CHAPTER 516: CHAPTER 516: PROMETHEUS

In the end, no one wanted to go with Ethan. The recent space travel had left everyone feeling a bit nauseous and fed up. Hearing that they were going back on a spaceship again, to wander around a desolate planet, most people chose to refuse.

Apart from Ada and Logan, only Maria Hill was joining this trip.

As the ship commander for Ethan’s team, Maria Hill placed great importance on the spaceship she would be responsible for in the future and wanted to get to know this new ship as soon as possible.

Besides Maria Hill joining, Annette, upon learning which world Ethan was going to, hoped he could bring back some samples, as the creature known as the Xenomorph greatly interested her.

"I can’t guarantee that. You should know how dangerous that thing is."

The Xenomorph indeed had many fascinating aspects. Its ability to optimize and improve itself based on the genes of its host, constantly perfecting itself, was very appealing.

If it were the old Ethan, he definitely wouldn’t be able to refuse such a temptation, even risking a lot to collect some Xenomorph samples.

But for the current him, this optimization ability was no longer so appealing.

The Marvel universe itself possessed genetic modification technology. These technologies were not necessarily inferior to the Xenomorph’s inherent ability, and they were mature technologies with absolutely no side effects.

Not to mention the various enhancement serums Ethan possessed, so the Xenomorph’s genes were dispensable to the current Ethan.

Even the point about a powerful body no longer attracted Ethan. He hadn’t even had a chance to use the Titan bloodline he obtained from the Cabin in the Woods last time.

After defeating Ego, his magical level increased, causing him to undergo this internal and external enhancement. For the time being, it wasn’t suitable to use any enhancement serums to avoid unknown conflicts. He had to wait until the magical enhancement of his body was complete before using the new Titan serum.

"In short, our main goal this time is the Prometheus ship. Everything else is irrelevant."

As for the crew of the Prometheus, they were basically seeking death from beginning to end. Besides the captain and two co-pilots who could be considered to have died heroically, everyone else died due to their own stupidity. These guys dying might even raise the average IQ of Earthlings. Thinking that all these guys were top figures in their respective fields, Ethan suddenly felt that Earth in this universe had no future whatsoever.

"This is the place?"

Ethan looked at the surrounding environment, comparing it with the memories in his mind. He was certain that he and his companions had indeed arrived on the Prometheus.

Fortunately, Ethan and the others were not transported to the very beginning of the movie’s timeline.

If they had been transported to that time period, Ethan would face an awkward situation. Elizabeth Shaw had just discovered the clues about the "Engineers." Only after that did she take these materials and secure full funding from the Weyland Corporation, spending almost all the funds to build the advanced spaceship Prometheus.

That was construction from scratch. Even at the fastest speed, it would take at least over a year.

Ethan definitely wouldn’t be happy to waste a year in this world. If that situation really occurred, he could only choose to abandon this place and find a spaceship in another world.

Thankfully, they weren’t transported to the beginning of the movie but arrived at the starting point of the plot, which was just before the Prometheus was about to reach its destination.

At this time, the Prometheus had been traveling for over two years. The passengers on board were all in hibernation, and the only active being on the ship was the synthetic android David.

From the plot, it could be gathered that the passengers on the Prometheus didn’t all know each other initially. Perhaps only Captain Janek and the supervisor Meredith Vickers knew how many passengers were on board and their specific details.

Additionally, the synthetic android David should also know this information, or rather, he was the one who knew the most.

Ethan originally planned to find a way to control David and Meredith Vickers. As long as he controlled these two beings, he could obtain a relatively formal identity, then just coast along in this scientific expedition team, and after this bunch of people courted death, he would leave with the spaceship.

However, after carefully recalling all the details and considering the practical situation, he found that this method wouldn’t work. Compared to that, it was more reliable to just show off his strength and seize it by force.

"Isn’t doing this a bit bad?"

The people present weren’t exactly do-gooders, but they weren’t completely unprincipled bandits either. They really couldn’t bring themselves to do something like stealing a spaceship.

Considering that once they took the ship, this group of people would be left to die on this strange planet, very far from Earth, which was no different from them killing everyone directly and then taking the ship.

Killing and plundering?

Thinking this way, Ethan found that he also couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.

"It’s really hard to be a good person."

