"Alright, Michael, I'm on my ship. I'll follow you now."

"Ok. It'll be a few hours until we reach Eigen, so be prepared for a long nap."

"Well then, I'll just turn on my autopilot for now."

"Good. I'll do the same over here, so don't worry about a thing. Cassandra is a better pilot most of the time, but she is no where near as good as me in combat."

"I'll take your word for it."

My ship was out of orbit now, and Samus had just returned to her ship. I had to lend her a space suit though, as the bridge connectors for our ships didn't match. I was alone again… sort of, considering that Cassandra was always there, but never in a physical form.

"Cassandra, take over will ya."

"No problem. Setting course for planet Eigen now."

After Cassandra's short response, I stood up from the pilot chair and walked into my room. Slowly, I moved over to my bed and sat down. Some time passes, and with little else to do and my back starting to ache, I decided to lie down. I now gazedat the ceiling, which wasof a gunmetal color,andthe simplicitydid little to stimulate me.

I felt my eyes drop down slightly, the darkness of sleep coming over me. In response, I shot right up, looking for something to do.

"I guess I am getting old."

It had only been a few hours since I had woken up earlier, but I suppose my age was to blame for this sudden tiredness. I was going to be kicking fifty in two years, so maybe I am getting old for this line of work.

"Michael, are you alright?" asked Cassandra through the speakers.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why, is something wrong?"

"I was just wondering why you just went to your room all of a sudden."

"What of it, Cassandra?"

"Well, usually you start working on that book of yours. And besides, you going to sleep so early just isn't you."

"Good point… I don't know, it's probably just age. Anyway, I'm going to be taking a shower now. Tell me if anything happens, alright?"

"Sure."

I stood up once more, and then headed into the rest room. My towel was hanging next to the shower stall, so I didn't need to worry about grabbing it later. I quickly stripped down, turned on the hot water, and took a very relaxing, and apparently much needed shower.

"What's with that guy? He's not like any of the other bounty hunters I've met before. He seems too… generous…"

I began to wonder what he was like. 'On the outside, he looked like a physically fit, brown haired man. He looked good too, especially considering his age. He has to be at least 42, as the end of the war was twenty years ago, and if he was eighteen when he joined the military, then he would have had to been in for at least four years, as the Eigen invasion didn't take place until the end of the war.'

"He must have his reasons for being a bounty hunter. But I don't think I should trust him too much. After all, there are bounties on my head, considering the Space Pirates, and various other want me dead."

'Ah what am I talking about, I shouldn't prejudge people before I even know what they really are like.'

I stood up from my chair and went into the small room that I used as a shower room. I moved in front of the sink, and found myself staring into the glass mirror, one that had to replace yet another broken mirror. My blonde hair shined in the light that came from the ceiling, and my face seemed to radiate with a golden glow. The light was dim, as I usually preferred it that way. True, I liked my fair share of sunlight and warm beaches, but as a bounty hunter, I had more important things to do. I looked into my eyes, seeing the blue orbs looking back. I could almost feel myself tremble when I saw them. It was as though a demon had been harbored inside of me, and I was powerless to stop its growth. "Why did I have to be the one? Couldn't someone else do it?"

I could see the bags under my eyes begin to build up. It had been about two days since I had slept, as the autopilot had been malfunctioning. Fortunately, I fixed it just before I went to Terra Firma.

"Maybe I should just take a shower. Yeah, that's a good idea. Then I can go get some sleep, while Michael takes care of flying."

I began to unzip the jumpsuit I was wearing, peeling the zipper down from the front of the collar, and pulling it all the way down to the lower portions of my stomach. I then pulled the blue suit off of my shoulders, and then proceeded to take it off completely. Now standing in just my bra and panties, I could feel the chilled air of the ship travel around my body.

"Gees, I should raise the temperature in here."

I moved over to the shower stall and opened the glass door. Inside, I found the tiled room, the shower head, and the knobs for hot and cold water. I turned the warm water far to the left, while just turning the cold knob a bit to the right. This was how I usually had my water, warm and a lot of it.

Time passed for a bit, and an eerie silence came to the ship. Save for the sound of the ships thrusters, there was little else to be heard. I shifted my weight to my left leg, and as I did, I heard my feet peel off of the floor. It was like my feet had been frozen there, though there was no pain.

