Once again Samus Aran had cheated death, escaped it by mere inches. As her ship sped away from the planet below, Tallon IV, she knew that, like all of her other missions, she would never forget this one. As she slowed the ship down, Samus relaxed in her chair and ran a diagnostics check on her suit. Sure, it would accomadate various upgrades if they proved safe, but the whole business of being stripped of upgrades, such as the experience she had had in the Pirate Frigate before landing on the planet, seemed to be dangerous. The suit gave an all-clear, however, with only the Phazon modifications missing from the design. Samus vaguely wondered what would happen with the Metroid Prime now. She had left in a hurry, and hadn't taken care to ensure it was really gone for good. Just as she was considering the option of going back down to check on things, however, her communications device beeped. Thumbing the button on the console in front of her, she saw a man's face appear on the screen in front of her. He looked vaguely familiar, and wore a broad grin.

"Samus Aran... I'm glad I could reach you. I'm Fleet Admiral Correlon, in case you've forgotten," the man spoke, in a deep, booming voice. Samus had to think for a moment before the name registered.

"Oh... yes," she smiled faintly. Any news from Correlon was often not pleasant, but he seemed downright jovial about something.

"Miss Aran, I think you'll be very, very pleased indeed to hear the news I have for you," the Admiral said.

"By all means then..."

"Well, as you know, the Space Pirate threat has grown to be a major problem for the Federation." Yeah, Samus thought, I'm pretty sure I'm well aware of that. "We, that is to say, my science team here at the Federation outpost near Zebes, have developed something you should find highly pleasing. If you'd just come on by, we can show it to-"

"Sir, I have just been through, yet again, an exhausting ordeal. This will have to wait..."

"No! No! It can't wait, you see? It must happen quickly, before more problems arise."

"What are you talking about, sir?!" Samus was growing impatient, she wished that the Admiral would be slightly less cryptic about things, seeing as this link was already encrypted.

"Can't talk about it on this, we have to meet in person. Too much risk of this being picked up," Correlon said, looking around nervously as if the possible interceptors were in the room with him.

"Even if you don't talk about "it", whoever may or may not pick this up knows where you are," Samus said irritably.

"Look... just come by the outpost, and we'll discuss it here," Correlon's jovial attitude had been replaced with a grumpy one at this point.

"Sure, okay, whatever." Samus jammed the button to close the link, wishing she had ignored it to begin with. She was technically a freelance bounty hunter, she didn't have to follow orders from the Federation. Whatever Admiral Correlon was so eager about, though, Samus figured she ought to go see for herself.

"Computer, you have the coordinates to that outpost, yes?"

"Affirmative," the ship replied in a brass, robotic tone.

"Jump to hyperspace, take us there," Samus ordered. As the ship swivelled in the correct direction, Samus braced herself.

The ship came back into normal space, and Samus looked out at the outpost through the front viewing "windows". It was a rather small thing, to say the least. What could possibly be so important that could fit on something that small? Samus expected a weapon or something. Then again, even if it were a weapon, size was no measure of power. Her arm cannon was proof of that, since it could do more damage than most larger weaponry.

"This is Federation Outpost 1092-H-Zebes, hailing unknown craft. Please respond immediately, or more drastic measures will be taken." The voice came from the same communication device Samus had spoken with the Admiral on, though this was voice only. Unknown craft? Don't they have the technology to detect their own ships? Then Samus realized that she was still partially cloaked, which explained it.

"This is Samus Aran, here by orders from Fleet Admiral Correlon."

"Please disengage all cloaking devices so that we may verify."

"Right," Samus thumbed the button to disable the cloak. She doubted the station had the means to take her ship in a battle anyway, if it came to that.

"Verified, you're clear for docking. A maintenance team will meet you there to inspect and, if necessary, repair your ship." Samus instructed the ship to dock with the station, and it moved to comply. After about five minutes, there was a dull clunk as the ship was secured to the station. Samus got out of her chair and went to get out, securing her helmet back on as she did so. Predictably, there were about four armed men waiting just outside the ship, with the small group of maintenance officers waiting behind them. One of the men turned and nodded to the man next to them, and they both motioned for Samus to come down. There was a small bit of gravity here on the dock, so Samus leapt away from the ship, and landed lightly in front of the men. They then turned away and began walking past the maintenance team, and Samus followed. They went through an airlock door, and waited a moment as the door shut behind them and the room pressurized. As soon as it was, the door in front opened, and the four men removed their helmets.

