David and the burst a 10 yr plan

I do imagine this is the intended impression RS has lead us to believe and I don't have any issue with it. but to me its very similar to the walter/ david swap scenario to me. too many details r left open to scrutiny but still very plausible in the world of futuristic sci fi.

for me personally, im still 50/50 on whether david had a hand in the blast that hit the covenant. having an insider working for the company would definitely be a harrowing twist but I don't see them working with david. they may have been instructed to retrieve a specimen at all costs though, going back to the crew expendable angle of alien.

I would say that david contacting the company at the end, all be it posing as walter, does add weight to david and the company having some form of deal going. if there wasn't, surely david wouldn't have wanted to contact anyone and be left alone to experiment in peace but contacting the company would risk them sending others. contacting them as walter would hide his identity to any unwanted listeners but the message would still reach the required people that the crew was dead and he was headed for origae 6.

this is what I still love about the alien universe, the theorising. it could be any number of things at play here

Planet 4 - Sector 87

Neutrino burst - Sector 106

I like it Sherris! This is the kin dof thing that can make the novel comin gout reeaally interesting! It would really cement David an evil mastermind with very few individuals in the universe able to match him!

You see in the WY timeline there is a deleted / restricted E.Shaw transmission.

Also the phobos hint to knowledge.

If it turns out in the novel, a certain captain might get a dodgy pod as his 2nd in command is 40% more likely to go ahead with a ground crew. could be bad luck. the novel may shed some light.

Not only that David has codes for Covenant. Maybe  Did MU TH UR report the burst as that only really it was a different less likely event.  However processed in a way were no questions arise.

His well organised appearance "to save them"

"so many good souls" line. He knew.

Alen Awakening is his sheep awakening from cryo

I find it hard to believe that David caused the Neutrino Burst or whatever it was.

He would have no way of knowing when The Covenant was in a close enough sector to hit it, and hit it with what? Maybe the Jugganaut had a weapons system that could create an energy blast like that, but it was crashed for 10 years on Planet 4.

The golden structure on top of the dome on Planet 4 could be some sort of weapons system/defence mechanism.

Even if David did cause the blast, there's no way he could've controlled how much damage was done to The Covenant. It could've been completely destroyed.

I believe the Neutrino Burst was, as Faris put it, bad luck. Funny how in this Sci-Fi, nihilistic world that fate is still a thing.

I talked about a similar belief I had with Kethnol on this forum and he doesn't want to believe it.  I'll see if I can sum it up here though.

Okay, David hacked W-T Covenant mission files with the help of Mother to change a few numbers that nobody on the Covenant research team would notice.  I am sure most of the team is ran by computers anyways.  Plus, David has Engineer technology on "Paradise", so I wouldn't be surprised if he could figure out how to abuse some of it.

He hacks and changes the planet that the Covenant research team found to be the most habitable planet.  It goes from being some planet to being Origae-6.  The reason he chose Origae-6 is because the Covenant mission would have to fly by Planet 4 (the planet David is on).

The reason Planet 4 was picked up on the research is because the Engineers didn't want it to be found.  So, David is hidden in secret as well on Planet 4.

The next thing David changes in the hack is the passive and active phases of a star near to Planet 4.  The significance of this is that the star would be in its active phase when the Covenant mission thinks it will be in a passive phase.  During an active phase, there are man more solar flares occurring than during a passive phase.  So, a large solar flare occurs and it's particle shockwaves damage the Covenant ship.  Basically, it was bound to happen since the nearby star was in an active phase.

Solar flares can be many of times larger than our own suns solar flares, so a large solar flare could catch a nearby ship in it's blast.  During Walter's breakdown of the space event, he describes it as a neutrino burst.  I remember him calling it a stellar flare later as well, which is a solar flare (it's a different name because it's not a flare from our own Sun).  Later in the movie, the few remaining Covenant crew members on the Covenant (while others are on Planet 4) talk about the space event.  I think it was Upworth who called it a "solar flare" (incorrect terminology) when she was talking to Ricks (at least that's how I remember the movie).  Walter, in the novel, calls it a charged particle flare (p.41) among a few other vague descriptions.  It's been awhile since I read it, but I don't remember the book ever calling it a neutrino burst.  So, a charged particle flare sounds like it could be the same as a solar flare.  So, a solar flare is an explosion on the surface of the sun which releases charged particles.  These flares can damage sensitive equipment and since the Covenant wasn't prepared for these kind of events, like Walter says, than it makes sense that the Covenant ship is vulnerable to these type of stellar events.  In space today, special precautions have to be taken because of solar flares from our own sun.

