達人專欄Chapter 4
Focusing on Death
He was long gone dead.
What could be worse than being pregnant with the Abomination?
Scar leads Ooman quickly through the ancient corridors, the columns on either side brushing back, endless statues and murals emerging from every corner, darkness pressing down on their heads. The Queen is somewhere in the pyramid, about to break free, the silence of Ooman's death buried by the scraping sound of Hard Meat crawling.
Scar always had the feeling that Cetanu's hands were about to reach out of the darkness unnoticed or to meet Paya's intense gaze around the next corner.
He was still running toward the end of his destiny.
Fate, who was breathing loudly behind him.
Scar paused at a crossroads. The battle with Grid had greatly changed the timing and progress of the Pyramid Maze's reorganization, and he was not quite sure which was the quickest way out without running into the Queen and the Black Tide.
He had chosen the right side when Ooman's panting voice stopped him.
"No! No! That way," she pointed in the other direction, "go left."
There was an Ooman light device flashing on the floor of the passageway. Scar had no comment on the diversion; both roads could go out, and it was better to have Ooman's mark on the road.
The direction leading to the sacrificial chamber reminds Scar of the male Ooman dragged from the broken bridge.
Fate has not changed much, and the crucial reversal has not yet occurred, so Scar is hopeful. If fate can be changed this time, perhaps it can begin with a male Ooman?
Ki'cti-pa-di recognized the old path and continued to signal for Scar to follow, who had never given orders in his life and was used to being led, even if it was Ooman who led him. He only paused for a moment before passing Ooman and continuing to run.
Ooman's eyes can't see Hard Meat in the dark, but his electromagnetic vision mode can.
"Slow down a little," Ki'cti-pa-di grunted, "let me catch up."
Scar remained obedient and indeed slowed to match her pace, while Ooman watched, not knowing whether to be flattered or shocked.
They entered a demonic passage, with dark hive resin everywhere; the undried part was Hard Meat saliva. At the end, a hazy ice light led into the sacrificial chamber.
Ki'cti-pa-di still finds the Ooman weapon in the saliva—a Desert Eagle.
A faint, ghostly call came from somewhere: "Lex."
"Sebastian!" Lex replied emotionally. The kidnapped companion is here.
—"Lex". It was Ooman's name, which Scar hadn't noticed last time but wanted to remember now. He checked the translator: "Law". The hunter showed serious respect.
The Yautja's forked tongue wiped back and forth against the sharp teeth under the bio-mask, practicing the English "L," and the bio-mask repeated the pronunciation like a jumping needle, over and over again.
Scar found Sebastian first.
The male is embedded in what used to be his burial site, and the structure of Hard Meat's salivating secretions resembles an ordered relief, almost like part of a pyramid. This frescoed stone sculpture, which appears to be the outer shell of an evil deity, bears the head of a male Ooman.
"Lex…Help me…''
On the floor was a hot egg, opened and dried, and next to it was a stiff, dead Facehugger, with nothing but mucus on the male's face. Scar knew without scanning that the Facehugger had done its duty again.
He could drop the Plasmacaster's targeting laser on the male Ooman again or even fire it earlier, but then Ki'cti-pa-di would surely run into him again and push him away. With time to spare before the Queen breaks free, Scar decides to let Ki'cti-pa-di finish the task.
She is always in need.
"Oh, God... Sebastian..."
Blood bubbles burst from the corners of Sebastian's mouth.
"Lex... I..."
"Hang on, I'll get you out of there." Lex stepped forward and tore into the Hard Meat's tough nest. Scar didn't lend her his claws and watched as she pulled the Hard Meat tail stakes from her waist and continued digging, with a few pieces of the nest falling out.
Bio-mask scans show the latent Chestburster awakening in tandem with the male, and nothing has changed; Scar is almost indifferent, but in a very ordinary Yautja way: looking at destiny.
—Facing the dark and endless depths of space, the Yautja wait for hunting opportunities. When the hunt begins, death is either for oneself or for the target; if one finds a respectable prey, one gives a reward; if one fails in the hunt, one kills oneself to keep the last honor.
—The moment he realizes he's been infected by the Facehugger, Scar is calmer than he thought—no struggle with anger, just quiet frustration. He still has to finish Blooded; the hunt is not over, so he decides to do what a Yautja should do: get the weapon back.
