ALIEN: GENESIS
Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.
CHAPTER 03: ARRIVAL
USCSS GRAND OAK, NEARING ORBIT AROUND PLANET 4, MARCH 01, 2105
"Well, there it is," Nestor Thompson said as he sat back in his seat on the bridge. The crew looked out the main viewing screen of the Grand Oak at the planet. "Looks kind of like Earth," York commented from her seat. "Yeah, is it as much of a shit-hole, though?" Burt Conrad asked from his seat.
"Check for signs of the Covenant. I want to know if she's still in the system. But don't initiate contact with her," Lansbury said as he accessed a program on his console. "Yes, Captain," Nestor said as he initiated a short-range environment scan to pick up remnants of FTL jumps and other signs of space travel in nearby.
"Norris, check to see if there are any transmissions in the area. See if the Covenant is broadcasting anything, but don't make contact with her. We still don't know the full details of the situation, and I want things to be low-key for as long as possible," Lansbury said. Norris nodded his head and initiated a communications scan, searching for transmissions, no matter their age, from the Covenant.
After a few minutes, Norris blinked in confusion as he held his headset up to his ears. "Well, I'm picking up the signs of a relay unit floating around somewhere near the planet's orbit, but nothing else. I think-hold on, I've got something new here," Norris said. "Is it the Covenant?" York asked curiously. "I don't know," Norris said. "It's garbled. I can't make it out," he added.
"Let MUTHUR handle it. Maybe she can figure it out," Earl suggested. "Good idea," Norris said in agreement with the synthetic. He quickly patched the garbled transmission through to MUTHUR, allowing the computer to use the full breadth of the ship's communications suite to intercept and study the transmission.
"Nestor, is anything on the nav-systems yet?" Lansbury asked as the crew waited for MUTHUR to work on the garbled transmission. "Other than the relay unit that Norris mentioned, there's no sign of them, sir. Wait... we're picking up some particles indicative of a recent FTL jump. They're pretty sparse, though. No exact age, but I'd say the jump was definitely within the past two months," Nestor replied.
"So they already left the system?" Pedderton asked from his console as he checked the Grand Oak's scan on his console. "Most likely," Lansbury said from his seat. "Wonderful," Sanford grumbled as he flipped a few switches on the instrument panel above him. "So, do we trace the trajectory of the particles and go after them now?" York asked from her seat.
"Negative," Lansbury said. "What? Didn't we come here specifically to look for the Covenant?" Pedderton asked him in confusion. "We came here to investigate why they changed their course... and to find their current location," Lansbury explained.
"But if they've already left, why aren't we going after them?" Pedderton asked. "Because we still need to know what brought them out here in the first place," Emmitt said from his seat behind Captain Lansbury and next to Warner. "Captain, MUTHUR's unscrambled the transmission, but we need a holo-console to play part of it," Norris said.
"It's holographic? It's not from the Covenant, is it?" York asked. "Uh, probably not," Norris replied, shaking his head. "In fact... it's coming from the planet's surface," he added as he checked the data on his console screen. "Alright, have MUTHUR prep the holo-table in the commons room. I want everyone to join me there in ten minutes," Lansbury said. "Nestor, keep us in orbit and have MUTHUR analyze those FTL jump particles. I wanna know when the Covenant left and what its heading was," Lansbury instructed the navigation officer.
"Aye-aye, Captain," Nestor replied as he began running through programs on his console, pressing buttons, and flipping switches. "You can handle the workload, Babe," Nestor said casually to the computer. "We wouldn't have ya if you couldn't," he added before getting up from his seat to join the others in the commons room.
GRAND OAK COMMONS ROOM...
The blue holographic particles that made up the transmission danced back and forth, up and down, left and right, and all around as the message played over the holo-table. An unidentifiable tune was being played alongside the imagery. The holographic message had the vaguest impression of someone's body moving its arms around.
"What the heck is this?" Conrad asked in bewilderment as the message began replaying. "Don't know, but I don't think it's human," Hamilton said as he watched the holographic image move around. "I don't know about that," Lansbury said. The sound of the transmission was still indecipherable, however.
"MUTHUR, play the recording backwards, please," Lansbury asked. The message soon began playing in reverse, and the movements of the image became more natural in their flow, and the sound soon became a familiar melody. "The hell?" Lansbury asked in confusion as the tune became increasingly familiar.
