Several hours later, Zhang Heng hid in a corner covered in blood while panting very hard.
His security suit was severely worn and damaged, so much so that even the mask had been punched through by a high-pressured projectile that was fired from a xenomorph's tooth.
If it hadn't been for the extremely tough mask, it would have been Zhang Heng's skull that had been penetrated instead of the mask he was wearing.
Then again, it was not like he was suffering a one-sided slaughter in the intense battle that had lasted for hours. The number of xenomorphs that ended up dead by his hands had reached double digits, and better still, he got his hands on the antifreeze.
He wore a bitter grin looking at that tube of the neon-colored drug in his hand. The location that it was stored was at the warehouse next to where the xenomorph queen was. The closer he got to the queen's location, the more he was perceived to be trying to harm the queen, and as a result, the xenomorphs' resistance became more intense.
The most perilous situation that he found himself in was having to fight three xenomorphs attacking him at the same time.
Even though he managed to make it through due to the suit's defensive capabilities, which enabled him to kill all three head-on, he had nonetheless taken quite a lot of damage himself.
Most of his ribs were broken, his left arm was broken, he suffered a mild concussion, 20 percent of his body suffered burns, and he had suffered other damages such as internal bleeding. His combat capacity was decreased by 60 percent. Both of his Desert Eagles were rendered completely useless, and he had only one triangular bayonet left with him.
"You really are something." Jennifer's astonished voice was heard in the hold, and she continued to talk in a completely baffled manner. "I've never seen a warrior as powerful as you are, and hell, you were using traditional firearm weapons! If I were to put a high-output railgun or energy weapon in your hands, I believe that you'd be able to wipe out every single xenomorph on the ship on your own!"
Zhang Heng shook his head and didn't pay any heed to the praises showered on him. He simply replied in a self-depreciative manner, "I've basically lost all combat capacity now. If there's one more xenomorph near me right now, I could guarantee that I'd be the one to end up dead instead."
"Relax. I'm keeping an eye on the surveillance. All the remaining living xenomorphs have retreated to the lair protecting the frightened queen. So long as you don't go about snooping around and trying to destroy the eggs, the queen sure as hell isn't going to try to attack you."
"That's good to hear." Zhang Heng nodded and a smirk was suddenly seen on his face. "Well, if the xenomorphs aren't going to lurk about the ship, is it safe to say that you could finally get out of that shell of a command center of yours and come out to help me fix the damned engines?"
"What did you just say?" The voice from the speaker was suddenly raised by one whole octave. "Hey, that's not part of our deal, all right! You said that you would help me fix the ship's engines after you got your hands on the antifreeze!"
"Well, I've changed my mind." Zhang Heng struggled to sit on the floor. Then he took out a bottle of water and a biscuit from his backpack and wolfed them down. "I've killed two digits' worth of xenomorphs for you and risked my neck the entire time. But you…you were just holing up in that shell of yours and barking out orders the entire time. What else have you been doing?"
"You..." The young woman's voice coming through the speakers was furious, and she yelled, "Don't godd*mn forget that we still have a xenomorph battleship on our tail. If you're not gonna fix the engines, we'll end up dead all the time."
"That's your problem." Zhang Heng chuckled coldly and continued to talk without a care. "I've done everything I needed to do. You seriously are not thinking that you could get me to risk my neck for you just by giving me a bit of info, right? You have two choices now. One, you leave the ship's engines be and let that humongous xenomorph battleship behind you fish you out from your shell like some cat. Or two, you get your a** out of the command center, fix the engines, accelerate, and lose that alien battleship behind you. Whether you wanna die or you wanna live, it's your call."
"You despicable good-for-nothing!" The voice from the speaker yelled away, "I'm not gonna leave the command center. Don't even think about it!"
Zhang Heng shook his head and paid no further heed to the woman's furious shouts.
