Ship Name: Halenum
Company: Weyland-Yutani
Crew: 13 excluding 1(one) AI and 1(one) AI mainframe computer
Destination: Origae 6
Victoria Rivers
The android has thin fingers. They are cool to the touch and thus, I shrink away from him, cringing at the feel of cold, after so much time under controlled temperatures. The android is puzzled by my actions, tilting his head and I hold my hands up, hoping it hasn't taken offence. I have no idea what model this is, whether it's one of those who has impulses close to feelings or whether it's like the robots we used to be shown on holos. Either way, I'm hindering it's work and chide myself for acting like a child, it's just cold.
On Earth, I loved the cold but here, amongst stars and galaxies and places no other person has ever been, the cold was no longer friendly. The rest of the crew is still waking, someone yawns loudly and another hurls whatever the hell was still in their stomach into hopefully a bowl.
"Thank you." I say quietly to the android, I don't know his name as he has yet to have spoken and I wonder briefly if LIN-dir is down, as I can't hear his usual burble. He nods, his eyes tracing my face in a brief analysis.
"What was your name? It's slipped my mind I'm sorry." He pauses, mid pack-up and smiles gingerly in my direction.
"I'm Alexander. I'm the most advanced current model of my kind and I am Weyland-Yutani Industries most stable form of android, I am a technician and an empath and I co-ordinate the goings on within Halenum, so you don't need to worry about anything Miss Rivers. LIN-dir is currently down, his external modem was damaged when we passed into the quadrant and I'm working to fix this issue." I know for a fact one of the other crew members, Eleanor, hates androids and that she's going to have a shitfit when she finds out we have one on Halenum with us.
"What did you do whilst we slept? I mean, if that isn't too rude of me to ask." I mutter as an afterthought and another ghost of a smile distorts his features. He's a perfect specimen, so much so that I wonder if it were female scientists who created him as he's the most beautiful creature I have laid eyes on, though I keep this to myself. He does notice my heart rate rising and gives me a brief, concerned look when I shake my head nervously.
"I read, studied languages. Kept busy. I had manual tasks I had to complete and that often kept me busy for days. I wasn't bored." He is one of the more human androids I have ever encountered and I find his voice relaxes me. I wonder if that's a setting in their wiring. Androids aren't my section, though I've always had a lot of interest in them and the way Alexander is built intrigues me. He looks so human I could almost forget he isn't, however some back on Earth were clearly anything but. They looked more like robots than they did humans and it was unsettling, in my opinion. Eleanor has never told me as to why she hates the more empathetic versions but there's usually horror stories and stigmas surrounding the different types of android, empaths are the most dangerous but the most effective and now we have one on board.
I make my way down to where the crew showers are and select a standard set of clothes in my size before stepping inside and closing the cubicle. I discard the cryo clothes and step under the water. It's so hot that at first it scalds my skin, though I don't care, the water seems to wash all trace of cryo sleep off of me and for that I'm glad. I stretch my arms above my head and groan quietly as my entire body seems to loosen beneath the flow of water. Sounds bring my attention to the fact that there are now others entering cubicles beside mine and I wonder briefly who else is actually up and moving, last I checked I was one of the only ones that didn't get cryo-sickness. I wash my hair with shampoo, then conditioner before scrubbing at my shoulders and stomach with a bar of soap, all three smell the same and for a moment, I miss my selection on Earth. With a sigh, I tilt my head back into the steady flow, making a mental note to ask Alexander if there's any scent other than coconut available, I don't mind it but it's going to get old pretty damn quickly if we're stuck on the ship for the next 3 weeks before we reach the outskirts of the quadrant.
The feel of the towel, the softness, it feels almost foreign. Everything out here is hard, tough, made to survive, quite like the crew. I slip into the slim fit pants, pull a tank top over my head and slide into sneakers, they're white and thankfully they fit comfortably. The zip up hoodie I leave open as I dry my hair, it will only make me sweat and that reminds me of deodorant. Eleanor has a stack of natural ones but roll ons suit me just fine, mostly because the natural stuff doesn't do shit. Nodding at the captain, the other person in the changing rooms with me, I move towards the mirror. My hair is shoulder length, the longest allowed length out here. It's light, almost silver but that's probably due to my extensive use of toner back on Earth and as I yank half of it back into a bun, I can see I still have brassy undertones in the hair closest to the back of my neck. The bun is small but it opens my face somewhat and at the moment, I can't bear for it to be up, killing my circulation.