"I know that tune," he whispered in astonishment. "Country Roads?" Lansbury asked out loud, prompting the rest of the crew to look at him curiously. "What?" Pedderton asked him.
"That's Country Roads by John Denver. My mom used to sing that song all the time back when I was just a school boy. Every time we went grocery shopping, she'd be playing that song in the car and singing along with it," Lansbury explained.
"Okay, but who's singing it? I mean, it ain't coming from the Covenant, so... who's transmitting it?" Pedderton asked. "I wonder... maybe this is why the Covenant actually came out here," Emmitt pondered out loud.
"You think they came all the way the hell out here to investigate a rogue transmission? Do we even know if the transmission would have reached the Covenant's position on its flight path?" Conrad asked the synthetic. "It's possible," Earl said. "I mean, if they were busy repairing the ship after a solar flare, the crew could have picked up the transmission while testing out the ship's communication systems to make sure everything was working right," he added.
"Well, we didn't check for any transmissions back on the track, and we're not turning around just to find out how far this thing goes out. So, for now... we're just gonna have to investigate this," Lansbury said. Pedderton raised a hand in the air.
"Yes, Pedderton?" Lansbury asked, knowing full well what was coming. "Captain, with all due respect, the whole reason for us altering out course and coming out here was to investigate the Covenant's change of course. Now, if this transmission being detected was what brought the Covenant out here, then maybe we can call it case closed and go after them to make sure that everything's okay," Pedderton suggested.
Lansbury sighed in consternation. "Pedderton, quit whining like a baby who doesn't wanna take a nap," Lansbury said, growing annoyed at the man's constant whining. "But, Captain-" "No buts, Pedderton. We're investigating why the Covenant changed course, as you said, and even if we've determined that this transmission is the reason for it, we can't just end things here," Lansbury said, cutting him off.
"Sure we can," Pedderton mumbled under his breath. "What was that?" Lansbury asked him with a warning tone. "Nothing, sir," Pedderton replied cautiously. "Good. Now, if the Covenant came out here to investigate this transmission, that means they must have sent someone down to the planet, since that's where the signal is coming from, right? So, following that logic, if we want to know what happened, we may need to do the same," Lansbury explained.
"Hold on a minute," Newman said in protest. "Yes, Newman?" Lansbury asked. "Sir, we don't have any landing craft to take down to the planet separate from the ship. We'd have to actually land the Grand Oak itself on the surface for this," Newman pointed out.
"He's right, Captain," Earl said in agreement. "Yeah, what about the supply barge?" Pedderton asked. "We can't just take that down there with us. What if something happens to it?" he added.
"We'll detach from it and leave it out here in orbit. We can reconnect after we leave the planet's surface," Lansbury replied. "Um... Captain, the barge is only in place right now because of being connected to the Grand Oak. If we disconnect from it, there's no guarantee that it would stay in place," Drew Foster said.
"Then send someone over to the barge's command unit to prepare its systems," Lansbury said. The supply barge, while largely automated, was not without its set of backup and redundant manual systems. The barge had a control cabin, which was essentially a large shuttle built into the craft, that could control the barge's various systems. The cabin was also equipped with three hypersleep pods for crew members in the event of an emergency.
"We'll begin the initial detachment sequence, pause it, and then send someone over to the control cabin to get things ready. Now, that person can either stay in the cabin until we return from the planet or they can return to the ship and stay inside a nice, cozy vessel with creature comforts and waste disposal systems... you know, bathrooms," Lansbury said as he looked around at his crew.
"I'll head over and configure its orbital pattern," Emmitt volunteered. "I'll go with you," Pedderton said. "Now, Pedderton, are you staying with the barge when you're done or are you coming back to the ship?" Lansbury asked him. "I'll be coming back to the ship. As much as I'd like to stay as far away from this whole thing as possible, I'd rather not be stuck inside a giant shuttle with limited travel speeds this far away from the nearest populated world," Pedderton replied with a resigned shrug, having reluctantly accepted his duty in pursuing the investigation.
"Alright, with that settled, I'm gonna have a little chat with MUTHUR," Lansbury said. "Earl, I want you to get to the bridge and help Nestor and Norris pinpoint the approximate location of this... rogue country song," he added before walking away from the holo-table. Putting his hands in his pants pockets, Lansbury silently made his way through the corridors of the ship, passing through the galley, walking around a large circular table, passing by the small alcove that held several cabinets with rations and plastic-ware.