He needed to stay in that plane for 36 hours, which meant that even if he were to repair the ship, it was not like he could rest easy after the ship escaped that humongous threat behind him as all the remaining xenomorphs in the ship could have still killed him anytime, anywhere.
In that case, the best course of action to take was to find a safe place to hole up in and inject himself with the antifreeze.
Common sense dictated that there was no place safer in the entire ship than the command center. Not only was the command center protected by thick barriers, but also it was not connected by the ventilation ducts found throughout the rest of the entire ship, making it difficult for even the xenomorphs to get in.
Zhang Heng didn't trust the woman in there at all, and there was no way he could have let her operate on him after injecting himself with the antifreeze. Doing so would be no different than putting his life in her hands after all.
As such, the second part of his plan after getting the antifreeze would be to force her to open the barriers of the command center and hold her hostage just so to ensure that she won't do any harm to him within the remaining hours. He was fully willing to kill her if she were to dare to resist.
At that moment, Jennifer was still completely oblivious to Zhang Heng's plans, but her instincts compelled her to keep her guard up against him. She knew full well that if she were to leave the protection of the command center, the other man might very well be the one who threatens her safety.
Jennifer gulped subconsciously seeing from the surveillance footage that Zhang Heng was eating. While the command center was non-impenetrable, there was no food found in there. She felt no sense of hunger when she was asleep, but given that she had awakened, that compelling urge of hunger washed over her like waves crashing on rocks.
"Umm, if you're afraid that I'd do you any harm, I could assure you that you don't need to," Zhang Heng, whom she continued watching from surveillance, said again suddenly. He took a huge gulp of water and wiped his mouth satisfyingly before continuing, "Well, you should know that I still need you to operate on me and help me take that chestbuster out of my chest. Wouldn't that point alone be a good enough guarantee saying that I'm not going to hurt you?"
Jennifer felt shocked and frowned before she retorted, still being on guard. "I've agreed to operate on you in the first place. Why are you still forcing me to get out?"
"Because I don't trust you." Zhang Heng pointed at his head and elaborated in a brutally honest manner, "Think about it. If you were to be in my shoes, would you place your faith in someone whom you've never seen, who had been doing nothing but holing up in their shell the entire time while you do all the dangerous heavy lifting?"
Jennifer was immediately rendered completely silent.
"So do you get what I'm saying?" Zhang Heng led her along and continued, "Unless I've gotten tired of living, harming you before you get to operate on me would be no different than harming myself. That is the most effective guarantee you'll be getting from me. Besides, I'd have no way of fighting back when I'm on the operating table, right? If you happen to bear any ill will to me, then there would be no way I'm coming out of the operation alive. That means that I'd rather take you to hell with me than to reduce myself to being your tool. If you want to live, then you have one choice, and that is to fix the engines of this damned ship yourself and put me in the command center. What you need to bear is the risk of xenomorphs attacking you."
Jennifer stayed silent for quite a while as she weighed the pros and cons, fighting with herself deep down.
She didn't want to die, so she had no choice but to trace Zhang Heng's line of thought. It was obvious that she needed something from him, and as such, he had no reason to harm her. She had analyzed down to the last detail from what he said trying to find out if he was trying to set her up. However, regardless of how she went about it, she was unable to find any reason why he would want to harm her.
Half an hour passed with the speakers being completely silent. Zhang Heng spent the entire time resting and recovering his strength while checking the detector in his hands. It seemed that the xenomorphs had been intimidated. Despite all that time passing, there was not a single xenomorph who came out and attacked him.
Jennifer finally spoke after half an hour. She spoke with a rather shaky voice at that time. "All right, I'll agree to your terms, but on one condition."
Zhang Heng lowered his head and flashed a cold smirk on his face, asking, "And what would that be?"
"You'd need to head and fix the engines with me. I'm afraid that there would be xenomorphs out to attack me, and you'd have to know that I'm utterly incapable of fighting," Jennifer said, stating her condition.
"You have a deal."