Directive 937 - Part 3: Garden of evil (preview)

With my "Directive 937" project I am trying to re-write Alien Covenant's third act. It has turned into a long winding road. Ideas keep on popping in my mind, so I don't think it is a good moment to stop now that I know where it is going. I will try my best to come up with a satisfying ending (at least for myself) This is a little taste of Part 3; when finished, it will be a long chapter so probably I will post it in parts.

If you are curious about the previous installments, here are the links for the first two:

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/45763 (Part I)

http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/45770 (Part II)

Garden of evil (the beginning of the end)

The remaining crew of the Covenant is gathered in the briefing room, next to the bridge. Tennessee have set mines in the intersection of the corridor, and the rover is patrolling the nearby area. Ricks has deployed drones to look for David in all the accessible sections of the Covenant, but they were not able to locate the robot.

Daniels opens the meeting:

-It is evident that things don't look good for us right now. But remember one thing: at least we have some knowledge of what's going on. Thanks to Walter.

-What in the name? -protests Ricks

-Calm down, man. -intervenes Tennesee- The robot on board of the ship is not Walter. It's David, Peter Weyland's personal robot, right Daniels?

-That's right. We were stupid to trust him. But I have a theory: in spite of all his quirks he is not crazy nor he is faulty. In one word, he is faking it. Weyland-Yutani wants us to believe that we have one enemy, when they are the enemy. With the Company if you are not with them you are against them.

-This is a conspiracy theorist's wet dream.

-It is. So they want this alien pathogen, but what for -asks Ricks

-Scientific Research maybe? Advance our military technologies? Bio-weapons? But to fight who.. . we cannot afford any more wars on Earth...-says Tennessee

- Precisely, you have said it. On Earth. We are our own best enemy: Human nature... -Daniels makes a pause, then resumes talking- You guys know I am a terraforming engineer. We found out the sad truth about our galaxy which is good planets are not easy to come by. And when you find one chances are it is already inhabited. I had not proof of this so far, until we landed on that planet.

"There used to be some fundamental decency that was inherent to human kind. If we were to send a probe into another world, no matter if it was as dead as they come, we would take any necessary measures to avoid contaminating it with one single bacteria. Whoever is in charge now at Weyland-Yutani does not believe in that anymore.

-Do you think they want to wipe out unwanted life from planets just to make space for us? -asks Tennessee

-You are forgetting the fact that I have seen it.

-But that planet is hostile to human life now.

-Maybe something went wrong there. They are still experimenting. There are many things I don't know. But I am sure of one thing though. We were supposed to make that stop to pick up a passenger: David. He is very valuable for the Company.

"I don't think Oran necessarily knew about it. They got the perfect candidate. I blind believer in the good Providence faced with the prospect of Paradise. Imagine that. And in the remote instance that it hadn't have occurred to him to make the decision of landing, I am sure Walter would have recommended doing so.

-Well, if all this is true and there's no other choice than getting rid of the green men, I guess better them and not us. -says Ricks

-Shut up, Ricks. And next thing you know you become one of those Weyland Yutani suits. You just don't get it, right? In their world, you cannot have a wife, nor children, nor friends. And above all you won't have your humanity. Is that what you want?

Ricks looked to the floor in embarrassment.

-What now? do you have a plan? -asks Tennessee

-Yes. We need help. We will have to wake up a at least 24 crew members with combat experience. We need to make sure that they are not too close to the Company. I will try to crack down MUTHR's confidential archives. And I need doctor Harris, he is a good robotics specialist.

-Then we wait until the Weyland Yutani team wakes up. They will still outnumber us by two thirds but we will have all the weapons. We will tie them down and we will use any persuasion methods needed in order to make them talk.

-What if they still won't talk -Tennessee wants to know

-They will. Because they will be coming with us to visit Karin's garden. And they won't be wearing any suits like the rest of us.