CHAPTER 2: TAKE ME TO THE SHIP.

September 27th, the unknown moon designated as LV-223.

The sun went down behind the huge mountain that dominated the valley, but Elizabeth Shaw couldn't see it from inside another of the strange pyramids.

-"Green to green," David repeated, "red to red . " The android lay sprawled on a stone slab as Elizabeth used a laser scalpel to link the circuits in her head. "It is designed to be easy." He explained himself.

-"I do what I can," Elizabeth replied. Although she had some knowledge of medicine, she had never performed micro surgeries, much less repairs on an advanced android like David.

She had to be careful not to damage a vital circuit or she would be trapped there forever.

-"You have a good heart, do you know?" David stared at her, Shaw looked away from him.

-"I have it?" she asked him back.

-"I haven't seen such generosity in any other human being," David replied, "Not even in my own creator."

Shaw thought about it for a moment. It wasn't generosity that prompted her to repair the android, she suspected. No, it was the human instinct to survive and seek answers.

-"I need you," she said coldly, "to pilot the ship." she attached the red wire, "Nothing else."

-"A rational person would have turned me off," David reasoned, "but not you. You have a tendency to hope for the best."

-"I was wrong." Elizabeth tested the wire by pulling it slightly, when it didn't yield, she continued.

-"Engineer's technology is very advanced," said David, "yet, so simple." Shaw paused when she heard him, "Their controls use a tactile neural interface that interacts directly with the user through a conductive gel. It basically reads nerve impulses from your skin and translates them into commands."

Shaw tilted her head slightly, wondering how David knew that, and why he mentioned it.

-"Right behind my synthetic spine, is my main power source," David said, directing his eyes to her neck. "A deep cut would deactivate me completely," he specified, "now that you know how alien technology works, I am of no more use to you."

Shaw was thoughtful for a moment. She had the right, David had deliberately infected Charlie with the pathogen, and had refused to remove the monster from her belly, so ... why did she hesitate?

She took the synthetic skin ends from David's neck and used the scalpel to cauterize the cut, making sure it was repaired.

David began to test the movement on his limbs, first joining his feet and then his hands. Shaw had done a good job. He sat up on the stone slab and smiled.

-"See?" said David, "you had the right and the opportunity, and you didn't. That's because you trust," he paused and then concluded, "something I'm starting to do."

-"That's because I'm a human being," Shaw replied, and walked off down the corridor. Once out of the android's sight, a sudden gagging attack struck, and she vomited in a corner.

-"Dr. Shaw?" David called her from the hallway, "We should go," he said, "The ship is this way."

Shaw sat up and wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

-"Just a second," she said, and walked to a corner, where the water cascaded over a small circular basin. She used both hands as a bowl to rinse herself.

-"Alright, I'm ready." David headed down one of the curving corridors.

Shaw examined the architecture in detail, the last three days she had barely paid attention to it, the excitement of the discovery had blinded her. She recalled that temples and tombs were always finely decorated. As Janek had said, pure utilitarian architecture was a feature of military buildings and depots.

Oh Charlie, she aguishly reminded herself, I am so sorry. If she had listened to reason, people wouldn't have died.

The place was indeed an identical copy of the previous pyramid, long curved corridors connecting a series of circular rooms with vaulted ceilings. David stopped at a stone doorway, if she wasn't mistaken, Shaw remembered it was the room where those mysterious urns were stored.

-"Is something wrong?" She asked. For a moment, she had the feeling he was going to open the door. She has no intention of getting inside that hideous place.

The android turned. "Nothing," David smirked, and after a pause he resumed walking down the corridor, "this way."

Shaw looked at him thoughtfully. She still had her doubts, despite his innocent appearance and calm voice, the android had deliberately put lives at risk, all in benefit of one deranged man. Three laws of robotics my ass, Shaw thought.

There's only death inside, she thought, and I have the intention of leaving it behind.

He turned to the right into a long narrow corridor. Part of the roof had collapsed and David introduced himself through a gap in the rubble. Shaw followed David crawling through the passage.

Uffff, she grunted as the cold rock hurt her impromptu cesarean section.

