Alien: Covenant - Origins - The Official Movie Prequel

XXVII

Daniels was busy in the main cargo hold when the alert came through on her comm unit. It was a secure transmission intended only for active members of the crew. She made a face at it, then spoke to the two men who were standing nearby awaiting her next orders.

“Carry on without me.” She pointed down an aisle between two rows of enormous terraforming machines. “We’re almost done with these anyway. Run a final check of inventory and make sure everything’s secure. I should be back shortly.”

Their assurances followed in her wake as she turned and strode rapidly toward the hold’s exit. The alert had been urgent, calling every key crewmember to the Covenant’s bridge. No reason was given.

Probably a snap drill, she told herself. Mother was always pulling stuff like that, to ensure not only that the crew knew their business, but that they didn’t have a chance to get lazy. Daniels told herself she’d be back working the hold in just a few minutes, finalizing the day’s portion of the manifest. She didn’t stress over the loss of time. The Covenant wasn’t going anywhere until she, Jacob, Oram, and Karine all signed off.

Striding onto the bridge, she was surprised by the expressions on the faces of her crewmates. Standing between Tennessee and Faris—the two seated pilots—her husband was staring at a projection that hovered just above the console in front of him. Uncharacteristically, he hardly glanced in her direction as she made her way to his side.

Maybe this isn’t a drill, she mused. Her thoughts immediately went to the Yutani employee who had tried and failed to sabotage the ship. But enhanced security measures had been instituted in the wake of that abortive attempt, an unauthorized roach couldn’t slip onto the Covenant.

Seeing that Sergeant Lopé was also present caused her pulse to accelerate. In an emergency drill, the ship’s chief of security would have been expected to make his way to the armory, or the drive access shaft, or even the colonists’ deepsleep chamber. Not to the bridge. Something definitely wasn’t right.

She stepped up behind Jacob and put a hand on his shoulder. He barely had time to flash her a hasty smile of recognition before turning his attention back to the projection that hovered in front of him and between the two pilots.

“Hi, hon,” he said. “We’ve got us a problem here. Maybe a serious problem.” His tone was as grim as she had ever heard it.

“No maybe about it, Cap.” Faris spoke without looking up from her instruments. “Not only isn’t it slowing down, it’s continuing to accelerate.”

Daniels stood baffled. “What isn’t slowing down? What’s continuing to accelerate? What the hell is going on?”

“There’s a cargo shuttle on intercept course, darlin’.” Tennessee’s voice was clipped and tight, not his usual relaxed drawl. A big man with a scruffy beard, he wore his signature cowboy hat.

She still didn’t understand. “What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s not scheduled.” Faris indicated a brace of readouts off to her left. “Last regular delivery craft departed an hour ago. Next one isn’t scheduled until 1800 Covenant time.” Daniels glanced at the nearest chronometric readout, and saw that 1800 was still three hours away.

“Special delivery?” she hazarded. “Supplementary cargo?” She knew better, but she had to try. From her position at Communications, Upworth looked back and shook her head.

“We checked with Central. Nothing supposed to be coming our way.”

“And they’re still not firing to slow down.” Tennessee worked controls like a concert pianist, his eyes darting from one readout and projection to the next.

“Worst case scenario?” Captain Jacob asked him.

The pilot ran some hasty computations. “They’ll hull us. Can’t say where yet—they’re still too far off. Explosive decompression wherever they hit. Casualties will depend on who’s at the point of impact. Maybe crew, maybe colonists, maybe both. At least if it’s folks in deepsleep, they’ll never know what happened.” He paused, then added solemnly, “If they impact any part of the main drive, the Covenant isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time. If ever.”

“We tried contacting them.” Ricks was Upworth’s husband and the ship’s other communications officer. He spared a quick glance for the now somber Daniels. “They answered immediately. Said they were bringing ‘extra supplies.’ Had an answer for every question.”

“Maybe they’re telling the truth,” Daniels said.

