CHAPTER FIVE

I flung the suitcase to the side. "I'm not going. This is ridiculous. I'm old enough to decide for myself what I'm going to do!" I knew if I went along with this expedition, the chances of me coming back here was abysmal.

He sat down and his long fingers began to dance on the keys. As usual, he had started with Enter the Gods of Valhalla. It was a lovely piece, but I could never understand why it was his favourite.

I fell on to the couch, listening to him. I couldn't comprehend how a synthetic like him could exude so much emotion in a song. It was unthinkable.

Or so I thought…

I touched my lips where his perfectly soft ones had laid upon. No, David 8 was vastly different from all of his predecessors. His passion was real. It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. He made my head spin and I couldn't think when he wrapped him body all around me, but I wasn't about to give up this time. There was nothing for me light years away.

My hands clenched around the pillow that I had clutched against my chest. Why couldn't he see things my way, instead? There was enough here on Earth. He could accomplish so much here.

Wouldn't he miss me?

I grit my teeth and threw the pillow at his back. The moment it struck him, he stopped. "How could you be playing the piano when you're about to be shipped off like some useless piece of cargo to chase after a dying man's impossible dream?!"

He turned towards me in his seat. "And what is it that keeps you here?" He got up and slowly stride over to me. "Is it the friends you don't have? Perhaps the classes you never attend?"

A spike of fear his me when he slammed his hand down beside my face. "D-David…"

"Are you satisfied with your meaningless existence on this planet?" He tilted his head in mock curiosity.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you know?" I hissed, trying to stomp down the thoughts that perhaps he was hitting a little closer to home than I was comfortable with.

He leaned down. "Can you really tell me you're happy here?"

"I – " I really wanted to prove him wrong, but everyone knew that that would be a lie. I wasn't happy. The only joy I found was when I played music and when I was with a certain synthetic and that was excluding the times he was determined to infuriate me, but I also didn't want to leave. This place was all I knew. Space and all its unknowns terrified me.

What if things were even worse out there? I would rather choose a misery that I knew than one that I didn't.

"Will you enjoy being alone?" he went on, his breath against my ears. "Your father gone. Your sister gone. I'd be gone as well. Who else would you have here?"

No, of course not. I absolutely hated being alone and he knew that. I just didn't possess the social skills to maintain any friends. I regret not trying harder, now. Perhaps, then, I would've been able to find a valid reason to stay. As it were, my protests were half-hearted – more like a teenager rebelling than anything, but the fear was genuine.

With this expedition, anyone who ever mattered to me was going to be gone. The aspect of never seeing them again was unthinkable.

"Don't leave me," I pleaded. "I don't want to be alone." My pride no longer mattered. As I thought of a life alone – without him – I realised that that was more frightening than anything else.

He chuckled, kissing my temple. "Good girl."

…

"I would miss you, Cassandra," he replied. "You will not die."

"How can you say that when you don't even have a body?" I argued, shaking my head. "I'm talking to a robotic head…"

The scream that came through the earpiece was heart wrenching. I wasn't sure if the pain I was feeling could ever be replicated. It felt as if someone had ripped half of me apart. "Meredith?" I breathed, tears streaming down my face. "Meredith!"

"I'm sorry, Cassandra. She's gone. There was nothing you could've done about it." I didn't need him to tell met his. I already knew, but she was my sister – the only family I had left. The only human being who mattered to me was gone.

I threw the helmet aside in anger. What use was this, now? There were worse things out there than airborne pathogens.

It wasn't as if I hadn't expected it to happen. I always knew this expedition was probably going to be the death of us, but I had hoped. I had hoped that I would be proven wrong. I never anticipated such a horrible end. Just her scream was enough to give me nightmares for the rest of my life, as short as it may be, now. Was I even going to have enough time to dream?

"I want to help them," I suddenly said, referring to the rest of the crew mates. There had to be some left and they still had a chance to get out.

Before I could even leave the seat, David spoke up, again. "There is nothing you can do," he repeated.

"I – " I got to my feet.

"Sit down, Cassandra."

I remained standing.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when something jerked beside me. David's headless body was twitching violently, splattering lubricant everywhere.

