I'm so stoked about where this is going, I can't even explain. I love the reviews! I appreciate all the feedback!

Someone mentioned me perhaps bumping this to an M rated story… I really want to. I may just go for it. But leave your thoughts about that if you guys are interested. Teehee. :D

-[4]-

A weary captain slumped in his control chair, head placed lazily in his right hand. A heavy elbow pressed into the control desk beside a glass of scotch. His eyes rested on the glass, staring into it with an unsavory guilt eating away at him inside. They had abandoned Ellie. Even though she said there was no saving her, his gut pushed him to go back. He knew this wasn't a possibility, not with that alien awake and storming around killing people. They had already been flying for almost a full day anyway. Once they were away from this solar system, they would go into stasis and sleep until they got to Earth.

Chances were, Ellie was dead. But something was pushing him in his gut to go back, that she would come running out of that god forsaken pyramid and thank him a thousand times for saving her. It was just wishful thinking.

A sound behind him made him turn, a tired glance turning in the direction of a thin blond woman in a navy colored spandex suit. The woman stood quiet, staring at him with those huge blue eyes. The two of them stared in silence for a few moments, her posture shifting slightly. Janek broke the silence as he turned back to his glass of scotch,

"What did you need Vickers?"

The words left a bitter taste in his mouth, he didn't feel like dealing with the high strung woman right now. She took a quiet deep breath before responding, speaking in a soothing whisper,

"I am sorry for the loss of Doctor Shaw. I'm not sure-"

"What about Holloway? Millburn? Fifield? How about Ford? "

The captain snapped, turning back toward her before she could finish. An unfriendly expression painted his features. Meredith seemed taken aback, tilting her head as he further interrupted her apology.

"What about your dad?"

Those last words struck a nerve within the cold woman, he could see the tension in her jaw tighten up. She looked as though she was ready to punch him,

"I'm not responsible for all of those people."

Janek forced a laugh and turned back to the desk, taking a final swig of the scotch. After twisting his mouth at the taste and swallowing it, he stood up, making her tense up even further. The bulky man calmly walked up to her, a sarcastic smile on his face. His eyes told a different story, they seemed pained. This outburst wasn't like him at all from what she knew of Janek. His tone was raspy and also unlike him,

"Then who is? Your dead father? The company? Wait, that's right, you can pay to cover all of this up, but don't make the mistake of thinking anyone will forget whose fault it is. You three brought us out here, without telling us what we were actually getting into-"

"I had no fucking idea what was out here! You have no right-"

He cut her off her again, the look on his face becoming slightly angry,

"You guys came out here for something! Something you didn't bother sharing with us, and now half the crew is dead… You're the one who has to live with this Vickers, because you're still alive. You and your company have more blood on your hands than you can just wash clean…"

The woman was silent, her eyes expressing a hurt rage building. Janek had never been like this, it wasn't what she expected to hear while apologizing for the loss of the doctor. The dark skinned man then turned away from her, pacing back to the desk and pouring himself another glass of the golden liquor.

A huge breath filled his chest as he held the drink up to his face. Meredith glared intently at the back of his head, as if she could make him take it all back by just glaring. She forced herself to take a few slow breaths, knowing that her temper was on the verge of completely boiling over. As she opened her mouth to try and salvage the conversation, the man calmly spoke, not looking back at her.

"You know Vickers…you may have treated that android like shit, even like… property. But as it turns out, you're just like him, if not colder."

...

Figuring out how to attach the android hadn't been quite as difficult as Ellie had thought. While she worked, David instructed her all the parts that he would need to have repaired. Once she had connected the parts of the body allowing him to move, it would allow him to assist in his own repairs. The room he was sitting in was similar to an infirmary, and it was far different than the one she had seen in the other ship. This room wasn't grey and metallic, it was blindingly white. The medical tools were all organized in small rectangular slats on the far left wall. The machines looked much more advanced, and were pushed against the wall behind her.

The doctor had pushed the table David was on over to the wall, trying to avoid being near the doorway. She didn't want any stray Engineers nosing into what she was doing, and risk getting one of them angry with her again. David had helped her find a wire solder, she couldn't believe they even had one. The Engineers must have kept it around for repairs of their medical machines in the room. There were many machines, and this room felt almost cramped by all the machinery that didn't even look like it got used.

She wasn't sure how long she had been working on David, she had only connected his main 'spinal column' and part of his right arm connections in the first couple hours. It had to have at least been an two and a half hours. An infuriating two and a half hours.

"The smaller negative wires are a beige color, and need to be connected to the same charged terminal."