At least he was able to keep the basic rule of not letting technology out of the clan.
Destiny is there, and turning away from it will not leave glory behind.
Scar wants to meet the Black Warrior and Paya to erase the shame of carrying the Abomination, and though he has lost the respect of the Clan in the world of the living, he still wants a place at the side of the gods.
This is the final trial (Chiva)... and for Lex as well.
"No!" Sebastian gasped. "It's too late. You have to stop these things."
The Chestburster's fall caused Sebastian to go into a seizure, making strange noises, foaming at the mouth, and repeating the same phrase over and over in a slurred manner: "Lex...they can't reach the surface..."
Time is up. He's going to die.
The way Sebastian looks up at the ice and sees through the light reminds Scar of his last fight, when he was strung up on the Queen's tail spear. He looks closely at Ooman's face for the first time outside of Lex, but Cetanu does not appear in the reflection of Ooman's eyes.
Scar came up behind Lex, who was still trembling as if she had no energy at all, but Scar knew she could always do the right thing on one side.
He puts a big hand on Lex's shoulder, a reminder and a warning, but it is immediately shaken off, and Lex lunges at the evil niche, hitting in vain at the bonds holding her friend.
"Don't worry, Sebastian. I'm getting you out of there!" Lex said this as if to reassure herself.
Scar grabbed her shoulders again, not so gently this time. He had to pull her back as Lex struggled against him.
"Get off me!" Lex's eyes moistened. "I have to help him."
Scar was still pulling her away.
"Let me go!" she screamed.
Scar's fangs touched the inside of the bio-mask, releasing the recording, "Make it to the surface." He played her own words back to Lex. This has been said. you and I. Think about it.
"I said get off me!" Droplets of hot water kept leaving Lex's eyes.
"Kill me!" Sebastian shouted with the last of his strength, "Do it."
Lex finally looked at her destiny and trembled as her friend was dying, until she finally had enough strength to lift the small weapon and aim it at her friend's head...
Sebastian jerked violently, Lex struggled violently, and the muzzle of the Desert Eagle shook.
"I'm sorry," she murmured.
The accelerated time between the two Oomans stopped with a shot.
Lex let go of her weapon, disoriented, and the empty clip of the Desert Eagle fell to the ground.
This pyramid has no more living creatures.
The Ooman team took away the weapons, indirectly killing two young Yautja one by one. The Isolated Clan set up to guard the hunting grounds, sacrificing dozens of Ooman lives; Yautja lost hunting brothers, Soft Meat lost companions, Scar left Lex, and Lex left Scar.
But what a miracle: they have no intention of recovering anything from each other.
Yautja's soul, hidden deep inside Lex, pokes its head out, and Scar's humanity expands. They are both hunter and prey, victim and perpetrator, partners.
When he eventually leaves the planet, the world of the living, or even this replica of the ritual, Scar will miss Lex and look forward to moving with her again, like any hunter looks forward to the hunt, doing whatever can be done. Hunting, climbing, trophy hunting, and avalanche racing.
Scar didn't really need to kill; the young hunters thought they would, and the old hunters always will. He knows he's become different from the other Yautja, but he hasn't become Bad Blood.
Sebastian is dead, but Scar's work is not done.
Lex may have completed the ordination ritual in action, but she was still an inexperienced new hunter, so Scar stood in front of this wall and waited until Chestburster broke out of the dead Ooman's chest and flew into his grasp.
Scar makes a disgusted gurgling sound as he snaps the evil little thing's neck (not the trophy he wanted).
From the depths of the pyramid comes an eerie scream that echoes throughout the underworld.
The Queen has broken free. It is time.
No matter how many times he hears it, the presence of the mother of the hive is still thrilling, and Scar, as Yautja, has an eternal fear and longing for her, and of course, self-knowledge.
"It's that bad?" Lex asked, looking at the frightened Yautja hunter.
Scar's twin hearts beat wildly. The end of fate was about to begin. He touched Lex's arm and played the recording again: "Keep it together... Make it to the surface."
Lex didn't seem to want to leave this horrible place just yet, shaking her head and saying, "We can't let these things get out of here." She has a Yautja attitude of due diligence, which is nice.
