Connehan managed to claw his way to consciousness upon hearing the irritating, piercing sound of his alarm go off. He groggily reached out his hand and slammed it down on the snooze button. A moment later, he realized he had missed completely, and only succeeded in smashing his hand against the table. Cursing profusely, he tried it again, and managed to shut down the alarm. He then proceeded to roll out of his bed, hitting the floor with a dull thud. The second painful impact of the morning brought him more or less to his senses, and as the events of the previous day came rushing back, he shot up. He grabbed the clock, gazing at it as the glowing blur slowly solidified into numbers in his mind.

I've been asleep for ten hours? He was dumbstruck. He was normally lucky to get more than six hours of sleep a day; his body had adjusted to that so much he had a hard time believing he could stay asleep for that long. Then again, it had been a long day and had left him quite drained. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't that anxious to meet the new day, either. Still, as long as he was up, he might as well get to work.

He looked at the alarm again. It had gone off because he had received a message from engineering. He let out a sigh, then crossed over to the drink dispenser on one wall and drew himself a cup of coffee. Once he had the caffeinated drink firmly gripped in one hand, he sat down in front of his desk and began checking the messages.

"Engineering report," the text read. "After yesterday's battle, we've been performing extensive repair. As of 0930, we have the hyperdrive operational again."

So far, so good. Connehan took a sip of his coffee, remembered that he hated coffee, and spat it across the room. He went to the drink dispenser and drew a cup of tea instead before returning to the desk.

"In addition, your request for additional shipboard weapons has been approved by the Federation Naval Commission. The weapons will be available when we return to dry-sock, and we are making initial preparations for their installation now.

Jacobs will be glad to hear that, Connehan thought, smiling a bit himself. The next Pirate scout ship that tried to mess with the Oberon would not find her such easy prey.

"Samus Aran and Kevin Jacobs have not left their quarters as of this sending. Per your request, the rogue Pirate has not been led to the brig, but has been put in guest quarters with a constant guard. R-Stl, in the meantime, is watching the guards. Finally, fleet Admiral Dane has been trying to contact you. He left a message marked 'private,' which has been stored in your personal files."

That was the end of the report, so Connehan closed out the message and opened the one from Dane. The admiral's face appeared on the screen. "Connehan, call me when you have a chance. We need to discuss our friend, Dr. Jacobs." The screen went blank.

Connehan rolled his eyes. He leaves me a message, but can't be bothered to actually tell me anything in it? Nevertheless, he brought up the communications console, and hailed the GFS Olympus.

A communications officer appeared on the screen. "Officer Connehan, Admiral Dane's been expecting your call. I'll patch you through immediately."

Another pause before Dane's imposing form finally appeared in front of Connehan again. "It's about time you got up," he growled.

"Sorry, sir. Yesterday's events took a lot out of me."

"Understandable. But I'm anxious to get some matters resolved. Where is Jacobs now?"

"He's still in his quarters. I imagine he's still asleep."

Dane thought for a moment. "All right, we'll keep it that way for now. Once I've told you what you need to hear, though, call a meeting. Bring everyone to a conference room and give them this information."

"And by 'everyone,' you mean…"

"Samus, Jacobs, R-Stl, and that Pirate. He factors into our plan, too."

Connehan perked up. "Plan? We have a plan?"

Dane only smirked.

Connehan sat back in his chair as he drained the last of his tea. The conference room doors swished open and Jacobs entered, escorted by a young ensign. Connehan turned toward them. "Thank you, Christa. You can go now."

The ensign nodded at him, then turned and started back toward her post. The doors swished shut behind Jacobs, who looked supremely uncomfortable. "Where is everyone else?" he asked warily.

"On their way. But I wanted to talk to you in private, first."

"Oh." Connehan could almost hear the young biologist gulping.

Connehan turned on the room's main screen; it displayed some of the data Jacobs had sent to the Federation Medical Corps the night before. "The Corps has reviewed everything you sent them, and as far as they can tell, Samus is in no immediate danger from the X-infusion you gave her."

Jacobs let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"But."

The biologist tensed up again. Connehan resisted the urge to smirk.

"Given all that we know about this procedure and its side-effects—which, as you know, borders on nothing—the Corps decided that Samus will need near-constant medical monitoring to ensure that, if something does start going wrong, we can catch it in the act."

Jacobs nodded enthusiastically. "I agree, wholeheartedly."

"Medical monitoring performed by you."

He blinked. "What?"