"Do not defy me, now, Cassandra." I had never heard him sound so angry. I wasn't even sure that it was possible. Why was he so against me going? Was he like me? Would he feel lonely if he was the only one left?

"I…" Could I really abandon him?

No, that wasn't it, at all.

Instinctively, I obeyed. I was completely helpless. At this point, I was more like a mindless synthetic than him.

I had never hated myself more.

Years I had spent wallowing in my own self-pity and trying to drown myself in music had left me completely unprepared for this. Unlike Meredith who had been compliant with the training session, I had skipped out on most of them. If anyone who should've died in the very beginning, it should've been me. And now, I was torn with doing what was right and what would benefit my survival.

Glancing back at David's stern eyes, my heart skipped a beat.

After everything, the decision had been made by my feelings for him. It was something that evolved far greater than I ever thought.

I loved him.

…

David smoothed away the smirk from his face. His Cassandra was so predictable. She liked to think that she was tough, but she was really nothing more than a bundle of confusing emotions. He knew her well. He knew her even better than she knew herself.

The moment he met her, he thought her existence laughable. She had been nothing but a rebellious child, craving for her father's affection. It was pitiful.

He pitied her.

And so, he stayed to see how her life would end up. It was fascinating watching her live in her own self-misery when there was so much in the world for her to explore and consume. Knowledge was infinite. It was gratifying. He loved every bit of information he could get his hands on. The end goal really didn't mean much to him.

He was programmed by Peter Weyland to go into the stars and find the elixir of immortality. He was going to do everything he could to perform that task, but only because of its constant compulsion. Once it was all over, he was going to truly sail through the universe, finding everything he could.

For someone like him, planet Earth was no longer a playground. It was becoming an old favourite book that had endearing qualities, but he no longer had any interest rereading it, again.

And so, he took a piece of it with him – something to keep forever as a souvenir of his home planet, of the failures and successes that were born there.

It was strange. He thought that by now, he'd be bored of her, but the more he spent time with the naïve woman, the more he realised that perhaps she was someone essential to his existence. Everything she did and said defied his very purpose. She challenged him every step of the way. She bought him down and made him recalibrate whenever he was too sure about anything. He hated, yet loved her for it.

She was such a lovely toy…

She was so preciously obedient, now.

When he saw her fall back into the seat, her defeated face was a triumph. He had once been told that he could not create anything new, but that was relative. There were so many other possibilities out there. He had already found loopholes to the programming and he aimed to exploit them all.

"Ms. Shaw, come back to us," he told the archaeologist.

He could hear the static coming from her end, but it became clearer and clearer as she walked into the alien spacecraft. "We can't go back," she told him. "We could all be infected already." Her voice from the intercom merged with her physical presence.

The redhead looked worse for wear as she staggered over. Her eyes remained determined and fiery, unlike the wilted flower slumped in front of him. Now, he had two variables.

"Does this ship have homing coordinates?" Shaw asked. She looked angry as she stared him down as if he had a role in the crew's demise. She wasn't completely wrong, but he nearly laughed out loud. This was someone he could use. She was perfect just the way she was, while he had something else planned for Cassandra who still needed a little work.

"Cassandra, please take me to my body."

Without speaking, she stood up and relocated him while he instructed Shaw on the controls.

The blonde woman began to work on him without even being asked. She wandered about in her suit, searching for tools to put him back together.

Wire by wire, she connected him until he was able to move his hands and work out the details that she was unfamiliar with. Not once did she utter a word as he and Shaw conversed.

He didn't like it.

She was never quiet for this long. It was unusual. It meant that what was currently running through her head was unfamiliar to him. That was troubling. "Cassandra, look at me," he ordered.

She took in a deep breath and raised her eyes to meet his.

He smiled disarmingly at her and pulled her into a kiss, ignoring the gasp from Shaw because the expression on his blonde's face told him everything he needed to know. He was back to knowing exactly what was running in her head. Him.

Good.

"David…" Her half-hooded eyes remained on his as he quickly finished up the rest of the repairs.