In front of her, another of the huge horseshoe-shaped ships rested in its underground hangar. The three hatches of a suggestively feminine shape were open. David headed there.

A quick glance revealed that the ship's cryogenic chambers were empty. Was that humanoid the last of his species? She wondered.

The question hung in the air as David walked quickly to the command chair at one end of the circular platform, right in front of a control panel filled with semi-spherical buttons.

-"Here," he said, "this is how it's done." He took a flute from the panel and very slowly, he brought it to his lips. The android blew out a seven-note melody.

The ship's bridge came to life immediately, as lights flashed on and green beams erupted from the control panel.

Shaw frowned, that melody was strangely familiar to her. David interrupted his thoughts.

-"Cuneiform writing can be translated into sounds..." He hummed the English translation of the symbols.

I will purify and change the sinfulness.

Once sins are no longer covered and need no longer be changed,

I feel well having accomplished the sacrifice.

Once I have endeared the deity, she will love me in her heart,

the offer I bring may wholly cover my sin

bringing sesame oil may work on my behalf

in awe may I...

The sterile may they make fertile,

Grain may they bring forth.

She, the wife, will bear children to the father.

May she who has not yet borne children bear them.

Shaw shuddered with sudden realization. Her mind wandered back to her days at the Institute.

-"Of course!" She exclaimed, recalling, "The Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal! One of my professors at Wellington Institute, Dr. Andrew Woods, taught us a piece of music found in Ugarit."

-"Really?" David seemed excited. Before the android could investigate further, Shaw explained.

-"Professor Woods said it was about creation. Mother Earth giving birth to all life," She grimaced, remembering, "I used to get mad, since I couldn't…" she paused, "you know… conceive." That last word made her throat feel tight.

- "I'm sorry about that," David expressed.

-"I have come to terms with that," Shaw said, trailing her words. The trauma of her alien 'pregnancy' was still present.

-"At least that confirms my suspicions," David said. Shaw gave him a questioning look, "The ship's operating system is highly intuitive."

Elizabeth still didn't understand. What did an ancient poem have to do with the navigation system of a space vehicle from another civilization? David beat him to it.

-"The song talks about purification and sacrifice to create." David paused, a dead silence filled the chamber, "The purpose of the urns is to destroy in order to remake creation. A tabula rasa."

-"That's horrible," A shiver ran down Shaw's spine.

-"It's not much different than what your kind has done before, Dr. Shaw." David justified. The android was right, a characteristic feature of humanity was its aggressive expansion, colonizing a new place meant eradicating the original inhabitants. In David's eyes, terraforming a planet was genocide for the native species, even if these were just simple life forms.

-"We can change," Shaw said, "I think if they see we are kind, it will be a kind world."

David smiled, Elizabeth Shaw was either a highly optimistic or a terribly naive person. But she was certainly kinder than Sir Peter Weyland. Maybe the doctor was right, she could vindicate the aliens' views on the human race, and maybe, get the answers his creator so desperately wanted.

David agreed to help in her enterprise. He pressed one of the panel's bulbous buttons. An holographic representation of that part of the galaxy displayed. Shaw, who hadn't seen it the last time, silently admired it with her mouth open.

-"This is the ship's navigation system," the android explained, "This orrery will show us the way to their homeworld."

Shaw approached one of the blue bright spheres and touched it. It zoomed and showed a detailed representation. A blue giant star surrounded by dust and rubble, closer to it, a rocky planet with a slightly larger moon. After a few seconds, the solar system zoomed out and returned to its place, dancing around. David examined another one, a twin star near a green nebula.

-"There are so many of them," she said, "How did we know which one it is?"

-"We have to figure it out," the android responded in his usual calm tone.

- o -

A/N: Welcome back readers. Here's the second chapter of this Prometheus sequel. You may have noticed all references to "The crossing" prologue of Alien: Covenant in this chapter. The Crossing is a short story which tells the whereabouts of Shaw and David right after the events in Prometheus and before Alien: Covenant. Next chapter would be published soon.
Take me to the Ship is part of the Predators (2010) soundtrack.

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