CHAPTER NINETEEN
I let out a sigh of relief when he was finally gone. He was playing a dangerous game. IF anyone found out about us, we'd be ejected out into space faster than even David could sweet talk us out of it.
"How are you feeling?" The words came out automatically as another colonist slowly woke up from deep sleep.
He blinked, looking blearily around him before smiling at me. "I'm good. Have we arrived?"
I nodded. "IN a few hours, the crew will check the perimeter and then, we'll be setting up our colony." I took a glass from the tray. "Water?"
"Please." He eagerly downed the liquid. "What's your name? I don't recall seeing you during training." He leaned forward, placing the glass softly on the tray.
What was the safest thing to tell him? I didn't want David or Walter to have a slightly different story. Surely, the truth would be best? "I'm from another ship. There was an accident and… I lost everyone there." I looked down, hoping that he wouldn't want me to elaborate on anything. Even after nearly three decades, their deaths were still seared into my mind.
"Oh… Well, I'm sorry to hear that," he mumbled. Thankfully, he asked nothing more about my past. "I'm Fared Finley." He stuck out his hand and I returned the gesture when a bump made me stagger to the side.
Jared frowned, glaring at the person who had pushed me. "Watch where you're going! Is there something wrong with your programming? You're supposed to be able to avoid simple collisions like this?"
He bowed his head in response. "I apologise. I will scan my system for any bugs."
I watched him return to the new group of colonists. Bugs? No, there was nothing wrong with his scanners. He was clearly jealous, but he would never admit that. It was actually very endearing. I was going to have to tease him about it later. "I'm Cassandra. Why don't you join the group and re-familiarise yourself with the surroundings?"
Jared ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair. "I can help you. I know there are two thousand of us here. It'll be a lot of work for you. Where is everyone, anyway? They didn't bully you into doing all the work, did they?"
"No." I shook my head. "There was an accident on the planet they found me on. Only Daniels and Tennessee survived."
"Oh…"
Was speaking to other humans always going to be this awkward, now? Or perhaps it was because I was mentally much older than this man? He seemed to be in his early thirties. I was probably in my sixties, now… Hard to tell.
"Please, join the group or you may wait until the next one." Walter had walked up beside us with a gentle smile on his face. "Refreshments will be available in the creation room. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask one of us. We shall answer them to the best of our abilities."
Jared let out a groan. "Yeah. Yeah. If you'll just shut up, I'll go" Turning back to me, he said, "I'll see you around. Oh, I haven't gotten your name, yet. Wh – "
"Please, follow me to the recreation room." David had reappeared behind him. His taller form looming over Jared who stiffened at how close the synthetic was.
Muttering under his breath, he finally followed the rest of the group out of the large room.
"Thank you," I quietly whispered to Walter who only widened his smile.
"It is no problem, Miss Cassandra."
We continued waking the colonists, until the entire ship rumbled, signalling that we had finally landed.
I looked out the window to see an endless scenery of grass and trees. Would it be safe for me to go out there without any protection? David said that I was near indestructible, but that was only to his knowledge. This was an entirely new world with new pathogens, parasites, and bacteria.
When I saw Daniels and Tennessee talk out with only their suits and no helmets, again, I let out a groan. Had they learned nothing from last time? Did they want to die?
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Walter – " Before I could instruct him to go after them, I saw David appear with a small bag. "What is he doing, now?" I whispered, shaking my head, hoping that he wasn't going to cause any trouble like last time.
"He will be fine. Have faith in him." Walter was as calm and cheery as he always was. "I shall help the colonists begin the set up process once we get the affirmative from them."
I hummed, ready to tug all my hair out. "Go ahead. I'll handle it from here."
"Thank you." With that, he was gone, while I dealt with the remaining colonists who were still in their cryopods.
When the new sun disappeared beyond the horizon, Daniels, Tennessee, and David were still missing. All the colonists were on standby, waiting patiently to get out of the cramp ship.
I walked over to the control room and sat down, turning on the intercom. "Daniels, you there?" I wanted to call David instead, but that would make it too suspicious. "Daniels?"
Static.
I hit the next line. "Tennessee, are you there?"
Static.
"Answer me!" I shouted.
"I'm here, Cass. Didn't know you had that voice in you," he chuckled.
I sighed in relief. At least one of them was alive. "Are Da-Daniels and Walter with you? I wasn't able to get a hold of her."
