Again, thank you for the reviews.
Control: I am not certain I entirely agree with your justification of the angst, but if you feel it is justified I am not about to quibble.
The plot is a great deal more lengthy than you indicated in your review, but by the terms you specified it isn't necessarily going to get any better. I do think, however, that it is worth the space it is given at the same level as the rest of the story. Personally, I was not too big a fan of Snow Crash, from what I remember of it, so that may not bode well.
But regardless, I hope this chapter is also enjoyed.
-
Chapter 13: Tautological Destiny
Lights blurred around Samus's ship as it glided through space. There was no sound, of course, but the hot flaring of her engines made it obvious they were roaring. Very few times did a bounty hunter, especially one of the caliber of Samus, utilize the full engines on one of their ships. When they did, almost everyone knew it was better to just stay out of their way.
Nothing interfered with the bounty hunter as she blazed her way back to Headquarters. Perhaps sensing something of her urgency, the station immediately allowed her access to one of the docks. As the ship moved into autopilot and settled into the station's gravitational field, Samus flipped down her visor with a loud snap.
-----------------
A small crowd of people was waiting for her, as usual. David was in the first row of those waiting outside the primary airlock, impatiently waiting for his love to step through the door. The group waited nervously for nearly a minute, becoming more and more restless as time went on. Hydraulic pumps hissed as the airlock opened, and the crowd surged forward...
Blinking, a small man with a mustache stepped from the airlock, the helm of his bio suit in one hand. There was a long, uncomfortable pause as both groups just looked at each other. Both seemed moderately annoyed.
"Where's Samus?" David demanded. Again the man blinked.
"Aran? She detached from her ship before it docked and flew to another entrance. That was at least two minutes ago."
He continued standing there confused, scratching his head, long after the crowd had rushed away down the corridors. What the h--- was going on in this place?
-----------------
Her suit hummed slightly as it came back online, and Samus flexed her fingers just to ensure it was working properly. This time she hadn't really been heavily damaged or used too many resources, but if she was going to be doing longer term research, she wanted to be fully stocked. Fortunately, she'd evaded everyone on the station except those she needed to talk to, so everything was running smoothly.
Now, however, she wasn't sure what she was going to do next. Certainly, she knew that she intended to help Tal. The people he was after had tried to kill her, broken dozens of laws and been intolerably cruel... besides, Tal deserved it. This goal was pretty nebulous, however, and didn't do her much good in the short term.
Quickly moving down a corridor just so she wouldn't remain in one place, Samus continued to ponder the situation. Tal was somewhat broken, and could be almost anywhere in the galaxy by now. Fortunately, she had his research. Perhaps it would be best to pick up from there, and find out who exactly was responsible for all of this.
Someone relatively high in the Galactic Council was corrupted, or at least was being used in this issue. Perhaps if she traced through-
"Welcome back." The sardonic tone of the voice instantly narrowed down the number of people that it could be. She wasn't really sure if she was grateful it wasn't one of her admirers or if this was worse.
"Hello, Veronica," Samus returned as coldly, glancing over the other bounty hunter. Veronica was, as she always was when on assignment, clad in her slim lavender bio suit. It was a model every bit as expensive as Samus' own, but of a different variety. Mentally Samus scorned the decision; her version was much more form hugging, but didn't really increase mobility and severely cut down on armor protection. Then again, Samus was relatively sure that Veronica did not make the decision based on functionality.
Neither of them spoke again for a moment, sizing the other up, as they always did.
"You've been vanishing a lot lately," Veronica commented, moving toward Samus' side.
"Business has come up," Samus returned, barely civil, moving in the same direction so as to still be directly facing Veronica. An unknowing observer might have said they were circling each other in a fight. In some ways, the observer would be right.
"As it always does. If you go away too long, you might lose your position as the highest ranked bounty hunter."
"I could. I take it you're still in number two?"
"Of course." Narrowing her eyes at the jab, Veronica reflexively tossed back a long black lock. "But that isn't really why I came to talk to you."
"Pray enlighten me." Behind Samus' dry tone was a hint of interest. What could Veronica's motives be for this?
