Minerva hadn't been human for many years, there were many parts of being human which she could say she could miss, yet could still experience as a synthetic. Feelings, though in her mind felt true and real, she was under no illusion that they were mere programming. She was reacting to a moment and supplying the correct feeling and emotion for the scenario. But one thing for certain she could admit to not missing was being sick. If she still was human and was capable of gagging and subsequently feeling and wanting to be sick too, it would've happened now as people woke up.

Upon Meredith waking, she had sounded indifferent that everyone had survived the journey, and that David should wake them. She had glanced at Minerva simply and just rolled her eyes, turning her back and proceeding to walk to her room. Minerva could only surmise she was off for a relaxing shower, and to change her clothes before addressing everyone. Whether everyone would be fully with it to listen to Meredith was another thing, yet Minerva never mentioned this.

David had patted her arm gently, even going as far as sliding his hand down her forearm to her hand. His fingers brushed against hers before looking at her with a small smile. Meredith waking, and everyone else waking, had very little impact to David. He'd still show small signs of affection towards her, whether people were around or not. David had discovered another feeling that he only felt towards Minerva and he didn't intend to stop; it wasn't just affection, but he believed that this feeling was love.

And David could easily process, and quickly internally research that when in love people tended to show it. He didn't care really if someone spied him sending affection Minerva's way. But he felt her fingers gently link onto his as he led her out of the room.

Waking everyone up wasn't exactly a hard thing, though the hard thing for Minerva was to watch as them all, or at least most of them, gagged and retched. She knew, deep down, that if she was still human she'd be standing there trying not to gag too. Admittedly, she had joked to David before all of this about not helping when everyone awoke. But really, how much use were each of these people to the other beside them? They weren't, that was the answer, they weren't. Bleary eyed, confused, sweaty and disorientated before the stomach contractions kicked in and that had them rolling or shooting up and clutching at the bowls provided by either David or herself. They couldn't help it, Minerva knew that, but it was all very disgusting. She didn't miss sickness, or the action of being sick. She just adverted her eyes and scrunched her nose up. Synthetically heightened senses were a curse right now, especially when it came to smell.

Eventually though, everyone seemed to come to their senses, and stop throwing up, long enough to shamble to their rooms. Much like Meredith, they all intended to shower and change before reconvening. That left David and Minerva standing around, she looked up at him as he looked slowly downwards at her. "What now?" She asked him while they moved from the room and towards the bridge.

David seemed to be more clued in as to where they were all going to reappear, or at least she thought so until he tinkered about on the computer system before turning and leaving the room again. Minerva threw her hands up and pottered after him. David tucked his hands behind his back and smiled at her. Minerva raised an eyebrow, she hadn't seen him suddenly so smiley. It wasn't a bad thing, she liked his smile, it was somewhat contagious at times, but there was sometimes a double meaning to it. Not every smile David did was a happy one. This one right now was more...stiff. Like a forced one for the sake of being polite. Having to look approachable was important, after all the crew needed to feel like they could talk to him if they needed to.

"David!" She whined and looked at him desperately. It was like he knew something she didn't, again. And she really didn't like it, not one bit, again. Seems they had made up, and then some, she didn't want to fall out again.

He walked through the kitchen with her in tow, before leaving that room and going to sit on the stool where he did most of his lessons. He watched Minerva as she came and sat beside him. "Now we wait."

She thought that was a cop out answer as she frowned at him. "That's stupid."

David smiled innocently, "We need a Captain, to fly the ship."

"You could do that."

David's eyes narrowed, yet his smile remained as he stared at her. "Yes, I could. But we need them, well, for pretence sake we need the crew." David said while leaning against the table, he placed his chin against his palm and sighed heavily, he even seemed to pout with a bored expression before sliding his eyes sidelong at her. "Face it, Minnie. Humans didn't really need to go on this mission. They've done unmanned missions for years, decades even. They could've sent androids or synthetics to do this for them. They need to feel needed. So we wait, because if we do everything for them, they'll get annoyed." David said while blinking and clicking his tongue suddenly. "I suppose also, because of what it is, that sending an android or synthetic to do their job would not be sufficient."

"They want to find their Gods." Minerva said while spinning slowly on the stool. "Only where there are Gods, there are also monsters. The two go hand in hand."

