Alternative Stories

(How the hell does this even work?) I thought, shocked at the absurd speed I was growing.

Not even a few hours ago I was a small snake-size creature that could barely be considered a threat to most other things, but now? Now I was far more humanoid in appearance, I had a dark armored exoskeleton and a long bladed tail, I could probably tear a fully grown man to pieces with relative ease if I used my razor sharp claws and I hadn't even reached my peak yet. As for my overall size, well, I had gone from being around one hundred centimeters long to standing around one and a half meters tall and four meters long, and yet despite this I was still continuing to grow.

Goldy for his part seemed quite fascinated by the whole process, I don't really understand why considering the fact he made this whole damn place to begin with. [Xenomorph biology is truly quite fascinating, I calculate that you'll become a fully-fledged adult drone within the hour at the very least.]

(Great.) I sighed sarcastically. (Honestly, even though I did watch most of the movies this is still ridiculous to see first hand.) I hummed while examining my body.

(Anyway...) I mused as I took a glance around my immediate area.

I had only been kept in that small enclosure for a rather short time before I was abruptly moved to this much more open space after I began molting my exoskeleton, a process that was incredibly unpleasant to say the very least. As for my current accommodations, well, I was in a completely sealed room that was five meters wide and tall but seven meters long.

There was nothing inside my containment room except for four rectangular lights that were protected by metal grates as well as several small holes in the ceiling that were used to pump in a kind of knockout gas. There was also a glass window built into the north wall that separated me from a viewing room as well as a heavily armored door blocking the exit on the far right of said viewing window.

(I do wish that I wasn't being constantly watched however.) I groaned in annoyance while glaring over at the researchers behind the glass window, they looked at me like a group of little children that were waiting for a puppy to do something interesting.

[It appears they are very interested in you.] Goldy hummed while stating the obvious.

Thankfully them being interested in me was a good thing. (For my plan to work that's actually great news, even if it's fucking annoying.) 

[Your plan?]

(If they are interested in me they are less likely to have me killed, after all I'm the only one of my kind right now.) I muttered with a mental shrug. (Of course if they are too interested in me things could get problematic and because of this little fact I have to be very careful with just how much I stand out.)

(I also need information, more specifically I need to know more about the planet that is probably below us.) I explained before continuing. (I'm assuming that there is a planet below us anyway. With my knowledge of media and considering that space stations are usually parked over planets I'm actually just guessing that my assumption is correct.) 

[An interesting theory indeed, I would just tell you the answer right now but where is the fun in that.] If I could roll my eyes at him I'd do exactly that right now.

(Thought so.)

(Anyway, let's try using one of my new superpowers shall we.) I had to admit I was a little excited to try this but that feeling soon vanished when I realized something rather important. (How does this work again?)

[I can't tell you that, sorry...well, I mean I could tell you how to do it but it's more entertaining to watch you figure it out on your own.] Goldy explained rather bluntly, I was starting to realize that he could be a rather annoying little prick when he wanted to be.

(Fuck...)

What followed was a long period of time where I simply sat completely still while mentally attempting to activate my mind control Gift, a process that I soon realized was far more difficult than I expected it would be at first. I have to honestly admit that it took way longer than I was originally expecting it would take me. In fact even with the information that I gained from the download of the Gift itself the process of activation was extremely difficult. 

Unfortunately my work was made even more annoying by the constant chatter I could hear from the scientist inside the observation room. The voices were somewhat muffled by the reinforced glass that separated us but I could still hear them somewhat. It would seem that they didn't really care about these little facts in the slightest, mostly because they saw me as nothing more than a mindless killing machine with a rather unique color scheme. Sadly for them they were incredibly wrong in their assumption and sadly for me they would have to keep thinking that way for now.

Anyway, the process of activating my gift was frustratingly difficult to say the least, it took all my self control not to lash out in irritated rage, thankfully however I succeeded. It took me what felt like an embarrassing amount of time but finally I managed to figure it out, although there was no satisfaction to be found as all my focus was directed towards maintaining the activation of the Gift.

I had to imagine my mental will, or whatever else you wanted to call it, was made up of thousands upon thousands of invisible strings that only I myself could see. Once that was done I sent them out, if you could actually see them they would look like a mass of writhing blue strings all clustered together to form several long tendrils that suddenly flooded out of my head like a wave. The length and reach of these tendrils seemed to be tied to my own mental strength, currently the tendrils could only expand outwards to around three hundred meters from myself. Of course, I failed in this process several dozen times but eventually succeeded in pulling it off. 

[Congratulations on using a Gift for the first time.] "No thanks to you", was what I wanted to say but I held my tongue for now.

(Thanks...I guess.) I responded while trying my best to keep focused on the task at hand.

(Okay...alright let's...let's give this a try shall we.) I muttered as I clenched my jaw.

With some more effort on my part these phantom tendrils of mine quickly attached themselves to the body of the closest person I could currently reach, said person just so happened to be a female scientist who was currently sitting inside of the observation room. The tendril passed through any solid optical as if they wanted even there before reaching the woman, once finally attached to her the tendrils widened and merged together to form a kind of psychic bridge between the two of us. Soon after as this took place I felt a kind of psychic link open up between us that was currently only one way at the moment, however I could feel it would become a two way connection once she was fully under my control...although there was a little problem that I didn't expect.

There was something at the other end of the link, something that was obstructing my path deeper into her consciousness. Within her mind there was a kind of barrier made of what seemed to be her own will power that was blocking any further advancement on my part, it was basically there to try and stop me from using my strings to probe any deeper into her mind.

(That was exhausting...) I muttered to myself, even though I had finally succeeded, the process had been rather mentally taxing on me. 

[Did you think it would go so easily even though it is your first time doing something like this?] Goldy asked with a somewhat mocking tone. [Of course it would be exhausting for you at first, your proficiency will increase over time however so you do have that to look forward to I guess.]

(Good...good to know.) I breathed out while lying down against the hard metal ground. (I'm gonna...gonna take a minute or so just...just to rest for a sec.)

[You should probably sleep, after all even though xenomorphs have a rather odd biology they still require sleep at times and you haven't actually slept since you first came here.]

(Yeah...yeah...) I muttered as I rested my head against the ground, it wasn't comfortable but what can you do?

I needed some time to fully recover so I curled up with my head facing away from the observation room and the idiots inside of it. (Well...here's to my further suffering...)

[Don't you mean "your further advancement"?]

(Nope...)