Arc 4.12 Queen Mother

Taina had on a provocative glare as she walked up to the absorbed lovebirds.

Nile and Alex were currently seated on a long table, the seats beside and across from them were empty due to the members' consideration for their private space as well as wanting to avoid having dog food shoved down their throats.

Sitting down on the empty seat directly across from the two, Taina rested her chin on the back of her hand as she eyed Alex from head to toe in Nile's lap, as a predator would when assessing their prey.

She had always been a blunt and straightforward girl, so she didn't hesitate to start throwing out offensive remarks the moment her lips parted just loud enough for the surrounding onlookers to hear, "It must feel nice, being the captain's temporary plaything.

"Did you think he would actually value a slut like you? Captain Betelgeuse is only interested in your body, and admittedly you aren't half bad. Otherwise why would he toss away the perfect fiancée for someone as useless as you?"

Taina wanted the rest of the crew members to understand that Lily was wronged by not only Alex, but Nile as well, who cheated on her. She could care less about Nile's reputation after all he had done to Lily, her best friend.

Niles face darkened when Taina spoke the five forbidden words, "only interested in your body," because he knew it was actually the other way around. Alex really had no other feelings for him and only stuck around because of his skills in bed and his awesome body.

Faced with that reality he temporarily lost his temper. Nile was in the middle of developing their feelings until this girl had to pour a bucket full of ice-cold water on him by reminding him of how long and hard his journey would be.

Meanwhile, Alex had on a knowing smile, aware of her husband's current state of mind.

"Shut up," Nile growled darkly, his blue orbs were giving off a sinister light as he tightened his arms' hold around Alex's waist and his chin was propped on the top of her head.

Scoffing, Taina didn't seem to have noticed that she was literally hanging at death's door.

"See? I'm right, aren't I? He can't even say otherwise."

From afar, Duke finally noticed his little sis was courting death!! Before Nile could pierce the silver fork in his hand through Taina's unfiltered lips that he found extremely displeasing to his eyes, Duke quickly intervened to save her from the countless tortures he knew his best friend was cooking up in his mind currently.

He knew Taina was the type who prized friendship over anything. Hell, look at him and Nile!

Pulling Taina off of her seat by her upper arm, Duke forced a smile upon his face but couldn't keep his bottom eyelid from twitching when he deduced that Nile would most likely not let them off this time. Yet, he still tried to play the middleman, "Sorry about that Nile. Can you forgive her just this once? For my sake?"

Nile could care less about a friendship that he didn't consider real (since he wasn't even the original Nile), but Alex knew that him not giving Duke any face this time around would be OOC. Normally, she wouldn't care about her competitor losing points but she already agreed with Nile that she would also put in some effort into considering their future together.

Thus, Alex chuckled softly and lightly caressed his arm around her waist with her fingers, to remind him of what was important. Also, she was reassuring him that it was possible to change the nature of their relationship, so why was he getting fired up for no reason?

Having calmed down, Nile snorted while sending the Fomalhaut siblings off with his eyes, "On the account that we have known each other for years, I will let her go this time. But there won't be a next time even if she's your little sister."

Duke glanced at Alex, his eyes full of gratitude, before walking off to lecture his unreasonable sister in the hallway.

When the two obstacles finally left, Nile pouted with his nose nuzzled in the crook of Alex's neck from behind, "Wife, she was clearly bullying me."

Alex sighed. It seemed that the shameless man must have figured out from the first world that she could never say no to neither his unrivalled shamelessness nor when he acted cute. And, he already acted shameless the night before so it only made sense that he would sell meng today.

Sure enough, Alex's heart melted at the sight and feeling of the gap moe of her husband.

Bringing her palm up to pat his head of white fluffy hair consolingly, Alex was slightly exasperated, "You know what she meant, so why are you purposefully interpreting her words that way in the first place?"

Nile rubbed his hands across the smaller girl's thin waist, slowly and savoring, "Because it's the truth. For now."

I just hate it when someone else tells me something I already know, especially if it's something particularly unpleasant. (A/N: Same, though.)

Lily heard from Taina what went on between them. The two were alone in Lily's room; Lily was on her bed laying down "dejected," while Taina was sitting at the side trying to make her feel better.

"He doesn't deserve you anyway! Good thing he had the mind to cancel the engagement, otherwise there'd be hell to pay!"

"Don't say that," Lily forced a smile, which only made her look more pitiful with her red-rimmed eyes, "We never even met until just yesterday. It only makes sense that he already had someone in his heart from a long time ago."

"Hmph!" Taina crossed her arms indignantly. Her friend was usually quiet and reserved, but she was always strong no matter the situation. It seemed that even the strongest of women would break due to love.

