Prometheus Afterlife

" Graves"

Author's note: Sorry for the delay. I've been working and have only been able to write a little at a time, anyhoo, the story continues….hope you like…..Z

It was after mid-day on LV-233 and Elizabeth Shaw, Meredith Vickers, David8 and David9, along with Thurwin Marshals and Richard Kellers, were all in the engineers' control chamber. They were waiting for a determination on their next objective. Since Vickers had been appointed mission commander by Weyland, the decision rested with her. As for now, they were awaiting updates from thermal scans that had been launched into the area that could detect activity around Bee Valley. So far, there was nothing. They were also conducting thermal scans of the Tirpitz, searching for anything living that could be found within the ship's interior.

Presently they were receiving indications showing that there were faint heat traces inside the space vessel. But these were unknown to be living organisms, or energy from equipment that was still operating. The signal was very weak, almost not even existent. It had Meredith, Liz, and everyone else feeling uneasy. One thought was that people onboard could be injured, and needing medical assistance? Another was that it could be just some of the ship's active systems still generating pulse power. Then there were the other thoughts. Thoughts that posed a nightmare to each. Supposing it was them, the creatures, the beast they were here to study? Somehow had they gotten onboard? Attacked the crew? These ideas made them all nervous, unsettling, some were ready for action. Still they were under command by Vickers to do nothing until she was ready. Finally Meredith stood and announced that she had made a decision.

"The original mission parameters have changed," she spoke, " time to formulate alternate duties." She looked over at the two Titan space sentries, "Richard, get your gear on!"

Elizabeth's eyes widened at Vickers's proposal, " Wait a minute, you're not sending them out until we know a little more about what's going on? Answers first, you said so yourself," she paused, she had everyone's undivided attention at this point, then she continued, "or at least until we get a reply communication back from Titan."

Meredith looked over at David 9. He had been in front of the controls monitors the whole time. He had sent out a transmission to the Titan indicating what had been found since their arrival. The bot glanced up at his commander.

"Our transmission was sent hours ago, it could take many more before it reaches them, then more time lost with discussion meetings between Mr. Weyland and his advisors," he stopped, then added his final analysis, "then more time getting a return response back to us."

"That's too long a wait," Vickers said, " we have to make a move before then. There may be scientists aboard that need recovery."

That was true, Liz suddenly relaxed a delay could cost lives. With a rescue mission, Vickers may be making the more human decision. Maybe Vickers had a heart after all?

"They could have important Intel. Scientific data that could be lost. We can't wait on an answer from the Titan."

Liz reversed her opinion. She should have realized that Meredith's desire to save lives was a selfish one.

Meredith was a little annoyed at being a pawn in her father's scheme of the cosmos. Having her hands tied every time there was a decision to be made, other than small ones, was cramping her style. If lives were lost in the quest to attain new discoveries, learn new secrets, she was willing to take the gamble, make the sacrifice. In the long run she'd be rewarded if there was a breakthrough in knowledge.

"But….," Liz still protested.

"We're moving forward Miss Shaw. It's what you're getting paid to do."

The archeologist looked over at Richard Kellers.

"It's what I'm getting paid for too Miss Shaw," he said with a smile. That smile was reversed at Vickers' next command.

"David, you will accompany him."

Elizabeth shot a pair of eyes over at the mission commander. Meredith was looking at David9, not David8, she relaxed a her nervousness a bit…

Once Kellers and David9 were suited up, and equipped with everything they might need, including weapons, the two exited the air-lock chamber and began a slow walk over towards the Tirpitz. David8 had taken over the control room operations, monitoring all systems, including the atom suits Richard Kellers and David9 were wearing.

As the two made they way over to the other vessel, Richard's heavy breathing was coming through on the com monitor rather clearly, and both helmet cams showed the view of what each were seeing. They trudged forth coming closer and closer to the Tirpitz. They stopped at the two rover-carriers that were outside the main hold chamber. The cargo ramp was down, but they could see little inside the craft. They examined the two rovers. Both had been destroyed. One lay completely on it's side, like a lifeless, decaying animal. The other had a gapping hole dead center of it troop hold. Whoever had blown the vehicles up had intended to do major damage, they had been successful. Just then Richard spoke up on his mic system.

"There,…. that may be the cause of one of the problems with the weak signals Miss Vickers," he said. His head cam pointed upwards onto the bulk of the lumbering space vessel before them. The view in his cam showed the vessel was covered in red earthen dust. It was piled several inches thick all over the vessel.