David leaned away from his palm and reached out with one hand and stopped her spinning by putting a hand to her shoulder. "Your father recorded a message," he said suddenly, he watched as her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly in shock. She shouldn't be so taken back, David wasn't. Weyland liked the sound of his own voice, and if there was a reason to speak and project his thoughts and opinions, then he would take the opportunity. "That's what we're mainly waiting for. We need everyone to listen to it, because it's a briefing of what the general plan is here."

"When will he wake?"

David frowned, "When and if we find something." He said slowly and thoughtfully. Minerva looked downwards at her lap and nodded. David knew she missed him. Of course she did, Weyland was all Minerva knew, regardless of supplied companions now and again; Weyland was her father, and the one stable character always in her life. Honestly, David didn't know what she'd be like when the old man died. He'd be there to cross that bridge with her when it arose. He had a feeling Minerva is the type who didn't deal well with death. Even if she faced her own as a human with a firm resolution.

"Monsters." Minerva flicked her eyes up and looked at him.

"God."

"No...anything that created something as volatile as the human race isn't a God." Minerva said with a frown as she turned and looked up. She heard people filling the kitchen. "We best go," she slid from the stool and looked at him. "In case they need assistance."

"I'm the onboard attendant. Not you." David said while following after her.

Minerva smiled over her shoulder. "Okay, glorified air hostesses, that's your role. I don't plan on taking it from you." David just frowned down at her and looked annoyed. "Would you like some water? How about some peanuts? A pillow?"

"Shut up." David said shortly while quickening his pace and moving past her. He listened to Minerva laughing behind him as she jogged after him.

"Sorry, David." She knew he couldn't take jokes at his expense, it always caused him to lash out, or turn nasty. She placed a hand on his arm, "I am sorry. You know I don't see you like that, right?"

David turned and looked at her. "How do you see me?" He asked, he knew how he saw her. He had seen her as his better half for a while.

Minerva opened her mouth to answer, only to be cut off by the sound of a familiar voice. David's head slowly turned as he looked down at the man standing to the side of them, his blue eyes darkened along with his expression. Emun Chance. The dark haired pilot stood there looking at Minerva, though he did glance at David. "Emun," Minerva smiled.

David felt himself tensing as he frowned at the pilot. Did he miss something? When did such a friendly tone appear? He tilted his head and looked bitterly away from Chance and Minerva and moved into the room, he continued on to go prepare a room for the meeting. After all, the onboard assistant had other things to do, he couldn't just stand around and chat, not that anyone wanted to talk to him.

"How are you feeling?"

Minerva looked over Chance's shoulder and watched David basically stalk off, "Hm? Me? Oh...I'm okay, how are you?" Minerva asked while walking into the kitchen.

"I'm okay, that was a bit rough though." He laughed nervously while rubbing the back of his neck. "You look well though. I mean, you don't look how I feel." He corrected in a rush. He didn't mean to say or speculate that she looked rough with the awakening from hypersleep.

"I am okay," she said again with a shrug. She sat down at a table with him. He passed her some food which he quickly stood and collected and placed in front of them on a tray, and Minerva accepted them with a small smile. "It'll take a while for everything to feel back to normal though."

"You've been to sleep before?" Chance looked up with wide dark eyes, he seemed curious by her answer. He drunk from his glass slowly, his throat still felt very restricted from lack of use. But the cold water was doing the job of getting his voice back.

Minerva shook her head with a small smile. "No! No...just, it's what David told me." Minerva said with a small fidget in her seat, she held onto the edge and looked to the direction in which David disappeared off to. She bit the inside of her cheek, he was in a mood, again. Looking quickly back at Chance, Minerva tilted her head, "Did you dream?"

Chance sat chewing thoughtfully on his food before nodding his head, "Didn't you?" He asked in return, Minerva's eyes grew distant, she smiled and nodded her head quickly. She lied. But she didn't admit that, she excused herself and stood up and quickly walked away out the room.

She paced through the ship, ducking and peeking into any room she thought David would be, until she found him in the cargo area. He stood, tablet in hand, concentrating on something. Some of the mechanics onboard were walking organising things around him, but David didn't pay any attention to them. He was doing his own thing, he didn't care what they were doing. Minerva clenched her hands and walked over to him. He clearly sensed her even before she spoke because his eyes slid sidelong over to her. She tapped a foot on the floor when she stopped by him, David lowered the tablet and looked at her with very little emotion on his face.

