Chapter 21: Deceiving A Friend
I've felt more uncomfortable outside of my armor than in it. Most people want what you have, what you can offer, what you can do for them. I'd rather be safe than sorry.
"It's very simple, Samus. When you get in, you'll need to hook up your suit to a priority alpha jack, which should be right near the control panel of his system. It's color-coded with red and yellow stripes. Plug in just before the data arrives, the download should take only thirty seconds or so. Then destroy the lore, I don't care how you do it. Blow up the ship if you have to, just make sure you and your copy of the lore get back in one piece."
I hoped Adam wanted me back in one piece. I couldn't tell if he was angry at me somehow, maybe for how I reacted. No, that's not like him, neither him nor his father. He wouldn't wish the death upon someone else...how could I even get to that consideration? Of course he wouldn't, especially if that person is me! I need to stop thinking about this.
"There's two ways we can do this," Adam said. "Either we hail him and manually dock or you climb on-board by yourself. Docking is obviously safer, but if we need to escape that may get a bit rough. On the other hand, going through that dust cloud on your own might as well be a death sentence, but once you're off the ship with the lore, there's not much he can do about it. Then again, he may find it suspicious."
"We can't dock. If we dock, he can just lock us in or pursue us immediately," I said.
"Alright," he replied. A door slid open to my right. "Depressurize, Samus. Your jets have plenty of juice to get you there and back, maybe even some safety maneuvers if need be. Just don't be careless."
Yes, because I go into every mission hoping for the sloppiest of outcomes.
I entered the room and the door slid shut as fast as it opened. Standard procedure, as always. The room became quickly inhumane, but I couldn't tell the difference. Vacuums might as well be atmosphere as far as I'm concerned. The lack of gravity would definitely be a problem, though. As in, the complete non-existence of it when I get out there.
The room opened up into the bleak darkness of space, but most of my view was covered by the enormous dust cloud only hundreds of yards away. Specs of stardust wrapped around my body as I held into the last bit of railing in the room. Some of it stuck to my armor, prompting me to somewhat forcefully brush a blob or two away. I was as close to hesitation as possible before I simply drifted out of the room. Even after several times in space, the feeling of actually being out there still put a lump in my stomach for a few moments, as it would anybody.
I pushed off the ship, floating ever so softly into the dust cloud. I could barely see where I was going, it was denser than the heaviest fog I've ever experienced. And I still had no idea where exactly the ship was. Plus I had to get his attention to actually let me into the ship, if he even was going to consider it. The closer I got into the heart of the cloud, the more unprepared I felt about this mission.
It was about ten minutes until I got the feeling that either this cloud was never-ending or that the ship just wasn't there. Maybe I missed it, this cloud is big enough to house maybe two dozen ships that size. He could literally be anywhere! Alright, I'm done with this.
I charged up my power beam and blasted a shot of energy into the cloud. Nothing. I turned and tried again. Nothing. God damn it, he's not here! But he has to be! That sign wasn't just an anomaly, maybe a ship-shaped one, but there's no way he isn't at least somewhere in this cloud! Fuck!
I began to shoot at random, firing endlessly into every direction the cloud expanded. Finally I heard something. Blast on metal. I fired again. Blast on metal. I may have found it.
"Adam, I think I found him!"
"..yo...ca...I...I can't...barely hear you..."
Damn. I'm too close to the center of this cloud. Though, it's a bit strange that a dust cloud would ruin the signal this badly. How big was this cloud?
"S...Sam...Samus? Samus? Are...okay?" Adam barely got through.
"Adam! If you can hear me, I'm heading toward the ship. Keep at what your doing, don't worry about me!"
My jets flashed on and I blasted off in whatever direction I had chosen. I honestly could not remember from which way I had come; a part of me was very desperate in hopes that Dakota would be just and sane, or at least welcoming. Or awake, that would be nice, too.
The dust stuck a bit to my visor, but most of the cloud began to part as I raced forward as fast as I could. I could feel a sense of urgency rising up in me. Either I'd reach the end of the cloud or some part of the ship. Or whatever is in here.
A large heat signature came up on my radar. It was coming in very fast. Rather, I was coming in very fast. Too fast, even.
...And it's the ship.
"The fuck?" Dakota rose from the floor, not too far from his usual sleeping place called the bed. Half-naked, he dragged himself out of his sleeping quarters and through his narrow, yet spacious ship. Whatever he had left out from the night before was now in his hand, and then promptly down his gullet, as he passed the kitchen.
"That's disgusting," a voice rang out through the ship.
"Didn't ask for your opinion, Gunnar."
"I didn't ask for your response."
"I wasn't even talking to you, idiot."