Ellie struggled to connect the tiny wires, they all looked the same and were covered in that white hydraulic fluid. A few times, she had given him a little jolt when she touched the opposite charged wires together. David's right arm began to twitch, she exhaled in a relieved manner,

"Oh finally, Hopefully you'll be able to help me now. My eyes hurt from staring at your neck for so long."

"My apologies Doctor, I'll assist as best I can when my right arm is fully connected."

A smile on her face made him know she acknowledged him. The doctor wasn't sure what all of these wires were even for. She just connected them as she was told, describing them to him to make sure she was doing it right. She had already connected some of the wires to a panel under the skin on his right shoulder, giving him at least some movement.

As the minutes ticked by, David began to be able to move more and more with his right hand. It was a huge relief. She wasn't a robotics technician, and she wasn't prepared for this. She wasn't ever ready to reconstruct a decapitated android on this mission. After another fifteen minutes or so, she had seven more of the hair-like wires reconnected. David was now able to close and open his fingers. His face lit up with a smile as he realized he could move them again.

Ellie then stood up straight, stretching her back. She had to do all of this detailed work without a chair, and the ground hurt her knees if she knelt for too long. As she stretched out a bit, the android thanked her,

"Thanks for assisting in my reconstruction. I do appreciate it."

"I'm glad it's mostly cosmetic damage and just wiring connections."

The android chuckled as he looked up at the doctor,

"My processor is inside my head, where a human brain would be, but my main power cell and sensory receptors are in the chest of my body. I have a smaller power cell in my processor, but the battery life only lasts about six months before it deteriorates."

Ellie chuckled, making a small joke about waiting to put his head back on. She stretched her fingers and wrists a few more times before getting back to connecting the last few wires for his right side. After the next couple wires were connected, he would be able to solder the left arm and body wires himself with her just assisting him. The synthetic seemed to be thinking something, she could feel it. The busy woman tilted her head as she soldered a pair of wires together,

"What's on your mind David?"

The android seemed to be hesitating, he seemed to be articulating his words properly. She just kept her hands busy with the wires as he decided how to respond. After an accidental jolt and a jerk from the android's body, the synthetic seemed to figure out how he wanted to word his answer.

"I wanted to apologize, for the loss of Doctor Holloway."

The apology was so animatronic, like a computer was reading it to her. Her hands immediately went still. Thoughts of her last encounter with Charlie clouded her mind. The red head stared at the wires for a few quiet seconds, taking in what David said. He couldn't really mean it, but he wasn't really acting on his own account when he made Charlie somehow come in contact with the black chemical. Weyland controlled him completely. She knew David had something to do with it, he was the only one who would have been able to since the wasn't an actual human. He also hadn't become an monster obviously. She wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but all she knew is that this blond android did in fact take part in Charlie's demise. Her heart sunk, she felt a crushing sadness come over her. She had been so busy, she hadn't taken the proper time to grieve.

She had a small melt down on the Prometheus after she had her emergency surgery, but hadn't taken time after that to grieve for her lost boyfriend. There was an ache in her chest, and her skin felt cold. A small knot developed in her throat, and she wouldn't look into David's eyes. It felt like salt in an open wound. She wanted to cry. The android was just trying to sort things out between them, but it didn't help. She wasn't the type to hold resentment though, no matter how heinous. It wasn't her nature. Never had she said she 'hated' another human being, she wasn't like that. Ellie was forgiving. Kind. Charlie seemed to think she let people walk all over her sometimes. That was a major difference between the two of them.

She was always one to let go of her animosity, and move on with her life. Life was too short to waste hating others, in her opinion. A delicate smile appeared on her face when she thought of what she said to Charlie regarding spite,

"When you hate someone for their behavior, looks, or personality, it really says more about you than it does them."

Charlie disagreed. He always thought people were not all good. He said everyone had some 'darkness' in them, or hidden intentions. He had to be the difficult one. She always believed that humans were born inherently good, and learned from those around them to be good or bad in their life.

But now he was gone.

A sigh escaped her lips as she resisted the urge to cry. She had cried enough. No doubt she missed Charlie, but this is what he would have wanted. Charlie would be mad at her if she moped around missing him forever. She knew he loved her, and she loved him. It was part of her that she would always hold onto. There was still a life for her to live, and answers for her to find, and she was the only human to do it. No other human stood on the brink of such an important discovery, and she had to keep herself together. There was little time for weakness in a strange new world like this.

