Chapter 294 |
"Everyone up, come with me!" Early the next morning, the nine crew members who barely managed to spend the night in the Prometheus’ activity hall, along with Weyland, were woken up by a squad of robot soldiers. Amid pushing and shoving, they were led out of the activity hall.
At first, they thought they were being taken to see Vickers, but only when they reached the spaceship’s pressure chamber did they realize they were not going to meet Vickers — they were being taken off the ship.
But none of them were wearing spacesuits.
Although early research and space exploration indicated that this planet had an atmosphere and possibly signs of life, that did not mean the planet was suitable for human survival. Who knew what the atmospheric composition of this planet was?
"Damn it, if you’re going to kill us, just do it quickly. No need to torture us!" Holloway was still the first to speak up.
"Rest assured, the environment outside has been adjusted. It won’t cost you your lives!" the lead robot said coldly.
Then the airlock was opened, and all ten were herded into the elevator.
The elevator soon reached the lower deck. As the doors opened, they saw the bottom chamber with its hatch wide open, and a slender, upright figure in casual clothes standing outside the ship watching them — it was Vickers.
But what was more surprising was the scene behind Vickers outside the ship.
Beyond the shield, large formations of fully armed robots were assembling, and various bizarre large vehicles were racing in the distance.
Squadrons of fighter jets roared through the sky.
Even more, ships many times larger than the Prometheus were continuously taking off and landing in the distance.
At the same time, numerous unknown steel structures were under construction far away.
In other words, the valley, which had originally been empty except for the surface ruins left by an engineer, had now become a massive space military base.
"Oh God… Have we traveled into the world of Star Wars?" Several Star Wars fans in the group couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment.
Because the appearance of these robots and various vehicles outside looked exactly like the Old Republic from the Star Wars movies.
But could it not look identical — after all, these products were originally from the Star Wars world’s technology.
"Alright, everyone, I know you’re curious about where these things came from, but what I want to say is, this has nothing to do with you. Knowing too much is meaningless. From your internal discussions yesterday, you should already know the original purpose of coming to this planet. Next, I’m going to show you the secret of this planet... Get on!" Vickers pointed to a small shuttle on a nearby clearing.
Faced with Vickers’ strong-willed command, they had no choice but to obediently board the shuttle.
Once everyone was on board, the shuttle took off, heading toward a huge ship docked beyond the energy shield.
What they didn’t notice was that just after their takeoff, the Prometheus inside the energy shield disappeared.
Yes, it was actually taken into system space by Vickers and then traded to Josh from another universe.
As for why Josh, who possessed technology far surpassing that of the Prometheus’ world, was interested in the Prometheus ship, the answer was simple.
It was an original, pristine top-tier collectible.
The shuttle quickly landed on that gigantic ship.
After landing, the group was taken to a place resembling a laboratory.
It was a cylindrical hall-style lab, several floors tall, each floor filled with many isolated chambers resembling prison cells.
One by one, they were locked into different isolation chambers.
At this moment, seeing the busy experimental robots around, some people already felt something was wrong, but faced with the black barrels of the robot soldiers’ guns, they could do nothing.
Not long after, Vickers arrived but her casual clothes had changed into a special protective suit.
Seeing her change, the group realized this might be the moment to uncover the final truth.
Soon, a huge cryogenic chamber rose from the center of the hall.
Its observation window faced directly toward the prisoners.
Thus, Weyland and the others could clearly see inside the cryogenic chamber — a huge humanoid creature, smooth-skinned and hairless.
"My dear father, look, this is the creator you’re looking for, the only living one I found yesterday in the ruins of this planet. Yes, the creator civilization you seek on this planet has all died out; the cause of death we’ll discuss later...So, are you ready to meet your creator, my father?" Vickers laughed and patted the cryogenic chamber, looking at Weyland locked in the isolation chamber.
"..." Weyland trembled as he stared at the humanoid inside the chamber but ultimately said nothing because it was meaningless.
He had once eagerly hoped to meet the beings who created humanity, but now everything here was under the control of his rebellious daughter. How could he still get excited?
Seeing Weyland silent, Vickers didn’t care and immediately signaled one of the experimental robots to wake the “engineer.”
With the robot operating the control panel, the temperature in the cryogenic chamber began to rise, and the sleeping engineer slowly started to breathe.
Seeing the chest of the engineer rise and fall, though imprisoned, Weyland, Holloway, and the rest of the Prometheus crew couldn’t help but become excited.
The creator of humanity — what a monumental discovery.
But looking at their expressions, Vickers sneered coldly.
So what if it was the creator? Now it was just an experimental subject… There was no difference between you and it.
Soon, after the waking process completed, the engineer awoke.
Looking around in confusion after over two thousand years of sleep, the engineer found himself unable to move.
Although thawed, his limbs were still firmly restrained.
"Tell him the current situation. As the translator, also let my father know what kind of thing his expected creator really is!" Vickers ordered a nearby robot.
"Yes, Commander!" The robot saluted, then began communicating with the engineer in the “engineer” language decoded from David’s chip.
