a/n: I don't own "Prometheus" or it's characters.
Peter Weyland was awake by the time David reached his quarters. The fact that he had survived coming out of cryostasis was something of a miracle in David's opinion, given the delicacy of his health. The old man sat wrapped in his white robes as Dr. Ford and two other members of the crew fussed over him.
"Mr. Weyland," David said respectfully. "I see you're almost ready for your adventure."
Mr. Whalen's shrouded eyes flickered up to him but he seemed too impaired by nausea to respond.
David joined the team readying him to go meet the Engineer. They cleaned him and filled him full of as many stimulants and painkillers as they dared.
Janek interrupted them from the bridge to tell them that they had gotten a signal from Fifield's transmitter.
David took the next call from Janek on the headset, a precaution he suspected was necessary when he heard Janek's shaky voice.
What they had thought was Fifield was in fact a creature, a monstrous version of the man which had attacked the crew before they were forced to destroy it. David spared Mr. Wayland knowledge of this. He wanted none of these misfortunes to deter his maker from having a conversation he desired so earnestly.
He was just finishing up Mr. Wayland ablutions when the door hissed open and he was startled to see Dr. Shaw, clad only in her underclothes, covered in blood with a monstrous fissure across her abdomen which was sealed by the large metal staples of the MedPod.
It took him only a moment to realize what she had done but he suspected that it would take him far longer - perhaps an eternity - to understand where she had found the strength.
Dr. Shaw, heavily sedated, seemingly broken by grief at the death of her partner, had evaded the crew who were prepared to take her to the cryo-deck. She had somehow programmed a machine calibrated for a man to remove the creature growing in her womb. And then she had sought him out.
David was thankful that he was capable of splitting his attention for he doubted that otherwise he could attend to Mr. Weyland properly in that moment.
Jackson moved to the doorway and took her by the shoulders. The security chief looked at David and Mr. Weyland, looking for direction. David got up and removed his lab coat and wrapped it around her. He had been concerned she would push them away, given how they had parted, but she accepted his gesture and he helped her into a seat.
Elizabeth nodded her head lightly to indicate her acceptance that his help and he moved back to Mr. Weyland, now keeping an eye on her.
"You've been asleep," she said with wonder, taking in the preparations they were making from Mr. Weyland.
As David cleaned his feet his maker explained to a stunned Dr. Shaw that he had stayed in cryostasis until he could be sure that he could awake to "meet his maker."
"But haven't you told him they're all gone?" Dr. Shaw looked at him confused.
"They are not all gone, Dr. Shaw," David answered. He kept his eyes on Mr. Weyland, not sure he wanted to see Elizabeth's face in that moment. "One of them is still alive. We're going to go see him now." He looked at his maker's face with a strange notion that it was like offering a visit to the zoo to a small child. Mr. Weyland's slight smile did nothing to allay that feeling.
His decrepit creator asked to be turned to face her and, as David watched carefully, Mr. Weyland explained to the doctor that he had been inspired by her to seek out his maker. David restrained a smile when Mr. Weyland told her that he had come here to see if they could "save" mankind, or barring that, "save" him.
"Save you? From what?" Dr. Shaw asked. David helped Mr. Weyland up.
"From death, of course,"
Dr. Shaw grew visibly upset. "This place… it isn't what we thought it was. I was wrong." Tears drip down her face which was contorted with a mixture of pain and regret. "We were so wrong."
Across the room David continued his preparations but his eyes were drawn to her agony as she spoke of Dr. Holloway's death and tried to convince his maker to call off the expedition.
As David knew he would, Mr. Wayland could not be persuaded. He challenged Dr. Shaw, asking her what Charlie would've wanted, accusing her of losing her faith. David couldn't help but be reminded that he had made a similar accusation to her not thirty minutes prior.
Elizabeth excused herself, waving off the crewmember who offered to help her. She seemed exhausted, overwhelmed, broken. As he prepared Mr. Wayland and himself, David contemplated the discussion he could have with her when he returned from his expedition. Would she tell him what it was like, to be disillusioned? Would she share with him what her plans were now that this, her life's work, was abandoned?
David wondered what her dreams would be like on the return voyage. Would those dreams of her father showing the roots of both her faith and her curiosity be different? Would she dream of the death of her partner and the horrific trauma she had surely experienced under the arms of the MedPod?
David's head so full of his future conjecture that he was shocked to see Dr. Shaw in the Rover, dressed to go to the surface.
Every time he thought she was broken, that she was done, that she had nothing else inside her, no fight, no faith, she appeared again. He smiled at her but he felt a twinge of irritation. How could he plan? How could he know how to respond in a situation when she didn't behave like any other human around him?
He smiled at her. "Extraordinary survival instincts, Elizabeth." He wondered of she would let him get away with calling her that.
"What happens when Weyland's not around to program you anymore?" she asked him. He stepped closer to her and appraised her. She looked angry.