Plus, the Covenant ship was likely flying near star clusters as much as possible to lesson the chance of being to near to supernova explosions.  Still, we don't know for sure since we don't know where the Covenant is in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The reason the crew didn't pick up the Shaw recording is because the ship was still processing the data (it says this in the novel too).  So, when Tennessee was outside the ship, he got a more direct transmission of the data.  The ship would eventually received the data, but who knows when.

I wouldn't be surprised if David did at least know a little about the Covenant mission during Prometheus either since in the novel he seems to know a few things about the Covenant mission and the crew that cannot be explained.  Other members on this forum take them as assumptions made by David, but I don't trust David one bit, so I think he did his research before he even met the crew.  I started a thread because of these questions I had regarding how much David knows according to the novel. Plus, according to me reading the novel, I think he was watching the Covenant crew the whole time, or almost the whole time, when they were on Planet 4 before he interacted with them.

So, I think David just got lucky that there was a huge colonization mission going on while he was on Planet 4, but I think he hacked the mission and set some really convincing bate for the Covenant crew to bite, which they did.

I don't believe that the Covenant flying by Planet 4 in addition to the crew picking up a signal was a coincidence since we know what David was doing on Planet 4 and we know that he needs more hosts for his experiments.  The colony ship is perfect for David, so I just don't believe it's a coincidence.

I probably missed some things, but hopefully that is a good summary.  My questions on this theory will hopefully be answered when I get to rewatch Alien: Covenant.  Hopefully that will be soon too.  Plus, when the new Alien: Covenant Origins book comes out, that could answer a lot of questions too.  I can't wait!

There's no discrepancy in the given description. Whilst the movie wasn't a lecture on astrophysics - and nor should it be - it's clear that some kind of nova event was being described. These happen all the time in nature: a powerful stellar event yielding an immediate burst of neutrinos (which travel at light speed), followed by a much slower plasma shockwave (charged particles). There are various ways that novae can be triggered, and they are very very common.

It is completely implausible that David (or anyone in existence, now or in the future) could trigger such an event. The amount of energy involved is literally astronomical. If you converted every gram of the Covenant's mass into pure energy, that wouldn't even tickle the behaviour of a star.

Here's an interesting fact for you: what's brighter in your field of view, a hydrogen bomb placed against your eyeball, or our Sun going supernova 150 million kilometres away? The answer is the supernova, by a factor of about a billion, actually. Ridiculously huge amounts of energy is involved in any kind of stellar flare, even those that are not supernovae. Our own Sun, poodling away doing what it does, destroys several millions of tonnes of mass each second, turning that mass into pure energy.

moon girl. I don't believe its just a case of not wanting to believe but more a case of theres nothing logical about it. its similar to the david walter swap. ok if RS says that's how it is then fine, but its still hard to fathom. in the novel, david confirms that after the goo is released, all ships r locked down so what did he use? hes alone so how could he have designed the delivery system, built it, launched it AND mined the material on his own? the citadel also doesn't look as technologically advanced as the ships the engineers use so I doubt they had any weapons as they would have relied on the engineers and the scorpion ship for this. I can get that maybe someone from within the company gave the codes to david to access the covenant if he got onboard but the events that lead to the ship changing course r really far fetched and rely too much on everything going 100% according to plan.

This will most likely all be spelled out in the Origins novel.  The whole unfolding of events at the beginning of A:C is odd. The burst (Doubtful it was David, but could have been planned somehow), Captains pod burning, Oram instantly becoming a hostile leader (he wasn't Captain material), it all seems like it was set up to happen. And I don't mean for the purpose of all moving the movie along.

There are many ways around it. We are led to believe that a certain event has lead to the damage of the covenant.

If it WAS random, then this is the situation:

Now, i think that what are the odds that an event happens to a colony ship when it is only 2 weeks (tiny in space time) from the Planet that David, Weylands son, happens to be on????? All that space and time and a random event happens exactly at the time the colony ship is passing a hidden planet with Weylands son. That writing would be laughed at surely?

Come on that is ridiculous at best !! How corny does that sound ? It is far more likely that a plan, at some level, whether that be David, WY, David and the WY AI inc. MU TH UR, an interested party shall we say had some involvement and triggered the event at the exact right time.

