Directive 937 (Alien: Covenant 3rd Act Re-imagined)

Daniels turns over on her bed, unable to sleep. She cannot stop thinking about something Walter told her right before she left the room where David had attacked her. It has to do with numbers:  something like 935 or 939 or 937. She had asked him again when they were back on the ship, and he said they were coordinates to help the landing of the rescue party.

She didn't buy it, but said nothing. She had noticed a few inconsistencies in Walter's behavior lately. That, along with Walter and David close looks was really consuming her. Was Walter malfunctioning? Or worse, could that be David instead? It was just stupid from the company to make those identical robots... unless it was not coincidental. Unless anything of what had happened was a coincidence, starting with the the re-routing of the mission.

While the synthetic was away doing some maintenance work, she spent about an hour trying to gain access to MUTHR's memory banks. As a Captain, she was supposed to have clearance now. She found a special order number 937, but MUTHR said it was an old, discarded directive, and that the records were retrieved by the company and sent back to Earth.

Then she opted to to switch for basic binary programming mode, and those logs offered some interesting if not easy to explain results: it looked like a group of colonists were to be woken up by MUTHR within the next 72 hours. That was 24 hours after she and the rest of the crew would be put back on stasis.

She collected some ID numbers and went to pay a visit to the Cryogenic chamber where he confirmed her hunch: most of them were high rank military personnel and Biomechanical engineers employed by Weyland-Yutani. Some of them were even the same people who had trained her. It was as if an alarm rang deep inside her brain, and she started to feel paranoid. A bunch of people being awake several years before they arrived at Origae 6, while everybody else would be sleeping? Walter had to know about that; but why he would gave her a tip like that?

Sitting up in her bed now, Daniels is going over everything that she had discussed with Walter when he provided her his briefing about his findings on David's planet, as he would call it. She needs to have a clear picture of everything she knows before she attempts to talk to Tennessee. The synthetic had told her that he conducted a preliminary psychological test on David, and that his recommendation would have been to shut him down.

As far as his interpretation of what had happened on the planet, he had stated his research was incomplete, but that he got reasons to believe that David had recreated an ancient lifeform that predated on the Engineers which might or might not be extinct in other parts of the galaxy; he would refer to it as a "xenomorph". And since humans originated from the same DNA as Engineers, they would be as vulnerable to that predator as their forefathers.

"The sins of our fathers", he said. And she remembered thinking: "There we go again: trying to sound more human than human. What did he know about sin?" She recognized Weyland's signature work, the figment of a dead man's obsession.

Daniels makes up her mind and gets up: she would talk to Tennessee now. She knocks on Tennessee quarters' door, and waits about 30 seconds. No reply. After the third attempt she hears a thud and heavy steps. The door opens and Tennessee's red and sweaty face welcomes her. He was unshaven and it was obvious he had been drinking heavily.

- I need you to sober up. We have to talk about Walter.

- What's with him

- We need to deactivate him. I don't trust him.

- I have to tell you something as well. I found a letter from Maggie- he says this with a broken voice

- What?

- I mean, I knew there might be a letter. We got a little vault we were supposed to open if something happened to any of us.

- And?

- I think there is something going on. She was a mole for Weyland Yutani. They promised her a fortune. She didn't say much, most of it was just personal stuff. There are more like her in the crew.                                                    

Suddlenly, Daniels remembers Karine's log that she had retrieved from the lander's black box; "She locked me up!. That bitch is infected too and she locked me up!"                

- What do they want

- I think they already got what they wanted

- Why you didn't tell me right away? I am your captain now

- I don't think there is anything we can do. It is obvious they don't give a shit about the rest of us. They deliberately exposed us to infection on that planet. Walter said it was safe to land.

Daniels' eyes widened up, understanding now. She says:

- I know what killed Walter. He gave me the directive number: Special Order 937. He provoked a security breach and that activated the self destruct protocol. He tried to help us.

Suddenly, the alarm starts blaring and MUTHR announces there is an emergency in the Infirmary, where Sargent Lope is supposed to get surgery. Daniels look at the time: the surgery had started 15 minutes ago. She prepares for the worse.

They look at each other. It is clear that they share the same feeling of impending dread. But they show resolution. They will fight for their lives at any cost. And they are very aware of the fact that the fate of over 2000 souls hangs in the balance.

-Let's get the guns -she says- Set them on stun. Let's not forget about that goddamn acid!

(to be continued)

Directive 937 - Part II: Peep hole

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/45770