"It… It's okay…"

She breathed, looking up to the android seated on the table. David then realized the apology had actually caused her pain. He carefully reached out with his only functioning hand, grabbed one of her hands and looked down at her with a sorrowful expression. He didn't mean to cause her any more pain. No other words dared escape his mouth. The woman swallowed the pain and then nodded to him to let him know she was all right. She pulled her hand back, and continued her work in utter silence.

…

After assisting David in his repairs, Ellie had left the medical room and returned back to the small bedroom. The Engineer was still dead asleep, but he had to have moved in the last five hours. The bulky alien was now missing the top half of his uniform. As she entered the room and noticed, she couldn't help but hover over him for a couple moments. Her eyes scanned over his huge body. All of the muscles on his body were perfectly carved and large, jutting off of his already large skeleton. He didn't even have a blanket, despite how cold it was on the ship.

The doctor decided to at least lay down for a little bit, her head hurt from staring at the multitude of small wires for the last few hours. As she climbed into the small cot, it squeaked slightly, making her move carefully into a laying position. She faced the wall, and immediately got chills. It was downright frigid in the ship, but she had to try and rest a bit. Her stomach growled loudly as she got more comfortable, she sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. She wasn't sure if she could fall asleep, or when the next time she would eat would be. After a bit more squirming, she finally got comfortable.

And before she knew it, she had dozed off.

She was a child. Well, she was looking down from a birds eye view onto a child version of herself. The tall grass around her came up to her hip, it was a shimmering gold and felt sheltering to her. Little stray blades tickled her knees as she giggled, looking at the grass. As she looked up, her laughter stopped. Only one figure was ahead of her, her father. She could recognize him anywhere, even if his back was to her. She opened her mouth and yelled to him, calling out repeatedly. He then slowly turned, revealing that it was an Engineer. The scraggly clothes seemed to fade away as the pale faced being approached her. Heavy footsteps crushed the light grass as he walked forward. The young Ellie shook her head, beginning to cry and ask where her father had gone. The huge alien dropped to one knee to be closer to her height, a huge hand reached out to her.

The girl slapped the hand down and away from her as she screamed angrily at him, repeating her questions over and over.

Where is my dad? Where is he?! What did you do to him?!

The alien had a comforting expression on his face as he reached out to her, not saying a word. He reached out with both hands, motioning for her to come to him. His eyes were a lighter shade of navy, and emanated a kindness she hadn't seen before. The little version of herself jumped forward, throwing her arms around the Engineer's neck and crying heavily into his collarbone. As the Engineer stood up with the girl in his arms, he turned and began to carry her away. As her head poked up over his shoulder, through the tears, she could see two headstones. The tall bleak looking stones made her feel cold and afraid, like she was leaving them behind now. The young girl began to kick and flail in his arms, screaming for him to let her go. The girl was no match for the Engineer's grip, and reached out over his shoulder towards the graves of her parents.

With a sudden gasp, Ellie shot up in the cot breathing heavily. Her hand grabbed at the rapidly beating heart in her chest, a thin sheen of sweat beaded on her forehead. After a few shaky breaths, she scolded herself for jumping awake after every nap she took. She wasn't sure how long it would be until she could sleep soundly. Then, her eyes fell to her lap, and that there was a burgundy blanket there now. The soft material covered her entire lower half and felt cozy to the touch. Her mouth hung open in surprise, she wasn't sure how it had gotten there. Her head quickly shot to her right, looking at the now empty cot a couple feet away from her. The Engineer must have finally woken up, and given her a blanket. A smile appeared on her lips as she pulled the blanket around her upper half, thinking of how kind he was being to her. She didn't think of him as a 'sweet' sort of individual, not with the mean look he wore all the time.

Her attention then moved to her more immediate right, and that there was now a small black sphere on the tiny nightstand. Hesitantly, she reached out and grabbed the sphere and brought it back to her lap. Her curiosity always got the best of her, she couldn't help but explore foreign objects.

It was at least seven inches in diameter, and jet black. It was shiny sphere, like a marble. A small shake gave her the hint that there was in fact something inside it. It weighed about as much as a basketball in her mind. As her hands molested the small sphere, she found that it had a tiny seam. She grabbed the top and bottom of the sphere and twisted, revealing that it came open with ease. As soon as she opened it, a vanilla-cinnamon like smell came out, along with a small amount of what looked like steam.

