Ridley woke up floating in a stasis chamber. Panic shot through his mind: "I've reanimated!" but the beeping of a computer that read his escalating pulse quelled such thoughts.
"You're lucky, you know," Mother Brain telepathically told him, "It required more gas to kill you than a Zebesian, so we managed to get the toxin out of you before you succumbed."
"I give my deepest gratitude, Mother," Ridley replied. Seeing the transparent canister of milky fluid next to his stasis tank, Ridley asked, "What's that?"
"That is none of your concern. Rest, my child."
"NO! I need to know what it is! I want…" Ridley lapsed into unconsciousness as sedatives flooded his system.
At the next meeting of Pirate High Command, Ridley's worst fear became a reality. The chemical agent responsible for the zombie catastrophe was having its merit as a weapon discussed. The science division saw a lot of potential in a chemical that could bring creatures back from the dead, and as almost indestructible ghouls at that.
"No! I have seen firsthand what this vile substance can do. It almost wiped out my entire army, and I myself barely escaped death, or worse. Lock the stuff inside a rocket and shoot it into the damned sun!"
Science team disagreed. They pointed out that similar objections were voiced against Phazon, and that program yielded some promising results. As for the casualties, "Many were lost to Phazon, too. Progress often invites sacrifice."
Those fools...
Ridley may have had a lot of authority, but the board included members just as prominent, if not more so. None of them were Zebesian, or even of the "Space Pirate" species proper. High Command belonged to a medley of races eager to capitalize on the genetically-servile Pirates' need for a leader. Among their number were a Kig-Yar Pirate Queen, a San'Shyuum crime lord, rogue Krill tyrants and Combine Advisors. Ridley expected Mother Brain to take his side, but she seemed to have forgotten almost being devoured by the undead. The Space Dragon's dissenting voice was drowned out by enthusiasm for this "death vapor." The first tests would begin in a week.
Ridley made a show of seeing his agitators' points and reversing his position, but inwardly he cursed the suicidal idiocy of High Command. Ridley vowed to sabotage the operation in any way he could. If it came to open civil war, that would be the price to purge the Space Pirate leadership of its intellectual Cancer. He'd do it for the sake of the Space Pirates, and though he'd never thought in such terms before, the galaxy. He cared nothing for the civilizations that would perish if he failed, but he knew a galaxy dominated by the dead would be… a much less fun place to live.
If it did end up coming to open insurrection, there would be no way for Samus not to find out, or—given what was at stake—get involved. Insolently rational as she was, she'd be forced to take Ridley's side in the conflict. Ridley resolved to exploit their potential partnership to maximize her psychological toll. For having "killed" him so many times, she deserved as much.
Nobody in High command—with the exception, perhaps, of Mother Brain—understood why Ridley grinned so widely.
END