A.N—I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaack, and now where it picks off where I left off in “King’s Consort”! Miss me?

Another A.N—(Ahem) I would sincerely appreciate it if you would give me feedback/constructive criticism—anything at all except for NO FLAMES—that could help me improve.

Please enjoy!

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She had never experienced such heat. She had never experienced such sun, such openness . . .

Then again, she was on another planet.

Thanks to wayward, awkward counting, Sealink and her Alien Hive had been traveling for roughly three months on the stolen yautja vessel. They had had no choice in fleeing from their homeworld, leaving their belovèd clearing and forest to the greed of humans.

And so, thanks to them, she was here, on this desert plain. She walked down the runway, buffeted by the waves of heat rushing to fill the cool air of the ship. By her side, a creature blacker than starless night padded besides her, its walk smooth and lithe. It was a monstrous creature, its skull elongated black, jaws hinged together by visible ligaments. It was completely black with a hard exoskeleton that form their skeletal structure. It bore no eyes. Its skull curved downwards toward its back, reaching the middle of its spine and not up like the crests’ of birds.

It had a ribbed, skeletal tail that are ended with a deadly knife like appendage. This one had a more impressive rack of four spikes on his shoulders, two spikes on each shoulder blade. Although sheathed at the moment, the creature had silvery, even teeth in both its primary and secondary jaws; vicious killing tools covered by flexible lips. It had arms that look like a humans’, although they were thin and as strong as steel. Its back legs are longer and more powerfully built, built for amazing leaps and jumps.

A nightmare, a ghastly and terrifying haunt from a dream!

But the young woman besides it showed neither repulsion nor terror. If an onlooker had noticed the scene, they would have said she was comfortable around it, utterly at ease! Impossible! A human—a host—walking alongside a mindless, killing machine?

But this was Sealink, the soft-skinned, strange, beautiful human Alien queen of the Hive. It was she that the late Queen Mèlintèlinas bestowed the office of matriarch. It was she that had all the telekinetic abilities of an Alien Queen. It was she that commanded the obedience and loyalty of the Hive. It was she that made the decision to leave in the first place, ever since she recognized defeat from the humans.

And now, taken from her home planet for the second time, Sealink walked down the plank into the blinding light. Besides her was none other than the senior Warrior, whom she had named Kaylon. Without speaking, the two of them stepped off the metal ramp. The ground was hot to her feet.

It was a flat, nearly barren expanse, its soil as white and pale as salt. Rounded hills and worn mesas surfaced here and there, slopes striated, alternating bands of soot and light. A chafing breeze blew, smelling of slat and dust. The Queen peered through the wavering salt haze and barely discerned a jagged mountain range, white crags nearly fading into the paleness of dusty sky. It hovered before her, almost a dream, resembled a line of great, ridged lizards lying at rest.

A Salt Waste, hissed Kaylon, his voice curt and grim. A realm of haunts.

Sealink whistled softly as if in awe.

“There wasn’t much of a choice, Kaylon. We were lucky as it is for finding this world as it is.”

The woman snorted after a minute. Lucky, her foot. It was her luck that two days ago a red blinking light flashed, warning her that they were running out of fuel. Although Sealink didn’t know it, the ship she stole was a hunting cruiser, a ship designed for quick hunts—not long voyages.

“Check the area. We don’t want any unpleasant surprises already.”

Yes, Highness, the militaristic Warrior replied instantly. Kaylon rolled his shoulders, sending his four erect spikes swaying. He padded further out, small puffs of fine alkaline dust unsettled by his feet and hands. The blazing light made the blackness of the Xenomorph’s carapace a sharp contrast.

Any creature for miles could see the Aliens, thought Sealink in exasperation. They will show up so well against all this starkness. This emptiness! Holy Mother, there’s nothing for leagues! Nothing! Who picked this planet in the first place! Whoever had the directions should be shot, she snorted.

But no humans.

Sealink shuddered. Well, that was one bonus. Who would live on this place if they weren’t force or stranded to? Humans? Yautja?

The word rolled off her tongue, and shivered despite the heat with loathing. No, the hunter-folk are too attached to their jungles and sweltering forests. They would not even spare a glance toward this waste. What the Hive traded in comfort, they received in safety . . . of a sort.

The ship behind her shuddered. The ramp groaned lowly, as if bearing a great weight. Sealink’s mouth quirked.

