"They did WHAT to my suit?!" Samus screamed.

Connehan wiped her spit off his face. He knew Samus would react poorly to the news, but he was beginning to wish he had thought to strap her down before waking her.

Jacobs was standing behind him—although it was more akin to hiding behind him. He looked around Connehan's imposing form to catch a glimpse of Samus. She was dressed in her blue jumpsuit, which he guessed she always wore under the power suit. It was odd; here was this famous bounty hunter, but here, she looked like nothing more than a regular woman. A blonde one, at that. Even so, Jacobs was doing everything he could to stay on her good side—and considering his involvement in the destruction of her suit, he was failing.

"I'm sorry, Samus," Connehan said, "but it was the only way..."

Samus slumped against the bed in the medical bay. "You can't be serious," she growled.

Jacobs peeked around Connehan's side. "He's right, you know," he said. "If the security detail didn't stop your suit, it would have escaped to the pirates."

"We just blasted the last of the pirates," Samus grumbled. "There's nothing left for it to return to."

"Well," Jacobs said, biting his lip, "Though we comfortably beat the pirates, at least a few ships did escape. Besides, we had always thought that the last of the pirates were destroyed along with Zebes, but they were here today, weren't they? There could still be more in reserve, who were supposed to receive the suit if it made it out. The escaped ships may have joined with them."

Samus glared up at him. "Who the hell are you, anyway?"

"Wait, wait," Connehan interrupted, looking over his shoulder at Jacobs. "The remaining pirates would have received the suit if it made it out? I thought stealing the suit was the whole point."

"That was..." Jacobs thought for a moment. "That would have been a nice perk, I believe. But they knew the chances of the suit making it out alive were slim to none. Even though it is heavily armed and armored, it would be left weak after effectively growing a body. This is what allowed us to beat it, and they knew about it."

"Wait," Samus said. "So you mean it wasn't necessary to..."

"No, no," Jacobs said quickly, drawing even further behind Connehan. "We had to kill it, or it would've escaped somehow."

"Then what was the pirate's main plan?" Connehan asked.

"They included a failsafe in the retrovirus," Jacobs explained. "If the suit did die, the retrovirus was supposed to destroy it even more. It had already twisted the suit's original functions and controls to work with the new body; when it sensed the suit dying, it simply destroyed the originals altogether. There's no way we could get your suit to work now."

Samus sighed. "So the point of it all was..."

"To cripple you," Jacob finished. "Stealing the suit would have been just a perk—if it had worked out."

Samus looked away, biting her lip. "Tell me you can fix it."

"I..." Jacobs shook his head. "I'm sorry, Samus, but I can't."

In the next instant, Samus was sitting up, with her fist extended; Jacobs was lying on the floor, blood trickling out of his nose. He sat up and rubbed it tenderly. "Ow," he said.

Connehan turned to Samus. "Punching the biologist won't help," he said.

"Says you," Samus retorted, lying back down.

Jacobs stood up, still rubbing his nose. "I'm sorry, Samus, but there's nothing more we can do."

Samus nodded. "I understand."

Jacobs bit his lip. "I... I'm sorry it had to be this way."

Samus nodded, still looking away from him.

A nervous-looking young man looked into the room. "Excuse me, officer Connehan?"

"What is it, ensign?" Connehan sighed.

"We've retrieved the black box from Aran's crashed ship," the ensign said. "It was floating in space along with some debris."

Samus sat up. "The black box? Is Adam...?"

"We don't know yet," the ensign said quickly. "We haven't activated it yet; I thought you'd want to be informed before we did."

Connehan looked down at Samus. "You feel well enough to move?"

"Of course," Samus said, getting up.

Connehan nodded at Jacobs. "Come along, Jacobs; we may be needing you." He looked at the young man. "Ensign, contact R-Stl and tell him to meet us in the conference room."

"R-Stl?" Samus asked as she began to follow Connehan out of the medical bay.

"A Luminoth warrior who rescued you from the pirates," Jacobs answered, hurrying after them.

Samus glanced at him. "Luminoth? All the way out here? We're a bit far from Aether, aren't we?"

"We haven't had a chance to ask him what he's doing here yet," Jacobs said. "We were a bit more concerned with the power suit that was shooting at us."

Samus sighed. "You're sure he's the one who saved me?"

Connehan and Jacobs exchanged a glance. "Of course," Connehan said. "He brought you up on his ship, after all."

"We were both there," Jacobs added. "And I didn't see anyone else on the ship who could have done it."

"Nor did I," Connehan finished. "Why do you ask?"

Samus bit her lip. "It's... I don't know." She took a breath. "I was unconscious for most of the fight, but I seem to remember a... a pirate."

Connehan shrugged, opening the door to the conference room. "Well, there was an entire frigate's worth of pirates down there, so I'm not..."

