Chapter 293 |
“Vickers? Why did you wake me up? Where’s David?” When Weyland slowly woke up, looking at Vickers standing beside him, he asked in confusion.
Originally calm and smiling slightly while waiting for Weyland to awaken, Vickers’ expression immediately turned cold upon hearing Weyland’s first words asking about David. She looked at the hunched old man over a hundred years old with an extremely indifferent gaze.
“Don’t worry, you’ll see it soon, my dear father!” Vickers said in a tone without any emotion, her face cold and indifferent.
“What happened?” Hearing Vickers address him as “father” and use that term for David, Weyland realized something was wrong.
Because more than twenty years ago, when he took this illegitimate daughter from her mother, Weyland forbade her from calling him “father,” not even allowing her to inherit his surname.
Yet now, she was calling him that with utter coldness.
Clearly, something had happened that he did not know.
“Don’t worry, dear father, it’s nothing serious, and we have already reached our designated destination. Soon, you will meet your creator. You should be happy! Now, dress my father in his gear!” Vickers forced a fake smile on her face without any concealment.
Under her orders, two medical robots entered the cabin and began putting life-support equipment on Weyland.
Normally, this equipment was put on with the help of David and Weyland’s medical team.
However, the robots provided by Josh found this device extremely simple to use. After scanning it, they quickly equipped it on Weyland.
“I don’t remember our group having such advanced robotic technology…” Though knowing something must have happened, Weyland couldn’t help but comment when seeing robots obviously more advanced than David.
Though David had self-awareness and emotions, having feelings was never a measure of how advanced a robot or android was.
As a scientific genius, Weyland knew this well—he wasn’t a mere capitalist; by age 14, he already held 12 patents.
So he easily recognized that the technology on these robots was many times more advanced than on David.
Not to mention the Weyland Group, even the entire Earth probably did not have such advanced technology.
Recalling Vickers had said they had reached their destination, a shocking thought arose in Weyland’s mind.
“You have met the creator? And made a deal with them?” Weyland suddenly asked Vickers, extremely excited.
To him, such advanced technology could only come from the “creator” he sought.
And Vickers’ completely different attitude before he went into hibernation must be because she made a deal with the creator, which explained her recklessness.
“What? Hahahahahahaha…” Vickers was stunned by Weyland’s words but then burst out laughing until tears nearly came out.
“What’s so funny? Tell me quickly!” Weyland asked eagerly.
“No, no, no, dear father, you misunderstand. Our spaceship hasn’t even landed yet; your creator is still lying on the LV-223 planet. These robots have nothing to do with them… Do you think your creator’s robots would have English labels? Look here!” Vickers struggled to hold back laughter and pointed to the label on the back of a medical robot.
Following Vickers’ finger, Weyland saw the label.
It clearly said: MADE IN Austria????
Made in Austria????
Weyland was utterly dumbfounded. His already old brain completely couldn’t comprehend the situation.
“Hehe, I told you not to be anxious, my father, you’ll know everything soon,” Vickers sneered, then ordered the two robots to “assist” Weyland out of the cabin.
Once outside the cabin, seeing five military robots standing guard, Weyland’s expression changed again and his thoughts went awry.
Military robots…
So it’s not the creator, but the military?
But Vickers was already too lazy to pay attention to him.
She simply led him directly to the activity hall.
At that moment, inside the hall, the remaining nine crew members, guarded by numerous military robot soldiers, were crouching nervously in the center.
Seeing Vickers swagger in with Weyland and another team of robots, not looking like prisoners at all, they all widened their eyes.
“Ms. Vickers, what is going on?” Holloway couldn’t help but stand up and ask.
The next second, he was knocked down by a rifle butt from a nearby robot soldier.
“What about the others?” Vickers didn’t even glance at the beaten Holloway, instead asking a robot soldier nearby.
Including Vickers and Weyland, there were originally 17 crew members on this expedition. David, the android, wasn’t counted.
So besides Vickers, Weyland, and the four Weyland personnel killed before, there should be 11 left.
“Captain Janek and Dr. Shaw disobeyed orders, attempted to resist, and were shot dead!” the robot soldier reported immediately.
“Oh, what a pity!” Vickers sneered.
Seeing Vickers’ cold attitude, Holloway wanted to say something, but severe pain in his neck told him it was better to stay quiet.
“Good morning everyone, glad to see you all again…hmm, this is to the few employees I personally recruited. As for the others, let me introduce myself first: I am Meredith Vickers, originally here to supervise your work, but due to some special reasons, your original work is no longer needed. They will replace your jobs…hmm, yes, they take my orders. But don’t worry, as long as you behave and follow orders, tragedies like Dr. Shaw and Captain Janek won’t happen.” Vickers pointed to the robots around her.
