EPILOGUE: ROGUE TRANSMISSION.

Undetermined date. Engineer Planet designated "Paradise."

The storm would soon be over, David caught a glimpse of the sky through one of the gaps in the clouds. The esplanade outside the temple was covered in puddles, a stream meandered through it until it fell through the open iris at the center. He wiped away with the back of his hand a few drops that fell on his face as he stepped out from the shelter of the ledge.

The climatic conditions in Paradise allowed the formation of cyclones that could last for weeks. He had already witnessed at least twenty of them, this last one was especially lasting.

Not that he cared much. David spent most of his time in the library, studying the ways of the *Deiwos, the name on which the Engineers called themselves.

He had discovered a secret hidden for millennia. The *Deiwos, or De'vas had created the pathogen for use in the creation and development of new life forms, terraforming and as a last resort weapon. The De'vas had feared its full potential, and had encrypted their creation so that it could not be used... or so they had tried.

During the years he had spent alone on this dying world, David had found a way to use the algorithm behind the pathogen's workings. By manipulating the available intact biological material, he had managed to duplicate the "Wolf", as he called it.

It was a perfected form of the strange forms created by the pathogen. While equal in viciousness and deadliness, this version was capable of ending all life on a planet with terrifying efficiency. The De'vas were worried that if the power of their creation was underestimated, all life in the universe might perish.

David descended the stairs leading to the underground levels of the temple and entered the dark room. Ten ovoid objects were placed there. They were about three feet tall and had the rough texture of a football, with a cross-shaped suture on top. David patted the nearest ovoid. Something stirred inside. David lowered the oil lamp and peered through the semi-translucent membrane. Long, bony fingers wiggled inside the egg. The android smiled.

By the time he came back out of the temple, the rain had stopped. Good, he told himself, taking a robe and covering himself with it. He strapped the signal pistol to his belt and headed out, and then settled down to his usual walk through the city gates and into the mountains.

After a few hours, he reached the sequoia forest that bordered the range and passed between the giant trunks of fallen trees. In front of him lay the gray bulk of the Juggernaut , right where it had crashed.

The water that drained from the rocky slope permeated into the vehicle to emerge again through the iris in the cargo hold. A layer of sediment had formed there, giving the impression that the ship was embedded in the mountain.

David easily climbed up and slipped inside through the opening. Greenish-black patches of moss grew there, but David knew it wasn't moss, but spore sacs from the disintegration of abominations.

Not infrequently he had disturbed the nodules to extract the infectious motes for his experiments.

He entered the ship's bridge and sat in the command chair. Using the flute, he activated its holographic system. Shaw's ghostly figure appeared on the console, humming. The artifact had recorded Elizabeth's last moments before her fateful end. Suddenly, nostalgia invaded him and David felt extremely alone.

An alarm brought him back to his senses. He pressed bulbous buttons and the orrery lit up, displaying its array of nearby celestial objects. A warning flickered in one of the surrounding stars.

David translated the symbols and found that a coronal mass ejection was about to happen. Wonderful, he thought to himself. The planet's strong magnetosphere would create beautiful auroras.

He used the visual sensors in the chair to observe every detail of the event. A yellow giant came into focus, above the surface, a solar flare erupted from the equator, launching supercharged particles into space. David looked away to get a better field of vision. There were planets dancing around the star, none of them inhabited, according to the records of the De'vas.

Something caught his attention. A tiny speck of light was moving at high speed through the nearby space. Judging from the trajectory and speed, it wasn't a natural object. It could only mean one thing: a ship.

A ship , David thought in amazement. Who could be wandering in that remote corner of space? As far as he knew, the human race hadn't yet ventured this far from their home system.

Long time he had been trapped in that dead world. The De'vas, in a last desperate act, had disabled their own stored ships in an attempt to contain the infection, leaving him stranded in the process.

But now, someone was out there and he had only one chance, not only to get out but to continue his magnum opus. Using the ship's emergency broadcasting system, David sent the first thing he found, the video recording of Shaw singing Country roads.

The little ship was left adrift when it was hit by a shower of supercharged particles from the coronal mass ejection event. David hoped there would be at least some survivors… otherwise, he would just have to wait a little longer until another rescue ship came after them.

- o -

The End.