CHAPTER 3: THE CROSSING

December 28 th , 2093. Inside the alien temple at LV-223.

Elizabeth Shaw leaned once more over the slab of basalt stone that served as a makeshift desk. Before her, she had a huge papyrus sheet she had found in the temple. A circular star map filled the page. Annotations in the unknown language accompanied each of the celestial objects embodied in it.

Behind her, David watched stead and silently.

-"I've narrowed the search down to just a handful of stars," she said, holding up a piece of semi-spherical glass that served as a magnifying lens. The android nodded silently, and came closer to see. On the diagram, Shaw had circled those systems that were most likely to be the Engineer's homeworld.

The map was centered on a group of six stars in a very familiar arrangement. It was the same star map that Shaw and Holloway had shown him during the mission debriefing. The one they had found scattered throughout all the cultures of the Earth... or so they had thought.

-"You should rest, Elizabeth." David told him.

Shaw set the lens aside and turned to look at the android. Since she had repaired it, David called her by her name and that disturbed her. From being extremely cold and logical, he became a little bit… apprehensive, almost like a newly adopted puppy.

Shaw shrugged. After years of servitude to an unyielding master, David didn't know what to do with his newfound freedom.

-"The quicker we find our destination, the quicker we get out of here." Elizabeth replied.

David nodded. Once Elizabeth had something on her mind, it was impossible to distract her from her goal. "Please, Dr. Shaw," she said, "I will continue." David took the magnifying glass and sat down on the bench, ready to continue searching.

Elizabeth Shaw reluctantly complied, but she admitted that she was a little tired.

David scanned the star chart once more, concentrating on those systems circled. There were so many worlds out there.

He brought his face closer and read the inscription on the star at the map's center. "Ab'hijit", he translated, "he who cannot be defeated." David frowned, "Hmmm, peculiar," he said. The system had a single planet and a moon that revolved around a blue star. He remembered seeing it in the ship's orrery.

His artificial mind lingered within its memory banks. Shaw was looking for a paradise by human, mostly religious standards. The engineers, despite seeming a lot like us, weren't human at all.

Paradise was, in its most basic context, associated with the afterlife. It was also related to the Garden of Eden, the place where man had been created. In both cases it represented a pleasant and fruitful place.

But that was the best known conception, spread through religion. David dug deeper into his databases until he found it.

Etymologically, Paradise derived from the Greek word paradeisos, which in turn could be traced back to the proto Indo-European roots *dheigʷ, to set up a wall, and *per, around, while Eden came from the Akkadian edinnu, plain or steppe.

-"The place we seek," he said to himself, "is a plain or flat surface surrounded by a wall."

Certainly that coincided with the fact that according to the Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden had been closed after the expulsion of man. Since then, it was guarded by a cherub armed with a flaming sword.

David shook his head in disbelief. He really doubted that they would find a winged being wielding a fiery sword floating in space. He put the map aside and got up, looking for Elizabeth.

He found the woman sitting on a huge stone slab that served as a makeshift bed, fiddling with the holophoto of her and Charlie.

Noticing the android, she wiped away a tear that ran down her cheek and put the holophoto aside.

-"David," she said, startled, "is something wrong?"

-"I could ask you the same question, Dr. Shaw," he replied.

-"Just memories," she said.

She handed him the holophoto. David took it and examined it. In the picture, a young Charlie Holloway smiled at Elizabeth's side.

-"The Chiquihuite cave in Mexico," said Elizabeth, "it was my thirtieth birthday and we thought we had found one more piece of the puzzle."

-"You mean one of the maps?" David asked.

-"Yes," she agreed, "the tribe who made those paintings believed that humans had come down to Earth from the stars."

David smiled, examined the image in more detail, in a corner appeared the date: December 28th, 2088. The realization came immediately.

-"It's your Birthday!" David exclaimed. "Congratulations!"

Shaw looked at him strangely, a smile forming slightly on her face. "Oh... Thanks David."

"You're welcome," the Android replied, and then added with a pang of regret. "Unfortunately, I don't have a present for you."

Elizabeth snorted, a birthday party was the last thing on her mind. However, David continued, widening his eyes and raising his index finger.

-"Oh, wait." he told him, "I have an idea."

Elizabeth frowned. The synthetic hurried into one of the rooms. After a few minutes she returned with a piece of papyrus and a piece of charcoal pencil.

-"What are you doing?" Shaw asked, puzzled.

-"You'll see." He replied, and got to work, drawing something on the paper.

After a few strokes, David held up the paper to display his handiwork, staring at her with his deep blue eyes.

It was a drawing of Shaw, sitting with her hands resting on her lap, looking to the side of her. Shaw noted however that her features were more youthful. Her hair was a bit longer and she was wearing a shirt, not the remains of her space suit or the engineers' tunic that she had found in one of the chambers.

Elizabeth remembered the scene, there was no way David could have faithfully reproduced it unless...

-"David?" she asked, "That picture..."

"It is you, on your last journey along with your father," he said. "Victoria Falls, I think." Then, he added, "I must confess I saw him during your dream, back on the Prometheus."