"It doesn't matter! He knew he was your betrothed from even before your births, so why did he go out to find some broad to bed in the first place!"

"It's okay, Tai," Lily turned over in her bed so that she was now facing the hot-blooded blonde girl, "I hope he will be happy. I'm just worried that..."

Her voice trailed off as she put on a troubled expression, her furrowed brows forming a crease.

Having had her curiosity piqued, Taina questioned excitedly, "What is it? You got some dirt so we can destroy their so-called happiness?"

"No, I don't want to pull them apart if they really love each other," Lily paused, "It's just that on our way here Alex got injured. She probably thought that nobody noticed, but I did. I just didn't want to ruin the happy reunion."

"Wow, Lily," Taina rolled her eyes in disbelief at Lily's magnanimity, "So, what? She's injured. Nile probably already took care of her plenty last night."

"Not that," Lily glared at her friend, "Her blood was yellow. Like an alien."

Taina's dark blue eyes immediately widened, "WHAT?! And you decided to keep quiet, just letting the enemy infiltrate our base?!"

Then she cackled almost hysterically, "Wait 'til Nile hears about this. The woman he was banging oh so passionately was in fact the enemy he was meant to kill. HAHA!"

But Lily grabbed her shoulder, shaking her head, "We can't just tell him, or anyone for that matter. First off, they won't believe us without evidence. Secondly, we can't alert the enemy or who knows how many casualties there would be in the case that they panic at having been found out. I have a feeling she is very strong if she could disguise herself like that."

"So, you're saying..." Taina narrowed her eyes as the corner of her lips tilted upward, "We have to 'accidentally' cause harm to that bitch."

That evening, in order to get some progress on their mission, Nile, Alex, Duke, Taina, Lily, Faust, and Tyler had all gathered in the conference room to discuss their plans.

Nile and Alex being...well, Nile and Alex, they already knew that Lily and Taina had something in store for them, but it didn't matter to them what the two blonde girls tried; nothing they could ever hope to do would deter them in any way, anyway.

Tyler and Faust were in charge of explaining the general situation of the starship since they had traversed the entire vessel from the logistics to the research department in order to reunite with Alex. Alex was expected to talk about all she knew about the aliens as the head researcher of Starship 549.

In order for Duke, Nile, Lily, and Taina to understand more about their targets, Alex started first.

"Our research team took in a total of four different types of alien specimen. The first and lowest in danger level and hierarchy are the facehuggers," she quickly sketched out an ugly and bad example of a facehugger on the tablet to project on the big screen for everyone to see.

She was a great businesswoman and had plenty of combat skills from the void world but she never had to do much drawing in her lives. That kind of skilled labor was always left to the grunts.

Lily and Taina quietly snickered amongst themselves while the men collectively thought, How cute.

Ignoring everyone's reactions to her childish scribbles on the screen, with the stylus in hand she explained, "The facehugger greatly resembles a pair of skeletal hands fused together, with a spine-like tail. It has eight long, finger-like legs which allow it to crawl rapidly, and a long tail adapted for making great leaps. With the information my lab gathered, we concluded these to be the primary procreators of the alien race, aside from the mythical queens that we have yet to capture.

"A facehugger's long legs allow it to move rapidly across all manner of surfaces and also grant the creature its crucial ability to 'grip' a host's head during implantation of an embryo. The spindly appearance should not be underestimated; they are incredibly strong, and have been known to tear the skin from the skulls of human victims when an attempt is made to remove them. Its tail can propel it into huge leaps, as well so do take note when engaging one.

Usually, they instill guerilla tactics, however, so really just make sure it does not end up clinging to your face or say goodbye to life. Next."

Alex erased the facehugger from her screen and proceeded to doodle a baby alien. It was an extremely awful drawing, but as long as the key features were present, she doubted anyone had room to complain.

"The second and consequently the next in danger level and hierarchy of aliens are the baby aliens. It is most well-known for its horrific method of gestation--it is implanted into a host lifeform's chest cavity by a facehugger, and upon maturing it will erupt violently from the host's chest, killing them in an incredibly bloody and traumatic fashion. They are small, generally not more than a foot tall and around two feet long including their tails, although larger examples have been seen.

"These aliens resemble large worms, beige or brown in color and with a mouth of metallic teeth and a tail capable of propelling the creature at considerable speed. Some have been seen to possess arms and legs, but this is not always the case, with others merely having small stubs where presumably the limbs will eventually develop. It is possible a longer gestation period may determine their presence at birth.

