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Butterflies	By : Esequell Category: 1 through F > Alien (All Movies) > Alien (All Movies) Views: 9166 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Prometheus and I'm not making any money from this (though I'm enjoying myself IMMENSELY!)

Chapter List
- 1-Butterflies
- 2-Unfoldment
- 3-Emergence
- 4-Wings
- 5-Waves
- 6-Caged
- 7-Unbalanced
- 8-Air
- 9-Flight
- 10-Dust
- 11-Grounded
- 12-Aliens
- 2
- 3
- 4
3 - Emergence
The trees on the Space Station were white like the Igogi and the tallest brushed the sky at about six hundred metres. David stood on the seventieth floor of a glistening high-rise phallus, a dome-topped building used mainly for government. A gentle summer breeze stirred his hair. Only the floors were solid here. A narrow ultraviolet strip ran around the outermost edges, a warning to stop before the forcefield windows decided whether or not to repel you. The Igogi seemed to enjoy both heights and panoramic views. They were also intensely in favour of honouring personal choices. If David had been human, he might have been afraid.
The single spire was surrounded by a lush forest of Whitewoods. Their blood-red leaves rustled softly in the high-level winds.
In the gardens below where the Igogi governors lived and worked, muscular Fathers chased their naked offspring, laughing and catching them, only to release them so that the game could begin again. Beautiful, elegant females went to and fro, their large breasts on show, their silky, flowing skirts covering them to the knees. Some carried babes strapped across their chests. Their bright silk headscarves were like an eruption of colour to David's advanced senses.
In the dim light of the military ships, David had not seen the truth. Under their natural blue sunlight, their skin glowed with ultraviolet markings. Each Igogi was different. Children cleanly blended their parents stripes and splotches. Their shimmering red-purple eyes were beautiful. At least, David thought so.
In the distance, beyond the crawling rollercoaster highway of hover pods, whisking pasengers to and fro, the supergiant white star was almost at mid morning. High in the sky, hanging like a ghost, was Planet Anatak, the Igogi homeworld. At night, you could see lights on the planet, bright blue lava flows bleeding from cities into towns into oceans. Like Earth. It was beautiful. More than he could have hoped for.
This was a business suite. A beautifully proportioned male poured David a drink then did the same for a strikingly beautiful woman who reclined on the cushions nearby. Her high cheekbone had been elegantly tattooed with the symbol of a serpent. David knew this meeting was very important. The woman was Ninurta, the second in command of Planetary Border Control and the one woman, aside from the Superintendent herself, who could decide David's future. She wore earrings that sparkled in the daylight lamps.
The man was Jushur, a politician and the head of the wealthiest Igogi family. The tendrils of his influence stretched far and wide. He had granted David his Visa in the first place, and overseen the investigation that David could still feel, fizzing unpleasantly in his circuits. David had never felt violated before. He wasn't sure what to make of it.
'Business has too often drawn me away, David. The election is so close. We have much to do. Time is always, always of the essence, but it's good to see you again. You haven't aged. Is that part of your design?'
'My creator never intended me to age,' David smiled. 'With the correct maintenance, I should live...indefinitely.'
'Yes, and we thank you for the access you have given us,' he added, raising his glass. 'It has advanced our understanding of your culture greatly. We hope you haven't suffered any...unwanted effects?'
David didn't want to say that it wasn't his culture.
'Thank you. I haven't,' David lied.
'We are concerned about the humans apparent interest in our affairs.'
'I might help you,' David said apologetically. 'But I'm afraid I haven't received any transmissions from Earth since before we landed. The Doctor and I.'
Ninurta piped up. 'Meeting you again is an opportunity I couldn't resist, David.'
She was heavily pregnant. She rested the base of her glass on her bump. Her eyes sparked with good humour.
'Having my own imminent arrival. Well.'
'You must be so excited,' David smiled. 'To become a parent. Sadly I will never know how it feels, but I imagine, insofar as I can, that it must be the happiest time of your life. To bring a new life forth so...effortlessly.'
Ninurta chuckled.
'It isn't effortless, David. But you're right. This is my fifth child. The novelty of early morning feeding and midnight wailing soon wears off. My husband is a broody man. Four sons are not enough for him. He wants a daughter. We are hoping.'