“Damon. Come and see our new home.” Her voice held no mirth, despite the grin on her face.

The King plodded heavily down the runway, each step causing the metal to complain. He was Damon, mate of Sealink. He was only slightly smaller than a normal Alien Queen, with two branching horns added to the crest of royalty. He was built as a T-Rex, long and sinuous arms resting easily in the air, his hind-legs doing all the walking for him unlike normal Aliens.

Sealink made way for the King as he took his first step onto the planet. A great cloud of fine dust puffed upward, settling grey on his foot. He lifted his great elongated skull and brought his lips from his teeth. The tip of his tail twitched.

A desert kingdom, one where those who can find no peace withdraw to die, he rumbled mildly. A daunting trek to cross for us to find a lair, Sealink.

Sealink punched his knee playfully, not even slightly worried for any affront on his part.

“We’ll survive, Damon. By Mother, we’ll have to . . . after all, we did best those foul meats when they thought they could make me their slave, or when those humans thought they could use me as a tool?” She snorted. “I won’t be beaten by this world, that’s for sure.”

As she thought about it, she had been through a lot. At roughly sixteen years she had been taken by a Predator to be his slave; at twenty pitted against an entire human settlement. Over the years she had been taught how to survive, and grew from an inexperienced youngling to a confident, sometimes ruthless, leader. The weight of responsibility was always constant, but it sharpened her training. She would need to think fast on her toes if she was to keep her Hive alive.

Damon blew a soft gust of air, testing the thin breeze. We will see. What have you decided we shall do now, Sealink?

“I had Kaylon scout the surrounding area. When he comes back . . . we’ll head off to those mountains, to the . . . west? Yes, west. We’ll go their until . . .” Sealink trailed off, deep in thought. Damon didn’t interrupt her.

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Sealink was glad to leave the metal hull of the yautja ship. She could trust air she could see. And although its scent of the Predators was stale and old, it still made her cringe that the powerful, massive hunters had used the very same vessel. She could never quite forgive them for their trespass on taking her, nor capturing her Mother, Queen Mèlintèlinas.

Even the Hive—thirteen, which consisted of Damon, herself, one Warrior and the rest drones—couldn’t quite get over the fact of their proximity to yautja and related technology. To their keen senses, it reeked of danger and smacked of enemy. Perhaps the change in scenery will calm their high-strung nerves, she thought.

Then again, the Hive had to obey her—she was their Queen. It was their duty to serve and submit to her. And yet, they had their own secret desires and wants despite her ruling. Yes, these Aliens thought and responded back and didn’t just take orders. They were the sole Hive in the universe like that. The only. None other were like them. Thanks to Sealink’s “humanness” and influence, they changed and evolved to more than just follow directions and kill and eat.

Much more.

It was part of that reason that caused Sealink to leave in the first place. Why help other Hives if they weren’t like hers?

Sealink shaded her eyes with one hand, suddenly sneezing. When she opened her eyes again, Kaylon rested in front of her, like some sort of large canine.

Surrounding areas clear, my Queen. Nothing large enough to present a problem nor any sand-traps, he reported, hissing.

Sealink nodded. “Good. Have the Hive come out here; we can’t leave without them.”

The Warrior nodded slightly, dust settling on his exoskeleton. He left quickly, honed knife-tip dragging in the hot sand and making a shallow riff. Sealink stared at it, zoning out, and ignored the large shadow that suddenly blocked the remorseless sun.

We are to leave to the west, Sealink?

“Why not?” she said, tasting salt on a rising wind. “There isn’t much to head for.”

Above her, the Alien slowly opened and closed his jaws, though no words came out.

And we will soon have no choice, anyway, he rumbled, deep within his chest.

Oh great.

“Why?” asked Sealink, drawing her attention from the line in the sand to the large figure before her.

I may be inexperienced in the ways of this Salt Waste, Damon said slowly, drawing the words carefully, but I know enough to say that there is a storm on the wind. In the east. Soon.

As if agreeing with the King, the wind picked up.

Sealink stared in dismay at the vast wasteland before her. “How am I to find our home, now with a storm to worry about?” she murmured. “What hope have I now?”

With a buffet as gentle as he could manage, Damon nudged her firmly back toward the ship, where all of the Hive waited, silent.

Hope will be needed, as deep as hopelessness.