The captain, Chopra, is finger combing his hair back and I offer my brush to him, though he shakes his head to decline and I return it to my toliet bag, shoving the entire bag back into my locker and he moves in step with me as we head down to the main bridge. He moves heavier than I do which unsettles me a tad, I move near silently unless I'm in heels, so it probably has to do with how little I weigh and that I was a gymnast for 12 years. His wife is one of the few on this ship that I don't get along with, mostly because she's useless but also because she took my partner's spot in the crew, meaning Noah had to remain on Earth and I was on my own in space, with no one to rely on. No co-pilot. The only other pilot on the ship would be the android, as I now realise but I wouldn't trust him, not as completely, there were somethings I was okay with letting androids take care of but though empaths could think for themselves, they were still wired and that meant that they made the most intelligent choice, not always the right one.
Alexander and another man who I know to be Tate, are already up there, speaking quietly though they lapse into silence when we enter. I smile warmly at both of them, waving at Alexander who returns the gesture to my surprise. Chopra eyes me briefly but decides to keep his mouth shut as I head over to the cockpit, sliding into the chair I flick all the panels on one side up and then I can see in front of us. Space somehow feels less vast when you're in it, surrounded by blackness yet part of it and I pull up a holo, glancing over our itinerary briefly before I spin around on the chair, glad that I had detected Alexander moving to stand near me as otherwise it would have startled me. I smile up at him, standing so he's not towering over me.
"Miss Rivers, I checked this all out earlier and everything is under control, I believe I am the other designated pilot though you are acknowledged as the only other third tier besides Mr Chopra, so in the event of an emergency I will act as co-pilot only whilst you make all manual decisions. Otherwise, LIN-dir will make judgments which you and I will follow." I forget how intense empaths are, they can say something utterly earth shattering and be completely neutral and though I'm not surprised by his words, I'm a little taken aback by his tone, or therefore lack of. I wonder briefly if there is something amiss in his wirings and make another note to check in with LIN-dir that our AI is running smoothly.
The rest of the crew is dawdling in and Eleanor in the middle of making her way over. She scowls upon seeing the empath as she slips into the chair with me, her skinny ass on one of my thighs and I wrap my arms loosely around her stomach, her fingers drawing patterns in the small hairs coating my arms.
Chopra begins roll call then so I assume everyone's out, several people looking a little worse for wear and Eleanor shifts uncomfortably in my arms as we wait.
"Cameron." Daisy Cameron, physicist, makes amazing pancakes.
"Edwards." Luke, engineer and our resident asshole.
"Fuller." That's Eleanor, she's our human on-board medic.
"Melton." Scott Melton is an astrophysicist and he's bloody brilliant at what he does, plus he's the funniest guy I know. He waves a hand, notices me looking and shoots finger guns. I grin at him over Eleanor's shoulder.
"Napolino." There's two of them, the married Italian research couple, Valentina and Giacomo. Val and Jack for those who can't be fucked pronouncing their real names.
"Rivers." I wave a hand and briefly, all eyes are on me. The snarky pilot who has no co-pilot because of Chopra's useless wife. Everyone knows that story.
"Rupprecht." The German woman is quiet, intense even, she works the lab and has all the protocols committed to memory.
"Tashimo." Akari Tashimo is the Japanese rep for the company, short and smart, though she's not much fun. She and Chopra get along well and I think she's his second.
"Tate." The guy is all muscle, I don't even know what he does but he looks like he has more muscle on his body combined than in his brain.
"Valerie." Cue the oldest person aboard. He's nearing fifty, with dark hair that's grey streaked and really piercing blue eyes. He's the company's rep from America, he was an astronaut and they dragged him out to do this shit.
I spot Chopra's wife. She looks the worst and I grin behind Eleanor's hair. Everyone else on the trip knew they could handle cryo, but Mrs Priss, not so damn sure.
"I'd like you all to meet our resident android, Alexander, he's a technician and pilot so he will work with Rivers." I nod flatly and I see the rest of the crew press their lips together. We all know just why we have to have an android co-pilot.
"The mainframe AI, LIN-dir is currently down under maintenance, apparently he got hit on his outer modem so no one panic if you can't hear him." Chopra begins to tell the others miscellaneous stuff, like when we eat, where everyone sleeps and showers are separate. I roll my eyes at this though I notice Alexander is watching me. I want to draw him, he's so very pretty, almost perfect. His features are perfectly symmetrical, he's an artist's dream. Noah was the artist, she was the one who could create beauty out of few pencil strokes but me, everything had to be random. Lines, eventually joining, making a face, eyes, lips, nose. And you sit there, wonder what I'd drawn, a mess of lines, then step back and you'd see. Noah and I took art classes as our elective in college. I close my eyes then as an overwhelming wave of homesickness rolls over me, I miss Noah. I miss Australia. I miss home. A throat is cleared and I realise everyone's eyes are on me. I glance at Chopra and then Alexander, in my ear, hisses.