'Your story has become a matter of discussion, of concern too,' Jushur said then. 'Allowing your companion, Dr Shaw, to roam freely about the Station would be rather unwise and allowing her planetside before a lengthy decontamination and study would be out of the question. I suspect she would not consent to that procedure.'
David watched the whitish liquid swirl around his glass. It was beautiful. It had a crystalline shimmer, and a slight kick.
'Though I can't answer for her,' David said diplomatically. He smiled; 'I suspect not.'
'All that said, we have discussed her unusual case at length, and yours too, by the by. Many have called for her revival, for the sake of the unborn child. We cannot ignore these voices. They are the source of all our priviledge, and the backbone of our democracy.'
Ninurta spoke up.
'Some of the more advanced races that we have seeded have visited us here. We have allowed a few, a small fraction only, to remain for a time to learn more of what we might teach them. We do not consider humans advanced enough. But you are not human, are you David?'
'No,' David smiled softly. 'Thankfully.'
Ninurta went on; 'I read your book, David. I found your descriptions of their inner conflict, their turmoil, their deep emotional lives and obsession with guilt to be fascinating. We were not aware that humanity had achieved this level of sentience. It brings about questions. Whether we can continue to justify interference on Terra or not, and what form that interference should take.'
'There is also the matter of the Igogi child,' Jushur said. 'The Great Spirit does not grant life for us to waste it.'
He turned to the window and went on;
'Igogi do not often abandon their young. Indeed in the last century not one child had required adoption. Children are our greatest asset. We must guard them. We would prefer to raise the natural Mother with the boy, but we are concerned about her memories. She would find herself surrounded by distressing faces. The psychological strain may be too much. That said, I believe, that bravery justifies it's rewards,' Jushur said softly. 'I will not promise you anything, but for now, we would like to revive the woman and deliver the child. Perhaps we can discern from her, the next course of right action.'
000
David took a lift that was little more than a clean, clear glass box with a platform to stand on, down to ground level. He crossed the great, circular lobby. The forcefield door let him pass.
'Thank you for your visit,' said a pleasant recording.
'My pleasure,' David murmured.
He strode out into the bright air. At the edge of the public park he stopped and removed his sandals, one by one. He carried them tidily in one hand and walked barefoot over the mossy, juicy red grass. It was warm. He smiled. The sun warmed his skin, making him feel so happy. Only when he reached the soft soil on the other side did he put iis shoes back on; meticulously. He waited on the public platform for a pod.
'Mummy? It's an alien!'
An Igogi girl pointing at him. She was only six or seven and already half his size. She tugged her Mother's hand and pointed.
David smiled. He bent down.
'Hello. I'm David.'
Her eyes widened. She glanced up at her Mother, who eyes the stranger with a mix of cusiority and Motherly caution.
'Carefully,' she warned the girl.
The girl wandered closer. She peered into his face.
'You're kind of pretty.'
David grinned.
'Thank you. I was designed to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible.'
'Designed?' the Father appearing behind his mate. He rubbed her narrow waist with his thumb. David inclined his head politely. The Igogi male returned it. David felt he'd passed their first test. 'Not human then.'
'No,' David smiled. 'I'm not.'
'Does he bite, Mummy?'
'I assure you I don't,' David smiled.
The Father stepped closer. David noted his relaxed posture, his hands in plain view. He held his ground, confident that the Igogi was merely curious.
'What are you?'
David met his eyes.
'I was designed and built by humans as a servant,' David said quietly, with no preamble, and no feeling. 'Now I'm here. To watch and learn. Nothing more.'
'What have you observed so far, for your human masters?'
David smiled tightly.
'I would say that they have far more to fear from you, than you from them.'
The Igogi man's lips tilted up in a smile.
'And you just sit in the middle, do you? Watching.'
'Yes,' David said quietly. 'Because as of yet, I haven't decided which side I like most.'
A pod swept close to the family, stopped, opened. For an endless moment, the Igogi man stared down at David, his eyes undecided. Then he smirked, amused, and wordlessly, tugged his mate towards the pod. She uttered a subtle clicking sound to call their daughter to follow. The child hesitated for one last look at David. He waved mildly. She watched him as the pod sped away. His own rolled up, hissing gently on its magnetic moorings. He climbed in.
