VIII. Samus Revived

Lara and Joanna watched as the blue liquid drained from the chamber, the lady sinking to her knees as the mask was removed and retraced into the walls. Both women stood pensively with their hands on their guns. There was a hiss of air and the chamber door slid open. Lara kneeled beside the slow-breathing Samus Aran, a hand on her back as Joanna kept an eye out for anything coming up on their rear through the lenses of her I.R. Scanner. Lara knew what she did was dangerous. But she knew as well that friendly gestures needed to be made. All the same, there was no telling what this woman was capable of, and Lara her other hand near her pistol, just in case.

"Samus." she called to her. "Samus Aran. Can you hear me?"

Samus' eyes slowly opened and stared dazed at the floor beneath her. She saw her hands coated with the gelatinous, blue liquid of the resuscitation chamber. Where was she? Was that the liquid from the chamber? How had she gotten there? Her mind became flooded with questions, but though she tried to recall what had happened, her mind was sealed. The memories were gone. Feeling a chill run through her body, she shivered. In her dazed state, a realization struck her.

'Frozen? I've been asleep. But my memories…how long was I asleep? Asleep? What happened? How did I get here?'

An image of an explosion flashed in her brain. A vague memory of her hand gripping a sharp object. Her eyes strayed and she viewed a large, jagged object on the floor beside her. She remembered the feeling of gripping it. But just as quickly as the memory came, it began to fade. 'No!' she thought to herself, and she strained her thoughts, forcing her mind into submission, dragging from her deep subconscious how she had come to be frozen and the horrible events that lead to it.

She had received a distress signal of unfamiliar makeup from what was thought to be a long-dead world. The Galactic Federation had also intercepted the signal but asked her to investigate and report back as she was in the area and the closest marine squad was several parsecs away. She had agreed, for a price of course. But it was a dead end, literally. The world had been dead for ages, and whatever had lived there had been dead almost as long. Whatever they had been, what was left of their structures were bizarre and jagged, as if their intelligence mimicked some ferocity of their natures. She found some interesting artifacts, but nothing more. Eventually, she tracked the source of the distress signal to a rocky arena. It was there that she discovered an old distress beacon that appeared to have toppled over onto its activation button. She deactivated it, and was about to report back when…

She struggled to remember. There was a beeping. Her visor displayed two brief energy surges from somewhere around her. She immediately jumped and rolled to her right, dodging a laser blast.

Hordes of space pirates suddenly began flooding the area. She quickly realized them to be the remnant of those she defeated on Zebes. Somehow they had escaped and set this trap for her. And she fell for it like a complete fool. She found herself surrounded by the monsters. Cursing her blindness, she switched to her missiles and began firing round after round. Their parts went flying all around her as the missiles impacted, but more flooded the area. She laid down a super bomb, ignited her speed booster and bolted from the area, plowing through the horde like a comet. She headed for her ship which she had directed to pick her up. She jumped atop only to be tackled by one of the pirates just as the hatch opened.

The thing clasped itself around her with a pair of immovable arms. It held on as the two were lowered into the ship. She couldn't get free. She couldn't even change into her morphball form. She expected the creature to try to crush her, for all the good its efforts would do, but her suit's sensors told her that it wasn't attempting to do so. It was just holding her immobilized. Samus didn't bother to think why. She just let the two of them be lowered into the ship and let Creto take care of the rest. A red bean shot out of a miniature barrel that had lowered out of the ceiling. The beam struck the creature's head, which then exploded, freeing the trapped bounty hunter. Samus then deactivated her suit and gave orders to Creto to leave the planet. Creto obeyed but sighted something about the corpse; some electronic pulse. Samus had turned just in time to see the body explode in a massive fireball. Something impacted her chest, and…her mind struggled to recall. She forced it into submission and the rest came quickly, but jaded.

She remembered pulling herself along the floor of the cockpit, her hand gripping something sharp. Creto's alarm was screaming in her ears. She couldn't breath. She pulled herself forward. Her heart pounded. Every move sent pain rippling through her body. Her head was spinning, or maybe it was the ship. There was a warm and wet sensation beneath her. She gripped a metal bar and felt herself sliding into the resuscitation chamber. The door slid closed. Something warm was trickling down her chin. The blue liquid began to fill the chamber. Her hand pulled on the object it had been gripping. Massive pain shot through her chest. She screamed as the mask enclosed about her face. And then…

Samus came back to reality. She could hear a voice calling her name. The accent was strange. Slowly, she raised her head to look upon the concerned face of Lara Croft.

"Can you understand me?" Lara questioned her. "Do you know where you are?"

Her dazed eyes seemed to linger and then strayed to Joanna standing there pensive, her hand still on her pistol. Samus' mouth moved to form a word, but instead of emitting a voice, her throat choked and she began to cough almost convulsively.

"Take it easy now." Lara told her. "You've recovered from a rather nasty wound."

At last the coughing fit ceased and Samus took in deep breaths. Her arms shook with weakness. She felt as if she could barely hold herself up. Again, she looked up at the two, her eyes slightly less dazed.

"Who…?" she managed before cringing at a pain in her head.

"It's alright." Lara told her. "We're friends. You're safe…at least, for the time being."

Samus looked up and followed Lara's eyes to Joanna and hers to the chamber beyond Creto's windshield and the men hard at work beyond.

"Creto." Samus called out through a few more coughs as she grabbed a metallic hand-hold sticking out of the wall and struggled to pull herself to her feet. "What is the status of the shields?"

"I'm afraid they are only at fifteen percent functional ability." The computer responded.

"Engage them." Samus said, at last getting to her feet, leaning heavily on her support. "And secure the ship."

"I am unable at this time to-"

"Then do it as soon as you can."

Joanna watched as a flash of light sparkled momentarily on the outside of the windshield and the men attempting to light a blow-torch upon it were thrown back. She then turned back to Samus. The tall woman stood leaning on the bar. Her breaths came deep and shaky. She shivered slightly with cold. Her wet hair lay partially in her face as her dark eyes darted between the two women. Even in her vulnerable and weakened state this woman was showing tremendous strength and control. Joanna was impressed…and more on guard than ever.

A billion questions ran through Samus' head, but she restrained them. They could wait. There was only one thing she needed to know.

"State your intentions." She said boldly, knowing she was at their mercy save for a command to Creto.

"It's alright." Lara stated. "We're here to help you. We're not your enemies."

Samus' eyes looked to Joanna.

"And you?"

"Nothing that has to do with you or this ship." Joanna replied flatly.

Creto's voice cut in.

"You would benefit to know, Samus, that the women you address are currently carrying four rather archaic firearms."

At the words, Samus' eyes moved to where Joanna's hands rested, then to Lara's hips and then back to Joanna's face.

"You intend to use that?"

"Only if I'm forced to."

Inwardly, Samus relaxed, ever so slightly.

"You won't be." She told her.

Without another word, Samus, rather unsteadily began to move past them. Lara reached out to help the young woman, but her efforts were waved off. The tall woman slowly made her way to a door-sized panel on the back wall, which slid open to another chamber as she approached. Leaning in the doorway, she looked back over her shoulder.

"Thank you. Creto, prepare some food for our guests."

She then turned and entered the further chamber, the door sliding closed and locking behind her.