Steam started to rise from the shower, and my mind started to realize that it was time for me to get in there. I took off my bra first, revealing my bare, and slightly tanned breasts. I felt the cold even more now, and my body adjusted by making my nipples erect. 'Stupid nipples,' I thought, swearing at myself for being so feminine. Afterwards, I took off my panties and tossed them to the side.

Once done away of all clothing, I opened the door to the shower stall once more and walked in. I enjoyed the feeling of water splashing onto my skin. My hair began to swim in the steam, and I instantly began to feel refreshed.

Moments later, I realized something else and rushed out of the shower.

"SHIT THAT'S HOT!"

And boy was it. I looked back at the knobs, and through the steam, I could tell that the hot water was turned all the way to the left.

"Damn, now I have to go back in and cool it down."

With few other choices, I dashed back into the shower and turned the cold farther to the right, so as to combat the hot water. Feeling the steaming water crash onto my skin, I tried to run out of the stall. Unfortunately, I was stopped by a simple bar of soap and fell to the floor. The steaming water continued to pummel my skin, and I could not escape it. The soap had stopped me in my tracks, but I quickly got a hold of the brass seal that kept the water from leaving the shower. I pulled myself out, and just as I did, I felt the cooler water begin to hit my legs.

"Damn bar of soap."

I shut the door, this time ready for a better shower then that of a few seconds ago. I grasped the white wash cloth that was hanging in the stall, and with soap in hand, I began to clean myself up.

I stepped out of the shower, feeling somewhat refreshed. With the towel around my waist, I moved forward into my room. The air was as I had programmed Cassandra to leave the room at. It was warm and a tad muggy, though very comfortable.

Carefully, I went to the dresser that I had in the room, where most of my… personal garments were. Needless to say, I changed into some undergarments, and then went on to put on a pair of sweat pants and a grey shirt that I used as my sleeping clothes.

Afterwards, I felt a bit energized, so I decided to head into the small gym area I had towards the rear of the ship.

I walked out of my room to head to the gym, and just as I pivoted, I was hailed by a familiar voice.

"Feeling better, Michael?"

"Much, thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading to the gym for some exercise."

"O.k. then, be careful."

"I will. Oh and Cassandra, please try to maintain a smooth flight path. Just because there is artificial gravity doesn't mean I don't notice all the sudden bumps we take."

"Alright, then the flight shall be as gentle as can be."

I continued on my path to the gym room, which led me down the main hallway. I generally just used it as a lounge, though there were many uses for the hallway. First and foremost, it was a hallway, and the chairs in it served as a comfortable escape to the usual leather chair I used in the cockpit. Also, there was a hidden bed in the wall to my left, so it doubled as another room. This hallway also leads to another bedroom for quests, which was stocked with its own bathroom, and lies just across the gym room. And lastly, the hallway could be used as a spare cargo room. It was wide enough to fit several crates of goods in it, though I tried to refrain from doing so, as I did have a cargo hold just under this hallway. The stairs to the cargo hold are currently sealed off for 'in-flight purposes', but when the ship is in orbit, the stairs will rise just to my right, in the corner that separates my room from the hallway.

The gym area was a simple room in itself. As a gym, one could obviously expect to find heavy weights, a bench press, and many of the other heavy lifting machines. Medicine balls and other exercise tools could also be found here, but I was quite fond of the pull up bar.

Pull ups aren't my favorite activity in the room, but I know I need those muscle skills later. As a bounty hunter, I often found myself in situations where I would have to scale wall, climb onto rafters, and hike long ladders. And though my legs and chest muscles were important, I liked to keep my biceps and triceps in the best of shape.

Today was no exception, as the first thing I did was the under hand arm pulls. Three sets of ten ensued at the beginning, and each set was followed by a set of push up followed by a set of crunches. Repeat for the sets of overhand pull ups, and another set of both. And with sixty over hand and under hand pull ups, as well as a hundred and twenty push ups and crunches, my body was starting to sweat already.

However, I still felt that I had plenty of energy left in me, so I continued onto the machines. First, I went to the bench press, where I found that I had left about a hundred and eighty pounds worth of weights on the rack. Although somewhat glad I had left them on from my last work out, I was annoyed that I didn't put them back at first. My thoughts quickly turned to the matter at hand though, as I quickly began to push the weights from my chest, into the air, and then repeat. This went for three sets of ten repetitions, so I decided to tire myself out before I finished. Of course, that hasn't happened in a long time, as I can at least bench 450 with all the workouts I have done over the years.