Faris gave an irritable shake of her head. “Doesn’t explain their velocity. We asked them about that, too. They replied they’d do a faster deceleration.” One finger tapped the console in front of her. “Doesn’t compute. Even if they go full decel right now they’d still shoot past us. Looking more and more like they intend to run directly into us.”

“So… a kamikaze run.” Turning to look behind her, she caught the eye of the quietly watching Lopé. He had come up silently behind her. “I thought you said the company had dealt with this nest of crazies. Rounded all of them up. Unless this is an entirely new and different bunch of crazies.”

He shrugged ever so slightly. “That’s unlikely. Seems like we might’ve missed a few on the first go-round. The ones we took into custody were far too relaxed when they were being taken away. No yelling, no protesting. Now I understand why they were so calm. They’d already set this in motion. Considering that they’ve already killed repeatedly on behalf of their ‘cause,’ it doesn’t surprise me a bit that they’re ready to sacrifice everyone on board the Covenant to stop the mission. They’re that insane.” Shifting his attention to the pilots, he queried Tennessee. “Can you move? Get out of their way?”

A grim-faced Tennessee looked back at him. “This ship isn’t a repair skid. The Covenant is a colony vessel. Even if we had time we couldn’t maneuver out of the way. Their orbit will intersect ours in a matter of minutes, not hours. And we’re not fully loaded or cleared for departure. We can’t activate the main drive—that could squelch the mission as effectively as an impact. Might kill a few colonists in the process. We’re stuck.”

Jacob turned to the chief of security. “What kind of weapons do we have?”

“What you’d expect.” Despite the seriousness of the situation, Lopé remained calm. “Small arms. M90s and the like. Nothing that would work ship-to-ship, and stop an oncoming shuttle. Certainly nothing with enough explosive power or enough mass.” He eyed Daniels. “What about using some of the stuff we’re taking for excavation work?”

It took her only a moment to reply. “Some of it would probably do the trick, but it’s all packed away and security sealed. Not enough time to get it out and get it ready.”

“Dammit, we need something big, and right now. Something big enough to knock them off trajectory, at least.” He looked over at his wife. “Can we throw some heavy machinery out the cargo lock?”

“We could,” Daniels told him after a moment’s thought. “If we can rotate the ship and align it perfectly and find some sort of propellant.”

“Shooting minnows in a river from the top of a skyscraper,” Tennessee rumbled. “Need something larger and more maneuverable.”

Suddenly the answer came to Daniels. “The Covenant is equipped with two landers for scouting and to use in emergency situations. I don’t think anyone in the company would argue that the current circumstances qualify as an emergency.” Even the pilots were looking her way now. “We send one out. On an intercept course.”

Tennessee looked across at his wife. “Could work. Lander’s not as big as a cargo shuttle, but it’s big enough. Especially if all the engines are firing max.”

Faris nodded agreement, then hesitated. “What if we need the lander at Origae-6?”

Daniels had an answer for her. “We probably won’t need either of them. Once the Covenant sets down, it won’t be taking off again. If a situation does arise, we’ll still have the second lander.” She indicated the readout hovering in front of her husband. “If we don’t do something fast to stop that shuttle, we’ll never see Origae-6, and it won’t matter how many landers we have on board.”

“Then—on my responsibility.” Jacob raised his voice. “Mother. Prepare Lander Two for emergency departure.” They did not have to wait long for a response. The voice of the ship’s AI was soothing and assured.

“Lander Two is now ready for emergency departure.”

“Good. Program for intercept of incoming shuttle.”

The voice did not change. “I cannot do that, Captain.”

Tennessee cursed under his breath while Faris and the two younger communications officers fought to remain calm.

“Why not, Mother?” a tense Jacob asked.

“Such an intercept would result in the destruction of equipment intended solely for the use of the colonization project. I cannot comply with your request without formal authorization from the colony control board of Weyland-Yutani.”

“Screw the colony control board of Weyland-Yutani!” Jacob roared. “If that incoming shuttle isn’t intercepted, there won’t be any colony to authorize! Program intercept! Emergency override jc-21.”