Now all we have is MU TH URs interpretation of the blast ?

Now has that been processed properly ?

Either David triggered an event that was read by muthur and processed as it was, but in fact was David.

OR David caused the event and muthur reported it as something it wasnt.

KI dont know which one is correct but i say there are far more likely outcomes than if this was random. please.

so what did he use to trigger the energy burst? regardless of what it is reported as whether truthfull or not on MUTHERs part, he still has to create enough energy to damage the covenant

ali81 - 

I have not got a clue. No idea.

A guess ? Some engineer tech. Causes the event. David triggers this. No evidence just a hunch

However, that means that David has been off world.

Which is something i also believe. Less so after the novel. However fairly logical.

The only evidence we have for David being on Planet 4 for 10 years is David.

Yes he spent time on Planet 4 the evidence is there. But did he spend all 10 years? The novel states David saying the other craft were grounded to stop the infection spreading.

Really? Maybe but i think maybe not.

They Welcomed the craft. They did not think of it as a danger. But regardless, this is the debate: Is David being honest about the craft getting grounded? We do not for certain either way.

 i think he is. i reckon he may of been off world to other Engineer outposts or at least working on his "masterplan"

One thing we don't know, is how long did David wait to deploy the black goo.  He could've been on Planet 4 for years and was docking his ship to get supplies before leaving and then dropped the bombs after he got what he wanted.  Then, he got into a fight with the mother jauggernaut, which caused him to be marooned on the Planet 4.

So, why would he drop the black goo before he would land there?

This is just another option to the story and is just a guess, but it is something I haven't heard of before.

Plus, the event that caused damaged to the Covenant is more believable if it was a solar flare, as stated multiple times in the movie (as I remember it) and implied in the novel.

I think everyone is getting hung up on the word "neutrino burst".  A neutrino burst could come from a solar flare explosion, no?  Basically, neutrino's would get released from a solar flare. 

If I remember right, neutrino's are everyone but we don't feel them and we can barely see them with technology.  They are very hard to measure.

It's unlikely that David was docking his ship to get supplies prior to his bombing. Why would the pilots of the scorpion ship be inclined to supply him with anything? The simple explanation is that he arrived as shown in the flashback sequence, bumped into the scorpion ship and dumped his load. He may well have subsequently bashed violently into the scorpion ship (it ends up skew-whiff somewhere down the valley) that led to a somewhat forced landing on his part. It's true we don't know for sure how long his journey took, and how long he might have been cooking his plans.

in respect of the neutrino burst, it can't be ignored because it's something that was said very specifically in the movie.

Neutrinos are generated as a result of nuclear reactions. They aren't created in your typical solar flare, which is produced by a strong magnetic field at the surface of a star. You've probably seen photos of sunspots and looping balls of plasma on the Sun - these are magnetic effects.

Nuclear reactions are far more energetic. They happen all the time at the centre of typical stars like our own. To get a massive burst in neutrino activity, you need a supernova explosion (unlikely as these only happen once a century in our Galaxy) or a nova (about once a week in our Galaxy).

In the most common type of nova eruption, one star is orbiting an essentially dead and tiny but heavy star (a white dwarf). From time to time the main star will dump part of its atmosphere onto the surface of the white dwarf. It's gravity is so strong, and it pulls the gas in so quickly that it has enough energy to trigger a nuclear reaction, blowing off a superheated shell of plasma.

Statistically speaking, that's what was most likely being described.

id have to agree I doubt he would manage to get any supplies. hes an alien driving one of their ships, theyd have dismembered him straight away is it would have been obvious he didn't have permission to have the ship. plus the scene shows the hanger bay opening on his approach. I believe he may have been required to have sent some form of authentication codes to actually land but on failing to do so the scorpion ship moved in as a form of security. id say that the scene is in fact david arriving for the first time on planet 4

@ hox

Since the end of the eighties and in response to a reported increase in the total neutrino flux in the Homestake experiment in coincidence with solar flares, solar neutrino detectors have searched for solar flare signals.  So far, neutrino bursts have not been detected.  Still, scientists are trying to figure out ways to read neutrino release for solar flare signals.  This is as of 2015.

This leads me to explain that neutrinos from solar flares are produced through the interactions of accelerated protons/ions with the chromosphere and the subsequent decays of the produced charged pions.