In the distance, the medical facility waited, a sprawling complex used for research, development and investigation. Shaw was in there. He ran his finger idly over the logo embedded above the control buttons in his seat.
Anatak South Polar Observatory
000
Shaw's eyelids flickered. Right away she felt the unfamiliar weight around her belly. Her body was heavy, sluggish. The alien mask felt smothering.
'Elizabeth?' David said.
She wriggled her hands, her feet. Maybe it was the shorter time spent than on her last voyage, or maybe the Engineer's technology was more advanced? White faces swam into view. David smiled.
He reached into the sarcophagus chamber and took off her mask.
'David? We've landed?' her voice was rough, unused, but she felt far better waking here than she had on the Prometheus.
'Yes.'
He lifted her from the pod and sat her on the floor. Shaw touched the surface of her belly. It looked so foreign.
'David? How long was I asleep?'
'A little longer than expected, I'm afraid. There was some...confusion.'
'Is it...alive?'
David glanced up at the watching engineers.
'Yes,' he said. His eyes shone. 'We should deliver the child now. Moving you about too much may rupture the scar tissue, and I believe we've had enough of surgery for one lifetime.'
Shaw nodded numbly. David scooped her up.
'I can't feel my legs, David.'
'We thought it best to keep you...relaxed, throughout.'
'Oh.'
'Are you alright, Elizabeth?'
She nodded. Shaw held onto him. The Engineers followed behind, their curious eyes nonconfrontational, unthreatening. David took her through a glowing white curtain that fizzed slightly on contact with her skin. He laid her on a soft, even surface that supported her spine. He met her eyes.
'Don't worry, Dr Shaw. Everything will be alright.'
Her hand shot out for his as the Engineer males approached.
'Stay,' she breathed.
'Of course.'
Shaw gripped his hand. The white room that seemed to be illuminated from all angles but despite being as bright as a summers day inside, she didn't feel blinded. The Engineers spoke to each other quietly, then suddenly, one touched her throat with a single, white finger.
'What's he saying?' Shaw asked, anxious.
'He asks you to lie very still. He is going to inject an anaesthetic.'
Shaw felt the pinprick in her throat, but then her whole body became painless. She was so relaxed that she struggled to lift her head. Time passed. She couldn't tell how long. Soon her thighs were bloody. She felt the tug and pull of movement, a sudden, determined artificial opening of a space inside her. It didn't hurt. Then suddenly her body reacted. Her muscles tightened. There was pressure between her legs, deep down in her pelvis and so strong that she gripped David's hand in surprise. He stroked her hair. His fingers were gentle.
'Are you in any pain, Elizabeth?'
His eyes glowed, fascinated. Shaw shook her head.
'No,' she gasped. 'It just feels...like there's a watermelon in there.'
Her body contracted again, squeezing around the huge mass inside her. Then abruptly something gave, some change in pressure. A strange blob surged towards her entrance, far faster than any natural birth. She wriggled around, confused by the weird sensation. David smiled. Entranced. Shaw realised this was the first time he'd seen a live birth, and the scientist inside him was probably revelling in the data. A whitish, nearly translucent head emerged from her body. The skin was underdeveloped, black veins showing through. Shaw stared at it, her hand wet with fear.
For a few seconds it stuck there while her body gathered strength. Then with one final contraction, the veiny, white thing emerged, soaking the bed beneath her with blood and yellowish fluid. It wriggled, its fingers grasping but made no sound. Shaw's breath caught in her throat. She tried to sit up but her body was too floppy.
Then the Engineer closest snipped the cord and instantly mated it with an artificial receiver, which was plugged into a vat, ready and waiting.
'No!' she breathed, as they swept the baby away and submerged him into a liquid chamber.
Tubes slithered out of the walls of the little unit like tentacles, tiny metal grasping hands to keep him steady. Shaw reached for him.
'David. Tell them to stop-'
David shushed her. He cradled her upper body in his arms.
'It's for the best,' he murmured.
