Chapter 8: Unknown Species. Unknown Origin.
The sun was well past its zenith and getting close to setting by the time Ripley, Vasquez, and Samus approached the building that contained the elevator down to the bunker. Despite the deal the flight officer and the bounty hunter had made, the three women had spent some time searching for Newt. Even though she wanted to see Adam and know he was safe, Samus had eventually relented and agreed to a quick search for the girl before returning to the bunker. That quick search, however, had lasted hours. Looking for survivors often caused Samus to lose track of time, mostly due to her own history, and in this case the survivor had only been a child.
But as the sun got closer to setting and there was still no trace of the girl, Vasquez had talked Ripley into bringing their search party in for the night. The creatures were mostly active after dark, and both the flight officer and the young marine were exhausted by the end of the day. Vasquez in particular had sustained a few minor injuries in the fight against one of the xenomorphs, and Ripley was anxious to make sure those got treated.
Even Samus was beginning to feel a bit worn down, although she gave no outward sign of it. According to the time in her suit, she had been on the hunt for nearly twenty hours straight, and it had been nearly twice as long since she had slept. Though she had already healed from the wounds she had sustained in the battle with the xenomorph swarm, healing had taken a good deal of energy. While she hated knowing that a child was out in the alien-infested colony alone at night, she was very tired and anxious to finally reunite with Adam. Furthermore, Vasquez had informed her that the child had survived for days before anyone had arrived to rescue her and knew the abandoned colony better than anyone else. There was a good chance she had made it back to the bunker before them and was already down there safe and sound.
Samus had rarely spoken in the time she was with the two women. Instead, she had opted to observe them and their interactions. On one hand, it was useful to gather as much information as she could about them and how they had ended up as they were. Ripley seemed to be the more levelheaded of the two, but Vasquez was definitely the muscle. Apparently there had been a man called Gorman with them until just before Samus arrived, but he had been killed by the very same creature from which Samus had saved Ripley. Vasquez seemed upset about his death, although she expressed herself as more angry than sad, repeatedly calling him an asshole for getting killed the way he had. But her tone had a note of gratitude in it, and Samus inferred that he had been killed saving her.
She may not have been the most socially skilled individual in the galaxy, but Samus excelled at observing people. As a hunter, it was a very important skill to possess, but there was another reason she did not speak. In her combat mindset, she found it hard to talk to people. She was too focused on observation and hunting, so carrying on a conversation took far more concentration and effort than usual. In combat mode, all of her spare focus was tied up in controlling her powersuit and keeping track of its displays. Had she not encountered the small search party, she likely would have continued to hunt long into the night.
But as the three women stepped into the mineshaft elevator and it descended far below ground, Samus realized how tired she was and how badly she yearned for some time to rest. She was surprised how deep underground the elevator went. For someone born in a mining colony, it had been a very long time since she had actually been in any kind of mine, although the Phazon mines of Tallon IV came to mind.
When the elevator stopped, the three women stepped out into pitch darkness until Ripley and Vasquez turned on the lights mounted to their weapons. Samus watched as they waked over to a heavy metal hatch in the ground and turned the wheel to unlock it. They eventually pulled it open, revealing a ladder down to a dimly lit fallout shelter, and Samus could feel her breath catching in her chest. If what they said were true, Adam would be down there. He would be alive, and she would finally be able to exhale a little. The fear had been eating away at her for the entirety of this mission so far. She had lost a lot of people in her life, but none of them had been around as long as Adam had. Even the Chozo she had only known eleven years before she left them, but Adam had been her commanding officer nearly two years before the birth of her son, and in the fifteen years that followed he had become much more to her than that. For much of that time, he had been her only friend in the universe.
Vasquez went down into the bunker first, leaving Ripley and Samus alone for a few seconds. The flight officer stared at the bounty hunter suspiciously before she climbed down as well. In her armor, Samus was much bulkier than either of the two women, and she would not fit easily through the hatch. Rather than switch into morphball form and really freak them out, Samus opted instead to deactivate her armor as soon as Ripley was out of sight. Within seconds, the powersuit glowed with its bright orange light and returned inside the pendant on the heavy chain around her neck. Stuffing it back under the collar of her jumpsuit, Samus climbed down the ladder into the bunker as well.
As she entered the bunker and hopped off the ladder, Samus turned to see five pairs of eyes all staring at her. She recognized Ripley and Vasquez, but there were a man and a woman she had never seen before. Sitting over on the far wall, however, she saw Adam looking back at her.
"Damn," Vasquez said, genuinely shocked. "I totally mistook you for a man."
"Samus is a woman's name," the bounty hunter muttered as she looked around the room. Even out of the armor, she knew she must look strange to them. Standing at six-foot-three, she was certainly not the average woman. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she wore a fairly standard navy blue flight suit, but faded dark scars on her face showed where had once suffered a near-fatal phazon corruption. Blood caked a few of the torn areas on her jumpsuit.