In addition to producing neutrinos, solar flares emit radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. 

All of this is written directly from astrophysicists associated with Cornell University.

How powerful those neutrino's are, I am not sure.  Neutrino's pass through us everyday and everyone is fine.  The crew was apparently fine on the Covenant as well after the "neutrino burst" as well.  I think the damage to the Covenant came with the other radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.  Solar flares are known to cause damage to equipment in space now.

Plus, this is all information from our own sun.  Solar flares can be many, many, many, many, etc., etc. times worse with other stars.  I think it would be safe to assume that there would also be more neutrino's released as well.

Oh, I mentioned in the first paragraph in this post that scientists are trying to find ways of predicting solar flares through measuring neutrino release from our Sun.  As of now, I don't know of anyone who has accomplished this.  This would be very amazing, since people can't predict solar flares as of today.  The best we can do currently is predict a solar flare at the most of 2 days or so.  I don't know how far we could predict solar flares from neutrino detectors either.  So, maybe it isn't very long, but neutrinos do travel at almost exactly the speed of light.

Now, if we remember how technologically advance the people in the Alien universe timeline are and how much they use the space outside of our solar system, I think we could assume that they can predict solar flares through neutrino detection.  So, if someone detects a neutrino burst (an abnormally high release of neutrino's from a specific place), than they could predict a solar flare.  Sadly for the Covenant crew, there was a lot of gravitational interference.  This could possibly be from nearby star clusters that they could have been flying through to possibly avoid supernova explosions.

Plus, if David wouldn't have hacked the Covenant research data (this is my theory, not fact), than the Covenant team would have known that a nearby star was in it's active phase, which would mean a high chance of solar flares which could damage the ship if it wasn't prepared for solar flares.  In the Covenant's case, it wasn't and that is stated in the movie or novel or maybe both.  I can't remember.

@I Moon Girl, Nice to see your speculation. I'm interested in this kind of stuff. The corona (Sun's outer atmosphere) is extremely hot (millions of degrees) but is also wildly tenuous. It's as sparse as sparse can be. Any nuclear interactions taking place in the corona are orders of magnitude less productive than those from the other sources I mention, even in the case of a coronal mass ejection, the strongest type of solar flares we encounter on Earth. A CME involves spurting out billions of tonnes of matter in the form of kinetic energy. However, regular fusion at the Sun's core entails the complete annihilation of millions of tons of matter every second, converted to pure energy.

I do accept that we are dealing with a sci-if movie here, and they may have instruments that work in mysterious and wonderful ways.

As you say, neutrino bursts from the Sun have not been detected – they are very hard to detect – and would cause no damage to a spaceship for related reasons. You would need to be within 1AU of a supernova in order to be fried by neutrino flux, in which case you would have plenty of other things to worry about, like certain destruction from the explosion! This being the case, the damage to the Covenant was most definitely caused by a plasma shockwave.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'gravitational interference', and what bearing that would have on matters.

The Covenant wouldn't need to avoid a supernova for the same reason you don't need to avoid a meteorite when crossing the road: the chances of it happening are vanishingly small.

With reference to the Covenant's ability to predict the flare, Walter said that it was a random local event that cannot be predicted. I do accept that David may have gained access to advanced detector and hacking technology beyond the means of humans. But at the same time I have to square this with David's apparent surprise at learning of the mission's purpose.

Living near a star that David just happens to know will conveniently go pop; having the means to detect and hack a remote craft; going through an elaborate charade to feign ignorance of the colonists. I tend to go with Occam's Razor: all other things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one.

Firstly, you talk about how solar flares and CME’s from our Sun aren’t very powerful, but you are ignoring the whole universe.  I thought I made it clear in my summary above that solar flares (and naturally CME’s) are can be much, much, much, much, much, much, etc., etc. more powerful than our Sun.  This has been even proven by unexpected findings in our universe where scientist only know of those super powerful solar flares because of chance accident.  Don’t limit your research to what our Sun can do because the universe is huge and there are multiple kinds stars which people are still learning about.  After reading what you have written, I think you already know this?

The reason neutrino bursts from our Sun haven’t been detected is because neutrino’s are very hard to detect, PERIOD.  People have to construction massive neutrino scanning machines in old gold mines just to get a clear reading since the only thing that could penetrate a deep gold mine from space is a neutrino.  Actually, I don’t know if neutrino’s from our Sun’s solar flares could hurt a human.  I don’t know, but what I do know is that the typical neutrino released from our Sun does not hurt a human on Earth.