"I suppose I'll be free," he answered without thinking, "Free" was such a powerful word for humans. What would it mean to her?
"You want that?" she asked him skeptically.
"Want? Not a concept I'm familiar with." David had to look away from her as he said it. He fixed his gaze to a spot on the wall above her head. She was a perceptive woman. Could she tell that he was lying? "That being said, doesn't everyone want their parents dead?" David didn't even know it was true until he said it. He wanted Mr. Weyland dead. It was so in opposition to his programming he wondered at even being able to think it. To feel it, he corrected himself. As the others entered the vehicle he smiled at her. He hoped she would live but he frankly didn't care about any of the rest of them.
"I didn't," she responded. He decided he would ask her later, if circumstances permitted, if she thought she would have eventually chafed under the guidance of her father. A religious man, would he have encouraged her to go to space to find "God?" Perhaps she was lucky that her parents had died although he doubted that she would see it that way.
Elizabeth was quiet as the group transport headed back to the pyramid. David and Dr. Ford assisted Mr. Weyland through the tunnels to the last Engineer.
As he prompted the old man to remove his helmet Elizabeth voiced her concern and he reassured her that the air was not what had infected her partner. She gave him a stunned look as she realized that he knew what had infected Dr. Holloway. He regretted having her suspect that he was responsible but it would have to come out eventually, he supposed. Perhaps if he related to her the conversation they had had she would understand. Dr. Holloway had assured him that he would be willing to do whatever was necessary to get his answers. Surely she could understand why he had acted as he did?
Mr. Weyland asked about cargo hold with its stacks of jars. He explained it and ushered them onto the bridge. He felt thrilled to be able to show them how the technology worked; playing the odd little flute and pressing the egg-shaped buttons. They had longed to see a superior species although they could not accept the one walking among them. Perhaps his ease at navigating this technology and communicating with the Engineer would convince them that they had wasted his skills using him as a glorified butler.
He explained that they had been heading to Earth.
"Why?" Dr. Shaw asked.
He approached her as he spoke. "Sometimes to create, one must first destroy," he said as he walked past her. He could see her suppress a shudder.
David knelt next to the chamber of the last Engineer. If he were prone to physical expressions of emotions he believed that he would be shaking with anticipation. He assured Mr. Weyland that he could communicate with the creature and initiated the sequence to wake him from his 2,000-year slumber.
The creature rose quickly but shakily, nearly knocking Peter Weyland over as he rose to his feet, towering over even David, the tallest of them.
David could hear the excitement and impatience in his creator's voice as he assured them he was all right and urged David to speak for him.
"Ask them where they're from," Dr. Shaw interjected. Mr. Weyland looked at her in surprise, clearly appalled that she would try to interfere with his attempted negotiations with the creature.
"Ask him what's in his cargo. It killed his people." She persisted, looking at David fiercely. He didn't dare follow her lead in the presence of his master but he could see that the Engineer was watching their interactions.
"Shaw, enough," Mr. Weyland said angrily.
"You made that thing. And it was meant for us. Why?"
Mr. Weyland gave Jackson the order to "shut her up" and the man hit her in the gut with his rifle. Still, she persisted. "I need to know why. What did we do wrong? Why do you hate us?" She was on her knees. The effort of speaking through the pain was obvious but she hadn't given up.
"David, tell him why we came," Mr. Weyland's voice was filled with urgency. David considered what the Engineer had just seen. An old man ordering a member of his own team beaten to silence her questions. He figured that even if he didn't understand the language the creature could understand what he had seen. David knew that he could say that they were there for answers, that this was a spiritual quest, as Dr. Shaw believed it was. Or he could tell the Engineer exactly what the old man before him was made of.
"This man is here because he does not want to die. He believes you can give him more life." David sealed their fate with that utterance. The Engineer put his hand on David's head gently and it occurred to David that there was a small possibility that he would be spared.
The man gripped his head with both hands and tore it from his body. David didn't feel pain per se but he did experience a system-wide explosion of warning signals and damage messages. The Engineer struck Mr. Weyland with his own creation, sending the old man's delicate frame hurtling to the ground. Davis see enough to watch the rest of the crew attack and be destroyed by the seemingly indestructible creature. Except Dr. Shaw. The Engineer watched as she escaped through the cargo hold and seemed to consider going after her and decide against it.
David's head found itself resting quite near that of Peter Weyland. The old man's voice was filled with sorrow and choking frustration as he gasped, "There's nothing," to David.
"I know," David answered. "Have a good journey, Mr. Weyland."
The sound of his life sensor droned a flat signal as his father, his maker died. David could feel his own milky white blood on his chin as he watched the last Engineer prepare his ship, filled with jars of death, to fly to the planet of their origin and destroy it.
a/n: I apologize for the wait, I was on vacation and David's head is a hard place to get back into. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!
J