"No," Samus interrupted. "A rogue pirate. He turned on his fellows and started fighting to protect me..." she shook her head. "I was still fading in and out of consciousness at the time, so I could be mistaken, but I..."

They entered the room, Connehan and Jacobs exchanging another worried glance. "We'll have to talk to R-Stl about it," he said in a low voice. "But later. Right now, the computer—Adam—should be our top priority."

"Agreed," Jacobs replied.

Connehan, Jacobs, and Samus took their seats. R-Stl was already there, seated cross from them; he bowed to Samus as she arrived. "Miss Aran," he spoke, his deep voice filtered through the room's master translator. "It's good to see you are well."

"Thank you," Samus said. "You must be R-Stl?"

"I am." He hesitated for a moment, then added, "I am the son of B-Stil and J-Stl."

Samus nodded. "I remember them. I never met them in life, but I know they were valiant warriors. They cared deeply for each other as well."

R-Stl simply nodded in reply, then looked over at a nearby console. The black box from Samus's ship was lying on top of it; a few techies were stringing cords from the console to plugs in the bright orange case.

"What is that thing?" R-Stl asked, pointing to the box.

"That's the black box," Connehan replied. "A flight recorder. It'll have data on what happened in Aran's ship before being shot down, in addition to a backed-up copy of the ship's computer, Adam."

"Black box?" R-Stl asked, confused.

"Er... yes," Connehan answered.

"But... it's orange."

"Of course," Connehan said. "That's so it can be easily spotted in a wreck."

"And you call it... black?"

"Well, yes. It's..." Connehan looked around at the others before shrugging. "It's a long story, I suppose."

R-Stl only sighed, shaking his head.

"We're done," a techie called, standing back from the console and brushing off his hands. "The computer-"

"Adam," Samus corrected.

"Adam, then," the techie said, with an apologetic nod toward Samus. "Adam should be able to see and hear us, and we can hear him. After we turn it on, that is."

"Do it," Connehan ordered.

The techie complied quickly, and the console began to whir to life.

Connehan hesitated for a moment. "Compu—er, Adam? Can you hear us?"

There was a moment's pause, followed by the loudest string of obscenities anyone in the room had ever heard. Connehan grimaced. "Adam, what's the matter?"

"Samus!" the computer spat, speaking through the large speakers on the console. "Did you see—she jettisoned me into space, and went and blew herself up! That—I swear, if she weren't dead, I'd kill her!"

"Adam," Samus said calmly, "The self-destruct failed. I'm still here."

The small camera mounted on the console turned slowly, focusing on Samus. There was another pause. "Well," Adam replied in his form of a grumble, "I'd kill you if I were able."

"And if there weren't several million failsafes in your system to prevent you from doing even if you were able," Jacobs added.

The camera focused on him. "Connehan, who is this?"

"Kevin Jacobs," Connehan said. "He's... well, not exactly an expert, but he was the only one around who knew anything about Samus's suit. So we brought him in when R-Stl said her suit was damaged."

"R-Stl?"

Jacobs pointed over to the Luminoth; the camera shifted around, focusing on the alien. "R-Stl is the son of J-Stl and B-Stl," he explained, "Two Luminoth warriors whose bodies Samus scanned on Aether."

"On... what?"

Connehan snapped his fingers. "That's right, I don't think that happened until after you died."

"Wait, wait," R-Stl interrupted. "He died?"

"Well, yeah. We brought him back, of course."

"But... he's a computer."

"Well... he wasn't always..." Connehan sighed. "You know, that's another long story."

R-Stl sighed again, shaking his head.

Adam let out the computerized equivalent of a sigh. "Connehan, I have important news."

"Samus and R-Stl have already filled us in on everything that's happened since-"

"Not on this, they haven't. This didn't happen until after I was jettisoned."

"What?" Connehan sat up. "But that's... you wouldn't have been functioning while jettisoned. You didn't have a power source, an interface, anything; you were just a backed-up computer disk floating through space."

"I know," Adam said, impatient. "But soon as you activated me, I discovered that something had been encoded in my data banks while I was out there. It's a message."

Samus stood up. "A message? From who?"

"It's 'whom'," Jacobs sighed.

"I..." Adam paused for a moment. "Lady, I think you'll believe me more if you see the message first."

Samus glanced at Connehan, who nodded. "All right, comp—Adam," he said. "Go ahead."

The screen above the console flickered to life, revealing a dangerous-looking—and all too familiar—face.

Samus's eyes widened. "You have to be kidding me."

Jacobs shook his head. "It can't be... it's not possible..."

The image on the screen grinned widely, its white teeth glistening up and down its elongated snout. "Hello, folks!" it hissed. "Surprised to see me? You didn't think Lord Ridley could be kept down so easily, could you?"

Samus swore aloud. "For the love of—why can't anything I blow up ever stay blown up?!"