Their faces like marble. Opaque complexion on perfect Adonis form.
"Kill yourself." Said the old man. "Go on. Kill yourself."
"Okay." The large man with head bowed made his way to the waterfall while the others skedaddled in their spaceship.
Disrobing, he felt a sudden thirst. I should have a drink before I throw myself off, he thought.
The black liquid looked decidedly unsatisfying, but he was spitting feathers. He wanted to wet his whistle before the leap to his death.
Mmmm, it was yummy. But, lo, he felt his skin crawl. He cursed those on the spaceship as they watched his faux pas on their view screens, laughing at his asininity.
As his skin fell off, he tumbled down into the cooling embrace of nothingness.
(2)
"Charlie! Charlie, come quickly!" Shouted Ellie.
Big men on a cave wall pointing to constellations that looked like others they'd found around the world.
"Oh, Ellie, this is
(3)
Meredith Vickers walked along the corridor, deep in though. She never really enjoyed meeting a room full of new employees, but she wanted to make them at ease. Four years in space was a long time to ask someone to give her, and her company. While they were away in deep space, everyone's family would be growing older in separation.
She opened the door to find her father, Peter Weyland, regaling them with a story about the old days, "We used to make them out of plastic. Hard plastic. They looked cute, but if you look at David... isn't this what we want in our droids? Human perfection."
"Thank you, father." Said David.
"You're welcome, David- oh, and here is my daughter, Meredith. Meredith Vickers. She'll be in charge during the mission. I'll be tagging along of course, but I'll be staying in cryo-sleep. If you need me, only David will be able to communicate with me. So if anyone wants a raise. Ask now!"
The room laughed and Meredith giggled. Her father was such a joker. "Thank you, father. You should go now. We'll see you in two years." She kissed his forehead tenderly as he wheeled away on his motorised cart.
Polite applause as he left.
"Thank you, everyone. As my father said, my name is Meredith, and it is my job to make sure you are all comfortable doing your jobs. If everyone can introduce themselves, then I will fill you in on the details about which we haven't yet spoken." She looked at the biologist. She would leave the two archaeologists till last.
"Hi. The name's Millburn. I'm a
(4)
"There are knee pads lined out so you don't hurt your knees, lads and ladies." Said Captain Janek. "Try to get all of the contents of your stomach into the buckets if the sinks are taken. Let someone know if any vomit gets on the floor so we can get David to clean it up. You okay with that, David?"
"It would be my pleasure, Captain. I'm here to carry out the tasks you people find objectionable."
"Thank you, David. Everyone thank David, please."
"THANK YOU, DAVID." Came the collective response.
David smiled.
(5)
Meredith invited Elizabeth and Charlie into her room. It was in fact the vessel's lifeboat. "You'll have to excuse me. I've always had this fear of death. I know that sounds cowardly, but..."
Elizabeth wanted to reassure her, "No that's fine. It's got us all nervous. We're billions of miles from home. No paramedics to come help us if we have an accident."
"Thank you, Doctor Shaw."
"Elizabeth. Please. We're working so closely. Please call me Elizabeth."
Meredith nodded and smiled. "Okay, I just want you to know that whatever we find – if we find anything, just log it and make sure we can clearly see it on the view screens, okay?"
"Of course." said Charlie. "We need everything chronicled. This is our life's work."
"Would you like a drink? Vodka? Up?"
"I don't know what that means." Said Elizabeth.
Meredith laughed as
(6)
"Everyone please strap yourselves in." Announced Janek over the intercom. "We're going to be entering the atmosphere in the next ten minutes. Thank you. Your safety is of top priority
(7)
"My god. That's amazing. Look at those structures. Like pyramids or something. We should put down somewhere close to the outer
(8)
"Everyone. Be careful out there." Meredith told them. She seemed more bold than she had before.
Elizabeth could see she was nervous. They all were. It was understandable.
