Prometheus: Expedition 2.0

Note: This is a work in progress. Reviews are welcome. Let me know if you're interested in many more chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

After leaving LV-223 David, still decapitated, was sat in the piloting seat of the captured ship. Shaw had placed his head in his lap. She now lay inside a flight stasis chamber on their new ship. David had advised it would be safe for her seeing as their DNA were complete matches and should preserve her organics. It would rapidly heal her wounds suffered from the surgical removal of the Trilobite. The stasis chamber acted as a much more sophisticated automated surgery table like that of the Prometheus. It used advanced nanotech that could mimic cells, repair others then biodegrade if programmed depending on the detected scenario. Shaw wanted nothing more than to explore the rest of the ship once properly healed and rested.

David tried to connect his AI wirelessly to the ship but picked up nothing. Clearly some form of encryption on whatever type of frequency controlled network the Engineers used. For now he could only manually interact with the ships controls. Before they had taken off from the surface of the moon, David's system had located multiple coordinates of possible home worlds the Engineers controlled. He wasn't sure which, if any, of the locations were owned by them or if they were further targets for destruction. He did not agree with Shaw's decision to find out why Earth had been chosen for cleansing. It was irrelevant to him although his curiousness sparked after hearing her remark about the distinction of him being an inferior creation of humans. Maybe that's the Engineers' view of humans? Maybe that's why the Engineer had seemed amazed of his understanding of their language until the realization that he was an android. A weak attempt of humans creating their own life. He associated himself more with the Engineers knowing his self to be superior to humans in most ways even with his limited understanding of emotions.

He tried to understand how her mind worked, why she believed things to be true when they were not, by watching her dreams. David manipulated Shaw as with all of the accompanying crew and even the Engineer. David subtly planted a seed in Shaw's mind about those that wish death upon their parents. Therefore she knew that David wanted Weyland dead which is why he told the Engineer the true selfish nature of the expedition to give life to Weyland. He knew he would be killed and with that a newfound freedom from the evil orders of his oppressor. David wanted to take control of the mission the entire time, his own indirect creation and destruction. He had his own plans to unite humanity with their creators seeing as humans were ill suited for such a task. Although Shaw presented a promising alternative to the rest of the crew, someone he could work with as she shared a similar motivation for peace rather than selfish, egotistical and violent gain.

They had discussed an appropriate candidate to travel to first. David offered the path of minimal risk and highest probability of success which was to select a route to the closest marked destination. With the calculated distance and estimated time of arrival displayed on the virtual map in the language unidentifiable to Shaw, he explained to her that it would take half an Earth year of travel considering the Engineer's ship technology. In the Prometheus it would take significantly longer at seventeen times the speed of light.

David walked over to the stasis chamber holding his head up at chest height with his left hand. He stared at her face through the foggy material wondering what her dreams were like now. He opened the chamber and woke her.

"Doctor, you wanted to have a look around." He said smiling. His voice still damaged and neck dripping what little hydraulic fluid was left inside.

Shaw opened her eyes and gasped for air suddenly remembering her current situation. "How long have I been out?" She asked worry in her voice, a cold sweat covering her body. Awkward tubes injected into her back, arms and chest.

"Two hours fifteen minutes twenty seven seconds." He replied extending his right hand to help her out of the chamber, pulling tubes as gently as possible from her skin leaving pink marks. "Don't suppose this could reattach my head?"

Shaw disregarded his joke. She had no idea whether they would be able to properly fix him. "How do we repair you?" She asked sitting on the side of the chamber head down shivering slightly.

"Major damage such as I have sustained needs to be addressed by a Weyland Cybernetic facility. Seeing as we are fascinatingly far from said facility and possess zero high-turbidity hydraulic fluid to replenish bi-monthly, I will have to remain in the current condition until we find something that may prove a viable alternative." David replied.

"I think our priority is to explore the rest of the ship. There has to be some sort of maintenance room." She stated arms crossed before getting back into her suite.

"A respectable decision Mum." He said smiling and lowered his head slightly.

Shaw moved past him and headed towards the door that exited the main ships control room. She felt incredibly healthy and well rested from the stasis chamber albeit cold. She felt her lower abdomen where the incision had been made and there was little to no pain. She unzipped her suite to see that it was fully healed over. Alien nanotech was coursing through her body which made her feel a little uneasy. She did a few stretches before leaving the room.