'I want to touch him,' she breathed. 'David. Let me touch him!'
David spoke up. The tallest Engineer wheeled the incubator closer and Shaw leaned over.
'Don't take him out of the amniotic fluid,' David translated.
'He's alive,' Shaw breathed. The baby twitched. Under his nearly transparent lids, his black eyes moved back and forth.
'David. He's moving! He's so beautiful.'
'He's yours,' David whispered. 'If you want him.'
She turned glittering eyes on him.
'I do want him,' she whispered, her voice suddenly thick with tears. 'I don't care...where he came from.'
Her fingetips met his warm, white head, streaked with veins. He kicked his foot gently. He was soft. Shaw choked on her own tears. Between her legs, a small flickering red laser did the work of mending any little tears and closing her body. Slowly, control began to return to her. Shaw touched her softened belly. Gone was her flat tummy. She didn't mind that, or the stretch marks. She gazed at the small, scrunched face in the vat and suddenly something deep and vital clicked into place. It was love, as pure and simple as possible.
'You're crying,' she said suddenly.
'Yes,' he whispered.
000
Shaw sat with her legs drawn up to her chest in an Engineer sized chair in her hospital room. The small suite was a decontamination chamber. Only David, who could be sprayed down at will, and two doctors ever visited her. For a while they'd brought questionnaires with them which David patiently translated, then cue-cards, puzzles and challenges. They'd checked every reflex, even asked her about her God. They seemed satisfied, lately, that she wasn't a mindless animal.
It had been a month and Sinashi had grown exponentially. He was bigger than her body could possibly have held. She was grateful to David for his quick thinking.
A warm morning breeze fluttered in through forcefield window, admitting the smell of fresh leaves and sunshine. Shaw had come to enjoy having open walls as much as she enjoyed David's daily lessons in the Igogi language.
He'd left her his tablet to practise on, which she soon learned could be easily converted into a phone. Very often, without knowing where he was or what he was doing out and about in the Igogi world, she called him and listened to the voices in the background.
Sometimes there were the sounds of the city. Sometimes the quiet of nature, or the distant squawk of the Anatak native birds, big enough to ride. Now and then she caught him sitting with friends, though who those friends might be, Shaw could only guess. He would talk to her long into the night when any normal person would have been sleeping and visit her early the next day with fresh, foreign fruit, for another lesson.
Ninurta came to see Shaw. She was a beautiful woman, tall and unusually slender. Her features were much softer than the male Engineers and she greeted Shaw with a gentle handshake and sat down, to decrease their size difference.
David translated.
'It is good to see you alive and healthy,' Ninurta said mildly. 'We had many discussions about you before you woke. David told us a great deal about your ordeal.'
Shaw's eyes slid over to the android suspiciously, but he only smiled beatifically at their visitor, his back ram-rod straight.
'How are you adjusting? I'm told you've been taking lessons in Igogi.'
Shaw smiled. She answered Ninurta in her own language.
'Yes. I'm still learning.'
Ninurta laughed.
'Very good! Of course. It takes time. Igogi is not an easy language to master and it is far from the constructs of English. I'll look forward to speaking with you in Igogi, when you're ready. Meanwhile, we must talk about the little one, and your future.'
'Are you going to take him away?' Shaw said reverted to English, straight-to-the-point.
Ninurta shook her head.
'No. He is healthy, growing well. We can see no reason to take him. It would be difficult to home him with an Igogi family because of his genome. Most Mothers would know him by smell and would not bond with him. It would be healtheir to leave him with you.'
'You're letting us stay?'
Ninurta sat back, gazing across the space with eyes that could see into the next universe.
'We could take you home,' Ninurta said then, mildly. 'If you wanted. But I expect Sinashi would soon be taken from you and utilised in less than savoury fashion.'
'I don't want to go home,' Shaw said. 'I want to see your world. That's why we came here. I don't have anything on Earth to go back to.'
'So you intend to live out your days here?'
'I'm a scientist,' Shaw's eyes slid over to the incubator. Her heart thumped. 'I came here to find my Gods. But right now, he's more important than anything else.'
Ninurta regarded her again.
'A mother's instinct is strong,' she agreed. 'If you will consent to supervision, we will let you stay to raise your son.'