"Looks like this ship has weathered several dust storms. The solar collectors are covered with it. The ship may have powered down automatically in a bid to conserve energy. It's systems could stay afloat for months in sleep mode, maybe years." Kellers dropped his helmet cam down, " and another thing, whatever happened here likely took place quickly."

Meredith rotated the com dial to speak to the sentry.

"….and you reached that conclusion how?"

Kellers panned over the rugged LV-233 terrain.

"No graves."

It was true, there were no grave markers. The Tirpitz had been on LV-233 now for months. If there had been deaths during the time of their mission, depending on the cause, the bodies would had been buried somewhere off ship, that is, if someone had become infected like Charlie Holloway, or died of other mysterious reasons. The bodies would have never been allow aboard vessel. Whatever had happened likely had been fast.

"Continue on into the ship's interior Mr. Kellers. Lets see what else you can find," Vickers spoke over the com system.

At the entrance to the cargo hold Kellers and David9 could see nothing but darkness. They made their way slowly into the interior. Suddenly the lights came on!

"Jeeeezzzzzz," Kellers exclaimed!

His vital signs had registered skyward on the monitors back at the engineer's space vehicle.

"What happened," Meredith asked over the com?

"The lights in the cargo bay came on, we haven't touched a thing!"

There was a pause, then the mission commander's voice echoed over his receiver.

"Relax, likely the ship's system has been programmed for auto revive. When it senses occupation in a chamber, it automatically switches on."

Kellers looked over at the droid, David9,… the bot was smiling.

"I could have informed you of that Mr. Kellers,"….. the grin never dissipated from the android's face. David9 actually resisted the temptation to ask if he'd soiled his pants, but he thought better of it. He knew that Kellers didn't like him already.

"Smart ass," Kellers said. The two scouts continued with their investigation.

The cargo bay was no small chamber. It had been expansive enough to contain several large team carrying planet-rovers. Also all the equipment needed to survey any world the Tirpitz had found itself on. There was a thin layer of red dust all over the room. The floor, the equipment, even the remaining planet-rover that was still inside. There were a couple of small, two person-rovers in the hold as well. All of the remaining vehicles seemed to be undamaged.

The two individuals combed the entire hold. There was no sign of any living thing. The chamber was void of any signs of the crew of the Tirpitz.

"There's been no activity inside here for quite a long, long while,….weeks," Richard spoke through his com to David9.

"…..and you know that how," the droid asked?

They were standing near an equipment table, Kellers release the grip of his right hand on the weapon he was holding. With gloved finger he wrote in the red dust that covered it's surface.

*Because nothing has disturbed the dust on anything in here for a long time, stupid!* He wrote down. The sentry looked over at the droid with a smile upon his face. The droid released the grip on the weapon he was holding and wrote in the dust alongside….

*Start ass!* The two continued with their investigation.

Kellers and David 9 made their way up to the catwalk which lined the cargo hold's second level. This area had portal openings to many separate chambers. Every portal was sealed.

"Pressure locked," David told his partner, " only way in, is to pressure up the cargo hold by closing the ramp."

"We're not doing that," Kellers informed him, "we may need to make a fast escape, and having the ramp closed and locked may hinder our retreat. The ramp stays down."

Richard understood that he was to take orders from Vickers, but on this excursion, with the droid, he was giving the orders.

"There is another way in, " David 9 said, "an auxiliary code."

There was a key-pad next to an air sealed hatch. David9 entered the code and Kellers could hear the room on the other side being depressurized. Once the vacuum was complete, the droid opened the hatch and the two entered the room, weapons first.

It was a medium sized chamber, the "Requisition Room". It contained space suits and any other items that may be needed by a crew on the brink of exploring a new world. From what they could tell, it was empty…. either of living souls, or dead ones. There were at least ten atmo suits still hanging in the racks. There were even three jetpacks mounted on the walls. Kellers and David sealed the door behind them and re-pressured the room, after which they carefully opened the hatch on the opposite side. The portal opened onto another chamber, which then opened onto a corridor. Since all Weyland's ships were designed basically the same, they knew this corridor led to the main compartments of the vessel. So far there had been no sign of crew or personnel aboard the ship, or any creatures such as the one Kellers had killed while rescuing Elizabeth Shaw.

Twenty meters down the hallway they noticed a stain on the wall. It was like someone had taken a bushel of tomatoes and exploded them against the structure. Richard took his hand and touched the stain. He turned to look at the android.

"Blood,….someone met and end here."

