The Purple Xenomorph

Chapter 47.

*   *   *   *

A few days had come and gone. Unfortunately, Grandfather had passed away last night. Je'Trya had found him motionless in his bedroom this morning. I haven't known him for very long, but my heart sank when I heard the news. Je'Trya was organizing a burial in honor of his father, and of course I wanted to assist in the matter. Even though he hadn't completed his 5th hive cleansing, he was to be 'crowned' a few days after the burial.

"Father, where is Grandfather going to be buried?"  I question.

He turned his head from his servants, "Within the temple, as all of our ancestors have been for generations."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

The Elite shook his head.

"You have done enough with gathering the materials for his resting place, you are dismissed."

I knew there was more that I could do, but I didn't want to disrupt Je'Trya from his duties any more than I have already. I only nodded, leaving the throne room. It was around midday and there was so much I could do. Polish my skull collection, go for a nice walk, clean up around my ship, maybe even play my Nintendo Switch. Anything to get my mind off of Grandfathers death, even though I was forced to have blood relation with him by emerging from a Je'Trya clone, I still cared about him very much.

He was family, actual family. And I had fulfilled his last request to me, which was to see the Queen Mother head. Grandfather was astonished by my work, saying it was one of the cleanest cuts at the neck he'd ever seen. I of course was flattered, he had also met Nova and Zexal while on board my ship. Grandfather wanted to attack the King Xenomorph and vice versa, but he was far too weak to do so and I warned Zexal that there were other Yautja Warriors nearby. But Nova really loved Grandfather, she even ran up to him and gave him a tight hug. He of course was confused as to what Nova was, so after some explaining about her species and temperament, he really seemed to relax.

I entered my ship and headed towards the cargo hold, sliding down the ladder and hitting the metal floor. Zexal was sitting along one of the walls, his head down and tail occasionally twitching. He now had much more room after I had removed the head of my xenomorph Grandmother, which was now being cleaned by Je'Tryas servants to be hung in the throne room. The King Xenomorph slowly turned his head with a yawn.

"Now to what do I owe the pleasure of you visiting me?" He chitterec.

"Don't start that shit, Zexal. I only came down here to ask if you were hungry, you haven't eaten for a few days."

He chuckled, "You care about me, dear. You're not doing very well at hiding it."

I snarled.

"NO. I ask because you are my guest, I'm still pissed about you keeping me hostage. Now are you hungry or not?"

"I am a bit peckish, I crave something tough yet soft, bitter yet sweet. Do you have anything that could satisfy?"

Tough yet soft, bitter yet sweet. That's oddly specific.

"I don't think such a thing even exists." I hissed.

"Oh it does, and I'm looking right at it." He purred.

As Zexal was staring right at me, I understood immediately. I was dumbfounded, angered, and quite possibly offended.

"Zexal God Dammit! I'm not going to be your Queen! Get it through your thick skull! Or in your case, thick steel carapace. I tried being nice, but I'm done here. Go hungry for all I care."

With a growl I spun around and climbed back up the ladder into the cockpit. Do male Xenomorphs always come on so strong? Because this one certainly does. Thinks that if he's a King it automatically gives him the right to any female, makes me want to vomit. I wonder if Queen Xenomorphs are the same way, only to the best of the males. Queens do not need to mate in order to reproduce as they are self impregnating. But since Zexal is the first King Xenomorph, his way of thinking is certainly different.

I entered my room to see Nova sitting with her legs crossed on the floor, turning on the large Television with the remote that came with it. She turned her head to see me.

"Nova, what are you doing?" I ask.

"I was curious to see what this did, Mama. I pushed this red button and it turned on."

She held the remote out to me as I approached her. I sat down next to her and looked at the staticky screen with a bar that read "No signal", maybe if I turned on the Nintendo Switch something would happen. I grabbed the Switch controller which I had sat next to the large television, pushing the power button upon it. A blue light lit up on the controller, but the screen was still staticky. Hm, maybe I didn't plug them in tight enough. I looked behind the tv to check the cables.

No, they were in tightly and in the correct places. I had hooked a cable called HDMI to the gaming console, perhaps the television isn't on the right setting. Moving back to my previous sitting position, I look at the remote. There were buttons with numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 along with volume, channel, power, input, a select button and 4 arrows pointing in all directions. Input sounded to be the most promising, so I pushed the input button.

A menu came up with the options of TV, AVI, Composite Video, and HDMI. I push the right arrow button until it hit HDMI, pushing the select button. The screen went black for a moment and suddenly lit up with color, a strange humming tone in several pitches came from the television. The words "Welcome to Nintendo Switch, please insert a game" appeared in large English letters.

"Wowwww." Nova squeaked.

I had an entire bag full of games for this console, but the one that came with it sat next to the console. I picked up the game Super Mario Odyssey and opened the case, a small disc sat inside the case. Upon removing the disc carefully from the plastic case I place it in the thin slot on the console, the device ate the game disc as it was pulled in. A blue circular loading bar appeared on the screen and faded to black, silence fell upon us for a few minutes.

"Super Mariooooo...ODYSSEYYY!!!" The television shouted as the same character from the box appeared on the screen as a still image.

It startled the little Neomorph as I saw her flinch in my peripheral vision, grabbing her stuffed toy and hugging it tightly. I held the controller in my hands as the words 'Press A to continue' appeared in much smaller text beneath the main title.

This is going to be an interesting time.