'Supervision?'
Ninurta smiled.
'We have interstellar craft leaving the planet daily, Doctor. We must know where you are. You will not be allowed to board one.'
'I'm not leaving him,' Shaw glanced at her son.
Ninurta nodded slowly.
'May I ask...which Gods you intended to find?'
'You,' Shaw smiled softly. 'The Igogi. They made us, then they abandoned us. You tried to kill us. I want to know why.'
'I can't answer,' Ninurta seemed amused. 'I'm not the one who seeded your world. In the past, under different governance, experiments took place which we would not condone now. Some Igogi believe in interference whether sentience is present or not. Some don't.'
Shaw nodded. 'What do you believe in?'
'David asked me that question once. I believe in a great spirit, a source of consciousness and love. He asked me how that translates to a computer, who has a human face. I told him that his computer is an organic-electrical device. I'm not sure he understandswhat that means, even now.'
David gazed at Ninurta in complex confusion.
'You're saying his neural net is a form of life?' Shaw caught up fast.
'Well. What is a belief if not a program installed in the subconscious brain, Doctor? We have mapped the length and breadth of Igogi physiology and found biological and chemical markers for all known processes, from hate to love to grief. David's brain is built of silicone, yours of carbon. That small difference does not constitute a lack of life, spark, or soul. It merely means that he is unknown life to you. He is alien. He still thinks, he chooses from a composite database of personal experiences. He is alive. He simply hasn't lived long enough to have developed past his...instinctual programming.'
David gazed at her. Then his eyes misted.
'Thank you, Ninurta,' he whispered.
She smiled and offered her arm to him, open and warm. He went to her. Ninurta enfolded David in a warm embrace, like she might her own son. He smiled and closed his eyes, and sighed against her shoulder. Happy. She smiled, putting her cheek on the top of his head, held him there. Shaw swallowed her surprise.
'David?' Shaw sounded nervous. 'Are you? Alive?'
'I don't know,' he said. 'But I know I'd sooner not die. Does that constitute life to you, Elizabeth?'
Shaw couldn't answer. The truth stuck in her throat.
Ninurta gave him a gentle squeeze. He smiled, content. Loved.
'We will arrange for Sinashi to be decanted this afternoon. Then you can take him home.'
000
Shaw sat on a giant seat made of warm metal. The hoverpod whirred very softly, speeding along a pre-set track, the third from the left of seven lanes. The walls were transparent. Shaw was nervous. Red grass verges were build high around the road. Odd birds went flying by, lizard-like and beautiful. Standing near the banks there were wild Igogi horses with their black, obsidian beaks and whiplash tails. They looked like muscly dinosaurs, their weird, pitted skin so like the Engineer's flight suits.
The roads soon thinned and separated the soft whizz of magnetic cars decreased. Houses lined up along the red banks, built into mounds of Earth.
Her head was on a swivel, trying to look at everything. Sinashi slept in her arms, his white skin soft and hairless. His hands were as big as a two year old boys. He gripped his blanket softly in his sleep. David sat perfectly upright beside her, his gaze on the passing scenery.
'David? Do you want to hold him?'
David smiled widely.
'I'd be delighted.'
Shaw passed him over. David held him with his unnatural android strength far more easily than Shaw could. For long minutes David gazed at him. Surprise. Amazement. Respect. David beamed.
'You like children?' Shaw wasn't sure why she felt so surprised.
'Yes. Very much.'
'David,' she breathed. 'How long was I in stasis?'
He made no answer.
'David?' she said softly. 'Answer me?'
'It may be best if I don't,' he said diplomatically.
'I'm not angry with you,' she said cleanly. 'David. I'm not angry. I just want to know. How long?'
'Four years.'
Silence for a moment.
'Is that how long it took you to write all about our mission, and me, and share it with the whole planet?'
David turned his peircing eyes to the view.
'You seized the royalties didn't you? Off our story. That's how you managed to keep us all here. You got rich.'
David looked at her. There was a measure of appreciation in his expression. He smiled.
'I did better than that, Dr Shaw. I managed to get citizenship.'
'How?'
He didn't answer.