"Then follow." Turning on a heel, Veronica began moving purposefully through the hallways. Raising an eyebrow, Samus sped up and matched her pace, forcing Veronica to look to her side, not the front. "Something happened here while you were gone, quite recently. An interesting situation."
"Are you going to tell me or not?"
"Such an abrasive tone," the other bounty hunter admonished Samus. "Patience. Someone infiltrated the station, we're still not sure how. He was snooping in some computer files, though we don't know what he was looking for. He probably would have gotten away with it, too, if I hadn't stumbled across the b------ in person."
"What happened?" Interesting. Bounty Hunter HQ had rarely been attacked, and Samus had never heard about anyone slipping inside unnoticed. Security was as tight as anywhere she had ever seen, including the primary station of the Galactic Council; primarily because much of it was cutting edge illegal.
"Caught him off guard; got a full shot of poison into his system. He died, but we've kept him around for interest sake and preserved his body. I haven't been able to pin it down, but there's something odd about him..."
Stranger and stranger. This was bizarre indeed, Samus noted, for Veronica to act like this. These events, however flippantly she had described them, had shaken her somewhat. Ordinarily she would never reveal any important information of her own free will. Perhaps this was all a ploy to prove her skill.
Tapping a code into a door, Veronica ceremoniously stepped aside and gestured for Samus to enter. Storming through the door, Samus glanced about the dark room. Moments later Veronica entered and raised the lights.
No emotion came close to straying across Samus' face. Briefly her gaze flickered over the situation, but it did no more. Veronica was watching closely and seemed slightly disappointed, as if she had expected to wow or shock her.
Tal hung in a tube on the opposite side of the room, floating in a blue preserving liquid. His body floated limply, as if dead. Not allowing herself to reveal anything, Samus flipped to Darklight Mode.
Instantly Tal lit up, glowing brightly in the darkness of the room. Just as she had expected. Resisting the urge to smile, Samus acknowledged that he was still alive. Though his body systems seemed to be in some sort of shut down mode, the currents of nega photons running through his body hadn't slowed in the slightest. Most likely the poison had merely administered a heavy shock to his system and put him in this state.
But she had very little time to consider his. Veronica was leaning against the wall, her arms folded impatiently. Best to feign apathy for now. After all, what did she have to do with some dead intruder?
"I should care why?"
"Pff, just thought station security issues might matter to you," Veronica responded, hiding her disappointment almost perfectly. "Go ahead, run around and do whatever you want. I certainly won't keep you here."
"Well, thank you for your permission," Samus cut back, sickeningly polite. In seconds she had left the chamber and was storming down a hall, mind cloudy.
How ironic. She had intended to find Tal, and now she didn't even need to. Fate seemed determined to force them to work together. It was just as well, though... the two of them were the only surviving individuals that could shut down the Darklight Project permanently.
What to do now, however? She knew Tal was alive, yet she couldn't be certain when or if he would recover. His circumstances wouldn't be conducive to a natural recovery, though she was pretty sure his system had probably eliminated the poison. Waking him, though, would be nothing less than an act of war, and Veronica would be on it in an instant. Far better to get a clear goal first, then enlist his help.
First, however, she needed to find a terminal capable of locking into the Bounty Hunter HQ information database. Very little in the universe wasn't on the database somewhere. Of course, the Darklight project technically didn't exist, but Samus was willing to bet she could still find a few links. That was probably what Tal had been banking on.
Reaching a door, Samus tapped in her code for the area. The door didn't move, making her frown and put the code in again. Nothing. Gritting her teeth, Samus drummed her fingers on the wall. This was not what she needed. Just when she started considering blowing the door down, a voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Sorry, Miss Aran, they've locked that section."
Turning abruptly, Samus found herself facing down a smallish man she quickly identified as a scientist type. He quailed slightly under her angry gaze; she stopped glaring at him.
"Why can't I enter?"
"It isn't anything like that," he rushed to assure her. "They've just changed the code. It's IG1337B now. But trust me, you don't want to go in there."
