Chapter 10: Unavoidable Circumstance

The station began to shake, making the room Samus was held in shift about dangerously. She was tossed back and forth against the wall - painful, but it was a relief to move at all - and the guards were nearly thrown from their feet. After the initial blasts faded and the space station began to compensate, however, the shaking stopped and the space pirates again had their guns trained on her. There went that escape opportunity.

Stretching her sore muscles as much as possible without the guards noticing, Samus tried to work the kinks out of her body. If she even had a gun, she could probably shoot both guards, but they had been thorough. Nothing nearby could be used as a weapon.

Seeing that she couldn't escape, Samus instead set to thinking about what could possibly be happening. Could the Galactic Council fleet have actually attacked the station? No, they wouldn't be that foolish. If they were to seriously attack, the station would be obliterated entirely, not just shaken. Perhaps they found another way to attack, and they were doing so now.

Things were beginning to heat up, Samus could obviously tell. On occasion men rushed up to speak to the guards not currently aiming at her. She couldn't hear what they were saying and they were trying not to let her hear, but she got the impression that something was wrong. Whoever was doing something, they were beating the space pirates. A few of the men actually looked scared, which was strange for a space pirate. Blast it... I'm stuck in this stupid room when all the action is happening around us!

If Samus had thought the worst had already arrived, a practice she had long discontinued, she would have had her mind changed. Several minutes later she began to hear screams, a sure sign that the battle was taking place on the station, not outside of it. Typically energy weapons didn't create screams like that... either the attackers were using ordinary projectile weapons or something else entirely. That, or they were killing the hostages.

It eventually got to the point that Samus was glad to see Shilo walk into the room. Most of his saunter had disappeared, a sure sign that things were going wrong. That made his presence a great deal more bearable.

"What's going on?" Samus demanded. Shilo shook his head civilly, but his polished attitude was gone, showing hard anger beneath.

"That's none of your business."

"Things aren't going well, are they? Losing to someone?"

"Perceptive. As always." Shilo spat. "It is irrelevant. I'll be off this station quickly, with a few key hostages. A setback, surely, but that is all it will be. Only one question remains, my dear. Will you be going with me?"

"You already know how I'm going to answer that question."

"Of course I do. Allow me to rephrase it." Shilo snapped his fingers, and two of the guards rushed forward, grabbing Samus by the arms and slamming her against the wall, high enough she could no longer touch the ground. Casually Shilo stepped forward, that slight smirk on his face once again. He raised a hand and began to gently trace her jaw with a finger. "If you remain here, you will be killed. That is certain. Go with me, and you'll receive numerous benefits, outside of your life being spared. How much can it cost you? What do you say?"

In response Samus bit his finger. Yelping in pain Shilo pulled his hand away, face the very model of rage.

"B----! You'll pay for that!" Whirling on a heel, Shilo strode from the room. Over his shoulder he snapped his fingers, the fingers that hadn't been bitten. "Kill her immediately and fall back. If possible do it painfully."

Gritting her teeth, Samus began deciding her strategy. She had no need to come to terms with the fact that she might die; she had accepted that long ago. The question was how many of them she could take out before she died. Even if she managed to finish all of them, the station was dying; she'd be killed by the vacuum or radiation long before she could reach her bio suit. If she used all her strength she could knock away the two holding her, then take the legs out from under the nearest four...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a scream that erupted from the hallway. Everyone, including Samus, glanced into it, though nothing stirred outside the room. Turning back to her, the leader of the pirates leveled his weapon at her head and moved his finger to the trigger.

Suddenly he collapsed to the ground, the gun falling from his grip. Before Samus could fully register her shock, two smoking holes appeared in the men holding her arms. Landing agilely on her feet, Samus looked up in time to see several blasts of energy flare, killing the remaining guards that had been in the room. Carefully she glanced up to the door.

Tal lowered his hand to his side. His other arm was partially transformed, his claw holding the body of Shilo. Seeing her, he tossed Shilo aside and returned his arm to its human appearance. Which was he? Samus found herself wondering. Which form was the truth and which was a deception? At the moment, she really didn't care.

