Alien: Covenant - The Official Movie Novelization

  * * *

  Seated in the adjoining room, Daniels and Walter occasionally glanced through the dividing transparency to see what Tennessee and Upworth were doing. Both human and synthetic had changed into fresh uniforms. Augmenting his self-repairing systems with the more sophisticated gear available on the ship, Walter looked brand new.

  Daniels, less so. Several dermipatches dotted her exposed skin while others were concealed beneath her attire. The few flecks of acid blood with which she had come in contact hadn’t done any permanent damage. What there was would heal quickly. She was worlds better off than the brave but unfortunate sergeant.

  Until now she had kept the conversation casual, restricting it to matters of administration, maintenance, and the status of the surviving crew. With Lopé’s recovery assured and the Covenant on its way out of the system, she felt safe in bringing up what might prove to be an uncomfortable subject.

  “So,” she began, “you okay about—you know.”

  Walter eyed her blankly. “I do not ‘know.’ Nor in the absence of additional information can I ‘know.’ To what do you refer? What do you mean?”

  She plunged ahead. “I mean David. How do you feel about him? What do you feel about him?” He did not appear to be affected in the slightest by her query. In other words, he was perfectly Walter. She was unaccountably relieved.

  “As you know,” he responded, “I am incapable of feeling anything about my so-called ‘brother.’”

  There had to be more than that, she told herself. She had seen it for herself, how he had reacted to his counterpart. Surely there was more percolating in that synthetic than a simple dismissal.

  “So there’s nothing?” she asked. “No follow-up musings? No afterthoughts?”

  He considered before replying. “If I felt anything, which I don’t, it would be a kind of professional satisfaction that he has fulfilled his mission. He wanted to create a new world in his image, and he has. And there he will remain.” He pondered a moment. “But that’s what we’re doing, too, isn’t it? Creating a new world on Origae-6? Honestly, I could use a new world.”

  “So could I,” she readily agreed, then she pressed him. “It doesn’t trouble you that in creating ‘his’ new world, his actions resulted in the extermination of the entire local population?”

  He replied without hesitation. “From everything that I saw and experienced, as well as learned from David, the civilization of the Engineers was not one with whom compassionate coexistence was possible. True, there was beauty and elegance in their art and science, but there was also arrogance. I do not think they were pleased to suffer any intelligences save their own.”

  She looked off into the distance. “David said something similar to me, only he was talking about humans.”

  “And in some respects he was right,” Walter replied, surprising her. “But in the case of humans, such arrogance is usually confined to individuals. I have not found it to be a general racial characteristic. In that regard you are different from the Engineers. So far.”

  She frowned at him. “What do you mean, ‘so far’?”

  “Success and accomplishment can breed conceit. There are those humans who believe their kind to be the ultimate product of evolution.”

  “The existence of the Engineers and their work ought to put an end to beliefs like that,” Daniels told him firmly. Shifting her attention to a nearby port, she indicated the blazing firmament outside. “There may be others out there, other civilizations besides that of the Engineers.”

  He followed her gaze. “Statistical analysis would suggest as much.”

  “If we run into them, hopefully they’ll be more receptive than the Engineers to our continued existence. More like us.”

  His eyebrows rose questioningly. “‘Us’?”

  She smiled back at him. “I wouldn’t have a problem coexisting with a society composed entirely of synthetics. Or other machines. Intelligence is the defining factor.”

  Though he showed no emotion, she had the feeling her reply pleased him.

  “It is a pity you could not spend more time with David,” he said. “You might have changed him. He underestimated you.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “That’s exactly what he told me.”

  “Then you are doubly complimented, I suppose.” Once again he turned his gaze to the view out the port. “I wonder what Origae-6 will be like?”

  She joined him in eying the stars, completely relaxed in his company. “Nobody knows for sure, except for one thing.”

  “What is that, Danny?”

  Her tone was grim. “It can’t be any worse.”