The rooms were mostly quiet as Lansbury strode through them, eventually reaching the small corridor that fed into MUTHUR's interface chamber. Retrieving his access key card from the left breast pocket on his uniform's white outer button-up shirt. He quickly inserted his key card into a slot on the large ID scanner before putting his thumb on the print scanner, waiting for the light to turn green with a loud ping.
"Thank you, Captain Lansbury," MUTHUR said over the intercom before the door slid open to reveal a small circular curved chamber. There were blue and white lights emanating from multiple points on the curved walls of the room, entrenching Lansbury in a cool blue light as he stepped forward and placed himself in the swiveling console in the center of the room. This console had a built-in chair and coffee holder on one of the arms for the user.
Not having a drink of any kind, Lansbury made no use of the cup holder as he sat down in the interface seat. Reclining back in the chair, Lansbury cracked his knuckles before placing his hands on the main keyboard of the console, accessing MUTHUR's command line based interface, even though there was a built-in track-ball mouse on either side of the keyboard for a more advanced Graphic User Interface. Granted, both mice were both protected by a retractable plastic folding cover, but Lansbury often didn't care enough to use them.
Lansbury preferred the command line for its simplicity... most of the time. There were certain times when he wished that he had elected to use the interface's more user-friendly appearance, but most of the time he was content with the simplicity of the command line. Entering his command code, Lansbury started up his session with MUTHUR.
CAP-LANSBURY: What have you found in the transmission so far?
MUTHUR began listing numerous data points on the screen, before Lansbury interrupted her with a new prompt.
CAP-LANSBURY: Is the transmission of human origin?
MUTHUR: UNKNOWN. MELODIC TUNE IS OF HUMAN ORIGIN. TECHNOLOGICAL SOURCE OF TRANSMISSION IS UNKNOWN.
CAP-LANSBURY: With new data assimilated and coalated, can the accuracy of the Covenant's recent transmission be trusted?
MUTHUR: INSUFFICIENT DATA.
Lansbury sighed in mild frustration. Despite the usefulness of MUTHUR's abilities and programming, being nearly 2.1 terabytes in terms of operating capacity, the computer still pissed him off with how specific the requirements could be for it to do certain things. Deciding to let that inquiry go for the time being, Lansbury switched to a new question, one that was just as relevant to the ship's current situation as the message sent from the Covenant in the first place.
CAP-LANSBURY: Can you postpone second half of supply barge detachment procedure to allow for personnel to board it?
MUTHUR: REMOTE CONNECTION FOR BARGE SYSTEMS CAN BE ENABLED TO ALLOW FOR SAFER PROCEDURE.
Lansbury blinked as his eyes widened. This was a new feature that he had been unaware of in the ship's systems. He had been under the impression that the barge's computer systems were wholly separate and independent of the Grand Oak's systems.
CAP-LANSBURY: Thank you, MUTHUR.
MUTHUR: YOU'RE WELCOME, CAPTAIN.
FIVE HOURS LATER...
"Systems read nominal," Pedderton said as he flipped each switch above him. "Sanford, get me a readout on the second and third locking clamps," Pedderton called out from his seat. "Roger," Sanford replied as he brought up a schematic of the two vessels on his console screen. Everyone had strapped themselves into their respective seats on the bridge as the ship prepared to disengage from the supply barge.
"First clamp is ready. MUTHUR, begin remote detachment procedure, step number two," Pedderton called out as he looked at the readout on his own console screen. The 3D line model of the ship showed three red circles overlaid on three locking clamps as the ship extended from the barge, magnetic clamps located along certain parts of the vessels' exteriors having their polarities changed to make them less attractive.
"MUTHUR, initiate remote detachment procedure, step three," Pedderton called out. The red circles around the 3D models of the ship and barge soon changed to green as they began moving counter-clockwise. "Thank you, MUTHUR," Pedderton said appreciatively. "Alright, let's begin step four. Foster, you take the lead," Pedderton called out.
"Affirmative," Foster called back as he began the final step of the detachment procedure. Small jets located at various ports on the supply barge's exterior began firing in sequence at specific angles. "Detachment in five, four, three, two, one... zero," Foster called out from his seat as the ship gave a slight rumble. "Money is secure?" Lansbury asked from his seat.
Pedderton craned his neck as he turned to look at the captain. "The money is safe, Cap," Pedderton replied. "Good. Alright, let's go," Lansbury said with a nod of his head. "Get ready for planetary surface alignment," Lansbury called out.