Quiet, controlled, damnably inhuman. “I am sorry, Captain. I cannot comply with your request as it will result in destruction of company property intended for the colony project.”

While a near apoplectic Jacob continued to try to reason with the ship’s AI, Daniels leaned close to Faris and whispered. “We haven’t got time to argue semantics with a computer. Can you bypass Mother’s control?”

Faris thought hard. “Not through the mains. Someone would have to go on board the lander and manually disable all connections to the Covenant. Then they’d have to program the lander manually for the proposed intercept. The programming won’t be as precise as if Mother did it, but someone who knew what they were doing could… hey!”

Having abandoned his seat, Tennessee was already heading for the exit. As he looked back, he grinned and blew his wife a kiss. “I’m on it, darlin!”

Shifting his attention to Jacob, he didn’t send a similar gesture of affection the captain’s way. “Meanwhile, tell the queen circuit bitch to keep out of my way!”

“Wait, Tennessee!” Jacob gestured toward the big man, but the pilot had already vanished through the exit. “Damn fool!” he muttered.

“If anybody can pull this off, it’s Tennessee,” his wife insisted. Her voice fell. “Only problem is, if he’s on board the lander and Mother suddenly decides to comply with your order and send it out—”

“Tell her not to,” Daniels instructed her husband sharply. “Tell her to ignore everything except ongoing maintenance of normal ship functions. Tell her to… no, cancel that. Don’t talk to her at all. Ignore her.”

With nothing more to say, they waited. To the great relief of everyone on the bridge, Mother didn’t volunteer any information or suggestions of her own and, sooner than expected, Tennessee’s voice sounded over the speakers.

“I’m in place,” he said. “Shutting down intership linkages. Lander is ready for launch—Mother was right about that.”

Faris leaned in the direction of an omnipickup. “Ten, if you cut all the linkages we won’t be able to hear you. Ten?”

No response.

There was nothing they could do but wait. Wait and monitor the accelerating cargo shuttle. Wait and hope that Mother didn’t abruptly decide that the danger the unscheduled craft presented outweighed any commands to protect company property and somehow sent the now disengaged lander on an intercept course. With Tennessee on board.

Time seemed to move with agonizing slowness, and it had nothing to do with Einsteinian concepts. Murmurs arose as they discussed the situation. Lopé considered alerting the rest of the security team, but saw no point in alarming them unnecessarily. There wasn’t a damn thing they could do to help, and someone might panic. In a panic, people inevitably ended up hurting themselves.

Moving to his right, Jacob eyed one of the numerous readouts that were hovering above the command console. It showed a tiny schematic representing the oncoming cargo shuttle. He could have chosen to find a port and looked outside, but there was no point in that. Once the oncoming shuttlecraft was near enough to see with the naked eye, they would not even have time left to scream.

At regular intervals Faris tried making contact with her husband. The result was always the same—no response. After a while she looked back and over at Daniels.

“Tennessee’s been known to do some stupid things. You don’t… you don’t think he’d be stupid enough to take the lander out on manual control… do you?”

“No.” In her mind, however, Daniels couldn’t escape the image of Tennessee howling with defiance as he personally piloted the lander straight into the rogue cargo shuttle. “No, Tennessee wouldn’t do that. Besides,” she added encouragingly, “you know him. If that was his intention, he wouldn’t hold back from telling us what he was going to do. He’d shout it out.”

“Yeah. Yes, that’s right.” Faris sounded relieved. “The idiot would wear his idiocy like a badge. He’s going to program it. Just program it.”

Daniels smiled and nodded. “I’m sure of it.”

But to herself she thought, I wish he’d find a way to call in.

“He’d better know what he’s doing,” Jacob muttered. “We’ve got one shot at this working. If the programming is off, the engine sequence, anything, and the lander misses the intercept, then we’re screwed.”

When the time came, Faris made the announcement as professionally as she could.

“Lander’s away.”