"Why not?" Samus asked, raising an eyebrow, already putting the new code to memory.
"The place is a terrible safety hazard. The work of madmen, I tell you. They're doing some experiments with burst weapons of a biological type, and they aren't being too careful with the experiment results. What that boils down to is deep tubs of acid all over the floor."
Samus was already putting in the code. She strode through the door and the scientist scurried after her. He seemed worried the instant he stepped in the door, and she understood why. It was as he had described... lab equipment was over much of the floor, and there were several pools of opaque green acid in the floor.
"How dangerous is it?" she asked the scientist. He jumped slightly, as if startled by your question.
"That's the worst part," he answered, edging a bit further away from the pools. "When it comes into contact with human flesh it races through the system, essentially altering the DNA so quickly that it is destroyed. When it comes into contact with a non-organic substance, it eats through it almost immediately. They tested the material bounty hunter suits are made of, and the substance destroyed that nearly as quickly."
"Ah. Quite the hazard."
"They're mad, I tell you. I sure security is going to shut them down soon." Without another word the man quickly moved through the room, cutting far around the pools of acid. Walking casually but carefully past them, Samus shook her head. The scientist types at Bounty Hunter HQ were mostly the deranged type that had gotten their licenses taken away everywhere else. This, perhaps, went too far.
Through the room, Samus found a computer terminal and pulled up a chair. What would their next step be?
-----------------
Gunfire broke Samus awoke rather rudely. Energy weapons, medium caliber. Most likely two separate groups engaging in guerilla warfare in corridors. Ten to twenty meters away. Already sitting up in bed, Samus shook her head once to clear it and leapt to her feet.
She'd fallen asleep in her bio suit, as she often did. After a late night of research, she had been too tired, and there wasn't any good reason to take it off anyway. Now she was quite grateful that she had gone with her conventions.
Arming her weapons and slipping her visor to a mode more battle-ready, Samus tapped on the computer terminal near her bed. It lit up with a bright red border, indicating an alert of the highest level. Interesting; she'd only seen a red level alert once before. A large group of space pirates had attacked the station in unison, and all the bounty hunters had for once worked together to destroy them.
This time, however, she had no explanation. Annoyed with the computer's speed, Samus continued to listen to the noises. They were coming closer, but only in an extremely slow manner. She had time, then. At this point knowledge mattered more than speed.
The first instant she could use the computer Samus brought up the station's messaging system. It was almost completely empty... logical considering a battle was being fought. Only officials and a few others were online, most likely exchanging important information regarding the fighting. Finding the name of an official she knew, Samus fired off a quick message.
Samus Aran: What's going on, d-----?
Admin Orjuela: The situation broke out into an attack.
Samus Aran: Situation?
Admin Orjuela: The Galactic Council one.
Samus Aran: Explain.
Admin Orjuela: Okay, but we need you to fight.
Admin Orjuela: A bunch of GC toughs showed up recently. Big ship. Big guns.
Admin Orjuela: They demanded something involved with a TA1 project.
Admin Orjuela: Operator told them they were full of it. They didn't like it.
Admin Orjuela: We found out there is some specimen of theirs.
Samus Aran: Too late, right?
Admin Orjuela: Right. They're gonna take it by force. You gonna fight?
Samus Aran: Yeah. Thanks.
Shutting down the computer, Samus shifted both of her arms to energy cannon mode. Just when things were becoming peaceful again, idiots with guns became involved. Now this situation was going to devolve into another shootfest. Story of my life.
Slipping out her door, Samus listened again for the gunfire. Surprisingly close, now. It didn't sound like anything very organized, mainly a lot of scattered fighting over the ship. That was what she'd expect, given the nature of the attack. Everything was probably thrown into chaos, and she couldn't be certain where anyone was. Most likely she'd run into a few battles on her way.
The lights in the corridor were on dim, probably due to the station's situation. Shifting her visor to low light mode by reflex, Samus began to run down the corridor. Now was the time to make her move. A bit sooner than she would have liked, but it would do. Raising a gun and skidding around a corner, Samus began to smile slightly.