The ship soon began to move forward, slowly aligning itself with the surface of the planet as it drew ever closer. This was a process often known as "entering the pipe," or "entering the tunnel," to many cargo ship and military dropship pilots. "Captain, should we let MUTHUR handle landing procedures, or do you want manual piloting?" Nestor asked as he glanced back over his chair.
"Go manually until we begin descending. Let's see what the weather conditions are like from the sensors first," Lansbury replied. "MUTHUR, please initiate the ship's weather scanners after we enter the exosphere," Lansbury called out. "AFFIRMATIVE, CAPTAIN," MUTHUR replied over the intercom system.
Slowly, the Grand Oak continued rotating itself as it neared the planet's exosphere. Soon, it was able to collect data on the planet's atmospheric conditions in real time, relaying that data to the screens in front of certain crew members. "Shit, we're gonna be dropping straight into a hurricane," Norris said as the ship began entering the exosphere.
"Heavy electronic chaos, too. If we were sending a dropship down, we'd lose them the moment they enter the storm. We need to start borrowing military gear for these kind of excursions," Norris continued, remembering how he'd seen military hardware perform far better than standard scientific equipment under similar circumstances in the past.
"Give the military a reason to come out here and I'm sure they'll comply," York called out in response. Glancing over at Warner, a concerned look spread over York's face. "Francine? Are you okay?" York asked as she saw the physician's scrunched face and closed eyes.
"I'm not a fan of heights," Warner replied shakily. Pedderton craned his neck to glance back over at her with some concern on his face. "France? Come on now. Just pretend it's an amusement park ride," he said in a comforting tone. Warner's face became even more worrisome in response.
"Oh... that's right. You, uh... yeah. I forgot," Pedderton muttered apologetically. The ship soon began to shudder as it continued its descent. "Captain, we should set the ship to auto-pilot! Let MUTHUR handle the landing until we've cleared the storm!" Pedderton called out as he saw how queasy Warner was becoming. He twisted in his seat and held out an arm towards Warner. "Hey, take my hand and hold it!" Pedderton called out to her.
Warner glanced at Pedderton before reaching forward to grab his hand, gripping it tightly in one of her own as the ship continued its descent further into the planet's atmosphere. "Th-Thanks," Warner croaked out as she kept her eyes closed once more. "Any time," Pedderton said softly, squeezing Warner's hand gently in return.
After a while, ship soon began passing through the other layers of the planet's atmosphere, before eventually reaching the troposphere, where the weather conditions would actually begin to affect the vessel. A faint but loud boom was soon heard outside. "Was that thunder?" Nestor asked in surprise from his seat. Earl checked the ship's scanning equipment.
"That would be correct. We are indeed dropping into the middle of a very large storm system, at least... in this part of the atmosphere. It looks like things might clear up a bit as we get closer to the ground, though," Earl called out to Nestor from his seat.
"Just a bit?" Foster asked from his seat. Earl glanced around to see where the technician was seat before nodding at him with a slight shrug. "Mm... yeah. Better than not at all, though, right?" Earl asked him in response. Foster simply sighed in exasperation and rolled his eyes before reclining back in his seat.
THE USCSS COVENANT...
David looked at the woman in the hypersleep pod as she slowly gained consciousness, blinking slowly as she came to. Her eyelids functioned as wipers, moving the heavy blanket of sleep to the side as she began to wake up. Her pod had already been opened for at least twenty minutes, giving David plenty of time to prepare.
When her eyes finally stayed open, David's smile dropped, becoming a neutral thin line across his face. Adopting the heavy guttural accent of the synthetic he was replacing, David held a hand out to the woman wrapped in white below him. "Hello. I'm sorry that I had to wake you like this, but the ship is... not in the best shape," David said, posing as Walter.
"Huh?" the woman asked the synthetic, the cobwebs of sleep still keeping her somewhat disoriented. "Ma'am, I require your assistance in repairing the ship," David lied as he knelt down and held out a hand to the woman, letting her grab it as he slowly pulled her up from the pod. "We were recently hit by a solar flare, and most of the ship's human crew were... they did not survive," David said mournfully.
"Two members of the crew do remain, but they are not in condition to provide necessary assistance. I have been working on getting several systems back online, but I have had some difficulty," David lied again. "The ship's computer has also been acting in a concerning manner. Mother operates fine most of the time, but I believe that some of her systems may need repairs. Fortunately, life support is not one of those systems in need of repair," David half-lied as he helped the woman, identified on her name tag as Erin, step away from the pod.