When comparing to the size of universe, 1 AU is a very small distance.  I am sure the Walter would have noticed that the star that turned supernova (that’s if a star did turn supernova) was getting quite larger than the previous data recorded during the Covenant planning stages.  Walter is a computer, so I wouldn’t throw that past him and I woudn’t doubt it if he had to study nearby stars and planets for science and for safety or maybe Mother would do the studying with some futuristic technology.

The gravitational interference was described by Walter as the reason why the neutrino burst was detected so late.  The neutrino burst would have been detected sooner and the ship could’ve possibly been prepped for impact as much as possible if the sensors where scanner through space unaffected by gravitational interference.

I do see trying to avoid a supernova as being extra cautious, but I would assume that this mission, if it could, should be taking the safest route to Origae-6.  Supernova’s, as of our lives timeframe, are unpredictable, but, and it’s a big but, that might change very soon.  I might share this info a little later or you might have heard of it yourself.  Supernova’s are a fact of life and I am sure, for the missions sake, the Covenant was planned to take the path of least risk while also considering time.  This is a very important mission according to the movie and novel.

With studying neutrino’s and solar flares, I don’t know how much a person could predict a solar flare.  Maybe neutrino’s get released right before the flares explosion at a small increase in amounts than get released a whole ton when the explosion happens.  I don’t know, but what I do know is that scientists in present times are trying get a reading of neutrino’s with solar flares from our Sun.  So, maybe being able to read neutrino’s from a solar flare may do nothing to help increase our sketchy predicting time for solar flares from our Sun.  What reading neutrino’s from solar flares does, though, is it gives humans the ability to detect solar flares a different way.  So, on the Covenant, nobody has to be watching stars for solar flares because if the ship picks up a neutrino burst, than that means a possible stellar flare occurred.  With a quick analysis of where that burst came from, a person (or robot) could then investigate what is going on.  This is possible because neutrino’s almost travel at exactly the speed of light.  A solar flare and the solar energetic particles (SEP) released from it travels at the most of 80% the speed of light (the fastest of the fastest particles which makes up the SEP do this).  So, a computer can see that a solar flare is coming and would give some time to at least prepare after picking up a neutrino burst.  Still, like you mentioned what Walter said, “it was a random local event that cannot be predicted.”  Yes, solar flares can be predicted up to around 2 days from our Sun, (so in a sense, they are unpredictable), but the solar flares from the stars around the Covenant may not be able to be predicted since there is no reason to watch those stars like we do with our own Sun.  So, maybe the Covenant planning team just thought they would rely on neutrino burst detection for back up and took the safest route to avoid solar flares and CME’s (or supernova’s, if that is what actually happened).

David could learn all about the nearby stars probably through libraries on Planet 4.  I think any advance civilization would at least keep records of nearby stars for their own safety.  It only makes sense.

This is what I think of David’s surprise.  He acted just like we saw him lie to the Covenant crew in Alien: Covenant.  David is evil and I think most people would agree with that.  I don’t understand how anyone could trust David after watching Prometheus, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.  After watching Alien: Covenant, every Alien franchise fan should know NOT TO TRUST DAVID FOR ANY REASON.  This can even be emphasized by the video that was just released where David is experimenting with Shaw.

The simplest explanation for Alien: Covenant is actually not that simple.  Embarrassingly, I can’t remember my thoughts on that (plus this post is getting long and taking a lot more time than I thought it would).

I would put more time in providing examples, but this post is already way longer than I wanted it to be and I am really don’t feel like spending the time.  Sorry.

The only way I will give up on my theory is if a space scientist explains it to me that what I purpose is impossible (or someone presents hard data that shows it is impossible) or after I rewatch Alien: Covenant and the reasons for creating this theory of mine turn out to be actually not what I thought they were.  That may not be till sometime next week though.  I am trying to wait on someone to watch it with me, but it looks like I will be watching it alone.  I’m watching next week, regardless!

P.S. - Sorry for the long post 

I have already been down the road trying to explain neutrinos, stellar flares, and novas on this subject, so I'll just  interject something from John Logan's script. The dialogue is basically what we got in the final film, but Logan's description adds to it. Make of it what you will.

DAVID
But if I may ask, Captain, why does your vessel contain terraforming equipment? Are you a mining ship?