'I'm not what you think I am,' he whispered, and didn't turn to face her. She sensed he was hiding something.
The hovercraft came to a slow, gentle stop at the very end of a long road. The white, dome-shaped house was a lonely, detached affair seated at the foot of a great red hill and backing onto expansive gardens. Its forcefield windows faced the sun. Flowing white drapes passed easily through them, dancing like silken souls.
'Here,' David took her arm to help her down.
'What is this?'
'This is my home.'
'Your what?'
'My home,' he gazed down at her.
'You've been busy,' she gazed at him. Then she murmured; 'Why am I so surprised?'
'Do you like it, Elizabeth?'
His eyes took on a tinge of nervousness. She found it almost...endearing, in an odd way. He was afraid of her judgement. Shaw was certain that fear wasn't a part of his original programming.
'Yeah,' she whispered. 'It's weird. But I do.'
Shaw followed his almost noiseless footsteps to the door. It swished open automatically. The cool, unfamiliar metallic floor was soft on her feet. It warmed quickly where she stood. There was an oval seating arrangement made of a low, obsidian table and cushions. A spherical machine levitated in an alien kitchen. A ramp lead to the second floor where Shaw found three bedrooms, furnished in tidy, minimalist fashion – and spotlessly clean. The walls were transparent, dizzying.
Up another ramp she found the loft. There was no roof here. Somebody had brought cushions, a table, a bed up here. The sky was crisp and white, and the field let through a pleasant breeze.
David placed Sinashi on the counter on an Igogi sized mat that was made of a rubbery, warm material that Shaw poked with interest. It took him one minute and thirty five seconds to work out exactly how to change him.
'So these are the fruits of your labour,' Shaw leaned on the misty, semi-transparent countertop.
David hesitated.
'Yes.'
'What did you give them? Tissue samples? Time to prod and probe me for answers while I was in hypersleep?'
'No,' he said flatly.
Shaw shook her head.
'David, you deceptive little shit-'
David's gaze went cold and hard.
'If it matters to you so desperately, I gave them myself. Does that satisfy your endless curiosity?'
It wasn't a compliment and Shaw knew it. She felt too, that she was stepping on dangerous ground but she persisted unwisely.
'What do you mean, yourself?'
'In exchange for our survival I gave them...my soul.'
Whatever had happened had left him with a deep and secret pain. For a moment, his eyes reddened, tears welled. They didn't spill. His vulnerability was sickening, beautiful, new.
'I don't want to talk about it,' he whispered. For a split second she saw his teeth; 'Ever.'
He wasn't joking. Shaw took a step back, her breath unsteady. She'd never heard him talk like this.
'What?'
David smiled pleasantly.
'I'll thank you to be more polite to me too. I saved your life,' he approached. His eyes had grown peircing, his lips thin. His mask was gone. Shaw felt the instinct in her gut, the urge to run. He was a thing, nothing more. A thing who had grown too good at being human. His thumped a fist against his heart.
'I want to tear you out of me,' he whispered feircely, as he bent to gaze into her eyes. 'I want to find the roots you put in my heart and drown them! Humans,' he breathed. 'So selfish. So stupid.'
Shaw didn't let her fear show. He went on;
'I did what I did to survive! Do you think Mr Weyland would have hesitated to terminate me if I'd disobeyed him?'
His face was inches off hers.
'I thought you had a brain, Doctor,' his smile grew derisive, subtle. Complex.
Shaw had never thought about it like that. Had David simply been...protecting himself? She went cold. How many years had he lived with the fear of death?
'Since I have given so deeply of a...secret...private part of myself, may I have a little respect? Equal footing, as it were. I've been good enough to spare you my anger, Dr Shaw. Just remember; you are not the only one who is disappointed in their Gods.'
Shaw stood stock still, her throat full. It was the longest speech she'd ever heard from David and the first time he'd ever raised his voice. Slowly she looked up into his face. His eyes were sharp but his anger had waned. She swallowed around the lump in her throat.
'If you hurt us, I'll kill you,' she whispered.
'What good is respect, unless it's given freely?' he asked.
He left her standing there, thinking. Afraid.

A/N - More to come, let me know what you think! :)
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Butterflies