"Lady?" Adam's voice called from across the long room, and Ripley turned to look at him quizzically.
Samus felt her adrenaline spike as she walked across to the far wall where the General sat. As she assessed him from a distance, she decided he looked a little bit worse for wear, but he did not appear seriously injured. Although she would bet he was sitting because his back had flared up again.
"Adam," she said softly as she knelt beside the General, aware of all the eyes on her back. "Are you all right?"
Adam sat up straighter, his eyes running over the mercenary's form and settling on the bloody tears in her clothing where the xenomorphs had cut through her armor. "I should be asking the same of you."
Samus shook her head in frustration. "I'm fine. You're the one whose ship just blew up. Do you know how worried I was about you when I heard that? What the hell were you thinking coming on this mission? At your age?" She huffed in annoyance. "You fucked up your back again, didn't you?"
The General glared at her, although it lacked any real force behind it. "Samus, you don't get to decide what missions I am or am not suited for."
"Well someone's got to say something if the Federation is this stupid, and you're this reckless and—" She stopped and took a breath, trying to get her temper under control. "I'm just glad you're alive," she muttered quietly, wishing the other four people could not see her. "I was really worried when I got the call that something had happened to you."
Adam's face softened as he regarded Samus. "Are you all right, Lady?"
She nodded as she took a seat beside him. "I'll be fine. A few minor wounds, but they've already healed up."
"I take it you've encountered the creatures?" The General asked very seriously.
"Yes… quite a few of them." The bounty hunter did not seem bothered at the thought of the xenomorphs, but Adam could see the humans in the room visibly stiffen at their mention. "They swarmed me at one point. Fortunately, they don't seem to like fire much."
"So are you the one who caused that explosion last night?" Ripley asked suddenly as she, Vasquez, Portia, and Bishop moved to sit around them.
"I caused a very large explosion last night," Samus replied, turning to regard the other four survivors. "We're probably both thinking of the same one."
"The sleeping quarters for the ship," Adam began, his tone taking on a note of urgency, "did you find them? Was anyone alive?"
Samus regarded her friend solemnly. "I found them. They were overrun with xenomorphs. No human survivors. I trapped the creatures inside and blew up the whole thing."
Adam hesitated as he studied her. "That seemed like more than just a power bomb blast."
"When I found it, it was soaked with fuel gel. Who ever planted the bomb on your ship was planning for that whole back cabin to go up as well, but it must have ejected before the flames spread far enough."
"What do you mean 'planted the bomb'?" Adam's voice suddenly took on a harsh tone, and Portia shrunk back slightly at his authoritative demeanor.
"I mean exactly what I said," the bounty hunter replied. "That whole job was intentional, straight up. There were signs of arson all over that wreck, traces of fuel gel and other chemicals. Someone wanted you dead. All of you."
A tense hush fell over the room. After a while, Ripley broke the silence. "How do you know all of this?"
"Samus's powersuit allows her to scan objects for a number of different factors," Adam explained. "Chemicals included. She's extremely well equipped to make that assessment."
"W-who would have done such a thing?" Portia squeaked from the periphery of the group. The bounty hunter looked at the young woman curiously.
"I apologize," Adam said suddenly. "I forgot to do introductions." Turning to the survivors, he said, "Samus, you've already met Flight Lieutenant Ellen Ripley and Private First Class Jenette Vasquez. This young woman is Dr. Portia Grey, and she was accompanying me on this ill-fated trip. And that gentleman in the back is Executive Officer Lance Bishop, an artificial person of the Colonial Marine unit." Turning to the bounty hunter, he continued, "And this is Samus Aran, a private military contractor and long-time friend of mine."
Samus nodded politely if not a little awkwardly. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"An honor to meet you as well, Ms. Aran," Bishop replied. "I have certainly heard of your valor in the Space Pirate War, and I am glad for the chance to meet you in person."
Samus smiled half-heartedly. She never knew how to respond when people tried to shower her with praises. It made her profoundly uncomfortable.
Catching Ripley eyeing him questioningly, Adam turned to Samus. "Would you excuse me and Ripley for a bit, Lady? I need to talk to her about a few things."
"Lady?" Vasquez asked with a snort. She was quickly met with a nasty glare from the mercenary, as though Samus were daring her to make one more quip about that. Vasquez immediately shut up.
Turning away from Vasquez, Samus simply nodded to the General as she got up and walked across the bunker. There was a little area behind some crates close to the entrance, and she decided it was the best place she could go if she hoped for any kind of privacy in the cramped quarters. Vasquez and Bishop walked off in their own direction as the bunker became filled with hushed voices.