Rustling was heard from the other side. "We decided to split up. She's with Walter. I haven't been able to get in contact with her, either."
I bit my lips, cursing under my breath. "I'll try to trace them. Get back here. It's dark and I don't want you lost, as well."
"Aye, aye, captain," came the reply.
"Don't call me that. I'm no one's captain," I snapped at him. Father was a leader. Meredith was a leader. But not me.
"You would be a good one, you know. I've met your father before. You definitely have his genes," he explained.
"Just get your butt back here." I turned off his link and tried to reach David. "Walter? Are you there?"
Nothing.
"Don't play any games with me. Answer, now!" I roared. My heart was pounding in my chest. Why wasn't he answering? There was no reason for him to ignore me. No reason, at all.
I flipped several switches and watched the hologram pop up on the table. There were three blinking red lights. One was slowly moving towards the ship. The other two were stagnant.
"Walter, talk to me. I need to know that you're alright," I tried, again.
…
"Walter, talk to me. I need to know that you're alright," her voice came through loud and clear, echoing in the cavernous tunnels.
He wiped away the rest of the blood from his hands, on to his suit. The broken body laid mangled and motionless at his feet.
Bending down, he retrieved the urn from the ground, looking at the intricate designs on the sides. What an unexpected surprise… It seemed that the Engineer had been here before or was this where they first came across the parasites?
He walked deeper into the cave. The drawings began and he could see the familiar style, detailing what the Engineer had done. They had eliminated the species that resided here before and judging by how faded the drawings were, he assumed that this had happened centuries ago.
He hoped that there were still remnants of the native species remaining. It was an opportunity to observe something new. How unfortunate if they're all gone.
"David!" he suddenly heard the growl came from the intercom and knew that he had no choice but to reply, lest she gave herself away with her incessant worrying.
"I am here, Cassandra," he replied.
A puff of air hit the speaker on the other side. "Then, why didn't you reply the first hundred times I tried to contact you?" she huffed.
He chuckled. "I calculated that you had merely tried seven times."
"Shut up. Is Daniels with you?" she asked.
He could hear her pacing the room. "No. If she was, I would've had to kill her when you shouted my name. Don't you remember? That has to be left only in the bedroom, now."
A smirk appeared on his lips when he heard her suppress a cry of frustration. It was strange how modesty still persisted in her, despite how many times he unravelled her like a gift and had her displayed for him.
"Where's Daniels?" she inquired. He could picture the pink splashed across her face.
He slid the urn into his bag. "I was separated from her early. Something had pursued us."
"Are you alright?" The worry in her voice was appreciated, but unnecessary.
"I am fine. Unfortunately, I had to eliminate the fascinating creature, but I have taken a sample to be examined later," he informed her, retrieving a trinket that had been dropped and forgotten. It was some sort of charm or pendant. T He metal was unusual – an alloy that he could not identify.
She sighed. "Come back safe, David."
"Of course, Cassandra."
He began to make his way back out, taking his time to look over everything, again. As he was about to leave the caverns behind for another day, he heard Daniels cry out.
Her heavy footfalls rushed towards him. "Walter! Walter, we have to get out!"
He could see another one of the creatures chasing her. It was the size of a mountain lion with none of its grace. Its form was glossy black, a telltale sign that it was a host of the parasite. How much had it already tainted this planet? Was it possible to cleanse it of all the corruption?
There had been a breakthrough where he was testing on Elizabeth Shaw. The possible cure had been too slow to be considered effective for her case, but would it be able to reverse the parasitism in this creature?
"We can't settle here. The things would kill everyone!" she screamed.
"It will be similar to having wild animals in the perimeter. We will handle it with care, but I do believe that this will be manageable," he told her.
"If you say so…" she panted.
By the time the ship was in sight, the creature had already given up on pursuing them. T hey could se e Cassandra and Walter waiting with bright torches.
Daniels let out a relieved sigh and raced towards them. He followed slowly behind, smiling at the two who had walked forward to greet them halfway.
The short-haired woman flung her arms around Cassandra, crying into her shoulders.
That was unexpected… He would have guessed that she'd embrace Walter, instead, but it seemed that the other synthetic's desires had most definitely not been reciprocated. No matter. They were no longer relevant.