Scar opens his left wrist computer and sets up the Plasma Annihilation Device on the shiny keyboard. Last time he and Lex almost got swallowed by the avalanche, so he decided to delay a bit this time.
As for the brothers who went after the other Plasmacaster, if they are still alive, they will see the annihilation message he sent; if not, Scar looked at the computer without an echo and wished them all good luck before they died, having gotten rid of the Young Blood class.
The Annihilation Boundary is complete. Scar removes the complex device from the gauntlet and hands it to his inquisitive partner, tilting his head as if to say, Get it?
If the number of Hard Meat in the Blood Ritual gets out of control or the trial fails, the Yautja will destroy the entire hunting ground along with the monsters and the countless civilizations that have suddenly disappeared overnight throughout history.
The silly student replied, "I don't understand.
Scar touches the mini-computer first, then passes his fist to Lex and slowly spreads his fingers. The Hard Meats could not get out; Yautja had prepared for that.
"An explosion. That thing is a bomb?"
Sometimes Scar even felt that his communication with Lex would not be so difficult even without the translator. A feeling of satisfaction was born, and he even vaguely expected that Lex would become an "apprentice" of the Clan.
It is not unusual in the history of the Yautja to welcome foreigners... Of course, only the elders can decide that.
But the elders should not be in this hell. He's thinking too far ahead.
"It's a bomb!" Upon learning of its purpose, Lex, who had been mourning Sebastian, changed her face as quickly as a popping combistick and took over the minicomputer, her profanity coming out of Scar's bio-mask translator: "Well, I hope it kills every damn one of them!"
"..." Scar's jaws and teeth twisted under his bio-mask, and he suddenly understood why the Ooman voice in his predecessors' bio-mask was either a curse word or something worse. With Yautja, no Ooman could say anything good (especially since they had usually just escaped death or were facing it).
The microcomputer was thrown deep into the hot eggs, and the light panel had alien symbols pulsating in an orderly fashion.
They began to run and throw themselves in the direction of the exit.
The halogen lamps in the grotto were still on, casting a faint glow on the long, massive staircase of the pyramid and tracing shadows along the square columns in the two rooms of the staircase. Suddenly, a Yautja hunter stumbles out of the grotto and lunges at Lex.
Scar jerks his head back. It wasn't one of his brothers.
Lex's light fist slammed into the strange hunter, adding a kick like she did to Hard Meat, only to send the other hunter stumbling backward, wounded and surprisingly weak.
The strange Yautja hunter was not wearing a bio-mask; his lower jaw was twitching and writhing abnormally, and there were blood blisters around his fangs, just like the ones around Sebastian's mouth. He staggered backward and collapsed as his knees gave out.
Scar stepped forward to look at the strange companion, tapped his fangs quickly, activated the Plasmacaster on his shoulder, and switched to wait for the plasma flame. Lex was stopped in her tracks by the hunter's struggling howl, and she watched as he shook his head from side to side, spraying goo everywhere.
A wave rumbled across the hunter's chest.
Green phosphorescent blood spurted from its mouth.
Scar bites his own jaws.
If he hadn't died on the spear of the Antarctic Queen, this would have happened to him.
Lex watched in horror as the newborn baby of a Yautja's mandibles tore itself from flesh and bone, sticking its head out, spitting out an inner jaw, and tearing at the air as it struggled to free itself from its poor matrix.
Is this hunter also a prisoner of a copy of reality? Come here like him, then fail a second time and experience Yautja's most humiliating moment in front of them—the time of the broken chest (Z'skvy-de).
Three red dots glowed in the green blood of the Chestburster, and then Scar fired.
Highly heated plasma bodies hit the victims and the Predalien, burning everything and filling the area with black smoke, burying the bodies of the fallen hunter and Predalien, and emitting an unpleasant odor.
Scar and Lex stare at the reflective silhouette of the alien, completely engulfed in the dancing shadows of the fire.
—He was long gone dead.
What could be worse than being pregnant with the Ui'stbi?
As he watched Lex's back to the fire, Scar thought to himself, "Worse, he might see the same fate happen to him again, and all he could do was watch.
Novel's English correction accept, welcome to point out mistakes or provide constructive suggestions. But I will revise it after a while to avoid several different suggestions.