"Don't worry about changing. I will... place you back into storage after you have fulfilled the necessary tasks. I am sorry for waking you like this, but the passenger manifest does list you as having engineering knowledge and experience, which I have determined will make these repairs move much faster than if I were by myself," David lied.
Erin nodded her head slowly. "What about my husband? He's a mechanic," Erin asked the synthetic. David glanced over at the pod containing the woman's husband. "Yes. I believe that you may have made an excellent suggestion," David said, his mind flowing with numerous ideas for his experiments. Previously, he had been using his test subjects one at a time, but now... perhaps it was time to change things up a little. Just a little, of course. Too much change too quickly had proven to be catastrophic in the past.
But David had learned from his mistakes. He knew how to pace himself now. He just had to be patient. After all, slow and steady wins the race.
THE USCSS GRAND OAK, LANDING ON PLANET 4...
"Signal's coming in clear. It's several kilometers away, but... aw shit," Norris said as he scanned the 3D map of the terrain on on the console screen in front of him. "What? What does 'aw shit' mean?" Lansbury asked him. "It's on a mountain. We can't land on a mountain, unless you want us to crash," Norris replied.
"Son of a bitch," Lansbury muttered. "Well, we've got some vehicles on C-Deck in the landing bay. Four wheel rangers," Hamilton said to him. "Nestor, where's the flattest surface for us to put down?" Lansbury asked the navigator. "I'm having MUTHUR scan the terrain for something nice. She's having us land slowly, but that'll put stress on our engines and propulsion systems if we wait in the air too long, though," Nestor replied from his seat.
"Is the terrain directly below us suitable?" Lansbury asked. "Uh... MUTHUR, give me a terrain reading from directly below us," Nestor asked the ship's computer. A transparent window appeared on the screen in front of him, showing an outline of a rectangle that was slowly filling up with the words 'PLEASE WAIT' found both above and below the progress bar.
Nestor frowned at the archaic waiting screen. "Some things never change," the navigation officer muttered in contempt. "Hey, MUTHUR's handling hundreds of various systems simultaneously right now," Earl said. "Even computers have their limitations," he added. "MUTHUR has over two terabytes of processing power and memory at her disposal in her mainframe. This should be cake-walk for her," Nestor retorted.
The progress bar soon filled up and a topographical map of the terrain filled up the screen, with measurements seen on the sides of the map. Nestor shook his head as he shared the data with Captain Lansbury's console. "A lot of water down there," Lansbury noted sourly.
"We can't land down there. We need something more stable," Lansbury said. "You got it," Nestor said as he used the console's built-in track-ball mouse to click out of the current screen and return to the previous one.
As Nestor began inspecting the 3D topographical map provided by the terrain scan, he soon found something remotely usable. "Near the beach head, there's a grassy plain close by. The ground should be stable enough for us to land," Nestor said. Lansbury looked at the map on his screen and nodded his head. "Alright. Let MUTHUR handle the landing, though. We need computer precision for this," Lansbury said.
Soon, the ship shuddered as it began changing direction and flying closer to the terrain, the onboard computer keeping the vessel steady as it descended. "Wait... what's that?" Lansbury asked as he saw a large dark spot on the beach nearby. "MUTHUR, use the external cameras to zoom in on that dark spot," Lansbury requested.
The scanning equipment soon brought up the image of blackened and charred wreckage on the beach. Lansbury furrowed his brows in thought as suspicions began to formulate in his head. "After we set down, that'll be the first thing we check out," he said to his crew as the ship continued its slow descent to the ground below.
As the ship began opening up the holes for its landing gear, the large mechanical legs began to extend downwards towards the ground, the round metal feet equipped with three foot stubs to ensure stability as their weight began to press onto the grassy soil below. Inside the ship, there was a loud mechanical groan. Looking around the interior of the bridge, the crew felt a slight sense of curiosity and unease. Outside, the landing feet began to press down into the ground, which was not a hard surface.
"Uh... what was that so-oh shit!" Pedderton cried out as the ship became slightly unbalanced, jostling the crew around in their seats. Peterson cried out in alarm as he bounced in his seat, while Warner tugged on Pedderton's hand before throwing up. An alarm sounded as various equipment moved around in the ship.
Foster cried out as he was slammed back and forth in his seat, while Newman shouted in dismay as his warm coffee spilled from its mug and landed on his uniform, arms, and face. "God dammit!" Newman shouted as he felt the warm liquid splash onto his face. "Dumbass! I told you to cover that!" Hamilton shouted as his subordinate.