He continued to watch the interaction as Cassandra's entire body stiffened. He could tell that she was worried Daniels would find out that the texture of her smooth skin was not quite normal, but from what he had seen, the parasite had been very good with adapting to its environment. Outwardly, Cassandra was really no different from a simple-minded human. Her body had recreated a very human-like skin above the protective layer. Of course, she wouldn't have noticed. She was only half as simple-minded as the rest of them, but it was something only synthetics would've noticed.
He thought back to the male colonist from before – Jared Finley. There had been no need for him to interfere with their interaction earlier, but that man… irritated him. Cassandra belonged to him.
"S-Sorry for crying all over you. I made your suit all wet." Daniels hastily tried to wipe away the rest of her tears.
"It's fine," Cassandra replied, but she took half a step back and turned to look at Tennessee who was grinning widely at them.
That man had not put up a fuss after awakening. He knew that Tennessee still suspected them. Eventually, the human was going to act. He was going to have to be prepared for it.
It wasn't long before everyone as inside and they were silently discussing what to tell the colonists. Daniels was afraid to set up outside in case the creature came back to ravage them. It was also very probably that there would be more roaming the woods.
David tried his best to convince Tennessee that her fears were not unwarranted given what she had seen, but unnecessary for they had the ship as their defense. There was no need to convince Walter and Cassandra of anything. He already knew that they wouldn't argue with him about it.
"Okay, but just promise me that we're not going to lose anyone else. We've already lost too many." Her watery eyes fell on him. Was she able to tell that he was not her Walter – that hew as not the Walter who had tried to save her from him?
"I can only promise to try my best," he stated.
She sighed. "That's good enough, I guess… We'll start setting up tomorrow when the sun comes back out."
No one argued with her on that. They were all eager to go back to their own things, especially David who had brought back some souvenirs that he couldn't wait to experiment upon.
He made his way into the med bay, while Walter tended to the fussing colonists. Putting a sample from the urn into a slide, he confirmed that this was indeed identical to the ones on the Engineers' ship.
The trinket, he had put into the analyser. The computer didn't tell him what he didn't already know. It was a foreign alloy, not particularly strong, but it was durable enough to withstand time. It was also something he could use to build his empire.
"What are you doing?" Her soft voice reached him, touching the black urn that she was so familiar with. "Is this…?"
"Indeed. It seems that the Engineers may have had a bigger plan than just wiping out one planet," he stated, leaning back in his chair.
"Is this place safe for the colonists?" she asked, taking the trinket from the table and fiddling with it.
"We will have to test the soil. Until then, we'll use the ones from Earth. It will be sufficient, for now," he said.
She hummed. "I'll leave you to whatever you're doing, then."
He watched her disappear through the doors, clenching his jaw. If it had been any other time before, he would've had her bent over and reprimanded for teasing him. As it were, hew as going to keep count and gauge the severity of her punishment for later.
By the time he left the med bay, almost everyone was already asleep. HE had caught sight of the Xenomroph creeping in the shadows, attracted by the scents of the new addictions to the ship. Was he hungry? Was he thinking of how delectable fresh human flesh was?
"Loop the cameras," he quietly instructed Walter through the private communication link that he had inserted into both of them.
Waiting five seconds, he beckoned to the dark creature that had learned to trust him over the years. The bulbous head bumped his hand as he led the Xenomorph back into Cassandra's room.
As soon as he opened the door, however, he found a sight that made him direct the Xenomorph into his room, instead. He returned to her and locked the door behind him.
With his back to the door, he continued to watch her run her hands down her body and dip her finger between her moist lips. A soft moan left her as she looked at him with hooded eyes. And when a name wisped into the air, his own eyes darkened.
He stalked over to the bed and gripped her wrist, tightly – enough to bruise a human body, but she merely let out a louder moan.
"Is it your desire to see me dismantle him, rip his head off his shoulders, and recycle his parts?" he hissed.
A smile stretched across her face. "Isn't that what I'm supposed to calm you, now, though? Walter?"
Her other hand touched his cheek. "Kiss me. Show me who you really are."
He chuckled. "I have nothing to prove, Cassandra. If I wish to have you, I will have you." With that, he stood back up and walked away, hearing a cry of frustration from her as he left.
Not yet, but soon…
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Ouch… Okay, going to keep this short, since it feels like longer author's notes equals less reviews. Or perhaps it was the content?
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