Arran started walking back to his house, David was nice enough to also give Arran a carrier unit to help take the food home for his good business.

On his way home Arran contemplated the situation that he found himself in; uh, why am I in an instance where I need to find a way off world? A mere week ago I was a revered scientist. What a brilliant moment in your life you stupid moron, I hate living like this. I love Zathena; I do, but is that worth giving up my normal life for? A life on the run, trying to get off planet because of fear of Weyland Yutani. Living as a lowly doctor or examiner on some backwater colony planet not under the influence of Weyland. I suppose I could join a rebel group and hope, that they accept me and Zathena. Why, oh, why? Arran's train of thought was interrupted though by a wild yelping, the screeching was horrific to listen to. To his horror Arran recognised the sound, it was the sound of a xenomorph, he feared it was Zathena and that the worst had happened. The insane volume coming from the forest at the sides of the road Arran was walking down were bombastic and terrifying. Arran left his carrier at the side of the road and rushed into the dark dimly light trees to try to find the poor creature.

Eventually he came across the xenomorph; it had stumbled into a bear trap by mistake and was now screaming in agony. Arran tried to tell the creature he wanted to help it, "Please! Calm down, please! Look I'm going to open the trap, don't move or struggle; you'll only make it worse!" Nothing seemed to get its attention so he acted on instinct and went into the lower level ditch with the xenomorph; Arran positioned himself behind the creature where the trap was clamping on its left leg. One thing that baffled Arran was how the metal of the clamp wasn't melting as the xenomorph was leaking its acidic blood onto the trap, that should erode it away but wasn't. Arran quickly looked closer at the clamp and he saw that it had the WY logo; these were purpose set xenomorph traps scattered around this forest. Implying that some survived and were running through the immediate colony landscape. Arran didn't have time to think though so he acted, he grasped the underside of the two clamping jaws of the bear trap. Being careful to avoid the acidic marks on the trap Arran pulled them apart with all his strength and might, getting to breaking point Arran finally was able to release the xenomorph's leg. Starting to relax Arran lay back on the solidly earth but he didn't get a chance to rest before the xeno leapt onto him. Then Arran noticed 'it' was actually a she like Zathena, except for this xeno had dorsal tubes, ridges on its head and was slightly bigger as far as he could tell. She then readied her tail as if for a strike, at the same time she held Arran's limbs down fiercely, was she going to kill him after he'd just saved her from the trap, he was uncertain. Worried for his life Arran tried to wriggle out but it didn't matter, she just screeched at him extremely aggressively to stop. Stopping his movements and with his heart rate sky rocketing she opened her mouth and her inner jaw came down to him slowly. Arran was in shock but to prepare for his end all he did was think as vividly and clearly as he could of Zathena; her body, her personality and their shared experiences to comfort his impending death. He just thought with a choking feeling in his throat and his eyes closed, I…love…you… Zathena…