Prometheus: Afterburn 6
"Golden Retrievers"
Author's note: Prometheus: Afterburn6, chapter 29(twenty-nine) follows. My sincere thanks to the folk who are following this work of fiction, chapters are being posted in their almost rawest form, and I apologize that they are not better.
PS: This chapter is being used more as a technical (other than emotional) connection to the Prometheus: Aftermath fanfic series. My attempt here is to link many of the Alien (franchise) movie characters into a more cohesive story arc, a bit of fiction that will bond them together. I hope that you enjoy….. the aftermath, excuse the pun….Z
Greys Sparrow = a pioneer moon listed as an FE (Future Earth) in the chronicles of the league of SOCD, Society of Cosmic Development. Greys Sparrow is under lease by Weyland Industries for research & development purposes, and Peter Weyland is a board member of the SOCD.
*********************** Segment one, Ash ************************
Ashley Grant, or Ash as he was known to his coworkers at Ivy Station, sat in his chair in the "Modular Unit Transmitter *hashmark Receiver" room (otherwise known as the "Muthr Chamber") on the small world of Greys Sparrow.
The "Muthr Chamber" was a small compartment which held the detailed database that allowed Ash to log-in his research and study findings and transmit them back to home-base. It was also where he communicated (privately) with David Clay on the Archimedes. The chamber was where the coded agenda of Weyland Industries was kept, and Science Officer was the only individual allowed inside the chamber unless there was an emergency.
Unknown to the rest of the crew on Greys Sparrow, communications to and from the outside were still available in the Muthr cell, even though the rest of the outpost "remained in the dark". Satellite communications had been disrupted on Greys Sparrow and the Orphan world was floating out in the nothingness of space with no ability to broadcast a long range signal. It was frustrating for the crew. They had no way of contacting loved ones, or anyone else in the universe. Signals posted to their families could not be sent "overnight delivery". The cosmos didn't work that way, Sometimes it took months for a radio signal to reach Earth. And now, with the satellite communications down it would be even longer before they could contact home. Not only that, but the problems on Greys Sparrow seemed to be getting worse, it had spread to the docking bays.
The door hatches to Ivy station's cargo chambers (where the Norseman, and now the newly arrived Gylor lay at rest), had become un-functional. And the large cargo doors would not open. No one could leave Ivy Station…. should one of the vessels be needed to make an exit.
The outpost's crew, and also, Elizabeth and David, could not escape off world. They could venture (with pressure suits) out into the vacuum of Greys Sparrow's surface, with its minute gravity, but there was no desire to do that? It seemed every living soul on the moon was stranded.
Security Chief Becker Hardt had been wondering if there was a saboteur among the crew. And now, with station personnel missing, he was wondering if the situation's problems had become worse than just equipment failure? Was there a murderer among the team members at Ivy Station? Some of whom he'd known for over a year.
Sergeant Hardt's first suspicions were of the Science Officer Ashley Grant. Ash had always been a little standoffish, and his arrogance amongst the other crewmembers was a standing joke, but now with team members Lee Blevins and Cesar Perkins were missing, and Planetary Engineer Wayne Carver gone as well, the outpost's security chief was under the notion that there may be an antagonist among the crew.
Search squads had been organized and the upper levels of the complex had been combed for the missing personnel, but nothing had been found. Base Commander, Anthony Fish had taken a team to search the lower levels, but they had not reported back. In the meantime Becker had gotten Sergeant Thorn to assist him in trouble-shooting some of the problems they were having with the "Norseman", and this had given him a chance to convey his suspicions.
"I think someone is causing the disruption of communication systems," Becker had told David8, "….and my belief is that it is Ash."
David was shocked, why would the Science Officer want to disrupt satellite function, the post's only lifeline to the outside universe? The robot was a bit skeptical, but he wasn't, for the moment, going to consider that the moon's Chief Security Sergeant had developed a case of "Cosmic Lunacy".
David8 was fresh to Greys Sparrow, but if there was one thing he'd been programed to recognize it was zealous vigilance, jealousy. The human condition was a complex structure, and along with Weyland's "Building Better Worlds" motif, there was the underlying desire to "Build Better Robots". Weyland Industries' (Branch Unit) was in the process of constructing several different models. All of the synthetic persons (androids) were still under development. The A (120-A/Ash) models were still….at times, a bit unpredictable, and the B series (341-A/Bishop) models were nearly as quirky. The C-models (The "Call series" which will morph into the first female androids as seen in Alien Resurrection) was still on the drawing board, yet the D-model (the David series which he was one himself) was in its 8th upgrade, and was out in the universe assisting humankind in the exploration of the cosmos. David8 wasn't sure if any of his step siblings were being used as adjunct in the company's vanguard, but it wouldn't surprise him if they were.
David8 had decided to do a bit of investigation into the world of Greys Sparrow. He wanted to find out what he could about the individuals posted at Ivy Station. Maybe Becker was right, there may be someone on this moon that wasn't whom they really presented themself to be.
If David had become aware of one thing, it was that the thought process of Peter Weyland was hard to follow. To understand the mind of the man, one had to understand the mind of a psychopath, the brain of someone totally immersed within the belief of their own self; it would make for some interesting study.
*********************** * Golden Retrievers***********************
Ashley Grant looked over the data of Greys Sparrow (in the Muthr chamber). For the past few days there had been a flurry of incidents. Several team members of Ivy Post had gone missing, and, there could be but one conclusion, the Runners had gotten loose.
Runners or Xenomorph-dog hybrids (code named Golden Retrievers) had been shipped to Greys Sparrow under the strictest rules of confidentiality. Ash was not to let a word of this experiment leak out into the cosmos. Weyland Industries had its protocol, if things should become uncontrollable then any world under "impunity status" would become abandoned (hence the name Orphan).If Ashley Grant couldn't get this outbreak under control, and get his "shit" together, then Weyland Industries had no alternative but to suffocate the moon (kill everyone involved).
That would be a difficult conclusion, sense, on the other side of the world; Weyland Corporation's construction team, the crew responsible for creating Ivy Station, was hard at work.
Construction was underway to build a penal colony on the world. Plans were to have Greys Sparrow turn into a prison world and upon completion be renamed as Fiorina Colony- 'Fury' 161. In that way inmates could be used as the labor force to construct the atmo-processors to terraform the new world.
Ash knew that if he failed in this mission, it may mean the termination of the android series 120-A. That may result in the process of him not leading way to a legacy; he may not father children. The robot was determined to see that this would not be the case, He would do what he had to do. Even if it meant murdering everyone posted to Ivy Station, and the destruction of himself. He remember the prime directive, "Priority One, maintain company secrecy, all other priorities rescinded."
Ash meant for his legacy to live on!
END PART 29