"He wants to know if you want full control of the flight deck while LIN-dir is under maintenance." I nod, both at Chopra and at Alexander's words and spin back around on my chair, Eleanor had gotten off me at some point in my reverie and is chatting to Luke. I'd forgotten the two of them were close. Instead of brooding, I turn my attention to the flight computer and my holo, assessing the course we are on when I see it, nearly 20 minutes after everyone has headed to their own quarters or to do their own thing, glinting slightly off screen but it's still visible.
"Hey, Chopra, is there supposed to be another craft all the way out here?"
Alexander
I knew that she would see it. She was one of the most perceptive humans I'd encountered, despite her still being nearly as clueless as the others. LIN-dir had supposedly been the only AI for the journey, I had been a last minute addition from Weyland, the founder's son himself had requested that we investigated a ship on the outer rim, there were murmurs of possible life forms aboard and though I was the only one briefed on such matters, LIN-dir had acknowledged the plans, though I knew he would not spout them to the humans.
Rivers was a difficult situation. She was both beautiful and kind, which would make it harder in time for me to do what I had to do but she was the only one aboard the ship who wouldn't have a pair, making her the easiest accessible for the mission I had to complete before we entered orbit of the ship that they were calling Apollo, for reasons both unknown and humorous to several but clearly some members of the crew don't find it funny. Meera, the captain's wife, laughed but the way Rivers' face tightened, her limbs froze and her eyes narrowed, it was not humorous. Fuller does not laugh nor do Tate or Valerie and Rupprecht, Tashimo and both Napolinos look confused. Melton scoffs, Cameron rolls her eyes and I watch Rivers' back as she leaves the room, the door shutting silently behind her. Fuller watches her leave and I note the sadness that washes her face. The two of them are friends, I have noticed.
I find her in the gym. Her hair is loose and silver streaked and she is lithe, not a crouching tiger as such but she would make a convincing leopard or cheetah. She is fast and there is strength in the muscle that cords her limbs, she lunges and dances across the mat, her body a blur of movement. I wait for her to slow, I know she's been aware of my presence since I entered the room so I stand at the edge of the mat patiently. She jogs over soon enough, wiping her mouth after she tips water into it and I smile at her. She returns it quickly, folding her arms to hide her stomach and she jitters from foot to foot.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" I ask her and she chuckles as though my question is amusing. It wasn't meant to be but I smile anyway.
"I was in the war, for those of us who joined late, we had to know how to enter into combat, with or without firearms. Given how low the count of firearms was towards the end of the war, we were pretty safe, though they bombed the shit out of my team. It was me and Noah that survived, that's why we started flying together in the first place." She sits on the edge of the mat, crossing her legs and toying with the frayed hem of her pants. She had long fingernails, painted black and one is chipped.
"Noah was supposed to be the other pilot. We went to school together, joined the war effort together. We were supposed to come out here together, live and die out here, in space but it wasn't meant to be. We didn't speak after she got denied. Well, I tried but she pushed me out. Noah would have loved it out here." She leans back, falling backwards and lays on the ground, her face turned up towards the ceiling. It's reflective of the other side, teleglass and through it, I can see space. She stares out at it with a look I can only think of as being wistful on her face. I notice she is no longer smiling.
"You like stars?" I ask before I can stop myself. I know she likes stars. She majored in astronomy in college, her elective was fine art and her minor was in physics. She'd dreamed of stars on the journey here, she was one of the few who dreamed frequently so I got them, got to see inside her head. Weyland said she would be the best one for the implantation because she was smart and quick-thinking as well as stubborn and untrusting. She would be the only one to survive, as long as I got it into her. She looks at me then. Her eyes are sad and in them, I can see my reflection. I look away and I sense her stiffen slightly. She thinks she's upset me.
"Yeah, I love stars. They were so cold, yet so beautiful and untamed, I fell in love with them when I was very young. My mum loved them too, she even made my middle name her favourite thing in our solar system. It was supposed to be my first name but dad said no, it was too weird. Jupiter. I love the name," She talks softly, her voice full of emotion and for a bizarre moment, I want to put my arm around her. I don't, I cannot risk attachment if the implantation goes wrong.