Shaw was startled. It was no secret that David could use the hypersleep chamber's neural connection to "see" the occupant's dreams. He had cynically confessed to spying on her dreams before.

Though most might perceive it as an invasion of privacy, the android had been fairly discrete. He had only revealed that information to her and no one else.

-"Don't worry David," she said, taking the drawing and admiring it. "You are very clever, you know?"

-"I'm afraid creation is something beyond the scope of my kind," David said with a rueful tone. "We were made to serve, not to create."

-"I bet you could do it if you tried." Shaw said.

The android remembered the last time he "tried."

It was only minutes after his activation, when Peter Weyland himself asked his name. Weyland suggested that he play something of his choice on the piano, and David, trying to please his "father," performed Wagner's Entry of the Gods into Valhalla. A magnificent piece, which the prideful man immediately dismissed as anemic.

Of course, David had excused himself by pointing to the fact that Weyland was a mortal after all, and that He, his creation, was perfect. This angered the man, who immediately ended the matter by ordering David to serve him tea.

David hadn't tried anything since, but now that Peter Weyland was dead, he was free to do as he pleased. And best of all, Shaw wouldn't judge him.

David went back to work while Elizabeth slept soundly in the next room, covered in a blanket. Several of these had been found on a shelf, along with a robe made from an unknown plant fiber. Elizabeth had chosen one that belonged to a young specimen, since it was small enough for her size, although she used the razor to trim it so that the fabric wouldn't drag on the floor.

Now David was carefully examining the white star within a sextuple system. The inscriptions spoke of "youths", "descendants" and "miraculous vehicles."

David searched among the manuscripts in the small library of the temple, and found a text about that remote world.

He reviewed his database on Proto Indo-European that he had learned during the voyage on the Prometheus and read in amazement.

-"Dr. Shaw?" David lightly caressed the woman's cheek. "Elizabeth, wake up."

Shaw mumbled sleepily and rolled over, slowly waking up. "What's wrong David?

"I found it," she said. Shaw's eyes snapped open and he almost jumped to his feet.

-"Are you're sure?"

-"Quite sure." David replied cheerfully, "Come with me." Shaw buttoned up his robes and prepared to follow the android.

"This is it," said David, pointing to the fourth planet of the whitish star.

-"How did you know?" she asked.

"Look at this," David handed him the manuscript. "The name of this world has been erased, but a walled city is clearly shown there. Indeed, a small illustration of a classically styled city was drawn over a forest with rivers and lakes... or was it a jungle?

It was surrounded by a wall with metal gates to the four cardinal points. But the most enigmatic feature was an object hovering low over the city.

-"These diwós suHnū́..." explained David, "these sons of God, traveled in miraculous vehicles."

-"That object over the city..." Shaw pointed to the strange glyph, "it is the living representation of a cherub according to the book of Ezekiel."

David nodded. It did indeed look like a gyroscope, or a "wheel within the wheel", but the android couldn't help but notice the resemblance to two of the intertwined U-shaped ships. Another glyph was inscribed besides the object.

-"Well well well," David exclaimed, "The ship is referred by the name the flaming sword"

-"The sword guarding the Garden of Eden!" Shaw exclaimed, David nodded. "Yeah! you found it, David!"

-"Happy Birthday, Dr. Shaw." He said, smirking.

- o -

New Year's Eve, two days later.

Elizabeth Shaw lowered the last of the emergency containers into the ATV's compact compartment.

For the past two days, she and David had been gathering supplies and anything useful they could find in the wreckage of the Prometheus. Although the self-diagnostic pod was irreparably damaged, the android was able to find a few pieces of intact medical equipment, such as the synapse re-initiator and some laser scalpels.

-"That's the last one, David." She called him on the radio, and climbed over the ATV. "I'm ready."

-"Excellent, Dr. Shaw," he replied, "the ship will be ready to go in a few hours."

While she made the final trip to the escape pod, David had remained in the temple, preparing the alien ship for the trip to Paradise.

The return to the temple would take no more than a few minutes, even on the rough and debris-strewn terrain. Shaw dodged a large piece of the engine, still emitting a thin plume of smoke.

He walked past the downed engineer's ship. The dark colossus had an ominous appearance, like the huge carcass of a whale washed up on the beach. It was incredible how the superstructure was still intact after the collision, while the Prometheus had been completely destroyed.

Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He stopped the vehicle and looked over there. A whitish flash repeated every two seconds.

-"What the hell?" Shaw said.

He stepped on the gas pedal and headed toward the strange light. As he got closer, he saw that it was coming out of a rectangular object the size of a toolbox. The vehicle skidded to a stop and Shaw jumped to the ground.

-"I'll be damned!" she exclaimed, "David?..." She called pressing the communicator button. "David, you're not going to believe-"

-"What's wrong, Elizabeth?"

-"I found the ship's black box."

By the time Shaw reached the entrance to the pyramid, David was already there. The synthetic helped him unload the heavy metal box.