They loaded themselves onto the buggies and Meredith continued speaking over their audio feed. "We think there will be a storm in the next three hours. I want you all back in one hour. These structures will be here tomorrow when the weather is more settled."
Fifield cursed, "Bollocks." Before realising the others could hear him. "Sorry guys. I'm just a bit, you know, pumped."
"No worries, pal." Charlie put a hand on the man's shoulder
(9)
"Pups." Exalted Fifield. "My pups. Go on lads."
The devices flew off, bringing a smile to the faces of the others.
"Hey," said Ford, "the air is breathable here."
"I hope you're not considering taking off your helmet." Said Elizabeth.
Ford laughed. "No. It's pouring with rain and we still don't know what killed that big alien."
Elizabeth looked at her boyfriend. "How about you, Charlie. You're not gonna take off your helmet, are you?"
"Me? Not likely. Too many unknowns to take off my
(10)
"It's just incredible." Charlie couldn't hold back the tears. "All these discoveries in one room. The life form, the murals, the vases and the little creatures swimming about in the black goo." He whooped loudly.
Meredith's voice interrupted them. "Back to the ship, guys. Time's up."
"I want to stay here a little longer." Said the biologist, Millburn. "There's just so much data to process and there's a spare vehicle-"
"Sorry, Millburn, you can process it on the ship. I just can't leave you there. You're too valuable. Okay?" Meredith sounded sympathetic, but earnest. She would not be moved on this.
"Sure. I'm just a little
(11)
"Oh my god. It's a ship!" Janek seemed overjoyed. The others couldn't believe it.
They all hugged each other.
Fifield sat down and cried into his hands. His pups had discovered an alien spaceship.
"Well done. Well done to all of us." Meredith was beside herself.
(12)
"WE'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Shouted Elizabeth as they ran from the huge opaque humanoid. "HE'S KILLED MR. WEYLAND!" Her tears could be heard as she sniffed them back through trembling voice, interspersed within a struggle to take in oxygen in her spacesuit.
"IT KILLED FORD TOO." Came Charlie's voice.
"AND ONE OF THE MERCS." Added Fifield. "I DON'T KNOW HIS NAME. OH MY GOD. THIS IS TERRIBLE."
"HOW COULD IT ALL HAVE GONE SO WRONG?! WE'D BEEN SO CAREFUL!" Said Millburn.
David who was bringing up the rear reminded them of his findings, "I believe the depiction of Earth in their star chart wasn't just there to show we were going to be visited. With this new information – watch your step everyone as we exit the building – I believe the alien is going to transport these biological weapons to Earth. I'm pretty sure Miss Vickers was correct in her postulation that there had been an accident that killed the others and the resulting outbreak killed the rest of his crew. This is so terrible."
(13)
"You have two years of life, everyone. It has been such a pleasure to work with you all." Said David as he piloted Prometheus along its collision course with the departing alien spaceship.
"I love you." Cried Meredith. "We all do."
The others held each other close. The mission had gone so badly wrong that this should happen now and their discoveries
(14)
The eleven remaining survivors piled on top of the large alien who'd managed to traverse the hostile atmosphere outside without any need for breathing apparatus.
"You motherfucker." Shouted Fifield as he threw a punch.
"You killed my father." Screamed Vickers as she aimed a kick to its ribs.
"And David." A punch.
"And Ford." A stamp.
"And the mercenary - whatever his name was." More stamps. More punches. More abuse.
(15)
The alien lay lifeless. They had stopped themselves as his struggling abated in the hope they could tie him up and get some answers... but their attack had been savage.
As Janek sent the distress signal back to Earth, the others gathered round the big alien and dragged him to the cold storage. They would examine him while they waited for rescue in about eighteen month's time from a military vessel that was known to be somewhere in the vicinity of the Centauri stars. That wait would be long. It would be difficult. But they were still alive. They had planned the expedition well and only a few unforeseen circumstances had caused these unpredictable, but catastrophic errors. This is what exploration was. They would learn. They would be better prepared next time. They would be better.
The End