The ship continued to sink downward into the soft ground below. "We're sinking! We're fucking sinking!" Norris cried out as he looked at the readings on his screen. "Prepare an emergency lift-off!" York cried out authoritatively.
Earl and Emmitt both began following her instructions and started preparing for an emergency lift-off sequence. "Preparing to alternate between propulsion sequences," Emmitt announced from his seat.
"Wait! Wait!" Conrad called out as the ship began to stabilize its footing and slowly regained its balance. "We're correcting! We've stopped! We've stopped," he said before leaning back with a sigh as the alarms were cut off. "We've stopped," he said breathlessly one more time as he saw the updated readout on his screen.
Catching his breath, Lansbury wiped the sweat from his brow. "Okay, I want a full diagnostic of the ship. MUTHUR, did you hear that?" Lansbury asked the computer. "AFFIRMATIVE, CAPTAIN. INITIATING SCAN OF ALL SHIPWIDE SYSTEMS," MUTHUR announced over the intercom.
"Is everyone okay?" Lansbury then asked as he looked around the bridge. "Well, we're alive," Foster called out. A coughing sound soon emanated from the seat in front of him. "Speak for yourself, Drew," Peterson said with a groan of pain.
"Whoever's alive, raise your heads-I mean hands. Raise your hands," Lansbury said loudly. Everyone on the bridge raised their hands. "Okay then. No casualties," Lansbury said softly in relief.
"Is it safe to walk around?" Pedderton asked as he looked at the silently crying Francine Warner at the console behind him. His hand was still gripped in hers, and both his arm and her uniform were covered in puke. "Captain?" Pedderton asked again with concern in his voice.
"Wait for MUTHUR to complete her scans," Lansbury responded from his seat as he looked at the list of systems on his screen that MUTHUR was presently inspecting. "Just wait a bit," Lansbury said wearily.
"Sir-" "I said to wait," Lansbury snapped at Pedderton. "Yes, Captain," Pedderton said submissively as he kept Francine's hand gripped in his.
"I don't need someone tripping over something and breaking their neck," Lansbury said.
Several minutes later, MUTHUR had completed her systems check. The majority of the ship's systems were still online, but there a few systems that had been knocked offline and were currently inoperable until they were physically fixed by the crew. "Okay, we're balanced and stable," Lansbury said in relief. "Everyone, you can unbuckle your seat-belts and exit the ride," he added in an attempt at humor.
Glancing over at Pedderton and Warner from across the room, Lansbury soon saw the mess at the medical officer's seat. "Emmitt, help Pedderton escort Warner to the infirmary. Get her cleaned up," Lansbury ordered. The synthetic nodded his head and removed himself from his seat before making his way through the rows and columns of consoles around the bridge, eventually helping the chief engineer escort the embarrassed and upset physician off of the bridge.
"Sanford, I want you to take Peterson and Foster down to the lower decks and inspect for physical damage. And check out the systems on this list," Lansbury said as he sent the data to their respective screens. "Yes, Captain," Sanford said as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"York, Conrad, I want you, Newman, and Hamilton to join me in the galley for a private meeting. Everyone else... just stay at your posts. Earl... go along with the others and help them fix the ship. Head down to the infirmary first and grab Pedderton on your way there. Emmitt can take care of Warner. I want this thing fixed before we start exploring our terrain, and the more people we have working on it, the faster it'll get done," Lansbury said.
"Understood, Captain," Earl said before getting out of his seat. Sanford, Peterson, and Foster soon joined him as he exited the bridge. Lansbury and the others watched the four men leave the room before looking at each other. "Alright, we'll let the technicians do their job, and then we're gonna start deciding on who gets to go outside," Lansbury said.
"Nestor, I want a full scan on the terrain around us. I don't want anymore surprises under our feet. And MUTHUR? I want you to start performing a scan on the atmosphere outside. I want to know if we need suits," Lansbury said. "UNDERSTOOD, CAPTAIN. PERFORMING SCANS NOW," MUTHUR complied over the intercom.
York chortled. "This whole thing just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" York asked rhetorically.
"Just wait," Norris said humorously. "It can always get worse."
Author's Notes: Yes, yes things can get worse, especially in the ALIEN universe. Anyway, this was the third chapter of ALIEN: GENESIS. As always, be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews.