I entered the lab at precisely the time Dr. Reyman said the day would begin. I found him there already, along with a few Dilphii, some Armadeans, and several hominids. "Ah, welcome, Dr. B! I heard you already visited the lab last night. Once we get you situated, you can work overtime all you want."

"I look forward to it," I said.

This provoked laughter among some of the hominids, and scowls among the Amadeans. Among them I saw the male that had objected to my presence the day before. "Did I say something wrong?"

"You'll be working plenty of overtime, so much that it won't seem quite as fun anymore," said one of the hominids. She had blonde hair and a thin frame, and out of all of the hominids looked the most like Samus, even if on a superficial scale. I assumed they both came from the same planet of origin. She offered me her hand as a greeting. "My name is Lydia."

Dr. Reyman put his hand on my shoulder, as Samus did when she was pleased, and led me over to the workstation that Tirza had shown me. "Here's where you'll be working. It'll be simple stuff at first, until we get an idea for your abilities and experience. For now, you'll be analyzing samples of unknown substances from peripheral planets. The Federation uses this information to determine if the planets can be colonized, or if they are better off left alone."

He pointed out all the other workers. I took note of the fact that the aggressive Amadean was named Oltar. While all the others gave me a short history of their background and what they did in the lab, Oltar merely grunted his name.

"You'll have to excuse Oltar," Dr. Reyman said to me in a low voice after the others had scattered to their workstations. "He was our Metroid expert before you were hired. I imagine he feels like he's being replaced, even though I've told him many times that he's invaluable to me, but…well, Amadeans are Amadeans. It's best to give him a little space before he gets to know you."

All this hominid-speak flew past me so fast I had trouble processing it. The main point seemed to be that I should leave Oltar alone, so I decided to focus on that for now. I did not understand why being assigned another task would provoke anger; the Others switched around all the time. Granted, some had tried more than others to gain the privilege of becoming an Elite. But that was mostly for the better rations, in addition to the prestige of gaining powerful weapons to use against our enemies. Hominids and their companions, as far as I could tell, did not assign food according to rank.

For the first half of the day I did simple chemical analysis, Dr. Reyman coming over now and then to ask if I had any questions. For the most part I did not; it was simple work, and not all that different from what the Others do when they are looking for new conquests. From time to time Lydia would step over as well, asking if I needed help as well as a bevy of other questions.

Her interest bewildered me. Never had I encountered someone who would stop their work and interrupt another just to talk. When I had been with the Others, I and everyone else had kept our full focus on our work. The only thing that interrupted us was eating time, sleeping time, and very rare events like Samus bursting into our lab. And, of course, if one was transferred, it would take a short time to learn the skills needed. But then it was back to work.

We had not been working long at all when Lydia approached me again. "We're going to the mess hall to have lunch. You want to come?"

I did not feel the need to eat, but I did not know when I would next have another meal, so I followed her out of the lab along with most of the others. When we entered the mess hall, the first thing I noticed was that the Amadeans were lined up on one side, and the hominids on the other. The Dilphii went back and forth between the two. "I thought food was not assigned according to race."

Lydia laughed. "It's not assigned. Humans can't eat Amadean food, and vice versa. Humans cook their food - you know what that means?"

I nodded. "Hominids heat most food items until the chemical structure and proteins change."

"That's right. We've been cooking food for so long, there are really few things we can eat raw. Amadeans, on the other hand, can't digest altered food.. Also, some of the animals that make up an essential part of the Amadeans' diet are poisonous to humans." She picked up a flat plastic object and stood at the end of the line of hominids. "You can choose whatever you want, though…I understand you can eat just about anything."

"I can choose my food?" This astounded me. "But…I only know the names of a few things."

"It's a buffet." Upon seeing my blank look, she offered more information. "There's a few of each kind of food on the buffet table, so you take one of each and bring it back to the tables over there." She pointed to other people already sitting down and eating.

"I see." Standing behind her, I picked up one of the flat plastic things and watched her. First she took a round, white, ceramic object, then a series of metal implements wrapped in soft paper. I knew hominids did not eat these things, so I watched in puzzlement as she scooped food out of the containers and set it on the round object. I copied her anyway, taking one of everything. Then I stepped over to the Amadean side of the line and repeated the process. Luckily there was a place to set down one's flat thing along the table; I could only do so much with one hand.

I found a cheeseburger and some chocolate, but the rest of the food was unknown to me. I sat down at a table next to Lydia, along with two Dilphii (Megasi and Trilla), Oltar, and Dr. Reyman. "What is this one?" I asked Dr. Reyman. I did not want to burden Lydia with all my questions, even though I had started to feel drawn to her more than the others. Since she looked a little like Samus, she was the only thing on that colony that was familiar to me.

"That's mashed potatoes," he informed me. "Plant root matter crushed and cooked. You're supposed to put the butter on it." He pointed to a yellow square that I had placed on the other side of the ceramic object.

I ate one thing at a time, asking for its name first, all of it delicious. The hominids used the metal implements to cut their food and bring it up to their mouths. I didn't understand this, but I tried to copy them as best as I could. Some foods did not require the implements, and I decided I preferred those. I tried to keep my excitement down, since the others in the room kept casting me strange looks. It was all so good! I still liked cheeseburgers best, however.