  XXV

  Alone in her cabin, Daniels worked the private food prep gear to heat a meal. Usually the revived crew members ate in the communal dining area, but with the most precious thing on a colony ship being privacy, there were often times when some preferred to eat by themselves.

  Usually Jacob did the food prep but…

  She glanced over at an image that had been taken of the crew prior to departure from Earth orbit. They were all there, still alive in memory, their smiles and movements and expressions frozen in time. Oram and Karine, Tennessee and Faris, Lopé and Hallet, all of them. Her and Jacob. Memories. All she had now. Those, and a still-uncertain future. She was lucky, she knew. At least she had a future.

  She didn’t feel lucky.

  The door chimed, indicating a presence on the other side. Pausing the food prep, she opened the portal. Tennessee stood there, solid and imposing.

  “Evening. You’re looking good, my darlin’.”

  “What?” She made a face. “Oh, yeah,” she replied flatly. “Gorgeous. I was just doing my makeup and waiting for my ball gown to finish pressing.” She gestured. “Come in.”

  It was a short distance back to the food prep. In any cabin on the Covenant, it was a short distance to anywhere. Personal space was more than adequate but hardly luxurious. A crew that spent the majority of its voyage in hypersleep was hardly in need of wide open spaces.

  “What are you cooking?”

  She picked up a box and showed it to him. The front was dominated by an image of an egg, with smaller images of subsidiary ingredients listed beneath it.

  “An ‘omelet.’ Something derived from a simulacrum of unborn fowl.” She squinted at the container. “It doesn’t specify the origin species. You want one?”

  “Sounds delicious. Sure. Actually, I’m familiar with it. Lots of cheese on mine, if you can make additions without spoiling your own.”

  She looked uncertain. “What’s ‘cheese’?”

  He turned thoughtful, remembering. “Congealed derivative of fluid excreted by bovine ungulates to nurture their young. Perfectly digestible by most—though not all— humans. Depends on your ancestry and genetic coding. In addition to being edible, it’s also tasty.” He indicated the container. “There’s probably a separate packet for it inside.”

  She nodded. “Anything to drink with it?”

  He rolled his eyes. “How long have you known me, Danny?”

  Moving to a cabinet, she pulled out the nearly empty bottle of liquor and poured him a shot. He accepted it, raised it in a brief toast, not only to her, but to all their lost comrades, and sipped.

  “How’s the ship looking?” she asked him.

  “I took Mother offline. She needs to run a full internal diagnostic without the stress of having to monitor everything every nanosecond. She got pretty battered when we dropped down to the upper levels of the storm. Took a lot of peripheral EM damage. Ship’s systems are on auto until she’s back online at eight bells. It’s worthwhile anyway, to make sure everything’s independently functional before we go back under.”

  A fatigued Daniels was having enough trouble keeping an eye on the food prep without having to pay attention to her visitor as well.

  “Mother. Right.”

  He noticed. “You need to get some sleep.”

  She nodded in agreement. “Tell me something I d
on’t know. Soon as we eat.”

  He watched while she monitored the food. “Do I have to call you Captain?”

  She didn’t look up from the equipment. “Fuck yes.”

  He smiled and she smiled back. Neither expression held for very long. Both of them were prisoners of memories too painful to forget, and too recent to expunge. When the food was ready they sat together and shared the meal. Each time one thought to say something, the look in the eyes of the other subdued it.

  It wasn’t as if they didn’t have anything to say. It was just that neither of them could think of a tactful way to say it.

  * * *

  One dreamer.

  Well, not quite. Sleep came fitfully to Daniels, if at all. Brief stretches of edgy unconsciousness interrupted by the urge to plan and prepare, occasionally speckled with shards of nightmare. She was so tired it was hard to fall asleep. Awareness of the contradiction did nothing to mitigate it.

  Rolling over, she turned up the lights and drew fingertips gently down the slope of Jacob’s pillow. By now the last impression he had left in it was gone. Raising her gaze she let it linger on the image of his beloved log cabin. His dream. She would make it come true if she had to chop down exotic trees with her bare hands.