At that moment, the doors opened once more, and Samus strolled in. She was looking much better this morning; she held the new, makeshift arm cannon as confidently and readily as she had her old one, and she no longer looked like she was about to keel over from exhaustion. She gave the two men a confident smile as she answered. "Connehan," she said.

"Samus, good timing," the officer said, returning her smile. "I was just telling Jacobs how he'll need to come with you on your next mission."

She blinked. "What?"

"That's what I said," Jacobs agreed.

"Samus, there might still be complications from the infusion," Connehan continued. "We'll need to keep an eye on you, in case anything goes wrong. We'll have the arm cannon constantly gather information about your condition and send it to us."

Samus glanced at Jacobs. "Can it do that?"

Jacobs shrugged. "Well, maybe … I mean, it's wired into your body, obviously, but I don't know enough about it to say if it can gather data like that…"

"You needn't worry," Connehan assured him. "A certain Dr. Justin Bailey told us exactly how to do it, once we asked him about his involvement in this little project."

Jacobs turned white and fell silent. Samus sat down, glowering.

"You said the Medical Corps agreed that there was no danger," Jacobs said after a while. "If something would go wrong, they would have spotted it."

"Probably, but they don't want to take the risk. As you know, we just don't have enough information."

"You certainly took enough scans of my body to get that information," Samus grumbled. "Look, Connehan, everything we've got says I'm perfectly stable."

"You appear stable, but if something goes wrong, we need to spot it and nip it in the bud. You've got Metroid DNA and X-Parasite organelles on top of your human blood now, and we can barely imagine the number of things that could go wrong." Connehan let out a sigh; he was getting tired of this.

"Couldn't they monitor me remotely?" Samus pressed. "As long as he's going to get telemetry from the arm cannon, he doesn't have to be with me to receive it, right?"

"No, that won't work." This time it was Jacobs who spoke, although sadly. "If something were to go wrong, I'd need to be nearby enough to administer treatment. I hate to say it, but… I think he's right."

Samus looked from one of them to the other, reading their expressions, before letting out an exasperated sigh and covering her face with her one free hand. "Fine. I'll take him along."

Jacobs nodded, not able to bring himself to meet her gaze.

"All right," Connehan said. "We've already got the medical station set up in the Scorpion, so Jacobs will be able to work from there while Samus carries out the mission."

They both looked up at him. "The Scorpion?" Jacobs asked. "R-Stl's ship? We're taking that?"

Connehan nodded, smiling.

"Huh," Samus mused. "I didn't think he'd like the idea of us running off with his only ship."

"He doesn't," Connehan replied, his smile fading. "And that's why he's… er… he's coming along, too."

"What?"

Connehan's reply was interrupted by the door opening once again to admit the Luminoth in question. He felt all the eyes in the room coming to rest on him, and looked around unsurely. "What?"

"Hello, R-Stl," Connehan sighed. "I just informed them that you'll be loaning us the Scorpion for this mission, and accompanying it."

R-Stl nodded as he glided over to his chair and sat down. "And?"

"And…" Connehan hesitated. Jacobs was just a biologist; he actually wanted to stay off the front line. But R-Stl might not take rejection so well, especially from a woman whose life he had helped save at least twice the day before. Connehan bit his lip. "I don't think Samus wants…"

"No, it's fine," Samus said.

Jacobs and Connehan turned to her, shocked. "It… is?"

She shrugged. "Well, yeah. I'd prefer to go alone, but R-Stl definitely knows what he's doing when it comes to combat. He can take care of himself without me needing to babysit him."

Connehan shot a glance at Jacobs, who shared his surprise, before shrugging. "Well, that was surprisingly painless," he muttered to himself. "We might get this mission underway yet."

"Yeah," Samus asked. "What is the mission, anyway?"

"Our next guest should be able to explain that."

"You're bringing in another person?" Jacobs asked, incredulous.

Connehan bit his lip. "Well, 'person' isn't the world I would use, but…"

Right on cue, the doors swished open. In walked two federation marines, ushering between them the captive pirate.

"Oh, fun," Jacobs muttered, trying to hide under the desk.

Samus's glare shot from the pirate to Connehan. "What is he doing here?!"

"Actually, I don't think it technically has a gender," Jacobs offered.

Everyone glared at him.

"Right," he muttered, going back to trying to hide.

"He's here," Connehan went on, "because he's coming too. Our boys in intelligence had a friendly chat with him last night, and he told us a few relevant things… like the location of the current pirate stronghold."

Everyone at the table leaned forward. "What?!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," Samus said, rubbing her temples. "If he's already provided us with the location, why does he have to come along? That makes no sense."