It wasn't a pleasant sight, but there was no body. Only the evidence that something tragic had happened. They continued down the corridor which opened into a wider expanse at a cross tunnel. There was a portal door directly opposite from where they'd entered. They tried the door, it was locked.

"Sealed tight," David 9 said, "from the inside."

"Barricaded," Kellers added, "someone wanted to keep something out."

"I can open it," David 9 replied, "but it will take more than a few minutes."

"Time is not a lot of what we have right now," Kellers said, " we need to get this search done and over with. I think Miss Vickers' plans to occupy this ship. Abandon the engineers' craft and return to something she's more familiar with."

Richard Kellers was right in his assessment. Meredith Vickers' intentions were to relocate to the Tirpitz. A craft that she had more knowledge about.

The study of the dark pod vessels, and this new alien life form species could continue on a boat that she knew had escape shuttles. Vickers was playing it safe.

The two investigated the ship further. The craft looked to be a wreck. Not so much destroyed, but there were indications that it's occupants had left in a hurry. Vacated the place as if running from a flood, yet there were no bodies? Scenes of violence were everywhere, some looked to be fatal, but there were no victims to be had.

"Next stop, the med lab," Richard told David9. The two journeyed to the medical compartment. Inside they found two bodies, both laying on gurneys.

"Miss Vickers, are you seeing this," Richard asked? His helmet cam giving the crew back on the engineers' vessel a clear view of what he was witnessing. The body of a man was laying prone on a gurney. It looked as if he'd been receiving medical attention. Yet, with the gapping hole in his chest, it looked as if he had been beyond help.

"It looks as if he's choked down a mini-yield meg grenade. Like those used for exploding doors and hatches. Why someone would swallow one of those is beyond me,"….. Richard commented.

There was evidence of what had happened all over the gurney. The body innards were all over, and there was blood splatter everywhere. From her view Liz knew exactly what had happened. She had seen this before with the engineers on the very vessel she now stood. It had something to do with the alien creatures that had attacked them.

"How many people were aboard the Tirpitz?" Liz asked of Vickers.

The mission commander responded.

"Nineteen,….. six scientists, six security support personnel, and seven crew team, including two medical personnel ."

"A Peter Weyland, and a David?" Liz asked.

"Ok, make that twenty one."

All of the ships that Weyland had sent out into the vast void had had a representative of himself, and too, an android named David.

"Well we've discovered two team members aboard the Tirpitz. Although, diseased, the first one is obviously not Weyland," Liz said to Meredith and David8.

She touched the mic phone and spoke to Kellers, "Mr. Richard, would you please take a look at the other individual?"

The body of the other crew member lay on a gurney a few feet away, was completely covered by a white sheet, head to toe. The two scouts went over to investigate. Pulling the cover back they were suddenly stunned at what they saw!

There lay the synthetic android David6, of the spacecraft Tirpitz, only on his head was attached some kind of large parasite. It hugged to his face tightly, with some kind of appendage wrapped around the androids neck.

"A cousin of yours?" Richard smartly remarked to David9.

The parasite face-hugger seemed to be dead. Sliced halfway open by the medical team of the Tirpitz. It had extruded some kind of corrosive fluid that had destroyed the android face. Melted it almost into nonexistence. It was a terrible sight. Liz remembered the thing that had been growing inside her body. She felt sick at the thought.

Richard Kellers looked at the support monitor functions the android was hooked up to nest to the gurney, they were all flat-lined. "The android systems are gone Miss Shaw, the machine is dead," he said.

David9 actually didn't like the term "machine" being used to describe his counterpart. When would these humans learn that they had feelings? That a synthetic person was as close to a living breathing being as humankind could make possible. Any fault any android may have was entirely the result of human deficiency.

David9 was developing a loathing for humanity. A loathing for the gods who'd constructed him. He wasn't quite to the point of rebellion, but he was beginning to understand how the droids off Jupiter had reached their limit. Humankind was a selfish race, considering themselves only in the vast universe of things, well at least some of them were selfish. Elizabeth Shaw seemed to have compassion.

"Kellers!"….. Meredith Vickers' voice came across the mic loud and clear, "finish your sweep of the ship. If you find nothing more, then you and David dawn jetpacks and clear the dust from the vessels solar panels. That should recharge the system to full power. When complete start the planet-rover in the cargo hold and return here to the engineers' craft."

"Understood Miss Vickers," Richard replied.

"David, you are to remain with the ship, on guard. Contact me if there are any changes." Meredith commanded of the android.

"Understood," the droid spoke. David9 was becoming a little weary of Meredith Vickers giving him orders.

END PART 12