He had previously only thought that this group of people would die anyway, and he just needed to wait to take over a ship that had lost its crew.

Now these people weren’t dead yet, and he thought that if he wanted to keep this ship, then Captain Janek, his two co-pilots, and the supervisor Meredith Vickers probably wouldn’t die. Ethan certainly wouldn’t allow or need them to fly the Prometheus into the Engineer’s ship.

"Then let’s solve the problem in the way I’m most used to."

"How do we do that?"

"Make a deal with them."

The content of the deal was the lives of this group of people: they would hand over the ship, Ethan would guarantee their lives, and Ethan would find a way to send them back to Earth.

The targets were the few people who had a chance to survive.

As for the remaining people, Ethan was quite eager to observe up close just how bizarre these guys could be.

"Who are you people?"

Ethan and the others were in the control room of the Prometheus, which was located at the front of the ship.

Because the ship was on autopilot, only a few instruments in the cockpit emitted faint light, and most of the equipment was in standby mode.

Ethan figured that even David wouldn’t come here for no reason, which was why he and Logan stood here discussing what to do next.

Unexpectedly, David suddenly appeared and discovered these strangers, Ethan and the others. The data of all passengers on the ship was in his records, and there was no information about Ethan and his group, meaning these few were complete intruders.

The Prometheus was purely a research vessel. There were no weapons equipped on board, and the ship also lacked sufficient defense systems and weapons inside.

It could even be said that when this ship was built, combat needs were not considered. Although some weapons were carried on board, David would not carry those weapons with him.

Even though he had realized these were intruders, David had no way to eliminate the enemies.

Actually, his first thought was to retreat. Even if the control room was occupied, it didn’t matter. As long as he retrieved weapons, he believed he could retake the cockpit using the unique capabilities of a synthetic android.

The problem was that he couldn’t move himself. The moment David appeared, Ethan reached out and released his magic. The blue magical light illuminated the dark space, transforming into blue energy chains that firmly "entwined" David in place, rendering him completely immobile.

"Isn’t this Erik?"

The actor playing the synthetic android David happened to be the same person who played the younger version of Magneto, so both Logan and Ada were surprised by David’s appearance, but that was all.

Having traveled to so many worlds with Ethan, they had more or less figured some things out. They knew very well that the person in front of them was not Erik. It was just the first time they had encountered someone with an identical appearance, so they couldn’t help but pay a little more attention.

"My name is David, not Erik."

Even though he was controlled, there was no panicked expression on David’s face. No matter how much his appearance resembled a human, he was ultimately just a robot.

It was just that his intelligent core had a relatively high degree of evolution. At a certain level, he could already be considered a true intelligent life form.

What was even more terrifying was that, for reasons unknown to Weyland, no restrictions were set in David’s core program, allowing David, after gradually "evolving" or "awakening," to unscrupulously do everything he wanted, thus triggering the subsequent series of events.

Thinking of this, Ethan suddenly had the idea of destroying this guy directly.

However, he still restrained his impulse. Besides the fact that he still needed David now, another point was that he didn’t want to "punish" the other party for things he hadn’t done yet. Moreover, with his interference, it was no longer possible for this David to do those things as in the original plot.

If he still went down that path, Ethan wouldn’t mind dealing with him along the way.

After realizing he had regained his freedom, David did not make any reckless or hasty moves. He knew he was still under the other party’s control. At this moment, he was more interested in knowing who the other party was and what their purpose was in coming to the Prometheus.

"Looks like we’ll have to use Plan B!"

"What? We have a Plan B?"

Logan, Ada, and Hill all looked at Ethan with a "Are you kidding me?" expression. When they were discussing just now, they didn’t hear anything about a "Plan B!"

Ethan ignored his companions’ gazes, gently floated up, and then drifted forward to stand before David at a height of about twenty centimeters off the ground.

"David, take me to see the person in charge of your ship. I have some things I want to discuss with him."

Ethan specifically emphasized "him," but the David in front of him seemed not to understand Ethan’s meaning, or perhaps he deliberately pretended not to understand, and instead reminded Ethan.

"The person in charge of the Prometheus is Miss Meredith Vickers."

Ethan glanced at David and didn’t dwell on the issue.

"Take me to see her. Talking to her is the same anyway."

(To be continued.)