Time passed, and soon my sweat drenched body was done for the day. I had worked most, if not all of the muscles in my body, giving myself a nice boost of sleepiness. I know I felt tired as a rock at the moment, though I was smart enough to know that when we arrived at Eigen, I would be energized enough to do the whole mission over some long hours.

But for now, I felt that I needed another shower. And trust me I did; by this time, I was sweating like a mule, and I probably smelt like one too. With sleep starting to come to me, I decided to hit up my shower for a few minuets, and then pass out on my bed. And in that order I did. I didn't even spend five minuets in the shower, I just needed a quick rinse, and then off to a new set of clothes and the dream world.

The warmth of my shower had already left the seemingly frozen cockpit of my ship. At this moment, I had raised the heating of the ship to about seventy degrees, so the ship was starting to get better. But the current chill in the room did not help me, as I wore only a large white t-shirt and the pair of regular panties that I had worn for some odd years now.

I was lying down in my cockpit chair, finding little solace in it. It was cold and leather, and though spacious, I wish that it was more comfortable. Even with the heat on, the leather still felt out of place, and cold hearted. The chair was built for me to sit in it with my armor, not sleep on it with little more then a piece of cloth between me and it.

"I suppose this is my life… There's little I can do about it right now."

'Maybe I could ask Michael to crash at his ship for a bit… Nah, I shouldn't. That would be wrong. And besides, what if he is a pervert?'

I slapped myself, trying to shake some sense to me. "What am I thinking," I said, trying to yell at myself. "And why do I talk to myself? Normal people don't do that."

'Am I normal? I haven't exactly been normal since… ever. Why should I care if I talk to myself? Is it wrong to talk to myself?"

"Why do I care?"

'I should care. What if I ever wanted to be normal, or maybe fell in love with someone and settled down? I would have to change right? Change into someone… else. I couldn't be Samus Aran, famous bounty hunter. I would have to be Samus something or another Aran, homely house wife. And if I ever did change like that, I would hate it. I love to explore and run around in the wild. I love the thrill of the hunt, no matter how much I hate it. It's what I am good at, and I can even help people doing it too.'

There was a dull roar coming from beneath the control panels in front me. The heat was slowly starting to pour into the room, giving my body some ease from the frozen wasteland of the room.

'But when I get old, what will I do? I won't be able to do all these things anymore, simply because my body will be too weak to do it. I would get hurt, and maybe even die some painful death by some monster on one of those planets out there. Or maybe I would get killed by some asshole of a space pirate. By then, I wish I could be married, so that I wouldn't have to live this way anymore. I'm tired of being a bounty hunter.'

"But…"

'Yeah, but… Are there no words that could ever change my mind? Right now, I can help people, and later I want to settle down. But who would want me? Who even knows me, and not just by name? There is no one out there that knows me like that. Why? Why is it that I just can't find a guy I can open up to? Sure there are some really good looking people out there, but they aren't good people on the inside. Some beat their wives and kids, others are mean and money hungry. Some are even rapists looking for another thrill. And those are the people I hate. I can't stand people like that. I just want to find a guy who can make me happy, and is truthful and honest, and kind and gentle.'

"Maybe I expect too much. Maybe that's why I can't find a decent man."

'Is that the truth? Is it because everyone thinks I'm too high maintenance? These are the basic ideals most people are taught to strive for, yet these people are the ones left behind in the world. To succeed is to be ruthless in every aspect of life, and to fail is to be too compassionate for your own good.'

"I think too much."

'Maybe so, but I'm still here. Does that mean there is still hope for me? I… I want the answers. I'm tired of being left in the dark. I'm tired of having to hurt people and travel to new worlds, just so that I can live. Why do I have to be the one that is left behind, when I am the one helping out everyone else? Why can't someone else be left behind?'

"Why?"

Tears began to roll down my cheeks. They were not something I expected, though I cared little for them. I did not care if I cried, I barely even noticed it. My life was torment enough to me. Sometimes I wished I would just die, so that I could just disappear from this world.

'If only I could not be Samus Aran, even for a minuet. I could have the best of lives, living with the rich and wealthy, able to just want everything away. I could have someone do everything for me, and I could have a good husband and… No, that life doesn't really exist. At least, not for me. There is no one who would love me enough to think I deserve those kinds of things. I'm just going to be Samus Aran, the bounty hunter who defeated the space pirates. And when I get old, I'm still going to be alone. And then I'm going to die, and no one will care. I'll just be some corpse in an orange ship, or a corpse in a robot suit. Why would anyone care about me? Why?'

"Why?"