"Howdy, Miss Aran," the one nearest Samus said, mispronouncing her name horribly. Samus nodded and removed her own helmet, and some of the mens' faces showed shock. Samus knew they expected a he-woman of sorts, as did most who knew her reputation and also knew she was female. The ones who didn't always thought she was male. Hastening to conceal their shock, the men turned away and led the way down the hall behind them. At the end was an elevator. It was a rather tight fit, with all five of them in their suits, but they managed. At least there was none of the awkwardness of packing an elevator full of usual people. Here, the armor just touched, not skin or anything. The elevator went down, and opened to a small white room.

"Decontamination chamber," one of the men explained, in a voice mercifully free of an odd accent, unlike the other man. The group stepped into the room, and waiting as it went through it's process, then a pair of doors slid open into a wide, open, white room, where a number of people dressed in white lab coats were gathered around some sort of machine at the center of it. A number of cables as thick as Samus' body extended from the walls to the machine. The only man not in a lab coat, other than the four with Samus of course, was a very tall, very large man. He looked over his shoulder at Samus and smiled broadly.

"Samus Aran, we meet in person at last," he said loudly, his booming voice causing several of the scientists to jump. He took long strides as he approached Samus and extended his hand.

"Admiral," Samus said, returning a wan smile as she shook his hand. The Admiral looked down at her hand and smiled, if possible, more broadly.

"And the famous Chozo suit... I envy you," he said, examining the suit with hungry interest. Samus, eager to both get to the point, and to get the subject off of her suit, gestured to the machine behind Correlon.

"This is what you wanted to show me, yes?" she asked, jerking the Admiral's eyes away from the Chozo arm cannon.

"Yes, yes, this is indeed," he said, leading Samus away from the four men who had escorted her there, who excused themselves from the room at that point.

"What is it?"

"A true marvel of modern science, that's what it is. We've invested several trillion credits into this project, as well as nearly two decades of work. Mind you, I only joined when it was moved to this outpost a few years ago..."

"Why the move?"

"Well, to be closer to you, of course. It was, after all, intended for your use. At the time, you were working on Zebes, of course, but we figured your excursion to Tallon IV would be temporary, and that you'd be back, so we didn't bother to try a move out there next."

"Yeah, it's so much harder to fly here in my ship. You guys should've moved it," Samus said sarcastically, making the Admiral laugh, "but you still haven't told me what this thing is, and what it does."

"Plain and simple, it's a time machine," this comment made Samus laugh, "no, seriously. It's intended for time travel. You see, the Space Pirate's have been traced back to another race that terrorized what was formerly a human planet. I'm sure you've heard of Earth? It's a desert now, of course. Consumed of all resources and left behind.Yes, a race that called themselves the Covenant were in conflict with mankind many years ago. They eventually, over the course of many, many years, came to be modern Space Pirates. We're not sure how, since there are many differences between the two, biologically, but we're sure that they're the same, just changed."

"And why send me back? I could simply destroy the Space Pirates in this time period, probably with less hassle, and less..." Samus regarded the machine apprehensively, "... risks."

"Well, the thing about the Covenant is, we nearly destroyed them. Unlike the Space Pirates, we pretty much knew where all of them were, they weren't spread throughout the universe. If you go back, you'll certainly be more powerful than anyone that they had at the time. You'll want to meet up with a man there, who seems to have been the Samus Aran of the time. He was called the Master Chief, and according to our records, he was the main destructive force behind the war with the Covenant. I can't see why, he was part of a project called the Spartan-II project, along with quite a few other people. All of the others, as far as we know, died. We can only guess how he survived where the others couldn't."

"So kind of like if there were twenty others just like me, and they all die in the same kind of combat as I've been through, yet I survive?"

"Yeah, sorta..."

"So when am I supposed to go on this little venture?"

"As soon as we get this up and running. There's about a twelve hour charge time..."

"Oh, good, enough time to pack and grab a bite to eat," Samus said. The Admiral laughed at this.

"Yes, I'm sure. You won't need anything other than yourself and that remarkable suit, but eating wouldn't be a bad idea after what you've been through."

"Myself and my remarkable suit? I don't get any credit, it's always the suit," Samus said, in mock anger. Again, the Admiral laughed.

"Well, get a bite to eat, get some rest, and I'll see you in about thirteen hours. Last minute diagnostics and such, you know..."