"Because," Connehan said, giving the Pirate an odd look, "the new pirate base has specialized security, which he knows how to bypass. If you fly in without him or someone else that can bypass the system, you're liable to be shot down in a heartbeat."

"That's never stopped me before," Samus pointed out.

"But we can't risk that this time," Connehan sighed. "Not with everything else that's going on. You're suitless now, and you're taking along the three stooges here."

R-Stl and the Pirate exchanged confused glances. The Luminoth leaned over to Jacobs. "What is a stooge?" he whispered.

"I'll tell you later," Jacobs muttered, biting back any retort he'd give under less serious conditions.

"If intelligence had a 'friendly chat' with him, then why didn't he tell us how to bypass security on our own?" Samus was asking.

"I don't think you understand," Connehan said, pursing his lips. "When I said 'friendly chat,' I meant it. He was fully cooperative, and offered up information on his own."

Samus looked at the pirate with a slightly shocked expression. "You—he did?"

"And I can't tell you how to get past the security system," the pirate answered, "Because I don't know myself. The system itself, and the method of getting past it, are changed periodically. The pirates of the base are trained in most of the possible permutations; to impart that knowledge to you could potentially take weeks."

"And we can't count on the Pirates giving us that much time before they make their move," Connehan finished for him. "Especially now that they have X-parasites, we need to take them out before they can rally their forces. And there's nobody in the galaxy better at stopping pirates than you, Samus." He came over and sat beside her, looking her dead in the eye. "We need you on this, but if you're going, these three need to come. This is one time when we can't let you go alone; you're too valuable and we know too little about your current condition to risk it. Still, you're a bounty hunter, and your taking this mission is entirely up to you. So, what'll it be? Will you help us once more?"

Samus remained silent for a long time, then sighed and shook her head. "Who are you trying to fool, Connehan? You already know my answer."

The Federation officer stood up, smiling triumphantly. "Very well. Adam, if you would do the honors?"

The console in the room lit up, the screen displaying information on the X-Parasites. "Here's what we know," Adam's synthesized voice spilled into the room. "The Pirates have both acquired and replicated a sample of X, and have at least been able to use it to create the retro-virus that took over Samus's suit. However, the fact that Ridley said they'd bide their time before their next attack implies that they're still perfecting whatever technology they've developed from working with the X. We need to stop them before they finish."

The display changed to a star chart, with three locations marked. "This is our current location," Adam said as one marker began to flash. "Hyperdrive functionality was restored to the Oberon this morning, but she still needs repairs and is far too vulnerable to simply jump into orbit around a pirate-controlled planet, especially one with advanced security. She'll take us partway before dropping us off here." Another dot on the map lit up. "The Scorpion is slower, but it's still capable of interstellar flight, and as we speak, she's being outfitted with an interface that I can use. Don't worry, R-Stl, I won't be completely hijacking your ship. But I am Samus's CO, and it's not like I can just climb aboard by myself anymore."

R-Stl nodded. "I understand."

Adam continued quickly. "The pirate will guide us safely through security and we'll land on the planet. After that, Samus and R-Stl will infiltrate the pirate base. R-Stl, you're technically non-military and I can't give you orders, but Samus has much more experience with this sort of thing, so I strongly suggest you follow her lead."

"She did save my planet, Adam," the Luminoth remarked. "I'm quite aware of how experienced she is."

"Well, good. Jacobs, you will remain on the ship. Monitor Samus's vital signs, and be ready to go if anything starts to go wrong. Pirate…"

"I'll remain on the ship also, I presume," the pirate interrupted.

"Yes," Adam finished. "I'm sorry, it's just that…"

The pirate nodded. "You can't trust me. And, to be honest, I can't blame you. Besides, I have no desire to go into combat."

Jacobs considered bringing up the fact that the pirate had helped save Samus's life, but decided it was better not to. Adam was right; even after everything he had done, they still barely knew if they could trust the pirate or not. He could have given them false coordinates, or be leading them into a trap, or defect back to the pirates the instant they landed. Besides, Jacobs was still trying to hide under the desk, so he wanted to avoid drawing any more attention to himself.

Although he now realized that he'd be alone on a ship with a computer and a being that had only days ago worked for the enemy. Oh, good, he thought to himself.

Adam resumed the briefing. "After that, Samus, you just do what you do best. These guys just might be the last of the pirates in the galaxy, so if we take them out, it could very well bring an end to our conflict with them. We leave later today, as soon as the necessary modifications have been made to the Scorpion. After that, it's pirate-base-ho."

The camera on the console moved to focus on Samus, and Adam's voice had a humorous edge to it the next time he spoke. "Any objections, lady?"