David set the flight recorder down on a slab of stone and examined it. It was orange with diagonal black stripes. A strobe light flickered at one end, while the opposite side contained a titanium panel with a hinge.

The android opened the panel and a small dark green screen lit up.

U.S.C.S.S. PROMETHEUS

REG NUMBER: 130748

CREW: 17

DESTINATION: [CLASSIFIED]

PROPERTY OF: WEYLAND CORP.

-"What do you want to do with it?" David asked.

-"Can this thing transmit?" she asked back.

-"Yes," He responded, "An acoustic signal at twelve-second intervals," he then added, "in addition to an analog signal in the 160 MHz band at a range of one point five light years."

"Perfect," Shaw said. "I need to record a final message."

David opened the file labeled: Crew Messages. There was a list with a few text and video messages from crewmembers. He selected the option: Record New message.

-"As soon as you're ready, Dr. Shaw." He said and stepped away, giving Elizabeth room to speak. She cleared her throat and started recording.

-"Final report of the vessel Prometheus . The ship and her entire crew are gone. If you're receiving this transmission, make no attempt to come to its point of origin. There is only death here now, and I'm leaving it behind. It is New Year's Day, the year of our Lord, 2094. My name is Elisabeth Shaw, last survivor of the Prometheus . And I am still searching."

She pressed the finish button. "Ready." David looked at her confused.

-"Don't you think anyone will come," he said. "After all, curiosity is a very human feature."

Shaw nodded. She knew very well that a signal could be taken almost as an invitation.

"And for that," she said, "you're going to delete all other information." David raised an eyebrow. "Let them think there's nothing but radioactive debris here."

"As you wish," David agreed. He pressed a few more buttons and a message appeared on the screen.

WARNING: DELETING INFORMATION IN A FLIGHT RECORDER IS PUNISHED BY LAW, RANGING FROM LEGAL ACTION TO INCARCERATION.

David pressed: Delete.

Shaw breathed a sigh of relief. She put her helmet back on and picked up the metal box. "Get the ship ready," she said, "I'll leave this out."

She sighed, depositing the flight recorder below the small pile of stones she had erected. "Goodbye, Charlie," she said, looking out at the ash-gray landscape. The small memorial to those who had died on the expedition was the last thing left of the man she loved. Shaw bowed his head and sent out a small silent prayer.

- o -

The iris at the base of the circular platform opened and an object that to Shaw's eyes looked like an anti-aircraft gun emerged from it. David climbed into the "cockpit" while Elizabeth pressed the bulbous buttons on the command chair.

The cavernous space around him lit up with blue holographic representations of planets. The "telescope" swiveled toward her as David pressed more buttons on the panel. "Elizabeth, plot a course to the planet."

She pressed a bulbous button. As David had told her, the system was highly intuitive, interpreting the user's intentions with disturbing accuracy, regardless of language differences. All Shaw had to do was "steer" the ship home.

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, Mountain Mama

Take me home, country roads…

She hummed an old country song that Charlie used to sing. A beam locked onto the blue dot hovering above, followed by a second, and then a third. Finally, the orrery traced a curved line from the point of origin to the destination. A navigation course.

-"Initiating liftoff sequence." David casted a smile at her. She returned the gesture, as a biomechanical flight suit extended from the chair and covered the android's body and head. It seemed to Shaw that he was looking at one of those ancient gas masks.

The ancient Juggernaut shuddered as the engines fired up. Elizabeth imagined the hangar's iris opening up above them. After a few seconds the rumble died away and the ship rose gently into the atmosphere and the darkness beyond.

- o -

-"How long." Elizabeth asked, as she lay in the spacious cryogenic chamber. She had taken off her space suit and put on one of the robes. The interior sagged gently under Shaw's weight. It was lukewarm and had a sticky texture. It seemed to her that she was lying on a huge gummy.

-"Impossible to say." David responded, reclined over her. His expression was that of a father tucking his daughter into bed. "Years even." Shaw nodded slightly and placed her hands on her chest.

-"What if they're not better than us?" she added.

-"So long as they're no worse." David eased her. Shaw sighed and turned his head to the side, closing his eyes.

-"Sleep tight." David pressed a button and the capsule's transparent cover began to close."I'll wake you when we arrive." He said before the cryo chamber closed completely.

He was alone again, completely alone. With nothing but his own thoughts. This time, not even in dreams, Weyland would order him his next course of action. One which he had already decided.

David went to the ship's cargo compartment and opened the hatch. There, just where he had secretly deposited them a day before, were thousands of steatite vessels.

David smirked before turning around and sealing his precious and deadly cargo.

- o -

A/N: Welcome back! Finally I finished this chapter a few days. My brain had been lingering restless over the series of events shown in the short "The Crossing." The story is narrated to Walter by David, of course. Although the scenes seem to be scrambled.

This chapter was a coherent rearrangement of the events that occurred between Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, always respecting the canon and the characters.
Dr. Shaw's Age is based on Noomi Rapace's age and birthday. Thanks to the blog .com for their dedication to the events of the series.

Don't forget to comment your opinions below, even if they are mean. They are feedback.