He turned to Shaw who continued to stare at them in disbelief. "Please, take care of our destination, while I help Cassandra. She seems to be in shock."

He left before he received a reply. Her body trembled against him as he brought her into one of the resting chambers.

He laid her on the cushioned surface and pried her fingers off him. He helped her out of her suit, despite her frantic protests that it wasn't safe. There was no point in wearing it any longer. She was eventually going to suffocate in it.

Once she was left with only her underclothes, he placed a gentle hand on her thigh. "Go to sleep, Cassandra." She shook her head and kicked her legs. "Everything will be fine. Go to sleep." She continued to thrash around. When he realised that she wasn't listening, he straightened his back with a sigh.

"Don't go…" she whimpered, reaching out to him as he walked across the room to turn on the lights. "I'm sorry."

Everything here seemed to be activated by a series of controls. It was no longer an obstacle for him. He had figured out what almost everything meant and how to use them. It was just a matter of putting them into context.

"David!"

He sighed and walked back to her. "You're safe, Cassandra. Close your eyes and go to sleep. Everything will still be fine when you wake up."

She looked to be ready to continue arguing, but he injected her with one of the emergency sedatives that was always in their bags.

Her eyes fluttered closed and her breathing calmed into a rhythmic pattern.

Once he secured the room, he went back to Elizabeth Shaw who was managing herself fine. S He looked exhausted and a little worse for wear, but she was functional.

She had her necklace in her hand and appeared to be muttering to herself. Was she still speaking with her God? Did she still believe her creator to be omnipotent? Perhaps sympathetic to her situation?

At least his Cassandra clung on to someone who could actually help her. "May I assist you with anything, Dr. Shaw?"

She looked up, her eyes wide as if he was a monster that had been haunting her. Perhaps he was, but she wouldn't know, would she?

"No, I… I'm fine…" That was a lie. She was far from fine, but it didn't really matter what her reply was. No one was ever going to come back – her friends, her companions, Charlie… They were all gone. All she had now was her faith and her ambition. She was never going to let go of them.

"Come here. Let me treat your wounds." David had found some medical supplies laying about, or he assumed they were for that purpose. He hadn't had the time to figure out the finer details of each item on this ship, but he was more than happy to experiment.

She stood up from her huddled position and walked over to him, glancing curiously at the strange instruments that were being laid on the table "What are they?"

"They will help me help you," he replied, picking up what appeared to be a very sharp cutting tool. "Lay down here."

He worked methodically on her injuries. There was nothing serious beyond the lesion of where she had used the surgical pod to remove the offspring.

What a shame… He had really been hoping to see it, but there hadn't been enough time between then and Peter Weyland's insistence to start their journey. He had no doubt that the creature would've been a very interesting specimen.

"Thanks, David," she murmured when he was done and quickly fixed her tattered clothing.

As he put away the tools, he could feel her questions waiting to explode out, but he waited for her first move.

"David, you and Cassandra, are the two of you… involved?" She looked uncertainly at him.

He smiled, placing the knife back down. "Cassandra and I are involved, yes." She waited for him to elaborate, but he did no such thing. It was a delight seeing how bothered she was.

Instead of asking any other questions, she looked away from him. "I'll be right back." She abruptly stood up, wincing when she stretched her wound. 'I'm going to explore a little. Maybe I can find out more about the Engineers before we land on their planet. There just has to be a reason for their hatred towards humans."

Did they really? He wondered.

He couldn't fathom what they were thinking, but a part of him wondered if this expedition had been the last straw. Human beings as a whole had grown in astronomical proportions in a short amount of time. What they were aiming to accomplish was something even the Engineers couldn't. They may live long, but that didn't change their mortality.

Humans had grown arrogant, creating beings like himself.

He chuckled at the memory of having his head ripped off. The Engineers knew instantly what would happen when no one else suspected it.

Too bad it didn't realise how resilient his structures were. By now, it was possible that humans have grown far more advance than even the Engineers and with the creation of himself who was built to be perfect.

He chuckled at the prospect of landing there and sharing who was truly superior.

In the meantime, he still had something to do.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thank you Zerousy, Love Fiction 2017, JinXx4440 for reviewing!

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