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It didn’t take long for Sealink to convey that they needed to make to the mountains despite the threat of a saltstorm. Now, with survival at hand, the Hive said little and put all their energy in obeying their Queen for the trek. As if rehearsed, they quickly conformed into a single-file line; Damon and Sealink up front, the drones in the middle, and Kaylon bringing up the rear.

Sealink rode on Damon’s shoulders, right between his impressive spikes. From her vantage point she could sometimes see the dream of white-maned mountains floated coolly before her on the horizon’s edge. Haze hung in the air. Crumbling mounds obscured her vision. And despite her height, her eyes reddened, ears filled with blown dust, and skin caked with it sand and blown salt. Beneath her, Damon slowly turned from ebony black to sand-grey.

They traveled across the barren waste, threading their way through banded hills. The salt waste stretched on and on, its monotony numbing. The sun overhead blazed shadowless. Fine dust floated, a smoky curtain on the air. Dust filled her lungs. She could get no air. Everything tasted of salt. If there were any complaints, none were voiced. The Hive continued their steady plodding, long skulls down and mouths slightly agape.

They would follow their Queen, even if it meant going to the end of the world.

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Days they trekked, sleeping only briefly. Little sting-tailed insects crept out at night. Other animals, too, apparently inhabited this desolate place. Diminutive lizard tracks scampered away over the alkaline dust. Kaylon and a few other drones went out foraging for food, bringing back the little they could find. Over the course of the several days, lizards, snakes and small mammals were their nourishment.

Sealink herself dashed open spiny plants to taste its sour flesh. Eventually she discovered that outcroppings of what she had mistaken for pebbles were actually plants, their waxy, grey-green surfaces concealing a sweet, juicy pulp. Whenever she found these, Sealink ate greedily.

Despite their steadfastness, the predicted storm caught up with them.

Wind had hissed at her hair, lifting the sand, stinging her. She had not felt it rise. It hummed, moaning. The winds had gusted and whipped. Salt grit beat at her ears, her eyes and nostrils. Rising tempest stole the words from her teeth. Salt blinded her, smothered her. Wind battered and deafened her. The world tilted, steeped in the bitter redolence of ashes and dust.

Her heels sank, grit rising to pull her down. The storm, coming out of the west, drove them eastward. Blindly, reluctantly, they stumbled toward the dreaming mountains—invisible now—that bounded unseen horizon’s rim and bordered the end of the world.

During that time, they didn’t even stop. Wind had howled. The salt grit stung. They could move no direction other than toward the sandstorm’s lee. How many leagues had they already traveled, one torturous step at a time? Thirst tormented her. She could hardly breath. Her empty belly ached, but still they continued.

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As the days continued, their pace slowed, despite a Xenomorph’s amazing fortitude and resilience. Time proved impossible to gauge. Fatigue stupefied her. She dared not stop. The ground grew firmer, its shifting granules coarser underfoot. She felt as though her skin had been scoured from her hide.

Once or twice one of the drones dropped, back legs trailing and arms stiff. Kaylon would have to prod or use force to get it to continue again. Sealink would always watch from a distance, feeling the oppressive burden of the stark facts: they needed to find a home, soon, if they were to survive.

She felt her throat parching and empty belly grinding when they went over another small sand hill. She saw the grey hide of Damon just beyond. She treaded toward him.

The sun was a fever-blaze dead overhead. She cast no shadow. She heard her own ragged, labored breath. Her lips and teeth and tongue were numb. The taste of salt swelled, closing Sealink’s throat. Her gorge rose. Pale dust made the other grey as a haunt.

Damon’s motionless form lay like a shadow, a deep pool in the sand. Gazing down at him from her vantage point, Sealink felt oddly disoriented, as though she were beholding a great chasm, a darkness reft of moon or stars. She had no notion how long she stood gazing into this void. The wind increased, lifting clouds of pale, bitter sand.

When she got close, he shuddered. The dust on his hide rose and settled.

How are you faring? His voice had the same bodiless quality, not thwarted by the physical limitations of his body such as shortness of breath or the rasp of a dry throat. Yet, he had an undercurrent of weary on his voice.

“I fare well enough for someone that was trekking in a desert for Mother-knows how long,” Sealink replied through mindspeech. Her tongue was simply too thick and numb for her to even attempt mouthspeeking.

Damon rumbled deep within his chest; a chuckle?

Sealink closed her eyes.