All eyes turned to the main heads-up projection floating above and to her right. The graphics were straightforward enough. There was the oncoming cargo craft, far off but drawing ever nearer the larger image that represented the Covenant. Moving away from the colony ship and toward the shuttle was an equally small image that could only be the lander.

Still no communication from Tennessee.

Where the hell are you, you big ugly chunk of piloting skill? Daniels thought angrily to herself, followed by a thought that left her feeling guilty. Where the hell are we going to get another pilot on short notice?

“It’s away.” The voice came over the comm, and it was all they could do not to hug one another.

A short time later a familiar large figure came through the door. He was panting hard and sweating profusely, but his face was suffused with excitement. Exhibiting enormous self-control, Faris remained at her station. Daniels doubted she could have done the same thing.

“Done!” He scarcely acknowledged Jacob’s congratulatory slap on the back as he strode past the captain to resume his seat at the command console. “Took some fancy reprogramming, but it should work.”

“If it doesn’t,” Jacob told him quietly, “I’ll find you in the afterlife and beat the crap out of you myself.”

Tennessee shook his head as he worked at his controls. “No such luck, Cap. We’d end up in different places.” He glanced over at his wife. “How’s it lookin’, darlin’?”

Having gratefully accepted that she wasn’t going to settle on Origae-6 as a widow, Faris was intent on the instrumentation before her.

“Close,” she murmured. “It’s going to be very close.”

“Even if the lander just nicks them, it could be enough to throw them off course.” Jacob studied the readouts intently. It would all be over soon—one way or the other. “One advantage to the speed they’re moving. They’re acting like a bullet now—there’s no way they can shift course.”

With nothing more that could be done, they watched in silence. If the Lander failed to intersect the cargo craft’s trajectory, they’d only have seconds in which to react to whatever part of the Covenant it struck. If it hit near the bridge, they wouldn’t even have that. Edging closer to her husband, Daniels slipped an arm around his waist and squeezed tightly. Belying the seriousness of the moment, Jacob offered an affectionate smile in return.

Out in space and entirely too close to the Covenant, there was an intense flash of light. It faded very quickly. Both the oncoming cargo shuttle and the outgoing lander were traveling at speeds sufficient to ensure that each was largely vaporized by their head-on collision. The resultant debris field was sufficiently small and scattered to pose no threat to the orbiting colony ship.

Suddenly they felt the slight shudder of an impact, vibrating up through the ship. Tennessee’s hands danced over the controls as he investigated. One chunk of metal that did escape vaporization proved large enough and fast enough to violate hull integrity in the vicinity of supply hold number eight. Emergency doors in the immediate area slammed shut to seal it off from the rest of the ship. Upon inquiry, Mother avowed that the breach wasn’t significant, and could be repaired in a couple of days.

Leaning back in his seat Tennessee pushed back his ever-present cowboy hat, put his hands behind his head, and exhaled long and deep. Next to him Faris let out a nervous laugh. Similar expressions of relief were expressed by everyone else on the bridge. Only Jacob didn’t relax, raising his voice slightly.

“Stay on alert, Mother,” he said. “Maintain high awareness level until we cross the orbit of Saturn.”

“I will keep watch, Captain,” the AI replied calmly. “Rest assured.”

Working intently at his station, Ricks looked over at the others. “They finally responded to our queries. Right before impact.”

Daniels and the others turned their attention to the Communications officer.

“Were you able to save anything?” Jacob asked him. “What did they say?”

Ricks checked his instrumentation one more time. His expression was one of bafflement. “It’s just nonsense. ‘Oh-tee-bee-dee.’” He eyed his colleagues. “That make sense to anyone?”

Tennessee shook his head. Faris shrugged. As mutual incomprehension passed they returned to their duties, thankful to be alive.

Knowing full well the meaning of the final communication from the suicidal crew of the cargo shuttle, Lopé left to check on his team. He saw no reason to explain the acronym to his shipmates. The ravings of fanatics could be left, should the occasion arise, for another time.