Testament of Dr Elizabeth Shaw

Dr Elizabeth Shaw returned 25 years after her last log entry on the Prometheus expedition, the vessel she was piloting was taken into custody, it is of unknown origin (not matching reports of LV artifacts or any other sightings).



DNA confirms: It is Dr Elizabeth Shaw but also that there are additional elements that are extra-sapiens, which was also reflected in her physical appearance and observed capabilities.

Having seized control most of the station the Shaw entity negotiated the return and ‘refueling’ of her vessel with Home Office. After her departure it was found 7 crew members of the facility were unaccounted for out of the remaining 17 alive and 9 dead (incurred during Shaw’s take over). This testimony was in response to the drone survey of the artifact & derelict on LV 426, shown to her on orders of Home Office. Please note this is for Grade 1 Eyes Only and is encoded accordingly, transmission using Weyland Yutani contractor channels -per station contract- but they are not provided with encryption key, this is Security Council Eyes Only.

Testament of Dr Elizabeth Shaw

(Uncorrected transcript)

God is dead.

The Engineers we called them, they made us. But what we saw, on LV 223… it is pantomime, they imitate their…it is wrong to say God, the Others are what is wrong… God for us is always a thing that made us with purpose, with interest with love. The Others are beyond that… they… torture God. They, the Engineers imitate the Others, their technology is a… a pastiche of forgery! Their ships, their appearance, what you found on LV 426 is not, I repeat, is NOT what we found on the Prometheus mission. We found the Engineers and their tributes, their slavishly copied imitation of their beloved ones, what is on LV 426 is the original, is what the Engineers copied in devotion, it is a dimly dead voyager [?]. It is not one of them, but part of the Others world, the Others made the Engineers, and so much else. The pilot, it is not as such, it is part of the ship, a specialised organ that grows as the ship grows, it is one organism. It grows and changes to function, this is a vessel of terrible purpose, invasion, conquest colonisation, but it carries worse than death. How we think of those words, invasion, colonisation, weapon is not what it does, it is so beyond that, and … this is terrible.

[Break]

I found the Engineer’s home, the cradle of their civilization, their paradise, they changed me. David became a toy of theirs… and mine, he chose to die after a point. I could not follow him. The thing in the ship [LV 426] creature, it’s a.. a… culture, it births, and will grow and evolve, the first instance, the first generation is supremely hostile, in order to establish dominance and a safe environment for the subsequent generation’s iterations, evolution. We, we serve as nutrition, used in gestation and as, …part of the culture. We serve… needs. Other hungers. Mortality is denied, there are fates worse than death.

The Engineers fear them totally, they do whatever they think will satisfy the Others, they failed, they made us, they are gone now. Yes all …. gone.

I escaped, the culture spread on their home world, the Others chose to do that. If you touch that ship you have found, you risk not only the culture but the Others taking an interest, and you will see, you will see that running and hiding is a good thing, it is the best thing to do.

They will know when the organisms reproduce, if they look for us, they will find us and there is nothing, there is nothing to be done. The Engineers, millennia more advanced than us, had no defence, genocide is not the worst thing that can happen to a species. Do not approach that ship, that is what the Engineers say, and they are right. Nothing can deal with it, leave it alone.

The fear is they may be everywhere, cultures ready to grow and then… they come. What that ship is… it is nothing, is nothing, it’s just one of their things, one of their plans, toys, whims. The Engineers can’t help us, they had decided to end us anyway, before their end. That would have been kinder, than what comes from …Them. It will be our end, but their entertainment. God is dead…and his devils, and what is out there, we cannot comprehend, except, to know it is better never to know.

[Pause] And I know this is useless because curiosity will drive us on. I should have lied, but nothing I can think of would stop it. But just this, I told you this because that is the deal, I tell you, you let me go, because I am running, far away. When it starts I will be gone, I won’t have to see. Because only the lucky ones will get to die. My family will live for a long time now because of how they changed me. But I will be gone thankfully before…

The first generation, you’ll think that’s the worst, it isn’t, they don’t let you die, it’s exhilarating, you become part of it, to be a slave or something much worse something you can no longer recognise as yourself, every bit of you, is theirs, it’s just a dead ship, leave it alone.

The Engineers like a bad copy, they had a catalyst, we grew from that. And there are others, but always under Their eye, how does it feel to know our creators wanted us dead and they were nothing more than arrogant children anyway? We don’t even figure in the first rank of creation, we’re bastard copies made by bastard copies imitating things they couldn’t understand. It’s better not to know.

I’m going and you should run like hell, because you’ll go, you’ll go to LV 426, you’ll pick through the remains, and life will begin.

[End of Transcript]

Note: After this transmission the station was closed to commercial use and is in Security Council quarantine. Duration: Indeterminate.

Weyand Yutani have been compensated for the loss of facility and have rerouted all commercial traffic.