"Victoria Jupiter Rivers. They called my sister Olenna and my brother Lucien and I got Victoria," She scoffs, smacking the mat gently with her palm. Victoria means victory. I wonder what that foreshadows.
The craft we are now bound for, under Tashimo's and Chopra's discretion, is a hostile one. They don't know this. I do. David 8 may have attempted to disguise his identity to the crew, but the moment Weyland picked up the familiar patterns, he ordered a halt on the ship and for them to wait until we joined them. We were already on route and given the closeness of our communications, David 8 was able to send LIN-dir and I a message. I was able to communicate with him, several times, briefing him on who and what was on board. He was particularly interested in Victoria, for reasons I did not concern myself with but I made it quite clear she is the one Weyland wishes to survive, to that he chuckled.
We would dock on Covenant within the next week and I could already pick up on the way the crew felt about this. Most of the crew were nervous, they had heard of the disaster that plagued the Covenant crew though something that made me think was that Victoria was looking forward to joining the Covenant something I eventually asked her about. She was one of the only ones who kept their own hours, she usually woke when the rest of the crew was having dinner and would head to her quarters about the time they started lunch, Fuller, Tashimo and Melton did the same, though I had previously noted that three of them seemed to be friends and Tashimo was attempting to fit it with them as she seemed to realise they were an easier going bunch than the others. Rupprecht, who Tashimo was also close with, kept odd hours, even more different Victoria's and she slept a fair bit, I believed she was the designated partner to Tashimo and thus the two spent a lot of time together.
I was on the main deck analysing the proposed flight path and I hadn't heard her enter the room, the only thing that unnerved me about Victoria was how quietly she moved, I could rarely pick up on when she entered a room if she was moving quietly enough and if she didn't announce herself, meaning I usually kept cameras on her to track her movement as neither LIN-dir or I detected her and often sensors didn't either, leaving areas she entered in darkness though she didn't seem to mind it. The first inkling that I was alone was when something spun in the corner of my vision, I swung around to greet whoever it was but there seemed to be nowhere there, so I resumed my analysis, turning back around and there she was. Her hair was damp and held off her face in a small half bun, the rest of her hair reaching her shoulders in short waves and the freckles dotting her skin seemed very dark against her golden skin.
"Hey Alex," She said, drinking from a mug I hadn't noticed her holding, a smile touching her lips as she eyed the systems in front of us. She was the only one to give me a nickname, she said it was the Australian in her but I was quite pleased, nicknames implied affection and that was what I needed from her. She seemed quite comfortable in my presence as well, she constantly smiled and nodded at me if we saw each other and if she was feeling like a sparring partner, I was always the one she would ask.
"Hello Victoria," She had allowed me to call her that and I had been thrilled, apart from Fuller and Melton, everyone else was to call her Rivers. We didn't often had long conversations on the main deck, that was usually reserved from the gym when she had beaten me. She often beat me. She had worked out my patterns and I had yet to totally understand hers, which means she beats me, though it takes her a while, she has beaten me more times than I have beaten her. She's fast, faster than I can hope to match. She's hard to anger as well, I can taunt Chopra and Tate into lashing out but she rarely snaps and weakens in anger.
"You are looking forward to joining Covenant?" I ask, attempting a curious note in my tone and she catches it, her eyebrows wrinkling for the briefest of moments before her face smooths over again, dark eyes set as her expression totally evens out. She nods then and I note her discomfort, she's picking at her fingernails and her eyes flash from my head to my feet in a quick sweep.
"Yeah, I am actually. My friend Daniels, she's one of the crew on the Covenant. I met her when she and her husband were doing Everest, we climbed together and she's the one who suggested I step up for Halenum. It's probably better that Noah didn't join us, they didn't get along very well, Noah was outspoken and Dani, she's a lot more quaint with her words. You'll like her, she's smart and she's very kind." She closes her eyes briefly and I assume she's reliving another moment so I lapse into silence to allow her mind to run. Then she opens her eyes again and sighs gently, I note moisture in her tear ducts though her heartbeat is even.
"I was friends with another member of the crew, we trained together before we were accepted onto our individual journeys. To my knowledge, she is one of those deceased on the ship." There's a sadness in her eyes, it's unmissable and I feel like I should offer her support of some kind but she tightens her lips and the conversation is over. Her eyes roam the system grid and I watch her closely as she places a finger on a spot I had not investigated.
"That's moving. Wha- why is it moving?" Her eyes are wide as she expands the grid, confusion darting across her features and I advance on the board, noting the speck she has enlarged. When she speaks next, her voice is risen in a tremulous fashion.
"What the fuck is that?"