  Somehow, envisioning the finished building softened what had otherwise become an uninviting tomorrow. At her whispered command the cabin darkened again, and she was finally able to fall asleep.

  * * *

  Time passed on the Covenant as it did on Earth, while outside the colony ship’s jump field the galaxy rotated around it. It continued in this peaceful fashion until eight A.M., ship time, at which point Mother came back online. Low-pitched and slow-voiced at first, but rapidly returning to normality.

  “Central computer systems restored. Ship diagnostics completed. First post-diagnostic report compiling. Stand by.” This was followed by a pause. Neither the initial announcement nor the subsequent delay woke Daniels.

  When next it spoke, she woke from her sleep immediately.

  “Attention! Captain Daniels! Urgent! Please report to the medbay. Urgent! Please report to the medbay!”

  “What?” Lifting her head, she glanced at the time readout and rubbed at her eyes. “Why?”

  “Sergeant Lopé is dead. There is an unidentified life-form on the ship.”

  Within seconds she was up, out of the bed, and slipping into uniform. The corridor outside her cabin was empty, as was the one she subsequently turned into. Rounding a corner and running full out into a third accessway, she nearly ran over Tennessee.

  “Medbay,” she snapped. There was neither time nor need for further explanation. He just nodded his understanding. His expression was bleak.

  “Mother woke me, too.”

  Together they raced up a third corridor, slowing only as they approached their destination. The entrance stood open. Eschewing the gaping, welcoming portal they advanced cautiously to peer through the observation window.

  The interior of the medbay was no longer a sterile white. Blood and viscera were splattered everywhere. All had belonged to the unfortunate Lopé, who lay on his back in the med pod with his torso blown open. Nutrient tubes still ran into his face and body. With luck, an appalled Daniels thought, he had still been in the induced coma when his chest had exploded. Turning away in revulsion, she addressed her suit comm.

  “Walter!”

  “I heard,” his voice replied. “I am on my way to check on you.”

  “I’m okay,” she said. “I’m with Tennessee. Location of unidentified life-form! Any sign of movement?”

  There was a pause, then, “Stand by, I have something. Yes, B deck between hex three and four, heading for general crew quarters.”

  “Who’s down there?”

  “Ricks and Upworth.”

  “Shit! Get them out of there! Sound general alarm five—tell them to lock themselves in their cabin until we can get down to them.”

  “Will do.” A pause. “Do you want me to join you?”

  She thought a moment. “No. I need you to track the thing. Tennessee and I are heading for the armory.”

  * * *

  Designed to accommodate several of the crew at once, the communal shower room was spacious and empty save for two figures. Recycled water beat down on the entwined, naked pair. Filling the room with steam from sourced hot water was a luxury—one of the few available to revived personnel.

  Husband and wife enjoyed the privacy, reveled in the intimacy. There was no need for them on the bridge now. Daniels was back, Tennessee had everything in hand, and Mother was once again in charge.

  Emergency lighting was everywhere on the ship. Abruptly sealed beacons began to blaze redly, crimson flashes only slightly diluted by the drifting steam. At the same time, a klaxon blared, its insistent wail echoing off the interior of the shower area. Bemused, Ricks pulled back slightly from his spouse.

  “I wonder what’s going on?”

  She looked around uncertainly. “Post-diagnostic test of the emergency warning system, maybe?”

  He frowned. “Probably, but we’d better respond. In a minute.” He favored her with a last, extended kiss. He did not see the shadow behind him. Nor did she, with her eyes closed as they embraced.

  It was huge and wet and the flashing red lights glistened off the massive curved skull. Leaning toward him, it nearly touched the back of his neck as the dreadful mouth yawned.

  The inner mouth struck, spearing into the back of his spinal column. Metalized teeth tore through flesh, bone, and sinew to pass all the way through his head, emerging from his open mouth. Eyes wide in shock, he stood there for a moment in the steam and falling water, impaled through the skull.

  Then the inner jaws withdrew, and he fell.

