Dark Blood

Chapter 16

Kara stared dumbfounded at her savior. "What?"

Dhi'ki-de sighed and repeated himself, only for the sake of formality, but Kara only heard the same guttural clicking as before. "Right." She shook her head, trying to comprehend that an alien had saved her for... whatever reason, and now she's talking to it.

"Do you speak any English?" she asked, hoping for the best.

Dhi'ki-de was able to get "you" and "speak," and he cursed himself for not taking his father's advice to learn the Ooman language better. It had never occurred to him that he would ever be in a situation where he would actually have to converse with an Ooman, but here he is. At least he was able to grasp what she was asking of him, to which he shook his head.

Kara huffed and got to her feet. Great. As she stood and brushed herself off, she was taken aback by just how much larger the alien was than her. She had thought it was big when sitting down, but damn. The fucker's bicep was bigger than her thigh! She was absolutely minuscule compared to it; the top of her head was barely at chest level and she had to crane her neck back to look at its face. Or rather, its mask. It was hard to tell in the dark, but she was pretty sure the alien didn't have tubes implanted in the side of its face (at least she hoped it didn't, because if it did, ew). She could see the bulky outline of armor on its shoulders and chest as well as on its forearms, knees, and hips. Its left shoulder had something attached to it, but she couldn't tell what it was exactly. All in all, Kara could tell that this was not something to be fucked with. It looked like it could tear her head off if it wanted to, and she sure was happy it wasn't in the mood.

She watched as it pointed to the dead Xeno behind her, the one she had killed, and then raised its finger at her. She could see a very deadly-looking claw at its fingertip, the sight making her gulp. Definitely don't want to be on the receiving end of those things.

"Um, yeah. I killed it," she said.

Dhi'ki-de nodded and clicked rapidly, pounding his fist against his chest. He was attempting to show her that he approved of her ability to efficiently kill a kiande amedha, and it seemed to have gotten across.

"Oh, you're saying 'good job.' Well, uh," Kara placed her own fist against her chest and bowed, hoping it had a universal meaning of appreciation. "Thank you." She felt a small smile twitch on the edge of her lips at the hilarity of the situation. Here I am, in an alien hive, being complimented by an alien. What the fuck has my life become?

Dhi'ki-de bowed in return, relieved that communicating was going much smoother than expected. At least she is an intelligent Ooman. I couldn't stand to try and communicate with one of the brutes.

Not wanting to seem rude to the alien (weird thought at such a time, truly) Kara decided to try to tell it what she had to do. She didn't want to waste any more time. Stephens probably needed her, and she was still itching for some payback.

"Ok, uh," she took a second to work out what she'd say in her head. Placing both hands on her chest, she began her dialogue.

"I need to go-," she pointed at the tunnel. "Kill-," she ran her thumb across her throat. "That-," she pointed at the dead Xeno. "A big one," she spread her arms as far as they could go both horizontally and vertically. The whole time, the alien watched unmoving. Kara stared at it, hoping desperately that something got through.

Dhi'ki-de watched, half amused but mostly grateful at how clearly the Ooman tried to communicate, even though she looked like a bird performing some deranged dance. Yes, he understood that she had to go... yes, she must kill more of them... wide and tall? What, the tunnel? Another room? That threw him off. He copied her last move, though not as dramatically, and shrugged, shaking his head.