"What the hell?" Huyck said loudly. He drew his sidearm, but Halley reached out and held his arm down by his side. Palant was pleased to see that. She would have hated to think these warriors were threatened by science and knowledge. "It's a lab," Palant said. "The Yautja don't only destroy They learn. We've known that for years-it's obvious,
because much of their technology is far superior to ours. "I guess we're seeing where some of their tech comes from," Sprenkel said.

"We've long suspected it," Palant agreed. "I think this is confirmation. They borrow from other civilizations." She walked closer to a nearby pedestal and examined what it contained.
There was a small silvery globe, speckled on the
outside with precious stones that changed color and
size in a constant, dazzling display. It was held in a containment field. She had no idea what it was or what its function might be, but she knew that it was alien. Elsewhere, a hive of flying things, each as large as her thumb, buzzed and worked as if in ignorance that their every movement and moment was being observed. The structure they hovered around and within consisted of some sort of crystal. Images flowed back and forth across its surface.

Palant couldn't quite see what they were,
because they were moving too quickly, like fragments of a dream eluding capture. The Yautja had arranged a series of sensors around the hive, that might have been cameras,radiation gauges, and a variety of other measuring and evaluation devices. One of the marines muttered something.
Another gasped. "Look here, Palant," Halley said. She and her DevilDogs were gathered around another station, and Palant heard a curious note to her voice. When she approached and they parted, she was fully expecting to see something to do with the Xenomorphs.

On the platform, surrounded by an array of tubes and sampling devices, was a creature about the size of her fist. As with every other sample-and the android, even now glaring around from the center of the large room-it was restrained in a soft blue containment field. Wires and tubes penetrated its thin, opaque hide or skin. Its insides
45

In the center of the room, the largest containment field hummed and glowed, and the android's single wet eye stared directly at her.
"I'll know you," she said. The room's main door darkened and a shape walked in. Palant's datapad clicked into life, and its mechanical voice translated the new arrival's first few words.
"I am Yaquita. Do not fear me."

"Easily said," Bestwick mumbled. "Shit, what do they feed these things?" Palant glanced down at the datapad, terrified that she might have left it on voice recognition, and that Bestwick's words would have been translated and sent. In truth, perhaps looking away had been an unconscious ruse to grab her breath.

Yaquita was unlike any Yautja Palant had ever heard
of or seen. Legless, the creature entered the room on a wheeled platform, eschewing hover technology for a more mechanical means. It must have been over nine feet tall. Long dreadlocks trailed across the floor, constantly at risk of being crushed by the wheels, yet always appearing to be missed. Its dark, leathery skin was marked by a network of tattoos, tusks worn and yellowed, one eye
missing and replaced with a mechanical one that hummed and clicked as it swiveled in the creature's great skull.

Yaquita's hands were large, long-fingered, and almost delicate in appearance. Palant assumed it was a female, although that was difficult to tell.
She couldn't decide whether Yaquita was ancient and
worn by time and experience, or young and wounded.
Even her one remaining natural eye gave no real clue. Indeed, if eyes were windows onto the soul, then Yautja seemed soulless. Palant was an atheist, and had no interest in old religious beliefs, other than as a historical curiosity.

Yet the idea of soullessness was still somehow disturbing. She tapped at the datapad. "Your samples are fascinating." Yaquita seemed to laugh, swaying on her platform. "I'm glad you like them," she replied. "They are my...fascination."-pg44-48