When I came to the Amadean food, Lydia and Dr. Reyman said they didn't know. "That's maka," Oltar said of the long, black, eel-like creature I had pointed to. "It's poisonous to humans." Then he sat and watched to see what I would do, as if hoping that it would poison me, too.

But the Others can eat just about anything, so in my mandibles it went. It had a very different taste from hominid food. Not as good, but still better than Elite rations. Oltar appeared disappointed that I had not dropped dead from eating it. "So you Space Pirates really are living garbage processors," he said. "You can eat anything."

"I am not a Space Pirate," I said. I would end up repeating this frequently aboard Ceres, not just to Oltar. The way he said "garbage processor" did not sound like a compliment, but I could not figure out how our digestive ability would be an insult. "But I can eat most organic matter, and I do not produce any waste, either. My body is engineered for efficiency." Before he could make any remark, I pointed to a container with small, bright green insects wriggling inside it. "What is this one called?"

"Kirka," he replied. He sounded slightly less antagonistic, possibly because I had taken an interest in his food. The hominids recoiled in disgust every time I raised the food to eye level for a closer examination. Oltar seemed to find this amusing.

When they were done, they all wiped their mouths with the soft paper, though I ended up shredding mine. Then it was back to the lab.

Lydia wandered over to my workstation again. "So you and Samus Aran are friends?"

I considered this. "She is a friendly ally, yes."

"But she's your friend, isn't she?"

After pondering this for a while, I said, "I don't understand the use of this word in this context."

"You two are friends. You like each other, like being with each other."

"I do enjoy Samus' company," I said to her. "Her I is very powerful and was fascinating to examine." Then I paused for a long time. "I must admit that I don't know what she thinks in regard to me. Her thoughts are very hard to perceive."

"Well, she got you this job, so she must be your friend."

I decided to file that information away for later. But Lydia was not finished. "What's she like?"

"She stands approximately six feet high, has hair the color hominids call 'blonde'…"

"No, I mean, what is her personality like?"

"Personality?"

"Her I."

"Her I is dedicated to the destruction of the Others and all their creations."

Leaning on the workstation, Lydia said, "I wonder why that is. Do you know?"

I did, but it occurred to me that this would fall under the 'private' category of hominid knowledge. Samus always got angry when I brought up topics in this area. She was not here now, but something told me that she would be angry if I discussed them with someone else. "I do not think Samus would want me to distribute that information."

Her eyes widened then. "You must be good friends, if she told you stuff she doesn't tell anyone else."

I was about to explain the circumstances for this, but Dr. Reyman shooed her back over to her own terminal. Relieved, I went back to work. I decided I liked Lydia's company, even though I found interacting with her very tiring.

Oltar, on the other hand, seemed to be what Samus had called a 'jerk'.

At the end of the shift, I again found myself lacking something to do and decided to work in the next shift as well. The others invited me to join them for 'dinner', another meal period, but I had already eaten so much during 'lunch', that I declined. An exoskeleton cannot expand as easily as a soft-bodied organism does, so I had a limit to how much I could eat at a time.

Tirza and the two Dilphii greeted me as they entered the lab for the night shift. About halfway through, Tirza approached me. "Have you talked to Lydia much yet?"

I nodded. "Yes, very much. Lydia frequently converses with me."

"I figured. Well, watch out for her, all right?"

This statement stunned me. "Watch out? You seem to be implying that she is dangerous." Lydia certainly didn't look very threatening.

Tirza waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "I don't mean like that. I mean she's overly ambitious…she's been studying Metroids too, and she might try to steal your work."

If I had been surprised before, this floored me. "But that is forbidden under the ethics code."

With a short laugh, Tirza said, "Yeah, we know."

"Won't she face punishment if she is caught?" I asked. "Punishment for disobedience among the Others is death."

Tirza scratched her head with long claws. "Well, as much as I hate plagiarizing research thieves, that's a little harsh. She'd get kicked off Ceres and would be discredited, but that's it."

"I didn't know such a thing was possible. What is the point of the ethics code then?"

She sighed. "You're very naïve for one of a race of intergalactic thieves. You're not supposed to do any of that stuff, but some people try to do it without getting caught."

"Why?" I remembered some of the Others going against orders to augment their physical strength with Phazon, but I think these had already either fallen victim to Phazon Madness or had the first inklings of an I.

"Why? Money, prestige, lots of things. Far as I'm concerned, it's not worth enough to steal. But listen, Dr. B, don't tell her too much, okay?" She leaned in close. "I heard she stole work from Oltar a few years ago, and that's why he's so grouchy. But I don't know that for sure. You didn't hear it from me, okay?"

My head was spinning. All these concepts I didn't understand. "Will you excuse me? I think I will go to sleep after all."

"Oh? Okay. Uh, take care, Dr. B."

Back in my quarters, I searched for any news of Samus. Unfortunately, the Federation records I found through my terminal stated that they hadn't had any contact with her; the planet itself had a thick atmosphere that impeded communication. I did not worry much - I had complete faith in Samus - but I realized that my I was still incomplete. I still needed her as a guide.

I decided to sleep, and hoped that I would hear from her soon.