“Also, don’t worry about losing your jobs. After landing, there will be new work for you to complete…Understand?” Vickers continued, a strange smile appearing on her face when mentioning the new work, but besides Weyland, no one seemed to notice.
“Oh, by the way, let me introduce this gentleman beside me: the founder of the Weyland Group, your original real employer, and also my father. Though unnecessary, I feel it’s important to introduce him, since you will all be spending the next few days together.” Vickers finished and pointed to Weyland.
Hearing Vickers’ words, the nine crew members all looked at Weyland in shock.
Wasn’t Weyland supposed to have died two years ago? It has even made global headlines.
“Hehe, I know you have many questions. You can ask him yourselves. By the way, dear father, here’s your David. Make sure to hold onto him!” Seeing the strange expressions on both sides, Vickers laughed happily, then took David’s head, now completely a pile of junk, from one of the newly arrived robot soldiers and stuffed it into Weyland’s grim-faced arms.
“Well, there’s still a little time before landing. Everyone get some rest!” After finishing all this, Vickers left the place bouncing around like a little girl.
Over the years, she had suppressed herself too much.
Now, she felt an unprecedented sense of relief.
Of course, in the eyes of the nine detained crew members and Weyland, this woman was probably already insane.
After Vickers left, the robot soldiers dispersed to the distance, and the crew hurried to gather around Weyland, anxiously questioning him.
In their eyes, Weyland must know more than they did.
“You seem happy!” On the other side of the trading system, Josh smiled at Vickers.
Everything just now had happened while the trading communication was active so he saw everything.
“Of course. You saw it too—Weyland’s expression. I’ve never been this happy! Thank you. Without you, I don’t know how much longer I’d have to suppress myself!” Back in her cabin, Vickers took off her coat, poured herself a drink, and relaxed deeply on the sofa, sighing.
“No need to thank me, it’s mutual benefit! As long as you cooperate well with me, you can have everything!” Josh smiled.
“Ah, that really makes me look forward to it… Cheers!” Vickers raised her glass.
Several hours later, the Prometheus spaceship, under the control of the robot crew, landed extremely smoothly on the planet LV-223.
However, unlike in the movie where it landed in a valley, it landed on a plain not far from the Engineer base.
With Josh’s support, Vickers didn’t need to be as cautious as Captain Janek, who died in the original plot.
As for the upcoming sandstorm?
After the ship came to a stop, the robot soldiers quickly set up a series of devices around the ship, then an energy shield enveloped the Prometheus spaceship.
Afterwards, the robot soldiers set up numerous firepower points around.
Although in the plot, the crew of the Prometheus only encountered the Alien black goo and a dormant Engineer, and apart from the Alien created by David, no other living Aliens appeared.
But Josh did not believe that there were truly no Aliens on this planet.
If it were only the black goo, how would all the Engineers on this planet have been wiped out?
The mountains of Engineer corpses in the movie, along with scattered biomass membranes and other scenes, actually hinted that this planet once hosted a large number of Aliens.
It’s just that the time when the Prometheus crew arrived was too long after the Alien outbreak, and since the planet had no natural life, those Aliens might have starved or gone into hibernation.
According to Josh’s guess, the latter is very likely.
Because on the planet in Alien: Covenant, all animals had long been slaughtered by Aliens, but the large number of Aliens still survived well; they simply entered hibernation due to lack of food.
When the protagonists arrived, David awakened them.
Now, Vickers would carry out various major operations on this planet, which would surely awaken those dormant Aliens, so necessary armed protection was very important.
After completing the initial defense facilities, Vickers dispatched squads of robot soldiers obtained through Josh’s transactions to the Engineer base, totaling over a thousand.
Of course, Vickers herself would not go.
As for the coming sandstorm, Vickers was not worried because she had already obtained a new hyperspace communication command system from Josh.
Hyperspace communication can operate in most extreme environments of the universe; a mere sandstorm’s effect was no problem.
Soon, the robot troops successfully entered the ruins of the Engineer base.
Thanks to Josh’s reminder, Vickers had robots read the data chip from David’s brain in advance, so her entire robot force now possessed the ability to recognize the Engineer’s written language.
Very soon, these robot troops found the storage room for the Alien black goo and the ship where Engineers were in cryosleep. That ship was easy to find—just like the holographic recordings the protagonists saw in the movie, they only needed to find the Engineer corpse whose head was cut off by the automatic door.
But Vickers soon realized Josh probably underestimated the size of this base.
After several hours of exploration by more than a thousand robots and their intelligent mapping drones, the underground base actually housed over a hundred U-shaped Engineer ships like those seen in the movie.
The quantity of stored Alien black goo was even more staggering.
“What’s the rush? I’ll send you some warships and more robot troops, and a few psychics. You must keep a close watch on all these things!” Josh was not surprised but rather delighted upon hearing the news.