"Why are you here?" Samus asked him. Tal shook his head.

"We don't have time. You need to find your bio suit right away or you won't survive."

"Right," Samus agreed, moving to the nearest computer terminal and explaining as she worked. "My suit registers a unique energy reading, I should be able to change the settings on the ship's scanners to search for it. Hopefully they're keeping it close."

"Just hurry," Tal answered, glancing out into the corridor. Samus finished the operation and began the search. Now that there was nothing else she could do, she turned back to him.

"What's going on out there? Who attacked?"

"I did, essentially."

"You attacked the station by yourself."

"No. Let me explain. The station is currently being overrun by space-dwelling alien life forms. They're similar to me, in a way, except that they have no human part to them." For a moment Tal grimaced. "If I have a human part to me at all..." He shook his head to clear it. "Forgive my tangent. I defeated the alpha male for this set of aliens. Due to my... unique composition, they now obey me."

"You ordered the aliens to attack?" Samus asked, slightly incredulous.

"Essentially. They're invisible to most sensors, so they could get here quickly."

"Let me get one thing straight: you can survive the space vacuum, right?"

"Yes," Tal nodded. "But I should finish answering your question quickly. My forces overran the pirates relatively quickly, while I found out where you were and headed here. I didn't expect to have to help you, but I suppose it was a fortuitous turn of events. In any case, the damage to the station is severe, and radiation will sweep through it shortly."

"I see." Closing her eyes, Samus tried to process the information and continue thinking about the issues at hand. It was most important to get to the bio suit, if what Tal said was true.

Swiftly tapping a few buttons on another computer terminal, Tal brought up a schematic that Samus wasn't familiar with. Colors were shifting across it, meaning nothing to her, but apparently Tal could read them. He cursed and slammed a hand into the bulkhead.

"What?"

"We have less than a minute," he answered tersely. "We have to get you to a safe location. Are there any radiation-proof areas nearby?"

"No. Only on the bottom level of the station."

"Any emergency suits for working in a vacuum?"

"None that would stop radiation like that. I assume it's nega-photon."

At that moment the computer beeped, indicating it had located the bio suit. Samus glanced at it quickly, then groaned. It was more than five minutes away, even if she was going her fastest. There was no way she could make it, if the timing of the radiation was correct. Tal saw the same and squinched his eyes closed, putting a hand to his forehead and apparently thinking heavily.

"There has to be a way to get you away from the radiation..." he murmured.

"Me? What about you? Have some self-preservation instinct!"

"I'm immune to this type. It's too intrinsic to my genetic composition for it to hurt me."

"I... see. Then you were just trying to help me?" Now that one was harder for Samus to fully understand. Very rarely did someone do something like that... but apparently Tal was that sort of person. Or monster. Or alien. At this point the issue was moot.

"Yes, and speaking of which, I thought of one thing I can do." Tal glanced at her, his blue eyes glistening slightly. "Sorry about this, Samus."

She was about to say 'sorry about what?' but then Tal stepped behind her, wrapping his arms around her tightly and lifting her slightly off the ground. A slight shiver went up her back as she felt his armor incase his body. Both of Tal's wings expanded to either side of them, then curled around her tightly. Closing her eyes, Samus held her breath. If this actually worked...

A ripple went through the room, and Samus assumed that was probably the radiation wave, or at least the beginning of it. She had taken radiation damage before, and this didn't feel like that, so maybe the plan had actually worked. In any case, the radiation was still rushing past them.

His wings felt a bit like leather, Samus reflected, though they appeared to have muscle within them. Much softer than she had expected. The armor she was pressed tightly against felt much like an exoskeleton, which was the conclusion she had come to before. Overall, though, it wasn't actually that uncomfortable. How could someone be genetically like this? It didn't seem possible to her, but she didn't claim to understand nearly everything about science.