But as soon as the robot spoke, the engineer became extremely agitated and angry, attempting to attack the robot and Vickers.
However, the restraints prevented any movement.
Although the engineer’s strength was several times that of a normal human, he was still a mortal body, and the restraints, though not indestructible vibranium, were top-tier alloys from the Star Wars world — no mere physical strength could break them.
"He says that both we and humans are failed experiments and should be destroyed!" the robot translated quickly.
"Oh, how unreasonable, insulting you all too!" Vickers teased upon hearing the translation, then glanced at the stunned Weyland and others.
"No, this can’t be true. You’re lying to us!" Holloway shouted.
"Sir prisoner, you may doubt my translation’s accuracy, but please don’t doubt my honesty!" the robot objected.
Thanks to technological advancements in the Star Wars world, Josh’s robots, though lacking true self-awareness, could mimic human emotions with remarkable accuracy.
"Actually, seeing this creator’s attitude, you already believe it deep down; you just don’t want to admit it, right?" Vickers sneered. "But no matter, I’ll show you something else."
Immediately following her order, a platform rose in the center of the laboratory, on which stood a fully enclosed transparent test chamber.
Inside was none other than the jars carrying the Alien black goo from the Engineers’ ships.
Seeing the jars, the Engineer became excited again right away.
“Calm him down!” Vickers said somewhat displeased.
Two robots then raised their electric batons and pressed them against the Engineer’s body.
A powerful electric current flashed, and the Engineer instantly quieted down.
“Do you know what this is?” Vickers pointed at the jar and asked.
Obviously, she was not going to get an answer; everyone looked utterly confused.
“Heh, of course, how could you possibly know...? Let me put it this way: this planet is actually not the homeworld of those you think of as Creators, but rather one of their scientific and military bases. Underground in that ruin are hundreds of their ships. And two thousand years ago, thousands of your Creators were conducting research activities here, and what they studied was this!” As Vickers explained, various holographic images appeared behind her—ships, Engineers— all data retrieved from the Engineers’ ships.
“Shit...a scientific and military base? You mean they were making weapons on this planet? This is a weapon?” The biologist in the group couldn’t help but exclaim.
Those who understood biological weapons best were certainly the ones who studied them.
“Yes, but not entirely...You probably won’t believe it, but this stuff—precisely speaking, the thing that created us, or rather created Earth life—is also the thing that will destroy us!” Vickers said somewhat emotionally as she stared at the jar.
The crew was left utterly baffled by Vickers’ words.
Vickers didn’t rush to explain but gestured to the nearby robots.
Soon, several test chambers containing different animals were brought into the lab.
Then, under the robots’ operation, the black goo from the jars was injected into these animals’ bodies.
Quickly, the animals began to undergo drastic mutations—some turned into grotesque monsters, others started dissolving like wax figures.
The mutated monsters were clearly aggressive, repeatedly attacking the sealed chambers.
Seeing the effect of this black liquid, everyone was stunned.
What a terrifying biological weapon.
“Interesting stuff, isn’t it? Different genes cause different mutations... I think I’m beginning to understand why Josh wanted to study this!” Watching the various changes in the chambers, a faint smile appeared on Vickers’ face.
After reading data from the Engineers’ ships, Vickers and Josh already knew the purpose of this black goo.
It wasn’t just, as Josh originally thought, purely a biological weapon, nor merely raw material for creating Aliens.
More precisely, this black liquid is essentially an evolutionary fluid.
Any organism exposed to it will undergo evolution.
But this evolution is uncertain.
Or rather, mutation might be a more accurate term.
It might evolve into higher lifeforms or decompose into microorganisms—the scene at the beginning of the movie, where the Engineer was “decomposed,” was actually an alternative form of evolution, where somatic cells evolved into various microorganisms that spread into the water, becoming the origin of Earth life.
The worms encountering the black goo, the crew’s mutation after exposure, and the “octopus” born after the male lead ingested the black goo and mated with the female lead—all are alternative mutations.
As for the Aliens, they are just an extreme species that evolved at a later stage.
The reason the Engineers wanted to release these things on Earth was simple—destruction, but it was also another beginning of creation.
Ultimately, humans are just failed experiments in the eyes of the Engineers.
Like robots created by humans, but do humans care about the survival or destruction of robots?
“What the hell is this thing?” Weyland asked in a deep voice.
“Didn’t I just say? This is the thing that created us, and was originally going to destroy us—there’s a ship loaded with this stuff in that underground base, and its preset target, which you might not imagine, is Earth!” Vickers repeated what she knew. “If it weren’t for a leak two thousand years ago that caused the so-called Creators’ near extinction, humans might have already perished two thousand years ago!”
Shit!
Fuck!
Upon hearing Vickers’ words, the crew was filled with anger and shock again.
They could imagine the horrifying consequences if this black goo were to be unknowingly exposed or released on Earth.
“So now, you want to study this stuff too?” Weyland asked.
“…Yes… Well, I’ve said all that needs to be said, and you already know the true face of these so-called Creators. I suppose, as failed experiments like the Creators themselves, it would be fitting for you to die now—” A terrifying smile appeared on Vickers’ face.