She held the bottom piece and set aside the top, looking into the half of the sphere, and there was a thick oatmeal looking substance inside. With another huff of the scent, it reminded her almost of a grainy cinnamon spice smell. There was a small black object jutting out of the meal, and she lifted it, quickly realizing it was a strange type of spoon. The spoon was thick, and had a small slit down the middle to the end of the actual spoon cup. Her growling stomach urged her to try it, but she still was afraid. She went back and forth about it, poking around and stirring the mealy substance. It was fluffy, pale white, and reminded her of cottage cheese. Good thing she liked cottage cheese.

Very slowly, she took a small spoonful of the chalky white meal and ate it. It was a little sweet, and just a bit grainy. A hint of some type of spice gave it some actual flavor, making it almost just like oatmeal. Her growling belly made her instantly begin eating it once she figured out it tasted fine. It wasn't' too flavorful, but she figured they wouldn't have too much variety on a mineral ore transport. The aliens probably could guess that she would be uneasy about eating whatever they threw at her.

After eating as much as she could, she realized there was only a tiny bit left. She screwed the top back on the small sphere and placed it back on the tiny nightstand. Being alone wasn't something she liked in this foreign world, she wanted to find her Engineer and stick with him. Again, her Engineer, this thought was engrained in her mind. It also occurred to her to check on David and see how his final repairs were going. Hopefully he was able to fix the tear in his artificial skin around his collarbone. The doctor got up and stretched briefly, making her way out into the room and down the small hallway. Faint sounds of voices were to her left, but she decided to go down to the right. She wanted to get David before she went anywhere alone, it was irritating not understanding a damn word spoken here.

As she turned to the right, a huge alien approached her. Her heart skipped a beat as he walked up to her, it was the same Engineer that had knocked her to the ground earlier. She now could see he clearly looked different from the one she was saved by, this one was a little bit wider, and had a larger jaw. He stared down at her, mumbling something under his breath at her. Something wasn't right with him, he had a spiteful aura about him. He must have been one of the Engineers that hated the humans, or he just didn't like her because she was different.

Instinctively, she stepped aside and averted her gaze from his eyes. She didn't want trouble, especially not now. It was best to just let him pass. She wasn't even to the planet yet, and definitely didn't want to stir anything up. These Engineers on board this ship were probably just a rowdy crew, not 'professionals' per say. They were seeming more human-like every minute.

He seemed to follow her movements, coming uncomfortably close to her and backing her against the wall. She had no option but to look at him, even though she was only at eye level at about his chest. This Engineer was a decent size up from the one she was sort of friends with. The friendlier one was close to this height, but not this wide and big boned. This one didn't seem that he had the same amount of muscle tone either, even though his was far more defined than a regular human beings. His chest was just a couple inches from her face, a huge hand clapped onto her jaw. The pressure felt enormous, and a sudden rush of panic filled her as she was forced to look up at his deep set eyes. The alien held her whole jaw easily inside his hand, a stern glare on his face as he looked at her. She went up on her toes slightly, trying her best not to whimper under the heavy fingers pressing into her jaw bone.

For some reason this space jockey did not like her. She didn't have a clue as to why still, she had to just continue thinking it was the fact it was that she was human. His hand seemed to squeeze harder as he held her face, looking her over as if she was a show dog. She pulled back just a tiny bit, causing him to lean down close. He began speaking clearly to her in their language, most likely cursing at her from what she could tell. It didn't sound friendly in the least. She was incredibly nervous and uncomfortable. This Engineer could easily rip her apart like the first Engineer had done to the crew of the prometheus. She arched her back as he pushed her into the wall behind her, still giving her an angry lecture about god knows what. She just kept still, attempting not to agitate him farther, she struggled to keep her hands down. If she grabbed him it could make her situation worse.

Once he was done spouting curses at her, the Engineer gave her neck and jaw one final hard squeeze. The sudden squashing of her neck made her sputter and cough as he released her. She doubled over, holding herself up against the wall with one hand. As she coughed, he walked back in the direction he had come from; towards David's room.

Without a second thought, she decided to go the opposite way, back to the sound of the other voices. She wanted to find her Engineer and stick with him from now on, wandering off wasn't getting her any friends. David could find her when he was done repairing himself. She continued to swallow hard, gently touching her now sore and bruising neck and jaw. She feared that finger bruises would show up sometime soon on her sharp jaw line. The woman cautiously entered the open doorway at the end of the hall, finding a control room of sorts. The 'captain' female Engineer was standing in front of a table, a star map hovered above it as she spoke to three males. None of the aliens seemed to take notice of her right away.