  Blinded by blood, water, and her own wet hair, Upworth recoiled in shock. Wiping frantically at all of it, she finally cleared her vision enough to see the face staring back at her. It was not that of her husband.

  She screamed.

  * * *

  Weapons at the ready, Tennessee and Daniels slowed as they approached the shower room. The only sound came from water spattering on the floor, while steam emerging from the open doorway provided the only movement. When they saw the water seeping out of the room and into the corridor, it showed dark streaks.

  Inside was worse than any abattoir. Blood ran everywhere, dripping slowly off walls not struck by the showers’ cleansing spray. No corner of the room was without its quota of dismembered body parts. Viscera clogged drains, causing the mix of water and blood to pool. That explained the overflow out into the corridor.

  Picking his way through the carnage, Tennessee shut down the multiple nozzles as Daniels surveyed the butchery. Rage suffused her expression. She had left her fear behind on the world of the Engineers.

  * * *

  “Where is it? Walter!”

  Ensconced at his station on the bridge, the synthetic peered anxiously into a holo of the Covenant’s interior. Moving faster than any human hands, his fingers played over the instrumentation, shrinking one section of the vessel while magnifying another. Daniels and Tennessee he had already located. Now he was searching for the intrusion—with no luck.

  “Lost it. Had it once, in the shower, but it’s moving fast. Hard to maintain a fix once I’ve got it.”

  “Keep on it.”

  * * *

  She turned to Tennessee. “What do you do with an opponent that’s faster than you, stronger than you, and damned hard to bring down?”

  He looked over at her. “Call for backup?”

  She almost—but not quite—smiled. “Too many light years to cross to get here. If we try to track it, it’ll come up behind us. If we’re in an open space, we’ll have no cover. If we follow it down a corridor, it can come at us through the vents. Or for all we know, from under the floor. Let’s choose our ground. Instead of waiting to be victimized, we’ll bring it to us.”

  “Makes sense,” he agreed. “But where?”

&nb
sp; “My home turf. My area of expertise.” She addressed her pickup. “Walter, anything?”

  * * *

  “I see it, heading aft on B deck.”

  “That’ll work,” she told him with dour satisfaction. “We’re heading for terraforming bay. Seal all doors except those leading to it.”

  “Complying,” the synthetic told her.

  As he tracked the Alien he shut the relevant doors behind it, while opening the appropriate ones in front of it, easing the creature toward the sector Daniels had specified. The identifying image of the creature within the holo responded at every door, pausing before each open portal before charging through.

  It ignored those that slammed shut behind it. All the while, Walter utilized the system to herd it toward the terraforming bay. Daniels and Tennessee were not as fast as the intruder, but they kept up a steady pace as human and Alien trails began to converge.

  “You still on it, Walter?”

  “I still have it, yes,” the synthetic replied. “It is moving in the direction you wished.”

  “Right. Open hatch to level C and corridors five and six.”

  “Hatch open.” Walter’s synthetic gaze was fixed on the tiny images moving across the enhanced section of holo. “It’s passing through. Opening corridors five and six.”

  “Delay it on deck C hex six.”

  Walter waited. For a terrible moment it appeared as if this time the creature would fail to take the bait. Then its image resumed moving forward.

  “Done. All doors closed.” Even for him, it was an effort to isolate and track a single, fast-moving figure in the vastness of the ship. “Lost it again.”

  “It’s okay,” she told him. “Image detection probably blocked by the heavy equipment. What matters is that we know where it is, and that it can’t get out—except through us. We’re at Seventeen. Entering the bay… now.”

  * * *

  Standing beside the entryway, she activated the controls set into the wall. The barrier slid aside to reveal a dark, yawning chamber, one of the largest open spaces on the Covenant.

  Huge excavators, cranes, carry trucks, mineral processors, portable conveyors, personnel transports, and lifters squatted among dozens of smaller machines, like so many dinosaurs among tentative mammals. All were clad in shining coats of protectant and preservative. Mobile scaffolding and other temporary structures allowed Daniels and other crew access to the upper reaches of the larger equipment.