Then it ended, and a few moments after Tal released her. Only when he let go did she realize that she'd barely noticed his arms around her. Catching herself on her feet, Samus glanced herself over and decided that Tal's body had managed to absorb the radiation before it reached her. Amazing...

Tal himself immediately retracted his armor and wings, the latter of which seemed to return into his back, sliding in through several tiny slits in his shirt. So he actually had clothes designed to accommodate his transformation, this time.

"I'm sorry I had to do that," Tal began, but Samus cut him off.

"It doesn't matter now. What's important now is getting out of here before another wave comes."

"Right," Tal nodded, handing her one of the dead pirate's guns. Samus quickly took a look at the map diagraming the path to her bio suit, then broke out the door. Tal was directly behind her, and the two of them sprinted down the corridor. Interesting, Samus reflected, he was almost capable of matching her in a dead sprint, now. She didn't know of anyone who was that close to her speed.

"Where's your ship docked?" Tal asked as they ran.

"Dock 23."

"Good, that one is still intact. After you get the bio suit, if you can get to your ship you can get sufficiently far away. There's complete chaos outside, but no major ships still in operation and no smaller ones capable of tracking you down."

"Will I be able to get to my ship, though?" Samus pointedly asked.

"I'll make sure none of the aliens are in the way." He paused, catching his breath while he ran. "Did you get my message and the attachment?"

"Yeah. I have a great case against someone." Finding the door to the holding locker where her suit was kept, Samus skidded to a stop, then blew the lock away with her gun before continuing her explanation. "If I'd had more time, I could have done a lot more, though."

"Good. I hope someone gets prosecuted for this. Try to get this case closed."

Samus stopped, sensing something in his tone, and turned back to him. "Are you saying that you're leaving again?"

"Only somewhat," he answered. "I need to clear up this situation, but then after that I'd like to go to Station Emerald. I've wiped out the other two, but they only had incomplete information. I need to complete my records there. If you want to come along, I can meet up with you before I go."

"I see." Samus deigned to give him an honest smile. "I think I'd like to do that, Tal. Alien or not."

"Thanks." Tal returned the smile, then raced away down the corridor, his hands transforming back into claws as he ran. Refocusing herself, Samus entered the storage room and quickly found her bio suit. It hadn't been screwed around with by anyone, and apparently still was at full power. Her body suit was there as well, but she didn't have time for that now. Putting the metal over her dress, Samus turned it back on, then finally allowed herself to relax slightly.

Finally she was capable of defending herself again. Being back in the bio suit felt like being at home again. She would have time to consider the ramifications of all this later, at the moment it was most important to get off the station before someone blew it away. Everything she needed was either recorded in the bio suit or on her ship, so she didn't have much to do.

The trip to the docking bay was completely empty, as Tal had promised. As such, it was incredibly easy for Samus to reach it quickly, get into her ship and take off. Until they were blown to smithereens by the onboard guns, the docking bay doors were somewhat of a hindrance. Once out into open space again, Samus wasted no time in putting distance between herself and the warring space station.

Setting the ship on autopilot in orbit of the nearest uncolonized planet, Samus quickly left the room. Time to take off, and probably burn, this ridiculous dress and put on her full body suit again. Feeling much less cramped within her bio suit, Samus returned to the cockpit and leaned back in her chair. Now that the chaos was over, it was time to think and plan. She had a lot of work to do. Tal's advice had been solid, Station Emerald was their last chance to get more information. If Tal wanted to destroy it as well, that was perfectly understandable, if her theories were correct.

Wait a second... for the first time Samus wondered how Tal was even going to find her again. She hadn't left him any way to contact her, though he certainly seemed capable of finding where she was. Perhaps he intended for them to meet at Station Emerald itself. That would hardly be conducive for the sort of surveillance mission he seemed to have planned, however.

Sitting back, Samus continued to consider the problem. Her eyes began to close, and she realized that it had been quite some time since she had slept, with the entire standoff with the terrorists. Suddenly getting some sleep became the highest priority on her list. Setting her bio suit to its most comfortable setting, she set the ship to stay in orbit and closed her eyes...