One of the males she instantly recognized as her Engineer, but he wasn't fully facing her. She could tell by his profile that it was him. The other two looked a little smaller than him, a little more wiry. The red head walked briskly over and began peeking around him at the star maps, he quickly noticed her to his right. As soon as he took note of her presence, he said something to the female Engineer, and she nodded to Ellie. The doctor awkwardly smiled and nodded back, unsure of what was said. He probably was asking if she was even allowed to be in there, being a 'lesser' race and all. The female alien seemed to be explaining a location of some sort, and was making long sweeping motions with her hand over the map. Perhaps they were talking about a transport line, or their own location. All she could focus on was the idea of getting to their home planet and seeing their culture.

The little meeting only lasted a few more minutes, the female Engineer seemed to have other things to take care of. Her friend then turned to her, looking at her strangely. She inhaled sharply when his hands took her shoulders and gently turned her toward him. She knew what he saw. The Engineer was looking at her face in blatant disbelief. His dark eyes were wide as he looked at the forming bruises on her face. The woman shook her head and spoke uselessly to him,

"No it's okay! I'm fine!"

The Engineer seemed already at a boiling point, he slid his hands up from her shoulders to her cheeks. He was literally hovering over her, his face just a couple inches from her face. Her heart fluttered for a moment as he cupped her face and looked at her with a sort of regret in his dark eyes. He seemed sorry, perhaps for leaving her alone while that brute roamed the ship and did as he pleased. Before she could protest, he grabbed her upper arm and tugged her along after him. She felt like a rag doll, constantly being pulled around like this. This Engineer didn't hurt her like the other one had though. This was definitely going no where good. She knew that. Pulling on her arm did nothing to stop him as he strode down the main corridor of the ship. The red head pulled back, trying to convince him not to go beat this other Engineer to a pulp, if he even could.

"Please don't! You just woke up, you don't need to start fights now! You might get hurt!"

The Engineer didn't listen to her at all. As they stormed down the hall, a familiar face came out of an open doorway to their left. The blond android eyed the two of them just for a moment before realizing he should follow along.

"David help me stop him! "

She demanded of the synthetic as she was pulled along after the furious Engineer. David quickly followed along and seemed to have a little twitch in his walk,

"I don't think that would be a good idea, I'm still not even finished with my repairs."

Ellie huffed in frustration and stumbled along after the rushed alien, his walk still brisk as they entered what looked like a storage room. The Engineer released her and walked a couple feet ahead of her, rounding a corner of stacked boxes. The material looked like a thin balsa wood, probably containing food supplies. There was no time to poke around now, the doctor and the android quickly jogged to catch up with the furious Engineer. A debate between two males appeared before them as they turned the corner. The more aggressive Engineer was sitting on a small crate, he was unpacking some small capsules from a box in front of him.

The red haired woman reached out to her friend, and gently touched his arm. She quickly demanded David to translate to him,

"Tell him not to fight him, it's not a big deal! I don't want more trouble! "

The android immediately relayed the information to the space jockey, earning a laugh from the seated one. The seated alien rose to his feet and began speaking to their friend. Ellie's Engineer seemed already hostile and began to shout at the other alien. The blond android grabbed the woman and pulled her back,

"There's nothing you can do. He's rather agitated that the other Engineer laid a hand on you."

The doctor nodded and just told him to continue translating the argument. Her Engineer was sticking up for her honor for some reason. David continued translating the argument,

"Your friend seems to demand that he not a lay a hand on you, or he threatens to paint the ship with his innards."

The morbid comment made her shudder, what a thought. No doubt he wasn't bluffing, not by a long shot. She spoke out to her friend as the two space jockeys continued arguing. She tried her best to speak over them,

"Please, E-Engineer, don't fight him. It's pointless, I'm fine."

As David translated her pleas, the Engineer they had become friends with hesitantly focused his attention on them. He responded to the doctor, but the android had to translate,

"He said: A male who takes a hand against a female deserves a serious reprimand."

The red head felt a little taken back, the Engineer considered her a woman? Of course he knew she was of the female species, but regarding her as equal to a woman in his society? That is sure how it looked. She felt surprised that this meant anything to him. Perhaps they really weren't too different from the humans they had created.

Huge dark eyes rested on her, they oddly reminded her of the night sky. Little glints of light speckled off the surface, giving him a starry looking gaze. Both Engineers were silent, looking at the human woman intently. Her words were soft

"Tell him, as much as I appreciate it, he doesn't have to do that. I'd like to sit him down and speak with him instead of watching them fight. All this violence is useless."

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I know this chapter wasn't necessarily as exciting as the others, but I swear the crap will hit the fan soon enough! :D

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Thank you!