The Contact

Samus was lounging in the living quarters of her marked ship, watching the mother Dachora dote on her young one, when the transmission came. A prompt appeared in her HUD, asking her whether to accept the connection, with text identifying the originator as Kale. Samus accepted the transmission, and a visual representation of the sound wave of Kale's voice popped up.

"Hey, sweetheart, it's me, Kale. I got in contact with my... contact. Thought you might want to know."

Samus gritted her teeth. The nerve of this guy. Struggling to refrain from making a scathing remark, Samus responded. "And?"

"Um, well, he did seem interested in meeting you. He's on his way here now. Should be here in, maybe, 15 hours? Give or take."

"Contact me again when he's here. Hope you're not wasting my time, Kale."

"Don't worry, this guy's good. A legend. A man among men. Or aliens. Or whatever."

Samus ended the transmission, and went to get some sleep.


Incoming transmission, from Kale again. True to his word, it had been about fifteen hours since the last one. Samus was well rested. Outside, morning light filtered through the rain clouds, lighting everything with a grey hue.

Samus accepted the transmission, bracing herself for whatever asinine comments Kale would make this time. But mercifully, he seemed more restrained than before, perhaps a byproduct of being tired.

"Samus, he's here. Send me coordinates so I can tell him where to land."

Samus sent over coordinates about 10 kilometers to the east of the ship, so as to maintain some distance between the contact and the Etecoons and Dachoras. She didn't want to put them in danger. She then exited the ship and closed the distance between her ship and the designated location in about four minutes. Then she waited.

Gradually, the sound of a ship's exhaust became perceptible. Samus searched the sky, but the clouds obscured her view.

Then a ship surfaced beneath the clouds, heading towards her. Alerts triggered in her HUD, but she didn't need the warning. She recognized the ship immediately. It was the Delano 7.

Sylux's ship.

"Kale," Samus growled, "you're going to regret this."

"What?" Kale said over the still active transmission. "Why?"

"That ship is Sylux's ship. You set me up!"

"Huh? You know him? He's known as the Revolutionary around here. Don't know him as Sylux."

"We're mortal enemies! Why do you think he wanted to meet with me?"

"Uh, sorry, I guess?"

Adam spoke up. "Samus, I attempted to scan the ship, but was unable to determine whether Sylux is onboard. The ship has incredibly sophisticated scanner-jamming technology."

The Delano 7, with its easily recognizable four jagged protrusions, began its landing sequence, about 100 meters away. It stopped short of touching ground, left hovering in the air. A lone figure emerged from the top, leapt to the ground, and stood up straight, directly facing Samus.

It was Sylux.