Samus dropped limply into the pilot's seat and tore off her helmet. "Now where do we go?" she asked bitterly.
"We return to Headquarters," Adam said.
"And then what? They aren't going to forgive this." Samus gestured angrily at the viewport. Onscreen, the last remnants of SR388 flickered and went out, caught in a blooming vaporization field.
"If we do not return promptly, they may also correctly conclude that you have stolen this ship. It is not yours to keep," Adam said.
Samus closed her eyes and pressed the back of her head into the seat cushion. "Adam, they'll consider you my accomplice in destroying the station and the X parasite. If we return, you'll be decommissioned. Or wiped. Or whatever it is they do to computers," she said. Her voice was unusually tight.
"Disappointing," Adam said, "I am prepared to accept the consequences of my actions, as you should be.
"None of them saw what we saw!" Samus said.
"Then we have an obligation to report what we have seen," said Adam.
Samus exhaled sharply, but said nothing.
"Do not worry," Adam said, "One of them will understand. One of them must."