Dakota wiped his hands on his boxers. "Shut up, the both of you. I have a terrible headache and apparently something crashed into the ship, if you haven't noticed."
'"Hungover?" "Masturbation?"
"For fuck's sake, both of you shut the hell up or I'll run you on an outdated server and make you upload and download the same virus-filled files over and over again until you want to end your life-cycles," Dakota threatened.
"...hmm, been waiting a while to use that gem, huh?" One voice remarked.
"Yeah. Seems like you're not on your 'a-game' when you're hungover." Another said.
"I'm not hungover, I don't even have alcohol in this ship. You both are well aware of that. Why are you both being so annoying?"
"I don't know, maybe that whatever-it-is-that-hit-the-ship turned on Gunnar's annoying setting. Then again, I thought it didn't have an off setting." One of them started.
"Hah! At least I'm capable of being complex enough to have settings. You're parents were analog!"
"You take that back!"
Dakota shook his head and walked off, hoping for something in the kitchen that would either take his mind off of the others or would allow him to cause major brain damage so he wouldn't have to listen to their bickering. He returned to the main console with a sandwich, making him content for the time being.
"Alright, let's get to work here," Dakota started. "Gunnar, check the ship's status, make sure everything is per usual. Luther, find out what hit the ship, where it is, who it lives with, how much it spent at the grocery store last night, its opinion on politics and its social security number."
The bickering stopped and so did Dakota's headache. He sighed as he slouched in his chair, waiting for any results and not bothering to check windows or anything logical.
Gunnar finished first. "Ship seems absolutely fine, except the dent caused by whatever hit us."
Luther followed. "And whatever hit us is more like whoever. It's humanoid."
"If it's hostile, will you be able to fight it? You seem to be getting weaker," Gunnar said.
"I'll be fine, don't put thoughts like that into my head if you know what's good for you," Dakota snapped. He pressed a small nub of a button on the control panel before him and a small door popped open and quickly disappeared right before him. He reached into the tiny compartment and pulled out a purple pill about the size of the head of a thumbtack. Its shell rubbed off a bit on Dakota's fingertips as he pushed it into the bread of his last bite of sandwich, only to down it and the rest of his meal without any intention of chewing. Dakota's eyes lit up only a few moments later. He was ready for action.
"Loudspeaker, if you don't mind," Dakota requested.
Gunnar and Luther fell silent as the application ran.
Still no response from this ship. He must be sleeping, somehow. I prepared another charge into the hull of the ship when a slot opened at the top of the ship and out came a miniature dish. It extended, then stopped as a click and white noise came through with vibrations throughout the dust cloud.
"Attention all things outside my ship," the voice boomed through the cloud. "Please stop throwing yourself at my vehicle. Only I can do that. If you have a problem with that, please make your way in front of the cockpit so it'll be easier to shoot you. If you don't comply, we'll shoot you where you are. If you try to escape, we'll follow you, then shoot you."
Well, I figured my best option was to at least let him see who I am. Hopefully he'll recognize me in my armor. I drifted over towards the front of the ship, hoping he was bluffing. But it was hard to miss the large plasma rifle slowly emerging from the very tip of the ship. Now I was really hoping that he recognized me.
"...Samus? Samus, what are you doing floating around in space? Are you working for the postal service?"
I really had no idea what that meant, not even to respond to it. I instead motioned towards the doors in hopes that he'd let me inside. If I could get him to fall asleep again, there would be more than enough time to retrieve the lore...Shit! I hadn't been paying attention to how much time I had left!
"05:48"
That's definitely not enough time. I need to get in there immediately or all of this will be ruined!
Finally the doors opened and I made my way to the entrance as quickly as possible. I turned and pulled the doors closed before they could go through the slow process of automatically shutting themselves. Unfortunately I could not pressurize the room manually, but it saved me some time. When the room finally found itself fit, I knocked open the doors and swiftly made my way to the cockpit, taking my helmet off and whipping my hair back as I made my way in.
"Wait, you're a girl? Dakota gasped. He tapped playfully at his control panel. "But the guide refers to you as 'he'!"
"Very funny. Are you okay? You seem shaken up," I said.
"Considering you slammed into my ship making me think pirates were trying to steal my leftovers, yeah I'm a bit tense," he said, laughing it off ever so slightly.
He continued. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods and how did you manage to get yourself here without a ship?"
"It's actually an emergency, so we have to hurry this up a bit."
"Emergency? You look fine to me."
"Civilians," I said." Two children and their mother. Found them stranded on a broken up ship not too far from here. One of the kids is bleeding out."
"And you thought floating over here would help how, exactly?"
