VII. Clues

"I don't like it."

Lara turned from viewing the ice chamber and looked to where Joanna lay sprawled on the floor. She lay working on the underside of an open panel near the captain's chair. The blue light of the hologram and the flickering light from the chamber beyond cast her and the cluttering of strange tools she had pulled from her belt in a strange array of criss-crossing shadows. She had been at it for hours and was not looking too well. It might have just been the lighting, but Lara wasn't betting on it. She had patched her up again, but she needed real food and water, not to mention better medical care than Lara could provide.

"What's that?" Lara asked her.

"I said I don't like it." Joanna replied. "We don't know a thing about this woman or this ship. If we resuscitate her, who's to say she won't turn on us?"

Joanna looked around at the mesh of wires, circuit boards, and alien connectors she had been working with. Her lenses revealed everything before her in crystal clarity and perfectly balanced light. She just didn't know what she was looking at. She twisted two exposed wires together, hoping she wasn't misunderstanding the recording.

"Next step." She said.

The recording dolled out more instructions and Joanna listened and looked, trying to comprehend what an electrostatic field induction unit was.

"Quite a statement for someone doing most of the work to resuscitate her." Lara commented as she looked casually at the chamber beyond the windshield.

Von Croy and his men were hard at work, bringing in heavy mining and digging tools, setting up a generator and air compressor, and preparing what looked like dynamite. Lara shook her head. Fools.

"Well," Joanna said, yanking a wire from its housing. "you bothered to take the time to save my life. The least I can do is return the favor. Or forward it or whatever you'd like to call it. But you were easily able to disarm me. This 'woman' is a different story. Who knows what sort of weaponry or devices this ship may contain."

Joanna grabbed one of her tools and brief red light appeared underneath the console.

"Speaking of which, don't you find this whole affair rather odd?" Lara asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well here we are on a space ship apparently operated by a human -or at least someone that speaks Earth English- that possesses technologies way beyond anything you or I have ever even heard of. We needed my expertise to find it. And we needed you to get to it and repair it. We don't know exactly what it was that caused you to travel backwards in time and we haven't a clue as to how this woman and her ship got here. I've seen a lot of strange things in my life, Jo, and I just can't help but wondering that there's something more to this than what we're seeing."

Joanna let out a breath.

"Perhaps." she said. "I just don't like it."

Lara breathed out a heavy breath and turned back to the ice chamber

"Neither do I." She said.

Joanna plugged in a newly-made socket to its counterpart. The chamber was suddenly filled with brilliant light. Joanna yelled and ripped her lenses from her eyes. Lara went to help her as she scooted out from under the console. The two looked around, Joanna managing as best she could. Blind or not, she wasn't about to be caught off guard. They could now see the chamber in which they stood had been blackened with soot. Debris and what might have been body parts littered the area. What looked like the source of the explosion sat just beyond the hatch platform area. A sense of dread but also of understanding came to the two women as they observed the barely distinguishable, large, dark streak running from just in front of the main console, across the soot, to the base of the resuscitation chamber.

"I am really not liking this." Joanna commented.

A slight humming sounded and a male voice filled the chamber. Joanna rubbed the blur from her eyes as she deactivated her lenses and replaced the earpiece. The voice said things not comprehended by the two for the most part. They discerned "diagnostic" and "damage" and "repair". Then the voice began to speak more plainly.

"Status: Samus Aran." It said. "Mortal wound. Resuscitation chamber re-initialized. Restoring heat."

The two watched as the chamber began to glow with a red light and the ice began to melt.

"Well, I guess that did it." Lara commented. She then looked over to Jo and saw a pistol in her hand. "Where did that come from?"

Joanna grinned. "You'd never make it as a secret agent."

"Unknown occupants." The voice announced.

"Uh-oh."

Lara's guns were already drawn. The recording that had been instructing Joanna suddenly shifted and spoke.

"Creto, defenses: alpha nine." It stated. "Do not fear. Creto will only attack if he sees aggressive action. Thank you for your help."

The hologram then disappeared.

"I think that means we'd better put our guns away." Lara suggested.

Not liking the situation any more, Joanna holstered her gun, but kept her hand on it. Lara did the same.

"Commencing repairs." The voice announced.

Feeling light-headed, Jo stumbled over to the pilot's chair and sat down. The voice ceased and numerous clunking and whirrs were heard as the ship commenced to repair itself.

"You alright?" Lara asked her.

"Fine." Joanna replied. "Just a little dizzy."

"Get a protein bar from my pack." Lara instructed her.

Jo did as she was instructed and fished out another protein bar. She grimaced at the site of it. These things were disgusting and hard to chew. She held her side and did what she could to rest without falling asleep as she chewed the chocolate-coated whey bar. She watched as the chamber warmed and the ice changed to a blue liquid. Slowly, the woman's body began to heal. Joanna sat back. Nothing to do now, but wait.

Author's note: My apologies to those waiting on Samus to actually come into the story. Lord willing, the next part which contains her will be posted sooner than this last one. Thank you for your reviews and your patience.