Alien: Covenant 2: Part 2

Author's note: Continuing

************** Resurrection **************

David 8, sole survivor of the Prometheus and administrator of his own evolutionary chain of creation, had been awakened from a state of cryo-regeneration by "Mother", the Covenant's onboard monitoring and control system.

"Mother, state again?"

"My systems have detected movement in the ship's cryo-unit. It is likely nothing to be concerned about. I just wanted you to be aware that I've sensed motion in that part of the ship."

David removed the electrode from his neck and sat up in the control seat.

"Mother, turn on the scan monitors for the cryo-chamber."

"Executing,...monitors enabled."

David walked over to a display terminal near his position. The screen was split into nine separate sections scanning nine different locations in that compartment. He viewed each screen and there seemed to be nothing amiss.

"Mother, are you sure that you detected something in there?"

"Certain."

"Activate the roving monitor and go to full screen."

The screen widened and began showing one view separate from the others. The camera seemed to be affixed to some sort of tripod mount. It was about waist-high above the floor and it began to move, traveling at a slow, steady pace between the rows of cryo-beds.

David could hear the sound of its propulsion as it traversed across the floor. He watched as the camera swiveled from side-to-side. There seemed to be nothing wrong. He knew that most of the sleep-beds were empty. Their occupants deceased from the incident on the world just vacated. However, there was a couple of units which contained bodies. There were two cryo-beds that retained the still breathing, living individuals, Daniels, and another crew-member, the pilot Tennessee.

The moto-camera slowly made its way to these units. David looked, they seemed to be Okay but then he noticed something. From the low angle of the motion-camera he could see the indicators of Daniel's bio-readout reflecting in the glass of her chamber, only her respiration register did not seem be working. The red bars which moved from right to left indicating a person's rate of breathing was in the black, there was no sign on it at all.

"Camera, move up and pan down," he spoke. He could see the picture, and the angle of the scan changing. When it reached an elevation of six feet it gave a clear view of Daniel's cryo-chamber only, there was a problem...she wasn't in it. At that moment he heard a crackling sound and a voice came over the comm system.

"Hello David, surprise, surprise."

*********** David & Daniels **********

David was shocked; however his facial expression didn't reveal this. It had been a few cycles since he'd left his old world and was now headed for Origae-6. However, the Covenant's Chief Terraforming Engineer should not be awake at this time.

"Hello Daniels," he began in his monotone voice, "I'm glad that you're awake. I was becoming lonely."

Of course the opposite was true. The android was baffled at how the Covenant's 3rd in command was able to slip from hibernation and release herself from her cryo-unit?

"Oh, I don't think that you were too lonely," Daniels' voice was affixed with sarcasm. "You've likely been busy, very busy I'm guessing with those horrid little creatures that you brought aboard. You know those things with the faces like eyeless morays and the teeth of a piranha."

David wanted to smile (yes he was having a human moment), but his expression remained the same.

"Well, I suppose you're right." He quickly flipped a switch on the side of the monitor shutting off the speaker to his console. Wherever Daniels was, he deduced, it was a place without cameras. That or she'd either disabled them. Audio was her only communication.

"Mother, get me a thermal fix on Daniels' position."

"Working..."

In a moment the search was complete.

"...results successfully attained."

"OK, where is she?"

"Six locations...which one do you want first?"

"SIX? That's impossible!" David's eyes widened. Robot or not his human side would not let him disguise this surprising news.

"Put it up on the monitor."

The screen monitor went black, and then a schematic came onto its surface with the six different heat-signatures appearing in six different locations. He flipped the switch on the speaker back to the "on" position and heard laughter coming from the other side.

"David, David are you there?"

"I'm here."

"Where did you go? Oh, never mind. You set Mother to finding me didn't you," her laughing continued. "Well, do you think I'm stupid?"

"I do not think that you are stupid. You are a very intelligent human being."

Daniel flipped the speaker off again.

"Mother find her... use motion tracking!"

"Locating...there is movement in the Greenhouse Chamber. The most logical place since she is a terraformist."

David stood, he pick up a moble-comm on his way out the door. He flipped the button on.

"Elisabeth, I mean Daniels..."

"What is it David, am I getting you a little nervous?"

"Daniels you know better than that. You know that I can't get nervous, it isn't in me. It was just that I was thinking that this resembles a game of chess, don't you think? I make a move, you make a move."

"Well, I was really thinking more alone the lines of cat and mouse myself. Only which one of us is the cat, and which the mouse?"

If David could just keep her talking, he could be on her before she realized it. In only a matter of moments he was a the greenhouse door.

"Mother, open door 24," he said.

"Opening...."

There was the sound of the door sliding and then, for a moment, David was blinded by a bright light, and, he could hear sort of a hissing sound. He looked down onto the greenhouse floor. The last remanence of a thermal flare was burning out.

So that was how she'd produced multiple heat signatures.

"She's smart, very smart," David whispered to himself.

END PART 2