"The chance of our teams encountering one at this time is relatively low. This is because they usually take no longer than a day to emerge and mature, and it has already been over fifteen days since our fleet was overtaken. However, this isn't definite. We just need to look through the surveillance cameras to find one that has yet to burst from its host's chest."

Instead of erasing the baby alien from her canvas, she minimized it then slid it to the side so it was at the edge. Then she proceeded to draw one drone and a warrior.

"The third are the drones. They are considered adult form of the species. Drones are easily identified by their smooth head carapaces, among the smoothest of all aliens, and they are capable of spitting cysts of acidic blood at their enemies. They average around 8 feet tall when standing on hind legs, and about 14–15 feet long, tail included.

"Their most distinguishing features are their smooth heads, dorsal tubes and barb-tipped tails, which can be used as a formidable flailing weapon, powerful enough to hurl an average human through the air with little effort.

"When attacking, drones primarily employ ambush tactics, and are almost never seen working in coordination with other aliens, preferring instead to operate alone. They are shown to be intelligent and patient, employing stealth in their assaults, often seeking to blend in with their environment and waiting motionless for their prey to come within range before striking. In other words, always be prepared for a sneak attack. Make sure your teammates have not only your back covered, but also above and sometimes even below.

"Last but not least are the warriors, which are the primary assault types of the aliens. They are fast, reasonably tough, and savage combatants. Warriors are identified by their ridged heads, and stand around 7–8 feet tall on their hind legs. They are about 14–16 feet long, including their tail. They also have an astonishing leaping ability.

"Warriors are seemingly even stronger than Drones, capable of lifting humans clean into the air with little effort and breaking down reinforced malunimium doors when in groups. During combat, some warriors have been known to continue fighting, or at least trying to fight, even after losing limbs, so you have to be sure they are dead before turning your back.

"Their heads are covered in ridges for increased structural strength, allowing them to use their skulls as ramming weapons, often to force their way through doors, vent covers or other physical obstructions. Some warriors have been seen to possess blade-like protrusions at the elbows.

"When a warrior is killed by weapons that cause massive physical trauma, its highly pressurized bloodstream causes the creature to explode, showering the surrounding area with its acid. A similar effect has been seen when it is set aflame, typically through the use of military-issue flamethrowers; the intense heat from prolonged burning can cause the creature to violently explode, which is most likely due to its already high-pressure circulatory system boiling within its body. Take caution when not only capturing this target but also when disposing on them.

"Some prefer to ambush, but most are typically more straightforward in their offensive. Be prepared for both types when we dispatch. Any questions?"

Seeing that everyone seemed to have none, she first reaffirmed the mission targets. They only needed to retrieve one of each type. They weren't allowed to kill them but had to immobilize them one way or another. The solution was to force them into hypersleep via the capsules in the research department. Each team had to transfer them into the capsules in the lab and then reboot the starship to take it home.

She left it to the individual members in each team to find their own ways to combat the aliens without worrying about the blood spraying all over themselves. After all, it wasn't her problem, even if she was a team leader, herself.

Also, Alex could cut extremely cleanly, and as a queen she could instill obedience without having to do or say anything anyway. The same went for Lily, Faust, and Tyler as aliens at the top of the hierarchy.

Speaking of teams, there had to be people who could operate the starship's three separate controls. They also needed their own guards, and Faust took charge of that team as someone who not only knew how to operate the control room but could also protect himself and others when needed. He would be acting as a guard for the most part but could fly the ship in case of emergency if one of the others died. There were a total of seven people in that group in charge of the control room.

There was a group that was in charge of communication. Duke as vice-captain was in charge, as expected. He had to remain in the carrier just like previously. Due to the expansive coverage of the starship, there were many cameras installed, so Duke couldn't have been the only one in charge of watching over then entire situation. He had a total of five in his team.

Lastly, there were four offensive groups in charge of engaging in combat against the aliens as well as retrieving the test subjects. They would have to kill off the unneeded aliens and apprehend the ones needed. Lily, Tyler, Nile, and Alex were to lead these four teams, with ten members in all aside from one, which would have eleven.

It was more than obvious that the leaders of the teams were decided based on not only capability but influenced by three of them being aliens in order to ensure the easy success of the mission.

Taina, instead of joining Lily, she insisted on joining Alex's team in order to "apologize for her rude behavior earlier."

Alex, of course, didn't believe any of her obvious bull. But she was interested in watching the little girl dance around the palm of her hand just for the heck of it, so she allowed Taina to join.

Other than Taina, Nile threw the other team members from the first recon team to Alex so that she wouldn't have to deal with pig teammates. There were six of them total, and she needed four more. They ended up as just nameless cannon fodder Nile knew wouldn't disrespect Alex.