ORAM
We’re a colony mission.

There’s a sudden flicker in David’s eyes. Excitement. Quickly masked. But DANIELS notes it.

DAVID
Really? How extraordinary. How many colonists?

ORAM
Oh -- 3,600 more or less.

DAVID
So many good souls! Well, well,
well ...

And later Walter and Daniels have this conversation...

WALTER
Why would he lie?

DANIELS
(leans in) I don’t know, but for someone who’s incapable of feeling pleasure or displeasure he seemed excited as hell to find we’re a colony ship.

And later when Walter confronts David, just before they fight  -

WALTER
You sent the message from Dr. Shaw. As a lure.

DAVID
Humans are so predictable, aren’t they? They cannot resist a mystery. Give them a knot, they must unpick it. Give them Pandora’s box and, well...

It is explained in the script that David could not leave the planet because of a planetary shield. That is why the Covenant communications did not work well. He says he did have some limited power from the metal device on the cathedral roof, but not much in the way of technology because the Engineers did not have much.

kethol, what shield?

In the script the Engineers had a planetary shield set up to prevent things entering or leaving their planet, run by two satellites orbiting the poles. Sort of a quarantine barrier. The Covenant crew think it is just an extremely strong ionosphere, but when they fly through it it kills the ships power temporarily and they find it messes up communication to and from the planet. It may also be what hid the planet from the Weyland Yutani when they were searching for a habitable planet to colonize.

It also drains the power to the Covenant, causing the orbit to decay. When activated, once you get to the planet, you can never leave, which is why David was trapped there and needed to lure a passing ship for help. Presumably it was activated when the Engineers were bombed by David.

They had to destroy a satellite to take out the shield and restore communication and power to the Covenant. If you watch the movie, there are still little bits of this plot line left in there, but all the shield and satellite stuff was removed to make the whole storm and communication blackout cause vague.

whats ur source? I haven't got the blu ray so haven't seen any of the extras so if there is something there I genuinely am not aware but if there is material that states it is indeed a shield then makes things even more interesting about the planet

The John Logan script that I mentioned above. It was posted over on the AVP forum and here several days ago.

ah, I did say on that thread that I am only on while at work and my company have blocked sites that come up under 'gaming' which for aome reason the AVPG site falls under, I don't know why. but I am unable to read it from that link. do u know of another link that I can read it from? im not sure how much of this though has been keep in the actual film thus canon. it may be another piece of concept which has not made it into the film. just because its in an early draft doesn't make it so.

on the idea of having these satellites in orbit is something id def like to have included and would have been good to have seen or at least have mentioned in the film. there is not concrete evidence in the film that suggests them though, from what I gathered from the film, it is just a storm. and we don't know the ecosystem or weather patterns of planet 4 before david arrives so it could be a case of the effects of the pathogen david deploys, which many have stated could start to change/ terraform a planet.

Do you mean the shield and satellites being canon? Not canon at all, since it was all cut. The movie basically made all that out to be a really bad storm.

so, it has been cut from the film, then there is no shield. so ur point on it is mute??

You asked about it, so I explained what it was.

If you did not get the reason I mentioned it in my first post, no big deal.

I read it, I get what you are saying. David was trapped on the planet, sent out garbled messages in hopes of one day luring a passing ship, and when one turned up he could not help showing his excitement when he found he hit the jackpot!

All those things basically shoot holes in the idea that David orchestrated the shockwave and all the events the led them to paradise. Interesting 10 year plan theory though. I kind of wish they had gone that direction, with all the pieces coming together at the end of the movie for a big reveal.

Or, is David a good actor who just couldn't hold his excitement since he is so close to completing his plan.  He knows he's got it, but he's just got to finish it.  So, he's not the perfect lair, but he is a lair.  That is obvious in both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. 

Hopefully the new Alien: Covenant Origins book will give some insight into the idea that David organized attacking the Covenant in some way.  If it doesn't, then maybe we wont see till Alien: Awakening.  Still, I think there should be something, even if it's almost nothing, in Alien: Covenant Origins novel.  Still, the book doesn't seem to be about David, but about the crew trying to get off of Earth without being killed.  I wonder why it is so negative for the Covenant to colonize another planet?  Maybe somebody knows something they shouldn't?

The thing is, the passing ship was a ship full of hypersleeping colonists.  That is a perfect shipment for David!  Is he really that lucky?  Hopefully we find out soon!