Inhaling deeply, Minerva wrung her hands and looked at him with a small frown. "You...David, I...I think of you as-"

"Is everything set up and ready?" This time they both looked irritatingly towards Meredith who was walking through the large doors looking around the space. She was inspecting it with narrowed eyes, as if she'd spot something amiss and then be able to call someone out on it. She didn't know she had butted into a conversation, which had already been cut into. She didn't rightfully care, she just looked at David expectedly.

"Yes, ma'am." David replied politely with a small smile before glancing back at the tablet and following after her. Even as he walked away from her side, Minerva could hear him talking to Meredith about the details of this meeting.

She stood opening and shutting her mouth, eyes slightly sad looking as she turned and looked at him with an even sadder expression. Pouting and hanging her head she just shuffled over and sat down, some of the mechanics were already seated. She pulled her knees to her chest and leaned her face against them. She kept her arms wrapped around her legs as she looked up at the sounds of footsteps and the rest of the crew appearing.

Sniffing quietly, she straightened her legs and placed her feet back on the floor. She stayed sitting near the back with the mechanics. She didn't see a need to move really. Why should she? After all, she didn't have a proper role here did she? This message her father recorded wouldn't be directed at her at all, would it? Regardless, Minerva's eyes moved over to watch as Meredith moved away from the wall and walked to stand in front of everyone.

She looked at the small crowd in front of her before tucking her hands behind her back. "Good morning," she said, not sounding at all very pleased, or welcoming to those in front of her. But then what else was Minerva expecting? Meredith's tones were always usually so flatline. "For those of you I hired personally, it's nice to see you again. For the rest of you, I am Meredith Vickers, and it is my job to make sure you do yours." Ever to the point she stated this flatly while some didn't take too kindly to her words and shifted in their seats. Seeing as how no one had anything to say, Meredith just looked to David and nodded. "Okay then, on with the show." Meredith moved aside as David finished pressing commands into the tablet in his lap and looked up with everyone else as the hologram appeared before them.

What was grey, and dark walls and flooring of the cargo bay, slowly turned into warm yellow lighting; large windows where there were none, and white walls and flooring. There was furniture too, but that was all ignored for the sake that the attention, everyone's attention, was on the figure shuffling slowly into the foreground. More details become clearer the closer the male got. Soon, Peter Weyland stood before them, stick in hand and leaning against it heavily as he too wore light coloured clothing to match with the light around him.

Minerva found herself leaning forwards in her chair, head tilting slightly. It wasn't him, well, it was, but it wasn't physically him. Her father wasn't here, well, he was, but he wasn't in front of them all. She found her lip shaking a little, she did miss him. Talking to him wasn't enough, she wanted him in front of her, to be able to look at him, to sit beside him, listen to him and have her hand held by his. She missed the odd moments of comfort he sent her way. Regardless she shook her head and sat back, watching the hologram too.

Weyland's eyes looked around the room, as if he was actually registering them. "Hello, friends. My name is Peter Weyland, I am your employer. I am recording this, 22nd June, 2091. If you are watching it, you have reached your destination, and I am long dead. May I rest in peace." He said while shaking a little on unsteady legs, but nonetheless gestured a hand in the air and tried to sound a little comical over his last statement. Minerva's stomach dropped. "There's a man sitting with you today, his name is David. He is the closest thing to a son I will ever have, unfortunately, he is not human. He will never grow old, and he will never die. And yet, he is unable to appreciate these remarkable gifts, for that would require the one thing that David will never have; a soul." Weyland said rather instructionally while there was a bitter look from Meredith, and a sympathising one from Minerva. It did sting a little, to know that really, despite of everything, David was always going to be the favourite. "I have spent my entire lifetime contemplating the questions: where do we come from? What is our purpose? What happens when you die?"

That especially made Minerva's stomach drop even more as she swallowed thickly and felt her synthetic pulse pound in her head. What happens when you die? If your father is unable to let go, and is a genius multimillionaire with a flare and knack for robotics, he'd bring you back to life. But that wasn't what usually happens with people, Minerva knew that. And honestly, the last conscious memory she had was nothing. She could've saved this question needing to be answered, she could've done it for him. When she died, there was nothing, and then there was light. This wasn't some holy symbol or anything, this was her waking again, new body, new mind, no ageing, illness or death...and also apparently no soul. While in her musings, Minerva had tuned out of the last of her father's speech, by the time she fully paid attention, her father was gone. Dispersed back into the background of the cargo bay and Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway had stepped forwards.

——

Edited: 16/June/2021