Has it been worth the trek? he murmured. She stood unable to move, to think. The Waste all around her lay utterly lifeless, motionless, still.

“Anything would be better than sitting in that stinking foul meat ship,” she said after a long pause.

She was met with an curious desire to understand; there was no challenge or conflict in Damon’s link.

“However . . . Damon, answer me: I have seen the Hive. Yesterday Zaphara took an hour to be prodded back on her feet. They tire. I need a solution, or else . . .” Sealink fell silent. Her mouth still tasted of salt. She dared not even try to swallow.

Damon was so silent for a long while that she thought he had fallen asleep.

Finally, Give it another morning.

“You sound so sure,” she muttered through telekinesis, weary to her bones of all this trekking. Sky ahead shone white where the sun burned, paling the stars, but overhead was darkly, intensely blue, almost evening’s shade.

She was met with amusement.

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Pitch dark surrounded her. Night, she reasoned: moonless night. It had been a few hours since she had her conversation with Damon on the sand hill crest. The Hive slept where they fell, as if dead. Although mainly active at night, they had no energy to spend after the day. Kaylon, faithful Kaylon, circled and kept steady watch, determinedly and soundly ignoring his own discomfort to fulfill his duty as sole Warrior of the Hive.

Sealink sighed, walking a little ways away from them, seeking solitude. It was times like these did she miss Zizar the most, her young and eager Warrior. He had been taken from her by a traitorous human, and died saving her from a mad praetorian. How she missed his desire to please and his youthful energy . . . and after so much sand . . .

If—no, when—we get to our new home, I will have to produce another Warrior for Kaylon to mentor, she thought. Find an animal big enough to act as host.

Nights were easier to think. She could breath, and the coolness was a welcome after so much dead, dry heat.

She gazed up, lost in the brightness of the canopy of stars, trying to recognize a pattern there. They dazzled her, many more than she had ever seen. Too stunned by hunter, thirst, and fatigue … She gave up. Moonless night lasted forever. Stars blazed, filling that half of the sky as far over her as she could crane, and as far below as she could peer. The air above that direction felt empty and unimpeded. A hint of breeze wafted thence, lifting her hair.

After awhile, she perceived an utter darkness to one side of her, dividing the night. The starless darkness fell away. She heard a quiet, continues rushing sound, very familiar to her, but in her daze, she could not think what it was. The susurrous murmur soothed her. A slight pressure lapped against her shoulder, a cool ripple, a gentle rill.

So, My child, you are weary of your trek? asked an amused voice. It filled her more than a thousand thousand stars in the Salt Waste sky.

“Yes, Mother, more than You can imagine,” Sealink murmured.

A riff of laughter.

Rest assured, your journey will soon be at an end, My youngling, Mèlintèlinas whispered, everywhere and nowhere.

“Soon? Now, where have I heard that before?”

But the late Queen withdrew, leaving Sealink alone on the salt dunes.

Every heavenly light before her hung motionless. She could not go another step. Her eyes slid closed. She realized that she had just lain down. A vast, illumined void surrounded her. She had no idea where she lay. A breath of starwind sighed across her, thin and slight and very cold. She slept.

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Dawn woke her, its greyness paling the air with the first light she had seen in eternity. The sun’s radiance blazing around her in a burning sphere. The sun’s featureless disk, inflamed by dawn, floated at eye-level dead ahead. No horizon lay before her, only sky above and mist below.

She yawned and blinked back the sleepiness from her eyes when Kaylon, strangely quivering, nudged her.

My Queen, you must come and see! Quickly, quickly! Make haste!

“What? What must I see?” asked Sealink, immediately becoming stern and Queen-like.

Follow, Kaylon said simply, lithely loping over a crest just beyond the one she was currently resting upon.

Follow? See what? She knew it couldn’t be anything too interesting . . . then why was suddenly her hope soaring through her chest? By the Mother Herself, acting like a youngling over nothing . . .

Sealink swiftly climbed up the crest, ignoring a stab of hunger. What she saw made her belly drop. Time seemed to freeze. Even the wind paused. Suddenly, the Salt Waste didn’t seem so hostile anymore. The salt didn’t taste quite so bad; the heat not so harsh. Besides her, Damon ‘smiled’.

Isn’t it beautiful?

She felt indescribably light—the feeling could be imagined but not described. She felt like laughing and crying at the same time. Relief flooded within her.

“Home.”

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