theives?

The possibility has been discussed about two ships: 1, 'Prometheus' and 2, 'Magellan' I'm under the belief that the second ship is either a smaller escape craft or a drop ship, whilst the larger ship remains in orbit; either could be named as above. The Magellan could be a second ship with Mercenaries on board and could in someway be where the 'cocooned man' is found and explained by the Prometheus crew. However, I'm thinking that if the Prometheus is the first ship to go so far from Earth and is the highest technology that is close to light speed it would be difficult to explain that a second ship can match this superior technology. Although I do support ideas that blueprints, etc could have been stollen.......

Don't know about hostages, guess it's as good an idea as any. The fire bit I presumed had to do with the cold/snowy environment outside. A crude way of defrosting.

Interesting thought.. What if someone involved with the original discovery sells his knowledge (space coordinates) to Yutani? Then maybe the Prometheus is a Wayland ship and the Magellan is the Yutani ship? I tend to think Magellan the landing craft for prometheus, but you never know.

I am always under the assumption that the crew got stuck in an alien ship, not necessarily the derelict, and are chased around by "skeletal monstrosities." I would love this plot.