"I'll lead the way if that's okay." David said holding his head out in front with both hands.

"Be my guest." She stepped aside and let him awkwardly proceed out into the dark damp corridor.

"Since this ship looks identical to the first one we explored, I think it's safe to assume that this also carries similar urns in the cargo bay." Shaw said following slowly behind him.

"A logical assumption Doctor, I advise we do not tamper with that room." He replied.

"Is there any other type of fluid that you can use to move your joints efficiently? What happens if you run out?" She asked.

"Indeed. Most oils mixed with water should do the trick for now. If I run out then moving and speaking will prove difficult. It will also affect the cooling system of my main computer cores and I may go into sleep mode quite often."

"Okay good to know. I also need to find some sort of sustenance. I can only imagine what the Engineers use for nutrition." Shaw said.

"There will be something do not worry. You can also use the stasis chamber for supply of nutrients and liquids. If we find no other hydraulic fluids I could use the water that runs through the stasis chamber as well. That should be the last resort as you need it the most." He said and stopped at a door to his left.

It was considerably larger than most of the other doors they had seen. David inspected the glyphs and methodically put in the code each lighting up an orange colour then dissipating. Something clicked behind it and began to rise until it stopped twelve feet above. An interesting smell escaped. They cautiously entered the room. It was a long wide rectangular shape with Engineer space suites lined up along the left wall about fifty of them. On the right were massive weapons secured by latches. They ranged from long rifles to beefy chunks of black metallic material.

"A warship after all." David said and walked over to the wall of weapons to a panel with more glyphs.

He put in the code and the latches holding the guns retracted into the wall and began to be suspended by a green energy beam. Curiosity took the better of him and he turned to Shaw.

"Could you hold my head please Mum." He walked over handing her his head. "Point me towards the direction I move my body."

He moved back to the wall observing his movements from where Shaw held him. He reached to grab hold of a long weapon with both hands. When he made contact the green beam disappeared for a split second and the weapon fell a few inches before David managed to catch it. He struggled to balance from the significant weight.

"I don't think we should be experimenting with these." Shaw said and took a step back. "We don't know what they're capable of."

"You said you wanted answers." He replied. "I would like to be able to defend myself so another part of my body isn't torn off. Wouldn't you agree Doctor?" His head leaking fluid onto her boots.

"What are you going to do? Fire it inside the ship that we happen to be residing in? What if it blows a hole through the hull and get," she was cut off when David fired the weapon at one of the nearby Engineer suites.

A loud blast went off and a yellow beam burned a hole straight through the suite and into the wall where it ricocheted back towards nearly hitting him. It dissipated when it smashed into the wall behind him. He had lost control of the weapon after pressing the trigger from the recoil and it fell to the ground. Shaw had jumped back dropping his head.

"I thought you were supposed to be intelligent!" She yelled while picking up his head.

"How was I supposed to know the exact capability of the technology without having a go? Besides, we're quite alright. Would you like to try any of the other weapons?" He smiled.

"If there's something smaller then what you carelessly fired. Sure." She replied.

David left the weapon on the ground where it remained smoking from the barrel and slowly walked along the wall looking for something that fit Shaw's description since he knew her exact fitness level and muscle strength. He found a possible candidate and reached for it. Once in his grasp he weighed it to be fifteen pounds. It looked to be a one handed weapon by an Engineer's standards but for Shaw she would need both. It had a green crystal inside a clear circle with green energy swirling around embedded above the trigger and massive hand grip. The barrel extended the length of her arm.

David traded her the weapon for his head. She easily took hold of it amazed at her newfound strength from the Engineer nanotech inside her. "I advise leaning into the recoil Mum."

"Unlike you, I won't destroy something as valuable as a space suite that we could make use of at a later time." Shaw said and took aim down the far end of the room at the blank wall holding it like a rifle.

She pulled the trigger. It made a charging sound for a second before firing off a deafening green coloured concussion blast down the room throwing everything to the ground including David. Shaw was pushed back slightly.

"This seems more like a crowd control tool then a lethal weapon." Shaw said as she helped David to his feet.

"I believe there is another setting. I see a glyph above the hand grip. Slide your finger along." He said and walked behind her.

She did as asked and this time pressed the trigger releasing a constant stream of electrical energy about thirty feet in front. It occasionally arced horizontally to a few of the Engineer suites. She released the trigger after fifteen seconds.

"I like it."