VI. The Lady in Ice
The two looked around. Their surroundings were as dark as the chamber from which they had come. The air was stale, metallic, and cold. There was no sound but that of the women's breathing. Even the noise in the chamber beyond was deafened. They could see the emerald and through it to the chamber just beyond where Von Croy and his men had re-lit the torches and were recovering. Von Croy stared angrily into the emerald, or rather…
"Glass." Lara spoke. "That's what I thought it was."
"A windshield." Joanna concurred.
She then activated her lenses and looked around. The green light filtering in from the chamber beyond revealed a steel chamber with numerous doors and slots that sat flush with the wall. Beneath the windshield sat a console, an empty pilot's chair facing them in what was for Joanna a very unwanted invitation.
"Well that confirms it." She said, dejectedly. "We're on a space ship. Wonderful."
"Oh don't be so down in the mouth." Lara told her. "You're alive at least."
"I'm not so sure that's a good thing at this point." Joanna satirically commented.
A light appearing in their peripheral turned their attention to a strange sight at the back of the chamber. The two stepped off the platform which raised up after they had stepped off, sealing them inside. Slowly, they approached, awed and uncertain at the sight before their eyes. Lara, her guns already drawn and held pensively at her sides, noted the skeleton lying curled up on the floor and then looked to the chamber before them. Jaded, blue light shined upon them from a chamber of blue ice sealed behind glass. Floating, suspended in the midst of the ice, the two women could make out the tall figure of a woman in a blue jumpsuit. Her dark hair looked as if frozen in mid-motion of being tossed amidst tiny underwater currents. Two tubes ran from either side of the chamber, connecting to a mask that covered her mouth. She looked as if she slept, a human woman perfectly preserved in a chamber of blue ice.
"The lady of ice." Lara muttered. "Of course. It was a blue ice, not blue lady. One of the natives must have gained entrance and been trapped in here. He must have communicated through the windshield somehow of what he saw."
"Lara, look!" Joanna said, leaning close to the glass and pointing. "There. Look at her chest."
Lara looked and viewed through the ice the tremendous wound on the woman's chest. It was definitely fatal and quickly Lara's tomb raider mind was forming conclusions and hypotheses, fitting together all that they had seen.
"Greetings."
Lara whirled, her guns aimed expertly at her target. The two viewed in the center of the chamber a small image standing upon a metallic cylinder. Its form flickered and cycled.
"It's a hologram." Joanna said. "And she's speaking English."
Lara breathed a sigh of relief as she lowered her guns.
"Well, now we know what the rest of the writings were talking about." She said.
The voice continued as the women drew closer. They saw that it was an exact copy of the lady in ice, save that she was only four inches tall and no wound lay on her chest.
"My name is Samus Aran. If you are viewing this, then something has happened. Likely I have received some type of wound and my ship was damaged beyond the point where it could sustain the resuscitation chamber. If such a thing has happened and my ship is not close enough to a medical facility, it is programmed to cryogenically freeze me, putting me into a state of suspended animation so that my life will be sustained. My ship is supposed to be self-repairing. However, if it was damaged beyond such ability, it will have shut down, reserving what power it has to operate the hatch, light the resuscitation chamber, and enable this holographic recording. I am not accustomed to asking for help. But it seems I am in need of it. I ask you, whomever you are, if you can understand this recording, to help me. This recording contains detailed instructions on how to repair this ship enough to allow it to re-awaken and begin proper repairs to itself. I ask you to rest on whatever compassion you have and help me."
Author's note: I'm aware that in some of the Metroid games Samus' hair appears blonde. However, the first one I played was Super Metroid for the SNES, in which her hair was a dark blue or black. As this is my memory of her character this is how I wrote her description.