"We were trying to send out an SOS, but the ship would only be able to receive answers if it isn't moving. We saw the signature of your ship in here and hoped you'd be able to help. I need to plug into your system to get data and coordinates. Almost all of my ship's resources are being used to keep those three alive."
"Well, we could dock and try to share resources if need be. Other than that, feel free to do whatever you want. Just don't mess with any of my settings, I spent like an hour last night making sure my optical retroverses would be efficient enough to blast music into the next sector without a return source. If I can't go on their lawn, those old people would have to listen to my music and enjoy it, too."
I walked past him and began to scour the panels for the port I needed. I checked my HUD for the time, only a minute and a half to go. Found the port, plugged in and ready to go. Now I just have to keep conversation until this data hits me and I'm out of here.
"Gunnar, Luther, check for the nearest eateries around here. I want to eat out tonight."
Wait, what? "Dakota, who are you talking to?"
"Gunnar and Luther, stellar and awesome AI, at your service, ma'am," they said simultaneously.
"...AI? You have AI on this ship?"
"Yeah, I had AI before it was mainstream," said Dakota. "They're copy-AI. I just copied my persona onto basic AI files and boom, two identities. Named them after these cats I had back on Hyrea V."
"We're named after cats?"
"You never told us this!"
I cannot believe this. They're going to see the data! Out of all the people to have AI, Dakota has it, and he has two of them! How am I going to get this lore?"
"00:10"
Shit.
"Dakota, seems like we're getting some data here. From a nearby ship, actually," Gunnar noted.
"This shit's pretty big, yo," Luther added.
"What is it?" Dakota asked.
"Don't know. Maybe your friend does, considering it's routed to her suit."
Dakota took a confused step towards me. Well, there goes this mission. But I have to get this lore out somehow. I have to bypass these AI and get out, but that's literally impossible. I cannot be in more of a terrible situation.
"Samus...tell me again, why are you on this ship?"
A slot slid open next me and emerging from it was a small memory chip. I checked my suit. All of the lore had completely missed me and was probably on that chip now. Those AI must have done it.
"Dakota, I can explain, honestly. It's a lot more complex than I can talk about right now, but-"
"You know," Dakota began, taking the memory chip just as I unplugged myself and stepped back. "As much as we go a ways back, I don't think using my ship in a suspicious way without telling me is very nice. How are those civilians on your ship? You think they're doing okay?" Dakota's body became blanketed in a white aura. "Maybe they'll be better off than you."
I'm getting out of this. And I'm leaving with the lore. I'm done with this. Conversation's over.
I leveled my arm cannon and fired. The memory chip flew up into the air as Dakota was flung through the air and slammed hard onto the ground. The white aura evaporated from his presence. Blood trickled from his abdomen when he came to rest on the ground, lifeless as a corpse.
"Dakota!"
"What in the fuck? Have you no manners?"
I grabbed the chip, then put my fist through the first door, ripped open raw metal, then put my fist through the second door. Fuck pressurization. The ship bounced back from the force of the vacuum of space, getting me caught up in the swell of pressure and throwing me in cartwheels through the dust cloud. I righted myself as I spun through the mass and blasted my way out of the cloud as fast as possible, the dust splitting right before me on my path to the outside.
"Sa-Sam...Samus. Samus. Are you there? I'm picking you up on my radar. Where's the lore?" Adam said.
"I have the lore, it's one piece. I'm fine, too. Can't say the same about my friends."
"Friends?"
"I'll explain later," I said as I burst out of the cloud, throwing dust every which way into the depths of space. I turned and found my ship thankfully within view, albeit a good distance away. As I began my flight back to the ship, an enormous explosion rattled my very body to its core. The cloud vibrated with the roar of the event. Several moments later, out in the distance, a devastatingly damaged ship silently drifted out of the cloud, quiet and calm as the indifferent space around it.
"Get back inside," Adam began. "I don't know what you did, but we shouldn't stick around to here their case."
"Actually, I think we'll be fine," I said.
I drifted casually towards my ship, noticing that dust particles began to move towards the cloud at an odd rate, almost being magnetically pulled. More and more dust streamed by me towards the cloud that was getting more packed and firm with space dust. It began to glimmer and shit, jiggle and shake, and come together in a blob. The cloud looked like a swirling ball of goo, collecting bits and pieces of the destroyed ship in it, which were clearly visible through the semi-transparent, yellow body of the mass.
Suddenly, a ship piece flew out of the core of the mass and raced towards me. My jets flared and I barely thrust away before becoming one with the heaping metal chunk of debris.
"On that note, Samus, I'd really considering thinking this whole, 'taking your time thing'. Just saying."