Samus made her way to her chosen corner and rearranged some of the storage crates to create a sort of little cubicle for herself. While she knew it was not any sort of real privacy, she was content with the fact that she could not be seen from most areas of the bunker. Unzipping her flight suit, she pealed it down to her hips so she could better assess the cuts to her abdomen. By this point, however, all was as she had expected, and the only signs that she had been wounded at all were the dried blood and the slight outlines of scarring where her skin had healed.
Wishing she had a damp cloth to clean herself off a little, Samus pulled her jumpsuit back up and zipped it closed. She sat on a crate and pulled an inhaler from one of the pouches on her hips. Though she was fine for the most part, she had been a little short of breath for a while now. While it had not mattered in her powersuit, the air in the bunker was stale and a bit more difficult to breathe, and despite how much she hated admitting her lungs had never healed properly, she knew she had to take care of them.
She had just puffed the medicine into her mouth and started to inhale when suddenly a mousey looking young woman with long brown hair appeared before her. Samus nearly gagged in shock and embarrassment upon seeing Portia, and the young doctor seemed just as surprised as she was.
"Dr. Grey?" she asked after a moment of breathing deeply and trying to help the medicine take effect. "What the hell?"
"I'm sorry," the nervous woman replied sheepishly. "I didn't realize I was disturbing you…"
Samus made a sound like a growl but eventually just shook her head. "I should have known better than to think I could get any privacy in this place."
Portia regarded the bounty hunter quietly for a moment. "Are you all right? Are you sick?"
With a sigh, Samus shook her head. "Ignore what you just saw. And for shit's sake don't tell Adam. He'll start worrying over nothing and getting annoying and I really don't feel like dealing with that."
Portia nodded. "I understand. He does seem to prioritize the needs of others over himself."
The bounty hunter rolled her eyes as she put the inhaler back in its pouch. "You can say that again."
"But if you need anything, I am a doctor. I specialize in researching newly discovered life forms but I can treat humans as well."
Samus laughed humorlessly. "So I guess you don't mind semi-humans."
"I don't mind them at all. Are you…?"
The bounty hunter looked at her and raised her eyebrows. "Delta-class semi-human. Unknown species. Unknown origin."
"I suppose you would be right up my alley then… but you really don't know your own origins?"
Samus looked at her skeptically. "I know my own species and origins, but even if anyone else knew them, they would have no idea how to react, let alone handle it in a medical capacity. It's easier just to keep that information to myself and tell doctors just to treat me as a human."
"I see," Portia replied, thinking about what Samus had said. "I suppose whatever your are though, that's why you're so strong…"
Samus shrugged. "I was born a human. I was genetically altered as a child so I could be made into a sort of bioweapon. So yes, that's why I'm as strong as I am."
"And why you heal so quickly," the doctor continued. "Fascinating…. I'm sorry if I'm being nosy. It's just… well, I've studied so many exotic species, but I've never met a human bioweapon before."
"And for good reason. Federation scientists have no business taking human children and turning them into tools of war. In my case, what's passed has passed. There's nothing I can do but use the powers I've been given for the sake of the galaxy…" She paused. "Don't get me wrong though. I don't resent my fate, nor do I pity myself for it. It's simply not something I think should be forced onto anyone else without their consent."
"I understand." Portia looked over the bounty hunter. "I've heard of your feats during the war… you're very brave, Ms. Aran."
"Just 'Samus' is fine. Everyone else here might have fancy titles, but I don't need one. I'm just Samus."
The doctor nodded. "You can call me just 'Portia' then. It feels too stiff and formal with everyone calling me 'Dr. Grey' all the time. And formality just seems out of place in a situation like this."
Samus laughed. "Tell me about it. But good luck getting Adam to do that. I practically had to twist his arm years ago to get him to stop calling me 'Private Aran.'"
"You were in the service?"
"Long time ago… didn't work out too well so I don't talk about it."
"Is that how you know the General?"
Samus nodded. "He and I go way back."
"Kind of ironic if you think about it with him being one of the biggest opponents of bioweapon research in all of the Federation and you being—" She stopped, and her face became pale as she realized what she had been about to say.
"And me being a bioweapon," Samus finished for her. "Yes, it is a bit ironic."
"I'm sorry I—"
Samus dismissed the doctor's apology with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry about it. It is true, after all… besides, I've been called far worse things."
Portia nodded quietly. "Well, like I said before, I am a doctor, and I do specialize in unknown life forms. If you ever want any type of medical help a human doctor can't provide, I'd be happy to see what I can do. It's the least I can do after what you've done for the galaxy, Samus."
The bounty hunter smiled. "Thank you, Portia. I'll keep that in mind. Now why don't you go and get some rest? I have some scans I need to go through, and I need to check up on my ship."
Portia nodded. "Good night, Samus."
"Good night, Portia."
